Tag: spiritual life

Follow God’s Word (Deuteronomy 6:10-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Priest Teaching Children The Catechism, by Jules-Alexis Meunier, 1898

Now once the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to you—a land that will be full of large and wonderful towns that you didn’t build, houses stocked with all kinds of goods that you didn’t stock, cisterns that you didn’t make, vineyards and olive trees that you didn’t plant—and you eat and get stuffed, watch yourself! Don’t forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

Revere the Lord your God, serve him, and take your solemn pledges in his name! Don’t follow other gods, those gods of the people around you—because the Lord your God, who is with you and among you, is a passionate God. The Lord your God’s anger will burn against you, and he will wipe you off the fertile land. Don’t test the Lord your God the way you frustrated him at Massah. 

You must carefully follow the Lord your God’s commands along with the laws and regulations he has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight so that things will go well for you and so you will enter and take possession of the wonderful land that the Lord swore to your ancestors, and so the Lord will drive out all your enemies from before you, just as he promised.

In the future, your children will ask you, “What is the meaning of the laws, the regulations, and the case laws that the Lord our God commanded you?” Tell them: We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. But the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our own eyes, the Lord performed great and awesome deeds of power against Egypt, Pharaoh, and his entire dynasty. But the Lord brought us out from there so that he could bring us in, giving us the land that he swore to our ancestors. Then the Lord commanded us to perform all these regulations, revering the Lord our God, so that things go well for us always and so we continue to live, as we’re doing right now. What’s more, we will be considered righteous if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as he commanded us. (Common English Bible)

The Catechism, by Edith Hartry, 1919

Christians often refer to the Bible as “God’s Word.” By that reference we mean that God has graciously revealed the divine nature to us through this Book, the Holy Scriptures. 

The ancient Hebrews referred to the first five books of the Old Testament as the Law of the Lord or the Torah. The Jewish people understood God as a great, high and holy Being who mercifully accommodated or communicated to us on our level by giving the Law. 

Just as a parent coos and babbles and speaks in a very different way to a baby in a crib, so God speaks to us in a way we can understand about the care, concern, and love the Lord has for us. Just as an infant is unable to understand an adult conversation taking place, so God is a lofty Being who is well above our comprehension. We have no ability to understand anything God says unless the Lord graciously and lovingly bends down to speak to us on our level.

God’s Law, the Torah, was the curriculum for Israel’s religious instruction. The Law of the Lord is meant to be a behavior pattern, to be embodied in the lives of God’s people through both teachers and parents who learn God’s Word and, in turn, pass it along to children and others – thereby providing guidance for how to live in God’s world. 

God’s law is an extension of God’s grace, and we are to gratefully accept the grace of God expressed in God’s Word. We are to ingest it, eat it, reflect on it, and dwell with it, in order to know God and be the people God wants us to be.

There are several other words that come from the root word for Law, Torah, in the Hebrew language. A teacher is a “moreh.” A parent is a “horeh.” Parents and teachers are to be living guides in the way of God’s Word. The Hebrew word for teaching is “yarah.” 

So, in other words, the moreh’s and the horeh’s are to yarah the Torah. Parents and teachers are to point and lead others into the ways of the Lord. The fifth book of the Law, Deuteronomy, makes it clear how parents, mentors, teachers, and influencers are to pass on God’s Word:

Israel, listen! Our God is the Lord! Only the Lord! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength. These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol. Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, CEB)

A Village Catechism, by David Rychaert III (1612-1661)

God’s Law, or God’s Word, is to be as familiar to us as our back door and it is to be in front of us all the time. When children ask us anything about God’s commands and regulations, we are to have a ready answer for them, in language and ways that they can understand.

We do this by carefully and systematically engrafting Holy Scripture into our minds and hearts. As we get God’s Word into ourselves, we are to also get it into our children and others. It happens by continually talking about Scripture – at home around the dinner table, as well as when we are working or playing together.

God’s Holy Word is to be continually in front of us, so that we do not forget it. We need to start each day and end each day with God’s Word. We can put the words of God on our refrigerator and our car’s dashboard. There is always an opportunity refer to God’s Word and incessantly chatter about it with others.

