Gospel for September 10, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 18:15-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

One of the hallmarks of Scripture is realism.  The revealed Word of God doesn’t envision a world that never existed, and never will, but the world as it is.

In the Gospel lectionary for this week, Jesus is addressing the reality of conflict between believers.  He offers a kind of “court of appeals” as a way of dealing with someone who is aggrieved.

He advocates a grievance procedure for the person who feels that they are sinned against.  Notice that he first humanizes the adversary — he calls him a brother:

If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.

This first step is the most basic.  Reconciliation can begin with a one-on-one conversation about the issue that has caused the rift.  If that works, the brotherly relations are restored.

However, realism dictates that there be further steps in the event that personal reconciliation doesn’t work out.

The second step is to meet with one’s adversary in the presence of witnesses who can provide context and testimony, as well as objective, impartial counsel:

 But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

This is such good advice.  The two or three witnesses, as prescribed by Deuteronomy 19:15, not only offer accountability for both parties involved, they may be able to offer objective advice to both sides.

There is a third “court of appeals” if you will.  Take the “defendant” to the church assembly:

 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly.

The scope of possible witnesses is meant to expand each time there is not satisfactory resolution to the issue, until the issues are clearly out in the open.  What might have been resolved as a private matter has become a public matter.

Finally, if the adversary refuses even to listen to the church’s decision, representing the collective will of the community, the adversary is to be removed from the community:

If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

The truth is, the unrepentant adversary has done this to him/herself. Refusing to listen to the two or three witnesses and then the assembled church suggests that he/she doesn’t recognize the authority of the church.  Therefore, they are no longer really a part of the community.

Jesus uses the example of Gentile and tax collector because in his time these were groups who were considered outside of the community — some by virtue of their religious orientation (Gentiles), some by career choices that were tainted by insinuations of corruption (tax collectors).

Jesus then explains the derivation of the church’s authority for such decisions:

Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven.

Earlier in this Gospel, when Simon Peter acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:13-20), Jesus tells him:

I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven (Matthew 16:19).

However, our present passage suggests that such authority is vested with the community of faith — all of those who have declared their faith in Christ, who are gathered in council together.  This is reinforced when Jesus repeats this formula, about even a small number gathered in his name:

Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.

Clearly, neither the authority of Peter nor the authority of the church is autonomous.  It is derived from the presence of Jesus in their midst, who is their intercessor with the Father.  This doctrine is reinforced by Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John:

Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.   Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it (John 14:12-14).

We are reminded that when grievances are heard by the community of faith, the church is empowered to resolve them because Jesus is in their midst guiding them.

This is a pneumatic statement, which means that Jesus is promising to be with the community of faith through his Spirit (Greek: Pneuma).

APPLY:  

Resolution of conflict is extremely important.  For couples in counseling. For governments. For people in work situations.  And especially in the church.  Unresolved conflicts, if left to fester, can and often do escalate into open and sometimes violent hostility.

Jesus provides a sound procedure for resolving conflict.

• If we have been wronged, we are taught to seek direct resolution. This provides the time and space to reduce the tension, forgive and forget.
• If the accused refuses to admit wrongdoing or correct the situation, the second step is to meet with two or three witnesses. Presumably, this offers both parties the opportunity to be heard by objective, impartial witnesses. In contemporary terms, this might be analogous to arbitration out of court.
• If no resolution can be reached, the community of faith becomes involved, and their decision is binding.

From the beginning of Christian history, church councils have been convened to prayerfully debate and resolve issues of Christian doctrine, the Biblical canon, and even moral and ethical matters.  Virtually every Christian denomination has some form of council or synod or conference which represents the whole church.

Today, when this process breaks down it is because some key ingredient has been overlooked.  For example, the aggrieved individual who gossips to friends and acquaintances instead of speaking directly to the person who has offended them.  The process can break down when both parties refuse to seek counseling from objective counselors or witnesses.  And even more seriously, when the corporate body fails to be consistent with the will of God who has promised to be in our midst.

When the Scriptures, the witness of the Spirit, and the corporate will of the community of faith are in harmony, it seems pretty obvious that God’s will should be reasonably clear on ethical issues.

RESPOND: 

How do we prevent conflicts from escalating out of control?  We know that conflict and disagreement will happen.  It seems pretty obvious that we should first talk it out with one another.

William Blake wrote a famous poem called A Poison Tree that illustrates what happens when we don’t work at reconciliation:

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow. 

 And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.  

And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.  

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veil’d the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree. 

Unresolved conflict may not invariably lead to physical death, but it can and does result in the death of many a great friendship.

Lord, search my heart and reveal any harm or hurt I have caused to anyone else.  And give me a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation when someone has offended me.  Give me the courage to address such issues with my brothers and sisters, so that I don’t cause even more damage.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
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Epistle for September 10, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 13:8-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul articulates the same royal law of love (James 2:8) taught by Jesus and later by his brother James.  Jesus declares that all the law and the prophets are fulfilled in the commandments to love God and love one’s neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40).

Here, Paul focuses exclusively on the horizontal expression of the law of love that deals with human relationships.  Interestingly, he argues that the Christian should be free of any sense of indebtedness except the debt of love:

 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

This is part of a larger discussion of Christian responsibility.  Paul insists that the grace-filled life of the Christian means true liberty from legalism — but in contrast, he does acknowledge that freedom must be exercised responsibly.  In relation to governing authorities, paying taxes, honor and respect to those in authority, Paul says this:

Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’ sake (Romans 13:5).

Thus the Christian, though free, is still to live as a responsible and conscientious citizen of the city or nation in which he or she may find themselves.

Paul’s next discussion of the law of love in relation to the Mosaic law is interesting.  We are reminded that he has presented a very nuanced view of the Mosaic law throughout the theological portion of Romans, arguing that the law is holy and just and good but also arguing that the law itself has no power to save us, nor can anyone except Jesus perfectly fulfill the law.

But the Christian who has been saved by grace through faith, and filled with the Spirit of Christ, is also empowered to love.  And all of the Mosaic law, including the Ten Commandments are fulfilled in the law of love:

 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

It is important to note that this law regarding love of neighbor is an Old Testament law from Leviticus 19:18. Paul has never repudiated the law and the prophets, only their false interpretations.  Note also that the four commandments Paul specifically cites from the Decalogue relate to our horizontal relationships with other human beings.

And there is an urgency to his exhortations about how Christians are to live.  His view of time is eschatological.  One doesn’t know when time will end, so it is imperative to live well:

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.  The night is far gone, and the day is near.

Paul is not engaging in any apocalyptical speculation so rampant today.  He is simply stating the obvious — that every day one is closer to the end of the age. And that day is nearer today than it was yesterday. This is a call to wakefulness and awareness, because, as Jesus teaches:

Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes… Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come (Matthew 24:42,44).

In light of this awareness, that the day is near, Paul exhorts us:

Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light.  Let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.

