Besieging Love of God

Heard in church today the bewitching song based on Psalm 139 and felt myself struck dumb by the line:

and with love everlasting you besiege me

I sat and couldn't get the image of the besieging love of God out of my head. As great powerful armies besieged cities in ancient times, so the love of God in Christ, lays siege to our hearts, encompassing them round and about.

Funeral of My 94 y.o.Uncle

My uncle R was a clever man. Although, starting his working life at 14 road-making with his father, he worked out how to build a lawn-mower from scratch. That is, he made each part of the mower!! Nor did his abilities stop as he got older as shown in the fact that he built two computers before the time one could buy such things for a reasonable price at a local shop.

Another major thing that left an impression were the words of his son who mentioned that he was only in the position he was today -- an oceanographer -- because of the encouragement of his father. This generous son confessed that his father was probably a lot brighter than he was but had not had the opportunities that he, the son, had had.

A son-in-law at the funeral spoke of my uncle in terms of G-s; I don't remember all of them but some were gentle, generous, genius and godly. The last challenged me because I had seen this old man of 94 only a week before his death and felt, despite all his obvious inabilities at that time, that I was in the presence of a man who had used all his abilities to serve and honour his Lord.

                             Rest in peace, my dear uncle, rest in peace.

Commandments One and Two

Seeing the Sadducees had been silenced on their question about death and resurrection, the Pharisees sent a lawyer to test Jesus concerning what was 'the great commandment' (Matthew 22.35, AV). Jesus replied by quoting the Shema (Deut 6.4). Love the Lord your God from the heart, the inner core of your being.

To this commandment, Jesus added a commandment that is 'like the first': 'love your neighbour as yourself'. In the latter, Jesus was quoting Leviticus 19.18 which, one source translated as 'You are not to take-vengeance, you are not to retain-anger against the sons of your kinspeople—but be-loving to your neighbor (as one) like yourself, I am YHWH [the LORD]!'

The gloss in brackets (so), which I have seen elsewhere, puts a different complexion on usual interpretations of the verse because it takes away our selfish fixation about self-love. I doubt the verse has anything to do with loving ourselves as such although it is sometimes 'exegeted' as if without proper self-love we cannot love others. In any case, the be-loving to your neighbour is set within the context of not taking vengeance, not retaining-anger against one's kinsfolk which, makes that interpretation foreign to the setting.

Jesus' view of neighbour was broader than that of Jewry and the love commended is action that wishes good towards any we come in contact with. It has little to do with sentiment or even liking the neighbour; biblical love is wanting the best for the neighbour and doing good to the neighbour as the Good Samaritan did.

Herman Dooyeweerd the great Dutch jurist and philosopher said that these two commandments are a supratemporal unity that is differentiated or particularised throughout the temporal world. So, we face the call to be-loving of God and neighbour at every turn in temporal existence. This ubiquitous law is not displaced by love because the undifferentiated meaning of law is love. To love Christ is to keep his commandments (Jn 14.15, 23) and the commandment is to love another (Jn 15.12-13) as we have been loved.

Accepting the Invitation Matt 22.1-10

I'm often struck by the avoidance of the unpopular and awkward in bible texts by preachers and speakers. I'm sure I do it too! Recently i heard presentations on this passage above and noted how the acceptance and non-acceptance of the invitation was lost sight of and the text got turned into a social gospel apologia! 'Do good works and you will get into the feast'!!

Of course, the background is Jesus' struggle with the chief priests and the Pharisees (21.45f) who perceived that Jesus' parables were about them but who couldn't arrest him because they feared the people. They are the ones who are initially invited to the marriage feast of the King's son. The point is, they refuse to come showing their disdain of the king by even killing his servants. And the king angrily destroys both them and their city.

Since those who were originally invited refuse to come, the king invites all, both good and bad, as many as can be found. and of course, they respond to the invitation and come and fill the wedding place. To be there at the wedding begins with the king's (God's) invitation and follows with our acceptance. We don't just fall into the kingdom, we respond to the Lord God who is always drawing us in mercy to come.

The landowner and the labourers

I was at church today unexpectedly. No priest to consecrate the elements so we used the reserved sacrament. No priest to deliver the sermon so a Warden gave the sermon. The landowner and the labourers. It never ceases to amaze what God can bring out of His word when we least expect it. Whenever I had reflected on this parable on earlier occasions I had always focussed I think on the payment of the workers, or more especially, the 'unfairness' of the workers who had worked all day. But, the most wonderful word that occurs in this passage is 'generous'. God is a generous God and treats all of us generously. Not because of the level of our work or because of our status but because it is his nature to be generous with us..

Sundays After Pentecost

The Church's year begins with Advent leading to Christmas to Epiphany. Then Lent prepares the Church to mark Easter, which leads on to Pentecost. All the Sundays following Pentecost are Ordinary Sundays. However, ordinary in this context means 'in order' or 'counted'. The Sundays after Easter are counted in order to the end of the Church's year.

During this period after Pentecost, the liturgical colour is green, which denotes newness and growth. "The Sundays after Pentecost link the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to the celebration of the final Advent . . . when Christ will come in glory. This leads into a celebration of the first coming of Christ at Christmas and the cycle returns to its beginning. It is in these Sundays after Pentecost that we actually live - that is, in the period between the incarnation of God in Christ and our future life with God in heaven" (http://www.pauanglican.org.nz/churchseasons.php).