Author: Scott McAndless

https://youtu.be/ktbx4-kiCuI

Hespeler, January 14, 2024 © Scott McAndless – Second Sunday after the Epiphany
1 Samuel 3:1-20, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51

Could you possibly find a more alarming outlook on the status of religion than the one that opens our reading this morning from First Samuel? “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” Yes, I know, people come to religious sanctuaries for a variety of reasons. Some are looking for a brief escape from the troubles of life. Some are happy to be seen there by others so that they will be well-regarded. Some may just enjoy the nostalgic feeling of being there.

That is all well and good. But if there is not a moment, at least from time to time, when the voice of God just breaks through and people receive a vision or hear a word and they know that it has come from God, then what is the point? But we are told that “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”

Irrelevance

Is that not an indication that faith in the God of Israel had become irrelevant? Sure, there were still some people who came out to the sanctuary and went through all the proper motions of the worship of Yahweh, but it had become just a matter of tradition and habit. People are not having an encounter with God. So, what was the point?

That description of the problem particularly struck me when I read it because it seemed familiar. Is that not precisely the complaint that many raise about the state of the Christian church in our society today? It is irrelevant! People are just going through the motions! People just don’t get from it what they really need.

I don’t necessarily agree that all of that is true, but the complaints are raised often enough that we cannot just brush them off. So, let us take a look at what had gone wrong at the sanctuary at Shiloh in the days when Samuel was a child there. Maybe there will be some other points of connection that speak to our situation.

Eli’s Blindness

So, why was “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” We have an indication almost immediately after the problem is stated. It says of Eli, the priest in charge of the sanctuary at Shiloh, that his “eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see.” And I know that you could just understand that as a description of a common age-related disability back when things like cataract surgery and eyeglasses were undreamt of. But I think that a careful reading of the story makes it clear that this is not just about a visual impairment.

For one thing, the note about Eli’s eyesight comes so quickly after the statement about visions not being widespread that you can’t help but make the connection. Eli’s problem is not that he has a physical disability. The state of his eyesight is symbolic of a deeper, much more spiritual problem that he has.

And this is borne out as you continue into the story and if you read the larger context. There are clearly many things at the sanctuary at Shiloh that Eli isn’t seeing, but the reason has nothing to do with his eyesight. Above all, he chooses not to see what his sons are doing.

Eli’s Children’s Abuse

Hophni and Phinehas, his adult children, have taken over priestly duties from their father. But they have made it a habit to abuse their power. They are using their authority as priests over the sacrifice to extort the best cuts of meat from the worshippers for themselves. And, much worse, but distressingly familiar, they are using their positions to rape and abuse the young women who participate in the life of the sanctuary.

I know that you sometimes get the impression that the whole phenomenon of religious leaders using their power and authority to abuse the people who are placed in their spiritual care is a modern problem. It never used to be discussed; it never even came up. Whereas in more recent years, we’ve seen it happening everywhere. So much so, that I’m probably safe to say that every major denomination and religious group has had its own share of scandals in this regard over the last few decades.

But, as the case of Hophni and Phinehas should make clear, this is not because abuse of spiritual authority is a modern invention. It has always happened. Whenever a certain group of people are given an extraordinary amount of power over others, there will be a certain proportion who will be tempted to abuse that power.

As we’ve seen, it can happen in almost any organization. There have been lots of scandals in hockey and other sports, in the business world and in various youth organizations. We might like to think that churches should be exempt, but they’re clearly not. In some ways, the spiritual dimension of religious authority does have a way of amplifying the potential.

Eli’s Inaction

 So, what the sons of Eli have been doing with their priestly authority is horrific. But they are not the biggest problem, at least not as far as this story posits. The problem is the blindness of Eli. Not his physical blindness, but his refusal to see what his sons are doing and to put a stop to it.

God says that explicitly to Samuel: “For I have told [Eli] that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.”

That is the real sign of a sick institution. It is not the evil that some individuals do, it is the failure of the institution itself, which is what Eli represents, to safeguard everyone the institution touches. When we prefer blindness, when we refuse to see or to challenge what some powerful people are doing in any organization, that is the root of the problem.

Shifting our Focus

And if it is at all true of the church today that the word of the Lord is rare in these days and visions are not widespread, that has to be part of the reason. The church has wanted to pursue power and authority and has enabled its most influential leaders to that end. Some of those leaders have used that power and authority to serve themselves. Thus, the church is brought into disrepute, and it can no longer speak the word of God.

But if we can learn some humility, and if we can learn to shift from protecting our own privilege and authority to protecting vulnerable people, I do believe that, as we make ourselves vulnerable to God, God’s voice will break through to us. When we stop looking after ourselves first, we will be set free to look for the visions that God will send us. That is where the healing begins both for Shiloh and for us.

Samuel and the Ark

But that is not the only reason why the word of the Lord was rare in those days and visions were not widespread. We see another big indication of what had gone wrong in the story itself. Samuel, this young boy who has been devoted to service in the sanctuary by his mother, is apparently sleeping somewhere in the temple complex and he is in the same room as the Ark of the Covenant.

Now, I don’t know if that set off alarm bells for you when you read it, but it certainly did for me. If you are at all familiar with the Ark of the Covenant, you know that it was the primary symbol of the presence of God with the people of Israel. According to what it says elsewhere, the Ark was to be kept in a special chamber in the temple (or at this point in time in the Tabernacle) called the holy of holies. God was said to be more present there than anyplace else on earth.

The Day of Atonement

How holy was it? It was so holy that no one ever entered the place except one day a year, the Day of Atonement. On this day and only this day, the High Priest was to enter into the presence of the ark only after carrying out an atoning sacrifice.

But even then, they took special precautions. Before the High Priest entered, the temple servants would tie a rope around his ankle just in case God decided to strike him down. That way they wouldn’t have to wait an entire year for the next High Priest to go in and remove the body. Now, we don’t actually know if that rope story was true or just a legend that spread. It’s not actually in the Bible. But, true or not, it is certainly an indication of the kind of respect that they had for the Ark and the care they took when in its presence.

But there seems to be none of that reverence or expectation in this story. The Ark seems to simply be in some random room in the temple complex – a room that also appears to be a dormitory for acolytes like Samuel who serve there. There seems to be no indication whatsoever of any expectation that this cultic object could allow someone to have an encounter with God. They have either forgotten or they never knew that such a thing was possible.

Why it Takes so Long

Which is why, when it actually happens, it takes so long for anyone to even recognize it for what it is. Samuel just assumes that it is Eli, the revered elder priest, who is calling out for assistance in the night.

You can’t really blame Samuel for that, of course. He’s just a child and has never had any reason to even dream of such things. No, the real person to blame is once again poor blind Eli. If only he could have seen – and I am not talking about the physical sight that had failed him but the more important inner sight that had failed – if only he could have seen, perhaps the voice of God would have broken through sooner. But, no, it takes three tries – three times when God calls out to the sleeping Samuel – before Eli finally figures out that something else might be going on here.

Our Inner Blindness

Now what does any of this have to do with the crisis we face in the church where we seem to be living in days when the word of the Lord is rare; visions are not widespread? I am a firm believer that God has never ceased to speak to God’s people. Visions have never ceased to be sent. But if we do not expect them, will we receive them? And if, like Eli, we suffer from inner blindness, it will be all that much harder.

And what does that inner blindness look like for us? What might be preventing us from detecting the words and actions and power of God at work among us? Often, I suspect, it is because the eyes of our hearts are diverted and looking for meaning elsewhere. For the church as an institution, our focus may be fixed on our own standing within society as we mourn a loss of power and influence.

As individual believers, we become distracted by the temptations of our consumer society. We get caught up in the endless scramble to build wealth or flee from poverty which has become the only concern of our capitalist society. Above all the voice of God gets drowned out by the incessant noise of our social media-driven perpetual misinformation machine and confirmation bias.

The Right Response

All of these things mean that we do not expect God to speak to us or send us any visions that might contradict what we have already decided to believe. That is why the word of the Lord is rare in our days; visions are not widespread. It is not because God does not speak but because we will not listen.

But there is still hope for us. Eli, as blind as he was, figured it out eventually. And when he taught Samuel to respond and say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” I don’t think he was just trying to teach the boy. He was trying to teach himself as well. He had finally gotten to the place where he was willing to hear what God had to say no matter what it cost him – and it did cost him a great deal. That is what finally allowed the voice of God would break through. That is what will allow it to break through for us as well.

https://youtu.be/L6pr_Gr4L7o

Hespeler, January 7, 2024 © Scott McAndless – Baptism of the Lord
Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 29, Luke 2:22-40, Mark 1:4-11

Last week, on New Years Eve, I decided to preach on the gospel passage from the lectionary for the day – the story of Mary and Joseph and the month-old Jesus in the temple. But, if you were here last week or if you have listened to the sermon since, you will know that I really didn’t get very far into the story at all. In fact, I didn’t even get past the first three verses.

That is okay as far as I am concerned. When God is speaking to you through even just a few words of scripture, I think it is always wise just to stop and stay with those words for a while so that you make sure you don’t miss anything that God might have to say.

The Rest of the Story

But none of that is to suggest that the rest of the story – the part after the first three verses – isn’t important. After they had gone to the priest and made a sacrifice of two turtle doves, Mary and Joseph turned around and went back out into the large open space that was known as the Court of the Gentiles.

I want you to try to imagine the space. On any given day, you would expect to find it just packed with people. Many had come, of course, to carry out the prescribed sacrifices and religious observances. But that was hardly the only reason why they came.

Many were seeking for God in some way and instinctively knew that this was the place where they might find God or hear God’s word. In the porches you could hear poets, prophets and philosophers giving their public speeches to the curious crowds. Scribes would also be teaching about the law and its application. And the people gathered around eagerly hoping to learn and grow. But people also sought to hear from God in a more direct way.

