Primal urge
Commentary
The texts set before us all have to do with encountering the primal and basic core of
religious faith. Increasingly, I find a desire to identify what is primal in our lives. When I
went to seminary some thirty years ago there was an inherent suspicion of the primal. The
text was to be demythologized, psychologized, deconstructed, or mined for its moral
maxims, and its capacity to deal with everyday human problems. It is not to say that these
efforts did not bear fruit or bring many to faith. It did leave many of us viewing the
unreconstructed primal as primitive and in need of putting some distance between it and
ourselves.
No doubt there is truth to be had in the historical, critical scrutiny of scripture. I cannot imagine myself reading any text without the contextual, historical, and literary questions that my training calls me to deal with. However, I have increasingly wondered whether the historical critical method can generate passion, intensity, and vision through all the filters it creates.
In each of the texts, the reader is called to understand their life in the face of some primal understandings. In the Nehemiah text, the returned exiles are called to struggle with the rule of law, God's Law, as they rebuild the nation and its institutions. The returnees must be schooled in the primal intentions of God as commanded in the law and the foundational events of their history. Judging by the people's reaction the encounter with the primal was very intense. Paul gives us a central metaphor for the church, that it is primal enough that it informs nearly all understandings of the nature of the church. Paul has come in for a lot of deconstructing in recent years but not here. Of course, the reaction to Jesus' reading of the prophet and his claim that it was fulfilled in their hearing resulted in everyone fixing their gaze on Jesus in anticipation of what he might say or do next.
Here is religious and theological writing that could not be easily ignored by its readers. Indeed it is the people who called for the reading of the law. I believe that the people hunger for the kind of organic understanding of the church that Paul lifts up. Who does not long for community that rejoices and suffers together? The "What Would Jesus Do" movement embodies a desire to have a relationship with Jesus that enables the church to have the mind of Christ amongst its members. Here we have evidence of what was at the core of that mind. Of course, on the other hand, what is at the center of his thinking has earth-shattering implications that are a bit more than some had bargained on.
The texts address the questions: Where do we come from; who are we now; and where do we think we are headed? I look at how my ancestors worshiped and the fervor with which they believed and I can understand why many in the crowd beneath Ezra's feet wept when what many believe to have been an early form of the Pentateuch was read. My direct spiritual ancestors founded institutions like Harvard and Yale and Dartmouth, pioneered in the expansion of human rights, and proportionally gave unbelievable sums of money to evangelize throughout the world. I am sure the readers of this journal have similar tales to tell of the people from whom they are spiritually descended. The sense of distance between that vitality and where we seemingly are these days is a bit more Epiphany than we want to have. Certainly, Paul's primal understanding of church was written in light of cracks in the spiritual and theological facade of the early church that threatened its unity. It is an ideal that we have not attained in an era of private, do-it-yourself, consumer- driven, age-segmented religious experience. Jesus' words come as an Epiphany of purpose and vision as to his direction. Yet, it also comes as quite a revelation of the distance between us and the fulfillment of the year of the Lord's favor.
The primal brings both tears and joy. Joy as to what God is about and tears that too many of us too often have lost touch with the primal aims of our God.
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Most of our generation must surely find the story of the returned listening to the reading of the law near fanciful at best. Their fervor and desire for the law seems quaint. Moderns might sit down and consider, given our changed circumstance, what approach should be taken toward establishing a controlling legal authority. That people would stand for this hour after hour seems to be a quaint sort of religious enthusiasm. Surely in the retelling of this, we must be hearing the self-interest of the central authority and the elite seeking to establish its control over the nation -- perhaps.
Yet, anyone who has raised children knows that this explanation does not exhaust the possible meanings here. There comes a time when children begin to ask the questions about where they have come from -- more accurately from what sort of people have they come from. Is there anything in my family that I must live up to or live out? Is there somewhere in the past a curse, a failing, that must be lived down? Is there a great cloud of witnesses looking down upon me now that I somehow must not let down in my journey? Children search for epiphany -- as defined by the dictionary "the sudden manifestation of the essence or the meaning of something." In their own way they ask, "What did our people believe and what was it like for them to believe?" that they might find some clue as to who they are and what they should be.
