Proper 11
Devotional
Streams of Living Water
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle B
Object:
2 Samuel 7:1-14a
But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever.
-- 2 Samuel 7:15-16
Given the human capacity for disobeying God, the lingering insecurity that pervades the spiritual life is whether God will get disgusted with humanity and give up on them. Many non-Jewish religions of the region perceived their god as someone who needed to be continually appeased or mollified. Human sacrifice was based on the understanding that only such a great sacrifice would satisfy the gods and convince them to share their beneficence with humanity. We see Israel's struggle with this question in both the story of Noah and the flood and the sacrifice of Isaac. Even closer to this event, the scriptures describe Saul as having been chosen by God and then rejected. While one could describe Saul as having been disobedient and therefore rejected, the haunting question was when would the next human rebellion result in God's rejection? Part of the mystery was and is that the behavior of God is never fully predictable. Why did God choose a people in the first place? What causes God to choose one person and not another? God's very freedom to be God was unsettling.
The promise to David was an answer to this insecurity. If God was unpredictable, God's promises were sure. What the Israelites, and later the Christians, counted on was that God had made an irrevocable promise to be their God. Once God made a promise, humans could count on it being fulfilled. A major theme of scripture is the often surprising yet consistent ways in which God keeps promises. When Jesus promises to be with the disciples even to the end of the world, it was a commitment never to turn the divine Spirit away from the church. Of course, this promise does not mean that behavior is unimportant. "I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings" (v. 14). The community of faith is accountable for their acts of unfaithfulness, but through it all, they can count on the fact that God will never abandon them.
Psalm 89:20-37
I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth ... I will establish his line forever, and his throne as long as the heavens endure.
-- Psalm 89:27, 29
In scripture, God uses language in ways that contradict the ordinary meaning of words. Who is the firstborn of God? In Exodus 4:22, God says, "Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son." Now in Psalm 89 God declares of David, "I will make him the firstborn...." Later Christians would say of Jesus that he is the Son of God, and the implication is clearly that Jesus is God's firstborn and only son (John 3:16). Clearly the term is used metaphorically and not literally. Drawing on the tradition of the favor shown to the firstborn son, we are speaking of those who clearly experience the favor of God. This David is so favored that God makes an eternal promise that his reign, in terms of his family line, will last forever.
During the destruction of Israel and the exile of the people, this divine promise was clearly in danger. Of course, as the scriptures continually describe, God fulfills the divine promise but often not in the manner that mortals expect. This is why, despite the confusion of the birth narratives, it was important for the early church to demonstrate how Jesus was of the house and lineage of David. The importance of these verses from Psalm 89 is the affirmation that God always keeps the promises he made.
As we read the scriptures and recognize the unbelievable birth of Isaac, the remarkable escape from Egypt, the survival of Israel despite political disaster, and the exceptional birth of Jesus, we are constantly confronted with our need to reinterpret our previous understanding as we confront the faithful, yet often unique, fulfillment of the promises of God. Eventually we are humbled by our inability to predict the acts of God and our need to simply trust that God will, in God's own way, be faithful to the promises God has made. In our journey of faith, it is important to review the promises of God, which enable us to face the future unafraid, but then it is incumbent on us to wait for its fulfillment with a mind open to the unexpected.
Ephesians 2:11-22
So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth ... remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
-- Ephesians 2:11a, 12a
The majority of Christians were Gentiles by birth and, according to Paul, we were "strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (v. 12). I suspect that it is rare that a Christian enters a church aware of how tenuous his or her claim is to the promises of God. We are guests invited in rather than the owners of the house. Not only that, but also the rules had to be changed to make allowance for us. "He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace" (v. 15). When we speak of grace, we are talking about an incredible allowance made for our sakes.
As Paul makes clear in Romans 9 through 11, there are no grounds for the invited guests to eject the homeowners. Yet even today there is at best an uneasy alliance between Christians and Jews. If it is true that Christ intended to "reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it" (v. 16), then any attitude of hostility between Christian and Jew would be to make a mockery of the cross. While we, as Christians, cannot speak for Jews, it is clear that we have an obligation to honor the peace that Christ created between us. "So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father" (vv. 17-18).
