WEEK 1 |DAY 1 SUNDAY| APRIL 5, 2020
JOHN 11:7-8 | 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”
JOHN 11:11-16 | 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend
Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 2 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
John Calvin: “This is the wonderful exchange which out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that becoming son of man with us, he made us sons of God with him, that, by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that, by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that, accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transferred his wealth to us; that, by taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself, he has clothed us with his righteousness.“ (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.17.2)
The passion of Jesus shows us God’s passion for the world and for us. Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and the week that followed, is a window into the Divine Heart. His decision to enter Jerusalem and suffer the cross became inevitable once Jesus decided to raise his friend Lazarus from death. Lazarus’ resurrection meant Jesus’ final confrontation and crucifixion, because Lazarus’ home was close to Jerusalem in Bethany and pilgrims were gathering for Passover, a festival charged with Messianic hopes for release from Roman rule. Raising Lazarus raised the stakes and set prior plots to assassinate Jesus in motion. (See John 11:45-48)
The long quote from John Calvin describes the wonderful way in which each of us is like Lazarus. There is an exchange through our connection with Jesus, he takes responsibility for our weakness and waywardness and mortality and we are infused with his strength and goodness and divine life. His beautiful heart with its passions can grow within us. Turn Calvin’s quote into a prayer of thanksgiving addressed to Jesus.
DAY 2 MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020
JOHN 11:30-36 | 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
What passions existed in Jesus’ heart? He was passionate about the pain people feel when loves becomes loss. On the 23rd of March I lost my mom, Anne. She was my spiritual mentor and someone in whom the grace of Christ was very visible. I was fortunate to be allowed in to see her despite the lockdown at her nursing home, and I was next to her during her final hour. I remembered the emotion Jesus showed at his friend Lazarus’ death, and the courageous desire he had to free Lazarus’ family from their grief. I felt his comforting presence as I prayed, sang hymns, and recited passages with Mom. All throughout his ministry, Jesus was determined to comfort those who mourned. Blessed are those who mourn. They will be comforted. What blessing is there in mourning? What comfort?
DAY 3 TUESDAY | APRIL 7, 2020
JOHN 11:39 | 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
JOHN 11:43-44 | 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Two Questions: Does God have the power to overcome death? Does God have the desire to do so? In this moment we see God’s passion to deal with our mortality and vulnerability. Just as he healed deadly diseases and conditions earlier in his ministry, he is here focused on turning mourning into dancing. Our grief reflects our capacity to love others and develops our empathy, but the greatest blessing in mourning is the comfort that God can reverse and undo our decay, our dissolution, and our eventual demise. We should share God’s passion for life—its protection, preservation, and spiritual renewal. Memorize Verses 25 & 26 of John 11; Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die!”
DAY 4 WEDNESDAY | APRIL 8, 2020
JOHN 12:12-13 | 12 The next day the great crowd that had
come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!” Jesus enters Jerusalem. He does so knowing he will be seen as the Messiah by many and as a pretender by many others, including the leadership of Israel. The song sung to him by the crowd is a royal acclamation from Psalm 118: 25-27, and Hosanna here means “Save us.” We can see Jesus’ deep passion for the purposes of God in this moment. The leaders fear a military revolt that would bring down the wrath of Rome, the crowd hopes for one, our Lord will disappoint this expectation. His determination is clear in what he does not do. He does not go permanently underground as he was briefly in Chapter 11. (See Verse 54) He does not mount an insurrection and whip the crowd into an empire challenging frenzy. He does not summon a legion of angels to overcome earthly enemies. How can we see God’s purposes in what you refrain from doing? How passionate are you about the purposes of God?
DAY 5 THURSDAY | APRIL 9, 2020
ZECHARIAH 9:9-10 | 9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
JOHN 12:14-15 | 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it;
as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” Jesus was passionate about peace. The prophet Zechariah envisioned the coming of God’s Messiah in a radical and different way. He saw the coming king as a destroyer of the machinery and equipment for war, eliminating chariots, war horses and battle bows. He envisioned Israel’s king, in these two verses, as a bringer of universal peace for all nations. This figure came on a donkey colt. This image Jesus displays as he enters Jerusalem. John telescopes this but the other gospel writers detail the deliberate locating of this animal, the borrowing, and the secret signals involved in its procurement. (See Matthew 21:1-11) What does peacemaking mean to you? How else did Jesus, in his ministry, do peacemaking?
