Christ Church

Hospitality Without Grudging

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INTRODUCTION

Hospitality is one the central expressions of the Christian gospel, holiness, and the glory of God. Hospitality is an essential way we are commanded to love one another, and we love because God loved us first in Christ. And this is one of the central ways God has determined to proclaim to the world that the Father has sent the Son and draw the world to Himself (Jn. 17:23).

THE TEXT

“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging” (1 Pet. 4:8-9).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Peter is encouraging Christians facing significant persecution and preparing them to face even more, and even in that context he encourages them that at the top of their list of things to do needs to be fervent, constant, earnest love for one another (1 Pet. 4:8). And the reason he gives is that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). This “covering love” both builds true unity, but it also ministers real holiness. And the particular application is to practice hospitality with one another without grudging, without complaining, without bitterness (1 Pet. 4:9).

WHAT IS HOSPITALITY?

The word translated “hospitality” is literally “love of strangers,” but given the context here and elsewhere, it clearly includes anyone you might come in contact with, especially fellow Christians in the church. Romans says something similar: “Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality” (Rom. 12:13). This is an expression of giving yourself as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1), humility — thinking highly of others first (Rom. 12:3), kindly affection, brotherly love, honoring one another (Rom. 12:10). All of this goes back to the second greatest commandment given in Leviticus 19, explicitly extended to strangers: “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:34, cf. Dt. 10:19). Christian hospitality is the natural response to God’s hospitality.

Elders must be men who are “given to hospitality” (1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:8). Scripture associates “strangers” with orphans and widows, the more vulnerable and needy (Ps. 94:6, 146:9). And immediately following the high call to worship God as a consuming fire, it says, “Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:1-2). Think of Abraham, Lot, and Rahab as examples. But Jesus says that the sheep who enter the kingdom will have received Jesus into their homes, when they welcomed strangers in (Mt. 25:35-45). All Gentiles were strangers from the covenants of promise, but are now fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God (Eph. 2:12, 19).

APPLICATIONS

So here is a list of scattershot principles and encouragements:

  1. Begin with those closest to you; practice small and grow. Remember that many things get easier with practice and routines. God has put people in your home, and it is hospitality to love them and care for their needs well. A man who does not provide for his own family is worse than an unbeliever, and don’t use hospitality to others as a way to avoid loving the people right in front of you. So make sure you’re on the same page as a family. Related, do not give what you don’t have (e.g. fellowship, time, money). We are called to give generously and sacrificially, but we are never called to give beyond our means (2 Cor. 8:12). But sometimes God uses needs to show you that you have more than you thought.
  2. Christian hospitality requires joy and fervency. In fact, the word Paul uses in Romans 12 he uses elsewhere to describe how he “persecuted” the church of God (e.g. Acts 22:4). When you pursue something with fervency and joy, you barely notice the obstacles and inconveniences. When you love a sport, or a vacation, or someone really important or dear to you, you are happy to endure the challenges for the sake of the gift. It should be considered a high privilege to provide food, friendship, encouragement, and hope our homes to those who bear God’s image, those for whom Christ died. Christian hospitality is always an invitation to Christ. May our congregation be known for our joyful pursuit of hospitality.
  3. The warning against grudging and complaining and bitterness is there for a reason. Hospitality takes work: being thoughtful, preparing, conversations, cleanup, dishes, and on top of it all, people can be challenging, rude, thoughtless, or just different. And this is why it says love covers a multitude of sins. Serious sin must be confronted in love, but lots of thoughtless or careless sin must be simply covered in love (and forgotten). This love also delights in and laughs at all of our cultural differences and quirks. Put away all envy, vain glory, and fleshly competitions.

Jesus is the friend of sinners, and He came eating and drinking with sinners in order to bring us home to the Father. We live in a world that claims to celebrate love, but it is an empty, hypocritical, self-serving, and conditional love. Christ has come and given Himself for us freely, and He invites us to His table every week in order to knit us together with Him in true fellowship, in order to draw the whole world to Himself.

