Rejoicing with Rejoicers
Wilderness Wanderings
Our text is Romans 12:15: Love must be sincere…Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. One of my professors warned, “There will be days when you do a funeral in the morning and a wedding in the afternoon. You will need to weep in the morning and rejoice in the afternoon. Your tears and your joy better be sincere.” That advice comes directly from our text for today. Paul is laying out different shades of Christian love which is not rooted in feelings but in a decision of the mind to behave in certain ways. Empathy is “the ability to...
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Involved in the Mission
Wilderness Wanderings
Our scripture is from Colossians 3:12-14: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” When are we involved in God’s mission? Christians often think that only activity connected to the church is involved in God’s work. The implication is that God is not interested in our daily lives. But this is far from the truth. In the beginning, we were made to be involved in...
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A Dunked Community
Wilderness Wanderings
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Acts 1:1-11. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it . Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: Dive In Take a stab at defining Christian communal identity. What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘mission’ and ‘missionary’? How should we understand it? The disciples ask Jesus about the kingdom. How does he shift their focus? Four responses to the...
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Sabbath & Generosity
Wilderness Wanderings
Our text is Deuteronomy 15:1, 4-5: “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts…there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.” Old Testament laws are not always easily applied to us because they concern Israel as a nation state. These laws about the Sabbath year, when debts are cancelled and land is returned to the families it was originally given to, are such...
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Blessing Enemies
Wilderness Wanderings
Our text is Romans 12:14 “Love must be sincere…Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Love has many colours. Having explored hospitality, Paul ups the ante. Love is no easy thing. It flies in the face of the normal human reaction to negative things: anger and revenge. Let’s start with a brief story about revenge. On a Friday early in 1982, Kevin got drunk, got into his car, went for a drive and killed an 18-year-old. He was convicted of manslaughter and drunk driving. Since he was only 17,...
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A Word of Encouragement
Wilderness Wanderings
Our text comes from Romans 15:2, “Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.” This verse is written for the church community. Yet, Paul uses the word neighbour, which is rarely used except in the commandment, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” So, we can apply this instruction to contexts outside the church. It a good word of wisdom for daily living. How might we apply it to our workplaces, communities in which we volunteer, and even in our homes? It is important to recognize that we build others up without desire for...
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Who Do You See?
Wilderness Wanderings
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Leaving Egypt Behind
Wilderness Wanderings
Our text is Deuteronomy 5:15: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” Egypt is difficult to forget – for the Israelites; also for us, Egypt seeps back into our bones. Egypt is brick building. Quotas. Meet your quota. Exceed your quota and you might get rewarded. But if you don’t meet your quota, you will be punished, severely. Brick building. Endless brick building. Mr. Julius Caesar Dithers in the comic strip...
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It's Not about You
Wilderness Wanderings
Today our text is Romans 12:9a, 13 Love must be sincere…Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. We return to hospitality. Why? Because culturally, hospitality is mostly about the one hosting, whereas Christian hospitality is about the one being hosted. Let’s flesh this out some more. Hotels and restaurants are part of the hospitality industry. They seek to impress customers so that they will return. Likewise, we want to impress people so they will associate with us. Hospitality is largely understood as having people over. More importantly, people we...
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Good Works
Wilderness Wanderings
Our text comes from Genesis 2:15, The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. and Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Well, its another Monday. Rumor has it that many of us do not like Mondays. We do not like the return to the grind of work. The weekend is relief, Monday is back to it. Yet, it was not meant to be this way. Created in the image of God, each of us was created to be productive. This does not refer only to paid labour. We were...
info_outlineThis archive edition is upon request from a listener. What follows is the original audio track from August 29, 2024.
Our text comes from Philippians 3:
"He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body" (Philippians 3:21).
The gospel story sounds too good to be true. It is the story of sheep rescued from a dark and fearful wilderness by the strong arms of a fierce shepherd. It’s the story of children released from prison, of demons unmasked. It is the story of fearful disciples in a storm-tossed boat; the storm stilled by the command of their Master. It is the story of sick people healed, of blind people seeing. It is the story of dead people coming to life. It is the story of the God-man.
It is the story of God who is captured, sentenced, and crucified by His own people. His friends weep and his enemies laugh. And all because of a snake. The gospel is a story about a snake who experienced the thrill of evil victory. "I have won," he hissed. "God lays in the grave." But as the sun rose over the horizon chasing the darkness from the garden, the guards ran with it, and the unexpected happened. The story turned. There was one more chapter to be written. The Shepherd came out of the tomb; God was alive. Heaven and earth shouted for joy; the angels danced, and the Father smiled as His Son went off to find His friends. And the snake; he lay in the dust; his head crushed; his tail quivering as life left him.
It is a story that we are part of. That Sunday morning, many years ago is our story. The resurrection is part of our Christian faith, its cornerstone. As we read the resurrection story our hearts are stabbed with joy. We dance with the angels as good triumphs over evil. We are glad, our faith is not in vain, Christ arose.
But…
This life and this present world are subject to sin. We seldom think of sin as vanity, but it is. Life is vanity when it has no meaning. If we do not know the meaning of life, why live? why do anything at all? Most people don't like that question because it is too deep; it gets too close to the answer that life is not worth living; that there is no purpose to it. This is the haunting refrain of the book of Ecclesiastes.
Vanity means emptiness, fluff, a fistful of wind, a pocketful of nothing. It means to pay the mortgage for all your working days and then to die. It means working hard and running fast and getting nowhere. Vanity is a political speech that means exactly nothing. Vanity is the hope that tomorrow will be different, that there is gold at the end of the rainbow; vanity is wisdom and folly, hard work and laziness, laughter, seriousness, and everything, because everything leads nowhere.
In this life, we struggle against this sin. We fight against sin in our own lives. We struggle against sin in the world. We push against greed, and we bite our tongues to keep from lying. We stand up for the oppressed and give money to the poor. We seek to elect politicians who strive for justice. When our eyes fill with longing for another’s toys, we turn away.
But so often it feels like it’s all in vain. The world does not get any better. And we, well, we don’t seem too either. We cry out with Paul, “What a wretched person I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death, to vanity?” But because of the resurrection we can also answer with him, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).
The resurrection gives us something to hope for in the future. While we struggle against sin today, we know that tomorrow sin will be gone. While our bodies are weak today, we know someday they will be strong. The gospel is our story. We too will be changed. Christ will transform our lowly bodies. They will no longer be subject to disease or age or sin or vanity. Christ will transform our characters to be like his. We will have no more inclination for lying. Our eyes won’t covet our neighbour’s stuff.
As surely as Christ opened the eyes of the blind and stilled the storms, he will transform us. There is hope for us. Thanks be to God.
As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.