Seeing, eating, drinking

In this morning’s Gospel lesson we saw a number of allusions to Exodus 24 when the glory cloud of God’s presence descended upon Mount Sinai. One of the other things we find Moses and the elders doing on the mountain in Exodus 24 is sharing a meal. Exodus 24:11 says, “So they saw God, and they ate and they drank.” This eating and drinking with God comes at the end of what some have described as a covenant renewal service very much like our own. They have already been called by God to appear before Him on Sinai, which has required their cleansing and consecration by the reading of the Book of the Covenant. They have been called, cleansed, and consecrated, and then “they saw God, and they ate and drank.” Beloved that is very same pattern that has brought you to this Table this morning. Only unlike Exodus 24 you need not remain at the base of the mountain like the people, or mid-way up like the seventy and even the priests. No, you are invited right into the middle of the glory cloud of God’s presence to eat and drink with Him. As His light has shined in your heart through the preaching of the gospel this day, He bids you come and “behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, ...being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,…by the Spirit of the Lord.”

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Where we're headed

As I already mentioned Transfiguration Sunday marks the end of the season of Epiphany before we begin the journey of Lent. As with any journey it helps to know where you are headed before you set out. The Transfiguration tells us where the journey of Lent will end. That is because the Transfiguration of Jesus is a sneak preview of the Resurrection of Jesus and Easter is the final destination of Lent. The glorification of Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration gave Jesus a taste of the joy set before Him for which He endured the way of the cross. Yet this glorification of Jesus also gives us a picture of the glory that awaits all those who suffer with Jesus in order to be raised with Him. You were created and redeemed in order to shine with Jesus. That is where we, who have put our faith in Christ, are headed. The way from here to there is way of the cross. So before embarking on that journey this Wednesday let us together fix our eyes upon the glory of Jesus this Day. For this morning we ourselves will be given a taste of the joy set before us for which we likewise endure the way of the cross.

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Food to Sustain

Last week we noted Jesus’ unwavering commitment to fulfill His vocation. We saw how He viewed doing the will of God as His food – it was what sustained Him. Indeed when the devil tempted Him with food during His 40 day fast in the wilderness, He replied, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word of God.” He’s saying, though food is necessary to sustain your life, it is not sufficient in and of itself to sustain your life. Something more is needed for you to live the life that God has called you to live. Jesus says that “something more” is “every word of God.” Note it’s not just “a few words of God,” or “some words of God,” but “every word of God.” Jesus is saying that in order for you to be sustained to live the life that God has called you to live – as a man or a woman, as a husband and/or a father, as a wife and/or a mother, as a son or a daughter, as a student, as an employee or an employer – you need to know what Paul called “the whole counsel” of God’s Word. Indeed, Jesus Himself is quoting the Word of God from Deut. 8:3 to make this very point. This practice indicates not only a deep familiarity with the Word of God, but also the ability to apply it to life. Yet, as with prayer, isn’t it so often the case that the pattern of our life fails to corresponds to this necessity. If you want to live life well, faithfully fulfilling your callings, then you must make the Word of God central to your life. That is no doubt part of the reason you are here this morning. Even though, as we’ve seen in The Lord's Service, the primary purpose of the covenant renewal service is not education, nevertheless the Word of God is prominent and is intended to convey both a deep and broad understanding of Scripture and its application to your lives. Yet even this weekly diet of Scripture is not enough to sustain you. You need to build upon what you will read, and hear, and sing here this morning so that your life and the life of your family will become permeated by the Word of God. It is in this way that “every word of God” will sustain you to live the lives that God calls you to live.

