This sermon was heard at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas on Sunday July 5, 2015
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Mark 6:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
Most of us have never seen a coronation. The last major coronation was Queen Elizabeth II and that was in 1953, over 60 years ago. Any images from the event were in black and white and they were on film, not video. They might have been on television via satellite, but it is more likely those who saw it saw pieces of her coronation on newsreels in the theater.
Anyone under the age of thirty will need to Google half of the words in those last two sentences. Black and white? Via Satellite? Newsreels? Those three phrases alone show that coronation is positively archaic to Americans where we have no monarchy.
We read in 2Samuel, “So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David,” who was king of Judah at the time, “made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.” Considering we have almost no idea about what is involved in a coronation, do we even have a clue about what it takes to make a covenant? Considering the more proper term is “cutting” a covenant, not “making” a covenant, no.
While the fullness of this expression is unknown, one reason is that in cutting the covenant, the sacrificed beasts were cut in half from head to tail. Then the parties making the covenant would pass between the cut halves of the offering. Doing this, they symbolically take upon themselves the fate of the animals should they violate the covenant. So in this case, the Elders of Israel came to David and said, “Let’s do this and should we fail may this fate befall us.”
Between you and me, I think we could use some of that in DC and Austin. I believe we could all benefit from politicians sharing our fate. Anyhoo…
These days though, the symbolism and the theology of the sacrifice system are beyond us. So unless you grew up on a farm or ranch or are a butcher, the whole process is more than most of us could imagine. It began when the priests took first a heifer, and then a female goat, and then a ram, and split each of them in half. They didn’t have chain mail gloves like many who work in slaughter houses. They didn’t have power tools or refrigeration. There was no high powered water jet to cut the animals. They had iron or bronze knives which they used to slaughter and then prepare the animals for the sacrifice. They cut skin, fat, muscle, tendon, cartilage, and membranes preparing the livestock.
Imagine the blood and muck, not just on the priest’s clothes but in the mud between his toes. Finally, after hours or perhaps even days, when the preparations were made, David and the priests put the finishing touches on the stock; adding a full dove to one stack and a young pigeon to the other. The offering was complete, but until the covenant ceremony was finished, they had to drive the buzzards from the carcasses.
Then came the walk between the halves of the offering, between the carcasses. Carcasses, what a word! It creates the sort of image that might make a steak eater cringe and does make a PETA member scream “that’s what I’m talking about.”
To seal the covenant, the parties would pass between the halves of the offering, the pieces of the carcasses. The experience would be absolutely visceral. The ache you would feel from the hard work of preparation. The frustration and the danger from keeping the scavengers from the offering. The smell of the livestock and their entrails. The blood and fat which has saturated your apron and gotten into your clothes. Finally, as you pass between the halves, the feel of blood and bile and refuse between your toes. Covenant promises aren’t made lightly or forgotten quickly.
This worship preparation would take days. It would be difficult. It would be back-breaking. It would require a special set of skills that only the priests and the Levites had. There was no butcher’s union back in the day, the Levites were the butchers. The entire experience would fill every sense to overfilling. It would end in a bar-be-que to make the BBQ Pitmasters finale look like amateur hour. It would be a mess. It would be sloppy. It would be sloppier than we can imagine.
This is not what the Prince of Wales will go through when he becomes King Charles III.
There has been a trend in the gospel readings in the Revised Common Lectionary over the past few weeks which did not escape today’s reading. It begins with Jesus working. In this case he is teaching and doing great works. The people who were there were astounded. The passage reads, “’Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!’” but that’s not where it ends.
In this case, after a brief genealogy lesson, Mark’s gospel says, “And they took offense at him.” They took offense at him. What a switch! In basketball you’d say that was the kind of move that would make a defender break an ankle. The passage goes from power (hooray!) and glory (hooray!) to offense. Talk about sloppy. We go from astounded by the wisdom to offended by him. It doesn’t say offended by his words, or his teachings; it says offended by him. His person. His being. His very existence. There’s a lovely turn of events.
About ten years ago I was at Montreat for the “Hope of the Church” conference. The event moderator shared something with us about the nature of the Church. She said that about every 500 years there’s a tremendous shift. About 2,000 years ago saw the birth of the Jesus. It was not only the birth of the Messiah, the Christ, but the birth of Christianity; and it doesn’t get bigger than that.
About 1,500 years ago came Constantine and because of him the Nicene Creed. The first 500 years of the Church saw a lot of good and a lot of very, very bad theology. The Nicene Creed was humanity’s first real attempt to state what we believe. Its continuing authority is proof that these bishops got something right.
About 1,000 years ago saw the great schism between east and west, the split between the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. Honestly, we don’t pay too much attention to that because 500 years ago was our split, the Reformation. Luther had no intention of forming a new church. He wanted to reform the Mother Church, hence Reformation, but when they put a bounty on your head schism’s the way to go.
As for today, 500 years after the Reformation, people say the church isn’t the same as it was 50 or 60 years ago and I say this is true. People say things are changing and I say this is true. Some people say we’ll never have the same status we had in our glory days and I say not the same…
People say, quite correctly, that the splits in the modern church are nasty, but at least the PC(USA), the EPC and ECO don’t have death squads. Say what you will about what happened at Highland Park, First Longview, and dozens of other congregations, but nobody put out a hit on anybody and that’s progress.
People say nothing’s like it used to be and it’s not right. I won’t go that far. Things are changing and it’s not easy. It’s sloppy, but the church reformed and always being reformed is sloppy.
The reformation, the real reformation began with the birth of a child, God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us. The in breaking of all that’s holy into a world that is anything but. God came to earth not in power and glory but as the least powerful being known, a human baby born of an unwed mother. Sloppy.
Now look at the crowd in the synagogue from our Gospel reading… They were at the feet of the Lord. They heard his words first hand. They spoke the same language. They saw him doing great deeds of power and were astounded, and in the next breath they were offended. Fully human and fully divine; man and God in one. His presence was offensive to his own people—and we wonder how come people don’t understand the Good News like we do.
I wonder how we understand the gospel the way we do. Praise God the Holy Spirit because it is only by the Spirit that we understand the gospel at all, and in truth, we don’t understand the full breadth of the gospel. We can’t. God is too much for us to understand. Like in Mark’s gospel the people expected one thing and when they got Jesus they were astounded and then offended. Sloppy.
The last couple of weeks have been sloppy on a national level. Supreme Court decisions, the 1001 Worshiping Communities Controversies, symbols and what they mean; sloppy. I’m not here to tell you what to believe about any of these things. I’m your guest, trying that would be ignorant on my part.
