Fireworks and waterworks
Commentary
Independence Day is picnics and barbeques and the faint memory of throwing off tyranny like tea into the harbor. The rocket's red glare lingers in the fireworks we set off after dark. But the celebration barely nods to the violence that brought us here. It is a selective, collective memory that takes a day off work for a bit of fun.
Meanwhile at church, the fireworks are all down at the waterworks. Elisha fights the tyrants of Aram with nothing more than the waters of the Jordan. Paul shows the Galatians that the way to life is through the Spirit they received at baptism. And Jesus sends out Seventy to do battle with evil, armed with nothing more than a word as elusive as a handful of stream. God's Independence Day is celebrated not with the rending of flesh but its healing, words of comfort and hope rather than threats.
2 Kings 5:1-14
It is not often that the victor looks to the vanquished for help. The usual assumption is that those who win the war are morally superior (history being inscribed by the winners). That was certainly the assumption of Namaan, the commander of the army of the King of Aram. Today's lection follows a series of disappointments in Israel, a string of battles lost to their northern enemy. Namaan was instrumental in Israel's defeat; one ancient tradition has it that Namaan was the "certain man" who lofted the arrow that just happened to land in the breast of King Ahab (1 Kings 22:34). In the mind of the general, victory proved his side's superiority in every way. Even the rivers of Damascus must have better water than the Jordan! (v. 12). The viewpoint is shared to a degree by the author of our story, who credits his "victory" (teshu'ah, "salvation, deliverance") to the Lord (v. 1). No foreign army could have ultimate power over Israel, and God's deeper purpose was both the punishment of Israel for unfaithfulness, and the conversion of an influential Gentile. Namaan's true victory will be his salvation by Elisha.
Despite his proven superiority, the "great man" (v. 1) had a disability: leprosy. Biblical "leprosy" probably referred to a range of skin diseases that might have included psoriasis. While we may not worry about "the heartbreak of psoriasis," in ancient times such diseases were as greatly feared as AIDS is today, the only treatment being isolation, exclusion, and priestly intervention. Even today, treatments for psoriasis are not wholly bulletproof (see John Updike's memoir Self-Consciousness for an account of the true heartbreak). The general would have been excluded from his reward in the society, and treated as one contaminated by the gods.
No wonder he jumped at the relief promised by the Israelite girl, even though she came from a culture proven inferior. She was captive, a slave, and nameless, but she proved faithful to her God and the prophet (vv. 2-3). This youth would point Namaan to the cure that would reestablish his own youth (v. 14). It was fortunate that he was not too proud to listen to a mere servant (cf. v. 13).
Yet listening and hearing are two different things. The girl said "prophet," the general heard "king." The general was out of his league; he was not used to stooping so low. The chain of command was so ingrained in him that he could not imagine that he would find the prophet anywhere but the court of the king of Israel. So he followed protocol, asking his commander-in-chief for a recommendation, and loading up a vast treasure of silver, gold, and silk, to offer as a carrot to the king (v. 5).
The king of Israel (presumably Jehoram, cf. 3:1) took Namaan's offer as more of a stick than a carrot, thus adding to the comic relief provided by the bumbling bigwigs. He assumed that his foe is making an impossible request just to taunt him. The request for healing was just another impossible levy on tea that had already washed out of the harbor with no discernable revolutionary effect. His mind was so far turned from the Lord that he did not even remember that there was a prophet in Samaria. Elisha was a forgotten resource.
Fortunately, the prophet was up on current events. Even if the king with his torn royal robe had forgotten, perhaps a foreigner could learn that there was a prophet in Israel (v. 8). From the beginning, Elisha set as a priority Namaan's conversion, not just his healing. The comedy continued as the general pulled up in a cavalcade, only to be met by an underling. Elisha didn't even give the great man an interview, but instead prescribed secondhand an apparently useless treatment (v. 10). Such was the power of the prophet, however, that even a secondhand sevenfold washing would change the great man's flesh into that of a baby (v. 14). After a bit more comic posing, Namaan did in fact learn the power of the Lord's prophet.
Our lection leaves off the conclusion of the story, following Namaan's baptism. He confessed the faith of the true God in terms reminiscent of the Shema (v. 15; cf. Deuteronomy 6:4), and he promised that his court duties would be secret offerings to the one true God (v. 5:18). The lection also leaves out the remarkable counter-story to the conversion of Namaan, the greed of Elisha's servant Gehazi. Whereas Namaan's forays into the temple of Rimmon would be pardonable, Gehazi's idolatry was not, and the two traded places, Namaan leaving Israel with skin smooth and new, and Gehazi returning with scales as white as snow.
Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16
Like Israel and Aram, Paul and the Galatians were in a constant state of war. However, Paul's battle was waged on an entirely different plane, since it was the war of the liberating Spirit against the enslaving power that stood against all of God's plans (Paul calls this power sarx, "Flesh"). In Galatians 5:13-26, Paul outlines the role of the Spirit in the battle against the Flesh. In today's lection, he issues a string of commands that reflect the "fruit of the Spirit" (5:22-23; cf. 6:1, 2, 4-5, 6, 9-10) in the community's daily life, with special attention to the particular troubles in Galatia. Throughout this section, Paul takes common maxims from Greco-Roman and Jewish tradition, transforming them by the fireworks of his rhetoric, and leading them down to the waterworks to baptize them as exhortations in the Spirit. His instructions are addressed to "you who have received the Spirit" (literally, "you spiritual ones") and they call the community to its highest ideal (v. 1).
Paul now addresses the Galatians as adelphoi (vv. 1, 18, literally, "brothers"; NRSV "My friends"), because they are members of one big family, the "household of faith" (v. 10; NRSV "the family of faith"). As such they are to look out for each other (vv. 1-5). Paul draws on philosophical exhortations to "bear one another's burdens" and the proverb that "Friends share all things." Those who are caught in "transgressions" (paraptoma, not hamartia, "sins," because the sinful Flesh has been taken care of by Christ's sacrifice, cf. 1:4; 3:22) are to be dealt with, but gently, since Christians share their burdens and are wary of their own temptations. They are to follow "the Law of Christ" as defined in 5:14, the law fulfilled by the command to love one's neighbor, following the example of Jesus. In this way, they will keep their boasting to themselves rather than directing it to their neighbor -- since there's nothing to boast about anyway, but Christ's work (v. 4; cf. v. 14). This commandment was particularly apt for the Galatians, who were troubled by those who thought they were spiritually superior due to their advocacy of the Law of Moses.
Most commentators see verse 6 as an isolated exhortation to contribute financial support to teachers and missionaries, but I think that it is best taken with the verses that follow, since those who take no responsibility for their spiritual sustenance reap what they sow. Paul, again taking his clue from common philosophical maxims, adds the motivation of future punishment for those who thumb their noses at God ("God is not mocked," i.e., treated with contempt). The choice is to sow to the Flesh or to the Spirit, and those who put their money on their teachers have made the right choice. Paul's choice of wording is especially pointed, since some in Galatia have sown to the flesh quite literally, in advocating circumcision as necessary for salvation.
In verses 9-10, Paul sums up his hortatory section, again invoking the future harvest of the fruit of the Spirit, and the necessity of making good use of the time we have (Paul uses kairos, "time," twice in these verses, though NRSV obscures it). Those who live in the Spirit do right, both for the household of faith and for all humanity.
Paul closes his letter with a postscript in his own hand. As often in ancient letters, the postscript summed up the main points of the letter and added a few final thoughts, while the handwriting authenticated the author. Paul's bold hand served to signal the importance of his summary (v. 11). Again, the issue in Galatia was whether Gentile believers needed to convert to Judaism in order to become members of the Christian community. Paul's emphatic answer was "No!" He recaps his main argument in a sharp ad-hominem attack on his enemies (vv. 12-13). He continually presses his ironic use of sarx, "Flesh," since his opponents were trying to "make a good showing in the flesh" by performing circumcision, which only proved their reliance on the Flesh rather than the Spirit. He charges them with trying to avoid persecution (from zealous Jewish Christians?) and with hypocrisy, since they cannot and do not keep the very law they seek to impose on Gentiles (cf. 2:11-13).
As for Paul himself, he is content to set the example of relying solely on the work of Christ (vv. 14-16). In the end, neither practicing circumcision nor remaining uncircumcised were to the point, which was strictly the "new creation" that Christ offered (Paul does not even finish his sentence, but blurts out, "Neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision, but new creation!"). This new creation completely replaces the old; God is in the process of applying a new measuring stick (kanon, "rule, standard," v. 16) to all of creation, and those who measure up will know God's peace and mercy. Paul adapts a traditional Jewish blessing to apply to the Israel that God has created, one based not on the observance of the Law, but on Christ's fulfillment of it.
