Elections in a "Christian Nation"

When anyone asks my opinion or advice around election time, my response is always the same: "vote early, vote often."  Yes, I am being satirical.  The reason I like election day is that the commercials will then END.  The bad news is there will be no competition for the Christmas advertising.  But that is another post...


I love this nation, but I hate its political advertising.  The virulence in the negative ads is dynamite detonated in a septic tank!  Even politicians I might otherwise like and respect, I don't in election season.  And it only gets worse when these negative commercials are juxtaposed against the positive ones. 


On the one hand, the candidate is little better than a puppy-kicking felon and on the other, they are kitten-rescuing angels. 


On the one hand, those who run negative commercials stand on the sidelines with blood and guts clenched in their fists, while, on the other, they polish their halos.


America is accused of being a Christian nation.  Yah, sure.  If election season proves anything, it proves the DESPERATE need we have to be a forgiven nation.  There is not much in those commercials that could truly answer "What Would Jesus Do?"


The amazing thing is that the hatred and virulence have actually gotten better!  In 1804, when V-P Aaron Burr capped former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, the expression of political hatred peaked.
 
What are we to do? 


In light of election day, how about some hard questions?  How does the church respond to partisan politics?  What is our relationship to the political structure of the United States? 


How about this?  The moment Jesus endorses a candidate, will the IRS dare to pull our tax-free status because Christianity engaged in politics?  


Until then, when our faith is used to justify power politics, ask what happened to the meek inheriting the earth?


When a Christian expresses our faith as a reason why political power should be used to condemn THAT sinner, ask what happened to loving our neighbor? 


When Christianity is used to back political decisions to exploit and destroy the environment, ask what happened to the stewardship of our creation?


Vote with care, vote with pride.  This nation is a gift and deserves our participation.  But most powerfully it needs our prayers.

Vacation Schedule for the Israelites and Church and State for the Church

Deuteronomy 16 sets up the vacation schedule for the people of Israel.  There is Passover, the festival of 'weeks', what becomes Pentecost for us in the NT, and the festival of booths.  All concentrate of food (good Presbyterians these Israelites!).  The first recognizes Passover, when the angel of death passed over the first born of the Israelites in Egypt.  The next is seven weeks after the harvest is begun, rejoicing over the gift of the Promised land given to the people by God.  The festival of booths is when they complete the processing of the harvest, and is kept for a week.


All the males of Israel are to muster to the place where God will command for all these festivals.  It isn't conquered yet, but it shall be Jerusalem.


16 continues with the civil code for the Promised Land, beginning with the judicial, specifically, the selection of judges where justice, and only justice, shall be pursued.


In Romans 13, Paul is taking care to place the followers of Christ in relationship to the Roman authorities.  We are to be subject to the authorities placed over us, to pay our taxes, to live in peace.  Not a bad theology when Paul is sending this letter to the capital of the Roman empire.  It is also in contra-distinction to the nation of Israel, which seemed to be in constant strife with the Roman Empire, especially into the lead up to the Jewish Rebellion in 70 AD.


Paul cites the law of love as the backbone for our obedience.  The "shalt nots" of the 10 Commandments are summed up by the second part of the Great Commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  It is a connection of the basics of the Torah's legal code with the discussion of obeying the law and authority of the Romans, currently placed in control by the power of God.


The sum up for all is that we are closer today than yesterday to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Back in Scripture after a month plus

Hmmm.  I'm the one whose proclaimed that reading God's Holy Word is the second of our core values in being God's Neighbor.  Kind of wish I'd done a better job of that in my own life.  But now we move forward.


Deuteronomy 15 is all about building God's Neighborhood of the Promised Land.  There was to be no poverty in God's neighborhood.  In a perfect neighborhood, it would be because God's blessings flowed.  But Israel wasn't perfect.  So, every seven years, all debts were canceled.  And the 'haves' were expected to lend to the 'have nots' whatever they needed to survive. Liberally and ungrudgingly they were to give.


Slaves too were to be released in that seventh year, and not simply with freedom, but with a cut of the profits they helped the owner make, enough to make a new life for themselves, male and female alike.  Unless the slave chose to stay a slave.  Once that decision was made, it was irreversible. 


