We are reading Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship by Jonathan Gibson. This daily worship devotional consists of thirty-one days of set liturgy that can be repeated each month. Physical copies are available on the library table on Sundays, and you can email us if you’d prefer a digital copy. Audiobook copies are available in hoopla through the SFPL.
This year, along with our sister churches Trinity First and Petra, we will be reading O Sacred Head, Now Wounded: A Liturgy for Daily Worship by Jonathan Gibson. Physical copies are available on the library table on Sundays, and you can email us if you’d prefer a digital copy.
This year, along with our sister churches First Presbyterian and Trinity, we have created a devotional to help us spend time looking at who God is and responding with repentant hearts. There are a few options for accessing it:
You can download the PDF file here.
Read it online or sign up for daily text updates: http://fpsf.org/lent.
This year, along with our sister churches First Presbyterian and Trinity, we are reading the Anticipation and Reflection Advent Devotional. It is full of activities, prayers, and readings to prepare us for Christmastide.
This year, along with our sister churches First Pres and Trinity, we are reading the Encounters with Jesus Lent Devotional. It is posted daily on the First Pres site.
To receive these Lent "Encounters" via email, click here and fill out the subscription form. Or to receive the reflections on your phone, text the word LENT to 855-789-3773.
By this point in our Advent season, you may be tired. Maybe even a little bored. The traditions and the candles and the to-do lists and the shopping and the cleaning and the cooking and the cleaning after the cooking and that one song that you’re certain you’ve heard eighty million times that annoyingly gets stuck in your head and just when you think you’ve gotten it out, you hear it again and it’s right back in there running its circular track somewhere near your hippocampus. It’s all gotten a little too familiar.
And familiarity can be a helpful tool. Navigating the world would be immeasurably more difficult if we didn’t develop those shortcut stories that our brains use to tell us, “That’s my friend Josh from the coffee shop,” or “This is a safe route I’ve walked on before,” or “When the flame is on, the pan on the stove gets hot, and I should not touch it.”
But familiarity kills wonder. And perhaps we’ve gotten so familiar with certain seasonal mechanics in our celebration of Christmas that we’ve begun to lose the wonder of its essence.
If you have even the slightest familiarity with the gospel, you already know that the center of this whole story is love. God is love. God loves us. We exist to love God and love others.
And when you think about it, that is absolutely bonkers. It’s wonderful.
So I invite you to join me in an imaginative space of wonder. To discover that Jesus, love incarnate, is present, not just in the manger or on the cross or in His future coming to restore and redeem all of creation, but also in the present moment. With us. With me. With you.
And may we in turn recognize that our presence in this place, in this city, in this very moment, is for the purpose of receiving that Love and reflecting it back out in others-focused self-giving ways. That the reality of God dwelling among us, moving into the neighborhood, moves us beyond familiarity to the wonder of participation in that active sacrificial expression of love in the world.
— Kala
“Love is contrasted with wrath and indignation, and by it all bitterness is expelled from our hearts. Love is full of the sweetest fruits. What Paul started to say in the previous chapter he now develops more fully, so whoever made the chapter divisions in Ephesians got it wrong here. Paul encourages us to love by giving us the example of God and Christ. By the Holy Spirit we have been made children of God, and it is characteristic of children that they follow the behavior of their father. The Father is love and declared his great love toward us when he sent his Son to die for us. With the same degree of love, the Son voluntarily embraced us, and following the will of his Father, he gave himself up to the punishment of the cross. Therefore if the Son and the Father loved us that much, it is only right that we should love one another equally strongly.”
— Heinrich Bullinger, Commentary on Ephesians (16th Century)
O Lord, let your grace and your love do for us what fear of your terrors alone cannot.
Melt our hearts by that nobler principle, and teach us to despise everything that would displease you.
Let our hearts respond with the same kind of compassion that motivated you, Jesus, to serve the poor.
And whenever we do make mistakes, let us err on the side of compassion—a love that would never harm the worst sinner—much less the least and weakest of God’s servants.
We consecrate our lives to you, Lord, even to death. We will not then feel the bitterness of death half so much, when our hearts are ablaze with a zeal for your glory.
Amen.
— Philip Doddridge (18th Century)
Is this not the easiest of the Advent themes? Joy is baked in to the whole ethos of the Christmas season. It’s hard not to feel happy when watching a favorite holiday movie, dancing to a carol, sharing a special meal, admiring lights and decorations, and the delight of getting exactly what you wished for or giving the perfect gift.
But the distinguishing nuance of joy is that it lasts beyond the moments of happiness. It can be present when the shine of Christmas cheer dulls or even tarnishes. Biblical joy is an attitude that God’s people adopt, not because of happy circumstances, but because of our hope in God’s love and promises. It is a perspective that is far broader than the fleeting delight that butterfly-like visits briefly, but then is gone.
In the Bible, rejoicing is often paired with thanksgiving. Gratitude is a way of cultivating joy. Or fertilizing it. (I may have grown up in a very rural area, but I did not inherit my grandmother’s green thumb, so my agricultural metaphors have their limits.) But there’s something to reminding ourselves of the unmerited grace of God, the Giver of every good thing, that can produce in us a joy that perseveres in the darkest of circumstances.
And isn’t that the paradox of the Christian joy? That the presence of God with us is true in the midst of sorrow, grief, pain, sickness, and delight. That is good news worth singing, shouting, and dancing about.
— Kala
“‘The light of God’s face’ denotes his serene countenance, just as, on the other hand, the face of God seems to us dark and clouded when he shows any sign of anger. This light, by a beautiful metaphor, is said to be lifted up, when, shining in our hearts, it produces trust and hope. It would not be enough for us to be beloved by God, unless the sense of this love came home to our hearts; but, shining on them by the Holy Spirit, he cheers us with true and solid joy. This passage teaches us that those are miserable who do not, with full resolution, repose themselves wholly in God. The faithful, although they are tossed amid many troubles, are truly happy, were there no other ground for it but this, that God’s fatherly countenance shines on them, which turns darkness into light, and, as I may say, quickens even death itself.”
— John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms (16th Century)
My thankful heart with glorying tongue
Will celebrate your name,
Who has restored, redeemed, re-cured
From sickness, death, and pain.
I cried; you seemed to take some pause,
I sought more earnestly.
And in due time you supported me,
And sent me help from high.
Lord, while my fleeting time still lasts,
Your goodness let me tell.
And new experience I have gained,
My future doubts repel.
A humble, faithful life, O Lord,
Forever let me walk;
Let my obedience testify,
My praise lies not in talk.
Accept, O Lord, my simple gift,
For more I cannot give;
What you bestow I will restore,
For of your alms I live.
— Anne Bradstreet (17th Century)
The biblical concept of peace is an interesting one. It feels very distinct from our current cultural associations with the word peace. It isn’t so much a tranquil stream at sunrise, a stillness of mind, or the enlightenment of self actualization that can only come through silent retreats or very complicated yoga exercises and poses.
The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom” which means complete or whole. When used as a verb it’s to make complete or restore. This seems to me to be far more active than meditative. And probably more uncomfortable.
When we participate in the peace that Jesus demonstrated when, through his death and resurrection, He restored to wholeness the broken relationship between humans and God, we too create peace by taking what is broken and restoring it to wholeness in our lives, our relationships, and in our world. And that takes humility and patience and vulnerability and growth.
Scott Erickson in Honest Advent points out that the presence of Jesus was, at some point in her first trimester, likely revealed by Mary’s morning sickness. The process of growth doesn’t come from comfort, so let us not be hindered by unease and uncomfortableness of peacemaking. The presence of God is in the process, not just in its completion.
— Kala
“Our God is truly ‘the God of peace.’ We are constantly called to peace by God who himself is peace. His calling is not in timidity or weakness or in some show of strength. God is at peace with himself to such a degree that he even allows sins to be committed against him when he could certainly, by the terror of his manifested power and ineffable greatness, force even the unwilling into subjection. But peace of this kind is that of the world, not that of God, whose very nature is peace.”
— Ambrosiaster (4th Century)
Precious Lord Jesus! Oh for grace to love you, who have so loved us! You stoop to call such poor sinful people your own, and love them as your own, and consider every thing done for them and done to them as to yourself.
Show my poor heart a portion of that love, that I may love you as my own and only Savior, and learn to love you to the end, as you have loved me and given yourself for me, an offering and a sacrifice to God.
Precious Lord, continue to surprise my soul with the tokens of your love. All the tendencies of your grace, all the evidences of your favor, your visits, your love-tokens, your pardons, your renewings, your morning call, your mid-day feedings, your noon, your evening, your midnight grace.
All, all are among your wonderful ways of salvation, and all testify to my soul that your name, as well as your work, is, and must be, wonderful.
Jesus, you put forth your hand and touched a leper! Deal with me the same way, precious Lord. Though I am polluted and unclean, yet reach down to put forth your hand and touch me also.
Put forth your blessed Spirit. Come, Lord, and dwell in me, abide in me, and rule and reign over me. Be my God, my Jesus, my Holy One, and make me yours forever.
Yes, dearest Jesus, I hear you say that you will be for me, and not for another. So will I be for you. Oh! You condescending, loving God, make me yours, “that whether I live, I may live to the Lord; or whether I die, I may die to the Lord; so that living or dying, I may be yours.”
— Robert Hawker (18th Century)
Hope seems to me perhaps the most difficult of the Advent themes to muster this year. To bootstrap myself into belief that, despite all the evidence that mounts in my Twitter feed and the AP news wire, there is a better that is assured and I have the privilege of looking forward to.
I think that is the traditional stance on a Christmas hope. That the Israelites waited for generations for their coming king. That the Christians of the past two millennia have waited in expectation for His return.
Perhaps my hope this year needs to be a bit closer. I have trouble waiting for the kettle to heat up for my coffee, for the dog to do his business on a rainy walk, for Wednesday nights to see our church family, for pleasant weather to come again, for the widespread distribution of a vaccine to mark the end of the pandemic. Must I also wait for hope?
Perhaps this year, the hope is anchored in the promise that God is with me. Here. Now. That the gift of the incarnation means that I don’t have to go it alone.
— Kala
“You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be. For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Savior of all the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death.”
— Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation (4th Century)
Lord, I would be the most miserable person in the world if my hopes were only in this life. Why? Because I am hopeless without Christ’s righteousness. My life could never be comfortable, and there would be no hope at all of eternal life.
If you denied me that hope, I would be the most miserable one of all. I may be happy without worldly enjoyments, but all things in the world cannot make me happy without this.
So however you treat me in this world, whatever you deny me, Lord, deny me not this. I can be happy without riches and abundance, like Job and Lazarus were. I can be happy even if I am reviled and reproached, as was Christ and his disciples. I can be happy and comfortable in prison, as were Paul and Silas.
But I cannot be happy without the righteousness of Christ.
All the riches, places, or honors on earth will leave me miserable if I am without this. Even if I were rich and needed nothing, without this I would still be wretched and miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
If I had all things that that a person could desire on earth, what good would it do me without Christ’s righteousness?
What would riches do for me, if they came with the wrath of God? What comfort would honor bring me, if I remained a son of perdition or a child of wrath?
What sweetness would there be in pleasure, if I were on the path to everlasting torments?
What miserable comforts and enjoyments are these, without Christ’s righteousness!
Lord, however you deal with me in outward things, whatever you take from me, whatever you deny me—do not deny me Christ! Do not deny me a share in his righteousness! Amen.
— David Clarkson (17th Century)
Holy Week is our most sacred time of the year as followers of King Jesus. And since we are sheltered in place this year and can’t be together, we thought we’d share three quick videos. One for Maundy Thursday, one for Good Friday, and one on Easter Sunday. The third of three short Holy Week talks from Pastor Jon. Today, we celebrate our risen King.
Before you watch the message from Jon, check out a bunch of hipsters (who are outdoors for some reason) sing the famous Charles Wesley Easter Hymn “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.”
Holy Week is our most sacred time of the year as followers of King Jesus. And since we are sheltered in place this year and can’t be together, we thought we’d share three quick videos. One for Maundy Thursday, one for Good Friday, and one on Easter Sunday.
The second of three short Holy Week talks from Pastor Jon.
