Preparing for the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - Matthew 5:13-20

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

 These words at the end of this passage are definitively charged.  Our righteousness must surpass that of the religious leaders of the day?  Our presence in the kingdom of heaven depends on it according to Christ.  This is quite the tall order!  Now certainly, Jesus had cast charges against the Pharisees and teachers of the law in other areas, but these charges are directed at those who would follow Jesus directly and only reference the other two groups as a negative example.

First, we are to hold on to the saltiness that we received when we first came to know Jesus.  We must not let the things of the world dilute our ability to season and preserve that which is bound up in the in-breaking of the kingdom of heaven here on earth.  If we become too diluted by the world around us, we will no longer be effect agents of Christ.

The second part of the verse seems to be calling us to again push away the things of this world that would dampen the power of Christ working in us and through us.  Whatever bushels the world would put over our lights, we are to escape them so that our light may be continuously seen.  We are to utilize our saltiness to season the world around us in the name of Jesus and we are to allow our light to shine to the world around us so that Christ might be glorified.

It is only after these analogies that Jesus suggests that this is not in opposition of the law or the teachings of the prophets, but rather a means of Christ (and by extension, I am inferring, his disciples) of fulfilling them.  Remember how Israel lost its saltiness through disobedience?  Recall how God's people dampened their own lights and the light and power of God working in them and through them by chasing after their own desires instead of living into the will that God had for them?  How many prophets did God send attempting to get light and salt re-activated in the Old Testament.

Matthew bears witness to the model that Jesus has provided for his disciples and the truth that he lived out throughout his life and ministry.  What becomes important now is not what our worship or our rituals or personal piety looks like, but rather the way we permit Christ to work in us and through us.  Is Christ central in our lives?

So what exists in your world that dilutes your saltiness or dampens your light?  Where have you allowed the commands of Christ to be minimized or ignored in your life?

I am reminded of the words of one of the communion liturgies that are used here as I take this inventory myself:  Holy God, we admit that we have not always been an obedient church.  We have failed to feed the hungry and to clothe the needy...forgive us...free us for joyful obedience...how very appropriate seeing as we are coming up on the celebration of Holy Communion this weekend.

I pray that the fullness of God's forgiveness is experienced by us all and that we may leave our places of worship this weekend renewed and freed for the calling that God has placed on each of our lives.

Preparing for the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2} For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”^[b]—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.^{[c] 14} The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
    so as to instruct him?”^[d]

But we have the mind of Christ.

 

After Paul's discourse on God's power through weakness last week, he is now addressing the church about the source and the power of true wisdom.  If worldly forces and influences are what create most of the problems for those following God (as it was in the ancient near east of the Old Testament and the 1st century New Testament era), then Paul is right in feeling called to preach the truth about where wisdom comes from and how it is attained.  For Paul it is a serious difference; it is the difference between a life built on truth verses a life that is built on lies.  It is a place where Paul pits the person following the philosopher of the modern age against the one who is embodied by the Holy Spirit and open to the wisdom the Spirit would impart.  Personal piety and ritual have less to do with our faithfulness and obedience for Paul, than the place from which we derive our wisdom.

Now some of what comes in Paul's corrective teaching to the church in Corinth may be the pendulum swung at the complete opposite of where the Corinthians had been.  I am inclined to listen to that juxtaposition, but I listen to it with a Wesleyan bent.  Remember our Wesleyan Quadrilateral?  Scripture is primary, but reason, experience and tradition also play vital roles.  I believe that God gave us reason to be used...but not to be elevated to the point of being equal to the wisdom that comes from a life lived deeply entrenched in the presence of God.

So here are the questions that resonate from me as I ramble:  where have I/you/we sought knowledge or wisdom simply for the sake of having it (whether that was merely to know more than those around us or to satisfy some deep need to know more than we knew before for mere knowledge sake)?  Have you, like I have, sometimes sought counsel or wisdom from somewhere worldly rather than turning to God for a fresh outpouring of wisdom from the Holy Spirit?  Have you, again like I have, had times where you have finally gotten fed up with the world's view and gone to God to have your perspective refreshed and grown in your Godly wisdom and knowledge?

Looking forward to Sunday, please feel free to share your comments below.

Preparing for the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - Psalm 112:1-10

Praise the Lord.^[b]

Blessed are those who fear the Lord,
    who find great delight in his commands.

² Their children will be mighty in the land;
    the generation of the upright will be blessed.
³ Wealth and riches are in their houses,
    and their righteousness endures forever.
⁴ Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
    for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.
⁵ Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,
    who conduct their affairs with justice.

⁶ Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
    they will be remembered forever.
⁷ They will have no fear of bad news;
    their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
⁸ Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
    in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
⁹ They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor,
    their righteousness endures forever;
    their horn^[c] will be lifted high in honor.

¹⁰ The wicked will see and be vexed,
    they will gnash their teeth and waste away;
    the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

 

This is one of the many psalms that are actually acrostic poems where each line begins with a different successive letter in the Hebrew alphabet.  We miss the beauty and creativity when we look at it in the translated form.

 

That aside, we are reminded once again that genuine, holy reverence draws our lives into God's desire for justice and righteousness in the world.  The service of the righteous is recognized by both God and the Psalmist.  Their faith has borne good works and their righteousness (because it is God's righteousness working in them and through them) will endure forever.  Their dignity, symbolized by the horn, will be lifted high (by God) in honor.