They also long for the law. The developmental theorists remind us of what every parent knows: that there is a stage where a child's black-and-white thinking can be quite legalistic. Certainly it is not a stage to be mired in, but one to build on; to be adjusted and matured. It is not one to be avoided. Indeed it may need to be revisited as one grows and matures. Children want to know where they stand and where the boundaries will be established and what boundaries will be defended. They seem to know better than their parents sometimes that God, as a smiling grandpa without norms, does not work.
In exile, far from home, there was much pressure and many benefits to forget who you were and to routinely cast aside the law. It can be quite a revelation how far one has gone off the path of moral development when you are far from the constraints of home. It is quite a revelation that the longest of the Ten Commandments is the commandment about remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy. With attendant explanations it takes up over 50 percent of the word devoted to all of the commandments -- an epiphany. What seems to have been the unique contribution to the world's ethical thinking by the Israelites was the notion of Sabbath. You would never know it from what passes for ethical conversation in the media. Perhaps, because of living in exile, as we do in many ways, this is the most readily violated of all the commandments? Certainly it is the one we believe has the least consequences for being broken -- a revelation of how far we may be from our origins.
Of course, the reading of the law does not take place in the context of a courtroom or a classroom but in the context of worship. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, amen," lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. It is worship because this is not merely about laying down the law but laying open the law and an opening to the heart of its author. More than intellectual ascent is required here.
It was quite a day for the Israelites: an epiphany of lost origins and newfound commandments. A day of understanding that came through communal discernment. It was a day of the primal in preparation for their work.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Paul seems to engage in some fantasy here as he has talking feet, hands, eyes, and ears to illustrate his main point. However the older I get the more I appreciate the metaphor. There are days when my various body parts are a cacophony of messages. Some are clearly of the first kind that Paul mentions in verses 14-16. There are times when there are various parts of me that try to make their move toward secession. If they do not completely secede the individual body parts put forth the notion that their various needs are privileged over others. This results in the various parts trying to run the whole show. In the churches that I have served, this shows up in the ever-popular phrases "we have never done it that way before" and "we know how things are done around here, so it is my way or the highway." It also shows up in the idea since the young people and the young parents are the future of the church, they have a blank check to do any fool thing no matter how tasteless. So the various parts, believing that they do not belong to the body try to rearrange everything according to their own desire. This results in taking the next step of the various parts attempting to say to each other that there is no place for the other parts in the new order of things. I have no need of the social gospel people, the ladies' circle, or whatever. Paul is trying to strike a balance where all parts of the body are honored but none is privileged.
I recently had a graphic illustration of this. I try to run about six miles every day. I am not particularly adept at this, yet I found myself trying to push hard to, at least at the age of 57, be able to run a 10k in under 57 minutes. I pulled it off. I accomplished my goal by running my distance in 56 minutes. I was rather proud that I had 56-minute legs at the age of 57 and was quite solicitous of their care. However, the rest of my members have started a fairly serious conversation to the effect that that the wear and tear indicates that I am not at the 56-minute level. If I expect to continue running, we will have to have a major summit meeting as to what running should be about in my case. All parts will be honored and none privileged.
How do we go wrong in the church such that we wind up privileging some while not honoring all? Indeed, to do the former is to do the latter and vise versa. Paul implies that where we go wrong is baptism. If we get it right then we understand that what happens at baptism is that we become members of this mystical body where all parts are honored but none are privileged. He points out that some of the major differences that divide Paul's world are overcome by the Holy Spirit. Like the Orthodox church of today, the spirit was bestowed as a gift shortly after baptism. I suspect that we are less than fully versed in covering this meaning of baptism with either parents or adults who are about to undergo the rite.
In the Corinthian church, communion became a source of spiritual illness because the members did not discern the Lord's body. Those who had much showed up early and, believing that it was their privilege, went ahead with the meal, whether there was enough to go around or not. Speaking in tongues had become an occasion for self-glorification rather than mutual edification. The Corinthians made just about anything and everything an occasion to pull rank rather than pull together.
It might be quite an epiphany if we came to understand the divisions in the church that have lead to divisiveness have come from our failure to understand the primal meaning of our baptism.
