Christ our Hope Anglican Church Valparaiso

When we say no to God, we’re saying no to rest, to water, to bread. 
We're saying no to the good that he is offering us. Think about the things that the people of Israel were stubborn about: they turned away from blessing to live in the desert. What God asks us for is a yes that leads us into life.

Faith is living in a future reality. But not because we can see it. We have faith and hope not because we can see the promise but because we can see the one who made the promise. We can see him wandering in the wilderness of our exile, we can see the one who made the garden, hungry. We can trust him because we can see him, and seeing him we see the great, rescuing love of God.

We can't repair what's broken and twisted up inside of ourselves. And we don't have any way to remedy our guilt. But Jesus succeeded where Adam failed and offers us a new and better inheritance.

Our hope is that seeing Jesus, we will be transformed. That Seeing him, our hearts will be so enraptured with his glory and goodness, and with the love of God, that we will be forever changed.

Jesus tells people who they are. We are Salt: the seasoning of the OT sacrifices and a sign of God's covenant. We are Light: the Beacon on the Hill, the city on the mountain, God's temple, and the expression of his word.

The beatitudes declare Jesus — he is the suffering one and he is the blessed one, and he is the one who brings blessing to all. And they declare Jesus especially to the sick and weak and poor and oppressed— to the crowds he's gathered who are longing for another kingdom

Repentance is about turning toward Jesus. We’re the always-turning-towards Jesus people. We're always turning our faces and our hearts and our minds to Jesus: to see him, and so that seeing him, we can be changed and follow him to new life.

In our baptism, as the free gift of God, by casting ourselves upon the Jesus as our savior, we have all become sons of God. And when you hear the word “son" in the context of baptism, we really ought to think of Jesus's baptism and the voice that speaks from heaven: this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

As little children, we should follow the example of the child Jesus. We are not yet what we will be. There is no end to the growth we can and will experience in God. Our hearts, abilities, and thoughts are child-like and unfinished. We should let our immaturity remind us of the hope we have in God's desire for us to "grow-up" in his everlasting love.

Jesus comes as light into the deep darkness of the world, and he comes with the power of creation, of life, and with the presence of God. His arrival is an invitation for us to lay down the weapons of darkness that we use to protect ourselves and to trust him to be our rescuer.