Wilderness Wanderings

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:13-14).

The book of Revelation is a Revelation from and about Jesus Christ. Again and again throughout, John reiterates how this book centres on the "Word of God and the testimony of Jesus." It is therefore, a culmination of the all the previous sixty-five books of the Bible: all the Word of God that testifies to Jesus.

So, where do the all the previous sixty-five books of the Bible end when you put them all together and bring them into their true and proper focus as the testimony of Jesus Christ? Well, they end here, in worship. That's where. It's the setting for the whole book of Revelation, really. The Throne Room of Heaven is filled with worship given to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

Pastor Michael reminded us yesterday that we come to God because he has already come to us in Jesus Christ. Worship is our proper response to all the creation, salvation, and coming Kingdom that are ours in Christ Jesus. Worship is giving all of ourselves to the one who gave everything to us.

As we glimpse the heavenly throne room, we see worship voiced through song and prayer, worship seen and touched through elders falling down on their knees, worship smelled through rising incense, worship tasted at the wedding feast of the lamb. Worship involves all our five senses, it involves our bodies, hearts, minds, as well as our souls. Worship is an expression of all that we are before the one who gave us our being.

And worship is not only ours to do. Every creature in all creation is offering praise and song to God in John's vision. In worship, we take our place as creatures before the Creator, which is an utterly proper posture: offering ourselves in humble submission to the one who humbly emptied himself of everything for us.

Far from being a reduction of who we are: these humble, self-giving postures of worship are actually the postures of our deepest freedom and fullness when offered to God. The elders who fall down and worship are the very ones who reign and rule with Christ over the world: the epitome of our royal vocation as a kingdom and priests to serve our God.

Worship therefore, is a posture we carry through all of our working, studying, and living day by day. A posture we carry in all our relationships, and especially a posture we carry in our relationship with God. But it is not just a posture for Sundays or devotion time: it is a lived submission to God that carries through all of our life, relationships, and activities. So, how's your worship posture today?

You must not worship the Lord your God the way those nations worship their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:4).

Our text requires us to stop and ponder. It's the kind of instruction which needs quiet reflection. Here's why. Israel was coming out of Egypt and going into the promised land. For 400 years they had watched the Egyptians worship their gods. Now they were going into new territory where the gods were worshipped differently. Since there was no established worshipping tradition in Israel it would be natural to worship God by imitating the Egyptians or to adopt some of the practices they would see in Canaan.

But Moses says, "Don't do that, do not adopt the religious practices of the nations around you." It is a word we need to hear as well. No, I am not suggesting that we currently follow Egyptian or Canaanite worship practices. But I am suggesting that we pick up bad practices along the course of our lives. Let me suggest some ways. But you will need to ponder your own life to determine if you worship God well.

While Pastor Anthony was on Sabbatical, I used Romans 12 as my preaching text. It begins by telling us 'to offer our bodies as living sacrifices…this is the right way to worship. Don't live like the world does.' Doesn't this sound like Moses in our text? Some of us still limit our religion to Sundays. If we give God time on Sundays and maybe a few quick prayers during the week, God should be happy with us. Proper worship of God, as they say, is 24/7.

This also reminds me of Isaiah 58 in which the prophet tears a strip off Israel. They are going through all the proper motions of worship at the temple, but once they leave, they return to their unholy living. Their business practices and personal relationships are rooted in evil. They have no concern for living justly. The same can be true of us. We turn away from the poor and ignore the calls to live more stewardly on this earth. We fail to acknowledge that natural disasters always have the greatest negative impact on the poor.

The Bible is quite clear, God will not accept worship from people that ignore the plight of the needy. We can get all the rituals and traditions right, but if our hearts do not pulse with the mercy of God than all our worship is just smoke and mirrors. God hates it (Amos 5:21).

JFK is famous for his line, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." We do well to rephrase this for our relationship with the church and its worship services. Of course, we all ought to benefit from being part of a Christian community. But if our primary motivation is to 'get something' out of the church or her worships services, the church will disappoint. Our motive ought to be, "'It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

So how do we worship God properly? As Paul says, "In view of God's mercy…" (Romans 12:1). We approach God because he has already come to us in Jesus. The only appropriate response to an act of such mercy is awe and thanksgiving. Among the many themes that show up in Christian worship services these ought to stand out. We do not worship to get something from God, he has already given us everything. Rather, by worshipping him we respond to his goodness. The Christian life is worship 24/7. 'In view of God's mercy, we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is our true and proper worship.'

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Revelation 1 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. Do you have any fears about the world as we know it ending? What sorts of things do you (or others you know) worry about?

