Busy days!

This is a busy time for our ministry as the month of September brings all three fall festivals, along with a couple of minor fasts too!  It all begins with Leil Selichot on September 9, then Rosh HaShanah on September 15; Tzom Gedalia on September 18, Yom Kippur on September 24 and Sukkot on September 29.  Wow!  Busy month and all with good opportunities to share the gospel with our Jewish friends and neighbors.  If you want more information on all of these, go to our website calendar and you can click on each of these events to get a description and hopefully an idea about how you might learn and share during these days.

Of course, these days are important to our Jewish friends and important to us as well as we seek ways to continue to give assurance of salvation through Messiah Jesus.  But are they important for the Church outside of their missionary context?  I will argue yes for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, it is important for us to affirm the continuity of Scripture and it is also beneficial to understand the New Testament within its Jewish context. 

We will have many special services during the month of September, including the closing service of Yom Kippur, called Neila.  Neila is all about appealing to God to keep the gates of heaven open just a few minutes more that prayers would be heard.  During this service, Psalm 118 is an important psalm and we will draw upon it with some of the prayers of Yom Kippur that evening.  And that service is something that both Paul and John (not the Beatles!) draw upon as they write the epistle to the Romans (esp. 9-11) and Revelation (esp. 21) respectively.  So we will find the gospel bridges through those writings at this service.  I know it is a lot to take in, but I do believe our faith is grown as we explore the Jewish context of the New Testament.  One of the other important verses of Yom Kippur for us is 2 Corinthians 6:1-2.  Paul writes to a largely non-Jewish congregation, yet writes “Working together with [God], then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’  Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  That’s an important message for us and for those who as yet have received the grace of God at all!

If it is not enough, here in St. Louis there is also a balloon festival the weekend of September 15-17.  We will be out then as well, interacting with those who will hear, and be inviting them to the services and events of September.  I have found that outreach has changed a lot post-Covid and we are still trying to find creative ways to reach people these days, but we have found that event evangelism is still a good opportunity to interact with crowds who still gather at those events.  Also, please keep our ministry in prayer as we are coming out of a particularly challenging summer financially.  We continue to rely upon God’s good grace, both for salvation and for his continuing provision as we seek to echo Paul’s heart’s desire, for the salvation of Israel.  Thank you for your help, and if you have any ideas about how we can connect with other churches, please let me know.

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One month to go!

Today (August 17), my calendar reminded me of a minor Jewish observance called Rosh HaShana LaBehemot.  I know, there are a million (well not a million) minor Jewish observances.  But this one is a good one to mark because it falls on the same day as Rosh Chodesh Elul, the first day of the month of Elul, which is exactly a month before Rosh HaShana, which is a major Jewish festival.

What’s the difference between one Rosh HaShana and the other?  LaBehemot is the new year for tithing animals.  As you might have heard me say, there are four “new years” in the Jewish calendar, all with a different focus, much like the “new years” we mark such as the tax year, or the fiscal year, etc.  During the time of the Temple, this was the day on which shepherds determined which of their animals were to be tithed (see Lev. 27:32-33).  But the Temple is no more, and this minor observance is rarely even observed.  But the fact that it falls one month prior to Rosh HaShana, the festival of trumpets is a good clue that we need to be ready to share the gospel at a time when Jewish people are most open to spiritual conversation.

Rosh HaShana begins the first of three fall festivals that are not only the reflection of the destruction of the Temple, but also the time following, both then and now.  In my LifeLight Bible study (Bible Feasts, available through CPH), I liken this time to a hypothetical Church season called “Paraskoy,” a time of preparation.  If you are interested, you can listen to those studies on our YouTube page.  There’s a link on our website, and the studies are performed by Eric Bentley, our missionary in Los Angeles, and they are linked at the bottom of the YouTube page. (https://www.youtube.com/@burningbushministries-losa1066)

Jewish people are preparing for the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the joyous celebration of Sukkot.  They are preparing for the solemn season of repentance, fasting, prayer and good deeds hoping that my those works they will find favor with God and be written into the book of Life.  We in the Church are preparing for Advent as we look forward to the sound of trumpets (Rosh HaShana) that will herald the return of our Lord, Y’shua, with the accompanying judgment that follows (Yom Kippur) and the confidence that because of His work, we are forgiven and will live in eternity with Him (Sukkot).  It is a grand time to prepare for.

