So, this past Sunday we heard Luke’s version of a scripture that’s often called the Beatitudes (a lengthier version is in Matthew; if you like comparative bible study, check out the beginning of Matthew chapter 5 and stack it up next to Luke’s version). Here in this passage, Jesus gives a series of counterintuitive, paradoxical statements...
This last Sunday we heard about the prophet Isaiah’s life-changing encounter with God. Here’s the scoop: Isaiah had a vision of Israel’s God, enthroned in the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple. This radical experience causes Isaiah to immediately cry out, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I have unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen YHWH the Almighty” (Isa. 6:5). I imagine that moment must have been terrifying. To come into direct contact with the Holy God and consequently have your self-perception and the perception of your world so drastically altered... Probably not so fun.
So, this week during worship we heard about Jeremiah’s calling to be a prophet. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Jeremiah lived in difficult times, politically speaking. He ministered from around 627 BCE, during the reign of King Josiah over Judah (considered one of Judah’s last good kings), until after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire and the exile of so many Judeans in 587-86 BCE (This was the same Babylonian exile I wrote about last week.) Jeremiah’s prophetic career would involve crying out against Judah’s infidelity to its covenant with God and warn of God’s judgment. (Long story short, the people wouldn’t listen very well, and the exile would happen anyway.)
This past Sunday we got to hear from the Book of Nehemiah, one of the historical books of the Old Testament. One line of the Scripture that really stood out to me came from chapter 8, verse 8: “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.”
I don’t know about you guys, but for me, there were times when it would have been helpful to have somebody explain to me, slowly, what in the world I was reading when I was reading the Bible.
So, this past Sunday we read about the wedding at Cana for our Scripture, and we talked about God caring about the little things. Later, I was thinking about how that idea could influence our relationship with others. If we are the body of Christ in the world, and if Jesus loves people in the little things, then so should we.
