This Week's Scripture

In the beginning

2011-06-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

Genesis 1: 1-27 (June 19, 2011)

1) The Text

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 26Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

2) The Context

Genesis is the first book of the Bible. It begins with two versions of the creation story, neither of them scientific but telling us why we are on earth. In the story of Adam and Eve, it tells us that we are responsible, under God, for the care of all creation. It then continues with the stories of the patriarchs: Abraham (who enters into a covenant with God), Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

3) Interpretation

This passage says much about God and his relationship to humans. Long ago, people in the Near East asked how the earth came to be. A single creation story was known throughout the region; one such, dating from at least 1700 BC, is Enuma Elish from Mesopotamia (now Iraq.) It and Genesis 1 have a similar sequence of events, so studying what the authors of the Genesis story added, and what they left out, tells us about our God.

First, “In the beginning when God created ...”: God pre-exists all creation. The whole visible world came into being as a result of divine activity. At first, there was no order to the earth; it was “a formless void” (1:2). However here, unlike in Enuma Elish, a force is present, a life-giving power. From 1:3 on, the creation story is in the form of a hymn, with a refrain, “God saw that ... [it] was good.” This ancient story is divided into seven days, or stages of creation.

On the first day, God creates light, thus overcoming the “darkness.” In the Semitic mind, God’s ability to name light and darkness shows that he controls them. To grasp Day 2, we need to appreciate that people saw the earth as covered by a huge inverted pudding bowl, the “dome”, above which were the upper waters: snow, hail and rain. The “waters” surrounded the “dry land”. On Day 3, God has vegetation created through his agent, Earth. Other peoples worshipped some kinds of vegetation; in not creating vegetation directly, God reduces the chances of Israel doing the same: they are to worship only God. On the following days, living things are created or made. People then thought plants were unable to transmit life. The Sun and the Moon, created on Day 4, are inanimate to us, but to ancient people they were beings, moving on fixed tracks on the under-side of the dome. To Israel, they are beings under God’s command. On Day 5, God creates animals of the sea and air. Even the “great sea monsters” (e.g. Leviathan) were seen as creatures of the one God, and are therefore good. They, the fish and the birds get a special blessing because people thought they did not have the same ability to reproduce as land animals. On Day 6, land animals are created. 1:24 says that God caused the earth to “bring [them] forth”; however, in 1:25, God creates them directly. The creation story was handed down orally for centuries, and varied in its telling. The author (or editor) of Genesis is not afraid to include divergent versions.

“Let us” (1:26) is like a royal we; the creation of humans is the climax of the creation story. Human is made (created) in God’s “image” (the Hebrew word implies an exact copy); but he is also a “likeness” (similarity). He rules over all creatures. Sex is of divine origin. It is because of God’s blessing that we have procreative power.

4) Thought Exercise

What does the creation story say about God’s relationship with us?

What does the creation story say about our relationship with other creatures?

Let the little children come to me

2011-06-02T23:51:00.000-07:00

Mark 10: 13-16 (June 5, 2011)

1) The Text

13People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

2) The Context

Mark 9:33 mentions Jesus' arrival in Capernaum on the great journey from Caesarea Philippi (8:27) to Jerusalem. Mark 10:1 envisages a trip which entailed travelling down the eastern side of the Jordan and then crossing near Jericho. Mark keeps reminding us of the journey. The journey is an appropriate setting for instructing disciples (and all who are to join the Christian journey) about matters pertaining to community life. 9:33-50 has already done this in relation to leadership and responsibility. In 10:2-12 and 13-16 Mark places two anecdotes relating to family life – divorce and children.

This is not the only place where Jesus says that God's design means to provide wholeness and protection for those who are vulnerable (see 2:23-3:6). Children in the ancient world had few rights and essentially no social status. Therefore the disciples obstruct people who bring children to Jesus. Jesus blesses them, not because they conjure sweet images of cherubic innocence, but because he has concern for the vulnerable and scorned, for those ripe for exploitation.

3) Interpretation

This passage begins with picking up on the earlier teaching to welcome all who are a like a little child in Mark 9:36. Jesus warns his disciples that no one should place a stumbling block, that is an obstacle, before “these little ones who believe” in Jesus (9:42). Its placement at this point in Mark’s text indicates intention to emphasize the importance of welcoming outsiders and the least powerful among humankind to follow Jesus Christ.

This focus story unfolds in a three-part sequence: the opening part sets the stage for Jesus’ speech and action (10:13); the central part includes two sayings of Jesus prompted by his strong displeasure with his disciples (10:14-15); and the final part stresses Jesus’ action (10:16).

Already in the opening part, two items are quickly introduced that depict a conflict. On the one hand, some people were bringing little children to Jesus. Although the narrative is vague about the identity of the ones who bring the children (in the Greek it is simply “they were bringing”), it is clear about their purpose for doing so—“in order that he might touch them.” Less clear is the intended effect of Jesus’ touching. Is it for a blessing, or, as earlier in the Markan narrative (5:41-42 and 9:26-27), for healing? On the other hand, the narrative relates the disciples’ overhasty rebuke as a contrapuntal action. The disciples have obviously not learned the lesson of discipleship which involves welcoming the “least ones.”

The opening part sets the stage for Jesus’ strong emotional reaction and two emphatic sayings. In 10:14 the narrative describes Jesus as becoming indignant (or, as the Greek word suggests, “becoming incensed at what is wrong”) when he saw the disciples rudely rebuking the people bringing little children. This leads to two sayings of Jesus. The first one in 10:14 is specifically addressed to what the disciples have just done. Jesus’ saying includes an initial positive exhortation that makes clear what the disciples are to do (“allow the little children to come to me”), next a prohibition that indicates what they are to cease doing (“do not continue stopping them!”), and lastly the reason for both (“because of such ones is the kingdom of God”). Now for the first time Jesus directly associates the kingdom of God with little children.

Connecting the kingdom of God and children prepares for Jesus’ second saying that is solemnly introduced with the words “Truly I say to all of you.” This second saying is more general10 and shares linguistic elements with Jesus’ saying in 9:37. Both begin with Greek words that are translated “whoever,” both use the Greek word “receive,” both are concerned with a little child. Moreover, both serve as the final and culminating saying in their narrative episodes. Even more importantly, Jesus’ saying in 10:15 completes the logic begun in his earlier saying. Receiving a little child in Jesus’ name, according to 9:37, is equated with receiving Jesus himself and even God (“the one who sent me”). The theological claim appears similar to that of Matt 25:31-46—by practicing hospitality and care for the least and most vulnerable human being, one receives Jesus who on God’s behalf is in solidarity with this “least one.”

Mark 10:15 furthers the logic by inviting the follower of Jesus to enter the sphere of Jesus and God by entering the place and plight of a little child, one quite vulnerable and totally dependent on benevolent care and protection of adults. Earlier in the Markan narrative, Jesus’ disciples experienced the kingdom’s vulnerability when they were “sent out” in mission where they were dependent on the hospitality of others (see 6:7-13).

Mark 10:13-16 ends by describing Jesus’ action: after taking the little children into his arms, he blessed them by placing his hands on them. His action embodies the dynamic of God’s kingdom: welcoming and blessing the children epitomizes God’s gracious reception of the vulnerable and needy. In summary, then, this story offers readers the kingdom of God both as gift and task. On the one hand, “receiving the kingdom as a little child” implies the welcome and blessing of Jesus for us as we recognize ourselves to be as vulnerable and needy as a little child. Inclusion in God’s kingdom is sheer gift. Yet, on the other hand, the kingdom also invites responsible action on our part. By embracing a little vulnerable child we are welcoming Jesus (and thus God) and receiving the kingdom. Fowler supports this second aspect by rendering the first segment of Jesus’ saying in the following manner: “Receive the Kingdom of God when it approaches in the form of a child.”11

4) Thought Exercise

How do you see inclusion in God’s kingdom as a gift?

What responsible actions have you taken to welcome all who are like little children?

He is not far from each one of us

2011-05-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

Acts 17: 22-31 (May 29, 2011)

1) The Text

22Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

2) The Context

Paul is making an unexpected visit to Athens. His proclamation of Christ crucified had angered the Jews at Thessalonica so much that they had followed him to Beroea to incite riots in the crowds there. Rather than risk Paul’s safety, the Beroean believers had sent him off to Athens. There, while he waits for his colleagues to join him, Paul takes in the sights, tours the city and tries to learn something about its people. When he finds city shrines and altars dedicated to a variety of idols, he debates their existence wherever and with whomever he can: in the synagogue with the Jews, in the marketplace with the buyers and sellers, in the town center with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers.

In this last location, the Areopagus, Paul gives his only speech in Acts to an entirely pagan audience. He presents the good news to a people of a culture very different from the one in which it was first proclaimed.

3) Interpretation

The Athenians, whose altar is dedicated "to an unknown god," are trying to cover all the bases. If the gods of their other altars or shrines fail them, perhaps an "as-yet-unnamed" deity will look favorably upon them. Though this sounds like an ancient problem, people today continue to reach for an experience of the divine. They are seeking the highest high, the biggest vehicle, the most extreme sport, the most sordid confession on a reality show. Many in our culture are indulging in this cult of experience, which is actually a misguided groping for God.

Athenian philosophers bowed -- not to a god of personal experience, but to the god of sharp intellect. What is curious about Paul’s speech in Athens is the mild response it draws. The apostle’s preaching generally leads either to great disturbances or to large numbers of converts, but in Athens the reaction of the listeners is lukewarm. Some scoff; others are willing to hear Paul speak again; a few convert. Why such a minimal reaction? Perhaps it is because the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers wanted to engage God only as a concept, and not as the God-man who lays a claim upon our lives.

Will Willimon tells the story of an undergraduate who complained about her college’s religion department, which included four professors who taught courses in everything from Hindu beliefs to Christian history. "They know a great deal about a great many things in religion," she said, "but none of them in the department are practitioners of any particular faith. I find that strange. They know everything about God except God!"

To search for the divine as only an intellectual matter is another example of a misguided groping for God. The danger is twofold. First, we treat God as a topic to be conquered. If only I take another Bible study, if only I could get my questions answered, then I will know God. The second danger is using God as an endorsement for commitments we already have or projects we’d like to see carried out.

This idol of intellectualization creates distance from God. If we believe that a strong emotion or the right theory helps us worship God, we end up worshiping the emotion or the theory. And worship of anything but God separates us from God.

Furthermore, there is division between those who choose one type of idol over another. Those who place primary importance on a personal experience of God are skeptical of too much "book learning," while people who relentlessly search the limits of the knowable are skeptical of too much emotion. When people of both stripes are sitting in the sanctuary, what are we to do?

First, we are to heed Paul’s call to repentance, realizing that none of us has a corner on understanding God or living as Christ’s disciple. And since repentance involves concrete acts of turning away from the old and toward the new, we are to behave like family, the family that God created through baptism. We are made in the image and likeness of God, not in the image of the idols who tempt us. We are obligated to listen to one another, and to discuss our differences across denominational lines, theological persuasions -- and even across the center aisle of the sanctuary.

And all of us need to stop reaching so far in our search for God. God is, after all, "not far from each one of us." Our groping can end at the communion table, where we dine together as a family, where God is placed into our hands, and where we are reminded that God has come and will come again in Jesus the Christ.

4) Thought Exercise

What can you do to get to know God better?

What can you do to get to know others who have beliefs different from yours?

Make A Joyful Noise

2011-05-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

Psalm 100 (May 22, 2011)

1) The Text

1Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 2Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. 3Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. 5For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

2) The Context

Psalms is a collection of collections. The psalms were written over many centuries, stretching from the days of Solomon's temple (about 950 BC) to after the Exile (about 350 BC.) Psalms are of five types: hymns of praise, laments, thanksgiving psalms, royal psalms, and wisdom psalms. Within the book, there are five "books"; there is a doxology at the end of each book.

Psalm 100 is known as the Jubilate Deo, its first words in Latin. While the psalm does not specifically refer to God as king, its mood is similar to that of the preceding kingship psalms (95-99), all of which deal with the kingly rule of the God of Israel. This psalm is a doxology to these psalms. This theme was especially emphasized during the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles). Psalms 96; 98; 99 also call on Israel and other nations to join in the worship of God; they seek acknowledgement of his divine rule.

Vv. 1-3 form one hymn (a call to joy) and vv. 4-5 is another (a call to thanksgiving). All people everywhere (“all the earth”, v. 1) are invited to praise God, to be joyful in him. Why? Those processing to the Temple would, in “The Lord is God” (v. 3), be reminded of the first of the Ten Commandments. (That he is the only god is implied.) The covenant brought the people into a special relationship with God. V. 4 was probably spoken by the priests: they invite the faithful to enter the Temple to give thanks and praise. Both the Temple and royal palaces had “gates” (v. 4) and “courts”, so God the king, present in the Temple and reigning from there, is envisaged. God is goodness; he is eternally compassionate and faithful to those who keep his law and follow his ways. In the original context, his goodness was specifically his concrete acts of love promised in the Sinai covenant and shown to Israel.

3) Interpretation

The psalmist in Psalm 100 encourages us to worship the Lord with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts! Often, however, there can be certain factors that obstruct us from worshipping the Lord with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts. These include obstacles such as: (1) Anticipating an important future event (e.g., a job promotion, a scheduled surgery, a vacation we’re looking forward to, etc; (2) Sickness or poor health; (3) Worry or anxiety over something in our lives (e.g., something we said to a friend that we regret, or something we failed to do for a loved one, or worry about keeping our job, etc.; (4) Something that happened unexpectedly during the week that surprises us; (5) Preoccupation with what we don’t have.

How can we worship the Lord while contending against the many obstacles that prevent us from worshipping the Lord with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts? We can pray and ask God to give us the ability to focus our hearts and minds on Him. If worry has dominated our hearts, we pray for forgiveness. If we don’t feel good due to poor health we acknowledge our poor health to God. Through prayer we can worship the Lord with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts!

The final verse in the psalm, vs.5, functions as the climax or high point of the psalm. Verse 5 has been written as a causal clause. The psalmist uses it to outline the reasons we can worship the Lord with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts. What are the reasons?

1. The Lord is good and He does good things! The psalmist begins vs. 5 with this declaration: ”For the Lord is good”. The Bible tells us repeatedly of God’s goodness. The Psalms record numerous instances of God being called “good”. For instance, the psalmist in Psalm 34:8 writes “Taste and see that the Lord is good”. Thus, we observe that scripture both labels God “good” by nature and describes the good things He has done.

2. The Lord has an enduring love for us. The next part of vs.5 says “and his love endures forever”. We can worship the Lord with joy and thanksgiving in our hearts because His love for us never ends! Knowing and experiencing God’s constant love serves as an impetus for worship.

An elderly man lay in the hospital with his wife of 55 years sitting at his bedside. “Is that you, Ethel, at my side again?” he whispered. “Yes, dear” she answered. He softly said to her “Remember years ago when I was in the Veteran’s Hospital? You were with me then. You were with me when we lost everything in the fire. And Ethel, when we were poor-you stuck with me then too”. The man sighed and said, “I tell you, Ethel, you’re just bad luck!!” How easily we can twist reality and fail to recognize the enduring love of someone who truly cares for us.

3. The Lord remains faithful to us throughout all times. Even in the most upsetting and tumultuous times of life, God still remains with us! On a short term mission trip to a leper colony on the island of Tobago, the Pastor leading worship asked if anyone had a hymn request. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around. The pastor recalled, “it was the most hideous face I had ever seen. The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. The disease had destroyed her lips as well. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked “Can we sing “Count Your Many Blessings?”

Worship the Lord with joy and thanksgiving in your hearts! Prayerfully ask the Lord to remove sin and self-pity and other self-oriented distractions from you. Give him your worship, the worship He alone deserves! God deserves our worship for He is good, His love endures forever and our God remains ever faithful to us.

4) Thought Exercise

What are some examples of God’s good works in your life?

In what ways do you acknowledge God’s enduring love for you?

Signs and Wonders

2011-05-12T06:08:00.000-07:00

Acts 2: 42-47 (May 15, 2011)

1) The Text

42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

2) The Context

This book is the sequel to the gospel according to Luke. Beginning with Jesus' ascension, Luke tells the story of the beginnings of the church. By no means a comprehensive history, it does describe the spread of the church from Jerusalem to all of Palestine, and as far as Greece. The episodes show how Christianity arose out of Judaism and describes the struggles the church underwent in accepting Gentiles as members.

In the book of Acts three summaries connect narratives to miracle stories and miracle stories to narratives (2:42-47; 4:32-35; 5:12-16). These summaries provide a picture of the activities the new believers engaged in when they congregated under the leadership of the apostles. This text, 2:42-47, the first summary, follows the massive baptism resulting from Peter's first speech at Pentecost. The summaries tell how the nascent group of believers constituted a community.

3) Interpretation

It is important that community building starts on the right foot. Verse 42 begins "And they were committing themselves (proskartereo) to the teaching of the apostles and to the koinonia” (i.e., the Christian fellowship or communion with God or with fellow Christians; in particular of the early Christian community). This is the first mention of the apostles' teaching in Acts. Many persons have now joined the Jesus movement who may never have heard Jesus' teachings. It is not clear in the Greek text whether the breaking of bread and prayers at verse 42 constitutes the koinonia or if they are activities distinct from the koinonia. Nevertheless, koinonia signifies mutuality and commonality among the new believers beyond potluck meals; it consists of building a shared existential reality and anticipatory future.

The Greek verb proskartereo describing the believers' mutual devotion is the same verb used for the disciples' commitment as they gathered in the upper room waiting for the outpouring of God's Spirit (1:14). The presence of proskartereo in both texts may demonstrate a paradigmatic relationship between Acts 1:14 and 2:42-47. Acts 1:14 is the model upon which the first (and subsequent) summary is based. Acts 2:42 reflects the charismatic growth of the community quantitatively and qualitatively expanding upon that first upper room gathering. Proskartereo occurs a second time at 2:46 where the focus shifts to how the believers committed themselves to the Temple and to house-to-house breaking of bread. If it were not for the proskartereo of the believers, their attention to the apostles' teaching, prayers, eucharistic celebrations, and participation in signs and wonders would be less than koinonia, but merely activities that they engage in simultaneously and in the same place. Proskartereo engenders koinonia mutuality--the giddy sharing of goods, self and time for the welfare of all.

Luke repeats here two other phrases used in 1:14 to describe the pre-Pentecostal assembly: "at the same place and at the same time" and they "were having all things common (koina)." It is not enough to share space and time, but an intentional act of koina is required. Verse 45 delineates more tangibly how the believers held all things common: "they sold their goods and their real property, and they distributed the proceeds to whoever among them was in need." Commonality and sharing was not limited to spiritual things, but included material possessions. This koina is what many scholars find least credible. These words are either descriptive of actual events or as a prescriptive ideal picture of how Luke envisioned a koinonia-governed community.

The Greek adverb homothumadon (in one accord) also occurs both at 2:46 and at 1:14. In both texts homothumadon follows proskartereo demonstrating a unified devotion among the disciples in the second floor room and among the early community after the Pentecostal increase (cf. 4:32-35; 5:12-16; 7:57). The harmonious commitment of the early believing community could be partly motivated by the many signs and wonders that the apostles performed (2:43).

We are called to bring about tangible signs and wonders on the earth. Signs and wonders signify that God's Spirit is at work. When we act with homothumadon to do our part to eliminate hunger, homelessness, child abuse, discrimination, and inequality in education, inter alia, God's Spirit, in and through us, performs signs and wonders on the earth. Mutual and unified commitment engenders marvelous acts of social justice within the community and beyond.

Our summary finally describes how the community praised God and demonstrated favor or grace toward one another. And the Lord (God) saved many more who were brought into the community. Ultimately, it is God who saves and expands the community, but not without our cooperation. God worked in and through people willing to teach and be taught, to believe in, perform and receive signs and wonders, and to create mutual koinonia.

4) Thought Exercise

What signs and wonders have you seen that show God’s spirit at work?

What signs and wonders are you producing to the show God’s spirit at work?

The Lord’s Prayer

2011-05-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

Luke 11: 1-4 (May 8, 2011)

1) The Text

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

2) The Context

Then and now, a religious community has a distinctive way of praying; ours is exemplified by the Lord’s Prayer. In 5:33, Pharisees and scribes have noted that followers of John the Baptist “frequently fast and pray”; now Christians have their own prayer. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter than Matthew’s (which we use). We approach God in a personal way, as “Father” (v. 2). His “name” is more than just a name: we pray that all may give respect due to him, so all may see his love. “Your kingdom come” looks forward to the Kingdom, where all barriers – of wealth, sex and ritual cleanness – will no longer exist. Of the five petitions, the last two seek filling of our needs. “Bread” (v. 3) is what we need to live; it is God’s gift to us. We share it with all, especially in the Eucharist. “Daily” here means day after day. The “time of trial” (v. 4) is the final onslaught of evil forces, before Christ comes again; it is also the temptations which assail us day-by-day.

3) Interpretation

In this passage we have the shorter and probably earlier form of the Lord’s Prayer. Luke brings it in a context which teaches about prayer. It is just as much also teaching about God.

This is already the case in the simple way with which the Lord’s prayer begins: ‘Father’. Jesus was one of those who gave the formal designation of God as the great father in heaven and creator a familiar tone: ‘father’. Elsewhere we find traces of the common family term: ‘abba’. It is not baby talk, but it does reflect the kind of intimacy one might expect in a family. It assumes a parent who is not remote but accessible, not violent and overbearing, but supportive and caring.

The kind of supportive relationship Jesus has with the Father is not exclusive, but rather a model of the relationship which all can have. That is made possible because of the kind of God God is. This is a theme repeated elsewhere, not least in the image of the father in the parable of the prodigal son. Compassion and caring are central.

Jesus would have known about abusive fathers, just as he knew about abusive rulers. He used the ambiguous images of king and father because they were part of the tradition in which he was nourished. He engaged that tradition critically, subverting its violence and asserting its love. The ambiguity of the traditional images of king and father has been reflected in the very diverse consequences which they have spawned throughout history. Interpreters of the tradition in every generation have a responsibility to engage these images critically, helping people perceive where they bring life and where they bring death. This ambiguity needs to be named, not least because among our hearers are many, both women and men, for whom the image of father is almost irrecoverably destructive.

Hallowing means respecting, treating as holy. This is fundamental to our relationship with God and to all other relationships. Acknowledging the holiness, the dignity, the otherness of the other, must not be reduced to a metaphor of cringing before one who is more powerful, even if that is dressed up respectably as obeisance before the almighty. For then it reinforces the assumption that might is right and the bigger and stronger is the better. Such thinking often results in abusive relationships. Parents emulate their god. People emulate their god. The victims are disempowered. There is, however, an awe in relationships which flows from profound respect and love. It is often when we are standing on our feet face-to-face or bowed, not the one before the other, but together in service and mutual care.

‘Your kingdom come’ remains in the realm of the same ambiguity and has been equally a source of life and death. Our eucharist remembers the image of that kingdom as a great feast where all are included, from east and west and north and south, where swords become ploughs, spears become pruning hooks. It is also a feast focused on a life broken and poured out in compassion. This is one of the central images and actions which has the capacity to control the ambiguity, if we make the connections. But even it is capable of subversion until it becomes a feast of exclusion and a trivialised appendage for people claiming privilege.

Day by day human need has a firm place in Jesus’ prayer. There can be no separation between visions and life here and now. The same need for food and forgiveness is fundamental to every human being. That is why it is also part of the vision of the kingdom. As the prayer continues, Jesus has no shame in abandoning the ideal of the hero; instead we are to pray not to have to face the hard times. This will be as much personal as it is linked with the adversity we are likely to face if we take the kingdom vision as our agenda and engage in all our relationships on the basis that the other is holy.

4) Thought Exercise

How does the Lord’s Prayer help you build a relationship with God?

What does the Lord’s Prayer teach us about relationship building?

Peace Be With You

2011-04-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

John 20: 19-31 (May 1, 2011)

1) The Text

19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

26A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

2) The Context

In John, and throughout the New Testament, the English word "life" translates three different Greek words: psychē, bios, and zoē. When John speaks, on the one hand, of psychē or bios, these words refer to what one possesses simply by virtue of being a living creature. This is the life possessed from birth to death by animals and by humans, whether they be good or bad, righteous or wicked, founders of charities or perpetrators of genocide.

On the other hand, "life" as used at the end of this passage, is spoken of with the word zoē. This is eternal life (literally "life of the age"), life given to those who believe; life given to those who are born of God; life that, in John, transforms us from merely existing to living in the abundance and eternity of God. This life was present from the beginning and lies at the core of creation ("in him was life (zoē), and the life (zoē) was the light of all people" (1:4)). This life connects the deepest purposes of God with the ultimate purpose of John's gospel: "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah ... and that believing you may have life (zoē) in his name." This zoē does not replace psychē; we are still the same creatures we were before. It does, however, bring us into the fullness of grace; so that we are, also, not still, the same creatures we were before—at least potentially not the same.

3) Interpretation

In this passage, we find the disciples demonstrating more psychē than zoē, hunkered down behind locked doors, fearful of what might happen to them at the hands of those who killed Jesus. The risen Christ steps into the room, into the midst of their fears with the first of a three-fold "Peace be with you." This is the peace that comes when our worst fears are not realized; the profound realization that out of the blood, the nails, the thorns, the beating, and the cross has come this life, this zoē of God, right into their midst.

When Christ shows them his hands and side, they rejoice with the euphoria, the adrenaline rush that follows the miraculous—the crucified one is the risen one. Jesus then speaks a second "Peace be with you", maybe this time a "not so fast" kind of peace, a kind of peace that lasts beyond the initial rush, that abides even when one remembers the cost and the challenges that still lie ahead. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Sobering words, even when they see the living Christ, since they have also just been shown his wounds. Christ's victory will be theirs as well, but in order to get there, they will need the kind of peace that abides even when—in the midst of their own blood, thorns, and cross—victory seems a dim and distant possibility.

The third "Peace be with you" follows a famous interlude with the disciples and Thomas, who was absent during the previous appearance. Although he is famous as "Doubting" Thomas, he asks for no more than what the rest of them, including Mary Magdalene, have already received. As we will see, Thomas' words do not seem particularly troubling to Jesus, but one might imagine the existence of significant tension between Thomas and the other disciples in the room. After all, Thomas has in so many words called them liars to their face. "I won't believe you until I see for myself." However, despite what might have transpired during the rather awkward week that followed the first appearance, they are still together.

Jesus again appears among them, and says again, "Peace be with you," perhaps this time the peace of reconciliation—"peace be among you," the peace that follows when one forgives (a task given to the disciples at Jesus' previous appearance). This is the gospel that most emphasizes oneness and unity among the disciples, a oneness that shows the world that this message of life is true. So, this third peace, within the community, might be the most significant of all.

Jesus does not admonish Thomas but invites him to satisfy his doubt by seeing for himself. He is welcomed into the peace of Christ before he can either apologize or defend himself. Churches and communities of faith often do not do as well with dissidents and challenges in their midst. But Christ calls them and us to live into his peace as a way of reaching our own peace with each other. Christ seems less concerned than we often are about adherence to one interpretation of his life and resurrection. He sends Thomas, doubters, and all of us to continue his work.

Thomas' response stands as the highest affirmation of Christ by anyone in the gospel, "My Lord and my God!" What the narrator stated in the prologue ("and the Word was with God and the Word was God"), this non-doubting Thomas speaks with his own lips. Whether we have the faith of Thomas or the faith described at the end of this passage, the goal is that we find our life, our zoē, within the life of the crucified and risen Christ, who sends us out as his Father also sent him.

4) Thought Exercise

What doubts do you have about the resurrection?

How are you continuing Jesus’ work?

Retelling the Resurrection Story

2011-04-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

John 20: 1-18 (April 24, 2011)

1) The Text

20Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

2) The Context

John’s version of the Easter story reflects traditions that are also in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. One of the unique characteristics of the resurrection story in John is the central place given to Mary Magdalene. She is a witness not only to the resurrection of Jesus but also to his death. But who is this Mary Magdalene? Luke 8:1-3 tells us that Jesus had expelled seven demons from her and that she along with other women accompanied Jesus and the disciples as they traveled through cities and villages proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. These women were serving "them" out of their resources. The Greek word for "serve" is diakoneo, which implies ministry. According to Mark, Mary Magdalene "used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee." The Greek word for "follow" is akoloutheo, which is the verb used to describe a disciple. Thus there is evidence that Mary Magdalene was a faithful disciple.

Another unique feature of the story in John is the role of the Beloved Disciple. The Beloved Disciple must have had a significant role in the Johannine community and appears at significant points in the Gospel. He is first mentioned in the account of the Last Supper. He is the disciple who was reclining next to Jesus and asks Jesus who it was that was going to betray Jesus. This is the disciple who was known to the high priest and after Jesus’ arrest he follows Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest. When he sees that Peter is delayed at the gate, the Beloved Disciple speaks with the woman who was guarding the gate and brings Peter in.

The Gospel never makes explicit the identity of the Beloved Disciple. Although traditionally the Beloved Disciple has been identified with John the son of Zebedee, there is no indication of it at all in the Gospel. This may be because the Johannine community knew who the Beloved Disciple was. He had a crucial role in the Johannine church.

3) Interpretation

This resurrection story tells not so much what happened to Jesus or how the resurrection took place but who were the witnesses to the resurrected Lord. A related question that this passage raises is how to tell the resurrection story. Is there only one way to tell it? This is not to suggest that we change the resurrection accounts in the New Testament to make them fit our own worldviews, desires and wishes. Rather, it is to suggest that we plug our own story into the resurrection story. Under the illuminating guidance of the Spirit, this "old, old story" must continually become the good news that addresses us where we are. It must become our story.

This resurrection story acknowledges that the response to the Christ event may vary from one Christian to another. Peter unhesitatingly enters the tomb. The Beloved Disciple is more cautious, but once he sees the undisturbed grave clothes, his perceptiveness leads to faith in the resurrection. Mary is outside weeping and will experience the resurrection of Jesus yet another way. It is no wonder then that there is not a single gospel written but four. Despite the central reality of the resurrection of Jesus, the story can be told in so many different ways because the resurrection is a reality that is experienced existentially by believers in a wide variety of ways. The Beloved Disciple believes when he sees the abandoned linen wrappings. Mary believes when she hears the Lord call her name. Thomas believes when he is given a chance to put his fingers in the nail-scarred hands of Jesus. How do I believe? How do you believe? Our faith rests more on conviction than on concrete fact. In the end our faith rests on little tangible evidence.

John makes use of the traditions that have come down to him but he retells the story in his own way. How will the story of the resurrection of Jesus be told today? What difference will it make in the nitty-gritty of life for us as individual believers and as a church? The reason we need the Easter story is that it provides the possibility of a future for those who have lost hope. People who have faced the cul-de-sacs of life have nowhere to go. When that marriage is dead, when cancer takes its toll, when calamity strikes, when gang warfare or bombs claim the lives of loved ones, can there be a tomorrow? The resurrection story is God’s address to us as we face life in our present circumstances. The Gospel of John bears witness to the possibility of taking the old story and retelling so that it becomes our own story, the living story of a community of believers.

4) Thought Exercise

What do you believe to be true about the resurrection?

What evidence do you have to support your belief?

A Different Kind of King

2011-04-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Matthew 21: 1-11 (April 17, 2011)

1) The Text

21When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5“Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” 6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

2) The Context

This story is found in all four gospels, indicating its importance to the early church: Mark 11:1-11a; Luke 19:28-38; John 12:12-19. Matthew records Jesus' Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. Actually it is John who tells us that it took place on the Sunday before Jesus' crucifixion, cf. Jn.12:1. Matthew records that after deliberate and careful preparation, Jesus rides into Jerusalem and in so doing fulfills prophecy, revealing the full extent of his Messianic character.

