Third Sunday After Epiphany

Third Sunday After Epiphany

Mark's Gospel to which we return once again is concise. Last week we marked the calling of the Disciples, this, in verse 14, the start of Christ's preaching of the Good News as he continues to gather followers. So what is this good news: The Kingdom of God. Turn away from your sins, (Repent), and believe. The formula is so simple a child can comprehend it but an adult stumbles over it.

The concept is not new as pointed out by the matched apochryphal story of Jonah. As with us today Jonah is a reluctant prophet. First he attempts to avoid his duty, then he gets mad with God when he fails to carry out the vengeance Jonah was sent to prophesy. Jonah's righteous indignation matches our own. Those miscreants got off too lightly. God's justice and mercy are radically prodigal. Rather than an elephant in the room this story has an even bigger mammal, a whale, and a whale of a tale it is. Just as the disciples and Jonah were called so are we too called to be Christ's body the church on earth.  We can attempt to avoid it but sooner or later the whale will catch up with us.

Our Psalm contains a caution about the distractions of this world. Our prayers unite us with God in the Holy Spirit who is our guide and support.

The Kingdom of God is at hand. Paul preaches an apochraphal eschatology. As we have come to understand it Heaven, The Kingdom of God (of Heaven) is a state of being outside the bonds of time and space. We have been taught to pray for its advancement here on earth:

Mat 6:10  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

And how we do this is summarized in the Great Commission:

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
Mat 28:20  teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Kingdom of God (of Heaven), The

I.    MEANING AND ORIGIN OF THE TERM
1.    Place in the Gospels
2.    “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God”
3.    Relation to the Old Testament (Daniel, etc.)
II.    ITS USE BY JESUS - CONTRAST WITH JEWISH CONCEPTIONS
1.    Current Jewish Opinions
2.    Relation of Jesus to Same
3.    Growing Divergence and Contrast
4.    Prophetic Character of the “Temptation”
5.    Modern “Futuristic” Hypothesis (J. Weiss, Schweitzer)
6.    Weakness of This View
7.    Positive Conceptions of Jesus
III.    THE IDEA IN HISTORY
1.    Apostolic and Post-apostolic Age
2.    Early Christian Centuries
3.    Reformation Period
4.    Later Ideas
IV.    PLACE IN THEOLOGY
1.    Danger of Exaggeration
2.    Elements of Living Power in Idea
LITERATURE
The “kingdom of God” is one of the most remarkable ideas and phrases of all time, having begun to be used very near the beginnings of history and continuing in force down to the present day.

I. Meaning and Origin of the Term
1. Place in the Gospels:
Its use by Jesus is by far its most interesting aspect; for, in the Synoptists, at least, it is His watchword, or a comprehensive term for the whole of His teaching. Of this the ordinary reader of Scripture may hardly be aware, but it becomes evident and significant to the student. Thus, in Mat_4:23, the commencement of the ministry is described in these words, “And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the people”; and, somewhat later, in Luk_8:1, the expansion of His activity is described in the following terms, “And it came to pass soon afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good tidings of the kingdom of God, and with him the twelve.” When the Twelve are sent forth by themselves, the purpose of their mission is, in Luk_9:2, given in these words, “And he sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.” In Mat_13:11, the parables, which formed so large and prominent a portion of His teaching, are denominated collectively “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”; and it will be remembered how many of these commence with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like.”

2. “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God”:
In these quotations, and in others which might easily be adduced, it will be observed that the phrases “the kingdom,” “the kingdom of God,” “the kingdom of heaven” are used interchangeably. The last of the three, “the kingdom of heaven,” is confined to the First Gospel, which does not, however, always make use of it; and it is not certain what may have been the reason for the substitution. The simplest explanation would be that heaven is a name for God, as, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the penitent says, “I have sinned against heaven,” and we ourselves might say, “Heaven forbid!” It is not, however, improbable that the true meaning has to be learned from two petitions of the Lord's Prayer, the one of which is epexegetic of the other, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Here the disciples are instructed to pray that the kingdom of God may come, but this is equivalent to the petition that the will of God may be done on earth; Jesus is, however, aware of a region in the universe where the will of God is at present being perfectly and universally done, and, for reasons not difficult to surmise, He elevates thither the minds and hearts of those who pray. The kingdom of heaven would thus be so entitled because it is already realized there, and is, through prayer and effort, to be transferred thence to this earth.

3. Relation to the Old Testament (Daniel, Etc.):
Although, however, the phrase held this master position in the teaching of Jesus, it was not of His invention. It was employed before Him by John the Baptist, of whom we read, in Mat_3:1 f, “And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Indeed, the phrase is far older; for, on glancing toward the Old Testament, we come at once, in Dan_2:44, to a passage where the young prophet, explaining to the monarch the image of gold, silver, iron and clay, which, in his dream, he had seen shattered by “a stone cut out without hands,” interprets it as a succession of world-kingdoms, destined to be destroyed by “a kingdom of God,” which shall last forever; and, in his famous vision of the “son of man” in Dan_7:14, it is said, “There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”
These passages in Daniel form undoubtedly the proximate source of the phrase; yet the idea which it represents mounts far higher. From the first the Jewish state was governed by laws believed to be derived directly from heaven; and, when the people demanded a king, that they might be like other nations, they were reproached for desiring any king but God Himself. With this sublime conception the actual monarchy was only a compromise, the reigning monarch passing for Yahweh's representative on earth. In David, the man after God's own heart, the compromise was not unsatisfactory; in Solomon it was still tolerable; but in the majority of the kings of both Judah and Israel it was a dismal and disastrous failure. No wonder that the pious sighed and prayed that Yahweh might take to Himself His great power and reign, or that the prophets predicted the coming of a ruler who would be far nearer to God than the actual kings and of whose reign there would be no end. Even when the political kingdom perished and the people were carried away into Babylon, the intelligent and truly religious among them did not cease to cherish the old hope, and the very aspect of the worldpowers then and subsequently menacing them only widened their conceptions of what that kingdom must be which could overcome them all. The return from Babylon seemed a miraculous confirmation of their faith, and it looked as if the day long prayed for were about to dawn. Alas, it proved a day of small things. The era of the Maccabees was only a transitory gleam; in the person of Herod the Great a usurper occupied the throne; and the eagles of the Romans were hovering on the horizon. Still Messianic hopes flourished, and Messianic language filled the mouths of the people.

II. Its Use by Jesus - Contrast with Jewish Conceptions.
1. Current Jewish Opinions:
Schurer, in his History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ (II, 11, 126 ff), has drawn up a kind of Messianic creed, in no fewer than eleven articles, which he believes was extensively diffused at this period. The Sadducees, indeed, had no participation in these dreams, as they would have called them, being absorbed in money-making and courtiership; but the Pharisees cherished them, and the Zealots received their name from the ardor with which they embraced them. The true custodians, however, of these conceptions were the Prosdechomenoi, as they have been called, from what is said of them in the New Testament, that they “waited for the kingdom of God.” To this class belonged such men as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (Luk_23:51), but it is in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke that we are introduced to its most numerous representatives, in the groups surrounding the infant Baptist and the infant Saviour (Luk_2:25, Luk_2:38); and the truest and amplest expression of their sentiments must be sought in the inspired hymns which rose from them on this occasion. The center of their aspirations, as there depicted, is a kingdom of God - not, however, of worldly splendor and force, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; beginning in humility, and passing to exaltation only through the dark valley of contrition.

2. Relation of Jesus to Same:
Such was the circle in which both the Baptist and Jesus were reared and it was out of this atmosphere that the conception of the kingdom of God came into their minds. It has frequently been said that, in making use of this term, Jesus accommodated Himself to the opinions and language of His fellow-countrymen; and there is truth in this, because, in order to secure a footing on the solid earth of history, He had to connect His own activity with the world in which He found Himself. Yet the idea was native to His home and His race, and therefore to Himself; and it is not improbable that He may at first have been unaware of the wide difference between His own thoughts on the subject and those of His contemporaries.

3. Growing Divergence and Contrast:
When, however, He began, in the course of His ministry, to speak of the kingdom of God, it soon became manifest that by Him and by His contemporaries it was used in different senses; and this contrast went on increasing until there was a great gulf fixed between Him and them. The difference cannot better be expressed than by saying, as is done by B. Weiss, that He and they laid the accent on different halves of the phrase, they emphasizing “the kingdom” and He “of God.” They were thinking of the expulsion of the Romans, of a Jewish king and court, and of a world-wide dominion going forth from Mt. Zion; He was thinking of righteousness, holiness and peace, of the doing of the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. So earthly and fantastic were the expectations of the Jewish multitude that He had to escape from their hands when they tried to take Him by force and make Him a king. The authorities never acknowledged the pretensions of One who seemed to them a religious dreamer, and, as they clung to their own conceptions, they grew more and more bitter against One who was turning the most cherished hopes of a nation into ridicule, besides threatening to bring down on them the heavy hand of the Roman. And at last they settled the controversy between Him and them by nailing Him to a tree.

