A number of different things I’ve read recently kind of “clicked” during the sermon this morning.
Thing 1:
I watched Blade Runner (1982) last night. The buildings there are vast, dwarfing everything, but pointing to … when one lifts one’s eyes, the sky is black with rain and pollution. The only thing resembling beauty is an enormous electronic billboard of a geisha promoting something she puts in her mouth, which apparent makes her smile. There is no vision of god/God, only consumerism, covetousness and lust.
In similarly dismal fashion, the people outside move through the scenery like disorganized vermin. Chaos of the crowds show a meaningless existence for the average people.
I really like this movie; have waited over 40 years to watch it again. But it offers no hope, only perhaps temporary purpose.
In contrast, during the sermon the pastor mentioned the size, durability and beauty of old churches, that they were built to last over many generations that would be worshiping in them. The size as well as architectural features like the steeple were intended to direct our thoughts as well as our eyes to the vastness of God as well as our own smallness in comparison.
Thinking a bit farther, though, the beauty – whether it’s plain or decorated – reminds us of the beauty of God’s presence.
Thing 2:
In the sermon, the pastor briefly touched on antinomianism, which brought to mind part of “No one Can serve two Masters” from Kierkegaard’s (SK’s) “The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air:”
If God were a human being, what then? Long, long ago he would have to have become sick and tired of me (to take myself as an example) and of having anything to do with me, and he would have to have said what human parents say (though for very different reasons): “The child is naughty and sickly and stupid and slow-witted, and if there were only something good about it, but there is so much bad about it—no human being can endure it.” No, no human being can endure it, only the God of patience can do it.
And now think of the countless number of human beings who are living! We human beings speak of it as a task of patience to be a schoolmaster for little children. And now God, who has to be the schoolmaster for this countless number—what patience! And what makes the requirement of patience infinitely greater is that where God is the schoolmaster, more or less all the children suffer from the delusion that they are big, grown-up people, a delusion of which the lily and the bird are so entirely free that it is surely for this very reason that unconditional obedience comes so easily to them. “The only thing lacking,” a human schoolmaster would say, “the only thing lacking would be for the children to imagine that they were grown-up people; then one would have to lose patience and despair; no human being could endure that.” No, no human being could endure that; only the God of patience can do it.
Also, part of George MacDonald’s sermon, “Righteousness” came to mind in conjunction with SK’s.
But while faith in God is the first duty, and may therefore well be called righteousness in the man in whom it is operative, even though it be imperfect, there is more reason than this why it should be counted to a man for righteousness. It is the one spiritual act which brings the man into contact with the original creative power, able to help him in every endeavour after righteousness, and ensure his progress to perfection. The man who exercises it may therefore also well be called a righteous man, however far from complete in righteousness. We may call a woman beautiful who is not perfect in beauty; in the Bible men are constantly recognized as righteous men who are far from perfectly righteous. The Bible never deals with impossibilities, never demands of any man at any given moment a righteousness of which at that moment he is incapable; neither does it lay upon any man any other law than that of perfect righteousness. It demands of him righteousness; when he yields that righteousness of which he is capable, content for the moment, it goes on to demand more: the common-sense of the Bible is lovely.
From: Unspoken Sermons by George MacDonald: Righteousness
Not only is God infinitely patient with each of us, but he works righteousness (by one means or another) in us as a result of faith in him.
This is hopeful.
Our sermon was on being people of story, and the text was about Rahab and how her hearing the story of Isreal and its God led her into helping Joshua’s spies and army, and she became an unlikely part of the the nation of Israel. (And while he did not bring it in, the mother of Boaz, and thus in the genealogy of Jesus. And our story too is important in the Kingdom.
I drove to church this morning, choking in the smoky haze of wildfires, the sun a blood-red disk in the grey sky. News of thousands of people evacuated and hundreds of homes burning blared on the radio. British Columbia under a state of emergency.
The sermon was on the End Times! Surreal. The term “inaugurated eschatology” was shown on the screen. God’s Kingdom already-and-not-yet. I kept thinking, the end, the end, of so much life out there… Apocalypse now? Come quickly Lord Jesus! I feel grief, and also hope. A sober morning it was.
So sorry. I mourn for the loss due to fire there, and of course in Lahaina, where we have visited on several occasions. Sober indeed.
Our sermon was about water … and the story of Moses striking the rock. One thing I learned is that it’s in the Numbers account of it that God commands Moses to speak to the rock, but Moses strikes it instead (which was apparently the reason Moses caught heat from God for that very act later, because he disobeyed God’s command by striking it instead!). It had always confused me where the disobedience was in that story - but I guess that was it. The Exodus account of it is a little different and quotes God as telling Moses to strike the rock. Hence the understandable confusion I guess! Anyway, that was new to me. (and was hardly the central point of the sermon, which was about more important things … but this was a detail I learned.)