But in the meantime, you may be confident, but our Jewish friends are not.  Now is the time to prepare to share the good news with them.  Many of our churches start to scour the thrift stores and yard sales for small baskets that they can fill with a small pot of honey and a sweet apple or two to share with their Jewish friends on Rosh HaShana.  The tradition is to greet one another with apples and honey and the greeting, “May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life.”  We add “the Lamb’s Book of Life,” (Rev. 21) and share how that may be done, through faith in Messiah Y’shua.  Let me know how I can help, and begin now praying for your dear friends.

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Some thoughts about “Oneg Shabbat”…

I wanted to take a few minutes to share some thoughts on “Oneg Shabbat.”

While I was growing up, in my community at least (and I think this is a common practice in most Jewish communities), Oneg Shabbat was a time of fellowship after the services on Friday night or Saturday morning.  Everyone would bring a little something to share, often left over from the Friday night meal.  One gentleman always brought a bottle of Chivas to put on the table, and we who were too young to drink, would still take a nip.  It was a community affair, and we would often spend that time schmoozing, arguing, gossiping (yes!), and sometimes even studying the Scriptures.

In Isaiah 58, God’s Word gives us a picture of what it means to keep the Sabbath…not pursing our own affairs, doing business (striking bargains) and calling the Sabbath an “oneg,” a delight.  It was the process of “remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy.”  In many ways, when God gave us that commandment to keep, He did so because we were coming out of a context in which we were slaves in Egypt, and worked every day.  We need to learn how to take a day off, and so many of the things that are associated with work are forbidden.  The prohibition of lighting fires became the prohibition to turn on lights, drive cars, etc.  We couldn’t shop or carry money, and we weren’t even allowed to walk very far.  And, as I’ve often said in churches around the country, the tradition was that if one Jewish community could keep the Sabbath perfectly, just once, we believed that Messiah would come.

Praise God, Messiah has come!  Not because any of us has kept the Sabbath perfectly, for no one can.  But for that very reason, God sent His Son to keep the Sabbath for us, and to be our perfect sacrifice.  As I write this, we are just coming out of Yom Kippur, and for our community, it is a time of remembering this perfect sacrifice, to turn from sin, and to receive the forgiveness that God assures us by His great grace.  It is our Easter in the fall!  And now is the time we are returning to Oneg Shabbat after the pandemic.

It has been hard to not be together.  But, I fear, it has also become easier.  And that is not the spirit of fellowship that we are given.  One of the ironies in my life is that the fellowship, driven by the law in my childhood, sometimes seems better than the fellowship prompted by the Spirit in my adulthood.  There have been times when I have preached in a church somewhere, and by the time I have gotten out of my vestments and left the sacristy, there is an elder at the door, waiting for me so he can lock up.  Everyone is gone already!  When we began our congregation, we prayed and hoped that we would be a gathering of people patterned after the first church in Acts 2:42-47.  Our longing to be together is a function of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us all, and not the necessity of keeping the law.  So we want to shmooz, even argue, probably shouldn’t gossip, and yes, even sometimes study the Scriptures!  And a little nip of Chivas couldn’t hurt.

Oneg Shabbat is not about the meal, but about the community affair.  So bring a little nosh, not a whole dish.  Don’t stress, don’t work, just whatever, and stay for the shmoozing.  It is in our community that together we see the favor of the Lord and enjoy the heritage of our father Jacob!

