tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7902992.post6263629652364101258..comments2023-10-14T16:42:53.597+01:00Comments on New Kid on the Blog: Whatever happened to sin?Alastairhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00117533964126439556noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7902992.post-74164814751301311862013-09-14T03:14:04.984+01:002013-09-14T03:14:04.984+01:00What a day to write what you wrote. My favorite ra...What a day to write what you wrote. My favorite rabbi wrote this sermon for <a href="http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2013/09/yom-kippur-and-shabbat-lightning-and-light-a-sermon-for-kol-nidre.html" rel="nofollow">Yom Kippur</a> today. I wonder if I should go to the Synagogue tomorrow. This sermon of course does not mention the sacrifice of Jesus - you did not raise the issue - but what can we say when the teaching is so close?Bob MacDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11335631079939764763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7902992.post-2368170553704993122013-09-13T22:38:00.993+01:002013-09-13T22:38:00.993+01:00Nice white fire on black. The Scriptures have been...Nice white fire on black. The Scriptures have been called black fire on white. One startling example of this is the suffix separated from the word by a space in Psalm 95. In English: these people wander in their hearts. In the Hebrew 'their hearts' should be one word - but it is two: levav hem. (Hem hem hem as one famous lady says). These are the stubborn hearts - the horse and mule hearts (Psalm 32). <br /><br />I am glad to see this wrestling with the difficult thread of sin. Nothing makes sin more obvious than the goodness of God. And the horse and mule passage is followed by a promise: 'I will give you insight and I will instruct you'. This is the psalm used by Paul in Romans 4:7 - citing the opening of Psalm 32 - just five words in the Hebrew: אַשְׁרֵי נשְׂוּי פֶּשַׁע<br />כּסְוּי חֲטָאָה<br />Happy transgression borne-away, sin covered.<br /><br />How do we get there from here? Why can we have such confidence? I said to my daughter yesterday that I have bad news for the church - I said: you really have to do the right thing. Imputed righteousness cuts only so far. My daughter then had a small accident, 1/2 a glass of red wine was spilled on me and her and the table. (The glass did not break) I fear the spilling of red wine - clothes and table linens went immediately into a salt solution and thence to the laundry. I took this as a sign not to forget Jerusalem - not to forget the blood that was spilled on my behalf - on our behalf. (Psalm 137 suggests a positive to not forgetting Jerusalem - but I wonder if we ought not to forget that comment: where else can a prophet be killed.) <br /><br />I agreed immediately with my Lord and reminded him of my age(!) when I might be inclined to forget things. But I do not forget. I have died with him - and my glass is not broken. Nor do I forget when Psalm 6 struck me with full force (and there is a reminder of it in Psalm 30 vv 6-7 (7-8 Hebrew numbering), Psalm 38, and Psalm 70 - each bearing the inscription 'to remember').<br /><br />So I have not forgotten the cost of the libation - but note from where I have been taught: Romans yes - but line by line from the Psalms, where the anointed has walked from early times... And of course from Torah, Prophets, and the Wisdom books like Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Song. Lots more work to do...Bob MacDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11335631079939764763noreply@blogger.com