Jim:
Leviticus 16:1-19, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
I think 1 Thessalonians 4:18 offers a very nice summation to all three of these passages, as difficult as they may seem. “Therefore,” writes Paul, “encourage one another with these words.” Whether it is the way that Aaron was to offer sacrifices to God, the manner by which the resurrection is to take place, or the attitude one is to take in one’s prayer life, all of these passages should be understood as encouraging God’s people in their faithful living. If one reads these passages and comes away feeling overwhelmed or discouraged, he or she has missed the point. Yes, Aaron had to go through a number of steps as outlined in Leviticus 16, most of which arise from the sins of the people. But the point is that God welcomes Aaron into the divine presence, and remains committed to the relationship with the people of Israel. Yes, there are believers who have died before the return of Jesus. But this does not nullify the truth of the resurrection or of the coming kingdom which will be a glorious experience. Yes, there are those who make prayer a spectacle and who are considered respected members of the community. But God is not fooled by false piety and is attentive to the prayer of the humble. Be encouraged, Paul might say in each case, and know that God continues to be at work. Do what is right, do what God calls you to do, and let God take care of the rest, for God is truly working out the divine purpose.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Hardness of Heart and Mind
Jim:
Exodus 7:25-8:19
Previously in Exodus 4:21 we were told that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not respond to Moses. Here in 8:15, though, we read that “…when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his (own) heart….” And later in 8:19 we are told that, “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened…” reminding us, I think, that Pharaoh had previously made a decision to disregard God’s work and God’s word. So while God certainly has the power to hardened hearts and to guide human affairs, sinfulness is such that we are also quite capable of hardening our own hearts and turning our backs against God’s will. The ambivalence concerning who hardened Pharaoh’s heart is a good reminder of the importance of remaining alert to God’s word in our own lives. Comedian Flip Wilson used to play a character named Geraldine who’s catch phrase was “the devil made me do it!” But while God can effect the human will, to blame the devil for our own misdeeds is to ignore our own fault in the matter. However we look at it, Pharaoh was most guilty in his actions because he was acting out of a desire to control events which placed him in opposition to God’s will.
2 Corinthians 3:7-18
There is an interesting connection to the Exodus passage in 2 Corinthians. “But their minds were hardened,” writes Paul in verse 14. I take this to mean that the people themselves had hardened their minds, had decided to ignore God’s activity, the new thing God was doing in Jesus Christ. For Paul growth in the faith can only come when the veil, the stubbornness, the obstinacy is removed as it is in Jesus Christ. This may be one effort to explain why some people express faith in God though Jesus while other people, given the same information and the same opportunity, choose not to express that faith.
Exodus 7:25-8:19
Previously in Exodus 4:21 we were told that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not respond to Moses. Here in 8:15, though, we read that “…when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his (own) heart….” And later in 8:19 we are told that, “Pharaoh’s heart was hardened…” reminding us, I think, that Pharaoh had previously made a decision to disregard God’s work and God’s word. So while God certainly has the power to hardened hearts and to guide human affairs, sinfulness is such that we are also quite capable of hardening our own hearts and turning our backs against God’s will. The ambivalence concerning who hardened Pharaoh’s heart is a good reminder of the importance of remaining alert to God’s word in our own lives. Comedian Flip Wilson used to play a character named Geraldine who’s catch phrase was “the devil made me do it!” But while God can effect the human will, to blame the devil for our own misdeeds is to ignore our own fault in the matter. However we look at it, Pharaoh was most guilty in his actions because he was acting out of a desire to control events which placed him in opposition to God’s will.
2 Corinthians 3:7-18
There is an interesting connection to the Exodus passage in 2 Corinthians. “But their minds were hardened,” writes Paul in verse 14. I take this to mean that the people themselves had hardened their minds, had decided to ignore God’s activity, the new thing God was doing in Jesus Christ. For Paul growth in the faith can only come when the veil, the stubbornness, the obstinacy is removed as it is in Jesus Christ. This may be one effort to explain why some people express faith in God though Jesus while other people, given the same information and the same opportunity, choose not to express that faith.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Firstborns and the Role of the Mind in Faith
Jim:
Exodus 4:10-31
I don’t think I had ever really noticed the fact that God had determined to kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son even before Moses left for Egypt. But there it is in verses 22-23, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.’” This certainly puts the killing of the firstborns into a context by tying it to Israel whom God claims as a firstborn. But Israel (Jacob) wasn’t the firstborn of his generation. Esau was the firstborn and Jacob, the supplanter, was born second. Jacob only becomes the firstborn in a manner of speaking by way of the birthright he finagled from his brother and the blessing he duped Isaac into to giving him. Later of course he wrestled with God by the ford of the Jabbok and gained a blessing and a new name (and a limp). So Israel (and specifically the descendants of Israel now living in Egypt) is the firstborn of God only in a figurative sense, the way the nation of Israel will later be referred to a the bride of God, or perhaps by way of the covenant to which Jacob has become a party. But either way, because of this relationship between God and the people of Israel, one that is as dear to God as that between a parent and a firstborn child, God will kill the firstborn of Pharaoh. And Moses knows this before he even leaves Midian.
1 Corinthians 14:1-19
Those of us who are Presbyterian and who put great stock in an intellectual approach to the faith should take interest in Paul’s words in verse 15. “What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.” There are a number of ways to apply this verse, but today I’m led to consider it a call to worship God with all of who I am. It’s not enough to go through the motions, to participate in worship physically while my mind is on something else. I need to give everything I am to God, body and mind, and use everything that God gives me to the glory of God, day in and day out. As the ad campaign for the United Negro College Fund says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” We “waste” the intellect that God has given us when we try to separate it from our lives of discipleship, whether in worship or wherever we happen to be.
Mark 9:30-41
Interestingly, no mention is made by Mark as to whether the child that Jesus places in the midst of the disciples was the firstborn of his or her family (verses 36-37). And yet this unnamed child served as an example of discipleship anyway, just the way that Jacob (Israel) served as God’s firstborn in the Exodus passage.
Exodus 4:10-31
I don’t think I had ever really noticed the fact that God had determined to kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son even before Moses left for Egypt. But there it is in verses 22-23, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.’” This certainly puts the killing of the firstborns into a context by tying it to Israel whom God claims as a firstborn. But Israel (Jacob) wasn’t the firstborn of his generation. Esau was the firstborn and Jacob, the supplanter, was born second. Jacob only becomes the firstborn in a manner of speaking by way of the birthright he finagled from his brother and the blessing he duped Isaac into to giving him. Later of course he wrestled with God by the ford of the Jabbok and gained a blessing and a new name (and a limp). So Israel (and specifically the descendants of Israel now living in Egypt) is the firstborn of God only in a figurative sense, the way the nation of Israel will later be referred to a the bride of God, or perhaps by way of the covenant to which Jacob has become a party. But either way, because of this relationship between God and the people of Israel, one that is as dear to God as that between a parent and a firstborn child, God will kill the firstborn of Pharaoh. And Moses knows this before he even leaves Midian.
1 Corinthians 14:1-19
Those of us who are Presbyterian and who put great stock in an intellectual approach to the faith should take interest in Paul’s words in verse 15. “What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.” There are a number of ways to apply this verse, but today I’m led to consider it a call to worship God with all of who I am. It’s not enough to go through the motions, to participate in worship physically while my mind is on something else. I need to give everything I am to God, body and mind, and use everything that God gives me to the glory of God, day in and day out. As the ad campaign for the United Negro College Fund says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” We “waste” the intellect that God has given us when we try to separate it from our lives of discipleship, whether in worship or wherever we happen to be.
Mark 9:30-41
Interestingly, no mention is made by Mark as to whether the child that Jesus places in the midst of the disciples was the firstborn of his or her family (verses 36-37). And yet this unnamed child served as an example of discipleship anyway, just the way that Jacob (Israel) served as God’s firstborn in the Exodus passage.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Leaving a Mark
Jim:
Exodus 2:23-3:15
Yesterday we learned something about the name Moses. Today we learn something about God’s identity. The Hebrew word that God uses as a name can be translated a number of ways: I Am Who I Am, I Am What I AM, I Will Be What I Will Be; perhaps more literally He Causes To Be. According to the Oxford Annotated Study Bible this name has less to with God’s eternal being as the fact that God is present in historic affairs. In other words, God is. And in this divine being God takes certain actions and facilitates certain events. Another way of thinking about this might be to say that God leaves a mark, a sign of presence in the world. The bush through which God spoke did not burn, but lives are changed whenever God appears, and those lives become a sign of God’s presence and effort. As we see further on in Exodus, Moses has a number of objections to accepting the task to which God calls him, but a real, present God over comes them all, and eventually Moses will return to Egypt to lead the people to the promised land.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
These are perhaps Paul’s most familiar words. Verses 4-7 sum things up nicely: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious of boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” In other words, love also “leaves a mark”, a sign of its presence in changed lives and opened hearts. Like God, love is visible in certain actions and in the facilitation of certain events. This may be why Paul considers love to be the greatest of the gifts.
