Bible Tuesday for Sunday, August 16, 2015

Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has hewn her seven pillars.
2 She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,
she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls
from the highest places in the town,
4 ‘You that are simple, turn in here!’
To those without sense she says,
5 ‘Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6 Lay aside immaturity,* and live,
and walk in the way of insight.’

Hebrew is a language that assigns gender to its nouns, as does Greek. In both languages, the noun, Wisdom, is female. The book of Proverbs depicts Wisdom as a female helpmate to God/Yahweh. Over the 2,500 + years that the book of Proverbs has been read by countless Jews, Christians, and others, this lady Wisdom has been interpreted in many ways: the female side of God, the consort of God, the Holy Spirit, a muse for God, among others.

Most commonly, this portrayal of Wisdom is considered an anthropomorphization of the righteous way of God. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, knowledge, wisdom, insight, are all considered signs of right relationship with God.

As a side note, take note of the domestic duties that go into Wisdom’s meal, comparing them with the duties involved in our meals. Most of us don’t slaughter a few hours before we eat, even if we do hunt. I don’t know anyone who mixes wine; as a matter of face, I do know people who find that gauche.

The largest Christian church ever built resides in present day Istanbul, Turkey. When it was originally built in then Constantinople, it was called Hagia Sophia, Greek for Holy Wisdom, and was the patriarchal basilica of the Orthodox Church, meaning it was to the Orthodox what St. Peter’s basilica and papal city are to the Roman Catholic Church. When Turkey became Muslim, Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque but was later decommissioned as a house of worship and his now solely a museum.

Psalm 34:9-14

O fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for those who fear him have no want.
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Which of you desires life,
and covets many days to enjoy good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Depart from evil, and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it.

This psalm adjures its hearers to fear and seek God. How is this done, according to the psalmist, by preventing one’s self from practicing evil. Farther on the psalm admonishes its hearers to know God’s laws and statues and meditate on them. This does not mean that we haul out Leviticus and memorize it. Rather “the Law” is Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures. The hearer is invited to know God through reading and meditating on the stories of creation, the patriarchs, the covenants, and how one lives within the covenant relationship God has made with humanity.

Ephesians 5:15-20

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why Paul singled out these particular days as evil, I do not know. The argument could certainly be made that all days are evil. Nevertheless, in this passage Paul teaches one of his tenets, that we adore God and give thanks to God at all times and for everything. What an incredibly difficult teaching to assimilate! How does one thank God for a car accident, a cancer diagnosis?

It is not that Paul was naïve and is encouraging folks to be Polly Anna. Not at all! Paul saw some incredible evil and lived through an awful lot of it. Rather, Paul believed that “God works all things for the good for those who live him, who are called according to his purpose.” Paul is not suggesting that we blithely skip through life thanking God for the sun and the pretty blue sky with every breath. Paul is daring to believe that even through tragedies God will shine light in our lives and manifest love in new ways.

Corey Tenboom told a story about when she and his sister were held in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, where her sister eventually died. Every night throughout their abuse by the Nazis, Corey’s sister would pray prayers of thanksgiving. On this night, their first night in Ravensbruck, she thanked God for the lice. Corey became angry with her, thinking her ridiculous. But in Ravensbruck the sisters found they could hold prayer meetings unmolested, and even hide bits of New Testament in their beds, all because the guards would not enter the quarters of the inmates, as they were so heavily infested with lice. Of course living with the constant biting of those lice was insufferable…and, the lice afforded the inmates a bit of privacy, something they otherwise did not have.

John 6:51-58

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

In the late 100’s AD/CE, a man named Hyppopolitus wrote an apology (that is, an explanation) to a Roman government official explaning what Christians do in their corporate and private lives, and stating that Christians are normal people and upstanding members of Roman society. This apology was necessary because several misconceptions had arisen about Christians which resulted in their persecution.

1. Christians were cannibals. Based on the above John text, one can certainly understand how the uninitiated could get the impression that Christians are cannibals. “This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you.” Hyppopolitus painstakingly described the rite of Holy Communion and that only bread and wine were actually consumed.

2. Christians were subversives, rebelling against the Roman government. Hyppopolitus explained that while Christians worship God, the son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit alone, (the doctrine of the Trinity had not yet been developed so the whole monotheistic argument did not come into play) and not the Emperor, yet Christians believed that they served God in part by living as law abiding citizens, and paid taxes, despite the rumors that were spread on that matter.

3. Christians were anti family. This came about because conversion to Christianity split many Jewish and Gentile families. Even so, Hyppopolitus argued that Christians married, supported continued marriage by converts to their unconverted spouses, and that Jesus supported marriage and taught against divorce.

This passage is the only theological treatise on Holy Communion that is written in the four gospels. Certainly Paul teaches on Holy Communion in a few places, but this is the only place where Jesus does. Jesus is conflating his sacrificial death and the final meal he eats with the disciples where he gives a new commandment, to “Love one another as I have loved you,” and then showed how to keep this command through his crucifixion and resurrection. How should the disciples, all disciples of every time and place, keep this new commandment? By eating and drinking Jesus’ body and blood together, in communion, and serving all in love, as Jesus did.