The question that Christians must ponder is: What is the nature of the peace that Christ proclaimed to us? If we come, not on the basis of our having achieved acceptance through obedience, but solely on the basis of God's grace, then do we reject that grace when we deny that grace to others? It is a scary world if we accept that our very worth and value is not dependent on what we do or who we are but is solely dependent on God's freely given love for us. Legalisms have been as much a problem for Christians as they have for Jews. If there were absolutely no requirement that you had to meet to be saved and the same were true of your neighbor, how would that affect your ability to judge them?
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
... they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
-- Mark 6:34
Sometimes the way in which passages of scripture are placed can reveal part of their message. In these verses, Mark has chosen to bracket two miracle stories with descriptions of Jesus' compassion for both his disciples and for a crowd of Gentiles from the land of Gennesaret. The first miracle is the feeding of the 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, and the second describes Jesus walking on water in the midst of a storm. On either side of these miracles, we are told that Jesus, who is Lord over the power of nature, allows himself to be affected by the cry of the people.
A constant theme throughout the Hebrew scriptures is that God is responsive to the cry of human need. The God who brought order out of chaos in Genesis and "causes the oaks to whirl and strips the forest bare" (Psalm 29:9) is also the God who is responsive to the basic human needs of slaves in Egypt and throughout their journey. Jesus, who demonstrates a power reflective of God, also reveals the capacity to have his actions altered in response to the basic cry of human need.
He has just heard of the death of his cousin, John, by the hands of Herod and recognizes the needs of his disciples to have some time apart to reflect and be nurtured, but his plans are changed by a crowd who cries out to him. Even in the Gentile land of Gennesaret, "wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed" (v. 56).
Jesus' actions become a cautionary judgment against a community of faith that is tempted to care for itself rather than respond to the needs of others around them. One can hear the judgment of Ezekiel: "Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? ... You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them" (Ezekiel 34:2b-4). For Israel and for the church, the needs of the people who come to them take priority over all else.
But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever.
-- 2 Samuel 7:15-16
Given the human capacity for disobeying God, the lingering insecurity that pervades the spiritual life is whether God will get disgusted with humanity and give up on them. Many non-Jewish religions of the region perceived their god as someone who needed to be continually appeased or mollified. Human sacrifice was based on the understanding that only such a great sacrifice would satisfy the gods and convince them to share their beneficence with humanity. We see Israel's struggle with this question in both the story of Noah and the flood and the sacrifice of Isaac. Even closer to this event, the scriptures describe Saul as having been chosen by God and then rejected. While one could describe Saul as having been disobedient and therefore rejected, the haunting question was when would the next human rebellion result in God's rejection? Part of the mystery was and is that the behavior of God is never fully predictable. Why did God choose a people in the first place? What causes God to choose one person and not another? God's very freedom to be God was unsettling.
The promise to David was an answer to this insecurity. If God was unpredictable, God's promises were sure. What the Israelites, and later the Christians, counted on was that God had made an irrevocable promise to be their God. Once God made a promise, humans could count on it being fulfilled. A major theme of scripture is the often surprising yet consistent ways in which God keeps promises. When Jesus promises to be with the disciples even to the end of the world, it was a commitment never to turn the divine Spirit away from the church. Of course, this promise does not mean that behavior is unimportant. "I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings" (v. 14). The community of faith is accountable for their acts of unfaithfulness, but through it all, they can count on the fact that God will never abandon them.
Psalm 89:20-37
I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth ... I will establish his line forever, and his throne as long as the heavens endure.
-- Psalm 89:27, 29
In scripture, God uses language in ways that contradict the ordinary meaning of words. Who is the firstborn of God? In Exodus 4:22, God says, "Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son." Now in Psalm 89 God declares of David, "I will make him the firstborn...." Later Christians would say of Jesus that he is the Son of God, and the implication is clearly that Jesus is God's firstborn and only son (John 3:16). Clearly the term is used metaphorically and not literally. Drawing on the tradition of the favor shown to the firstborn son, we are speaking of those who clearly experience the favor of God. This David is so favored that God makes an eternal promise that his reign, in terms of his family line, will last forever.
