Christ Set His Face

Text:   Luke 9:51-62

To Tune of #425 (LSB) “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” [Hamburg – LM]

Hymn Text by Ken Maher

1. Christ set His face to Calv’ry high,

When time came to be lifted up.

With resolve He would not decry

to down bitter dregs of that cup.

+

2. Foxes have holes and birds have nests,

by His care they ne’er suffer loss

For His own Son there’s no such rest

But lay His head upon the cross.

+

3. Love for Father, duty of Son

by such concerns He’s only led.

Buried is sin, and the day won

When He’s abandoned, left for dead.

+

4. All for fam’ly, for you, for me

Stretches out hand, not once looking back.

For this purpose all things He sees,

And in this gift we nothing lack.

+

5. When I set my face to His cross,

See again through my Saviour’s eyes;

May I come to count all as loss

But that my Lord for me did die!

He Turned Not Aside

Here’s a little something just in time for Palm Sunday …

Text by Ken Maher ©2010

Based on Numbers 22:1-34, Luke 19:29-40

To Tune of #442 (LSB) “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” [76 76 D]

+

1. A lowly beast of burden upon the road once trod.

God’s anger there before it in holy angel shod.

Unwitting was poor Balaam, the sword before him bared.

Unkind, the hand that lashed out when his own life was spared.

+

2. Once from the road it wandered into the field aside.

Once to the wall it pressed in, the master’s foot to bind.

When no more room was left it, upon the road it lay,

For love’s great burden led it to spare his life that day.

+

3. A second beast of burden, foretold to us by them.

God’s anger still unanswered in old Jerusalem.

Full seeing is this Jesus, the price that must be paid.

Yet gentle are the hands upon that donkey laid.

+

4. For love again the burden, He will not turn aside.

His Hand and foot so gentle upon the cross must bind.

A life again will lay down, ‘neath wrath and curse and scorn.

Unfair the anger’s target, yet gladly it is born.

+

5. Oh, Lord, so quickly kindled our anger does lash out.

Your sacrifice free given casts all our pride to rout.

Forgive our misplaced incense, that would Your love decry

And turn us from our danger with full and open eye.

+

6. Lord Jesus hear our praises to You the servant king.

Again our sins upon you, we gladly now will bring.

E’en now You bear them in love, as once you did back then,

So let our glad Hosanna’s uplift in bold AMEN!

Chew On This …

In a recent article “Teen Atheism on the Rise” Professor Reginald Bibby gives all of us some tough news to chew on. It is especially tough for us in the church as it gives a stark outline of the growing work that we must do, not simply to stay connected, but to actually re-connect with a society and culture that is increasingly moving in a very different direction from us.

But the news is tough even for those who don’t think much of the church or her mission. It’s tough to chew because it points out some troubling numbers for society in its head-long rush to villify the Christian Church … It seems the numbers show that as people increasingly leave the church behind, they are less nice to be around! In his study Prof. Bibby found that only 54% of non-believers considered having concern for others to be highly important. Only 44% of the same, thought that forgiveness was important. And only 35% thought patience ranked highly as a value to hold.

Gee … you think? As if we needed the numbers to tell us the obvious.

There are those who argue that you don’t need the church to teach such values … fine I say … then you can start any time! Anyone who has ever had to stand in line at a store check-out, or wait at a red light, knows how well the world teaches patience. Anyone who has ever made a mistake, been the victim of a grudge, or a vendetta, knows how highly society holds up forgiveness. Anyone who has ever walked down the main street of any town in any province of our country can see for themselves the kind of concern most people have for those in need. Yes, I suppose you can teach such values without the church getting involved, but I have yet to see any proof of it.

But lest you think it is only the athiests at fault consider these statistics from the same article (which I would argue are perhaps even more disheartening) Only 55% of Christians polled valued patience highly. (That means nearly 1 out of every 2 Christians seems unconcerned with using this gift given them by the Holy Spirit!) Only 72% upheld the importance of being concerned for others. One in four apparently thinks it is OK to care foremost about oneself, despite all that the second table of God’s Law says to the contrary. And only 72% of Christians valued forgiveness as highly important. Forgiveness! That one precious gift bought with the blood of Christ upon the cross. Forgiveness, the one and only way that anyone will ever see the gates of heaven unlocked! Forgiveness, the foundation, and substance of the Christian faith … and nearly a quarter of the Christians polled didn’t think it all that necessary!

As tough as this news is to chew, I suppose that it does make the story of this Holy week so much more important to believer and athiest alike! More important and therefore maybe easier to swallow. The bitter suffering and rejection of Jesus at the hands of friends and foes alike, the impatience of the religious and secular leaders to be done with all annoyances, the debt of sin and selfishness that could only be paid by the innocent suffering and death of Jesus on the cross … this is not just some tragic story of what might have been. It is the story of what had to be. It is the story of how God was concerned enough to rescue us from ourselves. It is the story of how God was patient enough to bring everything together all at once, so salvation could be gained once and for all. It is the story of how God loved each and every one of us – selfish, impatient, unforgiving so-and-so’s that we are, to send His only begotten Son to suffer and die and thus earn us forgiveness. It is a sweet piece of news we could all chew on for a while!

Lent: A Season Whose Time Has Come!

