Thursday, July 18, 2024

What’s Your Family Christmas History & Traditions?

Psalm 85:8-9

8          Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,

                        for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;

                        but let them not turn back to folly.

9          Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,

                        that glory may dwell in our land.

   Do you have family traditions during the Christmas season? What are some of those traditions? Where did they originate? How did they become a tradition, and why do you still carry them out today?

    Family traditions are important because they anchor a person in his or her family history. It’s a way of not only celebrating Christmas (or any other holiday such as Thanksgiving), but more importantly it anchors the present with the past.

   For most people Christmas is anchored in pleasant memories and histories. As a child I remember heading to church for Christmas Eve services. The next morning, we were up and at ‘em for Christmas Day service. After service we traveled “over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s and grandfather’s house we go” in Mishicot, WI. Mishicot is a very small rural village about an hour from my hometown of Sheboygan. There we would enjoy all the quaintness that came with a rural Wisconsin village.

   Christmas dinner was always held at Aunt Ethel and Uncle Buster’s house. The cousins were there along with Grandma and Grandpa. Dinner was always wonderful and there was never a shortage of homemade kolaches.

   For many people, however, Christmas memories and traditions are not so pleasant. Memories are anchored in divorce, constant bickering and fighting between Mom and Dad. Some people’s Christmas memories are anchored in abandonment or abuse, and there are a whole host of other Christmas memories and histories that some would just as soon forget, nevertheless, they cannot. Their family pasts have shaped their present.

   As a Christian, God draws you into a different history, a different family history filled with all kinds of traditions. The family history of God’s people is filled with joy and praise, sin and suffering, pain and sorrow. However, God’s family history is filled with God—His promises made and kept, His Emmanuel (which means “God with us”). He never abandons His family. He never leaves you high and dry. He’s always there when “you don’t need Him,” and He’s always always always there when you do.

   The wonderful Christmas hymn It Came Upon the Midnight Clears expresses this in song:

All you, beneath your heavy load,
    By care and guilt bent low,
Who toil along a dreary way
    With painful steps and slow:
Look up, for golden is the hour,
    Come swiftly on the wing,
The Prince was born to bring you peace;
    Of Him the angels sing.

   The Christian is anchored in the history of Christmas, the birth of a Child, the death of a Son, the resurrection of the Deliverer, and the promise that He’s returning again.

   The Christian is anchored in Baptism whereby God’s grace and mercy, He turns sinners into saints. The beauty and wonder of this tradition, however, is not only that you are anchored in the past, but more wonderfully God brings the past into your present. The Christ child’s history is not simply in the past buried in dust. The Christ child’s history is present and active your life today. You’re not simply a child of God on Christmas. You are a child of God everyday living out God’s grace and mercy on a daily basis. What better Christmas Gift could you receive?

   Celebrate your Christmas history each and every day, for every day is Christmas for the Christian!

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Thank You Jacob Marley’s Ghost

Psalm 85:5-7

5          Will you be angry with us forever?

                        Will you prolong your anger to all generations?

6          Will you not revive us again,

                        that your people may rejoice in you?

7          Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,

                        and grant us your salvation.

   One of the most treasured stories during the Christmas season is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is a miserly old man who cares only for his own welfare and not the welfare of the poor, the hungry, the cold, the fatherless. He has so much wealth that he doesn’t know what to do with it except squirrel it away. In fact, he’s such an old—well Scrooge—that he doesn’t even get self-enjoyment from his money. He lives in a huge house with the barest of furniture. His fireplace is barely alive except for a few small logs to which Scrooge himself needs to scoot up to the fireplace in order to glean any bit of warmth. Ebenezer Scrooge doesn’t see the path he’s placed himself on, and it was a path of destruction.

   His former partner’s ghost, Jacob Marley, has watched the fate of his former partner from the shadows of the spirit world. This spirit world that shadows Ebenezer Scrooge is one of suffering, misery, pain, and helplessness. Jacob Marley’s ghost was granted a rare opportunity—a very rare one indeed—to intervene in Scrooge’s life so that he might be spared the eternal suffering of walking the world in misery carrying the chain of greed and suffering that he has forged in his earthly life.

   The intervention comes in the form of three specters, or ghosts, who bring Ebenezer into the shadows of his life so that he can see his past that had shaped him in his present state of life, the shadows of his present state of affairs, and finally the shadows of his future end if he maintains his current path.