Someone may say, “That’s pretty radical – I don’t need to do all that!” Then I would say that you are missing out on living a blessed life because people are blessed when they walk according to God’s Word and keep God’s Law in front of them and seek God through God’s Word with all their heart. 

Let us not be so busy, pre-occupied, nor worried, that we end up pushing God’s Word to the margins of our lives as only a Sunday activity – or something for our discretionary time (which doesn’t actually exist). 

Let’s take the time to carefully look at God’s Word and let God speak to us through it.

Let us be intentional about connecting with the God who has so graciously given us a guide for grateful living. 

And let us lay solid plans to catechize people into the basics of faith and holy living in the church. Amen.

The Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year A1 Comment
Illustration of the parable of the vineyard workers, in the Codex Aureus of Echternach, c.1040 C.E.

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. (New International Version)

I once saw a guide dog gently pressing on his blind owner to go a certain way. But the man didn’t go that way. The dog kept pressing until the blind man kicked his dog. And then, the guy walked smack into a parked car on the street.

We can sometimes think too much of ourselves; and tend to believe that what we say and do and think are right – until we walk into a parked car, looking like a fool.  We need, of course, to listen to God. Yet, because we cannot see God, it’s too easy to treat the Lord as if he were an absentee landowner.

Today’s parable is about who will inherit the kingdom of God. The religious establishment of Christ’s day were not characterized by Christ’s Beatitudes. They thought they were okay. But they were really like a blind man kicking the guide dog, believing their way was right.

There are five truths illustrated in this parable that we need to grasp. The point of the parable is that Christ is looking for people who do God’s will and produce righteous fruit. Before we get into those truths, let’s get the cast of characters straight:

  • the landowner is God
  • the vineyard is Israel, God’s people
  • the tenants that the landowner put in charge are the religious leaders
  • the servants are the Old Testament prophets of God
  • the Son is Jesus

God is patient and longsuffering

God is like the guide dog who gently and lovingly keeps nudging, trying to get the person’s attention. In the parable, God’s people are likened to a vineyard. Jesus drew much of his teaching from the prophet Isaiah.

In Isaiah chapter 5, Israel is likened to a vineyard that God carefully takes care of, looking for fruit, but not getting any. For Jesus to tell the parable about a vineyard, gained the attention of people who knew the Scriptures.

Like Isaiah, Jesus pictured God as having a persistent, patient love for people, even when the tenants rebel and try and throw God out. The landowner, God, has:

  • planted
  • put in a wall
  • dug a winepress
  • built a watchtower
  • rented it out
  • sent the servants 

All these verbs describe a God who put a lot of time and energy into the vineyard. Even today, God still fusses over the vineyard and is looking for people to produce fruit in keeping with a genuine sense of righteousness. 

Humanity, especially the religious insiders, are sinful

In contrast to God’s love and care, is humanity’s persistent rebellion. The picture is of people who are hell-bent on rejecting the love of God. God’s patient love is met each time with a heightened hardness of heart on the part of the tenants. Jesus wanted the crowd to feel the situation of the landowner who goes beyond normal conventions in continuing to send servants; and the tenants’ violence in response.

God feels the weight of human sinfulness. Because the landowner is absent and we cannot see him, we may forget or not realize that God feels the full range of emotions. Each person who goes their own way and refuses God’s love; does not respond to God’s efforts to see fruit produced; and any system that is imposed contrary to God’s good order and care, all grieves God. Jesus later expressed his own grief and longing:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37, NIV)

The Son was sent as the final act

Any “normal” landowner would throw the tenants out after the first sending of servants that didn’t go well. Yet God the landowner knew what he was doing. Jesus actually summarized the plot line of the Old Testament, and of our lives, as well. The history of salvation moves like this through Scripture:

  • God loves people
  • people keep rebelling against that love
  • God keeps pursuing peoiple
  • then, God does the unthinkable by becoming one of us 

Jesus, stepped into this messy, bloody and violent world, full of hatred and hardness of heart. Then, the Son was killed and thrown outside.