DAY 6 FRIDAY | APRIL 10, 2020
MATTHEW 23:37 | 37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
In refusing normal kingship and popular Messianic hopes, Jesus was saying no to coercion. Ordinary kings hold the power of the sword to establish their sway. They compel obedience and command loyalty or else. But Jesus shows us God’s painful passion for our freedom. It is our freedom that enables our love. Love cannot be compelled without being destroyed, regardless of whether this is love for another, for country, or for God. True love must be a gift given. Jesus warns Israel, repeatedly, about the disaster of missing their Messiah and misunderstanding the divine visitation. He contrasts the way of peace with a narrow nationalism and the consequences of refusing to follow his direction. (See Luke 21:5-7, 20-24). He warns, he teaches, he invites, he appeals but he never manipulates and never employs force. He longed for the nation to turn to God, expressed here in the image of a hen that gathers her chicks, enfolding and protecting them. But they will not. How do you value freedom in the way you treat others?
DAY 7 SATURDAY | APRIL 11, 2020
JOHN 11:47-53 | 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees
called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? 48 This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 So from that day on they planned to put him to death. No sentence in the Bible carries more irony than Caiaphas’ comment to his fellow priests and Pharisees: “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people then to have the whole nation destroyed.” Caiaphas did not know that one man was laying down his life deliberately. He did not understand that the nation would soon be destroyed, since Jesus’ path of revolutionary love was spurned in favor of a nationalism that feared and hated Israel’s enemies. He did not see that Jesus was the true Messiah and as the representative of God’s people would carry and overcome their guilt and shame— even the rejection of their own savior. He could not grasp that Jesus was the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, and that through him God was overcoming death and sin for all his children. What Caiaphas saw as mere political expediency was the moment where new life was breaking into creation. Caiaphas was unintentionally prophetic. Pray that your church leaders, despite our limited vision, will see how God is at work and further it.
WEEK 2 |DAY 8 EASTER SUNDAY | APRIL 12, 2020
ECCLESIASTES 1:9 | 9 What has been is what will be, and
what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
LUKE 18:31-34 | 31 Then he took the twelve aside and said to
them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. 33 After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.” 34 But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Traditional Easter properly understood, is the end of cynicism. Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, speaks for everyone who has exhausted life’s possibilities: “There is nothing new under the sun!” All that follows will be vain repetition, my life story will no longer carry any interest, bring any novelty, or enhance my sense of meaning or purpose. You can come to this view in two ways. Solomon’s route was by focusing his life on his own desires. His desire for prestige and status was futile because with time he would become largely forgotten, an historical footnote. His desire for pleasure would wane with age, his desire for success would lose it’s point because all he owned would be passed on to another. Solomon discovered that his desires were impermanent, unstable, and insatiable, and worst of all they always exceeded his experience. Making our lives about ourselves and our own story means they will inevitably shrink. A second route to cynicism comes when age, accident, or disease restricts the scope of our lives and so our possibilities become smaller. We all have restriction currently due to the virus, and it is hard! Jesus tried to teach his disciples, as we see in Luke 18:31-34, that he would die and rise. The end of his possibilities in the grave would give way to a new story for him and the world with his resurrection. Have you ever felt like Solomon? Pray for those who face restriction.
