Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Theology, humility, and hospitality are all hallmarks of the body of Christ, and especially for us to show to one another. In this little pastoral letter, a selfish person who denies fellow believers, choosing instead to promote himself. This should not be our way.

The spreading of the Gospel is the work of God, and Pentecost is one of the events that sound the great work of God. The message is God's, and we are carriers. The future we have in Jesus is indeed good news, and it was very much worth getting to everyone.

This is a pretty important foundation, though in current times it is less disputed: Jesus is God, and our life is grounded in him. In the first century, when the reality of Jesus coming, dying, and rising from the dead was a little more debated, this would have been critical for the young church to know. It remains as important to our reality today.

Love and fear cannot coexist. Loving others means we do not fear them, and we have no reason to. God has sealed us eternally as his own, so we are free to love as only Jesus could.

The trademarks of love and of the Spirit are shared with our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. This is both because we should share that love with our spiritual family, but also because that shared loves gives our family the kind of attraction that makes others want to be part of it.

The children of God, living in the Kingdom of Jesus, look different than those around them. The undercurrent of love and the work of the Spirit holds us together, but our lives also show the important of things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The way we treat one another, and the attention we give to following Jesus ourselves, is important.

Loving like Jesus is hard to do, but it is one of the most important things that sets apart followers of Jesus. We need our spiritual families to learn it better, and those families need to listen to one another, listen to the Spirit, to learn how to do it better. This is discipleship.

What brings us together in the community of Christ is not our own perfection, but our following of Jesus. Of course, we are not Jesus, so we are not without mistakes. When we fail, it is the redemption of Jesus that also binds us together.

Condemnation is plentiful for religious leaders who use their position to exploit others. In the early church, while the full reality of Jesus was still being realized, this would have been an easy for smooth-talking charlatans capable of swaying others. Perhaps that is why mercy is emphasized for the doubters: in this landscape, it can sometimes be difficult to know who to follow.

Wholeness is God's design; following Jesus produces this. God is planning a new Heaven and a new earth in our future, the redemption of creation is his to produce. In the meantime, we are living in a preview of that Kingdom, bringing about the rule of Jesus in our present world.

God has judgement for those who claim his name but use that name for their own gain. These false teachers will be subject to the same fierce judgement that was recorded in the Old Testament for those who weren't believers, because of course, this is itself unbelief.

"He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father." This is part of the Creed we recite, and today we commemorate that portion. Jesus ascended into Heaven, not to escape us, but to become our High Priest at the right hand of the Father, the position of favor. He remains our advocate and the member of the Trinity who knows our experience directly.

Humility is a characteristic of Christ himself, and Christian leaders must be careful that it is one of their own chief qualities. Using our own power is our first response when we're stressed, but Peter recommends instead that we also remember that God is our help, and turning to him in times of trouble is our best option.

The bit of Job today that says, "If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand?
Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself, and your righteousness only other people." This is an interesting idea to bridge both our Old and New Testament readings today, because indeed our goodness is not to flatter God, but to obey God and bring goodness to the humanity God has made.

Discipleship is an upside down world. We do not repay evil with evil, but we seek good as Jesus did, forgiving even those who crucified him. His model of suffering though innocent is a tough road to follow, but it it the thing that makes the path narrow.

The voluntary humility Christ showed is an important characteristic in followers of Christ. Peter uses it as a way that a believer married to an unbeliever might help them understand the way Jesus taught, in lessons that speak louder than words.

The foundation that has been built by Christ and forms our spiritual house makes the place where we continue building by love and obedience. We are building it too, because we are partners with God in the building of the Kingdom of Jesus.

Another letter for the Jews, the apostle Peter addressed those who were scattered by the many factors of the ancient world. Though they were separated, they were brought back together under the same promise of Jesus, the High Priest who unifies all of God's people.

The power that we have is not money, that is to be shared. It is not in oaths, because we have the bond of the Spirit. Our power is in prayer and coming into the throneroom of God, where our true power and identity lie.

For the Feast of Phillip and James, we are focusing in the book of John on a scene with Phillip, bringing other apostles to Jesus. This is basic apostolic work: to follow Jesus and help others do the same. This line of followers ends with Jesus, but it is still our responsibility to follow well.

What we say matters, and we can use our words to either build up or tear down. James isn't writing about the things that give us Salvation (that's God's work, not ours), but he's reminding the young church that the love they should show one another is important, and it plays out in many ways.

It's not the purpose of growing in faith to keep it to ourselves. The faith we have is for bringing wholeness to to the world and the lives of others. This is the life of the Kingdom of Jesus.

Working out the love that flows between God and his people, and also between the people themselves, can take some work. Some things that might flatter our own ego, like catering to the wealthy, work against the intention of the Kingdom of Jesus.

The book of James is sort of the Proverbs of the New Testament talking about a way to conduct ourselves. This isn't a new attempt to create a Law that brings back the old covenant, but rather shows us what lives transformed by Christ should look like.

The new priest and the new covenant are close fellowship with God, and God will not leave his people. There are leaders within the Kingdom, but Christ is our ultimate head and guide. The fruit of whole lives, helping others to live a whole life, is the abundant gift we are given from our Lord.

The priesthood of Christ seems to come now to something VERY sacred in the Jewish history books: the mountain of God. This was the place where God instituted his sovereignty, where Moses brought the Law to them. Now Jesus brings a new covenant, and a new Kingdom.

