2050AFC121120 – 2020 Advent Series #3
Read it online here, please. And please, when you visit there, use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Philippians 4:4 – 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
1 Thessalonians 5:16 – Rejoice always
Isaiah 61:10a – 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God
John 1:6-7 – 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
John 1:29b – Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today we continue with the 2020 Advent series. Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.
My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the second in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Last week we talked about the mast – our Faith. Our Faith is anchored in the hull of our boat, and the rigging of the mast. Faith is anchored in our foundation, our hull, our soul. It’s held up with the rigging – support cables – of our knowledge of God and his Word. Faith is what supports our love of God and neighbor. To this mast and rigging we attach the Sail – Love.
Last week we looked at the way a sail works and how in our lives the Love we have is supported by our Faith and emulates the tenderness of God’s love. Today we consider another very important part of a boat, the rudder – Wisdom. Our Key Verses for today remind us to rejoice, and there is beautiful Wisdom in that. You’ll recall perhaps that we often mention “first occurrence” as an important tool in Scripture study. The first occurrence of “rejoice” comes in Exodus 18:9 – 9 Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in delivering them from the Egyptians. The first mention of rejoicing comes at the beginning of the establishment of the Hebrews as a nation, Israel – the chosen people of God – begin their centuries-long journey as the Light to The Nations. In this we see God’s great Wisdom: His chosen people were redeemed from slavery and sent into liberty in God. All they had to do to make that possible was to love the Lord and each other. As we well know, that proved to be beyond their capacity. They disdained Wisdom and chose rebellion. In doing so, they lost the ability to steer their Nation, the People of God, toward Truth and Justice. They were like a boat without a rudder or a sail. We have a very good example of the importance of a rudder in the Letter of James. He is addressing the Jewish population of Jerusalem exhorting them to proper conduct within their community. Here’s what he says about the rudder: James 3:3-5 – 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!
There are types of boats that do not have attached rudders, coracles and river rafts for example, but even in these a paddle is used to direct the path of the boat. That is the purpose of a rudder – to provide direction – and it is also the purpose of Wisdom. Wisdom informs our conscience, helps us make appropriate decisions, and can keep us away from danger or even death. Judicious use of Wisdom requires knowing what it is designed to do in our lives as we move through what we could call the Crystal Sea of Life in God’s Love (← Check it out!). It is very important to remember that the rudder does not function unless the boat is in motion or the water is flowing past the boat from stem to stern. I was surprised to learn that sometimes the wisest thing to do is to cut loose the rudder and let the wind drive the sail toward land. There is an example of that in the Apostle Paul’s journeys here: Acts 27:40 – 40 So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea. At the same time they loosened the ropes that tied the steering-oars; then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. They landed on a reef just off Malta after a harrowing 14 days at sea in a horrific storm. Paul had warned them to seek safe harbor sooner; they rejected his wisdom, lost all their cargo, all the rigging of the ship, and nearly lost their lives. The consequences of ignoring wisdom are formidable. You might remember some of these:
Proverbs 9:9 – 9 Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning.
Proverbs 28:26 – 26 Those who trust in their own wits are fools; but those who walk in wisdom come through safely.
1 Corinthians 1:25 – 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Job 5:13 – 13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
Proverbs 1:7 – 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
In Job 28:20-27, Job tells us the origins of Wisdom saying, “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.” At one point in their journey from Egypt to Canaan, a sizable number – more than 20,000 – perished because they did not exercise the Wisdom of obedience. They turned to immorality and idolatry and lost their lives because of it: Deuteronomy 4:3-6 – 3 You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor—how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.
5 See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” When they failed to follow these wise instructions, the made themselves vulnerable to oppression to their enemies.
