Free Access

Exodus 33:12-23
God’s call to Moses so clearly brings a sense of discomfort. God’s response is simple. He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."(v.14). I can still clearly remember when I was first called to become an ordained minister. I didn’t cringe at the idea. I laughed and knew God must be mistaken. For several years, each time I heard that call, I volunteered to do an additional lay volunteer job within my church. I will tell you that God was so persistent that I finally talked to my pastor about it. He sent me home to pray. There were so many reasons I felt I couldn’t answer this call and yet, God swept away every single roadblock and wall I thought would keep me from going to seminary. And in my second year of seminary, one of the church judicatories asked me to serve a church as an interim. Again, I thought I wasn’t ready, but that first Sunday when I stepped off the chancel after worship I felt this affirmation — this same affirmation Moses was given. God said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." So, it has been for my 21 years of ministry. God goes with me. When you are called, rest assured God will go with you as well.
Bonnie B.

* * *

Exodus 33:12-23
John Calvin commented about Moses’ desire to see God in his glory in this lesson (v.13). We all yearn for that, but the Genevan reformer wrote:

God, therefore, whilst he withholds us from a complete knowledge of him, nevertheless manifests himself as far as is expedient; nay attempering the amount of light to our humble capacity, he assumes the face which we are able to bear. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. III/1, pp.381-382)

Regarding this matter, the need for Moses to be protected from seeing God’s face but that he can see God on the rock (vv.20-22), John Wesley wrote:

 “That rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). It is in the clefts of this rock that we are secured from the wrath of God, which would otherwise consume us. God himself will protect those that are thus hid. And it is only through Christ that we have the knowledge of the glory of God. None can see that to their comfort but those that stand upon this rock and take shelter in it. (Commentary On the Bible, p.89)            

This point echoes Martin Luther’s thinking as he proclaimed:

Through the only-begotten son and through the gospel one learns to look directly into God’s face. And when this happens, then everything in man dies; man must then confess that he is a blind and ignorant sinner who must forthwith appeal to Christ. (Luther’s Works, Vol.22, p.157)
Mark E.

* * *

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Not quite a quarter century ago, I hastily purchased a copy of Robert Fagle’s translation of Homer’s Iliad at an airport bookstore before I boarded a plane on my way to interview for a potential pastorate. His translation made a previously opaque text come alive for the first time. One thing that struck me were the references to the Achaeans. Who? Then I realized, these were all Greeks, who may have spoken Greek, but didn’t think of themselves as being Greeks. They thought of themselves as citizens of their individual city states with different patron gods and goddesses. And this story of Troy reflected their real relationship. The city states were constantly at war with each other, uniting only against a common enemy such as Persian, for instance, and then only for as long as it was necessary.

Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedon, may have sought to spread Greek culture throughout the known world, but he was still not quite Greek. Achaeans might have honored him, but he was not one of them.

That puts me in mind of a man who was a member of a church I served as summer pastor during my time in seminary 45 years ago. He said, “I’ve been a member here for more than thirty years, and I’m still an outsider.” Whether the city states are defined as denominations, or as congregations within a district, or outsiders and insiders within the local church, we may unite occasionally for a common cause, but many Christians can be self-centered and forget they are truly a part of the worldwide Body of Christ.

That’s something Paul tried to do with the congregations scattered across the Roman Empire, to get them to look beyond their geographic boundaries and think of themselves as one church of Jesus Christ.

In this opening passage of what may be the first New Testament document to be written, Paul addresses the Christians in the Macedonian city of Thessalonica who seem to have been ardently reaching out to create relationships with others in Macedonia, Achaia, and beyond. Their embrace of a Christian identity is leading them to draw in others to turn from their allegiance to the god of their city state or their craft to share a common confession in God revealed in Jesus Christ, “who Paul refers to as “a living and true God.”

I wonder if we twenty-first century American Christians are any different than the ancient Achaeans. We may admire the fervor of Christians in Africa and Latin America, but they’re still not us. And among ourselves, we act like our particular brand of Christianity is better than others, and within our congregations there may be those who belong and those who are welcome to sit in the pews and contribute but who will never really be part of the important families.
Frank R.

* * *

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

I read an interesting historical note about The Alamo in San Antonio. There are only five portraits created from life of the one hundred and eighty-nine who died there. One of those who died at The Alamo was James Butler Bonham. There is no portrait of Bonham, but there are some of his brother Milledge, his father James, and his nephew James. It’s the hope of the Bonham family that people will know what James Butler Bonham looked like by seeing his family members.

I was struck by that as I thought about this passage. Paul urges his readers to be imitators of him and of the Lord. This passage prompts the question, “When people see me, do they see Jesus?” Warren Barfield sang and wrote a song called “Mistaken.” Here are some of the words.

