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Our reading for today is Lamentations chapter 3.

Jerusalem had resisted Joshua, and Saul, but David had finally wrested it from the Jebusites.  He established the city as his capital, and the LORD had allowed His name to rest there.  It had been sacked by Shishak, threatened by Sennacherib, and protected by tribute payments to Assyria and Babylon, but for four hundred years Zion had survived. 

Now Jeremiah records his lament as he walks through the charred citadel of the LORD’s people.  The small book of Lamentations is worth reading in its entirety.  It is not a disorganized wail, but, like the Song of Moses that commemorated the Exodus, this memorial is produced with memorable artistry.  Chapter 3 is a tripled acrostic poem – three lines at a time beginning with the same Hebrew letter, in sequence through the alphabet.  For the worshipper of Jehovah, the lines of celebration and grief are drawn with equal creativity and skill.

It’s impossible to separate Jeremiah’s lament from his prophecies.  If you even casually peruse the book that bears his name, you’ll conclude that the surprise wasn’t that Jerusalem had fallen, but that anyone should be surprised by it.  Jeremiah knew this was coming; the tragedy of his ministry is that no one would listen. 

But this adds another layer when, in the middle of this lament, Jeremiah bursts out: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end.”  Jeremiah could see and touch and smell the evidence that the LORD was faithful to His promises: if Israel could be destroyed, as promised, then she could be restored, as promised. 

These verses formed the basis for the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness! by Thomas Chisholm: “Morning by morning new mercies I see!”  That’s why I want to read Lamentation 3 again!

Our reading for today is Genesis chapter 12.

Our reading for today is Joshua chapter 1.

It’s fascinating to see where the Bible slows down, laying groundwork, forming transitions, or building suspense.  It feels like all three are happening here. 

Joshua had been Moses’ trusted commander since that first battle against Amalek, over 40 years ago.  He and Caleb stood apart from the other spies who argued that Canaan couldn’t be taken.  They alone survived the wilderness that had taken everyone in their generation.  His commission as Moses’ successor had been secured months before, the covenant had been renewed, and the people had been primed to march into Canaan. 

The LORD’s message to Joshua is direct: “Do not be frightened.  Be strong.  Be courageous.”  Even the commanders of the Transjordan tribes echoed this: “Only be strong and courageous.”  The repetition creates its own mystery: was Joshua wavering?  Did he doubt either his commission or, even worse, the LORD’s promise?  Or, was this present challenge so much bigger, requiring more of him, than any he had faced before? 

That’s why I want to read Joshua 1 again!

Our reading for today is Exodus chapter 15.

As the apostles endured the Church’s rapid growth spurt … and its first rounds of persecution … they had to stretch in unexpected ways. In chapter 2 they opened their doors to Jewish pilgrims. In chapter 6 they would have to recruit deacons to ensure justice to the Grecian Jews among their following. In chapter 8, the Holy Spirit moved Philip north among the Samaritans … then south to Gaza for the sake of one Ethiopian eunuch on his way back to his queen. Perhaps the most difficult stretch for this primitive church was in chapter 9: the acceptance of Saul -- their erstwhile persecutor. Up until now, we have seen the Holy Spirit push apostles to people on the fringes and extremes of Judaism. We now reach a turning point. The Holy Spirt will begin calling the apostles into the frontiers of world evangelism. And in chapter 10, that frontier is embodied in a prominent sojourner from Rome.

Cornelius is unique for his time and place. Luke introduces us to him with some earthly negatives: “A certain man in Cesarea”, “centurion”, “Italian cohort”, followed by heavenly positives: “God fearing”, “generous”, “prayerful” ... and asks the lovers of God to accept these contradictions in terms at face value.

Cornelius is visited by an angel. This angel did not open with "fear not" like he would when appearing to 1st Century Jews (e.g., Mary, the shepherds ...). This could be for two reasons. First, Cornelius might not have learned that seeing an angel portended certain death. Second, being a commander of infantry, he was not one to falter -- even in the face of certain death. In any case, this messenger of the Lord of Hosts wastes no time with pleasantries. He addresses Cornelius soldier-to-soldier, tells him his prayers and alms-giving were honored by God, and commands him to send his messengers asking for a certain man at a precise address. Having inspired his household to revere the God of Israel, he dispatches two of his servants and his chief soldier there.

Meanwhile, with Peter, the Holy Spirit chooses to not give a direct order. Peter faces political and religious barriers. Politically, Cornelius is a professional soldier in the same infantry that carried out Christ’s execution. There’s no love lost between Peter and any soldier of this occupying army. Second, Peter keeps kosher. That means he adheres to the dietary laws handed down by Moses, and this constrains his interactions with non-Jews. His food choices, down to the very plates he eats from, is an act of worship. This determines to who may eat what with whom. Since the apostles should be holy – and therefore clean – eating with a Gentile, even entering his house, is out of the question. So, Peter would instantly doubt any order to do just that and think the angel was a false spirit. God must first soften Peter's heart ... and therefore deploys a vision.

