I would like to spend a
little time going over part of a hymn section in our reading from
Paul this morning. This section looks the miracle of the Incarnation
right in the eye, but it does not leave it as abstract doctrine but
as lived experience.

Paul again emphasizes
humility as a necessary virtue for Christian community, one where the
needs of the weak are every bit as important as the needs of the
strong. Men often do this under the guise of being providers, and
women do it as part of the nurturing role. The trouble is that it
often makes us resentful. We have the phrase thankless jobs. So we
grasp at anything that promises us a sense of superiority.

Paul uses Christ as the
model of humility. We emphasize the divine attributes in Christ, so
that is surprising to hear. Some translations read it as- Jesus
emptied himself; another would read- made himself nothing. Usually,
when we read this we think of the very Incarnation as a limit on
Jesus: omnipresence, omniscience, or physical pain. For over 100
years, we have wondered if the Incarnation and the life of Jesus was
more a revelation of the very nature of God, the very model of
divinity. God’s desire to be in communion with humanity reaches
all the way into sharing human life with us, in all of its
limitations and excesses, sorrows and best hopes fulfilled. It is not
play acting but goes all the way to the grave with us. Jesus Christ
is no stranger to what we go through. Jesus does not lord it over us.
Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, not over us. In a sense, we come to
grips with the divinity of God when we see a divine journey, as Barth
said, into the far country of the prodigal, into the far country of
humanity itself.

The parable shows us
the unwillingness of God to treat us as mere underlings. We have the
capacity to say yes or no and to act accordingly. We say yes to many
items in the faith without giving them much thought or even credence.
We say no to so many parts of faithful practice: not judging, not
forgiving, and dishonoring the Sabbath. Jesus realizes that it is one
thing to say yes, but we may say no with our actions. No one is fully
obedient to the way of God, of course. When we fall into pride, we
are immediately placed on the outsi9de of the way of Christ looking
in.

Most of us know the
line form Psalm 23; “my cup runneth over.” We complain
that we feel spiritually empty and yearn for a sense of divine
intimacy and abundance. We are full all right, full of it. I think
Paul is suggesting for that to happen, we need to empty ourselves of
the defenses of the false self. Our lives are filled with too much
grasping, too much worry, and too much resentment. When emptied of
those vices, we can be filled to the brim with virtues such as
comfort, and encouragement.

Paul sees Jesus as
moving from the crucifixion to the exaltation in heaven, as we say it
in the Creed, seated at the right hand of the Father. The connection
with Jesus will continue for us as well, as we await a life in heaven
far beyond the indignities of this life. The words that describe the
Christian life in Christ will continue as we enjoy life with Christ
in heaven: a world of tenderness, love, fellowship, better a true
community, a true communion between each other and our God. There the
Lord of all is our Lord. Still that Lord ruling at the right hand is
with us, within us, with no interest in subjecting us, but enjoying
our realization of our selves in the divine image and likeness at
long last.

Usually, I look around
the calendar for a holiday to help order my thoughts for these
columns that seem to leap at me when due. As I looked, my
Presbyterian calendar listed September 121 as the International Day
of Peace. I did not know of it. I often resist holidays when I am
unaware of them. I did not believe Sweetest Day existed, although I
still don’t get its repeat of Valentine’s Day. I’m
not sure when Grandparents’ Day is. I think Arbor Day is in
June? Various days and weeks are designated by governments to honor
their contributions, so I would think that most days are aimed at
something, no matter how trivial. .

I hit the Internet. The
United Nations designated this day since 1982. Many groups clamored
for it for some time. In the Middle Ages, the church tried to limit
war by trying to forbid it around religious periods such as Lent. In
this instance, the UN asks for a day of ceasefire where shots are
being fired. It is a hopeful sign that enemies and rivals can
designate a day for peace.

I’d like to see
our schools promote this day as heavily as we promote Earth Day.
Already the schools do wonderful work with peace. North Decatur has
peer mediators who try to keep disputes from escalating into fights.
Relationship training provides skills to students to allow peace to
grow in friendships and family life.

