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Servant Leadership
The readings today remind us what Jesus did for us, and they suggest that he should be the model for our lives. We first get from the prophet Isaiah a description of the suffering servant, which is what Jesus will be many centuries later. It says: If he gives his life as an offering for Continue reading
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Introduction to Heresies
What is a heresy? We’re going to pull from a few sources in order to try to answer these questions from different perspectives. The three primary sources were going to use are: So we have a contemporary author who is looking at things from our current point in history. And we have an English public Continue reading
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Ways to Read the Psalter
There are many ways that we can read the Psalms. One of the great church fathers from the fourth century, St. Athanasius, wrote a letter to his spiritual directee with advice on how to read the Psalms. The state argued that the Psalter was basically a synopsis of the whole Bible. He said that everything Continue reading
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What Must One Do to Get to Heaven?
What is the job of a prophet? Is he or she a fortune teller? Do we hear from a prophet what the economy is going to do next year? No. A prophet is not someone with supernatural forecasting talents. A prophet is one who speaks the word that God wants spoken at the time God Continue reading
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Psalm Books III, IV, V
Book III: Collapse The third book is quite short, only 17 psalms in total. And only one of those is attributed to David. Most are by the Sons of Kora or Asaph, members of the choir David set up to compose and sing psalms. The tone of most of the psalms is dark, with lots Continue reading
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The Five Books of the Psalms
The Five “Books” of the Psalter Bible scholars note that the Psalter is a bit like a hymnal, with songs of one type or message right next to songs with a very different type or message. Nonetheless, they have discovered a structure or outline to the Book of the Psalms. The first thing to note Continue reading
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Psalms One and Two
Psalm One: Blessed the Man Psalm one is about the wise man who meditates on God’s law and doing so gains life. The idea is that there are basically two paths of life. The first is God’s way, and that leads to life while the second way is the world’s way which leads to death. Continue reading
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Introduction to the Psalter
Welcome to our study of the book of the Psalms, which is sometimes called the Psalter in English. We will start with just a few basic questions and answers about the Psalms to give us a framework for further study. What is a Psalm? The first question we must ask is, “what is a Psalm?” Continue reading
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Thou Givest Them Their Meat in Due Season
In today’s readings, we have two similar stories of miraculous feeding. And the Psalm refrain today is, “the hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.” The Psalm and St. Paul both speak about hope, and all of this speaks to how we might try to live our lives as Christian disciples. Continue reading
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God Has a Plan and It’s a Good Plan
Father Neil preached last week on suffering and gratitude, and I would like to continue to look at those today. Both suffering and gratitude are at the heart of the crucifix. We call it a crucifix because it is a cross with the body of Jesus attached to it. The crucifix is supposed to be Continue reading