Tramplers, kings, crooks ... and others of note!
Commentary
Why is it that so many of the headlines in our newsprint and time slots on our newscasts are hogged by the scalawags? The godfather of a New York crime syndicate reported to have ordered the assassination of his predecessor, a serial killer who cannibalized his victims, a Middle Eastern dictator who after committing ecolocyde in an entire region of the globe is still trying to decimate the Kurdish minority in their ancestral homeland, have the spotlight placed on them, one after the other.
In the old days it was their compatriots in the garb of viscous loan-sharks who sold the needy for a pair of sandals, and perverted the legal system to take away the few rights left to their victims, that were the attention riveters. And they earned it with the pain they brought and the havoc they wrecked. But for most of them the limelight was no blessing! It only served to expose their sins, something they would rather have had remain hidden.
Sin always is most comfortable when acted out in the dark, or in corners, or behind closed doors. Those settings give the illusion of impenetrable cover. No one will know who is doing what. And that means that there will be no comeback of consequences for the deeds.
That may work where human beings are concerned. We can be hoodwinked and deceived much of the time. We come equipped with neither X-ray vision, nor unerring proof-finders. Slick tongues can justify for us actions that ought to be condemned. Credentials and job titles too often can award the benefit of the doubt to those who do not deserve it. And we can, over time, get so jaded by wrong-doing and injustice that they become so run-of-the-mill as to be seen as normal ... like the poor being neglected and hassled, and truth-speakers being shunted aside and silenced.
But not so with God! The Creator of human beings knows our hearts. Our lives and deeds are open books before him. And tramplers of the poor, and kings who betray their positions of power by its misuse, and trust-busting individuals rifling their employer's till, are perpetrators of note ... along with every other sinner of every description who will get the Divine attention appropriate to their deeds. And each will answer for them, you better believe. Notices for that upcoming event are being posted again today!
OUTLINE I
Heavy feet and helpless hands
Amos 8:4-7
A. vv. 4-6. "Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all great men are bad," wrote Lord Acton to Bishop Mandell Creighton. Behind the power broker is a lot of deviousness and skeletons, many of which his/her decisions turned into those bones by squeezing the life out of them. People who do not have as much power as they see others wield often crave it above everything else. What marvelous things for others they could do if only they had the means. Too often when the power is theirs the dreams for others fade and self-centeredness filters into the command position ... and destruction follows as our "I deserve it most" phase! They develop heavy feet that trample helpless heads, and do it without blinking. God understood that at the breaking of creation day. He made it clear to humanity then that he, not they, would be Commander-in-Chief! But that was not an organizational chart his creatures were willing to accept. The tempter knew it ... and made his pitch ... "Don't you want to be like God?" From that moment creation was skewered as the battle was on among all of us, in our own times and settings, about who will call the shots where we live and labor. So destructive has been the results of that intra-family warfare that the sin that is at the top of the list in the Hebrew scriptures is pasha, "to revolt, to overthrow the authority, to attempt to take the position of God for oneself."
B. v. 7. From pasha is born successful broods of vipers! If you are number one then everything is yours, and all others are here for your benefit. It is a natural progression to dehumanize even your own flesh and blood, then use and squander them. The ten words that God gave to Israel from Mount Sinai all crumble into insignificance and irrelevance once obedience to God has been removed from the head of the list. But the Lord neither loses his position as God, nor his power to function as such, just because earthlings grab for both! He "will never forget any of their deeds." And when the time comes the tin gods are in for a comeuppance at the feet of the One they thought they had fired, and whose people they had made their slaves!
OUTLINE II
Bringing heaven and earth together!
1 Timothy 2:1-8
A. vv. 1-3. "To work is to pray," said one of the faithful. But praying can be work too. Yet it often is dismissed in a scientific age like ours as wishful thinking that gets in the way of getting things done, rather than as an accomplice to setting things right. It is a kind of opiate of the pious! Rather than "let us pray," how about, "Let's get started!" But Paul tells Timothy to first of all get his prayers together, and intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men, before he bounds off to do anything else. It might be that Paul wanted to remind an eager young leader to get his eyes cleared, his plan of action firmed up, and his most important Guide and Helper on board before things started to break, not after they had run amuck!
B. vv. 4-6. The will of God is that all men ... be saved. Interesting word saved (Greek sothenai, "to preserve from evil or danger")! It has in this day and age implications like helping individuals survive the daily challenges to life and limb, family and society, that assault us all. How much easier it would be to be involved with saving people if only the life after this life were the issue. But to have to do both? Wow, you and I had better be in constant touch with the Designer of us, and time, to get his guidance and help for the endeavor.