Luke 4:14-21
The reports about him do spread throughout the land as Luke recounts, and can there be any doubt that for the most part he does earn the praise of everyone? I have yet to read any bad press on Jesus and I have seen plenty of attempts to get on the bandwagon. Jesus, from day one, is the hot topic of conversation. Yet here we are given a story where Jesus seems to have left people in a stunned silence. People always seem to have something to say about Jesus. The gospel recounts that it seems in general people could not shut up around Jesus. They sought to speak with him or about him. What was going on as the folks stared at Jesus? Were the preachers and pontificators in the crowd wondering what to say next? Did those idle curious, looking for something more spectacular for the moment, say to themselves, "So this is it. Isn't something more supposed to happen?" Did the regulars think "I better look this up?"
It does seem that we have here a fragile moment, for it does not take too long as the dust settles for people to seem unsettled at what has happened. While all speak well of him, they wonder just how it is that a local boy could be saying such things. You have the feeling that things could break down as they eventually do, for by the end of the encounter they are ready to throw him over a cliff.
In a way, we do to Jesus what Paul experienced among the Corinthians. We dissect him and find that we have no use for the aspects of Jesus that we have grown uncomfortable with. The Jesus that prays and ponders puts off those who say that Jesus is a social revolutionary. The Jesus that tells the lepers to go show themselves to the priest offends those who say, "Is not this the Jesus that has come to confound and challenge conventional religion?" Jesus the healer and miracle worker irritates those who have come because of the ethical insights of the Sermon on the Mount.
Yet here we are presented with one Jesus. He whose birth angels heralded, whose prenatal history is the fulfillment of Jewish history, and whose birthing has brought blindness to some and new sight to others is standing in the synagogue reading the morning lesson. The local folk who have their slice of Jesus can't get over it, "Is this not Joseph's son standing here with us reading the morning lesson?"
Quite an epiphany we have here. The teaching is told in the context of the miraculous. The fulfillment of history is told in the midst of the traditional being confounded. Luke tells his story of the implementation of God's plan from Jerusalem to Rome in the context of the prayer and the leading of a personal spirit. No wonder all eyes are fixed on him.
There is a unity of being in Jesus that the centrifugal forces of life want to pull apart. Unlike Jesus, when I am in overdrive it is all about my plan, not God's plan. Unlike Jesus, I struggle to caste out the demons without demonizing. Unlike Jesus, I seek healing without being open to having the conventional meaning of the term confounded. I join Paul in his plea for the unity of the church, yet I carry on inside me titanic battles that leave Jesus in bits and pieces.
Perhaps it is impossible to ever have the unity of spirit that Jesus brought to that synagogue meeting. Perhaps, at best, I can do this serially. Yet, my primal understanding of Jesus is the one who is saving because he lifts up the sides of me that are underdeveloped and the parts of me that are overdeveloped. This scripture has been fulfilled in my hearing of it.
Application
These texts chart a course toward a primal sense of our origins, our unity, and our sense of direction as God's people. Yes, we do need to be reminded that we are descended from prophets, lawgivers, and missioners. We have a large history to draw upon and guide our steps and steady our living. We are people who are the expression of a unity of spirit that has survived through the centuries. We are a people that in the Spirit has quite a destiny set before us. A friend of mine reminds me that we are God's gift to the world; don't hide it, don't deny it, just act like it.
I suspect that this comes for many in the pew as quite a revelation. The community that we enter into, through baptism, changes our history, status, and destiny. I do not see that written on many baptismal certificates. This is the season of Epiphany, a time to consider what is revealed and how the meaning and essence of things is made known to us. It is also a time to consider how in Christ Jesus the fulfillment of what we understand to be God's ways in the world and how we become part of the meaning and essence of things.
Alternative Application
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a. It seems one experience that is featured in the Christian scriptures is beyond the imagining of most of us, a term in prison as an inmate or a jailor. For many of us, the idea of being a captive freed is well beyond our experience. Yet, many of us are captive to bad marriages or arid living, jobs that provide little sense of vocation, patterns of living that get us in deep trouble, and troubled pasts that will not let us go.