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Sabbath Meal

This morning we’ve seen that Jesus came to usher in an age of unending Sabbath consisting in peace and rest with God in His presence. In the sermon I made the point that this is why He performed so many healings on the Sabbath – He was enacting the peace and rest for which the Sabbath stood. I think it’s also why he spent so much time feasting. Nothing better communicates peace and rest than a meal. Remember that peace in the Bible doesn’t refer to the absence of conflict, but rather the presence of blessing. The former is shallow, even empty, but the latter is deep and full. Peace in the Bible, shalom, refers to wholeness and restoration of relationships between God and man and among mankind. When Jesus ate and drank with outcasts, He was offering them restoration, peace with God through Him. And rest in the Bible is most often connected to God’s presence. The Sabbath was the day when God drew near to His people and summoned them to rest. In the tabernacle and temple He assumed His resting place in the midst of His people. When Jesus ate and drank with His disciples at the Last Supper, they reclined and rested in the presence of God in the flesh. And this peace and rest for which the Sabbath stood and which Jesus enacted is yours in this meal. In eating and drinking this bread and wine you experience peace, wholeness and restoration both with God and with one another. Likewise in receiving this bread and wine you experience true rest with God in the presence of His Son by His Spirit. It is to this Table that your Savior beckons you to come and find rest for your souls. For here we hold up the emblems of our peace with God, the body and blood of Christ, and He remembers and renews His covenant with us. What could be more restful than knowing that you are at peace with God? So come and let us eat and drink in peace and at rest with our God! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!

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Sabbath Rest

In this morning’s Gospel lesson we learn that Jesus’ Sabbath healings were intended to usher in the true and unending Sabbath, consisting in peace and rest with God in His presence. The whole OT period can be seen as a movement towards this peace and rest with God. It is the peace and rest that Adam was to have experienced on that first Sabbath Day in the Garden, but which was thwarted by the Serpent. Thus instead of peace and rest in the presence of God, Adam was banished from the Garden to experience discord and hardship. But God sent another Adam, the Seed of the Woman, in the midst of this discord and hardship to conquer the Serpent and bring man back into the Garden to enjoy peace and rest with God. That is what Jesus was doing in His Sabbath healings. He was telling the people that peace and rest with God could be restored in the kingdom He was preaching. The peace and rest with God that the Sabbath stood for was never to be confined to one day in seven, but was to spill out and transform the other six days. The Sabbath was a picture of what God was going to do the world. Well that Sabbath, and all that it stood for, arrived in Jesus Christ. In Him you are readmitted to the Garden to enjoy peace and rest with God. In Him you have entered the true and unending Sabbath. That is why we worship on the first day of the week. The Sabbath that Jesus spent in the tomb marked the end of the OT Sabbath as the Last Adam suffered the penalty of the first Adam’s Sabbath sin. When he rose again the next day, He threw open the doors to a new week for the world, an eighth day that surpasses the first seven in every way. And yet we know that we don’t yet fully experience the peace and rest with God that Jesus came to bring. Each week as you kneel to confess your sins you’re reminded of the truth that, “there remains therefore a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.” And each week you’re given a foretaste of that rest that is to spill out and transform this rest of your week. What we do here this morning is a picture of what God wants to do to the world!

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A Table of Refreshment

This morning we’ve been considering the spiritual conflict in which both Jesus and the Church are engaged. Well, in the midst of this conflict the Lord has spread this Table in the presence of our enemies in order to strengthen and renew us for this fight. In 2 Tim. 4:4 Paul terms this holy war in which we are engaged, “the good fight.” And he says that he has waged this war by faith. Elsewhere in Eph. 6:16 he singles out “the shield of faith” above the rest of the “armor of God” as being especially useful in this fight. This is because by the shield of faith “you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” Well beloved this Table strengthens and renews us for battle by strengthening and renewing our faith. For here in the bread and wine our faith finds its object. Faith always has an object. We’re not to put faith in faith, even justification by faith. We’re to put our faith in Jesus Christ. And here at this Table our faith is exercised, it’s trained, to seek out its proper object. Faith is like a muscle. It must be used in order to grow strong. Well, the only way to come to this Table is to come by faith, believing in the death and resurrection of Christ for you. Even if your faith is weak or wavering, this Table has been appointed for you. Jesus says to you, “Come unto to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Are you feeling worn out and beaten down by the battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil? Then this Table is for you. Your Savior tells you He is gentle and lowly in heart and that in coming to Him you will find rest for your souls. His body was broken and His blood was shed that you might experience peace and rest in His presence. So come, feeding upon Him by faith and find this rest. And in resting, find your faith renewed.

