Gospel for July 10, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 10:25-37
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Asking questions of a rabbinical teacher was not at all uncommon.  Question-and-answer dialectical method was a common style of teaching.  And one of the classic questions asked of a rabbi was “what is the essence of the law, rabbi?”

However, in this case, the lawyer is also motivated by hostility to Jesus. He hoped to test Jesus’ mettle, and even to trip him up.  The lawyer wasn’t a lawyer in the modern sense of an attorney — the lawyers of Jesus’ time were transcribers and interpreters of the Torah, the ancient law of Moses. They were also known as scribes.

From his question we can deduce that this lawyer is of the school of the Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection from the dead — unlike the Sadducees.  He says he wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life.

Jesus responds in a kind of Socratic manner, answering a question with a question. In this era, there was a classic question that a person might ask a rabbi — “What is the summary of the law?”

So Jesus asks the lawyer:

“What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

This suggests Jesus’ confidence in the Hebrew Scriptures of his people, that they are in fact the revealed Word of God.

The lawyer answers with appropriate Scriptures from the Law of Moses that sum up the law:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

This commandment to love God with all one’s being comes from Deuteronomy 6:5. In a sense this commandment summarizes all of the vertical commandments of a person’s relationship with God, especially as suggested in the first four commandments of the Decalogue (The Ten Commandments).

The second commandment relates to the horizontal relationships between human beings, as suggested by the last six of the Ten Commandments, and also by the ethical and social justice demands of the prophets.  This commandment is also culled from the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18b):

[love]  your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus confirms that this is the way to eternal life — unreserved love for God, and unselfish love for other people:

 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But remember, this lawyer has been attempting to trip up Jesus.  He wasn’t sincerely seeking answers — he was seeking leverage over Jesus.  So he can’t leave it alone:

wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Again with questions?  Jesus continues his pedagogical method of indirection.  This is a form of “discovery learning.”  Jesus uses parables to draw in his listeners, and then hooks them with the wisdom of his teaching.

Jesus tells the famous parable of the Good Samaritan (verses 30-37).

The story is full of dramatic anticipation.  The man who is journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho travels some of the most dangerous, mountainous terrain from the highlands of Judea toward the Jordan River Valley.  There are plenty of hollows and gorges and caves in these mountains where a gang of thieves might hide.

The tension builds as the traveler is robbed, beaten and stripped and left for dead by just such a gang.

With keen irony, Jesus describes two men passing at different intervals on the road where the victim lies bleeding — one is a priest and the other a Levite.  If anyone knew the laws of Moses, surely these men did!  They should know what compassion is required for a victim, and what it means to love your neighbor!  And yet they pass by on the other side.  This simple phrase captures their indifference and/or revulsion for the condition of the victim.

Now comes the real twist in the story.  It isn’t the priest or the Levite who fulfills the law of love — it is a Samaritan.  Hostility between Jews and Samaritans goes back more than 700 years.  Antipathy of the Jews for Samaritans is based on ethnic, cultural and religious differences. Pharisees regarded the Samaritans as fuel for the fires of hell simply because of their ethnicity.

And yet, it is this Samaritan, regarded as a non-person by many Jews, who has compassion for the victim.  The Samaritan doesn’t ask what the ethnicity, religion or origin of the victim may be:

a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

His pity is supported by action. He anoints and bandages the man’s wounds, carries him to an inn on his own animal, and pays for his care with two denarii. This would have been the equivalent of two day’s hard-earned wages for a laborer.  Moreover, the Samaritan promises the innkeeper that he will pay any further bills for expenses this victim incurs.

So Jesus comes to the punchline of the story.  The hook is set and the fish is caught:

Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?

The lawyer can’t even bring himself to name the ethnicity of the Samaritan. We can imagine him answering sullenly:  

“The one who showed him mercy.”

The point is clear:

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Eternal life begins when love for God is complete, and love for neighbor is impartial and without prejudice.

APPLY:  

The lawyer asks the question that every human being who is honest with themselves will ask at some point:

what must I do to inherit eternal life?

The answer to this question in Paul’s epistles is that salvation comes through grace, received by faith in Christ’s vicarious death and resurrection on our behalf.  Is this answer incompatible with the answer offered here in Luke? In the Gospels, eternal life is indeed a gift, but it is received by loving God with one’s whole self and living out that love in compassion for others.

