Month: June 2024

Rejoice!

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Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Corinthians 13:11 ESV

The greatest divisions in the church do not usually come from disagreements over doctrine, forms of worship or liturgy. No! The biggest problem most of us face is learning how to get along with the person sitting right next to us in the pew! Though we often think of the early church as being a perfect model of Christian love and fellowship, the Corinthian church in the Apostle Paul’s day was more like us than you might imagine. Their issues included some of the members suing each other, sexual scandals and angrily arguing over who was the best apostle. I wonder if on some days, the Apostle Paul felt like pulling out his hair when he got news of the latest struggle. Maybe the line spoken by Professor Digory in the book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis, would have been something Paul would have loved to shout:

“You’re a family!! You might just start acting like one.”

So as Paul closes his letter to these Christians, he lays out a list of practical guidelines for living as God’s family. Today we will just look at the first:

Rejoice – Not just rejoice, as if we won the lottery, got a promotion, or received an unexpected income tax refund. This is a rejoicing together. Think of the joy of planning a surprise birthday party for a friend together. We orchestrate events so that our friend walks into a dark room without the slightest idea of what is going on, then someone flicks on the light, and everyone shouts, “Surprise!” If we can’t think of the last time that we shared that kind of joy in church, then we are missing out on God’s best for us. Now, to pull off a lifestyle of rejoicing, it will take a group effort, but just as the children in the Narnia stories learned to be a family through their struggles, and adventures, we can also learn to be the kinds of brothers and sisters that Jesus intended. Remember, how after he washed His disciples’ feet, Jesus told them that they would have joy if they learned to do the same. Do you know anybody with dirty feet today? It might not seem like it, but finding a way to wash them is the first step to a joyful life together!

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

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Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Ephesians 5:19 KJV

In this verse, Paul writes about psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as if they were three friends. Sadly, in our modern age we have chopped these neatly up and then stored them on separate shelves in our pantry. But what a great joy it can be for those of us who call ourselves poets to attempt a reunion and invite all three to our kitchen table.

For example, when we use the word “Psalm,” most of us think only of the one hundred and fifty of them written in the Bible. But the Greek word, simply means a verse of any sort that is accompanied by stringed instruments. Stranger still, the phrase “spiritual song” was not a song as we know it, but more of a rhythmic chant, (a bit closer to what we call a poem). Last of all, the word hymn, meant a musical celebration, and was what Jesus sang with His disciples before they went out from the Last Supper. It might surprise you to learn that many of the hymns we sing today were not initially written as songs. Just to give one example, “How Great Thou Art” by Carl Boberg, was originally written in Swedish as a ten-stanza poem, titled “O Store Gud.” Somewhere along the way it was paired with a folk melody and then later translated into Russian. After that Russian version began to become popular in Ukraine, it was heard by a British missionary, named Stuart Hine. Stuart loved the song so much that he translated the first two of the verses into English, and then added the third and fourth verses which we sing today.

I won’t go into detail, but similar stories lie behind, well known songs such as “My Jesus I Love Thee” “Jesus Loves Me” and “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” One precious memory I have as a nursing home chaplain is of my friend Davonne – now singing with Jesus. Anytime our song service, if I would ask to sing only the first, second and last verse. Davonne would exclaim, “NO Pastor Peter! That song has a story and if we skip any of the verses, we will be missing part of it!” So, maybe it will help you the next time you are laboring away trying to tell a story with a poem, to close your eyes, then imagine the melody of your favorite hymn playing in the background and let it set a rhythm to your words and make a melody in your heart!

Simplicity

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Simple as a sunrise
And like the morning dew
One covers all the mountains
One shines on me and you

And simple as the smile of Christ
For children as they come
He took them in His arms to bless
Before they play and run

And simple as the Garden
Where He took His friends to pray
But one by one they fell asleep
Before that awful day

When they took Him with the soldiers
He stayed silent as a lamb
Then three nails were driven through
His rough and calloused hands

Then in agony He suffers
To wash away the sins
Of all who come with simple hearts
To find their life in Him

 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds 
may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV

Simplicity by Peter Caligiuri
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