October 20, 2019, Luke 7:1-10

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I.
This week we turn our attention to a Roman army officer, a Centurion. A person of responsibility in the military forces that were occupying Israel. A man who could demand respect not only from those under his command but also from those whose land he and his army were occupying.

And this man of authority sends word to Jesus asking for Jesus’ help.

Let’s read the brief account.

II.
Luke 7:1-10 (New Revised Standard Version)

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

III.
As you read over the passage a few times look for all you can learn about the Centurion.

For instance, he asked for help from Jewish leaders, he was generous (maybe), he could get others to do his bidding – among other things.

What stands out most to you about this man.

And, from what you learn of this soldier, does that come by what you hear/read him say or what others say of him?

IV.
Do you agree with Jesus that you find “faith” in this man?

What kind of “faith”?

How do you think he comes by this “faith” that Jesus seems to so highly regard?

V.
That’s probably too many questions for a Monday, but I want us to try to look deeply at the Centurion.

I’ll be back later, as we continue to spend time with the Centurion, his “friends” and with Jesus.

Charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

October 13, 2019, 1 Kings 17:7-16 – Post 3

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IX.
Before we leave our travels with Elijah, let’s take a few minutes to retrace his steps.

First we find him in King Ahab’s court speaking to Ahab, The Lord’s word that a drought will come.

Then it seems with the same sense of assurance that The Lord’s word has come to him, he is called to leave the court and go east where he will find water at a certain Wadi (can we call it a creek bed?) and even have food provided to him by ravens.

Scripture reports, “So he went and did according to the word of The Lord …”

X.
He finds water there, and food, and later a dry creek bed.

It seems he has been on track in understanding what The Lord calls him to say and do, even to the point of the predicted drought having come.

“Then … “ – so many times there is a “then.” Sometimes we may be ready for it, sometimes we may not be ready.

The creek bed is dry. For how long before “ … the word of The Lord came to him … “ we are not told. Did that time pass in a flash or did that season linger long enough to make Elijah ask “what comes next.” We are not offered any insight into that.

But, the word comes, and what a word it is.

“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there … “

It’s nice when The Lord leads you to a great creek bed with good water, but what about The Lord telling you to get up, leave your home, leave your countrymen, and go to a foreign territory. Not just a foreign territory but a city in Sidon of Phoenicia.

In the command to go Elijah is also told The Lord has “commanded a widow there to feed you.”

So, The Lord first provides for Elijah’s well being with water at the creek bed and food delivered by ravens. That might make an impression, but now he is to depend on a Phoencian widow for his food? Elijah is pushed out of his county and asked to depend on someone in a foreign country who might be pressed to even provide for herself.

How much trust does The Lord expect of Elijah? How much trust in The Lord? How much trust in foreigners?

XI.
He does travel to Zarephath and arrive at the city gate. There he is not met by a woman telling him she has already heard from his God and he is invited into her home to eat with her and her son.

No, he sees a woman gathering sticks and tells her to bring him water to drink, and she sets off to bring him water. But as she is going and before she is out of earshot, he tells her to bring him some bread.

Then we hear from the widow who in no uncertain terms tells Elijah her life is not at a high point. She says she has no food prepared and in reality has only enough meal and oil for a last meal for her and her son and nothing to count on after that except starvation.

XII.
We then hear Elijah speak with the voice of faith and hope saying go ahead and do what you started to do but first make some bread for me then some for you and your son and don’t worry – “Do not be afraid” – your will not run out of food for your family.

“She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days.”

Elijah speaks hope and faith to the widow.

The widow chooses to live in that hope and faith.

XIII.
Was this journey given to Elijah to nourish his faith/trust/hope in The Lord?

Was it given to Elijah to nourish the faith/trust/hope of the widow and her household?

What journeys have you been given to nourish your faith/trust/hope?

Charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

October 13, 2019, 1 Kings 17:7-16 – Post 2

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VI.
Allow me briefly to add another thought for your reflection.

Notice in our Scripture that the city Elijah travels to is “… Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon …”

Sidon – Not a city of the Hebrews but a city of probably the Phonecians. Outside the border of the territory of the Hebrew people.

Keep that in mind.

VII.

