Tomorrow's service

We’ll be thinking about baptism and our covenant children tomorrow as we administer the sacrament of covenantal initiation to Sophia Faith Johnson.  The message will be based upon the two texts — one from the old covenant and one from the new covenant — that promise covenant mercy to us and to our children:

   “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Gen. 17:7)

   “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:39)

   Our Confession of Faith summarizes the biblical teaching regarding baptism as follows (ch. 28):

   Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church; but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world. (sect. 1)

Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized. (sect 4)

Propinquity

Why am I making such a fuss about us sitting as close together as possible when we meet together for prayer on the first Sunday evening of the month?  Am I just trying to be ornery or irritating?  Do I usually insist on insignificant things?  Then maybe (whether you can see it or not) there is something important at stake in my request.

Consider some other questions about physical nearness:

Why, when you child is hurt and crying, are you not content to simply say from across the room, “I’m sorry, honey.  I hope you will feel better real soon.  I love you?”  Why, for that matter, when they need comfort, do they run to your arms?  Love wants to express itself in nearness.

Why, when you “fall in love,” are you no longer content to keep your distance as an observer?  Why do you want to be physically close to the one you love?  Love wants to express itself in nearness.

Why, when you want to have an intimate conversation, do you not simply shout across the room?  After all, the other person would be able to hear you.  Love wants to express itself in nearness.

Private prayer is an intimate conversation with God — “a drawing near to God.”  And God responds by drawing near to us.  “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8).  Because the Spirit of Christ has no problem with spacial limitations, he can bring you near to God anytime, anywhere.  But even at that, we usually seek out a place to be “alone with God” — where the desired intimacy is reflected in our solitude.  Jesus speaks of praying to God “in secret” — “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matt. 6:6).

Not all of our corporate prayer can partake of that sense of intimacy.  Logistical considerations make it difficult for prayer within the context of our ordinary public worship services to have that intimate flavor.  We are assembled for more than prayer, and other factors dictate where we sit and how we pray.

But the kind of corporate prayer we are trying to encourage during the monthly evening congregational prayer meeting is different — we are trying (as much as possible) to promote a shared intimate conversation with our Father.  That is the main purpose of our assembly.  That being the case, I’ve tried to arrange the seating accordingly, and I’ve urged you sit as close as possible to one another.

Now I understand that some, for legitimate reasons (e.g., having to do with infants and small children) may have to sit farther back, and that’s OK, though I think most of the children are more fully-engaged when they are in the middle of things (I wonder, for example, if James would have entered into the prayer time the other evening if he had been sitting in the back of the auditorium looking at the backs and bowed heads of all the others who were praying).  

But for most of us, I think its more a matter of feeling a bit awkward — after all Americans “need their personal space.”  We are too often willing to remain distant “spectators” rather than full participants — and we choose our seating accordingly.

I understand, it will take a little self-sacrifice (in the form of moving outside your “comfort zone”), and the effort will have to be sustained long enough to make sitting closer together begin to feel natural, as it should.  But I think you will find it a blessing in the end.

We don’t use the word “propinquity” anymore (though it is a lovely quirky little word).  According to the dictionary it means “physical proximity; nearness.”  That’s what I’ve been talking about here — sitting close to one another in prayer is “intercessional propinquity.”

But the dictionary mentions two secondary meanings which are significant in light of my point in this post:

“Kinship” — As believers we are not only members of one body, one family; we are “members one of another” (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 4:25).  Our members function in close proximity to one another.  So should we — in prayer especially.

“Similarity in nature” — We have individually “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:17).  We have been given a new nature in him.  So ours is a “similarity in nature” given by one Spirit.  That similarity should make it easy for us to “draw near” to one another physically when we approach the throne of grace.

Together — close together — “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebr. 4:16).

Think about it…

Some fun at the work day

Thanks to everyone who helped accomplish a lot at the work day!

Our own Tom Sawyer contemplating his fence

Will work for donuts

Screening

It's a family affair

Sprucing up the hymnals

And of course there are always weeds

Work on the heater replacement moves forward…downward

Planning our next move

Entering into Christ's victory

For Christians as for Christ, life spells conflict.  For Christians as for Christ it should also spell victory.  We are to be victorious like the victorious Christ.  Did not John write to the 'young men' of the churches he supervised because they had 'overcome te evil one'?  Did not Jesus deliberately draw a parallel between himself and us in this respect, promising to him who overcomes the right to share his throne, just as he had overcome and shared his Father's throne [1 Jn. 2:13; Rev. 3:21]?

