ISSL Reflections January 10, 2021, Luke 5:1-11 Post 2

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Take a few minutes to review this week’s Scripture –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%205%3A1-11%20&version=NRSV;MSG

IV.
As we pay attention to Peter, what do you notice about him.

Below is a quick overview of the Scripture passage –

Jesus asks for some help from Peter …
Peter lets him in his boat …
Peter hears Jesus speak to the crowds …
Jesus asks Peter to go fishing again …
Peter “protests” that the fishing has not been good …
But … Peter follows Jesus’ instructions …
His boat is filled with fish nearly sinking …
Peter “begs” Jesus to leave him …
Peter is amazed by ? …
Jesus tells Peter he (Peter) is afraid …
Peter hears Jesus propose a life change for him …
Peter leaves his boats, his occupation and his family …

V.
What all do you think Peter experienced, thought, felt during this encounter with Jesus?

What emotions can you see in Peter’s face and hear in his words?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections January 10, 2021, Luke 5:1-11 Post 1

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I. Our Scripture for this week presents us the familiar account of Jesus calling Peter and others to follow him.

The passage ends with Jesus telling Peter,

“‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” Luke 5:11

As you read the passage a couple of times don’t let those closing words capture all your attention. Pay close attention to Peter. Notice Peter’s conversation with Jesus and his actions.

II.
Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

III.
What do you notice about Peter?

He lends his boat to Jesus. He has a bad night of fishing. Peter the fisherman takes fishing lessons from Jesus the carpenter.

What else do you notice?

What do make of his conversation with Jesus?

If you need to read the passage again to look even more closely into Peter’s words and actions, take some time to do that.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections, January 3, 2021, Luke 4:14-22, Post 3

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Welcome to a New Year, 2021.

VII.
As you take a moment to turn your attention to this week’s Scripture passage –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204%3A14-22&version=NRSV;MSG

Pay particular attention to –

“…to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, ‘This is God’s year to act!'” – Luke 4:18-19, The Message

“Then he started in, ‘You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.'” – Luke 4:21, The Message

VIII.
How do we hear these statements today? Do we take them seriously?

Was Jesus right? Did the Kingdom come true? And for us, today, is it still a truth we can live into?

IX.
Today marks the beginning 2021, one week after Christmas Day 2020.

Listen to the words of Howard Thurman and consider what he regards as the “The Work of Christmas”,

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music from the heart.

“The Work of Christmas” by Howard Thurman

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

January 3, 2021, Luke 4:14-22, ISSL Reflections, Post 2

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This week’s Scripture can be read at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204%3A14-22&version=NRSV;MSG

IV.
Spend some time with the portions of Isaiah our Gospel text references –

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(Luke 4:18-19)

V.
What do you make of the prophet’s statement, “… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”?

How about the way The Message translates it, “This is God’s year do act”?

VI.
Would you think of the year 2020 as a “year of the Lord’s favor”?

I have to suspect that is not the way most of us would describe the year … and certainly we have good reasons to feel that way.

You could take each statement of the prophet – “good news to the poor,” recovery of sight to the blind,” and “the oppressed go free” – and find ways in which that did not happen and even ways in which the opposite did happen.

But if we take some time we might find some times in which “the Lord’s favor” did show up.

Maybe ways we had a hand in bringing “the Lord’s favor.”

What can you see?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections, January 3, 2021, Luke 4:14-22, Post 1

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I.
Last week we heard John the Baptist speak of the one who brings the Kingdom. This week we follow Jesus into his hometown synagogue and hear his reading words from the Isaiah scroll and his commentary on that reading.

What holds your attention in this passage?

II.
Luke 4:14-22

Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

III.
Jesus told those present, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

What meaning does that hold for us today?

I am wondering if the “today” Jesus spoke of was that day in Nazareth or might it include our day. What are your thoughts?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

December 27, 2020, Matthew 3:1-12, ISSL Reflections, Post 3

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May you be blessed on this Christmas Day!

The traditional Scripture reading for Christmas is the account found in the Gospel of Luke, Luke 2:1-20 –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A1-20&version=NRSV

Whether you are reading the above passage or our Scripture lesson for this week, Matthew 3:1-12, you probably want to pay attention to what both Scriptures present as “breaking” into our world.

