Today in the Spirit: Proper 15C
At Proper 15C, the church brings us in our walking with Jesus in worship to the end of what appears to be a parenthetical discourse delivered to his disciples while he is teaching crowds somewhere in Judea. In the first part of the assigned Gospel reading from Luke 12:49-56, Jesus passionately urges his disciples to be prepared for a highly disruptive initiation of his kingdom on earth: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (51). Later, speaking again to “the crowd,” he challenges the naysayers to put aside their prejudices and understand what his coming means: “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” (56).
The language of “word like fire” (29) in the assigned OT reading from Jeremiah 23:23-29 may well have been the inspiration for Jesus’ claim that he has come to “cast fire on the earth” (Luke 12:49). The decree of YHWH through Jeremiah, “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully” (28), may refer to Jeremiah himself or true prophets in general, but Christians will also recognize the reference to Jesus.
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We say or sing Psalm 82 in our worship this week in response to the provocative words of Jeremiah, and preparation for those of Jesus. We can imagine ourselves among the people listening to the injunctions of both figures about the impending judgment of God and saying, perhaps naively: “Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for you shall take all nations for your inheritance” (8).
The second in our Year C series of New Testament readings from Hebrews is from Hebrews 12:1-14. Having made the point in Chapter 11 that, though the saints of old lived “by faith” waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled, God has “provided something better for us” (11:40)—that is, Christ. So, fixed on him, we “lay aside every weight” and “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (1).
In this collect, again, we plead for “perpetual mercy” of God to make up for what we lack in being able both to avoid “all things hurtful” and to engage “all things profitable for our salvation.” The dual petition “keep your Church” and “keep us” draws us in personally to participate in a work of God for the people of God over time and space.
The Collect
Keep your Church, O Lord, by your perpetual mercy; and because without you the frailty of our nature causes us to fall, keep us from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Is Not My Word Like Fire? (Jeremiah 23:23-29)
23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. 29 Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Our OT passage this week is the center portion of a larger oracle of judgment against the lying prophets of Jerusalem active during the period before the invasion of Babylon. The text begins and ends with rhetorical questions challenging the perspective of those prophets (and that of the people in general) that the sovereignty of God was limited. The questions at the beginning address their lack of understanding that YHWH sees all things: “Can anyone hide in the secret places so that I cannot see him?” (24, NIV). The last question challenges their doubt that YHWH’s judgment can hurt them: “Is not my word like fire…and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (29, NIV).
I am still in Cuba as I write my reflections this week. One phrase I hear a lot here is “la realidad cubana” (the Cuban reality). Life is so challenging here under a socialist system that regulates monthly income and rations public services that people will easily excuse their own propensity (and less easily that of others) to escape hardship and cheat the system in any way possible. The comfort that many Cuban Christians hold onto in this situation is the infinite mercy of God to overlook the wrongdoing they feel they must engage in to survive. The non-Christians here are more likely to operate under a mixture of atheist propaganda (“there is no God”) and the attitude of the false prophets in Jeremiah (that God “cannot see”).
Lord, you know how I often operate poorly in “the reality” of my own society. You know how, in the language of the Collect, “the frailty of our nature causes us to fall.” Today, Holy Spirit, trusting only in the abounding mercy of God through Christ, increase in me the knowledge of your sovereign reach and the power of your word to guide my decision-making in life.
Arise, O God, and Judge the World (Psalm 82)
1 God stands in the council of princes; *
Psalm 82, New Converdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
he is a Judge among gods.
2 “How long will you give wrong judgment *
and accept the ungodly?
3 Defend the poor and fatherless; *
see that those who are in need and necessity have what is right.
4 Deliver the outcast and poor; *
save them from the hand of the ungodly.”
5 They will not learn nor understand, but walk about in darkness; *
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I have said, “You are gods, *
and you are all the children of the Most High;
7 But you shall die like mortals, *
and fall like one of the princes.”
8 Arise, O God, and judge the earth, *
for you shall take all nations for your inheritance.
