A Message from Pastor Dave... |
|
|
1/24/06 Instruction in the Liturgy III Beloved, If you notice there is always a short "exhortation" right before the "confession of sins." This exhortation is normally connected to either the sermon or the Scripture Reading in some way. It is intended both as a goad to confession as well as a guide to confessing your sins. I often hear people talking about how they seem to be confessing the same sins week after week. The exhortation is there to help you see your sins in maybe a different light and from a different perspective. Listening to the exhortation might help you deal with other sins or the same sins from a new angle. Please do listen to the exhortation as you prepare to confess your sins. Serving Christ and you, Pastor David Cranmer Library 1/20/06 Instruction in the Liturgy III Beloved, After the "grace to you" and opening prayer of thanksgiving to our God for calling us together, we confess our sins. This is a part of the liturgy that is lost on the Church in our day for a number of reasons that will be enumerated in a later email. For now we recognize that we have been called into the presence of our God Who remains a consuming fire. The necessity of this fire is to refine away the dross of our sin. We come into the presence of God dirty and in need of cleansing. This is the order for approaching God: Sin is dealt with first; ascension into God's presence follows (This is where our "Lift up your hearts" comes in); then feasting with God is the climax. This pattern follows the liturgical order of sacrifices given by God in the book of Leviticus and fulfilled by Jesus and the Church. So our confession of sin parallels and fulfills (through Jesus fulfillment) the sin offering at the entrance to God's presence. Our God is a holy, sin-hating God. Our God deals with our sin mercifully in His Son. We come into His presence and begin here. Humbly we confess our sins and seek forgiveness. This is of course in response to the first word of worship which is "grace to you." Without that grace and the sin offering of Jesus we have every reason to stay away. However in Jesus we are welcome, invited to come by faith to have our sins forgiven and to be renewed in covenant with God. Thanks be to God for His Son our Savior Jesus Christ! Serving Christ and you, Pastor David Cranmer Library 1/13/06 Instruction in the Liturgy II Beloved, After the "grace to you" call to worship there is a short prayer. This is not a prayer asking or seeking for the presence of the Lord. This prayer assumes the presence of the Lord because He is the One Who has called us together. There will be a latter prayer in connection with Word and Sacrament that asks for the Holy Spirit to accomplish the work of covenant renewal, but not here. The opening prayer is a short prayer of thanksgiving to our Triune God for His gracious call. We acknowledge that we are here by His grace alone in response to His call. We confess that we are gathered at His command to receive His Son by His Spirit. For this we are glad, grateful, hungry, and thirsty. It is this that we pray. Serving Christ and you, Pastor David Cranmer Library 1/11/06 Instruction in the Liturgy Beloved, I am beginning here a series of short emails on "Instruction in the Liturgy." These instructional emails are intended to help you better understand and more faithfully participate in our liturgy at GRC. These will also be very helpful as you instruct your own children in their participation. The liturgy begins with a "Trinitarian greeting" focused on the Apostolic opening formula "grace to you" (or some form of that). As with every single jot and tittle of the liturgy this is at the beginning for a reason and is not simply a time filler. We begin with this blessing for a number of reasons. The Trinitarian formula helps remind us that we are being called together as God's baptized people. Our baptism is into the Triune Name and so we are thus called by that Name. We are not our own but belong to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So the service begins with a Trinitarian blessing because we are the baptized people of God. The formula is of course focused on "grace to you," or "grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father in His Son Jesus Christ through the fellowship of the Spirit." All this is important at the beginning because we need to be reminded of the graciousness of the call and the kindness of God's intention to renew covenant with us. We are and should be well aware of our sin and His holiness and so this gracious greeting sets us in the right frame. We are here by grace alone. We stand by grace alone. We leave by grace alone. This is also how the Apostle Paul opened most of his epistles and so is a way of extending that Apostolic greeting to you all. So when I ask you to stand at the beginning of the service each Lord's Day and begin with this greeting, be prepared for it. Receive it in gratefulness as God's first Word to you. God's first Word to you in Covenant Renewal Worship is "grace." In this His claim on you is that you are His and not your own. You are welcome in His presence. Amen and Amen! Until the next instruction. Blessings, Pastor David Cranmer Library 1/5/06 Depressed, Flat, But Not Losing Heart Beloved, Today is one of those days where I am ministerially depressed. Heavily so. In good company of course as the Scriptures remind me of the: >angst of the Psalmist >the grief of Christ >the depression of Paul (particularly in 2 Corinthians) And yet all of this is not to the losing of heart. I believe this is something of what it means to still traverse a world and church where things are not yet what they will be. Sometimes this is more acute then at other times. Paul says 'who sins and I do not inwardly burn' and then 'there is the daily burden of the churches'. This is part of the calling of the office that pastors hold. This is one reason why it is important for you all to pray for your pastors. Days like these come and go (we are glad when they go). But when they are here there is almost no strength in the tank. Everything (even the simplest) seems Herculean. But then there is Jesus. Considering Him gives hope and though greatly foggy a smidgen of encouragement. Well I gotta go. Do pray for us in these days. Gladly serving Christ and you, Pastor David Cranmer Library 1/4/06 On The Bible Beloved, Something that has been heavily on my mind and heart for the past couple of years is the importance of not only what God says but how He has chosen to say it. We are fairly familiar with the former but ignorant of the latter. This often times allows us to say yes to Scripture without actually obeying it. When God is using 'trees' as a way to communicate Christ, life, covenant community, Christian growth and the future, and we decide that we can do without this use of 'trees' our lives suffer impoverishment. Our lives flourish like trees firmly planted by streams of water when we drink the water of how God speaks to us. If there was a better way than 'trees' (or any other metaphor or simile) then He would have done so. But if He does not, neither should we. We should hunger for the Word, not ours but His. Not what we think His Word is or want it to be but actually the way He has given it to us. I hope to feed that rightful hunger during the Sunday Institute at 9:00a.m. and the evening gathering at 5:00p.m. this Lord's Day. I hope you will be there with your Bible. Serving Christ and you, Pastor David Cranmer Library 1/1/06 A Pastoral Note Beloved, It occurred to me as I was studying Romans 8 for the Institute this coming Lord's Day that a renewed commitment is in order. A renewed commitment to what you might ask? Well, I am preparing a study of the Word of God and that is what I am talking about. A renewed commitment by the whole of GRC Church to the teaching times that are proffered to you. You need the Word and your elders are suppose to teach that Word to you. If we do our study you should do your attendance. Simple enough. Our teaching times this week are at 9:00a.m., 10:15a.m. and 5:00p.m. this coming Lord's Day. Looking forward to seeing you all at all of the teaching times. This is good preparation for a return to our mid-week studies. This is a good time to renew commitments, especially to the things that matter most. And what matters more than learning and doing the Word of God? Off to an hour more or so of studies Serving Christ and you, Pastor David Cranmer Library |
|
|
Current Messages 2005 Archives 2004 Archives |
![[Top button]](resources/go_top_btn.gif){kind=small}
Go to top of this page