God wants you
Commentary
(To the reader: You will note that the format changes for these articles with this September/October issue. We will go directly to a consideration of the three lessons for the day, followed by brief homiletical suggestions. HWC)
Grist For The Mill
Exodus 3:1-15
Genesis is the account of God's choice of a people. As we met each character we met them in their full human condition -- the good mingled with the bad. God could have chosen some others. But God, for reasons we do not understand, chose them.
If election is the overriding theme of Genesis, redemption is the accent of Exodus. Now God will work through a particular person to bring freedom and new life to the Hebrew people. The parallel between Moses and Joseph is striking. Both are "favored sons" in Egypt; both fall into disfavor; both are used by God to preserve a people.
In this text the two foci are God and Moses. God is the great "I Am." There is no adequate translation of the Hebrew term. We can say that it means that God is the One who makes everything possible, the One who gives life to all, the One who can be relied on. But that only touches the surface. Maybe this is as it should be. Our God cannot be confined to a definition. God is person.
In the New Testament we have the same difficulty with the term paraclatos in the Gospel of John. Helper, Counselor, Comforter, Friend, Advocate -- many words are used to describe the Holy Spirit. None is adequate, nor are all of them together.
As for Moses, there are two strands in the early chapters of Exodus. One sees him as a strong man, the other as a weak man. Some argue that this represents two separate traditions. Possibly so. But would we not also say that both are the case with all who are called by God? Westermann observes that "the Moses of whom the book of Exodus speaks has authority only as the mediator of God's word and deed. He has no trace of natural authority or influence, of merit or power. The most frequent and ... characteristic utterances of this man are complaints!" (Claus Westermann, A Thousand Years and a Day, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982, p. 75.)
In an essay on "A Sane View of Himself," Paul Scherer suggests that if a minister does not realize that he or she is a "benighted sinner like the rest," that person "will soon stumble on to it." (Paul Scherer, For We Have This Treasure, New York: Harper, 1944, p. 35.) The miracle is that God can use us in spite of our excuses!
Romans 12:9-21
It is well to remind ourselves again that Romans 12 with its word about how the Christian should live cannot be disconnected from Romans 1-11. It is only because of what God has done that we are able to hear and live by these mandates.
Much of what we read in this lesson has a direct link with the Old Testament imperatives to the Hebrew people. Several verses are direct quotations, for example, from Proverbs (3:7; 25:21-22). What marks off these words of Paul, however, is their spontaneous character. Freely and gratefully the believer is to act in love toward neighbor. This is especially true in verses 14 and 15. These go beyond Old Testament imperatives. We hear echoes of the word of Christ, especially from the Sermon on the Mount. One might put it this way: "God has done great things; therefore, we will love, be ardent in spirit, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, contribute to the needs of the saints, bless those who persecute us, and so on and so on." As we said in a previous lesson, this is .... "Therefore Ethics." Or, as C. K. Barrett has put it: "Those who, because they have faith, are no longer self-centered, can show true sympathy with others, since they rank their neighbors and their affairs above themselves." (C. K. Barrett, The Epistle to the Romans, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 241.)
The point of this section is that Paul is calling believers to an exemplary public life, one that is above reproach. What God envisioned Israel to be -- a light to the nations -- is now God's call to the Christian church. They have no reason for pride. Therefore, not only should they live up to the standards of the law; they should go beyond them, making it clear to the world that their actions are rooted in gratitude to God for God's love in Christ. This is the "second mile" and "other cheek" ethic of Jesus.
The expression "heap burning coals on their heads" in 12:20 has puzzled biblical scholars. The best suggestion seems to be that the good deeds of a believer may provoke repentance in the heart of an unbeliever and turn him or her into a friend.
The reading ends where it begins, namely, that God is our example. God is the one who overcomes evil with good and calls us to do the same.
