Bible Tuesday for Sunday, November 8, 2015

I Kings 17:8-16

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him[Elijah], saying, 9 “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” 13 Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15 She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

The book of I & II Kings is a redaction, or compilation, of oral tradition, written records of various kings’ historians (histories were not meant to be written from an unbiased point of view in these days) and passages lifted from The Annals of the Kings of Israel, a source referred to in I & II Kings but which has been lost. The author of Kings describes the various kings as either “walked in the ways of the Lord God” or “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done”. King Omri, a king of Israel who was mighty in battle and whose name appears in Assyrian record, founded the city of Samaria. When Omri died, his son Ahab became king of Israel. Ahab built a temple and altar to Baal, a fertility god, in Samaria and worshiped Baal only. Ahab then married, not an Israelite woman, but a Phoenician princess who worshiped her gods and goddesses and taught these religions to the Israelites. In the book of Kings, Ahab and Jezebel are described as the WORST King and Queen of Israel.

Suddenly Elijah appears in this story. Because of the way Elijah is introduced, without a story of God calling this prophet which is traditional when introducing a prophet, scholars think the Elijah stories that appear in the books of Kings are selected from a much longer story of Elijah/Elisha. Elijah is introduced to the books of Kings when he marches up to Ahab in court and declares, “As the Lord lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there will be no dew or rain except at my bidding.” And a great drought commenced. Baal was worshiped as a god of water who brought fertility to the land, in part, through rain. God taking away all rain, and even dew, shows that there is no power in Baal.

But how will Elijah, this humble prophet, survive the drought? First God sends Elijah to the Wadi Cherith where he drinks water from the wadi and ravens bring him food to eat. But when the wadi dries up, God sends Elijah out of Israel into Zeraphath, north of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. Here Elijah encounters a widow onto whom he encumbers himself.

While Elijah’s behavior in this story is completely out of line in our culture, it must have been acceptable for a man to imposed himself on a woman for refreshment in that culture, as Elijah is not the only biblical figure to act this way. Abraham’s servants do the same when seeking a bride for Isaac. Jesus does the same when in Samaria at the well. While the woman readily complies with Elijah’s request for water, she is not willing to give up her last meal for her son to some strange foreigner. However, Elijah promises to the woman that the God of Israel will not let her food staples run out until the drought is over. When acting in faith or futility, the woman obeys Elijah and hosts Elijah throughout the rest of the drought.

Psalm 146

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
4 When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.

5 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
6 who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!

In the early books of the Hebrew scriptures, God tells the Israelites that they will not have a human king, but God alone will be their king. The scriptures describe God’s concerns as being exactly what we read in the above passage of I Kings, a human king who chooses his own god, his own religion, and leads all Israel away from Yahweh.

In this psalm, the writer describes God as over and against “mortals in whom there is no help.” Not only is God allpowerful, creating all that is, but God “executes justice” and cares for those who suffer at the hands of normal, fallen society.

Hebrews 9:24-28

24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

The author of Hebrews is taking Jesus’ speeches in the gospel of John and turning them into a theology. On Maundy Thursday, before his arrest, Jesus teaches the disciples and prays for them saying. “Now I am going to the Father,” and “No one can come to the Father except through me”, and “I must return to the Father.” The Hebrews author takes these and other sayings of Jesus and uses them to describe a) how is it that Jesus’ death and resurrection bring salvation to humanity? and b) how does Jesus fit into Jewish religion and tradition? By viewing Jesus as the ultimate High Priest of Israel and as the ultimate sacrifice which only the ultimate high priest can offer, he describes a new religion, a fulfilled Judaism, where Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection end the need for sacrifice but instead make way for faith in God.

The teaching in the passage that Jesus offered himself once for all is one of the things that separates Lutherans from Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. While Roman Catholics and Orthodox priests are taught and believe that when they stand at the altar and elevate the host, they are Jesus offering the sacrifice again, Lutherans believe that Jesus is the only one who can offer himself and he already did. Holy Communion is not a resacrifice but instead a feast on the one bread/one body/one cup/one blood of Jesus shed only once on Good Friday so long ago. Pastors, then, are mere agents of God, consecrating the bread and the body to continue to the meal.

Mark 12:38-44

38 As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Since Liberation Theology has developed, starting in the 1960’s, this text has gained a new reading. Instead of reading verses 38 – 40 as one thought and 41-44 a separate thought, scholars read these two passages as one thought expressed in two different ways.

The context of this passage of the gospel of Mark is that Jesus has been embroiled in debates with the Sadducees, a faithful scribe, and other scribes, some of whom are trying to trap him in front of the crowds at the Temple. Out of these disputes comes this teaching on being wary of Jewish authorities. But why:

1. Dress in long robes-one doesn’t wear long robes for manual labor, so these guys consider themselves above working for their food/clothing/shelter.

2. They expect special, respectful treatment in the public places of town. They expect to be treated better than the average person, indicating that they think themselves higher up than others.

3. The best seats in the synagogues are the ones that are closest to the scrolls and the speakers, seats that are most visible to the rest of the crowds. These Jewish authorities consider themselves exemplary and want to show it.

4. Because this elevated lifestyle costs money, these Jewish authorities are supported by the taxes paid to the Temple and are able to buy investment properties which they rent out to those whose families have had to sell their original land holdings. They have become the quintessential slum lords.

5. They pray out loud in public, making the prayers much longer than necessary, another attempt at showing off.

Now, knowing that about these church authorities, Jesus and the disciples sit down (Jesus, perhaps, in disgust) and watch folks heap their offerings into the collection receptacles in the courtyard of the Temple. Loads and loads and loads of offerings are being handed over by the wealthy, and the working class. And here comes this very poor widow who puts in a very meager offering, something at which the collection takers would scoff. But Jesus says she has put in more than everyone else because she has put in all that she has!

This is usually read and preached as the widow gave everything and we should do the same. But Liberation Theologians have said that, no! Jesus isn’t praising her and calling everyone else to do the same. Jesus is commenting on how corrupt the Temple system is that they would buy up land, take advantage of the poor by renting to them at very high rates, and then on top of it expect them to give “until it hurts” to the Temple, so that they can walk around in luxurious clothes and show off around town.

Who criticizes these Temple/church practices?!!! God, in the flesh, walking around in the plain ol’ clothes of an itinerate rabbi, having to stay in peoples’ homes for food and shelter, having to live off the support of certain women who provide for this ministry out of their means. If anyone should walk around in tailor made tunics and dripping with gold, it would be God in the flesh, but he does not. Instead, the scribes and Sadduccees do, and snub the son of man.