Jesus Christ

Epiphany 4A: Fools’ Treasure

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fools-goldOLD TESTAMENT:  Micah 6: 1-8

Read the passage from Micah

The writings known as Micah were probably written during the reigns of three kings of Judah: Jotham (742-735 BCE) was a time of growing fear and unrest, Ahaz (735-715 BCE) came when Israel (the Northern Kingdom) was experiencing internal rebellions and rapid turnover of kings, and Hezekiah (715-687 BCE) was the time when Sennacherib marched on and destroyed most of Judah and Jerusalem barely survived.  Micah is associated with Moresheth, a small town about 25 miles from Jerusalem and probably did most of his writing during the reign of Ahaz, when there was great oppression from the upper class.

His message is assurance that this time of oppression would end and a new ruler would come and usher in a time of salvation.  The prophet is claiming a coming new Davidic king, one that would rule relying on the strength of God.  Keep in mind that in this time of exile, it appeared that the Davidic line would be ending.  The prophecy was a reminder that God would keep the promises that God had made, offering new hope to the people in despair.

This passage that we read ends with one of the most familiar and most quoted lines in the Bible.  It sounds so simple—just do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.  What more do we need to hear?  But back up.  We are told that God has a problem with the people and is going to deal with them.  The people have actually failed in their covenant to God.  And they know it.  They have looked at their lives through God’s eyes and the scene is not a pretty one.  The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  Those with power are taking and using the resources of the less powerful and leaving them out in the cold, so to speak.  Wealth is becoming concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller group of people while homelessness and poverty are growing at an escalating pace.  Clean water is in short supply.  There were those who do not have education or insurance.  (Oh, sorry, I accidentally jumped ahead about 2700 years!)  But the worshipping community just goes right on worshipping and living piously as though nothing was wrong, wondering when this whole Reign of God thing is going to come to fruition.

So, what, they ask, can they do to make it up to God, to make it up to the community and to God?  Nothing except what God has said—live justice, love kindness, walk humbly.  In other words, our faith is not to be measured in piety but in terms of justice and relationships with others and with God.  The object is to overcome separation from God and from each other.  Our religion should be a religion of mercy and justice.  That is the way that God is made flesh; that is the way that we experience the Reign of God.  The prophet Micah would say that right worship and right conduct are undividable; you cannot have one without the other.  Justice and piety are two sides of the same coin.

The truth is, we people of faith, according to Micah, are called to question those systemic injustices that continue in our world.  That’s hard.  After all, what can we really do about them?  Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.  And if you read Micah, you know that it’s not really just a suggestion.  It’s who we are and who we’re called to be.  It’s the Reign of God coming into our midst.

 

  1. What does this passage mean for you?
  2. What does it mean to do justice? To love kindness? To walk humbly with God?
  3. What evidence do you see of the Reign of God in our world?
  4. Why is it so difficult to embrace that vision?
  5. What happens when justice and piety become separated?

 

 

NEW TESTAMENT:  1 Corinthians 1: 18-31

Read the passage from 1 Corinthians

Once again, Paul is dealing with the people of Corinth.  Earlier in this chapter, he has been bemoaning the divisions in the Corinthian church community.  He starts here not really taking sides, but addressing the issue of wisdom and pointing out that wisdom in Christ is not the same as the wisdom of the world.  He is not attacking being “wise”, but is calling them to a more profound wisdom.

Think about it.  The ugly sight of a mangled human body hanging on a cross confronts normal worldly values.  But these are not worldly values. And this first century church, no less than we, have tried to “clean up” this image and fit it into something that makes sense within the normalcy of the world.  Paul is warning against the structures and intentions of the world that crucified Jesus and that are now trying to make it “presentable”.  Paul is reminding us that for those wise in the ways of God, the cross is salvation.

What the world sees as failure, Paul sees as the beginning of wisdom—real wisdom.  (And keep in mind here that first century Corinth was entrenched in its love for wisdom just like all Greek states.  Paul was hitting them where they lived.)  The cross, the wisdom of God, is downright subversive.  It’s hard to swallow.  In fact, it’s just downright foolishness—the foolishness of a God who would expect those of us living in a world where it’s hard to make a living, hard sometimes to get by, hard sometimes to get what we’re due, to simply do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

One of the dangers of being in church as often as I am is that it all starts to make sense. I speak of the Christian faith so casually and effortlessly that I begin to think, “Fine thing, this Christianity. Makes good sense.” And then I find myself believing all sorts of things in church that I wouldn’t let anyone put over on me in the real world. That which people would choke on in everyday speech, they will swallow if it’s in a sermon. That’s a blessing for those of us who get paid to preach Christ crucified.

