Rev Chris Roth

  Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Mark 1:21-28 In our reading from Deuteronomy Moses tells the people that God will raise up a prophet like Moses from among the people. God, through Moses, performed great signs and wonders in Egypt in order to rescue the Hebrew people from slavery. Moses also acted as a mediator between God and the people. The people discovered what God was like, and what expectations God had of them. There was no equal to Moses among the prophets in the Old Testament. … The Bible tells us  “… the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). God established the Covenant on Mt. Sinai through Moses. And Moses let the people know the state of their relationship with God as they wandered through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. … The role of the prophet is to make the mind of God known. A prophet calls people to turn back to God. A prophet reminds them of the Covenant they have made with God, especially when they have ventur

  1 Samuel 3:1-20;  Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17;  1 Corinthians 6:12-20;  John 1:43-51 We continue to be in the season of Epiphany, which is a time when we consider how God has made Himself known to us. It is a time of revealing. So, in our readings we see the epiphany of the priest Eli as he realizes God is revealing Himself to little Samuel. We also see the epiphany of Nathaniel as he realizes Jesus is the Messiah because he saw him under the fig tree, which was a common place for study and prayer in hot weather. Our readings today are also marked by a theme of God’s call. God called little Samuel into the life of a prophet. And Jesus calls Philip and Nathaniel to Follow him. The book of Judges is a book about the deterioration of God’s people. By the end of the book they are in a deep dark hole. This is what’s happening when we meet Samuel. The spiritual state of the people probably has something to do with why it says,  “The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not wides

Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11 Our readings today begin with Genesis 1. … As our Christian ancestors read these words carefully, they saw God in the beginning, creating. They also saw the Spirit of God “hovering over the waters”, which is almost bird-like (Imagine a bird brooding over eggs). Then, God speaks. … The Church has often seen in these opening versus the presence of the Father, the Spirit, and the Word. And the beginning of John’s gospel tells us that Jesus was God’s Word made flesh. So, at the beginning of creation, the Church saw the Trinity being revealed. This didn’t come out of nowhere. Before the birth of Christ, Jewish scholars were already seeing a kind of mysterious distinction in God. The Bible speaks about God and God’s Spirit; The Word of God; The Son of Man; the Angel of the Lord; and Wisdom. (This becomes more clear when we look at Second Temple literature) … There are times when these are described in ways that don’t seem to draw a thick line