His imagery contrasts night and day, with darkness suggesting behavior that is associated with night-time revels (drunkenness and sexual debauchery) as well as interpersonal conflict (strife and jealousy).  And light becomes a palpable thing — the armor of light that we are to put on clothes us with protection.  Indeed, he extends the metaphor, that we are to put on Christ ­— like the light, Christ is to envelop us.

And Paul reminds us of a metaphor that prevails throughout Scripture — we are to walk properly, as in the day.  The imagery of walking with God, and walking in God’s ways, is scattered throughout the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation.  And it is readily apparent that walking is far easier in the light than in darkness!  We are to:

 walk in the light, as he (God) is in the light (1 John 1:7).

We also see the contrast of flesh and spirit, and are reminded of Paul’s earlier declaration:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).

Making provision for the flesh and its lusts leads to death; the Spirit leads to life and peace.

APPLY:  

The law of love is at the heart of Christian ethical teaching.  The New Testament appropriation of this principle insists that it sums up all the law and the prophets.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that Jesus or Paul or James are negating the Old Testament law, but that love is the foundation for obedience to the law.

Do we go to church out of duty, or because we love God? Do we tithe because it is a rule, or because it is a measured means of expressing our love? Do we visit the sick or feed the hungry because we were told to do so, or because we care?  The answer is pretty clear — we do these things, and obey the principles of the law not because they are legalisms, but because they offer guidance in loving God and neighbor.

Augustine of Hippo once said:

Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will… let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good (Augustine’s Homily 7 on 1 John 4:4-12).

There is an irrefutable logic here:

• If you love, you won’t commit adultery, which damages entire families, not just the two people involved.
• If you love, you won’t murder — the ultimate unloving act.
• If you love, you won’t steal — depriving someone else of the right to their own property is a selfish, unloving thing to do.
• If you love, you won’t covet — covetousness is the inner root of dissatisfaction that leads to envy and jealousy and lust and disharmony with others and ourselves.

It is impossible to think of an instance when love fails to fulfill the proper regard between God and ourselves, between ourselves and others, and within our own mind and soul.

The Apostle John sums it up this way:

We love him, because he (God) first loved us (1 John 4:19).

When we love, we become most like God.

RESPOND: 

Many years ago when I was in college I had a roommate who had been recently saved.  He was zealous in his church attendance and in his witnessing to others.  But I remember one time having a conversation with him about the love commandments of Jesus, and the commandments of love that permeate all the Scriptures.

He seemed completely puzzled.  This conversation was at least ten years prior to Tina Turner’s troubling song, “What’s love got to do with it?”  But that seemed to be his attitude — what’s love got to do with being a Christian?

I was every bit as puzzled by his attitude as he was by mine.  Christianity without love is like walking in the total darkness of night.  Christianity without love is like living in the world of Fight Club instead of a loving family.  Christianity without love makes religion into a set of rules instead of a Spirit-led walk with God guided by the principle of love.

When we forget to love as God has loved us, we forget that we too have been those unlovely and unlovable selfish broken creatures for whom Christ died:

But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

Our Lord, your command to love is inspiring, but impossible without your love living and working in and through us.  May we walk in your light and bring others into your light as well. Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
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Psalm Reading for September 10, 2023

Psalm 148 uses the imperative PRAISE! thirteen times, calling upon all the heavens and the earth, all the creatures therein, and all generations to praise Yahweh in this litany of praise.

A NOTE FROM CELESTE LETCHWORTH:

As most of you know, Tom went to be with the Lord in June 2018.

Since the lectionary cycles every 3 years, I am able to copy Tom’s SOAR studies from the archives and post them each week with our current year’s dates.

However, I can’t find any SOAR for this Sunday’s Psalm selection (which is Psalm 149).  I couldn’t figure out just why Tom used Psalm 148 instead. Then I found the answer — In the past, the United Methodist lectionary always offered Psalm 148 as an alternative because there is not a responsive psalter reading in our hymnal for Psalm 149. (Psalm 148 is number 861 in the United Methodist Hymnal.) I don’t know why they stopped suggesting using Psalm 148 as an alternative in 2023.

So, the bad news is that I can’t find anything in the archives that Tom wrote for Psalm 149.

But the good news is that I found his SOAR posting for Psalm 148, which has been used in the past as an alternative Psalm reading. (Well, at least in the United Methodist lectionary.)

So I hope you’ll enjoy studying Psalm 148 this week.

You’re on your own for Psalm 149, but I think you’ll enjoy reading it as well. It’s just 9 verses. As a musician, I especially noticed verse 3:

Let them praise his name in the dance!
Let them sing praises to him with tambourine and harp!

And I’m intrigued by the NRSV translation of verse 5:

Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.

Looks like even couch potatoes are encouraged to sing praise to God (LOL).

And now… Tom’s SOAR study on Psalm 148:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 148
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a Psalm of unrestrained celebration and joy.  It falls into the category of a hymn and/or doxology, praising God.

The Psalmist uses the imperative praise! thirteen times, calling upon all the heavens and the earth, all the creatures therein, and all generations to praise Yahweh in this litany of praise.

The Psalmist describes a hierarchy in the praises from all creation:

• He begins at the zenith of creation with the angelic realm.
• The next rung of the hierarchy describes the celestial bodies — the sun, moon and stars.
• The third level includes all of the forces of nature that contribute to the chaos of nature — sea monsters from the deeps, the fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind.
• Fourth, he moves on to the grandeur of the mountains of the earth, and the trees and animal life that are all sustained on the earth.
• Finally, the Psalmist concludes his hierarchy of praise with the human voices that he calls upon to worship Yahweh, including the political powers of the day — kings and princes — as well as people of all generations, both men and women.

This pattern parallels the pattern of Genesis 1, which moves from the creation of  the fundamental elements of nature, to the water and the dry land, all the vegetative and animal life, and then the climax of creation with human beings who are made in the image of God.

The first section of the Psalm, from verse 1 to 4, is a cosmic call to praise.  He summons first the heavenly, spiritual beings that inhabit the courts of the Lord:

Praise Yah!
Praise Yahweh from the heavens!
Praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, all his army!

The Psalmist then unapologetically refers to non-human aspects of creation in anthropomorphic terms, calling upon sun and moon, shining stars, waters above the heavens to praise God.

In verses 5-6, he explains the reason that these should praise the Lord.  All the celestial cosmos owes its existence to the Lord:

Let them praise Yahweh’s name,
For he commanded, and they were created.
 He has also established them forever and ever.
He has made a decree which will not pass away.

The Psalmist also makes clear that part of God’s task in bringing order to creation is to set boundaries for all that he has made:

He has also established them forever and ever.
He has made a decree which will not pass away.

The word decree can also be translated boundary.

This reminds us of the creation account in Genesis 1, when God separates light from darkness, the dome of the sky from the chaos of the waters, the sun and moon to separate day from night, and so on.

