Year A

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

The early chapters of Genesis display the repercussions of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, passed on as an inclination to sin. In the call of Abram we see the beginning of a long-term divine plan to deal with the problem of the human heart. In the promise that initiates the relationship that will eventually lead to the creation of God’s covenant partner, Israel, God assures Abram not only of descendants and land, but also that “all the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” It is through Israel that God will bring all humanity back into that harmonious relationship with God they originally enjoyed in the Garden.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul reminds the young man that he has received a gift from God that must be “stirred into flame” (2 Timothy 1:6). Timothy has received a commission to teach the Christian message in its integrity. This task will bring hardship, yet Timothy is to take heart and be strong; like all Christians, he has been saved and called by Christ to a holy life. This is not the result of anything Timothy has done, but is purely through the design and call of God. The “life and immortality” that Christ brings is a pure gift, but it calls for a response: a holy life that manifests the “light” of the gospel that Timothy is called to proclaim.

On a mountain called Sinai (or Horeb), God appeared to Moses, the people of Israel met their Deliverer, and Elijah encountered God in silence. It is fitting, then, that the divine sonship of Christ, just confessed by Peter (16:16), should now be confirmed on a mountain. The Transfiguration of Jesus reveals not only his identity and authority as God’s beloved Son, and as the fulfillment of the law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah), but also a hint of his post-resurrection glory. Since the truth revealed on the mountain can only be understood and accepted in light of that future event, the disciples are ordered not to speak of it for the time being.

Jan 08 2025

Called to Be True

In the fourth century A.D., Christianity became legal and then mandatory. To “follow Jesus” grew to be a soft way of life. Anybody and everybody could (and then should) be a Christian. Within one lifetime, the faith that had required its followers to be willing to be torn apart by lions now became “good for business.” What happened as a result? Men and women, turned off to a tamed Christianity, flocked to the Egyptian desert. In the desert, they shed the “fat” of mainstream acceptance. They strove to be pure and obedient and true in their faith. Desert monasticism flourished.

Jesus also was led into the desert. The Judean desert is stark. No trees offer shade. The sun beats down mercilessly. Ninety-five degrees is a cool day in May. For forty days, Jesus’ hunger intensified. If he had any fat on his body, it shriveled up. Three times he was tempted to take the easier path. Three times he stayed true to his mission and to his God: I will love the Lord alone!

Adam and Eve didn’t think that they needed to do what God told them. When found out, they tried to evade the One who sought them in love, like a guilty toddler hiding behind the couch crying out, “Don’t look at me!” They squirmed away from right and wrong.

As you and I move into this season of Lent, what does it mean for us to be true to God? The world around us may tempt us to be soft: lies and posturing and deceit proliferate in our culture and even in our Church. Lent is the season to grow more holy, our time to go to the desert. This is our ascetic season. This is our opportunity to strip away the fat that weighs down our spiritual and moral life.

Consider/Discuss

King David is called to truth by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 11—13). He cries out, “O God, create a pure heart in me. Give me a new and steadfast spirit!” What does it mean to you to be true? What tempts you to take a “softer” path?
As we come before God in prayer, is there some part within us that wants to hide behind the couch and not be seen?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, sometimes we squirm away from obedience. You call us to look you straight in the eye and remain steadfast in following you, no matter the cost. But sometimes it is more comfortable to go the softer way. When we are tempted to disregard what our conscience tells us is right, fill us with the strength to stand fast. As we enter into this Lenten season, strip away the fat that encases our spiritual and moral life. Give us the grace to follow you more purely.

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

The Genesis reading relates how an original intimacy between humans and God was damaged by distrust. The serpent’s question to the woman implies that God has placed an unreasonable limitation on the couple. Although Eve does not take the bait, she does note that God said they would die if they ate from the tree. Knowing that they will not physically die, the serpent tells a half-truth, suggesting that God does not have their best interest at heart. But once the couple has eaten of the tree, they do experience death in the form of estrangement from God, the source of life. Exile from the Garden, where God and the tree of life reside, symbolizes this rupture of the divine-human relationship, the devastating consequences of sin.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul articulates the problem to which Christ is the solution—human captivity to sin. He develops this theme by drawing a contrast between the actions of Adam and their consequences and those of Christ. Adam’s disobedience brought judgment and death, not only for himself but for all his descendants, such that “death reigned” in the world. Christ’s obedience reversed all of this: sinners are made righteous, the condemned are “acquitted,” and the reign of death comes to an end. Through the “abundance of grace,” a sheer gift of God, the acquitted now “reign in life” through Christ.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus, who represents all of Israel (2:15), recapitulates and perfects Israel’s history with God. Now Jesus is led into the wilderness and tested, as Israel was after the Exodus. Whereas in the desert Israel lacked trust and was unfaithful to God, Jesus resists the temptation to use his powers for his own needs, to put God to the test, or to worship anyone other than God. The rest of the Gospel will show Jesus, as Son of God, serving others rather than himself and, even to the Cross, trusting and remaining faithful to the Father.

