My son has just refused to wear a white ribbon. He is annoyed that others tell him what to think. I said that I refuse to wear a white ribbon until they stop blaming men for all violence and start acknowledging the violence of women.

The entire site is misandrist. It is part of the current ideology — which worships  women and the feminine.  But to oppose this is to be isolated… to be shunned. You have to wear the ribbon.

Like my son, I will not submit to them. My submission belongs elsewhere.

Psalm 123

1 To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!2 As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until he has mercy upon us.3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.4 Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.

Revelation 18:9-20

⁹And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning; ¹⁰they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”

¹¹And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, ¹²cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, ¹³cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves — human lives.

I’m reflecting on what Grerp and Alte have both said… that feminism requires prosperity. In hard times, it takes two adults, working to exhaustion, to support a family. At present, we have enough money to support in some comfort the weak, the sick and the lazy. And solo mothers. Many women have divorced their husband or left their lover and now are wage slaves of the state.

Babylon is also a place of luxury. It trades everything from spices and wine to the souls of people.  But we cannot submit to this. We cannot submit to the spirit of this age.

As men, we should submit to God, in humility. In Christ, we submit to each other. We have duties to our wives… to love them, to not oppress them. to be faithtul to them. . wifes have duties to their husbands. parents to their children, children to their parents… but our core obedience goes to God.

And that will get us into trouble. For the feminists want our mind, not our bodies, and that is a deeper form of slavery.

Israel are best seen as a people of a covenant, made in Ancient times, when Moses was on Mt Sinai… Moses following a series of covenants made with Abraham and the patriarchs.  Part of that was that Israel was to be separate.

For Jews, there is no difference between covenant, faith and race. To be a Jew is to be subject to the covenant and law. It is not for other people. But the Jews were commanded not to intermarry.

Today the lectionary looks about one of those parts of scripture many feminists do not like. The Jews of the restoration had married locals. Now they divorced them to keep the covenant.

Ezra 9:1-15

1After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. Thus the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands, and in this faithlessness the officials and leaders have led the way.” 3When I heard this, I tore my garment and my mantle, and pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat appalled. 4Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.5At the evening sacrifice I got up from my fasting, with my garments and my mantle torn, and fell on my knees, spread out my hands to the LORD my God, 6and said,“O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens. 7From the days of our ancestors to this day we have been deep in guilt, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been handed over to the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as is now the case. 8But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, who has left us a remnant, and given us a stake in his holy place, in order that he may brighten our eyes and grant us a little sustenance in our slavery. 9For we are slaves; yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to give us new life to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judea and Jerusalem.10“And now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the pollutions of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations. They have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness. 12Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, so that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.‘ 13After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, 14shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you destroy us without remnant or survivor? 15O LORD, God of Israel, you are just, but we have escaped as a remnant, as is now the case. Here we are before you in our guilt, though no one can face you because of this.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

The covenant trumps love. Moses said that if a person tells or preaches that you should abandon God, you should cut them off, e they your wife who is your desire or your children who are your love.

But I am not a Jew. Some have applied this to races — thinking that they should not inter marry. (I note that the two places in the west where there were such laws last century were Germany under the Nazis and the United States). However, miscegenation is not part of the faith, and race politics (currently disguised as the Human biodiversity movement is not consistent with us all being equal in Christ.

This is wrong. The covenant we now have is in Christ. and we should marry within those of faith. This has been the teaching of the church since the beginning: Paul had to teach on divorce around unbelievers (and argued that one should remain with your pagan spouse — “for many wife has converted her husband without saying a word”. — but allowed divorce if the pagan man chose to do so, giving her freedom to marry within the church).

I think this teaching is going to become more important. We are living in an increasingly pagan world. The colour of our skin will matter less than the depth of our faith.  The current dating and marriage scene is driven by anything but faith. The church as to reclaim this.

I am not that good at speculating about the end times and prophecy. One of the more prolific and intelligent teachers here is Joel Rosenberg. I  read him as much for his reporting — because he does manage to talk to people from the Middle East — as his futuristic interpretation of revelation.

But there are clear mentions. One is the following….

Revelation 15:2-4

2And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. 3And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: “Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, King of the nations!4 Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your judgments have been revealed.”

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

In the end, people from every nation will worship God. This in part was fulfilled by the missionary movement — which exploded during the Victorian era and continues until now.

Christians are not the only people with teachings on the end. The Shia branch of Islam look for the Mahdi, who will conquer the world for Islam. Well, that contradicts the plain text here. Moreover, in most if not all nations there are those who follow Jesus. Islam, again, mirrors Christianity: the disciplines the faithful have are not without value, but the end is the exact opposite. Note that all nations shall worship… is sung by those martyred.

Our duty to endure remains. We are to glorify God, whether we live or die.

From the comments yesterday….“…I still think Catholic? But these past few months I’ve been trying my best to not think like a Catholic. Surely I’ve made some progress.”

Well, the commentator is getting wiser and more appropriate in many of her comments. This passage, however may offend Catholics… for it mentions the children that Mary, the mother of God had.

Matthew 13:53-58

53When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

54He came to his home town and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? 55Is not this the carpenter’ son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” 57And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.” 58And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

From this we note:

• Mary was seen as blessed as a Jewish women. She had five sons and daughters.  Children were seen as a blessing, and many children seen as a great blessing. As one of my friends said some years ago(who left NZ to marry her beloved and live in Israel… the women who is single or without chlldren is to be pitied”
• The cult of perpetual virginity does not make sense. Mary married Joseph. She had kids, and they were conceived in the usual  manner.
• The familiarity of the locals in Nazareth meant that they could not listen. Instead they doubted. Interestingly, this meant that Jesus did no miracles. I will leave the implications of this to the scholars, for many have talked about this.
• We do meet James again, for he became a leader of the Church. What we forget is that God has mercy. He gave Joseph and Mary a marriage, and it was not loveless, nor did he leave Mary in shame when she dealt with the village women.

