Paragraphs from SSCSJ
Here are a few paragraphs from Sacred Steps: Children’s Sermon Journal for September 9.
Psalm 146
These ideas about God are not unique to this psalm. Throughout the 1st Testament, God is consistently portrayed as being concerned with justice (e.g., Deut 10:18; Ps 140:12; 1 Sam 2:1-10; etc.). Showing concern for the oppressed, the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger is a common theme within the 613 commandments found in the Torah. Israel is taught to take care of the most vulnerable members of their community because that is what God did for them in the Exodus and because that is how they will image God to the world (Gen 1:26-27) and be a “blessing” to others (Gen 12:2-3).
Isaiah 35:1-10
As 21st century believers, we read Isa 35 as part of the whole book of Isaiah. The arguments for a later date are very strong, but what if this oracle was spoken in the 8th century BCE? The tendency of many scholars is to declare any hopeful words found in the pre-exilic prophets to be from a later hand. They seem unwilling to entertain the idea that, among words of judgment, prophets could also express the possibility of a better future. There is no reason to make this conclusion. After all, most of the biblical prophets were really optimists (like God); they believed that people could change and that the future had not yet been determined. By sending prophets, God was always providing a way for people to make different choices and to return to the covenant they had with God. Prophets were the equivalent of God tossing humanity a life-preserver, an opportunity for them to save themselves from a future of feeling exiled from the Divine. Even when that exile became a reality, God would hold out an invitation to come home.
James 2:1-17
This text from James comes at an interesting time in American culture and politics. It invites those who claim Christian faith to think about wealth, “financial goals,” community, and how our choices “dishonor” the poor. A person who lives “pay check to pay check” will read and hear this text differently than a person with a comfortable life and an emergency fund. . . The alternate translation of verse 1 challenges the Christian orthodoxy that claims a “favored” status in receiving God’s grace, based on a belief in Christ Jesus. The alternate translation also reframes the discussion near the end of the reading about “faith and works.” “My brothers and sisters, do you hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ without acts of favoritism?” (James 2:1, alternate translation noted in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version)
Mark 7: 24-37
Last week, Jesus spoke to the disciples about the origins of “defiling” words and actions. There is movement and action in the text this week. Jesus travels with the disciples to a place where he is not known in order to find some time away. Is he going on vacation? Is he trying to get away from crowds or escaping the questions of ruling authorities? No one knows. But, word about him spreads, and there is no place he can go and be free of this ministry he has begun. In the text this week, Jesus is the “object lesson” for the disciples about the origin of defiling words and actions. Some scholars, and Christians, want to rescue Jesus by claiming that he was testing the disciples, to see if they had ears to hear the last teaching.(1) Wouldn’t the narrator, like gospel writers do, tell us that bit of information to fill in the story in the same way they comment on the intent of the scribes, Pharisees, and how Judas fits in the story? Jesus was learning something about the expansive nature of God’s love in this exchange with a woman, who is the only person in Mark to win an argument with Jesus.(2) His healing of her child is his mea culpa. It is a very human Jesus, who has his own prejudice challenged, that confronts our image of “divine savior” and, for me, makes Jesus and his ways more accessible, even more believable, for modern and post-modern believers.
Notes
1. See: John Ortberg, “True Grit,” The Christian Century, August 23, 2003, p. 21.
2. Mary Ann Tolbert, “Mark Commentary,” The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Abingdon Press 2003, p. 1822.