Day 92: Creeds and Life Giving Words

Deuteronomy 26, 27 and Luke 7:1-30

These chapters of Deuteronomy turn us toward some of the creeds and liturgy of the Israelites’ worship. Creeds are a way of rehearsing what we believe in our faith communities. They are life affirming words. Likewise in Luke we get Jesus’ words which also bring life to those who hear them.

Deuteronomy 26

The editors begin this section with Moses reciting one of the creeds of the people. This creed, like other creeds, is designed to help people remember the mighty works of God. Hearing these words in worship would have been powerful, and in fact these words should still hold power for us today. That is the beauty of creeds of faith, they do not lose their ability to return you to God’s activity in the world over time.

Moses helps the people remember and ratify the covenant each time they meet. The phrase “This very day” is not only used to speak of the present tense but also as a remembrance that even now, we are committing ourselves to God.

Deuteronomy 27

Moses tells the people to set up memorial stones, again a way to remind them of God’s activity. These could be the stones talked of in Joshua 4.

The crowd of Israel stands here from one mountain to the other, six tribe leaders on each side. All of the people are called to respond to Moses’ words. The curses in verses 15-26 serve as a public code of conduct or the ethos of the People of God. Again these rules are to separate God’s people, to hold them as holy.

Luke 7:1-30

We have here the healing of the centurion’s slave. Jesus would have been unclean if he had gone into a gentile’s home. If the Centurion was really a “friend to the Jews” he would have been aware of this rule. In an act of compassion to Jesus the centurion tells him not to come, because he believes Jesus can heal just by speaking the words of life. Jesus interprets the man’s response as faith- faith he finds lacking in the children of Israel.

In verses 11-17 we have the story of the widow of Nain. Here Jesus shows compassion and is drawn to act. He touches the bier, or coffin, an act which would have made him ritually unclean. He then tells the man to rise and “gives him to his mother.” (The same words used in 1 Kings 17:23 when Elijah returns the widows son to life. Elijah has to do all sorts of bowing, begging, etc. to bring the boy back. Jesus only says Rise.)

The people respond to these acts of Jesus with fear. Fear is often the response to God breaking into our midst.

Verses 18-30 talk about John’s questioning of Jesus. John sends his disciples to ask “Are you the one who is to come?” John needs a reassurance that Jesus is the one he has been waiting for, and Jesus gives him that reassurance. John is here called greatest among men, but even he is lower than the least in heaven. Jesus here places himself above John the Baptist, essentially claiming his Messianic status.

Day 91: Insiders and Fruit bearers

Deuteronomy 23, 24, 25 and Luke 6:27-49

These passages deal who defining insiders and outsiders in the community of Israel. Insiders are those allowed to participate fully in the life of Israel and outsiders are kept out, even to the 10^th generation. Luke gives us a glimpse of what “insiders” look like in Jesus’ kingdom. They are those who show love even to those that oppress them.

Deuteronomy 23:

This chapter describes who is inside the community by making sure everyone knows who is outside. Too often we still feel the need to be defined by what we are NOT. This chapter lists punishments to the outsider. If you are not an Israelite, then your kids up to 10 generations won’t be allowed to participate in the faith. Unless of course you are an Edomite or Egyptian, and those will only be excluded until the third generation.

The author continues to outline rules for keeping things “just so” in the community of faith, including the military camps, temple rites, banking practices, and even eating grapes from a neighbor’s field.

Deuteronomy 24:

This chapter contains some divorce decrees that prohibit the remarriage of a couple after they have been divorced and married other people and find themselves divorced and/or widowed. This, as odd as it sounds, is to protect the women. If they did remarry a previous spouse it would cause her second marriage to be seen as harlotry or wife swapping, both of which were looked down upon.

This chapter also offers rules that keep people focused on the concerns for humane treatment of others. It is sad that today, many of us could still use these rules to remind us to look past ourselves and how to care for others.

Deuteronomy 25

This chapter gives regulations for the settling of disputes. Some of these are different such a physical assault and money loaning to household issues.

Luke 6:27-49

This section of Luke introduces us to the Golden Rule. The entire section talks about loving all, even your enemies. Here lending is given a different context then in Deuteronomy. Here you are to lend, period. It doesn’t matter if you think they can pay you back, you are called to help others. Offer to help others, even when they are down on you.