One Man’s Quest

 Take, for example, that man over there. He does not come all the time to the temple like some do, but when he got up this morning he just felt as if he had to be here. He was a man who was deeply troubled by the state of his nation. He felt as if it had lost track of what it was supposed to be. And now, because of its failures, the nation was occupied by foreign invaders.

And so, he had implored God to console the nation and to send God’s anointed one who would lead it into liberty and hope for the future. And after praying for this hope for a very long time, he had become convinced that God had heard his prayer. He would see the Messiah that he longed for before he died.

Such a Long Wait

Oh, but the wait had been so long. And now he was getting very old, and he had begun to fear that he would not live to see it all come to pass. But today, when he rose, he was filled with this overwhelming sense that, if he came to the temple, God would show him something. God would give him hope.

So that man, his name was Simeon, was just entering into the courtyard from the main gate into the temple. He was looking around expectantly but did not yet know exactly what he might see.

Anna the Prophet

There was another revered elder there. Her name was Anna. She was one of the many prophets who were constantly present in the temple, proclaiming the word of God to any who would listen. Anna was a widow. Married young, she had lived with her husband only for seven years until he died. Ever after, she had remained a widow. So long now that no one could remember whether she was eighty-four years old or if she had been a widow for eighty-four years! (Yes, the original Greek text is ambiguous on that point.)

But whichever it was, everyone had great respect for this woman and her wisdom. So much so that they would often bring her gifts of food and drink so that she did not even need to leave the temple precincts. She remained there night and day and was constantly in prayer and often fasting. For Anna was not just there to speak the word of the Lord to the people. She was still searching for answers for herself.

She, like Simeon, was discouraged about the state of her people. She was looking for God’s help and consolation. She had not only come to look for an answer today like the other man. It was as if she lived in constant expectation that at any moment God would act.

One Family Among Many

And somehow they knew – they both knew – that God had answered when they saw the most ordinary of things in the temple court. They saw a young couple carrying their month-old child away from the place of the sacrifice for purification. There must have been dozens of such families in the temple most every day.

What was it that marked this family as different? Traditions of Western Art aside, they couldn’t have had literal halos over their heads. There could have been nothing that would have been evident to everyone else. It must have been something that happened inside both Simeon and Anna simultaneously – what Luke calls the action of the Holy Spirit. They were suddenly just sure.

But what I am particularly interested in today is not how they knew that God was doing something. My particular interest is in what they did with what they were suddenly so sure about. Because these two people had so much in common. They were both old. They were seeking the same thing from God. They both came to the same sudden realization when they saw the small family. But they each reacted so differently.

Simeon’s Response

Look at Simeon. He got to the family first. And the first thing he did was snatch the boy right out of his mother’s arms. I hope that he asked first, but it doesn’t say that he did. But then, once he had the child in his arms, what did he do? He prayed to God: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

And I know it is all very pretty and poetic, but I hope you don’t let the fancy words make you miss what he is saying here. He’s saying, “Look, I have done my part. I have prayed. I have waited. I have been looking for the consolation of Israel for all these many years. And now, finally, God is stepping up and starting to do something great. So now, I am checking out. I am donezo. Let me die now.

Checking Out

Now, I don’t believe that Simeon is literally asking God to strike him dead. He may be old, but I don’t think he is expecting that he is going to go home and breathe his last. If he were that frail, would Mary have allowed him to hold her baby? No, what he is saying is that he feels as if he has done his part. He has kept the faith. He has prayed for the consolation he has hoped for. But now it seems that he is tired, and he is done.

In fact, he explicitly says that it is up to others to take over where he is leaving off. He says to Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.” So it apparently falls now to the child to do all the hard work and face the opposition. And Mary herself will have her share of suffering too.

Simeons Among Us

So, Simeon has clearly decided that he has finished contributing. And I can totally appreciate how he feels. In all my work in the church, I have known so many saints who have given so much for the work of the church over the years. And then they look up and, like Simeon in this passage, see that there is big change coming on the horizon. They appreciate the change, maybe even welcome it, but they also aren’t ready to deal with it directly. They step down and they look to others to carry on.

And clearly this is sometimes the right decision. I will always honour anyone who has given long and faithful service. I also recognize that sometimes people cannot deal with certain changes well. It just sucks all of the energy out of them and, because their vision is limited to what they have seen before, they can’t implement the changes needed. And of course, sometimes their decision to step down can empower someone else to step up. Sometimes that is how we find the new leadership that we need.

Anna’s Response

But at the same time, Simeon’s response is not the only response. Remember Anna? She has just had the same insight that Simeon has. She recognizes with clarity that this little child is the fulfillment of all her hopes and dreams. She is also pretty much as old as Simeon. Maybe, if you read it as saying that she has been a widow for 87 after being married for 7, she is even more than 100 years old!

But Anna, despite having all the same reasons as Simeon to check out, give up and retire, doesn’t react like that at all. Instead of prompting her to quit, the sight of Jesus spurs her to action. She “began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Simeon was overwhelmed by the change that the coming of the Messiah had brought – overwhelmed in a good way, but it still caused him to withdraw. But look at what it did for Anna. It energized her. Why, you could barely contain her as she ran about telling everyone in the crowded temple courtyard about the amazing thing that God was now doing.

Thankful for Simeons

You know, I am thankful for the Simeons that God has given us in the life of the church. I am thankful for the men and the women who have served long and faithfully – who have held onto their faith in times of trial and testing.

It has not always been easy for them in the life of the church. There have been times of worry and anxiety. There have been times when people got angry and tempers were frayed. But they continued on, not because it was easy or always fun, but because it mattered. They continued because they believed that God would come and would redeem his people.

We are all thankful for such faithful service and when people come to the point when they feel the need to step down because they can’t manage the next step in change, let us celebrate them with joy.

Thankful for Annas

But thank God for the many Annas – both men and women – that God has sent us. They are energized by the new thing that God is doing among us. They can’t wait to tell everyone about it either. And sure, they might have been hanging around the temple for many years and they are so very used to the way that things have always been done. But they aren’t afraid of the new thing that God is doing among us.

We may all come to the point in our lives when we have to choose between being Simeon or Anna. But just remember that it is your choice. And anyone can be an Anna.

https://youtu.be/bTdjyMKqP6s

Hespeler, December 31, 2023 © Scott McAndless – Seventh Day of Christmas
Isaiah 61:10-62:3, Psalm 148, Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:22-40

The young couple joined the crowds climbing the broad staircase that led to the entrance of the temple. The woman carried in her arms a child just barely over a month old. She had carried him all 11 km from the small town of Bethlehem the day before with frequent stops for nursing and changing the swaddling clothes.

This little family had spent the night in a bare room in the city, the only shelter they could afford. As is the common experience of parents with newborns, they had had little sleep. But they had risen early, thinking perhaps that they might beat the crowds, conclude their business and escape the city before the heat of the day came on.

But, as they passed through the porch and entered into the Court of the Gentiles, they realized that they were not the only ones to have had such a thought. The place was packed. It was filled with pilgrims, gawkers and worshippers. They glanced at each other anxiously. It seemed that this was going to take a while.

The child, thankfully, didn’t seem to be bothered by the noise of the crowd and the cries of the sacrificial animals. He slept contentedly in his mother’s arms for now, but they shuddered to think of what might happen when he awoke.

The Sellers

After a few enquiries, they made their way to the court of the women, where they needed to go today. As they approached, they saw the large pen filled with young lambs and the smaller cages that contained pigeons and turtle doves. Wealthy women were standing by and bartering with the sellers while their nurses held their children at a distance.

When the young man heard the prices that were being demanded for the sheep, he winced. He was sure that he could have gotten one for much cheaper from those shepherds who had dropped by shortly after the child was born. But, of course, the sellers here knew that their customers had little other choice.

He was glad that he didn’t have to ask the price of a bird. He knew that that would be ridiculous as well. He had been extremely fortunate the day before and been able to trap two turtledoves as they travelled. They cooed softly in the makeshift cage he carried in his left hand as he guided the mother and her child through the entrance.

Living on the Margins

The last month had been difficult. They had been unable to find anything like secure lodging. In fact, things had been so unsettled when the child was born that they had had no place else to lay him but in a feeding trough.

Things had not gotten much better since as they moved around from place to place, taking hospitality from strangers for the most part. On the eighth day after the boy was born, they had been very fortunate to find a skilled elder who was willing to perform the boy’s circumcision and he had been admitted into the covenant of the people of Israel under the name of Yeshua.

Of course, it would have been preferable for them to return to their home in Nazareth where at least the boy’s mother had family connections and support, but they had remained in the area so that they could perform the ritual for her here on the first day possible. There was some urgency to completing it, after all. Until such time as this had been done, she was effectively set apart from ordinary society. She could not eat with others, nor could she have proper relations with her husband.

This was not, to be clear, because there was anything wrong with her. It was a matter of ritual impurity, which had nothing to do with moral sin or error. It was more like she was being given a special honour. She had, after all, just done something amazing. She had brought a new life into the world. Men in particular were somewhat wary of this special power that only women had to create life. They didn’t quite know what to do with it. And so, they felt a need to segregate that power for a time out of respect for it. But, even if it was an honour, it was an inconvenient one. The couple were more than ready for it to be over.

The Clerk

They stood in line for quite some time, surrounded by the sound of bleating sheep and cooing pigeons and doves. There were many women who were here waiting to perform the required sacrifice. Finally, the line began to move, and they came to stand in front of a Levitical clerk who sat behind a wooden table.

“And for what purpose do you come here today,” he asked them in a bored tone as if the answer wasn’t made completely obvious by the presence of a month-old boy in his mother’s arms. The man was very proud to hear his wife respond in a clear and unwavering voice: “I am here to perform the purification ritual following the birth of my son.”

In the tones of a bureaucrat who spends all day every day reciting the same piece of legislation, the man responded. “When the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtledove for a purification offering. He shall offer it before Adonai and make atonement on her behalf; then she shall be clean from her flow of blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, male or female.” (Leviticus 12:6-8)

He looked up at them, taking in their poor clothing and dishevelled appearance at a glance, “So, you see, you’re supposed to bring a lamb. I don’t see a lamb. Where’s your lamb then? They are on sale out in the outer court.”

