2014: Together in the Word (Genesis 2; Matthew 2; Ezra 2; Acts 2)

A few personal reflections on the readings:

Four stories of beginnings.  
Genesis 1 is the only new beginning that doesn't come after an ending, a loss, or some sort of good-bye.  Matthew tells the story of Christ's coming, after the story of God's people has fallen silent for 400 years.  For the people that will follow him, they will give up their lives in exchange for the fullness of life that can only be found in him.  For the people of Judah, this new beginning comes after judgement, slavery, exile to a foreign land, the loss of their land, their temple, their sacrificial system - maybe even their God.  Their new beginning only comes after years of suffering.  For Acts, they receive the Holy Spirit and the church is born, but it comes after the death of the Messiah, their friend, their hope.  Its a confusing time where Jews and Gentiles have to suddenly work out their relationship, and its not easy to know what to do.  New beginnings tend to come after endings, loss, goodbyes.  They are times of transition.  They are change.  Even when a new beginnings are a gift, they can be hard.  Even Adam and Eve, born into the only beginning that isn't and end, is about to experience the phenomenon...

Genesis
Yesterday Carson closed his commentary with a comment that referenced Romans 1 -  this has been a much debated passage on Facebook and the blogosphere recently due to comments made by Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson's re:  homosexuality.  That detail caught my eye and has me thinking today about the Genesis 1-2 connection.  God's design for marriage and such.  Any thoughts?
*We will see marriage-related issues in the Ezra storyline as well... coming soon!

Acts
I've been finding the church hard to see, and in Acts, the church is becoming visible for the very first time.  The church that I see now is more like vapour than like water or ice.  Its members are moving freely, with a lot of space between them.  We're still the church when we're apart, but the very word means assembly, and so we're meant to come close together into a more solid, tangible state, and then melt apart enough so we can flow freely and pour over the world.  As I'm reading Acts I'm thinking this is a good time to reflect on how the People of God came to understand "the church."

Also, if you're like me, you've spent significantly less time reading the historical books than other parts of the Bible.  I thought some background on Ezra might be helpful :)

Introducing Ezra!
According to David M. Howard, Jr., the Book of Ezra (along with Nehemiah), is "packed with spiritual messages wanting to be extracted.  They communicate a rich spirituality during times when things were not overwhelming positive for God's people.  They are concerned with lists that show the unity of God's people.  The importance of disciplines such as prayer, fasting, sacrificing, and reading of the Scriptures is exemplified throughout both books (p. 314)."

Background:  After Jerusalem was destroyed (587 B.C.), Judah was taken into exile by the Babylonians (judgement for their sin, foretold in Jeremiah 25:11-12).  This was a traumatic time for them.  The temple was gone, along with the sacrificial system.  The existence of the People of God was in question - they wondered if God had abandoned them forever.  After about 50 years of exile the Persians overthrew the Babylonian Empire - The Book of Ezra opens in this context.  This is a hopeful book, as God reaches out in an act of grace.  The Persians (ruled by Cyrus) freed them to return home, and allowed (even assisted) the rebuilding of their temple and reinstatement of their worship (Ezra 1) just as it was foretold by Jeremiah (Jer. 29.10-14).  While Cyrus is acting like a good politician (he adopts the god of the people he is dealing with), he is an instrument of God.  Isaiah 44:24-28 (and continuing into the next chapter) also foretold that Cyrus would be an instrument that the Lord will use to carry out his plan.  This Persian kindness was understood to be a sign of God's grace.  Enter Ezra, a priest and a scribe who is grounded in the law of Moses, and has been commissioned to teach the law by the Persian king.  His connection with Israel's early history qualifies him for the task given him.  Upon their return they offer regular sacrifices, celebrate festivals, and rebuild the temple!  Though it was a comfortable existence, they were still in slavery to the Persians and looked forward with hope to a time when they would be under their own rule (see Howard, p. 313-360).

I'd love to hear what you're thinking about, too!!