Brown's Daily Word 1/2/15

Praise the Lord for this first Friday of 2015 and the second day of 2015.  I conducted  a service  of death and resurrection for a beautiful woman who died and went to be with Jesus on the 27th of December.  She and her husband were married for 60 years.  They were blessed with 5 children, 14 grand children and 19 great-grand children.  So many friends and family members attended the service..  There was a mega-dinner reception after service at the church.  It was a time of both celebration and thanksgiving. 

    Because of the Christ of Christmas we get to celebrate the life in Jesus.  We get to celebrate the eternal hope in Jesus.  We get to celebrate the Joy of Jesus.  Even though there are tears and grief we gaze at Jesus through our tears, which act as prisms, and through them we see the beauty and the blessings of Jesus.   I love  short stories.  I love a little story by Somerset Maugham called, "Appointment in Samarra", which is about a servant who is living in Baghdad.  As the servant was out in the marketplace buying some goods, someone behind him bumps into him, and he turns around and sees death.  He sees what looks like a very frightening gesture, like death is threatening him.  So he runs home to his master and says, "Master! Master!  Death bumped into me at the marketplace.  When I turned around and looked at her she made a frightening gesture.  I need to flee.  I need to run. Would you let me take a horse?  I want to head to Samarra where I can hide from Death."  His master says, "All right, you can take the horse and you can go to Samarra."

    Later that afternoon the master is in the marketplace and sees Death, and walks over to talk to Death.  And he says, "My servant said that he ran into you this morning and that you frightened him.  Why did you frighten my servant?  Why did you make a frightening gesture?"  Death says, "I didn't make a frightening gesture. I was just startled to see him because I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.  I didn't know what he was doing here in Bagdad."

    Every one of us is going to die.  We don't want to think about that during the  Christmas  season but we're going to die.  By becoming human and dying for us, Jesus has defeated the power of death and the devil, and he's freed those who were held in slavery by their fear of death.  Because Jesus came to earth and lived and died, we don't have to fear death.  There is life after death when our bodies are raised and we live forever in the new heaven and the new earth.

    Jesus was born to a rather humble circumstance.  There were no lights.  There was no heat.  There was no midwife.  There were no pain medications.  There was no help and support of any kind other than  Joseph.  There, in that humble situation, Mary gave birth to a baby, wrapped him in strips of cloth, as was the custom in that day, and laid him in a feeding trough for cattle, a hay manger.  Yet the writer of Hebrews tells us that there was great glory in that birth, in the humanity of Christ, that Jesus Christ became human in order to bring many sons and daughters to a place of glory.  That begins right now and continues until that day when we're fully glorified, when we're raised together with Christ in new bodies.

    Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

  In Christ,

  Brown

http://youtu.be/yAyplzXmjVE

Brown's Daily Word 1/1/15

Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year 2015.  It has been a very bright day here in New York today.  I went to bed last night and woke up just before the iconic Ball Fall in Times Square, New York City.  Praise the Lord for this new year.  It is written in the Word of God that "He makes all things new".  It has been a splendid and spectacular day.  Alice and I walked this afternoon, under the warm and winter sun, in the cool wind, of New York.  I watched some of the parade from California.  Best of all this year, as every year, belongs to Jesus.  He is the Lord of history.  Praise the Lord we get to to the new year through Christmas. 

 

    We often greet each other saying, "Merry Christmas"  The etymological meaning of Merry is "Mighty"  We should greet each other saying, "Mighty Christmas".  Indeed, our Lord God who is mighty and magnificent yet always merciful is upon the Throne.  Yet, He is with us, "Emmanuel, God with us."  It is written, "The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us".  Eugene Petersen in The Message paraphrases this verse, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14).

