Pentecost Sunday:

I will put my spirit within you.

(Ezekiel 37:14)

On Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God “upon all flesh” (Joel 3:1) just as God the Father had promised (Lk 24:49). We call it “Pentecost” because it happened during the Jewish Festival of Pentecost (Acts 2) when the disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy gathering in the temple and praising God” (Lk 24:52-53).

“Great joy” marks Jesus’ story—the Gospel story, from beginning to end:

            Christmas (Lk 2:10):     “…good news of great joy for all the people.”

            Epiphany (Lk 10:21):    “Jesus was full of joy…”

            Lent (Jn 16:10):             “Your grief will turn to joy.”

            Good Friday (Hb 12:2): “For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross.”

            Easter (Lk 24:41):          “…joy and amazement.”

            Ascension (Hb 12:2):    “The joy …of sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.”

            Pentecost (Ro 14:17):    “…joy in the Holy Spirit.”

This joy comes to us during our ordinary days: “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord." The Christian Calendar refers to the remaining days, from Pentecost to Advent—near 160 days, as “Ordinary Days.” During our ordinary days, as we live out our lives on our “own soil,” the Holy Spirit assures us that the Lord is with us: “Emmanuel.”

Eastertide #38

Remember, I am with you always.

(Matthew 28:20)

Even though Jesus can no longer be seen going before us, we still follow. Pentecost has to do with how it is that our ascended Lord remains with us. The Holy Spirit is the presence of our unseen Lord. Nothing has been lost. Jesus remains Emmanuel—“God with us.”

Nor has the mission of Jesus been lost. It continues (Mt 28:19-20): “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Jesus’ mission on earth, remains our mission—the church’s mission: the deed of baptism that identifies us as Christ’s disciples; and the word of Jesus which makes us his learners. Before the Gospels were written, the Apostle can say to the church of Ephesus (4:20-21): “That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.”

“As truth is in Jesus.” We make claim to no other Truth.

Eastertide #37

Why do you stand gazing up toward heaven?

(Acts 1:11)

What’s wrong with “gazing up toward heaven”? That sounds like a good spiritual thing to do. Maybe even more so today when our eyes have been captured by screens. During our shelter in place we have watched a ton of television most of which is spiritually numbing. Why not look toward heaven?

Well, because even though Jesus has ascended, we are left with earthly work to do: “You will receive power,” Jesus tells his bewildered disciples before he ascends, “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses …to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Even though Jesus ascends, his mission on earth continues “to the ends of the earth.” Fortunately for us, the disciples reset their gaze from heaven to earth. It is the earthly work of bearing witness to God’s salvation in Jesus Christ. They will need “power from on high” for this earthly mission—they/we will need Pentecost.

Eastertide #36: Sunday #7 of 7.

Heaven must receive him

until the time comes

for God to restore all things.

(Acts 3:21)

The disciples’ final gathering with their resurrected Lord, just before he ascends to his heavenly home, results in something of a gripe session: “Are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel now?” That is what they have been holding out for all along. They still hoped Jesus would fulfill their political dreams—the restoration of Israel. They have yet to comprehend the meaning of Calvary. It will take the outpouring of the Spirit and many surprises along the way before they understand what Jesus meant by “the ends of the earth” (Ac 1:8).

Fortunately for us, God’s restoration project extends to all people in all places. We are right in the middle of it awaiting that day when we will be “fully restored” (2Cor 13:9). God the Son doing his work above, God the Spirit doing his/her work below, and God the Father resolved to restore his good and beautiful creation.

Eastertide #35

He who descended

is the same one who ascended

far above all the heavens,

so that he might fill the whole universe.

(Ephesians 4:10)

Christmas, when the Son of God descended, leads us to Ascension Thursday, when the Son of God ascends to his “Majesty on high” (Hb 1:3). Both Christmas and Ascension require angelic explanation. We cannot sort it out of ourselves. Gabriel and the whole angelic host help us through Christmas: “Fear not Mary …for you will conceive…” So too with Joseph, “Fear not to take Mary as your wife…” So too with the Shepherds, “Fear not …for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior…” And now again, as Jesus departs for his heavenly home, the angels, explain things that nature of itself cannot explain: “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Ac 1:11).

