Thursday, November 19, 2009
I Remember When...
Ireland Should be In the World Cup
Sermon Notes for November 22, 2009
Breaking into God’s Larger World
Acts 10
November 22, 2009
Sunday before Advent
“I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church...” - Nicene Creed
The DNA of the Church is Apostolic Commission: John 20:21
A Church Born by, Confessing, and Carrying the Gospel cannot but go forward into the world. In fact, should it resist this God will interrupt its peace and carry it in unexpected ways to unanticipated people in unprecedented power. God’s great mission to save the world will not be thwarted - even by the Church!
Acts 5-7: Trouble in Paradise
- The Church Cannot be Preserved by Preserving the Church
- This is a Mission not a Museum
- The Church
Acts 8-10: Paradise Breaks Out
- Crazy Cousins
- African Emissaries and Out of Work Deacons
- A Convert Pharisee
- Cajun Diet Visions and Disagreeable People
- God’s Demographic Market
- Outsiders where He is moving way ahead of us
- People who don’t know the protocols
- God’s Surprised Servants
- I’m not supposed to be HERE with people like YOU.
- You sent me for what?
- God’s Prodigious Power
- Rudely, God doesn’t even wait for the sermon to be finished.
- Ruefully, Peter suggests baptism
What do we learn?
- God is moving before we get there
- God calls us into his labors
- God’s world is layered and our approach must be as well
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The National Parks
Movies I'd Like to See
Liberal, Conservative, and All That
I have long been fascinated by phrases like ‘left-wing’ and ‘right wing’, ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’. The roots of the former in the French revolution should give Christians pause when tempted to employ them as labels - both represent revolutionary rather than Christian ideals; Christians should not be held captive to either left or right wing ‘revolutionary’ ideals, but rather be moved by a conscience held captive to the word of God. Dealing in stereotypes typically reflects poor reflection on issues and can dismiss the significance of individuals in God’s sight.
‘Conservative’ and ‘Liberal’ have themselves undergone tremendous change in meaning and their application needs to be carefully nuanced. I can remember in the days of the Soviet Empire that ‘conservative’ Americans were in favor of ‘liberal’ Soviets - a ‘conservative’ Russian leader was anti-western, pro KGB, and a threat to democracy; liberal Russians wanted democratic freedoms. The conservatives in Russian liked the Liberals in America but put Russian ‘liberals’ in the Gulag.
Location. Location. Location.
Economics in general has also witnessed a migration of meaning on terms. For Hayek, Von Mises and others, ‘liberalism’ is a classical term referring the personal freedom over against statist intervention and command economies. We would tend to employ the term ‘libertarian’ to more approximate this older meaning of ‘liberalism’. One can imagine the confusion that would register if CNN began an interview by welcoming a Senator who is ‘a noted liberal politician famous for his antagonism to high taxes and government directed programs, while championing the elimination of the income tax and all forms of government spending not specified by the Constitution.’
In modern usage, both conservative and liberal have lost their older denotation (preservation of power elites vs freedom of the individual) and in fact switched places in many ways. However, ‘liberal’ has added an interesting twist in many ways since the 1960s. Seeking to advocate for the individual and civil rights, ‘liberals’ realized that the success of that venture could be most quickly and powerfully achieved by the intervention of the power elites themselves - and they were right. Proven successful, ‘liberal’ came to represent the use of government power to achieve social change; conservatives on the other hand tended to resist the intervention of the powers (especially in regard to the Courts and the Federal Government), speaking up for the individual and the ‘traditional’ family unit.
Lost in the shuffle are a host of related words like ‘conserve’ and ‘liberality’, words all Christians might easily embrace. God is a ‘liberal’ in the sense of ‘liberality’ and definitely not a liberal when it comes to the abuse of power. God is a conservative when it comes to freedom for mankind and the creation of wealth that actually creates and spreads blessing to many, but definitely not a conservative if one means preserving power elites that despise individuals.
The point of course is that God transcends all such labels and we have to resist the temptation to fit him into such human categories. That includes my own tongue in cheek remarks - but make sure that you look closely at the twinkle in my eye as I am usually chuckling quietly anyway.
