31 May 2013

Psalm 31; Deut. 5:1-22; 2 Cor. 4:1-12; Luke 16:10-18

Moses repeats the Ten Commandments with some additional commentary thrown in for good measure.  Regarding the commandment to do no work on the Sabbath day we find the rationale linked with the deliverance from Egypt rather than from creation.  We also see that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.  What does that commandment mean?  Is it using the Name as a curse?  I think it clearly includes such things, as this would be a blasphemy against His Name.  It always strikes me as interesting that of all the names given under heaven, all the names of other "gods", only the name of Jesus is used in such ways.  The Name of God to which this refers is Yahweh, and the prohibition implies the misuse of the Name in any way, such as superstitious or witchcraft.  In the Middle Ages witches would take the communion wafer in order to use it for their incantations, believing with the Roman Catholic church that it was the body of Jesus.  We see the sons of Sceva in the book of Acts using the Name of Jesus as a form of magic and paying a price for it.  The Name was always precious to God's people, so precious they wouldn't write it out, and you see today in Jewish writings the abbreviation, G-d.  It is a great gift to us to know His Name.

Lovers of money and religious people?  Surely we wouldn't see that today in Christianity would we?  Clearly I am being sarcastic, there are many whose religion includes the idea that God's blessings are seen in a person's wealth and that the pursuit of money is somehow actually godly.  These Pharisees ridiculed Jesus' teaching on money, and they clearly hadn't heard His statement that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom.  His response was to point to their self-justification before men which won't work before the Father.  We have arguments in theological circles over the Law in Christianity and I don't see how we can say that it has no place.  It continues to be that which we measure ourselves against and it is the check against which we should measure any word from the Lord.  If the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, we can't believe it is somehow in contradiction to the Law.  I know right from wrong by measuring the Spirit in me against God's Word. 

Paul says that the way he lives and the way he preaches is according to the Word of God.  He refuses to practice cunning or tamper with God's Word in order to captivate them.  He preaches Jesus, the perfect righteousness of God and that righteousness is according to the Law, both the letter and the Spirit of the Law.  Jesus knew exactly what the Father meant in giving the Law because they are one, and His righteousness reveals true righteousness in a way that Pharisaic righteousness never could because theirs was a performance while Jesus' flowed from His being.  His heart was pure.  Paul's one goal was to reveal that perfect righteousness of Jesus both in his preaching and in his life.  Do we have that same goal in our lives?

30 May 2013

Psalm 37:1-18; Deut. 4:32-40; 2 Cor. 3:1-18; Luke 16:1-9

Nothing like what has happened to you has ever happened in the history of the world.  That is Moses' argument to the nation.  If that is true, and it is, how could you ever forget God's incredible mercy in electing you to be His people in this way.  You heard Him, you saw the fire, and you saw that He personally delivered you from Egypt.  It is interesting that the same was true of Moses, he saw the fire and heard the voice of the Lord yet he hesitated about answering the call of God from the burning bush that day, he doubted, but his doubt was in himself.  Have you heard the voice of the Lord calling you to Himself, making a covenant with you in the blood of His Son, delivering you from a stronger enemy than Egypt?  If so, and if you have wandered away from Him, let this be the day you respond by returning and seeking Him out and finding forgiveness and hope in Him. 

This is a difficult parable and I am not at all sure we have a definitive interpretation of it.  I would say that the manager is fired for failure to do his job as a trustee of the owner and he used his remaining moments to write down debts owed in order to ingratiate himself with his master's clients so that when he is terminated he may find favor with them.  I would say that the master is a good man and the manager knew it and therefore knew that the master would not go back to these clients to restore the indebtedness to its proper levels because the manager was still his agent at the time of his dishonesty.  It is confusing, however, to hear the manager commended for his actions.  How do we make friends "by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings."  The other option for what the manager has done is to repent and reduce the amount of the debt by his own commission which he has grossly inflated, a la the story of Zacchaeus who promised to restore fourfold anything he may have stolen.  In doing so, the manager has restored both his own name and the name of the master. 

The letter that was written on tablets of stones did not make us sufficient, it made us sinners.  The letter written on human hearts makes us sufficient because of Jesus.  The letter is written in his blood on our hearts and it is his sufficiency that makes us meet to serve Him.  Our confidence is not in our righteousness but His alone.  Paul's explanation that what once had glory, the Law, now has none because of the surpassing glory of Jesus tells us exactly what Moses said to the people in our first reading, that we have seen such as has never been seen or heard before and we are heirs of a better covenant even than the one that gave the Israelites the land in perpetuity, we have an eternal covenant!  Are we seeing the transformation of our lives from one degree of glory to another or are we stuck?  The way to see that is to fix your eyes upon Jesus and allow His glory to radiate upon and within you. Get your eyes in the right place. 

29 May 2013

Psalm 38; Deut. 4:25-31; 2 Cor. 1:23-2:17; Luke 15:1-2,11-32

Moses is cynical about the future of the nation and their ability to be faithful to the Lord.  He says that later, but not much later, only a couple of generations, they will forget and forsake the Lord and make images and idols for themselves.  When they do, they will be removed from the Land and will be scattered among the nations.  Is it prophetic to say such things about the people you have led for forty years and just after they entered the covenant, forty days later in fact, they made idols for themselves?  Moses, however, knows something about this covenant-making God, covenants with Him are everlasting.  When they seek Him with their whole heart, they will find Him, the same thing promised in 2 Chronicles 7.14 and in 1 Kings 8. 

Why does Jesus tell the parable of the Prodigal Son?  It is because we are like the people to whom Moses addressed his remarks in the first lesson, the kind of people who go astray, who get bored and seek after other adventures and pleasures, who are, in a word, fickle.  We have a problem with faithfulness both to one another and to Him.  We undervalue what He offers and we find allure elsewhere.  What He promises is that when we come back, He runs to meet us, His love has never diminished in spite of what we have done to Him in rejecting Him.  There is plenteous redemption but it demands that we turn around and go back and acknowledge our sin against Him.  The future of the relationship isn’t with the son who has plans for the future, "Treat me as one of your hired servants.”  The father never allows him to say these words.  When we sin against another we don't get to determine the future of the relationship, they do, and the father shows what true forgiveness looks like in immediately restoring him as son. 

Scholars talk of another, third letter to the Corinthians that explains what Paul means here by causing them pain and not wanting to visit until they had corrected what was wrong.  Could it be 1 Corinthians 5 when he is incredulous at their tolerance for sexual sin among them?  It seems likely here that this is the episode he has in mind, as there is one who has repented and Paul encourages them now to deal gently with the prodigal who has returned to the fold.  One of the hallmarks of the community should be that we enforce standards but are willing to restore those who repent.  Discipline is a biblical thing but the goal we have in mind should never be retribution but repentance and restoration.

28 May 2013

Psalm 26, 28; Deut. 4:15-24; 2 Cor. 1:12-22; Luke 15:1-10

They are not to make any sort of idol of God.  On that day at Horeb they saw no form, only heard His voice, the same voice that commanded all into being commanded the nation into being.  We bear His likeness, His image, none other is necessary, that is why the two great commandments are like unto one another, we are to love God and to love those created in His image.  We are not, however, to worship the image of God, we are to worship Him alone.  They are enjoined not to worship the heavens either, not only because they are created but also because they are common to all, what we call common grace.  We are to worship Him for the uncommon grace we have received.  It is understandable that people would worship created things because they are wonderful but we have greater, special revelation and that is why we worship.  We must also be careful then not to deny special creation, because those things do bespeak their creator as a sign to all.  If they are uncreated, simply came into being, their witness is lost. 

There is joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner.  What should it mean to us to think that our witness, used by Him to draw someone to Himself, away from satan, is a cause for a heavenly celebration?  Jesus came into the world, made Himself available to all who would come to Him.  We often withdraw from the world into our churches and other enclaves, to isolate ourselves from the world.  We stand apart like the Pharisees and condemn the world when we need to be like Jesus, engaging with the world in such a way that they are drawn to us because we come with open arms of love.  As the collect for mission in Morning Prayer says, "Lord Jesus Christ, who didst stretch out thine arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of thy saving embrace: So clothe us in thy Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know thee to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of thy Name."  Is it safe for sinners to come to you?

Paul says he is obedient to the Holy Spirit, his plans are in the hand of God that He may do as He wishes with Paul's life.  The Corinthians were apparently upset that Paul hadn't kept his word concerning a visit to them but Paul says that while he makes plans, the Lord always has the right to change them.  In the midst of this, however, he says that in Jesus all God's promises are yes.  His formula for defending the Gospel he preached to them against the charge of inconstancy arising from his broken "promise" are thoroughly Trinitarian.  God is the promiser, Jesus the yes to the promise, the fulfillment of the promise, and the Holy Spirit the guarantor.  We have faith in the promise of one, all else is up for grabs due to the sovereignty of God.

27 May 2013

Psalm 25; Deut. 4:9-14; 2 Cor. 1:1-11; Luke 14:25-35

Moses reminds the people not to forget all they have seen, heard and experienced in these forty years in the wilderness.  His main task is to take them back to that day at the mountain when they gathered around it while he alone climbed up to be in the presence of God.  They heard the voice of God giving them the Ten Commandments, on which all else in the Law is based, heard His voice with their own ears, an event unique in the history of humankind.  Most of these present were young at that time, recall that an entire generation of people have passed away by this time, and only those too young to be considered decision-makers at the time they failed to enter the Land are left.  That day at Horeb is what makes them truly a nation, makes them unique in the world, and will always be their most important moment.  If they forget that, all is lost, they no longer are truly the people of God.

Jesus sets the bar high for discipleship.  The first disciples knew that cost and willingly left everything behind to follow Him.  We have dumbed down the requirements for discipleship, failed to uphold Jesus' one and only standard, allowed what Bonhoeffer called cheap grace to be the rule of the day and I wonder how much we miss in the process.  Because they had nothing but Jesus the disciples saw, heard and experienced things that would not have been possible if they had been preoccupied with other things.  Jesus says that in comparison to their devotion to Him those who would be His disciples must hate even those who are closest to them.  Disciples must have allegiance to one alone, and any other claim on their lives must be rejected if it conflicts with His claim.  If we gave 100% to Jesus and His kingdom, would we be the salt the world needs?

The needs of the people in the wilderness were provided for directly by God.  They had no access to malls or convenience stores, they were completely dependent on Him for sustenance and provision.  Jesus called His own disciples away from all other sources of provision to a life of radical dependence on the provision of God.  Paul knew that same life.  Even though he had his own profession, tent-making, that was simply a place and way of preaching the Gospel to all and sundry.  It was nothing more than a platform for His real vocation of sharing the Good News.  He knew what it was to be afflicted for the Gospel, to suffer privation and loss as well as physical and emotional affliction, but in all this he was comforted by God in order that he might be better able to comfort his brothers and sisters in their own affliction.  We are called to share in the suffering of the world in order that we might be more like God, "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."  We know how the world is and we are to be gentle with those who suffer as He has been gentle with us in our own hour of suffering.  We are never to forget that comfort He has given us.