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Chris (email link at the bottom of each page)

The Church in its Beginning

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Matthew: 28:8–15


Today we begin an exciting adventure, a quest, an odyssey, through the masterpiece we know as the Acts of the Apostles.  Essentially, it takes us into the early years of the Church's growth and expansion.  It's not called 'Acts' for nothing!


Luke's narrative is action-packed, a thrilling, white-knuckle ride, a front row seat to the nascent Church's fight to establish itself and proclaim the Gospel.  We hope that over the coming weeks we may all grow in our love, appreciation and understanding of the incredible challenges and opportunities the first believers faced.  The saints whose stories are told here were the true pioneers of our faith; we stand on their shoulders, we sit at their feet.


So, a little background. The Hebrew word 'Messiah' and the Greek word Christ' both mean 'anointed'.  The term originally referred to the king of Israel as God's Anointed'.  When the Davidic kingdom was destroyed, the Jews expected God to restore it through a descendant of David, one anointed, as he was, by God's Spirit.  For Luke, Jesus was the Lord's Anointed: the Messiah, the Christ.


Fresh from his experience of being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter preaches boldly, explaining how Jesus` Passion and death fulfilled Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:28-32). While the Jewish people believed Psalm 16:8-1l referred to David, Peter reinterprets it in the light of Jesus' resurrection: “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You..will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (NIV).


Jesus is Lord; the Messiah and Victor who conquered sin and death.  This is the Gospel's message.  In this Year of Faith, we can recover a new sense of excitement and conviction that Jesus is Lord and appreciate that we couldn't proclaim, believe and embrace this wonderful truth without the grace of the Holy Spirit.


Lord, please give me a fresh sense of the urgency to witness to my faith and be an evangelist.


Acts 2:14, 22–33 • Psalm 15(16):1–2, 5, 7-11  • Matthew 28:8–15

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Who do you say that I am?

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Haggai 1:15–2:9 • Psalm 42(43):1–4 • Luke 9:18–22

image from http://heartsofcompassioninternational.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-hear-from-god-part-1.html

A Chinese proverb says that a person who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, but one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. There are a number of key questions in life which we ignore at our peril. What is the purpose of life on earth? What happens after I die? Is death the end or is there an afterlife?

In today's Gospel reading we encounter another important question, the answer to which sheds light on each one of these existential questions. It s the question that Jesus put to his disciples and continues to put to every man and woman on the face of the earth. He asks you and he asks me: “Who do you say that I am?" (v. 20). The answer to this question is the gateway to unravelling the meaning of life and to solving the mystery of what happens after we die. The answer to this question is crucial for our lives on earth and our eternal destiny.

When Peter uttered his famous declaration that Jesus is 'the Christ of God', Jesus realised that a Watershed had been reached in the disciples' understanding of who he is.  It was  recognition that Jesus is more than a prophet; he is more than a great teacher: he is the Son of God.  What revelation has made known is that Jesus Christ was God made man.  The very Lord, Creator and King humbled himself by becoming a human being: he was made one of us, became one of us, and lived like one of us.

To be able to grasp this truth and allow it to shape our lives requires a grace of revelation – mere flesh and blood, the power of our own reasoning, cannot grasp this most sacred and profound of Christian truths. The following words were spoken by St Augustine many centuries ago, but they still have a tremendous impact today: “[Jesus] was created of a mother whom he created. He was carried by hands that he had formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, he the Word without whom all human eloquence is mute.”

Jesus assumed our humanity that we might become God. (St Athanasius)

 

 
 
Chris
 
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John the Baptist

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Isaiah 45:6-8, 18, 21-25 • Psalm 84(85):9-14 • Luke 7:19-23

  

John the Baptist was one of the greatest men who ever lived and figured prominently in the period immediately preceding the ministry of Jesus. Not only had John foretold the coming of Jesus (Matt. 3:11f.), he had recognised him, pointed him out to others (John 1:29) and baptised him (Matt. 3:13-17). John had faithfully and fearlessly prepared the way for Jesus. Yet, in today's Gospel, John poses a question that seems tinged with doubt and indecision: Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? (v. 19). What were John's expectations of the Messiah?

Both the language and imagery of John's preaching conjure up a wrathful figure coming forth in judgement, scattering fire and destruction in his wake (see, eg, Luke 3:7-9, 15-17). Yet, as he languished in prison, he heard rumours of quite a different kind of activity by Jesus healings of various kinds, casting out of evil spirits and even the dead raised to life. As John served the prison sentence earned for fearlessly denouncing Herod, was he perhaps disappointed or disillusioned because the Messiah had not responded with a similar counterblast of judgement?

At the commencement of his ministry, in his home-town synagogue, Jesus had proclaimed the inauguration of God's kingdom (Luke 4:16ff). He had quoted from the prophet Isaiah, but gone only so far as to proclaim 'the year of the Lord's favour (Luke 4:19 NIV) and had not proceeded to announce the day of vengeance of our God’ (Isa. 61:2b). Jesus came as Saviour; the time was not yet ripe for him to assume his role of Judge. John was impatient for judgement, but Jesus was patient for salvation.