Mark 9:14-29
My heart has always gone out to the father in this story, especially when he says, “I believe; help my unbelief” (verse 24)! But it was not until I had children that I really understood the depth of these words. Because of his love for his child this father is willing to face his own lack of faith, his own doubts and fears, and to ask in effect, that Jesus heal him as well as his son. So here we see an even where God and love both “leave a mark” in very real terms. God’s healing power (and love) in Jesus and the love of the father for the son.
Exodus 2:23-3:15
Yesterday we learned something about the name Moses. Today we learn something about God’s identity. The Hebrew word that God uses as a name can be translated a number of ways: I Am Who I Am, I Am What I AM, I Will Be What I Will Be; perhaps more literally He Causes To Be. According to the Oxford Annotated Study Bible this name has less to with God’s eternal being as the fact that God is present in historic affairs. In other words, God is. And in this divine being God takes certain actions and facilitates certain events. Another way of thinking about this might be to say that God leaves a mark, a sign of presence in the world. The bush through which God spoke did not burn, but lives are changed whenever God appears, and those lives become a sign of God’s presence and effort. As we see further on in Exodus, Moses has a number of objections to accepting the task to which God calls him, but a real, present God over comes them all, and eventually Moses will return to Egypt to lead the people to the promised land.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
These are perhaps Paul’s most familiar words. Verses 4-7 sum things up nicely: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious of boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” In other words, love also “leaves a mark”, a sign of its presence in changed lives and opened hearts. Like God, love is visible in certain actions and in the facilitation of certain events. This may be why Paul considers love to be the greatest of the gifts.
Mark 9:14-29
My heart has always gone out to the father in this story, especially when he says, “I believe; help my unbelief” (verse 24)! But it was not until I had children that I really understood the depth of these words. Because of his love for his child this father is willing to face his own lack of faith, his own doubts and fears, and to ask in effect, that Jesus heal him as well as his son. So here we see an even where God and love both “leave a mark” in very real terms. God’s healing power (and love) in Jesus and the love of the father for the son.
Friday, March 7, 2008
At the Intersection With God
Jim:
Exodus 2:1-22
Verse 10 says, “When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” The name Moses seems to be an interesting combination of Egyptian and Hebrew words. According to the Oxford Annotated Study Bible, “Moses” actually comes from an Egyptian word meaning “to beget a child.” It also may be connected to the name of an Egyptian deity named Thut-mose. But Moses is also very close to the Hebrew very meaning to draw out, close enough that it becomes a pun of sorts. All of this is significant because, like his name, Moses himself stands at an important intersection between Egyptian and Hebrew cultures, similar to the role that Joseph was called on to play, and just as much a sign of God’s providential care for the children of Israel. Moses, then like Joseph, presents a sort of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis triad through which God brings about a new understanding of who God is and what God expects of us. Ultimately, of course, the most important intersection through which God acts is the one where the Word of God becomes incarnate and enters the world.
Exodus 2:1-22
Verse 10 says, “When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, ‘because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” The name Moses seems to be an interesting combination of Egyptian and Hebrew words. According to the Oxford Annotated Study Bible, “Moses” actually comes from an Egyptian word meaning “to beget a child.” It also may be connected to the name of an Egyptian deity named Thut-mose. But Moses is also very close to the Hebrew very meaning to draw out, close enough that it becomes a pun of sorts. All of this is significant because, like his name, Moses himself stands at an important intersection between Egyptian and Hebrew cultures, similar to the role that Joseph was called on to play, and just as much a sign of God’s providential care for the children of Israel. Moses, then like Joseph, presents a sort of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis triad through which God brings about a new understanding of who God is and what God expects of us. Ultimately, of course, the most important intersection through which God acts is the one where the Word of God becomes incarnate and enters the world.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Unity Among God's People
Jim:
Exodus 1:6-22
Reading the account contained in Exodus one understands why minority groups and marginalized people have found comfort in what it says. Verse 12 reads, “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.” All of us would like to see ourselves in the role of the children of Israel in this passage, but what oppresses most of us is our own sinfulness, our own poor choices. We fit well into our culture and move easily within our society. On the other hand, who are the ones who suffer neglect in our own communities? Who are the lonely and hungry? Who are the outcasts. It is impossible for most of us to read the Exodus account as oppressed people in those terms. But there are those for whom this account provides hope and it is they whom we should seek to help and to support, lest we become more like the Egyptians.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
Paul’s words to the church in Corinth appeal for unity among all God’s people. In verse 13 we find, “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Clearly, if all of us were to live as common members of the body of Christ the risk of oppression and marginalization would be significantly reduced. Unfortunately we are all too quick to find ways to divide and separate ourselves one from another. Paul reminds us that though we are different in some ways, we share a common purpose according to the will of God, and that common purpose should be more than enough to bind us together in harmony and love.
