Episode 78: P. +12A (Aug. 31) Burning Bush or Stumbling Block
For Sunday, August 31, 2014
Burning Bush Image by Brendan Biele (more of his photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/brendanbiele/)
Welcome to the Pulpit Fiction Podcast, where two local pastors discuss the lectionary reading for the week.
This is episode 78 for Sunday August 31, Proper 17A/Ordinary 22A/12 Sundays after Pentecost.
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Introduction and Check-in
- Michael Brown and Ferguson Prayers and Resources
- Apply for Healthy Families Healthy Planet training in Peoria, IL on Sept 6. Seminar is free (three meals included). Learn to be an advocate for maternal health and family planning. Learn more about the project.
- Happy 51st Anniversary Roger and Joan McCoy.
- Show notes in your email box! Click Here!
Featured Musician - Sara Kay, “Be Opened” from her album On the Way. More of her music at http://www.reverbnation.com/sarakay
Primary Scripture -Matthew 16:21-28 Peter the stumbling block
Initial Thoughts
- What is victory?
- What does it mean to be the messiah? To be anointed? It means sacrificing everything for the sake of the Good News of God’s radical inclusive love.
- “From that time on” - a shift to Jerusalem and passion
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- First of the passion predictions (cf. Mark 8:31-33 & Luke 9:22)
- focus shifts from the “crowds” to the disciples
- First of the passion predictions (cf. Mark 8:31-33 & Luke 9:22)
- Jesus must suffer - a prediction of sacrificial atonement or an allusion to Isaiah 52-53 Suffering Servant
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- must (dei - it is necessary) - alludes to a pre-ordained divine plan, not Jesus’ choice to continue his ministry
- see also the combination of “show” and “must” in Rev. 1:1
- must (dei - it is necessary) - alludes to a pre-ordained divine plan, not Jesus’ choice to continue his ministry
- Text is vague- what does it mean that jesus began to show them?
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- Charles Hambrick-Stowe, Feasting on the Word: “Incarnation is a doctrine expressing Jesus' complete divinity and humanity; it also points to his embodiment of the gospel, as he showed people the gospel in all he did and said. His was a full-bodied pedagogy, not lecturing but revealing in parables, healings, exorcisms, and acts of compassion and confrontation.”
- Perhaps he showed less concern over his own safety and survival than for sharing the good news?
- Charles Hambrick-Stowe, Feasting on the Word: “Incarnation is a doctrine expressing Jesus' complete divinity and humanity; it also points to his embodiment of the gospel, as he showed people the gospel in all he did and said. His was a full-bodied pedagogy, not lecturing but revealing in parables, healings, exorcisms, and acts of compassion and confrontation.”
- Peter’s Response:
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- Satan is the great tempter- Is Jesus tempted to walk away from his path?
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- Call back to chapter 4 and being tempted in the desert- once again Jesus is tempted to forgo his path/call/ministry
- Call back to chapter 4 and being tempted in the desert- once again Jesus is tempted to forgo his path/call/ministry
- Get behind me - rebuke or invitation?
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- “opiso mou” - get behind me. Same phrase used in 4:19 (follow me) - this may just as easily be a call to deeper discipleship
- “opiso mou” - get behind me. Same phrase used in 4:19 (follow me) - this may just as easily be a call to deeper discipleship
- How could he not be tempted to walk away? Running to the cross with ultimate confidence would strip some of the humanity from Jesus
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- Not the absence of fear or doubt, but overcoming through faith
- Perhaps - he does ask God to "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” ( but obviously ends with “ yet not what I want but what you want.") - Matthew 26:39
- Not the absence of fear or doubt, but overcoming through faith
- Peter’s reaction any different from many of us when the survival of the church is threatened or our own safety is threatened?
- Peter is transformed from the “rock” to the “stumbling block” (cf. Isaiah 8:11-15)
- Satan is the great tempter- Is Jesus tempted to walk away from his path?
- Jewish authorities
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- Not anti-Jewish: Matthew clearly identifies Jesus as the “Son of David” and the new Moses.
- Jesus’ death was political as much as it was religious as shown by the cross- a Roman execution reserved for political enemies (those who resisted Rome or Caesar. eg: social bandits (like those crucified alongside Jesus), revolutionaries (like Spartacus) or the Germanic tribes
- Not anti-Jewish: Matthew clearly identifies Jesus as the “Son of David” and the new Moses.
- Good News?
