The Body

The NT reading for Thursday, Proper 10, Year 2, is from Romans 12:1-8.  "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."   Our spiritual worship should be our bodies? What does that mean? 


In some sense, it's a metaphor.  We are all members of Christ's body, working together.  But in another sense, I think he means quite literally what he says: our bodies should be our spiritual worship, in the sense that all we are should be devoted to worship, with our bodies as sacrifices, things belonging entirely to God.   What we eat, where we go, how we stand, what we say, what we hear, it all belongs to God.  There should be an unmediated quality between who and what we are, on the one hand, and God, on the other.  


The Gospel reading for today is from Matthew 26:1-16, where a woman pours a bottle of costly ointment over Jesus's head.  People were outraged! What a waste! She could have sold that oil! The money from the sale could have relieved the suffering of the poor!


Jesus rebuked them and commended her action. His rebuke of her critics and his justification of her actions have many meanings. One meaning is this: that our bodies, and the things in the world around us, are not always just objects to be used for this or that goal or purpose. They are, at least sometimes if not always, potentially sacred, things directly connected to the divine.  We can present ourselves, and the things around us, as sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.

What about the risk?

The Gospel reading for Tuesday, Proper 10 in Year 2, is the parable of the talents from Matthew 25:14-30.  A master leaves five talents with one servant, two with another, and one with a third. The first two trade and double their master's money by the time he returns, but the third buries his single talent in the ground just digs it up when the master comes home. The master is delighted with the first two and increases their responsibilities, but deprives the third servant of the single talent.

When I was a child, this seemed like a terribly harsh parable, and it still seems harsh to me today.  Nothing in the story suggests the master expressly instructed the servants to invest or trade.  Of course, any trading involved risk, even the risk of total loss. What if the first two servants had lost everything? What would the master have said then? In explaining his very conservative approach, the third servant says that the master had a reputation for being extremely harsh, such that the third servant was afraid to do anything riskier. Nothing in the parable suggests that the third servant had the wrong idea about the master's harsh character: the master fairly exploded when the servant merely failed to produce a gain, and who knows what the master would have done if confronted with a loss? It always seemed to me that the third servant was held at fault for failing to follow instructions that he never received after what doing seemed best in light of the circumstances.

It may be that the parable is not so much normative as descriptive.  It may be that no one in this parable is held up as an example of what you should or should not do.  The story may just dramatize what happens in life. If you have ability, and if you don't take a risk, you wind up worse than you were.  Yes, if you take a risk, you may lose everything, but you will lose everything if you don't.  At least if you take the risk, you have some opportunity for gain, of doing something pleasing to God.

It's a hard story. But it's the truth.

So we should have enough oil? For what?

The Gospel reading for Tuesday, Proper 10, Year 2, comes from Matthew 25:1-13, in which Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a group of virgins awaiting a bridegroom late for a wedding feast.  Some of the virgins brought extra oil for their lamps, and others didn't. Those who brought no extra oil asked to borrow from those who did, but were refused.  While some of the virgins were away shopping for oil, the bridegroom arrived, and when they returned, he refused to let them into the feast.

How does a parable that seems to endorse a refusal to share have anything to do with Christian life? I think this is among the most enigmatic of of the parables.

The key, if there is something as simple as a key, may be that the parable illustrates "the kingdom of heaven." Joseph Maier suggests that the kingdom of heaven may be understood not so much as a place, but as rather "the kingly rule of God."  Seraphim, an Orthodox hermit, interpreted the oil of this parable as grace gained through the good intentions that accompany good works.  The figure of the oil does seem to suggest that we are to store up something in anticipation of the day when the bridegroom, who I would take to be the figure of Christ, returns--not to avoid the bridegroom's judgment, but to join in his celebration.

The question is, what is that something? It is that something, perhaps ineffable, that allows us to see in the darkness. We store up memories for our old age. Some of us save money in anticipation that we might retire. Our ancestors stored food for the winter. What should we store, what should we keep over and beyond what we burn everyday, in anticipation of salvation?  I think Seraphim was right, or very near it: it may be grace in general.

We should pray for grace, to be aware of it. We should never think, now I have enough. We should never believe, what I have now, it can last until . . . death, resurrection, salvation. What comes between now and those days may be dark. We may need all the oil we can get our hands on.

How do we respond to great threats?

In the OT reading for today, Sunday in Proper 10, Year 2, Joshua gives his first orders.  He has been assured by Moses, and then by God, that God is with him, but he hasn't actually had to act on it--he hasn't really had to make a decision to move forward into a conflict that, on the face of it, could turn out badly, not just for him, but for the people who follow him.  He will, in the days recounted afterwards, perform many great deeds, but in today's reading, from Joshua 1:1-18, he does what may be his first truly great deed--he is resolved, and he begins to act on his resolve by making a decision.

