It is no accident that our service of worship concludes, or culminates, in the Supper. In response to the summons of the Lord, we have called on His name. We have confessed our sins, knowing that we cannot enter into the holy place of worship apart from His cleansing and forgiveness. We have consecrated ourselves …
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, …
State of the Church 2009
INTRODUCTION: As we consider God’s ongoing kindnesses to us as a congregation, we need to be sure to grasp more than just the “facts.” We need also to have a biblical paradigm for processing those facts—otherwise we will radically misinterpret what is happening to us. THE TEXT: “But this I confess unto thee, that after …
Best Christmas in 28 Years
Once a traveler from a far land came to visit our country, and he arrived here about a week before Christmas. He was not a tourist, or a businessman, and he was not visiting family. He could best be described as an amateur anthropologist. He simply wanted to come to America in the midst of …
Christmas and the Supper
This week is one of our culture’s high feasts. We may lament that many do not know what Christmas really means, or they have bent it into some other strange meaning, but the fact remains quite a striking one—this time of year, every year, the birth of Jesus Christ is marked and celebrated. Other contenders …
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 …
Beyond Everything You Ever Thought
Once there was a young girl who worried about everything, but her biggest worry was whether or not she was a real Christian. If she thought for a moment that she loved God, the next moment it occurred to her than she didn’t love him enough. If she felt sincere in her faith, the obvious …
Wisdom Offers Bread and Wine
We come to this Supper week after week, and it is tempting for us to start to assume, after a few years of it, that we are doing so as old hands. We know the ropes, we know the words, we know the theology. But one of the things we should know—if we know the …
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, …