Then we are given the statement on being hypocritical. Take the log out of your own eye, before you try to correct someone else. Too often we put ourselves as moral authorities over others. Jesus here says, deal with your own mess first! Because you can’t bear good fruit if you are a bad tree!

Fruit bearing is an important thing in Luke. You will know who a person is by what comes from them. In the words of Maya Angelou “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Day 90: Warfare against Women and Blessings vs Woes

Deuteronomy 20, 21, 22 and Luke 6:1-26

Trigger Warning: These verses depict violence, violence against women, rape, and other horrific things.

I will honestly tell you that my blood boils reading some of these passages. I may have called out to God that these passages are not only awful for the women of antiquity, but that they perpetuate some of the injustices women of today face.

Deuteronomy 20:

This text reflects the conquest era of the Israelites. The idea that God was with them helped calm the fears of those going into battle. There is an odd course of events laid out for going into battle. The priests speak an oracle declaring God’s favor. Then the officials speak and give every man any reason they can possibly think of to stay home from war. If you have built a house, but not dedicated it, stay home. If you are engaged, but not married yet, stay home. If you have planted a field but not tasted the first fruits, stay home. I guess this leaves only men who feel they have nothing to lose entering battle.

They are told to first offer peace to a city they come to attack. If peace is accepted, the people in that city will become Israel’s slaves. So basically, slavery or warfare. After they are defeated, all men are too be killed, but the women, children and livestock can be kept as spoils of war. Again, the thought of people as property is greatly disturbing to me.

Then we learn that these good terms are only for people in cities far away! The residents of Canaan are not to be given such luxury as lifelong slavery. They are told to kill everything that draws breath so that they cannot be corrupted by their influences.

But here we get this odd note to save the trees, or at least the ones that bear fruit. Ecology in the midst of mass murder. Interesting.

Deuteronomy 21

This chapter begins a list of rules for community and for specifically the male head of household. Rules regarding a rural homicide are discussed in detail. If the murderer cannot be found, the nearest city or town must kill a heifer in a non-sacrificial manner (break the neck instead of killing at the tabernacle) and wash their hands over it to remove blood guilt. Admittedly this blood guilt, blood sacrifice stuff is odd to me, but this just seems super odd.

Now we get to the really fun part of you are a woman. If a man sees a woman of a conquered people and he desires her to be his wife he can take her captive, force her to shave her head and remove all signs of her ethnicity. Then have her mourn for her mother and father one month and after that he can “come into her.” Basically this allows a man to take a woman, strip her of her cultural and personal identity, and make her cover and mourn in the way the Israelites do, and then rape her. If that’s not bad enough, if she doesn’t “please him” he can let her go. Basically discard her into t a world where she has no rights and no family to care for her. This does not seem like justice to me and an argument that it is better than being a slave will not convince me otherwise.

Deuteronomy 22

This chapter gives more rules for interaction within polite society. Don’t take things that are not yours and return lost things to your neighbors. Good rules to live by. There is a prohibition against cross-dressing which seems very odd and out of place here. Some scholars say that this would have been a characteristic of some of the cults of the time and that is why the word abhorrent is used. There was great pressure to keep the cultic practices of Israel pure and unchanged by the society around it.

There is a long section about the accused bride. I can only assume that these words were meant to protect women from being unjustly divorced and set aside, but their words and methodology are abhorrent! If you hated your wife and wanted to set her aside you could claim that she was not a virgin when you wed. If her family can prove that she was a virgin, by producing the wedding night sheet with the required blood stain, then her father is paid twice amount specified for rape and she gets to stay his husband for life. What a joy that would be! (Sarcasm font here). If they cannot prove that she was a virgin then they will take her to the entrance to her father’s house and stone her. Public execution.

Let me just say that men do not seem to have been held to the same virginity expectations as women. Not that any of us should be surprised as that carries over to our own day and age.

Then we get the rules about how to punish someone who is raped. Yes, you read that right. If an engaged woman is raped in the city she shall be stoned because she didn’t cry out loud enough for someone to hear and come to her aid. I can’t even!!!

If she, again an engaged woman, is raped in the open, where no one is living, she will not be stoned because no one was around to hear her cry out. If a single unengaged woman is raped and he is caught in the act, she is to be married to him and he has to pay her “bride price” for violating her. He cannot divorce her ever.

Once again, I cannot begin to imagine such rules and regulations being around to help women. Our own American Society has been effected by these rules, the stigma of blaming the victim is only one of the legacies.

