The Voice of the Lord

Psalm 29:4

“The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”

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Right now, I am working through the Psalms.  This morning I came to Psalm 29.  These words really struck me - “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.  The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.   The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

I walked away from that text this morning with a sense of awe, overwhelmed as I thought about the power of God’s voice.  With that voice He called the whole universe into existence.   He spoke on Mt. Sinai and gave us the Ten Commandments.  Yet with it He also once spoke as a “still small whisper” in the ear of Elijah.  He spoke seated on His throne and called Isaiah to be His prophet saying, “Whom shall I send?”   He spoke as a voice from heaven at the baptism of Jesus, “This is my Son whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” And then again God’s voice spoke much the same message to the three disciples – Peter, James and John - on the Mount of Transfiguration.  This time He added this admonition – “Listen to Him.”

Ultimately, in the most intimate and personal way, Jesus Himself, is God’s voice.  He is “the word made flesh and dwelling among us.”  Jesus - the life that He lived, as well as the words that He spoke… the death that He died for us, as well His resurrection – is God’s voice to us… God making Himself known to us.  “No one has ever seen God but God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.”    Or as we read in Hebrews – “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

I was thinking about all of this as I walked with my dog Molly this morning, wondering, “Does God still speak to us?  What would it be like to hear God’s voice today?  Where and how does He speak to us?”  As I listened to the birds sing, I thought of the creation as a living, daily testimony to the power of God’s voice.  I came upon a tree felled by yesterday’s thunderstorm and I thought again of the Psalm - The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders… The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

I do believe God still speaks.  That’s why I spend time daily in Scripture and urge all of you to do the same.  This book, as Paul tells us, is “God breathed.”  Here holy men of God, prophets, “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  Sometimes God thunders at me from here, calling me to repentance.  At other times He speaks with the quiet, gentle voice of grace that offers peace and hope.  He speaks at every baptism for each one is a “washing of water with the word.”  He speaks to us in Holy Communion for it is by His word and promise that Christ offers us his very body and blood in the bread and wine.  What word does He speak there – “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

One very important question I have asked, and I keep hearing is this – “Is He speaking in this COVID 19?”  “If so, what is He saying?”  I wouldn’t presume to be able to answer those questions. I would return instead to this book, to His written word.   Just as in a sermon, God’s applies His word differently in each of our hearts, I am sure He is doing the same right now.  Please know that I am not saying that God caused this Pandemic or is using it to punish some specific sin.  But I do know He is speaking, reminding us of our need for Him,  seeking to turn our hearts to Him, making clear that He is in control and not us, showing us how vulnerable are the treasures of this world, reminding us to store up for ourselves real treasure in heaven, “where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.” 

In fact, I would say that right now God is speaking literally volumes in the midst of all of this.  You Tube, Vimeo, Facebook, ZOOM and more are full of live stream worship services, daily devotions and Bible Studies.  His Word is being proclaimed as never before.  People are being reached by His voice… people who would never step inside one of our churches.  Yes, the voice of the Lord is thundering, whispering, speaking… “The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.”   Listen!  Listen to Him!  Amen. 

Fear of the Unknown

John 17:3 (ESV)

^“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

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I have been getting a lot of questions from people about what’s going to happen with relation to the pandemic.  “Have you heard anything Pastor?”  “Do you know when we will be able to come back to church?”  I have also been hearing a lot of worry.  “Will I have a job?  “What’s going to happen to my job?”  “Will the economy come back?”  “Will the virus come back when we reopen?”  What’s going to happen in the Fall?  Will we go through all this again?”  People are having a hard time planning for the future.  “Will the schools have any kind of graduation?”  “What about all the church activities we had planned for the summer – can we still have them?  Should we postpone?  Will we have to cancel?”    Linda and I were supposed to go on our first cruise in June.  That’s been cancelled.  We have rescheduled for next year.  But what about this year?  Is it safe to plan travel or vacation for this summer?  When will it be safe? 

