Good Morning Friends,
Discouragement and frustration can cause us to walk away from the fellowship. But I hope that is not what is happening in the response to the pandemic, so much as its forced realization of our frail grasp on life. As we Zoom in and seek to see Jesus, he does not always seem to be around. Worship has lost the element of corporate confession. Cognitive dissonance can grow. And that is a problem for its lack of closure, despite drive by blessings and Drive-In Church. All this can cause us to live in the past imagining Communion in a way that is not currently possible. It can cause us to question God’s care because of a lack of fellowship purposed for worship. We all face, at times, a discouraged walk to Emmaus, but can also experience something along the way to help us to return to collective worship and face the future unafraid. Jesus Appears to His Disciples, Has He Appeared To You For Your Confession And Communion?
Scripture: Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Luke 24:35-48 (NRSV)
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. ‘And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out from the people.” And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, “And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.’
Acts 3:11-26 (NRSV)
To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgement. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Psalm 51 (NRSV)
Message: The effectiveness of worship is not so much in the music… although I do love to sing a Psalm of David… or even the word preached, even though I love a good sermon, like Peter’s in Acts 3 that help us like the crippled beggar to learn to walk in the Way. But ultimately, though these sermons and hymns add to the experience, it is the character of our hearts that allow for an encounter with God. Just as the Levites purified themselves before giving sacrifices, so too we must prepare our hearts…cleanse our character before worship…a task we cannot do on our own. It is this precursor, this act of giving up our sins that allows us to come into the experience of something holy. Isaiah spoke to the social injustice that was a roadblock between Israel and God. The people had to confess before the Lord would rescue them. David had his sin with Bathsheba that needed to be wiped clean before David could sing again praises to God. Sin always separates us from God and what He would have us do. Today’s scripture speaks to the ultimate solution of this problem… the coming of the messianic age, the coming of revival, the return of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives united. Today we experience grace and on occasion He touches our hearts with the Glory of God and His purifying Spirit, but someday God will make all things new, so we can enter into worship forever with the King. Friends, Jesus came to create us, refreshing us with a life-giving breath, He came to give us the Holy Spirit and its refreshing and saving strength, He will come again so we might fully experience in newness forgiveness and love.
And So, there are a lot of things in the Bible that are misunderstood by people and sometimes the Church does not correct these things that are taken the wrong way because even the misinterpretations have some benefits. There is a cultural subversion of the Biblical faith and too often we are satisfied with an ember instead of a flame. Take for example our understanding of what it means to “confess.” Our grasp of this concept comes more from traditional teachings more than from understanding the Greek origin of the word. The Greek word for confess is homologia. Homologia means to agree or be in assent and in context to agree on what God hates and loves. This was manifested in the experience of Pentecost. And that has application for us now when social change is being formed by new norms of behavior. But that does not always fit how churches weave confession into prayer and worship life. Openly naming our sins and admitting to God we have committed them is different than affirming we really want to change from the inside out. Appreciating this comes from reading the Bible and digging a little deeper to understand its depth. It comes from learning the workings of the Spirit, in the context of the Word made flesh to the glory of our Heavenly Father. To affirm this, we really must say yes to Jesus and be all in. This is when Jesus appears in our confession and communion as part of a committed worship that spills overs and overflows in all our behaviors.
Pray that God give us passion and purpose where there is pain. Pray that our joyfulness not become jaded. Pray that the fire in our bones not become an ache in our joints. Pray that we allow the Holy Spirit to apply the truths of Scripture in our daily walk with Jesus. Pray that we learn that the best way to face the future in the first place is to look for the face of Jesus in those we love. Pray we realize that it is Christ’s courage that guarantees ours and all that stems from it. Pray that our eyes are opened to scripture. Pray
we realize that it is not great preachers who make converts, nor the pastors of this or that denomination or persuasion, but God Himself through the Spirit. Pray we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the glory of God both now and to the day of eternity. Pray we realize that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is in us too. Pray we arise to affirm God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray we share our common roots in the Spirit of God. Pray we get up in the Spirit and get moving filled with a burning in our hearts for God in the creative newness of life.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 