Is suffering retribution?

Job 20:1-11 (NRSV)

Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
"Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer,
because of the agitation within me.
I hear censure that insults me,
and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.
Do you not know this from of old,
ever since mortals were placed on earth,
that the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
Even though they mount up high as the heavens,
and their head reaches to the clouds,
they will perish forever like their own dung;
those who have seen them will say, 'Where are they?'
They will fly away like a dream, and not be found;
they will be chased away like a vision of the night.
The eye that saw them will see them no more,
nor will their place behold them any longer.
Their children will seek the favor of the poor,

and their hands will give back their wealth.
Their bodies, once full of youth,
will lie down in the dust with them.

Job is one of those books from scripture that I really believe needs to be read as a whole.  Most know that Job has suffered because God has allowed Satan to test Job's righteousness through a series of misfortunes and suffering.  But the book is structured in such a way that it's heart is most apparent in its entirety.

Zophar is one of Job's three friends who come to Job to sit with him in his suffering.  Their series of their speeches to Job show their theology: that God punishes the wicked and therefore Job must have sinned.  Job's blamelessness is something they can't conceive.  For them, God is a God of ordered discipline for sin and reward for righteousness - despite evidence to the contrary in the life of their friend Job.

It's still something we believe on some level sometimes, isn't it?  I admit that in some dark moments - moments of pain and suffering, occasionally my mind goes there.  

But it doesn't stay their long.  I have only to look at this morning's headlines after the devastation in the Philippines to know that God isn't simply parceling out retribution through suffering. 

Some famed TV evangelists still act as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  How many natural acts have we heard them attribute to God's anger at the sinfulness of the place that was stuck?  Rather than comfort the afflicted, they afflict them more with a theology that the book of Job laid to rest long ago. 

We will always undoubtedly as a people ask the question "Why do good people have to suffer?"  The answers to that are never pat and never easy.  Be wary of those who try to give answers that are.

But we know we have a God who, rather than sit back and enjoy the view of our suffering, walks through that suffering with us.  Accompanies us and lifts us up when we stumble.  We have a God who knows suffering and weeps with us as we suffer.

St. Paul's letter to the Romans may not give an answer to "why" we suffer, but it explains much better the outcome than Job's three friends do:  suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Gracious God, walk with us today when we are faced with trials and evils we cannot account for.  We also ask that you be with the nation of the Philippines as they deal with the aftermath of unimaginable loss.  Remind us that they are our neighbors and help us to reach out in comfort to them as they try to put their lives back together.  Amen.

The Way

Acts 24:10-23 (NRSV)

When the governor motioned to him to speak, Paul replied:

"I cheerfully make my defense, knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation. As you can find out, it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem. They did not find me disputing with anyone in the temple or stirring up a crowd either in the synagogues or throughout the city. Neither can they prove to you the charge that they now bring against me. But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets. I have a hope in God -- a hope that they themselves also accept -- that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience toward God and all people. Now after some years I came to bring alms to my nation and to offer sacrifices. While I was doing this, they found me in the temple, completing the rite of purification, without any crowd or disturbance. But there were some Jews from Asia -- they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, if they have anything against me. Or let these men here tell what crime they had found when I stood before the council, unless it was this one sentence that I called out while standing before them, 'It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.'"

But Felix, who was rather well informed about the Way, adjourned the hearing with the comment, "When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case." Then he ordered the centurion to keep him in custody, but to let him have some liberty and not to prevent any of his friends from taking care of his needs. 

I wish often that we were still called the people of the Way.  It encompasses so many of the complexities of being a Christian.  It's active.  It moves.  It reminds us of not just the way of life, but also the way of Jesus' death and the way of our hope.  

It says simply that we are a people of a journey.  

And it says simply that God is also about a journey.  To us.

When I am being the least faithful, whether to God, or really to anything important in my life, it is because I have gotten settled.  I've gotten comfortable in a place and don't want to move.

But a person of the way is always moving.  Always part of the action.  Always being tuned to where God is leading.

There is nothing about The Way that implies a straight line.  The Way twists and turns.  The Way is full of change.  Change isn't something that we as a people like all that much, but Jesus' Way was all about change.  Jesus came as Change.  He came to initiate a new Way.  A life that continues with the promise of the resurrection.  A life that is meant to have meaning, fullness, and abundance.  A life that reaches out to our neighbor in love and gives them a hand on their Way.

The Way is often fraught with sorrow or danger, but also filled with hope and joy.  

We are meant to be a people of the Way still.  It isn't always an easy way, but it is a way in which you are in good company.

God of the journey, prepare us.  Help us not to fear the changes that come before us on our way of faith.  Help us to trust always in your gracious guidance and follow where you lead.  Amen.

Paul confronts religious leaders

Acts 22:22-23:11 (NRSV)

Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live." And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him. But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?" When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, "What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen." The tribune came and asked Paul, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" And he said, "Yes." The tribune answered, "It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship." Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, "Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God." Then the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth. At this Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law you order me to be struck?" Those standing nearby said, "Do you dare to insult God's high priest?" And Paul said, "I did not realize, brothers, that he was high priest; for it is written, 'You shall not speak evil of a leader of your people.'"

