Bernard Gabbott - Sunday, 16 April 2023
Life in the Kingdom
Scripture References: Matthew 18:15-35, Psalms 15:1-5, Genesis 4:17-26
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CloseJesus has explicitly warned about the dangers to the community in God’s kingdom (the dangers of sin and stumbling blocks are to be taken seriously, radically). Jesus has revealed the heart of God, whose kingdom it is (God desires the wandering citizen to be found and restored). In this closing section, Jesus teaches on how to thoughtfully, and dependently, restore a brother or sister by confronting willful sin. And He exposes the hallmark of this kingdom: abundant and mind-blowingly generous forgiveness. In a world which does conflict on Twitter, which spreads rumours and avoids open and caring confrontation, which has cancelled forgiveness and replaced it with revenge, revisionism, and refusal, this kind of kingdom is needed. We need it!
Scripture References: Matthew 18:15-35, Psalms 15:1-5, Genesis 4:17-26
Related Topics: Life, Matthew | More Messages from Bernard Gabbott | Download Audio
Howard McFetridge
We love a turning point. Whether it is a story or a football game. Hope dawning at the darkest time. Where is the great turning point in Esther? It could be our memory verse, when Esther is persuaded by Mordecai to act to save her people. It could be when the king looks with favour upon Esther and holds out the golden scepter to her. It could be when Haman is forced to lead Mordecai through the city mounted on the king’s horse and proclaims that he is the man the king delights to honour. They are major events in the story of Esther. They are turning points of a sort. But the writer of Esther points us to another event. That looks so trivial.
Esther is such an exciting story! There are evil plots. There are interesting yet flawed characters. There is risk and sacrifice. There is heroism and villainy. Today, we are introduced to the villain of the plot, and what an evil scheming villain he is! He spins lies and concocts murderous plans to do away with the Jews, God’s covenant people. How will the people respond? Will he get away with his evil plan? Will God, who is not mentioned at all, intervene to protect His people, to live up to the promises He made to Abraham, the people at Mt Sinai, and to David?
There is so much that sounds familiar in these first two chapters of Esther: the world is dominated by loud and brash and imposing and degraded power, the people of God are small and struggling and faced with ambiguous decisions and actions and God seems so far away he is almost absent (at least to our minds and hearts). As we read this book, we will need God’s revelation to help us navigate its strangeness, its ambiguity, and its confrontational narrative. In this, we have the key to the book—the lack of God’s name in letters does not mean the lack of God’s presence.
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