the curtain torn in two
the barrier between God and man
the hidden, save for priestly eyes
now revealed through the Son of God
dead upon a cross.
the dreggs of wrath poured out upon the perfect One.

The barrier, velvet blood laid asunder
drops upon the ground.

This mystery revealed upon the hill
our savior dying
his last words crying
of the void in his soul
new in his heart
so familiar to ours
he alone able to overcome.

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” (Mk 14:22-25)

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (Jn 17:14-19)

Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” (Mk 14:44-49)

… while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”(Mt 27:19-23)

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”(Jn 19:16-22)

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!”(Lk 23:44-47)

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”(Heb 10:5-7)

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”…And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. (Mk 15:34, 37)

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (Jn 1:29b)

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Heb 10:14)

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, (Lk 24:1-8)

And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. (Mk 16:6)

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, (Heb 5:9)

Then (Jesus) said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”(Lk 24:44-49)

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:  I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”(Heb 8:10-12)

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”(Rev 21:1-5)

 

 Adorable redeemer,

                 thou who wast lifted up upon a cross, 

                  art ascended to highest heaven. 

Thou, who as man of sorrows was crowned with thorns, 

                  art now as Lord of life wreathed with glory. 

Once, no shame more deep than thine, 

                  no agony more bitter, no death more cruel.

Now, no exaltation more high,

                  no life more glorious, no advocate more effective. 

Thou art in the triumph car leading captive thine enemies behind thee. 

What more could be done than thou hast done!

                  Thy death is my life, thy resurrection my peace, 

                  thy ascension my hope, thy prayers my comfort.

 

(Resurrection, Valley Of Vision, p.48)

 

“…the preacher is apt to preach the Gospel with the high magic taken out, the deep mystery reduced to a managable size…the wild and joyful promise of the Gospel is reduced to promises more easily kept. The peach that passeth all understanding is reduced to peace that anybody can understand…”Blessed is he who takes no offense at me” (Matt. 11:6), Jesus says, and the preacher is apt to seek to remove the offense by removing from the Gospel all that he believes we find offensive. You cannot blame him because up to a point, of course, he is right. With part of ourselves we are offended as he thinks by what is too much for us to believe. We weren’t born yesterday. We are from Missouri.

But we are also from somewhere else. We are from Oz, from Looking-Glass Land, from Narnia, and from Middle Earth. If with part of ourselves we are men and women of the world and share the sad unbeliefs of the world, with a deeper part still, the part where our best dreams come from, it is as if we were indeed born yesterday, or almost yesterday, because we are also all of us children still. No matter how forgotten and neglected, there is a child in all of us who is not just willing to believe in the possibility that maybe fairy tales are true after all but who is to some degree in touch with that truth…

…So let the preacher remember this and preach to us not just as men and women of the world but as children, too, who are often much more simple-hearted than he supposes, and much hungrier for, and ready to believe in, and already in contact with, more magic and mystery than most of the time we are even aware of ourselves.”

Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale (pp.96-97)

“I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours.”

-William Wilberforce

“The error is great of supposing that the mind is making no progress and acquiring no knowledge, when it is not conversing with books; and it is one of the errors of bookish men. There are pauses amidst study, and even pauses of seeming idleness, in which a process goes on which may be likened to the digestion of food. In those seasons of repose, the powers are gathering their strength for new efforts; as land which lies fallow, and recovers itself for tillage.

To be worth much the mind must sometimes be left to itself. It must pursue its bent, and sometimes condescend even to trifles. Perpetual readers violate this law of the mental constitution, and never with impunity. Those especially who are so exclusively professional in their pursuits as to do everything by rule and compass, to the neglect of all generous literature, and gentle, graceful entertainment, never fail to become rigid, barren of invention, and cold in expression. The grateful interruption of family hours and company are as good for the mind as for the body. Hence I think a married man is more likely to be a successful scholar than a bachelor.

Reflective minds cannot be wholly idle. Even in play, they work on, in spite of themselves. Seasons of intermission often give birth to the bests thoughts.”

James W. Alexander, Thoughts on Preaching

With the temptation to prize the past and try to swing the pendulum of the day, this passage made me smile as I read from William Still’s The Work of the Pastor, this week. Yes, there is much to be gained from digesting the works of these great men, but we do not live in a vacuum. Enjoy the quote.

“Perhaps your temptation is not to live in the sixteenth century, or in the world of its discoveries or impacts: you prefer the seventeenth century. It may be that even now you are in the process of absorbing not only the solid teaching of the Puritan writers, and therefore acquiring the stable character that those teachings inculcate. But you may be seeing the Word of God through the eyes in such a way that you are really living three hundred years ago, and have acquired a detachment from the present day and even a cold disdainful attitude towards it that makes you exceedingly unattractive and forbidding. What a pity. For this tendency in you will increase, because, while your love for Puritans and Puritanism is likely to grow as you become absorbed with them and it, the Spirit of God will not bless you in this as He blessed these dear godly men in it. They were dealing with live situations and were making impacts upon them, whereas you are just a dealer in antiquities. The last thing in the world the Spirit of God will do is bless those living out of their own age. Some are big enough to absorb a great deal of Puritan teaching because they can do so quickly, and life is short. Yet they remain ‘on the ball’ of their own day. But many more get lost in the process.”

William Still, The Work of the Pastor, pp.69-70.