Community! Community! Community!
Commentary
(Dr. Foster R. McCurley has had a distinguished career as St. John's Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. In addition to his career as a pastor, seminar leader, and international lecturer and consultant, he has written numerous books and articles and is currently the Theologian-in-Residence of Tressler Lutheran Services, LSS of South Central PA and LutherCare.)
My contributions to Emphasis during this past year are dedicated to the Reverend Charles P. Sigel, friend, tutor, and colleague in ministry, on the occasion of his retirement as Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
-- Foster R. McCurley
* * *
Mainline churches often defend our lack of growth on the basis of theological or liturgical integrity, especially when churches of other denominations are bursting at the seams. The outstanding growth of some churches today reflects a need for community that some of the rest of us do not seem to meet. Is it possible that we miss the biblical teaching about the connection between the gospel of God's unconditional love and the directly related scriptural call to love one another?
Let's allow the scriptures for today to speak for themselves.
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Ezekiel, a priest, was called to be a prophet of the Lord. As an exile living in the land of Babylon, he knew firsthand the situation he was called to address. In his role as prophet Ezekiel wears many hats throughout the book. He serves as a visionary, as one who suffers vicariously for the sins of the people, as a grieving husband, but always as a spokesperson for God.
Here God calls the prophet "a sentinel" -- as the Lord did the first time verses 7-9 were addressed to Ezekiel at 3:17-19. Like a watchman on the wall of a city, the prophet learns first the coming news from God for the people and then passes it on with a sense of urgency. The news in this case is the word of warning and judgment. As with any sentinel, if news of coming disaster is not relayed to the people, then the disaster that befalls the people will be shared by the sentinel. In this case, however, if the sentinel issues the warning and the people do not respond, then the sentinel's fate will be different: "You will have saved your life."
The message to Ezekiel to serve as God's sentinel, that is, to speak what he hears, is itself an important message to the people of God in any generation. Whether the word of God is one of judgment or of grace, of law or of gospel, the word is not something to keep to ourselves. The Dead Sea has often been interpreted by the people who live in its vicinity as "dead" because while it receives waters from the Jordan River in the north, it does not give any water away at its southern end. Giving away to others the word of God that we receive means life for everyone.
The second paragraph in our pericope introduces another issue. The people in exile, confessing their sins and transgressions and their eroding consequences, ask the haunting question: "How then can we live?" The question is reminiscent of the rhetorical one God asked Ezekiel when he surveyed the dry bones scattered all over the valley: "Can these bones live?" (37:3). After the prophet's response, "O Lord God, you know," the Lord provided the means by which they might come to life.
Likewise here the Lord answers the question by providing the means by which they can live. In fact, stating the motive first, the Lord announces the good news that "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live." That turning is what we would call repentance. It is repeated as the means for life: "Turn back, turn back from your evil ways."
Then God changes from answering to questioning: "Why will you die, O house of Israel?" By doing so, God makes clear that the people hold the answer to their own question in their hands. They can indeed live by turning to God who waits with open arms.
While we today often hear people explain tragedies and sorrows as "the will of God," we might well help them see the message of this pericope. God does not will death or sorrow. God derives pleasure from those who turn to him for life.
Romans 13:8-14
Paul continues to explain to the Christians who were members of the congregation in Rome the implications of the free gift of God's justification. He had already written of the diversity of gifts among them, of the marks of Christian living, and of the obligations to governing authorities, even to the point of paying taxes to those given authority by God. Here he continues with two issues: the importance of loving one another and the nature of life in the Day.
In verses 8-10 the apostle writes that the primary obligation of the Christian is "to love one another" as the way to fulfill the law. He begins by citing as examples of love some of the commandments given by God at Mount Sinai many centuries earlier. The prohibitions against adultery, murder, theft, coveting, "and any other commandment are summed up in one word, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Paul here, of course, is citing what Jesus called the second great commandment, the first being "You shall love the Lord your God...."
That first commandment Paul never cites. Neither does any other writer of the New Testament outside the Synoptic Gospels where it occurs once in each of the three. But the second one, the one about loving the neighbor as oneself, is here said to be the summation of all the commandments. Likewise at Galatians 5:14 Paul repeats his conviction that this second great commandment is the summation of "the whole law." And the author of James calls this commandment "the royal law according to the scripture" (James 2:8).
Have Paul and the others gone strictly humanitarian at this point? What happened in their thinking to the first great commandment, the one about loving God?
