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Luke 19:1-10 - Lectionary for Pentecost 24 C

10/27/2016

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10/27/16
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.

Our Gospel reading from Luke 19 tells of Zacchaeus. He, so often featured in children’s Bible story books and songs, catches our attention, but for all the wrong reasons. What’s the situation? Zacchaeus is short. He can’t see over the crowds of people. He humbles himself, climbing a tree to see Jesus. This is not a very dignified thing to do. And he’s an important man! A tax agent. He is the kind of person who could order some servants or bodyguards to clear a space so he could see Jesus. For some reason, he prefers to be incognito. From the back of the crowd he climbs a tree to get a view of Jesus.

Jesus recognizes him. This is the big event. Jesus picks him out of a crowd. Jesus’ acknowledgement of Zacchaeus, his self-invitation to dinner, his voluntary plan to sit at peace with Zacchaeus and his associates moves the tax collector.

Zacchaeus doesn’t need anyone to tell him his wrongdoing. He doesn’t need anyone to confront his sin. He has seen it himself, day by day. He does, however, need someone to give him the good news of God’s forgiveness. Here it comes. God himself, God the Son, will sit down to dine with Zacchaeus, the sinful tax collector. The man who was lost has been found.

We also, when we see we are lost, realize that Jesus is the one who has come to seek and save us. He has not left us trying to get a glimpse of his mercy. He has come to dine with 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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2 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 11-12 - Lectionary for Pentecost 24 C

10/26/2016

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10/26/16
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.

Our reading from 2 Thessalonians 1 was addressed to a church body in distress. There were some who were separating themselves from worldly affairs to wait idly for Jesus’ second coming. What does Paul commend in the Thessalonians? Their faith and love are growing. How can he tell? Faith and love are shown through the way we live in this life with one another. Paul sees the Thessalonians living out their faith and love as they endure persecution. He sees them caring for one another despite trouble and distress.

Though they could deny Christ and cause the persecution to stop, by caring for one another as Christians they can be assured that the persecution against them will spread. As long as there is a culture which attacks Christians, it will remain dangerous to show Christian care for anybody, especially for other Christians. What is our response in this world? Are we going to show our love and care for others? Are we going to stand for the truth of Christ in a world which is often hostile toward Christians?

Near the end of the chapter Paul prays that the Thessalonians’ lives would prove worthy of the loving care of God in Christ. They have been redeemed. They have received God’s mercy. Will their lives reflect this? Certainly not perfectly. Yet, as we love and serve our neighbor for Christ’s sake we reflect God’s grace.

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 1:10-18 - Lectionary for Pentecost 24 C

10/25/2016

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10/25/16
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.

Our Old Testament passage for this week is from Isaiah 1:10-18. Here, God condemns the Israelites for bringing sacrifices and celebrating their festivals, times set aside for God. What’s going on with this passage? It can easily be used as a statement against the forms of worship. God doesn’t want us to bring offerings, to make sacrifices, or to celebrate holidays.

The passage doesn’t say that. What it does say is that God is not pleased with the way Israel is worshiping. They have neglected forgiveness. They scorn God’s mercy and grace. They make his sacrifices, feasts, and festivals all about themselves rather than about him.

In this passage, God calls his people to repentance and trust. They are to find all they need in him, not in their own obedience. This does not mean that the people of Israel are not to obey. The sacrifices have not yet been fulfilled in Christ. The eternal rest in Christ is not yet supplied. God’s people still dedicate themselves to him. But that’s just the point. They dedicate themselves to God. It does not go the other way. All our holidays, all our worship, all our devotional life is to point to God’s mercy. It is not about what we do. It’s about who God is. Our role, though we seem to be bringing something to the table, is really to bring ourselves and receive God’s mercy.

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 130 - Lectionary for Pentecost 24 C

10/24/2016

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10/24/16
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.

Psalm 130, the Psalm appointed for this week, portrays the believer in a place of trial. We don’t know what the “depths” might be. Whatever they are, they don’t look pleasant. They are place of sadness, of trial, of mourning, even of despair. Verse three, with its reference to God’s counting of sins, suggests that this is a situation of sin.

We look around ourselves and find fallenness. We are dejected and are told to grasp what is good and pull ourselves up by it. But we’re in a pit we have made by ourselves, with our own sin. We find nothing to hold to but our own ability, and that is what got us here in the first place. What are we to do?

We cry out to God, just as the Psalmist does. We recognize that our Lord has not even counted our sins. He didn’t need to. He knows what we are made of. Yet of his great mercy and grace he lifts us out of the pit and shows us mercy. Life was looking pretty grim. But God is good.

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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    About Throwing Inkwells

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