January 3 - I John 3:13-24

St. John has a one-track mind. Now normally we say this as a negative thing, meaning that a person is so fixed on one aspect of life that he doesn’t experience some of the other aspects that he should. But if your one-track mind is fixed on God and His commandments, then having a one-track mind is a great blessing.

In this passage, St. John joins the choir of voices that teach us that love, like faith, cannot be in word or tongue only but must be a love that finds expression in deed and in truth. Growing up, we sang one of the new 70s Christian songs that was coming into the churches: “Love is somethin’ ya do.” Apparently, you had to leave the letter ‘g’ off of “something” and had to turn the word “you” into “ya.” I didn’t like the song very much because even as a preteen or teen it struck me as trying to hard to be young and hip. But I had to acknowledge that the basic message was a good one.

Love is something you do. (There – it’s cathartic after all these years to say it the right way!) It’s so easy to speak of Christian love. In fact, I think in some ways the ideal of Christian agape love was secularized in the 60s by the hippies and others. Remember: “All you need is love.” It’s still possible culturally to speak of a kind of love akin to agape love and have people recognize it as a noble goal.

But it is hard to live by agape love because at the heart of it is self-giving. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (verse 16). Jesus Christ is the definition of love, not just because God is love but because God does love. Sometimes we think of God as being a static being, perhaps the faceless figure sitting on the throne. If you look carefully at these static pictures of God like I have, you can see under His robes that He’s twiddling His thumbs. I would too if I were Almighty God and I had nothing better to do than to sit around all day!

John rightly points to Jesus’ laying down His life for us as the focal point of His love. At the Cross, we especially see the love of God for us; we see love in action. At the Cross, we see the baby born at Christmas grown into a man, and we see the terrible reason He was born. Thank God that Jesus didn’t think that love was just a second-hand emotion but showed it with His life.

But the love of Jesus can’t stop with Jesus. If we love God, then we will love the brethren, by which John means especially other Christians. “And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (verse 16). Christians are to be little Christs, doing what He did. We are to lay down our lives for one another.

I’m fascinated by Jesus’ life of sacrifice, and not just the moment on the Cross. The entire public ministry of Jesus was a laying down of His life. Constantly, He was teaching and healing others. He went without food or sleep sometimes, that He might serve others. Tired, hungry, pressed on every side by needy people, Jesus was constantly laying down His life for the brethren. In fact, I think it’s one of the ways that He was humanly prepared for the sacrifice of the Cross. He had been preparing for the Cross for three years by daily taking up His Cross and denying Himself for the good of those around Him. And that is the way that we will be prepared when the moment of the Cross comes to us in our lives.

If we continue to think of love simply as an emotion that we feel toward God and others, then we will never fulfill His commandment to love one another as He loved us. Love is not a soft, squishy feeling of niceness inside that melts at the first sign of sacrifice. Love is hard, the hardest substance known in the universe. It is as hard as the wood of the Cross and as hard as spikes being driven into human flesh.

So often we hear words about love, but where are the deeds? At Christmas, we stuff ourselves with the kindly fruits of the earth that God has given us. We eat so much that our problem is not starvation but gluttony. We stuff ourselves with gifts to each other, at least the ones who are close to us, but do we have anything left over to give to the poor?

I find that each day is crammed with opportunities to lay down our lives for other Christians, and non-Christians as well. I find that all throughout the day, unless you’re a hermit, you’re surrounded by people whom God has given you the privilege of loving by serving in His name. Only we don’t see them as opportunities for love because we’re too busy doing our own thing.

Take the example of how we are to lay down our lives every day to help make disciples of Jesus Christ. I find that the work of Christian discipleship is immensely hard and difficult work and one that takes not a village but a Church. It is not the work of pastors or priests only but is our daily bread as Christians, those who have been called the children of God and have been called by the name of the One who first loved us. To make disciples of the people God has put into our lives is a full time pursuit, not a weekend hobby for specialists. Without the love of Jesus that willingly gives up some of its own leisure and ease, how will others become Christians and learn the love of God?

We ought to think twice about calling ourselves Christians because what we’re really saying when we say that we are Christians is, “I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ and I want you to know that I am, knowing that how I live or don’t live in love will teach you about my Christ.” Saying you’re a Christian is signing up for a life of discipleship and love. It is believing enough in Jesus Christ to give up your life to Him by laying it down for others.

This love in action is so powerful that it even affects your prayer life. “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (verse 22). Think about this next time you pray: that those who keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight (that is, those who love) are more likely to receive what they ask for.

How could the degree of God’s love in your life not affect your prayers, that is, your life with Him? I don’t have time to describe it all, but somehow the love of God and our love for our brothers and sisters, faith, deeds, and prayer are all mysteriously related to each other so that what affects one affects the others.

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Prayer: Almighty God who is love, I ask that You would give me Yourself today that I might have Your love. Father, I thank You for Your love that sent Your Son into the world at Christmas and that chose me to be Your child. Jesus, I praise You for Your love that laid down Your life for me, and I pray that You would help me to honor Your holy Name by laying down my life for others as You did for me. Amen.

Points for Meditation:
1. Make a list of possible ways in which, during the normal course of the day, you could practice laying down your life for others. Pick one of these to practice today, and keep the list handy for future reference until it becomes a part of you.
2. Meditate on how Jesus, the Son of God, laid down His life for You. Come to understand His sacrificial love enough that your vision of God inspires you to lay down your life for others.

Resolution: I resolve to look today for opportunities to love others not in word only but also in deed.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

January 2 - I John 3:1-12

“You are a child of God.” That’s what God tells you in 1 John 3:1.

What a wonderful way for God to greet us in the New Year!

Here is the source of St. John’s teaching about how we ought to love one another: it is that God first loved us. We know from this same John that God the Father so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. But what enraptures John here is that God has loved us so much that He has dared to call us His children.

There is a lot of talk these days about everyone being children of God. In some sense, since we are made in His image, this may be true. But biblically, the true children of God are those He has adopted into His family by their relationship with His Son. John does not seem to think that wicked Cain was a child of God. In fact, the presence of Cain and the clear denunciation of his wickedness seem to have spoiled the party and made it less inclusive for those who revised the lectionary for the 1928 Prayer Book. With the skill of a surgeon, they carefully cut out verse 12 and only verse 12 (but I have successfully restored it by mentioning it here!)

You are a child of God, if you have accepted His love by accepting His Son. But to truly be a child of God, and to remain a child of God, you must act like a child of God. Do you seriously think that God has made you His child (and sent His own Son to the Cross) just so that you could continue living the way you used to and continue sinning?

As God’s children, we are to be made like Him in all the ways in which it is possible for us to be made like Him. Since God is holy and righteous, we too are required to be holy and righteous. Yes, this holiness and righteousness come from the Son alone. Yet God, through John, commands us to purify ourselves. We have a role to play in acting like the children of God and being righteous. The Son of God was manifested (which we are still celebrating during this Christmastide) that He might destroy the works of the devil (verse 9). How can we go on sinning, then, if we are truly His children?

Of course it’s puzzling, and troubling, that John says whoever abides in Him does not sin (verse 6); that whoever sins has not known or seen Him (verse 6); and that whoever has been born of God does not sin and cannot sin because he has been born of God (verse 9). Knowing my own sins, in spite of loving God, where does this leave me? Obviously, John cannot be talking about us being without actual sins in this life, for “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1:8.) We also know that it is possible to love God and still sin, for all of you are presumably in that condition.

While John may not mean that we must be entirely without any actual sin, at a minimum he is speaking of the necessity of the child of God to be like God and to be holy. John is not teaching that we can be sinless in this life, but he is teaching that this is to be our goal. You are a child of God!

You are a child of God, and one of the sure signs of the child of God is that he wants to be like his heavenly Father. Is it your goal to be without sin? Truly? Is it your intention this New Year to purify yourself? Don’t you know that you are to be made like your heavenly Father and that this is why you have died to yourself and are alive in Jesus Christ?

I find this to be the highest motivation to want to purify myself this New Year: that God has chosen to call me His child. Children are naturally proud of their parents. For this reason, boys used to say, “My Dad can lick your Dad!” Naturally, sons want to be like their fathers. We all know, however, that this natural desire to be like an earthly father fades, sometimes because of the imperfection of us earthly fathers. How much more should the children of God desire to be like their perfect heavenly Father?

God has chosen me as His son. Me, who did nothing to deserve it. Me, who still sins against this loving Father. Me!

Here is my other motivation for wanting to be like God: that one day I shall be made like Him. One day, when this is all over and we are safely in heaven, we shall be revealed for what God has really made us: His children. One day, I shall be revealed as this most glorious creature that reflects the glory of God. One day, I will be far brighter than the angels. One day, I will be perfect as He is perfect. One day, I will be so closely united to Him that all of these things will be true. Since this is what it means to be a child of God, this is what I should be becoming even now.

