MAC KIRK

Today in the calendar an often over-looked day is ' Holy Innocents", December 28 , part of the twelve days of Christmas. It is red for a reason, the sacrifice of the babies. We remember the children today that Herod had killed as he sought to kill Jesus the baby. One of the hymns about this says,' O blessed babes of Bethlehem , Who died to save our King, Ye share the martyrs' diadem....And unto them grace was given , A Saviour's name to own, And die for Him who out of heaven Had found on earth a throne...' We focus rightly on the baby Jesus who is our Saviour this season ;and it is good to also remember the babes who died because of the wicked Herod. God had a purpose in what happened here to protect the baby Jesus, " Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he...

Good Shepherd Sunday What are we afraid of? What makes us cringe? Can we overcome our fears? My fear is really loneliness for God, and I need to claim His promise to never leave me or forsake me, no matter what. Even death cannot defeat my life that is held by Christ. He is risen, and He is alive evermore, and He gives to us eternal life here and forever. " No one shall snatch them out of My hand" 10:28 " I give them eternal life" " They shall never perish" ( Be removed, be destroyed, cut off, to die with ruin) I can face my crippling fears. All things work together for good for my good and God's glory...whatever happens God is in it. He is our Good Shepherd. He leads us beside the still waters. There is life after death, with God and His people forever. Here I am to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. This is my the goal of the Christian to let all things be in His hands. Unfortunately we do not always feel this way. We are buffe...

3rd S of Easter John 21 :1-14 Silence means rest, rest of body and mind in which we become available for him whose heart is greater than ours. That is very threatening; it is like giving up control over our actions and thoughts, allowing something creative to happen not by us but to us. Is it so amazing that we are so often tired and exhausted, trying to be masters of ourselves, wanting to grasp the ultimate meaning of our existence, struggling with our identity? Silence is that moment in which we not only stop the discussion with others but also the inner discussions with ourselves, in which we can breathe in freely and accept our identity as a gift. “Not I live, but He lives in me.” It is in this silence that the Spirit of God can pray in us and continue his creative work in us. . . . Without silence the Spirit will die in us and the creative energy of our life will float away and leave us alone, cold, and tired. Without silence we will lose our center and become the victim of th...

Peace in our lives John 20 Peace used in the Gospel here is the greek word eirene which we get our English word for peace, irenic. Peace is used in the sense of rest, quietness and of course in the Jewish sense of peace with God and others, now our Christian faith. It also means : irḗnē (from eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole") – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace (God's gift of wholeness)." Biblehub.com John 20:19 Bishop Sheen in his Life of Christ said this about peace & John 20 at the appearance of Jesus here, "...(He) brought about peace by the Blood of the Cross, He came in His own Person to bestow it. Peace is the fruit of justice...Peace is the tranquility of order, not tranquility alone; for robbers can be tranquil in the possession of their spoils. Peace also implies order, the subordination of the body to the soul, of the sense to the reason, and the creature to the Creator. Isaiah said t...

Easter 2019 Someone asked me what Easter means to me in one word . I said " Resurrection-new life". It was not hard to distill it down into what Easter is about as I thought about it . It is the hope of eternal life in this world and the next, the promise that those who have died we will see again. Now they live in our memories and soon we will see eye to eye with our new bodies in heaven. That is what Easter is and to any Christian as well certainly. On that first Easter , at the break of day, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary, the mother of James came to the tomb. They had already prepared spices resting on their Sabbath, that is Saturday, after Jesus died on the Cross on Good Friday. They were serving Him even in His death. They came to the tomb, the stone was already rolled away, and they went into the tomb, " and found not the body of the Lord Jesus." 24:3 They were met by two men in dazzling light. They are told, " He is not here, but is r...

Maundy Thursday 2019 Luke 22:14-30 Jesus' great desire was to eat the Passover with His disciples. We often forget that this is what was going on. vs 14-15 of Luke 22 tell us that. This year Passover is tomorrow nite. But we are not Jews . We are Christians who believe all of the OT was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord. I was reading thru some devotionals and came across this letter from CS Lewis. " Dear Mrs. Neylan, Sorry you’re in a trough. I’m just emerging (at least I hope I am) from a long one myself. As for the difficulty of believing it is a trough, one wants to be careful about the word “believing.” We often mean by it “having confidence or assurance as a psychological state” – as we have about the existence of furniture. But that comes and goes and by no means always accompanies intellectual assent. For example, in learning to swim you believe, and even know intellectually, that water will support you, long before you feel any real conf...

