🐮 Presentation of the Lord

Readings: Malachi 3:1-4; Psalm 84; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40.

Transcript

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Malakai chapter three, verses one through four. See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me and Lord whom you seek will suddenly come in to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears for his like refiner's fire and like washers soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he will purify the descendants of Levi. And refine them like gold and silver. Until they present offerings to the Lord and righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old. And as in former years, Psalm 84. How lovely is your dwelling place? A Lord of armies. My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living. God. Even the Sparrow finds a home in the swallow, a nest for herself where she may lay her young at your altars. O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Happier those who live in your house ever singing your praise. Happier those whose strength is in you and whose heart are the highways design. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of Springs. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. The God of gods will be seen in Zion. Oh, Lord God of hosts. Hear my prayer. Give Eero God of Jacob. Behold our shield. Oh God. Look on the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord. God is a sun and shield. She bestows favor and honor. No good thing. Does the Lord. Withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh, Lord of armies. Happy as everyone who trusts in you. Hebrews chapter two verses. Hebrews chapter two, verses 14 through 18. Since therefore the children share flesh and blood. He himself, likewise shared the same things. So that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For just clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect. So that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. To make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered. He's able to help those who are being tested. Luke chapter two verses 22 through 40. When the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present them to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord. Every firstborn male should be designated as holy to the Lord. And they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord. A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. Now there was a manager Islam whose name was Simeon. This man was a righteous and devout man looking forward to the constellation of Israel and the holy spirit rested on him. Yeah, it'd been revealed to him by the holy spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the spirit Simeon came into the temple and when the parents brought in the, the child Joshua to do for him, what was customary under the law? Send me and took him in his arms and praised God saying master. Now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples. A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel. And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed him and said to his mother, Mary, this child was, is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel. And to be assigned, that will be opposed that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed. And a sword will Pierce your own soul to. There's also a prophet. Ana the daughter Faneuil of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age. Having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage. Then as a widow to the age of 84. She never left the temple, but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment, she came and began to praise God and to speak about the child, to all who are looking for their Dempson. Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him. Good morning and welcome to the fourth Sunday after. Apifany which in 2025 is also the presentation or the feast of the presentation of the Lord. In the temple. Our readings come to us from Malakai three, Psalm 84, Hebrews two, and Luke two. Um, and. Uh, there's a lot going on here that strikes my eye. Um, not only the refiner's fire stuff and the, the purpose of fire, you know, Some Christians are all, all heat, no lightened. Some Christians are all light. No heat. And we have to have both. Um, and if you're heat, you're much more likely to have light. If you have heat. But, you know, don't be an led Christian, all light and no heat. Um, but also, uh, the offering of Judah and Jerusalem written by Malakai, one of the later prophets. The offering of drew to Judah and Jerusalem, like the holy city and the Royal clan, the Royal tribe. Is what is expected to be pleasing to the Lord.'cause before. There was some different situation. And the current time that Malakai is addressing is corrupt. And he's talking about Judah. Royalty and Jerusalem. The holiness and keep in mind. The oldest tradition in Israel was not that Jerusalem or the temple Mount and Zion were. The holy city is the holy city was Shiloh where the tabernacle of the Lord remained. Um, and there was no one clan above the others, unless it was Levi and the Levi's didn't