Lectionary for 3/31/09

Trying to get posts moving again . . . 

Today's readings are Exodus 2.23-3.22 and 

In our Exodus reading we see God's lovingkindness and care for his people.  Look how in today's reading our Lord knows the struggles of his people.  He is mindful of our trials even before we complain.  He has a plan to deliver his people from their trials.  And he works in that plan through human, earthly means, such as Moses, Aaron, and even the Egyptian oppressors who will provide money and clothing for the people of Israel in their departure from Egypt.

As I am writing this I am striving to resurrect this blog.  I've hardly posted recently due to some severe trials which I have been undergoing.  So there's some personal encouragement that I take from reading and reflecting on God's care for his people who are in difficult circumstances.  Sometimes we may be tempted to question whether the Lord is really for us.  Sometimes we may be tempted to question if he knows our trials.  Sometimes we may wonder if the seemingly little means of grace God has provided in our life are adequate.  We would like our Lord to come in majesty and power, wiping out those obstacles and exalting us to his right hand in glory.

Like it or not, God more often works through someone like Moses, a hot-tempered guy with a speech impediment who walks around looking ragged and smelling like sheep.  Come to think of it, maybe he works through someone like each of us.

Lord, may we be your instruments of mercy, grace, and deliverance to your people.  Work in and through us.  Rescue your people.  Show us the riches of your true salvation.

Lectionary for 3/26/09

Hopefully we're back on an even keel after some travel and some illness.

Today's readings are Genesis 45.1-20, 24-28 and Mark 13.1-23.

When Joseph reveals himself to his brothers he makes a bold statement.  Look again at verse 5b (ESV), "God sent me before you to preserve life."  Joseph shows all the signs of forgiving his brothers for their sin against him.  he shows all the signs of understanding that he is an instrument of God's mercy.

We often have instances where people sin against us.  We pay the consequences for someone else's sin.  And we don't like that.  It's wrong.  It's very bad.  Yet it happens time after time.  We look at Joseph and see that his life seemed to be ruined by the sin of his brothers.  But in fact his elevation was prepared by his brothers as well.  God took what was evil and worked it for good in Joseph and in the lives of many others.  This passage of Scripture reminds us that we are to forgive when we are sinned against.  We are to see ourselves as instruments in God's hands accomplishing his purpose.

There are two very important issues I still wish to mention.  First, I look at this passage of Scripture and I say, "Fine, Joseph had years and years to get over the fact that his brothers were trying to get rid of him.  Maybe I can bear a grudge for a while then let it go later."  In fact, we don't know how soon Joseph's attitude changed.  God doesn't tell us.  So we would only be speculating to say it took a long time for Joseph to get over it.  Second, Joseph was not able to look back through history at Jesus, the one who was sinned against and did not retaliate, te one who bore the penalty for Joseph's sin, bringing reconciliation between God and man.

We find ourselves sinned against frequently.  Day after day, we pay the penalty for someone else's sin, whether in a small way by picking up the piece of trash someone threw from a car window into our yard or in a bigger way by having our life changed due to other people's foolish decisions.  When we are tempted to grumble about bearing with other people's weakness and sin, let us look to our Lord and Savior who bore our weakness and sin. 

May the Lord turn our sorrow into rejoicing, our mourning into laughter, our hunger into feasting, as he works in us his purpose and plan.

Lectionary for 3/17/09

Today's readings are Genesis 35.1-29 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Ge.+35.1-29 ) and Mark 9.33-50 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+9.33-50 ).

 

Reading in Mark 9 today I'm struck by how much temptation there is to sin.  My question is whether we add temptation to sin when we enter into interactions with other people.  Do we add it to ourselves?  More importantly, do we add temptation to sin to others?  Of course, we could bind ourselves by a law that says when we are around someone who is tempted to sin we have caused it and we are thus responsible for the sin of others.  That isn't right.  Yet how many times we surely add to people's sin!  Are we impatient?  Do we spur them to grumble and complain?  Do we give people reason to be discontented in some area?  Do we influence people to rebel against the authority God has placed them under? 

