Questions for this Thursday

We will go into a few questions from last week, viz.

1. How is the intention of the magi, to worship the newborn king (verses 2, 11), different from Herod's similarly stated intention?
2. In v. 13, Herod sets out a plan to destroy the innocent children near Bethlehem, but re-read Rev. 9:1-11, where another king has the name of Destroyer. How did people suffer when that destroyer in Revelation went to work? Was its intention similar to Herod's?

...because we have hardly talked about Herod yet.

Also, we will probably dip into chapter 3 this week, for which a few extra questions might be reasonable:

1. John the Baptist had a diet of locusts and honey. It is a curious menus and a curious symbolism in that the Bible uses honey and locusts in very different ways. What does honey signify in the scriptures, usually? What do locusts usually signify in the scriptures?
2. What does John the Baptist look for in his flock of Israelites?
3. When was the last time God raised up a human being from a stone?
4. What does it mean to the people flocking to the Jordan that the axe is laid to the root of the tree?
5. What does it mean to bear a winnowing fan by the threshing floor?
6. What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?
7. What does it mean to baptized with fire?
8. What does Jesus' statement in v. 15 tell you about his relationship to John the Baptist and his relationship to the Torah?

As you can see, there are some big ideas in this part of Matthew's gospel, and this is just a short list, but we will start here on Thursday morning!

We look into the prophecy of Amos

For the next two months we will dive into the prophetic message of Amos. This Thursday we will look over chapter 1, for which the following questions might come in handy:

1. According to verse 1, the message to Israel came in visions. How is it that Amos saw this message in a vision? What did Amos see?
2. The time of Amos' message was sometime during the years 783 - 743 B.C., approximately one hundred years after Elijah, two hundred years after David, 500 years after the Exodus, and 1100 years after Abraham. Who were our cultural forebears
   1. one hundred years ago, about 1910 A.D.?
   2. two hundred years ago, about 1810 A.D.?
   3. five hundred years ago, about 1510 A.D.?
   4. eleven hundred years ago, about 910 A.D.?
3. What kind of terrain was Mount Carmel, mentioned in v. 2?
4. The words of verses 3 - 15 contra Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom and Ammon mention threshing sleds and fire falling on cities. In what other parts of the Bible have we studied threshing and fire troubles?
5. Where is Edom? Where is Ammon? Are they near Tyre and Sidon?

Let's look into these questions on Thursday morning, with the expectation that they will help us become doers of the Word.

Image: a threshing sledge from Cyprus.

Reports concerning maturity and the Word

One of the questions today concerned Abraham and whether we felt mature and skilled with the word of righteousness (Heb. 5:13, 14). When I asked for a show of hands, "Raise your hand if you feel you are mature and skilled in the word of righteousness," I was surprised to see several hands go up. I expected most everybody to keep their hand humbly lowered to the table.

But German and Scott gave an interesting answer for raising their hands, feeling mature and skilled in the word of righteousness. "I know enough of God's Word to act," said German, to be a doer of the Word. Scott backed up this by comparing his current state to an earlier state in which he was not awake to the Word.

We also discussed whether it was a gift or a skill. After all, Deacon Al said, everyone knows that faith comes to us as a gift, not as something we can sharpen up and get a college degree in. Sal was able to clarify this, in that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit to have control of your free will, and we have the faculties to to exercise the free will, especially discerning in our conscience between good and evil.

This is a good report.

A set of questions, oriented toward one concept in Hebrews 4

The fourth chapter of Hebrews has a single concept at its center. Our questions, including two from last week, will grapple with that concept.

1. The author mentions the phrase "God's rest" in this chapter. What is the origin and meaning of that phrase?
2. Why does the author connect God's rest to the Exodus?
3. Our faith connects which sacrament(s) to the day God rested?
4. How does the Holy Spirit use the concept of time in this emphasized word, "today" in v. 7?
5. The author of Hebrews uses the Greek word σκληροs, skleros, in various places for the concept of hardness. What are the signs of a hardened heart?
6. What did Ezekiel prophesy about the treatment of hardened hearts?
7. Why does the text jump wildly from the concept of "entering his rest" in verse 11, to the completely different image of the double edged sword in verse 12?
8. Is there a connection between "entering into that rest" in v. 11 and "holding fast to our confession" in v. 14?

Let's think about these questions and be ready for the Holy Spirit to help us understand the perfect law of freedom tomorrow morning.

Questions

When we study 1 John 5 on Thursday morning, we can start with some of these questions:

1. John mentions confidence again, in v. 11. How is this confidence different or related to the confidence John mentions in 1 John 2: 28 and 1 John 4:17?
2. Do you see anything notable in John's use of water, blood and the Spirit as witnesses? Are these three special in everyday life?
3. How does the Gospel describe water, blood and the Spirit in the crucifixion of the Messiah Jesus?

