The Sure Foundation

[Below you'll find live stream video of today's worship services with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. You'll also see the text of the message shared. The traditional service was a wild, but satisfying ride, including a baptism!]

Matthew 21:33-46

Over the past few Sundays, we’ve listened in on Jesus’ confrontation with “the chief priests and the elders.” Today, identified as “the chief priests and the Pharisees,” that confrontation continues in our Gospel lesson. These leaders of God’s people are offended by Jesus, claiming Jesus has no authority to forgive sin, perform miracles, or claim to be the King of the world.

This morning, Jesus tells another parable, a story, the beginning of which would have been familiar to everyone around Him. You can see similar stories told by the prophet in Isaiah 5 and by Asaph, a musician in the court of King David, in Psalm 80.

In all three stories, we’re told how God graciously planted His people in Israel the land He promised to them. And in all three cases, something goes terribly wrong.

According to Isaiah, when God turned to the vineyard Israel, He “looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.” (Isaiah 5:2) In other words, God saw an Israel that had turned its back on God to worship false idols, the gods of other peoples. For its idolatry and all the sins that flowed from it, God allowed His people to be conquered and turned out of their land.

Asaph sees a nation that has turned away from God, relying instead on false idols, self-sufficiency, and military and economic power. For, this Psalm 80 says God will break “down [Jerusalem’s] walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes” and, referring to enemy peoples around ancient Israel, says that “boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it.” (Psalm 80:13)

In these two passages from the Old Testament, God was reminding His people that salvation and oneness with God were not the product of their behavior, goodness, or strength. They were saved solely by God Who gives forgiveness and new life as a gift to be received by faith alone.

This is why the Old Testament says of Abraham, not yet renamed by God, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

When God saved Israel and planted it in the world, just as when God saved you and me in Holy Baptism and gave us faith in Christ through the Word and sustained that faith in the sacrament of Holy Communion, it wasn’t because the ones saved were, in themselves or by their actions, holy and righteous, it’s because the God Who saves us from sin, death, and futility is holy and righteous. It’s because God gives His holiness and righteousness to sinners by grace through the faith in Him that His Holy Spirit creates in us.

In speaking to the religious leaders of first-century Judea, Jesus creates a different twist to the ancient story of God’s people.

In Jesus’ telling, the “landowner,” clearly God, rents out to farmers, clearly Israel, a vineyard, which He prepared and protected, then went elsewhere. When harvest time came, the landowner expected to receive fruits from his land and investment, just as God expects to see the fruit of His righteousness and His forgiveness manifested in our lives.

But, as you know, the landowner sent many different people to collect what the farmers owed and each of his servants were beaten, killed, or stoned, just like the prophets God sent to His people Israel to call them back to saving faith.

Finally, the landowner decides to send his son to collect the harvest. “They will respect my son,” he reasons. (Matthew 21:37)

You know what happens.

The farmers think that if they kill off the son of the landowner, clearly representing Jesus, they will be free of the owner; they will, to speak clearly what Jesus means here, be their own gods, free of the authority of almighty God.

And that friends, is the goal of all human-centered religion: to be the makers of our own righteousness, to be gods ourselves, without accountability to God.

Humanly-centered religion, whether secular or clothed in the pretense of piety, says with the poet, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

And it always leads to death and damnation for one simple reason: One day, we will all stand before the God we meet in Christ for judgment.

Those who try to claim a place in eternity because they think they’ve been good people or because their grandfather was involved in mission work or they gave money to the church, will stand naked in their sin and be sent to hell.

Those who can say with the saints, the forgiven sinners who trust in the God revealed in Jesus, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,” will be welcomed to live eternally with God.

Matthew says the religious elites realize Jesus had told this parable about them, secure in their self-generated goodness and unrepentant rule-keeping as well as their descendance from Abraham.

When Jesus asks them what the landowner will do to those who killed the landowner’s son, just as they will soon join the Gentiles in killing God the Son, they say, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end…and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” (Matthew 21:41)

Antisemitic people over the ages have used these words to say that Gentile Christians have superseded Jews as God’s people. But this is not what Jesus says. It’s what the Jewish chief priests and elders say.

