epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Mark 11



Despite the fact that Jesus would soon die at the hands of Roman soldiers, there can be no doubt that He was in charge of all that was taking place. When the crowd shouted “Hosanna!” which means “Save!” they could not understand what the Savior Himself knew: He was fulfilling the prophecy contained in Psalm 118:27. He would be the “sacrifice” for His people on the “altar” of God.
Meanwhile, the Redeemer who was rejected by the religious leaders of the Jews was performing signs of judgment against God's covenant community. The “fig tree” of Israel would be “cursed” because it had no “fruit.” Jesus also “overturned the tables” of those doing business in the temple courts because they had made God's “house of prayer” into a “den of robbers.”
The disciples were amazed to see their Master so confidently announcing judgment and executing signs that showed divine displeasure, but the religious rulers were not amused. They questioned Him with obvious impudence. They asked “by what authority” He was “doing these things.” He did not yield to them for a moment, but instead asked them about the baptism of John. Was it “from heaven or from man?” They were unwilling to answer since either a positive or a negative answer would have exposed their own unrighteousness before the people.
Though “the chief priests and the scribes and the elders” hated Jesus, they were unable to overcome the complete authority that He had to save His church. History has largely forgotten the men who once seemed in charge of Jerusalem, but the Messiah who died on a cross “always lives to make intercession” for those who “draw near to God through Him” (Hebrews 7:25). He calls us to “prayer,” insisting that we ask with the confidence of faith and that we “forgive” all who have done anything against us.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Lord Jesus, You came into Jerusalem as a humble and peaceful King. Help us to see You rightly. You are in charge of every detail of history, and have all power and authority, yet You were willing to be low that we might be saved. Will Your church be without any gospel fruit today? May it never be, O Lord. Purify Your temple and grant us a life of intercession as those who know that all good things come from You. We ask You in prayer for that which we believe to be agreeable to Your will. We trust that we have received these gifts even now, and that all that we obediently request is certainly ours in Your Son, for You have told us to pray with faith. We gladly forgive others, lest our entreaties be hindered. Have mercy on us!

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Mark 10



When people embrace the truth that “no one is good except God alone,” they naturally wonder how they can ever “inherit eternal life.” Particularly in our closest relationships we feel the struggle of achieving heartfelt obedience to the Almighty. In the bond between husband and wife, men and women may try to justify their sins, but in the depth of their souls they know they have failed. Many also sincerely want the best for their children, especially seeking God's benediction on these young lives, but the touch of Jesus' hand upon their heads may seem too far away to believe in.
Even when a very righteous worshiper of the Lord asserts that he has “kept” all of God's commandments from his youth, he will walk away “disheartened” and “sorrowful” if the Lord of Glory asks him to devote all he has to the King's purposes. Confronting the facts about sin and salvation made even Jesus' closest friends earnestly ask Him, “Then who can be saved?” The Lord's answer: “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
For the blessing of heaven to come upon human beings, one Man needed to serve as the Substitute for countless others. As Jesus said, powerful men would “deliver Him over to the Gentiles” who would then “kill Him,” yet after three days the Lord would “rise” again. This is why Jesus was born. The “Son of Man” came “to give His life as a ransom for many.”
How should needy mortals respond to such good news? A blind beggar showed us the way to go. He would not let others stop him from crying out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus' kind reply: “What do you want me to do for you?” If Jesus asked you that now, how would you answer? What are you looking for today? Even what feels way beyond our reach, is within the purview of our Sovereign Lord, including our eternal destiny.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Father, we glorify You for the beauty and holiness of Your teaching. Help us not to rebel against Your Scriptures. From the beginning of creation, You have made us male and female. You have joined us together in marriage, so that the two are one. You have also blessed us with children. May we never hinder them as they turn to You. You are good, O Jehovah. We should follow Your Law. We flatter ourselves and overestimate our obedience to Your commandments. Thank You for the perfections of our Messiah. Surely all things are possible with You, even our salvation. Our lives are wonderfully in Your hands. We trust Your promises, and would even face persecutions now only to be near You. Your Son was delivered over to executioners and died for us, yet He rose from the dead. Fill us with the courage we need to stay with You. Whoever wants to be close to the Redeemer will certainly suffer. Still, it is better than anything else to have communion with Him. We offer up our bodies to You in service, for You have served us first and best. Have mercy on us, and grant us the depth of holy vision that comes through faith. Draw us to Yourself, and make us whole in Jesus Christ, that we might obey Your Word.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Mark 9



