[00:00:05] Hello! My name is Sally Moriarty-Flask; welcome to: From His Word To Our Hearts, my weekly Bible Study podcast. Together we will explore the readings that will be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass this Sunday, August 11, 2024, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
[00:00:24] This week's episode is entitled: "Perfect Love and Obedience" and in these readings, we'll ask ourselves if it's easier to grumble and complain, or maybe even give up, than it is to believe.
[00:00:37] As we delve into the readings this week, consider the following: are we willing to strive for the level of perfection God is asking of us?
[00:00:46] So let's begin in prayer. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:00:51] Heavenly Father, we praise you, and we thank you for the gift of this day. We praise you and we thank you for the gift of your word. We ask that you allow it to dwell deeply within our hearts, to open our hearts to the message that you're trying to give to us, that you allow us the strength to be the people that you want us to be, that you created us to be - and the perfect people that you created us to be. Now, we know that's not attainable for most of us, but your Son did tell us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father, you, are perfect. So we ask for that strength to try to strive to be those people, and we ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.
[00:01:42] So our Gospel this week is still from the Gospel of John; it's John 6: 41-51.
[00:01:49] "The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, 'I am the bread which came down from heaven.' They said, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, "I have come down from heaven?"' Jesus answered them, 'Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
[00:02:16] It is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught by God." Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.'"
[00:03:02] So let's jump back to the beginning and start understanding what God's telling us in this. So the Jews murmured, now... think back to Exodus when the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron. So that word murmur means grumble and complain.
[00:03:21] So they're grumbling and complaining against Jesus. And why are they grumbling and complaining? Look at what their perspective is on what Jesus just said. Now, these are - some of these people are - hometown folks. They watched Jesus grow up. They knew his earthly father, Joseph, as the carpenter. They knew his mother, Mary.
[00:03:45] They are seeing him as the hometown kid who grew up and made good. He became a rabbi... he became an itinerant preacher. And they're saying: wait a minute, we saw you in diapers! How can you be... how can you say you came from heaven? No, no, no. That doesn't make sense. So in some ways, their perspective makes sense, but understand, too, John's gospel is always trying to draw us deeper into the mystery that Jesus is presenting to us. So while they are thinking very much in earthly terms, Jesus himself is speaking in heavenly terms. He's trying to draw them deeper into that mystery. And Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves." In other words, I know what you're... I know what you're saying... I know what you're thinking. But do not allow yourself to be hard of heart as the Israelites were in the desert. Do not allow yourself to be hard of heart as pharaoh was before he released the Israelites to go - to leave Egypt and go out into the desert. Do not be heart of heart... but listen and believe.
[00:04:57] And then he says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." "No one can come to me."
[00:05:08] Remember last week, Jesus said: the work that we are called to do is believe in him... believe in whom the Father has sent. But that can't happen unless "the Father who sent me draws him." In other words, the Father is actively working to bring people to faith in Christ. He is giving us that gift of faith, and then he's nurturing it - as long as we're open to him and open to his message - he's nurturing it and allowing it to grow within us so that we become the people he intends for us be. So... "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" And then he goes on to say, "and I will raise him up at the last day." He's talking here about our resurrection from the dead.
[00:06:01] And he goes on to say, "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'" That's Isaiah, chapter 54. Isaiah says that all of the people will be taught by God. So that includes us too. Yes, Isaiah was speaking at that point directly to the Jews, but it includes us too. All, they shall all be taught by God. And that's the operative word: all. "Every one who has heard and learned from the Father."
[00:06:31] In other words, everyone who hears what I'm saying, not just to the people that were standing there, but... when the evangelists wrote the scriptures... when Paul went out - even before those gospels were written - when Paul went out and carried that message to the Gentiles... all of us down through the ages that have heard this message... whoever hears and knows the Father's will... that's who he's talking to. "Who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to me."
[00:07:01] Remember, we are brought into the mystery of Jesus; and Jesus is the reason for our right relationship with God.
