HIS PART OF THE DEAL

Good Friday here today. Jesus was tortured and brutally crucified on a cross of wood. He was an innocent man. He had not threatened the rulers. He had not committed any crimes. 

To add to that, he had demonstrated the ability to do miracles. So why didn’t he just stop what his persecutors were doing to him? Why didn’t he fight back? Should he have? 

This is what Christians believe. There was something vastly bigger going on than the abuse and death of one man. 

In Old Testament times, God had made a promise to Abraham, during a sacrifice ceremony. Before that ceremony he had asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. Unbelievably, Abraham made preparations to do so. (What a bad God, you say. What a bad Dad. Bad stuff all round. In the historical context, human sacrifice to other gods was not rare in those very ancient days. 

Nedesem USA, from Memecentre.

Abraham would have heard of it in some cultures he passed through. ) He made all the preparations , but at the last moment...

It’s quite gripping reading, have a look yourself, link at the end of this post. Afterward, God said to Abraham:

“15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

-The Bible , NIV .

In Law, one contract on the exact same subject supersedes another. If I make a new will and testament today, it will wipe out the previous one I made after my current marriage, (unless it is irretrievably lost. ) God made a bunch of contracts in the Old Testament, along the lines of ancient King/subject relationships, of fealty and sacrifice from the subjects, rewarded by promises of protection and largesse from the God. These are called covenants.

The contract He made in Easter Week is believed by Christians to supersede all previous. (That’s not to say we can’t use them as a guide). He turned the King/subject fealty contract on its head, a complete reversal . He provided the sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus, killed on Good Friday. We get to love Him and each other in return. 

What evidence do we have that the old covenants were superseded, that there was a momentous break? 

I tell you , God is so good at the visuals, he should have been a movie director. He even threw in an earthquake, and a pitch black sky mid afternoon.

Good Friday we had nice herb and spice steamed fish burgers to eat, because traditionally Christians don’t eat meat on that day. We have been having hot cross buns too. It’s still nice in the backyard of an evening this time of year (Autumn.)

Lemon squash (soda) goes well with fish.

Burgers with garlic steamed fish with tartare sauce, salad and homegrown tomatoes. Underneath the candleholder it says this : Handmade for Magill Ceramics  08-8332 1286 . However I have had it many years.

It’s hard to see the flowers as it was low light. iPad doesn’t do flash:

Protea:

Leukodendrons:

Grainy photo because the iPad doesn’t like low light. Homegrown tomatoes get beautifully ripe and taste good. Fresh tomatoes don’t agree with my tummy but my family eat them off the plants:

Bohemia crystal glasses:

Bible verse of Abraham and Isaac:

link to verse

Last Year’s Good Friday post (one of them):

link to 2017 post

“IF I SPEAK WITH SILVER TONGUE”

Holy Thursday

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 Curious this week, I went to look at the Twitter page of a very young activist. David Hogg is one of the teen leaders of the youth movement pushing for gun control in the US. From the day his school was shot up with an automatic weapon, he’s been speechifying to keep momentum going. He’s polished, and prepared, usually. (A couple of times he’s been heard to swear). I went to his page and was pleasantly surprised to see one thing. 

He’s promoting love. Not once but multiple times. He wants cooperation between opposing political parties, tolerance, and love , not hate. 

Excerpt from The Proof of Your Love

- For King and Country

“If I sing but don't have love
I waste my breath with every song
I bring an empty voice, a hollow noise
If I speak with a silver tongue
Convince a crowd but don't have love
I leave a bitter taste with every word I say”.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”.  Ok, now substitute the word church for country.  With that approach, I should be smiley and open at church, not wait for the congregation to be friendly and open with me, yes?

What if I had tried that for nearly ten years and the congregation were still not chatting with me? What if they preferred to talk to people they’d known a longer time?  I’d probably stop going as often, yes? I’d go less and less frequently until I only went a couple of times a year. It’s less lonely to stay home and listen to the familiar songs and preachers on Christian Radio, than to go to church and feel isolated. God’s tithe? I’d pop it in a charity group’s collection box at the Supermarket. 

Catholic Church, Anglican Church, other traditional churches in the Western World, GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER, you are bleeding congregations! 

On Holy Thursday He gave two main instructions. “Do this in memory of me.” You got that part down pat. The ritual/small victual bit you all do as well as any ancient civilisation or returned soldier league ever did. You even print it in books, so, “this is how we always do it. “

Then we all go home and in many cases, forget all about being Christians until same time next week. 