    Two young men on a battlefield in World War II made it to the safety of a foxhole amid enemy fire.  As they looked out before them across the battlefield they perceived the horror of dead and dying men, twisted barbed wire, the earth scarred with deep holes left by cannon fire.  Some men were lifeless, others crying out for help.  Finally one of the men cried: "Where in the world is God?"  As they continued to watch and listen they soon noticed two medics, identified by the red cross on their arms and their helmets, carefully making their way across the perilous scene.  As they watched, the medics stopped and began to load a wounded soldier onto their stretcher.  Once loaded they began to work their way to safety.  As the scene unfolded before them, the other soldier now boldly answered the honest, but piercing question of his friend, saying, "There is God!  There is God!"

    When Jesus became a man He came to show us God.  He came in the midst of the loneliness and the horror of a world gone mad.  Despite the chaos and confusion Jesus announced that God is here.  God is here in Christ.  Christ has come among us to show us who God is and what God is. . . Jesus.  In the act of becoming human He identified with our pain, sadness, and loneliness.  He brought to us His peace and His joy.  Indeed, He brought to us the wonderful gift of reconciliation.  He broke the power of darkness.  He rules with truth and grace.  He is our Eternal Contemporary.  He takes our pain, our sorrow, and even our sin upon Himself.  He transcends it all and gives to us salvation, eternal life, and everlasting joy.

    Joseph Damien was a nineteenth-century missionary who ministered to people with leprosy on the island of Molokai, Hawaii.  Those suffering with that dread disease grew to love him and revered the sacrificial life he lived out before them.  One morning before Damien was to lead daily worship he was pouring some hot water into a cup when the water swirled out and fell onto his bare foot.  It took him a moment to realize that he had not felt any sensation.  Gripped by the sudden fear of what this could mean, he poured more hot water on the same spot.  There was no feeling whatsoever.  Damien immediately knew what had happened.  As he walked tearfully to deliver his sermon, no one at first noticed the difference in his opening line.  He normally began every sermon with, "My fellow believers", but this morning he began with, "My fellow lepers."

    In a greater measure Jesus came into this world knowing what it would cost Him.  He bore in His pure being the marks of evil, that we might be pure.  He bore in His sinless soul the weight of sin, so that we could be forgiven.  He bore in His manly frame the hurt and pain of injustice, that we might be understood.  God is here understanding our hurt and identifying with our pain.  He feels.  He hurts.  He cries.  He came, He saw, and He has conquered.  "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ and He shall reign for ever and ever.  Jesus became a man so God becomes touchable, approachable and reachable.

    Max Lucado wrote, '"Just call Me Jesus,' you can almost hear Him say.  He was the kind of fellow you'd invite to watch the Rams- Giants game at your house.  He'd wrestle on the floor with your kids, doze on your couch and cook steaks on your grill.  He'd laugh at your jokes and tell a few of His own.  And when you spoke, He'd listen to you as if He had all the time in eternity."  In the words of John Wesley, "The best of all, Jesus is with us".

 

    Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

 Dr. Howard Thurman,

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/4zAgEt6sCMA

Brown's Daily Word 12/30/14

   Praise the Lord for this Holy Season of Christmas.  Praise the Lord for the beautiful and melodious songs of Christmas.  I asked the congregation last Sunday what were some of the special elements of the Christmas celebration that they like.  One person said, "Music".  Indeed, all the timeless carols and the classical Christmas oratorios are among the finest parts of Christmas.  We praise the Lord that all our children and grandchildren were able to come "Home" for Christmas.  The House was full in every way.  I wanted to sing with our granddaughter Ada, who is 3 years old, "There's a Song in the Air".  She knew the words and sang along.  The songs of Christmas are so special that It is hard to put away the songs of Christmas so soon after the Christmas event. 

    I realized only recently  that the Christmas songs of the Bible are all -- and only -- in Luke's Gospel.  The first two chapters by Luke are a marvelous eruption of music, of glad songs of praise.  Elizabeth sang the joy of the Beatitude (Luke 1:42) --- "blessed" (Luke 1:42-45), expressing the joyful situation of those whom God favors.

 

    Mary responded with the incomparable Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).  Her song turns on four  themes: 1. Praising God for what He has done including His blessing upon Mary (Luke 1:46-48); 2. Declaring the power, holiness, and mercy of God (Luke 1:49-50); 3. Affirming God's sovereignty (Luke 1:51-53); and 4. Recalling God's mercy to His people Israel (Luke 1:54-55).

