11/29/16
The earliest Christians followed a Jewish tradition of pausing to pray, preferably together, first thing in the morning, about mid morning, at noon, about mid afternoon, and in the evening. “Just a Note” posts are brief observations made from Scripture readings not related to a lectionary. If I have one to post, it normally appears about 9:00 in the morning, at “the hour of prayer.”
In John 7:31-36 the tables are turned on Jesus. John portrays Jesus, who routinely takes temporal conversations and makes them eternal, as beginning with an eternal statement. He is going to the one who sent him. The people will seek him and not be able to find him. The people immediately make it a temporal statement. Where is he going? Maybe he is going to be among the Gentiles or the dispersed Jews.
Jesus’ words are very clear. He is going to the one who sent him. He has claimed to be sent by the heavenly Father. He openly claims to be God the Son. He is the one who came from above. That’s where he will return. Yet we are so very unwilling to see.
It seems in our postmodern Western world that we will look to any sort of hope, any sort of savior, as long as it is not Jesus and his historic Christian faith. Our minds have been darkened so that we look everywhere else for an answer to the troubles of life. Lord, have mercy on us. May we have grace to look to you where you have promised to be found, in Word and Sacrament, in the life of your body, the Church.
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.
The earliest Christians followed a Jewish tradition of pausing to pray, preferably together, first thing in the morning, about mid morning, at noon, about mid afternoon, and in the evening. “Just a Note” posts are brief observations made from Scripture readings not related to a lectionary. If I have one to post, it normally appears about 9:00 in the morning, at “the hour of prayer.”
In John 7:31-36 the tables are turned on Jesus. John portrays Jesus, who routinely takes temporal conversations and makes them eternal, as beginning with an eternal statement. He is going to the one who sent him. The people will seek him and not be able to find him. The people immediately make it a temporal statement. Where is he going? Maybe he is going to be among the Gentiles or the dispersed Jews.
Jesus’ words are very clear. He is going to the one who sent him. He has claimed to be sent by the heavenly Father. He openly claims to be God the Son. He is the one who came from above. That’s where he will return. Yet we are so very unwilling to see.
It seems in our postmodern Western world that we will look to any sort of hope, any sort of savior, as long as it is not Jesus and his historic Christian faith. Our minds have been darkened so that we look everywhere else for an answer to the troubles of life. Lord, have mercy on us. May we have grace to look to you where you have promised to be found, in Word and Sacrament, in the life of your body, the Church.
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.
RSS Feed