[00:07:14] Now, "Not that anyone has seen the Father," Jesus says, because God's actions - in the world at that time - are hidden in Christ. They are still hidden in Christ. They are hidden through the actions, the words, the miracles, the signs of Jesus Christ. So God's actions in the world are hidden in Christ. So no one "has seen the Father except him who is from God" - so no one but Jesus - and Jesus "has seen the Father." "He has seen the Father."
[00:07:50] "Truly, truly, I say to you" he goes on, "he who believes has eternal life." Remember last week? That's the work we're called to do, is to believe. And if we believe, we are offered the gift of eternal life. Jesus reiterates that connection - that connection that is receiving him and receiving the gift of eternal life.
[00:08:13] No one comes to the Father except through me.
[00:08:16] "I am the bread of life." Now he's doubling down here, right? He repeats what we heard last week. He's doubling down on his message. He's not letting anybody get away with thinking anything other than what he's saying. "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died" because manna provided only earthly sustenance. But this bread that he's offering, this "bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die," he may eat of it and have eternal life. And what is that bread? He goes on to say, "I AM" again that statement of divinity. "I am the living bread." Not just a baked good... not just a loaf of bread that you go down to the bakery and get... not one that you grind up the grain for and bake yourself. "I am the living bread," he says, "which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." Think of how, just in this little section, how many times Jesus has said that! Over and over again, he is repeating... he wants everybody to walk away from this with a full and complete knowledge of his message. "I am the living bread," and if you eat this bread, you will live forever. Of course, Jesus - his listeners - would have understood... and he is alluding to, as well, the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. Because remember, in Genesis chapter 3, it says, whoever eats of the tree of life will live forever... so Jesus is equating those two things. And his listeners, at the time, would have understood that. We often have to be reminded of it because we don't dwell within the scriptures the way that people in biblical times did. People in ancient Israel, they didn't have television... they didn't have radio... they didn't have record players... they didn't have the Internet. (Heck, I didn't have the Internet when I was growing up.) But they don't have all the distractions that we do. So they spent most of their time studying... reading and studying... the scrolls of the scriptures.
[00:10:33] They drilled their children in it. This was part of their everyday life... was reading and studying and reciting scripture. So they understood it very, very deeply and totally. It was such a big part of their lives and a part of their existence. So they would have gotten that "he will live forever" - they would have gotten that connection with the tree of life in the Garden of Eden.
[00:10:57] And then he goes on to say - and this line is crucial - this line is so important... "The bread which I shall give." - he's saying, the bread which he himself will give - "for the life of the world is my flesh."
[00:11:10] The word that is recorded here in scripture is a word that means the totality of existence.
[00:11:18] Body, blood - as we, as Catholic would describe it - body, blood, soul, and divinity. Everything of Jesus is included in that flesh. This, we'll hear next week in the section of John, becomes a stumbling block... a barrier for a lot of Jesus' followers. Those that have been following him... looking for the wonder worker... looking for the next great sign... a lot of them hear this and go, whoa, no, nope, I'm out. I'm out. So we'll encounter that next week but, I want to dwell here myself - a little bit - on the gift of flesh. This gift of flesh that Jesus talks about begins on the cross in a perfect act of love and obedience... love of us and obedience to the Father's will.
[00:12:13] In the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, on The Gospel of John, is the following quote: "Once crucified and transformed by the Resurrection, Jesus' human flesh becomes the source of eternal life for the whole world. It is Jesus' own flesh that people must eat."
[00:12:32] This is a stumbling block to most of our Protestant friends.
[00:12:37] We as Catholics see Holy Communion as the True Body of Christ and the True Blood of Christ... and we receive it as such - not just as a sign - but as a sacrament... as the True Body and Blood of Christ. And so that is a difficult concept for anyone who is not Catholic. So many times people just say: oh, well, that's what Jesus said, but that's not really what he means. But you know, what? Jesus says what he means, and he means what he says.
[00:13:12] And because he is divine, what he says is he is! He is the Logos, he is the Word, and what he says - is! So we have to keep that in mind.
[00:13:27] "The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
[00:13:35] A challenge to us.
[00:13:37] Do we really believe what he says?
[00:13:43] Or is it easier to grumble and complain and maybe give up?
