Lessons August 11, 2013

Today's theme of Faith is captured by the Epistle Lesson. Faith is the foundation of Judeo-Christian Theology. We 'believe' in a God who no one has seen and for whose existence no empirical proof exists. We 'trust' that He means us well and will guide and protect us. We 'hope' that our faith and trust are not in vain, that our lives have meaning, that our spiritual beings will live on in eternity.

But what is 'Faith'?

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists.

Hebrews 11 supplies us with a history of faith at work in the lives of Old Testament Patriarchs. Here as elsewhere the point is made that we are in but not of this world. Through faith we are members of the Kingdom of God which exists outside the bounds of time and space.

Genesis 15 introduces us specifically to the part faith in God's promises had in the life of Abraham. Faith is re-enforced through prayer and the assurance it brings strengthens believers to do God's work on earth.

Psalm 33 re-enforces the theme that faith is a gift from God

Psa 33:18 But the LORD watches over all who honor him and trust his kindness.
Psa 33:19 He protects them from death and starvation.
Psa 33:20 We depend on you, LORD, to help and protect us.
Psa 33:21 You make our hearts glad because we trust you, the only God.
Psa 33:22 Be kind and bless us! We depend on you.

The Disciples in Luke had a personal relationship with God in the person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is based on the belief that their experience was real.

Luk 12:32 My little group of disciples, don't be afraid! Your Father wants to give you the kingdom.

Faith then is a gift from God. It is freely given and ours to accept. The ability to accept it is also a gift from God. Faith is the key to the Kingdom of God and membership there gives us a home in which to store spiritual capital. Our joy in the grace that has been given us supplies us with the energy to accomplish Christ's work on earth. It is our trust in this spiritual Kingdom of God the enables us to be in but not of this world and ready when the Son of Man will come however that be accomplished.

Lesson August 4th, 2013

Today is one of those rare Sundays when there is absolute unity of purpose in all four lessons for the day. The common theme here is our priorities. Lets be clear on this, it is not a sin to be wealthy, it is unhealthy to make the attainment of wealth our principal goal in life.

Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The Old Testament Lesson comes from the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes, one of my favourite books. It has always been a source of great comfort to me that the expression of the sentiments here stated have a place in Holy Writ. If we accept Solomon as the writer of this text then we understand that this man of wealth and wisdom has everything he could possibly want or need. Stately palaces, 1000 concubines to satisfy his carnal needs, more rich food than is healthy for him, opulent wardrobes, more servants than he can find use for and hundreds of sycophants fawning over him. So is he happy? No, he is bored with life and this text eloquently expresses his ennui. The man who can't possibly imagine anything in life that he could want that he does not already possess is bored with life.

Were I reading today's lessons I would not confine myself to few verses selected out of context.

Let's look at the Psalm

Although it may be so that poverty may shorten our lives money can't extend our lives indefinitely. And we can't take it with us. We all share a common mortality. Nor, as the saying goes, can we buy our way into heaven. The gift of grace is freely given to all who believe.

In Colossians Paul talks about the things that give true meaning to life. As he expresses it the things of this world are not what gives our lives meaning but the spiritual capital we amass in Christ is what we should strive to attain.

The rich man in Christ's parable was a prudent investor. If his fields yielded a bumper crop it would have been imprudent to allow that crop to rot in the field. However, if his only intent was to store those grains so that he could live a life of leisure and contentment then he runs the risk of suffering from the same sense of discontent expressed by the writer of Ecclesiastes.

Once more hyperbole is used to emphasize a point. I can't say it better than the following quote:

Luke 12:13-21

Christ's kingdom is spiritual, and not of this world. Christianity does not meddle with politics; it obliges all to do justly, but wordly dominion is not founded in grace. It does not encourage expectations of worldly advantages by religion. The rewards of Christ's disciples are of another nature. Covetousness is a sin we need constantly to be warned against; for happiness and comfort do not depend on the wealth of this world. The things of the world will not satisfy the desires of a soul. Here is a parable, which shows the folly of carnal worldling while they live, and their misery when they die. The character drawn is exactly that of a prudent, worldly man, who has no grateful regard to the providence of God, nor any right thought of the uncertainty of human affairs, the worth of his soul, or the importance of eternity. How many, even among professed Christians, point out similar characters as models for imitation, and proper persons to form connexions with! We mistake if we think that thoughts are hid, and thoughts are free. When he saw a great crop upon his ground, instead of thanking God for it, or rejoicing to be able to do more good, he afflicts himself. What shall I do now? The poorest beggar in the country could not have said a more anxious word. The more men have, the more perplexity they have with it. It was folly for him to think of making no other use of his plenty, than to indulge the flesh and gratify the sensual appetites, without any thought of doing good to others. Carnal worldlings are fools; and the day is coming when God will call them by their own name, and they will call themselves so. The death of such persons is miserable in itself, and terrible to them. Thy soul shall be required. He is loth to part with it; but God shall require it, shall require an account of it, require it as a guilty soul to be punished without delay. It is the folly of most men, to mind and pursue that which is for the body and for time only, more than that for the soul and eternity.

