Encore Post: [Eighth in a series of posts on how to read the Bible] Anachronism is taking any historical custom, person, object, or event into a time period other than its own. The Biblical narratives exist in time. (Narratives are those passages that relay specific events as a narrated story). They are to be heard and read from within their contextual window.
There was a common refrain around twenty years ago: What Would Jesus Do? The notion was that Jesus, as revealed in the scriptures, could be used as a moral guide to aid your decision-making process. If you would just imagine Jesus in your situation, the correct answer would become clear.
The anachronistic fallacy here is that Jesus does not walk the earth in my time. By trying to drag Him here into my situation, I’m ignoring the teachings in their context. And, I’m about to put my words into Jesus’ mouth somehow to sanctify my choices into biblical truth.
Let’s try another fitment. “Jesus was a socialist, distributist, capitalist, or anarchist.” Jesus lived 1800 years before most of the codified economic systems we know developed. His experience with taxes, market forces, production, and consumption looked far different from our own. The application we should pull from “render unto Caesar” is simply: be a faithful Christian first and the best citizen, resident, or alien you can be second. Anything further pulls Jesus into our temporal context.
For a more timely application that will likely age poorly, would Jesus wear a mask? He came healing the sick. So, surely, that means that he would wear a mask. Again, our specific time and concerns applied to Jesus. We couldn’t discern the answer to that question.
This one dials in more tightly upon the problem with that question. It’s not a good question. Jesus came healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, casting out demons, and forgiving sin as signs of what was to come. These signs demonstrate the fullness of God in human flesh subsisting. Jesus healed, recreated, forgave, and even raised dead to life again to teach what His death meant. Jesus died to forgive the sins of the world. All the brokenness and other evidence of the corruption of sin will fade away in the blinking of an eye at the resurrection of all flesh. His life and ministry testify to that. Who cares what political system, hand sanitizer, or chicken sandwich he may or may not have preferred?
Dear Baptized, let us abandon anachronism and bless the Lord of time and eternity! Thanks be to God!
[Seventh in a series of posts on how to read the Bible] Encore Post: The Bible, it’s stories, phrases, poetry and images are so woven into our culture we don’t even notice it. Even more so, it is a part of our worship, prayers and teaching that it is a natural part of our faith. So it is easy to forget that God’s word was not originally spoken and written in English, but in two or three eras of the Hebrew language, Aramaic, and the everyday Greek of the Roman empire. The King James Version was so well done that it had a staying power of nearly 500 years and influences all of our modern translations. Yet even it loses some of the meaning moving across languages, culture and time period. That is why Lutheran pastors have been traditionally taught to read the Hebrew and Greek of the original texts.
One way to see that is to try to translate from English to English. Think of the word “Excellent.” What word would you use in its place if you could not use the word “Excellent?” Does the word you picked mean exactly “excellent?” Not really. Some shades of meaning are lost — like when you see a picture in black-and-white instead of color.
So, when you are trying to understand a passage, consider the original language. If you never learned them, there are tools you can use to get at the original. With the advice of your pastor, select two to four different translations for your study. Pick ones that are somewhat different in approach. When you study, read them together. If they say virtually the same thing, you know the original is not difficult to translate. If they are very different, check the notes of a study Bible or ask your pastor what is going on behind the translations.
Encore Post: With the celebration of the Sunday of the Holy Trinity, the liturgy of the church switches themes. From Advent to Pentecost, the focus of all the lessons in all lectionaries focus on the earthly ministry of Jesus. With Holy Trinity, we consider what this means for our life and the life of the Church. The color of all our paraments and vestments is green to reflect growth in our faith in Christ. Together with the Season of Epiphany, Pentecost/Trinity Season is called Ordinary Time.
These Sundays are not called ordinary because there is something routine about them. It comes from the fact that each week in the season is numbered rather than named. It is the tradition of the church that each Sunday between Advent and Pentecost has a unique Latin name. You may have seen these in bulletins. The weeks of ordinary time, however, are numbered by the weeks after Epiphany, Pentecost or Trinity.
There are so many Sundays after Pentecost or Trinity that most lectionaries change the themes twice or more. Most make these changes at the celebration of St. Lawrence Day and the celebration of St. Michael and All Angels (Michaelmas) If your church uses Graduals between the Old Testament and New Testament lessons and/or a thematic alleluia verse, you will notice the shift. The Gradual and the alleluia verse changes.
