On Friday, over a million people crowded London streets to see the Royal Wedding. It was called the wedding of the century? Over 2 billion people were said to have watched it!? I thought it was pretty interesting that the future King of England, Canada, Australia.....etc... was actually followed around and mobbed by other countries most especially the United States of America?? I thought it was interesting to hear people speculate about why things were done a certain way. For example: why was President Obama not invited? Why did he wear the "Red Coat"?...etc. Growing up with the monarchy and having been commissioned in the Canadian Armed Forces I appreciate the pomp and circumstance but this was not even a state wedding. Although William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are someday going to be the King and Queen, the heir apparent is still Prince Charles the Prince of Wales. For this reason it is not a state wedding, just a royal wedding. I also thought that the USA had problems with "Red Coats" yet William wore this color, not as an afront to the people across the pond, but because he is a Colonel in the Irish Guard, which is his highest rank in his Military service at this point. But the fairytale of a commoner, albeit a rich commoner, marrying THE future King is pretty exciting for many worldwide.
Today we look at the truth of the Covenant the Lord has made with us HIS people. In 1 Peter 2:9-10 the Lord says through Paul:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So we should pay attention to Royal Weddings but ours is with the Lord. Christ used marriage to explain the relationship he has with His Church in Ephesians 5
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Or in Revelations 19:7 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready".
This is not only in the NEW Covenant. God in the Old Covenant used the marriage relationship to express His relationship with His people.
Isaiah 54:5 "For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth."
Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion."
Hosea 2:19-20 "I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD."
He really wants this relationship with us and that is why Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our redemption and the empty tomb we celebrated on Sunday proved God cut the covenant with us through Christ's Blood.
God is not pleased when we do not appreciate the love and relationship HE has done everything in order to establish. He speaks quite clearly about how important this Covenant is to HIM in Malachi 2:13-16: Another thing you do: You flood the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. “I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
Or in the Gospel of St. Matthew 19:3-6 "Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
It is a reminder of Genesis 15 where Yahweh "cut the covenant" with Abram even while Abram was sleeping! Now it is time for us to appreciate the relationship and covenant HE has made with us and walk in the oneness of the marriage covenant with our LORD! "One flesh" is the biblical language of Marriage. In the Royal Wedding on Friday it was interesting that William said everything I am and have is yours to Kate. I think that is soooo important for us to appreciate in our relationship with the God of the universe that we "Yaddah," "know" in Hebrew, the intimacy that our God wants to have with us in Christ and that His love is everlasting and more amazing than we will ever truly understand. I know in the Lutheran Church we do not have Marriage as a sacrament (latin for mystery) because it does not offer the forgiveness of sins, although there is a lot of forgiveness in marriage all around:) but I think we should always appreciate the intimacy of being ONE! I know I love being married and the relationship I have with my wife and I know the Lord desires this to be an example of the relationship he wants with each one of us!
May we as the Royal Priests, a HOLY nation, a people belonging to God, understand the Covenant of Love the Lord has made with us! May we walk with the confidence, love and hope that comes from knowing the Lord and walking in His love, grace, mercy and power!!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Palm and the Passion Sunday on April 17, 2011
Today (Palm Saturday) we experience a preview of Holy Week, the Passion and Resurrection for our families! It is awesome to see the children learn what this is all about, make pretzels, crafts etc...
Tomorrow (Palm or Passion Sunday,) we celebrate the experience of the Procession of Palms and Balloons remembering the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in John 12:
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
We continue the service after processing in with palms and balloons to the song HOSANNA, with the reading of the remainder of John 12 hearing specifically of the words:
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up[g] from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
The prayer we have for everyone as we enter into Holy Week, with the conclusion of our reading through the New Covenant (Testament) is that we have gained a much better understanding of the Covenants God has made with us in the Old Covenant as well as the New. Starting in Gen. 3:15, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to King David and today Jeremiah 31 looking at what GOD does in Covenant with us and how HE gave us these promises and now we prepare to see life through the NEW Covenant we have in CHRIST JESUS through our relationship with HIM and in our Baptism. That we would see, feel and hear JESUS!
I have the privilege of sharing this message at ALIVE! in Tecumseh at 4. But if you are not joining us there please remember:
On Palm Sunday, April 17th come celebrate our Lord at Hosanna! join with Christians for a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic but ONE LORD from 5:00 to 6:30 at the Michigan Theater for HOSANNA 2011! This promises to be a fantastic time!
