The Lord's Prayer, Part 1

The Lord's Prayer has been apart of the Church’s worship since its inception. The Didache, a 1st century Christian document (meaning it very well may be as old as the Gospel of John!), teaches that it is proper that the Lord’s Prayer be prayed three times per day. Because we pray it every day as a discipline of our personal prayer life, and because we pray it collectively as part of our liturgical worship on the Lord’s Day, we should understand it!

There are seven petitions in the prayer: the first half focus our attention on the object of our worship: God. In light of what we profess about God in the first half, we then in the second half of the prayer ask God to intercede in our life through his provision and protection. Tonight, we shall look at the first three phrases of the Lord’s Prayer: 1) Our Father; 2)Who art in heaven; 3) Hallowed by thy name.

Union with God: The Incarnation and Its Consequences

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 

The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 

That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete." (1 John 1:1-4)

As we approach the end of this Christmas season, I keep returning to the doctrine of the incarnation. St. John writes in the opening verses of his gospel, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The Word, the second person of the Trinity, broke through to our timeline and dwelt in a virgin's womb for nine months. By her, he became a man, and his name is Jeshua, Jesus, which means “Salvation.” As a human child, he grew. He fed from his mother’s milk, just like us. He first crawled then learned to walk, just like us. He fell and bruised his knees, just like us. He even lived through puberty, just like us. He grew in wisdom and knowledge, just like us. He was like us in every way save one – he knew no sin. He entered into his creation that he might redeem and renew it. This is the Doctrine of the Incarnation: God became man so that we might become one with him through his body. Jesus is 100% human while maintaining full 100% divinity. If the math sounds wrong it's because this is a mystery, something we will never be able to fully grasp. The Apostle Paul calls it "the mystery of godliness" (1 Tim. 3:16).

St. Augustine's 3 Categories of Christian Worship

In St. Augustine's correspondence to Januarius (Letter 54) he lays out in three categories the things that guide Christian worship of our Lord. The first category is things directly found in scripture, the second is the apostolic tradition, and the third is adiaphora or things indifferent.

Ecce Homo: A Good Friday Meditation

Today, at Golgotha, the place of the skull, something is very wrong. The God-Man, the eternal Word made flesh, is dying on the cross. Why did this man Jesus choose this fate? After all, he is God incarnate. Why would he allow himself to be subject to such a death? Perhaps a look at one statement proclaimed by Pontius Pilate will shine some light on this mystery.

In John 19:5 Pilate proclaims about Jesus, "ecce homo" — "Behold the man." Pilate is saying something profoundly theological, although he does not understand it. What does it mean that Jesus is the man? This ought to remind us of the original man from Genesis. Adam was created by God to subdue the earth to glory of God—to be the very image of God in the world. But he exchanged the truth and life of God for Satan’s lie. What was that lie? If Adam ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he could be like God.

We have this story recorded for us in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit. Being tempted by the serpent Satan, Eve first took and tried it. Adam also took and ate. Thus, as a result of their disobedience, the first man became subject to death — both sin and death entered into the world, and all mankind fell in Adam. Anyone born from Adam, which includes every single person who ever lived, will be tainted with the stain of sin, what we call “Original Sin.” St. Paul describes it this way: we are born dead in our sins.

If the narrative ended here then the story of humanity would be a sorrowful tragedy … cast out of God’s life-giving presence and taken up in death. But, this is not the end of the story. God did not leave mankind wallowing around in the darkness of despair. In Genesis 3 God promised to make all things right again. Speaking to Satan, the Serpent, God prophesied, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). One who would come from Adam’s loins, a man, would crush the head of the serpent and defeat death. Notice, Satan’s wound would be a permanent wound, a head crushing wound. But the man, the descendant of Adam, would receive a temporary wound, a wound of the heel.

The entirety of history plays out of this theme. Who is this man that would come and make things right? Who is worthy to crush the head of Satan? There are glimpses in the OT of a man who may accomplish this. Behold a man, a son of Adam, Abraham the great patriarch. But Abraham, being born with the stain of original sin, could not accomplish this. Behold another man, Moses. Could Moses, the great deliverer of the Jews from Egypt be this man? No, he too was a Son of Adam and tainted by original sin. Near the end of his life he struck the rock instead of speaking to it like God commanded. Because of this, he was not allowed to enter the promised land. Behold another man, David, the royal king of the Jews. Surely he must be the man who will crush the head of the serpent. After all, David crushed the head of Goliath. But David too was a Son of Adam and tainted by original sin. As tenacious as David was even he sinned greatly against God when he took another man’s wife for himself and arranged to have her husband killed to cover up his adultery. David was a great man — a man after God’s own heart. But, even David was a Son of Adam.