I shouldn’t have to tell you who I am
Cause who I am should be speaking for itself
Cause if I am who I, I want to be
Then who you see won’t even be me
Oh the more and more I disappear
The more and more he becomes clear.

May it be that when others see me, they see the Lord.
Bill T.

* * *

Matthew 22:15-22
Jesus was always being tested by the Pharisees, the scribes, the church leaders. And Jesus always speaks the truth. I remember a time in my youth when as a part of an anti-Vietnam War movement (yes, I am that old), that we were encouraged not to pay federal taxes, at least not the percentage of the national budget that was being used for the war. Some chose to do so. I did not. I recalled this passage from Matthew and made the decision to give to the empire that which belonged to the empire. That did not stop my actions and speaking out for peace. I still stood as an activist against war — as I do now, believing that diplomacy and conversations should be our first actions. I still speak words of peace to a world that seems to cling to hate and violence and war. I will continue to do so for I believe that is a part of my call as one who follows Jesus.
Bonnie B.

* * *

Matthew 22:15-22
Heads I win, tails you lose.

One of the sounds you rarely hear nowadays is the jangle of coins in your pocket or at the bottom of your purse, but coins are featured regularly in scripture. The concept of paper money was almost unknown. The value of precious metals determined the value of coins, and for most people they had to be transported physically in order for the value to be portable.

In the New Testament, Jesus tells a parable about a woman’s lost coin, an emblem of the invisible economy she was a part of (Luke 15:8-10). The upside-down kingdom of heaven is illustrated by the contrast Jesus draws between the incredibly thin and almost weightless coins of the widow compared to the clanging made by the large coins thrown into the flute-like offering receptacle in the temple by the rich. (Luke 21:1-4) A coin miraculously appears in the belly of a fish when Peter stresses over paying the temple tax, thanks to the power of Jesus who sends Peter out fishing. (Matthew 17:24-27)

Bob Dylan once wrote, “Money doesn’t talk. It swears.” In today’s scripture passage, the expletives deleted were caused by a coin featuring the face of the emperor. It was an offense to the Judeans not only because of the biblical prohibition against graven images, but because this symbol of imperial rule was the coin used by those having to pay for the privilege of imperial occupation. The presence of the legionnaires reminded the Judeans that they did not have a king of their own, despite god’s promise to King David that one of his descendants would always sit on the throne.

It looks like the religious leaders are trying to butter Jesus up with their compliments about his wisdom when they ask him, “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” As the fish-headed denizens of the planet Mons Calamari from the Stars Wars series could have told Jesus, “It’s a trap!”

As clever as Jesus’ response proved to be, a real learning here is that those who seek to use a clobber verse to trap us aren’t allowed to limit our options to one of two bad choices.

This dangerous question was in its own way rather brilliant. You have to wonder what biblical think tank thought it up, because either answer would discredit Jesus, perhaps permanently. If he advocated paying the tax the people might finally turn on him for good. And if he spoke out against the tax, he could end up dead.

Jesus refused to give either answer, and he wasn’t ducking the question. He did not reduce biblical discussion to a zero-sum game. Instead, he changed the rules, asking his questioners to show him a coin. Instead of presenting a supposedly pure temple coin used to pay for transactions within the temple grounds at a markup that provided another steady source of income, they could only produce “real” money, the kind of money they used. One that featured the emperor’s face.

I imagine there was a lot of laughter at the expense of these religious leaders, so let’s hope no one missed the punchline: “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

Remember — people who want to use a clobber verse on you don’t get to control the dialog. It’s not always only a choice between this or that.
Frank R.

* * *

Matthew 22:15-22
John Calvin was willing to acknowledge that Jesus was teaching something like the separation of church and state, but not to the extent that the Christian abdicates all social responsibility. He wrote about v.21:

It lays down a clear distinction between spiritual and civil government, in order to inform us that outward subjection does not prevent us from having within us a conscience free in the sight of God. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.44)

Separating church and state does not alleviate the Christian of responsibility for the state and or working for justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. made this point eloquently:

The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well-being. Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial. (The Strength To Love, pp. 36-37)

King describes here what it means to be “woke” (and it’s not such a bad idea after all).

Of course, insofar as government is not a realm of the gospel but operates with principles of the law and competition or sin, achieving this great aim is not easily accomplished and may require compromise and trade-offs. Famed 20th-century American social ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr provided some wise counsel about the need for Christians to be realists about politics, but also about how our faith helps us endure and keep us in the game to contribute to seeing that the right things happen in society. He wrote:

Since all political and moral striving results in frustration as well as fulfillment, the task of building community requires faith which is not too easily destroyed by frustration. Such a faith must understand the moral ambiguities of history and know them not merely as accidents or as the consequence of the malevolence of this man or that nation; it must understand them as permanent characteristics of man’s historic existence. (Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, p.131)
Mark E.