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Jesus set off some fireworks of his own to signal the preaching and healing mission of the Seventy. Their advance work for him was carried out in the Spirit and bore the fruits of the Spirit. The ministry of the waterworks was confirmed in the fireworks of Satan's fall, as the demons were subject even to the least of these disciples. Their mission foreshadows the story that Luke will tell in the book of Acts.
None of the other gospels mentions the mission trip of the Seventy, and in light of its similarity to the traditions about the trip of the Twelve (Luke 9:1-6; Matthew 9:35--10:14), some scholars think that the story is a Lukan creation. Certainly it fits with Luke's emphasis that Jesus' followers numbered far more than twelve (cf. Luke 8:1-3; Acts 1:13-15). The symbolic significance of the number seventy is clouded by textual variants (the reading "Seventy-two" is equally likely to be original), but most scholars see here a reference to Moses' choice of surrogates in Numbers 11:16-17. As so often in Luke, Jesus is presented as the Prophet Like Moses.
The Seventy serve as a kind of advance team, going places where Jesus intends to go (v. 1). They go in pairs, probably to serve as the "two witnesses" required by the Law, in case the town rejects Jesus' mission (vv. 10-12; cf. Deuteronomy 19:15). Their own advance team has prepared them to meet with trouble (9:51-56). Their job is to herald Jesus' coming in person by doing what Jesus would do: healing the sick, and preaching the proximity of the Kingdom of God (v. 9). Like Paul, Jesus cites God's coming harvest as a motivation for the mission (v. 2; cf. Galatians 6:9). As usual, harvest time will require an expansion of the workforce -- thus, the Seventy.
These Seventy speak with the rights and authority of legal agents of Jesus; to take their word is to respond to Jesus himself, and vice-versa (v. 16). The shortness of time, the urgency of the task, and the possibility of hostilities explain the terse instructions given. They travel light, because of the (symbolic) wolves (v. 3). They have no need of purse or bag, because they will receive hospitality on the road (vv. 4-7; Jesus agrees with Paul, that the laborer deserves pay, Galatians 6:6). Unlike charlatans, they are not in it for the side benefits (v. 7). They are in too much of a hurry to stop and chat with those they meet on the road (v. 4). They offer "peace," that sense of completion or wholeness, which is always connected with salvation in Luke (1:79; 2:14, 29; 7:50; 8:48; 19:38, 42; 24:36; cf. Galatians 6:16). In each town, they make a public display through their preaching and healing, and either the public accepts them, or they receive a symbolic sermon on the topic of dust and feet (vv. 8-11).
The return of the Seventy is marked by celebration, which Jesus has to funnel into the proper channel: "Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (v. 20). Jesus' response to their initial report, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning," has perplexed commentators for years. There is no doubt that Luke is alluding to Isaiah 14:11-15, which speaks of the fall of a mighty king as the precursor to the restoration of Israel (Luke has already alluded to the passage in v. 15). There is a great deal of doubt as to what he meant by the allusion. Is Jesus reporting the primordial fall of Satan? (cf. Jude 6; Genesis 6:1-4). Or is his vision a prophecy of the future? (cf. Revelation 12:9; 20:1-4). And what is the connection between the vision and the return of the Seventy? Most scholars see the Seventy's triumph over the demonic spirits as a foretaste of the final fall of Satan that is certified by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus -- Satan proves to still be active and hard at work against the followers of Jesus (Acts 5:3; 13:4-12; 26:18; 28:3-6), but they have the advantage of complete authority over the evil spirit, through the name of Jesus. The success of the Seventy is further proof that Jesus' message is true, and the Kingdom of God is indeed breaking in, the promise of the last days being realized in the present.
Application
Between the hot dogs and the fireworks, Christians might take time out of their holiday to consider their own roots, nourished by the waterworks. Baptism connects us to the power of God in the Spirit, and also connects us to each other, making us into a community of healing and proclamation to those who, for whatever reason, stand outside and excluded from God's grace. It is not that they really are excluded -- even if they happen to be complete outsiders, like the general, Namaan, or the hostile towns on the itinerary of the Seventy. God still wants to make these people whole and bring them into the household of faith. But God is counting on us to bring them to the waterworks.
