Month: April 2020

Let us pray: Dear Savior, on this glorious day we once again join to celebrate Your kingship over us.  We join to open our hearts to Your gift of forgiveness for all sins and Your triumph over all evil.  You alone are worthy of praise all the time—no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in.  So, despite the condition of the world, may our praise make this Palm Sunday a special one for us and most of all for You!  Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST THE KING!

TEXT:  Matthew 21: 1-11

Dearly Beloved By Christ:

          By my count we have 7 people in our congregation who can remember a Palm Sunday during WWII.  I pick that time because during that war the nation and the world were in turmoil—much like today.  When bombs are dropping, armies are on the move, and people are cooped-up, celebrating Christ’s kingship and grace might seem out-of-place.  Those 7 people lived through such a time.  And yet, I would submit that it is especially at such moments that we can and should celebrate all the more!  For Palm Sunday isn’t about “happy times” or a church festooned with palms and other delights to the eye.  It is about honoring something and Someone bigger and much more grandiose than visual decorations.  It is about Christ and the hope and comfort that only the Savior can bring.

I

          Every one of you knows the basic facts of Palm Sunday.  You know that it was before Passover and pilgrims from across the empire had streamed into Jerusalem for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.  In fact Jerusalem’s population swelled so much that they had to rope off a huge area around the walls for the tent city of such people!  You know about the little colt that Christ told His disciples to fetch and how it all worked out.  You know the prophecy of this from Zechariah—and now was the fulfillment of it!—Yes, God ALWAYS keeps His promises.  You know about the spontaneous eruption of praise from the people and of course, the palm fronds waving in the air.  The Hebrew word: “Hosanna!” means “Save.”  So by shouting their hosannas they were really saying: “Save us, Lord!”  They anticipated God’s salvation in the form of the promised Messiah.  And save them He did a few days later.  God did it in a way that no one expected.  He did it through the cruel cross followed by the glorious empty tomb.  Sins were forgiven by Christ’s death.  Dead hearts were re-awakened by an empty tomb and a risen Lord.  What a heady moment in time!

II

          So, which Palm Sunday service would you rather attend—that first one outside Jerusalem, or the one today?  Would you prefer celebrating something that hasn’t yet occurred like they did?  Or knowing exactly what this day is entirely about?  Despite our current situation, I prefer today!!!  I prefer hindsight to foresight.  That’s because Easter is the prism through which God’s glory can be and is fully revealed.

          If the corona virus wasn’t impacting us and the church was full today, we’d all be happy and satisfied.  But would Palm Sunday be any less celebratory than it is today?   Would Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem to bring salvation to His people be more meaningful than His entrance into our hearts today?  We as Christians need to focus on today’s timelessness.  In WWII Palm Sunday was never a “downer” even for those Christians ducking bullets on the front lines. Same story, same Savior, same message of hope and joy.  Yes, Christ is worthy of everyone’s “hosannas” at all times. It is about the weight of worry being lifted off our shoulders.  It is freedom to voice the faith God has put in our hearts.  It is about the “lightness of being” which only Christ can bring.  And we all have it, right here, right now—even if you’re worshipping in your p.j’s!  For God still sees you, hears your praises, and is glorified by it all.

          Today is glorious because we get to join with the angel hosts in honoring Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the Savior of the world.  May that inner glow  never be diminished!  Time cannot diminish it.  Space cannot diminish it.  Wars cannot diminish it.  And neither can national lock-downs.  For our God is All Powerful and most importantly, All Loving!  And so, today we too shout: “Hosanna!”, save us, dear Lord!  Yes, our Lord reigns!  Let all the earth rejoice! Amen THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH…..

Pastor Thomas H. Fox

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, THE KING OF CREATION!

TEXT:  John 18: 38: “’What is truth?’ retorted Pilate.  With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.’”