Only Matthew mentions two donkeys. Mark, along with Luke, tells us that "no one has ever ridden" the animal. The prophecy tells us that it was a colt, a young animal. Matthew gives us the full details. Jesus rides the young colt with its mother tagging alone. The Lord who stills the storm, stills the unbroken animal.

The spreading of cloaks on the road by the crowd acknowledges Jesus' kingship. The cutting of branches and spreading them before Jesus is a gesture similar to that offered to Simon Maccabaeus when he entered Jerusalem, 1Macc.13:51, 2Macc.10:7. Both acts are a gesture of respect. Jesus' stay in Bethany most likely allowed the news of his approach to spread throughout Jerusalem. Along with bands of pilgrims, Jesus moves toward the city. The crowd starts singing a pilgrims' chant. The chant comes primarily from Psalm 118:25-26. "Hosanna" is an acclamation of praise. "Son of David", and "He who comes in the name of the Lord", are both messianic titles. "Hosanna in the highest" is equivalent to "Glory to God in the highest." The disciples may understand the significance of these words, but it is unlikely the crowd does.

Mark has Jesus weeping over the city while Matthew focuses on the entry. Jesus probably enters the city near the north entrance to the outer court of the temple. By this time many in the city are caught up in the event, but of course question what it all means. They are not actually asking "Who is this?", but are rather questioning "Who is this Jesus?" For many in the crowd Jesus is just a local prophet, certainly not the messiah.

3) Interpretation

There are reasons that we tend to like candidates who we're convinced are outsiders to politics. One of them is that we're dissatisfied with the games of politics as they're currently played. We don't want someone who works well within the system; we want a system that works, and on some level, we know that the system as it's been running isn't working for a lot of people. I think a dynamic with some similarities to that is at work in Matthew's presentation of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Matthew has the crowd proclaiming Jesus as the king in Jerusalem who has come as an outsider, a prophet from Galilee (Matthew 21:11). This is not a case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss": things are going to change, and in the biggest of ways, when Jesus is king -- starting with how kings rule.

Matthew wants people to know that when he says that Jesus is king, we're not talking about kingship as it's usually conceived, or kingship as it's usually used by those who have it. Jesus is a king who restores the glory of God's people, but not with military victories. Jesus triumphs, but not with the might of the sword. Jesus rides into the city not on a war horse, but "humble and riding on a donkey," a beast of trade rather than of war, because this is a different kind of king.

There are at least two points that are central in the Christian proclamation of Jesus as Lord. The first is that the position has been filled, fully and forever -- no other candidates need apply. Jesus, and not any earthly ruler, nor any power or principality, is Lord of all that is. The second is that the Lord Jesus is not like other kings. Jesus did not come to be "king of the hill," but to fulfill our longing that “every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain (Isaiah 40:4).

That's what the writer of the Gospel According to John meant when he wrote that Jesus said to Pilate, "my kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). It's not that Jesus is uninterested in what happens on earth. Quite the opposite is true. Jesus didn't come to tell us to give up on the earth, any more than he came to rule it like Pilate. Jesus came to redeem it. Jesus didn't come to take over Pilate's system; he came to replace it. When we confess that Jesus is Lord and Christ, the anointed king, we are leaving no room for the Pilates of this world. When we confess Jesus as Lord – not in some distant world or only in the future, but of all that is, and of here and now – we are proclaiming the Good News that it is possible, with Jesus as Lord, for all those with power to use it as he used his, for the vision of the prophets to find flesh among us who proclaim Christ the king.

That is the vision and the reality we proclaim when we honor Jesus, the outsider of Nazareth, as king in Jerusalem. Jesus brings more than a new face under the crown, a new point on the calendar: it is a new world.

4) Thought Exercise

How would you describe Jesus’s vision for our world?

What basic things can we do to inch toward that vision?

The Spirit of Christ

2011-04-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

Romans 8: 6-11 (April 10, 2011)

1) The Text

6To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

10But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

2) The Context

In Romans 7, Paul has sought to demonstrate that perverted human nature is such that it subverts the Law. Confronting human nature with the demands of the Law does not bring about change. It tends to ensconce people in their rebelliousness. The Law does not then bring life but death.

The situation seems quite hopeless, but for divine intervention. Paul sees that divine intervention in Christ. Its effect is to offer a relationship of love which includes forgiveness of sin, the overcoming of alienation, and the power to begin anew and to keep on going (8:1-4). What the Law could not achieve because of the state of human nature (8:3a) God has achieved in another way, through sending his Son right into this hopeless situation of humanity to deal with it (8:3b). 8:4 then reinforces Paul's claim. Rather than showing disrespect for the Law of God, enshrined in scripture, he is proclaiming a gospel that liberates people to live in ways that fulfill what the Law asks of them. They do so not by trying harder but by becoming engaged in a relationship which has the effect of changed behavior.

In 8:5 Paul then explains the contrast. People live according to "the flesh" or according to the Spirit. They are two mindsets. By the first Paul means trying to improve yourself by your own efforts and remaining focused on yourself. By the latter he means opening yourself to the transforming reality of love through the Spirit. "Flesh" is not neutral here nor does it mean our human nature in itself, let alone our sexual nature as if to be human is bad. "Flesh" is a certain way of living, a perversion of our true selves.

3) Interpretation

Our passage comes in at 8:6 where Paul elaborates further. If you set your mind or focus just on yourself in a selfish kind of way, you will not succeed. It is the way of death. The way to liberation is to let go of focusing only on yourself and making yourself self-sufficient. It is to open yourself to being loved.

We give up the struggle of justifying ourselves to ourselves and to others and to God and we accept our human frailty and sinfulness and we accept God's love. We can stop fighting. We can find peace (8:6). It is OK to let go and be loved. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage especially when we have spent our lives trying to maintain our own construction of ourselves, which has often meant kidding ourselves and others. We stop trying to make ourselves feel better by doing good. We give it away and accept grace.

Fighting to sustain our identity apart from God and by all this effort at achieving worth sets us on collision course with those who just want to look us in the eye with love and embrace us. We are then our own worst enemies and it also means we resist being loved. That includes resisting God (8:7). Sometimes our fear of love can even be violent, because love sees us as we are - we can't stand that. Such a mindset sets us heading not to life but death, even though we think it is the way we shall save ourselves, it is certainly debilitating. Even when we acknowledge God's law as good we won't be able to keep it because we lack the inner resources (8:7). We just can't please God like that and we also do no good to those around us and to ourselves (8:8).

Paul celebrates that love liberates people. It gives them hope. Here in 8:9 he speaks of God's Spirit entering people. In the same verse he speaks of Christ's Spirit entering us. It is really all the same. The God who meets in compassion in Christ is there for us in the present. We stop being isolated. We become God's (8:9). Much earlier Paul spoke of the glory which humanity has lost by its alienation and sin (3:23). Now we can become what we were made to be.

8:10 could mean one of two things: the body, the old state of affairs, has come to an end. Then it reflects an answer to the cry of liberation from the body of death in 7:25. Or it may be that Paul wants to say we still have to live with these negative dynamics entrenched in our psyche but we don't have to be overwhelmed by them because the Spirit of love can set us on a new path. The latter fits more into our notions of gradual and dynamic change. Certainly Paul thinks change is possible in the here and now, but he also knows that we keep having to realize this potential and keep focused. It doesn't just happen automatically. The statement is so dense that it is hard to tell. Like a set of notes Paul contrasts: body/death/sin with Spirit/life/goodness. He knows we can choose the second cluster. Its result is goodness: love begets love.

Paul has a big-picture understanding of what love does. It more than enables him to respond to the quibbles of those who think he is abandoning scripture because it is grounded in the bigness of God and is as defiant as Christ's resurrection to which Paul keeps returning. There can be change now and there needs to be change in the future. How else can one understand the movement of radical love?

4) Thought Exercise

Are there times you feel isolated from God?

Are there times you have let God in and felt less isolated?

Reminders

2011-03-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

Luke 22: 7-20 (March 27, 2011)

1) The Text

7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.” 9They asked him, “Where do you want us to make preparations for it?” 10“Listen,” he said to them, “when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters 11and say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 12He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.” 13So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

14When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. 15He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

2) The Context

Passover is one of the most sacred and significant celebrations on the Jewish calendar. It is the celebration of the deliverance of God’s people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. The last plague that God sent upon the Egyptians was the angel of death who was to slay the first born in every home in Egypt. The Jews were to kill an unblemished lamb, eat it in hast because they were going to flee the country, and put the blood of the lamb on the door posts and the lintel of the house. The angel seeing the blood would pass over the house and everyone inside would be safe. Jesus and his disciples were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

An upper room would be an extra room, built onto the flat roof of a typical Palestinian house. It was probably "furnished" (Greek strunnuo, "to equip something with appropriate furnishings") with carpets and cushions on which guests would recline for their meal. It was customary to recline at the Passover meal. Guests would lean on their left arm and eat with their right, legs splayed out behind them. As host of the meal, Jesus begins to speak the ancient words of the Passover meal, telling of Israel's Exodus from Egypt by God's strong hand. For Jesus, this Passover meal looks forward to its fulfillment in the Great Feast in the Kingdom of God at the End Time (Luke 13:28-29; 14:15; 22:30; Revelation 19:9).

3) Interpretation

Jesus begins the night with a mind catching statement, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Jesus tells them he is about to suffer and that this is the last meal he will have with them until the kingdom of God is fulfilled.

All of Jesus’ time on earth was leading up until this point. He came for one reason and one reason only and that was to die for the sins of the world. Jesus was focused on the cross. The disciples were unaware of what was taking place. It was not a coincidence that Jesus chose the Passover to reveal himself at last to the disciples. The Passover was the celebration of the deliverance from bondage, an earthly bondage. Jesus was about to announce himself as the true Passover lamb; the one who would deliver his people from the bondage of sin and death.

At this one meal prior to the events that would unfold Jesus lays out what will happen to him over the next few days. Jesus was bringing the kingdom of God to fulfillment. During the meal he takes bread and after giving thanks he breaks it and offers it to them with the words, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” At the end of the meal he takes the cup and tells them, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Jesus identifies himself as our sacrifice for sin. The celebration of a past event becomes the present reality for the disciples and for us.

Jesus comes to us each time we eat the bread and drink the wine. He is among us. The reality of his sacrifice is made real to us again. The bread and the wine remind us that our sins are forgiven. The kingdom is made real to us. The disciples did not know what was taking place at the time but after the resurrection they would gather in homes to break bread and drink the cup and remember the Lord’s death.

The gospel story moves us to this event and the Book of Acts takes us from this event, but the cross remains central to the churches theology. From the virgin birth until the cross the life of Jesus is seen as special, but in many ways he is witnessed as an important rabbi, a special figure. When demons recognize him he silences them. When someone is healed he tells them not to say a word to anyone. Jesus’ life and ministry is not about miracles and earthly power. Jesus’ ministry is about the salvation of lost humanity. Jesus on this night is not silent about who he is. All that was understood in the paschal celebration finds fulfillment in Jesus.

The days will unfold and go in the eyes of the disciples and followers of Jesus from bad to worse. He will identify his betrayer, be arrested and put on trial, Peter will deny him and the others will flee. Pilate will agree to have him executed and all will seem lost. In hind sight this night makes sense. The reason we celebrate the Lord’s supper is because in doing so we act out the passion story and we are refreshed and built up by the Christ who comes among us.

Christianity is all about Jesus. Our faith is all about Jesus. Our salvation is all about what Jesus has done for us. It is on this night that we understand that nothing we can do matters. It is in the recognition that Jesus is the one who died for our sins that we tap into the source of all life.

4) Thought Exercise

During communion, what do the cup and bread remind you of?

How does the communion experience serve you in daily life?

Faith Alone

2011-03-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17 (March 20, 2011)

1) The Text

4What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us,17as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

2) The Context

The epistle that Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome was a letter he intended to be sent, not to one, but to a number of church communities scattered throughout the city. Therefore, he knew that he was writing to diverse audiences that did not always agree with one another. He also knew that he was coming in on the middle of a conversation. These Christians were not blank slates. They had been living their lives in a variety of cultures both political and religious. Some had been raised as Roman citizens, required to sacrifice to the empire's gods. Others had been raised in the synagogue, telling the stories of Moses and the children of Israel, following a prescribed set of laws. How do you think that these people, Gentiles or Jews, reacted when told by Paul that none of what they had done would make them right with God? It is not easy to give up old habits.

3) Interpretation

This passage puts before us a major understanding of what God was up to in Jesus and long before that, in Abraham. This chapter speaks to the very character of God. The question wrestled with in this text is simply, "how big is Abraham's family?" The answer Paul offers, derived from his reading of Genesis 15:5, is that Abraham's family is as big as the numbers of persons who have faith in God. Jews are part of the family to be sure. So are Gentiles who believe that God has rescued them through the obedience (crucifixion and resurrection) of Jesus.

The translation of Romans 4:1 has been much debated. As Richard B. Hays persuasively argues 4:1 is best rendered in two questions: "What then shall we say? Have we found Abraham to be our forefather according to the flesh?" Paul voices the second question in order to argue against it, a not unusual process for him. Paul believes that the text and order of events in Genesis 15 is crucial to a proper understanding of who is in Abraham's family.

In verses 16-17 Paul insists that humans are part of Abraham's family through faith rather than physical descent. To be part of Abraham's family by faith is to be an inheritor of God's promises, to be in covenant relationship with God, to be "justified." All these phrases are in apposition to each other (i.e., the act of placing together or bringing into proximity). All of them describe who we are, whose we are. Paul and other believers needed to establish how Gentiles can be part of God's covenant people without attention to the Torah. If God could simply cast aside all the covenant promises made to Abraham, David, and through the prophets in favor of a new people, it is God who is unreliable, indeed, unfaithful. And if God has been unfaithful to God's word to the children of Abraham according to the flesh, why should anyone trust that God will be faithful in the future? So, it is really important that God's promise be understood as from the beginning for a larger group than Abraham's children according to the flesh. The breadth and depth of God's promise, and our ability to trust and hope in God are all at stake in this argument.

It is also very good news for us, although challenging, to think about what other peoples God considers to be part of the family of Abraham by faith. What does faith look like? Surely the faith and faithfulness of the Gentiles would have been surprising to Abraham. What would surprise us, were we suddenly able to see who all is in God's family?

Finally, a most important point is that this faithful God justifies the ungodly, not waiting for them to shape up first. In verses 5 and 17, God is identified as the one who justifies the ungodly, the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Paul identifies the God who has created a new people, a new part of the family through the faithfulness of and faith in Jesus the Messiah. This people participate in the life of God's covenant family, those who receive mercy. God did not and does not wait for us to become a people. "While we were yet sinners, " as Paul will say later in this letter, God brought us into relationship, gave us the gift of the Spirit, showed mercy, and in all that acted faithfully to the promises long made and never forgotten.

In this passage, Paul establishes a simple truth that is very easily forgotten. Our approval with God does not depend on our faithfulness to his commands, but rather, it depends on our willingness to trust his faithfulness. Abraham stood right before God, righteous before God, on the basis of faith and not works of the law. If we follow the example of Abraham and put our trust in God, we will find that our faith is accounted to us as righteousness. As worthy sons, we inherit the kingdom promised long ago to Abraham - we all inherit eternity, as a gift of grace appropriated through faith. Faith alone is the instrument through which we appropriate the grace of God. Holy living or denominational faithfulness, play no part in appropriating God's grace. Our standing in the kingdom of God is through faith apart from good works. We see the promise of eternity and by resting on it we are given it.

4) Thought Exercise

What does your faith look like?

Who do you see as part of God’s family?

The Gift of Love and Grace

2011-03-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

Romans 5: 12-21 (March 13, 2011)

1) The Text

12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— 13sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. 15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

2) The Context

Romans is the first epistle in the New Testament. Paul wrote it to the church at Rome, which included both Jews and Gentiles. The book was probably written in 57 AD, when Paul was at the end of his third missionary journey around the Eastern Mediterranean. It is unusual in that it was written to a church that Paul had not visited. Therefore, unlike the other epistles that address issues and conflicts within a specific community, this epistle is written to present the gospel; his understanding of who Jesus was and how the death and resurrection of Christ had brought about a new creation. It is in this book that Paul presents his most sustained and complete theology.

In this selected passage, Paul views salvation from the curse of Adam to God’s cure in Christ. Adam’s one act of disobedience brought both sin and death upon mankind. Christ’s one act of obedience, on the cross, brought about the solution to this curse. The work of Christ offers all men not only the promise of the forgiveness of their sins, but a new identity and beginning, in Christ. The text falls into three sections. Verses 12-14 describe the similarity between the act of Adam and that of Christ. Both men are “federal heads” of mankind, whose actions affect all men. Verses 15-17 emphasize the many significant contrasts between the act of Adam and the act of Christ. The differences between them are the basis for His becoming the cure for the curse which Adam brought upon the human race. Verses 18-21 sum up the results of Christ’s work relative to the action of Adam and defines the role of Law in relation to man’s sin and God’s grace.

3) Interpretation

Paul paints on a broad canvas. He has just celebrated reconciliation, grounded in love and the foundation of hope (5:1-11). This world view now receives further elaboration in a complicated, repetitive statement about Adam and Christ (5:12-21). It introduces us to two major processes which Paul sees at work in humanity. The two processes head in opposite directions. One brings people into the state of sin, produces sins and leads to death in more than just a literal sense. The other produces life and goodness. Paul's intellectual world assumes that the human race began with Adam. Adam's sin or disobedience started a process. Paul speaks of this process in terms of rule or reign (5:13). It is a process which brought sin's negativity to all people.

Matching Adam's sin is Christ's goodness. Paul focuses not on Christ as a life story, but as an event. He speaks of an act of grace or goodness. For Paul that usually means Christ's death, but this must not be seen in isolation from his life, ministry, or resurrection. Just as something happened which started a process of decay and destruction through Adam's sin, so something creative and liberating happened in Christ which began a new process. In Paul's repetitive text are the links between goodness/grace and its fruits in people's lives. Some of his statements could be read as though the process is automatic, but that misreads Paul. Paul never forgets we are dealing with people and relationships and thus personal response matters. This is true of the sin/death process - people choose to sin just as people choose to respond to the good news.

Paul has Christ match Adam. Christ makes it possible to become free from the process which Adam inaugurated. Ultimately that will not reach fulfillment until we reach an entirely renewed creation; everything needs to be liberated in Paul's view not just individual human beings. But in the interim we don't need to be caught in the power system which produces sin and hate and death. We can live, instead, by the Spirit, which produces goodness, and love and hope.

Sin is much more than individual acts of sin. Negative, destructive influence is more than what confronts one in the choice between good and evil. Such influences are also systemic in groups, organizations and families. We are very good at creating contexts that are destructive for people. We also know that "saving" means more than forgiveness of individuals' sins. It is a process. It is the undoing of the destructive forces and influences which we inherit and which find their form in our structures and settings. Organizations can be destructive even though they are peopled with loving individuals and exist for good. Churches and congregations can be prime examples.

Paul helps us be aware that sin in something big and sins are just the outworking of the malaise - which he can sometimes call death. Paul is therefore also making us aware that salvation is big. It is about getting things into right relationship ("righteousness", "justification'). This is not a one-off experience but a life-long process which may be dotted with dramatic episodes or may be simply a steady surge of maturity towards love. It includes more than individuals. It is the source of our passion for ecumenism and ultimately for a world of peace and a creation cared for.

Paul's final point is that the Law was powerless to bring the kind of change which was needed. Only the gift of love and grace could outrun the "gift" of sin and death (5:20). The focus on grace and love rather than law and rule as the basis for human transformation takes us to the heart of the good news and of hope for humanity.

4) Thought Exercise

In what ways are you choosing to respond to the good news?

How can we better incorporate grace and love in our groups or organizations?

Transfiguration

2011-03-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

Matthew 17: 1-9 (March 6, 2011)

1) The Text

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

2) The Context

The Season of Epiphany begins (Jesus' Baptism) and ends (Jesus' Transfiguration) with a heavenly voice making Jesus known to the world (epiphany = "to make known").

The Transfiguration passage comes something out of nowhere, in each gospel playing to a greater or lesser degree a pivotal mark in the narrative (most noticeably in Luke), but not clearly connected to what comes immediately before or after. Both Matthew and Mark indicate that this event took place six days after something (Luke has "about eight days" 9:28) -- presumably it refers to those events that started with Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi and Jesus' first "passion prediction" (Mt 16:13 ff., Mk 8:27 ff.). In Matthew, it is followed by more passion predictions and the continuing story of Jesus' ministry in and around Galilee and his impending journey to Jerusalem. Clearly a "mountain top experience," it is nevertheless challenging to see how the account contributes to or advances Matthew's story of Jesus.

3) Interpretation

How many people feel called? How many believe they have heard and responded to God's voice. I raise this question of calling because I think that's part of the story of the Transfiguration that gets overlooked. We understandably focus on Jesus' transformation. But I think Peter gets transfigured as well, or at least the beginning of Peter's transformation may start right here, on the mountain with Jesus.

The scene moves so quickly that it's easy to miss. I mean, there is Peter, falling all over himself looking for something to do, when the voice from heaven literally interrupts him, saying (almost!), "Would you shut up already, and just listen to him!" But of course it's not funny for long. In fact, it's kind of terrifying, and so Peter falls to the ground, probably covering his ears and shutting his eyes hard. And then it's over – the voice, the light, the heroes of the past – nothing is left except Jesus, Jesus who is reaching out to him and telling him to "be raised."

We tend to think Peter's "moment" happened six days earlier, when Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah and he was called "the rock." But I wonder.... I wonder if Peter's real sense of call didn't happen here, when the voice interrupts all his plots and plans and announces that this Jesus is none other than God's beloved Son and so the most important thing Peter can do is simply listen to him.

But of course it didn't last. Peter needs to be pulled up off the ground, perhaps wondering if anything had actually happened or whether he had imagined it all. And then on the way down the mountain Jesus will again intimate of his impending death and destiny. Peter will struggle to listen, to follow, to be faithful. Actually, he will more than struggle, he will fail. And Jesus will reach out, raise him up again, and send him forth. I have a hunch that each time Peter fell down and got up again, he would look back on this day and recall those words, "Just listen to him!"

That's what I mean by saying that this is the moment when Peter's transfiguration begins – when he fails, falls, and is lifted up again and realizes that above and beyond everything else, he is called to listen to Jesus. This pattern, I think, shapes the life of every Christian. We, too, of course, try our best, sometimes succeeding and sometimes coming up short. We, too, have moments of insight and moments of denial. We, too, fall down in fear and are raised up again to go forth in confidence. We, too, that is, are called to listen, called to discern God's way in the world, called to partner with God and in this way be transformed.

4) Thought Exercise

Have you ever felt called by God? How did you respond?

How can we better hear God’s voice?

Judgment

2011-02-23T22:43:00.000-08:00

1 Corinthians 4: 1-5 (February 27, 2011)

1) The Text

Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 3But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

2) The Context

This short passage falls within the opening section of Paul's letter, a section which addresses the divisions in the church and also serves as a defense of Paul's standing as an apostle. Paul speaks positively abut God's judgment and warns those who would judge others within the Christian community. Behind Paul's comments lies a strong concern for unity. Paul emphasizes that Christian ministry and corporate existence must reflect a unity formed by the gospel, a unity threatened by an atmosphere in which people usurp or deny God's right to judge. Keep in mind that Paul's comments come in a letter that tries to mend divisions and call Christians back to a proper understanding of their place in God's scheme. The Corinthian church was beset by petty rivalries and widening divisions (see 1:10–11; 3:1–4), and one of the ways in which disunity manifested itself was through the distinctions that the Corinthians were drawing among themselves. Moreover, it also seems that some in Corinth were dismissive toward Paul and all too eager to make judgments of their worth relative to him (see also 9:3). In response, Paul defends himself from their attacks and attempts to reorient the Corinthians' views of themselves.

3) Interpretation

There is much confusion in our congregations about "judgment." The church at Corinth was also wrestling with the issue of judgment. Some of it became personal when they challenged Paul's leadership role in the church (4:3). In response, Paul frames the issue within a much larger horizon. He reminds the community that they are living in between the times. Not only has Christ come, he is coming again. Christ's return has significant implications for how the community acts in the present and thinks about the future. In our text we can glean at least three lessons on judgment from Paul:

You can't judge yourself. In a remarkable statement, Paul scoffs at the criticism of the Corinthian church, declaring that "it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you" and then goes on to say "I do not even judge myself" (4:3). Paul's dismissal of our ability to accurately judge ourselves can be liberating. He insists we simply lack the lenses to gain an objective picture of who we are. In the Bible, the truth about ourselves only emerges from our relationship with God. We cannot get an accurate picture on our own because we tend to over or under estimate. Like Paul, it is the Lord who judges us (4:4). That may mean we need reminding that we are fundamentally here because God wants us here-we are created in God's image. Or for some it entails hearing that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Judgment must be leavened with love. The notion that Christians should not be judgmental of others is completely unrealistic. It is obvious that Paul feels it is important to judge matters here on earth. After all, most of his letter to the church at Corinth is taken up with criticism of their actions! But we need to pay attention to the way that Paul "judges" the church. The guiding norm for him is the love that has been revealed in Jesus Christ (12:31). This love is not sentimental. It is rather a love that has been forged in the crucible of a crucifixion. Its goal is not self-glorification (1:13) but rather the building up of the community.

In the name of this love Paul can utter harsh judgments. However, at the same time Paul can say this church is holy (1:2) and he even identifies it with God's temple (3:16). Paul's judgments of the community at Corinth are not meant to drive people away but to encourage them to reflect the fact that they are the body of Christ (12:27).

Our judge has been judged. There is also a wider horizon within which Paul is operating. Beyond the necessary judging that takes place on the earth, Paul reminds us that there is a Day coming when the Lord will return and "bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God" (4:5).

There can be little doubt that Paul saw a day of judgment coming in the future (see Romans 2:16 and 2 Corinthians 5:10). For many of us this day of judgment has been imagined as a time of terror and doom. Michelangelo's great painting in the Sistine Chapel in Rome remains the enduring image: Christ coming at the end of time and separating the saved from the damned.

However, Paul does not seem to share the feelings of dread and despair that accompany many Christian reflections on the second coming of Christ. It is true that God "will bring to light things now hidden" (4:5). All of our secrets will be revealed. That might be a cause for fear and trembling, but it is noteworthy that Paul does not regard the last day with trepidation. Rather, there is a buoyant confidence that God will strengthen his saints to the end, so that they might be blameless (1:8) as they are met by Christ.

What is going on here? Paul's confidence is rooted in the fact that the end of time is in the hands of one who was crucified for his sins. The coming judge himself has been judged: "For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Christ coming to meet us has already died our death. No songs of doom on the last day. There is joy in the air as earthly shadows give way to a blinding light.

4) Thought Exercise

What truths about yourself have emerged from your growing relationship with God?

Do you believe there will be a day of judgment? If so, what will it look like?

The Foundation

2011-02-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

1 Corinthians 3: 10-11, 16-23 (February 20, 2011)

1) The Text

10According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.

16Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

21So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, 23and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

2) The Context

The issue Paul is addressing in this passage is one Jesus addressed elsewhere. Churches that are built only on ideas or actions or style are doomed to die. Paul says the foundation is Jesus Christ. You build on Jesus Christ. And if you build with gold and silver or straw, it will fade. You must build on Jesus Christ. Jesus earlier said in Matthew 16, "On this rock (the confession of Peter) I will build my church." During his last week, he said to his disciples, "I am the vine. Ye are the branches." In other words, stay connected to me, and you will bear fruit. If you get severed from me, you won't bear fruit.

3) Interpretation

Paul asserts his foundational role in the Corinthians community. Nothing indicates that Apollos is in conflict with him, but certainly those who have become engrossed in loyalty to leaders are playing off Apollos against Paul. Unity and coherence with the Christian community is of paramount importance not so much because otherwise the church gets a bad reputation or becomes dysfunctional, but because it thereby ceases to be what is meant to be: a place where God's grace moves, bringing reconciliation and truth. They have become distracted from what they were created to be and from the one who makes it possible. Where anger and hate take over, there is little room for love and generosity. There are winners and losers.

There is a clash of values and perhaps it is inspired by appreciation of the impressiveness of Apollos' ministry compared with Paul's. In the background, claims to wisdom play a role and seem to be being measured by the secular standards of the day. Apollos seems to have made a more powerful impression than Paul. In these chapters we hear a lot about impressive speech. Speech was one of the main arenas where men were supposed to show their worth. Rhetoric, learning how to impress with speech, was fundamental to male identity. Today this translates into multimedia impressiveness. Along with the skills now available to us through our much greater range of impressive and impressing tools are numerous strategies to convince and seduce. It is an industry which bombards us with advertising and myriad claims to truth.

Paul was adept at employing the skills of his day and there is no reason why we should not use the skills of ours. But Paul identifies flaws in the system where the medium becomes so much the message that the promoters end up promoting themselves and substance no longer matters. The rewards of gaining a following, of being a persuader and experiencing the power of persuasion are enormous. Such dynamism can drive ministry and energize congregations. The buzz of self-promotion and the satisfaction at increased recruitment, even in the name of Jesus, can so easily go awry. Jesus becomes the best promoter, whose sole aim was self-promotion of his self-promoting God. The promoters almost cannot help but join the game and become, themselves, self-promoters. It all coheres because the movement has its own self-promotion as the agenda. Marketing strategies become key tools of ministry. It is easy to turn it all into a form of self-indulgence from the top down, a whole hierarchy of beings wanting adulation.

Paul had already sought to torpedo this construction in 1:18-25. His words there are echoed in 3:19 where he subverts the model and suggests that not the take of adulation but the giving of compassion lies at the heart of God. That is a very different model of fulfillment and of God and of church than the grabbing self-indulgence which turns the cross into a promotional logo.

Paul might have driven his hearers to humiliation, but, characteristically, he does not want that kind of win. Instead, he declares the opposite. He does not say: you have nothing. He says in 3:21: you have everything! His list begins with those whom the promoters played off against each other: Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (Peter). They are all yours, he declares: embrace them. His list continues in a way that recalls what he would write in Rom 8:38-39. In this nice little piece of balanced rhetorical phrasing he is really telling them: stop grabbing! It is all there. You can relax. There is no end to grace. You don't have to establish your worth. You don't have to play the game of self-promotion. Because in the end that is also neither Christ's nor God's agenda. Embrace a different kind of wisdom and leave the fear- and inadequacy-induced strategies to win worth for yourselves, your church, your leaders, your Christ and your God behind.

One can almost hear the rest of Rom 8:38-39 echoing across the text, perhaps already in Paul's mind. For there he writes: nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. So you can let your anxiety and its busy self-preoccupation go and be free to join that love in the world.

4) Thought Exercise

How can we stay better connected to Jesus?

How can we use modern tools of communication to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ?

Co-Workers In Christ

2011-02-09T19:26:00.000-08:00

1 Corinthians 3: 1-9 (February 13, 2011)

1) The Text

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?

5What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

2) The Context

In last week’s passage, Paul indicated that there was more wisdom from God to be had beyond merely the word of the cross. Such wisdom is spoken "among the mature." The implication there that the Corinthians might not qualify as "mature" is explicitly stated here, "I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as to infants in Christ" (3:1).

