October 12, 2003
Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, source of every blessing, your generous
goodness comes to us anew every day. By the work of your Spirit lead
us to acknowledge your goodness, give thanks for your benefits, and
serve you in willing obedience; through your Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
{6} Seek the LORD and
live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and
it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it. {7} Ah, you
that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground!…
{10 They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor
the one who speaks the truth. {11} Therefore because you
trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built
houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted
pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. {12}
For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your
sins-- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside
the needy in the gate. {13} Therefore the prudent will keep
silent in such a time; for it is an evil time. {14} Seek good
and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts,
will be with you, just as you have said. {15} Hate evil and
love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD,
the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
6. Seek the Lord and live: The prophet repeats
Yahweh’s exhortation in 5:4, "Seek me and live."
While there is no guarantee that Yahweh will be merciful if the people
seek him, it is certain that if they do not he will “break out against
the house of Joseph like fire” (see the note on verse 15).
the house of Joseph…Bethel: References to the northern kingdom
and its sanctuary. If the people do not return to Yahweh
he
will certainly destroy them. Still, there may be another alternative.
7. justice…righteousness: These are terms that describe the
nature of relationships that exist between people who are bound
together in covenant with Yahweh and each other. The people have
perverted them, and are being called on to return to Yahweh and their
covenant duties.
[8-9: A hymnic fragment which extols Yahweh’s power over the nature
order.]
11-12: A series of accusations against the wealthy members of
the community who steal from the poor. But Amos is clearly not
"prudent;" he speaks out against injustice.
the gate: A metaphor for judgment because that was carried out
in the gates of the village. The rich hate those who would indict
them; they even physically assault those who would bring a case
against them.
13. the prudent will keep silent:
The
wise person keeps silent knowing that it would only lead to further
trouble. Yahweh will judge those who pervert justice. The word for
“the prudent one” in Hebrew is maskil. In the Psalms the word
connotes a type of hymn (Psalms 32:1; 42:1; 44:1; 45:1; 47:8. So some
interpret it to mean at an evil time such Psalms would not be sung.
Shalom Paul proposes still another translation: “Therefore, at such a
time the prudent one moans, For it is a time of misfortune.”
[1]
14-15: Again they people of the northern kingdom
are urged to change their ways, to renounce evil and love the good and
restore justice in the place of judgment.
It may be that the Lord…will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph:
“The
operative and decisive word here is
[‘ulay] (‘perhaps’). Repentance in and of itself
is a sine qua non, but it does not operate absolutely or
automatically. It cannot be resorted to as a magical device or opted
for as a guarantee to change the will of God. Complete certainty of
its acceptance or rejection is never really known, for the final
decision is always reserved for God alone. ‘…Repentance and atonement
by humans are indeed an irrevocable presupposition for divine
forgiveness, but they cannot by these means coerce him. It depends
entirely upon Yahweh whether he will show mercy or not.’)” [2]
Psalm 90:12-17
{12} So teach us to
count our days that we may gain a wise heart. {13} Turn, O
LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants! {14} Satisfy
us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and
be glad all our days. {15} Make us glad as many days as you
have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. {16}
Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to
their children. {17} Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon
us, and prosper for us the work of our hands-- O prosper the work of
our hands!
The Psalm is a communal
lament which bewails the harshness of life which ends in a return to
the dust.
12: The Psalmist urges the congregation to seek to learn wisdom
from Yahweh.
14. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love:
Yahweh’s intervention in the afflictions of the people is the morning
of a new day. "Through an oracle of salvation Yahweh would grant a [hesed], a bestowal of gracious affection
for Israel." Hesed, "steadfast love" is one of the covenant
terms, describing Yahweh’s consistent care and concern for his
people." [3]
15. as many years as we have seen evil: The suffering of the
people has been of long duration. "…the situation that underlies Psalm
90 is not identified in detail…. We hear only that a heavy burden
oppresses the people (v. 13), that for years nothing but distress has
been seen (v. 15), and that the work of human beings is hopelessly at
a standstill (v. 17)." [4]
Hebrews 4:12-16
{12} Indeed, the word of
God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to
judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. {13} And before
him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes
of the one to whom we must render an account. {14} Since, then,
we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. {15} For we
do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we
are, yet without sin. {16} Let us therefore approach the throne
of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to
help in time of need.
12-13: "This is…an elaborate bit of festive
prose" [5]
concerning the power of God’s word and his ability to see even what is
hidden. God’s word, like God, is alive, and can divide soul and
spirit, and judge thoughts and intentions.
the heart: The seat of reason and intention in the first
century view.
