Gospel for February 5, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 5:13-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Gospel of Matthew has been called the “Jewish Gospel” because it focuses on Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who fulfills the Law and Prophecies of the Hebrew Bible.  And some even refer to the Sermon on the Mount as the Gospel version of the Torah (with some good reason, as we’ll soon see).

In this lectionary reading, there are two distinct sections.  In the first section, Jesus speaks directly to the disciples and people who are sitting at his feet on the hillside.   He tells them about their identity:

You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world.

These are two powerful metaphors that Jesus uses.  Salt was precious in the ancient world, and was even sometimes used as currency.  There are reports that Roman soldiers were paid, at least in part, with salt.  The etymology of our word for salary derives from salt.  Salt was used as a preservative for foods, as well as a seasoning, in a time when there was no refrigeration.  Salt was an essential ingredient in some of the sacrifices in the temple (Leviticus 2:13).

Jesus is saying of his followers that they are precious — but if they lose their savor, they become:

good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.

The implications seem clear — if the followers of Jesus fail to fulfill their purpose, which is adding seasoning and preservation to life, then they are no longer useful.  They are lost.

The metaphor of light is much more common and obvious in the Scriptures.  Light is frequently associated with the illuminating presence of God’s glory that provides guidance, hope, and overcomes the darkness of evil.  Only here Jesus tells his followers that they are the light of the world! 

What he says next makes clear what it means for his followers to be light.  Just as a city built on a hill is visible to all, so a lamp is to be visible as well.  It would be silly to light the lamp and then extinguish it under a basket!  Like the salt, such a lamp would become useless.

So if the followers of Jesus are to be the light of the world, what does that mean?  His next sentence tells us:

 Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

The light is to illuminate the good works that ultimately reveal who God is!   The light originates with God, and that light then reveals how God is working in the lives of his followers.

Jesus stresses that his followers are not to be useless or hidden — they are to make a difference in the world by their presence, just as salt and light make a difference.

In the second section of our passage, Jesus makes clear his relationship to the Scriptures of his people:

 Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Jesus makes it clear that his regard for the law is extremely high — heaven and earth won’t pass away until all the Scriptures are fulfilled; and he insists that even the smallest commandments must be fulfilled.  Fulfillment of the law will be the criterion for determining whether a disciple or a teacher is insignificant or great.

He even makes an astounding claim, especially as we become aware of the great tension that comes to exist between himself and the scribes and Pharisees:

 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

All of this demands a larger context in order to understand what he is saying.  First, it is clear that Jesus considers the law and the prophets of the Hebrew Bible to be the authoritative word of God.  Several times in the Gospels, Jesus makes it clear that the law comes from God. He tells the young man what he must do to have eternal life:

If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 22:17).

Second, we will see as we continue to read his Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus’ demand for righteousness exceeds the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees.  For example, he will point out that the ancient prohibitions against murder and adultery fall short of his standards of righteousness — even anger and lust make a person subject to judgment!

Again, the larger context of the Scriptures helps us to understand what Jesus means.  But in order to understand this, we must explore it further in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

We are to be the salt of the earth because we add zest and preservation to life.  And we are to be light of the world because the light reveals our good works and directs the attention of the world toward the glory of God.  But it is also possible that we may lose our flavor, and be lost ourselves!  And it is possible that if we allow our light to be extinguished, we may fail to fulfill our purpose in pointing the way to God.

So, how does this connect to what Jesus says about the vital importance of the law and the prophets?  Actually, the law and the prophets aren’t really his point at all.  His real point is righteousness.  It is through righteousness that we are enabled to come into the presence of God.  Therefore the law and the prophets are means of grace for that to happen.

But the standards are so high!  How can we possibly be more righteous than the people who have made obedience to the law and the prophets their entire life’s work?

We must go back to what Jesus himself says:

 Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Jesus is the one who fulfills the law and the prophets on our behalf!  Remember, that’s what Jesus said to John when he was baptized.  John had protested that he wasn’t worthy to baptize Jesus, and Jesus answered:

Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).

Jesus fulfills the law vicariously on our behalf — first through his perfect, sinless life, and then through his sacrificial death in which he exchanges his sinlessness for our sin:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The consensus of the New Testament is clear — the law is holy, just and good (cf Romans 7:12).  The only problem with the law is that we are like the salt that has lost its savor, or the light that has been put under a basket.  We cannot keep the law — without God’s help!  Paul says it like this:

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

The simplest way to say this might be to say that for the scribes and the Pharisees, the law was external.  When Christ pays the penalty for our sins, his righteousness becomes internalized in us.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus does in us what we can’t do for ourselves.

The scribes and Pharisees tried to use the law as though it were a medicine to be applied externally.  But Jesus fulfills the law in such a way that through the Spirit it is applied internally.  We are made righteous not from the outside/in, but from the inside/out.

St. Augustine said it well:

Give what you command, and command what you will.

We cannot fulfill the righteousness required by the law and the prophets; Jesus can and does, and then through his Spirit fulfills all righteousness for and in us.

RESPOND: 

A colleague in the ministry said something to me in passing a few years ago that captured my imagination:

We aren’t called to be the sugar of the world, but the salt of the world!

I think of what he said when I consider the words of Jesus.  We aren’t to be sweet and harmless — we are to be thirsty for righteousness, and to make others thirsty. We are to add flavor to life.  And we are to offer a Gospel that will preserve life everlastingly!

But our saltiness must make us so thirsty for holiness and righteousness that nothing but Jesus Christ can satisfy that thirst.

Lord, make us salt and light in the world, and give us a thirst for the righteousness that can only come from you.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Lectionary reflection from Matthew 5.16 ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’” by Baptist Union of Great Britian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for December 18, 2022

 

“The Book of Romans – Wordle style” by Rowen Atkinson

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

OBSERVE:

The Apostle Paul is introducing himself and his message to the church at Rome.  Most scholars agree that he had not yet visited the community of faith in Rome, and that this letter was written prior to his arrest in Jerusalem and his eventual voyage to the Imperial City under armed guard.

Therefore, this introduction is somewhat formulaic, but it also lays out some of the essentials of Christian faith — almost like a creed.

First, he establishes his own authority and credentials:

a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God…

His allegiance is to the service of Christ, but he also claims equal billing with the 12 apostles because he has been called and set apart to be sent forth to preach the Good News (the Greek root of apostle means one who is sent forth, particularly as a messenger).

Second, Paul establishes the continuity between the revelation to the Jews and the advent of Christ:

…which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh…

Two things are made clear here — first, that the Hebrew Scriptures are the source of prophecies concerning the coming of Christ; and second, Paul is very much aware of the Davidic dynasty and the genealogy of Jesus as David’s descendant.  Therefore Paul does not see any discontinuity between Judaism and the Gospel.

However, Jesus was more than just the offspring of David according to the flesh.

[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord…

This is truly a credal statement.  Paul will insist that this is an article of faith for the church, i.e., that Jesus has been certified as the Son of God with power by the Holy Spirit, and because of his resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus is the essential historical fact of the Gospel, without which everything revealed in the Scriptures falls like a house of cards.  As Paul insists to the church at Corinth:

 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Everything else follows from this central fact.  Because of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, Paul says:

we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake….

Note the foreshadowing of one of the important themes of the Epistle to the Romans — the inclusion of all the nations.  The original revelation of God’s plan of salvation was revealed to the Jews through the prophets, but it has been made available by faith even to the gentiles (i.e., the nations).

Finally, Paul makes his formal greeting to the church in Rome:

among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints….

All who are called to belong to Jesus Christ are called to be saints. The Greek word for saint means holy.  It must be said that Paul has twice mentioned grace in relation to this holy relationship with God.  He will explore grace at length in the book of Romans.  Here we simply get a small preview that holiness is a result of God’s grace (his gift), not a result of human achievement.

His final greeting in our passage is also very notable:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Father and the Son, are mentioned as co-equals.  We can also make the case that the whole Trinity is implicit here, with the mention of the Spirit of holiness in verse 4.

So, Paul has addressed, in this brief introduction, a synopsis of the Gospel:

• The Hebrew roots of the Christian faith;
• The nature of Jesus as Son of Man (the offspring of David) and Son of God;
• The resurrection of Jesus from the dead;
• Justification by faith, which he will explore in great detail in this letter, as well as the grace whereby one may be saved;
• The inclusion of the gentiles in this new covenant;
• and, yes, even the Trinitarian nature of God as Father, Son and Spirit.

APPLY:  

We are reminded that the coming of Jesus and his Good News didn’t occur in a vacuum.  He came as the fulfillment of the promises of the prophets in the holy Scriptures. 

But it is also true that his resurrection and power are available to all who believe — Jews and Gentiles alike.

And that is Good News!

RESPOND: 

I was listening with some interest to a writer who was being interviewed on the radio. I only caught the very end of the program, but I heard him say something that caught my imagination. He said, “When we write well, we think well.”

I’m amazed when I think of how concisely Paul introduces some of the central ideas of his letter to the Romans in just these first few verses.