   Ebenezer Scrooge had a choice. The shadows were true. He could see these things for what they were and reject them, or he could see these things for what they were, accept them, and change his ways. The choice was his along with the fate with one or the other choice.

   Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,

                        and grant us your salvation.

   God’s people had seen their past. They were experiencing suffering of their own making in the present, and they didn’t like what they saw coming in the future. The only thing they could do is to cry out Yhwh their God. They saw what God had done in the past to deliver and bring salvation to His people. He intervened to deliver them from under the oppression of Pharaoh. They saw what God had done as He intervened for His people in the wilderness journey. There were so many times that Yhwh had intervened and acted in history on behalf of His people, and now they were praying that He might intervene and act again.

   Yhwh is the God of His word. He indeed would intervene in history and act in defense of humanity once again. He did this in the manger in the Person of the Christ child. There is where God intervened in this fallen, broken world. Mary and Joseph saw this. The shepherds who were abiding in their fields that night ran to Bethlehem and saw this. Throughout the Christ child’s life, people came flocking to Jesus to see Him. They weren’t interested in His height and weight, the color of His hair and eyes, etc. They came to see Jesus. Is He really who He claimed to be? He made the deaf hear, the blind to see, the lame to walk. He healed lepers and many other people who were rejected by society. He forgave sins of people who lived immorally. He hung around with the undesirables and poor. He even raised some dead people! Yes. This Christ child was truly different

   The greatest intervention, however, was when the Christ child suffered, bled, has His back shredded, was spit upon. The greatest intervention was when the Christ child suffered and died on the cross for your sins. When the Babe born in Bethlehem cried out, “It is finished,” His intervention ministry to forgive sins was complete. Your sins are completely paid for. You owe nothing to God. Come and see!

   Three days later the Christ child rose from the grave. He conquered death, damnation, and hell that each of us deserves, and He rose from the tomb that will encase and shut each of us in as well. The death and resurrection of the Christ child is God’s intervention and action in history. He has reversed the curse and the shadows of our past. He points us to the future which is there for each and every person who will repent and follow the Christ child. Which path will you follow? God has made you a Christian. He’s taken you out of the shadows of death and brought you into the Kingdom of the Christ child.

4          Restore us again O God of our salvation,

                        and put away your indignation toward us!

   During the Christmas season it’s very easy for our eyes to get distracted. There are the decorations, the Christmas parades in some areas, the glitter and glamour of the season. Then there are the sales, the lists, the parties and get togethers that vie for our time too.

   The people of God were in yet another predicament. This isn’t the first time their eyes had wandered away from God and to other glitzy and glamorous things that the world offers. And isn’t that the way the devil works? He makes so many promises through worldly ways. If you only do this, then you’ll get that. The ways of the world seem great and appealing. The ways of the world offer glitz and glamour. “What a great gift!” And maybe so—temporarily. However, there is no lasting hope, no lasting deliverance in the ways of the world. Promises made, but disappointment in the end.

   Restore us again. This is a prayer of repentance. Repentance is not something we can do on our own. It is the work and gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As fallen creatures, we are very comfortable in our sins and become complacent in them. Our eyes wander and we go down that path. This happens to every person; man, woman, and child, and it happens in the Christian’s life as well. We need help. Where are we turned? We’re turned to the God of our salvation.

   God gives you the gift of salvation in Jesus. Jesus’ name means “God is salvation.”

   Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

   put away your indignation toward us! God’s anger is not because He’s an angry wrathful God simply looking for ways to make life miserable. God is not an angry God by nature. His indignation is caused because of sin. God created humanity to share in His glory and majesty. Because of the wandering eyes of our first parents, this relationship was destroyed, and we inherited their wandering eyes as well. Our wandering eyes and lives provoke the loving God to anger, and He’s got to do something about this. God is a just God, therefore He must punish sin. His justice is not contrary to His divine love. “Rather, it is an expression of divine love which has been offended, rejected and deeply grieved.”[1]

   God doesn’t put His stamp of approval on our sin. The penalty and penalty phase for sin must be meted out. However, in love and mercy God forgives sin. He turns His anger and wrath, not toward us, but rather on the Christ child, Jesus—God’s salvation. On the cross is where God sets His sight on His Son. At the cross is where God turned away His indignation toward us.

