Matthew 5:17-20 led to a sermon about Jesus' words from the sermon on the mount about fulfillment of the law.
The Old Testament is a bit like an embarrassing relative; we hope it won't say anything too inappropriate. In practice most Christians see some of the "moral" laws (e.g. ten commandments) as still applicable, some such as animal sacrifice as no longer necessary as Jesus has fulfilled them. What about dietary and other "holiness" laws? Our preacher suggested they were designed to teach about cleanliness v uncleanliness, but are no longer needed since Jesus shifted the emphasis to internal purity.
There was no mention of the Council of Jerusalem when it was decided that gentile converts should continue to observe the prohibitions on eating blood or meat containing blood. I think most Christians (including me!) negotiate this away by saying it was a "temporary compromise" designed to bring harmony between Jewish and gentile believers.
The Rich Young Ruler was asking the wrong question: we don't do anything to deserve eternal life - it's all down to what Jesus did.
The two areas that we most have to watch ourselves are sexual morality and use of wealth. We should follow John Wesley's advice -earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
Humility. The Christian walk is not just a ticket to heaven but is about living our lives as best we can in the power of the Holy Spirit. God alone has power and authority and we need to put God where he deserves to be. It is not about beating ourselves up or thinking of ourselves as constant failures, it is about thinking of ourselves less - less of me, more of God.
John 11--God sometimes does (and fails to do) things that leave us confused, angry, and frustrated with him, and that's a normal part of the Christian life. But even in the midst of that upset we still have Jesus--and his character is enough for us to trust him, even when we don't understand him.
We watched the livestream from our previous church, where the sermon was about how we should consider the cross, which gives us life for the world to come. The only reason Jesus came was to die for our sin in our place.
We had a simple retelling of Jesus' Passion from Matthew, as few of our people are likely to make it to Good Friday services--and frankly, we don't feel up to commenting on the crucifixion. So we just retell it.
The Passion is pretty much standard practice in most CofE churches on Palm Sunday. Usually from the gospel of that year’s lectionary, so this year it’s Matthew, next year it will be Mark. On Good Friday, traditionally the Passion is from John’s gospel
Jesus was the Ultimate Servant: he was able to serve God fully because he understood Who his Master was, what his Mission was, and what his Method was.
If we want to serve we have to know the same: know our Master, Mission and Method
On a slightly tangential note, anyone attending the daily Mass at Our Place during Holy Week will have listened to eight sermons by tomorrow lunchtime...and that doesn't include the two short homilies introducing the OT and NT readings at each of the Sunday Masses (FatherInCharge does this every week_.
A bit too much IMHO - I think that, at least on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the words of the liturgy and the words of Scripture should speak for themselves...
East Sunday.
The resurrection was a powerful event - earthquakes etc.
Today often power = weapons of destruction. But not always. Like the power of the Artemis rocket to the moon, the power of the resurrection gives us hope.
Hmm. I found this totally misleading and inadequate.
(It was a baptismal service today - seven baptisms: a lot of visitors.)
The Bible tells God's story - and this story is also Jesus's story.
If we go to the Scriptures they will lead us to Jesus and into Life
A church is where we gather because of the resurrection.
Come and Join us if you are a Christian who believes in the Resurrection
Jesus has won the victory over death, but bad things still happen. This was the case in the time of Jesus - everything had changed, but nothing had changed. We take God's love into the world's situations, knowing that Jesus bears the open wounds of trauma and can understand our pain.
For the original witnesses to the resurrection, life couldn’t go back to what it had been, nor can it for us. We are called to move forward into resurrection and new life.
Our first experience of Breakfast Church at our new place, where the theme is Genesis and the story was Noah's Ark. God wanted to restore things as they had been in Eden by wiping out most of the creatures on earth. It didn't work. That's why we need Jesus.
After the resurrection Jesus sits down with his team and gives a Team Talk to encourage them.
He provides reassurance - all of us have been picked for his team
Grounding in the Scripture
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit
We are on his Team and equipped to meet the challenge of being his witnesses.