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- Yes- this is a message of reassurance that the death of Jesus is not meaningless, but is part of a greater plan
- Yes - their own potential deaths (at the hands of the Romans or others) is also not meaningless
- Yes- this is a message of reassurance that the death of Jesus is not meaningless, but is part of a greater plan
- Take up your cross
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- BEWARE: This text has been misused to justify slavery, oppression, violence and domestic abuse by telling those oppressed to simply “bear their cross”
- Mitchell Reddish, Feasting on the Word: “The condemned criminal who carried the horizontal bar of the cross to the site of crucifixion would have been subjected to taunts, humiliation, rejection, and shame before finally enduring an agonizing death. The disciple who "takes up the cross" is one who is willing to surrender pride, ego, status, comfort, and even life for the sake of the kingdom of God.
- What does it mean to take up our cross and follow Jesus?
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- sacrifice? When was the last time you preached on sacrifice?
- New life only comes through death - we often offer new life but are loath to invite people to die- how can we do this while retaining the joy of the Good News?
- sacrifice? When was the last time you preached on sacrifice?
- Not self abasement or self-esteem
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- Christian call is “an orientation to one’s life that is not focused on self at all, either as self-esteem or self-abasement, as self-fulfillment or self-emptying” - M. Eugene Boring, NIB: Matthew
- Christian call is “an orientation to one’s life that is not focused on self at all, either as self-esteem or self-abasement, as self-fulfillment or self-emptying” - M. Eugene Boring, NIB: Matthew
- BEWARE: This text has been misused to justify slavery, oppression, violence and domestic abuse by telling those oppressed to simply “bear their cross”
- If following Jesus is an invitation to new life - do we allow people to grieve their old life even as they step into the new?
- Sacrifice - what place does it have in today’s Churches? How do we invite people to both the good news of Jesus Christ and to the good news of sacrifice?
- What is more important survival or faithfulness? Do we justify the need to survive (a denominational, congregation, or individual) over being radically faithful?
- Should the church be an sanctuary-opened to all or gathering hall - locked to non-leaders except for business hours?
Featured Musician - Sara Kay, “Be Opened” from her album On the Way. More of her music at http://www.reverbnation.com/sarakay
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Secondary scripture - Exodus 3:1-15 Moses and the burning bush
Initial Thoughts
- Skips Moses’ troubles with Pharoah. He was raised as a prince, apparently knew that he was a Hebrew. He fell out of favor after murdering an Egyptian who was treating a Hebrew harshly.
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- “Moses is a lost soul.” Raised by Hebrew mother. Adopted by Egyptian princess. Murdered an Egyptian worker. Rejected by fellow Hebrews. Flees his homeland, and is identified as an Egyptian by the woman he soon marries. Now working for his father-in-law, his curiosity leads him to an incredible encounter.
- “Moses is a lost soul.” Raised by Hebrew mother. Adopted by Egyptian princess. Murdered an Egyptian worker. Rejected by fellow Hebrews. Flees his homeland, and is identified as an Egyptian by the woman he soon marries. Now working for his father-in-law, his curiosity leads him to an incredible encounter.
- The ultimate call story. Moses going about his day-to-day business of tending the flock when he encounters something incredible.
- “The story of the call of Moses has long fascinated the community of faith, particularly the burning bush. In my mind’s eye is a composite of numerous efforts by Bible storybook artists to depict this incident in full color. As is so often the case however, the picture stays in the memory but the content of Moses’ encounter with the divine remains hazy.” (Terence Fretheim, Interpretation: Exodus, p. 51)
- Encounter happens in midst of everyday life
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- Horeb means “Wasteland”
- “It would not be the last time that God chose a nontraditional, nonreligious setting for a hearing of the word.” (Freitheim, p. 54. Emphasis in original text)
- Moses’ curiosity draws him into the encounter. Not until Moses inquires about the strange fire does God intervene - and it is then revealed that it is not just a messenger of God, but God in the fire.
- The fire is not an otherworldly vision. Moses is awake, conscious, and aware of what is going on. The ground must be felt at his feet to reaffirm that this is “real life.”
- God is clothed by the fire, but is not the fire. God’s presence is obscured by the created world, but God is intimately involved in the midst of that world.
- The holy ground was made holy by God’s presence. God is not limited by sites, shrines, temples. God has access to any where, and when God is there it is holy.
- “The ground is now holy because of God’s appearance, not because it was already holy. There is no holiness inherent in the place as such… That which is part of the natural order is sanctified, set apart for special use by God.” (Fretheim, p. 56).
- Horeb means “Wasteland”
- Memory and Sight
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- The act of sight is an important first step in the encounter.
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- First, God sees. Then, Moses must see God.
