Above: Figs
Image in the Public Domain
Overcoming the World
OCTOBER 3-5, 2022
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The Collect:
Benevolent, merciful God:
When we are empty, fill us.
When we are weak in faith, strengthen us.
When we are cold in love, warm us,
that we may love our neighbors and
serve them for the sake of your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 49
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The Assigned Readings:
Habakkuk 1:5-17 (Monday)
Habakkuk 2:5-11 (Tuesday)
Habakkuk 2:12-20 (Wednesday)
Psalm 3 (All Days)
James 1:2-11 (Monday)
1 John 5:1-5, 13-21 (Tuesday)
Mark 11:12-14, 20-24 (Wednesday)
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LORD, how many adversaries I have!
how many there are who rise up against me!
How many there are who say of me,
“There is no help for him in his God.”
But you, O LORD, are a shield about me;
you are my glory, the one who lifts up my head.
–Psalm 3:1-3, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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Earthly fortunes and military conquests are temporary, even if some are long-term. Whatever material and financial assets we own, we cannot take them with us after we die. History records that the Persian Empire conquered the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire and that the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire. Furthermore, we know that successor empires of the Macedonian Empire competed with each other and fell to conquests in time.
There is God, whom no earthly power can conquer or come close to defeating. We read at the end of John 16, shortly before the torture and execution of Jesus, these words placed in his mouth:
In the world you will have suffering. But take heart! I have conquered the world.
–Verse 3:3b, The Revised English Bible (1989)
We know by faith that Roman officials killed Jesus, but that a resurrection followed a few days later. We also read the following in 1 John 5:
For to love God is to keep his commandments; and these are not burdensome, because every child of God overcomes the world. Now, the victory by which the world is overcome is our faith, for who is victor over the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
–Verses 3-5, The Revised English Bible (1989)
In the Biblical sense to believe in God is to trust in God. Affirming a theological proposition intellectually is much easier than internalizing it and acting on it. To settle for the former (mere intellectual assent) is to be like the barren fig tree of Mark 11. Yes, the text of Mark 11 indicates that Jesus cursed a fig tree out of fig season, but out of season a healthy fig tree exhibits evidence of the ability to bear figs in season. Furthermore, the context of Mark 11:12-14, 20-24, set during Holy Week and bookending the cleansing of the Temple, indicates that the story of the cursed fig tree pertains to Jesus’s displeasure with the management and operation of the Temple.
May we who claim to follow Jesus bear good fruits and otherwise show year-round evidence of our spiritual vitality in Christ. May we trust in Jesus and act accordingly.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 20, 2016 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT ALCUIN OF YORK, ABBOT OF TOURS
THE FEAST OF JOHN JAMES MOMENT, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF LUCY ELIZABETH GEORGINA WHITMORE, BRITISH HYMN WRITER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/overcoming-the-world/
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