Within Pauline material we find at least some answers to the questions. In the previous chapter, the one that began with the word "therefore" to move from God's unfathomable act of justification to the Christian's response, Paul wrote about the need to "love one another with mutual affection" (12:10). In that case, Paul refers to a different saying of Jesus, one that occurs frequently in John's Gospel, namely, "Love one another as I have loved you." That kind of Christ-like love stands at the heart of the Christian community. Furthermore, at 1 Thessalonians 4:9 Paul writes about the origin of the love commandment: "... you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another." Neither of these references gets at the heart of the issue.
The First Epistle of John, however, provides the answer. At 3:11 the author writes that "we should love one another." At 3:23 he combines into one commandment of God "that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us." In chapter 4 the author makes the connection still tighter. At verse 7 he pleads "let us love one another, because love is from God." In verse 11 he bases our love for one another on the fact that "God so loved us." At verse 19 he repeats in concise form the same emphasis: "We love, because he first loved us." And if there is any question about the object of our love, the issue is cleared up in the following verse: "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or a sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen." Then to be certain no reader misses the connection, the author concludes the chapter by writing, "The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also" (v. 21).
By this reasoning it was not essential that Paul in our pericope and in Galatians 5 cite the first commandment or with any apology at all call the second commandment the summation of all the law. It is virtually impossible to love God without showing love to the neighbor. To put the concept in positive terms, the way we love God is by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
In the second part of our pericope, verses 11-14, Paul focuses the attention of his readers on living life in the shadow of the kingdom. "You know the kairos, and it's time to wake up," he begins. The entire message that follows is thus set within the context of the imminent kingdom. Recall the words of Jesus: "The time (kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near" (Mark 1:15). The kairos is not simply the calculation of hours and minutes and seconds. Our clocks and watches accomplish that. Ticking time is chronos. The time of which Paul writes and of which Jesus preached is the significant moment when God ushers in his Day and inaugurates the kingdom among us. In Jesus' preaching that time approached in his own ministry. In Paul's writings that time had already dawned in the death and resurrection of Jesus and would be fully accomplished when Jesus returns, as he promised. The new time was literally "upon us," and so, "Now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).
It is because of this imminence of the eschatological time that Paul encourages the readers to "act your age." The new age that God brings requires of believers a new way of life, one in which we "live honorably as in the Day" (capital letter mine for clarity). Life in the new Day requires that we "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" and throw away the clothing that the present world considers "cool."
Matthew 18:15-20
At some location in Capernaum the disciples came to Jesus asking the well-known question about who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus invited a little child into their midst and told them about the need to be like children -- humble and unassuming -- in order to enter the kingdom. Their question gave Jesus the opportunity to teach them about temptations to sin and the joy of God when none of "these little ones should be lost."
Those earlier paragraphs lead directly to the teaching in our pericope about how to reprove someone in the believing community who "sins against you." The procedure is quite involved, and it must be because the issue at stake is the well-
being of the one who sinned. Taking a clue from the Old Testament about reasoning with your neighbors rather than hating them (Leviticus 19:17), Jesus urges the offended one to point out the other's fault with no one else around. The purpose of that approach is clear: the offender need not be needlessly ashamed in the presence of others. The result of that approach might indeed be the reconciliation between the two, but beyond that, "If the member listens to you, you have regained that one." The possibility of recovering for the community one who would be lost continues Jesus' concern from the previous paragraph where he announced God's will that none "of these little ones should be lost." Pushing that notion one more step, Jesus demonstrates here how to "find" one who gets lost by sinning against another believing member of the community. At the same time, since this private conversation is the first step, it prohibits the defamation of a person to others through public announcement of what could have been settled in private conversation.
If that step fails, then Jesus urges another approach, one reminiscent of the law at Deuteronomy 19:15, that two or three witnesses are necessary to convict a person of a wrong. The purpose of this method Jesus suggests is "so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses." The reasoning behind this approach, of course, is to assure that an accuser is presenting the situation accurately so that the accused is not maligned without basis. The method still tries to deal with the situation as privately as possible so that reconciliation might occur.
Failing a successful response from the accused, the last resort is to report the matter to the congregation. Only now does the matter become part of the family business, and now the accused has the final opportunity to make amends before becoming like "a Gentile and a tax collector," who knew all too well what it was like to be on the outside looking in.
The process demonstrates the deep concern to gain and not lose members of the community. It is a humane process in one sense. In another sense, however, it is more than humane. It is based on the authority of Jesus, the Son of God, who came to form the eschatological community called the church and to provide the guidelines by which the community might be maintained in its fullness.
