The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor; and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion –
to give a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
so that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,
for the display of his glory. (Isaiah 61:1-4)

Jesus came preaching to those who felt as exiles in their own land, whose dream of life and hope and peace was kept tantalizingly out of their reach, just beyond their power; who felt trapped, helpless and alone, longing for relief. His sermon on Isaiah chapter 61 in its entirety as recorded by Luke:

“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Come then, as those who have been granted a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, as those who have been planted with Christ to be raised up with him as mighty oaks of his righteousness, let us gather together, lift our arms and our voices, and sing out the wonders of his glory for all the world to hear.

Order of Worship for 08.23.09

O God, you are my God; earnesly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you as in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.
– Psalm 63

How is it that David maintains focus in the midst of life-threatening (to say nothing of “livelihood threatening”) circumstances? By knowing God. He does not worship this God IN SPITE OF his circumstances; he worships this God BECAUSE of his circumstances. Worship of this God is not merely central and important to David in his circumstances, it is essential in such circumstances. It is by worship of THIS God that David is able to navigate these dire circumstances with hope. Worship of this living God, David knows, is the consuming reality within which all of life takes place – and by which life in the desert places is made possible.

Come then, having seen the glory of the Father in the life, death, and resurrection of the Son, let us worship! Knowing that his is the Power, and the Glory and the Kingdom – let us come together and worship!
service-08-16-09

And so we come. Longing for relief, rescue and rest.

And as we come to him and walk with him, we find ourselves slowly wondering what exactly he means by “rest.” For like Jeremiah we often feel as though we’ve been tricked for the ways in which Jesus leads us through our various and often conflicting circumstances seem, well, not quite right, not exactly “to the point.” How in the world, for example, does dying to ourselves produce the fruit of joy and flourishing peace in our home, in our work, in our neighborhood. “Dying” is not exactly what I understood “rest” to mean.

But, it seems, it is exactly what Jesus understood himself to be meaning:
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes [all the would-be movers and shakers in the city of God, we should note], and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” So, he said, “If anyone would come after me [on this journey], let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
For he knows what we do not know; he knows what we do not WANT to know; he knows that we are deeply saturated and shaped, bound and burdened by our world of death. It is only as we crucify in Christ the values, desires, priorities of the world which we so love and crave; it is only as we are daily crucified with Christ that we are raised to the new life of relief, rescue, and rest which he has secured for us and promised to us. Real Joy in our day-to-day real life, the Real Rest in the Peace of Christ for real, day-to-day living is in having our most basic beliefs, values, desires, and priorities transformed by the crucifixion, resurrection, and present-day reign of Jesus by his Spirit.

That he may continue that good work which he has begun in us, then, let us come together with rejoicing to be saturated and shaped by the glory of God through the worship of Jesus, his promised Messiah that we and our world may taste and see the goodness and gentleness, grace and mercy, rescue and rest of God secured for his world in Jesus.

service-08-09-09

Pastor James Boice summarizes the Journey of the Song of the Ascents :

Psalm 120 – the people of God, dwelling in lands far from the peace of God’s presence, in the hostile worlds of Mesheck and Kedar, cry out, confessing and repenting of their sin.
Psalm 121 – having turned away from Meshak and set out to the dwelling of God, the pilgrims come upon the city of Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God and city of his peace;
Psalm 122 – the pilgrims have arrived and find themselves actually standing in the gates of God’s city;
Psalms 123-132 – the pilgrim reflects on the presence of God among his people, the abundance of the blessings of his grace on his people in faithfulness to his promises;
Psalm 133 – the pilgrims delight in the unity the prevails over the people of God as they dwell and worship together in his presence, another gift of his grace and covenant faithfulness.

This all culminates with the perpetual and joyful worship of God by those who are called into his presence day and night to offer their lives as living sacrifices:

“Come, then, O people of God, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the Lord!”
(Psalm 134)

The songs of Ascent, like the lives made new by God’s grace and peace in Jesus Christ, begin with repentance and culminate in praise.

Order of Worship 08.02.09

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” — Genesis 1:31

Have you ever wondered what it would require to receive that sort of evaluation of yourself? of your own life? of your own work?

Pastor Borchert tells the story of when he was serving as a young (and likely insecure) pastor. After preaching one morning, an older, much more experienced Dutch pastor (“domini” as they are called in the Dutch tradition) came to him and said, “You did good, boy; you did good.” Pastor Borchert treasures that man’s evaluation of his life and ministry even to this day.

As wonderful as such comments are coming from people we love and admire, what would it be like to receive such a comment from the God who himself is the standard by which “goodness” is known? What would it take to receive such an evaluation from such a God as that? Such reflection is no mere parlor game; it is this question that drives us every day in our life and work as men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, teachers, managers, customer service providers: it is all driven by the passion to receive that evaluation from someone, “Well done.” And it is not limited to the product, but it encompasses the manner in which the product has been produced: we want to know not only that we “got the job done” but that we did it in a way that was pleasing.

