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In case you missed it, yesterday’s post was a thorough one on John MacArthur’s biblical thoughts about the current protests.
It’s worthwhile reading that, if you haven’t already, before moving on to recent protest scenes in the United States, where young and old are railing against each other while the coronavirus pandemic rages on.
Our first stop is The Villages in Florida, a conurbation of retirement settlements for the well-heeled middle class. In 2008, many residents supported John McCain. In 2012, many went for Mitt Romney. In 2016, many supported then-candidate Donald Trump.
This was the scene late last week, as Trump supporters and Democrats waged a shouting war against each other. Strong language in the second video. I’m glad she’s not my mayor:
https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1277008254799929344
This is our future. Remember, these people have grandchildren, who are young adults.
In a sense, it’s amusing for some onlookers …
https://twitter.com/dannotdaniel/status/1277121919029071873
… but there can be serious problems, such as STDs among this age group. Coronavirus could be there as well:
https://twitter.com/AnneAnnapolis/status/1277187125868363776
https://twitter.com/CarolynEast2/status/1277142374909480960
Hmm. How many of these people were politically active back in the 1960s?
Let’s leave Florida and travel a few hundred miles north to Raleigh, North Carolina, where a BLM protest took place with 100% white people. Two black conservatives turned up by chance as spectators:
I really wish there had been more interaction here. I’ll get to that shortly.
One wonders if it would have gone like this:
https://twitter.com/Bulldogrescuer/status/1277043069540380673
Well, when you’re in your 20s, you know everything. I know I did at the time, like this woman’s niece:
https://twitter.com/LynnMarcotte/status/1277029077061378051
Yet, many of us in our 40s and beyond (I’m at the latter end), were raised to be colour blind and adopt the teachings of Martin Luther King on character. I remember the civil rights era. My parents and many others were shocked at what went on in the South. Yet, that has now been forgotten. Millions had sympathy for the plight of American blacks who could not truly vote (without jumping through hoops, figuratively) until … 1965, with Democrats being the main objectors to that legislation. Once again, Republicans led the way to equality. Since then, further legislation has helped to bring different races to further equality in unemployment and housing.
No one who lived through the civil rights era ever forgot it, so it is unclear why these protesters are so angry. One would have thought the lessons of the recent past would have been transmitted to the next generation. Perhaps not.
Interestingly, Benji Irby’s friend on the day, Shemeka Michelle, filmed a much longer video of the protest:
She said that it seemed the whites protested in order to feel better about themselves.
Perhaps it is some sort of atonement.
Oddly, only one of the protesters there to support black lives bothered to speak to her:
https://twitter.com/pauseB4tweeting/status/1277284525559726081
After the protest, she says the other whites avoided her and Benji Irby and went on their way.
Maybe the protesters have never lived amongst people of another race? Maybe they feel bad about it. Well, that’s no reason to take it out on everyone else:
https://twitter.com/BunkerBlast/status/1277004275969691648
Perhaps it is about control.
Our last stop is across the country in the Pacific Northwest: Portland, Oregon.
Protesters want to take down the monument to the Oregon Trail:
Precisely.
If missionaries had not organised the Oregon Trail after Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the Pacific Northwest, someone else would have. The British tried it and were unsuccessful.
The move westward had been laid out by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803. From Wikipedia:
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson issued the following instructions to Meriwether Lewis: “The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by its course & communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado and/or other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce.”[1] Although Lewis and William Clark found a path to the Pacific Ocean, it was not until 1859 that a direct and practicable route, the Mullan Road, connected the Missouri River to the Columbia River.
As I remember learning about it in history class more than once, it was a big deal in terms of trade. To begin with, there was fur. Later there was gold.
The plan was called the Manifest Destiny, as History.com explains:
By the 1840s, the Manifest Destiny had Americans in the East eager to expand their horizons. While Lewis and Clark had made their way west from 1804 to 1806, merchants, traders and trappers were also among the first people to forge a path across the Continental Divide.
A merchant, Nathan Wyeth, led the first group of missionaries who settled in Idaho in 1834.
Marcus Whitman, a Methodist missionary from the state of New York, made the first successful crossing to what we know as the state of Washington in 1836. His wife, Narcissa, kept a diary of their perilous journey:
The party made it to the Green River Rendezvous, then faced a grueling journey along Native American trails across the Rockies using Hudson Bay Company trappers as guides. They finally reached Fort Vancouver, Washington, and built missionary posts nearby—Whitman’s post was at Waiilatpu amid the Cayuse Indians.
Whitman’s small party had proved both men and women could travel west, although not easily. Narcissa’s accounts of the journey were published in the East and slowly more missionaries and settlers followed their path which became known as the Whitman Mission Route.