 

Lord, it isn't even breakfast time yet.  I've been awake under an hour today.  Yet I see my tendency to sin, my desire to sin, and my ability to spur others in that direction.  I confess that my sin is always before me and that it rises before you as an offense.  Grant your cleansing and forgiveness, your healing and grace.  I pray you will use me this day to spur others to righteousness, not to offense.  Amen.

 

 

Lectionary for 3/16/09

Today's readings are Genesis 29.1-30 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+29.1-30 ) and Mark 9.14-32 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+9.14-32 ).

 

At the very beginning of our reading in Mark today we see that there is an argument going on.  The scribes seem to be arguing either with the disciples or with a crowd of people who are around or with a father who brought a child to Jesus and the disciples.  We don't know the exact content of the argument.  But notice it does not appear to be an argument between the disciples and the father.

 

What kind of arguments happen around the Church?  We are committed to doctrinal purity.  Fine.  Whose version of doctrinal purity?  When there is a controversy, when one group of believers is acting in a way that another group doesn't quite agree with, look how we react.  All too often we over-react in one of two ways.  We may decide that doctrine is a secondary matter so we don't pursue an understanding of Scripture in which we can say one thing is definitively right and another is definitively wrong.  On the other end of the spectrume we may pursue such a rigid theology, making issues in which historically many believing Christians have disagreed and proven their points of view well using Scripture into issues which divide us to the point of proclaiming someone a heretic.

 

What is Jesus' response to the argument which is raging when he arrives?  He heals the child.  End of agrument.  What are those arguments we are going to engage in today?  What happens to those arguments when we see Jesus actively at work, saving and preserving his people? 

 

Lord, work among your people today.  Let us be one in you.  "I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church."  Amen.

Lectionary for 3/13/09

Today's readings are Genesis 24.32-52 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+24.32-52 ), Genesis 24.61-67 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+24.61-67 ), and Mark 8.1-21 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+8.1-21 ).

 

It's fitting, at least to me, that today our reading in Genesis is about Rebekah going to marry Isaac.  If you've been reading this blog for a while you will know that I rarely talk about personal events.  But here's one that fits.  Some time ago a young man contacted me wanting to build a relationship which could ultimately lead  toward marriage with my daughter (who still is my baby girl though she will be 19 soon).  Today my daughter is going to visit with his family for about a week.  I think of how Laban may have felt.  His daughter was going to a family he could trust.  They were part of his clan.  But his little girl was going away from his household.  Instead of marrying someone who lived a mile or two away she was going to a place where he might never see her again (not like my daughter). 

Today it seems popular to bash the idea of arranged marriages and courtship.  In fact, it seems odd to many in our society that anyone would get married at a relatively young age and expect to spend a long adulthood growing together, having children, and centering interests around the family and community.  People seem to want their children to become older, more set in their ways, have time to grow in selfishness and their careers before deciding if they want to settle down in marriage.  And to suggest that parents have any influence in the person someone might marry is almost like suggesting you want to lay seige against the local community college and make it into a prison camp.

Look at the loving way negotiations, for that is what they are, take place over Rebekah.  The trusted slave is sent to bring back a bride.  He trusts that the Lord will provide him with the right bride for his master.  He looks for the woman of appropriate character to match his master, someone who is willing to come, someone who is willing to serve in the family.  He talks with her father and makes the arrangements clear.  The father confirms with his daughter that she wants to get married to this master, living far away.  He gives time for her to be sure.  And when Rebekah gets to her new home the servant points out Isaac, who marries her, loves her, and is comforted by her.  This doesn't sound like some sort of forcible kidnapping or marriage by shotgun.  It sounds much more like the careful and loving intervention of those who are older and more experienced, helping the young people find appropriate marriage partners.

What a good and gentle Lord we have, who draws his people to himself for protection and nurture, for we see that we, the Church, are the bride of Christ.  He has made his purposes clear.  He has called poeple to himself.  We respond in love because he gives us a love for him.  He receives us and cares for us.