Thus every Christian serves as a prophet, pointing to the one forgotten thing in the kingdoms of this world. Every Christian stands as part of a community, bearing the burdens of the other. And every Christian participates in the ongoing preaching and healing mission of the followers of Jesus, now numbering more than seventy, the innumerable and unconquerable who go forth under the fireworks of Satan's flare-out to subjugate the demons and bring even the least of their brothers and sisters home.
Alternative Applications
1) 2 Kings 5:1-14. What about all the lepers who were not healed? There is a tendency when reading biblical stories either to accept naively the wonders, or to glance sideways at them. Somewhere between cynicism and gullibility stands faith, which recognizes that death is a part of life; illness is a part of life; and miraculous reversals are rare. Often we get so entangled in this literal dilemma that we forget the symbolic nature of these stories. In 2 Kings, Elisha brings "salvation" or "deliverance" to Namaan. His healing represents his restoration to society. It also results in an ever-so-slight turn from idolatry to the worship of the true God. Though Namaan is not ready to forego his newly returned status in the king's court and before the king's altar, his good intentions are met with God's grace and a blessing of peace from the prophet (5:19).
2) Galatians 6:1-16. There is no contradiction between bearing each other's burdens and carrying our own load. Paul's exhortations in verses 2 and 5 complement rather than contradict, because they address two different circumstances. In the first instance, Christians are directed to care for one another, particularly for those who have succumbed, perhaps unawares, to transgression (v. 1). This is the "spiritual" thing to do, because one of the fruits of the Spirit is "gentleness" (cf. 5:22-23), and those who operate in the Spirit know better than to stand on the edge of the garbage can pointing down -- that edge is razor-sharp, and it's awfully hard to keep your balance. Those who think themselves better than others operate not under the Spirit but under a delusion, and it is to this temptation that Paul directs his comments about carrying one's own load and testing one's own work. The attitude toward the neighbors is gentle concern. The attitude toward oneself is ruthless discrimination. Thus Paul says that boasting can be directed only to one's own accomplishment, but never spoken to others. We bear one another's burdens through our humility; we carry our own loads by applying the highest standards to ourselves alone. The first exhortation applies to one's relation to the wider community, while the second looks inside to one's own spiritual fruit.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 30
Anyone who has ever had the experience of losing a friend because of some conflict or dispute and then has the friendship restored because of love and forgiveness has a unique insight into the meaning of this Psalm. Though the poem begins and ends with praise, there is in the middle of the poem a brief moment of confession and contrition that puts the praise portions of the psalm in an entirely different light.
The first hint that this psalm is more than just a general praise song to God is introduced with the words, "For his anger is but for a moment" (v. 5). This phrase appears suddenly after many words of praise and exultation. God has saved the poet from suffering and from the hands of an un-named enemy. The focus is on God, but without verse 5, the impression could be that God has intervened on behalf of a hapless victim of the cruelty of others.
Suddenly the psalmist lets us see that the suffering he endured was self-inflicted. Enemies beset him because he had drifted from God's will. The poet writes, "I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved," then he writes, "you hid your face; I was dismayed."
The psalmist had apparently known the comfort and the security of wealth. The statement, "I shall never be moved" rings with tones of self-sufficiency and maybe even pride. Reveling in his wealth and power, the psalmist forgot that God is the source of all blessing -- material and otherwise.
It was then that the psalmist realized that God had withdrawn from him. The phrase "you hid your face" powerfully describes the experience of the absence of God. The psalmist's pride and forgetfulness had left him with only his own resources -- a realization that did not leave him with a good feeling.
And so he repents. "To you, O Lord, I cried, and to you the Lord I made supplication" (v. 8). The psalmist forsakes his inordinate trust in wealth and power as the source of his security and returns to the true source of all life. He pleads with God for mercy with imagery and language filled with irony.
The psalmist asks the Lord, "what profit is there in my death ... will the dust praise you?" (v. 9). In other words, if God follows through with the penalty the psalmist deserves, he will die. But then, who will praise God? It is a clever and subtle way of promising God that if God spares the life of the poet, the poet will make the goodness and the greatness of God well-known.
The psalm in which this promise occurs, of course, is the fulfillment of that promise. The verses leading up to the confession, and the verses that follow all focus on God's goodness, mercy, and greatness.
Structurally, the psalm illustrates how life really works. Our failure occurs right in the middle of our praise. Sometimes, in the very midst of exulting in God, we fail. The psalm's message is that the grace of God is both before and after our moments of foolishness.