What I am here to say is this, take off your sandals. Walk in the sloppy, sloppy faith knowing this—There is no place we can go that Christ has not gone first.
There is no place we can go that Christ does not lead us. Rules come and rules go. This is how we get to eat bacon and shellfish, rules change. Our understanding of the faith changes. Changes came 2,000 years ago, and 1,500, and 1,000, and 500 years ago and changes come today.
To say that God has nothing new to teach us today is the sort of arrogance people of faith cannot afford to have. That sort of arrogance says we cannot be taught. We cannot learn. To be taught God can no longer astound us, that’s a world I don’t want to live in.
Sure, it’ll be sloppy, but it beats the alternative, a world where God is done with us. Because if God is done with us, and this, this world is all that’s left, well, that’s not much of a life. Give me God’s sloppy grace and peace and love over human wisdom and folly any day.
Showing posts with label covenant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label covenant. Show all posts
Sunday, July 05, 2015
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Of the Faithful, For the Faithful
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday August 14, 2011, the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Podcast of "Of the Faithful, For the Faithful (MP3)
Podcast of "Of the Faithful, For the Faithful (MP3)
Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
Covenant, the tie that binds. Covenants are different from contracts. Both are legal agreements, both are between two parties; and that’s where the similarities end. In contracts both parties have obligations to one another. In contracts both parties have to bring something to the table. In contracts both parties can be penalized for failure to honor the agreement. Not so in a covenant. A contract is a legal agreement between two parties but a covenant is an agreement, a promise, one party makes to another.
Covenants are promises made by taking a solemn oath. A couple of weeks ago, our Old Testament reading was what’s known as “Jacob’s Ladder,” the dream containing God’s covenant with Jacob.[1] Jacob receives this promise, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”[2]
There is a formula to covenant.[3] It began with a solemn promise made binding by an oath. The promise in Jacob’s Ladder was made in verbally. Such an action or formula is recognized by both parties as a formal act which binds the one who makes the promise to fulfill it. In this instance the Lord uses words to make the promise. Jacob recognizes the promise setting a stone as a pillar and pouring oil over it. This is when he names that place Bethel
Genesis 37 contains another covenant promise, this one made to Joseph. The promises made to Joseph are symbolic, not verbal. Where Jacob’s promises are declared in plain speech, the promises made to Joseph come in his dreams. Receiving the same promise twice, once represented by the wheat in the field and then again by the stars in the skies, God’s covenant that Joseph will have dominion over his brothers is established and confirmed.
Our Genesis reading from last week seems to erect a detour to this covenant. Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers and taken to Egypt
In our Genesis reading today, we see not only how God’s covenant is fulfilled, but what it means for the promises made to Jacob. In verse five of our reading, we learn how even the brother’s betrayal cannot stop the Lord from keeping his covenant with Joseph. “Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” The covenant with Jacob was fulfilled through the covenant with Joseph.
What confidence we can have when we know and trust the Lord because of a personal covenant. Joseph could bear years of slavery knowing that it was all a part of God’s plan. He even tells his brothers “It was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt Israel would grow large and strong in the land of Goshen
Our reading from Matthew ties its roots back to an even older covenant, a covenant made by God to Abram in Genesis 12, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[4] This is the root of the saying “salvation comes from the Jews.” The Lord promises Abram not only that he will be made a great nation, but that he and his nation will be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
This blessing is highlighted in Matthew 10 when Jesus sends his disciples out to the world saying, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel . As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’”[5] The blessing of the Lord and from the Lord is sent first to the Jews.
This is why Jesus tells the Canaanite woman “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel .”
I think I’ve done a pretty good job of explaining where Jesus was coming from so far. I like to think I’m pretty good at explaining things. One of my favorite pastors was an explainer and listening to his sermons for over five years influenced my preaching style tremendously. One of the things he taught me was if you don’t understand it, don’t try to explain it.
Let me share this with you: I have no idea how to “explain” how and why Jesus responds to Canaanite woman like he did. It rubs me the wrong way to see Jesus so callus, so cavalier to someone who is desperately in need, a need that extends beyond her daughter’s demon possession. She is not a member of the twelve tribes; she is a gentile, a foreigner. There doesn’t seem to be a husband or son to care of the family business. In this society, being what would appear to be a single mother, is another big strike against her and her daughter.
She doesn’t appear to have any money or other goods to trade. Evidently the healing arts of the time were unable to help, assuming the healers of the time would have anything to do with her or her tormented daughter in the first place. She is at her wits end and this is when she sees Jesus on the road.
How did she know he was Jesus of Nazareth? Scripture doesn’t say. Surely she didn’t see his picture in the paper or on the news. He wasn’t wearing a name tag, but she knew him when she saw him. She also knew about him. She called him the Lord and the Son of David, both titles belonging to the Jewish Messiah. She knew he was a healer. She knew he was compassionate. She saw him, she came to him, and she cried her plea, “Have mercy.”
His first response is simply ignoring her. Whether he just kept walking or took a seat and turned his back scripture doesn’t say. Neither would have been comforting. After her second cry, Jesus explains why he denies her with the authoritative answer “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel .” This answer doesn’t help a lick even though it’s the covenant answer, the “correct” answer. Frankly this answer has all the pastoral sensitivity of nails on a chalkboard. She cries out again and finally after rejecting her twice, he insults her and her entire race. This is my opinion, and I believe many would agree with me; this seems harsh.
Nevertheless it’s his answer and even though it’s the right answer it doesn’t help. Jesus knew his mission and this may sound like a restrictive way to describe God Incarnate, but Jesus knew his place and his place began with the children if Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus tells her that the blessing she seeks is not for her, but she points out that the dogs get to lick the floor and pick up the spills. The dogs get to share in the blessings of the master even if they were not intended to receive them.
I can’t explain his words, but this I do know, the blessing of the Lord is overflowing, and even if this woman and her daughter aren’t intended to receive this blessing, they still receive the remains. You see, this Canaanite woman knew her place in Jewish society, a place that didn’t exist. She didn’t count on her status or her power to be entitled to a blessing, but she had faith, faith that God’s overflowing love would be enough for her family.
Last week we heard Peter test Jesus. We heard Peter say “Lord, if it is you tell me to come to you on the water.”[6] Peter wasn’t up to trusting, so he tested. The Canaanite woman does no such thing. She doesn’t say “If you are the Lord” or “If you are the Son of David.” She knows, she believes, and she trusts.