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Fall Festivals and the Last Day

In Levitcus 23:44, the phrase el mo’adai Yahweh occurs as a conclusion to a chapter where Moses has “announced to the Israelites the appointed festivals of the Lord (Leviticus 23:44).  These “appointed festivals” are the Sabbath, Passover (along with the Feast of First Fruits), Sh’vuot (Pentecost), Rosh HaShanah (trumpets), Yom Kippur (atonement) and Sukkot (booths). If you’d like to know more about these festivals, I’ve written a LifeLight Bible Study for Concordia Publishing House called “Bible Feasts.”  There is a link to that study on the Resources page of our website (see below)..  And of course, Rosh HaShana is coming soon, and we will be observing the High Holidays here in St. Louis with a service on Sept. 6 for Rosh HaShana, Sept. 15-16 for Yom Kippur and then on Sept. 16 we will build our Sukkah preparing for Sukkoth, the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths).

These three festivals in the fall are a wonderful picture of the Second coming of Messiah Y’shua, and its a great time to share that with your Jewish friends.  As we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh HaShana) we listen to the trumpet call of God.  For our Jewish friends, the traditional greeting for Rosh HaShanah is “Shana Tova,” meaning for a good year, but that is just shorthand for the greeting of “May your name be inscribed for a good year.”  That greeting is appropriate because the tradition of this season is that on Rosh HaShanah God opens three books with everyone’s name in them, a Book of Life, a Book of Death, and an intermediate book.  By Yom Kippur (this year it is September 15), God chooses either life or death for you, and your name is written into one or the other book.  So the hope of this greeting is that God will choose life for you.  For those with a little more chutzpah, I encourage them to greet their friends with the greeting “May your name be inscribed in the Lamb’s book of life.”  After all, that is the only way that God will choose life for us.  Sukkoth, the third of these three festivals, seems a little disconnected from the first two.  I think we should connect them for our Jewish friends.

When we hear the trumpet call at the Feast of Trumpets, we should be reminded of Paul’s prophetic words, “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thess. 4:16).  As we celebrate Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), we are reminded that Y’shua, Jesus descends as a Judge.  “And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31).  His elect will be those whose names are found in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  And as we build our Sukkah for the Feast of Tabernacles, we know it is only a dim picture of the city that we will live in as we tabernacle together with Y’shua.  “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb.  But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:22-23; 27).  This year, I pray we are prepared to share these festivals and their meaning.  It is not too late for us, or for those who have yet to hear the trumpet call of God, and receive the faith in Messiah that God offers.  Then and only then will our names be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and we will tabernacle together with one another and with Messiah.  These three festivals are finely and finally connected.  Blessings to you this Holy season, B’shem Y’shua, in the name of Jesus.

For more on the High Holidays, go to to KFUO.

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Yom Kippur–The Lamb’s Book

Illustration:  “L’Arbre de Vie (‘Tree of life’– sketch to vitrage in Chapelle des Cordeliers in Sarrebourg)” by Marc Chagall, 1974.

Jesus said to [Thomas], ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'” (John 14:6).

On our journey to the cross we have visited two festivals, Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and these two festivals have shown us two aspects of our Christian walk. At Rosh HaShanah we looked at the call to faith God gave us, and how He continues to call us to service and worship. And as we traveled with Jesus to Yom Kippur, we saw the completeness of the sacrifice which Jesus made for us, the sacrifice which make us worthy to respond to God’s call.

At Rosh HaShanah, Jewish people send each other a greeting. “La Shanah Tovu Tiku Teivu,” which means “May your name be inscribed for a good year.” The prayer is that your name will be inscribed by God into His Book of Life. But at Yom Kippur, the obvious question remains unasked. “Is It?” Is the work you have done  sufficient to appease a God who cannot abide with sin?

You have God’s promise that your name is indeed inscribed in the Book of Life.  What makes you different from those whose names are in the Book of Death?  God has called you to the path of Life, and by His grace you know that Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross is the only way to pay for your sins.  God has saved you, and He has written your name in the Book of Life.

As a believer in Christ, your journey is on the less-traveled road with Jesus.  There may be obstacles and temptations to turn to a side road, but this is the road of Life.  The easy road without Him is a smooth journey to death.

Prayer:   Lord God, you sustain me through the hardship in my life. Thank you for calling me to faith and for sending your Son to walk with me through the weeds of sin. In Y’shua’s name, Amen.