4. Prophetic Character of the “Temptation”:
At one time Jesus had felt the glamor of the popular Messianic ideas, and at all times He must have been under temptation to accommodate His own ideas to the prejudices of those on whose favor His success seemed to be dependent. The struggle of His mind and will with such solicitations is embodied in what is called the Temptation in the Wilderness (Mat_4:1-11). There He was tempted to accept the dominion of the world at the price of compromise with evil; to be a bread-king, giving panem et circenes; and to curry favor with the multitude by some display, like springing from the pinnacle of the temple. The incidents of this scene look like representative samples of a long experience; but they are placed before the commencement of His public activity in order to show that He had already overcome them; and throughout His ministry He may be said to have been continually declaring, as He did in so many words at its close, that His kingdom was not of this world.

5. Modern “Futuristic” Hypothesis (J. Weiss, Schweitzer):
It is very strange that, in spite of this, He should be believed, even by Christian scholars, to have held a purely futuristic and apocalyptic view of the kingdom Himself. He was all the time expecting, it is said, that the heavens would open and the kingdom descend from heaven to earth, a pure and perfect work of God. This is exactly what was expected by the Jewish multitude, as is stated in Luk_19:11; and it is precisely what the authorities believed Him to be anticipating. The controversy between Him and them was as to whether Yahweh would intervene on His behalf or not; and, when no intervention took place, they believed they were justified in condemning Him. The premises being conceded, it is difficult to deny the force of their argument. If Jesus was all the time looking out for an appearance from heaven which never arrived, what better was He than a dreamer of the ghetto?

6. Weakness of This View:
It was by Johannes Weiss that this hypothesis was started in recent times; and it has been worked out by Schweitzer as the final issue of modern speculation on the life of Christ (see his The Quest of the Historical Jesus). But in opposition to it can be quoted not a few sayings of Jesus which indicate that, in His view, the kingdom of God had already begun and was making progress during His earthly ministry, and that it was destined to make progress not by catastrophic and apocalyptic interference with the course of Providence, but, as the grain grows - first the blade, then the ear, after that the full grain in the ear (Mar_4:26-29). Of such sayings the most remarkable is Luk_17:20 f, “And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God cometh, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.” “Observation,” in this quotation, is an astronomical term, denoting exactly such a manifestation in the physical heavens as Jesus is assumed to have been looking for; so that He denies in so many words the expectation attributed to Him by those representatives of modern scholarship.

7. Positive Conceptions of Jesus:
In the nature of the case the kingdom must have been growing from stage to stage during His earthly ministry. He Himself was there, embodying the kingdom in His person; and the circle gathered around Him partook of the blessings of the kingdom. This circle might have grown large enough to be coextensive with the country; and, therefore, Jesus retained the consciousness of being the Messiah, and offered Himself in this character to His fellow-countrymen by the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But the citizens of the kingdom had to enter it one by one, not in a body, as the Jews were expecting. Strait was the gate; it was the narrow gate of repentance. Jesus began by repeating the initial word of the teaching of His forerunner; and He had too much reason to continue repeating it, as the hypocrisy and worldliness of Pharisees and Sadducees called for denunciation from His lips. To the frailties of the publicans and sinners, on the contrary, He showed a strange mildness; but this was because He knew the way of bringing such sinners to His feet to confess their sins themselves. To the penitent He granted pardon, claiming that the Son of man had power on earth to forgive sins. Then followed the exposition of righteousness, of which the Sermon on the Mount is a perfect specimen. Yet it commences with another watchword - that of blessedness, the ingredients of which are set forth in all their comprehensiveness. In the same way, in other passages, He promises “rest” “peace” and the like; and again and again, where He might be expected to employ the term “kingdom of God,” He substitutes “life” or “eternal life.” Such were the blessings He had come into the world to bestow; and the most comprehensive designation for them all was “the kingdom of God.”
It is true, there was always imperfection attaching to the kingdom as realized in His lifetime, because He Himself was not yet made perfect. Steadily, from the commencement of the last stage of His career, He began to speak of His own dying and rising again. To those nearest Him such language was at the time a total mystery; but the day came when His apostles were able to speak of His death and ascension as the crown and glory of His whole career. When His life seemed to be plunging over the precipice, its course was so diverted by the providence of God that, by dying, He became the Redeemer of mankind and, by missing the throne of the Jews, attained to that of the universe, becoming King of kings and Lord of lords.

III. The Idea in History.
1. Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Age:
After the death of Jesus, there soon ensued the destruction of the Jewish state; and then Christianity went forth among the nations, where to have spoken of it as a kingdom of God would have unnecessarily provoked hostility and called forth the accusation of treason against the powers that be. Hence, it made use of other names and let “the kingdom of God” drop. This had commenced even in Holy Scripture, where, in the later books, there is a growing infrequency in the use of the term. This may be alleged as proof that Jesus was being forgotten; but it may only prove that Christianity was then too much alive to be trammeled with words and phrases, even those of the Master, being able at every stage to find new language to express its new experience.

2. Early Christian Centuries:
In the early Christian centuries, “the kingdom of God” was used to designate heaven itself, in which from the first the development of the kingdom was to issue; this, in fact, being not infrequently the meaning of the phrase even in the mouth of Jesus. The Alexandrian thinkers brought back the phrase to designate the rule of God in the conscience of men. Augustine's great work bears a title, De Civitate Dei, which is a translation of our phrase; and to him the kingdom of God was the church, while the world outside of the church was the kingdom of Satan. From the time of Charlemagne there were in the world, side by side, two powers, that of the emperor and that of the pope; and the history of the Middle Ages is the account of the conflict of these two for predominance, each pretending to struggle in the name of God. The approaching termination of this conflict may be seen in Wycliffe's great work De Dominio Divino, this title also being a translation of our phrase.

3. Reformation Period:
During the struggles of the Reformation the battles of the faith were fought out under other watchwords; and it was rather amongsuch sectaries as the Baptists, that names like Fifth Monarchy and Rule of the Saints betrayed recollection of the evangelic phraseology; but how near, then and subsequently, the expression of men's thoughts about authority in church and state came to the language of the Gospels could easily be demonstrated, for example, from the Confessions and Books of Discipline of the Scottish church.

4. Later Ideas:
The very phrase, “the kingdom of God,” reappeared at the close of the Reformation period among the Pietists of Germany, who, as their multiplying benevolent and missionary activities overflowed the narrow boundaries of the church, as it was then understood, spoke of themselves as working for the kingdom of God, and found this more to their taste than working for the church. The vague and humanitarian aspirations of Rationalism sometimes assumed to themselves the same title; but it was by Ritschl and his followers that the phrase was brought back into the very heart of theology. In the system of Ritschl there are two poles - the love of God and the kingdom of God. The love of God enfolds within itself God's purpose for the world, to be realized in time; and this progressive realization is the kingdom of God. It fulfils itself especially in the faithful discharge of the duties of everyone's daily vocation and in the recognition that in the course of Providence all things are working together for good to them that love God.

IV. Place in Theology.
1. Danger of Exageration:
There are those to whom it appears self-evident that what was the leading phrase in the teaching of Jesus must always be the master-word in theology; while others think this to be a return from the spirit to the letter. Even Jesus, it may be claimed, had this phrase imposed upon Him quite as much as He chose it for Himself; and to impose it now on theology would be to entangle the movements of Christian thought with the cerements of the dead.

2. Elements of Living Power in Idea:
This is an interesting controversy, on both sides of which much might be said. But in the phrase “the kingdom of God” there are elements of living power which can never pass away. (1) It expresses the social Power inside of Christianity. A kingdom implies multitude and variety, and, though religion begins with the individual, it must aim at brotherhood, organization and expansion. (2) It expresses loyalty. However much kings and kingdoms may fail to touch the imagination in an age of the world when many countries have become or are becoming republican, the strength to conquer and to endure will always have to be derived from contact with personalities. God is the king of the kingdom of God, and the Son of God is His vicegerent; and without the love of God the Father and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ no progress can be made with the Christianization of the world. (3) It keeps alive the truth, suggested by Jesus in the Lord's Prayer, that the doing of the will of God on earth is the one thing needful. This is the true end of all authority in both church and state, and behind all efforts thus directed there is at work the potency of heaven. (4) It reminds all generations of men that their true home and destiny is heaven. In not a few of our Lord's own sayings, as has been remarked, our phrase is obviously only a name for heaven; and, while His aim was that the kingdom should be established on earth, He always promised to those aiding in its establishment in this world that their efforts would be rewarded in the world to come. The constant recognition of a spiritual and eternal world is one of the unfailing marks of genuine Christianity.