Palm sunday 2019 We call this time in the life of Jesus the " Agony". It was in the Garden of Gethesame, the Mount of Olives where Jesus had often gone to spend periods of reflection perhaps on His life, mission and purpose. Agony is a trauma which may include extreme mental and physical suffering. The central vs I wish to discuss is vs 22, Luke 22, " Not my will, but yours, be done." How did Jesus come to this answer? He was human as well as divine and was truly tested as a man. He prayed to God for guidance. " And he knelt down , and prayed." The usual form for prayer was to stand, but on this occasion at it was especially difficult, he knelt. We too face decisions in our lives when we must ask God for His purpose for us. We are human too with fears, doubts, perplex issues and problems. We cannot face them alone. Others can help ---yes, we call some friends, mentors and guides. Another person who listens with discretion and discernment is s...

One Thing Philippians 3 "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. " One thing I do. I do is not in the original language. You will see that in italics in some translations. So one thing . The one thing is ? The service of Christ is the one thing and a high calling. Whatever interferes with this or is not part of the goal , as the runner looks forward in this passage ,needs to be taken out. I thought of this when I trimmed around the orange trees, bushes that bore so many oranges last year . There are trees actually growing right near them and around them. The trees block the sun that the ...

"I have seen your affliction " Exodus , Luke & others A lot of people now think it does not matter what I do, where I do it, and how I do it. Somehow God has been written out of our lives in our country. I do not mean just having " In God We Trust" on the money. The ethics is gone. But without God there is no ethics. We just go with the flow, or do what ever we want without thinking of its consequences. Or perhaps someone higher up on the food chain approves the action. Does that fix it? Well we may get what we want, but we will reap the consequences of our inability to do the right thing. Posting the Ten Commandments is not the answer either by the way. I wish more churches would however since that is the standard. Trying to slap that on others without any forethought seems shallow to me. Well -meaning Christians differ on where they should be put such things , and why...just as well-meaning Christians differ on how to observe Sunday properly....

Lent II. Luke 13:22-35 God's Door is Strong & True " For Diligence" 1929 Free Church Book of Common Prayer " O GOD, grant unto us that we be not unwise, but understanding thy will; not slothful, but diligent in thy work; that we run not as uncertainly, nor fight thy battles as those that beat the air. Whatsoever our hand findeth to do , may we do it with our might; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." One of those listening to Jesus asked the question, "He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved few?" It may be after hearing Him speak that they were honestly wondering about it. My great-grandfather, DR. Morgan said, " I cannot help wondering whether this was a discerning person. He saw the crowds and their attitude, and he saw they were gradually drawing away...( so he asked the question..)" Studies in the Four Gos...

Luke 4. 1st S in Lent "If you willingly carry the cross, it will carry you." Thomas a Kempis Thoughts on this would say how good , but would we not add that God carries us before we carry Jesus' Cross?....But I get what he is saying. Can we see Lent not in the darkness of the ashes and its mire but in the light in the Candles , the Communion Cup that glows in the morning light & the hope of everlasting life? He does carry us, but we are to carry him too. Today's Romans reading reminds us that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. In Him, we have life. On the other hand, " Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them" Do this and live so to speak, which is impossible as no one can do the law perfectly. In Christ, we hear live and do this. In Christ the law is fulfilled by His righteousness on our behalf received by faith. This is the gospel of grace an...

The Transfiguration and Us ( You) This well -known event probably occured on Mount Hermon---- snowy and gigantic. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us of this event. Luke alone mentions the ascent for the reason to pray. His (Jesus')face shone as the sun (Matthew) & his garments were glittering ( Mark ) & white as the light ( Luke). Heavenly visitors were present, Moses and Elijah in the cloud that descended. A voice came out of the cloud saying," This is my beloved Son ( Jesus): hear Him." (Luke 9:35) Luke does not use the word transfigured as do Matthew and Mark, but a different word heteros, meaning of a different kind. His face was altered. I think basically we all know about the Transfiguration in some way having heard a few messages before Lent on it. I see an application to believers. Christians too experience a change of face , an alteration of nature at conversion. In one sense that is their transfiguration. 2 Corinthians 5:17 ," if any ma...

Luke 6 :27-38 " Is there anything known to us that is more discouraging than the Sermon on the Mount? ...the moment we face the actual demands , we see that they are quite impossible to the natural man. " D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones And that is the whole point as we looked at last week. Without a change of heart, there is no possibility of doing anything pleasing to God. We need His grace inclining us to do what we cannot do. One verse summarizes the difficulty, " And if ye do good to them that do good to you, what thank have ye? for even sinners love those that love them." 6:33 The word for thank for ESV is benefit. The RSV says ," and what credit is that to you?" The original word is grace or charis...."God freely extending Himself (His favor, grace), reaching (inclining) to people because He is disposed to bless (be near) them." If we have received His grace, His grace will then enable us to extend that as God does. That is the whole ...

