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2013-06-23T17:21:37-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Friday of 4th Sunday in Trinity – Luke 9:18-27

Last updated on: June 23, 2013 at 5:21 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Luke 9:18-27

“Who do you say that I am?”

I want you to try and answer Jesus’ question today, but without words. You can’t say, with Peter, “The Christ of God” or “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” You can’t say, “He is the second person of the Trinity, both God and man.” And you can’t say, “My personalLordandSavior.”

I want you to see if you can answer Jesus’ question, “Who Am I?” by reflecting on your deeds or actions. You will have to act it out for everyone to see. For no sooner had Peter taken the next step in his discipleship class by confessing Jesus to be the Christ, then Jesus commands His disciples, who have confessed Him with their lips, to show their faith with their lives.

You remember how Jesus, when healing the paralytic man, asked, “Which is easier, to say ‘Take up your mat and walk?’ or to say ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” It’s easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven because it’s easy to say these words and much harder to prove that you have the authority to say them by actually being able to heal the body as well as the soul.

In a similar way, which is easier, to say, “Lord, I love you with all my heart,” or to take up your cross daily and follow Him? Anyone can confess with his mouth, but fewer confess with their deeds as well. It is the difference between an easy and verbal “faith” and a difficult and active faithfulness.

“Who do you say that I am?”

I have mentioned in many previous Give Us This Days how God is constantly speaking to you and calling to you to follow Him in a myriad of small ways each day. In countless invisible ways, God is asking you to sacrifice yourself to Him that you may be joined to His sacrifice for you. For what the Lord who hung on the Cross for you wants from you is that you should hang on your little crosses for Him and so be united to Him.

Several times an hour, or more, you are asked to give up your things for the good of God and for His glory. How you answer God’s call in your life is your answer to who you say that He is. Here are some of the many ways in which He may be calling you to take up your cross, follow Him, and deny yourself. He may be calling you:

1. to turn from your thoughts of how you can earn for yourself one more dollar and to consider how you may give back to Him one more dollar.

2. to work diligently and faithfully for your employer, parent, or teacher.

3. to deny yourself the daily latte or new car or phone or other gadget or trinket so that you might pay off your debts

4. to deny yourself your lustful thought about that person

5. to play what your playmate wants to play (adults too)

6. to share your toys with others (adults too!)

7. to get off the computer/phone/TV/video game and spend more time with your family

8. to give up that extra hour of sleep and finally make it to Sunday school

9. to give up that extra hour of leisure and read your Bible or pray

10. to turn off the filth that is entering through the holes in your head

11. to relinquish your fears and worries

12. to sacrifice that dream for what you know He really wants you to do

13. to deny yourself your comfort zone and dare to mention His Name to someone else

14. to give up your right to complain when things don’t go your way today

15. to deny yourself your right to speak and to choose to listen instead

16. to reject your anger and choose peace and thankfulness instead

In these ways and many others, the Master is giving you the opportunity to learn to deny yourself, to take up your cross, and to follow Him. “For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”

It was by a thousand self-denials of Himself for 30+ years that Jesus Christ was prepared to deny Himself to the point of the Cross. It was by a thousand lesser self-crucifixions that He prepared Himself for the one Crucifixion that took away the sins of the world.

If you would like to follow the Master and be His disciple, and if you would like to be united to His one all-sufficient sacrifice, then follow Him in His sacrifice of Himself to the Father. For if you lose your life in this way for His sake, then you will have saved it.

Prayer: Father, I thank You for sparing Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for my sake. Jesus, I thank You for denying Yourself and taking up Your Cross for my sake. By Your Holy Spirit give me the grace to follow You by denying myself and taking up my cross. Help me to find my daily bread in doing Your holy will on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Point for Meditation: Think about one way you could build in daily reminders to turn away from self and towards God.

Resolution: I resolve to find one key way in which my Master is asking me to deny myself for Him and to practice taking up my cross and following Him today by denying myself this one thing. Don’t try to use your own will power to deny yourself this thing, but instead turn to the will power of the Father, through His Son, and by the Spirit.

Book of Common Prayer

Christ’s self-denial

Give Us This Day daily devotional

personalLordandSavior

self-denial

take up your cross

the Cross of Jesus

2013-06-18T23:39:16-05:00

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Wednesday of Trinity 3 – Luke 7:11-17

Last updated on: June 18, 2013 at 11:39 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Luke 7:11-17

In the Beatles’ song, “She Said, She Said,” John Lennon sings, “I know what it’s like to be dead.”

I, too, know what it’s like to be dead. Maybe not quite. I may not know what life is like for the dead (there are several ways of answering this). But I do know that sometimes my life feels as if it were dead. There are times when I’m physically too tired to do what I would like to do or should do, and since the body is connected to the soul, with my bodily fatigue often comes a spiritual narcolepsy.

And sometimes, it is my mind that feels like it’s dead. Sometimes I get defeated by the events in my life that threaten to overwhelm me and drown me. Other times, it’s my soul that is in mortal danger because it has grown weak because it has not fed on the spiritual food of Jesus Christ enough.

In reality, my physiology, my psychology, and my theology all interact, and it’s hard to know where one begins and the other ends. Rather than confusing me, I know in my heart (and in my head and in my hands) that this is the way it’s supposed to be. So I know what it’s like to be dead, and I’ll bet you do, too. Some of you may feel like you’re dead this morning and may, in fact, be in various stages of dying.

But Jesus is coming! Did you remember to flag Him down when He passed by You yesterday? Why not?!

“God has visited his people.” That’s what all the people said when Jesus came to heal the widow of Nain’s only begotten son.

“God has visited his people.” That’s what all of the Gospel writers have shouted to us, beginning with the birth of Jesus Christ and continuing to His public ministry and through His Crucifixion and Resurrection and now through His presence among us.

You may feel as if you’re in the coffin today; you may feel as if you’re being carried out and ready to be buried. But Jesus Christ is passing by You today, in fact – Look! There He is!

Jesus is standing over you this moment, looking into your sad and weary eyes. The One who is Eternal Life is looking into the death of your eyes. He is unafraid, for He has seen death before and has conquered it.

Look! He’s reaching out His hand! And now He’s calling to you, saying, “I say to you, arise!”

What will you do? You are not really dead but only feel like it. What will you do? Jesus is offering you life once again. Jesus is calling you to respond to Him with faith.

What will you do?

Prayer: Father, I thank You for loving the world so much that You sent Your only-begotten Son to live and die and live again for me. I ask that through Him you might give me everlasting life today and life more abundantly. Kill the death that lives within me, and help me to choose life by choosing Your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.

Point for Meditation: Make an honest assessment of your life. On a scale of 1-10, how spiritually alive are you? What are some practical steps toward seeking life that God has been asking you to take but that you still have not taken?

Resolution: I resolve to cry out to Jesus today as He passes by me. I resolve to ask Him to heal me from whatever it is in my life that is making me feel like I’m dead.

Book of Common Prayer

coming of Christ

eternal life

Give Us This Day daily devotional

spiritual food

the closeness of God

widow of Nain’s son

2013-06-09T14:12:10-05:00

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Monday of 2nd Sunday after Trinity – Luke 4:42-5:11

Last updated on: June 9, 2013 at 2:12 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Luke 4:42-5:11

We all like success stories, and we all seek success. Hundreds of books purport to tell us hundreds of different secrets of success. When really, it’s quite simple.

