Author: Pastor Bob

We have what could be described as a summary of events in chapter 29 which serves as a renewal of the covenant for the people of Israel.  Probably the most powerful verses in the reading for today is found in Deuteronomy 30:19-20 where we see God tell Moses: Now choose life so that you and your children may live.  This is a powerful verse and it does show the decisions that we make often are decisions which either bring God closer to us or pushes God further away from us.

We then have the peaceful transition of power from Moses to Joshua and God predicts that the people of Israel will rebel.  I can only think of poor Joshua as the power if being passed from Moses to him and God is just going off on how bad the people are and how inevitable it is that they will turn their back on him and on their leader.  But, take heart Joshua, says vs.23, be strong and courageous.  I mean, the people are going to be snakes, but hey, I’ll be there with you to address it.

In Mark we have the crucifixion of Jesus and the burial and then the eventual resurrection.  If you notice, Mark is a bit controversial for some because some of the oldest manuscripts don’t contain 16:9ff.  For many the Gospel ends at verse 8.  Me, I don’t have a problem either way.  I know that Jesus rose from the dead and all of the other Gospels attest to it in a way that settles my faith. 

Hang in there folks, we are almost through Deuteronomy.  We find ourselves in chapter 26 where we have the first fruits of the land offered to the Lord in sacrifice.  The giving to God was a part of the natural habits of the people of Israel and so as time passed and evolved into the church, the idea of tithing to God became something that came naturally.  

In chapter 27 we find the tribes divided into those who would give blessings as they enter the promised land and those who would give curses.  We begin with the curses and it is from here where we get the phrase that we use sometimes: Then let all the people say: Amen!  I didn’t realize it was from here, but it must be, because it is repeated a number of times.  Chapter 28 contains both blessings and curses for the people of God with the requirement of obedience in order to enjoy the blessings.  

When we transition to Mark we find ourselves right before Jesus is heading into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to spend the last week of his life.  We hear the parable of the tenants who kill all those whom the owner sends, including the son whom he sends last.  That is obviously a reference to the prophets and then to Jesus.  A lot of popular stories are included in this chapter: “Pay unto Caesar”, Marriage at he resurrection, Greatest Commandment, widow’s offering.

Jesus does get into the signs of the coming of the end of the age, signs that for generations now people have tried to discern and guess.  Remember the point of all this is seen in Mark 13:32-36 where we do not know the time or the hour, but you better watch and be ready because Jesus can come at any time.  Chapter 14 has Jesus with his head washed and Judas betraying him as a result of that with a kiss in the garden.  We finish the chapter with Peter betraying Jesus and all of the disciples scattering.  Don’t ever forget that all of the disciples betrayed Jesus, not just Judas.

Moses prepares the people of Israel to take over the land flowing with milk and honey and provides them with even more laws which they have to follow.  Chapter 21 deals with how to handle a dead body and who is at fault and how to absolve the closest town from a death that is not attributed to anyone.  In that chapter we begin a series of laws dealing with purity of women and the responsibility of men to take as wives and honor the children of all of their wives.  Remember, this was a polygamous society so very different from what we know.

Chapter 22 describes the responsibilities that we have to our neighbor, whether we think we have to or not, we need to look out for our neighbors.  Chapter 23 describes who is welcome and who is not welcome to worship the Lord God, and it is all dependent upon their nationality.  Again, very different from our approach today.  24 contains a number of different laws from kidnapping to paying the wages of the poor before nightfall comes.  

Mark gives us the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Remember, we are one week away from the death of Jesus so the time is waning.  He clears out the temple because of the money changers and declares that the temple is to be a house of the Lord, not a house of commerce.  

In these chapters Moses lays out the religious holidays that ought to be celebrated once they arrive into the promised land that was given to them.  Chapter 16 goes through the celebration of Passover, which was a reminder of what God did for them in Egypt.  Chapter 17 addresses the desire of the people to have a king and I was surprised to read this part because I had thought that God had categorically at this point denied the Israelites even the possibility of setting up a king.  But here he gives some details on how the king is to be chosen and how that king is to rule.  This is way before Saul is anointed the first king of Israel.

Moses addresses how the Levites have been set apart and so don’t have an inheritance of the land, but rather the people need to be taking care of them through the offerings.  We then transition to cities of refuge where people can go if they kill someone by mistake.  That is always nice to have.  And finally we see direction on what to do when you go to war.

In our Mark Scripture we read Jesus receiving the children and telling them that they cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven if they do not become like children in their faith.  Accepting of all that he teaches.  We next see Jesus’ command to the young man to sell all that he has and give it to the poor.  To me it is interesting how we tend to consider some stories literal and other stories allegories.  This one tends to be symbolized more than accepted as literal for some reason.  