Finally, in God's Neighborhood, the first born were all dedicated to the Lord.  Among the flocks and herds, they were to be eaten in the presence of the Lord, unless deformed, then impure.  They were still eaten, but at home. 


But always the rule of blood, it was to be poured on the ground.


Romans 12 calls for our surrender to God.  Make our bodies a living sacrifice, be transformed by our God to what is good.  Each of us has something to give to the Lord, as we are one body with many members.  Let us use the gifts we have been given according to the needs that surround us.  Finally, we are to turn good against evil, living peaceably so far as it depends on us.  God brings vengeance, not us.  In fact, good against evil turns coals upon the heads of our enemies.


Thus endeth the reading...

Deuteronomy 13 and 14; Romans 11

Deuteronomy 13 is all about how mean and cruel God is.  Can't go to another religion without being killed!  If a prophet comes to you, even if backed by signs and wonders, and tells you to go worship another god, kill them!!  If a person, even someone closest to you, brother, sister, friend, whomever, comes to you and tells you to worship another god, out them to the community and...yup...kill them!!!  And if a whole town turns against God and goes to the worship of another god or gods, wholesale slaughter is ordered, down to the cattle of the people who live there.


Mean and cruel, or simply absolute?  We sin, we die, rules of God...except for Jesus.  Obey God and worship God and you live.  Don't and you die.  But we like to have 'options' as humans.


Deuteronomy 14 then focuses in on faith in God and dietary restrictions.  Rules for which animals can and cannot be eaten are laid out.  Can't eat an animal that died on its own-but you can sell it to outsiders.  Then there is the rule of the tithe, one tenth of your produce or flocks.  Every third year, it goes to feed God's servant tribe, the Levites.  The other two years, you are required to come into the presence of the Lord-see the references to the Lord's selection of a place in Deut. 12, and therein eat the tenth.  God always wants his people close.  Live too far to transport the produce or flocks?  Convert them to cash, come and eat locally.


Now Romans 11, Paul is not abandoning Israel.  He ties in his own lineage to God's Chosen People.  He recognizes

Deuteronomy 12 and Romans 10

Deuteronomy 12 has a recurring theme.  Worship where the Lord God will choose.  The people are to destroy all the sacred sites of the previous nations.  They are to bring their religious tithes and sacrifices to one place.  They are not to offer burnt offerings except at that place.  They can eat meat anywhere, but offerings to God must take place in the one spot.  Even if the territory of the Israelites increases, they must still come to the one spot to offer to God. 


12 concludes with a warning not to chase after the religious rituals of the nations they are dispossessing from the land.


12 also stresses several times that the blood is the life, it MUST not be consumed but poured out on the ground.


Romans 10 continues Paul's arguments from chapter 9, that the Jews are at fault for not following God's gift of the Son.  Paul knows they "have a zeal" for God, but do not recognize Christ in the role as the completer of the law of Moses.  It is not about doing the 'right thing' that brings faith, but rather confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in the heart that God raised him from the dead.  He concludes with the lament that God's Word of Christ has gone out to the Israelites, but they have not listened.

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

Jesus' words form the basis for the three Anchors of being Neighbors with God.  Work the anchors and, I believe, you begin the discipline of life as a Christian. 


Jesus said, "I am the Way..." We determine the Way of our faith through prayer.  Prayer is communication with God, it is interaction with the Almighty, it is the give and take of a lively, vibrant relationship.  Not sure how to pray?  That is your first prayer.  Lord, I am not so good at praying. Sound a little flippant?  I do not believe so.  Prayer is as much about figuring out what you have to say as how you say it.  It needs to happen daily, hourly, in word and deed.  When was the last time you dedicated your day to the Lord?


Jesus said, "I am the Truth..." The truth about Jesus is found in the Bible.  I am not saying its an easy read, the bible is not a novel.  It is a diversity of literary forms, each with its own rules and formats, yes, starting at the beginning can be the easiest way to shut down.  Pick a gospel, its the story of Jesus.  Then the rest of the book hangs together on the person and ministry of Jesus Christ.  That's the truth.


