Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
23rd Sunday after Pentecost (Reformation Sunday)
Introduction to the Season of Pentecost
Welcome to the season of Pentecost where we remember and meditate on God's great outpouring of the Spirit on "all flesh" (Joel 2:28). Through the Spirit we have been born again as children of God. The Spirit is our guide, our comforter, our advocate, our guarantee and seal, the convicter of sin, and the sustainer of our faith. The Spirit empowers us for witness and ministry. During this season we will hear from pastors, missionaries, authors, and ministers. Each of them through the guidance of the Holy Spirit will tune our hearts and minds to God's missional activity in the Scriptures and challenge us to live, walk, and testify by that same Spirit to our world today.
Bishop Gohl reminds us "That Spirit empowers us to continue what Jesus kindled in the heart of every disciple - an unquenchable thirst for truth coupled with an evangelical urgency to share that truth, in word and deed, for the sake of God and neighbor." Steve Hawthorne will give us three practical lessons from the calling of Samuel and Tabor Laughlin will lead us to consider that during our momentary troubles we must seek to join God in what he is doing and not wait until better times to follow God.
Yamil Acevedo examines our cultural toolkit and how "the deification of our cultural presuppositions and resources, intentional or not, hinders the missio Dei." We are reminded by Paulo Oliveira that the common threads of altruism, suffering and glory characterize how God models missional engagement with the world. Finally, Philip Hirsch concludes the season of Pentecost with the message the world is waiting to hear; that knowing the way of Jesus is the hope for all humanity.
As we enter into this season of Pentecost let us each ask God to stir the Holy Spirit that dwells within us to empower us to join him in the missio Dei so that we might be his witnesses in our families, our cities, our countries, and to the ends of the earth. Amen.
Reverend Rhonda Garrison Haynes is an ordained minister of the Word and served God on the mission field of Bolivia for seven years. While in Bolivia she partnered with local believers to plant churches and disciple new believers. Prior to her service in Bolivia she was a missionary to her children raising them to know Christ as Lord, and served in her local church and community "doing the stuff" which shined Christ's light to the "least of these" through evangelism proclamation as well as social ministry to the poor and marginalized. Currently, she is pursuing her doctorate in Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
THE DAY OF PENTECOST
Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:22-27 or Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
Exegetical Missional Insights
The Day of Pentecost brings the missio Dei to a crescendo: God's breaking into the world in a new and different way, the indwelling of such a Spirit in the heart of every believer.
Until this moment, Jesus has physically led the disciples and the beginnings of the church gathered around them. Until this giving of the Spirit, Jesus has preached and taught for those who would follow him. From this time forward, the Spirit will be the Advocate, sent from the Father, to continue the mystagogy/revelation, to lead the disciples and the whole church into all truth. It's a truly exciting moment swept up in the solemnity of both what was and a sense of what is to come.
Even as Jesus describes this moment, an exchange of presence/power, he acknowledges that the disciples feel a keen sense of loss, of being orphaned by the very risen Lord they have come to more fully experience and believe in. What is this Spirit compared to the concrete, physical reality of Jesus' bodily presence among them? Just when they have come to trust by their own eyes, ears and experience - to know that Jesus is the incarnation of God's presence - and they take those wobbly first steps to follow where our savior has first led the way; it is all changed and, ostensibly, taken away again.
First and foremost, the Day of Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit; still, at the heart of mission of God in the Pentecost event is the culmination of the mystery of faith. In the giving of the Spirit, Jesus asks us - his disciples, the church - to receive what God is giving anew: the Spirit, an Advocate sent by God that will guide us into a new understanding of the truth with the sure promise that this same Spirit will cause an indwelling that abides with us, in us, through us, always and ultimately in all ways.
That Spirit empowers us to continue what Jesus kindled in the heart of every disciple - an unquenchable thirst for truth coupled with an evangelical urgency to share that truth, in word and deed, for the sake of God and neighbor. That is what Jesus promises all who believe, the Advocate comes and will not leave us, empowering all of us for the work of ministry and making us credible witnesses of the life-changing love of God which transforms us in time, for eternity.
Acts 2:1-21
Every community is multilingual. Even in those where one language dominates - there is still the love languages of different generations, the language of the streets and marketplaces, the sometimes sentimental pap language of an increasingly spiritual but not religious world. The Pentecost event in Acts 2 reminds us that the Good News must be declared in ways that the world can hear it, ie. the unchanging Gospel message must be proclaimed in new ways, with new voices, so that those who have not yet heard or believed might experience Christ in dependable and powerful ways. That work starts in the church - we must be mindful of and break down barriers around "church-speak" - the theological and institutional language "everyone" knows and the newcomer can hardly decipher. This is not easy work - and it inevitably leads the greater challenge: listening to the community to learn the nuance, idiom, and even the slang of the neighbor, in order to translate and share the Good News in ways that people can hear it. This is critical as we seek to "open ears" even as God "loosens our tongues."
Romans 8:22-27
Paul lifts the physicality of the Pentecost moment into the more ethereal theological experience of the Spirit in the cosmos. The Apostle to the Apostles speaks of the entire creation groaning in deep and expectant hope. Like Jesus, he assures the church that this Holy Spirit is nothing less than new life catching fire in the hearts of disciples. That same Spirit drives us forward, gathering the whole creation into nothing less than a harvest of hope.
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
After hearing about the Pentecost moment in Acts - and Paul's amplification in Romans - we "step back" to Jesus speaking to the disciples before his death. In what cinematographers call a "flashback scene" Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as our helper and advocate, and gives witness to the Pentecost moment and its aftermath, describing how the Spirit would make a difference in our lives, and empower us to make a difference in the world.
As Dr. John Barkman said in a recent contribution to this ongoing missiological conversation: an important part of preaching the mission of God is to grapple with the fact that the one mission of God comes to all the variety of the human condition. By speaking in truth to all of that diversity, the preacher is able to call all to one unity in Christ Jesus. These texts amplify that call to speak truth and give us the promise of God with us; the Holy Spirit who gives us the language and words to broker hope for a world that longs for truth.
Biographical Summary
William (Bill) Gohl, Jr. serves as bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod, ELCA. A graduate of Gettysburg College and the former Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, he continues to learn the love languages of his synod's many geographies so that the Gospel may be shared and heard anew.
The First Sunday After Pentecost
Trinity Sunday
Isaiah 6:1-8
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17
God's Mission in the Text
Today is Trinity Sunday, the day in the church year set apart to reflect on the mystery of God in three people. Unlike the other feasts and festivals that commemorate a person or an event, the feast of the Holy Trinity is a celebration of a doctrine. It is the doctrine of the one true God who has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The gospel lesson for this Holy Trinity Sunday is about an encounter between the night visitor and Jesus. Not just any visitor but a religious leader who lived in a society with informers, Temple police, and unsubstantiated accusations that can lead to charges and punishment.
I grew up in communist regime that persecuted Christians until its downfall in the early nineties. Church buildings were destroyed or converted to multi-purpose halls. In many places Churches were used for mandatory pro-government propaganda chorus choir rehearsal places to disgrace the sacred place. Only a few churches were open for worship in large cities. Even though the church buildings were gone, Christian gathering continued at homes. To such underground gatherings, sometimes, persecutors of Christians showed up without being noticed by their communist peers. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether the official came to spy on Christians or was genuinely seeking to worship God.
When I was in Teachers Training Institute, a few Christian students formed a fellowship. Our fellowship met off campus for weekly worship and bible study. As Christians we were not allowed to congregate on campus even for social events. Workers Party Cadre members were actively monitoring us. After a few months, the main cadre from the student body approached me privately inquiring if we prayed for a persecutor like him. I said yes, assuming that it was just one way he was harassing us.
He was serious. He said, "if you pray for me without revealing that I am asking for prayers, and if in fact your God hears your prayer and heals me from nose bleeding, I would stop harassing you." The prayer request was shared with our Christian Fellowship members that night. We prayed. Two days later, the man came running to ask if in fact we prayed for him. I said yes. And he responded, "now I know your God exists, because the bleeding stopped." Just to make sure that his healing was not coincident, he waited two months before declaring his healing and finally joining the Christian fellowship he once persecuted.
One could wonder if Nicodemus, a member of the elite council of the Sanhedrin, came in the dark to spy on Jesus and his followers or to explore the nudging truth about Jesus's teachings and miracles. In any case, Nicodemus needed the darkness to feel safe. He had much to lose in coming to Jesus; his standing in the community; his authority as a leader; and his relationships with friends and neighbors.
Risking everything he ever knew and everything he ever was, he came to Jesus acknowledging Jesus as a rabbi, a teacher and as a Man of God who does miracles. To Nicodemus who made his way to Jesus under the cover of night, Jesus offered the miracle of rebirth--a "birth of water and of the Spirit." Born again is what Jesus told Nicodemus he had to be, in order to see the coming realm of God. He needed transformation, to be changed and to be reoriented to see the world differently and to be in the world differently.
Missional Connections for Our Context
Like Nicodemus, many of us are pretty good people, living conventional lives where religion brings us comfort and helps us feel good about ourselves. But Jesus is telling us that isn't enough. To be the kind of people who are part of God's kingdom we need to be spiritually reborn. Sometimes we come to that time in our life when we have the habits of faith without the heart of it, when our religion becomes a ritual without power, and when it is more structure than Spirit.
We need to be born again, to be born anew, to be born from above, to experience a rebirth of God's love in our heart. Through our baptism we were adopted as God's sons and daughters. We were made a child of the heavenly Father by water and the Spirit. We came into the kingdom of God. We began the process of being reoriented to God in baptism. This reorientation is a way of loving, a way of forgiving, a way of caring, a way of prayer, a way of worship, a way of thanksgiving and praise, and a way of being in tune with the Spirit of Jesus.
How can this be? It is God's doing. God is calling us to a new birth that does not require a return to our biological mother's womb but a rebirth that requires a return to that womb of life and source of being.
This is a gift from a gracious and loving God given to us through the son who came not to condemn but to die for us so that we may have life.
On this Trinity Sunday, the God we encounter as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is also a sending God. We are sent to those who like Nicodemus are looking for answers to life's pressing question but playing it safe. To those seekers who don't want to take a risk of following, we no longer have to demonstrate how religious, godly or pious we can be. For God loves us not because we earned the right to be loved but because God is love in his very nature, so much so that he gave his only Son. So dear missional preacher, preach Good News to those like Nicodemus and invite them to join this divine relationship. Declare to them that the God who created, redeemed, and sanctified us comes to us with His mercy and grace, forgiveness and life.
Transformed by the love of God, equipped by the good news of Jesus Christ, trusting in ever-present God, let us go out and share the good news in words and deeds.
Thanks be to God, Amen.
Biographical Summary
The Rev. Dr. Amsalu T. Geleta serves as the Executive Assistant to the Bishop and the Director for Evangelical Mission in the DE-MD Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Previously, he served as a pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Springfield VA and Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore MD. A native of Ethiopia, he graduated from Mekane Yesus Seminary in 1995. In 2000, he earned a Master of Philosophy in Religious Studies at the Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology, and in 2005, Pastor Geleta graduated from the Virginia Theological Seminary with a Master of Theological Studies. In 2011, he earned his Doctor of Ministry in Missional Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife, Ife Choma, and his daughters, Deborah, Simbo and Kenna.
Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 3, 2018
1 Samuel 3:1-10
Mark 2:23-3:6
2 Corinthians 4:5-12
Exegetical Missional Insights
1 Samuel 3:1-10
The scene is described at the end of the day. It is growing dark. But there are overtones of an increasing spiritual darkness in the phrase, "the lamp of God had not yet gone out" (3:3). Eli's poor eyesight is described as growing "dim" so that "he could not see well" (3:2), which deepens the sense of gathering gloom. Take note that the darkness at day's end is juxtaposed to the phrase describing a lengthier generational span of time, "in those days," during which a "word from the Lord" or "visions [from God] were infrequent" (3:1). The notion of a vision (chazon) was related to the idea of a word from the Lord. Samuel's experience of hearing God speak in the night is later described as "the vision" in verse 15.
Samuel is described in 1 Samuel 3:1 as "ministering to the LORD." The Hebrew wording for this ministry (mesharet) was primarily used in the Hebrew scriptures to describe priestly, liturgical service. Samuel has previously been described as fulfilling such service as a boy with Eli (1 Samuel 2:11 and 2:18). By contrast, the term "servant" that Eli will instruct Samuel to use to self-identify as God's listening servant is a more general term for servant (Ê¿ebed), often used to describe trusted slaves.
Samuel heard his name spoken aloud in the darkness. But he couldn't make sense of who it was or what it meant. Almost by way of explaining why, we are told that he "did not yet know the LORD" (3:7). The idea of knowing the Lord, as a relational reality, is of crucial importance in the story and in the entire book. The backdrop of not knowing God begins in the book of Judges. When Joshua died, "there arose another generation ... who did not know the LORD" (Joshua 2:10). Samuel is starkly compared to Eli's sons, who "were worthless men; they did not know the LORD" (1 Samuel 2:12). A key distinction: Eli's sons did not know God at all. Their ignorance was categorical. Some of the same words also describe Samuel, but with the important addition of the temporal adverb (terem) which means "not yet." Up until that moment, in spite of daily routines of worship service, Samuel had "not yet" had immediate relational experience with the living God. The verse adds, in parallel construction, that Samuel had "not yet" (terem) had the word of the LORD "revealed to him" (3:7). This contrast with Eli's sons highlights the importance of this event as a beginning of Samuel's relational knowing of God.
God's Mission in the Text
It would be easy to miss God's greater mission in the book of 1 Samuel. The stories are often retold as disconnected morality tales or revival cycles, pointing toward lessons of living in wisdom. Instead, the early part of 1 Samuel presents a crucial juncture in the forming and flourishing of His kingdom.
The Larger, Longer Story
In the larger, longer story, at this point God had redeemed Israel from Egypt so as to spread His name and glory to many peoples. God had formed a covenant relationship intended to abound in blessing that would be celebrated in open festivals of worship before the nations. As the people faithfully served God as their king, they would become a spectacle to the nations of God's blessing and justice.
We step into the larger story of 1 & 2 Samuel from the last verse of Judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25, see also 17:6, 18:1, 19:1). Our story in 1 Samuel 3:1 begins with the same phrase that highlights the abnormality of this crucial time: "In those days" - the same kingless, leaderless days - we are told that words or visions from God were hardly known.
Into these days in which there was no king, we see Samuel used by God to speak to His people. As Samuel matured, "the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail" (1 Samuel 3:19). All of Israel was united in their recognition of Samuel as God's prophet (3:20). "And the LORD appeared again...because the LORD revealed Himself...by the word of the LORD" (3:21). This is tantamount to saying that God was effectually governing His people as their king.
