Love Comes Near: An Advent Bible Study, by Jenni Keller ======================================================== Dec. 20th Read Matthew 2:3-8 Write Matthew 15:8 Matthew 15:8 - "'"This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;..."'" "Bullies are good at appearances. They bark and puff up their chests. They use big words and shake their fists. But, peak (sic) behind the curtain and you'll find fear, anger, insecurity a big and scary front door, sitting on a crumbling foundation. "Israel's corrupt religious and political leadership has been threatened. Herod's throne is threatened. The rumor is spreading throughout Jerusalem that the hundreds year old prophecy of the Messiah might be coming true. And everyone's nervous. "What does the fact that Herod himself didn't know the scriptures about the Messiah tell you about Israel's leadership at the time?" Israel's leaders of the day were ignorant of their Bible and scriptures. ----- "This is the beginning of a groundswell in the story of Jesus. God is rattling the cages of a giant who has enjoyed a long nap in the lap of luxury. "How would you describe Herod's approach in dealing with the Wise Men? How is this characteristic of his leadership and of Israel at the time?" Sneaky, not above-board. Telling the Wise Men one thing and intending another. Israel's leadership at that time was not wise or Godly. They were fearful and clutched onto power, and didn't want anybody to rock their boat. ----- Love Comes Near "The other characters in this passage were the chief priests and the scribes. The religious leaders of the time. They hear the Wise Men's story and they recall for Herod the prophecy. And then, what do they do? Absolutely nothing. "Is that surprising to you? Shouldn't the religious leaders, the ones who've spent their lives studying, teaching and interpreting the scriptures, be moved by the Wise Men's announcement? "What reasons can you assume for why the religious leaders didn't react?" They didn't react because to have reacted would threaten their power, their hegemony over the people they lead. ----- Read Matthew 15:7-9 Matthew 15:7-9 -- "'You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: 8 "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines."'" "What practices or ideology do our Christian culture (and sometimes our churches) try to 'teach as doctrine' that are actually man made ideas?" I am sure there are man-made ideas taught as doctrine that the culture sullies the true intent of scripture and of God. The culture in cele- brating Christmas the way they do encourage mass commercialization of the meaning of Christmas -- it's about what you can get for Christmas rather than worship of the Christ Child. Shopping malls playing Christmas Carols through their PA systems: It seems heretical to me. Yes, the Christmas season in popular culture is about giving gifts. It just bugs me that it is so com- mercially exploited to make rich store owners even richer. That is not what Christ is about. ----- "The religious leaders may have meant well. They may have started young and bright-eyed with hearts surrendered to God. But, somewhere along the way, they lost sight of the goal. And when it really counted, they couldn't see the truth standing right in front of them. "Like it or not, we can easily behave like these religious leaders. I wish I could shake the religious leaders in this story and say, 'What are you doing? Go WITH the Wise Men! This is what you've all been waiting for!' "What areas in your life are you stubborn about? Unmovable in your vision? What if you opened your heart a bit to the idea that you might be wrong?" Well, the fact is that if you are to live in today's world, you have to have some bit of money to have a home, food, and modern conveniences. Having money sometimes takes the place of worshipping God. We work to have money, we spend money on things we don't need, we become obsessed with having money enough to tide us over into our retirement years. The real god of the world is money. We worry about money. I don't think that God intends us to be so focussed on money, but there it is. Serving a god of money is not a holy business. But even churches and religions have to have money. I suppose an ideal would be to have a world in which money were superfluous, unnecessary for the day-to- day business of going about living, eating, having a home. I imagine that in heaven there is no such thing as money. But it's not that way here on earth. If we were wanting to have heaven on earth, I suppose we would have to get rid of money. But money is so entrenched in the habits of mankind that I just don't see that happening. Some religious orders have their members take a vow of poverty, like monks do in a monestary. Yet the monestary has to have money itself to function in modern society, so it seems like the individual vow of poverty is meaningless, because you have a rich monestary to provide for you. A true vow of poverty would be a vow to be homeless it seems. I don't know. I get confused about the function of money in a world that some men strive to have as Christian. What would Jesus do? Did he have a home he could call his own? I don't think so. Yet it seems that the Bible calls us to emulate Jesus. It is not an easy life that God truly calls us to. I don't think I could do it. And yet I claim to worship Christ. Oh thou hypocrite! ----- "If there's an area in your life that you've held onto for a long time, con- vinced of your innocence or rightness, I would encourage you to humble yourself and present this area to God with fresh eyes and a willingness to reevaluate your heart in the matter. "Ask God to forgive you for the times, because of stubbornness or pride, you were unable to see Him right in front of you."