Yes, all eyes are on him as we wonder how this can be the year of the Lord's favor. It seems to me it won't be if we merely plan a change in jobs, a new spouse, winning the lottery, leaving town, or any of the other things that humans change that often brings no real change to their lives.
It will be the year of the Lord's favor if we allow Jesus to touch those places in our lives where we need to be changed, freed, released, or take a second look. It is not too late in the New Year to make another resolution. Only, this time, it will not be so much about what I need to change but what will I allow Jesus to change in my life. When he releases me from captivity I resolve to march through the open door no matter where the road may lead. I will allow him to bring me his riches no matter what it may cost me. I will allow him to open my eyes no matter how much it changes my view of me and others.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 19
Many preachers use the last verse of this psalm as a prayer before launching into Sunday's sermon. "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." It is a prayer that serves as a kind of gentle reminder to the pastor who is beset by all kinds of temptations as he or she steps into the pulpit each Sunday.
Each pastor who forms a weekly message must resist the temptation to use the pulpit inappropriately. Church fights cannot be waged from the pulpit. Favorite political causes ought not be advanced from the pulpit, and self-indulgent whining should never be heard from a pulpit. The words of the preacher's mouth need to be acceptable to God, and as any pastor can easily observe, this is not always an easy thing to achieve.
The person who stands in a pulpit Sunday after Sunday has been given formidable responsibility. Week after week this person must somehow open up God's Word to a congregation that waits hungrily for it. It is no easy task, and it is why the prayer comes from so many preachers each Sunday. The words need to be "acceptable" to God.
But it is not merely to the pastor that this psalm is addressed, is it? How powerful a thing it would be if each member of each congregation owned this prayer in the way so many pastors utter it? How powerful a witness would emerge if each word and each thought were scrutinized to be sure that they were acceptable in God's sight.
It's true that pastors are frail, and sometimes sermons are questionable as to their probable acceptance before God. But then, aren't we all frail? Would it not be a beautiful covenant to make in a church community that each person would make a special effort to screen the words before they are spoken with the following question. "Is what I'm about to say acceptable to God?" Are the words that are forming in my mind designed to lift up and heal? Are they intended to nurture and bring life?
If such a covenant were made, the immediate result would be that every one would probably speak a lot less than they do now. Worse things could happen in a world so overfilled with empty words.
So what of it? Might a covenant be offered this Sunday? Might all the faithful commit to making the words of our mouths and the meditations in our hearts acceptable before God? It's at least worth a try.
No doubt there is truth to be had in the historical, critical scrutiny of scripture. I cannot imagine myself reading any text without the contextual, historical, and literary questions that my training calls me to deal with. However, I have increasingly wondered whether the historical critical method can generate passion, intensity, and vision through all the filters it creates.
In each of the texts, the reader is called to understand their life in the face of some primal understandings. In the Nehemiah text, the returned exiles are called to struggle with the rule of law, God's Law, as they rebuild the nation and its institutions. The returnees must be schooled in the primal intentions of God as commanded in the law and the foundational events of their history. Judging by the people's reaction the encounter with the primal was very intense. Paul gives us a central metaphor for the church, that it is primal enough that it informs nearly all understandings of the nature of the church. Paul has come in for a lot of deconstructing in recent years but not here. Of course, the reaction to Jesus' reading of the prophet and his claim that it was fulfilled in their hearing resulted in everyone fixing their gaze on Jesus in anticipation of what he might say or do next.
Here is religious and theological writing that could not be easily ignored by its readers. Indeed it is the people who called for the reading of the law. I believe that the people hunger for the kind of organic understanding of the church that Paul lifts up. Who does not long for community that rejoices and suffers together? The "What Would Jesus Do" movement embodies a desire to have a relationship with Jesus that enables the church to have the mind of Christ amongst its members. Here we have evidence of what was at the core of that mind. Of course, on the other hand, what is at the center of his thinking has earth-shattering implications that are a bit more than some had bargained on.
