Leviticus 23:23-25 The Feast of Trumpets

The Feasts we’ve been looking at so far during Lent have mostly been about celebration and freedom; looking back to God’s saving work in Egypt and through Jesus. Now, with the Feast of Trumpets, the feasts start taking on a different, more solemn feel. It’s also known as Rosh Hoshanah, the festival of the Jewish New Year. It’s like a spiritual new year, a time for new beginnings with the Lord. It comes after the harvests are all in, 10 days after the Feast of Weeks, when the people are able to slow down and take time to do some reconnecting with God. During the busy harvest season, the focus is on the work of getting the crops in, now it’s time to enjoy the harvest and family and those around you. In this Feast, the trumpets, or shofars, are blown to call the people to experience God’s presence again. In a time like this, filled with worry and fear, it’s important to remember that God is present all the time and the trumpet sound reminds us of this.

The trumpet used in the feast is called a shofar, made from a ram’s horn. They’re quite common and everyone could easily make one. The first time we hear the shofar blown is when the Jews are at Mount Sinai and Moses meets with God and receives the Law. Joshua uses shofars at the fall of Jericho when the city walls collapse at the sound of the trumpets. Gideon’s unarmed army uses three hundred shofars to create confusion against a larger army who turn against each other and end up killing each other.

The Feast of Trumpets reminds us that God’s here, he’s our king. They call us to pay attention again to God. We all have times in our lives where we need someone to tell us to wake up and pay attention again to God, that he’s the one in charge. I have often wondered these past couple of weeks if this isn’t such a time. We’re so often busy with work and family and chasing our desires and now we suddenly find ourselves surrounded by feelings of anxiety and slowly getting more and more isolated from each other because of this health crisis. Some of you now have family members who’ve caught the virus and now have isolated themselves, just at the time we need to feel each other’s presence. Maybe now’s a good time to sound the trumpets and remind ourselves that God is in control and he’s here with us through it all.

Over time, blowing the trumpet becomes a call for the people to confess their sins and to repent. We’re all sinners and depend on God’s grace since there’s nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God again. God’s holiness leads him to judge our sin. Isaiah is told to, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a shofar; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.” This image runs through all the prophets. In Daniel 7, the heavenly court is made up of the Ancient of Days who is surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand angels. They "sat in judgment and the books were opened." The imagery of books being opened in the heavenly court is associated in the Jewish faith with the Feast of Trumpets when the heavenly books are opened to learn the destiny of each person. The books are the Book of the Righteous, the Book of the Wicked, and the Book of Remembrance. The third book that’s opened is the book of remembrance, or the Book of Life. In Montreal, our Jewish neighbours would greet us during Rosh Hashanah, ‘May you be inscribed in the Book of Life’.

We have to careful though with connecting what’s happening right now with this virus as a result of our sin. There are preachers who are saying this virus is because we’re so sinful and it’s God’s punishment. What’s happening is the result of a fallen world where things are not the way they are supposed to be. But God’s love is revealed in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection, to show that we have been made clean by Jesus’ sacrifice. We are called to confess our sin and commit ourselves to changing our lives to fit who God calls us to be, we remember that God is holy and when he comes close to us, his presence changes us, makes us holy through Jesus’ sacrifice!

The prophets used the shofar to call the people to repentance, not only confessing their sin, but to embrace change in their lives and hearts to reflect God’s holiness. The prophet Joel called for blasts of the shofar in Zion, "Blow the shofar in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly" Joel is referring to the Feast of the Trumpet, mentioning its three major parts: shofar, fast, and solemn assembly. During the religious reformation of King Asa, the Israelites "entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their hearts and all their souls" and they sealed their oath "with trumpets, and with shofars.” There’s this need to get together to seek out God again, needing to be reassured that he’s still around and that he cares, that he hears our cries, knows our worries and fears. It’s a call to embrace God’s will for our lives and allow his Spirit to fill us with his peace.

The blowing of the trumpets reminds God of the needs of his people. We see God then stepping in and working on behalf of his people. In the book of Numbers, God promises, “When you go into battle in your own land against an enemy, who is oppressing you, sound a blast on the trumpets. Then you will be remembered by the Lord your God and rescued from your enemies.” When I read this passage from Numbers, my first thought was, “We should all make our own trumpets and stand on our front porches and blast them. We certainly need God’s help to deal with the anxiety, stress and worry that many people are dealing with right now.” Yet I also know that God doesn’t want us to be afraid, to worry, that he does remember us because his Spirit is with us always. Sometimes we need to blow the trumpet for our own sense of peace to help us remember that God always remembers us. I love the image in Isaiah where he says that our names are written on the palms of God’s hands, meaning God can’t forget us.

