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Deuteronomy 26:1-11
I like stories of deliverance. There is something about an oppressed people being set free that touches me.  Those who know history know Oscar Schindler used his enamelware factory as a cover in order to save Jews. Jan and Antonina Zabinski used the zoo they were running for the same purpose. Jaap Penraat from Holland used to smuggle Jews dressed as construction workers. All of them justly received the Righteous Among the Nations honorific from the State of Israel. 

Felix Kersten is not as well known, nor is he as decorated. His work in delivering the Jewish people, though, is every bit as important. Kersten was a skilled doctor and masseur so much so, that Heinrich Himmler, commander of the S.S. asked him to work for him. In his new job, Kersten was able to hear all kinds of disturbing information about the horrors committed by the Nazi regime. He concluded that the skill which had made him a healer had also destined him to use his new circumstances to save lives. He applied a basic give and take method: one massage for one life (or more if possible). The World Jewish Council credits him with saving 60,000 of their people, and the number of Dutch, Poles, Finns, and Norwegians he saved is difficult to estimate.

Deliverance stories inspire and often motivate a response of gratitude. The Jewish people today remember well those who delivered them during the Holocaust.  The Jewish people of old were to remember who brought them out of Egypt. Are we grateful for the deliverance we’ve experienced?
Bill T.

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Deuteronomy 26:1-11
What does it mean for the people of God to confess, “My father was a wandering Aramean”?  One tradition is that Aramean refers to “Aram alongside the River,” where Abraham sent his servant to look for a spouse for his son Isaac. (“…Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddanaram, sister of Laban the Aramean.”). The phrase itself in Hebrew, ‘arami ‘oved ‘avi, is filled with alliteration, which makes it easy to memorize and say aloud. ‘oved could be translated “wandering,” which is the usual choice, but it can also mean “lost”. The New Jewish Publication Society translation reads “My father was a fugitive Aramean.” Robert Alter translates it as “My father was an Aramean about to perish….” The phrase seems to be referring to the past when Jacob, ancient in years, had to relocated to Egypt with his extended family, because of the seven years of famine that struck the ancient world. God’s people, planted in the land of promise, flowing with milk and honey, needed to remember that things weren’t always so easy for them, that nobody is entitled to prosperity, and that they owed everything to God – including this year’s harvest!
Frank R.

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Romans 10:8b-13
The lesson refers to our confessing faith.  About this matter Martin Luther writes:

For confession is the principal work of faith by which a man denies himself and confesses to such an extent that he would deny his own life and all things rather than affirm himself.  For in confessing God and denying himself he dies. (Luther’s Works, Vol.25, p. 411)

Truly to confess is to affirm that we are saved by grace alone, and not works.  Luther again offers a thoughtful reflection:

It follows, then, that a Christian must believe that we are justified by an other righteousness.  Let all works by which we aim to gain righteousness and all our own merits depart, because we are built upon the foundation of not doing works but by believing.  Therefore, let every godly man terrified by sin, run to Christ as the mediator and propitiator, and let him leave all his own works behind. (Luther’s Works, Vol.16, pp.230-231)

Famed 20th-century theologian Karl Barth reminds us that everything, even our confession and calling on God, is the work of our Lord:

Men call upon God, because and only because he has answered before they call. (The Epistle to the Romans, p.383)
Mark E.    

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Luke 4:1-13
The Sundew plant, which grows in the Australian bush country, is a fascinating and dangerous plant. It has a slender stem and tiny, round leaves fringed with hairs that glisten with bright drops of liquid as delicate as fine dew. The insect, however, that dares to dance on it, is doomed. Although its attractive clusters of red, white, and pink blossoms are harmless, the leaves are deadly. The shiny moisture on each leaf is sticky and will imprison any bug that touches it. As an insect struggles to free itself, the vibration causes the leaves to close tightly around it. This innocent-looking plant then feeds on its victim.

I thought about that plant in connection with a familiar passage today. Temptation appears inviting, satisfying, even delightful, but the consequences are terrible and maybe even deadly.  The temptations Jesus faced were real. He could have succumbed to them. Satan appealed to his physical needs. He demanded he prove God’s protection and even offered a pathway to a kingdom with no cross.  As inviting as those thoughts might have been, Jesus saw through them to the consequences and rebuked and rebuffed Satan.

Amy Carmichael wrote of temptation, “All the great temptations appear first in the region of the mind and can be fought and conquered there. We have been given the power to close the door of the mind. We can lose this power through disuse or increase it by use, by the daily discipline of the inner man in things which seem small and by reliance upon the word of the Spirit of truth. It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is as though he said, ‘Learn to live in your will, not in your feelings.’”
Bill T.

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Luke 4:1-13
In their verbal duel, Satan doesn’t offer Jesus anything he’s not already entitled to. He just tempts him to bypass his Father’s plan and take a shortcut that excludes sacrifice and pain.

There was another temptation I think we overlook. Jesus must have been tempted to ignore the call, stay home, and be the oldest brother, fulfilling the duties of Joseph who seems to have passed on. One of the things that Jesus sacrificed by abandoning his duties as the oldest brother included care for his mother. This all fell on the second son, Jacob, who we call James. The gospels tell us that Mary and her other sons thought Jesus had gone just a little nuts, but when they went out to find him and bring him back to his senses, and the family business, Jesus told the crowd that his real family consisted of those who followed him. That had to hurt.

Nevertheless, by being faithful to his calling Jesus on the cross was ultimately able to care for his mother, by putting her into the care of the beloved disciple, not the second oldest brother Jacob. That may have been hurtful, but Jesus had other plans for him. The apostle Paul tells us about a special resurrection appearance to Jacob/James, who went on to become the leader of the Christians in Jerusalem, as mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. The historian Josephus says he was known as Jacob the Just to believers and non-believers.

Around the year 62 AD the governor of Judea, Festus, died, and the next governor was on the way, when James was tried by the religious authorities, and stoned to death. He was cast down from the tower of the temple, the very one where Jesus was tempted by Satan (mentioned in Luke 4:9). When the fall failed to kill him, he was stoned to death. His dying words demonstrated he listened to his brother Jesus very carefully: “I beseech thee, O Lord, God and Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Frank R.