The Habit of Peace and Joy

Some churches pass the peace before Communion. This is a general greeting to one another in the name of Jesus, saying something like 'the Peace of Christ to you'. The point is to be able to look one another in the face, offering the peace that comes from Christ and goes to one another. This is a joyous occasion.

         In our church, we do something similar when we look around at one another during Communion. We are expressing and offering the peace of Christ. We are joyful to receive Christ’s peace and we are joyful to pass Christ’s peace.

         This Advent Season, may your life be full of the joy and peace of Christ. And as you practice peace and joy, may it become a habit.

Do They 'Not' Know?

When I baptize babies at our church, I say this French Liturgy to them. The parents, usually the father, holds the baby and I look at the child and speak directly to him, saying,

Address to Child:

Calvin James, for you Jesus Christ has come,

He has fought, He has suffered.

For you He entered into the shadows of Gethsemane and the terror of Calvary; for you He uttered the cry “it is finished.”  

For you He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and there for you He intercedes.  

He did this for you, Calvin James, even though you do not yet know it .

And in this way the Word of the Gospel is made true, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

This address to the child is particularly touching. The children most often open their eyes and look directly at me and pay attention. This is the case, even if the child is only a few weeks or a few months old.

When I say, "He did this for you, little child, even though you do not yet know it", I sometimes get the distinct feeling that the little child does, in fact, know it. I am not hanging my theological hat on this nor trying to prove this from some text of Scripture. But after having baptized 140 or so children, many of them little tiny infants, I am convinced that there is a great deal of 'knowing' of God's presence, if not His person, that is going on before, at, and after baptism. 

When Jesus blesses the little infants, they really are blessed.

Baptism Exhortation

Baptisms

12/3/2017

God is saving the world through Jesus Christ. We believe this to be quite literally true. The knowledge of the Lord will be as the waters that cover the sea. One of the primary ways He saves the world is through ordinary generation, having babies. His blessings flow downhill to our children and our children’s children. We raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They taste and see that the Lord is good.

Of course, there are exceptions to this. Some children despise their birthright for a bowl of worldly pottage and forfeit the grace of life extended to them in the blessedness that is Jesus. But the vast majority of the growth of the church is through having children and raising them up in Jesus. 

Young people, teenagers, youth with a growing chip on your shoulder. Don’t do that. Do not despise your birthright. If you do so now, in the future you may not be able to find a place of repentance, though you seek for it with tears. Believe Jesus now.

Adults, remember God’s promises to you and to your children and believe God in these promises, in baptism, in worship, in communion, in prayer, in bible reading, in discipline. Namely, in all the means of grace the Lord has given you to raise your children in Him.

As we bring little ones to Jesus today, to baptize them and disciple them, we believe that God is saving the world. His kingdom grows until it fills the whole earth. These little ones take their place in the growing kingdom and in Jesus and we entrust them to these parents to be faithful to their calling in Christ. They do not accomplish this task on their own for the Spirit of Jesus is with them now and always. Thus, such parents should have every confidence in the Lord that their children will know and love Him all their days.

This confidence will be manifested by faithful obedience in raising up their children. It is not a faithful perfectionism. These parents are humans, fallible, fallen creatures. They have sinned and will sin, even against their own children, in thought, word and deed. So, we exhort them to not trust in their own abilities as parents but in the enabling grace of Jesus Christ. As they do this, their children will see what it means to be forgiven sinners in Jesus. They, too, will love Him and serve Him, trusting solely in His saving grace.

Sermon CREC- Reformed 3- A Saved World

CREC-Reformed 3- A Saved World

Matt. 28:18-20

John 3:16-17

December 3, 2017

Lynchburg, Virginia

Note: After one church membership, three baptisms and a commissioning, we only had time for a short homily on December 3. 

You can listen to it here.

Homily

A Few Words About a Saved World

Advent is the time before the birth of Jesus when we look for his coming and prepare ourselves to receive Him. Christmas was the arrival of the Messiah, the One who saved Israel from her sins and conquers all her enemies.

We know that the Messiah is much more than Israel’s Savior. They were thinking too small. Sometimes, we talk about whether the Bible is literally true. Some folks want to take it all literally, say the various beasts of Revelation as real mythological style beasts with real heads, the stars falling from heaven, the sun and moon darkened. But the Bible is meant to be taken as it is given. There are different genres of the Bible and should be understood that way. Is it typology? Poetry? Apocolyptic? Historical?

I am thankful that in the Reformed Tradition, we have a great heritage in understanding these things in a systematic way. We are not given to fancy.