Good Morning!
Like I said on Sunday in our early service some day I’d like to come back to Jonah and spend some more time with the wet prophet. Spending four Sundays felt like a rush to me, but it was also neat to hear from several of you about how much you enjoyed hearing a different side of what is happening in that portion of God’s word. Jonah, the main character and author of the book, witnesses to us a type of attitude that kills a local church. His initial decision to run from God and not bring the good news of Christ to Ninevah was confirmed by his temper tantrum in the last part. He didn’t seem to learn anything from his fish stomach experience. In many ways his story is an example of a mindset that plagued (no pun intended) Israel from the days of the Exodus until the death and subsequent resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Entitlement is gross. Acting as if you deserve something merely because you happen to be born in a certain place or to a certain bloodline is the opposite of how the covenantal life is to be understood. Looking back and seeing the grace and mercy of God in how He chose in His infinite wisdom to bless a family is meant to spur us to humility and a sense of joyful thanksgiving. For today’s prayer and worship help we are going to think more deeply on inheritance.
It has been said by many people in many different ways that the United States is a nation of second sons and youngest children. The oldest often received the caretaking of the family land and/or the family business. The younger son was often then forced to make a decision. He could work under his older brother or strike out on his own. For most that’s not much of a choice, so they ventured across the western ocean to the new world. Establishing their own dynasties in the eighteenth and later the nineteenth centuries meant new moves and more changes. In the history of our own congregation you can see this same dynamic. Every generation we sent men and families west, first to Alabama, then to Mississippi/West Tennessee, and finally to Arkansas and Texas. There are extant ARP churches in those areas that can trace their founding back to York County, SC. While that type of immigration is a thing of that past it does move us to think about who we are and where we are. As we sit in a pew on the Lord’s Day morning and evening we are constantly reminded of what we have received from those who came before. I know myself that each time I look at the minister board on the wall I am burdened with a sense of duty to not only maintain what these men did, but to move Bethany forward in service of God for our community where providence placed us. Our future is grounded in our past.
The word “inheritance” is all throughout the Bible. I want to close with two particular verses that serve to highlight what we mean when we use that word. Proverbs 13:22, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous” and Acts 20:32, “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
In each of these passages Solomon and Paul respectively are communicating that the good man, whether it is the Jewish father, or the Ephesian elder, is recognizing that what they have is not their own. In a manner of speaking they are stewarding what belonged to their grandparents and what will belong to their grandchildren. There is a humility and love here that is witnessed in the life of Christ Himself. He bore in His heart the sins of Israel, and all of His people, in order that not only would David be saved, but you and me, the spiritual sons of God. He did not hold on to His own life, but freely gave it for others. Similarly, we who have inherited a blessing at Bethany are to understand that we are stewards of this blessing, not to hide it within ourselves, nor to think it belongs to us. But to do what we can by God’s grace to grow Bethany by the gospel promise and resting in the power of the means of our Lord, just as the faithful steward did when actively advanced and multiplied the talents he received from above.
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church