Skip forward now to Rabbi Jesus’ occasion to speak at the synagogue in his hometown (Luke 4:16-30). After he reads the words of the prophet the people at the synagogue are said to have “.. spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”

But then the tone in the synagogue changes from amazement to anger.

“… all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.”

What had happened? What had Rabbi Jesus said that changed the mood?

“ … the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

VIII.
What happens for us when the blessings of God, the grace of God, is given to people we think are outside the circle of God’s chosen? Or, maybe just outside the circle of “our kind of folks”?

I guess Rabbi Jesus has a way of putting the difficult questions to us.

We’ll talk later.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

October 13, 2019, 1 Kings 17:7-16

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I.
This week we travel with Elijah as he moves from the court of King Ahab, past first a creek bed flowing with water, then through a season of drought and dry creek beds and onto Zarephath, where some of the households are preparing a meal made from the last staples in the home.

Let’s notice how he travels through these seasons and the conversations and interactions he has along the way.

II.
1 Kings 17:7-16 (New Revised Standard Version)

But after a while he wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 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.” As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 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.” 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. 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.” She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 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.

III.
Prior to this reading we first meet Elijah predicting a drought to King Ahab and then being directed to banks of a creek where there is running water and where ravens provide him with food.

Then the creek dries up and Elijah is directed to move on. But, he is not directed to a “land flowing with milk and honey.” He goes from one dry creek bed to a village and a widow who is near running out of food for herself and her son.

And of this widow he asks water and bread.

I know, we read, “… for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”

So Elijah got that word. Did the widow? The way I read the account, her conversation with Elijah does not start with, “I know the Lord provides all my needs. Come on home with me and have dinner with me.” I hear despair in her words. What do you hear?

IV.
Are the widow and her son brought to this place so they learn to live by faith? To trust their futures to the God of Israel?

Or … is the Prophet Elijah brought to this place of dryness so he can learn what it is to depend on God and to trust God when the world around him could give him reason to not have hope.

And Elijah has to give words of encouragement and hope to a family who thinks they are about to eat their last meal.

V.
Read over this account a few times and notice the “seasons” Elijah and the widow pass through.

What might they learn from traveling this path together?

And, as you have time, review the seasons of your life. Notice especially those seasons which in retrospect you now see were a place of learning, growing, stretching that serve you well today as you face the future.

Give some thought to that and we’ll talk later ….

Charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

October 6, 2019, Deuteronomy 4:1-14 – Post 2

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VI.
When we closed on Monday I asked for us to think about the different commands we “keep” and the different places these might arise from.

If didn’t take me long on my drive to work to notice a lot of statutes/ordinances that rule my driving down the roads as I travel to work. Speed limit signs, yield signs, do not enter, no turn on red, no passing …. How about you? How many rules do you have to obey as you drive from one place to another.

And then … at work. My job description, my work hours, how I sign in once I am at work. Yes, there is certainly a set of rules/commands that govern how I spend my time in there.

And when I get home? What are the spoken and unspoken rules and agreements that tell me how to get along with my family?

VII.
There is little doubt that we keep in mind many rules/statutes/ordinances/commands (call them what you will) that determine how we live our lives and even the positive and negative consequences of our keeping or failing to keep them.

But, many of these may apply in only one environment.

What are the commands that apply in any and all environments. Which ones can be universalized?

VIII.
On Monday I mentioned that a question or two about commandments was put to Rabbi Jesus.

In what we read as the 10th chapter of the Gospel according to Mark there is the episode of a man coming to Jesus to ask about eternal life and the Kingdom of God. Jesus first response is to name several of what we most often call the “Ten Commandments.” So, commandment keeping is a good thing according to Jesus.

How does the man reply?

That he has been a commandment keeper all his life.

Does the conversation end there? No! Jesus must have seen something in the man’s expression and heard something in his voice that betrayed the lack of satisfaction the man had in the life he was living. He came to Jesus to not just be told to keep the commandments but to ask Jesus to pinpoint what was missing in his life. And Jesus’ response to his unspoken plea? “Leave everything in your life that holds you back from walking my path and following me in the Kingdom.” (Pardon my paraphrase)

IX.
Now, go over to our chapter 12 of Mark’s recording of the Gospel, and notice Jesus giving his opinion of what are the great commandments. He does not recount any of the Ten Commandments but speaks of loving God and loving those we encounter each day and even loving our own self.