The texts address the questions: Where do we come from; who are we now; and where do we think we are headed? I look at how my ancestors worshiped and the fervor with which they believed and I can understand why many in the crowd beneath Ezra's feet wept when what many believe to have been an early form of the Pentateuch was read. My direct spiritual ancestors founded institutions like Harvard and Yale and Dartmouth, pioneered in the expansion of human rights, and proportionally gave unbelievable sums of money to evangelize throughout the world. I am sure the readers of this journal have similar tales to tell of the people from whom they are spiritually descended. The sense of distance between that vitality and where we seemingly are these days is a bit more Epiphany than we want to have. Certainly, Paul's primal understanding of church was written in light of cracks in the spiritual and theological facade of the early church that threatened its unity. It is an ideal that we have not attained in an era of private, do-it-yourself, consumer- driven, age-segmented religious experience. Jesus' words come as an Epiphany of purpose and vision as to his direction. Yet, it also comes as quite a revelation of the distance between us and the fulfillment of the year of the Lord's favor.
The primal brings both tears and joy. Joy as to what God is about and tears that too many of us too often have lost touch with the primal aims of our God.
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Most of our generation must surely find the story of the returned listening to the reading of the law near fanciful at best. Their fervor and desire for the law seems quaint. Moderns might sit down and consider, given our changed circumstance, what approach should be taken toward establishing a controlling legal authority. That people would stand for this hour after hour seems to be a quaint sort of religious enthusiasm. Surely in the retelling of this, we must be hearing the self-interest of the central authority and the elite seeking to establish its control over the nation -- perhaps.
Yet, anyone who has raised children knows that this explanation does not exhaust the possible meanings here. There comes a time when children begin to ask the questions about where they have come from -- more accurately from what sort of people have they come from. Is there anything in my family that I must live up to or live out? Is there somewhere in the past a curse, a failing, that must be lived down? Is there a great cloud of witnesses looking down upon me now that I somehow must not let down in my journey? Children search for epiphany -- as defined by the dictionary "the sudden manifestation of the essence or the meaning of something." In their own way they ask, "What did our people believe and what was it like for them to believe?" that they might find some clue as to who they are and what they should be.
They also long for the law. The developmental theorists remind us of what every parent knows: that there is a stage where a child's black-and-white thinking can be quite legalistic. Certainly it is not a stage to be mired in, but one to build on; to be adjusted and matured. It is not one to be avoided. Indeed it may need to be revisited as one grows and matures. Children want to know where they stand and where the boundaries will be established and what boundaries will be defended. They seem to know better than their parents sometimes that God, as a smiling grandpa without norms, does not work.
In exile, far from home, there was much pressure and many benefits to forget who you were and to routinely cast aside the law. It can be quite a revelation how far one has gone off the path of moral development when you are far from the constraints of home. It is quite a revelation that the longest of the Ten Commandments is the commandment about remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy. With attendant explanations it takes up over 50 percent of the word devoted to all of the commandments -- an epiphany. What seems to have been the unique contribution to the world's ethical thinking by the Israelites was the notion of Sabbath. You would never know it from what passes for ethical conversation in the media. Perhaps, because of living in exile, as we do in many ways, this is the most readily violated of all the commandments? Certainly it is the one we believe has the least consequences for being broken -- a revelation of how far we may be from our origins.
Of course, the reading of the law does not take place in the context of a courtroom or a classroom but in the context of worship. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, amen," lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. It is worship because this is not merely about laying down the law but laying open the law and an opening to the heart of its author. More than intellectual ascent is required here.
It was quite a day for the Israelites: an epiphany of lost origins and newfound commandments. A day of understanding that came through communal discernment. It was a day of the primal in preparation for their work.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Paul seems to engage in some fantasy here as he has talking feet, hands, eyes, and ears to illustrate his main point. However the older I get the more I appreciate the metaphor. There are days when my various body parts are a cacophony of messages. Some are clearly of the first kind that Paul mentions in verses 14-16. There are times when there are various parts of me that try to make their move toward secession. If they do not completely secede the individual body parts put forth the notion that their various needs are privileged over others. This results in the various parts trying to run the whole show. In the churches that I have served, this shows up in the ever-popular phrases "we have never done it that way before" and "we know how things are done around here, so it is my way or the highway." It also shows up in the idea since the young people and the young parents are the future of the church, they have a blank check to do any fool thing no matter how tasteless. So the various parts, believing that they do not belong to the body try to rearrange everything according to their own desire. This results in taking the next step of the various parts attempting to say to each other that there is no place for the other parts in the new order of things. I have no need of the social gospel people, the ladies' circle, or whatever. Paul is trying to strike a balance where all parts of the body are honored but none is privileged.