I have to admit, I am bothered by the numbers given as to the size of the Exodus, where 2 million pops up here and there. That is a lot of people lining up at at rock for water. About twice the population of New Orleans, and we know what happened there when told to leave because a hurricane was coming. Sorry for the aside. But regarding the accounts of striking the rock, I have also heard it as being two different occasions. Such are the problems we see with some views of inerrency.
Millions of people was based on an apparent mistranslation of the word ('lp) that can mean ‘thousand’, ‘family’, ‘group’, or ‘troop’. Masoretic scribes understood it as ‘thousand’ (the grand interpretation of the history of Israel), and we got the translation from them, while a published academic article* ended up with the conclusion that the correct interpretation is likely ‘group/troop’ where the word refers to military groups that were normally between 9-20 persons in the armies of that time. Other figures in the Torah, like the number of firstborns, fits to the interpretation ‘group/troop’ (including 9-20 persons) but not to the ‘thousand’ - the average number of children in a family should have been 50-100 to end up to the interpretation ‘thousand’. The texts describing the arrival of Israel into the promised land, with the comments of Israel being a small tribe, also fits to the interpretation ‘group’ but not ‘thousand’ - if there had been 2’000’000 people arriving to the promised land, they would have overwhelmed the land simply by walking in because there were less inhabitants in the whole area.
When the translations tell about thousands of ‘thousands’ (millions), the translation should apparently be thousands of ‘groups’ (tens of thousands). 20’000-40’000 is a large amount of people but much less than 2’000’000.
*Humphreys CJ (1998) The number of people in the Exodus from Egypt: decoding mathematically the very large numbers in Numbers I and XXVI. Vetus Testamentum XLVIII, 2.
Cool. My own church will be celebrating its 200th anniversary this fall. I’m looking forward to all the special choral services, lectures, guest speakers, and whatever.
Actually, the sermon mentioned John 17, among other things – it was quite timely for here, in a providential co-instance.
In our morning service we occasionally ask a church member to tell us about his or her daily work. Is the person a primary school teacher? A police officer? A cook in a restaurant? A street cleaner?
We recognize that the work this person does is an act of service to God. The person is asked about the joys and challenges that they experience at work. Then we pray for them.
The message we get is that service is not just something we do in church, and worship is not just done on a Sunday. All of life should be service and worship of God.
1 One note or caveat: that is not to encourage YECs’ and the false ‘truth’ they have learned.
(I’ve known and loved this ‘new’ tune since the 1960s and it was played this morning… it had been too long since I’d heard it.)
There was a short presentation this morning from one of our member who leads an organization called Love Thy Nerd which ministers to the gaming community and who is having a gathering at our church this week. Can see what they do at lovethynerd.com
The sermon was over Genesis 16 where God reached out to Hagar and.” She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen[c] the One who sees me.”
This month is an emphasis on missions, and the message was about reaching and having compassion for those on the margins.
Living Waters
Are you thirsty
Are you empty
Come and drink these Living Waters
Time unbroken
Peace unspoken
Rest beside these Living Waters
Christ is calling
Find refreshing
At the cross of Living Waters
Lay your life down
On Thee, all come
Rise up in these Living Waters
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of Living Waters
Spirit moving
Mercy washing
Healing in these living waters
Lead your children to the shore line
Life is in these Living Waters
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of Living Waters
Are you thirsty
Are you empty
Come and drink these Living Waters
Love, forgiveness
Vast and boundless
Christ, He is our Living Water
There’s a river that flows
With mercy and love
Bringing joy to the city of our God
There our hope is secure
Do not fear anymore
Praise the Lord of Living Waters
Last Sunday, there was a reminder of how the expectations of humans do not often match the way how God works. What happened before/during the first Christmas and before/during the Passover when Jesus was crucifixed, it was all very different than people, including the disciples, expected. As much happened against the basic expectations, it is no wonder that people were confused, disappointed and many rejected Jesus.
We have our expectations based on what we have learned and seen. What if what God plans to do does not fit to our expectations?
During the Christmas and Passover, the plan of God was beyond what people could expect or even imagine. We are dealing with the same God today. He may have plans that go beyond all our expectations. What would our reaction be if/when He decides to act in a way that does not fit within our expectations?
It is beneficial that we sometimes need to think this kind of questions. It is too easy to degenerate into a state where we imagine that we know how things are and how God acts. To exaggerate a bit, it is like saying to God that these are the guidelines that you must follow.
- Proverbs 19:21 Man proposes, but God disposes.
22 Kindness makes a man attractive. And it is better to be poor than dishonest.
23 Reverence for God gives life, happiness, and protection from harm. - people can make plans but whether or not they are successful depends on God.
- Also the name of an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer. The work was inspired by the search for Franklin’s lost expedition which disappeared in the Arctic after 1845. The painting is in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London, and is the subject of superstitious urban myth that the painting is haunted.
It is not haunted, but haunting.