Today in the Spirit: Proper 19C
At Pentecost, Proper 19C, we come to another instance in Luke where religious leaders watch Jesus to trap him. From the assigned Gospel reading, Luke 15:1-10, we hear the narrative of Jesus responding to Pharisees and scribes grumbling because Jesus “receives sinners and eats with them” (2). He tells them three parables, the first two of which are assigned in the lectionary reading, the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.
The assigned OT reading from Exodus 32:1,7-14 gives us the enigmatic account of Moses seemingly talking YHWH out of destroying the idolatrous people of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai.
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And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
Exodus 32:9-10
Is God confiding in Moses and welcoming his counsel? Is it a test of Moses’ faithfulness to God and his people? Or, is Moses prefiguring the priestly Christ standing in the gap between holiness in heaven and sin on earth? All of this? The narrative concludes with the words, “And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people” (14).
Psalm 51:1-17 (also assigned at Lent 1A) is a “psalm of David” well-loved in the church for its attitude of deep contrition and consciousness of the mercy of God. Whole verses and phrases of this psalm are found in liturgies we say daily and weekly as Anglican Christians. The teaching of our Lord in the Gospel reading of God’s rejoicing “one sinner who repents” can be understood as an echo of the words of “David:” “The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you shall not despise” (17).
Beginning at Proper 19C, the church assigns a six-week series of NT readings through the pastoral letters of Paul, 1 Timothy, and 2 Timothy. The first installment from 1 Timothy 1:12-17 is an interlude of personal testimony. Paul is moved to give Timothy, his “true son in the faith” (1:2), before he launches into detailed instructions he has for him to lead the church. Paul’s rhapsodic reflection on God saving him, the worst sinner, turns into praise: “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (17).
The assigned collect is still another prayer for help for the helpless. The plea for mercy will serve to prepare us to hear Bible readings extolling God’s delight to show mercy to repentant sinners: “O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Collect
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
And the LORD Relented (Exodus 32:1, 7-14)
1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden 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!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” 11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Exodus 32:1, 7-14
Leaving out vv. 2-6, we hear more readily the contrast in the reading between the people saying, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us” (1) and YHWH responding, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves” (7). “Up” and “down.” Impatience on the part of the people leading to idolatry is met by what appears to be the rush to judgment of a holy God.
And what, or who, do we find standing in the middle? A man, a priest, one who pleads before God with both passion for the glory of God’s name on one hand and the welfare of the people on the other. Here is a prefiguring of One who is to come: a God-man Messiah, Son of God, who loves his Father above all else and with his blood can cover the sin of God’s people permanently.
Devotionally, beloved, let this strange story in which Moses seemingly changes the mind of God and causes him to grieve (Heb. naham, “relent,” “repent,” “grieve”) his intentions turn our attention to the coming of Christ into the world. The death of Jesus and the shedding of his blood provoke a relenting of God the Father, not in one moment of “disaster” (14) as in the case with Moses, but permanently and irrevocably for the generations of believers through all time.
In The Gospel of God, J. I. Packer writes this way of the final relenting of God the Father on the cross of his Son: “The notion which the phrase ‘penal substitution’ expresses is that Jesus Christ our Lord, moved by a love that was determined to do everything necessary to save us, endured and exhausted the destructive divine judgment for which we were otherwise inescapably destined, and so won us forgiveness, adoption and glory.”
Today, in the Spirit, reading this account of Moses, we cast our minds on Calvary and find, thanks to Christ, no further need of turning God from just anger and righteous judgment.
Uphold Me with a Willing Spirit (Psalm 51:1-17)
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, in your great goodness; *
Psalm 51:1-17, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
according to the multitude of your mercies wipe away my offences.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness *
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my faults, *
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight, *
so that you are justified in your sentence, and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in wickedness, *
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 But behold, you desire truth in the inward parts *
and shall make me understand wisdom secretly.
7 You shall purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; *
you shall wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 You shall make me hear of joy and gladness, *
that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9 Turn your face from my sins, *
and blot out all my misdeeds.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, *
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, *
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
12 O give me the comfort of your help again, *
and sustain me with your willing Spirit.
13 Then shall I teach your ways unto the wicked, *
and sinners shall return unto you.
14 Deliver me from blood-guilt, O God, the God of my salvation, *
and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, *
and my mouth shall show forth your praise.
16 For you desire no sacrifice, or else I would give it to you; *
but you delight not in burnt-offerings.
