Rev. Jean's Bible Study

Mary Visits Elizabeth by James Tissot Luke tells us about three women who were part of Jesus’ early life. Elizabeth was the older cousin and confidant to Mary.   Did she have some advice on nursing and colic and sleeping I wonder?   We can read about her in  Luke 1.   Elizabeth was, like Mary unexpectedly pregnant, but Elizabeth thought she wouldn’t be pregnant because she was too old.   She and Zachariah had been trying for years without the help of in vitro.     The angel Gabriel had been busy.   Before his visit to Mary, he had gone to Zechariah.   Zechariah had his doubts when Gabriel told him to expect a child, but not Elizabeth.   Even though her becoming pregnant was as unlikely as Mary becoming pregnant, she didn’t give up. When   Zechariah heard the message of the angel, he concluded it can’t be done. He was struck dumb. But not so Elizabeth. She said, “OK, let’s make it happen.” (Nothing about the shadow of the Most Hig...

Our scientific worldview makes it difficult for some people to get to the truth that lies behind the stories we tell at Christmas.   Angels and virgin births, travelling stars and messages in dreams all seem a bit much.   Let’s not ask these stories to be scientifically factual accounts. We will never know what the historical facts of Jesus’ birth were. (Bethlehem didn’t have video surveillance.)   The gospel writers of Luke and Matthew give us two options that we tend to merge into one. If we let these stories be stories , we might find the truth that the authors intended to share.   I invite you to set aside any skepticism and enter into the stories of the women who show up as characters in the Luke’s version of Jesus’ birth.     Why did God choose to come to earth as a baby ?   Wasn’t it a bit risky to depend on a human mother ? We can see that Jesus had a large share of God’s divinity in him, but as a baby he still needed, as we all do, some...

My grandson upon hearing that his aunts and cousins wouldn’t be coming for Christmas this year had two reactions.  “What are we going to do?” and “I hate this covid.  How long will it last?”  When I told him it probably would be around for another year, he was shocked.  When you are seven, a year is a long time.  I told him that it seemed that way, but it wasn’t really all that long and that we would get through it and everything would be alright. I believe it will, eventually. But between the covid 19 virus and climate change, that eventually could be a long time off. Real estate is often seen as a wise investment but I know from experience you can lose money in real estate.  As Nebuchadnezzar was invading Jerusalem, Jeremiah decided, from his prison cell, to purchase back a family farm.  Jeremiah 32  One might think that was not such a wise move, buying land when a foreign king was in the process of taking possession of the country.  Perh...

 Even after the defeat and destruction of Israel, Jeremiah had hope, not that vague wishing that stands in for hope these days but genuine hope.  He was confident that God had not deserted the people but would one day restore them to the land of their ancestors.  Such restoration was dependent upon the people knowing and acknowledging that they had acted like a petulant child or a rebellious teenager.  Fixing our mistakes means recognizing that they are mistakes in the first place. It is with a sigh of relief that we have learned that a majority (even if a small majority) of our friends to the south have seen the error of their ways and have taken a step towards moving in a different direction.  It is easy to see their mistakes.  In comparison we look a bit more righteous.  When we will honestly face the racism, the hubris, the greed, and the environmental destruction that has taken us so far from the Way of God?  Our faith gives us hope, indeed a...

What's so important about a basket of fruit?    Chapter 24     Jeremiah had predicted the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians and indeed in 586 BCE Nebuchadnezzar led his troops into Israel and Jeremiah’s prophesies were fulfilled.   But that was far from the end of Jeremiah’s career as God’s prophet.   In Chapter 24 we have another image from everyday life: a basket of figs, some of which are still good and some of which have rotted.   Jeremiah said that the good figs were the people being exiled into Babylon and God would protect them and the bad figs were staying in Israel to rot.   Jeremiah had the choice of going to Babylon but chose to stay with the rotten people left behind.   I read recently that when the world is turned upside down, there are two options.   You can retreat and try to go back to how things were or move forward to create something different.   God cursed the ones who tried to hold on to what was lost and b...