The Narrow Path

  Wednesday, October 16, 2024 Psalm 105:1-22 Zechariah 7:1-8:8 1 Peter 1:18-2:3 Observance: Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, bishops and martyrs (d. 1555) Marvellous? (Zechariah 8:6) There are several phrases that, when we see them in the Bible, should make us sit up and pay attention. Anything to do with the “Day of the Lord” is one of them; another is when God speaks about when “they shall be my people and I shall be their God”. This second phrase, which, because of its frequency, risks becoming bland to our hearts, is so tremendously deep and rich in what it speaks of, is nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ. We remember way back in Genesis that God would walk through the Garden of Eden in the cool of the afternoon and speak with Adam and Eve about their day. One can imagine the scene: an enchanted place, a place with no evil, our first parents probably bouncing along, joyfully telling their loving Maker about all the wonderful things they ha

  Tuesday, October 15, 2024 Psalm 104:1-25 Zechariah 6 1 Peter 1:10-17 Observance: Theresa of Avila, teacher (d. 1592) The Priest On His Throne (Zechariah 6:13) Our prophet’s series of visions now come to an end – the most incredible night of his life draws to a close – and what a glorious end it is! This Branch, the coming Messiah, is to be enthroned in the temple as both priest and king. No mere human could ever hold both titles; there has always been some degree of separation between church and state. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of heaven and earth, the Incarnate one who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, is worthy and able to sit on this throne of thrones. The promise towards, and aspiration of, all of God’s people has been for a government that loves God. How exactly we are to work this out has been an ongoing effort; our current phase of this effort is a pretty poor one, however. A separation of church and state that

     Give It Away ... And Follow Me 21 st Sunday After Pentecost Hebrews 4:14-16 Mark 10:21 It is truly wonderful to be able to preach at a baptism. Very soon, our priest will take our two newest saints, baptise them in the name of the living God, and heaven will thunder with the sound of the angels rejoicing over these precious little lambs. Baptism holds so much for what it means for us to be brought close to God. Our second reading from the letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus as our “great high priest”. This is one of three titles given to him in this letter: the full, threefold position Jesus holds is prophet, priest and king. As prophet, Jesus speaks the words of God; he speaks for God; he speaks as God. As king, Jesus governs the church with spiritual prosperity and protection. And as priest, Jesus brings us to God, and God to us. In the years before Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth, a priest had a full-time job making sure everything was just right, s

  Monday, October 14, 2024 Psalms 108; 109:20-30 Zechariah 4:8-5:11 1 Peter 1:1-9 For All To See (Zechariah 5:1) As we get further into these visions of Zechariah, one cannot help but feel the same sense of overwhelming confusion one gets when reading through the book of Revelation. Something very profound is being communicated to us here, and God has spoken through Zechariah to us in the form of visions, rather than propositional statements. In our lectionary reading we have been given two visions: a flying scroll, and a basket being carried by winged women. Perhaps in three years’ time, when this reading comes back around again, we can look at the basket. Today, though, lets look at the scroll. This picture of a flying scroll reminds me of those planes that sometimes fly around with a banner behind them, or perhaps of those sky-writing planes. Big letters, up in the sky, for all to see. If you are an advertiser and want to get your message out, then writ

  Saturday, October 12, 2024 Psalms 99; 100 Zechariah 3:1-4:7 Philemon 15-25 Observance: Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer, England (d. 1845) Given A Place Among Them (Zechariah 3:7) This must have been quite a night for young Zechariah: these visions are coming thick and fast. God opened the evening with the vision of the horsemen, reassuring him the love God has for the people. Now God is starting to get more specific – well, as specific as apocalyptic literature can get – and Jesus is beginning to become clearer and clearer. Joshua is the name of the current high priest, and his clothes are filthy. This is no way to be dressed before the Lord of creation! But, just as God gave Adam and Eve clothes of animal skin, and this high priest clean clothes of religious office, God has taken away our filthiness and dressed us in the pure linen of the saints. God did not have to do this for us. But (have we got the message yet?) God’s love for us burns so bright th

