Christ Church Jerusalem

22 August 2021 - Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost - The purpose of the Temple was to eat, drink and rejoice, says Rev. David Pileggi. God builds relationship with his people through food, much as we build friendship, family and culture around the meals we share. Food creates identity and tells us who we are. Jesus invites us to abide in him, to know and commit to him, lest we die. Readings: Psalm...

We have all been called to freedom, both Jews and Gentiles. As part of sacred history, the Jewish people were called from Egypt to be a nation before the Lord. And Gentiles, too, were not to remain in bondage to elemental principles and the demonic forever. Where there used to be a separation between Jews and Gentiles in worship, places in the Temple, with table fellowship and prohibitions to inte...

15 Aug 2021 - 12th Sunday After Pentecost - Rev. David Pileggi continues to lead us in contemplating the beautiful, confusing, controversial words of John 6. After the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus invites us to be fed by him. God desires to provide for us in abundance as we encounter his life-giving presence. The best, most Christ-centered place to meet God and have him meet our needs is at the tab...

Gentile pagan culture was infused with idolatry and immorality, all wrapped in the presence of demonic elemental principles. The Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, had set free both Jews and Gentiles to no longer be ‘yoked to slavery’. The slavery mentioned here is the bondage to sin. Gentiles had been in defenceless bondage to elemental principles without God and Jews had had the ‘yoke of the...

8 August 2021 - 11th Sunday after Pentecost - Continuing in John 6, Rev. David Pileggi explains how the Gospel of John sees eternal life as a present reality as well as a future hope. We are nourished into eternal life through relationship with Jesus the Messiah by consuming to the Word of God. This involves obedience, not motivated by fear of punishment but by love Readings: Isaiah 55:1-13; Amos:...

1 Aug 2021 - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost - The multiplication of the loaves and fishes points to the God of life who brings blessing. Jesus, the Bread from Heaven, comes to give us eternal life and blessing in this life and the next. Rev David Pileggi challenges with the question: Do we believe Jesus does satisfy, or do our undisciplined desires convince us that what God provides is not enough? R...

Having made the case that the Galatians are indeed heirs of the promise to Abraham, along with the Jewish people, Paul now urges them to ‘be like him’. This raises the question, should Paul not have pointed to Jesus rather than to himself? Paul is not sinless nor without his faults, unlike the Messiah. While it is true that we should all endeavor to keep and promote others to keep, our eyes on the...

25 July 2021 - Ninth Sunday After Pentecost - The writer of John tells us that Passover was near when Jesus sat on a mountain to teach and then feed the 5,000. John puts Jesus squarely in the context of Sinai and the Exodus, connecting Jesus with the Prophet Like Moses. God, in the Exodus, moves Israel from death to life so that he can dwell with his people. Likewise, Jesus performs miracles to sh...

A text taken out of context is a pretext, and I can do all things through a text taken out of context. Much commentary and discussion around Paul's epistle to the Galatians has been continually removed from the context. And I will continue to refer back to the contextual issues that face the Galatians believers. The issue is not, and I repeat, not that they doubt Jesus is the Messiah. No one is te...

18 July 2021 - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - On Tisha b'Av, Deacon Aaron Eime has us consider God's promise to David. David desired to build a house for God, but God instead promises to build David into a house, a dynasty. This house would bring forth the Messiah, the one who will accomplish God's desire to dwell not just among Israel but all humanity. Readings: 2 Samuel 7:1-14; Psalm 89:20-37;...

According to the Torah, God had promised Abraham that through his descendants all the nations (the Gentiles) of the world would be blessed. The physical Torah itself appeared later in history to Moses and was given specifically to the people of Israel. Israel were instructed to be a distinct people that would bring light to the nations. As people were drawn to the monotheistic faith of Israel, the...

11 July 2021 - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost - God the Creator is above his creation, and so is worthy of worship by his creatures. When God created the world, he did so to enter into relationship with his creatures. This has never changed. Rev. David Pileggi reminds us that it is only in holiness can we draw near to God. Holiness is not only refraining from evil, but it is also pursuing good. Ri...

Paul has made his argument that righteousness is imputed by God to Gentiles as well as to Jewish people and that it is not earned through the ‘works of the Law’ that create distinctions, boundaries and social standings between them. A new reality has been formed with the resurrection of the Messiah which Paul can see clearly now, yet others (his antagonists) are unable to at the present time. Jews...

