Making Choices
Commentary
As God's people we have a choice to make about what sort of covenant we want to live with. In Jeremiah the Lord compares what the people received under divine leadership and guidance, and what awaits those who choose gods that are not gods. The author of Hebrews reminded the people of just how scary that whole Mount Sinai business was and how disastrous the results compared to the boldness in which we approach the living temple and the lamb of God. And to those who want to strictly legislate the Sabbath rest to preclude healing and good works, Jesus states that no one would allow an innocent creature to suffer needlessly if they experienced an accident — isn't a daughter of Abraham worth even more? Choose.
Jeremiah 2:4-13
There are those who refer to Jeremiah as the Weeping Prophet, a prophet of doom and gloom, yet perhaps he would be better described as a lively prophet — his pronouncements are alive with vivid images, in this instance the image of a courtroom. And although Jeremiah must proclaim hard truths, he also lives out his hope, buying the deed for land when the nation is falling apart even though he will not himself live there, to show he believes God has a future for the people. If Jeremiah is the prophet who proclaims doom for the nation, he also proclaims return! If Jeremiah is the one to point out how the people have ignored God's commandments, he also prophesies a new covenant with commandments written on our hearts.
Jeremiah seems to have prophesied in Judah from 627-586, during the reigns of five kings. Beginning during the reforms of King Josiah, Jeremiah is there to witness the fall of Assyria, political treaties with Syria and Egypt, and the destruction of temple and nation at the hands of the Babylonians. Fleeing the country to Egypt with many of his compatriots, he continues to prophesy, and by tradition it is believed he was killed by his own people.
In the verses right before this passage the intimate love of husband and wife is made to stand for God's love for the people, but the honeymoon is now over. Jeremiah depicts a courtroom, perhaps a divorce proceeding, where God's people are on trial. We hear God's opening arguments. God created the people out of a slave nation, brought them out of Egypt and into a land of plenty. What case can God's people make for being unfaithful? God has fulfilled one end of the covenant. And who have God's people been unfaithful with? They've gone with gods who don't exist, cracked cisterns that cannot sustain life in the desert, as compared to the living water that flows from the rock, the living God who is real and who has acted in history. Jeremiah may well be writing at a time when all is going well. There is no mention of Babylon, and it is astounding that the people are abandoning their God when God's promises are being fulfilled.
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
The thirteenth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews contains a miscellany of instructions, greetings, and admonitions. It opens with a couple of the most important verses in the New Testament.
Philadelphia is sometimes referred to as “the city of brotherly (and sisterly) love.” The Greek word philadelphia is used in the first verse. The NRSV reads “Let mutual love continue.” It might easily also read “Let your brotherly and sisterly love endure.” Adelphos refers to both brothers and sisters. Christians created new families that worked together in the Roman household structure that included not just immediate family but many people related by blood, craft, talent, and hierarchy, because they could not remain in their pre-conversion household where the product they worked on together was dedicated to a particular god. These first few words emphasize the family relationship, one that takes work and is worth enduring in, no matter what the obstacles — and there are always obstacles in the way of family harmony — because this family is grounded in Christ.
You may have heard of the word xenophobia, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “fear of foreign persons or things.” Hebrews 13:2 replaces the “phobia” or fear in this word with “philos” “the brotherly love” found in “philadelphia.” Usually translated as hospitality, the word means “love of strangers or foreigners.” This concept is taken right out of Leviticus 19:34, which reads: “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
The payoff is that “Some have entertained angels without knowing it.” While most people are aware that this refers to Genesis 18, where Abraham and Sarah receive a visit from three strangers and are told that it won’t be long until God’s promise they would have a son will be fulfilled. But don’t forget Judges 13, where Manoah and his wife are visited by one they assume is a “man of God,” or prophet, who informs them their prayer to have a son will be granted. When they attempt to show hospitality the man reveals himself as an angel or messenger of God.
Many Christian fellowships no longer include the books of the Apocrypha in their bibles or are familiar with its stories. The Book of Tobit tells how Tobias sets out with his dog and a young stranger to redeem a debt and bring the money back to his father Tobit. The stranger is Raphael the Archangel. Along the way Tobias discovers a cure for his father, Tobit’s, blindness, meets and marries a wife and in the process banishes an evil angel from earth, and only discovers his companion is an archangel at the end, when the family tries to reward the stranger. Here love of a stranger leads to great reward.
During the latter part of the third Christian century, when the faith was still illegal, a man named Sotas was the episkopos, literally “Overseer,” of the Christians of the Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus (which translated means “City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish.”) Sotas was responsible for the spiritual, economic, and social health of the Christian house churches of the region. Some letters he wrote or received that served as guarantees of hospitality, or love shown to strangers, have survived. Here are two examples.
Greetings in the Lord, beloved brother Peter,
I, Sotas, greet you.
Our brother Herakles is to be welcomed according to custom, through whom I and the ones with me greet you and the ones with you. I pray for your health.
