Gospel for October 16, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 18:1-8
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

As Jesus so often does, he tells a parable designed to shock his listeners in order to stress his point.

What might his listeners find shocking about this story?  While he begins with a spiritual point, about the importance of persistent prayer, the “hero” of the story is a judge of very dubious character.  The judge neither fears God nor respects people.  In other words, he feels no accountability to anybody! The judge is an atheist and a misanthrope!

The second shocking aspect of this story is the judge’s disregard for the widow.  Anyone even lightly familiar with the Hebrew Bible is very aware of the requirement for compassion toward widows.  The judge’s refusal to hear the widow’s request to defend her from her adversary would have outraged those who heard Jesus’ parable.

However, even this atheistic, misanthropic judge is worn down by the persistent prayers of the widow. He declares:

Though I neither fear God, nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.

What Jesus implies, and what he says, is this — if this is how an atheistic judge behaves toward a persistent widow, how much more will God hear your prayers when you cry out to him constantly? Here are his exact words:

Won’t God avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? I tell you that he will avenge them quickly.

This is the same formula that Jesus uses earlier when he compares the Heavenly Father with earthly fatherhood, especially in regard to supplicating prayer:

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?  Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:11-13).

If, then, the unjust judge will grant the petition of the persistent widow, how much more will a righteous and loving God hear the prayer of his chosen? 

And then, almost as a kind of footnote, Jesus notes that there is a scarcity of faith:

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Not only is there a lack of persistence in prayer — Jesus looks ahead to the end of time and questions whether many will persist in faith in him! The foundation of persistent prayer is faith.

APPLY:  

Jesus is addressing a fundamental issue of faith — how does a person keep on praying when he/she doesn’t see any results?

The answer Jesus gives is that when you don’t get answers to prayer, keep on praying!  He gives an extreme, almost absurd analogy — if an atheistic, hardhearted judge will finally give in to the persistent lobbying of a widow, how much more will God:

 avenge his chosen ones, who are crying out to him day and night?

His emphasis on prayer is not at all about “technique” or “method” in prayer, but on the very foundation — faith.  If we believe that God is our Father who cares about us, then we can be assured that he hears us when we pray, no matter how long it may take.

RESPOND: 

I’m haunted by Jesus’ final statement in this passage:

when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

We live in an era that leans toward narcissism and self-sufficiency, propped up by the illusion that technology makes us nearly omniscient and omnipotent.

But we are still mortal.  Wives lose husbands and become widows.  We cannot protect our children from a dangerous world.  We all face threats to health that increase as we age. The daily news reminds us that none of us can predict financial markets, catastrophes, or global events.

The man or woman of faith prays at all times based not on his or her own character, but on the character of God.  God is not the capricious, insensitive judge of the parable, but a loving, caring Father who answers prayers according to an eternal timetable.

While prayers may not always seem to be answered in the short-term, in the long-term God meets us where we are.  Our part is to have persistent faith.

Lord, I confess that some of my prayers seem to go unanswered, concerning people and issues that are deeply important to me. I am reminded that you care more about those things than I do — and you know more about those things than I do.  So I pray not to change your mind or to get my way, but so that my mind can be closer to your mind.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Luke 18 verses 1 to 8" uses this background:
"Chalk Board" by Dave Linscheid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 16, 2022

The Greek word here is theopneustos, which is a cognate of the Greek word for God (Theos) and for breath (pneo). The word pneuo shares an etymology with pneuma which is the word for breath, wind — but also for Spirit.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is urging Timothy to remember the Christian doctrine he has been taught from his childhood, and to continue to preach the Gospel faithfully.

Paul begins this passage with a preposition of contrast (“But”), in order to emphasize how Timothy is to be different from the evil men and impostors (2 Timothy 3:13) of the last days (2 Timothy 3:1) that are coming.

Instead, Paul urges Timothy to stick with what he has been taught, implying that Timothy’s teachers — including Timothy’s mother, grandmother, and even Paul himself — are trustworthy.

Though Jews, Timothy’s mother Eunice and grandmother Lois were early converts to Christianity — and they had no doubt used the Hebrew Scriptures to demonstrate the Messianic ministry of Jesus.  Paul is confident that the Hebrew Bible points to Jesus:

the holy Scriptures …. are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, when we read of Paul’s strong endorsement of Scripture we are aware that he isn’t speaking of his own letters, or the Gospels, but of the Hebrew Bible:

Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This statement combines a high view of Scripture with an emphasis on the pragmatic nature of God’s Word.  Scripture is God-breathed. The Greek word here is theopneustos, which is a cognate of the Greek word for God (Theos) and for breath (pneo).  The word pneuo shares an etymology with pneuma which is the word for breath, wind — but also for Spirit.  What I’m getting at is that God has breathed his own thoughts into the minds of the prophets and Psalmists.

