February 11, 2022 – “Mums the word” (Isaiah 53:1-8)

“Who would have believed what we just heard? When was the Lordʼs power revealed through him? He sprouted up like a twig before God, like a root out of parched soil; he had no stately form or majesty that might catch our attention, no special appearance that we should want to follow him. He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces from him; he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed. All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth. He was led away after an unjust trial – but who even cared? Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the rebellion of his own people he was wounded.” Isaiah 53:1-8

“Mums the word”

Mum is a Middle English word meaning ‘silent’ and may be derived from the mummer who acts without speaking. Note the similarity to the word “mime”, which of course in an actor who does not speak with words, but with fluid and dramatic motions.

Although Isaiah is an Old Testament prophet, this passage has been used referentially to Jesus Christ by scholars because the earliest church leaders used it in teaching inquirers about Christ. Acts 8:26-40 relates the story of the Holy Spirit directing the evangelist Philip to an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading Isaiah 53 – and the instant Philip came alongside the chariot the man had his finger on verses 7-8. When Philip asked if he understood the words, the eunuch invited him to explain them. Luke records the grand response: “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).

Philip preached Jesus as the unquestionable Messiah of the passage. We can and should do the same. We cannot stay mum on Jesus any more than we can stop eating food. If we are to remain strong physically by eating food, then we need to remain spiritually strong by preaching Christ.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, even if we do not feel we are called to preach, help us to remember that doing loving acts in your name is doing just the same. Amen.

Pastor Dave

February 12, 2022 – “Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place” (Luke 22:54-62)

“Then they arrested Jesus, led him away, and brought him into the high priestʼs house. But Peter was following at a distance. When they had made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a slave girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight, stared at him and said, “This man was with him too!” But Peter denied it: “Woman, I donʼt know him!” Then a little later someone else saw him and said, “You are one of them too.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” And after about an hour still another insisted, “Certainly this man was with him, because he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I donʼt know what youʼre talking about!” At that moment, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:54-62

“Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place”

The origin of the idiom ‘between a rock and a hard place’ can be found in ancient Greek mythology — specifically in Homer’s Odyssey. If you have not read the Odyssey, Odysseus must pass between Charybdis, a treacherous whirlpool, and Scylla, a man-eating, cliff-dwelling monster. To say one is stuck between a rock (the cliff) and a hard place (the whirlpool) has been a way to succinctly describe being in a very difficult dilemma.

Peter found himself in such a dilemma. He was one of the top four disciples within the twelve, but he went straight to the top of those disciples who would dessert Jesus — second only to Judas. When push came to shove (is that another idiom?) Peter chose saving his own hide rather than stand up for Jesus.

We all come to those moments when we must decide — will we stand up for our faith no matter the cost to our reputations or relationships? Or will we back down because of the same cost? Peter chooses to back down — but in the end he gets redemption from Jesus through one of the resurrection appearances.

The life of the Christian can be easy and free — and it can be quite the costliest endeavor we can endure. It is our choice…

Let us pray,

Lord, your cross is the costliest gift we have ever received. Give us the faith to endure in this faith no matter the cost to our lives. Amen.

Pastor Dave

February 10, 2022 – “Til the Cows come Home” (Exodus 32:1-10)

“When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” Exodus 32:1-10

“Til the Cows come Home”

Clearly, this has to do with cattle curfews, right? Well, it does, sort of. Cows were often milked in their barns at night, making that task one of the last on a farmer’s to-do list (but let’s hope he wouldn’t wait forever to do the job, the way the phrase implies now). The expression has been around since at least the late 1500s and is likely to continue until … well, you know.

The Israelites just were not going to wait for Moses to come down from the mountain — as such, they were not waiting for the figurative “Cows to come Home”. It was taking too long for Moses to talk with G-d — for Moses to come down with the most important words, artifacts, and instructions from the Lord.

We are a society that is becoming more and more impatient. I can feel it in my own soul — fast food, fast internet, fast shipping — it is making us expect that everything should happen or come to us now. I guess the Israelites were under the same curse — even after they had waited so long as slaves in Egypt — even after they had been rescued by the Lord so many times — they just were unwilling to wait. They were truly “stiff-necked” and impatient.

It is hard for the average person to slow down, and to be patient — whether we are sitting in traffic, or especially if and when we are imploring our G-d for answers or for G-d’s presence in our lives. We have to learn to wait and to allow things to happen in our lives in G-d’s time. And that, my friends, will take prayer, patience and understanding. But, as I have discovered in my life, waiting is worth the time.

Let us pray,

Lord Christ, we know how easy it is to be impatient. It is much harder to “wait upon the Lord”, for we know your sense of time is nothing like our sense of time. Help me today to be patient and to “wait upon the Lord”. Amen.

Pastor Dave