Saturday, June 28, 2014

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Ezekiel 3:4-17

Ezekiel lived at a traumatic time for his nation.  The northern kingdom of Israel had been permanently destroyed by the Assyrians more than 100 years earlier; now the southern kingdom of Judah was defeated by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans.  Jerusalem and much of the country were plundered; God’s temple was ransacked and, with the whole city, was soon destroyed.  The king and all the prominent people were marched as prisoners to Babylon, where they lived as dispossessed captives, confused, hopeless, and yet full of the stubborn rebelliousness that God’s prophets had long warned would bring their downfall.

Ezekiel was one of these exiles taken captive to Babylon.  He was a priest [Ezek. 1:3].  In his time, the work of a priest was to govern the temple in Jerusalem, to help people offer their sacrifices, and to lead worship in the temple.  All this was now impossible: The temple was no more; the sacrifices were stopped; the rebellious exiles did not want to worship God – they likely blamed God for all their trouble, although God through the prophets had long been urging them to turn from their stubborn sinfulness.

Ezekiel was a very unusual person, who had strange and wonderful visions of heaven, of God’s throne, and of immeasurable glory.  In today’s passage, God commissioned Ezekiel to be a prophet of a particularly hard-headed sort, with the daunting task of declaring God’s word fully and faithfully to the rebellious exiles, hard people to reach at this traumatic time.  Ezekiel was to speak in a strong and forthright way whether the exiles would listen to him or not.  If God had sent him to foreigners with huge language and cultural obstacles to communication, they would have listened to him, God said, but his own people would not.  So Ezekiel was to be hard-headed, harder even than the stubborn exiles.  Perhaps, by faithfully declaring God’s message to almost total rejection, a few people might listen and change.

In all this, Ezekiel was still a priest.  Verse 3:15 shows this:  When Ezekiel joined the exiles where they lived, he was so overcome that he just sat with them, stunned and overwhelmed, for seven full days before he said anything.  A good priest, you see, needs to be soft-hearted, compassionate, sympathizing with and caring for people, understanding their heartbreak and reaching out to God on their behalf, listening much more than talking.  Ezekiel was both a hard-headed prophet and a soft-hearted priest, quite an unusual combination.  Soft-heartedness and hard-headedness don’t often go together, but both kinds of ministry are needed to meet the desperate needs of people whose world has collapsed for them.

It’s the same today.  When their world falls apart, people need soft-hearted understanding, comfort, and support, but they also need hard-headed concrete advice and direction on what to do.  As followers of Christ, are we ready to provide both kinds of ministry to people in need? 

May God make us faithful in this calling.

-- Robert Kruse

Friday, June 27, 2014

Friday, June 27, 2014
 Matt 20:29-34    

 Jesus heals two blind men: 

 Interestingly this incident is reported twice by Matthew not only here, but also earlier in 9:27-31.. Peakes Commentary notes that Matthew did this to have all miracles exemplified. In the first reporting, the healed men were told not to report this, but in this later reporting, the healed  men were not admonished: the emphasis was the compassion of Jesus, and moved by it all, the men then followed Jesus.

Where are we in regard to miracles today? Jesus himself didn't want to have people following him for the wrong reason: he didn't want who he was and about, to be seen as a superman.That's what his  40 days in the wilderness and the temptations he rejected were really  about. No, for him  his ministry was to be living a life and a way, that was accessible  for every-person. So in his encounter with these two blind men, as with others too, the significance was in the human encounter , and the compassion... that resulted in the healing touch. 

This type of interaction is something each of can do, and  the fruits of this is that both participants are richer for it. Whether the two blind men actually physically saw or not, there was a healing that took place, and that's what ultimately counts. Through his concern for them, they became changed and more complete  persons. For me, this is part of the nature & spirit of God at work, working in & through us with one another: This was and is the Christ flowing in and through us, with each other and the cosmos, around and within  us.

- Archdeacon Ken Cardwell

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thursday June 26

Romans 5:1-11

This excerpt from Paul's letter to the Romans is a helpful reminder of faith being a culmination of belief and action.  Paul is speaking to a crowd gathered, and we can assume from the text that they have experienced recent challenge or persecution.  Paul emphasizes the gifts of faith to be hope, rejoicing and peace; through faith we have peace with God who gives us hope. 

Yet Paul also explains that part of our active belief is suffering.  And suffering is a messy and complex process.  Suffering is not something I know that I happily engage at all times.  It has such a negative connotation, and understandably so in a culture that values convenient solutions and success.  However, Paul reminds us that since Christ died for us, we are ultimately able to rejoice in that suffering through the gift of hope through faith.

~Eric. John, Rachel, Julia

Psalm 119:121-144

Listening and acting and listening and acting . . . 

The Psalmist praises God's words and actions in the past; the Psalmist implores God to to listen and act again.

The Psalmist describes how he has listened for God's words (statutes, commandments, decrees, precepts) and asks God for understanding so that he might walk in their way with steady steps and live!