In some American Lutheran churches, another feature of the liturgy in ordinary time is there is a shorter preface. The preface is the prayer of praise said by the pastor before the Sanctus. In these churches, the pastor goes directly from “that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto You O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God …” to “therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying…” In the first half of the church year and on special days, they add a proper preface to it, related to the day itself.
Encore Post: The feast of Pentecost was one of the celebrations established by God at Mount Sinai. Also called the Feast of Weeks, it was a kind of Thanksgiving in which people brought a sacrifice for the harvest of grain. It was fifty days after Passover and also known by the Greek word for fifty days — Pentecost. Since many Jews and Godfearers traveled to Jerusalem from great distances to be there for Passover, many stayed for this feast as well.
On Pentecost, the wind got the attention of the crowd. Wind and tongues of fire witnessed to the presence of the Holy Spirit. God kept his promise on that day when he gave himself — the third person of the Trinity — to the whole Church. No longer would the Holy Spirit come to just prophets, but to all believers, young and old, Jew and Gentile, of all nations and languages. They all spoke in the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem, singing the praises of God. The church celebrates this day as a kind of birthday. It was that day the gospel began to spread to the ends of the earth.
Both the Hebrew and Greek words for Spirit mean “Wind.” The Holy Spirit hovered over the chaos before God created the Heavens and the Earth. When Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit settled into the Holy of Holies in the form of a cloud. When the Prophet Elijah fled to Mount Sinai, God sent a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a fire to get his attention. At the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove.
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament (Joel 2:28-32), by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:11) and by Jesus (Acts 1:5). By baptizing His people with the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave them the power to witness to God’s love. He provided them with a counselor to lead and guide them. Just like the prophets of the Old Testament, every one of God’s children now can proclaim His praises to everyone.
Campus Ministry Night Joel 2:12-19 October 9, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme is this: Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love!
Tonight’s reading is the most famous passage in the book of Joel. What we heard tonight is the Old Testament reading for Ash Wednesday, and the passage that follows these words is the Old Testament reading for the Feast of Pentecost. These are some of our most cherished days in the life of the Church.
But there’s more! Every year during the season of Lent, we sing the passage that we just heard tonight; we sing it at the announcement of the Gospel reading each week. And that song is our theme for today: Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
What I learned this week about the prophet Joel, I pass on you, dear people of God. Joel is unlike the other prophets because he speaks so broadly. The other prophets deal with specific sins and with specific kings and with specific tragedies that the nation faces. But on the other hand, Joel speaks to everybody. The prophet Joel speaks to you.
As I prepared for this text, I noticed that there are five verbs that define Joel’s message. The five verbs are these: RETURN, RELENT, WORSHIP, SPARE, AND SEND. It’s actually pretty easy to memorize because the first two words start with “r.” And the last two words start with “s.” And right in the middle is the word we all know, “Worship.”
And I think that this passage in Joel is so famous because it expresses to us our lives in this world as Christians. The first thing that we must do is RETURN! Our text declares, “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” There are any number of reasons that people leave the church, and there are any number of reasons that we forsake our God. But here it is clear: Joel calls us to return to the Lord with all of our heart.
No, God does not want robots, followers that obey at all times. Actually our God wants us to love Him. Our God wants us to return home to the church. Our God wants us to return completely. Fasting can sometimes help us to refocus on our Lord. Certainly, weeping and mourning are common experiences in our human lives that often cause us to seek out Jesus. Finally, the last phrase is one of the best known: Rend your hearts and not your garments. The Lord does not want nakedness for its own sake. The Lord really wants repentance and faith.
As it says in the passage for our theme this evening, Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Dear people of God, we do not return to a hateful God. We do not return to a God who kills us. When we return to the Lord, He is gracious and merciful. When we return to the Lord, He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
That is our God. And He is our God who relents over disaster. That brings us to the second verb of our text tonight: RELENT! Joel declares to us these words, Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? These are magnificent words. Have we not seen it with our own eyes that God relents? Consider Noah, that when God destroyed the whole earth, He kept Noah alive.
Consider the slaves in Egypt, that after 400 hundred years, the Lord delivered His people out of certain destruction. Consider Nineveh, a city that did not deserve God’s mercy, and yet the Lord relented and did not destroy that city. Consider Jesus, that God relented and sent His own Son to give grace and to forgive sins and to save souls by His death on the cross.