Pushing Back

The man had been expecting this. And fortunately, he was well-versed in the traditions of his people. He knew that the law had been written in such a way as to make allowances for the poor and disadvantaged, and he felt no embarrassment in invoking these traditions now.

“Come on, you know very well that the law made provisions for those who could not afford a lamb for the purification. Maybe you don’t care if we have little, but God does! We are perfectly allowed to offer up these two turtle doves instead,” he said holding up his little cage.

The Levite smirked. “You call those doves? They’re filthy! You’re sure that they’re not flying rats? You didn’t buy those here!”

“Doesn’t matter, does it?” the man replied sharply. “The law never says you have to buy them. I caught them myself!”

“Yes, added his wife with a smile, “I’m rather of proud of my man’s hunting skills.”

The clerk finally let out a great sigh as he reluctantly let them pass.

The Real Money

A lot of people thought that the temple made its money from the tithes and donations that people brought. But the priests and the Levites knew very well that the real money came from the sacrifices. Once most of the sacrifices were performed, some of the meat would be returned to the worshippers. Only a certain portion would be burned up – mostly the parts that were inedible or prohibited from Jewish consumption. The worshippers would take it and have a feast.

The priest wasn’t paid money. Instead, he would also claim a portion of the meat for his services – indeed, some of the best cuts of beef or mutton went to him. In a day’s service, a priest would receive much more meat than he could possibly eat with his family before it spoiled, and so it could be sold off to the elite of the city at premium prices.

That was why it was very much in the interest of all who worked in the temple to pressure people into sacrificing fine animals. What’s more, they had deals with the sellers in the temple that gave them kickbacks for every animal sold to the captive audience there. So of course, they would pressure everybody who came along to sacrifice the best animal that they could.

Temple Economics

This was something that was not only true of the temple in Jerusalem, of course. This was how it worked at most every temple of every god in the Mediterranean world. But not every ritual law made exceptions for the poor. But thanks to the strength of the Judean tradition or, some might say, thanks to the compassion and care of the God of Israel, they could not deny access to this impoverished young couple.

 And so, I will say that it was with some pride for having stood up for their rights, not to mention some relief for having completed all that was fitting for a young child of the people of Israel, that the parents walked away after the completion of the sacrifice of their birds. They knew their place within a tradition that was deeply meaningful for them and that would be, they knew, meaningful for their son as well. They felt as if they had begun something very important.

They returned to the Court of the Gentiles and were very surprised, among all those who were present in the ever-swelling crowds, to be approached by a venerable old man and then a saintly widow.

More than a Mise-en-Scène

I always assumed that the first few lines of the story of the infant Jesus in the temple were just the mise-en-scène, you know, just a setting of the stage upon which the really important events will take place. The storyteller just needs to get Jesus and his parents into the temple where they can encounter the prophets, Simeon and Anna, who will tell us these very important things that we need to know about Jesus. But, as I looked closely at the opening verses of the story, I realized that it would be foolish to just skip over them.

The gospel writer is trying to teach us something important about the traditions of the people of Israel and the place of Jesus within those traditions. He is reminding us that Jesus was a part of the ancient covenant of Abraham, which would have been marked into his flesh on the eighth day after his birth.

He is also reminding us of the rituals of purity. And I think he would like us to be mindful that these were not about treating women in Mary’s situation as if they were dirty or shameful. That’s not what these rituals were actually about. They were symbolic of the incredibly powerful thing that Mary had done in bringing new life into the world, especially when, in the case of Jesus, it was new life that would come as a gift to the whole world.

Mary and Joseph’s Poverty

But the thing that particularly strikes me about this short preface to the story is what it says about those in poverty. Luke has already gone out of his way to underline to his readers the situation of abject poverty into which Jesus was born. Laid in a manger because there was no proper place to stay for him, visited by shepherds whose status was about as low as you could get, Luke has already made it quite clear that Jesus was anything but financially well off at his birth.

But in this story, a new dimension is added to that impoverished situation. The law was clear. A woman in Mary’s situation was expected to bring a lamb for sacrifice. Yes, there was a provision in the law that she could bring two birds instead, a concession given for those who were faced with utter destitution. But many would have died before admitting such poverty before the priests.

No Apologies

But notice how Luke portrays what Mary and Joseph did. He simply says, “and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’” He doesn’t even mention that the expectation was that they should have sacrificed more. He suggests no sense of shame or embarrassment on their part or his. They, according to their means and who they were, were able to do what was pleasing to God.

And I find that all rather refreshing. We live in a world today where more and more people are falling through the economic cracks. And when people can no longer find affordable housing or their wages – and often enough it is full-time wages these days – are no longer enough to pay the bills, they are just written off. They no longer count.

They are a problem to be solved, a crisis for various levels of governments to fight over. If they resort to living in encampments, they might be evicted without a second thought. If their desperate situation leads to their demise because of addiction or other problems, we react with little more than a shrug.

But when we so callously dismiss a whole class of people, we not only push them deeper and deeper into crisis, we rob the entire society of all that they have to offer – and they have so much to offer us all!

God made room for an impoverished couple to fully participate in the rituals of his people, to be counted like any other Israelites before God. The benefits that came to all of us as a result are incalculable. What new strength couldn’t we find for our society today, if we could let the poor have a full place and voice in our society?

https://youtu.be/Y4c2WJBAgvc

Hespeler, 24 December 2023 © Scott McAndless – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
Luke 2:1-6

Twenty-four years ago, I preached a sermon on Christmas Eve and it was the last time that I would read the familiar Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and see it in the same old way. You see, my life changed irrevocably two weeks after that Christmas Eve when my first child was born two weeks early. I became a father.

I couldn’t even begin to describe all of the ways that things changed for me but one of the big ones is that I learned so much. One of the very first lessons I learned was how to swaddle my child. I’m pretty sure that the nurses in the hospital taught me how to do that first. I guess it is one of those few things in those first days, that a father can do. So, I like to think that I became quite good at it – an expert in infant origami if you like.

The reason why new parents in North America are encouraged to swaddle their newborns is apparently because it is very comforting. After all, your child has just spent months confined in a very small space and she has now emerged into this strange place where nothing restrains her when she spreads out her arms and her legs. It is alien and strange. It is symbolic of this poor helpless being now thrust into this cold dark world full of dangers and evils. And so, if you can simulate the warmth and the confinement of the womb, at least some of the time, it can be a great comfort and so you learn to wrap her up tight in a blanket.

It is a bit of parental wisdom that has been passed down since times of great antiquity. How old is it? It is so old that it was already well-known when Mary had her child. New Testament Greek did not have a word for swaddling like English does. What the text literally says is that when Mary’s child was born, she wrapped him in strips of cloth. But the meaning of that is clear enough. So, the old King James Version was quite correct when it translated that as “she wrapped him in swaddling clothes.”

 But, since she did not have a nice, perfectly sized baby blanket that she had ordered from amazon.ca while preparing for the arrival, Mary had to resort to using several strips of cloth instead. Instead of one, let’s say that she used three.

But I was thinking. Mary’s child was no ordinary infant, was he? He was, we are told the Son of God. And how, exactly, do you comfort the Master of the universe who suddenly finds himself thrown into this dark and often disturbing world? With what, then, did Mary swaddle her extraordinary child?

 I believe that one of the strips of cloth she used was the devoted love of a mother. Her own body had protected him throughout his gestation, even through some very difficult episodes and probably the most harrowing journey that Mary had ever taken she when traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. As she had shielded him with her own body, she would continue to do so with all her love. She wrapped him tight in her love.

The second strip of cloth that Mary took to swaddle her child, was the deep and rich tradition of her people. Jesus would know who he was by learning all the stories of the people of Israel. And the final piece of cloth was the law of those people. These time-tested rules for living would provide for the growing child the boundaries and the limits of his behaviour.

These three swaddling cloths are things that we all need. If we are fortunate, if we are blessed, we all received these things as children, and they helped to make us the people we are today. Because we knew that we were loved, because our traditions and practices told us who we were and because we had wise and reasonable rules to guide us, we were given that strong foundation that allowed us to go out into the world and make our way. These things are invaluable.

But there is one thought I would add to that. Swaddling is good and comforting for a newborn, but it is hardly healthy to keep a child confined that way. As they grow, they need to stretch out their limbs and start to define themselves. This too is an essential part of life.

And wow, did Jesus stretch out his limbs! He took that love that he had received from his mother and turned it into a love that was able to encompass the whole world. In the ultimate display of such love, he stretched his arms and his legs wide on the wood of a cross.

And Jesus took the noble teachings of his people, and he stretched them to extend to many others. He took that special relationship and covenant blessing that his people enjoyed and showed the whole world how they could experience that as well. He taught us all of a loving heavenly father who pours out blessing on all the people of the world.

And as for the law of his people, he never lost his reverence for that, but he taught that it was never meant to be cruel or vindictive like some people applied it. He certainly taught that it was never meant to exclude people who didn’t fit in but rather designed to draw people in close. He also showed in word and deed how the grace and mercy of God can overcome even our worst transgressions against the law.

But it all started with a newborn babe, swaddled in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. It is such a fitting beginning of the hope of the world.

https://youtu.be/aVpTLGe0MOs

Hespeler, 24 December 2023 © Scott McAndless
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Luke 1:46b-55, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38

ne day Dave was just sitting around and shooting the breeze with his good buddy Nate. Dave, you see, had done pretty well for himself. He had built his own personal kingdom, had beat out many enemies and he was feeling pretty comfortable in his life. He had even recently built his own very nice house.

Dave had done so well not only because of his own initiative and strength, but also because he had had the support of a very powerful God named Yahweh. Yahweh was the God who had formed a very special relationship with the people of Israel but who had particularly chosen Dave as his special buddy. Thanks to God’s support, Dave had been able to do so much and, if he now had rest from his enemies, it was all thanks to Yahweh.