It’s been a busy week in the ancient port city of Joppa. Having raised Tabitha from the dead, Peter is in demand, and now resides at the home of Simon the Tanner. Evidently, Peter has a routine of extensive morning prayer. The tanner’s house is possibly a building with a courtyard from which steps lead to a flat roof. The roof has some thatch shading, and here is where we find Peter The folks serving him won't start lunch until he asks for it, and he does not ask until famished. So he waits on a rooftop by the sea, tired and hungry, smelling the combination of hides drying in the courtyard, and lunch cooking below.

All of this plays into Peter’s vision. God unfolds a panoply of beasts, none of which are kosher. Three times Peter denies the command “Rise, kill and eat.” Each time, Peter refuses on grounds the offerings were unclean. And the reply each time is “Don’t you call unclean what God declares cleansed.” Given his determination to be a devout Jew, he would have kept refusing all day, but the vision ends abruptly with the panoply being taken up to heaven.

For someone who months earlier, denied his Master thrice, and whose risen Lord thrice challenged him “Peter, do you love me? ... Feed my Sheep,”  this vision ending when it did was significant. Imprisonment and persecution aren't nearly as trying as these triplicate dialogues. Peter is on notice that this is no time to gainsay the Lord. Nor is it the place. From this ancient city, the prophet Jonah bought passage across the Great Sea in the Middle of the Earth in hope of ignoring God's call for him to lead the hated Assyrians of Nineveh to repentance. It didn't go well until Jonah changed his course. In the past months Peter set aside cowardice, as an apostle he was feeding the Lord's sheep. But what has God "cleansed" that he is calling "unclean"? What is today's "Nineveh?" How is Peter to change course?

Dear listener, please understand how precarious this moment in the chapter is for most of you. My family is of Semitic origin, so the Good News may have been introduced to me no matter how Peter responds. But, for most of you whose families hail from elsewhere, your eventual access to the Gospel teeters on Peter's next move. If he resolves to never enter a gentile’s house, then the Gospel does not come to your tribe. But, the vision softened the apostle's heart. Peter is ready to obey, and centuries later someone like me takes no shame in fellowship with someone like you.

The Holy Spirit now orders Peter to go down and meet the three men who are knocking at the door and go with them. Peter, not wanting to be found denying his lord ever again, welcomes these two Roman servants and one Roman soldier. He hears their story, invites them to supper, finds them beds (betcha Simon the Tanner is having second thoughts about opening his house), and next day sets out with them to Cesarea. The small retinue journey along the Mediterranean coast northward, the way for them being cleared by a Roman soldier, with two servants flanking this revered apostle.

They arrive the following day to Cesarea -- a city  as new as Joppa was ancient ... a bustling monument of Herod's devotion to the Emporer Augustus ... a well-polished colony and capital of Roman power and commerce. Thanks to Phillip's ministry, Jews there were beginning to follow Jesus. Some may be at the gate as Cornelius and family and friends await Peter. Peter enters, and in the shadow of shrines built to Augustus and Roma, Cornelius falls prostrate before him. There is no mistaking this action. At one time or another a Roman officer would have done the same before the statue of the emperor, acknowledging his status as a god. Peter will have none of it. He quickly grabs this mistaken worshiper and pulls him to his feet insisting "I, like you, am also a man." After that exchange, Peter saw that he was to Cesarea as Jonah was to Niniveh. He enters the city, and then Cornelius' house where a crowd has gathered.

In front of everyone, they compare notes, and Cornelius gives Peter the floor saying, "We are present before God, to hear all things that are commanded of you of God." Peter repeats his witness of Christ's death and resurrection and puts his Lord in the grand context "To Him all the prophets give witness, that through His name whoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins."
It's hard to imagine the torrent of emotions that may have built up while Cornelius' household waited for the messengers to return, then, to be with this apostle -- talking with them as though he were just another man -- confessing that God commanded him to no longer see them as unclean -- and hearing him expound how for the price of belief in the risen Lord their sins would be forgiven. Those emotions let loose.  These Italians, betrayed daily by those statues in the shrine overlooking the harbor, readily believed.  They cashed in on forgiveness and with their voices returned in praise. For the sake of Peter and the other Jews present, the Holy Spirit rendered those praises in multiple languages ... exactly like what they heard back in Jerusalem at Pentecost. That settled it for him. Peter ordered water brought, and baptized the entire household.

Most shockingly, Peter accepted the invitation to stay in that Roman household for days. This begins a historical pivot. And in the next five chapters we will see the Gospel go forth on waves of Gentile enthusiasm. And the result persists to this very day as you and I fellowship together.