In 1842, the Whitman mission was closed by the American Missionary Board, and Whitman went back to the East on horseback where he lobbied for continued funding of his mission work. In the meantime, missionary Elijah White led over 100 pioneers across the Oregon Trail.
Whitman led another expedition of settlers in 1843, destined for what we know as Oregon:
The group included 120 wagons, about 1,000 people and thousands of livestock. Their trek began on May 22 and lasted five months.
It effectively opened the floodgates of pioneer migration along the Oregon Trail and became known as the Great Emigration of 1843.
Unfortunately, the settlers brought measles with them, infecting the Cayuse. Whitman did try to help cure those infected:
After a measles epidemic broke out in 1847, the Cayuse population was decimated, despite Whitman using his medical knowledge to help them.
In the ongoing conflict, Whitman, his wife and some of the mission staff were killed; many more were taken hostage for over a month. The incident sparked a seven-year war between the Cayuse and the federal government.
We can say what we like in the 21st century, but travelling from coast to coast involved a lot of planning and expense:
Emigrants had to sell their homes, businesses and any possessions they couldn’t take with them.
They could not take a lot of possessions, because they had to ensure that their covered prairie schooner wagons could accommodate their families and their food. There weren’t any real settlements at the time, so everything had to be purchased in advance. There were no restaurants, cafés or grocery stores along the way. Wives had to make every meal from scratch. The most common meat was bacon. Imagine how limited their meals were day to day for five months. How awful.
So they put up with that. Then they had to endure a) the weather and b) the terrain:
There were slightly different paths for reaching Oregon but, for the most part, settlers crossed the Great Plains until they reached their first trading post at Fort Kearney, averaging between ten and fifteen miles per day.
From Fort Kearney, they followed the Platte River over 600 miles to Fort Laramie and then ascended the Rocky Mountains where they faced hot days and cold nights. Summer thunderstorms were common and made traveling slow and treacherous.
It’s a wonder anyone was able to make the journey. The major landmark along the route was in Wyoming at Independence Rock:
The settlers gave a sigh of relief if they reached Independence Rock—a huge granite rock that marked the halfway point of their journey—by July 4 because it meant they were on schedule. So many people added their name to the rock it became known as the “Great Register of the Desert.”
After leaving Independence Rock, settlers climbed the Rocky Mountains to the South Pass. Then they crossed the desert to Fort Hall, the second trading post.
From there they navigated Snake River Canyon and a steep, dangerous climb over the Blue Mountains before moving along the Columbia River to the settlement of Dalles and finally to Oregon City. Some people continued south into California.
There was also a lot of disease, possible conflicts with native Americans — and death:
According to the Oregon California Trails Association, almost one in ten who embarked on the trail didn’t survive.
Most people died of diseases such as dysentery, cholera, smallpox or flu, or in accidents caused by inexperience, exhaustion and carelessness. It was not uncommon for people to be crushed beneath wagon wheels or accidentally shot to death, and many people drowned during perilous river crossings.
Travelers often left warning messages to those journeying behind them if there was an outbreak of disease, bad water or hostile American Indian tribes nearby. As more and more settlers headed west, the Oregon Trail became a well-beaten path and an abandoned junkyard of surrendered possessions. It also became a graveyard for tens of thousands of pioneer men, women and children and countless livestock.
With the advent of the railroads in 1869, covered wagons gradually became obsolete.
The westward migration continued — more comfortably. You can read more here.
So, one wonders what these protesters in Oregon are angry about. Perhaps they should live elsewhere?
https://twitter.com/gailen_decker/status/1277231682446397441
As John MacArthur says (see yesterday’s post), these protests are built on lies, helping no one.
The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
—————————————————————————————–
Last week’s post introduced Romans 10, the theme of which is obeying God by obeying Jesus Christ.
John MacArthur explains why Paul had to do this. Paul’s Roman audience were Jewish converts (emphases mine):
Paul has to deal with this in this epistle to the Romans because he can’t get by this hurdle. He’s presenting justification by grace through faith and somebody’s going to say, if this is really the truth, this new covenant, this new message is really the truth, this message which contradicts the old truth, if this is really it, then why doesn’t Israel believe it, because they’re the people who have always received the Word of God? And it was obvious that they were rejecting it. It was obvious the Jews had rejected Jesus Christ and had Him crucified. If this is the truth from God, how is it that the people of God have rejected it? How can it be? And so Paul, in order to defend his doctrine of justification by grace through faith, has to explain the unbelief of Israel. And that’s exactly what he’s doing in chapter 10.
In chapter 9 he showed how the unbelief of Israel was already fit into the plan of God, so it didn’t surprise God. It didn’t thwart God’s plan. He already had knew it. He already had planned it into the plan. And now in chapter 10 he describes how it is that they could be so ignorant and why they reject it.
Here are the verses from Romans 10 preceding today’s reading. These are in the Lectionary:
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?[c] And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
This is why men and women of the cloth should be focussing on preaching the Bible rather the troubling issues of our day. When we are at peace with God — and not rebelling against Him and His Son — we are at peace with our fellow man and woman.
Returning to Paul’s audience, they had an imperfect faith. Therefore, he needed to explain certain doctrines to them and make it clear that God’s people — Israel — had always been rebellious, dating back to the time of Moses.
Paul says that both Jew and Gentile have been rebellious, reinforcing Israel’s rebellion by citing Isaiah 53:1 (verse 16).
Matthew Henry discusses this lack of obedience and the purpose of Scripture:
All the Jews have not, all the Gentiles have not; far the greater part of both remain in unbelief and disobedience. Observe, The gospel is given us not only to be known and believed, but to be obeyed. It is not a system of notions, but a rule of practice. This little success of the word was likewise foretold by the prophet (Isaiah 53:1): Who hath believed our report? Very few have, few to what one would think should have believed it, considering how faithful a report it is and how well worthy of all acceptation,–very few to the many that persist in unbelief. It is no strange thing, but it is a very sad and uncomfortable thing, for the ministers of Christ to bring the report of the gospel, and not to be believed in it. Under such a melancholy consideration it is good for us to go to God and make our complaint to him.
MacArthur discusses the word ‘obey’ in Greek:
The word to “obey” is hupakou. We get “acoustics” from it. It means “to hear,” and hupo means “under,” to hear under. To hear under means to get under somebody in submission like a servant, to line up under somebody. They have not heard it submissively with a heart of obedience. It is a rich word, beloved, by the way, and it implies that salvation has inherent in it obedience. It has inherent in it submission to Christ. And that’s obvious if you study Scripture. In all the messages of salvation there is a sense of obedience. In other words, it isn’t just believing. It is affirming that I will line up under and obey, that I will submit.
That’s a tough message, given today’s protests against submission throughout history.
If we are to submit at all, it must be to God first. We submit to Him by submitting ourselves to Jesus Christ.
Paul goes on to say that faith comes from hearing the Gospels and solid preaching, for only through them do we build up our faith (verse 17). I refer you to my statement above about today’s clergy and their grave error in ignoring both.
Henry says:
The beginning, progress, and strength of faith, are by hearing. The word of God is therefore called the word of faith: it begets and nourishes faith. God gives faith, but it is by the word as the instrument. Hearing (that hearing which works faith) is by the word of God. It is not hearing the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but hearing the word of God, that will befriend faith, and hearing it as the word of God. See 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
Paul reminds the Romans that Scripture always said that Gentiles would be received into the fold as God’s people. Paul cites Psalm 19:4 as proof (verse 18):
Their voice[a] goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
MacArthur says the Psalm refers to natural revelation of God’s glory:
… what David is saying in the Psalm is that the stars and all the celestial bodies proclaim to the whole earth that there is a God, right? That’s what we call in theology natural revelation. But all of the stellar bodies, all of the glory of space communicates that there is a God. And Paul borrows this verse and says this is a symbol and this is a foreshadowing of how the gospel will extend to all the earth, even as the testimony of the stars and the stellar bodies do. It’s a marvelous truth. The testimony of heaven, he says, is like a measuring line that marks out extent. And he uses the term, “their line is gone out,” like a guy who marked out the extremities of an area and says the testimony goes to the very limits of the perimeter. And here Paul says that their sound went into all the earth. Their words to the end of the world, same idea, only he says as the stars have touched the earth with natural revelation, the gospel touches the earth with special revelation.
Then Paul cites from the time of Moses as a way of saying that rebellious Israel never understood submission and obedience (verse 19). As a result, God punished His people through conflict with a Gentile — ‘foolish’ — nation. ‘Foolish’ in that context means that the Gentiles did not yet know about God. The citation comes from Deuteronomy 32:21:
They have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
That conflict is a spiritual one, as MacArthur says:
… what he is saying there is, you knew, Deuteronomy told you that, that the day would come when God would embrace a no people, that’s a Gentile people, a foolish nation, that’s a Gentile nation, and provoke you to what? A jealousy about His relationship to them. You knew that, that was in Deuteronomy 32:21. And if you read the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 5 in that chapter marks the unbelief of Israel and verse 20 marks the judgment of God and verse 21 is this verse. I’m going to turn to another people, another nation, non-Jewish, Gentile and bless them and provoke you to jealousy.