get any land. The priests and the priesthood is a satire of earthly Kings. Um, and so Judah and Jerusalem have, in a way you SERP the rightful place of. Or have. In, uh, improperly centralized worship. And centralized and controlled. Uh, politics through this Royal clan and Judah. I mean. Judy wasn't even the oldest, I don't think anyway. So it's something to think about when we reread the Bible through a marshal hermaneutic um, I love the line and Hebrews to Jesus or Joshua was tempted. By what he suffered. The Messiah, the Christ was tested by what he suffered. Um, and because he was tested. Through death. And through suffering. He's able to help those who are also being tested. It makes me think of this. You know, standard line from this. Uh, NCO was that I had, I'll never ask you to do something. I haven't already. I haven't already done myself. Right. I know what this is going to feel like. I know it's scary and I'm going to walk you through it. You're not alone. Right. And that's the kind of like the best. That the NCO court and leadership can do. I've done this before. I've paved the way so that you and I both know what's going to happen. Um, and you haven't experienced that before, but I have. And I'm going to be here with you so that, you know, and trust, not just your own abilities, but my own. You know, character, right? Like this is you're going to trust. Not just me. You're also going to trust yourself more. If you allow yourself to be tested. So in the gospel. Keep in mind. That we didn't call Jesus anything different than his birth name, Joshua until the fourth century. When Jerome Latinized the, the, the Greek scriptures, the CEP two again. Into the Imperial language and the empire was kind of on the decline. And you could think of Latin as vulgar as well, which is what he did. The people spoke Latin. Um, but it's also. It's also true that this was the language of, of empire. Um, And the. So I say that because when you put yourself. Into these stories. When you allow yourself to kind of trace. You know how to understand and interpret these stories. Um, when the sec and when Simeon. Talks about the child and remembers the child. Joshua that's the English equivalent. Have you And he would have, and Yoshua is like the formal long form name of Yeshua. Yeshua was the, like the nickname. And Joshua, of course, the military commander and the sixth book of the Bible, but he's also the high priest. Who. Uh, comes home from the Babylonian exile and builds the second temple. Joshua centered Jozadak and he was often Richard referred to an Ezra. As Yeshua. Because the hip. It's an H sound we're removed. Um, for purposes of in formality. And the, the father who spent time as high priest in exile, Jehovah, that was also called. Jozadak right, because you get rid of the hair. When you informalize things in Hebrew. Now that's important because there's also a Hebrew word Yeshua, which means literally salvation from the root verb JASA to save JASA. Salvation is what the judges did. The priests atoned once a year and they did the sacrifices in the temple. Uh, Kephart. Atonement. Um, Which is to pave, um, it's like tree SAP. KFR is like SAP or bitumen or pitch. Which is also called SAP. Um, and so the salvation did not come from the priests in Torah. Salvation came through the judges. Everybody would, you know, society would degrade and everybody would do what was right in their own eyes. This is repeated. Shoot, probably 20 times in the book of judges. And then. Uh, judge rises up a charismatic figure to deliver Israel from its oppression. Whether that's the Philistines or the Elon Musks or the iOS or the Facebook's like every so often. Shit would get so bad that. Organically a charismatic figure who was often humble and didn't want this work. You know, Moses said, I stumbled. Gideon said I'm too young. Uh, Deborah's not recorded as having stumbled at all, but also she's a woman and the oldest. Recorded, um, Judge. So the judges are the ones who save and this same passage backs that up. The last verse. Verse 40. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God was upon him. That is a near verbatim. Uh, Uh, reappearance of first Samuel 2 26. Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people. So there's this Luke knows Torah and he's or, well, yeah, Torah. No, I'm sorry to knock. Uh, he knows the Hebrew Bible because he's associating. Joshua the Christ. With Samuel both in young age, they would grow in, uh, wisdom and stature. And in favor, both with God and with man. Um, and so this is this, isn't just some mistake. It's not just some like casual thing. And the language is very clear. It's, it's constructed as a mirror of Samuel. Because Samuel. The last judge who anoints Sam, uh, Saul. And then also, David. Um, Jesus that Joshua kind of picks up where the judges left off. Joseph does not make any appearance until Matthew and Luke are written in the late nineties. Maybe even past the first century. Um, And I say that because. The. Um, the Royal clan of Judah. You know, if Jesus is king. Um, where does his Royal blood come from? Judah. Joseph makes no appearance. And mark makes no appearance installs