And so Kierkegaard could say, “Christianity has taken a giant stride into the absurd,” and again, “Remove from Christianity its ability to shock and it is altogether destroyed. It then becomes a tiny superficial thing, capable neither of inflicting deep wounds nor of healing them.”

It’s when the absurd starts to sound reasonable that we should begin to worry. “Blessed are the meek. . . .”  “Thou shalt not kill.” “Love your enemies.” “Go, sell all you have and give to the poor.” Be honest now. Blessed are the meek? Try being meek tomorrow at work and see how far you get. Meekness is fine for church, but in the real world the meek get to go home early with a pink slip and a pat on the back. Blessed are those who are peacemakers; they shall get done to them what they are loath to do to others. Blessed are the merciful; they shall get it done to them a second time. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; they shall be called fanatics.

As Paul says, when you hear the gospel not with Sunday-morning ears but with Monday-morning ears, it can sound foolish indeed — tragically foolish or comically foolish, depending upon one’s point of view.

Is the world more like Sunday morning or Monday morning? [Hmmm…is the church more like Sunday morning or Monday morning.  Now THAT’S a good question!]

A nation that spends billions on sophisticated military hardware and computerized weapons only to be rendered impotent by a mob of poor, screaming Islamic students ought to appreciate the irony of how powerless the powerful can be. Our scientists make medical progress and invent the X-ray, only to find it to be a major cause of cancer. Our advanced technology moves us to the brink of a new Dark Age. It is shocking. how unwise people of wisdom can be…

Along with the world, we expected to see a savior coming to take charge on our terms. Then the parade comes, and we find that we are standing in the wrong place to get a good view. Here comes the carpenter’s son, bouncing on the back of a donkey — not coming for breakfast with [the president and his wife], or dinner with Congress, or [a guest seat with the first lady at The State of the Union Address]. The smart ones, the ones who are well adjusted to the status quo, the ones in the know, neither see nor know — so the story goes. Here is a messiah who does not make sense.

Only the very young, the very old, the women and the simpletons see him. They are standing in the right place to get a proper view. Along with the poor, the maimed, the blind, the lame, the prisoners and the poor old crazed men like Paul, these “fools” see things as they really are.

As for us smart ones, we know better. We know that if we work hard, achieve, get advanced degrees, adjust to the way things are, and act sensibly, we shall be in the know. It all depends on how you look at it.  (Excerpt from “Looking Like Fools”, by William Willimon, The Christian Century, March 10, 1982.)

What it boils down to is that this way of life to which we have become accustomed is possibly not the way of life to which we are called.  We need to look at our lives through the lens of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.  What exactly does that mean?  And what do we have to change to do that?

  1. What does this passage mean for you?
  2. What, here, is wisdom?
  3. Do you think we try to “clean up” Christianity or God so that it will fit into our society? In what ways?

 

 

GOSPEL:  Matthew 5: 1-12

Read the passage from The Gospel According to Matthew

Most scholars agree that the core of what is known as the Beatitudes goes back to Jesus.  It is essentially a reversal of the usual value system that was in place in the first century.  The Beatitude was present in the Jewish tradition as a form of proclamation found in wisdom and prophetic writings.  They declare an objective reality as the result of a divine act.  Here, the opposite of “blessed” is not unhappy but cursed.

One thing to note is that the form of these Beatitudes uses two verbs:  are and will.  Each beatitude begins in the present and moves to future tense.  They are, then expressions of what is already true in the Christian community not, necessarily, for individuals, but in community.  The move to the future tense indicates that the life of the kingdom must wait for ultimate validation until God finishes the new creation.  There is a resistance, then, against Christianity as a philosophy of life that would make one healthy, wealthy, and wise.  It is not a scheme to reduce stress, lose weight, advance one’s career, make one financially successful, or preserve one from illness.  It is, rather, a way of living based on the sure and firm hope that one walks in the way of God and that righteousness and peace will finally prevail.