Sermon on the Mount Luke 6 As we approach this section of Holy Scripture I find this insight from Bishop Fitzsimons Allison , ret. Bishop Episcopal, now ACNA Diocese of S. Carolina worthy of our thought and note ( in the recent edition of the " Angican Way", magazine of the Prayer Book Society)---he introduces his thought on repentance and change of heart with this illustration from Mark Twain, " giving up smoking was the easiest thing in the world. ..I've done it a thousand times." We find repentance a very difficult thing as Twain notes. But we need to see what Bishop Allison discovered , the greek word for repentance is mis-translated from the greek. It is not a change of mind as the greeks taught for they believe virtue was about education and knowledge and if you have that you can change. No, the greek word metanoien is not change of mind, but change of heart. " Repentance is not mere remorse and regret and wishing for more will-power. It is...

Luke 5. The Catch of Fish I am not a fisherman. I only went one time with my grandfather in California, and never did it again. My guess is that fishing is not so easy. Timing , the right bait, the right equipment, the right place...etc...Fishing is not so easy, is it? But if want to eat fish we have to be patient and listen to the wisdom of other fisherman who can tell us how to do it properly. Peter and his partners, James & John , the sons of Zebedee were rather exhausted I imagine after doing they thought all the right fishing thing. They fished at night ( the preferred time for fishing), but " took nothing." 5:5 They had just listened to the Lord teach from the boat , sitting, as the teacher's position vs 4, along with the crowd who were " pressing in on Him to hear the Word of God" ( an aside here....how great to see people really want to hear the Word of God instead of the Word of ______?----if we believe it is God's Word, w...

The End of the Christmas Season Luke 2 Today we certainly are at the end of the Christmas Season. It is Candlemas or Purification of the Virgin Mary. ( 40 days after the birth of Jesus) " The light was the inspiration for the celebration with candles. It was and still remains to this day a Christian celebration of the purification of Mother Mary and the first appearance of Jesus in the Temple. During the early years, people would place their candles outside the church in order to be blessed. They would then carry them in a procession to church in order to imitate the appearance of Jesus in the Temple." from holidaycalendar.com in England. I would like to focus on some of the persons who did just that, celebrate the Christ child in the Temple. One was Simeon---famous for the Nunc Dimittis " Now Lettest Thou Depart" ( Latin) He was a faithful watchman , and the " Holy Spirit was upon him" As we focus on others who welcomed Christ, that is th...

Water into Wine in John 2. Jesus takes the ordinary and turns it into something marvelous. He took the water turned into wine , showed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. John 2:11 I note that Jesus & His disciples were invited to the wedding by I assume His mother. " And ..there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and Jesus was also bidden." We do not know for sure , but He came to a marriage. I see something here about Jesus being present at this wedding , " He showed His approval of joy and gladness, He sanctified marriage and all our social relationships, and above all He indicated how human lives would be glorified by Him.." Erdman Ordinary life is to be glorified by God's presence & enjoyed by us His disciples when we see life as a gift and a joy. Life for sure is full of joys as well as sorrows, but God is present in all of it. Unfortunately Christians are not always known for joy. We should...

Epiphany I. ----I usually study the texts that are provided each week, and think on them. All Scripture is inspired of God, God-breathed, but I wait until the bells go off in my head for what hits me as good for us to think about. Phillips Brooks , the Bishop of Boston, and author of " O Little Town of Bethlehem" used to say that preaching is truth through personality.This week as I was traveling back and forth to the Rehab, doing other various things through the week, teaching on WED, Tues preparing for that, and being at the CC...etc....it hit me that this was not what I would have said about how God acts. It would have been more dramatic and the calling of God to someone who had not known Him at all, but this is not what I see here. I see drama with the dreams and the angel of God coming to Cornelius, a centurion of all people, but let's take a look at him before we judge what God did . ...while remembering that Epiphanytide is the season of outreach and the appeari...

Wise Men Matthew 2 Many things stand out in these few verses. Note what is said by one famous theologian, " Søren Kierkegaard Although the scribes could explain where the Messiah should be born, they remained quite unperturbed in Jerusalem. They did not accompany the Wise Men to seek him. Similarly we may be able to explain every article of our faith, yet remain spiritually motionless. The power that moved heaven and earth leaves us completely unmoved. What a contrast! The three kings had only a rumor to go by. But it spurred them to set out on a long, hard journey. The scribes, meanwhile, were much better informed, much better versed. They had sat and studied the scriptures for years, like so many dons. But it didn’t make any difference. Who had the more truth? Those who followed a rumor, or those who remained sitting, satisfied with all their knowledge?" Source: Watch for the Light I had never thought about this so much until I read this. It exhorts us as well ...