Thirteen Sunday after Pentecost
Monday of Pentecost 13 – Prayer of the Week
O merciful Lord, You did not spare Your only Son but delivered Him up for us all. Grant us courage and strength to take up the cross and follow Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
We pray for courage and strength to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Courage and strength – cross bearing sounds like work! My neighbor has a business in which he trims trees. The large fir tree on the border of our two lots is his practice and training tree. Young men strap on various harnesses and soon are nimbly working around the canopy of that tree, over 30 or 40 feet off the ground. I am both terrified and impressed by their work.
I serve the nurses of the Concordia, St. Paul nursing program here in Portland. I regularly get to talk to them. Being married to a nurse, I know that nursing is hard work. But so is being a grocery checker or the guy who mows the lawn or the one collects the garbage. Many of us are engaged in jobs which are hard work.
All of us, however, need the courage and strength to follow Christ in the cross-bearing to which he calls us. I frankly do not have it of myself. I am grateful for the times people taught me to be brave, just as my neighbor teaches his new workers to climb that tree. I am glad for those whose presence has bolstered my courage, as the police officer surely did for my daughter when grown men were throwing punches outside the door of her workplace a few years ago. Through people, experiences, His Word, and perhaps even through these devotions, God is giving you the gifts of courage and strength. Bear your cross with Christ. It is the very salvation of the world.
Tuesday of Pentecost 13 – Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
I am a terrible golfer. I am not ashamed to admit it. I probably hit the links a couple times of year at most. I count it a good day if I only lose a couple of golf balls in a nine-hole outing. I am ashamed to tell you my last score. I was not long into my less than stellar golfing career when I was taught the meaning of the term “Mulligan.” It is effectively a “do-over.” I am not a scratch golfer. I am a mulligan golfer.
This text from Deuteronomy is perhaps the biggest biblical mulligan. The people of God had once come all the way to the edge of the promised land. They had sent in spies and prepared to invade, but the report of the spies scared them. They got cold feet. They turned back. God was not happy at that juncture. You can read about that in Numbers 14. God was ready to kill them all and start over with Moses. Moses talked God out of that option and so, at the end of Moses’ life, we find him here urging the Israelites not to turn away from God again. It is a question of life or death for them, even if they go into the promised land. Without God’s blessings, they will perish.
Seldom do the choices before us get stated in such stark terms. But shouldn’t they? Paul tells us that we have been raised from death to life (Eph. 2:1-10) and that we also face a similar choice between life in the spirit and the death of sin (Rom. 6:22-23). Dwelling in God’s kingdom, we are confronted daily by the kingdom of our enemy and invited to participate. It seems so easy, but it was not for the ancient Israelites, and it is not for us either. The Old Testament is a constant testimony to God’s patient love for a rebellious people. Yes, he visited judgement upon them in Exile, but he also brought them home again. In Christ Jesus he has forgiven all our sins and will still forgive them all tomorrow as well. But the choices you face today, the decisions we all make, are often the choices of life and death. Choose life.
Wednesday of Pentecost 13 – Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
The young man sat in his pastor’s office, and the two of them stared at each other for a while before either of them spoke. The fact that he and the pastor were there was a compromise, agreed to by the social worker and the prosecutor because the young man was cooperative. He had been in the pastor’s confirmation class not that many years before. They knew each other. The pastor liked him. He was a bright young man. His was a complicated family to say the least. And now a younger member of the family had levelled a serious charge against him, sexual abuse. The young man did not deny it.
Before the pastor lay a paper form provided by the prosecutor and the social worker from DFS. It was a series of interview questions which the Pastor had to ask, and the young man had to answer. Yes and no questions. Did you do this, did you do that. It was very specific. By the end of that brutal hour, the pastor knew exactly what had happened.
The prosecutor was a Christian man. He normally would not have agreed to this interview being conducted by anyone but an officer of the state, but the accused was cooperative and remorseful. The prosecutor knew that this young man needed something which would follow that difficult interview, something which only God could give. Afterwards, the young man and the pastor wept together. They spoke of what he had done. Of his need to seek the forgiveness of his family, including the people most affected. He would still have to face consequences. The young man realized that, even welcomed it as a means for him to answer for what he had done, but in that office that evening he wanted to know if God could love him still.