C. vv. 6-8. As one who has been commissioned by God to be a word-spreader and an apostolos, a messenger sent to impart the will of his Lord, the dictum was this, "In every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling." That done, then they should be up and at it in bringing the wishes of Christ into action on the earth, and for the earthlings, he had come to make his own!
OUTLINE III
Giving the devil his due ... but no more!
Luke 16:1-13
A. vv. 1-8. This is one of the most difficult parables that Jesus taught. Giving praise to a crook who had been caught with his fingers in the cash accounts, and then proceeded to design himself a golden parachute, is one that must have had even the disciples rubbing their beards. What kind of master would commend a crook like that even if he were shrewd! The kind who would give even the devil his due, when what he was about at the moment was something the good folks ought to be doing, but for better reasons, and for more honorable goals. But that is not the case most of the time. The most highly motivated individuals are the ones who are working like beavers so that they can build their own private ponds! It is difficult to get the majority of humanity in high gear for other's benefit, or other causes, no matter how lofty and well-meaning. And when the issue at hand is one of survival, look out! You might get run over! Especially if it is someone who may have jail in his future, or a pile of shady loot to be raked in, or a deal that will bring the big pot to bag!
B. vv. 9-12. This parable with its strange hero may well have been created by Jesus to shock his prospective recruits out of any sentimental ideas about what following him meant. He wanted them to know from the start, that complacency was to be out for those who signed on to be his, and zip and zeal were to be in. And they were to seize the day in little increments, not wait for the sky to crash like the sticky-fingered crook did!
Perhaps Jesus knew he had to make that clear because he had seen how often even deeply religious people could become infected with laziness and complacency. Their hearts might be right, and their motives pure, but the do it now level was in neutral! Not only might it be true that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," but you might have a hard time getting on the road, blocked as it is with high-minded individuals!
C. v. 13. "Give me single-minded, go-for-it types, who commit themselves to what their hearts center on!" Jesus seems to be saying. You can't run two directions at the same time. You can't serve a pair of masters who are heading for opposite goals. If scoundrels understand that, and act it out primarily to save their own hides, why can't you do the same for the love of God who did that saving for you? It was for that zeal, and single-minded focus, that Jesus applauded the embezzler ... not for his morals! How changed the world could be if the best of both could hallmark the lives of present day disciples.
In the old days it was their compatriots in the garb of viscous loan-sharks who sold the needy for a pair of sandals, and perverted the legal system to take away the few rights left to their victims, that were the attention riveters. And they earned it with the pain they brought and the havoc they wrecked. But for most of them the limelight was no blessing! It only served to expose their sins, something they would rather have had remain hidden.
Sin always is most comfortable when acted out in the dark, or in corners, or behind closed doors. Those settings give the illusion of impenetrable cover. No one will know who is doing what. And that means that there will be no comeback of consequences for the deeds.
That may work where human beings are concerned. We can be hoodwinked and deceived much of the time. We come equipped with neither X-ray vision, nor unerring proof-finders. Slick tongues can justify for us actions that ought to be condemned. Credentials and job titles too often can award the benefit of the doubt to those who do not deserve it. And we can, over time, get so jaded by wrong-doing and injustice that they become so run-of-the-mill as to be seen as normal ... like the poor being neglected and hassled, and truth-speakers being shunted aside and silenced.
But not so with God! The Creator of human beings knows our hearts. Our lives and deeds are open books before him. And tramplers of the poor, and kings who betray their positions of power by its misuse, and trust-busting individuals rifling their employer's till, are perpetrators of note ... along with every other sinner of every description who will get the Divine attention appropriate to their deeds. And each will answer for them, you better believe. Notices for that upcoming event are being posted again today!
OUTLINE I
Heavy feet and helpless hands
Amos 8:4-7
A. vv. 4-6. "Power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all great men are bad," wrote Lord Acton to Bishop Mandell Creighton. Behind the power broker is a lot of deviousness and skeletons, many of which his/her decisions turned into those bones by squeezing the life out of them. People who do not have as much power as they see others wield often crave it above everything else. What marvelous things for others they could do if only they had the means. Too often when the power is theirs the dreams for others fade and self-centeredness filters into the command position ... and destruction follows as our "I deserve it most" phase! They develop heavy feet that trample helpless heads, and do it without blinking. God understood that at the breaking of creation day. He made it clear to humanity then that he, not they, would be Commander-in-Chief! But that was not an organizational chart his creatures were willing to accept. The tempter knew it ... and made his pitch ... "Don't you want to be like God?" From that moment creation was skewered as the battle was on among all of us, in our own times and settings, about who will call the shots where we live and labor. So destructive has been the results of that intra-family warfare that the sin that is at the top of the list in the Hebrew scriptures is pasha, "to revolt, to overthrow the authority, to attempt to take the position of God for oneself."