Fr Jim Weisner
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Morning Prayer
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Evening Prayer
Horns Hoops
Wealth Creation and Liberality
Notes and Asides
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sermon Notes for November 15, 2009
The Generosity of God and the Gratitude of Men
2 Corinthians 8:9; 9:1-15
November 15, 2009
We believe in that the old division between the material and spiritual, between God and man, life and liturgy, was bridged by God the Word made flesh
Bringing Life into the Sanctuary just as the Sanctuary flows into Life
Here is our Thematic Verse for the Coming Year
Three years ago this Sunday we began a journey together, dedicating ourselves to give joyously and generously to construct a new church home. As this year reaches its conclusion, we can celebrate together so many wonderful gifts of grace we have experienced in this season of above and beyond giving. All of this – and so much more! – is cause for rejoicing.
New Missionaries Going from Us
New Staff Coming to Serve the Congregation
New Members Joining us, even when we lost so many to moves
New Church Construction Just About Completed
YOUR GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT HAS OVERWHLMED AND AMAZED AND ASTONISHED ME. I HAVE BOASTED OF THIS GRACE IN YOU EVERY PLACE I GO.
Now we come to the borderlands of our next steps in grace. Does this mark the end of our generosity or the beginning of a new gratitude?
The Heart of God is Ever-Giving – 2 Corinthians 9:6-10
For God is Love; Love always goes out from itself to ‘the other’.
We can give without loving, but we can never love without giving
God is the Ultimate Good Samaritan – Our Greatest Neighbor.
Mercy from Us is Rooted in Mercy towards us.
We Ninevites have received great mercy!
“Freely you have received, freely give,”
“Charge that to my account”
The Heart of Man is Ever-Needy – 2 Corinthians 9:12-13
We are assaulted and left for dead
We are those who must be carried and cured by long-term care
Ministries in Education – from Kindergarten to Seminary
Ministries of Life
Ministries to the Dying
Ministries to the Struggling
But our GREATEST NEED IS THE NEED TO BE GENEROUS
Our Giving Contributes to the Needs of Others
Our Giving God (“What is the Chief end of man?”)
Our Giving Confesses the Gospel (Moved by the Grace of the Gospel and not simply the never-ending need of man)
Our Giving Conforms us to Christ who gave himself for us
The Heart of God and the Heart of Man Meet in the Offering –
2 Corinthians 9:11
The Purpose of Sufficiency – Liberality
God gives ‘seed to sow and bread to eat’
Don’t confuse your seed with your bread!
The Purpose of Liberality –
The Worship of God - 2 Corinthians 9:11-13
The Unity of the Church – 2 Corinthians 9:14
Tozer: The Transformation of Money Given to God\
The god Mammon will never die for you, but it will demand you die for it. By contrast with such envy and terror, the Generous Heart of God is seen supremely in the Gift of His Son, Jesus Christ – the One who is the Rich Young Ruler who forsook all for a greater Love, the Pearl Merchant who sold all that he had to Buy us, our God who embraced our poverty to give to us the riches of his grace, dying for us that we might live. Our Savior continues to give to us – take eat, this is my body; take drink, this is my blood. This is our Glorious and Generous Savior; we are his Body, and the Heart of our Head beats in this Body supplying the flow of life to all.
Given the ‘Knowns’ and the ‘Unknowns’, let us together –
Honor God with our Tithes
Continue to Give as Able and Directed to AHFMN fund (Those finished and those with commitments still outstanding)
Pray for Our Businesses and Our City
Grow Wise in our Personal Stewardship
As we present to Christ our tithes and gifts, the fruit of our life before him, he brings out to us the supremely magnificent gifts of bread and wine, giving to us his very life.
“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
Recent Lectures
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Bringing in the Sheaves
Bringing in the Sheaves
Most of the time we ponder the relationship between ‘liturgy and life’ we are thinking about separation - viewing worship as an exit from life for a few moments, though perhaps there are some who might wish to hastily add that this exit is to get enough provisions to head back out to the mission - we are carrying supplies out of worship into the world. Of course it is true that we need to take the blessings of the sanctuary into the world and that’s why the service ends with the benediction - sending us in God’s name in the power of God’s grace to live and proclaim the truth and love of God’s Gospel. Yet I profess to being bothered at our apparent lack of awareness of what we are brining from the world into worship, and I mean by this the very good things we bring.
- We bring musical composition and hymnody to offer praise and thanks
- We bring words for prayers, confession of sin, and profession of faith
- We bring study and thought for sermons (well, we hope that’s the case!)
- We bring water for baptisms
- We bring bread and wine for communion
- We bring artistry that designs worship folder covers and banners
- We bring engineering that creates comfortable environments and decent sound so we can hear God’s word.