Matthew Henry

Lessonsfor July 28, 2013

Today's theme is prayer.

Mat 18:19 Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

One can assume that today's Gospel is a collection of Jesus sayings on the matter of prayer echoed in the Sermon on the Mount:

Mat 6:5 "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full.
Mat 6:6 But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.
Mat 6:7 "When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long.
Mat 6:8 Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.
Mat 6:9 This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored;
Mat 6:10 may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11 Give us today the food we need.
Mat 6:12 Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
Mat 6:13 Do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One.'

This passage includes The Lord's Prayer which Christians use at every worship service.

Abraham it would seem talks to God in person and is bargaining for the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah for his nephew Lot lived in Sodom.

The Psalm continues the theme having the worshiper face toward the Temple as Moslems face toward Mecca. Emphasis is placed upon thanking God in prayer for what he has done. Prayer is not just about presenting God with a shopping list.

The Epistle continues the discourse on Christology begun in Chapter 1.

Next to the issue of bad things happening to good people is the perception of prayer unanswered. Just as I don't see Christianity as providing answers to all life's questions but an approach to dealing with them prayer should not be considered as the presentation of a shopping list from which one systematically crosses items off but a spiritual conversation with God which, though it may not solve every issue will give us the strength we need to deal with them. This is not to say that miracles aren't possible or that we should give up hope but that we should not feel devastated if the 'answer' we get isn't exactly what we originally asked for or expected.

The one issue that our Epistle adds to the equation is the matter of faith. In prayer we are not talking to ourselves, we have the belief that our God hears our prayers and will answer them.

Luk 11:9 And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

Let your prayers be known to your God. But just as important is the act of praising God in joyful thanksgiving for the bounties he has bestowed upon us lest prayer become a gimme, gimme, gimme act.

Equally important to remember is the fact that prayer is a conversation with God and there is a need for silence as well, we need to be attuned in our lives to recognize that the answers to our prayers may appear in the most unlikely of circumstances.

We must also remember that we play a part in the Kingdom of God. As THE PRAYER acknowledges, we have a part to play in honouring His Name, bringing the Kingdom of God to pass, providing daily bread to others as well as ourselves, in not becoming the mode of temptation to others, in doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. In other words we must always remember that we may become the answer to other's prayers.

Psa 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Prayer should bring us inner peace and joy which will radiate from us and be shared with those around us.

Lessons for July 21, 2013

The period of ordinary time traditionally Sundays after Trinity, now termed Pentecost to emphasize its significance, is the longest in the liturgical church year. It has traditionally been a time for an extended examination of Christ's ministry and the nature of the Christian Life. In this, the third of our pericope's three-year-cycle the theme seems to be specifically the nature of Christian Service and we appear to be working our way sequentially through the book of Luke and selected Epistles. As is often the case today's Epistle doesn't seem to tie into the day's other lessons.

In Genesis God appears to Abraham in the persons of three men who appear near the entrance to his tent where he is sitting. As is custom Abraham is at pains to welcome them, see to their physical needs and have his wife Sarah feed them.

Heb 13:2 Remember to welcome strangers in your homes. There were some who did that and welcomed angels without knowing it.

The message these strangers bring Abraham is that his barren wife will bear him a son in 9 months' time.

The Psalm's emphasis is on the need of those who would enter into worship to continue their worshipful attitudes during their quotidian lives outside the Temple.

In today's Epistle the writer embarks upon some extremely heavy Christology.

The Gospel introduces us to Mary and Martha who live with their brother Lazarus in Bethany just outside Jerusalem. Although Lazarus is not mentioned in this passage he and Jesus were friends and Jesus and the Disciples dropped in on this family often and were always made welcome. Martha it would seem is the older sister and took on the responsibility of maintaining the household. It is she who welcomes Jesus to her home and sets about the tasks needed to see to his and the Disciples' needs. Mary is unusual in many ways. A woman who insinuated herself at Jesus' feet while he was teaching the menfolk in the central courtyard.

The story sets up the iconic Mary and Martha paradox. May I say that as a Martha by nature I side with her in this matter. While Martha slaves away in the kitchen seeing to the preparation of food for at least 30 people, for surely they had servants, Mary shirks her duties as hostess and like a tomboy sits with the menfolk. Martha doesn't think she should get away with this dereliction of duty and appeals to Jesus to abraid her sister on it. We know the famous reply.

I would emphasize that Jesus does not tell Martha she should stop cooking and come sit with him. In fact I blame Lazarus for letting his sister Mary get away with it. If Martha had abandoned her kitchen and joined the menfolk in the courtyard grumbling stomachs and burning odours from the kitchen would have spelled quite a different story. Without the Martha's of this world no volunteer organization could continue to function. Now who would like to defend Mary? Perhaps saying that Martha could very well have left the work to the servants once the tasks were set and joined her sister at Jesus' feet.