Jeff Street, May 24th 2009

Jeff Street doesn't closely follow the Christian Year - the liturgical calendar used by many in "High Church" circles. This week was a bit of an exception - we took advantage of this being Ascension Sunday to revisit some passages in Hebrews that emphasize Christ's present role as our Intercessor - our Great High Priest before the throne of God the Father.

Dustin broke the message into three sections that dug into the implications of Christ's Incarnation (past), his Intercession (present), and his Return (future). The planning team concluded that a variety of readings and songs should be used in each section to allow us to proclaim God's truth and respond to it.

All Because of Jesus was our first song - thanks to Alex for introducing it to us.

Leading into the first point, the text that we chose was 1 John 1:1-4. I explained that John wrote this to a church that was in danger of forgetting who Jesus was, and I added the hopeful prayer "May that never be said of us."

Then Dustin began to remind us of our identification with Christ because he was not just 100% God BUT ALSO 100% man. In response we sang My Savior, My God - the lyrics of which testify not only to his death in our place, but that he "lives to be our King." Like most of the songs in this service, it fits into what I think of as the "rock hymn" genre, which suited the strengths of the singers and musicians who were accompanying the congregation.

The focal point of this week showed up in the middle section, where Dustin emphasized how Christ's perfect intercession--his loving and all-knowing prayers on our behalf--continues to strengthen us. We read Hebrews 4:14-16 in order to remind ourselves of the confidence we have in Christ's continuing work and then sang Before the Throne of God Above (I particularly like the 3rd verse):

Behold Him there the Risen Lamb
My perfect spotless Righteousness
The great unchangeable I Am
The King of Glory and of grace
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God

There you go - Ascension Sunday encapsulated in a song (and a beautiful one, at that).

This set the tone for the Lord's Supper - although we are unworthy, we are loved and bought, redeemed, adopted, grafted, etc. into God's family.

Dustin then focused on the encouragement Christ's return should bring us. All the things that are not right will be made right someday by the righteous might of our just and loving God. In second service, Dustin was noticeably moved as he preached this portion and my eyes were starting to get a bit damp, too.

We responded again to what God has done/is doing/will do by singing Hallelujah! What a Saviour. The verses were written in 1875 by Phillip R. Bliss, and they focus mostly on Christ's death in our place, but they also speak of his resurrection and ascension and return. (In the first service we began experiencing some technical problems - more on that later.)

A time of reflection followed, as the music team performed Somewhere in the Middle. The song paints a picture of the lukewarm, distracted, uncommitted existence so many people dwell in and even the Church so easily falls into. Our challenge is to live lives of faith, wholly devoted to God. This led into Christ's call to follow him from Luke 9:23-25.

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"

Jesus doesn't give us much room for staying in that supposedly safe middle ground.

Jesus Paid It All was the last song we sang. Certainly a great old hymn, but the new ending refrain is simple and powerful: "O praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead."

As a final reminder of who we once were and who we have now become in Christ, we read Ephesians 2:1-10.

Now, about the technical difficulties in first service: after the first couple songs it became obvious that the bass guitar wasn't working. This caused a bit of a domino effect - mostly on my part as I tried to play more low notes than I had originally planned. I'm glad we're not often subjected to equipment failures, computer glitches and the like. When they do occur, the folks on stage and in the sound booth usually cover so well that most people don't notice - this week I'm afraid it was a noticeable distraction. My apologies.

The encouragement I found was in the way that the team came together to solve the problem. I thanked God for surrounding me with such helpful people as we performed electronic surgery with a soldering iron backstage. May we all encourage others by working so selflessly together.

Finally, let me encourage you to leave any comments or ask any questions you'd like. I plan on writing these articles at least for the summer, and your input will help me to improve.