Greetings in the Lord, beloved brother Paul.
I, Sotas, greet you.
Our brothers and sisters Herona, Heriona, Philadelphous, Pekusin, and Na’arous, catechumens of the gathered, and Leona, catechumen in “the beginning of the gospel,” are to be welcomed as is fitting. They will greet your fellowship in the name of our fellowship.
I pray for your health in the Lord, beloved brother.
(translated by Frank Ramirez)
From 1936 to 1966 Victor Hugo Green, a New York City mailman, published The Negro Motorist Green Book, to identify places in America where African-Americans, driving across the country, could find friendly businesses that served blacks. It was dangerous for African-Americans to travel in certain parts of the country. Indeed, there were many “Sundown Communities,” which made it clear to African-Americans that they’d better not be found in those towns after the sun set. Racial prejudice, whether formally enshrined in Jim Crow laws or the result of casually vicious prejudice, meant that many places did not practice hospitality to strangers.
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Honor and shame are at the heart of this passage. Honor and shame were an essential part of the culture that the evangelist Luke wrote to. People valued their status and protected that status at the expense of others. It was important to demonstrate in public who you were superior to, and to show proper deference to those considered superior to you. Loss of honor and status mean loss of personhood. Crucifixion, a slow, agonizing death inflicted on a person stripped naked was meant to strip all honor from the victim.
Jesus turned the whole idea of honor and shame upside down. Luke tells us that people observed Jesus closely when he ate a meal with a religious leader. As an itinerant preacher, prophet, healer, and — some wondered — savior or messiah, it was unclear to many just what the status of this man might be. Jesus, observing how people jostled for places of honor, no doubt horrified some when he explained that it was better to take the lowest place instead of the highest. One could be elevated just as easily as one who took the highest place could be disgraced. Then he went further, advising his listeners that they not use a banquet as an opportunity to elevate one’s station by successfully inviting the rich and powerful, but instead “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” These included those who were ritually unclean and who were all unable to elevate one’s social status within the matrix of honor and shame. But like the beatitudes, one’s blessings come from the paradox of the last being first, and the first being last.
Jesus lived this advice. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus gives special attention to not only the poor, the lame, and the blind, all unclean by definition of human religious authority. More than other evangelists, he gave attention to women, who were ritually unclean for a variety of reasons, and who had no status other than in their relationship to men. Jesus broke the barriers between men and women and in effect invited them to the head of the table.
In a certain sense our culture has been losing any sense of shame. People post things on social media that they can never retrieve, because at the time they cannot imagine that their actions or postures can possibly have any consequences. People feel free to say things on social media that they might be afraid to say in person, things that are degrading and disgusting, that reflect more on those who say them than their intended targets.
Jeremiah 2:4-13
There are those who refer to Jeremiah as the Weeping Prophet, a prophet of doom and gloom, yet perhaps he would be better described as a lively prophet — his pronouncements are alive with vivid images, in this instance the image of a courtroom. And although Jeremiah must proclaim hard truths, he also lives out his hope, buying the deed for land when the nation is falling apart even though he will not himself live there, to show he believes God has a future for the people. If Jeremiah is the prophet who proclaims doom for the nation, he also proclaims return! If Jeremiah is the one to point out how the people have ignored God's commandments, he also prophesies a new covenant with commandments written on our hearts.
Jeremiah seems to have prophesied in Judah from 627-586, during the reigns of five kings. Beginning during the reforms of King Josiah, Jeremiah is there to witness the fall of Assyria, political treaties with Syria and Egypt, and the destruction of temple and nation at the hands of the Babylonians. Fleeing the country to Egypt with many of his compatriots, he continues to prophesy, and by tradition it is believed he was killed by his own people.
In the verses right before this passage the intimate love of husband and wife is made to stand for God's love for the people, but the honeymoon is now over. Jeremiah depicts a courtroom, perhaps a divorce proceeding, where God's people are on trial. We hear God's opening arguments. God created the people out of a slave nation, brought them out of Egypt and into a land of plenty. What case can God's people make for being unfaithful? God has fulfilled one end of the covenant. And who have God's people been unfaithful with? They've gone with gods who don't exist, cracked cisterns that cannot sustain life in the desert, as compared to the living water that flows from the rock, the living God who is real and who has acted in history. Jeremiah may well be writing at a time when all is going well. There is no mention of Babylon, and it is astounding that the people are abandoning their God when God's promises are being fulfilled.
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
The thirteenth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews contains a miscellany of instructions, greetings, and admonitions. It opens with a couple of the most important verses in the New Testament.