The big surprise is that, when the Son of God returns to his heavenly home, he maintains his humanity. The incarnation lingers into the Godhead so that we refer to Jesus today in Glory as “the human Christ Jesus” (1Tm 2:5). This same Jesus who walked among us lives today.

Eastertide: #34  ̶ Ascension Thursday.

This same Jesus.

(Acts 1:11)

Reading again, this morning by the fire pit, the story of Christ’s Ascension; I was struck by the humanness of this supernatural scene. Jesus is still Jesus. His title, “Christ,” does not appear. His earthly name remains. He remains the One “born of a woman,” coming through to us on Christmas morning through the birth canal of Mary. “This same Jesus,” the angels explain to the bewildered disciples, “who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Ac 1:11).

Isn’t that something? Jesus never stops being Jesus. He keeps his earthly name. Easter and Ascension, and even his second coming that awaits us; does not turn Jesus into someone other than Jesus. This same Jesus of Christmas Morning, Good Friday, Easter Sunday is the same Jesus now ascended to his eternal home. He never leaves his humanity behind.

Eastertide #33

What does “he ascended” mean?

(Ephesians 4:9)

Tomorrow, the church celebrates Ascension Thursday. During my pastoral days, attention was given to Maundy Thursday as the church gathered for our solemn and unpretentious participation in the Lord’s Supper. But there was another Thursday that I missed: Ascension Thursday. If I had a do-over, I would give attention to both Thursdays. What would an Ascension Service be like? I wonder.

Eastertide 32: Sunday #6 of 7.

Through Christ

 God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things,

 whether on earth or in heaven,

by making peace through the blood of his cross.

 (Colossians 1:20)

The Cross Event is too big for any one image to capture. The thing itself remains hidden in God. We speak of it in word (gospel) and sacrament (gospel made visible—taken and eaten). The N.T. exhaust language and imagery to speak of it: “we have been justified,” “saved,” “reconciled,” “redeemed,” “atoned;” and so forth. The Bible scatters and mixes such imagery. Maybe it is helpful to gather these scattered images something like this…

1.             1)   O.T. Worship–Sacrifice:  “Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins…” (1Jn 2:2)

2.             2)   Legal Court–Justification:  “We have been justified by his blood” (Ro 5:9).

3.             3)   Commerce–Redemption: “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1Pt 1:18-19).

4.             4)   Personal Relationships–Reconciliation: “God reconciled us to himself through Christ” (2Cor 5:18).

5.            5)   Restoration–Salvation: “He will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21).

Of course the Cross Event itself overflows our categories. As the hymn goes, it “is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell” (The Love of God, Claudia Mays, 1917).

Eastertide 31:

Christ redeemed us through his blood.

 (Ephesians 1:7)

I recall a story illustrating redemption that goes something like this. A father and his young son carved out a model sailboat. It required careful attention to keel and hull, mast and sails. When they finished their project and saw that it was good, they took their little sailboat to the park, placed it in the water, and watch it sail. The wind picked up, and their boat got away from them. They lost it. By and by, they came across the town pawnshop. The boy looked in the window and saw his sailboat. The father bought it back. They boy held the boat in his arms and said, “I made you, and now I’ve bought you.” Something like that happened on Calvary.

Eastertide 30:

The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

(First John 4:14)

What happened on the Cross had to do not only with me, but with the whole of God’s good creation. That’s the big gospel story that stretches from Genesis to Revelation. What God declared “good” even “very good”; will be salvaged and made whole again.

SOZO is the Greek N.T. word mostly translated “to save”; but, also translated “to heal,” or “recover,” or “to make well.” It deals with creation as we find it—broken and in need of healing. That’s how Jesus got his name, “Give him the name Jesus,” the angel said to Joseph, “because he will save (sozo)…” (Mt 1:21). “Jesus” is the Greek name for the Hebrew name “Joshua” which means “Yah is salvation”. “Yah” being short for Yahweh—that’s the name so precious it became unutterable. People would just utter “Lord” instead. In your bible, wherever you see “Lord” with all capital letters it is the unutterable name.  It’s the name given to Moses as “I AM that I Am.” God IS and DOES. Out of his absolute freedom, God has decided to be our Savior—to be Jesus.

Eastertide 29:

God demonstrates his love for us

in that while we were yet sinners

Christ died for us.

