Unformatted version of the weekly mailer can be found below:

St Paul’s Episcopal Church – Kingsport, TN

Community Bulletin Board

May 25, 2012

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

10 And as he sat at dinner^* in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting^* with him and his disciples. ¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ ¹²But when he heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’ <!– 14 –>

14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often,^* but your disciples do not fast?’ ¹⁵And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.’

Jesus just should have kept better company.  But that is the beauty of Jesus.  He welcomes all:  tax collectors (who worked for the hated Romans) and sinners–and you and me. 

Jay

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. ²⁰That is not the way you learned Christ! ²¹For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²²You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

There is nothing new under the sun.  I would suggest that as in the author’s day, we live in a pagan society lost in its attitude and appetites.  And we are called to live apart from that popular culture.  It permeates everything we do, entertainment particularly.  The author of Ephesians, whoever he was, calls us to live lives separate from our very fallen culture and to live lives where we “put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Which world do you live in? That of the pagans or that of Christ?  It really does matter.

Jay

And after getting into a boat he crossed the water and came to his own town. <!– 2 –>

2 And just then some people were carrying a paralysed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’ ³Then some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’ ⁴But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and walk”? ⁶But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he then said to the paralytic—‘Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.’ ⁷And he stood up and went to his home. ⁸When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

If you know your bible well you will remember this story in the Markan form where those carrying the man have to dig through the roof to lower the paralytic down to Jesus.  Matthew simplifies the story to just the basics. 

The scandal of the story is that Jesus presumes to forgive a man’s sin, something only God can do.  He knew it as did his enemies.  Then to prove that he has the authority to do this he heals the paralytic.

Is this proof enough for his enemies?  No.  Miracles are only pointers to who Jesus is open to his message in the first place.  The crowds get it, at least for the time being.  Would we?

Jay

When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,^* two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. ²⁹Suddenly they shouted, ‘What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’ ³⁰Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. ³¹The demons begged him, ‘If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ ³²And he said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and perished in the water. ³³The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. ³⁴Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighbourhood.

Matthew is the most traditionally Jewish of all the gospels.  It was written to a group of people trying to stay within the confines of Israel and still follow Jesus. And the gentiles were the enemy.  Yet Matthew again narrates Jesus coming to the aid of these two other gentiles who were not just gentiles but were unclean because of their demon possession.  Again the message is clear.  Jesus’ love transcends all political and social barriers.  And we need to be very careful about deciding whom Jesus loves and whom he does not.

Jay

Please come and celebrate with us and stay an enjoy the picnic that will follow the 10:15 service.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Deacon Chris

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him ⁶and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ ⁷And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ ⁸The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ ¹⁰When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one^* in Israel have I found such faith. ¹¹I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹²while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹³And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.’ And the servant was healed in that hour.

14 When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; ¹⁵he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. ¹⁶That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. ¹⁷This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, ‘He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.’

The thing to remember in today’s lesson is that the centurion would have been a hated man, a leader of the Roman occupation of the holy land.  He would have not been welcomed by most Jews in any way, yet Jesus not only welcomes him and heals his servant, he praises him for his great faith.  We need to be careful in assuming we know who Jesus loves and whom he does not love!  His love breaks all social barriers and other barriers we construct between the “good” people and the “bad” people.  Jesus sees the person behind all these constructs.

Jay

Unformatted version of the weekly mailer can be found below:

St Paul’s Episcopal Church – Kingsport, TN

Community Bulletin Board

May 18, 2012

Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. ²Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.’ But Elisha said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So they went down to Bethel. ³The company of prophets^*who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I know; keep silent.’

4 Elijah said to him, ‘Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So they came to Jericho. ⁵The company of prophets^* who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, ‘Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?’ And he answered, ‘Yes, I know; be silent.’

6 Then Elijah said to him, ‘Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So the two of them went on. ⁷Fifty men of the company of prophets^* also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. ⁸Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.’ Elisha said, ‘Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.’ ¹⁰He responded, ‘You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.’ ¹¹As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. ¹²Elisha kept watching and crying out, ‘Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’ But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. <!– 13 –>

13 He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, ‘Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?’ When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

15 When the company of prophets^* who were at Jericho saw him at a distance, they declared, ‘The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.’ They came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

What a story! Imagine being Elisha.  His father in God has left him and left him with his authority.  The next time we see Elijah is in the transfiguration of Jesus where he appears with Moses to comfort Jesus and reveal his glory.  

Jay

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: ⁴²‘What do you think of the Messiah?^* Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ ⁴³He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit^* calls him Lord, saying,
⁴⁴ “The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
   until I put your enemies under your feet’ ”?
⁴⁵If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’

Jesus here is engaged in minute explication of Psalm 110, the complexities of which I am going to skip.  The big picture is what Jesus is doing here.  The Pharisees hoped for a messiah who would be a royal descendant of King David who would swoop down and defeat the hated Romans and set up his kingdom in Jerusalem.  Jesus here turns this belief on its head  and argues that this cannot be so.

If one walks with Jesus for any length of time He will do the same thing to us.  He will take some cherished belief about God or Jesus and turn it on its head.  He will replace it with the truth, but it will be upsetting as it probably was for the Pharisees.  Jesus can be an upsetter and we who follow Him must expect that He will be so in our lives.

Jay