Her faith is greater than Peter’s. That’s right, at this moment the faith of an impoverished Gentile single mother is greater than the faith of the Rock upon which the Church will be built. She is faithful. Jesus declares her faith is great. She cries out.
So what is her faith? Her faith is that Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord, the Son of David is enough. Christ the Messiah is enough for her, her life, and her needs. She’s not entitled to his blessing, yet she has faith. Her faith has nothing to do with deserving his blessing, but that he will bless her even though she doesn’t deserve it. Romans 5:8 says it this way, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
This is her faith. She hoped, prayed, and she had faith that while she didn’t deserve what she cried for; it might still be granted. She knew that even though he owed her nothing she had faith that there might be a leftover crumb and that crumb would be enough.
Jesus knows his path, Jesus knows his vocation is first to the nation of Israel , but he also knows that when the cup of his bounty overflows, others will be blessed from the font of many blessings. Jesus is faithful to Israel , and by her faith he is faithful to the Canaanite woman healing her daughter. Saved by grace through faith, this is the foundation of our faith.
God has a plan for salvation. We see its beginnings in Genesis. We see it in the covenant with Abram. We see it in the covenant with Jacob. We see it in the covenant with Joseph. Today we read how Joseph’s covenant plays out and provides for the covenant with Jacob.
God has a plan for salvation which begins with the Jews, and through the Jews all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
If there is something important for us to take from this story, it begins with the fact that God’s love is gracious. It is undeserved. And it is overflowing. Flowing like a great flood, the grace of God in Christ will not be contained. God promised by the faithfulness of Israel the world will be blessed, and the gospel gives the world its first indication of that all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
It is also important for us to know that this new blessing will not come without controversy. This narrative must have been scandalous when it was first shared with the nation that this Canaanite woman is blessed by the Lord. The truth is that when blessings overflow to the feet of outsiders, insiders will not be comfortable. It is up to us to know that what God is doing is not meant to make us comfortable, it is meant to save us.
In Genesis, the Lord established what he will do. In Matthew, the Lord established he will do that and more. God will not be limited, not by culture or even by death. God doesn’t change, but the world does; and God saves the world and all that is in it.
I can’t explain why Jesus said what he said, and especially not how he said it. But I believe to a certain degree I can explain why Jesus did what he did. Jesus is faithful and responds to the faithful. What Matthew shows us is the first time this gracious response touched the gentiles.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Marriage Covenant
This homily was heard at the wedding of Jerry and Lea Satterwhite on Saturday June 18, 2011 at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas.
1Corinthians 12:27-13:13
1Corinthians 12:27-13:13
There was a movie some years ago where one of the characters was talking to a computer program. The program spoke to the man about love. The man began to say that he had never heard a program speak of love. He wanted to ask “How can you know love?” Instead he says “It’s a human emotion.” The program answers, “No, it is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies.”[1]
This reading from 1Corinthians is probably the most common piece of scripture read at weddings in America
That’s what Paul was talking about, Christian love not romantic love. This is why as well as we know these words, we often don’t consider them in context. Paul is not telling the Corinthians how to live as husband and wife, but as the body of Christ.
He begins, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” He continues that God has appointed specific people to specific roles in the church. God appoints apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, deacons, leaders, and communicators. No one person is called to do all of the work of the church; that would be impossible. He then tells us to strive for the greater gifts and shows us how they are to be used in a most excellent way.
Paul tells us that the mightiest of us all, those given the most powerful gifts are nothing if the gift is used without love. Without love, nothing we do is worthwhile. Without love, screaming the Good News from the mountain tops is nothing but noise. If we are able to do everything but do it without love, we’ve done nothing at all. If we give everything without giving love, we have given nothing.
This describes how Christ loves the church and how he wants us to love him. Of course, in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he reminds husbands to love their wives just as Christ loved the church; giving yourself up for her. So maybe it’s not far-fetched to read this at a wedding.
There’s a word I have used several times and will use several times more, covenant. Covenant is a distinctive word of faith. In scripture covenant takes the form of God making promises to his people. In Genesis God promised Noah never again to curse the ground nor to destroy every living creature. God promised Abraham would become a great nation. In Hebrews it is revealed Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant.
The special element to biblical covenant is that these are not contracts. Contracts are between two parties who give up something to receive something else. A covenant is a promise made one to another; a promise made without condition. Today you do not make a contract with each other. Today you each make a covenant, one to the other.
Today you give yourself one to another. Today you give yourself one to another for the sake of something better. Today you give yourself to one another to become one family. This is only possible by love; love that is patient and kind, love that is not envious or boastful, love that is neither arrogant nor rude. Love that does not insist on its own way; isn’t irritable or resentful. Love that does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Above all, love never ends. Yes all things of this earth end, but that’s because what we know we only know in part; like a mirror dimly. This is why God gives us family. This is why God gives us the church; the church that has made a covenant with you, giving you our blessing as the assembled body of Christ and promising to uphold you and your family. We take this covenant very seriously. (Amen?)
We receive so that we may have a glimpse into God’s unending, overflowing love.
Love is a word, this is true. Love is a human emotion, but in the hands of God it is far more. The joy and the glory of love is the connection, the relationships that spring from God’s love. Love is a way of life that in its fullest never fails. Love is more than a word or an emotion. Love is why God sent his Son, to redeem us with love that never fails.
It is from the past work of God that we have faith. And it is in assurance in things to come that we have hope. But it is in God’s work here and now that we have love. And as Paul writes, now faith, hope, and love exist side by side, these three. And the greatest of these is love.
May the love of God bless you and your family.
Amen.
[1] “The Matrix Revolutions” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242653/quotes, retrieved June 18, 2011.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Steadfast, not Inflexible
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 17, 2008, the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
A recent Harris poll[1] asked Americans to name their favorite book. Number one on that list was “The Holy Bible.” This is what the article had to say about scripture:
The most popular and best-selling book of all time is The Holy Bible. No book has had more influence on the world. Its pages tell the story of the creation, fall, and redemption of mankind. Relive the story of creation and the fall of man in Genesis. Cross the wilderness with Moses in Exodus. Welcome the coming of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. The Holy Bible contains epic stories of history, heroism, and hope.
Somehow, I don’t think today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel was the first story that came to the minds of readers who picked The Holy Bible as their favorite book.
There are a lot of things that are troublesome with this reading. Jesus keeps on while a woman begs and pleads for mercy. After the disciples try to shoo her away, she pleads directly to the Rabbi who tells her he tells he was not sent for her or her people. Then in a none too subtle allusion, he calls her and her entire people dogs. I know I get cranky when dinner gets interrupted; still, my activities aren’t read and interpreted in worship. Thank God.
