Submitted by Max Scott on 27 August 2010 - 10:02am
The dinner table was often the venue for Jesus's teaching. It was over the dinner table that Jesus established the new covenant (Lk 22:14-23). The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us "not to neglect to show hospitality to strangers." (Heb 13:2) Today's Gospel reading is about Jesus going to dinner at the house of a Pharisee (Lk 14:1). Jesus tells his host not to invite his rich friends, but to invite those who are unable to repay his hospitality (Lk 14:12-14). Our Tuesday nights are, in a small way, a response to this command. Sharing a meal with others is a great way to get to know people and for them to get to know us. One of the difficulties of courses like Alpha is what happens to people when the course is over. Getting to know the people of the church over a meal will help to bring them to worship on Sundays. The Tuesday meal is a mission event and should be a priority for all.
We repeat the Lord's Prayer Sunday by Sunday. Sometimes its familiarity stops us considering the significance of this gift of Jesus to his disciples. In Luke's Gospel, the prayer is short and to the point. This is in line with Jesus's instruction (in Matthew's Gospel) not to heap up many words (Mat 6:7-8). Here Jesus teaches his disciples to address God as "Father". This address is more formal than Jesus's personal address of God as "Abba". It reminds us that we can presume on our familiarity with God, particularly as the first request in this prayer is that God's person and his authority be respected. When we have acknowledged who God is, then we can make our requests. The good news of the gospel is that this God, who is to be respected above all else, chooses to allow his fullness to dwell in us through faith in Christ (Col 2:9-10).
Perhaps those words of Jesus to Martha, "you are worried and distracted by many things," (Lk 10:41) is an accurate description of much of modern human life. We have more things to distract us than ever before. A couple of minutes ago I was looking at the video pictures from the rovs sealing the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico; fascinating, but distracting me from preparing this blog. Being distracted makes it difficult to focus on the one thing that is important, our relationship with Jesus. In this one thing is our eternal welfare. Yet, like ants around a drop of ant poison, we busy ourselves with things that look like they might give life, but in the end lead to death.
Most of us are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan, but are less familiar with its context. In his response to the lawyer's question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25) Jesus has managed to get the lawyer to answer his own question (quite a feat when dealing with lawyers). His answer includes the statement, "[you shall love] your neighbour as yourself." (Luke 10:27) Wanting to set a boundary around who happens to be his neighbour, the lawyer asks the question, "And who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:29) It was an interesting question. In the OT book, Song of Solomon, the husband addresses his wife (in Greek) with the endearing term, "Neighbour!" (Try that one at home!) Neighbour became an expression for a close relative, and the lawyer's question was to ask how close does a relative have to be in order for this command to apply. Jesus's story shows that even a despised Samaritan would know the answer - every person with whom I come in contact is my neighbour. That is the person I am to love as I love myself. Jesus extends the commandment that the lawyer sought to restrict.
Paul has explained that the Law is powerless to bring about a righteous life (Gal 2:16). However, he does not want Christians to think that, because of this, they no longer have any moral obligation. The righteousness given through new life in the Spirit is to be seen in both the individual believer's life and also in the corporate life of the church. It is not a matter of seeking to achieve righteousness through keeping regulations, but of choosing to live out the new life implanted by God through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 4:6). The new life is opposed to the old life (Gal 5:17). Self-centredness has been replaced by love, dissension by peace, anger by joy, jealousy by generosity. Compare the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Which do you prefer? How then do you choose to live?
Perhaps the greatest observable impact of the gospel was the breakdown of barriers between different groups of people. On Pentecost, through the action of the Holy Spirit, people of different languages were brought together (Acts 2:9-11, Acts 2:44). Paul has recounted his chiding of Peter (Cephas) for separating himself from non-Jewish Christians (Gal 2:11-14). And now Paul explains that, because all are children of God on the same basis of faith, we are now all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:26). The distinctions that applied in society are now submerged in the unity of sharing in the one Spirit (Gal 3:28). The visible nature of this unity began to cause offence, first for the Jews and then for the pagans. Some saw that the very structure of society was being threatened - and they were right. The subversion of Graeco-Roman culture (based on distinctions of race, class and gender) had begun. There was no doubt that the church, though only a tiny fraction of society, impacted society far more than its numbers would warrant. Hence persecution also began. Maybe our failure to impact our own society is because no one any longer sees the church as a threat to current way of life of our own society. Max.
After almost two chapters of condemning those that preach "another gospel" (Gal 1:8-9), Paul now spells out the essence of the good news that he proclaimed. Being righteous comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and through faith in Christ only (Gal 2:15-16). Nothing can be added to what Christ has done for us. We cannot become righteous by keeping the requirements of the Law, nor by performing any ritual. Both of these are relevant for us today. We can think that , because a person leads a good life, or even an exemplary life, it would be unfair of God to reject that person. Paul would say that such an idea undermines what Christ has done for us through his death on the cross. God's offer of righteousness is based on God's grace and not on our goodness. Furthermore, there are those who would rely on baptism, or the saying of a prayer, or coming forward at a meeting, as the means whereby a person is made righteous. Again, none of these can do what God offers through faith in Jesus Christ. No performance of a ritual, whether Catholic or Evangelical, can make us right with God. We accept God's righteous through faith in Christ only. Max
What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? Paul makes it clear in his letter to the church at Galatia that there is only one gospel. Anyone who proclaims a gospel that is contrary to what the church at Galatia has received is to be accursed! (Gal 1:6-9) The authority for saying this is that the gospel that the Galatians had received from Paul was of divine origin and not human origin (Gal 1:11-12). The gospel, in this context, is not the message about the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul makes it clear in his first letter to the church at Corinth, that he had "handed on to them as of first importance what [he] in turn had received." So to what does Paul refer in his letter to the Galatians? It is the outworking of who Jesus is and what he has done. It is the truth that salvation is by faith alone. It is the truth that the offer of salvation is to all on the basis of faith in Jesus. There is no other name and no other way in which a person can be saved. Max.
On Sunday we celebrate the birth of the church. John records Jesus giving the Holy Spirit to his disciples on the day of his resurrection (Jn 20:22), while Luke identifies the giving of the Holy Spirit with the event of Pentecost (Acts 1:4-5). How do we resolve this apparent contradiction? We can liken it to human conception and birth. It is as though John is talking about the conception of the church through the Holy Spirit. It is true that the disciples receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Jesus' resurrection. However, there is little external evidence of the Holy Spirit's presence. The same is true when a baby is conceived. The evidence of conception is not immediately apparent, and the baby does not make his or her impact on the world until birth takes place 9 months later. It is as though the Church's period of gestation is the 50 days between the Passover when Jesus was killed and raised, and the subsequent Feast of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit does come in power, the first events are that of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the multiplicity of languages (Acts 2:7-8) and the forming of one church made of people from these different language groups (Acts 2:44). These actions show the diversity of the witness of the Apostles and the unity that the Spirit gives across this diversity. That is the miracle of Pentecost.
