Revised Common Lectionary – Year B: Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Song of Songs 2:8-13; Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9 (or Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9); Psalm 15:1-5; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Christ comes to us in love. He calls us to come to Him.

Christ comes to us in love: ‘The Voice of my Beloved! Look! Here He comes...’(Song of Solomon 2:8). He calls us to come to Him: ‘My Beloved speaks and says to me, “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away”’(Song of Solomon 2:10). He calls us to belong to Him: ‘My Beloved is mine and I am His’(Song of Solomon 2:16). Let us come to Jesus and experience His love: ‘Jesus, how lovely You are! You are so gentle, so pure and kind...’. Let us come to Jesus and give Him our love: ‘Jesus, I love You, love You more and more each day; Jesus, I love You, Your gentle touch renews my heart. It’s really no wonder why no other love can satisfy; Jesus, I love You, You’ve won this heart of mine!’. Let us come to Jesus and receive His joy: ‘Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art; I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart’(Mission Praise, 361, 363, 362).

Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. Let us worship Him. Let us obey Him.

Jesus Christ is ‘the most excellent of men’(Psalm 45:2). He is more than that. He is God. In Psalm 45:6, we read these words - ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever’. We read them again in Hebrews 1:8. They are the words which God the Father speaks to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. How does the Word of God describe Jesus Christ? - ‘He is your Lord’. How are we to respond to Him? - We are to approach Him with ‘reverence’. We are to ‘honour’ Him. We are to ‘bow down’ and ‘worship’ Him. We are to ‘obey’ Him (Psalm 45:11). Think of the ‘Good News’ of our Lord Jesus Christ - ‘the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me’. Let your heart overflow with praise to the Lord Jesus Chist - What a wonderful Saviour He is (Psalm 45:1; Galatians 2:20)! Let us celebrate His Name in this generation. Let Him be praised for ever and ever’(Psalm 45:17).

We have been redeemed by the Lord. We are called to obey the Lord.

The people of Israel were involved in the work of the Lord. The work was based on God - not Moses. Moses would not be in the promised land. God would be there. Moses would ‘not go over the Jordan’. As God’s man. he was to prepare the people for their task: ‘you shall go over and take possession of that good land’(Deuteronomy 4:22). Privilege involves responsibility. Israel was a privileged people, redeemed by the Lord, delivered from bondage ‘by a mighty hand and outstretched arm’(Deuteronomy 4:34). Israel was a responsible people, called to obey the Lord: ‘Obey His laws and commands’(Deuteronomy 4:40). The Lord our God is ‘a merciful God’(Deuteronomy 4:31). He has saved us. We are to serve Him. Let Him reign in your heart. Let there be ‘no other besides Him’(Deuteronomy 4:35). Flee to Christ for refuge (Deuteronomy 4:42-43), and live each day with ‘the attitude of gratitude’.

God is the Sure Foundation for our lives. Let us build our lives on Him.

Life can be testing and trying. In all of this, God makes Himself real to us. This is our assurance of faith: ‘The Lord restores the fortunes of His people’. He makes us ‘glad’ - In Him, we ‘rejoice’(Psalm 14:7). God Himself is the Sure Foundation for our lives: Build on Him, and you ‘shall never be moved’(Psalm 15:5). We long for God’s blessing, ‘O that salvation...would come...’(Psalm 14:7). He will not disappoint us. Do not be ‘the fool’ who ‘says in his heart, “There is no God”’(Psalm 14:1). ‘Fear the Lord’ - ‘and give Him glory’(Psalm 15:4; Revelation 14:7). We are to ‘act wisely’ - ‘seeking after God’, ‘calling upon the Lord’(Psalm 14:2, 4). Do you want to ‘dwell on God’s holy hill’(Psalm 15:1)? - ‘There is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode...’(Church Hymnary, 357): Christ is the Way to God and Heaven (John 14:2-6).

Even in our most difficult times, let us pray, ‘Lord, what are You teaching me in this?’

Even the most difficult times can have a godly effect on us - when we ask God for wisdom: ‘Lord, what are You teaching me in this?’(James 1:2-5). Humanly speaking, we may be ‘in humble circumstances’. Spiritually speaking, we are in a ‘high position’(James 1:9). Our position is to become even higher - ‘the crown of life’(James 1:12). Before that happens, there will be many temptations (James 1:13-15). We can face these temptations with confidence in the God of faithfulness and His ‘Word of truth’(James 1:16-18). God’s ‘Word’ is ‘planted in us’so that we may become ‘doers of the Word, and not hearers only’(James 1:21-22). Don’t let God’s Word ‘go in one ear and out the other’ - ‘like water off a duck’s back’. Let there be His controlling - ‘a tight rein on the tongue’, caring - looking after the needy, and cleansing - ‘unstained from the world’(James 1:26-27).

Christ invites us to come to Him, to hear His Word with understanding and to love God with our whole heart.

‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders...?’(Mark 7:5). How did Jesus respond to this ‘storm’ of criticism? - He exposed the hypocrisy of those who made the tradition of men more important than the Word of God (Mark 7:7-9, 13). He invited ‘the people’ to come ‘to Him’, to ‘hear’, to ‘understand’. His Word was addressed to ‘all’ of them (Mark 7:14). Jesus emphasizes this point: ‘man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart’(1 Samuel 16:7). The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. Which will it be? - ‘Their hearts were hardened’(Mark 6:52) or ‘Loving the Lord your God with all your heart’(Mark 12:30).