Luke 14:1,7-14

14:1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.

14:7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.

14:8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host;

14:9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.

14:10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.

14:11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

14:12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.

14:13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

14:14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Sometimes when we discuss the differences between the cultural setting of Jesus and our own, we fall too much into an us-them mentality.  We declare theirs as an honor-shame culture without looking at our own honor-shame dichotomies.  Much of our disposable income is spent on status symbols and items that display our honor.  Chances are pretty good that the nicest picture frame in any office is the one holding a college degree or an ordination certificate.  Many parents display “My child is an Honor Student” bumper stickers proudly on their vehicles.  Some people will not go to church if a relative or friend has committed a terrible crime or somehow brought shame.  “I’m afraid to show my face in church.”

We do the same with clean-unclean.  The principle really is the same, the rules are just different.  Back then a woman’ s menstrual cycle made her “unclean,” these days a hair in one’s salad is unclean.  A culture not obsessed with clean-unclean would not support Germ-X or Purell.

So let’s take a look at Jesus’ honor-shame lecture here and ask how it applies to us today.  His first example - taking a seat of lesser honor so that you may be honored by moving up - seems pretty straightforward.  Don’t brag or boast about how honorable you are; you will only be honored by humbling yourself.

But in his next example, Jesus warns against throwing banquets only for those who will invite you to their own banquets later.  Jesus tells us, “What’s in it for me?” is the wrong approach.   Instead we should share out of our abundance with those who are less fortunate.

We have to read these parables in light of what Luke tells us Jesus said about two chapters ago: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” (12:48).  Or for a more contemporary interpretation, the words of uncle Ben Parker to his young, spider-bitten nephew Peter: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

My pastoral care prof, Peggy Way, says that she adopted Micah 6:8 as her personal Christian mission statement.  When she was younger, she confesses, she focused too much on the “do justice” part, and now that she’s older she focuses more on the “walk humbly with your God” part.

Honor, wealth and power that have been bestowed upon us should be held gently and with great humility.  Honor is not something we have earned and can therefore display; it is something with which we have been entrusted.  It is a gift, and we are expected to give it away to others.  Power is something with which we have been entrusted so that we can share it with those who have none.  Wealth is entrusted to us so that we can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the sick.

And we are called upon to have the humility to admit that it is not ourselves who do these good things, but Christ working through us.  And it is not done for our own honor, our own reward but for the Glory of God.

Jeremiah 1

The Call of Jeremiah
⁴ The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew ^[1] you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ “Ah, Sovereign LORD ,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.”
⁷ But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD .
⁹ Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Footnotes

1.       1:5 Or chose

The Call

Why is it that whenever someone comes across youth and young adults in college that one of the first questions that comes out of their mouth is “What are you going to do with your life?” As I have gotten older and found myself asking the same question of people I think it has to do with people who are looking for ideas, either for themselves or for others.

Jeremiah is told from an early age what it is he is going to do with his life. Like so many before him Jeremiah also has a response as to why he can’t or won’t be able to perform the call that God has made on his life. “I am just a boy and I cannot speak”

God responds, “Don’t worry I will give you words”.

God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

-Moses

-Isaiah

-Peter

-Each of us

We are all gifted for ministry of some form.

            -We have specialized stengths

            -It is the same spirit present with us, and it is through the Spirit that we have our gifts, we all have some part of all the gifts. (18, 26, 37 or so gifts depending on the inventory you use).

            -All Christians have all of the gifts in some part.

            -How to find our ministry. Find your strength and grow.

How often I have struggled with the question that I have posed to God, “What do you want me to do?” In talking through my struggles with call over the years and in reading a book this month “The Gifted Pastor”, a dear friend shared the words of Micah with me. ‘Do Justice, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly with Your God.’ This is what is required of each of us.  It is just this simple. Jesus shows it one more time clearly in the temple dealing with the woman hunched over for years. The law forbids this in some ways.

Jeremiah faces in his call the call to destruction. Jesus shows us an example of how destruction can come in some form. We may be called to destroy Idols, like Gideon, ideas, like Jesus, Unrighteousness, like the prophets, and hypocrisy, also like Jesus.

But it comes with the call to plant and build as well. What do we want to build and plant?