That is why the psalmist's mourning has turned into dancing (v. 11), and why the psalmist is determined to "give thanks forever" (v. 12).
Meanwhile at church, the fireworks are all down at the waterworks. Elisha fights the tyrants of Aram with nothing more than the waters of the Jordan. Paul shows the Galatians that the way to life is through the Spirit they received at baptism. And Jesus sends out Seventy to do battle with evil, armed with nothing more than a word as elusive as a handful of stream. God's Independence Day is celebrated not with the rending of flesh but its healing, words of comfort and hope rather than threats.
2 Kings 5:1-14
It is not often that the victor looks to the vanquished for help. The usual assumption is that those who win the war are morally superior (history being inscribed by the winners). That was certainly the assumption of Namaan, the commander of the army of the King of Aram. Today's lection follows a series of disappointments in Israel, a string of battles lost to their northern enemy. Namaan was instrumental in Israel's defeat; one ancient tradition has it that Namaan was the "certain man" who lofted the arrow that just happened to land in the breast of King Ahab (1 Kings 22:34). In the mind of the general, victory proved his side's superiority in every way. Even the rivers of Damascus must have better water than the Jordan! (v. 12). The viewpoint is shared to a degree by the author of our story, who credits his "victory" (teshu'ah, "salvation, deliverance") to the Lord (v. 1). No foreign army could have ultimate power over Israel, and God's deeper purpose was both the punishment of Israel for unfaithfulness, and the conversion of an influential Gentile. Namaan's true victory will be his salvation by Elisha.
Despite his proven superiority, the "great man" (v. 1) had a disability: leprosy. Biblical "leprosy" probably referred to a range of skin diseases that might have included psoriasis. While we may not worry about "the heartbreak of psoriasis," in ancient times such diseases were as greatly feared as AIDS is today, the only treatment being isolation, exclusion, and priestly intervention. Even today, treatments for psoriasis are not wholly bulletproof (see John Updike's memoir Self-Consciousness for an account of the true heartbreak). The general would have been excluded from his reward in the society, and treated as one contaminated by the gods.
No wonder he jumped at the relief promised by the Israelite girl, even though she came from a culture proven inferior. She was captive, a slave, and nameless, but she proved faithful to her God and the prophet (vv. 2-3). This youth would point Namaan to the cure that would reestablish his own youth (v. 14). It was fortunate that he was not too proud to listen to a mere servant (cf. v. 13).
Yet listening and hearing are two different things. The girl said "prophet," the general heard "king." The general was out of his league; he was not used to stooping so low. The chain of command was so ingrained in him that he could not imagine that he would find the prophet anywhere but the court of the king of Israel. So he followed protocol, asking his commander-in-chief for a recommendation, and loading up a vast treasure of silver, gold, and silk, to offer as a carrot to the king (v. 5).
The king of Israel (presumably Jehoram, cf. 3:1) took Namaan's offer as more of a stick than a carrot, thus adding to the comic relief provided by the bumbling bigwigs. He assumed that his foe is making an impossible request just to taunt him. The request for healing was just another impossible levy on tea that had already washed out of the harbor with no discernable revolutionary effect. His mind was so far turned from the Lord that he did not even remember that there was a prophet in Samaria. Elisha was a forgotten resource.
Fortunately, the prophet was up on current events. Even if the king with his torn royal robe had forgotten, perhaps a foreigner could learn that there was a prophet in Israel (v. 8). From the beginning, Elisha set as a priority Namaan's conversion, not just his healing. The comedy continued as the general pulled up in a cavalcade, only to be met by an underling. Elisha didn't even give the great man an interview, but instead prescribed secondhand an apparently useless treatment (v. 10). Such was the power of the prophet, however, that even a secondhand sevenfold washing would change the great man's flesh into that of a baby (v. 14). After a bit more comic posing, Namaan did in fact learn the power of the Lord's prophet.
Our lection leaves off the conclusion of the story, following Namaan's baptism. He confessed the faith of the true God in terms reminiscent of the Shema (v. 15; cf. Deuteronomy 6:4), and he promised that his court duties would be secret offerings to the one true God (v. 5:18). The lection also leaves out the remarkable counter-story to the conversion of Namaan, the greed of Elisha's servant Gehazi. Whereas Namaan's forays into the temple of Rimmon would be pardonable, Gehazi's idolatry was not, and the two traded places, Namaan leaving Israel with skin smooth and new, and Gehazi returning with scales as white as snow.
Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16
Like Israel and Aram, Paul and the Galatians were in a constant state of war. However, Paul's battle was waged on an entirely different plane, since it was the war of the liberating Spirit against the enslaving power that stood against all of God's plans (Paul calls this power sarx, "Flesh"). In Galatians 5:13-26, Paul outlines the role of the Spirit in the battle against the Flesh. In today's lection, he issues a string of commands that reflect the "fruit of the Spirit" (5:22-23; cf. 6:1, 2, 4-5, 6, 9-10) in the community's daily life, with special attention to the particular troubles in Galatia. Throughout this section, Paul takes common maxims from Greco-Roman and Jewish tradition, transforming them by the fireworks of his rhetoric, and leading them down to the waterworks to baptize them as exhortations in the Spirit. His instructions are addressed to "you who have received the Spirit" (literally, "you spiritual ones") and they call the community to its highest ideal (v. 1).
Paul now addresses the Galatians as adelphoi (vv. 1, 18, literally, "brothers"; NRSV "My friends"), because they are members of one big family, the "household of faith" (v. 10; NRSV "the family of faith"). As such they are to look out for each other (vv. 1-5). Paul draws on philosophical exhortations to "bear one another's burdens" and the proverb that "Friends share all things." Those who are caught in "transgressions" (paraptoma, not hamartia, "sins," because the sinful Flesh has been taken care of by Christ's sacrifice, cf. 1:4; 3:22) are to be dealt with, but gently, since Christians share their burdens and are wary of their own temptations. They are to follow "the Law of Christ" as defined in 5:14, the law fulfilled by the command to love one's neighbor, following the example of Jesus. In this way, they will keep their boasting to themselves rather than directing it to their neighbor -- since there's nothing to boast about anyway, but Christ's work (v. 4; cf. v. 14). This commandment was particularly apt for the Galatians, who were troubled by those who thought they were spiritually superior due to their advocacy of the Law of Moses.
Most commentators see verse 6 as an isolated exhortation to contribute financial support to teachers and missionaries, but I think that it is best taken with the verses that follow, since those who take no responsibility for their spiritual sustenance reap what they sow. Paul, again taking his clue from common philosophical maxims, adds the motivation of future punishment for those who thumb their noses at God ("God is not mocked," i.e., treated with contempt). The choice is to sow to the Flesh or to the Spirit, and those who put their money on their teachers have made the right choice. Paul's choice of wording is especially pointed, since some in Galatia have sown to the flesh quite literally, in advocating circumcision as necessary for salvation.
In verses 9-10, Paul sums up his hortatory section, again invoking the future harvest of the fruit of the Spirit, and the necessity of making good use of the time we have (Paul uses kairos, "time," twice in these verses, though NRSV obscures it). Those who live in the Spirit do right, both for the household of faith and for all humanity.
Paul closes his letter with a postscript in his own hand. As often in ancient letters, the postscript summed up the main points of the letter and added a few final thoughts, while the handwriting authenticated the author. Paul's bold hand served to signal the importance of his summary (v. 11). Again, the issue in Galatia was whether Gentile believers needed to convert to Judaism in order to become members of the Christian community. Paul's emphatic answer was "No!" He recaps his main argument in a sharp ad-hominem attack on his enemies (vv. 12-13). He continually presses his ironic use of sarx, "Flesh," since his opponents were trying to "make a good showing in the flesh" by performing circumcision, which only proved their reliance on the Flesh rather than the Spirit. He charges them with trying to avoid persecution (from zealous Jewish Christians?) and with hypocrisy, since they cannot and do not keep the very law they seek to impose on Gentiles (cf. 2:11-13).
As for Paul himself, he is content to set the example of relying solely on the work of Christ (vv. 14-16). In the end, neither practicing circumcision nor remaining uncircumcised were to the point, which was strictly the "new creation" that Christ offered (Paul does not even finish his sentence, but blurts out, "Neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision, but new creation!"). This new creation completely replaces the old; God is in the process of applying a new measuring stick (kanon, "rule, standard," v. 16) to all of creation, and those who measure up will know God's peace and mercy. Paul adapts a traditional Jewish blessing to apply to the Israel that God has created, one based not on the observance of the Law, but on Christ's fulfillment of it.
