Gospel for October 15, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 22:1-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus returns again to one of his favored themes — the Kingdom of Heaven.  However, he continues to confront the hostility of the chief priests and Pharisees head-on.  Here again, he offers a contrast between those who reject the Kingdom of Heaven and those who are invited instead.

The setting of this parable is a joyous occasion — the marriage feast of the king’s son.  We are mindful that the marriage feast is a familiar metaphor used to describe the great and joyful eschatological gathering at the end of time (Matthew 25:10; Luke 12:36; Revelation 19:7-9).

Of course, the identity of the king and the son are easy to decipher — God the Father and God the Son (Jesus, of course) are anticipating the marriage feast of the son.  And the king sends out his servants (perhaps the apostles?) who invite the guests to the wedding, where the cattle and fatlings have already been slaughtered and barbecued.

But the invitations are spurned!  The king’s invitation is mocked, and the invited guests have better things to do:

But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise, and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.

Jesus is obviously mindful of his own impending death, and the persecution of his followers that will ensue.  And in his parable, the consequences when the invited guests refuse to attend are dire:

When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

Jesus doesn’t name the invited guests, or tell whom they represent, but it isn’t difficult to draw conclusions from his previous interactions with the chief priests and Pharisees.  They were sons of Abraham (see Matthew 3:9), and as such had been chosen from among all the nations as a representative and holy nation (see Deuteronomy 7:6-9).  But this invitation must be answered with faith and obedience.  And as the parable tells us, that isn’t their response to the marriage feast.

The king declares that the invited guests weren’t worthy — as they demonstrated by their treatment of the king’s servants.  So the king sends his messengers to invite all whom they can find:

Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy.  Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.’ Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good.

There are a couple of key theological points to notice here:

• First, the invitation has now become general — the servant messengers are to invite anyone and everyone they encounter. There is hot food at a feast that will go to waste if someone doesn’t come and eat it!
• Second, we get a glimpse of grace. The messengers don’t discriminate between bad and good people — all are welcomed!  The terms bad and good may denote something more than personal morality.  Quite often we have noted that it is the good people (the respectable, the elites — i.e., the chief priests and Pharisees) who become self-righteous and reject the Kingdom of Heaven.  And it is the bad people who are the first to recognize their need for Jesus, and who respond to him in repentance (the tax collectors, prostitutes, Gentiles).

Nevertheless, we aren’t meant to see this parable as a pretext for universalism.  Jesus doesn’t leave that option open.  When the wedding tent is filled with guests, the king looks out over the guests and sees one man who hasn’t dressed properly for the occasion:

 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless.  Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’

This is a stark vision of judgment.  Obviously, the wedding clothing represents something far more important than a mere fashion statement.  It was customary at a wedding in ancient Israel for everyone to wear festive garments.  To do otherwise was to be disrespectful to the marriage party.  There is even the suggestion that the host of a wedding would often provide wedding garments to their guests — much the way some clubs provide blazers and even ties when they are required for dining.  But what is this wedding clothing?  I have tried to address this question in the Apply section below.

What is clear is that the failure to wear proper attire is a serious breach of protocol.  The guest isn’t merely asked to leave — he is tied and thrown into outer darkness.  This is obviously a figurative and vivid description of hell.

Finally, Jesus repeats the same phrase that he uttered in Matthew 20:16, when he told the parable of the laborers who came at different hours of the day to work in the vineyard:

For many are called, but few chosen.

In the context of the marriage feast, we are reminded that the king originally invites guests who refuse his hospitality, sometimes quite violently — and the king deals with them accordingly.  And then the invitation is issued to people not on the original guest list.  But even they must be evaluated for proper qualifications.  Again, more on that subject in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

All of us are invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb.  However, there are those who reject his invitation.  This suggests the freedom that God grants to us concerning our response to his grace.  We can accept his invitation, or reject it.

However, we can’t help but puzzle over the guest who is thrown into the outer darkness because he isn’t wearing the right outfit.  Obviously, there is far more going on here.  This wedding garment is more than a wedding garment.  But what does it represent?

Jesus doesn’t tell us, and searching the Scriptures yields only one likely explanation, from John’s Revelation:

“For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.”  It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Revelation 19:7-8).

We might be tempted to conclude that the wedding clothes are earned by the righteous acts of the saints. And there is a sense in which this is certainly true.  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is very clear about the requirement for a fruitful life:

A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:18-20).

