Biblical Numerology

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 A warm welcome to each worshiper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

 

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.org

Order of Worship

July 30, 2023

10:00 a.m.

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements

Mission Statement:

We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

Call to Worship:

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.

It is a small seed, but has some surprises in store for us.

When it is grown, it is a very large shrub.

Even the birds can find places in its branches for their nests.

God’s transforming love begins in small ways to enter our hearts.

Lord, plant those amazing seeds of transforming love in us that they may grow into deeds of service to others in your name. AMEN.

*Hymn               When Morning Gilds the Skies          #185, v 1, 3, 4

Prayer of Confession:

Diligent Lord, who watches over us at all times, be with us all these days. We confess that we have allowed a host of worries and frustrations to crowd out your word for us. As you give us peace and your transforming love, also forgive all those times when we have been less than faithful disciples. Gently visit us again with your healing powers. Restore our hope and courage and joy for all the times ahead. We ask this in the name of the Master Healer, Jesus Christ. AMEN.

Assurance:

Here is some wonderful news! While we were worrying and fretting, God has been at work in our lives offering healing and peace. Receive these gifts in the name and love of the Lord our God. AMEN.

Scripture Reading Matthew 4: 1-11

The Testing of Jesus

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
    and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God,
    and serve only him.’ ”

11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Sermon   Biblical Numerology

Friends, we’re now in the second week of Stump the Preacher 2023, sermons requested by you and then researched by me. Y’all have our friend David to thank for this morning’s sermon, because he wanted to hear more about important numbers that are frequently repeated throughout Scripture.

If you give this a second of thought, I’m positive you can think of a few examples, but my research illuminated that biblical numerology runs deeper than we may think.

It starts with 1. 1 is a number of unity, as well as a number of singleness. And one of the most sacred verses in the Hebrew Scriptures, one that our Jewish friends celebrate as the Shema and repeat at every worship service, identifies God by both Holy Unity and Holy Singleness: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6: 4). When dictating the Ten Commandments to Moses, the Divine again identifies Holy Singularity as of utmost importance, and declares “You will have no other Gods before me” as commandment number 1. Thousands of years later, this reverence of the Oneness of God dwells in the heart and pen of Paul, who writes to his church in Ephesus that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all.” (Ephesians 4: 6).

Then there’s 3. Christian theology celebrates a triune God who is Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. One of the two creation stories in Genesis names day 3 as the day God made people, and this is where the contemporary Christian band Third Day gets their name. We also celebrate that Jesus’ resurrection happened on the third day after his death. 3 is a number of hope, potential, and joy. It’s also a number of sacredness. God calls to the child Samuel in his sleep three times before he realizes it’s the voice of God and answers accordingly. Interestingly, Jesus also raised three people from the dead: Lazarus, a widow’s son, and the daughter of Jairus.

Then we look at the number 6. Another number that represents people, the other creation story in Genesis names the sixth day as the day God made humans. Six is the number of labor, as we only work 6 days before we rest on the 7th. There is some biblical evidence to suggest that 6, one short of 7, represents imperfection, and that the number of the beast in Revelation, 666, reflects something imperfect that poses as God. But, we’ll talk about that at length in a few weeks because another friend asked me to preach all about Revelation.

Then there’s 7. 7 arguably symbolizes completion and perfection. God created the world in seven days and called it good. The Israelite army marched around Jericho for seven days before breaching the wall. Psalm 119, verse 164, proclaims “seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.” When Jesus teaches his disciples about forgiveness in Matthew 18, he advises that forgiving seven times is not enough, but rather seven times seventy times.

One of the most important numbers for us to consider is 12, a number that represents completeness in groups of people. Jacob, the man that God renamed Israel, had 12 sons, who become the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus asked 12 men to be his disciples. The book of Revelation describes heaven as having twelve foundation stones, representing the same 12 disciples. Revelation further declares that 144,000 people, 12,000 from each of Israel’s tribes, will die as martyrs to Christ in the End Times, and that the New Jerusalem that will spring up afterward will have walls 144 cubits thick, or 12 squared. Again…we’ll unpack Revelation in depth in a few weeks.

