Paul speaking in the Areopagus…

 

The Bible readings for May 25 are: Acts 17:22-31, Psalm 66:7-18, 1st Peter 3:13-22, and John 14:15-21,  according to the Revised Common Lectionary.

In Acts 17:22-31, Paul spoke in the Areopagus, “north-west of the Acropolis in Athens. In classical times, it functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases.”  As the International Bible Commentary noted, this was an opportunity “unexpectedly provided for a Christian witness before the intellectual elite of the day.”  The IBC also noted that this was the first encounter “between the Christian message and Greek philosophy.”

He first noted that the Athenians in his audience were extremely religious, but worshiped “an unknown god.”  He then compared that with the living God he worshiped, and further that, “‘In him we live and move and have our being;’ as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.'”   (Paul was referring to a line from the Greek poet Aratus.)

He then indicated the time of such blissful ignorance was over, and that it was time to repent and turn to God.   Unfortunately, some Christians prefer to focus on that “regret,” as if that’s all a believer is called to do.  In that view, a “good Christian” is supposed to do nothing but go around feeling sorry for himself – and calling on everyone around him to feel the same way –  which in turn tends to make people miserable.  But such Christians forget that repentance is just a tool, not an end in itself.  Repentance is or should be a tool leading to the greater possibility of living a “life in all its abundance” (John 10:10), but we digress…

The IBC says of Psalm 66, “Come and see what God has done,” and that this section (verses 7 to 18), calls on the people to thank God for delivering them from their recent trials.  “For you, O God, have proved us;  you have tried us just as silver is tried.”  Which is another way of saying that God loves drama, and that a good Christian should expect some in his life, rather than thinking that when he turns to Jesus his life will be a succession of triumph after triumph.  (Or as Evelyn Underhill said, “It is to vigour rather than comfort that you are called.”)

That’s supported by verse 14, “Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for me.”  Simply put, it’s in God’s best interest to have you – in the fullness of time – tell a story of personal triumph over great odds.  (That makes for much better drama.)   If all you can tell people is that your following God did nothing but make you miserable – or if your audience perceives that’s your message – your not going to attract many followers for God.

1st Peter 3:13-22 includes the line, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”  Really?  Gentleness and reverence?  Are those the nouns people think of when they think of Christians these days?  (That darned liberal media.)

But seriously, the IBC noted that in this passage, Peter called on believers to persevere in the face of persecution, if and as necessary, and that in view of the “blessedness” offered by God through Jesus, “reverence for God, not fear of man, should characterize them.”

Note also that in 1st Peter 2:13, the Apostle has just counseled believers to be “submissive to every human institution for the Lord’s sake.”  (For a way around that – i.e., to be free to criticize our country’s leaders – see the post  On dissin’ the Prez.)

And finally, in John 14:15-2, Jesus told the disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit; “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

So, if you were to think of God as the Ultimate Judge, of Jesus as the Ultimate Public Defender (and of Satan as the “Ultimate Prosecutor”), you would think of the Holy Spirit as the Ultimate PTI Counselor.  That is, by asking God to appoint His Son to be your attorney in the upcoming trial that you know will be coming (and the Judge’s son can get you such a deal), you can get yourself into the functional equivalent of earthly “pre-trial intervention.”

That earthly PTI is defined as follows: “Pretrial diversion is a type [of] informal disposition which involves the referral of individuals, often before arraignment, to rehabilitative or restitution programs in lieu of criminal prosecution.”   See also John 5:24, in the Good News Translation, “those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life.  They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life.” (Emphasis added.)

And to help you along that path – the path toward Jesus spoken of in John 6:37 – you’ll be appointed an Ultimate Counselor.  This then is the Holy Spirit spoken of in John 14:16-17, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

For the full readings see The Lectionary Page.

 The “Aereopagus” image is courtesy of http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/files/2013/06/areopagus.jpg.

The “Greek poet Aratus.”  See Aratus – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and/or The Apostle and the Poet: Paul and Aratus – Dr. R. Faber.

On “vigour rather than comfort.”  See Underwood’s Practical Mysticism, Ariel Press (1914), page 177.

 On Satan (or “the Devil”) as Ultimate Prosecutor, see Revelations 12:7-10 (KJV): “there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon…   [T]he great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.  And I heard a loud voice saying … the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

Note also the Hebrew and Greek words “Satan” (“Satanas” in Greek) translate “an adversary,” while the root word for devil is “diabolos,” Greek for “slanderer.”  (New International Dictionary of the Bible, Regency Reference Library, 1987, Page 899.)  So like any “good” prosecutor, the Ultimate Prosecutor tries first and most to get a conviction, if necessary by slandering the character of the accused.

