| THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER BROOKHAVEN, MISSISSIPPI |
| HOLY EUCHARIST SUNDAY 10:00 AM |
Announcements:
ECW meets the first Monday after
the third Sunday.
Children's Christian Education
at 10:00 AM Sunday Morning.
Nursery Provided during Services.
Angels Attic: Open Friday and
Saturday from 8:00Am - 3:00 PM
EMAIL:
redeemer39601@bellsouth.net
ECW meets the first Monday after
the third Sunday.
Children's Christian Education
at 10:00 AM Sunday Morning.
Nursery Provided during Services.
Angels Attic: Open Friday and
Saturday from 8:00Am - 3:00 PM
EMAIL:
redeemer39601@bellsouth.net
Pentecost 9 Proper 12
July 25, 2010
“Lord, teach us to pray,…” We know that Jesus went off by himself, away from the disciples,
to pray to his Father. As God’s son he needed frequent contact with his Father.
Is there someone in your family—mother, father, sister, brother—you have to talk to every
day or the day is not complete? They are your anchor, your touchstone, your home base,
even if you are many miles apart. Or maybe this person is your spouse, your partner, your
best friend.
Every morning Randy and I get up, get our coffee, and sit on the couch for :15-:30 minutes.
It is a rare day that I am so busy—or so behind schedule—that there is no time to sit
together. I hope you have someone in your life with whom you have daily or at least regular
contact. True hermits are rare; most of us need at least one other person.
I imagine the disciples were burning with curiosity as to what Jesus was saying to his father
when he went off to pray. The prayer most of us recall between Jesus and God was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus asked God to remove the cup of suffering and death he
was facing yet he would submit to his Father’s will.
The disciples were also probably a little envious that Jesus talked directly to God. No one
had done that since ancient times. Maybe Jesus’ face glowed on his return, sort of like
Moses’ after his meetings with God on Mount Sinai. No wonder the disciples asked Jesus to
teach them to pray. They wanted a relationship, a closeness with God like Jesus had.
And Jesus responds. He tells them WHAT to say when they pray, HOW to pray, and WHAT
God will give them when they pray. He had already demonstrated WHEN and WHERE to
pray by his own actions—get away by yourself and pray whenever you can, and frequently.
Jesus had to get away after every big crowd scene, major healing or exorcism.
First, what to say when you pray:
“Father,”
In other words, address God directly as your father. God is the father of everyone and
everything because he created it all. God is the perfect parent or caregiver. There is no
need to get hung up on gender. You can say “Mother,” if you want to. I hope that everyone
has at least one adult in their young life who demonstrates good parenting, caring, teaching,
training. In such an adult you have a glimpse of God the Father.
Look at Jesus. He was the perfect parent, too, gathering the little children to him, treating
the disciples gently as young students. See how he treated the sick, the poor, the
possessed, the hungry. His compassion grew with their need. So it is with God our Father.
“hallowed be your name.”
Hallowed means holy, set apart for a special purpose, respected, sacred, held in the highest
honor. We should treat God’s name with respect. Remember when God told Moses to tell
the people of Israel that I AM sent him. God’s name is I AM. God existed before anything
else and God will exist after everything else in the universe is gone.
How powerful is a name. How we love to hear our own name, pronounced and spelled
correctly. This is one reason I am trying to learn your names so I can say them as I give you
the bread at communion. Hearing our name makes us feel special. And we are hurt or
angry when someone makes fun of our name or calls us another name.
The third commandment is: “You shall not invoke with malice the Name of the Lord your
God.” When you swear using God’s name, you are breaking this commandment. I would
rather hear any of your favorite four-letter words than “Jesus Christ” as a swear word. And
“Jesus H. Christ” doesn’t make it any better.
Jesus means He who saves. Christ means sacrifice. Jesus Christ saves us by his sacrifice
on the cross, once for all. He redeems us from sin and death by that act that took place so
long ago that we re-enact with every Communion.
How fortunate we are to be named for the Redeemer. But every time we see that name is a
good time to remember that we are not the only redeemed. That can be our good news to
this community, to the world. Do you believe Jesus Christ died for you? Then you are one of
the redeemed, the adopted, a child, an heir of God.
“Your kingdom come.”
Like God, the kingdom of God has always existed. When Jesus sent out the 70 he told them
to tell the towns that “the kingdom of God has come near to you,” in the person and ministry
of Christ. Whenever we fulfill our Baptismal Covenant promise to seek and serve Christ in all
persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, WE bring the kingdom.