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Jesus set off some fireworks of his own to signal the preaching and healing mission of the Seventy. Their advance work for him was carried out in the Spirit and bore the fruits of the Spirit. The ministry of the waterworks was confirmed in the fireworks of Satan's fall, as the demons were subject even to the least of these disciples. Their mission foreshadows the story that Luke will tell in the book of Acts.
None of the other gospels mentions the mission trip of the Seventy, and in light of its similarity to the traditions about the trip of the Twelve (Luke 9:1-6; Matthew 9:35--10:14), some scholars think that the story is a Lukan creation. Certainly it fits with Luke's emphasis that Jesus' followers numbered far more than twelve (cf. Luke 8:1-3; Acts 1:13-15). The symbolic significance of the number seventy is clouded by textual variants (the reading "Seventy-two" is equally likely to be original), but most scholars see here a reference to Moses' choice of surrogates in Numbers 11:16-17. As so often in Luke, Jesus is presented as the Prophet Like Moses.
The Seventy serve as a kind of advance team, going places where Jesus intends to go (v. 1). They go in pairs, probably to serve as the "two witnesses" required by the Law, in case the town rejects Jesus' mission (vv. 10-12; cf. Deuteronomy 19:15). Their own advance team has prepared them to meet with trouble (9:51-56). Their job is to herald Jesus' coming in person by doing what Jesus would do: healing the sick, and preaching the proximity of the Kingdom of God (v. 9). Like Paul, Jesus cites God's coming harvest as a motivation for the mission (v. 2; cf. Galatians 6:9). As usual, harvest time will require an expansion of the workforce -- thus, the Seventy.
These Seventy speak with the rights and authority of legal agents of Jesus; to take their word is to respond to Jesus himself, and vice-versa (v. 16). The shortness of time, the urgency of the task, and the possibility of hostilities explain the terse instructions given. They travel light, because of the (symbolic) wolves (v. 3). They have no need of purse or bag, because they will receive hospitality on the road (vv. 4-7; Jesus agrees with Paul, that the laborer deserves pay, Galatians 6:6). Unlike charlatans, they are not in it for the side benefits (v. 7). They are in too much of a hurry to stop and chat with those they meet on the road (v. 4). They offer "peace," that sense of completion or wholeness, which is always connected with salvation in Luke (1:79; 2:14, 29; 7:50; 8:48; 19:38, 42; 24:36; cf. Galatians 6:16). In each town, they make a public display through their preaching and healing, and either the public accepts them, or they receive a symbolic sermon on the topic of dust and feet (vv. 8-11).
The return of the Seventy is marked by celebration, which Jesus has to funnel into the proper channel: "Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (v. 20). Jesus' response to their initial report, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning," has perplexed commentators for years. There is no doubt that Luke is alluding to Isaiah 14:11-15, which speaks of the fall of a mighty king as the precursor to the restoration of Israel (Luke has already alluded to the passage in v. 15). There is a great deal of doubt as to what he meant by the allusion. Is Jesus reporting the primordial fall of Satan? (cf. Jude 6; Genesis 6:1-4). Or is his vision a prophecy of the future? (cf. Revelation 12:9; 20:1-4). And what is the connection between the vision and the return of the Seventy? Most scholars see the Seventy's triumph over the demonic spirits as a foretaste of the final fall of Satan that is certified by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus -- Satan proves to still be active and hard at work against the followers of Jesus (Acts 5:3; 13:4-12; 26:18; 28:3-6), but they have the advantage of complete authority over the evil spirit, through the name of Jesus. The success of the Seventy is further proof that Jesus' message is true, and the Kingdom of God is indeed breaking in, the promise of the last days being realized in the present.
Application
Between the hot dogs and the fireworks, Christians might take time out of their holiday to consider their own roots, nourished by the waterworks. Baptism connects us to the power of God in the Spirit, and also connects us to each other, making us into a community of healing and proclamation to those who, for whatever reason, stand outside and excluded from God's grace. It is not that they really are excluded -- even if they happen to be complete outsiders, like the general, Namaan, or the hostile towns on the itinerary of the Seventy. God still wants to make these people whole and bring them into the household of faith. But God is counting on us to bring them to the waterworks.
Thus every Christian serves as a prophet, pointing to the one forgotten thing in the kingdoms of this world. Every Christian stands as part of a community, bearing the burdens of the other. And every Christian participates in the ongoing preaching and healing mission of the followers of Jesus, now numbering more than seventy, the innumerable and unconquerable who go forth under the fireworks of Satan's flare-out to subjugate the demons and bring even the least of their brothers and sisters home.