4 July 2021 - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - To be a disciple is to be sent. We are sent out to preach repentance, confront evil, and heal the hurting. Rev. David Pileggi reminds us that to be successful in our call, we must be radically dependent on God. It is God's gifts of repentance, courage, and compassion that enable us to minister to those around us. Readings: Ezekiel 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 1...

Once again our discussion centered around the Torah, its meaning and relationship to the Mosaic covenant, and also to Paul's use of the phrase the 'works of the Law'. Once again it has to be stated that there is a difference between the Torah (also known as nomos in Greek), the Mosaic covenant, and the phrase ‘works of the Law’. Also once again it must be stated that you must never take a passage...

27 June 2021 - Fifth Sunday After Pentecost - Who is Jesus? Is he just a man blessed with an extra measure of the Holy Spirit? In the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus is revealed as the Holy One of Israel whose holiness is more contagious than the impure stain of death. Jesus calls us to join the fight of life over death and shares with his followers the authority to confront ev...

Paul begins his challenge of Peter's hypocrisy by saying, “We who are Jews by birth ... who know”. The primary comparison is between Jews and Gentiles as a matter of nature, that is birth, and not between a matter of “knowing”. If the focus was on knowing, then this would lead us close to gnosticism. Jews are not “sinners,” which is the natural state of Gentiles who have no natural relationship wi...

20 Jun 2021 - Fourth Sunday of Pentecost - Despite knowing Jesus, many of us lack in spiritual maturity. Rev. David Pileggi, taking clues from the life of King David, points us to the path of transformation and maturity. We must discern the world as it really is, allow God to prepare us, and live a lifestyle of gratitude that bears testimony of God's faithfulness to us. Readings: 1 Samuel 17:(1a,...

Paul's opposition to Peter initially concerns itself with Peter's refusal to eat with the Gentile members of the believing community. The issue is part of a larger theological concern that is worked out in practical behaviour. Jewish people in the Second Temple period did not typically dine with Gentiles of any description, because of ritual purity concerns. The belief was that “things” could pass...

13 June 2021 - Third Sunday after Pentecost - We long for revival and to see the Kingdom of Heaven suddenly overtake the powers of this world. In the parable of the growing seed, Jesus teaches us that the kingdom grows slowly but surely under the sovereignty of God in partnership with his "farmers." From 120 people on the Day of Pentecost, the Jesus movement has spread throughout the world in 2,00...

Paul continues to reveal some autobiographical material not found anywhere else in Scripture. In Galatians 1, Paul described his first trip to Jerusalem three years following his Damascus Road experience. In Galatians 2 he describes a second journey to Jerusalem, this time 14 years later. The use of the word ἔπειτα ‘then’ probably indicates the timing to follow after the initial three years. Thus...

6 June 2021 - Second Sunday after Pentecost - What is the unforgiveable sin? Have we done it? Rev. Aaron Eime has us consider this anxiety-producing sin in light of God's desire to have relationship with us. The Holy Spirit is a person, not an impersonal power. It is the Holy Spirit that, through Jesus' work on the cross, dwells in us and unites us with God. If we reject God's offer of forgiveness...

Having laid forth a strong denunciation of the false gospel that currently persuades the Galatian communities, Paul gives some autobiographical material not found in any other epistle or writing. At the core of Paul's narration is that the Gospel preached by Paul is not Paul's gospel nor his invention. Paul claims divine revelation – the Greek word here is apocalypse – from the Messiah himself. Le...

30 May 2021 - Trinity Sunday - We serve the God who sacrificially sends himself out to heal his creation. He restores us to himself and enables us to share in the divine life. Rev. David Pileggi reminds us that God then sends us out to live lives of love and unity modeled after the divine community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Readings: Isaiah 43:1-8; Isaiah 44:1-12; John 3:1-18 Blessed by our...

Having established himself as an apostle in the opening sentence, Paul follows the pattern of greeting he has learned from his teacher Gamaliel in the salutation to the communities in Galatia: “Grace and peace,” or in Hebrew, chesed v’shalom. Paul invokes God the Father and the Messiah Jesus as source of the grace and peace. Paul does not invoke a trinitarian formula and omits mention of the Holy...