Posts tagged The Theology of the Cross
Why The End Is Actually Comforting

Dear Friends,

As we approach the end of the liturgical year (Advent is two Sundays away), you will notice the readings begin to take on an eschatological approach. That is just a big fancy word for the end of all things. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks of the end in a dramatic fashion with nations rising against nations and Christians being brought before kings to testify to the Gospel. All of this is absolutely true. However, much of the church approaches readings about the last days and the end—including this Sunday’s Gospel—with a sensational approach: the Bible in one hand and The New York Times in the other. However, the best way to understand these passages is by interpreting the Bible with other passages from the Bible.

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I believe the last days are not some tragic and terrifying days in the future.

They are right now and we have been in the last days since Jesus ascended into heaven, forty days after his resurrection from the dead. As it says in Hebrews 1:1-2:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” 

While this approach is a little less exciting because we are no longer trying to figure out who qualifies to be the next Antichrist, it is a far more pastoral and comforting approach. This is because a proper understanding of the end enables us to see and embrace the grace of God in the midst of our personal tribulations and afflictions in the here and now. A proper understanding of eschatology will allow you to see that God is sovereign and in control of the failed moments and mini-ends in our lives.

What I find most comforting about a Biblical eschatology is that it reminds us of the Gospel: that God has broken into real history to save you and that truly all things work for the good for those who love Christ and are called according to his purposes.

Join us this Sunday as we take a look at Luke 21:5-19 and find real Gospel comfort in knowing that God is in control of and at the end.

Pax,

Jacob

Swamped? Overwhelmed? This one is for you
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If in life you are ever feeling totally swamped or overwhelmed, the average condition of most New Yorkers, might I encourage you to pray “An Order For Compline” found beginning on page 127 of the Book of Common Prayer. One of the Psalms appointed for that office is Psalm 4, traditionally known as the Evening Psalm. I was praying the office with two members of the vestry and we are all amazed at how the song of King David just washed over us and became a real source of comfort.  

In this particular Psalm, David is dealing particularly with slander and injustices he is enduring as King of Israel. Now maybe you are not facing the pressures of being the King of Israel and dealing with a son who is trying to usurp your throne, however you are dealing with pressures that come from living in this city and you are feeling overwhelmed, Psalm 4 is for you.

As we see David make his plea to God, we see him transformed in the prayer from an anxious mess, because of his accusers, into an anxious mess who, for a moment, has a quite trust in God. As David states:

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.“

So often, we are trying to buck against the trend that we are not in control and, in the process, we make ourselves even more anxious.

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Psalm 4 reminds us that, in the midst of life, which is so often out of our control, prayer is really, really good.

Prayer refocuses on what is actually real: we need saving and we have a God who has saved us. Prayer in this way becomes almost a form of therapy. It does the Psalmist and all of us good. As James Boice commenting on this Psalm wrote, “There are days in the lives of all human beings which require a psalm like this at their end.”  

So pray and enjoy your forgiveness. We’ll see you this Sunday.

Pax,

Jacob

Think You're A Lost Cause?

Dear Friends,

Happy Halloween and tomorrow is All Saints’ Day, which we will transfer to this upcoming Sunday. All Saints’ Day is one of the oldest feast days in the Christian year. The roots of this feast day go back to the Diocletian persecution of the church in the fourth-century. So many Christians were being martyred for the faith in certain parts of the Roman Empire that it seemed right and good to combine everyone together. It became official across Western Christendom in the seventh century when the Roman Parthenon was consecrated and dedicated to All the Saints in 609 AD.

It is an important feast day because it reminds us that, for Christians, death does not have the final say and that we (the church militant) join our voices with the church triumphant and all the company of heaven in our unending hymn praising God and his salvific work on our behalf.

James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). Saint Thaddeus or Saint Jude (Saint Thadée ou Saint Jude), 1886-1894. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). Saint Thaddeus or Saint Jude (Saint Thadée ou Saint Jude), 1886-1894. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

One interesting saint who was commemorated on Monday is the apostle St. Jude. He is an interesting saint because Jude is short for Judas. It must be tough sharing a name with one of the most vilified men in history; the man who betrayed our Lord. Nobody lights a candle for Judas Iscariot and no church has a feast dedicated to him. It was for this reason that many believe St. Jude—the good Judas—became the patron saint of lost causes. St. Jude was petitioned when the rest of the company of heaven seemed to be silent.  