writings. Um, he only appears with, um, ma. Uh, when, uh, Matthew and Luke. Come onto the scene. Um, and interestingly also, mark is the only, and the first. I'm sorry, I shouldn't say only mark is the first piece of literature in all human history to name the village where Joshua the Christ. Was raised. And in Greek, it's not. Nazare. Which is this Greek invocation of the word Nazarite or Nazir in Hebrew, which is what. Sam Samson was. And Samuel, in fact, Samuel also, um, was promised to the Lord by, um, his mother, Hannah, I believe. Um, and so. If you. If you hear in my. You know, tone and language. Uh, kind of mockery of monarchy. That's exactly right. Um, Kings where a foreign concept Israel. And the, the Federation of the Israelite tribes broke down. And they cried out to Samuel saying, we want to be like everybody else, this isn't working. Judges aren't working for us. We want stability. We want respect. We want everything that the, that the Gentiles have. We want to be Gentiles. Um, and so. Both the, the critique and even like, Ignorance you. If you count, you. Um, Saul and mark. The ignorance of the Judaic as in the tribe of Judah, this Royal, this claim to Royal status. Is after the fact right after, long after Jesus. As, you know, come and gone. Um, but also this indigenizing instinct. And I recently discovered that indigenize is already something, somebody else thought of. Uh, uh, The professor by the name of Randy Woodley. Um, The Christ, the Hebrew Christ. Um, is an indigenizing figure. Um, if you follow. Joshua the Christ. You will find yourself becoming more distant from the way things are and the way things you're told they're supposed to be with, you know, power centralized at the top, and maybe some elected representatives to kind of mitigate that power. Like. Don't get me wrong. Democracy is great. Um, we don't have a democracy in America anymore. We have kind of a DeWalt Oligarchy. Um, if you want democracy, you got to look at something with, you know, a place where there's more than two political parties, at least like Britain. Uh, The British parliament or something. Um, so don't get me wrong. Like I think democracy is from God. Um, but if we, uh, what I am also saying is that the critique of, and the movement. Back away from monarchy is a pretty strong impulse in the earliest Christian. Imagination. Um, and it's not just screw the Kings it's we've already, we already have a system. That we can call divine that we can call. Uh, ordained. And it doesn't necessarily include ordination. Like the Nazarites where like hyper priests were even more holy than the high priest, which is a hereditary role. Um, And so as we kind of dive into Marshall hermaneutic over these next several years. Um, you'll see that theme coming up again. And again. Uh, we're going to be reading the Sunday, um, elections. Uh, I will be for the first. Part for, uh, First formation or that. Anyway. Um, and this is a recurring thing. I'm convinced that the Bible. And it's, you know, kind of original. Idealized form. Um, moves away from centralizing power. Moves away from this idea that monarchy or oligarchy is something that's good and right. I mean the unified kingdom split because Solomon built such a fancy temple that he required slave labor and imported goods. And. All of a sudden they were Egypt all over again, and then they were broken into. Um, and you know, the, the Northern tribes were kind of like the. The manga of the. Of Israel's day because they said, well, we're the real Israel, we're the kingdom of Israel. And that left Judah. Benjamin. And Simeon to call themselves the kingdom of Judah. Um, which is to the south. Um, So anyway. Uh, the presentation of the Lord is about, um, you know, these. The prophet, Anna. And the man Simeon. And about the bringing about the constellation of Israel. Which is to S you know, consoling Israel in that day. The temple was heritage template had already begun being built. And if you were an Israelite, if you held the same kind of perspective as inch and Israelites, that's not a good thing. That's, that's a pagan temple that's being built on. Josh was temple the second temple, because it was raised to the ground. Um, so that Herod could build. Uh, an edifice to himself. And he, you SERP the whole, the high priesthood or what was left of it. And so all hope was lost and here comes this charismatic figure, not just from the tribes, but from God, God's self. Um, To console believers like Simeon and Ana. Who. I mean it's Luke suggests are in some kind of morning. Even though they have this beautiful temple being built. That's not what they want. And they've seen hope as being lost because Herod. Has kind of managed to take on the mantle of, uh, Israelite religion. But they know the truth that it's just a charade. And so to get rid of the straight, sometimes you just have to burn it to the ground. Um, and that is ultimately what happens in 66 to 78 D. Um, and so if you read the Bible with me are going to be getting some kind of unique perspectives and I appreciate you listening and hope. You'll continue to listen to subscribe. 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