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Eucharistic exhortation - November 11, 2007
John 13:1: Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to...
Signa data - November 07, 2007
Many translators and interpreters of Augustine's de doctrina Christiana translate "signa data" as "conventional signs." But there's something to be said for taking the phrase literally (as some commentators do). The difference between naturalia and data, Augustine says, is that...
Beauty - November 05, 2007
Jenson again: Western history teaches that "the experience of beauty does not survive the cessation of worship. Precisely those who thematically dedicate themselves to beauty, and who within the modern Western tradition regularly just so abandon worship, are in wave...
Eucharistic meditation - November 04, 2007
Malachi 1:6-7: A son honors his father, and a servant his master Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect? says the LORD of hosts to you, O...
Social Eucharist in Middle Ages - October 30, 2007
In his social history of Christian Worship, Frank Senn summarizes the developments of the medieval period with regard to the Eucharist. He begins by challenging the assumption that medieval society was held together by "the church." He notes that the...
Non-Eucharistic Eucharist - October 30, 2007
Eucharistic prayers were eventually removed almost entirely from the Eucharistic celebration, so that the church ended up, as Louis Bouyer has provocatively put it, "a eucharist in which there is no longer and eucharist at all properly speaking." To grasp...
Kissing Christ - October 29, 2007
In his social history of Christian liturgy, Lutheran liturgist Frank Senn describes the invention of the pax board in England during the 13th century: "This popular practice was welcomed by the clergy and disseminated throughout Christendom by the Franciscans. The...
Evangelical sacraments - October 27, 2007
In his Schmalkald Articles (1538), Luther begins with a brief statement about justification through Christ by faith. Later in the articles he returns to the issue of the gospel, and intriguingly introduces the sacraments as one of the "helps" that...
Eucharistic exhortation - October 21, 2007
1 Corinthians 10:16: Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? As Pastor Smith has explained to us...
Baptismal meditation - October 21, 2007
Matthew 28: Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things, whatever I have commanded you. We heard in...
Eucharistic meditation - October 14, 2007
Matthew 7:9-11: Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know...
Baptismal meditation - October 14, 2007
Matthew 7:7: Ask and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall...
Eucharistic meditation - October 13, 2007
Last week's, also delayed because of internet troubles. Matthew 6:26: Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much...
Baptismal meditation - October 13, 2007
From last Sunday, delayed due to interruption of Internet service. Matthew 6:24: No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise...
Baptism in the CRC - October 03, 2007
CRC Pastor Raymond Coffey responded to my post on the 1959 baptismal rite with this comment: "Your notes were right on from the 1959 hymnal. Apart from updating and compressing some language, there are several significant differences between the 1959...
Baptism in the CRC - October 03, 2007
The 1959 CRC Psalter Hymnal's rite for infant baptism includes an abbreviated version of Luther's great flood prayer, and ends with this thanksgiving: "Almighty God and merciful Father, we thank and praise Thee that Thou hast forgiven us and our...
Eucharistic meditation - September 23, 2007
Matthew 5:44: But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for He causes His son to shine on the...
Eucharistic meditation - September 16, 2007
Matthew 19: What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder. This is the marriage supper of the lamb. Here at this table, Jesus our Lord and Husband, our Lordly Husband, meets with us to communion with us,...
Baptismal meditation - September 16, 2007
Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water by the word. We've been talking this morning...
Means of grace - September 08, 2007
In the final "General Remark" in Religion Within the Bounds of Reason Alone, Kant deals with means of grace. Baptism, he claims is the "first reception of a member into a church" and therefore "is a solemnity rich in meaning...
Liturgical footwear - August 27, 2007
Henry Chadwick notes, "Some Christians late in the fourth century, especially round Brescia, walked barefoot after the example of Moses at the burning bush or the prophet Isaiah who went barefoot for three years. Successive bishops deplored this, evidently in...
Eucharistic meditation - August 26, 2007
1 Corinthians 10:16: Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? We drink here the cup of blessing. What blessings are contained in that cup? All the blessings that Jesus promises to...
Synagogue and temple - August 22, 2007
In their fascinating and richly illustrated Solomon's Temple: Myth and History, William Hamblin and David Seely take note of the architectural continuities between temple and synagogue: "Many elements of the architecture and visual imagery of the synagogue were intended to...
Eucharistic Meditation - August 05, 2007
Matthew 4:2: After Jesus had fasted forty days and forty night, He afterward became hungry. Jesus goes into the wilderness as the Last Adam and as the true Israelite. And like Adam and Israel, He is tested regarding food. He...
Battle of Rites - July 17, 2007
Bediako cites a report from Voice Weekly about a conflict concerning drumming in African Christian worship: "A sharp conflict recently erupted between the Christian churches and the traditional authorities in teh Ghanian town of Akim Tafo over violation by the...
Eucharistic meditation, Fourth Sunday in Trinity - June 24, 2007
Matthew 3:16-17: When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a...
Assurance - June 21, 2007
If some of the baptized end up in hell, how can baptism be an instrument of assurance? Might as well ask the same question about the word: If some who hear the Word end up in hell, how can the...
Against Sociology - June 18, 2007
In his stimulating book Liturgical Theology, Simon Chan argues that a crucial weakness of Protestant and evangelical theology is that it stops the gospel story with the ascension, and doesn't see that Pentecost and the church are integral to the...
What Baptism Confers - June 18, 2007
Baptism has a promissory aspect. The Lord promises forgiveness and life in the Word, and calls hearers to faith. Baptism is a ritual form of the same promise, offering this gift to me by name, and baptism calls the baptized...
Paedocommunion and the FV - June 15, 2007
My previous couple of posts highlight the fact that paedocommunion lurks behind the whole Federal Vision debate. Paedocommunion disambiguates the ambiguous "God is/isn't your God" that paedobaptism without paedocommunion declares to our children....
Infant Baptism and the FV - June 15, 2007
The Federal Vision has been about a lot of things, but one of the central pastoral issues has to do with the status of our children, what we say to them, and how we say it. From one perspective, the...
Infant baptism and saving benefits - June 15, 2007
The PCA Federal Vision report condemns the notion that some receive saving benefits of Christ and later lose them. But this runs contrary to the PCA's own covenant understanding of infant baptism and the statements of its own Constitution. Consider:...
Prayer and the weary body - June 06, 2007
Reader Angie Brennan writes: Regarding "Prayer and the Lusty Body"...I'm not sure I agree with Tyndale that true prayer necessarily gives comfort to the soul--and it certainly isn't always easy on the body. Prayers offered in the midst of great...
Papist, stand up - June 06, 2007
Defending the prayer book, Hooker cleverly turns the charge of papist back on the non-conformists. According to Targoff's summary, "By depicting the use of sermons to distribute God's word as an act of scriptural hoarding, Hooker aims to reverse the...
Prayer and the lusty body - June 06, 2007
Tyndale distinguished true and false prayer in part by distinguishing the role of the body in each. False, hypocritical prayer, relies entirely on the body; hypocrites have "turned [prayer] into a bodily labor, to vex the tongue, lips, eyes, and...
Cartestian Elizabeth - June 06, 2007
We blame Descartes for the divided self of modernity, but perhaps we should blame Elizabeth I. In her book on the Book of Common Prayer, Ramie Targoff notes the limits of what Elizabeth demanded of her subjects: "so long as...
Baptized Body - June 06, 2007
As you can see to the side, my little book on baptism is now available from Canon Press, just in time to give it a quick read before the PCA General Assembly. It's short; it's easy to read; and each...
Eucharistic meditation - May 13, 2007
John 16:7: I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you....
Creation sacraments and eschatology - May 07, 2007
Thomas defines sacraments in terms of their power to effect sanctification. Not all sacred signs are sacraments, but only those which are efficacious; they are signs of holy things that make men holy (ST 60, 2). Thomas also denies that...
Sacramental Protestantism - April 27, 2007
Protestants are people of the word; Catholics are people of the sacraments. That's the way it's usually divided up. Sed contra, I say: Medieval Catholics frequently denied that there were sacraments in Eden; Protestants have just as frequently affirmed Edenic...
Baptism and assurance - April 24, 2007
Brownson claims that baptism does not bring assurance in the sense of answering the question "How can I know if I really have true faith that relies on Christ alone?" That experience of assurance only comes through "the existential act...
Baptism and identity - April 24, 2007
Brownson again, arguing that "In baptism, I am given a new identity, into which I am called to grow": "When we are baptized into the name of Jesus, we are given a new name, the name of Christian. Names are...
Baptism and faith - April 24, 2007
In The Promise of Baptism (Eerdmans, 2007), James Brownson describes faith as 1) acknowledging God's goodness to me in particular, 2) accepting and receiving the gifts He offers, 3) trusting Him, and 4) being loyal to Him, clinging in allegiance...
Eucharistic meditation, Second Sunday After Easter - April 22, 2007
Matthew 1:1: The Book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. We've concentrated this morning on the first two words of Matthew – the "book of the Genesis." We'll pick up the pace...
Baptismal exhortation - April 22, 2007
Matthew 28:19: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am...
Antisacramental devilry - April 11, 2007
Luther assaulted the enthusiasts of the Reformation era with vigor: "enthusiasm lurks in Adam and his children from the beginning up to the end of the world, as a poison placed in them by teh ancient serpent, and it is...
