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Trinity Blog
January 31, 2021 Video Service
The Head Coach Carousel
Galatians 2:15-21
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
With the NFL playoffs nearly over, the coaching exodus has begun, and for a few teams already over. Whether a head coach, a coordinator, a position coach, or a general manager, positions are vacated and then filled by new people. Brown’s fans have much to be excited about in the management department because we did so well, the moving of coaches does not need to take place this year. But other organizations are not so fortunate, and their fans must endure the moving around of coaches and systems and players.
Just as players and coaches move from positions to positions, so too is there a displacement in the life of every Christian. As Paul writes, it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The head coach moves from one team to another; the place normally held by “I” has now become the place of “Christ.” No longer is it “I” but is now “Christ.” For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. Since we have been crucified with Christ, we are now displaced from being gods and lords over our entire existence and now Christ has taken our place. No longer “I”, but “Christ.”
This displacement is everything. Since we have traded places with Christ, we are now made right or justified. But as Paul reminds us, we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. The Law is a great many things, but the law is for our purposes “us” taking the place of God. I do, I do not. We neither have the inclination to do as God does, nor can do as God does. So perhaps the entire purpose of the Law is to wake us up to the idea that we are not and cannot be God. We need displaced and that displacement is the trading of places with Christ. I, yet not I but Christ.
But this displacement hurts. Look at the following chart and see what must change if Christ takes our place.
Self-Created Christ-Created
Self-Provided Christ-Provided
Self-Legislated Christ-Legislated
Self-Judged Christ-Judged
Self-Sanctified Christ-Sanctified
Self-Atoned Christ-Atoned
Self-Discipled Christ-Discipled
Self-Ruled Christ-Ruled
Self-Determined Christ-Determined
Self-Appointed Christ-Appointed
I could add another hundred ways Christ needs to displace us, but space and time is limited. The point is that this being displaced in our lives is painful, fearful, and confusing. The temptation will always be that when the displacement starts to happen, the pain, fear and confusion will always challenge us to remain in control and prevent Christ from becoming who he really is. We clamp down trying to keep our place and forbid and work against Christ taking it.
The process becomes even more difficult, as if this were not enough, to have Christ take our place, but the world wants to displace Christ out from everything and to put themselves in his place. Governments displace Christ as Legislator, Executor and Judge. Corporations displace Christ as Provider and Sanctifier. Philosophies displace Christ as Creator and Wisdom. Facebook and Twitter displace Christ as Censor and Moral Compass. As if the struggle was not difficult enough to allow Christ to displace us as God and Lord, the world is actively struggling to displace Christ as God and Lord and putting themselves in his place.
Perhaps this then illumines why Paul was so adamant that we live a live of faith in Christ, or perhaps a better translation of the Greek is we live a live by the faithfulness of Christ. If not for Christ and his greater power than the World and Governments and Corporation and Philosophies and Big Tech and you and me, then Christ would never be able to displace us as God and Lord. If Christ’s rivals and adversaries were equal to him in power than Christ is impotent to resist them. But precisely because Christ is over all things, then Christ has no rival, that includes you. Christ can displace us, and no one can truly displace Christ. Alleluia.
So, what needs displaced in you? Christ creating you, Christ providing for you, Christ determining you, Christ atoning for you, Christ ruling you. Is Christ your Lord and God yet? If the answer is not yet, then we have more and more things to surrender to Christ, we have more and more need for a life of faith in Christ. The good news of the Gospel is that our faithfulness in Christ has help in the form of the faithfulness of Christ in our place. If he lives in us, then yes, we can. That is our comfort for all time. The challenge is then, we now have no excuse why we cannot become a people Christ-determined.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, I have no doubt that being displaced as god and lord over our lives in painful, fearful and confusing, but when our first reaction is to clamp down and control, we must have a second reaction and that is to trust and to let go. This is faith and this makes all the difference in the world. Not only are we justified by faith in Christ, but we are continually living our daily lives in the faith of Christ. Even when the world wants to remove Christ from his place as a head coach is removed, we must remember the only moving that can and must take place is for us to move out of his place and let Christ be God and Lord. To God be the Glory for giving us Christ. Amen.
January 24, 2021 Video Service
An Alberta Clipper
Ephesians 4: 11-16
11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Living around Lake Erie means having to deal with wind. Whether that wind is a summer thunderstorm blowing over the water creating huge waves, or an “Alberta Clipper” blowing Lake Effect Snow through the trees and bushes, we know all too well how much the wind can toss things around. We have seen the boats bobbing on the Lake like a cork, we have seen the trees swaying like a Samba dancer, we have seen the branches in the grass and the snow drifted in feet not inches. We know how the wind can make things blow all over the place.
Just as the wind can blow things around, so too can things in this world blow us around spiritually. The wind can blow a boat around on the lake, political leaders and their games can blow people all over the place regarding the issues of the day. The wind can move through the trees threatening to push over or uproot, economic agendas and schemes can threaten to push people into unemployment, uproot retirement accounts, and drop people into poverty. The wind can drift snow and pile leaves, and the Covid-19 virus has piled up hosts of the sick and dead. We live in a world that tosses us around like a rag doll, with political tricks, economic hardships, and hidden viral assassins.
Perhaps then in circumstances when the world tosses us about, the following Word of God is needed: we must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. We can relate to the things that tossed the Ephesians around, because they still do to us, heresies, trickeries, craftiness, deceits, schemes. Are these hardships not today’s politics, economics, medicine, life? But the word that strikes out the most in this passage is the word children. Only children or a better word the immature allow themselves to be blown around by these things. Someone without experience and/or wisdom falls for the traps and games and schemes of the day, whether in religion, politics, or academics.