The Psalmist continues to summon praise from the chaotic, unpredictable aspects of nature:

Praise Yahweh from the earth,
you great sea creatures, and all depths!
Lightning and hail, snow and clouds;
stormy wind, fulfilling his word.

Though they are chaotic, these natural forces are still subject to the control of the Lord:

fulfilling his word.

Praises are to ring forth from:

mountains and all hills;
fruit trees and all cedars;
wild animals and all livestock;
small creatures and flying birds!

And finally, of course, with the human kingdoms, all generations and genders are called upon to praise God:

kings of the earth and all peoples;
princes and all judges of the earth;
both young men and maidens;
old men and children:
 let them praise Yahweh’s name,
for his name alone is exalted.

Again, this echoes the climax of Genesis 1:26-27. God announces his intent to make humankind in his own image.  What this means is that they would have dominion over all creation as God’s representatives on earth; and that both male and female are required to fully reflect the image of God:

God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.

This is a fascinating parallel with Psalm 148.  To be made in God’s image is to have the responsibility of rule in God’s name, and for men and women to reflect God’s nature.  And so all people — rulers, men and women, old and young — are to praise God.

The Psalmist sums up this call to praise by acknowledging that the Lord is to be worshiped exclusively:

let them praise Yahweh’s name,
for his name alone is exalted.
His glory is above the earth and the heavens.

And at last the Psalmist returns to an ancient symbol, reflecting God’s blessing to Israel:

He has lifted up the horn of his people,
the praise of all his saints;
even of the children of Israel, a people near to him.

The horn hearkens back to a symbol of the bull, denoting strength in ancient Israel.

Interestingly, as the focus of the Psalmist has narrowed from its height among the angels, it has finally come to rest on the saints who are defined as:

the people of Israel who are close to him.

Praise, it seems, brings God’s people closer to him.

Clearly, all that exists is called upon to praise God, who is the source of all benefits and blessings.

APPLY:  

It is fitting that all creation, from the angels to the stars to the oceans and the mountains and the beasts and kings and all people everywhere should praise God!

I would venture to say that the angels and nature do fulfill their calling to praise God.  They do so in part by simply fulfilling their purpose as part of God’s creation, by:

fulfilling his word.

With kings, rulers, men and women, this may be a bit more difficult to compel.  Because of human free will, people don’t seem to be joined in one voice today for the purpose of praising God.

Perhaps this is the ongoing task of the church — to continue to proclaim and praise God by word and deed until the rest of the world catches on!

RESPOND: 

The Scriptures provide definitive guidance to my faith and practice.  Without them I’d be lost.

However, there are moments in my life when the mental fog rolls in and I find myself in a “gray night of the soul.”  So many different views of the Christian faith and the Bible can create confusion even after a lifetime in the Christian church and many years as a committed Christian.

On occasions like these, I find the Psalmist’s summons to praise very helpful. To go outside on a clear night and look at the stars and the moon; or to stand on a mountainside and consider the distances of the valley below; or to stand at the edge of the ocean and watch the wild surf — these can be powerful reminders of the creative power of God.

As just one example of the power of nature to enkindle faith, I quote Eric Metaxas, a Christian writer:

There are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life — every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart … Can every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident?

Lord, I join the angels and the archangels, the stars and the planets, and all the creatures of the earth in praising you.  May my praise join with the praise of all that lives and moves and has its being in you. And may my praise bring others closer to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

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Old Testament for September 10, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Exodus 12:1-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Yahweh initiates the Passover feast that will become central to the identity of Israel.  Here is the backstory — Moses and Aaron were instructed by God to demand that Pharaoh release Israel from their slavery in Egypt.  Pharaoh resisted — he hardened his heart — and in response Yahweh began a series of ten plagues designed to persuade Pharaoh to change his mind (Exodus 7-12).  These included:

• The waters of the Nile changed to blood.
• Frogs that covered everything and hopped everywhere.
• Teeming lice.
• Swarms of flies.
• The death of cattle and other livestock.
• Boils on the flesh of human beings and beasts.
• Lightning, thunder and hail that killed people and animals in the fields, and destroyed barley and flax crops.
• Hordes of locusts that ate the wheat, fruit, herbs and all the crops that remained.
• A deep, unnatural darkness that covered the land of Egypt.

These escalating plagues seemed to have their effect each time on the Pharaoh, and each time his heart was hardened, and he refused to let Israel go free.

Now this contest of wills between Yahweh and Pharaoh has reached its climax.  If this were a movie we were watching on television, it would be as though someone pushed the “Pause” button.  Yahweh pauses in his almost relentless onslaught against Egypt to give Moses and Aaron directions concerning the Passover meal that the families of Israel are to prepare.

Time itself is to become a memorial of their liberation from Egypt.  The month of Passover is to become the beginning of the year for them.  This month would come to be called Nisan, and Passover would begin on the 15th day of that month (typically in March or April in the modern calendar) on the night of the full moon following the vernal equinox.  But those details would be worked out later.

A year-old unblemished lamb for each household, selected on the 10th day of Nisan, was to be slaughtered on behalf of each family of the congregation of Israel on the same evening — the 14th evening of Nisan.  This was not merely to provide the main entree for their feast.  There was to be a more serious purpose.  Blood from the lamb would be smeared on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it. 

We learn a little farther on in today’s lectionary reading what the purpose of the blood is:

This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh. The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

This selection is packed with theological implications.  The Israelites are to be dressed and ready for a journey — when the feast is over, the Egyptians will be mourning their dead and eager to see Israel depart.  They must be ready to leave.

The term Passover is quite literal — Yahweh will strike all the firstborn of Egypt, both man and animal — but the blood will denote an Israelite household, which is to be spared.  Yahweh will pass over those households.

This is the ultimate plague — dealing death directly to the most precious member of the Egyptian household, the firstborn son.  Where the other plagues have been unpersuasive, this is the final act.

It can be fairly said that what Yahweh has been doing against Egypt has been similar to a military campaign — gradually escalating the attack.  But it is also clear that Yahweh isn’t merely trying to persuade Pharaoh to let his people go.  This is a theological, even a spiritual battle:

Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh.