- God appears to Moses (3:2). Moses tries to see the bush (3:3). Moses afraid to look (3:6). God says “I have observed the misery of my people…” (3:7). “I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them.” (3:9).
- First, God sees. Then, Moses must see God.
- The act of remembering and forgetting will be an important theme throughout Exodus, and the rest of the Hebrew Bible.
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- God connects Moses to his past “God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Ex 3:6).
- When Moses asks about who to say sent him, God’s response ties the past and present together “I am who I am.” (3:14). Then God again recalls the tradition of the patriarchs (3:15).
- God connects Moses to his past “God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Ex 3:6).
- The act of sight is an important first step in the encounter.
- Mission and Objections
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- God’s Action: “I have come to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (3:8).
- Moses’ mission: “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
- Moses: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?”
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- God: “I will be with you”
- God: “I will be with you”
- Moses: “What am I going to tell the Israelites? Who should I say sent me?”
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- God: “I am who I am.” (NRSV)
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- “One of the most puzzled over verses in the entire Hebrew Bible.” (Fretheim, p. 63)
- “I will be what I will be.”
- “I will cause to be what I will cause to be.”
- “I will be who I am.”
- “I am who I will be.” “This seems to be the best option, in essence: ‘ will be God for you.’ The force is not simply that God is or that God is present but that God will be faithfully God for them.” Fretheim, p. 63)
- “One of the most puzzled over verses in the entire Hebrew Bible.” (Fretheim, p. 63)
- “Without pursuing the endless critical opinions about the origin of the formula, it is enough to see that the formula bespeaks power, fidelity, and presence. This God is named as the power to create, the one who causes to be. This God is the one who will be present in faithful ways to make possible what is not otherwise possible.” (Brueggeman, p. 714).
- God: “I am who I am.” (NRSV)
- Altogether, there are five objections that Moses raises. Each one pointing to a past reality. Each solution of God points to a new future. (Walter Brueggeman, New Interpreters’ Bible, v. 1, p. 713).
- God’s Action: “I have come to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (3:8).
- Don’t be afraid to tell your call story. No, preaching isn’t about the preacher, but it is a little. It is good to let people know - or even remind them - of how you were called to preach. Did you have a burning bush? Too many people think that call only comes through miraculous intervention. Fact is for most, call comes again and again. Someone might hear their own call through your story. And remember, the story skips over the part where Moses objects, bargains, and tries to get out of it, and God equips Moses to fulfill the call.
- “See and Remember.” When God saw the oppression of his people, he could no longer sit idly by. When sharing his identity, it was tied intimately with the past. Part of our role as people called by God is to see and remember. See the pain in the world that God would want us to heal, and remember that God is in our midst.
- Moses task seems great, and his objections are numerous and reasonable, but at each objection, God has an answer. Moses (like Peter in the above passage?) keeps thinking in human terms, fearful of failure and death. God though, is thinking as God, knowing that new life comes through death.
CLOSING
TY listeners
Shout outs:
Facebook:
- Suz Cate - Eric, because you asked: I preached my PG-rated sermon, trying to move us from "what the hell is going on here" to "on earth as it is in heaven". It certainly got people's attention, and maybe some folks are re-examining what it means to be united in Christ.
- Debbie Graham - I love you guys and I wrestle with you - usually while driving my car or washing dishes!. Sometimes I agree with what you say and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I laugh and sometimes I'm bored. I so appreciate that you read the passages you are commenting on - St. Luke's- Weiser -- Check out their amazing FB page. Shows what a churches FB page can do and how a small rural church in deepest Idaho can reach out and minister to the world. I will be using your statement, insight, " “The Kingdom of God is a foreign woman teaching the Son of God about mercy” I'll let you know when St. Luke's posts my sermon on their page so you can see if I attributed you right. God's blessings and love be with you all.
- Jonathan Tompkins, from Travelers Rest, South Carolina, who on Facebook told us, “Thanks to the guys at the Pulpit Fiction podcast, I now will most likely be referencing this scene from Ghostbusters when I preach this Sunday on Peter getting the 'keys to the kingdom' from Jesus “
- Richard Dorsey @nmpreach421 - New to twitter, we were possibly his first follow, and his very first tweet was “Really enjoy your podcast! Wish you all the best!”
- @BonniePfiester “awesome! I'll check it out! I never run without scripture going into my ears! Working the body & the spirit!”
- @StitcherRadio sent out a link to Episode 77.
Thanks to Dick Dale and the Del Tones for our Theme music (“Misirlou”), The Steel Wheels for our transition music(“At Long Last” from their album Live at Goose Creek) and Paul and Storm for our closing music( “Oh No”).
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