Remembering our Testing
Commentary
Three generations of family are gathering for their traditional Thanksgiving Day meal. They serve a potluck style dinner with the foods on the kitchen counters, with people filling their plates and sitting at respective places around the house. Some eat at the kitchen table, while others eat in the dining room. Still another group chooses to take their plate to the living room and sit in front of the large flat screen television to watch a sports event. Everybody fills their plate with delicious food. They all get their food, and simply dig in without any word of prayer.
The variety of prepared dishes over the kitchen counters and stove include: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, tossed salad, cranberries and all varieties of desserts. This includes: pies, cakes, ice cream and cherry cheesecake. At the end of the food choices sits a crockpot full of a food item called “goulash” (Johnny Marzetti and “beef-a-roni” in some parts of the county). It is made up of macaroni shells, tomatoes, tomato sauce, onion, green peppers and ground beef. It tastes even better the next day after sitting in the refrigerator to marinate.
This crock pot of goulash is a reminder of the staple or their version of “manna and quail” meal. This sustained these families with five to six children as they moved from one part of the country to the present location for purposes of employment and housing. It is a reminder of the wilderness times when the family fathers worked hard, as the mothers tried to stretch the meal budget. There is a memory of “goulash sandwiches” folded up in a slice of bread. There are those who chose to put potato chips and cheese on goulash and place it in the oven (before the day of microwave ovens). Back then everybody sat at the table, folded their hands and prayed to God in thanking the Lord for their goulash. Many a mother tried to add water and ketchup to it after the meal to make it stretch into the weekdays. Among the feast of foods for this Thanksgiving, the crockpot of goulash reminds the older people in the family of limited choices of cuisine for the holidays. The texts for Thanksgiving are reminders that God provides.
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
“Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today” Deuteronomy 8:11. While enjoying the feasts and festivities of life in the Promised Land, this text is a reminder not to forget it was the “Lord your God” who delivered the people through the wilderness. It is a warning not to fall into the danger of arrogance which might result in venerating other local, populist gods of the time land, rather the Lord God who delivered them out of Egyptian bondage. “The Lord fed the people with manna and quail. The Lord was a mighty warrior alongside them when they faced military opposition. Through this journey their faith was strengthened.
“Divine pedagogy proceeds by way of humbling the people, depriving them of all the ordinary human resources and placing them in a situation of extremity. In that crisis they learn their incapacity to survive on their own and the powerful disposition of God to provide whatever they need” (Miller, 115). The text is a reminder that despite their failure of trust, and complaints during their wilderness wanderings, God still provided them with both commandments for community life and material food to live on. The ongoing question of this text remains whether Israel has learned from these wilderness lessons.
This text serves as a harsh warning for future generations who might enjoy varying levels of prosperity not to forget about the lessons learned in the wilderness. Such trials may be revisited in the future. On Thanksgiving Day, one pauses to give thanks to the Lord—fully knowing that wilderness testing may be in their near or distant future.
In the example of the family enjoying their Thanksgiving Dinner, there may be younger adults who have recently graduated from higher education who now face the wilderness of balloon sized student loan debt payments with a local job market of flat wages. After the grand gala of the graduation celebration, there then come the cold, harsh realities of weekly paychecks unable to keep up with fluctuating economy and stock market. Christians tend to refer to Jesus’ wilderness temptations after his baptism in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. Like Jesus, the people of Israel are reminded to remain obedient to the diving instructor and Creator God (Von Rad, 72). It is all part of the Christian discipleship journey. After the Thanksgiving meal, these younger family members might request a carry out container of goulash.
Preaching this text is simply a matter of asking what past harsh times of living have helped shape people of faith for future wildernesses. Yes, there is a time of Thanksgiving. But Advent waiting and expectation are just around the corner. [Sources: Patrick Miller, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Deuteronomy (Westminster John Knox Press, 1990); Gerhard Von Rad, The Old Testament Library: Deuteronomy, (SCM Press, 1966)].
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Every human being is ultimately dependent and accountable to God. This is a theme of this passage which ties it to the Deuteronomy text above. It is one effort of Paul to exhort the church to contribute to the fund for the Jerusalem church in need. This might be his third or fourth attempt of preaching what we might call a “stewardship sermon.”
2 Corinthians is one of many uncontested letters written by Paul. It is uncertain as to what order this letter fits into a series of unrecovered writings of Paul, thereby making a specific date of authorship uncertain. Suffice it to say, he is addressing many difficult problems, conflicts and areas of false teaching within this church. The city itself is a prosperous port city. Paul’s churches are experiencing many growing pains of a modern middle sized or multiple staff congregation of these days. He starts off paraphrasing a quote from Proverbs 11:24, “The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Here is another reminder to preachers that the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament was the working sacred scripture canon at the time.
