The Safety of Sacred Routine
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For Jeduthun, the choir director: A psalm of Asaph.
1 I cry out to God; yes, I shout.
Oh, that God would listen to me!
2 When I was in deep trouble,
I searched for the Lord.
All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
but my soul was not comforted.
3 I think of God, and I moan,
overwhelmed with longing for his help.
Interlude
4 You don’t let me sleep.
I am too distressed even to pray!
5 I think of the good old days,
long since ended,
6 when my nights were filled with joyful songs.
I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
7 Has the Lord rejected me forever?
Will he never again be kind to me?
8 Is his unfailing love gone forever?
Have his promises permanently failed?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he slammed the door on his compassion?
Interlude
10 And I said, “This is my fate;
the Most High has turned his hand against me.”
11 But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
12 They are constantly in my thoughts.
I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
13 O God, your ways are holy.
Is there any god as mighty as you?
14 You are the God of great wonders!
You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
15 By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
Interlude
16 When the Red Sea saw you, O God,
its waters looked and trembled!
The sea quaked to its very depths.
17 The clouds poured down rain;
the thunder rumbled in the sky.
Your arrows of lightning flashed.
18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
the lightning lit up the world!
The earth trembled and shook.
19 Your road led through the sea,
your pathway through the mighty waters—
a pathway no one knew was there!
20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.
Philippians
8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
Let’s grab our bibles.
Today we are going to have a one off.
In light of the new year, stepping into the unknown. A time reflecting on what we didn’t pull off last year, a time of remembering the gym membership that is in our bedside table. Relationship that are not as we had hoped, plans are not as we had hopped, the invitation of Christianity is to find an anchor.
For Jeduthun, the choir director: A psalm of Asaph.
1 I cry out to God; yes, I shout.
Oh, that God would listen to me!
2 When I was in deep trouble,
I searched for the Lord.
All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
but my soul was not comforted.
3 I think of God, and I moan,
overwhelmed with longing for his help.
Interlude
4 You don’t let me sleep.
I am too distressed even to pray!
5 I think of the good old days,
long since ended,
6 when my nights were filled with joyful songs.
I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
7 Has the Lord rejected me forever?
Will he never again be kind to me?
8 Is his unfailing love gone forever?
Have his promises permanently failed?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he slammed the door on his compassion?
Interlude
10 And I said, “This is my fate;
the Most High has turned his hand against me.”
11 But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
12 They are constantly in my thoughts.
I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
13 O God, your ways are holy.
Is there any god as mighty as you?
14 You are the God of great wonders!
You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
15 By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
Interlude
16 When the Red Sea saw you, O God,
its waters looked and trembled!
The sea quaked to its very depths.
17 The clouds poured down rain;
the thunder rumbled in the sky.
Your arrows of lightning flashed.
18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
the lightning lit up the world!
The earth trembled and shook.
19 Your road led through the sea,
your pathway through the mighty waters—
a pathway no one knew was there!
20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.
We have just come out of THE most tradition laden times of the year.
We all have different parts of Christmas that we feel HAVE to be there of Christmas didn’t really happen.
a certain dish has to be at the table?
there needs to be an order to our celebration- for some of you the idea of Christmas gift openning in Christmas Eve is ferboden.
Others think it MUST be on Christmas Eve and what is wrong with those other people!
share---anyone want to share traditions?
Do you know how it started?
Now some of you maybe have been in other areas of the world or have grown up in other traditions that have not taken so strongly here in N. America.
Christmas Pickle - (unsure of origin) German?
Krampus - a demonic brother of Santa, who chases kids with a stick throughout December in Austria.
Roller skating to mass in Caracus, Venezthela- shut down the streets for safety
KFC in Japan 1974
Pooping Log ( Areas of Spain)
"the pooping log". Really. The Catalan custom is still celebrated in Spain, where you can buy your own el Caga Tio. The log is hollowed out, with legs and a face added. You must "feed" him every day beginning on December 8th. On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, put him in the fireplace and beat him with sticks until he poops out small candies, fruits, and nuts. When he is through, the final object dropped is a salt herring, a garlic bulb, or an onion. Oh yeah, there is a traditional song the family can sing to encourage the process.
Poop log,
poop candy,
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
if you don't poop well,
I'll hit you with a stick,
poop log!
I don’t know about you, but I think this is a tradition I could really get behind!