When I have attended writer’s conferences over the years, we have been encouraged to develop what is called an “elevator pitch.”  An elevator pitch is a very brief summary of our book, play, or screenplay. If we find ourselves alone with an editor or publisher or producer, we could reel it off very quickly.  The pitch is limited to one minute — the hypothetical time it would take to ride in an elevator! The trick is to be brief and to get their attention with something different, or something that they need.

It seems to me that every Christian should be ready with an “elevator pitch” concerning their faith, so that they can share the Gospel with anyone in a brief but compelling way.

Lord, you have fulfilled all your promises to us in Christ, and we believe that you will fulfill all the promises that are to come. May we live with faith and in hope for your kingdom.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
"The Book of Romans - Wordle style" by Rowan Atkinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for December 11, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
James 5:7-10
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The letter of James is one of the 23 out of 27 books of the New Testament that mentions the Second Coming of Jesus.  This is interesting because we don’t think of James as a “theological” or “doctrinal” book.  James deals with practical matters concerning faith and works, the dangers of the tongue, impartiality concerning the rich and poor, etc.

But here, James (who is identified as the brother of Jesus and the first bishop in Jerusalem) takes it for granted that the Lord will return.  What he counsels, as the church waits for Christ’s kingdom, is patience.

He draws an analogy between the patience of a farmer and the patience required of a believer.  The farmer must wait on the early and late rain in order for the crops to grow.  So must the believer trust in something that he/she cannot control — but wait with patience.  However, there is also this exhortation and assurance:

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Then James gives practical advice for how they may establish their hearts:

Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

As with other aspects of James’ advice, his concerns for the Christian community are about relationship.  He knows that grumbling, and the misuse of the tongue in gossip and poisonous speech can tear the community apart.

Finally, he reminds them of their spiritual predecessors from the Old Testament:

 Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

APPLY:  

This is a helpful word for Advent.  Like the growth of crops and the eventual harvest, the coming of the Lord is inevitable.  But also like the farmer, we must be patient until the time is right.

It is so important to remember that the coming of the kingdom, like the growth of crops, is not something that we can control.  What we can control is our own actions — for example, not grumbling about one another as we wait.  Other passages remind us to love one another, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, etc.

And we are not only to emulate the suffering and patience of the prophets — we are also to speak in the name of the Lord until he comes!

RESPOND: 

Although I’m not a farmer, I am somewhat acquainted with how farmers think. My mother grew up in West Texas in a family of cotton farmers.  And over the years I have occasionally served in churches located in the Arkansas Delta, with a high number of farmers in the congregations.

I admire farmers. I learned that farmers are extremely versatile and resourceful. They know how to operate heavy machinery; they can fix most things that break down; they understand seeds and soils; and they are astute about markets and commodity prices.

And they are also patient.  I might even add, whimsically, they are longsuffering.  But what inspires that patience, ultimately, is faith.  The farmer has faith that the processes of nature and growth will continue.  The believer has patience because we have faith that God will keep his promises.

Lord, when the world around me seems to be falling apart, remind me to have patience — your kingdom is coming!  And give me the power to treat others according to your teachings.  Amen.   

 PHOTOS:
"James 5:7b" by Sapphire Dream Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for February 9, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 5:13-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Gospel of Matthew has been called the “Jewish Gospel” because it focuses on Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who fulfills the Law and Prophecies of the Hebrew Bible.  And some even refer to the Sermon on the Mount as the Gospel version of the Torah (with some good reason, as we’ll soon see).

In this lectionary reading, there are two distinct sections.  In the first section, Jesus speaks  directly to the disciples and people who are sitting at his feet on the hillside.   He tells them about their identity:

You are the salt of the earth….you are the light of the world.

These are two powerful metaphors that Jesus uses.  Salt was precious in the ancient world, and was even sometimes used as currency.  There are reports that Roman soldiers were paid, at least in part, with salt.  The etymology of our word for salary derives from salt.  Salt was used as a preservative for foods, as well as a seasoning, in a time when there was no refrigeration.  Salt was an essential ingredient in some of the sacrifices in the temple (Leviticus 2:13).

Jesus is saying of his followers that they are precious — but if they lose their savor, they become:

good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.

The implications seem clear — if the followers of Jesus fail to fulfill their purpose, which is adding seasoning and preservation to life, then they are no longer useful.  They are lost.

The metaphor of light is much more common and obvious in the Scriptures.  Light is frequently associated with the illuminating presence of God’s glory that provides guidance, hope, and overcomes the darkness of evil.  Only here Jesus tells his followers that they are the light of the world! 

What he says next makes clear what it means for his followers to be light.  Just as a city built on a hill is visible to all, so a lamp is to be visible as well.  It would be silly to light the lamp and then extinguish it under a basket!  Like the salt, such a lamp would become useless.

So if the followers of Jesus are to be the light of the world, what does that mean?  His next sentence tells us:

 Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

The light is to illuminate the good works that ultimately reveal who God is!   The light originates with God, and that light then reveals how God is working in the lives of his followers.

Jesus stresses that his followers are not to be useless or hidden — they are to make a difference in the world by their presence, just as salt and light make a difference.

In the second section of our passage, Jesus makes clear his relationship to the Scriptures of his people:

 Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Jesus makes it clear that his regard for the law is extremely high — heaven and earth won’t pass away until  all  the Scriptures are fulfilled; and he insists that even the smallest commandments must be fulfilled.  Fulfillment of the law will be the criterion for determining whether a disciple or a teacher is insignificant or great.

He even makes an astounding claim, especially as we become aware of the great tension that comes to exist between himself and the scribes and Pharisees:

 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

All of this demands a larger context in order to understand what he is saying.  First, it is clear that Jesus considers the law and the prophets of the Hebrew Bible to be the authoritative word of God.  Several times in the Gospels, Jesus makes it clear that the law comes from God. He tells the young man what he must do to have eternal life:

If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 22:17).

Second, we will see as we continue to read his Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus’ demand for righteousness exceeds the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees.  For example, he will point out that the ancient prohibitions against murder and adultery fall short of his standards of righteousness — even anger and lust make a person subject to judgment!

Again, the larger context of the Scriptures helps us to understand what Jesus means.  But in order to understand this, we must explore it further in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

We are to be the salt of the earth because we add zest and preservation to life.  And we are to be light of the world because the light reveals our good works and directs the attention of the world toward the glory of God.  But it is also possible that we may lose our flavor, and be lost ourselves!  And it is possible that if we allow our light to be extinguished, we may fail to fulfill our purpose in pointing the way to God.

So, how does this connect to what Jesus says about the vital importance of the law and the prophets?  Actually, the law and the prophets aren’t really his point at all.  His real point is righteousness.  It is through righteousness that we are enabled to come into the presence of God.  Therefore the law and the prophets are means of grace for that to happen.

But the standards are so high!  How can we possibly be more righteous than the people who have made obedience to the law and the prophets their entire life’s work?

We must go back to what Jesus himself says:

 Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Jesus is the one who fulfills the law and the prophets on our behalf!  Remember, that’s what Jesus said to John when he was baptized.  John had protested that he wasn’t worthy to baptize Jesus, and Jesus answered:

Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).

Jesus fulfills the law vicariously on our behalf — first through his perfect, sinless life, and then through his sacrificial death in which he exchanges his sinlessness for our sin:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The consensus of the New Testament is clear — the law is holy, just and good (cf Romans 7:12).  The only problem with the law is that we are like the salt that has lost its savor, or the light that has been put under a basket.  We cannot keep the law — without God’s help!  Paul says it like this:

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

The simplest way to say this might be to say that for the scribes and the Pharisees, the law was external.  When Christ pays the penalty for our sins, his righteousness becomes internalized in us.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus does in us what we can’t do for ourselves.

The scribes and Pharisees tried to use the law as though it were a medicine to be applied externally.  But Jesus fulfills the law in such a way that through the Spirit it is applied internally.  We are made righteous not from the outside /in, but from the inside /out.

St. Augustine said it well:

Give what you command, and command what you will.

We cannot fulfill the righteousness required by the law and the prophets; Jesus can and does, and then through his Spirit fulfills all righteousness for and  in  us.

RESPOND: 

A colleague in the ministry said something to me in passing a few years ago that captured my imagination:

We aren’t called to be the sugar of the world, but the salt of the world!

I think of what he said when I consider the words of Jesus.  We aren’t to be sweet and harmless —  we are to be thirsty for righteousness, and to make others thirsty. We are to add flavor to life.  And we are to offer a Gospel that will preserve life everlastingly!

But our saltiness must make us so thirsty for holiness and righteousness that nothing but Jesus Christ can satisfy that thirst.

Lord, make us salt and light in the world, and give us a thirst for the righteousness that can only come from you.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Lectionary reflection from Matthew 5.16 ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’” by Baptist Union of Great Britian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for December 22, 2019

“The Book of Romans – Wordle style” by Rowen Atkinson

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

OBSERVE:

The Apostle Paul is introducing himself and his message to the church at Rome.  Most scholars agree that he had not yet visited the community of faith in Rome, and that this letter was written prior to his arrest in Jerusalem and his eventual voyage to the Imperial City under armed guard.

Therefore, this introduction is somewhat formulaic, but it also lays out some of the essentials of Christian faith — almost like a creed.

First, he establishes his own authority and credentials:

a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God….

His allegiance is to the service of Christ, but he also claims equal billing with the 12 apostles because he has been called and set apart to be sent forth to preach the Good News (the Greek root of apostle means one who is sent forth, particularly as a messenger).

Second, Paul establishes the continuity between the revelation to the Jews and the advent of Christ:

….which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh…

Two things are made clear here — first, that the Hebrew Scriptures are the source of prophecies concerning the coming of Christ; and second, Paul is very much aware of the Davidic dynasty and the genealogy of Jesus as David’s descendant.  Therefore Paul does not see any discontinuity between Judaism and the Gospel.

However, Jesus was more than just the offspring of David according to the flesh.

[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord….

This is truly a credal statement.  Paul will insist that this is an article of faith for the church, i.e., that Jesus has been certified as the Son of God with power by the Holy Spirit, and because of his resurrection from the dead.  The resurrection of Jesus is the essential historical fact of the Gospel, without which everything revealed in the Scriptures falls like a house of cards.  As Paul insists to the church at Corinth:

 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Everything else follows from this central fact.  Because of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, Paul says:

we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake….

Note the foreshadowing of one of the important themes of the Epistle to the Romans — the inclusion of all the nations.  The original revelation of God’s plan of salvation was revealed to the Jews through the prophets, but it has been made available by faith even to the gentiles (i.e. the nations).

Finally, Paul makes his formal greeting to the church in Rome:

among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;  to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints….

All who are called to belong to Jesus Christ are called to be saints.  The Greek word for saint  means holy.  It must be said that Paul has twice mentioned grace in relation to this holy relationship with God.  He will explore grace at length in the book of Romans.  Here we simply get a small preview that holiness is a result of God’s grace (his gift), not a result of human achievement.

His final greeting in our passage is also very notable:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Father and the Son, are mentioned as co-equals.  We can also make the case that the whole Trinity is implicit here, with the mention of the Spirit of holiness in verse 4.

So, Paul has addressed, in this brief introduction, a synopsis of the Gospel:

• The Hebrew roots of the Christian faith;
• The nature of Jesus as Son of Man (the offspring of David) and Son of God;
• The resurrection of Jesus from the dead;
• Justification by faith, which he will explore in great detail in this letter, as well as the grace whereby one may be saved;
• The inclusion of the gentiles in this new covenant;
• and, yes, even the Trinitarian nature of God as Father, Son and Spirit.

APPLY:  

We are reminded that the coming of Jesus and his Good News didn’t occur  in a vacuum.  He came as the fulfillment of the promises of the prophets in the holy Scriptures. 

But it is also true that his resurrection and power are available to all who believe — Jews and Gentiles alike.

And that is Good News!

RESPOND: 

I was listening with some interest to a writer who was being interviewed on the radio.  I only caught the very end of the program, but I heard him say something that caught my imagination.  He said, “When we write well, we think well.”

I’m amazed when I think of how concisely Paul introduces some of the central ideas of his letter to the Romans in just these first few verses.

When I have attended writer’s conferences over the years, we have been encouraged to develop what is called an “elevator pitch.”  An elevator pitch is a very brief summary of our book,  play, or screenplay. If we  find ourselves alone with an editor or publisher or producer, we could reel it off very quickly.  The pitch is limited to one minute — the hypothetical time it would take to ride in an elevator! The trick is to be brief and to get their attention with something different, or something that they need.

It seems to me that every Christian should be ready with an  “elevator pitch” concerning their faith, so that they can share the Gospel with anyone in a brief but compelling way.

Lord, you have fulfilled all your promises to us in Christ, and we believe that you will fulfill all the promises that are to come. May we live with faith and in hope for your kingdom.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
"The Book of Romans - Wordle style" by Rowan Atkinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for December 15, 2019

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
James 5:7-10
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The letter of James is one of the 23 out of 27 books of the New Testament that mentions the Second Coming of Jesus.  This is interesting because we don’t think of James as a “theological” or “doctrinal” book.  James deals with practical matters concerning faith and works, the dangers of the tongue, impartiality concerning the rich and poor, etc.

But here, James (who is identified as the brother of Jesus and the first bishop in Jerusalem) takes it for granted that the Lord will return.  What he counsels, as the church waits for Christ’s kingdom, is patience.

He draws an analogy between the patience of a farmer and the patience required of a believer.  The farmer must wait on the early and late rain in order for the crops to grow.  So must the believer trust in something that he/she cannot control — but wait with patience.  However, there is also this exhortation and assurance:

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Then James gives practical advice for how they may establish their hearts:

Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

As with other aspects of James’ advice, his concerns for the Christian community are about relationship.  He knows that grumbling, and the misuse of the tongue in gossip and poisonous speech can tear the community apart.

Finally, he reminds them of their spiritual predecessors from the Old Testament:

 Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

APPLY:  

This is a helpful word for Advent.  Like the growth of crops and the eventual harvest, the coming of the Lord is inevitable.  But also like the farmer, we must be patient until the time is right.

It is so important to remember that the coming of the kingdom, like the growth of crops, is not something that we can control.  What we can control is our own actions — for example, not grumbling about one another as we wait.  Other passages remind us to love one another, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, etc.

And we are not only to emulate the suffering and patience of the prophets — we are also to speak in the name of the Lord until he comes!

RESPOND: 

Although I’m not a farmer, I am somewhat acquainted with how farmers think.  My mother grew up in West Texas in a family of cotton farmers.  And over the years I have occasionally served in churches located in the Arkansas Delta, with a high number of farmers in the congregations.

I admire farmers. I learned that farmers are extremely versatile and resourceful.  They know how to operate heavy machinery; they can fix most things that break down; they understand seeds and soils; and they are astute about markets and commodity prices.

And they are also patient.  I might even add, whimsically, they are longsuffering.  But what inspires that patience, ultimately, is faith.  The farmer has faith that the processes of nature and growth will continue.  The believer has patience because we have faith that God will keep his promises.

Lord, when the world around me seems to be falling apart, remind me to have patience — your kingdom is coming!  And give me the power to treat others according to your teachings.  Amen.   

 PHOTOS:
"James 5:7b" by Sapphire Dream Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for February 5, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 5:13-20

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Gospel of Matthew has been called the “Jewish Gospel” because it focuses on Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who fulfills the Law and Prophecies of the Hebrew Bible.  And some even refer to the Sermon on the Mount as the Gospel version of the Torah (with some good reason, as we’ll soon see).

In this lectionary reading, there are two distinct sections.  In the first section, Jesus speaks  directly to the disciples and people who are sitting at his feet on the hillside.   He tells them about their identity:

You are the salt of the earth….you are the light of the world.

These are two powerful metaphors that Jesus uses.  Salt was precious in the ancient world, and was even sometimes used as currency.  There are reports that Roman soldiers were paid, at least in part, with salt.  The etymology of our word for salary derives from salt.  Salt was used as a preservative for foods, as well as a seasoning, in a time when there was no refrigeration.  Salt was an essential ingredient in some of the sacrifices in the temple (Leviticus 2:13).

Jesus is saying of his followers that they are precious — but if they lose their savor, they become:

good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.

The implications seem clear — if the followers of Jesus fail to fulfill their purpose, which is adding seasoning and preservation to life, then they are no longer useful.  They are lost.

The metaphor of light is much more common and obvious in the Scriptures.  Light is frequently associated with the illuminating presence of God’s glory that provides guidance, hope, and overcomes the darkness of evil.  Only here Jesus tells his followers that they are the light of the world! 

What he says next makes clear what it means for his followers to be light.  Just as a city built on a hill is visible to all, so a lamp is to be visible as well.  It would be silly to light the lamp and then extinguish it under a basket!  Like the salt, such a lamp would become useless.

So if the followers of Jesus are to be the light of the world, what does that mean?  His next sentence tells us:

 Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

The light is to illuminate the good works that ultimately reveal who God is!   The light originates with God, and that light then reveals how God is working in the lives of his followers.

Jesus stresses that his followers are not to be useless or hidden — they are to make a difference in the world by their presence, just as salt and light make a difference.

In the second section of our passage, Jesus makes clear his relationship to the Scriptures of his people:

 Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Jesus makes it clear that his regard for the law is extremely high — heaven and earth won’t pass away until  all  the Scriptures are fulfilled; and he insists that even the smallest commandments must be fulfilled.  Fulfillment of the law will be the criterion for determining whether a disciple or a teacher is insignificant or great.

He even makes an astounding claim, especially as we become aware of the great tension that comes to exist between himself and the scribes and Pharisees:

 For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

All of this demands a larger context in order to understand what he is saying.  First, it is clear that Jesus considers the law and the prophets of the Hebrew Bible to be the authoritative word of God.  Several times in the Gospels, Jesus makes it clear that the law comes from God. He tells the young man what he must do to have eternal life:

If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 22:17).

Second, we will see as we continue to read his Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus’ demand for righteousness exceeds the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees.  For example, he will point out that the ancient prohibitions against murder and adultery fall short of his standards of righteousness — even anger and lust make a person subject to judgment!

Again, the larger context of the Scriptures helps us to understand what Jesus means.  But in order to understand this, we must explore it further in the Apply section.

APPLY:  

We are to be the salt of the earth because we add zest and preservation to life.  And we are to be light of the world because the light reveals our good works and directs the attention of the world toward the glory of God.  But it is also possible that we may lose our flavor, and be lost ourselves!  And it is possible that if we allow our light to be extinguished, we may fail to fulfill our purpose in pointing the way to God.

So, how does this connect to what Jesus says about the vital importance of the law and the prophets?  Actually, the law and the prophets aren’t really his point at all.  His real point is righteousness.  It is through righteousness that we are enabled to come into the presence of God.  Therefore the law and the prophets are means of grace for that to happen.

But the standards are so high!  How can we possibly be more righteous than the people who have made obedience to the law and the prophets their entire life’s work?

We must go back to what Jesus himself says:

 Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Jesus is the one who fulfills the law and the prophets on our behalf!  Remember, that’s what Jesus said to John when he was baptized.  John had protested that he wasn’t worthy to baptize Jesus, and Jesus answered:

Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).

Jesus fulfills the law vicariously on our behalf — first through his perfect, sinless life, and then through his sacrificial death in which he exchanges his sinlessness for our sin:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The consensus of the New Testament is clear — the law is holy, just and good (cf Romans 7:12).  The only problem with the law is that we are like the salt that has lost its savor, or the light that has been put under a basket.  We cannot keep the law — without God’s help!  Paul says it like this:

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

The simplest way to say this might be to say that for the scribes and the Pharisees, the law was external.  When Christ pays the penalty for our sins, his righteousness becomes internalized in us.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus does in us what we can’t do for ourselves.

The scribes and Pharisees tried to use the law as though it were a medicine to be applied externally.  But Jesus fulfills the law in such a way that through the Spirit it is applied internally.  We are made righteous not from the outside /in, but from the inside /out.

St. Augustine said it well:

Give what you command, and command what you will.

We cannot fulfill the righteousness required by the law and the prophets; Jesus can and does, and then through his Spirit fulfills all righteousness for and  in  us.

RESPOND: 

A colleague in the ministry said something to me in passing a few years ago that captured my imagination:

We aren’t called to be the sugar of the world, but the salt of the world!

I think of what he said when I consider the words of Jesus.  We aren’t to be sweet and harmless —  we are to be thirsty for righteousness, and to make others thirsty. We are to add flavor to life.  And we are to offer a Gospel that will preserve life everlastingly!

But our saltiness must make us so thirsty for holiness and righteousness that nothing but Jesus Christ can satisfy that thirst.

Lord, make us salt and light in the world, and give us a thirst for the righteousness that can only come from you.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Lectionary reflection from Matthew 5.16 ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’” by Baptist Union of Great Britian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for December 18, 2016

“The Book of Romans – Wordle style” by Rowen Atkinson

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Romans 1:1-7

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Apostle Paul is introducing himself and his message to the church at Rome.  Most scholars agree that he had not yet visited the community of faith in Rome, and that this letter was written prior to his arrest in Jerusalem and his eventual voyage to the Imperial City under armed guard.

Therefore, this introduction is somewhat formulaic, but it also lays out some of the essentials of Christian faith — almost like a creed.

First, he establishes his own authority and credentials:

a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God….

His allegiance is to the service of Christ, but he also claims equal billing with the 12 apostles because he has been called and set apart to be sent forth to preach the Good News (the Greek root of apostle means one who is sent forth, particularly as a messenger).

Second, Paul establishes the continuity between the revelation to the Jews and the advent of Christ:

….which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh…

Two things are made clear here — first, that the Hebrew Scriptures are the source of prophecies concerning the coming of Christ; and second, Paul is very much aware of the Davidic dynasty and the genealogy of Jesus as David’s descendant.  Therefore Paul does not see any discontinuity between Judaism and the Gospel.

However, Jesus was more than just the offspring of David according to the flesh.

[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord….

This is truly a credal statement.  Paul will insist that this is an article of faith for the church, i.e., that Jesus has been certified as the Son of God with power by the Holy Spirit, and because of his resurrection from the dead.  The resurrection of Jesus is the essential historical fact of the Gospel, without which everything revealed in the Scriptures falls like a house of cards.  As Paul insists to the church at Corinth:

 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Everything else follows from this central fact.  Because of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, Paul says:

we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake….

Note the foreshadowing of one of the important themes of the Epistle to the Romans — the inclusion of all the nations.  The original revelation of God’s plan of salvation was revealed to the Jews through the prophets, but it has been made available by faith even to the gentiles (i.e. the nations).

Finally, Paul makes his formal greeting to the church in Rome:

among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;  to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints….

All who are called to belong to Jesus Christ are called to be saints.  The Greek word for saint  means holy.  It must be said that Paul has twice mentioned grace in relation to this holy relationship with God.  He will explore grace at length in the book of Romans.  Here we simply get a small preview that holiness is a result of God’s grace (his gift), not a result of human achievement.

His final greeting in our passage is also very notable:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Father and the Son, are mentioned as co-equals.  We can also make the case that the whole Trinity is implicit here, with the mention of the Spirit of holiness in verse 4.

So, Paul has addressed, in this brief introduction, a synopsis of the Gospel:

• The Hebrew roots of the Christian faith;
• The nature of Jesus as Son of Man (the offspring of David) and Son of God;
• The resurrection of Jesus from the dead;
• Justification by faith, which he will explore in great detail in this letter, as well as the grace whereby one may be saved;
• The inclusion of the gentiles in this new covenant;
• and, yes, even the Trinitarian nature of God as Father, Son and Spirit.

APPLY:  

We are reminded that the coming of Jesus and his Good News didn’t occur  in a vacuum.  He came as the fulfillment of the promises of the prophets in the holy Scriptures. 

But it is also true that his resurrection and power are available to all who believe — Jews and Gentiles alike.

And that is Good News!

RESPOND: 

I was listening with some interest to a writer who was being interviewed on the radio.  I only caught the very end of the program, but I heard him say something that caught my imagination.  He said, “When we write well, we think well.”

I’m amazed when I think of how concisely Paul introduces some of the central ideas of his letter to the Romans in just these first few verses.

When I have attended writer’s conferences over the years, we have been encouraged to develop what is called an “elevator pitch.”  An elevator pitch is a very brief summary of our book,  play, or screenplay. If we  find ourselves alone with an editor or publisher or producer, we could reel it off very quickly.  The pitch is limited to one minute — the hypothetical time it would take to ride in an elevator! The trick is to be brief and to get their attention with something different, or something that they need.

It seems to me that every Christian should be ready with an  “elevator pitch” concerning their faith, so that they can share the Gospel with anyone in a brief but compelling way.

Lord, you have fulfilled all your promises to us in Christ, and we believe that you will fulfill all the promises that are to come. May we live with faith and in hope for your kingdom.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
"The Book of Romans - Wordle style" by Rowan Atkinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for December 11, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

James 5:7-10

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The letter of James is one of the 23 out of 27 books of the New Testament that mentions the Second Coming of Jesus.  This is interesting because we don’t think of James as a “theological” or “doctrinal” book.  James deals with practical matters concerning faith and works, the dangers of the tongue, impartiality concerning the rich and poor, etc.

But here, James (who is identified as the brother of Jesus and the first bishop in Jerusalem) takes it for granted that the Lord will return.  What he counsels, as the church waits for Christ’s kingdom, is patience.

He draws an analogy between the patience of a farmer and the patience required of a believer.  The farmer must wait on the early and late rain in order for the crops to grow.  So must the believer trust in something that he/she cannot control — but wait with patience.  However, there is also this exhortation and assurance:

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Then James gives practical advice for how they may establish their hearts:

Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

As with other aspects of James’ advice, his concerns for the Christian community are about relationship.  He knows that grumbling, and the misuse of the tongue in gossip and poisonous speech can tear the community apart.

Finally, he reminds them of their spiritual predecessors from the Old Testament:

 Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

APPLY:  

This is a helpful word for Advent.  Like the growth of crops and the eventual harvest, the coming of the Lord is inevitable.  But also like the farmer, we must be patient until the time is right.

It is so important to remember that the coming of the kingdom, like the growth of crops, is not something that we can control.  What we can control is our own actions — for example, not grumbling about one another as we wait.  Other passages remind us to love one another, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, etc.

And we are not only to emulate the suffering and patience of the prophets — we are also to speak in the name of the Lord until he comes!

RESPOND: 

Although I’m not a farmer, I am somewhat acquainted with how farmers think.  My mother grew up in West Texas in a family of cotton farmers.  And over the years I have occasionally served in churches located in the Arkansas Delta, with a high number of farmers in the congregations.

I admire farmers. I learned that farmers are extremely versatile and resourceful.  They know how to operate heavy machinery; they can fix most things that break down; they understand seeds and soils; and they are astute about markets and commodity prices.

And they are also patient.  I might even add, whimsically, they are longsuffering.  But what inspires that patience, ultimately, is faith.  The farmer has faith that the processes of nature and growth will continue.  The believer has patience because we have faith that God will keep his promises.

Lord, when the world around me seems to be falling apart, remind me to have patience — your kingdom is coming!  And give me the power to treat others according to your teachings.  Amen.   

 PHOTOS:
"James 5:7b" by Sapphire Dream Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.