Exhortation for October 12: In the section of Luke’s gospel that we are examining this morning, hospitality serves as a symbol for receiving Christ. To receive one of the messengers of Jesus is to receive Jesus and to receive Jesus is to receive the One who sent Jesus. Hospitality is a picture of conversion, of the proper response to the announcement that the kingdom of God has drawn near. But of course, hospitality is not only a symbol of reception... Read more
A wedding sermon from October 11: At the beginning of his letter to the Romans, Paul describes himself as a “bond-servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” By the last phrase “gospel of God,” Paul was not merely saying that the gospel originates from God. He was saying too that the gospel is ABOUT God, about God’s righteousness, His love, His mercy and grace. The good news that God is not like the... Read more
Luke 10 moves from the story of the Good Samaritan to the story of Mary and Martha. Though different themes come up, they are closely related issues. First, the Good Samaritan is contrasted with two liturgical specialists, a priest and a Levite, and his ministry to the wounded man suggests sacrificial service. Oil and wine would not be typical medicines, but were basic elements in the temple ritual. The Good Samaritan story is a demonstration that obedience — i.e., compassion... Read more
Robert Gagnon, who has written what has been described as the book on the Bible and homosexuality (still unread by me), offers these illuminating comments on the ancient views of homosexuality in an open letter to ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold:<blockquote>First, there were many theories in the Greco-Roman world that posited something akin to modern sexual orientation theory. Philosophers, doctors, and moralists often attributed one or more forms of homosexual behavior, at least in part, to congenital factors. And some... Read more
Sermon outline for October 12: Toward Jerusalem and the Cross, Luke 10:1-42 INTRODUCTION Jesus has embarked on His “way” toward Jerusalem (9:51). Like the angel of Yahweh who went before Israel into the land (Exodus 23:23), so Jesus sends “messengers” before His face as He travels (Luke 10:1). Along the way, He teaches the disciples by His word and example about the “way” of the Lord. THE TEXT “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them... Read more
Bill Kristol is very concerned for the Bush administration. In the lead editorial in this week’s Weekly Standard , he says that the administration is internally at war, a war that has come to public view in the furor over the leak concerning a CIA agent. There’s no doubt that the administration has been eerily silent, and that it’s gone on for months. I like Bush for not putting his mug in front of every rolling camera, but Kristol has... Read more
During a literature exam today, one of my students exclaimed (in some frustration) that the Greeks never got over the Trojan War. That’s exactly right. Homer wrote about it, some time after the event. Centuries later, tragedians like Aeschylus (Oresteian trilogy), Sophocles ( Electra ), and Euripides ( Andromache , Hecuba ) couldn’t stop writing about the aftermath of the war. Move on to Virgil, and we’re just beginning to move on, from Aeneas’s old burned-out Troy to the “new... Read more
There must be, I think, some connection between the parable of the sower in Luke 8 and the harvest Jesus talks about at the beginning of Luke 10. Jesus has been sowing the seed of the word of God, and some has begun to grow up. The harvest is ripe, and it’s time to send laborers out to harvest. The harvest is connected (in Luke 10) with a judgment, in which the grain will be gathered up and the chaff... Read more
A student of mine, Luke Jankovic, tracing the motif of “donkeys” in Genesis, came up with a couple of interesting angles. First, he noted that Abram first acquires donkeys in Egypt in Genesis 12, a proto-plundering of Egypt. And in this context the donkeys are involved in a dowry paid to Abram by Pharaoh. Later, Abram himself gives donkeys to Rebekah’s father. From a receiver of donkeys, Abram becomes a giver of donkeys. And when he gives donkeys he proves... Read more
There are numerous indications of parallels between the history of the Omride dynasty and the history of the kingdom of Judah (and of the Northern Kingdom). One is that a king in both the Omride and Davidic dynasty dies at Megiddo. Ahaziah is shot by Jehu during Jehu’s rebellion, flees to Megiddo, and dies there (2 Ki 9:27). Though Ahaziah is a king of Judah, he has been incorporated into the Omride dynasty through marriage. Later in Kings, Josiah is... Read more
Leithart
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In