INTRODUCTION: Last Lord’s Day, the message was brought to us from the conclusion of Isaiah 40, and we learned from that message that there are two kinds of waiting. There is a waiting that causes our strength to dissipate, and there is a waiting that gathers our strength for us. There is a waiting that …
Thanksgiving in the Evil Day
I just recently finished peeling the potatoes for the feast later on, and I note in passing that the way my wife makes bashed potatoes is one of her innumerable glories. Having made my contribution to the process, which stretched and almost exceeded the limit of my culinary abilities, I have thought it necessary to …
Deep Peril, Deep Thanksgiving
INTRODUCTION: We sometimes try to cultivate the right heart attitude by denying the obvious challenges and perils in the world around us, and we sometimes try to pretend that we see the “real world” by adopting a cynical and artistic posture toward it all. We think that in order to have an enjoyable thanksgiving, it …
Scandalous Love for Filthy People
We are gathered here in this holy Friday service to commemorate the great moment that remains the salvation of our world—the passion and death of the Lord Jesus. As we mark all the events of the church year, we are of course looking forward to the day of Ascension—the time when Jesus Christ was ushered …
Holy Days
This is a joint statement on holy days, approved by the sessions of Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church here in Moscow. We believe that the people of God have been freed from all bondage to observing days, weeks, months, seasons or years (Gal. 4:9-11, Col. 2:16). Those Old Testament laws were shadows of Christ …
The End of the World Is History/Easter 2009
INTRODUCTION: We too often hold to the great truths of the resurrection of Jesus in a piecemeal fashion. We gather a bit here and a bit there, and the assemblage is generally orthodox. But this approach has resulted in some unfortunate gaps. The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. But what does this mean …
Merry Christmas 2008
Stories organize our lives, and the stories that won’t or can’t do that are false stories. The stories that orient us, that place us back where we should have been, the stories that bring redemption, are called true stories. They go by other names if you listen to the tellers of false stories — legends, …
And a Merry Christmas to You Too, Christopher
Christopher Hitchens is over at Slate, bah humbugging away like crazy. I know, that’s what he always does, but here he is more focused, and the subject is Christmas, which is where bah humbugs are more appropriately out of place. If you know what I mean. And the issue, of course, is not tinsel, or …
A Star Out of Jacob
INTRODUCTION: One of the most familiar elements of the Christmas story is the star of Bethlehem. But at the same time, it remains one of the most unknown features of the story—because unlike the wise men, we don’t really look straight at it. THE TEXT: “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold …
And Because They Felt Like It
Once upon a time, there was a secular nation that wanted to forget about Christmas. They did not even like the smell of it. And so they had their scholars and think tank johnnies try to get people to use CE for Common Era and BCE for Before Common Era. It was intolerable, you see, …