That authority to maintain the community Jesus grants to the church. "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." The words are strikingly similar to the ones Jesus spoke to Peter at 16:19. The authority given to Peter was connected to the gift of "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," and it focused on the role of Peter to be the interpreter of the new teachings of Jesus. Here the same authority given to the church as a whole is related to the awesome, even burdensome, responsibility of finding and keeping the lost and of excluding them if they do not turn from their evil ways.
Some people are quick to exclude, to cast judgment on others, because the sins of the others happen to be the ones that most threaten some individuals. Yet church members must consider the eternal consequences of their judgments, for whatever we bind or loose on earth carries through the Day of Judgment in heaven. With that stake in mind the church community needs to take every possible effort, exercise every ounce of patience, spend every pound of strength to assist the lost to "turn back" for life (see the message of Ezekiel 33).
Now two other sayings are attached to the basic teaching, and the attachment is due to catch words. In Jesus' speech about authority he mentioned heaven and earth as well as the role of two (or three) witnesses. Those words lead to the saying, "Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Think of the possibilities! If my wife and I agree that we want a sailboat and include that desire in our prayers, we should expect that in the very near future we will have trouble backing the car out of the garage because of this new addition in the driveway. If a whole congregation decides it needs a new educational unit and asks for it in prayer, then no campaign will be necessary to raise the funds. How do we make sense out of this teaching when we know that sailboats and educational wings do not fall out of the sky?
Consider the primary words Jesus uses here: "earth," "heaven," "be done," "Father." The asking to which Jesus refers is, of course, prayer. In this same Gospel according to Matthew Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, and because of its origin, we call it "the Lord's Prayer." In that prayer addressed to "Our Father in heaven," our petition is that "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The will of God for which we pray is related to the previous petition that "your kingdom come." The prayer is a kingdom prayer from beginning to end, and the will of God for which we pray is defined by the portrayals of the kingdom from the prophets, from the parables of Jesus, and from the visions of John the Seer.
What we ask, therefore, is not our desires but God's kingdom will. That the kingdom that already exists in heaven should be tasted even here and now guides our prayers so that "our will" for sailboats and educational wings and anything else does not replace "God's will." Jesus exercised great wisdom in promising the fulfillment of petitions when two believers agree. Community correction enables our prayers to be appropriate for kingdom people.
Speaking of "two or three" leads to another attachment. "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." The saying does not mean that Jesus cannot be present with an individual. Clearly, however, from the time that God first observed Adam streaking around the garden alone, God determined "it is not good that the man should be alone." God created humans for community. God promised an eschatological community that would live in harmony with one another and in praise of the Lord. Jesus called together a new community as a foretaste of the one to come -- all because "it is not good to be alone." It is that expression of community that rings loudly in Jesus' promise to be present within the community of even "two or three" gathered in his name.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
(Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier, an ordained Presbyterian minister and Adjunct Professor of Bible and Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary, is known throughout the United States and Canada as a preacher, lecturer, and writer. She is the author of twenty books and frequently contributes to church publications.)
Exodus 12:1-14
This particular text, which tells of the institution of the Jewish Passover feast, is to mark the beginning of the year in the month of Abib (March-April) for the Hebrews (v. 2). Originally, the New Year began in the fall with the harvest (cf. 23:16; 34:22), but it was switched to the spring by the priestly writers of the sixth century B.C., who followed the Babylonian calendar.
It may seem strange that this text is now assigned to us for September. We usually associate Passover with Maundy Thursday before Easter, when our Lord eats his final Passover meal with his disciples before he goes out to be crucified. But are we not too at the beginning of a new season in our church schedule? Everyone has returned from vacation. The children will shortly be back in school. Church school classes and choir practices are resuming, and we are entering our fall schedule of worship services. So, like the Israelites in our text, we are at a beginning, and this text has a good deal to say to us about how to conduct ourselves.
First of all, this text has to do with travelers who are on the move. The Israelites are about to be delivered by the Lord out of their old life of captivity in Egypt. And so everything they do in this Passover festival is to be characteristic of travelers who are on the verge of leaving. For their food, they are to select a lamb of a sheep or goat and to roast it over an open fire, where no utensil or boiling water is needed. They are to eat unleavened bread, because there is not time for their bread to rise, and their spices are to be bitter herbs that are pulled straight from the ground. Their loins are to be girded, that is, their long robes are to be gathered up about their hips and tied there with a belt, so they can walk freely. Their feet are to be shod for walking, and they are to have their hiking staffs in hand, ready for departure. They are to be prepared to journey.