Trust, faith, in the Messiah and Lord pointed to by the entire Old Testament and revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, brings salvation to Jews and Gentiles like. The apostle Paul, himself a Jew, says “it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise [that is, the promise of justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone] who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” (Romans 9:8)

Jesus says that the landowner–God Himself–responds to those, both Jew and Gentile whose sin put His Son on the cross to die, very differently. He shows them this through Psalm 118: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes…” (Matthew 21:42)

There are those who try to commend themselves to God for their own effort, supposed goodness, and ingenuity. Like us, such people have an inborn penchant to turning from God and doing things their own way. They turn a deaf ear to Jesus’ call to repent and believe in Him for forgiveness and life with God that never ends. Whether in this life or, absent repentance and faith, in eternity, the self-reliant will be smashed by Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who bears the full weight of a holy and mighty God.

But there are those who, like you here this morning, have heard the Gospel Word about Jesus and believe that Jesus is the cornerstone for everlasting life with God.

You know that you can build your life on Him.

You know Jesus’ promise about Himself: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life…” and so, He has become the foundation for all your hopes. Jesus has become the One Who tells you that because He died on the cross for you, all Your sins are forgiven. (John 3:36)

Jesus has become the One Who assures you that He is always with you. (Matthew 28:20)

Jesus has become the One Who tells you as He told the grieving Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die…” (John 11:25-26)

In Jesus, you and I see THE foundation of our eternal help “and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Keep your eyes on Jesus, friends.

He brings forgiveness to sinners, hope to the repentant, life to the dead and the dying and He will never let you down.

Amen

Advent Devotions from Trinity Alum

Members of the Alumni Council of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus are presenting solid, short devotional pieces for the Advent Season. They actually "jumped the gun," with the first piece having been written for Thanksgiving day.

The first four pieces, excellent all, are based on the Psalm lesson for tomorrow, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19.

The devotions appear on the Trinity Lutheran Seminary web site. They can be found here.

I received my Master of Divinity degree from Trinity in 1984, nine years after graduating from Ohio State with a Bachelor's in Social Studies Education. I'm glad to see the Alumni Council share these Advent devotions with the world!

The Waiting Game: Additional Thoughts on This Sunday's Bible Lessons (November 30, 2008)

I've already shared a few items meant to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, and any other folks who use the Revised Common Lectionary plan of Bible lessons, to get ready for worship this coming Sunday. You can see those posts here, here, and here. But below are a few more helps and reflections.

The Bible Lessons:
Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Prayer of the Day:
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection awaken us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Some Thoughts...
Isaiah 64:1-9
Most contemporary Old Testament scholars believe that Isaiah was written by two (or three) different prophets writing in different times. Chapters 1-39, were authored by Isaiah, the son of Amoz. He prophesied between 742 and 687 BC. The Northern Kingdom*, what was called Israel and would later be referred to as Samaria, had been conquered by the Assyrian Empire. Isaiah warned the Southern Kingdom, what was called Judah or Judea, its faithlessness could result in the only reliable power they possessed, the power of God, to disappear from the national life, leading to the same fate Israel had suffered. About the balance of the book, the editors of The New Oxford Annotated Bible (Revised Standard Version) have this to say:

Chapters 40-66, commonly called Second Isaiah (or Second and Third Isaiah), originated immediately before the fall of Babylon (October 29, 539 B.C.) to the armies of Cyrus, king of Persia, and during the generation following.**The anonymous author of the first bipartite section (chs. 40-55...) exults in joyful anticipation of exiled Judah's restoration to Palestine, for which Cyrus is God's participating agent (44:28). Second Isaiah emphasizes the significance of historical events in God's plan, a plan which extends from creation to redemption--and beyond. Blindness to God's way is a cardinal sin in Second Isaiah. The author's interest in was unique to his time; it is used to emphasize the concept of God as exclusive creator and lord of all, whose ultimate glorious manifestation will be accompanied by a new creation.

v.1: The tearing up of the heavens called for is a desire for God to manifest Himself and help His captive people.