Several of the plagues have attacked the very core of Egypt’s theological belief system.  Yahweh is demonstrating his supremacy over the false gods and goddesses of Egypt:

• Hapi was the Egyptian god of the Nile, shown to be helpless when the Nile turned to blood, polluting the water and killing the fish. The Nile is the lifeblood of Egypt.
• Heket, the Egyptian goddess of fertility and renewal, was portrayed with the head of a frog — the second plague mocks her weakness, because only Moses could get rid of them.
• Geb was the god of the dust of the earth, from which the lice of the third plague arose when Moses stretched forth his rod at Yahweh’s command to strike the earth. This pestilence becomes intensely personal.
• Khepri was the god of creation and rebirth, and was depicted with the head of a fly. The swarms of flies are not only pesky — modern science teaches us that these pests spread disease.
• Hathor was the goddess of love and protection, portrayed with the head of a cow. When the fifth plague begins to kill the livestock, Yahweh is striking at the economic system of Egypt. Food, transportation, military supplies and farming were all affected.
• Isis was the Egyptian goddess of medicine and peace, and she shows herself powerless against the boils and sores suffered by the Egyptians and their beasts.
• Nut is the goddess of the sky — and the thunder, lightning and hail that rains down prove her powerlessness against Yahweh.
• Senehem was the locust-headed god of protection from the ravages of pests. But what the hail hadn’t destroyed, the locusts consumed.
• The ninth plague (the one just preceding the death of the first-born) was darkness. The ultimate god of the Egyptian pantheon, other than Pharaoh himself, was Ra, the Sun god.  This plague brought three days of darkness so complete it could be felt. This demonstrated Ra was no god at all.  For a people who were literally sun-worshipers, this must have been completely demoralizing.
• The final plague, which today’s lectionary passage anticipates, is directed against the greatest known power on earth — the Pharaoh himself. He is regarded as god on earth, the son of Ra in the flesh, known as Horus, often depicted with the head of a falcon.  As we will see, even this “god on earth” cannot prevent the death of his own first-born son, let alone the deaths of the first-born of all the Egyptians and their animals.

Therefore, this moment when Yahweh institutes the Passover is extremely important as a spiritual legacy that will endure not merely for centuries, but for millenia.  One of the Jewish traditions of the Passover (Hebrew Pesach) is the Seder, the liturgical order that commemorates these events.  Haggadah is the Jewish text that acts as the liturgy for this ritual meal.

And we see the beginnings of this ritual in our passage:

They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs. Don’t eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts. You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.

Earlier, Yahweh had made it clear that if a household was too small to consume the entire lamb, they were to join with another family for the feast.  This event was intended to create a sense of community and identity as Israelites.  Their shared suffering would now become shared triumph.  And this brings us back to the primary purpose of this Passover meal:

This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

A specific day in a specific month, with specific instructions about the symbolic meal, has kept the memory of deliverance alive among the Jews for over three thousand years.

APPLY:  

This passage lifts up the importance of ritual in our remembrance of significant events.  Yahweh quite literally takes a break from the action in order to institute this Passover observance through these two brothers — Moses and Aaron — who are the political and spiritual leaders of Israel.

Not all of the elements of the Passover meal are addressed in our passage.  Here we see the unblemished lamb that is to be roasted, and to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Some of the interpretations of these menu items are implied:

• The unleavened bread is eaten in haste because there is no time to wait until leavened bread rises (Exodus 12:34). Also, leaven becomes a symbol of corruption that must be removed from homes and lives.
• The bitter herbs are to be a reminder of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.

As Christians, we must be profoundly aware that one of our most sacred acts of worship — the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper — derives from the Jewish Passover.  Jesus took the elements of the Passover of his day — the unleavened bread and the cup of wine, that had become a part of the Seder — and transformed them into signs of his body and his blood.

The Jews remember their deliverance from slavery, and their hope for the Promised Land every time they join together for a Passover meal.  In a sense, Christians do the same every time we meet to receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper — we remember that Jesus has delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and we look forward to the Promised Land at the end of the age.

People of faith look to ritual not as a substitute for spirituality, but as a means of grace that evokes the reality of those great events of Scripture. Through such observance, the ancient past becomes the present, and we are there with that cloud of witnesses in the presence of God.

RESPOND: 

I’ve already addressed the derivation of the Christian eucharist from the Jewish Passover.  I realize that there are additional interpretations of the Sacrament of the Lords’ Supper that I haven’t mentioned.

However, one symbol arrests my attention.  Yahweh tells Moses and Aaron:

They shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it… The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

From a Christian perspective, it is no long leap to a typological interpretation of this passage.  Jesus is called the Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36); and is even described as a slain lamb in Revelation 5:6.  And Paul makes this direct analogy to Passover describing the passing over of the consequences of sin and death.  He says that the believer is:

justified freely by his (God’s) grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:24-26. Emphasis mine).

The blood of the Lamb, a frequent image used in Christian literature, hymns, and preaching, reminds me of the blood that was smeared on the doorposts and lintel of Israelite homes in ancient Egypt.  In a spiritual sense, the blood of Jesus spares me also from death and damnation.

Lord, when I worship you I am reminded that there are times I am participating in something more ancient than any living memory — and yet when I receive the bread and cup of communion, what happened long ago becomes a present reality. You have delivered us from sin and death, you are delivering us from sin and death, and you will deliver us from sin and death.  Thank you! Amen. 

PHOTOS:
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Gospel for September 18, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 16:1-13
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus uses an odd parable to illustrate the principle of shrewd stewardship and faithfulness — the tale of the dishonest manager.  And the dishonest manager turns out to be the hero of the story!

The setting should be familiar to businessmen and women — a rich man’s CEO has been losing money, and the owner of the business demands a detailed account of profit and loss, and summarily fires the CEO/manager. 

Obviously, this pitches the manager into financial and personal crisis — his skill-set limits him from manual labor, and his self-respect prevents him from begging.  What he then does is actually rather fraudulent.  He approaches those who are in debt to his former boss and offers an intriguing deal — he encourages them to pay off a percentage of their debt immediately.  One is to pay back 50% of the oil he owes, the other 80% of the wheat.

And the owner of the business praises this manager!  He sees that by getting these partial payments, the dishonest manager at least collects something, as opposed to nothing.  Moreover, the manager has now ingratiated himself to the creditors, who may be willing to help him after he’s out of a job. The boss/owner admires the shrewdness of the manager.

Jesus suggests that the children of light can learn something from the children of this world:

….the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light. I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.

In other words, unrighteous mammon (riches), certainly not to be sought for its own sake, can be useful as a tool in the hands of the children of light. 

Jesus makes it very clear that he is not endorsing unfaithfulness or dishonesty by using this unusual example:

He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.  If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?  If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?

He is arguing that how a person handles money (unrighteous mammon) may well be a gauge for how they will handle greater spiritual responsibilities and privileges.

But Jesus is very clear that though the children of light may find the use of money to be a test of their character, and even a useful tool, they are not to worship it or seek it for its own sake:

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.

We are reminded that God demands an exclusive claim on the allegiance of the children of light.  This exclusivism and demand for fidelity is rooted in the Biblical tradition.  God says to Israel in Exodus:

you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14).

And it should be noted that Mammon, translated as riches, also denotes a Syrian deity of wealth.

APPLY:  

The bottom line in this passage is that Jesus is advising his followers to be as shrewd and wise as the children of this world — without losing our integrity.

The world is a shorthand expression for all of the spiritual and social aspects of the present age — which is an age dominated by the flesh, sin, and the devil.