Dave’s Idea

But there was one thing that was bothering him, and so he spoke to his best friend about it. “See now,” he said to Nate, “I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent. What I mean is that my God has been a great support to me but he’s kind of wild and unpredictable. I mean, he lives in a tent, so he doesn’t have to settle down anywhere. That means that he can change his mind and may even decide to pick a new favourite.”

“Say no more!” Nate interrupted him. “I know exactly what you are thinking. You’re looking for some way to persuade God to settle down and formalize his choice of you and your descendants.

“And, in fact, I understand how you mean to do it as well. You want to build a house for God to live in. You want to domesticate Yahweh and even establish an institution and priesthood to tell God what he can and cannot do. You know, I think you should go, do all that you have in mind, after all, is not Yahweh with you, and don’t you want to make sure that things stay that way?”

Underlying Considerations

The Bible records that exchange between King David and the Prophet Nathan so briefly that you could be forgiven for just skimming over it. The surface meaning seems clear. David is apparently just concerned with making sure that God has a temple that does him all due honour. But there are always some underlying considerations to such plans. You only have to read between the lines to realize that David might have some other motivations in his proposal.

And, in fact, that is just what Nathan realized as well. In the heat of the moment, when David first threw out the idea, Nathan just agreed that it would be a great thing to do. But it didn’t take long. That very night, as Nathan reflected on David’s idea, he came to see that it was more than a little bit problematic. And, what’s more, Nathan realized that his sober second thinking wasn’t just something that was happening in his own brain. It was a word from Yahweh.

God’s Misgivings

God’s misgivings about David’s plans are expressed like this: “I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”

The message is clear. Does God need a temple? Does God need some sort of religious institution and structure in order to be in a right relationship with God’s people? Certainly not! God seems to prefer the life of living in a tent and being free to move around. But it is not just about God being a camper at heart. As with most things having to do with religion, this is all about control.

Human Institutions

Human beings love to create religious institutions. They build temples and churches and mosques. They write their books of theology and even their holy books with one goal in mind. They want to control God. They want to say who God can be and what God can do. I mean, look at so much of our religious thought and practice, it is often reduced to statements of what God “has to” do. “If I make this sacrifice, God has to make it rain.” “If I confess, God has to forgive me.” “If God inspires scriptures, they have to be literally true.” “If I pray this particular prayer, God has to let me into heaven when I die.”

I understand the impulse, of course. Who wants to live with the concept of a God who is completely capricious and wild and does totally unpredictable things? But God resists being limited or controlled by us. And that is why, after some sober second thought, Nathan goes back to David with God’s answer and that answer is no, you can’t build a temple. But interestingly, at the same time, the answer is not no forever.

God Recognizes Our Need

God may not need temples and religious institutions in order to prove God’s greatness and glory but also seems to recognize our need for these things. And so, as an act of mercy and kindness, Nathan does inform David that his son, who will be somewhat less compromised by David’s history of using violence and trickery to get his way, will be allowed to establish a temple in Jerusalem.

This is actually an indication of God’s kindness and grace. As a concession to our weakness and limitations, God allows us to have a mediated relationship through a religious institution. You might even call it a sacrifice God makes on our behalf, sacrificing God’s own freedom and choosing to relate to us within the bounds of a religion.

But surely this is a temporary comprise. God is still seeking a more fitting way to be present here on earth. But this is not the time to implement that alternative plan. And so, God puts something in place that will set up that better way. “Moreover, Yahweh declares to you, David, that Yahweh will make you a house… Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”

The Strange Visitor

“How can this be?” the young woman wanted to know. After all, what the strange visitor had told her seemed like crazy talk. He had told her that she would have a son, which was impossible enough. But then he had gone on to say, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

The connection between that incident in the Gospel of Luke and Nathan’s answer to David is clear. Here, in this small house in the village of Nazareth, the conversation that started between David and Nathan so many centuries before was continuing. This wasn’t just about the impossibility of Mary, a virgin, having a child. This wasn’t just about the fulfillment of the promise of a house to King David. This was about God being present in this world outside of the limits of religious institutions.

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” the visitor continued, “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”

Holy cow, do you realize what this is saying? God, in some way that I’m not going to pretend to completely understand, is finding the ultimate way to enter into this world. Somehow, in Mary’s child, God is planning to enter into the human sphere. But God will do this in a way that sidesteps things like human-built temples, religious institutions and dogma. God is entering into our world in a way that does not require a priesthood or architecture or theologians to manage and control. By coming to us in a person, in Christ, God is maintaining the freedom to, well, to be God. And yet, because Christ comes as someone fully human, we are still able to relate to him as humans ourselves.

God’s Better Plan

You see, David came up with the plan all those centuries ago. It was a plan to try and limit God and tell God what to do. God said no, but did graciously continue to relate to the people of Israel through the religious institutions they eventually set up.

But in Jesus, God decided to do so much more. In Jesus, God decided to relate to human beings in a way that was not constrained by the walls of church or temple, by the judgments of a priesthood. God came to live among us as one of us.

And what do we see of God when he appears in Christ? When God is truly allowed to be God without human constraint here on earth? What we see is a God who reveals himself in love and compassion and mercy and ultimately in sacrifice, giving himself utterly in death upon the cross.

David was afraid to allow God to be God, and felt as if he had to keep God in a box. But in Mary’s child, God is set free to reveal a depth of love and grace that I suspect David could have only imagined. God is set free to reveal a love that is able to welcome all, no matter who they may be.

It kind of makes you wonder why David thought that he had to keep God under wraps. Kind of makes you wonder why we continue to think that we should try and tell God what God can do and be today as well.

https://youtu.be/EClYnhU8dXg

Hespeler, 17 December 2023 © Scott McAndless – Third Sunday of Advent
Psalm 126, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, Luke 3:23-38, John 1:6-8, 19-28

If you are like most Bible readers, you might open the beginning of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew or the end of the third chapter of Luke and balk. In both cases, you are presented with long lists of names, most of which mean absolutely nothing to you – the ancestors of Jesus. Who wants to read that?

The temptation, if you don’t give up reading altogether, is to just skip all of that and get to the good stuff – the stories and narratives about Jesus. But that might be a mistake. These lists do matter to the overall story – if you know how to read them, in fact, they are stories.

A Puzzle to be Solved?

Unfortunately, however, that is often not what people take away from them. In fact, most people who read them carefully usually come away with a problem that they think needs to be solved. You see, if you read the two genealogies of Jesus side by side, if you compare the names in them, they disagree in very significant ways.

They both identify Joseph as the father of Jesus, or at least the seeming father, but then they give different names for the father of Joseph. Matthew says that Joseph is the son of Jacob, while Luke says that he is the son of Heli.

They also both agree that Jesus is descended from King David, but they trace that descent through two completely different lines. In the Gospel of Matthew, that lineage is traced through the line of kings that succeeded David on the throne in Jerusalem, from his son Solomon through to the last king of Judah before the exile in Babylon. But in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is descended from David’s son Nathan, who nobody has ever heard of. Neither have they heard of any of the other people between Nathan and Joseph.

Something to Explain Away

And usually that’s where people stop. They notice that these two accounts of Jesus’ family tree are different. And for some, that becomes a problem that they need to explain away because, well, both genealogies cannot be correct, right? And if one is wrong then the Bible must contain errors and that is not acceptable to them.

Some try to explain it by saying that one of the Gospels is giving the family tree for Joseph while the other is giving it for Mary. Some of you may have heard that one before. But it is an explanation that quickly falls apart if you look at it. Ancient people never traced genealogies through women. They didn’t even think that women contributed anything to the genetics of a child, so the idea that a woman could contribute to someone’s lineage was simply unthinkable to them. I know that is a foolish way to think of it, but patriarchal thinking is ultimately a very foolish way of thinking about anything.

Living with the Contradiction

No, the contradiction is there, and you can’t just explain it away. So, if you are someone who believes (as I do) that the Bible is inspired by God, what you must conclude is that that contradiction is there for a reason – that it is there because there is a truth deeper than just a list of names that needs to be revealed. You are being invited to struggle with that contradiction in order to discover that deeper truth.

And so that is what I would like to do – live in that contradiction for a little while and tell a story about what I find there.

A Funeral

David, the king, was dead. And, as he was laid in the tomb, his many sons gathered around. But two of them stood out before the crowd.

The first, of course, was David’s son Solomon. And everyone knew why he mattered. He had already been anointed king and had even started to take over his father’s duties before he died. Solomon was dressed in sumptuous robes and surrounded by sycophantic courtiers.

But, as splendid as he looked, Solomon was still just a young man who felt almost entirely out of his depth. He had barely survived a succession crisis and wasn’t sure whether or not he would be able to hold on to the extraordinary power that had been passed onto him.

Nathan

The other key person who was present was a son named Nathan. No one really knew who Nathan was, but he mattered. He mattered because he was the man who was charged with the care of the tomb in which David was being laid.

David was being buried with his fathers, which meant that he was being placed in the tomb of Jesse and of his father Obed and of his father Boaz. It was also the resting place of an extraordinary woman named Ruth. Nathan was there because that tomb rested on a piece of land that now belonged to him.

You see, while Solomon would henceforth live in Jerusalem in a palace made of cedar, Nathan would remain and live on the land that had sustained the family for generations – ever since the days of Joshua who had given the land to the people.

God’s Promise

God had made a promise to David through his prophet. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors,” God had said, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

And as they stood around the tomb and gazed upon the beauty and the wonder that was the young man Solomon, the people present, Nathan included, had no doubt who would inherit that promise. If anyone could establish a kingdom that would last forever, it would be Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba.

A Dynasty’s Failures

But you know what they say about power corrupting; that branch of the family went off the rails almost right away. Solomon quickly began to believe his own propaganda and to use his power to exploit the people through things like forced labour. The richer he became, the more he acted like any other tyrant, lording it over all the people; he became a new pharaoh. Is it any wonder, therefore, that after he died, his great kingdom split apart?