Let's take these three and look again into God's deep wisdom.

Some vocabulary

In the Greek manuscript, there are several interesting words:

1. The inscription on the cross contains the word ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΕ -- in our alphabet, BASILIYE. It means "king," and is related to our word basilica and to the proper name Basil.
2. εγκατελιπεs, which is translated "forsaken," and which ancient Greek writers also used at times in the sense of being left behind in a race.
3. εξεπνευσεν which is translated "expire" for the moment of death. In our alphabet you could write it exepneusen, and you can see the prefix "ex-" meaning out, and the root word "pneuma" which we use to indicate air, as in our word pneumatic but which the Greek speaking world also used to denote the spirit. E.g., the Greek words for Holy Spirit include πνευμα.

Get ready a little bit.

This morning we discussed the action of the Holy Spirit in time of trouble, starting in Mark 13:9-11, with our own examples including this one from German.

Comments from the men

In response to the reading of Mark 8:1-36, the men commented especially about the Twelve. Here are some of the comments:

1. Sal: They received help from the Holy Spirit within because they needed to get sight and to act.
2. Scott: They had recently fed 5000 and were now in the same situation and were STILL clueless.
3. Joe: Peter was still stuck in that double line of thought,
   1. Jesus is the Messiah, and
   2. he wants Jesus to kick the Romans out.

Peter only understands half of it. Let's keep reading Mark's gospel and see what we can see.

When are you ready to jump?

We spent time yesterday discussing the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment, and focused on her GO decision, when she cut through the crowd and without permission went to touch the hem of the Lord's clothes.

Deacon Alfonsus Magnus also discussed his decision to make the leap to the permanent diaconate.

Physical contact with the Messiah

We had a long discussion throughout this morning's session about physical contact with Jesus, starting with the record in Mark 5 of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment. Then we applied it to our own lives.

A few comments from this morning

1. It is good to pray with faith like the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' clothes.
   Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman)... Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."
2. It is helpful to examine your conscience and the state of faith, asking "Where would I be?"
   1. In the synagogue criticizing Jesus?
   2. Touching the hem of his garment?
   3. Back at the rear of the crowd, observing but not getting too close?
   4. Hard-headed and oblivious like the Twelve?
   We talked a long time about our own hard-headed moments, like the Twelve.
3. When Jairus' daughter became so ill, the Lord got Jairus' attention like a 2×4. We discussed some of our own 2×4 experiences from the Lord.
4. Is it possible to get closer to the Lord than just touching the hem of his clothes?
5. Throughout the morning, we referred to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, from Isaiah 11:2ff:
   1. wisdom
   2. understanding
   3. counsel
   4. fortitude
   5. knowledge
   6. piety
   7. fear of the Lord
   Even though the individuals in Mark 5 -- the man loosed of demons, the woman cured of hemorrhage, Jairus -- did not have the baptism of the Holy Spirit yet, they still displayed wisdom and fortitude and fear of the Lord.
   

No doubt, these three individuals also came to see their Savior from their hearts burning with love, the best of all the gifts.

Rembrandt, supper at Emmaus (Luke 24)

Blessed Maximilian Kolbe Day

August 14, 1941 was the day St. Maximilian Kolbe was killed in the Konzentrationslager Auschwitz/Oświęcim, having stood up for Francis Gajowniczek's life while the Holy Spirit rumbled the SS commandant Fritsch.


Gajowniczek (left) on October 17, 1971 with two other guys.

Francis Gajowniczek survived the death camp and lived many more years. He lived to see the canonization of our Blessed Maximilian Kolbe, good and faithful servant, martyr in Auschwitz/Oświęcim.

Gajowniczek in later years.

About the Holy Spirit's power

Joe reads a footnote on the subject of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus binds the "strong man" and rescues US.

While studying Mark 3:20-30, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, we discussed the ideas of

1. final impenitence -- shutting the door in God's face -- and
2. the attribution of the Holy Spirit's action to the enemy.

Can these two ideas be self-consistent? Yes. It is good to remember what Pope John Paul II wrote in 1986, concerning the Lord and Giver of Life,

How should this blasphemy be understood? St. Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is "unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place."

According to such an exegesis, "blasphemy" does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross.

For the first action of the Holy Spirit in an individual is not expelling a demon per se, but it is the grace of repentance, and attributing it to the enemy is one mode of rejecting that grace.

Finally, we make take peace from the lead of Pope John Paul II, who wrote that those who convert are led by the Holy Spirit out of the range of this blasphemy. When we celebrate the sacrament of confession, we can be peaceful. Our Messiah, Jesus, has rescued US.