Literature.
See the works on New Testament Theology by Weiss, Beyschlag, Holtzmann, Feine, Schlatter, Weinel, Stevens, Sheldon; and on the Teaching of Jesus by Wendt, Dalman, Bruce; Candlish, The Kingdom of God; Robertson, Regnum Dei; Stalker, The Ethic of Jesus.

Above quoted from E-Sword.net

Epiphany 2

Biblical writers pull no punches. They present life in all its reality warts and all without sugar coating. Why do good parents sometime raise bad offspring. Samuel was under the care of Eli who served the House of the Lord at Shiloh. While Samuel was dedicated to the Lord's service by his mother Hannah from the time of his weaning and served under Eli, Eli's own sons were scoundrels who abused their privileges and came to bad ends. Significant is the fact that Eli treated the boy fairly and accepted God's judgement on his own sons in no way resenting the fact that his own lineage was being superseded.

Psalm 139 sounds like the inspiration for a secular Christmas tune, Santa Claus is Comin to Town but of course it goes further. There is more than a little smacking of predestination in its wording.

The common theme in today's lessons would appear to be the wise use of the freedom that is ours in Christ. Although we are free to choose anything not everything may be good for us. The writer of Corinthians may not have understood Venereal Disease but uses the example of prostitution to express spiritual degradation.

Joh 1:45  Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one whom Moses wrote about in the book of the Law and whom the prophets also wrote about. He is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth."
Joh 1:46  "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," answered Philip.
Joh 1:47  When Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, he said about him, "Here is a real Israelite; there is nothing false in him!"

The word made flesh whose infant birth we celebrated mere weeks ago has grown to manhood and is calling to himself the men who would be his followers and support in the years to come. Just as this infant was born to simple parents in the humblest of circumstances and that birth first announced to illiterate shepherds minding their sheep in the fields so in selecting his disciples he chooses honest simple working-class peasants--men of the people not well-connected leaders or scholars. The number twelve has significance and they were men but certainly their were more than 12 among his followers and though rarely mentioned there were women.

There is a branch of study that looks at what verses in the Gospels  have true historicity. Surely the initial exchange with Nathanial above would rate high among them. Here is a plain-spoken man, a straight-shooter who frankly speaks his mind. A carpenter's son from Nazareth. Nazareth was emphatically on the wrong side of the tracks. But there was a compelling charisma about this man that drew people to him just as it scared the religious leaders of his day for he undercut their authority. What was novel in the 12-year-old who visited the temple was dangerous and threatening in a 30-year-old. 

The Baptism of Our Lord

Having overworked John 1 in recent weeks we revert to the account in Mark 1 for the baptism of Jesus. Chronologically we have jumped 30 years in the life of Christ. Mark supplies no birth narrative but begins his Gospel, for so he terms it, with John the Baptizer to whom comes Jesus to be baptized. In his version the temptation in the wilderness comes after the baptism. The salient point would seem to be:

Mar 1:10  And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him.
Mar 1:11  And there came a voice from Heaven, saying, You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and drove him into the wilderness. The point has been made that this time the voice from Heaven was heard by Jesus alone.

John preached a message of repentence and forgiveness symbolized by baptism by immersion drowning the old sinful self and rising to new life freed of sin by forgiveness. The contrast is made that Jesus brought the indwelling of the Holy Spirit symbolized by a descending dove.

Today we indeed return to the creation story in Genesis where God's Spirit moved across the void and God's Word created the world.

Psalm 29 extolls the power and majesty of God.

Psa 29:11  The LORD gives strength to his people and blesses them with peace.

In the Epistle once more it is re-enforced that John gave a baptism with water, Jesus with the Holy Spirit.

At Jesus' Baptism John may have officiated, but it is God who imbued the Holy Spirit. And so it is when we are baptized.

So we can credit John and Jesus with the Christian Rite of Baptism which in the Lutheran Tradition is tantamount to a naming ceremony performed over  infants presenting them to the congregation of believers. Two weeks ago Jesus parents fulfilled their Jewish Obligations of circumcision and presenting their first-born son at the Temple in Jerusalem.

It strikes me that as the Spiritual home of all Jews visits to the Temple constituted a major economic base for the city of Jerusalem. The system of Temple Taxes, sin offerings, celebratory offerings laid out in the Torah were a major source of income for the Levites who served the Temple. Therefore Jesus’ Gospel of Freedom from the law and the guilt of sin constituted a direct attack on that base.

The Sanhedrin may have coached their attack on Jesus in terms of law and order and good governance plus failure to adhere to Jewish Dogma but in plain terms his message attacked their income freeing the people from the burden it imposed.

Christmas Two

Wisdom 10    15Wisdom rescued the holy and faultless nation of Israel from those who were oppressing them.   16She did this by entering the soul of your servant Moses and opposing cruel kings with her amazing miracles.   17Wisdom rewarded those holy people for their hardships and guided them in a wonderful way, providing shade for them during the day and starlight at night.   18She brought them safely through the Red Seab   19but she drowned their enemies and washed their bodies up on the shore.   20So your obedient people took the possessions of those ungodly people. Then they sang praises to your holy name and praised you for protecting them,   21because Wisdom healed those who could not talk and helped infants to speak clearly.
 
Above the alternate OT Lesson but I will concentrate on John 1 which we have returned to after hearing it read Christmas Day and the third Sunday in Advent.

In spite of the fact of one being Greek and the other Aramaic Genesis and John have identical beginnings and both are creation stories. The Word has the power of creation in both mythologies. In Genesis God created the Universe, in John the Word, God, becomes flesh and dwelt among us in the being of Jesus.

Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4  And God saw the light that it was good. And God divided between the light and the darkness.

Joh 1:4  In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity.
Joh 1:5  And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.

In the Genesis account Adam and Eve appear as sexually active fully-formed adults. Jesus arrives as a newborn poopy drawers and all.

John comes proclaiming the coming of a messiah as had prophets for centuries. Jesus' cousin, older by 6 months declares that though his junior this Messiah came before him because he has always been though now made manifest. Until Jesus presents himself before John for baptism in the Jordan there is no indication of their being aware of one another nor is John ever certain as to his true identity. See:

Mat 11:2  Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples
Mat 11:3  and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?"

Certainly as cousins they knew one another and it is likely they played together as children.

The important point in any case is that:

Joh 1:16  Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another.
Joh 1:17  God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Joh 1:18  No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Christmas One

First Sunday of Christmas

Lev 12:2  "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.
Lev 12:3  And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
Lev 12:4  Then she shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed.
Lev 12:5  But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation. And she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days.
Lev 12:6  "And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering,

And Jesus parents perform the rites and duties a Jewish parent was obligated to observe. Misogny is blatantly apparent in these rubrics.

The most important verses are outside today's OT Lesson:

Isa 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
Isa 61:2  to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
Isa 61:3  to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.

In a nutshell the mission of the Messiah.

We have a Psalm of Praise as in:

Psa 150:6  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

The Epistle lesson makes clear this Messiah's mission to free mankind from the oppression of the law.

And Mary and Joseph bring their son to the temple where they meet Simeon and Anna.

Simeon recites the passage long used in worship as the Nunc Dimitis:

Luk 2:29  Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
Luk 2:30  For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Luk 2:31  Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
Luk 2:32  A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

He also issues a caution:

"This child of yours will cause many people in Israel to fall and others to stand. The child will be like a warning sign. Many people will reject him,
Luk 2:35  and you, Mary, will suffer as though you had been stabbed by a dagger. But all this will show what people are really thinking."

This passage comes as close to any in scripture to documenting Jesus' Childhood which is summed up:

Luk 2:40  The child Jesus grew. He became strong and wise, and God blessed him.

The Nativity

And so we come to the birth the last month has been building toward. Circumstance decreed that it occurred in Bethlehem, the city of David in fulfillment of prophesy. Just as David was anointed while out tending his Father's sheep the announcement is made by angels bursting with joy at the event to poor shepherds out tending their flocks by night.

Isa 9:2  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

This child is born in the meanest of circumstances.

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

The birth as described in Luke is in stark contrast to the magisterial language of Isaiah. Nevertheless the undelying message is loud and clear, this is the Messiah:

Luk 2:11  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Now as then we must not be deceived into thinking that the realm of God is an earthly Kingdom for paradoxically the omnipotent God makes himself manifest as a helpless infant and symbolically his domain is immediately shown to be the poor and under-privileged not the rich and powerful.

Isaiah speaks of freedom from bondage to the Assyrian enslavement of Israel's leaders at his time of writing and an end to warfare and the joy that will bring. What Jesus birth betokened was freedom from bondage to the law and the guilt of sin through its forgiveness. Eternal life in the Kingdom of God to all believers making death irrelevant.

Advent 4

In the context of the Christmas Story time is immutable. Today our Gospel marks the Annunciation which logic decrees would have happened in March. In a few days we celebrate a birth that occurred 2000 years ago but in our hearts and minds is imminent before us. The aspect of God's Nature this child represents has been present in his creation eternally outside time and space.

And what of Mary his mother. Certainly she and Joseph were very special parents but should Mary be accorded any special significance other than as the vessel  that provided the means of the incarnation--the word becoming flesh. Since Biblical writers lived in an extremely chauvinistic time women are rarely mentioned and Mary appears by name in only 3 of the Gospels and never in the Epistles.

Luk 1:32  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
Luk 1:33  And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

The reign of King David was Israel's Golden Age, a time when Israel gained ascendancy and peace and prosperity prevailed. David's was an earthly Kingdom and the verses above echo the OT Lesson in which King David is promised that his Kingdom shall have no end. But whereas David's was an earthly Kingdom his son's was a spiritual one. Just as God declares through Nathan that he needs no physical dwelling place so too the kingdom over which the son reigns dwells in the hearts of men.

Psalm 89 reinforces God's relationship with his servant David and by proxy his caring relationship with all mankind.

Advent 3 2014

Advent 3

1Th 5:16  Rejoice always;
1Th 5:17  pray without ceasing;
1Th 5:18  in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward.
1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit;
1Th 5:20  despise not prophesyings;
1Th 5:21  prove all things; hold fast that which is good;
1Th 5:22  abstain from every form of evil.
1Th 5:23  And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isa 61:2  He has sent me to proclaim That the time has come When the LORD will save his people And defeat their enemies. He has sent me to comfort all who mourn,
Isa 61:3  To give to those who mourn in Zion Joy and gladness instead of grief, A song of praise instead of sorrow. They will be like trees That the LORD himself has planted. They will all do what is right, And God will be praised for what he has done.

John, who in our Gospel is sent to proclaim the word made flesh who dwells among us was born no more than six months before his cousin Jesus.

Mary and Joseph had nine months to plan for this 'blessed event' and yet Mary went into labour on the road to Bethlehem a town already over-crowded with their fellow travelers.

We have but 25 days to ready ourselves to relive this event once more.

Psalm 126 describes the rapture experienced by people returned from captivity. It could just as well describe the joy experienced by parents at the birth of their first child. We experience a similar joy at the birth of our freedom from the guilt of sin and death and the epiphany of the Kingdom of God.

How should we prepare ourselves for the birth of love. Is there a better formula than that provided in our Epistle for today.

Isaiah is seen as prophesying this birth but whereas he saw an earthly messiah, the messiah of the new covenant rules in a spiritual realm that is eternal and independent of time and place. He made glad the heart of Moses and Isaiah and he is about to be born anew in our hearts and minds.

Pentecost 24 Christ the King

At this the end of the Church year we have had a series of lessons looking at end times. We have dealt with the apocalypse and our preparedness  and today we deal with final judgement on this, Christ the King Sunday. First it is important that we remember what we have learned about the Kingdom of God. It is not an earthly kingdom fixed in any particular time and place. Therefore we must look at the prospect of final judgement in that context.

 The old covenant dealt in law. Obedience was rewarded and disobedience punished both on an individual level and on a national one. The freedom granted by the new covenant is subtle. There is a sense in which we prejudge ourselves. If we have not prepared ourselves for life in the Kingdom of God we have condemned ourselves to a future life of exclusion, my idea of hell. If we have embraced the Kingdom in life we will barely notice the transition because like the malefactor on the cross we are already with him in paradice. As the prophet said, Today you are given the choice of Heaven and Hell, choose LIFE.

Pentecost 23

The exploitation of talent is a delicate matter. Many of the world’s greatest artists labored in obscurity during their lifetimes. Overnight sensations typically  report that they worked as unknowns for decades before they were ‘discovered’. The tabloids are cluttered with reports of young sports, pop, and movie stars who handled fame badly. The loss of privacy and the inability to handle sudden wealth weigh heavily on most. It is not good for the male ego to have thousands of woman throwing themselves at you. Hollywood is littered with the graves of child actors who died young due to drugs, alcohol, or  riotous living. The examples of televangelists who became hypnotized by their own personas is legion.

Most of us do not possess the good looks of runway models or are unlikely to be discovered by talent scouts so what does it mean for us to use our God-given talents. How can we best use them to further God’s work on Earth. I am reminded of the Anglican priest who is asked how his son is doing in  college. His response, “Great, he’s an atheist at the moment.” This vignette makes the point that the opposite of faith is not disbelief but apathy and indifference. Faith that is not striving and struggling to find itself is stagnant and dead. Those who know what they believe, who have all the answers have lost faith.

So what does all this mean for the average person? Just because you don’t have the voice of an opera star doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t sing. If we adopt the self-defeatist attitude of the slave with one talent we become the agents of our own failure. No one can succeed without trying. Finally we look to our fellow travellers on this journey for support, this is why we come to church.

Pentecost 22

There are those who subscribe to end of the world scenarios. Many such days of apocalypse have come and gone. In 4.5 billion years one is almost certainly guaranteed--not that we have to be concerned. Nor do I expect men in white robes blowing C-note trumpets to appear in the sky to announce God's final judgement. However we all face the inevitability of our own personal demise at a time and place we have no way of knowing. Today's lessons are about being prepared for that day. That is not to say that we should be like those former southern slaves who sat and waited for their freedom to arrive. In fact we are admonished to be found doing the Lord's work until that fateful day.

Such is Amos' message to us. We should not be seeking the apocalypse, we should just not be found wanting should it arrive. As the Psalmist assures the Lord will deliver the faithful  and  Our Epistle every good thing will come to those who died in the Lord.

The parable of the wedding feast admonishes the faithful to live their lives in faith that no harm can come to them but like Luther, even knowing that the world may end tomorrow planting that cherry tree today. We should never allow fear of tomorrow to paralyse us into inaction today. Whenever the Day of the Lord should arrive we should be found doing his work here on earth.

All Saints Day

As the commentary points out on Sinai Moses acquired commandments/laws. When Jesus  ascended the mount to preach his Sermon he presented not laws but declarative statements most of which run counter to common accepted wisdom.

These texts mark All Saints Day. The Holy Catholic Church has at least 10,000 known official saints, early records being sketchy. A more liberal perspective acknowledges that:

Rom 3:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

All are saints and sinners before God. Today we acknowledge  that as members of Christ's body the church we are as one with the saints of all times in the eternal Kingdom of God. None are better than any other, none can afford a holier then Thou attitude.  Today a list of those who have died in the last year will be read in many parishes but all baptised members of Christ's body the church are members of the list of Saints Eternal. We can take comfort from this holy priesthood and rejoice in the presence of the saints of every time and place and acknowledge our responsibility to continue the work they began and continued. We are one in the spirit.

Reformation

Reformation Sunday

What is truth?

Joh 18:36  Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world."
Joh 18:37  Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."
Joh 18:38  Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, "I find no guilt in him.

Joh 8:31  So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
Joh 8:32  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Freedom is a an illusory term here. Absolute freedom does not exist. The truth offered here is that membership in the Kingdom of God entitles the members of Jesus' body, the church, to freedom from the weight and guilt of sin. Freed from those shackles they are empowered to respond in love; to become Christ's witnesses and the agents of his love on earth.

This is the new covenant alluded to in Jeremiah. God's people are no longer subject to the punishments meted out to breakers of the law, they have internalized the law with a code that is far more restrictive than the letter of the law but being internalized makes them free.

Psa 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psa 46:2  Therefore we will not fear

Our passage from Romans is a very loaded text.

"In Adam we have all been one
One huge rebellious man"

Rom 3:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

So all are saints and sinners. No one has a right to boast even of their humility, for before God all are equal. Justified by Grace through Faith.

Someone called Luther made this the cornerstone of his message.

Pentecost 19

Today's lessons emphasize the duality of our human existance. We are in the world but not of the world. God appoints earthly rulers to bring order to earthly affairs but all are subject to God's heavenly authority and answerable to him for their actions. There is no separation of church and state for all are God's. In earthly matters we are subject to the rulers of this world but all are subject to God's heavenly rule and all will be accountable for their stewardship of the resources given them.

Pentecost 18

Pentecost 18 presents us with the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. In my mind's ear I am hearing the Medical Mission Sisters' singing:
"I cannot come, I cannot come to the Banquet
Don't trouble me now,
I have married a wife, I have bought me a cow."

Interesting that these lessons coinside with Thanksgiving. God is the giver and his people respond. Depending on that response this is a joyful occasion or to the rejected a cause for the gnashing of teeth.

In Isaiah we begin with God's banquet feast on the God's Holy Mountain where God's faithful celebrate and the mighty are put to shame in their ignorance.

Psalm 23 presents us with every good thing if we but trust in the Lord.

