The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2022)

Episode Date: December 24, 2022

Fr. Mike leads us through the book of Jude and discusses its main message of calling us to lives of faithfulness. He also contextualizes 2 Timothy by highlighting Paul’s imprisonment and his final message to rekindle the gift of God within us. Today’s readings are from Jude, 2 Timothy 1-2, and Proverbs 31:1-7. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 358. We are reading from the letter of Jude. We're reading also the beginning of the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy, chapters one

and two. I knew that. And we're also reading Proverbs chapter 31, verses one through seven. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, because why not? Better late than never.

You can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast, but I invite you not to. I want you just to not. Just forget about it. It's too late. Too late for you. Just kidding. You can always subscribe. It's day 358. We're reading the letter of Jude. We're also reading second letters from Paul to Timothy, chapters one and two, as well as Proverbs chapter 31, verses 1 through 7. The letter of Jude. Salutation. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Occasion of the letter. Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Judgment on the Ungodly Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully formed, that he who saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the deepest darkness until the judgment of the great day. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah

and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner, these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, The Lord rebuke you. But these men revile whatever they do not understand,

and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do, they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perish in Korah's rebellion. These are blemishes on your love-feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves, waterless clouds carried along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever. It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying,

Behold, the Lord came with myriads of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness, which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loudmouth boasters, flattering people to gain advantage. Warnings and Exhortations But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.

It is these who set up divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some who doubt. Save some by snatching them out of the fire. And some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Benediction. Now, to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. The second letter of Paul to Timothy. Chapter 1. Salutation.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Thanksgiving and Encouragement I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, as did my fathers, when I remember you constantly in my prayers. As I remember your tears, I long night and day to see you that I may be filled with joy. I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. For God

did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works, but in virtue of his own purpose

and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and is now manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel, I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and among them Phygelus and Hermogenes.

May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, for he often refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me eagerly and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you will know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. Chapter 2. A Good Soldier of Christ You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me before many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him.

An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my gospel, the gospel for which I am suffering and wearing chains like a criminal.

But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation in which Christ Jesus goes with eternal glory. The saying is sure. If we have died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. A workman approved by God. Remind them of this and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Avoid such godless chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

and their talk will eat its way like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection is past already. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earthenware, and some for noble use, some for ignoble. If anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work. So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.

Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 31, Verses 1-7 Chapter 31 The Sayings of Lemuel's Mother Praise of a Good Wife

The words of Lemuel, king of Massah, which his mother taught him, What my son, what son of my womb, what son of my vows! Give not your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress. Let them drink, and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.

Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for this opportunity to hear your word, to be shaped by your will, and to find ourselves in your plan, find ourselves in the palm of your hand. Lord God, we just thank you. Help us to walk as faithful people, not as faithless people. You are faithful even when we are not. Help us to walk as faithful people, not as faithless people. You are faithful, even when we are not. Help us to cast our cares upon you because you care for us. In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we have the letter of Jude today. And so it's really brief. Jude is known as one of the relatives of Jesus, right? So Adelphoi is the proper term. Jude is the brother of James. And one of the things that we recognize about Jude in this letter of Jude is we don't necessarily know who he's writing to exactly. It's like,

you know, St. Paul writing to Timothy. We know exactly who he's writing to. St. Paul writing to the Ephesians. We know exactly who he's writing to. But what he's identified, he's identified a number of behaviors that people are not living according to the call they've received in Christ Jesus. There's a lot of call they've received in Christ Jesus. There's a lot of immorality happening in their lives. And so one of the things we know about Jude is Jude knows the Old Testament pretty well, and he knows the Jewish writings really well, because he gives examples that we are familiar with, right?

Now, he gives examples of Israel's wilderness rebellion. He gives examples of the rebellious angels from Genesis chapter 6, right? He gives the example of the men of Sodom at the end of the book of Genesis, as well as he even uses some stories that are not actually from the Hebrew Old Testament, but from other stories. For example, he talks about Michael the archangel, and that's from a book, a Hebrew writing called the Testament of Moses. It's just really interesting. But all those stories are all about people rebelling against God's authority. It's all stories as well about sexual immorality and rejection of God's messengers. Jude goes on to talk about those people who not only rebelled themselves, but who caused other people to rebel. So how Cain, after he had killed Abel, that he went in the line of people that he sired, I guess, the cities of Cain