In the previous chapter of Acts, Luke introduces us to the primitive church preparing to share the good news of the resurrection according to the instructions Christ gave them. In this chapter, we meet them, a dozen families or so.  Thanks to seeing Jesus ascend to heaven they are full of faith, devoted to one another, and organized. They were well situated over the coming years to meet many Jews -- and converts to Judaism -- and tell them the Good News. Any visitor to them would have to be fluent in Hebrew. That meant Judeans would hear the gospel first, next maybe some folks in Samaria who were devoted enough to come to Jerusalem, then maybe Jews from further away, and so on. Over generations synagogues might appear with a rabbi from the “school of Jesus.”

This, most likely, is how the disciples understood Jesus' plan for them ... a solid plan for steady growth. The Holy Spirit; however, would have no time for solid plans for steady growth. We now know, with the lens of history, that Jerusalem had only a couple of decades before the Romans would lay siege to the city, the temple would be burned to the ground, and its artifacts would be looted and carted away, never to be restored. Christ did not rise from the dead for his students to be lost in the ruins of history. The Gospel was to go out immediately, the folks visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of First Fruits were to be the Gospel's first fruits, and language barriers were not to be an excuse.

In Acts Chapter 2, the Holy Spirit accelerates God's plan for the nations. So, how to move prayerful disciples from their shaded courtyard … into the harvest?

Say you find yourself singing a Psalm in Phrygian, and your family and friends whose heads are on fire can't understand you, you’re going to rush out of the building and find a stranger who does.

And consider the stranger's perspective. You're halfway through weeks of pilgrimage. Hebrew is your fourth language after Latin and Greek and - if you're from nearby -- Aramaic. But, there's also your first language ... in the ancient world it would be known only to you and the people you grew up with. You probably haven't heard it since you left your village. For weeks, you've taken the trouble to sing and speak in your best Hebrew, almost forgetting the sound of your first language. Then, in the crowded streets of this Holy City, you are drawn to familiar words in an unfamiliar voice … perhaps it’s a Psalm you were reciting to perfect your Hebrew. But here, some local is saying the same thing as if he or she had been born and raised on the same street as you! A pilgrim from a different country is listening to another local. And when you ask him, sure enough he is hearing a Psalm in his own tongue. These humble-looking Israelites, whose Galilean accents (when they spoke Hebrew) couldn’t be missed, now have your attention first thing in the morning.

And what about natives of Jerusalem? Obviously, if you believed in Christ's resurrection, you would admire these miraculous speakers. But, if you were a Pharisee, Saduccee, or Zealot, you would see your hold on the throng slipping. The best you could do is toss out a slur, "Drunk Galileans." But, in your heart, your idea of who Messiah should be and what He should do is slipping away. Your feeble retort is overshadowed by God's beautiful praise in foreign tongues. You might have heard Jesus' parable of the master's feast, whose initial guests spurned his invitations, so he extended invites to strangers instead. If so, this would be a very scary morning. Because the sound you hear is keys to the Kingdom of Heaven offered to foreigners. 

The 12 apostles rise above the conflicting words and thoughts, and Peter starts his first full day of evangelism. He directly addresses the locals. First with dry humor -- nobody drinks before 9 in the morning. Then with prophetic scripture. He refers to Joel in two parts: The first, explains the outpouring of the Spirit everyone is hearing. The second warns that the great and terrible day of the Lord is not far off. Peter then spells out the theology of the Messiah, truth of the resurrection, and the need for all who wish to be saved to call on the Lord. It has its effect. Those local Jews, for whom all of Jesus' parables were coming to life, ask Peter what their next move should be. Peter replies, "Repent and be baptized ..." and continues his preaching to anyone who would hear. By the end of the day, a church of hundreds had become a community 3000 strong and growing.

The Holy Spirit moved mightily that day. And apostles stepped up. But, as we go forward in our readings, we will see that God is not finished. Three thousand sounds large, but Jerusalem was no small city. The opposition to this new sect is soon to begin. These days of nurturing at the apostles’ feet is to prepare them for days of turmoil. Stay tuned.

In the previous chapter of Acts, Luke introduces us to the primitive church preparing to share the good news of the resurrection according to the instructions Christ gave them. In this chapter, we meet them, a dozen families or so.  Thanks to seeing Jesus ascend to heaven they are full of faith, devoted to one another, and organized. They were well situated over the coming years to meet many Jews -- and converts to Judaism -- and tell them the Good News. Any visitor to them would have to be fluent in Hebrew. That meant Judeans would hear the gospel first, next maybe some folks in Samaria who were devoted enough to come to Jerusalem, then maybe Jews from further away, and so on. Over generations synagogues might appear with a rabbi from the “school of Jesus.”