God’s judgment is awful

Jesus drew his listeners into the story, and invited a response to what the landowner would do after all of the overtures to the tenants. The listeners responded that “he will bring those wretches to a wretched end.” And in a sense Jesus says, “You are them.” 

Jesus invited them to remember and realize the Scripture by looking at it as the Son who was killed. He let the crowd know that rejection of the Son results in the Son becoming the most prominent person. Jesus wanted them to look at their bibles and see Christ. He was rejected by his own – which will result in a pulverizing judgment, like a stone falling on a person.

God replaces the whole crew

God is transferring the kingdom of God from the proud and hard-hearted religious insiders to the repentant, soft-hearted outsiders. The self-righteous people failed to accept Jesus because of their insistence on being right; the spiritual beggars accept Jesus and God’s love and are the true subjects of the kingdom. The supposedly spiritual people who had all the religious traditions failed to see what those traditions really point to. 

We don’t own the kingdom; God does. God calls the shots, and has every right to expect people to produce the fruit of mercy, purity, and peacemaking in keeping with a humble heart that desires genuine righteousness.

The Red Vineyard by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

Maybe this parable seems a bit distant from us. To help us hear the story of Jesus as his original hearers heard it, I now restate the parable in a contemporary form:

Listen to another story about who is really a Christian. There was a landlord who built an upscale apartment building. The landlord spared no expense in creating apartments that were comfortable and homey. Everything he designed and built was with the care of someone who thought about what people would need and like most about a place to live. He included a host of amenities to his apartments because he really wanted the people to have as much joy living there as he did designing and building them. 

The owner put a gate around the complex so that the apartment community would be safe and secure. He hired a security firm to keep watch over the apartment complex. Then, when every detail was in place, the landlord rented out his apartments. But he didn’t just rent them out; he wanted to see the joy on the faces of the renters when he made a contract with them that included an entire year’s free rent. After that first year, when it came time for the first rent to be due, the landlord did not receive a single rent check. He was puzzled about this, so he decided to send some of his employees to collect the rent in person.

While the renters were in one of the large common lounges enjoying being together, they saw the landlord’s employees coming from a distance. So, they hatched a devious plan. Over their year of living in the beautiful apartments, they began to think they were especially special, and not like other people who lived in places that weren’t as nice as where they lived.  They gained such a twisted idea of their own importance that they believed they didn’t need to pay rent; and no one was going to tell them what to do. After all, they deserved to live where they did. They have a right to it. They don’t need to answer to anyone, including this supposed landlord who they have never seen in this last year, anyway.

Then the renters took the landlord’s employees and beat one, killed another, and took a baseball bat to a third. They took the bodies and threw them in the dumpster behind the building. Then the landlord, not wanting to evict his renters even after such a terrible experience, sent some other employees, more than the first time. But the renters had no guilt about what they had done, and did the very same thing to the second group of employees.  Even after this, the landlord was reluctant to let the law take over and decided to send his own son to collect the rent so that the renters could keep living in his apartments.

But when the renters saw the son, they said to each other. “Look! The guy sent his son. If we kill him, then we can forget about the old man and claim the whole apartment complex for ourselves.” 

After telling this story, Jesus asked all the church people listening, “When the owner of the apartment complex comes, what do you think he will do to those renters?” The crowd was into the story and replied, “He’s going to judge those ungrateful murderers, and replace the whole bunch of them with all new renters.” 

Jesus then said to them, “Have you never read in your bibles that the son who was rejected and killed has become the most important person of all? The Scriptures are all about the Son.”

“So, I am telling you that even though you have been in the Church all your life, it isn’t yours. I’m going to replace the whole lot of you with people who are humble and sensitive to sin; people who know they don’t deserve the nicest place to live in the world. If you persist in ignoring the Son, all you have to look forward to is God’s judgment.”

When all the important church people heard Jesus’ stories, they knew he was talking about them. And, even though they saw themselves in the story, they still wanted to do their own thing. They didn’t change one bit. Instead, they decided to be sneaky and try and do away with Jesus in their lives without getting in trouble. 

