Here’s a look at the scripture passages coming up for 8/24:
I recommend that you read the passages in your own copy, and then consider some of the comments I’ve put up alongside the listing. Please send some comments and let me know if this is helpful for you as you read.
Isaiah 51:1-6 The passage begins in a lot of calls from the LORD to “you that PURSUE righteousness” [the same word in Ps 23:6 for "...surely goodness and mercy shall FOLLOW me..."], and images those who are SEEKING the Lord to “…LOOK TO the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” Then the verbs move from sight to hearing in vs. 4. The speaker asks for those within sight and sound of his voice to “LOOK HERE” and “LISTEN UP” before unloading a truckload of promises. “I WILL…” action is cited in the near future for God’s people, who, like the coastlands, “wait for me,” and live in hope for God’s action. A foreboding conclusion comes for all the heavens and earth visible to those of us here who are told that “the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats;” [OOOF!] But even after all of that happens, the Lord says his salvation will continue… another instance where God claims authority beyond the limits of what this world can dish out.
Psalm 138 [Antiphon verse 8: "...your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever..."] Another instance of recognizing God’s ability and authority to act in an ETERNAL fashion. Verse 7 of the psalm recalls a familiar phrase from Ps 23: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies…” It’s the “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” language of faith. Other notable places in 138 to my ear are in verse 1: “…before the gods I sing your praise…” a statement of defiance and sedition in many of the cultures of pagan worship and the civic law of religious worship [literally called "pietas" or "piety"] expected of all who lived under the rule of Rome after Alexander. Verse 3 also recalls the relationship upon which all theology (worth a hoot) is based: God who acts to save (or “make right,” or “justify”), and a sinner in need of salvation: “On the day I called, you answered me [ANSWERING is a common act of the LORD in the Bible, distinguishing between the living God and idols who cannot answer], you increased my strength of soul.” And verse 6 treats us to that portrait of the Lord as a wholly different kind of king: “for though the LORD is high [mighty, all-powerful, etc... insert appropriate "omni-" here], he regards [literally "heeds, hearkens to, is active in the direction of, is beneficial to] the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away.” Gives new insight into that song “From a distance…” that might be sung from the perspective of the haughty.
Romans 12:1-8 Paul distinguishes between the sacrifice to idols and the “living sacrifice” of one’s own body as a “spiritual worship” of God. He encourages the very abstentions that got early Christians in trouble with the horrible emperors of Rome: to refrain from the idol worship that the empire made compulsory and instead offer themselves as living sacrifices to God. One can imagine what this kind of talk meant during a time when the persecution of Christians in Rome became a popular pastime and spectator sport. I wonder if they consoled one another with these words and assurances in the waiting cells under the colliseum. “Do not be CONFORMED to this world,” he continues… a non-conformist religion? Count me in! “…but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your minds” [both verbs are in the passive tense, btw, noting that this action happens TO US, not BY US]. This passage we’ll hear ends in another familiar train of thought commonly heard from 1Cor ch 12 on the many and varied gifts of the spirit to the entire body of the Church.
Matthew 16:13-20 A passage titled “Peter’s declaration about Jesus” but probably would be better called “the revelation of the Father through Peter” as Jesus notes the origin of Peter’s confession in his answer in verse 17: “…for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” Heaven is always revealing itself to earth in these actions of the LORD. It can become easy to believe that we can pry open the secrets of heaven from where we live on earth, and I can find no such statement in scripture [though I really wish it could be this way]. Perhaps this is what it means to live, as Isaiah’s prophecy notes, “on the coastlands,” waiting for God’s promises to be revealed in God’s own time and not ours. Lastly in the passage, we hear the promise of “the office of the keys” in Jesus gift of the absolution: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [is this where the whole "giving the key to the city" ceremony comes from in civic life?], and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Check your copy of the Small Catechism in the section on Confession and Absolution, as well as articles XI, XII, and XXIV of the Augsburg Confession for some great reflections on this promise.
Initial responses: When we are speaking the absolution of sin, we are actually witnessing the work of the eternal LORD in the finite world captive to sin, death, and the power of the devil. God is using ordinary things which will eventually pass away (breath, air, words, preachers) to bestow the goods of eternal salvation on those whom he has chosen in faith. I hear afresh Jesus’ answer to Peter’s confession, and I again come to know that any confession of Jesus as LORD is, and remains, the work of the Holy Spirit, and not something that we are capable of. My daughter is all of two years old, and fully enveloped in the “I do it by myself” phase of relationship. It’s something that never really stops pressing us toward more and more vivid acts of self-definition, of assertions of self-sufficiency, even as we grow old and dependent upon others in our lives for all sorts of things we can’t do for ourselves. But we’re again brought to the simple understanding of faith as something that only happens in relationship with the living God, who refuses to allow us to act on our own apart from his grace.