Through Jesus, God remembers his people and saves us. Jesus comes as a baby, lives with us, experiencing life with all its wonder and messiness. He lives a typical life, growing up in a family and community, knowing loss and joy, experiencing loneliness and friendship, rejection and love. Jesus knows fear in the Garden of Gethsemane; knowing how hard the cross was going to be, but trusting that God’s way is the best way and so Jesus takes all our sin and sorrow to the cross, all our fear and worry and he dies with it, taking it to the grave. In three days, he rises again into new life, giving us the solid hope that no matter, not even death can separate us from God and his love. God saves us, watches over us, and equips us to be a blessing, looking ahead to Jesus’ return.

The shofar is also blown to begin the Jubilee year when God calls Israel to restore freedom and land to those who had lost either one in the past 49 years. Slaves and those who lost their properties eagerly listened for the sound of the shofar that signaled their freedom! The land itself welcomed the sound of the shofar because the land was allowed it to rest for a year. It’s about mercy and grace, pointing us to Jesus who brings new life and freedom to his people. I think that when this health crisis is over, that we should all gather outdoors and sound our horns and trumpets as a sign of new life and new beginnings! Already this crisis has changed who we are as a fellowship of Jesus and we’re entering into a new age of possibilities for ministry and sharing our faith.

In the Bible, the sound of the shofar announces the first coming of the Messiah, but also the return of Jesus. "The sound of the trumpet" will be heard when Jesus comes back to establish his forever kingdom, as Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul calls this the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians, "Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” It’s a sign we’re completely freed from our slavery to sin when Jesus returns. Until then, we go through our days with the peace and hope of knowing that God is with us, always remembering us, his children.

Leviticus 23:15-22 Feast of Pentecost/Shavuot

The Feast of Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks and Shavuot is a harvest festival held 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits when the first of the crops were presented to God, which is why it’s called Pentecost, which means 50. Pentecost is the big harvest festival after the wheat has been brought in, something like our Thanksgiving Day. For this feast, the people bring a new grain offering and 2 loaves of leavened bread to the priest as a wave offering to the Lord. The bread with yeast is a sign that the people now have time to enjoy the harvest and the Lord’s blessings. Families read the story of Ruth together because her story happens during the wheat harvest and we see how this festival works out in real life. This might be something for you to do this afternoon as a family devotion, to read the story of Ruth out loud together.

The people have worked hard during the harvest, and now it’s time to enjoy the Lord’s blessings. It’s a time to be generous and remember the poor and foreigners among them, giving them an opportunity to provide for their families even though they don’t own any land themselves. Because of sin’s effect in the world, there’s poverty, injustice, oppression, family breakups, and illness which causes a certain number of people to find themselves in hard times and unable to provide for themselves. This is why the farmers are told to leave the corners of the field uncut and any wheat or grain not harvested on the first pass through the fields was to be left for the poor and foreigner to harvest for their families.

The Festival of Pentecost teaches us to have compassion on others, to realise that what we have been blessed with carries a responsibility to make sure the whole community is provided for. Worshipping God is done through how we live with each other, not simply the time we spend here in church on Sunday mornings, or like today when you’re all worshipping today at home with your families. This is why the story of Ruth became a part of this festival as we see these laws lived out in the story of Ruth and Boaz. It’s a reminder that what we have all belongs to God and is given to us to be a blessing for all people. There are so many people on the margins, struggling to get by and not wanting a handout, but also needing some help to provide for their families. How can we leave the corners of our fields uncut to bless those in our city and make it possible for them to harvest? How can we invite them to be part of God’s generosity when people are afraid of losing everything that they’ve worked so hard for, or who have been on the margins so long they now fear even more hunger and uncertainty?

The Festival of Pentecost became a time to read the 10 Commandments and think about who God is and who he calls us to be as his people and children. The Law is a gift to shape us into the people God has created us to be. Yet it’s important to know that God calls us to focus on generosity, being a blessing to others, making the other person’s soul and life a priority. The Law is seen as a gift to the Jews because they know exactly what God expects and wants from them; they don’t have to try and guess. This makes them different from the nations around them who have to plead for their gods’ attention, bribing the gods with sacrifices, never sure if they’re pleasing their gods. The Law helps the Jews to be a blessing to the nations by revealing a gracious God who cares about how we live together and who commands us to care about each other as we follow God.