Mark 8:27-9:1
8:35 offers one of those paradoxes for which the Christian faith is well known. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” If we live for today, if we strive for what we can accumulate for ourselves in worldly goods, then we’ve missed the point. Comfort in this life is not a priority for the gospel. In fact, if we must choose between comfort now and the hope and expectation of the coming kingdom, Jesus strongly urges us to choose the kingdom. This is a unifying element to the faith as well. If we allow our distinctions to divide us in this life we are choosing the present as our focus. But if we seek unity and a common bond, then we are setting our coarse for the coming kingdom and the will of God.
Exodus 1:6-22
Reading the account contained in Exodus one understands why minority groups and marginalized people have found comfort in what it says. Verse 12 reads, “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.” All of us would like to see ourselves in the role of the children of Israel in this passage, but what oppresses most of us is our own sinfulness, our own poor choices. We fit well into our culture and move easily within our society. On the other hand, who are the ones who suffer neglect in our own communities? Who are the lonely and hungry? Who are the outcasts. It is impossible for most of us to read the Exodus account as oppressed people in those terms. But there are those for whom this account provides hope and it is they whom we should seek to help and to support, lest we become more like the Egyptians.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
Paul’s words to the church in Corinth appeal for unity among all God’s people. In verse 13 we find, “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Clearly, if all of us were to live as common members of the body of Christ the risk of oppression and marginalization would be significantly reduced. Unfortunately we are all too quick to find ways to divide and separate ourselves one from another. Paul reminds us that though we are different in some ways, we share a common purpose according to the will of God, and that common purpose should be more than enough to bind us together in harmony and love.
Mark 8:27-9:1
8:35 offers one of those paradoxes for which the Christian faith is well known. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” If we live for today, if we strive for what we can accumulate for ourselves in worldly goods, then we’ve missed the point. Comfort in this life is not a priority for the gospel. In fact, if we must choose between comfort now and the hope and expectation of the coming kingdom, Jesus strongly urges us to choose the kingdom. This is a unifying element to the faith as well. If we allow our distinctions to divide us in this life we are choosing the present as our focus. But if we seek unity and a common bond, then we are setting our coarse for the coming kingdom and the will of God.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Random Thoughts
Jim:
Genesis 50:15-26
Verse 20 sums up the entire Joseph story. He tells his brothers, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good…” Joseph’s brothers were intent on ridding themselves of a nuisance, but through their actions God worked to preserve them. When they sold Joseph into slavery they were actually securing their own future. We can not really know what God is up to at any given time, but we can trust that God is working out the divine purpose, through our actions—and often despite them. Our challenge is to discover God’s will for our lives and to seek to serve God instead of working against God. This takes prayer and an openness to what God may be saying to us.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
In verses 4-6 Paul uses a Trinitarian formula to describe the unity found in the diversity of the church. “Now there are varieties of gifts,” he writes, “but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” Even if we do not serve God in the same way that someone else does we are still united with that person in the fact that it is God who has given us each our gift for service. Just as God is united––three in one––so are we, our various skills, talents, and insights given to us as a means of supporting the church and each other.
Mark 8:11-26
The story in verses 22-26 is fascinating in that it shows Jesus “fine tuning” a healing, laying his hands on a blind man a second time to give the man his sight.
Genesis 50:15-26
Verse 20 sums up the entire Joseph story. He tells his brothers, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good…” Joseph’s brothers were intent on ridding themselves of a nuisance, but through their actions God worked to preserve them. When they sold Joseph into slavery they were actually securing their own future. We can not really know what God is up to at any given time, but we can trust that God is working out the divine purpose, through our actions—and often despite them. Our challenge is to discover God’s will for our lives and to seek to serve God instead of working against God. This takes prayer and an openness to what God may be saying to us.
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
In verses 4-6 Paul uses a Trinitarian formula to describe the unity found in the diversity of the church. “Now there are varieties of gifts,” he writes, “but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.” Even if we do not serve God in the same way that someone else does we are still united with that person in the fact that it is God who has given us each our gift for service. Just as God is united––three in one––so are we, our various skills, talents, and insights given to us as a means of supporting the church and each other.
Mark 8:11-26
The story in verses 22-26 is fascinating in that it shows Jesus “fine tuning” a healing, laying his hands on a blind man a second time to give the man his sight.
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