Readings for the Last Sunday in July

This Sunday I'm preaching up to the text so that I can preach on it for the next two Sundays after.


July 27, 2008

Call to Repentance
James 3:10-12 (page 1883)

Call to Worship
Psalm 61 (page 897)

OT Reading
Psalm 15 (page 853)

NT Reading
John 13:33-14:4 (page 1675)

Message
I'm With Him
Hebrews 10:24 (page 1874)

Readings for July 20th, 2008

One of the aspects of God's character that I neglect to appreciate is his godfatherness (not a real word, I know.) Throughout Scripture, whether it's in regard to Israel or the disciples or us, it is clear that God so identifies with those that identify with Him that He takes personally the hurts they suffer. The Old Testament is full of stories of heathen kings who did harm to Israel only to wake up the next morning with a horse's head in their beds (so to speak.)

By the way, I've never seen "The Godfather" and am only basing this on what I've gleaned from popular culture. But suffice it to say that this is an aspect of God's character that is consistent from the first book of the Bible to the last book, in which the martyred cry out from underneath the altar for vengeance. They cry out to the God who has promised a great day of wrath.

This is unsettling to us, but also affords some comfort. It means something now and will certainly mean something then. But the question is, what difference does this aspect of God's character make in how we as Christians live today?

Well, what difference do you think it makes?


July 20, 2008

Call to Repentance
1 John 2:15-17

Call to Worship
Psalm 104

OT Reading
1 Kings 17:8-16

NT Reading
3 John

Message
God the Father, the Godfather
Matthew 10:40-42

Hymn for Sunday, July 13, 2008

This is a hymn based on the passage being preached today and it manages to say some things I will not be saying in the message. (It can be sung to the tunes Martyn, Aberystwyth or Ives, among others. 7777D)


Would you follow Jesus yet,
Making His your own dread path?
It is paved with what he bled;
Blazed by violent aftermath.
Prince of Peace, he turmoil brings;
Lamb of God, he bears a blade;
Broken are his healing wings;
Hostile is the world he made.

Would you follow Jesus up?
Would you mount the holy hill?
Would you share his bitter cup;
Empty self and drink your fill?
Narrow way, but hardly hid;
Finding it we're at no loss:
For our Master wisely bid,
“For a compass bear your cross.

For the cross that staggers you,
Is the cross that lifts you high,
And the trials you bring it through,
Bring you up and sanctify.”
Holy burden Jesus bore;
Faithful map to realms on high;
Is the weight that makes you soar;
Is the cross on which you die.

Readings for Sunday, July 13th

While giving his disciples instructions for their first missionary assignment, Jesus pauses to correct their mistaken notions about Jesus' own ministry. "I don't want you guys to get the wrong idea. I didn't come to bring about social harmony and good vibrations. I came to be disruptive, provocative and upsetting. I'm like a sword that can't be swung without slicing something." (my paraphrase)
I think the reason Jesus went to the trouble of explaining this to his disciples before sending them out and we often go to the trouble of explaining it away, is because no one covets that role. None of us want to be that guy.
Too often, I think, Christians try and do better than Jesus. Maybe we think that if Jesus had possessed our charm he could have spoken the truth without causing such turmoil and without people hating him so much. It would be folly, of course, to suppose such a thing. It is extremely presumptuous to think that we can maintain both our integrity and the illusion of social harmony, when the Son of God himself didn't even bother to try.

So here's my question for you: how sharp is your sword? Is it as sharp as Jesus? Is it sheathed? When was the last time it sliced anything? When was the last time that love prompted you to speak the truth and the truth produced the sort of holy turmoil that followed Jesus everywhere he went?


July 13, 2008

Call to Repentance
Hebrews 3:12-14 (page 1865)

Call to Worship
Psalm 131 (page 969)

OT Reading
Jeremiah 8:8-12 (page 1185)

NT Reading
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 (1855)

Message
Tempted to Improve on Jesus
Matthew 10:34-39 (page 1512)

Readings for Sunday, July 6th

Continuing through the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we're going to deal with Jesus' strange encouragement in verses 26-33.
Sometimes when my children are crying about something (and when isn't one of them crying about something) I'm tempted to say to them "you want something to cry about? I'll give you something to cry about?" I don't say that, because I've been told that it's bad parenting. But what counts as bad parenting might be effective discipling, because that's essentially what Jesus says to his fretful, timid disciples on the eve of their first assignment.
Jesus is tender and kind. He has a tremendous regard for us (though I can't see why.) But he does not mollycoddle us.
His lovingkindness is often of the bracing sort; the stuff that takes us seriously and gives us spine. We sometimes wish he wouldn't, but he often treats us as men and women to make us better children.


Call to Repentance
2 Timothy 1:6-7 (page 1852)

Call to Worship
Psalm 86 (page 924)

OT Reading
Isaiah 8:11-17 (page1071)

NT Reading
Hebrews 12:4-16 (page 1866)

Message
Small Comfort
Matthew 10:26-33 (page 1511)