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Covenant Vows (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

This chapter closes Leviticus by underlining the true covenant between God and His people through vows. Not only does God take His Word, and the obedience (or disobedience) of His people seriously (cf. Lev. 26), God takes the words of His people seriously. This is why Jesus cautions us against thoughtless vows. God keeps covenant, and His people are to be people of their word.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying speaking unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, when a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation…” (Lev. 27).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

When Israel swore vows to the Lord, they would promise to dedicate people or beasts to the service of the Lord or give an offering of equivalent value plus twenty percent (Lev. 26:1-13). Likewise, if a house or land were dedicated to the Lord, it would be considered holy to the Lord, and its value would be reckoned from the year of Jubilee with the fixed value of the tabernacle shekel (Lev. 26:14-25). Only the firstborn of animals could not be redeemed, along with those things devoted to the Lord (Lev. 26:16-34).

VOWS THAT HELP & HURT

Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people worshipped Him through paying vows (Dt. 12:6ff, Ps. 50:14, 61:8, 66:13, 116:14, Jon. 1:16, Nah. 1:15). These were promises of offerings in response to particular answers to prayer. Jacob vowed to give tithes to the Lord if the Lord kept him safe and brought him home again safely (Gen. 28:20-22). One infamous example is when Jephthah vowed to sacrifice whatever came out to meet him when he returned from battle in peace, and his daughter was the first to greet him (Jdg. 11:30-40). The context of Jephthah’s vow indicates that his daughter was dedicated to service in the tabernacle as a virgin (cf. Jdg. 11:39), not literally sacrificed, but it was still a great grief to the family.

In Numbers 30, God says that adult males must not break their vows, but that young women who are still in their father’s house still have the protection of their father hearing and confirming or annulling their vows (Num. 30:4-5). The same protection and forgiveness is granted to a married woman (Num. 30:6-7). But the vows of a widow or divorced woman stand against her (Num. 30:9). When a man annuls the vow of someone in his household, scripture says that he bears the iniquity and it is forgiven (Num. 30:12, 15).

This is why Psalm 15 says that the man who dwells on God’s holy hill swears to his own hurt and does not change (Ps. 15:4). When people swear a vow to the Lord, they are invoking His name, and therefore Jesus warns against making vows (Mt. 5:33-37). James warns of the same danger, lest you come into condemnation (Js. 5:12). And yet Paul took a Nazirite vow, and there is no indication of sin (Acts 18:18, cf. Acts 21:23). And Hebrews says that people may swear an oath to solve matters of contention (Heb. 6:16). So we conclude that swearing vows is lawful and sometimes necessary, but vows must be taken seriously because God will hold us accountable.

CHRISTIAN VOWS

Christians have determined that where the covenant stakes are high, vows are necessary, invoking God’s name, asking God to judge the parties for loyalty or disloyalty. A business contract is one form of this in order to avoid contention. Marriage vows are some of the most important and potent. The wise woman of Proverbs 31 says that her son is the “son of her vows” (Prov. 31:2), and the adulterous woman forsakes her husband by covenant (Prov. 2:17, cf. Mal. 2:14). This is why civil and ecclesiastical leaders also swear vows to fulfill their covenant offices faithfully and why we swear membership and baptismal vows as a congregation. The word “Amen” is also a vow and pledge of loyalty to the Lord (cf. Num. 5:22, Dt. 27:15ff).

APPLICATIONS

Some are tempted to get wound tight about reading the fine print on a user agreement, but the central point is that because we are made in the image of God, our words are powerful like God’s Word. The power of life and death are in the tongue (Prov. 18:21). The tongue is a fire that sets whole worlds ablaze, full of deadly poison (Js. 3:6-9). We live in a land full of foul words, cursing, and poison, frivolous vows and many lies, and it can be easy to get used to it. You can become accustomed to speaking disrespectfully to or about your husband or wife. You can get used to biting your children with criticism, being angry at parents, or just telling lies. But you are spewing poison, and you are asking for God’s judgment.

