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Luke 13:22-30 - Lectionary for Pentecost 11C

8/22/2019

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8/22/19
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 three-year lectionary.

Luke 13:22-30 is a very serious passage. Will there be many or few saved in the last day? Jesus’ answer is a strict warning that deserves credence. Enter now. Don’t wait. It is a narrow door, only open on God’s terms. It is open now but in the last day it will be closed and you won’t be able to enter. 

Who has entered? In verse 28 we find that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets have come into God’s kingdom. Verse 29 says that others from all parts of the world will enter. But those who have despised and rejcted living by faith in Christ will find it too late to enter through the gate.

Verses 26-27 ask the question that those excluded will ask. “Weren’t we with you, part of your people?” The answer of the Lord is that they were not willing to trust him, only to be in his general vicinity. This speaks to those who would use their own wisdom and reason to determine what God’s will is. The patriarchs never did this. They believed God, not themselves. They took God at his word. This is precisely what Jesus is calling his people to do.

Will we believe Jesus when he tells us he is the only one who can save from sin? Will we believe him when he says that we receive his salvation by grace through faith in Chirst? Will we believe him when he says we need to trust him this very day and allow him to change our lives into his image? Will we be ushered through the gate to recline at his table and dine with him? That is my prayer.

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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Hebrews 12:4-29 - Lectionary for Pentecost 11C

8/21/2019

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8/21/19
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 three-year lectionary.

God treats his people as sons. Hebrews 12:5 tells us that very clearly. And the author explains that sons receive discipline from their fathers. The discipline given out by the loving and holy God is the topic of the whole passage.

We fall into a trap when speaking of discipline. We think of it as the equivalent of punishment. “Academic discipline” involves revoking class credit, causing failure of a course, expulsion, or censure. Yet that is not the way the Bible normally uses the concept of discipline. It’s the root of what we would call “discipleship.” By discipline, God means the whole process of being taught to walk through life the way God in Christ intends us to walk. The music teacher disciplines the student by assigning specific exercises to practice. The math teacher disciplines the student by giving exercises that reinforce the concepts that need to be strengthened. The coach disciplines the athletes by having them run back and forth, up and down, jump over things, throw and catch things, and get knocked over. The master painter disciplines students by having them mix the color exactly and apply it with precision. The parent disciplines children by teaching them how we act and think in our family.

Back to our passage? What does the Word of God say? The Hebrews have not yet struggled against sin to the point of having their blood shed in the battle. They flinch in the face of danger. They have not learned to live a fearless life in Christ. Yet God is treating his people as sons, who receive the discipline of a father, learning to act and think like their father. The father’s discipline is given to them very clearly in Christ, God the Son, who faced disbelief, sin, and even death for the sake of those who would otherwise have no hope. Are the Hebrew Christians learning to live as Christ? Are they ready to face even death to tell of the riches of Christ’s forgiving love? Apparently some are not.

We, likewise, are unlikely to find ourselves ready for that test. Of course we hope we are, but we also hope we will never be tested in that manner. Do we believe that Christ gives life in exchange for death? Do we believe that we can walk by faith through this earthly life? Do we believe that God’s purpose is worked out in our everyday activities and that his love for our neighbor is to shine through us? Are we willing to lay down our lives for our families? God is the one treating us as sons, teaching us to live as he lives in the world, doing all of this and more. Our confidence is that in the person and work of Jesus for us, someone has gone before us. We can walk as he walked, depending on the grace of the Father, and knowing that Jesus himself has faced death and conquered it on ourbehalf. We can trust in his righteousness and forgiving grace.

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Psalm 50:1-15 - Lectionary for Pentecost 11C

8/20/2019

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8/20/19
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 three-year lectionary.

In Psalm 50 the very same God who established a sacrificial system seems to speak against it. Based on this, Israel should find themselves asking, “What’s the deal?” There are intricate directives in Scripture, particularly in Leviticus, discussing the kind of sacrifices which are to be made, when and how to do them, and, most importantly, what to expect as the result of an offering. There are sin offerings for intentional sins, unintentional sins, offferings for fellowship, for special occasions, for ceremonial cleansing after illness, all manner of offerings. But here God says that the offerings are not necessary, that they are inferior to “a sacrifice of thanksgiving” (v. 14, ESV). So do we make offerings or not?

At the heart and center of all our difficulty with the sacrificial system is a misunderstanding of the nature of God and of sacrifices. If we try to read the New Testament through the lens of the Old Testament, we run the risk of missing the point of Jesus and his sacrifice for his people. However, if, as the apostles did, we read the Old Testament through the lens of what Jesus said and did, it makes perfect sense. Sacrifices are a sign of God’s work for us. There is a laying down of something precious, which brings us forgiveness and restoration with God. In the Old Testament, all the acts of dedication that God’s people do are actually signs of how God acts toward His people. Who owns the sacrificial animals? God does. He just lets us borrow them. As with the near sacrifice of Isaac, God provides a substitute, who dies for the one guilty of sin before God. In the Old Testament it is normally an animal. The grain offerings are not for sin, they are signs of eating and drinking together before God.

What does God desire in the sacrifices? It is not that he needs the food. It is not that we are actually the rightful and permanent owners of the animals. God’s desire is that we look to him in hope and in faith, recognizing that he is the one who provides restoration and forgiveness. The people are to make sacrifice, but they are to do it looking to God. As they trust in God and call upon him in the times of trouble, he shows himself as their rescuer.

Christians find that the sacrifices have come to an end because Jesus, God the Son, the true lamb of God, has been put to death on their behalf. This means that no further sacrifice is needed. The Christian simply looks to God in thanksgiving for Christ’s finished work to atone for sin. God remains the same. His work of forgiveness is done. The sign now is not the body and blood of a sacrificial animal that God provided to the worshiper, but it is the body and blood of Christ, God the Son, given and shed for the worshiper. This we receive with thanksgiving at the altar, given to us along with Jesus’ words of assurance that he is certainly there for us.

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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Isaiah 66:18-23 - Lectionary for Pentecost 11C

8/19/2019

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8/19/19
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 three-year lectionary.

Christians are sometimes criticized for being exclusive in one way or another. Lately I’ve heard a lot of complaints about a lack of inclusion, meaning inclusion of different ethnic and cultural groups or possibly of those with minority racial or sexual profiles compared to the larger culture. Sometimes those critiques are valid, sometimes they aren’t. No doubt there have been times of tension, and there are many who would say the tensions are more severe now than at some other times in history.

Our Epistle reading from Isaiah 66 can help us understand the exclusivity of the Christian life. It is to be exclusively dedicated to the God of the Bible who has redeemed the world to himself. There’s no question about that. Christianity is not about a particular cultural norm. It’s about the way God has reconciled people to himself through Jesus, God the Son, taking the sin of the world upon himself. 

In the last days, God is planning to gather those who have believed him, out of every nation where they may happen to be, to himself. Isaiah 66 pictures them flocking to Jerusalem, though it seems there are so many people that the city we know as Jerusalem would not be adequately large. He has made these people to be holy, dedicated to him, a purified remnant of the world, set apart for his service. 

God’s gathered people, set apart for His worship, will serve him in holiness through the ages. They come from every age, from every nation, from every culture, from every language. They are unified not by any of those human characteristics which we like to use to sort ourselves. They are gathered in Christ. This is what God’s kingdom on earth should look like as well. Although our earthly communities tend to consist mostly of people who look and act in similar ways, and the local church congregation will probably mirror that to a great extent, it is the relationship with Jesus that matters. He is the one wo gathers us together. 

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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