5 June 2013

Psalm 119:49-72; Deut. 13:1-11; 2 Cor. 7:2-16; Luke 17:20-37

How important is it that God's people are not led astray?  Important enough to Him that the person responsible for leading them astray should be killed.  In the Gospels, Jesus doesn't advocate killing the person who teaches another to sin but He certainly doesn't hold much hope out for them.  He said that it would be better for one who teaches a child to sin to have a millstone tied round their neck and thrown into the sea.  The Lord is a jealous God but does that mean He has human emotions about rejection?  No, the issue is His great love for us and the knowledge that if we follow after other gods we are lost eternally and it is certainly not His will that this happen.  While He may have perfect knowledge of who will be saved, that doesn't mean we have no responsibility for leading people astray.  His sovereignty doesn't void our responsibility.  We are to have a zero tolerance policy for those who would entice the people of God away from Him.  Not only pastors have that responsibility, it is incumbent on all of us, but in order to do so we must know the truth so as not to be led away from it.

I had someone recently tell me that someone was clearly giving the message for the last days based solely on the number of people that worship at the man's church.  Jesus says that the kingdom of God "is not coming in ways that can be observed."  He said the kingdom of God was in their midst.  Wherever Jesus is present, either bodily as here or spiritually by the Holy Spirit, there is the kingdom regardless of how many are present with Him.  The kingdom of God is a reality wherever two or more are gathered in His Name.  The problem with the statement the person made to me is that in the last days we are told many will be led astray so numbers aren't reliable in identifying the kingdom.  Jesus had twelve disciples and occasionally a large crowd would gather but He never cared about numbers, never did a single thing designed to attract or keep a crowd, simply always preached truth, popular or not.

The goal of telling the truth is repentance.  Paul speaks about repentance in terms of "godly grief."  The Prayer Book uses ideas like, "We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed…" and "We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed…"  That really should describe the way we deal with sin in our lives, that is godly grief, a proper and godly understanding of the reality of sin from God's perspective that causes us anguish to have done such things.  The good news of the Gospel is that there is forgiveness for sins if we are contrite and have this godly grief over them.  We confront sin in ourselves and others in order to allow for repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration with God and one another.

4 June 2013

Psalm 45;  Deut. 12:1-12; 2 Cor. 6:3-7:1; Luke 17:11-19

Moses says that once they are in the Land, the worship of the people is to have a central location that the Lord Himself will show them.  The issue of where that is located is the central issue that divided Jews and Samaritans in the time of Jesus.  The house of God, Beth-el, was originally at Shiloh during the time of the Judges and then the temple was built in Jerusalem but the Samaritans traced the worship center to the end of Deuteronomy when blessings and curses were shouted from two mountains, they believed that the mountain from which blessings were pronounced was God's chosen place.  No matter where the Jews are scattered in the world, the place of worship for the nation, the only place where sacrifice can be offered, is Jerusalem at the temple mount which is now a Muslim worship place, the Dome of the Rock.  The entire Land was the Lord's but in this place they expressed their unity as the people of God by worshipping Him together.  As Christians what can we do to recover that sense of unity in a post-Reformation world?

Jesus cleanses ten lepers and instructs them to show themselves to the priests in keeping with Jewish law.  If a person's leprosy was gone, if they were clean, they were to show themselves to the priests who would examine the skin and pronounced whether they were indeed clean and therefore could now worship the Lord with the rest of the community and be a part of community life again.  As they go, they are cleansed and one turns back and comes to Jesus and praises God.  That one was a Samaritan.  We don't know the nationality(ies) of the other lepers, but we do know that only this one returned.  It could be that the others were Jews and when they were lepers they had a common bond even with a Samaritan that was now broken by their healing, they could rejoin their own people, he was no longer good enough for them so he was again an outcast among these men.  They missed the reality that Jesus had healed them, they knew it and yet they went to those who had previously rejected them.  Why not come to the one who accepted them when no one else would do so?

