Category: Uncategorized

Chapter 10

Good Monday Morning to this week 10 of 2022

St Andrew’s Church is an Orthodox church in Kyiv, constructed between 1747 and 1754. Situated on a steep hill, where Andrew the Apostle is believed to have foretold the great future of the place as the cradle of Christianity in the Slavic lands, the church overlooks the historic Podil neighborhood. The church was consecrated in honor of Andrew the Apostle who is recognized as the “Apostle of Rus′. According to the chronicle The Tale of Bygone Years, Saint Andrew came to the Dnipro River’s slopes in the 1st century AD and erected a cross on the current location of the church. He prophesied that the sparsely inhabited area would become a great city.

Andrew the Apostle was born between 5 and 10 AD in Bethsaida, in Galilee. The New Testament states that Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, and likewise a son of Jonah. “The first striking characteristic of Andrew is his name: it is not Hebrew, as might have been expected, but Greek, indicative of a certain cultural openness in his family that cannot be ignored. Both he and his brother Peter were fishermen by trade, hence the tradition that Jesus called them to be his disciples by saying that he will make them “fishers of men”. At the beginning of Jesus’ public life, they were said to have occupied the same house at Capernaum.

The Byzantine Church honours him with the name Protokletos, which means “the first called”. In the gospels, Andrew is referred to as being present on some important occasions as one of the disciples more closely attached to Jesus. Andrew told Jesus about the boy with the loaves and fishes,and when Philip wanted to tell Jesus about certain Greeks seeking Him, he told Andrew first. Andrew was present at the Last Supper. Andrew was one of the four disciples who came to Jesus on the Mount of Olives to ask about the signs of Jesus return at the “end of the age”.

The Chronicle of Nestor adds that he preached along the Black Sea and the Dnieper river as far as Kiev, and from there he travelled to Novgorod. This is how , he became a saint in the Ukraine and other nations around. The Primary Chronicle reports that, in the year 986, Vladimir met with representatives from several religions. The result is amusingly described in the following apocryphal anecdote. Upon the meeting with Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga, Vladimir found their religion unsuitable due to its requirement to circumcise and taboos against alcoholic beverages and pork; supposedly, Vladimir said on that occasion: “Drinking is the joy of the Rus.” He also consulted with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), questioned them about Judaism but ultimately rejected it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God.
Returning to Kiev in triumph, Vladimir exhorted the residents of his capital to the Dnieper river for baptism. This mass baptism became the iconic inaugural event in the Christianization of the state of Kievan Rus’. At first, Vladimir baptized his twelve sons and many boyars. He destroyed the wooden statues of Slavic pagan gods (which he had himself raised just eight years earlier). Then Vladimir sent a message to all residents of Kiev, “rich, and poor, and beggars, and slaves”, to come to the river on the following day, lest they risk becoming the “prince’s enemies”. Large numbers of people came; some even brought infants with them. They were sent into the water while priests prayed. To remember the event, Vladimir built the first stone church of Kievan Rus’, called the Church of the Tithes.

Though we know more about his brother Peter, it was Andrew who first met Jesus. At least three times Andrew is shown as one who introduced others to Jesus. First he introduced his borther Simon to Jesus second, he introduced a small boy to Jesus and third, he introduced a delegation of foreigners to Jesus. Andrew showed a global outlook by ushering many to meet Jesus. Andrew realized that the good news of Jesus was for the every man, woman, and child from every tribe and nation around the world. He wanted to be first, not for himself, but for the sake of others meeting the one he follows.

Praying for many “Andrews” in this time great distress, pain, death and war. Praying for many to be Andrew, to have the desire to be first for the sake of others!

Wishing a blessed, protected and safe start to this week.

Philemon

Chapter 9

Good Monday morning to this week 9 of 2022

Little Jonah’s godfather telephones and Jonah picks up. “Jonah, let me speak to your Dad!” Jonah whispers softly, somewhat agitated: “I can’t.” “Why not?” “He’s busy.” “Then get your Mom for me!” Jonah, still whispering: “I can’t do that either.” “Why can’t you?” Jonah says very softly: “She is busy too. The police are here.” The godfather, increasingly worried, asks: “What is going on there? Then put one of the police officers on the phone!” “I can’t.” “Why?” “They are busy, too, and the firefighters are here.” The godfather is really agitated now: “For heaven’s sake what are they all so busy about?” Jonah: “Shh, not so loud. I’m hiding under the sofa with the telephone and they are all looking for me.”

A kairos moment for little Jonah!