So too, good Christians, as we start this fall in our church year, we are to be prepared for moving on, because the Christian life is never a static acceptance of the status quo. It is pressing forward toward God's goal for us. God never lets us remain just as we are. He wants us to know more about the Bible's contents and about his words revealed through those contents, and so we are to press on in our Bible study and in our daily private Bible reading, enlarging our knowledge of our Lord. God in his love desires that we deepen our communion and daily fellowship with him, and so he asks us to commit ourselves to more regular private prayer and to more heartfelt and sincere corporate worship, that we may grow in sanctification and goodness. God sees all of his beloved people out there in our neighborhoods and world who desperately need to hear of his forgiveness and new life, and so he asks us to increase our efforts in evangelism and mission, drawing more members into this church and increasing our activities on the mission field. And God knows that everywhere there are people who are suffering, in hunger or poverty, sickness or anxiety, and he asks us to rekindle our efforts to love our neighbors and to minister to their needs. We are at a beginning once again in this September, but there's no resting on our laurels, no doing things as we have always done them. God says to us, "Be prepared to journey, move on, press forward in the discipleship which I have given you!"
Why? Because, like the Israelites prepared to depart Egypt, good Christians, God is going to "pass over" us and deliver us from our slavery. No. He's not going to do it. He already has, in the cross and resurrection of his Son. Through the work of Jesus Christ, you and I have been delivered from our slavery also, our slavery to sin and death. God has given us "the glorious liberty of the children of God," as he gave it to Israel, and he has set us free to live a new life, as Israel was set free. And we, like that first people of God, are on the journey to a promised land -
- a promised land called not Palestine this time, but called the Kingdom of God. So let's move on, beloved Christians! Forgetting what lies behind, let us press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, until his kingdom does indeed come on earth, even as it is in heaven!
Lutheran Option -- Ezekiel 33:7-11
This passage from Ezekiel details for us one of the functions of a prophet in Israel, namely to be a "watchman." A loosely parallel passage is found in Ezekiel 3:16-21, and the similar watchman function of a prophet is mentioned in Hosea 9:8; Jeremiah 6:17; and Isaiah 56:10. Like a watchman set on the wall of a city to warn it of the approach of an enemy, the prophets were to warn the Israelites of God's approaching judgment on their sin. Ezekiel understands God to be the "enemy" of sin (cf. 13:1-5), as do all of the pre-exilic prophets. And God the enemy can destroy Israel for her sin against him.
This particular passage deals primarily with the sin of individuals. If the prophet warns some sinner of God's approaching judgment, but the sinner does not repent and amend his life, the sinner will die for his iniquity. But if the prophet does not warn a sinner and the sinner dies, the fault will be also the prophet's and the prophet too will die. In short, the prophet is held responsible for the life of his compatriots! He must pass on God's word to sinners or forfeit his own life.
Two emphases speak to us out of this text. First is the life and death importance of the Word of God. God's word as it is given to us in the gospel is not a mere suggestion or an instruction that can be accepted or rejected as we will. No. God's word involves life or death. As we learn also from the New Testament, it involves whether any person will have eternal life or death. And so it is absolutely important for everyone we meet and everyone in the world that we pass on the good news of the gospel to them.
Preachers are sometimes asked, "What will happen to all of those people in the world who have never heard the gospel when the last judgment takes place?" The reply can only be that they are in the hands of the merciful God whom we have known in Jesus Christ.
But this text adds a second thought to that reply. It tells us that if we have the opportunity to tell a sinful world and sinful individuals about the forgiveness and salvation possible to them in Christ, and they die because we have not told them, we are responsible for their death! We have not passed on the good news to them that could give them eternal life, and so we too stand under the judgment of God.
In other words, part of our function and responsibility in the Christian faith is to pass it on. In our mission work, at our jobs, in our social circles, and especially in our families and to our children, we are to communicate God's word. We can do it by what we speak, by how we act toward others, and by the way we conduct our daily lives. Our words, our actions, our standards and ethics -- all are to show forth our faith. And if we do not do that, as God's servants and disciples, God holds us responsible.
That seems like a fearful calling. But the comforting part is that God not only commands us to pass on the Christian faith. He also pours into our hearts his Holy Spirit, giving us the strength, the guidance, the wisdom, to be his witnesses in our daily lives and in our world. We too are "watchmen and watchwomen" for the Lord, good Christians. And we are called to be faithful at our posts.