Pentecost is about the harvest. Because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Pentecost is about people. Jesus’ last words to us are found in Matthew 28, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The head of Jews for Jesus, David Bricknall, taught me the entire spring religious season of Israel, from Passover to Pentecost points to God’s plan to harvest a holy people for himself. It all points to Jesus who dies as the perfect sinless sacrifice for our sins since we’re unable to make ourselves acceptable to God no matter how hard we work or how religious we get. Jesus rises from the dead as a promise that our sins stay buried and we’ll also be raised up to be with Jesus. Faith is more than just being saved from our sins, it’s also about our response to Jesus and this is where Pentecost comes in.   

Now, 7 weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, comes the greater harvest. It’s during the feast of Pentecost that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings many people to put their faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes and those who hear the disciples talk about Jesus receive the good news of salvation through Jesus. They take this gospel news home to their families and communities and the number of Jesus followers grows and grows including both Jew and Gentiles, insiders and outsiders. The church becomes a safe place for everyone.

This is an echo to the 2 loaves of bread of Pentecost made with yeast, pointing to Jews and Gentiles now being together as an offering to God. Yeast in the Bible usually points to the influence of sin, reminding us that the church is filled with people who mess up and things aren’t always the way they’re supposed to be. A mother of teenagers told me that she is a lot more aware of being a sinner now than she ever was. She had forgotten what it’s like to be a teenager and pushing the rules and wanting independence and she admitted to losing it on her kids a number of times and then repenting afterwards; but yeast is also about taking time, about enjoying the fruit of our labour, literally in the case of mothers!

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to go make disciples. We’re not trying to create perfect people, but passionate, compassionate, engaged followers of Jesus who care about the world around them. As Diane Cormer writes about teaching her kids, “The way of grace is not about following the rules perfectly, but about coming back to Jesus over and over again and saying, “Without You I can do nothing. I can’t even be honest.”

She goes on, “We need to introduce them to a Redeemer who can take the worst about us and turn us into people who are all about Him. Be alert to those moments of vulnerable brokenness and show your people the way of God’s amazing grace. Teach them the beautiful truth of Romans 8:1: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation! No more shame!... We’re not trying to disciple perfect people; we’re trying to raise godly people— people who love God with all their hearts and who are following hard after Jesus.”

Jesus calls us to go out with the power of the Holy Spirit to those who don’t know him, and to those who have heard about him all their lives but still don’t really know him. Our Pentecost harvest is about showing them who Jesus really is. During a time as this, we can walk in peace and hope because Jesus is with us, he knows our fear and worry and gives us his peace. Pentecost is about our neighbourhoods, our schools and workplaces, the places where we play and live life together, where the people are, inviting them to join us in finding out more about this Jesus. We build friendships by working for justice, living with compassion; living together in our communities to create a strong healthy vibrant society that reflects Jesus.  

In a time like this, it means staying in touch with each other, making sure each one is alright. We use our phones, email, text, messenger and all our social media platforms to encourage calmness and peace because we have a God who cares and protects. We look out for those who are hurting quietly because there’s no work or they feel overwhelmed. Social distance doesn’t mean emotional distance. We follow a generous God who wants us to be generous and caring, reaching out in love to those around us and helping where we can, and still loving them where we can’t. This is the heart of Pentecost.

Leviticus 23:9-14 Feast of First Fruits

We’re in unusual times and it’s often in times like this that fear is able to find way to worm its way into our hearts and minds. You are likely hearing or seeing this message on the computer rather than gathering with friends and family in church because of the COVID 19 health scare, and yet it’s in times like this especially that Jesus calls to trust in him and not worry or live in fear.

Israel is sitting at the foot of Mount Sinai; hearing God shape their lives as his people so they will be a blessing to the nations. These feasts are how God reminds them of who he is and who they are. The Feast of First Fruits is a harvest festival that calls on God’s people to trust him. They’ve seen God’s power in Egypt, felt his deliverance from their slave masters, and now God’s calling them to trust him and remember to be thankful for what they’re being given.

God is saying: “I’m bringing you into a really fertile land. I want you to acknowledge this. Each spring, when the first harvest is available, bring some to the temple and the priest will acknowledge your offering before me. Do this on the Sunday during the week of Unleavened Bread.” The priests take the offerings from the people and sprinkle incense on it, wave it before the Lord to show it comes from the Lord and is now being given back as a show of trust and gratitude. Part of the offering is thrown into the fire on the alter, which is why the incense is mixed in it to make it a sweet offering to God. The rest is used to feed the priests and their families. Paul reminds the people in his letter to the church in Rome, “If the part of the dough offered as first-fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.” By bringing the first part of the harvest and giving it the Lord, the rest of the harvest is sacred. God then gives the rest of the harvest to the people for their families.

