When we pray the prayers we’ve been given by the church – the prayers of the psalmist and the saints, the Lord’s Prayer, the Daily Office – we pray beyond what we can know, believe, or drum up ourselves.
God’s intentional tarrying damns the bridesmaids who trusted that God would show up on time. Why? The only answer that we receive from the parable is the same that Job receives from the whirlwind: Who are you to question my wisdom with your ignorant, empty words? Job 38:2.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir. Gal. 4:6-7
So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian. Gal. 3:24-25
James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised; only they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do. Gal. 2:9-10
Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. Gal. 1:10
Whereas Romans and Galatians cover the same subject matter, in the former Paul employs a loftier discourse and more sophisticated arguments, and in the latter, he addresses those who are “senseless” and “foolish” and adopts a style appropriate for censure and not instruction.
The discussion tonight is to help us articulate how we reach moral conclusions of right and wrong. Dr. Sosis will give us some contemporary paradigms to think through what it means to be moral and how to discover that which God has impressed upon our conscious.
In the Presentation, Simeon, an ordinary man, takes Jesus in his arms and praises God for the coming Messiah. The priests, however, who performed the purification ritual under the Law (Lev. 12) failed to recognize who was in their presence. They simply took their fee and moved on. A common man recognized the Messiah, while the religious leaders were blind to him. For us, the question is when do we do the same?
If we seek righteousness through our obedience, once we fail, then justice demands our punishment. But if we seek righteousness through Christ and his victory, then righteousness is immediately ours. And in this reckoning of righteousness, we rejoice not in works, but in the goodness of God.
