Monday, July 10, 2006

Good Morning 

 

Good to see everyone on Sunday.  Hope everyone has a great week. 

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 18: 6-16 , Barclay 172-180

 

-- doing a little bit bigger slice of reading today, as we work towards wrapping up this month.

 

-- this section continues the commentary about the "doom song" for Rome, aka Babylon in John's writing.  There are laments from kings who were allied with Rome, and very interestingly, from the merchants whose livelihood was derived from selling to Rome all of the products that really defined her excesses.

 

-- two takes on this section.  One is that Rome was, in comparison to the rest of the world at the time, was an amazingly affluent place, a center of power unlikely to be ever seen again.  And to the point that Rome could be the Babylon that John was writing about, the truth of the matter is that it did come true -- Rome, as an empire, ceased to be.  The doom song was correct, and to me, that would have been a radical thought back in John's day -- that Rome would not exist, would not survive, would be no more.  It would be as radical as saying today that America would exist no more, that it would no longer be the financial and cultural and political leader of the world.   As unimaginable as that sounds to us today, it was probably more unimaginable to the people of John's day in regards to Rome.

 

-- the second regards the idea of pride, and how that "goeth before the fall".  As Barclay notes, Rome's primary sin was pride, not necessarily greed or any of other sins for which Rome is known.  Rome felt itself above all things, including God.  From that teaching, many Americans draw the inspiration to talk about the implications of Rome's fall on America, and leading the charge for America not to repeat the sins of Rome.   Part of that, interestingly, is the willingness of Americans to see themselves as the new Romans, and to see America with the combination of world political and military power coupled with exorbitant wealth that charaterized Rome.  I will say that America embraces and celebrates Christianity in a way that Rome never did.

 

-- So, the question for discussion is -- you've read about Rome, both here and elsewhere -- does Rome remind you of America?  What are the differences and similarities between Rome of John's day and America of our day?

 

Today's Scripture 

 

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

 

Today's prayer requests:       Couple for today  

 

We need to remember Monica, Joey and all the youth who left on their mission trip to Daytona on Sunday morning. 

 

We also need to remember Megan's friend Kayla, who is pregnant and is having a biopsy done today on a mass doctor's found on her throat.  

 

Today's class member prayer: 

Christie Peebles     

 

Jay