2. When we think about the problems of our world and lives these days: what's often missing?

3. What does the book of Revelation do? What's it about? What does it try to tell us? What doesn't it try to tell us?

4. What images stand out to you from John's vision of Jesus? How do they speak into our world today?

5. How does this Revelation vision of Jesus help us to enter into our present, apocalyptic world of tensions and crises with hope, faith, and trust? Will it change the way you live and practice your faith this week? How?

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24)

Jesus' sermon on the mount rhymes with much of Deuteronomy and the Old Testament law. Matthew's point in writing this sermon down for us was to cast Jesus as the new Moses and offer continuity between Jesus and Israel's history. Jesus says as much in the sermon, saying: "I have not come to abolish [the law or the prophets] but to fulfill them."

Moses in Deuteronomy offered blessings for obedience to the commands of God and curses for neglect. Jesus' sermon also begins with blessings: the beatitudes. And, as the sermon ends we hear that invitation to blessing and warning against a curse. It comes in the parable of the wise and foolish builders.

Both builders hear the words of Jesus. To both builders, the story is told. To both builders, the new commands of Jesus are given. But when the storm comes: only one of the builders has a structure left standing. It's the one who not only heard Jesus' words, but also put them into practice.

In the mouth of Jesus, this isn't really about blessings and curses: this parable declares that we choose our own fate by our response to him and his word. To you good Reformed listeners, you must understand that the Bible is simply not as systematic as our Reformed tradition on these points.

Biblical cultural commentator, Ken Bailey, once spent some time asking various contractors across the Middle East how deep they had to dig the foundation of a house before beginning to build. To a person the answer came: you must dig to the rock. The only reason you wouldn't dig to the rock is because you're either lazy or stupid. If you want to build a house that will stand in the mountainous regions of the Middle East: you dig the sand away and build your foundation on the rock. Otherwise, it blows over or gets washed away. It's that simple. Everyone knows that building your house on top of the sand is simply not a sane option. It's a recipe for disaster, and should you choose it, you have cursed yourself.

The alternative—the path of blessing—takes some hard work. But digging down to find the rock and rest your home upon it offers security and shelter for many years to come. Jesus says that putting his words into practice is like that: hard work and strenuous at times, but also good and rewarding work.

A life built on him and his words is ultimately a life that knows a secure and steady home with God against life's storms. And that, is a way of blessing. The way that Jesus calls us to practice.

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse --" (Deuteronomy 11:26).

Let's get back to Deuteronomy. The Bible does not speak with politically correct language and so, without some reflection and context our text is easily misunderstood. Mind you, Christians should be considerate with their language and make every effort not to cause offense. So, what does God mean when he says to Israel, See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse --?

Chapter 11 opens with "Love the Lord your God. Do what he requires. Always obey his rules, laws and commands". This is immediately followed by a reminder to all the adults that their children were not the ones who saw everything God had done to take Israel out of Egypt and lead them through the desert. This younger generation did not see the majesty of God on Mount Sinai, nor his power in defeating the Egyptian military strength.

Since there is a memory and knowledge deficit among the young, those who can recall the things God did must tell the stories. Story telling in Israel was a vital component of religious life. Without the stories, the call to love God and obey his commands comes in a vacuum. While Israel's history is being told, the adults can communicate how precious their covenant with God is. They can talk about all that God has done and convey how grateful they are for the life God has given them.

Israel does not love God and obey his commandments just because. God never offers, "because I said so" as a reason for covenant faithfulness. Rather, God always points back to everything he has done. It would be the height of ingratitude for Israel to shrug her shoulders and say, "so what? What's the big deal?" Of course, this is what she often would do in generations to come.

Here, God reminds Israel that he brought her to the Promised Land not to enslave her but to set her free. In Egypt, she had nothing. Her new home was a land of flourishing, of plenty and God wanted her to enjoy it and prosper. An essential ingredient to that prosperity was Israel's response of love and obedience to God. If Israel loves and obeys God, he will bless her and see to it that she will flourish. If, on the other hand, she choses disobedience and disloyalty than she will be enslaved by other nations, that was the curse.

God always acts first and then calls for our thankful response.

Israel's story stands as a parallel for our own. Our Egypt is our enslavement to sin and judgement. Jesus is our Moses. But as the writer of Hebrews argues, Jesus is much greater than Moses, because he offered himself as the Passover lamb. In his death he forgives our sins, and, in his resurrection, he conquers the power of sin and death. Our love for God also has context.

If we want to continue the parallel with Israel, then we need to understand that we are still waiting to enter our promised land. Until Jesus returns to establish the new heavens and earth, we live in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. This is the time to respond to him in love and obedience for all he has done for us. It is the time to tell the stories of God's great works of redemption. But what stories are we telling? What is the context? Do we obey God out of fear of judgement or out of loving gratitude for his redemption? Our children can tell us the answer.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Entering into this Fall season with schools starting back up, an election on, and the Delta variant afoot—along with however many other things may be going on in your life—these words from Proverbs might seem quaint.