[00:13:48] Okay, let's go on to the Reading from the First Book of Kings. our First Reading. And this reading is from the 1 Kings 19: 4-8. "Elijah himself went a days journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, 'Is it enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers.' And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, 'Arise and eat.' And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.
[00:14:34] And the angel of the LORD came again a second time, and touched him, and said, 'Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.' And he arose, and ate and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God."
[00:14:56] A little bit shorter Reading this week, but I think you can see already why the creators of the Lectionary put these two together. So let's... let's talk a little bit about Elijah first - before we go any farther. So because prophets act and speak with the power of God, they're often seen as being even more important than kings. So you'll notice the name of the book... is the First Book of Kings, but it focuses a lot on Elijah. And Elijah is undoubtedly one of the greatest prophets in the history of the Israelite people. He is revered by so many faith traditions... he appears in the Hebrew Bible, of course (which is the Christian Old Testament)... he appears in the Christian Bible, both Old and New Testament... he is written about in the Quran of the Muslims... he is written about in the Book of Mormon... he is written in Baha'I writings (and the Baha'I faith is another middle eastern faith). So the fact that he is revered by so many different faith traditions - as an important prophet and as one who speaks for God - that speaks volumes for us as well. But at this point in his story, Elijah is in a very bad way.
[00:16:21] Now, give you a little background.... let's put this into context. King Ahab comes to power in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in about 874 BC and marries Jezebel, who is a Sidonian princess. And together they bring worship of the Baals to the Northern Kingdom - and the Ba'als are false gods, right?
[00:16:46] They were Phoenician gods, lower "g" gods. And Elijah goes and tells Ahab, because of this evil that he has done, there will be a drought that will last for three years throughout the land of Israel... and then Elijah, himself, goes into exile. There's lots and lots of stories in the Book of Kings about what happens during those three years of exile, and I strongly suggest you go back through and read them... they are beautiful stories... they're wonderful. Not something I want to go into here because there's a lot going on. But after three years - after his three year exile - after three years of drought, Elijah returns to Israel and demands that the prophets of Ba'al meet him for a contest on Mount Carmel. This is one of the most amazing stories in the Old Testament! When we went to Israel a couple of years ago, we went to Mount Carmel. We actually had Mass on the top of Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is about 28 miles west of the Sea of Galilee and about 9 miles from the coast, so nowhere near halfway in between - it's about... about two thirds of the way from - a little more than two thirds of the way - between the Sea of Galilee and the western coast of Israel. And when we say Mount Carmel, we often think of one big hill... one big mountain. It's actually not! What we, today, refer to as Mount Carmel is actually the tip (the northernmost tip) of a range of small mountains. So keep that in mind... geographically - that's what we're talking about. And on Mount Carmel, Elijah eggs the prophets of Ba'al on and on and on. And they have this contest. Okay... we'll each build a pyre - a big stack of wood - and you call on the Ba'als gods (the gods of the Ba'als) to come down and light the wood on fire, and I'll call on my God. Now... he ups the ante then, right? Because he soaks the wood... Elijah himself soaks the wood that he's going to call fire down from God on. He soaks it not once, not twice, but seven times with water! And then he says, okay, Baals - prophets - call your gods down... and, of course, nothing happens. And then Elijah prays to God, and God sets the wood on fire. So Elijah defeats the prophets of Ba'al, and after that, they chase them all down to a wadi - to where the river lets out by the sea - and there all the prophets of Ba'al are killed. Well, of course, that doesn't end the story, because who's one of the strongest proponents for the Ba'als, but the queen herself, Jezebel. So Jezebel then threatens to kill Elijah. Now, that's where we catch up with today's passage. Poor Elijah! Now, he has done everything that God has told him to do. He has gone to King Ahab... he predicted the drought... the drought happened... he came back... he defeated the Ba'als... and still he is under a sentence of death. So what does he do? Well, first of all, he travels from the Northern Kingdom - where he met Ahab and Jezebel and did his prophesying - he travels to the Southern Kingdom, to a town called Beer-sheba, which is about 45 miles southwest of Jerusalem. And he left his servant behind and traveled a day's journey into the wilderness... and let's call it about 25 miles - that's what a grown man can walk, into the desert by himself with water... he can walk about 25 miles in a day's journey. So that's what the scriptures tell us at the beginning, "Elijah himself went a day's journey into the wilderness," so about 25 miles from Beer-sheba. And he "came and sat down under a broom tree." Now, the Hebrew word here that they use is rethem... rethem - it means juniper tree, or broom tree, or bush, or shrub. In other words, it's a very small bush... it's growing in the desert - so it doesn't have a lot of foliage - it's kind of skimpy, to be honest. And it gives the only minimal shade that he's going to get anywhere around him. So what does he do? He throws himself down under this broom tree and he asks God to just let him die.
