May 3, 2023

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 

Matthew 25:21 esv

Bear with me for a moment while I depart from the theme of previous emails - we have been discussing our worship during Christian ed. at Coram Deo and my last note to you was relevant for our discussion about music on Sunday. While this is not about the liturgy per se, I hope that what I have to say may actually do more to increase our worship than what I had originally planned. As some of you know, I spent the past couple of days in what will likely be my last visit with my grandmother. She slept most of the time I was there, but there was a brief moment when we were able to communicate just enough to establish who I was. My father held up a picture of Becky and I after Scout was born that she had kept on her bookshelf and pointed from the picture to me to help jog her memory. It worked, and for a moment, the joy of recognition could have powered the room. There was knowledge mixed together with gladness and warmth.

As I sat on the plane yesterday it dawned on me that a perfect form of this joyful knowledge greets us each and every Sunday morning as we gather together, we share it with each other and sit within it as the Lord smiles upon the worship of his saints. This joyful knowledge also greets each of us in Christ, calls us into prayer, and will usher us into his presence with joy when Christ returns, or calls us to himself through the veil of death. To be in Christ is to be both known and loved beyond measure - it is to live within the warmth of our master’s joy. The question remains for each of us: do we shape our lives according to this joy-filled welcome? Or have we, by our attempts to earn what is freely given in Jesus, masked ourselves before the Father?

—Matt Allhands