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Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 17, 2016

Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 17, 2016

Exodus 32:7-14

The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ’ 9The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.” ’ 14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

This is such a fascinating text. To set the context, this is the part of the Gold Calf Story where Moses has already received the Law and is about to go down the mountain to give it to the people who have, in his absence, cast a golden calf to worship in the place of God.

In a complete role reversal, God complains to Moses about the Israelites, calling them “Your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt” as if Moses volunteered for that job! In this text, God has the temper tantrum and Moses talks God down from it. Moses points out to God that God’s reputation would be greatly damaged in the eyes of the Egyptians if God forsook the Israelites right after God saved them. “Be faithful to your covenant!” Moses admonishes.

And then, God CHANGES HIS MIND! The Greek word here is “metanoia” which means to change direction back toward the goal. This is usually translated “repent” and in many versions of the Bible, this verse does say that “The Lord repented the disaster that he planned…” The Jewish Study Bible translates this word “renounce”.

Psalm 51:1-10

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgement.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.

6 You desire truth in the inward being;*
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right* spirit within me.

These are the beginning verses of Psalm 51 which is read liturgically on Ash Wednesday. Tradition has it that King David wrote this psalm after the prophet, Nathan called him out for his affair with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. It is fitted with the Exodus reading for this Sunday as the proper response of Israel to God when they were caught red handed with the freshly cast golden calf. This psalm also embodies the theme for this Sunday, true repentance and its joyous heavenly response.

1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.17To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever.* Amen.

This is a challenging text in that it is written either by St. Paul or as if by St. Paul but it teaches things St. Paul does not. Before becoming a follower of Jesus and later an apostle of Jesus, Paul was a zealous Pharisee who was granted authority and soldiers from the High Priest in Jerusalem to go round up followers of Jesus. Paul would bring them back to Jerusalem where they were dealt with very harshly, and likely stoned to death. But Jesus appeared to Paul, as he was marching to Damascus to round up Christians, and brought Paul to his knees. Then Paul, himself, became a follower of Jesus. The first verses this passage refer to Paul’s time as a Pharisee.

What I struggle to reconcile with Paul’s writings in Romans, Corinthians, and Philippians is the above statement that “I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.” In other writings by Paul, he expressly states that mercy comes from God because it is the nature of God and does not come from humanity (save by God’s action and power) because it is not the nature of fallen humanity. God’s mercy is not granted because we “act ignorantly in unbelief”. In fact, we intentionally do all kinds of evil things and then see the full consequences of our actions and regret them all the time, but that does not win us the label, “I didn’t know what I was doing.” Ignorance is no excuse for the law.

No, we do not earn God’s mercy because we sin in ignorance. God’s mercy is granted to all creation because we are sinful and ignorant, and God loves us anyway.

Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

3 So he told them this parable: 4‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

8 ‘Or what woman having ten silver coins,* if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?9When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’

Most of the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day subscribed to the teaching that if you kept God’s Law perfectly, than God was perfectly pleased with you. The Pharisees believed this earned you a spot in eternal life, while the Sadducees did not believe in eternal life. Jesus teaches against this belief system throughout all four gospels, especially with this chain of three parables in Luke. The above passage contains the first two parables followed by the Prodigal Son parable.

If we identify with the sinner who is sought and rejoiced over, these parables give great relief. If we identify with the 99 sheep, those who never left the shepherd and went wandering off, these stories give rise to jealousy and resentment.

In his letter to the congregation in Rome, St. Paul writes “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Martin Luther took that and many other teachings of St. Paul and taught that “our whole lives should be ones of repentance” because we are constantly turning away from what God wants toward our own navels. Therefore, we are forever getting lost, meandering or running away, and Jesus is forever hunting us down. There parable says there are 99 sheep who stay put. But that is just a parable. In real life, the only one who stays put is God the Father, keeping the porch light on for each of us.