Troublesome is one way to describe Jesus’ behavior. How can we as the disciples of Jesus rationalize this abominable behavior? It isn’t up to us to sugar coat any of it, but it is up to us to try to understand it a little better.
To understand this, we need a little bit of history. As I have said before, the book of Matthew was written by Jewish followers of Jesus for Jewish followers of Jesus. It wasn’t even written as a way to bring new Jewish believers into the community.[2] It was written to instruct the Jewish Christian community in their own faith and clarify it so there would be fewer misunderstandings.
So if we want to say that this reading in particular or the gospel of Matthew in general confuses us; that’s all right because it wasn’t meant for us. Furthermore, our Christian reading set 2,000 years later is a recipe for misunderstanding.
I bring this up to draw your attention to verse 24 as Jesus responds to the Canaanite woman saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Given the first audience of this gospel, this verse was an important endorsement of the covenant between the Lord and Abram.
Genesis 17 begins:
The LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous. This is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”[3]
Now this is a promise Abraham and those who follow him could sink their teeth into. The Lord would be their God and they would be God’s people. This is the promise which the Jews of Matthew’s day had been waiting to have fulfilled for generations. The kingdom that was foretold here becomes realized first in the Kingdom of David. Jesus as the Son of David brings the Kingdom into the days of Matthew.
This is the promise that was saved when Pharaoh’s right hand man, Zaphenath-paneah saves, the family of Jacob from a seven year drought through Canaan and Egypt. This Egyptian name means “the god speaks and the one who bears the name lives,”[4] and it is a fitting name for a child of the covenant, the great grandson of Abraham, Joseph.
As Joseph meets his brothers in our reading from Genesis, revealing his identity to them, he tells them not to be grieved or angry with themselves. Joseph tells his brothers that God sent him before them to preserve life for the children of Abraham in Egypt. Joseph’s place in Egypt was the work of the Lord God saving the covenant from devastation, not the work of jealous brothers.
In the past I have told you that I am not comfortable with such a fatalistic cause-and-effect outlook on life. I find the Lord too utterly different to ascribe what I think are God’s motivations to earthly actions. I just don’t have the mind of God. My capacities are far too limited compared to the mind of God.
But just because this is my take, it doesn’t mean it was the opinion of those who wrote and edited and copied the wonderful five books of Moses. In fact, their world view and mind set were perfectly able to make those connections without my modern concern. It was a part of the ancient Hebrew view of creation, so this sort of cause and effect was common in the first five books of the Old Testament.
In the same way, the view of Matthew’s community of Jewish Christians knew the truth that the Son of David was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Matthew’s audience knew this to be true.
Paul’s letter to the Romans reminded the church of Jesus Christ and the nation of Israel of the same thing as he said, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”
But this is where the view of Matthew’s community of Jewish Christians became challenged by their Messiah. Jesus challenges his people to remember not just God’s covenant with Abram, but also Abram’s call from Genesis 12, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[5] Yes, Jesus was their savior, sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, but the Lord’s steadfast love was always a promise that extends beyond his first people and on to all of creation.
Paul’s letter to the Romans reminded the church of Jesus Christ and the nation of Israel of the same thing as he said, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
As Jesus told the woman of his people, the children of Abraham, she spoke to his full call, to be a blessing by whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Jesus knew his first love, the people of Israel. He also knew the grand scope of his vocation and his mission, to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, spoken by the most unlikely of people.
A woman who has no standing; of the people of Canaan which has no standing; for a little girl who is demon possessed whose youth, gender, race, and ailment cause her to have no standing four times; it is she whose faith overwhelms her place in society to call upon the Lord.
Her faith was demonstrated when she argued with Jesus in the same way one Rabbi argues with another. Her faith was called great when she said “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Her faith was called great when she showed that she knew the call of the people of Abraham and the Son of David was called to be a blessing to all the earth.
Oh yes, she had a lot of gumption to come to the Lord. Her bravery, the bravery of a she-bear protecting her cub, took her to the Lord. But it was not her bravery that caused Jesus to, if you’ll pardon the modern cliché, cause him to stop in his tracks, it was her faith. And by her faith, the Lord showed that his love for all creation was steadfast, but not inflexible.
There is always a chicken-and-egg question that pops up here. Did Jesus respond to the woman because she bested him in a debate or did Jesus respond to the woman when she gave the answer he knew to be correct all along? I say this question, as provocative as it is, lacks real importance. It is her faith which Jesus rewards; not her William Jennings Bryant quality oratory skills, not her fine rabbinical debate style, not even a system of didactic reward and punishment. It is by her faith that Jesus responds faithfully.
This is the promise to all the earth. This is promise given in the call to Abram. This is the promise Paul reminds the world in Romans. The people of Abram, the children of the covenant, the children of the Son of David will be a blessing to all the earth. By our faith we participate in this gift. By our faith we receive the steadfast love of the glorious eternal triune God.
Mogopa, a village to the west of Johannesburg, was to be demolished and its inhabitants forcibly removed at gunpoint to a homeland in apartheid’s forced population-removal schemes. On the eve of their departure, a vigil with church leaders from all over South Africa was held in Mogopa. The village clinics, shops, schools and churches had already been demolished. At about midnight, an elder of the doomed village got up to pray, and he prayed, “God, thank you for loving us so much.” Several years later, apartheid died and the people of Mogopa have returned to their village, which they are rebuilding.[6]
It is by faith that in the demolition and pending forced relocation of a city, a people can give thanks to God for the Lord’s steadfast love. It would be all too tempting to believe God is unfaithful or at least silent during such a horrible time, in such a horrible situation. Yet still, while their village is about to be scattered to the four winds by the practitioners of apartheid, one village elder remembered to be faithful because in steadfast love, God is faithful first.
God is steadfast, but God is not inflexible. Our Lord Jesus knew his first place was with the people of Israel. And he knew that by Israel being blessed, Israel would be a blessing to the world. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; we are now all children of the covenant. Even in the times when the village is to be scattered, even when the crumbs from the master’s table don’t seem to be enough to fuel our faith, we are still the children of God.
By God’s steadfast love we are saved; saved by grace through faith. Christ’s church was founded on his steadfast love, not bound by our sinfully human views of who is loved by God. Our love can only be partial, but our faith must be not in our love, but in the hope of Jesus Christ. In steadfast hope we can look beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.