DAY 9 MONDAY | APRIL 13, 2020
JOHN 19:38-42 | 38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea,
who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. 39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. 40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42 And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. This Passage seems like the world’s old story of mortality and death marches on. The good and bad, the false and true, the noble and savage, all suffer the same fate, they go down, down, down into the grave. Full stop. Period. Jesus ends up in a borrowed grave, lifeless and hopeless. End of story, end of movement. Present tense to past tense. Yet Joseph and Nicodemus hint at the changes that are coming. These two were secret admirers of Jesus, afraid of censure, never publically admitting to a new allegiance. Yet here they go public by approaching Pilate! Scared to follow a living Jesus they now are desperate to honor a dead one. There is new courage in this moment and new resolve, even before the resurrection turned fear into joy. Do you identify with Joseph or Nicodemus? Have you ever downplayed or hidden your allegiance to Christ?
DAY 10 TUESDAY | APRIL 14, 2020
JOHN 20:1-2 | 1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
Why is Mary at the tomb? Why go in the dark to visit Jesus’ grave? Love has its reasons. Maybe she wanted to try and replace the trauma of the crucifixion with a new image, as we do when after a long illness, we celebrate a life and remember images from before the end. Maybe she had nowhere else to go. She is clearly in an old story, a grief story. She goes on auto pilot, repeating her sentence about the possibility of the body of Jesus being stolen, first to the disciples, and later the angels and to Jesus himself. She weeps and finds the empty tomb to be confusing. Confusion, tears and the repetitive responses of the stunned are all evidence that Mary knows profound loss and grief. She is living a tragic story. Pray for all those you know who are grieving. Pray for our hospital and health care workers who deal with death and loss so often.
DAY 11 WEDNESDAY | APRIL 15, 2020
JOHN 20:11-16 | 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the
tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Mary returns to the tomb and meets two angels. But she is so rooted in her grief she isn’t awestruck by a visitation from heaven. She mistakes Jesus himself for the gardener, not recognizing him, because her tears are blinding and death is so certain and so impossible to defeat. One word from Jesus changes all this. One word turns a grief and death story into a shock and awe story, a new life tale. “Mary.” One little girl remarked that she loved her mom because “My name is safe in her mouth.” Mary Magdalene, who had been healed by Jesus of mental and spiritual disease, recognized the voice of one who had valued and loved her when she felt broken and cursed. For Mary a new story begins, and she is the first to tell the disciples he is alive. What was your biggest ever shock? Are the names of people “safe in your mouth?”
DAY 12 THURSDAY | APRIL 16, 2020
JOHN 20:17-18 | 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and 18 your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
After meeting Jesus, Mary cries different tears! Tears of joy and wonder, tears of excitement and surprise. Her memories of Jesus had been colored by her loss. Now her Lord’s shame has been vindicated, his wounds and suffering overcome. Her trauma was now displaced and she could see that Jesus’ teaching about himself was validated and his promises given a new currency. All that had seemed lost was regained. And even more, she had become a witness of this great event. Twice informing the male disciples, first of the empty tomb and then of the risen Lord. His name now had a fresh and glorious resonance in her mouth. How does Jesus’ name sound in your mouth? How convinced are you of the reality of the Resurrection?
DAY 13 FRIDAY | APRIL 17, 2020
JOHN 20:3-8 | 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and
went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed. Peter and the “disciple who Jesus loved,” generally thought to be John, the gospel’s author, ran to the tomb and confirmed Mary’s strange story of an empty tomb. But they did not jump from “empty tomb” to the conclusion that Jesus was alive. They went back to lockdown. They were confused, forgetting Jesus’ teaching about his rise and return. There is a powerful momentum to the story of mortality. Every day hospitals fill with patients and morgues with corpses. My son Tristan is in Madrid, where this has become all too real for him. Even Mary’s testimony can’t convince the male disciples that Jesus is really risen and really alive. Do you fear death? Disease? Accident? How does this fear affect your life and witness?
DAY 14 SATURDAY | APRIL 18, 2020
JOHN 20: 19-22 | 19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Easter is the end of cynicism. With this event the disciples found peace and security amid their fear, and hope in the middle of their loss. They had a genuinely new story to tell the world! They knew someone who could overcome sin and guilt. They had a friend and master who could bestow God’s spirit on his followers. They had a commission from a living Lord and not just memories of a dead teacher. They had seen evil do its worst and darkness prevail, only to discover that the life and grace they had known in Jesus could not be defeated. They had the right man on their side and fear had no hold on them anymore. Are you living in a Resurrection story?
