Today in the Spirit: Proper 28A
We now move to the second of three weeks in the pre-Advent period at the end of the Pentecost season. The sense of urgency for hearers of the Word to surrender to God in Christ while time remains is increasing.
At Proper 28A, the assigned Gospel reading is Matthew 25:14-30, from which we overhear in worship Jesus’ delivery of the parable of the talents (also found in Lk. 19:12-27). This is our only exposure to this parable in the three-year cycle. Matthew’s version contains more flourish in the dialogue between the servants and the master upon the latter’s return: “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master’” (21). Where last week’s Gospel parable highlighted the contrast between being prepared and unprepared spiritually, this one compares the consequences of being willing and unwilling to place ourselves in God’s service.
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The assigned OT reading out of Zephaniah 1:7,12-18 is another depiction of “the day of the LORD” (recalling the Amos passage from last week). “The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there” (14). We will recall the excruciating detail of judgment in this passage when we hear Jesus’ words at the end of the Gospel reading: And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness (Mt. 25:30).
The appointed Psalm 90 (also assigned at Proper 23B) is a song of petition arising from divine wisdom given to “Moses the man of God” (from the title). “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…So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (10,12).
It is clear that the sequential readings in 1 Thessalonians are appointed at this point in the lectionary to connect with the pre-Advent themes of judgment and the return of the Lord. In this last reading in the series, 1 Thessalonian 5:1-10, Paul uses the Hebrew term “the day of the Lord” to denote Jesus’ second coming, and to urge the saints to live wisely in the light of that “day”: “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation (8).
The assigned collect, originating from composers of medieval Catholic liturgies, is the only Sunday collect in the BCP 2019 which does not reference the church in the first-person plural (“we” or “our” or “us”). It is one of two “stir-up” prayers in the BCP 2019: At Advent 4, we ask God to stir up his power to come among us; here, to stir up the wills of the people to bring forth good works, that “they may be abundantly rewarded when our Savior Jesus Christ comes to restore all things.”
The Collect
Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people, that bringing forth in abundance the fruit of good works, they may be abundantly rewarded when our Savior Jesus Christ comes to restore all things; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Be Silent before the Lord God! (Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18)
7 Be silent before the Lord God!
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
For the day of the Lord is near;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests.
12At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the men
who are complacent,
those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do ill.’
13 Their goods shall be plundered,
and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
they shall not drink wine from them.”
14 The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
the mighty man cries aloud there.
15 A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements.
17 I will bring distress on mankind,
so that they shall walk like the blind,
because they have sinned against the Lord;
their blood shall be poured out like dust,
and their flesh like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them
on the day of the wrath of the Lord.
In the fire of his jealousy,
all the earth shall be consumed;
for a full and sudden end
he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.
There are few places in Scripture where we find this level of descriptive language about the severity of God’s final day of judgment. Through the prophet, YHWH himself describes the clamor of idolatry and pagan sacrifices happening throughout the city of Jerusalem (see verses 8-11 not assigned). It seems to be heaven itself issuing the edict, “Be silent before the LORD God” (7), that all would halt in their tracks to reckon with the news of imminent judgment. The punishment will be swift and hard. All the nations, including Israel, will become the Almighty’s own sacrifice to consecrate “the day of the LORD.” Commentator Victor Reid writes: “Zephaniah did not yet see the NT revelation of a new relationship between God and His people by which He will eradicate any incursion detrimental to the relationship.”
So as Christian worshipers living in the age of grace through Christ, what shall we do with this kind of “incursion detrimental” passage? There is mercy through Christ, but let not the cross become for us an enchanted amulet to erase from our minds every thought of judgment as if it will not take place, presuming God’s mercy for an easy ride. No, let the truth of Christ be for us instead a soothing anointment, “a balm in Gilead” (Jer. 8:22) to, as the song says, “to make the wounded whole and heal the sin-sick soul.”
We are those who by grace invest our talents, according to the ability given to us, and we do so with pain in the joints and a sour taste (just a taste) of the great suffering that for us has been averted by the ministry of our Lord. The cross of Christ stands in the way of the prophetic “incursion detrimental to the relationship”–but not all discomfort. So Jesus warns us with respect to suffering, A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master (Mt. 10:24, NIV). And Paul concludes near the end of his life, “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Col. 1:24).
Today, Holy Spirit, in worship we will allow Zephaniah’s raw depiction of “the day of the LORD” to help us come to grips with personal suffering, but with thanksgiving abounding for the final deliverance through Christ.
For All Our Days Pass Away (Psalm 90:1-12[13-17])
1 Lord, you have been our refuge *
Psalm 90:1-17, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
from one generation to another.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or the earth and the world were made, *
you are God from everlasting, and world without end.
3 You turn man back to the dust; *
you say, “Return, O children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, *
even as a day that is past.
5 You scatter them as a night-watch that comes quickly to an end; *
they are even as a dream and fade away.
6 They are like the grass, which in the morning is green, *
but in the evening is dried up and withered.
7 For we consume away in your displeasure *
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.]