The use of all of the gifts is to God’s glory. There are gifts that people have that look like spiritual gifts, but are not because they do not glorify God.

Notes on Isaiah 5 - Pentecost 12C

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This week’s text from Isaiah seems to offer little hope and redemption is far away. The condemnation is real from God, and I have to say that preaching through the prophets this summer has been rough to find the edges of hope and to preach what is evident in the text.

Chris Haslam seems to have hit on the defining moment for the vineyard, knowing that recovery can be present in this ruin of a vineyard with a  little grooming in the fields, to prune it up, clear the weeds, add some fresh spring water by way of irrigation and the hope of the previous jewel of the vintner is restored.

As such I am reminded of two stories…

One extra-canonical

KEEPER OF THE SPRING

As Told by Charles R. Swindoll

The other is from the New Testament, where the vine is restored to its precious place in the field, and hope is restored, with some serious pruning and trimming and some clearing of the fields as well.

John 15:1-17

John 15

The Vine and the Branches

 1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

 5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.

Footnotes:

1. John 15:2 The Greek for prunes also means cleans.

Isaiah 5

The Song of the Vineyard

 1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.

2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?

5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.

6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”

7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Notes on Pentecost 11C: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

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Isaiah 1

1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

This Amoz is not the same as the prophet Amos.

The kings listed reigned from 783-687BCE.

This vision from Isaiah looks backwards, forwards and at the present situation to provide a context for where Israel has been, where God is taking them, and what the current state of affairs looks like.

One thing to note is that the City and Kingdom remain the same and four kings are listed, and so one is pressed to consider that none of the kings did anything substantial to change the state of affairs and how the Kingdom would present itself before God.

10 Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

God calls out Israel in very direct and affronting language. God calls Israel by the names of the those nations best known for being burned to the ground and destroyed from visual memory, though they remain in the memory of the people for their blatant disregard for the laws of the Lord, especially hospitality. Sodom and Gomorrah are the great sinner cities of all time, and Israel is now being compared to those cities, and should sit upright and take notice of what God is saying next. For some, it might be like when your parents called you by all your names, rather than the name you went by regularly – you knew you were going to be in trouble, so does Israel.

11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

Israel was trying to buy off God with their show and their sacrifices. Consider how this might happen in your congregation:

-Give more to missions

-Tithe more than 10%

-Feed enough homeless

-Give enough rummage to the church (without taking the tax write-off)

-Worship so many consecutive Sundays that no one can tell when the last time you missed was.

-Offer thanksgiving prayers for everything, including cavities, broken bones, deaths and the like.

We should also hear Psalm 51 here, where God desires first and foremost a broken and contrite spirit, more than any offering.

 12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?

God takes Israel to task asking them to show where it was told them to offer these sacrifices in this way,  and to do it in such a place.

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

All the festivals of joy seem to have been overrun with the desire to “please” God, rather than out of the joy of having from the great abundance that God has given. Giving has become a chore and a responsibility rather than a genuine response of thanks.

14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

God reminds Israel that the feasts that were to release them from their bondage and be celebrations of the freedom that God has given them is now turned to bondage of God.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

Remember that blood is life and to show ones hands full of blood to God is to delight in taking life. This is not the plan God has for the people, but instead God offers hope in new life, through giving ourselves first to God to be willing and obedient to the hopes and dreams God has for us.

16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

When I read this I think of Psalm 24:4 “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.”

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed. ^[a]
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

God once again lays it out plainly for the people of Israel to do what is right, to defend the persons who are least able to defend themselves. To bring up by the bootstraps not just oneself, but others as well. Stump to give what each deserves to have a life in this world, not out of anything other than the abundance of which God has so graciously given each of us, and that in gratitude, rather than to appease some angry God.

18 “Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.

This image is wonderful. God sits down to reason with the people, and to lay out the case that has been brought, but that the whole thing can be swept aside and made as though it never existed. I think of the image of “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” The power of that image is one for anyone who has ever put a white shirt in with a red garment in the wash, only to find a pink shirt at the end of the load. Then try whatever amount of bleach and mixture of chemicals/solutions you’d like and get the red out of the formerly white/now pink shirt. I have never gotten it back to white, and yet God is saying that He will wash it so clean that it will be whiter than before, and that isn’t just the formerly white/now pink shirt, but the red garment that caused the mess in the first place.