Paul's description of them as immature, and therefore not capable of receiving the wisdom of God, flies in the face of their own self-assessment as wise people. More than this, however, Paul's assessment undermines their self-understanding as a "Spiritual" people. These Christians take tremendous pride in their Spiritual gifts, as we see in 1 Corinthians 12-14. But those gifts themselves are not being used in keeping with the gospel. Thus, paradoxically, the very use of Spiritual gifts by the Corinthians calls their spirituality into question. Later on, Paul will speak of being a Spiritual person as a function of participating in the life of the resurrected Christ (15:44-49). To be "in Christ" is, by definition, to be a (Holy) Spiritual person.

3) Interpretation

People of the flesh are contrasted against people of the Spirit.

Fleshly people must begin with spiritual milk. The Corinthians wanted to debate and discuss philosophy of deeper theological points than they were ready for. They still didn't understand the basic truths of grace and holiness. Many people today try to dive into theological discussion before they are ready. Sometimes churches forget that new Christians haven't adjusted their way of thinking to their new calling.

People of the flesh are identified by their behavior. Fleshly people are normal. They argue among one another, seek their own rights above the welfare of the Church, and are anxious to follow human leaders with a loyalty that competes with their love for Christ.

Acknowledging Each Other's Labors

In a series of images, Paul proceeds to put his and Apollos' ministries in proper perspective. Different leaders in the church should not be seen as rallying points for competing parties, but as co-workers performing complimentary tasks for the achievement of a common goal.

In 1:21 Paul had contrasted God's wisdom with the world's by saying that God saves by means of the belief that comes when people hear the word of the cross. Now, he urges the Corinthians to see that both he and Apollos are servants through whom the Corinthians have come to such believe (3:5).

Notice how Paul has undermined their efforts to flock to one leader over another. Although worldly wisdom and God's wisdom are antithetical concepts, he places both himself and his purported competitor Apollos on the side of God's wisdom and the gospel. Rather than villainize Apollos, Paul insists that the only way to rightly interpret the work of God in Corinth is to see that both men have been working together, under God, to build the church.

Paul uses two metaphors to help the Corinthians imagine his and Apollos' complimentary ministries. First, in an agricultural metaphor, he depicts himself as the one who scattered the seed and Apollos as the one who cared for it by watering it. But any growth is only from God—which means that God is the only person in that whole interchange who is worthy of allegiance (3:6-7). The imagery shows why all the Corinthians should be allied together under God.

If Paul and Apollos are one, united in their work for and with God (3:8-9), where does that leave the Corinthians? They are the field over which the leaders are working (3:9), or the building they are helping construct (3:9-12). The Corinthians are dependent on both workers, and should not be allying themselves with one against the other.

4) Thought Exercise

How can we be more appreciative of the efforts of our coworkers in Christ?

Are there ways to better integrate these efforts?

God’s Wisdom

2011-02-02T21:22:00.000-08:00

1 Corinthians 2: 1-16 (February 6, 2011)

1) The Text

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

6Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. 7But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. 14Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

2) The Context

In the previous chapter, Paul has laid out for the Corinthians his view of the primary purpose of his letter; to address the divisions within the church in Corinth which he founded. While the church was blessed with Spiritual gifts, the church was carnal in its behavior toward each other. Paul will return to this primary topic of division in chapter three but here in chapter two, he continues to instruct on the differences between godly wisdom and wisdom of the world.

3) Interpretation

Throughout 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 Paul places God's wisdom and the world's wisdom in sharpest antithesis. The special wisdom to which Paul claims access (a) is God's wisdom, that (b) leads God's people to glory, and (c) is knowable only by the Spirit. This stands in stark contrast (a) to the world's and the world's leaders' wisdom, that (b) is the product of people doomed for destruction, and (c) lacks the sight to apprehend the saving wisdom of God.

The cross is at the center of this dichotomy. The rulers of this age put their worldly "wisdom" on display when they crucified "the Lord of glory" (2:8).
There is some debate about who Paul intends by "the rulers of this age": is this a reference to the spiritual forces that rule over the earth, to the earthly leaders themselves, the power of the systems that exceed the doings of any set of individuals, or some combination of these? Though the rule of which Paul speaks is exercised through human agents, it is also clear throughout the passage that something larger is in view. Behind these human agents stand other cosmic forces and a world-system that is larger and more powerful than the individuals who enact its understanding of "wisdom". Paul sets the disputes in Corinth on a cosmic stage: to side with those who advocate worldly wisdom is to side not with the God who saves by means of the cross but, with those who blindly warred against God's wisdom by crucifying the Lord of glory (2:8).

If human wisdom is manifest most plainly in the wisdom of the rulers of this age who put Jesus to death, how is a human ever going to be capable of knowing the wisdom of God? In the final section of today's reading Paul insists that it is only by receiving the Spirit that one can know the things of God (2:10-16). Because God has given the Spirit, those who receive the Spirit can know the mysterious wisdom of God.

Paul probably has his eye on the competition that has erupted on the ground at Corinth, where Apollos' high level of attainment in the world's standards of wisdom has led to the formation of a group that identifies as his followers. Undermining the value of this group's claim to superior learning, Paul maintains that the Spirit whom believers receive is none other than the Spirit of God with God's cruciform wisdom—it is not the Spirit of the world with its Christ-crucifying "wisdom" (2:12).

And so one more time we see that the story we tell about the cross of Christ becomes the measure by which the stories of our own communities are judged. Do we hope to draw people to our communities based on our ability to achieve, in step with the corporate, educational, and political systems that set up our own cultures' assessments of power? Or, are we participating in the upside down economy of the cross, an economy that can only be known and understood and believed and lived by the power of God's Holy Spirit?

4) Thought Exercise

Is there any wisdom you have that seems to come from God?

Are there any parallels between this wisdom and the ways of living that Jesus speaks about in the Beatitudes in last week’s passage?

The Beatitudes

2011-01-24T22:26:00.000-08:00

Matthew 5: 1-12 (January 30, 2011)

1) The Text

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

2) The Context

Matthew arranges Jesus’ teaching in five blocks: The Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5-7; Directions to his disciples, chapter 10; Parables of the kingdom, chapter 13; Sayings on greatness and forgiveness, chapter 18; and Sayings and parables about the end times, chapters 24, 25.

Verses 3-12 in Chapter 5 are known as the Beatitudes, from the Latin for blessed. To be “blessed” is to be happy. All the qualities are expected of the faithful, for the consequence is the same: they will enjoy God’s end-time rule. They will attain (and are attaining) eternal life. The “poor in spirit” (v. 3) are detached from wealth and dependent on God alone. Those who “mourn” (v. 4) the reign of evil forces on earth will be “comforted” and strengthened in the Kingdom. The “meek” (v. 5), people who do not press for personal advantage, will share in God’s rule. Those who “hunger” (v. 6, who ardently pursue God’s will and purpose for his people), and do so single-mindedly and sincerely, “the pure in heart” (v. 8), will come to know God intimately (“see God”). The “merciful” (v. 7) are those who pardon and love others (especially the poor). The “peacemakers” (v. 9), those who seek shalom, the total state of well-being God provides through Christ, “will be called children of God”, for they share in God’s work. Finally vv. 10-12: those spreading the good news, striving to reconcile the world to God, will be persecuted because of the message they carry (as were the Old Testament “prophets”). They too should “rejoice and be glad” for God will reward them.

Although Jesus' teaching in chapters 5-7 seems to be addressed only to the disciples (vv. 1b-2), there are also indications that it was also for the "crowds". The Sermon begins with Jesus seeing the crowds (5:1). It ends with the statement, "Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching,." (7:28). The word "crowd" (ochlos) does not occur anywhere else in the sermon. In the verse just before today’s text, we are told, "Great crowds followed (akoloutheo) him ...." (4:25). In the verse just after the Sermon, we are told, "... great crowds followed him (8:1). Prior to this, the only ones who had followed Jesus, were the four fishermen he had called (4:20, 22). This suggests that the Sermon was not just for the 12 "disciples", but intended for all who "follow" Jesus.

3) Interpretation

The Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1-12) begin the body of material referred to as the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). It is important to ponder the nature of Jesus’ original audience because audience is integral to understanding a speaker’s meaning. Did Jesus speak to the crowds or to his smaller circle of followers? The content of the sermon seems to assume a commitment to life under the reign of God; it would be difficult to argue that Jesus’ teachings were or are for the general public, to be implemented in the larger arena of civic and social networks. Jesus is addressing his followers. But it seems that the disciples are being taught in the context of a larger audience. The presence of the multitudes keeps the disciples honest as to who they are and what price is to be paid for their commitments. The crowds serve also to remind the reader that the invitation to join the circle of disciples is always open provided we are willing to submit to the discipline of God’s reign. After all, the church is a community and it is always open to and aware of the world.

Even more important for understanding Matthew 5:1-12 is an understanding of what a beatitude is. A beatitude is a blessing or announcement of God’s favor. Of the 44 in the New Testament, the vast majority occur in Matthew and Luke. In the Old Testament, most of the beatitudes occur in Psalms and in Wisdom literature. Beatitudes can be translated "Happy are those who" or "How fortunate are those who." However, it is more appropriate to translate Jesus’ words so as to convey God’s favorable behavior toward those addressed. Hence, "blessed" or "favored of God are those who" conveys the understanding that such favor is both present and future.

Very important, then, is the recognition that the beatitudes appear at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, before a single instruction is given, before there has been time for obedience or disobedience. If the blessings were only for the deserving, they would be stated at the end of the sermon, probably prefaced with, "If you have done all these things." But being at the beginning, they say that God’s favor precedes all our endeavors. All our efforts at kingdom living are in response to divine grace, motivated by "because of," not "in order to."

Finally, and most important to the reader of Matthew 5:1-12, God’s favor is granted to those whom society regards as the ones left behind: the poor in spirit, the meek, etc. On these Jesus pronounces God’s congratulations, with these God identifies in Jesus, to these comes the Good News of God’s interceding grace. What a reversal of values and fortunes! Many of these are victims, to be sure, but the beatitudes deliver them from a victim mentality. Those who in the face of violence, oppression, abuse and neglect continue to turn the other cheek, go the second mile and share possessions even with accusers are not really victims. They are in a very real and profound sense victors, set free to live by hearing Jesus extend to them the beatitude of God.

4) Thought Exercise

We might not be able to fully live the Beatitudes today. But that is not the point. Like any ideal of happiness, the road is as important as the destination. Striving to live the Beatitudes day by day opens us to God.

How do you cultivate the ways of living that Jesus speaks about in the Beatitudes?

Fish for People

2011-01-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

Matthew 4: 18-23 (January 23, 2011)

1) The Text

18As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

2) The Context

The Sea of Galilee is a large freshwater lake, about 7 miles wide and 13 miles long. The shore is dotted with villages connected with the local fishing industry, among which Capernaum was foremost. Fishermen of that day did not operate in a "free market" economy. The fishing industry was state-regulated for the benefit of the urban elite. These urban elites were Greeks or Romans who had settled in Palestine following their military conquests, or they were Jews well-connected with King Herod and his sons. Everybody else was poor. Caesar and Herod benefited from the fishing trade in a variety of ways. They sold the fishing leases which entitled local groups to fish in the sea. Fishing rights generally were awarded not to individuals, but to local "coops" based in kinship--like, for example, the brothers Simon and Andrew, and the Zebedee family. There were also taxes on both the fish product and on the processing, as well as tolls on shipping and land transport. Fisherman were at the bottom of a very detailed economic hierarchy, the main beneficiaries of which were Caesar, then Herod, then major tax collectors.

Jesus made a strong appeal to local fishermen. The known harbors of the Sea of Galilee in the first century strongly correlate with locations where Jesus either lived or traveled--Bethsaida, Capernaum, Gennesar, Magdala, Gadara and Gergasa. The original name of Magdala, was Tarichaeae, which means "processed fish-ville." It was only a few miles south of Capernaum.

3) Interpretation

For the third time in Matthew, Jesus finds himself embracing a new hometown. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In doing so, prophecy was fulfilled (2:5-6). The first move finds the family fleeing Bethlehem and Herod's furor and arriving in Egypt. In doing so, Jesus' life emulates Moses' journeys. The second move allows the family to return to Israel after Herod's demise but the reign of his progeny leads the family to resettle in Nazareth. In doing so, prophecy was fulfilled (2:23). A third move brings Jesus to Capernaum. In doing so, prophecy was fulfilled (4:14-16). Thus, these moves are not rooted in human will. Matthew argues that God has orchestrated these geographical dislocations and thus given them great significance. What is that significance?

Here we get a glimpse of Jesus' peripatetic existence. From his earliest days through his adult life and ministry, Matthew's Jesus is an itinerant preacher, a constant wanderer. Jesus does not opt for the comforts of the familiar but embraces God's call to find those in need of a word of God wherever they might live. After all, this is the message of the prophecy. God has promised to reach all the nations. Light has reached those who formerly dwelled in darkness and death. Jesus has come to them and, in a sense, become one of them by becoming their neighbor. Moreover, Jesus' first ministry locale is known as "Galilee of the Gentiles." Thus, from the first and in consonance with prophetic promise, Jesus ministers in an ethnically diverse land.

In an ever more mobile and diverse culture, Jesus' moves are in some sense familiar to many of us. The dislocation of a new place and new neighbors can be both thrilling and intimidating. New surroundings can provide us a new start, a nearly blank slate that might allow us to recreate how others perceive and how we perceive ourselves. New surroundings also can cause us to question every dimension of our selves. The richness of diverse communities can help us understand others better but also ourselves. Jesus' peripatetic experiences must have shaped his perspective, helping him understand a community as both insider and outsider.

The power of Jesus' call becomes quickly evident. The call of his first followers is profoundly inspired. Jesus doesn't have to pitch the idea to these individuals nor does he need to persuade them. After all, each has little reason to leave their current way of life. Each seemingly has a steady job and, more importantly, familial ties to their vocations. At the same time, these are not individuals of great social power or individual wealth. Though Jesus' disciples will play a vital function in the earliest days of the church, on this day they are utterly ordinary individuals called to an extraordinary task. They may not have completely understood what it would mean to become fishers of people at the moment, yet they follow without hesitation.

Having begun to assemble his disciples, Jesus turns to his work. He teaches in the synagogues. He pronounces "the good news of the kingdom." He makes the sick and infirmed whole. These will be the defining characteristics of Jesus' daily labors in Matthew. Teaching, proclaiming the kingdom, and healing are integrated components of his ministry, not discrete pieces. The proclamation of the kingdom is not solely verbal, not just a teaching but a series of actions designed to bring wholeness to individuals and communities.

This passage also makes a statement about dominant values. Jesus creates social dislocation by placing the challenge of the kingdom ahead of family and work loyalties. Local systems of work and family were crucial for security and the fabric of society. Jesus' challenge sets these priorities aside, not in principle and not for everyone, but nevertheless in a way that relativizes them. There is something great, more fundamental, than family and the local economy. To challenge these is to take a real risk, but for many people as well as communities and congregations, real growth will never happen until they can make such a move.

4) Thought Exercise

Jesus does not ask everyone to leave everything behind - but nobody can be a disciple without leaving something behind. What have you had to leave behind - or let go of - to follow Jesus?

Mission

2011-01-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 49: 1-7 (January 16, 2011)

1) The Text

49Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. 2He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. 3And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 4But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.” 5And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— 6he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

7Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

2) The Context

This passage is the second of the four Servant songs in Isaiah. It falls within what is often called Second (Deutero) Isaiah, chapters 40-55. The four servant passages (Isa. 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-9a and 52:13-53:12) form a sequence but changes take place as we progress through them. The first passage, Isa. 42:1-9, was in the third person, i.e. it gave another person’s view of the servant. In today’s passage we hear the servant’s own voice. That is also the case in the third passage, Isa. 50:4-9a. In Isaiah 49 the servant speaks about his calling from God. He has a sense of being called from before he was born. In this the servant is like Jeremiah (cf. Jer 1:5). This is not to suggest that Jeremiah is the servant, but it gives the servant’s words ‘prophetic authority’.

It is characteristic that Jewish interpretation identifies the servant as the community of Israel. Standard historical criticism has sought to identify a nameable, known historical character. Traditionally, Christian interpretations of this Hebrew narrative attempt to own the servant of Second Isaiah as a type of Jesus. Here coupled with the Gospel text with John identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God, certainly this text too could point us in the direction of contemplating Jesus' ministry within the call and context of that of the servant. "It may turn out that Second Isaiah's servant is not only a type of Jesus," Gene Tucker writes, "but may also be a model for understanding the vocation of the church". Yet, there is merit to the message in its time, a message brought to a people in exile. There is also relevance for us in the call of the anonymous servant struggling with call, who is then invited to embrace an even larger mission.

3) Interpretation

Call and vocation in ministry lie at the heart of this week's lectionary text about the unknown servant of Isaiah 49:1-7. This prophetic address puts the servant in dialogue with God, even as the prophet confronts human failings in the midst of desire to fulfill the calling of God which was determined in his mother's womb. The unknown servant in the text brings an address which identifies a call to the nation of Israel and "you peoples from far away" (Is. 49:1).

The servant speaks (vv.1-4), first addressing coastland and people (v.1), then identifying the call that came prior to birth, while in the womb (vv.1-3), in the same vein as the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5). The main theme at the beginning of the passage is the servant's declaration of being called by God to a specific task. This is the beginning of another year in the life of the Church. What is the message for our congregations? What is the mission to the community around and what do we anticipate will be the response to that message?

Epiphany brings with it themes of light and mission. The light of God comes to shine forth through the darkness. The expectation of Advent yields to the revelation that is the light. With the light comes the mission of ministry, even as we read accounts of the beginning of Jesus' ministry in this season. The mission of the servant is perplexing and twofold. The servant is first sent to Israel, but after naming frustration in v. 4 is told, "I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach the end of the earth" (v. 6). Do we have a sense of ministry and mission this second Sunday after the Epiphany? What do we do with the frustrations experienced in the midst of yielding to the call to ministry?

This Sunday holds much promise in community as it is also the Sunday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It seems rather fitting to be dealing with the words of the servant and the struggles of accomplishing the work of ministry where call by God is recognized and accepted. God's plan looks beyond what is seen and behind what may seem all too futile to that which is unseen and unexpected. There is something even greater yet to come.

Tucker observes, "As individuals and as a church, we experience vocations and may experience unworthiness or frustration as well. In such cases, there is the divine assurance in verses 4 and 5. As servants of God, we may hear a call to set captives free and to make the reign of God visible throughout the world. We may recognize ourselves in captive Israel, and then for us there is the proclamation of the message of release, the good news that God intends restoration (vv.5-6a). Or we may even be able to see ourselves in those other nations, to whom the good news comes".
God's plan requires our willingness to be participants in the world around us. God's plan requires that we give all that we are to make a difference in the world around us. How do we bring this message of call to vocation in ministry and call to do justice to the world around us? Like the servant, the message moves beyond local community and is a call to the world in our day. What is the message that we bring for this Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

4) Thought Exercise

Where has God called you?

What accomplishments and frustrations have you experienced with this call?

Beloved Children of God

2011-01-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

Matthew 3: 13-17 (January 9, 2011)

1) The Text

13Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

2) The Context

This text portrays the baptism of Jesus by John, but only after highly significant material which gives it a unique context. For only in Matthew do we find John and Jesus so closely linked that their messages can be summarized in the same words, as Matthew does in 3:2 ('Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'). In Matthew Jesus is so much like John, especially in the emphasis on judgment and the insistence that pedigree, whether Jewish or Christian, is no guarantee of God's favor if it is not matched by real performance (see 3:7-10). In fact through Matthew 3 the expectation is built up of the judge to come (especially 3:11-12). The episode of 13:13-17 functions then as a moment of identification and confirmation. John has just announced the one who would come to baptize with spirit and fire. Here we see Jesus receiving that spirit. In chapter 12 Matthew will cite Isaiah 42 as an echo of the baptism: the Spirit is upon him because he will announce judgment to the nations.

3) Interpretation

There are a number of interesting questions surrounding the gospel accounts of Jesus' baptism, questions that date from the earliest Christian communities. In fact, given the various re-workings of the story by the four evangelists, it's likely the very existence of this account was troubling. Why, to summarize the early church's difficulty, did Jesus need to be baptized by John at all? Surely it wasn't for the forgiveness of sin? Or because John was the greater prophet or teacher? Then why? Each evangelist works out a distinct response to this question, including Matthew in today's reading, where he links Jesus' baptism to the fulfillment of righteousness.

While these differences are both important and interesting, however, all four gospels share two plot-related features that I think are key to interpreting this passage meaningfully. First, in each account Jesus' baptism is accompanied by the giving of the Spirit, and in three of them it is accompanied by a voice from heaven pronouncing Jesus as God's beloved Son, a child with whom God is most pleased. Whatever else Jesus' baptism may mean, therefore, it certainly is the place where he learns definitively who he is in relation to whose he is. At his baptism, Jesus is given the intertwined gifts of identity and affirmation.

This leads to the second important plot element of the gospels: Jesus' baptism precedes the commencement of his public ministry. In John's account, this begins with the calling of the first disciples. In Matthew and his synoptic cousins Mark and Luke, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness immediately following his baptism and only then begins calling followers. In all four, the theme is clear: the gift of identity precedes mission. We might even go further and say that only by having a clear sense of God's affirmation and identity can Jesus take on the enormous mission in front of him. This is poignantly clear in Matthew and Luke, where the Tempter's point of attack is precisely at the question of identity: "If you are the Son of God...." Satan calls into question Jesus' relationship with his Father because he knows that Jesus, as with Adam and Eve before him, is vulnerable to temptation precisely to the degree that his is insecure about his identity and mistrusts his relationship with God.

And this is where these stories of Jesus' baptism intersect with the stories of our own. For we, too, can only live into the mission that God has set for us to the degree that we hear and believe the good news that we, too, are beloved children of God. As with Jesus, we discover in baptism who we are by hearing definitively whose we are. Baptism is nothing less than the promise that we are God's beloved children. That no matter where we go, God will be with us. That no matter what we may do, God is for us and will not abandon us. In baptism we are blessed with the promise of God's Spirit and given a name, and that name is Christian, one marked with the cross of Christ and named a beloved child of God forever.

This matters tremendously because names are powerful. The names we are given or take, the names that arouse pride or shame, names are important. Some we have chosen; others have been given to us. Some lift us up; others tear us down. Whatever the case, names are powerful. This reading promises, however, that no matter how powerful our earthly names are, they do not define us. What defines us is the name given to us by God alone: the name of beloved child.

4) Thought Exercise

What is the mission God has set for you?

How does this shape your sense of identity?

Grace Upon Grace

2010-12-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

John 1: 10-18 (January 2, 2011)

1) The Text

10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

15(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

2) The Context

Each of the four gospels related more effectively to different sets of people. For example, the Gospel of Matthew related better to Jewish people with Jewish language and Jewish thought patterns. As the Christian religion spread away from its geographic basis in Israel, new vocabulary and new thought patterns were called for. The Gospel of Luke adapted its message to the needs of non-Jewish people called Gentiles.

Meanwhile, the Gospel of John was much more philosophical. The philosophy of Hellenism was in vogue, and so the language of Hellenism (logic, light, life) was employed in order to tell the story of Jesus to another set of people. In the Jewish Gospel of Matthew, the central category is the kingdom of God which was familiar to the Jews. In the Gospel of John, the kingdom of God is mentioned only twice; rather, we hear about finding life and finding life abundantly. This spoke to non-Jewish people who were Greek speaking and thinking.

John’s Gospel emphasizes certain key themes over and over again. These themes are captured in the following keywords: Light or See; Knowledge or Wisdom; Believe; Witness or Testify; Truth; Abide or Rest; and Glory. These words or themes are in the first 14 verses of John.

Verses 10 to 13 introduce the theme of inner circle - "those who received him" - and everyone else - "the world did not know him." To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. The phrase “become children of God" means becoming members of a new family. Since family defined one's entire social reality in Jesus' time, "becoming children of God" also means having an entirely new way of being in the world - having life in Jesus' name.

Verse 14 is a foundational text for linking Word-Son-Jesus: Just as the Word was God's original means of self-revelation through the creation of all things; so, in John, the Son is the revelation of God's heart - of God's sight, insight, choosing, loving, valuing, etc. Bonding with Jesus means loving whom God loves, the way God loves.

3) Interpretation

Although this week’s reading picks up in the middle of the prologue to John's Gospel, it is an appropriate place to begin on the second Sunday of Christmas: "He was in the world" (1:10). This simple statement is a profound declaration of God's incarnation. The season following Christmas invites us to reflect on the significance of this event: how it shapes the way we understand God, our relationship with God, and our relationship to one another.

Our passage falls into two parts: verses 10-13 and 14-18. The first is spoken from the perspective of the omniscient narrator. The narrator identifies three responses to the one who has come into the world. First, there are those who did not know him, suggesting lack of knowledge. Next, there are those ("his own people") who did not accept him. The focus of verses 10-13, however, is not on those who do not receive, but those who do. These "children of God" are not designated by their flesh (i.e., their race, gender, or any other physical characteristics) but by their complete trust in the one whom God has sent into the world and who faithfully reveals the nature of God.

In verses 14-18, the voice shifts from that of the narrator to the collective "we." We, the children of God, have received from God's fullness grace upon grace. In the Christmas season, it is easy for us to turn God into a cosmic Santa Claus who dispatches toy upon toy. This tendency is not what John has in mind. The word "grace" occurs only in 1:14, 16, and 17 in the Gospel of John. Grace, therefore, describes the gift of Christ, who makes God known. In these verses, "we" are reminded of how God has chosen to disclose God's self in flesh and blood so that we, who are flesh and blood, might recognize ourselves as children of God.

John identifies that which has become flesh and blood as the "Word." Here he draws on language closely associated with the figure 'Wisdom'. In a first century CE Jewish text, the Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom is described as "she who knows your [God's] works and was present when you made the world." Jesus, like Wisdom, is described in John's Gospel as the one through whom the world came into being (1:3, 10) and who does the works of God (5:36; 10:32; 14:10).

John also draws on the language of "Wisdom" found in another Jewish text from the second century BCE, Sirach. Here, Wisdom is said to make her dwelling (kataskēnō) in Jacob (Sirach 24:8). John uses the same verb root (from skēnoō) in 1:14. A more literal translation might render this verse, "The Word pitched its tent among us," giving the phrase a wonderfully earthy feel. This alternate translation also provides a sense of God's intentionality. God has chosen this place, a place identified not by physical characteristics or geographic boundaries, but by reference to relationship ("among us").

4) Thought Exercise

How would you characterize your relationship with God?

How does this influence your relationships with others?

His Star

2010-12-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

Mathew 2: 1-12 (December 26, 2010)

1) The Text

2In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 3When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” 7Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

9When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

2) The Context

Matthew, in writing “In the time of King Herod”, sets a late date for the birth of Jesus: Herod the Great, puppet king of Judah, died in 4 BC. “Wise men” (Latin: magi) were members of a Persian caste of astrologers and interpreters of dreams. (Astrology was widely accepted then.) A star was associated with each person; the way the star rose told the wise men that a king had been born. If the story of the star is intended to be historically significant, the star may have been a supernova or a comet, or a conjunction of planets. Numbers 24:17-24 prophesies that “... a star shall come out of Jacob, a sceptre shall rise out of Israel”, and this ruler will conquer surrounding nations.

Herod’s fears are aroused because his dynasty may be ended. He consults the religious experts to find out where the magi should look for the Messiah. They answer with Scripture: they loosely blend Micah 5:2 and 2 Samuel 5:2. (Such license was common at the time.) At David’s anointing as king, the elders quote God as saying “he shall be shepherd of my people Israel”. The maximum age of the children to be killed per Herod’s edict (v. 16) tells us the “exact time” (v. 7) that he learnt from the wise men. V. 8 is classical political duplicity. The star guides them to Bethlehem, where they are “overwhelmed with joy” (v. 10). The gifts are extremely generous; “gold” (v. 11) and “frankincense” are mentioned.

3) Interpretation

The story of the magi foreshadows later developments in Matthew's narrative. Even in infancy Jesus inspires both worship and hostility. The magi represent the first of many characters to worship Jesus in Matthew. The story also foreshadows the opposition that will be shown to Jesus by the powerful people of his day. In this story, the religious leaders of Israel do the bidding of a political ruler who wishes to destroy Jesus. Later the situation will be ironically reversed: the political ruler (Pilate) will do the bidding of religious leaders who have decided Jesus must die.

The episode in this Matthew story has captured the imagination of Christians for centuries and inspired the formation of numerous legends. The magi came to be identified as kings and called "wise men." In the Middle Ages, the Western Church decided there were three magi and assigned them names: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.

These legends distract us from the story Matthew tells. Matthew's story is indeed about kings and wise men, but these figures are people other than the magi. The kings in Matthew 2 are Herod and Jesus. Herod exemplifies the sort of king whom Jesus later denounces. He is a tyrant who lords over those he rules rather than serving them. He is not a ruler who "shepherds" God's people (v. 6). By contrast, the infant king Jesus is helpless and vulnerable, a ruler whose power is hidden in humility (compare 21:5). The wise men in Matthew 2 are the chief priests and the scribes who function as Herod's key advisors. Learned in the scriptures, they possess academic knowledge that both Herod and the magi lack. But what good does it do them? It does not lead them to their Messiah but causes them to become involved in a plot to kill him.

If the magi are not kings or wise men, what are they? The magi in Matthew 2 are depicted as persons who do as they are instructed, who seek no honor for themselves, and who gladly humble themselves, kneeling even before a woman and a child. Clearly, they fit the image of servants better than that of kings. In short, the central message of this text may be framed as an answer to the question, whom does God favor? Not kings or wise men, but the magi who embody qualities that this Gospel will declare antithetical to the traits of the royal and the wise.

A common theme is the manifestation of God to people outside the religious community. Isaiah reminds the community of its call to be a light to the nations and destroys the false dichotomy between internal and external ministry. The author of Ephesians suggests that the ultimate purpose of God is the unification of humanity in a truly multicultural community where all distinctions between "insiders" and "outsiders" have vanished. The Gospel of Matthew reminds us that such distinctions began to erode with the coming of Christ, who was revealed to some who were thought to be on the outside and paradoxically rejected by many who were thought to be on the inside. The lesson here encourages humble admission that God's glory may be manifested where we least expect it. Sometimes God's people become light for others (Isa. 60:3; Eph. 3:10); sometimes they appear blind to the light others can see (Matt. 2:1-6). But always, the light is there, as God graciously, mysteriously, and defiantly breaks into human lives.

4) Thought Exercise

What signs are there of God’s presence in your life?

When have you been a light for others?

God with Us

2010-12-14T22:18:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 7: 10-17 (December 19, 2010)

1) The Text

10Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. 13Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 15He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

17The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.”

2) The Context

Assyria, under Tiglath-pileser III, is intent on expanding westwards. The kings of “Aram” (Syria) and of Israel (also called “Ephraim”) have formed a coalition to resist the advances of their common enemy. They have tried to convince “Ahaz” (v. 1), king of Judah and of the “house of David” (v. 2) to join the alliance; he has refused. Now they seek to put a puppet king on Judah’s throne. God has commanded Isaiah to “meet Ahaz” (v. 3) as he inspects the water supply vital to Jerusalem’s defense. Isaiah tells him: “take heed ... do not fear ... these two smoldering stumps of firebrands” (v. 4) who have “plotted evil against you” (v. 5). “If you do not stand firm in faith” (v. 9, trust in God) but rely on human counsel, you will be defeated.