So, the kingdom was greatly diminished. Yet the ruling dynasty endured. And it was true that some of them tried to do their best as rulers. They sought to reform the nation and set up systems to protect the people. But for every good king in the line of David, it often seemed as if there was one or more who fell far short.

The kingdom limped along. It was almost destroyed by the Assyrians; it only survived their attacks by the grace of God. And then came the Babylonians. The House of David failed that challenge entirely, made the wrong choice again and again. The final rulers of the House of David were taken into exile. Their kingdom, which had been supposed to last forever, was no more.

Had the line of David failed?

The Other Line

And where was the other line of David – the descendants of Nathan – all that time? The most likely answer is that they remained on that same piece of land where they had been forever – the same piece of land where Ruth met Boaz while gleaning in his fields – the same piece of land where the boy David had returned with his flocks at the end of the day.

They farmed the land, grew lentils, grapes and barley. They never grew rich or lorded over others. They never made disastrous alliances with other nations either. They just subsisted.

It is even possible that, since they were not so important that invaders would care about them, they weren’t caught up in the deportations of the Babylonian Empire. Maybe they just maintained that connection to the land.

The Connection Remains

At least we know that that connection still remained generations upon generations later for Joseph the son of Heli, even though he no longer lived on that land. He was living in the small hamlet of Nazareth in the territory of Galilee. He didn’t have any land there. He was only managing to get by as a day labourer on construction sites – building with wood and stone. (That’s likely what the gospel writers mean when they call him a carpenter.) People often ended up living like that when their debts and poverty led to the loss of their ancestral farms.

So Joseph had lost the land, but I suspect that that had happened fairly recently – like within living memory of the family. I know that he hadn’t forgotten it because, when Joseph heard, in the days of Quirinius the Governor of Syria, that a census was being held in Judea, he apparently decided to return there. Maybe he was intending to use the registration of the census to lay a claim on his ancestral farm, reclaiming it according to the ancient biblical law of the Jubilee. In any case, it seems that he was serious enough to take along with him the young woman, Mary, to whom he was betrothed and who was expecting a child. He must have had a very good reason if he was going to take her on such a journey.

Missing the Point

I think you are missing out on a great deal if you look at the Gospel of Luke’s genealogy of Jesus and all you see is a list of mostly unpronounceable names and a historical puzzle. Many people don’t seem to get past the pretty obvious historical questions of how you reconcile these two irreconcilable genealogies or how Luke could have even known who these ancestors were, given the very low literacy rates in Galilee at that time. But these are the wrong questions. They miss the point.

I believe that God inspired both of these authors. Sometimes people seem to think that the obvious conclusion you have to take from that is that whatever the authors wrote therefore has to be completely accurate information. But accurate information is only one way to communicate important truths. And God is entirely free to inspire people to communicate truth in various ways.

Ancient Genealogies

Genealogies in the ancient world did not work like what happens today when people do their family trees or order an ancestry service from 23 and Me. Those modern activities are data driven, but ancient genealogies were more story driven. It was about telling the story of the past and thus the future of a family.

We’ll never know where Luke got his list of names for Jesus’ ancestors (at least in the generations between Heli and David – obviously he got the part after that from the Old Testament. But it doesn’t really matter if they came from a written record, from family lore that had been handed down by word of mouth or if they came from his own inspired mind. What really matters is the story that he was telling. And he was telling a story about a very different kind of family than Matthew was telling in his gospel.

The Truth About the Messiah

He was telling a story of a family that was incredibly closely tied to their ancestral lands but who had then lost that connection. He was telling a story about jubilee which was an ancient biblical law that was all about reconnecting families to the lands that they had lost. He was telling a story, above all, that would end with Joseph returning to that ancestral home with his betrothed wife for the birth of a child who would be the fulfillment of the promise given to David but ultimately squandered by Solomon’s line.

I don’t necessarily believe that Luke told the story of this family in this way because he knew it was historically accurate. He told it this way because he knew that it was true. And he knew that it was true because he had been inspired by God. And that is how I have come to understand the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.

https://youtu.be/GVeAY4mvx1E

Hespeler, December 10, 2023 © Scott McAndless – Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 40:1-11, Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13, 2 Peter 3:8-15a, Mark 1:1-8

As I thought about what I would preach on for this Sunday – this Second Sunday of Advent which is called Peace Sunday – I happened to be in a place where a lot of people seem to find themselves at this time of the year. Yes, that’s right, I was in a shopping mall.

It was shortly after Black Friday and the place was packed. Everyone was desperate. They all seemed to have millions of things to find, things like decorations and all the other things they would need for the big events of the season. And of course, there were lots of people who were frantic as they walked around and looked at how high the prices were. They were wondering how they could ever afford the gifts that they wanted to buy.

Frazzled Parents

The parents were looking pretty frazzled too. Their kids were going crazy looking for things they wanted to have and getting excited about the decorations and seeing Santa Claus. Many of them were looking as if they were at the very limits of their patience, and here we were only at the beginning of the season!

So, it was all a scene of noise, frustration and hurry. And yet, over top of all of it, blasting through the sound system of the entire mall, were the sounds of the most beautiful music proclaiming peace on earth, people of goodwill, love and joy. And it made me wonder, where is that promise of peace?

Other Struggles

Of course, there are a lot of other reasons why people aren’t feeling that peace than just the extraordinary hustle and bustle of the season. I don’t know about you, but I am connected these days with too many people who are deeply troubled by personal crises – their own and those of the people they love.

There are medical challenges and the sometimes-impossible choices that go along with them. People are trying to recover from devastating accidents and deal with debilitating treatments and therapies. Others are dealing with grief so raw that they don’t think that they will ever feel whole. When they hear the soundtrack of the season promising peace on earth, how can they not ask where is the promise of peace?

Countries at War

And, of course, we haven’t even touched the really big issue when it comes to peace on earth. For the people of Ukraine, for the unwilling Russian conscripts, for the people of Gaza and the West Bank enduring unrelenting bombing and the people of Israel who, whether they approve of their government’s actions or not, can’t help but wonder if they’ll ever be able to feel safe in their country, the question, “Where is the promise of peace?” resounds.

Our Attempts to Create Peace

We try in all of these situations to create peace. We try to bring peace to our Christmas preparations by doing things like getting organized or by starting early. Parents try to get their kids to settle down by just giving them everything that they ask for. People seek to find relief from their fears and anxieties by ignoring them and hoping they’ll just go away on their own. Some think that the only solution to the war in Ukraine is to just give Putin what he wants. And people have been trying to create peace in the Levant for decades.

But most of these plans, at best, seem able to produce a peace that is short-lived. The best laid plans have a way of becoming overwhelmed. Children who become accustomed to getting whatever they want somehow never become less demanding or disruptive. Anxiety that is pushed down deep inside tends to slip back out in unexpected and ultimately destructive ways. You give Russia what it wants, and it will only want more. And, well, Israel and Palestine have defied the wisdom of the best peacemakers in the world for generations. We try and we try but where is the promise of peace?

God’s Speaks Peace

In response to that question, we have this morning our reading from the Book of Psalms: “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.” Yes, it says that, in those very moments when peace seems most elusive, it can be found because God will speak peace to his people.

That seems like a wonderful promise. But it does raise a few issues, doesn’t it? If God can speak and peace is created, why hasn’t God just done that? What is God waiting for?

2^nd Peter’s Thinking

I actually think that our reading this morning from the Second Letter of Peter might help us to answer that question. The writer is not speaking directly about the promise of peace. He is speaking about the apparent delay in the return of Christ that the people are complaining about. But I think that his explanation applies to both promises: “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”

This is saying that God does not experience time like we do and so can be infinitely patient in ways that we cannot even fathom. It is also saying that the patience of God is a good thing, even if we may not always experience it that way. And I think that all of that does apply to God’s promise of peace as well. You see, one of the real impediments to creating true peace in this world is our own haste. We are in too much of a hurry to get the sensation of peace now, and that prevents us from building the kind of peace that lasts.

When We Rush to Peace

And so, to give a simple example, when parents are desperate to get just a little bit of peace and quiet from their kids at this time of year, they may opt for the quick solution of giving them candy or some other thing to indulge them. And of course, it works in the short term. But wise parents learn quickly that short-term peace can lead to a much more turbulent situation in the longer term, especially if, for example, you load up your kid with so much sugar that they practically lose all control.

The wise parent knows that the real way to build a peaceful family is through character and relationship building for parent and child alike. That can be a lot of work and it may not always be comfortable, but it really is the only way to have peace that will last.

And that is how it is for so many other things. Building true and lasting peace takes risk, commitment and time. But we are always too tempted to take shortcuts and that is a big part of our problem.

Paired Concepts

The psalm doesn’t just promise that God will speak peace to his people. It also describes the process for creating such peace. “Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; Righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, And righteousness will look down from the sky.” This is describing, one by one, those very concepts that are needed to heal our troubled world. We will not get anywhere unless we are able to do it with love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace. But notice how the author very poetically presents these notions. He presents them as pairs, pairs that are meeting one another and intimately embracing one another.

The message behind the intentional pairing of these words seems clear. You cannot have one of these things without the other. Love without faithfulness can easily become self-indulgence. Faithfulness without righteousness can lead to supporting a person, a country or a company even if they are doing evil things. When we become focussed on promoting one thing, no matter how good, without taking the care to balance it with other good things, it can actually lead to an evil outcome.

Righteousness and Peace

And nowhere is that more important than in the central pair: “Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.” Peace that is not established in a positive relationship – a kissing relationship – with righteousness will fail.

Let me explore what that is saying a bit. The word righteousness is one of those biblical words that people sometimes don’t understand the full meaning of. For many people, the word righteousness doesn’t really have the best of associations. For many of us, righteous people are simply people who think that they are better than everybody else because of some moral stance that they have taken.

Righteousness/Justice

But the Hebrew word that is used in that verse means so much more than that. The word that is used in that verse in Hebrew is צִדְקָה (tsidqah) and it does not mean moral superiority or feeling as if you are better than other people. It means justice and not retributive justice when you get back at somebody who has hurt you. It refers to a situation where all things are in balance and where everyone gets a fair shake. It means righteousness in the sense that all the right things happen.