Eucharistic meditation, Easter Sunday - April 08, 2007
John 21:15: So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord; You know that I love You. He said to him,...
Public and Private Piety - April 06, 2007
Thanks to Jayson Grieser for sending along notes and quotations from Ramie Targoff's 2001 Common Prayer: The Language of Public Devotion in Early Modern England. Targoff points out that, contrary to what we might think, Protestants were more interested than...
Eucharistic meditation, Palm Sunday - April 01, 2007
Matthew 26:30: And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Jesus and His disciples ended the last supper with a hymn. What did they sing? The texts in the gospels don't tell us, but we...
Baptismal exhortation, Palm Sunday - April 01, 2007
I read from Psalm 118:17: I will not die, but live, and tell of the works of the LORD. The LORD has disciplined me severely, but He has not given me over to death. From the time of Augustine, Christians...
Exhortation, Palm Sunday - April 01, 2007
The crowds greet Jesus as He arrives in Jerusalem singing from Psalm 118: "Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest." That's also one of the phrases we commonly use in our liturgy....
Eucharistic exhortation, Fifth Sunday of Lent - March 25, 2007
Matthew 25:35: I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in. The gospel is a story of hospitality. Through Jesus'...
Eucharistic polity - March 19, 2007
Muir again: "In [medieval] England taking communion was called 'taking one's rights,' which meant asserting one's membership in the community, and to suffer excommunication . . . would have meant exclusion from both the universal community of believers and the...
Eucharistic meditation, Fourth Sunday of Lent - March 18, 2007
Psalm 128: How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. Your wife shall be...
Exhortation, Fourth Sunday of Lent - March 18, 2007
If you've been at Trinity for any length of time, you've noticed that many of us kiss each other during the passing of the peace. Why do we do that? The short answer is that the Bible commands it. Five...
Eucharistic meditation, Third Sunday of Lent - March 11, 2007
Genesis 2:21: So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place. We saw in the sermon this morning...
Baptismal exhortation - March 11, 2007
1 Corinthians 12:12-13: Even as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into...
Eucharistic meditation, Second Sunday of Lent - March 04, 2007
Luke 22:18-19: Jesus said, I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. And when he had taken some of the bread and given thanks, He...
Baptizing cities - February 28, 2007
In his study of Judaic Baptism, James W. Dale quotes Jewish War, 3.7, where Josephus speaks of a city being, in Dale's translation, "overmersed" (epibaptizo). Dale comments, "It is intolerable to suppose that a city is figured, through the departure...
Baptism and Citizenship, III - February 27, 2007
One final quotation: "The creation of a plural system of Churches with their separate baptisms (Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist) implied also the emergence of a plural system of civil citizenries or communities. Therefore, in the case of States with multiple confessional...
Baptism and Citizenship, II - February 27, 2007
Another quotation from the aforementioned article: "The abolition of compulsory baptism at birth was the most radical kind of sacramental reform ever conceived in the 16th century. In fact, it implied not only separation from the old compulsory Church, but...
Baptism and citizenship - February 27, 2007
In an article in Religion and Philosophy, Elena Brambilla and Joaquim Carvalho discuss the connections between baptism and citizenship under the ancien regime. They begin by distinguishing two levels of citizenship: "It is therefore essential to consider, as a preliminary...
Eucharistic meditation, First Sunday of Lent - February 25, 2007
3 John 5-6: Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; and they bear witness to your love before the church; and you will do well to send them on...
Baptismal meditation - February 25, 2007
3 John 2, 11: Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good...
Exhortation, First Sunday of Lent - February 25, 2007
This is the first Sunday in the traditional season of Lent, and as we enter this season we've made some changes in the liturgy. We will not be raising our hands, and we will say rather than sing some of...
Stripping the year - February 24, 2007
Much as I admire the Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians, I believe they erred when they stripped the church calendar to an annual cycle of fifty-two Sundays. They reduced the rich melody of the earlier calendar to a repetitive ticking of...
Stripping the flesh - February 22, 2007
Paul appears to be describing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in Colossians 2:11-12. The "stripping of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" refers to the crucifixion of Jesus, which fulfills what the rite of...
By the Spirit - February 22, 2007
Paul says that one can only say "Jesus is Lord" by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). He adds later in the same chapter that we are incorporated into the body, the one-and-many body of the visible church, by "one Spirit"...
Liturgical uniformity - February 22, 2007
To outsiders, the Roman Catholic church appears to have a uniform liturgical tradition, of long standing. Rosenstock-Huessy points out that the uniformity of the Mass is a rather late development. During the 19th century, "the movement of Solesmes united all...
Sacramental piety - February 21, 2007
Some believe that an emphasis on sacraments must produce an externalized, mechanical form of the Christian life. That is no doubt partly the fault of high-church Christians who have permitted their participation to become externalized and mechanical. It's incumbent upon...
Eucharistic meditation, Last Sunday of Epiphany - February 18, 2007
2 John 1, 3: The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth . . . Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of...
Baptism exhortation - February 18, 2007
2 John 4: I was glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. As we saw in the sermon this morning, John addresses this second epistle to...
Exhortation, Last Sunday of Epiphany - February 18, 2007
This Wednesday is "Ash Wednesday," the beginning of the traditional church season of Lent. Lent is a fast season, traditionally set aside as a time of penitence and abstinence, a forty-day period of self-denial and meditation on the cross. How...
Baptists - February 14, 2007
Robert Newton Peck writes about Baptist baptism in his novel, A Day No Pigs Would Die: "Baptists were a strange lot. They put you in water to see how holy you were. Then they ducked you under the water three...
Baptismal triumph - February 14, 2007
Commenting on Colossians 2 in the NIV Application Commentary, David Garland says, "Baptism marks the defeat of the powers that formerly held sway over us. Those who have died with Christ and have been raised with him no longer live...
Man speaks himself - February 12, 2007
Running through the four elements, Smart celebrates the air: For the AIR. is purified by prayer which is made aloud and with all our might. For loud prayer is good for weak lungs and for a vitiated throat. For SOUND...
The foundry of worship - February 12, 2007
More from Christopher Smart: For the feast of TRUMPETS should be kept up, that being the most direct and acceptable of all instruments. For the TRUMPET of God is a blessed intelligence and so are all the instruments in HEAVEN....
Eucharistic meditation, Sixth Sunday After Epiphany - February 11, 2007
1 John 5:21: Little children, guard yourselves from idols. John tells us that those who are begotten of God are not dominated by sin, and that the one begotten of God keeps him from the evil one. It's not clear...
Baptismal exhortation - February 11, 2007
1 John 5:13: "These things I have written to those who believe into the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life." We are all born into the world bearing the...
Eucharistic meditation, Fifth Sunday After Epiphany - February 04, 2007
1 John 5: For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are one. John's language in this verse is a little different from most English translations. The last clause is...
Ordination exhortation - January 28, 2007
1 Timothy 4:13: Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Prior to the Reformation, the Western church treated ordination as a sacrament....
Exhortation, Fourth Sunday After Epiphany - January 28, 2007
Many of you received an email this week encouraging you to be at church on time and rebuking those who are habitually tardy. Some got the impression that the elders don't want you to show up at all if you're...
Calvin on Baptism again - January 25, 2007
A couple of thoughts on the Calvin quotations I posted yesterday, inspired by a reader's response. 1) Calvin appeals to his doctrine of "accommodation" to explain why the sign of baptism is necessary. God does speak in ways we can...
Calvin's Sacramental Hermeneutics - January 24, 2007
Ephesians 5:31's description of marriage, Calvin argues, refers to the Supper, a seal of our union with Christ: "As Eve was formed out of the substance of her husband, and thus was a part of himself; so, if we are...
Calvin on Baptism - January 24, 2007
Calvin interprets the "washing of water" in Ephesians 5:26 as a reference to baptism, and goes into a little digression on baptism. Paul is telling us "that we are washed by baptism," and by this he means "that God employs...
Unbearable burden of Evangelicalism - January 17, 2007
Anti-sacramental, anti-ritual evangelicalism emphasizes a personal relationship with God, but tends to encourage what Anthony Giddens calls "pure relationship," a relationship that is not tacked down with external anchors and supports. A live-in relationship, without benefit of the rites and...
Deritualized selves - January 09, 2007
Lori Branch links the Reformation and post-Reformation attack on ritual with the formation of the Cartesian self: "the Reformation religious subject gradually became less a participant in communal, bodily ritual action, and more and more the Cartesian cogito, an individual,...
Eucharistic exhortation, First Sunday After Epiphany - January 07, 2007
1 John 4:2: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Why do we have this meal? The simple answer is that Jesus commanded it. But why did He command it? After all,...
Exhortation, First Sunday After Epiphany - January 07, 2007
Yesterday, January 6, was Epiphany, the beginning of one of the traditional seasons of the church year. The word "epiphany" means "manifestation" or "revelation." Advent celebrates the coming of the Lord; Epiphany, His revelation. We need both. If God comes...
Eucharistic meditation, First Sunday After Christmas - December 31, 2006
Luke 22:18: Jesus said, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes. When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, He was looking forward to a future kingdom and a future...