14-15: we have a great high priest…Jesus, the Son of God…in
every respect tested as we are…without sin: Jesus is our high
priest, yet he is greater than any other high priest. He is the Son of
God and he has been tested as we are, so he can understand our
frailties and failings.
16. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace: An
exhortation to come to God who is merciful and gracious even toward
those who are not without sin.
Mark 10:17-31
{17} As he was setting
out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him,
"Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" {18}
Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God
alone. {19} You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder;
You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear
false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'"
{20} He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my
youth." {21} Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You
lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." {22}
When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he
had many possessions. {23} Then Jesus looked around and said to
his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter
the kingdom of God!" {24} And the disciples were perplexed at
these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is
to enter the kingdom of God! {25} It is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter
the kingdom of God." {26} They were greatly astounded and said
to one another, "Then who can be saved?" {27} Jesus looked at
them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God
all things are possible." {28} Peter began to say to him,
"Look, we have left everything and followed you." {29} Jesus
said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my
sake and for the sake of the good news, {30} who will not
receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters,
mothers and children, and fields with persecutions--and in the age to
come eternal life. {31} But many who are first will be last,
and the last will be first."
The whole Marcan reading is paralleled in
Matthew 19:16-30; verses 17-22, in Luke 18:18-25.
17. he was setting out on a journey: The purpose of the journey
is developed in verse 32; "They were on the road, going up to
Jerusalem…."
a man: Mathew says he was a young man (19:20); Luke identifies
him as a "ruler" (18:18). Mark says simply, "a man," and later
indicates that he had many possessions (verse 22).
Good Teacher: "In a limited good society, compliments indicate
aggression; they implicitly accuse a person of rising above the rest
of one’s fellows at their expense. Compliments conceal envy, not
unlike the evil eye. Jesus must fend off the aggressive accusation by
denying any special quality of the sort that might give offense to
others…. Here the counter question serves to ward off the unwitting
challenge, while the proverb "No one is good but God alone" (v. 18)
wards off the envy." [6]
19: The commandments that are those that deal with human
relationships.
you shall not defraud: This may be a form of the commandment
against stealing, or a reference to the commandments against coveting.
[7] Both Matthew
nor Luke omit it. Matthew adds, "You shall love your neighbor as
yourself" (Matthew 19:19), a reference to Jesus’ use of the … from
Leviticus 19:18 in Matthew 22:39.
21. Jesus…loved him: Only Mark includes this note. "Jesus loves
the rich young ruler with the love of God which summons men to the
very highest." [8]
sell what you own and give the money to the poor: "This is
contrary to rabbinic teaching, which states that a man should not give
away more than one fifth of his possessions during his lifetime lest
he become a public charge. It is true, however, that there were those
who, in a gesture of unusual charity, gave away all they had."
[9] In our society
this advice seems extreme. We have government institutions and
programs to care for the needs of the poor. Individuals to not
ordinarily interact directly with the poor. They pay their taxes and
give to the church and to other charities which in turn provide for
the needs of the poor. But in Jesus’ day there were not such agencies
to maintain a distance between the well-to-do and the destitute. Those
who were well off were blessed by God for the very purpose of
benefiting the poor. They rarely did so, and as a consequence were
thieves.
22. he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many
possessions: The man considers his wealth to be for his pleasure,
and so he is shocked by the suggestion that he should use it for the
needs of others.
23-24: Jesus reflects on the difficulty of the rich entering
heaven, when they will not use their wealth for the reason it was
given to them.
25. a camel…the eye of a needle: "The camel is the largest
animal in the Middle East, and the eye of a needle the smallest
opening. Eloquence, a male virtue in antiquity, involved the skill of
verbal exaggeration or hyperbole, which Jesus uses here with telling
effect."
26. They were greatly astounded: They were surprised to learn
that the rich do not have an inside track for divine patronage. [10]
27. For God all things are possible: A popular proverb.
28: Peter takes the opportunity to explore the possible rewards
for giving up everything to follow Jesus.
29-30: "With a word of honor [Truly I tell you] (v. 29) Jesus
insists that those who leave family and lands to become his followers,
or ‘for the sake of the good news,’ will truly become accepted members
of the family of God the patron-father. They will receive a
hundredfold ‘now in this age,’ including full participation in the
‘age to come,’ that is, participation in the new society, the new
family of the Patron God." [11]
31. many who are first will be last, and the last will be first:
Parallel in Matthew 19:30. See also Mark 9:35; Luke 13:20 and Matthew
20:16 for other uses of the maxim. "Compared with the present status
of the greedy rich, the status of those who follow Jesus marks a
reversal of rank, as the proverb in v. 31 indicates. Putting the first
last and the last first describes the public honoring and shaming of
those whose places were changed. Such behavior would be guaranteed to
cause violence, since it is outrageous. In an honor-shame culture
those who are socially first are considered to belong where they are
and this by God’s will. The same is true of those who are last."