Matthew 16:21-28
This text seems to flow out of the previous section. The same Peter of whom Jesus says, "Blessed are you," is the one to whom he now says, "Get behind me, Satan!" It is a reminder that Peter, like Moses, is both a strong, chosen leader and, at the same time, a very human, weak and unstable person.
But we must also see that this section marks a distinct movement forward in the Gospel story. The phrase "From that time on" occurred in 4:17. At that juncture it marked the beginning of our Lord's ministry. At this point it indicates the unveiling of the last phase of his work -- the road that will lead with certainty to suffering and death.
In spite of his failure to understand what is going on, Jesus invites Peter and the other disciples to join him on this journey. In fact, this text sets the base line for the chapters that follow when Jesus will try to help the disciples see that they too are called to sacrifice and die for the Gospel.
The life set before them -- and us -- is completely contrary to the way of the world. The whole person is called to surrender whatever security the world has to offer. But in that surrender we will find life, says Jesus. It is not a grim, hesitant act, but one of joyful abandon to the will and work of God.
Bonhoeffer understood the nature of suffering and death before he had to pay the ultimate price himself. "Christ suffered as a free man alone, apart and in ignominy, in body and in spirit, and since that day many Christians suffered with him." It was not long before Bonhoeffer joined those "many Christians." On his way to the gallows he is reported to have said, "This is the end. For me the beginning of life." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, New York: Macmillan, 1962, pp. 14, 31.)
Suggestions For Preaching
Since this is Labor Day Weekend it may be well to relate the texts to the call of God to witness in our daily world of work and so-called "normal activity." Like Moses and Peter, we are finite human beings. All have gifts from God. But we also fail to use them as we should. Yet, God has called and appointed each of us to places where we can be light, salt, and leaven. We need be no one special. God can use us as we are.
Surely the pattern of life Paul recommends to the believers in Rome is as fitting now as then. If we can carry into our Monday world the way of life that Paul urges in Romans 12, those places will soon come to know Christ through our words and deeds.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By James A. Nestingen
Exodus 3:1-15
The real miracle of this story isn't the burning bush, as flashy and attention-demanding as it must have been. No, what's astonishing is the way the good Lord went looking for a sinner to make a deliverer out of him, and succeeded, at least within limits.
The gunner in the bulrushes turned out to be something of a problem child. Maybe he suffered from what is now described among adoptive parents as "failure to bond." It wasn't that he didn't know what to do with a privilege. Moses soaked it all up, every opportunity that the pharaoh's household could provide. But he didn't know who he was, a Hebrew born of Hebrews or an upper class Egyptian, or that is the way it appears.
Whatever the cause, the outcome is certain: Moses became violent. He was enjoying his luxuries one day when he came across an Egyptian slave foreman resolving some of his own tensions on the backs of some of his charges. Moses blew up, killed the man and left him in a sandy grave in the hope that the crime would go undetected.
It wasn't so. Discovered, Moses became a fugitive, leaving Egypt for Midian. Eventually he settled, finding companionship in a Midianite woman, Zipporah, and security in a job that kept him out of town and out of sight, looking after his father-in-law's sheep. Moses was a wanted man.
If the Egyptians couldn't find him -- "Pharaoh's Grandson Wanted In Murder Investigation," "Adoption Goes Bad," the papers may have said -- there is another looking for him who is inescapable. So in the wilderness, with only some sheep grazing the grass to the ground, Moses was called.
For Moses, naturally enough, it was a matter of identity. The burning bush was interesting enough to draw his attention. But more than that, he wanted to know who had found him out there. Though he recognized it immediately, one name -- the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- was not enough. He wanted something more substantial, a name that would betray the personality of the one seeking him.
God answered in a mystery: "I Am Who I Am." But he had said enough already. The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the God who called Abraham out of the desert, who shaped Isaac in Sarah's dead womb, who jumped Jacob as he lay struggling with his fears at the ford of the Jabbock: the God who loves sinners and who will use one, even a murderer on the lam, to deliver his people from slavery into the land of promise.
