Week 6 Summary

First off, I apologize for the delay in posting. It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks/month with moving to Pittsburgh and travelling the last couple of weeks. I have not been as attentive as I should be. As being late to writing this summary, I am also a week late to what’s going on in the Catholic Church, so I apologize not having this done on Easter Sunday.

OT:

This was a hard reading for me. On days 1, 2, and 3, (Exodus 11, Leviticus 1-13), it was all about rules. For example, there was a lot of references for the setup of the Arc of the Covenant. I saw an incredible amount of parallels to how the Roman Catholic Church reverences the tabernacle. From the position of the candles, to the garments you wear around it, to the gold, the pillars, and ultimate reverence, I see a lot of traditions that were instilled all the way back in Exodus. One thing I didn’t realize was how big of a role Moses was in all of this. Him and his brother, A-Aron, were taught a lot of rules in the OT. In my real life, at working in the kitchen at Country Club of Buffalo, there were a TON of members of the Jewish faith. Every time there was a strict kosher Jewish wedding, they would have to follow all of the rules that is in this book of Leviticus. Not so much where they would have to offer up the head and fat of sheep or goats… but more along the lines of separating poultry and meat, no swine. Reading these passages, it kept resonating with me that it wasn’t so much for tradition or for whatever reason, but for I feel it was to teach self-control. Everything they prepared was proper, “fine cereal”, respect the animal with blood sprinkled around the alter. Another finding for me was that the Israelites had to have known that offering up (or throwing out) the important things, ie.) bones, fat, skin… this was an offering to God. All of those pieces are HUGE for human sustenance. For example, Alaskans will kill a whale, throw out all the meat, and keep the fat because that’s where all of the energy is. For the Isrealites to throw that out (and I feel like they knew what they were doing) is a huge trust factor for them to show that God will provide.

          Again, as you read, it is all about offering up. Burning cereal and food product, it shows that you show your full faith in God. I could quote a dozen passages this week, but a majority of it was Moses and Aaron found a lot of ways to honor their covenant with God by offering up necessary things for survival as well as a HUGE amount of respect and reverence.

          To conclude the OT, there is one thing that is resonating in my head. Living at home at 3015, Mom had a lot of pictures around the house, with a saint (I don’t remember which holy person) who had the quote, “God will provide”. My takeaway is that, have faith in God. Things will work out, no matter how hard you could make it, keep giving up things… put yourself through hardships. I don’t mean throw out perfectly good food, but maybe don’t eat that extra piece of pizza. Offer it up..

PSALMS:

We see a lot in the book of Psalms passages, there is a lot of asking for forgiveness, mercy, and trust:

“Rebuke me not in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath; for your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me”

“May all who seek you rejoice in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”. As for me, I am poor and needy; but the Lord takes through for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God”

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men sat to me continually, “Where is your God?”

These are three parts that really stuck with me. As we were going through Lent, there were a lot of feelings I was going through. I was motivated to become a better person, trust in God that everything will be alright, and give up comforting parts of life.

NT

Growing up, this was definitely the hardest part of the bible that I would have to experience every year. There is so much going on that I wish I had time to comment on, but I will give you my bullet points.

Being younger, I never experienced the full grasp of the story. From the rollercoaster of emotions of joy, to betrayal, to pain and agony, to sorrow, to his ultimate death, Matthew does a very good job of expressing those emotions in very few words.

I have a couple of words that I feel that Jesus felt in his last few days, expressed in the book of Matthew:

Abandonment – Judas “the one I shall kiss is the man; seize him”. And, also, Peter, “I do not know the man”.

          For someone who is about to give his whole life, how do you not get upset?? For a group of guys that have been your best friends and followers for a while, at your last ounce of having a chance of living, they betray and deny you. What a feeling Jesus’ had to have felt in his last days knowing his future.

Forgiveness – Judas “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood”

          Judas tried to give back the silver that was given to him by offering up Jesus, but the most surprising thing is that the soldiers didn’t want it back!! “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money”. I feel like we go through this a lot in real life, where we make a horrible mistake, we cannot change the future, and then instead of giving up like Judas did, we need to own it, ask for forgiveness, and accept that we are human and that we all make mistakes.

Redemption – Jesus “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”

          I know I am fast forwarding a bit but we all know this story. In Matthew 28, Jesus appears to be risen. He was put through the most brutal experience anyone mortal on earth could have ever experienced. In Matthew, it doesn’t go into extreme detail, but the agony in the garden, to the condemnation, to the scouraging, to the crown of thorns, to the march to Golgatha, the painful crucifixion and death… I would have no idea for an inkling to relate to the pain Jesus must have gone through. But the redemption of being buried and then rising from the dead, is the ultimate ending from this story.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you ALWAYS , to the close of the age”