Sunday 21 August 2011

Israel, Egypt and the Lectionary

 So the new ruler of Egypt looked at Israel and saw in them a threat and decide to act against them before they became a threat. Of course this account tells of the increase of the Jews, the end of Joseph's era and the birth, and adoption, of Moses. But how interesting it is that on a day when the news focuses upon the rift between Egypt and Israel that we find this account.

Surely we must pray for Israel that God would indeed set His people free:
Free from the knee-jerk responses that see innocents killed,
Free from the secular state that causes so many good people to support what God surely couldn't,
Free to be a nation, not individuals within it who keep God's Laws and honour Him with their lips and their lives.

Psalm 124
If the LORD had not been on our side, let Israel now say;
If the LORD had not been on our side, when enemies rose up against us;
Then would they have swallowed us up alive in their fierce anger toward us;
Then would the waters have overwhelmed us and the torrent gone over us;
Then would the raging waters have gone right over us.
Blessed be the LORD! he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
Our help is in the Name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.
Amen

Paul tells us:
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Once again we are called to live counter-culturally. Not an excuse to keep to old ways but to live in different ways to the world in which we find ourselves and if this is true for us, how true is it for the jews, those for whom the covenant was first made?

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

And may we rejoice in the different gifts, abilities and callings that are before us. May we refrain from ad hominem, name-calling and seek the image of the God made man, Jesus, in one another. For we know who he is and live because of His love and His atoning act upon the cross. For he is indeed, as Peter rightly says, "The Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God'.

"When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah."

Pax

Exodus 1:8-2:10
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20

No comments: