Tanakh portion for 29 October 2005

Worship

In the year of King ‘Uziyahu’s death, I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple. S’rafim stood over him, each with six wings---two for covering his face, to for covering his feet and two for flying. They were crying out to each other,
“More holy than the holiest holiness is Adonai-Tzva’ot! The whole
earth is filled with his glory.”

The doorposts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke, then I said,
“Woe to me! I too am doomed!---because I a man with unclean lips,
living among a people with unclean lips, have seen with my own
eyes, the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot!”

One of the S’rafim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the alter. He touched my mouth with it and said,
“Here this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is gone,
your sin is atoned for.”
Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 6:1-7 Complete Jewish Bible

As I read this passage and contemplate it, I think of much of the music which has been based on this passage, and the common denominator in all of this music is worship. We see in this passage the worship of the Seraphim, declaring the holiness of God. They are shouting and crying out to each other and worshipping.

What is worship? Today’s church seems confused as to what worship is. Many churches have changed the name of their music or choir director to minister of worship as if the worship is entirely centred in song (Usually at the very beginning of the church service)as if singing were the only way to worship God. It seems that this type of worship is aimed at making us feel good.

Let us face the challenge then to look at worship in a different light. Marva Dawn, whom I have heard quoted (Thanks Jerry), states that worship should be “a royal waste of time,” instead of something aimed at meeting our needs. What she is saying is that worship is not about us, but about God. The therapeutic paradigm of the church is not the one Yeshua had in mind. The church is to be built up in order to grow, to evangelise, to heal, but most important of all to worship. All these other items have the goal of worship. In other words, worship is about a relationship, about love, a love which truly puts God above all others. This is why it is a crime to relegate worship to the first fifteen minutes of the services. When the body of Christ gets together to pray, the whole thing should be worship. Our attitude towards worshipping God, should be something like my cat’s attitude towards me. When I am in the house he is always close to me. If I am sitting where he can get in my lap, that is where he will be whether I am awake or asleep. When my wife isn’t home he sleeps next to (or in winter on) the bed. In other words, he cannot get enough of me.

This too should be our relationship to God. How much do we love God. When we are gathered together as the church, our goal should be worship. How much do we love him? Do we love him enough to confess our faults to him? This is worship. Do we love him enough to listen to the Bible readings to hear his instructions for us? This too is worship. When we receive the holy communion, this too is worship, in other words all of our liturgy is worship, it is loving Jesus more than ourselves or our circumstances. It is remembering that he is king, and allowing him to be King of our lives.

There are things we can do to help this truly happen. First, we must truly accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Too many Christians desire a Saviour, but not a Lord. Too many do not hear his voice because they (we) do not apply his written Lord. Worship begins in a relationship, acknowledging the Lordship of King Jesus. The vestments worn in Benim Avra’am reflect the clothing worn in the Imperial Court of Constantinople. The clergy wear these vestments to show that they are courtiers of the great king, and that we are joined together to do him homage and worship him.

Secondly, we must know his word. True, over the course of several years, you will hear all the Bible read in our congregation, but this does not compare with reading and studying the word. The Bible is both God’s love letter to us, and our operator’s manual. If you truly know the word of God, then the readings in the church will make more sense. You will be able to place it in context, and the Holy Spirit will bring it to life within you. Knowing the Bible, will allow you to worship more and strengthen your relationship with the Lord.

Thirdly, be Holy as the Lord is Holy. As we work with God to allow us to transform ourselves into the image of Jesus, the more we can truly worship him. Holiness is both a goal and a means to the end.

Fourth, worship the Lord during the week with your family, daily at least, and during the day on your own and with others. Begin and end each day with worship. Try worshipping on your knees, worship prostrate, worship in you car. Praise and thank the Lord for all his blessings as he gives them to you. Invoke his name at the beginning of every activity. As a certain Nigerian preacher once said, develop the activity of Thanksliving. Dance as you praise the Lord, clap, bow (my favourite), truly worship him with body, mind and voice, at home and at church.

