Lectionary Scriptures and Comments

Archive for February 28, 2013

A Simple Grace 022813

#ds320 simplicity

#ds320 simplicity (Photo credit: rosipaw)

Radical Simplicity

Radical Simplicity (Photo credit: Earthworm)

This blog comes to you from the people at Peace Mennonite Church of Columbia, MO

www.peacemennonitechurch.net

Today’s Scriptures Click the following links to read today’s scriptures or scroll to the very bottom of this blog post for those scriptures also. Lectionary Scriptures for the day selected by http://www.commontexts.org/

Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2092:1-4,%2012-15&version=MSG

Proverbs 13:1-12 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2013:1-12%20&version=MSG

Romans 5:12—6:2 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%205:12%E2%80%946:2&version=MSG

A Simple Grace 022813

There was a time that many people sought things, so many, may things. People fought and scratched, and clawed and killed to get as many things as they could. It was a race, not just to get what we needed, but a race to gather as much needless stuff as we could.

 Then all of a sudden, but also sort of step by step, people began to not care for so many things, and began to give things away, to thin down all the possessions, to empty closets, garages, storage sheds, basements and attics.

 The effect was calamitous! An economy based on greed and acquisition began to crumble. And many people began again the be God‘s people, without caring so much about what name was for God, but everyone loved him, or her.

 The ability to live simply and quietly, without notoriety! People began to see the possibility of sharing God’s love.

 As we become simple again, there is more time to read the Bible, and to pray and to sing.

 Pray for our peace together, and read the Bible today.

Pastor Bill

Prayer List: Peace Mennonite Church keeps a prayer list for those in need. If you need prayer, or want to e-mail our pastor, e-mail billd @ peacemennonitechurch.net (Take out the extra spaces to use this e-mail—the spaces confuse spam generators).

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We are praying as a church, and attempting to follow the centuries’ old tradition of praying with other Christians three times a day. We are following the prayer liturgy at www.commonprayer.net

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Psalm 92:1-9

The Message (MSG)

A Sabbath Song

92 1-3 What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
the full-bodied music of strings.

4-9 You made me so happy, God
I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!

Proverbs 13:1-12

The Message (MSG)

Walk with the Wise

13 Intelligent children listen to their parents;
foolish children do their own thing.

2 The good acquire a taste for helpful conversation;
bullies push and shove their way through life.

3 Careful words make for a careful life;
careless talk may ruin everything.

4 Indolence wants it all and gets nothing;
the energetic have something to show for their lives.

5 A good person hates false talk;
a bad person wallows in gibberish.

6 A God-loyal life keeps you on track;
sin dumps the wicked in the ditch.

7 A pretentious, showy life is an empty life;
a plain and simple life is a full life.

8 The rich can be sued for everything they have,
but the poor are free of such threats.

9 The lives of good people are brightly lit streets;
the lives of the wicked are dark alleys.

10 Arrogant know-it-alls stir up discord,
but wise men and women listen to each other’s counsel.

11 Easy come, easy go,
but steady diligence pays off.

12 Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick,
but a sudden good break can turn life around.

Romans 5:12-6:3

The Message (MSG)

The Death-Dealing Sin, the Life-Giving Gift

12-14 You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

15-17 Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?

18-19 Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

20-21 All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

When Death Becomes Life

6 1-3 So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

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