by Doris H. Murdoch, teacher and author of Testify: By the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our Testimony and Constructing Your Testimony. Bethlehem
In God’s fulfilled promise of the Messiah, let us look at the Promise’s Names, the annunciation of the Promise, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, and how all of this should affect us in our roles as followers of the Promise.
God’s promise was fulfilled through the Virgin Mary in the birth of His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus (Luke 1:31 “the Lord saves”) is described as the Promised Messiah, the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32), Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14-16), and the Son of God (Luke 1:35). In Micah 5:2-5, the Promise was described as the Ruler in Israel, Peace, Great, Shepherd, Eternal and This One. His name continues in Isaiah 9:6-7 with Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father and Prince of Peace.
We know that the Virgin Mary lived in the town of Nazareth (Luke 1:26) when the angel Gabriel spoke to her and the Holy Spirit came upon her. Today the Church of the Annunciation marks this part of Nazareth. This event came about fourteen generations from David to deportation to Babylon and fourteen generations from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah (Matthew 1:17). God really has the details down in His plans, doesn’t He?
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit did not overlook other individuals involved in this story. We know the Holy Spirit moved in Elizabeth and her unborn son, John the Baptist, when the baby leaped with joy within Elizabeth’s womb (Luke 1:41, 44). With this indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth cried out with a loud voice, “Blessed are you, Mary, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” In Luke 1:68-79, we read how the Holy Spirit filled Zechariah (Zacharias) and revealed that John would “prepare the way” for the Promise of salvation and forgiveness of sins. Zechariah praises God in verses 68-75 and then gives a blessing on his newborn son in verses 76-79.
God’s favor or blessings don’t always bring immediate pleasure. Mary and Joseph had to be patient and forgiving for surely the two had to tolerate a certain amount of gossip and ridicule. Mary traveled to Bethlehem in the latter part of her pregnancy. Here she was, a young and probably petite girl about 13 years old when she gave birth to her first child in a stable or cave in extremely humble circumstances. After the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had to face the struggles of relocation in Egypt as they fled from King Herod. Mary had to face the death of her son Jesus as He was crucified on the cross in His adult years. Mary may not have felt blessed until after the resurrection of Jesus or possibly not until she sat at the feet of Jesus in heaven. We will face struggles also; belief in Jesus Christ does not free us from the struggles of life. We, too, may have to face death of family, persecution, relocation, discomforts, and so forth. We may not see blessings until we sit at the feet of Jesus! It may even be our children or grandchildren that receive the blessings of our faith while on earth.
Cherish the Promise and our role as a follower of Jesus Christ. Let’s offer ourselves wholly, joyfully and obediently to God, just as Mary did…”Here I am, Lord. Use me according to Your will or plan.”
by Dr. William Powell Tuck, friarsfragment.com, retired pastor, professor and author of The Forgotten Beatitude: Worshiping Through Stewardship, A Positive Word for Christian Lamenting: Funeral Homilies, The Church Under the Cross, and more! Jesus told his followers to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. (Mark 12: 28-34). Who is your neighbor? Jesus defined neighbor in his parable about the good Samaritan. Can you imagine Jesus telling a Pharisee, who even thought fellow Jews were unclean, that a Samaritan was his neighbor? Who did Jesus make a hero? A half-breed Samaritan! No, the Pharisees and other Jews would not have been too thrilled with that hero. In fact, when Jesus asked the Pharisee which of the three he thought had been neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves, he would not even say “Samaritan.” He replied simply: “The one who showed him kindness” (Luke 10:37). This parable focuses on those who talk a lot about religion but in time of need only walked by. The priest and the Levite walked by on the other side of the road and left the man in his pain after he had been robbed. The good Samaritan saw the need of his neighbor and came to his aid.
Who then is a neighbor? My neighbor is anybody who needs help. A real neighbor reaches out with spontaneous love and extravagant graciousness to help someone in need. There is a need, and we reach out to meet it. Can we turn our back on the refuges in the world or shut our borders to them and still claim we are following the teachings of Jesus?
The original meaning of our English word neighbor comes from an Anglo-Saxon word which meant “nigh boor” the person who lived “nigh”–near you. The person nigh you might live in the next hollow, on the hill nearby, in the valley below you–anyone nearby. But Jesus doesn’t want us to see our neighbor simply as somebody who happens to live next door, or on the next hill, or over in the next hollow, or in the valley, or on the next mountain peak. Any person who has a need is your neighbor and mine. Persons fleeing persecution around the world are indeed our neighbors.
The test of real love is not in talk but in action. Love is not limited to feelings but is most visibly realized in service. The real neighbor in the parable of the good Samaritan was the one who reached out and ministered to another person in need. It is one thing to talk about love and another thing to practice it. Who is your neighbor? Any person who has any kind of need at all is your neighbor and mine. When you and I listen to the television news or read the paper and learn about hurting persons around the world, these persons are neighbors too. If we shut our eyes to the immediate needs at hand or around the world, we refuse to be neighbors as God wants us to be. Wherever there is hurt, pain, sorrow, hunger, prejudice, or disease, there is an opportunity to be a neighbor.
