“God is absolutely sovereign, and man is accountable before Him.”
This is such a major theme of the Bible that it appears in just about every nook and cranny of God’s revelation. It’s an important truth to keep in mind as we look at baptism this morning.
Baptism is, first of all, the work and initiative of God. It is a sign and seal of the good work He has done in us, and not primarily a sign of our belief. It is, in fact, the Christian rite of initiation into the Body of Christ and union with Christ, just like circumcision in the Old Covenant.
Paul says in verse 11 that we were circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands, by the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism. In the Old Covenant, circumcision was the means of entrance into a covenant with God through participation in Israel. If someone wanted to be counted part of Israel, God’s Elect Lady, he needed to be circumcised. So important was this initiation into God’s covenant with Israel that when holy Moses forgot to circumcise his own son, God hunted him down and was about to execute him, until his wife had the wisdom to figure out that Moses should keep the Law God had given him. If someone wanted to become an Israelite and obtain all the blessings of being in a covenantal relationship with God through Israel, he had to be circumcised.
Circumcision was normally performed on baby boys when they were eight days old, and so obviously circumcision was a sign of what God was doing in the life of the child, and not a sign of what the child had done. In the New Covenant, circumcision is replaced by baptism, only now God has expanded the range of recipients to include females as well. But baptism is still a sign of what God has done to and for us, and not what we have done (except in a secondary way), for salvation is all of grace and not of the work of man.
Baptism is also a Sacrament, and one that was ordained by Jesus Christ Himself. Remembering that a Sacrament is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us.” Grace, being the free gift of God, can’t be caused by our faith, or else we would have to initiate the relationship with God even before He has called us. Grace precedes faith. God is always the origin of a relationship with Him, and so it makes sense that God can begin a relationship even with those who are young.
Baptism, therefore, brings us into a covenantal union with God by being united to Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church.
I know that some of you will have different beliefs about baptism and the grace that God gives in it. My point is not to argue for a position but to help us wonder at the grace of God and to learn what our response is to be to this grace.
When I say, therefore, that baptism brings us into God’s covenant and makes us an heir of His blessings, I know there will be some objections. I think what most people want to make sure of, when discussing the fact that God truly gives grace in baptism and truly initiates a relationship with man, is that I am not saying that baptism by itself saves a person. Baptism, by itself never saved anyone. Being united to Jesus Christ does.
But can God use baptism to initiate a covenantal relationship with Him? Of course! He did it in the Old Covenant – why would it be impossible or unthinkable in the New, where the grace of God is even greater?
So God is absolutely sovereign, and He is always the one who first loves us and begins the new life in us. But if it’s true that in baptism we are buried with Christ and die to ourselves and are raised with Christ to new life, this new life in Christ must be kept alive. This is where the other side of God’s truth must be affirmed: that man is accountable before God, accountable in this case to continue in the grace He has given. After receiving God’s grace and after God has planted a new life in us, we have a part to play. It was God who planted the Garden of Eden and planted the seeds and trees in it: but Adam was to guard and cultivate the good work God had begun.
Our lives are our own Garden of Eden. God has planted a new life in us, but we must cultivate and guard this life. This is why being baptized, without a life of faith and faithfulness, can never save a man. Baptism may bring that person into a new spiritual life or sphere, but it cannot sustain it without faith. Even before baptism, we may see the grace of God at work in the lives of our kids. Does this mean that they don’t have to lift a finger to continue in that grace? Of course not!
For this reason, even though Paul speaks highly of baptism, he consistently warns us to walk in Christ as we have received Him (verse 6.) There is nothing automatic about faith or salvation: we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in us both to do and to will for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13.) Even Jesus Christ Himself had to not only be circumcised (and then be baptized) but also had to obey God. Though Jesus Christ was God Himself and had the Holy Spirit in Him, the human Christ had to actively choose to obey.
Baptism is a visible reminder of the grace of God in our lives that He began even before we desired Him. It reminds us that our life is hidden in Jesus Christ and that we are in a relationship with Him. While we were still dead in our sins, Jesus Christ chose us and wiped out the judgment of God’s holy Law against us (verse 14.) He took on the principalities and powers of this world and made a public spectacle of His victory over them (verse 15).
This is what God has done for you. What are you doing for God?
I encourage each of you to look back at the vows you took at baptism. A covenant is a two-way street. God promises to bless those who love Him and keep His commandments. When you were baptized, you also promised God certain things. It is a good idea to review them at least once a year.
In the Book of Common Prayer Holy Baptism service, a Christian vows to: “renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh.” The Christian also vows to “obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days” of his life. If it is a child being baptized, the parents or sponsors vow to teach the child the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments and “all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul’s health.” Finally, the Christian is charged to not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified but to manfully fight under His banner and to continue His faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end.
I might add as well that at baptism each Christian is anointed as a priest of God and is commissioned as a minister of the Lord.
The grace and love of God given at baptism and throughout our lives is immeasurable. No gift we could ever give in return could be an adequate response.
But there is one thing God does ask of you: that you be a whole burnt offering to Him and that you love and serve Him with all your body and all your mind and all your soul.
Resolution: I resolve to celebrate the grace of God in my life and examine my vows before Him today.
Prayer: All praise be to you, heavenly Father, because you first loved me and sent Your only-begotten Son. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for living and dying for me. Assist me with the continual grace of Your Holy Spirit that I may fulfill my holy vows before You to serve You all the days of my life. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Find one way to celebrate the grace of God in your life.
2. Slowly meditate upon the things that a Christian vows in baptism (listed above.) Spend enough time on each one to honestly evaluate the condition of your soul before God.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Friday, January 09, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
January 8 - Acts 28:23-31
Here is what Jesus Christ told Ananias, things which I’m sure He also told St. Paul: “He is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15-16).
Was it worth it?
Here is Paul’s abbreviated list of what he had to endure for Christ: “imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” (2 Corinthians 11:23-29).
Was it worth it to Paul? I think we would all say yes, knowing what fruit Paul yielded for the Kingdom of Christ. He preached and established churches in most of the places he visited: Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch Pisidia, Perga, Attalia, Paphos, Salamis, Troas, Apollonia, Neapolis, Philippi, Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Miletus, Ephesus, Assos, Mitylene, Rhodes, Patara, Myra, and Cnidus. He strengthened the churches, encouraged them by visiting them, prayed for them, and ordained others to guard and keep them. He wrote letters to the churches at Rome, Corinth (3 letters, although one is lost), Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossi, and Thessalonica, as well as to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. These inspired letters, of course, make up half of the New Testament.
I think we could agree it was more than worth it!
But do you think it seemed like it was worth it to Paul at the time? Maybe. If so, only because of his great faith in what Jesus had promised to him.
So now we have come to the end of Paul’s story, and what do we hear? What is the end of this incredible, grace-drenched story? This: “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” Even at the end of his life, a life that was submitted to Christ in all things, Jesus Christ used him as His chosen vessel to be His minister on earth.
