Resources for Sunday

Here are some links to resources I found helpful for Sunday's sermon.


Life in the Light of the Judgement Seat of Christ

Walking with God

We Do Not Preach Ourselves!

God Chooses a King

Trees

God tells Ezekiel that he will take a cutting from the top of a cedar and plant it on the top of a tall mountain – a high tree will grow in the heights. It will become fruitful and a haven for animals. He does this so the trees of the field will know His power. In apocalyptic inversion, he will “ bring low the high tree ” and “make high the low tree.” He will “dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.”
The Psalmist says “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.”

For you O Lord have made me glad by the your works
At the works of your hands I sing for joy.
The righteous flourish like the palm tree,
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Jesus says the kingdom of Heaven is like a tree. It grows of its own divine power until the harvest. Although it may be only a tiny seed that the farmer casts, “it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Walking by faith

Samuel is grieving the condition of Saul’s soul. He is disappointed and so is God. God directs Samuel to pick a new king in the face of his grief and danger to his life. The king God picks is not the one that seems reasonable or likely. “For the Lord does not see a s mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Through out this narrative, Samuel is invited to trust God and not his own eyes.

The psalmist prays for us in Psalm 20 a benediction that invites us to trust that God protects us.

Paul speaks of the confidence we have in God, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” The power of God is extended to us as the psalmist has prayed. We are “a new creation.”

Do we trust him? This God who we have been celebrating as Father, Son and Spirit?

Trinity Sunday themes

Year A: The work of the God-head fully vested in creation.
Year B: The work of the God-head fully vested in salvation.
Year C: The work of the God-head fully vested in our lives.

Year A: Too much Power for one Person.
Year B: Too much Holiness for one Person.
Year C: Too much Love for one Person.

Adoration is a good place to start. Holy, Holy, Holy! The Trisagion expresses the completeness of the awesome holiness of God. It serves as a worship litany for the whole vision of the holiness of God. He is too holy for one being. He says, “who will go for us.” He is too much God for one person. In Hebrew thought this should be no offence to call the one God three, he is completely God as he is completely holy.

The Pulpit Commentary states,

“The triple repetition has been understood in all age of the Church as connected
with the doctrine of the Trinity. Holy is he who has created us, and bidden us
to worship him in the beauty of holiness! Holy is he who has redeemed us,
and washed away our sins, and made us by profession holy! Holy is he who
day by day sanctifies us, and makes us in very deed and truth, so far as we will
permit him, holy! The whole earth is full of his glory.”

The palmist sings of the earth full of his glory, shaken by his voice, trembling before his holiness, inviting us to join in ascribing glory to his name!

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Paul’s, “So then,” is as good a response to the glory of the Old-Testament readings as it is to the indwelling of the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead. He provides a nice and essential transition from Pentecost Sunday to Trinity Sunday.
Jesus too puts action to our ascribing Glory to the Lord of Hosts. He begins with the renewing power of the Spirit and continues with the sending and Holy Father, finishing with the sent and sacrificed Son. The whole thrice-Holy, thrice-powerful, thrice-God is involved in our new birth, brining us to a place where we can stand, holy, in the awful presence of God and cry Holy, Holy, Holy!

Are you drunk on Christianity?

An Amazing Partner — An Amazing People:
I want to begin our study with some comments made by the famous British preacher G. Campbell Morgan — he writes about the accusation leveled at the Spirit-filled disciples on the day of Pentecost — the accusation of many in the crowd was that the Spirit-filled disciples were — drunk!

Morgan writes:

"[Carefully consider] Peter's answer to the accusations — 'These are not drunk as ye suppose' — that is, in the way you think. Compare this with Paul's injunction in Ephesians 5:18 — "Don't be drunk on wine — but be filled with the Spirit." The one is a false and destructive method of attempting to realize life in its fullness. The other is the true and effective method.

Has anyone ever charged you with being drunk with your Christianity? O God, how seldom men have thought us drunk. We lack the flashing eye, and the pulsating song, and the tremendous enthusiasm of an overwhelming conviction. That is what the city needs to ... create the opportunity for prophetic proclamation!

The church's responsibility is that her members be so Spirit-filled that the Spirit may be able to produce the new phenomena required to startle this age. The church has been far more anxious about wealth, and theologies, and organizations, than about the Spirit ... what's the use of preaching when the world is not amazed?"

Pentecost Last Year

Here is what I was thinking about last year. There is a also some neat artwork by Ian McKillop to check out.