That is what happened when Christ was ministering to the Jews of His day. Many rejected Him, so He sought another people, the Gentiles:
… this prediction of Moses could find its fulfillment only in the conversion of the Gentiles through the gospel of Christ. They were the no people brought into intimate relationship with God. And the Jews should have remembered Deuteronomy 32, they should have repented, they should have seen the truth of the gospel as it went to the Gentiles. You see, Jesus made this so clear to them. He kept saying to them. Remember how in chapter 21 and 22 of Matthew He kept saying to them, “Look, I’m going to turn from you to this other people. You don’t want to come to the banquet? I’ll get some people who will come to the banquet. You don’t want to serve Me? I’ll find some people who do. You want to kill My servants and kill My Son? I’ll give out My vineyard to someone else who is worthy of it.” In Luke 14, “You don’t want to come to My great supper? You don’t want to eat this feast? Then I’ll go in the highways and byways and I’ll call the lame and the blind and the halt and all the rest of them in here.”
Henry gives us a practical application of the verse from Deuteronomy:
God often makes people’s sin their punishment. A man needs no greater plague than to be left to the impetuous rage of his own lusts.
How true!
Paul concludes his discussion of disobedience with Isaiah 65:1-2, wherein the prophet says he was prepared for people who would listen to him after he had to stop preaching to a rebellious Israel (verses 20, 21). Here are the verses:
65 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that was not called by[a] my name.
2 I spread out my hands all the day
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;
There are numerous references in the Bible to God’s judgement on mankind by removing the possibility of faith and leaving people to their own devices. See Matthew Henry’s comment above about God’s making our sin our punishment if we do not repent.
Henry says that Israel not only refused to submit to God, they also quarrelled with Him:
One word in the Hebrew, in Isaiah, is here well explained by two; not only disobedient to the call, not yielding to it, but gainsaying, and quarrelling with it, which is much worse. Many that will not accept of a good proposal will yet acknowledge that they have nothing to say against it: but the Jews who believed not rested not there, but contradicted and blasphemed. God’s patience with them was a very great aggravation of their disobedience, and rendered it the more exceedingly sinful; as their disobedience advanced the honour of God’s patience and rendered it the more exceedingly gracious. It is a wonder of mercy in God that his goodness is not overcome by man’s badness; and it is a wonder of wickedness in man that his badness is not overcome by God’s goodness.
When we are truly at peace with God, we are also at peace with humanity. That is the only way forward in this world.
Next time — Romans 11:2b-6
Below are the readings for the Third Sunday after Trinity, June 28, 2020.
These are for Year A in the three-year Lectionary used in public worship.
There are two options for the First Reading and Psalm.
Emphases below are mine.
First Reading and Psalm — Option One
Readings about Abraham’s life continue. God tested Abraham’s faith by telling him to sacrifice his only child, Isaac. God relented when He saw how obedient Abraham was.
Genesis 22:1-14
22:1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
22:2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him.
22:4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.
22:5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”
22:6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
22:7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
22:8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
22:9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
22:10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
22:11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
22:12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
22:13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
22:14 So Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
This six-verse lament of David expressing his desire for God’s deliverance ends in praise.
Psalm 13
13:1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
13:2 How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
13:3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
13:4 and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
13:5 But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
13:6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
First Reading and Psalm — Option Two
Readings from Jeremiah continue. This reading concerns the false prophet Hananiah, who, like Pashur in last week’s reading, came from a family of priests.
Jeremiah 28:5-9
28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD;
28:6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the LORD, and all the exiles.
28:7 But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people.
28:8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms.
28:9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.”
It would have been a good idea for the Lectionary editors to include the second half of the chapter. God spoke through Jeremiah, who prophesied Hananiah’s death, which came true.
10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them. 11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.
12 Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 “Go, tell Hananiah, ‘Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. 14 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field.’” 15 And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.’”
17 In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.
Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18
89:1 I will sing of your steadfast love, O LORD, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
89:2 I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
89:3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David:
89:4 ‘I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.'” Selah
89:15 Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your countenance;
89:16 they exult in your name all day long, and extol your righteousness.
89:17 For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted.
89:18 For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.
Epistle
Readings from Romans continue. Paul explains the doctrine of grace to the Jewish converts in Rome. They were once under law only, but the law cannot save. With Jesus Christ, believers have saving faith through divine grace. Verse 23 is another personal favourite of mine.
Romans 6:12-23
6:12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
6:13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
6:15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
6:16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
6:17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,
6:18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
6:20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
6:21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.
6:22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.
6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel
These verses conclude Matthew 10, Christ’s instructions to the Apostles for their ministries, read over the preceding two weeks.
Matthew 10:40-42
10:40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
10:41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;
10:42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
May you be blessed in the week ahead.
Over the past two weeks, retail shops were allowed to open in England and in Wales.
Shops in Wales opened a week later than in England’s because of the devolved government. Scotland and Northern Ireland are also operating their own reopening timetables for the same reason.
England
The government encouraged shops to remove as much risk from COVID-19 as possible. Certificates are available for shops that do so.
On Monday, June 15, a number of retail shops reopened.
Primark was the biggest draw.
These were the scenes in Birmingham:
https://twitter.com/jamesdrodger/status/1272427797785587712
It was the same in Liverpool …
https://twitter.com/CapitalLivNews/status/1272440595101945856
… and Bristol …
… and Hull:
These are Primark’s in-store guidelines:
If you need a laugh, this is a great video about Primark’s guidelines:
https://twitter.com/NwoArchive/status/1272329805695004677
Oxford Street in London was the same. There is obviously something about Primark, as can be seen from this photo of Berlin:
Here’s a shop in Oxford Circus. Also note that some secondary schools reopened and that face masks became compulsory on public transport in England:
https://twitter.com/UKMoments/status/1272457302168264705
Oxford Street was busy in places:
These were Selfridge’s first shoppers on that beautiful Monday morning:
More waited in the queue outside:
For some, social distancing was so last month:
Grandparents still cannot hug their grandchildren, but there was a workaround for that. I believe this was outside the Nike Store:
https://twitter.com/MyaAliciaLaw/status/1272512411581534210
Apparently, not everyone was happy with non-essential retail shops opening for the first time since March:
How true:
https://twitter.com/Crazydad7T4/status/1272481417272987648
Mandatory face masks on public transport have been causing concern for some:
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1272453322444849154
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1272491757465415680
Transport for London trusts passengers who say they cannot wear face coverings:
https://twitter.com/UnaSmyth3/status/1272484360038633472
Public transport was a mixed bag with regard to masks:
Things were more relaxed in Bristol:
https://twitter.com/StopNewNormal/status/1272500797637525505
I had to wear a mask indoors today for a while. I walked home in it just to see what would happen. While the mask was comfortable, I was getting short of breath after my five-minute walk home. Was it hypoxia? I would not recommend walking the streets with a mask for that reason:
We have more reopenings to look forward to on Saturday, July 4, which will be an Independence Day of sorts for us, too.
Wales
Shops in Wales reopened on Monday, June 22.
Everything was much quieter there.
Wales Online reported that shops had made a lot of adjustments.
Cardiff has redesignated thoroughfares in the main shopping area:
Some shops did not reopen until Friday, June 26. Here’s Primark in Cardiff:
Schools in Wales can reopen next week, with social distancing measures in place:
We had a splendid week of warm and sunny weather. Unfortunately, it brought out the worst in some people:
Even the First Minister Mark Drakeford remarked on unauthorised mass gatherings and the lack of social distancing:
In brighter news, an online #IAmOpen campaign kicked off today:
Just another step forward to normality:
More reopening updates will follow in the weeks ahead.
Venison: I can take it or leave it.
It’s a very nutritious yet lean meat and, yes, it can taste gamy.
We had some venison for braising in the freezer, so I thawed it and decided to make something other than the usual watery casserole (ugh!).
It ended up being very tender and tasting like flavoursome beef.
This is a taste of the Mediterranean from the forest.
Churchmouse’s venison casserole
This recipe serves four people.
You will need two dinner plates for preparation and a large casserole pot with a lid for cooking.
This recipe involves operations with knives and scissors as well as hot fat, which might not be suitable for all cooks or vulnerable members of the household.
This is best served over rice.
Ingredients
Enough venison for braising for four people (approx. 1 lb or 450 g)
300ml (approx. 1 1/4 cups) pure orange juice
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary (dried equivalent will do)
2 large sprigs of fresh oregano (dried equivalent will do)
4 tbsp beef dripping (or duck fat)
3 tbsp butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 medium sized bell peppers, finely chopped — one must be a red bell pepper, for a smoky flavour
3 large cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
60ml (1/4 cup) port or red wine
60ml (1/4 cup) white vermouth (e.g. Noilly Prat, Cinzano, Martini)
1 tbsp raspberry or balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp tomato paste (mixed with the vinegar)
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne pepper
150g (5oz) flour, seasoned with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper
Method
The meat must be marinaded 24 hours in advance.
Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) before cooking.