I wonder why churches,
to any significant degree, have not embraced this day. “Blessed
are the peacemakers.” In some ways it is easy for church
bodies, at the national level, to take positions on peace issues of
international and national scope. Mostly, they are ignored and fall
into the great mist of social viewpoints. When churches lift up
public issues as Election Day approaches, peace is often way down the
list, except for the few peace churches such as the Mennonites or
Quakers. It could be easily moved into the religious celebration of
World Communion Sunday. Few rituals capture the Biblical vision of
peace better than this day when we cross boundaries and all share in
the same bread and cup.

It is difficult to do
the hard work of peacemaking at smaller levels. We have to learn,
every day, to manage the aggression and violence that bubbles beneath
the surface of human nature. The basic response is flight or fight,
not peacemaking. The future vision of Star Trek is one that speaks of
peace but the ships and crew are brimming with weapons. If one wants
to see conflict degenerate, just pay attention to church conflicts. I
knew one religious leader who said the best evangelism tool was to
have a church fight to see one or two more churches. The Wal-Mart
parking lot has people parking in handicapped spaces or making sure
that they park into the shaded area, so a van cannot move its
passengers. Little kids get shaken, pulled, and screamed at in the
grocery store. Thoughts of peace don’t get our hearts pumping.
It is far more effective to be tough in politics than to constantly
seek peace,

John Adams hoped that
the 4^th of July would be a day of celebration of liberty
with picnics and fireworks. It would be good to see an International
Day of Peace celebrated with parades, where the floats honor peace,
with the ringing of church bells, and learning to walk in the ways of
peace.

Let’s imagine if
the people in the wilderness were Hoosiers, “If Bobby Knight
were still coach, the Red Sea would have parted on its own. If we let
Purdue scientists at this manna stuff, they’d breed some flavor
into it. What do you mean that food is going to fall from the sky?
Next thing, you’ll tell us that money grows on trees.”
The Hoosier in us all, committed to the value of hard work, reacts
strongly to the parable of Jesus. We identify with those first hired,
those hard-working folks who sweat all day and chafe at being paid
the same as those who worked for a mere hour.

Abundance is shared,
because there is enough for everybody. Abundance suits need and
condition out in the wilderness, so no need to hoard. When you even
try, it rots in your hands. . At the same time, everyone gets enough;
waste is not an issue. Abundance frees up the imagination toward
other things beside mere subsistence. Emotional abundance looks like
a grandparent delighting in the antics of a three year old.. Mental
abundance looks like a group of people brainstorming, and they have
to flip the page with ideas coming thick and fast. Spiritual
abundance looks like the bread piled on a golden dish for Communion.
To marvel at a sunset means we share in its beauty, but we have no
scarcity of sunset, even if everyone enjoys it.

Culture of scarcity
leads to competition-savings.-acquisition (rules of acquisition in
Deep Space Nine) but also hoarding and greed, a sense that nothing
can ever be enough. Scarcity gnaws at you. Its reaction may turn to
greed, as nothing then ever feels enough. Utility becomes the primary
concern-what good is it? The economy of scarcity starts to affect our
view of everything. We start to dole out our emotions drop by
precious drop. We endanger a good relationship when the fear of the
scarcity of love strikes and we try to possess the person, in effect,
making them slave to our fear.

God is moving Israel
into a new way of looking at the world, as they are on the march from
slavery to responsible citizens. They had no choices in the world of
slavery. They were treated as human machines. Slaves don’t get
gifts, just more obligations. Now they will be provided for, and they
will work to use the gifts that are all around them. The manager
operates from the manna principle. Everybody who works gets what they
need to live. They live out the Lord’s Prayer: “give us
this day our daily bread.” We hear the story and do not
identify with the owner or any workers except those who worked all
day for the minimum wage.