   God wants us to keep our eyes on Him and live according to His ways for our lives. However, when we rebel and sin—and we do rebel and sin against God because no one is perfect—God turns our eyes to His Gift. There’s nothing glitzy and glamorous about a Man suffering and dying on a cross. It’s when we realize that “this should have been me there,” that we understand and cherish God’s Gift in the manger.

---

[1]  kāʿas Groningen, Gerard Van. Harris, R. Laird, Gleason L. Archer, and Bruce K. Waltke, eds. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Accordance electronic edition, version 2.5. Chicago: Moody Press, 1980.

Saturday, July 13, 2024
I Can’t Take It Anymore!
 
Psalm 123:4   Our soul has had more than enough
                        of the scorn of those who are at ease,
                        of the contempt of the proud.
 
            Let’s face it. There are times in life when things go on and on and on and on. “I can’t take it anymore! Make it stop!”
            This psalm ends open-endedly. We’re left with no apparent resolution, no answer, and we desperately want one. What do we do when we cannot take it anymore? Paul experienced this in his life and ministry on behalf of Jesus Christ. The other apostles experienced this as well. As a matter of fact, the Christian Church has experienced scorn, persecution, hostility, and contempt right from the get-go. It’s not you so much that’s the problem. It’s really a rejection, hostility, and attack on God and His Christ, Jesus. And remember, Jesus experienced rejection, scorn, and derision from His own family, and when He visited His own hometown. The ultimate scorn, hostility, and contempt happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross. The King of Glory from the heaven of heavens took the lowliest place of scorn, hostility, and contempt for you and me on the cross.
We have the same promise from Jesus that Paul received concerning the ridicule and scorn he experienced: My grace is sufficient for you.
            Paul’s prayer seemed to be answered open-endedly. He prayed three times that this thorn of contempt, scorn, and derision would be removed. However, his relief comes not in the removal of the thorn but rather in an abiding relation with Christ. As he has repeatedly made clear in 2Corinthians (a letter to the Christian Church in Corinth), salvation is granted not through the possession of gifts and powers but in participation in Christ. Here and elsewhere with Paul, grace is before all else personal favor. Like Paul, the Christian rests in God’s promises. The Christian rests in assurance of God’s favor toward him. When the devil brings scorn, derision, hostility, and contempt in your life, when people mockingly say, “Where’s your God?”, and the devil begins to whisper doubts in your ear, God reminds you that you are a baptized child of the King enthroned high above in the highest of heavens, and He’s always personally with you on your journey here.
 

 
Friday, July 12, 2024
You Have Dual Citizenship
Psalm 123:3  Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
                        for we have had more than enough of contempt.
 
            Part of being a Christian—a Christ follower—is that we live in this present evil age (Galatians 1:4). And because we exist in this present evil age, there are opponents who despise God and His Christ, Jesus. The Christian Church, and thus the Christian, is going to experience times of contempt and derision in life. That’s just a fact for the Christian who lives out his faith in this world. It’s not pleasant, but it’s a fact. It’s all the more hurtful when these attacks come from family members and friends who like to jeer us for following Jesus.
            This is nothing new. Paul, when he became a Christ follower, experienced this as well and then some! His life became way more difficult as he now suffered contempt and derision verbally and physically. In the end, Paul suffered death rather than renouncing Jesus Christ as the Savior.
            In this week’s reading in 2Corinthians, Paul recounts the experience God gave him to be transported to the Third Heaven (see Tuesday’s devotion). Paul not only experiences the Third Heaven, but He also sees Paradise. And what is Paradise? Well, it’s God’s New Creation, His restored Eden that He will usher in fully at Christ’s Jesus return.
            You have dual citizenship. You’re a citizen of this fallen, broken world, which includes the evil of hostility against Christians. Nevertheless, this is still the Father’s world, and you are one of His very dear children.
            You’re also a citizen of the God’s New Creation. This is your present reality right now too. The Bible tells us in Romans 6:5
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
            The word “united” in the Greek means “being grown together.”[1] Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches (John 15:5). God intertwines the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus within you. This happened in your baptism, which is why we treasure Baptism as God’s precious gift to us.
            The Christian is on a journey. We are driven to trust and prayer. “The pilgrimage is a turning from the world’s words of contempt for trust and obedience to the one whose ways are gracious. … The pilgrims look from a world that questions their god to the God who rules the world.”[2]
            The wonderful old beloved Christian hymn brings comfort in times of lament when experiencing hostility:
 
I’m But a Stranger Here
1     I’m but a stranger here,
    Heav’n is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
    Heav’n is my home.
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on ev’ry hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland,
    Heav’n is my home.
 