In our house there is one specific traditon that has taken hold and that is the tradition of Christmas ornaments.
OUR FAMILY
Every year since the year we were married Lalainia and I have brought ornaments for each other, and since the kids have purchased ornaments for the kids as well. And the ornaments are meant to do a few things.
They are meant to remind us where we have been, where we are and where we are going.
As we open them up each year we walk through our history together.
We have ornaments with ultrasounds of our children. Symbols that represent accomplishments. Some that represent significant historical world events that took place. We have a 9/11 ornament tat Lalainia created; we talk to our kids about them as we go.
Family trips to remind us of our times away.
We also
Interspersed throughout over twenty years of ornaments are a handful of crosses.
The crosses remind us that although our history together has had ups and down, we have fought through things together; sometime with each other, there has been a constant thread throughout our history.
A reminder that in the brokeness and uncertainty God and been our constant.
One of the crosses Lalainia bought me is called the mosaic cross. It reminds us each year that God is taking the pieces of our lives and building them together. The pieces that seemed splintered and jagged, broken off from anything seemingly good he has placed together, uniting them in himself and bringing even those pieces worth and importance.
I think that is what good tradition does.
Good traditions tells us where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
Where we are
Where we are going.
And because of that it gives us hope.
Without good tradition, we look back and see brokeness, failure, regret; and no larger story to frame these.
In The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner writes,
“It is mainly for some clue to where I am going that I search through where I’ve been; for some hint as to whom I am becoming or failing to become that I delve into what used to be.”
So there is, indeed, a time for us to look back, if that looking back carries with it a positive purpose.
That is why God is so concerned with establishing in his people moorings, anchors in our lives to frame our existence.
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and the life of the Hebrew nation, God gave feats and festivals, not only because God believes you should celebrate stuff, (which he does) but also because they were meant to be reminders that their history was being played out in the love and care and wisdom of God; that their experiences were not In a vacuum.
Passover
“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
succot
After God had saved the Hebrew nation fro man attack of the Philistines their arch enemies, Samuel the prophet took a stone.....
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”
So now you know!???
“Here I raise my Ebenezer “ it means to establish a memory of God’s Goodness and salvation.
altars
40 years after the first passover.....Crossing the border into the long awaited promised land, God led. Joshua and the Hebrew nation through the Jordan River by holding back the water so they could cross. At that point God told Joshua to take 12 stones from inside the river and place them at its side as a reminder of the miracle God had performed that day
he river and place them at its side as a reminder of the miracle God had performed that day
that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
Ebenezer
After God had saved the Hebrew nation fro man attack of the Philistines their arch enemies, Samuel the prophet took a stone.....
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”
So now you know!???
“Here I raise my Ebenezer “ it means to establish a memory of God’s Goodness and salvation.
Not to mention the days and feasts that God appointed for rememberance.
mentions
Days and Feasts
Sabbath
Passover
feast of firstfruits
Feast of Weeks
Feast of trumpets
The Day of Atonement
Feast of Booths
All mean to remind the people of God they were Worshiping and in the midst of whatever came their way give them an anchor and an answer to the voice of the other nations telling them to stop worshiping the God who had delivered them.
Sabbath- To remind them that their lives were not to be lived for work but work was to serve their needs.
Passsover- That they would remember and they’re children would be taught that their salvation was a gift, not reliant on their perfection but on their obedience!!
Feast of Firstfruits - to remind them that they are reliant on God for everything that brings sustenance and life. True life was not from the vine but from the creator of the vine
Feast of weeks- in which they were told to leave some of their harvest for the poor (we come across this in the book of Ruth as well)- reminding God’s people to be generous and remember that they were once poor and in need.
Feast of trumpets - which was a preparation for the Day of Atonement, telling to God’s people to live Jin preparation for God’s work on their behalf.
The Day of Atonement- a sacred assembly set apart to remember the free gift of forgiveness offered by the God. And he makes the point like we still need to learn today. While something as amazing as the God of the universe sets up a system for atoning for sin, and getting us covered, we should stoop working, stop moving and take it in!!
Feast of Tabernacles- was the largest feast and it was a REMINDER of God’s protection while the people Of Israel travelled in the desert for 40 years.
In all of these…STOP working.
It was a call for a drastic cutting off of anything that would make you think that your life is reliant on what you can pull off and that when God is at work and trying to remind you of something important please shout up and listen, turn of your stupid phone, your tv, your mouth and be silent and listen!!
