Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 7, 2017

Isaiah 44:6-8

6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.
7 Who is like me? Let them proclaim it,
let them declare and set it forth before me.
Who has announced from of old the things to come?*
Let them tell us* what is yet to be.
8 Do not fear, or be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
You are my witnesses!
Is there any god besides me?
There is no other rock; I know not one.

These verses are the beginning of a speech given by God through the prophet, Isaiah or someone in his tradition/school, to Israel concerning God’s insistence on monotheism and the folly of ignoring God. “It gives particular emphasis to one of Deutero-Isaiah’s main themes: the insistence that no other gods in fact exist.” Jewish Study Bible Of particular emphasis in this passage is God’s complete and utter uniqueness. While others worship the elements in deified form (Rah, the sun as a deity), God/Yahweh, made all the elements! Why worship the creation? Admire it, yes! Appreciate it, yes! Praise the make of all that is, absolutely! But worship the creation, while forsaking the creator?! That is what this prophecy rails against.

Psalm 86:11-17

Teach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart to revere your name.
12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name for ever.
13 For great is your steadfast love towards me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

14 O God, the insolent rise up against me;
a band of ruffians seeks my life,
and they do not set you before them.
15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant;
save the child of your serving-maid.
17 Show me a sign of your favour,
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame,
because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

We find in Psalm 86 a whole host of ideas present throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. While Christian practice is to rely on faith in Jesus and to know God through Jesus, Jewish practice is to know God’s Law and keep it. Notice that concept in the first verse of the above pericope.

Verse 12 uses the term “steadfast love” which can also be translated “covenanted faithfulness”. God made a covenant with the descendants of Abraham; God would make them His people and, through them, make Himself known to all the world. The psalmist understands this covenant to have given himself/herself life and salvation from Sheol (translation: the oblivion of the garbage dump, nothingness, chaos). Reference to this covenant relationship between the psalmist and God is also mentioned in verse 15.

How interesting it is that the psalmist praises God for what God has already done and begs God to do something about his/her foes. At the same time, the psalmist thanks God for already doing the very thing the psalmist asked of God.

Romans 8:12-25

So then, brothers and sisters,* we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!* Father!’ 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness* with our spirit that we are children of God,17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in* hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes* for what is seen?25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

It is fascinating to be in the midst of studying Martin and Katy Luther in preparation for the 500th anniversary while also doing text study on Romans! Christianity as practiced in Germany (and elsewhere in the west) at the time of Martin Luther was filled with superstitions. One such belief was that Luther was in fact the anti-Christ and that he and his followers would all turn into convulsing devils on their deathbeds. It was, therefore, very important to the reformers that they die while confessing faith in Jesus. It was especially important that several people witness Luther’s death so that they could attest to his deathbed profession of faith and his peaceful dying. (A struggle at death, whether by disease or by accident, was thought to be a sign of struggle between a person’s soul and the devil, with the devil being victorious.) It is said that after Luther died, as his sons and Philip Melanchthon washed the body and prepared it for his pewter coffin (a very unusual coffin in Germany, where commoners usually went without a coffin), they found a note in his pocket quoting St. Paul, “We are all debtors/beggars. That is certain.”

In the above passage, St. Paul continues his discussion of what it means to live in the spirit as opposed to the flesh. This is not an easy dialectic to understand or put into practice. The whole concept of asceticism, that is, the silent, deprived life practiced in convents and monasteries, is to mortify the flesh in order to live in the spirit, to deprive one’s physical being in order to flourish in the spiritual realm. But even monasteries and convents had breweries. Paul further complicates the understanding of his use of “spirit” with the sentence “that very spirit [of adoption] witnessing to our spirit”. At the same time, this conveys a lovely, poetic image. “Spirit” can be defined as “that which makes one breathe, or that which makes one alive.” Paul is trying to convey the wonderful, beautiful concept which defies words: that which is life in God mingles with that which is life in us and changes us, betters us, makes us heirs of God along with Jesus!

Paul goes on to say that all of creation suffers under the weight of sin brought upon it by sinful humans. That creation groans under the weight of sin but also as it prepares for complete rebirth brought about by the salvation won by Jesus. Paul states that the struggle of Christians who believe in Jesus but also yet live in this world cursed by sin is also like birthing pains. It is incredibly painful to be what we are and live under sin, and yet the pain is the processing of being adopted by God and made heirs of God with Jesus.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’

31 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

33 He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with* three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet:*
‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’*

36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears* listen!

The Kingdom of Heaven is a strong theme in the gospel of Matthew. At times it seems as if the Kingdom of Heaven might simply mean heaven: the eternal afterlife with God. But at other times, the Kingdom of Heaven seems to mean life in God right now, here on earth, in daily living. It is such a complex idea that throughout Matthew, Jesus describes in the Kingdom of Heaven in parables, metaphors.

The first parable seems a fairly straight forward metaphor. Jesus explains the parable to his disciples, who, no doubt had the same reaction we do: “Wow! I sure hope I am a child of the kingdom because being burned in the furnace of fire sounds absolutely horrible!” However, if Luther taught us anything, it is that we are, by faith, simul justis et pecator, “simultaneously justified and sinner.” It is the “by faith” part that gives pause. Do we live out the gift of faith given to us through baptism? Taught to us by others, including the Holy Spirit? Nurtured through the church and through life?

The leaven parable is one that gives the impression that the Kingdom of Heaven is a right here a now thing too. Those who are the Kingdom of Heaven, or in the Kingdom of Heaven, are few in number, but when mixed into the world, they make the world a whole new thing, not a tortilla but a fluffy loaf of bread! The mustard seed parable seems to convey a similar message. The seed is tiny but when it flowers, look what benefit it gives! And not to itself, but to others, birds who happen upon it and receive nesting places, shade, and shelter.