My contributions to Emphasis during this past year are dedicated to the Reverend Charles P. Sigel, friend, tutor, and colleague in ministry, on the occasion of his retirement as Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
-- Foster R. McCurley
* * *
Mainline churches often defend our lack of growth on the basis of theological or liturgical integrity, especially when churches of other denominations are bursting at the seams. The outstanding growth of some churches today reflects a need for community that some of the rest of us do not seem to meet. Is it possible that we miss the biblical teaching about the connection between the gospel of God's unconditional love and the directly related scriptural call to love one another?
Let's allow the scriptures for today to speak for themselves.
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Ezekiel, a priest, was called to be a prophet of the Lord. As an exile living in the land of Babylon, he knew firsthand the situation he was called to address. In his role as prophet Ezekiel wears many hats throughout the book. He serves as a visionary, as one who suffers vicariously for the sins of the people, as a grieving husband, but always as a spokesperson for God.
Here God calls the prophet "a sentinel" -- as the Lord did the first time verses 7-9 were addressed to Ezekiel at 3:17-19. Like a watchman on the wall of a city, the prophet learns first the coming news from God for the people and then passes it on with a sense of urgency. The news in this case is the word of warning and judgment. As with any sentinel, if news of coming disaster is not relayed to the people, then the disaster that befalls the people will be shared by the sentinel. In this case, however, if the sentinel issues the warning and the people do not respond, then the sentinel's fate will be different: "You will have saved your life."
The message to Ezekiel to serve as God's sentinel, that is, to speak what he hears, is itself an important message to the people of God in any generation. Whether the word of God is one of judgment or of grace, of law or of gospel, the word is not something to keep to ourselves. The Dead Sea has often been interpreted by the people who live in its vicinity as "dead" because while it receives waters from the Jordan River in the north, it does not give any water away at its southern end. Giving away to others the word of God that we receive means life for everyone.
The second paragraph in our pericope introduces another issue. The people in exile, confessing their sins and transgressions and their eroding consequences, ask the haunting question: "How then can we live?" The question is reminiscent of the rhetorical one God asked Ezekiel when he surveyed the dry bones scattered all over the valley: "Can these bones live?" (37:3). After the prophet's response, "O Lord God, you know," the Lord provided the means by which they might come to life.
Likewise here the Lord answers the question by providing the means by which they can live. In fact, stating the motive first, the Lord announces the good news that "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live." That turning is what we would call repentance. It is repeated as the means for life: "Turn back, turn back from your evil ways."
Then God changes from answering to questioning: "Why will you die, O house of Israel?" By doing so, God makes clear that the people hold the answer to their own question in their hands. They can indeed live by turning to God who waits with open arms.
While we today often hear people explain tragedies and sorrows as "the will of God," we might well help them see the message of this pericope. God does not will death or sorrow. God derives pleasure from those who turn to him for life.
Romans 13:8-14
Paul continues to explain to the Christians who were members of the congregation in Rome the implications of the free gift of God's justification. He had already written of the diversity of gifts among them, of the marks of Christian living, and of the obligations to governing authorities, even to the point of paying taxes to those given authority by God. Here he continues with two issues: the importance of loving one another and the nature of life in the Day.
In verses 8-10 the apostle writes that the primary obligation of the Christian is "to love one another" as the way to fulfill the law. He begins by citing as examples of love some of the commandments given by God at Mount Sinai many centuries earlier. The prohibitions against adultery, murder, theft, coveting, "and any other commandment are summed up in one word, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " Paul here, of course, is citing what Jesus called the second great commandment, the first being "You shall love the Lord your God...."
That first commandment Paul never cites. Neither does any other writer of the New Testament outside the Synoptic Gospels where it occurs once in each of the three. But the second one, the one about loving the neighbor as oneself, is here said to be the summation of all the commandments. Likewise at Galatians 5:14 Paul repeats his conviction that this second great commandment is the summation of "the whole law." And the author of James calls this commandment "the royal law according to the scripture" (James 2:8).
Have Paul and the others gone strictly humanitarian at this point? What happened in their thinking to the first great commandment, the one about loving God?