In this passage, God speaks again to Ahaz: ask any “sign” (v. 11), any confirmation of my promise delivered by Isaiah – any at all in all creation. (“Sheol” was the subterranean abode of the dead.). But it seems that Ahaz has already made up his mind (v. 12) so, through Isaiah, God gives to the “house of David” (v. 13) not a “sign” (v. 11) to convince Ahaz, but one which speaks to future generations. God will keep the promise he made to David (through Nathan): “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me” (2 Samuel 7:16). “The young woman” (v. 14, most likely Ahaz’s wife) is pregnant; David’s line will continue; she will name her son “Immanuel” (meaning God with us). (This son was Hezekiah.) In a devastated land (paying heavy tribute to Assyria), where only basic food is available (“curds and honey”, v. 15), he will develop moral discrimination – unlike recent kings, who were deemed wicked, ungodly people. By this time, Assyria will have conquered both Syria and Israel (v. 16).

3) Interpretation

The difficulty of this text is perhaps also its genius: God is with us-and the consequences are altogether ambiguous. Properly understood, is that not the ambiguity of Advent itself? God is coming: Rejoice! Or, God is coming: Beware! Both responses are appropriate and true, and both mark the observance of Advent. God is coming, says Isaiah, bringing a kingdom of peace and prosperity, equality and justice, where all creation joins humanity's voice in songs of praise. Rejoice! But, God is coming, says John the Baptist: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matthew 3:7). Are we eager to meet God? Of course! Are we ready to meet God? Never! A healthy tension between the two will be the hallmark of an Advent that pays attention to the biblical texts.

The text itself is lodged in the eighth century where Syria and Israel (Ephraim) are in league against Judah, and Judah's King Ahaz is afraid and unwilling to trust in God's protection. God had warned him (and us) through Isaiah: "If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all" (Isaiah 7:9)-though, of course, the warning is also a promise: in faith, you will stand firm!

But Ahaz cannot. Can we? It's so much easier to trust in alliances and arms and investments and securities than in God. "Do not worry about tomorrow," Jesus will say (Matthew 6:25)-but that's easier said than done. So Ahaz refuses God's offer of a sign, feigning piety (as little faith often does), only to be given a sign anyway from an exasperated Isaiah. The exasperation shows in the ambiguity of the sign. On the one hand, by the time a child born now to an already pregnant woman is fully weaned, the threat from Syria and Israel will fade away (v. 16) and the king of Assyria will come as invited, but bringing violence and destruction (vv. 17). And, of course, both things are "Immanuel" (God with us), for when God comes it will always mean both judgment and promise. God comes always to bring life and salvation; but God comes always to expose human sin and purge everything that stands in the way of justice and liberty.

Did Isaiah have Jesus in mind when he spoke? Hardly. The word of God is not a simple prediction that will "come true" in a latter day or an equation to be solved to get one final answer-it is a living word that kills and makes alive in every generation, always needing to be proclaimed anew, always carrying both continuity and surprise: continuity in God's steadfast love and mercy, which never change; surprise in God's enduring penchant to do a new thing which always stirs things up. Jesus is that unexpected new thing: Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, even if they didn't get his name right. The details are not the point; the promise is.

But Jesus, too, will be an ambiguous "sign." Christmas promises peace and joy and love and nostalgia and hope and wonder; but Christmas brings God to earth in human form (Immanuel), which will change everything we thought about God and challenge everything we thought about ourselves. Do we want our inner thoughts revealed? Only if we want them cleansed-but that's a hard thing. Do we want a God in diapers? Only if we are prepared to see him go to the cross. For that, too, is Immanuel.

Jesus is God with us, bringing both the wonder and the worry of that reality. God is in Christ-so close we can touch him and taste him; so real he can forgive and make us new. God is in Christ-so close we cannot escape his scrutiny; so real he cannot escape the world's suffering. Jesus is God with us, and every day we are amazed.

4) Thought Exercise

What wonders have you seen this Christmas season?

How do you rely on faith to deal with the worries of Christmas and beyond?

Restoration

2010-12-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 35: 1-10 (December 12, 2010)

1) The Text

35The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 8A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. 9No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

2) The Context

In its canonical context, Isaiah 35 serves as a thematic bridge between Chapters 1–39 and 40–55. Chapter 35 follows a series of judgments on the nations, especially Edom in Chapter 34; and, hence, the redemptive effects of the LORD's "recompense" in Isaiah 35 provide a contrast with the devastating result of God's judgment on the nations. The themes of a highway in the wilderness and the return of God's people point forward to the opening vision of Deutero Isaiah in Chapter 40. Thus, Isaiah 35 both brings Isaiah 1–39 to a thematic conclusion and serves as an introduction to the oracles of hope that begin in Isaiah 40.

In the chapters immediately prior to Isaiah 35, Isa 30-31 pick up on a theme which was present in the earlier chapters, that is, the call for Israel to trust God and not to make alliances with foreign nations. Promises based on a king who will be righteous and warnings against those who would be complacent are next in Isa 32. This chapter is almost like a summary of Isa 1-39. The issues of righteousness and justice dominate the verses and the consequence is this idyllic picture of harmony and peace within communities, and the natural world (32:16-20). Isa 33 contains many forms which are present in worship liturgies: prayer (vv.1-6), lament (vv.7-9), divine oracle (vv.10-16), and promise of salvation (vv.17-24). Isa 34-35 completes the first section of the Book of Isaiah with prophecies concerning Edom and Zion. The nations will be judged and punished because of the way they have treated Zion. It is interesting to note the particular focus on Edom and wonder why Edom is not mentioned in the oracles against the nations in Isa 13-23, but is singled out here for a very severe punishment. Juxtaposed with this oracle of disaster for Edom (Isa 34) is the oracle of salvation for Zion (Isa 35) and naturally leads into the oracles of salvation found in Isa 40-55. However, Isa 36-39 form an historical bridge between Isa 35 and Isa 40, and appears to have been taken from 2 Kgs 18:13-20:19. Isa 34-35 is framed by 28-33 and 36-39: the former chapters centered on Jerusalem and its problems with Assyria, and the latter chapters finishing with the prophecy that Judah will be carried into exile by Babylon.

3) Interpretation

In resounding poetic vision, Isaiah 34-35 express the two paths humanity may tread in their relationship with God. Chapter 34 documents the profound destruction of Edom because of its collaboration with Babylon in the devastation of Judah leading up to the exile. The destruction is utterly comprehensive and final. God has spoken; there will be no resurrection for Edom.

Isaiah 35 represents the other side of the coin. Again it describes the intervention of God, but this time as restorer and deliverer. Verses 1-2 use mythic language to describe God’s action. They tell of the restoration of the very land through which the exiles will return to Zion. The fertility and beauty of the land itself are restored. The joy is expressed in the blooming of tree and flower where there had been dry and lifeless desert. The wilderness itself sings and rejoices as its fruitfulness returns. This is God’s doing as God prepares the appropriate ‘holy way’ along which the faithful people will return.

But in verse 3 the mood changes. Before they can make the return journey, the prophet must convince the fearful and weakened remnant of Judah that God will lead them back to Zion. There is reassurance that God ‘will come and save you’ (v. 4). After this time, the people will celebrate. Verses 5-6a detail the classic signs of restoration. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, and the lame will be made strong. They will witness the rebirth of the parched and exhausted land (v. 7).

The ‘holy way’ of v. 8 leads to the holy place, to Zion. Only the righteous can travel on it, the ‘unclean’ (or unrighteous) being disqualified. No one who sets out on the road will get lost, and the travellers will be protected from danger. God has redeemed the righteous exiles from their misery and captivity, and they will return to Zion, singing songs of joy. Matthew 11:2-5 makes a very strong link with these verses from Isaiah. The gospel writer explicitly associates the same signs of redemption with the coming of Jesus as Messiah: ‘the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’ (v. 5) John the Baptist asks if Jesus is the ‘one who is to come’ (v. 3). In reply, Matthew’s Jesus does not answer the question specifically; he merely points to the restoration of the people in the Isaian manner (vv. 4-5).

The connection between the Matthew passage and Isaiah 35 reminds us once again that the hope we have in Jesus, which is embodied in our Advent hope, is one that looks not just for someone to ease our individual troubles. What is envisaged is nothing less than the transformation of society and nature itself. Such transformation will ultimately depend on the Lord who restores. In the meantime, through our own participation in activities to ‘help the blind to see and the lame to walk’, we can and do embody that Advent hope in our daily lives. Advent is more than a time of tinsel and planning presents. It is a time which embodies that calling to hope expressed in our daily lives – a hope for each of us, for all of us together and for creation as a whole.

4) Thought Exercise

What signs of restoration are there during this Advent season?

What do you look to restore in the new year?

The Ideal King

2010-11-29T18:23:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 11: 1-10 (December 5, 2010)

1) The Text

11A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

2) The Context

This reading needs to be considered in the context of Isaiah 10:24 in which the people are told not to fear the Assyrians because God is in control. In contrast to the lopping down of the branches of Assyria and the majestic tress of Lebanon falling, God will send forth a branch from the root of Jesse, that is, the House of David. Isaiah was preaching in the time of Ahaz who lived in fear of an Assyrian invasion which threatened Judah and later totally destroyed the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom in 721 BCE. The prophecy of Isaiah 11:1-5 was fulfilled in Judah in the persons of Kings Hezekiah and later Josiah. It was a message of hope to a people who were facing possible destruction and the answer lay in the power and authority of God. The constant message of Isaiah was to trust in God alone. If Isaiah was preaching this message in the time of Hezekiah there was very little left of Judah, and the Davidic kingdom could be depicted as little more than a stump. The message relates back to the promise given to David in 2 Sam 7 in which God promises unconditionally that David's house will last forever.

In each of the units (vv.1-5, 6-10) which make up Isaiah 11:1-10, God reigns within sociopolitical order through the Spirit of the Lord resting on the king and in vv.6-10, God reigns in the order of creation. Although the move from v.5 to v.6 appears abrupt, it is depicting a picture of what would happen in everyday life when a king reigns who has the Spirit of God resting on him. V.9 completes the unit by referring back to the knowledge of the Lord filling the earth. This ideal king deals with people in the same way as God deals with humans - with justice and compassion.

3) Interpretation

As we look toward Christmas, we anticipate not only the birth of a baby but the coming to fruition of God’s new creation. In Advent, we prepare not just for Christmas, but for the feast of the reign of Christ. The beginning of the Christian year anticipates its end, while its end and the celebration of Christ’s reign over all, can only be fully understood as we reflect on the nature of the incarnation of Christ, his death, and resurrection etc. Isaiah 11:1-10 looks toward the rule of one whose life is shaped by the ‘spirit of the Lord’ (vv. 1-5). It envisages a world in which peace will also be experienced in the world of nature (vv. 6-9).

The passage falls into two sections. Verses 1-5 use the metaphor of the shoot coming from the stump of the tree to speak of the continuance of the royal dynasty of David in Jerusalem. After the disappointments of the rule of King Ahaz, the prophet’s words are put together to stress that hope in a just and faithful rule by a descendant of David is not in vain. The image of the tree stump carries the idea of removing what is corrupt and getting back to secure beginnings. This future ruler will be guided by the spirit of the Lord.

The gifts of the spirit are spelled out in terms of the royal domain. They include wisdom and understanding, a gift thought given to Egyptian and Babylonians kings by the gods as well as to Israel’s kings. The king was to judge not only with equity and fairness but with a concern for what we would call social policy and welfare. In other words, the law was there to address the social and economic inequities in society. While this king possessed power (‘might’ in v. 2), he is not described here as a battlefield hero or conqueror. What will drive this king is the ‘fear of the Lord’ (vv. 2-3). In contrast to King Ahaz, faith in God is to be at the heart of this king’s actions. His garb will not be that of power, or wealth or battle, but that of faith (v. 5).

There are points of both difference and continuity as we move to the second section, vv. 6-9. This idyllic picture of peace and harmony seems almost not to require one who will rule and ensure equity is established. The reference to ‘God’s holy mountain’ in v. 9 helps broaden the image. The idyllic image of vv. 6-9 is one for the whole earth. This is underlined in v. 10 and connected back to the metaphor at the beginning of the passage by mention of ‘the root of Jesse’. The messiah described in vv. 1-5 is a messiah for all peoples, just as the image of peace is one for all the earth. The messiah in this passage is not seen as an oppressor of the nations, but as an advisor. This messiah is not one concerned for glory or power, but in the removal of all evil.

Isa 11:1-9 points us to a vision of an ideal world, in both political and natural terms. It stands in sharp contrast to the image of a young family, with a new born child, forced to make do in an animal pen behind an inn. Yet, the images are not unrelated. Isaiah speaks of equity for the meek, justice for the poor, of righteousness and faithfulness, and the ascendency of what is powerless and vulnerable. All these things are embodied in the story of the birth of Jesus. On the other hand, in our anticipation of the birth of Jesus, with all its earthiness and inclusion of what is commonplace, we also anticipate the coming of the fullness of the kingdom of God, with all its glory and hope for what is ‘uncommon’ in our world – peace, justice, equity and security in both the worlds of human society and nature.

4) Thought Exercise

What is your vision of an ideal ruler?

How can we incorporate these traits in our own actions?

Going Home

2010-11-22T22:02:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 2: 1-5 (November 28, 2010)

1) The Text

2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

2) The Context

Isaiah was a court prophet in Judea during the reign of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His court service began with a peaceful, independent Judea. But it ended with the domination of the small state by the rising Assyrians. Isaiah saw the glory and the shame of Judea under four different kings. His writings (chapters 1-39) reflect the extent of those experiences, but not in sequential order.

The book of Isaiah can be divided into two (and possibly three) parts. Chapters 1 to 39 were written before the exile, from about 740 BC to about 700 BC. These were difficult times for the southern kingdom, Judah: a disastrous war was fought with Syria; the Assyrians conquered Israel, the northern kingdom, in 723 BC, and threatened Judah. Isaiah saw the cause of these events as social injustice, which he condemned, and against which he fought valiantly. Because Chapter 1 begins with similar words, it appears that this and the next few chapters originally formed a separate document. The ideas in vv. 2-4 are also found in Micah 4.

Chapters 40 to 66 were written during and after the Exile in Babylon. They are filled with a message of trust and confident hope that God will soon end the Exile. Some scholars consider that Chapters 56 to 66 form a third part of the book, written after the return to the Promised Land. These chapters speak of hope and despair; they berate the people for their sin, for worshipping other gods. Like Second Isaiah, this part speaks of the hope that God will soon restore Jerusalem to its former glory and make a new home for all peoples.

3) Interpretation

Thomas Wolfe famously said, "You can't go home again," but the Bible suggests otherwise. It could be said that going home, going to the right home, is the Bible's central theme. And Advent is the quintessential time for going home. But if the Bible focuses huge attention on going home, how is it different from the nostalgic call to go on home, to hug your parents, to eat some rich food, to sit about the fire? Isaiah 2 does have a different take on the hope of homecoming. A careful look at the text shows just how different this Israelite, this world, homecoming will be.

The difference begins immediately in the introductory verse; this word that comes from God to Isaiah is not heard by the prophet, but is rather "seen" by him (2:1). The Hebrew verb means "to envision," as if the word has come in the form of a new way of seeing. If we are to understand a new way of going home, we must see differently, we must change our angle of vision. In fact, the vision of the prophet is to occur in "days to come". Rather than thinking about this as some future time, it is helpful to imagine this as a vision always available to those whose eyes have been opened to the newer reality of God. You can always go to this home, if you can see it, envision it -- and in the power of God you can.

Isaiah sees the mountain of God's house established as the highest of the mountains, lifted higher, better than all the hills there ever were (2:2b). The temple in Jerusalem may be the physical reference, resting on the hill of Zion, but visions are not merely about geography. The prophet sees in the vision that God is the center of the universe and all that God represents.

"All the nations are streaming (flowing)" to this mountain (2:2c). "The nations" (goyim) are those non-Israelite peoples who stand over against Israel. Their numbers are legion: Egyptians, Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Arameans, Canaanites, and countless smaller groups who over the centuries have warred and struggled with those who live in the tiny land of Israel. There is no agreement when this oracle was composed. But its vision could have come at any time to a people always ready to find out new meanings of their home.

The vast human stream flows toward God's mountain to learn what God uniquely has to teach. And what that is now becomes clear. What God has to impart to the world is Torah. It means "instruction," "teaching," the very ways and paths of God. As the nations approach the sacred mountain, God appears as judge, chief arbiter between and among the huge throng of peoples arrayed on the hill of Zion. The grammar of the sentence is important. God is judge and arbitrates between the peoples "in order that they beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation does not lift up sword against nation; they no longer learn war." And there is the home to which this vision calls Israel and us. Visions are not merely future hopes and dreams; visions are present potential realities.

When the proverb says, "Without a vision the people perish," it is not only saying that we need to keep some future hope alive in order that we can live in our difficulties now. The vision of a world without war, mandated by the great God of Zion, is far more than a fanciful dream of a few foolish overly-optimistic peaceniks. When Martin Luther King, Jr. helped all of us envision a world without racism, he was doing more than dreaming. He was casting a vision, another way of seeing the world. If we can see the vision, we can live into it, and need not wait for some long-expected future to do so. We simply must see the visions that God has for us and live always into them and toward them. And that is the home to which Isaiah points Israel and us. Advent points us toward home where the hope of genuine peace reigns.

Advent is a time of anticipation. These verses from Isaiah should fuel our spiritual anticipation. We have a bright future that God will provide. All we have to do is look and walk in faith.

4) Thought Exercise

What are the visions God has for you?

In what ways are you living into these visions?

God’s Wisdom

2010-11-17T18:32:00.000-08:00

Colossians 1: 11-20 (November 21, 2010)

1) The Text

11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

2) The Context

Colossae was a city in what is now southwestern Turkey. It had flourishing wool and textile industries and a significant Jewish population. It seems that most Christians there were Gentile. Although long thought to be written by Paul, today this epistle is considered non-Pauline for a number of reasons. The most compelling is that it emphasizes what God has already done for his people: Paul tells us what God is going to do in the future (although some argue that Paul shifted his viewpoint in later life.) It gives descriptions of false teachings which were being promulgated in the churches. Some scholars consider this evidence of later authorship. In the ancient world, writing in the name of a respected author was accepted and regarded as an honor.

This passage is part of a larger section dealing with the person and work of Christ, 1:3-23, that seeks to establish the credentials of Jesus. Christ's preeminence over the created order, his authority over the church, and his prime function of reconciling all creation to himself, confirms the security of our standing in the presence of the living God.

3) Interpretation

In the two verses before this passage (1:9-10), we read what the author announces as his prayer for his hearers. It is not about ideals for which to strive by our own efforts, but about living in a way that both produces fruit and provides nourishment which makes fruit possible. While this applies as much to individuals as to groups, what follows broadens the vista to something much wider that involves the whole world. The focus is on a strong sense of belonging and for a purpose. The belonging is not a kind of passive membership, but engagement in a struggle which is fundamental to life. We have moved from being driven by powers opposite to God and love and good to become participants in a stream of goodness that flows from God (1:13). The author speaks of the kingdom or reign described as a sphere of power and influence which expresses itself by changing things. Part of that change includes forgiveness of sins (1:14). Part of being able to move spheres is the recognition of and facing up to the fact that one has been serving other gods, other priorities, than what is good for others and oneself.

The vision expands further in the carefully crafted verses which follow in 1:15-20. Their substance takes us right to the heart of God and the universe. The Christ whom we follow is not just a religious figure who was raised from the dead. Rather, he embodies both what humanity was made to be (the image of God) and simultaneously embodies God's wisdom. Christ embodies the very wisdom which makes sense of the universe and helped set it in motion. These are big claims. But they are ways of avoiding the trivial sectarianism which turns Jesus into a religious hero of a cult. Instead what we meet in Jesus takes us to the heart of God and the universe and its meaning.

The focus is not just on beginnings but on endings. The chaotic state of disjunction and estrangement which characterizes the universe out of harmony with its creator is something Christ came to set right. So 1:18-20 takes us beyond creation to the events of Christ's life. His message of reconciliation was, again, not about getting a few human beings forgiven, but about creating something much larger, a genuine reconciliation which would reverse the effects of the alienation which the gods of hate and greed have caused and cause. The author asserts that God deliberately resolved to be engaged fully in this act (1:19). It interprets the resurrection as a symbol of a new beginning. Christ is the firstborn not only of creation as God's wisdom and word (1:15) but also from the dead (1:18). In that sense he leads the way to reconciliation and renewal (1:19).

Deep within this line of thought we find an allusion to the church (1:18). At one level it seems out of place. Is the author really suggesting that the church with Christ as its head is going to swallow up everything and have the universe at its feet? Perhaps these verses offer a new definition of what it means to be church. In the best sense church is where the reconciling compassion of God is making some headway and is recognized and valued as such. This leaves no room for pretensions. Our joy is then not the power of influence and control, but that love flows and change happens. It is when destructive powers, including those gilded with religious sanction, lose their deity and people see that what matters is love because love lies at the heart of the universe and is God's wisdom and will.

4) Thought Exercise

How has God’s wisdom guided your life?

How is Pilgrim Church a place of compassion?

Clear Vision

2010-11-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

Luke 21: 5-19 (November 14, 2010)

1) The Text

5When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” 7They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. 9“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17You will be hated by all because of my name. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your souls.

2) The Context

The reading is from the last story about Jesus teaching in the Temple. The Jerusalem temple was the project of Herod the Great, who in 20/19 BCE began a reconstruction that essentially doubled its size and otherwise reflected his own aggrandizing character. Pilgrims pouring into the city from the rustic environs of Palestine and the wider diaspora couldn't not help but be impressed, even overwhelmed, by its sheer size and magnificence. But Jesus foretells of its destruction (“thrown down”, v. 6) – an event then some 40 years in the future.

In Jesus’ time, people were concerned about when the world would end, and what signs would indicate “this is about to take place” (v. 7). Jesus begins to answer, in terms drawn from prophetic books (Micah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, vv. 8-11) and brought together in contemporary books (e.g. 2 Esdras). He adds “the end will not follow immediately” (v. 9), and then diverts to issues that matter now: the treatment his followers will receive, and how they should react to it (vv. 12-19). (“The time”, v. 8, is the time chosen by God for the end of the era.)

3) Interpretation

This passage speaks of deep and difficult realities in words we don't often use today. Most of us live in a "non-apocalyptic" mind set. Though we may have in the back of our minds the notion that the world might come to an end, we don't live as if this is the case. This passage allows either a discussion of these elusive "end times" or something that is much closer to the meaning of the passage-- that is the problem of interpretation or discernment in a confusing world. Jesus will speak about a coming persecution and destruction of the Temple, to be sure, but the broader context of his words is how to interpret various things in our world. How do we interpret the world in which we live? Here Jesus interprets two different things: (1) the meaning of a structure; and (2) the meaning of coming events.

In Chapter 20, Jesus has just emerged from a series of confrontations with religious leaders. He has acquitted himself well as a Biblical interpreter; he has also probably fueled the leaders' determination to "get him." Jesus sees himself in a larger historical context--as one of the prophets who must perish in Jerusalem. This consciousness gives him a freedom in interpreting things around him. He easily can put an alternative "twist" on things because his mind and conceptualization of the world isn't beholden to the interpretations of the religious leaders. He seems to speak with a freedom borne from achieving clarity of message and clarity of mission.

When we achieve these kinds of clarities in life, life flows much better for us, too. When you know what you stand for and what your message is in this life, you not only cherish your life and live it more fully, but you discover a new utility in life that you never knew you had. So, in this passage, Jesus gives two different "takes" on two common experiences or questions in life.

The first has to do with interpreting the beautiful building around him. The restored temple was the pride and joy of the community. It probably looked as if it was built to stand until the end of the world. But the external beauty and magnificence of the temple seems not to affect his view of what will happen. He knows that life, events, structures are evanescent or fleeting. Is the key to Jesus' ability to "read" the future of the temple found in an un-shareable divinity which he has--or to a spiritual/political perception he possesses that is also available to us? It brings up the question of whether there are people in our own midst, or whether we ourselves, have this interpretive capacity--the ability to "see" how things will unfold.

Finally, the most significant thing about Jesus' words in these verses is the division between people that it assumes. There will be divisions between nations as wars break out and divisions within families and groups that should share a common interest. Although Jesus’ words have a strong sense of warning, He also offers words of hope and advice on how to deal with all the strange events and personal trials. His advice is simply to stand firm - to endure. There may be suffering and even death - but endurance will be the greatest defense. It is an endurance born of trust - that in the midst of the turmoil, Jesus is in it with us and will give the words and strength we need to face what comes. The challenge Jesus puts before us is clear vision.

Although we can't fully separate the interpretive from the apocalyptic message of the passage, take a lesson from Jesus and wade into the interpretive arena-- look at the structures around you (the temple) and the events of our world--and try to make sense of them. That is the encouragement of this passage.

4) Thought Exercise

Can we see beyond the crises of life and nation?

Can our faith help us understand the challenges of these uncertain times?

Life After Death

2010-11-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

Luke 20: 27-38 (November 7, 2010)

1) The Text

27Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30then the second 31and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32Finally the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” 34Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

2) The Context

It is important to remember the context of this passage: Jesus has entered Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-40) and a series of confrontations with the authorities begins. He has less than a week to live before he will be falsely charged, secretly arrested by night, tortured, and then brutally executed.

Just before this week’s passage, Jesus told a parable of wicked tenants (Luke 20:9-19), and following this Luke had commented: So (the authorities) watched (Jesus) and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor (Pontius Pilate).

This passage is intended to be one of those traps. The question asked by the Sadducees is NOT an honest, "good faith," question; it is an exaggerated "mind game" intended to trap Jesus into speaking against the Law. This story reflects a controversy between Sadducees and Pharisees regarding the hope of resurrection. The Sadducees were strict constructionists. They didn't believe in anything that was not in the written Torah—the five books of the Law. In contrast, the Pharisees accepted as valid the traditions of the oral law, the interpretations of the Torah that had developed in the oral traditions of the Pharisees. Resurrection was one of those beliefs that developed in the exilic and post-exilic periods. Most Pharisees believed in the hope of the resurrection, but Sadducees did not.

3) Interpretation

How do we know there is life after death? This was the question the foes of Jesus posed to him.

The Sadducees began with a principle of the Law on the obligation of family to a widowed in-law who had no children (found in Deuteronomy 25:5-10) [20:28]. With the passing of a husband, widows no longer had a place; they became homeless. And, there were no descendants to carry on the memory of the deceased. To alleviate this social problem and insure descendants-in-name to remember the dead, the Law obliged the brothers of the deceased to marry the widow.

Through a story, the Sadducees tried to show that God's Law on the serious obligations of marriage conflicted with belief in the afterlife. After all, which brother would be faithful to the widow? [20:29-33] Marital faithfulness was a virtue firmly grounded in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14, Deuteronomy 5:18). The Sadducees argued that God would never create a condition in where his Will would contradict his Law. So, to insure the sanctity of marriage found in the Law, the Sadducees implied, God would never create an afterlife.

Jesus answered the Sadducees in two ways. First, he argued that marriage is an earthly institution blessed by God, but there was no such institution in God's Kingdom. [20:34-36] Such a concept was radical at the time. If there was not the institution of marriage, there may not be institutions of social class or slavery in the Kingdom. Women were equal to men, slaves were equal to freemen, the poor were equal to the rich. Only one status mattered: standing before God as his child [20:36].

Second, Jesus insisted that, when he had his first encounter with the Lord, Moses acknowledged the resurrection of the dead before he received the Law [20:37-38]. How did Moses do this? Moses experienced the divine as a dynamic presence that the Jews referred to as the "Living God." This God acted with power and definite purpose. He took the initiative in creation and in the affairs of people. This was not a transcendent power that could be manipulated through prayers, incantations, or spells. No! When people experienced the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were shaken by a powerful presence beyond their control; they lie in the hands of a God that was truly alive.

As God was alive, so too, were those who experienced him. Here, Jesus showed a subtle, but definite shift in logic. Only the living can experience that which lives; only the living can encounter the "Living God." If the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the "Living God," then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must be alive in his presence. If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still live, then there must be a resurrection of the dead. In the very title of their God, Jews found the revelation of his purpose to give life after death.

How do we know there is life after death? We know through Scripture and the tradition of the Church. But more important than these, through God's dynamic presence, he communicates the love and compassion of his will. We can trust God in all things, including the greatest challenge life gives us, death. If he lives, so shall we, for his love transcends all things, even death itself.

4) Thought Exercise

What are your beliefs about the resurrection of the dead?

What importance does this belief have in your life?

Salvation

2010-10-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Luke 19: 1-10 (October 24, 2010)

1) The Text

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

2) The Context

In the previous chapter, Jesus was asked by a rich “ruler” (18:18) what he must do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus told him to keep the Ten Commandments, he said that he has done so since his youth. Jesus then adds: “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (18:22). He finds it hard to give up his wealth.

Now we meet Zacchaeus, a tax farmer working for the Romans and therefore also rich – a despised person and an outcast from Jewish society. He is curious about Jesus (v. 3). Jesus senses his presence up in a “sycamore tree” (v. 4). He even invites himself to Zacchaeus’ home! (God extends hospitality to all people.) The crowd grumbles (v. 7), for Jesus has crossed social and religious barriers: good people don’t associate with sinners. Zacchaeus, unlike the rich ruler, is prepared to give generously, and to recompense anyone he has defrauded, as the Law requires. (The Law required that a stolen sheep be replaced by “four”, v. 8, sheep.) “Salvation has come” (v. 9) to Zacchaeus’ house, indeed to his whole household: Jesus chose to stay with him, Zacchaeus accepted him and has changed his life. Being saved is the same spiritual experience as inheriting eternal life and entering the kingdom of God. In spite of the crowd’s grumbling, thinking him “lost” (v. 10), the tax (or toll) collector is a “son of Abraham” (v. 9), a true member of God’s people.

3) Interpretation

By the end of this Chapter, Jesus will have entered Jerusalem and the last week of his life before he is arrested, tortured and executed. In this passage he enters Jericho near Jerusalem. Zacchaeus is a CHIEF tax collector. This probably means he has been given a contract by the hated Roman authorities (for an agreed set price) to collect taxes from a large region. He would employ others to actually do the collecting. Zacchaeus is also rich. The fact this is mentioned in addition to the fact of him being a chief tax collector suggests that some chief tax collectors were not wealthy.

Zacchaeus is NOT popular. Not only does he collect taxes for the oppressive Roman occupiers; in everyone's eyes he has wealth that does not properly belong to him. That is, no matter how legitimate and honest he might have been, the fact that he has acquired wealth (as compared with having it from his family) means that someone else has lost wealth. Zacchaeus is despised for this, and not trusted.

Climbing a tree would be a highly unusual, foolish, and immodest thing for a rich person to do. Zacchaeus would now be openly mocked as well as despised and distrusted. But it would be obvious to Jesus that here was someone exceptionally interested in him. Jesus honors Zacchaeus' foolish behavior by announcing that he will eat with him. Eating with anyone was a sign of social approval. Zacchaeus is aware of the honor being bestowed on him by Jesus and is made happy by it.

But the crowd disapproves. Jesus has presented them with a tough choice. They despise and distrust Zacchaeus; but Jesus is honored and lauded by them. Since Jesus goes to eat with Zacchaeus, if they want to continue to hold Jesus in high regard, they will have to accept Jesus' opinion of Zacchaeus and also grant honor to Zacchaeus and stop despising him. Or they will have to change their regard for Jesus - and their hopes that he was going to do big things next week during the Passover in Jerusalem.