Love ? Really ? Is this part of commandment keeping? Is rote rule keeping not the full story? Does there have to be something more?

X.
Allow me to mention another couple of sentences from Scripture. This time from 2 John 1:5-6 (The Message Translation) –

“But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other. Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.”

“ … our original and basic charter ….”
“ … his unifying commandment …. “

What do you think?

Is that a fair and accurate statement about the life Jesus asked his disciples to live?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

October 6, 2019, Deuteronomy 4:1 – 14

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I.
This week we are invited to hear Moses address the Hebrew people with a call to keep in mind the “statutes and ordinances.” First, let’s read this passage and pay attention to how many times he charges the Hebrew people to keep in mind the commandments, how many times he tells them to “head,” “to take care,” “observe.”

II.
Deuteronomy 4:1-14 (New Revised Standard Version)

So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you. You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor—how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children— how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so”; you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. And the Lord charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy.

[In the next to last sentence in the passage where the translators have “ten commandments,” it is literally “ten words.”]

III.
“And the Lord charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe…”

I have heard it said that a good way to teach to tell your students what you are going to tell them, to tell them, and to tell them what you told them.

It seems to me that Moses goes beyond this threefold structure.

Why?

Is it the sense of obligation he feels, the call he senses that he is responsible to God to put the commandments before the people so they have the same understanding of its importance that he does?

Is it that he has already seen how easy it is for the people to fail to hold tight to the commandments and keep them?

IV.
We often think of the “law” of the Hebrew Scripture as the “Ten Commandments.” Later Rabbis saw in Scripture 613 commands given by God. Still later, teachers saw a need to add more commands so the people would not come close to breaking the commands. Sometimes we hear the teachers wanted to build a “hedge around the law.” This hedge or fence was to keep the people from coming even close to breaking the commands.

A question or two was even put to Rabbi Jesus about which commands to keep and their importance.

V.
As you spend time with this passage, take time to ask what are the “commands” you know to be important enough in your life that you try to keep. Where do those important commands come from? Maybe from Scripture, maybe from culture, maybe from the home place, maybe from the workplace? Where? What makes them important to you?

We’ll talk later.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

September 29, 2019, Numbers 14:10b – 20 – Post 3

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X.
The past two weeks we have had before us one episode in the Hebrews’ journey from Egypt to Canaan, the mission to spy out the land and population of Canaan.

Twelve are picked for the task/mission. Could we say God calls these folk to this particular mission?

They go about doing the work they are called to and part of which is to report back to the Heberw encampment what they found. And this “mission group” is split on what to do next. The initial result given the impressions put forth by the majority of spies is to abandon the overarching mission of the Hebews, that of moving to the new home God has called them to. What happens when we want to turn away from God’s call (and calls) to us. Does God cut us off, and move on to others to accomplish God’s work? That is shown in this episode to be a possibility. Or do others still see what can be done and plead with God that the call not be taken back and by way of God’s mercy continue with the ones he called?

XI.
Do we still see this pattern repeated today. Call – Response – Mission – Struggle – Discouragement – Grief – Failure – Mercy – Call ?

It doesn’t take me long to find this kind of pattern in my own life.

Do you find it?

XII.
Let me close with a thought from a certain Rabbi whose entire life was up-ended and turned around by God’s call. You and I remember him by the name, Paul (well, Saul also). These are words from The Message translation of 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Hear them as an offer of hope –

… then he told me,
My grace is enough;
it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that,
I was glad to let it happen.
I quit focusing on the handicap
and began appreciating the gift.
It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness.
Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer,
these limitations that cut me down to size
—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks.
I just let Christ take over!
And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

September 29, 2019, Numbers 14:10b – 20 – Post 2

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VII.
“But Moses said to the Lord …. “ (Numbers 14:13-19)

At 14:11 we read, “And the Lord said to Moses, “How long … “”

Should we call this exchange a prayer, a conversation, a dialogue, two monologues?

