Here comes the judge
Commentary
The reality therapy of this Pentecost season gets another sobering installment with the arrival of this Lord's Day! The appearance of God as jurist/jury with a gavel in his hand and humanity in the dock can be an unsettling occasion. When he comes to us it usually is as One working flat-out to keep us out of potentially disastrous situations. But to be hauling us up to his bench to scrutinize our spotty pasts, is flat-out scary and threatening. He has on wrong attire, just as Jesus does in the portrait of him that hangs in the Crusader's Chapel at the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. There he wears a black robe! Nowhere else has he ever been painted vested like that. And it brings one up short to see him standing there ... at least it does me ... because it hardens him! He doesn't have the soft appearance of the tender shepherd with sheep curled around his feet ... the way we see him most often.
But if we take the Bible seriously as a depicter of what God truly is like, then we have to be ready for these changes of clothes and roles. And we need to ponder them, and use them as gifts of grace intended to tune us, and our ways of life, into being children of such a God requires from, as well as brings to, us. Today the garb is Scrutinizer. The agenda is "Let's see your vitae!" And the result should be to take stock of our track record and line of living to so shape our future that when the call comes for us to be sworn, and the testimony is concluded, the verdict can be, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
OUTLINE I
The eye that never blinks!
Amos 8:4-7
A. v. 4. "It wasn't me! It was him!" How many times my mother heard that from either me or my brother when something happened which brought down her anger. It is always somebody else who is guilty of the misdeeds. There is always some good reason why we do what we do, isn't that right? So we can think of all sorts of people who fit Amos' description of the bandits that trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end. The tight-fisted loan-sharks, lecherous slum lords, penny-pinching prejudiced employers, unfeeling governments, red-tape-spinning social agencies, and ... and ... and...! But us? What has this text to do with you, or with me? We just mind our own business, watch the evening news, shake our heads over how bad things are with the houseless, the bag people, the chronically unemployed, the drop outs ... praying someone will get off their duffs and do something to change things for them!
B. vv. 5-6. We want things to get back to normal, don't we, so we can get on with life unencumbered by those who can't cut it and who are always on the dole at our expense. Whatever stands in the way of doing that, be it sabbaths or new moons, or anything or anybody else, let's sweep it out and get things moving again, with or without those who can't keep up on their own. That's just practicality, not insensitivity. Besides, while there are those others who pick the poor clean, and scam them into even greater hopelessness, we are not among them!
C. v. 7. God has as warning for all who have the poor among them, "I will never forget any of (your) deeds." There are acts of commission and acts of omission, remember? And both kinds are still sins when they are the source of pain and suffering for another about which you and I can do something to prevent. That makes tramplers and bringers to an end (death/destruction) of us all at times. Think about that when you sit down to dinner in your home today, and then act to change things!
OUTLINE II
Praying and acting
1 Timothy 2:1-8
A. v. 1. "Supplications; prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving" are great openers for helping people who are down and out, in one way or another. They together, or alone, are the focusers for who is in need, and what specifically they require that we can supply to help them recover. The danger of them is that they can become the quicksand that sucks us under to conclude, or immobilizes us from moving on to perform, those deeds we could to bring to reality what we pray about, or intercede for, those around us.
B. vv. 2-5. And the needy run the gamut from kings to paupers, all of whom God wants to be saved. Remember, salvation has to do with this life as well as the next one! Jesus told the disciples, "As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them (Luke 6:31)." Therefore what your neighbor hungers for the most, which you can supply, is what you should strive to provide, just as you would have him/her do for you, if the situations were reversed. Those needs are as varied, and as changing, as people and history are. "To each according to their need" ... and among the needs, often forgotten when the immediate ache is being experienced, is the spiritual one which unless it is supplied, never allows anyone to be satisfied.
C. vv. 6-8. The deepest need, one that no one but God can supply, is the gap-closer that Jesus paved over the chasm that humanity dug for itself when it separated itself from the creator deciding to make itself "god!" The way back is a bridge planed with the wood from a cross. Along with any temporal and temporary needs we should fill for one another, the delivery of the good news that Jesus Christ has paid the toll for our reunion with God should be broadcast with zeal. To do that not only was Paul appointed a preacher and teacher to the gentiles (unbelievers) ... but so were we all.
OUTLINE III
Crooks and commendations!
Luke 16:1-13
A. vv. 1-8. The parable about the crooked servant and the employer who catches then fires him, is one Jesus had to tell with either a glint in his eye or with a sign of depression. It just had to be one or the other. While the situation is humorous, or at least, tweaking for the imagination ... the one cheated giving the devilish one who took him his due for being resourceful in a bind ... can't you feel Jesus' frustration and disappointment in his own crew when he tells them, "... the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." Why is it that way? Why do the crooks seem more dedicated to their enterprises than the followers of Jesus do with theirs ... or his? But too often the drug pushers, and the white-collar thieves with their stock schemes, and the whole list of their clones, are the real go-getters, the shakers and movers, of the present time.
B. vv. 9-12. What often is their secret is that they pay attention to detail, and have the enterprise on their minds all the time! They live it, and frequently will die for it as well. Do you? ... will you? ... for those things that matter for you? Or don't they matter to you that much? Søren Kierkegaard said, "Purity of the heart is to will one thing." Jesus put that fact in other language, "No servant can serve two masters." When you come to a fork in a road you must take one or the other, or come to a dead stop. And the decision you make as to which one you will follow will determine your ultimate destination. God and mammon (the things and lure of this life with God removed) are separate forks in life's road. The one you pick will eventually dominate you and shape your existence, and have eternal consequences. While others take the wrong one, and do it with single-mindedness, Jesus is pulling for us to choose the right one, and do it with all of our heart, mind and strength. That is the "first and great commandment (Matthew 22:38)." On that will hang everything ... everything ... that will follow.