Philadelphia is sometimes referred to as “the city of brotherly (and sisterly) love.” The Greek word philadelphia is used in the first verse. The NRSV reads “Let mutual love continue.” It might easily also read “Let your brotherly and sisterly love endure.” Adelphos refers to both brothers and sisters. Christians created new families that worked together in the Roman household structure that included not just immediate family but many people related by blood, craft, talent, and hierarchy, because they could not remain in their pre-conversion household where the product they worked on together was dedicated to a particular god. These first few words emphasize the family relationship, one that takes work and is worth enduring in, no matter what the obstacles — and there are always obstacles in the way of family harmony — because this family is grounded in Christ.
You may have heard of the word xenophobia, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “fear of foreign persons or things.” Hebrews 13:2 replaces the “phobia” or fear in this word with “philos” “the brotherly love” found in “philadelphia.” Usually translated as hospitality, the word means “love of strangers or foreigners.” This concept is taken right out of Leviticus 19:34, which reads: “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
The payoff is that “Some have entertained angels without knowing it.” While most people are aware that this refers to Genesis 18, where Abraham and Sarah receive a visit from three strangers and are told that it won’t be long until God’s promise they would have a son will be fulfilled. But don’t forget Judges 13, where Manoah and his wife are visited by one they assume is a “man of God,” or prophet, who informs them their prayer to have a son will be granted. When they attempt to show hospitality the man reveals himself as an angel or messenger of God.
Many Christian fellowships no longer include the books of the Apocrypha in their bibles or are familiar with its stories. The Book of Tobit tells how Tobias sets out with his dog and a young stranger to redeem a debt and bring the money back to his father Tobit. The stranger is Raphael the Archangel. Along the way Tobias discovers a cure for his father, Tobit’s, blindness, meets and marries a wife and in the process banishes an evil angel from earth, and only discovers his companion is an archangel at the end, when the family tries to reward the stranger. Here love of a stranger leads to great reward.
During the latter part of the third Christian century, when the faith was still illegal, a man named Sotas was the episkopos, literally “Overseer,” of the Christians of the Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus (which translated means “City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish.”) Sotas was responsible for the spiritual, economic, and social health of the Christian house churches of the region. Some letters he wrote or received that served as guarantees of hospitality, or love shown to strangers, have survived. Here are two examples.
Greetings in the Lord, beloved brother Peter,
I, Sotas, greet you.
Our brother Herakles is to be welcomed according to custom, through whom I and the ones with me greet you and the ones with you. I pray for your health.
Greetings in the Lord, beloved brother Paul.
I, Sotas, greet you.
Our brothers and sisters Herona, Heriona, Philadelphous, Pekusin, and Na’arous, catechumens of the gathered, and Leona, catechumen in “the beginning of the gospel,” are to be welcomed as is fitting. They will greet your fellowship in the name of our fellowship.
I pray for your health in the Lord, beloved brother.
(translated by Frank Ramirez)
From 1936 to 1966 Victor Hugo Green, a New York City mailman, published The Negro Motorist Green Book, to identify places in America where African-Americans, driving across the country, could find friendly businesses that served blacks. It was dangerous for African-Americans to travel in certain parts of the country. Indeed, there were many “Sundown Communities,” which made it clear to African-Americans that they’d better not be found in those towns after the sun set. Racial prejudice, whether formally enshrined in Jim Crow laws or the result of casually vicious prejudice, meant that many places did not practice hospitality to strangers.
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Honor and shame are at the heart of this passage. Honor and shame were an essential part of the culture that the evangelist Luke wrote to. People valued their status and protected that status at the expense of others. It was important to demonstrate in public who you were superior to, and to show proper deference to those considered superior to you. Loss of honor and status mean loss of personhood. Crucifixion, a slow, agonizing death inflicted on a person stripped naked was meant to strip all honor from the victim.
Jesus turned the whole idea of honor and shame upside down. Luke tells us that people observed Jesus closely when he ate a meal with a religious leader. As an itinerant preacher, prophet, healer, and — some wondered — savior or messiah, it was unclear to many just what the status of this man might be. Jesus, observing how people jostled for places of honor, no doubt horrified some when he explained that it was better to take the lowest place instead of the highest. One could be elevated just as easily as one who took the highest place could be disgraced. Then he went further, advising his listeners that they not use a banquet as an opportunity to elevate one’s station by successfully inviting the rich and powerful, but instead “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” These included those who were ritually unclean and who were all unable to elevate one’s social status within the matrix of honor and shame. But like the beatitudes, one’s blessings come from the paradox of the last being first, and the first being last.
Jesus lived this advice. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus gives special attention to not only the poor, the lame, and the blind, all unclean by definition of human religious authority. More than other evangelists, he gave attention to women, who were ritually unclean for a variety of reasons, and who had no status other than in their relationship to men. Jesus broke the barriers between men and women and in effect invited them to the head of the table.
In a certain sense our culture has been losing any sense of shame. People post things on social media that they can never retrieve, because at the time they cannot imagine that their actions or postures can possibly have any consequences. People feel free to say things on social media that they might be afraid to say in person, things that are degrading and disgusting, that reflect more on those who say them than their intended targets.
