"I said to the Lord, You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing" (Psalm 16:2).

Some thirty-one years ago, Helena and I choose Psalm 16 as our wedding text. Rev. De Bolster, then president of Redeemer College, preached on this psalm during our marriage ceremony. I admit that I don't remember what he said. I do remember that it was a very hot July afternoon.

Regardless, it was a good choice. We are invited to live life from the perspective of verse 2, "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.'"

Consider this question: "What makes life good?" Before you read or listen on, answer the question for yourself. Don't give the right answer. Be honest and give the answer that is true for you. What makes your life good?

In Psalm 16, David invites us to give this answer, "As long as God is with me, life is good. And since God is always with me, life is good."

David was not avoiding the troubles of life. He knew enough of them: facing Goliath, running for his life from Saul, dealing with his internal temptations, his son rebelling against him. I also suspect that David would have agreed with the Heidelberg Catechism that we have three basic enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil (A 127).

These three continually attempt to draw us away from God. And so, David begins the Psalm with, "Keep me safe, O God." The good life begins with trusting in God to keep us close to Him. Yes, we can read the Bible daily and pray continually, we can worship with God's people and contribute to kingdom causes, including the local church. We can and should do these things along with other spiritual disciplines. They are tools that God uses to nurture our faith. However, we engage in all these knowing that it is God himself, through his Spirit that keeps us spiritually safe. God is good; we can trust him in this.

Further, David takes delight in those who belong to God and is abhorred by those who oppose Him. We can't delight in God while turning our noses at His people. Enjoying the presence of God means we will stick with His people and delight in them.

At the same time, there will be within us an abhorrence of all things evil. We will flee from them. Not that we will avoid people who don't believe in Jesus, but we will not participate in those activities that draw us away from God.

From here, David describes how his life is good and secure because all things come from God himself. At the end he gives us one of the few Old Testament glimpses of the future resurrection. Peter quotes this psalm in his sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

David recognized that God would not abandon him when he dies. He would also, I think, agree with the opening words of the Heidelberg Catechism, "My only comfort is that I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ."

I'm not sure I grasped the full meaning of Psalm 16 when we choose it all those years ago. But what better way to go through life than with these words of security.

So again, we end with Jude's doxology:

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jude 24,25).

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Galatians 3:23-5:12 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. What stands out to you most from hearing these verses from Luke 13?

2. Are the people telling this story (in verse 1) about the Galileans seeking to report to Jesus how sinful these Galileans were? What is Jesus' response and how does it relate (or not) to the story these people told?

3. How is Jesus' response different than the politics of his day (or ours) would've expected it to be? What could've been the result of Jesus choosing not to play along?

4. Why is it uncomfortable for the focus to be on us and our sin? What might we fear Jesus' response to be?

5. Through the parable, what do we learn about how Jesus deals with our sin?

6. How might you fertilize the relationships of your life and world with the manure of forgiveness this week?

But the following morning when they got up, they saw the statue of Dagon. There it was, lying on the ground again! It had fallen on its face in front of the ark of the Lord. Its head and hands had been broken off. Only the body of the statue was left. Its head and hands were lying in the doorway of the temple (1 Samuel 5:4).

These were some of the darkest days for this new fledging nation called Israel. Their original duo of leaders, Moses and then Joshua, were both dead and buried; memory of both fading fast. A succession of leaders had followed, propelling Israel from one calamity to another. Meanwhile, the Philistines and their god Dagon gained influence and power.

These Philistines made their weapons and armour from new and stronger metals. Controlling the mining and manufacturing of these metals, their army was nearly invincible. It was time to make a statement, the memory of Israel would be wiped from the map. With their metal instruments of war gleaming in the morning sun, they made quick work of the Israelites with their wooden farm tools. They took the ark of Israel's God, hauling it back to Philistine territory where they put it in Dagon's temple as a trophy of war. Israel and her God were finished. The Israelites knew it. The Philistines knew it. It was party time.

Except, the next morning, when the Philistines went to pay their respects to Dagon, there he was, fallen from his throne, laying prostrate before the ark of Israel's God. That was humiliating. Assuming their god needed a little help (maybe he had drunk too much the night before), the priests hoisted Dagon back onto his throne.

But the following morning, it was even worse. There was Dagon flat on the ground in front of Israel's God again, his head and hands knocked right off his body rolling all the way to door. The priests were mortified. Israel's God had left Dagon powerless in his own temple. It was unthinkable. And then the complaints started coming in: rats running wild in the town and people afflicted with tumors. The meaning of the original word is illusive, but one of the more persistent theories is that it refers to hemorrhoids resulting from dysentery.

