PREACHER: REV. ISAAC ETUAH-JACKSON
Today is the fifth Sunday of lent (next Sunday is Palm Sunday). During lent the church helps us to prepare for great events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. These events set us free from the slavery of sin and also raises us up to be sons of God and heirs to the eternal kingdom of heaven. Today’s discussion is to remind us that we are only passing through this earth and need not dwell on our past achievements, possessions, power, pleasure but build on Christ’s foundation in order to grow into maturity and to attain eternal salvation. Amen
In the 1st lesson, we read part of the message of encouragement which the 2nd Isaiah preached to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The miracles of the first exodus would be surpassed by those of the 2nd, the liberation of the Babylonian exile. We need to remember that the Israelites lost their homeland cannan and were taken prisoners to Babylon in 586BC, but the God of their fathers did a new thing by bringing them back to their homes and established them there once again through Cyrus- a heathen king who facilitated their return (Ezra 1:1-11). God did this so that the Israelites may declare his praise and to bring them to the realisation that that they do not need to dwell on their past.
Brethren, dwelling on past glories is what st. Paul addresses in the letter to the Philippians. The congregation in Philippi must have included some Jewish Christians or at least must have come under the influence of Judaisers; the Jewish Christians insisted that the gentile Christians should be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. To explain what he means, Paul takes himself as an example. He had dwelt on his past glories by being extremely happy about his adherence to Jewish traditions but now he dismissed the status and dignity given him by his race, religious rites and tradition as rubbish. Why because he has now found a real reason for boasting: i consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, whose sake i have lost all things. (Verse 8)
Brothers and sisters in the Lord like Paul we should also discard our pride in such things as our race, social status, achievements in academia, business, work among others. Let us not dwell on our past glories as individuals and as a church. As new people of God we should rather boast of our identity in Christ and our desire is to become like Christ in all respects, including his suffering, death and resurrection (verse 10) Paul ignores his past successes and failures as he presses forward expectantly to reach the goal. (Verse 13-14)
Brethren just as Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery in our gospel reading even though her accusers the scribes and Pharisees who had become so blinded by their pride in their own righteousness in the strict observance of the 613 precepts of the law of Moses. Paul contrasts his former Christian life with his present Christian life. St Jerome is on record to have said that Jews wrote the hidden sins of the Woman’s accusers. The woman was told to go and sin no more and the result of her changed life is recorded in St John gospel 12: 1-8 where she anointed Jesus feet to prepare him for his burial.
We must not dwell on our past successes, glories and failures but we must press on towards the Goal having faith in God. A mark of a Christian is keeping on towards the goal, trusting in the Lord despite the circumstances. A Christian is like a runner who looks forward to crossing the finishing line.
As Christians we should not think that we have arrived because today the non churched are no longer geographically but are culturally distant from us. This is because our culture in church makes the church irrelevant to them.
As members of this church and for that matter Christians one thing we all can do as we try not is dwell on our past glories is to make our work places, schools e.tc an extension of the church mission and of in fact that is the reason why we come to church every Sunday so that we can change agents in our communities, schools and workplaces.
(le-havdil), A analysis (found here: www.netzarim.co.il (that is the only legitimate Netzarim)) of all extant source documents and archaeology using a rational and logical methodology proves that the historical Ribi Yehosuha ha-Mashiakh (the Messiah) from Nazareth and his talmidim (apprentice-students), called the Netzarim, taught and lived Torah all of their lives; and that Netzarim and Christianity were always antithetical.
ReplyDeleteJudaism and Christianity have always been two antithetical religions, and thus the term “Jewish Christians” is an oxymoron
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The mitzwot (directives or military-style orders) in Torah (claimed in Tan’’kh (the Jewish Bible) to be the instructions of the Creator), the core of the Judaism, are an indivisible whole. Rejecting any one constitutes rejecting of the whole… and the Church rejected many mitzwot, for example rejecting to observe the Shabat on the seventh day in the Jewish week. Examples are endless. Devarim (“Deuteronomy”) 13.1-6 explicitly precludes the Christian “NT”. Devarim 13:1-6 forbids the addition of mitzwot and subtraction of mitzwot from Torah.
Ribi Yehoshuas talmidim Netzarim still observes Torah non-selectively to their utmost today and the research in the above website implies that becoming one of Ribi Yehoshuas Netzarim-followers is the only way to follow him.