Essentially, Paul wishes to make the point to expect to reap the amount of giving which one has sown. Could false preachers exploit a phrase such as this for their own selfish reasons? Undoubtedly, yes as mentioned above, the apostle has had to write many letters to this congregation. The motivation for giving is of importance in thanking God.
This text could be used for a stewardship sermon. It is a reminder that “God loves a cheerful giver” (9:7). One key idea for Christians of all times is to, “glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others” (9:13). In blunt terms, financial giving is a way to walk one’s talk or confession of who their God is. The stewardship question remains whether a person’s confession of faith need translate into financial giving to a local church?
A modern example might be a local church has a very nice online computer webpage. The page gets several “likes” per week. The page also receives many positive reviews regarding pictures of the church and young people doing church activities. Yet, the same church cannot afford a part-time pastor and its finances are so tight that custodial service is voluntary. Should the congregation start a “Go Fund Me” section of their webpage? Is God’s grace evident only when the congregations and those who like the church’s webpage fulfill any pledges in financial collections? (Mays, 1100)
How does one frame Christian stewardship? The last verse of this text suggests that “thanking God for his indescribable gift! (9:15). Do people still believe God is the source of their bounty? In Corinth, it was the Roman government who rebuilt the city into an economic cosmopolitan area. Could one make a case that the Roman Empire is the true source of economic life? Today, is a hired “economic developer” actually doing God’s work to bring business and high technology companies into a given community? Might people who prepare for pastoral ministry be better served as trained “community economic developers” rather than studying Biblical language, ancient church heresies and church doctrines? Would economic empowerment skill sets serve the church better than divinity and ministry degrees in traditional forms?
Another question from the Corinthian correspondence might once the business and town grow in numbers what implications does this have for local churches? One example might be a traditional, small-town church has a steady attendance and giving record—until a new corporation moves in, also bringing in new housing and more families. All of the sudden a new franchise style, mega-church crops up, which results in less attendance and financial strain for the small local church in the area. Is this God’s doing? Not many clergy I have known actually like to preach stewardship sermons. Texts such as this one simply raise the question related to “thanking God.” [Sources: Ernest Best, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Second Corinthians, (Westminster John Knox Press, 1987); James L. Mays, Editor, Harper Collins Bible Commentary, Revised (Harper One, 1988)].
Luke 17:11-19
This text is another reminder that performance of healings is another example of the coming of the kingdom of God for Luke. This healing account is unique to Luke, though some scholars suggest is an expansion of Luke 5:12-16. Like the story of Naaman and the prophet Elisha 2 Kings 5:1-14, Luke enjoys sharing how foreigners are healed by the God of Israel. The lepers stood at a distance as was required by both laws and customs, to avoid infecting other people. This particular healing miracle is unique because Jesus neither touches nor articulates words of healing to the lepers. He merely tells them to go show themselves to the temple priests. The assumption at this point is that all of the lepers are Jews. The reader is alerted to a Samaritan among the lepers, who would have to seek out a Samarian temple. Strictly speaking, the nine lepers who are often castigated as ungrateful are doing exactly what Jesus ordered them to do (Levine, Witherington, 471). One could argue the one leper who returned to thank Jesus did not do exactly what he had commanded.
This might raise the question of whether many modern church members are like the nine lepers who simply want the minimum benefits of the community of faith. That is, they need the church to get their children baptized, married, use of the church basement for family events and borrow tables and chairs for free on home graduation events? They are not interested in a fuller, deeper salvation experience, but could have just as easily sought the services of non-faith based community center?
In Luke’s narrative, this Samaritan who returns to prostrate himself and thank Jesus is also “saved.” (Greek word: Sodzo). This means he was more fully: rescued, delivered, kept safe and made well (Newman, 177). All the lepers had some level of faith, or they would not have sought Jesus out for healing. Also, they believed that Jesus was good for his word as they would present themselves to the temple priests. All the lepers were cleansed. Jesus does not unclean them for not returning to thank him, as one the one Samaritan did. Luke’s point is that people of faith are to give thanks to the one who healed them.
However, this text brings up the question of whether those who are in service vocations or volunteer to help people in need actually need to hear a word or thanks, or does the act of healing and caring carry its own intrinsic rewards? For example, a youth church group helps out at a community soup kitchen. As the youth serve the people who serve those who are less fortunate, what happens if a person in line is rude to one of the youth or insults them with name calling? Is the ministry still valid without the “thank you or atta’ boy or atta’ girl” words of appreciation?
