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John 20:1-2, 10-18 - Lectionary for Mary Magdalene

7/22/2021

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7/22/21
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

There sure are a lot of people named Mary involved in the ministry of Jesus. John's Gospel identifies the Mary known as "Magdalene" as the one who is first to not find Jesus on the first day of the week after the crucifixion. 

Her expectation was that Jesus would be lying in the tomb, dead. Yet she went anyway. In her time of grief, she may have just wanted to look upon him one more time, or to make sure nobody had done anything with the body. The Synoptic Gospels suggest that she was not alone and that they were planning to make sure the burial customs with ointments and spices were completed all the way. 

However it shook out, John wants to be sure we know she went to the tomb, and she arrived there early, before it was light. When she didn't find Jesus, she brought that news to the other disciples.

After some investigation, they went home, but Mary stayed outside the tomb, weeping. She didn't believe the resurrection. She thought Jesus had not only died and remained dead, but that his body had been stolen. This is troubling news indeed.

I wonder if we can rightly appreciate her joy. When Jesus came to her and made himself known to her she realized that he was not only alive, but right there with her. He let Mary be the first eyewitness of the resurrection, and sent her to tell the others. In this sense she was the first evangelist who spoke as a witness to the resurrection.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Mary's message has not changed over the years. She saw the Lord, risen from the dead, perfectly alive. He remains the risen Lord. The message of resurrection is for you and for me, for all people in every generation. It is the message which speaks of the hope all Christians have of rising with their Lord on the last day. 

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Acts 13:26-31 - Lectionary for Mary Magdalene

7/21/2021

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7/21/21
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

The apostle Paul, preaching in Antioch, said something extremely timely for us as well as for those in Antioch. In Acts 13:27 he observed that the people who heard the Scripture read every Sabbath in Jerusalem still didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah.  Because they didn't understand the Scriptures, they condemned Jesus to death.

Our world as a whole is living in darkness. They don't recognize that Jesus is the Messiah. They don't understand the Scriptures or take them into account in their thinking. For this reason, when confronted with ideas which are plainly present in Scripture, such as the reality and gravity of sin, the need for a substitute for sin, and the exclusivity of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, our world takes offense or scoffs at the simple Christian truth.

We miss what is revealed plainly. Our minds are darkened. We are not willing to see the truth.

However, to all who do see the truth, to all who receive the grace of God by faith in Jesus, He gives eternal life and salvation.

Salvation in Christ, as Paul describes it in Acts, is not based on our feelings. It is not a shot in the dark. It is something which God has described in detail through the Law and the Prophets, and which he brings to pass through the historical events surrounding Christ's death and resurrection.

We don't have to guess. Jesus has done what is needed for our salvation. Rather than guessing or hoping, we trust in the true events of Jesus' death and resurrection. They are for you and for me, just as they are for the saints in Antioch.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Psalm 73:23-28 - Lectionary for Mary Magdalene

7/20/2021

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7/20/21
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

We've heard that some people are "so heavenly minded they are no earthly good." While that may seem true, Psalm 73 would say something else. The Psalmist here rejoices that God is holding his right hand, giving him counsel, and will receive him into glory. There's a strong element of being heavenly minded here. Yet what do we  think is meant by receiving counsel from God?

God gives us no counsel about how to conduct our affairs in the heavenly realm. He receives us there and describes what we will be like, but he never once tells us what we need to do. The heavenly places are, in Lutheran terminology, all about Gospel and not at all related to Law. It's all about what God has accomplished, not about what we do.

In fact, God's counsel is for the way we would live in the earthly realm. Would you like to be heavenly minded? That's well and good. But God teaches us how we need to live right here, loving and serving our neighbors diligently, wallking in God's truth.  He tells us how to be good stewards of the planet. He tells us how to do what is good and right in our marriage and family relationships. He tells us how to have a good ethic in our work. He tells us how to care for our greater society, showing his loving care and concern to help the poor, rescue those who are in danger, and nurture those around us so they too can live lives which bring glory to God.

In short, to be heavenly minded is shown through earthly good. Earthly good doesn't make us heavenly minded, but being heavenly minded makes us do good things on earth.

So we receive the counsel of God. And we live this life as those who know what God's priorities and desires are.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Proverbs 31:10-31 - Lectionary for Mary Magdalene

7/19/2021

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7/19/21
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Our reading from Proverbs 31:10-31 is a tall order. Who can find an excellent wife? If she has to fulfill all of these qualities, all the time, the answer is that nobody can find an excellent wife. In fact, there is not going to be any one person who is able to keep up this kind of a life. Is it worthy? Certainly. Should a woman strive to model her life after this woman? No doubt about it. But will that woman face failure? Day after day, yes.

This is a precious wife indeed. She is worth more than many jewels. 

Now many men, faced with this picture, would quickly say, "Just give me the money and I'll keep my own wife, even if she is inferior." In saying this I say nothing against my wife, nor do I criticize the many excellent wives I have known over the years. But if I have a wife who isn't able to run a successful business, who doesn't bring wealth, who doesn't create fine specialty fabrics from raw materials, who doesn't supervise a household of servants, and who actually has to sleep in sometimes, that's fine. I still love her dearly. I wouldn't mind having the jewels instead.

Normally I don't go in for allegorical interpretations of Scripture all that much. I think they can be dangerous. However, I don't see any way of dealing with this passage other than either allegorizing it or using it as bludgeon for the less than perfectly industrious and gifted woman. And I really want to avoid using the Scripture as a club to beat anyone.

In the New Testament quite plainly, and slightly less obviously in the Old Testament, we see God pictured as the husband of Israel, or the husband of the Church. What light does this shed on Proverbs 31? If we look at it in that context, we see that the Proverbs 31 woman is all of God's people, working together. 

As a collective, we are able to do all the things the Proverbs 31 woman does. Not all of us can do all of the work. Sometimes we are strong and sometimes not. My talent and ability runs out, but by God's grace your talent and ability pick up there, or we overlap a little bit. What's the result? God is glorified and the whole family, as the one in the text, is blessed, prosperous, respected, and has no fear of the future.

Who can find an excellent wife? God has found an excellent wife, in the Church. We all get to contribute to this life of prosperity, joy, and delight.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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