Jesus later uses the parable of the Fig Tree to explain God's gracious, patient waiting, but also his ultimate and inevitable judgement (Luke 13:6-9). More than two thousand years later, the judgement envisaged by John has still not come. The fig tree still stands – and the Master watches hopefully for it to bear fruit. To those who hear the good news today, the Holy Spirit continues to warn, 'Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts' (Heb. 3:7-8). Have we embraced the good news in faith and allowed it to bear fruit in our lives? We dare not postpone our response of faith and obedience. 

Gracious God, help me never to presume upon your mercy and grace. Instead, teach me to respond with steadfast faith, fervent gratitude and wholehearted obedience

Chris

from Bible Alive

 

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The Root of Jesse

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Isaiah 11:1–11
 
1 And a rod will go forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower will ascend from his root.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety.
3 And he will be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He will not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.
4 Instead, he will judge the poor with justice, and he will reprove the meek of the earth with fairness. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and he will slay the impious with the spirit of his lips.
5 And justice will be the belt around his waist. And faith will be the warrior's belt at his side.
6 The wolf will dwell with the lamb; and the leopard will lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion and the sheep will abide together; and a little boy will drive them.
7 The calf and the bear will feed together; their young ones will rest together. And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 And a breastfeeding infant will play above the lair of the asp. And a child who has been weaned will thrust his hand into the den of the king snake.
9 They will not harm, and they will not kill, on all my holy mountain. For the earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, like the waters covering the sea.
10 In that day, the root of Jesse, who stands as a sign among the people, the same the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulcher will be glorious.
11 And this shall be in that day: the Lord will send forth his hand a second time to take possession of the remnant of his people who will be left behind: from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Ethiopia, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
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The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Romans 8:28–30 • Psalm 12(13) • Matthew 1:1–16, 18–23

Readers of the Bible are tempted to skip the first sixteen verses of Matthew’s Gospel.  After all, it’s just a long list of names!  Although, in recent years, there has been a renewed interest in tracing one’s family tree, genealogies are often viewed as superfluous by a generation that prides itself on being future-oriented and forward-looking. To ancient peoples, however, genealogies were of immense importance.  Genealogies were the means by which Bible- time Jews traced their ancestry right back to Abraham, thus reassuring themselves of their position as rightful heirs of God’s covenant promises.

Matthew’s opening phrase ‘An account of the genealogy...’ reads, literally, ‘the book of the genesis. . . ’ , an expression that echoes Genesis 2:4 in' the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) and would have been very familiar to Matthew’s original readers.  By employing this phrase in connection with the Messiah, Matthew sets Jesus in the context of what God had been doing from the earliest days.

Matthew’s genealogy is constructed around three key periods in Israel’s history. Abraham and David recall two crucial covenants (Gen. 12:1ff; 2 Sam. 7:12ff) that significantly shaped Jewish identity.  The Babylonian Exile (referred to in yerses 1 1—12) called into serious question these covenant promises – since the land was lost and the House of David no longer ruled.  So, after their return from exile, the Jews eagerly awaited the coming of a Messiah who would fulfil the promises given to Abraham and David. Against this backdrop Matthew announces the ‘genesis’ of the one who would bnn'g to fruition these promises: .‘Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham’.

The genealogy climaxes with the mention of Joseph.  Tradition suggests that Mary, too, was of the House of David.  But since lineage was established by the male line, in order for Jesus to be proclaimed a true ‘son of David’ Joseph had formally to adopt him.  In verse 18, the word translated ‘birth’ is the same as that used in verse 1 (literally, ‘genesis’). The story that follows is not so much a birth story, but an extension of the genealogy which establishes Jesus’s rightful place in the messianic line.

‘At the foot of the cross Mary became our mother.  Just before he died, Jesus gave his mother to St John, and St John to his mother.  And so, all of us become her children.’  (St Theresa of Kolkata)

Chris

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"You are the Son of God"

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Mark 3:7-12
 
Mark told the story in this way, keeping the “Messianic Secret” in order that his readers would accept Jesus’s true identity on his terms, in the context of his entire life and mission.
 
For Mark we are free to proclaim Jesus as our Messiah and Lord only when we accept his way of suffering messiahship along with all the signs, wonders, healings and miracles that he performed.
 
Mark has created a moment of pause, reflection and meditation; so must we.
 
It will not be in the skimming of religious books or in hastening through our religious duties that we will become strong in faith.  It will be in the unhurried meditation on gospel truths that we will grow in holiness and sanctity,
 
How true the wisdom and insight of St John of the Cross who said, “My spirit has become dry because it forgets to feed on you."
 
Finding time to pray, to be still and to quieten our mind, heart and spirit that we may draw close to God as he comes close to us, requires both a decision and effort.  But in making them we will be richly rewarded.
 
”Spend an hour every day, some time before the midday meal, in meditation; and the earlier the better, because your mind will then be less distracted and fresh after a night’s sleep.”  (St Francis de Sales)
 
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