Jesus promised His disciples that some would soon “see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” Six days later “He was transfigured before them.” Suddenly Elijah and Moses were with Jesus who was shining in glorious splendor. As Peter, James, and John were given a glimpse of heavenly light, the Father spoke these words from above: “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him.”
What was the message from Jesus that they needed to hear, and did they comprehend it? The men who were going to be the leaders of the Christian church at its inception were unable to make sense of the phrase “risen from the dead.” They knew the sorrows of life under the sun, but they could not imagine a far better world that God would establish. Like the desperate man they soon encountered after their time alone with the Lord, they could have rightly said to their Master, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Jesus again proclaimed the central facts of history. “The Son of Man” was going to suffer, and “when He is killed, after three days He will rise.” Their reaction? “They did not understand.”
We face our own doubts and unbelief as we wait for the fullness of the promise of God. We struggle for recognition and are perplexed by persecution. Our King has given us simple directives for perseverance. First, some evils will not be “driven out with anything but prayer.” Second, the “greatest” must be the “servant of all.” Third, don't make unnecessary adversaries, since “the one who is not against us is for us.” Fourth, get rid of anything that “causes you to sin.” Finally, when we feel the refining “fire” of God's loving discipline, remember that we have the “salt” of the Lord's grace preserving us through trials. Attending to these truths will help us to “be at peace with one another” as we await a new life of unspeakable blessing.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Majestic God, You will cause us to be known in our resurrection bodies on the day Jesus returns. We long for the radiance of that final hour, for the departed will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. We do not see this all now, but we gaze upon our risen Lord with the eyes of faith. The Messiah has suffered many things, as was written of Him in the Scriptures. When He renews the earth, He will not be troubled in any way, but will reign in glory. The healing You have for Your church will be full and glorious, but the judgment upon the world will be overwhelming. We believe; help our unbelief. Teach us to trust in the power and kindness of Your Son. Make Your people more knowledgeable of our future life, that we might speak the truth in comfort to those who are in the most extreme need today. Our Savior died and rose from the dead. We will not seek any longer to be the greatest in the view of our neighbors, but we will devote ourselves to serving others. We belong to Christ. Give us His love for the young and the helpless. He had abundant mercy on Your chosen flock when we were lost. Grant us hope concerning the coming of His Kingdom, and may we live at peace with each other.

Monday, May 28, 2018

Exeter Memorial Day Prayers, 2018


Father God, we thank You for the precious lives of our fallen heroes who died in the defense of this land. We bless Your Name for the sacred truths that informed the founding of our great nation. Chief among them is our dependence upon You as our “Creator,” the Great Author of “Divine Providence,” and the “Supreme Judge of the world.” As the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their “lives,” their “fortunes,” and their “sacred honor,” to defend their loved ones and to stand for what is right and good, and as those who lost their lives at sea gave the last measure of their devotion for us and for future generations, we remember today that there are truths worth living for and even worth dying for, and we commit ourselves to follow in the footsteps of the One Savior who gave His life for His friends, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Creator God, as the founders of our town so many years ago committed their names to the hope that we would “live quietly and peaceably together in all godliness and honesty,” we ask for your aid on this Memorial Day as we would honor the fallen, the captives, and the missing with reverence and true appreciation. We ask for Your blessing upon our speaker this morning and for those who will listen to the words he has prepared that we might be rightly moved in ways of life that would be true and right, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Judge of All the Earth, we know that You alone are the Source of all our rights and freedoms. You have called men and women to protect and defend this nation from enemies foreign and domestic. We here today are all the more aware of the cost of freedom. We consecrate this ground again in Your presence, and thank You for the gift of those who gave their lives for us. May we honor them and You not only today, but as long as we have breath. Thank You for the privilege that we have of living a life of liberty in a dangerous world. May we forever be inspired by those who have come before us who have displayed what it means to lay day their lives for their neighbors. And now may the blessings of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon those gathered here, and upon this town of Exeter, this state of New Hampshire, and these United States of America. In Jesus' Name. Amen.