When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.) Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees' group stood up and contended, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?" When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks.

That night the Lord stood near him and said, "Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome." 

Exciting stuff!  Paul before the council as Jesus was not long before him, but quite a different scene.  Paul knows his politics.  Paul plays his politics and Paul stands defiant, and divisive before this group that holds his fate in their hands.  He plays the Sadducees and the Pharisees against each other, thus getting (at least temporarily) the Pharisees on his side.

It's seems initially quite an earthy or worldly way to do things.  "Wise" indeed to the ways of the world.  Paul often spoke of wisdom, contrasting and comparing it to foolishness and God's ways vs. human ways.  In 1 Corinthians he talked of how he first came to the Corinthians:  "I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.  I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling."

This was not a Paul who was timid and trembling.  But as Paul told the Corinthians, he did speak with a wisdom - one that was of God and of the Holy Spirit, and not discernible by the rulers of the world.  How could they discern it?  God's wisdom, as Paul says over and over, comes in weakness.  And it is important to remember, that as confident as Paul was in this scene, his weakness before those judging him is also apparent.  He could have been torn to pieces in the melee. 

Yet he still stood with confidence and courage.

It's hard to face sometimes - really hard - that our strength before a world that is often violent, oppressive, condemning and cruel, comes in weakness.  It comes from a baby born in an animal trough, who as a man died a cruel and seemingly pointless death.

But not pointless.  Far from pointless.  We will hear again this Sunday about the Sadducees - the group that led the council that condemned Jesus - and how they did not believe in the Resurrection of the dead.  They had all the power and all of their power was tied to the power of the Temple.

When the temple was destroyed in AD 70, the Sadducees as a group disappeared.

As human power often does.

Our hope lies in weakness.  Hard to comprehend sometimes, but when like Paul, we trust in that strength that lies beyond us, all things are possible.

God of wisdom and strength, remind us always that with you all things are possible.  Help us to find our courage.  The courage to speak of your great love to everyone.  The courage to remember that your ways are not our ways and that your power is ultimately the only true power we can rely on.  Amen.

The parable of the pounds

Luke 19:11-27 (NRSV)

As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, "A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, 'Do business with these until I come back.' But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to rule over us.' When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, 'Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.' He said to him, 'Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.' Then the second came, saying, 'Lord, your pound has made five pounds.' He said to him, 'And you, rule over five cities.' Then the other came, saying, 'Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.' He said to the bystanders, 'Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.' (And they said to him, 'Lord, he has ten pounds!') 'I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.'"

Slaughter isn't one of those words I like hearing from Jesus.  This parable of the pounds is similar, but not identical, to the parable of the talents found in Matthew.  However, here the twist has been added to this story of making this man a king who is getting a kingdom from unhappy residents.  It adds another level of power he wields and fear his servants must feel.  And then there's the whole slaughter thing...

Truth is, God does wield an awful lot of power.  And part of that power has been endowing us with gifts - spiritual, and otherwise.  And as I've been stretching out in an extended theme, everything God does ultimately is about relationship.  Sharing is perhaps the best way to build relationship.

What good are the gifts we have if all we do is wrap them in a piece of cloth and hide them from the light of day?

The other day I said how blessings are intended to be passed on - we are blessed to be a blessing to others. The same is true of the gifts we are given. They are meant not just for our benefit.  Sometimes they are even meant to be used for others to "reap what they did not sow."  Sometimes we are sowers.  Other times we are reapers.  But at all times are we meant to be engaged in the dance of life.  Giving, sharing, taking, using, building, creating, reaping: taking the gifts we've been given, both spiritual and material, and helping God turn them into something that lifts up our neighbor.  Making sure that we aren't alone in our reaping.

The slaughter word is still troubling, I admit.  It helps that this story was told in a particular context and has ties to the real life story of Herod Archelaus, which Jesus' hearers would have known.  But there is also another connection that comes to mind.

There is a part of me that needs to die in order for me to live - the part of me that keeps to myself, hold everything back, hides lights under bushels and wraps gifts in pieces of cloth.  Holding back brings death.  It brings death to the mission of the church, it brings death to the kingdom to God, and it brings a kind of death to my own gifts, talents, and faith.

God is the God of life.  God's good gifts sometimes benefit us, but other times they are given to us that we might us them to benefit others.  In all ways, they are given so that we may continually be engaged in relationship and life.

Giving God, thank you for all the gifts you have given us.  You ask us always to share what we have.  Sometimes that is easy, and other times, not as much.  We ask you to remind us.  Prod us. Help us.  And always forgive us!  Amen

Wholeness

Zechariah 7:1-14 (NRSV)
Fasting versus justice and mercy

In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, "Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?" Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves? Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited? 

The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Just as, when I called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts, and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate. 