2     What though the tempest rage,
    Heav’n is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
    Heav’n is my home;
And time’s wild wintry blast
Soon shall be overpast;
I shall reach home at last,
    Heav’n is my home.
 
3     Therefore I murmur not,
    Heav’n is my home;
Whate’er my earthly lot,
    Heav’n is my home;
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord’s right hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland,
    Heav’n is my home.
Text: Public domain
 
You are a citizen of the New Creation, Paradise, right now!
 


[1] Σύμφυτος (symphytos);Bauer, W., F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3d, Accordance electronic edition, version 2.8. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.; Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, and Henry Stuart Jones, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th; Accordance electronic edition, version 2.7. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940.
[2] Mays, James Luther: Psalms. Louisville : John Knox Press, 1994 (Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching), S. 394

Thursday, July 11, 2024
Role Reversal
Psalm 123:2c  so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
                        till he has mercy upon us.
 
            The meditation yesterday focused on the Christian’s status as a slave in Christ. The reason the Christian willing submits to Christ is because of the role reversal Jesus took on in His life, ministry, death, and resurrection. Jesus, who didn’t never felt the consequences of sin—guilt, shame, abandonment by God—became God’s sin-offering in your place. There on the cross Christ Jesus willingly enslaved Himself with our sins and consequences therein. Jesus is the Servant of Yhwh prophesied in Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1–4; Isaiah 49:1–6; Isaiah 50:4–11; and Isaiah 52:13–53:12), Who willing took on the bondage of your sin, and paid the penalty and penalty phase for them. Three days later on Easter morning, The Servant of Yhwh broke through death, the grave, and the chains of sin that rightly should have held each and everyone of us. Now you are free because Jesus stood in your place. This is the great role reversal of God’s plan for salvation, and in Christ Jesus He reversed the curse. This is God’s love for you!
            God has brought us from slavery in the kingdom of darkness to sin, death, and the devil into slavery in God’s Kingdom of Light, eternal life, and Christ Jesus. In thankfulness for what Christ has done the Christian now lives a life submitting to Christ.
           
            “‘Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters… so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us’ (Psalm 123:1). The psalmist shows the intensity of his looking by comparing it to the action of servants (both menservants and maidservants) in watching their masters for orders. Charles Spurgeon gives some ways in which the servants watch their masters to show how the psalmist is watching God regarding mercy.
            • The servant watches the master respectfully. ‘Hand of their masters.’ The looking with much care at the Master shows the respect of the servant for the Master.
            • The servant watches the master attentively. ‘Look unto the hand of their masters.’ The hand more than the voice often gave the servants orders in Bible lands. So the servant watched the hand with great attentiveness. Any small movement could put the servant into action. Watching God attentively for mercy will perceive the slightest act of mercy and inspire one that more mercy can and is coming.
            • The servant watches the master continuously. ‘Eyes… look up to the hand.’ This is denotes continuous watching. To fail to look one moment meant you could miss an order.
            • The servant watches the master singly. ‘Their masters.’ The servants were not watching other servants or other Masters, but they were watching one person, namely, their master.
            • The servant watches the master expectantly. ‘Until.’ The servants expected orders, so the psalmist expected mercy.
            • The servant watches the master submissively. ‘So our eyes wait upon the LORD our God.’ Watching involves waiting. Waiting involves patience. Patience involves submission. So the psalmist watches submissively for Divine mercy.”[1]
 


[1] Butler, John G. Volume 6 PSALMS. Analytical Bible Expositor 6. Accordance electronic edition, version 1.3. LBC Publications, 2012. 810.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024
It Means Being A Slave
Psalm 123:2   Behold, as the eyes of servants
                        look to the hand of their master,
 