Within Pauline material we find at least some answers to the questions. In the previous chapter, the one that began with the word "therefore" to move from God's unfathomable act of justification to the Christian's response, Paul wrote about the need to "love one another with mutual affection" (12:10). In that case, Paul refers to a different saying of Jesus, one that occurs frequently in John's Gospel, namely, "Love one another as I have loved you." That kind of Christ-like love stands at the heart of the Christian community. Furthermore, at 1 Thessalonians 4:9 Paul writes about the origin of the love commandment: "... you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another." Neither of these references gets at the heart of the issue.
The First Epistle of John, however, provides the answer. At 3:11 the author writes that "we should love one another." At 3:23 he combines into one commandment of God "that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us." In chapter 4 the author makes the connection still tighter. At verse 7 he pleads "let us love one another, because love is from God." In verse 11 he bases our love for one another on the fact that "God so loved us." At verse 19 he repeats in concise form the same emphasis: "We love, because he first loved us." And if there is any question about the object of our love, the issue is cleared up in the following verse: "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or a sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen." Then to be certain no reader misses the connection, the author concludes the chapter by writing, "The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also" (v. 21).
By this reasoning it was not essential that Paul in our pericope and in Galatians 5 cite the first commandment or with any apology at all call the second commandment the summation of all the law. It is virtually impossible to love God without showing love to the neighbor. To put the concept in positive terms, the way we love God is by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
In the second part of our pericope, verses 11-14, Paul focuses the attention of his readers on living life in the shadow of the kingdom. "You know the kairos, and it's time to wake up," he begins. The entire message that follows is thus set within the context of the imminent kingdom. Recall the words of Jesus: "The time (kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near" (Mark 1:15). The kairos is not simply the calculation of hours and minutes and seconds. Our clocks and watches accomplish that. Ticking time is chronos. The time of which Paul writes and of which Jesus preached is the significant moment when God ushers in his Day and inaugurates the kingdom among us. In Jesus' preaching that time approached in his own ministry. In Paul's writings that time had already dawned in the death and resurrection of Jesus and would be fully accomplished when Jesus returns, as he promised. The new time was literally "upon us," and so, "Now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).
It is because of this imminence of the eschatological time that Paul encourages the readers to "act your age." The new age that God brings requires of believers a new way of life, one in which we "live honorably as in the Day" (capital letter mine for clarity). Life in the new Day requires that we "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" and throw away the clothing that the present world considers "cool."
Matthew 18:15-20
At some location in Capernaum the disciples came to Jesus asking the well-known question about who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus invited a little child into their midst and told them about the need to be like children -- humble and unassuming -- in order to enter the kingdom. Their question gave Jesus the opportunity to teach them about temptations to sin and the joy of God when none of "these little ones should be lost."
Those earlier paragraphs lead directly to the teaching in our pericope about how to reprove someone in the believing community who "sins against you." The procedure is quite involved, and it must be because the issue at stake is the well-
being of the one who sinned. Taking a clue from the Old Testament about reasoning with your neighbors rather than hating them (Leviticus 19:17), Jesus urges the offended one to point out the other's fault with no one else around. The purpose of that approach is clear: the offender need not be needlessly ashamed in the presence of others. The result of that approach might indeed be the reconciliation between the two, but beyond that, "If the member listens to you, you have regained that one." The possibility of recovering for the community one who would be lost continues Jesus' concern from the previous paragraph where he announced God's will that none "of these little ones should be lost." Pushing that notion one more step, Jesus demonstrates here how to "find" one who gets lost by sinning against another believing member of the community. At the same time, since this private conversation is the first step, it prohibits the defamation of a person to others through public announcement of what could have been settled in private conversation.
If that step fails, then Jesus urges another approach, one reminiscent of the law at Deuteronomy 19:15, that two or three witnesses are necessary to convict a person of a wrong. The purpose of this method Jesus suggests is "so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses." The reasoning behind this approach, of course, is to assure that an accuser is presenting the situation accurately so that the accused is not maligned without basis. The method still tries to deal with the situation as privately as possible so that reconciliation might occur.
Failing a successful response from the accused, the last resort is to report the matter to the congregation. Only now does the matter become part of the family business, and now the accused has the final opportunity to make amends before becoming like "a Gentile and a tax collector," who knew all too well what it was like to be on the outside looking in.
The process demonstrates the deep concern to gain and not lose members of the community. It is a humane process in one sense. In another sense, however, it is more than humane. It is based on the authority of Jesus, the Son of God, who came to form the eschatological community called the church and to provide the guidelines by which the community might be maintained in its fullness.
