1517 Blogcast

If you attend worship on Good Friday, you’ll no doubt hear Jesus’ dying words in John’s Gospel: “It is finished.” So much was finished there on the cross. It was the end of Jesus’ career, the end of His ministry, the end of His breathing, the end of His life, the end of Jesus Himself.

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” the child asks. The golden twilight feels heavier than usual. Father ties up his sandals hurriedly, and mother paces looking out the front window. Dustier by the minute, neighbors and friends suddenly stir up the narrow streets with suspense. Bleating little lambs, anxious shouts across the houses, serious murmurs swirl along this evening breeze. The child listens for the answer to his question; he knows something is coming, but cannot understand.

Without using Google, tell me what you know about the illustrious lives and careers of Chris Burgess and Adam Keefe. What about Bob Hamelin? You might know something about him if you followed the Kansas City Royals in the ’90s.

God can't be tied down. If anyone disagrees, try it and see what happens. Worship God the way that seems good to you.

Like us, the Psalms share a bed with suffering. Psalm 31:9–16 puts words to the grief and loneliness we feel. But David does more than provide a vocabulary for our suffering. He puts words of truth and faith in our mouths. He gives us a confession.

Whether your native tongue is English, Icelandic, or Arabic, during Holy Week you'll share a handful of words in common with believers around the world. They are Hebrew words.

He staggers through the filthy, scorching desert.  “So this is where it ends,” he mumbles. “This is it. Surrounded by dirt. Covered in dirt. You win, dirt! Congratulations, dirt! Well played...I’m dying alone.”

Church membership often presents itself as a frightening prospect to many. It involves an array of potentially unpleasant things: offering envelopes, planned giving, annual congregational meetings, weekly programming, requests to serve on the council, board or in a volunteer group, or maybe even leading a bible study or small group.

The Father plants the Seed, which is His Word. Jesus is the seed that’s planted. We don't plant. The Father plants the Seed. Jesus is the Word, the Seed that's planted in the world. Jesus is planted in the world by the Father without any of our help. The Father plants the seed, not Jesus, and not us.

More than anything I felt that these essays could help bring renewal to the church—not through offering some specific technique or glitzy program but instead challenging all the agendas, other than law and gospel. These other agendas beguile Christians and sedate them into sugar coating the gospel as either a spiritual self-improvement program or a social-gospel agenda.