Spontaneity - December 22, 2006
In her recently-published Rituals of Spontaneity (Baylor), Lori Branch investigates the shift from ritual to emotional expression in liturgy, poetry, romance, consumer behavior from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. She asks, "How and why did the popular conception of...
Eucharistic meditation, Third Sunday of Advent - December 17, 2006
1 Corinthians 10: Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who...
Eucharistic meditation, Second Sunday of Advent - December 10, 2006
Psalm 23:1: The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. At Jesus' birth, shepherds come to worship Him because He is the chief Shepherd. He is Shepherd Yahweh in human flesh. He is the Shepherd of Israel. He is...
Sadnesses - December 06, 2006
In his study of the influence of medievalism on postmodern theory, Bruce Holsinger briefly reviews the reception of de Lubac's work: "a number of his books were officially withdrawn from institutional libraries across the Catholic world, hundreds of copies of...
Eucharistic meditation, First Sunday of Advent - December 03, 2006
John 7:37-38: Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If any many is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says,...
Exhortation, First Sunday of Advent - December 03, 2006
When Jesus ascended into heaven, He poured out His Spirit on the church. According to Paul, He also gave gifts to men. These gifts included apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, given to the church to equip the saints for...
Ritual and Ceremony - December 01, 2006
The terms "ceremony" and "ritual" became sneer-words nearly as soon as they were introduced into English and other European languages, according to Edward Muir's Ritual in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 2005): "Around the turn of the sixteenth century, as Thomas...
Eucharistic meditation - November 26, 2006
1 John 3:17: Whoever has the world's goods and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? John insists, as we've seen, that love must take specific, concrete...
Baptismal exhortation - November 26, 2006
1 John 3:24: The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. John emphasizes throughout his letter that Christians must obey God's commandments. In this, he only repeats what Jesus said. Jesus said, If you love...
Eucharistic meditation - November 12, 2006
Thanks to Chris Morris for suggesting this line of thinking about 1 John 2:28-29. 1 John 2:28: Little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at...
Baptismal meditation - November 12, 2006
1 John 3:1: See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. Throughout this passage, John speaks about two different genealogies, two different families, two different...
Civilizing Worship - November 06, 2006
The good folks at First Things have posted an article of mine on their web site. You can see it at http://www.firstthings.com....
Eucharistic meditation - October 08, 2006
1 John 2:5: Whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the...
Eucharistic meditation - October 01, 2006
Jesus said, This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. John assures us several times in our sermon text that our sins will be cleansed and forgiven. If we walk in...
Eucharistic meditation - September 24, 2006
1 John 1:1: What our hands have handled. We often think fondly of how wonderful it would have been to be alive in Palestine when Jesus was around. We wouldn't have to believe on the testimony of anyone else. We...
Pietist baptism - September 21, 2006
Johann Arndt (1555-1621), one of theleaders of German Pietism, wrote of baptism: "This is the true new birth and the new creature that appears before God's face, pure and holy, cleaned and purified through the blood of Christ and the...
Baptismal Regeneration - September 21, 2006
In sorting through questions about efficacy of baptism, it's important to realize that terms are used differently by various theologians. Chemnitz, for instance, claims that baptism has a twofold effect, "regeneration and renewal." The very fact that he describes these...
Water and the Word - September 21, 2006
Baptism is made by word and water, Luther says. But the word is not the word of the minister that blesses the water, but the authorizing word of Jesus: "God's word beside and with the water, which is not something...
Exorcizing Zwingli - September 20, 2006
Dr Jim West is annoyed at me (http://drjimwest.wordpress.com/2006/09/19/confession-time-im-annoyed), though he doesn't name me. He is responding to an article I wrote attacking what I called "Zwinglian poetics," where I suggested that Protestants must "exorcise the ghost of Zwingli" if we...
Eucharistic meditation - September 17, 2006
1 John 1:6-7: If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we...
Exhortation - September 17, 2006
I'm wearing a green stole around my neck, and there’s a green tablecloth on the table. Why is that? For starters, these are part of the glorification of worship. Every place of worship in Scripture – the tabernacle, the temple,...
Eucharistic meditation - September 10, 2006
1 Corinthians 11:29-30: He who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. It would be nice...
Eucharistic meditation - September 03, 2006
Revelation 16:4-6: Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying: You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and...
Exhortation - September 03, 2006
These comments are thoroughly indebted to James Jordan. Every week, God invites us to His house and serves us, so we come here to be refreshed by the Word and Sacrament. His is a house of praise, so we also...
Eucharistic meditation - August 27, 2006
John 6:53-56: Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourself. He who eats My flesh and drinks...
Fiction and creation - August 21, 2006
Reflecting on Rosendale's treatment of sacramental kingship in Henry V, it occurs to me that a sacramental theology that highlights the effective fictionality of the sacramental signs is more consistent with the doctrine of creation than the notion that sacramental...
Political and Sacramental Theology - August 21, 2006
There is a continuity between sacramental and political theology in the medieval world. Alternatively, we might go so far as to say that political theology is a subset of sacramental theology. As Timothy Rosendale says in a magnificent recent article...
Eucharistic meditation - August 20, 2006
2 Chronicles 20: Every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head, returning to Jerusalem with joy, for the LORD had made them to rejoice over their enemies. They came to Jerusalem with harps, lyres and trumpets...
Baptismal meditation - August 20, 2006
Paul's description of the armor of God draws on Isaiah 59, the description of God’s own armor. We deck ourselves in the same armor He does. But Paul is also referring to another set of garments found in the OT....
Exhortation - August 20, 2006
The Psalter is the church's primary Hymnal, and what do we find when we pick up the Psalter? We learn that God establishes the righteous man like a tree, but drives the wicked away like chaff. Then we learn that...
Eucharistic meditation - August 13, 2006
Revelation 19:7-9: Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. If you've been married for more than five years, you can anticipate...
Eucharistic meditation - August 06, 2006
Matthew 7:11: If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him. We have been looking this morning...
Baptism and being Christian - July 26, 2006
Baptism unites the baptized to the church, which is the bride of Christ. Brides take the name of their husbands, and thus all who are baptized take on the name of Jesus - they are Christians because "Christ" is their...
Guy on Me - July 11, 2006
Guy Waters devotes a chapter to my views on sacramental theology in his recent book. While much of it is a reasonably accurate summary of my various writings on this subject, he devotes a few pages to critique. Here are...
Eucharistic meditation, July 9 - July 09, 2006
1 Samuel 16:2-3: But Samuel said, How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. And you...
Blood of the Covenant - July 06, 2006
Allison again, commending on Hebrews 9:15-22 and the phrase "this is the blood of the covenant" that the writer of Hebrews quotes from Moses: "There is no 'this is' . . . in Exod. 24:8. The MT prefaces 'the blood'...
Eucharistic Meditation - May 28, 2006
Luke 22:29-30: Jesus said to His disciples during the Last Supper, Just as My Father granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones...
Baptismal meditation - May 28, 2006
Acts 8:36: As Philip and the eunuch went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized? Baptism is God's work, not mine. The voice you hear will be...
Eucharistic meditation, Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 21, 2006
Luke 2219: Jesus said, This is My body, which is given for you; do this as My memorial. We saw in the sermon this morning that the name "Manasseh" means "Forgetful" or even "Causing to forget." Judah went into exile...
Baptismal meditation - May 21, 2006
Jesus said, Go therefore and disciple all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded. One of the great sins of...
Road to Wittenberg revisited - May 15, 2006
In response to my comments about the "road to Rome" charge, Eric Enlow of Handong International Law School writes: "I would connect sacramentalism with the road to Rome for an empirical reason. The individuals that I have known who have...
Eucharistic Meditation, Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 14, 2006
2 Kings 20:8-11: Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day? And Isaiah said, This shall be...
Eucharistic meditation, Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 14, 2006
2 Kings 20:7: The Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah is on his deathbed, and it's something of a surprise that he is suffering from nothing...
Road to Wittenberg - May 13, 2006
Why are liturgical/sacramental Calvinists always accused of heading toward "Rome"? Why is it never said, "He's on the road to Wittenberg"? To ask the question is to answer it: "Road to Wittenberg" sounds so, well, so Protestant, and hardly serves...
Eucharistic Meditation, Fourth Sunday of Easter - May 07, 2006
2 Kings 19:29: Then this shall be the sign for you: you shall eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat...
Baptismal meditation - May 07, 2006
Luke 18:15-17: And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for them, saying, Permit the children to come to Me,...
Eucharistic meditation, Third Sunday of Easter - April 30, 2006
2 Kings 17:23: So Israel was carried away into exile. In this morning's sermon, I suggested that we should read the conclusion of the history of the North as part of the gospel story. This passage highlights the fact that...
Word and Water - April 29, 2006
Baptism, Luther says in his Small Catechism, is not water only, but water "comprehended in God's word and connected with God's command." The following question asks what word constitutes the water as baptism, and cites Matthew 28: "Go ye therefore..."...
Eucharistic Meditation, Second Sunday of Easter - April 23, 2006
2 Kings 16:7: Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son. As we've seen in the sermon this morning, the changes Ahaz makes to the temple are intended to ingratiate himself to...
