Psalm 78:1-39
Hosea 4:1-10
Acts 21:27-36
Luke 6:1-11
Psalm 78:1-39
"Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known." (vs.1-3)
This passage fits beautifully with a conversation that I've been a part of over the past couple of days at our Tuesday Morning Prayer Group and last night at Wednesday Night Church. We've been discussing the discipline of Scripture reading and the value of that discipline. I have heard one of our Hebron folk reference a Scripture passage that we read last week during Wednesday Night Church on two occasions to make two separate good and distinct points. Independent of encountering that Scripture in that gathering those points probably don't occur to her in the subsequent days, but being present for worship and being open to God's Word, she heard and then applied what she heard. The lines above ask us to listen for God's word to us which we can do in many ways, one of which is surely reading Scripture. The utility of this is evident immediately in verse 2. "I will open my mouth in a parable". Knowing Scripture, knowing the stories of Scripture, the people of Scripture makes us familiar and able to access those people and their stories in our own lives. They help us to be able to take the complex step of incorporating the stories into our own parables and to understand the complexity with which others may speak of the stories and people of Scripture. Reading Scripture as a discipline - whether it is the Daily Lectionary or some other approach - is not analagous to playing a slot machine. With the slots you pull the lever and you either receive something or you do not. Scripture may bless us immediately. We may find or hear just the word that we need for a particular moment right at that moment. But exposure to that reading puts the idea into our mind and we cary it with us to the various contexts that we visit throughout the day and the coming days and it works in us and perhaps an application (or more) in a few hours or days or weeks.
Acts 21:27-36
Stunning, electric moment as Paul is beaten an arrested in Jerusalem. The passage ends with Paul standing before a hushed crowd, prepared to make a speech in his defense. Very dramatic passage - love the book of Acts.
Luke 6:1-11
One of those backwards, how do the Pharisees (and how do we) find ourselves in moments like this with clearly sideways passions like this.
So Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. Watching to see what he will do and then seeing him not do it secretly but right out in the open as kind of an object lesson the response of the Phrarisees is..."they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus". Because that's what you would want to do with someone who made people whole - be mad at them and want to hurt them/curtail them in some way. Right?
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