July 27-- God For Us

Passages: Genesis 29:15-28, Psalm 105:1-11, 45b, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33, 42-52

Hello, those of you eagerly awaiting another segment of the Massachusetts Bible Society lectionary blog! As a newcomer to this blog, but not to MBS, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself before getting to the actual text for this week’s lectionary. I’m Kelsey Rice Bogdan, third year student at Harvard Divinity School and 2006-2007 MBS seminarian. I had the pleasure of working with MBS the year before Joe came on board, in the Society’s pre-blogging days. I was an avid blogger before the student life ate up all my time, though, so I’m excited to be back in the blogosphere. I also look forward to setting aside some time each week with you all to pause and reflect on a little snapshot of Scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary. I hope it will be a time for all of us to consider, be challenged, and grow together.

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ... Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” --Romans 8:31, 35-39

Have you ever wondered why John Calvin, the great Protestant Reformer of the 16^th century, ever made such a big deal about the idea that God chose some people for salvation and others for destruction? After all, it isn’t such a warm, fuzzy doctrine, and a good chunk of Christians (even Presbyterians like me, who claim their religious heritage from Calvin’s teachings) don’t really buy into it today. But Calvin was very emphatic on the point, and today’s lectionary passage is a perfect example of why.

In Romans 8:26-39, being God’s “predestined” (v. 29) suggests that God is with you, God will take care of you, nothing can come between you and God. In Calvin’s day, it was a comforting thought to reflect that, though the French authorities might threaten to kill you for your faith, God would vindicate you in the end because you were a beloved, chosen child. In Paul’s own first century context, it must have been likewise reassuring to think that despite all the vulnerabilities that come from being poor (as the majority of those living under the Roman Empire were at the time) and a follower of a strange new Jewish sect, God was on your side. It is no coincidence that, whether they agree with Calvin’s take on who or what is “predestined” in this passage, Christians through time and space have clung to it to claim God’s stake in their cause.

And therein lies the danger, the key element that can make Paul’s words both a clarion call for justice and the all-too-easy weapon of the oppressor: God is for us. Too many times we gloss over this phrase in verse 31 and just assume that if God is “for us,” that means someone—the devil, that particularly nasty co-worker, corporate America, Iran—is against us. We then go on to scan the rest of the passage with a smile on our face, knowing that we can be assured that God will make us “more than conquerors” over all those people we’ve brought into our reading of the text.

When I look again at Romans 8:31 and 35-39, though, an important character is missing from our little scenario: all the people who are against us, all the people we are supposedly going to conquer. The Holy One who created all of us, who embraces all of us as a mother embraces the sometimes squirmy child, is ultimately for all of us. Jesus, who reached out to Mary Magdalene and Nicodemus, Matthew the tax collector and Martha the busy housewife, doesn’t have to pick and choose who to love. When we think of God as a God of abundance, rather than through our own frame of scarce, coveted resources, who indeed is excluded from God’s overflowing love to stand against us?

Perhaps this is why, through Christ, we can be more than conquerors. Through Christ, the text suggests, we can transcend the lens of limit and lack through which we see others. We can go beyond winners and losers, beyond the notion that my gain is your loss. That’s not to deny the brokenness that exists in the world—in verses 35 and 36, Paul acknowledges the realities of persecution, hunger, and war, some of which humans and human systems cause. But none of those things can alter the fact that the God who appeared among us did so because that God is for each and every one of us.

In the gospel Paul presents here, no one—no individual, group, or society—can lay claim to God’s special favor over another. For just as Jesus embraces all of creation in this troubled world, we are called to embrace all those who we might view as standing against us. What would it mean to look at the enemy, even one that perpetuates injustices we rightfully oppose, as someone whom God is ultimately for? Maybe that means revising our belief that an enemy is someone to be vanquished, conquered, bent to our will. Maybe that means seeing our opponents as God sees them—broken, flawed creatures like us, desperately in need of transformative love.

Third Sunday in Lent -- Perseverance

Passages: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42


"And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." -- Romans 5:2-5

The Apostle Paul, imprisoned near the end of his life.

There is a certain danger in rationalizing suffering. It is important to see how God works in our lives, including our deepest trials, but it should not affect our sense of compassion and duty to each other when in need. Often, when Christians are faced with suffering they will either see God's wrath and punishment, or -- like Paul -- see God's blessings and how even the worst times can build up our character and faith. But we must also see the injustice of suffering, and act in accordance to the teachings and commandments of Christ.

Not all suffering is an injustice -- but all injustice causes suffering. There are certain agonies (the Greek word "agwn" or agon means a contest or struggle) that are a necessary part of life, and even a blessing as Paul suggests. But those tend to be the sufferings of the universal human condition: heartbreak, failure, sickness, injury and betrayals. These are all difficult parts of life, but part of its richness and wholeness. But there are sufferings that cannot be seen as blessings -- torture, rape and murder. Children dying from hunger or unsafe drinking water. The wholesale exploitation of human beings for greed and power.