During the destruction of Israel and the exile of the people, this divine promise was clearly in danger. Of course, as the scriptures continually describe, God fulfills the divine promise but often not in the manner that mortals expect. This is why, despite the confusion of the birth narratives, it was important for the early church to demonstrate how Jesus was of the house and lineage of David. The importance of these verses from Psalm 89 is the affirmation that God always keeps the promises he made.
As we read the scriptures and recognize the unbelievable birth of Isaac, the remarkable escape from Egypt, the survival of Israel despite political disaster, and the exceptional birth of Jesus, we are constantly confronted with our need to reinterpret our previous understanding as we confront the faithful, yet often unique, fulfillment of the promises of God. Eventually we are humbled by our inability to predict the acts of God and our need to simply trust that God will, in God's own way, be faithful to the promises God has made. In our journey of faith, it is important to review the promises of God, which enable us to face the future unafraid, but then it is incumbent on us to wait for its fulfillment with a mind open to the unexpected.
Ephesians 2:11-22
So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth ... remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
-- Ephesians 2:11a, 12a
The majority of Christians were Gentiles by birth and, according to Paul, we were "strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (v. 12). I suspect that it is rare that a Christian enters a church aware of how tenuous his or her claim is to the promises of God. We are guests invited in rather than the owners of the house. Not only that, but also the rules had to be changed to make allowance for us. "He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace" (v. 15). When we speak of grace, we are talking about an incredible allowance made for our sakes.
As Paul makes clear in Romans 9 through 11, there are no grounds for the invited guests to eject the homeowners. Yet even today there is at best an uneasy alliance between Christians and Jews. If it is true that Christ intended to "reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it" (v. 16), then any attitude of hostility between Christian and Jew would be to make a mockery of the cross. While we, as Christians, cannot speak for Jews, it is clear that we have an obligation to honor the peace that Christ created between us. "So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father" (vv. 17-18).
The question that Christians must ponder is: What is the nature of the peace that Christ proclaimed to us? If we come, not on the basis of our having achieved acceptance through obedience, but solely on the basis of God's grace, then do we reject that grace when we deny that grace to others? It is a scary world if we accept that our very worth and value is not dependent on what we do or who we are but is solely dependent on God's freely given love for us. Legalisms have been as much a problem for Christians as they have for Jews. If there were absolutely no requirement that you had to meet to be saved and the same were true of your neighbor, how would that affect your ability to judge them?
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
... they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
-- Mark 6:34
Sometimes the way in which passages of scripture are placed can reveal part of their message. In these verses, Mark has chosen to bracket two miracle stories with descriptions of Jesus' compassion for both his disciples and for a crowd of Gentiles from the land of Gennesaret. The first miracle is the feeding of the 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, and the second describes Jesus walking on water in the midst of a storm. On either side of these miracles, we are told that Jesus, who is Lord over the power of nature, allows himself to be affected by the cry of the people.
A constant theme throughout the Hebrew scriptures is that God is responsive to the cry of human need. The God who brought order out of chaos in Genesis and "causes the oaks to whirl and strips the forest bare" (Psalm 29:9) is also the God who is responsive to the basic human needs of slaves in Egypt and throughout their journey. Jesus, who demonstrates a power reflective of God, also reveals the capacity to have his actions altered in response to the basic cry of human need.
He has just heard of the death of his cousin, John, by the hands of Herod and recognizes the needs of his disciples to have some time apart to reflect and be nurtured, but his plans are changed by a crowd who cries out to him. Even in the Gentile land of Gennesaret, "wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed" (v. 56).
Jesus' actions become a cautionary judgment against a community of faith that is tempted to care for itself rather than respond to the needs of others around them. One can hear the judgment of Ezekiel: "Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? ... You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them" (Ezekiel 34:2b-4). For Israel and for the church, the needs of the people who come to them take priority over all else.
