Extraordinary Ordinary - Part 6
July 3, 2022Today's message was given by Pastor Patrick. A video of the message is here. "God makes the ordinary extraordinary." Today's focus was strengthening your faith, overcoming "unbelief" (see specifically verse 24 in Mark 9:14-29). Click here for the Conversation Starter for the week that TimberCreek Church provided.
This being July 3rd, another theme developed elsewhere in the service was gratitude for freedom. This is our jumping off point for today...
As great as freedom is, and it is a great thing, it is not the end of the issue. We must ask, "free to do what?" If you know anything of the Torah, you know the great story of the Exodus. In fact, the Exodus, along with Creation, are the two pillars of Judaism. And since we as Christians accept the Old Testament as divine scripture, Creaion and Exodus are clearly pillars of our faith as well.
Probably the most famous line of the most famous movie of this most famous story is Charleton Heston's (playing Moses), "Let my people go." It also became a key phrase of many spirituals sung about the freeing of the slaves in America. What we tend to forget, however, is the rest of the phrase Moses spoke to Pharoah on behalf of God. The full statement is, "Let my people go so that they may hold a feast to God in the wilderness" (Exodus 5:1).
Freedom wasn't the grander purpose, wasn't the end game. The worship of God was the grander purpose which led to the revelation of the Ten Commandments and the assigning of a mission to the Jewish people to become a light unto the nations, that is, let everyone on earth know who God is and how He wants us to behave. That's the end game of the Torah.
The question for each of us now becomes, "free to do what?" Even for those with the Resurrection in the rear view mirror, those who have put their faith in Jesus, the question remains, "now what do we do?"
I think the Torah answer and the Christian answer are the same: worship God, trust God, share the news of God, and behave as God wants us to behave to each other.
It's that last part that's the trick. How do we know how to behave? I think it's equal parts knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is totally dependent on being the truth. Without truth, "knowledge" is useless. Always ask yourself, how do I know it's the truth? Hint: It's not good enough to say I heard it on CNN or read it in the NY Times, or my good friend said so. This may require overcoming all manner of pre-conceived ideas of where the truth lies. And wisdom, from where does it come? I place myself along side a very impressive group of historical people that think it comes from the Bible. And I would say, without equivocation, specifically from the Torah. This is why the Torah has become such a passion.
I also like the fact that worship and feasting are associated. I do think worship should have a celebratory, joyfull nature to it.
One question came to mind that I don't know the answer to but is intriguing enough that I may do the work to answer it... What is taught in the New Testament regarding behavior that is not taught in the Torah? Some quick web searching suggests most of the NT "laws" were recapitulations of Torah law. Except one, deception. I would argue however, that the law "to not put an obstacle in front of a blind man" (Lev. 19:14) is essentially "do not deceive anyone." We'll see...
Bonus
The first recorded act of civil disobedience is in the first chapter of Exodus (1:17). The midwives who were ordered by Pharoah to kill the boy Hebrew babies did not obey, for "they feared God." And these were likely not Hebrew midwives but rather Egyptian (or other non-Hebrew) midwives TO the Hebrews. In most translations, it's not clear whether these midwives were Hebrew or not. One thing pointing to them not being Hebrew is that the text uses the universal name for God, Elohim, and not the personal Hebrew name, Adonai. In any case, they disobeyed the authorities.