1/ Remove visible sinews (silvery ‘skin’) and nerves (long white bits) with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors. Otherwise, the meat will be tough.
2/ Place the meat and the herbs in a Pyrex dish, season with salt, pepper and cayenne, then cover with orange juice. Put a lid on the dish and refrigerate for 24 hours.
3/ The next day, remove the meat from the Pyrex dish, pat dry and cut away any further sinews and nerves. Cut the meat into evenly sized cubes.
4/ Reserve the orange juice for the sauce (see below).
5/ Put 2 tbsp beef dripping (or duck fat) and 1 tbsp butter in the casserole pot and warm over medium heat until hot. Add salt, pepper and cayenne.
6/ Add the finely chopped onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent and tender. Placing a lid on the pot will help the onion cook quicker.
7/ Add the chopped bell peppers and the chopped garlic. Return the lid to the pan and cook for three minutes.
8/ While the vegetables are cooking, put 110g (4oz) of flour onto a large plate or into a plastic bag for food, add 2 tsp of salt, a dash of pepper and enough cayenne pepper to taste. Place the cubed venison into it and toss (plate) or shake (bag) until well blended. Put to one side afterwards.
9/ Remove the sautéed vegetables from the pot onto a large dinner plate. Add 2 tbsp beef dripping (or duck fat) and 1 tbsp of butter. Allow to warm up over medium heat.
10/ When the fat is sizzling, place the floured venison cubes evenly in the pan. This might take three separate goes, as the meat must be evenly spaced. Not all of the meat will fit into the pot at one time. I did mine in three turns.
11/ When the meat is browned on one side — after three minutes — turn over to brown on the other.
12/ Remove the meat and place onto a dinner plate. Repeat steps 10 and 11 and this step for the rest of the meat until it is all browned and on the dinner plate.
13/ To make the sauce, place 1 tbsp of butter and 40g (1oz) of flour into the casserole pot. Stir until browned and well incorporated. Season again with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.
14/ Add the raspberry or balsamic vinegar, mixed with the tomato paste. Stir again.
15/ Add the port (or red wine) and stir well until smooth.
16/ Add the white vermouth and stir well until smooth.
17/ Add the orange juice from the marinade gradually — three additions work well — stirring thoroughly after each one. This is the sauce for your venison casserole. Add the meat and the vegetables. Stir until everything is mixed together. Add another sprig of rosemary and oregano, if you like.
18/ Place a lid on the casserole pot and put into the preheated oven for 1 hour.
19/ Turn the oven off and leave for another hour.
20/ If you need to reheat before serving, do so at 100°C (200ºF) for 20 minutes. Check beforehand to see if you need to add a bit of water to cut the thickness of the casserole. If so, stir well before reheating.
21/ Remove the herbs from the pot. Serve the casserole over buttered, seasoned rice.
22/ You can reheat any leftovers the following day on a very low heat on top of the stove for 15 or 20 minutes.
The venison will be fork-tender and taste like beef. The vegetables will have melted into the sauce.
This is the dish for people who are not that keen on venison — or vegetables. It’s a win-win all around, even during the summer months.
This is the Democrat Victory Plan for 2020 (h/t with thanks):
Historically, this is known as the Algerian Strategy, used in the Algerian Civil War.
I do not think it will work, but expect the chaos to continue.
In case anyone missed them, here are Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this series about the British public’s suspicion over the continuing coronavirus lockdown.
The June protests vexed Britons who were trying to do the right thing: staying at home and social distancing when outdoors.
All of a sudden, that flew out the window. Protesters had pride of place, yet, the rest of us still had to obey the social distancing guidelines.
That rankled, especially as we had been told we were selfish because we wanted to hug our loved ones who didn’t live with us. Think of grandparents and grandchildren.
What about people who just needed to get outdoors in the fresh air by themselves?
What about children who longed to see their friends? This former barrister and co-editor of Conservative Woman nails it:
And what about the people who freaked out over a very limited reopening of schools on Monday, June 1?
What about the average law-abiding person?
Yes, those people are ‘the problem’. We are made to feel guilty through no fault of our own.
The frustrating hypocrisy of it all:
https://twitter.com/trixiebell55/status/1269281655782596608
Then we had Piers Morgan taking issue with Boris’s top adviser for trying to care for his little boy and with Labour MP Barry Gardiner for attending the demonstrations. Yet, Piers applauded his own son for taking part in the protests:
But I digress.
There was no social distancing during the protests. In fact, some police officers in London were assaulted.
However, even though Health Secretary Matt Hancock advised that the rules be kept in place over the weekend of June 6 and 7:
… the lack of social distancing was acceptable:
It was for a cause.