Take time to quiet everything in your life and remember!!
Why is there always a call to stop??
Because he knows his creation so well!!
Try talking to a kid playing on their rectangular god of light and you know why God says, STOP put everything down and watch.....listen.....reflect!!!
They had a hard enough time even when they had no electricity or wifi. NOW how much more important is it to strategically cut things out so we can let God in!!
En they had no electricity
Tradition gives us hope
Tradition gives us
So if we agree that these are true, What is Paul talking about in places like Phillippians 3.
Well the very things that all good tradition fights against..
Unanchored reflection
can bring regret
Unanchored reflection can bring regret and a sense of being adrift.
Looking Regreat
That is what Paul is warning about in
Tha
8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
Elsewhere Paul compares our faith to a race. The writer of Hebrews does the same thing in . telling us to run with endurance, looking forward and not getting stuck on what is behind!
We do not do well when our focus is on our history, we do well when our focus is on His history!
“When a runner looks backwards, it is typically because they are afraid someone is catching up with them. They are no longer running to win: they’re running to avoid losing.”
When we look back at the ways we failed and at things we didn’t accomplish, memories that do not include the God, include the cross, we will find ourselves like the Psalmist in 77:10
“This is my fate!”
Who are you connecting your self with?
What are the things you said yes to and did not pursue (Baptism, study, mission
What are the things you said yes to and did not pursue (Baptism, study, mission
What do you see when you look back?
How are you running?
At the end of 2019, you are going to sit and you are going to reflect.
You are going to
What is your training like?
We love looking back!
We open up all our ornaments and place them on the tree.
we have ornaments that reprisent all our years since we first got married.
there are crosses throughout our past, that remind us of grace and God’s hand in our healing and strength.
Is there a cross is your story!
Have you established traditions, that cause you and your family. You and your friends
Look back for good reason. To see where we are going?
Pandemic
we played it a few times thinking t was too hard.
We were getting kind of disheartened because the game seemed to heard.
During our third game we were rereading the instructions, only to realize that we were playing the game unaware that we had already accomplished the goal of the game, and we’re playing without understanding that we had already conquered.
One of the things that Christian tradition does is remind us that the game, the battle is won.
Everything you and I do, everything you and I face play out in the fact that we have already won. In Christ...
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Why....because like all the traditions and remembrances in the OT, the practices church practices remind us that because of the work of Christ, the victory of the Cross, we play out our lives in victory.
This morning we are going to take communion.
A tradition, what we call a sacrament- meant to establish in our hearts and minds over and over a revisit of the story. A reminder of the victory of the cross that gives us mooring, an anchor through every battle.
A reminder that the cross is intertwined with every chapter of our lives.
The church does not practice baptism and the communion, covenantal marriage, or obedient abstinent singleness simply as some right of passage, or identifying mark of church culture (they are those things, but much more) They establish in us over and over the anchor and the foundation of our life. The fact that our lives belong to something and are sustained by something bigger.
In
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
What do you bring to this gathering this morning?
As you reflect on the year, as you review your year like ornaments on a tree, what comes to mind? As the stories accumulate, what is the larger story. Is it one infused with the story and anchor of the cross? Or was it like a game played without understanding what a win is?
As we come to the table together, the last thing we need is mindless practice. This is meant to remind us of our union with Christ. That in him and through him we find true life.
We are not in a rush. As the music plays in a moment, take you time. Reflect. Look over your year, your relationships, where your time has been spent, where you mind has been occupied.
Have you firmly established the cross in each those places?
In your home?
In your parenting?
In your sexuality?
Your finances?
Your time?
How about Sabbath? Have you pressed pause as God has commanded his people from the beginning, to rest and reflect, weekly? Or does that just happen if you remember?
Like all good traditions.... the sacrament of Communion tells us...
Good traditions tells us where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
It proclaims that we were once lost in sin, but in Christ we have found life, new identity as children of the living God.
It reminds us that in the words of the NT we are IN CHRIST, our hope, our lives are connected to him in faith.
It also re-iterates the fact that he will one day come again, to rule and reign over all he has created, and make all that is wrong, right.
It reminds us that we are on the right side of history and the right side of the future.
So let us take communion together- we will worship and when you are ready come forward on the right side here.......
Let’s pray.