21.12.24
A miracle on Saturday: 16 lightly injured following the shooting from Yemen. The missile landed in the heart of a residential neighborhood in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area and miraculously did not hit any of the buildings. The Houthi Ballistic Missile hit a playground between several apartment Buildings in Jaffa, now a mixed Arab and Jewish suburb of Tel Aviv. The Houthi military spokesman took responsibility for launching a ballistic missile into the central Israel.
In Luke 1, verses 28-30, the angel Gabriel says to Mary: ‘Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! … Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.’
In Mary’s language it was probably: ‘Shalom (peace to you). God has chosen you. The Lord is with you. … Do not be afraid, you afflicted one. God is merciful to you.’
Mary first receives a promise from God. Her name is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Miriam, which means ‘bitterness’ or ‘affliction’.
As she has to register on the tax list in Bethlehem and had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem despite her pregnancy, she could have been an heiress daughter (Genesis 36:8). This means that Mary would have had no brothers and would have been the owner of a family property. Perhaps the parents gave their daughter the name Bitterness because the son they had hoped for, did not come.
It is precisely with a young woman who grows up in difficulties that God wants to write history. The message is: however difficult your life may be, God looks at your heart, not your circumstances (1 Samuel 16:7).
In Luke 1:20, the angel Gabriel says to the Jewish priest Zechariah: ‘You will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things (the birth of your son) take place, because you did not believe my words’.
Decades of praying and hoping (verse 13) make Zechariah a realist. He knows that they are too old for a child. The angel’s words are surreal for him and come far too late. Like Sarah, Abraham’s wife, he considers it impossible to have a child. But that is precisely the point. John is a miracle of God. Miracles happen where our possibilities are at an end.
Zechariah becomes silent. This reminds us of the prophet Ezekiel, who also became silent so that his prophetic message would be all the stronger (Ezekiel 3:26-27). God can make something out of everything for his glory (Romans 8:28).
John’s birth at an impossible age is reminiscent of the promise to Abraham: ‘In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 12:3). This is now fulfilled in the birth of the Messiah Jesus, whose forerunner John will be.
God acts illogically. He takes the failed and outcast (Luke 1:25) so that his power becomes all the more visible. Thus God says to Paul: ‘My power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).
That gives us hope. It is precisely through my inability that God receives his opportunities. During the nine-month retreat, Zechariah finds his prophetic praise (Luke 1:68-79). Storms cause trees to take deeper root.
Who are these mysterious beings?
Angels are messengers from heaven. They are often invisible. In 2 Kings 6:17, Elisha asks God to open his servant’s eyes so that he can see the heavenly hosts around them.
In the spiritual world, there is a battle between the angels and the angels who have fallen away from God. This is what we read in Revelation 12:7 and in the book of Daniel chapter 10.
Angels always open a new chapter in the history of God’s salvation. God sends the Saviour to earth.
Even today, God speaks through the Bible, through people and through angels. Angels are fellow servants. This means that we do not focus on the angels, but on God. We talk to God and he commissions the angels. An angel will only do what God says.
It is exciting to think that God also wants to use us as his messengers (angels) by encouraging others, building them up and pointing them to God.
Perhaps sometimes an angel has to step in because there is no human messenger available at the crucial moment.
The story of Jesus begins with an angel. An angel meets the Jewish priest Zechariah. Then he meets Mary and in a dream an angel meets Joseph.
There are many coded statements in the angels’ messages.
When the angel announced to Mary that she would have a child as a virgin, the angel assumed biblical knowledge. Mary is not a naive young woman; she knows the meaning of the individual words.
When Sarah, Abraham’s wife, gave birth to a child at the age of 90, God, like the angel to Mary, literally said: ‘No word that comes from God will be without power’ (Genesis 18:14).
It is a reference to the amazing story in Genesis 18, when God appeared to Abraham in human form. There we are told a radical depiction of God’s incarnation: He eats the food that Abraham prepared. This is therefore not a spiritual appearance, but a tangible human being.
If God could become man back then, then he can also limit himself and come into this world in a child. In Jesus, God reveals himself to us in a tangible way.
The Advent fasting period originally lasted 40 days and ended on Christmas Day (25 December).
The fasting that Jesus spoke of is not centred on renunciation. Rather, fasting means letting go of something in order to spend time with God.