The Jewish audience had heard about the new High Priest, the new sacrifice, and the new temple. Now the writer of Hebrews brings it together: because Jesus fills the role of High Priest, we are sons and daughters, but this also means we are held accountable when we hold that honor. We have been made whole, and wholeness should be something we give to others.

Not to separate the new priesthood of Christ away from the tradition of the Jews, the writer of Hebrews now brings the narrative back to Jewish history, but with an emphasis on faith. This is not a reliance on the Law of old, but on the way of new believers and previous believers alike, united with a history of the faithful established by God.

The end result of this reframing of Jesus as both sacrifice and high priest is this: we have great hope in the future with a God who is near, and enduring persecution cannot remove us from him. This was important to the early church, and it remains our promise.

The sacrifice offered by the priest was also a central tenet of Jewish belief, and that comes to the forefront in this section. Not only is Christ's sacrifice the final sacrifice because it satisfies the full offering forever, it is also the dawn of a new covenant in the Sprit, where God's Word is written on our heart as his people.

Christ is the high priest and the fulfiller of the covenant, which was put into effect at his death. That death was also the final sacrifice which ended sin's bondage.

With Jesus as the High Priest, a re-imaginging of the temple is also necessary. The holy place where the high priest once entered required the transporting of the sacrificial blood as well, but Christ is both priest and the carrier of the sacrifice. We are freed by his sacrifice to enter the presence of God boldly.

Jesus is established as a high priest in an order that precedes Aaron, and his priesthood includes a new covenant that establishes a new fellowship with God. Through our connection to Christ, we are part of the work of that priesthood and heirs of his promise.

To trace Jesus as a priest in the order of Melchizedek is to connect him with more than the line of Abraham. The Abraham line establishes the Jewish people, but being a priest before that line existed makes the priesthood for all people. This was important because Jesus as a priest doesn't come away from the Jewish people to join the rest of the world, but he is part of a priesthood that already existed for the world.

The writer of Hebrews has covered Jesus's status as a high priest, but here we return, confirming the salvation that Jesus truly brings. His assurance is our motivation to love and serve the body of Christ, and imitating those already at work is how our faith is passed on.

A Jewish audience would have been very intrigued by this description of Jesus, their new high priest. Sacrifice and priest come together in him, and God's covenant is fulfilled in that sacrifice.

The writer of Hebrews brings another important factor in Jewish life into the discussion: Sabbath. Resting is an act of God, and it should be a time of true renewal. Making things new again is God's ultimate goal, and refreshing creation starts from a place of renewed people.

Once again for the benefit of the Jewish audience, the author of Hebrews brings important points to bear. This time, he talks about the Moses tradition and Jesus in comparison, who is greater than Moses and therefore the tradition Moses represents. This means that God has not rendered the Moses tradition as invalid, but that God has done a greater work to continue his own story.

Since Hebrews as written to a Jewish audience, the author is covering some pretty important pieces that relate directly to the Jewish experience: the humanit of God becoming man, Jesus joining the human experience, and becoming the high priest for all of us. A high priest was human, so it was critical that the audience understand that God had both fulfilled his promise in Jesus and charted a new future because Jesus is now Lord.

Jesus is not an angel, because he is higher than the angels. Jesus is the Son of God, and is God. If he were an angel or a man who was remade into a new being, he could not have been our Savior.

The reasons for the standard to which ministers are held is finally revealed: because these leaders will endure with their churches, working together through hard times. Paul seems to have hit a few of his own, having been abandoned and in need of friends who were far away.

There is a big difference between someone who is conforming their life to follow Jesus and someone who isn't. Paul seems to indicate that even when the example of Christ is before us, some will still follow their own way.

Reproducing ministry is more than just finding people who are willing to do the work, it also requires a standard to which those working can be held. Not because they are better than those to whom they minister, but because to represent Christ in his ministry is to act like Christ would act.

Perhaps one of the most important pieces of 2 Timothy 1 is the phrase, "What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus." This is a pretty good encapsulation of what religion should be in the Kingdom of Jesus: what came from Jesus, passed through the disciples, and continued being handed along through generations is that same pattern of sound teaching we pursue today. And of course, the working of the Spirit is part of that.

Paul seems to have concerns for his leaders' development, even about trivial things such as quarrels about the law and also more serious topics such as enslavement to passions. The end result is leaders who are willing to be set apart, who will model what citizens of Jesus's Kingdom look like in person.

God has ordered the universe, and so the Kingdom which Jesus established will also be ordered. This means the chaos humans a capable of creating should not be its defining quality, but a more thoughtful approach to how we behave.

How do you know the person that should be leading your church? Paul gave Titus one good way to find them: look to their families. Titus apparently lived among a people that were known for being craven, so a person with a family that didn't fall prey to that would have been an exceptional example.

Human tensions can cloud divine intentions. God has included the complicated and contentious human race in his plan, which certainly complicates the march of heavenly progress. And yet, we are still part of that plan, so learning ot live with one another in a way that honors God is critically important.

We need a spiritual family. We need spiritual parents who lead us, spiritual siblings who walk with us, and spiritual children that we mentor. This structure is what helps us hear from God and one another, and this is a healthy Body of Christ.

Paul is training Timothy as a pastor, and he was apparently quite young compared to many who entered into the vocation. Paul moves past this issue and encourages Timothy in the things which are more important than age, such as discipleship and godly living. This had to come first if it was to be taught to others.