(Romans 5:8)

Calvary is an act of God. We didn’t come up with it. It’s not our idea. It’s is totally God’s idea and God’s doing. It comes forth from God out of “his love for us.” As we sing; or, at one time sang, in the third and fifth stanza of Isaac Watts’ 1706 hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: “See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? … Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Nothing is said of the Cross appeasing God’s wrath. Much is said about the Cross demonstrating the love of God. It is this demonstration of God’s love on Calvary’s Cross that “demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Eastertide #28:

Christ had offered for all time

 a single sacrifice for sins.

(Hebrews 10:12)

Why was the Cross necessary? Why doesn’t God just let bygones be bygones? The Reformers imagined it had to do with how we can be justified (made right) before a Holy God. God being perfectly just, cannot simply set aside the divine law of punishment. If he did, he would be unjust. Man, by his transgression has earned the dreadful punishment which a just God must inflict. God’s justice is such that sin cannot go unpunished. However, God is not only just, he is also merciful; and he himself, in his infinite mercy, provided a substitute who being himself infinite, could bear the infinite punishment for the sins of the world. Thus Christ came down to offer himself as a substitute; he bore the punishment in our stead. This made it possible for God to forgive sins, and at the same time to remain perfect both in his justice and his mercy.

Maybe the Cross works something like that. A.W. Tozer thought the idea too transactional—a deal made within the Godhead between Father and Son. It lacked, in Tozer’s words “love” and “soul” (The Pursuit of God, chp. 1).

We are never told “how” the Cross works; but, we are told why it works. It works because “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (Jn 3:16-17).

Eastertide #27:

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.

(Second Timothy 2:8)

I fussed some about Mother’s Day intruding into Eastertide. I take it all back. Eastertide can absorb Mother’s Day. It does have to do with mothers: Eve “the mother of all living” (Gn 3:20), and Mary “the mother of our Lord” (Lk 1:43).  But now, back to Eastertide and our Christian Calendar.

Eastertide stretches out our Easter celebration for fifty days, covering seven Sundays of reflection on the meaning and wonder of our Crucified and Risen Lord. Forty days into Eastertide, ten days from now, we will celebrate Ascension Thursday. And then, ten days after Ascension Thursday, we arrive at Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh, just as Jesus promised.

Yesterday, our virtual pastor, encouraged us to memorize Romans 8:31-39. He conclude his message by reciting the passage from memory—powerful. At the center of his recital we hear, “It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" (Ro 8:34-35)  That’s an Eastertide affirmation: Christ who died (Good Friday), who was raised (Easter Sunday), who is at the right hand of God interceding for us (Ascension Thursday). That’s a big, deep and wide Tide to flow over us and through us.

Eastertide #26: Sunday 5 of 7, a Mother’s Day riddle.

Through Christ’s death he destroyed

the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

(Hebrews 2:14)

On the Cross, Satan meets his end. It’s a riddle of two mothers: Eve “the mother of all living” (Gn 3:20), and Mary “the mother of our Lord” (Lk 1:43). It has to do with that mysterious curse that God put on Satan which ends with a promise that what he did with Eve will recoil back on him through another Woman whose son, though wounded, will end up crushing Satan’s head (Gn 3:15). I suppose those who knew the riddle, looked on every woman and every birth with wonder—could this be the Woman? Could this be the Birth? That’s how we get to Christmas.

From this riddle, the church imagined that Satan has a claim on us. On the Cross, the ransom is paid to Satan for our liberation. However, because of the riddle, the ransom story does not end there. Satan didn’t know about Easter Morning. Christ’s resurrection fulfills the promise by crushing Satan’s head thus destroying death, sin, and the devil.

Maybe the Cross works something like that. We are not told how it works; only, that it works to free us from sin and the Law, from death and the devil; and, liberate us for eternity.

Eastertide #25: The Apostle Paul and Mother’s Day.

She has been a mother to me.

(Romans 16:13)

“Greet Rufus,” Paul writes to the Romans, “and greet Rufus’ mother who has been a mother to me, also.” This greeting addressed to Rufus and his mom is found in a list of Paul’s friends and colleagues at the end of his Letter to the Romans. The list begins with a special greeting for Priscilla and the church that gathers in her home. Paul writes to inform the churches of Italy about his plans to visit them and then to be sent on by them as a missionary to Spain.