Fifth, participate fully in all. If you do all in God’s fullness you will truly enter worship. The Eucharistic service is balanced between word, sacrament, prayer, confession to allow us to fully worship.

Sixthly, receive the communion in a worthy manner. You are taking the body of Christ, you are drinking his blood. No one is worthy of this great honour, but the Lord condescends to be manifest to us in the form of bread and wine. The power, which created the universe, is given to us unworthy sinners to give us power to conquer sin and death. Do we rush forward to accept the communion? Nay rather let us draw near in fear and trembling and fall down and worship the Lord.

When we truly learn to worship in all we do and say (that is with all our heart, mind and strength), then we shall draw near to him and will experience the worship of the S’rafim and the K’ruvim, of Thrones, Dominions and Powers, of Angels and Archangels, and we will learn to love our neighbour as ourselves.


Shalom and blessings in the Name of Yeshua

+Mar Michael Abportus
mjthan@quik.com

Symchat Torah, 23 October 2005

Psalm 150 Laudate Dominum

1 Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy temple; *
praise him in the firmament of his power.
2 Praise him for his mighty acts; *
praise him for his excellent greatness.

3 Praise him with the blast of the ram’s‑horn; *
praise him with lyre and harp.

4 Praise him with timbrel and dance; *
praise him with strings and pipe.

5 Praise him with resounding cymbals; *
praise him with loud‑clanging cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath *
praise the Lord.
Hallelujah!

(1979 Book of Common Prayer)

This coming Tuesday is the feast of Simchat Torah. In Simchat Torah, which immediately follows Sukkoth, we read the final portion of Deuteronomy (Chapters 33 and 34), and then re-roll the Torah scroll back to Genesis and read Genesis 1:1-2:3. We do this to remember that the Torah is never ending. The Torah is fulfilled in Jesus, but still never ends.
This is one of the most joyful times in the synagogue. Many are given the opportunity to read, and people bring paper Torah scrolls from home, and people dance and sing. There is a sense of worship that is found only in an Orthodox liturgy. Both Orthodox Jews and Christians seem to realise that motion is involved with worship, we are to bow, prostrate ourselves, raise our hands, to clap and dance and truly to make a joyful noise in the Lord.

Praise and thankfulness are often mixed for us, but to be true Christians, we must learn to truly praise the Lord. Sometimes we make it difficult by filling up our churches with chairs and pews. Sometimes we are so solemn that we forget what it is to worship. Sometimes we forget what it is we are doing. There is a joy in the synagogue when we reach out to touch the Torah, the word of the Lord. The same joy is realised in Orthodox churches as worshippers reach out to touch the Gospel book as it processes down the centre of the church to be read. Do we anticipate with true joy the reading of God’s word. Do we take true joy in listening to his love letter and instructions to us, or do we handle it in a mundane way. I admit that sometimes we can tire, but if we are surrounded by joyful Christians who take joy in God’s word, and we realise as in the Lutheran Gospel procession that these are the words of life, then we will find joy in these words and celebrate them with joy and dancing.

Join with me Tuesday night or Wednesday morning and read the Simchat Torah readings and dance, dance and praise the Lord with your Bible or your Torah in your hands and praise him.


Shalom and blessings in the Name of Yeshua

+Mar Michael Abportus
mjthan@quik.com

Tanakh portion for 15 October 2005, Sukkot

I have been greatly amiss in my writing these days. Life is good, but busy after getting things back in the house after hurricane Rita. I have missed Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur, but have stirred my bones in time for Sukkot, also known as tabernacles.