But what about you? St. Paul ran the race set before him, and he ran it well. He ran it to win, and win he did by losing himself so utterly to Jesus that in his weakness he was made strong by Christ.
One thing’s for sure: you won’t be another St. Paul – and neither will I. God hasn’t called you to be St. Paul: that was a unique gift given to him. But He has called you to minister in His kingdom. Who might you be and become if you truly answered the call of the Lord. When He calls to you, whether generally or specifically, do you answer, “Here I am Lord!”
How many more years do you plan on living? Who do you think the Lord could make you if you completely surrendered your life to Him the remainder of it? It doesn’t matter if you think your life is almost over and have only a few years left. What will you do with them?
The answer to that should be this question: “What is Jesus calling you to do?”
Paul once wrote about himself: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God” (1 Corinthians 1:1).
We’ve talked a lot in Acts about the stories that God is telling. We’ve heard the story of Stephen, and the story of Israel as he told it. We’ve especially heard the stories of Paul and of a young Church that was trying to live a Spirit-filled life that pleased her Master.
What will you write about yourself? To what has Jesus Christ called you, and to what is He even now calling you? I don’t presume to know what that is in particular, but I do know what it is that Jesus has called each of His disciples to: He’s called us to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. And He’s called us to invest our lives in Him that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.
Prayer: O Lord, my God, fountain of all true and holy love; who hast made me, and preserved me, that I might love Thee; give to Thy servant such a love, that whatsoever in Thy service may happen contrary to flesh and blood, I may not feel it; that humility may be my sanctuary, and Thy service the joy of my soul, and death itself the entrance of an eternal life, when I may live with Thee, my Strength and my Refuge, my God and everlasting Hope. Amen. (Jeremy Taylor)
Point for Meditation:
1. Consider your story so far. How would you like for it to end?
2. To what do you know that God has called you? How faithfully are you doing His will? What is keeping you from it? Who or what might the Spirit use to encourage you?
Resolution: I resolve to spend some time today considering my life and God’s call on it.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Was it worth it?
Here is Paul’s abbreviated list of what he had to endure for Christ: “imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” (2 Corinthians 11:23-29).
Was it worth it to Paul? I think we would all say yes, knowing what fruit Paul yielded for the Kingdom of Christ. He preached and established churches in most of the places he visited: Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch Pisidia, Perga, Attalia, Paphos, Salamis, Troas, Apollonia, Neapolis, Philippi, Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Miletus, Ephesus, Assos, Mitylene, Rhodes, Patara, Myra, and Cnidus. He strengthened the churches, encouraged them by visiting them, prayed for them, and ordained others to guard and keep them. He wrote letters to the churches at Rome, Corinth (3 letters, although one is lost), Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossi, and Thessalonica, as well as to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. These inspired letters, of course, make up half of the New Testament.
I think we could agree it was more than worth it!
But do you think it seemed like it was worth it to Paul at the time? Maybe. If so, only because of his great faith in what Jesus had promised to him.
So now we have come to the end of Paul’s story, and what do we hear? What is the end of this incredible, grace-drenched story? This: “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” Even at the end of his life, a life that was submitted to Christ in all things, Jesus Christ used him as His chosen vessel to be His minister on earth.
But what about you? St. Paul ran the race set before him, and he ran it well. He ran it to win, and win he did by losing himself so utterly to Jesus that in his weakness he was made strong by Christ.
One thing’s for sure: you won’t be another St. Paul – and neither will I. God hasn’t called you to be St. Paul: that was a unique gift given to him. But He has called you to minister in His kingdom. Who might you be and become if you truly answered the call of the Lord. When He calls to you, whether generally or specifically, do you answer, “Here I am Lord!”
How many more years do you plan on living? Who do you think the Lord could make you if you completely surrendered your life to Him the remainder of it? It doesn’t matter if you think your life is almost over and have only a few years left. What will you do with them?
The answer to that should be this question: “What is Jesus calling you to do?”
Paul once wrote about himself: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God” (1 Corinthians 1:1).
We’ve talked a lot in Acts about the stories that God is telling. We’ve heard the story of Stephen, and the story of Israel as he told it. We’ve especially heard the stories of Paul and of a young Church that was trying to live a Spirit-filled life that pleased her Master.
What will you write about yourself? To what has Jesus Christ called you, and to what is He even now calling you? I don’t presume to know what that is in particular, but I do know what it is that Jesus has called each of His disciples to: He’s called us to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. And He’s called us to invest our lives in Him that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.
Prayer: O Lord, my God, fountain of all true and holy love; who hast made me, and preserved me, that I might love Thee; give to Thy servant such a love, that whatsoever in Thy service may happen contrary to flesh and blood, I may not feel it; that humility may be my sanctuary, and Thy service the joy of my soul, and death itself the entrance of an eternal life, when I may live with Thee, my Strength and my Refuge, my God and everlasting Hope. Amen. (Jeremy Taylor)
Point for Meditation:
1. Consider your story so far. How would you like for it to end?
2. To what do you know that God has called you? How faithfully are you doing His will? What is keeping you from it? Who or what might the Spirit use to encourage you?
Resolution: I resolve to spend some time today considering my life and God’s call on it.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
January 8 - Mark 9:2-13
My all-time favorite opening sentence from a work of fiction has to be the first line from Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. It goes like this: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
Kafka proceeds in a perfectly deadpan fashion to describe the sad fate of this transformation of the life of Gregor Samsa.
This morning we read in a work of non-fiction, the Bible, about a transformation even more astounding – and that is the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Even when you know the true nature of Jesus Christ as both God and man, you can’t help but be amazed and startled when He reveals His true nature for even a short time.
The fact is, that though we don’t see the Transfiguration of the physical body of Jesus Christ, we do have an opportunity to see the glory of our Lord every day.
First, we see Jesus Christ transfigured through His Creation. Like Jesus in his human flesh, who looked like an ordinary man, this world looks “normal.” It doesn’t seem like anything special.
But it is!
It’s full of God’s glory, but a glory hidden in the ordinary. Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote that “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.”
I see the glory of God in the gigantic horned beetle that my kids gave me for Father’s Day last year. I see the glory of God in the giant, beautiful quartz crystals my son Charlie and I found at Coleman’s Mine a little north of Hot Springs.
It’s there in the rainbow that God makes out of nothing more than light and water and air; and it’s there in a single drop of dew on a single blade of grass. It’s all over, once you begin looking for it.
I see the hidden glory of God in the Bible. From the outside, it seems like an ordinary book. It is bound like other books and has pages like them. It’s name means simply “The Book.”
But the glory of God is in these pages, not just in places like Mark 9 but throughout the whole book. Whenever I meditate on it, whenever I treat it like the Word of God and not just another book or not just something to be studied – the glory of God streams into my soul.
But there is still a more excellent way to see the glory of God, and that is in His people, the Church. You all look like ordinary people to the people of the world, and in some ways they’re right. But you, like Jesus, are vessels for the glory of God. Every once in a while, it is manifested for the world to clearly see.
