Rev Chris Roth

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44 In our readings this morning we hear a lot about the dead. First, in our reading from the book of Wisdom, which is a book found in the Septuagint. The Septuagint was a highly regarded Greek translation of the Old Testament from nearly 300 years before Jesus was born. It may very well have been the Old Testament that our New Testament authors were most familiar with. Some of those books didn’t make it into our Old Testament because some of the folks who were translating into vernacular languages during the reformation wanted to translate from Hebrew, rather than a Greek translation of the Hebrew. They couldn’t find Hebrew versions of some of those books, so they sometimes included them in a separate section called the Apocrypha and were considered to be beneficial to read, but didn’t have the same authority as the rest of Scripture. This reading today from Wisdom includes the lines,  “the souls of the righte...

  Job 42:1-6, 10-17; Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22); Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark10:46-52 Our Gospel reading today follows right after last week’s Gospel reading where we meet James and John asking for the place to the right and Left of the throne of Jesus. They thought that serving Christ was about power, authority, and glory. But they missed the cross. They didn’t understand yet that authority in the kingdom came with self-sacrificial love and service. Their discipleship to Jesus wasn’t only about them, it was for the benefit of others as well. They saw Jesus only in part, but, in a way, they were blind. … And, I don’t think it is a coincidence that the very next encounter they have on their journey to the cross in Jerusalem, is to encounter a blind man in Jericho. Jericho is on the way to Jerusalem if you are coming from Galilee. It is about 25 km to Jerusalem from Jericho as you come up through the Jordan River valley. There might also be some symbolism involved here, since Jericho was the f...

  Job 38:1-7, (34-41); Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35; Hebrews 5:1-10;  Mark 10:35-45 When we meet the disciples in our Gospel reading, they are on their way up to Jerusalem, where Jesus will soon be killed. The disciples obviously don’t know this, but as the readers, we know this, and I think Mark wants us to keep this in mind as we read this passage. James and John are part of the inner core of the disciples. You might remember that James, John, and Peter are often selected out from among the disciples by Jesus. They were allowed to be present when Jesus brought Jairus’ daughter back to life (Mk 5). They were the ones on the mountain with Jesus to witness the Transfiguration (Mk 9). He brought them aside at the Garden of Gethsemane to pray before he was taken by the authorities (Mk 13&14). So, these three seemed to have been the inner circle within the 12 Apostles. Given that James and John are a part of the inner circle, it isn’t completely out of nowhere that they request th...

  Job 1:1, 2:1-10; Psalm 26; Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16 From the end of August until a couple weeks ago we had readings from Proverbs. Many of the proverbs are general wisdom for living a good life. They teach us to anticipate the consequences of our actions. For example, Proverbs 10:4 says,  “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”  Generally, statistically, that is true. If you work hard in life, you are more likely to be prosperous. And Proverbs 10:25 echoes the thinking of many of the prophets-  “When the tempest passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are established for ever.”  The prophets often talk about God’s protection for those who are faithful, and disaster for those who are not faithful to God’s Law. When the people are attacked by an enemy and lose the battle, it is often ascribed to their lack of faithfulness to God’s direction, like having participated in the worship of idols. So, this kind of ...