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John 3:1-17 - Lectionary for Trinity Sunday

6/4/2020

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6/4/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

In the third chapter of John’s Gospel Jesus affirms God’s supernatural character. He gives birth, even to old people like Nicodemus. But, in verse eight, he does it through means that we will not completely understand.

Do we see some irony here, at least a little bit, when Nicodemus affirms that he doesn’t understand? He want to understand. He’s trying to understand. He assumes that he will eventually be able to understand, because he’s a smart guy! 

This is exactly the problem, and it’s a problem that most of us have. We want the kingdom of God to be something that we can grasp clearly with our senses, that we can wrap our mind around. We want to be able to describe everything, and not only describe it, but explain it. When we observe that the world is full of complexities which we can’t explain, such as gravity, which we seem only able to describe, our world will tell us that science is complex because it’s real, but religion is something different.

The fact is, the God who created all this complexity is himself able to be just as complex as he wants to. He gives some descriptions of himself in Scripture, and he allows us to make some sense out of his creation, which may help us understand him a little better, but he remains the one who is inexplicable.

This Trinity Sunday, then, when we confess that God is one in being and three in person, that he has one will and one desire but three persons who arevery different in appearance, yet he is really one, all at the same time, all eternal, all unchanging, we are confessing something we cannot possibly explain without lapsing into some sort of heresy. Like Nicodemus, we can’t fully wrap our heads around God. But he remains the one who is working in our world. He is still the one who rescues us from sin, death, and the grave, through means we really don’t think should be able to do that. 

Like Nicodemus, then, we are called to believe on the Lord, not to explain the Lord. Believe on him. He is the redeemer of the world.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Romans 11:33-36 - Lectionary for Trinity Sunday

6/3/2020

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6/3/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

For Trinity Sunday our Epistle features what is probably a piece of writing that is older than the rest of the letter to the Romans. In Romans 11 verses 34-36 are typically set off in a way that suggests a quotation, but the quotation is not from anything in the Old Testament. Many scholars would suggest that these passages were theological statements used by the early Christians in their worship, which were then included in the New Testament writings because the familiar snippet accurately reflected what the author wanted to express. By the time Paul is writing Romans they aren’t old enough to be considered ancient, but they may have dated back to the earliest weeks and months of the Christian period, some twenty or so years before the apostle wrote the letter.

Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who is worthy to correct God. Really, who is qualified to say, “God’s Word says [fill in a moral or ethical statement] but we actually know [fill in the opposite]? That’s the work of those who deny the Holy Spirit. It says that God really didn’t know what he was talking about and that if the people he was inspiring to write an authoritative account of his will failed to understand something he was unable to prompt them in the right direction. It’s the height of arrogance, for it places our human reason on the throne and says that God, the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of all is answerable to my inclination. 

Really? Do we think we give anything to God so that he owes us something in return? Christianity has always confessed that everything that is good comes from God’s gracious hand, including the things we need and the things we don’t need, in times of poverty and in times of abundance. And we think we are in a position to bargain with God, to loan him something and make him repay?

No, we can do nothing of the sort, nor should we try. All that we have comes from God. We simply return to Him what he has let us borrow.

The entire idea is summed up by the fact that all glory goes to God, forever. We may come up with some sort of glory that seems, at times, to be ours. This is because we are created in the image of God. But it’s just a faint reflection of God’s glory. It’s just enough light to make us think it would be good to have more light. 

God’s riches, yes, that’s what we need. And the Lord has graciously poured out those riches upon his people, giving them the gifts they need. Thanks be to God.

Back to the fact that we were apparently quoting something? As long as there has been Christianity, there have been people proclaiming God’s glory. We join with countless other people to do the same.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Psalm 29 - Lectionary for Trinity Sunday

6/2/2020

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6/2/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

In Psalm 29:11 the Psalmist prays the Lord would give strength to his people and bless them with peace. The strength of God’s people is inherent in their peace, but not in the peace they have in this world. This world and its trials may violate our peace. In different times and places throughout history, trusting the Lord has led many to persecution and death. Yet God gives them strength and peace. 

What does it mean to us when we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ? What does it mean to us when we consider the fact we are called heirs of God in Christ? What does it do for our confidence when we realize that Jesus gives us immortality and life, which none can take away from us? What does it do when we recall that Jesus has broken down the wall of sin which separates us from God? How does it speak to us when the Lord says he will call us to enter into his kingdom as his beloved children? What does it do for our confidence when we think about God’s plan to bring the heavens and the earth under his righteous judgment in the last day?

We are able to do none of this. It is all of the Lord’s devising and his execution. He is the one who has done all things. This again is good news, because he is the one who does all things well.

What is the strength and peace of the Lord intended to accomplish? Quite simply, God spreads the Gospel, the good news that he has accomplished strength and peace for his people. He wants everyone to come to repentance and knowledge of his grace. So it shouldn’t surprise us that he leaves his peace with his people and then tells them to get busy doing peace all around them. I have news for you from this Psalm. He gives his people strength to do it also.

May the Lord of all peace guard your hearts and minds with His peace, as we enter this season of Trinity, that we may together work out the Lord’s perfect love in our world.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Isaiah 6:1-7 - Lectionary for Trinity Sunday

6/1/2020

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6/1/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

The appearance of God’s glory to Isaiah in chapter six would shake anybody up. The Lord of all, seated in the temple, his seraphim with him, and their calling to one another all point to the majesty of the Lord. Here we also have suggestions of the trinity. The seraphim have three pairs of wings. They call out about God’s glory, repeating it three times. We get the picture that this is significant. It speaks of God’s nature.

Above all, God, in his nature, is glorious. Isaiah recognizes in verse five that he is lost, undone, unclean, and probably going to die because he has been confronted by God’s glory. 

How will Isaiah manage to deal with this appearance of God’s glory? In fact, he can’t deal with it. Only God and his messenger can do it. Isaiah is touched with a burning coal from the sacrificial fire of God. With this he is purified. He is not merely redirected. He is purified. His guilt is taken away. His sin is atoned for.

What’s significant about this? In the appearance of God, in His glory, we are confronted with our sin and failure. We cannot stand on our own. We recognize there is no earthly way we can face God. Yet the seraph tells Isaiah his guilt is taken away. Who takes it away? It isn’t the seraph. It’s God himself. Isaiah’s sin is atoned for. Again, Isaiah doesn’t do it, nor does the seraph. God does it.

It is by God’s mercy that we have forgiveness. His righteous wrath has been turned away. And the great mystery in all of this is that God does it himself. This is the work of Jesus, God the Son, who, having one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit, chooses to have the wrath of God poured out on himself rather than on us. Yes, God pours out His anger about your sin, my sin, and the sin of the whole world, on himself, accomplishing two impossible things.

First, as Jesus bears the sin of the world, God the Son dies. The immortal God lays down his life for you. Yes, this is impossible, but God does it, and he willingly dose the impossible because it is the way to rescue you.

Second, by his death, Jesus gives you his righteousness. He transfers your sin to himself and his righteousness to you. Again, this is impossible, but nothing is impossible for God.

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord our God. Our sin has been atoned for. Thanks be to God.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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    About Throwing Inkwells

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