Some of you may have been transfigured quickly, and you are the easiest kinds of transfigurations to see. But most of you have been transfigured slowly, day by day and year by year. It might even look to you as if you haven’t been transformed or transfigured at all.
But look at yourself this way. First, look at your life from the time you were born and try to imagine what it would have been like without Jesus Christ in it. You would have started at the same point, but little by little, sometimes more noticeably than others, you would have grown into someone who did not love God – someone who thought, spoke, and acted very differently than you do now.
If you have given your life to God, reflect, now, on your life as you have lived it with God. Now take that life and speed it up so that it flows rapidly before your eyes. Speed it up even faster and faster, until it all passes before your mind in a few seconds. If you were able to do this, for some of you it would look like the explosion of a supernova! For some of you, it would be like seeing the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ: you would see it as a life miraculously transformed by God!
In fact, that’s exactly what we all are witnessing, whenever we are privileged to see disciples of Jesus Christ grow in grace and truth: we are witnessing the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, as He indwells His people.
Do you want to see the glory of God?
It’s all around you – in His Creation, His Word, His Sacraments, and His People.
But don’t gaze at the transfigured glory of Jesus Christ as an idle spectator. God expects you to be transfigured by what you have seen.
He expects your life to be transformed, as were the lives of Jesus’ disciples.
You won’t write a book of the Bible like Peter did. But every day you have the opportunity to be a personal Transfiguration of Jesus Christ to all whom you meet.
So behold and see the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ!
And then allow God to so transform you that you yourself become an instrument of His glory and transformation for others.
Prayer: O God, who on the mountain revealed to chosen witnesses Your only-begotten Son wonderfully transfigured, in white and shining clothes; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the worries of this world, may be allowed to see the King in His beauty, who with You, O Father, and You, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, world without end. Amen.
Point for Meditation: Take one of these 4 ways of seeing Christ transfigured – in His Creation, Word, Sacrament, or People – and meditate upon it. How do you see Him in this hidden way? How has He blessed You by His presence in this way? Practice continuing to see Him this way throughout the day that you might better train your mind to see Him in all things.
Resolution: I resolve to look for Jesus Christ today, in His Creation, in His Word, and in His people.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Kafka proceeds in a perfectly deadpan fashion to describe the sad fate of this transformation of the life of Gregor Samsa.
This morning we read in a work of non-fiction, the Bible, about a transformation even more astounding – and that is the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Even when you know the true nature of Jesus Christ as both God and man, you can’t help but be amazed and startled when He reveals His true nature for even a short time.
The fact is, that though we don’t see the Transfiguration of the physical body of Jesus Christ, we do have an opportunity to see the glory of our Lord every day.
First, we see Jesus Christ transfigured through His Creation. Like Jesus in his human flesh, who looked like an ordinary man, this world looks “normal.” It doesn’t seem like anything special.
But it is!
It’s full of God’s glory, but a glory hidden in the ordinary. Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote that “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.”
I see the glory of God in the gigantic horned beetle that my kids gave me for Father’s Day last year. I see the glory of God in the giant, beautiful quartz crystals my son Charlie and I found at Coleman’s Mine a little north of Hot Springs.
It’s there in the rainbow that God makes out of nothing more than light and water and air; and it’s there in a single drop of dew on a single blade of grass. It’s all over, once you begin looking for it.
I see the hidden glory of God in the Bible. From the outside, it seems like an ordinary book. It is bound like other books and has pages like them. It’s name means simply “The Book.”
But the glory of God is in these pages, not just in places like Mark 9 but throughout the whole book. Whenever I meditate on it, whenever I treat it like the Word of God and not just another book or not just something to be studied – the glory of God streams into my soul.
But there is still a more excellent way to see the glory of God, and that is in His people, the Church. You all look like ordinary people to the people of the world, and in some ways they’re right. But you, like Jesus, are vessels for the glory of God. Every once in a while, it is manifested for the world to clearly see.
Some of you may have been transfigured quickly, and you are the easiest kinds of transfigurations to see. But most of you have been transfigured slowly, day by day and year by year. It might even look to you as if you haven’t been transformed or transfigured at all.
But look at yourself this way. First, look at your life from the time you were born and try to imagine what it would have been like without Jesus Christ in it. You would have started at the same point, but little by little, sometimes more noticeably than others, you would have grown into someone who did not love God – someone who thought, spoke, and acted very differently than you do now.
If you have given your life to God, reflect, now, on your life as you have lived it with God. Now take that life and speed it up so that it flows rapidly before your eyes. Speed it up even faster and faster, until it all passes before your mind in a few seconds. If you were able to do this, for some of you it would look like the explosion of a supernova! For some of you, it would be like seeing the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ: you would see it as a life miraculously transformed by God!
In fact, that’s exactly what we all are witnessing, whenever we are privileged to see disciples of Jesus Christ grow in grace and truth: we are witnessing the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, as He indwells His people.
Do you want to see the glory of God?
It’s all around you – in His Creation, His Word, His Sacraments, and His People.
But don’t gaze at the transfigured glory of Jesus Christ as an idle spectator. God expects you to be transfigured by what you have seen.
He expects your life to be transformed, as were the lives of Jesus’ disciples.
You won’t write a book of the Bible like Peter did. But every day you have the opportunity to be a personal Transfiguration of Jesus Christ to all whom you meet.
So behold and see the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ!
And then allow God to so transform you that you yourself become an instrument of His glory and transformation for others.
Prayer: O God, who on the mountain revealed to chosen witnesses Your only-begotten Son wonderfully transfigured, in white and shining clothes; Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the worries of this world, may be allowed to see the King in His beauty, who with You, O Father, and You, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, world without end. Amen.
Point for Meditation: Take one of these 4 ways of seeing Christ transfigured – in His Creation, Word, Sacrament, or People – and meditate upon it. How do you see Him in this hidden way? How has He blessed You by His presence in this way? Practice continuing to see Him this way throughout the day that you might better train your mind to see Him in all things.
Resolution: I resolve to look for Jesus Christ today, in His Creation, in His Word, and in His people.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
January 7 - Matthew 3:13-17
Have any of you ever been a marked man - or woman?
I mean, have you ever had the feeling that someone, perhaps because of something evil you've done and perhaps not, is just out to get you?
Maybe you had an enemy who was hell-bent on tracking you down and seeing you brought down at whatever cost - or maybe you feel as if you have a big X marked all over you.
Though you wouldn't guess it to look at me, I am a marked man. Not was a marked man - am. I am a marked man. Now you might be thinking - just who is this guy we have for a priest now - but let me explain.
I remember the very day and hour I first became a marked man. You see, I've been a marked man all my adult life. I remember the day and hour I became a marked man. It's really my own fault. It's something I volunteered to do-well, sort of. It was the towards the end of my freshman year in high school, in the spring. I remember my twin brother, Danny, was with me: we had been singled out from a group of teenagers. I think maybe there was one other guy as well.
They made us come forward in front of everyone and face a large crowd of adults. And that's when they marked me.
That's when the minister took his hand, placed it in water, and marked my forehead with the sign of the cross.
