Me & Morgan

My wife, Karen, and my son, Ethan, leave this Sunday for Florida. They are traveling with Karen's mom for a week-long visit with Karen's grandmother who lives in Englewood, Florida. I am excited that Karen and Ethan will have some extended mother/son time. On the flip-side, I am looking forward to having some father/daughter time with my 2-year old, Morgan, back home in Illinois.

While Morgan and I may not be spending any time at the beach, we are still going to have some great times together. If it warms up, I might take her camping. I will definitely be taking her hiking at some local forest preserves. We also have a couple of play dates (and lunch meetings) to attend. Later in the week, my parents are coming up for a two-day visit to help me paint our living room.

But what do you think we should do next week? Are there any places you think we should visit? Are there any 1 or even 2-day trips we should venture out upon? Let me know your thoughts, and I'll keep you all posted throughout the week...

Does God Exist?

I am teaching this Sunday during our God Questions series. I have 23 minutes to address the question: "Does God exist?" I think I need more time...

Good Friday

The following is a rough transcript of my recent teaching from the Good Friday service...

Good Friday - interesting wording isn't it?

"Good Friday" is most likely derived from the earlier English name, "Godes Friday" which means "God's Friday"

In Israel, this day is called "Big Friday"
In Germany, it is called "Friday of Lamentation"
Other countries refer to it as "Great Friday," "Holy Friday," and "Long Friday"

Regardless of what we call this day, it is the day Christians around the world remember the crucifixion of Christ as an eternal sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. In this regard, “Good Friday” may not be a bad name because of the overwhelmingly good things that came as a result of Christ's sacrifice.

We have been talking all this month about the cross, so I wanted to take a little bit different approach to our gathering this evening. I wanted to talk to you some about the meal that Jesus and his twelve apostles shared the night he was arrested.

Significance of meals in our culture today…
- Being invited to a meal is a sign of friendship, openness to doing life with another individual
- A friend who recently won a meal for 10 at a restaurant in Naperville
- I felt honored to be invited and I am looking forward to gathering together with this friend and the rest of the people she invited

Meals in the Jewish culture had great significance, and they still do. I asked my mentor to contact one of his Jewish friends and inquire about the significance. Here’s what he had to say…

“Sharing a meal with someone puts them in a special designation as a friend. It is a traditional way of elevating your relationship. An invitation to a meal is personal and should be seen as an intentional sign of desire for a friendship bond. The food is not the focus as much as the conversation and gesture of friendship.”

Do you remember the movie, Cars? In the movie there is a scene where Lightning McQueen is talking with his sports agent, Harv, who is Jewish. When Harv tells Lighting that he has tickets for his closest friends to come to the final race, Harv tells him that he better save some time to "break bread" with him when he gets to town. Again, this idea of gathering together for a meal is a sign of friendship.

This is why the Pharisees had such a hard time with Jesus eating at Levi’s house. They understood that when Jesus ate with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and other sinners he was elevating their status in the world. The Pharisees simply could not stoop that low, but Jesus could (see Phil 2:5-11).

Now within the Jewish faith, there are numerous festivals centered around meals and fellowship gatherings…

In Matthew 26, we see the disciples come to Jesus to ask about preparations for the Passover meal. The Passover Meal was one of the most important annual festivals that Jews celebrate. We read about the purpose & origin of the meal in Deuteronomy 16:1-3…

Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste--so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.

If you recall, Moses and Aaron have been in Egypt for some time trying to convince the Pharaoh to let the people go out into the wilderness to worship their God. However, Pharaoh continues to refuse their requests, and as a result, God sends down several plagues onto the people.

The final act that God performs is the killing of all of the first-born sons of the Egyptians. In preparation for this, God tells the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and smear blood on the doorframes of their homes. When God came down to Egypt, any house that had the blood of the lamb was passed over (i.e. Passover).

This final act convinces the Pharaoh to release the nation of Israel and so begins the mass exodus and the official formation of an entire nation set apart for God.

God knew that the nation of Israel would need something to remind them of what He did, so He instituted the Passover Meal. In fact, Exodus 13:8 tells us that the purpose of the Passover Meal was to teach the children about Israel's departure from the tyrannical rule of the Egyptians. During the meal children are especially encouraged to ask questions about God and the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.