HUH? 

That doesn’t seem much like the Last Supper to me. Where is the camerarderie?  But wait, there was another, greater instruction on that night with his friends:

“Love one another as I have loved you. “

We live in a world that is getting harsher. We need comfort when we venture through your big doors. If a young family, or homeless person, or new people to town come into your church, are you making them feel welcome? Are you giving them tasks in the church service so they feel useful, wanted? Or are existing members jealously hugging tasks to their breasts as part of their identity (I’m Jack and I’ve been a lectionary reader every week for ten years. I’m Kitty and I do the flowers. Betty over there always cleans. )

So what are the congregants saying to their long time friends after church? Something that often comes up is the ageing of the group. “So few if any of those youngsters doing their Confirmation today are going to come back.” Sure, it’s true. They and their parents are staying away on Sunday mornings, and keeping their church donations, that could have fixed the church roof, or paid the minister’s wages. Lots of churches are getting deconsecrated, closed, and turned into restaurants, art galleries, or private homes. More evidence of the death of IRL (in real life) communities, in a virtual world.

WAKE UP!

Just ask yourselves why?  Then ask yourselves, what benefits could accrue to your church from being more inclusive?

Jesus was born into the Roman Empire. Business as usual there was to live with ruinous taxes, rise up, protest, get crushed brutally, crucified on the sides of roadways, then mutter darkly until another foolhardy lot tried again. 

Jesus effectively said, well it’s like this: if you do as you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always had.

His radical point of difference? Love. It is the thing that kept the Christian Church alive for 2000 years, and without Love, the church will die.

We had a Holy Thursday barbecue in the park, with lamb, to symbolise the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his disciples at The Last Supper. We said Grace, and talked about the story of the Jewish Passover. The lamb chops were much more expensive than in the the days before Free Trade. Six cost over $15.00 au. They were beautiful, though, he’s a good butcher. I always cut off the fat. The magpies that are always in the park got that. Ace and I passed our olives to hubby, as we are not into them. The tomatoes are from our back garden, from the raised vegetable bed.

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All the table items we already had, most of them for years, except the flowers:

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Jesus broke the flat bread, and passed the wine around to his friends, so we had grapes to symbolise, and pita bread:

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Last year’s Holy Thursday post:

link to 2017 post

MONSTER

An appeal to all our readers. 

I'm sorry I've not loaded any new posts this past week. I have had a special interest in natural disasters for many years, at least since the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires. I have been following Hurricane Harvey, monstrous Hurricane Irma, it's desructive path and that of Jose and Katia, the other two with it. I have friends in Florida. It seemed like I could not add any new words to the terrible news I'm reading. 

There might not be any new words for me to write, but there is prayer.

Please, if you believe in God, or think He might exist, go to church this week , any church, and pray for the people in the path of this monstrosity. There is strength in numbers. Jesus said if two or three gathered in his name, he would be there. I'm not the world's greatest church goer these days, but I will be there. If you cannot get to a church please pray anyway.

There are other disasters and causes to pray for too. The monsoon victims in Bangaladesh and India. The Mexican earthquake. The victims of war in the Middle East. Private concerns re sick family and friends. The list goes on. 

One of our writers on this blog has opened up her home in the path of the storms, to strangers who normally live in a mobile home park. This will most certainly save their lives. That is an inspiration to me. So is the work of all the volunteers. Let's see if we can support them.

Irma, in the middle, Katia on the left, and Jose following.

NASA/NOAA

Let's do whatever we can.

international Red Cross donations

PETER Part 6 THE ROOSTER CROWED THREE TIMES

Rejection. 

Rejection is hard. 

So imagine if you're Jesus, walking around, helping people, being a positive, non violent, peace and love kind of a dude. Then your own people reject you. First the people in your own town. Driven out of your own church because of a sermon you gave. Then the official religious bosses decide you're a dangerous inconvenience and have to be removed. Then a friend Judas, literally sells you out, with a kiss on the cheek. 

Lastly, your Best Friend says he doesn't even know you, three times, to save his own skin. 

Peter. Well that really gets you in the gut. You love him.

2.31 mins

Didn't you teach him how to trust you, like walking on water? Was that all a waste of your precious time? 

What to do about Peter? Well, you have to forgive, obviously, you're Jesus, right? You said, forgive seventy times seven. Plus, you said you'd build a church on Peter, and no deviating from that goal. Eye on the ball. 

On you go to be crucified. Push on through to the other side. 