Samuel is best known for being sent by God to anoint Saul as king (15:1), and later, to also anoint David as king (16:1). But Samuel was quite reluctant to anoint anyone as king, knowing that the people had "rejected [God] from being king over them" (8:7).
Throughout the book of 1 Samuel we find an ambiguity, a paradox: God Himself was altogether sufficient as their king; but God would also reveal His choice to exert His kingly rule through the agency of a chosen human viceroy, an anointed one. Samuel's mother Hannah's prayer has as its crescendo: "He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed" (2:10).
But as events unfold, the language of paradox and ambiguity is telling. God is even anthropomorphically described as saying, "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me" (15:11, 15:35). All of this ambivalence adds layers of complexity into the rich biblical hope of a later, greater anointed one, the Messiah that will bring God's kingdom in fullness.
In 1 Samuel we don't see the kingdom of God in its fullness, but we do see the kingdom in its essence. Samuel declares, "the LORD your God is your king!" (12:12). And that was to mean that the people would love, obey and serve God. "If you will fear the LORD and serve (Hebrew: Ê¿ebed) Him, and listen to His voice ...then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God" (12:14). The relational heart and soul of God's kingdom is to follow God Himself as the king that He is. God's kingdom is a reality when His people "serve the LORD with all [their] heart" (12:20).
Ways of Engaging in His Mission
With this larger mission of God in view, the story of Samuel's encounter with God takes on rich significance with respect to God's ways of engaging people in His mission.
1. Responding to God's call to relationship
Three times Samuel hears his name and each time he answers as any son or servant would have responded respectfully in that day, with the simple statement, "Here I am" (3:4, 6, 8). Finally, Eli discerns "that the LORD was calling the boy" (3:8) and gives Samuel a different, more profound response, "Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening" (3:9).
It's quite unlikely that the boy Samuel understood the overarching story or the geo-political issues involved. He was frightened by what he had heard God say. But God would continue to make Himself known to Samuel. Something had changed. From that time forward Samuel knew God. As Samuel matured, "the LORD was with him" (3:19), describing an ongoing and deepening relationship.
2. Listening as a servant
To refer to oneself as "your servant" was a standard expression of humble discourse. But Eli recognizes that God is summoning Samuel as a special servant, as one who would serve Him by hearing from God and then conveying that word. Eli's expectations are revealed by his first thought the next morning: "What is the word that He spoke to you?" (3:17). The phrase "the word of the LORD" occurs scores of times throughout the Old Testament. It usually refers to a revelatory experience in which prophets would receive, and then convey a specific message from God. The phenomenon known as "the word of the LORD" was often much more than simply passing on messages. God made Himself known to and through Samuel in a profound way "The LORD revealed Himself to Samuel...by the word of the LORD" (3:21).
God initiated the call of Samuel. It was a simple summons to know Him. God did not compel or obligate Samuel to perform deeds or services. Samuel was not conscripted or coerced. Eli's counsel, "Speak, for Your servant is listening," is a wise and even beautiful expression of how to engage in God's mission. In one simple expression, Samuel postures himself before God as a servant and positions himself to listen obediently.
3. Becoming a small part of a great purpose
What Samuel heard God say was downright frightening, "Behold, I am about to do a thing...at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle...I will carry out...all that I have spoken" (3:11-12). God was not merely planning to do a surprising or drastic thing. He was going to carry out His full purpose. Within Samuel's lifetime God would reveal more of His purpose to establish His kingly rule in an anointed human king. But at the moment of his calling, the boy Samuel was hearing God speak of His purposive acts that would affect and involve multiple generations.
God's choice of the weak or small, such as Samuel, to serve in His great mission will be seen again in God's choice of Saul, who came from "the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and [his] family the least of all the families" (9:21). Likewise, David was the unlikely choice since he was the youngest of his family (16:1-13), but "God sees not as man sees...but the LORD looks at the heart" (16:7).
Missional Connections for Our Context
The three points above (1. Responding to God's call to relationship, 2. Listening as a servant, and 3. Becoming a small part of a great purpose) are relevant for Christians of different lifestyles, vocations and callings. The points may be sermon-ready as they stand. But below find considerations worth considering as you seek to tell this story with relevance in your context.
Beyond activism and altruism
The story of Samuel's encounter with God presents a way of engaging in God's mission that stands in contrast with some commonplace notions of mission in our day. For many, Christian mission is a kind of activism, either moved by feelings of compassion, or compelled by the rightness of a cause. For others, mission can be a way of altruism, either as a way of balancing a presumptive priority of self-fulfillment, or as a way of authentically expressing one's inherent kindness.
Of course, participating in God's mission will always call for action, but activism that reduces mission to nothing more than proper social ethics is still essentially self-directed. Christian mission will always be motivated and display God's love in other-oriented endeavors, but altruism can be reduced as nothing more than using one's resources to do the most good that can be can be conceived (see effectivealtruism.org).
The story of God calling Samuel can be seen as a call to God's mission. But don't overlook that in this story we do not see God telling Samuel to do anything. Instead, God announces what He Himself is doing and will do. Samuel simply repeated what he had heard God say. As Samuel matures, we learn that "the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail," and that in the sight of Israel, he "was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD" (3:19-20). Samuel's mission would eventually involve speaking God's word with an authority springing from hearing and speaking with the living God.
God summoned Samuel into His mission, but not by pressing him to perform any kind of activity or cause. God's initial call was God's invitation for Samuel to know, hear, and speak with God in a relational way.
To serve is to listen
Every follower of Christ can find fitting ways to allow Samuel's words to shape their approach to the living God. No one need wait for a mystical or esoteric experience to simply speak these words aloud, "Speak, for Your servant is listening." Mission mobilizers often urge Christians to consider what God is doing and pursuing. It may be just as critical to personally listen for what God might be saying. There are many who have exhausted themselves by taking on heroic roles in great causes touching deep needs. God does not need heroes. The only way for us to be part of God's mission is as His servants. The way to mature as God's servant in His mission, regardless of one's place or vocation, is to be one who listens to God speaking.
Biographical Summary
Steven C. Hawthorne works in partnership with several different missions and networks to mobilize mission obedience primarily with Perspectives study movements in many parts of the world. After co-editing the course and book called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement in 1981, he launched a series of research expeditions among unreached peoples in Asia and the Middle East. He holds a PhD in mission theology from Fuller Seminary.
Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 10, 2018
1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-35
Exegetical Missional Insights
1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20
The Israelites wanted Samuel to give them a king (v. 5). This request displeased both Samuel and the Lord (v. 6). The Lord knows it is Him that the Israelites have rejected, and not Samuel himself. The people have turned their hearts away from God. And the kings will not lead the people nearly as well as if they had been lead by the Lord. The kings will only care about their own interests. This indeed is what ended up happening, with all of the kings being sinful and imperfect in their leadership, with most of them being completely wicked idol worshippers.
2 Corinthians. 4:13-5:1
Verse 13 refers to the speaking that happens when we truly believe. Certainly this seems to be somewhat related to Paul's words in Romans 10:9,10 about our response in faith, and "confessing with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Rom. 10:9,10). This speaking mentioned in 2 Corinthians. 4:13 also could be referring to the importance of us speaking to others about our faith. It is a natural consequence that if we truly believe, an overflow of this will be our verbal proclamation of the gospel to those in our lives. Is our faith something that we speak about to others? If we truly believe, it is natural that our belief will overflow into all parts of our lives. Verse 14 clarifies the reason why we are to proclaim our faith in our lives and to others: Christ was raised from the dead and we similarly will be raised from the dead. This is what lays the foundation for our proclamation of Christ in faith, or proclamation of Christ to others.
Mark 3:20-35
Jesus' mission is to do the Lord's will. And nothing was going to deter him from that mission, even his own family trying to stand in his way. And our mission in following God is to equally be fully committed to go wherever He leads us and do what He wants us to do. And anyone who does God's will is our brother or sister or father or mother (v. 35).
God's Mission in the Tex
God is a God who is jealous and wants to be at the center of our affections. When we pursue idols like personal autonomy, money, power, or following those around us, God is displeased. He wants us to serve Him with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength.
Verse 15 of 2 Corinthians, clarifies how all of this is to our benefit. Our being with Christ and being with other believers in heaven is for our benefit. This is something we are to anticipate with all of our hearts. This is somewhat similar to Paul's words in 1 Thess. 4:17-18, that we will be with the Lord forever, and we are to be encouraged and encourage others about this reality. Even if sometimes our communion with the Lord in heaven may seem very far away, we are to remain hopeful and keep our eyes fixed on Him, and have a spirit of thanksgiving toward Him. God is a God who wants to bless us. When we follow God, we are also blessed and benefited. Our faith is not to be some sort of personal "punishment" or "self-denial", but our faith is a blessing to us.
We know that sometimes God calls us to do things that our loved ones may not approve of. For example, Jesus' family in the early years of Jesus' ministry thought that Jesus was crazy (3:21). Our loyalty and love towards the Lord must be greater than our loyalty and love towards our family or friends. We must be willing to go against what loved ones want of us, if it is contrary to what the Lord wants of us. The most important thing is that we are seeking the Lord first and foremost above all other things. We must obey the Lord in what He asks of us, even if sometimes it means going against the wishes of loved ones.
Missional Connections for Our Context
A good lesson for us from this text is that we are to be content in what God desires for us. We cannot be like the Israelites, thinking that we know better than God what is best for us. We must be content in the Lord, in where the Lord has us in this season of life. We cannot be tempted to have the "grass is greener on the other side" syndrome. Rather, we are to be content in our current situation. We must seek to serve the Lord now with the opportunities that the Lord has given to us, rather than being unsettled and thinking we can follow God and do something once circumstances in our life have changed. Now is the time to pursue the Lord. We must be open to how the Lord will guide us. The Israelites in this story were only concerned about the desires of their heart. But, their hearts were not in alignment with the Lord's will for them. We must strive to align our hearts with God's: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37:4).
Our physical sufferings are a constant reminder of how limited and temporary our bodies are. The best reminder for us of our own mortality is when we are going through various trials, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual trials. Paul says it well in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: "Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Our bodies are wasting away outwardly with each passing moment, but spiritually we are being renewed every day.
Paul next says, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." So, the troubles that we are going through are miniscule in comparison to the glory that we will experience when we are with Christ. Finally Paul says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." So when we are going through trials, we are forced in some sense to think about eternal things and keep our eyes fixed on Christ. We recognize that we don't want to go through those earthly trials forever, and we must think about our impending passing out of this world.
All through the Scriptures, there is mention of the reality of demons. As Western Christians, it is easy for us to only accept things that are visible and based on science. But, the Bible is clear that there is a spiritual world that exists, whether we acknowledge it or not. Satan is real. Demons are real, as is shown in this passage in Mark. If we ignore these realities, it will be easier for the enemy to tempt and lure us into temptation and sin.
Biographical Summary
Tabor Laughlin is an Intercultural Studies PhD student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He was a missionary in China for ten years, leads a small mission organization in NW China, and published the book Becoming Native to Win the Natives [Wipf & Stock Publishers].
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 17, 2018
Our Cultural Tools and the Kingdom of God
1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17
Mark 4:26-34
Exegetical Missional Insights
The passage from 1 Samuel 16 is well known across Christian circles since it uncovers for the first time one of the most beloved figures of the Old Testament, David. However, it is precisely because of our familiarity with the text that we could miss one of the most meaningful movements of God towards his people. While Samuel was grieving Saul, God was searching (v.1 "I have provided for myself"). In fact the word used in verse 1 to describe God's action literally means "respect, regard or treat with consideration" (Bible Sense Lexicon). Therefore, God's movement is never arbitrary, but always comprehensive. It was God's movement that re-ignited the torpid prophet. It was God's movement that found the young shepherd on the hills of Bethlehem, and later poured his Spirit over the man who will become the king of the golden years of Israel.
On the second passage, the apostle Paul is writing to the community of believers in Corinth, and is masterfully building his thesis on the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to all believers. But, before he reaches to his main argument on this section he expresses four things that concern his ministry on earth. First, that his motivation to persevere comes from his "aim to please him [God]" (v.9). Second, that everyone will be called before the bema (judgment seat) of Christ (v.10); meaning that he (Paul) wanted to be a good steward of the ministry entrusted to him. Third is his natural response to the previous two; Paul's commitment to "persuade others" (v.11) with the Gospel. Lastly, that his persuasion of others is not selective. He has learned to "regard no one according to the flesh" (16). These four things point to the fact that Paul's ministry was not compromised by personal agendas, nor by his cultural values in the flesh, but by a new set of values, Kingdom values.
Our final text from the Scriptures comes from Mark, a chapter full of parables about the Kingdom of God. Considering verses 26-34 we could see that the sower sows what he had at hand, seeds. Small seeds, products of a previous harvest, that had nourished and sustained his family, but that now were unable to give more fruit, unless they are sown in the ground. Only then, what started small, grows into a full harvest. The application is simple, the Kingdom of God might start small, as seeds in the hands of the farmer, but when scattered, it has an extraordinary- uncontainable- harvest.
God's Mission in the Texts
When the messenger takes his or her cultural tools and promotes them to a divine status the message becomes instantly compromised. Michael Emerson and Christian Smith pointedly observe that culture provides to individuals, and groups as well, a tool kit (2000, 75), that help them make sense of the world and realities they live in. In other words, the way we cope everyday, our habits and ideas, all come through the use of our cultural tool kit, that is made of our history, experiences, surroundings and upbringings. When we pay attention to Samuel's demeanor we could easily see the cultural kit he was using to make sense of his divine appointed endeavor. First, Samuel was hesitant and even doubtful to go to Bethlehem to anoint a new king. This speaks to the fact that his first attempt (with Saul) resulted in a complete failure, meaning that perhaps this whole idea of a king and the choosing methodology he was using was not good after all, and moreover it could have infused fear and uncertainty. Second, in various occasions Samuel thought that he had in front of him the future king of Israel (as each son from Jesse was introduced to him). Again, based on his previous experience, Samuel was looking for certain characteristics. Perhaps, a tall and strong man that could lead the armies of the Lord against the Philistines. Maybe, Samuel had in mind that a handsome fellow with a piercing look in his eyes could become a great monarch and leader. However, his cultural tools were insufficient and limited. God had been searching hearts to accomplish his purposes, and it was not close to what Samuel had in mind. In simple words, Samuel and God's methods were very different. Samuel's was sight oriented, and God's was heart oriented.