In our wedding ceremonies, we not only swear to keep ourselves only for our spouse in sexual purity and fidelity, we also swear to “love, honor, and cherish.” Harshness, bitterness, anger, and critical spirits are not a fulfillment of your vows to the Lord. Peter warns husbands in particular that failure to honor wives as the weaker vessel and a co-heir of the grace of life hinders prayer (1 Pet. 3:7). God promises to listen to your words and honor your words as well as you listen to and honor the words of your wife. Elsewhere, God promises to forgive us as we forgive others, and Jesus says that as we do “unto the least of these” we either do or do not do unto Him (Mt. 25:31ff). What kind of words are you serving Jesus?

The wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easily intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace (Js. 3:17-18). Yes, our culture is disintegrating in perversion and bitterness, but you cannot fight fire with fire. The only antidote to words of death and broken vows is the Word of Life and God’s covenant kindness and mercy.

Have you been harsh? Have you been critical? Have you made promises and not kept them? Some of the most potent and powerful words are words of confession and forgiveness. Forgiveness is God’s great covenant vow to us in the blood of His Son, and it is the central vow we make and keep that builds Christian culture.

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Sabbath Blessings & Curses

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INTRODUCTION

Christians frequently fail to recognize how all of life relates to God. While we rightly reject the “prosperity gospel” that treats God like a vending machine, we must also reject various forms of Deism that assume that God is not active in the world, personally blessing and cursing. While God’s wisdom is far beyond our understanding, and the secret things belong to Him, those things that He has revealed, belong to us and to our children forever, namely the covenant, God’s personal promise of blessing for faithfulness and cursing for unfaithfulness (Dt. 29:29).

THE TEXT

“Ye shall make no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I am the Lord your God…” (Lev. 26).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Having organized the Israelite economy and culture around cycles of Sabbaths, God explicitly links that way of life with the prohibition against all idolatry (Lev. 26:1-2). Idols always destroy and crush life; the Living God gives life and health and rest: you become what you worship (Ps. 115:3-9). The blessings of keeping covenant are not just “spiritual,” but they flow out into the land in real time from God personally: food, peace, safety, prosperity, fellowship (Lev. 26:3-13).

By the same token, breaking covenant with God brings His personal opposition, beginning with sickness, sorrow, and tyranny (Lev. 26:14-17). If that doesn’t get their attention, God promises to break their pride with successive rounds of judgment and chastisement that come in “sevens” like inverted “sabbaths”: first, droughts and famines (Lev. 26:18-20), then wild animals to ravage the land (Lev. 26:21-25), then enemies, violence, and starvation (Lev. 26:26-27), then the desperate cannibalism of a military siege followed by utter destruction (Lev. 26:28-32). Ultimately, the people will end up in exile heartbroken, but this will finally give the land her sabbaths (Lev. 26:33-39).

But if God’s people confess their sins and humbly accept God’s punishments, He promises to remember His covenant and not cast them away, even in the midst of judgment (Lev. 26:40-46).

BLESSINGS & CURSES IN THE NEW COVENANT

The first and most common objection to a text like this is that it only applied to Israel, their special covenant with God, and the Promised Land. The problem is that the New Testament repeatedly contradicts that. For example, Paul tells Gentile kids in Ephesus (Asia Minor) that the Fifth Commandment is the first commandment with a promise for them, “that it may go well with you, and you may live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:2-3). Related, the apostle tells the Christians in Galatia that men reap what they sow because God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7-9).

Even Jesus said that those who have given up families and houses and lands for His sake will receive a hundredfold back in this life (with persecutions) and eternal life (Mk. 10:29-30). Likewise, Jesus proclaimed blessings and curses in His own ministry related to loyalty to Him (Mt. 5:1-11, ch. 23, Lk. 6:20-26, ch. 11), and He warned of blessings and curses in Revelation, with specific warnings to churches (Rev. 1:3, ch. 2-3, 22:14ff). The New Testament also says that judgment begins with the household of God (1 Pet. 4:17). This covenant loyalty is faith, a living faith that works by love, and that faith is a gift of God, so that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S

