Readings for Sunday, October 9, 2011

This week we'll be considering a good portion of Ephesians, chapter 5.  In this passage Paul does a lot of comparing and contrasting in an effort to make us feel how unbecoming it is when we behave as though we had not had a life-changing run-in with the Son of God, and how sweet and joyful the freedom is that we experience when we allow him to bring us fully into the light.  

I have had two experiences of sleeping in the day time:  I have slept (or tried to) when, because of fatigue or sadness, I desperately wanted to block out all the light and every sunlit sound and fall asleep and stay that way.  In those instances it's almost as much a hostility to the daytime that motivates me as it is a desire for sleep and the comfort of my bed.

But I have also been confined to my bed when to lie still was an insufferable agony.  I remember as a child in Washington, D.C. being sent to bed in the summer at a time when the sun and my mother seemed to be paying attention to different clocks.  The curtains were drawn against the late day rays of sun, but it was too warm to close the window, and I smelled barbecues and grass cuttings, heard lawnmowers, children laughing and the pleasant sounds of traffic, of people going places to do things.  And it seemed that the world was a party to which I had not been invited.  

Paul's point seems to be that we've mistaken our coffins for beds and done our best to silence the alarms.  Paul challenges us to see how filthy are the sheets underneath which we huddle and squeeze shut our eyes.  He wants to open the window on us so that we can smell and hear the evidence of the party on the other side of the world, a party to which we have been invited.  He says to us "Sleepers awake . . . "

Call to Repentance

Psalm 139:23-24 (page 975)

Call to Worship

Psalm 139:1-18  (page 974)

OT Reading

Daniel 12:1-9  (page 1393)

NT Reading

John 11:30-46  (page 1669)

Readings for March 6, 2011

This Sunday I am going to be preaching on that great passage from 1 Corinthians 9 in which Paul stirringly urges us to run as if we have the intention of winning.  He implies that there are those who run carelessly, either in the sense that they are not concerned with where they're going, or in the sense that they don't particularly care how quickly they get to wherever it is they're going.  He also implies that some Christians approach their fighting like they're shadowboxing . . . in the dark.  

Most of us, though, run generally in the right direction and at a moderate pace.  Most of us spar in a conservative manner: we might not land many blows, but we're not going to get knocked out either.

But Paul just can't see the point of running in the first place if you're not running for the first place finish.  And I suppose I can't see the point in that either.

Call to Repentance

Revelation 3:2-3 (page 1916)

Call to Worship

Psalm 46 (page 885)

Call to Repentance

OT Reading

Proverbs 2:1-15 (page 986)

NT Reading

2 Timothy 4:1-8 (page 1855)

Message

Holy, Simple, Devoted and Joyful

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (page 1782)