Jesus is leading us
into an alternative, manna method of looking at life. Apply it to
ideas of the work of God and generosity. In religion, we seem
incapable to accept the notion of grace as unmerited gift. So we
transform the Christian message into this: if you live a good life,
you deserve heavenly reward. No matter how many times we recite the
Protestant watchwords of not earning salvation, of grace alone, faith
alone, we insist that we are involved in some sort of divine
transaction, not a call, not an embrace. Is it possible that God
wants a world of all winners? We are made for more than being slaves
to work. If we can even start to see a God generous with us, then
maybe we can start to be generous toward our own failings and
generous toward the needs of others. God is still passing out manna
every day, for our hearts, and minds, and bodies. God wants us not to
starve in the wilderness or at work, but to flourish, to live richly
and fully.

Sometimes the church
takes too many things for granted. It doesn’t speak about the
process of forgiveness enough, and we don’t speak of judging
others or being judgmental enough. Repeatedly Paul says we are not to
judge each other. In this case a group, lax about eating requirements
such as kosher or Sabbath regulations, is called the strong. The weak
would be the group with strict eating regulations on religious
grounds.

In a remarkable ethical
stance, Paul urges us to use the needs of those with whom we disagree
first. Since the strong don’t have an objection, they can
afford to be generous in their actions. Go the extra mile; go out of
our way to be solicitous toward the opinions of others. They should
be tolerant about things they consider non-essential but others
consider essential. Rigidity may appear strong, but its inflexibility
is its downfall. Think of bridges that require some give in order to
stand up to the loads they bear.

It is an act of
arrogance to use the self as the model for others We tend to make
small things matter of principle, instead they are merely
preferences. Can one prove a preference that red is better than blue?
In pre-marital work, I’ve heard people talk about the “right”
way to fold towels and unwind paper towels. Then we take a preference
and try to cram it down other people’s throats. We say it’s
superior and should be the standard for everybody. We are so insecure
that we grasp at straws to and bolster our fragile sense of self.

Judging from
appearances is a murky business. . We cannot peer into a heart. We
use cues, often-false cues about a person’s qualities from
small matters. In social psychology, when attribute negative or
positive qualities to others then people assume that those qualities
apply to us. (More examples here)

Judging falls under the
category: none of your business-not your job or scope. Watch what
you require of others. The fundamental question is this: Does this
serve Christian love for my brother or sister?

So often, we imagine
God as a judge: angry or at least deeply disappointed. Perhaps we
imagine a fearsome prosecutor. Who are we to replace that judge? The
story goes further. As Barth said, Jesus Christ is the judge judged
in our place. It is as if the bench is vacated and we have the Spirit
as our defense attorney, our advocate.

Here and in the next
chapter, Paul tells us to welcome one another, since God has welcomed
us. Welcome has the sense of welcome to our family. Welcome, not
despising, not being scornful of the other builds Christian
community. If God is welcoming of people, then who are we to withhold
welcome?

Uncertainty and doubts
dog us all. We compensate by judging others. That’s why Paul
urges us to be clear in our own convictions. We can all be sure that
God is with us, and God looks past the trivia we so consistently
build up into mountains. We can look forward to a world where we are
not so judgmental. Look at the progress we have made in terms of race
and gender in the last fifty years. I suppose we will move past being
judgmental in heaven. We will find a welcome and so welcome others in
God’s care.

I don’t know how
someone could talk about all ten commandments. So maybe pick one or
three. The second tablet is basic to social structure, with the
exception of coveting.

Idolatry may be the
primary sin in the Reformed tradition. Notice that in the Brief
Statement we speak of idolatries of church and culture. We have an
iconoclastic tradition but we go deeper and see our minds as Calvin
put it as “factories of idols,” replacements for God in
our priorities. For instance, I hear people in church complain about
their grandchildren in missionary work but never about being in the
armed services. We have flags in sanctuaries and watch the reaction
if it’s removed. Maybe we’ve made heterosexuality more
than a norm but an idol.