Thursday, May 24, 2018

Mark 8



Seven loaves” and “a few small fish” fed “about four thousand people.” This was now the second feeding miracle reported in Mark, yet the Pharisees demanded “a sign from heaven to test Him,” and even the disciples of Jesus worried about the fact that “they had forgotten to bring bread” when the Master talked to them about “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” His response? “Do you not yet understand?” How would God's elect ever apprehend what their senses perceived but their minds refused to fully believe?
We read of an unusual healing at this exact moment in Mark's account as Jesus gave a blind man vision in stages. After one touch the man said, “I see men, but they look like trees walking.” Jesus laid hands upon him again “and he saw everything clearly.” What did it all mean? Why would the ruler of the universe ordain that a needy man receive his eyesight in a way that was not instantaneous?
Even the most diligent worshipers of the Almighty need help for their souls more than once. When Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter correctly replied, “You are the Christ.” That was a good start, but within seconds the great leader of early Christianity was rebuking his Savior for saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
Peter needed more grace from above in the form of a stern redirection from the Lord. Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan!” Why? “You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” The truth was plainly told to those who would lead the founding generation of Christian martyrs. Not only would Christ face extreme tribulation, but so would they, and so shall we. The Lord's covenant community needs to grow in our spiritual sight by God's provision of ongoing grace. We must never be ashamed of Jesus and His saving message.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Father God, have compassion upon us. We have been with You, and we have followed You, but we are hungry. We need daily sustenance for our bodies, and we are often amply supplied, but who will fill our souls with Your Word and enliven us with the Spirit if You do not bless us with these great gifts every day? We know that You will give us bread from heaven. May we have eyes to perceive what is good, and ears to hear, believe, and obey. Help us to think more clearly even when we imagine that we have perfect knowledge of all things. Heal us once more, that we might see plainly the glories of Your Son. He is the Christ, who suffered, died, and rose again. Keep us far from the snares of the devil who would turn us from the cross. Grant that we would embrace the truth and duty of this atoning sacrifice, for Christ has taken away our sin and called us to a new way of love.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Mark 7



The Jews of Jesus' day were greatly influenced by scribal traditions including an elaborate system of cleansing rituals that were not in the Bible. Some who came in contact with the Lord's disciples were offended that the friends of Jesus did not keep customary rules.
When Jesus was questioned about these supposed faults, He cited Isaiah 29:13. The religious leaders were preferring the “tradition of men” to the “commandment of God.”
In contrast to those who thought of themselves as free from defilement, Jesus was approached by a desperate Gentile woman who “fell down at His feet.” Her daughter “had an unclean spirit” and needed the help that only the Redeemer could bring.
At first the Messiah refused her entreaties noting that she was outside of Israel. Instead of being offended the woman renewed her plea. She was willing to give up all outward dignity in order to receive mercy from the Savior. Even a “crumb” from the table of true Israel would be enough for her daughter to be released from oppression. Jesus' reaction? “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”
Jesus was able to open up the ears of the deaf and to bring forth clear speech from lips that had been mute. Christ was the ruler over a new world, but many who had positions of spiritual authority in Israel could not hear the truth of His words or speak forth the praise that He richly deserved.
In the decades that would follow, the church would be increasingly comprised of those who had once been outcasts to the covenant of grace. They would believe the Word of the Lord and would sing songs of joy to the One who died for their transgressions and rose for their justification.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Great Lawgiver of Israel, Your people have twisted together their own traditions and Your perfect Law, treating the mixture as somehow divine. Forgive us, for we would reject Your commandments and establish our own customs as the pathway of righteousness. Help us to see our real duty and the corruption of our wicked hearts. From within the souls of men come evil thoughts, words, and actions. Through these habits of sin we have been utterly defiled. Cleanse us, O God! Have mercy also on our sons and daughters. Grant us a crumb from Your table, and deliver us from the doctrines and moral directives of demons. Give to us holy speech, and open our mouths in praise to You. You do all things well.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Mark 6