This takes trust and faith. It’s easy to be thankful to God for what he’s already given you; it takes faith to give him the first part of your harvest without knowing for sure how the rest of the harvest is going to go and thanking God for what he is going to give you before you actually get it. The First Fruits Festival is all about expressing your faith in God and his power, love and generosity; praising him before getting anything in return. It’s telling God, “We trust you that you will provide for us and send the rain and sun as needed so our crops can grow and be harvested and our people will be able to eat.” There’s no promise here that there won’t be hail storms, bug infestations, or crop failure; it’s all about being generous to God first, trusting that he will provide.

Jesus comes to save us because we are sinners. Jesus is slaughtered as the sacrificial lamb on Passover, buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread and raised from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits. Because of Adam’s sin we all face death, but through Jesus, we’re made alive. Jesus is the sign of this, the first fruit, a promise that we too will be raised from death and the grave because we are washed clean from our sin, made pure and right again with God through Jesus.

First Fruits is about giving back to God in advance of what he’s going to give us; a gift of trust and faith from the gifts he has already given us. To help us see God’s gifts to us, one rabbi asked, “Who coloured the flowers, who has painted the sunrises and sunsets.” I enjoy watching the sun-rise in the morning as I walk Bellah through our neighbourhood, it’s a beautiful reminder every morning of our creator and father who’s also an artist and shares his art with us every day. Who made forests, the mountains and plains in such a way that we are able to live off the land through hunting, fishing, and harvesting? These are all gifts given to us before we offer anything to God. There are the gifts of family, friendships, love and more that shape our lives and give meaning and depth to our lives. God is generous to us and he makes it so that Israel enters the Promised Land at harvest time, able to eat of the fruit of the land without having to do the work of planting and caring for the fields as a sign that he will provide generously for his people. We trust that God will provide.

Do you really believe that you can trust God to provide for you, to give you what you need? Do you trust him enough to bring your offerings with thankfulness and gratitude and without worrying about what lies ahead if you do give him from your first fruits instead of your left overs? This is where faith kicks in, or doesn’t. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 6, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? …. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

These festivals call for action from the people. There are physical and spiritual responses called for by God. You have to work to harvest the first fruits and then physically bring them to the Lord. The offering is then physically presented to the Lord in a wave offering. This calls for trust in God to provide, but it’s also done with a spirit of excitement and anticipation of God providing. It can be scary at times, but there’s also freedom in trusting God. We see Jesus actively moving towards the cross, choosing to go to Jerusalem. He doesn’t fight against his sentence, he physically suffers and dies, and is physically risen from the grave. Our faith is an active faith and we see this in our youth and young adults.

For many of our youth, faith is about changing the world, about making a difference right here where we can see it. They’re willing to sacrifice in order to make things happen, trusting that this is what God wants and expects from us; faith in action. These feasts remind us that faith is an active thing. James reminds us, faith without works is dead. Jesus calls us to a life of renewal and hope; to live life with a spirit of gratitude, trust and generosity. Trust can be hard when the stock market crashes, when the price of oil which drives our economy nose dives because other nations are in a price war, or when a health scare arises. Trust can be hard when there’s more month than money, or if you can’t see a reason for hope. This is why the Feasts point us to Jesus and away from ourselves; to trust in the one who can save us, protect us and provide for us.

Paul points to Jesus as the first fruit of those who have died. In Jesus’ resurrection, all those who believe in him will be resurrected with him. 1 Corinthians 15, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” John echoes this in Revelation 1, “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

If Jesus is the First Fruit, then that means there is a second, third, and more fruit. Jesus celebrates First Fruits by giving his Father a first fruit offering. In Matthew 27, Matthew tells us that at the death of Jesus, graves opened up and people rose from the dead and walked through the town where everyone could see them. Jesus brought to his Father an early “crop” pointing ahead to the magnificent harvest that’s happening right now in every person who accepts Jesus as Lord.

First Fruits is about trust and grateful, faith motivated giving. The harvest for most of us is not about barley or grain, but about people coming to know Jesus. This week, reach out to one person you have been praying for to come to know Jesus. reach out through a phone call, an email, a text as there will be many lonely people afraid to go out. Trust that in reaching out, the Holy Spirit is working. At a time such as this, reaching out in love may be the best way to help us all stay healthy emotionally and spiritually. Trust that the Lord will work through you and in you, that he will provide for you and keep you safe in these unsettled times.

