This blog entry reviews the
scriptural passages from the Revised Common Lectionary for this coming Sunday. The readings all connect faith, duty and maturity leading towards the Epistle reading that is the focus of the sermon on Sunday.
The OT Reading
The OT reading is Deuteronomy
30:15-20. In blessing the Israelites with the Law and the promised land, the Lord reminds them of the blessings of the law and the
curses of sin. This is a two-way covenant. The righteous people of Abraham among you who follow the Law and have the desire and obligation of the heart to the Lord shall enjoy the love of God
but those who turn away and lose that desire of righteousness in the heart have
chosen death. The upshot of these blessing and curses as we shall see, is the
sentence of death save for the lovingkindness of the Lord. The painful reality
of these curses magnifies the power of the grace of the Lord through Jesus
Christ, but still reminds us our labor is a consequence of our righteousness.
A Caution - Blessings and Curses
15 See, I have set before you today life and
prosperity, death and adversity.
Choose
life or death, prosperity or adversity.
The Blessings
16 If 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.
If you aspire to live and love as God loves his commandments
will be in your heart and you will entertain the Lord's blessing.
The Curses
17 But if your heart turns away and
you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve
them, 18 I 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.
19a I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have
set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
If your heart becomes hardened to the ways of the
compassionate Lord, then the Lord's heart shall become hardened to
you and you shall perish.
Choose Life
19b Choose life so that you and your
descendants may live, 20 loving 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.
Choose to love the Lord and his ways so that you may inherit
the promise made to your fathers Abraham (Abram) and Israel (Jacob).
The Gospel Reading
The Gospel reading comes from Matthew
5:21-37. This is one of the more powerful and troubling passages in
the Sermon on the Mount. It has a decidedly Jewish cast to it, Jesus is preaching to Israel and he takes no
prisoners concerning sin. It's message is blunt. All sin is equivalent and an anathema to God. The message is summarized in vv 34-37, The Lord has redeemed you but shall strive to do as God commands,
and pray for the merciful judgment of a Just God.
Concerning Anger
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.’ 22 But 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.
The Law says all sin is equal, so even if you avoid all those sins
you think are greater than others, such as murder, judgment, it is just as bad that
you become angry with your fellow believer, or call someone a fool. You risk
damnation because it is a sin against God.
23 So when you are offering your
gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something
against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be
reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
Therefore, when you are in worship prepared to make an
offering and realize your fellow believer has a grudge against you for something you
said or did, immediately stop what you are doing and seek out your aggrieved fellow
Christian and make peace with them. Then come back to worship and give your
gift. In this way you are placing the thing of highest importance first.
25 Come 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. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid
the last penny.
If you are being sued by one of your fellow Christians, immediately
resolve the issue with them before you get to court, otherwise you are submitting to judgment by the world and will find it impossible to get relief until your
sentence is complete. Would you rather be judged as God has judged you through Christ and forgiven as God forgave you through Christ, or would you rather be judged according
to the way the world judges people?
Concerning Adultery
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks
at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. 29 If 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. 30 And 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.
The Law says all sin is equal, so if you avoid those sins
you think are greater than others, such as murder, judgment it is just as bad
that you become angry with your fellow believer, or call someone a fool. You risk
damnation. It is better to give up the things that tempt you to sin than pay the price for sinning because even to
think the sin is as much a sin as the actual act.
Concerning Divorce
31 “It was also said,
‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’
32 But 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.
The Law says all sin is equal, even divorce though
Moses permitted it. It is an act of judgment and if you cause your wife to remarry, or remarry
yourself, you abet adultery. Remember the Laws are equal.
Concerning Oaths
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.’ 34 But I say to you,
Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or
by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one
hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything
more than this comes from the evil one.
God commanded the Israelites not to swear falsely, but you
shall not swear at all because you cannot make the thing you swear come about.
If you swear by Heaven or the Lord, you are being foolish because you
cannot swear on the Lord's behalf. Simply agree or disagree because if you go
further you may walk into the trap of sin or anger, court suits and broken
marriage as talked about before.
The Epistle Reading
In the passage from
Paul's Epistle 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Paul continues
his "lecture" to the Corinthian congregation (and it is to the entire congregation), though it has the painful irony of chastising a misbehaving child. We need to be fully aware of the earlier criticism by Paul of the Corinthians for their unchristian behavior ( see previous two sermons, Day 412 and Day 419) falling to the lure of wisdom and knowledge of the World strikes at the heart of Christian faith. They say they believe but act as if they do not. A Christian lives in the Kingdom of Heaven not in the Kingdom of the World. For the faithful person, one's actions cannot show a belief in one thing and a faith another. The words come to mind, "When I was an adult, I put away childish things."
The passage is a humble one for a
pastor and congregant because also it emphasizes the character of the minister. The Greek world
"minister" carries a sense of servant or slave. Not servant or
slave to the congregation, though in fact that too, but a servant and slave to
the ruler of the Kingdom of Heaven.
In the reformed faith we emphasize
that all Christians are ministers, thus, this passage should be daunting to
all.
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
1 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.
When I first came to you all I could not speak to you as Christians because you all were not! You were creatures of the world, living according to its rules, values and logic. I had to treat your interest in the Good News as if you all were children beginning to learn what it meant to be a Christian.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you
were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready,
Back then, I endeavored with great effort to carefully explain to every one of you the obligations of faith and the ways of the Kingdom of Heaven that you have entered, because you were immature babies. Sadly you are still immature, childish babies even though you all are adults;
3 for 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?
You all still live practicing the ways and values of the World. You all still behave in the fashion you all did when you all were lost. You all argue arguing about your
faith and who is the better Christian.
4 For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and
another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?
claiming the one who proclaimed to you is more important than
the one proclaimed. Do you all, every one of you, not see how childish and worldly you are?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants
through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.
Far be it for me or my associates in faith to stand before every one of you as anything but a servant
or slave who
with my fellow friends have preached the Word to each of you according to the duties and strength the Lord gave us.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
I may have preached the Gospel to you, and Apollos may have nurtured you with instruction, but we were only seed and water. Only God caused the Gospel to sprout in you all.
7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who
waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
This means we are really nothing but messengers. In the absence of God, our words are only seeds cast on dry
soil. Only
God can make your spirit grow.
8 The one who plants and the one who waters have
a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.
A minister, whether the planter or nurturer is a laborer in the Kingdom of
Heaven whose labor and duty are an essential part of the whole;
9 For we are God’s servants, working together;
you are God’s field, God’s building.
You all will understand when you are mature Christians that we are all
God’s children laboring in His vineyard. We are the Church that is the foundation of His kingdom of Heaven and we ought to live that way.
From blessings and curses to the
Israelites by Moses from God to the caution to the Corinthians by Paul from
God, it seems that we get a common message polished, magnified and extended by
the cross and resurrection. That message is your righteousness as a Cristian will be known by
the fruits of your labor. You must live as a servant and slave in the Kingdom of Heaven, not remain living in the world as immature babies.
No comments:
Post a Comment