Dan Rowe - Sunday, 12 November 2023
The LORD is Always with You
Scripture References: Genesis 39:1-23, Psalms 43:1-5, Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Matthew 1:18-23
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CloseThe repeated phrase in this chapter is the “the LORD was with Joseph”. While never coming into the story, the LORD is central to the Joseph narrative. In both feast and famine, the LORD is with Joseph. Even Potiphar could see the LORD’s hand on Joseph. Our experience of life is often not too dissimilar to Joseph. We may not have been sold into slavery but our world is enslaved and under the yoke of sin. In the midst of living in a broken world, we might ask “where is God?” Genesis 39 reveals not a distant god but the LORD, our covenant-keeping God, who is ever present. That was Joseph’s reality and, even more so, our reality as we look to Jesus who is Immanuel, “God with us”, who has promised to be with is to the very end of the age.
Scripture References: Genesis 39:1-23, Psalms 43:1-5, Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Matthew 1:18-23
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What is greatness? In particular, what is greatness in the kingdom of God? That is the question addressed in the passage from Matthew today. Jesus is approached by two different groups. First, the family of Zebedee: James and John and their mother. Second, two blind men. Jesus asks both groups the same question “What do you want me to do for you?” What they request is quite revealing. And so is Jesus’ response to their requests. The Zebedees request position, status, reward for effort. The blind men request mercy, for their eyes to be open. Which request lines up with Jesus’ teaching previously? Which request do we tend to go to ourselves?
The Department of Home Affairs has an Australian Values Statement on its website. Visa applicants for residency/citizenship must sign this. And one of its key principles is that we are a ‘fair-go’ country. We would all agree with that. I suspect, too, that we would summarise our ‘fair go’ culture by stating that ‘you get what you deserve/what you work for’. In fact, many of us have established our relational, social and work ethics on this very principle. But is that what the ‘kingdom of heaven is like’? What is its value statement? What is the hallmark of such a kingdom, and its ruler, even its citizenship? Today, after Jesus has assured his disciples that the dependent will be provided for by their king, he now uses the same ideas to issue with them a warning not to abuse, misuse, ignore or become entitled in the face of the kingdom of heaven hallmark—which is grace.
Jesus deals with the question of ‘Who belongs in the kingdom?’ Is it children? Is it the good? Is it the godly? And, how and what does this look like? This question of ‘belonging’ is one that is constant in our lives – where do I belong, do I belong, what does belonging look like? And Jesus is very clear: the kingdom of heaven is made up of the dependent, the reliant, the weak – just like children.
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