[00:21:15] He is - at this point - spiritually, physically, and emotionally exhausted. Every time I read this, I can't help but thinking back to when I was a kid... and you were angry or sad or you felt isolated or whatever.... and what is the mantra - the little poem - that always goes through your head, right? Nobody likes me; everybody hates me; I think I'm going to eat some worms, right? So this is where Elijah is. Nobody likes me... everybody hates me... just let me die.
[00:21:47] It's kind of where he is. And why is he saying this? He says, "for I am no better than my fathers." In other words, than the other prophets that were killed by Jezebel and - again - if you read the First Book of Kings, you'll encounter that in the story... the other prophets that were already killed by Jezebel. She's got a price out on my head anyway. Just, just take me now. Just.... I'm done, just take me now... let me die. And he is so far at the end of his rope that he just lays down and goes to sleep - hoping that he will never wake up. But what happens? "Behold" - whenever you hear the word behold in scripture it's like... imagine that the writers of the scripture are blowing a trumpet... listen, this is important! Pay attention! "Behold, an angel touched him." Now, what are angels? Angels are messengers of God. "An angel touched him, and said to him, 'Arise and eat.'"
[00:22:42] So Elijah, who had gone to sleep - hoping - if not expecting to not even wake up... wakes up and he looks around and what does he see?
[00:22:55] He sees "a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water." Sustenance in the desert where there should have been none. Think here - again - of the manna in the desert... life giving sustenance where there should have been none. You see why they put all these readings together... with why they follow last week. "And he ate and drank, and lay down again." So he says, okay, well, I got the food... I guess I may as well not be uncomfortable as I wait for death. So he goes ahead and he eats, goes to sleep again - hoping - if not even expecting to not wake up.
[00:23:34] "And the angel of the Lord" (the messenger of God) comes "a second time," wakes him up again and says, "Arise and eat, else the journey be too great for you." So now... not only is he supposed to eat, but he's been given another mission... else the journey, it will be too great for you. In other words - you may be tired... you may be exhausted... you may be ready to give up... but God's not done with you yet. He still has more work for you to accomplish. So you can't give up. No matter how much you might want to - you can't give up. A good reminder to us that when we feel at our - the end of our rope - when we feel we're at our wit's end and we just don't know where we can turn or how we can make things better... God's just not done with us yet. Until the day we die, God is not done with us. "And he arose, and ate and drank."
[00:24:29] And this is so crucial... "walked in the strength of that food" - that should remind us of the manna in the desert that strengthened the Israelites for their journey to the Promised Land - "walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights." Now, remember, scripture never mentions numbers without them being significant.
[00:24:53] Forty is a number of completion. Think of the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the desert before they reached the Promised Land... it is the amount necessary to complete a journey, to make something physical, mental, and spiritually complete. Think also of the 40 days that Jesus goes out into the wilderness before he begins his public ministry... that 40 days serves as a barrier, if you will, a differentiating piece - a wall between Jesus' private life and then his public ministry. So that "forty days and forty nights" is important. Think, also, of the 40 days and 40 nights that it rained on Noah and the Ark... that is a number of completion. The sin - that the story tells us God was trying to cleanse the world from - that sin is done... that journey is complete... now the Ark comes to rest on the top of a mountain. The 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert - his journey from private citizen to public rabbi... public teacher... public figure - is now over. And now Elijah's journey of 40 days and 40 nights to the Mount of Horeb - that will be a completion... it will be ending one part of his life and beginning another.
