outback to jungle

Musings on experiences of volunteering in Papua New Guinea with some gratuitous domestic social and public comment

Monday, July 24, 2006

a friend was being cheeky

over breakfast the other day when he asked me about the Isaiah passage I think it was in which the birth of Jesus to a virgin was prophesied and it said "and you shall call him Emmanuel." So why did Mary call him "Jesus"? I checked the Lukan reference in my little carry around Gideons and it says "and you are to give him the name Jesus." The Matthean reference is "The virgin will be with child ...and they will call him Immanuel."
It seems that Joseph was the one who called the Messiah "Jesus".
I wonder about the message in Jn6:39 "You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you you possess eternal life...I know you. You do not have the love of God in your hearts." That is the worrying thing for Christians. God looks at my heart. Warmongering, gays in the Church, women priests and bishops. If what we find important causes division and the division brings dishonour to God then maybe we need to look at the division. Is the subject that is causing the division all that important? I'm not an expert. Is the one who is divisive an expert? The heart or the scriptures. What does God look at? For Mary's having called her son Jesus, would God on Judgement Day be looking at her heart or her lack of reference to the scriptures?

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