The lectionary reading for the so-called last Sunday after Trinity is 2 Tim 4.6–8 and 16–18.
As sometimes happens, the lectionary omits important verses which you should read! This passage offers amazing insights into how Paul sees his own death in relation to Jesus’ return, how he locates the particulars of his life within a theological narrative, and how he sees the faithfulness of God despite all that he suffers.
The gospel reading is Luke 18.9–14, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. You can read the commentary on that passage here, and the video discussion here and is posted below.
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I think “loved his appearing” could be unpacked to mean, ‘all whose love is expressed by revealing Christ in the Gospel’. ‘Love’ being the outworking of belief, not just pious thoughts. And ‘appearing’ being Christ revealed to the hearer of the preached Word.
Something like that?
Thanks Ian and James, very encouraging.
Paul’s Last Words
What might we want the tenor of our own last words to be?
Perhaps not the words of — Niccolò Machiavelli (21 June 1527) “I desire to go to hell, and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, hermits, and apostles
May be like the false prophet Balaam reflecting on Israel’s election exclaimed,
“Let me die the death of the upright and let my end be like his!
Or more like those of Moses “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms….
Perhaps prophetically as Joseph ‘I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.’ Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely (visit you or) take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.’ So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Or listen to Joshua: ‘Not one good thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake.’
For a list of the dying word of the saints see
.evangelicaloutreach.org/dyingwords.htm
Or Wikipedia-Last Words.”
‘Their rock is not as our Rock” even our enemies themselves being Judges.’ DEUT. 32: 31.See Alexander Maclaren’s “Their Rock and Our Rock”
Shalom.
On what is this saint’s[Paul] confidence resting? The ROCK’
“My friends, herein is a great mystery. Something of what it means, however, we may learn from that wise and good Jew, Philo, who was St. Paul’s teacher according to the flesh, before he became a Christian; and who himself was so near to the kingdom of God, that St. Paul often in his epistles uses Philo’s very words, putting into them a Christian meaning. And what says he concerning the Rock of living waters?
The soul, he says, falls in with a scorpion in the wilderness; and then thirst, which is the thirst of the passions — of the lusts which war in our members — seizes on it; till God sends forth on it the stream of his own perfect wisdom, and causes the changed soul to drink of unchangeable health. For the steep rock is the wisdom of God (by whom he means the Word of God, whom Philo knew not in the flesh, but whom we know, as the Lord Jesus Christ), which, being both sublime and the first of all things; he quarried out of his own powers; and of it he gives drink to the souls which love God; and they, when they have drunk, are filled with the most universal manna.
So says Philo, the good Jew, who knew not Christ; and therefore he says only a part of the truth.
SEE The Rock of Ages
… SERMON XIV. THE ROCK OF AGES. (Ninth Sunday after Trinity.) 1 Corinthians 10:4.
They drank of that Spiritual Rock which followed them; and that Rock was Christ. …
/…/kingsley/town and country sermons/sermon xiv the rock of.htm
Or see the delightful sermon of Macduff on The Rock of Castello [in a time of trial]
…” seat ourselves for a little in the Alpine valley, under the brow of the Rock of Castello; it may help us to some thoughts and example of the better “Rock of Ages!”…
/…/macduff/the cities of refuge or the name of jesus/the rock of castello.htm
The OT reading Sirach 35:12-17
“Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as you can afford.”
Seems to me to reflect exactly what Paul is saying.