Friday, January 27, 2006

Good Morning

 

Don't forget that this Sunday is the culmination of the capital stewardship campaign.  A letter should have arrived yesterday or today with more details.  Tomorrow is the Day of Prayer event at the church in the FLC, going from 9A to 9P.   This is event is part of the capital campaign, and is open to anyone at anytime who may want to come and pray at the church as part of the church wide effort.  There are also some prayer request slips that have been filled out for those coming to pray.  Generally speaking, if you want to participate, need to show up about 5-10 minutes before the hour, and prepare to stay for an hour.

Today's Reading:  Revelation 2:8-11

 

-- second of John's letters to the churches -- this one to the church in Smyrna.

 

-- a couple of notes that are not in our book.  One is that Smyrna is about 25 miles from Ephesus, so in close proximity.  The second is a point that the commentary in my Bible makes -- the letters are written in the order that someone would deliver them, if traveling from Patmos -- you'd reach Ephesus first, then go to Smyrna and make a large semi-circle on the way to Laodicea, the last of the churches.

 

-- there is a very close distinction that Barclay doesn't make in his commentary, that I think should be made.  In the scripture, there is a lot of talk about the persecution that comes from the Jews in Smyrna who are opposed to the Christians living there.  Barclay's commentary talks about John calling the Jews being a "synagogue of Satan".  John doesn't exactly do that, the way I'm reading it -- John says that these are "those who call themselves Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan"  Barclay's discussion leaves it like the Jews behavior is Jewish; to me, John is saying that the behavior is inconsistent with being a Jew.  It's like when someone says today that "he says he is a Christian, but then he does this" -- which to me is recognition by the speaker that the behavior being critizized is inconsistent with the claimed faith.  John is doing the same thing here.  That doesn't mean that the people doing this weren't Jewish, I just think John is taking great care not to paint all Jews in a bad light, but Barclay just bulls over that point.

 

-- another thing that was a curve ball to me was that this letter does not fault the church at Smyrna for anything -- in the earlier writing by Barclay, he gave the impression that each of the churches were being repremanded for something - in this case the church at Smyrna was being prepared and encouraged for tough times.

 

-- in the spirit of the idea that the letters to the seven churches are to be guides to the entire church, including us in this day and age, then the letter to the church at Smyrna should be seen as our encouragement vs. persecution, even when the prevailing culture is against you.  As Barclay mentions, and as does the commentary in my Bible,  Smyrna was a lovely town, but not necessarily for Christians -- you had a particularly hostile group of Jews living there, as well as a strong group of people loyal to Rome and the emperor, plus a long history of worship of other gods.  The environment and the culture of the day was hostile to Christians.  The message to them, and to us, is that we are to be strong in the face of this persecution, and that we will be rewarded in the end for our faithfulness.

-- Today's Scripture

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

Today's prayer requests:     Jessie Abercrombie, co-worker of Ron Ray's

She was admitted to the hospital earlier this week. She woke up Wednesday, after two days in ICU, with no feeling in the left side of her body. She has a son that is about 6 years old.

Today's class member prayer:

Andrew Peebles

Have a great day.

Jay