The response of the crowd, shifting from approval to disapproval of Jesus, foreshadows what lies ahead for Jesus in the week to come: "Hosanna!" during his triumphant entry to Jerusalem, and then "Crucify him!" during his trial. To counter the crowd's opinion of him, Zacchaeus responds by pointing out the good works he already does. The actual verb tenses here for "give" and "pay back" are present tense, and NOT future tense as shown in most English translations (including the one above): "will give," "will pay back." Zacchaeus is not promising to change his behavior, he is pointing out the good he already is doing. That is why there is no mention of any repentance at this point. Jesus acknowledges Zacchaeus' good works and solidifies his honoring of Zacchaeus by declaring that salvation has come to his house, and that Zacchaeus is indeed "one of us," a son of Abraham. Thus Jesus restores Zacchaeus into the social fabric of Jewish life in Jericho.

Notice that Zacchaeus does NOT repent of his occupation; he does not give up being a chief tax collector. Like all of us, Zacchaeus remains compromised, impure, sinning. Thus, one possible moral of this story is to realize that salvation does not require, nor result in, perfection. Salvation in this lifetime is not about the end state. Salvation is the process, the healing and reconciling that is needed for creating right relationships within which compromised, impure, and sinful people - like us - can live within, in response to, and toward, the realm of God.

4) Thought Exercise

What is involved in the process of salvation?

Is there a state of perfection we can strive for?

Praise For God, From God

2010-10-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Psalm 65 (October 24, 2010)

1) The Text

1Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, 2O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come. 3When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. 4Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. 5By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.

6By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. 7You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. 8Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. 9You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 10You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 12The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

2) The Context

Sometimes we need a prayer to remind us that praise for God comes from God. Psalm 65 is such a prayer. It was an agricultural hymn of praise to the Creator. In an arid climate like Palestine has, the nation depended upon the seasonal cycles that brought rain. So, this psalm could have been a song celebrating the end of drought or a part of the liturgy from the Feast of Booths (or Sukkoth). The Feast of Booths was a fall celebration that marked the beginning of the planting season; after a long, hot summer, farmers needed the rains of late October for their new crops. The psalm recognized God’s power and Israel’s dependency on that power to sustain the nation.

3) Interpretation

Psalm 65 is a thanksgiving psalm often associated with a harvest. As a whole the psalm challenges many ways in which we perceive praise of God and who/what offers praise. The thanksgiving and praise offered God comes from three quarters. The psalm opens in vv. 1-2 with a declaration of the universal praise of the ‘God, in Zion’ who is the one ‘who answers prayer’. The second section (vv. 3-4) focuses on the temple in Zion. It emphasizes the gracious movement of God toward the people in terms of forgiving the sins which overwhelm them and in bringing God’s chosen near to the temple. Verses 5-8 see the scene change to a cosmic one. God answers the prayer of the psalmist’s community. The section establishes the mythic background for the rest of the psalm. It declares that God is the one who orders the cosmos. This is the one who can pardon sins and grant abundant fertility. Finally, in vv. 12-13 the psalmist’s praise joins with the joy of earth. These verses begin and end with statements expressing joyous exclamation and singing. God is the source of earth’s life and abundance (vv. 9-11).

While each of the sections of Psalm 65 has a distinct emphasis, they are intricately connected in the present form of the psalm, relating the various forms of praise and thanks evident in creation. One connection between vv. 9-13 and vv. 3-4 which focus on the temple is the word ‘goodness’ (vv. 4 and 11). Both temple and earth reflect the ‘goodness’ of God. The connection draws together earth’s abundant fertility and the worship in the temple.

Another connection concerns the movement within the last three sections of the psalm. In each God moves outward toward the creation: in forgiveness when sin overwhelms the people (v. 3), in establishing the mountains and stilling the seas (vv. 6-7), and in giving fertility to earth (vv. 9-11). In each there is a corresponding movement back toward God: as God brings the chosen near to the temple (v. 4), as the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe and ‘east and west sing for joy’ (v. 8), or as earth responds in joyous praise (vv. 12-13). The sections thus detail how ‘all flesh’ comes to God (v. 2b). The coming together of worshippers and God in the temple, the inhabitants of earth standing in awe of God’s signs, and the coming together of God and earth in abundant fertility, complement each other. In each case intimacy is the result of God’s initial movement toward creation. Thus, the presence of God in the temple, and the ‘awesome deeds’ in ordering creation, are continuous with the work of God in and with earth.

Psalm 65 both challenges and encourages us to see our relationship with the earth, and its relationship with God, in ways different to those we have inherited. The psalmist assumes an intricate connection between the activity in the sanctuary, the orderliness of the cosmos and the nations, and the fertility of earth. God’s gracious action toward each part of the creation gives rise to the joyous response of each part: of worshippers, the peoples, and earth. All this was part of the psalmist’s world view which saw connections many in our own world no longer see.

The psalmist sees earth as a living entity, with a voice of its own, capable of giving praise to God. This is more than ‘mere metaphor’. The psalmist’s association of pastures, valleys etc. with joyous song, invites a broadening of our understanding of what we think of as praise and what can praise God. The psalm suggests that praise is not necessarily linked to human worship alone. In vv. 11-13 earth sings and shouts for joy in its abundant fertility. It sings for joy in following its life cycle. Life itself, which is lived in fullness, wholeness and peace, is an offering of joy and praise to the God whose gift that life is. Praise is embodied in the very life of earth and its community. Human praise is but a part of the chorus. We are challenged to recognize that and to be lost in the wonder of the life of the world around us.

4) Thought Exercise

When do you feel the need to praise God? How does your praise of God help you to realize his overwhelming power in your life?

How is your life an offering of praise and joy to God?

A Renewed Covenant

2010-10-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

Jeremiah 31: 27-34 (October 17, 2010)

1) The Text

27The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. 28And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. 29In those days they shall no longer say: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” 30But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. 31The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

2) The Context

From Chapter 1, we know that Jeremiah was either born or began his ministry in 627 BC. During his life, Babylonia succeeded Assyria as the dominant power in the Middle East. He was a witness to the return to worship of the Lord (instituted by the Judean king Josiah), and then (after Josiah's death in battle in 609), the return of many of the people to paganism. When Babylon captured Jerusalem in 587, Jeremiah emigrated to Egypt. God called him to be a prophet to Judah and surrounding nations, in the midst of these political and religious convulsions.

This reading is in the section of the Book of Jeremiah known as The Little Book of Consolation (chs. 30-33). This is used to note that the subject matter of these chapters has shifted from Jeremiah’s 40 year ministry of proclaiming judgment by means of the Babylonian invasions to a concern with the future restoration of the people beyond the impending exile.

This title also reveals that some scholars see this portion of the book as coming from a later time than Jeremiah himself. Usually, scholars attribute it to the post-exilic community as they began to understand Jeremiah’s message and elaborated on the themes of hope, restoration, and obedience to torah. The person or group that collected this material is generally referred to as the Deuteronomist, reflecting the similarity of perspectives with the book of Deuteronomy. These similarities are evident particularly with the emphasis on covenant (e.g., Deut. 5:2-3), the language of the heart (e.g., Deut 4:29; cf. Jer 29:13), and the concern with proper faithfulness to God based on love and commitment that goes beyond legal restraint (e.g., Deut 6:4-9).

3) Interpretation

There are three oracles in chapter 31 all beginning ‘The days are surely coming …’ (vv. 27-30, 31-34, and 38-40). Today’s reading takes in the first two oracles. The first, vv. 27-30, announces a new beginning for both Israel from the north and Judah from the south, i.e. a restoration of all Israel. Repeated here are themes and language from the call of Jeremiah (v. 28; cf. Jer. 1:10), but now the tasks of plucking up, breaking down, destroying, overthrowing, building and planting, are those of God not just of the prophet. The oracle turns abruptly in vv. 29-30 to the area of ethics, presenting a new understanding of individual responsibility. No longer can the blame for the trauma of exile be sheeted home on the sins of past generations (cf. Ezekiel 18).

The second oracle, vv. 31-34, speaks of a new beginning in terms of a renewed covenant, of which again Israel and Judah are both beneficiaries. Apart from the ‘new song’ in some Psalms (e.g. Psalms 96 and 98), the ‘new’ is not a frequent theme in the Hebrew Bible until it emerges with the prophets following the exile.

The Hebrew can be interpreted to mean a ‘renewed’ covenant rather than a ‘new’ one. ‘New’ could imply something entirely different to previous covenants and is not really what is implied here. What is ‘new’ about the covenant is not the covenant itself, but the way it is to be affected. The people broke the covenant in its old formulation, even though God had ‘led his people by the hand’ out of Egypt, and had become their ‘husband’ or master. In this new manifestation of the covenant, God will put his torah within the people and ‘write it on their hearts’. In Hebrew, ‘heart’ represents not so much the seat of the emotions as that of practical knowledge, and is not significantly different from ‘mind’. The torah written on the heart will replace the sin previously engraved there (Jer. 17:1).

This change in imagery represents the new covenantal relationship with God as an internal matter rather than an external one. Each person will have a personal knowledge of God, not dependent on the instruction of another. Jeremiah goes on to anchor this new knowledge in forgiveness (v. 34). They shall each know that experience personally. No longer will they just hear from another the tradition of God’s liberation of his people long ago in the exodus (v. 32). No longer will they need to be taught the torah by another. It will all be part and parcel of their own being – both the experience of forgiveness and the desire to live out the way of God.

Finally, there are two key aspects of this renewed covenant. First, the oracle affirms the ongoing place of torah, the law, although now written on human hearts (Jer. 31:33). Secondly, the oracle repeats the old covenant affirmation ‘I will be their God, and they will be my people’ (cf. Exod. 6:7). Even with the new individual knowledge of God, the corporate side of the covenant relationship remains essential. Individuals, with their own experience of forgiveness and their ‘internalized’ law, are neither free from discipline nor without connection to the whole community of God’s people. One could develop this in many ways but it is also important to note that it is true of both modern communities, Jewish and Christian, who rightly see their relationship with God in terms of Jeremiah’s words. Both seek to live God’s way from the heart, with the same sense of a personal knowledge of God.

4) Thought Exercise

How would you characterize your personal knowledge of God?

How does this connect you to the whole community of God’s people?

Expectations

2010-10-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

II Kings 5: 1-3, 7-15 (October 10, 2010)

1) The Text

5Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. 2Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

7When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.” 8But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”

9So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 10Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” 11But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 12Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. 15Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.”

2) The Context

The two books of Kings were originally one. They continue the story of the monarchy begun in 1-2 Samuel. 1 Kings begins with the enthronement of Solomon and the death of David. 2 Kings continues the story of the monarchies of Israel and Judah. It covers the period from about 850 BC to about 585 BC when Israel fell to the Assyrians (in 721 BC) and Judah to the Babylonians (586 BC). While these books read like a political history, they trace the apostasy (i.e., a total departure from one's religion) that led to the loss of national identity and autonomy.

3) Interpretation

The background to this intriguing story is the history of conflict between Israel and Syria (Aram). The fact that the king of Aram is willing to ask for help from the king of Israel on behalf of Naaman indicates the high regard in which the general is held. He is a mighty warrior, through whose courage and foresight Aram has won many victories over neighbouring nations, including Israel. Therein lies a problem that will manifest itself further on in the story. The fact of the defeat of Israel by Naaman’s army is inferred by the identification of Naaman’s wife’s slave as an Israelite: ‘Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel’ (v. 2).

But the most important issue is that a terrible affliction has now incapacitated Naaman. The disease limits his capacity as commanding general and is viewed with personal dismay by his benefactor, the king of Aram. The solution comes from a highly unlikely source. The Israelite slave girl in Naaman’s household offers what is likely to be the only possible hope for a cure. She tells her mistress that there is a prophet in Samaria who could cure the leprosy. The prophet is Elisha, who is a fierce opponent of the worship of other gods, including the gods of Aram. The help comes from a female slave who represents a nation which Naaman’s armies have defeated in the past. Thus, Naaman will have to overcome his pride to ask Elisha to cure his disease.

Yet there is no other choice, so he sets off armed with a letter of referral from the king of Aram to the king of Israel. He will need to humble himself. But when Naaman presents the letter to the king of Israel, we find that the letter mistakenly asks the king himself to cure Naaman. The king of Israel is suitably terrified. He knows he is not capable of such healing, but does not wish to offend the powerful king of Aram. Fortunately, his distress is communicated to Elisha, who suggests that Naaman be sent to him ‘that he may learn there is a prophet in Israel’. In other words – a true prophet of the true God. This is the beginning of a series of ‘come-downs’ for Naaman. He is sent from the royal court to the humble abode of the prophet. When he arrives he expects to remain outside on his camel while this prophet comes to him. But the prophet just sends a message by a servant. The instructions are so simple: ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’

Naaman cannot take this. He had pictured himself instantly cured as the prophet waved his hand over him. He also resists the idea that a river of Israel might have more curative properties than rivers in his own Syria. None of it is happening the way he expected for a man of his station in life. So he turns it down. Again the advice of humble servants turns out to be the wisest: ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’ So he does wash, and is cured.

While Naaman remained self-sufficient and ‘closed off’ to the healing help of God, he could not be helped. But the story is not simply one about humility. It is about the surprising and unexpected way of God in the world and our openness to that way. It is about our expectations being undone as we engage with a God who does the unexpected. And above all it is about the healing being totally the gift of God, neither initiated nor controlled by human action.

The first surprise in this story is that God would heal this Aramean at all. The second is that this God entrusts his message to servants for its conveyance. The final surprise concerns what Naaman is told to do – bath in the Jordan. The ways of God seem to respect neither personnel nor proper protocol, and they are not to be controlled in any way. Here is a God whose word and spirit move to their own tune, and with surprising effect, on whomever they will.

4) Thought Exercise

What expectations of yours have been “undone”?

Where do you find God in the unexpected?

Faith and Service

2010-09-30T19:32:00.001-07:00

Luke 17: 5-10 (October 3, 2010)

1) The Text

5The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 7“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? 8Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? 9Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

2) The Context

Luke’s travel narrative, 9:51-19:27, is a loosely-constructed section that has the symbolic value of a journey in Christian discipleship. The following themes in 17:1-10 have particular relevance for the post-resurrection community: not causing others to stumble (vv. 1-2) forgiveness (vv. 3-4), faith (vv. 5-6), and humility in serving (vv. 7-10).

The passage on faith follows the counsel on unlimited forgiveness, but the apostles’ plea in verse 5 may be a response to the seemingly unattainable standard Jesus sets. There is ambiguity also in their request: the phrase translated as "increase our faith" can also be rendered "give us faith." The ambiguity is reinforced by the odd grammar of verse 6, which begins in such a way as to assume that they have faith (literally, "if you have faith"), but ends with a construction that suggests the contrary ("you could say…"). However, the general thrust of the saying in verse 6 is clear: it is an exaggerated way of saying that even a little faith can accomplish wonders. The ambiguity, nevertheless, leaves open the question of whether Jesus’ reply is a rebuke to the effect that the disciples do not even have the minimal faith to be compared to a mustard seed!

This passage has parallels in Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, and Mark 11:22-23, although in all these cases a mountain replaces the mulberry tree. Also in 1 Corinthians 13:2 Paul mentions faith strong enough to "remove mountains." We thus have a tangled history of tradition here that is difficult to reconstruct, but the variations show the importance of the theme of the power of faith in the early church.

The second passage, verses 7-10, is a parable that begins with a rhetorical question and ends with an application directed toward Jesus’ followers. The point is clear: as a slave owes service to the master and therefore is not entitled to thanks, so they should perform their service humbly, with a sense of their own unworthiness, rather than in expectation of special reward.

3) Interpretation

We enter the world of slavery and servitude. You don’t treat slaves as equals; you treat them as subordinates and so they should be! Don’t thank them. Their role is to serve you. The problem is that we may assume that many who heard Luke’s story would have nodded their heads in agreement. This is all very odd and seems to have more to do with what the gospel of Jesus was trying to counter than what it was trying to promote. We are perhaps more conditioned to think differently, but these have been dominant values throughout much of Christian history.

The effect of the story on most hearers of the day would have been to win wholehearted agreement, especially among those who had power or who saw, having power and control over others as a goal, even if they couldn’t achieve it. But, then comes verse 10. It turns the prejudice back on the hearer: so you, when you have done all you needed to do, don’t make special claims! You have done only what ought to have been expected! The sudden shift would have been unsettling, shocking. So the story works by subverting the self satisfaction of the superiors. It brings everyone down to the same level. It deconstructs hierarchy.

It debunks the idea that we achieve value by achieving the good, as though we deserve a bonus for being decent, caring human beings. It does not let us play the game. We can’t claim: you ought to love me, because look at how good I am! Look at what I have done! The passage is probably deliberately offensive in flooring aspirations to human worth based on achievement capital.

What is our value if it is not in what we achieve? This is a question which goes to the heart of being human. It is crucial for us all, particularly crucial for those who are able to achieve little, whether through disability linked to illness, age or constitution. When we make achievement the measure of worth, some people will come out very low on the scale. Jesus’ comments subvert that system. Not so long ago in Luke, Jesus was telling us a stories about the stock God seeks and the currency God values in response to criticism that he was mixing it with the worthless. Jesus was doing theology with human intuition and compassion, suggesting God is like a caring parent, who never ceases to love. We are valued because of who we are. The more we become convinced of that the less we need to play the other game and the less it will matter. Then, the less we are preoccupied with making ourselves deserving the more value we can give to others, the more energy and time we have for others.

Did Luke have a sense of humor when he placed the saying about transplanting trees before this theme? How can the proverbial tiny mustard seed effect change? It is not about vegetating the sea, but about encouraging seemingly impossible visions. In part it is about thinking outside the square. Things do not have to be the way they are. It is also about assertion against what appear to be overwhelming odds. Change is possible. Seeds of hope and change are scattered here and there. Mountains wait to be moved. The world does not need prized achievements so much as an assertion of humanity, of being what we are made to be and reflecting in that the true image and glory of God.

4) Thought Exercise

What is the connection between faith and service?

Can we work on both faith and service?

Coming Home

2010-09-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

Exodus 3: 1-5 (September 25, 2010)

1) The Text

3Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

2) The Context

Exodus is the second book of the Old Testament, and is part of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Jews refer to these books as "The Torah". At times, they are referred to as "The Law", although "Torah" means teaching. Exodus centers on the rescue of God's chosen people from captivity in Egypt and the making of the great covenant, or agreement with God, at Mount Sinai.

This is one of the major passages in the Book of Exodus. Moses has grown up in Pharaoh’s house, but after killing an Egyptian for beating one of the Hebrews he fled the land (Exod 2:11-15). He has settled in the land of Midian (the Sinai Peninsula) and married Zipporah (daughter ot Jethro). A long time has passed, The Pharaoh who sought his life has died, and the conditions of Israel’s slavery have become oppressive. But God ‘looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them’ (2:15). That short verse, that look of God, makes all the difference and sets the course for the story to come.

As the story opens we find Moses going about his ordinary, shepherding duties for his father-in-law (v. 1). Moses is shepherding “beyond the wilderness”: a mysterious place like the deep in the forest of fairy tales. Near Mount Sinai (“Horeb”) a messenger from God (or God himself) appears to him in the form of fire – a symbol implying passion, purity, light, mystery and (here) not inextinguishable. Moses is curious (v. 3) and leaves Jethro's sheep. What follows is the archetype for the calling of a prophet. God appears to the person and urges him to return to his people and serve as his spokesman, despite any opposition he may encounter, and his own shortcomings. As we find with other prophets (e.g. Jeremiah, Jonah), Moses is reluctant: in fact, he refuses four times! He has reason for not returning to Egypt, and yet he does return, because he believes that he is sent by God. Moses, like Abraham and Samuel, acknowledges God's call by saying “Here I am” (v. 4). Removing one's footwear (v. 5) was a common form of respect in the ancient Near East.

3) Interpretation

After being chased out of Egypt and away from his Hebrew people, Moses is out shepherding sheep for his Midianite father-in-law. Out in the wilderness, Moses stumbles upon "the mountain of God" known as Mount Horeb (also known as Mount Sinai—Exodus 19:11). In the ancient world, mountaintops were the traditional dwelling places for the divine. There, at the mountain, Moses encounters an unquenchable burning bush. Fire is a common biblical symbol of God's presence (Genesis 15:17; Exodus 14:24; 19:18; Leviticus 10:2; see also Acts 2:3). The fiery bush is an icon of the divine, a material or sacramental window into God's presence that both reveals and hides. In part, the ever-burning shrub out in the wilderness signals God's merciful accommodation. God comes down from the mountain of God to meet Moses in the bush. At the same time, the inextinguishable flame is a sign of God's awesome and powerful holiness, a fiery holiness that is at once dangerous and attractive, frightening and comforting, untamed but reassuring.

God instructs Moses to remove the sandals from his feet. The gesture is an ancient practice when entering a holy place of divine presence. It is a gesture that honors the holiness of this ground, this mountain and this God. Removing shoes as a show of reverence is a practice still in use in Islam and other religions.

However, removing his sandals has a second significance in light of Moses' earlier self-declaration in Exodus 2:22: "I have been an alien (Hebrew ger) residing in a foreign land." The Hebrews had rejected Moses as one of their own (Exodus 2:14). The Egyptian Pharaoh sought to kill him (Exodus 2:15). The Midianites see Moses as a foreigner, "an Egyptian" (Exodus 2:19). Moses is not fully "home" in any human community. Taking off one's sandals is a gesture in many traditional cultures that is associated with entering not only a worship space but also a home. Thus, here at the foot of the mountain of God, Moses the "alien," has at last found a true "home." Moses finds his true home not with humans but with God, the God of his ancestors, "the God of Abraham...of Isaac...of Jacob" (Exodus 3:6).

4) Thought Exercise

How has God provided a home for you?

How have you found a home in God?

Praise the Lord!

2010-09-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

Psalm 113 (September 19, 2010)

1) The Text

1Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord. 2Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time on and forevermore. 3From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised. 4The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. 5Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? 7He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

2) The Context

Psalm 113 is the first of the “Hallel” (praise) psalms; the word is found as a root in “Hallelujah” (literally “Praise Yah,” where “Yah” is short for “Yahweh” [YHWH], described in the Bible as “the one true God”). There are a total of six such “Hallel” psalms: 113-118. These psalms are recited on major Jewish holidays, in particular, on the first evening of Passover, since many of the Exodus motifs can be found in these psalms.

Many scholars believe Psalm 113 took its final form after the Babylonian exile for two reasons: the utter transcendence of YHWH (113:4-6) and his attention to the poor and weak (113:7-9). First, the view of YHWH seemed to shift around the Exile. When the Davidic kings ruled, Judea's God was a national deity, while it's neighbors had their Baals and fertility idols. Because of the cultural distance the nation had from its neighbors, Jews assumed there might be other gods, but only YHWH mattered. But, during the Exile, the faithful were surrounded by idols. The close proximity forced Jews to consider the place of their God among the gods. Their answer to the dilemma was a strict monotheism. YHWH was above the nations (and their gods); he was even above the heavens he created (113:4). He was so transcendent that no deity could compare in stature or power (113:5-6).

Second, scholars also point to the theme of the poor and weak (113:7-9). Before the Exile, Jews farmed ancestral lands; because they believed God gave their families the land they tilled, the harvest was a direct reflection of God's blessing. In the ideal scenario, the rich farmer was the righteous man. After the Exile, the lands were confiscated and given to foreign landlords; the local people became tenant farmers. In addition, the people were heavily taxed by their foreign rulers. Under this occupation, Israel identified itself as the poor, those without land and burdened with tribute. Yet, the return gave the people hope. God smiled upon the self-described “poor” and gave them a place of local authority (113:7-8); the faithful (the barren) returned home from Exile to start the nation anew (mother of many children in 113:9).

The transcendence of YHWH and his activity among the poor became the reasons for the praise of his name and, so, his power (113:1-3). Notice the “pattern of three” when the name of God is honored: 1) the faithful (or priests in the Temple as “servants”) were commanded to praise the name (113:1), 2) they were commanded to honor the name as a perpetual (eternal) activity (113:2), 3) they were commanded to praise the name in the cycle of daily activity (113:3). In other words, the servants were to praise the name of YHWH constantly.

3) Interpretation

Psalm 113 is from start to finish a hymn of praise about God. It is a call to the people of God to remember who God is and what God has done. Under an arc of the sun's transit across the sky, earthen landscapes rotate and people go about daily life. In the ordinary movement of each day they are called to praise God. Perhaps the Psalmist is encouraging the people of God to join in what the Apostle Paul would later call in his first letter to the Thessalonians, "prayer without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17).

In berekah form, the psalmist breathes a prayer that echoes praise to God at the beginning and end. In between the two explosions of praise, the cause for praise is lifted up. The creator of all that is and ever will be is somehow concerned with the ordinary activities of people. The psalmist declares the radical uniqueness of a God that cannot be easily defined. There is nothing in all creation that can be compared to this God, and yet this God is concerned about people.

What does this God do? God watches over people, raises the poor, lifts the needy, equalizes power relationships, and provides children to women. The equalization of humankind that the psalmist extols calls into question contemporary disparities between wealthy and poor, powerful and powerless, elite and excluded. Those who have experienced the pain of being ostracized know well how lonely the experience can be. Those who have been the objects of ridicule and disparaging comments intimately know the contours of depression and isolation.

The psalmist calls into question the practices of people toward those who suffer in three categories: poverty, need, and childlessness. Those who participate in activities that push people toward poverty, that drive people into places of need, and exclude those who are childless from circles of friendship are reminded that this is not consonant with God's care for people. Instead, the psalmist affirms for those languishing in the ash heaps and dust piles of despair that they will be lifted up. Their experience will not be forever. They will have a day of justice, a day where economic and power laden fields are leveled. Their day of despair will not prevail. A day of praise shall break forth.

Further, Psalm 113 gives us a direction for our daily prayer life. We owe him praise for who he is and what he does for us, even in our darkest times. We are to praise him at every moment of the day. Of course, attentive, vocal praise is impossible to give all the time, but praise can set our attitude for our daily routine. One moment of focused praise can precede a spontaneous outburst of joy to God's glory.

4) Thought Exercise

How can you praise God in the silent moments of your day?

How can you recognize his presence and glory during every day life?

The Promise

2010-06-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Galatians 3: 23-29 (June 20, 2010)

1) The Text

23Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

2) The Context

There were some teachers in Galatia who claimed that a convert to Christianity must first embrace Judaism, that a Christian must observe Mosaic law. Paul wrote this letter to rebut this argument, to insist that one comes into union with God through faith in Christ, and not through ritual observances. This book is a charter of Christian liberty; it was instrumental in transforming Christianity from a sect of Judaism into a world religion. Galatia is in central Turkey, and was settled soon after 300 BC by Celts. In 25 BC, the province of Galatia was extended southwards. (Modern-day Ankara is in Galatia.)

3) Interpretation

Paul's explanations here need to be seen against the problem he is facing. He is very concerned that Christian missionaries have come into Galatia telling the people in the churches which he founded that they must keep all the biblical laws pertaining to Gentiles (and for instance, undergo circumcision). Paul finds this both an intrusion and a rejection of the essence of the gospel which he has been proclaiming. Paul had declared that all that matters was a response of faith to Jesus. The Gentiles did not have to become Jews first and then become Christians. Whether Gentiles or Jews, Christians were now no longer needing to fulfill the requirements of the Law. They were not under the Law.

This may sound convincing enough until we transpose it into the key of current debates. Paul was declaring that you could leave large parts of the Bible aside and that you should see it as having its main meaning in what Jesus brought to us. His Christian opponents were appalled. They saw Paul compromising the Word of God - watering down its demands. Such people would describe themselves today as fundamentalists. Such fundamentalists vehemently opposed Paul throughout his ministry. Paul knows his position is vulnerable. He certainly was not intending to abandon scripture. He was interpreting it. But then how could he declare that the biblical Law no longer applied?

Paul argues that he is, in fact, taking scripture seriously. Abraham is his example (3:6-9). Abraham found favour with God before there was any such Law. The promise to Abraham that not just Israel but the whole world would benefit from his stance Paul takes as a prediction of the coming to faith of the Gentiles. Gentiles come to favour with God also not on the basis of keeping the Law, but simply as Abraham does: by faith. This still leaves Paul needing to explain why the Law was even necessary.

His explanation is quite negative. The Law was designed to expose people's need of God by showing how they fail (3:10-14, 19-22). Even though given by God, it played a very indirect role. It was not set up to offer an alternative to Abraham's way of responding to God. On the contrary, he argues, its function was to drive people to the point where they saw that as the only way forward. The Law, he suggests, puts a curse on us and traps us in guilt and failure. For Paul, the death of Jesus was an act whereby he took the curse on himself in our place and released us from it.

Paul's usual way to speak of God's initiative in reaching out to us is to interpret the death of Jesus as an act which does what is necessary to make God's love and forgiveness available to us. Whether one chooses this way of expressing it or simply asserts on the basis of Jesus' whole life (and much of the biblical tradition besides!) that God reaches out to us in compassion, the major claim Paul is making remains: God treats us the way he treated Abraham and expects from us only what he expected from Abraham.

Earlier he had spoken of the promise to Abraham's seed. He interprets this in a rather contrived manner not as a reference to Abraham's descendants but as a reference the one descendant, Jesus, and then implies that by our solidarity with Jesus we become heirs of the promise. People in Paul's world sometimes employed such methods of interpretation. Underlying the argument is a conviction which we might share with Paul: all that mattered in the case of Abraham was his willingness to welcome God's goodness. That is all that ever matters, because when this truly happens our lives begin to change as love creates love in us and through us.

4) Thought Exercise

Are you willing to welcome God’s goodness?

What positive changes might you bring about through God’s goodness?

Wisdom

2010-05-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31 (May 30, 2010)

1) The Text

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?
2On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4“To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.
22The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.
23Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth—
26when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil.
27When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.

2) The Context

A proverb is a pithy statement expressing some truth in a striking way which is easy to remember. Most of this book is instructions given by a scholar (or father) to a student (or son) on how to lead a moral life, with proper respect for God. Life involves choices; it is important that one be informed, trained and persuaded to make the right ones. The objective of life is attainment of wisdom, i.e. integrity in God's eyes. Wisdom brings rewards: 22:4 says: "The reward of humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honour and life". 9:10 says "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." Put another way, 1:7 says "The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honour." The opposite of being wise is being a fool; "fools despise wisdom and instruction."

It is difficult to date Proverbs. Sayings and poems appear to have been formed into an anthology after the Exile (in the 400s BC), but some of the sayings probably date back to Solomon's time. Solomon was known for his wisdom. Some of the sayings are known in other ancient Near East cultures; they have been acculturated to the Jewish tradition.

3) Interpretation

Wisdom, “understanding” is personified as a woman in this seven-stanza poem. Vv. 1-5 are the first stanza, and vv. 22-31 are the fifth and sixth. She “cries out” (v. 3) to all people everywhere (“all that live”, v. 4). Her message is primarily to young people. She speaks “utter truth” (v. 7) – she is absolutely reliable. She is completely opposed to anything dishonest or insincere. Her message possesses integrity and makes sense, to those who understand (v. 9). Her “instruction” (v. 10) is superior to all material goods. She offers “good advice” (v. 14) and “sound wisdom” with “insight” and “strength”. She guides those who rule justly (vv. 15-16). She reciprocates the love offered to her; she is found by those who “seek me diligently” (v. 17). While walking with great integrity, she brings material prosperity to all who listen to her (vv. 20-21).