Alternative Applications
1) 2 Kings 5:1-14. What about all the lepers who were not healed? There is a tendency when reading biblical stories either to accept naively the wonders, or to glance sideways at them. Somewhere between cynicism and gullibility stands faith, which recognizes that death is a part of life; illness is a part of life; and miraculous reversals are rare. Often we get so entangled in this literal dilemma that we forget the symbolic nature of these stories. In 2 Kings, Elisha brings "salvation" or "deliverance" to Namaan. His healing represents his restoration to society. It also results in an ever-so-slight turn from idolatry to the worship of the true God. Though Namaan is not ready to forego his newly returned status in the king's court and before the king's altar, his good intentions are met with God's grace and a blessing of peace from the prophet (5:19).
2) Galatians 6:1-16. There is no contradiction between bearing each other's burdens and carrying our own load. Paul's exhortations in verses 2 and 5 complement rather than contradict, because they address two different circumstances. In the first instance, Christians are directed to care for one another, particularly for those who have succumbed, perhaps unawares, to transgression (v. 1). This is the "spiritual" thing to do, because one of the fruits of the Spirit is "gentleness" (cf. 5:22-23), and those who operate in the Spirit know better than to stand on the edge of the garbage can pointing down -- that edge is razor-sharp, and it's awfully hard to keep your balance. Those who think themselves better than others operate not under the Spirit but under a delusion, and it is to this temptation that Paul directs his comments about carrying one's own load and testing one's own work. The attitude toward the neighbors is gentle concern. The attitude toward oneself is ruthless discrimination. Thus Paul says that boasting can be directed only to one's own accomplishment, but never spoken to others. We bear one another's burdens through our humility; we carry our own loads by applying the highest standards to ourselves alone. The first exhortation applies to one's relation to the wider community, while the second looks inside to one's own spiritual fruit.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 30
Anyone who has ever had the experience of losing a friend because of some conflict or dispute and then has the friendship restored because of love and forgiveness has a unique insight into the meaning of this Psalm. Though the poem begins and ends with praise, there is in the middle of the poem a brief moment of confession and contrition that puts the praise portions of the psalm in an entirely different light.
The first hint that this psalm is more than just a general praise song to God is introduced with the words, "For his anger is but for a moment" (v. 5). This phrase appears suddenly after many words of praise and exultation. God has saved the poet from suffering and from the hands of an un-named enemy. The focus is on God, but without verse 5, the impression could be that God has intervened on behalf of a hapless victim of the cruelty of others.
Suddenly the psalmist lets us see that the suffering he endured was self-inflicted. Enemies beset him because he had drifted from God's will. The poet writes, "I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved," then he writes, "you hid your face; I was dismayed."
The psalmist had apparently known the comfort and the security of wealth. The statement, "I shall never be moved" rings with tones of self-sufficiency and maybe even pride. Reveling in his wealth and power, the psalmist forgot that God is the source of all blessing -- material and otherwise.
It was then that the psalmist realized that God had withdrawn from him. The phrase "you hid your face" powerfully describes the experience of the absence of God. The psalmist's pride and forgetfulness had left him with only his own resources -- a realization that did not leave him with a good feeling.
And so he repents. "To you, O Lord, I cried, and to you the Lord I made supplication" (v. 8). The psalmist forsakes his inordinate trust in wealth and power as the source of his security and returns to the true source of all life. He pleads with God for mercy with imagery and language filled with irony.
The psalmist asks the Lord, "what profit is there in my death ... will the dust praise you?" (v. 9). In other words, if God follows through with the penalty the psalmist deserves, he will die. But then, who will praise God? It is a clever and subtle way of promising God that if God spares the life of the poet, the poet will make the goodness and the greatness of God well-known.
The psalm in which this promise occurs, of course, is the fulfillment of that promise. The verses leading up to the confession, and the verses that follow all focus on God's goodness, mercy, and greatness.
Structurally, the psalm illustrates how life really works. Our failure occurs right in the middle of our praise. Sometimes, in the very midst of exulting in God, we fail. The psalm's message is that the grace of God is both before and after our moments of foolishness.
That is why the psalmist's mourning has turned into dancing (v. 11), and why the psalmist is determined to "give thanks forever" (v. 12).