This is why Joel calls us all to worship the gracious and merciful Lord. The next verb in our reading tonight is WORSHIP! Isn’t this the natural response in our Christian lives? We returned, and by God’s grace, God relented and did not punish us. Now it is time to acknowledge the Lord and to believe in Him. What I love about this passage is that when the people of Israel worship, they ALL worship. Listen to the detail of the procession of people who worship our Lord. Joel says, Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. While we usually think of repentance in a personal way, Joel shows to us what repentance of an entire congregation looks like. Usually we focus on our own hearts and souls and what God has done for “me,” but here are words that remind us that the whole congregation returns and the God relents from disaster for all the people in the Church. We all gather together and worship the Lord.
And at that service, the priests preach, SPARE! What better sermon can we imagine than a “spare us O Lord!” sermon? Joel has moved us from Law to Gospel, then to worship and to preaching. Consider and imagine what a moment this was for God’s people. Joel writes, Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. When the preachers preach the fervent prayer of the people, that is much greater than torn clothes. When the preacher preach the fervent faith of God’s people, that is much better than a burnt offering.
This is our life as Christians. That the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His gifts, and sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith. This is the beauty of our faith that day by day we return and repent. And that God loves us dearly. That the Lord relented and that He Himself delivered us from all the evils in this world. What Joel has preached we have heard and believed this evening.
What then is the final verb of our text? SEND! It is most common throughout the Scriptures that our hearts are changed completely and that we fervently follow the Lord. And it is just as common that the Lord sends us blessings that we do not deserve because He loves us. Consider these words from Joel’s passage this evening, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.” What a Lord that we have! For the Christian life is never easy, and many times we have to start over believing in God and living for Him. But on the journey God will provide for us all that we need to support this body and life.
Why? That’s simple. Our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. So as often as we sing this in the liturgy, and as often as we worship in this sanctuary, and as often as we return to this Lord, let us remember who our God is and how He has changed our hearts to the fervent faith that we have because of His grace and mercy.
[Sixth in a series of posts on how to read the Bible] Encore Post: For sale: Three Bedroom home, Two Bathrooms, Ranch, $78,000 — or is that $150,000 — or is that $250,000? What is the difference? One is in Fort Wayne, Indiana, another in St. Louis, Missouri and the third in Peekskill, New York. In Real Estate, the price of a home is mostly set by location, location, location.
In literature, the meaning of a word or phrase depends upon the words around it, what kind of writing it is found in, and many other factors. To know what the author means depends very much on what else he or she has to say.
The same rule applies to understanding a verse in the Bible. For example, someone about to eat too much food might claim: “God said, “eat and drink.” (1 Corinthians 15:32)” But when we know the passage ends, “for tomorrow we die,” the passage doesn’t seem so positive about overeating! Obviously, this Bible passage doesn’t intend to recommend eating everything you can. It is quoting a pagan philosopher.
And there is even more to the passage. It begins: “If the dead are not raised . . .” Since even that is written in 1 Corinthians 15, when Paul argues the dead are indeed raised. In its context, then, the passage means the opposite of what it seems to say. The rule about context means that you should read more than just one verse. It will tell you what the words actually mean.
Reading more than just a passage quoted to you often bears rich rewards, even when it doesn’t change what you thought the words mean. For example, Lutherans like Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” But try verse 10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Not only does God give us salvation as a gift of his grace, but he views us as his masterpiece and sets things up in our lives so that we will do good works!
So, when you want to know what a Bible passage means, read more than just a quote. Read the words around it as well.
[Fifth in a series of posts on how to read the Bible]Encore Post: In the Middle Ages, the most popular way of understanding a Bible passage was to look for four meanings in the text — the one that author intended for his readers to find there and other, “deeper” meanings. The problem Martin Luther and the Lutheran reformers found with this method is it allowed a person to find anything they wish in the Bible. So they insisted a principle summed up in the sentence: sensus literalis unus est — “there is one intended meaning [in each passage].”
What they observed is that God used human beings, using human language to speak to his people. To understand what God wants us to believe, then we find that original message, paying attention to the words, sentences, paragraphs, grammar and figures of speech the author uses. We look at the kind of literature it is (is it intended as history? Poetry? Is it a letter? A sermon? What were the customs of that time and place?) Most of the time we do this out of habit. When we do serious study of a passage, however, a good study Bible is very helpful with these efforts.
When most Christians talk about interpreting the Bible literally, they do not mean that we should always take it at face value. It means to understand it according to the words — what the author intended it to say to his readers. So, no one thinks that, when Isaiah said, “the trees clapped their hands” (Isaiah 55:12) that cedars grew limbs to clap. They understand it to be poetry to describe how they move in the wind. When we read the Bible, then, we understand what it says as normal speech when the book it is written in is a letter or a history. We understand it figuratively when the kind of literature it is poetry, parable or similar kinds of writing.