 

These passages, both the one yesterday and the one above, may also speak to our identity amnesia or the forgetfulness of who we are and whose we are.  The constant repetition of what a follower of God looks like and how a follower of God interacts with the world around them is shown in a multitude of voices (both prophetic and poetic) so that all might hear and respond to God's divine Word.

 

 

Preparing for the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

 

Many studies in the sociological and religious world have said in the past decade that one of the top reasons people don't become Christian or go to church is because we are all hypocrites. For a Christian or a church to hear those words about themselves is tough to handle.  Seems like the people of God have been wrestling with this issue for thousands of years...yes, even before the 'church' was birthed.

 

Isaiah speaks this week to perhaps one of the most intensely religious practices of Judaism and Christianity that anyone could participate in.  The purpose of denying ourselves sustenance in the process of fasting is to deepen our commitment to hearing God.  The result of such practice, one would think, would be to have bodies that are bent towards obedience to God.  Like the people of God that Isaiah was addressing in the historical context, if our religious practices are not yielding obedience and a reflection of the one we are leaning into, then perhaps we need to check our motives.  Isaiah believes that this deep connectivity to God (through ritual practices), should create transformation in the pious participant that leads to acts of social justice.  We simply cannot truly pray and fast and continue to ignore the poor and the hungry in our midst.

 

So the invitation in reading this text, and living it out, requires us to re-examine our own religious practice.  Do  we say one thing and do another (like, I'll pray for you and then forget to pray)?  Do we attend to the divine presence when in fact our hearts and minds are somewhere else (like what's for lunch or on our grocery list for the shopping spree after church)?  Do we use our rituals to pronounce our love for God to sanction injustice and violence (just look at the news and I bet you can come up with some examples of this one)?

 

My hope and prayer is that we (myself included) would continue to be shaped by God's word in such a way that obedience, faithfulness, justice, mercy, and love were all products of our transformation.

Preparing for the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany - Matthew 5:1-12

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 

I invite you to reflect on these words:

 "Jesus is the one who will now mark the path to God as the path of this specific lowliness, mourning, meekness, mercy, and peacemaking.  This God will be found in no other way, and this way will also be stained by the world's revulsion, rejection, persecution, slander, and purposes of death.  The divine dynamic of the world where power flows from the powerful, the socially acceptable, and the beautiful through the circuits of influence they created.  God desires to render their power useless, exposing it as that which comes from dust and must eventually return to dust.  The theological matter at play in this dynamic is the identity of God, which might mistakenly be equated with worldly power.  Unlike worldly power, the power of God will make its home in weak places."

                                            -Luke A. Powery and Willie Jennings (Abingdon Theological Companion

                                               to the Lectionary - Preaching Year A, page 59)

 

May we too find God's power in the broken and weak places of our lives and may we be vessels of that power towards others.  Amen.

Preparing for the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”^[a]

²⁰ Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."

God continues to reorient my thinking.  After two old testament texts that reveals a more ethical set of requirements for being in the presence of God, now Paul adds fuel to the fire as he and Jesus teach us that God chooses the foolish, lowly, poor and weak over the strong and wise of this world to work as God's agents.  I mean Paul all but says that God's weakness is greater than any...I mean any...human power.  Further more, the only way that you and I can truly know God's power is through the Son's weakness.  Isn't this Holy Reversal (or revolution if you like) at the heart of every human conversion?  Redemption should have destroyed our boasting in ourselves, yet Paul finds it necessary to remind us (even still today) that our boasts should be solely in the Lord.

What areas of strength in your life are actually areas of strength because of the Son's weakness?  Are we still running around with the mentality of, "don't you know who I think I am?" or are we close enough to God to allow the weakness of the cross to be our wisdom and power?

Preparing for the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany - Psalm 15

Psalm 15

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
    Who may live on your holy mountain?

² The one whose walk is blameless,
    who does what is righteous,
    who speaks the truth from their heart;
³ whose tongue utters no slander,
    who does no wrong to a neighbor,
    and casts no slur on others;
⁴ who despises a vile person
    but honors those who fear the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
    and does not change their mind;
⁵ who lends money to the poor without interest;
    who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things
    will never be shaken.

 

As we move closer to Sunday worship, we move from the prophetic words of the prophet Micah to the poetic words of the psalmist David.

 

We find in this psalm the some of the potential roots of the refrain of a well known African American spiritual.  When taken with the words found in Psalm 1 verse 3 we come up with the words, "Like a tree that's planted by the water, we shall not be moved". 

 

It is interesting that many in the academic world see this as what is referred to as an example of an entrance liturgy - words that would prepare folks for worship.  Taken in its context, however, it may lend itself more to what it means to be constantly abandoned to God's instruction, to live under God's refuge, and to live surrendered to God's rule.

 

I love how the prophetic and the poetic echo each other.  I love how the prophet and the psalmist from two different eras reflect the same character of God and the same message from God to God's people.  So what if the living out of our faith (outside of worship) and the expectations of us in coming to God in worship were the same?  What if my church life and the rest of my life were in synch with one another?  What if I didn't come to worship until I had dealt with the wrong I had done to my neighbor?  What if I allowed what I learned in church and from the scriptures to shape me so radically that I never hurt my neighbor to begin with?  What if my walk on the week days was as blameless as my walk on the day of worship?  What if I spoke truth from the heart at every turn?

 

I invite you to take the answers to the question in verse one  (those answers are found in verses 2-5)and turn them into questions for reflection (as I just exemplified above).  Maybe, just maybe, the Holy Spirit will have a word for all of us that do this.