The deification of our cultural presuppositions and resources, intentional or not, hinders the missio Dei. As a messenger from God, Paul contrasts Samuel's story providing us with an insight into his approach to ministry not allowing his cultural values stand in the way of the message. Regarding this particular subject, Dennis P. Hollinger concludes that the church should "encorporate (sic) those cultural themes and patterns which give flesh and blood to God's transcendent message," and, Hollinger continues, "prudently rejects those cultural aspects that are incongruent with the faith and distort the essence of God's message and work" (Hollinger, Dennis P. "The Church: A Social Institution?" TSF Bulletin, Jan-Feb 1987, 14). Hollinger's perspective is fully embodied in Paul's message to the Corinthians to whom he also said, "for though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them" (1 Cor. 9:19 ESV). For the sake of the Gospel, for the love of all, the messenger's cultural kit serves under the authority of the King, never otherwise. The servant serves its master by serving others; just as Jesus obeyed God, emptied himself, and came down to serve us.
Our final passage illuminates a key idea in these two stories by revealing that it is only when we co-labor with God, a small movement on our behalf, that we have a fruitful outcome. Overcoming involuntary biases (or unaware assumptions) is no easy task, but it is crucial for fruitfulness. Because Samuel overcame his own biases and obeyed God, David was anointed king and became a pivotal link in Jesus' lineage and a reflection of the establishment of the future Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven inaugurated by Jesus himself. Samuel's small movement had eternal repercussions, as a small mustard seed "grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade" (Mk. 6:32 ESV).
Moreover, Paul also orients us in the same direction, adding the variable of divine accountability and self-denial for the sake of others who will also believe. In the same measure that our regard for Jesus have changed, Paul teaches (2 Cor. 5:16), also the regard for others should change. The myopic lens of the flesh (cultural kit) holds a limited and slim view of others, and in consequence limits the reach of God's grace to all people. However, a farmer sees beyond the immediate, and spreads the seed, envisioning and awaiting the harvest (Mk. 6:26-27). The nature of the sending God will always challenge the sight of those who are sent.
Missional Connections for Our Contexts
If the church is to remain faithful to the mission of God in our American context it will be critical for it to enter into the divine movement that values, honors and embraces the diversity of race and ethnicities in this place we call home. Michael Emerson and Christian Smith argue that U.S. evangelicals use their cultural tools to "shape how they explain and negotiate race relations in the United States" (2000, 19). However, what we fail to fully comprehend is that the movement from heaven, through Jesus Christ, already replaced our cultural tools with the Kingdom's. Jesus exchanged our human made structures of worth and regard for others through the cross, as we read in The Message version of 2 Corinthians 5:
Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. (2 Corinthians 5: 14-15 MSG)
Therefore, could we live this far better resurrected life dropping our cultural tools and embracing God's (as Samuel did)? How could the church co-labor with the missio Dei de-racialize our society, and not evaluate people for what their looks or material worth (as Paul proclaimed)? What if it is through the small movements that heavens breaks in (like the mustard seed)?
At Pentecost, the disciples were filled with divine boldness to carry out the missio Dei in the midst of a Roman society in decay. The seed buried and dead (Jesus), sprouted and gave fruits that have multiplied and spread for over two millennia. May the church find the same boldness today, to run faithfully and glorify God in the midst of superficial society, so that others may see, experience and believe. May we all whole-heartedly pray:
Grant us grace to see what we can do, but also to know what are the limits of our powers, so that courage may feed on trust in you, who are able to rule and overrule the angry passions of men and to make the wrath of men to praise you. (Reinhold Niebuhr, 1882-1971)
Biographical Summary
Rev. Yamil Acevedo is ordained with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and is also a Conflict Coach and Mediator with the Alliance Peacemaking. He served as Lead Pastor for a number of years in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before moving to Indiana in 2015. Yamil completed his Masters Degree in Pastoral Counseling at the Alliance Theological Seminary (Nyack College) and is currently journeying his second year as a Ph.D. student in Intercultural Studies (Missiology) at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL. He and his wife, Yaremí, have being married for eighteen years, have two children; they all love to eat sushi, travel, learn about cultures, and meet people.
Seventh Sunday in Season After the Pentecost (Ordinary Time)
July 8, 2018
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13
With all the spiritual glare and glow of the days after Pentecost, it is the image of the old Roman sandal that commends the most penetrating analogy in regard to the themes that threads the biblical texts for this reflection: altruism, weakness and glory.
Exegetical Missional Insights
The book of Samuel speaks of a time of kingdom building. It is a transitional time in the life of Israel from theocracy to judges to kingdom. The first stage to kingdom with the ruling of Saul was a disastrous venture. In such environment, God reveals to David a procedure for "becoming" a ruler of His people: pastoring as the way to rule. This is also a procedure of missional engagement in which altruism comes before the power of influence. Witnessing is power as it is carried in love and care for others.
Such witnessing in power and influence for the building of the kingdom happens in sociocultural context. 2 Corinthians is written to a cosmopolitan community living in a multicultural and sophisticated, yet morally decadent and idolatrous city. The church in that context was dealing with complex issues which are characteristic of global urban centers. Missional movements must engage in the messy realities of current global condition from a chosen position of weakness.
In the gospel of Mark we find a parallel to Samuel's text as a time of kingdom building; the eternal kingdom of God. Jesus is not establishing procedures for the formation of rulers but social influencers; witnesses for and of the kingdom. The disciples are sent out in total dependence on God for spiritual and material needs. Such is the Missional engagement in contemporary society.
A common thread of altruism, suffering and glory permeates the three texts as characteristics of God modeling missional engagement.
God's Mission in the Text
The three texts that guide this reflection of the seventh Sunday of the Season after the Pentecost reveal God active in commanding history. He does so from a position of such high power to the affect that this power can be completely dismissed in favor of weakness. God's mission is rooted in love and selflessness to the point of ultimate sacrifice. The mystery of the divine paradox of weakness and glory is striking.
In a moment of great vulnerability of the nation transitioning from the turbulent era of Saul, God commands David to be a pastor. That doesn't sound like a great strategy for consolidation of power. David is to transition from a military leader to a pastor of the people. That seems to indicate that God is situating David in relation to himself, to the kingdom and to God. The people, the kingdom and the world belong to God. God is the assurance of the young king. History is in his hands and so is the fate of humanity.
God is revealed as one who has faith in humanity as redeemable. As people wrestle with complex sociocultural issues, God is patient and kind as the figure of the good shepherd. Forgiveness and resilience towards the fallen realities of people are characteristics shown to the church in Corinth. At the same time, Jesus sends the disciples assuring them that God is the provider of all human needs.
Missional Connections for Our Context
In a time of rampant narcissism and divisions of all sorts in our country, the church is called to a journey of altruism, suffering and glory in the company of the Holy Spirit. It is in the twenty first century reality of pluralism and complexities that we are called and empowered to witness.
At the original seventh day after Pentecost, the church was on fire and in awe, static at the manifestations of God in building his kingdom. The church was compelled to experience the movement of the Spirit by joining him. As the old Roman sandal, we are invited to the journey to witness God moving in mission. At the same time, we have the privilege to be witnesses in pastoral mode. Missional engagement in care and love requires a posture of vulnerability acutely aware and proud of the possibility of joining Christ in his temporal sufferings but with certainty of joining in his eternal glory.
Missional engagement in our context is one of becoming social influencers, cultural shapers, leaders and rulers not by power and privilege but in weakness and vulnerability. Selflessness is presented to David as the route to power instead of self-centeredness. It is by introducing himself as self-sufficient and provider of all spiritual and material human needs that God is redeeming the world and inviting people to participate in his mission.
The Roman sandal in the picture above was once on the journey in a context. Simple and fragile by current standards: sweaty and bruised by exposure. After serving its purpose it finds itself in condition of timelessness and pricelessness. Kept as a museum jewel the old sandal transcends its weakness to a final stage of glory. It rules over those who gaze at its mysteries of weakness and glory.
Such is the sojourn church, on the go, moving towards the coming of Christ our Lord.
Biographical Summary
Paulo C. Oliveira, D.Min. is a Brazilian with over twenty years of pastoral/missionary service in Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United States. He currently serves as pastor of the Northridge Seventh Day Adventist Church in Los Angeles and is a second year Ph.D. student at the School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary. His current research is on the intersection of faith, technology, youth and Islam.
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 15, 2018
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29
Exegetical Missional Insights
St. Ignatius of Loyola said the Spirit of God gives comfort when you behave in ways that are in sync with God's will. That same Spirit challenges you when acting out of sync with it. In the texts today, there are examples of each. When King David danced in front of the Ark of the Covenant ‘with all his might' (I would have loved to see that!) he was clearly acting in alignment with God's will. He was bringing joy and hope to people and they responded by playing music and dancing. David blessed them and gave them meat, bread and raisins to eat. David and his people were, in those moments, living demonstrations of God's goodness and love.
On the other hand: when John spoke to Herod, he was confrontational about marrying his brother's wife. While Herod may not have taken offence, his wife sure did. These words of God spoken through John, caused such discomfort in Herodias that she ordered his death the first chance she got. Many became complicit in John's violent and unjust murder: Herodias who told her daughter to ask for his death, her daughter who did the asking and, Herod himself who gave the order but could have belayed it if he was only willing to stand for what was right and risk displeasing his guests. Perhaps the guards who carried out the beheading carried guilt for killing an innocent man even at the order of a superior.
In the beautiful words of Ephesians, there is a blessing and hope for humanity that repeatedly act in sync with God's Spirit. In Christ, we find hope through redemption that we cannot earn. Our lives are in sync with God's will as we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Only then it is possible to ask for discernment to figure out the best way to live.
God's Mission in the Text
Violence is a part of the brokenness of all humanity. John the Baptist was a man who was as close to God as anyone ever knew and he was not immune to violence that came around to him because of speaking the truth. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and, Oscar Romero exemplified the way of Jesus in a world that does not receive the truth as a good thing to be celebrated but as a discomforting and infuriating agent of change. This is especially true when human beings have been lulled into thinking that everything is fine just the way it is. Ignatius said that evil wants to create places of comfort with the way things are so that no change is ever desired, and brokenness and pain become standard.
Reconciliation comes through Christ in whom "we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph 1:7). This is not cheap grace but the kind of grace that was earned by blood on the cross. Costly grace requires metanoia and change in the person and then the world. When you know you are loved, real change becomes possible because you are free from fear.
Then it is possible for all of us to dance with David and the saints of Israel in a way that is strong and free. Then there is blessing and plenty of food that is celebrated in the safety of a supportive community. This is the promise of the kingdom of heaven and it is a gift from God for all.
Mission Connections for Our Context
The world is now and has always been a violent place. In the United States, more people have been killed by civilian gunfire than in all the wars it ever fought. Thousands are succumbing to violence of heroin overdose. Perhaps you know someone so overcome with the violence of bitterness that they seethe in anger that is just under the surface. How are the rest of us complicit in the way our society allows guns and drugs to be so prolific that people can too easily destroy themselves and each other? Perhaps we have been lulled by the evil one into thinking this is normal and the way that is not to be changed.
We have a hope to share with the world. It is a way that calls for repentance and change. It leads us to a world where no one has to fear what will happen to children when they are at school. Hope for humanity is offered by knowing the way of Jesus. It is a way of truth that brings life and light and dancing. It is the only way to deal with the brokenness that leads to unspeakable acts of violence. More guns, different drugs and better laws alone can't alleviate all fears. Christ enables reconciliation with ourselves and others to God. In that embrace is the love that nothing else in this world can provide.
Works Cited: On Ignatius and the Discernment of Spirits
Biographical Summary
Rev. Dr. Philip C. Hirsch is the Director for Evangelical Mission in the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod of the ELCA. His Doctor of Ministry was focused on homiletics and reducing the propensity for violence among inner city youth in Camden, New Jersey.
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 2, 2018
Proper 17
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Exegetical Missional Insights
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
The book of Deuteronomy contains a reiteration or summary of the Law written in the form of a farewell address from Moses to the people of God. The people of God were in a decades-long process of change: from slaves to desert wanderers to occupiers of the land. Set in this context, the message of Deuteronomy is one of exhortation to be faithful to God with an expectation of blessing and a warning that the worship of other gods will bring a curse upon the people.
Some scholar suggest Deuteronomy may be the text found in the Temple in Jerusalem about 622 BC and brought to Josiah (2 Kings 22:8; 2 Chronicles 34:15). This was yet another vulnerable time in the life of the community as the Northern Kingdom had fallen to Assyria and the Southern Kingdom was threatened by Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon.
James 1:17-27
Possibly the earliest of the books of the New Testament, James represents the teaching of a distinctly Jewish community of Jesus-followers. As with Deuteronomy, this book is significantly concerned with the community behaving in a way that shows its faithfulness to God. It is a book written to people who are vulnerable to political and military power in the form of the Roman Empire.
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
According to early church tradition, Mark was written in Italy, possibly in Rome. It may have been occasioned by the persecutions of the Roman church under Nero. There are many references, both explicit and implicit, to suffering and discipleship throughout Mark.
God's Mission in the Text
We are called by God, as God's people and beloved children, to participate with God's work in the world. It is one thing to think of engaging with God's work, reaching out to the Other-the foreigner, the stranger, the person of a different religion-when we feel secure and confident in our location. It is entirely another thing to think about engaging the Other when we feel vulnerable and threatened. Yet that is exactly what God has been doing with God's people through the millennia: calling us to be faithful people, reflecting God to the world, and doing so from places of vulnerability.
Missional Connections for Our Context
It is the nature of human beings to want to define the Other-the other race, the other political party, the other nationality, the other religion. It is the nature of human beings to be concerned with keeping ourselves from being "polluted" by the Other. We want our kids to be safe-emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually. We want our families and communities safe. We want to feel we are free and secure to live the lives as desire. As followers of Jesus, want to know that we ourselves are good and clean and acceptable to God.
The people of Jerusalem lived in complicated times. They lived with political and social tensions. They lived with a threat of violence. They lived with constrained religious freedom. They lived with ethnic and racial tensions in the community of faith and around it.
The Pharisees of Jesus' day were people trying to be faithful to God. The religious rules they so carefully sought to define and practice were intended to be a guard: to keep them from accidental violations of the Law. And Jesus challenged their hearts.
There is little chance that the Pharisees' self-image would have included self-identifying with the hypocrites Jesus named them any more than we who gather on a Sunday at church would self-identify as hypocrites with hearts far from God. A sermon about how God loves us just as we are is more palatable than a sermon that puts its finger on our fear or hate or greed. We don't much appreciate when anyone challenges our sense of goodness, our self-perception of cleanliness. Yet that is just want Jesus did with the Pharisees: challenge upright, clean, religious people in their self-perception. And this is what Jesus still does through the text to us today.
