Entertainment

What did people of ancient times do for entertainment?

. . . and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

An undisciplined people allow their passions to rule.
A disciplined people hear the Word of God and keep it.

Best to behold, receive, and hold dear the spectacle of the Cross, because there is no escape from your own passions without Christ crucified.

Oh. You do not want to denounce your fleshly passions. I see. You don't have it in you. The grave will help. But what, or who, will help you out of the grave?

Best to behold, receive, and hold dear the spectacle of the Resurrection, because there is no escape from your own passions without Christ raised up from the dead for you.

But how to receive Christ's life, and where?

It is by hearing, but you are deaf.
It is by seeing, but you are blind.

Uh Oh.

Yet He-Who-Makes-Ear-and-Eye partook of the same so that He might speak into your ears the Words of eternal life, and place before your eyes a called and ordained servant of the Word. For what purpose?

Only one: To forgive your sins and raise you up from the dead. To peel away your desire to rise up and play with other gods.

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Discipline and Un-Discipline

The discipline of the Christian Faith says, "Deny yourself."

The un-discipline of a fallen world says, "Be true to Self."

These two are completely at odds with one another, and that is why we do not all "just get along."

You can make attempts at reconciling the two. You can even "coexist" for a while.

In fact, many appear earnestly to pick and choose either of the above and make use of them as needed. A smattering of this teaching, a smattering of that teaching, but that is only self-serving.

In the end it is one or the other that prevails upon both body and soul.

Try as you might to think your Self to be separate from a body, and reality to be a monadic emanation without language and forms so that you can "rise above it all," like a drum stick on a wood block the reality of a true, physical, body and an ordered creation will humble you as you ought to be humbled.

To deny yourself is to depend upon Another. To deny yourself is to serve others. To learn these things is a gift from Above and cannot be conjured from your own heart.

That is why there is a Church, a body of Christ, with pastors and teachers. That is why together they pray and sing praises.

It is God the Father of the LORD Jesus Christ Who has placed you into this Body and kept you there, using simple means and words, just as He speaks and brings all history and creation into being.
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Good Impressions

There comes a point when efforts to impress others is a worthless pursuit. In fact, that point comes often and daily.

By "impress" I mean something different than "influence." I mean efforts to make others think you to be greater than you are.

Try as you may to escape those efforts, only an Outside Influence can strip away that pride.

And it needs to be stripped away and die.

I cannot do it for you, or even for myself.

It has been accomplished through God Who took upon Himself your nature in and through Christ Jesus to suffer and to be crucified and be raised up from the dead in your place.

The holy prophets and apostles attest to this, as do the ministers of His Gospel to this day.

No other source of life.

No other source of blessing.

No other real peace, whether in this life or in the life of the world to come.

The impression of His Name placed upon you is all that matters, and for the joy set before Him He has, and will endure for you.

Bless His holy Name.

Call upon Him in every trouble.

The rest, while not impressive, is what truly matters.
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Hymn of Light

Joyous light of glory: of the immortal Father; heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ.

Today you can flip a switch in a dark room and have instant light. For most of history that has not been the case.

Until Thomas Edison and others came up with a way to harness electricity, the only way to have light at night was to make use of that which governs the night from the earliest days of creation or light something up such as a torch, candle, or oil lamp.

We have come to the setting of the sun, and we look to the evening light.

This transition from day into night is the most dramatic and frequent occurrences happening on the planet.

You take it for granted, but it happens because the Creator, Who made all things good, blesses and sustains His creation. All of it. Just as He has done from day to day from the beginning.

That is something worth singing about, and so the Church does.

The Phos Hilaron, or Hymn of Light, happens to be the most ancient hymn currently sung in the Church. It's words are worthy of pondering any time of day or night, for they remind you of the true Source of every blessing, whether it be the seemingly simple things like day turning to night, or that which is yet to be revealed.

At the heart of all light is Christ Jesus, the Light of the World, Whose works on our behalf come down to raise you up and bring you to Himself.

Those works include most specifically His becoming flesh like you, suffering for you, dying for you, rising and ascending for you, and reigning for you so that you may live without fear of death while loving and serving your neighbor.