As I was making my way to the gym (“Be It Resolved”) after Ash Wednesday Service – big smudge of ashes across my brow, I got to thinking that Lent is a season whose time may finally have come! As I began my workout I was the only one with a cross on my forehead, but I was NOT the only one bearing a mark upon my brow.

You can see all over people’s faces now. The wrinkles of uncertainty, the furrows of self-reflection, the down-cast countenances of people deeply involved in soul-searching. The signs of these tough economic times are played out on the brows of men and women everywhere. People are now being forced to confront all those problems they have been able to avoid by simply throwing away more money (or credit). Those days of grandiose self-indulgence and avoidance are gone – as are the fortunes, security, and homes of so many. The days ahead are full of doubts and uncertainty for a lot of people who are not ready for it. Everyone is being asked to consider both how we got where we are and what we might yet need to do to get out of it all. Some are even beginning to contemplate their own complicity in all this. Regardless, the deeper these friends, neighbours, strangers and acquaintances are forced to look, the bigger the creases and furrows grow. Yes the signs are everywhere!

But that is also why Lent, and those of us who regularly observe it may be of some use! We are accustomed to bearing the marks of personal reflection and soul-searching. At least twice a year we devote an entire season of the church year to just such spiritual exercises. We don’t always like what we see when we get there, but we are at least willing to look. And why? It’s as obvious as the sign upon your forehead.

You see, while no less complicit in the affairs of this world … no less burdened and troubled by all that goes on around us … no less saddened by the continual hardships faced by friends and relatives, neighbours and even strangers … the mark we bear is not one of doubt or futility. It is a mark of hope, and certainty! As strange as it may sound, Lent can be a wonderful comfort to those who are burdened by fears and faults. It can provide a renewed breath of life and hope to those suffocating under the weight of their burdens and anxieties. And it can do all this because Lent shines forth the sign of the cross like no other season I know.

“You are dust and to dust you shall return.” Yes, I am guilty. Yes I deserve nothing. But God in His love and grace has given me a sign. A sign marked upon my head and my heart. He has given me His Son and His great victory upon the cross. He has shown me the way out. He has shone forth the bright beacon of hope and joy in the face of so much darkness, both within and around me. For in that cross He has canceled the debt of my sin. In that cross He has erased my complicity. In Holy Baptism (where the sign of the cross was first inscribed on my head and heart) He has adopted me into His family and has granted me an eternal home, more beautiful than any dwelling this side of Eden.

Therefore I will gladly bear this mark upon my life. The cross of Christ Jesus happily smudged upon my brow, to be a sign for our times. A sign of relief for those who suffer the mark of sin in their lives.

Transfiguration – A Spoiler.

People have very differing views about spoilers these days. There are those who make their livelihood by revealing movie secrets on the web. There are those who can’t stand it when the surprise is ruined by the careless dissemination of information. Then there are others, like me, who are somewhere in the middle.

I have an uncanny knack at being able to guess the twists and turns of most stories. It drives my wife crazy. The height of her frustration came with the movie The Sixth Sense. She saw it before I did, and was so taken aback, she couldn’t wait to see how long this one would stump me. She was careful to guard me against any “spoilers” until I could see it. Well … she tried. One day a friend happened to say “That was some surprise ending wasn’t it?” That was enough for me to guess the plot five minutes in. It spoiled all of her fun (and mine too … it is a long movie when you know the secret right from the get-go).

But in our house, filled as it is by little ones, spoilers are a necessary part of any story with questionable or scary parts. I can’t begin to count the number of times we have had to begin a story, a show or a movie with words of caution and comfort. Words that say although there will be scary parts they will not last long, and everything will turn out just fine. In such instances we find that it spoils the enjoyment of the work far less than trying to console traumatized children for days afterward.

In that sense God himself has provided a spoiler for us in the Transfiguration of Christ. On that mountain, in the presence of Peter, James, John, Moses and Elijah God lets slip an important part of the narrative to come. But He doesn’t do it to ruin the fun of what is to come, He does it for the sake of those not quite ready to take it all in. And so God gives them a spoiler. You see the story is about to get scary. It is about to turn dark and ugly. There will be treachery, betrayal, torture, suffering and death. BUT everything will be fine because Jesus really is God! Everything will work out in the end, just wait and see.

And in that way the Transfiguration serves as a spoiler for us too. Tomorrow we begin the season of lent. It is a season of contemplation, repentance and consideration on the sacrifice of our Lord. As a season so intimately connected to soul-searching it can lead us to some very dark places. It can open up to us things we prefer to keep hidden away in dark shadows. It can take us down paths that no one in their right mind willingly wants to tread. Sin, guilt, complicity, suffering, shame, the death of Christ. It is a season in which it is easy to get lost in the dark, lost in ourselves, lost in despair. So God gives us a spoiler just days before we begin. Everything will be fine because it is not about our failures. It is about God’s victory in Jesus! As dark as the soul-searching may get, everything will work out in the end, for there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Just wait and see. That light is Jesus Christ who did indeed come to suffer and die because of sin – My Sin – but He did it willingly. He did it to lead me out of the darkness into the light. He did it to show the true glory of His love for me and all mankind. He did it so that He could rise again from the dead, the firstfruits of all who will go through death to life.

Before the dark he gives us a taste of the light. Before the death, a glimpse of the resurrection. A heavenly spoiler so we can better enjoy, and rightly understand, the story about to unfold.  Indeed, the greatest story ever told!