The two views of the means of procuring eternal life aren’t incompatible at all.  Faith isn’t merely intellectual assent to certain propositions.  As James 2:19 reminds us:

Even the demons believe—and shudder.

It can be reasonably argued that the demons, as fallen angels, know far more about true doctrine than any human being can possibly know.  But their belief is not faith.

Faith in the New Testament implies trust. And trust implies love.  And if we are to truly love God — who loves all the world — then we must love all of those whom God loves. This includes even his enemies, and ours!

RESPOND: 

As an ordained clergyman, this passage, though beautiful, makes me a little uncomfortable.

After all, I’m more like the priest and the Levite than I am the Samaritan in terms of my profession.  The Samaritan, though unschooled in “proper” doctrine and practice, is closer to God because he loves. He expresses his love in action.

The neighbor may be defined as any person who is in need. And as Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:40, when we minister to the hungry, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner, we are actually ministering to Jesus!

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.

True faith is love in action:

the only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

Lord, forgive me when my ‘faith’ is mere words and intellectual belief.  Spur me on to love as you love— as the Samaritan loves — impartially and wholeheartedly. Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"The-Good-Smaritan" by Ray MacLean is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for July 10, 2022

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

OBSERVE:

Paul’s letter to the Colossians is regarded as one of his four “prison letters” (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. There is also good evidence to include Paul’s “pastoral letters” — 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus — as letters written from prison).  These were probably written when he is incarcerated in Rome near the end of his recorded ministry, and possibly his life.

Surprisingly, Paul had not visited Colossae when this letter was written, despite his extensive travels throughout the Roman province of Asia where Colossae is located.  The church was planted by Epaphras, who happens to be with Paul as he is writing.  No doubt Epaphras is advising Paul about some of the issues that are arising in Colossae:

we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus…and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

Paul begins this letter much as he does others that he has written.  He greets the Colossians using his title as an apostle of Christ Jesus, and mentions his protege Timothy.  He says to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that he is praying for them and is thankful for their faith in Christ and their love for all the saints.

By saints, of course, he has in mind all Christians who have come to faith in Christ.  He is in no way thinking of an elite group of “super-Christians.”  All Christians, by virtue of the redemptive work of Christ, are set apart as holy, which is the meaning of saints. As he explains near the end of today’s passage (verses 13-14), they have been entitled to share in the inheritance of the saints because of the work of God the Father through his Son:

He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul praises the faithful ministry of Epaphras who has carefully instructed the Colossians about the gospel:

You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you.

Moreover, Paul notes that this ministry has continued to flourish in Colossae just as it has everywhere:

Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.

So, inspired by Epaphras’ accounts of the faith of the Colossians, Paul continues to pray for them:  

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Paul’s emphasis is clear. As the Colossians deepen their relationship with God, they deepen their understanding of sound Christian doctrine — and consequently their lives are transformed ethically and they bear fruit in good works to others.  A healthy spiritual life is grounded in a faith-filled relationship with God, enlightened by sound doctrine, and lived out in godly living.

APPLY:  

How can Paul possibly write a letter to people he’s never met?  How can he possibly understand how their minds work, what their concerns are, what is going on in their lives?

Of course he hears the reports that Epaphras has brought to him.  But even more than that, Paul understands two things — the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the human heart.  He knows what human beings yearn for, and what they are seeking above all else — reconciliation with God.  And he knows that this is the purpose for which Christ has come to earth.

We might well ask ourselves the same question — how can a letter written to an obscure church in a city that was later destroyed by an earthquake possibly be relevant to us?

The answer is simple. The hopes of the human heart are the same now as they were nearly 2000 years ago. And the truths of the gospel remain the ultimate fulfillment of those hopes.

RESPOND: 

Some of the finest theology in the Christian faith is embedded in our hymns.  Charles Wesley wrote a hymn titled simply A Prayer for Children.   In this hymn, he offers a timeless prayer:

Unite the pair so long disjoined,
Knowledge and vital piety:
Learning and holiness combined,
And truth and love.

I make this my own prayer in my own spiritual life — that I may deepen my relationship with God through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, worship, fasting, and the sacrament.  I also pray that as I study the Scriptures I will deepen my understanding of sound Christian doctrine — and that the fruit of these spiritual practices and doctrinal understanding will be a transformed life that makes a difference in the lives of others.