So, as the days go by, consider the Phos Hilaron carefully and slowly. Like the rhythm between day and night, these words have sounded forth in the conversation between heaven and earth from the most ancient of times.
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Quick Assessment

Some of the things you think so big are truly small.
Some of the things you think so small are truly big.

So what really counts?

Hint: Hidden in plain sight, but not a thing.
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To One Another

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. -James 5:16a

What could be more contrary to the ways of the world?

The world and your own flesh would have you trying to hide your sins, first from others, and then from yourself.

From this it is manifestly important to have an understanding of what is sin, and what is not. How are you going to know that? By hearing what God has to say of it, beginning with what is commonly called the Decalogue. The Ten Commandments.

Once you know, to whom are you going to speak? Here we are enjoined - that is those who belong to the body of Christ - to speak out to one another.

This appears to be anything but good news, does it not? What could be more negative than speaking and hearing of one another's transgressions, whether they be against God or against neighbor?

But this is not an exercise in psychology. It is the practice of speaking the truth in love, because there is a basis in truth for speaking forthrightly of wrongs committed, and of lavishing forgiveness upon the transgressor.

These things are actually what comprise life in the Church, the body of Christ, namely speaking what is true in every respect.

There is healing in the truth, because Christ, Who is Truth, suffered in His body in order to take away sin. Not just feelings of sin, but actual sin, along with its consequence of death.

Heed this admonishment and encouragement from James. Do not hesitate to speak to your brothers and sisters in the Faith where you have fallen short, because they will pray for you, and you will be healed not only of guilt, but of death itself.
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Church Family

It is not just a fringe benefit, but a characteristic of being incorporated into the body of Christ - the Church as expressed in a local parish - that we live, suffer, and serve together, bearing with one another, knowing that each and all are weak, yet each and all are blessed and sustained from day to day in the sure and certain truth that God is our Father through Christ Jesus, Who laid down his life for us and took it up again so that He may be where we are with His grace and favor, and we may be where He is forever.

If you do not belong to a local Church where Christ crucified and risen is preached and taught without wavering and without incursions of worldly lines of thought (like, "be your own muse," and "it's up to you to make your life better"), then you are missing out.

Good heavens, be where the people of God are! Be with those who sing His praises! Be with those who know and acknowledge aloud they are creatures under the hand of God who have no hope apart from Him. More than that, be where Christ Jesus is even as He has come to be where you are.

You will certainly not be disappointed or ashamed.

Conquered Culture

Some people ask how it can be possible that a Christian listen to, and enjoy, Rock-and-Roll music, along with many other things that attend current culture, and still remain a Christian.

The answer is that these things, having been redeemed and sanctified by the blood of Christ, do not own the Christian. Rather the Christian owns them, and can enjoy them as these are all in servitude to the Christian. The Christian can enjoy them without resorting to the fleshly indulgence these sources might otherwise invite. Yet the Christian at times lacks discipline and must return to the waters of salvation as God gives grace to repent.

Arts of all kinds, foods of all kinds [including beer], music of all kinds, and the rants of fools who know neither God nor His mercy - these all belong to Christians who can enjoy the fruits of labor on the part of unbelievers while laughing at their scorn at the same time. It goes with being a part of that select group baptized into Christ Jesus over whom death and all kinds of accusations hold no sway whatsoever. They know where they are going and why. It has everything to do with the mercies of God in Christ Jesus.

At the same time, Christians are rightly enjoined to think of, and praise what is good, peaceable, and kind. They are to make use of all things to the benefit of their neighbor, without aiming to give offense. They are invited and inclined to boast not of strength, but of weakness. The same weakness their Savior shares when it comes to His dire enemies.
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A Potent Priesthood

Believers are given to state clearly and unequivocally the same things they have received through the Word.

Abiding in Christ Jesus they speak as the oracles of God: confessing Who Jesus is, namely our High Priest, our Atoning Sacrifice, crucified and risen from the dead, living to all eternity that He might bring all people to Himself, having made pardon for our transgressions, having won us over while we were yet dead in trespasses, calling us through the Gospel, declaring aloud by the Holy Spirit His works on our behalf, applying His merits and righteousness to us, raising us up from our filth, washing us in Holy Baptism, feeding us with His very body and blood, and carrying us over the Jordan of the grave into the promised land where there are many perfect abodes.