The closer I am to God, the more I want to be like Him. The farther away I am from Him, the better the things of the world look. This is why we are so easily seduced by the world, because we are so close to it. Sometimes men and women fall into adultery not because of the intrinsic beauty of the person with whom they are sinning but only because they have allowed their lives to become closer to that person than to their own spouses.

The best way to understand what we shall one day be and to be made like God in this life is to see Him as He is (verse 2). If only we saw God for who He really is, then I don’t think we’d ever turn away from Him. But we get only partial glimpses here. We see Him through a dusty, cracked, distorted lens. Even so, at times His glory is mesmerizing. But often only for a moment. And then some other bright shiny toy comes along, and off we go.

But if we would seek to see God the best we could in this life, to dedicate ourselves to the vision of God, I think we’d stand a better chance of being more like Him. At times, we catch a vision of God in our daily meditations, if we are faithful and persistent and give Him enough time and attention. But the best way of all to catch a vision of God that will make us more truly His children is to gaze at Him in corporate worship. It is here that we are lifted up into the heavens with all of the angels and archangels and all of the heavenly host and cry, “Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God of hosts, Heaven and earth are full of thy glory: glory be to Thee, O Lord Most High!”

It is seeing God as He is that will help make us who we are to be.

In worship, we see a vision of who God is and who we are to be. And therefore, our worship of God ought to lead to our discipleship as His children.

Prayer: Father, thank You for Your amazing love to me in calling me to be Your child. What manner of love of this that is beyond my comprehension?! Help me to see Your face today that I might desire You and in desiring You be made like You. By the holiness and righteousness of Your Son may I purify myself and walk in love and holiness. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
Take time to truly seek the face of God today. It might be by meditating on Him, particularly through Scripture; by spending more time in prayer today; by singing hymns to Him; by asking and receiving forgiveness; or by any other practice that will help you see Him more clearly today.

Resolution: I resolve to seek God’s face today.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

The Circumcision of Christ - January 1 - Ephesians 2:11-22

Happy New Year!

Though the lesson from today is taken from Ephesians 2:11-22, on the Circumcision of Christ, we should not forget about one, unobtrusive verse that most of us skip over each year. It’s tucked away right after the justly famous Christmas passage in St. Luke’s Gospel. But after the angels have sung and announced, after the shepherds had watched their flock by night, had come to the Lamb of God, and had gone home, Jesus was circumcised.

Luke 2:21: “And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”

Why would St. Luke bother to record this? Why should it concern us? And why would the Church see fit to set aside one day a year to commemorate one verse in the Bible? There is good reason, but I suppose that if an entire book can be written about the obscure Prayer of Jabez, an obscure Old Testament figure, then I suppose we can dwell a little on an important event in the life of the Christ Himself.

To begin with, consider what care God the Father took in bringing the Son to us. He not only made Him like one of us but also had Him undergo the same kind of life that any first century Jew might. The point is that He was made like us in all things that He might redeem all things in us. Jesus, the Righteous One, had to be circumcised so that He could perfectly keep the Law on our behalf. And I find that meaningful.

It was at His circumcision that Jesus was given His name. Jesus had to grow into the name that He was given and into His earthly ministry, one day at a time. This astounds me, because it reminds me of how truly human Jesus was and how things didn’t just happen automatically for Him.

Because Jesus did in fact grow up to be the Christ and actually did redeem us, the sovereignty of God is shown. Despite Herod’s attempts to kill Him, and despite all other possible obstacles, God the Father preserved the Son. He knew exactly what He needed to do, and He made it happen. So sure was God of His promises and His will that He even gave Jesus His name before He was conceived in the womb. In fact, He had been prophesied about hundreds of years before His birth.

And what a name! Jesus. The Lord Shall Save!

And He did.

But the meaning of Christ’s circumcision goes beyond this. Why would God institute such a barbaric ritual in the first place as a sign of the covenant? The symbolism of circumcision is rich, and I can’t do justice to it here, but it represents the blood sacrifice and covenant that God has made with man. It represents the cutting away of sinful things and the removal of the things of the flesh that obscures life, so that the clean flesh might live and give life.

Circumcision is, therefore, a miniature picture of the work of Jesus Christ. How fitting that He should undergo it for us.

At one time, you and I were, to put it crassly, the foreskin. We were cut off from God and fit only to be thrown away. Because of our sinfulness, God had to surgically remove us from His holy presence. By the blood of Christ, pictured in miniature in His circumcision, we were brought near to Him from whom we are worthy only to be circumcised or cut off.

By His circumcision, Jesus reminds us that for our sake He bore all of our impurities, as well as the bloody price for our sins. In His flesh (Ephesians 2:15), He abolished the enmity, the Law of commandments, and all that separated us from God and each other.

By this simple act of keeping the Law, by this simple act of keeping God’s covenant with man, Jesus Christ shows us once again that He is the New Covenant. He is the only means to God. Only through Him can we love and obey the Father.

Why eight days? Of course I could give the easy answer and say because the Law required it. But why eight days to begin with? The eighth day is also the first day, and by Jesus’ circumcision on the eighth day, God is telling us that He is beginning His New Creation and His New Covenant through this eight-day old baby. In a way, the Second Adam was born on the first day but reborn on the eighth to show us that through Him we must also enter the second birth.

And all this from an eight-day old infant!

It’s humbling to me that God can use even an eight-day old to do His holy will. By it, I know as well not only the incredible power of God but also the loving character of a God who would stoop and use a human infant to glorify Him.

It reminds me that He can even use a 48-year old man as well!

Maybe this theme of God’s bringing new life and birth through a New Covenant is why we celebrate the Circumcision of Christ on New Year’s Day.

As we continue to contemplate the new life God has given us in His Son, who was circumcised on the eighth day after His birth, how appropriate for us to consider how God wants us to live the New Year with Him.

Prayer: Almighty God, who made Your blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey Your blessed will; through the same, Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
1. In this New Year, what sins do you need be have removed from you? Confess each and receive forgiveness through the One who is the true Circumcision.
2. Meditate on the care with which God has brought salvation into your life.
3. Meditate on 3 practical steps you can take to more fully enter into the new life in Christ this year. It will be useful to consider some of the Resolutions you have made previously as you’ve read the Scriptures through Daily Bread.

Resolution: I resolve to meditate on the new life that God has given me and how I should respond anew this new year.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

December 31 - 1 John 2:18-29

St. John’s message this morning is a timely one, coming as it does at the end of another civil year. December 31 is a time to contemplate the sorrows and joys of the previous year, to anticipate with hope the new year, to examine ourselves for what we did wrong last year, and to resolve to be more faithful in the new year.

And so John’s theme of abiding in Christ is a most timely one. John is concerned that the little children who God has entrusted to Him would not fall away but would abide in Jesus Christ. He knows that some who love the world or the things of the world are likely to be tempted away. He knows as well that there are false teachers or antichrists roaming the earth, willing to lead away any sheep who is willing to stray from its Master.

What is the key to abiding in Christ? How can we protect ourselves and our little ones from antichrists? The key lies in understanding the nature of “Christ.” Sometimes we forget and think that “Christ” was Jesus’ surname, that he was Jesus Christ in the same way I am Charles Erlandson. But “Christ” is His title, and it means “Anointed One.” Jesus is the Anointed One, the One anointed by God to redeem the world. At His Baptism, Jesus Christ was anointed by John and the Holy Spirit to become the Messiah or Christ.

At His Baptism, Jesus the Christ was given all three anointed offices of the Old Testament, for in His Baptism He was anointed prophet, priest, and king. He is the Prophet, the one who will completely speak the Word of the Lord because He is the Word of the Lord and the complete revelation of the Father. He is the High Priest who offers Himself as the perfect sacrifice in Himself, the perfect Temple. And He is the King of kings who reigns at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus is the Anointed One, and He is our protection from antichrists. These antichrists I take to mean anything that sets itself up against the true Christ. They include in their numbers all false teachers but I believe should also include the things of the world that tempt us away from the Christ. There is a clear opposition here. One the one side you have the Christ, the Anointed One, and on the other side you have all antichrists who set themselves up against God’s Anointed one and His rule.

The secret, therefore to withstanding the temptations of the antichrists in our lives is to abide in the true Christ. By abiding in Christ we are made Christians, little Christs, anointed ones. To attempt to fight the antichrists on our own power is, in fact, to begin to act like an antichrist. The whole premise of being an antichrist is autonomy or “self rule” apart from the Christ and His rule in our lives. Therefore, the only way to defeat the antichrists is to abide or continue in the true Christ.

But how can we do this? First, we should remember that as Christians we too are anointed ones, not on our own merits but as we abide in Christ, the true Anointed One. There are no anointed ones outside of union with Christ: only antichrists pretending to be Christ. At your baptism, you too were anointed because you were baptized into Jesus Christ and were brought into a covenantal relationship with the true Christ. Through baptism you have an anointing so that Christ abides in you and you in Him.

