Leveling the Scales

Leni Kae Libra with scales

Luke is the great leveler of the Gospel writers. While the Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew where we are called to a "higher level" of ethical behavior, Luke titles Jesus' major ethical expression the Sermon on the Plain. Luke approaches true ethics as "an equalizer." He wants to bring the scales into balance for all.


In the passages given from the Lectionary for today, we see Luke's example of how one is equalized and becomes an equalizer for others in his community.


Luke 19:1-10
19:1 He entered Jericho and was passing through it.

19:2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich.

19:3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.

19:4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.

19:5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today."

19:6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.

19:7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner."

19:8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much."

19:9 Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.

19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

Are there those in your world today for whom you can level the scales? 

What keeps us from doing this?  

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

Passing the baton.

How do our lives matter to the next generation?  How do we pass on the baton so the race continues?

Today's lesson, as chosen from 2 Timothy, reflects Paul's feelings at the end of his life. It is traditionally believed that Paul was possibly martyred in Rome. Whatever the case may be, he appears to have felt he had been faithful to his call.  

The night before Martin Luther King was assassinated, King delivered his I've been to the mountain top speech. 

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. 

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!   

And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!"

  

All religious expressions start out as a cult experience. Some religious expressions make it past their cult stage, most don't. A cult can be defined as a religious expression that finds its full beginning and ending in the time of one lifespan. Every generation has its cults. Think David Koresh and the Branch Davidians,  Jim Jones and Guyana as examples of this type of phenomena. It ended when the life of the leader ended. Their cult expressions died away within one generation.

How do we avoid being a cult and pass on the baton to the next generation?

In the passages from 2 Timothy 4:6-8 and 16-18, we see Pail speaking of the end of his life and how he places it in the context of the larger whole. 

From the passages how did Paul contribute to the next generation? How did Martin Luther King? But most importantly how do we contribute to the continued presence of God in the lives of those to come?

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

4:6 As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come.

4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

4:8 From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

4:16 At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them!

4:17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.

4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line 

The Dark Night of the Soul

The dark night of the Soul or Spiritual Crisis.

 From Wikipedia: The concept of "spiritual crisis" has mainly sprung from the work of transpersonal psychologists and psychiatrists whose view of the psyche stretches beyond that of Western psychology. Transpersonalists tend to focus less on psychpathology and more unidirectionally toward enlightenment and ideal mental health (Walsh & Vaughan, 1993). However, this emphasis on spirituality's potentials and health benefits has been criticized.

According to James (1902), a spiritual orientation focusing only on positive themes is incomplete, as it fails to address evil and suffering (Pargament et al., 2004). Scholarly attention to spiritual struggle is therefore timely as it can provide greater balance to the empirical literature and increase understanding of everyday spirituality. Another reason for the study of spiritual crisis is that growth often occurs through suffering (e.g., Tedeschi, Park, & Calhoun, 1998). As such, neglecting problems of suffering might result in neglecting vital sources of spiritual transformation and development (Paloutzian, 2005)


What does it mean to have striven with God and with Humans? And to have prevailed through a dark night?


Genesis 32:22-31
32:22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

32:23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.

32:24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

32:25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

32:26 Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me."

32:27 So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."

32:28 Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed."

32:29 Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.

32:30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."

32:31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

Should I Shemaiah? or Jeremiah?

 How do we respond to things that are beyond our control? 

Should we go forward, stop, go back? 

In our human experience, what feelings and emotions also come with these decisions?


In today's lesson we look at Israel's capture and captivity in Babylon. From the book of Jeremiah there are clearly two opposing prophetic messages being set in front of the Jewish people as to whether they should establish a meaningful life in Babylon or not. As in the multi-traffic light shown above is the message go or stop??

Jeremiah 29

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles in Babylon

 

1These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
²This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.  
³The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said:  
⁴Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  
⁵Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.
⁶Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
⁷But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
⁸For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,^{*  
9}for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord.
10 For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place.  
¹¹For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
¹²Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  
¹³When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,  
¹⁴I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
15 Because you have said, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’—
¹⁶thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who live in this city, your kinsfolk who did not go out with you into exile:  
¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts, I am going to let loose on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.  
¹⁸I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of cursing, and horror, and hissing, and a derision among all the nations where I have driven them,
¹⁹because they did not heed my words, says the Lord, when I persistently sent to you my servants the prophets, but they^* would not listen, says the Lord.
²⁰But now, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem  to Babylon, hear the word of the Lord: 
²¹Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name: I am going to deliver them into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall kill them before your eyes.  
²²And on account of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: ‘The Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire’,  
²³because they have perpetrated outrage in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them; I am the one who knows and bears witness, says the Lord.

