Reading the Bible in 2011

I hope all who read here will - infinitely more importantly! - be reading their Bibles on a daily basis. Will you join me in this joyous work this year?

Lee Irons has an interesting and helpful addition to the annual Bible reading plan that many people enjoy. Why not try reading the New Testament in Greek?

Here's the link to his calendar, and I hope some of the Greek readers will take this up and enjoy reading along.

www.upper-register.com/papers/GNT_calendar_2010.pdf

Obviously the vast majority of readers work through the Scriptures in English, and many very fine plans are available. I've always recommended the McCheyne reading program and this approach is available, along with several others, at the following link:

www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan

Tolle Lege!

Preaching to My Favorite Congregation

Thanks to Michael Sullivan for snapping this shot and passing it along. It was wonderful to have the chancel steps filled with our little ones in both services today. Joy!

Sermon Notes for First Sunday in Christmas 2010

The Great Joy of the Gospel
Luke 2
First Sunday in Christmas
December 26, 2010

OK, let’s put away the lights and the decorations. Time to get back to reality and realize that the only TV specials worth seeing now are the infomercials that tell us which products to purchase to shed the 20 pounds we gained over the past four weeks.

Well, that’s pretty much the way the culture views things. Nothing could be more mistaken. The lights rightly shining in the night all around us this past month point to the arrival of the Light that can never be extinguished and must always be celebrated.

• “Fear not!”
• Gospel Means – The Grace and Government of God has Come
- Announcing the Reign of God (Isaiah)
- Announcing the Emperor’s Victory
- Announcing the Birth of the Emperor’s Son
- Announcing the Marriage of the Emperor’s Son


I. God’s Grace has Come
• Titus 2:11ff
A. The Grace of God is a Person rather than a ‘thing’; he gives us himself.
B. The Grace of God is a radical declaration about our past and the world’s past: Forgiven and Forgotten
• Christmas as ‘time marker’ in our consciousness
• Yes, it splits time in two and ushers in a whole new age
• Yes, it ushers us into a whole new age and makes of us a new creation.
- The shepherds and the ‘marginalized’: the arrogance of assuming we know who the marginalized are and whoever ‘they’ are we know that ‘they’ are not ‘us’.
- That totally misses the point! WE are all the marginalized, the outsiders, the broken and poor who MUST hear the good news if we are to be saved.
C. The Grace of God is Teacher of Holy Living (Far better than any Law).


II. God’s Government has Come
• Isaiah 9:6-7
• Of Augustus it was written, his birthday ‘has marked the beginning of the good news through him for the world.” He was the ‘Kyrios’ and ‘Soter’, the one who established ‘pax’ and who possessed the ‘only name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
A. The Government of God is Overrules All
1. Every Circumstance, redeeming every trial
• Joseph packing
2. Every Human Agency
• Augustus – “I’d like to name and number my empire.” God used Caesar's arrogance to accomplish his prophetic purpose. In the machinations of men are hidden the mysteries of God’s designs for our good and his glory.
B. The Government of God is with the Unceasar
1. His Shoulders – the Cross
2. His Movement – “Judas the Galilean” in Acts 5
• “Of the increase of his government and peace…”


No, we are not taking down the lights and we will not put away throw out the tree. The celebrations have just begun! Grace has come. God’s Kingdom has come. The Unceasar reigns!

Jesus, not Caesar, is Soter, our Savior.

Jesus, not Caesar, is Kyrios, our Lord.

Jesus, not Caesar, is our Pax, our Peace.

He was wrapped in ‘bands’ that we might be loosed from the bands of sin and death. In his birth is our new birth. Thanks be to God.

Prayer of Adoration for First Sunday of Christmas

Our Glorious Savior and Redeemer,

We join the shepherds to adore you and the angels to sing your praise. Glory to God in the highest!

We are amazed at the mystery of this wonder, that You our God have become man; that which you were you have remained; that which you were not You have taken to yourself; O Word made flesh, we worship You, God incarnate, Son Divine, Savior of us all.

We acclaim you as Lord, for the government is now upon Your shoulders: born in David’s city and reigning on David’s throne, of the increase of your kingdom and your peace there shall be no end.

As you came down for us men and for our salvation, so come to our hearts afresh this day O Sovereign Savior. Expand the borders of Your Manger Throne and Reign here, until every person in every place bows the knee to you –

Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever lives and reigns, One Holy and Triune God, world without end. Amen.

And the Darkness Comprehended it Not

Carol for the Day: Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Poem for the Day: Prologue, by DA Carson

The Prologue
by DA Carson

Before there was a universe,

Before a star or planet,

When time had still not yet begun –

I scarcely understand it –

Th’ eternal Word was with his God,

God’s very Self-Expression;

Th’ eternal Word was God himself –

And God had planned redemption.

The Word became our flesh and blood –

The stuff of his creation –

The Word was God, the Word was flesh,

Astounding incarnation!

But when he came to visit us,

We did not recognize him.

Although we owed him everything

We haughtily despised him.

In days gone by God showed himself

In grace and truth to Moses;

But in the Word of God made flesh

Their climax he discloses.

For grace and truth in fullness came

And showed the Father’s glory

When Jesus donned our flesh and died:

This is the gospel story.

All who delighted in his name,

All those who did receive him,

All who by grace were born of God,

All who in truth believed him –

To them he gave a stunning right:

Becoming God’s dear children!

Here will I stay in grateful trust;

Here will I fix my vision.