I recently had a graphic illustration of this. I try to run about six miles every day. I am not particularly adept at this, yet I found myself trying to push hard to, at least at the age of 57, be able to run a 10k in under 57 minutes. I pulled it off. I accomplished my goal by running my distance in 56 minutes. I was rather proud that I had 56-minute legs at the age of 57 and was quite solicitous of their care. However, the rest of my members have started a fairly serious conversation to the effect that that the wear and tear indicates that I am not at the 56-minute level. If I expect to continue running, we will have to have a major summit meeting as to what running should be about in my case. All parts will be honored and none privileged.
How do we go wrong in the church such that we wind up privileging some while not honoring all? Indeed, to do the former is to do the latter and vise versa. Paul implies that where we go wrong is baptism. If we get it right then we understand that what happens at baptism is that we become members of this mystical body where all parts are honored but none are privileged. He points out that some of the major differences that divide Paul's world are overcome by the Holy Spirit. Like the Orthodox church of today, the spirit was bestowed as a gift shortly after baptism. I suspect that we are less than fully versed in covering this meaning of baptism with either parents or adults who are about to undergo the rite.
In the Corinthian church, communion became a source of spiritual illness because the members did not discern the Lord's body. Those who had much showed up early and, believing that it was their privilege, went ahead with the meal, whether there was enough to go around or not. Speaking in tongues had become an occasion for self-glorification rather than mutual edification. The Corinthians made just about anything and everything an occasion to pull rank rather than pull together.
It might be quite an epiphany if we came to understand the divisions in the church that have lead to divisiveness have come from our failure to understand the primal meaning of our baptism.
Luke 4:14-21
The reports about him do spread throughout the land as Luke recounts, and can there be any doubt that for the most part he does earn the praise of everyone? I have yet to read any bad press on Jesus and I have seen plenty of attempts to get on the bandwagon. Jesus, from day one, is the hot topic of conversation. Yet here we are given a story where Jesus seems to have left people in a stunned silence. People always seem to have something to say about Jesus. The gospel recounts that it seems in general people could not shut up around Jesus. They sought to speak with him or about him. What was going on as the folks stared at Jesus? Were the preachers and pontificators in the crowd wondering what to say next? Did those idle curious, looking for something more spectacular for the moment, say to themselves, "So this is it. Isn't something more supposed to happen?" Did the regulars think "I better look this up?"
It does seem that we have here a fragile moment, for it does not take too long as the dust settles for people to seem unsettled at what has happened. While all speak well of him, they wonder just how it is that a local boy could be saying such things. You have the feeling that things could break down as they eventually do, for by the end of the encounter they are ready to throw him over a cliff.
In a way, we do to Jesus what Paul experienced among the Corinthians. We dissect him and find that we have no use for the aspects of Jesus that we have grown uncomfortable with. The Jesus that prays and ponders puts off those who say that Jesus is a social revolutionary. The Jesus that tells the lepers to go show themselves to the priest offends those who say, "Is not this the Jesus that has come to confound and challenge conventional religion?" Jesus the healer and miracle worker irritates those who have come because of the ethical insights of the Sermon on the Mount.
Yet here we are presented with one Jesus. He whose birth angels heralded, whose prenatal history is the fulfillment of Jewish history, and whose birthing has brought blindness to some and new sight to others is standing in the synagogue reading the morning lesson. The local folk who have their slice of Jesus can't get over it, "Is this not Joseph's son standing here with us reading the morning lesson?"
Quite an epiphany we have here. The teaching is told in the context of the miraculous. The fulfillment of history is told in the midst of the traditional being confounded. Luke tells his story of the implementation of God's plan from Jerusalem to Rome in the context of the prayer and the leading of a personal spirit. No wonder all eyes are fixed on him.
There is a unity of being in Jesus that the centrifugal forces of life want to pull apart. Unlike Jesus, when I am in overdrive it is all about my plan, not God's plan. Unlike Jesus, I struggle to caste out the demons without demonizing. Unlike Jesus, I seek healing without being open to having the conventional meaning of the term confounded. I join Paul in his plea for the unity of the church, yet I carry on inside me titanic battles that leave Jesus in bits and pieces.
