Today in the Spirit: Proper 23B
When it comes to assigning accounts of Jesus’ ministry that appear in all three Gospels, as a rule, we find that the church most often chooses Mark’s version for placement in Year B. This is probably because so much of the rich material unique to Matthew or Luke must be included in the Year A (Matthew) and Year B (Luke) schedules. In the assigned Gospel reading for Proper 23B from Mark 10:17-31, we have the only installment of the rich young ruler narrative in the three-year cycle. Mark’s version of this story, while it leaves out a few things Matthew and Luke add, includes some colorful details of its own. For instance, this week, we will hear how Jesus feels about the man before he issues the famous challenge: And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (21).
Since the overall theme of that Gospel reading is the obstacle material wealth presents for people hearing the call of God, the assigned OT reading from Amos 5:6-15 fittingly presents the prophet’s challenge to the wealthy population of northern Israel during the time just before the Assyrian invasion. To the rich people who are abusing the poor and utterly unaware of the divine judgment to come, YHWH declares,
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Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins—you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.
Amos 5:11-12
The appointed Psalm 90:1-12[13-17] is a lament, perhaps giving voice in our worship to the rich young man in the Gospel reading or the wealthy in Israel in the OT reading who, having e seen the error of their ways, plea for wisdom:
But who regards the power of your wrath, and who considers the fierceness of your anger? So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm 90:11-12
The second assigned selection in our Year B series in Hebrews is from Hebrews 3:1-6. For the Christian Jewish audience to whom this epistle is addressed, this passage makes a compelling comparison between Moses, the revered prophet of the Torah, and Jesus, the Son of God.
Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Hebrews 3:5-6
Our collect this week is a petition to the God of “refuge and strength” to answer our prayers “effectually,” that is, concretely and practically, to meet the needs of our daily lives. Note that the presumed condition in the prayer for God to grant such a response is that our prayers be made “devoutly” and “faithfully.” Proclaim your truth with boldness and minister your justice with compassion”).
The Collect
O God, our refuge and strength, true source of all godliness: Graciously hear the devout prayers of your Church, and grant that those things which we ask faithfully, we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
He Who is Prudent Will Keep Silent (Amos 5:6-15)
12 For I know how many are your transgressions
Amos 5:12-15
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and turn aside the needy in the gate.
13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
for it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
15 Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time (13). Many commentators question whether this insertion of a word to the wise was a part of Amos’ original sermon. It is hard to know whether the line refers to the unrighteous or the righteous in Israel or to both. The word prudent (Heb. sakal) could mean “wise” or “prosperous.” So, is the warning saying that the unbelieving and uncaring rich will be silenced at the time of God’s severe judgment or that the believing remnant, after hearing these words, will remain quiet to await God’s judgment? One thing we observe in this passage for sure is that there is no command for the believing community to take action against the unrighteous.
For devotional purposes, let me concentrate on the commendation for silence on the part of believers who are aware of God’s coming judgment. There is certainly a place for advocating Christians standing against evil in society. Whether that takes place by organizations at the institutional level or by individual Christians within their smaller circles of influence like families or local churches, it must be undertaken carefully, sensitively, and wisely. Very often, perhaps most often, it is prudent to allow the Lord to carry out redemption and judgment in his way. It is certainly not for us to threaten punishment either out of the desire for personal revenge or the fear that the Lord will not redress injustice in a satisfactory way. Our hope for justice comes with the view of kingdom reality that: a) many of the unrighteous, even some we know and love, will not repent, and b) justice in the world against evil belongs to God alone. See how in the Gospel reading, Jesus, though he loves the young man, lets him leave, commending his future to the will of the Father.
Today, by the power of the Spirit, I will apply the wisdom in Amos to seek God’s good and to labor quietly in the face of evil.
Prosper the Works of Our Hands (Psalm 90:1-12[13-17])
7 For we consume away in your displeasure *
Psalm 90:7-17 (BCP 2019 New Coverdale)
and are afraid at your wrathful indignation.
8 You have set our misdeeds before you, *
and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9 For when you are angry, all our days are gone; *
we bring our years to an end, as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our life are seventy years, and though some be so strong that
they come to eighty years, *
yet is their span but labor and sorrow; so soon it passes away, and we are
gone.
11 But who regards the power of your wrath, *
and who considers the fierceness of your anger?
12 So teach us to number our days, *
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13 Turn again, O Lord, and tarry not; *
be gracious unto your servants.
14 O satisfy us with your mercy in the morning; *
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
15 Comfort us again, according to the measure of the days that you have
afflicted us, *
and for the years in which we have suffered adversity.
16 Show your servants your work *
and their children your glory.