And today, again we are reminded of God concern for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the poor.  Or as Jesus would call them, "the least of these."

In Biblical times these groups of people were considered the least.  They had unprotected status.  Often these days they still do.  

The questions Zechariah asks in the first paragraph for God - "When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?" are ones that get to the heart I think of God's hope for relationship with us.  When we follow the law, do we do it simply because God has told us to?  Or do we do we participate in it as we do things that bring us joy - because it we feel compelled physically to do it?

As far as eating and drinking goes, during Lent, I admit that sometimes this has been where I've come from:  I give up something because I think I should.  But boy…when it is time to eat it again, I partake with my whole being!

God's after our whole being, and quite simply, being in relationship with God - through prayer, worship, service, and really, just plain old faith, is the way be begin to get a glimpse finally of who that whole person is.  

Relationship is so important to God it includes even the least of these. We are reminded of that over and over again by the prophets, and then by Jesus himself.  As we begin to see those who normally don't fall on our radar as part of the wholeness of God's plan for the world, we begin to feel whole ourselves.  Our wholeness is expressed then not alone, but with others always.  And those others might not be the ones we would naturally think of first.  

Saving God, you want us to be whole. You want for us good and right relationships that both strengthen ourselves and strengthen your communities.  Cleanse our hearts and open our eyes so that we can see those before us who you are calling us to help make whole.  Amen.

Relationship and hospitality

Nehemiah 13:1-3, 23-31 (NRSV)

Israel separates from foreigners 

On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them -- yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. When the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent. ...

In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab; and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke the language of various peoples. And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not King Solomon of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?"

And one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I chased him away from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and the Levites.

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; and I provided for the wood offering, at appointed times, and for the first fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. 

This is one of those readings that my first temptation is to simply dismiss.  God is always throughout scripture reminding his people to care for the widows, the orphans, and the "aliens."  So reading about separating the foreigners from God's people sounds harsh and doesn't quite jibe with what God is about.

God is indeed a God of relationships, and the first paragraph gives some sense to what's going on for me.  The Ammonites and the Moabites didn't greet the Israelites upon their return.  Hospitality was not given, but instead, those holding the land cursed the returnees.

There's a lot else that's going on here - all about the Jewish people returning to their home and the rebuilding and re-purification of the temple and repopulating God's chosen people.

But at the heart of it is always this God who is a God of relationship. The Hebrew Bible is all about the love and relationship between God and his people.  God had brought them home and their first impulse it seems, as you read Nehemiah, was to go back to many of the foreign ways the pulled them from God to begin with.

Martin Luther famously said that we are people who are "in the world, but not of the world."  We are God's people but we live in a world that often has ways of living and being that are separate from God's ways.  They are, for God, foreign ways.

Yet time and again, God comes and brings us home.  Reminds of God's ways.  Forgives our wanderings and calls us to right, solid, and whole relationship.  Reminds us that on this side of the cross we live to share the good news with all of God's children.  Reminds us that the promise is for all.

We don't keep our churches pure by keeping "foreigners" out.  Temple worship is not part of our tradition.  Instead now we live into the promise that while we are in this world, the God of relationship calls us to live and love with hospitality with all.

God of relationship, remind us of your ways.  Remind us of your love for all people and your desire to bring everyone into relationship.  Give us a heart for hospitality so that we continually reach out and share your love, your goodness and your mercy with all we meet.  Amen.

Community of Love

2 Peter 1:1-11 (NRSV)

Participants of the divine nature

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self control, and self control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. 

This is one of those passages that reminds me woefully how much I fall short.  Coming the day after Reformation Sunday, where we are reminded that we are justified by faith, not works, Peter here pushes us on to "make every effort…"  In other words, work hard.  

The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  As I look at Peter's list - goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection - I do know that they are God's good intention for us.

But what strikes me this time as I read this passage is something I never noticed.  It is, I think, the habit of Westerners to read passages like this on an individual level.  But see what Peter says:  "for if these things are increasing among you.."  In other words, the plural you.  So in your community.

Paul reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.  Myself included.  But when we are together, we are stronger.  We lift each other up.  We support and love and guide and strengthen in ways that on our own we can not.

On my own, I am likely to keep messing up and staying mired in sin.  But God did not mean for me to be alone.  God meant for me to be in relationship.  And God meant for the church to be a place where we together become participants in the divine nature and workers of God's kingdom.

Today is All Saint's Day.  As Luther reminded us, we are all saints AND sinners.  As Peter reminds us, when we are together, supporting each other, loving each other and guiding each other, the church's saints can do amazing things and live into being the creatures God intended us to be.  Sometimes those individual saints will mess up, be ineffective, and blind.  But where mutual affection abounds, forgiveness happens and life erupts with newness and hope.

Forgiving, gracious God, thank you for the community of your church.  Thank you for all of my fellow sinners and saints who guide and endure and have strength when I do not.  Help me to be a worker for grace in your community of love, supported by and supporting those around around me. Amen