Vv. 22-31 tell of her relationship to creation. God “created” (i.e. generated) her as “the first of his acts” – before he created, i.e. before “the beginning of the earth” (v. 23), before he created the “depths” (v. 24), etc. She was “brought forth”: the Hebrew word presents an image of birth, as in begot or formed. Vv. 24-26 use Canaanite mythological motifs (“depths”, “springs”, shaping of “mountains”) to say that wisdom existed before creation began. Again, v. 27 tells us that she pre-existed the world: she was present at creation, as a witness. She came to know God’s secrets in creating the heavens and the earth (e.g. in limiting the extent of the sea, v. 29.) She was “beside him” (v. 30) at that time. (Later authors, those of Sirach and Wisdom, show that she had an active role in creation.) Either she was “like a master worker”, a craftsperson, in creative acts, or the Hebrew can mean little child: a notion which fits well with “brought forth” (vv. 24, 25) and with the rest of v. 30. She was God’s “delight” and she delighted in his creation of humankind; she rejoiced both in God and in those created. When later trans-culturated into the Greek world, Wisdom becomes logos, the pre-existent divine Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; he “became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:1, 14).

Theologically, there is an overarching belief in retributive justice that runs through Proverbs. Wise choices lead to life, while foolish choices lead inevitably towards death. It is not so much the view that God punishes the wicked directly, as that the very fabric of the universe is woven so that good follows the good, and evil, the wicked.

The Proverbs passage concludes with a sense of delight in the dance of creation, as wisdom was ‘daily [his] delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race’. Again, there are overtones of a (female) partner in creation, something that would have been more imaginable in the other wisdom cultures of surrounding nations. Feminist scholars such as B. Lang and C. Camp have proposed the possibility of Woman Wisdom as a repressed archetype of the feminine, surfacing amid the turmoil of the profound social reconstruction in the years following the exile. Alongside this, there is also the recognition by many scholars that in pre-exilic days there may have even been a goddess seen to accompany Yahweh. This was likely the case at the level of popular theology, that is, what people believed privately and not necessarily as promoted by the Jerusalem Temple. Woman Wisdom could well be another manifestation of this phenomenon. There is also a sense of a bridge between humanity and God being formed by the person of wisdom.

4) Thought Exercise

What are your sources of wisdom?

How has your faith grown as the result of both your wise and unwise choices?

God Reigns

2010-05-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

Psalm 97 (May 16, 2010)

1) The Text

1The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! 2Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3Fire goes before him, and consumes his adversaries on every side. 4His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. 5The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. 6The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory. 7All worshipers of images are put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him. 8Zion hears and is glad, and the towns of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O God. 9For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. 10The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked. 11Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. 12Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!

2) The Context

Recent scholarly work on the book of Psalms has focused considerable attention on the collection to which Psalm 97 belongs – Psalms 93, 95-99, the enthronement or God-reigns psalms.

The shape of Books I-III (Psalms 1-89) reflects the rupture of exile, especially by way of the positioning of Psalm 89 that concludes Book III (see especially Ps 89:38-51). In response to this crisis, which involved the loss of land, temple, and monarchy, Book IV opens with the only psalm attributed to Moses, who led the people before they had a land, a temple, or a monarchy. In keeping with the reality that the people of God looked to God as their king during the Mosaic era, Book IV's major feature is the collection of God-reigns psalms. It is these sorts of observations that led Gerald Wilson to conclude that Psalms 93, 95-99 form "the theological 'heart'" of the Psalter.1

In terms of the shape of the enthronement collection itself, Marvin Tate suggests a close relationship between Psalms 96 and 97, which he calls "twin-psalms."2 Psalm 96 concludes with the announcement that God "is coming" (verse 13), and Psalm 97 seems to portray the effects of God's arrival. These effects involve "the earth" (verses 4-5), as the language and imagery of theophany (which means "God appearing") suggest in verses 3-5 (see similar descriptions in Exodus 13:21-22; 19:6-20; 20:18-21; 24:16-17; Psalms 18:7-15; 50:3; Micah 1:4; Hebrews 3:3-12). The storm-language – "lightnings" and thunder ("the earth . . . trembles") – bespeaks the awesome power of God, before which even the "mountains melt," an observation that connotes not destruction but yielded-ness to God's sovereign claim.

The effects of God's arrival also involves the human community, as suggested by the mention of "righteousness and justice" in verse 2. This vocabulary also links Psalm 97 clearly to Psalm 96, which concludes with the affirmation that God "will establish justice (in) the world with righteousness and (among) the peoples with his faithfulness" (verse 13; my translation). This vocabulary also appears elsewhere in the enthronement collection (see Psalms 98:9; 99:4) – in short, as monarchs, both human and divine, are supposed to do (see Psalms 72 and 82), God is coming to set things right in the world over which God is "the Lord" (verse 5).

3) Interpretation

Psalm 97 is the psalm not only for the seventh Sunday of Easter, but also for Christmas Eve/Day. Reflecting on the use of Psalm 97 at Christmas, Walter Brueggemann offers the following conclusion: “In Christmas the Church does not simply celebrate the birth of a wondrous baby. Through that birth we celebrate the cosmic reality that God has entered the process of the world in a decisive way that changes everything toward life. The entry of God into the process of the world is the premise of the poem in Psalm 97.”

Brueggemann's mention of life also suggests the appropriateness of Psalm 97 for the Easter season. Whatever else it might mean, the resurrection is a validation of what Jesus was born to do, what he lived to do, and what he was killed for doing – that is, proclaiming and embodying the reign of God in a ministry aimed at setting the world right.

The whole sequence of birth, life and ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection contains the recognition that Jesus' proclamation and embodiment of the reign of God did not go unopposed. Despite the affirmation that the cosmic elements respond positively to God's reign (see verse 4 where the "mountains melt" and verse 5 where "The heavens proclaim his righteousness"), and that "Zion hears and is glad" (verse 8), Psalm 97 also clearly recognizes that the reign of God does not go unopposed.

In particular, the concluding section of the psalm recognizes that there is "evil" in the world perpetrated by "the hand of the wicked," from which God's "faithful" will need to be rescued (verse 10). The first line of verse 10 is better translated as an admonition, "You who love the LORD hate evil." When heard as such, this admonition is capable of addressing the readers of Psalm 97 in every generation, including us.

More particularly, when heard during the season of Easter, we are reminded, in the language of Psalm 97, that the resurrection represents God's deliverance of Jesus from the power of evil, and God's shining of light into the darkness of a wicked world (verse 11; see Mark 16:2; John 1:4-5). As for us, the resurrection – an affirmation of God's reign – is what gives us the courage to hate and to oppose the evil that clearly still exists in our world, as an affirmation and manifestation of our love for God. As James L. Mays concludes concerning Psalm 97: "The psalm's proclamation of God's reign offers the righteous hope in their opposition to evil. When the kingdom of God is proclaimed, the righteous take courage."

Such courage is why Brueggemann sees Psalm 97 as an invitation "to reflect on the transformation wrought by God and the ethical possibility offered us in that transformation." Such reflection that leads to courageous ethical action – to justice and righteousness, to the life that God intends – is certainly an appropriate conclusion to the season of Easter.

4) Thought Exercise

How does your faith give you courage?

How does this courage lead to action?

Blessings

2010-05-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

Psalm 67 (May 9, 2010)

1) The Text

1May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

2that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.

3Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

4Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

5Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

6The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.

7May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.

2) The Context

Psalm 67 is a Psalm of national thanksgiving. There is a hint of a harvest context in v. 6 or the references to the nations could suggest some ancient New Year festival (at such times Israel was exhorted to be joyful, cf. Deut. 16:15; Lev. 23:40) but beyond this the context is unclear. The psalm is full of petitions although of a general nature. The psalm continues themes from Psalms 65 and 66. Verse 1 recalls the Aaronic blessing (Num. 6.25) often used in Christian worship or prayer while the refrain (vv. 3, 5) may also be familiar to many. Variation in the tense of the verbs in the psalm also creates ambiguity. Verse 6a, which is in the past, stands alongside several future petitions. The psalm could anticipate ongoing thanksgiving as well as thankfulness for past blessings.

3) Interpretation

The Psalm begins in vv. 1-2 by attending not to human experience but to God and to God’s grace. It is God’s grace and presence that precedes reference to human activity. Reference to ‘his face’ (v. 1) speaks of God acknowledging ‘us’, as distinct from being turned away. It also indicates that what is normally hidden from human sight is revealed and in a beneficial way (‘shine on us’). Compare the Sinai story where Moses was not permitted to see the face of God (Exod 33:12-23). The purpose of this blessing is that humans may be agents in the world of divine blessing (v. 2). Without this deep sense of purpose, any desire of ours for blessing lacks legitimacy. We know the greatest blessing of God for ourselves when we experience being a blessing to someone else.

The fact that God not only acknowledges us but causes divine light to shine upon us meets the need of the faithful to see things as God sees them. This divine light that shines on us makes known the way of God. This ‘way’ encompasses the idea of divine ‘will’ but is a much richer notion. Life with God is far more than obeying a set of rules to please a distant God; rather it is a dynamic journey of faith in the company of God in which the way of God is made known as we go. All nations are to witness the way of God, the ‘saving power’ of God, in the journey of the faithful. We might often understand God’s saving power (v. 2) in terms of deliverance from some threat or enemy. However, we might be wise to think of this divine ‘saving power’ in terms of transforming love, as suggested by the Gospel story of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

Out of a sense of the equity of God as judge, the psalmist is lifted up with a sense of joy in God offering and calling for praise in song (vv. 3-5). The refrain in vv. 3 and 5 encloses the call to earth to praise God who judges and guides the nations with equity. It is difficult to know whether some human experience of the community of Israel lies behind the writer’s affirmation of divine justice and equity, or whether it is only repetition of an ideal concept. For the modern reader, this affirmation raises some questions. One is whether the idea of God as judge any longer has meaning. But the notion of God as judge also brings to mind questions of what is appropriate human action, how is that determined and on what basis can anyone speak out against injustice of any kind. It establishes a point of reference outside human power and authority. In this sense the notion of God as judge not only has significance but is an imperative in our world.

Finally, in the concluding section of the psalm, vv. 6-7, the psalmist reveals what has prompted their call to the peoples to praise God and for God to bless them. God has already blessed them in terms of a good harvest, of wheat and barley, grape and olive and fig etc. (v. 6). Thanksgiving for the fruit of the earth is an important aspect of acknowledging our creatureliness and dependence in life. The parallelism in v. 6 clearly shows that the psalmist considers the increase of harvest as a divine blessing. God is to be seen in the workings of all creation, even though nature and the weather will not always produce the expected harvest. The challenge to the faithful is to perceive the blessing of God even in circumstances that are painful rather than fruitful. The hope of the faithful is that God will continue to bless in all aspects of life, all people and creatures.

4) Thought Exercise

How do you see God blessing the world?

Where have you seen the blessings of God in painful circumstances?

Love for One Another

2010-04-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

John 13: 31 – 35 (May 2, 2010)

1) The Text

31When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

2) The Context

John is the fourth gospel. Its author makes no attempt to give a chronological account of the life of Jesus (which the other gospels do, to a degree), but rather "...these things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name." John includes what he calls signs, stories of miracles, to help in this process.

In chapter 13, Jesus is preparing his followers for his departure. After the Last Supper, he has washed the feet of his disciples, a symbol of servanthood. Peter has misunderstood Jesus’ action; Jesus has told him that to share in Christ requires that Jesus be his servant as well as his master. Peter will understand “later” (v. 7): when Jesus is on the cross. Jesus has said, “you are clean, though not all of you” (v. 10). Then, generalizing, he says that, per his example, each Christian is to be a servant to every other (v. 14). Jesus has predicted his betrayal (vv. 18, 21); he has shown Peter and the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (v. 23) who this will be. Judas (“he”, v. 31) has gone out into the “night” (v. 30) – a symbol of the dark deed he is about to commit.

The glorification (revelation of the essence of) the “Son of Man” (v. 31), the ideal human, Jesus, is already in progress; the Father is already being revealed in him. The Father has been revealed (“glorified”, v. 32) in Jesus, so Jesus is a way of seeing God now (“at once”). In John and 1 John, Jesus calls his faithful followers “little children” (v. 33). Jesus tells them that his time on earth with them is very soon to end. They cannot join him in heaven now, but he “will come again and will take you to myself” (14:3). Judaism required one to love one’s neighbour as oneself (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus’ commandment is “new” (v. 34) in that, in his self-offering, he is model of, motive for, and cause for, loving one another. Mutual love will show who follows Christ.

3) Interpretation

Love one another

Jesus tells us that the distinguishing mark of the Christian community is love. Not just warm feelings toward others in the church, but a compassionate self-giving toward the needs of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Such is cross-bearing love. The problem is that such love is a rare thing in the Christian church. Tertullian said of his generation that the heathen held his congregation in high regard. "'See', they say, 'how they love one another.'" Do they say that of us? In truth, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to work up loving relationships with brothers and sisters in our church fellowship. Sometimes there are hurts to get over, racial, cultural and economic differences, problems of social status..... So it is not always easy to find the emotional energy required to put ourselves out for the spiritual welfare of a brother or sister. Their eternal salvation needs to be paramount in our thinking, yet our own needs often take precedence over those of our brothers.

The fact is that Jesus' death and resurrection did not just serve as an example of how to love, but actually freed us and empowered us to love. On the one hand we are freed from the selfish and stifling power of the sinful self. The sinful self was crucified with Christ, thus we are freed to be the person we were designed to be, freed to care for God and each other. On the other hand we are empowered to love. We were raised with Christ and through his indwelling presence we are impelled to love as he loves. His character of love resides within, shaping us toward love.

So then, love, or better compassion, is not so much a matter of doing, but rather of receiving. Love is activated in our lives when we rest upon Christ's completed work. The prayer of faith, based upon a recognition of the indwelling power we possess in Christ, activates our loving and so sets us apart as disciples of Christ.

How did Jesus love?

A commandment is neither an option nor a suggestion. It is an order; it is a commissioning, a mission, and a framework for living. We are called to love like Jesus loved. So, how did Jesus love? Through unconditional acceptance and unconditional dignity. Through uncompromising service and complete and total sacrifice.

In Scripture the word “Agapé is used in reference to the type of love Jesus both offers us and commissions us to offer others. There were four words for love in the Greek language, agapé was a complete love that had no selfishness or conditions attached to it. It is one of the most frequently used terms in the Gospels.

One of the greatest defects in our society is that we do not know how to love “like Jesus loved.” We are more prone to “performance-based acceptance,” than we are to offering others “unconditional dignity.” This simply means treating another with dignity regardless of how they behave towards me. This is why Jesus speaks about service and love as inherently united. He uses foot-washing as an example, and says that we are most free when we are most able to serve, then he “orders” his followers to love in this self-abandoning manner.

This is our new model for living and washing one another’s feet is the way that Jesus displays it. In the reversed values of God’s kingdom, it is the one who serves who is liberated. Jesus’ ministry begins with the mission, “I have come to be good news to the poor,” and ends it with the commission, “Love one another as I have loved you.” He begins with love and ends with service.

4) Thought Exercise

How can we better love the way Jesus loved?

What kinds of service can come from this new model for living?

Abundant Life

2010-04-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

John 10: 1 – 15, 27 - 30 (April 25, 2010)

1) The Text

10“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

27My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30The Father and I are one.”

2) The Context

In the previous chapter (Chapter 9), Jesus has raised the ire of some religious leaders by giving sight to a blind man on the Sabbath. Some of them have heard Jesus say “‘I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind’” (9:39). Some have asked him, “‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’” (9:40), to which he has replied. “‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.’” (9:41) Thinking themselves worthy makes them unworthy in God’s eyes.

Now Jesus uses a metaphor to expand on his point (but no metaphor works perfectly). In Palestine, sheep belonging to villagers roamed freely during the day but were confined to a common enclosure at night, to protect them from predators. Each morning, each shepherd called his sheep who followed him to pasture.

While “this figure of speech” (v. 6) is hard for us to understand in detail (as it was for those who heard Jesus), we can get the drift. So irate does the metaphor make the leaders that they try to stone him (in v. 31) and, in v. 40, Jesus flees across the Jordan. As he explains (v. 7), he is the “gate” of v. 2, so presumably the thieves and bandits are the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus, both the “gatekeeper” (v. 3) and the “shepherd” (v. 2) is the true leader. He calls the faithful to follow him (v. 4); they don’t follow a “stranger” (v. 5). The people listen to him and not to the “Pharisees” (9:40), “all who came before me” (v. 8). He is the only “gate” (v. 9) to eternal “life” (v. 10), to freedom (“come in and go out”, v. 9, a Jewish idiom), and to nourishment beyond measure (“find pasture ... abundantly”).

3) Interpretation

Shepherds had a hard life, since they faced all of the hardships of the hostile landscape through which they herded their sheep. Being with the flock, they faced all of the dangers and difficulties that the flock faced, and they were just as vulnerable -- to heat in the day, to cold at night, and to human and animal predators at all times. They slept with their flocks on nights when there were few enough predators for them to sleep at all; they were seen as poor prospects as husbands and fathers, since they had to leave their families alone and vulnerable at night as well.

That's the kind of life Jesus lives for and with us. Jesus journeys with the most vulnerable, and takes on all of their vulnerability. He knows what it's like to be out in the cold. He knows what he's saying when he calls people to leave their homes and villages, and even their families, since he had done the same himself. He knows what it's like to have people think that you're crazy or irresponsible because of what you leave behind and let go of, because people said the same things about him.
And he knows something else, too: this crazy life he lived, and calls us to live, is abundant life (John 14:10). It's THE abundant life, to be precise.

How could that be? Jesus of all people knows the risks and the hardships, the cost of the life he's leading. But Jesus is the shepherd, and he knows that as hard as it can be to follow the shepherd, it's much better than being prey for the others, thieves and bandits.

It may be costly to confess Jesus as Lord, but there are two ways to that confession which are implicit in this Sunday's gospel.

The first is that if Jesus is Lord, then the position is filled; no others need apply. If Jesus is not Lord, then there are countless others who will try to take that position in your life: bosses, politicians, parents; acquisitions, ambitions, causes; always just one more favor to do, one more promotion to get, one more enemy to defeat, before you can rest secure. Bob Dylan was right when he sang, "You've Gotta Serve Somebody," and those other would-be masters are bad news, keeping us penned with anxiety and work toward things which never turn out to be quite what was promised -- international, personal, or job "security" which really mean a lifetime of vigilance while trying to deny or hide vulnerabilities that are still very real.

The second is the Good News. Jesus is the good shepherd. Like his Father, he leads us together to what we need: food, water, air; true security, deep rest, and real love. Trusting him frees us to enjoy all of those good gifts as fully as God gives them, and the richness of God's blessings are far beyond what I know how to describe. When he's our shepherd, we experience abundant life that no thief can take away. When he's the gate, there's no need for us to try to do that job for him, and our anxieties about whether the "wrong" sort of people are getting in are replaced with freedom to love whomever we find ourselves with in the flock. Jesus is our Lord and shepherd, and so we need fear no evil; surely, as we follow him, goodness and mercy will follow us.

4) Thought Exercise

How has Jesus led you to find what you need?

How are you experiencing abundant life?

Divine Grace

2010-04-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

John 21: 1 – 19 (April 18, 2010)

1) The Text

21After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” 6He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. 9When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

2) The Context

The Gospel of John is the only gospel in which we have a full description of the resurrection stories. The other three gospels are more fragmented in their telling of the resurrection story, but John’s gospel gives us his complete version of these events. In addition, John, Chapter 21 is included in the three great, early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament e.g. Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, and Vaticanus and has always been thought of as “Bible.” That is, this great story of the resurrection was not a later addition to the oldest canon but was part of all three great, ancient Greek manuscripts.

The entire narrative in the chapter is about the rehabilitation of Peter who denied Jesus three times in the courtyard of Caiaphas. In this resurrection story, Peter is the central character who professes his love for Jesus three times, as if to atone for his three previous denials.

3) Interpretation

One of the features of stories about the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection is that they nearly always end up with Jesus commissioning someone. Jesus appears for a purpose. The presence of Jesus is strongly linked with the sense of calling. Paul, too, found that the Christ appeared to him in order to set him on the path of apostleship (Gal 1:15-16).

Resurrection celebrates the risenness of Jesus. The appearance to Peter celebrates divine grace. The world and the church (across its history) are littered with smashed lives and vessels ground beneath vengeful, judging feet. Thus far and no further: cross the line of shame and there is no way back; impossible.

Not so the divine initiative at Easter. The veil of death is parted; through it a hand reaches out to a Peter, shamed and probably resigned to former routines. Wherever and however it happened, Peter was turned from death to life. The God who had not abandoned Christ in death would not abandon Peter in his. Against all odds and against the prevailing values which would later ascend to rule in much theology, God proposed love to Peter again. Almost irritated by the persistence of divine grace, Peter opens himself to life and leadership. Peter will feed the sheep. Peter will follow Jesus, as he had said.

John’s community must know about Peter’s fate. Their hero, too, would die, though some had apparently expected the Lord’s return while he still lived (21:23). That needed correction. Peter doubtless represents the leadership of the established churches with which John’s communities had a close relationship but from whom they differed in a similar kind of way that their gospel differed from the others.

Peter is not disowned. Peter is legendary. His rehabilitation is a celebration of divine grace. He also symbolizes leadership, the shepherd appointed by the true shepherd, to do as he did, to care for the sheep. There could be no arrogance here, no lofty superiority, no graceless dogmatism. Instead, a frail human person brought again to his feet, enriched with stories of Jesus, and brought to life and leadership by God’s generosity. Such is the image and the possibility.

Paul would remind us of more failings. James would need to move Peter sideways. Peter ends up looking very much like us and like us, kept needing grace and needing renewed encounters with the risen Lord.

4) Thought Exercise

When has God reached out to you and called you?

How did you answer the call?

Faith Defined

2010-04-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 11: 1 – 4 (April 11, 2010)

1) The Text

11Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

4By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks.

2) The Context

Apart from the concluding verses (which may have been added later), this book is a treatise (or sermon) rather than a letter. Its name comes from its approach to Christianity: it is couched in Judaic terms. The identity of the author is unknown; Origen, c. 200 said that "only God knows" who wrote Hebrews. The book presents an elaborate analysis, arguing for the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Christ as revealer and mediator of God's grace. Basing his argument on the Old Testament, the author argues for the superiority of Christ to the prophets, angels and Moses. Christ offers a superior priesthood, and his sacrifice is much more significant than that of Levite priests. Jesus is the "heavenly" High Priest, making the true sacrifice for the sins of the people, but he is also of the same flesh and blood as those he makes holy.

In the section preceding this passage, the author has urged his readers to recall the time after they were baptized: they endured hardships: – public abuse, persecution and “plundering of your possessions” (10:34), accepting these privations cheerfully “knowing that you ... possessed something better and more lasting”. So, he urges, “do not abandon ... that confidence of yours” (10:35). “You need endurance” (10:36) to “receive what was promised” (i.e. eternal life with Christ). Christ will come again; keep your faith in him.

In the current passage, the writer encourages his readers by listing examples of those who did persevere. Above all, he lets his readers into the secret of their success. These "great ones" persevered by faith. They persevered by trusting the promises of God, which promises were without substance or visible evidence. None-the-less, they regulated their lives on the basis of God's revealed truth - on his promises and commands. They did so, even though much of this truth concerned an unseen future.

3) Interpretation

The writer initially defines faith as "being sure" and "being certain". This clause can be understood in a number of different ways: (a) Faith is the substance or real essence of what we hope for; (b) Faith is the first fruits of what we hope for; and (c) Faith is confidence in, or assurance of, things hoped for. This is probably the best way to understand faith; faith, not as an object given and possessed, but rather a subjective human quality which may or may not be expressed, and when expressed, is done so in varying degrees.

That is, faith is human confidence, and confidence may be weak or strong. In the Christian sense, faith (either weak or strong - faith as small as a mustard seed moves mountains) is confidence in God and his communication to us - his Word: his promises and commands. Faith, in its Christian sense, finds its substance in what is believed, not in the act of believing. So for example, to believe in Jesus, but not in his resurrection, is not saving faith. Our new life depends on our confidence in Christ's new life. If Jesus did not rise from the dead then we are still in our old state of sin, 1Cor.15:17. So, in this sense, faith is not a gift of God, rather Christ is God's gift to us. We may turn toward Christ, or turn away from Christ, believe (have faith) or not believe.

The writer goes on to point out that through faith the people of Israel gained God's approval, and thus persevered. Their lives are recorded in scripture as examples which serve to encourage those who follow in their footsteps. To aid our Christian life, the writer goes on to list some of those who lived by faith. Before listing the examples of faith, the writer illustrates his definition of faith. He has told us that faith is a firm conviction in God's revealed Word, in particular, the promises which "we hope for" and yet at present "do not see." Faith is holding firm to the promises of God, such that our actions and convictions align with our acceptance of God's revealed truth.

Faith as a mustard seed
Faith is not some mysterious religious quality which only a few possess. Faith is not something reserved for the holy, set apart perfect religious person; it is not something given to some, but not given to others, a quality only entrusted to a few. Nor is faith a religious quality we can use to make things happen, a tool to bend the will of God. Faith is none of these things.

Faith is a willing, but struggling trust, in the revealed intentions of God; it is a reliance on God and on his truths, on his promises. Such faith may be as small as a mustard seed, hesitant, uneasy, filled with doubts, and yet determined to hold onto God's promises through all the doubts and fears that assail us. Faith is a confidence, a conviction, in the revealed will of God. Such faith makes a person acceptable to God. When Jesus makes a promise like: "everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life," then to believe is to have life. Such faith makes a person right with God.

The writer to the Hebrews says in 10:35-36, "Do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." How do we persevere in the Christian life? By faith, is the answer. All the great saints of the past persevered by faith. They were "persecuted and mistreated - the world was not worthy of them." "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised." For us, the age of promise has dawned, the kingdom is at hand. Yet, we too must struggle as they did, awaiting the coming of our Lord. But how? By faith we hold tenaciously to Jesus.

4) Thought Exercise

How would you define faith?

When have you persevered through difficult times by faith?

A Risen Christ

2010-03-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

John 20: 1 – 18 (April 4, 2010)

1) The Text

20Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

2) The Context

John’s version of the Easter story in 20:1-18 reflects traditions that are also attested in the Synoptic Gospels. Note the following parallels:

v. 1a Early on the first day of the week, Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1
v. 1b Mary Magdalene at the tomb, Matt 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10
v. 1c Stone removed from the tomb, Matt 28:2; Mark 16:4; Luke 24:2
v. 2 Empty tomb, Matt 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:3;
v. 6a Peter at the tomb, Luke 24:12
v. 6b Peter sees linen wrappings, Luke 24:12
v. 12 Vision of angels, Matt 28:2; Mark 16:5; Luke 24:4
v. 14 Jesus appears to Mary, Matt 28:9
v. 17a Mary holding on to Jesus, Matt 28:9
v. 17b Mary sent to the disciples to announce news, Matt 28:7; Mark 16:7
v. 18 Mary announces the news, Matt 28:8; Luke 24:9

These parallels do not necessarily mean that the Gospel of John was dependent on the Synoptic Gospels as sources. There is no scholarly consensus as to whether these gospels were available to the author of the Fourth Gospel. In fact, there is a fairly strong scholarly agreement that the Fourth Gospel was written independently.

Nevertheless, it is also clear that the author of the Fourth Gospel was familiar with traditions standing behind the gospels. The Easter story in John then reflects some of the same traditions that informed the other gospels.

3) Interpretation

John begins the Easter story with the words, "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark. . ." This is always how our discovery of the risen Christ begins -- darkness. While it was still dark, No one is ever ready to encounter Easter until he or she has spent time in a dark place where hope cannot be seen. Easter is the last thing we are expecting. And that is why it terrifies us. This day is not about bunnies or springtime. It’s about more hope than we can handle.

As Mary made her way down the dark road to the tomb, memories of better days in Galilee tried to pierce through the darkness. Ah, Galilee. Jesus was popular then. Hope had taken root in her heart. No one ever knew exactly what to expect of Jesus, but clearly they all had higher hopes for him than that he would be crucified as a traitor to Rome and a blasphemer to the Jews. When Mary arrived at the tomb, she was startled to discover that it was empty. At first she was horrified. Then John tells us that for a while there was a lot of running back and forth to the tomb. This is still what we disciples of Jesus do when he is missing. We run around a lot.

Eventually it all gets to be too much for Mary and she breaks down in tears by the door of the empty tomb. Then a man she assumed to be the gardener asks her why she is weeping. All that Mary wants is for him to give her back the dead body of Jesus. Finally, the gardener, who is the risen Savior, calls her by name. "Mary." Stunned, she can only say, "Rabbouni!" It was probably Mary’s favorite name for her old teacher. Out of indescribable joy she lunges to embrace him. But to our dismay, and certainly Mary’s, the risen Christ says, "Do not hold onto me."

Following Jesus is a never-ending process of losing him the moment we have him captured, only to discover him anew in an even more unmanageable form. Every expectation of Jesus is only another futile effort to get him back in the tomb. But Jesus just won’t stay there. What we long for is dead. Easter doesn’t change that. The way out of the darkness is only by moving ahead. And the only person who can lead the way is the Savior. But not the old Rabbouni we once knew. Until we discover a new vision of the Savior, a savior who has risen out of our disappointments, we’ll never understand Easter. The question that Easter asks of us is not "Do we believe in the doctrine of the resurrection?", but ‘Have you encountered a risen Christ?"

We get the feeling that Mary was never the same after Easter. Neither is anyone who has learned that what matters is not that we be confident in our hold of Jesus, but confident in his hold of us. Seeing that, we are ready for anything. After the resurrection, things do not return to normal. That’s the good news. It is basic to everything else the New Testament proclaims. After seeing a risen Jesus, we see that there is no normal. Now we can’t even count on the darkness. All we know for sure is that a risen Savior is on the loose. And he knows our names.

4) Thought Exercise

Have you encountered a risen Christ?

How has that encounter impacted your life?

Passover

2010-03-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

Luke 22: 14 – 23 (March 28, 2010)

1) The Text

14When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. 15He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

21But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. 22For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!” 23Then they began to ask one another, which one of them it could be who would do this.

2) The Context

In the Aramaic language which was most likely the daily language of Jesus, there were no “be” verbs. That is, the sentence in Aramaic would read, “This my body.” The Greek language uses the “be” verbs e.g. “This IS my body.”

There are three historic interpretations of this verse and the little verb, “IS.” Those historic interpretations have caused immense conflict, and the result is the existence of major denominations which have fought over the interpretation of the little “be” verb, “IS.”

1. The Reformed Church says that the words mean, “This represents my body and blood.” The wafer and the wine are symbols of Christ’s body and blood.

2. The Roman Catholic Church says that these words mean, “This actually is my body and blood.” The wafer and the wine are actualities of Christ’s body and blood. This position has been characterized by the Roman Catholic word, “transubstantiation.” Substantively, the wafer and wine are actually the body and blood of Christ.

3. The Lutheran/Episcopalian Church says that these words mean, “that Christ is really present in the wafer and the wine, but we don’t know how Christ is really present. Holy Communion is Sacrament, and the word, “sacrament” means “mystery.” Christ is “really present” in, with and under the wine and wafer.

This sacred meal of the church in which we receive the body and blood of Christ and the forgiveness of sin for all eternity has become a source of conflict, division and polarization among Christian churches and denominations today.

3) Interpretation

At least three points are evident from the narrative of the Last Supper. First is Jesus' most intense desire to be with his disciples in the celebration. The NRSV says "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you.." (v. 15). Behind these words is a construction in Greek where the same verb is used twice in succession--first as the participle and then as a verb in the indicative mood. What that means is that we could literally translate these words as "desiring I have desired." It is used to express the most sincere, focused and urgent meaning of the verb.