Leviticus 23:6-8; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Feast of Unleavened Bread

Carl, a Jewish Christian Rabbi, loves the Feast of Unleavened Bread. His family spends the day before the feast cleaning the entire house of anything that might have yeast in it. He and his wife wrap a tiny bit of yeast in a white linen cloth and hide it, and the child who finds it while they are cleaning, gets a prize. After the house is all swept out and cleaned, they sit down as a family and talk about being clean for Yahweh, being pure for Jesus. Carl reminds his family that Jesus went to the cross because our sin makes us dirty inside and God cannot have sin in his house, so Jesus takes our sin to the cross and it’s then buried in the grave with Jesus. They now have a clean house, just like their hearts and souls are clean and Jesus calls us to keep them clean.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is one of 3 special feasts where everyone is supposed to show up. Moses tells the people in Deuteronomy 16, “Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.” This is about sacred, soul shaping, God remembering events for God’s people to participate in every year, a holy rhythm where God reminds us of who we are and who we’re called to be.

Jesus is the bread of life, and God provides us with the true bread of life. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is about remembering God’s deliverance from Egypt and became about purity. In Exodus 12, we are told, “For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.” God’s not fooling around here. Jesus reminds us of how yeast works in a parable in Matthew, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

In Matthew 16, Jesus warns that the teaching of the Pharisees is like yeast, teaching that focused on keeping the Law more than on loving God. It only takes a little bit of yeast to make hundreds of loaves of bread rise, and when yeast is used as a symbol of sin, it’s points to how sin spreads through our hearts and minds, changing us. As one pastor writes, we tell ourselves that greed, lust, addiction, or even something like persistent perfectionism where you can’t accept anything without criticism is no big deal, yet these things continue to grow and grow in us, slowly poisoning our hearts and minds, breaking relationships. Most of our sin is hidden in our hearts, it’s secret from others and yet the secretness of it makes it dangerous because it affects our relationships with each other and God and yet our friends, spouses and family often wonder what’s going on, not seeing the secret sins we wrestle with.

Porn leads men and women to see others as things to be used for our pleasure. Cheating others or the taxman feeds the god of greed inside ourselves that puts our wants above everyone else. Envy or jealousy makes it hard to have positive relationships. Anger, lust, and deceit are all used by Satan to make us feel better about ourselves at the cost of others, sometimes even to the point of deliberately hurting others. Sin slowly destroys us from the inside out. This is why having a godly friend or mentor you can share with is so important.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread points us to a deep trust in God to protect us, reminding the people to be ready to respond to God quickly, but over time, the focus changed. The meaning moved from trust and readiness to respond to God to pointing us to a life free from the chains of sin. Yeast became a symbol of decay. People would take a small lump of today’s dough to use to start tomorrow’s bread and this would continue for quite a while until the yeast in the dough finally lost its strength to help the dough rise. The baker would then start with a new batch of yeast. After the Israelites left Egypt in the Passover, God wanted his people to have a fresh start spiritually. This is that changing identity thing again from last week. Being free from slavery is a call to get rid of the decay in our lives that sin brings. Jesus’ blood washes away our sin on the cross, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a role to play. We’re called to work hard at identifying the sin in our lives and working to clean it out.

Even a little sin draws us away from Jesus. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a reminder of how even a little sin has great influence over us. It takes Jesus coming and becoming human just like us to break down those walls of sin. The cross and the empty grave reminds us of the heavy cost our sin to Jesus. He knows how helpless we can be in the power of our sin and this is why he not only washes our sin away, he also sent us the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom to recognize our sin, but also the strength to fight it, to do our role in keeping our hearts and lives clean of sin.

Sin’s like mold. A little water damage will start small but steadily grows until mold has crept into multiple places and spores of mold begin to float in the air creating health problems. We noticed that in our first home in Stony Plain which had mold. As soon as we moved, our grandson’s breathing problems began to go away. When we minimize the sin in us, it has the ability to change us, to break our relationships.

This feast is a call to action on all the stuff that we allow to pollute our minds, hearts and relationships. What we put into our heads and hearts affects who we are. Fill your head with violence, lust, or greed through what you watch or read; it shapes you. Surround yourself with people who are greedy, arrogant, selfish, crude, angry, bitter, sarcastic, users of others, and guess who you’re going to become like. Jesus is buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a reminder of how our sins are buried with Jesus in the grave and how our sin is left there when Jesus rises from the grave into new life.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a call to us to clean up our act. We start by coming to God and asking him as King David did, “Search me, O God and know my heart.” You’re asking God to show you the sin the sits inside your heart. We so easily fool ourselves into thinking we’re a whole lot better than we really are. It about being honest with ourselves and the influence of sin in us and inviting Jesus into those places of our hearts and lives we don’t really want him to be or see. This is confession, but saying sorry isn’t enough, it needs be followed up by repentance, changing the stuff in our hearts, heads and lives. This is something we do; just like Carl’s family searches through the house for the hidden yeast and cleans the entire house, we do the same thing in our lives. This takes humility.

