Tag Archives: Serving in Community

Doers of the Word

Living in the Spirit

November 5, 2022

Scripture Reading: Luke 20:27-38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’ –Luke 20:27-33

Have you ever noticed how easily faith groups can get caught up with the most trivial things, often a real distraction to our basic mission? I remember when I was a child, we had people who left our church over a dispute about replacing the rickety chairs behind the communion table. The argument was over whether we get new wooden or holstered chairs. The dispute above is between Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection and Jesus who did. Immediately time and talent are refocused on a divisive issue that makes no difference in the long run. The irony is that if there is no resurrection, one who believes that will never know if they were right.

The real issue in most of these debates is a deep need to be right about God, and that is a good thing. Problems arise when we ascribe our all too human judgments regarding our relationship with God. In that regard, we invest much time in what we believe and less time in how we serve God and reflect God’s love to others.  I enjoy a good conversation on what the scriptures mean. We can grow in our ability to love like Jesus in such studies, but they will always only give us a glimpse of an omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent being who has our best interest and the best interest of all people.

Matthew 7:24–27

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!’ (Matthew 7:24-27)

James 1:22–25

But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. (James 1:22–25)

Prayer: Lord, open our eyes that we may see glimpses of truth thou hast for us. Place in our hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set us free *. Amen.

*Derived from the hymn Open our Eyes That I may See by Claire H. Scott, see at https://hymnary.org/text/open_my_eyes_that_i_may_see

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Serving God in Community

Living in the Spirit

September 6, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Matthew 18:15-20
‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

Scriptures like the one above make me wonder why I committed to using the Lectionary as my source for these devotions. I had grown weary of the use of small sections of the Bible being used, often out of context, to support systems of belief that seemed to be incongruous with other parts of the Bible. I continue to think we need to study the Bible as a whole and deal with those incongruities.  So here I go trying to evaluate this scripture with some objectivity rather than following in Thomas Jefferson’s example and just cutting out the sections I do not care to deal with.

First, we need to understand that the word adelphos*, translated here as “church,” is not the same thing as the building in which we attend worship. Some will include the people who worship in that building as “church.” Others may extend that meaning to our denomination, and perhaps even other denominations with whom we might interact. We may think of the church universal as all Christians. The Greek word means brother and is extended to mean a brother, member of the same religious community, especially a fellow-Christian*.  Today, using the phrase religious community instead of “church” might have been more meaningful. Jesus is giving instructions regarding how a community of faith is to solve problems. I must confess, I checked to make sure I was reading from Matthew rather than Paul because this sounds very much like what he wrote to the churches he served.

My Sunday school class had an interesting discussion once where one participant indicated that sin relates to our relationship to God and that he did not think we sin against one another.  The word translated sin in this scripture means missing the mark. It is used originally as I miss the mark, hence (a) I make a mistake, (b) I sin, commit a sin (against God); sometimes the idea of sinning against a fellow-creature is present**.  My classmate might be right in one regard. If we miss the mark as related to another, we may also commit sin against God.

In either case, the advice is sound that we should deal with misunderstandings and mistakes before they fester and grow into significant impediments to our advancing in a community the vision and mission of God through Jesus Christ.

Prayer: God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, help us to follow you more nearly as we bring with us the sound teachings of our past, live in your love now, and set the stage for the greater good for future generations. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/80.htm
**https://biblehub.com/greek/264.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.