When Jesus “came to His hometown” of Nazareth, “He marveled because of their unbelief.” The residents there could not deny that “mighty works” were being done “by His hands,” yet they were unwilling to give Him the “honor” that He clearly deserved.
Later the Lord sent out His disciples “two by two” and they “cast out many demons,” healed the sick, and “proclaimed that people should repent.” Despite the truth that the apostles saw with their own eyes, even “their hearts were hardened.” When the twelve saw how Christ fed thousands with just five loaves and two fish, and then witnessed Him coming to them walking “on the sea,” they still battled their own inner unwillingness to trust Jesus as the Savior and the Son of God.
How could so many people resist the obvious? Like us, the close companions of Jesus lived in a dark world of sin. They knew the way Herod had treated John the Baptist, a true prophet from the Almighty. There were so many times when it might have looked like the arrogance of brutes would destroy the work of God. What would it have been like for them to follow the Lord to “a desolate place” only to face the problem of feeding a multitude without any supplies or preparation? How could any normal adult have responded to seeing their rabbi traveling by foot on the surface of a tumultuous lake?
Through all of the unsettling experiences where failure was imminent, the power of the Lord's kingdom was plainly on display all around them. Who would win in the end, a man who could not even gain the support of those who had known Him and His family during His youth, or the powerful ruler in the land who ordered the death of John the Baptist without any just cause? Worshipers of Christ have learned the answer: Despite all our doubts and questions, we know that the Man who walks on water is unstoppable.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Father, why should people reject You? Why do they take offense at Christ? Our best Prophet is worthy of all honor. Heal us from our remaining unbelief. We go forth every day to proclaim Your Name and to perform works of justice, beauty, and order. Glorify Jesus through Your church. When powerful men attack the righteous, You can send us deliverance. Give us hope, though foes would stand against us. Grant strength and mercy to Your persecuted servants. Do miracles of amazing fruitfulness using Your covenant community. May we see heaven’s blessing come down upon the earth so that the Holy One of Israel would be lifted up. Your Son walked on the sea, for there is nothing that is too difficult for You. We will not be afraid. Our hearts are moved in devotion to You. We bring You many who are in great need. If we could touch even the fringe of Your garment on their behalf, we know that they would be made well.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Mark 5



Jesus and His disciples “came to the other side of the sea” and had an unusual encounter in Gentile territory. A dangerous man who was possessed by a “legion” of demons “ran and fell down before” the Lord as soon as he saw Him. Christ cast the demons out of this brute that “no one had the strength to subdue.” Jesus gave the unclean spirits “permission” to go into a herd of pigs, and the animals “rushed down the steep bank into the sea” and were drowned. When the townspeople saw their fearsome neighbor “clothed and in his right mind” and when they heard what happened to the beasts, “they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”
Back on the Jewish side of the sea, the Lord healed a woman who had suffered with a “discharge of blood” for twelve years. She had secretly “touched His garment” with trust in the Messiah, and Jesus “perceived that power had gone out from Him.” Hers was a bold and desperate step by someone that was ceremonially impure. Jesus' reaction? “Your faith has made you well.”
Jesus also brought amazing aid to the daughter of a synagogue elder. When the Lord first arrived, the sick child had already died, but Jesus insisted that she was “sleeping.” As the mourners laughed in unbelief, Christ “put them all outside” except for the girl's parents and His own companions. Then He said, “Little girl, I say to you, arise,” and she did!
God has always called His worshipers to trust in Him, but what does this actually mean? We start by truly surrendering to Him as the Lord of glory, never asking Him to go away as the Gentile farmers did. Then we must believe His Word even when those around us judge it to be a joke. To state the obvious, Jesus Christ was a Man of faith. Those who seek resurrection blessings should put their hope in Him alone.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Lord God, our adversary would take aim at our bodies and souls. An enemy who is stronger than us would attack our children and Your church. Only You can cast him out. We turn to You for Your mighty Word. A legion of demons destroys the people of Your possession. Save us! Clothe us in the righteousness of Christ. Help us to be in our right minds, and we will serve You. Send us out to our friends to tell the truth about the great things that You have done for us. Will our loved ones thrive? Will our wives and husbands have good health? Why should disease and evil seem to win among us? You can deliver us from trouble with one command. We trust in You. Please heal us, and make our families whole. We will not be afraid but will believe in You. We want to be up and walking again by Your resurrection power.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Mark 4