[1] “10 Books to Read Before You Die.” Based on the results of a Harris Poll that asked 2,413 U.S. adults to name their favorite books, http://shopping.aol.com/articles/2008/07/08/10-books-to-read-before-you-die/, retrieved August 16, 2008.
[2] The New Interpreters’ Bible. Vol. VIII. Leander Keck, General Editor, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 100
[3] This reading from the New Revised Standard Version has deleted Abram’s responses to the Lord.
[4] Zaphenath-paneah, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible
[5] Genesis 12:2, 3, NRSV
[6] A Mogopa elder, quoted by Desmond Tutu, “An African Prayer Book.” New York: Doubleday, 1995, page 66. Found at Homiletics.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1218, retrieved August 16, 2008.
Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:21-28
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
A recent Harris poll[1] asked Americans to name their favorite book. Number one on that list was “The Holy Bible.” This is what the article had to say about scripture:
The most popular and best-selling book of all time is The Holy Bible. No book has had more influence on the world. Its pages tell the story of the creation, fall, and redemption of mankind. Relive the story of creation and the fall of man in Genesis. Cross the wilderness with Moses in Exodus. Welcome the coming of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. The Holy Bible contains epic stories of history, heroism, and hope.
Somehow, I don’t think today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel was the first story that came to the minds of readers who picked The Holy Bible as their favorite book.
There are a lot of things that are troublesome with this reading. Jesus keeps on while a woman begs and pleads for mercy. After the disciples try to shoo her away, she pleads directly to the Rabbi who tells her he tells he was not sent for her or her people. Then in a none too subtle allusion, he calls her and her entire people dogs. I know I get cranky when dinner gets interrupted; still, my activities aren’t read and interpreted in worship. Thank God.
Troublesome is one way to describe Jesus’ behavior. How can we as the disciples of Jesus rationalize this abominable behavior? It isn’t up to us to sugar coat any of it, but it is up to us to try to understand it a little better.
To understand this, we need a little bit of history. As I have said before, the book of Matthew was written by Jewish followers of Jesus for Jewish followers of Jesus. It wasn’t even written as a way to bring new Jewish believers into the community.[2] It was written to instruct the Jewish Christian community in their own faith and clarify it so there would be fewer misunderstandings.
So if we want to say that this reading in particular or the gospel of Matthew in general confuses us; that’s all right because it wasn’t meant for us. Furthermore, our Christian reading set 2,000 years later is a recipe for misunderstanding.
I bring this up to draw your attention to verse 24 as Jesus responds to the Canaanite woman saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Given the first audience of this gospel, this verse was an important endorsement of the covenant between the Lord and Abram.
Genesis 17 begins:
The LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous. This is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”[3]
Now this is a promise Abraham and those who follow him could sink their teeth into. The Lord would be their God and they would be God’s people. This is the promise which the Jews of Matthew’s day had been waiting to have fulfilled for generations. The kingdom that was foretold here becomes realized first in the Kingdom of David. Jesus as the Son of David brings the Kingdom into the days of Matthew.
This is the promise that was saved when Pharaoh’s right hand man, Zaphenath-paneah saves, the family of Jacob from a seven year drought through Canaan and Egypt. This Egyptian name means “the god speaks and the one who bears the name lives,”[4] and it is a fitting name for a child of the covenant, the great grandson of Abraham, Joseph.
As Joseph meets his brothers in our reading from Genesis, revealing his identity to them, he tells them not to be grieved or angry with themselves. Joseph tells his brothers that God sent him before them to preserve life for the children of Abraham in Egypt. Joseph’s place in Egypt was the work of the Lord God saving the covenant from devastation, not the work of jealous brothers.
In the past I have told you that I am not comfortable with such a fatalistic cause-and-effect outlook on life. I find the Lord too utterly different to ascribe what I think are God’s motivations to earthly actions. I just don’t have the mind of God. My capacities are far too limited compared to the mind of God.
But just because this is my take, it doesn’t mean it was the opinion of those who wrote and edited and copied the wonderful five books of Moses. In fact, their world view and mind set were perfectly able to make those connections without my modern concern. It was a part of the ancient Hebrew view of creation, so this sort of cause and effect was common in the first five books of the Old Testament.
In the same way, the view of Matthew’s community of Jewish Christians knew the truth that the Son of David was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Matthew’s audience knew this to be true.
Paul’s letter to the Romans reminded the church of Jesus Christ and the nation of Israel of the same thing as he said, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”
But this is where the view of Matthew’s community of Jewish Christians became challenged by their Messiah. Jesus challenges his people to remember not just God’s covenant with Abram, but also Abram’s call from Genesis 12, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[5] Yes, Jesus was their savior, sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, but the Lord’s steadfast love was always a promise that extends beyond his first people and on to all of creation.
Paul’s letter to the Romans reminded the church of Jesus Christ and the nation of Israel of the same thing as he said, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
As Jesus told the woman of his people, the children of Abraham, she spoke to his full call, to be a blessing by whom all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Jesus knew his first love, the people of Israel. He also knew the grand scope of his vocation and his mission, to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, spoken by the most unlikely of people.
A woman who has no standing; of the people of Canaan which has no standing; for a little girl who is demon possessed whose youth, gender, race, and ailment cause her to have no standing four times; it is she whose faith overwhelms her place in society to call upon the Lord.
Her faith was demonstrated when she argued with Jesus in the same way one Rabbi argues with another. Her faith was called great when she said “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Her faith was called great when she showed that she knew the call of the people of Abraham and the Son of David was called to be a blessing to all the earth.
Oh yes, she had a lot of gumption to come to the Lord. Her bravery, the bravery of a she-bear protecting her cub, took her to the Lord. But it was not her bravery that caused Jesus to, if you’ll pardon the modern cliché, cause him to stop in his tracks, it was her faith. And by her faith, the Lord showed that his love for all creation was steadfast, but not inflexible.
There is always a chicken-and-egg question that pops up here. Did Jesus respond to the woman because she bested him in a debate or did Jesus respond to the woman when she gave the answer he knew to be correct all along? I say this question, as provocative as it is, lacks real importance. It is her faith which Jesus rewards; not her William Jennings Bryant quality oratory skills, not her fine rabbinical debate style, not even a system of didactic reward and punishment. It is by her faith that Jesus responds faithfully.
This is the promise to all the earth. This is promise given in the call to Abram. This is the promise Paul reminds the world in Romans. The people of Abram, the children of the covenant, the children of the Son of David will be a blessing to all the earth. By our faith we participate in this gift. By our faith we receive the steadfast love of the glorious eternal triune God.