19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;

And here is where the Lord puts the simple part of the agreement for Israel to have all their sins wiped from the face of the earth, and to be made all the more clean – just be willing and obedient. The kicker to it is that God lays out another prize for Israel if they are to be willing and obedient. Not only will the former things be put away, but now they will be treated as kings and queens who get to feast on the best of the land. God places them in a new place, alongside the throne where God is seated that they might experience the greatness of God.

20 but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The story does not end with sheer happiness and the Lord’s release of Israel from all culpability, but offers the truth before them. God reminds Israel, that even though they can be made white as snow and pure as wool, they have to choose to do what is right. If they do not, then the bloodletting that began with animals in sacrifice will conclude with bloodletting of the people of Israel as the sacrifice before God, devoured by the sword.

Footnotes:

1. Isaiah 1:17 Or / rebuke the oppressor

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Notes on Hosea 11 for Pentecost 10C

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Dear friends I find myself looking anew at the Old and New Testaments this season of review for the prophets. There are a couple of observations I wish to make at the outset.

Some have said that the Old Testament God is a God of wrath and the New Testament God is a God of love. I have found God to be one who judges in the New Testament and loves in the Old Testament and it is for this reason I really appreciate our reading from Hosea this week.

In our text this week there are some pieces I want to lift out and posit for your review.

First, God acts in profound ways in Hosea 11:

God loved Israel and called him by name out of Egypt, claiming Israel as God’s own child (v.1)

God taught Ephraim (the Northern Kingdom) to walk; and one has the image of God lifting Ephraim up under the arm pits and helping Ephraim to stand so that he might be able learn to walk, as so many parents do with their own children. And the next image is one that seems to indicate that this learning to walk was not as an infant learning to walk, but as an adult who has lost the ability to walk and has to be rehabilitated, only to find themselves able to walk again, forgetting that someone or something helped them in the process (v.3)

God then talks of Israel as like a service animal: a camel or a donkey, or an ox; God has tied them with cords of human kindness to keep them from their animal instincts and straying from the work at hand for the Kingdom of God, and then created halters with love, to keep them close. (This in my mind recalls images of James 3:3 and the bit in the mouth to turn the whole animal). The real gift of kindness is the take the yoke from around the neck, letting the animal rest and take Sabbath. This recalls the 4^th Commandment from Exodus 20. God bends down to feed us, coming down to our level (in Jesus Christ) that we might receive the Good News. I am reminded of the image of mothers and fathers everywhere who mimic eating while at the same time feeding their infant children to help the youngster know how to eat. (v.4)

God laments the desire of the child, Israel, to run away from God, asking how God might give up, hand over, treat poorly, or make undone, instead God is stirred to compassion, rather than wrath. The wrath is what God seemed to want to do in former times as the cities of Admah and Zeboiim are named – cities that were rendered destroyed and worthless in the same breath as Sodom and Gomorrah, for their inhospitality, and great wandering from God. God is broken within, and has a change of heart, showing only love and compassion. (v.

God differentiates from human action that seeks to bear down and destroy (v.9)

God roars like a lion, offering protection, running off other predators and showing God to be the greatest of the lions (Babylonians, Assyrians and others also used the image of lions to represent their gods). In the roaring like a lion God also calls to the cubs, who return from a foreign land (the west – does this represent future Gentiles, or just those who have gone back to Egypt?) (v.10)

God settles Israel in their homes. I heard once of the former tradition among churches to offer their incoming pastor a “pounding”. This is the tradition where the new pastor is introduced to the new home with a housewarming including a pound of butter, a pound of flour, sugar, and as many things that a congregation could imagine measured out in pounds, not to mention the various furnishings. (I also hear the story of Jesus telling the Disciples that he goes to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house – John 14) (v.11)

God’s actions are shown to be those of a patient and loving parent even in the midst of great misdeeds by Israel, Ephraim and even Judah. (Israel and Ephraim are often interchanged in the Old Testament, and Hosea as well does this.)