But the tough question then arises: How can I really be a neighbor to others, even if I know there is a need? How can we love our neighbor as we do ourselves? That seems a tall command. Let me make several suggestions on how we can love our neighbor. First, to love my neighbor does not mean that I have to like him or her. If you and I are honest, there are a lot of folks who are hard to like! When we see some of the ugly things they do or say, they are not easy to like. But Jesus didn’t say that we had to like our neighbors, but we were to love them. This might sound like we are playing with words, but, I believe, there is a real difference.
Now let’s be honest! We all do a whole lot of things from time to time that we don’t like about ourselves, but we keep on loving ourselves. And that is the same way we need to act toward our neighbors. The reason we can do this is because the love which Jesus is talking about here is not an emotion. This love is not based on goose bumps or our feelings. Agape is love that directs the will to actions. Agape is an effort of the will. This is the kind of love that Jesus is calling us to have here. You may not like what somebody does, but you can love them and try to overcome the bad behavior and respond to a higher way.
Secondly, we can love another person as our neighbor if we treat him or her like we want to be treated ourselves. This teaching is summarized in the golden rule where Jesus taught: “Do unto others as you would have them do even also unto you.” If you and I would act toward other people as we want them to act toward us, then we could love them. This attitude means that you will not do anything to belittle another person, hurt them, or harass them. Your goal is to help them. You act kindly toward them because you know that is the kind of response you would like in return from them. When you and I treat other people as we want them to treat us, it gives us a different perspective toward them. If we see another person merely as someone we can manipulate, abuse, hurt, or criticize, then we do not see them as we want to be seen ourselves. We know that is not the way we act toward ourselves or want others to respond to us. We want to act toward them as we would want them to act toward us.
Thirdly, you can love your neighbor when you recognize that you cannot be indifferent to another person’s needs since you are not indifferent to your own. You cannot ignore needs in your own self. If you never responded to any of your own needs, you could not really exist. You have to meet those needs in your own life, whether they be food, water, sleep, or friendship. Our awareness of our own needs should make us more sensitive to our neighbor’s needs. This awareness should keep us from shutting our eyes and folding our hands and ignoring our neighbor. He or she is a person who wants love and care.
Fourthly, we can love our neighbors if we recognize that they are persons of worth and are loved by God, just as we ourselves have sensed that we are persons of worth and we too are loved by God. Even at times when we may feel the most unworthy and unacceptable to God, the good news is that God still loves us. Jesus expressed this in the way he reached out to persons in every walk of life. Tax collectors were among those who were often rejected by their fellow Jews in the time of Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus reached out to Zacchaeus and called Matthew to be one of his disciples. Mary Magdalene, who was most likely a prostitute, was also forgiven of her sins by Jesus. Jesus called his disciples from every walk of life to follow him. He communicated to all of them that they were persons of worth and were loved by him. He reached out to the hurting people of humanity–the blind, the lame, and the deaf. He reached out to people who were rejected and told them that God loved them.
Jesus didn’t say that this commandment was going to be easy. Loving God with your total being is certainly not easy. Loving your neighbor as yourself is likewise not easy. But think of the radical difference there would be in our world if we could really love God with all our personality and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In the early church what often made the real difference in how society responded to the first Christians was not their theology but their love for each other. Others observing the early Christians would often remark: “Behold, how they loved one another.” Do they say that today? How can the world see that kind of love in the constant fights in our denominations, the quarrels in our churches, and especially in how we treat our needy neighbors around the world in their time of need. I for one want to welcome the stranger, the refugee, and the immigrant as my neighbor. “Behold how they loved one another” needs to be a refrain in the life of the church once again.
We cannot build real communities on hate. They must be built on love. Helmut Thielicke has suggested that we need to turn the lawyer’s question around. We do not need to ask, “Who is my neighbor,” as the Pharisee asked. Our question should be, “To whom am I a neighbor?”i Needs are all around us in our world today. Jesus has told us that the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves is like the one about loving God. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus has instructed us. Let us as Christians get up and be about our Lord’s business as we confront the needs near us and around the world.
i Helmut Thielicke, The Waiting Father (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), p. 168.
by Dr. Thomas W. Hudgins, professor, author and translator of Dr. David Alan Black’s book, Aprenda a Leer el Griego del Nuevo Testamento. Isaiah 42:1-9 You might never have heard the expression “Servant Songs” before. But I’m sure you have heard of Isaiah the prophet and the book in the Old Testament that was written by him. And I’m also sure that you have read Isaiah 53 before. You know, that’s the place in the Old Testament with verses like “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This is no doubt the portion of Isaiah that Peter is pointing his audience to when he writes that Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the cross . . . for by his wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). But one thing you might not know is there are four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah, and the one we are most familiar with is actually the fourth—and longest. What are the “Servant Songs,” where are they, and what do they tell us about the identity of the Messiah? That’s our focus here, though we’re only going to focus on the first one.
