Hey Jude

Jude 1-2 (CEB) Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James.

To those who are called, loved by God the Father and kept safe by Jesus Christ.

May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.

 

                Today we begin a very short series on the New Testament Letter of Jude (pronounced “Ju-dah”). Jude was one of the earthly brothers of Jesus, although it must be noted that Jude did not believe Jesus was the Messiah until after Jesus died.  Eventually though, Jude becomes a prominent Christian leader, particularly among Jews who have become Christians.  This letter is one that Jude wrote to one of the communities he had served, though we are not sure of the specific community. 

                Jude is not widely read in Christian circles even today, probably because he has many strange references to angels and the devil that are not found anywhere in the current Old and New Testaments of Scripture.  We’ll talk more about that next time, but for now, we’ll note that at the time of Jude’s writing this letter, the texts he references were commonly read texts in the Jewish community.  Some of them are still part of the Jewish scriptures.

                Today though, let’s simply hear the charge Jude makes to his readers in the opening to his letter:

                “May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.”

Jude’s hope and expectation for those he leads is that they are growing in peace, love, and mercy. This forms the basis for the purpose of the letter which we will talk more about next time, but let simply hear for ourselves the charge on it’s own right now. 

                “May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.”

                Think about your long-term relationships (family of origin, spouse, children, grandchildren, friends etc).  Now, think about the character of those relationships in the past.  Go back a year, two years, or more and recall the level of peace, love, and mercy in your part of the relationship back then.  Obviously, we have no control over how others behave, but how did you exercise these virtues in these relationships in the past? Now think about how you behave towards them currently.  As you compare the past with the present, would you say that you have more peace, love, and mercy now or less?

                One of the core assumptions of the Christian faith is that following Jesus produces a character transformation.  We exhibit more and more of the character of Christ in how we live and relate to others.  Jude’s expectation and hope is one we should take seriously and think about often.  How are we growing in the ways we live out our faith in our daily actions?

Questions:  Review the questions above.

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help us see how we have grown (or not grown) in our faith in the recent past.  Show us our opportunities to grow right now.  Make us more and more people of mercy, love, and understanding. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the many victims of several mass shootings over the holiday weekend.

 

Song:  What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding – Taylor Momsen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48glZCdj4Rc   

The Eight Woes – Part 3

 

The Eight Woes – Part 3

 

Matthew 23:23-28, NRSV - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth.  So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

 

Matthew 5:7-9, NRSV – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

 

The practice of mercy.  Purity of heart.  A heart to make peace.  The hearers of Jesus’s first public teaching, the Sermon on the mount, heard the vison of those who sincerely follow God.  In Jesus’s last public address, the so-called leaders of the followers of God called out for living out and teaching others the total anthesis of God’s vision.  The Pharisees stress tithing while taking advantage of the poor – a total repudiation of mercy.  They maintain a spotless image of piety that hides widespread corruption in their ranks – their hearts are far from pure.  They have not brought peace to God’s people, for they are only looking out for themselves and their position. 

                It’s important to remember the setting here. Jesus is speaking in the temple in front of many people with the various groups of leaders present.  This polemic against the religious establishment is directed at leaders, but clearly, Jesus wants the people to hear it. Just before he turns to the leaders, he talks about them to the people.  Jesus instructs them to do what they say, but avoid doing what they do.  Then the Eight Woes talk specifically about those “doings” that people should avoid.  This is the word for us today as well. This is easier said than done.

                Our tendency as humans is to expend a much energy in “image management.”  We all want to be seen as “good people.”  There’s nothing wrong with that desire.  But what God looks for in us is not our surface image, but the condition of our hearts, a condition that is often hidden from others because external image would be “tainted.”  People who are truly merciful are often seen by others as weak.  People who work to keep their heart pure are often accused of being “goody two shoes.”  The great peacemakers of this world often endure much vitriol from the very folks with whom they are seeking to make peace.  It’s much easier to appear merciful, pure in heart, and peacemaking than it is to actually BE those things.  So, all too often, we settle for appearances. 