Before there was a universe,

Before a star or planet,

When time had still not yet begun –

I scarcely understand it –

Th’ eternal Word was with his God,

God’s very Self-Expression;

Th’ eternal Word was God himself –

And God had planned redemption.

Carol for the Day: Once in Royal David's City

Poem for the Day: The Incarnation

The Incarnation
by St John of the Cross


Then He summoned
The archangel Gabriel, and when he came
Sent him forth to find a maiden,
Mary was her name.

Only through her consenting love
The mystery was preferred
That the Trinity in human flesh
Might clothe the Word.

Though the Three Persons worked this wonder
It is wrought in only One:
So was the Word made incarnation
In Mary's womb, a Son.

So He who had only a Father
Now had a Mother undefiled
Though not like ordinary maids
Had she conceived the Child.

By Mary, with her own flesh
He was clothed with his human frame:
Both Son of God and Son of Man
Together had one Name.

Carol for the Day: God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

Carol for the Day: Jesus Christ The Apple Tree

Poem for the Day: The Nativity of Christ

THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST.
By Robert Southwell


Behold the father is his daughter's son,
The bird that built the nest is hatch'd therein,
The old of years an hour hath not outrun,
Eternal life to live doth now begin,
The word is dumb, the mirth of heaven doth weep,
Might feeble is, and force doth faintly creep.

O dying souls! behold your living spring!
O dazzled eyes! behold your sun of grace!
Dull ears attend what word this word doth bring!
Up, heavy hearts, with joy your joy embrace!
From death, from dark, from deafness, from despairs,
This life, this light, this word, this joy repairs.

Gift better than Himself God doth not know,
Gift better than his God no man can see;
This gift doth here the giver given bestow,
Gift to this gift let each receiver be:
God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,
God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.

Man alter'd was by sin from man to beast;
Beast's food is hay, hay is all mortal flesh;
Now God is flesh, and lies in manger press'd,
As hay the brutest sinner to refresh:
Oh happy field wherein this fodder grew,
Whose taste doth us from beasts to men renew!

The Year in Books 2010

Over at First Things Christopher Benson has offered his list of Best Books Published for 2010. Subjects range from science to philosophy to history, technology, and theology. There are some interesting works reviewed, and even if one does not read the books Benson notes, those reviews at least warrant attention.

www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2010/12/notable-books-of-2010

Not Exactly the Green and Pleasant Land

Britain is in the grip of its worst winter on record. These pictures are a fascinating look at how the Green and Pleasant Land is currently more Bleak mid-winter with 'snow on snow':

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/8217135/Frozen-Britain-snow-and-ice-continue-to-disrupt-travel-services-across-Britain.html

Gloucester Cathedral Choir - In the Bleak Midwinter

Poem for the Day: In the Bleak Mid-Winter

In the Bleak Mid-Winter
by Christina Rosetti


In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels
Fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air,
But only His mother1
In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

Show the Dough!

Here is a Christmas smile from the deep recesses of the kitchen; see them all.

http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/let-it-dough/?emc=eta1

Poem for the Day: Henry Vaughn's "Peace"

Henry Vaughan

Peace

MY soul, there is a country
Far beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged sentry
All skilful in the wars:
There, above noise and danger,
Sweet Peace sits crown'd with smiles,
And One born in a manger
Commands the beauteous files.
He is thy gracious Friend,
And—O my soul, awake!—
Did in pure love descend
To die here for thy sake.
If thou canst get but thither,
There grows the flower of Peace,
The Rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress, and thy ease.
Leave then thy foolish ranges;
For none can thee secure
But One who never changes—
Thy God, thy life, thy cure.

Toni Times 12-20-10

After a somewhat harrowing week, I am thankful to report that Toni had an easy time of things yesterday. She slept through the night and experienced no further nausea. We hope she is past the worst of the side-effects now and that the treatment for which she's paid such a dear price last week will begin to bear fruit in the next two weeks. That's the forecast from the doctors.

Toni is actually far more excited about having all of her children back around the table (Sean flies in today) than she is troubled by any illness. Her body may be hurting, but her heart is leaping.

We hope to see many of you Christmas Eve for Lessons and Carols, and of course on 'Boxing Day' (December 26) for Lord's Day worship.

As you wrap your presents this week, make sure you are also wrapping your arms around the ones you love. May the Lord's blessing be upon all of your hearts and homes, and we thank you again for your prayers.

David, Toni, Sean, Claire, and Anna

Sermon Notes for Fourth Sunday in Advent

Found in Translation
Matthew 1:18-25
Fourth Sunday
December 19, 2010


When it comes to language, culture, and translation we can all get in trouble fairly quickly.
• French Burgers: Let them eat…what?
• The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak – a bad day at the EU Parliament

Far from being lost in translation, however, we poor sinners are found in translation. The One who is the Word becomes flesh and with that momentous event we who were lost are located and liberated. Not only are we given a Name in Translation, we are given the Person who ‘translates’ to us and our ears, eyes, and hearts the majesty of God. When Moses asked God for his Name he was answered with the mysterious and unpronounceable “I AM”, the tetragrammaton. His Name is now known and pronounceable – Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. In this wonderful double name we see revealed the identity of the baby in Mary’s womb – who he is – and the mission on which he was sent – what he came to do.