But if we take the Bible seriously as a depicter of what God truly is like, then we have to be ready for these changes of clothes and roles. And we need to ponder them, and use them as gifts of grace intended to tune us, and our ways of life, into being children of such a God requires from, as well as brings to, us. Today the garb is Scrutinizer. The agenda is "Let's see your vitae!" And the result should be to take stock of our track record and line of living to so shape our future that when the call comes for us to be sworn, and the testimony is concluded, the verdict can be, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
OUTLINE I
The eye that never blinks!
Amos 8:4-7
A. v. 4. "It wasn't me! It was him!" How many times my mother heard that from either me or my brother when something happened which brought down her anger. It is always somebody else who is guilty of the misdeeds. There is always some good reason why we do what we do, isn't that right? So we can think of all sorts of people who fit Amos' description of the bandits that trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end. The tight-fisted loan-sharks, lecherous slum lords, penny-pinching prejudiced employers, unfeeling governments, red-tape-spinning social agencies, and ... and ... and...! But us? What has this text to do with you, or with me? We just mind our own business, watch the evening news, shake our heads over how bad things are with the houseless, the bag people, the chronically unemployed, the drop outs ... praying someone will get off their duffs and do something to change things for them!
B. vv. 5-6. We want things to get back to normal, don't we, so we can get on with life unencumbered by those who can't cut it and who are always on the dole at our expense. Whatever stands in the way of doing that, be it sabbaths or new moons, or anything or anybody else, let's sweep it out and get things moving again, with or without those who can't keep up on their own. That's just practicality, not insensitivity. Besides, while there are those others who pick the poor clean, and scam them into even greater hopelessness, we are not among them!
C. v. 7. God has as warning for all who have the poor among them, "I will never forget any of (your) deeds." There are acts of commission and acts of omission, remember? And both kinds are still sins when they are the source of pain and suffering for another about which you and I can do something to prevent. That makes tramplers and bringers to an end (death/destruction) of us all at times. Think about that when you sit down to dinner in your home today, and then act to change things!
OUTLINE II
Praying and acting
1 Timothy 2:1-8
A. v. 1. "Supplications; prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving" are great openers for helping people who are down and out, in one way or another. They together, or alone, are the focusers for who is in need, and what specifically they require that we can supply to help them recover. The danger of them is that they can become the quicksand that sucks us under to conclude, or immobilizes us from moving on to perform, those deeds we could to bring to reality what we pray about, or intercede for, those around us.
B. vv. 2-5. And the needy run the gamut from kings to paupers, all of whom God wants to be saved. Remember, salvation has to do with this life as well as the next one! Jesus told the disciples, "As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them (Luke 6:31)." Therefore what your neighbor hungers for the most, which you can supply, is what you should strive to provide, just as you would have him/her do for you, if the situations were reversed. Those needs are as varied, and as changing, as people and history are. "To each according to their need" ... and among the needs, often forgotten when the immediate ache is being experienced, is the spiritual one which unless it is supplied, never allows anyone to be satisfied.
C. vv. 6-8. The deepest need, one that no one but God can supply, is the gap-closer that Jesus paved over the chasm that humanity dug for itself when it separated itself from the creator deciding to make itself "god!" The way back is a bridge planed with the wood from a cross. Along with any temporal and temporary needs we should fill for one another, the delivery of the good news that Jesus Christ has paid the toll for our reunion with God should be broadcast with zeal. To do that not only was Paul appointed a preacher and teacher to the gentiles (unbelievers) ... but so were we all.
OUTLINE III
Crooks and commendations!
Luke 16:1-13
A. vv. 1-8. The parable about the crooked servant and the employer who catches then fires him, is one Jesus had to tell with either a glint in his eye or with a sign of depression. It just had to be one or the other. While the situation is humorous, or at least, tweaking for the imagination ... the one cheated giving the devilish one who took him his due for being resourceful in a bind ... can't you feel Jesus' frustration and disappointment in his own crew when he tells them, "... the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." Why is it that way? Why do the crooks seem more dedicated to their enterprises than the followers of Jesus do with theirs ... or his? But too often the drug pushers, and the white-collar thieves with their stock schemes, and the whole list of their clones, are the real go-getters, the shakers and movers, of the present time.
B. vv. 9-12. What often is their secret is that they pay attention to detail, and have the enterprise on their minds all the time! They live it, and frequently will die for it as well. Do you? ... will you? ... for those things that matter for you? Or don't they matter to you that much? Søren Kierkegaard said, "Purity of the heart is to will one thing." Jesus put that fact in other language, "No servant can serve two masters." When you come to a fork in a road you must take one or the other, or come to a dead stop. And the decision you make as to which one you will follow will determine your ultimate destination. God and mammon (the things and lure of this life with God removed) are separate forks in life's road. The one you pick will eventually dominate you and shape your existence, and have eternal consequences. While others take the wrong one, and do it with single-mindedness, Jesus is pulling for us to choose the right one, and do it with all of our heart, mind and strength. That is the "first and great commandment (Matthew 22:38)." On that will hang everything ... everything ... that will follow.