Possibly a mechanic or appliance service person comes in to work on a holiday weekend such as Thanksgiving, to fix broken equipment and gets only one “thank you” from their family they are in need of appliance or automotive repair. Possibly, the customers are angry at the cost of “holiday pay/rates?” The main question for people of faith might be, “Can we exist and thrive on only one healed (Samaritan) who thanks us?”
Also, what happens when it is the outsider who is most grateful for the acts of kindness a Christian or person who is in a service vocation provides? Who could blame a health care provider for looking forward to volunteering take time off from their regular paid job to serve in a needy, impoverished community? Here, the people are very compliant patients who do exactly what the caregiver prescribes. The health care worker returns to their normal place of work to hear complaints once again by clients who use the consumer “customer as boss” model to order the health worker around? Thanksgiving is a time to remember that God uses both natural and supernatural methods to heal people. [Sources: Fred B. Craddock, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Luke, (Westminster John Knox Press, 1990); Luke Timothy Johnson, Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Luke (The Liturgical Press, 1991); Amy Jill Levin and Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Luke: New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 2018; Barclay Newman, Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament (United Bible Societies, 1971).
Application
Who are the modern lepers of today? An overweight middle aged, gray haired man or woman loses their job because “their skill set is no longer needed.” They seek out employment only to discover that many area employers seek younger, high energy workers. Human resource offices try to evade such applicants! Then a Middle East or Russian based employer latches onto this person’s resume and offers them a lucrative compensation package! Is this God saving the employed person from economic ruination? That is what happens when the economic and medically needy “lepers” of North American society seek salvation outside the parameters of usually acceptable employers of health providers.
In the 1970s, a small struggling printing shop needed business rather badly. Their small shop was uncompetitive in terms of pricing with larger high-volume publishers in the area. They did find a grateful, well paying customer in a Communist party supported socialist worker’s newspaper contract. The irony being many of the shop’s workers were anticommunist zealots, who were also dependents on this socialist newspaper for a roof over their head and food on the table. Today, what would happen if a small struggling business were to secure a North Korean or Iranian contract?
Alternative application
How does one measure “faith?” Must an American taxpayer send a “thank you” note to the government for all that it provides? Or is payment of annual income taxes “thank you enough?” Is an employer obligated to thank workers for simply doing their jobs? When does one go above and beyond the call of duty to deserve an extra word of thanks or praise?
The variety of prepared dishes over the kitchen counters and stove include: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, tossed salad, cranberries and all varieties of desserts. This includes: pies, cakes, ice cream and cherry cheesecake. At the end of the food choices sits a crockpot full of a food item called “goulash” (Johnny Marzetti and “beef-a-roni” in some parts of the county). It is made up of macaroni shells, tomatoes, tomato sauce, onion, green peppers and ground beef. It tastes even better the next day after sitting in the refrigerator to marinate.
This crock pot of goulash is a reminder of the staple or their version of “manna and quail” meal. This sustained these families with five to six children as they moved from one part of the country to the present location for purposes of employment and housing. It is a reminder of the wilderness times when the family fathers worked hard, as the mothers tried to stretch the meal budget. There is a memory of “goulash sandwiches” folded up in a slice of bread. There are those who chose to put potato chips and cheese on goulash and place it in the oven (before the day of microwave ovens). Back then everybody sat at the table, folded their hands and prayed to God in thanking the Lord for their goulash. Many a mother tried to add water and ketchup to it after the meal to make it stretch into the weekdays. Among the feast of foods for this Thanksgiving, the crockpot of goulash reminds the older people in the family of limited choices of cuisine for the holidays. The texts for Thanksgiving are reminders that God provides.
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
“Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today” Deuteronomy 8:11. While enjoying the feasts and festivities of life in the Promised Land, this text is a reminder not to forget it was the “Lord your God” who delivered the people through the wilderness. It is a warning not to fall into the danger of arrogance which might result in venerating other local, populist gods of the time land, rather the Lord God who delivered them out of Egyptian bondage. “The Lord fed the people with manna and quail. The Lord was a mighty warrior alongside them when they faced military opposition. Through this journey their faith was strengthened.
“Divine pedagogy proceeds by way of humbling the people, depriving them of all the ordinary human resources and placing them in a situation of extremity. In that crisis they learn their incapacity to survive on their own and the powerful disposition of God to provide whatever they need” (Miller, 115). The text is a reminder that despite their failure of trust, and complaints during their wilderness wanderings, God still provided them with both commandments for community life and material food to live on. The ongoing question of this text remains whether Israel has learned from these wilderness lessons.