Health ‘experts’ said so — 1,200 of them, in fact:
Tucker Carlson had an excellent editorial on this on Friday, June 5. Anyone complaining about social distancing and protests is ‘the problem’, not the protesters and rioters. Well worth a watch. You could not make this up:
https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1269240010928160768
But what about the people told to leave London parks because they were sunbathing by themselves? What about Piers Corbyn who was arrested twice for advocating against lockdown? Where were the Metropolitan Police during the protests? On hand, but either taking a knee or standing by doing nothing:
Boris didn’t do anything, either. We have a Home Secretary. He could have got in touch with her.
This is what he issued on Saturday, June 6, the day of yet another protest in London over an American who died on home soil in Minneapolis, Minnesota:
‘The evils of fascism’. Don’t make me laugh, Prime Minister.
Things were no better in Northern Ireland …
… or Scotland, where thousands were expected to attend a protest on Glasgow Green:
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, was a bit slow on the riots. Didn’t he know that American cities were being destroyed and shops across the country looted? President Trump never stopped peaceful assembly:
Anyway, there is some good news in all of this. More people in the public eye have noticed that continuing lockdown in the UK is a bad idea:
Unfortunately, a number of ‘senior figures’ from the NHS do not see it that way, primarily because of the close proximity of protesters in early June. That is not the fault of the British public and is likely to make them even angrier. They were not among the protesters. They are eager to get back to work.
In fact, said ‘senior figures’ will probably make the British public all the more suspicious about the protests. Were they timed to prevent lifting of lockdown? We’ll never know.
In any event, this concludes this series with a few key points to keep in mind:
It’s going to be a long, hot, tense summer here in the UK.
Before reading this, here are Parts 1, 2 and 3 of a series on coronavirus and lockdown.
It seems that the British silent majority were largely fine with obeying the rules that Boris Johnson’s government set until the end of May.
By then, they began asking questions about the duration.
During the first two months of lockdown, they understood that the reasons were not to put too much pressure on the NHS.
However, as Boris and his ministers are taking only ‘baby steps’ (Boris’s words) to release us, many wonder what the real plan is.
Rightly or wrongly, suspicion is rife:
There is also the question about the NHS and the need for treatment outside of COVID-19.
Those of us who watch the daily coronavirus briefings from the government can’t help but notice the messaging, especially from Health Secretary Matt Hancock:
I missed this little titbit from the coronavirus briefing on Friday, June 5. Hancock said, ‘As the NHS reopens’. Hmm:
Yet, Britons are still missing out on non-coronavirus NHS treatments that are urgent:
I couldn’t agree more with this next observation from Prof Karol Sikora:
Then we have the unknown consequences of Big Data intrusions into our lives:
This is now climbing up the chain to stain Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the champion of his soi-disant ‘Government of the People’:
The goalposts have clearly shifted since Boris’s stonking victory in December 2019:
https://twitter.com/LordPalmerston2/status/1268817300280524802
https://twitter.com/Linda36758099/status/1268820164495265794
Lockdown has now gone on too long:
https://twitter.com/mrtonyingram/status/1268639520767049728
Despite what the government and scientists say on the weekday coronavirus briefings, other statistics find their way through the established narrative:
Yet, part of the blame also lies with the proportion of the British public who are afraid of re-engaging with society the way they did before lockdown:
Those who are afraid can stay at home. Let the rest of us get back to real life.
This London Assembly member from the Brexit Party is spot on. Lockdown must end:
Social distancing will end up being a killer, too:
https://twitter.com/kiwicatness/status/1268822464378949632
One hopes it doesn’t come to this:
One wonders whether there is such a thing as conservatism any more:
Or is the WHO driving this? They must think we are stupid. Perhaps we are:
https://twitter.com/EndUKLockdown1/status/1268965529152368645
We will never be in a risk-free, virus-free world.
Ending on Boris, for now, this is something I missed. Then again, I don’t listen to BBC Radio 4. Even if I had, I would have thought that Boris’s father Stanley was voicing his own views, not his son’s:
https://twitter.com/airmynali/status/1268802702387150849
Boris is still better than his Labour counterparts — Jeremy Corbyn (then) and Keir Starmer (now).
However, his polling will take a dive unless he restores what he called the People’s Government.
More tomorrow: coronavirus and the June riots.
The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
10 Brothers,[a] my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.[b]
————————————————————————————–
Last week’s post discussed Romans 9, wherein Paul explained why the Church opened to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. This was difficult for Paul’s audience of Jewish converts in Rome to understand.
