Of First Importance

I will be preaching again, for the last time, at Center Presbyterian Church this Sunday.  My text will be 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, asking one basic question: "Why is Paul reminding Christians of the gospel?  Don't they already know it?"  The title of the sermon will be, "Of First Importance: Remembering the Most Important Thing."

Whenever I have the opportunity to preach on Sunday morning, I am keenly aware of my shortcomings, but never more so when I am preaching directly on the gospel.  Please pray for me, that the beauty and glory and truth of the message of salvation would be put clearly on display by the frail words I bring to the congregation this Sunday.

Singing alleluia with our lives

One of the songs we sang on Easter sunday was the hymn, "Now Let the Vault of Heaven Resound." It's a great hymn to the tune of "All Creatures of our God and King." The third verse in particular has stuck with me all week:

O fill us, Lord, with dauntless love;

Set heart and will on things above

That we conquer through Your triumph

Grant grace sufficient for life's day

That by our lives we ever say,

"Christ has triumphed! He is living!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!"

Propitiation, and Big Words that Matter

I'm generally not a fan of big theology words.  As someone with a heart for pastoral ministry, I yearn to make theology accessible and applicable and wonderful and glorious to the average person in the pew, and that often means ditching some overly high-falutin' doctrine words in favor of, frankly, fewer syllables.

But I hold a few exceptions to that general rule.  There are a couple words whose weight of glory so outweighs the weight of their syllables that they are worth teaching and explaining and treasuring.  The two words that most quickly come to mind in that category are "justification" and "propitiation."  Both are Bible words, not theologian words.  They are hard to pronounce, but are absolutely central to the all-satisfying glory of the Gospel.

Propitiation means "a sacrifice to satisfy wrath."  Two of the main texts for this word are Romans 3:25 and 1 John 2:2--

"...Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith."

"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."

There is an eternity of weighty, glorious meaning in this word, for all our redemption and salvation is wrapped up in its mystery.  My exhortation to you is: become a student of this word!  Spend your time and your mental energies in unpacking and exploring and applying all that this word holds for your soul. It will be time and energy well spent as you come to know more of the heart of our great Savior, Jesus Christ.

It's okay to pray for joy

Is it okay to pray for joy, or is that a selfish prayer?  Asking for God to make you happy, even happy in Him, seems sort of "off" somehow.  Though I freely label myself as a "Christian hedonist," it's still something I feel funny praying for sometimes.  But the Holy Spirit gave me a clear answer today when I was reading Psalm 85-86.  Here are 3 examples from the Psalms of praying for joy, all of them with God-centered motivation.

Psalm 51:12-- "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You."
Apparently there is a direct connection between deeply feeling the joy of knowing God's great salvation, and being a good evangelist.  Here, David's prayer for joy is directly connected to his desire that God's salvation would be felt more deeply by him and extended to others.

Psalm 85:6-7,9-- "Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?  Show us Your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation... Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land."
The main connection to draw here is between "Your people rejoice in You" and "that glory may dwell in our land."  The glory of God is put on brightest display when His people rejoice, delight in, and treasure Him above all else.  Therefore, our desire for joy is (or should be) deeply caught up in our desire for God to be glorified, because those desires are biblically synonymous.

Psalm 86:4-5-- "Gladden the soul of Your servant, for to You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.  For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You."
This has got to be one of the most overtly hedonistic prayers in the Bible.  "Gladden the soul of Your servant," the Psalmist prays.  In other words: "Make me happy, God!"  And the foundation for His prayer: the character of God.  God is good, forgiving, and loving-- and this is the ground for both the Psalmist's request and His expectation.  Because God is all of these things, there is hope and reason for joy, even in the darkest of times.

And finally, not needing any explanation, are the precious words of our Savior from John 16: "Until now you have asked nothing in my name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

He lives to plead for me above

I've been translating the book of Hebrews from the Greek this semester, and this week I'm on chapter 7.  Verse 25 in particular is especially powerful during this Easter season, reminding me of why the resurrection is such good news:

Therefore He is also able to save completely the ones who come near to God through Him, because He always lives to plead for them.  ~Hebrews 7:25 (my translation)

The good news of Easter is three-fold: because of the resurrection, we who trust in Christ are "saved completely," can draw near to God, and can know that Jesus always stands before the Father pleading on our behalf.  We have an ever-living Advocate and Savior in the courtroom of heaven.