were cities of violence. You have a Balaam who, again, tried to curse God, wanted to curse God, but was unable. We have Korah who led people in rebellion against Moses. So one of those things we recognize is that sometimes our own sins end with us. Well, sorry, we think they end with us. We've talked about this before, but many times our behavior amplifies or it goes out from us and it can corrupt other people. And so Jude is writing not only about those people who have rebelled against God, against his authority, against his plan for sexual morality, against his messengers, but also who have led others to rebel as well. And so the kind of the main message of Jude is he's writing to these people who have fallen into the place of rebellion

and he's calling them back to a place of faithfulness and calling him to a place of faithfulness by pointing out here is what happens to those who are unfaithful. The end is destruction and God doesn't want you to be destroyed. And so I'm calling you back to faithfulness because God actually loves you. But here is the big warning. I would not be an apostle of the Lord if I didn't warn you. And that's so important. The last words is the benediction. And he says, now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. And that benediction, that blessing at the end, highlights the fact that yes, Jude is giving a hard, hard message to the people, but he also

is giving a message that is not the end. He's not a message of condemnation. It's a message of conviction. And that's one of the things we have to recognize is that we want to hear that message of conviction. Every time we open the scriptures, God, where am I in these pages? What are you trying to tell me? Are you calling me to repentance in this way or that way? Where are you calling me to belong more and more fully to you? And that's the message of the letter of Jude. We also have the beginning of the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy.

And there are so many things that we need to highlight about this. One is that this is, I think, Paul's last letter. And in Paul's last letter, we know that he's in prison somewhere. This might be his first imprisonment in Rome. It also could be a time where he might have gotten out of prison and then was put back into prison before he was beheaded in Rome. But we know that this is one of his final words that he's written, one of his final letters that we have. And writing to Timothy, his beloved son, he calls him. He also praises Timothy's mother and grandmother who had faith. And you know,

it's interesting because yesterday, I didn't mention this, but in one of the letters of John, he talks about how, what a delight it is when one's children are walking in the faith. That's what John was writing about to the beloved lady. He said, what a delight it is when you find your children walking in the faith. And here are Eunice and Lois, the grandmother and mother of Timothy, to be able to find their son walking in the faith. And I know that one of the pains of so many people who are part of this community is when our kids don't walk in the faith, when they walk away, when grandkids walk away, when they've never met the Lord and they've been maybe raised Catholic, maybe they're raised in the church, and yet for whatever reason, they just have wandered away, drifted away, raced away, walked away. And so here is Paul writing to Timothy

saying, you know, basically that faith that was in your grandmother, the faith that was in your mother, I trust that it's within you as well. He also says, don't be ashamed of me for testifying to our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, because there are times you imagine where here's Paul, who's an apostle who is looked down on by other Christians, because wait a second, why are you always in jail? If you're really an apostle, would you really be in jail? Of course, the answer is yes, because here's Jesus, our Lord himself, who was arrested, falsely accused and condemned to death. But there were people who were ashamed of Paul. And we think about, again, here's how Peter

and how Paul and all the other apostles and how us Christians are called to be like Jesus. We're called to accept that rejection, the way Jesus accepted that rejection, which is so painful and so difficult, but it is truly our call. I love this in the second letter of St. Paul. It's one of my favorite lines.

How many times have I said that? But he says in chapter one, verse six, for this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. Now rekindle the gift of God that is within you. That's a great way to say it. I love when other translations say fan into flame the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control. God did not give us a spirit of cowardice. He didn't give us a spirit of timidity,

but a spirit of power and love and self-control. And this is one of those things. We can fan that flame of faith or we can stifle that flame of faith. And Paul says to Timothy, hey, rekindle that, fan that into flame, especially in those times when it's very difficult. In fact, St. Paul talks about how difficult it is for himself. He says, you're aware in verse 15,

of all who are in Asia turned away from me among them by jealous and homogenies, that these people he had thought he had friends. And this is one of those themes that's going to come up again, that Paul's going to write about. I thought I had friends, but then at one point, everyone abandoned me. People are ashamed of me. But this is something so important that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And he says in chapter two, verse nine, the word of God is not chained. I'm suffering in wearing chains like a criminal, but the word of God is not chained. And I love this. Here we are on day 358, recognizing that we've been hearing the word and shaped by the word for 358 days.

The word of God is not chained. Whether you are listening to this in a hospital, in a nursing home, in a prison, it doesn't matter. The word of God is not chained. Therefore, he says, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus for eternal glory.

If we have died with them, we shall also live with them. And so here we are, just keep continuing to move on, continuing to move forward, and to just praise God today, this day 358, for everything that he's done in our lives and everything he continues to do in and through us. As St. Paul said to Timothy, fan it to into flame the gift of God that you've received. He did not give you a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and of love and of self-control. So walk in that spirit. I'm praying that you do that. Please pray that I can do that.

My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you