And the Epistle:

Php 4:6  In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

Today's Gospel Parable is truly apocalyptic in nature. The banquet is the Kingdom of Heaven and God himself is issuing the invitation which is open to all. The parable is a cautionary tale against complacency. It is not enough to put in an appearance to be seen to be present, one must fully participate or one has spurned the invitation as much as those who pass it up in the first place.

The commentator on Psalm 23 puts it best:

First, that God gives peace in the midst of conflict, life in the shadow of death. Second, the shepherd calls us to follow in a world where God’s mercy is often scorned. Walking in paths of righteousness for the sake of God’s name will put us at odds with the rest of the world.

Pentecost 17

Today's Gospel and OT Lesson concern parables of the vineyard and its landlord. God is the landlord, the Earth is his vineyard, and we its tenants. In the OT context a vengeful God wreaks havoc on his recalcitrant people. In the Gospel he sends his son who is Jesus himself. The passage quoted is from Psa_118:22-23. Psalm 80 and today's Epistle talk of redemption.

Pentecost 16

Today's lessons are not about the authority of the prophets to teach but the ability of their listeners to learn.

I must quote  Nancy Koester:
Are we teachable? Can we change? Can we grow into the image of God in which we are created?

Each text for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost asks these questions. Psalm 25 puts them in the form of a prayer: “Lead me in your truth and teach me.”

The gist of the lesson in Ezekial is that the exilic Israelites should quit blaming their situation on the sins of the past and take responsibility for their present actions.

In the alternate lesson the Israelites quarrel with God and Moses over their thirst.

The lectionary passage Philippians 2:1–13 continues Paul’s preceding recommendations on how followers of Jesus Christ should live.  Again to quote Working Preacher. 

When Christ came to the Temple in today's Gospel he marked the beginning of the end since he here confronted Jewish authority directly and set the seeds for his eventual crucifixion.

It is interesting to note that in the parable neither son comes off as a particularly shining example of Christian obedience. God works through imperfect followers. We should not use our inadequacies as an excuse for not acting.

Pentecost 15

Chapter 19 of Matthew deals with questions of salvation and what one must do to earn it. The simple answer, of course, is that one cannot earn what is freely given. Today's lessons deal with an issue dear to the hearts of the church's faithful members. I have been faithful in attendance at the services of God's House all my life, I have tithed or better and have been a pillar of the congregation; I even have a plaque to confirm it. What then of these johnny come latelys? What did they do to earn salvation, they don't even contribute to the upkeep of the building.

Our adventure begins with the reluctant prophet Jonah whom God sends to Nineveh. Not only does Jonah not want to go to Ninevah, he fears the wrath of its citizens given the message he has been sent to deliver and furthermore he fully believes the people should suffer God's righteous wrath for the iniquity of their lives. When his message achieves the results God desired and God repents his wrath Jonah is annoyed with God and tells him so, then sits and sulks by the city's walls. Why should these people get off scot free when Jonah has lived his entire life in God's service.

The alternate OT Lesson is a passage from Exodus chronicling the Israelite's wanderings in the desert. Why did Moses and Aaron lead them into the wilderness to die of hunger when they could be feasting in the fleshpots of Egypt. When God sends them Manna from Heaven it isn't long before they complain again about the boring nature of this life-giving food.

Psa 145:8  The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

This verse is echoed in all our lessons today.

Php 1:29  For you have been given the privilege of serving Christ, not only by believing in him, but also by suffering for him.
Php 1:30  Now you can take part with me in the battle. It is the same battle you saw me fighting in the past, and as you hear, the one I am fighting still.

The message of the parable in Matthew:
The doling out of God's mercy is not done by Union Scale, it is no closed Union Shop. There is no fairness about it because none of us have 'earned' it. It is a benificence freely given to all to whom it is granted by the Holy Spirit that they believe. Depending on how you look at it God shows no favouritism or he shows all favouritism. There is no special place reserved for those who have laboured all their lives on behalf of God's saving grace save for the joy they have experienced in God's service. In fact the expectation of reward for faithful service could be accounted a sin.

1Co 9:16  I have no right to boast just because I preach the gospel. After all, I am under orders to do so. And how terrible it would be for me if I did not preach the gospel!
1Co 9:17  If I did my work as a matter of free choice, then I could expect to be paid; but I do it as a matter of duty, because God has entrusted me with this task.
1Co 9:18  What pay do I get, then? It is the privilege of preaching the Good News without charging for it, without claiming my rights in my work for the gospel.
1Co 9:19  I am a free man, nobody's slave; but I make myself everybody's slave in order to win as many people as possible.

God's mercy is not fair. Perhaps we should be thankful it is not fair. If it were fair none of us would merit it.

Pentecost 14

Rather obvious today's theme is Forgiveness.

Let's begin with another passage from Matthew we recite every Sunday:

Mat 6:12  Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.

You may use the more obsolete term "trespasses".

The idea is that we cannot free ourselves from the guilt within us and be truly forgiven our sins unless we forgive those sins we observe in others. Unfortunately we can most readily recognize our own peccadilloes in others because they are so familiar to us despite the fact that we manage to be blind to them in our own actions.

Take another example:

2Sa 12:5  David became very angry at the rich man and said, "I swear by the living LORD that the man who did this ought to die!
2Sa 12:6  For having done such a cruel thing, he must pay back four times as much as he took."
2Sa 12:7  "You are that man," Nathan said to David. "And this is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'I made you king of Israel and rescued you from Saul.

Read the rest of this story and note that Nathan traps King David by telling him a parable.

The framers of our pericope chose the story of Joseph and his brothers to associate with today's theme. When their father Israel, (Jacob), dies Joseph's brothers fear reprisals from their brother Joseph for the wrongs they have done him. They have guilty consciences. Despite the fact that Joseph had forgiven them they had not forgiven themselves for their own wrongdoing. Because they still think in terms of revenge they expected their brother would as well.

Two verses stand out in Psalm 103:

Psa 103:8  The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psa 103:13  As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.

Romans raises yet another aspect of the Forgiveness equation:

Mat 7:1  "Judge not, that you be not judged.

Or to put it in more contemporary lexicon, don't sweat the small stuff. At the time the issue was the eating of non-kosher foods. How often do we get caught up in splitting hairs and forget our mission to spread God's love. Is that principle so important that it merits alienating a fellow christian brother.

To come back to Peter's question:

"Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?"

And the answer as far as I'm concerned is that if you 're keeping score you haven't truly forgiven. To be truly forgiven the record has been destroyed. That is what God's forgiveness grants us if we truly repent. If we cannot forgive the faults of others is it because we cannot truly accept the idea that God can forgive them in us? Do we judge others too harshly because we judge ourselves too harshly as well? Or is it that we have not truly repented because we have that secret vice we really don't want to give up?

If, like Joseph's Brothers, we cannot abandon those vengeful sentiments and jealousies then we probably can't accept that God will forgive them in us.

Pentecost 13

Mat 18:15  If one of my followers sins against you, go and point out what was wrong. But do it in private, just between the two of you. If that person listens, you have won back a follower.
Mat 18:16  But if that one refuses to listen, take along one or two others. The Scriptures teach that every complaint must be proven true by two or more witnesses.
Mat 18:17  If the follower refuses to listen to them, report the matter to the church. Anyone who refuses to listen to the church must be treated like an unbeliever or a tax collector.

Whether or not these are statements made by Jesus or placed in his mouth by the writers of Matthew to enhance their authority they are a fundamental means of dealing with disagreements and dissension within any group, the church included. The most reviled possible individual the writer could conceive of was a tax collector. Today the final step in dealing with an obstreperous  individual within the church would be excommunication, a step rarely used within the Lutheran context but an extension of the more primitive practice of shunning in which an individual so sentenced would literally disappear from the view of his neighbours in ancient interdependent societies tantamount to a death sentence. I would discount the translations that refer to Gentiles, but this was written for a Jewish audience.

The advice is very apt pointing out that before approaching others about a complaint the complainant should approach the person who has aggrieved him first one on one, then with witnesses, and finally to a higher authority.

The alternate OT Lesson deals with the institution of Jewish Rite of Passover. A seminal event in Jewish faith.

The lesson from Ezekiel deals with his commission from God to call his people Israel to account. Verse 11 makes it clear that Ezekiel's task is to ensure through his prophesy that Israel turn from their wicked ways for it is not God's purpose to punish but to turn sinners to repentance.

The passage from Psalm 119 reads like one from the book of wisdom. Internalizing the Laws of the Lord sets us free and makes us happy. If we learn to live by them we will delight in them and find comfort in them. Compare with Psalm 23:

Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Romans summarizes the Law of Moses and Jesus more succinct formula.

Today's Gospel ends with this famous addition:

Mat 18:19  Again I say to you that if two of you shall agree on earth as regarding anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by My Father in Heaven.
Mat 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.