This, most likely, is how the disciples understood Jesus' plan for them ... a solid plan for steady growth. The Holy Spirit; however, would have no time for solid plans for steady growth. We now know, with the lens of history, that Jerusalem had only a couple of decades before the Romans would lay siege to the city, the temple would be burned to the ground, and its artifacts would be looted and carted away, never to be restored. Christ did not rise from the dead for his students to be lost in the ruins of history. The Gospel was to go out immediately, the folks visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of First Fruits were to be the Gospel's first fruits, and language barriers were not to be an excuse.

In Acts Chapter 2, the Holy Spirit accelerates God's plan for the nations. So, how to move prayerful disciples from their shaded courtyard … into the harvest?

Say you find yourself singing a Psalm in Phrygian, and your family and friends whose heads are on fire can't understand you, you’re going to rush out of the building and find a stranger who does.

And consider the stranger's perspective. You're halfway through weeks of pilgrimage. Hebrew is your fourth language after Latin and Greek and - if you're from nearby -- Aramaic. But, there's also your first language ... in the ancient world it would be known only to you and the people you grew up with. You probably haven't heard it since you left your village. For weeks, you've taken the trouble to sing and speak in your best Hebrew, almost forgetting the sound of your first language. Then, in the crowded streets of this Holy City, you are drawn to familiar words in an unfamiliar voice … perhaps it’s a Psalm you were reciting to perfect your Hebrew. But here, some local is saying the same thing as if he or she had been born and raised on the same street as you! A pilgrim from a different country is listening to another local. And when you ask him, sure enough he is hearing a Psalm in his own tongue. These humble-looking Israelites, whose Galilean accents (when they spoke Hebrew) couldn’t be missed, now have your attention first thing in the morning.

And what about natives of Jerusalem? Obviously, if you believed in Christ's resurrection, you would admire these miraculous speakers. But, if you were a Pharisee, Saduccee, or Zealot, you would see your hold on the throng slipping. The best you could do is toss out a slur, "Drunk Galileans." But, in your heart, your idea of who Messiah should be and what He should do is slipping away. Your feeble retort is overshadowed by God's beautiful praise in foreign tongues. You might have heard Jesus' parable of the master's feast, whose initial guests spurned his invitations, so he extended invites to strangers instead. If so, this would be a very scary morning. Because the sound you hear is keys to the Kingdom of Heaven offered to foreigners. 

The 12 apostles rise above the conflicting words and thoughts, and Peter starts his first full day of evangelism. He directly addresses the locals. First with dry humor -- nobody drinks before 9 in the morning. Then with prophetic scripture. He refers to Joel in two parts: The first, explains the outpouring of the Spirit everyone is hearing. The second warns that the great and terrible day of the Lord is not far off. Peter then spells out the theology of the Messiah, truth of the resurrection, and the need for all who wish to be saved to call on the Lord. It has its effect. Those local Jews, for whom all of Jesus' parables were coming to life, ask Peter what their next move should be. Peter replies, "Repent and be baptized ..." and continues his preaching to anyone who would hear. By the end of the day, a church of hundreds had become a community 3000 strong and growing.

The Holy Spirit moved mightily that day. And apostles stepped up. But, as we go forward in our readings, we will see that God is not finished. Three thousand sounds large, but Jerusalem was no small city. The opposition to this new sect is soon to begin. These days of nurturing at the apostles’ feet is to prepare them for days of turmoil. Stay tuned.

This is part of a larger oracle, but the chapter itself is arranged like a lyrical symphony.  The “A” movement in the first seven verses is a condemnation of those who, while being of lineage the LORD’s people, have chosen to ignore Him.  The charges that the LORD brings against them are a smorgasbord of defilement.  Consider how their ways have granted them a brashness that tells God to “Keep to yourself, for I am too holy for you.”   

The 2nd movement is God’s response: “I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of mountains…”  These future offspring, these “people who have sought Me,” will inherit the land from north to south and from east to west.  The rest of this movement answers the inevitable question: but what about the current generation?  “But you who forsake the LORD…” probably tells you what you need to know.  The tension reaches a crescendo with three successive “Behold..but” statements: A and B dance in tension, as Behold, they will inherit but you shall be destroyed. 

This would all feel typical except for what happens next.  The 3rd movement, which it’s important to notice builds out of the prior tension, pushes beyond all former boundaries.  “For behold,” verse 17 begins, “I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”  That this was a terrifying prospect to the hearer is reflected immediately: “But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create…”  As you read, consider what Isaiah’s eyes and his hearers’ imaginations could see: are these words of comfort or terror?  What is it like to hear hope and judgment so near to one another? 

That’s why I want to read Isaiah 65 again!