You might pick one or two ways to describe the scene, but what I most want to call to your attention is Moses. And not just Moses but his passion in speaking with God the way he does here.

VIII.
Is it just here that Moses approaches God with such familiarity and honesty?

In Exodus 3 Moses asks God what is God’s name. In Exodus 4 Moses wonders aloud to God what can he say to the Hebrew people if they question that God has chosen and sent Moses to be an instrument of their deliverance. In Exodus 5 he asks God not only why God has mistreated the people but why he is being sent to the people. In Exodus 32 Moses asks God why he is so willing to display such wrath against the Hebrew people.

It seems it is ingrained in Moses’ character to ask questions. To even ask questions of God. It seems to be his character to defend folks who might deserve a better break, even if he is defending them against God.

IX.
Take a few moments to review your typical prayers.

Do they have something of the same passion that Moses’ approach to God shows time and time again in Scripture?

What might we learn about the kind of honesty we could pray with?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

September 29, 2019, Numbers 14:10b – 20

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I.
Last week we read of the spies trip into Canaan, their return to the Hebrew encampment, and the problems and divisions, and threats of death which resulted from their reports.

This week we read of God’s appearing to the Hebrews … and it does not start well for them.

Read over the passage, maybe a couple of times, paying attention to God’s initial reaction, Moses’ exchanges with the God and what comes of the dialogue.

II.

Numbers 14:10b – 20

Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying,

‘The Lord is slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression,
but by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
to the third and the fourth generation.’

Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”

Then the Lord said, “I do forgive, just as you have asked;”

III.
What do the Hebrews deserve given their cry for blood? Given their turning their backs on God and God’s call into a land of promise? Given their turning away from Moses and desire to have another “captain.” (Numbers 14:1-4).

What should Moses do? Side with God’s call for judgement? Or argue with God?

What should God do? Pronounce judgement on the people? Visit judgment on them? Destroy them? Or … Listen to Moses’ intercession and offer the people another opportunity for a future living into His calling for them.

IV.
“Then the Lord said, ‘I do forgive, just as you have asked;’”

It appears God remembers his own promise of steadfast love for the people and continues to stand with the Hebrews.

But, wait a moment. Did you notice that as Moses reminds God of his promise of steadfast love he also acknowledges (to God? to himself? to the Hebrew encampment) that God “by no means [clears] the guilty.”?

The reading we have before us ends with a semicolon and not a period, and following the semicolon is the foreboding “nevertheless.” (Numbers 14:21 – 23)

V.
Yes, they are forgiven and God’s grace does not depart from them, their threats and actions do have consequences.

While God (and Moses) will stand with them, they will face a future that has been limited by what they have done.

Do we (yes, you and I) escape the consequences of our decisions because of God’s forgiveness. Yes and No? No and Yes? How long does it take to work through or work past the consequences of bad choices? 40 years? 40 is one of those numbers that appears again and again in Scripture. It often seems to suggest a “complete” period of time. That is to say, 40 days or 40 years is how long it took to completely accomplish something.

VI.
How long will it take for God’s grace to accomplish God’s work in you. When will you and I arrive at the perfection/maturity God calls us to?

How far along that road are you today?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

September 22, 2019, Numbers 13; 14:1-10a – Post 3

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IX.
Before we move on to the activities of the weekend, let me put one more thought before you.

I have often thought of approaching Scripture with different lens (or templates) that might help us draw out the meanings and implications in a passage. It’s true that we often apply all sorts of lens to Scripture that can impose interpretations on a passage and that is not what I envision. Rather the lens we would bring to the passage would help us look into the passage, the scene(s), the individuals we encounter there and provoke us to ask questions that would take us deeper into the passage and its meaning.

Want to give it a try with our Scripture for this week?

X.
The lens I suggest you bring to this passage is “Community.”

What communities do you see here? What groups of people? How many different and differing communities do you see? Three? Four? You know, a community could be made up of just two people.

How do people act and behave as a member of that community? How do the communities interact with one another? Positively? Negatively?

What interaction does an individual have with a community in which they are a member? Or, a community they stand on the outside of?

XI.
What do you think?

Does this open any insights for you?

Or, have I just confused you with this?

Let’s talk about it …..

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}