Today in the Spirit: Proper 24C
At Proper 24C, the Church assigns another parable of Jesus for the benefit of his disciples, found only in Luke. Luke 18:1-8 is the parable of the persistent widow. Our Lord tells a short story of a woman stalking an unjust judge to insist that he give her justice in a case against an adversary. The judge capitulates just to stop the woman from pestering him. Jesus concludes, “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (7-8).
The assigned OT reading from Genesis 32:3-8,22-30 contains the narrative of Jacob seeking to engineer a peaceful reunion with his brother Esau at the time of his return from Mesopotamia to Canaan. Once Jacob has isolated himself near the shore of the Jordan River, a “man” (a God figure) wrestles with Jacob to break his independent spirit, giving him in the end a new name (“Israel”), a blessing, and an injury, causing him to limp the rest of his life.
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Though it occupies a prominent place in the Midday Prayer liturgy, Psalm 121 appears in Sunday worship only this week in the three-year cycle. In our adoration this week, the vivid imagery and comforting language of the poetry may express the resolve of Jacob once he receives the blessing of God before his upcoming meeting with Esau, or the relief of the widow in Jesus’ parable who will receive justice from the unjust judge: “The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; indeed, it is he who shall keep your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, from this time forth for evermore” (7-8).
Continuing our Year C series in the pastoral epistles of the apostle Paul, our assigned reading at Proper 24C is 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5. Against godlessness “in the last days” (3:1), Paul encourages his young mentee to “continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed” from the days of his upbringing to the present time, and especially from “the sacred scriptures” which are inspired by God and “profitable” for training in Christian service. From there, Paul makes his charge to Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (4:3).
Perhaps surprisingly, this week’s collect is the only prayer assigned for a Sunday that speaks plainly of the gospel of God in terms of release from bondage and freedom to live in newness of life: “Set us free, loving Father, from the bondage of our sins…and…give us the liberty of that abundant life” in Jesus Christ (but see also the Collect for Proper 29). We note from the prayer that both release from sin and liberty in Christ are ongoing actions of God within us.
The Collect
Set us free, loving Father, from the bondage of our sins, and in your goodness and mercy give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
And a Man Wrestled with Him (Genesis 32:3-8,22-30)
3 And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, 4 instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. 5 I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’” 6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” 7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, 8 thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 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. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”
The reading is part of a larger section of Genesis on the return of Jacob from Mesopotamia to Canaan (31:1-33:20) and a subsection on the meeting of Jacob and Esau (32:1-33:20). Many English-language Bibles (such as the ESV) subtitle the second part of this reading “Jacob Wrestles with God.” But the text actually describes the reverse, that God wrestles with Jacob. It is “the man” who approaches first (24b), and it is he who ends the encounter with a blessing (29). The God figure waits for Jacob to capitulate and remains in control of the situation throughout.
Devotionally, brothers and sisters, on display here is the love of God for his people and the patience with which he interacts with us. He has, through Christ, as it were, entered into a lifelong struggle with all of us, individually and corporately–never forcing us to surrender peacefully to him as Lord, but always working toward it through the gradual wearing down of the stubborn pride that causes us (needlessly) to follow our sinful nature. He will have us succumb to him willingly, or not at all. We earn the name “Israel” (those who strive with God) by his grace, and, like Jacob, we prevail in the short term until God can break us down, even giving us a limp if he has to, until we grow to maturity of faith.
In God in the Dock, C. S. Lewis writes something I suspect may have been influenced by this passage about God wrestling with Jacob:
When any man comes into the presence of God he will find, whether he wishes it or not, that all those things which seemed to make him so different from all the men of other times, or even from his earlier self, have fallen off him…In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanish, leaving us naked before Him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since the contact cannot be avoided for long and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it. That is the first and greatest commandment.
Today, Holy Spirit, I thank you for showing up to wrestle with me, a citizen of Israel, every time I insist on taking matters into my own hands.
The LORD Shall Preserve Your Going Out and Your Coming In (Psalm 121)
1 I will lift up my eyes unto the hills; *
Psalm 121, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
from whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the Lord, *
who has made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved, *
and he who keeps you will not sleep.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel *
shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord himself is your keeper; *
the Lord is your defense upon your right hand,
6 So that the sun shall not burn you by day, *
neither the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; *
indeed, it is he who shall keep your soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, *
from this time forth for evermore.