Grist For The Mill
Exodus 3:1-15
Genesis is the account of God's choice of a people. As we met each character we met them in their full human condition -- the good mingled with the bad. God could have chosen some others. But God, for reasons we do not understand, chose them.
If election is the overriding theme of Genesis, redemption is the accent of Exodus. Now God will work through a particular person to bring freedom and new life to the Hebrew people. The parallel between Moses and Joseph is striking. Both are "favored sons" in Egypt; both fall into disfavor; both are used by God to preserve a people.
In this text the two foci are God and Moses. God is the great "I Am." There is no adequate translation of the Hebrew term. We can say that it means that God is the One who makes everything possible, the One who gives life to all, the One who can be relied on. But that only touches the surface. Maybe this is as it should be. Our God cannot be confined to a definition. God is person.
In the New Testament we have the same difficulty with the term paraclatos in the Gospel of John. Helper, Counselor, Comforter, Friend, Advocate -- many words are used to describe the Holy Spirit. None is adequate, nor are all of them together.
As for Moses, there are two strands in the early chapters of Exodus. One sees him as a strong man, the other as a weak man. Some argue that this represents two separate traditions. Possibly so. But would we not also say that both are the case with all who are called by God? Westermann observes that "the Moses of whom the book of Exodus speaks has authority only as the mediator of God's word and deed. He has no trace of natural authority or influence, of merit or power. The most frequent and ... characteristic utterances of this man are complaints!" (Claus Westermann, A Thousand Years and a Day, Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982, p. 75.)
In an essay on "A Sane View of Himself," Paul Scherer suggests that if a minister does not realize that he or she is a "benighted sinner like the rest," that person "will soon stumble on to it." (Paul Scherer, For We Have This Treasure, New York: Harper, 1944, p. 35.) The miracle is that God can use us in spite of our excuses!
Romans 12:9-21
It is well to remind ourselves again that Romans 12 with its word about how the Christian should live cannot be disconnected from Romans 1-11. It is only because of what God has done that we are able to hear and live by these mandates.
Much of what we read in this lesson has a direct link with the Old Testament imperatives to the Hebrew people. Several verses are direct quotations, for example, from Proverbs (3:7; 25:21-22). What marks off these words of Paul, however, is their spontaneous character. Freely and gratefully the believer is to act in love toward neighbor. This is especially true in verses 14 and 15. These go beyond Old Testament imperatives. We hear echoes of the word of Christ, especially from the Sermon on the Mount. One might put it this way: "God has done great things; therefore, we will love, be ardent in spirit, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, contribute to the needs of the saints, bless those who persecute us, and so on and so on." As we said in a previous lesson, this is .... "Therefore Ethics." Or, as C. K. Barrett has put it: "Those who, because they have faith, are no longer self-centered, can show true sympathy with others, since they rank their neighbors and their affairs above themselves." (C. K. Barrett, The Epistle to the Romans, New York: Harper, 1957, p. 241.)
The point of this section is that Paul is calling believers to an exemplary public life, one that is above reproach. What God envisioned Israel to be -- a light to the nations -- is now God's call to the Christian church. They have no reason for pride. Therefore, not only should they live up to the standards of the law; they should go beyond them, making it clear to the world that their actions are rooted in gratitude to God for God's love in Christ. This is the "second mile" and "other cheek" ethic of Jesus.
The expression "heap burning coals on their heads" in 12:20 has puzzled biblical scholars. The best suggestion seems to be that the good deeds of a believer may provoke repentance in the heart of an unbeliever and turn him or her into a friend.
The reading ends where it begins, namely, that God is our example. God is the one who overcomes evil with good and calls us to do the same.
Matthew 16:21-28
This text seems to flow out of the previous section. The same Peter of whom Jesus says, "Blessed are you," is the one to whom he now says, "Get behind me, Satan!" It is a reminder that Peter, like Moses, is both a strong, chosen leader and, at the same time, a very human, weak and unstable person.