The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” ( Luke 12:16-20 )

What Jesus describes here is a great deal more: a human being who is completely self-absorbed. The linguistic signal of this is that he is presented entirely through internal monologues. This man knows no one but himself. He doesn’t ask about anyone else. He presents an image of absolute egocentricity. The moment in which he sees that his fields are producing an abundant harvest could become a kairos for him, an occasion to think of others—maybe even to think of God. But his orbit is only himself.

So our parable shows us that it is not only profound self-fixation that makes it impossible to perceive the coming of the reign of God—no, even a full concentration on the necessities, plans, forces, and cares of everyday life does the same. The wheat farmer wants to avoid those forces once and for all. But he cannot escape his own orbit!

In the New Testament, kairos means “the appointed time in the purpose of God,” the time when God acts, the kairos is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Kairos used 86 times in the New Testament refers to an opportune time, a “moment” or a “season” such as “harvest time”. I refers to a specific amount of time, such as a day or an hour or as Jesus did, he makes a distinction between “His” time and “His brothers'” time. There are times in hisotry, the kairoi crisis time which create an opportunity for and indeed demand, an existential decision by the human subject, the coming of Christ as prime example or in in liberation theology of South Africa, the appointed time, the crucial time.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, before the Divine Liturgy begins, the Deacon exclaims to the Priest, Kairos tou poiēsai tō Kyriō. It is time [kairos] for the Lord to act’, indicating that the time of the Liturgy is an intersection with Eternity.

This past week started with a kairos moment of a very powerful, dangerous and foolish leader. Yet, this can call forth another kairos moment an “It is time” moment.

It is time for the Lord to act!

Wishing you a blessed start to this new week!

Philemon

Chapter 8

Good Monday morning to this week 8 of 2022

This post was on various platforms this week and was reposted quite quickly.

“How does the thief on the cross fit into your theology? No baptism, no communion, no confirmation, no speaking in tongues, no mission trip, no volunteerism, and no church clothes. He couldn’t even bend his knees to pray. He didn’t say the sinner’s prayer and among other things, he was a thief. Jesus didn’t take away his pain, heal his body, or smite the scoffers. Yet it was a thief who walked into heaven the same hour as Jesus simply by believing. He had nothing more to offer other than his belief that Jesus was who he said he was. No spin from brilliant theologians. No ego or arrogance. No Shiny lights, skinny jeans, or crafty words. No haze machine, donuts, or coffee in the entrance. Just a naked dying man on a cross unable to even fold his hands to pray.”

For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believed in him would not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

The thief on the cross presents us with a basic but powerful systematic theology. His words give us a synopsis of essential gospel truth. The first essential truth the repentant thief understood was that God should be feared.

The words of the thief stand in stark contrast to the blasphemous utterances coming from everyone else around him. The unrepentant thief, the Jewish rulers, and the Roman soldiers were all scornful and irreverent in their mockery of Christ. Their behavior showed no fear of God whatsoever—if anything, they were gleefully venting their unbelief.

In a situation where all the visible power on display belonged to those on the ground religious leaders, political rulers, and Roman soldiers, the thief made his appeal to the Man hanging beside him. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” Surrounded by sneering human authorities, the thief recognized who was really in charge and cried out to the King of God’s kingdom, without demands or ultimatums.

The thief on the cross remains a theological edge case. Even dispensing (pun intended) a problem remains of covenant history. That is, his situation is so extreme and unusual that it probably should not be used to evaluate a general principle. In fact, treating the thief on the cross as a soteriological (study of salvation) role model would prove too much. Even if we ignore covenant history and make the thief a standard-setting example, why not others? While Jesus walked the Earth, he forgave the sins of many people in a wide variety of non-standard-setting circumstances. If unique situations like the thief on the cross show that faith alone is normatively sufficient for salvation, then what do those who require personal faith for salvation make of Jesus forgiving a man based on his friends’ faith?

If we ignore covenant history and make the thief on the cross (alone) a standard-setting example, he was not actually without good works. The thief exhibited all the faith and works that he could, given his situation! (good point here). The fact that his physical limitations made it impossible for him to do anything more than speak was certainly not lost on God!

Interesting just how much the thief seemed to know about Jesus that he did not learn from Jesus on the cross: e.g., that Jesus had done nothing wrong, that Jesus was Lord  and that he was going to his kingdom after he died . Note that this last truth was something Jesus taught only to his disciples. If he was a fallan away disciple, it is likely that he too would have been baptized! (Interesting point given)

Amidst all the assumptions made in this short story, one that seems safe is that had baptism or anything else been asked of the thief for salvation, he would have done it if he could. God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments. 