This HOLY WEEK we celebrate the truth and celebrate Christ's giving of HIS NEW COMMAND on MAUNDY THURSDAY (Maundatem: meaning mandate) in the words of John 15: (During the Last Supper which we will celebrate on Thursday in the Passover Seder Meal at 6pm)
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
After we celebrate the Passover Seder we will Strip the Altar as a reminder of Jesus' journey to the Garden of Gethsemane and HIS State of Humiliation.
On Friday evening at 7 we will have a Good Friday service where we leave in silence and contemplate the BLOOD of the NEW Covenant shed on the cross of Calvary!
On Holy Saturday we will not have a Vigil this Easter, due to the Pastor's health but we will spend this time in prayer!
Sunday morning we will Celebrate a late Sonrise Service at 7:45am with Easter Breakfast from 8:15-10:15 with Resurrection DAY Service happening at 10:30! There will be no Christian Education Hour on Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday. (There will be NO 12:15 Service this year.) We are going to Celebrate "Living life through the perspective of the NEW Covenant and the Cross and Empty Tomb" It will be awesome!
Please pray for the Palm Saturday celebration, Holy Week Services, as well as the students finishing up at EMU, Washtenaw Community College, Concordia University and U of M.
Please keep the Saturday after Easter (April 30) to join us in Spring cleaning at the Church. The Saturday after Easter, April 30th, we will have a Spring Cleanup Day inside and outside the building. We will start around 9:00 and have a cookout at noon. Bring your tools, rags and cleaners and lets make our Lord's House look extra nice!
On Sunday, May 1 we will have a shortened 12:15 Service with Worship, Prayer and Testimonies then there will be the BLESSING of BIKES with a BBQ and Fellowship time at 1:10.
May God richly bless you all as we prepare for HOLY WEEK and look forward to what the Lord will do and how HE will change our lives!
Pastor Bryan
Tomorrow (Palm or Passion Sunday,) we celebrate the experience of the Procession of Palms and Balloons remembering the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in John 12:
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
We continue the service after processing in with palms and balloons to the song HOSANNA, with the reading of the remainder of John 12 hearing specifically of the words:
20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up[g] from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
The prayer we have for everyone as we enter into Holy Week, with the conclusion of our reading through the New Covenant (Testament) is that we have gained a much better understanding of the Covenants God has made with us in the Old Covenant as well as the New. Starting in Gen. 3:15, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to King David and today Jeremiah 31 looking at what GOD does in Covenant with us and how HE gave us these promises and now we prepare to see life through the NEW Covenant we have in CHRIST JESUS through our relationship with HIM and in our Baptism. That we would see, feel and hear JESUS!
I have the privilege of sharing this message at ALIVE! in Tecumseh at 4. But if you are not joining us there please remember:
On Palm Sunday, April 17th come celebrate our Lord at Hosanna! join with Christians for a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic but ONE LORD from 5:00 to 6:30 at the Michigan Theater for HOSANNA 2011! This promises to be a fantastic time!
This HOLY WEEK we celebrate the truth and celebrate Christ's giving of HIS NEW COMMAND on MAUNDY THURSDAY (Maundatem: meaning mandate) in the words of John 15: (During the Last Supper which we will celebrate on Thursday in the Passover Seder Meal at 6pm)
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
After we celebrate the Passover Seder we will Strip the Altar as a reminder of Jesus' journey to the Garden of Gethsemane and HIS State of Humiliation.
On Friday evening at 7 we will have a Good Friday service where we leave in silence and contemplate the BLOOD of the NEW Covenant shed on the cross of Calvary!
On Holy Saturday we will not have a Vigil this Easter, due to the Pastor's health but we will spend this time in prayer!
Sunday morning we will Celebrate a late Sonrise Service at 7:45am with Easter Breakfast from 8:15-10:15 with Resurrection DAY Service happening at 10:30! There will be no Christian Education Hour on Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday. (There will be NO 12:15 Service this year.) We are going to Celebrate "Living life through the perspective of the NEW Covenant and the Cross and Empty Tomb" It will be awesome!
Please pray for the Palm Saturday celebration, Holy Week Services, as well as the students finishing up at EMU, Washtenaw Community College, Concordia University and U of M.
Please keep the Saturday after Easter (April 30) to join us in Spring cleaning at the Church. The Saturday after Easter, April 30th, we will have a Spring Cleanup Day inside and outside the building. We will start around 9:00 and have a cookout at noon. Bring your tools, rags and cleaners and lets make our Lord's House look extra nice!
On Sunday, May 1 we will have a shortened 12:15 Service with Worship, Prayer and Testimonies then there will be the BLESSING of BIKES with a BBQ and Fellowship time at 1:10.
May God richly bless you all as we prepare for HOLY WEEK and look forward to what the Lord will do and how HE will change our lives!
Pastor Bryan
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