That authority to maintain the community Jesus grants to the church. "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." The words are strikingly similar to the ones Jesus spoke to Peter at 16:19. The authority given to Peter was connected to the gift of "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," and it focused on the role of Peter to be the interpreter of the new teachings of Jesus. Here the same authority given to the church as a whole is related to the awesome, even burdensome, responsibility of finding and keeping the lost and of excluding them if they do not turn from their evil ways.
Some people are quick to exclude, to cast judgment on others, because the sins of the others happen to be the ones that most threaten some individuals. Yet church members must consider the eternal consequences of their judgments, for whatever we bind or loose on earth carries through the Day of Judgment in heaven. With that stake in mind the church community needs to take every possible effort, exercise every ounce of patience, spend every pound of strength to assist the lost to "turn back" for life (see the message of Ezekiel 33).
Now two other sayings are attached to the basic teaching, and the attachment is due to catch words. In Jesus' speech about authority he mentioned heaven and earth as well as the role of two (or three) witnesses. Those words lead to the saying, "Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Think of the possibilities! If my wife and I agree that we want a sailboat and include that desire in our prayers, we should expect that in the very near future we will have trouble backing the car out of the garage because of this new addition in the driveway. If a whole congregation decides it needs a new educational unit and asks for it in prayer, then no campaign will be necessary to raise the funds. How do we make sense out of this teaching when we know that sailboats and educational wings do not fall out of the sky?
Consider the primary words Jesus uses here: "earth," "heaven," "be done," "Father." The asking to which Jesus refers is, of course, prayer. In this same Gospel according to Matthew Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, and because of its origin, we call it "the Lord's Prayer." In that prayer addressed to "Our Father in heaven," our petition is that "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The will of God for which we pray is related to the previous petition that "your kingdom come." The prayer is a kingdom prayer from beginning to end, and the will of God for which we pray is defined by the portrayals of the kingdom from the prophets, from the parables of Jesus, and from the visions of John the Seer.
What we ask, therefore, is not our desires but God's kingdom will. That the kingdom that already exists in heaven should be tasted even here and now guides our prayers so that "our will" for sailboats and educational wings and anything else does not replace "God's will." Jesus exercised great wisdom in promising the fulfillment of petitions when two believers agree. Community correction enables our prayers to be appropriate for kingdom people.
Speaking of "two or three" leads to another attachment. "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." The saying does not mean that Jesus cannot be present with an individual. Clearly, however, from the time that God first observed Adam streaking around the garden alone, God determined "it is not good that the man should be alone." God created humans for community. God promised an eschatological community that would live in harmony with one another and in praise of the Lord. Jesus called together a new community as a foretaste of the one to come -- all because "it is not good to be alone." It is that expression of community that rings loudly in Jesus' promise to be present within the community of even "two or three" gathered in his name.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
(Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier, an ordained Presbyterian minister and Adjunct Professor of Bible and Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary, is known throughout the United States and Canada as a preacher, lecturer, and writer. She is the author of twenty books and frequently contributes to church publications.)
Exodus 12:1-14
This particular text, which tells of the institution of the Jewish Passover feast, is to mark the beginning of the year in the month of Abib (March-April) for the Hebrews (v. 2). Originally, the New Year began in the fall with the harvest (cf. 23:16; 34:22), but it was switched to the spring by the priestly writers of the sixth century B.C., who followed the Babylonian calendar.
It may seem strange that this text is now assigned to us for September. We usually associate Passover with Maundy Thursday before Easter, when our Lord eats his final Passover meal with his disciples before he goes out to be crucified. But are we not too at the beginning of a new season in our church schedule? Everyone has returned from vacation. The children will shortly be back in school. Church school classes and choir practices are resuming, and we are entering our fall schedule of worship services. So, like the Israelites in our text, we are at a beginning, and this text has a good deal to say to us about how to conduct ourselves.
First of all, this text has to do with travelers who are on the move. The Israelites are about to be delivered by the Lord out of their old life of captivity in Egypt. And so everything they do in this Passover festival is to be characteristic of travelers who are on the verge of leaving. For their food, they are to select a lamb of a sheep or goat and to roast it over an open fire, where no utensil or boiling water is needed. They are to eat unleavened bread, because there is not time for their bread to rise, and their spices are to be bitter herbs that are pulled straight from the ground. Their loins are to be girded, that is, their long robes are to be gathered up about their hips and tied there with a belt, so they can walk freely. Their feet are to be shod for walking, and they are to have their hiking staffs in hand, ready for departure. They are to be prepared to journey.