You can find the Matthew passage from The Message translation and the New Revised Version at this link –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%203%3A1-12&version=MSG,NRSV

VII.
“[John’s] message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: ‘Change your life. God’s kingdom is here’…. [John said,] ‘I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.’” (Matthew 3:2,11, The Message)

VIII.
Perhaps John’s message was “the Kingdom” as was Jesus’?

On Christmas eve on the car radio, I heard the song, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”

What does Christmas look like where you are this year? Certainly the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted how everything looks (and feels) this year. Beyond that, how does Christmas look this year?

Is Christmas “looking a lot like” the Kingdom John and Jesus spoke of?

What do you have in your power to help that come about?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

December 27, 2020, Matthew 3:1-12, ISSL Reflections, Post 2

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You can find this week’s Scripture at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%203%3A1-12&version=NRSV;CEB

IV.
I closed the last post with the question –
“How would you name or describe the core of his call to others?”

As I was considering my own question I realized different of us would answer that question differently.

A neo-fundamentalist might hear John’s “revival” like words, assume one kind of context and take the essence of his “sermon” to be one thing.

An evangelical finds the “core” somewhat different. Likewise a Wesleyan, or Anglican, or Western Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox brings a different heritage to the hearing of John’s words and finds a different way to characterize the core of John’s call.

V.
Over the years I have had the good fortune to be in study groups, workshops, retreats and worship experiences with folk from several Christian traditions.

I believe that has helped me better understand not only what they bring to the reading/hearing of Scripture but also their lived Christian experience and more to the point what they can teach me about the depth and breadth of the Christian life.

VI.
With that mind, consider again what one could characterize as the “core” of John’s call.

What depth and breadth does John speak to you with today?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

December 27, 2020, Matthew 3:1-12, ISSL Reflections, Post 1

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I.
We come this week to a man the Gospel presents as called into the wilderness so that he might call others to ….

Please read these words from the Gospel of Matthew and pay attention to John. Look at him. Listen to him. What do you see … and hear?

II.
Matthew 3:1-12

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

III.
What is his call, his message, to those who come to hear him?

Repentance?


The coming Messiah?

Judgement?

A life that bears “fruit”?

What you can “trust” in?

All these seem to be at least part of what he is calling his audience to. What more do you see?

How would you name or describe the core of his call to others?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

December 20, 2020, Matthew 2:1-2, 7-15, ISSL Reflections Post 3

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Please take another opportunity to reread this week’s Scripture –

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A1-2%2C%207-15&version=NRSV;CEB;NET

VI.
I closed the other day by asking –
“How do you understand what has led each to where they find themselves here?”

I have been thinking about what led the magi to this place.

I know the short answer is “The Star,” but I wonder if we might notice something more.

VII.
We call them magi or “wise men.” In my thinking there were scholars of one of the other people in that part of the world.

While many of us may not think of astrologers as being scholars, probably it was so in that world and that time.

If that is the case, these folk paid a lot of attention to the sky. They were familiar with the stars and planets and their patterns in the sky. They were familiar enough with that to notice when something was different. When something was out of place, something new was in view or something was brighter than was normal.

And that is what leads me to wonder what I pay attention to. And when and if I will notice something new or different or brighter breaking into my normal field of vision.

Do I pay attention? Do I notice what glows brighter today?

Do I just “look” at the goings-on around me or do I pay attention?

I suspect I need to work more at paying attention. Maybe then I will see glimpses of God’s handiwork, I might otherwise look over or look past.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

December 20, 2020, Matthew 2:1-2, 7-15, ISSL Reflections Post 2

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Take some time to reread the passage a couple of times –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A1-2%2C%207-15&version=NRSV;CEB;NET

IV.
This passage opens for us a way to notice that the same event, the same piece of history is seen by different folk in very different ways.

It also helps us notice that what one says is in some cases not at all what one means.

V.
Do we think Herold wants to “honor” or “worship” the “child who has been born king of the Jews”?

Do the wise men want to honor the child?

How do you understand what has led each to where they find themselves here?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}