Two other examples of this construction in Luke-Acts will help make the point. In Acts 5:28 the Jewish authorities are questioning Peter and John about their preaching. Their words are, literally, "By commanding we commanded.." i.e., 'we gave you the strictest orders we could..' Again, in Acts 23:14, where conspirators have agreed to take a solemn oath to kill Paul, they say, "By cursing we have cursed ourselves..." No stronger language of desire could be used in Luke 22 to express Jesus' passionate engagement with the moment.

Second, we should notice the role of the disciples here. They had been relegated to a secondary role in the preceding chapters. Indeed, there is little mention of them between Luke 18 and Luke 22. When they appear, they are obtuse (18:15-17). But here they are back, and they are called "apostles" (v. 14), so as to emphasize their authoritative position for Luke. Indeed, one of the characteristics of a new apostle when Judas will be replaced in Acts 1 is that they have "been with him" during his earthly ministry (Acts 1:21). Jesus will most graciously say to them a few verses later (v. 28): "You are those who have stood by me in my trials..." Who is he kidding? The disciples are as changeable as the Kansas winds. Yet Jesus either saw in them the seeds of faithfulness or he believed in affirming people even when they blow it. In any case, the disciples are "brought back" into Jesus' life during the Passion Week. They don't perform well, but they will be the rock on which the Church is built.

Finally, the critical importance of table fellowship as both reality and symbol of social cohesion and shared values cannot be overestimated in this passage. Moreover, since the Passover, more than any other meal, was a family meal, eating it with his disciples is recognition of the group as a surrogate family in the deepest sense of the term. In a rare transposition of the order of events (as given by Mark 14:17), Luke shifts the prediction of Judas' betrayal to the end of the Passover meal. ... Doing so intensifies the tragedy of the moment: betrayal comes from the very one who has participated in the Passover meal of the surrogate family. It is the sense of deep tragedy that one feels in Psalm 41:9:

Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread,
has lifted the heel against me.

4) Thought Exercise

What does Jesus see in the disciples despite how they are portrayed?

What is in each of us that may not be always be seen?

The Living Christ

2010-03-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

John 12: 1 – 8 (March 21, 2010)

1) The Text

12Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

2) The Context

The Gospel of John has two major sections. The first twelve chapters present the ministry of Jesus among people in general. The second half of the Gospel, chapters 13-21, focuses on the last week of Jesus’ life. Mary’s anointing of Jesus is placed toward the end of the first section in the Gospel. In fact, John places the story here before Jesus enters Jerusalem, which is in contrast to Matthew and Mark, who place the story of the anointing after Jesus has entered Jerusalem.

Bethany is a small community within walking distance of Jerusalem. It is the home town of Lazarus, whom Jesus has raised from the dead, John 11:17-44. This was the final straw for the Judean authorities. As a household that has connections with the elites in Jerusalem, Mary would be very aware of the plans underway to have Jesus arrested and executed. And she would know that the form of execution would be crucifixion by the Romans, since that is the method used when the intention is to not just kill a person but to kill what they stand for; to kill belief in them; to kill any possible continuing movement by followers. And that form of death does not allow for a proper burial with proper anointing of the body.

It was a normal custom of hospitality in elite homes for the host to have his slaves wash the feet of guests. But Mary's actions take this common action to whole new level. First, she performs the action herself. Second, normally a woman would never touch a man except her husband and children - and then only in private. Third, a woman would never allow anyone other than her immediate family to see her hair. Fourth, the cleaning of the feet was not done with perfume – especially with “Perfume made of pure nard” (v. 3, spikenard oil), which was derived from the roots of a plant grown in the Himalayas, and, with the amount mentioned here which would cost a year's wages for a peasant laborer. Fifth, this is not the anointing of the head as was done for the installation of a new priest, prophet or king; nor of the whole body as was done for the dead. Anointing the feet indicates that Jesus is about to do something of singular significance. As a rather wealthy mistress of the house, Mary of Bethany takes it upon herself to acknowledge and affirm Jesus' forthcoming significant action.

In this passage, John has Mary portray the shocking intimacy of loyalty, trust, and bonding with Jesus that over-rides cultural norms; and contrasts that with the disloyalty and dishonesty of Judas.

3) Interpretation

At this point in John’s gospel, it is clear that Jesus is in significant peril. He is just about to enter Jerusalem, where he will die. In this context, the account of the anointing at Bethany can be seen as a strange foreshadowing of Jesus’ death. The striking thing about this text is that Mary has chosen to anoint Jesus now. Rather than wait until after his death, she does so while he’s still living.

Therein lies a curious intersection of death and life. They meet in the house of Lazarus, who famously died and yet was restored to life by Jesus. Jesus is going to his death in Jerusalem, and Mary seems to anoint him as one would anoint a dead body for burial, yet he is alive. By anointing him now, as opposed to after he’s been put to death, Mary is essentially giving the very best that she has (quite literally, the most expensive thing she owns) to the living Jesus. The real waste would have been to devote her effort and expensive gift to the dead Jesus. Rather than give what she has in memoriam, she gives it in witness to the living, breathing, presence of Christ.

Her stunning act of devotion has stark implications for Christians today. There’s a danger that churches will become museums for Jesus; that our existence will reflect more about his death than his life. In The Preaching Life, Barbara Brown Taylor tells of happening upon the ruins of a massive cathedral while hiking in the Kachar Mountains in Turkey. After reflecting on the reality that what was once an impressive church built to the honor and glory of God in the very land that Paul walked was now nothing but ruins and garbage, she writes:

“God has given us good news in human form and has even given us the grace to proclaim it, but part of our terrible freedom is the freedom to lose our voices, to forget where we are going and why. While that knowledge does not yet strike me as prophetic, it does keep me from taking both my own ministry and the ministry of the whole church for granted. If we do not attend to God’s presence in our midst and bring all our gifts to serving that presence in the world, we may find ourselves selling tickets to a museum.” (p. 6, emphasis mine)

Think about that for a minute. We must devote all our gifts, from the smallest to the grandest and most expensive, to serving Christ’s presence in the world, or else we may find that our churches have become museums. In other words, rather than devote our time, our attention, and our energy to merely preserving the memory of Jesus, as one would a deceased relative, we are called to give the very best we’ve got to the living Christ. This text reminds us that authentic devotion to Jesus will involve giving him the best we’ve got right now in a continuation of his living ministry. Let your life be centered on the living Christ in your midst.

One final point must be made regarding the presence of the poor in our day and age. Jesus’ response to Judas is oftentimes used to minimize the importance of the Christian obligation to care for the poor and needy. It is very important to note that Jesus’ response is a quotation from Deuteronomy 15:11, the entirety of which reads, “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’” Rather than minimize one’s obligation to care for the poor, Jesus here quotes a verse which explicitly commands it.

4) Thought Exercise

How can we best contribute to continuing Jesus’ ministry here and now?

What gifts do you bring to continuing the work of Jesus?

Who Am I Becoming?

2010-03-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

Luke 15: 1 – 3, 11b - 32 (March 14, 2010)

1) The Text

15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable:

11b “There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. 25“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

2) The Context

Part of understanding parables involves noting where, when, and how Jesus tells them. This one comes in response to Pharisees and scribes who criticize Jesus' penchant for associating too intimately with "sinners." Actually, Jesus tells three parables. Each involves recovery or reclamation followed by celebration. In the context of first-century Palestine, several things look out of the ordinary: (1) for a son to ask his father for his share of the inheritance would be like a death wish; (2) no older self-respecting Jew would run (v. 20) to his son; and (3) a father would demand a full display of repentance, not the truncated one of v. 21.

Clearly Jesus tells a somewhat unrealistic story to make three points. (1) the younger son could return home – so all sinners may repent and turn to God; (2) the father sought the son (he saw him while “still far off”, v. 20) and offered him reinstatement – so God seeks people out to restore them; and (3) the good brother begrudges his father’s joy over his brother’s return – so those who are godly should welcome God’s extension of love to the undeserving.

3) Interpretation

The Sufis tell a story that may go to the very core of the gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32). It exposes the Lenten question we may well be missing as we go through the season. It asks the question, "Who am I becoming?"

Once upon a time, a Sufi stopped by a flooding riverbed to rest. The rising waters licked the low-hanging branches of trees that lined the creek. On one of them, a scorpion straggled to avoid the rising stream. Aware that the scorpion would drown soon if not brought to dry land, the Sufi reached out his hand time after time to touch the stranded scorpion that stung him over and over again. But still the scorpion kept its grip on the branch. "Sufi," said a passerby, "Don't you realize that if you touch that scorpion it will sting you?" And the Sufi replied as he reached out for the scorpion one more time, "Ah, so it is, my friend. But just because it is the scorpion's nature to sting does not mean that I should abandon my nature to save."

Like the Sufi, who defines himself at what seems to be a most unlikely moment, the story of the Prodigal Son raises questions in us about ourselves and it provides some mirror images out of which we are able to identify the real self.

We are all works in progress. We are never really finished. We become ourselves only one moment at a time. As a result, in every experience of every day we become more or less of what we want to become. From one perspective, the gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent is not really about three separate people at all -- a parent, one dissolute child and one faithful one. Who has really met any of them in toto -- the parent who is always loving, the child who is always worthy, the son or daughter who is always wanton? This story is not about three discrete individuals as much as it is about the tug of each of these archetypes in the center of ourselves. It is a blueprint that leaves us asking ourselves which one of them we ourselves are really most like and which one of them is strongest in us right now.

A Lenten journey that has led us to question how we practice the spiritual life, what we think holiness is all about, what we believe we are required to be is now asking us who we are becoming as we go. It is the hardest question because it requires that we face ourselves and our expectations of others as well as the standards by which we judge both ourselves and them.

Down deep we know that we are a spiritual jumble of all three breeds -- the loving parent, the spiritually sophomoric adolescent, the demanding critic. We know that every day there is a choice to be made among them. The real temptation, in fact, is to assume that we are only one or the other of these inclinations, as if whatever we do once defines us forever. But that's far too facile an answer for something so complex as life. The fact is that it is our daily, momentary, continual choice among them that, in the end, will determine the very nature of our souls.

4) Thought Exercise

Are you becoming who you want to be?

Is our church becoming what we want it to be?

False Self-Assurance

2010-03-01T20:25:00.000-08:00

Luke 13: 1 - 9 (March 7, 2010)

1) The Text

13At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

2) The Context

The passage refers to two events that were probably familiar to ancient audiences. The details have been lost to time, for Luke is our only source of information about these tragedies.

The grisly mention of Pilate's mingling the blood of Galileans with their sacrifices appears to refer to a massacre of a group of Galilean pilgrims in Jerusalem. The narrative does not reveal why Pilate slaughtered these people, but the deed nevertheless corresponds with what other historical writings tell about Pilate's penchant for brutality. The verse offers an ominous characterization of the Roman governor in advance of his appearance in Jesus' trial (see the Gospel text for Passion/Palm Sunday, Luke 22:14-23:56).

Jesus refers to a tower in the wall around Jerusalem when he speaks of "the tower of Siloam." Apparently a structure collapsed without warning and crushed eighteen hapless Jerusalemites. In both cases, Jesus says, there is no link between early death and sin; however, these deaths do show the fate of those who fail to “repent” (vv. 3, 5), to turn to God.

In the parable (vv. 6-9), Jesus elaborates on his call for repentance. The fig tree symbolizes some Jews, possibly the religious leaders. Jesus expects those who hear him to bear fruit (v. 9), to do his will. If they do not do so immediately, God in his mercy gives them some extra time (“one more year”, v. 8) to do so. If they still fail to do so, they will be destroyed.

3) Interpretation

Jesus seizes on two calamities that may have been subjects of recent conversation around the local watering hole—one an instance of state-sanctioned terror, one a random accident. Both saw people snuffed out with little warning and for no clearly apparent reason. Both kinds of events lead the rest of us to realize how precarious our existence is. Jesus implies that the victims did nothing wrong, nothing that caused their demise. He indicates that we must not equate tragedy with divine punishment. Sin does not make atrocities come. They just come.

Life's fragility gives it urgency. Jesus turns attention away from disasters, victims, and "why?" questions to address those of us who thus far have survived the hazards of the universe and human society. We should not mistake our good fortune as evidence of God's special blessing.

Jesus wants to talk about repentance. The need for repentance is a universal condition, shared by random victims and finger-crossing survivors. When Jesus says, twice, "unless you repent you will all perish" like the others did, he does not promise that the godless will be struck by an asteroid. He refers to death in an eschatological sense, a destruction of one's soul. Just as Pilate's and the tower's victims did not enjoy the luxury of choosing the time of their demise, likewise the unrepentant will suddenly find they have delayed too long and lost themselves.

Although it looks like Jesus capitalizes on the memory of recent horrors to stress the unpredictability of life, He does not promise freedom from calamity. Rather, He urges against false self-assurances. If life's fragility demands urgency, that urgency shows that life has carved out opportunity for us to seize God's graciousness, as the parable of the fig tree suggests.

Jesus' parable about a fig tree speaks of imminent judgment. A cultivated yet unproductive tree may continue to live even without bearing fruit, only because it has been granted additional time to do what it is supposed to do. Unless it begins to bear fruit, the result will be its just and swift destruction. The parable warns against false reassurance. Just because you have not been cut down, do not presume that you are bearing fruit.

The tone of the parable emphasizes that patience and mercy temporarily keep judgment at bay. The role of the gardener offers a crucial characterization of this patience and mercy. The tree has not been left to its own devices. Everything possible is being done to get it to act as it should. Similarly, God does not leave people to their own resources but encourages their repentance.

Repentance becomes less interesting when people mistake it to mean moral uprightness, expressions of regret, or a "180-degree turnaround." Rather it refers to a changed mind, to a new way of seeing things, to being persuaded to adopt a different perspective. In this passage the need for repentance is assumed and so it takes a backseat in emphasis to the urgency of Jesus' call. Tragedy and hardship have their ways of nudging people toward God, but these verses suggest that tragedy and hardship come so suddenly that they often mark the end, not the beginning, of our opportunities to live lives inclined toward God.

Jesus' words about judgment and repentance are scary, yet they depict human life as a gift, albeit a fragile one. Vulnerable creatures that we are, we can presume little and do little to preserve ourselves. But the Christian outlook on repentance arcs toward joy. And it finds grace experienced within the awful precariousness and strange beauty of our fleeting existence.

4) Thought Exercise

What opportunities do we have to live lives inclined toward God?

How can we best take advantage of these opportunities?

God’s Purposes

2010-02-23T06:28:00.000-08:00

Luke 13: 31 - 35 (February 28, 2010)

1) The Text

31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

2) The Context

This passage consists of two pericopes (i.e., an extract or selection from a book, especially a reading from a Scripture that forms part of a church service), "The Warning against Herod" (Luke 13:31-3) and "The Lament over Jerusalem" (13:34-35). They are located within the so-called Travel Narrative in the Gospel of Luke (9:51-19:27). Ever since 9:51, Jesus and his followers are on a long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.

Although the section is designated a "narrative," there is actually not much narrative in it. It contains teachings primarily; for example, most of the parables of Jesus that Luke has collected appear in this section. The teaching materials consist primarily of (1) instruction for Jesus’ disciples; (2) controversies with opponents; and (3) words of judgment. The two passages being discussed here fit into the latter two categories.

The first of the pericopes begins with the approach of some Pharisees who warn Jesus about "Herod," which would have been Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee (technically a "tetrarch," or ruler of a fourth of the former kingdom of Herod the Great), 4 B.C.—A.D. 39. Why this Herod would have sought to kill Jesus is not said. The most plausible reason would be that he thought of Jesus as, in some way, a successor to John the Baptist; some had even claimed that "John had been raised from the dead" (9:7), and that Jesus was he.

This pericope appears in Luke without parallels in the other gospels. It is special Lucan material. The second has a parallel at Matthew 23:37-39. The wording is almost identical in Matthew and Luke. The lament over Jerusalem in Luke, 13:34-35 seems to be out of place. Jesus is still in Galilee in Luke's narrative. He does not arrive at Jerusalem until 19:41. Matthew's placement of the lament, however, is more fitting for anyone who seeks to construct a chronology of Jesus' ministry, for he places the lament at 23:37-39 after Jesus' entry into the city of Jerusalem (21:10).

3) Interpretation

This text provides an opportunity to address the problem of religious prejudice that arises out of preconceived notions and stereotypical generalizations. Christians have traditionally viewed Pharisees as enemies of Jesus. Yet the evidence in the gospels does not unequivocally present such a picture. In this text they seem to offer Jesus protection from Herod. How often we form an opinion about a person or a group without really attempting to understand them as persons of value. Christians have made the name Pharisee equivalent to hypocritical legalism. While Pharisees did have a tendency to become legalistic, they were in fact committed to Hebrew Scriptures and sought ways to live by the biblical commandments.

Another way that religious prejudice can be seen in this text is in the attitude that Herod and Jerusalem have toward Jesus. Both see Jesus as a threat and seek ways to get rid of him. Herod is a political figure and his concern is that Jesus appears to be disturbing the peace in Galilee. In one sense, Herod had nothing to worry about because the message of Jesus was about the kingdom of God and not a political agitation against Herod. In another sense, Herod had everything to worry about because when people take the kingdom of God seriously Herod could lose his political leverage with the people. Through peaceful resistance Ghandi brought about the collapse of the British regime in India when armed resistance failed.

Herod seeks to kill Jesus. But, as the story will unfold, the real threat to Jesus is not Herod but Jerusalem. How is it that Jerusalem, the holy city, this religious capital, has become known as the city that kills prophets and will shortly put to death God’s final envoy? Why is it that it is often the religious establishment that has so much conflict with prophets?

What needs to be heard here is not the fixing of blame for the death of Jesus on Judaism or the whole city of Jerusalem. This text is a call to all of us who have been immersed in a particular religious tradition to search ourselves. How easy it is to think that our own understanding of the faith is the absolute truth and therefore any view that challenges our own must be interpreted as unorthodox and condemned and eliminated.

On the other hand, religious truth can be viewed as a matter of individual decision not to be questioned by anyone else. Passionate commitment to an unflinching faith and uncompromising faithfulness to God are labeled as fanaticism. Yet the text presents to us a model in Jesus worthy of consideration. Jerusalem in its passionate zeal brings about the death of prophets and Jesus. Jesus, on the other hand, in his passionate commitment to God’s purposes journeys resolutely to Jerusalem to carry out his mission, knowing full well that such a course is replete with dangers. In his zeal to carry out the purposes of God he is willing to undergo suffering and death.

Here we have two contrasting pictures of religious zeal--Jerusalem and Jesus. Religious passion drives Jerusalem to murderous ends. Religious passion moves prophets and Jesus to fulfill God’s mission at the cost of their lives. We who follow in the footsteps of Jesus are faced with a challenge. Will we adopt the model of faithfulness to God’s purposes even if it means vulnerability and suffering? And if so, when? God is like a mother hen making repeated attempts to gather her chicks under her wings, but the chicks are going their own way. Divine judgment will eventually come but God’s judgment is tempered with grace, mercy, and the hope of redemption.

4) Thought Exercise

What is God’s mission for you, for our church?

How much are we willing to contend with to fulfill these missions?

Testing and Temptation

2010-02-16T05:27:00.000-08:00

Luke 4: 1 - 13 (February 21, 2010)

1) The Text

4Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” 5Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” 9Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ 11and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 12Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

2) The Context

From 2:41 to 4:30, Luke records six events which herald the beginning of the Messiah's mission. The events testify, witness to, Jesus' kingship. Today’s passage, 4:1-13, is the fifth of these testimonies - the witness of the temptation. In the temptation story there are three tests: (1) Stone into bread. Will God supply Messiah's needs as he seeks to bring in the kingdom? (2) Authority over the world. Will the way of suffering achieve results? (3) Signs and wonders. Surely self-glory will achieve a better response and so hasten the coming kingdom?

Luke has told us of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, of “a voice ... from heaven” (3:22) saying “You are my Son ...”. On that occasion “the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form”, but is this what we today, would consider bodily? Ancient people conceived of several levels of spirit worlds with occasional contact between them and earth.

Perhaps Jesus transcends between earth and a spirit world in the story of his testing by the devil. During his time there (“forty days”, v. 2, meaning a significant period of time), the Holy Spirit sustains him in his travails; human as he is, Jesus is totally dependent on the Spirit being with him, for “he ate nothing”. In this dependence, Jesus is humanly helpless; he humbles himself before the Father.

The devil speaks, but is this like “a voice from heaven” speaking? The devil recognizes him as “Son of God” (vv. 3, 9), the one who fulfils God’s plan in creation and, given Luke’s genealogy in 3:23-28, in Israel’s history. Jesus answers the devil’s questions with quotations from the Law, i.e. Deuteronomy, then considered to be the words of Moses.

3) Interpretation

There are many layers of meaning to this story. Historically we know that it was not uncommon for leaders and would-be leaders of change to make their way to the wilderness. The hopes for liberation lived from the stories of liberation, especially the story of the exodus from Egypt, but also the return from exile. Revolutionaries gathered their troops in the wilderness. Pious groups, like the Essenes, made their interim settlements there, waiting for the great climax. Individual figures like John the Baptist made the wilderness their starting point.

Wilderness was the wild place, the waiting place, the place of preparation. It also connected then, as it does now, to very basic spirituality: a place to grapple with God, a place to learn dependence on nature and its provisions, a place of extremes or contrasts, of wild beasts and desert. It is the Lenten space par excellence. So it was natural that people expected Jesus headed for wilderness and very likely that he did. He went to John there and was baptized.

As with the birth stories, so with the testing, there are two versions. Both are situated in the wilderness. Mark’s brief account has Jesus tested for 40 days and nights and envisages a struggle between Jesus and Satan in which Jesus emerges victorious and ready to embark on a successful ministry of baptizing people with the Spirit through exorcism and healings.

Q’s version, drawn on by Luke and Matthew, has more elaborate allusions to Israel in the wilderness. Jesus is faithful and obedient in contrast to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the wilderness, a typology which Matthew has already been developing in the birth narratives. Here is the true ‘son’. The links with Israel in the wilderness are certainly also there in Luke, but Luke has not concentrated on the Israel typology in the same way as Matthew. His order is different: the climax is not the ascent of the mountain, but the pinnacle of the temple. Temple miracles were often a feature of future expectation along with times in the wilderness. It is true that for Luke Jerusalem is central, but the temple miracle is likely to have been also the original climax of the story and would make good sense in the light of Jewish hopes.

Many of the details of the story only make sense in the light of such hopes. In fact the story then emerges as a subtle way of defining just what Jesus was and what he was not. Yes, he is the liberator, but to say that or think that then raised a host of difficulties. Just what kind of liberator was he? It almost makes little difference whether we imagine ourselves listening in on early Jewish Christianity at this point or listening to Jesus’ own thoughts on retreat in the Judean wilderness. The central question was: who am I? who is he? And for us: who are we?

He is not primarily a wonder worker - as many aspirants to divine agency sought (and seek) to be, though no one wanted to deny his miracles. The story is bigger than ‘what happened’. It is a theological story about him, about them and about us. It is larger than life. It invites us to address spiritual options to engagement in God’s hope for the world: why we go to the wilderness and why we don’t stay there.

4) Thought Exercise

How do you depend on God during times of testing and temptation?

How can you find time and space to “head to the wilderness”? What will you do when you get there?

Holy is He!

2010-02-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

Psalm 99 (February 14, 2010)

1) The Text

1The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.
3Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5Extol the Lord our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
7He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9Extol the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy.

2) The Context

Psalms is a collection of collections. The psalms were written over many centuries, stretching from the days of Solomon's temple (about 950 BC) to after the Exile (about 350 BC.) Psalms are of five types: hymns of praise, laments, thanksgiving psalms, royal psalms, and wisdom psalms. Within the book, there are five "books"; there is a doxology at the end of each book.

Psalm 99 is a hymn of praise to God as king. The endings of Vv. 3, 5 and 9 are perhaps a refrain, said or sung by worshippers as they “extol” (v. 9) God. God, on his throne above the “cherubim” (v. 1, the half-human, half-animal creatures thought to hover above the altar) in the Temple, is to be praised by “all the peoples” (v. 2). V. 4 lists some qualities God has shown “Jacob”, the people of Israel. (His “footstool”, v. 5, is the Ark). For Israel, God has also helped people in need (vv. 6, 8), given them just laws (v. 7); and punished and forgiven them where appropriate (v. 8).

“Moses ... Aaron” (v. 6) and “Samuel” were known for communicating with God, and were his representatives. “His holy mountain” (v. 9) is Mount Zion, the hill on which Jerusalem stands.

3) Interpretation

Psalm 99 is the last of a group of four psalms (Psalms 96-99) which speak about the sovereignty or kingship of God. There is a threefold structure to this psalm. After an initial statement about kingship of God in the third person expressing the influence of that kingship not only in Zion but over nations (vv. 1-2), there follows an address to the Lord with the refrain ‘Holy is He’ (v. 3). It could be that this refrain is meant to be said by all people. There is a further address to the Lord (v. 4) with a final call to the people to repeat the refrain (v. 5). On this occasion the nature of God’s sovereignty is explored a little with references to God loving justice, establishing equity, and executing justice and righteousness in Israel. These are all the things earthly kings were responsible for too (cf. Psalm 72). Indeed the human monarch’s ability to deliver such ideals was dependent on their relationship with God. This may be evident in the Hebrew at the start of v. 4 which translates ‘and a king’s strength’ implying that God is the strength behind any human monarch, rather than the NRSV emendation ‘Mighty King’ referring to God.

The psalm concludes with a lengthier third section (vv. 6-9) in which there is reference to Moses, Aaron, and Samuel as three of God’s particular servants, to each of whom God spoke, answered, forgave and avenged their wrongdoings. These three stand out as exemplars of faith from the past, and yet ordinary individuals within the history of the community. This section ends with a third call to the people and a longer concluding refrain for them to say (v. 9).

There are some points which we should note about God’s sovereignty from this psalm. First it is universal in nature (v. 1) but expressed in a special relationship to God’s people. There is specificity in the psalms about God’s kingship which we can’t ignore. God is always proclaimed king vis-a-vis someone, namely Israel. God’s sovereignty is never some abstract, absolute entity without ties to human affairs. So just as lament psalms are willing to name the enemies of God, so enthronement psalms such as this one name those who are faithful and define clearly the nature of the one to whom they are faithful (v. 4). God’s sovereignty over the world, and over peoples proceeds from that point. The sovereignty of God is expressed in specific human instances of justice, equity and righteousness and in relation to the lives of real people.

In vv. 6-7 there is a twofold nature to the response to God’s sovereignty. There is the possibility of those who are faithful to cry out to God for deliverance from some trouble. The other side of that is obedience to God’s law, the ‘decrees’ and ‘statutes’ of v. 7c. If God’s sovereignty is expressed by an attentive divine response to God’s people, then there is the requirement of an equally attentive response by those same people to God’s ways. There is an expectation of both divine presence and a corresponding obedience to divine will. Divine presence and obedience to divine will both involve justice, equity and righteousness.

Verse 8 of the psalm probes matters deeper and reveals two sides to God’s presence and will. First God is a forgiving God. But God is also an avenger of the wrongdoings of God’s own people. When one, therefore, proclaims ‘The Lord is king’ as called forth in v. 1, one must do so in full awareness of the nature of the relationship which that statement reflects and the demands attendant upon it. To cry ‘Holy is He’ as the psalm calls for, is to proclaim God’s holiness not only in word but in relationship.

4) Thought Exercise

How does one demonstrate faithfulness to God’s ways?

How does God demonstrate His sovereignty in our lives?

The Ultimate Grace of God

2010-01-31T22:06:00.000-08:00

I Corinthians 15: 1 – 11 (February 7, 2010)

1) The Text

15Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. 3For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

2) The Context

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 is an important passage because it is the earliest written account of Jesus' resurrection. Because Paul states that the account of resurrection appearances was passed on to him by others, it is earlier than its usage in 1 Corinthians (which is dated no later than 55 AD).1 In addition to being very early, the appearance tradition cited in 1 Corinthians refers to people that Paul knew and had talked to personally, such as Paul and James. So not only did Paul inherit an early tradition, he had the opportunity to discuss it with some of the witnesses cited within it. Thus, this passage constitutes the earliest surviving written tradition of Jesus’ resurrection appearances, pre-dating those in the canonical Gospels by decades, and it is attested by someone who had the opportunity to discuss it with at least some its sources.

Unlike the gospels, however, Paul does not cite the empty tomb as part of his proof. Perhaps he did not know the story, although we must assume he would have not been surprised. Nor does he mention the women, perhaps for the same reason. He mentions that Christ appeared to Peter and this may indicate that he thinks this appearance lies at the foundation (the rock) of the tradition, a view reflected elsewhere, but he does not stop there. He mentions others, including the twelve, James and the apostles. The list will have been part of the information he received; it uses categories which otherwise play no role in Paul's writings (like the 12) or which are understood differently (like the apostles).

3) Interpretation

Sometimes fear, confusion, and panic shakes our world and sends us adrift. Struggle and fear have always been part of the human condition. Paul understood the fear and disarray of life and moral failure and he spoke to it a couple of millennia ago and he speaks to it now. He saw a world where the purposes of God went one way and the lives of the people went another.

Paul said there is only one hope for you and for the world and that is the resurrection, the ultimate grace of God. He knew it because he'd experienced it. I don't know what you've done wrong in your life, but Paul was guilty of murder. He hunted down and destroyed believers in Christ until all of a sudden one day he met that Christ. And Jesus offered him grace, he who was least worthy to receive it, which is what makes it grace, and then Paul spent the rest of his life living into it that grace.

And so he wrote to friends in distress: Back to basics, friends. I give to you what I received, the most important thing, that Christ died for our sins, was buried and was raised on the third day and then appeared to one, to twelve, to many, many more including me, even me.

Believe this and live as if you do. Because if you do, you will receive the grace, which is life, you believe and you become it for others.
But the question becomes, how? How do we live what we believe? How can we challenge ourselves as a church and as individuals to live God's grace through the practice of Christ's hospitality?

We can begin anew, living the hospitality of Christ that invites God to come in and make us bigger, more gracious than we are. The hospitality of Christ brings life. It places us within the grace of God. It walks us in the way of humility. You receive it by believing it and living it. Try to live it, for example, by welcoming guests not usually invited to a family celebration or make a guest room available to the relative of a neighbor you have never met before.

As we go deeper into the practice of hospitality, we will see that it is not simple, not superficial. There is accountability, risk, self care, and responsibility on the guest's part. Hospitality requires forgiveness, repentance, reconciliation. This is not cheap grace we are talking about. It is about small deaths and little resurrections.

It is easy to fail sometimes to practice or receive the grace of God. We are perfectly capable of walking in the ruts of anger and resentment. Small kindnesses by neighbors can make us experience little resurrections - to glimpse how life could be by the grace and power of God. Why not be people who keep talking of God and pointing to Christ by the humble hospitality of our lives, and trusting the rest to God!

Then, with Paul we can say, "By the grace of God I am what I am, and God's grace has not been for nothing."

4) Thought Exercise

How have you experienced “little resurrections” recently?

How has your hospitality enabled others to experience “little resurrections”?

