Weekly Bible Study Notes Ordinary 13

Year C, Colour = Green

Opening Verse
Collect Prayer
First Reading:
Second Reading:
Gospel Reading
Post Communion Prayer
Commentary:
Meditation:
Hymns for this week
Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead :
Intercessions from our Sunday worship
Sermons

Ordinary 13 Year C

Introduction

Jesus said some very dramatic things. He once said that if a part of our body causes us to sin we should cut it off. He could not have meant us to take this teaching literally, if we did then there would be people all over the place missing parts of their bodies! But this dramatic language did make the point to his hearers - take sin seriously. The same use of language by Jesus takes place in our reading today. Jesus want to make the point that he is calling people to a sacrificial discipleship, those who have other things on their minds are distrcted and no use him.

Jesus wants a wholehearted commitment and he is most certainly not in the numbers game which we are often very concerned about, judging the ministry of the church by the number of people who cross over the threshold of our church doors on Sundays. Jesus tells people that they should not be concerned with saying good bye to their families, they should not even turn back to bury a dead parent. Surely burying a dead father was a most important thing to do and I would not expect for one minute that Jesus would have us take the language literally. But the point is seriously made, think carefully before you follow Jesus, is this really want you want or is yoiur heart really somewhere erlse?. If we wish to be followers of Jesus then we must get our priorities right. It is no use trying to follow Jesus if our heart really isn't in it. Don't keep looking elsewhere, just look at Jesus and follow him.

Interestingly Jesus uses the phrase ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ I wonder ifd the call of Elisha was on his mind? In 1 Kings 18 we read that Elijah called Elisha to follow when Elisha was out in the fields ploughing. Elisha went back to kiss his father and mother goodbye, but we are told that he made a fire by burning his ploughing equipment, he then cooked the oxen and gave away the meat. Now that was really burning his bridges, there could be no return, no looking back, he was all in for discipleship. This was the sort of commitment that Jesus expected.

Opening Verse of Scripture

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians Chapter 5

Collect Prayer for the Day — Before we read we pray

Lord, you have taught us that all our doings without love are nothing worth: send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you. Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. CW

Faithful Creator, whose mercy never fails: deepen our faithfulness to you and to your living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

First Bible Reading 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14

When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah 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.

Then Elijah said to him, ‘Stay here; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.’ But Elisha said, ‘As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.’ So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then 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.

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.’ He 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.’ As 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. Elisha 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.

He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He 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. NRSV

Second Reading Galatians 5:1, 13-25

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. NRSV

Gospel Reading Luke 9:51 -62

When the days drew near for him be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ NRSV

Post Communion Prayer

Loving Father, we thank you for feeding us at the supper of your Son: sustain us with your Spirit, that we may serve you here on earth until our joy is complete in heaven, and we share in the eternal banquet with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Commentary

Luke tells us in the Gospel reading today that the disciples called upon Jesus to destroy a Samaritan village because the Samaritans had failed to welcome them. In John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus was welcomed in a Samaritan village (chapter 4) but Luke recalls rejection. Jesus has sent messengers to find lodgings for him in Samaria. This was the country between Galilee and Judea (v52). There were other routes which Jesus could have taken on his journey to Jerusalem and there would have been good reason for doing so. The route could be dangerous because Jews and Samaritans were not the best of friends. Samaritans and Jews had rival temples, rival priesthoods and they disputed who had claim as heirs of the patriachs. Jospehus the historian tells gives us some critical information about the Samaritans. He records that in the early years of rule by Rome when Coponius was governor (6-9 AD) Samaritans hid themselves among Jews on pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem and scattered human bones in the sanctuary making it ritually unclean. It would be a bit like putting a pig’s head in a mosque today. He also tells that during the governorship of Cumanus (48-52) Samaritans killed a number of Jewish pilgrims who went through Samaria on their way from Galilee to the Temple in Jerusalem. Cleary the Samaritans would not be impressed that Jesus had said that he was going to the rival temple in Jerusalem. It would have been thought that Jesus was aligning himself with the Jerusalem Jews and not a Samaritan Messiah.

The disciples have a clear plan of action which involves something more akin to napalm. Jesus should wave his magic wand and bring down divine retribution in the form of balls of fire upon the Samaritans. This would be justified because the Samaritans had like Sodom failed to show proper hospitality and they were foreigners anyway. In one sense they were correct, there are occasions in the Old Testament when cities are destroyed and one such famous occasion was the destruction of Sodom which was destroyed we are told by Ezekiel (16:49) because they failed to aid the poor and needy. Bringing down fire upon opponents was also something which the disciples would have picked up from the prophet Elijah who used fire to burn up troops sent by King Ahaziah (2 Kings 1). We are told earlier in this chapter that some people thought Jesus might actually be Elijah reappeared and the disciples could be forgiven for thinking that some of the revered prophets talents with fire had been passed down.

