August 25 Sermon Notes
I return from a brief sabbath of vacation for a reading on sabbath on the Christian sabbath day.healing on sabbath-The command on the sabbath is clear:no work. Interpretation is still required-what is work? Of all things, it was disputed in the time of Jesus if a healing should occur on the Sabbath as it changed the course of nature. the consensus opinion seemed to be that emergency healing was fine, but if something could wait, why not wait a day? Jesus here takes a more human approach and operates from the perspective of the one suffering. Jesus puts a high value on healing of human beings. Look at the time frame as well. Seven days a week, Sabbath included, this woman suffered for 18 years, around 900 Sabbaths. She deserves sabbath rest from her suffering.
Ps 71 deals with the life cycle. It starts with seeing God at helping to deliver a child at birth, just like Bentley, and closes with images of active aging, even when strength is spent. -In some ways the bible is a book for the young. After all, jesus dies around 30.I was first hit with this psalm in a new key when I read it for a nursing home years ago and saw that it is from the perspective of someone growing older.. I was getting some grey in my beard and told them that it was the root sense of aging in Hebrew, Notice how this psalm speaks of refuge. at tis best the church is a place of refuge for our doubts and fears, a place, maybe the only place, where we get o to voice our best hopes.
Baptism-It is my prayer that this child not be trained to enter into a church filled with rules and regulations that threaten to displace the gospel message. At the same time, I hope and pray that the church of his developing years will be one that maintains a sense of worship in the face of the awe and majestic approach to worship. We say awesome so much that the word seems to be to be the q\equivalent of i like it. I do want to pick up on his middle name, Christopher, means means carrier of christ.Bentley refers to bent grass, a meadow, a place of feeding and refuge. Notice that his name picks up the theme from today’s psalm. A gorgeous facility such as this allows us to have a respectful approach to the majesty of God. Yet, we can and do find traces of the divine anywhere we go, yes in the meadow grasses, but also in the veGod in its march toward explanation. I disagree. if one looks at science form a religious framework, we encounter the very blueprint of divine creative activity.Yet, God’s awe-inspiring activity is often less spectacular than done with a veiled hand. God, to paraphrase Luther hides action under the aspect of the small and everyday. Water is such a redolent symbol, but it is so ordinary, but its very common quality makes it perfect for a sacrament of equality within the household of God.Put differently, in a universe of billions of galaxies, all containing billions of star systems, God calls us by name as individuals, loves us by name, hold us in the very life of the divine. Out of the vast cosmic ocean this morning heaven stands still for this child to be welcomed into the whole household of God, God’s human family.Baptismal water does not quench the fire of the spirit; it enlivens it, as the dross of human life is burned away, all to expose what god sees, the best in each one of us.
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