WEEK 3 | DAY 15 SUNDAY | APRIL 19, 2020
PSALM 33:1-3 | 1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous. Praise
befits the upright. 2 Praise the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. God commands us, through the Psalmist, to sing to him a new song! What is new about the song we sing to God? For one thing, the manner or style of our singing can be new. God is endlessly creative and he has given us the gift of creativity as well. In the United States alone there have been many new songs sung. The first American Psalter, with tunes by native composers appeared in 1770, put together by William Billings. Shape note singing developed in the southern U.S. Later spirituals and gospel music grew from the suffering and hope of African American slave communities. The organ and keyboard and trombone choirs accompanied Moravian music as far back as 1742. But long before innovation here, monastic communities developed Gregorian chant, and chorales and cantatas and oratories were written in Europe. Great choral music has been and is being written all over the globe, along with multiple genres of praise in current idioms and styles. God creates artists whose devotion develops music that inspires his followers. Thank God for our VPC musical artists and leaders. Pray God gives them creative and beautiful music to share.
DAY 16 MONDAY | APRIL 20, 2020
PSALM 98:1 | 1 O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.
ISAIAH 43:19-21 | 19 I am about to do a new thing; now it
springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. What is new about our songs? They celebrate new acts of God! God is always doing new things, “marvelous things,� which need to celebrated. Creation itself is an ongoing, ever-changing project in which we see new and beautiful vistas, find new creatures, discover new things about space and time. Rocks are sculpted by the sea, supernovas send matter out into the universe, and every day unique children are born and new stories begin. God gives us new ideas, he heals, he teaches, he creates new opportunities to serve. He inspires new technologies that let us communicate remotely! As God blesses us there are new reasons to praise him, every single day. One of the purposes of his saving work is to help us to praise! Is your praise fresh? Pray a new prayer to God today with fresh thanksgivings.
DAY 17 TUESDAY| APRIL 21, 2020
PSALM 34:8 | 8 O taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.
What is new about our songs? We are newly made as we sing them! Even secular people recognize the beauty of Christian music in one form or another. But they do not understand its capacity to change the listener and singer. Our songs, heard and sung, move beyond aesthetics, beyond beauty and its consequence, deep pleasure. Awe and wonder are part of all human experience and the lump in the throat and tear in the eyes when we encounter transcendent beauty, is a universal experience. But when these moments turn into praise and thanksgiving they become a vehicle for shaping our souls. Suddenly we have someone to be grateful to, someone to honor, someone to glorify. Worship is deeper than just aesthetic moments, it awakens our souls. Have you found it harder or easier for your soul to awaken when you are worshiping online verses all together in one place? Why is this the case? Taste and see that God is good! Music can be soul food—do you agree?
DAY 18 WEDNESDAY| APRIL 22, 2020
PSALM 34:4-5 | 4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.
Our faces become radiant when we smile. Joy literally “lights up� our countenance. Our hearts become visible in our expressions and we give those around us a gift, the gift of ourselves. New possibilities of connection open when we delight in our God, when our faces become radiant, even through our tears. For joy in God becomes joy in others. Rather than feeling ashamed of ourselves, of our shortcomings and our fears and our failings, we express all our deepest emotions in our songs and prayers. We voice our troubles. The Psalms are raw and real, with actual emotions on display and not just pious ones. Here we find anger, bitterness, and doubt. But all of it is offered to God trusting that he will build in us trust, joy, and love, making our faces a radiant gift to one another. Confess today. Intercede for someone you worry about. Let your real emotions become your prayer. Ask God to give you a radiant face.
