The Sunday Lectionary Meditation
September 9, 2007
Lectionary Proper 18, Year C
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Moses said to all Israel the words which the Lord commanded him, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 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. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 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. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 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.”
We all have choices. Every day we are faced with a myriad of decisions. Choices carry consequences. Little choices add up to big consequence. Choices have a ripple effect through our lives. Don’t just hear this as a dire warning (eat that one candy bar and there goes your waist line), but as an invitation to do good. You cannot know the power of one blessing, one prayer, or one act of generous kindness. Choices are a matter of the heart. The choices we make reflect the priorities we have set for ourselves. Choices speak to what is going on inside with the ‘inner self.’ Our society likes to promote the idea that we have an unlimited amount of personalized choices (cell phone covers, online avatars, sandwich combinations, colors to paint the house, time of flight departures, etc.). We like the idea of having lots of choices, but the words of Moses cut the options way down. There really is just one choice: do we follow the ways of God or not? The more we follow the ways of God the more life we find. The more we reject the ways of God the more life gets confusing and out of balance.
Philemon 1-20
Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.
For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love– and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother– especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ.
Given my interest in the small group ministry of our parish and my work with the emerging church I love the fact this little letter is addressed to a house church! Paul prays that the sharing of their faith might be effective. What a great thing for which to pray. It is not enough to simply have faith, like one might have a savings account, or a stamp collection. But what good is our faith if it is not having an effect on our lives and on others. Any faith worth having is worth sharing. There is no concept in the early (house) church of spirituality in isolation, but rather spirituality in community. The subject of slavery is a prominent theme in this short book. There is a temptation for us to fly over this subject quickly, after all, we are free and enlightened people. Slavery is a thing on the ancient past. Right? While the kind of slavery we saw in Amazing Grace is thankfully a thing of the past, people are still very much in bondage. Most people in the world today have precious little compared to our way of life. We all know about the horrors in Darfur, Iraq, and Palestine. But even in our own hemisphere many people live in fear, hunger, and oppression. The murder rate in Brazil, for instance, is five times that of the US. Consider this bit of information from the ONE Campaign (www.one.org)… “1.8 million children will die from dehydration in 2007 due to diarrhea. In many cases, all it would take is a handful of sugar, a bottle of clean water, and a pinch of salt to re-hydrate these children and save their lives. But something else is missing: the political will to make it happen.” We do not have to accept conditions such as this. We can make a decision today to make our faith effective, and to live – not in isolation – but in community.
Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
If we are initiated with the basic idea of choices and consequences in the first lesson, the Gospel lesson “ups the ante” to the extreme! How easy it is to read this Gospel like medieval scholars: this is addressed to monks, friars, priests, and nuns. Surely this cannot be for ordinary folks like me and you!? So, do you see any so called “professional religious” among the followers of Jesus. No. This radical call to kingdom living is for anyone who has ears to hear. In classical oriental style Jesus “afflicts the comfortable” with a saving message. The story begins with ‘large crowds’ traveling with Jesus. I’m sure that after this sermon that the crowd thinned out a bit. How different is the style and content of Jesus’ teaching that what we would likely encounter from a leader today? What person with a large following would offer such a difficult statement. I’m sure that if Jesus would have used a focus group or political consultant they would have advised him to say something quite different from “hate your family… join the disciples” mantra. To seek God via the way of Jesus is no easy enterprise. To choose this path is to forsake all others. This is the way of self-denial and self-sacrifice. But in the end it is the way of self-knowing and God-realization. The cost of discipleship is great, but the value is beyond calculation.
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