Luke 6:1-26

Jesus and his disciples pluck grain with their hands to eat on the Sabbath, a practice allowed in Deuteronomy 23:25. However, Exodus 34:21 expressly forbids harvesting on the Sabbath. Enter the dispute about what is lawful and what is not. Jesus says life giving things are allowed, food, healing, etc. The leaders disagree.

Jesus then calls the twelve disciples. The number twelve reminds us of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus is reclaiming the children of Israel as God’s people.

Jesus gives his sermon on the plain. It has some similarities to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus lists blessings on those situations we normally find less that good. He then pronounces “woes” or judgement upon things that the world values. Jesus is good at turning tables.

Day 83: There be giants and Messiah is born

Deuteronomy 1, 2 and Luke 2:1-24

These passages give us a look once more at the Law of Moses. The people are facing giants, literally and figuratively in these chapters of Deuteronomy. In Luke we are given the birth story of Jesus, the Messiah.

Deuteronomy 1

Deuteronomy is the translation of the first few words of the book, these are the words. It also is often called the second law. It is the last book of the Pentateuch and it serves as not only a way to remember the past of God’s people, but to anticipate their future.

It begins with Moses telling that God has given instructions for the people, which the people chose to disobey. This disobedience led to a military defeat, but also to the generation of Israelites not being allowed to receive the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 2

The people are told to pass through the land of Esau, but not to antagonize anyone there, for God gave this land to Esau. They also pass through the lands given to Lot. Here we are told about the strange people, giants of the region. These so called giants held mythic stature in the area. Thought to be the descendants of angels and women, they were fierce warriors.

God tells the people to pas through the land of Sihon, as they did the lands of Esau and Lot, but king Sihon will not let them pass. Thus begins the bloody conquest of the Promised Land.

Luke 2:1-24

The theology of Luke is based in the idea that Jesus’ mission was divinely necessary. There is often harsh language about the Jews and Jewish authorities. It is important to note that almost all of the followers of Jesus in Luke are Jews. These issues were more of a family struggle than pitting a whole religion against another.

In Chapter 2 we get the birth story of Jesus. His parents have traveled to Bethlehem to be registered. The most likely scenario is that they are with Joseph’s family, and therefore not lone travelers, two people against the world, as we often see them characterized.

Shepherds are the first to learn of Jesus’ birth. Shepherds were not the cream of the crop. They were not the kind of witnesses one would expect for any birth, let alone the birth of the Messiah, yet here they are. Mary ponders these things, the sayings and stories of the shepherds when they visit, in her heart. Mixed with the angelic proclamation to Mary and the greeting from Elizabeth, they must have made for very interesting food for thought.

Mary and Joseph are observant Jews. At 8 days of age they take Jesus to be circumcised and bring along the appropriate sacrifice. They bring two doves, not sheep, not bulls, for their first born son. This indicates that they were anything but wealthy. However, they did not let their lack of funds keep them from following the traditions.

Day 78: Faithfulness and Fear

Numbers 23, 24, 25 and Mark 16

Numbers switches from a talking donkey to God speaking directly to Balaam about God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel. God will not abandon them, even when, as we learn their faithfulness is in question. In Mark we see the faithful women going to the tomb and being filled with fear.

Numbers 23

Balaam is asked by Balak to curse the people of Israel. God, however has other plans. Balaam shows faithfulness to God by sharing God’s word even at great personal risk. He gives two oracles that proclaim God’s favor for the Israelites.

When do people ask you to deny God or ask you to go against God’s purposes?

Numbers 24

This time Balaam’s preparations for speaking with God are different. The sacrifices are still ordered, but Balaam does not approach God thinking he can coerce God into cursing the Israelites. He returns with words that Balak does not want to hear.

These words in favor of Israel anger Balak and he sends Balaam on his way without any of the promised rewards/payment for his speaking with God. Balaam then warns that no one will crush the Israelites because the Lord is with them. After Balaam leaves, Balak leaves dejected as well.

Numbers 25

In this chapter we get a glimpse of the lack of faithfulness on the part of some of the people of Israel. God here tells Moses that all who have brought the religion of the Midianites into the people should be impaled. This word impaled can mean crucified or exposed. Moses does not make a public gathering, he tells the chiefs that these individuals are to be executed. But we have no language suggesting this was carried out by Moses or the chiefs.