DAY 19 THURSDAY| APRIL 23, 2020
PSALM 68:7-10 | 7 O God, when you went out before your
people, when you marched through the wilderness, 8 the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9 Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad; you restored your heritage when it languished; 10 your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy. Our songs are new because they transform us, and when the singer is new so is the song even if it is thousands of years old! Music is expressive and expressed emotion is changed emotion. Sacred music can intensify our feelings or alter them. And this fact explains the way singing can solidify our grasp on truth. In sacred song beauty and truth meet. Songs express truths about God and recall his marvelous deeds and these elements take root in us. Truths that penetrate the mind alone have shallow roots! They need to touch our deepest emotions. It is no accident that even when memory fails, by age or accident or disease, the songs of God often remain, with all their robust faith claims. Take a favorite hymn or song today and listen to it, recite it and pray it, so it roots in you.
DAY 20 FRIDAY| APRIL 24, 2020
PSALM 67:1-4 | 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and
make his face to shine upon us, 2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. The songs we sing are new too, because they can make the world itself new. Now that is quite a claim. The psalmist sings his request that God be gracious to his people and bless them, shining his glory upon them, granting them the gift of his presence. But notice the second verse, “So that your way may be known upon the earth, your saving power among all nations.� The psalmist wants all the people to praise God and the nations to be glad. Our worship proclaims our faith and also displays it. God uses true worship to demonstrate his reality and character to those who do not know him. When such unknowing children come to faith the world changes. Pray that when we gather again, and even before in our online worship, God will make himself real to many.
DAY 21 SATURDAY| APRIL 25, 2020
REVELATION 5:11-13 | 11 Then I looked, and I heard the
voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” Our songs are ever new because they reflect new things God is doing and because he evokes new creativity in us. They are new because we become new in the course of singing and so does a portion of our world. Our songs are ever new for another mystical and marvelous reason. When we sing we join our voice with a new community. That community includes the ever changing faithful around this globe, singing in so many places and so many languages. Think of our friends in Malawi singing a capella without instruments in their glorious 2 1/2 hour services! That community we join when we sing, includes the apostles and saints and martyrs and the company of heaven itself, as John is shown in his vision. That company of the blessed is always new, because they know no dimunition by age or corruption or death. They share fully in God’s life, that is ever fresh, ever glorious, ever new. Are you ready to sing a new song?
WEEK 4 | DAY 22 SUNDAY| APRIL 26, 2020
2 CORINTHIANS 5:16a | 16a From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view.
Faith in Christ means a new view of other people. Everyone has an explicit and conscious anthropology or an implicit and unconscious one. We all have a way of viewing others. There are many different ways to view others, “according to the flesh,” as this verse, literally translated, suggests. Some people are reductionists, viewing others merely as biological creatures, as a species that can best be understood in terms of drives and instincts, dominated individually by genetic inheritance. Others reduce men and women to cultural by-products, insisting individuality is an illusion and that sociology is determinate. Social location, status, race, and gender, form identity in almost irresistible ways. Psychological theorists examine another set of influences that determine our emotional landscape, often in ways we are unaware. Economists reduce people to “rational maximizers.” All of us are tempted to regard others as means to our own ends, useful tools for our own benefit or pleasure. Is your approach to viewing others conscious and well-thought out? Or not? In what ways do you reduce others?
DAY 23 MONDAY| APRIL 27, 2020
2 CORINTHIANS 5:16b | 16b even though we once knew
Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. Our anthropology can and should incorporate insights from sociology, psychology, economics, and science. But as Christians we can never be reductionists. Jesus’ friends knew him as a regular first century Jewish man. They knew the village he was from, they recognized his accent, they met his family, they could place him socially and understood his profession as a carpenter. But there was so much more! As his ministry career began with teaching and healings they began to fit him into the categories of Jewish religious life. He was a rabbi, or even a prophet. He was like Elijah or John the Baptist. But there was so much more! Eventually they began to ask, “Who is he really?” The unique character of his teaching as he dispensed what Peter called, “The words of life, ” and the nature of his miracles, helped them see him as the promised one. He was the Messiah, the hope of the prophets and God’s authorized agent. But there was so much more! The resurrection provoked a rethink again. He was the word made flesh, the incarnate son. How should the disciples’ experience in coming to know Jesus shape our view of others?
