Church Write-Up: Temptation, Pointing the Wounded to Christ, Love Manifest, God’s Joy and the Fat

Here are some items on last Sunday’s church services that I attended.  Bible study is not meeting this coming Wednesday, so there will be no write-up on that this week.

A.  The youth pastor at the LCMS church talked about temptation.  He played the devil, and a rope represented temptation.  He and a boy did a tug of war, and the devil won that.  When the boy got the pastor to help him, however, the devil lost.  The point is that Jesus helps us against temptation.

B.  The sermon at the LCMS church was about the Epistle to the Hebrews.  The pastor opened with an anecdote about a woman who had undergone a horrible church experience, and she was reluctant to join another church body.  She said that churches contain the walking wounded.  The pastor said that many of us are walking wounded and we pretend that everything is all right, refusing to let others in.  The Epistle to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were experiencing persecution (albeit not to the point of death) on account of their Christianity.  They saw that the Romans left the Jews alone, so they were contemplating going back to Judaism.  The author of the epistle did not beat them over the head with law, telling them to get their act together, but rather the author pointed them to Jesus.

C.  The LCMS Sunday school class continued its way through I John.  The topic was love.  Points that were made: God manifestly demonstrated love through Jesus.  Love from God pours into Christians and manifestly goes out to others in the body of Christ.  What does love look like?  It can entail praying for someone we do not like, without telling that person we are praying for him or her, as that can be offensive.  It can mean introducing ourselves to others by name, sharing our stories, and hearing their stories.  It may involve service projects, especially when we do not feel like doing them or are too busy, or giving money to someone in need rather than spending it on ourselves.  We need not fear losing out, for God provides for us, now and in eternity.  Love is not quid pro-quo.  We give love, and it is up to the recipient of that love how he or she responds.  Love is difficult, as there are different personalities, so we are fortunate that love does not begin with us: it begins with God.  We can become exhausted in our attempts to love, but God continually renews us.  As we receive love from God, and that love flows out to others, our hearts do not condemn us: we are assured of salvation.

D.  The “Word of Faith” church introduced the sermon with a brief video.  This series has been playing these videos.  Someone from the church talks about his or her strengths and weaknesses, then we hear from others in the church positive things about that person.  I identified with the person speaking today.  He said that he may come across as rude because he often does not know what to say, so he is quiet.  Others in the church then said that he is eager to do service projects, and they appreciate that.

The pastor’s sermon was about the joy of the Lord.  He referred to passages about God rejoicing over God’s people, and he said that, when God sees us, he wants to give us a high five.  God’s holiness is too overwhelming to us, not because we are sinful worms and God is too pure and wrathful, but because God is so joyful that we could not contain such joy.

The pastor referred to Nehemiah 8:10, in which Nehemiah tells the Jews: “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (KJV).  The pastor observed that Nehemiah was telling the Jews to eat fat, which Leviticus forbids the Israelites to eat, since the fat belonged to God (Leviticus 3:16-17; 7:23-25).  Nehemiah was telling the Israelites to eat from God’s very portion.  That probably deserves more study.  Perusing my commentaries, not many deal with it.  The Word Biblical Commentary simply denies that the fat in Nehemiah 8:10 is the same as the fat that the Israelites are prohibited to eat.  Rashi says nothing about the fat in commenting on the passage, and certainly one would expect him to see the Book of Nehemiah as consistent with the Torah.

I’ll leave the comments open, in case anyone wants to weigh in on that part about the fat.