Category: 2014 Lectionary Ramblings

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

July 13th 2014: Acts 28:17-31

Read Acts 28:17-31 here

“Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”

The Good News of the Gospel is for everyone. The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, the Scriptures tell us, but nevertheless, the victory of Jesus on the Cross, and in the resurrection and the ascension is sufficient, once and for all, to open the offer of life, hope, peace, freedom and a future to all, wherever they come from. Paul preached under guard in Rome after having been arrested, trying to make it clear that there is no limitation on who can hear and respond to the message of the love of God. So it is for us. It is not for us to choose who is allowed in, or to be kept out of Church. God has opened the way for all through Jesus Christ, lavishing the full abundance of His love on the whole world. Let us live in such a way as to make sure that we ourselves put up no barriers between God and man that have already been torn down. Let’s be people of love and peace.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

July 12th 2014: Luke 17:11-19

Read Luke 17:11-19 here

Today’s lectionary reading from the Gospel of Luke is the well-known healing of the ten lepers. “Jesus, Master, have pity on us” say the ten lepers in verse 13, as Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. In this they are acknowledging Jesus’ authority. Were they asking for healing? Attention? Cleansing? Cure? Jesus sends them, quite rightly according to Mosaic law, to show themselves to the Priest, and they are cleaned. But was the purpose of the cleansing mere cleansing? It seems perhaps not. When the one returns, a Samaritan, foreigner, enemy of Israel “loudly giving thanks to God” it is this, and the lack of thanks to God from others, that Jesus remarks upon. We can almost here his shoulders being shrugged as he notes that none of the lepers who may have been Jewish have acknowledged God’s part in their cure. As they are restored to the potential of inclusion in community and life itself, it seems that Jesus intervenes in compassion, but also to draw those who have been cured into a living relationship with God.

A pause for thought: Are we seeking an intervention or an interaction with God just to get past a problem or issue, or are we seeking an ongoing living relationship with God? Are we seeking just to be made how we want to be, using the power of God for our own ends, or are we willing to worship God primarily with our lives?

Jesus can heal or cure anyone who asks if it is the right moment for their healing. Ultimate healing is salvation. We all have weaknesses and sicknesses, most of which we would like to see removed. However this is not all of life, or the whole point of meeting with Jesus. The good that can result from meeting with Jesus is to come into the relationship with God that we were made for.

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

July 11th 2014: Luke 17:1-10

Read Luke 17:1-10 here

Today’s reading is yet another stark message from Jesus. Woe to us if we cause another to stumble. We’re also called to rebuke those who sin against us, but to forgive if those who sin against us turn from what they have previously done which has caused us or the community to stumble. Some of us in Churches are a little too good at rebuking. Others of us are a little too good at appearing to repent, and then proving that our repentance isn’t true repentance, because we continue to live/do/say just what we did before.  We’re called to be a forgiving people, including (especially) being forgiving of ourselves. At the same time, it is our responsibility to seek to do all we can to avoid causing another to stumble. Ultimately forgiveness is God’s and we are to seek His help in living a grace-filled life. We’re not to become puffed up or conceited in our righteousness, our forgivingness or the amount of work we do for the Kingdom. We’re not special because we work for the Kingdom, we’re special because we are called, and known by name from before the foundation of the world, by God. Let us not become puffed up in the success of our Christian life, or despondent about our failures. Let us instead be balanced, and continually thankful in the perspective that the glory is not ours, but God’s.

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings

July 10th 2014: Luke 16:19-end

You can read Luke 16:19-end here

After yesterday’s look at the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, today we find ourselves with the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man. I remember that one of the first sermons I ever preached was on this passage, regarding Heaven and Hell, and it was the first time I came across Surprised by Hope, Tom Wright’s brilliant discussion of the subject. Quite a deep subject to get your preaching start with! There are several things that interest me about this passage. One is that the “destinations” of the Rich Man and Lazarus are denoted as entirely natural. It should not be a surprise that the poor man is at Abraham’s side, and the Rich Man is in torment in Hades. Perhaps a nod to some of the quandary I found myself in yesterday?! Abraham’s comments in verse 25 and 26, explaining the reason for the Rich Man’s repose and suffering in Hades are similarly natural-seeming. This man has given no regard to God during his earthly life and received all his treasure in full. Added to which the gap between Heaven and Hades cannot be covered by any man (except, Jesus, remember it is Jesus telling this story).

The desperation of verse 27, as the Rich Man pleads that his family might be allowed to hear is chilling, as is the answer he receives: they should have all the information they need make the right choice. And then the crux of the whole passage comes…

“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

In the light of what happens at the end of the Gospel account of the life of Jesus, we might be tempted to nod sagely at this point. However I think it’s all too easy for us to take the prophetic voices (whether they be biblical or contemporary) we hear pointing us to make the most of the opportunity for life, hope and peace with God now for granted. I know for myself I have the tendency to seek improvement and influence, happiness and well-being in the here and now, rather than listening to Jesus’ exhortation to live not only for now but with a mind on the things of heaven and the Kingdom. Are we willing to change our priorities so our lives are lived, and appear to be, lives which prioritise the things of God? Will we seek the well-being of others over our own? Will we consider how we use our money, our time, our talents, in a way which speaks loudly the truth in love, to those around us who need to hear it?