And this, beloved in the LORD, is a pinpoint target for the forces of darkness. From these words will arise both fear and attack on the part of the enemy. Yet from these will those who were once dead in trespasses and sin receive life, comfort, and pure joy.

"I shall not then," he says, "depart to prepare mansions for you. There are already enough there. There is no need to make new homes for my creation. But I go to prepare a place for you because of the sin that has mastery over you in order that those of you who are on the earth will be able to be mingled with the holy angels. Otherwise, the holy multitude of those above would never mingle with those [below] who were so defiled. But now, when I shall have accomplished the work of uniting the world below with that above — giving you a way of access to the city on high as well — I will return again at the time of regeneration and 'receive you with myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.'"

-Cyril of Alexandria

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Why Wait?

Waiting to baptize a child until the child understands baptism is like waiting to feed a child until the child understands food, only worse.

Baptism is not simple water only, but water comprehended in God's command and connected with His word, so that it offers more than significance (yet signifies things of extreme import).

Holy Baptism delivers substance, namely, the merits of Christ's atoning sacrifice and resurrection for the sin of all flesh, so that those who are baptized are also joined to Christ. This is no more a thing to held up for prior understanding than are being created and being born in the first place.

Baptism is a constant washing, accompanied by constant teaching, discipline, and confession throughout a life of labor peppered with assaults of every kind, including the assaults of those who would make salvation dependent upon yourself, your reason, your feelings, and your understanding.

You are a creature under the hand of a Creator Who works according to His own Word and ways. Nothing can change that.

Remain within the waters in which He placed you, for they are life-giving waters of salvation.

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Not So Easy

Jesus is in the mode of the prophets, and the prophets are never ones to soft-pedal, compromise, or be vague. Any analysis of Jesus’ true message (not the selective and filtered modern version) shows that He makes expansive, uncompromising demands on any who would be His disciples.

You must repent and believe His Gospel. You must clearly accept that He is the only Light, the only Truth, and the only Son of the Father. You are to love no one and nothing more than you love Him. This includes your very family as well as the things most essential to your physical survival, such as career and livelihood. If you do not do this, then you are not worthy of Him.

You must take up our cross daily. You must be willing to suffer even unto death for Him and what He teaches. It is not enough to love your neighbor; you must love your enemy. It is not enough to avoid adultery; you must have a comprehensive sexual purity that excludes all forms of sexual activity outside of biblical marriage, even impure thoughts. You must forgive others who have hurt you or else the Father will not forgive you.

Time and time again, Jesus warns of Hell and the necessity to be sober and serious about judgment. Jesus is not some angry preacher. Jesus, who loves you to the point of shedding His blood for you, warns that many will be unable and unwilling to enter Heaven on its terms; few will take the narrow road of the cross. Not all who say, “Lord! Lord!” will enter heaven, but only those who do the will of the Father. Many will hear from Him, “I know you not. I know not from whence you come. Depart from me.”

There is no compromise, no third way. You cannot serve two masters, God and mammon. A friend of the world is an enemy to God. “No one who sets his hand to the plow and keeps looking back is fit for the reign of God. To your excuses and pleas for time in “getting your act together,” He says, “Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom!”

There is little we can call gentle or soft in the mainstream of Jesus’ preaching. Though He invites you as a disciple to know Him as the True Shepherd, the True Lover of Your Soul, who gives you the true Bread for which you hunger and lasting water to quench your thirst, He wants you carrying your cross, not reclining on your couch. Jesus heals many, but He insists on faith being operative prior to performing miracles.

Jesus’ plan for you involves a deep paradox; He challenges your every expectation. He does not apologize for offending your notions. He declares that if anyone is ashamed of Him and His teachings, then He will be ashamed of that person on the Day of Judgment. There is to be no compromise with the wisdom of the world.

All of this, though recorded clearly and consistently in the biblical record, is conveniently forgotten by the world. Most modern people prefer nuance and/or euphemisms; they prefer a suggestive and inviting tone. But Jesus, like the prophets of the day, combines a searing judgment on worldly ways with an uncompromising insistence that you choose sides.