What that means is that whenever we rush towards peace and it doesn’t work or it doesn’t last, the reason is clear. We have tried to establish peace without justice. The two are not kissing each other. And peace cannot last without its romantic pair.

Lasting Peace

In your personal life, if you try to create peace by pushing all of the grief and the loss and the worries and fears deep down inside and you don’t let them out, for example, that will not create lasting peace. You need to allow for what is right – for your fears and losses to be expressed and dealt with. The peace can only last when it is paired with what is right.

If you want to seek peace in your relationships, it is never going to be enough to establish that peace in isolation. Yes, you can decide to not talk about the differences that exist between you and the other person. You can act peaceful on the surface, but unless you are able to work through the points of contention and find a balance and judgement that is fair to all, you won’t find lasting peace in your relationship. Peace and righteousness must kiss.

National and International Conflict

And, of course, this is nowhere truer than when you talk about national and international conflict. Again and again, nations have sought to impose peace through strength. They’ve created a situation where their army has such an overwhelming advantage in terms of arms or sheer numbers, and they believe that that is what will pacify the people that they have colonized, occupied or invaded.

It often works in the short term. But it never works in the long term. Until you can address the deep issues of injustice, racism and exploitation, there will never be peace. It doesn’t even matter how much an oppressed people are outgunned, the mere fact that they know that, no matter what they do, they cannot beat their oppressors, will only eventually lead them to the conclusion that, since they have nothing to lose, the only thing that they have left is the possibility of lashing out at their oppressors.

No Justification of Terrorism

None of this, in any way, should be taken to be a justification for those who resort to extreme tactics like terrorism or suicide bombing. These are absolutely deplorable acts and worthy of all condemnation. But condemnation and reprisal will not stop it from happening. That is a problem that we are all dealing with and that prevents true peace from being established in our world.

And so, on this second Sunday of Advent, let us indeed pray for peace on earth. The earth is sorely in need of it. But let us pray with some understanding that true peace, peace that lasts, is not an easy thing. I am thankful for a God who speaks peace to his people and I pray that all God’s people will hear that voice. I pray that we understand that real peace will take some work and will take some change. Above all, I pray that we understand that it will only last when peace and righteousness kiss one another.

https://youtu.be/Gbj_Ii3syCM

Hespeler, December 3, 2023 © Scott McAndless – First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37

There is a famous, some would say infamous, story in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is out walking with his disciples one day when he sees a fig tree in the distance. The tree has lots of leaves on it so he goes over to see it, thinking that perhaps it might have some figs.

But it is only springtime, not yet the season for figs, and so of course there aren’t any figs, only leaves. This is when the story goes off the rails. Jesus doesn’t react like a normal person and say, “Oh well, I guess it's just too early for figs.” No, Jesus becomes enraged at the tree for failing to produce fruit out of season. He curses it saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”

A Serious Curse

But it is not that Jesus – obviously a bit cranky because he didn’t get any breakfast – utters a lighthearted curse. No, he is apparently deadly serious. When, the next day, the disciples pass by the same spot they are shocked to discover that the poor fig tree, which only acted according to its nature, has withered away to the roots. It will indeed never bear any fruit again.

It is the kind of bizarre story that, if someone came up to you and told you it was in the Bible, you might not believe them. But the problem is really only there when you pull the story out of its context. When you look at everything that is going on around it, you realize that there is more to this odd little tale than what you see at first.

A Symbol

The fig tree, you see, is not just a fig tree. It is a symbol. In the Bible, a fig tree is used as a symbol of the people and the nation of Israel. The Prophet Jeremiah specifically says, for example, that the people of Israel are like a fig tree that produces no figs. (Jeremiah 8:13) So, what Jesus does is meant to be a reference to passages like that.

What’s more, between the time that Jesus curses the fig tree and when it withers, what does he do? He goes into the temple in Jerusalem and cleanses it of all the money changers and sellers. He essentially shuts the place down which suggests that the unfruitful tree is symbolic of the unfruitfulness of the temple, the central institution of Judean society, and its failure to care for the needs of the people.

A Few Days Later

Well, a few days after all that happened, we are told that Jesus was sitting around and shooting the breeze with the disciples on the Mount of Olives. And he began to talk to them about the things that would happen in the future.

A lot of what he was saying was kind of disturbing and frightening. He spoke about the temple being destroyed and horrible events like the sun going dark and the stars all falling out of the sky. I don’t think that it was all meant to lay out a perfect roadmap of exactly what would happen so much as he was just warning them that there were a lot of troubles ahead.

A Callback

But then Jesus said something that I find interesting because it seems to be a callback to the whole fig tree incident of a few days before. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.”

I mean, would you say that if you had done what Jesus did? It could be a kind of embarrassing reminder. “Hey guys remember how the other day I made that stupid mistake? How I thought that, because a fig tree had leaves, it was autumn and it would have fruit, but I was wrong, and the leaves meant that summer was coming? Yeah, don’t do that!” I mean, that is essentially what he is saying.

But (as much as I am certain that Jesus had a good sense of humour) I don’t think he is saying any of this to make fun of himself. I think that it is a confirmation that the whole fig tree incident was an intentional object lesson. He calls it back because he wants to bring the lesson home.

What is the Lesson?

And what is the lesson of the fig tree? If the figless fig tree represents the failure of the temple to respond to the needs of the people, then it is a very discouraging image. It represents the failure of the central institution of that society to do what it was created to do. That is potentially catastrophic. A society whose institutions have failed is usually on the brink of utter collapse – which is, of course, the very thing that Jesus is talking about in this passage.

What’s more, it is a kind of discouragement that we can all sympathize with. We seem to be living in an age where institution after institution is failing to live up to its promise. These institutional failures are causing many of the crises that are overtaking us.

The Housing Market

Take, for example, the institution of real estate in our country. It was an entire system that was set up to provide people with places to live near where they could work and companies space to flourish. But have you noticed how it doesn’t fulfill that purpose anymore?

More than anything else, it has become a vehicle for investment, profit and speculation. Those things were always part of it, of course, but they have taken on such a central role that it can no longer fulfill that original mandate. That is one big reason why we are dealing with a housing crisis.

So far has it strayed from its original purpose that we have seen a government thinking that the only way that they could do anything about the housing crisis was by giving environmentally protected lands, far from anywhere, to developers who would build mansions to sell for millions to people who can only drive fancy cars to work.

I can see how such a move would have juiced all kinds of profits and rewarded the speculation of the developers, but I fail to see how it could have done much to help any of the people who can’t afford housing now. But that is where we seem to be now, so much has the system failed that we can’t even imagine how it could work for its original purpose anymore.

I believe that that was the kind of thing that Jesus was pointing to when he pointed out that the temple was bearing no fruit. And it is not the only institution that is failing our society today.

Other Failing Institutions

Institutions of higher education are failing to yield the fruit they were created to produce. They were supposed to set students up with the knowledge and tools they need to find stable and meaningful employment. Increasingly all that they are setting students up for is life-long debt and jumping from one gig job to another just trying to survive.

And, if that were not enough, these universities and colleges are increasingly dedicating their resources to bringing in international students, taking all of their money and offering them little more than a substandard education and the vague hope that they might be able to become citizens. I’m sorry to have to tell you these things, but that fig tree is no longer producing its fruit.

And can we talk about how seniors’ residences, these institutions that were supposed to offer people the possibility of aging with dignity becoming increasingly institutions whose goal it is to suck up all of their residents’ assets before they die? Can we talk about how government becomes less and less about creating policies that actually help people and more and more about duelling personalities?

Jesus Would Criticize

I suspect that, if Jesus were among us today, he would look one by one at the various institutions of society – churches, policing, drug companies, journalism – and he would point out all of the ways in which they have become corrupted by the selfish, hateful and cynical spirit of our age and are no longer bearing the fruit that they are supposed to. He would point out that that is exactly what is making our times so miserable.

I know I am being blunt, but I do think that if Jesus was that hard on the fig tree that was the temple, he would be just as hard on our institutions.

None of that should reflect negatively on individuals within those institutions. Many, if not most, are good people just trying to do their best. Just as there were, no doubt good priests in the temple who cared about the people, there are lots of good congregations, good journalists and politicians, good cops and developers who do their best to help. But, when the institutions themselves have lost their orientation towards what matters, sometimes even the efforts of the best people can come to nothing.

A Positive Lesson

I realize that all of this might sound rather discouraging, and the fact of the matter is that we do seem to be living in discouraging times right now. But I want you to stick with me a moment here because this is actually not a discouraging verse in the Gospel of Mark.

When Jesus reminds his disciples of the lesson of the fig tree that is producing lots of leaves but no fruit, he is encouraging them. Yes, he is saying that the institutions of our society are collapsing because they are not producing their intended fruit, but there is still hope. The leaves are a sign. They are not a sign that fruit is present. Jesus doesn’t want us to make the same mistake that he did. But they are a sign of the coming summer.

He is Near

And so Jesus says, “When you see these things taking place,” when you see your institutions failing, “you know that he is near, at the very gates.” What does that mean? It means that, when our society fails, that is when God steps in. And, yes, ultimately in this passage that is imagined in terms of Christ returning and such apocalyptic signs as the sun going dark and stars falling from the sky. But, at the same time, the message also has to be that we don’t have to wait for that ultimate resolution to see the action of God and the rebirth of hope.

Jesus promised the disciples, after all, that “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” And, while some of it did happen in their lifespans, it certainly didn’t all come to pass.

Nevertheless, the promise he was giving was real. Though the unfruitful temple may be razed to the ground – and, as Jesus promised, that did happen in 70 AD – you don’t need to lose hope. In the same way, Jesus would say to us today, though all of the institutions of your society may fail, do not despair because God will not abandon you.

