Lael ArringtonSeasonal – Lael Arrington

A Gift of Christmas Worship

admin — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 21:05:44 +0000

Why did God become so vulnerable?

About 600 yrs ago, a Dutch painter, meditating on the timeless truth of God’s vulnerability, born in a manger, painted Nativity by Night.

About 400 yrs ago, an Anglican priest, meditating on the timeless majesty of God and the Trinity, wrote the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.

About 20 years ago, an American rock star, Sufjan Stevens, created this arrangement of Holy, Holy, Holy.

About 15 yrs ago, a Dutch art historian created this video, juxtaposing the majesty of God in the hymn with the vulnerability of Jesus in the painting.

About 20 yrs ago, Manhattan pastor Tim Keller wrote this quote that explains why all this has been so meaningful to me.

Fidelity Month: Lincoln and Schaeffer on Freedom and Sacrifice

admin — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:02:11 +0000

"When freedom destroys order the yearning for order will destroy freedom."

Courtesy StoryBlocks

Two of the most majestic, heart-piercing places to visit in Washington DC are the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Our images of both, taken during a cherry blossom-time trip, serve as a perfect backdrop to this tribute to Fidelity Month and all those who have given their lives to protect ours.

(In case you are not familiar with Fidelity Month, it is a new movement to celebrate the virtue of faithfulness in June by renewing our commitments to God, our spouses, our country and our communities. Please check it out and perhaps join me in using its promotional headers and memes on social media to focus on a movement that prompts us to draw closer to God, work to strengthen our families and heal divisions in our country.)

Surely one of the greatest inspirations for fidelity to our country is to remember the sacrifices given to protect and nurture America–the theme of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Back in high school our chorale memorized Lincoln’s address set to beautiful music. I sang it softly as I read the entire address engraved on the south wall of Lincoln’s memorial. I’m so grateful to him for wrapping such beautiful words around the sacrifice of the fallen, calling us to give thanks and take courage as we rise to protect our freedoms in our civil war of worldviews and values. Please join me in remembering…

The Gettysburg Address:

Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation,

or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

Step into the Easter Story as Foretold by Isaiah and Fulfilled in the Four Gospels

admin — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 18:45:45 +0000

Jesus set his face like a flint for Jerusalem. His hour had come. Almost 700 years before, the prophet Isaiah described what would unfold in surprising detail, and what it would mean for all humankind. I invite you to read Isaiah’s version (before Sunday) that focuses more on the physical, emotional and spiritual suffering of Jesus and the reasons why God was willing to “crush” his Son. Let it take you deeper into the arrest, trial and crucifixion of “the greatest story ever told.” And worship the One who loves us and sacrificed himself for us.

All the texts are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version except for my comments in italics.

***Isaiah 53:1-3 Betrayal, abandonment, denial, rejection***

Giotto: Jesus betrayed by Judas, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy; @1305

Isaiah: Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?…He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Matthew: And [in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas] came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” (26:49)

Then all the disciples left him and fled. (26:56)

A Prayer for the Hostages. And for us.

admin — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 04:33:15 +0000

photo courtesy Storyblocks

A nephew of one of the Hamas hostages said his aunt “’had to adjust to the sunlight’ because she had been in darkness for weeks. ‘She was in complete darkness,…completely cut off from the outside world.”

Imagine living in total darkness, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 7 weeks—50 days for the now-released hostages, 105 days and counting for those still in captivity. Think what you were doing on October 7^th. Now think of erasing all you’ve done since then. All that work, vacation, time with family and friends, church fellowship, football, Thanksgiving, Christmas prep–all those moments you’ve held dear.

Imagine instead sitting and sleeping in plastic chairs or benches. In the dark. All that time. In some cases alone. In others, crowded together with strangers and ordered to keep quiet. One meal of rice and bread a day. Knocking on the door when you need to go to the restroom. Waiting hours until you are taken.

Isolation. Darkness. Deprivation.

I think about the hostages often. Grieve for them. Plead to God for their release. And for their spiritual deliverance.

“The people living in darkness have seen a great light.” We can pray for God to shine his light in the hostages’ darkness.

Memorial Day–Come with me to Arlington Cemetery

admin — Mon, 30 May 2022 04:58:31 +0000

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Ecclesiastes 7:2

Just weeks ago, as pinkish-white cherry blossoms graced the grayish-white marble headstones of the dead who served our country, we walked and rode through Arlington Cemetery. The delicacy of the blossoms’ beauty and the massive orchestration of rows upon rows of markers belie the horror and chaos of the wars that have sent the bodies of so many men and women to rest in these forested hills overlooking Washington D.C.

What do we see at the foot of the cross?