Israel/Ephraim acts poorly:

They ran further away from God. They sacrificed to false Gods, and burned incense before images (Commandments 1 and 2 are broken here). (v.2)

Did not acknowledge God’s work with them to learn how to walk breaking the 5^th Commandment to “honor your father and mother that it may live long in the land God has given you.” (v.3)

When they return to Egypt and Assyria, former slaveholders of Israel and those who had mistreated them, God seems to indicate that Israel is breaking the 4^th Commandment to keep the Sabbath, and rest. (v.5)

Israel lifts swords against each other, and break down their cities with infighting. This leads to breaking the 6^th Commandment to not commit murder, as well as the 8^th Commandment and 10^th Commandment regarding stealing and coveting, taking either in action or in one’s heart that which belongs to someone else, including God.

By talking about how Israel calls out to the Most High, they are not calling to God – YHWH, but instead Elyon (God is sometimes known as El Elyon – God of gods, The God Most High), thus committing adultery with Elyon before their real God YHWH. This breaks the 7^th Commandment. (v.7)

God offers the final indictment against Israel and the breaking of the 9^th and final Commandment to not bear false witness against ones neighbor when God speaks of not acting like humans do in carrying out fierce anger. This is not an action for humans, but for God alone, and when humans try to take this responsibility they are, in fact bearing false witness, as they have taken too much power in their witness against their neighbor to be judge, jury and executioner. (v.9)

Israel has proceeded to break all of the 10 Commandments and yet God has stayed fierce anger and shown compassion, hoping once again to redeem Israel. This is indeed a God of love, not wrath

Hosea 11

God’s Love for Israel

 1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

2 But the more I called Israel,
the further they went from me.  
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.

3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them.

4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.

5 “Will they not return to Egypt
and will not Assyria rule over them
because they refuse to repent?

6 Swords will flash in their cities,
will destroy the bars of their gates
and put an end to their plans.

7 My people are determined to turn from me.
Even if they call to the Most High,
he will by no means exalt them.

8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.

9 I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man—
the Holy One among you.
I will not come in wrath.

10 They will follow the LORD;
he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will come trembling from the west.

11 They will come trembling
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them in their homes,”
declares the LORD.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Luke 12:13-21

12:13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

12:14 But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”

12:15 And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

12:16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.

12:17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’

12:18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

12:19 And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’

12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

12:21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

“This very night your life is being demanded of you.”  Scandalous words for a scandalous time.

A friend in her contextual education placement was asked to exegete the congregation where she was serving.  She described them to our class as “living the great American lie.”  This upper-middle class congregation was filled with reasonably wealthy folks who lived above their means, attempting to appear more wealthy than they really were.  Sure, they made a lot of money - but they spent more than they made and were in debt up to their eyeballs.  And guess where they cut spending?  That’s right, their stewardship of the church was even poorer than the stewardship of their own credit.

Luke’s gospel is especially important to preach prophetically in this age of rampant consumerism.  Luke’s Jesus, more so than Matthew’s, Mark’s or John’s, calls us to a radical rethinking of how we deal with our finances and wealth.  Luke’s Jesus admonishes us like Peter Parker’s uncle Ben: with great power comes great responsibility.  Our wealth is not our own - we can’t take it with us when we die.

Jesus’ message is 180 degrees counter to our culture.  “You would be really happy if you only had ______.”  Better gas mileage and a roomier interior?  A flat screen HDTV with ambient backlighting?  5.1 Surround Sound?  Blu-Ray?  A phone that hooks up to the internet and plays your music?  Natural male enhancement?  A pain reliever that won’t upset your stomach?

Jesus reminds us in no uncertain terms that those things do not make us happy, just like a big Coca-Cola won’t really quench your thirst when you’re actually thirsty.   A chocolate bar won’t really satisfy a deep hunger.  They are great at providing a quick temporal fix, but the satisfaction won’t last.  In fact, such empty calories actually make you more hungry later.

We in the church talk a good game about giving our lives to Jesus, but we don’t want him to touch our bank accounts.   That is a personal transfomation that most of us are probably scared of … one that intimidates us and hits us where it hurts.

And yet, when we focus on the eternal rather than the temporal, the heavenly over the earthly, the ethereal over the material, we can find deeper meaning in life.   We find something better than temporal happiness.

And that’s good news.