I. Who He Is - Matthew 1:21-23
• What do we mean when we confess, “I believe in One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten not made, of substance with the Father, by whom all things were made…”?
A. Of the Father’s Love and of the Virgin’s Womb: Over and over again, Matthew draws out attention to the Virgin Conception and Birth of Jesus – 1;18; 1:20; 1:23; 1:25
• Virgin: not just ‘maiden’ but parthenos, ‘unmarried virgin’
• This Fact does not prove the Deity of Jesus: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and even Muslims believe in Jesus’ virgn birth, but all deny is deity.
B. The Deity of Christ is spelled out in Translation – Immanuel, “God with Us”.
• John 1:1-5, 14.

C. The Deity of Jesus is also translated to us in his very human name, for “Jesus” means, “God Saves!”
• You shall name him ‘Yeshua saves’ for he will save his people from their sins
- We don’t hear the pun Matthew wrote in our translation
• The Deity and the Humanity of God the Son are captured in this name. Both are essential, for while only God can save, it is man who must be reclaimed and man that must die.
- Son of God and the Son of David, as Paul writes in Romans 1:1-7, and it is this double identity that is central to the ‘Gospel of God’.


II. What He Does – Matthew 1:21
The Creed continues, “Who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven…” What does it mean that God has come down to save us?

In Matthew we see the events through Joseph’s eyes. He is visited by the angel and it is he who must name this child making him legally his own. It is this earthly father to whom the revelation of the Son’s vocation is made – he is the Savior of his people.

• “How can I train a Savior? All I know about is carpentry – hammers, and wood, and nails, that’s all I have to teach him.” “That will do nicely”, replied the Father.

A. The Savior of his People: Personal and Global
• Definite Atonement – note John 17:1-3

B. The Savior from Sins: Guilt and Grip
1. Israel’s four great tyrannies: Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, and Roman: what kind of Messiah would not offer political and economic salvation? Inconceivable!

2. Yet Sin is the greatest tyranny of all, and at the root of all others.
• “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Paul would agree!

C. The Message of the Cross and the Mission of the Church
1. Don’t confuse outcomes with goals: Super Bowl parades with Super Bowl victories
2. Our mission is to preach Christ and that has obvious personal, familial, and social outcomes
- The Church must not succumb to the world’s demand that we legitimize our existence by ‘good’ we do in the society
- The Church must not forget that our mission is to preach Christ crucified by the ordinary means of word and sacrament


III. What will you do with Mary and Jesus?

When Christ is preached, the same Holy Spirit who conceived him in Mary’s womb will cause new birth in the hearts of those for whom he came to die. He will save them from their sins.

• “I don’t know, but I do know that in my house he turned whiskey into furniture.”

Will you follow the cultural norms and quietly dismiss the embarrassing salvation God offers, or will you with Joseph take into your heart and home the One who is Immanuel, God with us? No angel may visit you to offer you this choice, but God himself has come to you through his word today and commands you to repent of your sin and receive the Savior. Amen.

My Top Ten Christmas Movies

I love movies, and I really, really love them during Christmas - after all, most of the movies being shown are Christmas movies, happily combining two of my favorite things.

In that spirit, I have compiled a brief list of my top Christmas films, must see movies each and every year. Made for TV productions, like Charlie Brown Christmas or the The Grinch, are not included. We're talking full-length motion pictures.

By the way, I'm including the ones I think the whole family can watch; some others - like Die Hard or Christmas Vacation (can you top the Griswold family Christmas) - would go on most lists, but they aren't suitable for young ears and eyes.

1. A Christmas Story (1983): "You'll shoot your eye out!"

2. Home Alone (1990): "Keep the change, you filthy animal!"

3. The Bishop's Wife (1954): David Niven and Carey Grant

4. Disney's a Christmas Carol (2009): A very true to the book and visually stunning version of the Dickens classic.

5. Its a Wonderful Life (1946): Capra brilliance

6. Miracle on 34th Street (1947): Mail call!

7. Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

8. White Christmas (1954): The Bing and Danny gig gets more and more dated with passing time, but the end is worth the price of admission

9. Scrooged (1988): OK, I'd watch anything with Bill Murray. This is an hysterical film; not quite What About Bob or Ground Hog Day, but right there.

10. Polar Express (2004); Tom Hanks digital animation is lots of fun, especially when watched with a seven year old.



No, Elf, Jim Carey's Grinch, and Tim Allen's Santa Clause aren't on the list. They don't even deserve that wretched Hallmark channel!

OK, what're your top ten? Can we get some pop corn over here?

Toni Times 12-16-10

The aftermath of Tuesday's chemo was far worse than we'd expected. Toni had a very challenging day Wednesday with nausea, pain, and weakness. Traveling back from Dallas was a struggle, but she's glad to be home and recovering in her own bed. I'm hoping she improves today, but the more realistic expectation is that she'll be down through Saturday. Its a pain pill, Ginger Ale and crackers kind of day.

Toni Times 12-15-10

Yesterday proved to be very challenging, though for unexpected reasons. Toni has had so many needle sticks over the past few months that her veins are starting to recoil at the mere mention of IVs and other injections. We arrived at the infusion center on time, and the good people there ushered Toni straight in to begin her IV chemo treatment. That's when things started to go downhill. Seven very painful attempts at IV insertion by four nurses over three hours left Toni feeling worn out, and that also meant the eight hour treatment was going to last long into the evening hours rather than wrapping up in the afternoon once they were finally able to hit a workable vein. She was a trooper throughout, as always.

The good news is that the treatment is over and done with, and while we anticipate a couple of down days as a result we also look forward to accelerated recovery over the next few weeks.

We spent an extra night in Dallas and plan to be back in Austin this afternoon. Our thanks for your prayers and concern. Everyone has been ever so kind, and we are humbled by your great kindness.

