NT – Luke 3:1-22
Did you realize John had his checklist too? I didn’t. Here is the checklist that John, the Baptist, gives in response to what should we do in order that we not be thrown into the fire:
1. Share clothing with the ones who have none.
2. Share food with the ones who have none.
3. Don’t abscond with other people’s stuff even if it is legal to do so.
4. Don’t use power to gain wealth and prestige
5. Don’t accuse people falsely
I am sitting here, patting myself on the back because on paper, I look pretty good. I do the whole Goodwill, Food Pantry thing. I think I keep my hands off other people’s stuff and I haven’t accused many people lately. But #4. That is sort of vague, don’t you think? What does that really look like? Is it possible to be an American consumer and NOT use/abuse our power?
I am thinking about what we ate for dinner tonight. Now, granted, the hamburgers were from a steer from my Uncle Dick. And the asparagus came from my friend Vicki’s farm. But those strawberries. The strawberries came from CALIFORNIA. I live in Georgia. 3,000 miles. And the strawberry fields were irrigated with water, fertilized with who knows what, picked by migrant workers who are paid poorly. Then trucked that 3,000 miles to my Costco. But I ate them. And accepted the high praises from my men. I think on the John scale, I came out just as poorly as I did on the Jesus scale.
OT – Numbers 26:52-28:15
Do you find it interesting that a group of women! bring about the laws of inheritance? I assume, based on the whole Jacob/Esau blessing stuff, that before this, the father could choose anyone he wanted to choose for leaving his possessions. Maybe if this law had been prevalent before now, we wouldn't have had the whole brother issue that seems to run through Genesis.
At any rate, the claims of Zelophedhad’s daughters cause God to spell out the laws that allow women to inherit. (Only if there are no sons.) Presumably, the sons were supposed to take care of their sisters. However, having read Jane Austen and her Sense and Sensibility several times, I don’t think that brothers were always that gracious to their sisters regardless of whether they lived in 1830s England or 1000 BCE Israel. Today, we have reverted back to the father gets to pick who and what is inherited. Does that cause the same problem in families as it did prior to Torah?
Click here and go read this funny essay from my friend Chris who is a Baptist pastor in Charlotte, NC. Wills are tricky things. And speaking of Wills, how long has it been since you updated yours? Matthew is now 18 so Don and I put that task on the calendar for summer. What about you?
Blessings on your Sunday.
OT - Reading about the offerings over and over gets boring but this might interest you. In a year's time these offerings totaled 113 bulls, 32 rams, 1086 lambs, more than a ton of flour, and a thousand bottles of oil and wine. Jesus one sufficient sacrifice replaces all that!
ReplyDeleteNT - I have a theory about Luke 3:21-22. 18 years have passed since Jesus visited the Temple and here he is being baptized. I think he received divine powers right then and there that he didn't have before. Kind of cool to think about.