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Bible Tuesday for Epiphany 6, 2017

Bible Tuesday for Epiphany 6, 2017

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

15See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

The book of Deuteronomy consists almost entirely of Moses’ last sermon to the Israelites as they stand on the precipice of Canaan, the long promised homeland. The above passage is very close to the end of the sermon. The author closes the book with this concise statement of choice: strive to abide in relationship with God or walk away. The author adds a clear bias stating the covenant relationship with God is life, whereas walking away is death, but each Israelite still has that choice to make.

In covenant language, which is the legalese of ancient times, to love means to be loyal to the covenant. Love, in this context and throughout the Bible, is not an emotion but rather a posture and an action of loyalty and faithfulness.

Psalm 119:1-8

1Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.

2Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart,

3who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways.

4You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.

5O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!

6Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

7I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous ordinances.

8I will observe your statutes; do not utterly forsake me.

Psalm 119 is far and away the longest psalm in the psalter, written in acrostic form. Whereas all other acrostic psalms have one line per alphabetical letter, psalm 119 has one paragraph per letter. The selection of verses for today equals only one letter’s worth of psalm!

Psalm 119 focuses on God’s law, using 8 different synonyms to refer to and describe God’s law. The word “law” is a translation of “Torah”. “Torah” is the Hebrew used to name the first five books of the Bible as a whole: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. While these books do contain law in the form of the 10 Commandments and the whole behavioral and penal codes in Leviticus, they also contain the creation stories, the whole narrative of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, the exodus story, all of which closes with Moses’ final sermon, the final portion of which is our Hebrew Scriptures periscope discussed above. No wonder biblical scholars have a hard time translating the word “Torah”! “Word”, “commandment”, “decree”, “rule”, “precept”, “teaching”, and all used when translating “Torah” in this psalm.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?

5What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

The chapter of 1 Corinthians immediately preceding the one above, a portion of which was discussed in last week’s Bible Tuesday, described the mature Christian. What stark contrast Paul draws when, iun this chapter, he describes the congregation members in Corinth! “Babies in Christ”, whose focus is “on the flesh.” So dedicated are the Corinthians to the person who baptized them, in an effort to one-up fellow parishioners, that the congregation members have completely missed the gospel! In focusing on Paul and Apollos, the congregation has missed Jesus! It would be as if members of St. Martin of Tours congregation baptized by Pastor Clark boasted of themselves as superior to all other congregation members baptized by other ministers. Suddenly, it is Pastor Clark who becomes important, not the Holy Spirit who is received through baptism, nor Jesus into whom we are all baptized!

Matthew 5:21-37

21“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.23So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. 31“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

33“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discusses righteousness. In last week’s gospel, Jesus said, “If your righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” In this week’s periscope, a description of righteousness is given by way of several antitheses. Heretofore, the authority of God has been received and conveyed through the Torah, the written and read word, which must be interpreted by scriptural authorities. But now, Jesus takes the voice of interpretation away from the Jewish authorities and makes God’s proclamation his own. “You have heard it said…but I say to you…” While it was and is traditional for Jewish rabbis to cite one another saying, “You have heard Rabbi ____ say… but I say to you…”, never would a rabbi dare to do this directly with scripture, only another’s interpretation of scripture.

Jesus states clearly, he has not come to eradicate or even rewrite the Law, but to fulfill it, which also means to correctly interpret and apply what has been written in the Law on God’s behalf.