I know this offends the sensibilities of those of us grounded in a Pauline theology of sola fide (faith alone).  What is required of us is a sense of balance — we are saved by grace, which is received by faith.  But as Paul points out — although the works of the law and of the flesh aren’t capable of saving us because they are our works rather than God’s works, still there is a response that God’s grace draws from us.  As he says:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

Faith is not merely an ‘assent’ to the truth of some doctrinal propositions.  Faith works through love!  The Greek root of the word work is energeia — where we get our word energy.  Faith is an active response to the grace of God that results in fruits.

As another of my favorite verses suggests, there is synergy between ourselves and God:

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

There is a dynamic reciprocity in this verse — we work because it is God who is working in us.  We respond to God’s energeia working in us through faith and obedience.

We are reminded that John the Baptist told people to:

produce fruit worthy of repentance! (Matthew 3:8)

But we must never forget that God is always the one who is at work in us — through his Holy Spirit, God convicts us of sin and brings us to repentance; it is God who justifies us by his grace through Christ; and God who completes his work of sanctifying grace in us as we obey him and keep his commands to love God and love neighbor.

We don the wedding garment because God has fashioned it for us.

RESPOND: 

The first time I watched the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? I was taken with the skillful storytelling, and the interweaving of songs with the story-line.  As an American Southerner, I have said that anyone who wants to understand some of the forces that have shaped Southern culture — for good or ill — should watch this Coen brothers film.

And as a Southern Christian, I was especially taken by the song sung by the young daughters of Everett Ulysses McGill at a campaign rally (of all places!).  Maybelle Carter’s song captures some of the features of Southern Gospel music, but also reminds us of a central theme in the parable of Jesus:

In the highways, in the hedges
In the highways, in the hedges
In the highways, in the hedges
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

If He calls me, I will answer
If He calls me, I will answer
If He calls me, I will answer
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

We tend to focus on those who appear to be the main characters in Jesus’ parable of the marriage feast — the king, the son, the guests who spurn the king’s invitation, the outcasts in the highways who are invited, and the guest who is underdressed at the wedding.  But what about the servants of the king who go out at the king’s command and invite as many as they can to attend the feast?  Who are those people?

Are they not the apostles, the evangelists, the pastors, the missionaries, the Sunday School teachers, the Christian lay people who see their lives as an extension of the Great Commission, when Jesus sends us out into those highways and hedges:

Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).

Maybelle Carter’s song captures the Christian’s lifestyle that will always be somewhere workin’ for my Lord. 

Lord, your invitation to the wedding feast is given to all of us.  I pray that all may accept that invitation, but I am reminded that some do reject it.  May I do my part to be out in the highways and hedges inviting your guests to the great wedding feast of the Lamb. Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"You're invited" by Agnes L. Reynes-Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

Psalm Reading for May 7, 2023

Make your face to shine on your servant. Psalm 31:16 (WEB)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a Psalm of Lament attributed to David.  The Psalm is written in the first-person perspective, as a deeply personal plea for the mercy of Yahweh.

David first declares that Yahweh is his refuge — and in the next breath pleads that he may never be disappointed, asking:

Deliver me in your righteousness.

David then uses a series of metaphors that support his vision of Yahweh as his source of refuge.

• He asks Yahweh to bow down his ear to listen to David’s plea, and deliver him speedily.  This is a spatial metaphor — Yahweh is high above David and infinitely greater. David can’t reach up to Yahweh — Yahweh must bend down to hear him.
• Yahweh is described as a strong rock, a house of defense, and a fortress.  The mountains in which the young David hid from Saul must have seemed like a kind of rocky fortress.  This is an easy association for David to make, that Yahweh is like those rocks and mountain fortresses.  There may also be an allusion to Jerusalem on Mount Zion, which has been called a natural fortress. Interestingly, it is this rock that David asks to lead and guide him, for Yahweh’s name’s sake.
• David then mixes his metaphors just a little bit. He describes himself as snared in a net that has been set secretly for him, and begs Yahweh to pluck him out of the net, as if he were a trapped bird.  Although we have no historical context for this description, there are any number of circumstances in David’s life that might have been described as a snare for David — King Saul’s plots and pursuits of David; conflict with the Philistines; his own poor choices with Bathsheba and Uriah; even his family problems with Tamar, Amnon and Absalom.

David concludes this opening section with a declaration of faith that is familiar to the Christian reader: 

Into your hand I commend my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.

The reader of the Gospel of Luke will recognize part of this phrase from Jesus’ words on the cross:

Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last (Luke 24:36).

It should be noticed that this Psalm that Jesus quotes in his last breath is a Psalm of lament, but these are words of hope and trust in Yahweh.

Our lectionary reading for this Sunday does not include verses 6-14. These verses continue the mixture of lament and hope that we find in the first five verses.