God’s kingdom will come for all in the 2nd Coming. We are asking to help bring that
fulfillment of heaven on earth every time we say these words.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Jesus’ instructions shift from addressing and honoring God our Father to asking for what we
need. Truth be told, most of our prayers we make up start here—putting in our request,
placing our order at the God Counter. It is nice to know there is nothing wrong with that; it’s
just not the place to begin.
When Jesus tells the disciples HOW to pray, he tells them to be persistent, like someone who
has unexpected guests and goes to a neighbor late at night to get some bread. Ask!
Search! Knock! Be persistent with God. The Bible is full of people who pestered God until
they got an answer or got what they needed—which may not have been what they wanted.
Which brings me to WHAT God will give us when we pray. Jesus says to put ourselves in the
Father’s place. If your child asked for an egg, you will not give him a scorpion. And we are
not perfect as God is perfect. If we ask God for something, he will give us what he knows we
need.
God is not Ebay. God is not Craig’s List. God is not even Angels Attic. But God will give us
the Holy Spirit if we ask. In other words, God will give us Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit,
because God knows we need God first, more than we need anything else.
Jesus needed God before anything else which is why he went apart to be with God
frequently. When we pray we are acknowledging that God comes first for us—at least in that
moment.
“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
Oh, really. Have you forgiven everyone who has sinned against you? In the Lord’s Prayer
we are asking God to forgive us TO THE EXTENT that we have forgiven others. How many
times did Jesus heal a sick person by saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” Carrying your sins
against others, holding grudges or withholding forgiveness for the sins committed against
you will make you sick and leave you feeling far away from God. We need to cast off sin
daily to keep a clear channel to God.
Those of you familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 step programs know they treat
addiction as a spiritual disease. If you work the program, you will do a moral inventory—Step
4. In your inventory you will make a list of all who have sinned against you and all you have
sinned against. In the subsequent steps you will forgive and make amends. Your recovery
depends on regularly forgiving and asking forgiveness. So does our relationship with God.
“And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Today we say, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Would God lead us
into temptation? Would God bring us to the time of trial? God’s only son was not exempt
from temptation; remember Jesus’ time with Satan in the wilderness. Jesus struggled with
temptation again in the Garden when he asked God to “get me out of here!”
God is pure good; God is not evil. But evil definitely exists and temptations are all around
us. I believe God lets us be tested but God does not send the test. Evil and temptations are
part of the world we live in. We will be dealing and struggling with them until we die. It’s
important to acknowledge this reality when we pray to perfect Good.
God can keep our feet from the evil path if we ask for that help—but we have to ask. That is
the nature of our free will. We have to choose between good and evil. We can try to do this
on our own—and probably fail. Or we can ask for God’s help. Remember, God will send us
the Holy Spirit if we ask.
_____________
And so we have the perfect prayer, the encouragement to be persistent in asking, searching,
and knocking, and the promise that God will answer our prayer with good things, with God
himself. See what happens when you ask Jesus to teach you to pray! Amen.
Two weeks ago when Jesus sent out the 70 two-by-two, I mentioned how important hospitality
was in the Middle East. If a stranger comes to your door, you welcome him like a friend. The
desert is a hostile environment and travelers depend on the kindness of strangers to survive
their journey, to find food and rest for themselves and water and food for their animals.
Martha is a wonderful hostess. She invites Jesus--which means she invites him and his
followers--into her home. We believe Martha, Mary and Lazarus were a well-off family in
Bethany. Martha is doing all the traditional tasks of a Jewish hostess—making her guests
comfortable, preparing an elaborate meal. She is the ideal Jewish woman.
Her sister Mary is the counter-cultural one. Instead of joining her sister in all these tasks,
she takes the attitude of a male disciple, ignoring all that is needed to entertain guests to sit
at Jesus’ feet and listen to his teaching.
All you great hostesses out there can understand Martha’s anger. She’s let her anger boil
over, however. Here she has invited Jesus into her home and yet she is venting her anger at
him, telling her guest to tell her sister to help her. Hello! Boundaries?
Those in the counseling trade would call this triangulation. Rather than speaking to her
sister directly, Martha tells a third person what she thinks Mary ought to do. And not just any
third person but the Son of God!
