Monthly Archives: September 2015

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on September 24, 2015
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Here Comes the Judge — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

image September 24, 2015

“Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might. Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. Selah

But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life. He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them. With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.” Psalm 54:1-7

“Perhaps you’ve heard the old (saying), “Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh” (or something like that).  If making plans of our own (presumably in the face of God’s plans for us) is laughable, how about issuing commands to God, telling God the Divine’s own business in no uncertain terms? Who would dare to give God orders? Yet this is, in a sense, exactly what Psalm 54 does.

Our psalm begins with a four-fold plea: “save me…hear [me]…give ear [to me].” Each of these pleas — actually imperative verbs — and a fourth “vindicate me” (which in terms of tense is imperfect but in context clearly works like an imperative) quite literally command God’s attention, response, and action. These imperative clauses that form the introduction to the psalm demand God’s attention. And while some Hebrew language grammarians might call this particular use of the imperative a “jussive,” that is really just a delicate way of labeling the act of giving orders to someone who out-ranks you.

The most important technical term used in the psalm comes towards the beginning of the psalm however, in verse 2. And this is also probably the most innocuous of the worship related terms in the psalm, at least at first blush: the psalmist offers a “prayer.” The psalmist calls his appeal a “prayer.” There are several different terms in the Old Testament for “prayer,” but the Hebrew word used here is by far the most common. What may be telling is that this word is probably related to the word which means “judge” (cf. Exodus 21:22). In a sense, then, prayer is in-and-of-itself an appeal to God as judge. The psalmist directs his speech (an appealing or intercessory prayer) to God the Judge, who will speak in response to the false accusations of the psalmist’s enemies, these “insolent” and “ruthless” ones who have risen against him. “  Karl Jacobson, September 23, 2012 Commentary on Psalm 54 (Working Preacher Blog)

Does it hurt too much to see G*d as the judge of your life? Why do I ask that question? Well, it seems to me that so many people do not like being judged in any capacity, manner or form. How often do I have to hear someone say “Don’t judge me”? Here are some scriptural statements on judging:

Matthew 7:1-5 ESV
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Luke 6:37 ESV
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”

Sounds like we are told not to judge – though we are called to rebuke. But we are also told to expect that when we do judge, we need to expect the same judgment. I was watching the news the other night when the story about the web site “Ashley Maddison” came up for discussion. This is a website for married people who want to meet other married people for the purpose of having an affair. Someone had “hacked” into the website and threatened to release the names and email addresses of people who use this despicable site if the website did not close down. It was mentioned by one of the news anchors that it would only be a short time until someone who is well known would be “outed” for using this site. And sure enough, in just two days, one of the Duggar boys from the reality TV show was outed as a member of this site. He was quoted as saying “I have been the biggest hypocrite.” He said this because he has been an outspoken advocate for “family values”.

Before we judge others and look for specks in their eyes, we better make sure we have no logs blinding our own judgment. The original meaning of the word “hypocrite” was “an actor on stage who plays a role”. In other words, the hypocrites in the vernacular of Jesus were those (like the religious leaders) who presented themselves in one manner, but actually lived in another manner — like the Duggar boy.

What we must decide is this: Are we acting like a Christian, or are we actually living like a Christian? Do we have room to judge others, or should we be constantly discerning how we are living out the Gospel?

Pastor Dave

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on September 23, 2015
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But a Wisp of Smoke — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

image

September 23, 2015

“For we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,
for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;
when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
Our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.
For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
and their departure was thought to be an affliction,
and their going from us to be their destruction;
but they are at peace.
For though in the sight of men they were punished,
their hope is full of immortality.
Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;
like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.
In the time of their visitation they will shine forth,
and will run like sparks through the stubble.
They will govern nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord will reign over them for ever.
Those who trust in him will understand truth,
and the faithful will abide with him in love,
because grace and mercy are upon his elect,
and he watches over his holy ones.
Wisdom of Solomon 2:2-5; 3:1-9

“Not all readers of Scripture notice that the concept of life after death develops throughout Scripture and isn’t implicit in the earlier texts. Where people are after death according to the Old Testament is a topic of some complexity, but certainly they aren’t offered immortal life with God, nor is there a firm concept of resurrection. Until Wisdom that is.

Wisdom starts out with the older view, “No one has been known to return from Hades” (2:1). But by chapter three, “the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God… their hope is full of immortality” (3:1, 4). A Sunday sitting with these texts from Wisdom, then, is an opportunity to clarify what Christians mean in their confession of “the resurrection of the dead” as it compares to soul sleep, Hades, Platonic immortality, and all the other various promises out there relative to life after life after death.

All of that being said, there is really just one reason why the lectionary compilers selected this text. It compares the unrighteous, who summoned death (1:16), to the righteous one who overcomes death (2:12-22). This is a Jesus text before there was a Jesus. It sounds like a Hellenistic version of Isaiah. “He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord” (2:13).

For the Protestant Church, the book “Wisdom of Solomon” is an apocryphal, non-canonical book, and thus is not Biblical “scripture”, though still of spiritual value. It is one of the seven “Sapiential” or wisdom books included with the Septuagint, along with Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), and Sirach. Therefore, those of us raised in the Protestant Church are less familiar with this book than our “Roman Catholic” brothers and sisters. But it is still important, and the scripture we read today is one of the reasons why it is important.

It reads in part: “The breath in our nostrils is smoke. Our name will be forgotten in time, and no one will remember our works; our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud, and be scattered like mist”. In other words, we live for just a short time, and then we are gone. It is as the blink of an eye. But though our lives are “but a wisp of smoke”, we are still of value to G*d — who raises Jesus so that we are not forgotten — but live into eternity. And this understanding of “eternal life” comes from a non-canonical book — one that, though not determined by the “Church Fathers” to be worthy of the Protestant bible, reminds us that the redemptive work of Christ was known in the Book of Wisdom. There may be good reason for us Protestants to open the Apocrypha and the teachings found therein.

Pastor Dave