Our Lord, may Paul’s prayer for the Colossians be my prayer — that I may lead a life worthy of you, fully pleasing to you, as I bear fruit in every good work and as I grow in the knowledge of God. Amen.

 PHOTOS:
"'Thank the Father, who has made you able to share the light, which is what God’s people inherit. God has rescued us from the power of darkness' Colossians ‭1:12-13‬ ‭GW‬" by Colin Campbell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for July 10, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 82
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm gives a very small glimpse into the heavenly realms that are beyond human comprehension.  The Most High God takes his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods. 

What can that possibly mean for a strictly monotheistic people such as the Jews?  Is there a hint of polytheism here?  Who are these gods over whom God holds judgment? 

The answer that Christian theology has given is that this divine council of gods refers to those beings that we know as angels. These are supernatural and super-intelligent beings.  Angelology is much more developed in New Testament theology.  Peter speaks of a kind of hierarchy of angelic beings who are subject to the resurrected Christ:

Jesus Christ,  who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him (1 Peter 3:21-22).

In the Old Testament, we also see the divine council that gathers in God’s presence in Job 1:6.

One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord…

Curiously, in our Psalm for today, God is scolding the heavenly court:

“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

It becomes clear that God is not only speaking to angelic and heavenly beings — he is also speaking to kings and princes.  If God is speaking to heavenly gods he is also speaking to those who are gods on earth — that is, those who have godlike political and military power in the world — kings and leaders.

God is acting as an advocate for the poor and the dispossessed and the oppressed.  And he is calling those who are in positions of power to be just and deliver the needy.

God also warns that though these members of the divine council are gods, they are mortal:

nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
and fall like any prince.”

Ultimately, the Psalmist makes it clear that the one God, the only God, is sovereign over all the earth, the nations, as well as the heavenly council:

Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!

APPLY:  

What do we make of this Psalm, given its metaphysical tone? It doesn’t fit neatly into typical categories about angels and angelology.

God presides over a divine council of gods — all of the gods, those who are supernatural and those who are human rulers, so it seems.

Some of the early church fathers, such as Tertullian and Justin Martyr, believed that the gods of paganism weren’t gods at all, but actually demons who manipulated people through their impersonations.  This interpretation might explain why God’s tone toward these gods in divine council is so reproachful.

These gods judge unjustly and they show partiality to the wicked.  These sound like beings who are not in submission to God, but in rebellion.  So he is warning them that there will be consequences for them if they continue to oppress the weak, the orphan, the destitute.  They will fall.

God has the last word.  That is the real message of this Psalm.  Those who think they have power, and who abuse it, will learn that God will triumph:

Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!

RESPOND: 

The word from the Psalm is ultimately a word of comfort.  We live in an uneasy and anxious time — radical Islamic terror in the Middle East has created waves of thousands of refugees, who flee to an overwhelmed Europe.  The European Union is reeling as member nations consider exiting this fragile economic cooperative effort.  Leaders in various nations posture and rattle sabers.

Even the church experiences the anxiety of a society that is growing more and more secular in morals and values.  As I sat at a recent church conference, hearing about the growth of secularism and its encroachment on the church, a pastor’s wife turned to me and said, “All I know is, God has the last word.”

That’s what Psalm 82 reminds us.

Lord, thank you that when nations tremble and the ‘gods’ of our time lose their way, you are steady and you have the last word.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“God Will Have the Last Word” uses this background:
“cloud” by boris drenec is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for July 10, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Amos 7:7-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The prophetic ministry of Amos reminds us a little of Elijah and Elisha.  Amos is a bit of an eccentric, like those two prophets who predate him by about 100 years.

First of all, Amos is a “southern boy” who comes north to Israel from his hometown in Tekoa in Judah, ten miles from Jerusalem.  We remember that Israel (the northern kingdom) had seceded from Judah (the southern kingdom) about 931 B.C.  Amos has come into Israel in the north around 750 B.C. to scold King Jeroboam II of Israel.

To gain perspective on how strange this may have seemed, imagine a pastor from Dearborn, Michigan during the American Civil War leaving the north and coming south to Richmond, Virginia to scold President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy for his policies!  Like Amos, he probably wouldn’t be received warmly!