Ponder the path:  As you stumble and fall over the weeds and ruts of your sins, your Traveling Companion is there to help you up. Look around you. Is there anyone else at the crossroads who looks confused. Share your path with them.

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Yom Kippur–Complete Forgiveness

Illustration:  “Prophet Jeremiah” by Marc Chagall, oil on canvas, 1968.

“‘And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.’ And Moses did as the LORD commanded him” (Leviticus 16:34).

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

We pause in our journey at the city walls. The sacrifices are complete. The carcasses of the animals are being burned outside the city. The priest is cleansed. The scapegoat has been banished. Another year has come and gone. It is a new beginning. We are reborn…for another year.

Spring is the time of new beginnings as we seasonally see the birth, life and death of God’s creation. Though Yom Kippur is a fall festival, we see something of the Spring in it. For we are born anew. But the covenant God made with the Israelites required yearly sacrifices, yearly trips to the temple for atonement.  Cleansed from our sin to live our lives, only to come back to the temple again, dead in our transgressions, seeking reconciliation with God again. But God has a better plan for us than this yearly trek. God sent a prophet, Jeremiah, to announce the new covenant that would make complete atonement once for all.  “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant … I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. … For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more'” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  Jeremiah proclaimed this new covenant 600 years before Christ–the fulfillment of the covenant–was born.

The new covenant is not like the one in Leviticus, that requires annual sacrifices.  The sacrifice is once for all, and through this sacrifice the law is written on our hearts and in our minds. Jesus announced this new covenant at his last supper with the disciples, just hours before he was lead away to fulfill it. The benefits of this new covenant are ours every time we confess to a fellow believer and receive the assurance that indeed we are completely forgiven.   Now every day is Yom Kippur.

Prayer:  Dear God, thank You for the complete forgiveness You have given me. I love you Lord. Help me to give myself completely to You. In Y’shua’s name, Amen.

Ponder the path:  Is there something that you feel God could not possibly forgive you for? Go to your pastor today and know that all of your sins are forgiven completely by the shed blood of God’s sacrifice, His Son Jesus.

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Yom Kippur–The Scapegoat (Second Sunday in Lent)

Illustration:  “Wandering Jew” by Marc Chagall, ink on paper, 1914.

“And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness” (Leviticus 16:21).

Have you ever been blamed for something you didn’t do? Perhaps as a child, your older brother or sister made you the scapegoat for them. How did it feel? Often, there was nothing you could do to defend yourself. No matter what you would have said, it wouldn’t have made any difference.

Notice that the scapegoat does not take the blame for another’s actions. When the high priest confessed the sins of the people on the head of the goat, he was not saying that the goat did the deed. No, the scapegoat only pays the price for the deed.

We make others our scapegoat all the time in an effort to shift responsibility for our action or inaction. As we walk along the path, only we can take the responsibility for our decisions. No one else can play the scapegoat–save one. Jesus is our scapegoat.  Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isiah 53:11).  Jesus was righteous, and bore all of our iniquities, or sins.  He paid the price for them.  And He did nothing to defend Himself.

Jesus was led to a mountain to die on a cross, but He rose from the dead three days later.  He has victory over death!  Because He is our Scapegoat, we also have victory through His death on the cross.

Prayer:  Lord God, forgive me for my sins against you and others. Give me strength to accept responsibility for my actions, and thank you for sending your Son to be my scapegoat. In Y’shua’s name, Amen.

Ponder the path:  Have you ever blamed someone else for your mistakes?  This is a good time to accept responsibility, knowing that the debt for your sin has already been paid.

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Yom Kippur–The Sacrifice

Illustration:  “The Cattle Dealer,” by Marc Chagall, oil on canvas, 1912.

“If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Leviticus 17:10-11).

As we journey closer to the temple, we notice that the road ahead is sprinkled with blood. The Yom Kippur sacrifices have begun. God has decreed that blood must be shed, that it is blood that makes atonement for us. So we bring our sacrifices to the temple: bulls and goats–innocent animals that must die for us to be forgiven.