Fasting is not a hunger strike. Rather, fasting is a declaration of love to God. It is a way of saying: You are more important to me than eating and drinking.
When we fast, it is not the people around us who should notice, but the heavenly Father (according to Matthew 6:18).
More of sermon on the mount
It’s all a question of motives
In Matthew 6:1-6, Jesus shows that it is possible to do the right thing even with the wrong motives.
The point is that we do not act and believe because of expectations or threats, but because we are fascinated by God’s love and mercy (cf. 1 John 4:18-19).
There is extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The question is: Do I want to do something, or do I HAVE to do something?
With an intrinsic desire, I am fascinated by something, I want to deepen something, have new experiences, create something. I do things without somebody needs to motivate me to do them. I also do them without being seen. For example: I talk to God because I want to spend time with him.
Jesus says: ‘Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.’
Therefore, we don’t act in order to be loved, but we act because we have experienced God’s love. That is why the right does not need to know what the left is doing (6:3). We don’t have to count up.
More of sermon on the mount
Jesus describes love for those who are hostile towards me as the hallmark of the heavenly Father (Matthew 5:43-48). We should allow ourselves to be motivated by this love of God.
Someone is an enemy to me, not because I have something against them, but because they are against me for some reason.
Treat all people equally and give even those who are hostile to you a chance to repent.
The heavenly Father, who lets the sun shine on all people and also gives everyone the rain, is a role model.
God wants to reconcile all people with Himself. That is why no hatred should emanate from people who live with God. We wish all people peace with God. And that is why we treat all people equally.
Loving our enemies means treating them with respect and not closing the door to reconciliation. David exemplified this very impressively in his relationship with Saul.
‘We harvested a 38 kg pumpkin. Do you have any idea how we could share the 30 kg we don’t need with others?’ someone asked us by email. We had already distributed 20 kg of grapes from a single vine. Autumn is the time for harvesting and giving thanks. We can enjoy and share what has been produced in the months before.
In giving thanks, we open our eyes to the wonders of everyday life. In giving thanks, we share the fascination of life with each other.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in July 1940 in reference to Psalm 50:23: ‘God shows the way to the thankful’. He had previously said: ‘Ingratitude begins with forgetfulness, forgetfulness leads to indifference, indifference leads to discontent, discontent leads to despair, despair leads to curse’. ‘Ingratitude stifles faith, blocks access to God’ (Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. III).
Zwingli from Toggenburg translated Psalm 50:23 as follows: ‘He who offers thanks honours me and chooses the way in which I let him see God’s help.’
Giving thanks is not always easy for us. But when we get involved, we discover more and more fascinating things. Giving thanks frees us to rediscover God’s help and presence.
In the parable of the merciful father in Luke 15, Jesus has painted a new picture for us of how God waits for us to come to him like the younger son. He encourages the ungrateful older son to become like him.
The more we consciously practise gratitude, the more we will realise it. What we nurture grows and we reap what we sow.
Professor Robert A. Emmons has been researching the topic of gratitude for 20 years. He summarises: People who regularly cultivate gratitude experience a range of measurable and lasting benefits of a psychological, physical, interpersonal and spiritual nature: health, a sense of wholeness and well-being and greater satisfaction in relationships. This confirms that it is worth investing in gratitude.
Hanspeter Obrist, Sunday Thought, Toggenburger Tagblatt, 5 October 2024
Only once in the New Testament, in Act 9:36, is a woman literally referred to as a disciple.
When Tabita died, two men went to Lydda and asked Peter to come.
Peter has experienced something similar before. Back then in Capernaum, in the house of the synagogue ruler Jairus. At first it looked as if they had arrived too late. Jesus behaved in exactly the same way as Peter did now and first of all made sure there was calm. Jesus said to the dead woman: ‘Talita kum’ (get up girl) (Mark 5:40-41).
Peter must first talk to God. He does not simply pray for a miracle, but the miracle arises from the prayer. Then he will have said: ‘Tabita kum’.
We are always in danger of praying for something obvious instead of listening in prayer to what is on God’s heart at that moment.
This is how the first raising of the dead occurs among the followers of Jesus.
Peter stays in Joppa with Simon, a tanner. Tanners belonged to the unclean professions. Peter stays with just such a person. It is a clear statement: no one is excluded from the people of Jesus.
more from Acts: https://jesus-news-israel.net/tag/acts/