There are four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah: (1) 42:1 –9 (though some restrict it to vv. 1–4), (2) 49:1–6, (3) 50:4–9, and (4) 52:13–53:12. Each refers to an individual by the expression “my Servant.” These passages are unique in Isaiah, who uses the word “servant” elsewhere in reference to Israel, in that they discuss specific activities that are attributed to the Messiah. John Oswalt writes this:
“In all the other occurrences of ‘servant’ in chapters 40–48 a fearful servant, clearly identified as the nation, is assured of God’s continuing love and care . . . . No function other than ‘witness’ is mentioned. But in these ‘Servant Song’ references, while there are assurances of help, the emphasis is on the Servant’s activities for the world” (The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40–66, NICOT [Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1998], 109).
Calling them “songs” comes from form critical studies in the previous century. Were they actually songs? –No, at least they weren’t originally intended to be sung like the psalms per se. With that said, though, scholars began referring to them as songs because they saw in them parallels with Ancient Near Eastern liturgy. Has someone ever put these words to music? Sure. But I’m not inclined to think they were written after any Ancient Near Eastern pattern. These are the words given to Isaiah for him to proclaim to the generation who has stiffened their necks to their Master and become more disobedient than Israel’s livestock to their masters. In any event, the name “Servant Songs” stuck and it’s the default way people refer to these four discourse units in Isaiah.
The first Servant Song is found in Isaiah 42:1–9. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of this passage. There’s lots here, so we can’t park and take the tour. Verse 1b reads, “I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Notice that Isaiah uses the word “nations,” not Israel. That’s very, very, very interesting. I’m a Gentile. And unless you are Jewish, you are too. And I sure love seeing how the Gentiles were on God’s radar from the very beginning, even after he formed a special covenant relationship with Israel. The Gentiles play a huge role in Isaiah’s prophecy. One of the most familiar verses is found in Isaiah 9: “But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times he treated the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on he shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them” (vv. 1–2). And just a little further into Isaiah we find, “Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and his resting place will be glory” (Isaiah 11:10). The Gentiles are on God’s mind and of significant importance in his redemptive plan. Jesus spent time with Gentiles. Remember the woman at the well in John 4; John made a point to say Jesus absolutely had to travel through Samaria. Why? There was one person he had to talk to, and he waited for her by Jacob’s well. And don’t forget the demoniac on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 5). That individual ended up being the only person impacted by Jesus and his message during that trip. Jesus definitely focused on the Jewish people during his ministry. After all, to them belonged the covenants and they were his people, both as their God and as a descendant, having taken on human flesh. But his mission was a mission to the world, and he modeled for his own disciples how globally focused they had to be if they were going to represent him well later in their endeavors to the ends of the world. The first Servant Song has a lot in it. One of my favorite verses about Jesus is also found in this first one, though most people might not be as familiar with it. Here’s what Isaiah tells us: “He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice” (Isaiah 42:2–3). It’s verse three that I really love so much. But there’s an issue in verse two that we need to deal with: What does it mean that “he will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street”? Didn’t Jesus teach? Didn’t people hear him? And didn’t he cry out, such as the “Woes” found in Matthew 23? Of course. Verse two doesn’t say that Jesus will be utterly silent. It’s not even a reference to what we find later in 1 Peter: “and while being reviled, he did not revile in return; while suffering he uttered no threats . . .” (1 Peter 2:23). Isaiah is pointing out just how gentle the Messiah is overall and how gentle he would be when he took on human flesh and ministered in Galilee, its environs, and ultimately Jerusalem, where he offered his life as a guilt offering. Isaiah is pointing to how the Messiah would understand the importance of biding his time, withdrawing when need be, so that he could offer hope to those who otherwise had no hope and for whom leaders were confident no hope would come.
And that’s the verse that really jumps out at me—verse 3—which explicitly refers to this gentleness, offering two beautiful descriptions of just how gentle he will be. First, he says the Messiah will not break a bruised reed. A bruised reed was useless. You could do anything really with a reed. It was like an all-purpose ingredient. But if it was bruised, a person would break it and discard it. Why break it? So you wouldn’t pick it up again and think you could do something with it. What’s Isaiah say? The Messiah won’t break it. He won’t discard it. Second, Isaiah says the Messiah is so gentle that he could walk by a candle that was just about to go out, and sure enough, it wouldn’t extinguish. Now for us, this imagery is probably closer to our world. You’ve used a candle haven’t you? Seen one that was just at the wick’s end? When a candle burns way down to the end of a wick, it doesn’t have much life left. In fact, you can put it out pretty easy. Just the slightest movement of air can strangle the life out of a dimly burning wick. But the Messiah would be so gentle that he could walk past the most faint of dim flames and somehow it wouldn’t go out. He’s that gentle.
