Preparation

I want to state from the beginning that we are in the growing season, therefore the lens I look through is how do these readings help us to grow in our faith journey. 

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1 Kings 19.1-15a

1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ 3 Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord , take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ 6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ 8 He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. 9 At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 10 He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord , the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ 11 He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord , for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord , but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ 14 He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord , the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ 15 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.

 

REFLECTION

The precursor to this event is the challenge of Elijah, requested by God, to the prophets of Baal. Jezabel and Ahab, have had all the Jewish prophets killed and Elijah is the last. He challenges them and, in the end, God makes Elijah victorious and then Elijah gets the people to kill the Baal prophets. So, Jezebel wants revenge, and Elijah is running away ready to just go back to God. God however has different ideas and there are some real links to other stories in Elijah's journey. In Elijah's fear and exhaustion, God comes to meet him in a special way. God has fed him, and guided him through the Holy Spirit, so he had encountered God, but this must have been different. It is in this interaction that Elijah is refreshed and ready to obey God's request. The life of Elijah is not about obedience to a law, but an obedience to a relationship. Jesus does not offer anything new, but offers it in abundance to any who would come.

 

Psalm 42; 43

42

1 As a deer longs for the running brooks:

so longs my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul is thirsty for God, thirsty for the living God:

when shall I come and see his face?

3 My tears have been my food day and night:

while they ask me all day long ‘Where now is your God?’

4 As I pour out my soul by myself, I remember this:

how I went to the house of the Mighty One,

into the temple of God,

5 To the shouts and songs of thanksgiving:

a multitude keeping high festival.

6 Why are you so full of heaviness, my soul:

and why so unquiet within me?

7 O put your trust in God:

for I will praise him yet, who is my deliverer and my God.

8 My soul is heavy within me:

therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,

from Mizar among the hills of Hermon.

9 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waters:

all your waves and breakers have gone over me.

10 Surely the Lord will grant his loving mercy

in the day-time:

and in the night his song will be with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

11 I will say to God, my rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me:

why must I go like a mourner

because the enemy oppresses me?’

12 Like a sword through my bones,

my enemies have mocked me:

while they ask me all day long ‘Where now is your God?’

13 Why are you so full of heaviness, my soul:

and why so unquiet within me?

14 O put your trust in God:

for I will praise him yet, who is my deliverer and my God.

 

43

1 Give judgement for me, O God,

take up my cause against an ungodly people:

deliver me from the deceitful and unjust.

2 For you are God my refuge—

why have you turned me away:

why must I go like a mourner

because the enemy oppresses me?

3 O send out your light and your truth,

and let them lead me:

let them guide me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.

4 Then I shall go to the altar of God,

to God my joy and my delight:

and to the harp I shall sing your praises, O God, my God.

5 Why are you so full of heaviness, my soul:

and why so unquiet within me?

6 O put your trust in God:

for I will praise him yet,

who is my deliverer and my God.

 

 

Galatians 3.10-14; 3.23-29

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.’ 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’ 12 But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, ‘Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.’ 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

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REFLECTION 

 Paul is writing to a mixed community. because he talks about the law, which really only relates to a Jewish person, Gentiles would understand law and living it, but did Paul mean the laws of their culture? Were the people free from the social law? Paul is talking about a spiritual based relationship to the law and looking at the Jewish law as it relates to relationship with God., so, the impact of Paul's words can be reflected on in regard to the social, but it does not negate the social consequences of breaking social law. It can relate, because the spiritual law and the faith based action, should, on the whole, fall in line with the social law. The difference between life lived through law and life lived by faith, is that living by law means a point of success or failure and can therefore be judged. Life lived by faith is based on doing what we know is right in our hearts, which should be guided by love. If love is that which seeks good and life and the best for others, then the intent of action is going to bring about good and life. This should be in line with the law. A life lived by faith therefore, is marked by intent rather than comparative success or failure. God has moved from a relationship of obedience to a law, to a relationship moved by relationship. 

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Luke 8.26-39

26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’— 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. 32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

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REFLECTION

Jesus steps a shore and it appears that he is set on by this man who is possessed with demons. Not one, but a legion. Jesus has not sort them out, but they feared what Jesus might do to them. They seem to know that Jesus would cast them out and wanting to have a say in their fate, plead to enter pigs. Jesus appears happy with this, but it appears the pigs were not because they decided dying was better than living with a demon. 

The people on seeing the man better and I assume their pigs gone, are not rejoicing, but are scared and want Jesus to leave them. The people were happier with a demon possessed man than a miracle worker. 

We should take this into consideration about human nature. Do we think we would act any different to these people should someone do this for a homeless person.

The man is ready to follow Jesus, why? Because in the end he has a relationship with Jesus. A life lived in relationship, not the law.