But baptism is not sufficient, and here is where the importance of time comes in, here at the end of another year. In baptism you were anointed with the Anointed One. But baptism by itself cannot help you to abide in the Anointed One. To abide in the Anointed One, which is to abide in your own anointing, you must abide in the things which you have learned from the beginning (verse 24).

There are two main ways that Christians abide in their anointing. First, since baptism is your anointing, you should abide in this sacramental anointing by abiding in Christ in His Supper as often as you can. “The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.” By feeding off Christ, we Christians abide in Him and He in us.

But there is another way, and that is the faithful hearing of the Word. “If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father” (verse 24). The reason I have called these meditations Daily Bread is because it is through the Word that the Father gives us our daily bread, the food we need to abide in Him. So closely is the Christ related to the Bible that they are both called the Word of God. The bread and wine are just bread and wine: but God has chosen to use them to bring His Son to us. The ink and paper are just ink and paper, the oral words we hear are just compressions of air molecules: but God has chosen to use them to bring His Son to us.

John speaks of an anointing in us that is abiding. It is not a one-time, static action but is an active, alive, daily living in the Christ.

If you want to abide in Christ and have Him abide in you; if you want to avoid the temptations of the antichrists who are still in the world and are even in the church – then seek Him every day. This abiding in Christ is not an On/Off switch so that you are either abiding or not. If this were so, then it would be easier to see when we have stopped abiding in Him. Instead, we abide in Him the way the branches abide in a vine. There is to be such an organic union of our lives that we are constantly feeding on Him and living in Him.

To abide in the Anointed One, to be anointed ones, we must truly abide or live in Him every day. We must use every means He has given us to consciously turn to Him every day and every hour.
And, since we are beginning a new year, it is appropriate to spend some extra time today vowing to turn to Him this year. During the course of a year and during the course of a lifetime, it is easy to forget the things we were taught at the beginning. But now is the time to return to and abide in the things we have heard from the beginning. And what we have heard is Jesus the Christ.

Prayer: Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One of God, I praise You because You always abide in the Father and the Father in You. Thank You for sharing Your eternal life with me by making me your anointed one. By the anointing of Your Holy Spirit please help me to abide in You each day. Especially at the beginning of this new year, help me to abide in the things which I have heard from the beginning. Amen.

Points for Meditation:
1. Write down 3 practical steps you will take this year to abide more fully in Christ. Treat these as your New Year’s resolutions.
2. Review the various resolutions you have made this year, in your meditating on Scripture through Daily Bread. What things has God been most impressing you with this year? Keep a permanent list of these that you may continue to listen to God in this New Year.

Resolution: I resolve to more faithfully abide in Christ this year. I further resolve to write down 3 practical things I will do to more faithfully abide in Him.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

December 30 - I John 2:1-17

John says so much in such a little space, but his main points seem to be two: Jesus Christ is the propitiation of sins for those who turn to Him, and if anyone knows God and loves Him, he will keep His commandments.

Both seem to be an amplification of John’s gospel from Chapter 1. They are another way of saying that we are to walk in the light and have fellowship with the Father.

John offers a two-fold antidote for the sin that so easily traps us and leads us away from God. First, we should obey God’s commandments, for if we do we will not sin. Second, if we do sin, we should plead for forgiveness in the name of Christ, for He is the propitiation for our sins.

It’s not as if we’re in a tag-team wrestling match, on the same side as Jesus. It’s not as if we begin the match and wrestle the world, the flesh, and the Devil and only when we are in danger of getting pinned that we reach out and slap Jesus’ hand so that He can take over. No, it is the righteousness of Jesus that saves us from the beginning. It is only through His perfect righteousness and the grace He gives through His perfect sacrifice that we are able to keep His commandments in the first place.

We have a very wrong idea about love in our culture. If you mention “love” to most people, the first thought they are likely to have is one about erotic or romantic love. But John, the apostle of love, has a different view. For him, love is obedience to God: “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.”

The test of love and the test of our walking with God is our obedience to Him. “He who says he abides in Him ought Himself also to walk just as He walked.” There are so many Christians who sing about being in love with Jesus. They close their eyes tightly and wave their hands and feel good inside and just love Jesus. For them, this is how they know they have worshiped Him and that they love Him, as what He really said was, “If you love me, you will show intense emotion at a particular moment.”

But the true measure of love is our obedience to God. The true measure is if we walk as He walked, giving up self in love and service to others and perfectly keeping the commandments of the Father. Make no mistake, there is great joy, too, in walking as He walked, but what counts is the obedience of our heart.

Love may, in fact, take the form of an ecstatic joy in the presence of the Lord. But John says that the truest measure is our obedience to God. We shouldn’t measure our love primarily by our emotional states but by how we actually live. It is no good “loving” God on Sunday morning worship and then loving the world the rest of the week.

John’s words are a stark challenge to American Christianity: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John doesn’t mean loving the world as in loving the good things God created: we’re supposed to do that. But John means loving the things of the fallen world, the things that proceed from love of self, from pride, from lust, from laziness, and from greed.

The real test of love is how well we walk with Jesus in obedience, in giving up our things in love to God and to others. True love has such a fierce attachment to God, and yes it is partially emotional, that it will constantly be found giving up itself and its things and constantly serving others.

Love may take the form of an ecstatic, scrunched up face. But more likely it will take the form of the agony of the Cross. The joy of love comes not from some mystical feeling that the right crowd and the right kind of music and lighting can muster up but from truly walking in the light, which means obedience, which often is sacrificial and hurts. But when done with and through the Son, it is pure joy.

In our desire to love God by obeying Him, we will often fail. We will continue to sin, in spite of our love. When we do, the way back is the way we began: by throwing ourselves on the mercy of God, confessing our sins, turning from them, and going back to walking in His ways. If would be truly frightening to think that my abiding in God was only up to me. One sin would then do me in, and I’d have no way back.

But the amazing thing is that no matter how imperfect I am in loving God and walking in His light, Jesus is always perfect in His obedience to the Father. Whether obeying or repenting from disobedience, loving God means turning to the Son for all things.

So then, love God by keeping His commandments, through the righteousness and love and power of the Son. And when you sin, ask the same Son for forgiveness, for He is the propitiation for your sins.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for being my Advocate with the Father. Thank You for being my righteousness when I had none, and thank You for taking away not only my sins but also the sins of the whole world. Help me to love You more by obeying You more completely. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
1. Examine yourself by slowly meditating on the Ten Commandments. Remember that to be angry is to murder, to lust is to commit adultery, and that stealing from God does not necessarily mean robbing a 7-11 store.
2. Meditate on St. John’s words to “little children,” “fathers,” and “young men.” As you meditate on his comfortable words, receive the forgiveness and encouragement of God found in them.

Resolution: I resolve to examine how well I have been loving God by obeying Him. If I know of any unconfessed sins, I will confess them. As I examine myself, if I hear the Lord calling me to understand more deeply my attachment to the world, I will listen.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

December 29 - 1 John 1

1 John 1 could be called the Gospel of St. John because in it is contained the essence of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The good news Great News is that God has made it possible for man to have eternal life with the Father. Before, this was not the case, because we walked in darkness and were children of darkness, separated from God by our sins.

But at Christmas, God the Father so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to the world as the first and best Christmas present. St. John was a witness to that Son, the Word of life which was from the beginning, and his eyes saw Him and his hands touched Him. St. John the Evangelist, chosen by God to be His holy witness and apostle, did not fail to proclaim what he had seen, heard, and touched, and he writes to us that we too may believe.

St. John, the apostle of love, the disciple whom Jesus loved, demonstrates his love (which is the love of God) by sharing with us the Word of life that had first been shared with him. He has such love for those who are not in the light and have not seen the Word of life that he wants to share the Word with them. Out of the love which he learned from the Master, John wants to share the fellowship that was given to him.

The Great News begins with God Himself and with us. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. But this is a big problem for us, because on our own we walk in darkness, and this means that we cannot walk with God, with whom there can be no darkness. This is the central problem of mankind, even when we do not recognize it. We are in darkness, and God is light, and the two can never meet.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, then we can have fellowship with Him and with one another. But how can this happen, since we are in darkness?

It was for this reason that Jesus, the Light of the World, was sent into this dark and weary world. He who is God of God and Light of Light became man; only He became the perfect man, the only one to walk in the light. What we could not do, He did for us. He perfectly kept the Law, and He perfectly obeyed the will of the Father who sent Him for us. Christmas and Easter are connected because He humbled Himself to be made a man that He might further humble Himself to the point of death, death upon the Cross. In doing this, He who was light took upon Himself our darkness and sin.

We all know the rest of the story. The light triumphed over the darkness, and the kingdom of heaven was now open to men.

But something is still missing. We are still in darkness. How can we who are still darkness have fellowship with the light? We know that we sin in our darkness, but He who is Light has promised to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, if we confess our sins.