Holy Week is our most sacred time of the year as followers of King Jesus. And since we are sheltered in place this year and can’t be together, we thought we’d share three quick videos. One for Maundy Thursday, one for Good Friday, and one on Easter Sunday.
The first of three short Holy Week talks from Pastor Jon.
Watch the Bible Project video on Luke 24
Read Luke 24.
Question 50 from the New City Catechism. Read the Q&A, verse, and commentary.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus teaches his disciples about how the Old Testament pointed to him. How does it?
"Jesus has passed through death and come out the other side." How does that effect us?
“Christ the Lord is Risen Today” - NCC Worship
“All Things New” - Page CXVI
“Hallelujah Chorus” - Handel
You who are King of nations and King of saints, are also my God and King. For you have a universal empire, being one with the Father over all, blessed forever.
To you I bow the knee, and humbly and gratefully desire to put the crown of my salvation on your head.
And what has this Sovereign done for me? We record your praise; we tell it to saints and sinners everywhere. This great, glorious, condescending King, has not only brought us out of darkness and the shadow of death, but has brought us into his chambers.
What chambers? Chambers of sweet communion and fellowship. Chambers of grace, of love and mercy, of redemption, of ordinances, and of all your covenant blessings.
You have taught me of your love, and my privileges in you, and so assured me of my everlasting safety in you and your finished salvation.
You have assured me that when you have accomplished all your blessed purposes concerning me, you will bring me home into your inner chambers of light and glory. And I will never leave, but dwell in them, and in the presence of God and the Lamb, forever and ever. Hallelujah!
What a morning that will be, different from every other! Lord, how often do I now awake with thoughts of earth, and sin, and trifles, and vanity? How have I opened my eyes this morning? Was it, dearest Jesus, with thoughts of you?
In that solemn morning there will be no longer dreams, as now, even in our waking hours—for all childish fantasies, shadows, doubts, and fears will be done away.
Precious Lord Jesus! Cause me morning by morning, while upon earth, to awaken with sweet thoughts of you. Let the close of night, and the opening of the day, be with your dear name in my heart, on my thoughts, and on my lips.
And in that everlasting morning, after having dropped asleep in Jesus, and in your arms by faith, may I awake in your embraces, and after your likeness, to be everlastingly and eternally satisfied with you. Amen.
—Robert Hawker
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Bonus Reading: Restoration of All Things (Booklet)
Hoopla
Amazon Kindle
Audible
Bonus Video: Bible Project - The Day of the Lord
Watch Bible Project Video on Luke 19-23
Question 24 from the New City Catechism. Read the Q&A, verse, and commentary.
Imagine reading this gospel for the first time without knowing the story. What would jump out at you here? Why?
How does Luke portray Jesus as the innocent one?
What do we learn about Jesus in these chapters?
Explain it to me like I've never heard of Christianity. Why did the king have to die?
“Death in His Grave” - John Mark McMillon
“O Sacred Head” - Page CXVI
“What Wondrous Love Is This” - Chelsea Moon with the Franz Brothers
What had you done, my Savior, that Judas betrayed you, and you were led, bound as a lamb to the slaughter? What evil did you commit, to be falsely accused and unjustly condemned? What was your offense? Whom did you ever wrong, to be scourged with whips, crowned with thorns, reviled, buffeted, and beaten? Oh Lord, how did you deserve to be spit upon, covered with shame? To have your garments parted and your hands and feet nailed to a cross? To be lifted upon the cursed tree, to be crucified among thieves? To endure such a sea of God’s wrath, that made you cry out, as if you had been forsaken by God your Father? To have your innocent heart pierced with a cruel spear, and your innocent blood spilled before your mother’s eyes? I can find no offense in you. The centurion who executed you confessed you to be the very Son of God. The thief that hung with you said you had done nothing wrong. So what caused this cruel disgrace, suffering, and death? Lord, I caused your sorrows. My sin brought about your shame, my failings your injuries. I committed the fault, and you are plagued for the offense. I am guilty, and you are charged. I sinned, and you suffered the death. You hung on the cross. Oh the deepness of God’s love, the wonder of his grace! Mercy without measure! What can I say? I was proud; you are humble. I was disobedient; you became obedient. I ate the forbidden fruit; you hung on the cursed tree. O Lord, let me never forget your infinite love. Amen.
