Oh this babe wrapped in swaddling cloths
his last breath as vulnerable as his first!
He took up heaven’s cross to be
wrapped
in linen cloths. So,
we might lay down filthy rags
and be gracefully fitted for
the robes of those made
righteous. Praise him.
Praise him. Praise him!
O God,
before I gave voice
to my gratitude for you,
I sensed the joy
of your friendship
with us.
–Immanuel, God with us; Friend of sinners.
Heavenly Father — Praises be yours!
In your mercy and grace you have brought us into your communion— the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Your majesty is on display in Creation and your wisdom in your Church. Your faithfulness and love reaches even to the most frustrated corners of our globe.
A collective shout has come up from children giving voice to the groans of Creation. This world groans under the weight of failed stewardship. And we say with them, Come Lord Jesus!
You are bringing all things under the administration of Jesus Christ our Lord. Yet, we can hardly claim to walk in perfect union with Him. Help us Lord. Have mercy on us Lord. Forgive us for taking your name in vain. Under the banner of your name some have cloaked themselves in deceit and have ushered themselves and others into destruction.
Grant us the humility and the prophetic unction required to join you in the healing of the nations. Grant us your healing too Oh Lord.
Heavenly Father, may your Spirit bring healing in downtown Vancouver. Bind up the wounds of trauma and release people from fear by establishing circles of friendship and healing through the presence of Jesus.
May your Spirit fortify your church in Iran with love and courage.
May you uphold your servants who have been imprisoned in China.
May you embolden your people to keep loving their neighbours in Indonesia.
May you sustain your labourers upholding the Living in the Bahamas.
Free us Oh Lord from our captivity to the urgent. It’s become so normal to us that we hardly hear your voice during the day and even the night. Call us into your communion even as we lay down our worries with you.
(Please join me in the Lord’s prayer)
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever.
Amen.
God is doing a good work in you. He provides us with many reasons to rejoice through the good times and the challenging times of our lives. Joy has become a topic of philosophical and self help discussion. Our joy in Christ comes from the overflow of our relationship with Him, even as the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our lives.
In the last few years Miroslav Volf, professor at Yale University, has been working on a theology of joy. He was asked the question, “Why isn’t happiness enough?” “Happiness,” he says, “generally is today understood as a kind of pleasurable feeling… Joy has something specific about it. We rejoice when we are united with the object of our love, with things that we love.”
Jesus often speaks of God’s joy. Read Luke 15:1-7, NIV.
1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Notice the joy in Jesus’ parable. In this parable and in the next two we see Jesus confronting the “joy-killers” with the Father’s joy.
The Joy of finding–God feels it.
The Joy shared–God invites it.
The Joy multiplied–Lots of joy in Heaven when we repent.
Lots of Joy and delight–When we turn to God.
Lots of Joy–when we return to Him.
Lots of Joy–When we take a step of faith.
Lots of Joy–When we respond to His love.
Lots of Joy–When we abide in His love.
Let us enter into His joy by listening to the Holy Spirit, returning to God, agreeing with God, and changing our lives in response to His grace in Christ Jesus. He embraces us joyfully.
God has a specific joy in being united with you, the “object” of His love.
Do I have joy in being united with Him?
If not, what would Jesus have me know?
The promise of joy fortified Jesus for the suffering of the Cross. The author of Hebrews writes: (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV)
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Jesus is my specific source of joy. I am included in Jesus’ specific sources of joy. Possible?
Yes! This is the real — The joy of your salvation!
Oh God, grant me this mercy that like Jesus I shall not lose heart!
I receive and abide in your joy.
Read more of Volf’s interview published by RNS.
Reflections on John 2 and Jesus prophesying about “this temple.”
Borders define. Who is in? Who is out? Who belongs? Who does not belong? Who has power? Who does not have power? Whose authority are you under? Whose authority has reached its limit?
Borders easily become zones of violence. The authority to enforce and establish borders is usually external to a person. Border enforcement has to be granted. At a border it can feel like some bodies are worth less than other bodies.
Watch Jesus at The Temple.
13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
23Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.
24But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
John 2:13-25, NIV
Jesus walked right into the domain of the Temple border patrol. That’s why the authorities who observed Jesus clearing the temple courts were questioning him. He had run some bodies out of the Temple. He had made room for other bodies in the Court of the Gentiles. To progress through the thresholds of the Temple was to move across several border zones. The further in one went towards the Holy of Holies, the smaller the crowd. The Temple had clear borders: The Court of the Gentiles, The Court of the Women, The Court of Israel. The Court of Priests. Jesus had cleared the Court of the Gentiles, so they ask him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Throughout his ministry Jesus entered the border zones of Israel and disrupted their standard operating procedures. When he entered the Temple as a thirty year old he did not come with the questions and explorations of a twelve year old boy seeking to be about “His Father’s business.” Jesus entered and took up what appeared to his disciples to be a zealot’s reformation enthusiasm. They recalled, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
It was a busy day just before Passover when Jesus ran the sellers of sacrificial animals and the money changers for the temple tax out of the temple courts. He had cleared the Court of the Gentiles and was saying to them, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Perhaps Jesus had come there because the cry of the nations had risen up to the ears of the LORD. Now the persons of power were asking for signs, just as Pharaoh had asked.
What sign will you show us?
Jesus offered them one sign.
“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
His answer must of been shocking. The splendour of Herod’s temple was great. Even the disciples later sought to engage Jesus in consideration of its awesomeness. Those listening to Jesus blurt out, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
Only when they could look back from the Resurrection and the Cross did the disciples begin to get Jesus.
“But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
Jesus treated His body as The Temple. Jesus treated bodies as temples. Yes, zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him. Jesus ached to see people become gloriously occupied as temples of the Holy Spirit.
The Temple was a border.
The Temple was a meeting place of Heaven and earth.
The temple Jesus had spoken of was His body.
Jesus’ body is a temple.
Having come from the communion of God, He embodied His own authority.
Jesus’ body crucified and resurrected is His promised sign.
The body is a temple.
When Jesus cleared the Jerusalem Temple He was making room for bodies.
Jesus cleared the Temple to make room for Gentile bodies.
The body as temple is of utmost concern for Jesus.
You are of utmost concern to Jesus.
There is no body that is worth less!
Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?
You have been bought at a price!
Jesus has authority to make room for you.
But you have authority to make room for Jesus in the temple of your body.
The bodies of people at borders are temples.
The bodies of people at borders are sacred.
Where is our zeal for our Father’s house?
Jesus knows what is in a person.
Jesus can see into our temples.
We can’t easily see what’s in each temple.
But we can treat all bodies as temples, just as Jesus did.
Holy.
This the Way of all who are His Temple.
Temple politics are strangely differentiating.
So are borders.