Verses 15-16 provide a clarion call of hope:

My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

Despite his physical, emotional and social suffering and alienation, he places his complete trust in Yahweh, and confesses his faith.  There is also a kind of serenity that he finds as he places his life (my times) in Yahweh’s hand.

He prays for deliverance from his persecutors, and then in a tour de force of faith, he alludes to two key spiritual principles in Hebraic spirituality:

Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

The first phrase reminds us of Aaron’s high priestly blessing early in Israel’s history:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

The word face in Hebrew is panayim, which also means presence. 

 Yahweh’s presence brings light to his servant.

And the second phrase — loving kindness — is a frequent refrain in the Psalms that describes Yahweh’s disposition toward his people and his creatures.  Out of 174 mentions of Yahweh’s loving kindness, 121 are found in the Psalms alone.

APPLY:  

It is virtually impossible to know the context of this Psalm in David’s life.  Any number of circumstances might apply:

• King Saul turned against him in jealously and sought to end David’s life.
• David experienced the consequences of his own adulterous and murderous crime, which led to his heartbroken repentance.
• He was betrayed later in his life by his own son, Absalom.

And yet, despite the tough times that occurred in David’s life on more than one occasion, he places his trust in Yahweh who is his strong rock and fortress, who rescues him from the snare of the enemy.

This is certainly a comfort to us as we apply these words to our lives.  It seems obvious that Jesus is quoting this Psalm as he dies:

 Into your hand I commend my spirit.

What safer place can there be as we face adversity, and even our inevitable deaths? Then, like David, may we find the same refuge that he did, and pray:

My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

This Psalm provides the example of a life that turns from despair and darkness to hope in God and his light.

RESPOND: 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a film set in the rural South during the Great Depression.  Three escaped convicts are chained together — at first literally, but then by circumstances — and must seek their freedom together or be recaptured together.

When they have finally been freed from their shackles, they are hiding in a barn loft.  But the authorities surround them and set the barn ablaze.  Everett McGill, their leader by default, is panicked.  He keeps repeating the line, “@#$*, we’re in a tight spot!”  (I have chosen not to quote the somewhat mild profanity).

These days, we may find ourselves in a “tight spot!”  Geopolitics seem to careen recklessly toward war.  National politics present seemingly insoluble problems.  Economics and the markets fluctuate wildly. Cultural changes, accelerated by the now ubiquitous internet, seem to be out of control.  Mores and morality seem to have come loose from their mooring in traditional values.

And yet, we may find real comfort in the prayer of David, when he says:

My times are in your hand.

I find this very reassuring — that no matter what happens, I have turned the keys over to God.  And I can trust that his face will shine on me, and his loving kindness will save me. 

Lord, distress and grief and abandonment are likely to happen in this broken world.  Thank you that your presence shines on me, and your loving kindness will save me. My times are in your hand.  Keep me faithful to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

"Sunny Laugh" by Evan Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for October 11, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 22:1-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus returns again to one of his favored themes — the Kingdom of Heaven.  However, he continues to confront the hostility of the chief priests and Pharisees head-on.  Here again, he offers a contrast between those who reject the Kingdom of Heaven and those who are invited instead.

The setting of this parable is a joyous occasion — the marriage feast of the king’s son.  We are mindful that the marriage feast is a familiar metaphor used to describe the great and joyful eschatological gathering at the end of time (Matthew 25:10; Luke 12:36; Revelation 19:7-9).

Of course, the identity of the king and the son are easy to decipher — God the Father and God the Son (Jesus, of course) are anticipating the marriage feast of the son.  And the king sends out his servants (perhaps the apostles?) who invite the guests to the wedding, where the cattle and fatlings have already been slaughtered and barbecued.

But the invitations are spurned!  The king’s invitation is mocked, and the invited guests have better things to do:

But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise,  and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.

Jesus is obviously mindful of his own impending death, and the persecution of his followers that will ensue.  And in his parable, the consequences when the invited guests refuse to attend are dire:

When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

Jesus doesn’t name the invited guests, or tell whom they represent, but it isn’t difficult to draw conclusions from his previous interactions with the chief priests and Pharisees.  They were sons of Abraham (see Matthew 3:9), and as such had been chosen from among all the nations as a representative and holy nation (see Deuteronomy 7:6-9).  But this invitation must be answered with faith and obedience.  And as the parable tells us, that isn’t their response to the marriage feast.

The king declares that the invited guests weren’t worthy — as they demonstrated by their treatment of the king’s servants.  So the king sends his messengers to invite all whom they can find:

Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy.  Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.’ Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good.