—Lewis Bayly
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Bonus Reading: Christ's Redemption (Booklet)
Hoopla
Amazon Kindle
Audible
Bonus Video: Bible Project - Sacrifice and Atonement
Watch the Bible Project video on Luke 9-19
Read Luke 9-19
Question 21 from the New City Catechism. Read the Q&A, verse, and commentary.
What stands out about Jesus's behavior in these chapters? What does that say about his mission?
Look over all of Chapter 15 again. What do these parables tell us about the kingdom of God?
Look at Luke 18:9-14. What is the difference between these two?
“Amazing Grace” - Sing Team
“King of My Heart” - Sarah McMillion
Wilder Adkins took the tune to “What Wondrous Love” and rewrote the words to tell the prodigal son story.
Help our witness Lord, we profess the faith, and yet care not for the dying. We profess, and yet long not for the coming of the day of God. We profess, and yet by our whole life show to them that can see how little a measure of it we have in our hearts. Lord, lead us more into the power of things. Then the virtues of him who has saved us, and called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, will be made known to others. Amen. —John Bunyan
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Bonus Reading: Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. This short book by Tim Keller is the best simple retelling of the gospel that I have ever read. He does so using the prodigal son story from Luke 15. It's easily my favorite book.
Amazon Kindle
Audible
Bonus Video: Bible Project - Messiah
Watch the Bible Project video on Luke 3-9
“All The Poor and Powerless” - All Sons and Daughters
“How Deep the Father’s Love For Us” - Page CXVI
Question 34 from the New City Catechism. Read the Q&A, verse, and commentary.
How was the message of King Jesus so radical?
Who are the "poor/outsiders" in our culture?
Do you think the church has lost its focus on the upside-down kingdom? If so, what can you do about it?
Prayer from the New City Catechism
Heavenly Father, you have saved us from sin. Let us not continue in it as if we were still enslaved to it. You have given us commands that are the path of life. Let us treasure those commands. May all who know us see our good works and glorify you because of them. Amen.
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Bonus Reading: The Kingdom of God (Booklet)
Hoopla
Amazon Kindle
Audible
Bonus Video: Bible Project - Gospel of the Kingdom
Watch the Bible Project video on Luke 1-2
"Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel!" - The Sing Team
“O Holy Night” - Ghost Ship
Let’s class this up a bit…
“For unto us a child is born” - Handel
Question 22 from the New City Catechism. Read the Q&A, verse, and commentary.
Count the songs/psalms in Luke 1-2. What is it that these folks are celebrating?
What in these chapters is unexpected?
List a few things that God has done for you that were unexpected.
Cleanse me, Emmanuel Dear Emmanuel, in whom alone, and by whom alone, all my hopes and confidences are founded: I fall down at your feet. As the prophet cried out, so I desire unceasingly to exclaim, “I am a man of unclean lips!” But if you cause the iniquity to be taken away, and my sin to be purged from me, I will be clean. For you are our New Testament altar. You are the Lord my righteousness. Precious Jesus, you are the Alpha and Omega. Even as the Father made you the glorious covenant head of your people in the beginning of his way, so be my all in all. My first and last. The Author and Finisher of my faith. Precious Lord! May I, like Paul, be able to say, “Not as though I had already attained”—because I long to catch up to and hold fast to you, Christ Jesus, even as you have caught up to and held fast to me. So come, Lord Jesus, to your bride, the church. Be the fountain of life to all your redeemed, until you bring your church below to join your church above, so they will dwell together in the light of your countenance, forever, amen.
—Robert Hawker
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Bonus Reading: Q&A about the incarnation.
Bonus Reading: The First Days of Jesus (Amazon Kindle)
Bonus Video: Bible Project: Peace/Shalom
Since we are going to be taking a few weeks off meeting in person because of the shelter in place order, I thought that this would be a great time to give you some resources on the book of Luke. There are five devotionals here that include some reading, some videos, songs to listen to, prayer, and reflection questions. Feel free to do these with family or by yourself. And if you have any questions, email me: jon@porchsf.com
-Pastor Jon
