Author: Jerry Wirtley

12/21/2020

Jerry Wirtley

So then the first covenant had regulations for the priests’ service and the holy place on earth. 2 They pitched the first tent called the holy place. It contained the lampstand, the table, and the loaves of bread presented to God. 3 There was a tent behind the second curtain called the holy of holies. 4 It had the gold altar for incense and the chest containing the covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. In the chest there was a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the chest there were magnificent winged creatures[a]casting their shadow over the seat of the chest, where sin is taken care of. Right now we can’t talk about these things in detail. 6 When these things have been prepared in this way, priests enter the first tent all the time as they perform their service. 7 But only the high priest enters the second tent once a year. He never does this without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins the people committed in ignorance. 8 With this, the Holy Spirit is showing that the way into the holy place hadn’t been revealed yet while the first tent was standing. 9 This is a symbol for the present time. It shows that the gifts and sacrifices that are being offered can’t perfect the conscience of the one who is serving. 10 These are superficial regulations that are only about food, drink, and various ritual ways to wash with water. They are regulations that have been imposed until the time of the new order. 11 But Christ has appeared as the high priest of the good things that have happened. He passed through the greater and more perfect meeting tent, which isn’t made by human hands (that is, it’s not a part of this world).12 He entered the holy of holies once for all by his own blood, not by the blood of goats or calves, securing our deliverance for all time. 13 If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of cows made spiritually contaminated people holy and clean, 14 how much more will the blood of Jesus wash our consciences clean from dead works in order to serve the living God? He offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit as a sacrifice without any flaw. (Hebrews 9:1-14, CEB)

In the chest was a golden jar of manna, Aaron’s rod which had budded and the tablets.

These are signs of God’s love for the people. The manna was God feeding the people as the wandered, the budded rod was God’s choice of priest, and the tablets were an understanding of how to love God and neighbor.

We all have these three things in our lives, God provides for us, and has chosen us to be God’s child and we have a guide for our relationship with God and others. 

If we will hold these in our inter sanctuary and use them in our lives, imagine the world. If we all did what the coming baby came to show us, to love God and neighbor, and share that love with everyone…

Imagine!

Hold the items in your personal Chest of the covenant close and use them in your daily life to put fear at bay and live in the hope and love of Christ.

12/20/2020

Jerry Wirtley

26 When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, 27 to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 When the angel came to her, he said, “Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with you!” 29 She was confused by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. 31 Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. 33 He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. 36 Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled ‘unable to conceive’ is now six months pregnant. 37 Nothing is impossible for God.” 38 Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38, CEB)

We often praise Mary for her tremendous faith and trust in God, but I like that she has a question here. “How?” seems like a pretty fair question, too. The response from the angel is not a practical one, and to us it can sound almost cliche, but it is in many ways the heart of the gospel itself: “Nothing is impossible for God.”

God’s hope for humanity always feels impossible. Our imaginations always fall a little short, so we always wonder “how.” But God is always unfazed. God makes a way out of no way, the possible out of the impossible. May we, like Mary, be content to be part of God’s dream for the world, even if we don’t quite understand the whole picture yet.

12/19/2020

Jerry Wirtley

40 When some in the crowd heard these words, they said, “This man is truly the prophet.” 41 Others said, “He’s the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ can’t come from Galilee, can he? 42 Didn’t the scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” 43 So the crowd was divided over Jesus. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one grabbed him. 45 The guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring him?” 46 The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken the way he does.” 47 The Pharisees replied, “Have you too been deceived? 48 Have any of the leaders believed in him? Has any Pharisee? 49 No, only this crowd, which doesn’t know the Law. And they are under God’s curse!” 50 Nicodemus, who was one of them and had come to Jesus earlier, said, 51 “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?” 52 They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Look it up and you will see that the prophet doesn’t come from Galilee.” (John 7:40-52, CEB)

Fear is the ruler of our lives when we fight against something that we do not understand or will not understand because it will change our way of life.

I have a postcard for a seminar on my bulletin board that I have moved with me through the past 2 calls. It says, “Change isn’t just something you get from a vending machine.” If you are not changing, you are dying.

And in this reading we see the person who could be a model for change in a disciple of Jesus, Nicodemus. Nic comes to Jesus for the first time in John 3, where he comes at night so not to be seen, and he questions Jesus, and here is Nic’s second appearance in John, out in public at the high council defending Jesus. His final appearance is when he helps remove Jesus from the cross. He went from sneaking around to see Jesus to semi public defense, to open adoration. The fear in Nic has been knocked away by the love of God.

I think we should all live like Nic. Let love rule in your life so that the fear will be held at bay.