Triangulation usually doesn’t help the upset person except maybe to let them vent. It does
not change their relationship with the person they need to engage. Triangulation doesn’t
solve the first problem and often creates a second. If you were Mary how would you feel
about your sister venting to Jesus in front of you instead of speaking directly to you? Pots
will be flying in the kitchen soon, I’d say.
But Jesus, the great healer of body, mind, and spirit, stops the unhealthy dynamic. He
addresses Martha directly. She is the one who is worried and distracted. Jesus is kind but
direct. “Martha, Martha…; there is need of only one thing.” Then he defends Mary’s
decision to sit at his feet like a male disciple: “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not
be taken away from her.”
Martha has chosen the traditional part of the Jewish hostess consumed by preparations for
her guests. But she has lost sight of the reason for the preparation—to make Jesus and his
disciples feel welcomed and cared for.
Mary has risked her sister’s ire and the chance that the preparations will take longer
because she is not helping to do what she thinks is most valuable—listening to the Lord and
soaking up every word in this brief time they have together.
Our story from last week, The Good Samaritan, told us what it means to love your neighbor.
Everyone is everybody’s neighbor. The question is not “who is my neighbor” but “how do I
love my neighbor; what does that look like”? The Good Samaritan showed us that loving our
neighbor means helping anyone in need.
This story of Jesus, Mary and Martha illustrates the other half, the first half of the Great
Commandment—to love the Lord your God with every part of you—body, mind, spirit. Mary
has chosen to put her love of Jesus above all else, certainly above cultural standards of
hospitality and above societal expectations of her as a Jewish woman.
Three weeks ago Jesus told three people who wanted to follow him how costly that choice is.
To follow Jesus means you have no resting place and that Jesus comes before your family
and family obligations like burying your father. Today’s story illustrates that choosing to
follow Jesus means you need to listen more than speak—see how much trouble Martha gets
in when she opens her mouth. Following Jesus means BEING WITH Jesus is better than
DOING FOR Jesus.
Following Jesus means being with Jesus is better than doing for Jesus.
Are you all familiar with WWJD? Bracelets, bumper stickers, hats and t-shirts all asking,
“What would Jesus do?” Frankly, I haven’t got a clue. Jesus is God and God works in
mysterious ways I often don’t understand. If you are like me you have a list of questions for
God when you get to heaven. He’s got some ‘splainin’ to do!
I noticed Wednesday that Mickey Hale was not holding a list of questions as she lay in her
casket. She was holding a picture of Fr. Hale. I think it will be like that for us, too. We won’t
need a list when we see God face to face. In God’s nearer presence we will know as we
have been known. In fact, knowing things will matter not at all when we truly know God.
But I digress. I don’t think the question is What Would Jesus Do? But What Would a
Follower of Jesus Do? That’s all we can probably figure out anyway, don’t you think? And
how do we know? Is it by getting out in that kitchen and coming up with an elaborate feast?
(By the way, this is in NO way a criticism of all the people who put on such a wonderful lunch
Wednesday or who prepared our lunch today to launch our Trinity Park fundraising for this
year. Thank you, thank you, thank you.)
A follower of Jesus has to begin by listening to Jesus, like Mary. And the two primary ways
we have of listening to Jesus today are through prayer and Bible study. For prayer to count
as listening, you have to be quiet some of the time. Have you ever tried to have a
conversation by talking continuously? How can you hear if you don’t shut up sometimes?
Give and take. Listening and speaking. Prayer is like that.
And God still speaks to us through His Word, the Holy Bible. There are many ways to read
and understand stories in the Bible. This is the perspective stressed in the Discovery Series
we are reviewing on Wednesday nights. The Discovery Series will be offered in its full
version this fall.
Of course you can study the Bible on your own. You can even buy a study Bible that has
lots of helps built in. I would look at several through the magic of the Internet before buying
one. This is yet another great thing about the Episcopal Church. Although we do use the
New RSV translation in our lessons on Sunday, you are welcome to study any translation you
like.
If the Bible was written by a host of writers—and it was—then a host of translators is just
following in a great tradition. I plan over time to offer a variety of Bible study methods here at
Redeemer in the hopes that everyone will find an approach to God’s Word that works for
them.
Now, where was I? Oh, yes, Mary and Martha--the follower of Jesus and the good hostess.
You can be both, you know. Jesus speaks kindly to Martha. He appreciates her hospitality;
he is just reminding her of what is most important—not many dishes but one dish. To follow
Christ means to put him first in your life. And when you get off track, ask yourself, “What
would a follower of Jesus do?”