However, Jesus is a realist.  He knows that his followers, the children of light, must live in this evil age.  He is simply telling us to learn the rules and play by them when we can, without being corrupted by them:

He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

He tells us to be faithful in our use of unrighteous mammon entrusted to us in this world, while recognizing that money and wealth are not our goal.  We are to be wise stewards and use what we are given for God’s sake, not our own.

We can ultimately only serve one master — and money and wealth will be left behind.  Only God’s kingdom will endure.

RESPOND: 

Pastors who graduate from seminary in my denomination are asked a series of questions when they are ordained.  One of those questions may seem unusual — “are you in debt so as to embarrass you in your work?”

Thinking that somehow graduating from seminary and being given the charge of a church is going to make an individual suddenly responsible and prudent when they haven’t given any indication of integrity isn’t just magical thinking — it’s foolish.

The expectation of Jesus — and his church — is that there will be a fundamental consistency between a person’s financial management and personal integrity.  If we can’t be faithful with small things, why should we be entrusted with greater things?

But what about the use of unrighteous mammon?  I remember many years ago that the late televangelist, Oral Roberts, made an appeal for $8 million to fund scholarships so medical students of his university could serve as missionaries in underdeveloped countries.  He told his television audience that he would retreat to the 200-foot-high prayer tower on the campus of Oral Roberts University and commit himself to,  ”praying and fasting until victory comes or God calls me home.”

One donation of $1.3 million came from a Florida man whose fortune had been made through the dog track that he owned — which was supported by gambling.

Obviously Roberts was severely criticized for accepting the money.  One wonders what Jesus might have said?  Might he have said, “that money has been used for unrighteous purposes in the past.  Why not allow it to do good for a change?”

The real indictment is when we worship the wrong deity.  Another famous televangelist, accused of financial fraud, was put on trial.  The prosecuting attorney made a telling remark in his closing statement:

This was a man who began by using things and loving people, and ended by using people and loving things.

We must be prudent stewards of all of the resources that God entrusts to us — but we must be faithful to God in big and little things.  And we are also reminded that even small responsibilities are a reflection of how we might handle bigger responsibilities.  As someone has said of actors — there are no small parts, only small actors.

Lord, thank you for the resources that you have entrusted to me.  Grant me wisdom to use these resources with integrity for your glory.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
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Epistle for September 18, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Timothy 2:1-7
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is continuing to mentor his protege, Timothy, about how he should conduct his ministry.  Earlier in this letter Paul has instructed Timothy that he is to provide proper guidance for true Christian doctrine.  Paul is aware that there are those in the church who are teaching heterodox doctrines, and he wants Timothy to correct them (1 Timothy 1).

Now, Paul turns his attention to the substance of Christian prayer as a community of faith.  He urges as a first priority that:

petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks, be made for all men.

Prayer is not merely to be made for those who are already believers.  The Christian, and the church, are to pray for all people everywhere.  This is a reminder that God is Lord of all.

Paul then narrows down the field of intercession:

 for kings and all who are in high places; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence.

There are two key parts of this exhortation.  First, we note the remarkable requirement that Christians are to pray for kings and high officials.  This is remarkable because historically we know who those kings and high officials were!  It is very likely that the Emperor Nero reigned over the entire Roman Empire at the time Paul was writing to Timothy.  Nero’s immorality, debauchery and tyranny were well known everywhere.  Moreover, Nero wasn’t the first or the last Roman to persecute the church.  Roman authorities, the Herods, and even the priests in Jerusalem, were typically unsympathetic to Christians, if not aggressively hostile.

Yet Paul urges Timothy to lead his congregation in prayers for these kings and rulers!  Paul might say that he hoped that their prayers might result in the conversion of these officials.  On one occasion, while he was being held prisoner, he was summoned by Festus, the Roman governor of Judea, to make his defense before King Agrippa and his sister Bernice. King Agrippa ruled as a vassal king for Rome over the other areas in and around Palestine.  Paul made an impassioned witness to the Gospel, and apparently began to “get to” Agrippa.  The two men had this remarkable exchange:

 Agrippa said to Paul, “With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?”   Paul said, “I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me today, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.” (Acts 26:28-29).

Second, we note that Paul also has a practical motivation for these prayers — those who govern provide political and judicial stability so that Christians may lead quiet, undisturbed lives.  We are reminded that Paul urges Christians to submit to civil authorities because their power is given them by God.  The role of civil authorities, as Paul sees it, is to maintain order:

 For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the same,  for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn’t bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil (Romans 13:3-4).

But there is an even deeper and more significant motivation for prayer:

 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.

Prayer is a powerful prelude to mission and evangelism.  As one of Christianity’s premier missionaries, Paul has come to know and appreciate the prayers of the church as he seeks to spread the Gospel everywhere.  His assumption is that God’s desire is to save all people.

Furthermore, Paul elaborates on the full knowledge of the truth in his message with a brief exposition of the kerygma (the proclamation) of the Gospel:

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all….

This is the heart of the Christian testimony.  In a polytheistic culture such as the Greek and Roman in which the Gospel was preached, the Christian insistence on monotheism identified them with their Jewish roots.  However, Judaism had been offered a certain level of immunity by the Romans because their religion seemed to the Romans a regional, cultural and ethnic religion. Christianity was extremely committed to evangelism, as we’ve already seen in this passage.

Moreover, Christianity makes the claim that Jesus is the one and only mediator, or bridge, between God and human beings.  And the Gospel is even more exclusive than that — this same Jesus died on a Roman cross as a ransom for all.  The notion of ransom suggests that all people are imprisoned by some evil captor, and only Christ’s death can pay the price of their release.

The Apostle Peter also preached about Christ’s uniqueness when he and John were arrested by the high priest and the court of the elders:

There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved! (Acts 4:12).

Paul insists that this witness is to a historical man and event:

….the testimony in its own time…

And, if there is any doubt that this is the witness of Paul himself, as the Apostle to the Gentiles, he makes this claim:

to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth in Christ, not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

APPLY:  

There are two key applications that we can take away from this passage.

First is the importance of prayer for all people, but particularly for those who are in authority.  The Scriptures teach us that all authorities are established by God:

Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are ordained by God (Romans 13:1).

We are to submit to those in authority, provided of course that their requirements don’t violate the moral laws of God or the Christian conscience.  We certainly note that Peter determined to obey God rather than man when he was told not to preach the Gospel.  But even when we may dissent from those political authorities, we are to pray for them.

Second, we have a brief summary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that provides a template for us — Christ is the mediator who has ransomed us from sin, death and the devil through his own sacrificial death.  That is the heart of the Gospel, without which there is nothing.

RESPOND: 

There is an interesting paradox in this message.  The message of Christ is both exclusive and inclusive. On the one hand we are told that there is one mediator who can save us — Christ alone.  That is a consistent claim throughout the New Testament.

