Modern theories of relationships rest on ideas like compatibility. But this is the compatibility that matters: a common god, a common worship.
Personality quirks, thermostat preferences, the degree of melanin in the skin, no difference matters if you confess together the Nicene Creed, believe in the forgiveness of sins, and agree to submit to your husband and love your wife as Christ loved the church….
Read More“Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.” “Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.” “Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.”
Something happens when you say that a few hundred times in a day. You realize the problem is bigger than me or you, or the scandal du jour….
Read MoreLet this be said of the Orris household: “They keep no record of sins. With them is forgiveness. With them is grace, the grace of YHWH, Haniyah.”
In the moment of crisis, though, can you really forgive? Can you really forget? Can transformation happen?
Only by the command of Jesus. In our Gospel, there is failure. The wedding is falling short. “They have no wine.” This symbolizes the collapse of joy. The problem is brought to Jesus. This is always the solution.
But He seems far away. He rebukes His mother. He seems cold, distant….
Read MoreIn today’s vernacular, virgin is synonymous with loser. Something is wrong with you, the culture assumes, if you remain thus until marriage. God’s Word declares the opposite. He made intimacy for marriage.
Some are, indeed, called to celibacy. There is nothing wrong with remaining unmarried. Yet, married or not, God made us for community….
Read More“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” [Gen 2.25]. So ends the creation narrative. Our first parents did not know evil. They knew only the good.
They fell. And in falling, they hid. From God, and from each other.
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings” [Gen 3.7].
It was insufficient. They blamed each other. They hid from God. But you cannot hide from Him. He sees. He hears. He knows….
Read MoreOpposing wills disturb the peace of the household. The solution to this is only found in the prayer, “Thy will be done.” Here it is not the will of the man or the woman that prevails, but the will of Him who made both.
Today’s Epistle is from 1 Peter 2. What we heard drops us into the middle of a conversation about putting others ahead of yourself. In 1 Pt 2:18, God’s Word tells servants to “be subject to your masters with all respect.” Then ch. 3 opens, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.” All of this is highly un-American! We live in a culture of self-assertion, self-promotion. But God’s Word teaches a hierarchy inside the family, where the wife respects her husband as the head of the family….
Read MoreToday’s Gospel begins with Jesus “casting out a demon.” What are demons? The Epistle of Jude describes them as “angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode.” In other words, they are spirits who were part of God’s “host,” or military, but left their posts. Elsewhere God’s Word describes the demons particularly operating by telling lies, with the aim of destroying mankind. Some are very adept at damaging people through sickness and maladies. So Scripture gives us labels for different types of demons, such as spirits of error, spirits of weakness, and unclean spirits. The preeminent demon is sometimes called διάβολος, which means “the slanderer.” He is also called σατάν, “the adversary” or simply, “the enemy.” Every day bless yourself with the sign of the holy cross and ask for God’s protection against the demons….
Read MoreOur minds contemplate grievances and dreams, seeking our own will.
We are called to contemplate Christ and seek to be conformed to His will.
We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. If we gaze on images of uncleanness, we are conformed to that image. It defiles, and renders us incapable of genuine love.
We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. So what is occupying your mind? We naturally have many scattered thoughts held in the mind: things to do, things to buy, bills to pay, the needs of the day. We cannot spend the whole day reading Scripture and occupied in formal prayer. Yet the needs of the day will overwhelm us, distract us, conform us to their own image – if they are done separated from the contemplation of Christ….
Read More“Drain the swamp” is either a threat or a promise. It depends on which side of the swamp you reside. Turning a swamp into solid ground would require significant upheaval of terrain.
When the prophet Isaiah says the valleys shall be lifted up and the mountains made low, there’s a similar political aggressiveness to it. The explosive power to bring down a mountain is not trifling. The mountains are the rulers – kings and emperors; the valleys are the little people who pay the taxes and are fodder for their masters’ wars. Kings on mountains don’t take kindly to threats….
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