Watch out that you do not fall
Commentary
Now the transition from desert people to settled nation is complete. The ark, symbol of the presence of God with them during all their years of wandering from Egypt to Canaan, finally comes to rest in the inner court of the Temple. The cloud is a powerful symbol to them that the same God who led them in former days will now be with them at this time and in this place.
We would be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate prayer of dedication for a house of God. Little wonder that Solomon's word has echoed through thousands of houses of God on days of dedication for millennia.
Because we tend to get so caught up in Solomon's magnificent prayer of dedication we may miss what is at least as important in this account. That this place is also to be for "a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel" puts us in touch with one of the themes and counter themes that runs through the Old Testament. On the one hand, Israel is repeatedly warned to avoid contact with her neighbors, and especially their worship of gods that would draw them away from their devotion to the one true God. At the same time, Israel's reason for being, from the time of God's call to Abraham, has been that they might be a light to the nations. Solomon rekindles this strand of the nation's tradition by asking God to hear the prayer of the foreigner and "do according to all that the foreigner calls to you." The key is that Israel is to welcome the foreigner, to tell them the Good News about the God who has claimed them, and not to be drawn into the religion of the foreigner. These themes are played out with great power in the ministry of the prophets.
Ephesians 6:10-20
Though some may be uncomfortable with it, military imagery is very common in the New Testament to illustrate the life of the believer in the world. Paul suggests to the Corinthians that "we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). He describes Epaphroditus as a "fellow soldier" (Philippians 2:25). Paul urges Timothy to "fight the good fight of the faith" (1 Timothy 6:12) and says that he himself has "fought the good fight" (2 Timothy 4:7).
The key to this passage is in verse 10. The believer has no innate power to fight. Our resource is "in the Lord and in the strength of his power." It is also important to assess the enemy's nature and power. Paul lived in a world which was thought to be populated everywhere with invisible forces of evil against which the devout were pitted. We have rid ourselves of such notions. We have bought into the idea that by dint of human endeavor and by proper education we can improve our world and set aside such primitive concepts of evil. But have we really made much progress in our understanding of the nature of evil or in our battle to overcome it? The daily news would give us to believe we have not!
What then can we do? We can arm ourselves with everything that God makes available to us. The "girdle" was a belt that held one's battle equipment in place and allowed one the freedom to fight. The point is that "truth" is central to all the implements of battle. If Satan is "the father of lies," we can hardly beat him at his own best game. Only truth will prevail.
"Righteousness" has to do with character and integrity. Others can belittle us and falsely accuse us. But if we retain our integrity nothing can hurt us. The figure of the shoes is interesting. It is said that the Roman army gave particular attention to the shoes of its soldiers, recognizing that they could not fight with sore feet. They also symbolize a readiness to go wherever one is needed -- in this case for the cause of peace. Roman soldiers carried a large shield, in contrast to the small one used by the Greeks. As used here, the "shield of faith" is the believer's defense. The helmet serves a double purpose; it protects the head, but also, as in all armies, is of a particular shape and thus identifies the forces to which one belongs. We note that there is no defense for the back and are reminded of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, where "Christian" is only vulnerable when he turns back.
The lone offensive weapon is the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." But that is enough. As Luther reminds us, when we use this weapon against the Evil One, "One little word shall fell him."
All of our struggle against evil should be done in the context of prayer. It should be constant ("at all times"), intense ("keep alert and always persevere"), and intercessory ("pray also for me").
John 6:56-69
Bartholomew is scarcely mentioned in the New Testament. In fact, John does not mention him at all, unless "Nathanael" is another name for Bartholomew. Legend suggests that he, like Thomas, went to India to do missionary work and died a martyr's death by machete -- hence that symbol for this disciple. In the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo gives him a prominent place in the judgment scene, apparently using this to show that the martyr would be vindicated on that day.
Whatever we may wish to say about Bartholomew, the point of this text is that he and his fellow disciples are slow to catch on to the notion of the Kingdom that Jesus has come to establish. And having spent several weeks struggling with the texts in John 6 about "bread of life" we may have some sympathy with the complaint of the disciples, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?"
There seems to be a play on words here in the discourse of Jesus. In the previous sections he has said that only those who eat -- "chew"-- his flesh will have eternal life. Now he says that "the flesh is useless." The difference is the same dynamic of which Jesus spoke when he tried to teach Nicodemus about the distinction between being "born anew" of the flesh and "born anew" of the Spirit. In this case, the distinction is apparently between the eucharistic "eating" -- believing -- of the flesh of the Son of God and the attention we are naturally inclined to give to our own "flesh" -- desires and selfish preoccupations.
From the broader perspective, it seems that the disciples are not only confused and befuddled by Jesus' words about "eating" his flesh, but they are still in doubt about the larger question that Jesus had spoken of earlier: namely, whether he is in fact the One who had been promised by God.
There is some consolation in the confession of Peter. Though it seems a bit tepid and though it will be apparent later that Peter is only now beginning to understand who Jesus is, nevertheless we can give him credit for asking, "To whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God." That is probably as much as we can expect. Had we been there -- one of the twelve -- could we have said more?
Suggestions For Preaching
The struggle to believe may be a good theme for this Sunday. It seemed easy for Solomon to mouth the words. And we want to give him full credit for his expression of faith on the day of the dedication of the Temple. But he would soon discover that the inspiration of a high and holy moment is almost entirely for that moment. And he would learn, to his great sorrow, that eternal vigilance is the price we must pay for fidelity to God. That was Paul's point in his letter to the Ephesians. All the weapons God provides, both defensive and offensive, are needed in the struggle against the massive forces pitted against us. And the disciples, who must have thought they had come a long way by now, are reminded ever so gently but firmly by Jesus that they have only begun to fight and that one of them would cave in when the struggle became intense. For the believer in every age the message remains the same: "If you think that you are standing, watch out that you do not fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By James A. Nestingen
1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43
Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, once said that Moses and the people wandered in the desert for forty years and found the only place in the Middle East without oil!
True though it may be, Israel also found a place through which virtually every trade route had to run. The resulting riches were reflected everywhere, especially in the Temple. Even the Lord found it an appropriate dwelling, at least for the time being.
Solomon, of course, had a bigger vision, one more appropriate to his own scale. Building on his father's accomplishments, employing the wisdom with which God had endowed him, he led the nation into a prosperity and a stability that made the people's nomadic past an ever-receding memory. Were it not for his father, standing in the background stealing his thunder, and a son who was the beginning of the end of these halcyon years, Solomon would have held the limelight alone as the great king.
All of the monarchical connections, every last trade route, each of the most proficient hands of the people were called upon to build and furnish the edifice David was denied. The Temple was the set piece, the defining accomplishment of Solomon's reign, intended to stand forever memorializing this great epoch in the national history.
It was an altar guild's dream. The Chronicler, providing an alternative history, dwells with loving absorption on every detail. Even with the obscurities of ancient measurements, it is possible on the basis of such descriptions to reconstruct this finest of all buildings.
But once again, Solomon and the people ran into trouble with their canvas-loving God. Like the Babylonians they joked about, who wanted to build a tower that reached into the heavens but used tar or bitumen for mortar, Solomon wanted to build a structure that would encompass God's dwelling, keep the Almighty at hand, and make things a little more predictable.
As with the father, so with the son: the tension David ran into when he offered to build God a home, between place and promise, proved similarly difficult for Solomon. The God of Abraham and Sarah, of Jacob and Rachel, of Moses and Miriam, of David and Bathsheba is more than willing to make and keep promises. But getting this God to settle in one place is like trying to herd a hurricane.
To be sure, with the Ark in place, God agreed to stay, at least for the time being. But the destructions that followed have shown where God is really at home: in the word, the promise.
We would be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate prayer of dedication for a house of God. Little wonder that Solomon's word has echoed through thousands of houses of God on days of dedication for millennia.
Because we tend to get so caught up in Solomon's magnificent prayer of dedication we may miss what is at least as important in this account. That this place is also to be for "a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel" puts us in touch with one of the themes and counter themes that runs through the Old Testament. On the one hand, Israel is repeatedly warned to avoid contact with her neighbors, and especially their worship of gods that would draw them away from their devotion to the one true God. At the same time, Israel's reason for being, from the time of God's call to Abraham, has been that they might be a light to the nations. Solomon rekindles this strand of the nation's tradition by asking God to hear the prayer of the foreigner and "do according to all that the foreigner calls to you." The key is that Israel is to welcome the foreigner, to tell them the Good News about the God who has claimed them, and not to be drawn into the religion of the foreigner. These themes are played out with great power in the ministry of the prophets.
Ephesians 6:10-20
Though some may be uncomfortable with it, military imagery is very common in the New Testament to illustrate the life of the believer in the world. Paul suggests to the Corinthians that "we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). He describes Epaphroditus as a "fellow soldier" (Philippians 2:25). Paul urges Timothy to "fight the good fight of the faith" (1 Timothy 6:12) and says that he himself has "fought the good fight" (2 Timothy 4:7).
The key to this passage is in verse 10. The believer has no innate power to fight. Our resource is "in the Lord and in the strength of his power." It is also important to assess the enemy's nature and power. Paul lived in a world which was thought to be populated everywhere with invisible forces of evil against which the devout were pitted. We have rid ourselves of such notions. We have bought into the idea that by dint of human endeavor and by proper education we can improve our world and set aside such primitive concepts of evil. But have we really made much progress in our understanding of the nature of evil or in our battle to overcome it? The daily news would give us to believe we have not!
What then can we do? We can arm ourselves with everything that God makes available to us. The "girdle" was a belt that held one's battle equipment in place and allowed one the freedom to fight. The point is that "truth" is central to all the implements of battle. If Satan is "the father of lies," we can hardly beat him at his own best game. Only truth will prevail.