Schmemann on Eucharist - April 19, 2006
Thanks to my student Brent McLean for the following quotation from Schmemann's Journals: "I reflect, while writing my Eucharist, about Communion, on the strange, mysterious alienation from it in the Church (on Mt. Athos - they didn't regularly take Communion;...
Medieval Imprecations - April 17, 2006
John Bossy notes in an article on the social functions of the medieval mass that the mass dividedthe human race into living and dead, friends and enemies. Various sorts of prayers for enemies were included: "Even the post-Reformation Roman ritual...
Baptismal meditation, Easter Sunday - April 16, 2006
Genesis 29:10b-11: Jacob went up, and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept. Caesarius, bishop of Arles in Southern...
Eucharistic meditation, Easter Sunday - April 16, 2006
1 Timothy 3:16: By common confession great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, beheld by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory....
Easter baptism - April 15, 2006
Tertullian wrote "The Passover provides the day of most solemnity for baptism, for then was accomplished our Lord's baptism, and into it we are baptized . . . After that, Pentecost is a most auspicious period for arranging baptisms, for...
Orientation of worship - April 13, 2006
Throughout the OT, worshipers drew near to God moving from east to west, returning to Eden. The Christian church reversed this, so that Christian worshipers enter by the west door and face east during worship. Is this change justified? What...
Orientation of worship - April 13, 2006
Throughout the OT, worshipers drew near to God moving from east to west, returning to Eden. The Christian church reversed this, so that Christian worshipers enter by the west door and face east during worship. Is this change justified? What...
Eucharistic meditation, Palm Sunday - April 09, 2006
Gal 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who...
Eucharistic meditation, Fourth Sunday of Lent - March 26, 2006
2 Kings 15:19-20: Pul, king of Assyria, came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his rule. Then Menahem exacted the money...
Baptismal Exhortation - March 26, 2006
Romans 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? . . . our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be...
Eucharistic meditation, first lent - March 05, 2006
2 Kings 14:25: Jeroboam restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke through His servant Jonah...
Eucharistic meditation - February 26, 2006
2 Kings 13:23: But Yahweh was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from His presence until now....
Exhortation - February 26, 2006
The church calendar is essentially a calendar of feast days, preceded by days of preparation for feasting. Advent is a time of preparation for the feast of Christmas, when we celebrate the Father's gift of His Son; Lent is a...
Pre-Lent - February 25, 2006
Many Christians observe the last few Sundays before Lent as "pre-Lenten" Sundays. This might look slightly daft: After all, Lent is itself a period of preparation for Easter, and if we need a time of preparation for the time of...
Eucharistic meditation - February 19, 2006
2 Kings 12:4: Then Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the sacred things which is brought into the house of the Lord, in current money, both the money of each man’s assessment and all the money which...
Eucharistic meditation, Sixth Epiphany - February 12, 2006
2 Kings 11:1: When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal seed. At the beginning, the story of Athaliah appears to be the story of the destruction of the...
Baptism Meditation, Sixth After Epiphany - February 12, 2006
2 Kings 11:3: So Joash was hidden with her in the house of Yahweh six years, while Athaliah was reigning over the land. The story in the sermon today is the story of two kingdoms, two rulers, two reigns. One...
Eucharistic meditation, Fifth After Epiphany - February 05, 2006
2 Kings 10:26-27: They brought the sacred pillars out of the temple of Baal and burned them. And the broke down the sacred pillar of Baal, and tore down the temple of Baal and made it a refuse dump to...
Sacraments and modernity - February 01, 2006
In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber notes that the "Baptist denominations along with the predestinationists, especially the strict Calvinists, carried out the most radical devaluation of all sacraments as means to salvation, and thus accomplished the...
Eucharistic meditation, Fourth Epiphany - January 29, 2006
Ecclesiastes 12:1: Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth. Solomon ends Ecclesiastes, as we have seen, emphasizing again the brevity of life. Life is vapor, all is vapor, a vapor of vapors, most vaporous, superlatively vaporous. Solomon...
Baptismal meditation, Fourth Epiphany - January 29, 2006
Ecclesiastes 11:1: Cast your bread on the face of the waters, for you will find it after many days. We saw in this morning's sermon Solomon's image of casting bread on the water encourages a reckless faith, a willingness to...
Eucharistic meditation, Third Epiphany - January 22, 2006
Ecclesiastes 4:1: Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter— on the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have...
Baptism meditation, Third Epiphany - January 22, 2006
Ecclesiastes 4:8: There was a certain man without a second, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, and for...
Eucharistic meditation, First Sunday After Epiphany - January 08, 2006
Ecclesiastes 3:14: I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. We saw in the...
Eucharistic meditation, Christmas Day - December 25, 2005
John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. How do we know God loved the world? John tells us that He demonstrates...
Baptism and personhood - December 21, 2005
In his recently re-released Bioethics: A Primer for Christians, Gilbert Meilaender discusses baptism to formulate a Christian understanding of the person. Baptism, he points out, is a communal act but also individualizing: "the first thing to note about baptism is...
Eucharistic meditation, Fourth Advent - December 18, 2005
John 6:35: Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. Throughout the centuries, Christians have thought about the Lord's Supper by...
Baptismal meditation, Fourth Advent - December 18, 2005
Luke 2:6-7: And it came to pass that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger,...
Eucharistic meditation, Second Advent - December 04, 2005
Matthew 1:24-2:1: And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called his...
Eucharistic Meditation, First Advent - November 27, 2005
Matthew 1:1: The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. As we saw in the sermon this morning, when the Son of God took on human flesh, he took on the human...
Oxford History of Worship - November 25, 2005
From a quick overview, The Oxford History of Christian Worship (2006), edited by Geoffrey Wainwright and Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, looks to be one of those indispensable reference works. The editors have assembled an international group of contributors, and there...
Emerson as Sacramental Theologian - November 17, 2005
Lundin spends considerable time describing Emerson's rejection of Christian orthodoxy in favor of an American version of Romanticism, and shows that Emerson's departure from orthodoxy centered on his rejection of the Eucharist. Emerson resigned his post at the Second Church...
Eucharistic meditation, November 13 - November 13, 2005
2 Kings 9:33-34: Jehu said, Throw her down. So they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot. When he came in, he ate and...
Baptismal meditation, November 6 - November 06, 2005
Galatians 3:26-29: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,...
Defoe on liturgical posture - November 05, 2005
In one of his works, Daniel Defoe, a well-known non-Conformist, posed as an Anglican who was asked to defend kneeling at the communion by a Dissenter. Spying an altar piece of the Last Supper, the Dissenter asks, "how can your...
Old School on sacraments - October 24, 2005
In his fine recent biography of John Williamson Nevin, DG Hart notes that the Old School Presbyterians failed to express "the mediated character of grace and of the church's centrality in dispensing the blessings of the gospel" as clearly as...
Eucharistic meditation, October 23 - October 23, 2005
Isaiah 25:6-8: And the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; a banquet of wine, choice pieces with marrow, and refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering...
Baptismal meditation, October 23 - October 23, 2005
Acts 9:15-19: But the Lord said to Ananias, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer...
Eucharistic meditation, October 16 - October 16, 2005
2 Kings 6:22-23: Elisha answered, You shall not kill them. . . . set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master. So he prepared a great feast for them; and when...
Baptismal meditation, October 16 - October 16, 2005
2 Kings 6:6-7: Then the man of God said, Where did it fall? And when he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and threw it in there, and made the iron float. And he said, Take it...
Communion meditation, October 2 - October 02, 2005
Psalm 120:7: "I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war." We have seen in the sermon today that the church is an army, and our service to God and His kingdom is militant, as we deploy...
Baptismal meditation, September 25 - September 25, 2005
Galatians 3:26-29: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free...
Communion meditation, September 25 - September 25, 2005
1 Corinthians 6:15-17: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that...
Eucharistic meditation, September 18 - September 18, 2005
Joshua 10:26-27: Afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees; and they hung on the trees until evening. And it came about at sunset that Joshua commanded, and they took them down...
Ritual and Chaos - September 14, 2005
Frank Gorman says that ritual in Bible is means of maintaining order of world against chaos: "ritual must function as a means of 'manipulating' the orders of creation. It is the means by which the categories of 'order' and 'chaos'...
Eucharistic meditation, September 11 - September 11, 2005
Ephesians 5:18-20: "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always...
Who may do the sacraments? again - September 10, 2005
Thanks to Joel Garver for this reference: Charles Hodge points out that LC 158 claims that only those who are "sufficiently gifted, and also duly approved and called to that office" may preach. The requirements for sacramental presidency and preaching...
Who may do the sacraments? - September 10, 2005
I was asked by the Pacific Northwest Presbytery to explain my views on whether an ordained minister must administer the sacraments, as the PCA Book of Church Order and WCF require. Here is part of my response to those inquiries....
Eucharistic meditation, August 28 - August 28, 2005
Ephesians 4:15-16: Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according...
Communion meditation, August 21 - August 21, 2005
Ephesians 2:14: He Himself is our peace. Jesus is the one who brings peace between God and man. He has reconciled us to God, and brought near those who have been far off. But in our sermon text Paul is...
Eucharistic meditation, August 14 - August 14, 2005
Ephesians 1:7, 13-14: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. . . In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your...