Thanks be to God, dear Christian, that He chose you and appointed you, even baptized you and feeds you with His very body and blood, that you should bear much fruit. He has gone before you with His cross and baptized you into it, so that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light indeed.

-Adapted from Msgr. Charles Pope, with addition of last paragraph.

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A Potent Vessel of Clay

For a faithful Pastor to go into the world and preach the Gospel is an answer to all seven petitions of the Our Father, all in one, small, frail, yet ever-so-potent vessel.

Hallowed be Thy Name: A faithful Pastor teaches "all things whatsoever I have commanded" in truth and purity and thus brings the forgiveness of sins to poor sinners through the living Christ, keeping us mindful of the sure and certain testimonies proclaimed from Above from the beginning of time to the end of time. Unless God places and calls men in the world to teach these things rightly we would all be lost forever.

Thy Kingdom Come: A faithful Pastor - a man speaking the Word - is the precise means whereby all that pertains to the Kingdom of Heaven is made known to sinful human flesh; washing, feeding, absolving, with real forgiveness, for he is Christ's very own mouthpiece in a given place and time. The Kingdom of Heaven does not come without faithful Pastors.

Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven: Those who hear and believe the Gospel as preached by a faithful Pastor are completely changed from the inside out, bearing fruits while hidden under the cross, crucifying in themselves by the grace of God in Christ those urges from which they have been rescued - the urges that would damn and kill us forever.

Give us this day our daily bread: A faithful Pastor admonishes us to receive with thanksgiving all the gifts and vocations God the Father in Christ Jesus has bestowed upon us as we labor in this short vale of sweat and tears. To the extent we are encouraged in this and more, daily bread indeed flows forth abundantly, yet would do so even without our prayer.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us: The forgiveness of sins is chiefly what a faithful Pastor is all about, for he preaches Christ crucified not as a spectacle or point of philosophical contention, but as Our True Substitute who, because He lives and has proven a perfect sacrifice for our wholly scurrilous nature, has made all things new.

Lead us not into temptation: The faithful Pastor leads the flock to quiet waters to still the soul, showing us in splendid specificity what is right and what is wrong, not only so that we clearly understand our need for a Savior, but so that we know how to serve our neighbor in joy and carry on with full enjoyment of what is good, right, and beautiful in this world.

But deliver us from evil: From Holy Baptism, to the Lord's Supper, to Holy Absolution, and all that pertains to participating in the Body of Christ, the faithful Pastor is ultimately God's chosen instrument in bringing poor sinners out of the sure and certain prospect of damnation into holy perfection through the merits of God's own dear Son.

The grace of God is such that He answers before we even ask. Yet He has taught us to pray this way, and look how He answers! Yes.
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Therefore Water

Therefore you will joyously draw water
From the springs of salvation.

Baptism into Christ Jesus completely and forever changes your state of being in the presence of God. Where once you were an enemy, you are now His child. When once you were unclean, you are now cleansed. Where once there was only sin, now there is forgiveness of sin. Where once there was only death, now there is eternal life.

How is this so? Because there is salvation in these waters. There is salvation in these waters because Christ Jesus is bound to them not only through His own baptism in the Jordan, at which time the heavens were opened, but also through His baptism in becoming sin. He Who knew no sin became sin. Your Father in heaven saw to it that the springs of salvation would be joyously drawn and poured over you.

Yes. From the time those waters of salvation were drawn and poured over your whole person, body, soul, and spirit, your state of being has been that of a child of God. That is why, as you traverse your days in this condition, matters of sin and death are of grave concern to you; that as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death you are comforted; that the still waters drawn from the spring of Salvation bring joy in the face of adversity; comfort in times of trouble.

Baptism cannot be reversed, but it can be forgotten. And yet, here you are in the presence of God’s Word, whereby He brings these things to your remembrance, for it is important that this gift of being joined to Christ Jesus in His death and resurrection, of being covered in His perfect righteousness, be an ever present source of joy and strength, an unchanging and unchangeable state of being because God is gracious toward you, not wanting you to perish but to have everlasting life.