    Zechariah, at the loosing of his tongue, broke forth with the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79), praising God for remembering His oath to deliver His people.

    What then can compare with the Glorias of the angelic host echoing over the Shepherd's fields (Luke 2:14)?

   In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus is presented as  the Promised One, the Anointed One, the One who comes to redeem humanity, who altogether identifies with our  humanity.  Majesty came down to be with us in the midst of Mundane.  In the commonplace of man's everyday, our Lord God delights to break through, declare, and relate Himself to His creature. 

 

    No Gospel event shows this more vividly than that which holds the fifth Gospel song, known as the Nunc Dimittis, the song of Simeon.  There is no mention of an office, recognition, or special influence.  Simeon was merely a man who lived "in Jerusalem," " -- the center of Jewish religious corruption.  There was little true religion in Israel when Christ was born.  The doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees had spoiled that.  Yet there "in Jerusalem" was a man who lived as one of God's true ones, Simeon.  He was a common man, it seems, but he was "righteous and devout and the Holy Spirit was upon him" (Luke 2:25).

    Simeon was a man of great hope, "looking for the consolation of Israel," the consolation that would came through Messiah.  He marshaled to himself all the promises of the Covenant.  He anticipated them.  Simeon's was no empty expectation.  The Holy Spirit upon him had given him special assurance.  He would see the Lord's Christ before he died.

    The Temple was undoubtedly a familiar place to Simeon.  He must have gone there frequently.  On that day, however, especially that day, "moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts" (Luke 2:27).  It would have been exciting had the Holy Spirit somehow let Simeon know he would see Messiah that day, but the Bible does not express this.  Yet, the events of that day were clearly not accidental. Mary and Joseph, as faithful Jewish parents, brought their first-born son to the priest to conform to the Law.  They brought their offerings without apparent special feelings or awareness.

    The commonness of the event is clear.  Other parents with their babies were there.  It was probably a noisy, even congested scene of milling and hurrying people.  Nothing indicated Joseph, Mary, and their Son were special.  There was nothing intimate to the setting.  It is likely that it occurred in the open court of the women, beyond which Mary could not go.  The parents must wait there for the priest to come and receive their offerings.  So it is in that very ordinary, yet particular moment the Spirit moved upon Simeon.

    Simeon by the Spirit recognized Him - the Messiah.  Remarkably, Mary without hesitation gave her baby into Simeon's arms.  All was so ordinary, so natural, so common.  At the same time it was so extraordinary, so particular, so supernatural. It was all by the directing power of the Holy Spirit.  The church historically knows this psalm as the Nunc Dimittus, the Latin translations of the first two words, "Now dismiss...."  "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word."

    Simeon broke out in praise, announcing: "Mine eyes have seen..."  Simeon saw Salvation!  Though all the Christmas psalms rejoice that salvation had come, none is so grand and far-reaching as the song of Simeon.  Even Zechariah failed to grasp the breadth and consequence of what God was accomplishing in Christ.  He had sung of the God of Israel, of the "horn of salvation" for the house of David (Luke 1:69).

    Simeon too earnestly had looked for the "consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25).  He had known it would happen in his lifetime and he rejoiced in his own salvation and for Israel's (Luke 2:29-30).  He went on to say, "Thou has prepared [thy salvation] in the presence of the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel". (Luke 2:31-32)

Standing there in the courts of the Temple, Simeon beheld the Savior of those who could not go further in.  The "glory of Israel," yes, but the Savior of the Gentiles also, hope for all the world!  Simeon could receive no further word.  All his desires were satisfied.  His only request was, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; For mine eyes have seen thy salvation...."

     Praise the Lord that in 2014 we once again celebrate the Gift and the birth of Jesus.

    May we live and enter 2015 expectantly.  "Jesus has come."  This holy season -- and in every season - "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

In Christ,

 Brown

http://youtu.be/ZuZX2e493r8