The day I was baptized was the day I became a marked man. And the day you were baptized was the day you became a marked man as well.
You and I - all of us who are Christians are marked men. You see at baptism, God puts the sign of His name upon us. He claims us publicly for His own, though He has always known those He would elect.
At that moment, even if we don't realize it, there are lot of amazing things that begin to happen to us. Suddenly, the stakes for our life become a lot higher. God declares Himself for us, but Satan is out to get us - he is the hunter.
Every decision you make from that moment you will either be confirming the mark that is on you, or we will be denying the One who put it there.
When you are baptized, you become a part of the Church. And when you become a part of the Church, we are united with Jesus Christ in all of His life.
I want us to try to understand what Jesus’ baptism has to do with us.
When Jesus was baptized, it was easy for everyone present to see the earthly and physical aspects of His baptism: how the water was placed on Jesus Christ by John the Baptist. But there was a heavenly aspect as well: God is always working behind the scenes in baptism.
3 heavenly things happen to Jesus when He was baptized: the heavens were opened; the Holy Spirit descended; and the Father was well pleased. But here, if you're like me, you might have a question about baptism. If baptism for the Christian is being made a part of the body of Christ, as well as a dedicating of one's life to God, then why was it necessary for Jesus Christ to be baptized? What did it signify for Him, and why did God act so dramatically?
In baptism, Jesus was anointed to 3 offices. He was anointed (the meaning of the name “Messiah” or “Christ”) to be a prophet, one who proclaims the word of the Lord, the Good News of salvation. He was anointed to be a priest, our High Priest who offers up the
perfect sacrifice that truly took away sins. And He was anointed as king, the King of Kings.
Immediately after, and only after, His baptism that Jesus began the work for which He was born. We rightly celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas, God made man, but God was made man in the person of Jesus for a purpose. This is the connection between the baptism of Jesus Christ and your baptism: that when someone is baptized, God is equipping them for ministry, to be serve as Jesus Christ, for it is His ministry and life into which we are baptized.
There’s another reason Jesus was baptized: Jesus was baptized so that He might baptize us. Jesus was baptized, but He was baptized so that He might serve us and baptize us with His Spirit, that we might be united to Him in all things.
In the Church year, we celebrate and rehearse the life of Christ: God became man that man might come to God or become like God. In baptism, we put on Christ, and we are united with Him and made a part of His body. We think, act, and speak as Jesus thought, acted, and spoke.
In fact, in baptism, we are given our eternal identity: baptism makes us Christians and identifies us to the world, both visible and invisible, as Christians. Everyone today is looking for an identity - we've all heard of people having identity crises. You can see it in the way people change their hair or cars or even their lifestyles, searching for their true identity. When all along the identity of each human is one created in the image of God.
When you are baptized, 3 heavenly things happened that marked your new identity, as they did with Jesus. First, the heavens are opened: you have access to God. Second, you’re given the Holy Spirit who equips you for spiritual battle and life in Christ. Third, God is well pleased with you as His adopted child.
In baptism, God makes you one of His sheep. He puts His mark on you and claims you as one of His own: He brands you! Then He cares for you like a shepherd cares for His sheep. He feeds you and clothes you; He protects you and blesses you in every way. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
But when you accept the mark of God upon you, you have taken a vow: when you were baptized, you signed your life away. You signed up for God's army, the Church, and agreed to submit to the rules and discipline, as well as the rewards, of life in Christ and in His Body.
Like Jesus, in your baptism you were anointed to 3 offices. You were anointed to be a prophet who speaks the word of God. You were anointed as a priest who is to make spiritual sacrifices with your lips and lives to God, a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise: you are to worship Him! And you were anointed as a king who is to rule over your bodiy and whatever God has given you.
Once baptized, you are marked men and women. You have entered a spiritual war, and baptism makes clear to the enemy which side of the battle you are on. Just as Jesus was immediately led into the wilderness to be tempted after He was baptized, you will be tempted as a Christian. You have a glowing cross on your uniform which Satan and his minions see as a big, fat target.
You will be tempted to do things your way, which is too often Satan's way. You will be tempted to forget that you are a Christian, signed with the name of the Holy Trinity. You will suffer in this life, and God's enemy will seek to use this to make you question God and your identity as one of God's children.
But the God who has marked you as His child and made you a member of the body of His Son will protect you from all evil if you are faithful to Him.
In the midst of a pagan nation he had come to make Christians, St. Patrick knew who he was. He could have been discouraged by how hard his life was and how often he must have been rejected and dejected. But everywhere around him he saw a world that reminded him of the presence of Jesus Christ all around him.
He saw clearly that he was in Christ and that Christ was his life. He knew that being baptized into Christ was what made Him a Christian, marked before God and man as being the property of Jesus Christ.
When St. Patrick rose in the morning, he awoke with a sense of his Christian identity: he arose by invoking the strong name of the Trinity, into whose name he was baptized. When he rose each morning, he put on Jesus Christ - and used all of creation to remind him that he was a Christian. He arose each day with a sense that he was identified with Jesus Christ through baptism.
Just as the life of Christ guides us through the Christian year, it guides us through each day.
I bind this day to me for ever,
by power of faith, Christ's Incarnation; (Christmas)
his baptism in Jordan river (Epiphany)
his death on cross for my salvation (Good Friday)
his bursting from the spicèd tomb (Easter)
his riding up the heavenly way; (Ascension)
his coming at the day of doom: (Second Coming)
I bind unto myself today.
St. Patrick’s identity in Jesus Christ is what gave him strength, which is why the hymn from which these words are taken is called St. Patrick's Breastplate.
When Jesus Christ was baptized, He was anointed to begin His ministry of salvation for you and me. When you were baptized, you were anointed to a life in union with Jesus Christ and His ministry. When you were baptized you became marked men and women, marked by God as one of His.
May we choose to live our lives as St. Patrick lived his, with a sense of his Christian identity, with a sense of Jesus Christ in every part of his life.
Prayer: Christ be with me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ before me,
Christ beside me,
Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort
and restore me.
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ in quiet,
Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of
all that love me,
Christ in mouth of
friend and stranger. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Sing St. Patrick’s Breastplate today (hymn #268 in the 1940 Hymnal).
2. To which of the 3 anointed offices is God calling you to work more faithfully?
3. How can you practice binding yourself to Christ today so that He is your breastplate and your identity?
Resolution: I resolve to find one specific way to put Jesus Christ on today.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
I mean, have you ever had the feeling that someone, perhaps because of something evil you've done and perhaps not, is just out to get you?
Maybe you had an enemy who was hell-bent on tracking you down and seeing you brought down at whatever cost - or maybe you feel as if you have a big X marked all over you.
Though you wouldn't guess it to look at me, I am a marked man. Not was a marked man - am. I am a marked man. Now you might be thinking - just who is this guy we have for a priest now - but let me explain.
I remember the very day and hour I first became a marked man. You see, I've been a marked man all my adult life. I remember the day and hour I became a marked man. It's really my own fault. It's something I volunteered to do-well, sort of. It was the towards the end of my freshman year in high school, in the spring. I remember my twin brother, Danny, was with me: we had been singled out from a group of teenagers. I think maybe there was one other guy as well.