The heavens were torn open at Jesus' Baptism, according to the Gospel accounts, God the Father affirming Jesus as beloved Son to Whom all should pay attention. The heavens were torn open again when, accompanied by Peter, James, and John, Jesus' appearance was "transfigured" and God the Father affirmed Jesus again. Another tearing took place immediately after Jesus died on the cross. At that moment, the curtain in the temple, which had formerly concealed the Holy of Holies, the place where the presence of God rested on earth, was torn, indicating that through Christ all that the power of all that had once separated us from God--our sin--had been destroyed and we gain access to God, forgiveness, and life.

v.2: The blazing presence of God causes people to tremble. That happened on the first Pentecost (Acts 2).

v.3: Here begins a reminiscence about God's saving acts during ancient Israel's exodus journey from Egypt to the promised land.

v.4: Here, we have an important theme of Advent mentioned: waiting on God. To wait on God isn't to be passive. But it does mean that we're unwilling to act on our own power or in our own wisdom. I'm just beginning to learn what this means.

v. 5: Isaiah confesses that the sin of his people was responsible for the wall between God and them.

v.6: We're all unclean and insubstantial, nothing without God.

v.7: People don't call on God, Isaiah says, and God lets them go their own way.

v.8: "Still," Isaiah says to God, "we do belong to You. You made us. We bear the stamp of Your authorship and You've gone to a lot of trouble to make us Your own people."

v.9: "Don't hold our sins against us," Isaiah goes on to plead, "Think about the fact that we are Your people."

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
This psalm was traditionally attributed to Asaph, one of his descendants, or members of a group of poets and singers who saw him as their master or teacher. It was most likely written after the Northern Kingdom had fallen to Assyria, its people deported to there as slaves.*** The impatient waiting of a captive people can be seen in this psalm.

v.1: God is portrayed as both Shepherd, a common way of referring to ancient kings, and as King, enthroned on the cherubim.

v.2: "Stir up": God is asked to stir Himself to action on behalf of His people. One of my seminary professors, Ron Hals, used to refer to the Prayers of the Day appointed for the Advent season as the "stirrup prayers"; they all begin with the phrase, "Stir up." Human impatience, as well as weariness with suffering and adversity, is reflected in this phrase, no doubt. We don't wait well.

But the phrase also recognizes that only God's power can make a difference in what would otherwise be pointless living.

"save us": This is the bottom line in our prayers, no matter what our immediate desires. We need God to save us from sin, death, and futility.

v.3: "Restore us": This petition appears like a refrain at three different places in the psalm. Israel is displaced; Asaph is asking for restoration. For us, the prayer means a restoration of our fellowship with God, a restoration accomplished through Christ.

"let us see your face shine...saved": When God shows up, we are saved.

v.4: "How long...?": This plea often shows up in our prayers. But I can personally testify that God is faithful. One petition I prayed repeatedly for thirteen years suddenly, unexpectedly, and miraculously, was answered...and more incredibly and wonderfully than I'd ever imagined it would be.

v.5: The tearful bread and drink, born of sin and separation from God, is set in contrast to the bread and water God provided the ancient Hebrews in the wilderness. There, God gave them manna and water from a rock. Both were happy events. But now, captive Israel is experiencing "the bread of tears" and "tears to drink." The psalmist is asking God to miraculously provide for His people again.

v.6: God, it's said, has made Israel a laughingstock among neighboring nations. Without the strength of God, Israel is seen for what it is: weak. Jesus, God in the flesh, tells us today that without Him, we can do nothing.

v.7: "Restore us": The refrain appears again.

v.17: "right hand": the power of God.

The plea here is that the line of Davidic kings will be restored. "Shore up the power of the king, the anointed one." the psalmist asks."

v.18: This reads like deal-making (i.e., "If you'll empower us and give us life, we'll 'call on Your Name.") Maybe it's just a pledge, "We promise to call on You and not to forget You again, God." Whatever, it was a pledge that Israel could make apart from the power of God. The same is true for us today.

v.19: "Restore us": There's that refrain again.

Line B is also a repetition of sentiments expressed earlier in the psalm.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9
This letter was written by the apostle Paul to the first-century church at Corinth. The Corinthian church had truly taken the fun out of dysfunctional. The spiritual issues were many: there were people having sexual relations with their step-mothers; wealthy Christians weren't sharing their food with poorer Christians as they celebrated Holy Communion together; many in the church identified more with Christian preachers and leaders rather than with Jesus Himself; some felt that they had no reason to concern themselves with obeying God's will as embodied in the Ten Commandments; some asserted that Jesus hadn't really risen from the dead; and some who had or claimed to have the spiritual gift of tongues looked down their noses on those not possessing this gift.