So too, good Christians, as we start this fall in our church year, we are to be prepared for moving on, because the Christian life is never a static acceptance of the status quo. It is pressing forward toward God's goal for us. God never lets us remain just as we are. He wants us to know more about the Bible's contents and about his words revealed through those contents, and so we are to press on in our Bible study and in our daily private Bible reading, enlarging our knowledge of our Lord. God in his love desires that we deepen our communion and daily fellowship with him, and so he asks us to commit ourselves to more regular private prayer and to more heartfelt and sincere corporate worship, that we may grow in sanctification and goodness. God sees all of his beloved people out there in our neighborhoods and world who desperately need to hear of his forgiveness and new life, and so he asks us to increase our efforts in evangelism and mission, drawing more members into this church and increasing our activities on the mission field. And God knows that everywhere there are people who are suffering, in hunger or poverty, sickness or anxiety, and he asks us to rekindle our efforts to love our neighbors and to minister to their needs. We are at a beginning once again in this September, but there's no resting on our laurels, no doing things as we have always done them. God says to us, "Be prepared to journey, move on, press forward in the discipleship which I have given you!"
Why? Because, like the Israelites prepared to depart Egypt, good Christians, God is going to "pass over" us and deliver us from our slavery. No. He's not going to do it. He already has, in the cross and resurrection of his Son. Through the work of Jesus Christ, you and I have been delivered from our slavery also, our slavery to sin and death. God has given us "the glorious liberty of the children of God," as he gave it to Israel, and he has set us free to live a new life, as Israel was set free. And we, like that first people of God, are on the journey to a promised land -
- a promised land called not Palestine this time, but called the Kingdom of God. So let's move on, beloved Christians! Forgetting what lies behind, let us press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, until his kingdom does indeed come on earth, even as it is in heaven!
Lutheran Option -- Ezekiel 33:7-11
This passage from Ezekiel details for us one of the functions of a prophet in Israel, namely to be a "watchman." A loosely parallel passage is found in Ezekiel 3:16-21, and the similar watchman function of a prophet is mentioned in Hosea 9:8; Jeremiah 6:17; and Isaiah 56:10. Like a watchman set on the wall of a city to warn it of the approach of an enemy, the prophets were to warn the Israelites of God's approaching judgment on their sin. Ezekiel understands God to be the "enemy" of sin (cf. 13:1-5), as do all of the pre-exilic prophets. And God the enemy can destroy Israel for her sin against him.
This particular passage deals primarily with the sin of individuals. If the prophet warns some sinner of God's approaching judgment, but the sinner does not repent and amend his life, the sinner will die for his iniquity. But if the prophet does not warn a sinner and the sinner dies, the fault will be also the prophet's and the prophet too will die. In short, the prophet is held responsible for the life of his compatriots! He must pass on God's word to sinners or forfeit his own life.
Two emphases speak to us out of this text. First is the life and death importance of the Word of God. God's word as it is given to us in the gospel is not a mere suggestion or an instruction that can be accepted or rejected as we will. No. God's word involves life or death. As we learn also from the New Testament, it involves whether any person will have eternal life or death. And so it is absolutely important for everyone we meet and everyone in the world that we pass on the good news of the gospel to them.
Preachers are sometimes asked, "What will happen to all of those people in the world who have never heard the gospel when the last judgment takes place?" The reply can only be that they are in the hands of the merciful God whom we have known in Jesus Christ.
But this text adds a second thought to that reply. It tells us that if we have the opportunity to tell a sinful world and sinful individuals about the forgiveness and salvation possible to them in Christ, and they die because we have not told them, we are responsible for their death! We have not passed on the good news to them that could give them eternal life, and so we too stand under the judgment of God.
In other words, part of our function and responsibility in the Christian faith is to pass it on. In our mission work, at our jobs, in our social circles, and especially in our families and to our children, we are to communicate God's word. We can do it by what we speak, by how we act toward others, and by the way we conduct our daily lives. Our words, our actions, our standards and ethics -- all are to show forth our faith. And if we do not do that, as God's servants and disciples, God holds us responsible.
That seems like a fearful calling. But the comforting part is that God not only commands us to pass on the Christian faith. He also pours into our hearts his Holy Spirit, giving us the strength, the guidance, the wisdom, to be his witnesses in our daily lives and in our world. We too are "watchmen and watchwomen" for the Lord, good Christians. And we are called to be faithful at our posts.