Dearly Beloved By Christ: 

          Reality is based on our 5 senses.  For something to be real we need to: see it, touch it, taste it, smell it, or hear it.  But what about belief?  Is believing in something beyond our senses reality?  The unbeliever answers: “I don’t know.”  The Christian answers: “Yes!”  Satan is the prince of this world.  Even though he is outside our senses (usually) he wants us to rely strictly on our senses as to reality and truth.  This way he can try to torpedo anything to do with God.  He can get humans to write God and “God stuff” like truth, off as fantasy.  Our Warrior/King Jesus knows truth and He knows reality.  Pontius Pilate was an ally used by Satan.  He represents the world which hates God and Godly reality which is outside our senses.

                                                                      I

          Pilate was the Roman governor who  held Jesus’ life in his hands.  Jesus stood before him and was accused of a capital offense: the Jewish leadership claimed Jesus had said: “I am a King!”  And thus, a threat to Rome.  Jesus’ response to Pilate’s question on this is interesting: “You say that I am a king.  In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

          Did you catch that little phrase: “on the side of truth.”?  He’s talking about sides.  On one side is truth; on the other side is a lie.  A lie can be outright, blatant, a denial of truth altogether.  Or it can contain a kernel of truth mixed with a lie, a shading of the truth.  But on that side is the liar, Satan, and he has a ready ally, the unbelieving world.

          The world always accepts Satan’s lies.  It challenges anyone who does not agree with it.  The lies it accepts pretend to have answers to the big questions about life but spout nonsense.  John warns us: “Everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world” I John 2:16.  The enemy, not the Father, stands behind those lies.  St. Paul in 1 Cor. 2:14 describes such worldly truth this way: “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

          This world wants nothing to do with Jesus.  It bombards us with lies in social media, music, lifestyle choices—all sorts of stuff that goes against Godly truth.  Too often it conveys a life based on feelings and human emotions instead of what’s really real!  “What is truth?”  The world says: “Whatever you want it to be.”  And we struggle with that because it undermines our faith in Christ.  It goes against Christ’s very words which are: “If you hold to my teachings you are really my disciples and then you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

          Jesus came up against a cloud of rejection by people, religious leaders and politicians.  They all ganged up on Him here.  He really did speak “truth to power.”  “You say that I am a king.  In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

          And so, Pilate retorts very skeptically: “What is truth?”  Those are the words of a trapped man.  He is unable to recognize truth when it slams him in the face.  He mouths the words of the world.  He mouths the mindset of denying that anything is true beyond our senses.

                                                                      II

          The answer to Pilate’s question has always been: Jesus!  As He told His disciples: “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

          Jesus is the truth.  He is Godly reality.  He’s the only  one who came make sense out of life.  He’s the only one who can help us see straight because He’s our Creator.  Jesus never said: “I’m guessing” or “I wish” or “I think” or “possibly” or “maybe.”  He spoke with complete authority.  Think of all those times He said: “Verily” or “Truly I tell you.”?  He was certain about the truth.

          The Bible is God’s Word and it holds everything we need to know about this life and the one to come.  It’s dynamic and alive while the world’s “I feel” is a lying distortion of real truth.  God’s truth is perfect and complete.  The world’s idea is relative and changes constantly—but always shifts away from God.  God’s truth was  and is ultimately based on grace—His undeserved love for us in Christ.  It was and is grounded in the cross and the empty tomb.  Yes, in Jesus life conquered death, hope conquered fear, and forgiveness conquered hate.  That, my friends, is God’s reality of truth!

                                                                      III

          It’s also what it means to be a warrior of the cross!  We are “in the world,” but we are told not to be “of the world.”  And the weapon against the world is the “Spiritus Gladius” or the “sword of the Spirit” namely, God’s Word.  His weapon is all-powerful.  He used it to send Satan packing at various times.  That weapon has given us a Christian outlook on life.  It has given us Christ-centered common sense.  It gives us hope and joy, too, as we labor for Jesus.  This world is an unhappy place.  People flit from one fad to another, from one sin to another hoping it will satisfy them and answer the questions: “Why am I here and what is my purpose in life?”  But we possess Godly truth by faith in Jesus Christ!  We’re here to give glory to God Almighty!  We’re here to give Him joy by letting His light shine through our lives and dispelling darkness!  Yes, we’re here to show that God is forgiving love!  And that, my friends is the “truth that sets you free!”  Amen

THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH…..

Pastor Thomas H. Fox