On the other hand, this salvation is available to all who believe.  Paul makes it clear that God desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.  The knowledge of the truth is the revelation that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. 

Let me be clear — salvation is exclusive through Christ, but inclusive of all who believe.  This means universal atonement — not universalism.  Universal atonement means that Christ died for all who believe and who follow Christ. It does not  mean that all will be saved. The Scriptures simply cannot be twisted to support that claim.

This is also not consistent with any interpretation of predestination that assumes that God has elected some to salvation and some to damnation.  As Peter tells us, God is:

patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

One more thing that I feel compelled to add — Christians do not have the luxury of rejecting those who are in authority.  We are commanded to pray for them, even if we disagree with their policies.  Of course, in a Democracy, we are to vote for the candidate that we believe will most effectively provide leadership.  But once they are in office we are not to carp and criticize them — we are to pray for them!

When my sons were young, they went to a Christian camp one summer in the 1980’s.  President Clinton was in office in the U.S. at the time.  I was alarmed to learn when we picked up the boys at the end of the week that one of the “fun activities” of the week had been a blatant act of disrespect toward President Clinton and his wife Hilary.

Two counselors, a boy and a girl, put on Bill and Hillary Clinton masks and sat in the back of a pickup truck.  The truck was driven slowly through the camp, and the campers were encouraged to spray them with shaving cream or aerosol products!

I was appalled!  These young people were being taught to disrespect those who were in office, which seemed to me the exact opposite of the teaching of the Scriptures! It is instructive to be reminded that Paul encouraged Christians in his time to pray for officials like Nero, who was a moral monster!

Pray for those in authority, whether you agree with them and their policies or not!

Lord, we do pray for those who are in authority over us, especially in this presidential season in the U.S., which is so filled with controversy. We ask for guidance when we go to the polls.  As to whomever is elected —please remind us to pray for our leaders, whatever we think of them.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
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Psalm Reading for September 18, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 4
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a prayer of supplication.  The Psalmist, identified as David, is beseeching God to hear his prayer for relief from unidentified distress, and to be merciful to him.  These first verses are addressed directly toward the:

God of my righteousness

In the next verses, however, the Psalmist becomes more polemical.  His focus is no longer on God but on idolators who are pursuing delusions.  He is accusing them of turning glory into dishonor, loving vanity and seeking after falsehood.

The last verses, from 3 to 8, are an expression of confidence in God, and peace.  The Psalmist trusts that God hears his prayers.  He in turn admonishes his “audience” to turn away from sin, and to search their hearts in silence — presumably so that they may recognize the sins of which they must repent.

He ties the inner spiritual life with the outward expression of faith by exhorting his audience:

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness.
Put your trust in Yahweh.

Even if this Psalm precedes the Temple era, it is very consciously observant of the sacrificial system that undergirds the liturgical worship of Israel.

Finally, the Psalmist touts all the benefits of this confidence and faith in God:

• Prosperity
• The ‘glory’ of God that shines on the worshipper’s face — reminiscent of Moses’ shining face after each audience with the Lord
• Joy that exceeds those times when grain and wine are abundant
• The peaceful sleep of those who feel completely safe

APPLY:  

We desire all the benefits mentioned in this Psalm — prosperity; the “glow” of God’s grace; joy in abundance; peace and a sense of security.

Where do these benefits come from?  The answer is embedded in this Psalm. All of these benefits flow from:

• The soul-searching that leads to true repentance.
• The sacrifice of our own will to God’s will.
• Complete and utter trust in the Lord.

This is not a pretext for the so-called “prosperity Gospel.”  The Psalmist makes it crystal clear that his peace is derived not from prosperity:

You have put gladness in my heart,
more than when their grain and their new wine are increased.

Rather he says:

you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety.

This is akin to the message of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.  He tells us not to worry about what we shall eat or drink or wear.  Instead, he says:

 seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33).

RESPOND: 

I confess. I worry too much.  And my worry is a symptom of a lack of faith. Or at best anemic faith.

So, I am applying the lessons of this Psalm in my own life:

 Search your own heart on your bed, and be still.

I make the decision to turn from the sin of worry and lack of faith.

And I place my complete trust in Yahweh.

Lord, only in you will I find joy, true prosperity that is not dependent on what the stock market or the job market gives or takes away, true pardon, and true peace and security.  Grant me that peace.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
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Old Testament for September 18, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The sense of foreboding and disaster that loomed over Jerusalem and Judah during Jeremiah’s time came from two sources,  the two opposing superpowers that hemmed in Judah from North and South — Babylon and Egypt.  But in Jeremiah’s mind, these forces were merely the weapons in God’s hands to carry out his judgment against unfaithful Judah.

Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet because no matter how earnestly he warns Judah and its kings and priests about the need to repent, they do not heed him.  He declares:

Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!

Jeremiah knows that Judah is placing their trust in Yahweh.  After all, the people declare:

“Isn’t Yahweh in Zion?
Isn’t her King in her?”

Ever since the time of Isaiah, many years before, Jerusalem in particular has been assured that they are invincible because it is the city where the temple of Yahweh is established, and where the eternal dynasty of David reigns.

But Jeremiah recognizes that they have a false sense of assurance.  While God did establish Jerusalem and the Davidic line, Judah and Jerusalem have broken covenant with God.  They have not been faithful to worship him alone and adhere to his law:

“Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
and with foreign vanities?”

Now, Jeremiah discerns, there is a growing sense of apprehension among the people of Judah in particular.  An invading force from Babylon is drawing closer from the North, as their armies enter the northernmost cities of what was once Israel:

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan:
at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles;
for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it;
the city and those who dwell therein (Jeremiah 8:16).

Now Jerusalem is beginning to realize that it may be too late to be delivered from the Babylonians:

“The harvest is past,
the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”

Jeremiah finds no satisfaction at all in this impending disaster.  He grieves for his city and his people:

For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt:
I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.

Jeremiah asks plaintively if there is no source of help and healing for his sick nation:

Is there no balm in Gilead?
is there no physician there?
Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Gilead was a region East of the Jordan River named for the grandson of the Patriarch Joseph, and settled by some of the tribes of Israel.  In Joseph’s time it had long since been overrun by Assyria and had become a vassal state.

But Jeremiah’s reference is to a highly valued balsamic ointment that was used as a medicine. The trade and use of this balm in ancient times could be traced back for centuries.  Jeremiah seems to be asking why people who were so sick from their idolatry could not find the antidote in seeking their God.

Jeremiah’s lamentation continues as he reflects on the suffering that Judah has already experienced, and no doubt anticipates what is to happen in the future:

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

APPLY:  

Throughout history there have been times that a sense of impending doom hung heavy over nations:

• In 1775 in the American Colonies, there was the growing sense of resentment toward the British homeland for perceived injustices.
• In 1860 in the United States, it was the regional division between North and South over slavery.
• In 1936 in both Germany and Japan, there was the menace of growing territorial ambitions.