The kingdom of God and Christ’s Church is not an entitlement. And it does not inoculate us from God’s judgment. We must produce fruit in keeping with repentance. God is gently nudging us, like a guide dog. Will we respond in humility and turn where the Lord wants us to turn?

Rejoice instead of Complain (Philippians 2:14-18, 3:1-4a)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me…

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reasons for such confidence. (New International Version)

Here is a simple observation: Complaining and rejoicing cannot come out of the same mouth at the same time. The two of them mix about as well as toasters and bathtubs.

Everything is to be done without grumbling or arguing. Sheer willpower is insufficient for the task. Instead, you and I need to replace words of complaint with words of joy. Rejoicing is the antidote to murmuring. The world already has more than enough curmudgeons who crank on about everything from politics and religion to the weather and social media. Grumblers seem to always find the negative in just about everything.

Any fool can complain. It’s easy. Complaining takes little effort, and even less brains. Joy, however, takes some work. The sage person practices gratitude and joy so that it becomes the default response to most situations. We need a lot more folks with joy in this sad world.

Yesterday I visited a dear woman who was just diagnosed with cancer, and is expected to have only months to live. She had many tears, yet she also had lots of smiles. In fact, she was either crying or smiling most of the time. And her smile was genuine, not forced.

Whenever I encounter folks like this, who do not complain but rather rejoice, I ask them, “What gives you such joy in the midst of such sorrow?” This particular woman answered, “I have a simple faith. I trust God. I believe the Lord is good. I am blessed with many friends, a supportive family, and a God who loves me.” May her tribe increase.

On this same day, I visited another woman. She also had just been diagnosed with cancer and was facing a shortened lifespan. She yelled at the doctor and argued with the nurse, screamed at and quarreled with her family, and cried without any joy in my presence. Eventually, she left the hospital against medical advice because all she did was complain about everything and everyone.

Although I believe it is quite appropriate to have anger against disease, it’s inappropriate to rage against other people. The woman was miserable and had no smiles. I couldn’t help but see the incredible contrast between the two women in a single day of visits.

For all the talk we hear about how important it is to be positive, it is, unfortunately, negativity that sells, wins elections, and moves people. The irony of it all is that a large chunk of people continually grumbles, complains, and argues about all the negativity in the world. *Sigh*

Complaining and arguing are nasty practices; they breed disunity and division within groups and families. Murmuring only warps the ones who do it and infects others with spiritual disease.

Grumbling is always the first building block of a crooked and depraved generation. Conversely, being blameless and pure is winsomely attractive and unites folks together as a cohesive force for the world. Joy inoculates people from divisive pathogens. A people who rejoice together produce generations of individuals who impact their culture with delight and satisfaction.

Not even suffering and hard circumstances can curtail the comfort and cheer of the joyful. Rejoicing is a way of life – a path which no one and nothing can take away from us. Unwanted situations can be imposed on us, yet a person’s joy cannot be dislodged.

Eleanor Porter’s 1913 storybook character, Pollyanna, learned to take such a look upon life from her parents. Even after losing them to an accident and being orphaned, she honored their memory by saying, “… there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.” Pollyanna went on to teach an entire community about her way of life:

“What people need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened…. Instead of always harping on a person’s faults, tell them of their virtues. Try to pull them out of their rut of bad habits. Hold up to them their better self, the real self that can dare and do and win out! … The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town…. People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. If a person feels kindly and obliging, their neighbors will feel that way, too. But if a person scolds and scowls and criticizes—their neighbors will return scowl for scowl and add interest! … When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good—you will get that…”

Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter, 1913

I wonder what our world would look like if we all took such an approach of finding joy in our lives. We are meant to guard ourselves from those who boast and brag, who belligerently bully others with their bellicose blustering and bellyaching.

We are designed by our Creator for better things. Joy is more than the spice of life; it is life itself. Moving mindfully and without rush through our days, setting aside times for contemplation and rest, offering gratitude to God and encouragement to others, and exploring our own heart’s desire are all ways we can tap into the large hidden reservoir of joy within each of us.

Complaining is cheap and easy. Joy is rich, full, satisfying, and takes practice to master. Rejoice in the Lord, take joy in the presence of the Spirit, and exult in Christ our Savior. In doing so, we shoo the devil away and create a better society.