Paul says that every circumstance of life commends his ministry, both the good and the bad.  It is not only in times of prosperity that the Lord is to be praised, in all things He is God.  We hear sometimes a Gospel that sounds like those going through difficulties are doing so because God is angry at them and prosperity is God's way of showing favor when both these things happen in the lives of all humanity without respect to a person's relationship with God.  Paul counsels that believers not be yoked with unbelievers (in the Prayer Book lectionary this section from 6.14- 7.1 is, for some reason an optional passage).  We tend to apply this to marriage but there are certainly other relationships where we should take this to heart, business partnerships and civic organizations for example.  When we do not share a common commitment to ethics and morals it is always a dangerous relationship.  Why join with unbelievers when we share these in common with believers?  Unity matters.

3 June 2013

Psalm 41, 52; Deut. 11:13-19; 2 Cor. 5:11-6:2; Luke 17:1-10

If you will obey the commandments you will have everything you need and everything you want. If, however, you turn and worship other gods, you will not receive God's blessing and you will have nothing. Sounds like a plan then.  Moses is giving them lessons in Following God for Dummies.  The entire book of Deuteronomy is cast in just this light, one to one correspondence with obedience and blessing, right up to the choice between life and death in Deuteronomy 30.  Here, Moses goes back to his earlier injunction in the sixth chapter to tell them that their best bet is to keep the commandments ever before them literally by binding it on their bodies in order that they cannot forget and talking about the Law constantly in order that nothing else might overtake it in their thoughts.  Paul gives similar advice to the Philippians, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  We have many distractions in this world but we have exactly the number we allow, not one more or less.

When was the last time you rebuked a brother or sister who sinned against you?  That is Jesus' commandment, to rebuke sin, but we tend to talk to everyone but the person who sinned against us about our injury.  The goal is clear, that the person may repent by having the sin laid before them.  Forgiveness is contingent on repentance but if it happens, we are bound to forgive, a godlike quality.  Even if it happens seven times in a day.  Why was the disciples response to this teaching to ask for more faith?  It requires faith to forgive to be more Christ-like.  Finally, Jesus tells a little parable of worthiness, remembering who we are, servants of God.  We have but a little while to serve Him here and our lives are to be taken up by this service.  We are to walk humbly before our God knowing that one day we will eat with Him in the wedding feast of the Lamb.

We know that Jesus died for us that we might no longer live to or for ourselves but for Him.  We sing all for Jesus but where is there evidence of that in our lives?  All?  You are a new creation, the old has passed away and you now live with the Spirit of the living God within you, you have been set free from the spirit of sin and death.  In all this we are reconciled to God through Jesus taking on our sin, and we taking on His righteousness.  We are at peace with God, a peace broken not by Him but by our sin.  He did all the work of reconciliation that we might become agents of reconciliation.  It begins with being reconciled with one another, forgiving one another.  Jesus death has given us the faith the disciples asked for in the Gospel lesson.  Will we choose life today?

2 June 2013

Psalm 63, 98; Deut. 11:1-12; Rev. 10:1-11; Matt. 13:44-58

Moses reminds the people of the discipline of the Lord in order that they might commit themselves to following and obeying His Word.  He reminds them of the plagues against Egypt, the events of the Red Sea, and also the discipline they have experienced these past forty years for their disobedience in not entering the Land as well as the particular instance of the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram.  Why does he single out that one event?  That one was a challenge to Moses' leadership and I wonder if he isn't noting this for Joshua's sake, that the people will be reminded that God anoints a particular leader and will not make this mistake again.  They represent the quarrelsome and murmuring spirit that so often beset the people.  Moses certainly speaks highly of the Land, God's concern and provision for it, there is an Edenic quality to this description.

Jesus gives three parables of the kingdom, each with a focus on the surpassing worth of the kingdom in comparison with everything else one might possess.  If we believe those parables to represent the truth of the value of the kingdom and the relative meaninglessness of all else then why do we work so diligently and passionately for that which is not the kingdom and set our kingdom activities on the back burner till these other things are done?  When Jesus goes to Nazareth he is acknowledged as possessing great wisdom and doing mighty works but that isn't what the people focus on.  They are more interested in fitting what they see into what they know.  They know who He is, the son of the carpenter who grew up in their midst.  They see wisdom and works and instead of changing what they know in light of what they see, they attack the problem the other way around.  Is there room in your worldview and plausibility structures for Jesus to be more?  That is the problem in the liberal wing of the church, they know something of science and Jesus as the incarnate Son of God, born of a virgin, worker of miracles, bodily resurrected from death, doesn't fit so they come up with more plausible explanations. 

John hears the voices of seven thunders speaking and is preparing to take down what he has heard when suddenly the voice from heaven tells him not to write this down, this part of the revelation is not for public consumption.  There are some things that are to remain a mystery, we cannot look into and know all things.  Afterwards he is told to get the open scroll from the angel who stands with one foot on the sea and one on the land, with a rainbow about his head and legs like pillars of fire and a face like the sun.  He doesn't sound particularly approachable does he?  In spite of that fearsome appearance, John tells him to give him the scroll.  Like the scroll given to Ezekiel it tastes good but then turns the stomach bitter, the words are words of reproach, not encouragement.  We sometimes need to hear where we are falling short rather than being patted on the back.

1 June 2013

Psalm 30, 32; Deut. 5:22-33; 2 Cor. 4:13-5:10; Luke 16:19-31

Moses recounts the leaders and people's response to hearing the Word of the Lord in the Commandments and it can be summed up in two words, awe and fear.  They cannot believe that they have truly heard the Lord's voice speaking as no people on earth ever has done before or since.  It is the thing that authenticates Judaism in a way that no other religion can claim.  An entire nation heard at the same time the voice of God speaking.  It would be impossible for a mass delusion or a conspiracy to encompass such a large gathering.  They not only heard the Lord but they also saw the signs of cloud and fire on the mountain and everyone there could testify.  Fear, however, prompted the nation to say that was enough, you go as our representative for the rest of what God has to say, only tell Him we will do whatever He says.  Moses had an awesome responsibility in that time, he alone knew what the Lord said concerning the remainder of the Law and it was his job to faithfully get it right and transmit it to the nation. 

The first thing to answer is whether this is a parable or a real story.  There is nothing to indicate it as a parable, it doesn't begin with any disclaimer at all, it is simply a story Jesus tells.  The rich man has all he needs and cares nothing for his neighbor, Lazarus.  In eternity, however, he wants Lazarus to do for him that which he never did for Lazarus, bring him comfort in affliction.  It is not possible for one to cross over to the other side.  The rich man makes a plea on behalf of his family, that they lack knowledge that would save them from his torment, would God please send Lazarus to his father's house, to his brothers, to tell them the truth.  This request is refused on the grounds that they have all the information they need in the Word and if that isn't enough even a resurrection from the dead won't convince them.  Many have the Word yet the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a scandal to them, it is unnatural, and they won't accept it. 

Paul says we have a spirit of faith and we also walk by faith.  The spirit of faith, he says, means that we speak as we believe and we know that as He raised Jesus from the dead, so shall we also be raised from the dead.  We believe in Jesus and that belief means that we believe that He will be eternally faithful to those who put their trust in Him.  No matter what happens in this life, we have assurance that eternity will bring a weight of glory to us, and so we look to the seen rather than the unseen for our hope in this body.  We walk by faith means what the prayer book says, we proclaim Him not only with our lips, but in our lives.  We live by that same faith, never losing heart for eternity without consideration to earthly suffering or earthly rewards.  That is the mind of Christ and Paul seems to have had it in a way that few do.  Do we dare?