Here is where the light meets the darkness and conquers it: it is first in Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, the Life Eternal, and second, it is in all who faithfully seek the Light by confessing our sins before Him and turning (repenting) from the darkness and walking in the light.

The Great News is that if we do this one thing, we too can now have fellowship with God because when we are in the Light, we too are light. And light can have fellowship with light. We now can have the life eternal, and we can also have fellowship with St. John and each other and all who are also in the light.

This is the Gospel of St. John from 1 John 1.

John has two purposes in faithfully telling us these things. The first was that we might have fellowship with God and with one another. The second (verse 4) is that our joy may be full.

Today, let us seek the light and the fellowship and the joy that come from walking in the Light.


Prayer: Blessed be You Father, for out of Your love You sent Your Son to be the Light of the World. Thank You for translating me out of the kingdom of darkness and into Your glorious kingdom of light. By the grace of Your Holy Spirit may I be enabled to walk in the light as Jesus Christ is in the Light, that I may have fellowship with you and all others who are in Your light. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
Find a source of light, preferably the sun, and spend a few minutes meditating in the light. Meditate on God who is light and the light He has sent to You through His Son.

Resolution: I resolve today to meditate on the Good News that St. John brings and to receive it with joy.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

St. John the Evangelist Day - December 27 - John 13:20-26, 31-35

I love St. John, for He is the apostle of love and the disciple whom Jesus loved!

At the Last Supper, as with the Lord’s Supper, the stakes of life are raised. The sheep become most clearly sheep who are fed by the Passover Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. But the goats become more clearly the goats, eating and drinking judgment on themselves if they eat and drink unworthily. At the same Last Supper, were both John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. The same Jesus was present before them, making the same offer of love and grace. The difference was in the nature of the disciples themselves.

How blessed it must have been to be St. John and to be known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”! Who among us wouldn’t want to be known this way!

This disciple whom Jesus loved was found at the Last Supper “leaning on Jesus’ bosom” (verse 23.) This is the secret of John’s love, and how he earned the name “the disciple whom Jesus loved”: it’s that John was found doing what he loved best, leaning on Jesus’ bosom. John loved to be in Jesus’ presence and to be near Him. I think this is why John is so associated with the love of God.

Was John called “ the disciple whom Jesus loved” because Jesus was playing favorites (God is the one person who would have the right to do so), or did it have something to do with the love with which John received Jesus? Maybe John is the disciple whom Jesus loved because John saw Jesus clearly and therefore His love. Maybe John is the disciple of love, not only because God offered Him His love but also because He received it so openly and freely. Only in John’s Gospel is John called “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” and so maybe this name has everything to do with the way John received the love of God. Jesus knew the love of His disciple John, and it is to John, and not Peter, that Jesus entrusts His mother at the Cross.

Jesus taught His disciples love, by what He said and by what He did. On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus showed His love in such concentrated form that it overwhelms me. He gave them liquid and solid love when He ate His Last Supper with them and sacramentally shared His Body and Blood. He showed them love by serving them and washing their feet. He gave them the New Commandment for the New Covenant He had instituted, and that New Commandment was to love. “As I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

John learned His lesson as a disciple well. He, above all other writers in the New Testament, writes about love, and he is the only one who records this New Commandment of Jesus’ at the Last Supper. John knew love. Because he had accepted God’s love, he knew love. And because He knew God’s love, He could bring it to others as the apostle of love. This is really what the work of evangelism is all about: knowing God and His love and bringing them to others.

Because the disciple of love became the discipler of love and the apostle of love, we too know about the love of God.

In fact, the most amazing thing in the world to me is that it is not only St. John who is “the disciple whom Jesus loved” – it is also you.

Don’t you see? You are the disciple whom Jesus loved.

It isn’t only John or the other 12 disciples whom God loved: it’s each of you. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

You are the one who is supposed to desire to lean on Jesus’ breast, to hang on His every Word, and to love to be as near to Him as possible.

You are the one whom God loves, and you are the one who is supposed to love others because God first loved you. It is to you and to me that God has given the commandment to love Him with all of our hearts, souls, and minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

It is to all of us, including you, that Jesus said: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” By this, our love, as well, the world will know of the love that God has for them.

As John learned from Jesus, let us learn from both Jesus and John to love God that we might be called “the disciples whom Jesus loved,” and so that the world may know the God who sent His Son in love.

Prayer: Merciful Lord, we ask You to cast Your bright beams of light upon Your Church, that it, being illuminated by the doctrine of Your blessed Apostle and Evangelist St. John, may so walk in the light of Your truth, that it may at length obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Points for Meditation:
1. Spend time thinking about the ways God has shown His love to you, especially in light of the birth of His Son.
2. Meditate on the fact that God has made you “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
3. Find one practical way to intentionally show love to someone today.

Resolution: I resolve today to meditate on God’s love for me and on how well I have loved Him.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

St. Stephen’s Day - December 26 - Acts 7:55-60

Those of you who are following the Prayer Book lectionary will recognize that I have taken this morning’s lesson from the Epistle Lesson appointed for St. Stephen’s Day, and not from the daily lectionary. We are entering a brief but intense period in the lectionary when there are many special commemorations and therefore special lessons.

At first glance, the life and death of St. Stephen may seem intended to produce a case of theological whiplash. We have just prepared ourselves for and finally participated in the joys of Christmas, and then we hear of the tragic death of Stephen.

Why?

I think celebrating St. Stephen’s Day right after Christmas makes a lot of sense. The point is that the things Jesus Christ came to earth to do are supposed to be continued by His Church. St. Stephen was a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, an example for all Christians, for he followed His master in all things.

Just as the Holy Spirit entered into Mary so that Jesus Christ was born to save the world, so also the Holy Spirit enters into the Body of Christ so that the Church may continue Jesus’ work of salvation. And St. Stephen is the first fruits of Christian martyrdom for the glory of God and the good of the world.

The beginning of the book of Acts is very instructive for understanding what God wishes us to understand by the heroics of the early church: “In my former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach . . . .” By implication, if the St. Luke’s Gospel is intended to record all that Jesus began to do and to teach, then the book of Acts is intended to record what Jesus Christ continues to do through His Church. The most important person in the book of Acts is neither St. Peter nor St. Paul but the Holy Spirit, through whom Jesus Christ continues to act in the world.

So how does St. Stephen continue the ministry of Jesus Christ, for which He was born?

First, we hear that Stephen was a man full of faith and power who did great wonders and signs (Acts 6:8). In a similar way, Jesus is said to be full of grace and truth (John 1:14), though it could equally be said that He was full of faith and power. Stephen’s power to perform signs and wonders comes from Jesus’ own power, demonstrated all throughout the Gospels.

Almost all of chapter 7 is taken up with Stephen faithfully proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, just as Jesus Himself did. And like Jesus, the truth of the Gospel incited the Jews to murder. As when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened to Stephen, and Stephen was privileged to see the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Most striking are the similarities between the way Stephen and Jesus died. The end result of faithfully seeing and proclaiming God was the same for Stephen as for Jesus: death at the hand of the Jews. Both were brought before the council and accused of blasphemy, and both had false witnesses brought to testify against them (Acts 6:11-13.) Both were cast out of the city of Jerusalem where they were put to death for their proclamation of the Good News (Acts 7:58.)

Even as he was being stoned, Stephen called on God and cried, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” His cry was the same as Jesus’ on the Cross”: “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” At the very point of death, Stephen’s love and mercy came straight from Jesus on the Cross. His “Lord, do not charge them with this sin” could only have been said by the power of the one who first said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

St. Stephen is such a shining example of a Christian disciple that it is easy to see His Master through him. But the point of celebrating St. Stephen’s Day is not just to honor a faithful brother in Christ but to give glory to Jesus Christ Himself who was born and lived and died that men, like Stephen and us, may be made like Him in all things.

We celebrate St. Stephen’s Day because Jesus Christ is this very day raising up more St. Stephens to faithfully proclaim Jesus Christ. The same Jesus Christ that St. Stephen served and saw standing at the right hand of God is the same Jesus Christ we serve and who is still standing at the right hand of God in heaven. The same Holy Spirit that filled St. Stephen is with us, for this is the meaning of Immanuel, “God with us.”

What does St. Stephen have to do with Christmas?

Everything!

The Holy Spirit that entered Mary and that descended on Jesus Christ at His baptism and filled St. Stephen is the Holy Spirit that dwells in you. From St. Stephen to St. Paul to countless others, for generation after generation, God has called His disciples to faithfully follow Him.

Who will dare to be a St. Stephen in our generation?

Prayer: Grant, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of Your truth, we may steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, may we learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of the first martyr St. Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to You. Grant that we may, through the Holy Spirit, be made Your faithful disciples and filled with faith and power, O blessed Jesus, who stands on the right hand of God to help all those who suffer for You, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Points for Meditation:
1. Meditate on the fact that Jesus Christ continues His ministry through His Church. What response does this provoke from you? What implications does this have for your life?
2. What keeps you from being more like St. Stephen? In what ways has God already worked through You to teach and to do His will? In what ways may you have been resisting His call?