It seems Rufus is something of a celebrity among the Italian congregations that receive the Letter. He is so well known, that The Gospel of Mark describes the man who carried Jesus’ cross as “the father of Rufus” (Mk 15:21). Tradition has it that Mark wrote his Gospel from the eyewitness accounts of Peter while Peter served in Rome as the Apostolic Leader to the congregations of Italy. So, when Mark tells us about Simon of Cyrene, he adds something like, “Do you know who he is? He is the father of our dear brother in the Lord, Rufus.”  The congregations of Italy know who Rufus is. Rufus and his mom worship and serve among them—maybe in the church that meets in Priscilla’s home. Maybe the same church from which we get the Book of Hebrews (Hb 13:24).

If we were to visit Priscilla’s church; someone might lean over and whisper, “See that young man over there? His dad carried the cross of Jesus up the hill of Golgotha. And, see that elegant older woman over there, that’s Rufus’ mom; and, some years back, the Apostle Paul lived with them and she became like a mother to Paul. Word has it that the Apostle himself will soon be visiting us.”

Hymn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkcJX38tsvo

Eastertide #24:

Christ offered himself for us.

(Hebrews 9:23-25)

Whatever it was that God was doing on the Cross; it was “for us and our salvation” (Chalcedon). “For our sake,” as the Apostle reveals to us, “God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Christ we might become right with God” (2Cor 5:21).

The Reformers called this the “Wonderful Exchange” (Calvin’s Institutes IV.xvii.2). It goes like this… by taking the weight of our sin upon himself, Christ exchanged our sin for his righteousness. The Son of God becomes the Son of Man with us, in exchange, God makes us sons of God with Him. Or again, by the Son of God’s descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us. Or again, by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us. Or again, by accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power. This Wonderful Exchange involves the whole Jesus story from Advent and Christmas to Ascension and Pentecost. Easter Morning, right in the middle of it all, is God’s “Yes” to us. Yes, it is really so.

Eastertide #23:

Fixing our eyes on Jesus…

who suffered death on the cross.

(Hebrews 12:2)

Let’s see if we can continue our Eastertide focus on Jesus and the events of Good Friday and Easter Morning. “We preach Christ crucified,” insist the Apostle, ending with a period. Shouldn’t he add something about the resurrection? Can we speak of Christ crucified with a period?

Easter does not erase the cross; but rather, vindicates the Cross. Because of Easter “the word of the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Cor 1:18,23-24). But it still remains “the word of the cross.” It is the Crucified who has risen. And, it is our crucified savior on whom we are to “fix our eyes.”

“Let us linger at the Cross,” my parents would say when folks found themselves at the end of their rope. It was the cure for troubled souls. When there was too much hurt to sort out. When things got really bad—like a pandemic; we were to linger at the Cross. I haven’t heard such talk since my parents died. I suppose we have replaced it with our own illusions of competence. Do we imagine our own expertise will get us through?

Lingering at the Cross forces us to surrender our claims to competency (2Cor 3:5). After some lingering there, God has His way of granting us our own little resurrection (1Cor 6:14).

Eastertide #22

Fixing our eyes on Jesus…

 (Hebrews 12:2)

Let’s see… It’s still Eastertide. We’re only half way through the season—a season of 50 days from Easter to Pentecost, wherein we are supposed to fix our eyes on Christ Crucified and Risen. Are we getting antsy to move on to other things?

I see next Sunday is Mother’s Day. You can’t mess with that. It is the second best attended service of the year. Woe to the pastor who does not fix his gaze on motherhood. I wish they would have put Mother’s Day off a few weeks to allow Eastertide to run its course until Pentecost. After Pentecost we enter into our Ordinary Days when we celebrate how the Holy Spirit, in unseen ways, empowers us to follow Jesus throughout our Ordinary Days. That would have been a perfect time for Mother’s Day. How does one do mothering without the Holy Spirit?

Eastertide #21: Sunday 4 of 7—almost as long as a Sunday sermon.

The scapegoat shall make atonement

by sending it alive into the wilderness.

(Leviticus 16:10)

If I’ve got it right; or, reasonably right; or, close to right… there are three animals sacrificed on the annual Day of Atonement:  A bull to make atonement first for the High Priest and then the Sanctuary; and two goats to make atonement for the people; one goat is sacrificed, while the other lives as a scapegoat to carry away the offenses and hurts of the community far away into the wilderness.

