Reflexion, A Spiritual Community

We are returning to Hosea this morning

The prophet who had to experience in his own life, with his wife, what God had experienced with Israel
– a people who were unfaithful to him, not only by adultery,
• but prostituting themselves with other gods
• you may have guessed that I’m not comfortable with Hosea
◦ I’d rather be with Jesus in the New Testament, loving and rescuing sinners
◦ instead, Hosea delivers a bar...

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read 1 and 2 Timothy

Still, it was only a few years ago that two words snagged me
- here in this passage, Paul refers to the Hebrew Scriptures as “the sacred writings”
• I had always believed this regarding the Bible, but never in those precise words
• the effect they had was to motivate me to meditate on them
◦ eventually, I spent nine weeks sharing with you what I learned
...

 The Advent theme for today is LOVE

I’ve never heard anyone argue whether that theme is appropriate
- the words of the previous themes–hope, peace, and joy–are all found in the biblical text
• but love doesn’t appear in the details of the Christmas story
◦ it feels right that love should be another theme, but is it right?
• does love add a sentimental tone that wasn’t there?
◦ our culture is certainly attached to...

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Luke 2:10

Intro: So here we are again, with the angels and the shepherds

I chose to read on...

The Liturgical Calendar is a sequence of seasons, that organizes the year around the life of Jesus.
Liturgical seasons Invite us to take our place in the great drama of the Gospel
 To take the time to experience God’s love and redemption through Spiritual rhythms and traditions
 shared across generations and cultures and faith communities.
Practicing the liturgical calendar allows a lot of room for variety of expres...

I think you most likely know that I love the Scriptures

The more I read them, the more I get from them,
- and the deeper I go, the richer my experience
• however, the journey is not always pleasant, and
◦ some parts of the Bible are not as easy to digest as others
◦ Hosea is not one of my favorite books
• still, there are verses in it that are among my favorites
◦ other than those few, working my way through ...

Years ago, I was engaged in a conversation with two friends

In making a point, one of them quoted a famous evangelist,
“People change–but not that much”
- okay–so I reacted immediately, but kept my mouth shut
• this same person stood in front of large crowds,
◦ promising them that Jesus would transform their lives
◦ that in Christ, they would become a new creation
• that is the essence of the evangelical mess...

Since it has been a couple of weeks, let me remind you . . .

The book of Hosea is a love story – but not like a romance novel
- it was never meant to entertain
• God’s message came to Israel in a graphic illustration,
◦ played out in the life of his prophet
• first, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute
◦ the point was to give Israel a living re-enactment of
◦ their history with God – deserting him for another...

 If what I read doesn’t match your Bible, there are two reasons

First, I’m reading from Robert Alter’s translation of the Old Testament
– so obviously that is different from other standard translations
• but another reason is that Alter worked from the Hebrew Bible,
◦ and in that version, chapter 1 has only nine verses
◦ in our English Bibles there are eleven verses in chapter 1
• so those two verses missing in c...

Before we began Galatians, I asked for recommendations as to where in scripture to go next

A trusted friend suggested we venture through the minor prophets
- “minor” because they are relatively short compared to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel
• I hesitated for awhile, then procrastinated, finally hoping to dodge The Dozen prophets at the end of the Hebrew Scriptures
• even though the longest of them is only fourteen chapt...

The Galatians were coming to the end of Paul’s letter,

And suddenly the handwriting was different
– instead of the well-formed characters of a professional scribe,
• the printed letters were large and scribbled
◦ this shift was certain to grab their attention
◦ like changing the “font” of a sentence in a document to all upper case or bold print
• but why did Paul insist on writing this last bit with his “own hand...

Years ago, and in another life, I had a feisty personal assistant

Although she is genuinely compassionate, she had a favorite line: “Get over yourself”
- I think that held her together through a hard and complicated season of her life
• she said it to herself, to he friends, to people who called the church office for help,
◦ and more than once she said it to me–her boss
• but she never said it when I didn’t need to h...

Paul has chased a serious concern through his entire letter

So it is not surprising that near the end, he would present an the ultimate challenge of the Christian life
- in verse 16 Paul begins last segment of his central message
• what follows in chapter 6 is his concluding remarks and directions
- what we have in verses 16-25 is this chunk of scripture that tracks one theme
• Paul makes this clear by marking where ...

 I assume most of us are familiar with The Message Bible

One of the more popular versions, and easiest to understand
– Eugene Peterson did not set out to write a new translation
• beginning in early 1980’s the U.S. economy went into a slump and mortgage interest rates were rapidly climbing
◦ people in his church were feeling the pinch, and reacting in the same way as people in town
Peterson, “Paranoia infected the sm...

If you ever decide to read the Bible all the way through,

At some point, you will find yourself struggling to understand it
– even if you’ve been a believer for a long time and read it before (or read a kiddie version)
• a passage will confuse you, trouble, or just seem wrong
◦ I’m fortunate to have many helpful resources
• however, when even those study aids leave me with questions
◦ then I resort to creative th...

For the last month or two, I’ve noticed a trend
– people are using a “Jesus image” in a variety of video posts
• like a famous celebrity, he’s immediately recognizable
◦ there’s the trademark long hair and beard, the robe, and sandals
◦ his image is used to promote an ideal, or to criticize, ridicule, or make fun of something
• three observations immediately come to mind:
◦ first, the image is used for propa...

In the first half of this chapter, Paul scolded the Galatians

You know how sometimes, as a parent,
- when you're very worried about your child–maybe they did not arrive home on time
• when they finally show up, your worry turns to anger
◦ if ever our lectures were rougher than they needed to be,
◦ it was because we had agonized over their safety
• I think that's a little piece of what is happening here<...

Do I need to mention that Paul does not try to hide his frustration with the Galatians?

To our ears, his language--"foolish" and "Who has bewitched you?" sounds offensive
- later on he will say, if they’ve truly taken this wrong path,
“You are severed from Christ . . . you have fallen away from grace” (Gal. 5:4)
• he doesn’t mince words, because he’s terrified for their sake
◦ he wants to make the...