He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children;
that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God….
In spite of all ….[God did for them] they still sinned; despite his wonders they did not believe.
So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.
–Psalm 78:5-7; 32-33
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He went in, and stood before his master, and Eli’sha said to him, “Where have you been, Geha’zi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.”
But he said to him, “Did I not go with you in spirit when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, menservants and maidservants?
Therefore the leprosy of Na’aman shall cleave to you, and to your descendants for ever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.
–2 Kings 5:25-27
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It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans.
–1 Corinthians 5:1
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Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
–Matthew 5:37
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[Note from the elves, you can read all the lectionary passages easily on one page here (in the ESV translation)]
I gasped aloud last night when I read the lectionary passages for this morning. In my posts at L&B;in recent days I’d been focusing mostly on the appointed Psalms so wasn’t really thinking ahead to what I knew would come next in Matthew or 1 Corinthians.
What a case of the Word being living and active. These are such powerful words that our bishops need to hear spoken today. I pray the Lord will give many ears to hear, and that He will soften hearts of stone and lead them to repentance.
While I too was struck by all of the verses Kendall cites above, I think the passage that has been on my heart and mind most since I first read the passages about 12 hours ago were these verses from 1 Cor 5:
[i]6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.[/i]
May the Lord begin in our hearts, helping us to expose and renounce sin, and may He work in the HoB and TEC as a whole to cleanse it of the old leaven and replace malice and evil with sincerity and truth.
In the OT lesson, God heals Naaman through Elisha as an unmerited act of grace on God’s part. Naaman can do nothing to earn his healing. Naaman’s efforts to buy healing and manipulate God come to nothing. And Naaman is converted when he experiences the power of God. At the same time Gehazi’s act of dishonesty is punished. In fact Gehazi is cut off from God’s people because that is the effect of having this sort of skin disease. It is a living death for Gehazi.
We see two truths here: 1) God dispenses unmerited grace, and 2) you don’t mock God, be dishonest before God, or poke a finger in God’s eye with impunity. Mercy and justice. I think there is a lesson here for us all, but I think, particularly for TEC.
Elves, the OT lesson is 2 Kings, not 1 Kings.
[i]corrected it, thanks[/i]