We see a theme developing. The man promised in Genesis 3 who will crush the head of Satan must not be enslaved under Satan’s rule, that is, he must be free of original sin. This can only be true about one man, Jesus Christ because Jesus is God himself who became a sinless man. About Jesus’ sinlessness Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” The Apostle Peter in his epistle writes, “[He] committed no sin, nor was there any deceit found in his mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). St. Paul writes in his epistle to the Corinthians, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”(2 Cor. 5:21).

We have arrived back at Golgotha. At Golgotha we have a sinless man, the new man, a man untainted by original sin, crucified on a tree near a garden (cf. Jn 19:41) . Interesting, we have a man and a tree in a garden. The events that transpire this Good Friday is a reversal of the Fall in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus, when taking the curse of sin on himself, became the curse on our behalf. Jesus reconciles us to God the Father by dying in our place. It is at Golgotha, the place of the skull, where Jesus, like David, defeats the great and seemingly powerful giant Satan, fulfilling the prophecy of Genesis 3. At the cross Satan bruised the heel of Jesus when the nails were driven through his feet. But Jesus is the one who delivered the fatal head wound to Satan. At the place of the skull Jesus is lifted up on the cross crushing the head of the serpent. According to Genesis 3, the wound Jesus receives is a wound of the heel, meaning it’s not fatal, that is, it’s not permanent. Though Jesus definitely died on the cross, on Easter morning he will rise from the dead effectively defeating death. His resurrection will deal the final fatal blow to Satan.

Because Jesus Messiah breaks the curse of sin in our lives, we may behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We now have our answer. Why did Jesus die? He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we may be made righteous. He died for us — for you and for me. His death is sufficient to remit all our sins. His resurrection will open the door back to the Eden where joyful and glorious fellowship with God is restored. Today we behold the man who took our curse for us by hanging on a tree.

A Christmas Eve Sermon

Tonight, we celebrate the incarnation — God became a man and lived among us. This provokes the question, “Why did God take on flesh; why did God become a human?” This is the great question of Christmas.

To answer this we need to go back to the beginning. We read tonight that mankind, who enjoyed holy fellowship with God, sinned and was cast out of the garden. The communion mankind shared with God and the community mankind shared with each other was lost in the fall. We are heirs of this story. Because of sin, we are separated from God. Left to ourselves we will die in our sins for the wages of sin is death.

You may not think that’s fair. You may think that you’re a good enough person to make your way back to the garden, back to communion and fellowship with God. I hate to break it to you, what God demands is perfect holiness, not a good try. The standard by which we measure our righteousness is God’s holy law. Holy scripture teaches us that if you are guilty of breaking one of the commandments, you are guilty of the whole law.

Because we inherited Adam’s sinful nature, we are inclined by nature to sin. This inclination is evident in our infancy. When you were two years old and you reached out and took your brother’s toy and screamed, “MINE!,” you blew it. When you were a teenager and you told your parents you were going to “study,” but instead went out to your boyfriend/girlfriend’s house, you lied. In the law we find God's standard of righteousness: God demands sinlessness; we quickly discover we cannot achieve it.

What are we left to do, then? Because of the introduction of sin into the world, humanity is doomed to death. Because of the fall we cannot earn our way back into a right relationship with God by our own efforts. We are exiled east of Eden unable to enjoy God’s perfect holiness. But, there is hope —because we have been cast out of the garden, God comes to us. God became man — one with us — that we might be become one with Him through his Incarnation. Jesus Christ became man that through his humanity, his union with us in our human nature, he might restore mankind to a holy communion with God. Our relationship to God is restored through his son Jesus Christ.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word, the second person of the Trinity, broke through to our timeline and dwelt in a virgin’s womb for nine months. By her, he became a man, and his name is Jesus, Jeshua, which means “salvation.” We call this the incarnation. He actually took on our flesh, God became fully 100% human while still maintaining full 100% divinity. If the math sounds wrong it’s because this is a mystery, something we will never be able to fully grasp; the Apostle Paul calls it the mystery of godliness.

On that night in Bethlehem, God became human. As a man-child he grew. He fed from his mother’s milk, just like us. He first crawled then learned to walk, just like us. He fell and bruised his knees, just like us. He even lived through puberty, just like us. And he grew in wisdom and knowledge, just like us. He was like us in every way save one — he knew no sin. He lived a sinless life yet died a sinner’s death. God became man so that we might become one with him through his incarnation, the very reason we celebrate this holy day.