Each of us is the sum total of everything that has ever happened to us in life, everything we have experienced, learned, and read. Each of us looks at any experience, teaching or doctrine through the prism of our life's experience. It should come as no shock that everyone of us has their own unique point of view. We are products of our upbringing, our cultural heritage, the language we speak, our work experience, our economic position, our status in the community.

What is important is that we love ourselves, that we feel comfortable within our own skins and right with our God as we conceive him/her. Secondly that all we think and do and say is aimed at doing no harm, indeed doing good to our fellow creatures and the world around us.

Given the scope of possibility for disagreement if two or three agree on anything in God's name who can stop it from happening.

The issue then seems to be obedience to the Law, Authority, and Concord. And the answer seems to be that if we live in unity with our neighbour and do right by them we cannot go very wrong.

However in the very next verse comes the BUT from Peter we will confront next week. How many times must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me.

Garth's Catechism

• Does not give the answers, provides a process for asking the right questions.
• Is not a talisman against evil, but a means of support when bad things happen.
• The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.
• One cannot prove the existence of God, that’s why one needs faith.
• Belief is not intellectual knowledge, it is a spiritual gift.
• There is only one God, but there are many approaches to conceiving him.
• One cannot know God, but one can believe he exists.
• God is in all things and of all creation.
• Heaven is not a place but a state of grace.
• The Kingdom of God is not a place in time or space.
• Prayer is not a shopping list, it is conversation with God.
• God does not need our thanks and praise, it is we who need to give it.
• Sin is anything that separates us from the Love of God.
• Hell is not a place but being separated from God. We create our own hells.
• Faith is granted to individuals but it is lived out in the communion of all believers.
• We meet God in the person of his saints, our fellow believers.
• We cannot earn God’s grace, it is freely given.
• We cannot buy God’s grace through good works or deeds, but our response to redemption will prompt us to express God’s love through acts of love of our own.
• Confession implies regret and a will to turn away from past sins.
• Repentance means turning away from sin, forgiveness means wiping the slate clean, it is not a license to return to former behaviours and do it again.
• Lutherans believe, they are not saved in a one-time act but experience a growing conviction of the Love of God.
• God does not punish us for sinful behaviour, but neither does he proof us from the consequences of our acts and those of our fellow human beings and the forces of nature that surround us.
• Bad things happen to good people, being Christian does not guarantee good health, wealth, or happiness.
• God does not punish our sins, we do that ourselves; nor does he reward good, goodness is its own reward.
• Holding a grudge hurts only the person who poisons his spirit with that hate.
• The Ten Commandments and the Law are a guide for communal living. Breaking them does not constitute sin, sin is what breaking them does to the individual who transgresses them. It is not the act itself that is sinful, it is the intent. Even good things can be done with sinful intent.
• Evil is not incarnate, it is an absence of God’s Love.
• Nothing in creation is inherently evil, evil occurs when good things are put to bad uses.
• Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, an expression of God’s Saving Grace. He is one with God and has existed throughout eternity.
• We express our experience of God’s Love in terms of the Holy Spirit. We are imbued with it in Baptism, Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Some experience God’s Spirit in dreams and others through the appearance of Angels.
• We term that part of us that experiences God as our Soul. It inhabits ever pore of our being and animates our person. We experience it in our fellow beings through their aura, that which animates every living creature. Some extend that to include even inanimate objects
• We can experience God’s Love, but only another human being can express it through healing touch.

Pentecost 12

Today's lessons are about identity and purpose.

Let's begin with the alternative OT Lesson.
Moses was an escape artist from the day of his birth. First he was concealed at birth to escape the ordered extermination of all Hebrew Males; then after growing up in the palace as the adopted son of the Pharaoh's daughter, remember Moses and the Bullrushes?, he rediscovers his Hebrew roots and goes to see his people leading to the killing of an Egyptian overseer; escaping to Midian he finds favour with Jethro the priest and marries his daughter Zipporah; content to mind his father-in-law's sheep and goats he is jerked out of his pastoral existance by the Burning Bush at which point begins the ultimate escape saga--The Exodus.

Moses' was no ordinary family. His older sister Mirian was capable of speaking up to the Crown Princess of Egypt and brazenly deceiving her to save her brother's life. His older brother Aaron was a priest and prophet. Through them the tribe of Levi became identified as the priestly clan. But Moses was a reluctant hero ever filled with feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy. His reticence in public speaking led to Aaron becoming his mouthpiece. However it was the education he received in the palace that gave Moses the tools to lead his people. His inferiority complex and lack of self-confidence was with him throughout his long journey to the promised land. Constantly he complained to God about the Israelites' lack of faith in his leadership and in God's promises. Repeatedly he returned to God for reassurance spending so much time on Mount Sinai that the people rebelled in his absence. The lesson here is that God chooses the people for the job, heroes are made not born.
Jeremiah is another reluctant prophet. He complains that on God's behalf  he has become an outcast among his own people, reviled and isolated. God's reply:

Jer 15:19  Then the LORD told me: Stop talking like a fool! If you turn back to me and speak my message, I will let you be my prophet once again. I hope the people of Judah will accept what you say. But you can ignore their threats, *
Jer 15:20  because I am making you strong, like a bronze wall. They are evil and violent, but when they attack,
Jer 15:21  I will be there to rescue you. I, the LORD, have spoken.

In our Psalm King David shares in self-doubt and asks for reassurance as well.

In Romans the Epistle writer adjures the faithful to be steadfast in that faith, to do God's work among their number, and:

Rom 12:21  Don't let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.

And so we come to the Gospel. It was last Sunday that Peter blurted out his revelation as to Christ's true identity. Today we must face up to the realities involved in that calling. It is that same Peter who would deny that a loving God would require such a sacrifice from his beloved Rabbi to which he receives the rebuke:

Get Thee behind me Satan. You're in my way because you think like everyone else and not like God.

Again, God chose fishermen and peasants, men of the people to be his messengers to the downtrodden. The authorities of the day and those in power and positions of leadership were threatened by his message and feared Jesus' attack on the status quo. It was they who recognized him as a threat to their positions in the community and saw to his conviction and execution. It is this eventuality for which Jesus is preparing his Disciples.

Once more it is to be seen that God uses the raw material at his disposal to attain his ends. These men were not special, it was God's calling that made them special. It should also be obvious that the interpretation in Matthew was written with the benefit of hindsight. At the time those surrounding Jesus would have shared the opinion that Peter spoke up and voiced.

At 33 in his day Jesus was an old man. Most men did not live to be twice that age in his time.  The cynic in me says that Jesus needed to die at the height of his powers, had he lived to reach old age and his dotage his impact would have lost much of its power. Had he avoided the very public arrival in Jerusalem  he might have lived to reach old age. But that was not the purpose for which he was born.

So finally, it is one thing to know intellectially what is necessary. Many are gifted with great intellect and learning. But it is having the faith to act upon that knowledge and the courage to suffer the consequences that makes great leaders.

The Story of Joseph--Alternate OT Lessons Pentecost 2014

The story of Jacob’s son Joseph is pivotal to all Jewish history and creed. For it was he who was instrumental in bringing his father and 11 brothers to Egypt where they eventually fell into slavery necessitating the rise of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt, the wanderings in the Sinai, the giving of the Law and Israel’s rebirth as a monotheist culture.

Jacob was a momma’s boy who followed his scheming mother’s prompting to steal his elder brother’s birthright. The son of his favourite wife, Rachel, Joseph too was a dreamer and a schemer who must have fondly reminded his aging father of his youthful self for he favoured him and showered gifts on him. Possessed of great vanity and self-importance the seventeen-year-old Joseph angered his older brothers who, when Joseph was sent to check up on them, plotted to murder him and take his bloodied long-sleeved coat to his father. Reuben’s scruples could not abide this deed so Joseph was thrown into a dry pit and sold by Judah to traders in Reuben’s absence who in turn traded him to a servant of Pharaoh in Egypt. The torn and bloodied long-sleeved robe was still presented to Jacob. So God uses less than perfect models to attain his ends.

Famine in the Middle East is a recurring theme and when it once more returned the brothers are sent to Egypt where it was rumoured grain was to be gotten. In the intervening years Joseph had ingratiated himself with Pharaoh and was in charge of his granaries. Recognizing his brothers Joseph deals harshly with them and plays tricks on them until they bring his young brother Benjamin to him and after revealing himself has them bring Jacob to Egypt as well.

The story continues with the Israelites settling in the Land of Goshen where they were fruitful and multiplied at a rate that alarmed their Egyptian hosts. They are enslaved, then their male offspring ordered killed to deplete their numbers. And so the story continues having begun in June with Abraham taking Isaac to the mount to offer as sacrifice, a tradition common among his Canaanite neighbours. It would seem that the intent is to parallel the development of Christian traditions and teachings with the similar myths that led to the Judaic tradition.

