Communion as Medicine

One of the frequent objections to taking Communion is that we are unworthy, that sin still sits in our hearts and thus we must refrain until we get rid of all our sin. John Calvin strips this objection of all its power. In fact, he argues that our sin is the exact reason we need to come to the Table.

"When we feel within ourselves a strong dislike and hatred of all sin, proceeding from the fear of God, and a desire to live well in order to please our Lord, we are fit to partake of the Supper, notwithstanding of the remains of infirmity which we carry in our flesh. Nay, if we are not weak, subject to distrust and an imperfect life, the sacrament would be of no use to us, and it would have been superfluous to institute it. Seeing, then, it is a remedy which God has given us to help our weakness, to strengthen our faith, increase our charity, and advance in all holiness of life, the use become the more necessary the more we feel pressed by the disease; so far ought that to be from making us abstain. For if we allege as an excuse for not coming to the Supper, that we are still weak in faith or integrity of life, it is as if a man were to excuse himself from taking medicine because he was sick. See then how the weakness of faith which we feel in our heart, and the imperfections which are in our life, should admonish us to come to the Supper, as a special remedy to correct them." (Calvin, Treatises on the Sacraments, p. 178-179)

Moses Prayed for Pentecost

And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, "Moses my lord, forbid them!" Then Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!" (Num 11:27-29)

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; (Act 2:16-17)

The Lectionary

Lectionary is a term referring to reading through the Scriptures. It can refer to daily readings or reading in worship. Throughout this post I will use it to refer to reading in the worship service.

Reading the Bible in worship is a vital part of the building up of the saints and honoring the Lord. There can be anywhere from 2 to 4 different readings. Some churches do an Old or New Testament reading. Others do an Old Testament reading, a reading from the Epistles and a reading from the Gospels. Finally, some churches do an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a reading from the Epistles and a reading from the Gospels.

There are two ways this can be done. One is called lectio continua. This means you read consecutively through books of the Bible. For example, one week read Matthew 1, the next week Matthew 2 and so on. The advantage of this type of reading is that the congregation gets to read through a book getting a feel for its flow and texture. This is very effective with narrative, such as I Samuel or Acts. It is not as effective with books like Isaiah or Romans because it is harder to follow this type of reading from week to week. The other disadvantage is that you may end up reading something that does not relate to the church year. What if you ended up reading Matthew 27 on Christmas!

The second way the Scriptures can be read is called lectio selecta. This means passages are selected that are linked together in some way. For example on Pentecost Sunday, the Church could read Ezekiel 37, about the raising of the dry bones by the Spirit, Acts 2:1-11 about the pouring out of the Spirit and parts of Roman 8 on the work of the Holy Spirit. The advantage of this way of doing things is that it helps the believer tie together various parts of Scripture, in particular the Old Testament and the New Testament. Also this allows someone to use Scripture readings to correspond to the various parts of the church year. So at Advent there are readings that talk about Christ’s coming from the Old Testament and His arrival in the New Testament. The disadvantage of this is that the congregation does not read through whole books of the Bible.

At my church we use the last method for Scripture readings in the service. Since we only have two readings, an Old and New Testament, we follow a lectionary that includes an Old Testament reading and a corresponding New Testament reading. For example, on June 21st we will read the account of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf from Exodus 32 and Paul’s use of this passage in I Corinthians 10:1-11 to remind us not to follow in their footsteps by worshipping idols. One great advantage of using this method is that it links the Old Testament and the New Testament. This is a sorely needed exercise in today’s church where most Christians read the Bible as a group of unrelated passages. It also follows the church year so that at Christmas we read Christmas portions of the Scriptures. I encourage my congregation to read the lectionary readings before coming to worship and look for the connection. Some are obvious, such as the one mentioned above. Others require some more thought to see the link. If you do find the link your understanding of how the Old Testament is interpreted by the New Testament will be enhanced.

