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The intent of Pilgrim Processing is to provide commentary on the Daily Lectionary from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The format for the comment is Old Testament Lesson first, Gospel, and Epistle with a portion of one of the Psalms for the day as a prayer at the end.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

30 September 2015


Ten years after the northern kingdom of Israel/Samaria fell to one Assyrian king, another Assyrian king, Sennacherib, moved to conquer the southern kingdom of Judah and took the fortified cities.  Hezekiah offered terms, to do whatever the king imposed on him.  Sadly, in order to pay the demands of the Assyrian king, Hezekiah took the silver from the temple treasuries and stripped the gold from the doors of the temple, work he had done in the earliest years of his kingship.  Then, he worked behind the scenes with the Egyptians for protection against the Assyrian.  This came to the attention of the Assyrian king who sent emissaries to confront this treacherous alliance though it isn’t certain that they “knew” this had happened.  Their message is plain, don’t trust in the Egyptians, they are no longer the formidable power in the region, and don’t trust in your God, look at where that has gotten you so far, the temple ruined and bare.  It is a sad moment in history to hear this message and know it is true.  However, have they trusted in the Lord?

Have we made the way too easy?  In making the Christian life about nothing other than a confession of belief I am concerned that we have made it something other than what Jesus said it was.  He speaks of few finding and following the way, that fruit matters and that there will be some who think they are in the kingdom when in fact He never knew them at all.  Jesus never makes the proposal that if someone gives lip service to following Him that is good enough.  He always called for complete commitment to the way of the Lord.  Doing is a key component of discipleship, not just knowing the will of God. The Great Commission was simple, we weren’t supposed to just baptize people, we were given the task of teaching them to “obey” everything He commanded.  Sometimes I think we worry too much theologically about the mechanics of salvation and too little about the life that is intended to flow from redemption.

Paul’s argument re the eating of food sacrificed to idols is to agree with those who say that an idol is not a god, it is nothing at all.  There is but one true God and one lord, there are not other gods who compete for supremacy with Him, they are simply idols.  The problem, however, is that this knowledge should not lead us to abuse our freedom in knowing this truth.  Some do not understand this reality and they believe that there are multiple gods and if they see one who knows the truth eating in the temple of another god, they will presume that this is an acceptable practice and return to the worship of idols.  We have to be careful that we don’t allow our freedom that comes from knowing the truth to cause another to stumble.  Loving our neighbor means sometimes choosing to have our own freedom circumscribed.  Jesus could have done a great many things that He didn’t do.  He did only what the Father showed Him to do.  We need to do the same, prayerfulness in all things is necessary.


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