Amos himself admits that he has no genealogical foundation as a prophet:

I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs.

One of the things we see elsewhere in the Old Testament is that there are “court prophets” who are employed in the palaces of the kings of Israel and Judah.  And because they were employed by the kings, sometimes they found it difficult to tell the king what he really needed to hear.

Amos makes it very clear that his is an independent voice, without compromise.  He is neither a court prophet nor has he been taught in the “schools of the prophets” that were current in those days. Amos’ only accountability is to God.

In this passage, Amos uses a dramatic metaphor to illustrate the objective and absolute moral standards of God:

Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.  Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.

The plumb line is a rope with a weight at the end, used by builders to determine the vertical precision of a wall.  The plumb line is an absolute standard of measurement.

In this case, the Lord is declaring that Israel and their King Jeroboam will be judged by divine standards — and be found wanting:

The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Amos’ ministry will not go unopposed.  Ironically, it is a priest who is most alarmed about Amos’ prophesies. Amaziah the priest of Bethel advises King Jeroboam that Amos is conspiring against him.  Amos does prophesy Jeroboam’s death and the exile of Israel.

We are reminded that the priesthood in Israel are by definition like the “court prophets” described above.  The center of worship for the Israelites had been Jerusalem since the time of King David.  The ark of the covenant had been taken there by David probably around 1000 B.C.  Solomon, the son of David, built a glorious temple to house the ark around 966 B.C. It was in Jerusalem that the Aaronic priests and the Levites carried out the sacrificial ritual and musical worship from that time on.

However, because of King Rehoboam’s poor leadership following the death of his father Solomon, Israel seceded from Judah in 931 B.C., thereby dividing the kingdom into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah).   The new kings of the northern kingdom wanted to consolidate their power in this new independent kingdom and this meant fostering the worship of the Lord in places like Dan and Bethel.

This explains why Amaziah the priest of Bethel is so suspicious of Amos. Amos is from Judah, not Israel. But Amos was of the belief that Israel and Judah worship the same Lord.  Furthermore, Amos knows he has been commissioned by the Lord to warn his northern cousins that they must repent.

Amaziah wants Amos to go home:

You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!

This prompts Amos to respond that he doesn’t belong to any guild of prophets — and he certainly is no “court prophet.”  His only responsibility is to the Lord:

I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Amos’ answer to Amaziah is unequivocal and uncompromising.  He is a faithful witness from the Lord, and says:

Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: “You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.” Therefore Yahweh says: “Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.”

Amos is prophesying around 750 B.C.  while Israel is still intact and prosperous.  Within 29 years, in the year 721 B.C., Amos’ warnings would come to pass.  Israel would be conquered by the ruthless Assyrian empire and scattered to the four winds.

APPLY:  

God’s standards for right and wrong, good and evil, are absolute.  Like the plumb line, God’s standards measure our ethics and morality — and we are found wanting.

However, the role of the prophet is to warn us that we can still repent and turn and receive mercy.  The role of the prophet can be thankless.

Pastors tend to try to comfort people.  The prophet must be the bad guy, who tells us what we don’t want to hear.  Just as nations need an independent judiciary, so the prophet needs to be independent — accountable only to God.

RESPOND: 

I’ve given a lot of thought to the role of the prophet, and the difficulty of telling people the truth about the consequences of sin and injustice.

We have a tendency in modern culture to be “nice” to people.  Young people, I’m told, want “safe spaces” where their opinions or choices won’t be challenged or contradicted.

But what if our opinions and choices are extremely dangerous to us? What if those beliefs and practices carry us away from God?

In that case, the work of a prophet in telling the truth is a little like that of a doctor.  When a patient goes to the doctor, he doesn’t expect the doctor to tell him what he wants to hear.  That would be very unloving and unhelpful.  No, the doctor’s duty is to tell the truth, and then give the patient choices about his treatment.

In my mind, it is the doctor who tells me the truth that really cares about me, not the doctor who tells me what I want to hear.

Lord, give me the courage to hear the truth, as well as the courage to tell the truth.  And remind me to always speak the truth in love.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“plumb line on sandstone wall” by P.W. Hatcher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for July 10, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Luke 10:25-37

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Asking questions of a rabbinical teacher was not at all uncommon.  Question-and-answer dialectical method was a common style of teaching.  And one of the classic questions asked of a rabbi was “what is the essence of the law, rabbi?”