Jesus said, "I am the Life..."  Let's be honest, our spending patterns are the most revealing of what is truly important in our lives.  We can say lots of things, prioritize lots of things, including lots and lots about Jesus.  But the proof is when we back it up with money.  At best, money is necessary for our survival, to purchase the things we need.  At worst, it is a way of keeping score in the game of life. But in the end, when we are giving back to God, when we are trusting in Him to provide so that we can give the tithe, or more, we've taken the relationship with God out of the abstract and into the reality of our existence.


These Anchors, these Disciplines, these Faith Practices, whatever you want to call them, they form the foundation of an ongoing and successful relationship with our God which will, in turn, provide us with the spiritual capital to truly build a neighborhood in God's kingdom.

Deuteronomy 11 and Romans 9

It is a challenge to the people.  Keep God's commands.  Why?  Consider the historic evidence of what happened to Pharaoh and what happened to Dathan and Abiram, both destroyed by God's power and strength.  And the stakes have gone up.


In Egypt, it was the Nile that watered the crops.  It had a power and regularity that was not easily disrupted.  The Promised Land is watered by rain.  Rain is sent by God.  The sending of the rain will coincide with the obedience of the people to their LORD. 


Some Jewish households have a blessing in a little container up on the doorpost of their homes, sometimes also of their businesses.  This obeys verse 20.  Some wear these things wrapped to their hands or on their foreheads when they pray.  This obeys verse 18.  Keeping the law is to understand and obey what God wants. 


The promise in vss. 22 and following is a huge empire for the Israelites if they obey.  The chapter ends with looking forward to entering the Promised Land, to Mt's Ebal and Gerazim to confirm these promises.


In Romans 9, Paul is upset.  There is anguish in his heart for the Jews, those chosen by the LORD.  They have turned away from what Jesus has taught.  But Paul will not hold the LORD responsible for their unbelief.  God does what God will do.  He draws from the Old Testament, that God chose Jacob over Esau, the younger over the older.  He selected the Pharaoh of the Exodus that the Pharaoh's heart would be hardened against their leaving.


Is it fair?


Can the clay say to the potter what is fair in how the clay should be constructed?  God is the potter and has turned his blessings to the Gentiles upon their rejection by the Jews.  He appeals to Isaiah, who prophesied this before, that only a remnant of the people would believe. 


The distinction given is that the Jews have fallen into a pattern where they believe right works may them right with God, whereas the Gentiles, not necessarily knowing the 'right works', come to the LORD through faith.

Deuteronomy 8-10; Romans 8

Moses continues to go over the relationship between the LORD and the people, especially with a focus on what the LORD has done.  In 8, he reminds them that even after 40 years in the wilderness, their stuff did not wear out, then a warning not to be arrogant, that the LORD provided their water and their manna and their quail, that they did not make themselves rich.


9 describes how the LORD has and will go in ahead of the people to drive out those who are there, and that the people are not getting the land because of their own righteousness, but because of the LORD's judgment on the land in fulfillment of promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 


It goes on to remind the people of how they had Aaron create the Golden Calf, sinning against the LORD, causing Moses to destroy the tablets of the Commandments given by the LORD.  Finally, after all their sins, Moses reminds them it was his intervention with the LORD that kept the people from being destroyed for their disobedience.


In 10, Moses reminds them how new tablets were created for the 10 Commandments, an ark was built for them, and the LORD's requirement that the people love and obey their God.


Romans 8 sets up contrast between the 'flesh', of the sinful world, and the 'Spirit', transcendent of the sinful world.  It is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in those who will go with Jesus beyond the sinful.  We owe God our very lives for seeing us through to the possibility of salvation.  Paul looks to the glory that will come as superior to the suffering received now.  He assures us that God is our help and our salvation. 


Chapter 8 may well be one of the most significant chapters on the power of God in transforming our lives in the entire bible.