Christians must never forget that God made this world, and therefore it matters to Him, and therefore it must matter to us. The earth is full of God’s glory, full of good things for us to find and cultivate and discover and use. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve and commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and rule it with wisdom (Gen. 1:27-28). That task has been significantly hindered by the curse of sin, but God’s covenant was His personal promise to take away that curse and bless with fruitfulness in the earth, and this promise has always been received by faith (e.g. Lev. 26:9, cf. Gen. 15:6). Christ is the mediator of the New and Better Covenant because He has become the curse for us, so that we may get back to work under God’s potent blessing (Gal. 3:13ff). If God is for us, who can stand against us (Lev. 26:8, Rom. 8:31)? But if God is against us, who can possibly succeed (Lev. 26:17)?

But what we sometimes miss is that this includes creation itself. Creation itself is in bondage or liberty depending on the state of man, and therefore, creation itself either eagerly submits to our rule or stands against us and fights us (Rom. 8:19-22). Sometimes Christians falsely believe that “Christian work” is only doing evangelism or worship, but Christian work is all good work done under the blessing of Christ, including care for animals, forests, industry, science, water, and soils. While “climate science” is full superstition, distortions, and lies, we don’t need them to know that our culture’s covenant treachery has certainly called for famines and plagues and destruction.

CONCLUSION

We should not miss the highly personal nature of the covenant God made with Israel. Not only is God the one blessing or cursing, but the goal is for Israel to “walk” with God and for God to walk with them (Lev. 26:11-12). But if Israel walks “contrary” to God, God is promising to walk “contrary” to them. In fact, the text uses that word translated “contrary” seven times, implying a sort of anti-Sabbatarian collision (Lev. 26:21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 40, 41). There will be no rest.

Our sin is not merely “bad,” it also puts us on a collision course with the God of this world. It is a personal attack on God, and an assault on His goodness and grace. You cannot cling to your sin and have things go well for you in the land. It is certainly true that sometimes God takes righteous people through horrific trials, but it also true that He judges and chastens sinners, beginning with His own covenant people. Sometimes God is walking contrary to His people because they are walking contrary to Him. And the only way out is through the Cross of Jesus.

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Liberty & Justice for All

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INTRODUCTION

Part of the advantage of taking larger sections together is seeing how seemingly different laws actually fit together. Here, we have a passage that begins with worship, flows out into criminal justice, and concludes with Israelite economic policies. The overarching point is that justice and economics are always thoroughly theological matters. We are always appealing to God or some god, when we adjudicate crimes, buy, sell, lease, or forgive. There is always an ultimate standard. It is not whether but which.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beat for the light…” (Lev. 24-25).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

God reminds His people the covenant with Him is their light and life, and so they were to picture that continually with candles and bread in the holy place (Lev. 24:1-9). Because God’s covenant is the source of light and life, His law prohibits blasphemy, and therefore, depending on its severity, can be a capital crime because it is an attack on life itself (Lev. 24:10-23). Related to this principle, was the requirement of sabbath years where fields were left fallow, culminating in the fiftieth year of jubilee (Lev. 25:1-12). In the year of jubilee, rural lands and houses were returned to their original owners, creating a fifty year lease/rent cycle, with the Levites and cities excepted (Lev. 25:13-17, 29-34). God promised that obedience to these laws would cause the land to be blessed, and that Israel would dwell in safety (Lev. 25:18-22). These sabbath years also included the forgiveness of debts and the release of debt slaves (Lev. 25:25-28, 35-46). But debt slaves could always be redeemed by their close relatives (Lev. 25:47-55).

OIL & BREAD, BLASPHEMY & JUSTICE

Jesus said that He is the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12) and He is the Bread of Life (Jn. 6:48). In Him is life; and the life is the light of men (Jn. 1:4). But this is not merely a “spiritual” or “religious” fact. He made all things (Jn. 1:3), and therefore it applies to all things. His light and life show the way to the Father, and that fellowship is light for the world (cf. 1 Jn. 1:7). His light and life are for justice, economics, finances, debt, planting, harvest, restitution, redemption, safety, and blessing.