What the disciples had failed to do was to listen to the teachings which Jesus had been giving which were very contradictory to what had happened in the history of Israel as recorded in our Old Testament. Jesus was not a reborn Elijah who would punish poor behaviour or consume God’s enemies with fire. Jesus had already warned them of this change in understanding what God was really like. He had told them to ‘love your enemies’ and ‘do good to those who hate you.’ Jesus has just told them that they must relinquish power become like children but they had failed to grasp what the mission of Jesus was all about. They seek to demonstrate the power of God by a demonstration of wrath and judgement, exhibited by fire from heaven, just at the moment when Jesus has set his face towards Jerusalem when the power of God will be shown from the suffering of the Messiah on a cross. The stark contrast could not be more vivid. We are told that Jesus rebuked the disciples (v55) just as he had rebuked the stormy sea or demons. Jesus is the opposite to Elijah and he will not destroy those who oppose him, but rather forgive them.

Jesus and his followers go on to another village and Jesus teaches them that to be one of his disciples demands a change in understanding. His people will not have supernatural power to inflict upon those who challenge them, nether will they possess wealth or power. To be on the side of Jesus will instead mean the need for sacrifice and even homelessness as they have just failed to find a welcome in Samaria. There is also a hint at political persecution with the reference to foxes having holes, because Herod Antipas was called by Jesus a ’fox’ (Luke 13:32).

Notwithstanding the thankless nature of discipleship Jesus nevertheless calls for others to follow him. One responds to the call by asking for time to bury his father. It isn’t clear whether this hesitation is because his father has just died, or if he wants to wait a few years until his father does die. Jews at the time practiced secondary burial in which a year after burial the tomb was visited and the bones collected and placed in ossuaries. Whatever state of health or otherwise of the father, Jesus shows scant regard and responds in a way which would have caused shock and offence. It might be that Jesus was using hyperbole in the same way that he was when encouraging disciples to self mortification by chopping off bits of their bodies which caused them to sin (Matthew 5:29). If this is the case we should take Jesus to mean that the business of following him is even more significant than life and death, presumably because it has eternal consequence. Jesus desires wholehearted commitment and not divided loyalties. Jesus says that if a person places a hand on the plough and looks back they are not a suitable disciple. There is another unfavourable reference here to Elijah (1 Kings 19:19-21). In this episode Elijah sees Elisha at the plough and calls him as a disciple. Elisha responds by asking ’Let me kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow you,’ to which Elijah gives his permission. In this context the words of Jesus become much more clear. Jesus is contrasting his work of a suffering servant with an Elijah who calls down fire and his mission which is of such importance that even the response of Elisha fell short. Charles Royden

Meditation

Joy is love exalting and peace is love at rest.
Patience, love enduring in every trial and test.
Gentleness, love yielding to all that is not sin.
Goodness, love in actions that flow from Christ within.
Faith is love’s eyes opened, the loving Christ to see.
Meekness, love not fighting but bowed at Calvary.
Temperance, love in harness and under Christ’s control.
The Christ is love in person, and love, Christ in the soul.
Missionary Dr. Kenneth Moyner, quoted by John Stott, “A Vision for Holiness,”

Hymns

As the deer pants for the water
Jesus we celebrate
God of grace (Rhuddlan)
Be thou my vision
Take my life and let it be (Nottingham)

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

representation of prayer as seed growing

"Prayer is a plant, the seed of which is sown in the heart of every Christian.
If it is well cultivated and nourished it will produce fruit, but if it is neglected, it will wither and die."

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire for all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Thomas Merton 1915-1968 Thoughts in Solitude

Almighty God, you have broken the tyranny of sin and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts whereby we call you Father: give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service, that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

O Lord God, since you have put within me the great desire to devote myself to the needs of others, grant me the strength of your grace. In the midst of my work let me not lose sight of your great purposes. Let me not snatch the management of your world from your hands, lest I faint and fall in the presence of your wisdom; this I beg for Jesu’s sake. Amen Florence Nightingale, 1820-1910

Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you; you are gentle with us as a mother with her children. Often you weep over our sins and our pride, tenderly you draw us from hatred and judgement. You comfort us in sorrow and bind up our wounds, in sickness you nurse us and with pure milk you feed us. Jesus, by your dying we are born to new life; by your anguish and labour we come forth in joy. Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness; through your gentleness, we find comfort in fear. Your warmth gives life to the dead, your touch makes sinners righteous Jesus, in your mercy heal us; In your love and tenderness remake us. In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness, for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us. A song of St Anselm (St Anselm 1033-1109)

God of glory, as you made yourself present in the person of Your Son, grant that we, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, may be your presence and glory in the world, that through you and obedience to your precepts all nations would know your lasting peace and hope. Amen