 

Lectionary for 3/11/09

Today's readings are Genesis 22.1-19 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+22.1-19 ) and Mark 7.1-23 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+7.1-23 ).

 

There are so many places we could go with today's reading!  I suppose that's true of any day.  But several are jumping out at me.  I think the one I will land on will be the washings that Jesus talks about.  Let's notice a few important issues Jesus brings up in Mark 7.

First, there are lots of different special washings.  The words used here denote special ceremonial purifications, including "baptizing couches."  The terminology isn't just that of getting something wet.  Jesus uses the "baptizein" word, always used in the New Testament to denote a washing with ceremonial importance and effectiveness.  For a sense of contrast, at the Last Supper, when Jesus dunks the piece of bread in the wine, he uses the word "baptein" which does not have that importance, but merely denotes dipping.  But here the emphasis is on washings which do accomplish purification.

What does Jesus say about those washings, special offerings, special prayers?  He says that they are nothing apart from faith.  They are nothing when they are continued in disobedience to God's word.  They are nothing when they are shown by disbelief to be things which don't matter.

God has given us concrete things to do.  He has given us baptism, he has given us communion.  These are mighty sacraments.  They are effective.  They have ceremonial importance and effectiveness.  Yet through our disbelief, through our treating them as something common, through our assumption that they are something we do which is of only symbolic importance or of no importance at all, we defile them.  We make them ineffective.  We show that what comes out of a man is what defiles him.  We bring forth unbelief and therefore are able to make the promise of God have no effect.  Let it never be.

Do you doubt God's forgiving work?  Look to your baptism.  You have been washed, and it was not of yourself.  It was of God's command, according to his promise.  Do you doubt Christ's love for you?  Approach the communion and realize Christ's words that his body and blood are given for you.  This is the reality which our Lord has proclaimed.  It is ours to receive it with thanksgiving and praise.

Lectionary for 3/10/09

Today's readings are Genesis 21.1-21 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+21.1-21 ) and Mark 6.35-56 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+6.35-56 ).

 

How many of us actually understand what the Lord is doing in redeeming the world to himself?  I would observe that none of us understands.  We have in today's readings examples of people who don't understand what God is doing.  Abraham doesn't understand how the care God has lavished on Ishmael fits into the plan, especially now that there is Isaac, the child of promise.  The disciples don't understand that Jesus can and will feed the people who are gathered around him.  They also don't understand Jesus' way of crossing the lake.  The people who flock to Jesus don't understand that he is providing them with what they need eternally.  They like the food so they come.

 

How we are like these people.  Our Lord and Savior is redeeming the world to himself by doing what we don't understand - dying for sin, having people baptized into his name, feeding them true bread and true drink which does not perish.  We substitute our own plans, our ideas of what Jesus must mean, our impressions of which people Jesus really came for and which he did not.  We are stubbornly unwilling to let God's plan be God's plan.

 

Lord, grant us a spirit of repentance.  As you have said, let it be.  May we rejoice in the works of your hands.

 

 

Lectionary for 3/9/09

Today's readings are Genesis 16.1-9 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+16.1-9 ), Genesis 16.15-17.22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+16.15-17.22 ), and Mark 6.1-13 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+6.1-13 ).

 

We read today about God's great care for those who reject him, the people who are not of promise.  See how Ishmael, not the child of promise, is given a promise out of the Lord's great mercy and grace.  This child who was born of strife, born of man's plan to bring an heir rather than God's plan to bring an heir.  He is the child of human striving, bringing salvation by works, not by grace through faith.  Let us however stop and consider for a moment whether we act like children of God's promise or children of man's striving.  Do we in fact try to work out our own salvation?  Do we try to earn sufficient merit to be counted as worthy of God's favor?  Do we even think in our hearts that we are good people and deserving of God's favor in Christ?  Are we like the people Mark talks about, people who take Jesus for granted, who deny his power, his authority, his divinity?  Do we in fact despise and reject him, showing a preference for our own plan and our own goodness?  We confess that this should never be the case but we must realize that it is all to frequently exactly the way we consider our Lord. 