I note that the church tends to be silent on uncomfortable parts of scripture. This passage is uncomfortable for Calvinists because there is an implication that our belief matters because we need some faith, like the Nazarenes, for miracles to occur, and salvation is a miracle. It is uncomfortable for some monks because Mary (who we should honour) had children, and they don’t want to think of her except as a virgin.

But… Jesus was raised by a Carpenter and his wife, in a large family, in the poorest and least prestigious part of Palestine. He did not come from nowhere. And we tend to forget that.

I’m rying to find words here. The kingdom of heaven, unlike the covenant of Moses is open. It is not limited to those who are of Abraham, nor is access to God limited to the day of atonement, and the service of the high priest.

We do not have rites of cleaness and ritual impurity that keep us from worship.

the church is for all nations, all races, all people. The qualification is accepting the mercy of God.

REVELATION 7:9-14
9After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb

MATTHEW 13:31-33
31He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

[the qualification around accepting God's mercy is that we are incapable of seeing our need for mercy but for the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus we can say that God chose us from when we were in our mother's womb: it is by his mercy that we are led to salvation, and by his mercy that we remain in him. We are too inconstant].

the Kingdom of God should be acting as a shelter and as salt: providing for the weak and poor and preserving righteous living. We are called to live against the current culture… and at times this is incredibly difficult.

We lose track of our aim, as a church, and as believers. We aim to know God and enjoy him forever, The best is yet to be. Our job is to do good here, and not let ourselves be ground down by the opposition we will get.

Jesus died around AD 30. The first recorded death of a Christian for proclaiming his resurrection was Stephen, and that was within two years of Pentecost.

Since then, there have been witnesses  to Christ, who have died. I am not talking here about the soldiers of the West (who are doing their duty) but the child whose time of joy as a Christian is but short because her family kill her as an offence to her honour. Or the pastors on Death row in Iran.

This part of Revelation is really more about the persecutors than the martyrs.

Revelation 6:9-11

9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; 10they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” 11They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.

The Justice of God will come, and it will be terrible.We have no defence. Like Nehemiaih, we can only call for mercy…

Nehemiah 1:5-11

⁵I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; ⁶let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. ⁷We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. ⁸Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; ⁹but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.’ ¹⁰They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. ¹¹O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!”

To those of Christ, we are reliant on his mercy. For justice will come. For those who oppress those of God — change your ways. Because Justice is coming, and it will be terrible.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

Over the last few days I have been thinking about what it means to grieve the holy spirit (a little) and muttering about how prosperity doctrine is wrong.

Today most of the passages in the lectionary are not about that. There are two: Jeremiah prophesied to Baruch telling him not to seek prosperity, and that his prize was his life, and Jesus was teaching on evil spirits as his family came — to take him away — because he had been accused of having an evil spirit.

At church yesterday we got diverted onto inclusive language, and Baz’s realisation that we cannot use inclusive language all the time — that statements about nursing babys or fathers guiding children are gendered.  Which is seen as wrong in the People’s Republic of Dunedin.

Today I was struck by this passage, which confronts us. This is what

Revelation 1:4-7a

4John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

We get distracted. We forget that God loved us, died for us, and we are part of the Kingdom of God. We are going to be his priests and his people. We have been freed from our sins.

What really awaits is glory. But this is lost by the noise of the trivia of everyday life.

Now, the old theologians had a list of mortal sins — things that were not only wrong but you had to agree to, knowing they were wrong. Lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, pride and envy — you can tell I am not Roman because I had to look it up.

Jesus said that there is only one sin that cannot be redeemed. And it is subtle. Because this commonly occurs among the religious — who in periods of despair believe they have done the unforgivable and are damned — I am quoting the entire passage.

Matthew 12:22-32

22Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute; and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see. 23All the crowds were amazed and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons.” 25He knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 29Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property, without first tying up the strong man? Then indeed the house can be plundered. 30Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

Jesus was driving out demons and curing people. He was told that he was aligned with the devil. When one calls the work of the Holy Spirit the work of the devil, one cuts oneself off from the ability of God to change you — you refuse the grace of God — and that is why it is unforgivable. If you return to the grace of God, you will be forgiven.

It is not the words or a formula. It is an attitude that sees evil in good, and good where there is nothing but evil. You cannot make someone see when they tie a blindfold around their eyes.

I think it is worthwhile thinking that he said this to Pharisees. The religious leaders. He did not say this to the demoniac. Or tax collectors. Or prostitutes. We must be aware of the sins of the religious, as they are more deadly than the overt crimes of the unchurched.

Tis morning my body clock says it is three am- I am in an airport, typing…. and. not feeling perfect. This body is frail, and after four hours walking …. Paul comforts us by saying this body is like a seed.

I For 15:35-41

35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

We are told to look ahead. Our hope is in Christ.

This is why the church will say that we ought not doubt when c/ircumstances are against us and we despair. Among the Reformed, where there is no central authority, we should trust in the scripture. We do not know why, or what, the purpose of what happens to us is. But we know that it will be revealed.

The ressurection make our faith one of hope, not an expression of some vague, nice, ineffective spirituality that ameliorates our despair but is lacking any power. To save, to heal, or to ressurrect.