When the Lord God came in person to save His children, what did He say to Israel and to His disciples? As prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures, He spoke in parables. “Give ear, O My people, to My teaching; incline your ears to the words of My mouth! I will open My mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old.” (Psalm 78:1-2)
Jesus later explained to the men who were in His close circle the message behind His cryptic sentences. The smaller group of intimate friends learned what they could comprehend at this early stage of His ministry, but thankfully they would one day preach plainly about “the secret of the kingdom of God.”
God would bring about a great harvest of righteousness from those who would be connected to His Name. Many would hear the gospel, but Satan, persecutors, trials, distractions, and sinful covetousness would choke out what might have been a good crop. There would be some “good soil” which would “bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
The “lamp” of Christ's teaching was not to be hidden forever. The church was God's chosen instrument to shine His light into a dark world, not only with clear proclamation, but also with sacrificial action. Though men and women of God would be solemnly charged to do what they were told by the Lord, “the seed” of new life would sprout and grow by divine grace. The work might increase very slowly as the years went forward, yet one day “the harvest” would come.
The Messiah who calmed the wind and the waves taught His beloved flock as He deemed best. His words were unique and surprising, but they reinforced the message from Isaiah 6:9-10 that His miracles also revealed, that the God of heaven and earth was entirely in charge of the great gift of salvation.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
O Sovereign Lord, teach us, that we might hear and live. Turn away the devil who would tempt us to ignore Your gospel. We will not fear persecution or be distracted by other engagements. We want to be fruitful disciples. Use Your servants to show us the truth, and encourage us in the day of tribulation. Keep us from the deceitfulness of riches. Grant a harvest among us of righteousness and peace. Bring to light the greatness and glory of Your Son. Enlarge our hearts in the mercy of Christ. Make the seed of Your Word sprout and grow among us with astounding results. Though we may be few in number, give us confidence that You will build Your kingdom. You can calm the waves and winds when they threaten us. You will not let us perish. See the tumult within our souls, and settle our lives upon You again today.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Mark 3



The ministry of Jesus was full of controversy. His healings on the Sabbath were opposed by religious authorities who “held counsel with the Herodians against Him.” What were they seeking in their connection with the political allies of the Herod family? They were trying to “accuse” Jesus of some attack on public order in the hope that they might “destroy Him.”
The crowds that sought the Lord had proof that “He had healed many,” a fact that none disputed though “scribes who came down from Jerusalem” claimed it was “by the prince of demons” that He sent unclean spirits out of the afflicted. The fallen angels themselves knew who He was, and they cried out, “You are the Son of God.”
The twelve that the Messiah “appointed” as “apostles” included one who would ultimately betray Him. While a few of these men would become well known, the majority remained obscure. All would find it hard to understand who He was and why He had come. Even the family of Jesus “went out to seize Him” because they were convinced that He was “out of His mind.”
Although throngs of needy Israelites looked to this unexpected Prophet for hope in their present trials, He was not everyone's hero. To the contrary, so many powerful individuals were sure that He had to be stopped. Jesus made it His mission to “save life” and to “do good.” His foes worked hard to “do harm” to the miracle worker, and even “to kill Him.”
Throughout these challenging days, the Savior of the world never gave in to those who claimed that His acts of kindness were not “lawful.” Even when “His mother and His brothers” were the ones who stood against His mission of teaching and deliverance, the King of God's kingdom spoke definitively in favor of those who would eventually submit to His authority. “Whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Lord God, You see us in our weakness and shame. Do good to us this day for the glory of Your Name. Though many sought ways to destroy Your Son, and such were some of us, we now bow before You in reverence, believing fervently in Jesus the Messiah. Thank You for Your apostles, and for the gospel to which they gave full testimony. You filled them with Your Spirit and enabled them to proclaim the truth that we have now heard. The kingdom of darkness is coming to an end. Bind the strong man and cast him out of Your house. Let us rejoice in You as those who have been granted the honor of being called Your brothers and sisters, for we hear Your Word and follow You.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Mark 2



