MAPS!

Wasn’t difficult. And I did. Many times. Get lost, that is!

Today, I was preaching at Kirkcaldy, close to Edinburgh, about 100 miles south of Aberdeen, at a friend’s church. I decided to drive myself down Sunday morning. My first long road-trip in the U.K.

Therein begins my tale of woe. Unfamiliar road-signs. Bewildering “roundabouts”—sometimes two of them back-to-back! I saw the entire city of Dundee from every possible angle and explored every available street without any clue as to what I was doing and where I was headed. Thankfully, I’d given myself enough time, anticipating this waywardness in my journey!

And I was armed with a map as well; as a matter of fact, I’d several of them, in varying amounts of detail. To top it off, I had printed off directions from Mapquest! All to no avail. I went adrift many a time, meandering from the curved and crooked path into sidetracks and goose-chases after red herrings I should have known better to steer clear of.

It’s not much use having maps and road-signs and directions, if one doesn’t know how to use them. One word comes to mind—“competence.” Competence in reading maps.

However, I’d no trouble returning, for my friend, Dave, gave me a tutorial and coached me on the intricacies of negotiating the whimsical streets of Scotland and their traps for the unwary (read “ignorant”) driver. He was a competent map-reader.

How about The Map of life?

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105

Competence in reading this Map of Scripture is incredibly critical in our journey in life. That’s exactly why there is a science that looks at such competencies—“hermeneutics” (the science—and art!—of interpretation, my current field of interest).

(Incidentally, “hermeneutics” comes from Hermes of Greek mythology, the messenger of the gods, associated with the function of transmuting what was beyond human understanding into a form that is comprehensible. More questionable is this shady character’s standing as the god of rogues, vagabonds, and thieves!)

How do we learn to read The Map of God, His Word, competently?

This competency, like all others, is a function of practice. It is not enough to practice good reading (of the Bible, of commentaries, of Christian books, articles, and magazines). Neither is it enough to practice good listening (to sermons, to lectures, to testimonies). All of those are important in their own way and essential for the body of Christ. But there is one form of practice that should take precedence—the practicing of the Biblical commands and imperatives. Practicing what we already know from the Bible. Practicing what we’ve already read from and about the Bible. Practicing what we’ve already been taught. It’s almost paradoxical: We improve our reading competency as we put into practice what we’ve already learnt.

For everyone who partakes
only of milk
[elementary Biblical doctrine]
is not accustomed
to the word of righteousness,
for he is an infant.
But solid food
is for the mature,
who because of practice
have their senses trained
to discern good and evil.
Hebrews 5:13–14

What did we hear preached from the Word of God at church today? What was the application in the sermon? Let’s determine to practice it. Let’s give our preachers a shock! Let’s practice what we were taught from the Scriptures.

REUNION!

They’re fun. Reunions. Especially if you haven’t seen the others for a long time. I hadn’t. For over 18 years! The last I saw the Mathews was in India in the late eighties, when they were my neighbors. Almost two decades later, I saw them again last weekend, over Easter, in Sheffield, England.

Reunions! We chatted, laughed, sang old hymns (in English and Malayalam), ate (Indian food, of course!), went sight-seeing, took walks, attended church, listened to Mozart’s Krönungsmesse, discussed theology, talked medical stuff (both husband and wife are physicians) ….

Reunions! Delightful! There is a sense of restoration, akin to finding some part of yourself that was missing all these years. There is the joy of recognizing the growth in Christ, both in your own self and in your reunited compatriots. There is the pleasure in sharing what God is doing in each other’s lives.

But you know what? These are but mere reflections, evanescent shadows, of another grand reunion to be effected in the future, soon and very soon. Loved ones who have gone on before us, saints of all ages, brothers and sisters in the Lord—all physically reunited on that great and glorious day of Christ’s appearing.

For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again,
even so God
will bring with Him
those who have fallen asleep
in Jesus.
Then we who are alive
and remain will be caught up
together with them in the clouds …

[And, of course, that awesome reunion between Redeemer and redeemed:]

… to meet the Lord in the air,
and so we shall always be
with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:17–18

Always! ALWAYS!! We shall always be with the Lord! This is a perpetual reunion, unceasing, irreversible, eternal!

When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!
Eliza Hewitt, 1898

A day of ecstatic rejoicing, exhilarating rapture. A day that will never end! No more parting, no more death, no more grief, no more tears ….

And that’s not all, there appears to be a special reward for those who await that magnificent reunion with their Lord …

… in the future
there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will award to me on that day;
and not only to me,
but also to all
who have loved His appearing.
2 Timothy 4:8

May we love His appearing, as we eagerly await our Savior and the blessed reunion that is coming. O may these days go by fast. After all we don’t belong here, pilgrims that we are, and bound for another kingdom, existing in another space-time continuum, governed by another constitution, ruled by another King—THE KING—our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord!