Name of God in vain- I
sometimes wonder if this has a legal sense. Do not swear on oath if
you are not going to tell the truth. I do know that it is not a
synonym for using vulgar language. Vain in our time would mena
useless, meaningless, doesn’t matter much/

Sabbath-We are all
Sabbath breakers. United Presbyterians were strict sabbatarians. What
could we do to recover the Sabbath, even as a spiritual practice.
Only slaves work 24/7, but Hoosiers lift this to a point of personal
pride and obligation. One could consider Sabbath recreation as
recreation. For those who work with their minds and hearts, how about
no reading on the Sabbath or a compassion Sabbath?

The only thing I have
to say about the honor commandment is its positive nature, its
promise, and a consensus among scholars that it applies to adult
children as much or more than to small children

Kill is not quite
murder only, but it does not go to the taking of all life, as in war,
either. . It would be more like homicide that would include negligent
homicide. Bailey (CTS) has a different view.

Adultery apparently
meant a married woman not being with her husband without her
husband’s permission. Yes, that would mean a married man with
an unmarried woman was not committing adultery. (See Bill Clinton was
on solid ground with Monica.)

We have grown used to
calling it a victimless crime, but is it?

False witness has a
legal connotation. Thou shalt not commit perjury, I suppose. Truth
telling would be its opposite.

Covet to me is more
than desire. It is desire in motion that will not let anything get in
the way of acquiring/ satiating that desire. It is a gnawing, or an
itch that must be scratched. It seems to me a big difference between
wanting and saying I must have that.

See the remarkable
exposition on the commandments, positive and negative, in Westminster
Longer Catechism 7.102-258,

Dennis Olson has some
excellent thoughts on the commands that extend the 10 Commandments in
Deuteronomy in his Dt. and the Death of Moses.

Paul Lehmann had a late
book on the 10 Commandments.

Now we move to another
basic need, water. In this instance water comes from Horeb/Sinai. Is
Torah being linked to the water? Water of physical life is linked to
the “living water” of God’s torah (law/teaching).

One could then use this
water image into living water of Christ or the baptismal waters.

What does it mean to
test God? Is this what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer when we ask
to lead us not into temptation (testing, tried) the word works all
three ways in Gk. Does testing God mean manipulating god? Does it
mean putting god to the test, asking god to prove something for us?
Does it mean to test god’s patience? Does it mean a lack of
trust?

Meribah=place of
trial/dispute/contention/quarrel. A rib was a formal dispute, used
often in a prophetic form, where oracles have God placing an
indictment of the people’s wrongs.

Massah (elides the n of
nasa) and becomes place of testing. In both instances ma/e=place of

We encounter
grumbling/murmuring/complaining again. Intertextual examples in the
NT can be /found in Jn. 6:41, 60-6, Lk. 5:30, Acts 6:1. Look at how
Paul uses it in I Cor. 10:10.

I wanted to use the previous Labor Day weekend to think through some thoughts on labor. Labor day doesn’t have the hangover effect of Christmas or Thanksgiving. For that matter, its purpose confuses people. I heard a child ask why we don’t labor on Labor day. In my admittedly extended lifetime, union households have declined from about a third of workers to less than ten per cent. “Organized labor” declines as we make a transition to a service-based economy. Churches often let this holiday slide, except perhaps, for prayers for traveling mercies. Upon reflection, labor is usually absent from the consideration of churches.

All of us read the Bible with lenses that highlight or minimize its concerns. In spiritualizing its message, we miss its concerns for labor. After all, Joseph and Jesus are described as “tekton” craftsmen, often translated as carpenters. We do well to examine it with eyes wide open to labor. Take another look at the parables and look at how many of them are in a working environment.

With globalization, labor issues loom large. Cheaper products are often made through child labor. Free trade enshrines countries with poor labor standards and small wages. One advantage of having the Olympics in China was getting to see some of the conditions of workers in that now capitalistic tyranny. It is a horror to see teams of people sorting through trash sent off there and doing dangerous chemistry to recycle valuable metals out of the trash for pennies. In our country, families virtually require both husband and wife to be wage earners: one for house payments and one for the other bills.