We don’t do this by ourselves; the Holy Spirit’s in our hearts to shape our lives and root out the sin in us. This involves filling our minds with what is good and beautiful, with Jesus and his words and examples, it’s about inviting others into friendships and relationships of accountability where we give them permission to tell us straight out where we are walking against Jesus and going our own way instead. It’s about looking at our friends and seeing if they help us be more kind, more generous, more forgiving and grace-filled and then looking for friends who will help us look more like Jesus. It looks like being a mentor to someone else, helping them become who God has created them to be, who Jesus carried their sin into the grave for.

God calls us in Leviticus to be holy as he is holy, this is what this Feast of Unleavened Bread calls us to. It sounds strange to many of our ears to shape our lives around holiness. Yet this is what many people are looking for even if they don’t recognize the word anymore. So many people want to be different, to be better, even if they don’t know Jesus yet. This is why we’re here, to help them know they can have a clean heart again, to know good, to help them become beloved saved children of God follow Jesus with us.

Leviticus 23:1-5 The Feast of Passover

We’ve just entered a new season in the church year, the season of Lent. God gave the Jewish people several festivals to celebrate through the year, all helping to remind the people who he is and the things he’s done and keeps on doing in our lives. This is why we’re looking at the Jewish feasts during Lent. The festivals and feasts point to Jesus as he fulfills them; he lives out what they mean, showing us who God is. The feasts are sacred assemblies, given to us to help shape our souls and form who we are. They’re rooted in the stories of Israel, stories with the power to change us. The festivals are times of anticipation that remind the people how much God cares about them, times where God’s Spirit fills the people with strength and hope as they follow God.

We’re beginning with Passover. The Feast of Passover is all about God giving Israel a new identity. It’s about slavery and lambs and blood on door posts, it’s about God saving his people and leading them into freedom. Still today, the Passover reminds us that we’re no longer slaves to sin or to death. Our story begins with Adam and Eve who want knowledge like God so much that they disobey God’s one rule. They know the penalty for sin is death and still they eat the forbidden fruit. When sin enters the world, God kills an animal to give Adam and Eve clothes; innocent blood is shed so that Adam and Eve can be covered, hiding their shame. We’ve become slaves to our sin, needing someone powerful enough to free us, to cover us with their blood: we need Jesus.

The Passover’s a crucial moment in Jewish history. The people of Israel have been slaves for about 400 years now and being slaves is part of who they are. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh, but when confronted by his own people over killing an Egyptian soldier, he runs away for 40 years before God draws him back to face Pharaoh. God uses Moses to inflict 10 different plagues against the Egyptian people before Pharaoh is frightened enough to let the Jews leave. The plague that finally changes Pharaoh’s mind is the angel of death, who is sent to kill all the first-born males. Their death brings freedom to Israel. The only protection from the Angel of Death is to kill a lamb and spread its blood on their doorposts and when the Angel of Death comes, it will pass over their houses, sparing the first-born sons.

The story of the Passover is Israel’s story of freedom and protection. Celebrating Passover involves a lot of careful preparation. Four days before the feast, each family chooses a firstborn male lamb from the flock, and in the days leading up to Passover that lamb is inspected to make sure that there are no imperfections. At twilight on Passover, all the lambs are slaughtered, and their blood’s spread over the door-frames of the family homes. This ritual reminds the Israelites of the night God delivered his people from slavery into freedom. Spreading the blood on the doorposts reminds the families that on the first Passover everyone who was in a home marked with blood was spared from death. The blood on the doorpost reminds Israel that a price of innocent blood has been paid to purchase the freedom of those in that home. The Passover becomes the symbol of freedom through God, freedom from slavery, freedom to completely be God’s people.

The Jews carefully prepare for the Passover, picking out their best lamb. God asks for our best because he gives us his best in his son Jesus. God’s not only a just God, he’s also a gracious God. God hands his son over to death on the cross; Jesus, who is completely God and completely human, takes the punishment of death on himself because we’re unable, as sinners, to pay the price ourselves. There’s nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God, in fact we make ourselves guiltier every day. Jesus’ blood keeps the angel of death from us, washing our sin away. Jesus’ innocent blood is shed to protect us, shed to make us pure so that we can be called children of God, shed so that we can be free from the power of sin in our lives, free to be shaped more and more into who God is calling us to be as his children and people.

