This ride was the one that almost wasn't. Many were wary of the possibility of rain in the forecast and were considering bailing out. I resolved to go despite the gloom in the forecast. I think many folk agreed with me when they awoke with a clear sky greeting them. We only had about 8 signed up to go, but once the riders meeting started I was looking at 15 riders. We even had leon come along for a short bit. Once the ride began the skies did cloud up and become overcast. By 10:30am in Lebanon county it was misting and did so for 10 minutes. But after that, it was cool air and breeze with the sun peeking out a few times. I was leading the front group and we stopped on a side road to send a message to the chase group to avoid a certain stretch of road and come straight to the lunch stop. As I was speaking to one rider, half of the group disappeared into the bushes. Five minutes later we got back on the road. We had one u-turn but no crashes. The chase group had two different crashes with one going to the hospital. I'm told it was a shoulder injury, so let's pray he will be well soon. We had lunch at Lenny's Denny's in Halifax and they had very good food. After lunch 4 riders left over from the chase group arrived with 12 of us in the parking lot. Soon it was down to 5 of us going on with the route. That was a shame because the ride after lunch was kickin'! We climbed over two big ridges with elevation over 1500 ft above sea level, the view was awesome. We ended the ride near Carlisle, shook hands and went on our way. We slabbed it home and arrived safely.
Next month is the Jump into Jersey, we hope to see you there.
Scripture Readings for October 2012
three parables. The first parable is called the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the text also introduces the audience to the reader. A Parable is a physical story illustrating a spiritual truth and when it was told to it's audience it had a pointed meaning that called for a response. Here is Luke 15:Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
Here we see our "audience" for this biblical account: Jesus, God, the "sinners", and Pharisees (who were the Jewish religious leaders of the time). Jesus is obviously sharing the Parable, and the other three continue to find roles in these stories. In the above text, "The Parable of the Lost Sheep" we can see that God is the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in the field (the obedient believers) and searches for the sheep who has strayed from the flock (the sinner). He finds this "sheep" and carries him home. This fact is important because in ancient time a shepherd would carry a sheep to have his scent get on the sheep and the sheep's scent on him. In this way, the sheep would have more of a bond with the shepherd and would be less likely to stray again. Then Jesus emphasizes his point with the next parable, "The Parable of the Lost Coin".
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
The silver coin referenced in this passage was the drachma and it was worth one days wages, approx. $200 in today's money. This was a noticable sum of money to lose, something of worth. Note how Jesus speaks again of the "sinners" as having worth, with them being the "lost coin" and having equal value in God's eyes (the woman in the story) that He (she) would search for them and rejoice when He found them. Jesus then drives home His point with the telling of the last parable, "The Parable of the Lost Son".
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
22 “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”
There are a number of points to be made with this parable, so let's start with the culture of the times. In Jewish culture at this time, a son was a child of esteemed value, what most parents would want to have. Notice again how the sinners and the Pharisees are portrayed as equals. The younger son asks a despicable thing of the Father, that he give the child his share of all he has now because he doesn't want to wait until his Father dies. Now besides the obvious fact of the selfish greed of the son, this also goes to a deeper level. In ancient Israel, land was divided by tribes and then by families. There was not an abundance of land then like there is now in the United States. So, not only did the Father have to give up the land as an asset and a cash stream (from crops) but he also had to give up some of his families heritage, the land that was "theirs". So the Father does all his Son asks of him and the Son leaves and wastes it all, every last bit of it. The Son eventually has to work with pigs to survive. This is important in Jewish culture and a point of shame for the Son because pigs were unclean animals and Jews weren't to eat of them, touch them or be near them. So as you can see the Son had sunk to a new low. He does repent and heads back to his Father with a speech all prepared. I don't know about you, but I have had to prepare a "speech" or two when I was in trouble. So, I can identify a bit with this "lost son". Here is where the parable gets interesting. Note how the Father was looking for the Son and sees him coming even from a distance. He then runs to him. This was a very base thing for an older man to do at this time. Older folk were looked on with respect in the ancient times and they walked with a measured pace, never hurried. People would step aside out of respect for the elderly. Here the Father "lowers" himself by running to the son, he does so because of the great love that he has for his sons. He ignores the sons speech and gives him three things: a robe, a ring, and sandals. The robe was a sign of wealth, in ancient times you could put up a cloak for a loan. Joseph in the book of Genesis was given a coat of many colors from his father Jacob to show his favor. The ring was a sign of belonging to the family. Many families had seals, stones, or signet rings that were given to family members showing that they belonged to the family and could claim things for the family by having this ring. The sandals were important because only slaves, servants, or the poor walked barefoot. So, the Father has restored the son completely, but that's not all. He immediately throws the biggest party he can, killing a calf that was being set aside in case a celebration was in order. The older son hearing the commotion as he comes out of the field, finds out it is for his brother. He is mad with this and doesn't come in, even though the father begs him. And then the parable ends, leaving us with a decision. The Father in this story is God, the younger son is the sinner, and the older son is the religious or righteous person. The same question that was left hanging for that audience is there for us as well. Who are you in this story and how will you react? If you are right with God and have relationship with Him, do you welcome the lost sinner that repents and comes to God? If you do not have relationship with God, will you come to Him and turn from living in the world? The choice is yours.....
