2 Sam. 5,1-10, Klein-I am with you" so important? It means that David and all of us later royal and priestly children of God are never alone. "I am with you" in our language could me on our side or companionship.. Whether it is the ability to trust, to carry out our day to day vocations, or to face all the challenges of life -- including our mortality -- God's "I am with you" endures. In Isaiah Emmanuel is god with us, and we apply it to christ.How do we know that God is with us? Took a while to get to Jerusalem in the account given.
It all starts with our naming at our baptism. you have been marked forever. It is Christ's real presence in the Supper that says to us in ways that we can taste, touch, and smell, "I am with you." Was God ever more with us than when Jesus was extended for us on the cross? This congregation may learn, once again, or maybe for the first time to trust God’s presence in its past, present, and future.Need each other's talents, time without caving in to the voices of the loud, the extreme, the controlling.Brueggemann-what god does first and best is to trust people with their moment in history.”
Pas 48 -guide-steadfast love-I am with you is another way of expressing that divine loyalty and fidelity.
2 Cor 12:2-10, the righteous suffer-Tiede- the power of Christ dwelling in them.thorn in the flesh/thorn in the side-not given more information than that, so it invites speculation. Paul’s prayers went unanswered. Some take it as a point of pride to be a thorn in someone’s side.Clearly it can be taken to be an internal struggle or physical pain or infirmity.Paul knows full well the pain of unanswered prayer. I don't know how I would respond to a sense that divine power is made complete in weakness when I want a healing of some sort.
Mk 6:1-13 Jesus met with utter failure in his home base. Even Jesus found his power limited due to the dismissal of him by his townfolk.-In some ways the spread of the mission emerged in a search for a receptive audience.can't expect mass conversion but do not hold a grudge either but move on and do not remain rooted in the failure. We have a hard time forgiving because we cling to grudges life life preservers. Recall that the usual root for forgive in the NT is to let go, release. In church, of all places, we permit resentments to fester. In church of all places, we act in unforgiving ways. In church we even honor those who act as thorns in the side of others and seek to run over the unobtrusive.In part, that may stem from being unable or unwilling to capture the presence of god in our interactions. It may well be an unwillingness to acknowledge the continued presence of god within these precious vessels that Paul dares to call temples of the Holy spirit.
Packing light may well be difficult, but letting go of the baggage of cynicism, contempt, anger, fear and just plain fatigue is harder...Jesus did what he could in his hometown and when he could do no more he went into other towns. He kept moving. Kept proclaiming. Kept healing, casting out demons, confronting evil, calling out oppressors and alleviating suffering. Others' affirmation or acceptance was not a prerequisite for his ministry, and it cannot be for ours either. When tangible results are elusive, we trust that God gives the growth, sometimes underground and unseen to those of us throwing the seed. Outlook
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