[12] Among
Christians those places are reversed.
Reflection
What must I do
to inherit eternal life? If the question were can I inherit eternal
life by what I do, we would quickly answer, no. But the question James
asked still echoes in our ears. If a brother or sister is naked and
lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Have a nice day," and
yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of
that?
In the
lesson from Amos we find ourselves indicted for cheating and
oppressing the needy. Most of the time we do not do that by
deliberately conniving to defraud them. But, to the extent that we do
not strive to protect them and provide for them, we are guilty of
defrauding them. How? Why? Because nothing that we have is ours! It
all belongs to God. We are only the custodians and stewards of
whatever passes through our hands. If we use it for our comfort and
pleasure, and others suffer because of our selfishness, then we will
be judged to be wicked slaves, unworthy of the continued favor of God.
Wealth and the love of wealth is a danger to our relationship
with God. If a hand or foot or eye should be sacrificed for the sake
of eternal life, how much more willingly we should sacrifice the
wealth God has trusted us with to be used for his purposes. When we
seek to be recognized for who we are and what we have we are in danger
of losing everything. Only when we willingly give up everything we
have gotten for ourselves will we be able to receive the benefits God
has for us.
Hymns [13]
With One Voice (e.g. 762v), Hymnal Supplement
1991 (e.g. 725s) and LBW (e.g. 32).
E=Entrance; D=Hymn of the Day; I=First Lesson, P=Psalm;
II=Second Lesson; G=Gospel
776s --E--Word of God, (716v)
455 --D--"Come, Follow Me,"
720v --P--In the Presence
232 --II--Your Word, O
168 --II--Kyrie, God Father
|
739v --II--In All Our Grief
482 --G--When I Survey
344 --G--We Sing the
448, 460, 158, 395
|
Prayers of the People [14]
O God of time and mystery; we know
the feeling of Job when his senses said you were absent. We have felt
that absence too. But we also know that in Christ you have promised to
be with us always, not the way we want but the way you will. In all of
life help us to trust that you hold us, even in our weakness. Give us
the wisdom and strength to give up what we must in order to follow.
God who knows all hear our prayer.
Bless the children of our Church. Give them the
community of learning and experience that they need for this time and
space. Enable us to be open to the old and the new in addressing our
ministry to our children. Help us to give up what we must and take us
what you give in this strange and changing environment called daily
life. God who knows all...hear our prayer.
Or [15]
Presider or deacon
Let us offer prayers to God before whom all are naked and laid
bare.
Deacon or other leader
For N our bishop and N our presbyter, for this holy
gathering, and for the people of God in every place.
For mercy, justice, and peace among all peoples.
For good weather, abundant fruits of the earth and peaceful times.
For our city and those who live in it and for our families,
companions, and all those we love.
For all those in danger and need: the sick and the suffering, the poor
and the oppressed, the hungry and the homeless.
For the dying and the dead. For our deliverance from all affliction,
strife, and need.
Lifting our voices with all creation, let us offer ourselves and one
another to the living God through Christ.
To you, O Lord.
Presider
God whose Word is living and active, hear the prayers we offer this
day and help all peoples in their weakness to approach the throne of
grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Notes
[1] Shalom M.
Paul, Amos: A Commentary on the Book of Amos. Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1991, p. 175.
[2] Ibid., p. 178. Quoting W. Rudolph, Joel—Amos—Obadia—Jona
(KAT 23/2; Güttersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1971). p.
193.
[3] Han-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150: A Commentary.
Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989, p. 217.
[4] Ibid.,
p. 214.
[5] Harold W. Attridge, The
Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989, p. 133.
[6] Bruce Malina &
Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic
Gospels. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992, p. 244.
[7] Vincent Taylor, The Gospel
According to St. Mark, London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1955, p. 428.
[8] Ethelbert
Stauffer, agapao [love], Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament (ed. by Gerhard Kittle). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, I:48.
[9] Samuel Tobias
Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospels of
Matthew, Mark and Luke. KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1987, p. 331.
[10] Malina,
Loc. cit.
[11] Loc. cit.
[12] Ibid.,
pp. 245-246.
[13]
http://www.worship.on.ca/text/rclb9900.txt
[14]
http://www.worship.on.ca/text/pray_b2.txt
[15]
http://members.cox.net/oplater/prayer.htm |