You’ll find the first half of the first Servant Song quoted in Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew records it in his account right before the religious leaders of Jesus’ day reject him as the Messiah and heir to David’s throne. When we think about the Messiah, specifically when we think about the Messiah in Isaiah, our minds immediately turn to Isaiah 7:14, 9:1–6, and, most definitely, the fourth and final Servant Song, Isaiah 52:13–53:12. We need to know those passages, and know them well. But if you’ve never turned your attention to the first three Servant Songs, take my advice and dig in today. We sometimes think the Gospels are the only place to go if we want to see Jesus. My friends, the whole of the Old Testament tells his story. It is the story of Jesus. And Isaiah contains four specific prophecies concerning the Messiah that share the phrase “my Servant.” It’s remarkable what Isaiah tells us about the one who would come and give his life on that cross. Amazing.
We have different purposes when we come to read Scripture. We may distinguish two approaches, by the individual and by the established community. The Community
For many centuries the Bible was in languages the individual Christian could not understand. So what the Bible said was locked away from the majority. Greek, the language of the New Testament, Latin the language of the dominant church, and Hebrew the language of the Old Testament was available only for the few. So the church’s representatives who were able to communicate to the masses provided them with their favoured interpretations for acceptance buys those who had no reference to the text of Scripture. The individual
There were champions for the individual however. But not till very late in the Christian story. Tyndale and Luther were passionate in believing that given opportunity the individual, humble however he might be, could readily read and understand the Christian teachings if they had access to the text of Scripture. They struggled to provide translations that the ploughboy could read and understand. Two names, among others stand out: William Tyndale and Martin Luther.
It is no longer the case that the text of Scripture is inaccessible to the majority of Christians. We may and must distinguish between two approaches to Scripture.
The individual reads Scripture for the spiritual and moral uplift and understanding it provides. The church community seeks confirmation of its doctrine by reference to Scripture. Indeed some churches claim that their whole teaching is based on Scripture. The serious question then is this: How does one approach Scripture so as to arrive at doctrines that the church teaches as essential? That is the problem that is addressed by the question: Which is a correct and valid way of so interpreting Scripture that what results is faithful to Scripture. This is the activity we call hermeneutic.
We can therefore examine not only the actual teachings, the doctrines of a community, but make clear the method of interpreting Scripture that has led to the production of such doctrines. Such methods of interpreting Scripture are often reflections of particular situations, as indeed the coming into being of the diverse ‘writings’ of Scripture was. To understand in asking the question about hermeneutic, we must examine the historical context in which the hermeneutic emerged. This we must of course do also with reference to the emergence of the many various ‘writings’ included in the biblical canon that we are interpreting. Divergence
An interesting question arises. How might the devotional, individual reading of Scripture influence the development or acceptance of doctrinal positions? Individual believers as they give careful attention to what they are reading will relate what they understand Scripture to teach to the teachings of the church community of which they are members. Then they may make a decision. Do they correspond? If the reader discerns that they do not, he may resolve the conflict by rejecting the teachings of the church or by asking for consideration of alternatives. In this way the opportunity for the personal reading of Scripture poses a threat to a traditional church. Sometimes that produced determined opposition by the establishment to the translation of Scripture. The cruelty with which such opposition was exposed is well attested. Tyndale and his supporters provide an all too typical example. That is now in the past.
However, some churches have an orthodoxy they seek to maintain rigidly. The sad fact of the rejection of those who doubt and suggest alternatives is well attested. Sanctions of various kinds are applied to such people. A closed community then remains closed, enclosed by the insistence of holding rigidly to its traditions, sometimes defending its insistence by claiming that its doctrine is a direct and valid interpretation, i. rendering, of Scripture. Here there is conflict with the conviction of the individual reader. Sometimes it leads to reformation. Sometimes to emphatic insistence on maintaining the established teaching, to revival rather than to reformation.
“The sea is so great and my boat is so small.” When I first heard that many years ago I had no idea just how immense that sea would become and how much my tiny craft would seem to shrink. I also had concept of how stormy that sea could become. At the conclusion of a political campaign that, according to a recent poll, has greatly increased the anxiety level of over fifty percent of the population, the land of the free and the home of the brave seems to have become the abode of the fearful.
One of my favorite biblical texts from childhood onward has been the question Mordecai sent to Queen Esther. For years the only translation I knew was (Esther 4:14): “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” More modern translations (TNIV) give a slightly different twist: “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this.” Either way, the meaning is clear: Your place in this crucial time provides you with the opportunity to do something significant.
Of course, we lament, if we had some place of status or office of power we certainly would be in a position to have some significant influence over current events. But in this present global churning sea of difficulty how can we possibly do anything that really matters? It is easy to decide that since we can’t do anything great we won’t do anything at all.
Recently, my devotional reading has surfaced two well-known pieces I think belong together. The First is The Practice of Self-Abandonment of Jean-Pierre de Caussade – widely known in its more popular version – The Sacrament of the Present Moment. The essence of its teaching is that God is present in this moment and it is the only one we have in which to live and do our “duty.” “De Caussade maintains that past thinking leads to discouragement and future thinking leads to anxiety and fear. DeCaussade goes on to say that nothing is so small or trivial in God’s eyes. This moment holds the will of God for me.” (Mary Margaret Funk, Tools for Practicing the Spiritual life. New York: Continuum, 107-108).
