Here’s the list of texts we’ll be hearing this coming Sunday:
1Kings 19:9-18 At Mount Horeb, where God had appeared to Moses by way of the typical demonstrations of God’s presence – earthquake, wind, and fire [sounds like a good name for a soul band doesn't it?] – Elijah now experiences God in a particular kind of silence. I’m fond of a translation that calls the silence “crushing,” evoking vivid images of how certain kinds of quiet can make us feel puny. God assures Elijah that he is not the only faithful believer… he is on the run from Queen Jezebel, who has just threatened him with death because he had all of her prophets (of Baal) seized and killed in the Wadi Kishon after the “prophet showdown” at Mount Carmel. God tells Elijah that seven thousand Israelites are still loyal, and Elijah is instructed to anoint Hazael as king over Aram and Jehu as king over Israel, and Elisha the farmboy as his own successor.
Psalm 85:8-13 Antiphonal verse 8: “I will listen to what the LORD God is saying.” A prophetic reading of what is to come when God speaks peace to his people. The verses before this recollect the favor and forgiveness that God had shown in the past, with vv 4-7 making a transition from past to future through the present situation of praying for restoration. I like the tone of vv 5&6 especially, and though they’re not part of the reading I might just mention them because they echo so many of the good honest prayers I hear people telling me about when they pray in the midst of turmoil or seemingly endless strings of unfortunate events… it’s that tone of voice we use when we fear we’re talking to ourselves when we’re asking for help: “Hello, anybody listening??” or that awful feeling comics must have when they tap the mic and say “is this thing on?” Here’s what they say: 5. “Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? 6. Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you?” I’ll leave it to you to read the rest, but these verses are priceless to those who’ve ever wondered “hey God, ARE you listening?”
Romans 10:5-15 Paul gets into what true evangelical Christians hold very close: proclamation. Faith comes not by our achieving it through heroic effort, but instead by way of the preached Word… the living and breathing “New Testament” of the entire Bible: Jesus Christ. This proclamation is sent by way of a preacher, and the Holy Spirit uses it as he will to create faith. The proclamation of Christ crucified and risen FOR YOU is the essence of the church, many acclaimed “experts” making plenty of money today by way of “mission consultations” and seminars seem to omit this from an otherwise intellectually stimulating and spiritually uplifting rhetoric. The “snausage” in this week’s bulletin will contain the text of Augsburg Confession article V, which also deals with this issue of how faith comes about in sinners.
Matthew 14:22-33 After dismissing the thousands of people on the lakeshore who have been fed, Jesus instructs the disciples to get aboard a boat while he withdraws to pray. Early the next morning, the boat has drifted out into open waters, exposing the group aboard to the waves and wind, but they see Jesus coming toward them, walking on the water. This passage is one of many foreshadowing the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, where he shows up in an impossible way (i.e. in a room where the door was locked, on the road to Emmaus, coming to Mary Magdalene and telling her to go ahead and let the other disciples know, etc…) in a very frightening moment and issues words of peace and comfort. Much has been made of Peter’s walking on water, and I’ve never known quite what to make of the scenario except for identifying with the words he speaks before getting out of the boat (“call me to you…”) and as he is having a “Wyle E. Coyote” moment, realizing he’s put himself in an absolutely irreversible position of complete vulnerability before the LORD Almighty (“LORD save me!”). It’s a prayer I have often uttered in one bind or another.
The whole notion of being told to get in a boat, falling asleep, and coming to in the middle of a storm on open water seems to have some echoes with my own sense of life’s trajectory. Regardless of how careful we are, how vigilant about our surroundings and associations, or how protective of our health and possessions, everything we are gets put on the line when the LORD finds us and chooses to dwell with us. There’s a line from one of my favorite westerns (“Silverado”) where a couple of the main characters are out on a goodwill mission to retrieve a community lockbox from some thieves who are holed up in a box canyon. The few men who’ve gone out peer carefully over the ledge of the canyon, getting the first glimpse of the terrible odds they’re up against, and the guy who’s just kind of “along for the ride” (Paden) says to the main hero (Emmett), “you know, hangin’ around you is no picnic.” That seems to be appropriate to these situations we find ourselves in when Jesus gets ahold of us and works Gods good on the world. Sometimes I pray that way: “you know Jesus, hangin’ around with you is no picnic.” Perhaps a more adequate church analogy is “…hangin’ around with you is no potluck.”
I’m reminded of Bonhoeffer’s book regarding “the Cost of Discipleship,” in which he sets up definitions of “costly grace” and “cheap grace” for the purpose of a bigger thesis, summed up in the statement that when Jesus calls disciples he does so by saying “…come and die.” It’s quite a grave thing to say, by someone who participated in quite serious and weighty expressions of religious conviction. I’m much more drawn to Forde who says of this dichotomy that “grace isn’t cheap or costly, it’s just… grace.”
I think I might try and stick with what Jesus says in the passage to the disciples, because those words can also be given out to those of us facing storms and tenuous situations of our own: “take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Jesus is quoted using the same Greek phrase (“ehgo eimi”) that in John is translated “I am,” referencing one of the oldest authority references God makes in the Bible (see anything with “I am” or “I am the LORD your God” in it). And then he issues the prophetic words of comfort that order horrified hearts to become still, “do not be afraid.” How many other places do we read that statement being said to people in very scary encounters with the Almighty?
I wonder what Isaac Newton did with this passage…