I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors. 

  
Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.

Redeem me from human oppression, that I may keep your precepts.  

Listening and acting and listening and acting . . . 
It is a process that can be a path to wisdom and to justice.

It is a process used intentionally for decades by Christian Base Communities (known as Comunidades Ecclasiales de Base or CEB's) in Latin America.  Some of us experienced a taste of the way Bible Study is done in CEB's at the Diocese of Huron Synod last month under the leadership of Bishop Saulo de Barros from the Diocese Anglicana do Brazil (our new Partner-in-Mission).

Groups gather to listen and reflect on obstacles and issues they and their neighbours face; they listen together for what light Scripture can shed on the issue; and together they act with other groups and movements, supporting and cooperating with one another, to create change.  And as they act, they continue to listen and reflect.

Listening and acting and listening and acting.

Spend some time listening and observing today - in the midst of Scripture, the land, art, city streets, workplaces, conversations.  

What do you see and hear and sense in your context?  
What light is shines on your understanding?  
What call to action do you hear?

Marilyn Malton 

Tuesday, June 24, 2014 (The Nativity of John the Baptist)

Today is a feast-day in the Christian Church, remembering the birth of John the Baptizer.  The story of John's birth is a dramatic one, involving angelic proclamations, doubt, forced silence, and a climactic naming - "He shall be called John!"

The reading from the Hebrew Scriptures appointed for today is more general in nature, involving a telling forth of the birth of a messenger.  This is one of those passages that Handel used in his great oratorio, Messiah.  I hear it as music more than I do as spoken word.  "Who shall abide the day of his coming", "For he is like a refiner's fire" - phrases that speak of the one called to proclaim.

John's vocation was to prepare the way for the ministry and message of Jesus.  John functioned in a time when people longed for a new era, a new beginning - freedom from oppression, a time of renewal.  John proclaimed that the one who was to come would bring that new life.

We, too, are called to be messengers - proclaimers of the good news we find in the gospel of Jesus, the Christ.  How do you make that proclamation?  What is the good news you feel called to share?

- Rev'd Paul Kett

Monday, June 23, 2014

June 23rd 2014 

Romans 3:21 - 31

            One of the core documents to which we turn to time and time again for

guidance and direction, is the Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul uses correspondence

to convey his message of the Gospel. He uses letters to build relationships, to provide

for and to nurture the faith of the early church and to speak to those elements of faith that

were the cause of discussion and debate.

            In the third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul grapples with the challenge

of helping those who were receiving his message to think through some very foundational

elements of the Christian faith. How does the grace of God enable a right relationship with

all who believe in Jesus as God's Son ?

            Paul writes to individuals who felt themselves defined by their work, or place

in society.  How well they did their job, how well they followed God's Law, helped to

frame how they viewed themselves and how they were seen by others.

            Paul's message clarifies and highlights the simple reality that,"...all alike

have sinned....". (3:21) This definition of equality challenged the barriers that

divided races and genders and slaves from their masters. It was a statement that indicated

that everyone was starting from the same starting point as they faced the challenges

of each day.

            Trying to live up to the full expectations of their interpretations of God's Law

provided a level of expectation around which many people built their lives. The results of their attempts were not always successful. To renew a right relationship with God, people

of faith offered sacrifices in worship, with the desire to make amends, to start afresh and

have a new beginning.

            Paul points to the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross as that which, once and for all time,

is an offering made on behalf of everyone. By placing their personal trust, and by having

faith in Jesus, Paul declares that everyone will experience Divine forgiveness and Divine

acceptance.....God's Grace.

            "For our argument is that a (person) is justified by faith quite apart from success in

keeping the law." (3:28)

            The transitional presentation that Paul makes is that God's Law is no longer to be

experienced as a burden to be borne, but rather as a framework upon which life may be

lived and experienced in all its fullness. God's Grace, is that which enables, and empowers faithful followers of Jesus to live life with joy and hope, not in fear and oppression.

            How do you approach life ? Is each day a heavy burden to be carried, or do you experience

each day saturated by God's Grace to be a divine gift to be savoured ?  

   

- The Reverend Canon Christopher B. J. Pratt

[Note: Scripture quotations from Romans, Chapter 3, are from the New English Bible.]

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Acts 15: 1-12

Today’s passage concerns the dispute within the early church in which the church’s leadership was reported to have accepted the Gentiles into the church without demanding that they be circumcised. This is an important concession because according Acts a number of individuals were taking issue with the position of Paul and Barnabas, and maintained that Gentile converts would not be saved if they failed to be circumcised as dictated by the Jewish legal tradition or “the custom of Moses”. This episode in the early church’s history demonstrates that the church was moving in a direction that would allow more peoples of various ethnic and social origins to be included in a growing church. We might meditate on this implication when today’s church faces issues of exclusivity and inclusivity.

- Terry Rothwell