With precise instruction and properly clothed with his PPE, the High Priest enters the sanctuary’s most holy place where dwells the Mercy Seat atop the Ark of the Covenant. He then sprinkles the Mercy Seat with the blood of the bull. In a year’s time contaminates reach even there. The decontamination assures that mercy will continue to flow from the innermost Mercy Seat outward through the whole sanctuary and into the outermost community.

After the sanctuary is decontaminated; those two goats are sacrificed for the decontamination of the people. One on the altar, and the other will live as a sacrificial scapegoat banished into the wilderness bearing away the accumulated sins of the community. After all that—that Day of Atonement, mercy flows from God above, and with offences against one another carried by the scaptegoat far away, peace is restored to the community below. “Glory to God in the highest,” as the Angels sang at His birth, “and peace on earth.”

What does it mean for us that on Calvary, God is “making peace through the blood of Christ shed on the cross” (Col 1:20). Does blood and cross make any sense to us without some knowledge of the Tabernacle and what happened there, especially on that Day of Atonement?

Calvary is for us that most holy place from which mercy flows to all people in all places. But what about that living sacrifice—that scapegoat? I’m told wherever we find human society, there is a need for a scapegoat. Things go along alright for a while; but eventually things always go foul—like covid-19. Who is to blame? Society will not be satisfied until it marks out a scapegoat who bears the blame. Once we pile society’s guilt on the scapegoat, things settled down until the next threat to society comes along; and then the community will dig up another scapegoat to cast out of the community. And so the cycle goes, until Jesus came. Jesus puts an end to our relentless scapegoating. He bears the blame upon himself and carries it away. Jesus frees us from scapegoating. Peace and mercy flow: “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus our Lord” (1Tm 1:2).

Eastertide #20

How much more will the blood of Christ purify.

(Hebrews 9:14)

With the Book of Hebrews, we’ve been spending this Eastertide Season contemplating what happened that day on Calvary’s Cross. The calendar gives us 50 days to contemplate. So, in the words of Hebrews, can we take this time to “build on the foundation of our baptism” (Hb 6:2)?

Cornelius, that Roman military officer station in Caesar Town, was baptized after hearing Peter give a two minute sermon about how Jesus was “put to death by hanging on a tree, but God raised him up;” and about how “all the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Ac 10). With the Holy Spirit’s prompting, that was enough to get Cornelius, along with his whole family, into the waters of baptism. I don’t suppose most of us knew much more than that at our baptism. That’s the foundation on which we build the wonder of our faith. I don’t suppose Cornelius, or anyone who is truly baptized, wouldn’t want to learn more about Jesus—there’s always more.

Eastertide #19

Christ came as High Priest…

entering the greater sanctuary.

(Hebrews 9:11-12)

Now that we know who Melchizedek is, we can speak of Jesus as our eternal High Priest who enters the greater “tabernacle not made with hands” (Hb 9-10). The book of Hebrews will now retell the complex rituals of the Day of Atonement (Lev 16) in the light of Christ. After Easter we interpret everything in the light of Calvary.  

This morning, at the fire pit, I dared to read Moses’ instructions for the annual Day of Atonement—Yum Kippur. What a complicated maze of details. Even our writer to the Hebrews acknowledges she “cannot speak of these things in detail” (Hb 9:5). Who can? With the ongoing covid-19 contamination and our hopes for decontamination on my mind, I read the complex instructions with different eyes. Instructions for the annual Day of Atonement concern how the priests decontaminate themselves, and then the sanctuary, and then the people from the contaminates of sin that accumulate throughout the year. It’s dangerous work. The priest must put on PPE and bathe often.

The very word “atone” means “to purge” or “to purify” and has the since of “wiping clean” or “decontaminating” the residue of sin that builds up during the year. Sin leaves social contaminates not only among the people, but also within the sanctuary itself—that place where God chooses to meet with His people. It reminded me of my father and his generation who seemed to know such things. I’m guessing that’s why he would meet in the sanctuary before Sunday worship with a handful of church leaders, and there pray for God’s presences as the people gathered to sing their praises and to hear again the Gospel Story about how their sins had been wiped clean.