Jesus is God's beloved son who takes away the sins of the world! Though mankind died with Adam, Jesus became man that we might be raised to new life. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This night we celebrate Jesus' birth because he has done for us what we could never do for ourselves — in him we become the righteousness of God.

And so we return to the great and glorious mystery of the Incarnation. For unto us is born this night in the city of David a saviour who is Christ the Lord. On this night in Bethlehem lies Jesus in a manger. Jesus is to be found in a lowly manger. As we come to holy communion — a restored holy communion between God and man — perhaps we should be reminded that a manger is just a feeding trough used to feed animals. But that night it did not hold food for animals; instead, it held food for us. That night it held our savior, the Bread of Life. Eating the forbidden fruit from a tree is what destroyed mankind; eating from the man who hung on a tree will restore mankind. We are no longer exiled East of Eden but have been restored to a right relationship with God.

One Anglican divine, Lancelot Andrewes, had a ciborium (a vessel that holds bread for communion). On that ciborium sat a cover on which was engraved the star of Bethlehem as a reminder that Jesus was to be found wherever that Bethlehem star led us. In Christ's church, at the altar, we find once again he who was made flesh for us. This altar, this table becomes for us a new Bethlehem. Friends, tonight through Holy Communion, where Christ himself comes to us, we enter one again into the mystery to be found in Bethlehem where we will dine with the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who takes away our sin.

And so, we have the answer to our question: why did God become man? God became a man so he could save us from our sins. As we celebrate the mystery of the incarnation , we join our voices with those who have come before us, singing “O come, O come emmanuel and ransom captive Israel.” God's ransom has come to us this night. In Jesus Christ God saves us from our sins. Amen.

Your Body Is Important

One of the most remarkable changes that happened  to me over the past few years took place in the context of worship. I began attending an Anglican church. This was much more than a change in the types of churches and styles of worship with which I had previously been involved; it was radical change in worldview.

Her-meneutics: A Brief Look at Women's Ordination

Much of the current discussion of women’s ordination stems from the idea that if a woman cannot do what a man can do, then she is somehow unequal to a man. If this train of thought continues, masculinism wins the day. Those who espouse this view want to conform both sexes to the standards of maleness — women are only equal to men in so far as they can do what a man can do.

A Tale of Two Sinners

Today is the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. If your church follows the historic lectionary, the gospel reading this morning comes from Luke 18:9ff.  Much wisdom may be harvested from this simple parable from Jesus, if we only have ears to hear. In order to properly understand the weight of Jesus' words, the political situation in Israel must be explained.

Martin Bucer on the Lord's Supper

Martin Bucer is often times referred to as the Forgotten Reformer; yet, he had a great influence on the Protestant Reformation. He took the young John Calvin under his wing and mentored him  when Calvin was in Strasbourg. Bucer even introduced Calvin to his wife! Bucer also had a hand in shaping the second edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer under the direction of Thomas Cranmer. The following excerpt on the Lord's Supper is taken from Bucer's Strasbourg liturgy of 1539. He begins with a brief instruction on the holy supper:

Reflection on Ascension

Last Thursday was Ascension Day —  the fortieth day after Easter when Jesus ascended into heaven. Next Sunday the Church will celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. As I reflect on the themes and scripture readings assigned for this week from the one year lectionary, I'm astounded at the beauty of it.

Jean Danielou on the Sacraments

I have recently begun reading Jean Danielou's book The Bible and the Liturgy. In it, he examines the sacraments and the liturgical year through the lens of typology.  Here are a few words from his introduction on the symbolism of Baptism.

"We usually interpret the rite of Baptism by seeing in it a reference to water as cleansing and purifying. But now this does not seem actually to be the most important of the rite. Two references in the Bible set us on the track of other interpretations. On the one hand, the water of Baptism is the water that destroys, the water of judgement; or "the waters" in Jewish symbolism are actually a symbol of the power of death. But the water of Baptism is also the water that brings forth a new creature, and this sends us back to the Jewish symbol of the waters as not only destructive but also creative. And, finally, the Jewish baptism may also have referred to the crossing of the Red Sea."

Here are a few words on the symbolism of the Lord's Supper:

"The choice of bread and wine may well have contained a reference to the sacrifice of Melchisedech [Melchizedek]; and the framework of a meal a reference to the sacred meals of Judaism, figures of the messianic feast; the season of the Pasch, a reference to the paschal meal the symbol of the alliance between the People and God. We can thus see how the deeds of Christ are charged with biblical memories which tell us the true significance of these deeds."