They made us come forward in front of everyone and face a large crowd of adults. And that's when they marked me.
That's when the minister took his hand, placed it in water, and marked my forehead with the sign of the cross.
The day I was baptized was the day I became a marked man. And the day you were baptized was the day you became a marked man as well.
You and I - all of us who are Christians are marked men. You see at baptism, God puts the sign of His name upon us. He claims us publicly for His own, though He has always known those He would elect.
At that moment, even if we don't realize it, there are lot of amazing things that begin to happen to us. Suddenly, the stakes for our life become a lot higher. God declares Himself for us, but Satan is out to get us - he is the hunter.
Every decision you make from that moment you will either be confirming the mark that is on you, or we will be denying the One who put it there.
When you are baptized, you become a part of the Church. And when you become a part of the Church, we are united with Jesus Christ in all of His life.
I want us to try to understand what Jesus’ baptism has to do with us.
When Jesus was baptized, it was easy for everyone present to see the earthly and physical aspects of His baptism: how the water was placed on Jesus Christ by John the Baptist. But there was a heavenly aspect as well: God is always working behind the scenes in baptism.
3 heavenly things happen to Jesus when He was baptized: the heavens were opened; the Holy Spirit descended; and the Father was well pleased. But here, if you're like me, you might have a question about baptism. If baptism for the Christian is being made a part of the body of Christ, as well as a dedicating of one's life to God, then why was it necessary for Jesus Christ to be baptized? What did it signify for Him, and why did God act so dramatically?
In baptism, Jesus was anointed to 3 offices. He was anointed (the meaning of the name “Messiah” or “Christ”) to be a prophet, one who proclaims the word of the Lord, the Good News of salvation. He was anointed to be a priest, our High Priest who offers up the
perfect sacrifice that truly took away sins. And He was anointed as king, the King of Kings.
Immediately after, and only after, His baptism that Jesus began the work for which He was born. We rightly celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas, God made man, but God was made man in the person of Jesus for a purpose. This is the connection between the baptism of Jesus Christ and your baptism: that when someone is baptized, God is equipping them for ministry, to be serve as Jesus Christ, for it is His ministry and life into which we are baptized.
There’s another reason Jesus was baptized: Jesus was baptized so that He might baptize us. Jesus was baptized, but He was baptized so that He might serve us and baptize us with His Spirit, that we might be united to Him in all things.
In the Church year, we celebrate and rehearse the life of Christ: God became man that man might come to God or become like God. In baptism, we put on Christ, and we are united with Him and made a part of His body. We think, act, and speak as Jesus thought, acted, and spoke.
In fact, in baptism, we are given our eternal identity: baptism makes us Christians and identifies us to the world, both visible and invisible, as Christians. Everyone today is looking for an identity - we've all heard of people having identity crises. You can see it in the way people change their hair or cars or even their lifestyles, searching for their true identity. When all along the identity of each human is one created in the image of God.
When you are baptized, 3 heavenly things happened that marked your new identity, as they did with Jesus. First, the heavens are opened: you have access to God. Second, you’re given the Holy Spirit who equips you for spiritual battle and life in Christ. Third, God is well pleased with you as His adopted child.
In baptism, God makes you one of His sheep. He puts His mark on you and claims you as one of His own: He brands you! Then He cares for you like a shepherd cares for His sheep. He feeds you and clothes you; He protects you and blesses you in every way. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
But when you accept the mark of God upon you, you have taken a vow: when you were baptized, you signed your life away. You signed up for God's army, the Church, and agreed to submit to the rules and discipline, as well as the rewards, of life in Christ and in His Body.
Like Jesus, in your baptism you were anointed to 3 offices. You were anointed to be a prophet who speaks the word of God. You were anointed as a priest who is to make spiritual sacrifices with your lips and lives to God, a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise: you are to worship Him! And you were anointed as a king who is to rule over your bodiy and whatever God has given you.
Once baptized, you are marked men and women. You have entered a spiritual war, and baptism makes clear to the enemy which side of the battle you are on. Just as Jesus was immediately led into the wilderness to be tempted after He was baptized, you will be tempted as a Christian. You have a glowing cross on your uniform which Satan and his minions see as a big, fat target.
You will be tempted to do things your way, which is too often Satan's way. You will be tempted to forget that you are a Christian, signed with the name of the Holy Trinity. You will suffer in this life, and God's enemy will seek to use this to make you question God and your identity as one of God's children.
But the God who has marked you as His child and made you a member of the body of His Son will protect you from all evil if you are faithful to Him.
In the midst of a pagan nation he had come to make Christians, St. Patrick knew who he was. He could have been discouraged by how hard his life was and how often he must have been rejected and dejected. But everywhere around him he saw a world that reminded him of the presence of Jesus Christ all around him.
He saw clearly that he was in Christ and that Christ was his life. He knew that being baptized into Christ was what made Him a Christian, marked before God and man as being the property of Jesus Christ.
When St. Patrick rose in the morning, he awoke with a sense of his Christian identity: he arose by invoking the strong name of the Trinity, into whose name he was baptized. When he rose each morning, he put on Jesus Christ - and used all of creation to remind him that he was a Christian. He arose each day with a sense that he was identified with Jesus Christ through baptism.
Just as the life of Christ guides us through the Christian year, it guides us through each day.
I bind this day to me for ever,
by power of faith, Christ's Incarnation; (Christmas)
his baptism in Jordan river (Epiphany)
his death on cross for my salvation (Good Friday)
his bursting from the spicèd tomb (Easter)
his riding up the heavenly way; (Ascension)
his coming at the day of doom: (Second Coming)
I bind unto myself today.
St. Patrick’s identity in Jesus Christ is what gave him strength, which is why the hymn from which these words are taken is called St. Patrick's Breastplate.
When Jesus Christ was baptized, He was anointed to begin His ministry of salvation for you and me. When you were baptized, you were anointed to a life in union with Jesus Christ and His ministry. When you were baptized you became marked men and women, marked by God as one of His.
May we choose to live our lives as St. Patrick lived his, with a sense of his Christian identity, with a sense of Jesus Christ in every part of his life.
Prayer: Christ be with me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ before me,
Christ beside me,
Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort
and restore me.
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ in quiet,
Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of
all that love me,
Christ in mouth of
friend and stranger. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Sing St. Patrick’s Breastplate today (hymn #268 in the 1940 Hymnal).
2. To which of the 3 anointed offices is God calling you to work more faithfully?
3. How can you practice binding yourself to Christ today so that He is your breastplate and your identity?
Resolution: I resolve to find one specific way to put Jesus Christ on today.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Monday, January 05, 2009
Epiphany Day – January 6 - Matthew 2:1-12
There have always been 2 ways to respond to Jesus Christ: the way of the wise and the way of the fool. Isaiah 60 prophesied that the kings of the earth would come and bow down before Christ, but there was at least one king who refused. Herod the Great was a selfish and foolish man – more concerned about himself than others. He refused to worship the Messiah – in fact he hated Him and wanted to kill Him. This Herod the Great was like his son in Acts 12, who refused to give glory to God and was struck dead, eaten by worms! The long line of Herods were the very definition of a fool: one who makes bad choices. In biblical terms a fool is the one who does not follow God – one who does not do what he ought to do.