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Prepare for Battle

In this morning’s Gospel lesson we’ll read of Jesus cleansing a man who is possessed by an unclean spirit. Mark places this miracle first in order to reveal the true nature of the conflict in which Jesus and the Church are engaged. We’re engaged in holy war, but not the sort imagined by the Jews of the first century or the Muslims of the twenty-first, though its every bit as real. Paul says that we wrestle not “against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spirituals hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” And we need to understand what we’re doing here this morning against this backdrop. This morning we’re engaging in holy war against the spiritual armies of wickedness in the heavenly places. But we don’t fight with guns and bombs. Our weapons are much stronger that. As Paul says, “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” Guns and bombs can’t defeat our enemies. The weapons we’ve been given, “weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left,” are the Word of God and Prayer. Through the reading and preaching of the Word of God this day, Jesus will ride forth conquering and to conquer. Through the prayers of the people of God this day, both spoken and sung, Jesus will judge the earth. Don’t believe the hype that the real action is in Columbia and Washington. This is where the action is. The Kingdom doesn’t come through guns and bombs and neither does it come through bills and legislation. The real “Hope for America” and “Change we need” will be proclaimed and enacted here this morning in Word and Sacrament. But it’s not the hope or change that most are looking for and it puts us on a collision course with the powers of the present age. So as you stand there, poised to enter the conflict, remember the words of James, “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

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The Family Table

In this morning’s sermon we considered how the gospel of the Kingdom reorders our lives by placing us in a new family. When folks come to Jesus telling him that His mother and brothers were outside, He looks at His disciples and says, “Here are My mother and brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” And likewise He looks down upon you gathered for this feast and He says, “Here are My brothers and sisters and mothers.” Having responded to the gospel of the Kingdom with the obedience of faith, you have been constituted the house and family of God. And beloved there is nothing more important to life and health of family than the family meal. In recent years countless studies have shown the family that eats together is stronger, healthier, and happier than those who allow the family meal to fall out of the family routine. And this common sense observation regarding the earthly family holds true when we consider the family of God. The table that is spread before you is our family meal. And the family that shares this meal together will be stronger, healthier, and happier than those who allow this meal to fall out of the family routine (read liturgy). Sharing a meal together is one of the most potent rituals in human life. Nothing else that we do together conveys a sense of belonging the way that a meal does. Coincidently that is why it is so utterly important that our children come to the Table with us. That’s why Jesus was always sharing meals with people. And it’s no wonder that sociologists and cultural anthropologists are finally catching up with Him. Beloved, this is your family meal. In receiving you to this Table, God the Father is saying that He accepts you as His sons and daughters through your elder brother the Lord Jesus Christ. You are his brothers and sisters and mothers! Therefore come to the Table He has spread for you!

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Called to Worship in His Presence

Last week we saw that the summons to follow Jesus is first and foremost a summons to be with Him, to abide in His presence. We noted that to be with Jesus means to seek Him where He has promised to be found – in the Word, Sacraments, and Prayer. And you could think of the Call to Worship in much the same way. When the Lord calls you to worship Him in Spirit and Truth, He’s calling you to worship in His presence. Now, obviously you can worship Him privately, or as a family, but what we do here is different. Though God is generally present throughout His creation, He has also promised to be present in a special way when we gather around the Word, Sacraments, and Prayer. This is what the psalmist is getting at when he says, “The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all dwellings of Jacob.” He’s saying your houses are great, but they’re not My church. In heeding the call to worship, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” And that means this is different than your prayer closet or your living room. Your feet are soon to be standing on holy ground because you will have come “to God the Judge of all” and “to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.” This is where Jesus abides and where you must seek Him. What we do here this morning is at the very center of what it means to follow Him. This morning we follow Him through the parted heavens into the very throne room of heaven. Let us do so with heart’s full of faith, hope, and love.

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