Written in stone, written for the real world
Commentary
Object:
Paul talks about the importance of knowing scripture, its applicability to our lives -- yet remember that there was no canon of scripture to speak of when Paul wrote this. There was of course no New Testament, but there was also no agreement about what constituted the canon of Hebrew scriptures. We come to the world as a people who interpret -- this doesn’t mean we change the text, but that as our lives change we gain new insight into God’s Living Word. Jeremiah invites the people to call to mind a proverb that is true -- that whole business about the parents eating sour grapes and causing the children to cringe! But he rewrites it. It’s not going to be true under the new covenant! We shall understand grace, the new covenant, in a whole different way. And we’ll live it. In Luke’s gospel the widow melts the resolve of the unjust judge -- and we have the just judge! Whether something is written in stone or on a note, the question is weather it works in the real world. God’s word does!
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Most proverbs, whether we’re speaking of folk wisdom or those elevated to a place in scripture, have to have a germ of truth in them in order to quoted and requoted and committed to memory. Here Jeremiah (and elsewhere Ezekiel) quotes something that makes perfect sense -- the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge. First of all, this is literally true. If we watch someone eat something very sour (or listen to someone scrape their nails across a chalkboard) we will cringe as if we bit down on those grapes, providing we know they are sour. In a more figurative sense, the sins of one generation have consequences for others. The Founding Fathers were unable to solve the problem of slavery, sowing the seeds that led to the ruinous Civil War. The victors of the Great War imposed tremendous sanctions on the losers, in some ways opening the door for the even more terrible war that followed. Bad management of our environment could have tremendous effects on our children and grandchildren.
It’s in the face of this apparent truth that Jeremiah proclaims that the children will no longer pay for the sins of their ancestors, but that God is instituting a new covenant. Far from requiring us to study and memorize a new set of rules, this one will be intuitive -- and so it is. We know the difference between right and wrong. We know what God expects. And we have as our guide not a long list of rules but a life we should emulate -- the life of Jesus the Messiah, God with Us, Christ the Lord.
The truth of the proverb is no less true -- but God’s transforming love changes everything! Jeremiah may have been known as the doom and gloom prophet, but here he shares the extraordinarily good news about the new covenant. In the face of our own preconceived notions, our own conventional wisdom, are we prepared to act on the scripture written on our hearts as we live according to a new covenant?
2 Timothy 3:14--4:5
If it were simply a matter of remaining true to Christianity against strange and obscure doctrines, then standing firm in the faith would not be so hard. I wonder, though, if what Paul is warning Timothy about are distortions of the basic Christian faith. In our own day there are aberrations like the Prosperity Gospel, or some of the Identity groups that clothe their racism in Christian garb. There is a tendency to want to dilute the faith so the tail wags the dog. Instead of starting with scripture, we take a stand on an issue and then look for scriptures to support our views. C.S. Lewis, in his book The Screwtape Letters, has a demon refer to this as “Christianity and.”By pairing Christianity with a cause, we make Christianity useful for serving our already held beliefs. Instead of allowing ourselves to be challenged by our faith to become what God wants, we try to transform God into what we want. Scripture study, especially joint scripture study so that we are deceived by our preconceptions and a reliance on the truths of the faith as we were taught, seems to be at least in part how we know what to believe and what to reject.
Luke 18:1-8
It’s sometimes misunderstood that the commandment “You shall not bear false witness” is not a blanket commandment against lying. It’s a command to maintain the integrity of courts by demanding the truth. If the people do not have faith in their courts, if they can’t rely on justice, the society can fall apart. This passion for justice permeates the Law of Moses.
This parable pits someone at the pinnacle of power -- a judge, who though unjust cannot be touched -- and a seemingly powerless individual -- a widow, who as a woman without a male to champion her cause has no legal recourse against injustice. Perhaps this woman knew something of what Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said that the arc of history bends toward justice. In her own nonviolent fashion, she wears down the judge.
The first listeners to this parable may have found it funny. This image of a powerless woman constantly nagging the judge, following him wherever he goes until at least he gives her justice, is an example of the form of humor known as Tables Turned. Certainly the conventional wisdom that you can’t fight city hall is proven false here.