On this last matter, Paul wrote a good deal in this letter, at one point telling the Corinthians:
¹⁸¹⁹I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. (1 Corinthians 14:18-19)

In chapter 12, Paul spends a long time discussing the fact that spiritual gifts are given by God for the purpose of building up the whole church and its ministry and to show how they're to be used.

The most famous chapter of this letter, chapter 13, referred to as "the love chapter," wasn't written for weddings, although its use then is fine. It was written to remind the Corinthians to be humble about the gifts, spiritual and otherwise, that have come from God. You may be able to make a lot of noise with your gift of tongues, Paul is saying, but if the love of Christ isn't inform you, you're just noise.

All of this lay in the background of our lesson from 1 Corinthians. It reads like a commendation of the Corinthian church, like that he gives at the beginnings of other New Testament readers. See what he says here, here, here, here, and here. But there is no such commendation for the Corinthians. Instead, Paul here seems to thank God for the grace that saves even the dysfunctional bunch at Corinth and then foreshadows some of the hard things he's going to broach with them in the letter.

v.3: Like a good pastor, Paul invokes the peace of God on the Corinthians.

v.4: Paul thanks God for how the Corinthians have been blessed by "the grace of God...given you in Christ Jesus."

vv.5-6: In Christ, the Corinthian church has been "enriched." This may be an ironic reference to the treatment given by the wealthy church members to the poorer ones.

Paul says that the Corinthian Christians have been enriched in "speech," possibly more irony in light of the chastising he's about to administer for the spiritual pride of those who think that God's gift of tongues signifies their spiritual superiority.

This interpretation of the passage is supported by Paul's reference also to the gift of knowledge. In the letter, Paul will later say that people with the gift of tongues should never exercise it publicly unless another person, with a gift of discernment or knowledge, can interpret the tongue. This is meant to ensure accountability and humility.

v.7: The complementarity of spiritual gifts exists so that the life of the Corinthian church--or of any church--can fully reflect God and God's grace. No congregation, no matter how small, need lack the spiritual and other gifts needed to fulfill the mission to which God has called it.

v.8: This passage links the lesson thematically with the other Bible lessons assigned for this Sunday.

Christ will help us to be faithful, as we live in daily repentance and renewal, until that indeterminate time of Christ's return or, as Paul puts it, "revelation." Until then, we're to wait patiently, again not passively, but, as we're shown in the Gospel lesson, in faithful attentiveness to Christ's call to love and serve each day.

v.9: God is faithful, even if the Corinthian Christians aren't. As Paul puts it elsewhere, "If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself" (2 Timothy 2:13).

Lest we become spiritually proud, tending to think that the righteousness that God confers on us through Christ has to do with our goodness rather than God's, Paul reminds us that it's God Who makes it possible for us to have fellowship with Jesus Christ. This too, is a point that he'll make again later in the letter: "I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).

Mark 13:24-37
Go here to see some general comments on Mark and this passage.

v.24: "those days": When the stones of the temple are thrown down (Mark 13:2-3). As the allusions to Old Testament passages that referred to judgment by God, it also references the end of the world.

"sun will be darkened...moon will not give its light": The description is akin to an eclipse, it seems. Jesus' words appear to allude to several prophetic passages from the Old Testament:

a. Isaiah 13:10: This is part of a section of Isaiah that foretells God's judgment against nations outside of Israel.****
b. Ezekiel 32:7-8: Judgments on Israel's enemies. Ezekiel was originally addressed to Judeans in captivity in Babylon, c.571 B.C.
c. Joel 2:31, 3:15: This discusses "the day of the Lord." The language here was cited by Peter in his Pentecost sermon, found in Acts 2. More cosmogony here.

v.25: "powers in heaven": What Jesus talks about here fits the description of Jesus' crucifixion as summarized by another of my seminary professors, Bruce Schein, "the cosmos in convulsion."

v.26: "Son of man": Jesus' most characteristic way of referring to Himself, the phrase comes from the Old Testament apocalyptic book, Daniel.

