UA-NT-10 Essay on Matthew 1-3

Jesus comes into the world through the heart of the Jewish people. The 42 generations listed in Matthew 1 contain the names of the famous and the infamous. Through these men and the five women, when you include Mary, God brings the one who is Immanuel, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and of all human hope. God challenges Joseph to be a man of grace toward Mary as God is the God of grace toward all of us.

Out of the shadow of shame in chapter one comes the adoration of King Jesus in chapter two. Herod hates the baby and seeks to kill him. Joseph and Mary take Jesus over the hill and off to Egypt as Herod’s blades flash; there is weeping in Ramah. When Herod dies, Joseph and Mary bring him out of Egypt to Nazareth where he grows to be a man.

As Jesus comes near the time of his ministry, his advance man takes his place. John the Baptist comes preaching in the Desert of Judea. His message is unadorned. It is a bare call for repentance in view of the coming of the kingdom of heaven — the ruling authority of God. He looks the part of the prophet. He is separate from society. The people have to come out of their normal settings to the desert to hear God’s confronting message: Repent! The kingdom is coming. The one is coming who baptizes with water and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus comes out as a Jewish man seeking to be numbered among those who loved God and sought his rule. Even though John seeks baptism from Jesus, it is for goodness sake that John baptizes Jesus. When Jesus is baptized, the Trinity celebrates the end of the period of preparation. The loved Son hears the voice of the Father and feels the brush of the wings of the Spirit. Immanuel is ready.

UA-NT-10 University Avenue Church of Christ Reads the New Testament

Here at UA church we are going to read the New Testament starting February 1 and ending May 30. I will preach from the reading text on the Sunday following the reading. I will also write summary essays each week covering the material to be read. Please join in us in the reading no matter where you live. Blessings.

Here is the schedule:

February 1-6 Matthew 1-14

February 8-13 Matthew 15-28

February 15-20 Hebrews and James

February 22-27 Mark

March 1-6 Romans

March 8-13 Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Peter and Jude

March 15-20 Luke 1-12

March 22-27 Luke 13-24

March 29-April 3 Acts 1-14

April 5-10 Acts 15-28

April 12-17 John 1-17

April 19-24 John 18-21, 1 and 2 and 3 John

April 26-May 1 Revelation

May 3-8 Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon

May 10-15 1 Corinthians

May 17-22 2 Corinthians

May 24-29 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus

With Healing in His Wings

I was reminded this morning by a friend that the ministry of healing is a good ministry. I have another friend — that is now two, if you are counting — who recently injured herself. Her response to being injured is to try to be more active. Actually doctors have suggested that this should be a time of quiet and rest so healing can proceed quickly. Against such well-trained advice, she has decided that being up and busy is a better way forward. Now she guaranteed that she will be injured longer, will live wearier and will heal crooked. If only she had the grace to be still and heal.

When a church or other human system, a family or business has been hurt, it needs to heal. It needs to rest and recover. When it is able to function a little, it needs to take pointers from the physical therapists and try small steps in safe environments. We are in a time of recovery at UA church. We are resting a bit. We are also beginning to take steps forward into the future.

I think in my life I am always in some phase of recovery from some near disaster. Maybe we are all hurting, healing and hobbling in some way all the time. May God grant us the grace to get into fewer dangerous situations, the grace to realize when we are hurt, the wisdom to rest and rehab slowly and the courage to launch out again into a risky, delightful world. Churches, families, folks and I need to remember this.

May God bless us all

Preaching Wisdom

I went to Lipscomb University in Nashville last week to attend a sermon workshop on preaching wisdom. David Fleer and David Bland brought together great lights and moderately great lights to help us get a focus on the wisdom books, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and James, for preaching. 

Proverbs begins with the simple truth that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Those presenting the material did remind us that this didn't mean we should be trapped in trembling, cowering fear before God. Neither did they think that mere "respect" was an adequate translation for the Hebrew in the text. 

Being in the presence of God ought to stir us to our very souls. To be with the One who knows us inside out and upside down ought to sober us. The idea that we could fritter away the opportunity to live in covenant promised relationship with God should send shivers down our spines. Never letting our present moments out of sight of our certain future judgment before the Lord should focus our present landscape as clear as crystal.

Living in the awesome presence of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because there is no place to hide folly there. 

Eggs and Legos

In my refrigerator, I have a carton of eggs. They are grade A large. Each one looks exactly like the others. Each one has its own little egg place to fill. When I go to get an egg, it doesn't matter which one I get because they are all the same really. 

In my upstairs closet, I have a container of Legos. My grandson Sailor likes them. Legos come in different sizes and shapes and colors. They live all jumbled inside the box waiting to do their Lego thing when summoned. 

Some folks wish the church could be like a carton of eggs. Uniform. Separate. Predictable. I guess under certain duress folks could be compressed and suppressed into egg-like uniformity. Someone would probably smugly announce that everyone is alike because each one looks like Jesus. 

Of course the truth is that the church is much more like a box of Legos than a carton of eggs. Jesus calls a very random group of folks together to be his. He says this gathering of misfit toys looks like him. The Holy Spirit distributes a diverse array of gifts within the Body of Christ. Different cultures and generations come together. Different sexes and different upbringings come together. I cannot begin to list all the differences brought into unity in Christ. Yet, they do come together and all the pieces fit together to become the Temple of God, the Family of Heaven, the Body of Christ, the Church of the First Born Ones. And it is amazing.

A secret: I sometimes wish we were eggs. We would be easier to manage. 

An admission: I don't like being treated like an egg. 

A bad pun exhortation: Let's be happy that we are different and that God can use us all. 

Ready? OK. 

Let's Lego and let God.

God bless us all. 

A Prayer

O God,

Put to death what is evil in us so that we might be more filled with your Spirit. Change our hearts that we might bear the Spirit's fruit. Help us love the church, the Body of Christ for whose sake the Spirit has given us His gifts. Open our mouths with the good news of life as the Spirit bears witness to Jesus through us. Use our hands and feet to do your will in caring for others.

To the glory of the Father, within the fellowship of the Spirit, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

This simple prayer calls for our best cooperation with the work of God in us and in the world. We have been invited in the love of the Father, the blood of Jesus and the open hand of the Spirit to join in the great work of bringing life to this world. Paul likens the invitation to an offer of adoption into the family of the Holy Trinity. We are adopted children invited to join the family business.

At our best we inadequately represent the character and interests of the Family. Our hearts are not as loving as the Father’s heart. Our will is not as obedient as the will of Son. Our desire for joyful connections with others is not nearly that of the Spirit. Still we are invited to open our churches, homes and hearts in response to the invitation to be God’s Family incarnate in the world.

Stunning.

In response to this invitation, we put to death what is evil in us, change our hearts to receive and respond to the Spirit, and open our mouths and our hands with good news. Here in the heart of Austin, God calls us. 

God bless us all. 

 

Pneumatic Tools

I have a friend. I am not a very good friend to him, I fear, but he is a great friend. He likes tools and gadgets. He would help me do anything. The thing I loved about his garage was that he had plumbed it to carry compressed air to a number of different spots in his garage/workshop. Once he turned on his big time compressor, he had multiple places to attach his pneumatic wrenches and other air-driven devices. I was impressed that a ordinary guy could have the same tools as my higher-priced compadres at the Firestone store. 

After last Sunday's visit with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, one of his best days, I have decided that the church is meant to be a pneumatic tool and each Christian is meant to be a pneumatic tool. The Greek word for spirit and for wind is the same word—PNEUMA. It is the word that gives us scary words like PNEUMONIA and tool words like PNEUMATIC. A pneumatic wrench operates on compressed air. A Christian does not work unless filled with the Pneuma of God, the Holy Spirit. So... I don't think I am charismatic by the common definition; I do think I want to be seriously pneumatic. We all could be. We all could be pneumatic tools in the hands of God.

May God bless us all.