We have in Deuteronomy the repeated emphasis on not having other gods before them.  They were poised to enter the promised land, and this meant that they were poised to go into battle and take over towns and cities that were already occupied and where the people were worshiping other gods.  As they conquered these cities they were commanded to first of all tear down all of the religious artifacts that may have been present from the previous population so that whatever religious relics were still in existence, would be destroyed.  God is a jealous God, He says so himself.

I found it interesting that it is within these verses where we see the establishment of the local synagogues where the people are told to create a space that would have the name of the Lord God upon it and the Levites who were living in that town would be the ones who were running that space.  The Levites do not have their own land like all of the other tribes, but rather are spread out among the other tribes and they serve the function now, as it is laid out here, to run the place that is established in each land, that has the name of the Lord upon it.  We would call it the synagogue of that time, or the church in the Christian parlance.

In 13 we see the punishment for anyone who might lead people away from God to another God is pretty severe.  Even if it is your best friend, or your son or daughter, they are to be killed and you are to be the one who takes the first blow.  Did I mention that God is a jealous God?  We continue in chapter 14 with eating laws which then goes into the year of jubilee and the requirement to set your slaves free and to forgive the debts that you may have over other people.  

Mark 9 is filled with a number of very, very important life events of Jesus.  We begin with the transfiguration of Jesus where we are commanded to listen to Jesus even in the midst of the disciples not understanding the kingdom that he brings or how he is going to bring it: with his suffering and death.  We see a number of times that the disciples did not understand, look at vs.32 this whole talk of suffering and dying, and they were too afraid to ask him.  I love the depiction in the Vatican of the transfiguration because you also have the scene of the disciples trying to heal the boy and unable to do so.  Every time that I go to the Vatican I have to see this painting, and it reminds me of the power of the Gospel, and the importance of listening to Jesus and his commandments.  It is by Raphael.

You find in the first chapter that we are reading, 6, is the shema starting in vs.4 which is one of the most famous Scriptures in all of the Old Testament.  It provides the basis for the passing down of the law from one generation to the next and underscores the importance of that generational passing down of the faith and the commandments.  In the Old Testament the faith was able to be passed down from generation to generation.  In the New Covenant with Jesus the faith has to be claimed by the individual and cannot be passed down through inheritance.

Chapter 7 gives a recount of God reminding the people that they were chosen specifically and that God has given them the victory because of his might and not because of their righteousness.  That theme is continued in 8 and then 9 gives us the recount of God giving the 10 commandments to Moses while the people below the mountain offered up sacrifices to the golden calf.  From there God wanted to destroy the people but Moses, like both Elijah and Jesus after him, fasts for 40 days and nights to avert the anger of the Lord from falling on the people.

God gives Moses new tablets and from there re-establishes the fact that God is the one whom the people have to serve with all of their heart and soul and might.  Their responsibility is to keep the commandments, for if they are not kept then God will answer appropriately, which is not what we want.

The one chapter in Mark gives us another story of the feeding of the people but this time it is with 7 loaves and only 4 thousand people.  In spite of these repeated life lessons the disciples continue to not understand what Jesus is doing and the lessons that he is teaching and how to incorporate them into their daily lives.  

It gets to the point where the disciples are able to answer correctly, but then Peter tries to protect Jesus from having to go through what he has to go through and Jesus calls him Satan as a response.  Not something one would want Jesus to call you.

We find ourselves in Deuteronomy 5 where God gives to Moses the 10 Commandments.  We find these commandments also given in Exodus 20 as well.  In this chapter the people of Israel are an integral part of the story where they recognize the voice of God and understand their place before God.  You don’t often see that.

From that we transition to the Gospel of Mark with a plethora of Bible stories that will be hard to cover all of them.  In chapter 3 we see Jesus choosing the 12 disciples after he heals on the Sabbath and gets on the bad side of the Herodians.  We also read about Jesus’ family pursuing him because they think he has lost his mind, but he says that those who do his will are really his family.  It is here where we see the names of his brothers and understand that he had sisters as well. In 4 we see the parable of the seed which is classic and ought to be understood well because each of us has found ourselves walking on the path, or on the rocks, or on the weeks, and sometimes, sometimes I say, on the good soil.  

Chapter 5 we find the man with the demon legion who was cast out and put into the pigs who ran into the sea and died.  When we were in Egypt we saw the place where they think this took place.  It is in the middle of what is now a mine field.  A bit entertaining thinking of the pigs dodging, or not, the mines.  We see the woman with an issue of blood healed as well as the Talitha, the daughter of the rabbi, raised from the dead.

Chapter 6 we see the death of John the Baptist because Herod, who was fascinated by John and liked to hear what he had to say, was seduced by the daughter of his wife.  In this chapter we also see the feeding of the 5,000 without the little boy providing the fish and the loaves, they just seem to appear.  Jesus is becoming quite a thing by the end of this chapter.  Everyone wanted to have a piece of him.

