"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Tuesday, 29 July 2008 | |||
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Full | |||
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"No, thank you, we're full," was our reply to the
standard question about dessert from our waiter. My daughter and I had
just enjoyed a fantastic Greek meal in Toronto, where she will be going
to graduate school this fall. This past week we discovered that this
large Canadian city has a huge Greek population and a slew of eating
establishments offering some of our favorite food. To say the least, we
indulged and ended up "full" more than once. My mother taught me that to say one is "full" is not an expression for polite company. It's fine around the family table, but with company or out at a restaurant, one is "satisfied" or "content," rather than "full." Sorry, Mom, but I've broken that rule more than once, and maybe Jesus did too. In the Gospel for this coming Sunday, Matthew 14:13-21, "full" is exactly the term used of the crowd in verse 20. Yes, our English translations typically use "satisfied" to express the Greek word chortazo, but the root of the verb is the noun for "grass" and the image behind the verb is of livestock eating until stuffed with hay. The same word is used in Matthew 5:6 when Jesus blesses those who hunger and thirst after righteousness with the promise of being filled. The same blessing is given toward simple physical hunger in Luke 6:21. For right now, I'll simply wonder how often we let ourselves be made full by what Jesus gives us. And how often do we consider how we may join as disciples in helping Him fulfill His promise to fill those who are hungry, both spiritually and physically? It seems that it's only in answering those questions that we will find real satisfaction. | |||
Wednesday, 16 July 2008 | |||
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Weeds and Seeds | |||
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For July 20, the parable of the weeds continues the theme of
seeds and growth by which Jesus elucidates the mysteries of the kingdom
in Matthew 13. Once again, the lectionary skips a few verses in order to
tie Jesus' parable directly to His interpretation. The intervening verses
are not completely ignored because at least verses 31-33 are picked up in
the reading for the next Sunday. But since I won't be preaching on July
27 and our guest preacher won't be following the lectionary, this week we
will read all of
Matthew 13:24-43. The weeds is generally agreed to be one of the most, if not the most difficult parable. Part of the problem lies in the differences between the parable in verses 24-30 and the interpretation of it which Jesus give in verses 37-43. Just in tone, the parable seems focused on what we might identify as grace, or at least patience, while the interpretation seems focused on judgment. Understanding this parable, as often in Bible study, is a balancing act. There is certainly a caution here against excessive zealousness to root out evil in the world. At the same time we as Christians work for a better world, we are aware that our goal is not to perfect the world. That remains always in God's hands and for the end times. But the caution against zealousness is not meant to be a laissez faire attitude toward evil, especially in the church. The rest of the New Testament makes it clear that sins of hatred and racism, as well as sexual sin and dishonesty are not to be condoned or accepted in the church community. And the parable and its interpretation themselves make clear that there is a coming judgment on all evil. The caution, then, may be as Klyne Snodgrass puts it, a caution to deal with evil in such a way so as not to do more evil or become evil oneself in the process. Perhaps, however, the primary note of the parable of the weeds is found in the two little intervening parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. It's the note of hope. Even in the midst of a world sown with evil by the enemy, God's kingdom will grow. He will care for it and bring it to completion and perfection. In the end, the enemy will not succeed. That's the hopeful confidence expressed in verse 43, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." | |||
Thursday, 10 July 2008 | |||
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Hearing and Bearing | |||
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The lectionary is a wonderful instrument for aiding deep and
thoughtful reading of Scripture in public worship. Yet it is not perfect.
Last Sunday, July 6, it left out, according to a bias against violent
passages identified by one of my seminary professors years ago, Jesus'
condemnation of towns in Galilee. This week, July 13, the reading from
Matthew 13:1-23 leaves out the harsh and difficult verses 10-17. It
makes it appear the skipped verses are nothing more than a parenthesis
interrupting the flow of Jesus telling the parable and offering an
interpretation. What's missed in that kind of reading is that the parable
and its interpretation are actually about the material from Isaiah
6:9-10 that is quoted in the omitted verses. The parable of the sower is
about hearing the Gospel Word of the Kingdom in such a way that it grows
and bears fruit. Isaiah and Jesus warn against superficial hearing of the
Word that ultimately bears no fruit. In his recent wonderful book on the parables, Klyne Snodgrass says the parable makes three significant points: 1) The kingdom of God is a kingdom of the Word; "it involves a proclamation about God and God's purposes and actions." 2) The kingdom challenges us to perceive it clearly and reorient our lives around it. 3) "The kingdom is presently at work and is established partly as people respond with believing obedience and inhabit the world created by the proclamation." Klyne says this about point 1: "Language creates a world, and the proclamation of the kingdom makes a new reality available." I might quibble with an extreme application of the notion that "language creates a world," wanting to maintain that it's only wholly true for the language God speaks, as it is in the case of the kingdom proclamation. Nonetheless, well-chosen language does allow us to perceive the reality which exists. Thus I wonder about the commonly understood task of the preacher to re-state the Biblical word in updated, common language, using new images, etc. Maybe our task is as much or more to invite listeners to hear and understand the language of God's Word as it is and let that Biblical language reshape their understanding of reality. Instead of recasting the message into forms called for by today's language, our goal is more to recast today's lives into forms called for by the language of the message. Otherwise, it might very well be true that we will be "ever hearing but never understanding." | |||
Thursday, 03 July 2008 | |||
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Restful Wisdom | |||
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In The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien often
draws the biblical contrast we find mentioned at least twice in this
text. Spiritual insight, which is a gift of grace, is granted not to the
greatest and wisest of this world, but to the small and humble. In
Tolkien, not to elf lords and wizards, but to hobbits. In Scripture, not
to learned holy men, but to "little children," as Jesus calls
His disciples in
Matthew 11:16-30. After chiding those who accused Jesus of loose living, but who also accused John of extreme asceticism, verse 19 ends with the cryptic saying, "But wisdom is proved right by her actions." The wisdom of Jesus is revealed in the good that He does, not in a particular program of spiritual achievement. Verse 25 speaks of that which is hidden from the wise being revealed to little children. Then in verse 27 Jesus speaks that which is sometimes called "the thunderbolt from the Johannine heaven," since it connects Jesus and the Father in a way which smacks much more of John than of the synoptic Gospels. Yet the point here is that the important knowledge (wisdom) about God is a gift of gracious revelation. So the passage concludes with the wonderful invitation to come and learn from Jesus, yet in a way that offers rest. The wisdom we receive from Him is not a laborious, heavy thing, but a path which brings rest to our souls. How can we hear this invitation truly and well in the midst of all the spiritual exertion and competition so many of "the wise" of our time promote? | |||
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Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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