However, in this case, the lawyer is also motivated by hostility to Jesus. He hoped to test Jesus’ mettle, and even to trip him up.  The lawyer wasn’t a lawyer in the modern sense of an attorney — the lawyers of Jesus’ time were transcribers and interpreters of the Torah, the ancient law of Moses. They were also known as scribes.

From his question we can deduce that this lawyer is of the school of the Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection from the dead — unlike the Sadducees.  He says he wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life.

Jesus responds in a kind of Socratic manner, answering a question with a question. In this era, there was a classic question that a person might ask a rabbi — “What is the summary of the law?”

So Jesus asks the lawyer:

“What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

This suggests Jesus’ confidence in the Hebrew scriptures of his people, that they are in fact the revealed Word of God.

The lawyer answers with appropriate scriptures from the Law of Moses that sum up the law:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

This commandment to love God with all one’s being comes from Deuteronomy 6:5.  In a sense this commandment summarizes all of the vertical commandments of a person’s relationship with God, especially as suggested in the first four commandments of the Decalogue (The Ten Commandments).

The second commandment relates to the horizontal relationships between human beings, as suggested by the last six of the Ten Commandments, and also by the ethical and social justice demands of the prophets.  This commandment is also culled from the Old Testament (Leviticus 19:18b):

[love]  your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus confirms that this is the way to eternal life — unreserved love for God, and unselfish love for other people:

 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But remember, this lawyer has been attempting to trip up Jesus.  He wasn’t sincerely seeking answers — he was seeking leverage over Jesus.  So he can’t leave it alone:

wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Again with questions?  Jesus continues his pedagogical method of indirection.  This is a form of “discovery learning.”  Jesus uses parables to draw in his listeners, and then hooks them with the wisdom of his teaching.

Jesus tells the famous parable of the Good Samaritan (verses 30-37).

The story is full of dramatic anticipation.  The man who is journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho travels some of the most dangerous, mountainous terrain from the highlands of Judea toward the Jordan River Valley.  There are plenty of hollows and gorges and caves in these mountains where a gang of thieves might hide.

The tension builds as the traveler is robbed, beaten and stripped and left for dead by just such a gang.

With keen irony, Jesus describes two men passing at different intervals on the road where the victim lies bleeding — one is a priest and the other a Levite.  If anyone knew the laws of Moses, surely these men did!  They should know what compassion is required for a victim, and what it means to love your neighbor!  And yet they pass by on the other side.  This simple phrase captures their indifference and/or revulsion  for the condition of the victim.

Now comes the real twist in the story.  It isn’t the priest or the Levite who fulfills the law of love — it is a Samaritan.  Hostility between Jews and Samaritans goes back more than 700 years.  Antipathy of the Jews for Samaritans is based on ethnic, cultural and religious differences. Pharisees regarded the Samaritans as fuel for the fires of hell simply because of their ethnicity.

And yet, it is this Samaritan, regarded as a non-person by many Jews, who has compassion for the victim.  The Samaritan doesn’t ask what the ethnicity, religion or origin of the victim may be:

a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

His pity is supported by action. He anoints and bandages the man’s wounds, carries him to an inn on his own animal, and pays for his care  with two denarii. This would have been the equivalent of two day’s hard earned wages for a laborer.  Moreover, the Samaritan promises the innkeeper that he will pay any further bills for expenses this victim incurs.

So Jesus comes to the punchline of the story.  The hook is set and the fish is caught:

Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?

The lawyer can’t even bring himself to name the ethnicity of the Samaritan. We can imagine him answering sullenly:  

“The one who showed him mercy.”

The point is clear:

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Eternal life begins when love for God is complete, and love for neighbor is impartial and without prejudice.

APPLY:  

The lawyer asks the question that every human being who is honest with themselves will ask at some point:

what must I do to inherit eternal life?

The answer to this question in Paul’s epistles is that salvation comes through grace, received by faith in Christ’s vicarious death and resurrection on our behalf.  Is this answer incompatible with the answer offered here in Luke? In the Gospels, eternal life is indeed a gift, but it is received by loving God with one’s whole self, and living out that love in compassion for others.

