Month: April 2018

Bible Tuesday for Easter 5, 2018

Acts 8: 26-40

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury.. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So, Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Ethiopian replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” The Ethiopian asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does this prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the Ethiopian said, “Look! Here is water. What is to prevent me from being baptized?!” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both men went down into the water and Philip baptized the man. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

It is after Easter and Ascension and the apostles are disseminating from Jerusalem. Philip is called by the Holy Spirit to head west toward the Mediterranean to Gaza. (Yup, the same Gaza strip that is still fought over by Israelis and Palestinians.) Philip sees a foreign dignitary being born home in a chariot and feels compelled to speak to approach. Setting aside all religious, social, and sociological barriers, Philip strikes up a conversation with the man.

Eunuch – Yes, the men who served in the courts of ancient kingdoms, especially those who served wives and concubines, were regularly castrated so as to be made “safe” for women. In some ancient cultures, the term translated here as “eunuch” came to mean both men who were castrated and men who held certain positions in royal courts, since holding those positions meant being castrated, at least at one time. Therefore, the Ethiopian in this story may have actually been castrated, or may have been referred to as a eunuch because he held his court position. Sexual mutilation of this type was abhorrent to Jews and forbidden by the Law of Moses.

What is a guy from Ethiopia doing with a scroll of Isaiah? Most ancient Jews didn’t have their own scrolls of any book of the Bible, so what was this foreigner doing with his own scroll? And why was the guy reading Isaiah? First, the spread of the Jewish religion isn’t nearly as clean as we tend to think of it. Archeologists have found evidence of Semitic peoples spreading out from Egypt throughout the time of the ancient Jews. In addition, since Israel was ideally located along the trade route between India and China to the northeast and Egypt and African to the south and west, merchants from all of those cultures were exposed to Jewish religion as they traveled through Israel. Even though the ancient Jews were inconsistent with their welcome of and intermarriage with “aliens” and “immigrants”, the Holy Spirit still spread the love of God through the Jewish religion to those who passed through Canaan.

Psalm 22:25-31

From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.

The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.

For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.

Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,

and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.

This psalm is always read on Maundy Thursday as the altar is being stripped. It is the psalm Jesus quotes from the cross: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabbachthani?” The above verses are at the end of the psalm. The psalmist begins in agony, pouring his heart and soul out to God. Complete despair is a breath away, yet After his is cried out, words of gratitude and praise to God flow from his wounded heart. This transformation can only come by faith, given by the Holy Spirit.

The psalmist commands that all should praise God, the soon to die and the already dead (defying the belief of the Sadducees that there was no life after death), the nation of Israel and all the peoples of the world. Why? Because “all dominion belongs to the Lord.” No matter what religions people practice, God created all that is and God is still God over all people, whether they recognize God or not.

1 John 4:7-21

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Love: The English word “love” is the translation for six different Greek words: “eros” or sexual intimacy, “philia” deep friendship, “ludus” or playful love such as the affection small children show to dogs, cats, favorite toys, “agape” or selfless love, “pragma” or long lasting love such as love between husband and wife of 60 years, “philautia” healthy love of self, as opposed to narcissism.

The love that Jesus commands and that this reading explains is “agape” or selfless love. God’s completely selfless love for humans and all creation is exemplified by God’s complete self sacrifice. God gave up being God to become one of us, knowing that he would be completely rejected and abandoned by all, even is friends/disciples. God’s pure, selfless love seeks to makes it home in us and seeks to flow through us to all. God desires that we live in harmony with his love flowing through and around us.

“Fear has to do with punishment” – Generally fear has to do with pain, whether from punishment or from rejection, etc. Faith in God’s love for us grows and replaces fear. We know that because God loves us, we have no reason to fear God.

John 15:1-8

”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

In Greek, both prune and cleanse have the same root.

Christianity has taught in various forms throughout the centuries, that God tests his children, tries them with fire. Verses such as those in the above First John passage are used to support such beliefs. But in these gospel verses, the metaphor is not God causes disease or temptation to attack the vine and test it. Rather, in this metaphor, God prunes away the little dried up shoots and starts that will not grow into anything. God prunes away bad habits from which we must turn, and warped or self centered ideas which we find hard to shake off.