There are a couple of key theological points to notice here:

• First, the invitation has now become general — the servant messengers are to invite anyone and everyone they encounter. There is hot food at a feast that will go to waste if someone  doesn’t come and eat it!
• Second, we get a glimpse of grace. The messengers don’t discriminate between bad and good people — all are welcomed!  The terms bad and good may denote something more than personal morality.  Quite often we have noted that it is the good people (the respectable, the elites — i.e., the chief priests and Pharisees) who become self-righteous and reject the Kingdom of Heaven.  And it is the bad people who are the first to recognize their need for Jesus, and who respond to him in repentance (the tax collectors, prostitutes, Gentiles).

Nevertheless, we aren’t meant to see this parable as a pretext for universalism.  Jesus doesn’t leave that option open.  When the wedding tent is filled with guests, the king looks out over the guests and sees one man who hasn’t dressed properly for the occasion:

 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing,  and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless.  Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’

This is a stark vision of judgment.  Obviously, the wedding clothing represents something far more important than a mere fashion statement.  It was customary at a wedding in ancient Israel for everyone to wear festive garments.  To do otherwise was to be disrespectful to the marriage party.  There is even the suggestion that the host of a wedding would often provide wedding garments to their guests — much the way some clubs provide blazers and even ties when they are required for dining.  But what is this wedding clothing?  I have tried to address this question in the Apply section below.

What is clear is that the failure to wear proper attire is a serious breach of protocol.  The guest isn’t merely asked to leave — he is tied and thrown into outer darkness.  This is obviously a figurative and vivid description of hell.

Finally, Jesus repeats the same phrase that he uttered in Matthew 20:16, when he told the parable of the laborers who came at different hours of the day to work in the vineyard:

For many are called, but few chosen.

In the context of the marriage feast, we are reminded that the king originally invites guests who refuse his hospitality, sometimes quite violently — and the king deals with them accordingly.  And then the invitation is issued to people not on the original guest list.  But even they must be evaluated for proper qualifications.  Again, more on that subject in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

All of us are invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb.  However, there are those who reject his invitation.  This suggests the freedom that God grants to us concerning our response to his grace.  We can accept his invitation, or reject it.

However, we can’t help but puzzle over the guest who is thrown into the outer darkness because he isn’t wearing the right outfit.  Obviously, there is far more going on here.  This wedding garment is more than a wedding garment.  But what does it represent?

Jesus doesn’t tell us, and searching the Scriptures yields only one likely explanation, from John’s Revelation:

“For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.”  It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Revelation 19:7-8).

We might be tempted to conclude that the wedding clothes are earned by the righteous acts of the saints. And there is a sense in which this is certainly true.  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is very clear about the requirement for a fruitful life:

A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:18-20).

I know this offends the sensibilities of those of us grounded in a Pauline theology of sola fide (faith alone).  What is required of us is a sense of balance — we are saved by grace, which is received by faith.  But as Paul points out — although the works of the law and of the flesh aren’t capable of saving us because they are our works rather than God’s works, still there is a response that God’s grace draws from us.  As he says:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

Faith is not merely an ‘assent’ to the truth of some doctrinal propositions.  Faith works through love!  The Greek root of the word work is energeia — where we get our word energy.  Faith is an active response to the grace of God that results in fruits.

As another of my favorite verses suggests, there is synergy between ourselves and God:

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

There is a dynamic reciprocity in this verse — we work because it is God who is working in us.  We respond to God’s energeia working in us through faith and obedience.

We are reminded that John the Baptist told people to:

produce fruit worthy of repentance! (Matthew 3:8)

But we must never forget that God is always the one who is at work in us — through his Holy Spirit, God convicts us of sin and brings us to repentance; it is God who justifies us by his grace through Christ; and God who completes his work of sanctifying grace in us as we obey him and keep his commands to love God and love neighbor.

We don the wedding garment because God has fashioned it for us.

RESPOND: 

The first time I watched the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? I was taken with the skillful storytelling, and the interweaving of songs with the story-line.  As an American Southerner, I have said that anyone who wants to understand some of the forces that have shaped Southern culture — for good or ill — should watch this Coen brothers film.