One example of a man who was successful by many human standards was Howard Hughes. Hughes became by turns a Hollywood movie producer, aircraft inventor, mining mogul, and casino owner. An avid pilot, he set world flight records, including his 1938 flight around the world in just over 91 hours. In the 1960s his business dealings paid off so handsomely that his wealth reached one billion dollars. That’s pretty much the American Dream – isn’t it?

But the last years of Hughes’ life were spent sitting naked in his white leather chair in the center of the living room – an area he called the ‘germ free zone’ – his long legs stretched out on the matching ottoman facing a movie screen, watching one motion picture after another, addicted to codeine and Valium (that’s pretty much the new American Dream – isn’t it?) A doctor who examined him at the end of his life likened his condition to prisoners he had seen in Japanese prison camps during World War II. In the end, all merely earthly success doesn’t amount to much more than this.

This morning’s lesson from Luke 5, in which Jesus appears to His fishermen disciples, is really the simplest of success stories. Peter, a skilled fisherman, and his professional associates had been fishing all night. In fact, they consider that their work is done, because in verse 2 they are washing their nets to put them away. They had caught nothing all night, which to a fishermen means they were at that time failures.

But in verse 4 a certain rabbi comes to the professional fisherman in the morning and tells them that they should try again. After they have already washed their nets. After they have worked hard all night. Knowing that night was the best time for fishing with nets and morning was the worst.

Now Peter is a man who in the Gospels is always doing things his way. This time he is justified, because he’s competent to fish and judge when, where, and how to catch fish. Remember: he does this for a living. So we’d expect Peter to raise objections to this foolish idea from someone who’s not even a fisherman. To our surprise, in verse 5 Peter, with only a brief pause, obeys this strange command. To his and his friends’ surprise, he and his friends catch more fish than their nets can even hold.

Peter found that the secret of success was simple, but the success he found was much more than success in catching fish. He had discovered the secret to true success in all of life, and that secret was simply to obey the Master.

Let’s examine Peter’s obedience in more detail. Peter was faced with a commandment that didn’t make sense. At the moment of obedience, Peter didn’t know the outcome of his obedience. For all he knew, it would just be that much more weary labor after a full night’s work. It took faith for Peter to do what didn’t make perfect sense to him, for, you see, the true test of faith and obedience is not when the commandment makes sense or when it is what you want to do anyway.

The true test of obedience and of your faith is how well you obey . . . when you don’t want to.

Why was Peter able to do something contrary to his own intuition and his own desire? Because he loved the Lord and submitted to His command. Because he obeyed. Though he raised an objection, he immediately overcame it with his faith. Here’s Peter’s attitude: “We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net” (verse 5.)

Of course the result was a catch of fish so large Peter and his friends can’t handle it. Peter had discovered that the secret to success is obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

How often are we like the disciples in their failure? How often do we fail when we try things on our own power? Now Peter wasn’t being sinful by fishing and not catching anything, but Jesus uses this failure to teach that we must trust Him for all things. Peter’s failure teaches us that even in your occupation or calling, you should remember that it is only God who gives you this ability. More than this, our Lord Jesus Christ is the master of all callings: fisherman and all manual laborers, teachers and managers and all white-collar workers, parents and pastors and all leaders.

Peter fished all night on his own power – and caught nothing. The question for you is: in what area of your life are you fishing on your own power – and catching nothing? I’m willing to wager that each of you has one thing, one area (and probably more!) where you are still going your own way. Some thing that you know isn’t working because you have not submitted to your Lord. Maybe it’s a relationship you know isn’t right. Maybe it’s a besetting sin you keep promising you’ll work on tomorrow. And I’m sure the Lord is calling you to greater prayer and good deeds.

It’s time, like Peter, to hear the voice of your Lord this morning – and obey.

How many times must you learn the same lesson – that God’s way is better than yours? It reminds me of New York pizza boxes “You’ve tried all the rest, now try the best.” Haven’t you tried your own way long enough? Isn’t it time to try the Lord’s way?

Though we are too often like Peter in his failure, thank God that we are also like Peter in his success. We shouldn’t measure our success by how smart we are (that is, how intelligent God has created us to be), nor by how strong we are (that is, how much strength God gives us). You may never own 1/2 of Las Vegas like Howard Hughes; you may never set a world record; you may never lead a mass of people to make a decision for Jesus Christ. But that’s OK, because that is not how God measures success.

True success in life is measured by your obedience to God. True success is measured when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. When this happens, then the Kingdom of heaven comes to men, and that’s what I call success!

When the Lord gives you commandments in your life – the big ones that are obvious, and the small ones that we so easily ignore each day – how do you respond?

I tell my kids that “thy will be done” means 4 things: there are 4 parts to your obedience:

1. Speed – Like Peter, you should obey God immediately, and not only when we find it convenient.

2. Quantity – Like Peter, you should obey God completely.

3. Quality – Like Peter, you should obey God to the best of your ability.

4. Attitude – Like Peter, you should obey God cheerfully.

All of this obedience requires that you are actively listening to the voice of God. You must be in such close communion with your Lord that you are able to hear and thus obey His voice, whether it comes through His Word, through your conscience, or through the counsel of others. Remember who it is that is commanding you: it is the Lord!

You must accustom yourself to the voice of Jesus Christ in your life, and this means tuning your spirit to the voice of the Holy Spirit. This obedience requires that you forsake all and follow Christ – even when you don’t understand (verse 11). In a similar way, Jesus Christ commands those who want to be His disciples, in Matt 16:24, that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily (which means submitting our wills to His in all things), and follow Him. This is the way the original disciples followed Jesus Christ, and it is the way His disciples today must follow.

If you obey, you will see the Lord bless you beyond your imagination, as Peter did. For Peter, this meant a miraculous catch of fish. For you, it might mean greater peace with yourself or your friends and relatives; it will certainly mean a closer fellowship with your God. Success for Peter meant that impetuous Peter became Peter the bold.

Success in God’s eyes often looks like failure in man’s eyes: remember John the Baptist and the Crucifixion of the Lord. And success in man’s eyes is often failure: remember Howard Hughes.

But in the eyes of the Lord, obedience is always a success because obedience is always the goal for the disciple of Jesus Christ all along.

Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Point for Meditation: Meditate on one way in which God has given you spiritual success, even when it didn’t (or doesn’t) look like it.

Resolution: I resolve to listen today to what the Master is telling me in one area. I further resolve to obey His commandment immediately, completely, to the best of my ability, and cheerfully.

Book of Common Prayer

Give Us This Day daily devotional

2013-05-08T22:05:26-05:00

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Ascension Day – Acts 1:1-11

Last updated on: May 8, 2013 at 10:05 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Acts 1:1-11

Why did Christ ascend into heaven? Out of all the important things Jesus did, it’s one of the few that we recite every week in the Creeds. But Ascension Day itself is often forgotten, sandwiched in on a Thursday (40 days after the Resurrection) and overshadowed by Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.