What does it look like to live as faithful people of God in a world where we feel threatened by the Other? What does it look like to have a religion that is pure and undefiled before God? This is what Jesus says: it looks like attending to the state of our inner lives. This is what James says: it looks like caring for the marginalized. It looks like being engaged with the world without having our hearts governed by the values that govern the world.
Our aim is not perfection but a heart being transformed by attention to the word of God and empowered by the Spirit of God to live in this world in a way that reflects that Spirit-powered transformation.
God's mission is for us to be salt and light in the world, for us to live as God's children, engaging with God in God's work in the world. Our fear of contamination provokes us to hide in "safe" places with others who believe and act as we do. Our fear of contamination provokes us to uphold our own righteousness, condemning those who "eat with unwashed hands"...or cross borders looking for work, or protest government actions, or practice a different cultural traditions, or speak a different language from our own.
We are just as afraid as the Pharisees. We are just as self-righteous as the Pharisees. And we are invited by Jesus to set down our fear-formed rules and be transformed.
Biographical Summary
Susan L. Maros is Affiliate Assistant Professor of Christian Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary where she also has an administrative role working with faculty teaching Integrative Studies courses. She has an M.Div. and a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Seminary. Her current research focuses on the impact of social location on vocational formation.
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 9, 2018
Proper 18 (23)
Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23
James 2: 1-10 (11-13), 14-17
Mark 7: 24-37
Exegetical Missional Insights from the Texts
The biblical texts that the church invites to consider this Sunday are woven together with a common theme of care for those excluded from society: poor people, the exploited, the disabled, the stranger, anyone different from ourselves. Put simply, those on the margins or peripheries of our society.
The text from the Book of Proverbs, like all the Bible's wisdom literature, calls us to grow up to be wise people who have allowed God to shape our lives according to God's worldview and to see people and events through the lens of God's vision for humanity. God's people are challenged to accept that all people, rich and poor alike, share a common origin and are owed common respect (Prov. 2:2). Further, the text reveals God's special care for the poor and the fact that "injustice reaps calamity," while those who are generous toward the poor will be blessed (Prov. 22:8-9). Exploitation of the poor is a sign of folly, not wisdom.
The authors of the Book of Proverbs address situations in daily life that are meant to guide us in the ways of wisdom so that, as we are gradually transformed, we can work to shape the human community to reflect God's reign.
Though obviously not named as such by Solomon and the other authors of Proverbs, the missio Dei is clearly at work in this text, especially in verse 2: "The rich and the poor have this in common: The Lord is the maker of them all." Race, ethnic origin, economic status or cultural background makes no difference in God's mission, for all people are made in God's image and are meant for union with God.
Biblical scholars agree that James, the leader of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem, is the author of the Letter of James. James presents the demands of Christian living in concrete ways so that there can be no doubt about their meaning. His community is wrestling with how to implement Jesus' teaching in everyday life. Members of the community are attempting to cope with divisiveness, hypocrisy, and particulars of wealth and status that were characteristic of Roman society at that time. James deals with these issues head-on.
James calls into question the commitment of the Jerusalem church to the Lord Jesus Christ because of their favoritism toward the wealthy, which he says is incompatible with their faith. He is appalled by their shallow assessment of people based on how they are dressed. James contrasts the welcome given to a wealthy person wearing "gold rings" and dressed in "fine clothes" with the community's behavior toward those who are poor in the eyes of the world. There is an obvious disconnect between faith and moral action. The Old Testament belief that the poor are the object of God's special care informs James' question put to them: "Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?"
The message of the Letter of James is that faith and action go together. An orthopraxis of faith in Christ looks on "the other" with eyes of mercy, not judgement. Growth in Christian life is thus not simply a matter of personal piety, but action motivated by a desire to be a witness to God's love by how we live our faith.
The Gospel of Mark is characterized by its simple, direct, and unadorned language and pace of rapid action. Mark has Jesus move quickly, often using the word "immediately" as Jesus carries out his ministry. There is general agreement that Mark wrote the Gospel while in Rome, some scholars contend that Mark was presenting Peter's account of the life and teaching of Jesus as a pedagogical tool for instructing Christians about church life and practice. Other scholars believe Mark sought to prepare his readers for suffering and martyrdom, especially during the reign of Nero. Mark's theology develops out of his "realized eschatology": in Jesus the kingdom is made present, yet the kingdom will come in its fullness at the end of time.
For Mark, the kingdom and discipleship are interwoven. Discipleship is, of course our response to God's invitation to be in relationship with God, and this becomes apparent through the life and mission of Jesus. The gospel for this Sunday exhibits Mark's awareness of the expansive nature of Jesus' mission, which reaches outward from the Jewish community to the Gentiles. This is illustrated by the stories of the healing/exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter and the cure of the deaf man. People who hear about the deaf man's healing proclaim: "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
God's Mission in the Texts
Generally, the lectionary's first reading and the gospel fit together with a common theme, and the second reading is part of a sequential series from a particular New Testament book. This Sunday all three readings are woven together by concern for people whose lives are marked by exclusion and discrimination. God's response is always to reach out to us with the arms of mercy.
An aspect of the missio Dei in the Proverbs text is God's special care for the poor. God warns that in any action taken against the poor he himself "will plead their cause." James letter confronted people with the truth that faith must be lived in concrete ways in our ordinary lives. Judging people by outward appearances is never acceptable. He reminds people that it is not the materially rich who are guaranteed a place in the kingdom of heaven, but, instead, those rich in faith are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. This is the real goal of Christian life that Jesus manifested as the missio Dei through his mission. When we respond to his invitation to be his disciples we learn the transforming effect of his mercy, and that same mercy enables us to invite others to be sharers in this saving grace. Faith then leads us to find ways to make it evident in our relationships with others and our concern for our world.
Mark uses two stories of healing and redemption to demonstrate the missio Dei at work in the lives of people who are outsiders in the Jewish understanding of faith. The Syrophoenician woman has no social standing in the Jewish world because she is a Phoenician woman and a pagan and she has a daughter who is possessed by an evil spirit. Yet because her daughter is suffering and needs healing she risks approaching Jesus in the face of social and religious barriers. In an unusual exchange that seems to us quite rude, Jesus tests her faith, and the woman's answer that manifests her faith is rewarded.
In the second story of the expansive missio Dei Jesus, traveling through Gentile territory, encounters a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. The people bring him to Jesus and beg him to heal the man. Jesus takes him aside and after some moments of prayer uses gestures that were familiar to the people of ancient times to heal the man. He puts his fingers into his ears, with a bit of his saliva touches the man's tongue and to him, "Ephphatha, be opened." Now this Gentile man was ready to participate in Jesus' mission! Despite being told not to tell anyone, the people "zealously proclaimed it" and declare, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."
Missional Connections for our Context
In the context of the United States, how deep is our commitment as Christians to the Gospel. How ethical are our actions? What motivates us in our daily life to live the truth taught us by Christ? Do we do what is simply expedient or profitable instead of what is ethical and just? Do our lives and ministry reflect the teaching of Jesus, or have we been co-opted by US cultural values?
The texts challenge us to critically examine whether our appreciation of another is based on externals or on the dignity of the human person? Have we learned to see others as the Lord sees them? Do we work for justice for every member of the human family, or are we content with the social, economic and political reality that so many are excluded from prosperity? Are we committed to work for the common good and to share in God's mission in the world?
In our personal lives do we experience a deep personal encounter with Christ? Are not only our ears open to the voice of Christ, but also our minds and hearts? Has the truth of Christ penetrated the depths of who we are, or has political correctness persuaded us to accept that there are alternative versions of the truth? Are we open to people of other faiths and other cultural, racial and ethnic traditions? Can we embrace the other as our sister or brother?
Croatian theologian, Miroslav Volf, in his book, Exclusion and Embrace, writes, "Exclusion happens, wherever impenetrable barriers are set up that prevent a creative encounter with the other. Increasingly we see that exclusion has become the primary sin, skewing our perceptions of reality and causing us to react out of fear or even anger to those who are not within our (ever-narrowing) circle." Jesus, in being faithful to the mission given him by the Father, breaks down every barrier and instead has given his life for our reconciliation with both God and one another if we act with faith and love. In embracing "the other" we find that we ourselves are embraced by God and strengthened to share in the missio Dei.
Biographical Summary
Dr. Madge Karecki is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis (SSJ-TOSF). She spent over twenty years on mission in South Africa. She received her D.Th. degree from the University of South Africa under the direction of David Bosch and Klippies Kritzinger. She taught missiology at UNISA and was the recipient of the School of Theology's Excellence in Teaching Award. Madge served as the President of St. Augustine College in Johannesburg until ill health forced her to return to the United States. She currently lives in Bartlett, Illinois, and guides missiology doctoral students for UNISA.
Holy Cross Day
September 14, 2018
Num 21:4b-9
Psalms 98:1-5
John 3:13-17
I Cor 1:18-24
Exegetical Missional Insights
The texts in Numbers, John and I Corinthians correspond to a God who intersects our world. If mission can be subsumed under God's action in the world, these texts point to the divine action on behalf of humanity. Each text discusses a shocking turn of events culminating in a cross. Let's take each in order.
Numbers narrates a story where God breaks out in judgment, justice and mercy, all in a few lines. The people once again ask Moses why they were taken out into the wilderness. "Why are we here? Why is my life derailed? Why are my circumstances such as they are?" The questions express contempt for Moses and the God who is leading Moses. In our contemporary sensibility, we are shocked to read of an outbreak of serpents attacking and killing people. What was bad turned worse. Yet the people are not surprised. They instantly understand judgment has been released on their sinfulness. God is refining a people to fully trust him and his way.
Meanwhile God is merciful and offers a way of salvation. The symbol of a serpent on a stake is erected as a way to reflect the faith of the people in God's compassion and salvation. God met the people at the point of their faith. In a bitter irony, the image God chose for them to look upon for salvation was one that reminded them of the judgment that had been prompted by their sin. God gave them an object to behold, a placeholder until they could behold the image of his glory, Jesus Christ.
Second, John takes the story of the serpent to the next stage with Jesus taking the place of the snake on the stake. In John's account, Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus, a Pharisee, about God's inbreaking into the world through one who came from above (v. 13). Jesus relates this person to the serpent, saying, the Son of Man will be lifted up. Now, Christ becomes the object of our faith. Jesus calls Nicodemus, a person deeply familiar with the exodus narrative in general and the story of the serpents in the desert in particular, to behold the Son of Man as the object of his faith. Furthermore, verses 16 and 17 build out the reversal motif of the gospel while linking the Son of Man with the Son of God. Those who believe will not die but live, reversing the effects of sin. God's Son did not come as one would expect to condemn and conquer but to forgive and restore, turning things right side up again.
The third passage elucidates the role of the cross in this unsettling turn of events. Paul writes to the young mission church in Corinth, a church infatuated with philosophy and worldly wisdom, that the cross is folly. The cross evoked horror in the collective minds of those living in Greco-Roman culture as the most brutal experience of death the Roman Empire devised. Through these few verses, Paul details how the cross came to disarm the wisdom of this world, to reverse what seems powerful by becoming powerless. God's wisdom overthrows the wise thinking of this world, but how? In a plot twist many could not reconcile. The divine hung on a tree for all to see. Perhaps the echoes of Psalm 98 flow through this reading, for many at this point of time had heard of Jesus death on the cross: "God has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations" (Ps. 98:2). Some will see God's action through the cross as turning things right side up and undoing the wisdom of this world that keeps us bound up in slavery to sin, slavery to the powers of this world, slavery to hopelessness. Yet the cross provides our escape from the shackles of worldly attempts at freedom, security and salvation.
God's Mission in the Text
In No Handle on The Cross, Kosuke Koyama argues that the foolish question God asks Adam and Eve, "Where are you?" is a question from the top of the cross. These words "Where are you?" demonstrate God on mission, or, in the words of Koyama, God's decision to limit himself to where we are. God certainly knows where we are but wants to become present with us. In the wilderness wanderings, the Israelites flipped the question, asking God, "Why are we here?" God continues to seek his people, asking the question, asking, "Where are you?" This is not a geographical question, but a question about our relationship with God.
The Israelites barely had any context for their relation to God, so he continued to work with them on their faith. Numbers details the journey of 40 years through the desert, largely a punishment for the people's disbelief that God could bring them into the Promised Land. God forms his people through this time. We see a God on mission, at work in the world as he builds trust in his people to follow his ways. In the midst of this wandering, God intersects faithlessness again while offering a sign and foretaste of the crucified Christ to come. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob offers a sign of the coming kingdom, the kingdom of God that Jesus will inaugurate when he hangs on the cross.
The cross stands as a symbol of God's intervention on behalf of the world. Jesus draws on the story from Numbers in order to help Nicodemus see salvation history unfolding before him. The Son of God both looks back into history and points ahead to a future to come. Through the picture of the cross, John underlines a summary statement for the missio Dei. The Father sent his only Son on mission for us, motivated by his love. The love of God overcomes our sin through the cross. Our judgment is met as we behold Jesus crucified. The early church runs with this story, spontaneously sharing the good news in word and deed wherever they went, seeing the church take root throughout the Roman world.
Paul identifies with the cross of Jesus in Corinthians. A foolish message, a message which must have sounded ridiculous to the Corinthians, that a God-man would allow himself to die. The fundamental message of the gospel throughout the Corinthian correspondence is of a God who died that we might live. This is folly, but this is the message and the symbol which draws the world to worship God. While we were under condemnation, like the Israelites in the desert, God provided a way of salvation, a way out of our mess.
Mission Connections for Our Time
Martin Luther calls the work of the cross a divine exchange. Through Jesus' death, our death was exchanged for new life, sorrow for joy, dishonor for honor, brokenness for wholeness. In our day, the cross continues to call many to lay down their pain, sickness and sorrow and exchange them for peace, joy and righteousness.
Today, God continues to call from the cross, "Where are you?" Through the cross not only is there a divine exchange but a divine invitation with Christ's arms spread wide open, calling us to turn around and come to him. The cross offers a divine hospitality to a world in need of welcome.
In today's context, the people of God must embark on mission by identifying with Christ crucified. We pick up our cross, allowing it to mold our life and works into a life shaped by the cross. To draw on Koyama again, we participate in mission not by a crusading mind but with a crucified mind. We must not use the cross as a tool to coerce people into following Jesus. Instead, we must die to our own self in order to serve others, to humbly participate in the life of others. We demonstrate the love of Christ as we die to our self, our agenda, our quest for significance in ministry.