Our special thanks to Emily Plummer and Brittany Lewis - the Plummer and Lewis clans welcomed Anna yesterday and looked after her with great joy. Anna loves her Dallas friends!

While we are experiencing these 'momentary light afflictions' we do well to recall that these are also working for us an 'eternal weight of glory' far beyond comparison to the temporal distress. The age despises pain and prizes pleasure, but the former can often lead us more swiftly to the throne of Grace and to the embrace of the vision to be like Jesus. The fellowship of his suffering may not be a fraternity we all long to join, but it is certainly one to which we are called, each in our own ways under God's wise and good hands. What we are enduring is very slight by comparison to what many have endured, and when set against the glory to come or the shame of the Cross, our trial - and all trials - lose their dark shadows and can be seen simply as the refining and pruning we all need and which we are all promised. In the end, this too is a gift.

The Background Story on 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'

As many of my KY friends know only too well (and Jason in Florida too!), A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of my favorite shows of all time. Whether revealing the melancholy of Chuck as the all too often bittersweet side of this time of the year, or gathering us near listen to Linus the Peanuts Prophet proclaim the true meaning of Christmas ("Lights please..."), this little special never fails to dazzle.

The Washington Post has a nice piece on how it all came together so many years ago:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/12/post_17.html?hpid=artslot

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

First of all, a brief summary of my view after seeing the film the other night: loved it.

Of course it isn't as good as the book. Movies seldom are, and in only one case I can think of (Godfather) does the movie excel the book. I hesitate to see the new version of True Grit for the same reason, but will stumble into the cinema in any case I'm sure.

OK, back to Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Look, I think parents should insist that their children read Chronicles of Narnia before ever seeing these films, but this is not likely to be the case now, especially with very young children. Almost all movies arising from books, and VODT is no different in this regard, collapse aspects of the story while almost always adding odd subplots and changes that are meant to stimulate and hold enraptured the typically ADD movie attending audience. The question in the case of VODT would be whether such squeezes and expansions distorted the primary story. The answer I believe is no. The story is intact. In fact, it is beautifully told, and for this I am grateful.

I will complain that Aslan's de-dragonizing of Eustace passed before the eye in too great a hurry. This is a magnificent moment in the tale, and given the film's excellent casting and portrayal of the Eustace character it could have been even more powerful given more time. Thankfully Eustace' famed summary of the experience - the good hurt of the thorn removed - was included in the script.

I especially appreciated the unsubtle testimony to Christ by the inclusion of Aslan's words to Edmund and Lucy, that they must come to know him by another Name in their world.

The entrance of the noble Reepicheep into the great eastern lands of Aslan is as beautiful a passing as one could ever hope to enjoy. That scene of hopeful anticipation in the face of leaving behind this world for what is to come is worth the price of the ticket.

Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe was passable, despite oddly poor costumes. Prince Caspian was a disaster which should never again see the light of day. Voyage of the Dawn Treader might benefit from some help from the special effects guys who did Pirates of the Caribbean, but over all its a very fine film and one not to be missed - so long as dad or mom promise to read the story to the kiddos as well!

"X" in Xmas - Not to Worry

RC Sproul offers a brief explanation of the 'X' in Xmas that so many find so troubling. He suggests the offended should re-think their position.

www.ligonier.org/blog/why-is-x-used-when-it-replaces-christ-in-christmas/

Some More on Scandal: Tolerance vs Liberty

After making my remarks on tolerance this morning, I happened across an article that quotes Benedict XVI as follows:

A new intolerance is spreading, that is quite obvious. There are well-established standards of thinking that are supposed to be imposed on everyone. These are then announced in terms of so-called "negative tolerance". For instance, when people say that for the sake of negative tolerance [i.e. "not offending anyone"] there must be no crucifix in public buildings. With that we are basically experiencing the abolition of tolerance, for it means, after all, that religion, that the Christian faith is no longer allowed to express itself visibly.

When, for example, in the name of non-discrimination, people try to force the Catholic Church to change her position on homosexuality or the ordination of women, then that means that she is no longer allowed to live out her own identity and that, instead, an abstract, negative religion is being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow. That is then seemingly freedom--for the sole reason that it is liberation from the previous situation.

In reality, however, this development increasingly leads to an intolerant claim of a new religion, which pretends to be generally valid because it is reasonable, indeed, because it is reason itself, which knows all and, therefore, defines the frame of reference that is now supposed to apply to everyone.

In the name of tolerance, tolerance is being abolished; this is a real threat we face. The danger is that reason--so-called Western reason--claims that it is has now really recognized what is right and thus makes a claim to totality that is inimical to freedom. I believe that we must very emphatically delineate this danger. No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the "new religion" as though it alone were definitive and obligatory for all mankind.

Benedict has it exactly correct, at least within the broad spectrum of the Western intellectual tradition. The situation in America however is somewhat different, given our unique Constitutional history. We have NEVER been in favor of 'tolerance' but rather 'liberty', an altogether different matter. Tolerance has to do with what the government (at any level) permits, and so religious practice is viewed as a government bestowed 'right' with the government having the power to restrict that right as they see fit. Liberty on the other hand recognizes that certain human rights, including the right to hold to a public faith publicly, are bestowed not by the government but by God the Creator of all. The government serves her citizens when, responding to the fact that the government derives it powers from the consent of the governed and not the other way round, the government protects the God-given rights of its citizens.