Jesus was “at home” in Capernaum, twenty miles from Nazareth. So many sick and needy people came to see Him there that there was no way to get in the door. Four companions of a paralytic man began to dismantle the roof tiles in order to lower their friend down into the middle of the room. Jesus' response? “Son, your sins are forgiven.” This was offensive to “some of the scribes” who thought it was an overreach by the miracle worker. The Lord gave this substitute plan: “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” The crowd loved it. “We have never seen anything like this!”
Those who were committed to the system of Jewish rituals taught by the other rabbis were not amused. They did not like the company that Jesus kept and the rules that He refused to follow. In short, they believed that He could not be the Messiah if He did not submit to their version of bad religion. Jesus had table fellowship with “many tax collectors and sinners” because “those who are well have no need of a physician.” His disciples did not fast as others did in light of their great joy regarding the coming of the “bridegroom” of God's covenant people. Someone “new” had arrived on the scene of ancient Israel. It was no time to be critical and glum.
Those who opposed Jesus could not resist the temptation to grumble. “His disciples began to pluck heads of grain on the Sabbath,” and the Pharisees wondered how that could possibly be permissible. They were so steeped in their strange additions to the Law that they had missed the wonder of the new King sent from heaven.
Jesus did not let Himself be knocked off course by anyone's negative attitude. He came to rescue the meek. The unexpected God was beginning to remove the chains that had held humanity in bondage for far too long.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
Father God, we come together in worship to hear Your Son and to be close to Him who has drawn near to the church by His Word and Spirit. Thank You for forgiveness and for the divine power to make a man rise and walk. Lord, throw off from us the paralysis of hatred and doubt, that we might live by faith. Help us to turn away from the love of money and the approval of men as we receive the healing of body and soul that is a gift from our holy Bridegroom. We mourn because of our transgression, but we rejoice with the news of the full salvation that is ours through Jesus. We will serve You forever and rest in our King. We are His disciples and we will listen to His voice.

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Mark 1



Mark opens his book with these words: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Historical evidence tells us that the early church understood that the sixteen chapters that follow were a record of Peter's preaching and that Mark was a translator for Peter. God used these Galileans to announce outstanding truths about the Man who would overturn unbelief, sin, and death.
John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, just as Isaiah and Malachi had promised. He told his hearers to confess their transgressions and turn from their evil ways that they might receive forgiveness from the Almighty. This unusual prophet knew that Jesus of Nazareth was superior to him in His being and power. As he said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
After a time of testing in the wilderness, our Lord began His message with these words with divine certainty: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Jesus displayed great authority in calling His followers and in teaching and healing. The lives of Peter, Andrew, James, and John were entirely redirected by the Lord. “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Crowds drew near Jesus as His “fame spread” because of the marvelous works He was performing. “Unclean spirits” knew of His glory and He silenced them. Though He told a cleansed leper, “See that you say nothing to anyone,” how could the man not talk about the blessings that he had received? The truths that form the foundation of our faith are so good that we must “spread the news.” Christ who was baptized in association with sinners, defeated the devil and his demons, rose early in the morning to pray, and healed people so that they might have the joy of serving Him is the “beloved Son” of the Father. Today is a very good day to “talk freely” about the best news of all recorded history.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for the gospel of Your Son. You prepared His way through the prophets of old and the ministry of John the Baptist. We are not worthy to be the lowest servants of our King, with whom You are well pleased. We honor You as we see Your power in calling disciples into the church. We leave our worries and fears behind and follow You. Teach us from the Scriptures with all authority. You have victory over all foes, seen and unseen. You touch the dying woman, and she rises up to serve. You heal crowds of sick people and cast out demonic hosts. You have prayed faithfully and preached mightily throughout the world using Your humble messengers. Make us clean today, and cause us to give careful attention to Your holy commandments.

Monday, May 07, 2018

Matthew 28



How is it that Christians have a day of rest and worship on Sunday rather than Saturday? The original witnesses of a new era of history found that the tomb of Jesus was empty “toward the dawn of the first day of the week.”
There was a “great earthquake” and an “angel” appearance which caused the soldiers to tremble. The message of the heavenly ambassador to the women who had observed both the death and burial of Jesus was momentous: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See, I have told you.” Soon after this the resurrected Jesus appeared to His friends and reinforced these encouraging words with His own voice.
The guards who had been sent to secure the tomb passed along a false report for many years that was suggested by the chief priests: “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.” This lie does not fit reason or the facts that we have in the gospels. Could Peter and the other scattered and frightened men have ever done such a thing? Only the resurrection of the Messiah makes sense of the details we have in the Bible.
The directive that the King of the church gave to the apostles when they met in Galilee has rocked the world for centuries. The followers of Jesus were to “make disciples.” This would necessitate going, baptizing, and teaching people to observe the Word of Christ. His promise to His followers: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Christians are called to rejoice in the good news of the One who died and is alive forevermore. His life in us empowers believers throughout the world to complete the mission that He has given to His church.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers
God of Glory, Your Son is risen! The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. More than this, our Savior has met with His apostles. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. We must go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Triune Name. We will teach and do what He has commanded. Our confidence is in His presence, for He is with us always, even to the end of the age. Remove from us all remaining doubt, and strengthen us by Your Spirit that we might stand firm in the face of every foe, for Jesus is Lord, forever and ever.