In the history of the oppression of the Jewish People, we have the accounts of the Maccabees; they are real historical figures, and their military resistance to tyranny is well-documented. Here is an excerpt from that history:
4 Maccabees 7:1-3 – 1 For like a most skillful pilot, the reason [Wisdom] of our father Eleazar steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, 2 and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, 3 in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory. NRS/A New Revised Standard Version Bible/with apocrypha, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The heroic language of the Books of the Maccabees can sound inflated, but the historical facts are solid. Their importance to succeeding generations of Jews and Christians is one reason they are included in the canon of the “Catholic Bible.”
In that Bible – and all other genuinely Christian Bibles – we have the letter from James (already cited above). James addresses the question many people have: “Where and how do we obtain Wisdom?” In that letter we find the following answer:
James 1:5-7 – 5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Now, doesn’t that make good sense? Wisdom comes from knowing God, so if we wish to know wisdom, then the wise thing to do is to know God. It is God who will design and install that rudder of Wisdom in your life! You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: Isaiah 30:21 – 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” For the purposes of this series, we might also think of that last phrase as “sail in it.” Have you ever seen a rudder work? Let me show you one, and then I’ll have a final important question for you. I hope this GIF file will display here:
Credit KDS444 © License: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Here, then, is my question – preceded by some information leading to a summary. We started out with the idea of rejoicing – this is, after all, Gaudete Sunday we are planning for. We saw that there is Wisdom in rejoicing when the cause of our rejoicing is our commitment in the Life given to us through the Grace of Salvation in Christ Jesus. John the Baptist testified to that Power of Grace by saying, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” When sin is removed, death is removed, and that leaves only LIFE. We can pursue that life, sail through that life, enjoy that life, and extend that life by navigating with the best tool for directing that life: Wisdom, the Wisdom to know, accept, and Love Christ Jesus. Now the question (you’ll recognize it right away!):
Why would you ever want anything less than that? If you are wise, nothing else (↔ Music Link) will suffice. If you are unwise, anything else will suffice. That was the mistake Israel made at Peor, but we need only remember the words of the Apostle Paul: Philippians 1:21 – 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That is indeed Wisdom to support our rejoicing!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Jesus, Savior, Pilot me!
(↕Music Link↕)
2050AFC121120 – 2020 Advent Series #3
Read it online here, please. And please, when you visit there, use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Philippians 4:4 – 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
1 Thessalonians 5:16 – Rejoice always
Isaiah 61:10a – 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God
John 1:6-7 – 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
John 1:29b – Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today we continue with the 2020 Advent series. Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.
My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the second in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Last week we talked about the mast – our Faith. Our Faith is anchored in the hull of our boat, and the rigging of the mast. Faith is anchored in our foundation, our hull, our soul. It’s held up with the rigging – support cables – of our knowledge of God and his Word. Faith is what supports our love of God and neighbor. To this mast and rigging we attach the Sail – Love.
Last week we looked at the way a sail works and how in our lives the Love we have is supported by our Faith and emulates the tenderness of God’s love. Today we consider another very important part of a boat, the rudder – Wisdom. Our Key Verses for today remind us to rejoice, and there is beautiful Wisdom in that. You’ll recall perhaps that we often mention “first occurrence” as an important tool in Scripture study. The first occurrence of “rejoice” comes in Exodus 18:9 – 9 Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in delivering them from the Egyptians. The first mention of rejoicing comes at the beginning of the establishment of the Hebrews as a nation, Israel – the chosen people of God – begin their centuries-long journey as the Light to The Nations. In this we see God’s great Wisdom: His chosen people were redeemed from slavery and sent into liberty in God. All they had to do to make that possible was to love the Lord and each other. As we well know, that proved to be beyond their capacity. They disdained Wisdom and chose rebellion. In doing so, they lost the ability to steer their Nation, the People of God, toward Truth and Justice. They were like a boat without a rudder or a sail. We have a very good example of the importance of a rudder in the Letter of James. He is addressing the Jewish population of Jerusalem exhorting them to proper conduct within their community. Here’s what he says about the rudder: James 3:3-5 – 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!