- We bring years of lessons on instruments and vocal song to offer to God
- We bring money for offerings
I could go on. We bring all of this and more from the world into the sanctuary so that we might meet with God and hear his voice and receive his grace. God still ordains the transformation of Egyptian Gold into furnishings for his Dwelling Place.
Transformation is the perfect word to describe what happens to what is brought into worship - whether bread or ourselves. God lays hold of what is offered and makes of it something which by his hand is ‘glorified’: as we ‘with unveiled faces behold the glory of the Lord... we are transformed from glory to glory into the same image...’ (2 Corinthians 3:16ff). This bringing of creation and human gifting into worship is a precursor of the restoration of the whole creation which as yet ‘stands on tip toe’ waiting to be released from its captivity to sin (Romans 8). The world God made good is recovered from sin and for the service of the Almighty.
That’s what consecration is all about. To ‘consecrate’ a person or thing is to return it to God, sometimes as a representative of the whole. We are baptized in a moment and the water is on our heads alone, but the baptism embraces the whole of existence, transcending time, and makes the whole person God’s, body and soul. We give a tenth of our increase, yet this offering represents all we possess; in other words, the partial sanctifies the whole.
Not only does the ‘one’ consecrated to God in worship represent the ‘many’ we employ beyond worship, the one in God’s hand becomes an instrument of remarkable grace. One kid, five rolls and two sardines? In the right hands such small gifts become the sustenance of thousands. This is why AW Tozer wrote, "As base a thing as money often is, yet it can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor. It can keep a missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality. "
I was asked once if Christians worship money. “Yes”, I replied, “We sadly and sinfully do this at times. Our hearts are idol factories and we’d worship cookies given half a chance.” Then I asked my interlocutor why he asked the question. “Oh, I just wondered why you brought money to the front during worship.”
“Oh!” I said. “That’s exactly when we’re NOT worshipping money. That’s when we are worshipping God with our money, giving it to him and waiting to see what amazing thing he will do with it. We do the same thing with babies. We bring them up, pour water over them in the name of the Trinity, pray for them, and then wait to see what God will make of their lives. We aren’t worshipping the babies when we do that; we’re worshipping the God who gives us children to begin with.”
“So when you bring the money to the front you’re saying the money is God’s and he can use it however he wants?” he continued.
“Actually”, I replied, “when we bring the money to the front we are saying everything we have and are and will ever be is from him and he can do with US whatever he wants. He bought us with his blood and that includes not only our souls but every gift and ability he gave us, the days and years he gives us, everything from our toes to our dreams.”
He seemed a little shocked. Look, we don’t have a little box in the back into which we secretly put our tithes. We bring in the sheaves, publicly rejoicing in God’s good gifts to us. We bring music and song and words and air conditioning and wine and everything we can get our hands on, sanctifying it all to God who first called everything ‘Good’. The Word was made flesh, making the creation a permanent part of the Godhead. That is why we say ‘From thy hand we offer to thy hand” - everything came from God, exists through him, and returns to him.
We’re not paying our dues, we’re worshipping in Spirit and Truth, joyously bringing back to God the first fruits of all creation - and watching to see what his hand can make of that. One things for sure - its going to be Good!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Quotable
“Listening to a pastor talk about business is like listening to a eunuch talk about sex: he may have studied the topic, but he doesn’t know anything about the mechanics.”
- Rich Karlgaard, Forbes
The Transfiguration of Finances Through Giving to God
everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and
clothing for the poor. It can keep a missionary actively winning lost
men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly
values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth.
Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality. "
A.W. Tozer (1897-1963)
Exodus Reversed - 2 Kings 24
Ft Hood and the Religion of Peace
Could we get past all of the politically correct nonsense? Islam is a religion of violence and hatred. Period. Not all Muslims are violent - thanks be to God. Yet it is precisely here that the difference between Islam and Christian Faith is clearly seen: when Christians behave in violent ways in the name of their faith they are acting in ways inconsistent with that faith; when Muslims act violently towards non-Muslims they are acting in ways perfectly consistent with their religion. If you doubt that, you haven’t read the Quaran and you must be getting your talking points from a TV talking head who possesses all the religious and historical sophistication of an fifth grade term paper. This country - and the Church - better wake up and smell the coffee. Turn off the TV and read a book.