The Matthean beatitudes are spoken from a mountain, probably since, as one writing to the Jewish community, this would depict that it was something important.  (Reminiscent of Moses on Mt. Sinai.)  The version told by the writer of Luke is spoken from a “level place” (sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain.  Matthew’s beatitudes are spoken to a “crowd”.  When Jesus speaks in the Lucan version, he speaks specifically to his disciples.  Matthew version have no corresponding “woes”.  In Luke, there are four “woes” corresponding to four “blessings”.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this:  Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways.  Jesus knows only one possibility:  simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it.  That is the only way to hear his word.  He does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal; he really means us to get on with it.

The Beatitudes lay out a vision of a reversal of the world we know.  Jesus calls us to a radical kingdom that is totally different than the world in which we live.  Now don’t think that Jesus is merely laying out the conditions under which we would be blessed.  It is rather a promise of a radical reversal, an upside-down (or right-side-up) world.  It is a promise from a God that wants the best for us, a God that sees that we will indeed be blessed.  That is the promise—a blessed relationship with God.  So this is a picture of what that Kingdom looks like.  It is the way it should be and the way it will be.  The Beatitudes are meant to be descriptive rather than instructive.

Brendan Freeman, a Trappist monk, said that “the Beatitudes draw our hearts out of themselves into a new way of understanding our lives…they are deliberately incomplete.  They wait the inclusion of our lives.  Each person fills in the blank space with the details of his or her own life’s situation.” 

 

  1. What does this passage mean for you?
  2. What is the most difficult Beatitude for you to grasp?
  3. What difference does it mean to look at them as descriptive rather than instructive?
  4. In what ways might we interpret The Beatitudes incorrectly?

 

 

 

Some Quotes for Further Reflection:

More than a few Christian might be surprised to learn that the call to be involved in creating justice for the poor is just as essential and nonnegotiable within the spiritual life as is Jesus’ commandment to pray and keep our private lives in order. (Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing)

Do Justice

If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.  (William Penn)

Love Kindness

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.  (Thomas Merton)

 

Walk Humbly

 

Closing

Because we love the world, we pray now, O [God], for grace to quarrel with it, O Thou whose lover’s quarrel with the world is the history of the world . . . Lord, grant us grace to quarrel with the worship of success and power . . . to quarrel with all that profanes and trivializes [people] and separates them . . . number us, we beseech Thee, in the ranks of those who went forth from this place longing only for those things for which Thou dost make us long, [those] for whom the complexity of the issues only served to renew their zeal to deal with them, [those] who alleviated pain by sharing it; and [those] who were always willing to risk something big for something good . . . O God, take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire.  Amen.   (William Sloane Coffin, available at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3160, accessed 26 January, 2011)

 

 

 

Epiphany 2A: Come and See, Come Now

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following-christOLD TESTAMENT:  Isaiah 49: 1-7

Read the passage from Isaiah

This week’s Old Testament passage is the second of those writings known as the “servant songs” that we discussed last week.  In this one, it is the servant (and not God) that is presented to the world.  You can imagine him stepping forward and speaking as God once did.  He tells of his calling, which has already taken place.  This seems to be a calling that was made to a specific individual, rather than to the whole nation of Israel.  But in verse 3, “Israel” is unmistakably mentioned.  Some may think that rather than this intending to mean “Israel, my servant”, is may just as easily mean: “You are Israel.  You are my servant.”  But either way, Israel is called to follow God.

The servant here knows himself (or herself!) as having been called by God and accepts the role that God has laid out as the speaker to the nation.  The servant understands himself as a “light to the nations”.  This is the one time that the servant is depicted as an individual.  In this case the “call” moves from a wider scope to a more narrow one, from communal to individual.  But either way, the servant’s role is to lead the community toward God.

This passage begins with a reference to the nations, even to those peoples “far away”.  So what God is doing here in Zion is meant to be witnessed by all.  This is not a private affair.  Essentially, the nations (all of them) are to be illuminated through the servant’s activity and existence.  A light is not a focus of attention on itself, but serves to open eyes to something that was previously not perceived.  So because of this servant and, then, because of Israel, all nations are called forth into the light of God.  Here, “to be a light to the nations” does not mean necessarily going out and converting.  It means, rather, to be faithful to God in such a way that others will notice.