There are types of boats that do not have attached rudders, coracles and river rafts for example, but even in these a paddle is used to direct the path of the boat. That is the purpose of a rudder – to provide direction – and it is also the purpose of Wisdom. Wisdom informs our conscience, helps us make appropriate decisions, and can keep us away from danger or even death. Judicious use of Wisdom requires knowing what it is designed to do in our lives as we move through what we could call the Crystal Sea of Life in God’s Love (← Check it out!). It is very important to remember that the rudder does not function unless the boat is in motion or the water is flowing past the boat from stem to stern. I was surprised to learn that sometimes the wisest thing to do is to cut loose the rudder and let the wind drive the sail toward land. There is an example of that in the Apostle Paul’s journeys here: Acts 27:40 – 40 So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea. At the same time they loosened the ropes that tied the steering-oars; then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. They landed on a reef just off Malta after a harrowing 14 days at sea in a horrific storm. Paul had warned them to seek safe harbor sooner; they rejected his wisdom, lost all their cargo, all the rigging of the ship, and nearly lost their lives. The consequences of ignoring wisdom are formidable. You might remember some of these:
Proverbs 9:9 – 9 Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning.
Proverbs 28:26 – 26 Those who trust in their own wits are fools; but those who walk in wisdom come through safely.
1 Corinthians 1:25 – 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Job 5:13 – 13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
Proverbs 1:7 – 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
In Job 28:20-27, Job tells us the origins of Wisdom saying, “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.” At one point in their journey from Egypt to Canaan, a sizable number – more than 20,000 – perished because they did not exercise the Wisdom of obedience. They turned to immorality and idolatry and lost their lives because of it: Deuteronomy 4:3-6 – 3 You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor—how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.
5 See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” When they failed to follow these wise instructions, the made themselves vulnerable to oppression to their enemies.
In the history of the oppression of the Jewish People, we have the accounts of the Maccabees; they are real historical figures, and their military resistance to tyranny is well-documented. Here is an excerpt from that history:
4 Maccabees 7:1-3 – 1 For like a most skillful pilot, the reason [Wisdom] of our father Eleazar steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, 2 and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, 3 in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory. NRS/A New Revised Standard Version Bible/with apocrypha, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The heroic language of the Books of the Maccabees can sound inflated, but the historical facts are solid. Their importance to succeeding generations of Jews and Christians is one reason they are included in the canon of the “Catholic Bible.”
In that Bible – and all other genuinely Christian Bibles – we have the letter from James (already cited above). James addresses the question many people have: “Where and how do we obtain Wisdom?” In that letter we find the following answer:
James 1:5-7 – 5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Now, doesn’t that make good sense? Wisdom comes from knowing God, so if we wish to know wisdom, then the wise thing to do is to know God. It is God who will design and install that rudder of Wisdom in your life! You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: Isaiah 30:21 – 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” For the purposes of this series, we might also think of that last phrase as “sail in it.” Have you ever seen a rudder work? Let me show you one, and then I’ll have a final important question for you. I hope this GIF file will display here:
Credit KDS444 © License: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Here, then, is my question – preceded by some information leading to a summary. We started out with the idea of rejoicing – this is, after all, Gaudete Sunday we are planning for. We saw that there is Wisdom in rejoicing when the cause of our rejoicing is our commitment in the Life given to us through the Grace of Salvation in Christ Jesus. John the Baptist testified to that Power of Grace by saying, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” When sin is removed, death is removed, and that leaves only LIFE. We can pursue that life, sail through that life, enjoy that life, and extend that life by navigating with the best tool for directing that life: Wisdom, the Wisdom to know, accept, and Love Christ Jesus. Now the question (you’ll recognize it right away!):
Why would you ever want anything less than that? If you are wise, nothing else (↔ Music Link) will suffice. If you are unwise, anything else will suffice. That was the mistake Israel made at Peor, but we need only remember the words of the Apostle Paul: Philippians 1:21 – 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That is indeed Wisdom to support our rejoicing!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Jesus, Savior, Pilot me!
(↕Music Link↕)