However, it is important to note that Paul stresses the pragmatic effect of the Scriptures.  Nowhere does he insist that Scripture establishes scientific or even historical inerrancy — the purpose of Scripture is to teach theological doctrine, and provide moral guidance that establishes standards of righteousness.  When the man or woman of God knows the Scriptures and applies them, then they are:

thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul has established the source of authority — God’s Word — and then follows that with an injunction to Timothy about how he should conduct his ministry.  Paul emphasizes the gravity of his command by pointing out that Timothy’s ministry has ultimate significance:

 I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom….

And what is Timothy to do?

preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.

His preaching is to be urgent, especially in keeping with the eventual judgment that will come with the advent of the Kingdom!  And he is to be negative when necessary (reprove, rebuke) and positive (exhort).   And yet he is encouraged to be patient. 

This is not a recipe for success — it is a recipe for faithfulness.  Paul advises Timothy to preach urgently in season and out of season — in other words, whether it is popular or unpopular.  For Paul knows that the time is coming that even Christians will become fickle:

For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables.

Nonetheless, Paul admonishes — no matter what others may do, and no matter how the “crowd” wants to seek out teachers that will cater to them, Timothy is to be faithful at all times, knowing that faithfulness may come with a cost:

 But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

APPLY:  

How are we to be faithful in our own era as we seek to evangelize this generation?  We must begin with the same source that Timothy had — the Scriptures.  We are reminded that the Apostolic teaching that Timothy had also received from Paul and others has also been included in our canon as part of the New Testament.

We also share the same challenges — people have a tendency to look for teachings that support their own prejudices and preconceptions.  This is a very real issue in the online world today.

We are told that there are computer algorithms that read our tastes and preferences, and tend to serve up advertisements and articles that are tailored to our likes.  So, it is possible that a person may only read articles and ideas that merely confirm what they already believe!

We must remember that the Word of God isn’t a kind of “mood ring,” like kids used to wear years ago, that simply reflects our own thoughts.  The Scriptures are God-breathed.  They don’t conform to our views; we are to conform our lives to the Scriptures!

RESPOND: 

I have wrestled with the statement Every Scripture is God-breathed from the moment I acknowledged Jesus as my Lord.  Unless a person has been living on a desert island, it would be impossible to miss the fact that the authority of Scripture has been questioned and even maligned for centuries.

Yet Scripture is the primary source for our knowledge of God, the saving work of Jesus Christ, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the coming Kingdom of God.  If we don’t have the Bible, we don’t have the Gospel!

I was recently in a friendly on-line discussion with a skeptical non-Christian who had grown up in the church, who criticized the “bronze-age god” of the Old Testament.  I’m aware that this expression has been coined by contemporary atheist writers as a derogatory slam.

Here is my answer — St. Augustine points out that God accommodates the understanding of people where they are.  If God seems to our modern sensibilities to be a bronze age god perhaps it is because he revealed himself to bronze age people.  God accommodated the understanding of Abraham, Moses and the prophets from the so-called bronze age. 

It seems to me that God is far more pragmatic than we are when it comes to teaching doctrine and ethics.  Understanding the Trinity, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ as God and man, the Virgin Birth, and other doctrines of the Christian faith requires our very best thinking, at a very high order.

However, a relationship with God requires faith, love and obedience.  In the words of Forrest Gump, “I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is.”

Obviously this doesn’t begin to address all the questions that the modern age has about Scripture, but it does remind us that we have to ask the right questions when it comes to reading the Bible.

For example, when it comes to the Creation story, we can look to scientists and historians to tell us when, what and even how. Those are questions that scientists and historians are clearly equipped to address.  But the Bible tells us the most important question, at least when it comes to our relationship with God and the meaning of life — Who created us, and why. 

Our Lord, as I study your Word, teach me what I need to know about you in order to deepen our relationship, and how to serve you more effectively.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
"theopneustos" uses this photo:
"Splendor Chaos" by Chez Andre 1 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for October 16, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 119:97-104
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Psalm 119 is unique.  It is one of about a dozen acrostic Psalms in the Hebrew hymnal, each stanza based on a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  It begins with Aleph and ends with Tav.