For our citizenship is in heaven,
from which also
we eagerly wait for a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ ....
Philippians 3:20

Even so, Lord Jesus, come! Maranatha!

SABBATH!

The other day, a good friend, Dan, emailed me a question about the Sabbath that got me thinking about that whole concept ...

Right after the six days of Creation, Genesis 2:2–3 tells us, God sanctified the seventh day when He rested from His creative work (the word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew root that means “to rest, cease, desist”). God had done it all. Not that God had stopped working; He desisted only from His creative endeavors. Jesus affirmed in John 5:17 that the Father still works. Indeed, it is because God is still working—God’s still doing it all—that the Sabbath found its meaning for the Israelites: if He’s still doing it all, they didn’t need to sweat. So on that day, enshrined as a holy day of rest in the Decalogue, the Israelites were prohibited from gathering manna, working, lighting fires, etc., all at the risk of capital punishment. Here’s the rationale, part of the Ten Commandments:

You shall remember
that you were a slave
in the land of Egypt,
and the LORD your God
brought you out of there
by a mighty hand
and by an outstretched arm;
therefore the LORD your God
commanded you
to observe the sabbath day.
Deuteronomy 5:15

Why the Sabbath? Not only had God created, He had also redeemed the Israelites—once again, God had done it all.

There were other Sabbaths for the Israelites—other than the seventh-day Sabbath, that is. The particularly notable ones were, of course, the Sabbatical Year (every seventh year), and the Year of Jubilee (every fiftieth year, after seven rounds of seven years each) (Leviticus 25). In both of these celebratory years, the Israelites were to abstain from agricultural work—the sole means of livelihood and sustenance in their economy—for the entire year (two consecutive years every 49th and 50th year). How would they survive? Yahweh specifically addresses that fear, assuring His people that He would provide during these years (Leviticus 25:20–22): God would do it all.

So what does this mean for the believer today? Simply this: God has done it all. Not just Creation. Not just redemption from Egypt. Not just provision during years of rest. But something bigger, something grander, something … awesome! God’s (re)Creation of the believer in Christ into a new person, unto a new community, under a new covenant, indwelt in an incredibly new way by the Holy Spirit. God’s Redemption of us from the bondage of sin into liberty in Christ, from the kingdom of darkness into His glorious light, from death to life! God's Provision for all our needs (Matt 6:31–32; Eph 1:3) . That’s what we celebrate especially today, the day of our Lord’s Resurrection. For God has, indeed, done it all! (See me enjoying my “Sabbath”?)

Jesus paid it all,
All to him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Elvina Hall, 1865

There can be only one response:

Come, let us worship
and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord
our God and Maker.
Psalm 95:6

Therefore the Church—both in the New Testament (Acts 2:4:42; 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2) and thereafter—chose Sunday, the day of the Resurrection as the day of worship to commemorate this fact—God has done it all. Let us join the saints of yesteryear and celebrate, not just today, on Easter Sunday, but every day of our lives that blissful and blessed truth. Praise God! He has done it all!

Christ is risen!
He is risen, indeed!

IMAGE!

They say that fools and their money are soon parted. The rest of us wait until income tax time. And it’s almost here. Next week!

(Hey, did you ever notice that if you omit the space “The IRS” reads “Theirs”?)

We’re also in Holy Week, the last week of Lent. Apart from those ecclesiastical lunar cycles and vernal equinoxes that juxtapose tax week and Holy Week, any connection between cash and Crucifixion, possessions and Passion, lucre and Lent?

Lots! There is more than one episode in the Gospels that connects dough with a donkey ride, moola with Maundy Thursday, and loot with the Last Supper.

Indeed, even taxation figures prominently in the accounts of this final week. Soon after Jesus rode into His capital city on Palm Sunday, one of His adversaries asked Him whether the local version of Uncle Sam (His “Divine” Eminence Tiberius Caesar) deserved the Jews’ tribute. “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,” was Jesus’s rejoinder, pointing out that the coinage of the realm bore that entity’s image. “And,” He added, “render unto God the things that are God’s”—meaning, evidently, the things that bear God’s image. Now what would that be? Or, rather, who might that be?

God created mankind
in his own image,
in the image of God
He created them,
male and female
He created them.
Genesis 1:27

Thus, Abe’s paraphrase of Mark 12:17: “Fine, give back to that character Caesar these bits of metal he claims are his—these trinkets with his image embossed on them. But, give God everything that carries His image—all of Y’ALL!”