If the children are tossed about, then the Word says, but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. Children grow up and mature into adults with wisdom, experience, and endurance to cope with the problems of the age. But in our case, we are not growing up into wisdom and perseverance in a literal sense, but we are growing up into Christ who is perfect wisdom, experience, and perseverance. The one close to Christ is not tossed about because they are anchored in Christ and can weather the storms blowing around. The closer to Christ, the greater the union and connection, and therefore the greater the storms that can be endured. If we find ourselves tossed around, this might just be evidence we need to grow up into Christ more and more and find our true security and anchorage there.
In order to nurture growth, God through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, has given leaders to his people, the gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. The leader’s task is to nurture growth in their charges until their grow up. This is their God-given calling to help God’s people mature closer and closer into Christ and to greater weather the challenges of the day.
If we find ourselves tossed about by the deceits of “Big-Tech,” or grieved by the political shenanigans of a political party or upset by the Church’s Spiritual direction or lack thereof or laid low by the virus and its complications and losses or scandalized by the divisiveness of violent factions of liberals and conservatives, all this only serves to prove the point: that if we are being tossed around. we have some growing up to do. If we are being blown around, we need to move closer and closer into our collective union with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This means that as leaders we have callings to fulfill and people to nurture. But it also means that as laity, we have prayers to say, scripture to study, worship to offer God, and service to our neighbors to perform. We all need to grow up into Christ to become more mature. As leaders and disciples let us set our faces to our callings and with love move ever forward to greater maturity in Jesus Christ. Let the world’s wind wail as it may, give me the Grace of God to rest in any day! Amen.
January 17, 2021 Video Service
January 10, 2021 Video Service
For Such a Time as This…
Psalm 46
To the leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth. A Song.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
2021 is not looking any better. I said this to myself yesterday as I heard reports of violence at the very seat of American government. We endured in 2020 the pandemic and must endure more in 2021. We endured economic turmoil in ‘20 and ‘21 seems to include more of the same. We endured political upheaval in ’20 with a summer of protests, riots and the blame game and as I stared at the news feed on my phone, I thought to myself, ’21 is not looking any better than ’20. I feel sick in my stomach, my anxieties about the future cause my hands to shake, I find myself continuously affixed to the news to see what else can go wrong and in particularly the way things are going, I am expecting Godzilla to show up or the Zombie Apocalypse. I am worried and filled with fear in such an uncertain time as this.
This is the soil into which the Word of God spoke this morning and the Word spoken is this, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore, we will not fear. The Psalmist sung those words to the people of Israel in a time when the very cities were threatened with destruction, calamity, and upheaval. While the anxiety and worry were quite palpable and the abyss of stress and uncertainty unfathomable, the Psalmist plants a different idea into the ground of fear: faith. The Psalmist does not deny the reality of confusion and helplessness, nor the uncertainty and powerless, the Psalmist inserts God into that reality. Into the worries of their time, God is the refuge amid calamities. Into the impotency of national politics and insurrection, God is the greater strength than rebellion or protest. Into the helplessness and overwhelming losses, God is the present help in time of trouble. In the face of sorrow and fear, the Psalmist plants the faithfulness and power of God.
For the nation of Israel one of the greatest threats was the natural disaster: the changing earth, the mountains shaking in the heart of the sea, the waters roaring and foaming, the mountains trembling. This was the daily reality of the people, the uncontrollable aspects of creation. We too in the modern age have the uncontrollable aspects of creation. The record setting number of hurricanes this past season, the eruption of volcanoes, the polar vortexes, thirty-two inches of snow and global warming. But amid the uncontrollable forces of creation, we are reminded that the City of God is not going to be moved, because God is stronger than the hurricane. God is amid the city, what volcano can obliterate the God who created the volcano.? The river of God makes the city glad, what global warming can evaporate the Life of God? God will help the City of God when the morning dawns upon it, what virus can dawn upon the creation, that can overpower the Might of God? Creation can certainly take life away, but what can rival or threaten the One who rose again from the dead?
But the other great threat for the nation of Israel was the political disaster. The nation of Israel and its people were always under the boot of another greater country: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, the Barbarians, the Turks, the Mongols, et. al. Into oppression and occupation, invaders and infiltrators, coups and new regimes, the Psalmist sings, the nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totters. Well, America is certainly in an uproar, and America is certainly tottering. But, amid them, the City of God is not moved, because the LORD of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge. What army can vanquish God’s army? What mob can annihilate God’s host? What nation or kingdom can match or equal the Kingdom of God and God’s Messiah? Nation or kingdom can certainly invade and destroy, but what can rival or threaten the One who sits on the throne of God’s Kingdom?
What war can creation make definitively against the One who makes wars cease to the end of the earth? What weapons can be leveled against the One who breaks bows, shatter spears and burns shields with fire? What power exists in creation that equals God in power or is greater in strength than the strength of God? If the answer is nothing, then have some faith in God. Trust that all things work out for God’s purposes. Trust that you and your families are in good hands. Trust that God will bring you through this difficult time. Trust that our country and its institutions and purposes are under the capable Guidance and Governorship of Christ. Be still and know that God is God, and you do not have to be! Let this iron brick of anxiety be moved from our stomachs. Let the peace of Christ calm the tremors in our hands. Let the assurance of faith wash over our futures. Let the faithfulness and love of God almighty move us to exalt God among the nations and in all the earth. Let the ground of our fears be planted deeply and richly with the Word of Faith; and grow some faith to counter your fears!
My brothers and sisters in Christ, we have much that troubles us, but our God is greater still than them all. Let us then not surrender our hearts and minds to the devil’s antics but let us instead surrender our hearts and minds to the Word of our God. Let our fears be planted with faith in the Word of God and let us rest in and under the One who is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble. Amen.