So, this rule tells us to work to find the meaning the author intended to send. It is that message that God wants us to hear and believe. We assume that the passage has only one of these meanings, unless the text tells us otherwise.
[Fourth in a series of posts on how to read the Bible] Encore Post: Many beloved passages in the Bible are as clear as mountain streams fed by melting snow. “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” (Genesis 1:1). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son (John 3:16). “God is Love.” (1 John 4:8) These and dozens like them are so clear, we teach them to small children. Yet others are not so clear. Some, like the detailed laws God gave to Israel, we suspect that God no longer wants us to observe. Others don’t seem to make sense to us at all. How can we be sure what they mean for us?
The answer is actually a part of Rule #1: since the Bible is God’s word, we can use one passage to explain others. We can be sure of the interpretation we discover this way, because the words we are using are God’s own words.
Let’s look at a few passages to see how this works. We know that most of the national law God gave to the Kingdom of Israel does not bind us, because St. Paul tells us not to allow anyone to judge us on the basis of them. (Colossians 2:16-23) We know, however, that the Two Great Commandments do, because Jesus tells us to observe them. (Luke 10:26-28) In another place, when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, we wonder what he was thinking. The author of the Book of Hebrews tells us. Hebrews 11:17-19)
So, when you wonder if there’s more to a passage, look elsewhere in the Bible. God will often give you more insight when you do this.
[Third in a series of posts on how to read the Bible] Encore Post: When you read the Bible as a story, the main plot, salvation history, is all about Jesus (See Rule #2). Yet the Bible is not only a story, it is God’s message to his children. In it, he explains in great detail how he made the world, how it works and what he wants us to do, what happens when we do not do it and how he intends to restore it to its original condition. It gets kind of complicated. That is why God sums it up in two main teachings. Luther and Lutheran theologians call these teachings The Law and The Gospel.
These teachings help us organize all that the God teaches us in his word. The Law is about God’s will for our lives and how he wants us to live it, what happens when we disobey his commandments, what the likelihood is of us doing his will on our own, what the punishment is for rebelling against him and everything associated with the governing authorities he has appointed to keep at least some order in this life. (The Three Uses of the Law)
The Gospel is the good news that God, in his mercy, sent his Son, Jesus, to be born in the womb of the Virgin Mary, suffer, die, rise from the grave on the third day and ascend into heaven for our sakes. It tells us how the death of Christ has destroyed death, earned for us the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation and all of this is given to us by grace alone, received by faith alone for Christ’s sake alone. It contains all the precious things which God promises us because of what Jesus did for us. (See It’s His Story)
The rule teaches us to keep these two teachings straight. When we say the law saves us, we encourage sinners to try to save themselves; we deny them the comfort of the gospel. When we say that forgiveness comes with conditions, we place barriers between Jesus, his Means of Grace and the grace that is his free gift. So, we do what Luther described as the most difficult art — we allow the law to be the law — requiring perfect obedience, condemning us for our inevitable violation of it and pointing us to the gospel. We allow the gospel to be all the precious promises of God’s free grace and encourage his people to rely on it.
Encore Post: As a liturgical church, the Lutheran Church organizes its worship life around a calendar of themes, readings from Scripture, worship services, practices, symbols and prayers known as the church year. It shares much of this organization with other liturgical churches and even some non-liturgical faith traditions.
The most general division in the Church Year is the semester. Tradition divides the church calendar into two parts. The first begins with the first Sunday of Advent and ends with the Day of Pentecost. It is known by several names. Most often, it is called either the Festival Season or the Semester of our Lord. During this half-year, the church focuses on the life and earthly ministry of Jesus.
After the Day of Pentecost, the second half of the year, known as the Semester of the Church, begins. It is also called Ordinary Time, the Season of Pentecost or the Season of Trinity. The focus is on how Christians should live a life in this fallen world. Some pieces of the liturgy change at about week ten in the season of Pentecost and then again after the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. The list of readings, known as the lectionary, changes from a list geared to the place of the reading in the season (nth Sunday in Lent, etc.) to its position on the secular calendars. These sets of readings are called Proper 1, Proper 2, Proper 3, etc. this is to keep the readings on the same Sunday, more or less, each year.
What this means is that a bit of variety is always a part of our worship, even in its most traditional forms. As we receive God’s gifts, we hear most of the Scripture read to us. At the same time, we study and pray in unity with the church in every time and place.
