The Spirit and Baptism

While I was pleased (at least doctrinally) with my sermon on Jesus' baptism yesterday, there was one exegetical point that really stood out to me that I was unable to capture.
Eugene Boring (a greater name for a biblical scholar I have yet to hear) points out that the Spirit comes to Jesus as he stands in the shallows of the Jordan just as the Spirit came to hover over the waters of creation. Boring (and Bruner) see in Christ the beginning of God's new creation. Whereas God had threatened extinction in the flood and wrought something somewhat new (or at least reclaimed) in the family of Noah and later the family of Abraham, in Jesus God was truly doing something new. In Jesus, the Son of God made flesh, God was creating a people with and by the Holy Spirit.
Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, states, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away, see, everything has become new!" (5:17 NRSV). In Christ Jesus God inaugurated this new creation and through faith in Jesus, we are made new. Oh, we have fits and starts as the Holy Spirit works in us, but in God's eyes (and this is the most important perspective) we are already new.
Let us all live in the new way, the way of Jesus Christ as revealed in sacred Scripture.

Trinity talk

I just had a Jehovah Witness man stop by the house today. It has been many months since a JW representative came by the manse. The man who came by was named David. He was well dressed and seemed to be truly enjoying walking around in the beautiful Merrill sunshine.
I introduced myself to David and told him I was the pastor of the Church right across the street. David's beaming smile dimmed and his hopeful stance shrugged when I shared this news. He was somewhat out of sorts when I next invited him to chat for a while.
David was unsure of how to proceed so I suggested that we might talk about the Trinity (a doctrine the JW, as neo-Arians, deny). David had a lot of trouble with the concept of God as three persons. He kept wanting to tell me that I was dividing the one God into three parts (modalism). I told him that I respected the diversity of the persons of God and that he did not respect their essential unity, trying to seperate the Son and the Spirit from the Father in some kind of hierarchy that I neither suggested nor implied.
David turned me to the popular JW passage for 'dealing' with my 'error.' He quoted the JW prooftext Colossians 1:15: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." Actually, he first told me to read Colossians 1:18, "He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything," which ironically is where his argument collapsed. As an orthodox Christian, I affirm the doctrine of the Trinity, that God is from all eternity Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three in one, one in three. I stand with the historic Church affirming that Jesus Christ is fully human AND fully divine. In quoting from Colossians, David took things out of context. The remainder of the paragraph affirms the supremacy of Christ and qualifies the 'firstborn' status of Jesus as the 'firstborn' from the dead, i.e. the firstborn of the NEW creation. (See also Hebrews 7:3 "Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. "for the eternal existence of the Son of God).
Now I am an arrogant man, one prone to harsh interrogation and cruel inquisition. This is my modis oprandi as a sinner. With David, however, God, the Holy Spirit, gave me the fruit of gentleness, and I am very thankful. David accused me of not being open to God's leading in my reading of Scripture (an unusual accusation coming from a JW). He told me that I was unable and unwilling to deny the doctrine of the Trinity, despite (in his opinion), there being little evidence of the Trinity in Scripture. I thought, though did not say, that it is odd to me that he is unable and unwilling to consider the possibility of the Trinity when he reads Scripture.
We discussed the topic for a while, but really made no headway in coming to a shared understanding. David denied the basic orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and would not countenance its possibility. I denied the Arian heterodox teaching of the Son as a creature and would not countenance such a possibility.
David said some strange things. He assured me that it was Satan and not God who led the magi to the Christ child. He questioned why Jesus would take time to speak to the Father if they were the same person (I attempted to correct him, explaining the Trinitarian viewpoint on such matters, but David continually returned to his old argument, which is evidence of programmed talking points, and not of clear investigation and thought). He finally attacked the Church (all of us orthodox folks) for not using the name of God, YHWH, (which he insists is correctly pointed 'Jehovah,' and I assured him it was not). His argument was that we DIShonor God by not using God's name in worship. I told him we refer to Jesus all the time and call God the Father by the name Jesus used for him, i.e. 'Father.' David also told me that the word, 'Lord' in the Old Testament was inappropriate in place of the name of God, despite its historical precedent (a point he categorically denied, i.e. the Septuagint did not use 'kurios' in place of 'YHWH'). It is clear that David and I were not easy conversation partners on matters of theology.
We parted company cordially, with David assuring me he would look deeper into the doctrine of the Trinity for my sake (with the implication that in our next meeting, he would set me straight). I welcome David's future visit, hoping that the Holy Spirit will break through the walls he has erected around his beliefs and reveal God's Trinitarian truth.

Matthew series

"An account of the genesis of Jesus Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1)
Over the last week I spent a lot of time at a monastery in Mt. Angel. While the contemplative life is certainly not something I could see doing permanently, I appreciate the Benedictine sisters and their mission of hospitality. The peace and calm of the place certainly aided me in study and prayer. As the busyness of life slowed down, the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit was magnified.
I have felt for a while that Matthew was the next step in our preaching at MPC. What I was surprised to discover is that the path through Matthew that I thought might take as much as 7 months, will instead be a journey of over a year.
I hope and pray that the congregation will receive the new series with open arms and join in this journey through Matthew's account of the new creation that began in Jesus Christ.