We should be reading through the Bible consecutively as well. This is primarily done in our daily Scripture readings with our family. But even in worship I read through books of the Bible as I preach through them. I normally use the lectio continua method in my preaching. Before my current series on Proverbs, I preached through the first ten psalms. Before each sermon I read the Psalm I was going to preach on. In a few weeks I will begin preaching through Philippians. During this sermon series I will read straight through the book prior to the sermons. Both of these are lectio continua. Thus at our church we combine both methods.

Why Use the Church Year?

The church year has long been a part of most Christian traditions. However, for many mainstream Protestants the church year is a hangover from Roman Catholicism. Thus a vast majority of Protestant churches do not follow the church year, though they still celebrate Christmas and Easter.

The question of whether or not to use the church year is really a question of time and how to use it. Every church has special days. For many churches July 4th, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Thanksgiving all get special attention, often with a sermon. Other churches organize their Sundays around what the pastor is preaching on. For example, if he is preaching on Romans they will have songs and Scripture readings that correspond. Some churches have special events throughout the year, such as dinners, vacation Bible school, youth Sunday or mission Sunday. So the question is never does a church structure time, but rather according to what to they order their time?

What happened over time is that many churches chose to reject the church year feeling that it was unbiblical. But that did not eliminate holy days, rather it allowed civic and personal holy days to intrude into the life of the Church. Thus we have reached a point where everyone knows when it is Mother’s Day, but no one knows when it is Ascension Sunday. It is hard to imagine, even if we love our mothers, that this is a good thing! Slowly we have been taught by these holy days that what really matters is America and our families.

The church year helps us remember the ultimate reality, the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. While civic and personal holidays have their place in the Christian life, they are not primary. We are not primarily citizens of America or even members of our biological family. We are primarily disciples of Christ, members of His Body. The church year helps us to remember the life of Christ and teaches us about who Christ is and what He did. It also helps us order our lives in Christ-like or cruciform manner. Easter is not just about Christ’s resurrection, but points to our future resurrection as well. The Incarnation of Christ, which we celebrate at Christmas, reminds us that we are to empty ourselves for others as Christ did for us. As we go through the various church seasons we are reminded that true life is not found in politicians and country or in mom and dad. True life is found in Christ.

What is the Church Year?

At my church we celebrate the church year. The church year is a way of structuring time so that our church calendar follows the life of Christ. Here is how it looks with dates for the 2008-2009 year. I will follow this up with a post on why we use the church year.

1. Advent: This is a time of preparation for the celebrating Christmas. It also is a time to consider the 2nd Advent of Christ when He will come again. It begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The color for this season is purple or blue in honor of the coming King. (November 30, 2008-December 21, 2008)

2. Christmas: Of course, here we celebrate Christ’s birth. It is always two Sundays. The color for Christmas is white. (December 28, 2008-January 4, 2009)

3. Epiphany: This season begins every year on January 6th. Epiphany is the season we celebrate Jesus’ manifestation of Himself as God. The Greek word “epiphany” means manifestation. Often there is an emphasis on celebrating who Christ is by looking at events such as His baptism, His presentation in the Temple and the Transfiguration. The color for Epiphany is green, which symbolizes Christ giving life to the world. (January 6, 2009-February 22, 2009)

4. Lent: This season is the forty days preceding Easter. Sundays are not included because Sundays are feast days celebrating Christ’s resurrection. It begins on Ash Wednesday and is often a time of reflection and increased penitence. Many people fast for various reasons. Of all the seasons we celebrate this one is the most difficult to justify from the Bible. Primarily because there was only one fast day in the Old Testament. It is hard to justify 40 days of fasting in the New Testament, which is a better, more glorious covenant. Many Protestant churches, which celebrate the church year, do not emphasize Lent and some will even cut it out altogether and extend Epiphany until Easter. One fascinating note is that the Annunciation, that is the announcement to Mary that she was with Child, is celebrated during this time because it is nine months before Christmas (March 25). Thus even as we get ready to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection we are remembering His birth also. The color for Lent is purple. (February 25, 2009-April 11, 2009)

