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Questions Week 13, Day 6

by David Joynt on July 28, 2017


 

Isaiah 49:6 | Matthew 5:14

Isaiah 49:6

 

Another contrast between Jesus and first century Judaism was his attitude towards non-Jews. His outreach to Romans and Samaritans and his teaching that need, not nationally, should elicit our compassion, was a challenge to his disciples and the Israelite leadership.

 

Yet once again, there are O.T. themes aplenty that focus on Israel’s broader mission to the world. They were to be a “light to the nations” and not simply a lampstand in the corner. God’s universal concern is evident in the laws for helping the sojourner, and in the creation narratives themselves, which teach a common humanity deeper than ethnicity. Jesus draw on Old Testament ideas to help recover a wider divine plan and share forth a universal divine love.

 

 

How far are we reaching out at VPC?

 

 

What elicits your compassion?

 

 

FAMILY TIME—

How do we know God loves everyone?

How do others know?

Are you a light to the world?

 

 

Tags: love

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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