Romans 9: 1-5 (links validated 7/1/26a)

The Jews for Jesus website cites a number of cultural, historical and theological reasons why most Jews reject Jesus as Messiah. It notes, among other things, “Many rabbis and religious leaders believe Jesus cannot be the Messiah because he did not fulfill the job requirements. Some Jewish leaders assert that Judaism does not believe Jesus was the Messiah because he did not fulfill messianic prophecies like this one: ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:4).’ “Far from establishing world peace, Jesus himself said that he came to divide ‘father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother (Luke 12:53).’ In fact, there has arguably been more bloodshed in the name of Jesus than there has been peace.”

Ruth’s parents were devout Christians who raised her in a Christian home and church. Yet as she matured, Ruth abandoned her parents’ faith and church. Her wandering took her to the White House and halls of congress, as well as to some of the most famous and powerful people in the world. She, for example, played a huge role in establishing the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But Ruth’s wanderings never took her far from Christians who unconditionally “stuck with” her, loved her and prayed for her salvation. Long after some people had given up on Ruth ever becoming a Christian, people like Margaret, Mentey and Hilda mourned her unbelief and faithfully showed her God’s love. As Ruth aged and some of her powers declined, she came to recognize her need for God and God’s church. In her late 70’s she publicly professed her acceptance of God’s grace with her faith in Jesus Christ. After all, Christ is God over all, forever praised, even by those who took a very long time getting around to it.ok a very long time getting around to it.

Frederick Dale Bruner has told the story that he heard via a German theologian. The story is apocryphal if taken literally but when thought of as something those with eyes of faith could see, it has a literal application and meaning. The story says that as the Nazis strengthened their grip on Germany, there came a time when a Nazi-leaning Christian pastor stood up in his Lutheran Church and thundered from the pulpit, “If there is anyone here with Jewish blood in him, leave now.” And for those with eyes to see, the Christ figure on the crucifix in the church’s chancel climbed down from the cross, walked up the center aisle, and exited the building...

The Saturn boosters roared at ignition lifting the Apollo spacecraft off the launch pad and into orbit. Less than a year had passed since Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins had first stepped foot on the moon. The three major TV stations did not even broadcast the launch. Lunar space flights had become routine until the evening of the April 13th, two days after lift off. At 9:08 CST an explosion rocked Apollo 13's command module prompting John “Jack” Swigert to transmit his famous broadcast, “Houston, we had a problem.” Unbeknown to the flight crew and ground control, one of two oxygen tanks had exploded in the Service module drastically reducing the available power to the spacecraft. Within minutes the lunar landing was scraped. All available personnel had to work on bringing the crippled spaceship and it three passengers safely back to Earth. Both flight crew and ground personnel had to exercise considerable ingenuity. They did not have unlimited resources. They did not have a complete write up on the damage to the space craft. They had to work with a few onlys and a lot of unknowns. A major challenge in keeping the Apollo 13 alive was to figure out how to adapt cannisters from the Command Module to the Lunar Module so that the CO2 scrubbers would remove the dangerous gas. Using duct tape and spare parts Mission Control built a device nicknamed the “mailbox.”...

Paul makes me think of Kathleen Norris’ meditation on “Inheritance: Blessing and Curse.” She begins, “Human inheritance is both a blessing and curse. And in religious inheritance this paradox is acute. [Remember: we live no longer in the age of orthodoxy but of paradoxy!] For many of us religion is heavy baggage. [Can I get a witness?] Stories of love and fear, liberation and constriction, grace and malice come not only from our own experiences, and our family’s past, but from an ancestral history within a tradition. What curses do we need to shed, in the process of growing up?” Norris asks. “What can we hold onto as blessing?”...

In late 2015, at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis, former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen warned that many are failing to pay attention to the human aspect of the refugee crisis. Speaking during a panel discussion at the University of Maine, Mr. Cohen lamented: “Frankly, it’s a little bit depressing to think that we’ve become desensitized to human suffering … We don’t look at the human dimension, the dimensions of the catastrophe of people who have nothing, who are homeless.”...