B. v. 7. From pasha is born successful broods of vipers! If you are number one then everything is yours, and all others are here for your benefit. It is a natural progression to dehumanize even your own flesh and blood, then use and squander them. The ten words that God gave to Israel from Mount Sinai all crumble into insignificance and irrelevance once obedience to God has been removed from the head of the list. But the Lord neither loses his position as God, nor his power to function as such, just because earthlings grab for both! He "will never forget any of their deeds." And when the time comes the tin gods are in for a comeuppance at the feet of the One they thought they had fired, and whose people they had made their slaves!
OUTLINE II
Bringing heaven and earth together!
1 Timothy 2:1-8
A. vv. 1-3. "To work is to pray," said one of the faithful. But praying can be work too. Yet it often is dismissed in a scientific age like ours as wishful thinking that gets in the way of getting things done, rather than as an accomplice to setting things right. It is a kind of opiate of the pious! Rather than "let us pray," how about, "Let's get started!" But Paul tells Timothy to first of all get his prayers together, and intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all men, before he bounds off to do anything else. It might be that Paul wanted to remind an eager young leader to get his eyes cleared, his plan of action firmed up, and his most important Guide and Helper on board before things started to break, not after they had run amuck!
B. vv. 4-6. The will of God is that all men ... be saved. Interesting word saved (Greek sothenai, "to preserve from evil or danger")! It has in this day and age implications like helping individuals survive the daily challenges to life and limb, family and society, that assault us all. How much easier it would be to be involved with saving people if only the life after this life were the issue. But to have to do both? Wow, you and I had better be in constant touch with the Designer of us, and time, to get his guidance and help for the endeavor.
C. vv. 6-8. As one who has been commissioned by God to be a word-spreader and an apostolos, a messenger sent to impart the will of his Lord, the dictum was this, "In every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling." That done, then they should be up and at it in bringing the wishes of Christ into action on the earth, and for the earthlings, he had come to make his own!
OUTLINE III
Giving the devil his due ... but no more!
Luke 16:1-13
A. vv. 1-8. This is one of the most difficult parables that Jesus taught. Giving praise to a crook who had been caught with his fingers in the cash accounts, and then proceeded to design himself a golden parachute, is one that must have had even the disciples rubbing their beards. What kind of master would commend a crook like that even if he were shrewd! The kind who would give even the devil his due, when what he was about at the moment was something the good folks ought to be doing, but for better reasons, and for more honorable goals. But that is not the case most of the time. The most highly motivated individuals are the ones who are working like beavers so that they can build their own private ponds! It is difficult to get the majority of humanity in high gear for other's benefit, or other causes, no matter how lofty and well-meaning. And when the issue at hand is one of survival, look out! You might get run over! Especially if it is someone who may have jail in his future, or a pile of shady loot to be raked in, or a deal that will bring the big pot to bag!
B. vv. 9-12. This parable with its strange hero may well have been created by Jesus to shock his prospective recruits out of any sentimental ideas about what following him meant. He wanted them to know from the start, that complacency was to be out for those who signed on to be his, and zip and zeal were to be in. And they were to seize the day in little increments, not wait for the sky to crash like the sticky-fingered crook did!
Perhaps Jesus knew he had to make that clear because he had seen how often even deeply religious people could become infected with laziness and complacency. Their hearts might be right, and their motives pure, but the do it now level was in neutral! Not only might it be true that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," but you might have a hard time getting on the road, blocked as it is with high-minded individuals!
C. v. 13. "Give me single-minded, go-for-it types, who commit themselves to what their hearts center on!" Jesus seems to be saying. You can't run two directions at the same time. You can't serve a pair of masters who are heading for opposite goals. If scoundrels understand that, and act it out primarily to save their own hides, why can't you do the same for the love of God who did that saving for you? It was for that zeal, and single-minded focus, that Jesus applauded the embezzler ... not for his morals! How changed the world could be if the best of both could hallmark the lives of present day disciples.