Chapter 7 we see Jesus chastising the religious leaders for their insistence on tradition at the expense of mercy.  We also see the healing of the daughter of the Phoenician woman, which contains a great back and forth dialogue with Jesus and her.  I actually see this woman as a bit of a model for faith and dialogue.  He finishes the chapter with the unorthodox, but effective, healing of a deaf and mute man.

We begin two new books of the Bible in Deuteronomy and Luke.  We see an interesting side of Moses in chapter 3:25 where he asks God: “Let me cross over to see the good land beyond the Jordan.”  But God had said no previously.  We aren’t used to seeing Moses asking God to change his mind so that he can enter the promised land even though God had said that Moses and all those who had disobeyed would not enter, only their children would enter.  Joshua is once again mentioned as the one who will be taking the people into the promised land.  

We do see that they begin to take over some lands that God had promised they would, and God starts to fight on their side.  There are some nation states that God tells them not to bother because God had already given them that land, but then there are others that God tells them to conquer and that it is the beginning of the people seeing the might of the Lord through the Israelites.  

Moses does give a warning to the people that a time will come when the generations will forget the commandments of the Lord and will turn to worshiping idols.  Even in the midst of their unfaithfulness, Moses states, that God will not forget them and will turn them back to his presence over time.  

In the Gospel of Mark we find him starting the life of Christ not with his birth, but with his baptism and eventual time in the wilderness.  After this he calls his disciples including Simon and Andrew when he states that he will make them fishers of men.  What a great verse.  Notice that Capernaum is considered the town of Jesus, if you look at 2:1 it is called his “home”.  From Bethlehem to Nazareth and now Capernaum.  Some great Bible stories are contained in these first two chapters of Mark.  But we do need to look at 2:27 where Jesus states that “the sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the sabbath.”  Great verse.

We finish up I Corinthians by beginning in chapter 12 which addresses spiritual gifts.  We are looking at spiritual gifts in our Sunday School class.  Paul addresses them a number of times in these last chapters, but chapter 12 contains the image of the body and the importance of each body part in the working of the body.  This is an image that is used consistently to describe the church, and it is an important one.  All parts of the body need to work together in order for the body to work well.  If one part is in pain, the whole body feels it.

Chapter 13 is the love chapter and it gives us a beautiful description of the love that we ought to have for one another.  Normally the entire chapter is read at weddings.  Chapter 14 continues with the gifts and focuses on speaking in tongues and prophecy.  Within the Presbyterian Church there is no strong movement for those who consider speaking in tongues an important spiritual gift.  My personal stance is that since it is mentioned in Scripture then it is still a spiritual gift, I just don’t have it.  Paul makes it very clear how that gift is to be used and it is in a very limited fashion.  It is important to follow Scripture in all things, including this one.

Chapter 15 is a crucial chapter in understanding the importance of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.  We believe in the resurrection of the body, for without that belief then our testimony is in vain.  It is a vital part of what we believe and something that we cannot just gloss over.  We have to understand that our Christian faith has to include the belief in the resurrection of the dead.  The final chapter contains greetings from Paul and an encouragement to the people of the church to continue giving financially to the cause of the poor and to Paul’s work as well.  There is a minor theme throughout Paul’s letters where he encourages his churches to continue in their giving to his work.

Psalm 44 contains a number of musically rich content.  In the title it states that it is for the director of music and it has the term Selah in the midst of it, which basically means a break or a chorus in the Psalm.  Remember these were written to be sung to stringed instruments and other types of instruments.  It wasn’t meant to be spoken.

You can find an image of the region where we find chapter 32 describing what is happening in the life of the Israelites.  You see a number of Israelite tribes who had cattle and wanted to remain on the others side of the Jordan instead of crossing it.  Moses said they could do that only if they promised to lead the charge as the entire nation of Israel went into the promised land.  Technically the opposite side of the Jordan, the eastern side, was not in the promised land.  We also see in Psalm 22 the bulls of Bashan, and you can see that region in the north.

Chapter 33 gives us the step by step process of how the Israelites left Egypt and then made their way to where they found themselves now.  It is fun to look at an ancient map and see the route that the people took.  Chapter 34 lays out the territories and the boundaries of the promised land.  Chapter 35 gives us a layout of the cities of refuge where people could flee if they killed someone by mistake.  Interesting that it is included as something of importance as we find ourselves on the cusp of entering the promised land. 

The final chapter gives us another take on the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad where they were promised land, but now they are told that they must marry within their father’s family or else that land would not remain their’s but rather stay within the family unit.  You can’t marry outside of your family and then the land go to the family in which you  married.  It must stay within the family of origin.

I Corinthians 11 gives us a rundown on making sure that the Lord’s Supper is taken in a way that is honoring to God, and not just for the sake of gluttony and drunkenness.  There are also a number of verses related to the relationship between husband and wife and the wearing of head coverings or not depending on whether you are a man or a woman.