On an forum I read a nice entry to this point:

I think of it this way: the sacraments are God’s tools, not His shackles. The sacraments are for us, not for God. They are how we know with 100% certainty that God’s grace and mercies have entered our lives. By his grace, God can save through faith alone!

Then the thief said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

Wishing God’s grace to your life this week!

Philemon

Chapter 7

Good Monday Morning to this week 7 of 2022

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

This parabel is condensed so that everything fits into the one question, one whose answer is obvious:

No one would act that way!

Everyone would get up and help. Here, then, the argument is presented as indisputably obvious. And behind that argument—exactly as in the parable of the widow and the judge—lies a conclusion:

from the lesser to the greater:

If, because of the law of hospitality, people can count on the help of others, how much more may Israel and every individual in it count on God.

A guest is entitled to more than just a place to sleep. It was then, and is now, a matter of course that any guest must be served, given the best that one has, and afforded whatever aid is necessary. The same is true not only for the host but for all the host’s connections.

God will help those who belong to God when they are in need. Obviously trust in God’s help was a matter of course on the basis of the Old Testament; Jesus does not need to emphasize it.

How often the psalms beg for divine help—and how often they speak of reliance on being heard! How often they speak of trusting in being heard immediately ! Psalm 66:17 says: “I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue [for having heard my plea].” To repeat: trust in God’s help was a thing taken for granted in light of the Old Testament.

Jesus did not need to tell a parable about that.

Therefore we need to read this parable
in light of the reign of God, which Jesus proclaimed.
The inbreaking reign of God radically
intensifies what was already true in Israel:
the intimacy of trust between human beings and God.

All are now empowered to rely on God’s action
with unlimited trust,
even with an urgent immediacy.

Wishing you a great start to this new week as build your trust and rely on the promises
and action of God in your life!

Philemon

Quotes and passage from Lohfink, Gerhard. The Forty Parables of Jesus

Chapter 6

Good Monday Morning to this week 6 of 2022

Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One Deuteronomy 6.4

Hear, O Israel, these the words of Moses, stirring up the people to attend to what he was about to say of this great and momentous article, the unity of God, The Jews oblige themselves to read twice a day, morning and evening the last letter of the first word in this verse, “Shema”, meaning “hear”.

The Bene Israel Jews of India, a shipwrecked ancestry with a rootless Identity. The history of Benjamin’s ancestors, has been disputed. Legend has it that they were shipwrecked in India, either fleeing the Assyrians in the eighth century. According to one version of the story, most of the refugees drowned, but a few swam to safety, where the local non-Jewish population welcomed them. The survivors, who lost their holy books at sea, remembered just the Shema prayer. Cut off from extra-biblical writings and Jewish customs, this community borrowed traditions from the native culture, yet kept this prayer.

Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.

The remainder of the Shema prayer is taken from three biblical sources:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

When reciting the Shema during the regular morning prayer service, it is surrounded by three long blessings. The first two, which precede the Shema, thank God for creation and revelation. The third, which follows the Shema, thanks God for redemption.

Your teachings oh Lord are precious and abiding; they live forever. For our ancestors, for us, for our children, for every generation of the people Israel, for all ages from the first to the last, His teachings are true, everlasting. True it is that You are the Lord our God, even as You were the God of our ancestors. Our King and our ancestors’ King, our Redeemer and our ancestors’ Redeemer, our Creator, our victorious Stronghold.

Always a good and prayer in the morning and evening if such times with so many being or feeling shipwrecked!

You have always helped us and saved us.

Your name endures forever.

There is no God but You.

Wishing you a blessed start to this new week!

Philemon

Chapter 5

Good Monday morning to this week 5 of 2022

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And
he said “Here I am.” He said “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you
love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one
of the mountains that I will show you” (22:1-2).

So how does Abraham respond? Does he get angry, worried, doubtful, upset?
Does he ask for a second opinion? None of the above. He is silent.

Why is Abraham so strangely silent here? Why doesn’t he speak up and try to
save his son? Why is he silent?

The conventional answer is – Abraham had great faith and therefore he was silent.
And indeed Abraham has been a model of faith for the people.

The problem is, when we look at the whole story of Abraham in Genesis, we find
plenty of places where he doesn’t show such automatic faith at all.

Earlier still, when he feels his life threatened in Egypt, he doesn’t turn to his God
for help, but instead, has Sarah lie for him, claiming she’s his sister instead of his wife
In this case, he takes matters into his own hands. So this is very much in his character.

Three reasons why he should speak up:

1. Personally which father would rush to obey without first asking and talking back to God to spare his son?
2. The lament psalms, model modes of speech, asking God for help to intercede for something or for a situation.
3. In Gen 18 and other chapters Abraham does engage in such speach talking back to God.