Whether Heaven and Hell are as they are described here is not, I believe, the point Jesus is trying to make. In the prophets, in Moses, and ultimately in the life and story of Jesus Himself, we as the Church have the life and hope we need to show those we love the best way to live, now and for eternity. What a challenge that is. What a privilege.

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings

July 9th 2014: Luke 16:1-18

You can read Luke 16:1-18 here

Today’s reading, The Parable of the Shrewd Manager, is a tough one. It isn’t immediately obvious exactly what Jesus is getting at, at least to me, with this parable. I’ve set myself the task of trying to write a few thoughts each day about the lectionary readings for the day based on my initial few readings of the passage, rather than some long, over-considered response. You can read commentaries for that!

It would seem to me that the shrewd/deceitful manager is credited in this passage with gaining for his master, the highest return on his debts possible. As this follows from the parable of the Lost Sheep and then the Parable of the Prodigal Son, I’m left to wonder whether the Master is God, who is willing to forgive some of our debts in order to maintain and develop relationship with us. What do you think as you read this passage?

A key verse here for me is verse 10: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much” Joyful obedience to God in the small things of life is a challenge for all of us. However, we receive more life, hope and freedom than we could possibly earn on our own. God, I believe, is seeking friends and sons/daughters who will be trustworthy in the small things, so that, as they grow in to maturity of faith, tasks which might require a greater degree of trust/faith can be entrusted to them. It is a comfort to me, at least, that God, in Jesus saw chose to relieve the debt I had to Him, and invite me to serve Him in the small things.

What do you think? Have i missed the point altogether? Am I way off the mark? What do you think God has entrusted to you today?

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings

July 8th 2014: Luke 15:11-End

You can read the passage for today here

Following the theme of the joy of God, and Heaven, of each and every person who returns to relationship with the Father, today’s passage is the well-known story of the Prodigal Son. Given what we read yesterday, it is clear (to me at least) that this is a story primarily designed by Jesus to show the posture of God towards those who return to Him – He is waiting with open arms. We could be returning from a long time away, or returning on a daily basis to the source of our life and hope, but just as we are built to worship God and celebrate Him, so He seems to have it in His character to delight in us and celebrate us. There’s also a warning in this passage, for believers who are faithful and don’t wander off the path to the dramatic extent of some others. That warning is to avoid jealousy, to be content, to grow in the awareness of the blessing and privilege that is yours to be given “all that I have”. Don’t seek attention from God (it is already lavished on you) or Church (which is for God’s glory not ours), delight in what you have already, everything God has for you. We can all wish for a dramatic testimony, but the truth of it is that the drama of the Passion, when Jesus fought for and won His victory, is enough. Let’s be thankful for that. Like yesterday, I feel a bit for the other brother in this story. Rhetorically, Jesus, and Luke are, I think, pushing us in that direction. What’s crucial in this story though is that both brothers ended up with the inheritance their father longed to give them.

So, a question or several: do you perceive that you have been brought from darkness to light, or shades of grey? If you think it’s shades of grey, how have you changed since you begun a relationship with God? If you don’t know God, have you ever thought that all of heaven is waiting to rejoice as you return to Him? What does that feel like? If you have returned, are you continuing to grow in the faith and joy of your salvation as you work it out in fear and trembling?

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2014 Lectionary Ramblings

July 7th 2014: Luke 15:1-10

Luke 15:1-10 can be found here

Today’s reading begins with “the Pharisees” complaining that “the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around Jesus”. Notice Luke denotes those gathering around Jesus as “tax collectors and sinners”, a narrative device to get us to sympathise with the Pharisees perhaps? It’s easy for us to jump straight on in this story to the beauty of Jesus seeking after the 1 whilst trusting the safety of the 99 to His Father, for us to be made to feel special as the ones that Jesus would seek for, and we should. What I find fascinating though as I read this today is that one of the things that a lot of us like so much about Jesus, that He associated with sinners, tax collectors and all, was, according to Mosaic law, rightly called in to question by the Pharisees. In a sense they were right to grumble. Jesus was proving that He was unsuitable to be who He claimed to be because of His associations, and yet, ultimately it was these associations and His willingness to die, rise and ascend that gave us hope. I suppose I feel a bit sorry for the Pharisees. They were trying to keep order, and honour God, as they had been taught, and Jesus made it increasingly difficult for them to do so. It is interesting to me that they got close enough to Him to find out what He was doing too.

So, a couple of questions: Are there things about how we live our life of faith that actually hold us back? Are we more interested in doing things right than keeping in step with what God is doing? How are we doing at keeping the balance between growing relationships and honouring tradition?