Larry Devich
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Baptism in Ezekiel
This morning's lectionary readings included this passage from Exekiel which I think points clearly toward baptism in the New Testament. After all in baptism God gives us a "new heart" and cleans us and gives us a new spirit. How wonderful to see it all promised ahead of time!
Ezekiel 36:22-32 (ESV)
I Will Put My Spirit Within You
22"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. ¶ 1/13/2007 08:00:00 AM 0 Comments
Ezekiel 36:22-32 (ESV)
I Will Put My Spirit Within You
22"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. 30I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 31Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. 32It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. ¶ 1/13/2007 08:00:00 AM 0 Comments
Not a Blog
This is my post from Friday, January 12, 2007 8:58 am when I couldn't get onto blogger, so I'm back on blogger and transfering it, sort of, back into the regular blog.
Welcome to my Not a Blog page. What is the point of Not a Blog? The point is that Blogger is not working this morning and I felt like writing, that's the point. So here I sitwriting and wondering why I even bother with Blogger at all. Sure, Blogger makes me look all professional, sort of :-) But it's not the layout of the pagethat matters really it's the words on that page, right? I hope so because here I go...
Welcome to my Not a Blog page. What is the point of Not a Blog? The point is that Blogger is not working this morning and I felt like writing, that's the point. So here I sitwriting and wondering why I even bother with Blogger at all. Sure, Blogger makes me look all professional, sort of :-) But it's not the layout of the pagethat matters really it's the words on that page, right? I hope so because here I go...
Last night, Thursday, January 11, 2007, Mike and I went to the San Francisco Symphony.One of the residents in my building has been giving me Symphony tickets for years, we are really spoiled sitting in the most expensive and primo seats in the house every time.
The weather has been very cold here of late, early morning temperatures have been dipping down into the upper twentys! I went out yesterday just after lunch and found me a nice heavy,long coat to wear at JC Pennys. The label calls it a "Duffel Coat" but Mike called it a "Pea Coat".That was the name that came to my mind as well, before looking at the label. In any case it was70% off so I only had to pay $47.99 for it. I wore the coat when we went to the city last night and it worked really well, it even has a hood to protect the top of my balding head from the cold wind.
Before we went to the Symphony we stopped for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen on Van Ness.I had Jambalaya and Mike had some chicken salad thing. We had a nice bottle of DaVinci Chiantito go along with it as well. Dinner was delicious as it usually is at CPK.The Symphony was wonderful, also something that I can say "as usual" about :-)
PROGRAM:1 - Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3, Scottish
For the Intermission, Mike reserved a table in the Lounge of the Loge section. Our tickets are always for the Logebut we have never reserved one of the tables before, we will be doing that every time now though. They havenice comfortable easy chairs and coffee/cocktail tables. When you leave the hall at intermission your drinks arethere at your table waiting for you. You just walk out and sit down and relax, watching the peasants from thelower sections scurry about below you, standing in line for drinks :-) Ah, the good life...
2 - After the intermission was Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 with Sara Chang on Violin. Ms. Chang is a very energetic and animated violin player, it is a wonderful experience watching her play!
3 - The Finale was R. Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Here is today's refliction from Higher Things:
January 12, 2007 - Friday in the First Week after Epiphany
"Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’” (St. Luke 2:49) We know very little of Jesus’ childhood and nothing of His adolescence. That would be typical of Luke’s day. Children were to be seen, not heard, and moved into productive adulthood as quickly as possible. There was neither time nor luxury for the anxieties of adolescence. When an Israelite boy was 12 years old, he began to take his place among the men of the community. Today, the Jewish people celebrate this as a young man’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah (“son of the commandment”). Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were in Jerusalem with the rest of the family for the Feast of the Passover, as was the custom. After completion of the Feast, the family set out to return to Nazareth and discovered that Jesus wasn’t with them. Frantically, Mary and Joseph searched Jerusalem for Jesus. On the third day, they found Him sitting among the Temple’s teachers, who were amazed by His wisdom. His parents were understandably upset, and Mary momentarily forgot who her Son was. “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Jesus reminds her of whose Son He is. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” He is both Mary’s Son and God’s Son, true God and true Man; the mystery can only be pondered in the heart of faith, as Mary did. The young and tender Lamb appears in the temple on the Feast of Passover. Some 21 years later, He would make another, different appearance at the Passover, then offering His spotless, sinless Life for the life of the world. Jesus is the true Bar Mitzvah, the Son of the Commandment, who perfectly kept the law of Moses down to its last stroke of the pen. He was obedient to His parents, and grew in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and men. From the womb to the tomb, the cradle to the grave, and every day in between, Jesus embraces and embodies our lives in His life – even as the boy becoming a man, obedient under the 4th commandment, honoring father and mother, cherishing, loving, and obeying them. His faithful obedience is yours through faith in Him. And baptized into Him, you too are a faithful “son of the commandment,” perfected in the holiness of Jesus.“Within the Father’s house the Son has found His home. And to His temple suddenly the Lord of life has come.” (Lutheran Service Book, #410)Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 34:1-24; Romans 3:19-31Today's Reading: St. Luke 2:41-52
¶ 1/13/2007 07:45:00 AM 0 Comments
January 12, 2007 - Friday in the First Week after Epiphany
"Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’” (St. Luke 2:49) We know very little of Jesus’ childhood and nothing of His adolescence. That would be typical of Luke’s day. Children were to be seen, not heard, and moved into productive adulthood as quickly as possible. There was neither time nor luxury for the anxieties of adolescence. When an Israelite boy was 12 years old, he began to take his place among the men of the community. Today, the Jewish people celebrate this as a young man’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah (“son of the commandment”). Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were in Jerusalem with the rest of the family for the Feast of the Passover, as was the custom. After completion of the Feast, the family set out to return to Nazareth and discovered that Jesus wasn’t with them. Frantically, Mary and Joseph searched Jerusalem for Jesus. On the third day, they found Him sitting among the Temple’s teachers, who were amazed by His wisdom. His parents were understandably upset, and Mary momentarily forgot who her Son was. “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Jesus reminds her of whose Son He is. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” He is both Mary’s Son and God’s Son, true God and true Man; the mystery can only be pondered in the heart of faith, as Mary did. The young and tender Lamb appears in the temple on the Feast of Passover. Some 21 years later, He would make another, different appearance at the Passover, then offering His spotless, sinless Life for the life of the world. Jesus is the true Bar Mitzvah, the Son of the Commandment, who perfectly kept the law of Moses down to its last stroke of the pen. He was obedient to His parents, and grew in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and men. From the womb to the tomb, the cradle to the grave, and every day in between, Jesus embraces and embodies our lives in His life – even as the boy becoming a man, obedient under the 4th commandment, honoring father and mother, cherishing, loving, and obeying them. His faithful obedience is yours through faith in Him. And baptized into Him, you too are a faithful “son of the commandment,” perfected in the holiness of Jesus.“Within the Father’s house the Son has found His home. And to His temple suddenly the Lord of life has come.” (Lutheran Service Book, #410)Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 34:1-24; Romans 3:19-31Today's Reading: St. Luke 2:41-52
January 13, 2007 - Saturday in the First Week after Epiphany
Higher Things Reflection for today:
“It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your Name, O Most High.” (Psalm 92:1)
Music and praise go together. “He who sings, prays twice,” the church father St. Augustine once noted. What prompts our praise and motivates our music is not some inner drumbeat. Unless the Lord opens our lips, our mouths cannot sing His praise.
The music of praise rests on the wonderful works of God, namely His creation and His redemption. All the earth bows down to God and sings praise to Him. The rivers sing for joy, the mountains clap their hands, because God is their Creator, who made them out of nothing in the beginning by His Word.
Sadly, God’s foremost creature, man, has lost sight of his Creator and now views the creation as a cosmic coincidence, a fortuitous selection of seemingly random mutations. No longer do we worship the Creator, now we worship the creation, the essence of all idolatry. No longer do we gaze at the mountains or the sea and say, “How great Thou art!” Now we say, “How great we are!” That is the nature of our sin, the self turned inward, away from God.
The first article of the Creed alone cannot save us. Beautiful beaches and high mountains and starry skies cannot redeem the sinner. That is God’s other great work: redemption. He redeemed Israel out of Egypt by the blood of the Passover Lamb. He redeems the sinner from sin and death by the Blood of His Lamb poured out on the altar of the Cross.
Jesus is both Priest and Sacrifice, the Offerer and the Offering. Through Him, our prayers are heard – not because we deserve to be heard, but because Jesus intercedes for us before the throne of His Father. We may pray confidently that God will hear us, not because of any merit or worthiness in us, but based solely on the merits of Jesus Christ, who prays for us. That’s how we can say a bold and confident “Amen” at the end of our prayers, for we know that Jesus’ prayers are heard, and the Father hears our prayers coming through Jesus.
As a baptized, believing child of God, you are privileged to praise Him, to worship Him without fear, to come before Him with melodious hearts and voices, singing songs of praise to Him who called you out of darkness. Prepare to praise tomorrow, the Lord’s Day, and sing with joy to the God who creates and who redeems what He has created.
“Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!” (Psalm 66:20) ¶ 1/13/2007 07:08:00 AM 0 Comments
“It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your Name, O Most High.” (Psalm 92:1)
Music and praise go together. “He who sings, prays twice,” the church father St. Augustine once noted. What prompts our praise and motivates our music is not some inner drumbeat. Unless the Lord opens our lips, our mouths cannot sing His praise.
The music of praise rests on the wonderful works of God, namely His creation and His redemption. All the earth bows down to God and sings praise to Him. The rivers sing for joy, the mountains clap their hands, because God is their Creator, who made them out of nothing in the beginning by His Word.
Sadly, God’s foremost creature, man, has lost sight of his Creator and now views the creation as a cosmic coincidence, a fortuitous selection of seemingly random mutations. No longer do we worship the Creator, now we worship the creation, the essence of all idolatry. No longer do we gaze at the mountains or the sea and say, “How great Thou art!” Now we say, “How great we are!” That is the nature of our sin, the self turned inward, away from God.
The first article of the Creed alone cannot save us. Beautiful beaches and high mountains and starry skies cannot redeem the sinner. That is God’s other great work: redemption. He redeemed Israel out of Egypt by the blood of the Passover Lamb. He redeems the sinner from sin and death by the Blood of His Lamb poured out on the altar of the Cross.
Jesus is both Priest and Sacrifice, the Offerer and the Offering. Through Him, our prayers are heard – not because we deserve to be heard, but because Jesus intercedes for us before the throne of His Father. We may pray confidently that God will hear us, not because of any merit or worthiness in us, but based solely on the merits of Jesus Christ, who prays for us. That’s how we can say a bold and confident “Amen” at the end of our prayers, for we know that Jesus’ prayers are heard, and the Father hears our prayers coming through Jesus.
As a baptized, believing child of God, you are privileged to praise Him, to worship Him without fear, to come before Him with melodious hearts and voices, singing songs of praise to Him who called you out of darkness. Prepare to praise tomorrow, the Lord’s Day, and sing with joy to the God who creates and who redeems what He has created.
“Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!” (Psalm 66:20) ¶ 1/13/2007 07:08:00 AM 0 Comments