Father God, help us to keep you as the central focus in our lives when worldly distractions are all around us. Be with us each step of the way on our daily missionary journey as we walk ever more closely to you. Amen

As you call us, so enable us, that we may do your will and draw others to your compassionate and strong love. Help us not to be confined by the strictures we place on our faith but be open to the treasures you have in store for us, leaving the past behind us and pressing on towards the goal of making your Kingdom real in our world and living our lives the way you desire. Amen

Living God, you have given us an eternal and living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: grant that we, being risen with Him, may fix our hearts on heavenly things and share in your eternal life, worshipping you for ever at your throne in heaven. Amen

The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight; and may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen

Additional Resources

Commentary

On a Mission
It’s clear from the Gospel reading today that Jesus is on a mission. His determination to achieve what He sets out to visible to all;

He rebukes the disciples in one place,
in another suggests to a potential follower that he let ‘…the dead bury their own dead…’
and in another He says that no-one who looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.

Harsh words, but He is determined that He will not be swayed, deflected, delayed or distracted from His intense desire to get to Jerusalem. He sets out for Jerusalem where His crucifixion will show the world His openness to be weak and His resurrection will show His supreme strength.

Up until now Luke has been describing the ministry of Jesus in Galilee but from now on the pace increases as for the next 10 chapters Luke describes Jesus’ journey up to Jerusalem and His final days.

The story today also gives us a sense of the importance and urgency of His mission. As He is walking along Jesus invites a man to follow Him. The man replies saying that he first wants to go and bury His father, a reasonable enough request we would think. Jesus responds back that there isn’t time for that and the dead can bury their own dead. In Jewish tradition there is nothing that has a higher priority than burying your father. It’s a sacred obligation. Attend to the burial of your father above all other duties, even saying daily prayers. The first and only priority is to make the funeral arrangements. And, once dead, the body is never left alone until the burial and the seven and thirty days of mourning commence. Jesus is saying that following Him is more important than the most important thing in observing the Jewish law and practice. The message is clear. The way of Christ passes beyond the rule of the Jewish law into freedom in Him.

Paul too invites the believers to experience this freedom in Christ as we demonstrate the behaviours of a people led by the Spirit. As people who are focused on following Christ, so we are called to live by the Spirit and be free of the things in our lives, our ‘sinful desires’, the things that hold us back from following Christ and be single minded in our mission to follow Him and be His disciples.

We see a similar single mindedness in the readings from 1 Kings. In the Old Testament reading we see Elisha ‘assuming the mantle’ or cloak of Elijah. Not only does he leave his plough and oxen, he slaughters the oxen and burns the plough so that he can cook the meat and offer it to the people there. For Elisa there could be no going back now! In Paul’s letter to the Galatians we see a single mindedness of Paul which characterises not just this passage but much of his writings. Paul stresses that the only focus that the early believers should have is on the love of Christ and what that meant for themselves and for their community. To lead lives that were focused on serving God and each other, summing up the law in the single command of ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. Paul also warns the early believers that they should not misunderstand this new found freedom in Christ. For some there must have been a temptation to swing the pendulum the other way after being limited under the strictures of Jewish law and cast off all restraint, and to be tempted to lead the debauched ways of the Roman’s they lived side by side with in Galatia, whose lax and immoral lifestyle was visible for all to see. The way of life that Paul exhorts the early believers to is the way of the cross, the way of Christ, the way of the Spirit, the way of love.

As we walk in the way of the Spirit it requires that same determination and focus that Christ demonstrates as He heads towards Jerusalem. But it’s easy to get deflected from the path of walking with the Spirit as the old habits and behaviours crowd in on us. Each time they do, we need to acknowledge our position and simply step back on the path and in that same determined way as Christ, who is the author and perfector of our faith. Sam Cappleman

Readings: Galatians 5:1, 13-25, Luke 9: 51-62.

The epistle reading from Galatians 5 unpacks the meaning of Christian freedom by contrasting the works of the flesh (verses 19-21) with the fruit of the Spirit (verse 22). Paul knew that it was just possible for Christian people, as for anyone else, to maltreat each other in a whole variety of ways. Such attributes of human nature are the stuff of soap operas on TV!

But the Gospel reading reveals how the nicest of people can become trapped by history into an ossified relationship of official hostility out of which they cannot break. The Samaritans had refused hospitality to Jesus and his disciples, and then in righteous indignation James and John proposed an appropriate hostile response. Out of the highest religious motives, the works of the flesh are given the fullest reign! How can we all escape from actions of this type? The example comes from Jesus' behaviour: he simply passes through them, quietly absorbing the hatred and accepts the homelessness (verse 58). Jesus thus has displayed at least five segments of the fruit of the Spirit!