I want you to put yourself in the disciples’ place this morning. Jesus, the Messiah died, but then He was resurrected. You saw Him, and He taught you on and off for 40 days about the Kingdom of Heaven. And then He tells you to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, and He ascends into heaven. And now He’s gone.

You might be forgiven for continuing to stare into heaven for a long time. (Of course you stop the minute the angels embarrass you by asking “Why do you gaze up into heaven?”)

As His disciples, we might pause a minute and think about the meanings of the Ascension of our Lord. Too often I think we skip from the Resurrection to the Second Coming in our thoughts and imaginations, and we don’t adequately meditate on or grasp the importance of what in the world Jesus is doing now.

We left the disciples, gazing up into heaven, standing in awe of and probably in confusion over their ascended Lord. The angels ask them, “Why do you stand gazing up into heaven?” with the implication that they should not continue to do so. And I want to ask you all, as disciples of Jesus Christ, “Why do you stand gazing up into heaven?” Because if you’re like me, you do that. As disciples of Jesus Christ, there is a sense in which we should and a sense in which we should not be continually gazing up into heaven.

Why should we stand gazing up into heaven? The first response of the apostles in Acts 1:10 was to look steadfastly into heaven. The first response to God’s glory and rising up into heaven should be to humble ourselves and fall down before Him in worship. More specifically, we find just such a response in Luke 24:52. There we find that they worshiped Him because of His kingdom and power and glory. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy: they went home with joy. What a contrast to the Crucifixion, after which they return home with emptiness and meaninglessness.

In Luke 24:53, they praised God because of what He had done for His Son, and for what was therefore promised to them. And they blessed God. This is, of course, after Jesus had first blessed them in Luke 24:50. God blesses us so that we can bless Him. In all things, that is, they followed Christ. They suffered with Him, and one day they would be raised with Him.

So why should we stand gazing up into heaven? Because God is worthy of our worship, and the Ascension is the proof of God’s power: it reveals His glory to us. Therefore, worship, joy, praise, and blessing should be our first response to God.

Do you gaze up into heaven? I hope that you do! (Especially after having just read the book of Hebrews.)

We also stand gazing up into heaven because Jesus Christ is there, and someday we will be too. Jesus Christ descended to earth and then ascended back into heaven so that He could bring humanity to heaven. He ascended that He might prepare a place for us, our eternal home: starting now. One day, my son Charlie was struck by the idea of Jesus reserving a place for him specially. He said that Jesus was taking the “Reserve” sign down on his (Charlie’s) home in heaven and burning it because Jesus already had it ready for him.

But in celebrating Jesus’ Ascension we aren’t merely celebrating a historical event that’s dead in the past: like our celebration of the Declaration of Independence, our historical celebration of Jesus’ Ascension is an ongoing reality for us. In celebrating the Ascension, we do more than just gaze up into heaven, however: we enter into the heavenly places. When we respond to Jesus Christ with worship, praise, joy, and blessing, we are seated in the heavenly places with Jesus Christ.

But there’s also a reason why we should not only stand gazing up into heaven. Gazing up into heaven is the Marian side of our spiritual lives, but there’s also a Marthian side. Our whole life cannot be one interrupted act of adoration and contemplation, otherwise we would be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good (which doesn’t seem to be too much of a danger in this day and age).

What did the disciples do after gazing up into heaven? They started there, as they should have, but they didn’t stay there. They were not to spend the rest of their lives gazing into heaven. There’s a reason why the Acts of the Apostles is called the Acts of the Apostles: if it had been called the Gazing of the Apostles, there may not have been much to write about! There was something for them to do, after they have gazed up into heaven and worshiped.

The same Lord who they worshiped in His Ascension now had to be worshiped by a faithful obedience to all that He had commanded them to do. The same Lord who ascended told them to go and do something: to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then to preach the Good News to the world. After having seen the vision of Christ and worshiping Him, they were to go out and fulfill the Great Commission, to go and preach the Good News that Jesus Christ has died on the Cross for your sins, that He rose again with the power of God, that He has ascended into heaven where He reigns over heaven and earth and is preparing a place for you in heaven, and that therefore you must be baptized and faithfully obey all that He has commanded you if you want to be His disciple.

After gazing up into heaven, therefore, they obeyed Jesus Christ, first by going to Jerusalem and waiting for the Holy Spirit, and then by going and turning the world upside down for Jesus Christ, the Ascended One.

So what we are to do after gazing up into heaven? The same thing the apostles did. We, like Christ, have work to do here on earth. Luke begins Acts by telling Theophilus that in his Gospel he wrote about all that Jesus Christ began to do and to teach. His implication is that the book of Acts, and our lives, are the rest of what Jesus Christ does.

Jesus Christ has ascended (and we have ascended with Him), and we do His work here on earth because we are His body on earth. We are the Body of Christ, and we are the Bride of Christ, truly united to Him and seated with Him in the heavenlies. When Jesus Christ ascended, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because He has begun His rule as the King of kings. Being truly united to Him and being His Body here on earth, we are to live out this rule and bring others into it. This is exactly what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer: thy kingdom come, by thy will being done by us on earth as it is in heaven and by faithfully feeding on Jesus Christ our daily bread.

When Jesus Christ ascended, He ascended that He might intercede for us as our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16; see also chapters 5-10.) Being united to Jesus, and being His priests who minister with Him, we have our priestly work of prayer. We are to pray as He prayed, and so He left us His Prayer, which we are to pray every day. And we are to live in prayer, a life of prayer, filled with prayer, in which even our work becomes a prayer offered to God.

Finally, Jesus ascended into heaven so that He could send the Holy Spirit to do His holy will through us. Only if Jesus goes to the Father, and only if He sends the Holy Spirit, will we be able to do His will on earth as it is in heaven. When Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to us, and we do the holy will of the Father as Jesus did, we show that He is our King, and we show that His kingdom has come and that King Jesus is ruling in our lives. Having the Holy Spirit, we live as His dedicated, worshiping disciples, gazing up into heaven. And having the Holy Spirit, we are transformed from the sniveling, cowardly disciples who are holed up in the upper room for fear of the Jews to those heroes of the Acts of the Apostles who continue to do and teach what Jesus began, turning the world upside down in the process!

In the Ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ ascends that we might ascend with Him. And so we gaze into heaven, loving God with all our hearts, souls, and minds. Loving Him for who He is and what He has done.

And after we have gazed, we return to earth to have Him do His holy will through us, as we love our neighbor as ourselves.

In the Ascension, our heavenly and earthly missions of worship and work become one, for in the Ascension heaven and earth have kissed.

Prayer: Almighty God, we ask that as Your only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind ascend there with Him. As He perfectly obeyed Your holy will, may we obey and faithfully continue, through the Holy Spirit, the work of His kingdom as His body, through Him who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

Point for Meditation: Are you more of a Mary or a Martha? If you are a Martha, spend more time today gazing up into heaven like Mary. If you are a Mary, spend more time today finding how you may continue the good works of Jesus Christ today.

Resolution: I resolve to spend some time today gazing into heaven and worshiping Jesus Christ. But after I have done this, I resolve to listen for how He wants me to come back to earth to serve Him today.