Perhaps it is impossible to ever have the unity of spirit that Jesus brought to that synagogue meeting. Perhaps, at best, I can do this serially. Yet, my primal understanding of Jesus is the one who is saving because he lifts up the sides of me that are underdeveloped and the parts of me that are overdeveloped. This scripture has been fulfilled in my hearing of it.
Application
These texts chart a course toward a primal sense of our origins, our unity, and our sense of direction as God's people. Yes, we do need to be reminded that we are descended from prophets, lawgivers, and missioners. We have a large history to draw upon and guide our steps and steady our living. We are people who are the expression of a unity of spirit that has survived through the centuries. We are a people that in the Spirit has quite a destiny set before us. A friend of mine reminds me that we are God's gift to the world; don't hide it, don't deny it, just act like it.
I suspect that this comes for many in the pew as quite a revelation. The community that we enter into, through baptism, changes our history, status, and destiny. I do not see that written on many baptismal certificates. This is the season of Epiphany, a time to consider what is revealed and how the meaning and essence of things is made known to us. It is also a time to consider how in Christ Jesus the fulfillment of what we understand to be God's ways in the world and how we become part of the meaning and essence of things.
Alternative Application
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a. It seems one experience that is featured in the Christian scriptures is beyond the imagining of most of us, a term in prison as an inmate or a jailor. For many of us, the idea of being a captive freed is well beyond our experience. Yet, many of us are captive to bad marriages or arid living, jobs that provide little sense of vocation, patterns of living that get us in deep trouble, and troubled pasts that will not let us go.
Yes, all eyes are on him as we wonder how this can be the year of the Lord's favor. It seems to me it won't be if we merely plan a change in jobs, a new spouse, winning the lottery, leaving town, or any of the other things that humans change that often brings no real change to their lives.
It will be the year of the Lord's favor if we allow Jesus to touch those places in our lives where we need to be changed, freed, released, or take a second look. It is not too late in the New Year to make another resolution. Only, this time, it will not be so much about what I need to change but what will I allow Jesus to change in my life. When he releases me from captivity I resolve to march through the open door no matter where the road may lead. I will allow him to bring me his riches no matter what it may cost me. I will allow him to open my eyes no matter how much it changes my view of me and others.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 19
Many preachers use the last verse of this psalm as a prayer before launching into Sunday's sermon. "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." It is a prayer that serves as a kind of gentle reminder to the pastor who is beset by all kinds of temptations as he or she steps into the pulpit each Sunday.
Each pastor who forms a weekly message must resist the temptation to use the pulpit inappropriately. Church fights cannot be waged from the pulpit. Favorite political causes ought not be advanced from the pulpit, and self-indulgent whining should never be heard from a pulpit. The words of the preacher's mouth need to be acceptable to God, and as any pastor can easily observe, this is not always an easy thing to achieve.
The person who stands in a pulpit Sunday after Sunday has been given formidable responsibility. Week after week this person must somehow open up God's Word to a congregation that waits hungrily for it. It is no easy task, and it is why the prayer comes from so many preachers each Sunday. The words need to be "acceptable" to God.
But it is not merely to the pastor that this psalm is addressed, is it? How powerful a thing it would be if each member of each congregation owned this prayer in the way so many pastors utter it? How powerful a witness would emerge if each word and each thought were scrutinized to be sure that they were acceptable in God's sight.
It's true that pastors are frail, and sometimes sermons are questionable as to their probable acceptance before God. But then, aren't we all frail? Would it not be a beautiful covenant to make in a church community that each person would make a special effort to screen the words before they are spoken with the following question. "Is what I'm about to say acceptable to God?" Are the words that are forming in my mind designed to lift up and heal? Are they intended to nurture and bring life?
If such a covenant were made, the immediate result would be that every one would probably speak a lot less than they do now. Worse things could happen in a world so overfilled with empty words.
So what of it? Might a covenant be offered this Sunday? Might all the faithful commit to making the words of our mouths and the meditations in our hearts acceptable before God? It's at least worth a try.