Resolution: I resolve to consider how God is calling me to more faithfully follow Him this year.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Christmas Day - Luke 2:1-20

With apologies to those at St. Chrys who heard this as a sermon, I offer this Christmas meditation. The inspiration for it came from Ephraim the Syrian, a 4th century Christian who wrote several excellent Nativity Hymns.

At Christmas the question sometimes arises, “What do you get for the man who has everything?” For us, the question is, “What should we give to a God who has everything and has done everything for us?”
The answer is that we should give ourselves, body, mind, and soul, for it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Let us learn from the whole creation which was represented at the birth of Jesus Christ. The whole creation offered itself up to its Lord and Creator. The whole creation became mouths to Him, and cried out concerning Him. They came and did not fail to confess Him as the Creator of all things and the Redeemer of the fallen world. They came and gave themselves to Him.

In the Star of Bethlehem all heavenly objects came and worshiped Jesus Christ, bringing all of their honor and glory and power to His feet. The greater lights and the lesser lights, each of which is only a reflection of His eternal and immense glory, came from afar to see the God of gods and Light of lights become part of His creation. At His birth, the heavens declared the glory of God, and the firmament showed His handiwork.

The angels came, the heavenly host, the citizens of heaven. They shouted, and their voices were a great thunder that reawakened the earth on the Day of Birth. On behalf of every cherubim and seraphim, the 4 Living Creatures, the 24 elders, and every heavenly creature, they came to bring their praise, for which they were specially created.

The shepherds were there as well, bearing the best gifts of their flock: sweet milk, clean flesh, and proper praise. They gave Joseph the flesh, Mary the milk, but to Jesus the Son of God they gave the praise! Drawn by the Good Shepherd, the shepherds came as little lambs to become part of His one great flock that is made up of every nation on the face of the earth.
The shepherds came and brought their human occupation and labor on behalf of all mankind. They stopped leading and learned to follow the Lamb who was the Great Shepherd and overseer of their souls.

The sheep and lambs came, whole families together, on behalf of the animals of the world, all birds of the air and fish of the sea and every animal that creeps or walks upon the earth. They knew the voice of their Master, even when He was a baby, and they came to follow Him that we might follow their example.

The shepherds brought and presented a suckling lamb to the Paschal Lamb, a first-born to the First-Born, a sacrifice to the Sacrifice, and lamb of time to the Lamb of Truth and Eternity that sits upon the throne. The lamb bleated as it was offered before the First-born of all creation, before the High Priest and Temple made without hands. It praised the Lamb who had come to set free the flocks and the oxen from sacrifices. All the sheep brought their flesh and blood to the one who offered Himself instead of them and became the perfect Sacrifice.

The shepherds rested upon their staffs, the symbol of the authority God has given men. They blessed the Good Shepherd because He was the one who had reconciled the wolves and the lambs within His fold. They blessed the Babe who was older than Noah and who came to reconcile all creatures within the ark which was Himself.

Righteous Abel, the first shepherd, whose blood was first shed by wicked men like an innocent lamb, was represented there by the shepherds. His acceptable sacrifice was made acceptable by the blood of the spotless Lamb of God, and He was made righteous by the righteousness of Christ.

The rod of Moses came with them, for as the Red Sea was parted by Moses and His rod, the heavens were parted by the birth of Jesus. The rod of Moses praised the Rod of Jesse, and in it Moses praised Joshua or Jesus who came to lead His people into the true Promised Land. It sang of the victory of God over His enemies by the Prince of Peace.

The rod of Aaron was there, too. Though it was dead and wooden, it budded before the Source of Life. That which was dead became alive again and began to bear fruit. The Tree of Death, the Cross, became the Tree of Life and the instrument of salvation.

The wise men sought Him with all of their learning and wisdom and offered to Him again the mind of mankind. They came from far away to behold the One who is Wisdom Incarnate and who created what man cannot even understand. They came bringing gifts rich and rare but the greatest gift they gave was themselves. They gave their praise and worship and royal glory to the child who was the King of kings.

Their gold represented the wealth and treasure of mankind, which was worth nothing to them until they had become poor in spirit. The gold of the idols, the gold of Egypt, came and worshiped before Him. The gold which had become the idol and master of mankind came, proclaiming that it was not worthy.

Their frankincense was with them, the offering of the aromatic trees, to purify the air where He breathed. It came to Him who took away the pollution of mankind and made the earth a heaven suitable for mankind and God again. It was burned and rose, the prayers of God’s people, a sweet-smelling aroma in His nostrils.

Their myrrh was there as well, the perfume that went into the wine to offer it to mankind, the perfume that was used to bury the dead. With the myrrh came the remembrance of death, which would be put to death and buried by the One who had just been born.

Joseph came, the earthly father, to worship his son, the Son of God. He came on behalf of all earthly fathers and brought his faithfulness to the manger. He offered it with all of the other treasures that were brought. He came to serve the heavenly Son who was greater than the earthly father; he brought his obedience and courage in vowing to protect and raise the God made man. He offered his life to serve the Son.

Mary came, the earthly mother, and treasured all these things in her heart. She who bore the Son of God bore the hope of the New Creation, of souls born again and made acceptable to God again. She worshiped silently because God had come to be with her and had chosen to dwell with man. She offered her body as a holy vessel for her Child and offered her worship to the Son of God. She offered her faith, devotion, and service as an example for all born of woman.

These all came to Jesus at His birth, for all things come from Him and of His own we are to give to Him. These all came, offering the one gift that He had asked for: they came and willingly offered themselves to Him.
Let us come and give ourselves to Him, body, mind, and soul.
For it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Prayer: Father, thank You for Your love in sending Your only Son to earth to become one of us. Lord Jesus Christ, praise be to You because You are the Creator and Giver of all and at Christmas You gave Yourself to us. May I exchange with You the gift of love so that in all things I may be made like You and join in Your New Creation. Amen.

Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to continue my Christmas meditations on the coming of Jesus Christ. Today, I resolve to meditate on how I can offer myself to the Lord more fully this year, the one gift He has asked for this Christmas.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Christmas Eve - Luke 1:67-80

After Zacharias’ tongue is loosed again, and after he has demonstrated his faith by obediently naming John what God had named him, Zacharias is filled with the Holy Spirit. And what does the Holy Spirit inspire Zacharias to do? To sing a hymn of praise to God with his newly loosened tongue.

Zacharias is a picture of how we are to respond to God and his mercy.

As we learned yesterday, with Zacharias and through him, it’s better to believe and obey God than to disbelieve and disobey Him. We’ve been trying to learn this lesson ever since Adam and Eve. God is the one in charge, and He is the one who has authority over names and their meanings, and lives and their meanings.

And so when God names something, we are to give the name that God has given. When God says that something is good we are required to say that it is good, and when God says something is a sin we are required to say that it is a sin. We are to faithfully repeat God’s Word and His truth, for this is the calling of every true prophet and the calling of every true Christian.

Our faithful response to the presence and authority of God in our lives takes other forms as well. Today, not only has Zacharias chosen to faithfully respond to God with belief and obedience but also with praise and singing. One of the ways we repeat God’s truth back to Him is by singing. God sings His beautiful song of creation, and we sing it back to Him by being what He has created us to be. That’s why birds sing! God sings His even more beautiful song of redemption, and we sing it back to Him. And when God’s redemption comes through His Son, singing His most beautiful love song, we are to sing it back to Him.

I think this is why God created music, because just talking about God or even to Him isn’t always sufficient. The beauty of God should be answered with beauty, and the glory of God with glory. We should respond to the faithfulness of God with faithfulness so that even our lives become a song of joyful response to being in the presence of God.

Zacharias’ Benedictus might be seen as a hymn to God’s mercy and a meditation on the meaning of his son’s name, a renaming what God has first named (John means “God is merciful.”) It is a song of mercy about what God has done for Israel (the people of God) as well as what God has done for Zacharias and Elizabeth themselves – and a song about what He has done for you.

Zacharias sings because God has had mercy in visiting and redeeming His people (verse 68).

Zacharias sings because God has had mercy in raising up a horn of salvation (verse 69).

Zacharias sings because God has performed His mercy promised towards our fathers (verse 72).

Zacharias sings because God has had mercy in delivering us out of the hand of our enemies (verse 74).

Zacharias sings because God has had mercy in remitting our sins (verse 77).

Zacharias sings because God has had mercy in visiting us with the dayspring from on high (verse 76).

Zacharias’ song is to continue, and we are now to sing it as well. It has been preserved by the Church as the Benedictus, and now it is our turn to sing it.

Blessed be the Lord God of the Church, for He has visited and redeemed His people.

