Lump of Coal

Isaiah 6:6-8

1 Kings 19:1-15b

These two scriptures have been fundamental as per my call story. However, until recently I did not realize how they connected. The 1 Kings passage I am sure is familiar to you and I am always reminded to listen for God in the still small voice within me and/or in the silence and to not expect God in the dramatic and loud. This is certainly important for everyone to follow God, to respond to your call (be it ordained ministry, or wherever God is calling you). I did discover another important part of this pericope from 1 Kings that relates to call and became obvious from Isaiah's call story in the temple.

Isaiah is able to say "Here am I; send me!" after the seraph took the coal and removed his guilt and sin. This image always reminds me of my initial calling to ministry as a child. I grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition and was preparing for my first communion 30 plus years ago. Each week we went to church my mother, sister, and I would not go forward for communion. The closer it came to my first communion the more I realized that my mother was not receiving communion. I finally asked her why she did not, and she told me because she married my father outside the church due to him having been divorced and thus she was not allowed to have communion. I then started to worry because I was a result of this unrecognized marriage that I should not be allowed to the communion table as well. As Disciples we uphold an open table, but in the Roman Church it is Close or Closed Table. That is we Disciples believe that the sacrament/ordinance is educational in nature and thus someone who does not believe may actually discover Christ in the partaking, thus nobody is turned away from the table, while the Roman Catholic (& other denominations) believe the sacrament is of a nurturing nature. Therefore, only members and those deemed worthy are invited to the table. This is one of the criticisms of the early founders of the Restoration Movement that the Christian Church (DOC) came out of, which encouraged us to always have an open table. I then asked my mother and the nuns why I should be allowed to partake in communion if I am a product of an unrecognized marriage. The response was correct, which was that does not affect me; however they did not convince me. I still worried that I was squeaking by to receive communion. I do not remember the actual first communion service, but rather the rehearsal the day before, I recall being shown where the host was kept and seeing in the sacristy. But I vividly remember sitting in the pews when the Deacon started telling us how the actual event would take place. We were sitting there with our little stoles that we made in CCD over both shoulders, Deacons in the Roman Catholic Church only wear a stole over one shoulder. The Deacon then joked that he was jealous of all us as he was waiting to be allowed to wear his stole over both shoulders as a Priest. All the other children simply laughed, but I then thought I had to become a Priest myself, as I sat there with a stole over both my shoulders in God's house and I would be taking communion the next day just squeaking by as a child of an unrecognized marriage. I did not dare speak up, for I did desire to have communion, but I felt all this guilt upon me. Even though it was truly underserved guilt it was real to me.

I then carried my prayer book around and would recite prayers for every occasion. I was deeply concerned about following the rules. Then about six months later I was on the church grounds and remember feeling as if a light was upon me and I realized that God did not want me to become a priest because I thought I had to, rather God wanted me to say yes knowing my guilt and sin had been removed. It was as if a lump of coal had touched my lips and I knew the resurrection was for me as well, and then I was able to say "Here am I; Send me!" Of course I did not end up a priest but found my way to the Christian Church with the open table where I go often and reminded of that experience on the church lawn.

How does this relate to the 1 Kings pericope? Well not only did I hear God in the silence and knew my inherited guilt was wiped away, but the word coal used in Isaiah is only used in 1 Kings and nowhere else in the Bible. The Hebrew word for "hot coals" (resapim) was what the seraph touches Isaiah's lips as well as what the messenger used to bake cake for Elijah. These made me realize that not only does God want us to follow because we are saved from our sins and guilt, but we will also be sustained by God. I realize now that our open table not only is of the educational nature, but includes the nourishing nature as well. An open table is inclusive of both natures. God with his lump of coal in these scriptures wipes our guilt away and bakes us cake to sustain us in our journey. Communion does the same.

AMEN

 

Rectify

Galatians 2:15-21

Paul is writing to the Galatians about the infamous Antioch incident. This is the time when the issue of the gentile Christians needing to follow the Jewish laws and traditions come to a head for Paul. See Peter (Cephas) had been visiting for a while and had been sharing in table fellowship with every believer, those of Jewish decent like himself and gentile decent. However, when a contingency came from Jerusalem from James, Peter drew back from open table fellowship in fear of the reaction of the circumcision faction (as Paul named those that require the continuation of Jewish laws and customs). This was outrageous to Paul, and it seems he lost the argument this particular time for how he writes about it with passion, and Luke the writer of Acts writes about the incident matter-of-factly. Yet we know that Paul ultimately wins this theological argument, for we do not keep kosher. (I do love Hebrew International Hot Dogs, but it is not required to be a Christian).

So Paul then writes this theological statement about the justification through faith in Jesus Christ. Now today we hear the word justify and we cannot help but think of validation and/or vindication of someone's actions, however Paul is making it clear that our salvation does not come from our own actions, such as following the works of the law. One may simply look at this problem as being passé for the vast majority of Christians are not of Jewish decent and we do not require the works of the law. As written above, Paul did win this argument, yet today we slip back into some of the same problems of the early church. Church should not be a place where the rules and traditions dictate salvation, for salvation is God's acting alone.