Can you imagine all those iron clad soldiers not able to remove their armour fast enough? Yes. Use your imagination to consider what that would be like. Does that seem irreverent to you? Well, as I said, this is one of the darker periods in Israel's history. Israel thought she was finished; her covenant God had finally been defeated. They were done for.

But in that darkness and apparent defeat, God asserts himself as undefeated and powerful, not just powerful in Israel, but in the very temple of the Philistine god Dagon. And God has a little fun doing it. Dagon lies broken, powerless in his own temple. Rats invest his city. And his people are being wasted by these tumors.

These people decide Israel's God cannot stay. And so, he is passed around from Philistine city to Philistine city like a hot potato. And each gets burned. They finally decide to send the ark back. What do they put on the cart beside the Ark: golden rats and golden tumors! Without lifting a sword, God lays low these mighty Philistines, demonstrating to both them and to Israel that they very much underestimated him. And he has some fun doing it.

No one can manipulate or control this God simply by obtaining possession of his ark. He is sovereign and free. He is not chained to his throne.

Is it only darkness that you see? Read 1 Samuel 5, and chuckle along with God as he reveals himself. And know that this is the same power Jesus revealed when he faced the forces of chaos, centuries later. Trust him, the darkness cannot last, He has defeated it.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days." The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions." So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!" So the Israelites went home. (1 Kings 12:12-16)

I am still hung up on the theme of growing up to maturity in Christ. Paul uses this image a few times in the New Testament, fretting over his congregations that were still too immature to eat the "solid food" of the faith, but could only receive "milk." How he longed for them to grow up into the fullness of Christ! You can see this thread in passages like 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, Galatians 4:19-20, Ephesians 4:11-16, Hebrews 5:11-14.

Jesus once declared that "every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." Paul was such a teacher, and some of the old treasures he brings out of his storeroom through his letters are images that come from deep reflection on the Old Testament scriptures. This theme of maturity is one of them, I think. I've noticed it most recently in places like 1 Samuel 2 (click here for a devotion or sermon on that text) and right here in 1 Kings 12.

Three times in this longer passage, King Solomon's son, Rehoboam, is said to have listened to the advice of the "young men" he grew up with, rather than the advice of the elders. Interestingly, neither King Rehoboam nor those men he grew up with would've been understood in that day to have been "young." 1 Kings 14:21 says Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king. Given the life expectancy of the day: he was certainly no spring chicken. Besides, the word for "young men" employed here in the Hebrew is a word which is translated in most other places in the Old Testament as "child" or "boy."

The reference, therefore, seems to be to the immaturity of these men, rather than their age. Interestingly, the only use of this word for "child" or "young man" before this in the book of Kings is from the story of Solomon's wise judgement when he said to two prostitutes fighting over a living baby "cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other." After he said this, the true mother backed off of her claim to the child, saying: "Please, my lord, giver her the living baby! Don't kill him!" while the other women exclaimed: "Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!"

Somehow the story of the living child being cut in two is evoked in the telling of Rehoboam's immaturity. I think the author means to suggest that the words of Solomon's own ruling have come back as a judgement against his own house.

The Rabbis said that Solomon was the worst of the King of Israel because he was the one who caused the division of the nation depicted here in this text today through his sins of promiscuous marriage and idolatry. Israel as a nation is depicted often as an unfaithful spouse that prostitutes itself after all sorts of other gods besides the Lord. Solomon was the first such idolatrous prostitute among the Kings. Immature, despite his wisdom, his heart was divided among many dead scraps of religion rather than wholeheartedly devoted to the living God.

The fruit then of Solomon's house and Solomon's idolatrous prostitution, as embodied in Rehoboam, is a violent immaturity that results in the cutting of God's people in two. This is the same violent immaturity displayed in the prostitute who was not the true mother of the child. It is the same violent immaturity displayed by Pharoah as he ruthlessly worked the Israelites as slaves in Egypt. The result of this violent immaturity? A fatal wound that would eventually culminate in the death of both Israelite Kingdoms through exile.

Immaturity leads to idolatry, violence, and division. It leads to the destruction of faith and life. The invitation, therefore, is to grow up into Christ, to become mature. The prophet Samuel, King David, and Jesus himself all offer examples of what this "growing up to maturity" looks like, as do the fruit of the Spirit. More on that to come.

"Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart" (Psalm 15:1).

This psalm begins with difficult questions. Does it make you squirm? If it doesn't, look at the rest of this psalm. If you are not squirming yet, you better read it again, a little slower. How can any of us live up to what is required in this Psalm? How can we live with God when the standards are so high?

