Aaron Simms's Blog, page 5
July 22, 2018
Mission Possible? The Feeding of the Five Thousand
In the Gospel reading today we have the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44). Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and feeds five thousand men with them, and that’s not counting the women and children present; so there were a lot of people fed with this food. And it says that the leftovers filled twelve baskets. Miraculously, Jesus took the small amount of food that the apostles had and multiplied it to feed everyone and then had food left over. Jesus blessed what the apostles brou...
July 15, 2018
From a Dresser of Figs to Prophet
The texts from Amos and Mark today bring to mind the fact that there are many Christians throughout the world undergoing persecution for their faith (Amos 7:7-15 and Mark 6:14-29). Christians, and particularly converts, are hardest hit in the Middle East. The Copts in Egypt have been the victims of violence for many years now. Many Muslims are converting to Christianity, and find themselves at risk of death once they do so. There are many brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the worl...
July 8, 2018
Too Familiar
In our Gospel reading for today (Mark 6:1-13), Jesus goes to his hometown and teaches in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The text doesn’t say exactly what he taught, but one can imagine that it’s similar to what he had taught previously: that the Scriptures are fulfilled in him and that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, because he is here and ushering in the very redeeming reign of God into this fallen world.
You’d think this would be a great thing. Christ is here! God Himself has condescend...
July 1, 2018
The Healing of the Lord
A few years ago I was up in the attic of our old house putting in plywood on the ceiling joists. The idea was to make a surface where I could stack all the stuff that we don’t use, but for some reason feel compelled to keep. So, I went up there with a few sheets of plywood and a bunch of nails and a hammer. Normally, when I am in the midst of a project like this, I kinda get in a mindless rhythm as I work.
So, I was holding the nails with my left hand and hammering with my right. Then, wh...
June 24, 2018
“Do you not care that we are perishing?”
I’ve always liked the book of Job, which we have in today’s readings (Job 38:1-11). Because what’s in Job is instructive for us as we live our lives in this fallen, sinful world, surrounded by decay, pain, suffering, and death. In Job what we see and experience in our own lives; we see someone who’s gone through similar things before us.
Now, Job is a good man. He worships the Lord and has faith. And yet, he undergoes immense suffering. He is tormented by the death of his children which...
June 17, 2018
The Shade Tree – Mark 4:26-34
If you’ve ever done any gardening, it’s quite an enjoyable and amazing experience. In the past, we’ve planted a vegetable garden in our yard in the section that we called our “ugly area.” In that area, we tilled the ground, then placed the seeds, then covered up the seeds with earth and carefully watered them. We planted things like tomatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, and cucumbers.
It didn’t look like much at first. Just a slightly cleaned-up “ugly area.” But then, after a couple of...
June 10, 2018
The Blame Game
We as fallen people tend to be good at blaming others. We see it throughout our lives. When we’re young, we blame a sibling for the broken lamp. When we’re older, we blame a co-worker for the missed deadline. We blame society for our situation in life.
This blaming has been going on since the very beginning. We see it with Adam and Eve in Genesis (Genesis 3:8-15). They both eat from the forbidden tree, and therefore now know evil. They have become rebellious against God, and they do...
June 3, 2018
Distractions
St. Paul writes to the congregation in Corinth: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord…” (2 Corinthians 4:5).
The great fear that I have for the wider Church is that we lose sight of Christ’s mission which he has given to us of proclaiming him to all nations, particularly the Church as she exists in America and Europe. It’s so easy to get caught up in other things which take away from, or overshadow, this mission of proclaiming “Jesus Christ as Lord.” I’m guilty of...
May 27, 2018
Holy, Holy, Holy – Trinity Sunday
Today is Trinity Sunday and the reading from Isaiah 6:1-8 is one of my favorite texts in the Bible. In fact, the Apostle John refers to this text in John 12:40-41; after reflecting on the fact that many of the authorities did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, he quotes from Isaiah 6, saying: “‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’ Isaiah said these things because...
May 20, 2018
Living Beings – Pentecost Sunday
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the Fiftieth Day after Easter and the tenth day after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. All the traditional readings for today talk about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity (Ezekiel 37:1-14; Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26ff). We worship one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but today is most especially associated with the Holy Spirit, because of what happened on the first Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, which we read about in Acts 2.
In...
