We continue our Summer exercise of contrasting life in the System with life anticipating God’s Kingdom. One of the problems (we think) of being The Creator is that letting humans take over is asking for imperfection. A story, an exhortation and a history lesson all comprise the readings assigned to the upcoming weekend. We need to hear them as they speak to the surrounding culture and our own malaise.
ISAIAH 5:1-7 is often known as The Song of the Vineyard. It’s a love song, and a complaint: God has done everything right for this vineyard, even planting it in person, and is now asking “Why?” Isaiah portrays the Creator as resignedly saying, “OK, try it your way. But don’t come running to me when everything blows up…!” Stacey Simpson Duke reminds us, “we do not have to look far for examples of bloodshed where justice should be, or cries of pain in place of righteousness.” (FEEDING on the WORD, C 3:342) Does God really give up on us? Or can we loaf through our morals knowing that Grace will cover over our sin…?
The unknown writer of the Letter to the HEBREWS speaks to her mainly Jewish readers about the Faith of the Old Heroes. Gideon, Barak, Sampson & Co. did mighty deeds against impossible odds because they trusted in God and not their own calculations. So don’t be discouraged: we’re not alone! “Faith allows people to see beyond what is right in front of them…to see what God is doing in their midst.” (David E. Gray, op.cit.,354)
LUKE 12 seems to be a chapter in Jesus’ travels where he runs thin on patience and tells things as they are. Especially verses 49-56, our reading for the day. He hasn’t come to validate human institutions, but to unleash a cleansing fire, even in our families. (Take THAT, James Dobson) Not those other households, but our own. Jesus’ hearers are urged away from the hypocrisy–bad acting–of saying one thing yet doing the opposite.
Scripture lessons today confront us with our own lack of endurance and our unwillingness to see what God has done/is doing/will do. “The good news is that Someone still sings, plows, plants, guards, and looks for good fruit.”–Paul Simpson Duke, op.cit., 345
Invite your friends to discuss these things, attend worship and join our merry band each Tuesday, as we meet the Revised Standard Lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com
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