Moses could not see the face of God and live (Exodus 33:20). Priests got burned if they did not respect God's instruction (Leviticus 10:1-2). A man died because David did not have the ark carried properly (2 Samuel 6:7). Even angels cover their faces not daring to look at God (Isaiah 6:2).

The questions leading this psalm are rhetorical. Their answer is meant to be obvious: no one can. God is dangerous. Not one of us can dwell in His sanctuary. Nobody may live on His holy hill.

This Psalm causes many Christians to do a spiritual audit. We may even get so far as to do some extra repenting and resolve to live better lives. So, I could encourage you to do this so that maybe you could spend a moment in God's presence without getting burned.

But that would be useless. As Paul reminds us, "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). Yet, later, he adds, "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (3:22-24).

The practice of conducting a spiritual audit has a long history in the Christian church. But its goal is not that we try harder to be righteous. Its goal is that we turn our eyes on Jesus, God's suffering servant. He is the one who lived up to all the expectations of Psalm 15. He is the true Israelite, the truly righteous one, the ideal godly human.

He came from God's sanctuary and has returned there (John 16:28). And all who trust Him He will take with Him (John 14:1,14). Amazingly, Hebrews tells us that we may enter God's sanctuary boldly (10:19-22). If we are in Christ, God is no longer dangerous.

We should not pass over this too quickly. This is the amazing story of the gospel. This needs to permeate our souls, the amazing grace and beauty of our Saviour's suffering. What was impossible is now possible. Hallelujah!

Is that all we should say about this Psalm? I think there is more. Those who walk with Jesus develop a passion for holiness, a hunger for righteousness. They long to be people living up to Psalm 15. They walk in step with the Spirit who is 'transforming us into Jesus' likeness with ever increasing glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Finally, the promise at the end of the Psalm still stands. Those who live with the integrity described in this psalm will not be shaken. Life may be difficult; but we know the path, we know the way, we know how to live, and we know where we are going.

We know that God is with us. All is well.

And we join Jude who ends his letter with this doxology:

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jude 24,25).

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that "We all possess knowledge." But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)

If we are to be the sorts of people that can engage our changing world with the wisdom and grace of God, we need to be the sorts of people formed into the likeness of God, namely that of Christ Jesus. This is the "growth to maturity" as Christians that Paul talks about elsewhere. It is the formation of Christian character.

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul shows us how this works with the character trait of love. "Knowledge puffs up while love builds up," he says.

Now, among the clear stances of scripture is the well-deliberated and discerned opinion of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 that Gentile believers were to, "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality."

Paul, upon receiving a question from the Corinthians about food sacrificed to idols then, could have simply reiterated this position of the council, stated "it's clear," and told the Corinthians to obey or else. But he doesn't. It is not the principles of knowledge and obedience that are to be the primary drivers of action in the Corinthian community, but love.

Paul offers a case study. He begins by stating, in effect, that the decision of the Jerusalem Council was wrong when it comes to the capital "T" "Truth" about God. "We know," he says, that an idol is nothing and that there is no God but one. So: "we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do."

But, he continues, "if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol's temple… this brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge." This, he says, is a sin against Christ. Now Paul is back in alignment with the Council, and the reason is that Love demands something different than Truth here. And the demand of love is what wins.

Knowledge on its own—even the knowledge of the deepest and truest articles of orthodox Christian belief—leads to pride and the tearing down and "destruction" of many things, including the faith of "weaker brothers and sisters" (vv. 9-11). Knowledge on its own is an "immature" knowledge. A knowledge that does not yet know as it ought.

Love, however, takes a different path and starts in a different place. Love begins with relationship—a love of God. One can know all sorts of things about God without really loving God or having a relationship with him, which is why knowledge is not sufficient.

When someone loves God, it is evidence to them that they are known by God. Their love for God only comes because they have received his prior love for them in Christ. There is a natural humility that arises from this awareness. I only love because God first loved me, a sinner. I am only saved because God has saved me. All Christians stand on this same foundation: not that we know God or have somehow learned enough about him, grabbed hold of him, or acted well enough in response to him, but rather that God has known, loved, and grabbed hold of us—sinners though we (still) are.

The primary driver of action in the maturing community of Christ then, is a love modeled on God's own. We are to lovingly honour the sister and brother for whom Christ died not just as a fellow image-bearer worthy of dignity, but as a family member intimately known and loved by the same God who loves us. To do this is to know God (1 John 4:7-21) in the intimate relationship sort of knowing the Hebrew scriptures speak of. This is a mature knowing—a knowing as we ought.