So let us begin: Adonai said to Moshe, “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘On the 15th day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to Adonai. On the first day there is to be a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work. For seven days you are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai; on the eighth day you are to have an holy convocation and bring an offering made by fire to Adonai; it is a day of public assembly’ do not do any kind of ordinary work…but on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to observe the festival of Adonai seven days; the first day is to be a complete rest and the and eighth day is to be a complete rest. On the first day you are to take choice fruit, palm fronds, thick branches and river willows, and celebrate in the presence of Adonai your God for seven days. You are to observe it as a feast to Adonai seven days in the year’ it is a permanent regulation, generation after generation; keep it in the seventh month. You are to live in sukkot for seven days; every citizen of Isra’el is to live in a sukkah*, so that generation after generation of you will know that I made the people of Isra’el live in sukkot** when I brought them our of the land of Egypt; I am Adonai your God. (Vayikra*** 23:33-36, 39-43, Complete Jewish Bible)

In passing, let us note some things. First, most Tanakh feasts are to last eight days, that is one full week. This expresses the fullness of time. God created heaven and earth in seven days, and as Christians we know that he sealed his redemption of creation on the eighth day, Sunday, which is both the first and the eighth day. Secondly, as many feasts, no work is to be done on the first or last days of the celebration, just as some of us did no work on Yom Kippur. The prohibition of work on our part is to demonstrate to us that our salvation does not come from our work, but that we must depend on God’s grace, in other words salvation is God’s work, not our own. (By the way, the Roman Catholic and some other churches used to keep octaves of feasts such as Christmas and Easter. It has only been in the last forty years that these octaves have died out.) One other note in passing, from http://www.biblicalholidays.com/Tabernacles/jewishcustoms.htm is the following:
There is thought to be spiritual significance based on the characteristics of the lulav and citron:
The palm bears fruit (deeds) but is not fragrant (spiritual blessing). This is like a person who lives by the letter of the law but does not have compassion or love for others.
The myrtle only has fragrance, but can’t bear fruit. This is like a person who is “so heavenly minded he is no earthly good.” He (or she) may recite scripture, but he doesn’t produce fruit.
The willow can neither produce fruit nor fragrance. This is like a person who is intrigued by different doctrines but never produces fruit.
The citron creates both fruit and fragrance. This is like a faithful believer who lives a balanced life in wisdom before God and man. Believers should strive to be like the citron
(lulav is the wave offering presented to the Lord on the first day of the feast)

Also let us note it is a feast. We are to celebrate God’s providence to us with feasting, dancing and rejoicing! Sukkot, falling in the fall of the year is very much the Hebrew thanksgiving, and the Sukkah is usually decorated with fruits of the season, here in the US with squash and corn, in Europe with cabbage and grapes.

The purpose of Sukkoth is two fold. First it is to remind the people of Israel that they lived in shelters for forty years in the desert. Our family usually set up a Sukkah to eat in during this time, and tents to sleep in. It is easy to think of ourselves being with the Israelites in the desert when we camp out in the back yard this week. But the feast does not only remind us that the Hebrews had to camp out, but of God’s protection. The sukkah is supposed to have a leafy roof that lets sunlight and starlight through because God supplied a sukkah (the cloud) to protect us from the sun by day and the moon by night. Sukkot is a thanksgiving celebration because God provided man (Manna), and water for the forty years in the desert. We are also told that clothing and shoes did not wear out during this trek in the desert.
Yeshua too provides spiritual and physical protection and blessings for us when we walk in his ways. He tells us, “Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mattityahu**** 6:33) This promise is that when we walk in his ways, we will have what we need to achieve the kingdom, and I do mean what we need, not necessarily what we want. I can say through my own experiences as a missionary in Honduras, I often wanted certain things, but never received them, but the things I needed to complete my mission (say tyres for example) were always forthcoming when I needed them. The trick is to line up our will with God’s. When we are truly seeking the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength, then we will be praying for the things we need to advance the kingdom, and the Lord will provide.