And as a Southern Christian, I was especially taken by the song sung by the young daughters of Everett Ulysses McGill at a campaign rally (of all places!).  Maybelle Carter’s song captures some of the features of Southern Gospel music, but also reminds us of a central theme in the parable of Jesus:

In the highways, in the hedges
In the highways, in the hedges
In the highways, in the hedges
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

If He calls me, I will answer
If He calls me, I will answer
If He calls me, I will answer
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

We tend to focus on those who appear to be the main characters in Jesus’ parable of the marriage feast — the king, the son, the guests who spurn the king’s invitation, the outcasts in the highways who are invited, and the guest who is underdressed at the wedding.  But what about the servants of the king who go out at the king’s command and invite as many as they can to attend the feast?  Who are those people?

Are they not the apostles, the evangelists, the pastors, the missionaries, the Sunday School teachers, the Christian lay people who see their lives as an extension of the Great Commission, when Jesus sends us out into those highways and hedges:

Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).

Maybelle Carter’s song captures the Christian’s lifestyle that will always be somewhere workin’ for my Lord. 

Lord, your invitation to the wedding feast is given to all of us.  I pray that all may accept that invitation, but I am reminded that some do reject it.  May I do my part to be out in the highways and hedges inviting your guests to the great wedding feast of the Lamb. Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"You're invited" by Agnes L. Reynes-Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

Psalm Reading for May 10, 2020

Make your face to shine on your servant. Psalm 31:16 (WEB)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a Psalm of Lament attributed to David.  The Psalm is written in the first person perspective, as a deeply personal plea for the mercy of Yahweh.

David first declares that Yahweh is his refuge — and in the next breath pleads that he may never be disappointed, asking:

Deliver me in your righteousness.

David then uses a series of metaphors that support his vision of Yahweh as his source of refuge.

• He asks Yahweh to bow down his ear to listen to David’s plea, and deliver him speedily.  This is a spatial metaphor — Yahweh is high above David and infinitely greater. David can’t reach up to Yahweh — Yahweh must bend down to hear him.
• Yahweh is described as a strong rock, a house of defense, and a fortress.  The mountains in which the young David hid from Saul must have seemed like a kind of rocky fortress.  This is an easy association for David to make, that Yahweh is like those rocks and mountain fortresses.  There may also be an allusion to Jerusalem on Mount Zion, which has been called a natural fortress. Interestingly, it is this rock that David asks to lead and guide him, for Yahweh’s name’s sake.
• David then mixes his metaphors just a little bit. He describes himself as snared in a net that has been set secretly for him, and begs Yahweh to pluck him out of the net, as if he were a trapped bird.  Although we have no historical context for this description, there are any number of circumstances in David’s life that might have been described as a snare for David — King Saul’s plots and pursuits of David; conflict with the Philistines; his own poor choices with Bathsheba and Uriah; even his family problems with Tamar, Amnon and Absalom.

David concludes this opening section with a declaration of faith that is familiar to the Christian reader: 

Into your hand I commend my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.

The reader of the Gospel of Luke will recognize part of this phrase from Jesus’ words on the cross:

Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last (Luke 24:36).

It should be noticed that this Psalm that Jesus quotes in his last breath is a Psalm of lament, but these are words of hope and trust in Yahweh.

Our lectionary reading for this Sunday does not include verses 6-14. These verses continue the mixture of lament and hope that we find in the first five verses.

Verses 15-16 provide a clarion call of hope:

My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

Despite his physical, emotional and social suffering and alienation, he places his complete trust in Yahweh, and confesses his faith.  There is also a kind of serenity that he finds as he places his life (my times) in Yahweh’s hand.

He prays for deliverance from his persecutors, and then in a tour de force of faith, he alludes to two key spiritual principles in Hebraic spirituality:

Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

The first phrase reminds us of Aaron’s high priestly blessing early in Israel’s history:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

The word face in Hebrew is panayim, which also means presence. 

 Yahweh’s presence brings light to his servant.

And the second phrase — loving kindness — is a frequent refrain in the Psalms that describes Yahweh’s disposition toward his people and his creatures.  Out of 174 mentions of Yahweh’s loving kindness, 121 are found in the Psalms alone.

APPLY:  

It is virtually impossible to know the context of this Psalm in David’s life.  Any number of circumstances might apply — King Saul turned against him and jealously sought to end David’s life; David experienced the consequences of his own adulterous and murderous crime, which led to his heartbroken repentance; he was betrayed later in his life by his own son, Absalom.

And yet, despite the tough times that occurred in David’s life on more than one occasion, he places his trust in Yahweh who is his strong rock and fortress, who rescues him from the snare of the enemy.

This is certainly a comfort to us as we apply these words to our lives.  It seems obvious that Jesus is quoting this Psalm as he dies:

 Into your hand I commend my spirit.

What safer place can there be as we face adversity, and even our inevitable deaths?