[00:26:31] Now, Mount Horeb is the same as Mount Sinai. It is the mount of God. Remember, Mount Sinai is where Moses encountered God - on the top of Mount Sinai - to receive the Law... the Ten Commandments. So this is a pivotal place for the history of all of humanity, certainly the history of the Jews - that's where they made their covenant of the Law with God, was at the base of Mount Sinai. So Elijah is traveling to Mount Sinai, to "the mount of God." And why is he traveling there? He's traveling there to encounter God... the next phase of his journey is to begin there.
[00:27:16] You can see why the creators of the Lectionary put 1 Kings with that section of the Bread of Life Discourse that we read in John... because it talks about that food - that miraculous food - that strengthens us for the journey... that gets us through our journey in this life, and takes us on to eternal life. And that is echoed from this section in 1 Kings that Elijah - who sees this sustenance where there should have been none - and it strengthens him for his journey... just as the Eucharist strengthens us for our journey. All right, so that finishes 1 Kings. Our Psalm this week is Psalm 34.
[00:28:01] The response is: "O taste and see that the Lord is good!" And here are the verses: "I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
[00:28:24] I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. O taste and see that the LORD is good! Happy is the man who takes refuge in him!"
[00:28:53] Now, Psalm 34 - first of all - is a wisdom Psalm and you can see it talks about blessing the Lord... it talks about praising the Lord...it talks about the good deeds that the Lord has done... and that whenever we ask something of him, he answers us. That's always one of the challenges - another one of those challenge - to belief. We pray and we think our prayers aren't heard... No, no, no! Sometimes it's not that God doesn't - it's not that God never hears our prayers. Sometimes God hears our prayers and says, your request is not what's in your best interest.
[00:29:36] Think every week... how many people pray to win the lottery? Well, there's probably 20, 30, 40 million people that pray to win the lottery. 40 million people can't win the lottery every week. So it can't work that way! We might want it to, but it can't work that way.
[00:29:55] So it's not that our prayers aren't heard... sometimes the answer is no... sometimes the answer is not now... sometimes the answer is yes.
[00:30:05] And one of my favorite - sort of irreverent - signs is... sometimes the answer is: what are you kidding? So sometimes we ask for things we shouldn't ask for... just a good reminder to us! Now, the other thing about Psalm 34, that it's important for me to say before we leave the Psalm and go to the Second Reading, is that this Psalm 34 - we will use for three weeks in a row... this week and the two weeks that follow. We will use the same refrain each week.... but there will be sometimes slightly different verses, sometimes very different verses... but we will stay with Psalm 34 for three weeks in a row... and this is the first of those three weeks.
[00:30:48] And now our last reading from this week is from Ephesians 4:30 - 5:2.
[00:30:57] "Brothers and sisters, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
[00:31:36] As I said in last week's episode, we have seven passages from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians that we're going through this year... and this is the fifth of the seven passages. This particular section of Ephesians is teaching us how the Christian community should live out our Baptismal call. So let's start here... "do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" - this is an echo of the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 63 when he says that "people grieved God's holy Spirit." Paul himself would have been very familiar with the writings of the prophet Isaiah, his hearers not so much so. But it's important that Paul understood it, and had his reasons for using that terminology, and it's because of the connection with the faith of the Israelites and the Christian faith that he's attempting to - working to - spread throughout the areas around the Mediterranean Sea through all of his travels... all of his voyages. And why is that important? It's because in Baptism we are sealed for the day of redemption... we are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit in Baptism... that is very sacramental language there... "sealed for the day of redemption" - he's referring there to Baptism. Now, he goes on to say... he lists a series of things that we should not do... we should put these things away from us: bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice... all of those things - those are all bad. So we need to put those away from us. In other words, avoid offending the Christian community, even if we - in our limited understanding - think they deserve it...
[00:33:35] doesn't matter... put it away!