The Letter of Shemaiah

24 To Shemaiah of Nehelam you shall say:  
²⁵Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: In your own name you sent a letter to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying,
²⁶The Lord himself has made you priest instead of the priest Jehoiada, so that there may be officers in the house of the Lord to control any madman who plays the prophet, to put him in the stocks and the collar.
²⁷So now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who plays the prophet for you?  
²⁸For he has actually sent to us in Babylon, saying, ‘It will be a long time; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat what they produce.’
29 The priest Zephaniah read this letter in the hearing of the prophet Jeremiah.  
³⁰Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:  
³¹Send to all the exiles, saying, Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and has led you to trust in a lie, ³²therefore thus says the Lord: I am going to punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants; he shall not have anyone living among this people to see^* the good that I am going to do to my people, says the Lord, for he has spoken rebellion against the Lord.


Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

Frustration vs Formation

Out of frustration, have you ever prayed to God requesting more patience and then found yourself thrown even further into an arduous and challenging predicament that you must struggle through? 

Many of the experiences of our lives can have meaning and purpose if we desire for them to be so. For our experience is just that: Ours. It shapes and influences each of us in unique ways quite like nothing else. 

It is something we might refer to as formation. 

Our frustrations act out our base desires and expectations regarding how we believe things ought to be.This is as true for us as for the apostles when they asked Jesus to give them more faith. They must have been frustrated with where they were. And as we see, this request bred a Jesus who expressed loudly his own frustration with the apostles as well. 

How was Jesus' answer an answer regarding their formation?

Luke 17:5-10
17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"


17:6 The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.


17:7 "Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'?


17:8 Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'?


17:9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?


17:10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"



Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

Today we're all in the same boat...

The lectionary passages today remind of a story about faith and how it should be acted out.
During the months of early Spring a flash food comes to a small Texas farming community. Livestock, houses, and barns are loosened from their foundations and washed away by the over-bounding currents of furious water. Farm folk are caught upon their roofs as waters suddenly rise and flow. One farmer trapped atop his shed flowing down the current prays to God saying, "I believe in miracles and I know you will save me."

Before the next hour is finished the farmer experiences three incidents. The first, a man on the shore offers to throw him a rope, second, a rescue boat passes by the floating shed and offers help, third, a helicopter flies over and lowers a rescue harness. But each time the farmer refuses. "God will rescue me, I have faith" he states.

But the deluge overcomes him and suddenly he finds himself before his maker. Bewildered, he asks God why he let him perish. God angrily replies that he sent him the rope, the boat and the copter! Didn't the farmer recognize the miracles of this present world?  Dr. Luther Martin King once said about the African-American struggle that "once we all came in separate boats to America, but now here, we are all in the same boat. That very same lifeboat.


Our lesson today is the importance of providing the everyday miracles of that lifeboat today to those who need them.

What could Jesus mean when he said? 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Luke 16:19-31
16:19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.

16:20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,

16:21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.

16:22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

16:23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.

16:24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.'

16:25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.

16:26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.'

16:27 He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house--

16:28 for I have five brothers--that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.'

16:29 Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.'

16:30 He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'

16:31 He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?

Fire in the Eye

Similar to our verses today is a sermon by the colonial Puritan preacher. Jonathan Edwards, from our country's early days.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, 1741                                                                                        

For better or worse, the sermon for which Edwards is probably most famous—or infamous—is the one preached to the congregation of Enfield, Massachusetts (later Connecticut) in July 1741. Anthologized in high school and college textbooks, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God represents in many persons’ minds the bleak, cruel, and hell-bent outlook of Edwards and his Puritan predecessors. But of course such a representation is only a caricature, for Sinners, if it represents anything, stands for only a small part of Edwards’s view of the relationship between humankind and God. As a specially crafted awakening sermon, Sinners was aimed at a particularly hard-hearted congregation. But, at the same time, the awakening sermon and all it expressed—the awful weight of sin, the wrath of an infinitely holy God, and the unexpectedness of the moment when God will execute justice—were integral to Edwards’s theology.(Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University) http://edwards.yale.edu/research/major-works/sinners-in-the-hands-of-an-angry-god    

Does God change his mind? 

In the Lectionary session we have today from the book of Exodus 32: 7-14 we see God's angered reaction to the stiff-necked people he has brought out from Egypt. We also see Moses' response to God and how he regards the people of Israel as his responsibility. 

Who are we responsible for? 

Are we ready to speak for them when the need arises?

Exodus 32:7-14
32:7 The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;


32:8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"


32:9 The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.


32:10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."


32:11 But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?


32:12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.


32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"


32:14 And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.           

Walter Morton for Journey Across the Line