We may wonder sometimes if our times are any different.  What is the apprehension and tension that makes the air of our times feel as though it is thick and heavy with growing storm clouds?

Jeremiah is aware of the storm clouds gathering over Jerusalem, but he senses his own helplessness to avert disaster.  He knows that his people are placing their trust in past platitudes and phony gods.  And yet they can’t seem to understand why they are not delivered from impending catastrophe.

Jeremiah knows that there is a balm in Gilead, and that healing is only to be found in repentance and return to the God of Israel.

This spiritual principle was true in Jeremiah’s time, and it is still true today.

RESPOND: 

There is a deep sadness to be the one who can see that disaster is coming, and yet be unable to avert it.  I am reminded of Cassandra, the Trojan prophetess in Greek mythology who could foresee the destruction of Troy by the Greeks, and the eventual murder of the Greek Agammenon who became her captor.  To be a Cassandra is to be one who is always right, but never heeded.

That was Jeremiah’s sad lot also.  And sometimes it is ours when we can see the eventual consequences of immoral or unwise behavior in our family, friends, or countrymen and women.

Yet we still have a responsibility to warn and to weep for them, even when they don’t listen.

The good news is that there is a remedy to the moral sickness that so many suffer today.  It is found only in the one whom T.S. Eliot describes in East Coker IV, from Four Quartets:

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer’s art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Then there is the famous African-American Spiritual, that reminds us that Christ is the source of healing:

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin sick soul.

Our Lord, sometimes we do sense storm clouds rising in our times. Thank you for the reminder that there is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
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Psalm Reading for September 26, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 124
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a Song of Ascents attributed to David, which was sung when the congregation processed up Mount Zion to the place of sacrifice.  We remember that in the time of David the temple had not been built, but that the ark of the covenant had been moved to that location, and the tabernacle and the altar were there.

This is a song of thanksgiving for deliverance from one’s enemies.  If anyone understood the peril of facing one’s enemies, David certainly did — from Goliath and the Philistines, to his own King Saul who had once sought his life, to the various hostile nations that surrounded Israel; and even, in civil war, his own son Absalom!

However, unlike the Greek or Roman hero who might attribute their victory to their own god-like strength or military prowess, David is quick to acknowledge the Lord as the source of Israel’s victories over their enemies.

In fact, he confesses that if Israel had trusted in their own strength and strategy, they would have been lost:

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side —let Israel now say—  if it had not been the Lord who was on our side

then the result would have been disastrous.

He also closes this Psalm with a very similar attribution to the intervention of the Lord:

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

The imagery that David uses is interesting.  In verses 3-5, the predominant image is the raging waters. Israel’s enemies were so overwhelming and overpowering that they were like floods that would have swallowed up Israel, swept them away, gone over them like torrents.

The people of Israel certainly had memories of raging waters as an existential threat — when crossing the Red Sea under Moses’ leadership as they escaped from Pharaoh’s armies; crossing the Jordan River on dry land with Joshua into the hostile land of Canaan that was also their land of promise; and when Deborah and Barak led the Israelites against commander Sisera and the Canaanites, as described in the book of Judges:

The stars fought from heaven, from their courses they fought against Sisera.  The torrent Kishon swept them away, the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with might! (Judges 5:20-21)

In the instance of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, the overwhelming waters were subdued by God; in Judges the waters become a weapon in God’s hand against the enemy of Israel.

Here, God prevails against the overwhelming power of Israel’s enemies, who are not named here.

The other image in verses 6-7, compares Israel’s plight to being hunted by their enemies.  The Lord has spared them from becoming  as prey to their teeth. And they are like birds who escape the traps of the fowlers because the snares are defective.

This image also would have been something David well understood.   When King Saul sought to hunt David down, David played a cat and mouse game with the King — and David was the mouse, hiding in the valleys, gorges and hills of Judah (1 Samuel 22-27). And he also resorts to the same kind of guerrilla tactics when his son Absalom approaches the city of Jerusalem with overwhelming force; David abandons the city and retreats across the river Jordan to find more suitable ground for a future battle.

Whatever the context of the Psalm, the bottom line is clear:

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

APPLY:  

Only a very small percentage of us are likely to have been placed in a position of combat, or have been pursued by enemies who seek to “devour” us.  Those who have served in the armed forces might well pray this Psalm, or those who have been made refugees by hostile, armed terrorists such as we read of all too often today.  For those in either situation, this might be a very relevant Psalm.

But for those of us who live in security and peace, there is also an application.  We may sometimes forget in our routine days of dropping the kids off at school, or soccer practice, or a day at the office, that there is an invisible battle raging around us even now.

Paul reminds us of this reality in Ephesians 6:11-12:

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This is a battle waged on moral and spiritual grounds, by our daily decisions that arise out of our Christian convictions.  If we take the unseen world as seriously as the Scriptures do, we must be aware that there are cosmic powers that are in rebellion against God, and who seek to harm us as God’s children.

Although it may seem an odd claim to make, in some ways this spiritual battle may be more difficult than facing weapons of war or overt hostility.  That is not to minimize the dangers faced by soldiers, or the persecution of the martyrs in any way.  But when they are faced with the obvious overt threat, the responses are very clear — to fight or die; to confess Christ and face persecution or even death.

Those conditions are stark, but more clearly defined.

But the spiritual warfare waged in the office, the school, online with facebook or social media, can be far more hazy.  The Enemy’s weapons of deception are far more effective when he insinuates that our convictions may  be reduced to mere opinions, and faith may be reduced to foolish superstition. If the Lord were not on our side, we too would be washed away by the torrents of ambiguity, and we would be devoured by the Enemy.

We must rely on the same faith that David had:

Our help is in the name of the Lord,  who made heaven and earth.

RESPOND: 

I recently finished reading C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, which addresses through a “modern day fairy tale for grownups” the constant battle between good and evil, God and Satan.

His description of the representatives of N.I.C.E. ( the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments) is chillingly familiar, as they seek to destroy the “conventional” morality of those whom they enlist.

It was a reminder to me that there are a multitude of philosophical and religious perspectives in our world today that would reduce our values to a kind of “subjective relativism” and turn the values of good and evil into mere “chemical reactions” in the brain.

Subjective relativism would “free” us from objective truth so that we get to decide what is true and correct, without reference to God or Scripture. So there is no absolute truth or good or evil.

As Dostoevsky might say, in such a world “all things are permissible.”

But this Psalm reminds me that there is One who fights for me, and for all of us; and, to quote Martin Luther’s great hymn:

Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth, his name,
from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle.     (A Mighty Fortress is Our God)

Our Lord, if you were not on our side — on my side — I would be utterly and hopelessly lost! I cannot withstand the overwhelming and confusing flood of error and misinformation in our world, nor can I overcome the foes that seek to devour me — unless you are fighting for me.  May I trust only in you for deliverance.  Amen.   