Yet the parallel is only partial.  It would be utterly impossible for us by ourselves to fight and defeat the devil: we lack both the skill and the strength to do so.  It would also be unnecessary to make the attempt, because Christ has already done it.  The victory of Christians, therefore, consists of entering into the victory of Christ and of enjoying its benefits.  We can thank God that 'he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' [1 Cor. 15:57].  We know that Jesus, having been raised from the dead, is now seated at the Father's right hand in the heavenly realms [Eph. 1:20-23].  But God has 'made us alive with Christ…, and raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms' [Eph. 2:4-6].  In other words, by God's gracious power we who have shared in Christ's resurrection share also in his throne.  If God has placed all things under Christ's feet, they must be under ours too, if we are in him.  To borrow Jesus' own metaphor, now that the strong man has been disarmed and bound, the time is ripe for us to raid his palace and plunder his goods [Mk. 3:37].

It is not quite so simple as that, however.  For though the devil has been defeated, he has not yet conceded defeat.  Although he has been overthrown, he has not yet been eliminated.  In fact he continues to wield great power.  This is the reason for the tension we feel in both our theology and our experience.  On the one hand we are alive, seated and reigning with Christ, as we have just seen, with even the principalities and powers of evil placed by God under his (and therefore our) feet; on the other we are warned (also in Ephesians) that these same spiritual forces have set themselves in opposition to us, so that we have no hope of standing against them unless we are strong in the Lord's strength and clad in his armour [Eph. 6:10-17].  Or here is the same paradox in different language.  On the one hand, we are assured that, having been born of God, Christ keeps us safe 'and the evil one does not touch us [1 Jn. 5:18]; on the other we are warned to watch out because the same evil one 'prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' [1 Pet. 5:8].

Many Christians choose one or other of these positions, or oscillate unsteadily between them.  Some are triumphalists, who see only the decisive victory of Jesus Christ and overlook the apostolic warnings against the powers of darkness.  Others are defeatists, who see only the fearsome malice of the devil and overlook the victory over him which Christ has already won.  The tension is part of the Christian dilemma between the 'already' and the 'not yet'.  Already the kingdom of God has been inaugurated and is advancing; not yet has it been consummated.  Already the new age (the age to come) has come, so that we have 'tasted…the powers of the coming age' [Heb. 6:5]; not yet has the old age completely passed away.  Already we are God's sons and daughters, and no longer slaves [1 Jn. 2:8]; not yet have we entered 'the glorious freedom of the children of God' [Rom.8:21].  An overemphasis on the 'already' leads to triumphalism, the claim to perfection — either moral (sinlessness) or physical (complete health) — which belongs only to the consummated Kingdom, the 'not yet'.  An overemphasis on the 'not yet' leads to defeatism, an acquiescence in continuing evil which is incompatible with the 'already' of Christ's victory.

— John R. Stott, The Cross of Christ, pp. 239-240

The best news you've ever heard on a Monday!

   Here is a welcome news-flash from the "all-of-life-sacred" file:

   The Old Spaghetti Factory is reportedly returning to its old location in the Gaslamp (275 Fifth Ave), opening on February 23.  So if, like me, you have been pining for Homeric spaghetti (with Mizithra cheese and browned butter) for the last four years, your redemption is at hand.

   LET THERE BE REJOICING IN ALL ISRAEL!

   It is so easy to eat and drink to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31) at The Old Spaghetti Factory — YUM! YUM!

   This reopening will reverse what was one of the great culinary mysteries — and disasters — in San Diego history.

   The only problem is that — once the word is out that they are back — it will probably take two months to get through the door.

You don't have to go far from home to see God's glory

Morning clouds looking east from Eastlake one morning in December

Imitating a giving God

   We are called to imitate the Lord our God, who is a most generous and faithful Giver.

   We live in the world he made and gave to us.  Our lives are sustained every moment of every day by his providential giving.

Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,   25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Ps. 104:21 The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.   22 When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens.   23 Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.

     24 O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.   25 Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.   26 There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

     27 These all look to you, to give them their food in due season.

Deut. 8:18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

But even more than that, there is the redemptive giving of our God in Jesus Christ.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Rom. 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

   Surely, as daily and eternal beneficiaries of his grace, we have every reason to be a giving people.