In seminary, I learned that this psalm is a good example of a poet’s use of merism (the use of images of parts to indicate a whole): so, “heaven and earth” (2) to describe all of creation; and “the sun…by day” and “the moon by night” (6) to delineate all of time. Think of the message of v. 8: “The LORD shall preserve (or, “will watch over,” NIV) your going out and your coming in, from this time forth for evermore.” Here is a coupling of merisms to communicate to the worshiper that there is no place (“your going out and your coming in”) where, nor any time (“from this time forth for evermore”) when we will find the one God failing to watch over his beloved saints. Wow!
Devotionally, a careful contemplation of the images serves, of course, to curb our anxiety in the face of any difficult situation. But for lasting change, we need more than just ease of panic; these images should encourage (put courage in) us to step out into risky obedience. All too often, beloved, we find ourselves pining for freedom from anxiety from earthly troubles, but not for extending ourselves in gospel service.
After praising God in this psalm, we need to hear in our worship Paul’s counsel to Timothy in the NT reading: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:1-2). Here is the place the psalmist seeks to take us with his merisms: to bold service, knowing that at all times and in all places, as we labor in his name, he will preserve us.
Today, Holy Spirit, hearing this psalm, we extend our faith toward risking new things in obedience to the Father and the Son.
But As for You (2 Timothy 3:14-4:5)
3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 4:1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The formal “charge” (4:1) to preach doesn’t come until midway into the passage, but the imperative “continue in” (3:14) earlier shows Paul’s intent to let one exhortation to Timothy lead to another. The first command is directed internally, that the young elder guard his own faith (“continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed”); the second compels Timothy outwardly, to boldly enter into ministry in society (“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season…endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (4:2,5).
The message of both parts of the reading is that we tend to both the internal and external authority Jesus Christ places over our lives. We must not focus on our personal holiness at the expense of the mandate to serve others, nor should we engage in ministry without the intentional discipline of preserving our faith internally. Both are necessary. Who do you find yourself in fellowship with most, the spiritual director or the ministry partner? Can you identify an active partnership with both?
I have found the development of a cross-shaped “rule of life” to be a valuable tool in my personal discipleship. Outwardly, I identify disciplines that will extend me up in worship, out one way to service to the saints, and out the other way in witness in the world. But there is also the center of the cross, where I identify habits of the heart.
Today, in the Spirit who teaches us to live out of the life of Jesus Christ in us, we hear this counsel of Paul to Timothy and jump at every opportunity to mature in Christ inwardly and outwardly.
He Will Give Justice to Them Speedily (Luke 18:1-8)
1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
Luke 18:1-8
It is important to get a handle on the word “justice” used four times (3,5,7,8) in this passage. The Greek word (ekdikeō) used each time refers to strong justice, typically involving payment for wrongdoing beyond mere fair treatment. Thus, we see the widow in the parable demands “justice against my adversary,” seeking compensation for wrongs done against her, as specified in Jewish law. In his explanation, Jesus goes on to say that it is this kind of retributive justice God will not fail to provide for “his elect. He will not ‘delay long’ in delivering it (7).
For devotional application, there is no reason to believe that prayers for justice against adversaries are being singled out in this passage. Luke informs his readers at the outset of the passage that our Lord tells this parable to illustrate how his disciples “ought always to pray (for whatever reason) and not lose heart” (1). Nevertheless, Jesus’ teaching at the end is that prayers for retributive justice are received by the Father, “that he will give justice to them speedily” (7).
So, toughen up in your prayers, beloved. Intercede with God as those who have enemies set against you. We all occasionally have human enemies working against us unjustly—and we always have spiritual adversaries. Hesitate not to ask for justice from God against wrongdoing. We must love our enemies and always refrain from taking revenge into our own hands, but there is no virtue really in cowering in our prayers to God for justice and persevering in them.
Consider the last verse of Psalm 37 as an illustration of the ancient Jewish believers readiness to pray to the God of justice for his revenge against the wicked, and for trusting in God’s judgement against them in his time: “The Lord helps [the righteous] and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him” (40). And out of next week’s NT reading, we will read Paul’s offhand comment: “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds” (2 Tim. 4:14).
Today, in the Spirit, we receive encouragement from Jesus’ teaching in this reading to pray boldly, and without ceasing, on all matters, including justice against our adversaries.
Today in the Spirit
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