The second piece is the famous prayer used by AA: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Some things are “fixed.” But not everything is beyond changing – or at least moderating. And it does take real courage to tackle what I can change in myself and my small world of influence. The wisdom to know the difference between the two saves us from both frustration and discouragement.
In this present moment, wherever I happen to be positioned, I have the opportunity to do what I can, with what I have, to the best of my ability. I can certainly refuse to add to the anger and rage that has gripped so many during this election campaign. I can refuse to participate in the dehumanizing of anyone. I can work on being a non-anxious presence with whomever and wherever I am. I can work on turning down the heat in a highly conflicted culture.
I am always encouraged by the memorable words of Mother Teresa: “We are not called to do great things but small things with great love.” Her work among the nobodies of Calcutta has inspired countless people to give the best they can bring to the needs of those who are right at their doorstep. It encourages a one-on-one approach to living.
I have no doubt that we are all here for such a time as this. We are meant to live today where we are with the gifts we have. We are meant to do what we feel we are capable of doing. What really matters is to begin each day with the simple prayer: “I know, Lord, that this is the day you have made and it is my only time to live. Help me to discover what I can do this day to make a difference – be it ever so small. What really matters after all is knowing I’m doing something and not simply observing life from the sidelines.”
by Doris H. Murdoch, teacher and author of Testify: By the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our Testimony and Constructing Your Testimony. The Lion’s Gate is located in the northeast section of the Old City Walls of Jerusalem. It is one of seven gates in Jerusalem that is open today; the Lion’s gate has numerous names that will be discussed. There are four lions near the crest of the gate, two on the left and two on the right. There is some discrepancy over what “cat” is actually on the gate; there are tales that the animals may be cheetahs, leopards or lions. The Lion’s Gate is known worldwide for several reasons: Muslim and Jewish identity; Jesus’s final walk from the prison to crucifixion; and the Six Day War. During the Crusader period, the gate was called Josophat’s (Jehoshaphat) Gate. Jehoshaphat means the Lord judges. We know that Jehoshaphat was a leader who pursued peace and sought God’s guidance during his reign in Judah (I Kings 22:5). In the end times, God will gather the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat to be judged (Joel 3:2). God’s judgment is divine wisdom; we know there were officials named Jehoshaphat during David’s and Solomon’s reigns. (II Samuel 8:16; I Kings 4:17) The Christian name is St. Stephen’s Gate. The Early Church chose seven leaders to distribute food to the needy with Stephen being one of the chosen deacons. Acts 6 and 7 tells the story of Stephen in his ministry and death through stoning. It is believed that the gate is the one taken into the Kidron Valley where the martyrdom of Stephen took place. The gate is also called the Sheep Gate (Nehemiah 3) as sheep were led into the city for sacrifice via this gate. This is the gate Jesus took as he was led from prison to crucifixion. As the Lamb of God, He laid down His life for His sheep (John 10:1-11). The Hebrew name for the entryway is Sha’ar Ha’Arayot (in honor of the decorations above the gate) and the Arabic name is Bab Sitna-Mariam, the Gate of the Tribes. It is said that the tribes of Israel entered the Old City through this gate. It is also called St. Mary’s Gate. This is because the Virgin Mary’s birthplace is on the road to the right, St. Anne’s Church. As mentioned earlier, the “cats” on the gate are up for discussion. Some say the cats are leopards; others say cheetahs; and then some say the animals are lions, like the Lion of Judah. Most likely, the cats were placed on the gate by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to celebrate the defeat of Mamluks in 1517. Folklore states that Suleiman had dreams of lions eating him after high taxing of the people of Jerusalem and meditating on how to punish those who were unable to pay the taxes. The wiseman who interpreted the dream said that God was angry with him for his evil thoughts and actions. To atone or appease God, Suleiman built the gate to protect Jerusalem from invaders. Some say it was Suleiman’s predecessor Selim who dreamed of the lions eating him when he planned to level Jerusalem. He spared the city and built the wall around it for protection. Some say panthers or cheetahs of the Baybars were transferred to the gate as a symbol of their dominion. No matter the tale, lions became the symbol of the city of Jerusalem and the mighty God it serves, the Lion of Judah (Genesis 49:9). At the peak of the gate is an Arabic inscription and below the inscription is a Jewish symbol, the Magen-David (Star of David). Observers witness the identity of the Muslims and the Jews in the Lion’s Gate. Before the crucifixion, Jesus would have used the Lion’s Gate as He traveled from Judean Desert (Jerusalem-Jericho Road) to begin His early ministry. He would have taken this route from The Mount of Temptation. The road from the gate descends to the Kidron Valley and the foothills of the Mount of Olives. This would have been the route after His arrest at the Garden of Gethsamene. Jesus’ final walk from the prison to the crucifixion is via the Lion’s Gate. The Temple Mount is to the left and the road to St. Anna (St. Anne’s Church), believed to be the home of the Virgin Mary, is to the right. As one moves in a westwardly direction, the road becomes the Via Dolorosa. The Lion’s Gate has more recent history for the Jews. Suring the Six Day War, Jerusalem united under Israel control when the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) fought against Jordan, Syria and Egypt during June 5-10 of 1967. In a decisive victory for Israel, the 55th Paratroop Brigade came through the gate in 1967 and placed the Israeli flag above the Temple Mount in the Old City. In an effort to create peace in the Middle East, some developments and setbacks took place through the Oslo Accords in 1993-2001. Since this, terrorist attacks and suicide bombings have been the result of land disagreements in the Arab-Israeli relations. Arabs and Jews enter and depart through the gate, but positive feelings of the shared history of the gate are doubtful. From biblical times through today, the Lion’s Gate has played a vital role in the happenings of Israel. God may be revealing His mystery and divine wisdom of the end times in this gate called the Lion’s Gate. What is your response concerning the shared history, Arab-Israeli relations or the end times in respect to the Lion’s Gate?