By contrast, there were a few kings – 3 by tradition – who were the definition of wise: one who knows what he ought to do - and does it. These kings from the Orient spared no expense to come and behold the King of Kings. They are examples to us all of men who know what is right – and do it.
During the Epiphany, we celebrate the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, to the Gentiles. The wise men of Matthew 2, because they were wise and made wise choices, are a model for all people in seeking salvation. When Isaiah 60:3 says “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising,” it speaks, therefore, of these wise men from the East, who came to worship the newborn King.
But it also speaks of us – the Gentiles who come to Christ.
There are 4 things the wise men of old did that made them wise – 4 ways they knew what was right and did it. Together they spell the word “wise” – W-I-S-E
W = Worship God
I = Inquire where He may be found
S = Sacrifice to and for Him
E = Exult that He is here
First, these wise men Worshiped Jesus Christ. They came from far away to be able to worship Him, and when they came, they fell down and worshiped Him. These men who were important in their own lands, perhaps kings or in the royal court, fell down on their knees before a child only a year old or so. They worshiped as well with the rare and costly gifts they brought.
One definition of “worship” is to reverence and adore God with no other ulterior motive. This is why I hope you have come to Jesus Christ today and every day.
The wise men saw Jesus as an infant – and worshiped Him. But you have the fullness of Jesus Christ, and we have the Holy Spirit. How much more should we be led to truly worship Him! How much more should we drop everything, forget about everything else, and simply worship Him?
Second, we should Inquire where He may be found. The wise men from the East may have looked at astronomical signs. Possibly, they had knowledge of the Old Testament left by dispersed Jews and knew about the Messiah. However they did it, the wise men found Jesus Christ. They found Him because they diligently inquired where He could be found. They spent a lot of time and money seeking Him, even though He was only a baby, because they thought He was worth whatever price they had to pay to find Him.
What price are you willing to pay to find the Messiah, the light to which the Gentiles are prophesied to come?
The price God asks in order to receive this Treasure of treasures who is His Son is that you earnestly look for Him. Psalm 27:4 is perhaps my favorite verse in the Bible, and one I’ve had my wife calligraphy for me and frame: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”
The wise men of old sought Jesus Christ and saw a vision of God in return.
Third, we must sacrifice to and for Him. Closely related to the idea of worship is that of sacrifice. The wise men are famous for bringing the best gifts to the Christ child. They recognized the value of Him who they came to seek and gave what they thought would be an acceptable sacrifice to God Himself.
In the early chapters of Genesis, the difference between the wise man and the fool is portrayed in the lives of Cain and Abel. Abel brought a blood sacrifice, the firstborn of his flock, because he had discovered that this was the kind of sacrifice God wanted and because it was the best sacrifice he had. Cain, on the other hand, brought what was most convenient for him – an agricultural sacrifice. He could have offered an animal, but, you see, that would require more work and cost. Never mind that it’s what God desired. In the end, Cain’s foolishness led him to anger and his anger to murder.
One definition of sacrifice is “to give up something highly valued for the sake of something you value even more highly.” Jesus Himself tells us that where your heart it, there your treasure will be. So what is it that we sacrifice in our lives for the sake of something more valuable? Do we sacrifice for Him (because He is worth more than anything else), or do we sacrifice Him because we value something more than Him?
We are supposed to give God the best of our gifts. Sunday morning worship, for example, is not the dregs of the week but the first day of the week, and it’s good to start the week out with worship. On Sunday morning we give God the best hour of the best day of the week.
God deserves the best part of your lives – in fact, He deserves and claims all of your life. But are you prepared to sacrifice to the Lord, or will you remain content to give the Lord only what is easy to give? God delights in the pure sacrifice of genuine thanksgiving and praise, and that is what you must give Him. He delights in those who give up their lives for others, just as Jesus Christ did.
And sometimes, this means giving up other things that we value.
Finally, we should Exult because Jesus Christ is here, and we are with Him. The wise men didn’t just have joy. They didn’t even have “great joy”, but . . . when they saw the star – not even Jesus Himself yet – they “rejoiced with exceedingly great joy” (verse 10.)
These wise men – these princes of the East – had seen all the best treasures that the East had to offer: spices and women; palaces and jewels beyond compare. But, being wise men, what they rejoiced in more than anything else was to see that the King of Kings had been born to begin ruling over the earth and to save His people from their sins.
Wisdom is knowing which things to value most. The men from the East were truly wise because they knew that Jesus Christ is worth more than all of the earth’s riches combined.
You have a choice about how to respond to the Lord Jesus Christ today. Today is the beginning of the season of Epiphany, and Jesus Christ, the light of the world, has come to the Gentiles.
Be honest: how does that make you feel?
Are you indifferent or bored by it?
Hopefully, none of us are as foolish as Herod in rejecting and despising Christ. And hopefully the Epiphany, or revelation, of our Lord in your life makes you rejoice with exceedingly great joy!
May God grant you this day to know and to do what you ought:
that you might desire to Worship Jesus Christ the Lord
to Inquire how He may be found in your life
to Sacrifice your earthly goods to receive Him who is your heavenly treasure
and to Exult and rejoice . . .
because you have found Jesus the promised Savior – and have been found by Him.
Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve today to be wise as the Wise Men were wise. I resolve to be wise by choosing one of the ways of following Jesus Christ the Wise Men chose: by worshiping Him, inquiring after Him, sacrificing to Him, or exulting in His presence.
Prayer: O God, who by the leading of a star manifested Your only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; Mercifully grant that we, who know You now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of Your glorious Godhead; through Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
By contrast, there were a few kings – 3 by tradition – who were the definition of wise: one who knows what he ought to do - and does it. These kings from the Orient spared no expense to come and behold the King of Kings. They are examples to us all of men who know what is right – and do it.
During the Epiphany, we celebrate the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, to the Gentiles. The wise men of Matthew 2, because they were wise and made wise choices, are a model for all people in seeking salvation. When Isaiah 60:3 says “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising,” it speaks, therefore, of these wise men from the East, who came to worship the newborn King.
But it also speaks of us – the Gentiles who come to Christ.
There are 4 things the wise men of old did that made them wise – 4 ways they knew what was right and did it. Together they spell the word “wise” – W-I-S-E
W = Worship God
I = Inquire where He may be found
S = Sacrifice to and for Him
E = Exult that He is here
First, these wise men Worshiped Jesus Christ. They came from far away to be able to worship Him, and when they came, they fell down and worshiped Him. These men who were important in their own lands, perhaps kings or in the royal court, fell down on their knees before a child only a year old or so. They worshiped as well with the rare and costly gifts they brought.