Book of Common Prayer

2013-04-28T16:57:15-05:00

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Monday of 4th Sunday after Easter – Hebrews 11:32-40

Last updated on: April 28, 2013 at 4:57 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Hebrews 11:32-40

Behold! how great a cloud of witnesses surrounds us!

Behold what God accomplished through the faith and faithfulness of these saints and heroes and martyrs!

On the one hand, through the faith of these saints, God worked mighty miracles so that kingdoms were subdued, righteousness was worked, the mouths of lions were stopped, the violence of fire was quenched, the edge of the sword was escaped, women received their dead raised to life again, and the weak were made strong so that they could become valiant in battle and turn to flight the armies of the enemy.

On the other hand, through the faith of these saints, they were enabled to endure great suffering and persecution, and thereby become martyrs or witnesses to God and His power in their lives.

Even though they had not yet received the reward which was promised, which I believe was Jesus Christ and all His glory, surely His words on the Sermon on the Mount applied to not only us but also to them: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

What is absolutely amazing to consider is the great faith these saints had – even before Christ came and before He sent the fullness of the Holy Spirit upon His people! They had no New Testament (or even the fullness of the Old Testament!) to guide them and more fully reveal God. They did not know the name of the Messiah or even have a clear idea of who He would be. They had no Christmas, Epiphany, or Easter, no Incarnation, no public ministry of Christ, no Passion or Crucifixion, no Resurrection of Christ, and no Ascension or Session or Pentecost.

And yet, even without this fullness of Christ in their lives, they believed and obeyed under circumstances that were more difficult than most of us face. Of these John Calvin said, “If those on whom the great light of grace had not yet shone showed such surpassing constancy in bearing their ills, what effect ought the full glory of the gospel to have on us? A tiny spark of light led them to heaven, but now that the Sun of righteousness shines on us what excuse shall we offer if we still cling to the earth?”

What about us? What about those who have been enlightened by the revelation of Jesus Christ, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and partakers of Jesus Christ Himself, who have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the new heavens and new earth (Hebrews 6:4-5) and are seated in the heavenly places with Christ (Ephesians 2:6) and are raised with Christ (Colossians 3:1)? What is the condition of our faith?

What is the condition of your faith?

Your faith is a faith in Jesus Christ and is the faith of Jesus Christ, who perfectly obeyed the will of the Father and was found perfectly faithful in all He was called to do, so that you could have faith and faithfulness too. Your faith has the power to do greater things than all of those listed in Hebrews 11. But do you see your faith in this way?

If you’re like me, you may not always give a lot of thought to your faith. It might have become, as I mentioned a few days ago, your natural habitat or environment that you scarcely notice anymore.

But your faith has the power to do greater things than Jesus Christ Himself did: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12-13). These are the words of Jesus Christ Himself to you. There is no escaping their meaning or power.

But how can I, the smallest of a small clan, do such great works? By faith. By faith in Jesus Christ, through whom I can do all things because He strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). You and I have the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of God’s presence and blessing and power in our lives. And yet I act as if nothing unusual or extraordinary has happened. I act like I’m just a member of the species Homo sapiens, just another animal on just another planet.

What would the world look like if every Christian really understood the book of Hebrews and the nature of faith and of Christ, our High Priest, in us? We would turn the world upside down in the 21st century, as His disciples did in the 1st century!

So why don’t we? Speaking for myself, I have made too little of Jesus Christ and His promises to me. I have not listened as faithfully as I should have nor responded as obediently or with as much strong and courageous faith as I should have.

So what am I going to do about it?

This: I am going to practice listening more faithfully to what I know God is asking me to do. I am going to practice obeying immediately, completely, passionately and cheerfully, and to the best of my ability.

I am going to start by writing down what I know He has been calling me to do and to find one way of better obeying this very day.

What will you do about it?

Prayer: Here I am Lord, send me. My heart is open and willing before You. Speak, and Your servant will answer; command and Your servant will obey. Show me Yourself, and show Me Your will, and then give me the grace and strength to obey, through Jesus Christ, Your Son and my Lord, Amen.

Point for meditation:

1. If you know the hymn, sing “Lo! What a Cloud of Witnesses” (hymn #569 in the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal – the tune is St. Flavian, the same as “Lord, Who throughout These 40 Days”). Or sing “For All the Saints (#126, 1940 Hymnal), or “Who are These Like Stars Appearing (#130, 1940 Hymnal). To find some of these hymns if you don’t know them, consult the Cyberhymnal – a glorious internet resource! http://www.cyberhymnal.org. Sometimes you can find the right tune, even if you can’t find the precise words you’re looking for. If you can find the tune, the computer will play it for you, and you can sing along, even if (like me) you can’t read music!

2. Keep your To Do List from God before you each day and consult it.

Resolution: I resolve to take the time today to make a To Do List of the things I believe God is asking me to do. I resolve to find the one thing on this list that God has most urgently been asking me to do, and to make a way to begin obeying God in terms of that one thing.

Book of Common Prayer

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Saturday of 3rd Sunday in Easter – Hebrews 11:17-31

Last updated on: April 26, 2013 at 10:56 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Hebrews 11:17-31

There is a “secret” to faith. There is something that can help us guard this mystery of faith and continue to have faith in the midst of God’s sometimes difficult call on our lives.

Would you like to know what it is?

It’s to consider the reward of faith.

“He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

How was it that Moses was able to choose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin. How was Moses able to value the riches of Christ above the treasures of Egypt? If only we could unlock the secret of being able to make such choices, then surely we would discover the kind of faith manifested in the lives of the saints of Hebrews 11.

Providentially, the writer of Hebrews has unlocked this secret of faith for us. Moses was able to value the treasures of Christ above the treasures of Egypt because he looked to his reward (verse 26).

What is this reward, then? It is nothing less than God Himself. If you want to please God, you must have faith, because it is impossible to please God without faith, which is trust in Him and obedience to Him (verse 6). And if you want to have true faith like those saints who have gone before us, then you must believe that God is the rewarder of those who seek Him (verse 6).

God rewards those who seek Him by giving them what they seek: Him!

If you were looking for some other kind of reward, such as crowns or recognition or kingdoms or power or glory for yourself, or the double-sized salary or house (but probably not wife) that some TV preachers promise, then not only are you wrong but you’re selling yourself way short.

God Himself is the Grand Prize. He is your Reward and your Inheritance. He, after all, is Heaven. When God rewards us by giving Himself, He is not rewarding us because we have been so good, but He is rewarding us in His Son, with whom He is well pleased. It is the reward of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, the perfectly obedient man, that we receive, if we are united to Him by faith (which, again, means obedience).

When Jesus says, in the last chapter of the Bible, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work,” I believe that His reward is nothing less than Himself. Based on how well we have trusted and obeyed Him, He will give Himself to us. This is why Hell will be such a terrifying place, because those who have put not trust in Him and have rejected Him and have lived an earthly life without Him will be rewarded in eternity with a life that is completely without Him.

Thomas Aquinas wrote, “Behold the Lord God comes . . .; behold, his reward is with him.” “This reward is nothing other than God himself, because man ought not to seek anything apart from him—Genesis 15:1: ‘I am your protector and your exceeding great reward’; for God gives nothing other than his own self.”