Shalom and blessings in the Name of Yeshua


+Mar Michael Abportus
mjthan@quik.com

*Leviticus
**Shelter (can mean tent)
***Shelters
****Mathew

From the Eye of the Storm

The recent events surrounding Katrina and Rita leave one to contemplate the word. The flood destroyed everyone but Noach and his family. The people of Israel were delivered when a strong wind divided the sea. An East wind brought quail to eat. God spoke to Job out of the eye of the tempest. The question is, what is God trying to tell us.
As I mentioned before, it is no accident that these storms hit where they hit, and there are some important lessons to be learned. The press tries to make it look as if the government does not care for certain groups of people because they are poor, etc. Maybe we should start by asking questions about poverty. Jesus tells us the poor will always be with us. The Tanakh talks about causes of poverty and how we should deal with poverty. My experience of people on Medicaid, is that poor people make poor decisions. We have already seen how some people used the $2000.00 given to them to buy frivolous such as Rolex watches, etc. When people have to work for their money, they respect it more. That is why the Torah instructs us to leave the corners of our fields and vineyards, and not go back for a second harvest. These are to serve for the orphan and widow. We see this acted out in the book of Ruth. When the poor have to work for their sustenance, they begin to break the chains of poverty. When we give things away without requiring work, we create the chains of poverty.
Interestingly enough, about 80 years ago, the unwed mother rate among black women was very close to white women, in fact in some places there were fewer unwed black mothers than white mothers. What happened? The government decided to help the black people because they were downtrodden. The problem was not that the government helped the black people, but the way in which they are helped. When we receive help from the government, it makes us dependent on the government, and not on ourselves or God. Look at our Medicaid system. Most people on Medicaid, take very little responsibility for their own health, because they know the government will take care of them. Women in New York rebelled in the 1970’s when the state of New York tried to make them earn their welfare checks. Living on the dole has become a way of life for many whites, blacks etc.
Oddly what has happened to blacks has spread out to other groups, as we have ignored the Biblical principles. First of all, we need to look and see what the Biblical principle was, i.e.to help the widow and orphan. The reason that the Bible specifies widows and orphans, was because in the system of the day, the widow and orphan were the helpless. It was not their fault that they were widows nor orphans, and they had lost their breadwinners. In other words, we are to help the truly helpless. When we help those who are capable of helping themselves, we are contributing to a system of economic dependence. Often we contributed to other forms of dependence as well. In Honduras it was very rare that I would help anyone with money, but I would help with food or clothing. That was partly because I found money being used for drugs and alcohol. Here I have seen drug users going around selling the free food they were given at the food panty so they could buy crack.
Now this is not to say that we should not fight injustice. There have been problems in our society that have been addressed and need to be addressed, but these problems are rarely solved by throwing money at them, and are rarely solved by government intervention. There are many black families and immigrant families who have risen to the top of society, through old fashioned hard work, and by application of Christian principles and morality to their lives.
Last week, my family and I evacuated our house and left for San Antonio as there was a possibility of a tidal surge which would have completely overwhelmed our house with a wall of water. We left for San Antonio, taking some eleven hours for a trip that would normally take four and one half. We could have done it in six had I not made an error. There were huge lines of cars buying gasoline and cars not making it for various reasons. The problems were multiple, but can be summed in one phrase, lack of planning. Back in May, before hurricane season began, I had planned my route out of town, I checked my car out, and began buying emergency food supplies. It took us a short while to get across Houston and I was able to consult my map over trip changes. My gasoline lasted all the way to San Antonio because I was not afraid to turn my motor off when we were not moving, and because we did not have the air conditioner running. Does this demonstrate that I am smarter than other people? No, it merely demonstrates that I did not wait until the last minute to make my plans. I have been watching hurricanes for more than forty years, and have been planning for them that long. Some of this I learned from my parents. It is important that we all learn to plan for emergencies and disasters, and to help and make provisions for the less fortunate among us.
It is important to to use our minds and wisdome. Mistakes in this situation go back years to when the Corps of Engineers wished to strengthen the levees, but were overruled by the courst and the Sierra Club. It goes back to greed in developping areas below sea level. It goes back to expecting the federal government to solve all our problems instead of taking care of things ourselves, or at a local or state level.
Jesus too, tells us to plan. We should plan about how we should live when he is Lord and saviour of our lives. We should plan on how we advance the Kingdome, and how to best serve him. If you are not his servant, then you should think about your eternal future and learn to make Jesus the Lord of your life.


Shalom and blessings in the Name of Yeshua

+Mar Michael Abportus
mjthan@quik.com