“Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled…”

 

Saturday, May 27, 2023


Psalm 140

Deuteronomy 5:1-21

Acts 1:15-26


Observances: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; Week of Prayer for Reconciliation – May 27 to June 3


“Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled…”


One of the reasons why God is such a rich object of our worshipful study is because He has so many dimensions. Everything God does is laden with meaning; every piece of fabric of human history is strung together into a beautiful and dense whole. Religious history is filled with people who tried to make a one-to-one connection between an action of God and its meaning, but God just turns around and says “have you also considered this?”


Peter was the wisest theologian who ever lived: he both learnt directly from the mouth of God in Christ, and he had the human experience to back up what was true and what wasn’t. Even he, however, looked at the number of apostles and realised that there had to be twelve, because wasn’t it plain to see, there had to be twelve apostles to represent the twelve tribes of Israel?


One game of cleromancy later and they had their perfect twelve. But then later God decided for Himself who the twelfth would be: Paul, on the road to Damascus, brought into the presence of the risen and ascended Christ and taught all he would need to know to be the twelfth apostle – to the Gentiles.


Even this summary isn’t doing justice to the layers of meaning behind God’s action in these historical events. Look at today’s rendering of the Ten Commandments; it wasn’t that long ago we read the same ten as recorded in the book of Exodus. But note how the reason given for observing the sabbath is different: in Exodus, the Israelites were given a day of rest because God Himself had a day of rest after creating the universe and everything in it. Today, we hear that the Israelites were given a day of rest as confirmation and a reminder that they were once slaves, but now free. One word from God, many different meanings. Layers upon layers of good reasons as to why God does the things that He does.


This is why reading the Bible will never get boring. We have all read these passages a million times. But we didn’t have the life experiences today that we did last time we read them, and so now they have new meaning. Go on, its the weekend – live big, God has given you the day off; you never know what you might discover.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday, September 12, 2022

  Monday, September 12, 2022 Psalm 33 Habakkuk 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:1-14 In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. The lectionary has taken us from the beloved disciple to one of the most beloved of Paul's epistles: Ephesians. Paul must have loved this church very much: we get a sense of his fondness for them and their shared sense of purpose and worship just from the introduction. In what is likely just an introduction to a letter in the style of the ancient Roman world, Paul has managed to squeeze in the entire, wondrous story of God's work of redemption. Paul has framed it the way it ought to be framed: in a pastoral, encouraging tone. He has three main points here (remember, Paul proceeds logically to build up an argument, unlike John who circles around his main point). First: God intended to save us before the world was formed. Think back to the first l
Read more

“Short time or long – I pray to God not only you but all who are listening become like I am, except for these chains.”

  Monday, September 11, 2023 Psalms 28; 29 1 Kings 7:51-8:21 Acts 26:19-32 Observance: Deiniol, bishop (d. 384) “ Short time or long – I pray to God not only you but all who are listening become like I am, except for these chains.” The great many blessings of being under the protection of the blood of the Lamb fill our hearts with joy and peace. To have the Almighty Creator of the universe, the One who sits above the flood, filling the temple of our being with the cloud of His presence is what it truly means to be human. Every day is filled with adventure; every night turns to the rest of the victor. Certainly there are chains: sometimes they are physical chains, the suffering of being a Christian among people who do not love the Lord. Sometimes they are spiritual; the attacks of the powers of the air who try to distract us from the One we love. But they always fall away. Our Rock of Ages always frees us; always brings us out of the pit of despair. A won
Read more

Monday, September 19

  Monday, September 19 Psalm 45 Nahum 1:15-2:9 Ephesians 4:17-28 ...be renewed in the spirit of your minds... It is far too easy to read some of these Pauline lists of virtues and vices and feel like we have gone back to the dark days before the Reformation. The idea that if we behave ourselves then we can call ourselves “good people” is pagan, not Christian. Paul feels very strongly about how Christians behave, he “affirms and insists” upon it. But it is because of what has already happened that we should mind our step, not because of where we are going. Christ's resurrection is many things, but one aspect relevant for Paul's teaching this morning is that it demonstrates to us the radical new reality in which we now live. We too have passed (spiritually) from death to life; therefore, we experience a “renewal of our minds”. Instead of treading water until we die, we live lives. Everything now makes sense: God has spoken, so we have logic. God made us in His im
Read more