Jan 08 2025

Be Holy as the Lord Is Holy

When I taught high school theology, on the first day of the semester, I had a student proudly walk into my sophomore morality class with a colorfully decorated binder. She showed off to me her cover picture of Moses holding two stone tablets. On the tablets was written, “The Ten Suggestions.” She grinned at me as only a teenager can, whimsically testing, as if to ask, “What do you, teacher, think about my cleverness in re-casting the Ten Commandments?” with a shrug of the shoulder of “Who do you think you are to tell me what I should do?” Having lived with teenagers at my house for the previous twenty years, I just nodded and smiled. It was going to be an interesting semester.

In the world in which we live, what are we to do with ethical laws and commandments? Are they just “suggestions”? Are there any absolutes? Is anything always wrong? Is anything always right? Is there anyone to Whom we are accountable? Is there really a test at the end of life, or is God such a “nice guy” that no one goes to hell? Who is in charge anyway?

My fifteen-year-old student presumed a world that was kind and benevolent. She may never have experienced killing and war and infidelity and betrayal. Her parents were probably good people. Her friends may have been, too. If that were the case, then why did we need the ten “ethical suggestions”? Our access to God comes through Jesus and does not rely on our perfection, right?

Right, but the flourishing of life certainly does. Forming the heart to love and be generous and prayerful and forgiving—this bears fruit, fruit that lasts, in relationships that are solid and enduring. A holy life is a life worth living.

Consider/Discuss

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out clear principles for holy living, commanding us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Similarly, the Levitical holiness code reveals how to be holy as God is holy. What does holiness look like in your life? Why does it matter to you?
Does someone you love dismiss ethical laws as though they were just “suggestions”? What life stories could you tell to respond to that person?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, sometimes, we throw up our hands at what is happening in our world. There are so many things that we cannot control. Help us to make an impact in the small world in which we live, by living lives of holiness and goodness and prayer. With your grace, please help us. And bless all those who do not believe in you or follow you, for you send blessings on the just and the unjust. We entrust all of that to you—it is not ours, but yours. Thank you for taking this world and carrying it for us.

Jan 08 2025

Scripture Study for

Much of Leviticus focuses on God’s formative intentions for Israel by repeating often the phrase, “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” These words punctuate a section of ethical and cultic laws scholars call the Holiness Code (chapters 17–26). The command put forward in the reading this week is exemplary of the ethical commands, and it highlights that these commands are meant to form one’s “heart.” One is not to hate even secretly, or to “cherish” a grudge. Instead, Israelites are called to love one another as much as they love themselves. Thus, they will become as holy as their God.

Paul comes back to an earlier concern, which is the divisions among the Corinthians (1:10–17), the fruit of “the wisdom of this world.” Paul, Apollos, and Cephas (Peter) are not leaders of factions, but coworkers and instruments of God’s construction of a temple, the Corinthians as a whole (the “you” here is plural). Divisions form when one considers oneself part of an “in-group” and derives self

worth from that membership (“boasting about human beings”). Paul reminds the Corinthians that their worth comes not from “belonging” to human beings, but to Christ, who himself belongs to God. By virtue of this fact, everything belongs to them. So they can stop trying to gain their worth through posturing and division.

Jesus has been instructing his disciples how the Law is intended to form a certain kind of person. Now he turns to the theme of retaliation. The ancient lex talionis is meant to limit vengeance (Exodus 21:23–24; Leviticus 24:19–20). Jesus deepens this point by commanding his followers to reject vengeance altogether, and further, to respond to demands with generosity. Jesus’ command to love enemies is founded on the observable fact that God also shows kindness to the unjust and the bad (who might be considered God’s “enemies”). Just as Israel was commanded to be holy as God is holy, so Jesus’ followers are commanded to be “perfect” as God is perfect.