Double Promise

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.
—Rev. 11:15
I. A Rather Vulgar Tangent

We save our favorite Christmas story in the Bible until Christmas Eve when we read Luke’s account of the Nativity. But every once in a while (once every three years, to be specific) we read Matthew’s account on the Sunday before Christmas. And on that same day, we get to hear one of our favorite verses in the entire Hebrew Bible. As special as it is to get to hear these two passages on the same day, if we actually pay attention, it’s a bit jarring to hear them together.

Our first shock comes when we hear the modern version of the Bible we use telling us to “look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” [1] We’ve all listened to Handel’s Messiah enough to remember that the Authorized Version of the Bible—that is the King James Version—actually says that a virgin shall conceive… And, indeed, this was confirmed a few minutes later when Mars read those exact words to us from Matthew.

But Matthew does little to settle our holiday nerves, because just before he tells us “a virgin shall conceive,” he says something equally as disturbing, and that is that the Baby born of the virgin is to be named not Immanuel, but “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [2]


CEB: A Study in Discernment and Comprehensibility

A few years ago, as I was preparing a sermon on Matthew 7:1, I encountered the different Greek words κρινω and ανακρινω. Kρινω (krinō) means to judge, and, in many instances, even condemn. Kρινω is the word Jesus uses when he tells us in Matthew 7:1 not to judge. This is a word of some power, and this power is usually not handed out casually in society. Judges are usually either elected by the people or appointed by a governor or President and confirmed by a legislative body. In Old Testament times, judges embodied the powers of both the executive and judicial branches of government.

A much more subtle word is ανακρινω (anakrinō). The ανα- (ana-) prefix somehow places judgment on a gentler, more human scale. It means to

It's a Virtue

Listen to this sermon here:
Introduction: Praying for Patience

Patience is a virtue. It’s a virtue that many of us lack. But we all acknowledge we need it. The need for patience and our lack of it is such a cliché that it’s become sort of a joke to pray for it. Take this prayer, for example:
  • Dear Lord, grant me patience. Because if you give me strength, I’m going to need bail money to go with it.
  • Or the cartoon strip showing a man bowing his head in prayer and asking God for patience in the first frame. Then looking at his watch in the second frame. And finally, in the third frame, saying, “Today would be nice!”
  • And finally this one, which I’ve seen on more than one refrigerator: Lord, I thank you that so far today I’ve done very well. I haven’t once lost my temper or been nasty or selfish. But in a few minutes, I’m going to be getting out of bed, and from then on, I’m really going to need a lot more patience…
I. Corny Patience

Patience isn’t just a common prayer request, but is also a great theme for Advent. It’s especially meaningful for the youngest among us—those who can’t wait to get up on Christmas morning and open their gifts. “Be patient,” we tell them, “Christmas will come soon enough.”

In church we turn patience into ritual, singing songs about the wait, praying prayers, reading scriptures, and lighting candles—one new one each week—to show us how close to Christmas we’re getting.

This notion that patience is a virtue is a very pious one, indeed.

Let Every Heart Prepare

An Advent Invitation to the Table

I'm sure everyone's seen it. It was once a cartoon in a magazine, but now it's an internet meme about the coming of the Lord. It says, "Jesus is coming... look busy."

This pretty much describes our attitude toward preparation these days. At last as far as our religion goes. At best it’s something from the past. It’s evident from reading the New Testament that first century Christians believed that the return of the Lord was going to happen any second. They were so sure that this would happen in their lifetimes that they believed that those who died were lost. The oldest book of the New Testament (1 Thessalonians) was written, basically, to reassure believers that those who died before the Lord’s return were not lost.