[00:33:39] Don't allow those bad things to remain within us and to grow in our hearts. We remove the negative and replace it with what? Well, he tells us - we replace it with positive qualities... "be kind to one another, tenderhearted" - another word for tender hearted is compassionate; we talked about compassionate before... compassion means to suffer with - with - another person... to share their burden... to help them bear their burden. So be compassionate. Forgive one another. And how are we called to forgive? "As God in Christ forgave you" - as God in Christ forgives us - and what is the event that brought about that forgiveness? Well, of course, it's his Passion and Death on the Cross.
[00:34:35] Tall order!
[00:34:37] Difficult!
[00:34:39] Not many of us are actually called to be crucified - for real - on a cross. But we know that Christ (who, himself, was on the Cross) we know that he will help strengthen us for whatever challenges that we face... as long as we are open to that.
[00:35:01] Then Paul goes on to say, "Therefore be imitators of God." Now that - "imitators of God" - that phrase is unique to Ephesians... it is only used here... and in that - we should hear the echo of John's Gospel at the Last Supper. Remember, John doesn't recount the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper - John recounts the washing of the feet. And what does Jesus say? I have given an example - a model - for you to follow, so "be imitators of God" - follow Christ's example.
[00:35:41] Why do we do that? How do we do that? We do that as God's "beloved children." As beloved children... adopted children of God... whom - through Christ - we have the strength to call Abba, Father - remember, Abba is a Hebrew word... very intimate... very close...
[00:36:00] Not father, but daddy...
[00:36:03] Very, very intimate... very close relationship. We are his beloved, adopted sons and daughters - and adopted brothers and sisters of Christ.
[00:36:15] And then Paul goes on to say, "and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us" - on the cross - "a fragrant offering."
[00:36:29] Paul would have known that phrase very well also... not so much his audience... but he would have known it; he would have used it. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee... he was a scholar of the Law... he knew the scriptures very, very well - and this is an echo of Leviticus chapter 1; 1: 9 says, "and the priest shall burn the whole" - meaning the whole sacrifice - "on the altar, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the LORD." He's talking there about that burnt offering sacrifice... a pleasing odor to the Lord... "a fragrant offering" - that's what Paul is echoing here. And also God speaks - through Moses - telling Israelites how to offer a burnt sacrifice to him... that's what Paul is quoting, there in Leviticus, is we are to offer a pleasing sacrifice, "a fragrant offering [...] to God."
[00:37:33] I'm sure most Protestant ministers, all Catholic priests - I won't say most, I will say all - are very, very thankful that they no longer have to receive sheep and goats and pigeons and doves and everything else... and cut them and throw blood all over the place... and burn the sacrifice... I am sure they are tremendously thankful that that is no longer the case but that's what was done in the Old Testament, so that's what Paul knew... that's what he includes here. Luckily, we don't have to think about doing that... our sacrifice to God is much cleaner (for lack of a better word) - it's much cleaner, much more sanitary, much more easy to deal with than blood spraying all over the place. And remember too, we are to walk in love "as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us" - again, you should hear echoes of John, chapter 15, when Jesus says to his apostles, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend. That is the perfection that we are being asked to emulate... that is the example we are being given to follow.
[00:38:49] Of course, it is a very, very difficult example to live out.
[00:38:58] But again, it's something that we have to strive for every day. It's not something... we can't, we can't walk 25 miles into the desert and plop down under a broom tree and say: okay, Lord, I'm done, take me now. That's not what we're called to do. It's not what Elijah was called to do... that's not what we're called to do. We're called to keep trying - each and every day - to keep trying... trying to be better people... trying to be the perfect people that God has asked us to be... to achieve that level of perfection.
[00:39:32] Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect... to achieve that level of perfection. We may never, ever do it in this life, but still, it's something that we should always, always strive for. If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments about today's episodes or anything in particular, send me an email at
[email protected]. Thank you for listening and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
[00:40:07] From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions, Jimmy Flask producer, audio engineer, and sole proprietor. The content of the show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty- Flask. Music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with permission of the composer; all rights reserved. Information regarding additional references used in preparing the exegesis for this podcast is available upon request. Thank you for listening and God bless.