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:4-9 (NRSV)
Recently, I coined the term “theospirituality” to describe the interplay of our theological visions and our spiritual practices. I believe that the apostle Paul is a master of theospirituality, especially in his Letter to the Philippians. He makes the following assertions in the course of the text:
God will bring the good work God has begun in our lives to fulfillment and it will be abundant. (1:3-11)
Christ’s mind dwells in us. (Philippians 2:5-11)
Christ’s mind is relational and affirmative, and grounded in love and not fear. (2:5-11)
Our salvation or wholeness is a matter of God’s grace and our agency. (2:12)
God is intimate. (4:5)
God empowers is to respond to every situation. “I can do all things.” (4:13)
God will provide for our every need. (4:19)
Paul’s Philippian vision is grounded in his belief that God is with us, moving in our lives, providing us with wisdom and energy, and inviting us to be God’s partners in bringing beauty to the world. Paul also provides us with a way to experience his vision of reality that involves an integration of practice and action. As a matter of fact for Paul everything we do is a spiritual practice. Central to Paul’s spiritual formation is a life of constant prayer. For Paul prayer is a state of mind, transcending mere words. Pray about everything, small and large. Ask God for what you need and give thanks for your blessings. Don’t worry, but place everything in God’s hands. Make a commitment to live joyfully. This was good news in Philippi; it is good news today! Perhaps, more telling for our time is Paul’s counsel to “think about these things,” to live affirmatively rather than negatively. This is a challenge these days: we are constantly surrounded by negativity. Politicians bully, insult each other, and tell us to be very afraid. The 24/7 news cycle gives us language of doom and gloom, and imagines a dystopian future for all of us. Even weather reports on sunny days speak of news from the “storm desk” and see a drop of rain as a potential crisis. We can’t escape the realities of negativity, but we need not be ruled by them. In a world, shaped by negativity, Paul counsels us to live affirmatively, guarding our minds by positive thinking: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable.” This is the power of affirmative faith that transforms our minds, and opens us to God’s presence in our lives. For Paul, the Christian life is joyful. But, joy is not an accident, but a matter of intentionality. God’s grace permeates all things, and we can, by our openness, awaken to that grace in every moment of our lives.
Last night I managed to talk about just one verse, Galatians 1:1, and I’m not finished. You can read my introductory notes on my blog. I’ll be following that discussion up with some further notes on authority and what makes an apostle.
For the Energion Publications books related to this study, see the Biblical Studies – Paul category.
by Dr. Bruce G. Epperly, pastor, professor, and author of Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide, FInding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job, Jonah: When God Changes, Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God and more!
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:4-9
Recently, I coined the term “theospirituality” to describe the interplay of our theological visions and our spiritual practices. I believe that the apostle Paul is a master of theospirituality, especially in his Letter to the Philippians. He makes the following assertions in the course of the text:
God will bring the good work God has begun in our lives to fulfillment and it will be abundant. (1:3-11)
Christ’s mind dwells in us. (Philippians 2:5-11)
Christ’s mind is relational and affirmative, and grounded in love and not fear. (2:5-11)
Our salvation or wholeness is a matter of God’s grace and our agency. (2:12)
God is intimate. (4:5)
God empowers us to respond to every situation. “I can do all things.” (4:13)
God will provide for our every need. (4:19)
Paul’s Philippian vision is grounded in his belief that God is with us, moving in our lives, providing us with wisdom and energy, and inviting us to be God’s partners in bringing beauty to the world. Paul also provides us with a way to experience his vision of reality that involves an integration of practice and action. As a matter of fact for Paul everything we do is a spiritual practice. Central to Paul’s spiritual formation is a life of constant prayer. For Paul prayer is a state of mind, transcending mere words. Pray about everything, small and large. Ask God for what you need and give thanks for your blessings. Don’t worry, but place everything in God’s hands. Make a commitment to live joyfully. This was good news in Philippi; it is good news today! Perhaps, more telling for our time is Paul’s counsel to “think about these things,” to live affirmatively rather than negatively. This is a challenge these days: we are constantly surrounded by negativity. Politicians bully, insult each other, and tell us to be very afraid. The 24/7 news cycle gives us language of doom and gloom, and imagines a dystopian future for all of us. Even weather reports on sunny days speak of news from the “storm desk” and see a drop of rain as a potential crisis. We can’t escape the realities of negativity, but we need not be ruled by them. In a world, shaped by negativity, Paul counsels us to live affirmatively, guarding our minds by positive thinking: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable.” This is the power of affirmative faith that transforms our minds, and opens us to God’s presence in our lives. For Paul, the Christian life is joyful. But, joy is not an accident, but a matter of intentionality. God’s grace permeates all things, and we can, by our openness, awaken to that grace in every moment of our lives.