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 15:55:12 +0000

The pain Jesus suffered went far beyond the flogging, nails and suffocation

Storyblocks

Stand with me at the foot of the cross. Come close. So close that when we look up, all we can see is that face. The arms outstretched, the hands barely visible in our peripheral vision.

What do we see?

If you saw Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, you no doubt took away indelible images of the physical pain and agony of Jesus’ death on a Roman cross. In our imaginations we see the nails and the stretching, hanging, and suffocating, and we are astonished that anyone would willingly give up a throne to submit to such excruciating torture.

On the day he died, Jesus endured so much physical pain; yet the Scriptures say he didn’t open his mouth. Like a lamb going to the slaughter, he endured silently the scourging, mocking, spitting, slapping, nailing, the struggle to breathe.

But at the crucial juncture, Gibson’s movie could not show us, nor can we even imagine the greater pain of being cursed—being totally removed from the presence of God. Around noon something beyond all imagination began to happen.

The world went dark, and Christ became sin.

Four Valentine Lessons on Love from Netflix’s Virgin River

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 05:38:46 +0000

Virgin River is a down comforter on a cold pandemic night kind of TV series that invites you to find a cozy spot and wrap the warmth and softness of its love story and small town around you.

Unlike a comforter, it has some serious edges and romantic tension, but nothing that seems headed over a cliff. Even so, as the Netflix writers take Robyn Carr’s 20+ book series and elevate it to be as appealing as possible to a general audience of non-romance readers, they inevitably enfold some of God’s greatest lessons about love into their script.

Some reviewers accuse the show of being too traditional and cliched–too “Hallmarky.” I disagree. Yes it’s kinda soapy, but still in a different class. And to my mind it’s success simply proves that Jesus has the best information on how to have good relationships. When the second season was released last November it zoomed to #1, displacing both The Crown and Queen’s Gambit.

How To Have a Sorrowful but Always Rejoicing Covid Christmas

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 20:30:57 +0000

We will be alone this Christmas. Eleven hundred miles from any family. Distanced from friends who will take the risk to be with their grandchildren (as I would if we had them), but it means we won’t be visiting them either. Ah, Covid. You are such a joy stealer. Such a prime example of the curse of sin in a fallen world.

This week I wake up thinking of the distance and the empty calendar ahead. Today, as I play my Christmas music, I’m fighting back a few tears. Maybe you’re fighting for joy too. How can we reclaim the joy of this Advent season?

I’ve been surprised how our fall Bible study of the book of Revelation has helped. As I’ve reflected on the first and second advents together it has lifted my spirits so much.

The angel’s announcement of the first Advent, “He has come!” invites us into a story of great joy, but also great sorrow. An almost-divorce over an out of wedlock pregnancy, no room in the inn, Herod’s slaughter of babies in his search to destroy Jesus, Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus will cause the rising and falling of many and his postscript to Mary that “a sword will pierce her heart” certainly proved true. What a reflection of our own Covid Christmas–celebration fraught with sorrow.

But expanding our Advent celebration to Jesus’ second advent taps into our future sorrow-free joy. Jesus’ second advent stands in stark contrast to his first. Consider how they are similar but wildly different, and how the second advent magnifies our joy:

Three Reasons Why I Honor Our Slave-Holding Founders and Celebrate July 4th

admin — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 13:27:58 +0000

Jack “with” Founding Father Thomas Jefferson at Monticello

The leader of one grass-roots group, Take-em-Down NOLA, has said, “We recognize the original sin was the genocide of the Native Americans and the enslavement of the Africans. People bring up the fact that [slave masters] were Founding Fathers. That’s people’s opinions, but for us what disqualifies you is the slave-owning.”

Many have embraced this perspective: slavery and mistreatment based on race is the “original” and apparently unforgivable sin of America. They cannot join in the celebration of the founding of a racist state. As followers of Jesus, how should we respond? Especially on July 4th?

“That which we have seen…and touched…”

admin — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 10:48:02 +0000

Eye witness of an empty tomb

John’s mind raced. Mary’s words, tumbling and breathless, had shattered the pictures of pain that enveloped him. “An empty tomb…no guards in sight…” Peter’s footsteps fell farther behind. He couldn’t hold up or slow down. He wiped his nose with his hand, his eyes with his sleeve.

His mind grasped at dangling threads of past conversations–“must suffer,” “three days”–and traced them into tangles of things to come. He picked at the tangles but could not unravel them. Around him the world moved in slow motion…yawning…stretching…stirring coals to life. Blinking faces started at the speed and intensity of the figure sprinting past.

From the hedge at the garden gate a rustle of wings took to flight. The path dipped down through the rows of grapevines, past the wine press. Around a final corner, the tomb, bathed in rosy light, matched Mary’s picture exactly. No stone. No guards.