What sets Psalm 119 apart is that it is the longest Psalm in the Psaltery, with 176 verses; and also the longest single book in the Bible!  In fact, by itself Psalm 119 is longer than 17 Old Testament books, and 14 New Testament books!

Psalm 119 is devoted almost exclusively to the celebration of Yahweh and his holy law.

Our lectionary reading is only a small part of the total — focusing on the Hebrew letter Mem.  But this section lifts up the central theme of Psalm 119:

How I love your law!
It is my meditation all day.

This is the “first principle” of Hebrew faith — that God has revealed himself through the law.  Hence, meditation on the law makes one wise, righteous.

In fact, the Psalmist’s focus on the commandments gives him a leg up on his enemies, his teachers and the aged!

Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
for your commandments are always with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
because I have kept your precepts.

In other words, it would seem that simply studying the laws, statutes and commandments of God has given the Psalmist an unsurpassed advantage in life.

A common Biblical metaphor for the righteous way of life is walking with God (Enoch in Genesis 5:24; Noah in Genesis 6:9; Abram in Genesis 17:1; Israel walking in obedience to God’s law in Exodus 18:20, etc.), and this Psalm alludes to this Godly walk:

I have kept my feet from every evil way,
that I might observe your word.

And yet another frequent metaphor in Scripture is the imagery of the Word of God as honey that is eaten by the reader (cf Psalm 19:10; Ezekiel 3:2-4):

How sweet are your promises to my taste,
more than honey to my mouth!

As the Psalmist ingests these words, they give him wisdom to discern good and evil. And to avoid the evil:

Through your precepts, I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.

APPLY:  

For the Hebrew believer, the laws and commandments of God were paramount.  The law, delivered to Moses on Mount Horeb, forms the foundation of the covenant between God and Israel.  The law provides a way of life, of worship, and of righteousness to the Israelites.

For the Christian, the law is more complicated.  Paul strongly affirms that the law:

indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good (Romans 7:12).

So, the Christian is never at liberty to denigrate or deny the law of God.  However, Paul’s insight is that the law can’t deliver the righteousness that it demands.  The perfect standards of the law cannot be attained by sinful men and women, no matter how good we are.

Thus, Jesus has fulfilled the law on our behalf through his sinless life and his atoning, sacrificial death:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:2-4).

Are we to meditate on the law, as the Psalmist did?  Yes.  But we also realize that Jesus fulfills the demands of the law on our behalf; and through the Spirit fulfills the moral and spiritual law through the law of love written on our hearts.

RESPOND: 

When I was in seminary I wrote a paper that had a rather pretentious title — “The Dialectic of Law and Grace in John Wesley’s Theology.”  Actually, despite its high-falutin’ title, the premise was relatively simple.

John Wesley’s study of the Bible led him to conclude that God’s law is holy and just and good, like Paul said.  Wesley believed that the ritual and ceremonial law of sacrifices and diet were types that symbolically pointed to the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus.  In his life, death and resurrection, all of those ritual and dietary laws were fulfilled and were no longer required.  Jesus is our sacrifice. Therefore, the sacrifice of animals is no longer required.

However, Wesley said that Jesus never contradicted the moral law that had been revealed in the Old Testament — in fact, Jesus doubled down on the moral law!  For example, murder is bad, but anger is the beginning of the murder of a brother; adultery is wrong, but lust is the objectification of a woman and the root of adultery.  In other words, the moral law isn’t merely external — it is internal.

Wesley summed it up like this — the law drives us to Christ by showing us, as though in a mirror, that we are loathsome sinners; Christ’s grace forgives us as he fulfills the law on our behalf through his life, death and resurrection; and then Christ drives us back to the law as a helpful guide to growing in grace.  What is behind the law is always the law of love which leads us to love God, neighbor, and even our enemy!

So, along with the Psalmist, we can also say:

How I love your law!
It is my meditation all day.

Our Lord, how I love your law!  Your law reveals to me what holiness looks like, revealed in your consuming love.  It also reveals to me how far short I fall when I try to fulfill the law in my own strength. Thank you for your grace in Christ Jesus that fulfills the law on my behalf, and for your Spirit that writes your law of love on my heart.  Only through you am I able to live the life to which your law calls me.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. (Psalm 119:103) #godsword #honeybee #bee #honey #red #redflower" by Jeanette's Ozpix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for October 16, 2022

In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. (Jeremiah 31:29)
[Image: “Sour Grapes” by Geoff Johnson]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 31:27-34
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jeremiah’s prophecy now looks beyond the “doom and gloom” that has comprised most of his oracles.  The “weeping prophet” sees the hope that God promises.