Isn’t this the lesson of both Christmas and Easter, of the Incarnation and Crucifixion and Resurrection? That God gives Himself to those who love Him and obey Him, that is, those who have faith in Him?

Both in this life and in the life to come, we will receive either more or less of Him, according to our obedience to Him, which is our faith in Him. This is why faith and obedience (which are practically equivalent, remembering also that obedience = love) are so important.

Faith, then, is ultimately about our relationship with God. Like love, its close companion, it is not an objective force of its own but a measure of our trust in and relationship with God. Because of this, faith and obedience or faith and faithfulness are synonymous. Notice that all throughout Hebrews 11 the saints who are listed are not reckoned to have faith only because of something they thought or believed. In every case, their faith was shown by obedience and something they did. (This also means that disobedience and unbelief are related: look for their linkage in Hebrews.)

Faith is the same for us: we are required to trust in God and His promises, and to faithfully obey. The saints listed in Hebrews 11 faced the truest tests of faith: suffering and death. Notice that even in the brief mention of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph the faith that is ascribed to them was what they did at the point of death.

Moses’ faith was severely tested, not just because of the threats of pharaoh but also because of the temptations of earthly treasures. Why does the writer of Hebrews say that Moses chose to suffer affliction than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin? To our knowledge, when Moses was in Egypt he was not violating the commandments of God we normally think of: he wasn’t fornicating, stealing, murdering, getting drunk, being unjust, etc.

But if he had chosen to remain in a life of pleasure, when God was calling him to a life of service and one that would mean giving up the “good life”, he would have been sinning by not obeying God.

I fear for Christians in the U.S. I believe that in many ways God is calling us to suffer affliction for Christ, but we are too content and intent on valuing the treasures of America above the treasures of heaven and of Christ. We spend our money on building our palaces first, while the Temple of God, His Church, is in decay. We give the firstfruits of our time and talents to our hobbies and leisure-time pursuits, and meanwhile there are people in our town who do not know Christ and there are those in our church who need our encouragement and lives.

The secret to faith is to have Jesus Christ, your reward, so completely before your face every day that you live in such a way so as to seek that reward, which is to seek Jesus Christ Himself. Faith is the substance of things hoped for (which is God Himself) and the evidence of things not seen. Faith is seeing Him who is invisible (verse 27). It is choosing to obey God, whom we have not seen, in spite of the temptations to pleasure and ease in this life that we have seen. It is to seek God by seeking to please Him by obeying all that He has commanded, even when our ears are hard of hearing and our hearts are just plain hard.

The most difficult thing Jackie and I have ever had to face was the death of our infant daughter, Veronica Marguerite, 13 years ago. She died, apparently of SIDS, when she was but 5 ½ weeks old. And it (excuse the expression, Mom, but it is literally true) hurt like Hell.

But in the middle of this pain and suffering, God spoke to us. Even while waiting in futility in the emergency room to see if the doctors could resuscitate Veronica’s bluish body, God told me to bring my Bible and read Job 1:21-22 to Jackie: “’the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”

In trying to make sense of life through the pain and eyes reddened and irritated by 3 days of crying, God made one thing absolutely clear to me: no matter what else happened, God had not changed. The same God who said He loved me and Jackie and Veronica still said He loved us. The same God who had proven Himself faithful for decades to me was still proving Himself faithful.

Was my faith and Jackie’s to be based on nothing more substantial than my earthly circumstances? By the grace of God, the answer was “No.” Whatever else happened, we knew, in the end, that God was still who He was and that He is the rewarder of the faithful by promising, and then giving, Himself to us. By faith, we have received back Veronica from the dead because I believe that we will, by the power of the one Who Is Faithful, see her again in heaven.

However weak your faith is today, whatever circumstances have shaken your faith in God or in other Christians or people, practice seeing the One who is invisible and yet very much present and faithful. Practice seeing Him by having faith, that is, by seeking Him and being obedient to all He has told you to do.

“Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, so that after you have done the will of God [had faith], you may receive the promise: ‘For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and not tarry’” (10:36-37). God’s promise to you, God’s reward to you, if you have faith by being faithful, is that He Himself will come to you.

Prayer: O Lord, I ask that You would make us patient in suffering and faithful in adversity and that, forsaking all others, we would set aside the treasure of earth for the far surpassing glory and treasure of Your Presence with me. Above all, I thank You for Your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of His Word and the example of His life; for His steadfast obedience, by which He overcame temptation; for His dying, through which He overcame death; and for His rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may see Him and make him seen; and through Him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Points for Meditation:

1. Go back and look at one of the examples of faith from Hebrews 11 in detail. Put yourself in the place of that person and try to understand his faith. Then ask God for that kind of faith in the circumstances of your life, and seek to put this faith into effect today.

2. If you could think of one thing that would help you to have Jesus Christ constantly before you each day, so that you could better see the reward of your faith, what would it be? What can you do to bring this aid to memory and faith into your life today?

Resolution: I resolve to seek God today and find Him by faithfully listening to what He is telling me and faithfully doing it.

Book of Common Prayer

confidence in God

daily devotional

definition of faith

Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith

Moses’ faith

SIDS

the secret to faith

2013-04-04T19:20:56-05:00

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Friday of Easter Week – Revelation 1:4-18

Last updated on: April 4, 2013 at 7:20 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Revelation 1:4-18

Who is Jesus Christ?

There are many ways in which He has revealed Himself to us, and all of these are important. Sometimes I think the dominant way contemporary Christians see Jesus is as a good friend. He’s kinda just one of the guys, though definitely the leader of the pack. We can almost picture Him in blue jeans, and we’re sure He would never be caught dead wearing vestments! At other times, particularly in contemporary praise choruses, it’s almost as if He’s our lover, and we sing passionately about our feelings for Him.

But I like St. John’s way of seeing Him. Now before we see Jesus as John saw Him, we should remember a few things about John. This is the same John who Jesus saw fishing with his brother James and father Zebedee when He called John to Himself. This is the John who spent 3 years of his life following Jesus as His disciple and the same John who saw the many miracle of Jesus and heard His teaching. He is the John who saw Jesus transfigured in all His glory on the mountain, the John who witnessed His Crucifixion, and the John who took Jesus’ own mother in with him to his home. He is the disciple whom Jesus loved and who reclined intimately on the breast of Jesus at the Last Supper.

Because John hung out with Jesus for 3 years, and was one of the 3 closest friends of Jesus, we might expect John to see Jesus as He appeared to him when He was still on earth. We might expect him to see Him as the one who now called Him “friend” and no longer a slave or servant.

But how Jesus Christ actually reveals Himself to John is so glorious, so awesome, so terrifying, that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, when he sees Him falls at His feet as if dead. This is not a conscious act of prostration before Jesus that John commits: it’s an unconscious, involuntary reaction that St. John has when he sees Jesus Christ in His glory. It is a reaction of fear, the kind of fear that makes a grown man who has seen persecution and has been exiled to Patmos quake in his knees and lose control of his bodily functions.

What was it that John saw? Why would he have this reaction to one he loved so much and was so intimate with?