When I served as a foreigner in Bangkok, Thailand, for six years, the Thai people saw my whiteness as a symbol of prestige. Without trying, I had status to speak, to teach, to preach. As a white person, my words carried a power. I had to die to the sense of superiority that came to me. I had to die to my Americanness in order to let Christ shine through. We worked hard to prevent Christianity from being connected to our w hiteness. As we went out to witness at the university, we brought Thai people with us. When relationships formed, we worked hard to connect our new Thai friends with Thai people in the church. We worked to become less.The ministry had to be about people finding God, and not about me building something. The mission for us was about God being lifted up, lifted up so that all men and women will be drawn to him.
These texts beg us to return to the cross, to behold the object of our faith. We come as people on a mission sent by a crucified and risen Christ. The cross reminds us that God uses surprising and foolish concepts to see his kingdom break into this world. As Christians, we are first humbled at the foot of the cross, seeing our sins washed away, while also sent in the modus operandi of the cross, dying to our self daily.
Biographical Summary
Andy Opie and his wife Christina served with Foursquare Missions International in Bangkok, Thailand, for six years. They ministered in evangelism, leadership development and church planting and pastored a church in crisis before transitioning it to Thai leadership. Currently, Andy is working on a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 16, 2018
Proverbs 1:20-33
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
All three of these passages ask the reader to make a choice, to choose God and life over self-interest and death.
Exegetical Insights
Proverbs 1:20-33
In this portion of scripture that Wisdom, as a personified aspect of God, is portrayed as a woman. I suggest we then view other scriptural references to wisdom through same gendered lens. This same spirit of wisdom appears in Isaiah 11:2 as coming to rest upon the prophesied Messiah. In 1 Cor. 2:12-13 and 12:8, after the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, wisdom is bestowed upon humans through the Spirit of God.
God's Mission in the Text
In Proverbs 1, God as Wisdom makes a clear call for reverence, for the fear of the Lord (1:29), in order that we might repent and return to God. Wisdom pleads with us to accept reproof (1:25) and to choose life (1:33) over death (1:32).
Missional Connections for our Context
There are two main points about this passage that are often overlooked. First, God embraces the fullness of gender and is not, as is so often the way of western theological thinking, solely male. Second, Wisdom personified as a feminine aspect of God stands in sharp contrast to the way Genesis chapter 3 has been used to discredit the wisdom of women. Discounting the traditional wisdom of women is foolish.
In preparation for writing this commentary, I visited some good friends, a gathering of six Mexican and Indigenous Indian women who live and study God's word in one of the poorest barrios of Tijuana, and asked them for their insights about women's wisdom. Eighty-year-old Maria explained that women's wisdom understands that love opens the door so that other things can come behind it. The others mostly agreed, and then left the topic behind as the circle took up the more immediate concerns of how to deal with alcoholic sons and the children they abandon. Two hours later, after heated discussion, laying on of hands in prayer, and many tears, consensus was that God was in control and that it would take more waiting and prayer before real answers would be found. Rosa turned to me, smiled, and said, "Look! We have come full circle. Your questions earlier put me to sleep. But here is our wisdom. It is what we have been doing. We pray together as sisters and we seek God."
Exegetical Insights
James 3:1-12
James 3:5-6 uses a reciprocal metaphor to Acts 2:3-4; "the tongue is a fire" as distinguished from "tongues, as of fire." In James, the human tongue is a fire that is capable of igniting a conflagration of destruction. In Acts, the Holy Spirit's fiery tongues inspire the tongues of people to praise God, a positive conflagration that changed the world.
God's Mission in the Text
This passage challenges us to choose life over death by taming our tongues and causing them to bless instead of curse. However, James couches this challenge with a warning. We who are teachers serve the same purpose to those we teach as do rudders to ships, and we had best be careful as to the direction in which we are steering.
Missional Connections for our Context
It is not enough to teach in our churches that we Christians should bridle our tongues. We must actually take a look at ourselves, and the power of what we say, as we direct and teach others. Our tongues habitually use language that we are not consciously aware of, but which is hurtful and divisive. This ought not to be so.
We need to examine and guard against the harm that has been perpetrated by much of what has been traditionally said about the relationship between Wisdom and women. Just because we are unintentional about it does not diminish the harm of an unbridled tongue. My research shows that both prisoners and Christian prison ministry volunteers sometimes get caught up using the institutional label of "inmate" in such a way that the world is separated into two categories. The first category is "people," which always and only refers to everyone who is not a prisoner. The second category is "inmate," which becomes a way of saying that prisoners are not "people." In another example, I still remember my shame and horror in first realizing the gross racism of the rhyme,"eeny, meeny, miny, mo" that I had so casually recited in my childhood.
To extend the scriptural metaphor, before we can missionally invite others on board, we must first recognize in which direction we are steering our boat.
Exegetical Insights
Mark 8:27-38
The account of Jesus' admonition to his followers to "deny themselves and take up their cross" is found in three gospels. This cross that Jesus speaks of, therefore, is not some figurative burden, but the radical willingness to follow Jesus into literal death.
God's Mission in the Text
Here again, we are asked to make a choice for life or death. If we know who Jesus is, are we ready to stake our physical lives on Him?
Missional Connections for our Context
Jesus asks, "Who do you say I that am?" How do we answer Him? How do we describe Jesus? Do we simply use our physical tongues to talk about Him? Or do people come to see who Jesus is through our lives, through the flame tongues of the Holy Spirit? And what does it mean, how does it affect who we think Jesus is, if the Spirit of Wisdom that rests upon Jesus is elsewhere personified as a woman?
First, we are called to decide who Jesus is. Then we are asked to make a choice. Choose Jesus and gain life or choose life and gain death. It seems simple and trite, except that God's wisdom is not like human wisdom. Peter's human wisdom errs in setting his sight on "human things," on following the earthly Jesus. All the while Jesus is calling him to a new wisdom, to let go of his attachments to earthly life in order to lay hold of heavenly life.
Biographical Summary
Linda Lee Smith Barkman earned a Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary, with a focus on Intercultural Communication. As an educator, writer, and advocate, her heart ministry is providing voice to the marginalized, particularly women in difficult circumstances, and most especially to incarcerated women.
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 30, 2018
Track 1: Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22; Psalm 124
Track 2: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Psalm 19:7-14
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
These scriptures bear witness to the different ways God's power is manifested to save God's children from physical and spiritual death.
Esther's fasting and prayers, combined with those of her exiled countrymen, are honored by God, who blesses Esther by helping her create an opportunity to speak to Persian King Ahasuerus not only about her people but to expose the works of darkness being plotted in the background by the wicked Haman who, as an antitype of Christ, dies as God covenant's people are saved.
In Psalm 124 the psalmist praises the Lord, for, says he, if the Lord had not been on our side we would have been swept away in the flood when our enemies were attacking us (an obvious reference to the parting of the Red Sea and Israel's deliverance from Pharaoh's armies), and like a bird in a snare is allowed to escape, "our help is in the name of the Lord."
Let us reflect on the many times our lives have been miraculously spared, as were the children of Israel, and the many times God has spared our souls from the death of grief, sorrow, pain, loneliness and despair.
In the Book of Numbers, we read of the Israelites rebelling against the Lord's anointed servant Moses, crying out against the very God who so mercifully and graciously delivered them from spiritual and physical death. Ignoring the beauty, and life-sustaining grace of his Holy Word, they cry out "If only we had meat to eat!" They forget that man cannot live on bread or meat alone but requires the nourishment provided by his Holy Word.
In desperation, God's servant Moses cries out, "I am not able to carry the burden of this people alone!" So, to increase access to his Holy Word and to his Holy Spirit, God directs Moses to gather 70 elders, and God puts upon them the same Spirit he bestowed on Moses. When Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp, Moses' servant Joshua becomes alarmed, but Moses says to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!"
As we seek to participate in God's mission we need more people to propagate God's saving word. In Psalm 19 the psalmist points out that the Lord's word is perfect, reviving our soul; it is clear, enlightening our eyes, it is sweeter than honey because it warns us, detects errors, exposes hidden faults and even keeps us from transgression.
What we do with his word is our missional connection. James implores us as the Lord's servants: "My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
Both Moses and Jesus had disciples who were jealous for them as they heard other strangers preaching, prophesying, healing and giving life. In the passages from Numbers and Mark we see God's ministrations of his word through servants who are sometimes strangers to the designated protagonists in the texts. One aspect of God's mission, or missio Dei, is simply portrayed in these passages as saving life. The missional connection is equally transparent: God performs his mission through servants who allow his Holy Spirit to rest upon them and then transmit his saving word through them.
Both Jesus and Moses taught that those who are not against us are for us. This sheds light on an important dimension of missional discernment. While we seek to be faithful to how God in Christ is guiding us in mission, we must avoid disparaging brothers and sisters whose ministries might be foreign to us, but who are bringing the word of life to others, albeit in a way that might be different from our own. Let us make sure that in our missional efforts we do not cause others to stumble and fall by detracting from those who are engaged in the missio Dei through means that may be different from our own. Similarly, we need to recognize that while the church as the Body of Christ has a special place in fulfilling God's mission, we must be alert for signs of God working through people of other religious paths and through secular agencies.
In God's holy word is truth and salvation: salvation for the soul, and from both physical and spiritual death. May our witness to God's holy truth be life-sustaining to everyone whom we have the privilege and joy of meeting on life's treacherous paths. With care and the power of the Holy Spirit may we, as James implores, help save a sinner's soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Biographical Summary
Dr. Ronald E. Bartholomew is on the faculty of the Utah Valley Institute of Religion in Orem, Utah. He served a short-term mission in South Korea from 1979 to 1981 and is currently training short-term missionaries who have been called to serve the people of South Korea. He is an active member of the American Society of Missiology and the International Association for Mission Studies and has published mission research in the United States and Europe.
20th Sunday after Pentecost
October 7, 2018
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16
Exegetical Missional Insights
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
The book of Job sets the stage for a difficult topic: suffering. Satan challenges the basis for Job's faithfulness to God. Job is known as a righteous man who is blameless and upright and who feared God and turned away from evil (Job 1:1). Does he fear God only because his life is blessed? Satan argues, Take it all away and Job will curse God. Is it possible for humans to love God without the hope of reward? Can humanity have authentic relationship with God? God permits Satan's actions against Job, requiring only that his life be spared. Job endures emotional, spiritual and physical suffering "for no reason". All the while, he remains faithful. The story presents a framework for addressing and responding to suffering, including the role of lament. What is the role of God and faith in the undeserved and extreme suffering that Job experiences? Job 1:10 provides insight as Job asks, "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?"
The book of Job asks challenging questions including:
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
The Letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were tempted to return to Jewish worship because of pressure from the community, the absence of rituals and practices as well as the status they had enjoyed. The text proclaims the superiority of Christ (over angels) as an heir (including birthright, name and lineage). Angels serve as God's messengers, part of God's creation, subject to judgement. (Note: At this time, Gnostics worshipped angels as mediators between God and humans.) God spoke to his people through angels, the prophets, dreams, the Torah, scriptures, stories, and directly to certain individuals. In these end days God's mission culminated in his speaking through his Son, the word of God made flesh. Jesus became human, walked "with us" and communicated the Father's love through his life. Even though humans were created a "little lower" than angels, we are joint heirs with Jesus and thus invited to participate in his mission in the world. Jesus was present at the beginning of creation and is the very image of God's substance. He demonstrated agency as well as the power to forgive sins through his sacrifice. Suffering was made perfect in Jesus.
Mark 10:2-16
The text from the Gospel of Mark captures the testing of Jesus by Pharisees about divorce and marriage. Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Perea, divorced his wife Phasaelis to marry Herodias, previously the wife of his half-brother Herod II. John the Baptist criticized that marriage as a violation of divine law. Shortly after, he was beheaded. The Pharisees thought that if Jesus condemned divorce, then Antipas and Herodias might get rid of Jesus as well. The Pharisees challenged Jesus with a question about divorce - "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" v. 2) - hoping to destroy Jesus. They designed their question as a trap: in forcing Jesus to pick a side, he would alienate the other side. Jesus responded with the question, "What did Moses command you?" (v. 3). At that time, a certificate of divorce provided the wife both legal protection and the right to remarry, so the second marriage was not condemned. Moses permitted divorce, but did Moses and God approve it? Is divorce lawful or unlawful? Did Jesus approve or reject the Mosaic Law? Jesus moved the conversation from divorce to the meaning of marriage: "What God has joined together, let no one separate." In the midst of this conversation, people brought children (with the intent of dedication) to Jesus. The disciples were critical of these people,yet Jesus blessed and affirmed that the kingdom of God belongs to children.
God's Mission in the Text
The three texts present themes of suffering, God's sovereignty and the presence of Jesus in our lives. God invites us into honest and authentic relationship. There is no need to sugarcoat the pain of suffering endured. Relationship with God is what gives humans comfort and strength in suffering, whether caused by our own hand or for no reason at all. In the midst of suffering, God is with us. It's not that he just shows up, he never left. He was always present with Job. He was always present with the Hebrew Christians. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is present, walking among us, God with us. From the time of creation, Jesus was sovereign. He is not bound by our laws or ways. God calls us to faithfulness to him and relationship with him. Jesus looks to the condition of the heart, not merely our practices and rules. His suffering covered the penalty for human sin (falling short of the letter of the law) and the pain of suffering endured. The salvation of humankind was made perfect through the suffering of Jesus, which was a center point of God's missional work. Humankind receives salvation through Jesus as well as the gifts of inheritance and family. The texts from Job and Hebrews and Mark proclaim God is with us in the suffering. We are God's blessed children, his beloved.
Mission Connections for Our Context
In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles, there are tapestries on both walls of the cathedral with saints looking toward the cross at the front altar, symbolic of our shared journey to the cross of suffering. Behind the cross there is a tapestry with a text from the book of Revelation proclaiming hhe is our God, we are his people and he will be with us. There is also a map of downtown Los Angeles. The tapestry reminds us that we are on a journey to the cross of Jesus, a road marked by suffering. On that journey Jesus invites us to be on mission with him in the city. We often associate suffering with punishment rather than with the journey we share with Jesus as we follow him to the cross.
We find suffering all around us in our communities. Like Job sitting among the ashes, a broken man in a place of brokenness, these can be physical places such as Skid Row or spiritual and emotional realities, desolate places of brokenness. Do we allow God and others into those realities? Do we allow ourselves to be comforted by the presence of Jesus? When we journey missionally with those who are suffering, do we chastise them for not "following the rules" or do we point them to a Messiah who is present with them?