And having shown that even an unjust judge may dispense justice, Jesus suggests that it is imperative we not lose heart but pray without ceasing to the ultimate just Judge. Yet how many of us pray once and then cease praying when we don’t get what we want?
Like the book of Jonah, this parable ends with a question which is left to us to answer. When it comes to our faithfulness as individuals and a church, and our own willingness or unwillingness to pray without ceasing, what will the Son of Man find when he returns?
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Most proverbs, whether we’re speaking of folk wisdom or those elevated to a place in scripture, have to have a germ of truth in them in order to quoted and requoted and committed to memory. Here Jeremiah (and elsewhere Ezekiel) quotes something that makes perfect sense -- the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge. First of all, this is literally true. If we watch someone eat something very sour (or listen to someone scrape their nails across a chalkboard) we will cringe as if we bit down on those grapes, providing we know they are sour. In a more figurative sense, the sins of one generation have consequences for others. The Founding Fathers were unable to solve the problem of slavery, sowing the seeds that led to the ruinous Civil War. The victors of the Great War imposed tremendous sanctions on the losers, in some ways opening the door for the even more terrible war that followed. Bad management of our environment could have tremendous effects on our children and grandchildren.
It’s in the face of this apparent truth that Jeremiah proclaims that the children will no longer pay for the sins of their ancestors, but that God is instituting a new covenant. Far from requiring us to study and memorize a new set of rules, this one will be intuitive -- and so it is. We know the difference between right and wrong. We know what God expects. And we have as our guide not a long list of rules but a life we should emulate -- the life of Jesus the Messiah, God with Us, Christ the Lord.
The truth of the proverb is no less true -- but God’s transforming love changes everything! Jeremiah may have been known as the doom and gloom prophet, but here he shares the extraordinarily good news about the new covenant. In the face of our own preconceived notions, our own conventional wisdom, are we prepared to act on the scripture written on our hearts as we live according to a new covenant?
2 Timothy 3:14--4:5
If it were simply a matter of remaining true to Christianity against strange and obscure doctrines, then standing firm in the faith would not be so hard. I wonder, though, if what Paul is warning Timothy about are distortions of the basic Christian faith. In our own day there are aberrations like the Prosperity Gospel, or some of the Identity groups that clothe their racism in Christian garb. There is a tendency to want to dilute the faith so the tail wags the dog. Instead of starting with scripture, we take a stand on an issue and then look for scriptures to support our views. C.S. Lewis, in his book The Screwtape Letters, has a demon refer to this as “Christianity and.”By pairing Christianity with a cause, we make Christianity useful for serving our already held beliefs. Instead of allowing ourselves to be challenged by our faith to become what God wants, we try to transform God into what we want. Scripture study, especially joint scripture study so that we are deceived by our preconceptions and a reliance on the truths of the faith as we were taught, seems to be at least in part how we know what to believe and what to reject.
Luke 18:1-8
It’s sometimes misunderstood that the commandment “You shall not bear false witness” is not a blanket commandment against lying. It’s a command to maintain the integrity of courts by demanding the truth. If the people do not have faith in their courts, if they can’t rely on justice, the society can fall apart. This passion for justice permeates the Law of Moses.
This parable pits someone at the pinnacle of power -- a judge, who though unjust cannot be touched -- and a seemingly powerless individual -- a widow, who as a woman without a male to champion her cause has no legal recourse against injustice. Perhaps this woman knew something of what Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said that the arc of history bends toward justice. In her own nonviolent fashion, she wears down the judge.
The first listeners to this parable may have found it funny. This image of a powerless woman constantly nagging the judge, following him wherever he goes until at least he gives her justice, is an example of the form of humor known as Tables Turned. Certainly the conventional wisdom that you can’t fight city hall is proven false here.
And having shown that even an unjust judge may dispense justice, Jesus suggests that it is imperative we not lose heart but pray without ceasing to the ultimate just Judge. Yet how many of us pray once and then cease praying when we don’t get what we want?
Like the book of Jonah, this parable ends with a question which is left to us to answer. When it comes to our faithfulness as individuals and a church, and our own willingness or unwillingness to pray without ceasing, what will the Son of Man find when he returns?