Resurrection

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Today was an excellent day to worship.

I hope you all had a blessed day.

Baptism

In the coming weeks MPC will celebrate the sacrament of baptism 5 times. Early this year I told my Session that it was my stated goal to baptize more people than I bury this year. So far this year the congregation has not had a death, so these five baptisms will be a good head start.
I love baptism and I view it as pure gift of joy that the Lord has called me to be a minister and allowed me to officiate at the celebration of the sacrament. While I know I in myself am there to maintain decency and order (1 Cor 14:40) I do enjoy sharing that moment with the person being baptized.
In my short ministry I have had the opportunity to baptize 2 whole families at the same time (you cannot get much closer to Acts than that) and that opportunity is going to present itself again next week with a mother and her two children. The following week our congregation will witness the sign of God's faithfulness for a toddler and an infant. All of these baptisms are a sign of God's claim and seal of the person as Christ's own forever.
I love to remind people that Jesus' own baptism is a paradigm for our baptisms. As we emerge from the water, a visible sign of an invisible spiritual reality (thank you Augustine), God's Spirit is present with us and God claims us as his own child (see Matthew 3:16-27).
Is there a better way to bring God's people together than a baptism? As we welcome in new people to the Church, we are all reminded of God's unfailing love for us.

Why Gideon?

A few months ago at Little River Christian Camp (run by a nice couple) I sat planning out sermons through Resurrection Sunday. As providence would have it, the 1 Corinthians series ended on Transfiguration Sunday, meaning a new series would begin with Lent. I could not pass up the opportunity to do something special with those six weeks. But what could I choose?
I prayed and read, prayed and read, prayed and read and prayed. When I was done I felt fairly certain the book of Judges was the correct choice. I still have no idea why I felt that way and as I have been preparing sermons I still wonder how I feel so sure that it is the right decision (the Holy Spirit is like that sometimes I suppose). The trouble was the book of Judges was simply too large to treat adequately in six weeks. So I read and prayed, read and prayed, read and prayed. When I finished, it was clear that the Gideon cycle was the direction I was being led.
After bouncing my Lent plan off of one of my mentors, she asked a very important question, "Why Judges? Why Gideon?" As if she was not enough, my wife asked the same question. Now that I have launched into the series, I am sure more than a few in the congregation are wondering the same thing. The answer to the question is, honestly, I do not know except that it is the right thing for us here in Merrill right now.
Gideon, as a person in Scripture has always intrigued me (but so have several others like Moses, Ahab, Josiah, Peter and [of course] Jesus). Being intrigued with Gideon, however, is not enough basis for a sermon series. The question I have been struggling to answer is what does Gideon's story have to say to us in Merrill right now. Gideon is intriguing. He is perhaps the smoothest operator in all of Scripture (I mean, who else gets to test God not once, not twice, but three times and get away with it?). He reforms the worship of Israel and then leads Israel back into idolatry. He is absolutely the hero of Israel, but then oversteps the bounds of his call.
Gideon is not the reason for preaching through these chapters of Judges. Maybe I am just intrigued with the revelation of God in Judges. Many consider Judges a bloody and horrific book, but in it I see the God of righteousness and grace interacting with humanity, seeking to fulfill His providential purposes and provide for the fulfillment of His promises. Judges is the story of people who have every reason to give glory to God and worship God and God alone, but continue to turn away from God for reasons never fully explained. Maybe it was God's words through the prophet telling the Israelites, "But you have not given heed to my voice" (Judges 6:10b) that set me down this path.
In the end, I am not sure how to answer, "Why Gideon?" The only answer I can give is that the Holy Spirit led me to this text and in some way, in some form, Christ and Christ crucified is revealed in this as well.

Small Town Pastor Life

I have been a small town pastor for about a year and a half now. While I am no expert, I have learned three main things about being a small town pastor during my time here so far:
1. "People do not care how much you know until they know you care." A fellow pastor who has been in this business for over 50 years told me that as I was preparing to begin my ministry at MPC. I know it was not original to him, but it was the first time I heard it. Over the last months I have learned that it is very true. People need to know their minister cares. They need to know their minister has a deep and abiding relationship with God, a rich commitment to Jesus Christ and empowering love of the Holy Spirit. People also need to see that care carry over to them. While I am nowhere near perfect at doing this, I am learning how to be a better minister.
2. "If you want something done right, get help." This is a recent lesson I am learning. If I try to do everything myself (in the vain attempt to be sure it is done well) then I cannot wonder why no one is willing to help. People like to be involved (and even better they love to be invited). While I am nowhere near perfect at recognizing people's gifts and talents, I am learning to ask for help.
3. "No program in the world can substitute for the presence of the Living God." In our Wednesday and Sunday morning Bible Studies we are looking at Old Testament prophets. I am struck how God time and time again rejects empty worship gesture, asking instead for genuine affection and obedience. The lesson I am learning is that programs are far easier to administer than ministering in the presence of the Living God. The challenge is I am called to the latter, and never the former.

Those are just a few things God is helping me to learn. What is God teaching you?