The food that is eaten during the Passover Meal has great significance. They eat unleavened bread as a reminder that when they fled Egypt they did not have time to add yeast to their dough. They eat bitter herbs which represent the bitterness of slavery. They eat a sweet paste which represents the mortar they used to cement bricks together while in slavery. They also dip vegetables in salt-water - the dipping is symbolic of royalty and freedom and the salt-water recalls the tears they shed while in slavery.

They also drink four glasses of wine, or grape juice, during the course of the meal. There are different schools of thought on the significance of these four glasses. Some say the four cups represent the four expressions of deliverance promised by God in Exodus 6:6-7: "I will bring out," "I will deliver," "I will redeem," and "I will take."

Another perspective is that the four glasses represent four worlds: this world, the Messianic age when the Messiah would reign, the world at the revival of the dead, and the world to come.

Another perspective is that the four cups relate to the four historical redemptions of the Jewish people: the choosing of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, the survival of the Jewish people throughout the exile, and the fourth which will happen at the end of days.

So…when we see Jesus reclining with the Twelve Apostles eating the Passover Meal, there is great significance in the ritual and in the food that is eaten. This is no casual dinner.

Throughout this entire meal, they are being reminded again of the historical reality of God interacting with humanity through the nation of Israel. They are remembering the suffering and persecution experienced while in slavery, and they are remembering the redemption and freedom they experienced after being released from slavery. In one sense, Jesus is using the Passover Meal to make them aware of the current state of spiritual slavery they were in and the freedom they were about to experience because of his sacrifice.

It is into this rich blend of history and culture and significance that Jesus institutes what we call Communion. It is after they got done with this history lesson that Jesus grabs some unleavened bread and says, "This bread is my body, broken for you."

Deuteronomy 16:3 calls this bread the "bread of affliction." Knowing what Jesus was about to go through - the false arrest, the beatings and persecution, being hung on the cross - there is great significance in this terminology.

This bread - the bread of affliction - is Jesus body. His affliction goes beyond any affliction the nation of Israel went through in Egypt. As the Apostles are sitting there thinking back on what the Jewish people went through, Jesus foreshadows for them that he is going to go through far worse.

After the bread, he takes the cup and says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

Again, as the Apostles are sitting there with this fresh history lesson, thinking about the blood of the lamb being smeared on the doorframes of the Israelites homes in Egypt, Jesus introduces a new covenant. One being established - not by the blood of an animal - but by the blood of their Lord, their Rabbi, their Mentor, their Friend.

Paul, when writing to the church at Corinth, reminds them of this reality when he refers to Jesus as our Passover Lamb.

Again, it is in the midst of this amazing blend of history and culture and religious turmoil that we see Jesus institute an act that Christians 2,000 years in the future would celebrate. Communion is an invitation to a regular meal-gathering with Christ.

We need to view this invitation in the same way as if a modern-day friend would invite us to a meal. It is a sign of openness and friendship. It is a sign that Jesus wants to take our relationship to a whole new level.

As we move into our times of communion, I want to encourage you to imagine yourself sitting at that table with Jesus. Knowing what you know about the significance of meals in the Jewish culture….knowing what you know about the history of the Passover Meal…knowing what He was about to go through, imagine hearing Jesus say to you, "This is my body, broken for you. This is my blood, spilled for you."

College Reunion

Karen & I packed up the kids and made the journey downstate last weekend for an annual reunion with the Christian Campus House at Eastern Illinois University. With grandma & grandpa watching the kids, it was primarily a much-needed, much-appreciated date night!

We had a great time reuniting with friends we hadn't seen in years and with friends we saw a week ago. It is interesting how you end up hanging out with the exact same group of people you spent so much time with in college. We did the cursory conversations with people we knew from back-in-the-day, but the majority of our time was spent talking with people we have stayed in contact with since college.

(The temptation is there, of course, to promise to try to stay in contact better, but we all know those are mostly empty promises. I am doing better at not making those and just accepting the realities of life.)

We ended up heading out to Steak-n-Shake with some friends following the banquet where we all enjoyed milkshakes and cheese fries and remembering again what life was like before kids. Although, by 10:00pm, we all accepted another reality...we do have kids, and we cannot stay awake much longer because we are exhausted and the kids will be up before the sun rises tomorrow morning.

For all of my fellow EIU/CCH grads...see you next year!