One definition of “worship” is to reverence and adore God with no other ulterior motive. This is why I hope you have come to Jesus Christ today and every day.
The wise men saw Jesus as an infant – and worshiped Him. But you have the fullness of Jesus Christ, and we have the Holy Spirit. How much more should we be led to truly worship Him! How much more should we drop everything, forget about everything else, and simply worship Him?
Second, we should Inquire where He may be found. The wise men from the East may have looked at astronomical signs. Possibly, they had knowledge of the Old Testament left by dispersed Jews and knew about the Messiah. However they did it, the wise men found Jesus Christ. They found Him because they diligently inquired where He could be found. They spent a lot of time and money seeking Him, even though He was only a baby, because they thought He was worth whatever price they had to pay to find Him.
What price are you willing to pay to find the Messiah, the light to which the Gentiles are prophesied to come?
The price God asks in order to receive this Treasure of treasures who is His Son is that you earnestly look for Him. Psalm 27:4 is perhaps my favorite verse in the Bible, and one I’ve had my wife calligraphy for me and frame: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”
The wise men of old sought Jesus Christ and saw a vision of God in return.
Third, we must sacrifice to and for Him. Closely related to the idea of worship is that of sacrifice. The wise men are famous for bringing the best gifts to the Christ child. They recognized the value of Him who they came to seek and gave what they thought would be an acceptable sacrifice to God Himself.
In the early chapters of Genesis, the difference between the wise man and the fool is portrayed in the lives of Cain and Abel. Abel brought a blood sacrifice, the firstborn of his flock, because he had discovered that this was the kind of sacrifice God wanted and because it was the best sacrifice he had. Cain, on the other hand, brought what was most convenient for him – an agricultural sacrifice. He could have offered an animal, but, you see, that would require more work and cost. Never mind that it’s what God desired. In the end, Cain’s foolishness led him to anger and his anger to murder.
One definition of sacrifice is “to give up something highly valued for the sake of something you value even more highly.” Jesus Himself tells us that where your heart it, there your treasure will be. So what is it that we sacrifice in our lives for the sake of something more valuable? Do we sacrifice for Him (because He is worth more than anything else), or do we sacrifice Him because we value something more than Him?
We are supposed to give God the best of our gifts. Sunday morning worship, for example, is not the dregs of the week but the first day of the week, and it’s good to start the week out with worship. On Sunday morning we give God the best hour of the best day of the week.
God deserves the best part of your lives – in fact, He deserves and claims all of your life. But are you prepared to sacrifice to the Lord, or will you remain content to give the Lord only what is easy to give? God delights in the pure sacrifice of genuine thanksgiving and praise, and that is what you must give Him. He delights in those who give up their lives for others, just as Jesus Christ did.
And sometimes, this means giving up other things that we value.
Finally, we should Exult because Jesus Christ is here, and we are with Him. The wise men didn’t just have joy. They didn’t even have “great joy”, but . . . when they saw the star – not even Jesus Himself yet – they “rejoiced with exceedingly great joy” (verse 10.)
These wise men – these princes of the East – had seen all the best treasures that the East had to offer: spices and women; palaces and jewels beyond compare. But, being wise men, what they rejoiced in more than anything else was to see that the King of Kings had been born to begin ruling over the earth and to save His people from their sins.
Wisdom is knowing which things to value most. The men from the East were truly wise because they knew that Jesus Christ is worth more than all of the earth’s riches combined.
You have a choice about how to respond to the Lord Jesus Christ today. Today is the beginning of the season of Epiphany, and Jesus Christ, the light of the world, has come to the Gentiles.
Be honest: how does that make you feel?
Are you indifferent or bored by it?
Hopefully, none of us are as foolish as Herod in rejecting and despising Christ. And hopefully the Epiphany, or revelation, of our Lord in your life makes you rejoice with exceedingly great joy!
May God grant you this day to know and to do what you ought:
that you might desire to Worship Jesus Christ the Lord
to Inquire how He may be found in your life
to Sacrifice your earthly goods to receive Him who is your heavenly treasure
and to Exult and rejoice . . .
because you have found Jesus the promised Savior – and have been found by Him.
Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve today to be wise as the Wise Men were wise. I resolve to be wise by choosing one of the ways of following Jesus Christ the Wise Men chose: by worshiping Him, inquiring after Him, sacrificing to Him, or exulting in His presence.
Prayer: O God, who by the leading of a star manifested Your only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; Mercifully grant that we, who know You now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of Your glorious Godhead; through Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
January 5 - I John 5
St. John wants you to know something. He wants those who believe in the name of the Son of God to know and remember that you have eternal life, and he wants you to continue to believe in the name of the Son of God (verse 13.) This is the same John who wrote in his Gospel, “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31.)
John is so concerned that you not only believe on the Son of God but continue to believe in Him that he gives many different ways of knowing that we abide in God.
In the first place, John reminds us that the entire Trinity bears witness to itself: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While John’s clearest statement of the Trinity, verse 7 of Chapter 5, is disputed and is not in the earliest manuscripts, the fact that there are three in heaven who bear witness to the Truth - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - is still true. We seem, however, sometimes to focus on the work of the Son, apart from that of the Father of Spirit.
But John is clear that all three work together to bring us eternal life and all three bear witness to the Truth. John speaks about the Father who is light (1:5) and love (4:8). He teaches that we have fellowship with the Father through the Son (1:3), and that the Father has love for those He makes His children (3:1.) It is the Father who sent the Son to be the propitiation for our sins (4:10), and believers abide not only in the Son or Spirit but also in God, which in this case must refer to the Father (4:15.)
The Spirit gives witness by helping us to know that God abides in us (3:24), and from other passages we know that the Spirit does this by dwelling in us. The gift of the Spirit in us is itself one of the ways we know that we abide in Him (4:13.) Here in Chapter 5, verse 6 we read that it is the Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth. The Spirit bears witness not only in heaven but also on earth (5:8.)
But John reminds us that there are even more things that testify to God in us and to the eternal life we have in the Son. On earth, we have the testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood (verse 9.) The Spirit we have already talked about, but what about the water and the blood? God has testified to us about Himself and His work in our lives by the baptism of Christ (the water), by which the Christ was anointed and by which He began His public ministry. God has testified as well by the blood of Christ that was shed on the Cross (the blood).
The entire life of Jesus Christ, therefore, is a testimony to you. But since these things are past, how can they still testify to us? John himself, an eyewitness of the Son, has written to us that we might know the truth, that we might have fellowship with God, and that our joy may be complete (1:1-4.) Through the Gospel of St. John, in which we read of the life of Jesus Christ, we have a perpetual testimony of the work of the Trinity in our lives. For this reason, we should read the Bible every day because it is one of God’s appointed means of abiding in us and we in Him. In the Scriptures, we still hear God’s testimony about His Son, just as we heard from the beginning. How, then, can we ever give up reading and living by the Scriptures?
