7 June 2010
Psalm 56, 57; Eccles. 7:1-14; Gal. 4:12-20; Matt. 15:21-28

It is strange that Solomon has lamented the fact that people don’t enjoy what they have worked for and encourages enjoyment of labor and now turns and says that mourning is better than feasting. Simple Epicureanism and foolishness of heart are different from the enjoyment of life. A book was written about 20 years ago entitled Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business that challenged the culture created by television. The author, Neil Postman, argued that nothing was treated seriously any longer as it is all entertainment. In the intervening years, it can easily be established that the trend has only gotten worse. We live in an age when we as Christians need to re-establish seriousness as a virtue in some areas of life. It isn’t wrong to laugh but we need to re-examine when we should be more sober in our thinking and acting.

Jesus here initially treats this Canaanite woman as unworthy of his attention. Ken Bailey, a scholar who spent much of his life in the culture of the near East, says that in this encounter Jesus is putting his disciples to the test, challenging their attitudes towards “others.” Bailey’s premise is that Jesus’ dismissal of the woman and then the disciples request to help her is a sign of the prevailing sentiment to these others, Jesus is doing no more than mimicking Judaism. Finally, she gets in his path and stops him and even then Jesus speaks to her in such an offensive way as to shock even the disciples, calling her and her people “dogs.” Her perseverance and faith ultimately win His heart and He acts on her request. Bailey sees that in this scene Jewish prejudices are revealed and the Canaanite woman reveals true faith to these disciples. However we interpret Jesus’ actions and words, the faith of the woman is remarkable and her desire to see her child healed and delivered overcomes everything else. The Gentile woman has shown true faith.

Paul appeals to the Galatians to see the motives of those who would teach this other “gospel” that is not a Gospel at all. These others are attempting to exclude the Galatians from the church until they meet their requirements. By making much of them and then introducing the idea that there are further requirements, they are actually exalting themselves. How often do we do this same thing in the church by insisting that new people accept more than the Gospel to be part of the club? I don’t mean baptism or confirmation, I mean things that are particular to our denomination and we look down on people until they get the lingo or the gestures or understand how to use the Prayer Book. Paul is perplexed by their willingness to believe these things are necessary. We have to learn and continually remind ourselves what is of God and what is of man.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
until the destroying storms pass by.
I cry to God Most High,
to God who fulfils his purpose for me.

6 June 2010
Psalms 24, 29; Eccles 6.1-12; Acts 10.9-23; Luke 12.32-40

What’s the use in working hard if you can’t enjoy the fruit of your labors? If everything you do is to feed an appetite that can’t be satisfied, what is the use? Either this life is wasted effort or it has some purpose to it. One of the biggest problems with atheism is that purpose has to be invented and the only community possible is with those who have determined a similar purpose. Two of the problems, even in that instance, are, one, it is not truly possible to impose that world view onto the rest of society without either violence or law-making which can always be changed (see Prohibition) and two, how to live out purpose isn’t necessarily an agreed upon item, ethics has to be worked out as well. How much of what we do and what we concern ourselves with is, as Solomon says, vanity? How much is truly eternal?

Preparedness for the coming of the kingdom requires action and alertness. The beginning of preparation is to seek after the kingdom, set our lives on it rather than anything else. Jesus begins this passage with a startling statement, sell everything and give alms. That is a high demand but it does reveal a great deal about who we are and where our treasure is in this life. Solomon has said it doesn’t matter anyway, a bunch of ingrates will inherit it. Even if we believe that, are we prepared to sell it all? What are you doing right now that would convince Jesus that you are preparing or prepared to receive Him?

Peter’s world-view is being changed. First, the heavenly vision regarding dietary restrictions shakes up his understanding and then these men come to fetch him on a missionary errand. The vision enables the mission as it breaks down one of the dividing walls between Jews and Gentiles, table fellowship is made possible. Peter objects as one under the law concerning what he can and cannot eat and remain faithful and yet the voice rebukes him. The voice further tells him to go with the men who are searching for him. He had to have been surprised when he went down and there they were, a group of Gentiles, taking him to see a Roman centurion who had experienced his own vision. Are we prepared to share all that we have and allow God to be sovereign in directing our steps, even when it seems out of step with our ideas?

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
worship the Lord in holy splendour.

5 June 2010
Psalm 55; Eccles. 5:8-20; Gal. 3:23-4:11; Matt. 15:1-20

Do what is in front of you to do and be content with what you have. If we work for gain and increase and asset growth, Solomon says it is all a waste of time and energy. We store up that which can be lost or stolen, not things of true value. The beginning of contentment and joy is thanks to God for what we have, that we have enough. In the Lord’s prayer we are taught to ask for our daily bread, if we can truly give thanks for that daily provision we can begin to be thankful in all things. It is important for us to recall that all things come from Him and delight ourselves not in all things but in the One who provides all things. It should almost be a glad surprise to us to sit down to a meal, to open the refrigerator and pull out food and drink, to be able to pay for our food, clothing and other material needs, to lie in a bed at night and sleep and to wake, to walk and talk, hear and see. In all things give thanks.

What are the weightier demands of the law? The Pharisees and scribes confront Jesus on the washing of hands, a huge matter in the writings on the law. To read the Mishnah on washing would indicate a serious problem with obsessive compulsive disorder and here it is clearly an important issue for these others. Jesus, however, sees the command to honor your father and mother as more important, an issue with which no one could disagree. They have things out of order both in their question here and their practices concerning the commandment. Jesus here agrees with Solomon concerning that which comes out of the mouth being that which defiles a person. Idle words destroy the witness of our lives.

For Paul to write that there is no longer Jew nor Greek and that they are all children of Abraham through faith requires a complete transformation of heart and mind theologically. All that has gone before, all that he has believed, has been overthrown in Jesus and he is now able to share the hope and the promise that had belonged only to the Jews with the entire world as a free gift of God. Paul’s entire worldview has been transformed by this encounter. He has no truck with those who would return to the law of sin and death when Jesus has come and we have been given the Holy Spirit and the spirit of adoption with which we cry out to God as Father. Our relationship with God has changed and our relationship to others has changed in Jesus’ work. That spirit of thankfulness should pervade our lives.

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down towards your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness;
for you have exalted your name and your word
above everything.
On the day I called, you answered me,
you increased my strength of soul
The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.

4 June 2010
Psalm 40, 54; Eccles. 5:1-7; Gal. 3:15-22; Matt. 14:22-36

Draw near to listen is good prayer advice. Often we approach the throne of God with many words rather than a heart desiring to first hear from Him. That attitude of listening first is a habit we should cultivate. Meditating on the Word is a good way to begin our time of prayer, not simply hurrying through a passage but a practice of lectio divina will allow us to move into the presence of God through His Word abiding in us. Solomon tells us to be careful about what we say, to guard our lips and our words, allow our lives to speak for us. The fear of God of which he writes here is that which brings us to a place of quiet humility before Him.

In order to get some time to pray Jesus sends the disciples out on the boat while He remained on the mountain. The storm that blew up on the lake provided an opportunity to reveal a bit more of His divine nature to them. Peter believes that in obedience to the command of Jesus even he can walk on the water but when he saw the strong wind he lost faith and began to sink. How like us that is. We profess great faith and make a great beginning of walking in faith in the midst of the storm but then we see the difficulties and lose heart. The Word of God and faith in that word must go hand in hand for it to be effectual in our lives. Faith without content and content without faith are equally ineffectual.

Paul’s attitude towards the law is utterly changed in his encounter with Jesus. His rabbinic side comes out in these teachings as he counters the arguments of those who have taught the Galatians that the law is key to covenant. He reaches back to the original promise and covenant with Abraham, the covenant that promised that through him all nations on earth would be blessed. Instead of the Mosaic covenant, Paul takes us back to the original covenant, one that was simply a promise based on faith. Abraham trusted the word of the Lord (the promise of land and offspring) and that faith was accounted to him as righteousness. The law has a purpose, however, and it is to allow us to see our sin in order that we understand God’s mercy and increase our hope for a deliverer.

Happy are those who make
the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after false gods.
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us;
none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be more than can be counted.

3 June 2010
Psalm 50; Eccles. 3:16-4:3; Gal. 3:1-14; Matt 14.13-21

Solomon’s view of things at this point is more or less existentialism, that things are just what they are, we are powerless to change them so we may as well just muddle through them. His conclusion so far is that there is no meaning or point in life, that we are little, if any, better off than animals. How can a man who has had so much in his life, who has been sought and praised for his wisdom, come to the conclusion that nothing matters and what if it did? One of the keys to understanding the book and his philosophy is the last verse of this passage, and the last few words of that verse, “the evil deeds that are done under the sun.” Under the sun is his way of speaking of temporal things and what happens under the sun fades and dies, we have to set our sights somewhere else to find meaning.

After hearing of the death of his cousin and the prophet who pointed to Him as Messiah, Jesus attempts to get some private space and time but the crowds follow Him. In His humanity Jesus surely needed some time to grieve and to sort out what John’s death meant for Him. He would now become the center of attention for those who were not of the Jerusalem party of the Jews and, in a less pleasant way, for those as well. Here, even in His grief, Jesus has compassion on others and accommodates their desire for healing and then for their need for food. His focus was always on others.

Paul is an extraordinary man. He spent the entire first part of his life pursuing righteousness under the law, excluding all those who were outside the covenant, non-Israelites, then spun on a dime theologically and changed everything he believed about the law and everything in the Bible. His encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus changed everything in his life. Here, he even argues that the children of Abraham are those who believe, not those who are circumcised and attempt to keep the law. He values the Spirit more highly than the law as the law is a failed enterprise as a way of getting eternal life. If our hope is in ourselves or anything else “under the sun” it is misplaced.

The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.

2 June 2010
Psalm 119:49-72; Eccles. 3:1-15; Gal. 2:11-21; Matt. 14:1-12

To my generation, the baby boomers, this passage begins with a song by the Byrds. I wonder how many people know they were quoting Ecclesiastes? Solomon here gives a brief meditation on time and how we pass the time. In all things, God is sovereign, even over time. There are times appointed for all things and all times are as one, in the “experience” of God, nothing is past, present or future, all is present. It is fascinating to work through these few verses and in them see the mind of Solomon working out the issues of time and our lives with almost breath-taking brevity and clarity. All that we do is meant to be pleasure-giving and yet in all these things we are not to take primary or ultimate pleasure as they are themselves given us by God for pleasure. He is the source of pleasure and knows what is good for us. In all things we are to stand in awe of Him for His omnipotence, omniscience and love for us in that He provides all that we need to enjoy life and all things were arranged so that they come to pass for us just as planned.

Herod proves to be a man whose pleasures are more important than his principles. He had a problem, he had married his brother’s wife who had ambition and a beautiful daughter. Her ambition was to be fully accepted as the wife of the ruler but who had a problem in that John wouldn’t give them peace but confronted sin. Herod enjoyed the dance of the daughter so much he was willing to offer nearly anything in return, and that desire cost John his life. As we see in the news on a regular basis, men with power and position often are brought down by their desires. Surely Herod could have said no to this request but didn’t in spite of his misgivings, he wanted people to see him as a man of his word. John was only the beginning of Herod’s problems.

This is an important passage from Galatians, it speaks of justification by faith in Jesus and by no other means. We see that the problem of this other gospel must be a return to Judaism and the law. Paul takes great offense to such a suggestion and speaks of confronting Peter on the matter of the Gospel. Peter apparently was attempting to curry some sort of favor or be found acceptable in Jewish company by living a life of hypocrisy and Paul says even his companion Barnabas fell into this hypocrisy. In doing so, the preaching of the Gospel of grace had become confused and Paul will not have anyone confusing the Gospel. He sees clearly that he is a sinner and will not have any attempts at works righteousness as it is a failed system, it failed to produce what it intended. It is a remarkable thing for a man like Paul to say, I have been crucified with Christ, taking on the shame of acknowledging his sin in such a way as to identify with it so that the old man is no more, but Paul again and again speaks of all that has gone before as filthy rags. What they now embrace he has rejected and will not go back. Like Solomon, he has been there and done that and now it is simply his aim to allow Christ to live through him.

Remember your word to your servant,
in which you have made me hope.
This is my comfort in my distress,
that your promise gives me life.

1 June 2010
Psalm 45; Eccles. 2:16-26; Gal. 1:18-2:10; Matt. 13:53-58

You can’t take it with you, so eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Solomon sees that even working to build wealth is ultimately nothing more than vanity as who can tell whether the generations to come will squander what they have inherited. As it happens, his son squandered the good will he had built up in his lifetime as king. For all of Solomon’s wisdom, his son, Rehoboam, proved to be a foolish man from the beginning of his reign and the kingdom was divided into two pieces. Solomon sees that ultimately everything, food to eat or enjoyment, is from the Lord and that labor is simply labor, not an end in itself nor does it necessarily produce a desirable result.

They have the evidence of the deeds and the extraordinary teaching Jesus is doing and then suddenly they revert to, we know this guy, how can he be anything special. They don’t know, however, what they think they know. The answer to the question, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” is actually, no. Jesus does not bother to set that record straight, they have the evidence of what He is doing and what He has taught, and have asked the right first question, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power?” If they had focused on that question they could have made a right judgment concerning Him but the other questions overwhelmed the primary question. Keeping first things first is always important.

Paul has kept the main thing the main thing. He has preached Christ and Him crucified and has not adulterated the Gospel with other things in spite of his upbringing and his advancement in Judaism. He says he has let go of the former things in order to hold onto the Gospel of grace. He is defending his rights as an apostle and that the church in Jerusalem has acknowledge the gifts and graces given to him among the Gentiles and have affirmed him in his message and work. His other defense is that they added nothing to the Gospel he has proclaimed other than to remember the poor which he was eager to do anyway. He is fully credentialed and accepted by the leaders although his only concern is to be acceptable to God. He is not much interested in church hierarchy.

In your majesty ride on victoriously
for the cause of truth and to defend the right;
let your right hand teach you dread deeds.
Your throne, O God, endures for ever and ever.
Your royal sceptre is a sceptre of equity;
you love righteousness and hate wickedness.
I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations;
therefore the peoples will praise you for ever and ever.