Deuteronomy 6-7; Romans 7

6 continues to set up the special relationship of the LORD and the people through the law.  The people are to teach it to their children so all may go well in the Promised Land.  It defines the Great Commandment quoted by Jesus in the New Testament (in verse 4).  The LORD reminds them to go over it when they enter the land promised to the Patriarchs, that they are not to put God to the test.  Finally, it is required they teach it to their children, the law and the story of the Exodus, so their children will know where they came from.


7 begins with harsh language of exterminating the nations of Canaan.  The LORD so commands so that the religious impurity of those people shall not contaminate the Israelites.  It goes on to recognize that these nations are larger and more powerful than Israel, but the LORD fights for Israel, not them.  Again comes the reminder, keep the law and the LORD will fight for them.  Israel should not fear, remembering what the LORD did for them coming out of Egypt.  The promise is that the LORD shall fight in advance of His people, so long as they obey.


Romans 7 is a powerful contradistinction to Deuteronomy 6 and 7.  Paul continues to chip away at the sanctity of the law of Moses.  He uses the example of death freeing you from the law, citing the example of a widow free to marry versus the constraints on a divorced woman.  The simile is that as the widow is freed from the law because of death, so are we freed from the law because of death. 


But Paul will not go so far as to condemn the law.  That would be too radical a departure from the Church in Jerusalem.  Rather, he recognizes it condemnatory nature.  We know we are sinners  because of the conviction of the law.  And when we know we've sinned, we have a desire to sin more.  We are then left in the struggle that we lose, as people of flesh who cannot overcome the power of sin on our own. 


We are at war with ourselves, our spirits desiring to obey the law, but our bodies dragging us down.  Left to our own devices, we are lost.  But Paul ends the chapter with the rhetorical question of who will rescue us?  The answer is Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 4-5; Romans 6

The historic prologue covered 1-3, now we come to the definition of the relationship between God and God's people.  God demands obedience, citing Baal of Peor, (from Numbers 25), where the people turned to another god and paid the consequences.  The demand is that they obey their God.  Idolatry, the opportunity to make a god in the form of anything not their God, is forbidden to them.  This is reviewed in the special history of being chosen by the LORD and taken out of slavery in Egypt by the LORD's power. 


They are a special nation, they must keep the LORD's commands.  Three cities of refuge are then established in the territory conquered east of the Jordan for the safety of the people.


From this introduction, we move into the law that the LORD has given.  4 ends with a brief introduction and 5 recounts the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20.  The LORD's work with Moses at Sinai is cited, that was the place where God's law, that which will govern the people well, was given.


In Romans 6, Paul continues to develop our relationship with Christ.  Baptism is passage into death, death with Christ, death to a sinful nature, that we might rise to new life, raised from the dead as Jesus was.  Because of our death and resurrection through and with Jesus, we no longer have to let sin govern our lives, but can be made new under grace. 


So grace is not an excuse to continue sinning.  Rather, it is the opportunity to seize onto righteousness, to seek to do what is right in thanksgiving to God, recognizing that grace covers the failures we will have along the way.  Eternal life is the free gift we receive from our God.

Deuteronomy 1-3; Romans 5

The book starts with Moses standing up to speak to the people.  In 1:5, Moses is described as expounding the law to the people.  Understand that the people are at the border of the Holy Land, ready to cross over the Jordan.  God has stopped them to remind them what is necessary for them to continue, and what is necessary is that they are ready to obey him.


The high points of their early history is touched upon, arriving at the mountain of God, here called Horeb and the appointment of leaders at the various levels of the tribes, from Exodus 19 and 20.  Verse 19 recalls the first time they came to the borders of the promised land, when 12 spies said they couldn't take the lands, thus beginning 40 years of their Exodus. 


2 chronicles the end of the exodus, passing around the land of the Edomites and the Moabites and the Ammonites, peoples who are relatives of the Israelites.  It records their victory over King Sihon and 3 records their victory over King Og, and the distribution of the Promised Land to the east of the Jordan. 


The conclusion of 3 is a reminder to Moses that he too is forbidden, as the entire first generation, of crossing into the Promised Land because of his own sins.


This capsule summary is provided to the people to remind them of what the Lord has done for them.  The law of God is not something that is made up out of nothing.  It is based on the will and the wisdom of the God who brought them out of Egypt and to this new land.  It is the proof, the foundation on which God's law is to be based. 