Because Jesus’ blood covers us, we’re set free from guilt and shame. For us, the Passover feast points to the greater Lamb, to the Lord’s Supper, and the great banquet feast in heaven where Jesus is our host. The night before his death, Jesus is questioned and tested by religious and civil leaders, just as the Passover lamb was examined to ensure that it was without fault. In the end, Pilate pronounces his verdict: “I find no basis for a charge against him.” Yet, at twilight on Passover, as lambs all around Jerusalem are being slaughtered, Jesus, our true Passover Lamb, is led to judgment and then to a wooden cross, and his blood poured out. But Jesus rises from the grave to show us sin and death have both been conquered! Because Jesus’ blood has been shed for our sin, ours never will be!

When Jesus first appears in the Gospel of John, John the Baptist calls out, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John understands who Jesus is, why he’s come, but also what this means. Jesus comes to retell the story of God’s salvation and to live it out, changing the story from innocent lambs shedding their blood for us, to God himself shedding his blood for his people through Jesus. Because Jesus has changed the story, our story changes too; we change from being people who are slaves to sin and death, to people free to live rich abundant lives, free from fear and anxiety, free to embrace whatever is happening in our lives because we know that nothing can separate us from God’s love because of Jesus’ blood shed for us. Our identities are changed, we’re no longer slaves to the things that wrap us in their chains: our secret addictions, our false identities given to us by those around us, our work, our looks, or other people’s view of who we are.

Those who trust in Jesus are brought from death into life; we’re given new identities as children of God. We’re brought out of a life that is oriented to meaningless pursuits and empty promises, into the promise of life to the full. We often let other people give us our identity, good or bad. For years I thought I would always be a failure because I was told if I drop out of school, if I leave home, I’d never amount to anything. I looked for my identity in my parent’s approval and in the approval of the people around me. I never really fit in, so I dropped out of school and later felt useless and depressed. Change started when I let go of needing other people’s approval and realized it was Jesus’ approval I wanted. It was the Lord’s Supper that helped me realize he accepted me.

A young girl in the alternative high school in Allendale, Michigan thought she was worthless, that her only value lay in her looks and body. She looked for love in the arms of many of the boys in school and saw herself as nothing. I remember her crying one afternoon, wondering if that was all that life held for her. Imagine her surprise and wonder when I told her she was a princess, that she was cherished as a beloved daughter by God and that Jesus washes away her old identity and wants her to see herself through his eyes and not the eyes of the boys around her or her father’s eyes. Years later, I received an email from her; she had been baptized and was getting married to a man who called her his princess. She had told him about our conversation and from then on, he called her princess.

The Passover and the Lord’s Supper remind us that instead of finding our identity in the things and people of this world, we receive our identity as precious beloved children of God through Jesus’ sacrificial blood on the wooden frame of the cross, saved from the brokenness of our sin and set free to be life changers in the world as we share with others how much they mean to Jesus, that Jesus can give them a new identity, a new life. I learned that God loves me more than I could ever imagined, even dying for me. If God is king of the universe, you are each princesses and princes in the kingdom.

Following Jesus changes your life every day; know that he protects you, loves you, died for you and has given you his Spirit as a guide through life and a reminder that you are his sisters and brothers. You are a beloved child of God.  

John 4:1-26 Discipline of Worship

This morning we’re taking one last look at spiritual disciplines by reflecting on the discipline of worship. In his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus points us to what worship is all about: worshiping the Father in the Spirit and in truth. But we get to this in a round about way through a fascinating conversation about water and the woman’s marital situation before getting to the part on worship.

Jesus and his disciples are in Samaria, basically they’re hanging out on the wrong side of the tracks! The people who live here are only part Jewish. There’s a whole lot of history behind how that happened, but basically Samaria is off-limits to good Jews and many Jews would walk all the way around Samaria so they wouldn’t have to meet any Samaritans. The Samaritans in the meantime have set up their own places of worship since they’re not welcome in the temple in Jerusalem and they’ve created their own rituals to worship God. In spite of the fact that they hated each other, they still worshiped the same God. This is a good place to start from.

Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman starts off about water. Jesus is thirsty and asks for a drink of water. The woman is surprised Jesus asks her because she’s a Samaritan. She expects rejection, not a request for water and the respect Jesus shows her as a person. Jesus then offers her living water, offers to satisfy her soul thirst, the emptiness from her life choices. The opposite of living water is dead water: the things you give yourself to satisfy your emotional and spiritual needs, yet leave you dry and searching for more. Dead water may be your secret addictions, your bad habits that lead to apathy, it may your tendency to simply drift through life hoping something will come to you without much effort on your side. Jesus’ living water is a bottomless never-ending well that brings life and renewal. Jesus calls himself living water, the source of life and hope.