Then, like David, we may find the same refuge that he did, and pray:

My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

This Psalm provides the example of a life that turns from despair and darkness to hope in God and his light.

RESPOND: 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a film set in the rural South during the Great Depression.  Three escaped convicts are chained together — at first literally, but then by circumstances — and must seek their freedom together or be recaptured together.

When they have finally been freed from their shackles, they are hiding in a barn loft.  But the authorities surround them and set the barn ablaze.  Everett McGill, their leader by default, is panicked.  He keeps repeating the line, “@#$*, we’re in a tight spot!”  (I have chosen not to quote the somewhat mild profanity).

These days, we may find ourselves in a “tight spot!”  Geopolitics seem to careen recklessly toward war.  National politics present seemingly insoluble problems.  Economics and the markets fluctuate wildly. Cultural changes , accelerated by the now ubiquitous internet, seem to be out of control.  Mores and morality seem to have come loose from their mooring in traditional values.

And yet, we may find real comfort in the prayer of David, when he says:

My times are in your hand.

I find this very reassuring — that no matter what happens, I have turned the keys over to God.  And I can trust that his  face will shine on me, and his loving kindness will save me. 

Lord, distress and grief and abandonment are likely to happen in this broken world.  Thank you that your presence shines on me, and your loving kindness will save me. My times are in your hand.  Keep me faithful to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

"Sunny Laugh" by Evan Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for October 15, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 22:1-14

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus returns again to one of his favored themes — the Kingdom of Heaven.  However, he continues to confront the hostility of the chief priests and Pharisees head-on.  Here again, he offers a contrast between those who reject the Kingdom of Heaven and those who are invited instead.

The setting of this parable is a joyous occasion — the marriage feast of the king’s son.  We are mindful that the marriage feast is a familiar metaphor used to describe the great and joyful eschatological gathering at the end of time (Matthew 25:10; Luke 12:36; Revelation 19:7-9).

Of course, the identity of the king and the son are easy to decipher — God the Father and God the Son (Jesus, of course) are anticipating the marriage feast of the son.  And the king sends out his servants  (perhaps the apostles?) who invite the guests to the wedding, where the cattle and fatlings have already been slaughtered and barbecued.

But the invitations are spurned!  The king’s invitation is mocked, and the invited guests have better things to do:

But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise,  and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.

Jesus is obviously mindful of his own impending death, and the persecution of his followers that will ensue.  And in his parable, the consequences when the invited guests refuse to attend are dire:

When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

Jesus doesn’t name the invited guests, or tell whom they represent, but it isn’t difficult to draw conclusions from his previous interactions with the chief priests and Pharisees.  They were sons of Abraham (see Matthew 3:9), and as such had been chosen from among all the nations as a representative and holy nation (see Deuteronomy 7:6-9).  But this invitation must be answered with faith and obedience.  And as the parable tells us, that isn’t their response to the marriage feast.

The king declares that the invited guests weren’t worthy — as they demonstrated by their treatment of the king’s servants.  So the king sends his messengers to invite all whom they can find:

Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy.  Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.’ Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good.

There are a couple of key theological points to notice here:

• First, the invitation has now become general — the servant messengers are to invite anyone and everyone they encounter. There is hot food at a feast that will go to waste if someone  doesn’t come and eat it!
• Second, we get a glimpse of grace. The messengers don’t discriminate between bad and good people — all are welcomed!  The terms bad and good may denote something more than personal morality.  Quite often we have noted that it is the good people (the respectable, the elites — i.e., the chief priests and Pharisees) who become self-righteous and reject the Kingdom of Heaven.  And it is the bad people who are the first to recognize their need for Jesus, and who respond to him in repentance (the tax collectors, prostitutes, Gentiles).

Nevertheless, we aren’t meant to see this parable as a pretext for universalism.  Jesus doesn’t leave that option open.  When the wedding tent is filled with guests, the king looks out over the guests and sees one man who hasn’t dressed properly for the occasion:

 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing,  and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless.  Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’

This is a stark vision of judgment.  Obviously, the wedding clothing represents something far more important than a mere fashion statement.  It was customary at a wedding in ancient Israel for everyone to wear festive garments.  To do otherwise was to be disrespectful to the marriage party.  There is even the suggestion that the host of a wedding would often provide wedding garments to their guests — much the way some clubs provide blazers and even ties when they are required for dining.  But what is this wedding clothing?  I have tried to address this question in the Apply section below.

What is clear is that the failure to wear proper attire is a serious breach of protocol.  The guest isn’t merely asked to leave — he is tied and thrown into outer darkness.  This is obviously a figurative and vivid description of hell.

Finally, Jesus repeats the same phrase that he uttered in Matthew 20:16, when he told the parable of the laborers who came at different hours of the day to work in the vineyard:

For many are called, but few chosen.

In the context of the marriage feast, we are reminded that the king originally invites guests who refuse his hospitality, sometimes quite violently — and the king deals with them accordingly.  And then the invitation is issued to people not on the original guest list.  But even they must be evaluated for proper qualifications.  Again, more on that subject in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

All of us are invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb.  However, there are those who reject his invitation.  This suggests the freedom that God grants to us concerning our response to his grace.  We can accept his invitation, or reject it.

However, we can’t help but puzzle over the guest who is thrown into the outer darkness because he isn’t wearing the right outfit.  Obviously, there is far more going on here.  This wedding garment is more than a wedding garment.  But what does it represent?

Jesus doesn’t tell us, and searching the Scriptures yields only one likely explanation, from John’s Revelation:

“For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.”  It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Revelation 19:7-8).

We might be tempted to conclude that the wedding clothes are earned by the righteous acts of the saints. And there is a sense in which this is certainly true.  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is very clear about the requirement for a fruitful life:

A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:18-20).

I know this offends the sensibilities of those of us grounded in a Pauline theology of sola fide (faith alone).  What is required of us is a sense of balance — we are saved by grace, which is received by faith.  But as Paul points out — although the works of the law and of the flesh aren’t capable of saving us because they are our works rather than God’s works, still there is a response that God’s grace draws from us.  As he says:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

Faith is not merely an ‘assent’ to the truth of some doctrinal propositions.  Faith works through love!  The Greek root of the word work is energeia — where we get our word energy.  Faith is an active response to the grace of God that results in fruits.

As another of my favorite verses suggests, there is synergy between ourselves and God:

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

There is a dynamic reciprocity in this verse — we work because it is God who is working in us.  We respond to God’s energeia working in us through faith and obedience.

We are reminded that John the Baptist told people to:

produce fruit worthy of repentance! (Matthew 3:8)

But we must never forget that God is always the one who is at work in us — through his Holy Spirit, God convicts us of sin and brings us to repentance; it is God who justifies us by his grace through Christ; and God who completes his work of sanctifying grace in us as we obey him and keep his commands to love God and love neighbor.

We don the wedding garment because God has fashioned it for us.

RESPOND: 

The first time I watched the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? I was taken with the skillful storytelling, and the interweaving of songs with the story-line.  As an American Southerner, I have said that anyone who wants to understand some of the forces that have shaped Southern culture — for good or ill — should watch this Coen brothers film.

And as a Southern Christian, I was especially taken by the song sung by the young daughters of Everett Ulysses McGill at a campaign rally (of all places!).  Maybelle Carter’s song captures some of the features of Southern Gospel music, but also reminds us of a central theme in the parable of Jesus:

In the highways, in the hedges
In the highways, in the hedges
In the highways, in the hedges
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

If He calls me, I will answer
If He calls me, I will answer
If He calls me, I will answer
I’ll be somewhere workin’ for my Lord

We tend to focus on those who appear to be the main characters in Jesus’ parable of the marriage feast — the king, the son, the guests who spurn the king’s invitation, the outcasts in the highways who are invited, and the guest who is underdressed at the wedding.  But what about the servants of the king who go out at the king’s command and invite as many as they can to attend the feast?  Who are those people?

Are they not the apostles, the evangelists, the pastors, the missionaries, the Sunday School teachers, the Christian lay people who see their lives as an extension of the Great Commission, when Jesus sends us out into those highways and hedges:

Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).

Maybelle Carter’s song captures the Christian’s lifestyle that will always be somewhere workin’ for my Lord. 

Lord, your invitation to the wedding feast is given to all of us.  I pray that all may accept that invitation, but I am reminded that some do reject it.  May I do my part to be out in the highways and hedges inviting your guests to the great wedding feast of the Lamb. Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"You're invited" by Agnes L. Reynes-Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

Psalm Reading for May 14, 2017

Make your face to shine on your servant. Psalm 31:16 (WEB)

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a Psalm of Lament attributed to David.  The Psalm is written in the first person perspective, as a deeply personal plea for the mercy of Yahweh.

David first declares that Yahweh is his refuge — and in the next breath pleads that he may never be disappointed, asking:

Deliver me in your righteousness.

David then uses a series of metaphors that support his vision of Yahweh as his source of refuge.

• He asks Yahweh to bow down his ear to listen to David’s plea, and deliver him speedily.  This is a spatial metaphor — Yahweh is high above David and infinitely greater. David can’t reach up to Yahweh — Yahweh must bend down to hear him.
• Yahweh is described as a strong rock, a house of defense, and a fortress.  The mountains in which the young David hid from Saul must have seemed like a kind of rocky fortress.  This is an easy association for David to make, that Yahweh is like those rocks and mountain fortresses.  There may also be an allusion to Jerusalem on Mount Zion, which has been called a natural fortress. Interestingly, it is this rock that David asks to lead and guide him, for Yahweh’s name’s sake.
• David then mixes his metaphors just a little bit. He describes himself as snared in a net that has been set secretly for him, and begs Yahweh to pluck him out of the net, as if he were a trapped bird.  Although we have no historical context for this description, there are any number of circumstances in David’s life that might have been described as a snare for David — King Saul’s plots and pursuits of David; conflict with the Philistines; his own poor choices with Bathsheba and Uriah; even his family problems with Tamar, Amnon and Absalom.

David concludes this opening section with a declaration of faith that is familiar to the Christian reader: 

Into your hand I commend my spirit.
You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.

The reader of the Gospel of Luke will recognize part of this phrase from Jesus’ words on the cross:

Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last (Luke 24:36).

It should be noticed that this Psalm that Jesus quotes in his last breath is a Psalm of lament, but these are words of hope and trust in Yahweh.

Our lectionary reading for this Sunday does not include verses 6-14. These verses continue the mixture of lament and hope that we find in the first five verses.

Verses 15-16 provide a clarion call of hope:

My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

Despite his physical, emotional and social suffering and alienation, he places his complete trust in Yahweh, and confesses his faith.  There is also a kind of serenity that he finds as he places his life (my times) in Yahweh’s hand.

He prays for deliverance from his persecutors, and then in a tour de force of faith, he alludes to two key spiritual principles in Hebraic spirituality:

Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

The first phrase reminds us of Aaron’s high priestly blessing early in Israel’s history:

Yahweh bless you, and keep you.
Yahweh make his face to shine on you,
and be gracious to you.
Yahweh lift up his face toward you,
and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

The word face in Hebrew is panayim, which also means presence. 

 Yahweh’s presence brings light to his servant.

And the second phrase — loving kindness — is a frequent refrain in the Psalms that describes Yahweh’s disposition toward his people and his creatures.  Out of 174 mentions of Yahweh’s loving kindness, 121 are found in the Psalms alone.

APPLY:  

It is virtually impossible to know the context of this Psalm in David’s life.  Any number of circumstances might apply — King Saul turned against him and jealously sought to end David’s life; David experienced the consequences of his own adulterous and murderous crime, which led to his heartbroken repentance; he was betrayed later in his life by his own son, Absalom.

And yet, despite the tough times that occurred in David’s life on more than one occasion, he places his trust in Yahweh who is his strong rock and fortress, who rescues him from the snare of the enemy.

This is certainly a comfort to us as we apply these words to our lives.  It seems obvious that Jesus is quoting this Psalm as he dies:

 Into your hand I commend my spirit.

What safer place can there be as we face adversity, and even our inevitable deaths?

Then, like David, we may find the same refuge that he did, and pray:

My times are in your hand.
Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
Make your face to shine on your servant.
Save me in your loving kindness.

This Psalm provides the example of a life that turns from despair and darkness to hope in God and his light.

RESPOND: 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a film set in the rural South during the Great Depression.  Three escaped convicts are chained together — at first literally, but then by circumstances — and must seek their freedom together or be recaptured together.

When they have finally been freed from their shackles, they are hiding in a barn loft.  But the authorities surround them and set the barn ablaze.  Everett McGill, their leader by default, is panicked.  He keeps repeating the line, “@#$*, we’re in a tight spot!”  (I have chosen not to quote the somewhat mild profanity).

These days, we may find ourselves in a “tight spot!”  Geopolitics seem to careen recklessly toward war.  National politics present seemingly insoluble problems.  Economics and the markets fluctuate wildly. Cultural changes , accelerated by the now ubiquitous internet, seem to be out of control.  Mores and morality seem to have come loose from their mooring in traditional values.

And yet, we may find real comfort in the prayer of David, when he says:

My times are in your hand.

I find this very reassuring — that no matter what happens, I have turned the keys over to God.  And I can trust that his  face will shine on me, and his loving kindness will save me. 

Lord, distress and grief and abandonment are likely to happen in this broken world.  Thank you that your presence shines on me, and your loving kindness will save me. My times are in your hand.  Keep me faithful to you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

"Sunny Laugh" by Evan Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.