"Trust in the Lord." "Submit your ways to him." "Let him make your paths straight in this world." Yeah right, you might think: if only you knew the paths I have to take to make it through a day in this world! The arrangements I've had to work out for daycare, school, work at home, flipping back and forth between in person and at home, etc, etc. I can't just pray and hope it all works out: there are things that just won't wait, things that need doing!

And that's right. There are things that need doing. And in the midst of those things it's hard to live these verses out. Yet, I think there's something deeply foundational to placing our trust in the Lord. I'd like to sketch it out as a triangle with equal sides. So, picture a triangle, and let's walk around it.

Starting at the peak of the triangle, the point at the top, sits God as our Creator. Proverbs is constantly making reference to God's act of Creation. Read through all of chapter 3 if you have time and you'll find statements like "By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations." So, God as our Creator sits at the top of the triangle.

Then at the triangle's lower right corner sits God's provision. This is the Creation itself which carries with it the possibility of food, of shelter, of security, of beauty, of fun and play, of power, of wealth, of technology, of culture, of children, of life. The line from God at the top of the triangle to this right hand corner reminds us that all these bits and pieces of the Creation that make up all of our provision is firstly, a good gift from God. We find this theme elsewhere in Proverbs 3 too in statements like: wisdom "is a tree of life to those who take hold of her," an illusion to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2. Said differently: all of God's good and wise provision offers everything that's needed for life. That's the lower right hand corner.

Finally, the lower left hand corner of the triangle. This corner is labeled "trust." Having already received from God all the provision we need for life—all the provision that we spend our days chasing to secure—we can perhaps begin to realize that all this provision actually comes from God and not from our striving to secure it. And that, may just lead us back to our verse from today.

Trust in the Lord. He knows what you need. He already provided it: in the Creation itself and the breath of life that fills our lungs. Look to him with your trust, and the Triangle is complete. God provides, and we receive it in trust that God will continue to provide, building our trust further. Round and round we go. Tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.

This path around the triangle isn't straight because it's linear. It's straight because it's centered around a right and trusting relationship with our Creator God. Which then puts all our other relationships straight—our relationship with our provision, with our daily tasks and activities—it all flows from the centre: a right and trusting relationship with our Creator God.

Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful! Let everyone know how gentle you are. The Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything. No matter what happens, tell God about everything. Ask and pray and give thanks to him. Then God's peace will watch over your hearts and your minds. He will do this because you belong to Christ Jesus. God's peace can never be completely understood" (Philippians 4:4-7).

We will get back to Deuteronomy later this week. As today is the first day of school, it seemed right to give some encouragement to all those who are setting out with apprehension or maybe ending the day in exhaustion. I acknowledge that since all our children have left the nest, this day does not hold the same gravitas for me which it once did.

I think that Paul's words in our text can help us stand above the fray which this day often holds. Joy may not be the primary emotion many of us feel today. But notice the reason given for joy: 'you belong to the Lord.' This simple phrase awakens memories of Israel moving through the wilderness with manna from the Lord each morning. It harkens back to the theme of Psalm 23, "The Lord is My Shepherd" and echoes Jesus words in Matthew 6, 'do not worry' and Psalm 46, "God is our place of safety. He gives us strength. He is always there to help us in times of trouble."

Belonging to the Lord leads to an inner wellbeing, but also to an assurance that God provides for our physical and spiritual needs. So, no matter what lies before you this day, no matter how difficult it has been, remember "you belong to the Lord." This is our joy; he is our place of safety. He has walked before his people since Abraham, he will not abandon us now.

Out of this place of safety and joy we can demonstrate our gentleness. We are not a grasping people desperately clutching for material possessions, power, or prestige. In the hear and now, the Lord keeps us safe providing for us and in the future our place is secure. The whole movement of scripture is towards the full redemption of the cosmos. All those who follow Jesus have a place in that redemption. No questions asked. Be gentle. Don't add stress to other people's lives. Remember who you are so that your gentleness can be a gift to many.

And rather than worry pray. Here is a spiritual discipline all of us ought to pursue. Worry is not something we choose. It happens to us. But we do not have to feed it. We can turn it into prayer. If prayer is conversation with God which most often begins with us talking to him, then when we set our hearts on prayer, we will remember who we are, to whom we belong and where we are going.

As we become aware of these things again, they begin to dispel the worry. When worry gets washed away, there is room in our hearts for thanksgiving. The fruits of thanksgiving are joy and peace. God's peace guarding our hearts and minds dispels worry and develops gentleness in us.