To help us participate in the life of Christ, the Church has instituted the Church year, in which we celebrate the life of Christ throughout the course of an entire year. Today we are at the end of our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ (tonight is 12th Night!); tomorrow, we will be celebrating the Epiphany of Christ to the Gentiles, and after that we will celebrate Christ’s fasting in the wilderness for us, and of course after that the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
But God testifies to us by the water and the blood in another powerful way: through the Sacraments. Through the water of baptism we are given the privilege of being brought into covenant with God and made heirs of salvation. By baptism, we are brought into the life of Jesus Christ. By the Lord’s Supper, we continue to participate in that new life that God has given to us, and we feed off of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. What powerful, continuing witnesses!
To these witnesses we must add the witness of the Church itself, which is the Body of Christ on earth, and through which all of these other witnesses are mediated.
But of all the witnesses that John records, by which we may know that we have eternal life in the Son, John spends the most time teaching us about love. We should not forget that love is a testimony of the presence of God in our lives. John’s constant message is that if we love God we will keep His commandments, for only those who love God will keep His commandments without sin. If we love God, we will love the brethren as He first loved us. By this love, we ourselves and the world will know that God abides in us and we in Him.
On this 12th Day, on this last day of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, remember the witnesses that God has given you of His abiding in you. Whenever you are weak or forgetful, remember the ways God comes to you to remind you of His presence and actually bring Himself to you. It’s easy to get distracted in life, and it’s easy lose courage in our spiritual life.
But rejoice! for God has called you His child. He has given you eternal life, He has sent His Son to be the propitiation for your sins, and He has promised to abide with you if you abide with Him.
Thank God for St. John, that he wrote 1 John so that he might bear witness to us of the Word of life and of our fellowship with God and that our joy may be complete.
May we, who are the children of God as John was, who have the testimony of God as John did, who have eternal life as John did, bear witness to Son in the world. May we be the light of the world as Jesus was the light of the world. And may we do this by loving one another as He first loved us.
Resolution: I resolve to spend some time remembering today the fellowship I have with God and the means by which He comes to me.
Prayer: Father, thank You for sending Your Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the world; Jesus, thank You for cleansing me from sin by Your blood and for giving Your life for me; thank You Spirit for abiding in me and testifying to the Truth. Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, may I bear witness to you in love as St. John did before me, that I and others may have fellowship with. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
Make a list of the ways in which God has testified about Himself to you (see those listed in today’s meditation). Look over this list throughout the week and especially before you go to church this Sunday. Consult it during the week at times when you are weak or forgetful.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
John is so concerned that you not only believe on the Son of God but continue to believe in Him that he gives many different ways of knowing that we abide in God.
In the first place, John reminds us that the entire Trinity bears witness to itself: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While John’s clearest statement of the Trinity, verse 7 of Chapter 5, is disputed and is not in the earliest manuscripts, the fact that there are three in heaven who bear witness to the Truth - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - is still true. We seem, however, sometimes to focus on the work of the Son, apart from that of the Father of Spirit.
But John is clear that all three work together to bring us eternal life and all three bear witness to the Truth. John speaks about the Father who is light (1:5) and love (4:8). He teaches that we have fellowship with the Father through the Son (1:3), and that the Father has love for those He makes His children (3:1.) It is the Father who sent the Son to be the propitiation for our sins (4:10), and believers abide not only in the Son or Spirit but also in God, which in this case must refer to the Father (4:15.)
The Spirit gives witness by helping us to know that God abides in us (3:24), and from other passages we know that the Spirit does this by dwelling in us. The gift of the Spirit in us is itself one of the ways we know that we abide in Him (4:13.) Here in Chapter 5, verse 6 we read that it is the Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth. The Spirit bears witness not only in heaven but also on earth (5:8.)
But John reminds us that there are even more things that testify to God in us and to the eternal life we have in the Son. On earth, we have the testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood (verse 9.) The Spirit we have already talked about, but what about the water and the blood? God has testified to us about Himself and His work in our lives by the baptism of Christ (the water), by which the Christ was anointed and by which He began His public ministry. God has testified as well by the blood of Christ that was shed on the Cross (the blood).
The entire life of Jesus Christ, therefore, is a testimony to you. But since these things are past, how can they still testify to us? John himself, an eyewitness of the Son, has written to us that we might know the truth, that we might have fellowship with God, and that our joy may be complete (1:1-4.) Through the Gospel of St. John, in which we read of the life of Jesus Christ, we have a perpetual testimony of the work of the Trinity in our lives. For this reason, we should read the Bible every day because it is one of God’s appointed means of abiding in us and we in Him. In the Scriptures, we still hear God’s testimony about His Son, just as we heard from the beginning. How, then, can we ever give up reading and living by the Scriptures?
To help us participate in the life of Christ, the Church has instituted the Church year, in which we celebrate the life of Christ throughout the course of an entire year. Today we are at the end of our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ (tonight is 12th Night!); tomorrow, we will be celebrating the Epiphany of Christ to the Gentiles, and after that we will celebrate Christ’s fasting in the wilderness for us, and of course after that the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
But God testifies to us by the water and the blood in another powerful way: through the Sacraments. Through the water of baptism we are given the privilege of being brought into covenant with God and made heirs of salvation. By baptism, we are brought into the life of Jesus Christ. By the Lord’s Supper, we continue to participate in that new life that God has given to us, and we feed off of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. What powerful, continuing witnesses!
To these witnesses we must add the witness of the Church itself, which is the Body of Christ on earth, and through which all of these other witnesses are mediated.
But of all the witnesses that John records, by which we may know that we have eternal life in the Son, John spends the most time teaching us about love. We should not forget that love is a testimony of the presence of God in our lives. John’s constant message is that if we love God we will keep His commandments, for only those who love God will keep His commandments without sin. If we love God, we will love the brethren as He first loved us. By this love, we ourselves and the world will know that God abides in us and we in Him.
On this 12th Day, on this last day of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, remember the witnesses that God has given you of His abiding in you. Whenever you are weak or forgetful, remember the ways God comes to you to remind you of His presence and actually bring Himself to you. It’s easy to get distracted in life, and it’s easy lose courage in our spiritual life.
But rejoice! for God has called you His child. He has given you eternal life, He has sent His Son to be the propitiation for your sins, and He has promised to abide with you if you abide with Him.
Thank God for St. John, that he wrote 1 John so that he might bear witness to us of the Word of life and of our fellowship with God and that our joy may be complete.
May we, who are the children of God as John was, who have the testimony of God as John did, who have eternal life as John did, bear witness to Son in the world. May we be the light of the world as Jesus was the light of the world. And may we do this by loving one another as He first loved us.
Resolution: I resolve to spend some time remembering today the fellowship I have with God and the means by which He comes to me.
Prayer: Father, thank You for sending Your Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the world; Jesus, thank You for cleansing me from sin by Your blood and for giving Your life for me; thank You Spirit for abiding in me and testifying to the Truth. Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, may I bear witness to you in love as St. John did before me, that I and others may have fellowship with. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
Make a list of the ways in which God has testified about Himself to you (see those listed in today’s meditation). Look over this list throughout the week and especially before you go to church this Sunday. Consult it during the week at times when you are weak or forgetful.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
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