Then spend time in prayer and Bible study, maybe seek the counsel of your priest (ahem)
and you will find yourself back on the path or maybe entering the path for the first time.
Whatever your place on your spiritual journey, it is right where you need to be. And God is
with you, wherever you may be. Amen.
July 25, 2010
“Lord, teach us to pray,…” We know that Jesus went off by himself, away from the disciples,
to pray to his Father. As God’s son he needed frequent contact with his Father.
Is there someone in your family—mother, father, sister, brother—you have to talk to every
day or the day is not complete? They are your anchor, your touchstone, your home base,
even if you are many miles apart. Or maybe this person is your spouse, your partner, your
best friend.
Every morning Randy and I get up, get our coffee, and sit on the couch for :15-:30 minutes.
It is a rare day that I am so busy—or so behind schedule—that there is no time to sit
together. I hope you have someone in your life with whom you have daily or at least regular
contact. True hermits are rare; most of us need at least one other person.
I imagine the disciples were burning with curiosity as to what Jesus was saying to his father
when he went off to pray. The prayer most of us recall between Jesus and God was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus asked God to remove the cup of suffering and death he
was facing yet he would submit to his Father’s will.
The disciples were also probably a little envious that Jesus talked directly to God. No one
had done that since ancient times. Maybe Jesus’ face glowed on his return, sort of like
Moses’ after his meetings with God on Mount Sinai. No wonder the disciples asked Jesus to
teach them to pray. They wanted a relationship, a closeness with God like Jesus had.
And Jesus responds. He tells them WHAT to say when they pray, HOW to pray, and WHAT
God will give them when they pray. He had already demonstrated WHEN and WHERE to
pray by his own actions—get away by yourself and pray whenever you can, and frequently.
Jesus had to get away after every big crowd scene, major healing or exorcism.
First, what to say when you pray:
“Father,”
In other words, address God directly as your father. God is the father of everyone and
everything because he created it all. God is the perfect parent or caregiver. There is no
need to get hung up on gender. You can say “Mother,” if you want to. I hope that everyone
has at least one adult in their young life who demonstrates good parenting, caring, teaching,
training. In such an adult you have a glimpse of God the Father.
Look at Jesus. He was the perfect parent, too, gathering the little children to him, treating
the disciples gently as young students. See how he treated the sick, the poor, the
possessed, the hungry. His compassion grew with their need. So it is with God our Father.
“hallowed be your name.”
Hallowed means holy, set apart for a special purpose, respected, sacred, held in the highest
honor. We should treat God’s name with respect. Remember when God told Moses to tell
the people of Israel that I AM sent him. God’s name is I AM. God existed before anything
else and God will exist after everything else in the universe is gone.
How powerful is a name. How we love to hear our own name, pronounced and spelled
correctly. This is one reason I am trying to learn your names so I can say them as I give you
the bread at communion. Hearing our name makes us feel special. And we are hurt or
angry when someone makes fun of our name or calls us another name.
The third commandment is: “You shall not invoke with malice the Name of the Lord your
God.” When you swear using God’s name, you are breaking this commandment. I would
rather hear any of your favorite four-letter words than “Jesus Christ” as a swear word. And
“Jesus H. Christ” doesn’t make it any better.
Jesus means He who saves. Christ means sacrifice. Jesus Christ saves us by his sacrifice
on the cross, once for all. He redeems us from sin and death by that act that took place so
long ago that we re-enact with every Communion.
How fortunate we are to be named for the Redeemer. But every time we see that name is a
good time to remember that we are not the only redeemed. That can be our good news to
this community, to the world. Do you believe Jesus Christ died for you? Then you are one of
the redeemed, the adopted, a child, an heir of God.
“Your kingdom come.”
Like God, the kingdom of God has always existed. When Jesus sent out the 70 he told them
to tell the towns that “the kingdom of God has come near to you,” in the person and ministry
of Christ. Whenever we fulfill our Baptismal Covenant promise to seek and serve Christ in all
persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, WE bring the kingdom.
God’s kingdom will come for all in the 2nd Coming. We are asking to help bring that
fulfillment of heaven on earth every time we say these words.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Jesus’ instructions shift from addressing and honoring God our Father to asking for what we
need. Truth be told, most of our prayers we make up start here—putting in our request,
placing our order at the God Counter. It is nice to know there is nothing wrong with that; it’s
just not the place to begin.
