The God beyond our dogmas
Commentary
Just recently I came across a cartoon. It showed an elderly bearded man in a white robe sitting before a panel of television monitors. It was obviously God keeping his world and children under surveillance. In front of God were two buttons, one said "Smite" and the other "Bless." God's finger was on the "smite" button. His attention was focused on a monitor that showed a piano falling from a building and about to crush an unwary pedestrian. So the vision of a God who punishes by sending calamity upon us lingers on. Someone has called this the vision of the cosmic jailer.
The old orthodoxy of the Deuteronomists argued that God visibly rewarded piety and punished impiety. But the formula did not always work out in experience. Those who were good did not necessarily get the goods. The author of Psalm 73 and the writer of Job were each in his own way challenging the old orthodoxy. Both worked things through and began to catch a vision of the God beyond popular dogma.
The epistle reading comes from Hebrews whose writer employs the vocabulary and liturgy of the sacrificial offerings of the Jewish Temple. This language is so strange to our ears that it makes the author next to incomprehensible to the modern listener or reader. Some of the images he employs can be misused in the service of some unacceptable interpretations of the sacrifice of Jesus and its benefits usward. Let the preacher tread carefully.
The lesson from Mark includes words of Jesus about divorce spoken in response to a test question. The answer of Jesus goes far beyond the issues of divorce and strikes at the very ordering of society in terms of male domination. Mark uses the words to address human problems within his own community. The reading also embraces Jesus' blessing of the little children. This act is revolutionary in terms of its challenge to dogma, social organization, and the life of the community of faith.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
As with any great dramatic writing the whole swoop of the action, the dialogue of the characters, and individual soliloquies have to be experienced. The theological themes of the drama and the human questions posed are forever current in a world where bad things happen to good people. A most helpful resource for the pastor is The Message of Job, A Theological Commentary, by Daniel J. Simindson (Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1986).
Remember that the Satan who makes an appearance in the drama is not the Devil of the gospel narratives. The Satan of the book of Job is a member of the heavenly council whose special duties are modeled after the Persian secret service. Every Persian embassy had within it an official who functioned as "the eyes and ears of the king." Satan in Job has a similar mission.
Today's lesson opens up the general subject of the whys and wherefore of suffering. One scene woven into the lesson suggests a subsidiary avenue, the influence of human bias in traditional interpretation. Job's wife appears and says to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die." The exact meaning is not clear since the word bless is also an option. What is certain is the bad rap given Job's wife via the bias of some venerable theologians. Augustine referred to her as the "handmaid of the Devil." John Calvin called her the Devil's instrument. Chrysostum suggested that the Devil left Job his wife because he considered her a scourge by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means. It is important to keep pointing out the ways bias and stereotype can influence biblical interpretation.
Actually quite a different view of Job's wife can be taken. She is there beside him in the ashes, does not hesitate to have a serious discussion with him, and her words fit no pious stereotype. Job's comment indicates he had never considered his wife foolish. It could well be that she wanted Job to give expression to the anger within. Did she sense suppressed anger under the surface of his resigned piety? "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" I have met some pious sufferers who are hard to take, heard too many pious blasphemies spoken at funerals in the name of comfort.
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Hebrews was directed to Christians who were growing weary under persecution and in danger of falling away from the faith. Reasons for depression abounded around them as they do around us. We are not being persecuted, at least in America, but there is abroad a sense of sadness about the human condition. It is fed by the real events reported to us daily from the streets of urban America to the battle sites in the Balkans and from all points in between. This can lead us to despair about the potentials of our humanity. Like the folk to whom Hebrews was addressed we wonder what ever happened to the vision of mortals appointed to exercise responsible oversight of the earth and her creatures as voiced in the eighth Psalm which is quoted in the epistle.
Is the word he spoke to his flock a word for us also? "As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus ..." (Hebrews 5:8-9). We see him as he comes to us in history, sharing our common lot, conquering sin and death, and giving us an open future. Apart from the crucified and risen Lord what cause is there for celebration ... unless there beats at the heart of all things a heart like the heart of Jesus, a cruciform love that somehow takes into itself all the pain and agony, and a purpose that transcends the occasions for despair? A sermon along some such line as this would represent the thrust of the text for today.
Mark 10:2-16
Note that Jesus quotes from the Priestly creation account which presents the sexes as equal before God. The double standard is also canceled out. The woman has equal rights to divorce. His words go far beyond divorce and challenge the male domination that leads to the exploitation of women. Matthew applied the words of Jesus in a somewhat different way to the different situation of his community. The early church was responding to human problems in a world of vulnerable humans.
In the second portion of the lesson we note that the disciples have forgotten how he put a child in their midst and are shooing them away. To receive the kingdom as a child is to receive it as an unmerited gift. Forget all the modern sentimentalism about the innocence, curiosity, trustfulness of children that gets worked into sermons on this text. Children can be mean to one another, given to tantrums, and quite self-preoccupied despite their engaging qualities. The child is a metaphor for the little ones whom Jesus welcomes to his embrace, the least, the outsiders, the poor, the exploited, the nobodies; and such are all of us.