God is good all the time. And all the time God is good.

O Lord, you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You mark out my journeys and my resting place and are acquainted with all my ways. Lord of creation, whose glory is around and within us: Open our eyes to your wonders so that we may serve you with reverence and know your peace and joy in our lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Call to Truth and Justice (Exodus 23:1-9)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Moses Receives the Law, by Marc Chagall, 1963

“You must not pass along false rumors. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand.

“You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you are called to testify in a dispute, do not be swayed by the crowd to twist justice. And do not slant your testimony in favor of a person just because that person is poor.

“If you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey that has strayed away, take it back to its owner. If you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, do not walk by. Instead, stop and help.

“In a lawsuit, you must not deny justice to the poor.

“Be sure never to charge anyone falsely with evil. Never sentence an innocent or blameless person to death, for I never declare a guilty person to be innocent.

“Take no bribes, for a bribe makes you ignore something that you clearly see. A bribe makes even a righteous person twist the truth.

“You must not oppress foreigners. You know what it’s like to be a foreigner, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. (New Living Translation)

On Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. These laws are basic ethical commands given to the people in their relationship to God and to one another. Following those Ten Words, the next several chapters of Exodus provide detailed instructions and commands for the Israelites in their own social, economic, and cultural context.

Today’s Old Testament lesson is part of this sequence of specific laws for the Israelites. These laws all have to do with being honest in legal matters. There is to be no perversion of justice through perjury, favoritism, bending to dishonest pressure, bribery, and false charges. What’s more, there must be no overlooking of the poor and powerless; and no disregard for the immigrant and foreigner.

All the sequences of commands – covering Exodus chapters 20-25 – are connected back to the basic Ten Commandments. The laws about justice and injustice are the fleshing-out of the ninth command to not testify falsely against your neighbor.

In other words, we are not to lie in public, especially when a person’s life or livelihood is at stake. We are to practice right relations with others; and do justice for all persons without prejudice or favoritism. We do this because God shows no favoritism and judges rightly with proper justice.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. (Isaiah 11:3-4, NIV)

The Lord is a just God – it is inherent to the divine character. Therefore, our actions, as people created in the image of God, are to always be just, right, and truthful. There is a special place in God’s heart for the poor and powerless, and so, we ought also to consider their needs and treat them well and with respect – because true religion gives to those who we know cannot pay us back.

This, then, also is why immigrants and foreigners are mentioned. They need proper justice, and not negligence on our part to provide them with what they need. Throughout Holy Scripture we are admonished to not oppress the stranger from another place.

For through him [Christ] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:18-20, NIV)

The Lord watches over the foreigner
    and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
    but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. (Psalm 146:9, NIV)

Jesus picked up on the basic commands of God in his Sermon on the Mount – which, in many ways, is a restatement of the Ten Commandments by getting to the heart of them. Concerning the matter of giving false pledges, he said:

“Again you have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago: Don’t make a false solemn pledge, but you should follow through on what you have pledged to the Lord… Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. Anything more than this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33, 37, CEB)

In court, we offer an oath, swearing that we will tell the truth and only the truth – and no lying. This is the only way that injustice can be avoided and justice can be established.

“I swear on a stack of Bibles I won’t…” “I will, if I get around to it….” These are a few of the caveats we give when making a promise or oath. Oaths communicate our truthful intentions of being above board with a high level of integrity.

It’s not okay when we bear false testimony concerning an event or incident that has taken place. There is no excuse for saying something is truthful when you know it isn’t quite true or all true. That makes us liars.

The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy. (Proverbs 12:22, NIV)

Jesus wants us to clarify our values of right and wrong; make wise decisions; identify what we know is truth and error; and follow through on speaking the truth in love.

Any human society cannot stand unless it is committed to justice for all. People everywhere have a universal need for communities and nations which pursue truth, justice, benevolence, and integrity for everyone within their sphere of influence and responsibility.

Almighty God, who created us in your own image: Grant us grace to fearlessly contend against evil; and to make no peace with oppression, so that we may reverently use our freedom. Help us to employ that freedom in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.