The two views of the means of procuring eternal life aren’t incompatible at all.  Faith isn’t merely intellectual assent to certain propositions.  As James 2:19 reminds us:

Even the demons believe—and shudder.

It can be reasonably argued that the demons, as fallen angels, know far more about true doctrine than any human being can possibly know.  But their belief  is not faith.

Faith in the New Testament implies trust. And trust implies love.  And if we are to truly love God — who loves all the world — then we must love all of those whom God loves. This  includes even his enemies, and ours!

RESPOND: 

As an ordained clergyman, this passage, though beautiful, makes me a little uncomfortable.

After all, I’m more like the priest and the Levite than I am the Samaritan in terms of my profession.  The Samaritan, though unschooled in “proper” doctrine and practice, is closer to God because he loves. He expresses his love in action.

The neighbor may be defined as any person who is in need. And as Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:40, when we minister to the hungry, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner, we are actually ministering to Jesus!

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.

True faith is love in action:

the only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

Lord, forgive me when my ‘faith’ is mere words and intellectual belief.  Spur me on to love as you love— as the Samaritan loves — impartially and  wholeheartedly. Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"The-Good-Smaritan" by Ray MacLean is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for July 10, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Colossians 1:1-14

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul’s letter to the Colossians is regarded as one of his four “prison letters” (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. There is also good evidence to include Paul’s “pastoral letters” — 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus — as letters written from prison).  These were probably written when he is incarcerated in Rome near the end of his recorded ministry, and possibly his life.

Surprisingly, Paul had not visited Colossae when this letter was written, despite his extensive travels throughout the Roman province of Asia where Colossae is located.  The church was planted by Epaphras, who happens to be with Paul as he is writing.  No doubt Epaphras is advising Paul about some of the issues that are arising in Colossae:

we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus…and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

Paul begins this letter much as he does others that he has written.  He greets the Colossians using his title as an apostle of Christ Jesus, and mentions his protege Timothy.  He says to the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that he is praying for them and is thankful for their faith in Christ and their love for all the saints.

By saints, of course, he has in mind all Christians who have come to faith in Christ.  He is in no way thinking of an elite group of “super-Christians.”  All Christians, by virtue of the redemptive work of Christ, are set apart as holy, which is the meaning of saints. As he explains near the end of today’s passage (verses 13-14), they have been entitled to share in the inheritance of the saints because of the work of God the Father through his Son:

He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul praises the faithful ministry of Epaphras who has carefully instructed the Colossians about the gospel:

You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel  that has come to you.

Moreover, Paul notes that this ministry has continued to flourish in Colossae just as it has everywhere:

Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.

So, inspired by Epaphras’ accounts of the faith of the Colossians, Paul continues to pray for them:  

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s  will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,  so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Paul’s emphasis is clear: as the Colossians deepen their relationship with God they deepen their understanding of sound Christian doctrine — and consequently their lives are transformed ethically and they bear fruit in good works to others.  A healthy spiritual life is grounded in a faith-filled relationship with God, enlightened by sound doctrine, and lived out in godly living.

APPLY:  

How can Paul possibly write a letter to people he’s never met?  How can he possibly understand how their minds work, what their concerns are, what is going on in their lives?

Of course he hears the reports that Epaphras has brought to him.  But even more than that, Paul understands two things: the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the human heart.  He knows what human beings yearn for, and what they are seeking above all else — reconciliation with God.  And he knows that this is the purpose for which Christ has come to earth.

We might well ask ourselves the same question: how can a letter written to an obscure church in a city that was later destroyed by an earthquake possibly be relevant to us?

The answer is simple. The hopes of the human heart are the same now as they were nearly 2000 years ago. And the truths of the gospel remain the ultimate fulfillment of those hopes.

RESPOND: 

Some of the finest theology in the Christian faith is embedded in our hymns.  Charles Wesley wrote a hymn titled simply A Prayer for Children.   In this hymn, he offers a timeless prayer:

Unite the pair so long disjoined,
Knowledge and vital piety:
Learning and holiness combined,
And truth and love.

I make this my own prayer in my own spiritual life — that I may deepen my relationship with God through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, worship, fasting, and the sacrament.  I also pray that as I study the Scriptures I will deepen my understanding of sound Christian doctrine — and that the fruit of these spiritual practices and doctrinal understanding will be a transformed life that makes a difference in the lives of others.