So yes, something unusual is going on here.

Jawhwe mostly spoke to Abraham .. but here it is Elohim – It is Ha-Elohim. So is the narrator of this text signaling to us, that this instruction to sacrifice Isaak couldn’t really be what Yahwe wanted?

What then does Yahwe want to happen through the testing of Abraham?

1. For his discernment of God’s character?
2. For his trust in God yet without the blind faith?
3. A new relationship between God and man to begin? A relationship between the divine and the human?
4. For Abraham to keep posing many questions to God as he did before?
5. A new willingness to speak up to God?
6. Or does God want Abraham to bargin as he did in the other passages where he bargained all the way down to 10 people? Often Yahwe accepted what Abraham proposed !

Back to the basic question of the story:
1. Why doesn’t Abraham speak out to God ? Why doesn’t he get the conversation going?
Does he think that God is a harsch master?
2. Why different this time, when he knows Yahwe as God who listens?
3. Why does Abraham loose his voice to his son?
4. We don’t want to put his motives in question and only think the best of him but yes it’s different here.
5. Could this be a big moment of fear, fear of God in the life of Abraham?
6. Why is his grappling with God not applied this time?
7. Abraham knows how to lament. Lamenting is a petition for something that God has promised.
8. Did he no longer know the promises of God due to fear of him?
9. His actions or lack of showed his heart in this moment.

Many of the answers we will not know but we experience and learn
from God in many passages that He is a God that answers.

When our fear or dread of God is gone , we can lament without a disrespect of God.
We can even complain like Job did, and our relationship with God will blossom. When we know the character of God we can call on him as in the Psalms … my God, my God why have
you forsaken me .. and God will answer and he will grow in mercy. God is willing to hear us and is open to our suffering and lament. Even our protest he can handle. Jesus in the New Testament promoted the vigorous prayer as well.

No, silence is not always bad, it has it’s time is sometimes very appropriate. We just learn from this story the the family history of Abraham remained quite messed up, all the way down to Jacob speaking of his father Isaak as the father of fear. Did this fear come from the way he got to know God on the mountain with his father Abraham? Did his silence cause this fear to be passed on over generations?

Today, the story of Abraham to work on our image of God, it’s worth it!

Wishing you a good start to this week!
Philemon

Quotes from the message and book of Dr. J.R. Middleton; ‘Abraham’s Silence’

Chapter 4

Good Monday Morning to this week 4 of 2022

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. Matt 13: 44-46

Two people each come upon something extremely valuable and precious, and they give up everything they have to acquire it. But the two actors are very different:

Both parables are extraordinarily brief and could not be briefer. We have to ask ourselves: did Jesus really tell such short stories? What is more thrilling than stories about hidden treasure? Why, for example, didn’t he tell about how poor the worker really is, how he starts to plow the ground, then hits something hard with the plowshare, digs out a clay pot and sees that it is full of silver coins, looks around furtively and quickly shoves the earth back over the find—and then how he buys the field, digs up the treasure, rushes home, and dances for joy with his wife and children? What a wealth of story material!

Position 1
The point aimed at in both parables is the gigantic value of what is found. The reign of God is as precious as the treasure and the shimmering pearl.

Position 2
It’s not about the infinite value of the reign of God. It is about giving, about renunciation of possessions, about unlimited willingness to sacrifice.

Position 3
The day-labourer and merchant were faced with a unique opportunity that would never come again in their impoverished lives. So the parable is all about a unique situation. Now, at this hour, God is offering them the greatest gift, and now, in this hour, it must be seized.

Position 4
It’s all fraud, the day-laborer acquires his discovery dishonestly. He leaves the owner of the field in the dark about what he has found. Moreover, the wholesaler must not let the seller know what price he will demand from his own customer. Both of them are “immoral heroes”. What Jesus really wanted to put before the eyes, is about decisive action, total dedication, goal-oriented, uncompromising that it risks everything.
The reign of God needs people who act like that. “Those who lose their life for my sake will find it”

Position 5
The whole point is the overflowing joy with which the two finders sell everything. The accent lies there, and only there, and it is precisely from there that the whole parable has to be interpreted. The joy and and fascination with the find is so great that this determines the both events. Both of them are enraptured: by the brilliance of the treasure and the shimmer of the pearl. They have been seized by a joy beyond all measure.

Conclusion
Beholding and finding the beauty of God’s cause, being seized by joy, by desire for what God wants to do in the world, so that the “desire for God and God’s cause” is greater than the sum of human self-focusing.

