A commonplace in Christian circles understands the events surrounding the first Palm Sunday as a demonstration of the “fickleness of crowds.” But there are good reasons for questioning this common assumption. On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of …
Rejoicing in Lent
Every Lord’s Day, we mark the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Every Lord’s Day we mark the glory of the resurrection. We do this on a grand scale annually, with our celebration of Easter, but we must not forget that each Lord’s Day does the same thing. (And let us leave aside for the …
Let Earth Receive Her King
The Lord Jesus was born in 4 B.C., which was the year Herod the Great died. He was the tyrant who had the children slaughtered in the region of Bethlehem because of what he heard from the wise men, and so obviously, Jesus had to have been born before Herod died. Dionysus the Insignificant was …
Santa Claus At Nicea
And here on the last Sunday of Advent, we need to deal with a competing story. But it would probably be more accurate to say that we have to deal with a godly story that has been encrusted with many layers of foolishness. But let us take away those layers, and ask—who was the original …
Christmas 2004
INTRODUCTION: On a number of different occasions, we have considered the importance of having our times and seasons defined in relation to Jesus Christ. The only alternative to this is to have them defined in reference to someone or something else, and this is obviously an unacceptable alternative to all faithful Christians. Jesus Christ really …
History as Wedding Preparation
We have come to the third Lord’s Day of Advent, and so we continue to prepare our hearts. This is not just a religious festival that we Christians observe. In all that we do in the presence of non-believers, we are making cosmic claims, and we believe them to be true. Put another way, the …
Christmas as War
This is now the second Lord’s Day of Advent, and we continue to prepare ourselves for the celebration of one of the most monumental events of all world history—the time when the Second Person of the Creator God assumed a human body in the womb of a virgin, in order to join us in our …
Calendar and Story
This is the first Lord’s Day of Advent, the beginning of the church calendar year. One of the most important things we can learn in our celebration of this is the foundational truth that calendars are not silent—calendars always tell a story. Now just because a calendar tells a different story from ours does not …
Thanks Be to God
Here it is, Thanksgiving 2004. We need to start taking this holiday as one that is fundamentally apologetic in nature. I am using “apologetic” in the sense of “defending and articulating the faith,” and not in the “so sorry” sense. In the first chapter of Romans, St. Paul argues that the heart of unbelief naturally …
The Architecture of Time
Next Lord’s Day marks the beginning of the Christian calendar, being the first Sunday of Advent. There are four Sundays in Advent prior to Christmas, and next Lord’s Day, in place of parables, there will be a series of exhortations related to the season. General exhortations linked to the church year will continue after Christmas …