🦁 Epiphany 4-2
Readings: Psalm 111; Deuteronomy 12:28-32; Revelation 2:12-17.
Reflection
Good morning. This is Tim Tribble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Psalm 111, Deuteronomy chapter 12 versus 28 to 32 and Revelation 212 to 17. And today's readings in the book of Deuteronomy get what is known as the warning against idolatry. So, back in that time period in the Middle East area, there were lots of city-states. Of course, you had the Persian Empire, the Egyptian Empire, the Greek Empire, all these. They're always warring with each other. And the thing was, you went in, you would defeat whomever you were in battle with. You took them over and they were assimilated in the culture.
And there was, in other cultures, a lot of cross-cultural pollination. It was a very big thing. And so we in the reading, in Deuteronomy God, saying, I don't do that. I don't want you talking about their gods. I don't want you looking into their gods. I don't want you to do anything. No, I am the God Capital G. All the other references in this reading, using God's word are all lowercase. Yes.
So this is God saying be pure to me. So then we jump into our reading in Revelation and in Revelation. This section is titled To the Church and Pergamon. So Pergamon is a city in Greek is a Greek city about 16 miles an agency. And then there they had the bishop of that church in Pergamon was a guy named Antipas and typeface. Not to be confused with Herod Antipas two different people. This one, this was a bishop of the church and they he was a martyr. He was martyred for his faith. And in the reading we said, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold fast to my name. You did not deny my faith. Even in the days of the past, my faithful witness who was killed among you were Satan dwells. But oops, there comes the blood. I have a few things against you. So at that time there was a prophet by the name of Balaam. The album Sunnah bearer is a non-Israelite prophet and diviner, and he was promoting a guy named Bala Alake, who put a stumbling mark that he was getting. He was convincing Israelites to come before you, But hey, there's this other option over here, and this is not their, you know, God's calling them out in this and saying, You, you did this. And if you don't repent, if you don't give up this false teaching, then I'm going to come to you soon and war against them with the sword in my mouth as the quote in a reading. So today's those those two readings bring to us this thing. We got to watch ourselves. We live in the world and there's too many things, so many things out there. And we can do this and we can do that. Yeah. Even within our own faith practice. Okay. How many denominations of Christianity are there? How many schisms in the church have we had?
What is true Christianity anymore? I define it for myself and the words of the Great Commission. Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. On these to hang all the laws and the prophets.
So how does that work? That means that when I'm not out beating people up with the Bible, I'm not standing on the street corner with a megaphone wailing the people screaming at them to repent, repent. The end is near. We don't know when the end is coming. It is like a thief in the night. Okay. What I do is I'm the one who does things differently. And that's what we're called to be. You know, you've heard the expression be the salt of the earth. Well, that's who we are. We're different. So when everybody else is over here doing this thing, I'm doing something different that is in line with loving my neighbor. So when we want to hate on someone, it's even a simple thing, you know, at work, you know, we sit around the breakroom table and whoever is not there to get talked about. Did you know what Mary Jane did or all this stuff that we've all experienced? I mean, you know, the world we are in, in the military, you know, all the stories and everything came down about this person, though, you know, who did what to whom and all that, Right? So what? I don't participate in that.
I don't believe that someone is this or someone is that unless they told me or there's other overwhelming proof, be different. Be different who treat people differently. That's what being true to God is. God loves every one.
Every one. No exclusions, No exceptions. God loves everyone. And he's provided for us a path to be with him and to be likened unto him. It was the old, the old English phrase, be the better person. That's what we're looking at here. That's what goes on. Don't don't, don't buy into all this other stuff that's going on out there. Don't do all those things. Be true to me, love. Everything is about love.