There are many standards by which we learn to measure the vast difference between God and ourselves. By moral uprightness: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Is. 55:8); or by knowledge: “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Ps.139:5-6). In this psalm, it is by time: For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, even as a day that is past” (4).
At first it appears “Moses’” contemplation of the coexistence of finite humanity and the infinite LORD can only lead to dismay. But see how the knowledge of God’s “mercy” (14, or “steadfast love” ESV), established by covenant, eventually overwhelms despair. Up rises conviction, “so shall we rejoice and be glad” (14); and hope, “prosper the word of our hands; prosper our handiwork” (17)!
If this is so for the OT psalmist, how much more for us who live under the benefits of the cross of Christ? Jesus of Nazareth is the answer to every heartcry we make to an infinite God for pity on those whose life ends “as a tale that is told” (or “with a moan” NIV). The saving ministry of Jesus from incarnation to second coming is Moses’ longed for “work” of the Father to be shown to his servants, and as “glorious power to their children” (16).
In his classic little book “On the Incarnation,” Athanasius of Alexandria (d. 373 AD) uses the language of the “bodily acts” of Christ similar to the “work” (16) of God in the psalm: “All these things the Savior thought fit to do, so that, recognizing His bodily acts as works of God, men who were blind to His presence in creation might regain the knowledge of the Father.” We can only marvel that the psalmist sees in his encounters of YHWH with Israel what has been revealed to us plainly in the face of Jesus Christ.
Today, Holy Spirit, from the words of this psalm in our worship, let us grasp the vast measure of difference between ourselves and you, and also the love of the Father reaching out to us by the Son to close the expanse between our limits and your limitlessness.
Encourage One Another (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)
1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
I highly recommend adding verse 11 to this reading. There is no grammatical or contextual reason for leaving it out. In fact, I would argue the final exhortation to the church to “encourage one another and build one another up” is an essential addition by the apostle for the application of the teaching that comes before. The address of the passage is “you” plural. Even as he writes the letter, Paul is surely picturing the saints of Thessalonica together hearing its contents and initiating some form of group conversation afterward. In Paul’s day, there would hardly be any other way to engage the material, and this is what he wants to happen. To address matters of the Lord coming “like a thief in the night” (2) and the faithful living like “children of the day” (5) will require mutual knowledge being taken in and encouragement being shared.
Beloved, we need to recognize that we are receiving the word of God too much as individual units. Even when we are together in worship, it feels like remote learning, with each individual taking in truth and following up only insofar as self-reflection and personal application will allow. It is as if we are on a Zoom call even though we are in the same room. (Hence, is it any wonder why so many opt now for computer church “live”?). We need corporate Bible study. Without it, we take the “one another” part of the biblical commands to be applied in the body and transform them into something else. Thus, “love one another” (Jn. 13:34), apart from corporate reflection, becomes either an abstract philosophy “Love the world” or a domestic reduction “Love the family.”
In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis writes: “No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as ‘what a man does with his solitude.’ It was one of the Wesleys, I think, who said that the New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion. We are forbidden to neglect the assembling of ourselves together. Christianity is already institutional in the earliest of its documents. The Church is the Bride of Christ. We are members of one another.”
Today, in the Spirit, receiving the words in this letter corporately as Paul intends, let us take full advantage of every opportunity for mutual encouragement in the application of biblical teaching in our lives.
Well Done Good and Faithful Servant (Matthew 25:14-30)
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:14-30
It is impossible to know with what tone of voice Jesus relays this parable to his disciples, but even by its appearance in print it appears that “the master” in the story is far happier to congratulate and reward the faithful servants than he is to rebuke and punish the unfaithful one. The fact alone that there are two of the good sort and one of the bad suggests to the reader that the former represents the preferred outcome in the narrative. The master does what he is bound to do in each case; but in the repetition of the words, “Well done good and faithful servant” (21,23), we imagine intense delight–not that the master is surprised by what the first two servants have done–but that he is highly satisfied that what he has expected from them has come to pass.
For us devotionally, observing this dynamic in the text helps us correct in our minds that wrongheaded image we often carry of a stern God who is more eager to judge than to reward. We tend to project our own guilty consciences over past mistakes, especially the ones we make again and again, onto God. We imagine erroneously, and committing unimaginable self-harm as we do, that Jesus feels as badly as we do about ourselves.
The weight of the parable on the delight of God over the first two servants points to what many Puritan writers distinguish between the “natural” and “strange” works of God. In his wonderful, little book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund quotes the Puritan Thomas Goodwin who writes (in summary): “In [God’s] acts of justice there is a satisfaction to an attribute, in that he meets and is even with sinners. Yet there is a kind of violence done to himself in it…But when he comes to show mercy, to manifest that it is his nature and disposition, it is said that he does it with his whole heart.”
A verse many of these divines use to support God’s favorable preference for mercy is Ezekiel 18:23: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” Perhaps the apostle Peter is remembering this verse when he himself writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).
Today, Holy Spirit, learning from the Scriptures of the disposition of the Father and the Son toward mercy over punishment, that he is for us and not against us, we embrace now for ourselves, against every instinct to doubt, the glad verdict of the parable’s master, “Well done good and faithful servant!”
Today in the Spirit
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