"with great power and glory": This won't be the "Christmas Jesus," or the "Crucifixion Jesus." Of course, it will be the same Jesus. But Jesus will no longer restrain Himself. All people, even those who have never believed in Him or surrendered to Him, will know exactly Who Jesus is. But by then, it will be too late to "call on the Name of the Lord and be saved." The time for surrender will have ended. Now people will be forced to live with the judgments they Himself have rendered on their eternal destinies. See here.

v.27: Christ's dispersed peoples will be brought together, no longer forced into dispersion by persecution. It will be safe to believe.

vv.28-29: Jesus uses the fig tree as a metaphor. Everyone in first century Judea knew the signs of the seasons given by changes in a fig tree's appearance. Similarly, when we see the things to which Jesus refers here, we know that the Son of Man is "at the gates." In the next verse, Jesus tells us that all the signs of His return had already been fulfilled. So, the life of the world should tell us both that His return is impending and that He is present with those who trust in Him right now.

By the way, the ancient rabbis believed that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of a fig, not an apple, tree. Jesus would have, of course, been familiar with this speculation. That makes His use of the fig tree in this metaphor all the more pointed, signifying judgment and God's decisive action.

v.30: All is already "ripe" for the return of the Son of Man.

v.31: Jesus' words, conveying His will and authority, will outlast a creation brought into being by that word and ticketed for destruction.

v.32: Speculation about when the end will come is not just futile, it's faithless. This doesn't preclude scientific speculation or human efforts to forestall natural or human-made disasters that could hasten mass destruction. As an example, this doesn't mean we shouldn't try to reverse global warming or halt the proliferation of nuclear arms. But it does mean that we shouldn't try to play a guessing game about God's timetable for intervention, the day of Jesus' return.

v.33: Our call is simply to be spiritually ready, believing in Jesus Christ and seeking to follow Him.

v.34: This passage reminds me of two parables from Matthew 25, both of which were Gospel lessons in recent weeks: the parable of the talents and the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids.

We are given our tasks in life and we're to be vigilant in our faith; that's how we watch and wait for Jesus's return.

v.35: The Master Jesus could come back any time.

v.36: "asleep": To be asleep, in this sense, is to spiritually insensible to the temptations and pitfalls around us, the things in everyday life that work incessantly to tear us away from God. The sources of these things were identified by Martin Luther as "the devil, the world, and our sinful selves." The disciples fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, even after Jesus pleaded with them to pray to avoid falling into temptation and sin.

v.37: Jesus emphatically underscores the importance for us, as we await His return, to "keep awake!"

*These two kingdoms were the result of the breakup of ancient Israel after the reign of Solomon. For more on the divided kingdoms, see here.


**Babylon, like Assyria before it, had conquered God's people and taken many of its people captive. Cyrus, a Persian king, even though he wasn't a believer in the God of Israel, was referred to in the Old Testament as "God's anointed." God, the prophet believed, was appointed by God to liberate God's people. The Hebrew word translated as "anointed [one]" is Messiah. In Greek, the term is Messiah. This isn't to say that Cyrus was "the Christ." That role uniquely belongs to God-enfleshed, Jesus. But all the rulers of God's people were actually anointed on the days of their enthronements and were referred to as God's anointed ones.

***According to The Oxford Illustrated Companion to the Bible, Assyria was "located in what ix now northeastern Iraq."

****Isaiah, chapters 1-6, render judgments against Judah, the Southern Kingdom, the nation that Isaiah was from and from which Jesus would later come. Isaiah, chapters 7-12, give judgments against Samaria, the Northern Kingdom. Isaiah, chapters 13 to 23, render judgments against the nations.

A Look at This Sunday's Bible Lessons (May 18, 2008)

This Sunday's Bible Lessons:
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20

The Prayer of the Day:
Almighty Creator and ever-living God: we worship your glory, eternal Three-in-One, and we praise your power, majestic One-in-Three. Keep us steadfast in this faith, defend us in all adversity, and bring us at last into your presence, where you live in endless joy and love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

A Few Comments:
1. The First Sunday after Pentecost is always Holy Trinity Sunday on the Church calendar. It comes one week after the Festival of the Holy Spirit, the third great festival of the Church Year, which is what Pentecost, celebrated last Sunday, is. (The other two great festivals are Christmas and Easter.)

2. Of all the doctrines of the faith, that of the Trinity, the belief that there is one God of all the universe Who has revealed Himself as three Persons, is maybe the most difficult teaching of the Church. But, while the term "trinity" is never used in the Old or New Testaments, I believe that the reality of the Three-in-One God is affirmed repeatedly on its pages. See here.