The entire spirit of so-called 'tolerance' is not only avidly anti-Christian, it is also contrary to the US Constitution. The Europeans do not share our constitutional views on the sphere and purpose of government, and it is deeply troubling that so many American politicians look to Europe for their philosophy of governance. This can only lead to further impediments to the spread of the Christian Faith, and the 'gnosticizing' of the Faith as governments at all levels seek to privatize faith and render it invisible by banning public displays of religious Faith.

There is no such thing as private Christianity. The Cross is public and Jesus is Lord, not only of the heart but of all things, visible and invisible, whether thrones and dominions, or hearts and hearths.

Governments that cross the King end up in serious trouble and ultimately perish. The new 'tolerance' is nothing more than coded language - semantic seduction - meant, like 'hate speech' concerns, to silence the message of the Scriptures and the voice of the apostles.

The scandal of Jesus remains the foundation stone of our souls, the Church, and society, or the stumbling stone that will crush all who despise and reject it.

Well I Guess That's One Way to Put It

Cam Newton made the following - um, well, ironic - remark during his acceptance speech after winning the Heisman Trophy:

“My parents do a lot of things behind the scenes that go unnoticed.”

Yes, that appears to be the case. Well at least they'd been unnoticed until somewhat recently. My guess is that there's yet more to be unnoticed.

Sermon Notes for Third Sunday in Advent: A Scandalous Christmas

The Scandal of Jesus
Matthew 11:1-6
Third Sunday in Advent
December 12, 2010

There are many dark sides to our celebrity worshipping culture, not the least of which is the shameless desire of many to peer into the privacy of these idolized celebrities. It doesn’t matter whether they are athletes, pop stars, politicians, or actors, TMZ and the National Enquirer are ready to pry into the private reality that lies behind the public image and drag it all out into the open for everyone to see. They pay top dollar for that information – and even more for pictures that prove the scoop to be true. Like gossip, there is something deliciously enticing about a juicy scandal. Are people’s lives really so boring – really! – that they get excited about the inside dish on others? I guess so. Why? We like scandal because it unmasks apparent hypocrisy. Of course, such continual scandal creates a culture of cynicism where the skeptic and doubter are kings.

I wonder what TMZ would do with Jesus. I have no doubt they would have a field day. Jesus after all was a scandalous individual; he just wasn’t what everyone expected in a Messiah – and he knew that too.

“Blessed is the one who is not scandalized by me” – Matthew 11:6

That’s the word behind ‘stumbling block’ – scandal.

Jesus didn’t look like the Messiah everyone was expecting. It would be easy to find him disappointing or offensive rather than see in him the Son of God. People today are no different. They – we! – have the Jesus we expect and worship, but he turns out to be someone very different than the idol we have fashioned with our imagination.

John the Baptist was in prison and he’d heard about all Jesus was doing – healing disease and reversing death, bringing blessing to Israel through his Gospel. That didn’t seem to quite fit with John’s idea of the Messiah’s mission.

“Are you really the One? I thought you came to bring down the House and pour out fire on Israel. That’s the Messiah’s mission that I announced. Yet you aren’t doing any of that. You’re not judging; you’re healing! Maybe we should look for someone else?”

* From Elizabeth’s womb to Herod’s prison; from exultatio to bewilderment: this is the path we all tread, moving from infant faith to deep questions and finally to the rest of assured trust.
* Our illusions of Jesus are shattered and we are brought by mercy to lasting faith that cannot be shaken even by prison walls and threats of violence.

That also means we come to the place where we are no longer moved by the fashionable opinion of conventional wisdom and faddish winds. This Faith that embraces the scandal of Jesus cannot be scandalized any more. We become content with our prisons and even our death because, as Paul said, “I know in whom I have believed.”

Hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would come as a ‘Stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’; that he would be ‘the stone which the builders rejected but has become the Chief Cornerstone’ by which everything is held together. Rejected by many, stumbled over, he is exalted to the highest place. The rest of that prophecy in Isaiah, and Paul quotes it over in Romans 9, is that the person who trusts in that rock, that scandalous stone, will never be put to shame. Those are the only two alternatives with Jesus: we either stumble over his scandal and die, or we trust in his scandal and find life.

I. The Scandal of his Birth – Matthew 1:18-21
The Humiliation of Christ
The Humiliation of Mary and Joseph

II. The Scandal of his Ministry – Matthew 11:2-5
Welcoming the Marginal and Rejected
Confronting the Powerful
-Human and otherwise!
-Liberating from the chains no man could loose (Isaiah 35)

III. The Scandal of his Death – Matthew 11:6
The Cross – Scandal and Salvation: Galatians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 1:23
The Cross – Scandal and Cornerstone: Job 38:6; 1 Peter 2:4-8
* This is our message and it cannot be dressed up to be made more palatable.

Let me offer you then three central truths to embrace so that you too can have a scandalous Christmas and New Year.

1. There’s nothing scandalous about a baby – at first glance! But this baby, and this birth, was scandalous then and remains so today, for the One who is born is also the Eternal God who overthrows all challengers to his Kingdom. His disciples share in that scandal and should not be surprised when the powers of our age mock our steadfast refusal to bow to their gods of so-called tolerance (which are nothing more than idols of a new tyranny).

2. The Church’s Mission is to make the Gospel clear not acceptable. Only God can open the heart to the truth of the Cross of Christ. “We preach Christ and him crucified” remains the testimony of the faithful church, whatever the fashionable church may say. The Cross remains central in all things and will forever. At the center of the throne is a Lamb as if slain! At the center of this Church is a Cross and a Table from where Christ’s death is proclaimed every Lord’s Day. Sacrament is not an optional extra but stands at the center of the Church’s life and work.