We noted previously that murder is the one mandatory capital crime in biblical law but a possible maximum penalty for other crimes. That principle is underlined here, since they needed to inquire of the Lord to see what the appropriate penalty would be for the blasphemy (Lev. 24:12). The following verses, reinforce the lex talionis (“eye for eye”) principles of restitution, prohibiting all personal vengeance, and applied equally to all (Lev. 24:17-21). Between the blasphemy and physical altercation, this crime amounted to murder, and was not just a casual taking of the Lord’s name in vain. It was high-handed covenant treason. We see the results all around us of not learning the lesson here: you cannot have life, liberty, or justice for all apart from honoring the Triune God who is their source. Blasphemy laws are inescapable; it’s not whether but which.

SINS, DEBTS, & LIBERTY

When men reject the living God and His Word, sin does not go away, it merely gets renamed and new (false) gospels are invented to pretend to deal with it. Freud taught that since sexual sin caused guilt and shame, people should be free to do whatever they want so they don’t feel bad and do bad things. Secular statists believe that people commit crimes because they are poor or don’t have equal opportunities, therefore, the state must provide universal basic income and enforce equal opportunities, including things like abortions, universal day care, parental leave, social security, and reparations. Related is voting to legalize sins and crimes to try to make everyone feel better. The problem with all of this is that it doesn’t work. Giving into sin/approving sin never actually deals with sin. There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood, but it must be the blood of perfectly pleasing sacrifice (Heb. 9). And the blood of babies, broken families, and other victims cannot take away sin. Government programs are not real grace. But it is true that real grace deals with real sin in the real world and it affects everything from public policy to taxation to inheritance laws and restitution.

CONCLUSIONS

Jesus came proclaiming “the acceptable year of the Lord,” the great Jubilee (Lk. 4:18-19). He came doing this centrally through proclaiming the forgiveness of sins that He was about to accomplish in the Cross. This is not because He didn’t care about poverty or injustice but because He knew that sin/guilt is at the root of all of it. Remember that the seventh month was the month of the Day of Atonement/Feast of Booths, and the seventh years and jubilees (with their trumpets) were echoes of that. All liberty and justice flow from the Great Atonement in the blood of Christ.

This freedom and justice begin at the Cross restoring fellowship between God and man, but it flows out into the world. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is a prayer for Jubilee. Do you want liberty and justice in the public square? Then practice it in your heart, in your home, in the church. And remember that the foundation of it all is forgiveness and release.

Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer, our Great Boaz, who has paid all our debts and set us free, and He has set us free so that we might do the same for others. Practice forgiveness/grace. Practice sabbath and diligence in your work. Keep the light and life of Jesus central. He has purchased us and the ends of the earth for His possession. We belong to Christ, and He will keep us safe.

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The Feast of the Lord (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

Food is right at the center of world. When God created man in His own image, He put him in a garden full of food with a Tree of Life in the midst of the garden. And the recurring picture of salvation and redemption is a feast: “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees. He shall swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces…” (Is. 25:6-7).

The Bible closes with John’s vision of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). And at the center of the Christian life, Jesus has given us a meal, a feast of life and joy and rest.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying… concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts…” (Lev. 23:1-44)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Never forget that God brought Israel out of Egypt so that they might feast with Him (Ex. 5:1, 24:11). The Peace Offering was a regular sacrificial feast that Israel was invited to celebrate, but God also established an annual festival calendar. The first and foundational feast was the weekly Sabbath (Lev. 23:1-3). The Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread was in the first month commemorating the Exodus (Lev. 23:4-8). The Feast of Firstfruits was at the very beginning of the Harvest (Lev. 23:9-14). And the Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost) came 50 days later at the end of harvest, remembering the poor as they did so (Lev. 23:15-22). On the first day of the seventh month, there was to be a Feast of Trumpets, preparing for the Day of Atonement 10 days later, the one day of affliction and (presumably) fasting in the Israelite calendar (Lev. 23:23-32). Five days later, the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) began, a full week of feasting in makeshift tents, also at the end of harvest (Lev. 23:33-44). Finally, we should simply note that throughout these feasts are “holy convocations,” worship services, where Israel gathered together to hear Scripture, to sing, to pray, rejoice, and remember.