Understanding that the number 40 stood for a long time and not literally that exact figure looking at a map it seems impossible that the Israelites took more than a year or two to complete their journey to the Promised Land. The trip to Mt Horeb or Sinai for example would following the Biblical record have taken c. 44 days. The one important stipulation was that the trip took long enough for attrition, malnutrition, warfare, and disease to wipe out the generation that had been infected by Egyptian Culture and Religion. Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mt Nebo, only Joshua and Caleb actually made it all the way.

Pentecost 11 August 24, 2014

Today's Gospel forms the basis for the ordination of priests and pastors and the aurthority given them. The Pope is the bishop of St. Peters and is considered part of a lineage that dates back to St. Peter. He wears the shoes of the fisherman.

Peter or Petros means rock thus Mat_16:18 is in part a play on words.

The OT Lesson in Isaiah talks about our roots, the foundations of our faith. Psalm 138 recognizes God as the rock of our salvation.

The Epistle deals with our identity as Christians. We as members of the church are Jesus' body on Earth.

Peter's confession in today's Gospel settles the question of Christ's identity. Bound up in that question and its answer is the reason for the Disciples following this Rabbi and our reason for being members of his church.

Matthew begins his Gospel by placing Jesus in a gealogical lineage that leads back to Abraham, who our OT Lesson establishes as the root of the Nation Israel and the Jewish Faith. Roots are important to Matthew. Jesus lineage traces from Judah, Jacob's eldest son through Obad and Ruth to King David and finally through his Father Joseph who married Mary.

Abraham's covenant with God binds his descendents to keep the Law and the Prophets who define Israel's relationship with their God.

Psalm 138 is a song of praise to the God who keeps that promise.

Romans 12 defines our identity as members of Christ's body the church.

Pentecost 10 Aug 17, 2014

There are entire fields of discussion surrounding what are thought to be the authentic sayings of Jesus in the New Testament and which were placed in his mouth by the authors to give authority to early Christian Teachings. The first written texts did not appear until 300 years after his death and one must remember that most of his disciples were illiterate fishermen. Most would accept that the sermon on the mount for example is a collection of wisdom sayings and not an actual homily delivered in one sitting. One would better believe that the Pharisees and Sadducees came and recorded what they heard in looking for heresies against Talmudic Law. This as prelude to saying that I don't believe that Jesus actually spoke verse 24 & 26 in Matt 15. I find it significant that this appears in Matthew whose writings were aimed specifically at a Jewish audience.

What I find significant in this story is the fact that a Canaanite woman had a greater grasp of who Jesus was and his mission than his own Disciples.

That this is so is borne out by the pairing of today's Old Testament Lesson with this Text which specifically speaks of drawing foreigners into the fold.

Psalm 67 further reinforces the idea:

Psa 67:1  God, be merciful to us and bless us; look on us with kindness,
Psa 67:2  so that the whole world may know your will; so that all nations may know your salvation.
The Epistle is a snippet from Chapter 11 of the letter to the Romans which is addressed specifically to Gentiles though the version and verses quoted do not make this clear.

Which brings us back to the Gospel. To fully understand what is going on here one must go back and start reading at verse 1 of chapter 15.

The Scribes and Pharisees had indeed been recording the sayings and doings of Jesus and his Disciples. In particular they are criticizing them for not adhering to Rabbinical Laws specifically those dealing with cleanliness and the honouring of parents. Modern science might take issue with a literal interpretation of verse 11 but Jesus is not talking about food, infection and cleanliness as such. Rather he is saying that it is not adherence to the letter of the Law that determines righteousness but our intentions which come from within, from the heart as the text reads.

With verse 21 Jesus enters an area outside the Jewish tribal lands and encounters the Canaanite woman. To relate this section to what goes before one must remember that contact with a Gentile and in particular a woman would have violated canon law for an orthodox Jewish Rabbi. What follows is Jesus' recognition that it is the woman's faith and not her ethnic origin that sets her apart.

Pentecost 9, 2014

Be Still and know that I am God

Today's lessons contain one of my favourite passages. Elijah is on the run for his life and has spent the night in hiding in a cave after fasting for forty days and forty nights having come to Mount Horeb. He is commanded to go stand on the mountain before the Lord. As he stands there the Lord passes by with an earth-shattering display of power. First a wind so strong it shatters rocks, then an earthquake, and finally a fire, (volcano?). But the Lord was in none of these. It would seem that Elijah had hid from this wrath in his cave as after when the tumult passes he is engulfed in a state of utter silence. Out of the silence Elijah catches the faintest whisper and emerges from the cave with his face wrapped in his cloak.

How many people do you know that are so uncomfortable within their own skins that they require a constant barrage of background noise be it a radio or other listening device or they feel anxious and disoriented? So many are nervous about encountering the sound of their own thoughts. How many young people are constantly online or in contact via one device or another always texting or listening to i-pods or other noise makers to the point that they can't attend a concert without feeling the overpowering need to tweet about it during the event. Too many have a panic attack when they get a low-battery warning.

Prayer is not a one-sided conversation but if we never turn off the world's cacophony we'll never get a chance to hear God's side of it. As in today's Gospel Jesus frequently felt the need to escape the crowds and even his own Disciples for times of solitude, prayer, and meditation. Meanwhile the Disciples are crossing the Sea in a boat and are beset by a sudden squall and in fear of their lives. Imagine their surprise when Jesus appears calmly walking across the water. Peter walks out on the water to join Jesus but he is distracted by the storm and starts sinking.

As our Epistle and Psalm make clear God is always attentive to the needs and prayers of his people but we cannot experience the peace that comes with his presence unless we tune out the worldly clatter and let him in. It is unimportant how we conceive of that Godly presence so long as we experience the sense of well-being that it brings and respond to it in acts of love toward our fellow creatures and the world in which we live for we too must be "a channel of his peace".

Psa 121:1  A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
Psa 121:2  My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psa 121:3  He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Psa 121:4  Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Psa 121:5  The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
Psa 121:6  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Psa 121:7  The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
Psa 121:8  The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

It sounds so simple, but even Elijah failed in his faith to trust in this promise.

Lessons Pentecost 8 2014 August 3

Today we live in a world overpopulated by a factor of over 7 times its carrying capacity. Even so today's lessons reflect the fact that then as now our biggest concern should be the inequality in the sharing of God's Bounty. The wealth of the world is not shared equally among its people. While so many starve in America hundreds are still paid not to grow food, corn is diverted to the production of Ethanol driving up the price of food, a third of the food produced here is discarded before it reaches a supermarket and at least as much is wasted before it reaches our tables or is thrown out uneaten. The twenty-five richest people on earth have more income than the remaining  7 billion.

Poverty and hunger are a constant theme thoughout the Old and New Testament to such a degree that the Lord's Golden Age is described as one in which every good thing will be showered in abundance and hunger will be unknown. Notwithstanding this in Isaiah the point is made that the bread that God gives is more satisfying than earthly bread.

The Psalm affirms our duty to praise and thank God for his bounty and to be stewards of that bounty in ensuring that it is shared with all.

Today's Epistle is off somewhere in left field which brings us to the Gospel. Jesus renown was a fickle master. In the wake of the murder of John the Baptist he attempts to avoid notice by escaping to 'the wilderness' but the crowds follow him and he heals the sick and then feeds them in today's iconic lesson. This gracious act is a mixed blessing as in a world where food is in short supply the crowds know a good thing when they see it and clamour for more. To escape these demands the disciples are dispatched across the water in a boat and "he went up on the mountain by himself to pray." This need to escape the crowds for quiet meditation is a constant throughout the Gospels.

Although today's lesson demonstrates Christ's concern for the physical well-being of those who came to hear him it is to be remembered that Man does not live by bread alone Mat_4:4. The true bread that Christ brought to the world is the Good News, the Gospel he taught. Were we to truly live by those precepts all the world would be clothed and fed.

Pentecost 7

And so we continue with the homegrown parables. The writers of Matthew had obviously never seen a tobacco seed so fine a tablespoon can plant three acres. We continue our study of Romans and the parables in Matthew. The alternate OT Lesson is the story of how Laban tricked Jacob into working a total of 14 years to obtain the bride he favoured. We won't confront the issue of polygamy which was acceptable in a time when many woman died in childbirth.

In 1 Kings the dream in which God grants Solomon his wish for wisdom is told. Interestingly the pericope omits verses 13 and 14:

1Ki 3:13  I will also give you what you have not asked for: all your life you will have wealth and honor, more than that of any other king.
1Ki 3:14  And if you obey me and keep my laws and commands, as your father David did, I will give you a long life."

The passage excerpted from Psalm 119 glories in the Lord's teaching, wisdom, and laws. Wise are those who follow them.

Rom 8:28  We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.