The servant, as part of the acceptance of his role, asserts his true and total dependence upon God.  He lays out that his whole life, even from birth, has been set with God’s purpose for this specific vocation.  But the results still seem to be hidden and the servant becomes skeptical of the outcome.  But, as the passage implies, being chosen is just that—it may not mean understanding everything but rather being open to following.  The servant, chosen and named, has no escape from the task for which he has been summoned.  The servant is well equipped for the work that he or she is called to do—gathering and being light.

 

  1. What comes to mind upon your reading of this passage?
  2. What does this image of the “light” to the nations mean to you?
  3. What is the difference between “converting” and being faithful enough that others will be led to God?
  4. What do you see it took for this servant to totally accept his God-offered role?
  5. So what does this mean for us?

 

NEW TESTAMENT:  1 Corinthians 1: 1-9

Read the passage from 1 Corinthians

Corinth is located about forty miles to the south-southwest of Athens on the isthmus that links that area to the rest of Greece.  In ancient times, then, the city was very strategic commercially and, for Paul, also strategic religiously.  Because of its location, it boasted a wide religious diversity.  Politically, it was a colony of the Roman Empire, which assured a special relationship with Rome and the Roman government.  It sort of had a reputation, then, of a seemingly wealthy community without a lot of depth to it.  Many viewed it as having a lack of culture.  Paul probably arrived in Corinth in 50 CE, after he had established churches in Philippi and Thessalonica.  We learn in what we call “The First Letter to the Corinthians” that there was at least one previous letter, which we do not possess.

It seems that, in an attempt to follow Paul’s guidance in that first letter, there are members of the church that have tried to distance themselves from seemingly “immoral” people.  So, in our “First Letter”, Paul reminds them that they are a community.  To be a believer apart from the community is inconceivable for Paul.  This is where we get the parts of the letter that talk about the different faith maturities and different gifts.

In the passage that we read, we once again encounter more “call” language.  It is clear that both Paul and every member of the community is “called”.  He affirms what they have done so far, but he also leads them to see that this is just the beginning of their own journey of living out their call.  Once again, with the call comes complete dependence upon God and for that we are reminded to be thankful for that and for others.  Paul’s relationship to other believers and his thankfulness to God are linked and is not based on whether Paul likes them or agrees with them, but on the simple fact that God’s grace is active in them.  Paul reminds us that our lives in Christ are never just our own but always involve how we relate to those around us. Essentially, he begins to confront what is becoming a sort of growing “spiritual arrogance” for the Corinthian church or the sense of one’s own self-importance and “rightness” when it comes to the faith.

This whole idea of how we see ourselves as Christians takes us back to that “light to the nations” image.  It confirms that none of us have “arrived” and that we are all still on the journey.  It is again a call to “Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention…” as we read in this week’s first passage.  It is a call for us to always be open to discerning who and whose we are for those of us who call ourselves “Christian”.

 

  1. What does this passage mean for you?
  2. What for you is meant by Paul’s image of this call by God—dependence upon God as well as relationships with others?
  3. In essence, Paul is claiming that the way we see ourselves as relating to God affects the way we see ourselves relating to others.  What meaning does that hold for you?
    1. How do you think those images affect relationships with others?
    2. Are there any that might contribute to that whole idea of “spiritual arrogance” that Paul warned against?
    3. So what does the call to be a “light to the nations” mean after reading this passage?

 

 

GOSPEL:  John 1: 29-42

Read the Gospel passage from The Gospel According to John

This passage is part of what is essentially the writer of John’s “prelude” to Jesus’ ministry.  Verses 1-18 celebrate Jesus’ origins, even back to “the beginning” of Creation;  Verses 19-34 narrates the initial witness of John the Baptist to Jesus; and Verses 35-51 depicts the gathering of Jesus’ first disciples.

So we begin in the middle of the John the Baptist section as John is shown as unafraid to speak the truth about his identity and his ministry.  He boldly announces the truth to anyone who will listen.  Verse 29 begins the highlight of John’s testimony and rather than just hearing “about” it, we get to hear the witness first hand.  Jesus sort of stands on the sidelines at the beginning.  John then identifies Jesus as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  He is pointing away from himself; he is pointing toward Jesus.  Note that sin is singular here.  It is talking about the collective brokenness of the world, rather than our individual sins.  He is pointing to Jesus as the Savior not of us as individuals but of the world.  And then John seems to step aside.

