SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 4, 2020
Below are our lectionary passages for this week in the Church calendar. For those unfamiliar, the lectionary is a resource that churches all over the world use to consistently and uniformly read through the scriptures every week as we gather for worship. The lectionary passages typically consist of a combination of Old Testament readings, a Psalm, a New Testament letter, and a Gospel reading.
We dwell on these passages throughout the week so that when we gather together on Sunday we may proclaim these truths together in worship. We encourage you to find some rhythm of reading and meditating on these passages throughout the course of the week, whether that’s reading through all of the passages daily or reading a single passage a day until you’ve read them all. We have included below some commentary and thought for guided prayer and reflection.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. - Psalm 119:105
EXODUS 20:1-20 (click here for passage)
There is much to say of each of the individual commandments in this passage. Much more than we have space to delve into in this format. We have, however, recently looked at each of the commandments in an entire sermon series which you can access by clicking here. What is interesting to note is what is happening in the context of the narrative of Israel. Throughout Genesis, God’s relationship with Israel had primarily been a relationship with a family, albeit, a quickly growing one at that. And as we transition to the story of Exodus, 400 years has passed and that family has grown tremendously and is now something of a large tribe or small nation. Throughout that passage of time, Israel’s identity is shaped by outside forces that are not God, namely, the Egyptian culture to which they were bound as slaves. Now, on the other side of the Red Sea, Israel is once again free but they are having to relearn what it is to be a people whose identity is shaped by God. They have to relearn their covenant with God and how they relate to Him, themselves, and others. These ten commandments are the terms by which Israel is to learn to navigate the world.
Spend some time reading and rereading these commands and meditate on how God is still speaking to us through them. Think also of Jesus’ reinterpretation of these commands in his Sermon on the Mount.
PSALM 19 (click here for passage)
The title of this Psalm, at least in my Bible, is God’s Glory in Creation and the Law. Now I think it’s important to note that we, in our current society, think about the concept of the law as fundamentally different from how the ancient Israelites understood the Law. In our own context, laws are understood primarily in the negative; we only think about them when they are broken or in jeopardy of being broken. And they serve as boundary lines of moral or ethical borders that we do not cross. This is often what lends to a sense of legalism when we talk about law and righteousness in Western Christianity. The Israelites, however, had a very different understanding of the law. As exhibited in this psalm, the Law is something that contains God’s glory. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple” (19:7). Here, the Law is not a boundary line or dead legislation, rather, the Law is a framework for life. The Law is how the Israelites came to know God and experience Him within His covenant. “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb” (19:10). In this sense, the glory of God in the Law isn’t that He tells us what we can’t do, The glory of God in the Law is that He has shared with us how to navigate and see the world. He has revealed himself and how we might come to participate in the wonder of His creation.
What are practices in our own lives that we can participate in that might ‘revive our souls’ through dwelling on God’s Law? Daily focus on a particular scripture? Praying through the Psalms?
PHILIPPIANS 3:4-14 (click here for passage)
Echoing the themes of Psalm 19, Paul is helping to reinterpret the Law to yet another group of Jews in a different context and society. Paul is speaking to the Christians in Philippi and it’s helpful to remember that at this point in the history of Christianity, these followers of Christ do not comprise a faith system that is independent and unique from Judaism, rather, these ‘Christians’ are largely a reformed sect of Judaism. That is, Paul is speaking to the Jewish followers of Christ in Philippi and he’s addressing how they are to interpret the Law in this new era of Christ and God coming to dwell with humanity. He writes that our confidence is not in adherence to the Law as an end in itself. Our confidence comes from knowing Christ and being made like Christ as he is the fulfillment of the Law. Law, merely for the sake of adhering to itself amounts to nothing more than legalism. This is what Paul testifies to in his own experience. He was a ‘perfect Jew’; “circumcised on the eighth day, a member of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (3:5). And despite all of his efforts to uphold the Law he still did not know God. Paul reminds the Philippians and us that the purpose of the Law is that it might be fulfilled in us like it is in Christ as we pursue Christ-likeness.
MATTHEW 21:33-46 (click here for passage)
Our final reading for the week is a parable of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus, being the learned and studied Jew he was, tells the chief priests and Pharisees a parable that is referencing and reinterpreting the Jewish Scriptures. After reading this passage take a look at Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 118:22-23 to take a closer look at those connections. In this parable a group of tenants is tasked with working a landowners vineyard that they might bring the vineyard to harvest. Which they do, but when the landowner sends his slaves to collect the produce, the tenants kill the slaves, the landowner sends another group of slaves to the same result and finally his own son whom they deal with in the same way. The parable is really an allegory for how God has dealt with creation. He sends his workers only to have them abused by the “tenants”; the family of Israel, the prophets, Jesus, all of whom serve as “stones that the builders rejected.” As it pertains to our conversation of the Law I would also add that when it comes to the tenants observing the expectations or ‘laws’ of the landowner they do just that. In this way they ‘uphold’ the law of the landowner. They bring the harvest to produce, and yet, they are still wicked in their ways.
There is a significant difference between spiritual discipline and legalism. Maybe we spend some time in prayer asking God how His word, the Law, might lead us down the path of spiritual discipline and maturity and away from the slow death of legalism.
REFLECTION
This week our readings have revolved around this theme of the Law. And what’s interesting about the Law is that it takes ideas, words, commands, utterances, and it shapes and informs the way that we live. The Law requires something of us in the way that we act and in the fulfillment of the Law we are brought closer to God and this is God’s Glory in the Law; that He has spoken to His creation and taught us how to interact and be in relationship with Him. We are a society that is very much shaped by the legal system that we have created; we think, logic, and process in terms of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In this way, law takes on the baggage of courtroom jargon and boundaries and discipline, but, as it was to the ancient Hebrews the Law is the life-giving, soul-reviving framework by which the people of God come to know Him.
As you dwell and meditate on these scriptures, would they also inform your prayer life. Might these scriptures of the revelation of the Triune God shape how you experience and interact with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As a church we also support many local, domestic and international ministries that are serving as the hands and feet of Christ. Not only do we support these Faith Promise Partners financially, we have also committed to supporting them in prayer. This week would you be in prayer for The Wheelhouse, a local bicycle cooperative that is refurbishing used bicycles for those that most need transportation.
For more information on our Faith Promise partners, click here.