            Our country recently celebrated The 4th of July—Independence Day. Here in the United States of America, God has granted our country and her citizens great freedoms to live out in community as well as individual freedoms. We certainty should be thankful for all of these and celebrate Independence Day.
            However, independence doesn’t mean that we are independent from God. God is enthroned over all Creation, including each and every human being. With the blessing of individual freedoms here in America, it’s very easy for the American Christian to lose sight of what truly is our relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ,
            Psalm 123:2 grounds and affirms this relationship. The Christian is a servant. The Greek translation uses the word doulos which means ‘slave,’ ‘to being under someone’s total control.’[1] The Hebrew word is ʿeḇeḏ ‘slave or servant.’
            ‘While the most basic idea of ʿeḇeḏ is that of a slave, in Israel slavery was not so irksome, since this status involved rights and often positions of trust. A fellow Israelite could not be held indefinitely against his will, but his period of bondage was limited to six years (Ex 21:2).’ [2]
            This is the position of the Christian before God. This is not just a Sunday morning thing when we go to church. It’s not even a ‘whole 24-hours on a Sunday’ thing where the Christian is free from this slave status the remaining six days of the week. No. This status of the Christian as slave to God is a 24/7/365 (24 hours/7 days a week/365 days a year) position and status. The Christian looks to the hand of the Master for all good things. The first place each person needs to look and gaze upon are the hands of the Master nailed to the cross for all humanity including you and me.
It is to God that the Christian’s eyes are fixed. God is the loving God who truly wants what’s best for His people. The Christian trusts this promise, even during the times he laments hosility and contempt from others on account of the Christian faith.
We don’t find ourselves in these prayers. Rather the truth is that we find ourselves through these prayers. We are slaves to God and dependent upon Him. It brings to light who one must be and who one is in crying out to the LORD from the depths of existence.[3] In Christ’s hands—His crucified and resurrected hands—is your future.[4] And your future in Christ’s hands is what gives you strength for today.


[1] Bauer, W., F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, eds. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3d, Accordance electronic edition, version
[2] Kaiser, Walter C. Harris, R. Laird, Gleason L. Archer, and Bruce K. Waltke, eds. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Accordance electronic edition, version 2.5. Chicago: Moody Press, 1980.
 
[3] Mays, James L. Psalms. IBC. Accordance electronic edition, version 2.2. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011.
[4] Keil, C. F. and Delitzsch F. Commentary on the Old Testament. Accordance electronic edition, version 2.7. 10 vols. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1996.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024
What Do You See?
Psa. 123:1b   O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
 
            The blinders have been removed (see yesterday’s meditation). Our eyes can now see more as our peripheral vision is expanded. We see what’s truly in this world—the good, the bad, and the ugly. We see and experience the unbelieving world’s contempt and scorn against Christ Jesus and His Church. The Christian is on the receiving end of this as we want to live by God’s law and word in our life. There are Christians who are thrown in jail simply because they believe and stand for the sanctify of all life—regardless of color. There are Christians around the world who are undergoing severe persecutions, tortures, and even death sentences simply because they follow Christ Jesus and will not renounce and reject Christ Jesus.
            When the Christian laments derision and contempt in his life, there’s no other direction to look except for up. When the Christian looks up, he sees God in His rightful place. He is enthroned in the Heavens.[1]
            So, where is God enthroned? Well, as St. Paul tells us in 2Corinthians 12, God is enthroned in the third heaven. In ancient times people understood this as the highest of heaven, the heaven of heavens. There’s nothing beyond this, and this is the place reserved only for God, from whence He reigns and rules over His whole Creation.
            No matter what we go through and experience in this life, including ridicule and contempt against Christ and the Christian faith, it doesn’t go unnoticed by God. We pray to Him to something about it. We wonder why He doesn’t act. We plead for help and assistance, especially when ‘I’ am on the receiving end.
            God Who is enthroned in the highest heaven has done something about it. He put flesh on Himself and was enthroned in the manger. God became one of us in order to save us from ourselves. God’s Christ was enthroned on the cross of Calvary and was crowned with the lowest crown possible—the crown of thorns of our sins with His palace being death and a tomb.
            Three days later Jesus came back to life, never to die again. He has resumed His rightful place on His throne in the highest of heavens, the heaven of heavens. And this One who is enthroned above is going to return one day.
            Until that Day, King Jesus continues to come to His subjects who live in this world filled with derision and contempt against Him. He comes to us in a very real way through His Word and Sacrament. He moves our eyes in the right direction.


[1] When we read and pray the psalms, we should slow down in our reading and meditate on what’s in that particular psalm. For instance, Psalms 121 and 123 begin in similar ways by lifting up one’s eyes. In Psalm 121 the psalmist lifts up his eyes to the hills. His help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. The psalm’s focus is on God as Creator. In Psalm 123 the psalmist lifts up his eyes and sees this very same God enthroned in heaven. The focus of Psalm 123 is God as the Ruler over all other rulers and kingdoms.