0910 Reflection -- Romans 13:8-14

Upcoming Sunday Epistle Readings

Sunday 10 September 2017

Romans 13:8-14

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.  Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

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Paul calls the faithful to continue in faithfulness.  Chief among those aspects of faithfulness which he highlights is the sharing of love of God and love of neighbor which fulfills the Summary of the Law.  He urges the faithful to press on in this way seeing that salvation is constantly drawing nearer.  There are many who speak of this in terms of the end of days.  Certainly, Paul would fit that description.  Paul believed firmly for much of his ministry that he would witness the triumphant return of Jesus before tasting death.  Obviously this did not happen, for we number Paul amongst the saints who are martyrs, who have laid down their life for Christ.  From the perfection of vision that comes in the life to come, I think Paul would wish for us to focus more on the end of our days rather than the end of the days.  None of us knows how much more time we have in this life.  With each passing day, we draw nearer to the time when we shall stand before Christ in the life to come.  As we prepare for our death, no matter how soon or how far off that might be, we do well to press on and grow in love of God and neighbor.  By doing so, we make public witness to the hope that is in us, the hope that enables us both to live and to die in confidence and in hope that the best is yet to come, that we have not followed Christ for this life alone.  We belong to Christ, and we live for him.  These are eternal truths.

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Father Timothy Alleman

0827 Reflection -- Matthew 16:13-20

Upcoming Sunday Gospel Readings

Sunday 27 August 2017

Matthew 16:13-20

When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

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This Gospel presents us a question that we and all the baptized in every generation must all answer.  No other human being who walked the face of the earth has ever been discussed more or had more written of that one than Jesus, son of Mary, the carpenter of Nazareth.  The viewpoints expressed in all of these descriptions vary as much as the responses of the disciples who shared the many and various differing views of those who witnessed Jesus walking in their midst.  And when all of this was shared, Jesus posed this question: “But who do you say that I am?”  Jesus still asks this question today and of us.  And how do we respond?  Peter gives us the answer to embrace and to claim as our own.  It is a response that ultimately points forward to Thomas’ confession of faith in Jesus.  Who is this Jesus?  As Christians, our response is “My Lord and My God.”  Jesus is not our parent’s Lord.  He is my Lord and my God.  It is he in whom we place our hope and to home we commit ourselves to such a degree that he is first in our hearts, first in our lives.  No one else comes before him.  And nothing can hold us captive, for Jesus has delivered us, each of us by name, from all that binds us.  He is our life and our salvation.  When Peter first uttered this confession, he did not fully understand what he was saying.  A lifetime of discipleship would refine this commitment until his work was complete and the time for his passing from life to life eternal in death would come.  Today we may not fully understand our own confession.  But if we walk with Christ daily, we will come to grow in the knowledge of Christ and his love day by day until at last we stand before him and acknowledge him no longer by faith but with sight restored and made whole in ways that we cannot yet imagine.

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Father Timothy Alleman

0827 Reflection -- Isaiah 51:1-6

Upcoming Sunday Old Testament Readings

Sunday 27 August 2017

Isaiah 51:1-6

Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many. For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples. I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be for ever, and my deliverance will never be ended.

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This reading is a call to remember the works of God in order that this remembrance might give hope for more yet to come.  God has been faithful, and God will continue to be faithful.  God’s promises and presence do not end.  We who hear these words many generations later cling to this promise, and we share that promise and that hope with those who follow us.  We do so in the hopes that they will continue to share this hope for generations to come.  Confidence in God gives us the strength to share our story and point others to God.

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Father Timothy Alleman