As is the C of E custom, our incumbent was taking a break on Low Sunday and preaching / presiding at communion fell to one of our retired clergy who has permission to officiate. For some reason he chose to preach on Psalm 100. I found it to be rather rambling with no clear direction or conclusion. Certainly not one of his better sermons.
Moved to post by a wonderful narrative sermon today (Emmaus Road), a first person offering from Cleopas' wife.
Weaved lots of interesting threads, most memorably for me drawing lines between the meal in the upper room and the meal shared at end of day (the preacher - interestingly and reasonably - conjectured that Mr and Mrs Cleopas were present in the upper room), reflecting movingly on Jesus as host.
Going on after Jesus' disappearance to explore finding Jesus on the margins - even as the Emmaus Road was the margin of all that had gone on in Jerusalem.
God will come to judge all Nations because all have sinned and fall short of his glory.
Dodgy theology and false spirituality will lead to disgraceful behaviour
When God puts his plumb line against us how will we fare?
God is a Holy and Loving God
We tend to overemphasise Love at the expense of Holiness
This is because God's Love makes a demand on God
but Holiness makes a demand on us
This passage, where Jesus says he is the gate for the sheep, has often been read and heard as exclusionary—these “sheep” are “in” and everyone else is “out.” But when read in light of the preceding passage about the man born blind who is eventually driven from the synagogue by the Pharisees and then accepted by Jesus, it becomes clear that Jesus is challenging those who set themselves up as gatekeepers, making clear that he alone is the gatekeeper. And he will keep the gate in a way that is consistent with his desire of abundant life for all.
Jesus in the temple as a youth - what was it like from Mary's perspective? Had Jesus's early life been unexpectedly normal from her point of view - was this the moment when the demands of his unique calling began to become clear?
Yesterday Mrs Gramps and I were at the Synod Assembly Service. Passage was from John used for Good Shepherd Sunday. Preacher spoke about the time she went from West Germany into West Berlin through the corridor in East Germany. She remarked how it seemed the West Berliners were acting like they were celebrating something big that was about to happen. The wall did not come down until four years later, but the West Berliners were already looking forward to the event.
We went back to our previous church last Sunday and the passage was Matthew 10:16-30.
Following Jesus brings difficulties from authorities and from those close to us. We do not need to feel bad about feeling afraid but there is reassurance as God values us highly. If we keep following Jesus we will have eternal life.
False thinking about God can lead us into danger.
God doesn't want our worship if we aren't acting righteously
Are we complacent? - we won't be saved just because we think of ourselves as Christians
Pride is our biggest problem.
We had a visit from the Faith Mission, so naturally the sermon was about how God is disgusted when he looks at us and had to punish Jesus because of it. Oh, and coming very close to saying that the Gerasene Demoniac's condition was due to sin. And it was half an hour long.
An evangelical and evangelistic non-denominational organisation originally founded in Scotland in 1886. My nephew-in-law (if there is such a thing) and his wife were members for some years.
An evangelical and evangelistic non-denominational organisation originally founded in Scotland in 1886. My nephew-in-law (if there is such a thing) and his wife were members for some years.
Non-denominational but drawing heavily on Free Church folk, from what I've seen.
We had a sermon on Paul's letter to the Philippians, How they took a chance on Paul because he had just recently been converted. In some ways, I think the preacher was also referring to himself in that he had just taken the call to our congregation after being without a call the previous two years.
On the Tower of Babel and the day of Pentecost - in the first, the people thought they knew best instead of God, so God confused them; in the second, the languages were different but all understood because it was about the disciples telling people about the new thing in the world. (Yes, I found it convoluted too.)
The most helpful contributions were from the congregation - one a child who pointed out that with translators we can still understand one another, one an adult who pointed out that the different languages illustrate how God is a God of diversity.
On the Tower of Babel and the day of Pentecost - in the first, the people thought they knew best instead of God, so God confused them; in the second, the languages were different but all understood because it was about the disciples telling people about the new thing in the world. (Yes, I found it convoluted too.)