This text serves as a harsh warning for future generations who might enjoy varying levels of prosperity not to forget about the lessons learned in the wilderness. Such trials may be revisited in the future. On Thanksgiving Day, one pauses to give thanks to the Lord—fully knowing that wilderness testing may be in their near or distant future.
In the example of the family enjoying their Thanksgiving Dinner, there may be younger adults who have recently graduated from higher education who now face the wilderness of balloon sized student loan debt payments with a local job market of flat wages. After the grand gala of the graduation celebration, there then come the cold, harsh realities of weekly paychecks unable to keep up with fluctuating economy and stock market. Christians tend to refer to Jesus’ wilderness temptations after his baptism in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. Like Jesus, the people of Israel are reminded to remain obedient to the diving instructor and Creator God (Von Rad, 72). It is all part of the Christian discipleship journey. After the Thanksgiving meal, these younger family members might request a carry out container of goulash.
Preaching this text is simply a matter of asking what past harsh times of living have helped shape people of faith for future wildernesses. Yes, there is a time of Thanksgiving. But Advent waiting and expectation are just around the corner. [Sources: Patrick Miller, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Deuteronomy (Westminster John Knox Press, 1990); Gerhard Von Rad, The Old Testament Library: Deuteronomy, (SCM Press, 1966)].
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Every human being is ultimately dependent and accountable to God. This is a theme of this passage which ties it to the Deuteronomy text above. It is one effort of Paul to exhort the church to contribute to the fund for the Jerusalem church in need. This might be his third or fourth attempt of preaching what we might call a “stewardship sermon.”
2 Corinthians is one of many uncontested letters written by Paul. It is uncertain as to what order this letter fits into a series of unrecovered writings of Paul, thereby making a specific date of authorship uncertain. Suffice it to say, he is addressing many difficult problems, conflicts and areas of false teaching within this church. The city itself is a prosperous port city. Paul’s churches are experiencing many growing pains of a modern middle sized or multiple staff congregation of these days. He starts off paraphrasing a quote from Proverbs 11:24, “The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Here is another reminder to preachers that the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament was the working sacred scripture canon at the time.
Essentially, Paul wishes to make the point to expect to reap the amount of giving which one has sown. Could false preachers exploit a phrase such as this for their own selfish reasons? Undoubtedly, yes as mentioned above, the apostle has had to write many letters to this congregation. The motivation for giving is of importance in thanking God.
This text could be used for a stewardship sermon. It is a reminder that “God loves a cheerful giver” (9:7). One key idea for Christians of all times is to, “glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others” (9:13). In blunt terms, financial giving is a way to walk one’s talk or confession of who their God is. The stewardship question remains whether a person’s confession of faith need translate into financial giving to a local church?
A modern example might be a local church has a very nice online computer webpage. The page gets several “likes” per week. The page also receives many positive reviews regarding pictures of the church and young people doing church activities. Yet, the same church cannot afford a part-time pastor and its finances are so tight that custodial service is voluntary. Should the congregation start a “Go Fund Me” section of their webpage? Is God’s grace evident only when the congregations and those who like the church’s webpage fulfill any pledges in financial collections? (Mays, 1100)
How does one frame Christian stewardship? The last verse of this text suggests that “thanking God for his indescribable gift! (9:15). Do people still believe God is the source of their bounty? In Corinth, it was the Roman government who rebuilt the city into an economic cosmopolitan area. Could one make a case that the Roman Empire is the true source of economic life? Today, is a hired “economic developer” actually doing God’s work to bring business and high technology companies into a given community? Might people who prepare for pastoral ministry be better served as trained “community economic developers” rather than studying Biblical language, ancient church heresies and church doctrines? Would economic empowerment skill sets serve the church better than divinity and ministry degrees in traditional forms?
Another question from the Corinthian correspondence might once the business and town grow in numbers what implications does this have for local churches? One example might be a traditional, small-town church has a steady attendance and giving record—until a new corporation moves in, also bringing in new housing and more families. All of the sudden a new franchise style, mega-church crops up, which results in less attendance and financial strain for the small local church in the area. Is this God’s doing? Not many clergy I have known actually like to preach stewardship sermons. Texts such as this one simply raise the question related to “thanking God.” [Sources: Ernest Best, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Second Corinthians, (Westminster John Knox Press, 1987); James L. Mays, Editor, Harper Collins Bible Commentary, Revised (Harper One, 1988)].