Truth can only be spoken in a love like this, and indeed as this case in Corinthians shows—sometimes Love determines that some greater Truths of God's Sovereignty are left unsaid and unshown for the sake of building another up in faith and not tearing them down. This quite clearly takes much maturity to apply well.

So, try it out. Practice Christ's love today. How might you lovingly build one another up in Christian faith, rather than tear down?

As God's co-workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, 'In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you'. I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).

Last Friday, Pastor Anthony reflected on Jesus' authority to forgive sin. At the end of 2 Corinthians 5, Paul implores us to be reconciled with God, in other words, to accept the forgiveness of sins which God so freely offers in Christ. Having received, we are then sent out to be ambassadors of this reconciliation.

In our text, Paul puts a bit of fire under the boots of his listeners. Get going, he says, don't receive God's grace in vain. What does he mean by that?

Well, to validate this urgency, he quotes from Isaiah 49:8, which is part of a larger theme in the Bible rooted in the story of Israel coming out of Egypt. As the narrative of the Exodus is referenced throughout the rest of the scriptures a refrain begins to repeat itself. The people didn't trust God. They didn't believe that he could fulfill his promise to give them the land flowing with milk and honey. In the end, they refused to go in.

As a result, God would not bring them in. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and died. They forfeited his salvation. This is the warning that becomes tied to the story of the Exodus. Don't be like the Israelites who didn't trust God.

Through the rest of the Bible, this becomes a parable for what happens when God's people refuse to trust him. Psalm 95 is probably the strongest passage in this narrative, saying rather bluntly: "Don't be like that."

The letter of Hebrews picks it up, "Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness" (Hebrews 3:13). In the New Testament, the 'day of salvation' or 'Today', is now. Jesus' death and resurrection were God's great acts of salvation to reconcile us to himself. We must respond now, today.

The response is always two-fold. On the one hand, we must receive reconciliation from God. We receive his grace. On the other hand, we must reach out with grace and reconciliation to those who have wronged us. These two cannot be separated. That is why Jesus followed the Lord's prayer with, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:14-15).

We cannot receive grace without passing it on. If you are not sure where to begin as an ambassador of reconciliation, then begin at home. Begin with those that you need to forgive. Stop holding grudges. Stop making people pay for their wrongs. Break down the walls.

Is this easy? Not at all. But remember, the God who calls us to this has also reconciled us to himself and gives us the grace to reconcile with others. His Spirit leads us on. Paul's urges his listeners, in Corinth and in Hamilton, to get to it.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13).

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." (Luke 5:21-26).

Boy, which is easier to say? With the medical technology we have to replace knees and reattach ligaments these days, it seems increasingly easy to say "get up and walk." And, with the stubborn determination we increasingly have to exact vengeance rather than restoration these days, it seems decidedly harder than it once was (if it ever was easy) to say "I forgive you."

It really depends on how you take Jesus' rhetorical question, I suppose. To think too hard about it is to miss the point all together, though. The point is not about which is harder: the point is that Jesus can do both. Why? He's God.

A lot of questions swirled about Jesus' authority to teach what he taught. In those earlier occurrences of folks making reference to Jesus' authority in chapter 4—Jesus never steps into the fray to defend himself. He just keeps doing what he does. But with the religious leaders in the room, now Jesus begins to address the question of authority directly. Not his authority to teach, mind you, but something much more central: his authority to forgive sins.

This act of healing was a sign to the man, the leaders, the friends, the crowd, everyone that Jesus had the authority of God to set humanity free and make them well and whole again—addressing not only the physical ailments that constitute the effects of sin on the created world and its creatures, but sin itself.

Sin is that deeper, relational ailment at the heart of all our ailments: whether the physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. When the right relationships of the Created world to itself and its Creator was broken by an act of two human creatures that stepped beyond the boundaries set for them, it knocked the whole thing off kilter in a way that imbalanced the relational world of the cosmos for generations to come: like a loose bearing that permits a wobbled spin that eventually serves to misshape the whole apparatus and all its connected components.

Jesus' forgiveness of sin is equally far-reaching though. He does not only replace the initial loose bearings in the act of forgiveness, but he begins to restore the whole works. Everything knocked out of whack by the counter-formation of sin is brought under Jesus' authoritative power to heal and make well.

And so Jesus forgives: he deals with the initial problem, not just the symptoms. But having done so, Jesus addresses the symptoms too. He sets us free in every conceivable way that we might be bound—in heart, mind, soul, or strength. There is nothing in all our creational, creaturely experience that does not fall under Jesus' powerful word of healing. So: what thing—hard or easy—might Jesus be healing within you today?

Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore; those who are loyal have vanished from the human race. Everyone lies to his neighbour; their flattering lips speak with deception (Psalm 12:1,2).