The list of questions goes on and on.  They all, it seems to me, to have one thing in common – the fear of the unknown.  The truth is that there is always a lot we don’t know.  We never really know what the future holds.  In fact, the sum of what you and I don’t know would overflow all the libraries in the world.  Most of the time, however, we can ignore what we don’t know.  We are able to operate on the assumption that we kind of know what’s going to happen.  The COVID 19 pandemic, has stripped away that fallacy.  We really don’t know… we never know what the future holds.  That is behind much of the worry and fear you and I are experiencing.

What do we do?  How do I answer all these questions when I don’t know anymore than anyone else what the future holds?  For me there is only one answer – to point people to what we do know.  Believe it or not, there is great comfort in what we do know.  After all, the most important thing we do know is a not a thing.  We know is a person who can handle all the unknown.  We know God.  Just listen to John 17:3 - “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  This comes from the High Priestly prayer of Jesus.  He prayed that you and I would know God.  And in fact, because we know Jesus, we know God.  In meeting Jesus we have in fact met God Himself.  John 1:18 - No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side (that’s Jesus), he has made him known.  

Why is this so important?  Because to know God in Jesus Christ, as Jesus promised, is eternal life.  In other words, when you know God in Christ your future is secure… forever.  Knowing God in Christ is the one thing that takes away the fear of the unknown.  Think about what we know about God because of Jesus.  We know that God loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son. Whatever happens in the future – it can not change that fact.  Indeed, because we know Jesus, we live in the confidence that no matter what happens God is working all things together for our good.  We know that if God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, God will along with Jesus freely give us all things.  Because we know Jesus, we know that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  After all even death could not conquer Jesus. He rose again.  In Jesus Christ, we know that there is nothing in the past, present or future… nothing in all creation that separate us from God’s love.

This is something you have heard me say again and again.  Knowing God in Christ is way better than knowing the future.  After all, in Jesus we know the One who holds our future and that He loves us.    That’s what He has told us about the future.  He has it in His loving, powerful, nail scared, resurrected hands.  He has promised us, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”   This is the best cure… the only cure for the fear of the unknown – to focus on the God you know in Christ… the God who loves you with an everlasting love.  We may not know what exactly His plans are… but we need not worry because by His grace in Jesus, we know Him.  Amen.

Back to NORMAL?

John 21:3 (ESV)

“Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing”.

Simon Peter said, “I am going fishing.” At first that may seem strange considering all the things that had happened to the disciples in recent days.  Their whole lives had been turned upside down.  They had believed Jesus was the Messiah who would lead Israel to freedom.  Then Jesus had been crucified, died and was buried.  All those hopes had seemed to be crushed. But then, three days later, Jesus had been raised to life again.  In the weeks that followed He had appeared to them over and over again.  So now, once again, Jesus was the Messiah.  But now they weren’t sure anymore what that meant.  What kind of Messiah was Jesus?  With all of that going on, why would Peter want to go fishing?

I think the answer is simple.  Peter wanted something to feel normal in his life.  Fishing was something he knew, something he had grown up with, his first career.  With everything else in his life in limbo, I think its natural that Peter wanted to do something that, at least to him, felt normal.

I am willing to bet that many of you are right now longing for a little “normal” in your lives.  In recent weeks nothing has seemed normal.  Our lives and our country have been turned upside down.  In just a few short weeks a virus from the other side of the world has spread around the world.  We have been told to work from home, then ordered to stay home.  Many have lost or are worried about losing their jobs.  The markets have crashed.  What will that mean for your savings, your retirement, your mortgage payments?  Suddenly, instead of going to church on Sundays, we are worshiping online at home… or in cars in church parking lots. Proms, graduations, vacations, confirmations and more have been canceled or postponed. Just a month ago the future seemed bright… life felt fairly routine. Now there is no such thing as routine.  The future is uncertain. No one knows how long this all will last.

