Thursday, November 11, 2004

Do you work for your bread? Or why I'm afriad I may not be paid after this sermon. (Proper C28)

Does the call for action in the New Testament text indicate a works-righteousness? My Lutheran friend, Ray, posed this question. Jesus tells them that by enduring they gain their souls. Paul says that we should do… not practice idleness.

Does God's reward depend on our work, or is it by his grace alone? For that mater, is God egotistical to want our worship? I would say that worship and our doings are commands not simply from his lips but shouted by his very nature. It isn't that he tells us to worship, but all that he is demands it. The same is true of what we do. All that he has done demands that we respond in kind.

Paul has said that in all that we do we should do it unto the Lord. It isn't that taking a day off, or painting, or gardening, or anything else is idleness, but we should do them as worship in response to God's doing. We shouldn't rely on other people's experience and response for our bread, spiritual or physical.

Mmm… Bread. This is good stuff. Are you hungry?

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Psalm 98 Retold (Proper C28)

His hand, Right
His arm, Holy

Made salvation, made salvation
Known, known
To the nations

His love remembered, remembered
His faithfulness
To my house, has seen
The world's escape the salvation of My God

For Joy and Jubilant song
Shout, burst
You world's escape

With the harp, with the harp
And singing

With the trumpets, with the trumpets
Blast, shout

For joy before
The lord, the king

Sea and world resound
And everything in it, and everything in it

Rivers clap your hands
Together, Together
Mountains sing for joy

Sing before the coming Lord
To Judge, to judge
The world, the people
In righteousness, in uprightness

Monday, November 8, 2004

The Day of The Lord (Proper C28)

It is easy to look at Jesus words and think, "Wow there are wars now, the temple is gone, all these signs have come." But we miss the point. Jesus said the end is not yet. There is still much to endure, and, "by standing firm you will gain life."

You see scripture affirming this week the mighty deeds of God! He is laying plans for a new heaven and a new earth. And the people cry "He has done gloriously!"

He is coming to judge the earth, this God who "has done marvelous things," and the sea will resound, the rivers clap and the mountains sing for joy! In that day the evil doers will finally be punished, "But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings."

Oh our God has done marvelous things. He is the mighty and first Doer. What should our response be to this Judge, this Righteous coming Lord? Certainly we sing for joy, certainly we fall before him and worship, certainly we peer into the silence searching to know him better as friend and lover. All of these things we do. We are not idle. We worship him with our hands and lives.