Now, today is also Reformation Day, and as a Protestant the idea of petitioning saints sort of weirds me out. However, the point of a saint day is to read the Gospel and learn about Jesus through the lens of the life of that particular saint. St. Jude reminds us that it is only through the Gospel that lost causes are transformed into divine causes, that lost causes in Christ are always given hope.

Whatever your lost cause maybe, take heart: Christ knows and in him you are always found. For Jesus is working out all things for your good and his glory.

This Sunday, we will celebrate All the Saints, including you and those saints yet to come. We will also wrap up the formal aspect of our stewardship campaign. I want to thank everyone who has turned in their pledge. For those who have not gotten their pledge in, I ask that you would do it by Sunday.

This helps us shape our budget so we can get the Gospel out and through preaching and teaching, love and care, letting New York City know that by virtue of the cross of Christ, no one is a lost cause.

In an age where it seems like there are a lot of lost causes, Calvary-St. George’s and her mission is tremendously important to help fund.  

We will see you Sunday,

The Reverend Jacob Smith



News About Your Citizenship (And Why We're Aliens)
 

Dear Friends,

Your citizenship is in Heaven.

As the engine of American politics revs up to another election, I want to remind you of this fact.

Sure, you may have a piece of paper that says you are an American citizen, but the apostle Paul makes clear that Christians are actually citizens of the kingdom of God. 

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Paul makes this point explicit in his letter to the Philippians, residents of an ancient Roman colony renowned for its patriotism. The Philippians were, first and foremost, proud Romans. Paul’s best missionary strategy would have been to emphasize that to be a good Christian is to be a good Roman, but Paul was not a great strategist. When he came to Philippi to spread the good news about Jesus, Paul dared to proclaim among these proud Roman citizens that Jesus, and not the all-powerful Caesar, is Lord. 

What does this mean for you and me? It does not mean that we do not care about this world. It means that you and I pledge allegiance not to a flag, a group, or an ideology, but to a King. 

Paul cared very much for this world, and, like him, we work and pray for it too, in the midst of all our joys and sorrows, so that the reign of God might be known to all.

So fellow aliens, may the peace of Christ, which passes all understanding, guide your hearts and minds as you live as a sojourner in this world,

Ben

 
How Long Would Your List Be?
 

This month, we’re focusing on our financial commitment to the ministry of Calvary-St. George’s Church in the year ahead. And as a means of making this focus, Jacob and Ben and I are preaching a sermon series on “Mission: Immeasurable.” This Sunday, we’re delving deep into “Immeasurable Joy because of the Gospel.”

However, this coming Sunday, it looks at first as though it’s a bit of a stretch to see much joy or thanksgiving to make a pledge. 

Here’s why. If I were to ask you to make a list of the things you have prayed about that have not come to pass, how long would your list be?

That’s why, at first glance, the lessons for this coming Sunday are a problem. It seems as though Scripture is telling us that if we pray hard enough, and long enough, and in the right way, we’ll get what we pray for. It seems as though we are being told that the key to answered prayer is our own ability to pray hard and long and right.

So what about my wonderful Christian friend who had leukemia and who had hundreds of people praying for her and who died at the age of 35, leaving behind a devoted husband and three young children?

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Right here, of course, you can add all sorts of examples of your own, as well as stories of feeling like dropping out of this whole Christian business when our prayers seem to fall on deaf ears.  

That’s why you and I really need to be in church together this Sunday, along with all of our unanswered prayers. Because waiting for us at Calvary-St. George’s will be:

  • One who prayed harder and longer and better than you and I ever have.

  • One who had his own (temporarily) unanswered prayer - “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

  • One who utterly identifies stands beside us with our own (temporarily) unanswered prayers.

  • One whose grace is the deepest answer to our deepest prayers, prayers that finally are always answered.

Because, as the writer Anne Lamott puts it, “God’s grace bats last.”

See you Sunday morning!  

- Jim

P.S. Here are two other writers who will help us see God’s grace this Sunday: Watty Piper and Francis Thompson. I’ll have a prize for whoever can tell me the books by these fellows that I’ll reference.

P.P.S. If you won’t want to make a pledge by the end of our worship this Sunday in thanksgiving for God’s Amazing Grace, I’ll eat my socks.