Then the conversation takes a sudden turn: “Go, call your husband and come back,” “I don’t have one,” “That’s right, you had 5 and now the man you’re living with is not your husband.” Jesus shows her that her well is dry, her life is dry and she needs living water and new hope. She sees that Jesus is more than a dusty traveler; he’s able to see into your life and soul in a way that only someone touched by God could do. She tells Jesus, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.” Then she goes on to talk about worship, “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

The connection that I hear the Samaritan woman making here is that when you drink from the living water, it brings you to worship. As your soul and heart thirst gets satisfied by Jesus, you keep reaching for more of his living water to fill your heart and soul and your response is to go to God and say, “Thank you!” You discover the traditional places, the traditional forms done out of duty without the relationship with Jesus are dry and don’t satisfy your soul’s need for Jesus. When the woman and Jesus point to the mountain in Samaria or the temple in Jerusalem, they’re both pointing to the system of sacrifices and obligations. Jesus changes the channel and points to the coming of the Holy Spirit, the new life talked about in the Old Testament, the softened heart and new life promised in places like Jeremiah and Isaiah. Jesus tells her, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

We can get so caught up in where we worship, the building, the rituals and how we do things, who belongs and who doesn’t, that we can forget that worship is all about God. At Tuesday Night Youth and in council we looked at the Contemporary Testimony’s description of the church, “In our world, where many journey alone, nameless in the bustling crowd, Satan and his evil forces seek whom they may scatter and isolate; but God, by his gracious choosing in Christ, gathers a new community—those who by God’s gift put their trust in Christ. In the new community all are welcome: the homeless come home, the broken find healing, the sinner makes a new start, the despised are esteemed, the least are honored, and the last are first. Here the Spirit guides and grace abounds.” This new community of broken people come together and when they do, they worship.

The place we worship is not so important, the kind of songs we sing are not so important, the order of worship is not so important, Jesus points us to what is important, that we worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. Worship connects us to God through the presence of the Holy Spirit who reminds us of what Jesus taught, what Jesus did, and who Jesus is. We see Jesus drawing Jew and Samaritan together in worship, and later on the church was the symbol in the world of how the entire world, Jew and Gentile are called together to worship God. Worship in the Spirit leads to deep inward fellowship where the dividing wall that Paul talks about is broken down, where the unity Jesus prays for in the Garden of Gethsemane begins to take root in our hearts and souls, in the church.

Jesus calls us to worship in truth. Our thoughts right away understand truth as being what is right as opposed to wrong. But I wonder if Jesus isn’t pointing to being truthful about who we are and our deep need for Jesus. The truth is that we’re all thirsty, we all have those places in our hearts and lives where we’re looking for more, for deeper, for better, for hope, for healing or both. We’re all sinners seeking forgiveness and new life. This is why Jesus came. We were created good and very good in the beginning, but Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent to disobey God which brought sin into the world and this sin separates us from God and each other; the brokenness the Contemporary Testimony talks about. Jesus comes to break down the walls that separate us from God and each other by taking our sin to the cross. As a sign that sin and death are defeated, Jesus rises from the grave after three days and now calls us to be the church, his body and to bring hope and life into the world, making new disciples of Jesus. We look forward to Jesus’ return and the renewal of all things.

Arthur Landwehr writes, “Truth is not Greek abstractions, but concrete realities. Living with God.” I hear Romans 12 here, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Worship is an everyday thing. Everything we do can be worship as long as it’s directed to God.

This is where we recognize that worship is a discipline. We can learn how to worship in the Spirit and in truth, allowing worship to shape us more into the image of Jesus. Richard Foster tells us it starts by practicing the presence of God each day, taking time to praise him, to pray and ask him to be present to you that day. Seek out different experiences of worship; Sunday mornings, small group experiences, in nature, alone, through music, meditation and more. Prepare yourself for worship already the day before by reading the Bible passage beforehand and getting enough sleep. Be willing to let the Lord lead you through different kinds of music, prayers, and worship experiences. Develop humility in God’s presence, begin worship by praying, “Your will be done, not mine.” Practice the sacrifice of worship. We don’t always feel like showing up or worshiping, but worship anyway because it’s about God, not about us. Come together with God’s people and say, “These are my people and together we come to God.” Worship creates community as it draws us closer to God.

Worship develops humility and a spirit of gratitude as we remember in worship who Jesus is and what he accomplished for us, and we remember who we are, forgiven sinners in the need of grace who have been chosen by God to advance his kingdom further into the world. The Samaritan woman’s life is changed and she becomes Jesus’ first missionary; leading her village to him. Jesus calls us to go and make more disciples by talking about him and showing how he has changed you.