Today's Readings and Stuff -- Friday, 03 January, 2014

Happy Friday to all.
Woke up to a reported 5 degrees here, later dropped to 4 degrees.  Am told that in a few days that will seem like a heat wave.  Still looking for that Glow Bull Warning that Albert Gore assured was was coming Real Soon Now.  Seems to have taken a snooze somewhere along the path to Apocalypse.  Pity, an extra 5 degrees or so would be real welcome right now.  News is reporting 14 inches of snow in Boston.  My heart bleeds for them.  Sorta.
Dear Wife has gone next door to "watch" Beloved Grand-Niece, the cats have gone off into their alternate universe, the furnace is running, I am sitting at the desktop in a sweatsuit trying to delay a stint outside with a snow shovel.  Have one of those "SoundScapes" channels on the TV going,Staeven Halpern/Starr Fuentes playing "Healing lightly".  Coffee is hot, God is good.

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The Old Testament reading for the morning is chapters 6, 7, and 8 of the Genesis.  This is primarily a section that we think of as the story of Noah, the Ark, and the Flood.  I saw a thing on an InterNet site the other day claiming the discovery of the remains of the Ark.  Might be, I don't know.  From the Biblical accounts, it would have been quite large in any event.  And, sadly, I also saw a heated discussion on a news site of a once-conservative Christian denomination the declaration that the Flood account is fiction.  Not sure how an theologically honest pastor or teacher can hold to a belief that the Bible is a lie, but there it was.  I will not throw rocks, my own sins, follies, and failures are sufficient for any dozen normal people.  But the guy (I think it was) is wrong.  God is not a liar.

Genesis 6

1	When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,
2	the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
3	Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
4	The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
5	The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6	And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
7	So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8	But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
9	These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
10	And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11	Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
12	And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13	And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14	“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
15	“This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.
16	“Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.
17	“For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.
18	“But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19	“And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
20	“Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive.
21	“Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.”
22	Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Genesis 7

1	Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.
2	“Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate,
3	“and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
4	“For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”
5	And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6	Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.
7	And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
8	Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,
9	two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
10	And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
11	In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
12	And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13	On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark,
14	they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature.
15	They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
16	And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
17	The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.
18	The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
19	And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.
20	The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
21	And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind.
22	Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.
23	He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.
24	And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

Genesis 8

1	But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.
2	The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,
3	and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated,
4	and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
5	And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6	At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made
7	and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.
8	Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground.
9	But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him.
10	He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.
11	And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
12	Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
13	In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.
14	In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out.
15	Then God said to Noah,
16	“Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
17	“Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh–birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth–that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
18	So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.
19	Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
20	Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21	And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
22	“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

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The New Testament reading is chapter 3 from the Gospel of Matthew.  This begins with the introduction of John the Baptizer, Jesus' earthly cousin, and concludes with him baptizing Jesus in the river.  Wish I'd been there.  (starts at 1:15)

Matthew 3

1	In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
2	“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
3	For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”
4	Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5	Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him,
6	and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
7	But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8	“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
9	“And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
10	“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11	“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12	“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
13	Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
14	John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15	But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
16	And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
17	and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”