Yahweh speaks so gird up your loins!
Faith Notes for October 12, 2021
First Presbyterian Church of Big Spring
New News:
Rally Day is on our doorstep! This Sunday, the 17th, we are having a day to inaugurate a new era at First Presbyterian Church in Big Spring and toss out the old, tired days of the past months that we’ve been working to survive. The health challenges we’ve all faced that have curtailed fellowship and lively church participation. Please stay after church for a reception in the courtyard and a time of pleasant conversation. There will also be a scavenger hunt for the young people of our church family and prizes will follow. This should be a great time for all of us so come and join in the joy of the moment.
This Sunday, October 17th, we’ll follow part of the semicontinuous readings and part of the complimentary lectionary readings for the twenty first Sunday of Pentecost. They will include Psalm 104:1-9,24; Job 38:1-7,16-17; Mark 10: 35-45; Hebrews 5:1-10.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! This week’s Psalm is very different from last week’s which was the lament Christ spoke on the cross. This week we have a praise Psalm that speaks of God’s magnificence and power. God has stretched out the heavens. Clouds are God’s chariots riding the wings of the wind. Such praise describes God’s might but also control of all creation. Beyond our section for Sunday, humans are seen to be beneficiaries of God’s creative efforts but only as a part of creation equal to other creatures.
We are still in the Job story this week. You’ll remember that last week Job had questions for God. Job wanted God to be accountable for the unfair treatment of Job and Job was very insistent about hearing from God. This week God speaks and we better buckle up. Out of the whirlwind God throws answers like lightning bolts. Where was Job when God performed God’s magnificent acts of creation? Can Job tame a leviathan? Can Job measure the expanse of the cosmos? God never addresses Job’s lament at all but seems to make Job understand that human beings are in no position to seek accountability from God.
Mark’s gospel message shows Jesus revisiting the idea of power this week. Jesus has just told the disciples about what will occur in Jerusalem for the third time and now two of them want special places beside Jesus in paradise. Jesus’ rebuttal first lets them know that whoever wants to follow Him will have to undergo what Jesus will undergo. Then He declares that having position in the Kingdom of God means surrendering that position. In God’s Kingdom, all will be servants to all and slave to all. The Greek text doesn’t use “servant” twice but for slave actually uses the word for a servant owned by another. So in God’s Kingdom all serve and all are “owned” not by themselves but by each other.
In Hebrews this week we get high Christology. The descriptions of Jesus as high priest have a formal structure, especially in relationship to God, the one who sent Jesus and made Jesus high priest. In Chapter 4 we heard that Jesus connects with us personally and commiserates with our human weakness. This week we learn of the obedience of Jesus to the calling He received and to the one who called Him.
Meetings and Gatherings Calendar:
Lectionary Bible Study - October 13 at 5:00 p.m. in the church library.
Lunch Bunch - every Thursday at 11:30 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall.
Rally Day - Sunday October 17, fellowship gathering with youth scavenger hunt following worship.
Presbyterian Women will have a “bon voyage” celebration for Patti Horton on October 28th from 2-4p.m. in the parlor. All church women are invited to join together and wish Patti well in her new adventures.
*Please advise the church secretary or the Pastor of any changes you wish to make to the prayer list.
See you in church!
Allen