3. Of course, one unifying theme of the Bible lessons for this week is the Trinity. But another is how God imposes order on chaos to create peace. The first lesson is the first account of creation found in Genesis. There, a wind from God, the word wind being ruach, which also means breath or spirit, moves over a storm to bring life into being. (For more on ruach and its New Testament equivalent, pneuma, see here and here.) (By the way, the prologue to the Gospel of John affirms that the Son, second member of the Trinity, was present not just at the beginning, but before the beginning.)

The second lesson is from Paul's second letter to the rancorous church in the Greek city of Corinth, a congregation that tried his patience and whose un-Christian behavior might cause outside observers--in those days or today--to doubt whether the Gospel of Jesus Christ was just a bunch of hooey. The members of the Corinthian church, with their acceptance of incest, spiritual pride, and material selfishness certainly didn't look like the new creation Paul claimed thet were by virtue of their baptisms and their confessions of Christ.

Yet, Paul knew that life with Christ is a journey. No Christian is perfect. All struggle with their own temptations and sins. All fall short of the glory of God. All are saved not by their capacity for moral performance, but by what Christ did for them on the cross and from the empty tomb and by their faith in Him.

Paul is praying here that the God Who imposed order on primordial chaos in Genesis 1, will impose order on the Corinthian Christians, so that the chaos unleashed by their sins, often against one another, will be conquered and they can live in the peace of God.

Notice that the order in which Paul names the members of the Trinity. He starts with the grace of God the Son, Jesus. We Lutherans are sometimes called "Second Person Unitarians," a good-humored reproach for our focus on Jesus, often at the expense of the Father and the Holy Spirit. There's some validity to the criticism and yet, Paul's formulation of the Trinity here shows us that the key to understanding the nature and will of God is to see Him revealed in Jesus Christ.

The psalm is, as my son Philip described it aptly yesterday during a weekly lectionary study we attend with ELCA clergy, "a reverie." I like this designation even better than scholar Klaus Westermann's apt description of it as a "creation psalm," a category he seems to have invented largely for this psalm, although he claims to find other examples of the genre within other psalms.

Be that as it may, it's difficult, as my colleague, Pastor Rick Hinger noted during that same study, to theologize on the basis of this psalm. It's an expression of wonder and awe at the work of the Creator Who deigns to reach out to His children.

Psalm 8 then, is maybe the perfect psalm for Holy Trinity Sunday. At least, it strikes the right tone, acknowledging that, while we aren't expected to check our brains in the baptismal font and while there is much we can question and know about God and reality, God, the great big God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is mystery more to be savored than explained.

The Gospel lesson contains what is called the Great Commission, the orders of the risen and soon-to-ascend Jesus Christ for His followers. They're to make disciples--literally students of Christ--of all nations, teach them to observe His commands, and baptize in the Name of the Triune (Three-in-One) God.

4. N.T. Wright shows how this oft-quoted passage from the Gospel of Matthew also hits on the theme of God as the bringer of peace and order to our chaotic lives:

Despite what many people today suppose, it is basic to the most elementary New Testament faith that Jesus is already ruling the whole world. That is one of the most important results of his resurrection; it is part of the meaning of messiahship, which his new life after the crucifixion has made plain.

People get very puzzled by the claim that Jesus is already ruling the world, until they see what is in fact being said. The claim is not that the world is already completely as Jesus intends it to be. The claim is that he is working to take from where it was--under the rule not only of death but of corruption, greed, and every kind of wickedness--to bring it, by slow means and quick, under the rule of his life-giving love. And how is he doing this? Here is the shock: through us, his followers. The project only goes forward insofar as Jesus' agents, the people he has commissioned, are taking it forward.

5. The most intriguing commentary on this passage I've read is from Brian Stoffregen. See it here. Pay special attention to his comments on the co-existence of worship and doubt.

All Christians wrestle with doubt, at least about some things and at some points in their lives. But it is our willingness to believe in the Triune God, not some internal capacity for certainty, that God can turn into faith.

[Each week, I present some thoughts on the Bible lessons for the succeeding Sunday. In doing so, I hope to help the people of the congregation I serve, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, to prepare for worship. And because, we will almost always use the appointed lessons for the Church Year, I also hope that these thoughts can help others prepare for worship too.]