                God cares much more about the real condition of our souls and the real substance of our living than the public appearances we maintain.  Jesus points out in the Beatitudes and Woes that there is blessing in the real work of faith and there is misery in the never-ending quest for the perfect image.  Jesus message to the people standing in the Temple that day (and to us) was to aim for the blessings, not the misery.   Be merciful even when it’s not popular.  Keep your heart pure even though it means you might have to say no when everyone else is saying yes.   Do the work of making peace even when it’s runs against the tide.  Align your heart and action with the heart and action of God.  God does not promise to do so is to avoid pain, but God does promise there is blessing in the Beatitude life and misery in living the opposite.

 

Questions:  How much energy do you expend “keeping up appearances?” How might some of that energy be better used?

 

Prayer:  Lord, help me see the ways in which I am only “going through the motions” for appearance sake.  Help me rediscover the your ways of blessing.  Reinstall the beatitudes in my heart and action.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know who are fighting discouragement right now.

 

Song:  Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly – Pat Barrett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk7llf2LkKc

Matthew 12:1-14 - Pharisaical Tendencies

 

Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 20, 2021

Pharisaical Tendencies

 

Matthew 12:1-14 - At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.  Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?  I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.  If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

 

This passage is obviously about keeping the Sabbath, but it is also about something much bigger than the Sabbath – legalism.  As soon as I say the word “legalism,” most of us consciously or unconsciously uncheck the imaginary box in our mind that this passage is speaking to us.  After all, who wants to admit that they are a legalist.  But I want to submit to you that we all have legalist tendencies. 

In the passage above, the Pharisees (the quintessential legalists of the gospels) are challenging Jesus on this disciples harvesting food for themselves on the sabbath.  That was forbidden on the Sabbath and the disciples had actually done what they charged.  They were guilty according to the law and so the Pharisees are not technically wrong to challenge what they did.  But Jesus finds them wrong nonetheless.  Why is this?

There are two ways in which they are wrong.  As interpreters of the law, Pharisees are charged with communicating and teaching the intention or “spirit” of the law.  Jesus points the intention of this particular law when he quotes Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”  The Pharisees would rather the disciples sacrifice by not eating than by eating and breaking the letter of the law.  Jesus points out that it is merciful to let them eat and that showing mercy is more important than keeping the letter of the law because mercy is the intent of sabbath laws.  In Mark’s version of this same encounter, Jesus says, ““The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).    In other words, the Sabbath is supposed to be a merciful thing for people, not a sacrificial thing.

The second way in which the Pharisees are wrong here is related to the first, but is subtly different.  This plays out through the subsequent healing of the withered hand.  After Jesus has healed the man, the Pharisees are furious and begin to look for a way to kill Jesus.  Why would a healing provoke rage?  The answer lies in the fact that Jesus shows that the Pharisees were never interested in the intention of the law in the first place.  What they were interested in was USING the law to entrap Jesus and/or his disciples.  Jesus exposes this intention and embarrasses the Pharisees in front of others.  He is also challenging the very basis of their power which is being able to use the law for their own intentions. 

“Shame on those Pharisees” we like to say, but I would close today by making a bold claim.  All of us have pharisaical tendencies.  There are times when the “rules” are a convenient way to dismiss a difficult issue.  There are other times when we our use of the rules is not merciful.  Jesus reminds us today that when choose the rules over being merciful, we are not only choosing against mercy, we are choosing something He himself would not choose. 

 

Questions:  Do we ever use the “rules” to try and gain an advantage or avoid dealing with something difficult?  Do we use the technicality of the rules so we don’t have to deal with the intention behind the rules? 

 

Prayer:  For our own sake, Lord, show us our Pharisaical tendencies.  Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the fourteen kidnapped missionaries (including children) in Haiti. 

 

Song:  Buddy Greene - Recovering Pharisee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMyplW33E7c