Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
God like a wave
[explain dive in or crushed]
Hand of justice o mercy
Soft gentle feminine or muscled harsh male
One single God difference is based on our choice
Wrongly think of God as the Ancient Wrathful Cosmic Emperor or the New Cuddly Cosmic Teddy Bear,
these days Teddy Bear extreme is much more common and so we ought to point out it has claws.
banal sentimentalism
reduce relig to trivial niceness
rare serious heroic struggle [including myself]
Truth is God is a mighty dignified emperor with the bleeding heart of a romantic lover
but majestic seriousness in God is so Old Testament!!
how many think righteous God o Old and soft cuddly God o New?
God NT more lenient?
Jesus come to abolish the Old way of God?
we hear Not one iota!
Christ not new God in the slightest
Same yesterday today and forever Heb 13:8
Just God of the Old who’s love endures forever
General Connection
Us Catholics cannot let God of OT be seen as a different God.
Catechism
123 “true word of God” and [vigourously opposed rejecting the OLD Testament (Marcion heresy)]
129 New Hidden in Old and Old revealed in New
Mention signs in OT briefly
Isaac stuff
Joseph
serpent pole
Manaa
OT Leniency
spare a whole city state of evil people for just a couple of good people
does not let Abraham sacrifice his son, but provides His own son instead
almost everytime someone repents seems they get mercy )even when people want God to give them wrath)
Cain
Preserves David and his line despite terrible sin
ninevah
Is 49:15
Summed up:
Ezek 18:23 and 32
NT Severity
Acts 5:5 Saphirra and Annanias
[Acts 13:8 Paul curses with blindness]
Rom 2:7-8
[Rom 12:19 never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord]
Rom 13: Gov authorities are supposed to be “the servant of God to execute his wrath upon the wrongdoer”
[2 Thes 1:6-9]
[Acts 12:23 ]
Lets not even start on the fire and brimstone of Revelation and pantokrator Christ..
Ok so medieval sounding stuff in NT, but isn’t it much more lenient for moral failing?
Heb 10:26-31
if any error made things more harsh
Spiritual rather than Physical
The promises of God are spiritual b4 physical
not aimed at a long peaceful life here for you and your bloodline
not primarily physical warfare but spiritual as Paul says
If judge by appearance think physical OT harsher, but reality is on its head
more serious. Much much more serious.
In the OT we hear much more about physical death for sin (short life cut shorter and not much more) or the loss of a country (which rise and fall constantly)
in NT damnation…
what happened in OT mercy if death was the only punishment they faced. maybe saved thru it
losing even an eye or limb the gospel says today is so much better than the punishment for continuing in evil
If we thought the death penalty our Gospel today and the book of Hebrews gives us a wakeup call.
Eternal life is very much a possibility, but so is the opposite.
Logos himself clearly gave these warnings, it would be evil of me by propping up a soft trivial cuddly idol to worship…
This is to say nothing about how many or how very few may end up in hell. have uncertain opinion, but wont give b/c its jsut that very uncertain
hope a little more soft stuffing taken from NT and given to OT, and a little more seriousness of OT given to NT
Lest we Fear unhealthily
‘you can keep them’
lies in our own mind that
mere unintentional thoughts, temptations born with, or accidents are violations
they are not, its what we choose to accept or reject
we arent strong enough
he tells us we are
life will be miserable without our sins
in the short term maybe
like most good things (study, working out, getting to bed on time, eating healthy)
not in long term
even if it were (which is a complete bold-faced lie) better to suffer now than later
THIS is what he did for us
not the image of a God who wants to punish
rather image of one who wants to do everything he can so we don’t experience him as punishment without turning us into unconscious robots
But God is the principle of all things, reality itself, truth itself, being itself, Goodness itself
Goodness is utterly generous and refuses to withhold goodness from anyone
goodness is a violent tsunami to evil and cool refreshing water to the good
it depends on how you face the wave: diving into it or standing up against it
its the same wave, (ever Old and ever New) he leaves the choice to you
therefore choose goodness.
Notes
me
contra Marcion
the ability to uphold all commands?
3 errors:
destination rather than road [product rather than command]
‘meh, Good enough’ [better scribes and pharisees]
‘too hard’ [you can keep them]
Literally “not one iota or one hook [dot]” not “the smallest letter” though the iota was that.
Commentators
not one iota
greek not hebrew letter choses
i stands for 10, thus reference to decalogue
Clear proof we have free will- Aug
counter Pelagian reading, the ability to have good will itself is grace of God -Aug
All are able to be good. St. Pamphilus
Anger
Galatian Paul calls fools
letters we hear ‘be angry’ but do not sin
old tests even added ‘w/o cause’
Christ has harsh words and anger
anger is not sin when just and when demanded lack of it is a fault.
test aug: anger agaisnt brother is forbidden, but anger at an evil is not at a brother.
Not speaking of passion of flesh but movement of will
Divorce
separation allowed for “impurity”, but not remarriage
Oaths
oaths even in Scripture NT [me: and marriage, religious life]
idea is to avoid it unless necessary (e.g. office, solemn occasion)
swearing forbidden to all things, not God himself [me: likewise God is truth, so all statements are basically oaths b4 God]
the evil of oaths is in the fallen state of man that needs it, not necessarily the oathing [Augustine]
‘anything more comes from evil’
[me: no oaths in heaven]
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