PHOTOS:
"GodIsOnYourSide" by Yay God Ministries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for September 5, 2021

“Jesus and the Woman of Canaan” painted by Michael Angelo Immenraet (1621-1683)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Mark 7:24-37
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The itinerant ministry of Jesus takes a curious detour — Jesus and his disciples leave the Jewish region of the Galilee, and travel fairly deep into Gentile territory near the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre on the coast of modern-day Lebanon.  After his encounter with the Syrophoenician woman near Tyre, he plunges even deeper into this region, traveling north along the coast to Sidon, before turning back south and back to the Greek dominated region of the Decapolis east of the Sea of Galilee.

This is important because context matters, and tells its own story.  We can only speculate as to Jesus’ motivations for entering Gentile territory.  We know that relations between Jews and Gentiles were tense at best.  Jews tended to regard Greeks, Romans, Syrophoenicians, and all Gentiles as religiously “unclean” and had as little to do with them as necessary.

Note that this is not the first time in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus has ventured into Gentile territory.  In Mark 5:1-20, Jesus steps onto the shore of the Sea of Galilee in the vicinity of Gerasene in the Decapolis (the Ten Cities of the Greeks). There he is accosted by a demoniac in a cemetery, possessed by innumerable demons.  It is confirmed that this is Gentile country when Jesus casts the demons into a herd of pigs — Jews would never have raised unclean, non-kosher animals.

So why did Jesus go there? Was he seeking a break from the pressing crowds that now mobbed him as though he were a rock star, knowing that they wouldn’t follow him into “foreign territory?”  Was he seeking at least temporary relief from the growing hostility of the Pharisees and the scribes?  Was he seeking to expand his ministry beyond his own people, the Jews? Was it all of the above?  We do know that he did wish to be anonymous:

He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.

At first glance, we might question whether Jesus had any tolerance at all for non-Jews.  He is noticed by a woman whose child was possessed by a demon.  She is a Syrophoenician, from the area near Tyre, whose religion and language were most likely Greek.  Certainly, she was no monotheistic Jew.

So why would a non-Jew seek out this Jewish carpenter?  No doubt, she is desperately seeking deliverance for her daughter. And rumors must have preceded Jesus of his reputation as a healer and exorcist.

But to our surprise, Jesus is rather rude to her!  This defies our presuppositions about Jesus, whom we always expect to be loving and welcoming to those seeking his help.  But she is not Jewish!  In response to her pleas that he cast out the demon from her daughter, Jesus says:

 “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

The children  refers to the people of Israel.  Note that he doesn’t say in this metaphor that the Gentiles would not be fed at all, just that the children would be fed first.  This is consistent with his early commission to the disciples, when he sends them out two by two in Matthew’s Gospel, and tells them:

“Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” ( Matthew 10:5-6).

There are several instances of his ministry to Gentiles, culminating in his meeting with Greeks in Jerusalem in John 12:20. And of course we know from the ministry of Paul that Jesus is the savior of both Jews and Gentiles. But at this time, Jesus seems to be exclusively interested in the salvation first of his own people.

Jesus seems quite adamant that he will not help this Gentile woman!  He even insults her.  To say that the children’s food shouldn’t be thrown to the dogs was a grave insult in that culture.  Dogs were not the companions and “best friends” in the Middle East that they are typically in western cultures.  Dogs were considered unclean scavengers.

One imagines Jesus turning his back on this woman — until she argues with him!  She replies to him with a clever comeback:

“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Is it significant that the word used of dogs is a diminutive?  The “little dogs” or even the “puppies” under the table?

More importantly, what is it that arrests Jesus’ attention about her response?  

Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.”  So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Perhaps I need to move from mere reporting to opinion.  As I’ve said, Jesus does not preclude the eventual ministry to those who are not the children; he merely says that the children are to receive his attention first.

Paul will say much the same in Romans 1:16:

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

This is not a claim to preeminence for the Jews — but Israel has clearly been called by God to a unique role in the salvation history as those whom God has called to be his “nation of priests” and to whom he has revealed the law.  And Jesus is undeniably the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy as the Messiah. He is the Jewish Messiah.

However, at the close of Mark’s Gospel, after the resurrection, Jesus gives his disciples a clear commission:

“Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).

The time would come when they were to take the Gospel to all nations.

But in this specific interaction, Jesus seems to soften when this woman verbally spars with him.  Is it because he admires her “spunk?” Or is this part of a stratagem on his part to make her an example as a non-Jewish, pagan woman whose love for her daughter brings her to faith in a Jewish rabbi?

No doubt he is aware that his disciples are watching his every move; and he knows that they share the universal Jewish prejudice against Gentiles.  Does Jesus engage in this repartee as a kind of “teachable moment” so that they begin to understand that even the Gentiles will be included in his salvation?

The fact is, Jesus follows this encounter with a Gentile with yet another, when he returns to the Decapolis.  Mark is clear that he is still in Gentile territory. And so the deaf man who is brought to him is doubtlessly a Gentile also.

This time Jesus has no objection to healing a non-Jew. And yet:

 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd.

He is still seeking anonymity.

The reason for this privacy becomes clear.  After Jesus heals the man:

  Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

This is known as the “Messianic Secret,” which means that Jesus consistently sought early in his ministry to suppress the information that he was the Messiah.

Again, we can only speculate as to why, but my opinion is that a) he didn’t want his Messianic role to be manipulated by those whose motives he didn’t share, e.g., the zealots who hoped for the violent overthrow of the Roman legions in Palestine; and b) he wanted to reveal his Messianic role in his own time and in his own way, in fulfillment of the Scriptures — as the dying God who is raised from the dead.

APPLY:  

We sometimes forget when we read the New Testament just how divided the people were by ethnicity, religion, and nationality.  Or, perhaps we understand all too well, because we haven’t really changed all that much in the past two thousand years. We still divide along religious, cultural, ethnic, and national lines.

The persistence and the clever retort of the Syrophoenician woman reminds us that barriers may be overcome.  Her worried love for her daughter motivates her, and her faith in this Jewish ‘miracle worker’ leads her to a solution.

Jesus may sometimes, perhaps even often, puzzle and perplex us — but he will ultimately never fail us!

RESPOND: 

I must confess that I don’t understand Jesus’ initial response to this Gentile woman. What I think we must attend to, though, is the fact that he does cast out the daughter’s demon.  He seems to respect true devotion wherever he finds it.

The Bible describes life as it is lived, in the process of living it — and then reveals to us the final outcome that we can expect if we are persistent in faith.  We must follow the thread of the story all the way to the end. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  As John declares of his vision in Revelation 7:9-10:

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.  They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Lord, I have been on the outside of the covenant, and you allowed me in by your grace.  Have mercy on me, according to your lovingkindness! Thank you for your grace.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Jesus and the Woman of Canaan” painted by Michael Angelo Immenraet is in the Public Domain.