"Righteousness" has to do with character and integrity. Others can belittle us and falsely accuse us. But if we retain our integrity nothing can hurt us. The figure of the shoes is interesting. It is said that the Roman army gave particular attention to the shoes of its soldiers, recognizing that they could not fight with sore feet. They also symbolize a readiness to go wherever one is needed -- in this case for the cause of peace. Roman soldiers carried a large shield, in contrast to the small one used by the Greeks. As used here, the "shield of faith" is the believer's defense. The helmet serves a double purpose; it protects the head, but also, as in all armies, is of a particular shape and thus identifies the forces to which one belongs. We note that there is no defense for the back and are reminded of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, where "Christian" is only vulnerable when he turns back.
The lone offensive weapon is the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." But that is enough. As Luther reminds us, when we use this weapon against the Evil One, "One little word shall fell him."
All of our struggle against evil should be done in the context of prayer. It should be constant ("at all times"), intense ("keep alert and always persevere"), and intercessory ("pray also for me").
John 6:56-69
Bartholomew is scarcely mentioned in the New Testament. In fact, John does not mention him at all, unless "Nathanael" is another name for Bartholomew. Legend suggests that he, like Thomas, went to India to do missionary work and died a martyr's death by machete -- hence that symbol for this disciple. In the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo gives him a prominent place in the judgment scene, apparently using this to show that the martyr would be vindicated on that day.
Whatever we may wish to say about Bartholomew, the point of this text is that he and his fellow disciples are slow to catch on to the notion of the Kingdom that Jesus has come to establish. And having spent several weeks struggling with the texts in John 6 about "bread of life" we may have some sympathy with the complaint of the disciples, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?"
There seems to be a play on words here in the discourse of Jesus. In the previous sections he has said that only those who eat -- "chew"-- his flesh will have eternal life. Now he says that "the flesh is useless." The difference is the same dynamic of which Jesus spoke when he tried to teach Nicodemus about the distinction between being "born anew" of the flesh and "born anew" of the Spirit. In this case, the distinction is apparently between the eucharistic "eating" -- believing -- of the flesh of the Son of God and the attention we are naturally inclined to give to our own "flesh" -- desires and selfish preoccupations.
From the broader perspective, it seems that the disciples are not only confused and befuddled by Jesus' words about "eating" his flesh, but they are still in doubt about the larger question that Jesus had spoken of earlier: namely, whether he is in fact the One who had been promised by God.
There is some consolation in the confession of Peter. Though it seems a bit tepid and though it will be apparent later that Peter is only now beginning to understand who Jesus is, nevertheless we can give him credit for asking, "To whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God." That is probably as much as we can expect. Had we been there -- one of the twelve -- could we have said more?
Suggestions For Preaching
The struggle to believe may be a good theme for this Sunday. It seemed easy for Solomon to mouth the words. And we want to give him full credit for his expression of faith on the day of the dedication of the Temple. But he would soon discover that the inspiration of a high and holy moment is almost entirely for that moment. And he would learn, to his great sorrow, that eternal vigilance is the price we must pay for fidelity to God. That was Paul's point in his letter to the Ephesians. All the weapons God provides, both defensive and offensive, are needed in the struggle against the massive forces pitted against us. And the disciples, who must have thought they had come a long way by now, are reminded ever so gently but firmly by Jesus that they have only begun to fight and that one of them would cave in when the struggle became intense. For the believer in every age the message remains the same: "If you think that you are standing, watch out that you do not fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By James A. Nestingen
1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43
Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, once said that Moses and the people wandered in the desert for forty years and found the only place in the Middle East without oil!
True though it may be, Israel also found a place through which virtually every trade route had to run. The resulting riches were reflected everywhere, especially in the Temple. Even the Lord found it an appropriate dwelling, at least for the time being.
Solomon, of course, had a bigger vision, one more appropriate to his own scale. Building on his father's accomplishments, employing the wisdom with which God had endowed him, he led the nation into a prosperity and a stability that made the people's nomadic past an ever-receding memory. Were it not for his father, standing in the background stealing his thunder, and a son who was the beginning of the end of these halcyon years, Solomon would have held the limelight alone as the great king.
All of the monarchical connections, every last trade route, each of the most proficient hands of the people were called upon to build and furnish the edifice David was denied. The Temple was the set piece, the defining accomplishment of Solomon's reign, intended to stand forever memorializing this great epoch in the national history.
It was an altar guild's dream. The Chronicler, providing an alternative history, dwells with loving absorption on every detail. Even with the obscurities of ancient measurements, it is possible on the basis of such descriptions to reconstruct this finest of all buildings.
But once again, Solomon and the people ran into trouble with their canvas-loving God. Like the Babylonians they joked about, who wanted to build a tower that reached into the heavens but used tar or bitumen for mortar, Solomon wanted to build a structure that would encompass God's dwelling, keep the Almighty at hand, and make things a little more predictable.
As with the father, so with the son: the tension David ran into when he offered to build God a home, between place and promise, proved similarly difficult for Solomon. The God of Abraham and Sarah, of Jacob and Rachel, of Moses and Miriam, of David and Bathsheba is more than willing to make and keep promises. But getting this God to settle in one place is like trying to herd a hurricane.
To be sure, with the Ark in place, God agreed to stay, at least for the time being. But the destructions that followed have shown where God is really at home: in the word, the promise.