Abide: As Christians, we are not to march off on our own and proclaim our certain view of the gospel. That would be the opposite of abiding. Rather, we stay attached to Jesus and be a branch through which his love flows and flowers. How do we abide in Jesus and not warp into our own self centered views of who God is and what we want God to do for us? We must stay in community where the Holy Spirit can speak through each of us to one another. Martin Luther called this “the mutual conversation and consolation of the brothers and sisters.” Our time in community must include time for us to sit quietly and allow our whole selves to listen to God, whether during the silences in worship services, or through prayer groups. Abiding with God, ALWAYS listening to God, is not meant to be a way in which God robs us of our own identity and makes us codependents with him. Rather, abiding in God is the most peaceful, most self actualizing, most healthy, most whole way of living human life. Life our own way, ignoring the source of our life and our joy, can be compared to a steady diet of fast food burgers and fries ate alone in a booth or while driving to our next spending spree. Whereas, life abiding in God can be compared to family feasts where the table is huge, the food plentiful, the talk playful but loving, seats for family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers. Those whose family meals were never like this may struggle to comprehend this metaphor. Abiding in God is knowing God as the grounding of our very being. (Tillich)

Easter 4, 2018

Bible Tuesday for Easter 4, 2018

Acts 4:5-12

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

This is a continuation of the story in the first lesson from last week. Peter and John are in Jerusalem after Pentecost. They go to the Temple every day to worship God and proclaim the Good News that the Messiah came, died, and rose again. They saw a crippled man begging next to the Beautiful Gate Temple entrance. Peter proclaimed him healed in the name of Jesus, the Christ, and helped the man to his feet. The man was ecstatic and started jumping and calling out praises to God while following Peter and John. A crowed gathered around the healed man and the apostles. They recognized the man formerly crippled and were astonished to learned that the man was healed through the gospel Peter and John were sharing. Peter then gave a sermon to the crowd, proclaiming God’s love revealed through Jesus of Nazareth, and admonishing them to repent of the sin of rejecting and crucifying Jesus.

Sadducees overheard Peter and John, and engaged them in argument because Sadducees were the Jewish religious/political party that did not believe in any kind of life after death. They thought they had silenced Jesus by crucifying him, and were greatly distressed to see followers of Jesus bolding proclaiming him raised from the dead.

Salvation – When we hear this word, we think “saved from our sins and going to heaven.” When Peter and John’s Jewish audience heard this, they were likely thinking about the Law God gave Moses. The word generally translated as “saved” is the Greek “sozo” which means “restored to one’s right place”, “made right”. In the Hebrew Scriptures, sin is the act of turning away from God’s Law, God’s desires for the individual, the “tribe”, the world. The Law not only identifies sins but also remedies which “sozo”, that is remedies which put one back in one’s right place before the sin ever occurred.

“The stone which the builders…” – from Psalm 118:22. How it must have galled the High Priest and his family and the Jewish Temple authorities to hear some hick fisherman quote scripture to them so as to show how badly they missed the point of the scripture!

“There is salvation in no one else…” – In our effort to get along with everyone, a common thing more liberal Christians have said is “We Christians and everyone else are all praying to the same God anyway. Let’s just all get along.” While I appreciate the sentiment to co-exist peacefully, There are passages in the Bible like this, which state very clearly that faith in Jesus Christ, who is God, is the only way to salvation. I very much appreciate and support ecumenism, both inter Christian and inter religious. And I firmly believe that being made right with God only comes through faith in Jesus.

Psalm 22:25-31

From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.

The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.

For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.

Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,

and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.

1 John 4:7-21

John 15:1-8

In Greek, both prune and cleanse have the same root.

Christianity has taught in farious forms throughout the centuries, that God tests his children, tires them with fire. Verses such as these in First John are used to support such beliefs. But in these verses, the metaphor is not God causes disease or temptation to attack the vine. Rather, in this metaphor, God prunes away the little dried up shoots and starts that will not grow into anything. God prunes away bad habits from which we have turned, warped or self centered ideas which we find hard to shake off.