by Dr. William Powell Tuck, friarsfragment.com, retired pastor, professor and author of A Positive Word for Christian Lamenting, The Church Under the Cross, Overcoming Sermon Block, and more! Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-44 that we are to love our enemies seems not only difficult but, if we are honest, impossible to put into practice. How, for example, do persons who were freed from years of being imprisoned by terrorists, forgive their enemies? How do relatives, who stand before the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, D.C., love the enemies who killed their relatives and friends? How do the millions of Jews who saw their husbands, wives, children or parents gassed, victimized and tortured in Nazi concentration camps, forgive them? How do the Japanese, who lived in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, forgive us for dropping the bomb on them? How do the relatives of those who were killed in the twin towers which collapsed from the crashed planes of the 9/11 attacks forgive those who were responsible for such an act?
A Difficult Saying
“Forgive your enemies,” sounded difficult in the day when Jesus first uttered it. He was addressing a people who were at that moment enslaved by the Romans. The tax collectors, their fellow Jews, were working with the Roman government to collect taxes from them. Jewish religious leaders often set up restrictions of the law which were so binding that no person who had any kind of ordinary job could possibly follow their rigid regulations.
Who are Our Enemies?
Enemies are easy to define in wartime. Let’s put wartime, terrorists, murderers, and rapists aside for a moment and bring our enemies closer to home. Who is our enemy? Our enemy is anybody who hates us or who wishes us harm or injury through word or deed. An enemy comes closer and takes on a familiar face when you see your enemy as someone who may cause you difficulty and turmoil in your job or makes your work miserable. Our enemy may be seen as someone who has caused us to go bankrupt, or smeared your name or hurt your reputation through gossip or slander, or anyone who has told a half-truth about you or sought to cause you harm. Or some one who makes fun of you, puts you down, or ridicules you. An enemy may be someone who has closed the door of communication, or some one who responds differently to you because she has misunderstood or misinterpreted something you said or did. All of us feel we experience some kind of enemy.
Why Should I Love My Enemy?
The more basic question seems to be: Why should I love my enemy? Why should we try to love somebody who wants to hurt us, hates us or cause us harm? If you respond to a person who dislikes you or hates you with the same attitude they are directing toward you, you will soon find that your life is poisoned within. Hatred is a self-destructive attitude. Jesus went so far as to say that the wells of anger and lust within determine our outward behavior.
We need to make a distinction between hating things and hating people. We tend to identify a person with the vicious, destructive or harmful behavior which he or she does. It is easy to hate a murderer, rapist, or terrorist. Instead let’s direct our indignation to the root cause behind the evil and not on the person who is committing the act of evil. We need to love the person and hate the evil. We need to overcome war, prostitution, prejudice, drugs and other enemies, but not by hating the persons involved in them.
Why should we love our enemy? We love our enemy because love is the only power which can change our enemy. Jesus was not interested in condemning a person but in saving them, making them whole. No prostitute was ever changed by treating her as a prostitute. No thief was ever changed by treating him as a thief. An enemy is not changed by treating him as an enemy. Love is the power which can convert an enemy into a friend. Why do we want to love? Because it is only in forgiving others that we are really forgiven ourselves. This is what Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.” If you and I refuse to forgive others, we close the door to our own forgiveness by God.
Loving Does Not Mean We Have to Like Our Enemy
We begin to love our enemy by realizing that we don’t always have to like our enemy. There are things that our enemies do that we will never like. Who can like somebody that murders and rapes, robs and kills, or somebody who hurts us with words, or who victimizes us, or who is prejudiced against us? It is difficult to like these people. But we are told not to like them but to love them.
The word agape is different from a sentimental concept of love. Agape means that you deliberately direct your will to accomplish what is best for your enemies. This kind of love is not based on emotion or sentiment. When I loved my children by directing my will to recognize and motivate the best within them, there were times that I had to deny them what they wanted. At times I had to discipline them or put restraints on what they wanted to do. I had to correct or try to modify their behavior. I may not have liked what they did, but I continued to love my children. I also continue to love myself when I do some things that I don’t like. Real love does not say that it doesn’t make any difference what a person does. By an effort of my will–by loving them–I try to bring about change in their lives.
