Year C

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

A key motif of the book of Sirach is the role of adversity and trial both in forming character and revealing it, a notion expressed here through the image of pottery, which is both tested and strengthened in the fire of a kiln. It is only in being tested that our true character is revealed, which is why we should be careful to assess the character of others (and also of ourselves) before times of trial reveal it. Speech, too, reveals character. Those who are garrulous and imprudent in their speech run the risk of making their own faults manifest to others; one cannot speak for long without revealing who one really is and what one really thinks.

Paul has been arguing that because Christians bear the image of Christ, they will experience resurrection. This means that, although our current bodies will in fact die, death itself has no final hold on us. Christ has won victory over death and will give to each of us the fruits of that victory if only we will hold firm to faith in him, trusting that all we have taken on for the sake of Christ will not have been in vain. Thus Paul concludes his Letter to the Corinthians by assuring them that although the Christian life is difficult and requires much of us, the hope of final victory remains sure for those who endure in steadfast faith.

Jesus has been teaching that everyone must put aside their notions of how good they are and how bad others are, recognizing instead that everyone receives much more from God than they deserve. Jesus continues this lesson by pointing out that we are much better at recognizing others’ faults than our own, and that in fact we tend to be most blind to our most serious faults. We have to do the hard work of submitting to the teaching of Jesus and the mercy of God before we can presume to teach or correct others. Just as only a good tree can produce good fruit, only those who have allowed Jesus to fundamentally transform them have the true “goodness of heart” necessary to guide others.

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

Although Saul had been chosen by God to lead Israel, he is eventually rejected because of his disobedience. God replaces him with David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). The transfer of power is protracted, however, as Saul refuses to cede to David. In their struggle, David is shown to be both clever and righteous. Despite the fact that he has Saul in his power and can easily kill him, David refuses to do so, recognizing that despite everything Saul is in fact “the Lord’s anointed.” This is one of several scenes illustrating that David, for all his failings and sins, is nevertheless ultimately a man of “justice and faithfulness.”

Having affirmed for the Corinthians that the resurrection of Christ and eventually their own resurrections are real, Paul now turns to the peculiar nature of this resurrection, which involves simultaneously a restoration and a transformation of the “natural” body into a “spiritual” body, which is nevertheless a real “body.” Adam had a natural body and so all his descendants do as well. But Christians also bear the heavenly or spiritual image of Christ, the new Adam. Thus, while we now possess merely natural bodies, we have within us the image of the heavenly Adam, and this image is the “seed,” so to speak, and assurance of the spiritual body we will possess one day.

In his teaching on “doing to others as you would have them do to you,” Jesus challenges his listeners not only to reimagine their response to unreasonable demands, but also (and especially) to reimagine their own self-images. The logic of his teaching demands that they place themselves in the place of those who make such demands, which begins to erode any notion of moral superiority. He pursues this line of thought by pointing out that very often we are only generous with others when we can expect something in return. Our own generosity is often, perhaps rarely, as selfless as we might think. This in turn challenges our comfort in judging others. The ultimate point is that in the end, we are all more or less undeserving of God’s mercy or forgiveness, and yet we all receive it.

Dec 10 2024

Looking Your Enemy in the Eye

I will never forget the child-soldier stories from moral theology class. Our professor had worked with children in Uganda. He talked about how the Ugandan Resistance Army (LRA) would intentionally malform the conscience of their eight-year-old abductees. They made them sit on the bodies of their dead parents. Their friends were shot in front of them. When they trained the new boys to kill, most importantly they told them, “Do not look your enemy in the eye.”

You and I might not live in the horrible world of a Ugandan child soldier. Our enemies might not be so obvious. But what happens to our conscience if we do not look our enemy in the eye? They become inconsequential, of no importance. We can justify doing anything to them.

In today’s story of David and Saul, the young shepherd wrestles with his conscience. He’s got the king in his grasp. Saul has been horrible to him, hunted him down as an enemy. Now, David has the chance to kill him. But he doesn’t. The key line of the story is actually the line that comes after today’s reading ends. David says, “I regarded your life as precious today.” He sees Saul’s value through God’s eyes. He cannot kill him.

Twice in today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Why? Because the Most High is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” God looks the most wayward in the eye and sees his/her value.

God looks at you and me as precious. God has looked us in the eye and seen our worth. No matter how far we fall short, we are loved. That is the mercy that we have received. That is the mercy that Jesus asks us to extend: Look your enemy in the eye; see their value and do good to them.

Is that easy? No. Is it right? Yes.