In out country, we do well to reconsider the importance of Sabbath. Most families face enormous time pressures to the extent that the use of time is a major stress for couples and families. Gov. Palin calls herself a hockey Mom, and the image in my mind is a woman running from program to program as she tries to hold everything else together as well. Words such as exhausted float easily from people’s lips. We do well to recover Sabbath not only as religious time but time to rest from the pressing concerns of work. Sabbath offers a chance to actually spend some time with family, time to reconnect and enjoy each other’s presence. Sabbath was instituted for the former slaves of Egypt as a reminder that only slaves try to work 24 hours a day seven days a week. A Sabbath perspective on retirement could help us navigate those difficult decisions surrounding our retirement years, years that now reach out in time.

Ecclesiastes is, in part, a meditation on work. On one hand, he does not find redemption in work itself, as that is one of the long list of vain, meaningless, powers. On the other hand, he does find meaning in smaller things. Even though there is no end to our toil, he advises us to work with all of our powers to anything our hands find to do.

Hoosiers seem to me to be the very embodiment of the work ethic. Hard workers are ascribed moral standing on the basis of their industry. The unspoken compact of the work ethic is that hard work reaps rewards. Since 1973, for a generation, this is not the case. A whole generation of people has fallen behind. In a time when we speak of linking religious and family values to our politics, we are called to reconsider our values toward work, its pitfalls and rewards, in our time and place.

Brueggemann has a well-known piece on scarcity v. abundance. Here is a good example if one looks at the difference between making bricks as slaves and finding food as the free people of God. Slaves weren’t given what they needed for bricks, but here they get what they need. One could talk about a manna principle. (Manna is a pun, what is it=man hu?in Hebrew) Since Hoosiers believe fervently in the work ethic this could be tricky, but at least the people have to labor to collect it. (One could talk of the Mick Jagger principle; “you can’t always get what you want/ but if you try sometimes/ you just might find/ you get what you need.”)

One could turn this passage to Jn. 6 and make it a meditation on Communion and the spiritual banquet spread before us. One could also link back 2 weeks and talk about the Passover bread on the run and now bread from heaven.

Sabbath is built into the narrative before the Sabbath commandment. The Documentary Hypothesis assigns this material to the P, Priestly strain of editing. Greed fits in here, with the issue of wanting more on the day of rest, even though they collect double on the day before. Scarcity lies at the heart of economic thought. Greed, acquisitiveness, refusal to share all emerge from it. Being afraid that we won’t have enough pushes us into becoming selfish.

God continues to be responsive; the cries out of hunger and the fear of hunger make as much sense as the cries from Egyptian oppression. This does seem fairly quick after being freed and walking through a sea and seeing your enemy drowned. It is the great example of what have you done for me lately.

Fretheim (God and World, p.127) notes that God rains hail as plague and now bread. Locusts covered the ground, and both destroy food, but now bread does, and quail will, cover the ground with food

The issue of murmuring/complaining/grumbling could be proper. Note that the Septuagint’s word is the same word used of the opponents of Jesus.

This passage embarrasses me. As soon as Matthew mentions church we are in the middle of a way of describing conflict resolution. On the other hand, it is realistic. Human beings engage in conflict. Christian faith doesn’t wave a magic wand and make everyone harmonious. Here Jesus is determined to put conflict in the light, or to make it transparent as the current political lingo would say. It is a process, not magic. In modern parlance, it seems more like mediation than judicial process.

Loving the neighbor is not always easy. Here loving the neighbor is learning to resolve disputes. To bind and loose seems to me to give the power of a rabbinical court of what is permissible and impermissible to the members of the church, perhaps similar to the judicial function of the church courts in out denomination. Here, the offended party does not wait for an apology. The one hurt makes the first move. Quarrels have a way of escalating. This process gives a chance to de-escalate. They have a way of spreading. This process tries to contain that spread, to manage its contagion. It does realize that not all disputes are resolved. Then it ends with the tantalizing point. Does it mean shunning, as with the Amish? Does it mean that the mission continues to those outside the church, to continue to reach out to those who are on the outside? Does the Christian message ever give up on someone?

