Sword in the Fire

In Adult Sunday School, we are reading St. John’s account of the feeding of the 5000.  This miracle of Jesus never fails to impress.  Five thousand men plus their families have come to Him to hear His teaching and perhaps get a glimmer of the miraculous because, for many in the crowd, there have been rumors of miracles: rumors that people were healed, blind could see, life was transformed into something new.  Who wouldn’t want to be present for something like this? This would be especially appealing after your life has been spent occupied and controlled by a foreign power, yet the promise of God to your family and religious leaders is that God has given you this land, you will be strong, you will be great, your kingdom will never end... read the rest here Theron Mathis

I love the Gospel of John.  If for no other reason, it is different.  Unlike the other three gospels, there is no birth story, no temptation, or no transfiguration.  In Orthodoxy, we read John in the lectionary during the Easter season.  The Gospel for Easter Sunday is John’s Prologue in Chapter 1.  This gives a clue as to why the Church thinks John was written.  The newly baptized experiencing their first Liturgy on Easter Sunday begin to read a new Gospel – the Gospel of John.  John himself proclaims his purpose for writing at the end of his book.  He wrote so that the reader would know that Jesus is the Son of God, and by trusting in Him, would have eternal life.  John is designed to bolster faith, perhaps in the face of heresy, for there were many false teachers who questioned the fullness of Jesus’ humanity and divinity.  Or perhaps, John is trying to protect us not from the heresy of the head, but of the heart. ...

Track 9 - Fulfillment (Luke 1:46-55; 67-79) For the final song on the Biblical soundtrack, two voices, come together as one, one a young girl unknown by man, raised by faith in holy seclusion, the other an old priest, without heirs, made mute by doubt before the holy.  Together they sing of fruitfulness at the coming of children destined to announce and bring deliverance to all mankind. For centuries their people had waited for deliverance, stories had been told of Moses and their ancestors escaping the clutches of an evil Pharaoh, of Joshua driving out idolators, of heroes rescuing the oppressed by the miraculous hand of God, of King David unifying their people and his son Solomon exalting a nation to world prominance, of exile and return, of persecution and victory, only to ask, "Will my generation see God's hand, surely we are poor again and now is the time for salvation?"; and salvation came as a baby. The previous 8 hymns have been revealing portions of the s...

The Old Testament is designed to prepare us for Christ, and if nothing else, the messiness, the sin, and the squalor of the Old Testament should convince us of man's need for Christ. This preparation is not merely an intellectual readiness to accept the New Testament.  This would be difficult for us all because our minds are dense.  It is also not a one time preparation that dissipates in meaning once the New is embraced. It should grind away at our encrusted hearts.  We read with horror at the murders, the adulteries, the idolatry and sit in stunned silence.  If the silence is allowed to work, we can see beneath our veneer and find an inner alliance with those who walk the ancient pages. Despair may grip our heart so that we cry out to God for salvation.  Only then can the light of resurrection come.  This is the work of the Old Testament.  It is the cross of the New Testament's resurrection.