What John saw was Jesus Christ as He is. What he saw was one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. What John saw was One whose head and hair were white as wool, as white as snow and whose eyes were like a flame of fire. He saw One whose feet were like fine brass as if refined in a fiery furnace, and what he heard was One whose voice is the sound of many waters. He saw the One who had seven stars in His hand and a sharp two-edged sword that is living and powerful and can pierce, even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

John saw all this and One whose countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. So he fell at His feet as if dead.

Is this the way we see Jesus Christ? Is this the way we come into His presence? I don’t think it is most of the time, or, for some of us, ever.

It’s important to realize that John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and, as other parts of Revelation make clear, he is partaking of a heavenly worship service. John is seeing a vision of Jesus Christ as He is when He comes to us in our worship on the Lord’s Day.

But is this how we see Him? “Come as you are,” we’re told. “We’re a church that’s for people just like you. Come in your blue jeans, as Jesus would come. Come slurping your Starbucks, and come at the last minute. Come with your head filled with your plans for what you’ll do with what’s left of your weekend. Come and sing happy, uplifting songs that will make you feel good about yourself and get you in the right mood.”

“Come, sit casually, and listen to a lecture about how to lead the good life or an inspirational talk about how you can solve life’s problems. Come be entertained by our light rock band and preacher who knows a lot of good jokes and anecdotes.”

The Jesus that John came to – the Resurrected, Ascended Christ who sits enthroned on the right hand of God and is the King of kings, surrounded in glory by the 4 Living Creatures and 24 elders and a rainbow and lightnings, thunderings, and voices – is the same terrifying God that the Old Testament prophets saw. This Jesus Christ is the God of Glory who Moses saw on Mt. Sinai, when He saw the God of Israel, under whose feet was a pavement of sapphire (Exodus 24:10), and who made the top of the mountain a consuming fire (Exodus 24:17), and made Moses’ face shine. The Jesus Christ that John saw was the One who holy Isaiah saw, surrounded by cherubim and seraphim, the sight of which made Isaiah cry out: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (6:5.)

This is the Lord of Glory who Ezekiel saw, the One sitting on the throne, surrounded by angels and the living creatures, lightning and the noise of many waters, and fire all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When Ezekiel saw it, he fell on his face (1:28.)

This Jesus Christ who John saw, and whose presence made John fall at His feet, this Jesus Christ is the Resurrected and Ascended Lord whom we worship. Let us come into His presence seeing Him for who He is.

This is the Lord who has revealed Himself to us. Mercifully, He is also the same Lord who laid His right hand on John and said to him: “Do not be afraid.” And so, knowing that we come before a Terrible, Consuming Fire who makes us want to fall down dead, we also come boldly before the Throne. This same Jesus who is the Shekinah Glory and is Heaven itself, is also the One who was born a baby and made man for us.

Let us come before Him today and every day with both fear and trembling, with praise and thanksgiving, and with quiet confidence in His mercy and goodness to us.

Prayer: O God, who on the mountain revealed to chosen witnesses Your only-begotten Son, wonderfully transfigured in dazzling clothes and burning fire; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the distractions of this world, may be permitted to behold the King in His beauty, who with You, O Father, and You, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, world without end. Amen.

Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to spend some time today meditating on who Jesus Christ is, especially as He has revealed Himself in glory. As I do this, I will listen for His voice and what He is telling me today is pleasing in His sight.

Book of Common Prayer

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Easter Monday – Luke 24:1-12

Last updated on: March 31, 2013 at 6:12 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

Luke 24:1-12

2 + 2 = 4.

Neil Armstrong was the 1st man on the moon.

The ratio of your HDL cholesterol to your LDL cholesterol is known as your cardiac risk factor.

Facts, facts, facts. Our lives are filled with facts such as these.

In school we memorize thousands of facts, and every day we swim in a sea of facts in which we live and move and have our being. Facts about sports games and facts about what celebrities have done; facts that are crucial, and facts that are trivial.

We may sometimes rightly wonder about the relevance of these facts. When I was a teacher, my students were constantly asking – whether about algebra or history, and sometimes even the Bible – “Why is this important?” “Why should I care?” “So what?”

Some facts, such as how to find the second derivative in calculus are not very relevant to most of us. Others may be relatively important: what your name is; matches ignite when lit; and particularly important: the anniversary of your wedding.

But there is one fact among so many that is truly significant. There is one fact that has more relevance than most of the other facts all combined. There is one fact in your life that is truly a matter of life and death.

That fact is the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, resurrected from the dead 2000 years ago.

“He is not here, but is risen!” (Luke 24:6.)

Easter is, first of all, a fact. It is a recorded fact of history as certain as, if not more certain than, any event in ancient history. There are more manuscripts confirming the New Testament account of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ than for any other writing of the ancient world.

Many people, especially since the 19th century, have attempted to deny that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. Some say that Jesus only swooned on the Cross; others say that the disciples conspired to make up the story of Jesus resurrecting, when they knew full well He hadn’t; still others say it was all a hallucination. But none of these theories holds water: there are simply too many facts the Gospels record to establish the Resurrection as a real, historical, fact.

The fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ separates Christians from everyone else in the world. Every other religion, every system of atheism denies this undeniable fact: that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But it is belief in this fact that indeed makes us Christians and has life-changing implications for all.

“So what?” “Why do I need to know this?” Isn’t this the question we all ask of every fact that comes our way? And we Americans are a very pragmatic people. What good does this do me?

If I tell you that a match ignites when lit, I have told you a fact. But I haven’t told you the relevance or importance of that fact. “So what?’ Matches ignite. Next I must tell you the relevance or importance of that fact that matches ignite. We’ve all have told our children not to play with matches. Why? Because matches ignite, and when they ignite they get very hot and burn. This is an important fact.

So why is the Resurrection relevant? Why do we bother to celebrate Easter every year – indeed, why does the season of Easter last for several weeks?

First, The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means that His payment on the Cross for your sins was truly effective and that God the Father received it.

On Good Friday on the Cross, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. He paid the penalty for every sin that has ever been committed. But what good would it have done if He had remained in the grave – able to take on our sins, but unable to save Himself? The Cross and the Resurrection go hand in hand. They work together and are without power without each other.

Furthermore, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead means that He truly conquered sin and death. The greatest enemies of mankind are not war and injustice, as great as these are: our greatest enemies are sin and death. The sin that separates us from God. The sin that causes wars and injustice. The sin, whose wages are death.

It is another relevant fact that we will all die. Our bodies will one day wear out and cease to exist in their present forms. The wages or reward for sin is not merely the death of the body but the death of the soul. The just punishment for a life of sin and rebellion against our God and Creator is separation from God and eternal death in the flames of Hell.

But thanks be to God that on Easter Jesus rose from the dead and conquered sin and death for all those who believe in Him. This is the theological relevance of Easter.

But you may still be shrugging your shoulders and saying: “So what? This is all too abstract.” “What does all of this have to do with me?”

G.K. Chesterton, in his book Orthodoxy, once imagined someone asking an intelligent man “Why do you prefer civilization to savagery?” To which Chesterton’s man would have trouble responding. He would look wildly around at object after object and would only be able to answer vaguely: “Why . . . there is that bookcase . . . and pianos . . . and policemen . . . .”

In a similar way, if someone were to ask me why Easter is relevant, why it’s important to Christians that Christ rose from the dead, I might stumble over myself trying to list all the reasons. As Chesterton said, when one is really convinced of something, everything seems to prove it.

So what difference does Easter make to you?

First, Jesus conquered sin and death, not merely in general or in the abstract: He conquered your sins and death in you. Jesus doesn’t save people hypothetically: He saves them really, in the flesh, and for all eternity. The penalty for your sins has been paid. Christ conquered your sins by rising from the dead.

It’s true that you might not see all of them conquered all at once or even in this lifetime: but Jesus Christ has conquered your sins. Jesus Christ has conquered death . . . in your body. Death is not merely an abstraction, a lifeless thing that is personified for effect. Death is in reality the individual deaths of billions of humans, each of whom is destined to die in this life.

Jesus Christ has not conquered a mere figure of speech: He has conquered death in you as an individual person. By the fact of His Resurrection, He has purchased for you eternal life. Though your present body will one day die, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you lay hold of the power of His Resurrection by believing in Him and living for Him, then He holds out for you the promise of eternal life.

The second very personal way in which the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is relevant and meaningful to you, then, is that through it sin and death in your life have not only been conquered but you also have the gift of eternal life.

Just as it would not have been enough for Jesus to have died on the Cross, never to have risen again, it is not enough that God tells us that our sins are forgiven and that Death in general has been conquered. God must also make this real to each one of us in our lives. God makes this very real to us because He has promised that if Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then we who truly believe will also certainly rise again.

The Resurrection, and our celebration of it in Easter, is therefore not only about Jesus Christ 2000 years ago: it applies to everyone who truly believes in Him, and it applies starting today. Beginning today, this day of Resurrection, we all have life everlasting, for we have been promised a Resurrection. Your resurrection is not a deception, it’s not a hallucination, and it’s not a myth. It is a fact as certain as the fact of the Resurrection of our Lord.

This brings me to the third way the Resurrection is personally relevant to each of you: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ means that He not only gives you eternal life, as if this were an abstraction. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ means to you that He is your life.

How many times does Jesus Himself teach us this? “I am the bread of life . . . if any man eats of this bread he shall live for ever” (John 6:50-51.) “Because I live, you shall live also” (John 14:29.) “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25.)

“For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3)

Did you catch that? Your life is hidden with Christ . . . Christ is your life.” Your entire life, whether you realize it or not, is tied up in His life. All your dreams, all your hopes, all your aspirations ought to acknowledge the Lord who died for you . . . the Lord who is your very life.

The Resurrection means that you have a life full of meaning. It is one of the ultimate facts of your existence, to which everything else relates and must be submitted. Do you go about your daily tasks each day, as if nothing of relevance happened to Jesus after the Crucifixion? Do you seem to have a dull life in which you are on your own, filling up your days with routine activity and simply waiting for the dull sentence of death to be passed upon you?

These things should never be so for those who believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and therefore believe in their own resurrection from death.

I don’t know about you, but I want a life that is so full of meaning that it gushes out spontaneously to all those around me.

I want a life that counts for something, and I want to know that when all is said and done, when I leave this world, that it was all worthwhile.

I want desperately to be part of something larger than myself, something much more beautiful and glorious . . . more immense and more eternal.

I want to live forever and to have life more abundantly.

And I don’t think that I’m alone in wanting these things.

Our lives are filled with a vast multitude of facts. But the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most significant and relevant fact in your life.

Christ the Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Prayer: “O God, Who for our redemption didst give Thine only begotten Son to the death of the Cross, and by His glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of the enemy: Grant us so to die daily unto sin, that we may evermore live with Him in the joy of His resurrection; through the same Thy Son Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

Point for Meditation: Look for ways to remember the Resurrection today: the waking of your body from sleep; the rising of the sun; the return of Spring; the life of flowers and animals; the presence of the saints in your life.

Resolution: I resolve to rejoice today, because Christ is risen from the dead and I am risen with Him.

Book of Common Prayer

2013-03-29T17:52:13-05:00

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Easter Even – John 19:38-42

Last updated on: March 29, 2013 at 5:52 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 19:38-42

Easter Even or Holy Saturday is a quiet and conflicted day. Sandwiched between the suffering and sadness of Good Friday and the glory and gladness of Easter Sunday, it reminds me of my life in this world.

I, too, seem suspended between two worlds that threaten to tear me apart. I still dwell in the world of sin that crucified my Lord, and I still suffer in various ways. Sometimes it even seems as if Easter Sunday never came. But I am also seated in the heavenlies with Christ, my sins have been washed away, and God has made me righteous through the sacrifice of His Son!

Like my life, Easter Even was a quiet day. No miracles today, nothing spectacular. Jesus died, but life still went on. Somebody had to come and get the body. That somebody was someone we would least expect: a rich member of the Sanhedrin named Joseph of Arimathea. He’s a quiet man who doesn’t get much attention. But he does what needed to be done. (For more on this amazing, quiet man, see the Give Us This Day meditation for Thursday of Trinity 12, on Luke 23:50-24:12.)

Even after Jesus has risen from the dead, things seem to go on as normal. In John 20:10, having just seen evidence that Christ was no longer in the tomb, what do the disciples do? Get busy forming the first church and zealously evangelize the world out of spontaneous joy in their resurrected Lord? Actually, “the disciples went away again to their own homes” (verse 10) because “as yet they did not know the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead” (verse 9.)

Even after Peter believed and Jesus had convinced even doubting Thomas, Peter goes back to fishing, as if he had no idea what else he should do (21:3.)

On Easter Even, which is like our lives, having known the Scriptures that Christ did rise from the dead, we sometimes go on with life as if nothing had happened. Even Easter comes and goes and we get happy for a few hours, and then life goes on as normal.

Easter Even reminds me of the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Brueghel. In it, Icarus, who had of course flown too high to the sun, has plummeted into the waters, with only his cute little legs unobtrusively sticking out of the water. He is over to the side in the water, and no one notices, while a large peasant in the foreground goes about his daily task unaware that great Icarus has fallen. Significantly, the painting is titled Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, as if the landscape is the main subject with Icarus merely decoration. You can see it here: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/bruegel/icarus.jpg.html.

Our lives are sometimes a Landscape with the Crucifixion of Christ. Our plows and fields are what’s important and what get all the attention. It’s business as usual that occupies our time and thoughts. And, oh yes, in the corner somewhere is a little cross or maybe a little fish logo on the bumper of our car.

But even when things seem the darkest, even when life is an Easter Even, and Easter and resurrection and Jesus are difficult to see, God has placed reminders of the reality of the Resurrection. In verse 41 of John 19 we discover that in the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which Jesus was laid.

In this tomb, the Seed of the Woman was planted. In this tomb, death died. From this Seed came new life on Easter, and that life has been propagating itself ever since.

In John 20:15, after the Seed has been raised to life imperishable, Mary mistakes Him for the gardener. But in a way, He is the gardener. Man was born in a garden and died in a garden, but the New Man, the Second Adam died in a garden but was reborn in the same garden. And He is the firstfruits of this garden, God’s garden, which is His people whom He has planted and cared for.