Romans 10 picks up where Romans 9 leaves off. Here are the concluding verses from that chapter (emphases mine):
30 What should we say then? Those who aren’t Jews did not look for a way to be right with God. But they found it by having faith. 31 Israel did look for a law that could make them right with God. But they didn’t find it.
32 Why not? Because they didn’t look for it by faith. They tried to get it by working for it. They tripped over the stone that causes people to trip and fall. (Romans 9:30-32)
Powerful words.
Paul wanted desperately for his audience to understand that the way to salvation and belief in God is through Jesus Christ alone (verse 1).
Matthew Henry says that verse is a prayer of Paul’s:
It was not only his heart’s desire, but it was his prayer. There may be desires in the heart, and yet no prayer, unless those desires be presented to God. Wishing and woulding, if that be all, are not praying.
Paul says that the Jews have a ‘zeal’ for God, but not one that is based in ‘knowledge’, true understanding (verse 2).
There are many instances where Paul discussed his prior life as a Pharisee and how he was missing out on the truth of Jesus Christ. John MacArthur discusses several instances of these. Here is one from Paul’s letter to the Galatians:
… Galatians 1:13, “For you have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it and profited in the Jews’ religion above many, my equals and my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my fathers.” He says I bear witness. I bear witness that they have a zeal for God. How do you know that? I had it. I was so zealous for God, I was so zealous for what I thought was the truth of God and the tradition, I was so zealous for that that I relentlessly persecuted the church of Jesus Christ. I did all I could to slaughter the Christians. I was zealous for God.
Henry explains the knowledge that the Jews missed out on:
Their zeal was not according to knowledge. It is true God gave them that law for which they were so zealous; but they might have known that, by the appearance of the promised Messiah, an end was put to it. He introduced a new religion and way of worship, to which the former must give place. He proved himself the Son of God, gave the most convincing evidence that could be of his being the Messiah; and yet they did not know and would not own him, but shut their eyes against the clear light, so that their zeal for the law was blind.
Because of this, they closed their hearts and minds to God’s righteousness and refused to submit to Him (verse 3), even though they thought they were through the law.
MacArthur characterises Romans 10 as follows:
In chapter 9, as I said, the reason they’re unsaved is the sovereignty of God. Concurrent with that in chapter 10 is their own unbelief. And the theme here is the ignorance of Israel, a willing, unbelieving ignorance.
Paul goes on to say that the coming of the Messiah, Christ Jesus, put an end to the law of the Old Covenant (verse 4). The law was there only to prepare God’s chosen people in the way of holiness for Christ, the Redeemer. Note that Christ preached to the Jews first. He instructed His apostles to preach to the Jews. See last Sunday’s Gospel reading from Matthew 10:
10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,
10:6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Jesus wanted His Father’s people to be the first to know that He came to redeem them.
Henry explains this in a way that we can also apply to ourselves:
Christ … did what the law could not do (Romans 8:3), and secured the great end of it. The end of the law was to bring men to perfect obedience, and so to obtain justification. This is now become impossible, by reason of the power of sin and the corruption of nature; but Christ is the end of the law. The law is not destroyed, nor the intention of the lawgiver frustrated, but, full satisfaction being made by the death of Christ for our breach of the law, the end is attained, and we are put in another way of justification. Christ is thus the end of the law for righteousness, that is, for justification; but it is only to every one that believeth. Upon our believing, that is, our humble consent to the terms of the gospel, we become interested in Christ’s satisfaction, and so are justified through the redemption that is in Jesus.
Even so, the following was the disappointing result that Paul desperately wanted to remedy. MacArthur says:
Number one, Israel was ignorant of the person of God. Can you imagine how devastating that is to them to hear that? They were ignorant of the person of God. Two, they were ignorant of the provision of Christ. Three, they were ignorant of the place of faith, the role that faith played. Four, they were ignorant of the parameters of salvation, the extent of it, the wideness of it, the inclusiveness of it. Fifth, they were ignorant of the predictions of Scripture. They were ignorant of the person of God, the provision of Christ, the place of faith, the parameters of salvation, the predictions of Scripture. The whole chapter then comes together to say Israel is lost because Israel is in the ignorance of unbelief.
And I say to you again that no man is ever lost because God makes some decree somewhere utterly unconnected to how that man chooses. They come together. And how God does that is His problem. The present rejection of Israel is not simply and only because of sovereign election, as if God withheld His grace. In fact, He preached and preached and preached and called and called and called and they refused to believe. And so they are found in chapter 10 in unbelieving ignorance.
This theme continues next week, when Paul cites Isaiah preaching to his own people who rejected his prophecy.
Next time — Romans 10:16-21
Churchmouse Campanologist 