We sing because God has saved us and done what He has promised to do in our lives.

We sing because God has delivered us from our enemies and is in the process of delivering us out of the hand of our enemies.

We sing because God has forgiven us our sins.

And we sing because God has had mercy on us in visiting us with the dayspring from on high.

So what God has spoken to Zacharias is what He has spoken to us: let our response be that of Zacharias. Sing about God’s mercy and blessing and give glory back to Him today!

Resolution: I resolve to sing the Benedictus today, or some other appropriate hymn in praise to God for His mercy.

Prayer: Blessed are You Lord God because You have visited and redeemed me. Blessed are You Lord God because you have saved me from my enemies. Blessed are You Lord God for You have brought me into the light of Your Son. Amen.

Points for Meditation:
In what ways has God visited me recently for which I should give thanks and praise?

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Tuesday of Advent 4 - Luke 1:26-38

While Roman Catholics may exalt Mary to an inappropriate place and Protestants may ignore her altogether, Mary is to be an example of faith for us. There is no denying that she was, to quote the angel, “full of grace.” But Mary is a prototype for us, and what was true for her is now true for us. And therefore, today, God says to you: “Hail, Christian, full of grace!”

The first thing to notice about Mary’s blessed relationship with God is that it is God who initiated a gracious, special relationship with Mary, and not Mary with God. God announced Himself to Mary through His Word, through His messengers. Why is Mary called highly favored? Because God has chosen to visit her. God chose to come and bless her – not on account of her own merit, but because of His sovereign grace.

There is no indication that Mary had done anything special to merit being the mother of her Lord, for if she had, then it would no longer be of grace but a reward. There is also no indication in Scripture, which is the oldest and most authoritative Tradition, that she was without sin. Her sinlessness (related to the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception) doesn’t appear to have been in the first several centuries, and, in spite of teachers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux opposing it, this doctrine was not dogmatized until 1854.

The fact that Mary sinned like us is precisely the point: that God has come to dwell with sinners, not with those already righteous, because only God is righteous. If Mary were sinless, this point would be obscured. She would be actually less of a model for us because she would be unlike us, without sin and not in need of salvation herself. That God can and does inhabit sinful people is a greater testimony to the power of God in Mary’s life and ours – than if she were sinless. This is the real miracle of Pentecost and of God’s mighty salvation: that God has come to be with His people, even though they are sinful. This is why Mary is so meaningful to me: because, like me, she was a sinner to whom God miraculously gave His grace. Like sinful Mary, God has made me the Temple of His Holy Spirit.

Mary responds to this grace with faith. Though she was astounded by the astounding words of the angel, she was believing. The things she felt are very instructive for the way that we should feel toward God and His grace in our lives. We find that Mary wondered at the things the angel had told her. Like Mary, we should wonder at the things God has promised to us and actually given us. Mary also believed. Though what God told her was outside of her experience, or anyone’s, she believed. Did she understand it all? Obviously not. Did she believe? Obviously so.

Mary also was troubled by the saying of Gabriel, and this is perhaps what most separates her from us. Mary was troubled that she could be found worthy to be the mother of her Lord. She was troubled that she would give birth before she knew Joseph. God has told us equally amazing things and done equally marvelous things for us, but we aren’t troubled by the presence of God. Somehow, God’s presence among us is too familiar and too tamed. God is not to be feared in any sense, because He’s just a warm tingling inside and not a consuming fire.

But Mary was troubled, and we should be, too. Not troubled as in anxious or doubtful, but troubled in that if we understand God Almighty to be present among us, and having seen Him for Who He Is, we appropriately tremble.

Equally important, Mary was humble. She knew that the miraculous things she heard were of God, and not of herself. She knew that she was an unworthy servant, not someone who deserved and therefore expected what she received. Of all of the things that Mary felt and said and did, one of the most meaningful to me was her simple summary of her response to God in her life: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord.” After graciously receiving the miraculous grace of God, her response was not to think too highly of herself but to stand, ready to serve in the way that He had called her.

In time, God blessed Mary by being with her, through His Son and through the work of the Holy Spirit. Gabriel tells Mary, “The Lord is with you.” First, the Father comes with His promise, and then the Holy Spirit overshadows her, and then the Son of God comes to her, and so we remember, in this season of Trinity, that the entire Trinity came and blessed Mary, just as He comes to us.

The point, again, is that having been blessed by God like Mary, we are to be like Mary in faith. As with Mary, God offers you His grace. You have been visited by the messengers (angels) of God - the other Christians in your life. You have heard His Word: it comes to you every time you hear or read the Holy Scriptures.

And you must respond with faith, humility, and obedience – just like Mary. If God could and did enter into Mary, He can do the same with you. If God can use Mary, imperfect but humble and faithful Mary, He can use you. If He can dwell in Mary by His Holy Spirit, then He can dwell in you by His Holy Spirit as well. You, and not just Mary, are the God’s chosen vessel and the locus of His special presence. You are called the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and so you have the Holy Spirit as did Mary. The Holy Spirit didn’t turn Mary into God Himself any more than He turns us into God. Rather, God’s gracious presence through His Holy Spirit redeems us, the fallen ones.

As Mary bore Christ, so can you all be Christ bearers, “Christophers.” This is the importance of the Incarnation to us, not just that Jesus became man but that Jesus became man so that man could now live with God and even become the Temple of the living God. As with Mary, Christ is to be born in us, and we are to bear Him every day. It’s not as if 9 months later He goes outside of us: He has tabernacled with us permanently, through His Spirit. And this is the meaning of Pentecost.

What should our response be to such glad and joyful tidings? It should be the same as Mary’s. We should be troubled by the presence of God in our lives, but we should also believe. And we should show our belief by saying “Behold, the servant of the Lord,” and then go out and serve not only as servants of Jesus Christ but also as bearers of Jesus Christ.

Rejoice, highly favored one! The Lord is with you; blessed are you among men.

Prayer: My soul magnifies You, Lord, and my spirit rejoices in You, for You are my Savior. Come and glorify Yourself in me by coming to be with me. Fulfill Your promises to me through Your Son, and as You make me Your chosen vessel and servant, give me the Spirit of Jesus Christ that I may more faithfully serve. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
1. What do you see in Mary’s faith that makes it worth emulating? Choose one of these and work on manifesting it more in your life today.
2. What changes in your life would you need to make to have faith like Mary’s?

Resolution: I resolve to see myself today as one to whom God has come to bless. I resolve to meditate further on Mark 1:28, hearing the Lord say to me, “Rejoice, highly favored one, I am with you. Blessed are you among men.”

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Monday of Advent 4 - Luke 1:1-25

I love the opening of St. Luke’s Gospel because I feel, even more than in the other Gospels, that St. Luke is talking to me. “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” we ask.

St. Luke’s answer (which is really God’s) is, simply, “Yes.”

Why do I feel as if St. Luke is talking to me?

First, Luke is the only Gentile privileged to have been inspired to write a book of the Bible. In fact, he was privileged to write two: his Gospel, and the Acts of the Apostles (which I think of more as “The Rest of the Words and Acts of Jesus Christ”). In St. Luke, we see the coming of Christ to the Gentiles incarnated.

Second, Luke is the only one who has given us an account of how he came to write his book of the Bible. Knowing that we Gentiles needed a different kind of proof, and understanding the Western mindset, which most of us have now inherited, he gives us a brief account of how he came to write his Gospel. Others had taken in hand to set in order a narrative of the things which had been fulfilled (presumably Matthew and Mark), but Luke wanted to write his own orderly account.

Luke, being a companion of St. Paul, had a perfect understanding of the things concerning Jesus Christ from the beginning, and so he was in a position to write his own account. Though Luke himself was not an eyewitness of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, he received the facts of his account from such eyewitnesses. Luke was, therefore, privileged not only to have the eyewitness testimony of some of the original 12 apostles but also the revelations and insights of St. Paul.

The third reason that Luke seems to be talking to me is that I am Theophilus. We aren’t sure who the original Theophilus is, but I consider myself Theophilus, a “lover of God.” Luke’s account is written to and for all who are truly lovers of God and want to know and follow Jesus Christ. I’m also Theophilus because I am “loved by God,” and the name Theophilus could mean either “lover of God” or “loved by God.” I prefer to think that it means both.

Finally, Luke is speaking to me because he tells me why he has written his account: it’s for me (Theophilus)! It’s so that I may know the certainty of those things in which I have been instructed.

Having been so personally welcomed into the Gospel of St. Luke, I feel inclined to walk into the pages of his Gospel and make myself at home there. I feel as if I belong in these pages, and even as I’m writing I feel like a kind of St. Luke, and, as I read and consider verses 5 and following, I feel like Zacharias and Elizabeth.

