Author: Pastor Rich Lusk
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God Wants His Rainbow Back (Baptism Exhortation)
The D family is a covenant household and so today they bring R for covenant baptism. We have probably seen more rainbows this month than we care to. Why? Because the symbol of the rainbow has been hijacked. God gave the rainbow as a sign of his promise but man has turned it into a…
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Baptismal Exhortation: Baptism as Divine Gift
The Bible makes astounding claims for baptism. For example: In Acts 2, Peter says baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. In Titus 3, Paul calls baptism the washing of regeneration. In Romans 6, Paul says we are united to Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection in baptism. In Galatians 3, Paul says in…
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Ephesians 4:5 and the Unity of the Church
Paul’s formula for unity in Ephesians 4:5 is helpful because of its balance: there is one faith, one Lord, one baptism (+ one Eucharist) — that is to say, there is the content of the faith, the way it is lived out under Christ’s lordship, and the sacramental boundaries drawn around the church. All three…
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Baptismal Exhortation: Another Link in the Chain
Infant baptism is a sign of God’s multi-generational faithfulness. God’s covenants always include the next generation. We Presbyterians call this “covenant succession.” The promise God makes to believing parents is, “I will be your God and the God of your children.” The hope, based on this promise, is that the faith will be passed on…
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Maundy Thursday Leftovers: The Footwashing God
Here some belated notes to go with this year’s Maundy Thursday sermon: Here is a note from our bulletin that explains the service: Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus in the upper room with His disciples just before he was betrayed. On this special night, we remember how Jesus transformed the Passover meal into…
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Odds and Ends
I’m not any good at Twitter and find it a pain to use. In fact, I hate Twitter and try my best to avoid it. But if I did use Twitter, that’s probably where these short takes would end up. In the meantime, here is a hodge-podge of things I have thought about or read about…
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Palm Sunday Exhortation: Humility and Glory
Palm Sunday perfectly captures the paradoxes of the gospel. It juxtaposes glory and humility. In the eyes of the world, if you are glorious you are not humble and if you are humble you are not glorious. But the gospel brings together glory and humility, and on Palm Sunday, glorious humility and humble glory were…
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A Future and Final Coming (An Email to a Hyperpreterist from 2007)
And he shall come again, with glory, to judge the the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end…. and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Nicene Creed —– With the scourge of hyperpreterism making a reappearance recently, I dredged up an old…
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Psalm 19 and Divine Revelation (Sermon Follow Up, Part 2)
I want to provide a little more follow up to my two recent sermons on Psalm 19. As I pointed out, some view the psalm as having two parts: verses 1-6 on creational revelation, and verses 7-14 on biblical revelation. Others view it as having three sections; the third section is found in verses 12-14,…
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Psalm 19 and Lent (Sermon Follow Up, Part 1)
I recently preched two sermons on Psalm 19 (available here and here). In this blog post, I want to follow up on the second sermon, with a point that seems especially appropriate for Lent. In the closing verses of the psalm, David turns from examining the heavens and the Scriptures to look at his own heart. He realizes…
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