sinners and wickedness expunged?

Sam Francis, "Blue Panorama"

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
For Sunday, May 31, 2009
Day of Pentecost

For this reading v. 35a is curiously omitted. I wonder what it says. "But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more." Ah... Maybe someone thought this one of those embarrassing parts of Scripture better left unreferenced. Yet if we are going to take the Bible seriously we cannot simply cut and paste to suit our fancy.

An unsympathetic reading of v. 35a might conclude that this is a sort of Christian Jihad - a loving faith not yet fully formed. Yet what would a sympathetic reading yield? Let's consider the context. The Psalmist is reveling in the multitudinous works of Creation and a Creator who both gives life, takes it away, and then gives it once again (vv. 24-30). Our author then prays that the glory of the Lord endure forever (v. 31). This may be the key: the problem with sinners and wickedness is that they detract from the glory of the Lord. The Psalmist is not arguing that ardent believers strap on bomb vests to blow up infidels. He is simply praying that the glory of the Lord would fill the entire earth. This entails that sinners and wickedness be no moreand in fact when the new heaven and the new earth are created this will be the state of affairs.

The Christian worldview contends that what plagues Man is none other than his sin and wickedness. There is no other diagnosis that better fits the facts of the violence, depravity, and cruelty we must all acknowledge all around us.

To expunge sinners and wickedness from our Bibles is to expunge half of the gospel's redemptive message. Let us rather face reality as it is: we are wicked sinners offered forgiveness in a matchless Savior. If you are reading this, and have not yet believed on Christ for the forgiveness of your wickedness and sin, may you right now receive Christ's gift of forgiveness and new life.

You will never be the same.

a new covenant . . . and why does this matter?

Jer. 31:31-34
For Sunday, March 29, 2009
Fifth Sunday in Lent

'Covenant' is not a word you are likely to hear discussed on the Sunday morning talk shows. The concerns of our contemporary world are more around words like 'economy', 'terror', 'environment', or 'health care'. Yet for God, clearly the concern of 'covenant' is central. What does it mean? Why does it matter so much for God? ... And should it mean anything for us? If so, what?

A 'Covenant' is something which binds two parties together. For example, the marriage covenant binds husband to wife. Through the prophet Jeremiah God says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel." In other words, God is putting into place a new agreement binding Him to his people. How would this binding agreement be different than the one He made initially?

A 'Covenant' is something which binds two parties together. For example, a marriage covenant binds husband to wife. Through the prophet Jeremiah God says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel." In other words, God is putting into place a new agreement binding Him to his people. How would this binding agreement be different than the one He made initially? It would be different in that rather than writing his law on tablets of stone God would now be writing his law on the very hearts and minds of his people. Where his people had failed to keep the Old Covenant, they could not fail to keep the New Covenant, because it would be written into their very beings.

Christians, as people of God under this New Covenant, therefore cannot fail. "Wait a minute," you might respond, "I'm a Christian, and I fail all the time, and certainly most if not all the Christians I've ever met have the same problem." Let's be careful here to remember the kind of failure that God has in mind, namely, the breaking of that which binds God to his people. The key difference between the Old and New Covenant is that while the Old contained within it conditions for the bound people to fulfill, the New Covenant has none of these. Everything is on God's side of the ledger.

Here then is the so what. First, if you really are a Christian, enjoy the security of God's binding commitment to you. Yes, you will fail morally, spiritually, personally. Yet you cannot fail in terms of the covenant, because God has bound you to Him. Therefore, give him all of your life that you might bring glory to His marvelous name. You don't have to be perfect: you just have to be moving in the direction of God's glory.

So why then is 'covenant' such an important idea to God? It's because he is all about relationship. We actually understand this without realizing it. For us, what is more important then our relationships with mother, father, brother, sister, best friend? Ultimately, very little if anything.

What then if we made what is most important to God most important to us? What if we lived in a way that reflected our desire to honor the covenant God has made unconditionally with us?
I have so committed myself today. It's tremendously freeing, empowering, and peaceful. Care to join me? He loves you. He's here for us. Praise the Lord.

can anyone be glorious?

President of Turkmenistan, Saparmyrat Niyazov, a.k.a. "The Great Turkmenbashi"

Psalm 66:1-12

For Sunday, October 14, 2007 (Proper 23)

In today's secular, cynical, and egalitarian world can anyone truly be 'glorious'? This Psalm begins by encouraging God's people to "shout joyful praises" and to "sing the glories of his name". I sense a stale danish coming on. My mind begins to wander to what I've heard about a certain Central Asian dictator with a remarkably positive self-image.

Yet what if someone really was glorious? "His name is glorious... his deeds are awesome... he rules forever by his power." The Bible claims there is such a being: the one true God. He created this earth as a marvelous place for us, and despite its defacement, its wonder endures. This God promised to bless all the peoples of the earth through a single man named Abraham, and to this day, he remains committed to this promise, as evidenced by a global church that while flawed, remains humanity's last and only hope. Empires have come and gone, and while the most powerful ever currently bestrides the earth, the American empire, its power is nothing compared to what the one true God could do in an instant of his choosing.

Psalm 66 closes, "We went through fire and flood but you brought us to a place of abundance." There is a place of abundance available for each of us today: it is the gospel, with Christ at its center. Call on the name of the Lord, be forgiven, and be saved. God is glorious indeed.