Our Lord, may Paul’s prayer for the Colossians be my prayer — that I  may lead a life worthy of you, fully pleasing to you, as I bear fruit in every good work and as I grow in the knowledge of God. Amen.

 PHOTOS:
"'Thank the Father, who has made you able to share the light, which is what God’s people inherit. God has rescued us from the power of darkness' Colossians ‭1:12-13‬ ‭GW‬" by Colin Campbell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for July 10, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Psalm 82

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This Psalm gives a very small glimpse into the heavenly realms that are beyond human comprehension.  The Most High God takes his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods. 

What can that possibly mean for a strictly monotheistic people such as the Jews?  Is there a hint of polytheism here?  Who are these gods over whom God holds judgment? 

The answer that Christian theology has given is that this divine council of gods refers to those beings that we know as angels. These are supernatural and super-intelligent beings.  Angelology is much more developed in New Testament theology.  Peter speaks of a kind of hierarchy of angelic beings who are subject to the resurrected Christ:

Jesus Christ,  who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him (1 Peter 3:21-22).

In the Old Testament, we also see the divine council that gathers in God’s presence in Job 1:6.

One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord…

Curiously, in our Psalm for today, God is scolding the heavenly court:

“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

It becomes clear that God is not only speaking to angelic and heavenly beings — he is also speaking to kings and princes.  If God is speaking to heavenly gods  he is also speaking to those who are gods on earth — that is, those who have godlike political and military power in the world — kings and leaders.

God is acting as an advocate for the poor and the dispossessed and the oppressed.  And he is calling those who are in positions of power to be just and deliver the needy.

God also warns that though these members of the divine council are gods, they are mortal:

nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
and fall like any prince.”

Ultimately, the Psalmist makes it clear that the one God, the only God, is sovereign over all the earth, the nations, as well as the heavenly council:

Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!

APPLY:  

What do we make of this Psalm, given its metaphysical tone? It doesn’t fit neatly into typical categories about angels and angelology.

God presides over a divine council of gods — all of the gods, those who are supernatural and those who are human rulers, so it seems.

Some of the early church fathers, such as Tertullian and Justin Martyr, believed that the gods of paganism weren’t gods at all, but actually demons who manipulated people through their impersonations.  This interpretation might explain why God’s tone toward these gods in divine council is so reproachful.

These gods judge unjustly  and they show partiality to the wicked.  These sound like beings who are not in submission to God, but in rebellion.  So he is warning them that there will be consequences for them if they continue to oppress the weak, the orphan, the destitute.  They will fall.

God has the last word.  That is the real message of this Psalm.  Those who think they have power, and who abuse it, will learn that God will triumph:

Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!

RESPOND: 

The word from the Psalm is ultimately a word of comfort.  We live in an uneasy and anxious time — radical Islamic terror in the Middle East has created waves of thousands of refugees, who flee to an overwhelmed Europe.  The European Union is reeling as member nations consider exiting this fragile economic cooperative effort.  Leaders in various nations posture and  rattle sabers.

Even the church experiences the anxiety of a society that is growing more and more secular in morals and values.  As I sat at a recent church conference, hearing about the growth of secularism and its encroachment on the church, a pastor’s wife turned to me and said, “All I know is, God has the last word.”

That’s what Psalm 82 reminds us.

Lord, thank you that when nations tremble and the ‘gods’ of our time lose their way, you are steady and you have the last word.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“God Will Have the Last Word” uses this background:
“cloud” by boris drenec is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for July 10, 2016

Start with Scripture:

Amos 7:7-17

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The prophetic ministry of Amos reminds us a little of Elijah and Elisha.  Amos is a bit of an eccentric, like those two prophets who predate him by about 100 years.

First of all, Amos is a “southern boy” who comes north to Israel from his hometown in Tekoa in Judah,  ten miles from Jerusalem.  We remember that Israel (the northern kingdom)  had seceded from Judah (the southern kingdom) about 931 B.C.  Amos has come into Israel in the north around 750 B.C. to scold King Jeroboam II of Israel.

To gain perspective on how strange this may have seemed, imagine a pastor from Dearborn, Michigan during the American Civil War leaving the north and coming south to Richmond, Virginia to scold President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy for his policies!  Like Amos, he probably wouldn’t be received warmly!