12/18/2020

Jerry Wirtley

5 After all, when did God ever say to any of the angels: You are my Son. Today I have become your Father? Or, even, I will be his Father, and he will be my Son? 6 But then, when he brought his firstborn into the world, he said, All of God’s angels must worship him. 7 He talks about the angels: He’s the one who uses the spirits for his messengers and who uses flames of fire as ministers. 8 But he says to his Son, God, your throne is forever and your kingdom’s scepter is a rod of justice. 9 You loved righteousness and hated lawless behavior. That is why God, your God, has anointed you more than your companions with the oil of joy. 10 And he says, You, Lord, laid the earth’s foundations in the beginning, and the heavens are made by your hands. 11 They will pass away, but you remain. They will all wear out like old clothes. 12 You will fold them up like a coat. They will be changed like a person changes clothes, but you stay the same, and the years of your life won’t come to an end 13 When has he ever said to any of the angels, Sit at my right side until I put your enemies under your feet like a footstool? 14 Aren’t all the angels ministering spirits who are sent to serve those who are going to inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:5-14, CEB)

The son of God is not another angel, not just one of the heavenly beings. 

Jesus is God, and when Jesus came to tent among us, God came and dwelt among us.

Know that God loves you so much that God stepped off the throne and became a baby born in a manger and lived in this world that God created to show us the love God has for creation.

Never doubt the love. Even in all of the evil of this world, God is always with you, and the love God has given you, is a hope for a better world.

12/17/2020

Jerry Wirtley

In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways. 2 In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son. God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him. 3 The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being. He maintains everything with his powerful message. After he carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty. 4 And the Son became so much greater than the other messengers, such as angels, that he received a more important title than theirs. (Hebrews 1:1-4, CEB)

“In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways.”

This is how the entire book of Hebrews starts. God talks to people through people. The passage goes on to say that God sent his son, Jesus, to carry out his message and show everyone the true power and goodness of God. Jesus healed the sick, put people of authority in their place, and gave everyone hope for a better life. We all know that he is a really great dude.

However, I’d like to focus on this first sentence about God talking through prophets to the people. If you look around today, most theology is based on what is in the Bible or supplementary texts written by people two thousand years ago. But why does everyone just stop there? God used ordinary people to convey his message before Jesus came. Why can’t he do so after? The best way I see God in my life is through the people that I encounter in my day-to-day life. Ordinary people just like the ones that God used hundreds of years before the arrival of Jesus. I encourage each of you to spend some time today to really listen to what God has to tell you through those around you instead of always relying on what he has said through other people in the past.

12/16/2020

Jerry Wirtley

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Human One had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept it to themselves, wondering, “What’s this ‘rising from the dead’?” 11 They asked Jesus, “Why do the legal experts say that Elijah must come first?” 12 He answered, “Elijah does come first to restore all things. Why was it written that the Human One would suffer many things and be rejected? 13 In fact, I tell you that Elijah has come, but they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it was written about him.” (Mark 9:9-13, CEB)

Why did Jesus tell them not to tell until after the rising from the dead?

Jesus knew they would not be believed, because they were just on the mountain with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. And the happenings were not believable, until we see that Jesus rose from the dead. 

Sometimes the things we believe are unbelievable, and that my friends is faith. We live by faith.

Know that the promises we have are true, and we can live in the hope of the risen savior. 

Hope is greater than fear, and love of Christ will always give us hope.

12/15/2020

Jerry Wirtley

17 “Brothers and sisters, I know you acted in ignorance. So did your rulers. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he foretold through all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. 19 Change your hearts and lives! Turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away. 20 Then the Lord will provide a season of relief from the distress of this age and he will send Jesus, whom he handpicked to be your Christ. 21 Jesus must remain in heaven until the restoration of all things, about which God spoke long ago through his holy prophets. 22 Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up from your own people a prophet like me. Listen to whatever he tells you. 23 Whoever doesn’t listen to that prophet will be totally cut off from the people. 24 All the prophets who spoke—from Samuel forward—announced these days. 25 You are the heirs of the prophets and the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, Through your descendants, all the families on earth will be blessed. 26 After God raised his servant, he sent him to you first—to bless you by enabling each of you to turn from your evil ways.”

4 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them. 2 They were incensed that the apostles were teaching the people and announcing that the resurrection of the dead was happening because of Jesus. 3 They seized Peter and John and put them in prison until the next day. (It was already evening.) 4 Many who heard the word became believers, and their number grew to about five thousand. (Acts 3:17—4:4, CEB)

I have been talking a lot over the past few weeks, for the season of Advent, about fear and the state of the world. I have intentionally been linking Advent to fear because it seems like fear is pervasive, and would world is overcome in the past few years with evil. We are becoming more and more turned in our ourselves and looking our for our best interest rather than the interests of others.