A special, extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 12:14-21 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus… (Philippians 2:3-5)

In the unregulated wild west of the internet, mob and vigilante justice is an increasing reality. Sometimes aspects of this reality fly under the name cancel culture, sometimes trolling, sometimes value signaling, political correctness, polarization, etc. But, whatever one calls it, it has all grown in the new social arena enabled by our smartphone, social media, and internet age—brand new cultural capacities that have grown with lightning speed over the past few decades.

But my point is not to decry these things. Sometimes the ideas and actions that have flowed under these labels have been positive: giving voice and power to folks long marginalized, for instance. At other times: slander, gossip, rage, bullying, stalking, and shaming have been closer to the reality marking these trends. All that simply to say that it's a whole complex set of issues that resists a label of either completely "good" or completely "bad." What it is, is completely new. The capacity to launch out a thought, an attack, a response, a defense, a revelation, a picture, a video, all in real time, but without always having real contact with the people or situations addressed.

And that's why what I actually want to talk about isn't this new smartphone driven capacity we posses, but rather, our character as the people who use it.

Our capacity has grown more quickly than our character as a society when it comes to determining the means to righteousness, justice, and peace through our new instant, global system of social media.

But continually we find again and again in scripture that it is our character God is interested in. That is, not what we can accomplish, but how we go about accomplishing it.

In Jesus taking on our humanity and coming to earth to live, teach, die, rise, and ascend: he not only accomplished what God intended, but he did it in God's way. The word took on flesh: the talk took on the walk. The means matched the ends.

And as we are conformed to Christ through the power of the Spirit, it is just this character of Christ that is being formed within us and that Paul continually implores us to put on. "Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus" he says again and again. And what he means when he says it, is that we are called to humble submission. Firstly to God, but also to one another. Not looking to our interests, but that of others. Not assuming that we have all the answers and the righteousness of justice on our side, but rather being humble enough to remember that we too have sinned, and that we might not have the whole picture. Indeed, that we might have a lot more to listen and learn than to tell.

How different might our social media interactions or real life interactions look with that posture? Seek today to join God in the work of forming the character of Christ within you as, in your relationships with one another, you take on the same, humble, loving mindset as Christ Jesus…"

After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness" (Deuteronomy 9:4).

Here is another chapter in which Moses worries about Israel's propensity to abandon God. Much of the chapter is taken up by his recapping the events surrounding the fiasco of the Golden Calf. Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days with God. Israel became impatient and decided that Moses was dead, and God had vanished. So, they insisted that Aaron make them a god they could see, which meant, control.

God, being very angry with them, wanted to destroy every last one of them. As Moses tells the story, he spent the next 40 days facedown on the rocky mountain without food or drink interceding for Israel. He appealed not to Israel's goodness or potential, but to God's reputation. If God gave up on Israel, the nations would laugh at him saying, "He couldn't do it! Israel's God was not strong enough to give his people Canaan, so they all had to die in the wilderness."

Moses goes to great trouble to remind Israel of their failure and rebellion. What he really wants is that they remember how quickly they fell into sinfulness. This, of course, is hardly politically correct to speak about today. Yet, I will. We too, do well to remember how easily we fall into sinful behaviour. Christians, of all people who dwell on this earth, ought to be comfortable talking about sin. Why? Because we are the people who live by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We believe that all physical and spiritual things that we have are ours by God's grace alone.

That is what Moses wanted Israel to remember. The land of promise was God's gift to them. We do well to remember that too.

There was a time when Christian Reformed folks, that is the denomination Immanuel is part of, believed that we were basically the only ones who were getting into heaven. We may scoff at such an idea today, but our history books document that we once thought that way. There is a deep pride at work in such ideas. We do well to still acknowledge that today and wonder what other forms of spiritual pride have crept into our hearts.

One way to counteract this pride is to listen to others. Listening that includes the belief that we can learn something from someone else, even someone that we disagree with. Such humility is difficult to find today. It would be wonderful if Christians became known for it.

Let's also talk about our physical possessions. Many of us have worked hard for them. We have laboured and toiled and sometimes schemed late into the night to get ahead. Now we are ahead. Looking back at all our hard work, we easily begin to think that we deserve all this. Why not, we worked for it?

When we hold our possessions, whether physically or virtually, do we hold them tightly with the words 'mine, all mine, my precious?" Or do we hold them lightly with the question, "What would God have me do with these things?"

When David confessed his sin before God, he included this, "The greatest sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. God, you will gladly accept a heart that is broken because of sadness over sin" (Psalm 51:17). We do well to regularly echo this prayer and remember the warnings of Moses.