The NT reading is from Acts 21:3-15. Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, and a prophet foretells that Paul will be bound hand and foot and handed over to the Gentiles.  Paul's reply might be paraphrased as, "So what?" When people beg him not to go, his answer is, more or less, in light of the importance of what I am doing, do you think I would hesitate just because I will be handed over to death? It is a sobering answer. 

In the Gospel reading for today, Mark 1:21-27, Jesus confronts evil directly. He is not facing the threatening unknown and the potential for violence, as Joshua did. He is not looking at some encounter with people who are evil. He is looking at evil itself: demons.  And, he exercises authority over them.

God would have us respond to great threats with decisiveness, resolve, and the power of the Holy Spirit, even when we face evil itself.  It is my prayer that we do.

What is the connection between God and Man?

Moses knew God face to face.  What did that mean? The OT reading for Saturday, Proper 9, Year 2,  is from Deuteronomy 34:1-12. In that passage, God emphasizes that Moses will not be allowed to cross over into the promised land. But it's noteworthy that Moses did not say that he wanted to go. Perhaps we are to infer that, having known God face to face, Moses no longer wanted anything other than what God wanted for him.

What about the rest of us, those who have not known God face to face? The NT reading is from Romans 10:14-21, where Paul emphasizes that people know by what they hear, and they hear from preaching. Paul emphasizes that people cannot preach unless they are sent and that God reaches out to us, sending preachers, even though we are disobedient.

How do we hear what God has to say to us? We have to remain vigilant, all the time. The Gospel reading is from Matthew. "Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect."  

The connection between God and man is the connection that comes from God reaching out to us and our listening all the time.  

The Gospel is immediate.

The Gospel reading for Friday, Proper 9, Year 2 is from Matthew 24:15-31, a great apocalyptic vision.  In times of enormous trouble, the Gospel tell us, there will be no shortage of people telling us what is happening and what we should do.  Don't listen to them, we are warned.  As far as the return of Jesus is concerned, we are told, "For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man."

As in the apocalypse, so in everyday.  In the NT reading for today from Romans 10, Paul says,  "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach)."  It is that faith and its confession that save you, a force like lightning that comes from the east and shines as far as the west, illuminating what you should do and refrain from doing. Paul warns us, don't ask who will go to get Jesus, who will bring him down, or any other question that merely reflects what we want to know, rather than what we are told.  

We do not need answers or a satisfied curiosity. We need a bolt of lightning that clarifies everything. We need salvation. "For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved," Paul says.

". . . you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith . . .." 


How true is that? You read, and pray, and maybe even blog, but what's your attitude when you merely have to be patient for five minutes?  Not so good here. 


There is a strain of behavioral psychology which the untutored (that would be me) summarize as "fake it til you make it." In other words, it's what you do, and not who you are, and it's definitely NOT the thought that counts.  Jesus teaches us otherwise. It's interesting that today's Gospel Reading for Tuesday, Proper 8, in Year Two, goes on to emphasize the importance of righteous living, but the emphasis is on the spiritual nature of the person involved in the undertaking. 


It's not so much that the Gospel commands us to do more than merely go through the motions (although it does do that), but that it tells us that the motions are empty, meaningless, and, in a sense, impossible unless salvation renews us.

What is justice?

Today is Monday, and the OT reading for Proper 8 comes from Numbers 32. The sons of Reuben and the sons of God come to Moses as the Hebrews are about to cross over into what will become Israel.  They say, this is a nice place, this place where we are right now: why don't we stay here with our cattle, and the rest of you can cross on over. That side of the river was perfect for them and their cattle, and they had a lot of cattle. But Moses answered, would it be right for everyone else to go off to war while you stay here?

The NT reading is from Romans. "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." This is a fairly extraordinary statement from someone who claimed to have God's special favor, but who was repeatedly beaten for preaching the Gospel. It's the sort of thing you would not expect a person of St. Paul's circumstances to say unless he thought it was really, really true. 


In what sense could it have been true? In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus warns his listeners, don't think you can get ahead just by doing what other people tell you to do, even if those people are truly devoted to living holy lives, if what they tell you comes from their own wisdom.  If you want to get ahead, he says, then try not to get ahead: the greatest among you is the chief servant. If you want a teacher, then stop wanting a teacher. Let God Himself be your teacher. 


There is such a thing as justice. God cares about what you do and what you do not do. But it is not comfortable. In fact, acting in accordance with justice may mean that you wind up proclaiming--having to proclaim--that things have worked out perfectly in the sense that you have lost everything for your faith.   You cannot get this justice by listening to what other people tell you. You get it by service, and you get it by humility.