3. Count on Jesus leading us to hard places where the false idols of Jesus we construct are demolished by his tender mercy. He will shatter our false paradigms and theological expectations that filter out his truth. Like John, our initial excitement will also lead to hard places where our faith is deepened as we come to know the reality of the Savior. He is NOT like us, but does call us to be like him.

There are only two choices before us today. We either bow before the stone the builders rejected and put our trust in him, or we stumble over him, scandalized by his matchless love. We either bow or stumble. Blessed is the man who does not stumble. Blessed is the man who bows the knee and trusts in Christ.

Toni Times 12-10-10

Received word late yesterday that Toni now has an appointment in Dallas early Tuesday morning for the chemo infusion. This is about an eight hour treatment. We'll head up there Monday evening so she's well rested before beginning what is certain to be a long day. This is preceded by some other tests, including some more blood work today in Austin. Again, this is not the full strength chemo that is the hallmark of so many cancer treatments but a milder version of the same. It is designed to attack the remaining lesion in her neck, a problem area already weakened considerably, but still in need of being completely subdued.

A sermon on continuing indwelling sin seems appropriate after that last sentence. Apparently we ALL have such lesions.

Thank you for your prayers as we approach this next step in Toni's recovery.

Toni Times 12-8-10

Rough few days - I think Toni's really paid the price for the effort to get out this past weekend. It was worth it of course, but the problems have been pretty hard to deal with since Sunday. She's hanging in there. Thanks for your prayers.

Poetry and Theology

God of Grammar

You are the Suffix
and the Prefix.
You are my very
immediate Intensifier.
No doubt, you are
the Definite Article.

O Most Conjunctional Creator,
I am sentenced
with your active verbs,
direct objects, and superlatives.

God of grammar,
of spiritual parts of speech,
Corrector of wrong syntax:
Point out my fragments
and other errors of composition
as I see each of my question marks
straighten up into exclamation points.

- Geoff Pope

Advent Cantatas

In case you missed it - and that would be just tragic! - last night's performance of the Bach Advent cantatas was magnificent. Thank you George, Choir, soloists, and instrumentalists for such a glorious evening. The fellowship was sweet, the number of guests new to Redeemer inspiring, and the presentation thrilling. Bravo!

Toni Times 12-6-10

Toni was able to get to church yesterday - first time since September 12. She especially loved hearing the children's choirs. No word yet on the promised chemo appointment in Dallas, but I'll post something as soon as we get word. The delay is a simple reminder of how very many people there are - right now - battling terrible diseases.

Thank you for your prayers as Toni continues to make progress in her own battle.

Hopeful Politics

Christians differ on the way in which we are to engage the political sphere. Yet the presence of the political realm, and the desire to see societal progress achieved in any constructive way and at any level through such engagement, presupposes something quite profound, and makes of politics a witness to Christ, despite its otherwise unpleasant and at times wicked machinations.

Peter Leithart notes this, commenting on John Milbank, as follows:

John Milbank ends his stimulating and confounding opening essay in Paul’s New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology with this: “any hopeful political project requires a sense that we inhabit a cosmos in which the realization of good and of justice might be at least a possibility. But that means, first of all, that we must consider the good to be more than a human illusion but rather in some sense an ultimate reality, ontologically subsisting before evil, both human and natural, including the natural negativities of death and suffering. It means also that we must believe, beyond gnosticism, that the good is in some measure able to be embodied within human time, and this means that human life must somehow bear within its biological spark (which itself must logically be prior to death, which is sheer negation) also a pneumatological spark that links it to undying goodness and justice and that enables it in the end entirely to root out those base passions ‘of the flesh’ (according to Paul) that are concerned only with survival self-satisfaction, erotic possession of, and military triumph over, others.”

That is: There is no hopeful politics without God, without the soul, without resurrection. Which is to say: No hopeful politics without Christ.

Quotable

“The conflict (today) is not between faith and science, but between the assertion, that the cosmos as it exists today, is either in a normal or abnormal condition. If it is normal, then it moves by means of an eternal evolution from its potencies to its ideal. But if the cosmos in its present condition is abnormal, then a disturbance has taken place in the past, and only regenerating power can warrant it the final attainment of its goal. This, and no other is the principle antithesis, which separates the thinking minds in the domain of Science into two opposite battle-arrays.”

- Abraham Kuyper in 1931

Farewell Ron Santo

"To me it is clear and unequivocal that Santo is a Hall of Famer. Putting guys like George Kell, Freddy Lindstrom and Tony Lazzeri in the Hall of Fame while you leave out Ron Santo is like putting Dalmatians, Palominos, and Siamese in the zoo while you let the lions roam the streets.''

Bill James, Godfather of Baseball Stats on Cubs Legendary Third Baseman Ron Santo


One of my boyhood heroes died early today. The first major league game I ever attended was at Wrigley Field in Chicago. I saw the Cubs defeat the Giants that day on a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth. On the field that day were pitchers Ferguson Jenkins and Juan Marichal, outfielders Willie Mays and Willie McCovey for the Giants and Billy Williams for the Cubs, and the Cubs infield was made up of Ernie Banks, Glen Beckert, Don Kessinger, Randy Hundley, and the man who would become my favorite Cub of all time - Ron Santo. That's quite a line up for the first time you ever go to the ballpark. Ron Santo died this morning from complications arising from bladder cancer and a life-long battle with crippling diabetes.