Then we zoom in more closely and are told the story of one man taking a Midianite wife with Moses’ full knowledge and Moses does not stop it from occurring. It needs to be stated here that Moses himself had married a Midianite woman, so not all of Israel held the idea of intermarriage to be a bad thing.

This passage is really used as a way to elevate Aaron’s family, aka the priesthood, over Moses and his family. This is one of the times you see the priestly sector trying to step into the role of leadership in all things, not just worship.

We are told that the people are wailing at the tent of meeting. We then learn it is because of a plague that is seen as God’s judgement against Moses’ inaction. Elaezar is praised for killing the man and his wife and credited with ending the plague that killed 25,000.

Mark 16

The resurrection account in Mark 16 is unique. The women, three named here Mary, Mary mother of Joses and Salome, come to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. They worry over the size of the stone. They are met by a young man, some say it might be the same young man who ran naked from the garden of Gethsemane, not an angel. He tells them of the risen Lord. The women are terrified and said nothing to anyone. The women here would be the first to actually keep the Messianic secret pushed throughout the gospel of Mark. Only we know that they told someone, or else we would not have an account of the event!

The other endings of Mark were added later by communities that had been influenced by other Christians and letters or perhaps even other Gospels. These endings are in line with what has become fairly “orthodox” Christian thoughts surrounding the events following the resurrection of Christ.

Day 77: A serpent, a donkey, and two bandits

I apologize for falling behind on posting. I will be catching up over the next few days.

Numbers 20, 21, 22 and Mark 15:26-47

These passages deal with a more than slightly bizarre serpent, a very interesting donkey, and two bandits. Whoever said the Bible was boring has obviously never read these accounts!

Numbers 20

After 40 years of wondering in the desert the Israelites are approaching the Promised Land. However, as we know, not all of them will make the crossing because of their lack of faithfulness. Miriam dies and is buried here. We are given the story of Moses getting water from a rock at Meribah and this is where Moses and Aaron are told they will not enter the Promised Land.

In verse 28 we are given an odd account of Aaron being stripped of his robe and dyeing on a mountain top. There is not really a good explanation for this described and I am left to wonder how he died. If perhaps his death was not an execution. It certainly seems ceremonial enough for such.

Numbers 21

Here is one of the oddest passages of scriptures. Israeli is attacked by poisonous snakes, called fiery ones, perhaps because of the pain from their venom. God tells Moses to make a serpent of bronze, a poisonous snake of bronze, and hang it on a pole so that everyone who is bit might look at it and live. This seems a bit like sympathetic magic to me. Perhaps this is was leads to the snake worshiped in the time of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18:4.

This passage continues with descriptions of what can only be called holy wars against the people of the area in their attempt to arrive at the Promised Land.

Numbers 22

Balaam enters the scene as a divination expert of the king Balak. It is interesting that this non-Israelites knows God, even calling the name Yahweh. Balak wants Balaam to curse the Israelites that are arriving from the wilderness. God tells Balaam not to curse them for they are blessed. God tells Balaam to go with Balak’s men to share what God has said.

On the way, Balaam’s donkey keeps acting funny. He stops in the middle of the road. He turns into odd fields and even gets Balaam stuck in an odd place between walls. Balaam cannot figure out what is going on with his beast and in anger strikes him. God opens the donkey’s mouth and the donkey tells Balaam that there has been a messenger from the Lord scaring him and that’s why he has changed direction. Yes, the donkey talks, Disney did not created talking animals. Balaam’s eyes are opened and he sees the messenger and listens to his words.

Mark 15:26-47

In Mark’s gospel there are three crosses. Jesus is hung in the middle with a bandit on each side. Bandits were political up risers. These are not thieves, but rather individuals who have committed a crime against the Roman government and their political actions. Jesus is hung in the middle, perhaps because he was the one with the most prominence in the area. Jesus offers grace to these rabble rousers even in the midst of his own suffering and death.

Jesus quotes the opening lines from Psalm 22 during his crucifixion. This psalm has very evocative language and allows you to imagine Christ’s agony.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses stay the whole time and see where Christ’s body is laid. This is important scene setting for the next chapter in Mark.

All Shook Up: Easter 2017

Matthew 28:1-10 All Shook Up

He is risen.

He is risen indeed,

The great greeting on Easter in many Christian communities worldwide is a far cry from the words most likely uttered by Christ followers that first Easter morning.