Mogopa, a village to the west of Johannesburg, was to be demolished and its inhabitants forcibly removed at gunpoint to a homeland in apartheid’s forced population-removal schemes. On the eve of their departure, a vigil with church leaders from all over South Africa was held in Mogopa. The village clinics, shops, schools and churches had already been demolished. At about midnight, an elder of the doomed village got up to pray, and he prayed, “God, thank you for loving us so much.” Several years later, apartheid died and the people of Mogopa have returned to their village, which they are rebuilding.[6]
It is by faith that in the demolition and pending forced relocation of a city, a people can give thanks to God for the Lord’s steadfast love. It would be all too tempting to believe God is unfaithful or at least silent during such a horrible time, in such a horrible situation. Yet still, while their village is about to be scattered to the four winds by the practitioners of apartheid, one village elder remembered to be faithful because in steadfast love, God is faithful first.
God is steadfast, but God is not inflexible. Our Lord Jesus knew his first place was with the people of Israel. And he knew that by Israel being blessed, Israel would be a blessing to the world. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; we are now all children of the covenant. Even in the times when the village is to be scattered, even when the crumbs from the master’s table don’t seem to be enough to fuel our faith, we are still the children of God.
By God’s steadfast love we are saved; saved by grace through faith. Christ’s church was founded on his steadfast love, not bound by our sinfully human views of who is loved by God. Our love can only be partial, but our faith must be not in our love, but in the hope of Jesus Christ. In steadfast hope we can look beyond all partial achievement to the final triumph of God.
[1] “10 Books to Read Before You Die.” Based on the results of a Harris Poll that asked 2,413 U.S. adults to name their favorite books, http://shopping.aol.com/articles/2008/07/08/10-books-to-read-before-you-die/, retrieved August 16, 2008.
[2] The New Interpreters’ Bible. Vol. VIII. Leander Keck, General Editor, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 100
[3] This reading from the New Revised Standard Version has deleted Abram’s responses to the Lord.
[4] Zaphenath-paneah, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible
[5] Genesis 12:2, 3, NRSV
[6] A Mogopa elder, quoted by Desmond Tutu, “An African Prayer Book.” New York: Doubleday, 1995, page 66. Found at Homiletics.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1218, retrieved August 16, 2008.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Path of the Covenant
This sermon was presented at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the Second Sunday in Lent, March 4, 2007.
Genesis 15:1-2, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
In the church, we often talk about covenant, most often we talk about the covenant of grace, the covenant of Jesus Christ. But in today’s Old Testament reading we get a picture of a different covenant, the covenant between the Lord and Abram.
The covenant in Genesis 15 contains two promises, people and land. Last week’s reading from Deuteronomy reminded us that our ancestor, Jacob, was a wandering Aramean. But this nickname also could have applied to his grandfather Abram who we hear about today. Abram was the original desert wanderer, a term which because of his landless condition literally means “one who is destitute, perishing.”[1] We learn earlier in Genesis that Abram had become affluent with flocks and herds, but he was still without a country to call home. He has wealth, but without a home he is like a plush potted plant that without being replanted in fresh soil will grow until it becomes root bound and dies in its pot.
Our reading begins with Abram receiving the word of the Lord in a vision. Abram is told that his reward will be very great. Abram asks what reward the Lord would give him since he does not have an heir. It is as if he asks the Lord “what good is more wealth if there is no one to receive it when I die?” It may seem a little presumptuous to ask about the relative value of the Lord’s gifts, but Abram has the confidence or the gall to ask. An heir would be very important to Abram. He and his wife Sarai were getting older. It is beginning to appear that his family, his lineage would end with him. His name and the name of his family would be lost to eternity. His wealth and power would go to others, in this case, to a slave of his household.
Here the Lord promises that Abram will have an heir of his own. Abram hears “No one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He is then told that his heirs will be so vast, that his family would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. In the ancient culture, progeny is a form of wealth surpassing material goods. Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Then the Lord promised the wealth that supports family and livestock alike, land. The Lord promises Abram the land where he stood as his inheritance.
Imagine how Abram felt at that moment, he was promised his greatest desires. He had wealth, now he was promised descendants to share the wealth and land for them to make a home. It must have seemed too good to be true. Then again while Abram faithfully believed, perhaps he had a shadow of doubt like the man with the child in the Gospel of Mark who cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief.”[2] For whatever reason, Abram asks the Lord, “O, Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
The Lord orders Abram to bring the elements of the covenant sacrifice. Another way to say making a covenant in Hebrew is cutting a covenant.[3] While the full reason for this expression is unknown, one explanation among many is that in making the covenant, a sacrifice was offered and the parties making the covenant would pass between the cut halves of the sacrificed beasts. Doing this, they symbolically take upon themselves the fate of the animals should they violate the covenant.[4]
The symbolism and the theology of the sacrifice system are pretty far beyond us. So it is probably more than most of us could imagine that Abram took first a heifer, and then a female goat, and then a ram, and split each of them in half. He didn’t have chain mail gloves like many who work in beef processing. He didn’t have power tools or refrigeration. There was no high powered water jet to cut the animals. He had a knife which he used to slaughter and then prepare the animals for the sacrifice. He cut skin, fat, muscle, tendon, cartilage, and organ with his knife to prepare the livestock for the covenant. Imagine the blood, not just on Abram’s clothes but in the mud between his toes. Finally, after several hours or perhaps even days, when the preparations were made, Abram put the finishing touches on the stock; he added a full dove to one stack and a young pigeon to the other. The offering was complete, but until the covenant ceremony was finished, Abram had to drive the buzzards from the carcasses.
In this post industrial-information age society, most people don’t have everyday contact with livestock. But we do have one advantage toward knowing about this system that others do not; we live in an area that has stock production and processing. Several members of this congregation even work in livestock production and processing. Even for those of us who don’t know the industry first hand, we know the smell of the chicken house and the smell of the Tyson plant cutting nuggets on three shifts. In this community, we are more familiar with the smells of livestock preparation than most, but it is still limited. Cutting a covenant was a messy business. So since we know something about the slaughterhouse when we proclaim the fate of the livestock can be our fate too if we violate the covenant, we say a lot.
But there is one more element of cutting a covenant. The covenant is established between the parties after they pass between the halves of the livestock. In this case, we learn only a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, symbols of the Lord, pass between the offering. The Lord establishes the covenant with Abram unilaterally. In this case, only the Lord is bound to provide the promises of the covenant upon the penalty of prior example. The Lord makes the covenant with Abram saying, “To your descendents I give this land.” Passing alone between the halves of the offering, the Lord promises these rewards.
