day no. 15,567 continued... vespers

I was listening to a sermon last week and the pastor was speaking to the Biblical theme of "morning and evening." After pointing out several places where this rhythm is established and held, he then provided the anecdotal evidence of its observance in the church cadence of "lauds and vespers." Admittedly, I had to look that up. I was fascinated to discover the morning and evening prayers pattern that once was a staple of the Christian church. 

I bring this up because this past week I also floated the idea of beginning to pick up a pie at the Amish each week now that we've moved it to Saturdays and I get to participated. I thought it would be fun to add to our Sabbath liturgy. 

So we picked up a mixed berry and a pecan pie yesterday and today after having Wendy's frosties and fries for lunch, I decided to hold back the pies for a treat after dinner. So tonight we ate noodles for dinner as per usual, but then I busted out the pies and we had sort of a second Sabbath soiree. That led me to consider perhaps holding the pie back every week for dinner rather than adding it to our lunch liturgy. This connected me to the thought of vespers and the idea of an intentional Sabbath evening mini-liturgy.

While I was carving up the post-dinner pies, I led us in singing "All Glory Be To Christ" which I had originally attempted to include as part of our lunch liturgy, but it didn't work out as well as I had hoped as it delayed the feast longer than made sense. It's fun now to be able to include back in at a natural point and in anticipation of pie. I bought whipped cream earlier today in preparation and made funny designs on each kid's respective piece of pie. I then intuitively said, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" The kids took to it and just like that, we have a Sabbath supper liturgy. I look forward to rounding it out a bit, but for now, I'm thinking less is more: singing, pie and Psalm 34:8 to cap off our Sabbaths sounds like a great Sunday tradition in the making. Some traditions you enjoy the first time you do them looking ahead to the thousandth time you do it. I am flirting with perhaps rocking the a la mode some week and calling it, "pie-ce cream." God is good and it is so much fun looking for ways to invite my kids into a life of wonder, welcome, good gifts and a whole heaping of gratitude to go along with it.

Psalm 34:8

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!

day no. 15,567: keep the feast

1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Christians are called to keep the feast. Christ has been sacrificed as our paschal lamb and we have been commissioned to keep that feast. In the blood of Christ, God has passed over our sins. He has acknowledged His blood on our doorways as sufficient to stave off His wrath. He has received Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. He has acknowledged Jesus' authority as our High Priest and accepted the sacrifice of Himself that He offers on behalf of His people. He has passed over our sins as we sit safely inside enjoying the feast of His sacrifice. The blood of the lamb has been painted on our doorways and the meat of the Lamb was enjoyed by the families huddled behind their closed doors. The wrath has passed us by and the grace has been laid in bowls before us. God has offered us clemency from execution and an invitation to celebration. 

Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast

Christians are call to keep the feast. Christ has died that we might live. Christ has risen that we might delight. Christ forever lives that we may never die. Let us keep this feast forever… in our homes and in our hearts. World without end. Amen.

day no. 15,566: in due order

1 Chronicles 15:13
For because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.

There is a way to seek God that offends Him. The first commandment teaches us that there is only one God to be sought and the second commandment teaches us that He will not be found in any or every way. He has declared how He desires to be pursued. He has given us insight into how to worship and acknowledge Him and attempts made outside His orders are not considered on the merits of their sentiments, but are rejected on the basis of their rebellion.

God has not been unclear in His commands. He has not made this command beyond our comprehension or capability. He has provided clarity and continuity.

When we breach His clear commands, He makes a breach upon us. When we seek Him outside of due order, we invite disaster upon our heads. We do not lift up His Name, but we call down curses upon ourselves. We are not free to worship God however we feel like if we expect that worship to be accepted. The worship that God receives is in keeping with His orders and follows them in due order.

day no. 15,565: delight to fight

Christians should delight in fighting and they should fight with delight. We should use delight as a weapon by which we wage war and we should fight the good fight to delight in goodness.

Psalm 37:3-4
Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

When we win the fight of delight on the home front, we find ourselves delighted in God. We fight off false gods for the sake of elevating His renown in our known jurisdiction. As we do this, we grow in delight for Him and as we find ourselves more delighted in Him, we find ourselves free to delight in everything else.

Contentment is a weapon. When we delight in God, we are content with whatever else we have or don't happen to have. Contentment is a side effect of delighting first in God. When we desire Him above all things, we find our desires fulfilled completely. He is happy to give Himself to us. We find our desires growing for Him alone and we discover Him graciously giving more of Himself than we ever dreamed possible. He goes above and beyond, exceeding expectations. 

The fight is to delight in Him. When we do, we find ourselves fulfilled. And once content, we use the delight of being delighted to fight off false messiahs and comfauxters.

day no. 15,564: radix-ulous

Recently, I discovered that the word radical has its etymology in the Latin word radix which means, "root." 

When we use the word radical, we are typically referring to someone or something that is way out on a limb, breaking free from all convention and stepping out into some new, extreme endeavor, but the word actually implies someone or something drilled down relentlessly to the root of the matter and refusing to abandon first principles.

In other words, in the modern sense of the word, we assume tip-toeing on tree branches is exciting and extreme; but in reality, sticking with tradition requires extremity. There is nothing radical then about hanging your life out on a limb. That is normative, a yawn-fest, a standard operating procedure common to all men. But what is radical is turning back to the roots and finding life there, defining livelihood by the deep, nourishing, anchored stability of what lies beneath the surface. Now that would be radical. Can you imagine a generation so bold as to refuse to insist upon their unique perspective for the sake of resting on the foundation of their fathers? Crazy, right? Downright, one might say, radical.

Matthew 3:10
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

True repentance begins at the root of the matter. The fruit tattles on the root and if the fruit is rotten and sickly sweet, the problem is at the root level. Getting radical means getting to the root of the matter, which means repenting not merely of rotten fruit, but of rotten roots.

day no. 15,563: out of the eater, something to eat

"Boys, when they see a bear, a lion, or a wolf dead in the street will pull off their hair, insult over them, and deal with them as they please; they will trample upon their bodies, and do that unto them being dead, which they durst not in the least venture upon whilst they are alive. Such a thing is Death, a furious beast, a ramping lion, a devouring wolf, the hellus generis humani (eater up of mankind). Yet Christ has laid him at his length, hath been death of death, so that God's children have played upon him, scorned and derided him, by the faith they had in the life of Christ, who hath subdued him." -- Martin Day as quoted in The Shadow of the Broad Brim by Richard E. Day

Because death is dead, God's children are free to mock it. We are free to treat it in a way that we never would if it were a living thing. But death is dead. It is lying in the street, unable to bite, unable to sting, unable to bind, unable to move and unable to rise ever again.

Because Jesus rose, death stays down.
Because Jesus forever lives, death is forever dead.
Because Jesus is omnipotent, death is impotent.
Because Jesus holds the keys to Hades, death's door remains unlocked.
Because Jesus reigns, we do not fear, but leer at death.

If death was previously the eater up of all mankind, it is now the final course in the feast at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Judges 14:14
Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.

Love is as strong as death, but it's sweeter.

Song of Songs 8:6
Set me as a seal upon thine heart,
as a seal upon thine arm:
for love is strong as death

Because love has won, death is done and all of God's children do well to defy it.

1 Corinthians 15:51-58
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
 O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

day no. 15,562: no joke

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."-- Martin Luther

"The devil . . the prowde spirite . . cannot endure to be mocked." -- Thomas More

Heretics are, in one sense, no joke; but in another, that's all they are.