The most helpful contributions were from the congregation - one a child who pointed out that with translators we can still understand one another, one an adult who pointed out that the different languages illustrate how God is a God of diversity.
This got me thinking in a whole new way about the Pentecost story!
When I lived in Kenya, I spoke mediocre Kiswahili and English.
Anyone there who has completed secondary education speaks English as the curriculum is delivered in it. Only the most isolated people groups speak no Kiswahili as it is the universal trade language of East Africa.
But every person in the 42 tribes also speaks their mother tongue and is strongly attached to it- being able to greet people in their mother tongue was really important for relationship building and our Kenyan colleagues always did it as a bridge building exercise in the peace work we were involved in.
So the people hearing the apostles speaking their mother tongues at Pentecost now feels like it could have been imbued with an intimacy and emotion I'd never considered.
Absolutely, and I've preached on this. Everyone present was Jewish or a convert to Judaism, so would have had at least a working knowledge of Hebrew or Aramaic. But the fact that they heard God speaking in their own cherished languages communicated in a much more personal and intimate way.
Everyone present was Jewish or a convert to Judaism, so would have had at least a working knowledge of Hebrew or Aramaic.
Is that true? Would there not have been some proselytes whose faith was entirely rooted in the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew scriptures? Would there not also have been gentiles present, merchants and soldiers, who spoke Greek as a trade language but had little or no Aramaic? It's not like all modern day Jews have a grasp of Hebrew, nor Muslims of Arabic (or indeed Christians historically of Latin, Greek or Church Slavonic).
Absolutely, and I've preached on this. Everyone present was Jewish or a convert to Judaism, so would have had at least a working knowledge of Hebrew or Aramaic. But the fact that they heard God speaking in their own cherished languages communicated in a much more personal and intimate way.
Previously I'd focused on the clarity of understanding that hearing it their own language would have brought rather than the emotional side.
Honestly I've been reading Scripture for decades yet this has landed with such a new depth!
Everyone present was Jewish or a convert to Judaism, so would have had at least a working knowledge of Hebrew or Aramaic.
Is that true? Would there not have been some proselytes whose faith was entirely rooted in the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew scriptures? Would there not also have been gentiles present, merchants and soldiers, who spoke Greek as a trade language but had little or no Aramaic? It's not like all modern day Jews have a grasp of Hebrew, nor Muslims of Arabic (or indeed Christians historically of Latin, Greek or Church Slavonic).
Comments
What is our calling from God? We are all called to go and share God's love wherever we are and are not alone: Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs.
The Old Testament is a bit like an embarrassing relative; we hope it won't say anything too inappropriate. In practice most Christians see some of the "moral" laws (e.g. ten commandments) as still applicable, some such as animal sacrifice as no longer necessary as Jesus has fulfilled them. What about dietary and other "holiness" laws? Our preacher suggested they were designed to teach about cleanliness v uncleanliness, but are no longer needed since Jesus shifted the emphasis to internal purity.
There was no mention of the Council of Jerusalem when it was decided that gentile converts should continue to observe the prohibitions on eating blood or meat containing blood. I think most Christians (including me!) negotiate this away by saying it was a "temporary compromise" designed to bring harmony between Jewish and gentile believers.
The Rich Young Ruler was asking the wrong question: we don't do anything to deserve eternal life - it's all down to what Jesus did.
The two areas that we most have to watch ourselves are sexual morality and use of wealth. We should follow John Wesley's advice -earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
Humility. The Christian walk is not just a ticket to heaven but is about living our lives as best we can in the power of the Holy Spirit. God alone has power and authority and we need to put God where he deserves to be. It is not about beating ourselves up or thinking of ourselves as constant failures, it is about thinking of ourselves less - less of me, more of God.
Jesus was the Ultimate Servant: he was able to serve God fully because he understood Who his Master was, what his Mission was, and what his Method was.
If we want to serve we have to know the same: know our Master, Mission and Method
Jesus rejected violence. We should do the same.
Jesus was keen on forgiveness. We should be too.
