When I am in need of a nap,  I will watch baseball, or even more soporific, golf. In the last major tournament this past Sunday, a golfer lost his chance for a win, as his club touched the sand in a small bunker. Some applauded the strict golf code of rules, but others wondered why he lost two strokes, if no advantage emerged from his mistake. It is the old argument for the spirit of the law, the rationale for the law,  or the strict letter of the law.

 

Jesus is in the middle of this type of argument. No one can argue that the 10 Commandments say that the sabbath is for rest. When does work happen? In the case of healing, some rabbis said to heal only in emergency situations on the Sabbath, but others said no; one should help save from suffering. Jesus goes by the spirit of the law as he see sit as beneficial not only toward worship but for human good. After all, Jesus cannot see the sense in helping an animal but refusing to help a fellow human being on the Sabbath. Jesus is fierce here since the woman has been crippled for eighteen years. Jesus cannot imagine letting her suffer another day, rule or no rule. Human well-being takes precedence over the interpretation of the command at Sinai for Sabbath rest. The Sabbath day is the right place for her to find rest after eighteen weary years of suffering.

 

All of us have images of God deep inside at various levels. Hebrews plays on two fundamental polarities: God as a fearsome god or god of joyful assembly in heaven. Is God a stickler for rules or does God go more for the spirit of the rules at hand? As Christians we claim into our lives the revelation of Jesus Christ about human nature but also the nature of the divine. Jesus embodies the nature of God. Here our worship does not touch the fearsome God where we are awestruck, but we touch heaven's gates in worship.Worship is a way station but also a glimpse of where we are all headed. In a world that seems shaken up every news cycle, here we touch and handle things unseen. Here we get a glimpse of God's unshakable life for us. Still, our god is not to be taken lightly. This is still the creator and judge of all. This is still god, not some fuzzy buddy in the sky. Hebrews quotes Deuteronomy and speaks of God as a fire, its warmth and light but also its awe-inspiring effects if we mere mortals get to close, so this consuming fire got close to us in Jesus Christ. We so emphasize the softer side of god that we have reduced God where it doesn't square with the many sides of God in Scripture. The point is that we have access to the abode of God, the fullness of God, in worship. We carry on a worship that tries to be appropriate to the character of God fully. Notice the reference is to God, not our personal tastes and transient trends. Presbyterian worship has always emphasized hearing the word, for we worship this God who speaks in various ways to and through us. I know my preferences in worship, but I am open to the preferences that others have as to style. I have no patience with folks who deign to prescribe a style for everyone to follow. At the same time, Presbyterian worship is so concerned with propriety that it does lack in the celebration that we see pictured in heavenly worship. Whatever worship style, we enter into the presence of God. Do we enter half asleep, or open to the miracle that is set before us, week after week? Are we open to the miracle of being palced at the gates of the abode of God?

Jer.1:4-10, Ps. 71

1) Of course, we onsider calling here. The current Christian Century has a good piece on reluctant callings.
2) Years ago, we made a big deal out of Jeremiah reisting due to youth. do callings change with the years?
3) Note carefully that v. 10 highjlights pervasive themes in this entire book. It is not a doomsday book alone.
4) I do not know of another biblical statement of commission before birth. What do you think comprises knowing by God at this point. One's view of God's plans for us may well leak out in one's consideration fo this topic.
5) From Israel, the calling spreads to other nations.
6) Miller, an expert on biblical prayer, notes a form of lament in the protest of Jeremiah (581, NIB)
7) God's response is firm but also takes into accoutn the udnerstandable fear of Jeremiah. It is responsive.