Active Waiting

And I don’t believe that we will have to wait until the Son of Man comes in clouds with great power and glory to experience that hope. God is already at work to create hope for our society even as our traditional institutions fail.

I see some of that in our community. I see it in a project at the Legion to actually go ahead and build affordable housing. I see it in new efforts being put forth in the city to prevent people from being evicted. I see people coming forward with creative ideas to reinvent these institutions even as they fail.

I do believe that God is in all such efforts and always has been. When our human institutions fail, God will always appoint people here and there to create renewal and possibility. Maybe God is doing that work in you even now.

We should not close our eyes to the problems that plague our society. We should not try to pretend that they are not there. But, at the same time, we must not lose hope when we don’t see the fruit that is needed. The leaves mean that the summer is coming. The promise of warmth and life is coming. And before long, the autumn will follow with its promise of new fruit. That is the lesson of the fig tree.

https://youtu.be/94AZsrXWlmo

Hespeler, November 26, 2023 © Scott McAndless – Reign of Christ
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24, Psalm 95:1-7a, Ephesians 1:15-23, Matthew 25:31-46

The passage that Allison read to us this morning, the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, has got to be one of my favourite parables. I have returned to it again and again down through the years as I reflect on questions about how we ought to live as Christians and how we ought to find the presence of Jesus in this world.

But, as I reflected on the parable this time, I was struck by something. I’ve always focused on the things that the Son of Man says to the two different groups about what they have done or failed to do. But I’ve never really paid much attention to what happens before that. Before the Son of Man speaks to them, he does something very important. He sorts them out into two groups: the sheep and the goats.

How to Sort the Animals

I always assumed that that part of the story didn’t matter much. It was just sort of the setup for what was going to follow. But maybe I shouldn’t have made that assumption. I don’t know what is involved in separating sheep from goats. But the people who would have listened to Jesus tell the story, would have been much more familiar with both animals. Would they have read more into that sorting than someone like me?

You can sort sheep from goats by using their different physical characteristics. Goats tend to have straight hair while sheep have woolly fur. The horns, if they have them, grow differently – straight up or curling back. Goat tails go up while sheep tails go down. Presumably, the shepherd would use these physical traits to sort the animals.

More than Appearance

But surely, you would think, this parable can’t just be about a difference in appearance. Because that would mean that this parable starts with the Son of Man profiling people based on how they look. And that can be quite problematic, can’t it? We have all seen how such profiling has often contributed to racism and other alarming prejudices. I have a bit of trouble with the notion that, when Jesus judges the people of this world, he would make use of anything like such an approach.

So, I don’t think that this parable begins with appearance. It’s got to be about something else – some other difference between sheep and goats. Many of us, with our lack of experience of such things, don’t see much difference between sheep and goats beyond appearance. But they are, in fact, very different animals.

Differences in Behaviour

The only thing I know about goat behaviour is that, apparently, Bill Grogan’s goat was feeling fine one day and he ate three red shirts right off of the line. I don’t know if you know that song, but I certainly learned it when I was growing up. But that old camp song does hint at something true about goats. They will eat just about anything.

They are particularly adventurous in searching for their meals. They will step out quite alone and go far afield looking for some tasty tidbit. As such, they do often get into a fair bit of mischief. So, think of goats as the great individualists of the pastures. They tend to behave as if it is every goat for him or herself.

For the sheep, on the other hand, it is all about the herd. Sheep stick together. They know that they are safest when they are close to one another and look out for one another. They always graze close to the ground on tasty grass and clover and are not adventurous in their diets. If one sheep goes off in a particular direction, the rest are very likely to follow. Sheep are the great communitarians of the pastures. And I think that there is something of relevance in that to the whole parable.

Judging Based on What They Did

When the Son of Man comes, you see, we are told that he will judge between the sheep and the goats based on what they did: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” And those are all very laudable and praiseworthy actions, of course. But the very notion that such actions lead to salvation or access to the kingdom of God for the sheep raises some theological questions.

Teaching about Salvation

The teaching about salvation in much of the New Testament, especially as it is laid out by the Apostle Paul, is quite clear. Our good deeds and best intentions, as wonderful as they might be, are not what earns us salvation. We are just not able to attain the standards of God’s goodness and righteousness on our own power. But that is okay because God offers us whatever salvation we need as a gift, something that is obtained for us by what Jesus has done for us. This is called grace, and it is activated in our lives by faith – not by us believing certain things but by us choosing to put our trust in Jesus.

This teaching is foundational to Christian theology. Yet it seems to be contradicted in this parable when the sheep are told that they will inherit the kingdom because of what they have done. That’s why I can’t help but wonder whether there might not be a little bit more than just that going on in this parable. Perhaps it’s not just about what these grazing animals have done or failed to do. Maybe it has something more to do with the differences between sheep and goats. Maybe it has something to do with their nature.

Charitable Deeds

The sheep in this parable engage in what we might call good deeds and specifically in charitable deeds. They have been giving of their time and talent to visit people who are struggling. They have provided food and clothing to those who need them. And such charitable deeds are certainly good and praiseworthy. But I also think that we are becoming more and more aware that such charitable giving is sometimes little more than a band-aid, and not a solution to the real problems of poverty, isolation and exclusion.

We have certainly seen that through our experience here at St. Andrews, but we also see it all across this country in the wake of the economic troubles of the last few years. The number of families using resources like food banks is growing constantly. The numbers doubled in Toronto over the last year. But simply giving people emergency food, though essential, doesn’t solve the underlying problems of low wages, underemployment and unaffordable housing.

Why They Are Not Necessarily Enough

Charitable acts are good, of course, especially when responding to immediate crises and when helping people to survive in an unfair world, but if all we are doing is giving food to the hungry, clothing to the naked and visiting those who have been unjustly imprisoned or who have fallen ill because of all of the ways in which the world is just not right, nothing will ever change. By keeping the most disadvantaged from becoming so hopeless that they rebel, we might even be helping to maintain an unacceptable status quo.

What is needed is a whole new mindset, a different way of thinking about the problems. And this parable seems to suggest that a goat’s mindset is not going to do it. Goats are only interested in taking care of themselves. It is a constant scramble to find what they desire or need. But so long as that is all we can think about – and we are constantly being told in our society today that that is all that we should think about – the deep underlying problems will not be tackled.

Thinking Like Sheep

No, what I think this parable is suggesting is that the sheep’s approach of looking out for the whole community and working collectively on our problems is the only way that anything can possibly change. Obviously, a change in mindset is only the beginning, a lot of work needs to be done to bring about actual change in how society works. But I would suggest that it must start with a fundamental shift from thinking like goats to thinking like sheep.

And, if that is part of the parable and the message that Jesus is trying to give, then doesn’t that cast the whole question about gaining entrance into the kingdom into a very different light? Perhaps what he’s really saying is not that the sheep have earned their way into the kingdom by their good deeds, perhaps the meaning is that they are already part of the kingdom because of the way they have chosen to look at the world, a worldview that has led them to behave in certain ways, doing such things as feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

A Different Way of Seeing Things

For me, that brings this parable much closer to the teaching about salvation that we find elsewhere in the New Testament. It is about grace, and it is about responding to that grace with faith and trust. The point of the parable is that, when you do respond like that, it does tend to make you relate to the world in different ways. If you have come to understand all that God has done for you in and through Jesus Christ, if you understand how Jesus laid himself down for the sake of all of his people, how can you just continue to approach the world like a goat? How can you only be concerned with feeding and taking care of yourself without thinking about the needs of those who struggle?

And when you understand it that way, you can see that it is not that the sheep have earned their way by means of their good deeds. It is rather that their good deeds have shown them up for who they truly are, just as the failure to respond to need has shown up the goats for who they truly are. The sheep are those who have learned to trust in God’s grace, and it has changed the way that they have lived. And so, you see, the Son of Man has not sorted the two groups based on appearance. I told you he wouldn’t do that. But the way they have acted and behaved and the way that they have related to their world, have been the very criteria that the Son of Man has used to recognize those who were already his.

Eternal Punishment

This parable ends with the goats being sent “away into eternal punishment.” And that is indeed a very troubling image. The idea that God would condemn a group of people to eternal punishment just for failing to respond to people in need does not particularly sound like a gracious act. But remember that this is a parable and not a literal description of what is going to happen at the end of all things. And it is not about what people have done so much as it is about how people have come to see the world.

I tend to understand it this way. Those who have learned from Jesus and his example of perfect service and sacrifice and so have come to see the world like sheep, are already living into the reality of the kingdom of God. That is why they show it in their actions.

Those who stubbornly hold to a goatish worldview have essentially cut themselves off from the kingdom here and now. Their way of seeing the world means that they will never encounter the living Christ in this world because they cannot see him in the face of the hungry, naked, sick and captive.

Living in the Kingdom Now

This is less about what happens to us when we are dead than it is about what kingdom we choose to live in here and now. I happen to believe that, after we all die, we will simply find ourselves in the hands of the gracious God who has been revealed to us in Jesus. I do not fear the punishment of such a God, no matter what my failures or shortcomings might be.

It all starts with choosing to trust in him. The more we live into that faith, the more it transforms us and the more the world is transformed through us.

https://youtu.be/Pzdl4d1MuZU

Hespeler, November 19, 2023 © Scott McAndless – 25^th Sunday after Pentecost
Judges 4:1-10, 15-24, Judges 5:24-31, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Matthew 25:14-30

One day, when I was quite young, I stumbled upon the passage that we read in the Book of Judges this morning. It was just the sort of story that an adolescent boy can’t get enough of. What can I say, I loved the violence and the gory details of the story of Jael. It quickly became the Bible story that I loved to show off to people when they wanted to know something weird from the Bible. I guess some things never change.

Heroic Women

But I have learned recently to appreciate the story for some reasons beyond the somewhat gory details. It is a story of how men messed everything up, pushed people to the edge and they were only making everything worse. And it is a story about how women had to step in and save the day.

And, if you do much reading in the Bible, and especially in the Old Testament, you will know what a truly extraordinary thing such a story is. The Bible is a book that was written within a society that was completely oriented towards male dominance and authority.

