Author: Pastor Rich Lusk
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Baptismal Exhortation: Baptism as Holy Week in Sacramental Form
Today, these parents have come to claim God’s promises to and about their children. God says to us, “I will be a God to you and to your children.” In baptism, we claim that covenant pledge and God acts to make good on that pledge. In baptism, parents give their children to God, and God…
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Baptismal Exhortation: His Blood Be Upon us and Our Children
Easter Sunday is the culmination of Holy Week, but in considering the meaning of baptism today, I want us to go back to Jesus’ trial before Pilate. When Jesus was on trial, the crowd cried out, “His blood be on us and on our children.” By that, they meant that they judged Jesus worthy of…
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The Resurrection and Women Preachers
Some memes are funny and accurate. Other memes are misleading or even dishonest. There is a meme going around right now that says something like, “In the interest of biblical accuracy, all preaching about the resurrection this Easter Sunday will be done by women.” One does not have to appeal to the more obvious texts…
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Good Friday Meditation
The Christian message, the Christian story, goes something like this: God came to earth and we killed him. God came to earth in the God-man, Jesus, and we nailed him to a cross. Why? Jesus went around announcing he was God, the Great I AM, who can forgive sins, who was there in the beginning, who…
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Lessons From the Rise and Fall of Hillsong
This is a good article, with lessons for the church that apply far beyond Hillsong. When the church puts being cool above being holy, when church leadership is more concerned with relevance than faithfulness, bad things happen. The article might be behind a paywall so here are some key takeaways: “Evangelicals would do well to…
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Maundy Thursday: Jesus Sets the Standard
On Maundy Thursday, Jesus gave his disciples a new command: to love one another as he has loved us. While the command to love had been given in the Old Testament law, Jesus deepens and redefines that law with his own example of love, first in washing the disciples’ feet, then in dying on the…
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Pride vs Community
One of the great obstacles to genuine Christian community is pride. We certainly see this with the Pharisees in the gospel accounts. The Pharisees’ self-‐righteousness makes them sectarian and divisive forces within Israel. The same kind of pride can rear its ugly head in the church today. For example, when Christians make too big a deal out…
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Communion Prayers, Ancient and Modern
The ancient communion prayer from the Didache: As this broken bread was scattered over the mountains, And was gatheredtogether to become one, So let Your Body of Faithful be gatheredtogether From the ends of the earth into Your kingdom; for the glory andpower are Yours forever. A modern adaptation of the prayer (source unknown): As grain…
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Community and Communion: Quotes and Notes
Community is about the convergence of our lives in Christ. It’s about God giving us the gift of each other. When Sartre said, ‘Hell is other people,’ he had it exactly backwards. C. S. Lewis was much more accurate in The Great Divorce when he pictured hell as people moving further and further apart. It’s been said…
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Go Home: The Politics of Motherhood
“Homemaking is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, mines, cars, government, etc. exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? …The homemaker’s job is one for which all others exist.” — C.S. Lewis “If you want to change the world,…
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