This is the only time in three years that this short, severe psalm is assigned for our Sunday worship. It pictures God presiding as judge over a “council of princes” representing all the nations of the earth (1,8). As the people of God, we join the chorus of heavenly beings giving enthusiastic support to the judgment of the “ungodly” who have for so long abused their power at the expense of the “poor and fatherless” (3). We hear the echo of this psalm’s longing for a final reckoning between God and evildoers in Jesus’ words from the Gospel reading: “I came to bring fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled” (Lk. 12:49).
Devotionally, we may find our preference for the sentiment of kindness in the world rubbing up against the hope for judgment found in the readings for this Sunday. We must be careful not to dismiss the desire for vengeance found in Scripture, and especially the OT, as merely the inclinations of those who lived in a more brutal age. As I grow older and more mature in the Lord, I, too, find myself longing for God’s judgment against injustice in the world and those most responsible for prolonging the suffering of the poor, especially those whose names I know and whose faces I recognize in the city where I serve as pastor.
Here is the counsel of Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394 AD) to his catechumenants in the early church: “If we are a superficial people, the prospect of judgement will be experienced as a threat: it will be viewed as a process of severe correction, with the result that sheer fear of painful expiation for our sins will prompt us to flee from wrongdoing, and we will become wiser people. On the other hand, the faith of deeper minds will view the prospect of God’s judgement as a process of healing, a therapy applied by God in such a way as to restore the being he has created to its original state of grace.”
Today, in the Spirit, allow the longing for God’s judgment of a corrupt world, which must precede the establishment of perfection, to sing with the chorus of this psalm.
Endure Hardship as Discipline (Hebrews 12:1-14)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:1-14
See how the verb “endure” (Gk. hypomenō) is repeated three times in this passage. It is used twice to describe the manner of Jesus’ suffering (2,3), then as an imperative by the author to encourage his believing readers to do the same: “It is for discipline that you have to endure” (7), or, supplying the object of endurance, “Endure hardship as discipline” (NIV). All the “by faith” examples given in Chapter 11, as well as the commentary on Jesus to this point in Chapter 12, culminate in this exhortation to Christians to take up the “discipline” of God to endure suffering more.
By way of devotional application, allow me one final reflection from my time in Cuba. Whenever we go there, we frequently hear the phrase, “Si no es dificil, no es Cuba” (“If it is not difficult, it is not Cuba”). Our friends and family there cannot help but endure multiple hardships daily. In the US, likewise, we cannot avoid it altogether, but we have far more alternatives to pursue the easy way out if we want. As Christians, we must ask ourselves if our day-to-day decision-making is based more on living out the life of the Son of God in us or on avoiding hardship. The author of Hebrews would have us “consider him,” meditate on how Jesus “endured [even] the cross” and hear his call to do the same–not choosing hardship for hardship’s sake but doing so whenever he directs us to do so.
Today, Holy Spirit, give me the discipline to pause and see if the harder road may be the one you would have me choose in my walk with you.
Would That It Were Already Kindled (Luke 12:49-56)
49 “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Luke 12:49-56
“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” (49). As mentioned above in the reflection on the psalm, we must not fail to absorb the full impact of Jesus’ passionate desire to accomplish the judgment of evil in the world. The reference to kindling the first is to his death on the cross; and though his personal “distress” is great in facing it, he looks forward to finishing the task. Nothing else–not the advancement of the societies of man over time, nor the combined wisdom of philosophers across the world, nor the accumulated goodness of a multitude of saints–will bring about the Father God’s restoration of the world for his glory: only the cross of Christ.
We must be careful, beloved. From the appearance of other lesser clouds in the sky, we can easily overlook the “cloud rising in the west” and be caught outside in the coming shower. We can miss the sign of “the south wind blowing,” predicting the danger of “scorching heat” by the sensation of breezes blowing from other directions. Thanks be to God that by the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we are enabled to overcome both the shortsightedness of our human wisdom and the hypocrisy of our sinful nature and stay on the right track until the end.
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
Today, in the Spirit, we dedicate ourselves “to do the work you have given us to do” (BCP post-communion prayer) and keep our longing eyes open for the fullness of the kingdom’s coming.
Today in the Spirit
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