Luke 17:11-19
This text is another reminder that performance of healings is another example of the coming of the kingdom of God for Luke. This healing account is unique to Luke, though some scholars suggest is an expansion of Luke 5:12-16. Like the story of Naaman and the prophet Elisha 2 Kings 5:1-14, Luke enjoys sharing how foreigners are healed by the God of Israel. The lepers stood at a distance as was required by both laws and customs, to avoid infecting other people. This particular healing miracle is unique because Jesus neither touches nor articulates words of healing to the lepers. He merely tells them to go show themselves to the temple priests. The assumption at this point is that all of the lepers are Jews. The reader is alerted to a Samaritan among the lepers, who would have to seek out a Samarian temple. Strictly speaking, the nine lepers who are often castigated as ungrateful are doing exactly what Jesus ordered them to do (Levine, Witherington, 471). One could argue the one leper who returned to thank Jesus did not do exactly what he had commanded.
This might raise the question of whether many modern church members are like the nine lepers who simply want the minimum benefits of the community of faith. That is, they need the church to get their children baptized, married, use of the church basement for family events and borrow tables and chairs for free on home graduation events? They are not interested in a fuller, deeper salvation experience, but could have just as easily sought the services of non-faith based community center?
In Luke’s narrative, this Samaritan who returns to prostrate himself and thank Jesus is also “saved.” (Greek word: Sodzo). This means he was more fully: rescued, delivered, kept safe and made well (Newman, 177). All the lepers had some level of faith, or they would not have sought Jesus out for healing. Also, they believed that Jesus was good for his word as they would present themselves to the temple priests. All the lepers were cleansed. Jesus does not unclean them for not returning to thank him, as one the one Samaritan did. Luke’s point is that people of faith are to give thanks to the one who healed them.
However, this text brings up the question of whether those who are in service vocations or volunteer to help people in need actually need to hear a word or thanks, or does the act of healing and caring carry its own intrinsic rewards? For example, a youth church group helps out at a community soup kitchen. As the youth serve the people who serve those who are less fortunate, what happens if a person in line is rude to one of the youth or insults them with name calling? Is the ministry still valid without the “thank you or atta’ boy or atta’ girl” words of appreciation?
Possibly a mechanic or appliance service person comes in to work on a holiday weekend such as Thanksgiving, to fix broken equipment and gets only one “thank you” from their family they are in need of appliance or automotive repair. Possibly, the customers are angry at the cost of “holiday pay/rates?” The main question for people of faith might be, “Can we exist and thrive on only one healed (Samaritan) who thanks us?”
Also, what happens when it is the outsider who is most grateful for the acts of kindness a Christian or person who is in a service vocation provides? Who could blame a health care provider for looking forward to volunteering take time off from their regular paid job to serve in a needy, impoverished community? Here, the people are very compliant patients who do exactly what the caregiver prescribes. The health care worker returns to their normal place of work to hear complaints once again by clients who use the consumer “customer as boss” model to order the health worker around? Thanksgiving is a time to remember that God uses both natural and supernatural methods to heal people. [Sources: Fred B. Craddock, Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Luke, (Westminster John Knox Press, 1990); Luke Timothy Johnson, Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Luke (The Liturgical Press, 1991); Amy Jill Levin and Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Luke: New Cambridge Bible Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 2018; Barclay Newman, Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament (United Bible Societies, 1971).
Application
Who are the modern lepers of today? An overweight middle aged, gray haired man or woman loses their job because “their skill set is no longer needed.” They seek out employment only to discover that many area employers seek younger, high energy workers. Human resource offices try to evade such applicants! Then a Middle East or Russian based employer latches onto this person’s resume and offers them a lucrative compensation package! Is this God saving the employed person from economic ruination? That is what happens when the economic and medically needy “lepers” of North American society seek salvation outside the parameters of usually acceptable employers of health providers.
In the 1970s, a small struggling printing shop needed business rather badly. Their small shop was uncompetitive in terms of pricing with larger high-volume publishers in the area. They did find a grateful, well paying customer in a Communist party supported socialist worker’s newspaper contract. The irony being many of the shop’s workers were anticommunist zealots, who were also dependents on this socialist newspaper for a roof over their head and food on the table. Today, what would happen if a small struggling business were to secure a North Korean or Iranian contract?
Alternative application
How does one measure “faith?” Must an American taxpayer send a “thank you” note to the government for all that it provides? Or is payment of annual income taxes “thank you enough?” Is an employer obligated to thank workers for simply doing their jobs? When does one go above and beyond the call of duty to deserve an extra word of thanks or praise?