The suffering of Job, the pain of divorce or the challenges we find in our lives can bring shame, fear and a striving to make it right. God isn't asking for us to carry the suffering, he is asking us to let him carry us in the suffering, to journey with him in relationship. "To this end, one hopes (against all human inclination) to model not the ‘one false move' God but the ‘no matter whatness' of God. You seek to imitate the kind of God you believe in, where disappointment is, well, Greek to Him. You strive to live the black spiritual that says, ‘God looks beyond our fault and sees our need'" (Gregory Boyle, Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion). God invites us into relationship with him and offers us perfect salvation paid with the suffering of Jesus. As we journey on mission with him to the cross, a road marked with suffering, God is with us.
Biographical Summary
Mary Glenn, D.Min., is an Affiliate Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies (Urban Studies) at Fuller Theological Seminary. She regularly leads urban immersions and city walks in her home city of Los Angeles. She has served as a law enforcement chaplain since 2001 and is a police chaplain trainer and an ordained pastor.
21st Sunday after Pentecost
October 14, 2018
Proper 23
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31
Exegetical Missional Insights
Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Job is replying to Eliphaz, one of his "friends," in this passage. Eliphaz has just finished telling Job that he should yield to God's judgments and simply accept his suffering with submissive faith. It sounds like a good religious answer, but Job is not satisfied with this viewpoint because he knows what is happening to him is not fair or just. Job does not wait for God to come to him to explain what is happening. Job actually desires to pursue God- to find out where God is physically so he can make his case face-to-face.
Job has faith that God is just and that God will pay attention to his complaints. God will not be offended by Job's complaints because God is a fair judge. But Job does have to wrestle with God's apparent absence, which he indicates through a mental geographical search for God in verses 8-9. But despite all his efforts, Job cannot find a physical place in which to present his complaints.
In verse 16, Job presents two options for his next step. The first is despair. The search for God has worn him out and he might respond by simply believing that God might not exist. The second response is fear. Perhaps God does not care about Job's situation or perhaps God exists, but is not just. But in verse 17 Job declares that he will not accept either response. Job is firm in his belief that God exists and that God is just and cares about the human condition. Job clearly announces that he will be heard. He will not be silenced by the darkness that surrounds him.
Hebrews 4:12-16
The reading from Hebrews is an important transitional text, beginning the discussion of how Jesus represents a priesthood greater than the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament. In verses 12-13, the writer emphasizes that we are accountable for everything we do. The same living word of God that created the world continues to operate like a surgical knife on our souls, thoughts, and attitudes. Nothing is hidden from God. In light of this fearsome reality, the writer of Hebrews presents Jesus as our best hope through two arguments.
First, because Jesus is transcendent, we have the assurance that Christ as our high priest has God's ear. With this knowledge and assurance, we should hold on to our faith, even when we face difficulties. Second, because Jesus lived as a human being, he understands our failure to live up to God's standards. The Greek word used for "empathize" or "sympathize" in verse 15 is actually stronger than the English word. It carries with it the idea that God not only cares, but this caring will lead to actual assistance (or action) on our behalf. Because of our knowledge of both Christ's transcendence and his humanity, we are given the assurance that we can approach God and find mercy and grace. We need not approach in fear and trembling, but rather "boldly" or with "confidence."
This passage answers the age-old question asked by many people in times of suffering, "Does God care?" It not only assures us that God does care, but also indicates that through the work of Christ it is possible to approach God and ask God for help and assistance in times of difficulty.
Mark 10:17-31
This account of the encounter between Jesus and a wealthy young man follows the account of how Jesus assured his followers that the Kingdom of God belonged to those who were like little children, completely helpless and dependent upon God. Now, in juxtaposition to this point, we see a sincere young man come to Jesus, kneeling before him to show deference and respect to a teacher of the Law and even attributing to Jesus the word "good," which in Jewish tradition could only be ascribed to God. The young man asks Jesus the question that is troubling him; what actions can he do to win eternal life?
Jesus responds by telling him to obey the Law, and the young man replies with great assurance that he has perfectly kept the Law since he passed into adulthood. However, even this strict obedience to the Law has not provided him assurance about his condition before God. Jesus responds by telling him to sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. In other words, he should become helpless, as with the state of the children mentioned earlier. The focus here, though, is not on the possessions, but rather on the command to then follow Jesus. However, it is the security of his wealth that stops the man from following Jesus. He leaves sadly, unable to give up his dependence on his financial security.
Jesus notes the difficulty wealth causes with its false security by using an absurdly impossible event, the passing of a camel, the largest of the animals found in Palestine, through the eye of the needle, the smallest possible opening. The disciples respond in astonishment, wondering who could possibly meet such standards, and Jesus replies that salvation lies not with human effort, but solely with God. Peter speaks up and notes with a sense of pride that he and the others of the Twelve have given up all to follow Jesus. Jesus responds that God is just and will reward those who suffered or lost possessions, property, or family for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, but he also ends with a strong statement that if Peter thinks his sacrifice will somehow assure his salvation, he had better think again. Those who think they are first may in actuality be last!
Missional Connections for Our Context
The readings from Job and Mark provide bookends for the message in the Hebrews text. The message of the Hebrews reading is that through Christ, human beings can approach God with confidence, knowing that God understands our pain and suffering. Whether that suffering is like Job's, who lost all his wealth, possessions, family, and friends and is left sitting among the garbage scraping his sores (the very image of the poorest of the poor in our world today) (cf. Job 1-2), or whether that suffering is the internal turmoil of the rich young man in Mark, who apparently has everything the world can provide, but lacks the assurance that his works will lead to eternal reward.
In the theology of the missio Dei, we see that God sends the Church into the world to meet the needs of hurting people. The Good News of the Gospel is that God, through Christ, is available, listens, and hears our human cries. Job pursues God to lay out his complaints about his situation. He does not need to worry about what God might think of him, because God is holy and just. With confidence Job is "not silenced by the darkness." The rich young man was also able to approach Jesus with confidence, seeking the answer to his inner spiritual struggle since all his wealth, power, and education could not provide the answer. When Jesus provides a solution to remove his reliance on himself and his resources, the young man leaves in sadness because his wealth has trapped him spiritually.
God sends us out to meet the needs of all people, not just those who are materially wealthy or those who are among the poorest of the poor, but for all those in between as well. This is the mission field. People long to put their complaints and concerns before God, but this is a scary proposition. Is it okay to complain to God about our difficulties? These passages make it clear that it is not only okay, it is our right as children of God to come before the throne of God, expecting grace and mercy.
In our world today, there are so many people crying out from situations of hunger, sickness, pain, want, and loss. The Church is designed to be part of God's solution to these problems. We are called to go out and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the stranger, and visit those in prison (cf. Matt. 25:31-46). Are we doing these things? There are also many people struggling spiritually to be right with God, and the Church is designed to be part of the solution for these people as well. Are we part of the solution? If we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem. The false dichotomy between social justice and evangelism is one of greatest ills of the North American church over the past century. The Church is responsible for helping meet all the needs of hurting people in the name of Christ our savior, regardless of the source of their pain or suffering - be it spiritual or physical. If we as a Church need help in doing this, let us boldly approach the throne of God together to receive the grace and mercy needed to make us better servants of God to a lost and hurting world.
Biographical Summary
Robert Danielson received his Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies from Asbury Theological Seminary and is currently the Scholarly Communications Librarian at the Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He also serves as the current treasurer of the American Society of Missiology and has served in the past as the book review editor for Missiology: An International Review. He is currently the editor of The Asbury Journal and teaches courses in World Religions and Missional Formation at Asbury as an affiliate professor in the E. Stanley Jones School of World Missions and Evangelism. He has served as a missionary in the People's Republic of China with the Amity Foundation and been involved in short-term missions to Honduras and El Salvador.
22nd Sunday after Pentecost
October 21, 2018
Proper 24
Job 38: 1-7, (34-41) and Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
Isaiah 53:4-12 and Psalm 91:9-16
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45
God made us as individuals, and knows us each by name, with all of our differences. Although God's love is universal, the ways in which God reveals that love is as varied as is the human condition. If you want to reach out missionally to a wide variety of people, it will be helpful to pay attention to the differences which we call "personality," and to notice the ways that God's message addresses the strengths and needs of those differences. Part of proclaiming the Gospel in light of personality is the awareness that most of personality comes in contrasting pairs, for example, practicality versus imagination. So anything one says must not deny the validity of the opposite trait, even as one focuses on the first. Sometimes the need of one is the strength of the other. Sometimes they are simply different.
The passages for this week explore greatness, both in relation to God and to God's work among people. From the point of view of human character, they relate to our traits of striving for excellence, dominance, and either the ego strength to manage suffering, or the grim soberness to grit ones' teeth and get through it. The passages have all of this, and a side order of boldness which revels in the thunderous power of nature.
This lectionary provides a choice of Old Testament passages. The central theme is the discussion of greatness in Mark. The choice is whether one relates this to the greatness of creation in Job and Psalm 104, or to the suffering of the Servant Song in Isaiah 53 and its contrast in Psalm 91. Isaiah and Psalm 91 are close comparisons to the main points of the Mark gospel passage, while Job and Psalm 104 are a contrasting exploration of greatness.
Exegetical Insights
Job 38:1-7, (34-41) and Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
Job 38 and Psalm 104 describe the greatness of God in creation and serve as a counterpoint to the different discussions of greatness in the other passages of this week's lectionary. God is the creator of the universe, not we humans. When we humans are feeling on top of the world, perhaps through our dominance or the satisfied feeling of having successfully pursued excellence, we need to remind ourselves of this truth. This is what the psalmist does so effectively in Psalm 104 through praise. When we do not remind ourselves, we are in danger of being reminded by God. Hence, God rebukes Job, in effect asking him "Who do you think you are?" (Job 38:2)
There is a lot of energy in the descriptions of creation. For some, the energy will be experienced as invigorating excitement; to others the same energy will be overwhelming threat. We differ in how our bodies respond to emphatic stimulation. But with all the excitement, Psalm 104:9 declares that there is a boundary to the tumult of the water. The declaration that God has fixed boundaries to the threatening floods might be a comfort to those who are anxious, whether their floods are literal or figurative.
Isaiah 53:4-12 and Psalm 91:9-16
Isaiah 53
This is one of the great Servant Songs of Isaiah. It is full of the tender compassion of God that heals our sickness and sin. People vary in how much they care about tender compassion, or in how much they feel infirm or prone to sin. Additional themes are highlighted when this text is seen in the context of the other lectionary passages for the week, especially Mark 10. Now it serves to flesh out both what Jesus meant by "the cup that I drink" and "the baptism that I am baptized with" as well as the definition of greatness and glory which is active in Jesus. The description in Isaiah 53 is a poetic account of what Jesus offered and promised James and John when they asked to be next to Jesus in glory. The path to greatness and strength passes through suffering on behalf of people who transgress.
Do note Isaiah 53:12b. We often pray for victims, as we ought. But do we "make intercession for the transgressors"? How much a person feels connected to other people varies. Do we let sin make someone a "them" instead of an "us" (Mark 10:38-39)? In addition to our general feelings of solidarity with humanity, or not, our attitude toward sinners relates directly to how much we see ourselves as transgressors in need of intercession.
Given these themes, this Isaiah passage will resonate with people who feel the self-discipline to pursue excellence, the dominance to wish to be among the great and strong (v. 12a), the strength of character to endure pain for a cause, or the determination to see an endeavor through difficulties to its end. Additionally, it connects with those who feel guilty or weak, and with those of tender compassion who feel connected to others and desire their salvation. Note that any one of these personality traits may provide a point of connection to the passage. Not all are needed at once.
Psalm 91
Psalm 91 describes protection from danger. How much protection people feel they need varies, both situationally and according to how they vary in their physiological response to threat. This passage is a true, scriptural declaration of God's care and protection. But we must consider how it shapes our use of it when we know that Psalm 91 was misused by Satan to tempt Jesus. How does the protection declared in Psalm 93 interact with the victory that was only won through suffering which is described in Isaiah 53? How do we use Psalm 93, and encourage others to use it properly? More on this later.
Hebrews 5:1-10
This is about a leader, a priest, but it talks of reverent submission. Living out that tension between decisive leadership and submissive service is one of the challenges of the model of leadership which Christianity values. Different individuals will find it most comfortable to live at different points in that tension. This is all well and good, as long as we do not ignore the pull in both directions.
As with Isaiah and Mark, the Hebrews passage picks up the theme of achieving the goal of ministry through suffering. But suffering is hard! What resources of character do different people bring to the task? How can the mercies of God in Christ Jesus leverage our resources and support us in our weakness? This is what Hebrews 5 points out, Jesus is able to help us, because he also knows suffering like ours. But for those of us who enjoy the internal resources to better handle the sufferings we have encountered, how well do we, like Jesus, empathize with those who are weaker?
Mark 10:35-45
Here the lectionary selections move from poetic or theoretical descriptions into personal narrative. Two of Jesus' disciples want honor. He questions them, "Can you handle the hardship?" They say that they can. This is an important detail which shapes the response Jesus gives them, as will be discussed more below. What does Jesus tell them, and us, about what the path to honor looks like? The path is found in service to others, which will involve hardship.
God's Mission
God's mission as seen in the lectionary texts for this week is to serve and to save. Such mission does not look like arrogant power (Mark 10:42), which cannot empathize with weakness (Hebrews 5), and which rejects transgressors instead of making intersession for them (Isaiah 53). Nor can human arrogance stand up in the face of the power and majesty of God shown in creation (Job 38 and Psalm 104). (It won't even stand up if you leave "of God" out of that previous sentence.) Greatness is achieved through empathy, intercession and service, which will require suffering. God's strength, protection and our status as God's redeemed "holy priesthood" do not make us immune from any of that.
Beware of letting the comforting words of the Bible's description of God's saving power on our behalf make us think that the power and strength and greatness of our service in the kingdom of God means that we're immune from the price. Think back to Mark, "Oh, you want to be great? Can you drink the cup?"
The protection is real. For abused, stomped-on people, beware of throwing the Suffering Servant material in their face when what they need is the salvation message of God. God does not save through powerless martyrdom. Jesus is a martyr of power who invites us to join him in both power and martyr service. Thus, the powerless are saved.
God is not telling my powerless friend Elizabeth to stay in her abusive relationship as a martyr, but she could be hearing it as such when I preach the Suffering Servant theme to the powerful from Isaiah and Mark. I note that Jesus asked James and John if they could drink the cup, and they said "Yes." The Mark passage is a message to those who are not overwhelmed by suffering or the prospect of it. When people came to Jesus asking to be healed or freed from the evil which oppressed them, he did not ask them if they could drink the cup that he drank. He just healed and freed them.