  Friday, October 11, 2024 Psalms 95; 96 Zechariah 1:18-2:13 Philemon 1-14 A Wall Of Fire (Zechariah 2:5) At the risk of jumping ahead in the historical narrative, we’ve got to touch on the fact that at some point soon we will be considering the fact that the people will be rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Yes, for now, we are with Haggai and Zechariah, who just want to see the temple over and done with. There has been enough prevarication already; get the worship back on track, then we can worry about everything else. But this point of history is dripping with spiritual messaging. We are in the second-last book of the Old Testament, almost at the budding point before everything is fulfilled in the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And so while these returned exiles are being roused to finish the temple, they will then have to rebuild the walls, and then those will both come crashing down again in the future. But we will then finally understand this has all been a s

  Thursday, October 10, 2024 Psalms 92; 93 Zechariah 1:1-17 Colossians 4:7-18 Returning To The Lord, The Lord Returning (Zechariah 1:3) Things are really starting to rev up as we get closer to rebuilding the city walls. Haggai, the old man who had seen the before and after effects of the exile, is joined by Zechariah, a young man born during the exile, in Babylon. Both men have been given words by God to speak to the people to encourage them to get to work. While Haggai’s words were more appropriate to a man of years, full of wisdom and careful consideration, Zechariah is brimming with youthful eagerness, wanting to soak up as much as he can from the experience of his forefathers, so as to do as good a job as possible in his own generation. Haggai knows about patiently waiting on the Lord; Zechariah wants to learn for himself. Zechariah is going to receive several visions all in the one night. Today we read about the first. And they all fall under the on

  Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost [Ordinary 24] September 15, 2024 James 2:22-23 Scripture Promises, Faith Saves, Works Prove Once upon a time, the phrase “faith without works is dead” could have you burnt at the stake. You could be agreeing with it, or you could be contending against it – either way, it got people’s backs up. Because of this line, Martin Luther famously denounced the entire book of the letter of St James as “an epistle of straw”; having spent the first part of his life trying to earn God’s favour by crawling up cathedral steps on his knees, he later decided it was more helpful to realise that God loved him. (More helpful for both his soul and his knees.) That era of Christian history we call the Reformation was defined by the debate over how we are made right with God. Or, to use the language of St James, how one can be a “friend of God”. It was an era of slogans. The great Reformer slogan grab-bag consisted of what is called the five solas (the L

  Wednesday, October 9, 2024 Psalm 89:39-53 Haggai 2:10-23 Colossians 3:18-4:6 The Lord’s Signet Ring (Haggai 2:23) Yes, the Lord has brought the people back home. Yes, they will listen to the encouragement to get to work. Yes, the temple will be rebuilt. Yes, the Lord has promised that “from this day on, I will bless you”. Yet one cannot shake off this sense of uneasy tension sitting somewhere in the background. The day of the Lord is yet to come – this is apparent because God is still speaking as if it is somewhere in the future. When the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians, it was not the day of the Lord. When the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians, that was not the day of the Lord either. When the exiles returned, the day of the Lord had still not yet come. Everything seems like things are puttering along nicely, but there is still a greater fulfilment out there somewhere. God has not yet finished his grand plan for creation. One wonders how

  Tuesday, October 8, 2024 Psalm 89:1-18 Haggai 1:12-2:9 Colossians 3:12-17 Greater Glory (Haggai 2:9) Today’s passage seems confusing. This new temple that the people are building is, objectively, less spectacular than the original. Everyone knows it; it is not exactly a silent elephant in the room. Even God points it out: “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” (Hag 2:3) And yet, God then turns around and tells everyone that it will be more glorious than the first. To be told to ignore what is in front of your eyes and obvious and pretend that it is something that it is not is blind faith. Blind faith is not the type of faith the Bible teaches. Something more must be going on here. Fortunately for us, we have an interpretation of this passage that we can trust, because it is quoted and exegeted in the letter to the Hebrews. The letter to the Hebrews is all about how