Santo's passion as a player remained after his retirement, and was more than evident when he worked with Pat Hughes as a color commentator on WGN Radio for Cubs broadcasts. Ron wasn't a neutral, dispassionate observer. 'Ronnie' was one of us.

Despite a Hall of Fame career, Ron Santo has not yet been elected to the Hall of Fame - which only proves how utterly ignorant of greatness some of the voters must be. I will forever miss number 10 and hope that one day soon he will be in the Hall. Listening to Cubs games - despite the very fine job done by Pat Hughes - just won't be as compelling anymore without Ron Santo's passion and insight.

Sermon Notes for Second Sunday in Advent

Bright Hope in Dark Days
Romans 15:4-13
Second Sunday in Advent
December 5. 2010

It won’t be too many days now until we find ourselves here or elsewhere with voices raised to sing the lovely and plaintive hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. The words “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” never fail to resonate in my soul. Our own dark streets and fears are more than matched by the grace of God given us in Jesus, our Light and Hope, the fulfillment of all God promised from the first day of the human catastrophe we call the fall.

We encounter today one of the most glorious Names of God we could ever know – the God of Hope. God’s majesty is inexhaustible and his wisdom unsearchable, but how grateful I am that this Name of God is so clearly spelled out for us in the Scriptures. In the face of death, physical suffering and disease, family brokenness, despair over our continuing struggle with the sins that so easily beset us, and the resistance to the Gospel so evident in a hostile world here and abroad, it would be terribly easy to despair. Yet we are the people who belong to the God of all hope.

We grieve, but not as those who have no hope.

We suffer, but in hope of the comfort God alone supplies.

We die, yet in hope of the resurrection.

“Death used to be known as an executioner; the Gospel had made of him a gardener.” – George Herbert

How very much we need this word – Hope – in our daily vocabulary and conversation.

• Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach
• The constant appeal of hope in our public discourse and its inevitable crash.

Paul knew something about a different kind of bright hope in dark days. “We do not lose heart”, he wrote, “even though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day after day. This momentary, light affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison…” (2 Corinthians 4).

Paul has this kind of hope because he belongs to the One who suffered so much and then conquered death, the One who bore the reproaches of others (Romans 15:3; Psalm 69) so that God’s delightful will would be done.

It is this vision beyond the visible that is the root of Biblical hope. The horizon of our hope is too often tethered to our time and our needs and desires, not unlike a small child writing out that list of presents for Christmas. Yet this same Paul wrote that ‘if we have hoped in Christ for this life only we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15). Is the sum of our hope a list of things that can make us happy only here? Or do we live in a hope that transcends where we stand and what we can see? Jesus Christ is not a life coach come to improve your status and give you success. He is the Hope of the world, the Savior and Redeemer of broken, fallen people, the fulfillment of every promise that God has ever made.

• CS Lewis: “The Christians who did the most for this world were just those who thought most of the next…aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you will get neither.”

I. The Hope of the Scriptures – Romans 15:4
A. The whole of God’s word; sola scriptura and tota scriptura
• Faith embracing the whole of the Bible
- Paul quotes from every section of the OT in v.9-12
• Faith resting in the objective promise of God
• Faith strengthened by the fulfillment of the promise of God
B. The living and vivifying word of God
• Because they testify of and point to Christ (John 5:39)
• His words – spirit and life (John 6:63).
• EV Hill preaching on “Weeping in the Night but Joy in the Morning”

II. The Hope of Salvation – Romans 15:5-8, 12
A. The wolf and the lamb, the lion and the calf: together and at peace. How? A shoot from the stem of Jesse (Isaiah 11)
• Something more than animals in view here.
• Broken humanity reconciled through the Cross
• Fallen humanity reconciled through the Cross
B. The Gospel demands we write off no one but bring the good news of Jesus to all.
• The axe for Israel – Lights Out! Yet the end of this judgment is God’s mercy for the whole world.
- The promise meant many more sons to father Abraham, not fewer.
- What looked like the darkness of despair was the dawn of hope (Matthew 3)

III. The Hope of the Spirit – Romans 15:13
The God who acted for you in history will act upon you and in you today, now, though his mighty Holy Spirit. The God of all Hope does not stand at a distance and command you to hope; he makes his home with you and gives birth to hope within you.

A. The Holy Spirit and the Incarnation
B. The Holy Spirit and the Resurrection
C. The Holy Spirit and God’s Home in You
• Christ’s three comings – St. Ephrem
- “We will come to you and make our home in you” – John 14

When you come to this Table receive the Comfort the God of all Hope alone can bring as he lifts your sight beyond the horizon of your needs tied to this age and into the broad uplands of his glory, beyond the mere cares of this life and into the comfort of the Kingdom. When you receive the benediction open your hearts and hands to God and see him fill you anew with his Holy Spirit so that hope displaces despair and dawn the darkness. The God who has fulfilled every promise he ever made is with us and he will not fail us now.

Look, just there, over the horizon, there is a man leading a donkey bearing a woman with child, and headed to Bethlehem’s darkened streets.

Jason Stellman's Excellent Post on Sacramental Life

Really appreciated this blog post from Jason Stellman -


We just finished our Fall term of Sunday School at Exile Presbyterian Church during which I took the adults through Danny Hyde’s book Welcome to a Reformed Church (which I highly recommend). Most of EPC’s members are ex-evangelicals who are being introduced to Reformed theology and worship for the first time, and as such, they benefited greatly from the clear and straightforward style with which Danny writes.