Eucharistic Meditation, August 7 - August 07, 2005
Much of the following is inspired by David Hart's Beauty of the Infinite. Deuteronomy 14:23, 26: "And you shall eat in the presence of Yahweh your God at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of...
Exhortation, August 7 - August 07, 2005
To many Christians, Reformed folk seem more than a little uptight about worship. Calvin left Geneva when the city council attempted to force him to adopt liturgical forms from the city of Bern, even though Calvin admitted he had little...
Liturgical jumping - August 01, 2005
A priest of Auxerre writing in the early middle ages recorded some details of the Easter celebration: "Having receive the pilota [a leather ball] from the newest canon, the dean, or someone in his place, in former times wearing an...
Eucharistic meditation, July 31 - July 31, 2005
1 Peter 2:24-25: He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now...
Holy Kiss - July 27, 2005
Gordon Smith quotes this from Cyril of Jerusalem: "You must not suppose that this is the usual kind of kiss which ordinary friends exchange when they meet in the street. This kiss is different. By it souls are united with...
Holy Meal - July 27, 2005
Gordon Smith's A Holy Meal, just out from Baker, is the latest (to my knowledge) in a small stream of books on sacramental theology coming from Reformed and evangelical presses. It's a heartening sign. Smith's book examines the Eucharist as...
Victory Songs - July 20, 2005
The Lord's Supper is a victory meal celebrated before the victory has occurred, as if Melchizedek has come out to Abram with bread and wine before the battle with the kings instead of after (Genesis 14). Traditional hymnody and certainly...
One Voice - July 20, 2005
We can't all see exactly the same thing at the same time. No matter how close I press toward someone else, the perspective of my eyes is never identical to the perspective of another person. We cannot see through another's...
Eucharistic meditation, July 3 - July 03, 2005
Luke 14:21: Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame." Pastor...
Litany for Independence Day - July 02, 2005
God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth: have mercy upon us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world: Have mercy upon us. God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of the faithful: have mercy upon us. You are the God of...
Eucharistic meditation, June 26 - June 26, 2005
2 Kings 5:17: Naaman said to Elisha, "Your servant will no more offer burnt offering nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to Yahweh." Naaman, we noted in the exhortation, was a baptized Gentile convert. That baptism in the...
Exhortation, June 26 - June 26, 2005
When he finished his Pentecost sermon, Peter urged the Jews how to respond to his message: "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ," he said, "for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall...
Aquinas on sacraments - June 23, 2005
A few notes on Thomas on the sacraments, aided by Frederick Bauerschmidt's excellent notes (in Holy Teaching, recently published by Brazos Press). 1) Bauerschmidt points out that Aquinas is bucking a trend in medieval theology by placing sacraments under the...
Eucharistic meditation, June 19 - June 19, 2005
2 Kings 4:42: “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.” One of the similarities between these two brief stories...
Tertullian on baptism and resurrection - May 30, 2005
In his treatise on the resurrection of the flesh, Tertullian makes an intriguing connection between the phenomenology of baptism and the resurrection of the body. Baptism, he points out, is a corporeal rite, and this washing of the body points...
1 Peter on baptism - May 30, 2005
On his web site, David Bayly offers some thoughts on the Reformed baptism debates and 1 Peter. Since he quotes me (without naming me), it might be helpful to put down a couple of responses. First, he claims that those...
Eucharistic Meditation, May 29 - May 29, 2005
2 Kings 2:9: Now it came about when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, Please, let a double portion of your...
Baptismal meditation - May 22, 2005
Matthew 28:18-20: Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I command you....
Eucharistic meditation - May 22, 2005
This builds on the thoughts in an earlier post entitled "Ups and Downs." Elijah has power to ascend and descend. When Ahaziah sends his troops to capture Elijah, he is high up, exalted like Yahweh on a mountain. But He...
Eucharistic meditation, Pentecost - May 15, 2005
Psalm 78:40-42: How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert. And again and again they tempted God, and pained the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power, the day when...
Calvin on Sacraments - May 09, 2005
The following are tentative notes, reflections, criticisms, and interactions with Calvins understanding of sacraments in general in Book 4 of the Institutes. 4.14.1 Calvin calls the sacraments another aid to our faith related to the preaching of the gospel.E Several...
Eucharistic meditation, May 1 - May 01, 2005
And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me; and I will offer in His tent sacrifices of shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh (Psalm 27:6). Chronicles gives us...
Baptism meditation, May 1 - May 01, 2005
Why do we baptize babies? This seems to many Christians, especially in America, like a strange tradition, a leftover of the formalism and nominal Christianity of the medieval Roman Catholic church. And even to many of us who believe we...
Sermon Outline, May 1 - April 25, 2005
INTRODUCTION Music, including choral music, has been an important element in worship since the time of David. But what is music for? And what is the choir for? The book of Chronicles gives us answers to these questions. THE TEXT...
Eucharistic Meditation, April 24 - April 24, 2005
In the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it.E Growth and learning is awkward and difficult, especially when we are learning about something as complex as another human being, another human being who...
Worship and Life - April 15, 2005
Philip Kenneson has some helpful things to say about the relationship of worship and the rest of life in his contribution to the Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. He challenges the notion that worship is a specifically religious activity, a...
Worship and World - April 13, 2005
More lecture notes. INTRODUCTION Modern life can be characterized in many ways, but one of the central themes of modernity is that it is a revolt against ritual. This is particularly true of modern Christianity. As Hennig Graf Reventlow showed...
Corporate Worship - April 13, 2005
A set of lecture notes for an upcoming lecture on the corporate character of worship. Some of this material has been posted previously on this site. INTRODUCTION Sometimes, Christians think that the transition from old to new is a transition...
Baptism Meditation, April 10 - April 10, 2005
1 Corinthians 12:12-13: Even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized...
Another Eucharistic Meditation - April 10, 2005
1 Kings 22:26-27: Then the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the kings son; and say, Thus says the king, Put this man in prison, and feed...
Eucharistic Meditation, Second Sunday of Easter - April 10, 2005
1 Kings 22: Micaiah said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd, and the Lord said, these have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace. Micaiah prophesies...
Eucharistic meditation, April 3 - April 03, 2005
1 Kings 21:9-10: Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the people; and seat two sons of Belial before him, and let them testify against him, saying, You cursed God and the king.E Then take him out...
Baptismal meditation, April 3 - April 03, 2005
Romans 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was...
Eucharistic Meditation, Easter Sunday - March 27, 2005
The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of GodE(Romans 8:19). Pastor Wilson has taught us today that the resurrection of Jesus has cosmic consequences. He was raised by the power the Spirit, and...
Eucharistic Meditation, March 20 - March 20, 2005
Mark 11:15-16: And He entered the temple and began to cast out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves, and He would...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 27 - February 27, 2005
Elisha returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate.E The redemption of Israel is not going...
Exhortation, February 27 - February 27, 2005
In our service, passing the peace has a threefold significance. From one perspective, it is a response to the sermon. The sermon announces the reconciliation of all things in Christ Jesus, and passing the peace symbolizes the reconciliation we have...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 20 - February 20, 2005
Then Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.ESo they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. Now Elijah said to Ahab, Go up,...
Exhortation, February 20 - February 20, 2005
We are in the second week of the traditional season of Lent. Lent covers the forty days prior to Easter, and is a fast in preparation for the feast of the resurrection. In some of the earliest churches, baptismal candidates...
A Walk Through the Trinity Liturgy, 4 - February 19, 2005
INTRODUCTION In JesusEparables, the evangelistic invitation is often an invitation to a feast, a royal banquet (the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding feast. . . .E. Christian liturgy is an enactment of that invitation...
Eucharistic Meditation, First of Lent - February 13, 2005
And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.E In this morning sermon, we saw how the writer of Kings highlights the authority of...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 6 - February 06, 2005
Now Elah was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk. We noted in the sermon this morning that the kings of Israel get worse and worse as time goes by. Jeroboam is the worst king, until Omri. Omri is the worst king...
A Walk Through the Trinity Liturgy, 3 - February 05, 2005
INTRODUCTION The liturgy is a journey. We begin by gathering from our homes to one place, where we can worship God together. The minister invites us to enter the Lords house by faith, to ascend the heavenly Zion to worship...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 30 - January 30, 2005
Anyone of Baasha who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the heavens will eat.E The dynasties of Jeroboam and Baasha are remarkably similar. Both kings are...
A Walk Through the Trinity Liturgy, 2 - January 29, 2005
INTRODUCTION In this session, we will move ahead in our tour through the Trinity liturgy, covering the Confession and Absolution and the ascension.E CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Confession belongs at the beginning of the service. We enter into Gods house, invited...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 23 - January 23, 2005
1 Corinthians 5:7: Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Jeroboams dynasty, and the entire northern kingdom with it, was condemned from the beginning. No sooner had he led Israel out of the EgyptEof the house of David than...
A Walk Through Trinity's Liturgy, Part 1 - January 22, 2005
This continues a Sunday School series on worship, interrupted by the holidays and resumed on Sunday, January 23. INTRODUCTION In our previous studies, we have laid out some basic biblical patterns for worship. First, we examined the sacrificial character of...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 16 - January 16, 2005
1 Kings 13:31: And it came about after he had buried him, that the old prophet spoke to his sons, saying, When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones...