Love

2010-01-24T22:15:00.000-08:00

I Corinthians 13: 1 – 13 (January 31, 2010)

1) The Text

13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

2) The Context

In response to a letter, Paul has further instructed the Christians at Corinth about the gifts of the Spirit. It seems that they value the gift of tongues too highly. Three groups of gifted people are especially important – “apostles” (12:28, spreading the good news), “prophets” (telling new insights into the faith) and “teachers” (of the faith) – but now he says that the most important gift is love, the expression in the community of Christ’s love for us. The statements in vv. 1-3 are all on the same model. Whatever is spoken, if said without love, is like the clatter of pagan worship. (At the time, rabbis debated what language “angels” spoke.) Prophecy is important but without love of one’s fellows it is “nothing” (v. 2). Even helping others to the extent of self-denial is worthless without love.

In vv. 4-7, he tells his readers how their behavior contrasts with the qualities of this love: it is the reverse of their proud, contemptuous, divisive attitudes. “Truth” (v. 6) is integrity, ethical living. Love, he says, is different from God’s other gifts (v. 8); unlike them (“prophecies”, “tongues”, “knowledge”), it never ends: it is transcendent, continuing beyond this era, into the time when we will be one with Christ. In the present age, all that we do through the Spirit is “partial” (v. 10), incomplete, immature. Mirrors then, being polished metal, gave a fuzzy image, but in the age to come (“then”, v. 12) we will see God clearly. We will know him fully, as God knows Paul now. “Love” (v. 13) is the “greatest” because it will continue unchanged, while “faith” will become sight and “hope” will become certainty.

3) Interpretation

The passage commences by referring to tongues of men and angels. Some in the community do appear to have been carried away with speaking in tongues. Paul spends the next chapter addressing the problem. So his assertion that speaking in tongues is just a lot of noise if love does not have highest priority confronts a certain kind of religiosity. The same happens in the statements which follow. Prophecy, understanding mysteries, knowledge, faith to move mountains, all count for nothing if love is not present. Paul is attacking approaches to spirituality that have missed the point of what Christianity is about. He refuses the assumption that any of these things should be seen as the main thing. When Paul wants to identify the presence of God, these are not the prime location. The prime location is compassion.

Matthew gives us a picture of Jesus making a similar point when he declares: "Not every one who says, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my father who is in heaven" (7:21) and continues by pointing out that in the end people will report their wonderful deeds, miracles, prophecy and the like, only to be told they have no real relationship with Jesus at all. Similarly in the parable of the sheep and the goats, Matthew reports that the sheep are those who exercised compassion in their lives. That is ultimately what counts.

In a similar sense Mark seems to have had to counter a triumphant kind of spirituality which focused mainly on Jesus' miracles. He does so by setting them within the context of Jesus' love and his willingness to go all the way, even to death, for people. John has something similar. His Jesus refuses those who believe in his name because of his miracles (2:23-25).

Not even apparent acts of generosity and bravery count for much if love is not the source (13:3). In 13:4-7 Paul gives us a timeless summary. It is not without its difficulties. Does love really believe or endure all things? Perhaps a better interpretation moves in the direction of saying that love is unrestrained in its willingness to do all these things. There are other dangers. If love becomes an ideal, then a set of guidelines, and then a set of rules, we are in danger of creating a series of "oughts.” This is why Paul speaks of the Spirit elsewhere as a fruit. Spirituality is about gardening: attending to the plant, the soil and the setting to enable the fruit to be born.

The second half of the passage seems only marginally related to love - until we get to the climax in 13:13. Paul wants to put other things in their place. Only love really endures (13:8). The point of 13:9-12 is to assert human vulnerability. We have not arrived - some at Corinth thought they had (4:7-8). So here in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul is trying to bring people down to earth to stop the arrogance. Paul does not need to pretend that he is in control, that he knows everything, that he is superior. It is OK to be a human being who still has a long way to go. In this way Paul is at least preparing the kind of soil in which love might have a chance to take root. It often can't get much of a start until we acknowledge our need of it.

4) Thought Exercise

What gifts has God’s love given you?

How can we use these gifts to extend and share God’s love?

The Body of Christ

2010-01-19T06:06:00.000-08:00

I Corinthians 12: 12 – 31a (January 24, 2010)

1) The Text

12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

2) The Context

In the previous passage, Paul has told the Christians at Corinth that spiritual gifts come through the Holy Spirit and are given by him, as he chooses, for the benefit of the whole community. Now he turns to the nature of the Church – using the analogy of the human body. Whatever our ethnic or social origins, “we were all baptized into one body” (v. 13), into the risen glorified body of Christ, and empowered by the same Holy Spirit acting in the Church. V. 14 is key: the body needs various members; so too the Church needs various spiritual gifts, each making its own contribution. In vv. 15-20, Paul makes the point that all members contribute in various ways to the welfare of the whole. Diversity is rooted in, and contributes to, unity. In vv. 21-25, he says that each member needs every other member, whether he or she be strong or weak (v. 22). Vv. 23-25 say that the instinct of modesty reveals part of God’s plan, e.g. by respecting our “less respectable members”, we make them equally respectable. This applies in the community as it does in the body. In this way, the community is peaceable, without “dissension”; each cares for others. When one suffers the whole community does (v. 26).

In vv. 27-28, Paul tells the Corinthian Christians that they are both one body and individually its members. Three groups with God-given and -appointed spiritual gifts are especially important: “apostles” chosen to continue spreading the good news; “prophets”, those with new insights into God’s plan; and those who teach the faith. He then lists some other gifts: some help the poor and needy; others are leaders, managers, in church affairs. The questions in vv. 29-30 must surely be answered no. Perhaps v. 31a suggests that all seek to grow in the use of the gifts, great or small, given to them.

3) Interpretation

Christ is a body with many members. We are often more familiar with the later use of the image in Colossians and Ephesians where Christ is the head and the church is the rest of the body. That is not what Paul is saying here. Here he states that Christ is the body.

In 12:13 Paul goes some way towards explaining what he means. By baptism (read: by faith) we entered Christ's body. So his body is like his risen life reaching out in communication. It is like a sphere of influence and life. The end of 12:13 uses an alternative image: we drink of the one Spirit. Behind this is the same idea: the Spirit is the active influence which brings Christ to us and us to Christ.

Paul challenges us to see ourselves as the embodiment of Christ in the world, not primarily as individuals but as local communities, yet belonging also to a larger whole. Our sense of identity lies not in the role we play, nor the status, nor the reward our role brings, but in the sense of oneness with the life of Christ which is the life of God - and ultimately the life of all that is. We are not asked as individuals to be Christ or Christs, let alone saviours of the world, although many suffer from this misconception and the burn out it produces. We are asked to be members of a body, of Christ, and to play our part - not more, not less.

Being a member of the body of Christ means an absolute, out-and-out conjoining of one with the other, a sister or brother in Christ. To exist in division, to see only difference and not the unity we are able to profess because of Christ, to demand conformity without celebration of difference, is to entertain the notion of dismemberment. We will find ourselves cut off from the very source of our life, our existence, and in a way, our ability to be most fully who we are.

Once again, we are reminded of our interconnectedness as a community of Christ. It is tempting to spiritualize Paul's words in this passage, but the call is to a far-reaching communal ethic and a need that transcends any and all differences that we try to put in place. While our tendency is to elevate certain spiritual gifts over others, Paul's words here are a deliberate claim of evenhandedness, even giftedness, when it comes to how and in what ways God chooses to work in and through our calls to faithful living.

4) Thought Exercise

To what extent are we able to live out fully our callings when we are not able to rely on and give support to others to live out theirs?

Is it not true that who we are called to be necessitates our fellow members of the body of Christ to embrace and embody their callings?

Varieties of Gifts, But the Same Spirit

2010-01-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

I Corinthians 12: 1 - 11 (January 17, 2010)

1) The Text

12Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. 4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

2) The Context

Corinth was a major port which also commanded the land route from the Peloponnesus peninsula to central Greece. An industrial and ship-building centre, it was also a centre for the arts. Its inhabitants came from far and wide. In this epistle, Paul answers two letters he has received concerning lack of harmony and internal strife in the Corinthian church, a church he had founded. Paul wrote this letter from Ephesus (now in Turkey), probably in 57 AD.

The letter may be divided into three sections: (1) A Call for Unity (1:10-4:21) [which assumes division in the community], (2). A Call for Community Discipline (5:1-6:20), and (3) Counsel regarding Contested Issues (7:1-15:58). The contested issues included sex and marriage (7:1-40), offering and eating idol meat (8:1-11:1), worship issues (12:1-14:40), and the resurrection of the dead (15:1-58).

Thus, Paul's focus on spiritual people and gifts comes right in the midst of his counsel on how to handle problems in worship that have arisen for the Corinthians.

3) Interpretation

It is interesting that Paul deals with problems about spiritual gifts by pointing to the Corinthians' previous involvement in other religions before they became Christians. Paul is confronting them with the possibility that their spiritual Christianity may be no better than their previous religious experience. Paul is suggesting that focus on spiritual gifts can amount to nothing more than being carried away and can achieve exactly the opposite of what Jesus stands for.

How could this be? Paul will go on to suggest that this occurs wherever the gift or experience becomes more important than the giver and the achievement more important than love. Paul will go on in 1 Corinthians 13 to explain that if love is not central, then all such claims to spiritual gifts and achievements and to special workings of the Spirit amount to nothing. He begins unpacking his challenge in 12:4. There is one Spirit. This means that among the various gifts (or claims to gifts) of the Spirit there needs to be coherence; otherwise something is wrong. That coherence is bound up with an understanding of unity and wholeness which flows from the fact that we are relating to the one Jesus and the one God (12:5-6).

This helps us see what matters most for Paul - or better, who matters most. For Paul, faith (faith in community) is about relationship, in which people matter most. It is not about sensational experiences or achievements. The real sign of the Spirit of God is not the ability to sustain spiritual "highs", but the presence of love and compassion in our lives. Particular gifts are subordinate to this purpose.

The gifts exist to bring into effect what is appropriate. The word, sumferon, in 12:8 means what is fitting or appropriate. NRSV translates: "common good". It certainly needs to fit what God sees as good and for Paul that means building people up in their faith and not putting blocks in the way of sharing God's love with others. That is the focus here.

Many parts but one body

Recent studies, attempting to identify the factors that make for lively, effective congregations, have found that a "motivated and mobilized laity" is the mark of a successful church. However, the "funnel" phenomenon exists in many churches. Management decisions are initiated and controlled by a single person. Initiative is therefore, stifled, and the potential for the congregation to maximize its effectiveness is limited.

Yet, too often, when power is moved from the minister, it falls into the hands of a church committee, parish council, eldership, or deacons. This can turn out to be a worse scenario. Some feel that the best committee is a committee of one. When power is centered with a group of lay-managers who determine and manage policy through a monthly debating society, then the life of a church is easily stifled.

God's desire for his church is that we understand and apply the diversity of spiritual abilities found within the membership. It is the Spirit's task to give to individual members of the congregation abilities that can be used within the group to enable each individual to grow in their relationship with God, to grow in fellowship one with another, and to reach out to God's broken world. We need to remember that from one God there is a diversity of gifts for the common good.

4) Thought Exercise

How can we maximize the diverse spiritual abilities found in our membership?

How can you make sure your gifts are known and utilized?

New Beginning

2010-01-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Luke 3: 15 – 17, 21-22 (January 10, 2010)

1) The Text

15As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

2) The Context

This small episode in Luke's gospel is the third in a group of six witnesses, or testimonies, to Jesus. This particular episode concerns the witness of Jesus' baptism. We see in Jesus' baptism the hope of redemption and in the words from heaven, the commissioning of God's servant messiah on our behalf.

People flock to John the Baptist, responding to his urging to start new, ethical lives as a way of preparing for Jesus (vv. 3-6). John has condemned those who seek his baptism with no intention of reforming their ways (v. 7). He has warned that being Jewish is no assurance of being part of the renewed Israel. Failure to respond to his call to repentance can lead to condemnation at the end of time.

With some important stylistic differences, all four Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ baptism by John: "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased'" (Luke 3:21–22 = Mark 1:9–11= Matthew 3:13–17; John 1:29–34).

3) Interpretation

The baptism of Jesus celebrates both the uniqueness of Jesus and his role as a model for all who will be so baptized with the Spirit. Jesus' baptism inaugurated his public ministry. The second section of our text is the actual transition between the ministry of John and the work of Jesus. It is interesting that the actual baptism of Jesus is not recounted by Luke, who does not even tell us that John baptizes him. While the other Gospels focus on the baptism of Jesus directly, Luke is the only Gospel that places Jesus among the crowds of people responding to John’s preaching: "when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized." Whatever the reasons for this omission in Luke, the result is clearly a focus on the event after Jesus "had been baptized" (v. 21).

There is also significance in the fact that it was while Jesus was praying that heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended (v.21), a detail also unique to Luke’s Gospel. Luke later will tell us that Jesus often prayed, especially at important junctures in his ministry (5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 28-29, 11:1, 22:32, 41, 23:34, 46). For Luke, this communicates the direct relationship of Jesus’ life with the Father. It is in that context here of submission to God in prayer that heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit affirmed and empowered Jesus and His work in the world. There can be little doubt that Luke intends to draw a parallel between this event and the fact the early Christian community was gathered together in prayer when the Holy Spirit was given to the church (Acts 1:14). It is in submission to God that the power of the Holy Spirit comes.

Further, Luke is more concerned with emphasizing the newness that is coming into the world in the present as a result of the coming of Jesus. That suggests that heaven opening is really the inauguration, not only of Jesus ministry as the Christ, but also of a new way of God’s working in the world through the Holy Spirit active in the Church. This perspective is reinforced by Luke’s emphasis on the physical form of the dove that descended upon Jesus (v. 22), marking this as a revelatory event within history. In other words, it was the coming of Jesus and his unique role in opening heaven for the Spirit that provided the foundation, the grounding, the possibility, of the filling of the Holy Spirit in the church at Pentecost and throughout Acts.

As he has already done, and will continue to do, Luke is writing with a view to the church that is already rapidly growing as he writes his Gospel. He points to the coming of Jesus, his teachings, life, death, and resurrection, as the foundation of the church, as the beginning of a new work of God in the world, and calls us to participate in that newness, in that new beginning of the future by participating in the process of refining, of winnowing, and of allowing the Holy Spirit to enable us for being God’s people, the church, in the world now.

The second half of the pronouncement comes from the section of Isaiah that speaks of the servant of the Lord. While the first part of the heavenly pronouncement brought forth royal images of power and authority, the image evoked here is that of a servant to the nations, one who proclaims and brings justice. This dual role of Jesus as King yet as servant is an important faith confession for Luke. For Luke, the nature of the church is shaped by the nature of the one who called it into being. The descent of the Spirit marks the beginning of Jesus ministry, and defines that ministry both in terms of God’s work of power in the world (v. 16) evoking the imagery of a King, and the work of a servant who is bringing justice to the nations.

That same Spirit in the same two dimensions will also mark the beginning of the church as this new beginning makes it possible. As the Holy Spirit empowers Jesus for his task in the world, so the Holy Spirit empowers the Church for its task in the world. And that implies that the power of the King is really the power to serve.

4) Thought Exercise

What is the task for our church in the world?

How will you answer the call to serve in our church this year?

Your Light Has Come

2009-12-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 60: 1 - 5 (January 3, 2010)

1) The Text

60Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. 3Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 4Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. 5Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

2) The Context

This book can be divided into two (and possibly three) parts. Chapters 1 to 39 were written before the exile, from about 740 BC to about 700 BC. These were difficult times for the southern kingdom, Judah: a disastrous war was fought with Syria; the Assyrians conquered Israel, the northern kingdom, in 723 BC, and threatened Judah. Isaiah saw the cause of these events as social injustice, which he condemned, and against which he fought valiantly. Chapters 40 to 66 were written during and after the Exile in Babylon. They are filled with a message of trust and confident hope that God will soon end the Exile. Some scholars consider that Chapters 56 to 66 form a third part of the book, written after the return to the Promised Land. These chapters speak of hope and despair; they berate the people for their sin, for worshipping other gods. Like Second Isaiah, this part speaks of the hope that God will soon restore Jerusalem to its former glory and make a new home for all peoples.

Chapters 60-62 are the heart of the third section of Isaiah (56-66). The community of returned exiles struggled to believe that God was still working in their midst (see Where is God? Isaiah 59:1-21). The promises recorded in the second section of Isaiah during the exile (40-55) pointed to a great future for God’s people (see The Turn Toward Hope: Isaiah 40:1-15). They had regained possession of the land as promised. But they were barely existing. The community of God’s people was in no condition to be a light to the nations (42:5-7).

Throughout these chapters, prophetic interpretations of actual historical events are interwoven with visionary descriptions of the working out of God’s purpose in history. The language in this chapter is highly poetic, painting a glorious word picture of the restoration of Jerusalem (note Micah 4, Ezekiel 40). The exact setting of the chapter is not certain. Historical events unfolding in Israel during the fifth century BC likely provide the background for the passage (see The Unity and Authorship of Isaiah).

3) Interpretation

Scripture readings for Epiphany include both this passage and Matthew 2:1-12 (i.e., the Three Kings visiting baby Jesus). The name Epiphany comes from the Greek verb epiphaino, which means ‘to appear, give light’. The noun means ‘appearing, appearance, or coming’, and the adjective ‘glorious’. No ordinary appearance is indicated but one that brings light, both literally and metaphorically, in theological terms ‘revelation’ of some kind.

The feast of Epiphany is associated with the visit of the wise men from the east who have come to Judea in search of the new born king of the Jews. They have observed his star or portent at its rising. His coming has been ‘revealed’ to them, and in the star light has literally shone forth. We can, therefore, see why this passage is set for Epiphany. It is also understandable that the Old Testament reading set for Epiphany is today’s passage which begins ‘Arise, shine; for your light has come’, and continues telling of the glory of the Lord coming upon the people. Lots of light and plenty of ‘seeing’ fill this passage.

More broadly, Isaiah 60 is concerned with the glorification of God’s house, the temple, in the new age. The chapter is addressed to the city of Jerusalem, which is here pictured as a woman forsaken and hated but who is now promised a new, restored life. This woman will be adorned and have her children restored to her (cf. Isa. 49:14-26). The chapter moves toward a crescendo, building up an image of great glory coming to Zion. After an introduction (vv. 1-3) the chapter divides into three sections, each ending with an aspect of the praise of God.

The image from Isaiah is not dissimilar to that given in the story of the wise men in Matthew’s Gospel. That story stands at the beginning of the Gospel to point the way to the end; to reveal at the start that Jesus is the king who has been awaited, and that in him a new light has dawned. But just as the wise men do not understand in the story at first what that means fully, so we do not fully understand it until we hear of the sign above Jesus on the cross. His kingdom is not of the type we might normally expect, one marked by power, strength and authority. It will in the end be marked by a cross, a tool of oppression and injustice meant to indicate failure and rejection. As we read of the crucifixion we are reminded of the wise men’s testimony and hope, and we read with new insight.

Isaiah’s story is like their story. It points to a truth which will shape how the events to follow will be understood, a truth that will help the people of Judah and Jerusalem face disappointment and hardship. Isaiah’s wonderful vision of the light coming, the light which in the end is the Lord himself (v. 20) helps maintain their hope, and shape the way they will live their life. The story of the birth of Jesus the Christ can easily be seen in and of itself as an end, an end of the waiting of Advent, the coming of the one expected. It is just that, for Jesus is Immanuel, ‘God with us’. But it is more. It is itself a light that points us toward another end, the fullness of the kingdom of heaven as Matthew calls it and it helps shape how we live our life toward that end.

4) Thought Exercise

In what way did new light come to you this Christmas season?

How can this light shape your life in the year to come?

Prayer and Persistence

2009-12-22T01:15:00.000-08:00

Luke 18: 1 - 8 (December 27, 2009)

1) The Text

18Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

2) The Context

This teaching on prayer follows directly on Jesus' teaching on the coming of the Son of Man. Here, Jesus instructs his disciples with a parable, a story to make a spiritual point. Luke reveals the point of the parable in advance: "that they should always pray and not give up" (18:1b). The word translated "always" is Greek pantote, "always, at all times."[1] The word "prayer" is the common Greek word proscheuomai, "to petition deity, pray."[2] Jesus is teaching continual prayer, again and again, rather than continuous, non-stop prayer. To "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2:13; 5:17; 2 Timothy 1:3) is to pray repeatedly, time and again.

I've heard Bible teachers say that once you've asked God for something that is displays lack of faith to ask for it again, since you ought to believe you already have received it (Mark 11:24). But Jesus teaches clearly that we are to continue to pray until we receive the answer. That continued pray is not a sign of little faith, but of persistent faith.

The danger is that we get discouraged and quit praying. The word translated "give up" (NIV) or "faint" (KJV) in 18:1 is Greek enkakeo, "to lose one's motivation in continuing a desirable pattern of conduct or activity, 'lose enthusiasm, be discouraged,' "[3] from en, "into, entering into" + kakos, "base, wrong, wicked."

3) Interpretation

Through his parables Jesus disturbed the comfortable and comforted the disturbed. Parables are stories that would seem to point to an obvious conclusion, but then jolt us by an unexpected ending. In the parable of the Good Samaritan the priest and the levite were the obvious people to help the man who was left half-dead by robbers. However, it was not them but the despised Samaritan who did the caring thing. We would expect the good Jesus to associate with good people and shun sinners, but instead, we find him associating with and including sinners. Through parables, Jesus upsets us by challenging conventional wisdom. He so upset the leadership of his time by his stories that they eventually had to eliminate him through crucifixion.

The parable in today’s gospel is particularly intriguing as it is itself capable of being turned upside-down. It is introduced as a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. It tells about an unjust judge who had neither fear of God nor respect for people. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him saying, “I want justice from you against my enemy!” For a long time he refused but at last he said to himself, “maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for people, but since she keeps on pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worrying me to death.”

The normal interpretation is to say that as the unjust judge heard the widow because of her persistence, and not because of the merits of her case, so too God will hear us if we persist in our requests. We find a strong endorsement in the story for our prayers of repeated petition.

My seminary scripture professor pointed out a few difficulties with this interpretation. Is it not a bit strange to identify God with the unjust judge: to identify God with someone who has no concern for justice? Is it not strange to promote an understanding that petition is answered because of nagging God into action without any concern for the content of the petition itself? Is it not true that in the Old Testament, and in the Bible in general, God identifies frequently with the widow and the orphan? So, he would have us turn the parable upside-down and interpret it in this way.

We ourselves are the unjust judge who neither fear God or respect people. We are dominated by our egos and generally looking for what is in it for us. We are really stubborn in our self seeking. But God is persistent in love for us. God is the hound of heaven who wears us down, like the widow, by persistently pursuing us. Eventually, we wield and let God enter our lives and guide us to do the right thing. In this interpretation we see God as persistent in trying to break down our defenses. We see prayer as allowing this pursuing God to enter our lives and challenge us to change our self destructive behavior.

I much prefer this second interpretation because I think it gives us a better picture of who God is and of what prayer is. The spiritual life begins with God’s gracious gift. This gift often comes in strange wrappings. Sometimes it comes in a sermon or a religious book. More often it comes through a difficulty, failure, sickness or maybe a widow that comes to us looking for help. The gift comes from a God who is humble, who knows truth but who does not coerce us into accepting him or his gift.

To pray continually and to never lose heart is just to be in an attitude of openness. It is having no predetermined demands to make on God but to be continually ready, alert, and listening to the demands that God may be making on us. Christian meditation is this kind of prayer.

4) Thought Exercise

Reflect on the following questions this week. Take one area in your life and place it in God's hands. Make the same petition every day. At the end of the week, look back on your petition, not for an outcome, but for the way the petition affected you.

First, is our prayer petition centered on ourselves or upon God's will? In other words, are we willing to seek God's will in our lives? Only then, we will be able to sustain faith.

Second, if our prayer petition is centered on God's will, do we have the persistence to pray constantly for his will? Is our faith strong enough to trust God with an unknown future?

Third, are we willing to patiently wait for God to act? Will we remember that God sometimes acts at the last minute, but always the right time?

Reversal of Fortune

2009-12-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

Luke 1: 39 - 45 (December 20, 2009)

1) The Text
39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

2) The Context

This gospel reading precedes the Magnificat, or Mary’s Song, said or sung today. An angel has appeared to Zechariah in the Temple, and later the angel Gabriel has come to Mary. Zechariah has been told that his wife Elizabeth will bear a child in her old age; Mary has heard that she will bear a son to be called Jesus and “Son of the Most High” (v. 32), of God. God will make him a king of David’s line; he will rule Israel for ever.

Now Mary visits her “relative” (v. 36) Elizabeth. A scholar tells us that the Greek words translated “with haste” (v. 39) can be rendered very thoughtfully. In telling us that “the child” (v. 41, John the Baptist) “leaped” in Elizabeth’s womb, Luke intends us to understand that John recognizes his Lord, Jesus. Elizabeth’s reaction, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is to praise Mary.

V. 43 translates a Semitic idiom: today Elizabeth might say: How can I be thought worthy of being visited by the mother of my Lord? V. 45 portrays Mary as the model believer: she trusted that God would keep his promise made through Gabriel, preposterous as it sounded.

3) Interpretation

The assumption here is that these passages, as in other parts of Luke, are more than simply the recounting of historical event. While there is no question that historical event lies behind the narrative, the theological message of Luke lies more in how he tells the story, in what shape he gives to the events, and what aspects of the tradition he emphasizes. As such, we need to follow the story and listen carefully to the texture of the narrative as it unfolds and as it engages us in the journey that will wind from Bethlehem to Nazareth to Jerusalem, and on to Rome and beyond.

A sense of impossibility, of endings, of dead ends, is a major feature, not only of Luke, but of the entire Gospel tradition, because in the theological confessions of Scripture human impossibilities, human endings, human dead ends are only the arena in which God works possibilities, new beginnings, and new paths!

At that very point of barrenness, as often happens in biblical narratives, Zechariah was confronted with the messenger of God and given a wonderful promise of something quite extraordinary that would unfold, the birth of a child who would fulfill a special role in bringing newness not only to Zechariah and Elizabeth, but to the entire world. The narrative then moves to the Annunciation (1:26-38), in which a similar promise of newness is given to Mary. She will also bear a special child who will play an even larger role than John. While Mary is not barren, she is a virgin, which underscores the impossibility from a human perspective of any of this happening.

The result in Luke’s narrative is clear: the whole focus of the story now revolves around these two women, one old and one young, both powerless, and a new future that each represents. Why does Luke, uniquely among the four Gospels, bring these two women together in mutual celebration?

Introducing the theme of the reversal of fortune serves to place the impending births in the context of a reordering of the world. This anticipates not only the immediately following features of the narrative, for example when shepherds are the first to receive the news of a Savior born in the city of David, but also the role of the new community of Faith that is emerging in the world.

With this expression of the Advent in terms of subversions of power, of the reversal of fortunes of the weak and hungry and oppressed, there is clearly a call to the early church to participate in this subversion. That does not mean a call to militancy of any kind; but it means a call to live out the implications of accepting a God who defines Himself in terms of the weak and oppressed, who has chosen to work in the world among lowly handmaids and barren women. It is not that we must work to earn such newness as much as it is, like Elizabeth and Mary, to believe the newness and embrace it as a defining characteristic of what it means to be faithful to God.

To embrace this newness is to confess with Mary in joy, faith, and submission that "the Mighty One has done great things for me." It is to acknowledge that the powers of this world are not the powers that matter most, and that God is the great leveler of all human structures of power that oppress and control. It is He who brings down the exalted and elevates the lowly. We are called to nothing less than to view the world in terms of that potential of God’s ordering of worth and value, not in terms of our own ordering of worth and value.

4) Thought Exercise

Where in your life do you look for a reversal of fortune?

Where in the lives of others can you help facilitate a reversal of fortune?

The Way of Love

2009-12-07T23:04:00.000-08:00

Philemon 4 - 7 (December 13, 2009)

1) The Text

4When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God 5because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. 6I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. 7I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.

2) The Context

Philemon is the shortest of the epistles written by Paul. He sends Onesimus, a run-away slave and recent convert to Christianity, back to his master carrying this letter. Paul does not address the general question of slavery as a social institution, but he does plead with Philemon, on the basis of love, to take Onesimus back and treat him as a fellow Christian. Many centuries later, it was on this same basis that slavery was abolished in Western societies. While the ideas are the same as in other epistles, here we see Paul being delicate and tactful. At the time of writing, Paul was in prison - probably in Ephesus.

Although this appears to be a personal letter to Philemon, a slave owner, it is also addressed to “the church in your house” (v. 2). In the first century, the Christian community gathered at a member’s house. It is likely that the letter was read during worship. Paul writes not using his authority as an apostle (as he does in other letters) but as a “prisoner” (v. 1). (Perhaps “Apphia”, v. 2, was Philemon’s wife and “Archippus” his son.) It opens as letters usually did: from Paul, to various addressees, followed by best wishes (v. 3). Paul wishes “grace” (the Greek greeting) and “peace” (the Jewish) as well – from God.

This opening is followed, in verses 4 and 5, with a thanksgiving for news of Philemon's generosity. Paul thanks God because of Philemon's faith (rather than his faithfulness) in Christ, and its inevitable consequence, namely, his love of the brotherhood. Paul often used the word "saints" to mean his fellow Jewish believers, but here Gentile believers are probably included.

The meaning of verse 6 is difficult to arrive at. Translators add the "I pray" to make sense of the text. If Paul is picking up on the thought of prayer in v4, his prayer is for a living out of Philemon's faith ("sharing" here means fellowshipping, not witnessing). By living out faith in Christ, the believer grows in their knowledge and this leads to a closer union with Christ. The reading ends with verse 7. Clearly, Philemon has given practical care to the "saints" in the past and so now Paul recognizes his charity. Many have been "refreshed", encouraged and comforted through his love.

3) Interpretation

The Way of Love

In exercising leadership, we usually rely on people management skills and charisma. Very rarely do we rely on the type of management criteria applied by Paul in his letter to Philemon. Of course, Paul could have relied on his trump card and made his request to Philemon an apostolic command. Yet note, in the opening verse of the letter Paul has left out his usual title, "apostle". Paul does not make his appeal on the basis of his authority. So, on what basis does Paul make his appeal? He makes it on the basis of love. Love allows a request to be made and accepted. So, Paul makes note of Philemon's love and it is on this basis that he later makes his appeal, "I appeal to you on the basis of love", v9. The love upon which Paul made his appeal is Christian love - brotherly love, the love of the brotherhood.

Such love is a bonding union between the individual believer and Christ, and the individual believer with other believers. It is a care, a compassion, for the needs of other brothers and sisters within the framework of the fellowship of believers. Such compassion finds its dynamic in God's compassion toward us in Christ.

This quality of love, this divine characteristic, this ultimate compassion, is a special kind of loving. Such love images the nature of God, for "God is love."

We can describe this love in the following ways:

Christian love is not a sensual love, it is not sexual, yet it is like passion, but without the need for sexual union.
Christian love is not the love of a friend, yet it is like friendship, but without the need for compatibility.
Christian love is not the love of family, yet it is like family bonding (blood is thicker than water), but without the need for common genes.
Love should be the prime motivator for leadership or service. Hormones wane, interest declines, obligations are soon forgotten, but love endures forever, growing stronger and stronger.

Christian love motivates us for Christian service. It is not a tool for manipulation. When we encourage others to serve Jesus, let it be for the kingdom of God, and not our own little kingdom. The business of living in the world is the responsibility of each individual. The rule-of-thumb for survival in the world is you get back what you put in. Yet, mutual ministry in the Christian fellowship depends on another criterion. Our appeal to one another is best done on the basis of divine love, of God's love for us enlivening us to love.

Getting things done for the kingdom is best done through love.

4) Thought Exercise

In what ways can we demonstrate the Christian love described in this passage?

Is this a way to build heaven on earth?