True, even in the worst of human conditions (perhaps especially in the worst of human conditions) you can find great character and hope. The kind of hope that can only emerge the deepest of despairs. The Early Christians faced severe persecution and often gruesome, torturous treatment. Paul was beaten and arrested many times in his life, and is best known for his sense of mission and his perseverance (even more than his gift of pen and persuasion). And no doubt, Paul is able to write this inspiring passage because he knows first hand how his persecution has given him greater hope and connected him with the Holy Spirit. Yet these words were written to Christians during a time of persecution and limited power -- there was yet to be significant danger for the Early Christians to grow callous about the sufferings of others, or perpetuate systematic injustice against others.

Today, we are in a much different historical and social context. We must remember that these words come from the depths of persecution and social powerlessness. It was written to communities who were suffering together, and sharing hope for a better world through Christ together. It was meant to encourage them, and help them see how God continues to bless them even in these difficult times.

Two thousand years later, Christians still suffer and hope together. Paul's words resonate with them now as it did for the first Christians. But unlike the first Christians, the Church has great power and resources. We cannot let our understanding of suffering as a blessing -- and something that is part of God's plan for our lives -- dilute our mission of healing and compassion. We cannot pass the Samaritan on the road and not see someone in great distress.

Sunday Dec. 2 -- Liturgical New Year

Passages:

Isaiah 2.1-5, Psalm 122, Romans 13.11-14, and Matthew 24.36-44. I will be dealing primarily with Isaiah and Romans.

My Take:

The first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the liturgical calendar, so it is a sort of liturgical New Year’s Day. New Year’s is one of my favorite holidays because it is both reflective and forward-thinking. It anticipates the coming year, and puts forward resolutions. It’s fitting then that our lections for this week deal with prophecies for the future, and with regard to the New Testament lections, the second coming.

The second coming has always been the part of the New Testament that I struggle with most. Passages like Romans 13.11-14 have even affected my attitude toward Paul and the Epistles. It can be gathered from his writings that Paul believed that Christ would return in his lifetime to pass judgment and establish a new era. In this passage, Paul writes, “it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.” The tone of this passage is one of impending collective judgment. This is not a personal passage – that as mortals each of our times are near – but one that has the presupposition that the entire world will face judgment soon. Seeing this assumption in his words 2,000 years later naturally casts doubt on his message.

His false belief that Christ’s historical return would happen soon affected a lot of Paul’s message, particularly his attitude toward children and marriage. Paul had almost nothing to say about children and their role in the Christian community and his attitude about marriage was that it is better to stay celibate (like him), but if you cannot control your urges, marriage is preferable to immorality (1 Corinthians 7.1-7). To Paul, there was little value in long term planning for the church and instituting how Christ’s message would be passed through the generations – it was important to get things right now, immediately, before it’s too late.

However, this opinion of Paul made too easy for me to dismiss the parts of his message I struggled with. I enjoy life – even through the roughest of times, I have always been thankful for the gift of life that God has afforded to me. It is not comforting to think the Apocolypse is right around the corner; or that this era would be wiped away “like a thief in the night” as the Matthew lection describes.

I prefer the message in Isaiah – the Kingdom of the Lord will be established slowly by obedience to God’s will. When we make God our highest priority (“established as the highest of mountains”) the world will begin a transformation where instruction flows forth from Zion and is accepted around the world – or, in New Testament terms, disciples are made of all nations. Isaiah’s vision of peace is promising, especially in a time of global warfare and strife: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

I think Isaiah’s message resonates stronger with many modern Christians because of their ability to influence society, and their missionary and activist spirit. In the 2,000 years since Christ’s sacrifice, the Christian community has had a long time to establish, formulate and grow the church. It now has a great deal of global influence, and it seems more optimistic to believe the church will play an active role in bringing about God’s kingdom than Christ suddenly returning on a cloud of glory and wiping the current society away.

Because of the “Left Behind” series, Christian movements that anticipate and fantasize about the Apocalypse have been put into the spotlight. Throughout Christian history there have been brothers and sisters who believe that their lifetime will see the Second Coming. And not to overly generalize, but they tend to be very dissatisfied with the spiritual state of the world. I mean, it stands to reason that if you pray for Christ to come, right now, and establish a new world, you must not like the current one very much.

Because I hope to have a long life serving God and helping better society, I’m partial to the lection of Isaiah. But, it’s important for me – as a Christian – to take the words of Paul and Matthew seriously. Judgment could be tomorrow, for all I know. This resonates on a personal level more than a cosmic level – I could die crossing the street. These really could be the last days of my life, and I shouldn’t take the future for granted.

With respect to personal action, Isaiah and Paul’s visions for the future are not as contradictory as they seem. The manner in which “Kingdom of God” is made manifest may be different, but the mandate to the individual is the same – obedience to God. If I work toward the peace in Isaiah, I will be ready for the judgment in Paul. Perhaps I will have a long life where I am afforded the social power to positively impact the world and “beat swords into plowshares,” or perhaps my end is around the corner, and “the day is near.” Either way, the message remains the same: “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13.12) and “come, let us walk in the light of the LORD” (Isaiah 2.5).