But we must also see that this section marks a distinct movement forward in the Gospel story. The phrase "From that time on" occurred in 4:17. At that juncture it marked the beginning of our Lord's ministry. At this point it indicates the unveiling of the last phase of his work -- the road that will lead with certainty to suffering and death.
In spite of his failure to understand what is going on, Jesus invites Peter and the other disciples to join him on this journey. In fact, this text sets the base line for the chapters that follow when Jesus will try to help the disciples see that they too are called to sacrifice and die for the Gospel.
The life set before them -- and us -- is completely contrary to the way of the world. The whole person is called to surrender whatever security the world has to offer. But in that surrender we will find life, says Jesus. It is not a grim, hesitant act, but one of joyful abandon to the will and work of God.
Bonhoeffer understood the nature of suffering and death before he had to pay the ultimate price himself. "Christ suffered as a free man alone, apart and in ignominy, in body and in spirit, and since that day many Christians suffered with him." It was not long before Bonhoeffer joined those "many Christians." On his way to the gallows he is reported to have said, "This is the end. For me the beginning of life." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, New York: Macmillan, 1962, pp. 14, 31.)
Suggestions For Preaching
Since this is Labor Day Weekend it may be well to relate the texts to the call of God to witness in our daily world of work and so-called "normal activity." Like Moses and Peter, we are finite human beings. All have gifts from God. But we also fail to use them as we should. Yet, God has called and appointed each of us to places where we can be light, salt, and leaven. We need be no one special. God can use us as we are.
Surely the pattern of life Paul recommends to the believers in Rome is as fitting now as then. If we can carry into our Monday world the way of life that Paul urges in Romans 12, those places will soon come to know Christ through our words and deeds.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By James A. Nestingen
Exodus 3:1-15
The real miracle of this story isn't the burning bush, as flashy and attention-demanding as it must have been. No, what's astonishing is the way the good Lord went looking for a sinner to make a deliverer out of him, and succeeded, at least within limits.
The gunner in the bulrushes turned out to be something of a problem child. Maybe he suffered from what is now described among adoptive parents as "failure to bond." It wasn't that he didn't know what to do with a privilege. Moses soaked it all up, every opportunity that the pharaoh's household could provide. But he didn't know who he was, a Hebrew born of Hebrews or an upper class Egyptian, or that is the way it appears.
Whatever the cause, the outcome is certain: Moses became violent. He was enjoying his luxuries one day when he came across an Egyptian slave foreman resolving some of his own tensions on the backs of some of his charges. Moses blew up, killed the man and left him in a sandy grave in the hope that the crime would go undetected.
It wasn't so. Discovered, Moses became a fugitive, leaving Egypt for Midian. Eventually he settled, finding companionship in a Midianite woman, Zipporah, and security in a job that kept him out of town and out of sight, looking after his father-in-law's sheep. Moses was a wanted man.
If the Egyptians couldn't find him -- "Pharaoh's Grandson Wanted In Murder Investigation," "Adoption Goes Bad," the papers may have said -- there is another looking for him who is inescapable. So in the wilderness, with only some sheep grazing the grass to the ground, Moses was called.
For Moses, naturally enough, it was a matter of identity. The burning bush was interesting enough to draw his attention. But more than that, he wanted to know who had found him out there. Though he recognized it immediately, one name -- the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob -- was not enough. He wanted something more substantial, a name that would betray the personality of the one seeking him.
God answered in a mystery: "I Am Who I Am." But he had said enough already. The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is the God who called Abraham out of the desert, who shaped Isaac in Sarah's dead womb, who jumped Jacob as he lay struggling with his fears at the ford of the Jabbock: the God who loves sinners and who will use one, even a murderer on the lam, to deliver his people from slavery into the land of promise.