DAY 24 TUESDAY| APRIL 28, 2020
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17a | 17a So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.
The experience of coming to know Jesus changed the way the disciples looked at other people. As believers they had come to understand that Jesus’ divine glory was transferable. He had come to help ordinary people become sons and daughters of God, creatures fit for heaven, citizens of a divine kingdom. He had initiated a new creation, not simply another chapter in an old existing story. When we look at other Christians we must remember they have a divine destiny. We must look for signs of that destiny, markers of the new creation. We must encourage and celebrate when we see new beliefs, new attitudes, new character traits, new behaviors. When we look at those outside the faith we must recall, as Jesus’ disciples did, that God wants to include them in the new creation. When we see others we must understand there is so much more! Can you see now why no Christian can be a reductionist, or a thoroughgoing cynic? Do you look for signs of the new creation in others?
DAY 25 WEDNESDAY | APRIL 29, 2020
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17b | 17beverything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
When we look at others we must remember their potential to be transformed into citizens of heaven and look for signs of the new creation. But this does not make us starry-eyed idealists about human nature. In Christ we become new creations. In Christ and through Christ, the old self, which was narrow and narcissistic, and the old patterns, which were myopic and self-serving, are made new. When we look at others, and ourselves, we can identify need and brokenness, but also know these things are not inevitable or inescapable. Believing in the possibility of transformation we are optimistic realists, clear-eyed and hopeful at the same time. When you look at others do you see faults first or good traits, obstacles or potential? How hopeful are you that people can change and be changed through Christ?
DAY 26 THURSDAY| APRIL 30, 2020
2 CORINTHIANS 5:18 | 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
Our new view of people is more expansive. The candidates for a heavenly calling and a total transfiguration are unlimited. This is very challenging to group mentalities. In Jesus’ ministry he repeatedly shocked his followers by interacting with unexpected people. Ministry to Gentiles, conversations with Samaritans, friendships with prostitutes, encounters with lepers and tax collectors, he expanded the circle of their attention from insiders to outsiders. He took down the old boundaries of concern, based on clan, tribe, race and religion. No longer was it possible to view the near, the similar and the familiar with one lens, and the far, different and unfamiliar with another. The ministry of reconciliation we are called to recognizes no single boundary that limits our concern. Do you find this frightening or exciting? Pray for our church’s ability to overcome differences to grow and develop.
DAY 27 FRIDAY| MAY 01, 2020
PSALM 13:3 | 3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.
This means that we must look at other kinds of Christians as coworkers and fellow members of the family. Different kinds of churches are pursuing ministry together and finding ways to cooperate across ecclesial lines and denominational differences. Recently we borrowed St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church for a memorial service too large for our gym and then the new Sanctuary at the Franciscan Renewal Center for another life celebration. The Jesuits and then the Franciscans were gracious and generous to share facilities and staff and musicians. Scottsdale Bible Church has been helping us plan our cafÊ and plays a major role in supporting MentorKids. Mountain View Presbyterian is a regular partner in youth work and worship. As our culture becomes more secular we need to see other churches as allies and not competitors. Pray for other church communities you know. To accomplish the world’s reconciliation we need cooperation. Do you agree?
DAY 28 SATURDAY| MAY 02, 2020
2 CORINTHIANS 5:19 | 19 that is, in Christ God was
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. Learning to look at others with new eyes is a key spiritual practice for all of us. Use this prayer today to encourage new vision in your life. Dear Lord, Retrain my eyes. Let me see others as you do. Give me realistic eyes that see flaws and problems. Give me hopeful eyes that see potential and transformation. Give me gospel eyes that trust your power to bring healing to pain and wholeness where there is brokenness. Let me see where the old is passing away and the new is being formed. Help me cross boundaries and expand my view to unexpected people and unfamiliar faces. Show me ways to see and support other Christians. Bring out in me the fruits of your Holy Spirit, that my words and deeds may we be wise and reconciling. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
VALLEY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 6947 East McDonald Drive Paradise Valley, AZ 85253 480-991-6424 | church@vpc.church
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