  Monday, October 7, 2024 Psalm 90 Haggai 1:1-11 Colossians 3:1-11 Give Careful Thought (Haggai 1:5) We take another short interlude away from the historical narrative of the rebuilding work in Jerusalem, but it is not to go very far. Haggai, as we discover in the opening lines, was there on the ground with the returned exiles. He was among the people making a great noise when the foundation stone was laid; he may have even been part of the original group of exiles. Having been discouraged by the surrounding pagans and their dibber-dobbing to the king, the people have laid down their tools. Haggai steps in, filled with the Holy Spirit, and encourages everyone to get back to work, in some of the most kindly words ever spoken by a prophet: “give careful thought to your ways”. The people have been working very hard at certain things, but have not reaped any rewards as a result. (And as a side note, can we bring back the phrase “earning wages, only to put them in pu

  Saturday, October 5, 2024 Psalms 82; 84 Ezra 4:11-5:2 Colossians 2:16-23 Troublesome To Kings (Ezra 4:15) It is true that Jerusalem is a rebellious city. We have spent the last few months reading through in excruciating detail the depth of their rebellion. But that rebellion was primarily against God, not a rebellion against any king of the Trans-Euphrates. Yet in spite of that rebellion, God is bringing the people back to rebuild the city and the purpose of the city, the temple. What this all boils down to is the question: who is our king? And a follow up: how does he expect his subjects to behave? Both saints Paul and Peter have some words about the Christian citizen. Romans 13:1-6 is a famous example, exhorting us to submission to governing authorities. 1 Peter 2:13-17 is another, also using that shuddering word “submission”. What we learn from the example in Ezra, through the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and exegeted by his apostles,

  Friday, October 4, 2024 Psalm 80 Ezra 3:9-4:6 Colossians 2:8-15 Observance: Francis of Assisi, friar and preacher (d. 1226) So Much Noise (Ezra 3:13) Recently at our church our rector decided to shift us into the 20 th century and say the Angelus in modern English. It’s not that we are opposed to a decent “thee” or “thou”, but each service has it’s own “feel”, and it just fits better this way. Even so, our choir still is only about fifty-fifty when it comes to whether the angel declared “to” or declared “unto” Mary, and once you’ve started with the older version you’re committed for the whole thing. When the returned exiles got to work rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, there was a great noise when the foundation stone was laid. The younger generation were overjoyed – they had heard all the stories and legends from their parents and, hope beyond hope, they were to be the first generation of the new temple. Meanwhile, their parents, having known the s

  Thursday, October 3, 2024 Psalm 78:16-38 Ezra 2:64-3:8 Colossians 2:1-7 As One Man (Ezra 3:1) The people of God have been freed from exile and returned to their homeland. Having been given a little time to go back to their ancestral towns and settle in, they now assemble in the holy city of Jerusalem. The whole purpose of this exercise, as explained by God and repeated by Cyrus, is so that they may rebuild the temple and resume worship. To have such a vast number of people assemble “as one man” is very impressive. I wonder if there is anything these days that could have the same number of Australians gather together in solid commitment to a common purpose. But these returned exiles have had a poor time of things; while many of them lived in material luxury under the Babylonians, there was also much spiritual persecution (just look at Daniel’s experience). Do we have a similar situation today? To live in Australia means to be the wealthiest of our class

  Wednesday, October 2, 2024 Psalm 77 Ezra 1 Colossians 1:21-29 Let Him Go (Ezra 1:3) A few weeks ago we ended the books of Chronicles and moved through some more of the minor prophets. Now we return to pick up where we left off; Chronicles ended with the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, but hinted at a future ruler who would restore the holy city. Babylon now is no more; the Persian empire is in ascendance, and their king, Cyrus, has reversed certain Babylonian policies as regards religious freedom. Where the Babylonians (and the Assyrians before them) would ransack the temples of local deities and carry off anything not nailed down, the Persians tried out something novel: they would let the locals worship their own gods. As we read, this is all because God has turned the heart of Cyrus – indeed, God planned for Cyrus to rule this way before Cyrus was even born (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1) – and it is the means by which God will bring the exiles home in order that they