Tag Archives: Holy Day

April 8, 2013 · 12:00 am

The Annunciation

The Magnificat

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel,
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.  Luke 1:46-55

Isaiah 7:10-14; Psalm 45 or Psalm 40:5-11; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38

Surely Mary has been called blessed by all generations. She was selected by God the Father to become the mother of Jesus. By faith and trust she received the gift of God promised to her by the angel Gabriel. Mary’s reply to the angle was:

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

The blessing is in the receiving. This was not the case for King Ahaz in today’s Old Testament reading who refused to do what God asked of him.

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.  (Isaiah 7:10-14)

The message from God was not only for Mary. It is a message of hope and salvation for the entire world. Believing and receiving this message brings to each of us the greatest blessing from God. We are destined to participate in the eternal kingdom of God under the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are we an Ahaz or a Mary? King Ahaz said that he did not want to trouble God. He did not want to hear from God. He did not want to listen to His Word. The Season of Lent is a time to open up to God and not be so busy or distracted. This is not so easily done by people who are full of this world. We need to empty ourselves before our maker and hearken unto His Word.

God has not finished speaking to us. He honors us by choosing to speak to us. Let us not isolate ourselves through either false humility, shame, or unbelief. Let us listen, believe, and receive His promises and blessings.

In today’s readings two people heard from God. One was King and one was a peasant. God made promises to them both. One refused to listen and one welcomed the promise of God. We give thanks to God for Mary and for her example. What is our example?

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March 29, 2013 · 12:01 am

Good Friday

Behold the Lamb of God

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42

Long before the cross was even an instrument of torture and death there was prophecy concerning a certain death by crucifixion:

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6)

Though the reason and purpose of this death may be obscured by certain scholars and theologians, Isaiah clearly explains its purpose. This is the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.

Long before anyone had experienced this torturous death we have a perfect description of what it might be like. Not only that but we are given a picture of certain events that foretell a very specific crucifixion:

I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are disjointed;
my heart is like wax,
melting within me.

My strength is dried up like baked clay;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You put me into the dust of death.

For dogs have surrounded me;
a gang of evildoers has closed in on me;
they pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all my bones;
people look and stare at me.

They divided my garments among themselves,
and they cast lots for my clothing.  (Psalm 22:14-18)

How do we respond to all of this? In the face of so great a sacrifice on our behalf what are we to do?

Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He has inaugurated for us, through the curtain (that is, His flesh); and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.  (Hebrews 10:19-23)

The finality of Jesus’ earthly ministry is assured. He was obedient to the Father, even to death on a cross:

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.   (John 19:28-30)

Our earthly ministry still remains. It is a time to draw near to God otherwise Christ’s sacrifice for us was in vain.

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.  (2 Peter 2:20-21)

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March 28, 2013 · 12:00 am

Maundy Thursday

valentin-de-boulogne-the-last-supperHoly Communion

Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14; Psalm 116:1, 10-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26;  John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Let us begin by saying that Jesus’ last supper with His disciples was not the Seder. It was not the Passover meal. This was a time of preparation for the Passover. The Passover meal could not be served until the slaughtering of the lambs outside the city which would occur the next day.  (Of course, Jesus, the Lamb of God, would also be slain on that same day which we call Good Friday.)

Jesus was doing something new. It was not a reenactment and remembrance of the Jewish Passover and escape from Egypt, although what He was about to do would be related to that event in a significant and spiritual way. Jesus was instituting a new meal that He told His disciples to observe in perpetuity.

The Apostle Paul writes about this special meal in today’s Epistle Lesson:

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

What was Jesus doing with His disciples? He was proclaiming His death before it actually happened. He said that His body was going to be broken and that His blood was going to be shed. He was saying that He was going to be the last lamb to be sacrificed for the sins of the people. He was to become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world once and for all.

How is the Holy Communion related to the Jewish Passover? We remember that the blood of the lambs were sprinkled over the doors of Jewish homes so that the angel of death would pass over them as they prepared to escape from Egypt the following day. Jesus’ blood covers us so that we might escape the punishment for our sins and be set free from the bondage of Sin to live in newness of life in Christ.

Jesus was rehearsing with His disciples what He would be doing in a symbolic way. The bread represented His body and the wine represented His blood. He was not only rehearsing. He was asking His disciples to keep in their memory what He was about to do by partaking of this special meal as often as possible. They would not just be remembering with their minds what had happened but they would actually be participating themselves in the event of His saving act on the cross by reenacting the event in a spiritual way which is mysterious and not fully explainable, but altogether real. John’s Gospel speaks of both the power and the necessity of the Communion service.

Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”   (John 6:47-58)

As disciples we not only need to remember Jesus’ sacrifice, but to experience and participate in His sacrifice. We do this by observing what we now call the Holy Communion or Eucharist. We need to feed on Jesus for spiritual sustenance which helps us to strengthen our faith.

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February 13, 2013 · 12:02 am

Ash Wednesday

3309179767_822d9b456f_zRemember That You Are Dust

Joel 2:1-2,12-17  or Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 103 or 103:8-14; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day of fasting and repentance. In many liturgical churches ashes are placed on the foreheads of each participant. Ashes were a sign of penitence in the Ancient Near East, particularly in Judaism. Recall this example from the Old Testament. Jonah preached to Nineveh that God was going to destroy the city and the people listened:

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.  (Jonah 3:5-8)

Notice that the King of Nineveh decreed that the people must turn from evil. God is never impressed with meaningless rituals.

Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.   (Matthew 6:1)

As a campus minister I remember a particular Ash Wednesday service when a school official who wanted to know at what precise time I would be doing the “imposition of ashes” (making the customary sign of the cross in ashes on a person’s forehead). She did not want to sit through the scripture readings, homily, or prayers. The mere sign of the cross on her forehead would prove that she had done her religious duty. Did she not consider the words of Jesus?

And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18)

We cannot impress God. Why should we try to impress others who must also stand before His throne as we are required? God is calling us to a holy fast – one in which we bow before Him in true repentance.

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.
Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.
Let the priests, who minister before the LORD,
weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, LORD.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”  (Joel 2:15-17)

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February 2, 2013 · 12:00 am

The Presentation

Designated As Holy to the Lord

Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 84 or Psalm 24:7-10; Hebrews 2:14-18 ; Luke 2:22-40

Mary and Joseph carried Jesus to the temple to be offered to God as her first-born Son according to Jewish law. She was required to do three things: the first was to present herself in the temple forty days after she had given birth to a son; the second, to offer to God two doves as a sacrifice to purify herself after childbirth; and the third, to present her child to God as a gift which she had received from Him. (See Exodus 13; Lev. 12). In the liturgical church The Presentation is observed on the fortieth day after Christmas.

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”  (Luke 2:22-24)

Christian parents have continued this tradition in one form or another. In the liturgical church parents traditionally baptize their children as infants. Such baptisms may be thought of as a service of  presentation whereby the young child is dedicated to the Lord. Later, as the child matures, he or she will then make their own profession of Christian faith in the service of Confirmation. In the non-liturgical churches, infants might be dedicated by their parents to God but it would not be considered a baptism. Parents, in any case, are responsible to raise their children in the faith.

Unfortunately, we live in an age where many parents do not take this responsibility seriously anymore. They may say that they want their children to be able to make a decisions about the faith freely and of their own choosing. What is God’s requirement?

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.  (Proverbs 22:6)

As parents, we may have missed the mark. What can we do? We can confess our failings to God and pray that He will step in and make up the difference in our children where we were remiss. God will do it. For some parents it is not too late. There is still time to make corrections, but first we must make corrections to ourselves.

What about those who not fortunate enough to have been raised in the faith? Perhaps that is you. Perhaps you had no one, not even a mentor, to teach you and train you in God’s Holy Word. As human beings we fail many times over. But God has not failed us. He has made a provision for all us.

One of the most dramatic examples of Jesus’ coming to the rescue of a believer is when the thief who was crucified along with Jesus called out to Him:

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  (Luke 23:42-43)

We cannot be righteous on our own merits. However, we are given the gift of righteousness by Christ through His sacrifice on the cross. The gift is free to us but it was not free to God. It cost the cruel death of His Son.

There is a certain cost for us and that is transparency before God. We cannot hide from Him. We need to come to Him confessing our sins as did the thief on the cross. Secrets that have paralyzed us and kept us in bondage must be given-up to a loving Father. At the time of Jesus’ presentation the prophet Simeon blessed the family of Jesus and said to Mary:

“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-35)

Are we will to call upon the Name of the Lord? Jesus is standing by to be our presenter. There is nothing so wrong with us that He cannot redeem. We have failed. Our parents may have failed us. But Jesus will not fail us. He is the only one who can present us spotless before God the Father. This He will do for all those who call upon His name.

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  (Acts 2:21)

There is a

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January 6, 2013 · 12:01 am

The Epiphany

adormagiVisitation of the Magi

Isaiah 60:1-6; Psalm 72:1-7,10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12 ; Matthew 2:1-12

The Epiphany event has to do with the visitation of the Magi or wise-men. The birth of Jesus would have gone unnoticed and did for most of the population. A group shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem were informed by the heavenly hosts. But the Magi were able to discern that a major event had occurred through vigilant study and deduction. They had observed the night sky. They were not Jews but they were acquainted with the ancient writings and had sought out the sayings of the prophets:

“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”  (Micah 5:2,4)

God reveals himself to those who are seeking Him. Many are not seeking because they neither know themselves nor their creator. They do not even know to look. Matters beyond themselves are unimportant to them. There are people living in darkness that do not know they are in darkness. They have not yet seen the light and they are not even looking for the light. (It is interesting to note that many people today seek God through Easter mysticism. We must remember that the best of the Eastern seekers of God bowed down to the Lord Jesus.)

The good news of Christ Jesus is for all people:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.  (Isaiah 60:1-3)

Are we seeking good news? To be wise one does not have to have all the answers. In fact, a wise person realizes that he or she does not have all the answers. Wisdom comes from the seeking. (Even Einstein had the humility to admit that much of his understanding concerning the theory of relativity came about by revelation. How many of today’s scientists would do that?)

The Apostle Paul writes that “the mystery was made known to me by revelation.” God is a mystery. Nevertheless, it is God’s desire to reveal Himself to those who will receive Him. Paul goes on to write:

In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.  (Ephesians 3:5-6)

Paul further writes:

Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.  (Ephesians 3:8-12)

The result of The Epiphany is to boldly seek the presence of God. The wisemen of old sought Jesus. They found Him and worshiped Him. They returned to their own people with joy in their hearts. An Epiphany of God can be a fearful thing. It was for Herod:

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened. …  (Matthew 2:1-3)

Herod did not want an epiphany of God. He was in charge and he wanted to keep it that way. What stops us from receiving our own epiphany? Are we ready seek God’s face in this Season of Epiphany?

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