WwtW OT C 8: God suffices

Bible study notes for the coming Sunday's Gospel.  This will be the last "Wednesdays with the Word" post for now, as the parish has decided that for Lent to turn out attention to Pope Francis' new encyclical, the joy of the Gospel.

Gospel:           Matt 5:17-37

Context.           We continue reading of the Sermon on the Mount, the first of the five main discourses of Matthew’s gospel. The Sermon is preceded by an account of Jesus’ healing and preaching ministry and his call of the first disciples.  It began with the beatitudes, proclaiming blessing for the persecuted Church.  Blessing comes before demand.  Next, we moved us from indicative to imperative (be what you are!; salt and light) in very general terms.  Then, after a reminder on the continued relevance of Torah, the instructions started getting a lot more specific (the so-called antitheses).  Next, comes a section of proper cult (fasting, prayer and almsgiving).  We do not read this in the Ordinary Time lectionary, is it will be read in Lent.  The Lord’s Prayer becomes the center of the Sermon.  Today’s reading is part of what follows that: how to deal with possessions.  After this will come a section on how to deal with your neighbor.  The Sermon concludes with promise and warning: whether you heed these words will determine how you weather the storm that is coming.  After the Lent and Easter seasons are over, we will pick up our continuous reading of Matthew’s gospel a few chapters later (some weeks are skipped each year).  It would be good to read over the whole Sermon (chapters 5-7) as Lenten reading.

God loves us disproportionately – Matt 5:38-48

Sunday of OT A, week 7; Holy Cross parish.

The sun produces energy at a rate of 400 Yotta-Watts, that’s 400 Yotta Joules each second, that’s 4 with 26 zeroes after it.  That’s the equivalent of this: if every man, woman and child on God’s green earth had their own nuclear power plant, and ran it for fifteen years, the total amount of energy produced would be the same as what the sun produces each second. That’s powerful.  That’s energetic.  That’s a tiny fraction of God’s action in the world, of God’s love, of God’s grace.  God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good.

WwtW: OT A 6, getting to the heart of the matter

Confession time: I struggle with anti-nomial tendencies, especially when laws afflict me.  This is one of the most inconvenient sections of the Sermon on the Mount, intensifying the beating heart of the law.  Remember being delighted last week to be called salt and light?  Well... this is what that means.  I'm also going to add: below are Bible Study notes.  In pastoral conversation or preaching, I wouldn't present this so matter of factly, but would try to walk with people as we all struggle together to live out this vision, straining to rest in the loving mercy of God, but always falling short.

Gospel:           Matt 5:17-37

Context.           We continue reading of the Sermon on the Mount, the first of the five main discourses of Matthew’s gospel. The Sermon is preceded by an account of Jesus’ healing and preaching ministry and his call of the first disciples.  It began with the beatitudes, proclaiming blessing for the persecuted Church.  Blessing comes before demand.  Next, we moved us from indicative to imperative (be what you are!; salt and light) in very general terms.  Now, after a reminder on the continued relevance of Torah, the instructions start getting a lot more specific.  This is how to be salt and light.

God’s work in us lights up the world – Matt 5:13-16

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time; Holy Cross-St. Stan's.

You all know very well the First Law of Thermodynamics.  Now, I’m not saying that you can necessarily recite it, but you know it.  The first law of thermodynamics states that work is heat and heat is work.  Knowing the first law of thermodynamics really just amounts to knowing that when you run your car engine, it gets hot.  Now, that’s not really its function (its function is to spin the gears and thus wheels and move your car forward), but a side-effect (a pleasant one in this weather) is that doing that work creates heat.  You know the first law of thermodynamics if you know that when you exercise, you’ll start to warm up.  Doing the work of contracting and extending your muscles to move around creates heat.  A room full of children running around won’t just be noisy, it’ll warm up.  And when things get hot enough, they start to give off light.  Think of sparks on a bandsaw.  Or, think of those light bulbs, which are designed to give off light and, incidentally give off heat.  The work there is the electrons in the metal of the filament moving backwards and forwards, changing direction over fifty times a second.  These tiny particles buzzing around do enough work to heat those coils and produce enough light to light up this Church.

WwtW: Be what you are -- a window! (OT A 5)

Wednesdays with the Word Bible Study continues with some thoughts on this week's coming gospel.

Liturgical Context.  Our continuous reading of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ earthly ministry began two weeks ago, with the calling of the disciples (Week 3 of OT).  Last week, we would have read the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the famous beatitudes passage.  However, the Feast of the Presentation ‘bumped’ the 4^th Sunday of OT, so we read that gospel reading (from Luke) instead.  This week, we ‘continue’ with the Sermon on the Mount.  As we skipped its beginning, we’ll look at that in these notes briefly, as it grounds the whole Sermon.

God discloses His power over sin – 1 Sam 12:1-17; Mk 4:35-41

Saturday of Week 3 of OT; St. Stan's.

“You cannot know yourself so well as by reflection.”  It’s a line from Julius Caesar, but it sums up well David’s experience.  David, if you remember, spied on Bathsheba bathing, got her pregnant and coolly dispatched her husband, one of his loyal soldiers, by sending him on an impossible military endeavor, and fails to see anything wrong with what he’s doing.  Until… David gets sucked into Nathan’s story, lets himself imagine himself in it, is moved to empathy and is moved to right judgment.  Nathan need only point out the obvious and David finds himself convicted by his own sin.