The old orthodoxy of the Deuteronomists argued that God visibly rewarded piety and punished impiety. But the formula did not always work out in experience. Those who were good did not necessarily get the goods. The author of Psalm 73 and the writer of Job were each in his own way challenging the old orthodoxy. Both worked things through and began to catch a vision of the God beyond popular dogma.
The epistle reading comes from Hebrews whose writer employs the vocabulary and liturgy of the sacrificial offerings of the Jewish Temple. This language is so strange to our ears that it makes the author next to incomprehensible to the modern listener or reader. Some of the images he employs can be misused in the service of some unacceptable interpretations of the sacrifice of Jesus and its benefits usward. Let the preacher tread carefully.
The lesson from Mark includes words of Jesus about divorce spoken in response to a test question. The answer of Jesus goes far beyond the issues of divorce and strikes at the very ordering of society in terms of male domination. Mark uses the words to address human problems within his own community. The reading also embraces Jesus' blessing of the little children. This act is revolutionary in terms of its challenge to dogma, social organization, and the life of the community of faith.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
As with any great dramatic writing the whole swoop of the action, the dialogue of the characters, and individual soliloquies have to be experienced. The theological themes of the drama and the human questions posed are forever current in a world where bad things happen to good people. A most helpful resource for the pastor is The Message of Job, A Theological Commentary, by Daniel J. Simindson (Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1986).
Remember that the Satan who makes an appearance in the drama is not the Devil of the gospel narratives. The Satan of the book of Job is a member of the heavenly council whose special duties are modeled after the Persian secret service. Every Persian embassy had within it an official who functioned as "the eyes and ears of the king." Satan in Job has a similar mission.
Today's lesson opens up the general subject of the whys and wherefore of suffering. One scene woven into the lesson suggests a subsidiary avenue, the influence of human bias in traditional interpretation. Job's wife appears and says to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die." The exact meaning is not clear since the word bless is also an option. What is certain is the bad rap given Job's wife via the bias of some venerable theologians. Augustine referred to her as the "handmaid of the Devil." John Calvin called her the Devil's instrument. Chrysostum suggested that the Devil left Job his wife because he considered her a scourge by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means. It is important to keep pointing out the ways bias and stereotype can influence biblical interpretation.
Actually quite a different view of Job's wife can be taken. She is there beside him in the ashes, does not hesitate to have a serious discussion with him, and her words fit no pious stereotype. Job's comment indicates he had never considered his wife foolish. It could well be that she wanted Job to give expression to the anger within. Did she sense suppressed anger under the surface of his resigned piety? "Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" I have met some pious sufferers who are hard to take, heard too many pious blasphemies spoken at funerals in the name of comfort.
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Hebrews was directed to Christians who were growing weary under persecution and in danger of falling away from the faith. Reasons for depression abounded around them as they do around us. We are not being persecuted, at least in America, but there is abroad a sense of sadness about the human condition. It is fed by the real events reported to us daily from the streets of urban America to the battle sites in the Balkans and from all points in between. This can lead us to despair about the potentials of our humanity. Like the folk to whom Hebrews was addressed we wonder what ever happened to the vision of mortals appointed to exercise responsible oversight of the earth and her creatures as voiced in the eighth Psalm which is quoted in the epistle.
Is the word he spoke to his flock a word for us also? "As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus ..." (Hebrews 5:8-9). We see him as he comes to us in history, sharing our common lot, conquering sin and death, and giving us an open future. Apart from the crucified and risen Lord what cause is there for celebration ... unless there beats at the heart of all things a heart like the heart of Jesus, a cruciform love that somehow takes into itself all the pain and agony, and a purpose that transcends the occasions for despair? A sermon along some such line as this would represent the thrust of the text for today.
Mark 10:2-16
Note that Jesus quotes from the Priestly creation account which presents the sexes as equal before God. The double standard is also canceled out. The woman has equal rights to divorce. His words go far beyond divorce and challenge the male domination that leads to the exploitation of women. Matthew applied the words of Jesus in a somewhat different way to the different situation of his community. The early church was responding to human problems in a world of vulnerable humans.
In the second portion of the lesson we note that the disciples have forgotten how he put a child in their midst and are shooing them away. To receive the kingdom as a child is to receive it as an unmerited gift. Forget all the modern sentimentalism about the innocence, curiosity, trustfulness of children that gets worked into sermons on this text. Children can be mean to one another, given to tantrums, and quite self-preoccupied despite their engaging qualities. The child is a metaphor for the little ones whom Jesus welcomes to his embrace, the least, the outsiders, the poor, the exploited, the nobodies; and such are all of us.