Saturday, May 05, 2018

This is Living Water

The following is a Commencement Address being given this morning by David Corbin who was an active member of our church for many years:

On an overcast day twenty-five years ago on the campus of the University of New Hampshire, Pulitzer Prize winning historian David McCullough delivered a commencement address to over 2,000 graduates. A member of that 1993 graduating class, I was not in attendance.
My choice would have been otherwise unnoteworthy (It would have been easy to be lost or forgotten in that crowd.) had it not been to the great frustration of my father who when I relayed my plans not to attend the ceremony the night before, replied:

“How could you do this to your family, David? Don’t you realize how important this is to us?”

His were not the complaints of a parent angered because I was the first in my family to graduate from college. My father was upset because I had come from a family OF college graduates.

As a family, we had never been wealthy, prominent or influential. Yet he explained that we took things like commencement ceremonies seriously because they represented the only consistent markers of accomplishment for a family that had otherwise achieved very little.

But I didn’t budge. I didn’t go the next day. He attended in my place, grabbed an extra program that he gruffly gave me weeks later, still angered by my uncaring decision not to attend. I’m not sure if he was ever more upset with me than that weekend. Of all the interactions that produced intense regret when years later, he passed away unexpectedly, that was THE interaction that played over and over again in my head.
Regret doesn’t flow easily at 21, if at all.  Not because I thought David McCullough had nothing important to say. But because I reasoned that the whole fuss associated with ceremonies was of little value, that what was truly important in college was what took place in the classroom or in the library when no one was looking. (I still in part carry this idea with me, and never quite have enjoyed commencement ceremonies for that reason, never mind that they always seem to fall on warm days in May on my wife’s birthday, the academic garb weighs a ton, and I tend to perspire easily.)
Yet at the time, I was certain that my bias against ceremony amounted to a solid indictment against appearances for the sake of appearances. An aspiring Shakespeare scholar, I could cite Henry V’s famous critique of ceremony before the Battle of Agincourt to give my position that much more intellectual heft:

And what have kings, that privates have not too,
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?
What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
(Henry V, Act IV, Scene i)
Here King Henry ponders fame the night before he famously leads an overmatched army of Englishmen into France to do battle. What makes his speech so striking is that it is delivered by a man who had made an art form of employing appearances as a young prince to make his own life a spectacle, picturing himself as a sun that he would purposefully allow to be smothered by clouds, only so his radiant reappearance would bedazzle onlookers.
King Henry learnt only later in life that a life lived to gain recognition from others is an unhappy life, not worth the sleepless nights and restless days.
And therein is the rub. So much of what we do in this world tends to turn on gaining the recognition of others. I was right as a young man to notice this and to skeptically reject idle ceremony as a foolish idol.  But I applied this judgment improperly in the case of my college commencement.
Had I gone, I would have had to sit through a number of  speeches that I thought had nothing to do with me. And given that I was the most important person to me that day, and most other days for that matter, I didn’t want to attend a large event where I was lost in the crowd, even if it meant upsetting those close to me.

Perhaps one of the hardest things to learn in life is to gain joy from another’s enjoyment, especially when you believe that this costs something to you, whether it’s lack of attention when it’s showered on the other person, sacrifices we make that we think have gone unnoticed by others, the suspicious feeling that others are all take and no give, or simply the nagging question, why you and not me, why them and not us, in a sentence, our human tendency to view the seeming happiness that comes from importance as a zero-sum game.
Which brings me back to David McCullough, who seems to understand this. Fortunately for me, Mr. McCullough continued to make many commencement addresses over the years. So many that last year, he put some of his best into an anthology titled, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For.