The last line of the psalm is a bit of a surprise. The LORD knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish. This young man desperately wanted to know if his wicked past would hang onto him forever. Surely in this life, it might have a tenacious grip on him. But there is more to life. In Christ, the wicked themselves do not perish. The wicked way perishes. It meets its righteous end in judgment and the wrath of God, but sinners, the wicked, are forgiven. Yes, God loves and forgives and the wicked way perishes to the delight of the forgiven sinner.
Thursday of Pentecost 13 – Philemon 1-21
1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. 7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.
Philemon is one of the shortest and most interesting books of the New Testament. This reading is almost the entirety of the letter. Paul writes it to save the life of a young, run-away slave. Onesimus had been helping Paul during his imprisonment. Ancient prisons did not provide the prisoner with clothing, food, or any of the necessities of life. That was the responsibility of the friends and family of the incarcerated. But Onesimus was a run-away slave who belonged to a Christian man living east of Ephesus, probably around Colossae. Apparently, Onesimus is going back to his old master. Philemon, the slave owner, would have been within his legal right to have Onesimus killed for running away, likely by crucifixion. Romans, who were terribly afraid of their slaves, saw such brutal punishments for run-away slaves as a deterrence, to keep the rest of them docile.
Paul writes this letter, which often comes across as manipulative to our ears, in order to save the man’s life. But I have always wondered why Onesimus returned. Did he go back because the Gospel had taken hold of him, and he realized that his act of running away was a crime for which he needed to make amends? Did Paul send him back? Why did the run-away return to his master when he knew it might mean his death?
It took great courage to walk up that road to his old master’s house. Did Onesimus think about turning aside and returning to his life on the run? Did he spend sleepless nights on the journey? Why did he go back? We do not know the answer to these questions, only that he did, and this letter was given to Philemon at that event. We are not even sure if the letter worked. But there is a very old tradition which I am inclined to believe. The third bishop of Ephesus on record is a fellow named Onesimus. Is it the same man? Perhaps. The tradition goes on to say that Onesimus is the one who collected Paul’s letters into a single book which was circulated, and which eventually became that part of the New Testament where we find the letters of Paul. The last letter in that collection, the shortest of them all, and the most personal, is this one. I can imagine it was precious to Onesimus. It has come to be precious to me too.
Friday of Pentecost 13 - Luke 14:25-35
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus speaks of the cost of discipleship today. It can be very expensive indeed. Some years ago I read an account of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped from Chibok in Nigeria. You might remember the story. Even Michele Obama tweeted “Bring our girls home” from the White House not long after the story broke. While some of the girls made accommodations with their Islamic captors, even marrying them, a stubborn band clung to their Christianity, often suffering violence as a result. They hid a bible, burying it under a stone during the day lest it be confiscated. One day their chief tormentor gave them a stark choice. On the paper he presented before them, they must write their name. In green if they were willing to convert to Islam and red if they clung to their faith. The consequences would be dire, he assured them, if they did not convert. He gave them several hours to make up their minds. Immediately, Naomi, one of the older girls walked up and scratched her name in red. She did not need time.
Eventually, many of the girls were freed. Over 100 remain unaccounted for. Naomi was one who was released. Ironically, it appears that the world-wide media-storm of attention to their plight prolonged their suffering. The terrorists realized that they had a valuable commodity on their hands. Closely watched by their captors, the girls would pray into a cup of water, only pretending to drink it. Thus, they sanctified the water, using it to sprinkle and heal their fellow captives who were in need.
Their story reminds us that Jesus is not kidding here. Naomi’s good friend would marry one of their captors in order to gain a release from the relentless pressure which had been applied to them. It is not an account with a storybook ending. The pictures of Naomi show a woman with steely resolve and a significant scar where she was hit with the butt of a rifle. But she has the right to teach me what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. I would sit and learn from her. She has counted the cost. Salt is good. She has not lost her saltiness.