Hebrews 7-10 unpacks all of this, and ends with the application of what this Easter gospel should mean in our lives every day:  "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain... let us draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith."  Amen!

One of my favorite Easter hymns is "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."  The third verse in particular stood out to me today, in light of Hebrews 7:25--

He lives to bless me with His love

He lives to plead for me above

He lives my hungry soul to feed

He lives to help in time of need

He Is Risen!

A new hymn I had never heard before, from the new LCMS hymnbook:


All the earth with joy is sounding:
Christ has risen from the dead!
He, the greater Jonah, bounding
From the grave, His three-day bed.
Wins the prize:
Death's demise--
Songs of triumph fill the skies

Christ, the devil's might unwinding,
Leaves behind His borrowed tomb.
Stronger He, the strong man binding,
Takes, disarms his house of doom;
In the rout
Casting out
Pow'rs of darkness, sin, and doubt

Jesus, author of salvation,
Shared in our humanity;
Crowned with radiant exaltation,
Now He shares His victory!
From His face
Shines the grace
Meant for this, our fallen race

Praise the Lord, His reign commences,
Reign of life and liberty-
Paschal Lamb, for our offenses,
Slain and raised to set us free!
Evermore
Bow before
Christ, the Lord of Life adore!




He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Good Friday

From the Valley of Vision:

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell's worst that I might attain heaven's best,
stripped that I might be clothed,
wounded that I might be healed,
athirst that I might drink,
tormented that I might be comforted,
made a shame that I might inherit glory,
entered darkness that I might have eternal light.
My Savior wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes,
groaned that I might have endless song,
endured all pain that I might have unfading health,
bore a thorny crown that I might have a glory-diadem,
bowed his head that I might uplift mine,
experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,
closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness,
expired that I might forever live.

The Gospel in Mark

I've just started the book of Mark in my Through-the-Bible reading plan, and I've noticed something. In the first chapter of Mark, the word "gospel" has appeared 3 times-- in verses 1, 14, and 15. I didn't remember seeing that word too much in Matthew, so I did a word search to find out. Sure enough, the word "gospel" appears 4 times in Matthew, 1 time in Luke, 0 times in John... but 8 times in Mark. Considering that Mark is much shorter than the three other accounts of Jesus' life, that's surprising. Just to get an idea of the big difference here, if we divide the number of times the word "gospel" is used by the number of chapters in each of those 4 books, we get these fractions:

The word "gospel" is found in:
4/28 (14%) of Matthew's chapters,
1/24 (4%) of Luke's chapters,
0/21 (0%) of John's chapters,
but a whopping 8/16 (50%) of Mark's chapters!

To put this in even more perspective, in the whole New Testament only Romans, 2 Corinthians, and Galatians use the word "gospel" more times than Mark. Now, this doesn't mean that there's no good news in Matthew, Luke, and John, or that the saving message of redemption somehow isn't found there as much... but there does appear to be a special focus on the gospel in Mark. I'm not sure what the significance of that is, but it's something I'm going to be thinking about and looking for while I'm reading Mark these next two months.

Does anyone have any insight?

Satisfied

This is a free verse poem I wrote yesterday, meditating on Isaiah 51:17 and 22. It was a really intense two hours for me as I struggled for words to describe the cross and the wrath of God, and all that those things mean. The poem is titled, "Satisfied."


~~~~~~

Stand up, O Jerusalem,

you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD

the cup of His wrath,

who have drunk to the dregs

the bowl, the cup of staggering.

~Isaiah 51:17

~~~~~~

Stand up, people

Get on your feet

Move on, assemble:

Your Maker addresses you.

Your King has summoned you.

God Most High speaks.

From the hand of the LORD,

from the hand that opens to satisfy

the desires of every living thing--

from the hand that guides, fashions,

makes, creates--

from the hand of the LORD--

a cup.

But not a cup of blessing.

It’s a deserved cup,

an earned cup,

a cup we’ve worked for

and asked for.

And we haven’t deserved,

we haven’t earned,

we haven’t worked for,

we haven’t asked for

a cup of blessing.

This isn’t a wishy washy God who holds the cup,

this is no friendly God, “me-and-Jesus” God, safe God.

This is not a tame lion.

But oh, He is good.