Easter 2, 2018

Bible Tuesday for the Second Sunday after Easter, 2018

Acts 3:12-19

12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites,[a] why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant[b] Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus[c] has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

17 “And now, friends,[d] I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah[e] would suffer. 19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,

This story takes place right after Pentecost. Peter and John stayed in Jerusalem for a while, and went to the Temple to worship and pray almost every day. There was no reason for them to stop being Jewish, since they believed Jesus to be the fulfillment of God’s promises to the world through the Jews.

On their way to the Temple, they saw a lame man on the side of the road, begging. They went over to him and said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give to you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” The man was immediately healed and started rejoicing loudly. There was quite a crowd who saw this and word of it spread fast. The healed man clung to Peter and John as they entered the Temple grounds into Solomon’s Portico. An astonished crowd flocked to them. AT this point in the story, the above reading begins.

In the above text, Peter addresses the crowd that has flocked to them because of the healing of the lame man. Note how Peter releases Pilate from guilt and shifts the entire blame onto all Jews. We tend to think of the guilt of Jesus’ death sentence to lay on Pilate Caiaphas, Annas, and the Jewish leaders. But Peter saw the crowds screaming for Jesus’ execution, whether incited by the Jewish leaders or not.

You killed the Author of Life – Luke uses a new title for Jesus which succinctly states the irony of Jesus’ execution, how call you take life from the one who created life and brought himself into human life?

Peter also states that all parties who cried out for Jesus’ execution and those who carried it out were only acting according to God’s script. Peter, and Luke, the author of Acts, seem much more comfortable with the notions of predestination and “fore-ordaining” that most Lutherans are, including me.

Psalm 4

Answer me when I call, O God of my right!
You gave me room when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.

2 How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame?
How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?Selah
3 But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.

4 When you are disturbed,[a] do not sin;
ponder it on your beds, and be silent.Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.

6 There are many who say, “O that we might see some good!
Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!”
7 You have put gladness in my heart
more than when their grain and wine abound.

8 I will both lie down and sleep in peace;
for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.

This is an unusual psalm both for its brevity and its style. The writer vacillates between pleading with and thanking God. These verses are interspersed with admonitions to fellow children of God. I especially appreciate the last line of this psalm. In our over caffeinated, over stimulated, screen addicted society, a statement of peaceful sleep due to trust in God is a very welcomed and comforting thing.

1 John 3:1-17

1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he[a] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

How remarkable that the Author of All Life, the Creator of All That Is, should look down upon this little blue marble, onto us little specks of momentary life, and call us My Children! But this title comes with a certain kind of life, which is different from the one our nature wants to live. Our nature wants gluttony, with every thought and act being ones of self service. That is what “the world” knows, but Children of God are, with every thought and act, to serve God and other. While this life grants us loving relations with God and neighbor, what does the future hold for us? We do not know, for Jesus did not reveal that to us, save what we can speculate from what he was like after Easter but before Ascension.

Lawlessness vs. Child of God – The Law being referred to here is the first five books of the Bible, the Penteteuch, the Law of Moses. The Law spells out the God/human relationship between Yahweh and the Israelites. Sin puts one outside that relationship. But the above author states that “no one who abides in him [Jesus] sins.” This can be understood to mean that when we sin, we are not living in relationship with God. But our lives are very fluid sinning and loving God almost in the same breath. For this reason, we need Jesus constantly, forgiving our sins and affirming the selfless work that the Holy Spirit does through us.

Luke 24:36-48

36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”[a]37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.[b]41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence.

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah[c] is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses[d] of these things.

Was Jesus really hungry? No, there was a folklore among the Jews that ghosts do not eat, so Jesus eats in front of them to prove he is not a ghost. Do you believe in ghosts? Jesus does not appear to be dispelling their existence.

Jesus told and told and told his disciples that he would be executed but would rise in three days and would go ahead of them to Galilee, but they did not believe. Now, in this text, Jesus retells them and reteaches them all of those prophecies and how He fulfilled them. Now, they are to proclaim these things to all nations. They are witnesses of these things.

What have you witnesses God doing in and through you? How will you proclaim this as the good news of God’s love?