First Pass at This Sunday's Bible Lessons (December 23, 2007)

[Each week I present several looks at the appointed Bible lessons for the upcoming Sunday worship services. These passes will be more abbreviated than usual, because I'm not preaching this Sunday. Instead, our children will be presenting the annual Christmas program on that day.]

This Week's Bible Lessons:
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25

General Comments:
(1) This is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. Advent, as mentioned previously, is a word that means coming or appearing. In Advent, we not only remember how the world awaited the appearing of the Messiah in the centuries before Jesus' birth. We also remind ourselves that we await His return on what the Bible calls, "the Day of the Lord." The crucified, risen, and ascended Jesus will come back, judge the living and the dead, and establish His Kingdom in its fullness. (Of course, Advent is also the time when we "wait" to celebrate Christmas each year.)


(2) Isaiah 7:10-16: Throughout Advent, our Old Testament lessons have been drawn from Isaiah. This passage comes from that section of the book thought to have been written sometime between 740 and 700 B.C. Chris Haslam writes informatively of this passage:

Assyria, under Tiglath-pileser III, is intent on expanding westwards. The kings of “Aram” (vv. 1, 2, 5, 8, Syria) and of Israel (also called “Ephraim”) have formed a coalition to resist the advances of their common enemy. They have tried to convince “Ahaz” (v. 1), king of Judah and of the “house of David” (v. 2) to join the alliance; he has refused. Now they seek to put a puppet king on Judah’s throne. God has commanded Isaiah to “meet Ahaz” (v. 3) as he inspects the water supply vital to Jerusalem’s defence. Isaiah tells him: “take heed ... do not fear ... these two smoldering stumps of firebrands” (v. 4) who have “plotted evil against you” (v. 5). “If you do not stand firm in faith” (v. 9, trust in God) but rely on human counsel, you will be defeated.

God now speaks again to Ahaz: ask any “sign” (v. 11), any confirmation of my promise delivered by Isaiah – any at all in all creation. (“Sheol” was the subterranean abode of the dead.). But it seems that Ahaz has already made up his mind (v. 12) so, through Isaiah, God gives to the “house of David” (v. 13) not a “sign” (v. 11) to convince Ahaz, but one which speaks to future generations. God will keep the promise he made to David (through Nathan): “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me” (2 Samuel 7:16). “The young woman” (v. 14, most likely Ahaz’s wife) is pregnant; David’s line will continue; she will name her son “Immanuel” (meaning God with us). (This son was Hezekiah.) In a devastated land (paying heavy tribute to Assyria), where only basic food is available (“curds and honey”, v. 15), he will develop moral discrimination – unlike recent kings, who were deemed wicked, ungodly people. By this time, Assyria will have conquered both Syria and Israel (v. 16).

Ahaz represents many believers probably. At least at some times in our lives. Ahaz knows that he can go to God in prayer. God has even told Ahaz to pray. But he refuses because he clearly doesn't think that God will give him the answer he wants to hear!

(2) Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19: The historical context in which this Psalm was written is suggested by verse 2, in which three tribal provinces of the Northern Kingdom (called Israel or later, Samaria) are mentioned. This suggests that it was composed before the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, the same period of apprehension and fear addressed in Isaiah.

(3) The refrain of the Psalm, found in verses 3, 7, and 19, asks for restoration from God. The psalmist, said to be written by Asaph, clearly sees the rebelliousness of God's people as the reason that foreign powers are menacing them.

(4) In verse 17, the psalmist prays for the king to make the right decision. This is interesting in light of what the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah discusses: a king who refuses to seek God's counsel. In his book, Prayer, The Mightiest Force In The World: Thoughts For An Atomic Age, Frank Laubach suggested that we should not only pray that God would show leaders His will, but that they would be receptive to what God shows them.

(5) The psalmist describes the king as "the one whom you made strong for yourself." In their New Testament letters, both Paul and Peter, urge prayers for and obedience to leaders as the authority to govern comes from God, for God's purposes. (This doesn't mean that autocrats are to be obeyed blindly. Kings and presidents, like the rest of us mortals, are to love their neighbors as they love themselves.)

(6) This Psalm, with its recollections of Israel's wilderness wanderings, most likely was composed for use during one of the great annual festivals of Judaism, the Festival of Booths. For more on that, see here.

[More on Friday, I hope.]