And that’s not all …

At the end of that chapter (Mark 12), Jesus proceeds to show us one who did exactly that—give herself to God. After pointing out that blessed woman to His disciples, He says:

“Truly I say to you,
this poor widow put in more
than all the contributors
to the Temple treasure;
for they all put in out of their surplus,
but she, out of her poverty,
put in all she owned,
all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:43–44

She gave her heart, her soul, her mind, her strength—her everything to God. The tinkling of those two mites tumbling into the coffers of the Temple was the sound of her life being poured out to the Almighty.

He demands it. From you. From me. All of it. All of our lives.

In fact, Jesus had just said so. Quoting from Deuteronomy 6 (Sh'ma Yisrael) …

“And you shall love
the LORD your God
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your mind,
and with all your strength.”
Mark 12:30

There’s more …

After a didactic interlude, Mark 13, Jesus returns to this theme. Another anonymous woman (at least in this Gospel). She is “wasting” a gallon of perfume (a TON of $$, a year’s salary) on Jesus. But Jesus’s opinion?

“Truly I say to you,
wherever the gospel is preached
in the whole world,
what this woman has done
will also be spoken of
in memory of her.”
Mark 14:9

And Mark fails to give us her name! She is “everyone”! … Or should be.

Divine-image-bearers that we are, God claims what is rightfully His. Let us, as we approach the end of the season of Lent, resolve to give God His due. All of our selves.

Therefore I exhort you,
brothers and sisters,
by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies
as a sacrifice—
alive, holy, pleasing to God ….
Romans 12:1

Imago Dei. All of us. His. For Him. Pour out.

SUNSHINE!

I saw it! Indeed, I did! For the first time in six months! The sun. That spectral type G2V yellow star at the center of the Earth’s solar system. I spotted it! That ball of plasma 90 something million miles away from most places on earth; about ten times that distance away from Scotland!

Well, I don’t know what happened or how, but I just happened to catch a glimpse of this elusive planet (see me basking in the effulgence of its radiations!). Last Wednesday. And, for the first time in six months, the temperatures hit a searing 51°F. But, alas, all of this lasted just one single day! Since that glorious morn, the situation has reverted back to the perpetual solar eclipse that prevails in these parts. The chariot of Helios has gone into hiding again. And mercury has dipped: they say it will snow tomorrow!

Oh, Spring, where art thou?

Not an easy task to echo the sentiments of Elizabeth Clephane penned in 1872 …

I take, O cross, thy shadow
For my abiding-place:
I ask no other sunshine than
The sunshine of his face;
Content to let the world go by,
To know no gain nor loss;
My sinful self my only shame,
My glory, all the cross.

No other sunshine? I need that kind of contentment! But truly, His is the only Sunshine that will never be eclipsed, obscured, or otherwise dimmed. His is the only Sunshine that can thaw cold hearts, enliven dormant souls, rejuvenate captives in the dark and dreadful dungeons of sin. The heavenly lights? They won’t shine long (Isaiah 13:10). The celestial hosts? They wither away (Isaiah 34:4).

Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heav'n can boast.
Joseph Seiss, 1873

And in the new creation, at the end of time, it seems that the grand new city, the New Jerusalem, might not even have any more light-generating bodies in the sky for …

… the city has no need
of the sun or of the moon
to shine on it,
for the glory of God
has illumined it,
and its lamp is the Lamb.
Revelation 21:23

No life without the sun, we’ve been taught. But in God’s economy, there is no life without the Son. The Son who gave Himself for us and for our sin, accomplishing our redemption through His work on the cross. So it is appropriate in these last weeks of Lent to reflect upon a Lutheran Easter hymn (Christ lag in Todesbanden, which has also been wonderfully wrought into a cantata by Bach—BWV 4) that enjoins believers to celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection.

Therefore let us keep the Feast
With heartfelt exultation;
The Lord to shine on us is pleased,
The Sun of our salvation.
On our hearts, with heavenly grace,
Beams the brightness of his face,
And the night of sin has vanished.
Hallelujah!
Martin Luther, 1524

Hallelujah, indeed! Hail, the Sun of Righteousness! Jubilate! Fling wide the gates for the Savior.

Light of the world,
You stepped down into darkness …
Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for our sake …
So here I am to worship …
Tim Hughes, 2000

Let’s take time in the next two weeks to attend especially to worshipping God for having brought us out of the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous light. For opening our eyes and letting us see ….

Sun of my soul, thou Savior dear,
It is not night if thou be near;
O may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide thee from thy servant's eyes.
John Keble, 1820