liberty and law

Good morning sisters and brothers,
We often think of commandments as the opposite of freedom. Our reading has a different view: God's law teaches us true freedom. When we follow God's guidance for a just society and a faithful life we become free from the tyranny of greed, idolatry, oppression and fear. It's not the freedom of doing whatever we feel like, but the deeper, truer freedom of being who we are meant to be. When we take things a step further through the gospel of Jesus, we become free from the religious requirements of the law in the perfect freedom of submission to Christ's calling. It's harder than following a simple list of rules, but true freedom comes from following God.

Blessings,
Sam

Psalm 119:41-50

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.

⁴²Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me, for I trust in your word.

⁴³Do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your ordinances.

⁴⁴I will keep your law continually, forever and ever.

⁴⁵I shall walk at liberty, for I have sought your precepts.

⁴⁶I will also speak of your decrees before kings, and shall not be put to shame;

⁴⁷I find my delight in your commandments, because I love them.

⁴⁸I revere your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.

⁴⁹Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.

⁵⁰This is my comfort in my distress, that your promise gives me life.

The Lord watches over strangers

Good morning friends,
Today's reading fits with Sunday's readings from Isaiah and John about God healing those in trouble. The psalmist praises God for the wonders of creation and for healing the sick and lifting up the oppressed. Scripture consistently teaches that God has a special heart for the poor and those oppressed by stronger people. Since God is that way, the church that follows God should also always keep a special watch out for those who are in trouble. Sometimes we do well, other times we reproduce the world's social hierarchy inside the church to our shame. How might God be calling you to strengthen the oppressed today?

God bless,
Sam

Psalm 146:5-10

5Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God,
6who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
7who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
8the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
9The LORD watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
10The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD!

worship and obedience

Good morning sisters and brothers,
This morning God reviews the beginning of the covenant between God and the nation of Israel. God called Abraham to be the father of a great nation, Israel, who would be God's special people. That covenant took many twists and turns but didn't really take the shape of a covenant with a nation until God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt. When God brought them out he made a covenant with them at Mt. Sinai. As God says in this passage, that wasn't a covenant about sacrifices and particular kinds of worship; it was a covenant to follow and obey God, to be God's people and only to worship the one God.

That exclusive obedience was hard for Israel from the beginning. We remember that even while Moses was getting the tablets of the Ten Commandments the people got scared that God had left them and asked Aaron to make them a golden god they could see and touch. It's so much easier to follow a smaller, more tangible god than to obey God, who we don't always see or feel. In our lives it's easy to make work or success or family the only highest good in our lives and to forget that our whole life holds together in God. Worship is important, but the most important part of our faith is following God in our lives, seeking God's will when we make decisions, and looking for God's calling in everything we do. God wants to be our God today and always so seek God's true path today.

God bless,
Sam

Jeremiah 7:21-28
21Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.”

24Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backward rather than forward. 25From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; 26yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.

27So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.