The question then needs to be asked: Why did the Lord make Abram the recipient of such a generous covenant? The promises to the patriarchs, Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, point toward a day when their descendants will make up a populous nation whose wealth and well-being will benefit their neighbors.[5] The promise, the covenant is not so that they will have vast wealth to obliterate their neighbors, it is to be used to benefit their neighbors. Israel understood its existence not as its own accomplishment, but as a life grounded in the Lord’s benevolence.
In the reality of the Roman Empire, life grounded in the Lord’s benevolence had different meanings for different people. Our gospel reading accents this with the words of the Pharisees.
Their screams of “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you!” have a bit of Chicken Little associated with them. There are several theories why the Pharisees would warn Jesus.
Conventional wisdom has the Pharisees warning in a negative light because it comes from the Pharisees, consider the source if you will. The Pharisees were threatened by the teachings of Jesus and they used Herod to get him out of their hair. This is the conventional wisdom, but it is not always supported by Luke’s gospel. Luke’s writings are relatively neutral on the Pharisees, so this may not have been the case.
Another theory is that the Pharisees are attempting to distract Jesus from his divine purpose. If Jesus leaves, his ministry will be thwarted and the Pharisees will have the area all to themselves again. A side benefit is that without Jesus raising the rabble, Herod will leave the Pharisees alone. Again this may or may not be the case.
A third theory is that the warning came from genuine concern. As one commentary says, given “Luke’s ambiguous portrait of the Pharisees, some of whom will align themselves with Jesus, it is likely that the Pharisees in this scene are well-intentioned but lack a full understanding of how Jesus will fulfill God’s will. Given the dim-wittedness of the disciples on this score, we can hardly fault the Pharisees for failing to grasp that God’s purpose is served through the violent death of a prophet.”[6] But this is uncertain too.
So whether the motives of the Pharisees had bad intentions or not, Jesus knew that some of them would tell Herod what was happening just like a younger sibling who tattles at every opportunity. Whether the Pharisees had evil intent or were simply not ready for the new thing the Lord was doing, Jesus would not be turned from his path. Jesus knows his path. He knows where his ministry is leading. He knows that he will not die on this day, or the next, or the next by the hand of Herod. He knows it is not yet his time and this is not his place.
Jesus knows He is God’s blessing through the nation of Israel for the world. Through Him the world is redeemed. Where last week we said that the devil would not define the relationship between the Father and the Son, this week we learn that no human, neither the Pharisees nor Herod, would define this relationship either.
This sacrifice Jesus makes; he makes alone on our behalf. This is the covenant the Lord makes with all creation. As we said in our Call to Worship, “we make our offering with sounds of great gladness, singing and making music to the Lord,” then the Lord alone walks among it accepting it and making it holy.
Jesus is our perfect example, he walks between the sacrifice of two criminals hoisted upon their own petard. He rests between the sacrifice of our world and stands there alone for our benefit. But, this isn’t our focus today.
There is a lot of intrigue in the world of the Pharisees, those of 2,000 years ago and those of today. There are many things that seek to distract us from the word and work of the Lord. But Jesus was not deterred from his mission and we should not be deterred from ours. As the children of God, we are called to be a benefit to our neighbors because our existence is not our own accomplishment. Our life is grounded in the Lord’s benevolence received in the covenant of grace. This is the path of the covenant Jesus walks. We cannot walk it with him, no matter how hard we might want or try. Our path is different; we are not to be turned from our path of honor and service to the Lord for one that is not ours.
Yes, there is intrigue in the temple and in our world. And the promises of the Lord may seem too good to be true. Perhaps even while we believe and it is reckoned unto us as righteousness, there is a nagging grain of unbelief. But through his covenant and his sacrifice, we are able to do more than we ever could without. Let us not be distracted by our world. Let us seek, know and follow our path and follow it as Jesus knew and followed his.
[1] Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A, The New Interpreter’s® Study Bible New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. Notes for Deuteronomy 26:5, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989.
[2] Mark 9:24, NRSV.
[3] Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A, The Interpreter’s® Dictionary of the Bible, Supplemental Edition. George Arthur Buttrick, Dictionary Editor. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976.
[4] Ibid. NISB, note on 15:9-10.
[5] Ibid, Excursus on “The Promises to the Patriarchs.”
[6] Ibid, paraphrase of the notes on Luke 13:31.
Genesis 15:1-2, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
In the church, we often talk about covenant, most often we talk about the covenant of grace, the covenant of Jesus Christ. But in today’s Old Testament reading we get a picture of a different covenant, the covenant between the Lord and Abram.
The covenant in Genesis 15 contains two promises, people and land. Last week’s reading from Deuteronomy reminded us that our ancestor, Jacob, was a wandering Aramean. But this nickname also could have applied to his grandfather Abram who we hear about today. Abram was the original desert wanderer, a term which because of his landless condition literally means “one who is destitute, perishing.”[1] We learn earlier in Genesis that Abram had become affluent with flocks and herds, but he was still without a country to call home. He has wealth, but without a home he is like a plush potted plant that without being replanted in fresh soil will grow until it becomes root bound and dies in its pot.
Our reading begins with Abram receiving the word of the Lord in a vision. Abram is told that his reward will be very great. Abram asks what reward the Lord would give him since he does not have an heir. It is as if he asks the Lord “what good is more wealth if there is no one to receive it when I die?” It may seem a little presumptuous to ask about the relative value of the Lord’s gifts, but Abram has the confidence or the gall to ask. An heir would be very important to Abram. He and his wife Sarai were getting older. It is beginning to appear that his family, his lineage would end with him. His name and the name of his family would be lost to eternity. His wealth and power would go to others, in this case, to a slave of his household.
Here the Lord promises that Abram will have an heir of his own. Abram hears “No one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” He is then told that his heirs will be so vast, that his family would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens. In the ancient culture, progeny is a form of wealth surpassing material goods. Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Then the Lord promised the wealth that supports family and livestock alike, land. The Lord promises Abram the land where he stood as his inheritance.
