St Paul’s first documented sermon

The first documented sermon by the apostle Paul on his missionary journeys (indeed the first one documented at all) was given at the request of the Jewish leaders of the synagogue under the call for words of encouragement for the people (Acts 13.15). During the sermon itself, Paul indicates that what he was preaching was the message of salvation (13.26). It seems important then to consider these words, as they were provided for us by God’s servant, St. Luke. Consider the following outline of Paul’s message of salvation.

A Christological view of the Creationism debate

In the context of handling the sticky wicket of divorce and marriage, as was his custom, Jesus taught them. But he taught more than they asked for, and indeed he offers to us today teaching on contemporary debates beyond the context of his original discussion.

Mark 10.1-9 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “But from the beginning of the creation of mankind…” “but from the beginning of creation…” The former qualifier is actually nonsensical and not to be assumed unless one has an agenda for desiring it to be placed there. Apparently, for Jesus, the Adam and Woman account happened “in the beginning of creation.”

Where does that leave the young earth / old earth / evolutionary discussion and the authority of Scripture? It seems that if you affirm the later, it will lead you to more of young earth position. Just a thought.

Learning from the Animal kingdom

Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.
- Martin Luther
LW 54:38

Who is Salome?

According to the Jehovah Witnesses’ December 08 issue of “The Watchtower,” Salome is Jesus’ aunt, the sister of his mother, who happens to be the wife of Zebedee, the mother of James and John. If this is the case, then James and John are our Lord’s biological (through Mary) cousins, and Salome is the mother of those boys who requested of Jesus that her sons sit next to him in his kingdom.

Plain ol’ names in the Gospel accounts of Jesus

Why provide specific names in an account about Jesus? If I were to write a historical narrative today, I’d include names for rhetorical force, to validate the story, provide my readers with another historical anchor so that they could track that lead if they so chose. It would also be beneficial for the personal ethos of the story. “Some guy” sounds generic and not as true as “Simon of Cyrene and his boys Rufinus and…” It gives the story a “real” feel. It also raises the question of who are these folks and why does it matter to the author to mention them specifically out of all the other folks that followed Jesus. There were apparently 70 fairly close disciples and we are not privy to their names explicitly. Maybe by logical connection we can infer one or two, but if the text tells us of a woman named Joanna and leaves the 70 unnamed, she is probably significant.

Importance of the Gatekeepers

According to Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22, it was women who served / ministered at the entrance to the Tabernacle. It is interesting to note that while the Tabernacle was a copy of heaven, the very throne room of God, this holy place had only one entrance: a curtain approximately 30 ft long at the center of a 75 ft long wall of curtains, always located on the East side of the Tabernacle. This one entrance, it can be figured, points to the one and only entrance to the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, what is the symbolism of having women ministering, guarding even, the Christ, the way to God? This is a sincere question for all who would like to respond.

One observation I could throw out is that it was women who first observe and testified to the risen Christ.

Is the symbolism of the women ministering at the gate a picture of the ministering women around Jesus during his earthly work? (Lk 8:2-3)

On the form of communing: The Lord’s Table

There is often much ado about communion, particularly, how often to take the elements, what the practice is about, whether or not the practice is mere obedience to a command (ordinance), or whether grace is involved one way or another (sacrament), along with “who” can partake, what to partake, and the all time favorite discussion piece, how to partake.

Likewise, many before have observed that during the Second Temple period, the Passover ritual probably included more than one cup throughout the meal. In light of the last question above, while I’ve seen many different forms of communing, from taking the cracker individually when you feel like it, to proceeding forward and not touching the host with anything other than your tongue, I’ve yet to see the cup offered first to be divided amongst the people.

The holy mount. 1: The Word in the Transfiguration

A Mount of Transfiguration observation –

It is often noted that in the Transfiguration of Jesus on the holy mount that Moses is a representative of the Law and Elijah of the Prophets, both bearing witness to the Son of God. The Hebrew breakdown of what Christian now call the Old Testament was referred to as the TaNaK (Torah-Law, N’viim-Prophets, K’tuvim-the Writings or the Psalms). Jesus even referred to this distinction or summary in his lesson on the road to Emmaus (not mentioning the K’tuvim in this section), and also just following this account where he manifests himself to his disciples saying, ““These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

If we were to extend the observation of Moses and Elijah on the holy mount as representatives of the Tanak, we could point to Jesus as the representative of the Psalms, the Writings, indeed he is the very Word of God. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers in many and various ways but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb.1.1-3). On the holy mount where the majesty of Jesus was revealed, the fulness of God’s word was manifested.

How we know the Anointed One is God

Once again Robert Louis Wilken’s work on, “The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God,” has both sparked thoughts and memories of precious truths. Consider this nugget:

The place to begin the discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity is the Resurrection of Christ. This may seem surprising. In the standard accounts of the history of Christian thought the Resurrection is usually discussed as a topic in itself, for example, as part of eschatology, the last things and future hope, and in relation to the understanding of salvation.

Advent: things to celebrate, ponder, and be transformed by

“As Christian thinking was grounded in the events recorded in the Bible, the res gestae, the things that had taken place, so it was nourished in worship by the res liturgicae, the things enacted in the liturgy.”  Thus spoke Robert Louis Wilken on the early church’s transformation of persons and the presence of grace.  Along these lines, as we consider the Advent of the Lord Jesus, consider the words of Leo the Great, in a sermon on the feast of the Nativity in the mid 5th century of our Lord’s reign.