As Paul works on this section on loving the neighbor in action as well as sentiment, he develops a thought on life in the light. Things mentioned are often done in the shadow of darkness. Some of them are obvious examples, but the ending catches attention. He apparently puts quarreling and dissension in the same league as the degenerate activities he mentions first. They often emerge from dark place that we scarcely imagine ourselves. Both types of behavior demonstrate loss of self-control and restraint. Light of the new age has us see the world differently. Paul realizes that we are engaged in fights of all sorts, but he subverts it potential for pain and violence with the image of armor of light. This is invisible, but only to undiscerning eyes. The armor of light is defensive, like a force field, to repel attacks against peace but also as a containment vessel against our own worst impulses. When Paul speaks of time; it is kairos time. The word has the sense of a critical time, an opportune moment. We know at some point in an argument things are getting out of hand, spinning out of control. Put differently, it is always a holy moment when we try to settle an argument or bring people back together. For every one of us, time is too precious; time is too short, to waste in damaging disputes. We miss too many family members and friends over things that we can’t even remember. The damage is done, and the relationship is harmed. Those lost relationships diminish us all.

What does it mean to put on Christ? For me, that is always, at least partly, a baptismal image, of putting on the new clothes of the Christian. It is adopting the role, the function, of Christ in a situation. Often we quote the end of our passage to speak of the presence of god in small prayer groups. Look at the context. Jesus Christ is present when 2 or 3 are gathered to do the work of resolving disputes, to do the holy work of peacemaking, the grace-filled work of forgiveness. and reconciliation. We live out our baptism as ministers of reconciliation, carrying thje message of Christ’s peace. We live in the presence of Christ whenever we live out the prayer in action of resolving disputes.

We have 2 possible readings for the 14^th Ex. 14:19-31, 151-11,20-21. Both have mythic echoes. The New Interpreter’s Bible has a good excursus on the sea as symbol of death, destruction, and chaos at p. 106. See also Anderson’s edited volume on Creation and Chaos titled From Creation to New Creation or William Brown’s Ethos of the Cosmos. The lectionary cuts out the verses that fit this schema in the song of Moses. In that “mythic” sense, this episode is an affirmation of the creative power of God. (See Ps. 104,74, 29, Is. 51:9 for examples)

Some think this is from quite old material, especially Miriam’s song. I do detect age in 15 v. 8, 10, 11. We rarely portray God’s nostrils as a weapon of war. Swallow takes on the notion of death as a swallower and applies it to the god of life, as least for infant Israel here. This is filled with complications, as God is a bringer of life and death, weal and woe. Here the creator is the liberator (Fretheim p. 124 God and World) (Is 43:15,16,45:7.)

I don’t have any patience with trying to come up with natural events that could fit in this experience, although I am sure that ingenuity can come up with countless ‘explanations” to cause this.. Whenever we see a miracle like this, I do think it wise to ask what spiritual reality it points us toward. At the same time, I don’t see much value in trying to prove this as a video of “actual events.” These are interpreted events. I do find value in being willing to make some analogies to the “Egypts” in our lives and experiences of liberation, as long as we realize that we are making weak analogies. For instance, Brueggemann portrays current consumer society as being asked to make more and more bricks.

v.30 saved is the verbal form of the root for Joshua, the name of Jesus, to save/deliver.

At the end, the people believe the same root as our Amen at the end of prayer. We don’t know if Miriam is the same sister as at the beginning of the story. Either way, a woman is at the dangerous waters of the nile, but now the dangerous waters of the sea have swallowed up the Egyptians

Moses then sings of the events that were just put in narrative form. The song is to God the warrior. This offends liberal sensibilities, but some grace can be found here in that the people do not fight; god fights for them. Militarism is off the table. Indeed, as they will see again with Joshua, this is not battle array but a liturgical procession.

See the Dreamworks movie prince of Egypt and notice the song that accompanies it. Look at Moses when he looks out over the water.