Exhortation, January 16 - January 16, 2005
The writers of Scripture conclude prayers, letters, and praise with Amen.EBut AmenEis not just an ancient way of saying The EndEor Were finished with that now.EThe word is from the Hebrew word for believeEor prove faithful,Eand when used at the...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 9 - January 09, 2005
1 Kings 12:15: So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a twist from Yahweh, that He might establish His word. A twist from Yahweh.EThats what the writer of Kings calls the division of the kingdom....
Liturgy and Mere Symbolism - January 02, 2005
Since we adopted a new liturgy in Advent, a number of church members have, quite reasonably, raised the question about our identity. What kind of church did we just become? The very fact that changes in our liturgical practices can...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 2 - January 02, 2005
Luke 22:19: And Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.E In this mornings sermon, we considered how the...
Exhortation, January 2 - January 02, 2005
God is a communicative being. He doesnt just use words; He is the Word. He made us in His image and likeness, as communicative beings. Even if we keep our mouths firmly shut, we cannot avoid saying something; we cannot...
Sermon Outline, January 2 - December 27, 2004
So, What Are We Anyway? INTRODUCTION The liturgical changes recently introduced at Trinity might well provoke an identity crisis for members of the church. Have we become Lutherans? Or Anglicans? Or have we abandoned the Reformation altogether? Are we still...
Eucharistic Meditation, December 26 - December 26, 2004
1 Corinthians 11: the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it. Division and reunion, death and resurrection, is the basic pattern of human life. Marriage is,...
Baptism Meditation, December 26 - December 26, 2004
Matthew 18:1-6 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?EAnd He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless...
Eucharistic Meditation, Fourth Advent - December 19, 2004
John 6:56: He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in himE This morning we have examined the Bibles teaching on the mutual indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity. The Persons are distinct...
Exhortation, Fourth Advent - December 19, 2004
God created our bodies; He will redeem our bodies and raise them from the dead; and in between He calls us to present the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousnessEand to offer your bodies as living sacrifices.EOur bodies...
Trinity, Worship, and Dialogue - December 18, 2004
INTRODUCTION Weve been looking at Christian worship in the light of Scriptural patterns of sacrifice. This gives us an overall order or sequence of worship. In this session, I want to examine two main issues: First, the Trinitarian basis of...
Eucharistic Meditation, Third Advent - December 12, 2004
John 5:30: I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.E Jesus comes to do...
Eucharistic Meditation, Second Sunday in Advent - December 05, 2004
John 1:14; 6:55-56: And the Word became flesh. . . . [Jesus said] My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in Him.E...
Order of Worship - December 05, 2004
This repeats some material from an earlier post. INTRODUCTION In the last several classes, we have been looking at sacrifice as it operated in the OC, both in the Mosaic and the Davidic worship. We have seen that Mosaic worship...
Eucharistic Meditation, first advent - November 28, 2004
1 Corinthians 15:45: And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The Last Adam became life-giving Spirit. We are celebrating Advent, the coming of Jesus in the flesh, but we celebrate it as a people...
Eucharistic Sacrifice - November 27, 2004
Vander Zee shows some chutzpah in addressing the question of Eucharistic sacrifice, and in suggesting that there are senses in which the Eucharist is properly said to be sacrificial. He offers a few quotations to show the Reformation pedigree of...
VanderZee on Sacraments - November 27, 2004
Leonard J. Vander Zee's Christ, Baptism and the Lord's Supper is the most satisfying introduction to sacramental theology that I've come across. VanderZee works out a Reformed understanding of sacraments in general (focusing on the fact that sacraments are God's...
Eucharistic Meditation, November 14 - November 14, 2004
Revelation 19:7 The beginning of Solomons sin was intermarriage, marriage to unbelieving, pagan, idolatrous wives and concubines. As I noted in the sermon, there are consistent warnings about this throughout the Scriptures, from Genesis to Deuteronomy to Kings to Ezra-Nehemiah...
Sacrifice and Worship - November 14, 2004
INTRODUCTION Last week, we looked at some NT texts that used the ceremonial lawEof the Levitical system as a guide for the life and worship of the church. Its clear that the apostles did not believe that the ceremonial lawEis...
Eucharistic Meditation, November 7 - November 07, 2004
1 Kings 10:4-5 The glory and prosperity of Solomons kingdom is particularly on display at his table. Back in 1 Kings 4, the abundance of the table of Solomon is a sign of the prosperity of the whole kingdom. The...
Baptismal Meditation, November 7 - November 07, 2004
Proverbs 1:8-9 What is your goal as parents? There are of course many ways to answer that question, but one central biblical answer is that parents aim to train their children in wisdom. This is a central thrust of the...
Exhortation, November 7 - November 07, 2004
The Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem a skeptic. She had heard about Solomons wisdom, but she could not believe that the stories were true. She found the stories were untrue, not because they exaggerated Solomons wisdom and wealth, but...
Hermeneutics of Worship - November 06, 2004
INTRODUCTION What is known as the Regulative Principle of WorshipE(RPW) is one of the distinctive emphases of Reformed liturgics. Though this is variously formulated and understood, it boils down to the principle that worship must be biblical. We are called...
Kuyper on Liturgy - November 06, 2004
In his fine little book The Bible and Liturgy, E.H. van Olst briefly describes the liturgical renewal among Dutch Calvinists in the early 20th century: "Among Protestants it was J.H. Gunning and A. Kuyper who, at the turn of the...
Eucharist Lecture #3 - October 27, 2004
INTRODUCTION Because of the imperfections of the reformation of the Eucharist in the sixteenth century, and because of the alien influences that have affected the practice of the Eucharist in the centuries since, there is much left to do in...
Eucharist Lecture #2 - October 27, 2004
THE TRIPLE BODY OF CHRIST As Henri de Lubac pointed out, the history of Eucharistic theology and practice is largely a history of the changing relations among the threefold body of Christ. The threefold body is: the natural physical body...
Eucharist Lecture #1 - October 27, 2004
The notes that follow in this and the following two posts are for lectures to be delivered in Brockton, Massachusetts this weekend. HE CAME EATING AND DRINKING If we want to discuss the Lords Supper adequately, we cannot disconnect it...
Eucharistic Meditation, October 24 - October 25, 2004
Colossians 2:3 As Joshua pointed out this morning, Solomon calls us to search for wisdom as for hidden treasures. Wisdom is available, open, offering herself and her food on the streets of the city; but to get wisdom, you cant...
Eucharistic Meditation, October 17 - October 18, 2004
1 Cor 11:28-32 In our churches here in Moscow, we like to emphasize that the Lords Supper is a feast of joy, a time of gladness not gloom, a time for celebration not self-flagellation. These emphases are all right and...
Eucharistic Meditation, October 10 - October 10, 2004
1 Kings 9:26-28 The portrait of Solomon in 1 Kings 9 is by no means completely negative. Solomon continues building, providing defense for the land by building up fortifications at strategic points. Despite his estrangement from Hiram, he continues to...
Eucharistic Meditation, October 3 - October 03, 2004
1 Kings 8:2 Like the Christian calendar, Israels festival calendar did not cover the whole of the year. It began with Passover in the first month of the liturgical year, went through Pentecost in the third month, and climaxed with...
Eucharistic Meditation, September 26 - September 26, 2004
1 Kings 7:48-50 In the sermon this morning, I noted that the two rows of water chariotsEoutside the temple formed a gauntlet of water that the worshiper or priest passed through as he approached the temple. Every time anyone walked...
Some Thoughts on Baptism - September 25, 2004
A few thoughts on baptism inspired by reading a dozen student papers on the water symbolism of Exodus: 1) Several students pointed out that Moses was "baptized" as an infant. I'd never thought of it that way, but it works...
Eucharistic Meditation, September 19 - September 19, 2004
Song of Songs 7:10-13 Six times in the Song of Songs, Solomon refers to pomegranates in describing his beloved. Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate behind your veil,Ehe says, and your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates...
Eucharistic Meditation, September 12 - September 12, 2004
Deuteronomy 12:10-12 Deuteronomy 12 forms an important part of the background for the narrative of the temple-building in 1 Kings. Here, the Lord promises to give rest to Israel, and in 1 Kings 5 Solomon tells Hiram that Israel now...
Eucharistic Meditation, September 5 - September 05, 2004
1 Kings 4:21-24 As we saw in todays sermon, the center of Solomons kingdom was the feast, the feast of joy. Solomon organized the kingdom, divided the kingdom into districts, selected men to manage and administer these regions. He had...
Barth on Sacraments - September 04, 2004
I started this article some time ago, and will never be able to finish it off. It may be of some use in its present form, however. Justification and sacramental theology were the chief doctrinal issues in the division between...
Eucharistic Meditation, August 29 - August 29, 2004
1 Kings 3:15 The story of Solomons request for and reception of wisdom is framed by references to worship. At the beginning of the story, Solomon is in Gibeon, worshiping at the bronze altar that Moses built in the wilderness,...
Eucharistic Meditation, August 22 - August 22, 2004
1 Kings 2:7 Most of chapter 2 is concerned with establishingESolomons kingdom, and this can only be done by eliminating the enemies of the kingdom. Solomon must use the sword if hes going to promote the peace and welfare of...