There are two contrasting messages and contrasting situations. At the point when Jesus' status had just been affirmed as the powerful Son of God and he was stepping into the ministry to which he was called, the words of comfort and protection in Psalm 91 were a deceptive call to avoid suffering. Isaiah, Hebrews and Mark describe the glory of the powerful work of God, which will, however, include suffering. It is inappropriate to skip over this truth. Equally inappropriate is to tell the weak and suffering to ignore God's words of comfort, salvation and deliverance from oppression. As Hebrews 5 points out, it is a priestly duty to empathize with the weak and make intersession for them.
Most of these lectionary passages focus on the difficult service to others that defines true greatness with Christ, while Psalm 91 is included to keep us from being simplistic. Overall, the passages lend themselves to preaching the challenging call of Jesus' teaching for "whoever wishes to become great among you." (Mark 10:43) The participants in Mark 10 are not needy people when they first come to Jesus for healing and freedom. They are those who have been following Jesus for many chapters already, and are now eager to live into the life in Christ, as some who hear your sermon may be. On one hand, the danger is to offer a triumphalist vision of ministry in Christ which claims God's words of protection for those in need of saving as immunity from hardship for those who chose to serve. On the other hand, the danger is to place the weight of our sharing in the sufferings of Christ (e.g. Phil. 3:10, Col. 1:24) on those who first need to hear the words of God's saving protection, healing, and freedom.
Biographical Summary
John Barkman, with a Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary, integrates a background in the 16 Personality Factor tradition of psychology with his practical theology, all while working as an academic institutional researcher. His current projects include compiling a personality-aware commentary for the entire lectionary cycle.
23rd Sunday after Pentecost (Reformation Sunday)
October 28, 2018
Proper 25
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52
God's mission is drawing all peoples toward the fullness of God's life and is calling us to respond with faithful persistence.
Exegetical Missional Insights
The first reading, Jeremiah 31:7-9, is from an oracle of Jeremiah that draws upon the story of the exodus and the journey through the wilderness. As Miriam led the women in song after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20-21), those who are delivered will shout for joy (Jeremiah 31:4, 7). Just as God has delivered the enslaved people from Egypt, so God will continue to do so (Jeremiah 31:7). Jeremiah was offering this message of hope to people who were living through the catastrophic times of Jerusalem being captured, the temple burnt and many inhabitants being deported. The deliverance from "the land of the north" (Jeremiah 31:8) refers to the exile of the northern tribes under the Assyrians. The prophet believes that hope for the future lies with those in exile, including the blind and the lame (Jeremiah 31:8). They will be consoled and led/guided back to the streams of water (Jeremiah 31:9). Later in the same chapter, Jeremiah proclaims a renewed covenant (31:31-34).
The gospel reading, Mark 10:46-52, is the second incident in Mark of Jesus restoring sight to a blind person. In the first encounter (Mark 8:22-26), which takes place in Galilee, a blind man was brought to Jesus, who in turn led him through a gradual process of healing, sent him home and told him not to go into the village. In contrast, in the second story, which takes place at Jericho, the blind Bartimaeus initiates the event. The crowd tries to silence him, but Bartimaeus continues to call out, "Son of David, have pity on me!" (Mark 10:48). Jesus then invites him to come forward. Bartimaeus immediately throws off his cloak and runs to Jesus with the request, "Master, I want to see" (Mark 10:51). Rather than sending him home, Jesus invites him, "Go on your way," and Bartimaeus after receiving his sight follows Jesus on the Way (Mark 10:52). This latter phrase points to the decision of Bartimaeus to become a disciple. The blind person in the earlier healing from blindness was told not to go into the village. It is also interesting to note that between these two stories of the blind gaining their sight, Jesus tried to give sight to his disciples about the cost of true discipleship by warning them of his upcoming passion and death.
God's Mission in the Text
God's mission (missio Dei) is evident in both readings. In Jeremiah, the focus is more on the nation or community, while the gospel encounter is more focused on the individual of Bartimaeus (although it had implications for the others who witnessed it personally or heard of it later). God is calling God's people, first of all, out of slavery into freedom and fuller participation in God's reign along peace-filled waters (Jeremiah), and secondly, out of blindness to being able to see clearly and find their way on the journey (Mark). Jeremiah referred to people being led to level/smooth ground where they would not stumble (31:9).
Underlying both scripture passages is an invitation into a renewed covenant (Jeremiah) and to following the Way (Mark), in order to participate in the missio Dei. Bartimaeus (together with the personal life and challenges of Jeremiah himself) represents the faithful persistence required of disciples and covenantal people. Despite the opposition of the crowd, Bartimeaus called out all the more. He was persistent. And Jesus told him that his faith had saved him (Mark 10:52). He was faithful. Bartimaeus had faithful and faith-filled persistence as a disciple. Pope Francis refers to this as "missionary discipleship" (Evangelii Gaudium 24, 120).
Missional Connections for Our Context
The passage from Jeremiah reminds us of the communal dimension of the missio Dei, or what we may call our salvation history. Over the years, I have had the privilege in my Catholic religious community of living with many Vietnamese. In the early years, many of them were exiles who had experienced the perils of escaping by boat (where almost half of the people died at sea), solitary confinement, reeducation camps, and the culture shock of entering a new land with little or no knowledge of English and often without all the members of their family. After time, some of them shared their faith journey - or the Vietnamese history of salvation - through these many trials in terms of the crossing of the Red Sea and the pilgrimage through the desert. Jeremiah's vision of deliverance, freedom, hope, and a new covenant for a nation or people would resonate well with such exiles and migrants today.
While people in the West don't always think of salvation in communitarian terms, how would our congregations and Christian communities/neighborhoods describe their own history of salvation? Perhaps by also looking at the nation of the United States today with both its unfaithfulness and faithfulness. How would we understand our communal need to move from slavery and sin to freedom and grace? How might we understand our communal need to recognize God's faithfulness to the covenant in our past, present, and future as a people of God? We are called to respond to God's mission of drawing peoples "from the ends of the earth" (Jeremiah 31:8) back to God through the wilderness.
Jeremiah also believed that the hope for the future came from those returning from exile. In the United States, we have the opportunity to be blessed through the faith journeys of the many refugees, migrants, and other marginalized groups among us. How can we open ourselves up more and more to such enrichment and challenge in our local contexts and faith communities? Together we called by the missio Dei back to the fullness of God's life. Jeremiah spoke of the blind being included among the remnant, and Luke's gospel illustrated God's gift of sight in the life of the blind Bartimaeus. The blind and others with physical challenges are also often on the edges of our society and our churches.
For the first time at the annual conference of the American Society Missiology last June, we had sign language available for the deaf participants. I was inspired by their faithful persistence in living out their lives under those circumstances. However, I was further moved when the deaf community led the rest of the three hundred conference participants in Sunday morning worship. It was especially touching as they showed us how to sing in sign language. On the one hand, I was reminded both of how I need to continue to face my prejudices toward all marginalized people - including migrants and refugees, the blind and deaf. At the same time, how do I/we allow ourselves to be touched by God as individuals and communities by those on the margins? Can we allow God to show us the Way through them? God's grace and mission is at work in unexpected ways!
Both scripture passages invite us to reflect upon our individual responses to be freed of our own blindness to God's mission (Mark) and freed from slavery to idols and addictions of all types (Jeremiah) in order to see and follow the Way more faithfully. The witness of Bartimaeus urges us to be faithfully persistent in our journey of discipleship. He had to overcome the opposition of the crowd in order to be healed of his blindness. His decision to then follow Jesus as a disciple reminds us that discipleship requires enduring and understanding sickness, suffering, and death in a redemptive fashion, which Jesus was teaching his disciples before the Bartimaeus encounter. Bartimaeus followed Jesus as a missionary disciple.
These themes also are relevant as we celebrate Reformation Sunday. We are called as the church and God's people to listen to and collaborate with the stirring Spirit of the mission of God, who is calling all peoples and all of God's creation back to God. We need to overcome our enslavement, blindness, and sin. Both readings call us to the ongoing and persistent process of transformation and reform on individual, communal, and ecclesial levels.
God's mission is drawing all peoples toward the fullness of God's life and is calling us to respond with faithful persistence.
Reference
Brink, Laurie, and Paul Colloton. Living the Word: Scripture Reflections and Commentaries for Sundays and Holy Days. Year B. Franklin Park, IL: World Library Publications, 2017. Pp. 197-199.
Biographical Summary
Roger Schroeder is the Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and Culture at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago (CTU). He co-authored with Stephen Bevans Constants in Context (2004) and Prophetic Dialogue (2011). As a member of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), he served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea for six years before beginning his teaching and academic ministry at CTU in 1990.
All Saints Sunday
November 4, 2018
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44
Exegetical Missional Insights
Isaiah 25:6-9
This text is situated right in the middle of a distinct section within the book of Isaiah, the apocalyptic chapters 24-27, which are focused on the ultimate salvation that God will bring to God's people. This pericope is a hopeful image of God's justice rolling down from heaven for a people who have been persecuted, who find themselves scattered, and whose religious leaders have been found to be corrupt. Isaiah offers an image of God's providence, justice, and blessing.
Psalm 24
Psalm 24 is a beautiful vision in which the God of creation restores God's people. This text is possibly a liturgy within the celebration of the return of the ark of the covenant to the people of Israel. The text is a victory chant of war in struggles that have been experienced by people outside of the people of Israel. Furthermore, it is a victory chant that God has brought victory to the Israelites.
John 11:32-44
This story of Lazarus is one of puzzlement and wonder. John is the only gospel in which this story is found. The timing of the death and raising of Lazarus foreshadows the death and resurrection of Christ. This text demonstrates that the light and life of the world reside within Jesus the Christ and that no matter what darkness and what power has grip, the light and life within Christ always comes out victorious. Even death itself has lost its sting.
Revelation 21:1-6a
As John the Revelator reaches the end of Revelation, he leaves us with this beautiful image of the coming of the new heaven and the new earth and the first earth passing away. Isn't it interesting that when someone experiences loss, we use the phrase "pass away"? Here death itself is passing away. This text is the image of the completion of the missio Dei and the triumphal celebration of bringing all of creation to the point of redemption and putting it back into order.
God's Mission in the Text
Today's texts allow us to see the fullness of God's mission throughout time. We are invited to remember that the God of creation continues to be with us from the Garden of Eden to the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Furthermore, God is showing humanity that God is in ultimate control. In fact, it is not up to us. God's great shalom is going to be made manifest on this earth not due to us, but despite us.
Christopher Wright states, "It is not so much that God has a mission for His church in the world, but that God has a church for His mission in the world" (Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God, 62). That is, God is the one that will wipe away all tears, cure all sickness, and vanquish all pain. We, the church, do not have to try to reinvent the wheel or to sacrifice the truths of the gospel to make them more culturally palatable - God transcends culture. It is simply our honor and privilege to join God in God's mission.
Missional Connections for Our Context
The story of Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus is a moment in scripture that causes the reader to pause. It seems to stop us in our tracks because the person who holds the keys of life and death is weeping. God weeps when we die. This is a critical truth that our congregations must understand - we were never created to die. Death is a path that God never meant for us. Yet it is a necessity and a condition of our fallen and broken state.
Too many times we avoid our grief, our pain and our suffering when we encounter human loss. But the the gospel of the day confronts us with the reality that when someone leaves this world, those who remain are not only left with the loss of a loved one, but also with the unconscious recognition of the consequences of sin. We are reminded and ushered into the pain of life, the darkness of the world, the anguish of suffering, and the inescapable realities of sickness. The congregation is given permission to enter into their pain, but they enter into their pain not alone but with Christ. And then we are reminded in the midst of our pain that the God who created us in the very image of God and spoke creation into being is continuing to come to us and break into our reality and allows us to experience glimpses of the new heaven and earth even now.
One of the ways in which God has done that is through the saints that have lived before us and have passed on to glory ahead of us. I think of the pastor under whom I found faith. I think of the little grandma who was my mentor in my confirmation class. I think of my grandfather who visited the shut-ins and the sick with me in tow. Our saints helped bring us to faith and grow in faith. Our shared lives gave us glimpses of the new heaven and new earth. Our saints pointed us to the work of Christ. And when the new heaven and new earth are fully ushered in, we will join our saints and celebrate the redemptive love and work of God.
Biographical Summary
The Rev. Kaury C. Edwards serves as the lead pastor of Wesleyan Heights United Methodist Church within the Kentucky Annual Conference. In 2013 he received a Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary, and in 2016 he received a Master of Theology degree in World Missions and Evangelism with a specialization in missional theology and desecularization from Asbury. He is currently a Doctor of Ministry student at Duke University and is focusing his research on reconciliation, sociological imagination, and violence in the church.
25th Sunday after Pentecost
November 11, 2018
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Exegetical Missional Insights
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
The book of Ruth reveals the heart of God at work through people. God cares deeply for all people and instructs us to extend special care for "widows and orphans," the most vulnerable in society (cf. Exodus 22:22; Deut. 10:18; and James 1:27). Ruth, a young widow, cared deeply for her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, and pledged to take care of her for the rest of her life (1:16-17). As widows, they were both vulnerable, potential targets of abuse by the more powerful ones around them. After they arrived in Bethlehem and Ruth ventured out into the fields to gather the leftover grain for her and her mother-in-law, Boaz had compassion on her, providing both food and protection (2:8-9). He also blessed her, saying, "May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge" (2:12, NIV). The Psalms often depict God's protection as "wings" that shelter the vulnerable (Ps. 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; and 91:4). Naomi worked to provide such a place of security for her caring daughter-in-law when Naomi instructed Ruth to go and sleep at the feet of Boaz as he was guarding the grain at the end of the harvest season. When Boaz awakened, Ruth proposed marriage by telling him to "spread his wings" over her because of his obligation under the Law (3:9). In essence, she was telling him to fulfill his own blessing to her about God's protection by acting on God's behalf to protect her. As one of Naomi's nearest relatives, Boaz had a responsibility to function as a "redeemer" to rescue her and Ruth from their vulnerable position in society. He gladly fulfilled this obligation, and Ruth became his wife. Their child then became a "redeemer" for Naomi and the family through the future care that he would provide (4:14). The women of Bethlehem also identified the important role that Ruth played in this process, declaring that her value to Naomi was greater "than seven sons" due to her devoted love and care for Naomi (4:15).
Hebrews 9:24-28
Hebrews 9 also highlights the theme of rescue and redemption. Jesus became the ultimate redeemer by offering himself as a one-time sacrifice to free us from our sins (9:26, 28). All of us commit sin. We are spiritually broken, in desperate need of forgiveness and salvation. We are helpless on our own. Even while humanity was mired in spiritual poverty, our own suffocating sinfulness, Jesus paid the price for our forgiveness with his own life (Romans 3:24). In so doing, he provides "eternal redemption" for us (Hebrews 9:12; cf. Ephesians 1:7). This was the purpose of his incarnation (Luke 1:68) and what Jesus accomplished (Colossians 1:13-14).