Romans 5 builds upon the proofs of 4.  Abraham was justified by his faith, so we are too, through the work of Jesus.  The wrath of God for our sins has been justified by Jesus' blood, by his sacrifice in our place.  Running all the way back to Adam and Eve, Paul goes on to explain how death came through Original Sin in the first chapters of Genesis.  That sin and death has been undone and taken off our shoulders by the free gift of God's grace in Jesus Christ.  The sin of Adam we are all convicted of in the passing of God's law.  But again, one man's disobedience led to the fall of humanity, another man's obedience has led to our restoration to God.

Numbers 33-36; Romans 4

33 begins with a recap, retracing the 40 year journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Jordan River.  This is followed by the command to kick the Canaanites out of their lands.  Sounds like the current Israeli Palestinian conflict, down to turning to God as justification.  If you go back to Genesis 9: 20 and following, to the story of Noah, you will see why Canaan was put under God's judgment, a judgment being carried out now.


34 lays out the borders of the land of the Israelites and the Founding Fathers who will be responsible for setting the borders. 


35 carves out cities and land for the Levites, scattered among the 12 other tribes, and establishing them as places where the innocent can find refuge from false accusations. 


36 fortifies the laws of marriage and inheritance.  Before, women were permitted to inherit if there were no male heirs to carry on the family name (Numbers 27).  Now, those women are commanded to marry within their own tribes in that case so that the tribal lands cannot pass out of the hands of their own tribe.


It seems like all the preparations have been made, on with the invasion!  Except, that there is one more Book of Moses to go, Deuteronomy.


In Romans 4, Paul is continuing to attempt to show why belief in Jesus, providing direct access to God, is the real means of grace, not the tenets of the law of Moses.  He does so by going over Moses' head.  Moses may be the lawgiver of God, but Abraham is the Father of God's people.  Abraham didn't have the law.  He had his belief in God, reckoned to him as righteousness. 


The promise that Abraham's children did not come through the law either, but through his righteousness of faith.  To prove Abraham's dependence on faith, God waited will he and Sarah were really old before giving them their promised heir, proof again of the need to depend on God. 


For us, this righteousness has been set in motion as well, coming to us by Jesus Christ, who lived and died and lived again for each of us.  See how Paul is trying to turn the discussion away from the Jewish faith and its dependence upon the law of Moses, turning it to Jesus as Lord and Savior instead.

Numbers 31, 32; Romans 2-3

Numbers 31 is one of the most disturbing chapters in the bible.  The LORD commands the Israelites to commit genocide upon the Midianites.  They are to slaughter everyone except the virgin girls who are then distributed with the booty.  I am not going to try to justify the verses, simply explain the context.


Here is the reason the slaughter was ordered.  It was because the Midianites, as worshippers of Baal of Peor, had perverted the people of God.  This goes back to Numbers 25 where, in verse 5, God commands "Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor."  The rest of 25 describes a moment when that happens.  So, the vengeance of the LORD plays out upon the Midianites for leading the people astray.  Even Balaam, who blessed the people four times in the chapters leading up to 25, is killed in the vengeance.  The rest of 31 is the division of the treasures of the Midianites, to the people and the proportion to God.


The law of Moses is very specific in the application of the death penalty.  Curse God and die.  Pull someone away from God and die.  Transgress the day of the Lord, the Sabbath, and die.  Disobey your parents to a point where they cannot bring you under God's control, and you die.  It is black and white.  The Midianites caused the people to turn away from God and they died.  In 16, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram challenge God's authority invested in Moses, and they die.


Jesus on the cross was a matter of life and death for all of us.  Our sins call for the judgment of death, but Jesus paid that price for us.  It is the final sacrifice.  We keep reading about the sacrifices throughout the Law of Moses.  


32 almost sees God's anger rise up against the Israelites.  The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh want to settle in the lands just conquered.  Does that mean they will abandon their fellow tribes who will cross the Jordan?  That will bring death.  Only when they promise to join in the fight, is a domestic genocide avoided.