The Usual Biblical Heroine

The heroes of the Bible, by and large, are men. Whenever the nation is in need of saving, they are the ones who ride to the rescue. Female heroines are few and far between and most often their work of saving the nation comes in the form of producing children to ensure the next generation, which is not to suggest even for a moment that such work is not important or heroic, it is. It is just that the Bible so often assumes that that is the only heroic role that a woman can have.

It is for that reason that the story of Deborah and of Jael stands out in the Bible. And, unfortunately, the tradition has often ignored these extraordinary women. That is a real shame because, while it is true that the Bible is focused on the stories and fates of men, it is not true that it simply discounts the women of the history of faith. Sometimes it takes some digging, but incredible stories are there. So, I would like to share with you the story of two extraordinary women who saved the Hebrew nation at a time of great peril.

Embeyisrael

Deborah sat under a palm tree in the hill country of Ephraim as she did most every day. The place, which was indeed a holy and sanctified place, was so closely associated with this extraordinary woman, that you just had to say the Palm of Deborah, and everyone immediately knew what tree you were talking about.

Deborah was acknowledged by all as a wise and thoughtful woman. People respected her opinions so much that they would come from miles around to stand before her and ask her to settle their arguments and disputes. She always sought to act with justice and compassion and so her judgments were highly valued. Because they believed that she had been designated by God to lead the people, they called her Embeyisrael – the mother of Israel.

Bigger Problems

But, while Deborah could certainly help people to work through their individual disputes, they still struggled collectively with a very big challenge. Jabin, the King of Hazor, had become very wealthy and powerful throughout the whole region. And he had used his wealth and his influence to exploit the Hebrew people.

He kept them from living peaceably in the land and profiting from the work of their hands. His chief enforcer, Sisera, squeezed the people to wring every last bit of profit that he could out of them. And Deborah felt that, if she was to be a true leader of the people, she ought to have the courage to tackle this system of subjugation and exploitation that was destroying them.

But there was a problem. The systemic exploitation of Jabin and Sisera could only be challenged through direct confrontation. In that culture, it was not considered seemly for a woman to engage in that kind of thing. If she was going to take direct action, she would have to ask another to lead.

The Man for the Job

And so she sent for Barak. Barak was a man, a requirement for the job, but he had also shown himself capable of leading the militia of the tribes of Israel. She knew that if he spoke on her behalf and asked the tribes to come in the name of the Mother of Israel, they would respond.

But Barak was hesitant. The problem was not that he didn’t believe that he could do it. He was a man; he had no doubts about that. But he was somewhat resentful of the very idea that he might need to call up the tribes on behalf of the Mother of Israel. He felt as if this would rob him of the honour and the glory that was due to him and his name.

Barak’s Condition

 And so, he said that he would only do it on one condition. She would have to go with him. He figured that this way, if he was not successful, he could always blame the failure on her. Whereas, if he actually managed to defeat Sisera, that could only happen in the thick of battle where Deborah could not go. Thus, only he would have the glory from such a victory.

He thought that Deborah would refuse. Most men would have, for what man is willing to risk his life in battle without the possibility of earning personal glory? But Deborah didn’t think like a man. She would have laid aside all her own glory in order that her people might be safe from those who oppressed them. And so, Deborah agreed. But she could not help herself from giving a warning to Barak that he might be valuing the wrong things.

“I will surely go with you;” she said. “Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” But Barak only laughed at that. He was absolutely certain that there was no way that Deborah could steal his glory when he won.

The Wife of Heber

Jael was the wife of Heber the Kenite. And Heber, like most of the Kenites, had a rather precarious existence in the territories of the people of Israel. He lived as a nomad, herding sheep and cattle and living in tents as he travelled around in search of the best pastures.

As a herder, he had often had many clashes with the Israelite tribespeople. The Israelites, who were trying to eke a living out of their little plots of farmland, often resented it when herders like Heber let their animals graze on their land and destroy their crops.

And so, Heber sought some protection from his enemies, the Israelites. He went to the only strongman he could find and one who had no great love or respect for the Israelites. He made a deal with Sisera – a protection deal. He paid off Sisera and Sisera made sure that bad things happened to anyone who clashed with Heber.

So, Heber was actively participating in the exploitation of the settled Hebrews. Jael, his wife, hadn’t been consulted about any of this, of course, she was just expected to go along with it.

Her Own Person

But Jael was not just a possession belonging to her husband. The Hebrews might have had a law that went like this: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour,” but Jael knew that she was more than her husband’s possession.

Jael had eyes to see, and she had a brain to interpret the things that she saw. She saw how Sisera was oppressing the people. She knew that it wasn’t right. And the safe thing to do about that would have been to just keep her head down and do what her husband told her to do, but Jael wasn’t that kind of person.

The Battle at Kishon

When Barak looked down upon the Wadi Kishon and saw where Sisera had gathered his army, his heart quailed at the sight. The army of Hazor was massive and well-equipped. There had to be about 900 iron chariots on the floor of that valley. Barak knew that the men at his back who had gathered from the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were only farmers who had beaten their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears. How could they possibly hope to take on such professional troops? He was ready to call the whole thing off.

But, as Deborah looked over his shoulder, Yahweh allowed her to see something that he had missed. There had been a rainfall the night before, and the floor of the wadi was a mass of churned-up mud. She suspected that Sisera’s chariots would not give him the advantage that Barak feared. She commanded Barak in front of all the men. “Go, for God has given Sisera into your hand today!”

Barak really had no choice. His honour would not allow him to be chastised by a woman and do nothing about it. And so he brandished his sword and with a cry to Yahweh, the warrior god of Israel, he led the tribesmen as they charged down the steep sides of the wadi.

Victory!

The men of Hazor were taken by surprise in the sudden attack. Under normal circumstances, they would have recovered quickly and maneuvered their chariots by the time the Israelites fell upon them. But the wheels of the chariots quickly became mired in the mud and Sisera’s army fell into confusion. The lightly armoured Israelite infantry swept over the trapped charioteers and they began to flee in every direction. But the wheels turned so slowly because of the mud, that the infantry were able to give chase and Barak led his troops in what felt like a rout.

So, there was victory that day, but there was no honour. For, in the confusion and while everyone was concentrating on the chariots, Sisera had slipped away on foot. And so, Barak knew that part of what Deborah had promised had come to pass. He would not gain the glory that he was due for such a victory. But, as he looked across the field and saw Deborah standing there, he took solace in one thing. At least all that she had predicted had not come to pass. She had not stolen his glory. So, at least the very worst had not happened and he had not been outshone by a mere woman.

A Demanding Visitor

Jael was alone in her tent. Her husband was away following his herds as usual. He would often be gone for days at a time leaving her to deal with whatever might happen.

And, it seemed, something definitely was happening outside her tent right now. There had been sounds of battle just beyond the hills for several hours. Now she heard the sound of somebody running. As she looked out, she saw that there was a man who was coming towards her. He was panting and, as he cried out with what little breath he had left, she suddenly recognized him. It was Sisera, the enforcer of Hazor.

As he approached the tent, all red and sweaty, he began to demand things of her. He reminded her of the alliance that her husband had made with his king and that she was required to live by it. That meant, he insisted, that she must hide him from his enemies who were seeking to kill him. She had no choice.

Jael Makes a Choice

And so, Jael responded immediately. “Oh, you poor dear,” she cried. “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear.” And so, he came into her tent. He seemed to be afraid that his pursuers were only just a little behind him. He insisted that she hide him inside the tent as well. She laid him down in a corner and covered him with a rug. His final request to her was for a little water to drink, for he had been fighting and then running all day.

As she turned away to fetch what he requested, her eye fell on something. There, right by the tent flap, was a skin of milk. She had filled it from the she goat only minutes before Sisera had appeared and it would still be warm. As a mother, she knew very well that a bit of warm milk can do wonders to calm an impetuous child and perhaps even send it to sleep. Ever since he had appeared, Sisera had been acting like an impetuous child. And so, she gave him the milk to drink instead of water. And it worked like a charm. The exhausted man soon fell into a deep sleep.

The Tent Peg of Justice

Jael should not have done what she did next. It was a betrayal of the alliance her husband had made with the king of Hazor. It also violated the laws of hospitality, for anyone she had invited into her tent should have been under her protection. But then again, had she really invited him, or had she been invaded?

There, in that tent that day, something changed for Jael. She knew the damage that Sisera did to the people of Israel. She knew that, even if letting him have his way might be in the interest of herself and her family, it was truly not the right thing.

She also knew that nobody else was going to do a thing about it. So she decided that she would. She slipped outside the tent, grabbed a spare tent peg and a mallet, and the rest is a gory story to fascinate adolescent boys.

When Jael went out to find Barak and bring him back to her tent to witness the results of her handiwork, she expected him to be pleased. His enemy was gone! But his face fell, and he muttered darkly something about how the Mother of Israel had tricked him.

The Oldest Story?

The story of Deborah and Jael is thought by many scholars to be one of the oldest stories in the Bible. The Song of Deborah, from which we also read this morning, is written in some of the most archaic Hebrew in the entire book. I definitely think that more people should know the story and that is why I wanted to deal with it today.

But that still leaves us, of course, with the question of what we are supposed to do with it. I’m sure that none of us would want to take the lesson from it that we ought to all try and solve our problems with tent pegs.

Learning from Two Extraordinary Women

But, while we shouldn’t emulate their methods, I think we can all learn a lot from these women’s spirits. They were confronted by huge problems and great injustices. They also suffered from the curse of being told all their lives that they couldn’t do anything about the problems of this world because of who they were.

I think we are all given that message – many of us are given it constantly. What is the point of trying to challenge injustice? Who do you think you are? You are just a woman – just a minority – just a small church – just fill in the blank – why even try?

But whenever someone makes you feel like that, I think you should be able to tell them a story of a woman sitting under a palm tree and another woman who just finished milking a goat. If God could use them, why not you? Why not us?