The Butterfly Effect

In 66 c.e. the Jews of Judea hatched a plan that history has judged to be one of the worst ideas ever. They rose up against Rome. By the time it ended, untold numbers of Jews had been killed. Jerusalem had been laid waste and the Temple, the Footstool of God, had been burned to the ground and desecrated by a Roman soldier. The Jews did not come together again in Judea until 1948. That was, indeed, a cracking bad idea.

Matthew's Gospel, scholars tell us, was written between perhaps 80 and 90 c.e. That is after the disaster, after the Temple was no more, after the time Jerusalem was laid flat. The birth of Jesus, if during the reign of Herod, must have been perhaps 6 or 7 b.c.e to 4 b.c.e. during the time when the Temple stood. How could so tiny a thing as the birth of a child in a remote part of Judea have changed the world such that it would be remembered through the utter destruction which was Rome's response to the Jewish rebellion? Join the congregation of Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Ky. for this week's sermon, The Butterfly Effect by clicking HERE for audio or HERE for text.

Community Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, Kentucky, was built on the casting floor of a 19th Century iron blast furnace. We use "The Casting Floor" as an image for the power of the Spirit to form us. Visit us at http://communitypresbyterian.org.