In Romans 2 and 3, Paul is laying the case to move the church out of its Jewish foundation to the world of the Gentiles beyond.  If you believe he is in conflict with the Jerusalem Church for his Gentile outreach (as Reza Aslan does), he is trying to undercut the authority of the Jerusalem church by undercutting that Jesus was for Jews alone.


First, he lays a foundation that obedience to the law of Moses can happen instinctively among Gentiles as well as by design among the Jews.  He carries on the discussion from 1, where disobedient worship leads to wickedness and sinful behavior.  He divides people according to the choices they have made.  Those who do as God would have them do have God's blessings.  Those who turn away to evil shall be punished.  This is the time before Jesus was sent.


From 2 to 3, he considers the Jew who claim to know the law of Moses but who do not obey it, 'preach against stealing' but steal.  Circumcision, the mark of the covenant with Moses, does not, by itself protect the Jews from God's judgment when they know God's law but refuse to obey it.


Then he develops the argument further, that both Jews and Greeks break the law of Moses and are sinners.  But herein comes the hope.  The law of Moses does not offer right relationship with God.  Rather, salvation comes through Jesus, "since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  But this is not a matter of universal condemnation, but universal forgiveness.

Numbers 28-30; Romans 1

Numbers continues to describe preparations for the Promised Land.  Inheritance questions and leadership succession were handled in 27.  28 and 29 summarize the religious calendar for the Israelites, specifically burnt offerings for the day, week, and month, and offerings for the religious holidays.  Much of this reiterates what has already been put down earlier in the law of Moses, but it appears to be gathered here for convenience in an encyclopedic form.


30 is a little harder to explain in current terms.  The information is easy enough to understand.  Make a promise and you are bound to it.  Men are bound by their oaths.  Women widowed or divorced are bound by their oaths.  Women in the household of their father or husband can have their oath nullified if their dad/husband says so at the time he hears their promise being made.  Miss that opportunity and the oath sticks. 


Oaths made to God are tricky things.  In the Book of Judges, such an oath leads to human sacrifice. 


Our Lord Jesus, by his death on the cross, is the final sacrifice, and thus fulfills the offerings system described in 28 and 29.  In relation to 30, Jesus taught a deeper form of immediate honesty.  "Let your yes be yes and your no be no" (Matthew 5:33-37).  I say deeper because just speaking should be binding as an oath, according to our Savior.  Oaths continue to show up, Paul made a couple of oaths in the latter part of Acts, but Jesus' work has again fulfilled the need for them.


Romans 1
We are now entering into the dense world of Paul's letters.  His theological acumen, his ability to argue, the density of what he includes in his writing, all of these are going to slow me down from tie to time.


Paul is not yet come to Rome when he wrote this letter.  My best guess is that it was probably composed in the couple years he spent at Caesarea (Acts 24-26), in anticipation of going to the Capital of the Empire. 


Vss. 1-7 open the letter, 1-6 being a capsule summary of the entire gospel message.  I spent some time in an abortive attempt to take Paul's letter piece by piece, deconstructing each sentence in an ongoing basis.  That quickly became very thick and too much for a daily project.  He hearkens back to the Old Testament, connects Jesus as descendent of David, and expands upon the work Jesus did for us in his death and resurrection.   Then, in verse 7, he says 'hello'.


Vss. 8-17 outline his vision and desire for coming to Rome.  This letter is unique in that it is not written back to a church or person with whom Paul already has a relationship.  Paul is in full-blown 'apostle to the Gentile' mode.  Vs. 14 has him as a debtor to 'both Greek and barbarian', nothing about the faith in which he was raised.


Vss. 18-32 then describe what Paul is seeking to save the Gentiles from.  This part of Romans has been used as a basher passage against homosexuality, but I believe that misinterprets what Paul has to say.  The logic of Paul's argument is that those invoking the wrath of God have known God and turned against God, building idols instead (vs. 23).  Therefore, God gave up on them, leaving them to hearts of impurity and degrading activities with their bodies in the worship of these idols.  That leads in turn to a condemnation of the intermixed sexual/worship practices of the day (vss. 26-27), which in turn leads to every kind of evilness of our hearts. 


The sum up is verse 32, that those who practice these things deserve to die, and that those who practice these things know what the consequences of their actions should be.

Numbers 25-27, Acts 27, 28

We don't read about war with Moab following Balaam and Balak.  Instead, in the first 2 verses of 25, the Israelites are having sex with Moab's women, sacrificing to their gods, eating and bowing down to their gods.  Let me jump back across to Acts, specifically to the Council of Jerusalem and the pieces of the law of Moses that remained in force for Gentile Christians.  One was they abstain from eating what had been offered to idols.  The second is fornication-sex.  The third is staying away from consuming blood or anything strangled.


Those first two, food to idols and sex, seem to connect back to Numbers 25, that the food and the sex are part of the worship of the gods of Moab.  Sex was not part of how the LORD was worshipped, but I believe it is a recurring theme throughout the bible that it is part of the worship practices of other gods.  That will be an ongoing issue.


The chapter goes on when Phineas, grandson of Aaron, executes a couple, he Israelite, she Moabite (or Midianite) and averts another plague sent upon the Israelites for their disobedience. 


26 is a new census of the people.  It will become the basis for how the Promised Land is divided up among the tribes, proportional to their populations.  A census of the Levites follows.  27 opens with a very progressive piece, allowing inheritance to travel through daughters to preserve the family line.  The kinship inheritance laws in vss. 5-11 will play a role in the book of Ruth later. 


The last piece to be decided before the people go into the Promised Land is who will replace Moses, whose sin has forbidden him entry.  That honor goes to Joshua.  The Aramaic/Greek form of Joshua is...wait for it...Jesus.


The end of the book of Acts records Paul's journey to Rome.  It is fraught with dangers.  He gets shipwrecked on Malta.  The detail of the ocean journey is very telling to the accuracy, in my opinion, of the travelogue of the book of Acts.  In 28, Paul first performs a miracle of shaking off a snake that was assumed to be punishment to the evil that he did.  He goes on to perform a miraculous healing before they are rescued.


In the last half of 28, Paul is in Rome.  He makes inroads with the Jewish leadership and lives there for 2 years at his own expense.  We don't know how he made out with the Emperor.

What Anchors Us In The Great Commandment

We are building a neighborhood in the Kingdom of God.  This is the Vision of the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy.  All the good and best and wonderful things that come from a neighborhood will be reflected in this church community.  The foundational Scripture of our Vision is comes from a question asked to Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

Jesus replied with the Great Commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (Mt. 22:36-40)

Last night, at our Board meeting, we revised and updated our church’s Anchor Statements to build upon the Great Commandment. 

What are our Anchor Statements?

They are statements of practice, of ethics, of core values and behavior.  They are designed to guide our theory and practice in carrying out our Vision according to the Great Commandment.

“You shall love the Lord your God…”  Three Anchor Statements were adopted last night as the foundation to carrying out this command.

1. We shall devote ourselves to prayer in devotion with the Lord our God.
2. We shall read and engage with the Lord’s Word, the Bible.
3. We shall return a tithe of all that God gives us for the Lord’s work.

Defining these Anchor Statements will come in the form of pamphlets to coincide with the start of new sermon series over the next three months.  The pamphlet on prayer was released at the beginning of the month and is available in the Narthex.

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Our previous Anchor Statements define how we carry out this commandment.

            We shall take time to

1. Pray for our neighbors.
2. Get to know our neighbors.
3. Serve our neighbors.
4. Share our faith with our neighbors.

These are the actions and activities of those in our congregation who are committed to building our neighborhood in the Kingdom of God.  These Anchor Statements shall become the basis of joining our church for the new people God has ready to send to it.  They shall become the basis for the covenant of renewal that we shall set before those presently in our congregation.

Growth as a healthy church shall depend on a balance between love of God and love of Neighbor.  Love of God without consideration of Neighbor can lead to a life withdrawn from the world, tunneled down to spiritual navel-gazing.  Love of Neighbor without God can lead to a life sunk in the quagmire of the despair that is the human condition.