I am writing this before the presidential election in the USA and there is an undertone of hope, yet the society is still more concerned with their own self interest and not the best for society. It seems we are in a time when someone says something I disagree with that we immediately say that the other is wrong and start defending our position. That is what is happening in the reading, Peter and John were preaching good news and the religious leaders felt threatened, so they fought back. I wonder what would have happened if they would have listened… They may not have changed their mind, but maybe there would have been an understanding.

I wonder what would happen if we as followers of the coming savior would listen to be compassionate, to hear our neighbor? What would happen if we loved as God tells us to and were a presence of peace in the community in which we live? What would happen is we let love rule rather than fear?

Let love rule, and kick fear to the curb.

12/14/2020

Jerry Wirtley

10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. 11 Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. 12 We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. 13 Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand.14 So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, 15 and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace.16 Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. (Ephesians 6:10-17, CEB)

I feel like this is a passage we have all heard before. A lot of people use it as a way to fend off the evil spirits. “Oh yeah, you can’t stop me or disagree with me because I’ve got the armor of GOD on.”

The passage lays out all of the different pieces of armor God provides for us and what the armor can protect us from. All of that is nice and dandy, but I’d like to focus on verse 12: “We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.” With all of the tensions that our nation has experienced over the past month and a half and even over the past year, I think many people are forgetting this part of the passage.

“We aren’t fighting against human enemies.”

God is explicitly telling us that other humans are not the problem. Places of authority and “forces of cosmic darkness” are the problem. And just to be clear, the people holding those places of authority are not the problem, the place and situation itself are. We don’t need to put on the armor of God to defend ourselves and our ideals against other people, we need it to defend against the oppression that comes from authoritative ideals. Remember this the next time you disagree with someone. God doesn’t want us to fight them as human beings, after all God did craft each and every one of us, but wants us to guard against those ideals that stray away from what God truly wants from us.

12/13/2020

Jerry Wirtley

6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning the light, so that through him everyone would believe in the light. 8 He himself wasn’t the light, but his mission was to testify concerning the light. 19 This is John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 John confessed (he didn’t deny but confessed), “I’m not the Christ.” 21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” John said, “I’m not.” “Are you the prophet?” John answered, “No.” 22 They asked, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 John replied, “I am a voice crying out in the wilderness, Make the Lord’s path straight, just as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24 Those sent by the Pharisees 25 asked, “Why do you baptize if you aren’t the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered, “I baptize with water. Someone greater stands among you, whom you don’t recognize.27 He comes after me, but I’m not worthy to untie his sandal straps.” 28 This encounter took place across the Jordan in Bethany where John was baptizing. (John 1:6-8, 19-28, CEB)

Who are you? And why are you doing what you are doing?

So many people in the world want to know who we are and why we live in hope. When the world is collapsing around us and it seems like everything is going wrong, we still live in hope and not the fear that surrounds us. Why, or better yet, how?

Peace. Which is probably something we are missing now, or at least during Advent I am usually missing it. This year with Covid will be interesting to see if December is as hectic as “normal” years. But peace of know that I am waiting for the baby, that will grow to show us how to live, and be faithful to the plan to go to the cross, die and rise and ascend into the heavens. And because He lives I have peace, and hope.

So who are you? You are a beloved child of God and you do what you do because of peace and hope in Christ.

Never lose this. Peace and hope will always be there!

12/12/2020

Jerry Wirtley

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. Now he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 “‘No, I don’t want to,’ he replied. But later he changed his mind and went. 30 “The father said the same thing to the other son, who replied, ‘Yes, sir.’ But he didn’t go. 31 “Which one of these two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first one.” Jesus said to them, “I assure you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering God’s kingdom ahead of you.32 For John came to you on the righteous road, and you didn’t believe him. But tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Yet even after you saw this, you didn’t change your hearts and lives and you didn’t believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32, CEB)

This is an interesting parable I think, because when Jesus asks who did the fathers will, my first answer was neither. And yes, neither son did exactly what was asked, nor did they do what they said they would. But when it comes down to it, the first son did what needed to be done, regardless of what he said or whether he wanted to. This is something that I think we should be mindful of, both as a church and individual people. So often it is easiest to say what we think others want to hear. “Yes, I’ll help you with that,” “Of course we accept everyone,” “I love you,” etc. This is what our words are saying, but do our actions line up with those words? Do we love unconditionally, without question or complaint, and show it in all of our interactions? 

Today I want to challenge you to say that you love those around you not with your words, but with your actions. This can be smaller things like a friendly smile (or wave, if you’re wearing a mask) or something larger like offering to do a chore, buying a coffee, giving someone a call and genuinely being interested in their day. Whatever love looks like to you, show it to those around you.