And so to the parables. The mustard seed tells us that though our efforts may seem small a pebble dropped in a pond makes waves that spread beyond the initial contact. We should think globally but act locally and not despair as to the eventual outcome which is in God's hands.

The leaven disappears within the flour just as our efforts seem to have little effect but the affect of yeast is to leaven the whole. We should not discount our efforts or become discouraged.

The parable of the treasure and the pearl involve “discoveries (that) disrupt normal daily life and priorities; they require risk and sacrifice”.  So too does our investment in the Kingdom of Heaven, it is worth everything.

Finally the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to fisherman emptying their nets of by-catch. We should be mindful of our commitments lest we be found wanting and thrown out with the garbage.

The theme of the day then seems to be that of taking care that we make wise choices, our eternal life rests upon those decisions.

Pentecost 6

The agricultural model is again used to tell a truth about the proclamation of the Gospel. Homilies regarding last week's texts usually revolve around the receptivity of those who hear the Good News to receiving and acting upon it. The ability to have faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit to which some are not open. This week's lessons are about the temptations of this world that distract the hearers and cause them to reject or abandon the cause. Whether or not you want to posit an animate force such as Satan at work here is a matter of choice. In the end the hearer is given free choice and although some of the distractions may be evil and hurtful to the individual and those around him the distractions can just as easily be positive choices that become an obsession and in their pursuit the hearer loses sight of the Good News. Addictions to gambling, alcohol and drugs are obvious evils. The pursuit of pleasure and wealth are less obvious. It is not a sin to have financial security; it is to make it one's sole goal in life to the exclusion of charity and social interaction and welfare.

And so to the lessons which tend to clarify today's theme.

Exo 20:2  I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
Exo 20:3  You are to have no other gods but me.

Exo 34:14  "Do not worship any other god, because I, the LORD, tolerate no rivals.

Or as today's text puts it:

Isa 44:6  The LORD, who rules and protects Israel, the LORD Almighty, has this to say: "I am the first, the last, the only God; there is no other god but me.

Today's alternate OT Text has the story of Jacob's Ladder at Bethel. In it the God of Abraham and Isaac renews his covenant with Jacob.

Psalm 86 is a  prayer asking God's guidance that the petitioner's actions may further God's will and that his way not be distracted by the temptations of this world and that he be impervious to those who would revile him and place temptations before him.

We continue our study of Romans with a passage that counsels us to resist our human natures that would lead us into sinful acts but to cultivate the Holy Spirit in our lives. We should not look upon the Spirit's workings as a constraint upon our lives but as a force for good that brings us the Peace of God and a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.

And so to the parable of the Kingdom of Heaven. The closest most of us come to understanding this allegory would be to think of the lawns surrounding our homes. We plant good seed but dandelions from the neighbourhood get planted there as well. We could spray herbicides that poison our environment, we could start over, or we could spend hours spading out the weeds but the best policy is to provide optimum conditions for the growth of grass so that the weeds not have an opportunity to get a foothold. Or we could enjoy the fruits of an unpolluted environment and make dandelion greens and wine.

Most of the remaining interpretation is straight forward. The Son of Man or his body the church are the sowers and the World is their field. The good seed are those who are receptive to the Word and the Weeds are those who fail to hear or more actively work to subvert the message. Whether or not you conceive of a Satanic Force in opposition to the Word is a matter of choice. The field of eschatology, end times, is quite another matter. The writers of Matthew conceived of a final judgement which would have included resurrection of the body and rewards for the faithful and the casting into the fiery pit of unrepentant sinners. The Bible has numerous apocalyptic passages that purport to describe these end times which usually include a final judgement. Early Christians lived in the expectation of this second coming within their lifetimes. It followed upon their Jewish traditions.

Volumes have been written and could be written on the subject. In brief I believe that Jesus taught that in his baptism we are endowed with the Holy Spirit and become eternal members of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is an eternal spiritual realm outside of human time, space, and experience. Our spirits reside permanently in this realm in common with the saints of every time and place. As members of his body the church we share in the Communion of Saints that ensures our security no matter what should happen.

Pentecost 5, 2014

Joh 1:14  The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son.

This verse takes us back to Christmas Day. At Christmas God, the creative force of the world, entered time and space as a man, the Word made Flesh. The religious leaders of the day felt their authority threatened and had that man crucified leaving it to the priesthood of believers, His body the Church to carry on his ministry of teaching, healing, and spreading the Gospel. Word and Witness.

In a world where food is increasingly equated with a 'Happy Meal' that is pulled out of disposable containers or a frozen dinner popped into the microwave agricultural references have lost a great deal of their impact. Even for those of us who still insist on making our meals from scratch the ingredients magically appear on grocery store shelves and increasingly have been so processed before we buy them that the original source is often hard to identify. Most food we eat has been processed and warehoused and traveled hundreds and thousands of miles before it reaches our tables if we actually sit down to a family meal.

In Isaiah a group of community leaders who have endured Babylonian Captivity are assured that if they return to faithfulness in the God of their Salvation they will be returned to Israel and the Land itself will respond in joy to their return.

The Psalm affirms that those who are faithful to their God and turn from their sinful ways, who rejoice in the Lord and give Him thanks will experience the Lord's bounty:

Psa 65:9  You show your care for the land by sending rain; you make it rich and fertile. You fill the streams with water; you provide the earth with crops. This is how you do it:
Psa 65:10  you send abundant rain on the plowed fields and soak them with water; you soften the soil with showers and cause the young plants to grow.

The alternate OT text is the story of Esau, the hunter selling his birthright to Jacob, the farmer for a bowl of soup. Is the moral of this story the fact that we too often take God's gifts too lightly, for granted?

Our Epistle continues following the letter to the Romans. Jesus, the Word made Flesh supplanted the Law of the Old Testament with the Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sins. Those who repent of their sins enter the spiritual realm, they are given new life by the Holy Spirit.

And so we come to the parable of the Sower. Jesus the Word Made Flesh is both the sower and the seed. His Word is planted in our flesh and it is we who bring forth the fruits of that planting. In turn it is our duty to see to it that the Word is spread and new seed take root.

Pentecost 4

Mat 3:9  And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

There is a feeling of housekeeping about our recent lessons. The Gospels and Epistles are following in a roughly sequential order. Church attendance is not to be considered as the equivalent of a good back rub. It is not a feel good experience to be sat through out of a sense of routine. Our lives as Christians should not fall into a quotidian rut.

A speech-writer supplied John Kennedy with this famous line: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As Christians we should not become complacent in our sense of entitlement.

We have been set free not solely to enjoy the fruits of our good fortune. Our God may be:

Psa 145:8  The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

We have an obligation and a duty:

1Ch 16:34  Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

That duty includes the sharing of our good fortune and the propagation of the Gospel. We must also be ever vigilant in examining our actions to ensure that they serve to further God's work on earth and not hinder it.

You will recognize another passage used in Handel's Messiah in Matthew. Yes, our God is our refuge and strength but this is not to be a pie in the sky by and by kind of theology. We did not become members of Christ's body on earth, the Kingdom of God to escape hell fire and damnation. We responded to God's Love expressed in his Grace to repent from our sinful natures and live lives dedicated to furthering God's purpose on earth.

God's Grace is not a comfortable rocking chair in which to rest our weary bones, but a balm that brings joy which is to be shared. Our confidence in the rock of our salvation should free us from sin, guilt, and earthly worries to live lives dedicated to His Service here on earth.

Do you love me? Feed my Sheep. That food should nourish body, mind, and spirit. God the creator, redeemer and spirit be with us all.

Pentecost 3

Today's lessons are continuations of the texts we studied last Sunday. We continue the theme of Christian responsibility. Indeed the alternate OT Lesson is the passage that has God testing Abraham by requiring that he sacrifice his only first-born son, a custom not that unusual among his neighbours at that time. A rather dramatic test of obedience.

In Jeremiah we have a spat between two prophets. The Babylonian Captivity was seen as God's Judgement on his people Israel for their unfaithfulness. Jeremiah is saying that his rival's prophesy of hope is premature. Only a return to Godly living will redeem Israel.

Psa 89:14  Your kingdom is founded on righteousness and justice; love and faithfulness are shown in all you do.
Psa 89:15  How happy are the people who worship you with songs, who live in the light of your kindness!
Psa 89:16  Because of you they rejoice all day long, and they praise you for your goodness.
Psa 89:17  You give us great victories; in your love you make us triumphant.

The Epistle continues the theme begun last week. We may be justified by faith, but we are sanctified to live lives free from sin. It ends with the famous:

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The passage in Matthew is part of a chapter that begins with the calling of the Disciples. The remainder of the chapter constitutes instructions on how to behave and what to expect when they are sent out as missionaries to spread the Gospel. One can infer that we as Christians also have a responsibility to witness to our Christian Faith.