5. Holy Week: Easter is preceded by Holy Week, which is part of Lent. This includes Palm Sunday, which celebrates the Triumphal Entry, Maundy Thursday, which celebrates the Last Supper and Judas’ betrayal and Good Friday, which revolves around the crucifixion of our Lord. The color for this week is red. (April 5, 2009-April 11, 2009)

6. Easter Season/Eastertide: This is the greatest season in the church year. It moves around from year to year based on the spring equinox. It last 50 days and celebrates Jesus’ resurrection. The colors for the Easter Season are white and gold. White symbolizing the angels who announced the resurrection and gold symbolizing Christ’s triumph over death. During the Easter season we also celebrate Ascension Day and Pentecost. Ascension Day is the celebration of Christ’s Ascension to the Father. Pentecost is the Sunday we celebrate the pouring out the Spirit upon the Church. (April 12, 2009-May 31, 2009)

7. Ordinary Time/Pentecost Season/Trinity Season: There are several names for this longest portion of the church year. It runs from the day after Pentecost until the day before Advent. Here we celebrate the fulfilling of the Great Commission. The first Sunday of this period is Trinity Sunday, which the church celebrates the Holy Trinity. The color for this portion of the church year is green. (June 1, 2009-November 28, 2009)

Foreign Women, Stupid Men

I am preaching a series from Proverbs. This past Lord's Day I preached on the harlot and the various defenses we can use to protect ourselves from her. You can find the entire sermon here. Here is a brief sermon outline.

There are four sections in the early chapters of Proverbs that deal with this theme; 2:10-22, 5:1-23, 6:20-35 and 7:1-27. Solomon clearly felt this was a major issue in the life of young men. No other subject, outside of wisdom itself, dominates Proverbs 1-10 like the issue of adultery and the foreign woman. Reading the four sections one can see a pattern to how Solomon addresses the problem.

I. Wisdom Precedes Holiness-This is seen in the following verses; 2:10-11, 5:1-2, 6:20-23 and 7:1-5. Solomon begins his discussion of sexual sin in the same place he began the discussion of wise living (Proverbs 1:7), the fear of the Lord. All the practical hedges in the world will not a protect a man who does not walk in the wisdom.

II. The Harlot is Attractive-This is seen in the following verses; 2:16, 5:3, 6:24-25 and 7:10-21. Solomon does not pretend that the harlot is ugly woman with four teeth, who cannot string two words together. She is beautiful and flattering with her speech.

III. Her End is Destruction-This is seen in the following verses; 2:18-22, 5:4-14, 6:26-35 and 7:21-27. This destruction can be poverty, an angry husband or father and loss of reputation. Whatever it is, the man who indulges his lusts is sure to pay the price.

How to Protect Yourself
1. Stay far away from her-Proverbs 5:8 and 7:25-26. Notice that the man in Proverbs 7 went near her house. Also notice that in 7:26 all that she slew were strong or mighty men. If we hang around a woman like this we are sure to fall eventually.

2. A vigorous married life-Proverbs 5:15-20. Delighting in the marriage bed is a very helpful deterrent to adultery. We must not be Victorian. God expects us to enjoy sex with our spouses. He intended it to be good. The section in Proverbs 5 uses the word for intoxication. This should describe the marriage bed.

3. Remember the eyes of the Lord-Proverbs 5:21. We easily forget that God is always in the room. He always in our minds. He sees all the way in. Every second glance is seen by the Lord. We should be quick to repent when we do sin and strive to be more faithful.

4. Guard your eyes-Proverbs 4:25-27. How many sins in the Scripture came through the eyes? Eve, Achan, David and Ahab taking Naboth's vineyard. A vast majority of sins can be trace directly back to coveting and lust.

5. Guard your heart-Proverbs 4:23, 6:25 and 7:25. Jesus tells us very plainly in Matthew 15:16-20 that all our sins come from the inside out. One of the key ways we guard our hearts is by memorizing Scripture. (Psalm 119:11)