July 2021 || Pastor’s Column

Acts of Worship: Being “Aliens” & “Sojourners” in Times of Cultural Exile

A Call to Worship:

Pastor: Glory to the Father in Whom all things began!
People: Glory to the Son Who became the Son of Man!
Pastor: Glory to the Spirit Who inspires and renews, the Lord our God forever! The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place?
People: He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
Pastor: He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
People: Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory?
Pastor: The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory?
Unison: The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory! [ Psalms 24 || ESV ]

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Brothers & Sisters,

As I sit on my patio with my mug of coffee this bright clear morning, being warmed by the bright orange ball beginning to rise over the horizon, I was thinking about the Psalmist’s words above in what is a clear Scriptural Call to Worship. And, as I do, I am also confronted by the morning news, by dozens of e-mails, never-ending “to-do lists” and left thinking about our place as “strangers in a strange land”.

This, however, is not a counsel of despair! It is a reminder to all of us, as believers, that every day we awake and move — even haltingly — is another day to worship the Lord our God. It is the opportunity to strive to grow into the salvation accomplished on our behalf by the completed work of Jesus Christ on the Cross for our sin, in the fullness of the Holy Spirit Who awakens us to saving faith by opening our hearts and minds.

It is another opportunity to take every thought, word and deed captive to Christ and to be conformed to the image of Christ. Awaken, greet the sun as you greet the Son.

As we hear the roaring cacophony of discordant voices, feel the pull of great and small temptations and struggle to fight the good fight, let us begin with worship of the Triune God Who created, redeemed and sustains us.

As I write this column, we have just celebrated this nation’s 245th Independence Day. We have heard the speeches. We have enjoyed the fireworks, the family, food and fun denied to us last year because of Pandemic lock-downs. We also hear the accusations, counter-accusations and criticisms of one side against the other and vice versa. The sights and sounds have not all been entirely edifying, and some, in truth, have been flat-out demoralizing.

Where does the Church of Jesus Christ fit into this vast mosaic of humanity? What is our role in the unfolding dramas of our times? How can we change or improve the situations in which we find ourselves?

On Sunday a month ago during worship, we celebrated and recognized our high school and college graduates and, as we did so, part of our theme for the morning was taken from Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I have been thinking a great deal about these words, their meaning when given to Jeremiah, and their continuing meaning for us in the present American context.

This prophetic verse has been a touchstone of hope for literal billions of people of faith since the words came from Jeremiah’s tongue and pen. And so they should. But the promise contained within in them is not unambiguously positive. It is a promise that does bring hope, but does so in the larger context of shared suffering, difficulty and collective responsibility for the sins of the Chosen People.

Jeremiah solemnly delivers the Lord’s verdict and sentence against His own people whom He loves and for whom He has a plan. The people broke faith with Yahweh, led themselves and each other into greater and greater levels of disobedience and sin against Him. Finally, God uses the great military and political strength of the Babylonian Empire to punish those same beloved Chosen People. He sovereignly allows them to be transported into exile in a foreign land for a 70 year sentence that will repay the numbers of Sabbatical years and Years of Jubilee that were ignored, or only weakly observed and celebrated.

They will, and DO HAVE, a hope and a promise for their good. But, it is a hope and a promise that will lead them through difficulty, trial and strife!

That promise they are given is annexed to the words of sentencing and command that Yahweh has Jeremiah deliver to them in verses 4 – 9 of the same passage:
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.

They will be allowed to return to the Promised Land. They, as a people, will still see the Messianic Promises fulfilled, and, by faith, they will enjoy the even greater promise of that yet-to-be-delivered Promised Land. But first, they must endure their exile as “strangers in a strange land”. They must remember what it means to be aliens and exiles relying upon God and His grace, and they must do so by seeking the good of the nation where God has placed them.

Brothers and Sisters, we believers in Jesus Christ, also live as “aliens and exiles”. Yes, we are citizens of this great Republic. Yes we have secular dreams, plans and responsibilities. BUT, and this is a huge BUT, these are achieved only when we are faithful and true to our call — when we remember that our citizenship is a dual one. We are residents of this earthly republic, but our PRIMARY Citizenship is in the Coming Heavenly Kingdom, and our allegiance is owed to the King and God of that Kingdom.

Indeed, we do have a “hope and a promise for our good, and not for harm,” but we have that hope as we enter each day worshipfully remembering that every day given us, is given by God’s grace to be used faithfully for the good of the world around us as we deliver to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and do the work of the Kingdom in which we have our citizenship.

As we return to some semblance of “normal life” in the wake of pandemic dislocations and travails, let us do so with public corporate worship, with daily lives of private worship that seek to make everything we think, do a say acts of worship of the King of Glory from Psalm 24. And Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory!

We worship love and serve the Triune God of glory who is our Father, reveals Himself through the completed work of His Son in the power of His Holy Spirit!

Grace & Peace to you in Christ Jesus,
Pastor Rusty+