There are three motifs in this particular passage from Jeremiah 31:27-34.

First, Jeremiah employs an agricultural metaphor to illustrate that Yahweh will grow Israel and Judah anew in their land again.  He says that Yahweh will:

sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal. 

This is in contrast to the recent catastrophe that Israel and Judah had experienced, when they were plucked up, broken down, destroyed and afflicted — first by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., and then by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.  Now they would be built up and planted.

This is to be a blessed reversal — the people have been uprooted and deported from their homeland, and one day they will be returned and replanted in their homes.

In the second section, Jeremiah addresses the difficult question of who is responsible for the judgment that has befallen his people.  He refers to what may have been a familiar proverb in his time (see Ezekiel 8:2):

In those days they shall say no more, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

The meaning of this expression is pretty clear, and has Biblical roots — the second of the ten commandments prohibits idolatry, and warns that the sins of the fathers will be visited on the third and fourth generation of those who hate God (Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9).

However, Jeremiah holds out the hope that the children of those whose sins have led to judgment and destruction will be able to break that cycle.  In fact, those who are innocent won’t suffer for the sins of others.  Instead, each person will bear personal responsibility for their own moral choices:

But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

It might be helpful to note that the imagery of the vine and the vineyard are commonly used to describe Israel.  The sour grapes that set the teeth on edge result from those who have been unfaithful to God.

Third, Jeremiah foresees a new covenant that Yahweh will establish with Israel and Judah.  Their fathers — as we’ve seen above — had broken the covenant that had been made hundreds of years earlier when they had been led out of Egypt.  Jeremiah doesn’t identify Mt. Sinai, or Moses, but it is clear that he has in mind the covenant of the law revealed to them in the wilderness.

And Jeremiah makes reference to the deep sense of betrayal that Yahweh has experienced because of this broken covenant:

my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.

The imagery of Yahweh as husband to Israel is also used by Isaiah and Hosea to describe the intimate relationship Yahweh longed for with Israel.

But this new covenant will be different.  Instead of being written on tablets of stone, or on parchment, this will be a law that God will write on their hearts.  The external law will become internal.  And this inward law will herald a new and deeper relationship with Yahweh:

I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

This promise that God will forget sin is best fulfilled in the Gospel through Jesus Christ.  Sin is washed away and forgotten because of Christ’s sacrifice.

APPLY:  

Social Scientists and psychotherapists point out that addictive and dysfunctional behavior tends to be generational.  Children of an alcoholic are more likely to be alcoholics than children of non-alcoholics.  Children who come from an abusive background are more likely to be abusive.  Children of divorced parents… well, you get the picture.

For the person raised in a difficult, dysfunctional home, this can be discouraging news.

But Jeremiah has hopeful news:

In those days they shall say no more, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

In other words, the cycle of family dysfunction can be broken.  It is true that the children of the Israelites and Judah suffered because of the sins of their parents.  But it is not inevitable that children must perpetuate the sins of their parents.

What is the solution?  Jeremiah points to it:

I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

When we turn to Christ, the law of the Spirit is written on our hearts, and we are new creatures in Christ.  We can overcome the addictions and the ghosts and the bad memories of the past because we now can know Yahweh, and know that our sins are forgiven.  And what a miracle — that an all-knowing God is willing to forget our sins.

RESPOND: 

I was listening to an interview on the radio years ago that I found fascinating.  The subject of the interview was a social scientist who had committed his life to studying sociopaths and psychopaths — people who tend to either be aware of social mores of right and wrong and choose to ignore them in order to benefit themselves; or in the case of psychopaths, people who really don’t know the difference between right and wrong.

As he began to study sociopaths and psychopaths, he began to study his own family history, and he discovered that his own family was full of sociopaths and psychopaths!  And as he studied his own psychological profile, he discovered that he also had a strong tendency toward sociopathology!

And yet, he was a well-adjusted, happy husband with happy kids.  And he asked himself why he wasn’t an ax murderer or worse.  Then he answered his own question. He had a wife who loved and nurtured him.  And he had learned the difference between right and wrong, and had actually developed the ability to empathize with others.  Love made all the difference.

However, he said, after finding out what his psychological profile was, he joked that his wife did hide the sharp knives!

Our Lord, we acknowledge that there are consequences for sin — whether we have sinned, or we suffer because of the sins of others.  Write your law on our hearts so that we may turn away from evil and toward you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Sour Grapes” by Geoff Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.