Let’s come before the Lord in prayer once more. Shine Thou, upon us, Lord, true light of men today, and through the written word Thy very self display, that so from hearts which burn with gazing on Thy face, Thy little ones may learn the wonders of Thy grace. We’ve just sung these words, and we trust, O Lord, that they have been our prayer, so we ask again, open our ears. We are hard of hearing and we want to hear your voice. Open our eyes. We do not see well, and we want to behold wonderful things from your law. Give us good hearts for they are often hard, and we want to receive whatever you have to speak to us this morning. We pray in Jesus. Amen.
We come back this morning and we’ll be here for the next two weeks, Lord willing, to the Gospel according to John. We have been on and off a bit of late, but in John’s Gospel for, well, the better part of two years now, and if you are new to Christ Covenant, you can expect that what we normally do on Sunday morning and Sunday evening is to move through a book of the Bible, usually verse by verse, section by section. I find that to be the best way for God to speak to us, and for God to set the agenda, what we need to hear.
And so as we pick up with where we left off at the beginning of the summer, we come this morning to John chapter 12, page 899 in the pew Bibles, verses 27 through 36.
“Now,” Jesus says, “now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to show by what kind of death He was going to die. So the crowd answered Him, ‘We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.'”
I probably don’t have to remind you that the start of the school year is upon us. Maybe this week, if you’re at Covenant Day School, or other schools in the area, I think it’s the following week for the public schools. Perhaps you’ve sent kids off to college already. And on the one hand as we come to the beginning of another year of school, parents can say it’s a good thing, children may need some structure. Parents may need some relief. The brains may be receding into an iPad induced mush. Or maybe you’re just tired of driving them from all the birthday parties, pool parties, camps, practices, and they need to go to bed before you.
On the other hand, I think I can safely speak for many of the parents when I say that at least in the DeYoung household the start of school is, it’s a little bit like that scene in Helm’s Deep, you know, where all of the, the Uruk-hai or there outside of the fortress and all of the, the elves and the men, they look out and the king says “so it begins.” It’s a little bit like that. [laughter]
That the lunches are starting, all of the games, the practice, the band, the sports, everything is coming on in a rush, getting everyone out of bed in the morning, including the parents and then getting them clothes on, I guess that’s not optional,