When Jesus tells the disciples HOW to pray, he tells them to be persistent, like someone who
has unexpected guests and goes to a neighbor late at night to get some bread. Ask!
Search! Knock! Be persistent with God. The Bible is full of people who pestered God until
they got an answer or got what they needed—which may not have been what they wanted.
Which brings me to WHAT God will give us when we pray. Jesus says to put ourselves in the
Father’s place. If your child asked for an egg, you will not give him a scorpion. And we are
not perfect as God is perfect. If we ask God for something, he will give us what he knows we
need.
God is not Ebay. God is not Craig’s List. God is not even Angels Attic. But God will give us
the Holy Spirit if we ask. In other words, God will give us Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit,
because God knows we need God first, more than we need anything else.
Jesus needed God before anything else which is why he went apart to be with God
frequently. When we pray we are acknowledging that God comes first for us—at least in that
moment.
“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
Oh, really. Have you forgiven everyone who has sinned against you? In the Lord’s Prayer
we are asking God to forgive us TO THE EXTENT that we have forgiven others. How many
times did Jesus heal a sick person by saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” Carrying your sins
against others, holding grudges or withholding forgiveness for the sins committed against
you will make you sick and leave you feeling far away from God. We need to cast off sin
daily to keep a clear channel to God.
Those of you familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 step programs know they treat
addiction as a spiritual disease. If you work the program, you will do a moral inventory—Step
4. In your inventory you will make a list of all who have sinned against you and all you have
sinned against. In the subsequent steps you will forgive and make amends. Your recovery
depends on regularly forgiving and asking forgiveness. So does our relationship with God.
“And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Today we say, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Would God lead us
into temptation? Would God bring us to the time of trial? God’s only son was not exempt
from temptation; remember Jesus’ time with Satan in the wilderness. Jesus struggled with
temptation again in the Garden when he asked God to “get me out of here!”
God is pure good; God is not evil. But evil definitely exists and temptations are all around
us. I believe God lets us be tested but God does not send the test. Evil and temptations are
part of the world we live in. We will be dealing and struggling with them until we die. It’s
important to acknowledge this reality when we pray to perfect Good.
God can keep our feet from the evil path if we ask for that help—but we have to ask. That is
the nature of our free will. We have to choose between good and evil. We can try to do this
on our own—and probably fail. Or we can ask for God’s help. Remember, God will send us
the Holy Spirit if we ask.
_____________
And so we have the perfect prayer, the encouragement to be persistent in asking, searching,
and knocking, and the promise that God will answer our prayer with good things, with God
himself. See what happens when you ask Jesus to teach you to pray! Amen.
Two weeks ago when Jesus sent out the 70 two-by-two, I mentioned how important hospitality
was in the Middle East. If a stranger comes to your door, you welcome him like a friend. The
desert is a hostile environment and travelers depend on the kindness of strangers to survive
their journey, to find food and rest for themselves and water and food for their animals.
Martha is a wonderful hostess. She invites Jesus--which means she invites him and his
followers--into her home. We believe Martha, Mary and Lazarus were a well-off family in
Bethany. Martha is doing all the traditional tasks of a Jewish hostess—making her guests
comfortable, preparing an elaborate meal. She is the ideal Jewish woman.
Her sister Mary is the counter-cultural one. Instead of joining her sister in all these tasks,
she takes the attitude of a male disciple, ignoring all that is needed to entertain guests to sit
at Jesus’ feet and listen to his teaching.
All you great hostesses out there can understand Martha’s anger. She’s let her anger boil
over, however. Here she has invited Jesus into her home and yet she is venting her anger at
him, telling her guest to tell her sister to help her. Hello! Boundaries?
Those in the counseling trade would call this triangulation. Rather than speaking to her
sister directly, Martha tells a third person what she thinks Mary ought to do. And not just any
third person but the Son of God!
Triangulation usually doesn’t help the upset person except maybe to let them vent. It does
not change their relationship with the person they need to engage. Triangulation doesn’t
solve the first problem and often creates a second. If you were Mary how would you feel
about your sister venting to Jesus in front of you instead of speaking directly to you? Pots
will be flying in the kitchen soon, I’d say.