 

What love the Father has shown, that we should be called children of God, adopted according to his promises, not through our own works but by belief in the righteousness of Christ for us.  May we ever live in light of this love, realizing that all else is nothing but God's common grace shed on a sinful world, even the grace he shows to Ishmael, the child of human effort.

 

 

 

Lectionary for 3/3/09

Today's readings are Genesis 711-8.12 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Genesis+7.11-8.12 ) and Mark 3.20-35 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+3.20-35 ).

Two things strike me in today's readings.  First, the ark of safety in which Noah and his family are preserved.  The whole world is taken but Noah, his family, and the animals are left behind, in a vessel which only God can steer, preserved by the hand of God.  Is it any wonder that in historical church building design people sit in the "nave" (Latin for "ship") and look all together toward the area where they celebrate communion with the one who gave himself for the Church?  Is it any wonder that this Church is seen as an ark of safety?  The second thing that strikes me is the high opinion Jesus has of those who believe on him.  Those who believe on him are his mother, his sisters, and his brother.  He will call no man "father" and it appears that Joseph is gone by the time Jesus is an adult.  What an honor to have your Lord and Savior look upon you and call you his brother, his sister, even his mother.  He has brought us into this safe community, gathered in him, as one family.

Lord, guide your people this day.  Continue to give us the perfect safety in life and salvation you have shown us before and which you have promised us.

Lectionary for 3/2/09

Today's readings are Genesis 6.1-7.5 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+6.1-7.5 ) and Mark 3.1-19 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+3.1-19 ).

What is the right time to protect people?  When is the time for healing?  When do we preserve life?  In Mark 3.4 Jesus points out that it is always the right time to heal, preserve life, and do good.  Today's political climate, at least in the United States and apparently in many other parts of the world, values death over life.  Our governments pass legislation which encourages people to end their lives when they are no longer perceived as useful to society.  Our governments would tell us that the unborn do not have human rights, nor do the very young children, the weak, the disabled.  We hear of the ending of human life as a cost-saving measure.  This ought not to be.  It is not time to save money by harming people.  It is always time to save people by doing good.

Lord, I have no idea what opportunities you will place before me today, opportunities to build up or to tear down, to harm or to heal, even to kill or preserve life.  Remind me, Lord, how you, in giving your life so we might life, valued human life.  Give me your heart, your mind, your priorities.  Amen.

Lectionary for 3/1/09

Before entering the reading, as I go through a computer transition in the next couple of weeks I may not be posting as frequently.  I hope we can all keep up with Scripture reading as we work our way through this Lenten season.

Today's readings are Genesis 4.1-26 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+4.1-26 ) and Mark 2.18-28 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+2.18-28 ).

People often ask where all the people came from for these cities which are founded in Genesis 4.  I want to make just a few quick observations.

1)  We need to assume that here, as everywhere, the Bible is not completely exhaustive in its genealogies.  We can assume that Adam and Eve continued having children other than those who are mentioned.

2)  Genetic problems are not always immediately caused by family members marrying one another.  We need to assume that these earliest people married people who were close relatives, as there were not other people to marry

3)  Often when we think of a city we think of a very large number of people.   This was not the typical view throughout antiquity.  Think of a city as a group of a few married couples and their offspring.  As people reach an age when they can marry, considering that people were fruitful as God had ordained, the families and cities grow rapidly.  

4) Recall that a woman will typically bear children for about 20-30 years.  And recall the kind of life spans people seem to have had near the beginning of Genesis.  The life spans were quite long.  This may indicate that the childbearing years were likewise quite a bit longer than they are now.

Once there was not such urgency to populate the world, and as the family trees spread, God instructed people not to marry their closest relatives.  By the end of Adam and Eve's lifetime there was a fairly wide spread of different generations and a wide variety of people to marry.

Once again we see God active in making provision that people could fulfill his command to populate the world.