Mark 12:38-44
Preachers often highlight the widow's extravagant giving as the key message in this passage, emphasizing how their members should give sacrificially to the church. Is this really the point that Jesus was making? As with many of his teachings, this lesson has a double-edge that cuts in two directions. Yes, the widow gave much more than the rich people in comparison to their relative resources. She gave everything she had while they gave out of their excess. Jesus acknowledges her total commitment, and he desires that his followers be completely committed to God. Nevertheless, Jesus prefaced his comments about the widow with a condemnation of religious leaders who take advantage of the poor. He condemned them for devouring widows' houses (v. 40). "Houses" here refer to all of their material resources. The widow who gave the last of her possessions to the temple treasury becomes a prime example of one whose final resources have just been devoured by the religious leaders. Instead of caring for the most vulnerable of society, the religious leaders took advantage of them, actively consuming what remained of their meager estates.
God's Mission in the Text
All three texts focus on the theme of redemption. The book of Ruth illustrates how each of the people in the narrative act in ways to redeem the lives of those around them. Ruth gives of herself to care for her mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi works in ways to help provide for her daughter-in-law. Boaz willingly acts as the "redeemer" for his relative Naomi and her daughter-in-law. As such they provide concrete examples of the many ways that the followers of God should reach out to the vulnerable and rescue or "redeem" them from their dire circumstances. The Hebrews passage demonstrates how the heart of God is filled with redemption. Jesus becomes the ultimate redeemer for all of humanity through his sacrificial death. God loves us so much that he provides for our eternal redemption from the sin's captivity. While the book of Ruth shows through the examples of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz how we should reflect God's love for others, the passage in Mark warns us about what we should not do. The religious leaders in Mark become the "anti-redeemers." Rather than helping the vulnerable, these powerful leaders use their influence to take advantage of the weaker ones of society. They have become the oppressors of the poor. The priests and scribes should be shepherds caring for the sheep; instead, these leaders are wolves who devour the flock.
Mission Connections for Our Context
God has deep compassion for those who are suffering, and God meets us in our brokenness, offering redemption for all areas of our indebtedness. As followers of God, our mission is to work together with God and others to serve as channels of God's redemptive action in the world. To do this, we must first avoid actions that actually hurt the ones we are trying to help. Certainly, some supposedly Christian leaders try to extort the poor for their own gain. They urge their impoverished followers to give sacrificially for the benefit of the leaders. After all, these leaders really need a private jet or a lavish mansion or an exorbitant salary or all of the above. We can readily identify such charlatans who prey on the poor.
Are there not also times, however, when our more respected Christian leaders pressure all their church members, including the materially poor, to give sacrificially to building campaigns and other seemingly worthy causes. Many families are on the verge of financial bankruptcy, and the church pressures them to give beyond their ability. When we do this, we are no better than the religious leaders that Jesus condemned for devouring the resources of the poor. At other times, we mean to help others but unwittingly hurt them. When we import hundreds of free shoes or tons of food into an impoverished area of the world, we can bankrupt the local merchants and farmers by destroying their local economy. We can also create an unhealthy dependency. When we import large amounts of unskilled labor into such communities through our short-term mission teams, we unwittingly take away much-needed jobs desired by local citizens. In all that we do, we must take care to be truly helping, not hurting.
On the positive side, we should endeavor to demonstrate God's love by genuinely caring for those suffering from the various forms of poverty. The Potter's House Association of Guatemala has properly identified eight forms of poverty: intellectual, spiritual, economic, and physical poverty along with poverty of a support network, of the will, of affection, and of civic involvement. By addressing these many different types of poverty in constructive ways, the Guatemalan leaders of this organization have been able to work redemptively in several different impoverished communities (https://pottershouse.org.gt). In a similar manner, we need to take a holistic approach to our missional efforts, realizing that we also serve as wounded healers. We may abound in material wealth that we can use to minister to others, but we may lack the depth of faith found among those with fewer material resources. We learn from one another, minister to each other, and work together as partners in God's work of redemption.
Biographical Summary
Dennis J. Horton, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Religion and Director of Ministry Guidance at Baylor University. He has been involved in mission work and research and currently teaches cross-cultural ministry. He is a former youth minister and pastor, having served churches in Texas, Indiana, Hong Kong, and Georgia. He has taught at Hong Kong Baptist University, Yonok College in Thailand, Brewton-Parker College in Georgia, Howard Payne University in Texas, and Baylor University (2005-Present).
26th Sunday after Pentecost
November 18, 2018
1 Samuel 1:4-20; 2:1-10
Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25
Mark 13:1-8
Exegetical Missional Insights
1 Samuel 1:4-20; 2:1-10
The book of 1 Samuel does not open with exhilarating tales of the prophet's adventures or triumphs. It instead begins with the seemingly anticlimactic introduction of an unremarkable, barren, and bullied woman named Hannah. She is in fact so pitiful, that when she visits the temple to cry out to God, Eli mistakes her for a drunk woman, and tries to send her on her way. Remarkably, she stands up for herself, explaining her situation and correcting the high priest in the process. Moved by her dedication, Eli blesses her and assures her that God has heard her cries. Soon after, Hannah finds herself pregnant and responds with an incredible prophetic prayer of praise. In this prayer, she recognizes, like Mary after her, that God's ways are wonderfully and subversively backwards- "He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor" (1:8a).
Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18), 19-25
In this passage, the author of Hebrews reaches the climax of his exposition carefully explaining Jesus and the New Covenant as a fulfillment of Old Testament theology and prophecy. Unlike the current priests who stand daily "offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins" (10:10), Jesus made a single offering that makes us perfect forever. This is a direct fulfillment of the promise from Jeremiah 31:33-34 that one day God would make a new covenant with his people, writing his laws on their hearts and minds, and forgiving and forgetting their sins once and for all. This was, in fact, God's final and ultimate plan for His people, giving them the confidence to draw near to Him like never before in the new and Holy community of the Church.
Mark 13:1-8
In his typically controversial manner, here Jesus responds to a disciple complementing the appearance of the Temple complex by predicting the great and total destruction of the Temple. He then explains the "beginning of the birth pains" (13:8) that will signal the end of time. Many will come claiming to be Him and they will confuse many, but the end will not come until the Gospel is first proclaimed to all nations, or people-groups. For Jesus' followers, this will be a tumultuous time of trials, beating, betrayal and death, but he assures them the Holy Spirit will sustain them and even provide them with the exact words to say.
God's Mission in the Text
Despite the vastly different contexts of these three passages, together they bear witness to the powerful theme of God's sovereignty and timing. For a hopeless and barren woman, God gave her a son who became of the greatest prophets of all time and the man to anoint the very first king of Israel. In Hebrews, the author assures his audience that this New Covenant is not "Plan B," but rather the ultimate reality that God had always intended. And Jesus offers cryptic details about the future end of time, with no concrete details other than an emphasis on our task of sharing the Gospel, and a promise that the Holy Spirit will intervene when we need Him. In these passages, we see a God who is intensely involved in the world He created. He regularly defies our earthly wisdom, exalting the lowly as His agents, and acting on a timeline that frankly doesn't make sense. Why would God allow Hannah to be barren, only to then bless her with a son who would play such a pivotal role in the story of God's people? Why wouldn't God just start with the New Covenant instead of making it the slow fulfillment of thousands of years of the "shadow of good things to come" (Hebrews 10:1). Why must we wait indefinitely for Jesus' return with no details and under the threat of violence? Although there could be lengthy theological debates about each of these questions, at the risk of oversimplification, I would answer them all with: "Because God is sovereign." God is King of the whole earth and everything in it. He stands above our finite understanding and reality of time and chooses to be involved. Despite our sinfulness and rebellion, He chooses to stay involved and even to involve us in His master plan of redeeming humankind to Himself. This awesome sovereignty could make us feel insecure and insignificant, but I believe it can also help root us in an increasingly disconnected world. As Hannah proclaimed it, "For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them has set the world" (1:8b). If we really believe that, there is nothing more reassuring.
Missional Connections for Our Context
Philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard famously defined postmodernism as "incredulity toward metanarratives." Although we are now currently in some version of post post-modernity, this particular feature still defines much of the West. In the increasingly pluralistic, secular, hedonistic societies of the West, obsessed with disembodying technologies, the erosion of metanarratives and plausibility structures present a significant spiritual and epistemological challenge. Who do we belong to? Why do we exist? What is true? Does it matter? Is there a community for us? These questions would have been unimaginable in traditional societies where the shared worldview clearly defined reality, but now they nag and pull at our psyches. This unprecedented loss of continuity reveals itself in significant social ills, like the current epidemic of loneliness, depression and anxiety, the breakdown of the family, meaningless violence, and the reemergence of radical ideologies attracting young people in search of meaning and community. I believe this crisis could actually be a kairos moment, where the Church is already equipped to respond to these needs with the powerful, grounding, meaning-giving metanarrative of God's reality-defining sovereignty. Instead of striving to make the Gospel message the most clear and simple possible, we should embrace the complexity and mystery of God's involvement in the world. Our evangelistic message must not be a truncated "sinner's prayer," but an invitation into God's redemptive work in the world-an invitation to join the people of God and to participate in what He is doing-an invitation to a purpose, an identity, an all-inclusive understanding of what it means to be human. Years ago, church-growth researchers were surprised to find that American young people were becoming more attracted to the seemingly dusty and antiquated forms of liturgy and tradition, rather than the mega-church performances they had anticipated. I believe this is because liturgies and traditions root us to a community and reality that is thousands of years old, which is intensely refreshing in our society's ceaseless march toward the future where even our most treasured technologies are declared obsolete every 18 months. The current reality presents a significant missiological challenge for our churches. However, the good news is that in the Gospel we find exactly what we need. Through the Word and Tradition, we are equipped with the message and practices to offer the world this invitation into the true reality of our sovereign God. We can be certain, like Hannah, the disciples and community before us, more people can find their true selves in God and His Kingdom.
Biographical Summary
Matthew Blanton lives in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, where he works as a house-church planter among university students with Beyond Walls Guatemala. He holds an MA in intercultural studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and has taught interculturally for years.
Liturgical Day and Texts
November 25, 2018
From Beginning to End
Year B, Proper 29, "Reign of Christ"
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Revelation 1:4-8
John 18:33-37
Exegetical Missional Insights
The three texts testify to the strong pull of God's action through history: in Christ, in individual lives (in the case of David), and even cosmically in Revelation. As the days grow shorter and we approach Christmas, these passages also reach from the beginning until the end.
The reading from 2 Samuel presents the "last days" of David. David's witness here is to the God's action, and it is called an oracle (verse 1), where "the spirit of the Lord speaks through me" (verse 2) and "the Rock of Israel has said to me..." (verse 3). God speaks throughout the passage, forming an everlasting covenant and prospering God's people. Meanwhile, "the godless are all like thorns that are thrown away" (verse 6). This is not just personal testimony; instead it is a recitation of God's revelation and goodness. Over and over again God has spoken.
The opening of Revelation offers a vision of John "to the seven churches that are in Asia." These seven churches were in what is now Turkey, but they have cast a shadow through history, representing God's reach throughout the world. The passage includes the famous saying "I am the Alpha and the Omega.... who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." As in the passage in Samuel, we see God reach from age to age.
The gospel text has the back-and-forth exchange between Pilate and Jesus over who Jesus is and what type of kingdom he proclaims. Pilate asks three questions: "Are you the King of the Jews?" "What have you done?" "So you are a king?" Pilate is trying to answer a binary question to his satisfaction: Is Jesus making a claim to kingship that will threaten the Romans? "My kingdom is not from this world," responds Jesus, but then he affirms who he is: he was born for this, for this he came into the world, he testifies to the truth.
God's Mission in the Text
A conundrum for a Biblical theology of mission is that the modern concept of "mission" does not appear in the Bible. Instead we piece it together from a host of Biblical phrases and sayings such as proclaiming the gospel, announcing the kingdom, testifying, witnessing, shepherding, healing, teaching, sentness/apostolicity, and so on. Today's passages show how God's mission is formed through the vast, cosmic reach of God's action in history. In includes both individual testaments, such as David's testimony at the end of his life, and specific places, such as the seven churches in Asia. God's revelation is both startlingly broad - from age to age and Alpha to Omega - and also very specific, touching down in individual lives and real cities.
Jesus' testimony points to how this may take flesh in life. Missiologist David Bosch said that mission is God's "yes" to culture and also God's "no" to culture. In Pilate's interrogation of Jesus, Jesus offers both this yes and this no. No, his kingdom is not of this world. No, his followers will not fight for him. No, his kingdom is not from here. Yes, he was born for this purpose. Yes, he came into this world to testify to the truth. Yes, those belong to the truth will listen to his voice. No, no, no, yes, yes, yes. The culture he enters both seeks and fears a king. He is a king, but not as they understand it. He is both less than they want and more than they fear.
Missional Connections for Our Context
Part of the church's struggle with the Christendom legacy is that we have often said yes, yes, yes to violence, control and coercion, and no, no, no to discipleship, peace and the kingdom of God. The dividing line in the text is hard to see. We associate ourselves with Jesus, but we're just as likely to be Pilate, murky about who Jesus is and what to do about him. What is the nature of his kingdom? This week's passages remind us both of God's great scope and universal reach, and also of the strikingly personal and specific ways God says yes and no to us.
The biggest challenge I have had with missional theology is how to live it out. I accept almost all the critiques I have read in missional theology. I'm against Christendom and consumerism, individualism and the separation of faith from vocation. I believe that we are called to serve and that we do this best in community. At the same time, I get stuck on how to live it out. How does mission transcend the "no" we often offer to culture and share the "yes" of God's grace?
Today's passages give us several models. First, we have David's witness to God's relationship with Israel, offered from his deathbed. In the face of suffering and difficulty, tragically wounded by our own sin and pride, we may still testify to God's work in the world and among God's people. We also have the vision offered to the seven churches. And we have Jesus's Yes/No dialogue with Pilate. The three models remind us how our individual lives are part of God's covenant. They present our lived mission as part of God's stretch to cities and people. They show us a glimpse of the kingdom Jesus proclaims.
Biographical Summary
Jonathan A. Seitz, Ph.D., is a Presbyterian Church U.S.A. mission co-worker serving at Taiwan Theological Seminary in Taipei, Taiwan. This year he is a visiting scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary and is itinerating throughout the U.S.A.