Jesus was a righteous Jew who kept the covenant with God. He would have been among those who brought sacrifices to the temple, and Jesus was certainly at the temple every year for this festival. Knowing what He knew, how hard it must have been for Him to see the deaths of these animals. He knew that this was just a picture of the sacrifice that was to come. He knew that the bulls and goats were just precursors of the sacrifice that God would make once for all, and that He would be that sacrifice. By that once-for-all sacrifice, God’s people would never have to slaughter another animal to atone for their sins.

By the death that this season anticipates, your sins have been paid for in full. Now our offerings at the temple are not sacrifices, but gifts of thanksgiving. Praise Him!

Prayer: My Lord God, You are the Creator of all things and have blessed me with much. Thank You for the sacrifice You made in my stead, and give me a heart filled with joy as I make an offering to You. In Y’shua’s name, Amen.

Ponder the path: Tomorrow is Sunday. Consider the offering you will bring. Remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and give with a grateful heart.

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Yom Kippur–The Preparation

Illustration:  “A Group of People,” by Marc Chagall, pencil, wash, and ink on paper, 1914.

“And the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:2).

As we journey to the Feast of Yom Kippur, we notice that people have gathered from all over the country.  They are resting from work, fasting, meditating and praying for forgiveness of their sins.  God has appointed this as a solemn time of preparation for the sacrifice being offered on their behalf by the priest.

Yom Kippur is the only day that the priest enters the Most Holy Place.  That is why everyone has gathered and everyone has prepared.  This is a special day.

Lent is a season of preparation too.  We are preparing ourselves for the sacrifice that is to come.  For the people of Jesus’ time, the preparation was outward, though its purpose was to prepare people’s hearts for the miracle of forgiveness to come.  Today, our preparation is less visible.  But what does the Lord require of us?  The psalmist says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17).  God has appointed this time for us to prepare for the sacrifice of His Son.  His sacrifice was one for all time, for all of us, and we especially remember it each year during the Lenten season.

Prayer:  Our Lord, thank You for helping me to prepare my heart.  Give me a broken and contrite heart as I get ready to celebrate Christ’s victory over death.  In Y’shua’s name, Amen.

Ponder the path:  As you continue to prepare for Easter, examine your heart. Take time to prepare your spirit to receive again the good news of Christ’s resurrection, the fulfillment of Yom Kippur.  Then help others to prepare by sharing that good news!

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Yom Kippur–Deny Yourselves

Illustration:  “Solitude” by Marc Chagall, oil on canvas, 1933.

 

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it’”(Matthew 16:24-25).

One of God’s directions for this leg of the journey is to deny ourselves.  What does that mean, especially in the context of Jesus’ atoning work for us?

Denying ourselves has traditionally been expressed by fasting, and in most Jewish households, Yom Kippur is a fast day. No food or water is consumed on this day. For Jewish people, this may be an appropriate fast, for food has always come between God and His people. Remember the children of Israel in the wilderness? They were ready to abandon the path God lead them on to escape slavery in Egypt, simply for want of food. So today, as God further demonstrates our complete inability to negotiate our atonement, He commands us to give up whatever remains a barrier to our heart for God.

God knows our hearts well. He knows the challenges that have been before us as we have walked this path to Mt. Calvary. He guides us through the obstacles that we have placed before ourselves. But He also knows the road ahead, and desires our whole heart. So on this day, He reminds us again that there is something we continue to grasp that we need to give up to Him instead.

During Lent it is traditional to “give up something.”  For some it is chocolate, and for others it is a midday meal.  Y’shua walks with us and tells us to deny ourselves and take up our cross.  Denying ourselves helps us remain focused on God’s promises and His gift of forgiveness and everlasting life.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:2).

Prayer:  Dear God, sometimes I do not even know the depth of my dependence on things other than you. Give me the strength and guidance to deny myself and walk with you a little closer today. In Y’shua’s name, Amen.

Ponder the path:  If you were to fast today, what food or activity would you choose to eliminate?  Why?

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