And so today on Easter Even, we experience both Good Friday and Easter, for in this life you can’t have one without the other. In this life, we still see both at work. But in the twinkling of an eye, one day, it will all be Easter for all eternity.

On Easter Even, Satan was still whooping it up with a bunch of the boys in the Pandemonium Saloon. He, too, had plans to go back to business as usual after the revelry: seduction, deception, warfare, lust, envy, pride, and the like. He, too, had not yet remembered the Scripture that the Christ must rise again from the dead.

But on Easter Morning, Satan woke up, saying “I have a terrific headache!” Only it wasn’t a hangover: his head was bleeding profusely, and his skull had been crushed by the Seed of the Woman as He walked out of the tomb!

Prayer: Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continually mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that, through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection; for his merits, who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Resolution and Point for Meditation: This is the last day of Lent. I resolve to reflect on how well I have used Lent to prepare for Easter. If I have slept through Lent and not kept my Lenten vows as a means to draw me closer to God, I resolve to repent of this. If I have not fully acknowledged and confessed my sins, I vow to do that today. If I have not examined my life before the Lord, I vow to do that today. Whatever I know in my life is keeping me from a fuller life in Christ, I resolve to nail it to the Cross today.

Book of Common Prayer

Satan’s head is crushed

tomb of Christ

2013-03-28T18:06:21-05:00

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Good Friday – John 19:1-37

Last updated on: March 28, 2013 at 6:06 pm By Fr. Charles Erlandson

John 19:1-37

Though the Morning Prayer lesson for this morning is John 18, I’ve chosen to meditate on John 19 instead, which is the Proper lesson for the Good Friday service.

“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?’

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,

Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,

‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us’” (Psalm 2:1-3.)

Satan had been plotting His revenge for three years. He had gotten quite used to ruling the earth. His initial success in the Garden Campaign millennia ago had proved so utterly successful that he had scarcely believed it himself. Bracing himself for some divine onslaught, he was surprised to see how easy and complete his victory seemed to be. His battle plan had been carried out to perfection and every one of his objectives accomplished.

“Seduce the woman by turning God’s commandment into a question.” Check.
“Use the man’s created protecting instinct and the magnetic attraction of marriage to make the man follow the woman into temptation.” Check.
“Bring in sin and death through this temptation.” Check.
“Sit back and let God do the rest. He will be forced, by His own character to judge them for disobeying. He will have to keep His promise to kill them and banish them from His presence.” Check.

He had discovered the weakness in the Heavenly Tyrant: he has to be true to who he is and true to his word.

Satan suspected that the Heavenly Tyrant planned another counter-offensive, but in the beginning all Satan could see that he had to worry about was one vague, minor promise that Satan would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman and that the seed of the woman would bruise his head. It worried Satan a little that this promise of the Heavenly Tyrant’s was a little vague and poetic, for Satan had never been very good at poetry, and the Heavenly Tyrant usually spoke so plainly. He had commissioned his scholars to look at it, and some were worried that “bruise” might mean more than just a surface wound, but the consensus was that the worst-case scenario was that the war would continue perhaps indefinitely. Satan could live with that, though he hoped for complete victory.

In fact, Satan was a great scholar of the Jewish scriptures, and he had teams constantly working on figuring out God’s curious riddles. (Much later, after today’s story, in the 19th century, he came up with the idea of planting doubt in the minds of the Heavenly Tyrant’s subjects by offering pseudo-scientific theories “proving” the Heavenly Tyrant’s word could not be trusted.) So far, they had pieced together a theory that the Heavenly Tyrant would make one final effort at defeating Satan. They were pretty sure it had something to do with the greatest prophet the Heavenly Tyrant would ever send, as well as with the greatest earthly king he would send. But it was all pretty vague, especially the parts about this anointed one somehow suffering. The Satanic Scripture Scholars (S.S.S.) all agreed that there would be heavy casualties on both sides but that this anointed one would be killed in the end.

One day, news came to Satan that this mysterious anointed one had finally been born and that he was, indeed, a man, the seed of the woman. Long ago, Satan had installed some of his earthly allies in places of power in Israel, since that seemed a likely place for the anointed one to first appear. By a stroke of luck, he discovered that the anointed one had been born in Bethlehem, and he sent Herod to kill him and to kill any likely boy who fit the description of age and geography.

But Herod had bungled the job, and Satan vowed to do the job Himself next time.

He had to wait almost 30 years, but finally, the time came. When the anointed one had been born, Satan knew it would be easier to kill him when still a baby, and so he tried. Now he waited for another time of strategic importance and weakness. He found it when Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John the Prophet: this may have been the moment of anointing. Satan saw him go into the wilderness to fast and pray, and he waited. He waited until there was evidence that the time of fasting in the wilderness would end. And he pounced, at the moment of greatest weakness and hunger.

Satan wouldn’t talk about the encounter with the anointed one afterwards and ordered that any mention of the incident in any volume of the Hellish Histories was strictly forbidden. But already, he was working on a plan, and he had many friends on earth in strategic places. He had even cultivated a spy among Jesus’ closest friends and used him to spring the trap.

Three years later, after the defeat that Satan would not even permit himself to mention, all had been made ready. Though it took some doing, he managed to get the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the Jews and the Romans, to work together on this case. Everything was going according to plan. Right at the moment when the anointed one was celebrating the holiest feast, right when he was having the deepest fellowship with his friends, Satan himself entered into one of them. How delicious to be able to do it at precisely this time!

He had even solved the mystery of suffering – the son of the Heavenly Tyrant would suffer in every conceivable way before he died. He suffered betrayal by one of his closest friends that he himself had chosen; the rest of the friends ran away scared, and the one he called the Rock had crumbled and denied him; Satan clapped and roared with infernal laughter to see the anointed one be mocked by a bunch of dumb soldiers; and his own people, the Jews, rejected him. All of the prophecies, as far as Satan could see, had been fulfilled, even down to some obscure details, and Satan felt even more reassured.

He thought about letting the scourger do Jesus in with a few extra strokes, but controlled himself and allowed the “King of the Jews” to suffer the most excruciating and ignoble death yet invented: crucifixion.

Still half-expecting some deus ex machina to come down and deliver the anointed one at the last minute, Satan watched as Jesus cried out that the Heavenly Tyrant had abandoned him. Satan rose to his feet when Jesus cried “It is finished.” And when he died, Pandemonium broke out in Hell.

In his being drunk with victory, even the nagging question of the prophecy of the seed and his own head was forgotten by Satan. And the Satanic Scripture Scholars were all too dense or darkened or drunk to have discovered that the place where Jesus was crucified was called Golgotha or Calvary, both of which mean “The Place of the Skull.”

And death and decay held illimitable dominion over all.

“He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

the Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,

and distress them in His deep displeasure:

“Yet I have set My King

on My holy hill of Zion” (Psalm 2:4-6.)

Prayer: Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Point for Meditation:

1. Meditate on the love of Jesus in giving up Himself for you. Every mocking and every scorn, every humiliation and every torment, was suffered for you.

2. Meditate on what your response should be to the God who gave His life for you.

Resolution: I resolve to lament my sins and confess them all today, remembering that for these sins, the Son of God died.

Book of Common Prayer

the temptation of Christ

the Word of God

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