 

 

Peter, the "lowly"  fisherman, plain speaker, is forgiven. Jesus doesn't walk away from Peter, he makes him Pope. See God sees things in us that we can't see. 

Before we judge people and refuse to know them, it's worth thinking about that, even if they have rejected us first.

ZIGGY MARLEY:

Part 4 ST PETER - WHAT IS LOVE?

THE LAST SUPPER

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This song is dance music, perfect if you are doing the housework or have some space to dance around. 

Luke 22:7-38New International Version (NIV)

The Last Supper

7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

9 “Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

10 He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

After the meal:

"31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

 

Duccio di Buoninsegna, Duccio
Description	Italian painter
Date of birth/death	between 1250 and 1260	1318
Location of birth/death	Siena	Siena
Work location	Siena, Assisi, Florence

Source: Wikipedia

LOVE IS SOMETHING YOU DO

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How did Jesus show his love toward his friends? How did he simultaneously teach them to be leaders who personified service, not arrogance? (Couldn't we all do with a few more of those?)

He, the guest of honour,  got down on the floor like a servant of those days, and washed their feet. People in those days wore sandals and roads were not sealed with tar. Unless carried around in a litter, or on a donkey, everyone's feet were dirty. I get that, as I go barefoot alot, even in Winter.  It was custom that a low status person of the household would wash the guests' feet. 

Peter protested. 

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

NIV Bible

There is a custom in the churches to commemorate this scene by acting it out, every year on Holy Thursday. The priest or minister washes the feet of parishioners. One time I was watching this, as the priest worked his way down the aisles to selected people. They already had off their shoes. This man, Rev father John Alt, was on his knees with his head bowed, performing the ritual, when I suddenly had a very strong premonition that this was a holy man. I can't explain it. 

What I do know for sure, is that he was very good to my first husband during his illness. After the death, I offered the man a sum of money for his help. He would not take it. He only accepted a valuable painting of St Mary McKillop for the church, and a cheap folding chair, that had been my husband's. 

I know that there are TV evangelists who get around in private planes, luxury boats, and own multiple houses. I think they missed the point of the washing of the feet, somehow.

Unselfish service to our fellow man or woman, is what love is. 

LOVE IS SOMETHING YOU DO.

I have a friend who has trouble saying "I love you. " However, this person looks after their family with loving care. They lecture me with advice. That is their love language. 

I remember a bit of a sermon years ago. The priest said, "Its not enough to be holy in the church, when you go out those doors, watch how you behave toward the other drivers in the car park. " or something like that. 

The message of the Last Supper, as given to Peter and the other disciples, is that God loves us, and we should love each other.  Some churches get all caught up in the wording of prayers, or the colour of robes, or some people in the pews not being "quite right" . But we are all commanded to love one another, it is that simple. Because, as I taught my children from when they were babies, God loves every one of us in the world. If we stuff up, he gets sad, but he still loves us, all of us, those who know about him, those who don't, those who forgot, and most of all, those who come back to his loving arms. Our part? He wants us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Every major world religion has some version of that in their creed. Treat the other guy, how you want him to treat you.

Now if the world could just apply that, there would be peace.

That, in the time of the Roman Empire, was a Radical New Concept. They had the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace, that was based on fear.

There, in the upper room with his beloved friends, Jesus said to them:

John 13: 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

NIV

lyrics of You are Beloved

PART 3 ST PETER - obsessed followers.

 

        

What is it like to be an attendant on a celebrity who is mobbed? The fans want access, but you need to protect your charge. 

At the same time, you are a fan yourself. The dilemma is , if you're watching the star, you're not seeing the danger coming up from outside your vision. 

Palm Sunday is held a week before Easter Sunday, and is the beginning of Holy Week, a life changing week for St Peter. They had travelled to Jerusalem to observe the Passover feast. By this stage, Jesus was like a rock star, and Peter one of his staff/friend. As a celebrity, crowds formed, and processed him into the city, on a donkey. This is remembered in the churches. 

 

My parents would put theirs in their "Mass book" for the whole year. (I don't use a Mass book, I muddle along. )  The palm leaves are first blessed by a priest.

 

Left over leaves are burned and the ash used on Ash Wednesday of the following year. 

 

Here's what the disciples did before the entrance to the city in Matthew 21:

New International Version Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King 1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” 4This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 5“Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”a 6The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosannab to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”c “Hosannad in the highest heaven!” 10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Check in for the next instalment of Peter's adventure!