Sunday night recap

I'll start this Sunday night recap with a little incident that happened Saturday night. Caught up in the excitement of the evening, because we had so many trick-or-treaters coming to our door, Sander got carried away and somehow hit his head on the edge of a desk. I didn't see it happen; I just saw a kid coming upstairs with blood all over his face. It would have made a pretty good Halloween get-up, only it was for real. For all the blood, though, the cut wasn't too deep - no stitches or super-glue required. Best of all, at least from Sander's point of view, he got to go to church sporting this big colorful band-aid on his forehead.

At Sunday School, Ron did another fine job teaching from Genesis. One verse we discussed is, I think, one of the most intriguing in all of Scripture: "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24). It is so matter-of-fact, and raises all sorts of unanswerable questions (Was his body transformed into an immortal body? What will happen to Enoch at the resurrection? Why did God do this?). Hebrews tells us this, at least: it was by faith that Enoch was taken up by God (Hebrews 11:5).

In the morning I preached on Matthew 21:18-22, in which Jesus cursed the fig tree for not bearing any fruit. When his disciples asked him about it, he taught them about faith and prayer. I said that, first, Jesus cursed the fig tree as a sign of God's judgment that hung over Israel because of her fruitlessness. Next, I argued that Jesus then taught his disciples about faith and prayer in order to show them how they, unlike Israel, may bear genuine spiritual fruit. I think the most salient point was, in order for us to bear any good fruit, we must be united to Christ by faith.

In the evening it was Romans 8:1-4. I followed John Murray in saying that the freedom from condemnation in view in v. 1 ("There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus") is not so much freedom from the guilt of sin as it is from the power of sin (though obviously Paul, and the Bible, teaches that in Christ we are free from the guilt of sin). It seems counterintuitive, but I believe the context supports this understanding.

The last couple of days I've had a few meetings with different people about various matters, sometimes of a more difficult and delicate nature. I found myself more than once wishing I had more wisdom, and wishing I knew just the right words to say.

We had a "where is a camera when you need one?" moment after the evening service tonight. Somehow Moriah managed to fall asleep on the floor in the doorway separating the sanctuary from the fellowship hall. Her body was propping open one of the doors, so people could walk in or out of the sanctuary by stepping over her. One member did take a picture, and I hope to post it after she e-mails it to me.

Finally, here is a great quote from Augustine that a member of the church e-mailed to me recently (along with many other memorable quotes):

The church is like Noah's ark - if it were not for the storm outside no one could stand the stench inside.