On pre-trial intervention, see Pretrial Intervention Law & Legal Definition – Help Build ….

The Lucy-counselor image is courtesy of http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rU9LIYWVE9Q/T4vuEMr3UcI/AAAAAAAAAbI/Qb_hfSoAFTA/s1600/Counselor_Lucy.jpg.

“Christ Taking Leave of the Apostles”

 

The Bible readings for Sunday, May 18 are:   Acts 7:55-60,  Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 (Page 622, BCP),  1 Peter 2:2-10,  and John 14:1-14.

The Gospel reading – John 14:1-14 – is part of the “Farewell Discourse” that Jesus gave in the Upper Room during the Last Supper.  Jesus intended to comfort His disciples by telling them of the “many mansions” in His Father’s house, a passage frequently used to comfort mourners at a funeral:  “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

The reading is filled with familiar phrases, including the oft-quoted, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  But it also includes one of the least appreciated verses in the entire Bible, John 14:12: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”  (Emphasis added.)

To review: The one who believes in Jesus with do “the works that I do,” and beyond that, even greater works than Jesus did.  Put another way, the one who believes in Jesus is fully expected to do greater works than Jesus, according to Jesus Himself.  (For some interesting reading, just type into your search engine, “The Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it.”)

So since the Bible said it, and the believer believes it, that should settle it.  But the question comes up: How can we do greater works than Jesus if we interpret the Bible in a cramped, narrow, strict and/or limiting manner?  For that matter, why does the Bible so often tell us to “sing to the Lord a new song?”  (For example, Isaiah 42:10 and Psalms 96:1, 98:1, and 144:9.)

Again, how can you sing a new song to the Lord if all you do in reading the Bible is the  equivalent of, “Yes dear, anything you say dear?”  (See the post, “On arguing with God.”)

But enough of The Scribe’s ramblings.  For a far more erudite treatment of this Gospel reading, check out Doctor Thomas Boomershine’s article:  A Storytelling Commentary on John 14:1-14 – GoTell ….   Dr. Boomershine’s key:  “The primary commandment of Jesus is to love one another.”  Beyond that, the good doctor notes:

Jesus’ voice here is the voice of one who is talking to his closest friends on the night before his death.  He is sharing with them the things that they need to know.  The basic dynamic of this speech is his communicating to his disciples how much he loves them.

So maybe our job – in doing these greater works than Jesus – is not to walk on water or still a raging storm or turn water into wine, as some might expect.  Maybe our job – according to John 14:12 – is to show even greater love than Jesus showed, toward our fellow men and women, and even to our most obnoxious “neighbors.”

Now that would be a challenge. . .

 

 

 

The Supper at Emmaus by Rembrandt (1648)

 

The Gospel reading for Sunday, May 4 – Luke 24:13-35 – tells the story of Jesus appearing to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus, “on the evening of His resurrection.”  One of the disciples was named Cleopas; the other remained unnamed.

Emmaus – from the Hebrew for “warm spring” – is seven miles northwest of present-day Jerusalem.  Just as an aside, there’s also an “Emmaus” in Pennsylvania, named for the biblical village in this Sunday’s Gospel.  It’s in Lehigh County, about five miles southwest of Allentown.

From its founding in 1759 until 1830, the settlement’s name was spelled Emmaus. From 1830 until 1938, however, the community used the Pennsylvania Dutch spelling of the name, Emaus, to reflect local language and the significant presence of Pennsylvania Dutch. In 1938, after petitions circulated by the local Rotary Club, the borough formally changed the name’s spelling back to Emmaus, reflecting the spelling in the Gospel of Luke in the English New Testament.

 

There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere. . .

Anyway, Wikipedia summarized the incident as follows:

“The author of Luke places the story on the evening of the day of Jesus’ resurrection. The two disciples have heard the tomb of Jesus was found empty earlier that day. They are discussing the events of the past few days when a stranger asks them what they are discussing.  ‘Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.’  He soon rebukes them for their unbelief and gives them a Bible study on prophecies about the Messiah.”

Unfortunately, that lecture by Jesus on Bible study – “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures” – was lost to history.   (That might have been because after the two disciples finally recognized the stranger as Jesus, they had other things on their mind beside taking notes “immediately,” as Mark was so fond of saying in his Gospel. )

But that in turn brings up the ending of last week’s Gospel reading:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

That’s John 20:30-31, sometimes summarized as the Statement of the Gospel’s Purpose, the Gospel of John that is.

So, from John 20:30-31 it might be gleaned either that there are a lot of important things about Jesus that aren’t in the Bible, or that the Bible story continues “even to this day,” in our own lives.  Put another way, you might say that the Bible story is incomplete until we put it to use in our lives, today and into the future. . .