But Jesus, the great healer of body, mind, and spirit, stops the unhealthy dynamic. He
addresses Martha directly. She is the one who is worried and distracted. Jesus is kind but
direct. “Martha, Martha…; there is need of only one thing.” Then he defends Mary’s
decision to sit at his feet like a male disciple: “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not
be taken away from her.”
Martha has chosen the traditional part of the Jewish hostess consumed by preparations for
her guests. But she has lost sight of the reason for the preparation—to make Jesus and his
disciples feel welcomed and cared for.
Mary has risked her sister’s ire and the chance that the preparations will take longer
because she is not helping to do what she thinks is most valuable—listening to the Lord and
soaking up every word in this brief time they have together.
Our story from last week, The Good Samaritan, told us what it means to love your neighbor.
Everyone is everybody’s neighbor. The question is not “who is my neighbor” but “how do I
love my neighbor; what does that look like”? The Good Samaritan showed us that loving our
neighbor means helping anyone in need.
This story of Jesus, Mary and Martha illustrates the other half, the first half of the Great
Commandment—to love the Lord your God with every part of you—body, mind, spirit. Mary
has chosen to put her love of Jesus above all else, certainly above cultural standards of
hospitality and above societal expectations of her as a Jewish woman.
Three weeks ago Jesus told three people who wanted to follow him how costly that choice is.
To follow Jesus means you have no resting place and that Jesus comes before your family
and family obligations like burying your father. Today’s story illustrates that choosing to
follow Jesus means you need to listen more than speak—see how much trouble Martha gets
in when she opens her mouth. Following Jesus means BEING WITH Jesus is better than
DOING FOR Jesus.
Following Jesus means being with Jesus is better than doing for Jesus.
Are you all familiar with WWJD? Bracelets, bumper stickers, hats and t-shirts all asking,
“What would Jesus do?” Frankly, I haven’t got a clue. Jesus is God and God works in
mysterious ways I often don’t understand. If you are like me you have a list of questions for
God when you get to heaven. He’s got some ‘splainin’ to do!
I noticed Wednesday that Mickey Hale was not holding a list of questions as she lay in her
casket. She was holding a picture of Fr. Hale. I think it will be like that for us, too. We won’t
need a list when we see God face to face. In God’s nearer presence we will know as we
have been known. In fact, knowing things will matter not at all when we truly know God.
But I digress. I don’t think the question is What Would Jesus Do? But What Would a
Follower of Jesus Do? That’s all we can probably figure out anyway, don’t you think? And
how do we know? Is it by getting out in that kitchen and coming up with an elaborate feast?
(By the way, this is in NO way a criticism of all the people who put on such a wonderful lunch
Wednesday or who prepared our lunch today to launch our Trinity Park fundraising for this
year. Thank you, thank you, thank you.)
A follower of Jesus has to begin by listening to Jesus, like Mary. And the two primary ways
we have of listening to Jesus today are through prayer and Bible study. For prayer to count
as listening, you have to be quiet some of the time. Have you ever tried to have a
conversation by talking continuously? How can you hear if you don’t shut up sometimes?
Give and take. Listening and speaking. Prayer is like that.
And God still speaks to us through His Word, the Holy Bible. There are many ways to read
and understand stories in the Bible. This is the perspective stressed in the Discovery Series
we are reviewing on Wednesday nights. The Discovery Series will be offered in its full
version this fall.
Of course you can study the Bible on your own. You can even buy a study Bible that has
lots of helps built in. I would look at several through the magic of the Internet before buying
one. This is yet another great thing about the Episcopal Church. Although we do use the
New RSV translation in our lessons on Sunday, you are welcome to study any translation you
like.
If the Bible was written by a host of writers—and it was—then a host of translators is just
following in a great tradition. I plan over time to offer a variety of Bible study methods here at
Redeemer in the hopes that everyone will find an approach to God’s Word that works for
them.
Now, where was I? Oh, yes, Mary and Martha--the follower of Jesus and the good hostess.
You can be both, you know. Jesus speaks kindly to Martha. He appreciates her hospitality;
he is just reminding her of what is most important—not many dishes but one dish. To follow
Christ means to put him first in your life. And when you get off track, ask yourself, “What
would a follower of Jesus do?”
Then spend time in prayer and Bible study, maybe seek the counsel of your priest (ahem)
and you will find yourself back on the path or maybe entering the path for the first time.
Whatever your place on your spiritual journey, it is right where you need to be. And God is
with you, wherever you may be. Amen.
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