This morning we covered the final chapter on the means of grace, and I wanted to reflect on something that Danny says about the sacraments. He writes:

"As Christians, we need more than verbal communication, that is, God speaking to us and conveying information to us. We also need to communicate to us in a more holistic way. We need him to communicate Himself to all our senses and to all the aspects of who we are. A wife needs her husband to do more than give her advice on how to fix her problems; she needs to feel his sympathy, his understanding, and his love. So it is with us as the bride of Christ."

What I find helpful here is the emphasis on the participatory aspect of our relationship with Christ, that we need more than to behold Jesus from afar with clipboard and pencil, taking notes on how interesting a subject he is to study. No, we also need to be joined with him as a husband and wife become “one flesh.”

This is what covenant theology is all about. It has been observed that the difference between a covenant and a contract is that the latter is about the exchange of goods and services, saying, “This is mine, that is yours.” The former, on the other hand, is about the exchange of persons: “You are mine, I am yours.” This is why Paul employs the nuptial imagery that he does when he likens the Lord to a groom and the church to his bride. According to the apostle, Christ is a divine husband who becomes one with his bride, mystically united as “one flesh,” thus creating “one new man” with Jesus as Head and we as members.

It is here that the sacraments come in. “The bread that we break and the cup that we bless,” Paul asks, “are they not a participation in the body and blood of Christ?” Jesus put it this way: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Speaking of baptism, Paul tells the Galatians that “as many as have been baptized have put on Christ,” and he tells the Romans that “as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death.”

So for all of our attention to doctrinal detail and precision, it is refreshing to be reminded every now and then that the mystery of the gospel is all about “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and that our union with the Son of God makes us “partakers of the divine nature.”

Of course, I can’t pretend to be able to explain what this all means exactly, but I do know that we should be taking every opportunity to avail ourselves of the means of grace that God has given his church, so that this participatory union in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection can be something that we not only affirm, but also experience.


You can read more at creedcodecult.com. Thanks Jason for those encouraging words.

Witness in the Face of Oppression

There are two biographies I would especially commend to readers for the winter months - "End and Beginning", George Weigel's excellent follow on to his "Witness to Hope" biography of John Paul 2, and "Bonhoeffer" by Eric Metaxas. Both are stirring accounts of profoundly Christian witness in the face of totalitarianism.

The good people over at the First Things blog offer this brief summary of a very good review of the Weigel book:


Writing in Policy Review, Mary Eberstadt reviews The End and the Beginning, George Weigel’s new biography of Pope John Paul II and offers a useful short summary of the pope’s long struggle with Communist authorities who knew how dangerous he was.

Intelligence reports to KGB headquarters, writes Weigel, suggest that between 1973 and 1974, Polish prosecutors three times considered arresting Wojtyla and charging him with sedition. Each time they opted instead for greater dedication in reining in his associates (including beating one particular priest). From stalking Wojtyla’s kayaking trips to persecuting or trying to compromise his closest associates, the Polish communists, despite bungling matters here and there, understood what the Soviet and East German communists would later. As one summarized in one Polish report, “Despite his seemingly conciliatory and flexible nature, Wojtyla is a very dangerous ideological opponent.”

And as Eberstadt notes, “In the matter of knowing their enemies, as opposed to most others, the communists were generally right.” Solzhenitsyn knew as well, and she recounts an unexpected but cheering story from the book about his prophetic response to the then-Karol Wojtyla’s election as pope.

“There was indeed much that the communists didn’t understand,” she writes,

— including that men like the pope and Alexander Solzhenitsyn were more right than wrong about what really makes human beings tick. Nonetheless, the masters in Moscow and Krakow and East Berlin and other tragic wastelands of modern history did get a few pretty big things right. They knew, or at any rate were forced to learn, that an otherworldly pauper in a Roman collar could do more to bring them down than any worldly prince seeking business as usual.

They knew that Christian religious belief and practice were on a permanent collision course with totalitarianism, which is why they persecuted it everywhere they could. They understood, in short, that the chief enemies of the state were those who did not believe the state had the authority to call the ultimate moral and political shots.

A review well worth reading of a book well worth reading.


I'll have more to say on the Bonhoeffer book later, but suffice to say that this is a must have book. If it isn't on your bookstand, it needs to be on your Christmas wish list.

Toni Times 12-1-10

A Good WEEK!

We've had good days in the past few months, but this is a first - an entire week of relative normalcy.

Yes indeed, while Sunday the 21st was a pretty rough day, that was the last one of those for a full week. Not until Monday the 29th did Toni suffer a recurrence of the symptoms that have plagued her for so long, and that was relatively mild. Right now she's got a nasty cold (and I'm not feeling so great myself!), but that aside this has been a fairly decent stretch. If this keeps up then we may be able to get her to church this Sunday. We'll see how it goes.

No word yet from Dallas on when we will head there for the anticipated but delayed chemo, and I will post something as soon as we know.

Thank you again for your prayers which continue to sustain us in faith, hope, and love.

Tall Cotton

The Aggies have accepted an invitation to play in the 75th Cotton Bowl - a well deserved reward for a remarkable comeback season.

The Longhorns will play in the behind the woodshed bowl. No word yet from the 40 acres on the changes everyone expects to see if a repeat of the just completed debacle is to be avoided.

Sports poll question of the week -

Should I

a) Cheer for OU

b) Cheer for Nebraska

c) Avoid the game altogether

Your help is deeply appreciated.