I feel barren sometimes. In all honestly, I feel a little like that this morning. I’m not feeling particularly perky or motivated. It’s difficult for me to get up in the mornings, and I’m not sure at what moment of any given day you might actually consider me awake. For that matter, I’m not sure sometimes that I ever fully wake up. And so sometimes, my life feels barren. For other reasons, I’m sure some of your lives feel barren at times, and may, in fact, actually be so.

But God loves barren lives. They are the kind of soil into which He loves to plant His garden (apparently, He loves a challenge and loves taking the dead and making it alive). He begins by planting His seed, which is His Word. And so we read the beginning of Luke’s Gospel this morning. As I read, unwilling though my body might be, and as I meditate on His Word, I know that something real has taken root inside me.

And then God comes and waters me by what Luke has written. God speaks to me this morning, and I begin to feel revived a little. Sometimes He also waters me by something so simple as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, to which I’m now listening (more specifically, my favorite moment: the end of the 3rd movement [the Presto] of the Summer concerto).

Suddenly, I am like Elizabeth. I, who woke up barren, have had the Word planted in me and have been doused by the Living Water during this season of Pentecost, and I conceive. Life springs within me, a life that God has given me, and I am able to say with Elizabeth that this very day is the day when the Lord not only spoke to me but also looked on me and took away the reproach of my barrenness.

He looked at me! I still remember the barren years before God favored me with the presence of the Lady J (Jackie, my wife). I remember being in high school and college and feeling honored when a good-looking girl would look at me (more likely she was looking over me, or overlooking me). I even wrote a poem once based on such occasions:

Sue Ann was beautiful
very, very beautiful
and she looked at me once
or maybe even twice.

But this morning I have a more heavenly poetry being recited to me by St. Luke, for he’s telling me, through the words and experience of Elizabeth, that God has looked at me. Not some girl that I never had the nerve to even talk to, but God Almighty Himself. And unlike the beautiful girls who may have overlooked me because I wasn’t attractive to them, God delights to look at me.

This is all the more amazing because spiritually, I have really greasy hair that hasn’t been washed in a month and zits and pimples erupting over the surface of my face like miniature Krakatoas and Vesuvii. I have eyes so weak that you can’t even see them but only my glasses, and my pants are so short they come up to my calves. My voice is as squeaky and irregular as a spastic chimp playing Vivaldi on a broken Stradivarius with one string, and I have a lot of annoying and gross habits that you really don’t want to hear me talk about (spiritually speaking, of course).

And yet, spiritual nerd and geek and wimp and loser that I am, God looks at me. I think, “Lord, who am I that you would look at me?” To which He says, “It’s not who you are but who I AM.”
Who am I? I am the one who the I AM has looked at. I am the one who is last but who God has made first. I am Theophilus, loved by God so that I may be a lover of God.

Resolution: I resolve to listen today to God’s proclamation of His Good News in my life, and to meditate on the fact that He has looked at me.

Prayer: Father, I thank You for inspiring St. Luke to write for me an account of the life of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You for looking at me and giving me the sight to be able to look at and see You. By Your Word, by Your Son, and by Your Spirit, may You make the barren places of my life the place where You dwell. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
1. Remember a time in your life when you experienced joy because of something wonderful that suddenly happened to you. Transfer that joy to the fact that God has looked at you today.
2. In what ways is your life barren? When God offers Himself to You, do you receive Him as you should, and do you believe the promises He has made to you?

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Ember Saturday, Saturday of Advent - Matthew 9:35-10:15

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”

The compassion of Jesus never fails to move me to compassion. I want to see what He and feel what He felt, and what He saw was a multitude of people who were weary and scattered and were like sheep without a shepherd. What He felt was compassion.

My favorite word in the Greek language is splagthnizomai, which comes from the word for inward parts or entrails and so means to be moved with “bowels of mercy” or to have a visceral reaction of compassion. The kind of compassion Jesus had wasn’t the manufactured tears or weepy faces that some people put on, and it wasn’t something He somehow had to work to summon up because He was “supposed to.”

Jesus’ compassion was one He was spontaneously moved to and one for which He had an accompanying visceral reaction. This kind of compassion is not the cool-headed Hollywood millionaire deciding to plunk down a fat check on his favorite charity. It is the kind of compassion that is visceral and bodily and can only come from a heart that has been made a compassionate one.

In His day, the people were weary, and they were scattered, everyone seemingly doing his own thing. They had no shepherd because they had no one to lead them.

And then Jesus came. He came teaching, preaching, and healing, and the amazing thing is that even after “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease,” Jesus still sees a multitude of sheep who need a shepherd. Having spent the days of His public ministry on behalf of others, there were still too many who needed to know and follow Him.

What He did in response to His compassion is also amazing. We might have expected Him to double His efforts, to begin teaching and healing in double-time so that twice as many could hear Him and be healed. He could have just commanded that all hear and be healed. But what He actually did in response to a world full of lost sheep was to send out laborers into the harvest.

In response to His great compassion, Jesus calls the twelve disciples to Himself and gives them authority over unclean spirits and to heal all kinds of disease. And then He sends them out into the harvest, to go and redeem lost souls, and to act as shepherds to who go out to gather the lost sheep.

Jesus still has compassion for the lost people of the world. He still has bowels of mercy and desires that something be done to heal the sick and preach the gospel and to have more sheep be brought into His fold. And He still chooses to do this the same way – by sending out His disciples into the world.

“The harvest is still plentiful,” He says to you, “but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Jesus Christ has sent you, His disciple, out into the harvest. He has called you to help go and make disciples of the nations.

You can’t fool me: I’m a former schoolteacher. I see some of you slinking down in your chairs and turning around, as if Jesus Christ means these words for the guy who’s sitting behind you. But He means these words for you: you are the one He is sending out to the multitude of lost sheep.

Sometimes I wonder about these words, “The laborers are few.” What does Jesus mean? In the U.S. there are 160 million adults (we’ll let the children off the hook for now) who claim to be Christians, which is about 77% of the adult population. 45% of adults in the U.S. claim to be “born again,” which would give us about 100 million people. Since there are something like 220 million adults in the U.S., I’d say we had plenty of laborers. I mean, after all, since almost half of the adults are born-again Christians, each of us only has to bring the Good News to just one person.

Unless, of course, something is wrong with my numbers. Why is it that we have a country where half the adults can say they’re born again Christians and yet easily more than half of the U.S. is still lost?

I think it comes down to the passion and compassion of Jesus Christ. Do we really have the same passion to serve God as Jesus Christ did? When we say we are really disciples of Jesus Christ, do we back it up with our lives? In the U.S. as a whole (and the world, I suppose), the answer is a clear “No!”

Do we have the compassion of Jesus Christ which looks out at the world and sees lost sheep, that is, lost souls going to Hell? Or do we see people just like us who don’t want to be disturbed, just as we are too busy to disturb others with the Good News of Jesus Christ?

But you can’t manufacture compassion for the lost sheep. It must come from a heart completely devoted to God and to doing His will. This is why Jesus saw lost sheep, when we see only golfing buddies or the office acquaintance or Uncle Harold.

Do you really want to give the perfect Christmas present this year? Give someone Jesus Christ. We love picking out just the right gift – but are we just giving to those who love us? Jesus has commanded us to go those who are not already a part of our circle of love or our earthly family. He has sent you to have compassion on those who are lost and to show your compassion for the lost and your passion for God by teaching them about Jesus Christ.

Without a passion for God, however, you will have no compassion for the lost sheep that propels you into motion. Therefore, this Christmas, come once again to Jesus Christ and adore Him. But don’t just Ooh! and Ahh! at the Christmas pictures or the cute kids at the Christmas pageant. Come and adore the King of kings, and hear His commandment to go out and make disciples of the nations.

For this is the most fitting Christmas present for the God who gave Himself to you and who has called you to give Him to others.

Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I praise You today for Your passion in perfectly obeying the will of the Father for me. I praise You for Your compassion on the lost sheep of the world, especially myself. I pray that today I may be a true disciple by hearing the voice of my Master and obeying Your commandment to go into the world to give You to others. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
What does Jesus’ commandment to His disciples to go out and find the lost sheep mean to me? Do I believe this is a call He has placed on my life, or is it only for others? What have I done to obey my Master in going out to bring the lost sheep to Him? What do I hear Him calling me to do this new year to be a more faithful disciple in this regard?

Resolution: I resolve to adore and worship Jesus my Master this Christmastide. I resolve to worship Him by obeying His commandment to go and disciple the nations and to ponder my part in God’s plan of redeeming mankind.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Friday of Advent 3 - 2 Corinthians 5:5–21

Christ was born of flesh that we might be born of the Spirit.

This is the message this morning, as the birth pangs of Christmas and miracle of the Incarnation come even closer to us. St. Paul doesn’t deal directly with the Incarnation here in 2 Corinthians 5, but in the context of the last days of Advent before Christmas, his message takes on a new and wonderful meaning.

Christ was born of flesh that we might be born of the Spirit.

