The Scriptures this week remind us to keep listening to the Word of God. That is also a key reason for regular worship - to hear and receive that Word. The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis 18:1-10a, (10b-14). Abraham and Sarah had been promised a child from the Lord, from whose line of descendants all people would be blessed - through the coming of Jesus. Years went by and nothing happened. Abraham and Sarah seemed to ignore God’s Word and tried to provide a child by their own ideas and power. When the Lord came again, with two angels, and renewed the promise of a child, Sarah laughed at what seemed impossible, as Abraham himself had done a year earlier (Genesis 17:17). Yet the Lord fulfilled His Word to them, and Isaac was born.
In the psalm, Psalm 27:(1-6) 7-14, David knows that the Lord is “his Light and his salvation.” He prays that he may always be able to come to “the house of the Lord” to “seek the face of the Lord” and be “taught” by Him. He encourages all of us: “Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
In the Gospel lesson, Luke 10:38-42, Jesus comes to the home of Martha and Mary. Martha is very busy in preparing to serve Jesus, but Mary just sits and listens to Jesus. Martha is upset with her sister. Jesus reminded her (and us) very simply, “Martha, you are anxious and troubled by many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” May we take time to listen to the Word, too!
The Epistle lesson continues a reading from Colossians 1:21-29. Paul encourages early Christians to “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard.” The Gospel centers in Christ and what He has done for us and His continuing to live in us, as the Hope for our future glory in heaven. “Him we proclaim,” Paul says. He and His Word are what we need to keep hearing about.
The alternate Gospel reading being used at St. James is Matthew 3:13-17. The One promised from the line of Abraham and Sarah is Jesus, as clearly proclaimed at His baptism. The Triune God is at work. Jesus was being baptized to “fulfill all righteousness” - to do everything needed by us, but in a perfect way, for which we get the credit and blessing. The Father spoke from heaven and said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Are we always pleasing to God? Obviously not!. Yet we get the credit for what Jesus did, in our place.) The Father repeated the same thing at the transfiguration of Jesus. He added the message of our readings today: “Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5)! May we keep listening! The Holy Spirit also came upon Jesus in the form of a dove to strengthen Him for His ministry and to battle temptations coming and for dealing with the cross He would later bear in our place, that we might be forgiven and counted acceptable to Him.
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