Good beyond reckoning, beyond comprehension.

Absolutely, fully, completely, ever and always

good.

And that’s bad news.

Because I am bad.

Rotten to the core, corrupt in my

inmost thoughts and outmost deeds.

Shot through with lust and lies and vicious

pernicious mischievous strangling hold of sin.

And this is a deserved cup.

A cup of wrath.

Furious, lightning bolt anger,

white hot and ice cold

melting my heart and freezing my blood.

This is not displeasure, or bad mood,

or disappointment.

This is despair-of-your-life, run-to-the-hills, call-for-rocks-to-crush-your-skull,

nightmarish, vengeful, retributive,

blacklisting, hunting, holy hate--

a thousand million billion lifetimes of

concentrated apoplectic rage fermented

down to the dregs of well-deserved death.

This is my cup.

A cup of staggering

strangling

haunting

hellish sadness.

O my God, I cannot bear

to take this cup that I have bought

with a costly lifetime

of purposefully

willfully

skillfully

stealthily

boastfully

recklessly

misplaced love.

One drop of this potion

will send me staggering to an infinite death.

And in this cup I see a bottomless ocean of red,

each drop screaming for my blood.

O my God,

if You permit Justice’s sword to fall

upon my guilty guilty guilty head

I am undone

undone

undone.

Is there another way?

Remove this cup from me!

~~~~~~

Thus says your Lord, the LORD,

your God who pleads the cause of His people:

“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;

the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more.”

~Isaiah 51:22

~~~~~

Stand up sinner

Get on your feet

For your Maker, your Creator,

your Savior answers you.

From the hand of the LORD--

the hand strong enough to save,

to meet and arm-wrestle

and overcome justice and meet holiness’ demands--

from the hand of the LORD--

a cup.

It is my cup.

Taken from my hands,

and given to Another.

And this other hasn’t deserved

hasn’t earned,

hasn’t worked for,

hasn’t asked for

my cup.

And yet He takes it and in this moment we see:

This is not a wishy washy God who holds the cup.

He is not a tame lion.

But oh, He is good.

Good beyond reckoning, beyond all comprehension,

absolutely, fully, completely, ever and always

good.

And suddenly, spectacularly, surprisingly,

that’s good news.

Because He has my cup.

It is a cup of wrath, and watch, suddenly:

it tips, it hovers, He cries,

it spills, He drinks.

Furious lightning bolt anger nailing Him to a tree

until His heart bursts and blood flows like water.

Horrible, wretched, screaming, bloody agony

as the dregs of my death boil over,

a violent, gruesome, mangling grace.

“Is there another way?”

Stony silence.

“Remove this cup from me!”

Heaven closes its gate,

bars the door,

shuts the window.

And the prayer that from my lips

evoked the thunderous, resounding, earth-splitting

Amen of atonement--

on His lips, rejected.

“Why have You forsaken me?”

Forsaken Him?
Forsaken Him?

O my God-- You’ve forsaken Him?

But it’s my cup, not His--

my nightmare, my curse, my gore,

my horrible, wretched, screaming, bloody agony

on His lips

as He drinks my cup.

You’ve forsaken Him--

why in the world Him,

when You should have forsaken me?

And yet there He is

staggering under the weight

of doom

of malady

of grief

of death

of despair

of mourning, sickness, crying, pain,

rebellion, treason, murder, treachery,

of a cross.

See Him stagger under the cross!

O holiness--

terrible, frightening, demanding holiness

that blinds my eyes and burns my heart

and would require THIS as payment.

This is not a wishy washy God.

This is a God who would rather scream

under the mountainous, crushing, humiliating weight

of His own astronomical standard

than let one white lie

one lustful glance

one greedy thought

one moment of less-than-perfect love

go unpunished, unanswered, undrunk.

And so He punishes

He answers

He drinks it

Himself.

Trembling, terrified, broken,

I come to the cross,

to the cup--

my cup, my cross--

and behold, it is empty.

Down to the dregs, every last drop

of rancid, calamitous,

raging rebuke

has been swallowed, consumed, drunk, finished,

satisfied.

Satisfied.

Satisfied.

Justice, holiness, wrath and love--

oh sweet and tearful,

bitter and joyful,

mysterious, wondrous, glorious,

impossible, immutable, unchangeable,

availing, pleading, saving love--

satisfied.