We do see the meaning of Christmas in verse 19, where Paul writes that, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” Remembering that we can’t separate one part of the ministry of Jesus from another, we see the beginning of Christ’s ministry of reconciliation in His Incarnation. God’s first daring move in the work of salvation is to take on human flesh. With all of its finitude and sinfulness, God took on human flesh that He might reconcile the world to Himself.

How much God must have loved His ruined creation to become a part of it! How much more must He have loved those made in His image, even though they were image-destroyers and desecraters of His creation, to become one of us!

But it is not enough that God become one of us: the goal of the Incarnation is Glorification. God came down to earth and became man that man might ascend to heaven and partake of God. In this way, the love and humility of God become the glory of mankind and of all creation.

Even as God became one of us, God makes us a part of Himself, a partaker of His nature. Even as He takes off the Old Man from us, He puts the New Man on. This is why Paul says in verse 2 that we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. Paul knows that though we have already been clothed with Christ, who is the New Man and our righteousness, we are not yet fully clothed. And so at Christmas we must use both of our eyes: one eye to rejoice in the First Coming of Christ in human flesh, and one eye to seek the Second Coming of Christ in which we fully dwell with God.

Because Jesus Christ was born at Christmas we are all enabled to be born again. Jesus Christ’s becoming one of us is what makes possible us becoming partakers of God. At Christmas we celebrate, therefore, not just the birth of Jesus Christ but also our rebirth in Him. The wonder and awe and praise and joy and thanksgiving we give to God because of the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas should also be given to Him at Christmas because we have become born again!

While Jesus was clothed in human flesh, we are clothed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our new birth, the being clothed from heaven (verse 2.)

In celebrating Christmas, then, we celebrate not only the birth of Jesus Christ but also our own birth. Because Jesus Christ was made flesh and God chose to dwell with man, we are enabled by the Spirit to dwell with God.

At Christmas, we are witnesses of and participants in the greatest exchange of gifts in history. We are partakers of the eternal, divine Christmas.

But the gifts are not equal. When we as humans exchange gifts at Christmas, we usually try to “even things” out. If someone’s custom is to give me a $10 gift, then the odds are I’ll probably give them a $10 gift, and if he gives me a $100 gift, I’ll probably give him a $100 gift.

But in the original Christmas, the exchange of gifts was not “fair” or “evened out.” God gave Himself to mankind, a gift for which there can be no equal. He gave us His righteousness and eternal life. And in return we gave Him our sin and death. Some deal for God, huh? He must have really loved us to make it!

I like chemistry, and for those chemists who are reading, this is the greatest double replacement reaction ever known. Jesus Christ who was perfect and without sin becomes sin (verse 21), and we who were sinful become righteous.

It is something like this simple reaction:

NaOH + HCl => NaCl + HOH (or H20)
Sodium hydroxide + hydrochloric acid produces sodium chloride (table salt) + water

Theologically, the “replacement reaction” is like this:

Jesus Christ-righteous + man-sinful => Jesus Christ-sin + man-righteous

But praise God that though the second product of this reaction (the righteous man) continues forever, the first product (Jesus Christ becoming sin) no longer exists! In God’s exotic chemistry, what really is created is something beyond the understanding of the scientist. What is created is the following product of the divine chemistry of reconciliation: God-man. First: Jesus Christ made man; and second: us united with God forever in Christ. It is the reconciliation of God and man that is the product of the divine reaction that began at Christmas.

If all of this is mumbo-jumbo to you, then at least know this: Behold! You are a new creation – a human made righteous in Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ became like you and took away your sin and death. Because you are now a partaker of the divine nature and have received the greatest Christmas present ever, and because you have been given the love of God along with God Himself, it is now your turn. Now you, in Christ, are a minister of reconciliation. Now, with Christ, you are to take the greatest Christmas present of all time, and the only one that truly keeps on giving, and share it with those who are poor in spirit.

This Christmas, as God gave Himself to you, give the gift of God to others.

Christ was born of flesh that we might be born of the Spirit.


Prayer: Father, thank You for the gift of Your Son in my life, who gave Himself for the redemption of the world. Thank You, Jesus, for becoming like me that I might live with You. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for making me a fit dwelling place for the Son of God. Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, help me to show my thankfulness to You by giving You as a gift others. Amen.

Point for Meditation:
1. Remember and meditate on your reaction to the greatest Christmas present any human ever gave to you. What did you feel? Apply this reaction to the gifts that God has given to you.
2. Meditate on how you can demonstrate your thankfulness to God by being a more faithful minister of reconciliation, by more faithfully sharing the gifts that God has given to you.

Resolution: I resolve to meditate on God’s incomparable gift of His Son to me.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson

Thursday of Advent 3 - Mark 6:1-6

As we approach our celebration of God made man in Jesus Christ, I find that this little passage in Mark 6 is a wonderful picture of the mystery of God made man.

Although by the beginning of Mark 6 we have already seen ample evidence that Jesus is God, we see it here again: Jesus lays His hands on a few sick people and heals them. But perhaps the greatest miracle God ever performed, along with the Resurrection and Atonement, is for God to be made man. How God can squeeze His infinite Self into a bodily vessel such as yours or mine defies the human mind and imagination.

But this God who can command the wind and waves actually did become a man. And this is why it is important to know that Jesus was a carpenter. Those in His hometown of Nazareth knew Him not as the Son of God or the Messiah but simply and only as Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph and Mary’s son, the carpenter.

Jesus the carpenter has captivated the imagination of Christians for centuries, and rightly so. Because Jesus is truly a man, He had hands, and with these hands He worked. He Himself, by His divine hands, had fashioned the heavens and the earth and ordained that man should work for six days of the week. He Himself created the physical things of the world and declared them to be good. How fitting, then, that the Creator of the world should become part of it and show us the sanctity of work.

It has not escaped the attention of Christians over the years that the same medium, wood, in which Jesus worked in His life as a carpenter was the medium by which He was put to death. By His working with wood, of the things of the earth, Jesus taught us the value of the world to Him and of man’s labor in it.

There is a wonderful Nativity Hymn by Ephraim the Syrian, a 4th century Church Father, part of which is:

“Blessed by your coming, O master of workers everywhere.
The imprint of your labor is seen in the ark,
And in the fashioning of the tabernacle
Of the congregation that was for a time only!

Our whole craft praises you, who are our eternal glory.
Make for us a yoke that is light, even easy, for us to bear.
Establish that measure in us in which there can be no falseness.”


The next time your work seems boring or meaningless or drudgery or heavy, learn from Him who both created and redeemed human labor. Remember the hands that created not only carts and tables but also healed mankind. Remember the hands that were pierced and bled for you. “And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!” (verse 2.)

Jesus as God is a wonder to behold, and so is Jesus the man. But it is God in man, the Incarnation of God Almighty of which we sing and which especially makes Christian hearts everywhere rejoice! Here is the greatest mystery and miracle and the greatest Christmas present of all: Immanuel, God with us, God in us!

I see this mystery at work not only in the life of Jesus of Nazareth but also in the lives of ordinary men. I see it even in the unbelief of the citizenry of Nazareth, in that mysterious verse, Mark 6:5, “Now He could no mighty work there . . . .” He could do no mighty work there because the people of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, lacked faith. Now God can and does perform His mighty works without our faith, and yet He has chosen to work through our faith, and not usually apart from it. This is another mysterious implication of the Incarnation.

This is St. Paul’s mystery of “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:9.) God’s grace is sovereign, and He will give it to whom He will give it. It is all from Him, and we in no way deserve it or can do anything to obtain it. This we know, and this is the divine side of Christ. We also know that God comes to us in our humanity, for He has laid His hands upon us and healed us. But it is in faith that the grace of God and the healing of man meet, faith which, though entirely of grace, is also a truly human response to this grace. God’s grace, received through faith, results in the healing of God’s people.

This is the miracle of Christmas, of God made man that man may be with God.
Let us rejoice because of the holy and loving hands of Jesus the Creator of the world and Jesus the carpenter. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10.)

Prayer: Blessed be the Wise One, who reconciled and joined the Divine with the Human Nature, one from above and one from below. Blessed be the One who blesses us with His nail-torn hands and hallows all human labor. Blessed be the All-Merciful One who by His grace has made us His work and made us in Christ Jesus to do the works of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Points for Meditation:
1. How can I set aside sufficient time to behold Jesus Christ this Christmas? It will be useful to remember that Christmas begins December 25th and lasts through January 5th (you have 12 days to celebrate and 12 days to meditate!)
2. Make specific preparations for how you can honor Christ by keeping a holy Christmas and one that is not polluted by the things of the world.
3. Reconsider your attitude toward the work that God has given you in life, in light of the labor of Jesus the carpenter.

Resolution: I resolve today to begin to ponder the meaning of Jesus Christ, God made man. Since this is such an immense mystery and blessing, I know that a few minutes on Christmas Day is not sufficient to devote to my Lord, and so I will meditate on Him today.

© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson