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| St. Paul: On The Same Page
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| What is this blog about? - Friday, June 01, 2007Each week I'll be writing some thoughts about the upcoming Sunday lessons, two Sundays ahead. My hope is that this will help laity be better prepared for worship, that it will help me to be better prepared for preaching, and that it might possibly be a service to some of my fellow pastors as well. NOTE: this is not a heavy exegetical blog. I won't be digging into the Hebrew or Greek. That is step-one of the sermon preparation. This is step-two, some cogitating about the devotional application of the text. How can we apply it to our lives. I hope it's helpful.
You can find a schedule of all the Sunday readings here.
You can read the SPOTS Devotion from St. Paul here in pdf format. read more ... |
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I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
It's nice to think about gardens right now, isn't it? But it's also a bit unrealistic. It's not only very remote in an ecological sense, seeing as how we're buried in snow right now. But it also seems unrealistic in the longer term, national sense...
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary...
It's worth remembering how these books were written. We call Luke one of the "synoptics" because it contains similar material to that which is in Matthew and Mark, and yet there are great differences. No other gospel includes the events of Luke 2 - perhaps because Luke wrote his gospel by interviewing eyewitnesses... including Mary. Does that change how you read these verses?...
Many of you know that James Neuendorf went into the Darien Rainforest in Panama 2 years ago to find out more about the Christian people there and what their life and faith is like. Now, at last, his book about their stories is available at Amazon.com. (Direct link here)
NOTE: The price is a lot higher at Amazon than it will be when the book is made available at church, but if you're in a hurry you can order it direct already.
About the book...
The books of Samuel, for instance, have stories of romance and recklessness, great battles and one-on-one duels, adultery and assassination. It begins to sound like "The Princess Bride" but Samuel has one thing that even that popular book (and movie) doesn't have...
I will send my messenger ahead of you... And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
If you were to decide to start a new business, would you be OK if you planned NOT to succeed? That sounds crazy. Who would invest themselves in something that was just a dead end? Why spend the time and the headaches, when you could just work for someone else and get by?
Nevertheless, my father did that once...
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
We love to ask children "what they want to be" when they grow up. It's a funny question, don't you think? What they want to BE? I mean, we could ask them what kind of job they hope to get - what kind of work they want to do - how much money they want to make - where they hope to live - or how they want to spend their time - but instead we ask them what they will BE.
Who can answer that? Compare it to this...
"In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."
Nice words. It's always nice to come to church and hear familiar words. It's even nicer when we don't have to actually DO what they say, isn't it?
Let's leave it to Isaiah, or to John, to prepare a way and make straight highways. After all, if WE are responsible, what might we have to do?...
When the Son of Man comes in his glory... all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
I'm told that a new popular video clip on the internet shows Alaska Governor Sarah Palin granting a pardon to a Thanksgiving turkey (one of those goofy political traditions) and then granting an interview to the press afterward. The sensation is that during the interview the business of the turkey farm continues as usual in the background with turkeys being fed into a guillotine of some kind right there on camera.
The shock! The horror! Many people never realized that their Thanksgiving turkey didn't grow on a turkey tree. In the same way, many people like to talk about going to heaven, but never consider the other side of that coin...
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Paul begins this chapter, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you..." And he calls this "of first importance." It seems so obvious to us, and yet we are quite capable of forgetting it. In fact, even when we remember it we too often fail to allow this truth to affect our lives.
How does this work? "I am worried that I might lose my job." Do you respond, "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead"?...
I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.
To appreciate what God is saying here you really need to back up and read the chapters before. Ezekiel describes the unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders - priests participating in or permitting pagan celebrations in his temple - the people wandering away to worship in the high places and sacred groves - injustice throughout the kingdom that was supposed to be a witness to God's righteousness. And then God says...
[The kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent...
First, you need to make a deliberate effort to de-link your brain from that word "talents". It shifts our emphasis to volunteering, when Jesus is using gold as his illustration. Certainly our time is included here by extension, but it begins with the gold, and that's appropriate because, as Martin Luther once said, the pocketbook is the last part of a man to be converted...
Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night... But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you...
This web site (http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm) lists over 220 different dates that have been set for the end of the world. (Note: 3 of them are from the Weekly World News, a spoof newspaper, so those don't count.) Quite a number of them are in recent years, not just around the year 2000 (though there were lots then), but even now people are still trying to identify a date. WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THIS???
False prophecy is a terrible thing, but stupidity is apparently also a powerful force in this world...
Since I write these for public consumption, I am more aware of my personal literary foibles with these blog postings than I am with other writings. I have noticed that I often use an elipsis (...) where a comma would normally be used. If that troubles the literary types among us, I apologize. It is, however, not an accident.
I agree with the editor who once said that a loose usage of commas was like leaving chairs pulled out from the table so that people stumbled as they walk through the room. However, I like to write so that the reader "hears" the words, and when I want to pause for effect it seems to me that a comma isn't even a long enough pause to take a breath. I doubt that the modern reader even pauses much for a semicolon, so I use the elipsis.
Technically, the elipsis is supposed to represent missing text. And if I'm quoting someone else (like the Bible) then I use it that way. But otherwise my three dots are intended to let you stop to think... and then to lead you on.
I hope you follow the dots and keep reading!
The great day of the Lord is near - near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom...
...Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold willbe able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath...
So - can you see why we don't read further than verse 16 when we use this text in church? Not very cheerful, is it? Why does the Bible contain things like this??? Isn't this too gruesome to be God's Word? Well... maybe you should think of it this way...
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money...
"God didn't give me much, just the sunshine in the morning..." That's how an old campfire song begins. Yes, I know, it's terribly saccharine. But it does make a sarcastic point (and I always love sarcasm). When we look in our bag to see how many talents God has given to us, aren't we always dissapointed?
"Oh, I don't have many skills, really." "Oh, I'm not rich or anything." When we were children our trick-or-treat bags seemed to fill too slowly and empty too soon, although we deserved none of it. Now as adults we're little better...
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have not hope...
I am deeply troubled today. Sure, I have lots of opinions about politics and economics and what government should do about this or that. But as vital as some of those issues might seem they pale to insignificance before the one issue that lies so heavy on my heart. Worse, I don't know how to find comfort in this case from Paul's words.
Please note: add up the populations of Michigan (10,095,643), Indiana (6,313,520), Ohio (11,478,006), Illinois (12,831,970), Wisconsin (5,556,506), and Minnesota (5,167,101) and you'd have 51,442,746 people. That's a lot of people.
That still does not equal the 53,430,000 American citizens who have been killed by abortion since it was legalized in 1973.
And now what do we do with Paul's words, that we should not be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep nor grieve like the rest of men if our nation appears to be bent upon continuing down this path?...
Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light...
I just voted. There were long lines of people voting, many of them with high hopes for the result. "If so-and-so gets elected, we're saved!" But even if you get your way - even if all the people who voted for today are elected, will that mean what you hope it means?
In the case of our political elections, that's true because we know the people we elect are sinful, but in the case of our hopes for the Lord's second coming...
"The Be-Happy Attitudes" That is how a famous preacher once described these verses. He could not have been more wrong.
Oh, it's true that if a person could be some of these things - meek, hungering for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart - that he would be blessed. But even if we're blessed it doesn't mean that we're happy.
In fact, that raises the question... "Is happiness really what we're after?"...
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
There was no punctuation in the original manuscripts, OK? We know this sentence is not a question because of the form; it begins with an imperative. "LOOK!" (In Greek, idete) "Look at the greatness of love..."
So our English translations take some liberties with the punctuation. They have an exclamation point after both these first two sentences, probably because of the punchy aorist (one time, immediate action) imperative that begins it all. But the way it reads in English... what if we changed the punctuation to a question mark?
I know. I know. That's not in the text. But bear with me for a moment...
After this I looked adn there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb...
I don't like crowds. Orderly crowds, like in a stadium, where everyone is sitting in rows, are bad enough. I find it depressing to think about so many lives, so many issues, so many emotions, many of them lost or sad or heading down a wrong path. Disorderly crowds, random mobs of people at an amusement park or something, are even worse. Even if they are well behaved a large crowd is a place where your own identity begins to become submerged. Even your intention, the direction you want to walk, begins to be changed by the flow of the crowd.
This is why people often look at heaven in a negative way. They see only a mass of unidentifiable people. People speaking strange languages. People who are all facing the same way, worshiping the same Lord. Some people see that as dehumanizing....
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
Wow. There are a lot of remarkable things about these verses and those that follow. It's remarkable that Jesus makes exclusive claims to the truth - that he offers believers a place in God's family and eternal freedom. But I'm used to those things. That's not what really jumps out at me...
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe...
I Googled the word "righteousness" and I looked through page after page of search results, trying to find any examples of it's use outside of the Christian faith. I finally came upon one occurence in an article about Al Gore, and it also shows up in a video game item (a mocking reference to Christianity). So... it appears that we own the word righteousness. And yet we don't pay much attention to it....
"Then I saw another angel flying in mid-air, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on earth..."
It's a strange feature of Biblical prophecy that events foretold can be fulfilled in stages - or "fulfilled" many times in a preliminary fashion, each "fulfillment" serving as an additional anticipation of the ultimate fulfillment. So, as each king of Israel took the throne his earthly reign as a descendant of David was an anticipation of the ultimate Son of David who would come to be the King of kings.
In the same way...
"We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."
What a wonderfully crafted sentence. It seems a shame to dissect it, but it's good to look at each of the 4 parts of the sentence and how they contribute to the whole. Paul is talking about works in this whole section, but notice how he frames them...
Just returned from three days at a pastoral conference where I had no opportunity to post to the blog. Our subject there was reconciliation - and we focused a lot on confession and absolution - especially private confession. I hope we have a chance to discuss that here soon... and that I get a chance to buy some of the books that were recommended.
The lessons for this Sunday are about a "harder edged" subject, but one that applies very well to our lives today. God called Cyrus (and it's interesting, don't you think, that Isaiah calls him by name a century before he comes to power)...
Alright, so heaven is a grand celebration, a great banquet. Got that.
And we can "rejoice in the Lord always" because his coming is near. Got that.
So now... why do I find it so hard to rejoice? Why does this feel so little like a party?
Have you ever tried to throw a party? I mean a really big party - like a wedding. We have had some experience with that recently...
"REJOICE in the Lord always! I will say it AGAIN: Rejoice!" Do you think Paul could have done more to emphasize this?
Ironically, Paul couldn't do ALL CAPS to make it stand out. The original manuscripts were already written in all caps - the whole thing. (Ouch, my eyes!) And they didn't do underlining, or italics, colors, or exclamation points. All that came later. But by saying "I will say it again" Paul is really bringing this out. He's saying, "THIS IS IMPORTANT!" And then...
(We're back in business. Praise God!)
The Bible talks a lot about parties. Have you ever noticed that? In some ways it makes me uncomfortable because I'm never totally at ease at a party. I've never been that kind of social person, and I don't quite know what is expected of me. In fact, I was raised to be a bit suspicious of crazy behavior, yelling and cheering that are often accompanied by a good deal of drinking and other worse behaviors. But what kind of party does God want to host?...
Sadly, St. Paul has had no internet access for the last week. We are told that our internet should be back up by this coming Tuesday, October 7. Rejoice with us!
There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, "Son, go and work today in the vineyard." "I will not," he answered...
Wow, that's a familiar scenario. Actually, I suppose the 2nd child is more familiar, the one who says that he will but then he doesn't. Jesus tells this little tale to make the point that those who come late to obedience are still more obedient than those who only pay lip service. The Jewish religious leaders paid lip service to obedience to God, but it was the outcasts who were coming to Jesus in repentance.
But how can we apply this text today...
DON'T MISS the CPH book sale over at Concordia. It's Friday and Saturday of this week, down in the Riverside Room beneath the student union. I just came from there with $40 worth of books, 14 regular books and 3 books of organ music. Worth going to.
Hey, I just thought you'd like to know.
Now to Philippians. It's funny how much can be packed into a few words, like when Paul says "what happened to me..." Wow, what a LOT of stuff happened to him. Riots, beatings, stoned and left for dead, pursued, hunted, escaped in a basket over the wall, arrested, jailed, on trial before Ceasar. Wow!
Occasionally I'll talk to a member who has a similar history...
I intended to write yesterday, but I found that I'm not as able to pull an "all-nighter" as I used to be. As my son and daughter-in-law prepared to depart for 2 years of mission service in Latin America, Sunday and Monday were filled to the brim with last minute tasks. Celebrating Jon's birthday while James and Christel were still here - sorting through the clothes to decide what to leave behind - packing and weighing and repacking to get all the bags under 50 pounds - last minute calls to insurance companies, bank accounts, and so on - informing the credit card company that they'd be out of the country for 2 years so that their account would not be frozen for "uncharacteristic" transactions.
Finally, because their flight left at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, meaning they had to be at the airport by 4 a.m., meaning we had to leave home by 3:30 am., meaning we'd all have to get up by 2:30 a.m., we all just decided to not go to bed at all. So numerous friends were invited. Movies were watched and games played. Old memories were shared around the bonfire out back. And then at 3:30 everyone said their goodbyes. We all prayed together, and the family drove James in Christel to the airport (in 2 cars because it took one car just to hold all their bags - remember, they're moving, not just traveling).
Lot's of hugs. Some tears. Many, many prayers. They are now safely arrived in Panama City and ensconced in their new apartment which they say is "huge" and very "cool" (by newlywed standards). They'll begin their work with a month of intensive Spanish immersion, including 4 hours of classwork every day. Expect to see pictures and posts at their website as soon as they get their internet hooked up. Currently they are sharing the wi-fi from the Church of God next door. Visit www.livingletter.org for all the latest.
"It's not my fault!" Those are the immortal words of Han Solo in the first of the Star Wars movies. But they're certainly not new. The Israelites were saying the same thing in their proverb, "the fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."
It is my parents' fault that my life is messed up. It was the sins of an earlier generation that put us in this predicament. We're inheriting the national debt that came from someone else's spending. The economy was wrecked by other people's poor choices and now I'm suffering the effects of it. My father's alcoholism, my mother's bad food choices, my uncle's anger management issues, my sister's drug use, my family history of you-name-it...
OK, humility block here. In the printed SPOTS I based my devotion on Matthew TWENTY-ONE verses 1-16, instead of chapter TWENTY. The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday is actually in chapter 20, so I guess that's what we should think about here. (You know what a "humility block" is, right? It's a *deliberate* mistake put into one block of a quilt just to remind yourself that you're not perfect. I wish I could claim my mistakes were that humble.)
The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
I would like to use these words to talk about labor unions, or fair wages, or property rights - all topics that we love to pontificate about and would love to find Bible verses to support our various points of view. Unfortunately, that's not at all what this is about...
"I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel..."
I just finished leading chapel at our elementary school and I'm exhausted, sweaty, ready for a break. ("Pssshhhh!" That's the sound of the Pepsi I just opened even though it's only 9:30a.m. - sorry Mom.) When I do chapel with the kids I want to keep them engaged - I want to make sure I get the message across - I want to make a lasting impression, so I tend to be high-energy. We sing energetic songs. I move back and forth across the bleachers a lot so that I can be close to as many of them as possible and keep their attention.
In short... I figure if I WORK HARD ENOUGH that I'll be able to share the gospel better. But Paul says...
"Seek the Lord while he may be found..."
Do you mean to say that there may be a time when God cannot be found? I can give thanks that I have never experienced such a thing, but I have to acknowledge that it's possible.
It has nothing to do with how bad things are. It's not that in the middle of a battlefield, or in the fierce battering of a hurricane, or in the most crowded and busy place that somehow God is hard to find. No - under even the worst of physical conditions, God is still there. But...
"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?"
How in the world can we understand these things when we have completely abandoned the framework for understanding them? Do people still "sin against" one another? Really???
Or do we just experience "friction" or "misunderstandings". You know the routine...
Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not...
Ah, but here's the rub: what are the "disputable matters"? Which teachings are merely personal preferences, and which are critical truths? Paul himself does not hesitate to pass judgment on some disputes...
We just finished Genesis in our Sunday morning Bible class (starting the Gospel of John next, 9:30 a.m. if you want to join us). Chapter 50 was a fitting, but somewhat poignant, ending to the book.
"Am I in the place of God?" Joseph asks his brothers. But that is precisely where we see ourselves so often...
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities...
These are hard verses. I remember having trouble with these verses even when I was a child, long before I could vote. By the time I was 9 years old I could think of a long list of excuses for disrespecting and, consequently, disobeying the authorities...
I know, I know. Why wasn't I posting all week? You don't want to know. I'd just clutter these pages with whining.
Of course, I wouldn't be alone, would I? Think of Ezekiel. God called Jeremiah to preach the bad news to Israel - that they would be defeated and taken off into exile. But Jeremiah got to stay behind in Jerusalem.
God called Ezekiel to go along with the exiles on the long march to Babylon. And then he has to make a life there and tell the people to settle down and get used to it - God is not going to rescue them anytime soon. In fact, he would soon destroy their proud city...
"From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things... and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
Last night was the big speech at the close of the Democratic convention. In another week we'll see the same kind of thing happen with the Republicans. Such speeches tend to celebrate the candidate's accomplishments and make promises about a glorious future, if we only choose this person to lead us.
But how long do you think you'll have to wait to hear any political leader talk like Jesus does here?... | |