I imagine had I been in the audience 25 years ago willing to listen to what McCullough had to say, I would have heard some of the many excellent admonitions that fill the pages of this volume. Some of the most memorable include the precepts that “History is human. It is about people, and they speak to us across the years,” “Nothing happens in isolation,”and  “Everything that happens has consequences.”
Had I been there, I might have heard Mr. McCullough bring these precepts together in his praise of Dr. Benjamin Rush, a lesser known Founding Father, of whom John Adams once wrote: “I know of no character living or dead who has done more real good in America.” In an excerpt that captures this sentiment perfectly, McCullough writes:

I’ve been reading the diary of a Philadelphia woman named Elizabeth Drinker, a Quaker wife and mother whose large household included two free black children, boys aged seven and eleven, who to her alarm had taken severely ill.

“Dr. Rush called,” she recorded April 8, 1794. “Dr. Rush here in forenoon. . .[despite] roads being so very bad” reads here entry for April 9. Dr. Rush called again on April 12, April 14, April 15, 17, 22, and 27, and on into the first week in May. . . He made fifteen house calls on those two boys by the time they were out of the woods.

Here McCullough takes a set of dates, people, and places that easily could have been forgotten as numbers and letters on a page and reminds us that history is a human story; that these people were real; that they faced challenges, and during some of those challenges, they rose to the occasion and showed humanity at its best. That in the best scenario, heroes like Benjamin Rush and Elizabeth Drinker, lived not to gain recognition or to make history, but to live well.
At this point I may be risking crossing the line into the boilerplate address. Self-deprecation, check. Altruistic corrective, check. Perhaps all that is needed is a salute to all of you for your accomplishments and a call to arms to live well. Well, I’m not going to make it that easy because you and I know that it isn’t that easy. There is still the elephant in the room . . . us.

In other words, why can’t we get this thing right?
Perhaps the most celebrated recent commencement address, David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College speech titled “This is Water,” takes up this question poignantly. Wallace begins by telling a “parable-ish story.”

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"
Wallace relates that because we don’t think about water [“day in-day out” existence] the right way, we end up self-centered, close-minded, bored, annoyed with others. and unaware of what is real and essential; namely, “capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.”
Closing his address with the words “this is water,” “this is water,” he wishes the young graduates “way more than luck.”
Tragically, Wallace would take his own life two years later.

In his last work, The Pale King, in an autobiographical moment, Wallace’s describes the struggle of a person who knows the difference between right and wrong, and cares about the world he lives in, but cannot face an existence he finds meaningless in the context of  a “capital-T truth” that accounts for life both before AND after death, the haunting feeling in Wallace’s words:

“That everything is on fire, slow fire, and we’re all less than a million breaths away from an oblivion more total than we can bring ourselves to even try to imagine.”

Here Wallace gives us a picture of water [or existence] that is a living hell.

While Wallace bravely tried to encourage others in his literary career to account for their existence, perhaps he showed that the great challenge in life is not overcoming one’s self-centeredness, or loving one’s neighbor, but struggling with doubt about why we’re here, and whether we matter.
In other words, contemporary living is often like inhabiting a house divided against itself as we’ve been so trained to think of our existence in terms of matter that we doubt whether anything other than matter - including ourselves - matters.
Our doubt begs that we ask the questions Lincoln famously recommends in his “House Divided” speech.  “If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.”
“Where we are?” is a matter of knowing who God is and who we are. Consider the parable of the Samaritan woman in John’s gospel in our scripture reading for this morning:

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. (John 4: 7-10)

Jesus teaches the Samaritan woman and us who He is, who we are, and what we can ask of Him; that the living water received by those who believe in Him will produce a spring of water that wells up in our souls and replenishes and nourishes us eternally.
“Whither we tend?” is the story of His creation, our rebellion, His love, and our hoped-for redemption and eternal salvation.
“What to do and how to do it” certainly will be made difficult by our own self-centeredness. It will be hindered by human dysfunction. It will be challenged by living in an age where His nature and ours  is denied. In a sentence, you will be tempted into believing on the one hand the lie that you are greater than Him, and on the other hand the lie that you mean nothing to Him.


Yet having attended Providence Christian, a college whose mission is “to equip [you] to remain firmly grounded in biblical truth; thoroughly educated in the liberal arts; and fully engaged in [your] church, [your] community, and the world for the glory of God and for service to humanity,” you will be better enabled to see these lies for what they are, and to know that His is living water.
My hope and prayer for you this morning is that you will draw from His well daily, that rivers of His water will flow within you, and that this good news will pour out from you onto others for His everlasting glory.