I bet every one of us can identify with Peter’s longing for a little bit of normal.  We miss church.  We long to go back to work.  We long to see our friends, go out to eat… for anything that is just a little normal.

Jesus, though had something better for Peter and His disciples.  He had prepared for them a new normal.  As he had once told them, they would no longer be fishermen.  He would make them fishers of men. These men who had never gone more than 60 or 70 miles from home, would now carry His message into all the world.  Most of them would lose their lives in carry out his mission.  They would bring God’s new normal to people around the world.  What was that new normal – that God loves the world… that God gave His Son to be the Savior of the world… that God forgives sinners… that God has new eternal normal prepared for us in the life to come. 

This is important for all of us to understand.  We are living in one of those life changing moments in history.  Life will never return to “normal” at least not normal as we knew it.  What will the new normal be like?  Right now, we have no idea.  Thank God, that we know that God knows.  He has that all in hand.  Like He has said through Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”   

In His hands the future is really exciting for you and me.  For just as He once did for the disciples, He is calling us into His new normal.  He is calling us to live no longer for ourselves but for Him who died for us and rose again. He is calling us to bring His message to people worried and afraid of all the uncertainty… to tell them about this God who loves them… who gave His Son for them… who forgives all their sins… who has prepared for all who believe… for them, if they would have Him, the new normal of eternal life… a new normal so much better than the old.  Amen.  

The COVID 19 Gethsemane

“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane…”

Matthew 26:36

What would you think if I told you that nowhere in the Bible will you find the phrase “Garden of Gethsemane?”  I bet some of you are going to check right now.  After all, You, like me, have heard of the “garden of Gethsemane” all our lives.  Go ahead and look.  In some Matthew and Mark you read that Jesus went with the disciples to a place called Gethsemane.  In Luke you will read that Jesus and His disciples went to a “place” on the Mount Olives.   John writes doesn’t use the word Gethsemane but does say that where they went, there was a garden there.  But nowhere does it say that there was a place known as “the Garden of Gethsemane.” 

So what was this “Gethsemane” that Jesus and His disciples went to that night after they celebrated the Passover?  Well a Gethsemane is an olive press that was used to crush olives and produce olive oil.  In Jesus day they were underground, because they needed to be able to maintain a cool temperature for the sake of the Olives.  I will post a picture of one with this blog.  You can guess why there was an olive press on a hill called “the Mount of Olives.”  Why did Jesus and his disciples go there?  Well my guess is that this is where Jesus and his disciples were staying while in Jerusalem for the Passover.  Israel has a hot climate.  There were no air conditioned hotels back them.  So what better place to get a good night’s sleep than in the coolness of a Gethsemane?  That’s my guess.  Luke only tells us that Jesus went there “as was His custom.”

That night, however, they did not go there to sleep.  Jesus went there to spend time in prayer before his suffering would begin.  Mark tells us that Jesus was “greatly distressed and troubled.”  Jesus told them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to the point of death.”  His prayer puts words to his distress, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from Me.  Yet not what I will, but what you will.”  Luke writes that “being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”  It was as if the very soul and life of Jesus was being crushed in that Gethsemane, as if in an olive press.

I wonder how many of you feel that right now in this COVID 19 pandemic.  I know many of you are struggling with being isolated.  Again and again, I receive prayer requests from people who are worried about loved one’s who work in the medical profession or as first responders, or in other jobs such as grocery stores where they are constantly exposed to the public.  Or what of the economic trauma we are experiencing – the crash of the markets, of oil prices, the loss of jobs, reductions in income.  Do you feel caught in a COVID 19 Gethsemane – being crushed between fear of virus on one side and worries about the future on the other?

Maybe it would be a good idea for us today, to heed the old hymn and go with Jesus to dark Gethsemane.  There is much to learn from Jesus.  What did he do when He felt Himself crushed with worry and agony?  He went to God in prayer.  He sought strength from the only one who can withstand the heavy crush of life’s mill stones. You and I need to be doing the very same thing – going with Jesus to the Father in prayer – giving Him our worries and fears.  God can handle anything we bring to Him.

 Now notice something else in that prayer.  While asking His Father to remove the cup of suffering, Jesus also submitted to His Father’s will.  He entrusted Himself to His Father’s will.  Can you do that? Can you entrust yourself to the Father’s will no matter how He answers your prayer… no matter what happens in this COVID 19 pandemic?

We can, because Jesus did.  The Father did not remove the cup of suffering from His Son.  In obedience Jesus went forward to suffer and die for the sins of the world… to drink the cup.  He did that because He loves you and me. He did that trusting His Father’s will.  And the Father did not fail His Son.  On the third day He raised Jesus from the dead. 

Because of what Jesus did for us… we can look to God… we can trust Him no matter what happens in this crisis.  No matter how God answers our prayers, we can be sure that He loves us. We can be confident that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.  Ours is the certainty that no one, no virus, no economic crisis can snatch us out of the Father’s hands.  Nothing that happens or doesn’t happen can separated us from His love.  We are more than conquerors through Jesus who loved us, who died for us and conquered for us with His resurrection.  No matter how heavy the press of this COVID 19 Gethsemane, our God is stronger.  Amen. 

The Grinch who Stole Easter?

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (ESV)

^“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

I can’t believe it.  Is it true?  This Holy Week looks to be like no other in my lifetime, and not in a good way.  This is always my favorite week of the year as a Pastor. I love the traditions of our Holy Week worship services.  I love to watch the Sunday School children marching down the center aisle on Palm Sunday, waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna.  On Maundy Thursday begins the service of the three days.  We gather, as Jesus and His disciples did, to celebrate Holy Communion.  The service ends in solemn silence as the altar is stripped bare in preparation for Good Friday.   The Good Friday service, the service of Tennebrae, is something I look forward to every year.  As we meditate and sing our way through the story of our Lord’s passion, the sanctuary becomes gradually darker, until in complete darkness and silence, we leave contemplating the great sacrifice of our Savior.  Then comes Easter Sunday with all the music, and the shouts of praise as we celebrate the victory of Jesus over sin, death and Satan.

This year there will be none of that. We won’t be together waving palms.  We won’t be together when the candle is carried out on Good Friday and the loud noise jars us back to attention.  There will be no packed services… no Easter Egg hunt… no Easter breakfast.  Why?  Because some Grinch named COVID 19 has stolen Easter.  I am truly bummed about this.  The Grinch could never steal Christmas, how is it that he succeeded in stealing Easter?

Well, he didn’t!  Let that sink in.  We might not be together in our houses of worship this Holy Week, but that does not change the meaning, the joy, the hope of the season!  That’s doesn’t alter at all the great works that our God accomplished for our salvation.  That doesn’t change the fact that Jesus really did enter Jerusalem to waving palm branches and shouts of “Hosanna!”.  COVID 19 might cause us to forgo Holy Communion for a little while, but it cannot ever take away from us this great gift that is the Lord’s Supper.  Whatever happens to our Holy Week worship in 2020, that does not cancel what Jesus did on that first Good Friday when He died for the sins of the world, for your sins and mine.  Its still true that Jesus died for us, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God.

Most important of all, whether we are together or in our homes watching a live streamed service – the message of the angels still rings loud and clear to us, just as it did to those women on that first Easter, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here!  He is risen, just as He said.”   There is no Grinch, no virus, no devil that can change that great truth on which our hope of eternity is built and made certain. Paul’s words to the Corinthians are still true - “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”   It makes me want to start celebrating right now… to shout out at the top of my lungs that great word – “A…….!”   Oops, can’t say that yet.  It’s still Lent.  But you get my point.  There is not grinch who can snatch us out of God’s hands, nor steal from us the great good news of Christ’s death and resurrection.  I just know that this Holy Week and Easter will be one of the best ever, one we will never forget – for it is the hope of Christ that will get us through this pandemic and every trouble to bring us at last to His kingdom.  Amen!