Whenever a baptism into Christ Jesus takes place there is joy both in heaven and on earth, for it is by this means that God the Father snatches poor sinners out of the jaws of death, placing them into Jesus who has already died your death and now lives and rules to all eternity for you. The water is drawn joyously. It is poured over you abundantly, and it is declared to you simply, elegantly, and in all truth. You name is now God's name. Your life is now hidden in Christ Jesus.

No, there may not be a lot of amazing feelings, or even a lots of amazing tricks, tips, feats, and outward wonders, but where the waters of Holy Baptism are drawn and applied, the full gifts of all that belong to Christ and His church are freely given without prior expectations on your part, for no dead person ever brought himself to life. It is the work of God, since He has raised Christ Jesus from the dead, also to bring you who were dead to life.

Without question you have a battle on your hands on this account, but it is not yours to fight by your own reason or strength. Rather, Christ is at work in you to will and to do His good pleasure, tenderly drawing you forward in love, able to sympathize with your weakness, for He has born them in His own body unto death. Yet He lives. In you.

Not all the water in the world - of which there is great abundance and which is a gracious provision for bodily needs and beauty - but the water drawn from the springs of salvation. The water comprehended in and connected with the Word and promises of God, Who does not lie but is faithful. That is the water joyously drawn from the springs of salvation with which you are baptized.

(The Fourth Sunday in Lent; Ruth Eleanor Osbun) + + +

Flesh and Blood Still Matter

Both Adam and Christ are real flesh and blood. God deals with you bodily and there will be a resurrection of the body. The Holy Spirit, together with the Father and Christ Jesus (for they are One), sanctifies body and soul, visible and invisible.

There is no need to create some kind of dichotomy between the two (or three as some would state it, body, soul, and spirit). God is, and deals with, all of it out of love because He is and always will be love. Sacrificial love. Love with true and real flesh and blood.

If the flesh were inherently bad, then why was it created in the first place, and why did Christ Himself take it upon Himself to suffer and die in the flesh for our sins? How is the forgiveness of sin and righteousness of Christ going to be delivered into our bodies without bodily hearing, washing, and yes, eating?

The lives we are given to live in Christ are lived with our bodies as well, for they are now given to love and serve our neighbor, not merely with spiritual thoughts, but in deeds done with our bodies of flesh and blood.

No, it is not the act of eating the body of Christ that makes us righteous. His life and body have been given up for us, raised up for us, and are now delivered to us both by hearing, by washing of baptism, and by supper, each of which have been specifically established to strengthen and encourage you who walk in the valley of the shadow of death. His disciples are not only cordially invited, but urged to receive these gifts.

God does not deal with us in flim-flam, think-it-up, self-help ways. Never has. Never will. He deals with us by making known His mercies from of old and delivering them wholly and completely into our entire being.

The Kingdom of heaven is often described as a feast. But you, like the disciples take offense at what Christ says of Himself, His flesh, His body.

“See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

“Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples ventured to question Him, ‘Who are You?’ knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead.”

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Flesh and Bood Matter

The Holy Spirit Who dwells in us testifies to us that, in His body of flesh and blood, Christ Jesus laid down His life and took it up again, not for His own sake, but for ours, who through fear of death have been subject to slavery all our lives. He has not divested Himself of flesh and blood, but retains it, for when the first Adam was made in the image of God, he was made of true flesh and blood, and given the Spirit of God as well. It is a "package deal," as it were, and encompasses all of creation. God loves and blesses it all.

"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham." (Hebrews 2:14-15, NASB)

Christ Jesus is the True Manna from heaven, whose body is given into death and raised up, but not before He, as God incarnate, institutes a way whereby we may eat and drink of this salvation, for He desires to impart His life into our bodies and souls unto life everlasting. Many take offense at this, but it stands nevertheless.

It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.

O LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, who for our sakes was crucified for our sins and raised up for our justification, grant Your Holy Spirit to your Church and Her pastors in order that, as we contemplate Your Passion, we may receive the benefits obtained through Your innocent sufferings and death and resurrection from the dead, for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
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