Consider/Discuss

Experts in conscience formation tell us that there are five (or more) ways to harden a conscience: excuse, justify, rationalize, avoid, and blame. On our own power, we cannot see our enemies charitably. We are tempted to lessen their value as a human being. How can we permit the Holy Spirit to soften our conscience today so that we see our enemy’s value through God’s eyes and not our own?
Today’s psalmist says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits . . . [He] redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with kindness and compassion.” We can best extend kindness and compassion when we have reflected on the kindness and compassion shown to us. In this upcoming week, look back upon your life and write down the many kindnesses that God has shown to you. From what “destruction” has God redeemed your life?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, how can we be kind to the ungrateful? That’s a lot to ask! It is so much easier to love the child who draws us hearts, the aunt who bakes us pie, the student who smiles and nods, the co-worker who has our back in tough situations. Those others? Ha! We’d like to write them off. They are worthless and never helpful. What’s that? You see things differently? Aargh . . . Okay. Help us to see them as you see them. Change my heart, Lord! Help me to start today, by your grace to take one little step toward loving my enemy. Only in you can it be done. Oh, please, help!

Dec 10 2024

Only God Lasts Forever

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew gives us the sayings about who is blessed: the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc. Today we get Luke’s version, the Sermon on the Plain, where Jesus adds, “Woe . . . woe . . . woe . . . woe . . . .”

Why does Jesus use the word “woe” more than anyone in the Bible? I had to go look that up. The Greek term for “woe” is an interjection of grief. It sounds like this: ooo-AH-ee: it’s kind of like a moan, a noise that you make when you are in sorrow or distress. My great-grandmother might have moaned “woe” or “alas.” But nowadays? What word do we have? Maybe a deep gut-wrenching “Whoa”? Or “Oh my gosh!” Or “Oh no!” (or less-printable things). Woe is not an expression of condemnation. Jesus is grieving for those who trust in things that don’t last. Those who are full will be hungry again. Those who are well thought of, well, their reputation could crash.

Jesus knows that anything can happen. Woe is not just for “those folks.” A tree can fall on your swing set in the night. A neighbor who was robustly healthy dies suddenly on Tuesday. A friend who is eight months pregnant loses her baby. You’ve seen it. Life is tenuous. We travel a world of woe. Sometimes we mess up. Sometimes it just comes upon us. “Woe” happens.

If this life is all there is, St. Paul tells us today, then we are the greatest of fools, the most pitiable of people. We believe there is more, an eternity that matters.

Things don’t last. God does. That’s what we can rely on. Jesus knows our struggles to trust through the trials and the blessings of life. He moans in grief for us: ooo-AH-ee. Maybe we should take up that cry, too?

Consider/Discuss

It is the middle of February, starvation season in many agrarian cultures, funeral season in many churches. This is a difficult time to hear of “woe.” Yet Jeremiah and the psalmist tell us to plant ourselves securely, like trees by running water, the water of God. How can you plant yourself in the waters of God in your current life situation?
In Greek it is ooo-AH-ee. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent word that we all use in English. What word or expression do you use to release gut-churning unhappiness? What do you say?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you moan over the sorrows in our world. We moan, too. There is a time for everything—a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to live and a time to die. You know the vagaries of life. Help us not to grieve you.

In the middle of winter’s barrenness, we rejoice that you have overcome the woes and the difficulties. You have given us your resurrection. Death and pain are not the final answer! Help us to trust in that. Come, Holy Comforter, and groan within us. Then bring us your peace.

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

This oracle from Jeremiah draws on wisdom motifs to warn the people about relying on foreign powers protect them from external enemies. A contrast is drawn between those who act foolishly (who are “cursed”) and those who act wisely (who are “blessed”). Those who act foolishly follow the ways of the world, relying on political and military alliances, for example, to see them through difficult times, rather than turning first to their God. For Jeremiah, this is manifest infidelity to the covenant relationship, the result of which is never good. On the other hand, those who see first to their relationship with God can be assured that all they need to survive and thrive will be theirs, if only they will trust.

Paul has reminded the Corinthians that Christ was raised from the dead. Nevertheless, it appears that at least some of them do not even believe in the resurrection of the dead. Somehow, they become Christians without accepting this indispensable feature of Christian faith. Paul points out to them that if there is no such thing as resurrection, then Jesus was not raised from the dead, rendering everything about their Christian faith pointless. Because their sins have not been forgiven, and they have no hope for life with God after this life, they are the most misguided and “pitiable” people imaginable. The foundation of the entire Christian life is the resurrection of Christ, without which none of it stands or even makes sense.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus draws on traditional wisdom forms to teach what makes one “blessed” and what doesn’t. Blessedness is traditionally seen in prosperity, comfort, and good social relations. Jesus does not deny this, but he insists that the seeds of such blessedness mysteriously lie in their opposites for those who are faithful to God (as were the prophets). Thus, those who suffer now in faith are in fact already blessed. On the other hand, those who are now comfortable and prosperous are in spiritual danger, because their current “blessedness” is deceptive, carrying as it does the seeds of destruction if it is allowed to impede or divert from living within the will of God.