Eucharistic Meditation, August 15 - August 15, 2004
1 Kings 1:25 This mornings sermon text contrasts two rival princes, both vying for the throne of David. Adonijah attempts to lift himself up, and ends up abased; Solomon does nothing, relying on the intercession of his mother, and yet...
Eucharistic Meditation, August 8 - August 08, 2004
2 Kings 25:27-30 Kings, as weve seen, is not only a book about the unfaithfulness of Israel. It is a book about the faithfulness of God. In particular, it is a book about the faithfulness of God to the house...
Return to Grace - August 06, 2004
One of the most stimulating works on infant baptism that I've found is Kurt Stasiak's Return to Grace: A Theology for Infant Baptism. Stasiak is a Roman Catholic theologian who teaches liturgics at St Meinrad School of Theology. The first...
Infant Baptism - August 06, 2004
INTRODUCTION No area of sacramental theology exposes assumptions concerning sacraments, and indeed concerning the Christian life, like the issue of infant baptism. Modern Christianity is plagued by an overly individualistic outlook, by the notion that religion is exclusively a matter...
Ecclesiological Sacramental Theology - August 05, 2004
INTRODUCTION Underlying much of what I have said in the previous lecture is a conviction that sacramental theology must be worked out in the context of ecclesiology. This is not to say that it is at the expense of Trinitarian...
Theology of Food and Feasting - August 05, 2004
INTRODUCTION The Eucharist has often been expounded upon in categories drawn from Aristotelian philosophy, modern phenomenology, or some other non-biblical discourse. While these categories can illuminate certain features of the Supper, it is wrong to think that these categories provide...
Old and New in Sacramental Theology - August 05, 2004
This and the following two posts are lecture notes for lectures on sacramental theology that I'll be delivering next week. Old hat, but perhaps helpful. HISTORICAL PROBLEMATICS The relationship of the Old and New is consistently a background issue in...
Eucharistic Meditation, August 1 - August 01, 2004
Psalm 107:22 We saw in the sermon that song accompanies the ascension offering in the worship of the tabernacle. A sacrifice of praise is a means of ascent to God, calling on Him to draw near in glory and responding...
Exhortation, August 1 - August 01, 2004
God created a world with three environments. At the center of the world was a garden, the sanctuary where Adam and Eve were to worship their Creator. Surrounding the sanctuary was the land of Eden, and outside the land of...
Baptismal Meditation, August 1 - August 01, 2004
Luke 14:21-24 The parable of the wedding feast is a parable about the kingdom, where the kingdom is envisioned, as it often is in JesusEteaching, as a dinner, a banquet, a wedding feast. The key point in this particular parable...
Sermon Outline, August 1 - July 28, 2004
Glory and Song, 2 Chronicles 5:1-14 INTRODUCTION As we close out this brief series on worship, we will be looking at two separate but related issues: the glorification of worship, and music in worship. These are related in several ways:...
Liturgical Posture - July 25, 2004
I suggested in Against Christianity that worship can be understood as a sequence of postures: We kneel for confession, stand for absolution and service and to hear the word, sit enthroned to eat and drink in God's presence, then stand...
Eucharistic Meditation, July 25 - July 25, 2004
Lk 9:10-17 The Lords Supper has been celebrated in many different ways through the centuries. In many churches, the people come forward and kneel to receive the elements. In the Roman Catholic church, the elevation of the Host has been...
Baptismal Meditation, July 25 - July 25, 2004
Rom 6:1-4 Today, weve looked at several passages in Romans that display Pauls interest in the redemption of the body. For Paul, salvation is ultimately about the resurrection and transfiguration of our bodies into bodies of glory, and in the...
Exhortation, July 25 - July 25, 2004
Our chief goal in organizing the worship of God is to conform to Scriptural patterns of worship. When we look at the whole biblical teaching on worship, we learn that worship is basically covenant renewal, and we also learn that...
Sermon Outline, July 25 - July 20, 2004
Present Your Bodies, Romans 12:1-21 INTRODUCTION As we've seen in previous sermons in this seriees, "spiritual" worship is not disembodied worship. Throughout Scripture, worship involves various uses of the body. These gestures, postures, and movements are an important part of...
Eucharist and Mission - July 13, 2004
J. H. Bavinck's An Introduction to the Science of Missions (first published in English in 1960) is superb. Bavinck is flexible and balanced, yet principled, in dealing with the myriad complications of missionary work. He is aware of developments in...
Eucharistic Meditation, July 11 - July 11, 2004
Leviticus 21 There are many ways to describe the offerings of Israel. One of the most striking is that the offerings are Gods bread. This sounds very odd, but it would make perfect sense if we watched an Israelite offering...
Baptismal Exhortation, July 11 - July 11, 2004
In the sermon this morning, we looked at the connections between Old Covenant sacrifice and New Covenant worship. The Levitical system sets the pattern for worship in the New Covenant. The sacrifice of animals is a figure, a picture of...
Exhortation, July 11 - July 11, 2004
In the sermon this morning, we will be looking at one particular kind of animal offering from the Old Testament, and looking at the system of offerings in general. As we will see, these offerings recapitulated in ritual form the...
Sermon Outline, July 11 - July 08, 2004
Covenant by Sacrifice, Leviticus 1:1-17 INTRODUCTION According to Psalm 50:5, Yahwehs godly ones,EIsrael, make a covenant with My by sacrifice.E Through sacrificial rites, Yahweh both entered into covenant and renewed covenant with Israel. The New Testament also uses sacrificial language...
Eucharistic Meditation, July 4 - July 04, 2004
Leviticus 10:8-11 This mornings sermon emphasized that in the New Covenant we are invited to draw near to God in the heavenly sanctuary, where God offers the hidden gifts to us. One of these gifts is the gift of food,...
Sermon Outline, July 4, 2004 - June 28, 2004
The Gifts of God, Hebrews 9:1-10 INTRODUCTION It is often said that we come to worship to give and not to receive. That is a dangerous half-truth. Praise, thanks, adoration are all part of worship, of course, and God delights...
Eucharistic Meditation, June 27 - June 27, 2004
John 4:10-14 Jesus fulfills the entirety of the Old Testament. That is Johns gospel: The Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh to dwell among us. He gives wine...
Baptismal Exhortation, June 27 - June 27, 2004
In this mornings sermon, we considered the continuities and discontinuities between the Old and New Covenant with regard to liturgy. Contrary to some Protestant traditions, Jesus did not teach that the New Covenant would dispense with rites, signs, material substances,...
Exhortation, June 27 - June 27, 2004
The worship of the Christian church is spiritualEworship, worship in the SpiritEand through the Spirit.E Every Christian can agree on that. What we cannot agree about is what this means for our worship. For some Christians, spiritual worship means worship...
Sermon Outline, June 27 - June 22, 2004
The Hour Is Coming, John 4:1-42 INTRODUCTION The relationship between the Old and New Covenants is one of the critical issues in Christian theology, including liturgical theology. Most of the differences in liturgical tradition within the church are bound up...
Eucharistic Meditation, June 20 - June 20, 2004
Numbers 13:32 Throughout the OT, the land promised to Israel is described as a land flowing with milk and honey.E This is an image of rich abundance, of course, but it is particularly an image of the rich abundance of...
Liturgical Chaos - June 06, 2004
There's something very appealing about the controlled chaos of many liturgical worship services. There are always a dozen things going on, lots of movement, lots of energy. In many respects, there is more freedom in a liturgical service than in...
Trinity Sunday - June 06, 2004
Trinity Sunday appears to stand out as an oddity in the church calendar. Israel's calendar was filled with commemorations of events in Israel's history, and the Christian calendar is predominantly about the events of the incarnation. And then comes Trinity...
Eucharistic Meditation, May 23 - May 23, 2004
The ascension is one of the key issues in historical discussions about the Lords Supper. The question posed by many has been: How can Jesus, who has ascended into heaven, still be with us at this table, and feed us...
Eucharistic Meditation, May 16 - May 16, 2004
Deut 16:13-17 This morning we considered some issues in child-rearing, showing that we are to raise children to serve, to rule, to have wisdom they can communicate with others. Many aspects of raising children are fairly intangible. We not only...
Baptismal Exhortation, May 16 - May 16, 2004
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Kaspar Olevianus Schwandt is named for one of the founders of the Reformed Church of Germany, and one of the principal architects of the Heidelberg Catechism. One of the highlights of that beautiful catechism is the answer...
Frequent Communion/Paedocommunion - May 13, 2004
A student of mine suggests that frequent communion creates pressures toward paedocommunion. So long as Eucharist is celebrated quarterly or less, it seems to be a special occasion for adults, like fancy dinner parties. Kids know that they are not...
Icons - May 10, 2004
One possible defense of the iconodule position is to draw an analogy between the use of icons in worship and the use of words in worship. The argument would be basically: 1. Venerating the word "YHWH" is superstitious. 2. But...
Eucharistic Meditation, May 9 - May 09, 2004
Psalm 104:14-15 Wine, Scripture says, is one of Gods great gifts to man. Yahweh is the true God of the vine, the true Dionysus. And wine is one of the great gifts of the New Covenant. One of the signs...