This question was at the heart of the struggle facing the Christian believers gathered in Colossae. Like us, they were being inundated with all kinds of strategies and methods for securing the “Well Done” of God’s evaluation. Paul prayed that they “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him …” Paul’s letter is offered as part of the means of God’s answer to that prayer: “in my Son, you have been made pleasing to me.” (Col 2:6-19) “Well done.”

Since, then, we have been evaluated by God in Christ and received his pleasurable report, “Good!,” let us come and revel together in the presence of his goodness, giving praise to the abounding generosity of his mercy poured out in Jesus by which we have been made pleasing to him.

Order of Worship for 07.19.09

Interesting, though, that we don’t consider it equally dangerous to pray for wisdom, and yet the two virtues are closely related.

Notice how closely they are related in James (sometimes known as the wisdom literature of the New Testament because of the apparently unrelated, short, pithy statements on godly living):
Some addresses in the “Bcc” field were not recognized. Please make sure that all addresses are properly formed.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces patience. And let patience have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. And, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God …

In the mind of James, the difficulties and trials of life are designed to produce patience by exposing, on the one hand, our profound weakness – physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, etc. – and, on the other hand, our consequent dependence upon God’s own perfections and completions in Christ by which we are made complete. Keeping in mind what Paul says to Timothy about how the Word of God’s wisdom is a gift to strengthen and equip and complete us for the life of godliness (2 Timothy 3:16-17), we begin to get the picture: patience is a function of owning the freeing truth of the gospel regarding our own profound sin and inadequacy and resting in the profound sufficiency of God’s grace provided for us through his Son, Jesus the Christ.

Come, then, having been equipped and carried through the various difficulties and stresses of another week by God’s amazingly sufficient grace toward us in Jesus Christ, and let us worship together, resting and rejoicing together in being made complete and whole in Christ.

service-07-05-092

At the heart of Paul’s understanding of the godly character, is the kind character of God himself by which we, who one were foolish and disobedient, have been made new:

… But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so tha tbeing justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. Titus 3:4-8

The call to put on very specific, recognizable characteristics of heart and habit is not so that we might secure the approval of God or man; rather, it is because we are rooted in the very heart of God himself in Christ, we should be seeing such characteristics increasingly made visible in our lives. In this way, as Luke says, people note the living, authentic presence of the Christ among them.

Come, then, let us gather to practice the heart and habits of godliness through worship together in Christ – acknowledging the foolishness and disobedience from which we were rescued by the loving kindness of our God in Christ and giving voice to the joy and praise of the new life we enjoy togehter in Christ – all for the proclamation and portrayal of the glory of God’s kindness in Christ.
service-07-12-09

Paul tells us, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice,” and “don’t worry about anything …”

They look alike; even their implicit and explicit purposes appear the same: that we might live lives of peace and, well, serenity now.

But while they may look identical on the surface, they are as different as a genuine apple plucked fresh from the tree is different from a plastic replica manufactured in a Chinese factory.

For the logic of our culture, often repeated in the Church, is that since “whatever will be will be, there is no sense in fretting; don’t worry about it and be happy while you can ‘for tomorrow will come regardless.’” In fact, some in the Church attribute such logic to Jesus who tells us to not be anxious for who “by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”

But such is neither the logic of Paul nor of Jesus. The logic of Christian joy and peace is not found in looking the other way and pretending that causes for worry don’t exist. Rather, the logic of Christian joy and peace is found in the fact that the living God of all creation takes care of his creation and his people in creation. The issue is not pretending that we don’t know where our next paycheck is coming from or whether or not we’ll have a job next month, the issue is knowing the One in whose hands responsibility for all that rests: our living, good heavenly Father.

It is in THAT knowledge that we can rejoice while facing head-on the uncertainties, the unknowns, the vicissitudes of life – the knowledge of our God who has so clearly and gloriously displayed the goodness and power of his control over every circumstance of our life through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

It is in reference to THAT knowledge that Paul says that it is as we are “IN THE LORD” that we can rejoice in all circumstances; it is a life that is IN THE LORD’s grip of grace that rejoices with peace.

Come, then, let us rejoice together IN THE LORD, before the throne of grace in these days of our world’s need – the we may be reminded and the world may know that the Joy and Peace for which it longs is found IN THE LORD.

Order of Worship for 06.28.09

Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find:
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am; Thou are full of truth and grace.

Come, then, — since we the fallen have been raised, since we the faint are being cheered, since we the sick are being healed, since we the blind are being led by Christ who is our All — come, then, and let us rejoice together in our Lord’s great salvation, and join together in bowing knees and raising our praises to Jesus, the Christ, the risen King.

Order of Worship for 06.21.09

Order of Worship for 06.14.09