Don’t Identify a Person with his or her Sin
Another way to love my enemy is by not identifying the person with their sins. I make a distinction between my real self and what I do. I need to do the same for others. I have to see the potential within others. If I refuse, I will never give another a chance to change. Jesus looked at people and saw what they could be through grace and forgiveness. He saw Zacchaeus, a tax collector, who was one of the most despised persons of his day. Yet he saw the difference that could be in his life if he would follow him and change his life. He saw within the life of Mary Magdalene, a prostitute and an outcast of society, what she could become through transforming love. He saw within Saul, who was persecuting and executing Christians, a pioneering missionary.
This is what God does for us. We can learn to forgive our enemies when we begin to realize how often people do not really understand their own actions. Jesus prayed on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The influence of friends, relatives, peer groups, community, social or national pressures, gangs or other pressures cause us to act the way we do. Sometimes, we do not really “know what we do.” But thank God we can break free from packs and their pressure and experience forgiveness and have the opportunity to start again. This Radical Forgiveness Identifies Us with God
Jesus told his disciples that if they learn to forgive their enemies they would be children of the most high (Luke 6:35). This kind of love reveals that we are like our Father. Even if we are like the prodigal son and go into the farthest country of sin, God will still forgive us when we say: “Father, I have sinned.” Out of love God extends grace that issues in our forgiveness.
This Is a Demanding Love
This kind of love is not easy. Its claim on our lives and attitude is demanding. The love that Jesus Christ models for us goes beyond anything many we can imagine. This love demands the forgiveness of others, the unwillingness to cling to grudges or harbor hatreds, and the goal of being “perfect” like God. Christ calls us to be unselfish, caring, patient, understanding, loving, and sacrificial. Jesus didn’t say his way was easy. Loving our enemies is difficult and hard to accept. But it is at the heart of our faith. This teaching makes us realize how far we are from following our Lord’s way.
Jesus told his followers to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. (Mark 12: 28-34). Who is your neighbor? Jesus defined neighbor in his parable about the good Samaritan. Can you imagine Jesus telling a Pharisee, who even thought fellow Jews were unclean, that a Samaritan was his neighbor? Who did Jesus make a hero? A half-breed Samaritan! No, the Pharisees and other Jews would not have been too thrilled with that hero. In fact, when Jesus asked the Pharisee which of the three he thought had been neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves, he would not even say “Samaritan.” He replied simply: “The one who showed him kindness” (Luke 10:37). This parable focuses on those who talk a lot about religion but in time of need only walked by. The priest and the Levite walked by on the other side of the road and left the man in his pain after he had been robbed. The good Samaritan saw the need of his neighbor and came to his aid.
You might never have heard the expression “Servant Songs” before. But I’m sure you have heard of Isaiah the prophet and the book in the Old Testament that was written by him. And I’m also sure that you have read Isaiah 53 before. You know, that’s the place in the Old Testament with verses like “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This is no doubt the portion of Isaiah that Peter is pointing his audience to when he writes that Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the cross . . . for by his wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). But one thing you might not know is there are four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah, and the one we are most familiar with is actually the fourth—and longest. What are the “Servant Songs,” where are they, and what do they tell us about the identity of the Messiah? That’s our focus here, though we’re only going to focus on the first one.
We have different purposes when we come to read Scripture. We may distinguish two approaches, by the individual and by the established community.
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The Lion’s Gate is located in the northeast section of the Old City Walls of Jerusalem. It is one of seven gates in Jerusalem that is open today; the Lion’s gate has numerous names that will be discussed. There are four lions near the crest of the gate, two on the left and two on the right. There is some discrepancy over what “cat” is actually on the gate; there are tales that the animals may be cheetahs, leopards or lions. The Lion’s Gate is known worldwide for several reasons: Muslim and Jewish identity; Jesus’s final walk from the prison to crucifixion; and the Six Day War. 
Recently, I coined the term “theospirituality” to describe the interplay of our theological visions and our spiritual practices. I believe that the apostle Paul is a master of theospirituality, especially in his Letter to the Philippians. He makes the following assertions in the course of the text:
Last night I managed to talk about just one verse, Galatians 1:1, and I’m not finished. You can read my introductory notes on my blog. I’ll be following that discussion up with some further notes on authority and what makes an apostle.
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Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43-44 that we are to love our enemies seems not only difficult but, if we are honest, impossible to put into practice. How, for example, do persons who were freed from years of being imprisoned by terrorists, forgive their enemies? How do relatives, who stand before the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, D.C., love the enemies who killed their relatives and friends? How do the millions of Jews who saw their husbands, wives, children or parents gassed, victimized and tortured in Nazi concentration camps, forgive them? How do the Japanese, who lived in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, forgive us for dropping the bomb on them? How do the relatives of those who were killed in the twin towers which collapsed from the crashed planes of the 9/11 attacks forgive those who were responsible for such an act?