Baptismal Meditation, May 9 - May 08, 2004
Scripture says, You shall not bear the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.E And Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them...
Eucharistic Meditation, May 2 - May 02, 2004
Luke 22:24-30 As I mentioned last week in connection with priesthood, there is a sense in which we can talk about a priestly stage of Israels history and a priestly stage of life. But the more fundamental reality of the...
Eucharistic Meditation, April 25 - April 25, 2004
Leviticus 22:10-16 In the sermon today, I addressed the some of the challenges and temptations of young adulthood, the priestly stage of life. It is biblically appropriate, as I tried to show, to describe young adulthood in these terms. But...
Eucharistic Meditation, April 18 - April 19, 2004
When Jesus instituted the Supper, He told His disciples to continue to do thisEas a memorial of Him. The thisEis not only the eating and drinking, but the whole ritual, which includes the moment when the bread is broken. In...
Maundy Thursday - April 08, 2004
The Westminster Dictionary of Worship has this explanation for the name Maundy Thursday: "The title for Thursday in Holy Week derives through Old French mande from the Latin 'mandatum novum,' 'a new commandment' (John 13:34), associated with the ceremonial washing...
Eucharistic Meditation, April 4 - April 04, 2004
It is clear that the Lords Supper has some kind of relationship to the death of Jesus. Jesus said at the Last Supper that the bread was His body, given for you, and the wine was His blood, poured out...
Eucharistic Meditation, March 28 - March 28, 2004
Luke 23:13-25 Six times in this passage, Luke uses the word release.E Most of the uses describe Pilates desire to release Jesus. He plans to scourge Jesus and releaseEHim; he is obliged to releaseEsomeone at the festival, but the Jews...
Eucharistic Meditation, March 21 - March 21, 2004
Luke 22:28-30 One of the unique features of Lukes account of the Last Supper is the repeated reference Jesus makes to the kingdom of God. He says He will never eat a meal again until it is fulfilled in the...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 29 - February 29, 2004
Luke 21:10-11 According to Johns gospel, Jesus said at the outset of His ministry, destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.E As John tells us, Jesus was talking about the temple of His body, which would...
Thoughts on Lent - February 28, 2004
This Sunday is the first Sunday in the traditional church season of Lent, the 40-day period of preparation for Easter. Though Lent is not mandated by Scripture, it is edifying for the church for a couple of reasons. First, Lent...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 22 - February 23, 2004
In this parable, Jesus tells the story of Israel using the image of the vineyard. As we saw, this was not an invention of Jesus, but goes back to Psalms and Prophets who used the vineyard as an image of...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 15 - February 15, 2004
Eucharistic meditation, Feb 15: Luke 19:5-7 In one sense, both of the events in Jericho are about sight and blindness. On the way in to Jericho, Jesus healed a blind man, and at the beginning of our sermon text today...
Exhortation, February 15 - February 15, 2004
Exhortation for February 15: Since the time of David, Psalm-singing has been the center of prayer and singing for the people of God. That is obvious in Judaism, for from the time of Solomon's temple, through the "Second temple" period...
Calvin on Signs - February 11, 2004
A remarkable statement of Calvin's, from Institutes 4.14.18: speaking of the tree of knowledge and of the rainbow, Calvin says that these are given new being by the word of God that designates them as signs or testimonies. Then this...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 8 - February 08, 2004
Eucharistic meditation for Feb 8: Luke 18:7-8 This morning, we explored the question, What does prayer have to do with justice? We can now take up a related question, What does the Lord's Supper have to do with justice? The...
Eucharistic Meditation, February 1 - February 01, 2004
Eucharistic Meditation, Feb 1: Luke 17:26-29 Jesus describes the coming of the Son of Man by comparing it to the coming of the flood in the days of Noah and the rain of fire and brimstone on Sodom in the...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 25 - January 25, 2004
Eucharistic meditation for January 25: Acts 2:41-47 In the book of Acts, we see the early church carrying out Jesus' instructions regarding the proper use of wealth. After the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost, and 3000 were saved, the...
Baptismal Meditation, January 25 - January 25, 2004
Baptismal meditation for January 25: Matthew 18:1-6 This passage in Matthew is parallel to the first part of Matthew 17 in our sermon text. As I mentioned in the sermon, Jesus' reference to "little ones" in Luke 17 is not...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 18 - January 18, 2004
Eucharistic meditation, January 18: Luke 15:23-24 As the church has always recognized, the Lord's Supper was instituted by Jesus Christ as a blessing to the people of God. In it, we memorialize Jesus' death, celebrate His victory over sin and...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 11 - January 11, 2004
Communion meditation, January 11: If you want to have a calm meal, don't invite Jesus. Over and over in Luke's gospel, Jesus uses mealtime to confront the Pharisees, to challenge their unforgiving Spirit, to castigate them for neglecting the weightier...
Eucharistic Meditation, January 4 - January 04, 2004
Eucharistic meditation, January 4: Haggai's prophecy encourages the people of Israel to devote themselves to building the house of the Lord, in spite of opposition and the hostility of the nations. Among the judgments the Lord brings is a drought...
Exhortation, December 28 - December 28, 2003
Exhortation for December 28: New Year's is frequently a time for assessment, and for making resolutions and setting plans for the coming year. With New Year's Day coming up this week, I am devoting the sermon to sketching what we...
Sadler on the Gospel - December 21, 2003
Rich Lusk of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA, put me onto the works of M.F. Sadler, a late 19th-century Anglican theologian, and I've been very impressed with what I've found there. For example: In the first chapter...
Eucharistic Meditation, December 21 - December 21, 2003
Eucharistic Meditation for Fourth Sunday in Advent: I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon today the error that some Christians have fallen into of resting the whole of our redemption on the incarnation itself. They treat Christmas as if...
Exhortation, December 21 - December 21, 2003
Exhortation for Fourth Sunday in Advent: For many the Christmas season is not a time of good cheer but almost the opposite. It's a time of frustration, anxiety, bad temper, family strife, and disappointed expectations. It's a time when kids...
Eucharistic Meditation, December 14 - December 14, 2003
Eucharistic meditation for Third Sunday of Advent: Deuteronomy 12. During Israel's wilderness wanderings, the tabernacle, Yahweh's royal tent, was set in the middle of the Israelite camp, and was the place of worship and feasting. In the wilderness, an Israelite...
Eucharistic Meditation, December 7 - December 07, 2003
Eucharistic Meditation for Second Sunday in Advent: Luke 22:20 Martin Luther said that the Supper is the gospel. That's true in a lot of different ways, but one way that it is true is that in the Supper we see...
Exhortation, December 7 - December 07, 2003
Exhortation for December 7: Christmas is a few weeks away, and that means food, lots of food, lots of rich food. It means candy and candy canes and nuts and chocolate and more chocolate, always chocolate. It means parties and...
Eucharistic Meditation, November 30 - November 30, 2003
Communion meditation for November 30: We've seen in the sermon this morning that the incarnation calls attention to the kind of God we worship and serve. He is not a God who stands aloof and withdrawn when we suffer. Even...
Exhortation, November 30 - November 30, 2003
Exhortation for November 30: Today is the first Sunday in the traditional church season of Advent. Advent means "coming," and this season is one of preparation for the celebration of the "coming" of God at Christmas. There are four Sundays...
Eucharistic Meditation, November 16 - November 16, 2003
Communion meditation for November 16: At one point in our sermon text, Jesus is asked about how many people are being saved, and Jesus immediately begins to speak about doors being closed. It's clear from what follows that the doors...
Eucharistic Meditation, November 9 - November 09, 2003
Communion meditation for November 9: Luke 12:24 Our first acts as a constituted membership are an offertory and celebration of the Eucharist. Having taken our membership oaths, we offer a portion of our goods and our income to the Lord,...
Eucharistic Meditation, October 12 - October 12, 2003
Communion meditation for October 12: We all know that Paul teaches that the Supper tests and manifests what is on the heart. Some the Corinthians were weak and sick, Paul said, and some had fallen asleep because they took the...
Eucharistic Meditation, October 5 - October 04, 2003
Eucharistic meditation for October 5: We have seen Jesus at meals on several occasions in Luke's gospel, and each time the meal has been an occasion for instruction about the kingdom of God. When Jesus went to Levi's house, He...
Eucharistic Meditation, September 21 - September 21, 2003
Communion meditation for September 21: In many traditional Eucharistic liturgies, the liturgy begins with the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), which includes the words that were sung to Jesus at the time of His entry into Jerusalem: "Hosanna in the Highest....
Spinks on Sacramental Theology - September 11, 2003
I have found Bryan Spinks book on the sacramental theology of Stuart theologians disappointing. So far, there's little besides some fairly superficial summaries of the work of individual theologians. Some of these open up interesting angles, but Spinks makes no...
Baptismal Exhortation, August 31 - August 31, 2003
Here is a brief explanation of baptism I used in a service this morning: As we saw this morning, Jesus' baptism and reception of the Spirit was immediately followed by combat in the wilderness with the devil. The church fathers...
Exhortation, August 24 - August 24, 2003
Exhortation for August 24: Worship is God's work on us. We assemble in the presence of the Triune God not only to offer our praise and worship to the Father in the Son by the Spirit. We also assemble in...
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