Rev Chris Roth

ACTS 11:1-18 The mission of God is to rescue us from the mess we have gotten ourselves into, and it is a mission to rescue all of humanity, not just one ethnic group. God does, however, select one family- Abraham’s family. And that might seem like God is prioritizing one ethnic group over others, but when we look at the blessing God puts on Abraham, we see that his family is blessed to be a blessing to all the families of the world (Gen 12:2-3). God’s focus on Abraham’s family was a way of ultimately blessing all of humanity. … The mission of God is to save and bless all humanity, and choosing Abraham’s family was part of that plan. … Abraham’s family wasn’t really one of the nations of the world. The Bible will often talk about the 70 nations. That is a symbolic number representing all the nations of the world. … One of the ways that scholars look at the Tower of Babel story is that humanity rebelled by trying to push their way into heavenly realities, to tr...

  PSALM 23; REVELATION 7:9-17; JOHN 10:22-30 Our Gospel reading is taking place on the Feast of Dedication, which is better known as Hanukkah. Hannukkah celebrates the successful Jewish revolt led by Judah Maccabee against the Greek Seleucid Empire and the rededication of the Second Temple (164 BC), which had been desecrated by placing a statue of Zeus in it and sacrificing pigs in it. After their successful revolt, though they didn’t actually have any royal blood, the Maccabees then established themselves as a new royal lineage. Fast forward a few years and the Jewish people were dealing with the Roman Empire. King Herod didn’t have any direct Jewish royal lineage when he was put in power by the Romans, so he married a Maccabean (Hasmonean) princess to strengthen his legitimacy in the eyes of the Jewish people. Hannukkah was about remembering the rededication of the Temple, and the liberation of their people from oppression, but it was also a time to think about oppressive empires...

Acts 9: 1-20 Today we are looking at the conversion of Saul. Saul will come to be known as St. Paul. ‘Saul’ is his Hebrew name. ‘Paul’ is the name he used among Greeks. It means something like “small”. The name change doesn’t actually have to do with his conversion, as some people believe. … We have a few name changes in the Bible like ‘Simon’ being renamed ‘Peter’ by Jesus. Likewise, ‘Abram’ was renamed ‘Abraham’ by God, and ‘Jacob’ is renamed ‘Israel’ after wrestling the angel of God. … But ‘Saul’ becoming known as ‘Paul’ has less meaning attached to it, in that sense. … It’s actually more like how some people from Asia, when they move to North America, will choose an English name because they find English speakers have a hard time pronouncing their name. So, you might bump into a man with a thick Chinese accent who tells you his name is “Bob”. It’s easier for English speakers to remember and pronounce that name, so they do that rather than spend the next 5 minutes trying to coach...