Ps. 71
1) I assume it is paired with Jeremiah with v. 6 and the mention of the mother's womb.
2) Look at all the words of safety, salvation, and help here.
3) recall to be righteous deals with right relations between us god, and the neighbor, especially the helpless
4) Notice the intimate relation of praise to trust in God. i resist praise songs as they seem commanding a feeling to me. Here it emerges outs of the sense of trust

We follow in the footsteps of many people. Life may well be what we make of it, but we all receive a legacy when we are born. As Scripture says,we enter cities we did not build. We harbor the illusion that we are the first people to go through something, or we are the only ones going through something. One of the positive features of support groups, is that we hear our stories reflected in the stories that intersect with our own experience. Our decision as we form our own identity in the late teens into the twenties is making decisions about following in the footsteps of our parents, at least what to keep and what to reject. Oppositional identity will take us only so far. We learn to become what we want to be.

 

In religion this is true as well. Most of us enter churches built by others. more importantly, we receive the faith because others have faithfully passed it down over the years. Church order gives us a frame to pass it down without having to re-invent the wheel every service. In the popular book of some years ago, Habits of the Heart, a young woman speaks of her own individual belief system. her name was Sheila, and she calls it sheilaism. religion means to bind together in Latin. Religion binds us to those who have gone before us, and they are linked to us.

 

Sometimes we want to follow in someone's footsteps, or we want to learn new steps all on our own. We are part of the Biblical story. we follow in their footsteps. When we encounter the Scripture we can find ourselves in  its accounts. We discover parts of ourselves in the characters. So often, we feel as if we carry too much of the load all by ourselves. I like the image of the cloud of witnesses, as we can perceive, with the eyes of faith, a group of fellow Christians praying for us, cheering us on, encouraging us. An invisible arena gathers around us.

 

Too often, we look at social life, even church life, as a machine. the organic image favored by the bible this afternoon is a garden, or more accurately, a vineyard. i won;t pretend to act as if I know much about viticulture, but I have noticed that grape vines will grow well in poor soil. Sometimes, the footsteps we follow are mistaken; they go down the wrong trail. Most Americas follow the footsteps of the early 19th century that emphasizes individual salvation. That is fine, but it pushes out the community dimension of the faith. Tha works in two ways, we are in this together; we share in a common life, a common garden. Also, our church garden is placed right in the middle of a larger garden, our community, a community taking on the size of a global conservatory. Individual life cannot be divorced from the world outside. The series of woes in Isaiah is to open eyes that we make it difficult for others to follow in the footsteps of making a better life. Individual effort is not all there is to it. It is as if we expect all the plants to flourish equally when some are denied water and fertilizer, and others get more than they need. Weeds threaten the garden, but the surprise is that we, made in the image and likeness of God, offer poor fruit so often.

 

We cut footpaths for others to follow in the garden. We plant seeds in the garden for others to tend. When someone follows in your footsteps, where will that path lead?

Is. 5:1-7
1) I don;t know much about viniculture. One could explore this, or use another garden/agrciulture image, maybe genetic crop engineering.
2) One could use the fruit image and compare to gal. 5:22-3. Serendipity bible (965) asks a cute question about our fruit as budding, premature, developing, diseased, or ripe.
3) When have your hopes for a project been dashed, met, or exceeded?
4) I assume we could link God to the gardener here. What do we learn of God from this image?
5) How can bad fruit emerge from such a garden?
6) Why would Judah be asked to judge the quality of the vineyard?
7) Why destroy the vineyard?Notice wasteland in v. 6
8) V. 7 again gives a social dimenson to what god seeks. Nothing about our pure hearts, nothing about good intentions, nothing about fellowship circles, but social justice.
9) In the end, what kind of song is this (v.1)?

Is. 1:10-20 for August 8

1) In v. ten, notice that both the ruler and people are part of the doomed cities as a trope
2)teaching=torah
3)first God accuses. this has the sound of the courtroom, the rib, in Hebrew. A ritual question gets an answer about justice. Liturgy without justice does not please God. Protestants should pay heed that not only ritual sacrifice but even feast days and prayer are improper without justice. Put differently, this is not against liturgy, it assumes liturgy. its problem is liturgy/worship in the absence of jsutice. Social life can stain the liturgy every bit as much as an indiviudal sin.
4) the a shift at 16-17. If the courtroom image prevails, then this is the purpose of the courts and it sounds like Thurgood Marshall, so decried by the right at the Kagan hearings: to help those who need help. v. 17 is a summary of Hebrew justice expectations.
5) it does seem that change, even here, is possible.
6) LBJ loved, come let us reason together, but NRSV has it as argue it out (in court)
7) What is good and bad about the image of God as judge for us?
8) Look at the discussion in the old IB, 171-174.