Amos himself admits that he has no genealogical foundation as a prophet:

I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs.

One of the things we see elsewhere in the Old Testament is that there are “court prophets” who are employed in the palaces of the kings of Israel and Judah.  And because they were employed by the kings, sometimes they found it difficult to tell the king what he really needed to hear.

Amos makes it very clear that his is an independent voice, without  compromise.  He is neither a court prophet nor has he been taught in the “schools of the prophets” that were current in those days. Amos’ only accountability is to God.

In this passage, Amos uses a dramatic metaphor to illustrate the objective and absolute moral standards of God:

Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.  Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more.

The plumb line is a rope with a weight at the end, used by builders to determine the vertical precision of a wall.  The plumb line is an absolute standard of measurement.

In this case, the Lord is declaring that Israel and their King Jeroboam will be judged by divine standards — and be found wanting:

The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Amos’ ministry will not go unopposed.  Ironically, it is a priest who is most alarmed about Amos’ prophesies. Amaziah the priest of Bethel advises King Jeroboam that Amos is conspiring against him.  Amos does prophesy Jeroboam’s death and the exile of Israel.

We are reminded that the priesthood in Israel are by definition like the “court prophets” described above.  The center of worship for the Israelites had been Jerusalem since the time of King David.  The ark of the covenant had been taken there by David probably around 1000 B.C.  Solomon, the son of David, built a glorious temple to house the ark around 966 B.C. It was in Jerusalem that the Aaronic priests and the Levites carried out the sacrificial ritual and musical worship from that time on.

However, because of King Rehoboam’s poor leadership following the death of his father Solomon, Israel seceded from Judah in 931 B.C., thereby dividing the kingdom into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah).   The new kings of the northern kingdom wanted to consolidate their power in this new independent kingdom  and this meant fostering the worship of the Lord in places like Dan and Bethel.

This explains why Amaziah the priest of Bethel is so suspicious of Amos. Amos is from Judah, not Israel. But Amos was of the belief that Israel and Judah worship the same Lord.  Furthermore, Amos knows he has been commissioned by the Lord to warn his northern cousins that they must repent.

Amaziah wants Amos to go home:

You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!

This prompts Amos to respond that he doesn’t belong to any guild of prophets — and he certainly is no “court prophet.”  His only responsibility is to the Lord:

I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

Amos’ answer to Amaziah is unequivocal and uncompromising.  He is a faithful witness from the Lord, and says:

Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: “You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.” Therefore Yahweh says: “Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.”

Amos is prophesying around 750 B.C.  while Israel is still intact and prosperous.  Within 29 years, in the year 721 B.C., Amos’ warnings would come to pass.  Israel would be conquered by the ruthless Assyrian empire and scattered to the four winds.

APPLY:  

God’s standards for right and wrong, good and evil, are absolute.  Like the plumb line, God’s standards measure our ethics and morality — and we are found wanting.

However, the role of the prophet is to warn us that we can still repent and turn and receive mercy.  The role of the prophet can be thankless.

Pastors tend to try to comfort people.  The prophet must be the bad guy, who tells us what we don’t want to hear.  Just as nations need an independent judiciary, so the prophet needs to be independent — accountable only to God.

RESPOND: 

I’ve given a lot of thought to the role of the prophet, and the difficulty of telling people the truth about the consequences of sin and injustice.

We have a tendency in modern culture to be “nice” to people.  Young people, I’m told, want “safe spaces” where their opinions or choices won’t be challenged or contradicted.

But what if our opinions and choices are extremely dangerous to us? What if those beliefs and practices carry us away from God?

In  that case, the work of a prophet in telling the truth is a little like that of a doctor.  When a patient goes to the doctor, he doesn’t expect the doctor to tell him what he wants to hear.  That would be very unloving and unhelpful.  No, the doctor’s duty is to tell the truth, and then give the patient choices about his treatment.

In my mind, it is the doctor who tells me the truth that really cares about me, not the doctor who tells me what I want to hear.

Lord, give me the courage to hear the truth, as well as the courage to tell the truth.  And remind me to always speak the truth in love.  Amen.

PHOTOS:
“plumb line on sandstone wall” by P.W. Hatcher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.