17 And may the grace of the Lord our God be upon us; *
prosper the work of our hands; O prosper our handiwork.
The final petition of “Moses” at the end of this psalm, prosper (or establish ESV) the work of our hands (17 ESV), arises from no claim to the people’s privilege before God, but–on the contrary–from their admission of utter vulnerability. Failures of morality, the song says, have resulted in the consequences of mortality. There can be no hiding our sin from God from everlasting. Hence, the candid confession: You have set our misdeeds before you, and our secret sins in the light of your countenance (8). If there is to be success at all in this human enterprise between God and man, it will be only by God’s steadfast love (here again that Hebrew word hesed, unfailing covenant mercy, 14 ESV) unleashed through Christ to reign.
Lord, I am completely undone again by this song’s plain-spoken declaration of the facts concerning my situation before you. While I may hide my secret sins from others, I can never do so with you. It is beyond miraculous that you could ever take a people lost in sin and make anything good come out of us in the world. But you will do so.
Today, enlightened by the Spirit who has inspired this psalm, we realize our time is short and growing shorter by the moment. So by your great mercy, establish the work of our hands.
Consider Jesus (Hebrews 3:1-6)
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Hebrews 3:1-6
Or, fixing your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest (1 NIV). This translation might make us think ahead to the well-known verse at the end of the epistle, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (12:2). The Greek verbs translated fix in each case here are different. However, they are synonyms calling for intense concentration of mind and heart. In our passage from the early part of the sermon, it appears as if the author is looking for his Jewish Christian audience to make a right confession of who Jesus is, the Son of God (1:2), and one greater than Moses. At a later stage, after making the case for Jesus as the great high priest who forgives sin once and for all (10:10) and as one who has suffered to comfort us in our own suffering (4:16), he looks for his readers to take another step–, from Jesus as founder of the faith but also perfecter of our faith. He has built the house and continues tinkering with it until it is right.
Here, we see that spiritual transition is popularly termed from head to heart. Devotionally, we should see in our own lives the movement from faith in believing doctrine to faith in trusting Jesus as a personal Savior and friend. Jesus is superior to Moses and greater than anyone to have walked the earth. But the question in Hebrews becomes, in the face of rising persecution, when will he be your personal protector and perfecter, worthy of your trust to stand like that great cloud of witnesses who stood with him, at the risk of everything they had, by faith (Ch. 11)?
In the Institutes—similarly, I think, to the author of Hebrews—John Calvin commends a form of belief in justification by faith that moves us toward becoming “clothed by God” for the enlightenment of the mind and preparation for service:
For what accords better and more aptly with faith than to acknowledge ourselves divested of all virtue that we may be clothed by God, devoid of all godlessness that we may be filled by him, the slaves of sin that He may give us freedom, blind that he may enlighten, lame that He may cure, and feeble that He may sustain us; to strip ourselves of all ground of glorifying that He alone may shine forth glorious, and we be gloried in him?
Today, Holy Spirit, assist us in fixing ourselves—body, mind, and heart—to Jesus as Son of God and perfecter of our faith so that we can persevere in serving you, the Father and the Son faithfully.
You Lack One Thing (Mark 10:17-31)
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Mark 10:17-31
You lack one thing (21). The Greek verb for lack (hystereo) here is strong; it carries the sense of “need desperately” or even “be destitute without.” From this word, we get the English word “hysterical.” Unlike most characters Jesus meets on the road, this man presents himself to Jesus as anything but desperate and hysterical–and that is precisely the problem. Jesus loved this man (I believe) because he does discern within himself something missing and is willing to approach Jesus; but in the end he is not desperate enough to give away his earthly riches and follow. His great possessions have diluted the hysteria and quieted the pangs of utter lack. It is a problem, Jesus teaches, for all wealthy persons.
We are, all of us, to one degree or another, that man. The level of wealth may (or may not) be different in our case. We may have given a different answer to Jesus’ invitation to follow, but we must admit to feeling somewhat disheartened at the thought of giving up our wealth. We fall short of that confession we often make at the Christian conferences, “Yes, Lord, my wealth is yours. I know that it comes from you, and I place it all at your disposal.” We do not walk away; we just hang back. Notice Jesus says to the man, go...come, follow me. We fail to go before we come, and so we keep a safe distance. We follow but not too close, our attachment to wealth and possessions weighing us down so that we struggle to keep up.
Thank God, the Spirit of Jesus is in us to perfect our faith (remembering my comments on the Hebrews passage above). Today, Holy Spirit, hearing this familiar story this time, I will not disassociate myself from the rich man but call upon you for help with what I lack.
Today in the Spirit
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