Then we switch to the beginning of the gathering of Jesus’ disciples.  Note here that two disciples follow Jesus as a direct result of John’s witness.  John showed them the light.  After this John simply disappears from the scene.  The verb “to follow” has both a literal meaning, but it is also often used as a metaphor for discipleship.  This is a distinctive trait of the writer of John’s style.  The first two disciples are the only ones given names in this call narrative.  The third one is not.  This anonymity is reflective of the writer’s understanding of discipleship as a broader vision.  (In essence, the “other disciple” could be us!) There is, for example, no formal catalogue of the twelve disciples in John.  Discipleship is meant for all of us.  And when Jesus calls us to follow, the answer is always “come and see”.  You have to come and see for yourself.

Walter Brueggemann describes our response as “finding a purpose for being in the world that is related to the purposes of God.”

“And what do you do?” we ask one another at a party. We get a list of accomplishments or a résumé, and sometimes we are caught off guard by the resigned description of a sad life. When that happens, we want to find another guest, one who follows the rules and says, “I’m in real estate. And you?”  What if we asked more of one another in our introductions? What if we skipped the world’s definitions and moved instead to God’s? The guest responds, “I work in real estate, but what I really am is a creature that God knit together in my mother’s womb. My family wants me to move into commercial development, but sometimes I wonder if I’m an arrow God hid away in a quiver, and I’m about to be shot out into creation. The world tells me I don’t make enough money to get my monthly credit card bills down, but my faith tells me I could be a light to the nations.”

Isaiah wanders over from the canapé table and says, “I couldn’t help but overhear your words, and I know exactly what you mean. I have labored in vain, yet surely my cause is with the Lord.”  “And our reward with God,” says the realtor. The party goes on around them, but they have been caught up in something new.  Jesus hears John introduce him again. This time John is standing with two men who will turn out to be the first disciples, and John announces, “Here is the Lamb of God.” That’s enough to make the men follow him, but Jesus seems to want to clarify.

“Who are you looking for?” he asks.  The disciples aren’t interested in the question. “Rabbi, where are you staying?” they ask. The disciples are not looking for small talk, or more introductions. They are looking for a way of life. “Come and see,” Jesus says, as if to suggest that we do know one another not by titles or names but ultimately by how we live. How ordinary. Jesus has gone from being the Lamb of God to a guy having some other guys over to his place.

But then Simon Peter’s brother brings him to Jesus and says, “We have found the Messiah.” Is Jesus irritated with the grand introduction? Apparently not, for he responds by giving Simon an entirely new name. In the end, it is Jesus who makes the introductions and Jesus who gives the new life. (From “Grand Introductions”, by Lillian Daniel, in The Christian Century, January 2-9, 2002, available at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2256, accessed 12 January, 2011.)

 

  1. What meaning does this passage hold for you?
  2. What does a “call” mean for you?
  3. What does it say about our own call?
  4. What stands in the way of our response?
  5. What meaning does John’s “stepping aside” mean for you?
  6. And how does this speak to the call to “be a light to the nations”?

 

 

 

Some Quotes for Further Reflection:

The desire to fulfill the purpose for which we were created is a gift from God. (A. W. Tozer)

Vocation does not come from willfulness.  It comes from a listening.  I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about—quite apart from what I’d like it to be about—or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions…Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue.  It means a calling that I hear.  (Parker Palmer, in Let Your Life Speak:  Listening for the Voice of Vocation, 4)

The message of Jesus Christ demands a response of the hearer’s whole life.  (Richard Lischer, The Preacher King:  Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Movement that Moved America)

 

 

Closing

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog,

And set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

 

So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.  It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed—we hold these truths to be self evident, that all persons are created equal.

 

Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

Happy are those who make the Lord their trust,

Who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.

 

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of [humanity]…I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  I have a dream today!

 

You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds

And your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you.

Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

 

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mount shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

 

Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

I delight to do your will, I my God; your law is within my heart.”

I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation;

See, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.

 

With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.  With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of [unity].  With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together…to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

 

I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

 

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning—“my country ‘tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing;

 

Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me;

 

And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at last; thank God almighty, we are free at last.”

 

Let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.  Amen.

 

(Compiled by Shelli Williams from the words of Psalm 40: 1-11 and excerpts from “I Have a Dream”, a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)