In the sayings which follow, Jesus turned the incident into a pattern of discipleship. Behind 'the works of the flesh' was the desire to possess, to be seen as right, to have status and power. The disciples were to be ready to accept all this, and were to expect to have to accept homelessness with their Lord. Jesus demanded of them, just as he does of us, a loyalty which is greater than that to our closest and dearest relatives (verse 60).

Did Jesus mean all this literally? After all, elsewhere Jesus criticises people who fail to carry out their responsibilities to their parents (e.g. Mark 7:9-13). Sayings such as Luke 9:60 are known as 'focal instances' and are where Jesus' radical demand on us, as his disciples, is focused by showing what it could mean. Following Jesus is even more important than having a home and caring for elderly parents. Of course, Jesus may permit us to have possessions, and may command us to care for elderly parents, but this central command overrides all else: go and proclaim the Kingdom of God, in and through all you do!

In one of the Old Testament readings set for today, from 1 Kings 19, which is about the call of Elisha, and this brings out the significance of proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Just as Elijah appointed Elisha to follow him as prophet, so Jesus appointed his followers to a prophetic ministry before the world: 'Proclaim the Kingdom!' Elisha instinctively knew what the call meant. Without hesitation, he sacrificed his most prized possession, the twelve yoke of oxen for which he was doubtlessly a local celebrity, and thus dramatically severed his connection with his past life.

The fruit of the Spirit can be very costly to produce. To pursue the horticultural analogy, the tree needs to be well manured by burying under all those possessions, ambitions and desires which might otherwise produce very different works. Paul told us, in Galatians 5:24, that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with all its passions and desires. The challenge of these readings for us at the start of the 21^st Century is very clear: if Christ calls us, are we ready to sacrifice everything for him? The Reverend Peter Littleford

Meditation

2,00 years ago in Rome there was a large demand for statues for the houses and gardens of the rich. People would often have a statue carved of themselves made from marble or stone. As a consequence, the availability of good quality marble began to dwindle. Statues took hours to make and a mistake with a chisel could be costly. So unscrupulous suppliers and carvers would sometimes patch up and disguise defects in lower grades of the material with a kind of wax polish. In the sculptor’s shop, the customer would not be able to see the wax without looking very closely. However the warmth of a house, sunshine, or rain might wear the wax away to reveal the underlying blemishes. Smarter purchasers therefore started to demand that the goods were provided with a signed certificate guaranteeing that they had not been ameliorated or, in other words, were sold ‘without wax’.
A genuine statue would be without wax. The Latin words for “without wax” are “sine cera” - giving us the English word “sincere”. A statue that was “the real thing”, genuine, would be “without wax” - sincere. If we say that a person is not “sincere”, then they are false, not the real thing, not genuine: pretending to be what they are not.

Lord, each of us projects an image of ourselves by the way we dress, speak, behave. Help us to conduct ourselves sincerely in the life which you would have us live. Amen.

Meditation

A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing. Martin Luther

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature--trees, flowers, grass-- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence....We need silence to be able to touch souls. Mother Teresa, 20th century

Prayer

Keep us, O God, from all pettiness. Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed. Let us be done with faultfinding and leave off all self-seeking. May we put away all pretence and meet each other face to face, without self-pity and without prejudice. May we never be hasty in judgement, and always be generous. Let us always take time for all things, and make us grow calm, serene and gentle. Teach us to put into action our better impulses, to be straightforward and unafraid. Grant that we may realise that it is the little things of life that create differences, that in the big things of life we are as one. And, O Lord God, let us not forget to be kind! Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland (1542-1587)

Grant us this day, O Lord, Peace within ourselves, that our inner tensions may be resolved; Peace with those around us, that we may not disturb others by our hasty words; Peace with you, that the assurance of your eternal love may remove our fear; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Lord of our world, we acknowledge with shame and sorrow all the sin, hatred and injustice which have led and still lead to war. Grant us your forgiveness and your peace. It is the peace which the world cannot give, but which we could give to the world. Lord, give us grace to be peacemakers, in the name of Jesus, the Prince of peace.

Heavenly Father, you have taught us that our life on earth is a pilgrimage from this world to that which is to come. Guide us on our journey; defend us from the perils of the way; and save us from going astray into by-path meadow. May ours be a pilgrim's progress; and as we press on our way may it be with a song of praise in our hearts; and by your grace may we endure faithfully till we reach the Celestial City and receive your welcome home. Based on Pilgrims Progress

Hymns

Ye servants of God
I want to walk
I the Lord of sea and sky
Who would true valour see
Thou whose almighty word

Prayers

Intercessions Mrs Delia Shephard

We pray in confidence knowing that we bring our prayers to a merciful and everlasting God. We pray today for your blessing to be upon this congregation, upon this church, and our sister churches across the world.