REJOICE IN THE LORD

Christians have frequently embraced a less than biblical understanding of joy. The foundation of Christian joy is the forgiveness of sins, and that is a joy that can never be taken from you. But then what do you do with that joy? The Bible requires us to rejoice always (Phil. 4:4). And in the same place, Paul says that he has learned in whatever state he is in to be content (Phil. 4:11-12). “All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast” (Prov. 15:15). And we should note that this rejoicing and contentment is what Paul is talking about when he says he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him (Phil. 4:14). So God commanded Israel to keep these feasts throughout the year so that they would “rejoice before the Lord” (Lev. 23:40, cf. Dt. 12:7, 12, 18).

So this is also why when God delivered the Jews from the plotting of Haman, they established the feast of Purim, “a day of feasting and gladness” and giving gifts as a memorial throughout their generations (Esth. 9:17-28). Memorials are reminders in space or time, and memorial feasts are reminders to rejoice always. Later, in the intertestamental period, the Jews took back the temple mount from their enemies and rededicated it, establishing the Festival of Lights or Hannukah, which Jesus participated in (Jn. 10:22). While we are certainly not bound by the Old Testament calendar (Gal. 4:9-10, Rom. 14:5-7) and the kingdom of God is not in meat or drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17), God wants us to rejoice in Him and mark that joy with feasting.

A BRIEF CASE FOR A CHRISTIAN SABBATH

While celebrating Sunday as the Christian Sabbath is not something Christians should quarrel about, a strong case can be made for the practice. First, we should note that God rested when He created the world, before there was any sin in the world, establishing a one day in seven rhythm that is embedded in the nature of the world. In the first giving of the law, this is the pattern that Israel was to follow keeping the seventh day as sabbath (Ex. 20:11). In the second giving, Moses appealed to the Exodus (Dt. 5:15), not because remembering creation had ceased, but because now there was more to remember, and the central command in Sabbath-keeping is to “remember.” Specifically, as Israel went into Canaan, they were to remember that they had been slaves with no days off, but God had made them His free royal sons who would now work for Him and celebrate a weekly holiday.

Isaiah prophesied that in the New Covenant all flesh will worship the true God “from one sabbath to another” (Is. 66:23), and Hebrews explicitly says that a “rest” remains for the people of God, and the word there is “sabbath” (Heb. 4:9). So the question that remains would be why do we believe that the Christian Sabbath is Sunday instead of Saturday? Given all of this, it actually makes tons of sense that Christians would immediately begin celebrating a weekly Sabbath feast and holy convocation on the day Jesus rose from the dead and remade all things (1 Cor. 16:2, Rev. 1:10). The resurrection marks the new creation and the new Exodus, and if God’s people celebrated the first creation and the first exodus as free sons with a weekly festival, why would we do any less?

CONCLUSION: JESUS, LORD OF TIME

Part of what we proclaim when we say that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, is that He is the Lord of Time. He is Lord of our calendars. People always keep time by their gods because our lives are timebound (e.g. ‘Sun’-day, ‘Moon’-day, Thors-day, etc.) and so we mark those things that seem most important and those memorials in time in turn shape us into certain kinds of people. This is why culture wars center on battles over the dictionary and the calendar (words/definitions and time). What is true? What must we remember and celebrate?

The gospel is gloriously historic. Jesus created the heavens and the earth in six days, and in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, to redeem us from the curse of the law. Jesus was born in time, on a particular day. He lived for about 33 years, and He was crucified, and on the third day, He rose from the dead. He was seen by many for 40 days, ascended into Heaven, and on the 50th day, He sent His Holy Spirit on the Church.

While the Roman Catholic calendar got overly crowded and burdensome during the middle ages, we stand with the historic church and the Reformers in wanting our lives to be shaped by Christ in time and so we celebrate the Five Evangelical Feast Days (Christmas, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost), the central events in the life of Christ, with the Lord’s Day as our weekly rhythm of rejoicing at the center. We work hard because we rest in Him.

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