Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost Study
14TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 08-29-2021
FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
We just mentioned, in last week’s “Lectionary Notes” on Joshua 24, how Moses had once gathered the people at the edge of the “Promised Land” before they entered it to remind, to instruct, and to challenge the people to choose God and to choose life rather than death. This book of Deuteronomy is that series of speeches from Moses.
He will never enter the Promised Land. He will see it from a mountain east of the River Jordan. He will speak to the children of the people who marched with him out of oppression in Egypt 40 years ago. And then he will die (4:22).
Because the faith of that previous generation faltered and because even the faith of Moses faltered, only Caleb and Joshua will know the privilege and joy of having left Egypt and entering the Promised Land. Forty years later, a new generation of Israelites stands on the threshold of promise and listens to Moses. The future is full of blessing – IF.
IF only they trust and obey.
Moses tells the people of the importance of God’s law and exhorts them to know and to obey the statutes and commandments that God has given. Obedience of the law would bring life, while disobedience would have the opposite effect. Some omitted verses, 4:3-5, are one reminder of what turning away from God or holding fast to God can bring. Moses asks two rhetorical questions – “For what other great nation has a god so near it…?” and “What other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law…?” – and the answer to these questions is none.
Moses’ sincere and urgent hope is that this gathered generation of Israel will hear, listen, and obey… that they will continue to be and become people of faith and faithfulness by allowing God’s commandments to shape and guide them… and that they will surely tell the story, from generation to generation, of what God has done, speaking gratefully of God’s covenant, showing how God’s promises are tied to the obedience of God’s law, lifting up the wisdom and justice of God’s teachings, and encouraging a decision and a direction that points towards life rather than wanders toward death.
A life’s journey is full of transitions, both great and small. Through it all, God wants us to remember. Remember God’s love. Remember what matters. Remember what is right and what is wrong. Remember your identity and your purpose. Then think, say, do, and be right.
We share the hope of Moses that our children will have the blessing of life. We want them to cross over into a place where we no longer carry them, where they will enter and claim the inheritance God has prepared for them. We pray that they might trust in God’s promises, walk in God’s will, know God’s blessing of abundant life, and pass
The faith and the faithfulness on to their own children
SECOND READING: James 1:17-27
The Christian reformer our denomination is named after, Martin Luther, did not like the book of James because, in his days of trying to reform the (Roman Catholic) Church, he thought it emphasized doing good deeds over God’s grace freely given in Jesus Christ. The book does not try to pass on Christian doctrine and barely mentions Jesus. Rather, it is a loosely organized collection of ethical advice and encouragement whose message is more about “doing” God’s word than just “hearing” (verses 22-25).
How do you and I live the Christian faith on a day-to-day basis?
In today’s reading, “anger”, “hearing and doing”, “speaking”, and “caring for orphans and widows in their distress” are each mentioned. James is no doubt trying to remind us that God’s grace invites and requires an active response in our daily lives. The author’s notion is that God’s word of love and truth, a gift to us, starts something new within us, making us “a kind of first fruits” (verse 18).
Would you say that you personally are “quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (verse 19)? Or is your temperament one of speaking too quickly and angering too easily? In other words, are you a short fuse with a big bomb attached? How might you and I respond to and represent a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love as we relate to others?
We might pray to God to give us clear eyes to see ourselves, a pure heart to love the Lord, and an active faith response that cares for others.
GOSPEL READING: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
[Instead of reading Mark’s briefer story of feeding the crowd of 5,000 people in his Chapter 6, we took a side trip into John, Chapter 6 for the last five Sundays to study and reflect on that gospel’s longer and deeper account. But today we return to Mark’s gospel, picking up the journey of Jesus soon after the feeding of the 5,000 and his walking on water.]
Not everyone in the crowds that gather around Jesus are his friends or even neutral observers. Some have already decided that they vehemently disagree with him, that he is a danger and a threat, and that he ought to be debated, opposed, and perhaps even terminated.
The Pharisees were a religious political party of pious Jews who sought to be progressive and to apply religious faith to virtually every aspect of life, to every situation that a Jew might face. By careful study of and meticulous application of the written Law of Moses (Torah)… and by treasuring and following the many oral interpretations and applications of the Law… and by respecting and following any religious traditions and customs that had developed… they hoped to make themselves and everyone else pure, pious, holy, and righteous. They were very strict, very legalistic, and very judgmental towards others who didn’t measure up. In Christianity, we meet some well-meaning “fundamentals” who are somewhat similar to the Jewish Pharisees… they have strict rules about everything. Like Pharisees, some “fundamentals” are very sincere and devout; but the issue is what they are sincere about.
The scribes, also mentioned in today’s gospel reading, could read and write with proficiency. Often better educated and carefully trained, the scribes were sometimes considered “doctors of the Law”. They were reverently called “rabbi”, “teacher”, “master”, and “father”. After much study and demonstrated proficiency, a man was ordained to be a scribe, and he was then regarded as a wise scholar, able to create and transmit the traditions of the Torah, able to make decisions on religious legislation, ceremonial purity, and criminal and civil proceedings. They often were held in high esteem and carried much authority, these teacher-lawyer men.
In today’s reading, local Pharisees along with scribes who have traveled all the way from Jerusalem to catch him carefully watch, impatiently wait, and secretly seethe until – finally! – they notice some of Jesus’ disciples not washing their hands in “the tradition of the elders” (verse 3). Dear God! Why hadn’t Jesus taught them? Why didn’t he warn them? Why isn’t he reproaching them?
True uncleanness comes not from external things, but from the intentions of the human heart.
Jesus might have looked directly into their faked pious faces. He might have seen the hatred and the greed that was behind their faces, perhaps the anxious fear in their hearts that he brought them by who he was and what he said and did. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and the scribes about “lip service” (verse 6) and about following “human traditions” (verse 8). And he called them “hypocrites”. We can assume that they did not like what he said to them.
It would not be the first or the last time that something like this happened. In some ways, these moments were just another nail in his coffin.
In what ways are you a Pharisee or a scribe? In what ways are you a recovering Pharisee or scribe?
A Brief Meditation
Some people take human traditions and believe they are God’s commandments. Other people take God’s commandments and treat them as friendly requests. But faithful people sincerely seek to understand and obey God’s will. We might impress our naïve friends and influence undiscerning acquaintances with our outward displays of religious activity and our sweet religious chatter, but God looks into our hearts and knows what goes on there. It isn’t always so pretty inside of any of us, and so we all ought to be grateful for God’s grace and mercy. And something else. We should each try to not lose sight of what ought to be most important in our life’s journey, which is our faith relationship with God through Jesus Christ. With all that we are and want to become, with all that we have and desire to get, let us seek to be strong, obedient, bold, and loving! That’s what matters. But it requires a humble, grateful, and faithful heart to get started.