What We Need in 2021
God is in the Temple
Sacrament of Scripture
“Ignorance of the Scriptures is a great cliff and a deep abyss. Not knowing the Scriptures is the cause of all evils.”
A renowned, evangelical pastor preached these words on a Sunday morning. Afterwards, he and a number of parishioners talked back and forth about the topic. Most insisted that they were too busy. One said he had a wife to take care of. Another said she had children to feed. A city official insisted he was too overwhelmed with responsibilities. The pastor rebuked them.
Continue reading “Sacrament of Scripture”God’s Coming and Judgment
Hypnos was the god of sleep in Greek mythology. The poets told stories about his cavernous palace built by the river of forgetfulness. Son of darkness and brother of death, of all spirits in that pre-Christian world, Hypnos was especially revered. Hypnotism comes from his name, because of his power. Everyone caught up in his spell, great or small, was totally in his possession. The scriptures urge us: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14). Spiritual sleepiness is our greatest adversary. Like Hypnos in the Greek myths, the world around us does everything it can to put us to sleep. Christ came to world to wake us up.
Continue reading “God’s Coming and Judgment”Rituals Determine Reality
“What did you go out to see?”
Those were our Lord’s words to the crowd. What were you looking for? As we journey through Advent, the Church throws us this question. What are you looking for? You can imagine Christ’s words echoing down from his thrown on Judgement Day. What did you spend your life pursuing?
Continue reading “Rituals Determine Reality”Advent: Haunted Anticipation
“O come, O come, Emmanuel / And ransom captive Israel / That mourns in lonely exile here / until the Son of God appear / Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel / Shall come to thee, O Israel”
There is no music so sublime as our Christmas hymns. Why is that? There is something mysterious, nearly haunting about their melodies. All Advent and Christmas traditions feel enchanted in this way, almost magical, haunted by a presence familiar and otherworldly. The Christmas tree, the lights, the carols and cider. It is more than mere nostalgia. It moves us beyond words.
Continue reading “Advent: Haunted Anticipation”Choose Your Tribe
“You have been set apart as holy to the LORD your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure” (Deut. 14:2).
Where do we move from here? This is the question on everyone’s heart. After the elections this week, our nation is torn between two camps. I do not mean two political camps. The real battle in America is a battle of faiths: faith in the god of secularism and faith in the God of Truth. There has always been a rift, but this rift has grown. It has stretched out and bulged. The differences between the two camps are more distinct than ever and we must anticipate that to continue — two worlds pulling apart.
Continue reading “Choose Your Tribe”One Thing Needed: Worship
He rose at dawn and fired with hope,
Shot o’er the seething harbor-bar,
And reach’d the ship and caught the rope,
And whistled to the morning star.
Nothing is so fervent as the zeal of a young adult eager to explore. A poet captured this zeal in his poem, The Sailor Boy. The youth wakes at the crack of dawn and runs out to the ship. He leans towards the sea as far as he can. He is so excited, he looks up at the stars and whistles. Then a voice cries out from the depths. It is death, taunting him. Go back home. It is too dangerous; too risky. The boy is undaunted, “God help me!” He cries, “save I take my part of danger on the roaring sea.”
Continue reading “One Thing Needed: Worship”We Are All Missionaries
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-19).
Generation Z is the new horizon of young adults today. The term was first coined in a 1994 book about Clinton’s presidency, predicting: “they will be like steerage passengers on the Titanic, trapped in the watery bowels of a sinking ‘unsinkable ship’” (H. S. Thompson). Born after 1996, the iGeneration, Gen. Z, is reported to spend 9 hours a day online. 52% believe gender is based on a person’s preference. 78% believe in God, but only 41% attend regular church services. The religious landscape that once emphasized sacrifice and suffering now emphasizes therapy and entitlement. We blinked and we found ourselves in a world of mud-flinging, radical ideologies, and technologies advancing faster than anyone can keep up.
Continue reading “We Are All Missionaries”The Higher Things: Motherhood
As he hung on the cross, our Lord turned his eyes to his Mother. He bore the weight of sin. Excruciating pain shot through his limbs, he choked in existential agony, and in his fever, he remembered his mother. “Woman, behold thy son!” Turning to the disciples, “Behold, thy mother!” How could God on the cross, at the climax of cosmic salvation, be so human? This was the hero of all time, ready to slay the devil, and his heart beat for mom.