**

Sermon July 4 Gal. 6 2 Kings 5:1-14

President Clinton's first inaugural address did not get the attention it deserved  due to his his emphasis on our passage this morning. He tried to make a political sermon to push the idea that as citizens of our country, we are in this together. Bear one another's burdens Paul's words continue to speak directly to the church today. I think back to the threshing crews that helped each other out, farm to farm. Not only is it a physical sharing of burdens, this includes emotional and spiritual burdens. Most of us would far rather help others carry their burdens than to be a burden to others. most of us would rather not ask for help in dealing with our burdens.

 

 

Since we are all in the same boat, Paul asks us to live, not in rivalry, but as brothers and sisters in a family. At the first glance, it looks as if Paul contradicts himself in the passage. I think he is saying that we should take personal care of our own business and needs, but at the same time watch out for others, to help with the free rider issue. Of course some people would prefer to be dependent and to rely on others without lifting a finger. For  Paul, assume the best, not the worst, help out people when you assume that they have tried and tried hard, but they are at the end of their rope. Paul does want us to admonish the sinner. he does so with warning that we find it easier to judge others harshly and be easy on ourselves. If we are to administer discipline, it is  for restoration, not punishment.(Lev. 19:17) Admonishment should be  offered gently. We could take the phrase to bear one another's burdens as to bear with each other's foibles, as much as help carry them. We then fulfill the 2 part teaching of Christ-we play out the love of Christ when we so act for others. When we feel urged to admonish others Paul pushes self-examination. It is an art to learn how to correct people in a way that can elicit some change without them getting riled up in a defensive way.We are all involved in a mix of personal and mutual accountability. All of us are mortal. All of our days are shorter than we would like. What should we do with the time we have?  Seize the opportunity while we have time to do good-for those we can do good, no matter who they are. I have always like the phrase the whole household of God. The good we do is planting seeds for the future; it sows in the Spirit.

 

In the Elisha passage, we face squarely the question of who is our neighbor. should the enslaved prisoner help her new master/ Should the great general lower himself to ask Israel for help? Should Elisha help this foreign general? Let's search for an analogy. What if the Iranian president needed medical aid in Israel? What if the number two Al Qaeda leader needed our medical help? When Jesus alluded to this passage in Luke, his sermon almost got him killed, because the people did not want to hear that god's love is impartial and not limited to the chosen few. Charity begins at home, but it does not end there, and being  chosen doesn't mean special favorite, may mean more responsibility. the  passage also tells us to watch out for expectations. Naaman expected a big splash, but all he got was liturgy, to wash himself clean in the Jordan. We want big time spiritual experiences, but the divine response is to pray, to go to church, to help when you can. Sometimes God gives us a Damascus Road experience, but much more often it is in the unspectacular.

 

 

2 Kings 5;1-14
10 this is good for examining charity begins at home, or issues of inclusion and exclusion, cutting off the nose to spite the face.

2) Newman is a great man with a serious problem. Ironically,a captured girl provides a way out.

3) Did Naaman need all of the royal envoy material to go to Elisha?

4)Why is the king so blind?

5) Why does Elisha shun the entourage?

6) The seven times issue can be seen in Lev. 14:7 cf.

7)What do we learn about the insight of the servants here/ what do we learn of his ego? What are some good analogies to his distaste for the Jordan v. home waters?

8) See Lk. 4:27, also the Syro-Phoenician woman, the healing of the centurion's servant.

90 How is this story like the still small voice account?