17 The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; *
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you shall not despise.
Or, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (12, ESV). In the second half of this psalm, we need to keep track of the multiple (four) uses of the word “spirit.” They are all the same Hebrew word (rûaḥ), but, depending on context, may refer either to God’s Holy Spirit or the human spirit. Translators do not always agree, as evidenced by the different renderings of v. 12 in New Coverdale and ESV.
What is clear in this psalm, and in the Bible generally, is that the front line of battle for the control of us as humans is our “spirit,” that immaterial part of us that connects with God (probably synonymous with “heart” (10) in the psalm). We either let the Spirit of God have his way with our own spirit, or we don’t. David’s plea, motivated by contrition for his sin, is for the former.
Devotionally, we need to recognize that the exercise of confessing our sins and receiving restoration from God can often be, as it is for David in this psalm, traumatic physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The pricking of our conscience is really only the surface damage. Wrestling with God deep inside at the level of our “spirit” can cause a crisis of identity with God: Do you still love me, Lord? Can I still call you Father? Can I now call myself your friend, your child?
Paul, with similar language juxtaposing the human spirit and the Holy Spirit inside us, teaches:
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:15-17
Here, as it were, are the answers to the yearning prayers of David in the psalm. Yes, fear not, David (or put your own name). Your sins are forgiven, and you are, and will always be, my beloved child.
Today, Holy Spirit, in my own confession of sin, penetrate to those places deep inside where you know I yearn for complete restoration and “bear witness” in my spirit that I am ever yours.
I Received Mercy for This Reason (1 Timothy 1:12-17)
12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Reading with care this part of Paul’s opening doxology in his letter to Timothy, we are stunned by Paul’s self-estimation of who he is before God and why Christ should have come to him. Paul believes himself to be–without exaggeration–“the foremost” of sinners (15,16), and the only reason he has been given the salvation of God is to display the extent of Christ’s “perfect patience” (16) in the world. He understands his life in God to be nothing more or less than a living monument to the goodness of Jesus. There is no sense he is entitled to or has earned salvation in any way.
Our modern ears are often conditioned to label this kind of talk as extreme low self-esteem and recommend therapy. But, ironically, Paul believes this to be the only sane way to think of himself as a Christian; and that boasting about himself, whenever he does it, is “foolish” (see 2 Cor. 11:16-29).
Devotionally, Paul’s challenge to us in this passage in 1 Timothy is to examine ourselves for any trace of an entitlement mentality in our faith life. Especially when we have been Christians for a long time, we may confess we are sinners who do not deserve salvation, but the perception of blessing based on merit can creep in and make a home in us. We think: “I have walked with Christ a long time. I am entitled to more out of life, and more from my ministry.
Today, Holy Spirit, you who teach me to decrease more even as Jesus increases in me, build me up in the humility Paul exhibits here, as out of line as it may appear to others.
This Man Welcomes Sinners (Luke 15:1-10)
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Or, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (2, NET). This translation (“welcomes” as opposed to “accepts” or “receives”) communicates perhaps better the intensity of the complaint of the religious leaders against Jesus and the force of the parables he gives them in reply. “Yes,” Jesus says in effect to the Pharisees and teachers, “even as you see me teaching the lost and meeting them where they are, embracing them and enjoying them, it is the same in heaven. You think it is you who reflects the godly attitude toward these dear people, but it is not you–it is me!” In other places in Luke where this same complaint is lodged against Jesus by the Pharisees, we find Jesus responding in a similar fashion, upsetting and upbraiding them for their mistaken notions of God toward the lost (see also Lk. 5:27-32,7:37-50).
How shall we approach this passage for devotional application? Do we place ourselves in the society of the Pharisees only to receive a bollocking? Do we see ourselves with Jesus among those who “welcome” the lost? Or, do we join the company of the sinners “drawing near to him”? Yes, here at least is where we must begin. As one of the lost sheep, do you see Jesus looking into your eyes with compassion? Do you feel the attraction of the One who knows your hidden faults and yet sympathizes with your brokenness? Yes, draw near to Jesus who draws you in with the irresistible promise of forgiveness. You are indeed a “sinner,” and, happily, he welcomes your humble confession. Rejoice with him who rejoices over you.
Today, Holy Spirit, through Jesus’ parables, I hear the rejoicing of being returned safely home with Jesus, and join in it over others coming soon after.
Today in the Spirit
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