Imagine how Abram felt at that moment, he was promised his greatest desires. He had wealth, now he was promised descendants to share the wealth and land for them to make a home. It must have seemed too good to be true. Then again while Abram faithfully believed, perhaps he had a shadow of doubt like the man with the child in the Gospel of Mark who cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief.”[2] For whatever reason, Abram asks the Lord, “O, Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
The Lord orders Abram to bring the elements of the covenant sacrifice. Another way to say making a covenant in Hebrew is cutting a covenant.[3] While the full reason for this expression is unknown, one explanation among many is that in making the covenant, a sacrifice was offered and the parties making the covenant would pass between the cut halves of the sacrificed beasts. Doing this, they symbolically take upon themselves the fate of the animals should they violate the covenant.[4]
The symbolism and the theology of the sacrifice system are pretty far beyond us. So it is probably more than most of us could imagine that Abram took first a heifer, and then a female goat, and then a ram, and split each of them in half. He didn’t have chain mail gloves like many who work in beef processing. He didn’t have power tools or refrigeration. There was no high powered water jet to cut the animals. He had a knife which he used to slaughter and then prepare the animals for the sacrifice. He cut skin, fat, muscle, tendon, cartilage, and organ with his knife to prepare the livestock for the covenant. Imagine the blood, not just on Abram’s clothes but in the mud between his toes. Finally, after several hours or perhaps even days, when the preparations were made, Abram put the finishing touches on the stock; he added a full dove to one stack and a young pigeon to the other. The offering was complete, but until the covenant ceremony was finished, Abram had to drive the buzzards from the carcasses.
In this post industrial-information age society, most people don’t have everyday contact with livestock. But we do have one advantage toward knowing about this system that others do not; we live in an area that has stock production and processing. Several members of this congregation even work in livestock production and processing. Even for those of us who don’t know the industry first hand, we know the smell of the chicken house and the smell of the Tyson plant cutting nuggets on three shifts. In this community, we are more familiar with the smells of livestock preparation than most, but it is still limited. Cutting a covenant was a messy business. So since we know something about the slaughterhouse when we proclaim the fate of the livestock can be our fate too if we violate the covenant, we say a lot.
But there is one more element of cutting a covenant. The covenant is established between the parties after they pass between the halves of the livestock. In this case, we learn only a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, symbols of the Lord, pass between the offering. The Lord establishes the covenant with Abram unilaterally. In this case, only the Lord is bound to provide the promises of the covenant upon the penalty of prior example. The Lord makes the covenant with Abram saying, “To your descendents I give this land.” Passing alone between the halves of the offering, the Lord promises these rewards.
The question then needs to be asked: Why did the Lord make Abram the recipient of such a generous covenant? The promises to the patriarchs, Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, point toward a day when their descendants will make up a populous nation whose wealth and well-being will benefit their neighbors.[5] The promise, the covenant is not so that they will have vast wealth to obliterate their neighbors, it is to be used to benefit their neighbors. Israel understood its existence not as its own accomplishment, but as a life grounded in the Lord’s benevolence.
In the reality of the Roman Empire, life grounded in the Lord’s benevolence had different meanings for different people. Our gospel reading accents this with the words of the Pharisees.
Their screams of “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you!” have a bit of Chicken Little associated with them. There are several theories why the Pharisees would warn Jesus.
Conventional wisdom has the Pharisees warning in a negative light because it comes from the Pharisees, consider the source if you will. The Pharisees were threatened by the teachings of Jesus and they used Herod to get him out of their hair. This is the conventional wisdom, but it is not always supported by Luke’s gospel. Luke’s writings are relatively neutral on the Pharisees, so this may not have been the case.
Another theory is that the Pharisees are attempting to distract Jesus from his divine purpose. If Jesus leaves, his ministry will be thwarted and the Pharisees will have the area all to themselves again. A side benefit is that without Jesus raising the rabble, Herod will leave the Pharisees alone. Again this may or may not be the case.
A third theory is that the warning came from genuine concern. As one commentary says, given “Luke’s ambiguous portrait of the Pharisees, some of whom will align themselves with Jesus, it is likely that the Pharisees in this scene are well-intentioned but lack a full understanding of how Jesus will fulfill God’s will. Given the dim-wittedness of the disciples on this score, we can hardly fault the Pharisees for failing to grasp that God’s purpose is served through the violent death of a prophet.”[6] But this is uncertain too.
So whether the motives of the Pharisees had bad intentions or not, Jesus knew that some of them would tell Herod what was happening just like a younger sibling who tattles at every opportunity. Whether the Pharisees had evil intent or were simply not ready for the new thing the Lord was doing, Jesus would not be turned from his path. Jesus knows his path. He knows where his ministry is leading. He knows that he will not die on this day, or the next, or the next by the hand of Herod. He knows it is not yet his time and this is not his place.
Jesus knows He is God’s blessing through the nation of Israel for the world. Through Him the world is redeemed. Where last week we said that the devil would not define the relationship between the Father and the Son, this week we learn that no human, neither the Pharisees nor Herod, would define this relationship either.
This sacrifice Jesus makes; he makes alone on our behalf. This is the covenant the Lord makes with all creation. As we said in our Call to Worship, “we make our offering with sounds of great gladness, singing and making music to the Lord,” then the Lord alone walks among it accepting it and making it holy.
Jesus is our perfect example, he walks between the sacrifice of two criminals hoisted upon their own petard. He rests between the sacrifice of our world and stands there alone for our benefit. But, this isn’t our focus today.
There is a lot of intrigue in the world of the Pharisees, those of 2,000 years ago and those of today. There are many things that seek to distract us from the word and work of the Lord. But Jesus was not deterred from his mission and we should not be deterred from ours. As the children of God, we are called to be a benefit to our neighbors because our existence is not our own accomplishment. Our life is grounded in the Lord’s benevolence received in the covenant of grace. This is the path of the covenant Jesus walks. We cannot walk it with him, no matter how hard we might want or try. Our path is different; we are not to be turned from our path of honor and service to the Lord for one that is not ours.
Yes, there is intrigue in the temple and in our world. And the promises of the Lord may seem too good to be true. Perhaps even while we believe and it is reckoned unto us as righteousness, there is a nagging grain of unbelief. But through his covenant and his sacrifice, we are able to do more than we ever could without. Let us not be distracted by our world. Let us seek, know and follow our path and follow it as Jesus knew and followed his.
[1] Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A, The New Interpreter’s® Study Bible New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. Notes for Deuteronomy 26:5, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989.
[2] Mark 9:24, NRSV.
[3] Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A, The Interpreter’s® Dictionary of the Bible, Supplemental Edition. George Arthur Buttrick, Dictionary Editor. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976.
[4] Ibid. NISB, note on 15:9-10.
[5] Ibid, Excursus on “The Promises to the Patriarchs.”
[6] Ibid, paraphrase of the notes on Luke 13:31.
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