Greetings from Park City! After a long hiatus, the blog is up and running again. Each week, I hope to post a reflection on the readings St. John's family and friends are working on together as a plan to read the Bible through in 2010. We have chosen a plan from the website www.bibleplan.org - "Reading the Bible Chronologically - Number 2". This plan reads through the entire Old and New Testaments (one reading from each testament each day) in more or less the historical order of events (at least in one interpretation...).
If you want to join us, follow this link:
http://www.bibleplan.org/#cn
And you can have someone read it to you by visiting this link and selecting the passage for the day:
http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/audio/
AND - don't fret if you miss a day. Remember it's always better to read God's Word than not to - just pick up on the day you decide to start (or re-start!).
Now - reflections for Week 1.
During this week, we've been reading from Genesis and Matthew. The beginnings of both Testaments put us in a place of awe and worship, I think.
Genesis tells us that it's all been God from the start. God is in control, and - at least for awhile - it was all as God planned. Then humankind, having been given a place of stewardship over Creation and complete fellowship with God chose to disobey. The Fall as recorded in Genesis 3 explains the human condition that we see all around us even today. Although God created all and found it very good, the stain of human sin has distorted Creation every since. Sickness, war, broken-ness in relationships, all are a consequence of things out-of-sorts and out-of-place. So it's no surprise that God is led to start over fresh (the Flood), having found one righteous man and family (Noah). leading to the first of several Covenants God makes with humanity. The Tower of Babel incident is followed quickly by the faithful response of Abram (later Abraham) to go where God asks him to go. So begins the accounts of the Patriarchs, which will dominate the readings for several weeks.
Matthew's Gospel begins to tell of Jesus, and of how he fulfills God's plan to bring a Messiah to the people of Israel, and to bring the kingdom of God to all the earth - Jew and Gentile alike. Matthew gives us the Magi (note that the number of Magi is not specified, although by tradition there is one for each gift: gold, frankincense, and myrrh) scene of the Christmas story. Fast forward to Jesus' temptation in the desert, and the beginnings of his ministry as teacher (this is big in Matthew), almost a parallel in structure to the five books of Moses can be found in the teaching sections of Jesus' ministry as Matthew records.
One question to ponder this week: in what ways do we who follow Jesus still try to exercise our own autonomy (like Adam/Eve, and the people of Babel, and even the "heroes" of the faith like Abram, Jacob, etc.) when what we ought to do is obey God?
"When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." Genesis 9.16
"You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5.48
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