Hebrews 3:1-11 (NRSV)

Tuesday in the First Week of Lent - Reflections on the Letters during Lent

"Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also "was faithful in all God's house." Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. Christ, however, was faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.' As in my anger I swore, 'They will not enter my rest.'"

"Builder of a house." As a former builder, hearing this phrase in scripture immediately got my attention. I have always liked being creative, and I felt an extreme sense of accomplishment after the completion of each project. When you are a craftsman, artist, or wood/metal worker, or machinist,  and you pour your whole self into what you are doing, there is a great sense of satisfaction. Ask anyone who has ever built anything, written anything, or created anything.

The writer to the Hebrews calls the recipients "holy partners" and "brothers and sisters." The writer goes on to point out that we should be confident that we are part of God's house in Christ Jesus. The letter also warns of hardening hearts as a response to hearing the voice of God and contrasts this to the Hebrew people who wondered in the wilderness for 40 years after they left Egypt.

We harden our hearts very much like a disobedient child does when they hear the voice a loving parent, knowing that what they have done (or not done) would disappoint the parent. We are fearful of the parent that may be angry and what corrective action the parent may take. If we are members of God's household, then we have responsibilities to the head of the house (God). It's not wrathful anger, but I see it more as loving anger and frustration.

We should remember that Jesus referred to the creator of the universe (creator of ALL things) as "Daddy." This was a loving term of endearment meant to invite us into the understanding that we should relate to God as more of a loving parent that loves us unconditionally. God desires a relationship with us and God wants us to have a relationship with each other. We are brothers and sisters with Christ, invited into the household of God, called into a relationship as God's children, so that we may know God a little closer.

1 Corinthians 1:17-31 (NRSV)

First Sunday in Lent

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

I often struggle with the idea that someone, namely Jesus, had to die so that I might have life. That a benevolent creator would require a blood sacrifice of the creation. I’m sure I’m not alone. I’m sure that when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he faced similar push-back from the people he spoke with. He went to proclaim the good news of Christ and Christ crucified for the sins of everyone and was ignored by the ones who thought it was absurd or foolish. This was usually the people, who in a Hellenistic world, were quick to judge things as rational and irrational based on reason.

In today’s reading, I love the phrase, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Corinth was a port city and a cultural melting pot in this world. So, I’m sure that Paul was bombarded from all sides when he tried to present the idea that Jesus came into the world to die for the sins of anyone who would repent and believe. It’s an absurdity.

To make his case, Paul points out that God takes what is foolish in this world and makes it meaningful. God rights the wrongs and makes the weak strong. God raises up the low and brings down that which the world has raised up. The whole understanding of the socio-economic system and everything rational in society according to the world is turned on end when viewed through the lens of the Good News. God’s news of love and reconciliation and truth revealed in Jesus Christ.

People through the ages have thought about over and over again, trying to wrap their heads around the things of God. It’s not easy, nor is it very complicated. What I am trying to say is, if we continue to contemplate the creator through the lens of the creation and the created order, the deeper and more complex it becomes. However, if we fully accept and return the love so freely displayed for us by God in the person of Jesus, then it makes the complicated and complex start to fall away. What is left is love. Love is what connects us to our creator. To know we are loved and to know our life has meaning is what I think it’s all about. God loved us so much that God gave of himself that we might be reunited with God and dwell in the presence of the creator forever. It remains the only perfect sacrifice.

Mark 9:42-50 (NRSV)

"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.  If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.  And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.  And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.  "For everyone will be salted with fire.  Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

How can you season salt?  Jesus poses many statements and questions for us to ponder today.  He uses statements of exaggeration (or hyperbole) to get his point across.  This is not strange for Jesus, as he speaks this way often.

Jesus begins with the image of a great millstone hung around the neck of one who causes a new believer to stumble.  That one is then thrown into the sea.  Jesus doesn’t say this in a literal way.  He says, “it would be better…  if…” using this as a point of comparison and setting up a completely undesirable alternative.  He does the same thing with the cutting off body parts that cause you the “stumble.”  Jesus is not insinuating that he wants us to be cripple, but wants us to pay attention and be aware of our shortcomings and continue to strive to improve our relationship with God.

This scripture finishes with the image of salt.  Jesus says salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness it is no good to anyone.  The irony here is that salt cannot lose its saltiness.  This is where I feel the call for today is.  Jesus says, “have salt in yourselves.”  If we have salt in ourselves, then I feel that we are being who and what we are at our core…  good.  Salt is a preservative...  The we are to preserve the good.  God has created us in God’s image, and God don’t make no junk.  God’s image is good and everything that God creates is good (look at Genesis 1).  Our call is to remain salty (good), and let God continue to work the good within us.