Does it seem to you that Psalm 12 describes our society? People do not expect the truth to be spoken. Trust in leaders and strangers is at an all time low. Many do not even trust their family and friends to speak honestly anymore.

When our politicians make campaign promises we don't really believe them, yet we vote for those who make the biggest promises (which means, the biggest lies).

When CEOs tell us that they care about the factory worker which is being laid off while they deposit their bonuses for streamlining the company, we shrug our shoulders and purchase their merchandise (which we don't really need).

But before we feel superior to leaders in our society consider how Eugene Peterson once described the state of our culture:

"The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly but so inanely. Not so cruel but so stupidly. There's little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities but not saints. Famous entertainers amuse a nation of bored insomniacs. Infamous criminals act out the aggression of timid conformists. Petulant and spoiled athletes play games vicariously for lazy and apathetic spectators. Aimless and bored, people amuse themselves with trivia and trash. Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of righteousness gets headlines" (Run with the Horses).

How should Christians live in such a treacherous society? First, we need to recognize the state of things, acknowledging that truth telling is not loved around us. This is not a matter in which Christians ought to feel superior, but one in which we ought to test our own hearts, examining how easily we get caught up in lies. We do well to read the story of Balaam in which Israel was easily enticed into sin. Later Moses warns them, "Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them" (Deuteronomy 11:16).

Secondly, we ought to join David in his prayer, "Help, Lord, for no one is faithful anymore…May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue" (1 & 3). We will not defeat evil. The enemy is too strong. Rather, we pray that our warrior King will defeat evildoers. We wait for His justice and peace. While we wait, we join in the prayer of the saints, "Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus" (cf. Revelation 22:20).

Thirdly, David says, "The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver..." (6). The antidote to the lying in our society is a delight in the truth which is found in God's Word. Another way of to say this is: we take the same joy in God's word as that expressed in Psalm 119. Not the most riveting scripture, but deeply needed. God reveals the way to true life. Do we love it?

Let's join with Jude who ends his letter with this doxology:

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jude 24,25).

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,

"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." (1 Peter 3:8-12)

In my last sermon before leaving for vacation, I said I'd be picking up a new, more intentional habit of personal devotions through the summer. So, I've begun praying again through the book, Seeking God's Face—a book set with daily scripture readings, prayer prompts, and written prayers drawn from the Reformed Confessions compiled by a pastor just down the road from us at Clearview CRC in Oakville.

This passage from 1 Peter was part of yesterday's scripture reading in that book, and I thought it worth bringing to us here. It echoed with what seems most important to me at this moment of church and Christian life, but also with a picture drawn for me at the wedding of Peter & Stacey Kranenburg this past Sunday.

At the wedding, our former pastor, Henry, spoke on Genesis 12 and the blessing given to Abraham. "What does blessing mean?" he asked. Then he told of us the word's literal meaning in the Hebrew, which is "to bend the knee." Illustrating what this means in practice, he invited one of his grandsons to the front to stand next to him and asked: "who of us is bigger?" The grandchild only stood about a meter high, so obviously, Pastor Henry was the bigger. And then Pastor Henry, in his full suit and tie, bent down to his knee before his grandson. "Now who's bigger?" he asked. The answer had changed.

What it means for God to bless us is that he bends the knee to us—serves us—makes us bigger. So far does God go that he empties himself and makes himself nothing, takes on humanity and the very nature of a servant, submitting himself to death, even death on a cross. This is Jesus bending the knee to wash his disciple's feet. He, the greater—their teacher—bends the knee to them. He blesses them.

But this is also Jesus on the cross. In the face of evil—our evil and that of the world—Jesus bends the knee. In the words of 1 Peter here, he does "not repay evil with evil or insult with insult," but rather repays "evil with blessing."

And this, Peter says, is the life of blessing to which we are called that we may inherit a blessing. The "Blessed-to-be-a-blessing" blessing of Abraham, but also the "now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them" sort of blessing offered by Jesus to his freshly foot-washed disciples.

The cross the picture of the sort of blessing God means for us to offer the world: responding to sin and evil by bending our knee to serve, making ourselves less, and so lifting others up. So it is that peace is made and love is lived.

Let me close off with the closing prayer from Seeking God's Face: "Prince of Peace, it is so tempting to repay evil for evil, to lash out instead of do good. I can only give that up to follow your way of love and blessing when I know that you will not allow evil to go unpunished. Thank you for freeing me to seek peace, leaving your justice to settle the score on all the evil ones who tyrannize, oppress, and torment in this world. Amen. [drawn from Belgic Confession, Article 37]"