A bit too much IMHO - I think that, at least on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the words of the liturgy and the words of Scripture should speak for themselves...
The resurrection was a powerful event - earthquakes etc.
Today often power = weapons of destruction. But not always. Like the power of the Artemis rocket to the moon, the power of the resurrection gives us hope.
Hmm. I found this totally misleading and inadequate.
(It was a baptismal service today - seven baptisms: a lot of visitors.)
The Bible tells God's story - and this story is also Jesus's story.
If we go to the Scriptures they will lead us to Jesus and into Life
A church is where we gather because of the resurrection.
Come and Join us if you are a Christian who believes in the Resurrection
You are my Witnesses.
After the resurrection Jesus sits down with his team and gives a Team Talk to encourage them.
He provides reassurance - all of us have been picked for his team
Grounding in the Scripture
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit
We are on his Team and equipped to meet the challenge of being his witnesses.
Weaved lots of interesting threads, most memorably for me drawing lines between the meal in the upper room and the meal shared at end of day (the preacher - interestingly and reasonably - conjectured that Mr and Mrs Cleopas were present in the upper room), reflecting movingly on Jesus as host.
Going on after Jesus' disappearance to explore finding Jesus on the margins - even as the Emmaus Road was the margin of all that had gone on in Jerusalem.
I cried. In a good way.
Heron
"This is our God: The God of All Nations"
God will come to judge all Nations because all have sinned and fall short of his glory.
Dodgy theology and false spirituality will lead to disgraceful behaviour
When God puts his plumb line against us how will we fare?
God is a Holy and Loving God
We tend to overemphasise Love at the expense of Holiness
This is because God's Love makes a demand on God
but Holiness makes a demand on us
This passage, where Jesus says he is the gate for the sheep, has often been read and heard as exclusionary—these “sheep” are “in” and everyone else is “out.” But when read in light of the preceding passage about the man born blind who is eventually driven from the synagogue by the Pharisees and then accepted by Jesus, it becomes clear that Jesus is challenging those who set themselves up as gatekeepers, making clear that he alone is the gatekeeper. And he will keep the gate in a way that is consistent with his desire of abundant life for all.
Given this is (a) bollocks and (b) borderline antisemitic it rather obscured whatever his point was.
Following Jesus brings difficulties from authorities and from those close to us. We do not need to feel bad about feeling afraid but there is reassurance as God values us highly. If we keep following Jesus we will have eternal life.
False thinking about God can lead us into danger.
God doesn't want our worship if we aren't acting righteously
Are we complacent? - we won't be saved just because we think of ourselves as Christians
Pride is our biggest problem.
Dare I ask exactly what the Faith Mission is?
Non-denominational but drawing heavily on Free Church folk, from what I've seen.
The most helpful contributions were from the congregation - one a child who pointed out that with translators we can still understand one another, one an adult who pointed out that the different languages illustrate how God is a God of diversity.
This got me thinking in a whole new way about the Pentecost story!
When I lived in Kenya, I spoke mediocre Kiswahili and English.
Anyone there who has completed secondary education speaks English as the curriculum is delivered in it. Only the most isolated people groups speak no Kiswahili as it is the universal trade language of East Africa.
But every person in the 42 tribes also speaks their mother tongue and is strongly attached to it- being able to greet people in their mother tongue was really important for relationship building and our Kenyan colleagues always did it as a bridge building exercise in the peace work we were involved in.
So the people hearing the apostles speaking their mother tongues at Pentecost now feels like it could have been imbued with an intimacy and emotion I'd never considered.
Is that true? Would there not have been some proselytes whose faith was entirely rooted in the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew scriptures? Would there not also have been gentiles present, merchants and soldiers, who spoke Greek as a trade language but had little or no Aramaic? It's not like all modern day Jews have a grasp of Hebrew, nor Muslims of Arabic (or indeed Christians historically of Latin, Greek or Church Slavonic).
Previously I'd focused on the clarity of understanding that hearing it their own language would have brought rather than the emotional side.
Honestly I've been reading Scripture for decades yet this has landed with such a new depth!
You may be right ...