But that’s enough potential heresy for one post.  Getting back to the Gospel for May, Wikipedia continued:

“On reaching Emmaus, they ask the stranger to join them for the evening meal. When he breaks the bread ‘their eyes were opened’ and they recognize him as the resurrected Jesus. Jesus immediately vanishes. Cleopas and his friend then hasten back to Jerusalem to carry the news to the other disciples, and arrive in time to proclaim to the eleven who were gathered together with others that Jesus truly is alive.”

There are a couple of possible lessons here.  One could be that we fail to recognize when Jesus is “walking with us,” metaphorically or otherwise, in our daily lives.  Another could be that when we celebrate the Communion on Sundays we come that much closer to “having our eyes opened.”  (Maybe that’s why we do it.)   And third, it seems that every “mountaintop experience” like this one is always followed by our having to go back to the drudgery of our daily lives.

Or as one “Christian mystic” once said:

Hearing now and again the mysterious piping of the Shepherd, you realize your own perpetual forward movement . . . and so are able to handle life with a surer hand.  Do not suppose from this that your new career is to be perpetually supported by agreeable spiritual contacts, or occupy itself in the mild contemplation of the great world through which you move.  True, it is said of the Shepherd that he carries the lambs in his bosom; but the sheep are expected to walk, and to put up with the bunts and blunders of the flock.  It is to vigour rather than comfort that you are called.

 

 

The Rembrandt image and some of the text were gleaned from Wikipedia.   The “mystic” quote was from Evelyn Underhill’s book Practical Mysticism (Ariel Press, 1914), at page 177.   (For more information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Underhill).  The “mountaintop” image is courtesy of http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/spaceart/terragen/tg234.jpg.

 

 

 

 

 

The Incredulity of St Thomas, or The Rockox Triptych, after the name of the donors, by Peter Paul Rubens (circa 1614), as it relates to the Gospel reading for 4/27/14, below.

The Bible readings for Sunday, April 27, 2014 are:

Acts 2:14a,22-32,

Psalm 16, at page 599 of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP),

 1 Peter 1:3-9,

and John 20:19-31, which tells the story of “Doubting Thomas.”

But first, a word about Rubens’ interpretation of the Gospel reading.  For one thing, this painting seems to be one of the least gruesome versions available.  On the other hand, Rubens painted the spear-wound on the “wrong side,” which could bring up some interesting thoughts…

On that note, Wikipedia defined a doubting Thomas is “a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience, a reference to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles, until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the cross.”

On the other hand, you could say that achieving a direct personal experience with The Force That Created The Universe is – or should be – what the church-going experience should be all about, but we digress…

Wikipedia went on to define “Thomas the Apostle, sometimes informally called Doubting Thomas or Didymus which means “The Twin” … one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, according to the New Testament. He is best known from the account in the Gospel of Saint John, where he questioned Jesus’ resurrection when first told of it, followed by his confession of faith as both ‘My Lord and my God’ on seeing and touching Jesus’ wounded body.

On that note, consider the recent Yahoo Answers exchange (see If you doubt and question your faith … – answers.yahoo.com) on the following question:

If you doubt and question your faith will it become stronger? …

The flip side of that question is: “Should we just blindly believe?”

That seems to be the Bible-take of some Christians, but others – including those more prone to follow the Via Media – think a bit of skepticism can be healthy.

The “Best Answer” to the Yahoo question above included this:

Remember Thomas, the disciple, who wouldn’t believe in Christ’s resurrection until he put his hand into Jesus’s wounds.  He went on to die spreading the gospel in Persia and India.  God gave us free choice, He doesn’t want us to be robots, He could have made us like that, but wanted us to choose for ourselves.  You learn and grow by questioning. 

So, there seem to be Christians who see The Faith as a spiritual strait-jacket, a pre-made form into which “we” should shape ourselves. This type of Christian also seems to believe that there will be a checklist at the Pearly Gates, and that if you don’t answer every question exactly right you won’t get in.

Other Christians try to see The Faith as a set of Spiritual Wings . . . but more about that in later posts.

Back to this Sunday’s readings.  You can see the full readings at www.lectionarypage.net, but here are some “color comments.”

In Acts 2:14a,22-32, Peter gave fellow Israelites his eyewitness account of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, including the “power, wonders, and signs that God did” through Jesus.  He extensively quoted King David’s writings – remember, Peter was pretty much an illiterate fisherman before he became a disciple – including this pithy comment about God, “You have made known to me the ways of life.”

Again, that is – or should be – what the church-going experience is all about.

Unfortunately, time is running out for the DOR Scribe, so it’s time to end this post.  But “be on the lookout” (BOLO) for future posts.