The last, and most important, of these numbers is likely the first one you thought of: 40. Moses’ life is divided into three 40 year segments: he lived in the royal courts of Egypt for 40 years before fleeing when he killed a man, he then spent 40 years in hiding in Midian, working as a shepherd and caring for a wife and children until God spoke to him through the burning bush, and lastly he spent 40 years leading the Hebrews to freedom through the wilderness before his death. Noah and his family stayed in the ark for 40 days and nights. Moses stayed on Mt. Sinai receiving the Law from God for forty days and nights. Jesus was tempted in the desert for forty days and nights, and because of that we observe Lent for 40 days and nights. The entire book of Jonah takes place in forty days, and forty days pass between Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension into heaven. 

One more really cool case of biblical numerology that I wanted to share with y’all comes from our Jewish friends, and their love for the number 18. Every letter in the Hebrew alphabet can be assigned to a number, corresponding with its order in the alphabet. So aleph is 1, bet is 2, gimmel is 3, dalet is 4, etc. The word chai, which means life, has two consonants, chet and yod. Chet is the 8th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and yod is the 10th, so if you add those together, 18 is a number that Jewish people celebrate as the number of life. Our Jewish friends frequently donate financial gifts to their synagogues in multiples of $18. 

Now, all of this is well and good, and we can certainly have some interesting talks about the numbers in the Bible, and when they show up, but the most important factor we need to consider is: why should we care?

We don’t care because the numbers themselves are so special. They’re not, they’re just numbers. What’s special is the people, and the God we have all tried to know, love, and follow. Jesus could have called 11 or 13 or 37 disciples, but he picked 12, because he knew when those dudes all got together in one room and realized how many of them were there, and that they reflected the 12 tribes of Israel, and their mere existence as a group tied them to their ancestors, they’d see they were standing on Holy Ground and take themselves with reverence. You don’t need to believe that Moses really lived to be 120 years old, but when those who lived after him retold his story and used the number 40 multiple times, they marked his years as sacred, and tied his experiences to those of Noah. When the early verbal stories of Jesus’ life circulated among those who loved him, his 40 days of temptation connected him back to Moses, and to Noah, and we honored his ancestors while also telling a hopeful story about suffering for a short time but persevering in the end.

You can use the very same symbols to tell your stories if you want. They connect you to our ancestors in the faith, and add meaning to our experience. I’ll give you an example:

Last week, as many of you know, I went to Camp Skye Farm. Despite it being such a beautiful, loving, and sacred place, there was also a lot about camp that hit my discomfort buttons, and those of my children. We got up at 7 to pray at 7:45 and eat breakfast at 8, and my daughter Lily would rather sleep in until noon so the schedule alone really got on her nerves. We were very busy, and the pace was hard to keep up, and I learned quickly that I’m no longer as young as I used to be. That was even more obvious in all the walking we did around the campsite. I was teaching Bible Study and leading worship with kids, an age group I love and eagerly serve but not the age group I have the strongest ministry skills with, and then there were the mosquitos. I have never been around so many mosquitos in my whole life.

By Monday at lunch, I felt like I’d already been at camp for forty days and forty nights, but it had actually only been 12 hours, and I have 4 more days to go. And then in each Bible study, my 12 students would gather around and enthusiastically read the Bible, and ask the most interesting questions. They have curiosity that adults should learn from. My days found a comfortable, Holy rhythm of 3’s–3 meals, 3 fun activities per day, and 3 kids soaking it in. And the day we left, I took the kids to the lake, and the kids wanted to wash my feet because they remembered Jesus did that for his friends. I was shocked and said “Wait, so you actually paid attention in Bible Study?” My sassy daughter put her hand on her hip and said “Duh, I always pay attention in Bible Study.” And at sunset, with the lake behind us, my kids helped me serve the Lord’s Supper to their 144 new friends.

It’s not the numbers that are ever important. We can have a great service in this church with a thousand people here, or 2. What’s important is God, and the Divine Love, and that you multiply that are share it with everyone.

Amen.

*Hymn           All My Hope is Firmly Grounded                                #132, v 1, 3, 4

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology #94

*Prayer of dedication           

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, Mother, Creator God, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

*Hymn               God Be with You ‘Til We Meet Again            #672, v 1, 2

Benediction

Postlude

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Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant