Romans 5:1-8

We've seen most of this text before.

In addition we revisit the recent theme of Christ dying for us, because he loves us so much. I recommend getting out of relationships like that. But this is the symbolism of sacrifice, not co-dependency. We all know sacrifice. The struggle is to get it right.

We sacrifice our leisure time, time we could be with friends, so we can study or exercise in some way and enhance our future selves. If we can find pleasure in the temporary pain or in the short term gains, it isn't a sacrifice at all. Parents sacrifice for their children, but when they stop and reflect on what becomes of that, their sense of satisfaction makes it all worth it. The long term gains and good feelings would not be there if someone did all of those things just to get a payoff.

As Paul says, suffering results in hope. When we fail, not living up to even our own expectations, yet we go on with another chance, we get a sense of grace, that we don't deserve the moments of peace we get. The sun hits our face the next day, and it seems there is something bigger to live for. Paul just takes things a little too far for me, saying we are weak and are sinners. Knowing we aren't perfect is all you really need to know.

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

I don't recommend reading the whole Bible, nor do I recommend not reading it, but the story of Abraham is pretty important. It sets up the pattern of promises and Godly interventions. Some say the stories establish the male domination and may be altered from earlier stories that featured women or were at least egalitarian. If you go back to Genesis 12, Sarah (Sarai at that time) “was barren”. God promised Abraham (Abram at that time) a family. In Genesis 16, Sarai tells Abram to go ahead and have a child with their slave, Hagar. Genesis 17, God does the name change, and repeats his promise. That brings us up to date, in brief.

There was a tradition in story telling of keeping one character who actually represented multiple generations or different members of a family or a tribe. By time this story was written down, they might have felt the need to explain the passage of time. In Verse 11, “manner of women” is explaining she is post-menopausal. But first, notice the 1st verse is the narration speaking to the reader. In the 2nd verse, Abraham sees three “men”. This is a scene of hospitality that was the tradition and has continued to be. It is his honor to serve these travelers. This is not just a social grace, this is a moral expectation. Abraham is not treating these men this way because they might be angels, he's doing it because it's the right thing to do.

Then, Sarah finds the promise of a child funny, which seems like a natural reaction. I'm not sure what to make of God's comments. We then skip to Isaac being born, fulfilling the promises, and being named Isaac, which is a transliteration of “laughter”. The focus here is on Sarah, a bit of that female energy coming into the story. In future books, we only hear of the “Abrahamic tradition”. Abraham does have other sons, but Isaac is pretty key to what is to come.

Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Matthew is sometimes called “The gospel for the Jews”. Here, he uniquely has Jesus saying, go “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Preachers will point this out sometimes and usually immediately dismiss it because it is not consistent with other things Jesus says or with the other 3 gospels. In the next verse, he says “Kingdom of heaven”, whereas the others usually say, “Kingdom of God”, or if you are Martin Luther King Jr, “The Kin-dom” to take out the male reference and reintroduce it as a more all inclusive “we are all brothers and sisters” concept.

This is followed by instructions for following the tradition of itinerant preachers. Communities were expected to support them, but if they didn't like them, they would just stop feeding them and they would move on. “Shake off the dust” as you leave is a minor insult, just saying to move on and don't worry about them. I don't see the “Father speaking through you” as anything terribly magical, although they probably did. I see it as more of an encouragement and recognition of the skills they've already demonstrated they understand and that they can communicate the message they have developed.

This passage acts like an overture, covering briefly things that will be included later in more detail, including the second coming. Families arguing and being hated are also more translation problems that I think sound worse to us than they would have at the time. Theological differences were important and stirring them up would have been known to cause trouble. It was no doubt already happening at the time of the writing, so it was hardly a prophecy.