Wishing you a good start to this week!

Philemon

Paraphrased from Lohfink, Gerhard. The Forty Parables of Jesus

Chapter 3

Good Monday Morning to this week 3 of 2022

All my bones say, ‘Jehovah, who is like Thee, delivering the poor from the stronger than he, and the poor and needy from his plunderer.’ Psalm 35.10

When the rabbi of Lentshno’s son was a boy he once saw Rabbi Yitzhak of Vorki praying. Full of amazement he came running to his father and asked how it was possible for such a zaddik to pray quietly and simply, without giving any sign of ecstasy. “A poor swimmer,” answered his father, “has to thrash around in order to stay up in the water. The perfect swimmer rests on the tide and it carries him.”

Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber (1878–1965)

Hasidism is a particular form of Judaism that developed in Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century. Among its fundamental ideas is that God’s glory is present throughout the world and can be experienced everywhere and in all things. For example, prayer can be ecstatic joy that envelops the whole body. That was not entirely new in Judaism, of course. People had long applied Psalm 35:10 “All my bones shall say, ‘O LORD , who is like you?’ ” to prayer, which is why many Jews move their upper bodies back and forth while praying, but in Eastern European Hasidism the sense was much stronger, so that leaping, dancing, and ecstatic joy were added. This tale should be understood against that background.

This tale makes a statement that is at first perplexing and yet for that very reason is a persuasive insight into an important aspect of faith.

Prayer that allows itself to be borne altogether by God and rests in God.

Wishing you a good start to this week!

Philemon

Chapter 2

Good Monday Morning to this week 2 of 2022

Many drops make a bucket, many buckets make a pond, many ponds make a lake, and many lakes make an ocean. Percy Ross

When your neighbor’s house is on fire, you should help with a bucket of water. Yahya Jammeh

But your many foes will be like a drop in a bucket. Isaiah

Sir,” said the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this ‘living water’? St. John

I was looking through old pictures of our family and found one of myself, I must have been about a year old, holding a bucket in one hand and a spade in another.

Isn’t it funny how some things constantly change and others remain the same. I was born in Asia – lot’s of buckets there. At home I have buckets for washing things, fixing bikes, carrying apples. The basins we use to plant tomatoes now …. When I travel to Africa, there are lots of basins and buckets there. One of the first bathes a child gets, is in a bassin. Somehow, probably all of us would say, yes we’ve had a bucket or two in our lives!

Many drops in a bucket … comes from the filling of a bucket. We could turn it around, remember the bucket showers? Punch a few holes into the bottom of aluminum bucket, hang it up, put it on a stand, or even better, get a pully and make a decent shower with it.
if done well, the water would trickel out slowly ..

Let’s get our buckets filled to the brim again, gather many more good things and share them drop by drop with all we’ve gathered.

Wishing a great start to this week!

Philemon

Chapter 1

Good Monday Morning to this week 01 of 2022

From one month to the next, on sabbath after sabbath, everyone, every living thing, will come to this holy place to honor Me as God of all. This is My word to you.
Isaiah 66.23, The Voice

From one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another. This phrase, used by the prophet is intended to express absolute continuance without an interval. The prophet still uses modes of expression, though speaking of a time and circumstances to which they are no longer appropriate. The literal meaning, all flesh, in all regions of the new earth, or to this holy place, could not worship in one spot, and so it was plain that Isaiah spoke of a worship other than that at any given place” – of a worship such as that whereof Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Following are a few thoughts of Macknight;

… a glimpse of perpetual sabbatism (occurring repeatedly; so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted), breathing into it an air of liberty and love necessarily unknown before, and thus making it the nearest resemblance to the eternal sabbatism

The prophet wraps up his writing and speaks of the nature of that rest which is as a glimpse of perpetual sabbatism for those that worship God. It will resemble the rest of the sabbath, both in its employments and enjoyments resting from work and trial, from evils we are subject to in the present life; and we shall recollect the labors we have undergone, the dangers we have escaped, and the temptations we have overcome. And by reflecting on these things, we shall be filled with unspeakable joy. Being admitted into the immediate presence of God to worship, we shall pass a perpetual sabbath in those elevations of pure devotion. The Hebrews considered the sabbath as an emblem for the heavenly rest, or as another writer puts it: Shadows of the good sabbath to come!

As we start back into a hectic, busy and not less uncertain new year. The brave new world we are looking for, might not be a world free of trouble, illnesses or viruses. The brave new world might be the world in which we learn the secret of the sabbath, in finding the holy place of God in the very situation we are in.

Wishing a great start to this new week and new year.

Philemon