Mary, the Magdalene and the other Mary, met early in the morning and walked together to the tomb of Jesus. I wonder what their conversation consisted of as they walked along the path to the grave. I wonder if they were sharing stories of Jesus that made them smile, like the time he welcomed little children to hear his words and receive his blessings.

Perhaps they talked about the things he had done that they did not understand. Why had he cursed that fig tree? What had he meant by saying they should hate their family?

Perhaps there were no words at all, just a deep shared grief as they went to the place where Jesus was buried.

When they arrived, no doubt, they expected to see a tomb. They expected to see all of the things you see in a burial ground. But what they expected, was not what they received.

As they sit there looking at the tomb, Matthew tells us that a great earthquake shakes the land. This is no random event. Matthew tells us that this earthquake happens as an angle of the Lord rolls the stone away from the tomb.

This is not the first earthquake in the book of Matthew. Just a few short verses before, when Jesus breathes his last breath, there is an earthquake that splits rocks. It opens the graves of some of the saints who have gone before and in tears the curtain in the temple from top to bottom.

These earthquakes, these tectonic shifts in the foundation of earth, are moments when heaven and earth connect. They connect in such a powerful way that the world as we know it is changed, upended, disturbed.

No one is safe from the divine reality that is ushered in at this moment. This moment, when everything is changed, when the resurrection of Christ occurs.

We have all heard the stories, seen the Facebook and YouTube videos, of people who have survived death, or even be resuscitated. We hear of people whose hearts have stopped, who have followed a great light only to be turned back. Perhaps we know personally some of these individuals.

But what happened to Jesus is not a resuscitation. It is not a reviving in the cool of the tomb. God breaks into the world and resurrects Jesus from the dead. New life and life abundant, the living water, life everlasting.

And, my friends, if even death is no longer a sure thing, what else might God have changed?

The angel speaks to the women telling them not to be afraid. Don’t be afraid, though the earth may quake, though the soldiers by the tomb are petrified with fear. They don’t understand that God is at work for good. Jesus is not here. He has been raised! Go and tell. He will meet you in Galilee.

And in Matthew’s account the two Mary’s begin running to tell the disciples what they have seen and heard. They go with fear and great joy. I love that line. I love it because it shows us that fear and joy can go hand in hand, much like doubt and faith often keep company.

The Mary’s are afraid of the unknown, of the tectonic shift in the world, of the earthquake that has just changed everything; but, but they are joyous over the news of the resurrection. They cannot wait to share what they have been told.

Suddenly, there on the road, they are met by Jesus. As they are going to do the thing they have been commanded to do, they find the risen Lord.

I took a youth group on a mission trip to Mexico in 1999. We were going to build a house for a family in the squatter’s section of a border town. We had spent time trying to prepare the kids for the extreme poverty they would witness. We talked with them about the difference between their homes and the 20 by 10 cinderblock home we were building. But there is no better teacher than experience.

Every night we would gather together back at the hotel and have a devotional time. On our next to last night a young man broke down in tears as he told us about his day.

Christian had watched a woman bath her two-year-old boy in a bucket of water that he knew was not clean enough to drink from. He had been shocked. A little later that same mother had come out to our work site with a basket full of homemade tortillas for the workers and a large jug of purified water for us to drink. Christian was overwhelmed by the love she had shown to us as strangers, when she had nothing to spare.

How many of you have had this experience? You go someone where thinking you are bringing the good news of Christ, only to find that he is already there!

These women, go to do what they have been told and along the way encounter Christ. Their response is not to question him about what he is doing there. They do not ask for identification or become frozen with fear. They see Christ and they fall at his feet and worship him.

When the risen Christ enters the world, nothing is ever the same, my friends. When God’s resurrection power intercedes, nothing is ever the same. The world is turned upside down, shaken to its very core.

When the kingdom of God breaks in the ways of thinking, living, being, the philosophies of scarcity, hate and fear, they are defeated.

Droughts are replaced with living water. The blind see, the lame walk. The last shall be first. These things that make no sense in the eyes of the world, are the cornerstone of the kingdom of God.

Today, I pray that we are all shook up by the resurrection presence of Jesus the Christ. I pray that the tectonic plates of what should be shift to what will be through Christ. I pray that the foundations of the earth are shattered, so that we might build on Christ’s foundation of love.

New life my friends, that’s the gift of Easter. New life, that shakes everything up.