Psalm
24:1-2
The
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the
world and those who dwell therein,
for
he has founded it upon the seas
and
established it upon the rivers.
This
is clear enough, even for me. Who’s in charge? God. Whose stuff is it? God’s.
Who made everything, and everything and everything? God, God, God. OK, so that
should be clear enough for everyone. BUT, how often do we say, and how often do
we think that this or that is “ours”? We can’t seem to help ourselves, we just
keep getting confused. I love the joke whereby ‘Man’ decides he doesn’t need
God, in fact he is God, after all he can make new life all by himself now
(doesn’t even need a women-just plop the whole thing in a test tube and voila.)
anyway in this joke God says to Man ‘OK, I’ll except your challenge in a
man-making contest...bring your own dirt.’ That’s the thing about this Psalm;
EVERYTHING means actually and truly everything. Now some of the things we make
ourselves from some of his stuff is not so great, but in the end, God can just
take it all back. Like we saw with Abraham and Isaac yesterday. The nice thing
is we see God doesn’t desire our death, just as he didn’t desire the death of
Isaac. This Psalmist tells us he is the King of Glory.
Now
Sarah dies at the age of 127 and Abraham buys a place to bury her. Did you
notice this exchange between Ephron and Abraham – in the presence of all the
Hittites? Abraham will pay – so that no one can say he stole it – or so that he
cannot later be prevented from coming to the burying place, but no, they wish
to ‘give’ it to him, and then this line from Ephron: “My lord, listen to me: a
piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you
and me? Bury your dead." (Genesis 24:15) It sounds... a little off
somehow, as if Abraham would hear of this four hundred shekels between them for
the rest of his days and so Abraham pays that amount in front of all the
Hittites as witnesses, and then he buries his dead. Perhaps Abraham is learning
the ways of the Lord? No longer does he deceive, now he acts as if the people
know he is chosen of the Lord and does what is honorable.
And
when we read the passage in 1 Chronicles we see that David is giving this same
understanding to his son: "And you,
Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart
and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every
plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake
him, he will cast you off forever.” (28:9)
Then
we come to the reading in Luke for today and it reads like a whole lot of
remarks strung together, one right after another. The parable of the ‘shrewd’
manager who is being let go for dishonest dealings gives rise to an admonition
not to love money more than God. Next we get a notice that not one dot of the
law has become void and an exhortation against divorce...which brings us to the
story of a rich man who dies and finds himself in Hades. This rich man wishes
for a servant, for respite yet “Abraham” says the rich man has received the
reward for his actions and the servant is receiving his reward in heaven. This
rich man asks for someone to go and tell...and Abraham says you had the law and
the prophets and still you do not listen, they wouldn’t be convinced “if
someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)
Notice
with me that Jesus goes right into warning about causing others to sin:
"Temptations
to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be
better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into
the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay
attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents,
forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to
you seven times, saying, "I repent," you must forgive him."
(Luke 17:1-4)
Yes,
it says Jesus is talking to his disciples but he has been in the presence of
the Pharisees, as they were the ones in just the previous passage he was
talking to about loving money more than God, and about whether the law has been
abolished, so I am thinking that there is still an audience for this
discussion. The apostles say increase our faith, and Jesus says if you had even
the tiniest amount you could move mountains and our readings end today with the
question of whether the servant is better than the master or is the servant for
doing what was required of him worthy of praise. These questions/sayings I
think are still audible for the hearing of those same Pharisees who might think
they were worthy of praise for keeping the law or more important than the
Christ who was the culmination of that law. All of us can listen in on this
conversation (as we have by reading it today), and we can learn for ourselves
to love the law – and the Lord’s people, and not think too highly of ourselves,
or cause others to sin – and in all things we can act with the faith that is
capable of moving mountains.
Today’s
readings: Psalm 24, Genesis 23, 1 Chronicles 28, Luke 16:1-17:10
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