Paul believes it is the faith in Christ which then justifies an individual, which in our English sounds as if our faith validates our salvation. This is not what Paul really meant when he penned dikaioo), for when we translate it to justify we imply vindication and validation, which is exactly what Paul is critical of the works of the law. However, the word can be translated also as rectify, which demonstrates we are put in the right only by responding to God's Grace and Love in our faith of the Christ. For when you read that one is rectified by faith in Christ, there is no way to assume that what you did makes you deserve salvation, rather, your faith has allowed God to put you right, "saved you." It is not what we do but we must respond to God's Grace with faith so we may be rectified.

From the Greek word dikaioo), the translation to English via the Latin Root becomes "Justify" and via the Anglo-Saxon root "Rectify." While I believe the latter is better suited as I stated above, having grown up in print shops I cannot help but think of how printers use the word justification. You may remember when you used a typewriter or anytime you use a word processing program, that you must justify the margins. This use more closely resembles the theological use Paul desires, for it also does not imply validation or vindication. Each page needs to be justified as per its use and the creator of the document is the one that determines the margins. We are blank pages to God since Jesus wiped our sins off the page with His time on the tree and the empty tomb. As blank pages we need direction and guidance from God, but not in the form of rules and regulations, but margins visible by the Creator God and known on each individual.

We are rectified through our faith in Jesus Christ, and we are justified as a page of living scripture to be a witness.

One Gospel

Galatians 1:11-24

 

Paul is writing to the Galatians about his authority to preach the Gospel. One group of scholars believe Paul is responding to the criticism that he was not one of the twelve who knew the earthly Jesus, thus Paul writes that his revelation came through the resurrected Lord Jesus and not by any human. We do not have any source of any criticism specifically on his authority, but one can see how it is reasonable to believe Paul has to make it clear his authority came not from any man. However, some other scholars will argue that Paul is making it clear that he was not too connected with the Jerusalem church to these Galatians. See the Galatians were mostly pagan converts and thus were not interested in being required to participate in the Jewish laws, such as keeping kosher and being circumcised. There is certainly evidence that the Jerusalem church did originally require Jewish law and/or a two tier church (separate but equal, which doesn't work, which Paul would argue). Thus Paul makes it clear he did not even go to Jerusalem for three years and when he did he only met Peter, the leader, and James, Jesus' brother, the best two names to mention. A third group of scholars actually don't believe this was a response to a specific criticism; rather Paul was making a specific point to the Galatians. I believe he understood that there was both camps in Galatia and some even asked both questions, thus making this a great statement of authority, and especially for this specific church.

What is scary about this scripture is how it has been used by individuals to claim authority via a revelation of the Risen Lord Jesus. This scripture alone may even support that idea, however, this is specific letter and thus important to look at all of Paul's letters and the Gospels as well. For instance, Paul makes it clear that he is sharing the message he had received from others in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul also mentions the importance of the interdependency of the church whenever he wrote of the Body of Christ (the Church). Paul clearly states that one may speak in tongues but there needs also one with the gift of interpretation. Paul knows there is a history and also one Spirit we are all baptized into.

Thus it reminds me of the game "Telephone" (or "Gossip" as it was corrected from the choir) in which you get a circle of children and tell something to the first child and then they pass it on to the next and so forth until it comes all the way back to the first. Often what is repeated is nothing like what was originally stated. The way we evangelize we may depend only on our own experience or only on what the church tells us (our revelation of the Christ or our Tradition). If we truly want to be effective of this game "telephone" with telling the Gospel, evangelizing, we must check with where the message is coming in our tradition AND check with our own revelation of the Risen Christ, to assure we pass on the One Gospel. It may not always sound exactly the same, however, this will assure the One Gospel of Jesus the Christ.

New Math

Matthew 28:16-20

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

 

I love math. I am not a mathematician, but I was the only one in the Match Club at my college who was not a major in math. Part of this love of math came from a geometry class that proved to me the importance of faith. I remember sitting in the back of the room in the first or second class of the semester and the good teacher went to the blackboard and put one dot on the board and said, "that's one point," he then put a second on the board, "two points make a line," he then put a third point, "three points not on the same line make a plane," then pointing out in the classroom, "and a fourth point not on the plan, makes space," he then paused and said, "that is all based on our faith that one point exists, all math is based on the faith of one point existing." Going to the smallest physical points one can prove that the point is a wave or something else, but math needs for one point to exist. And even if you do not understand what I am writing about, I hope you can understand for me I understood that my life was given meaning and order because I have faith in the One God.

The scriptures are two of the closest ways our scriptures acknowledge the Trinity. However, much of Paul's letters make it clear that he still believed in one God. Even here Paul writes as the Lord Jesus and the communion of the Holy Spirit thus not directly calling those two actually God. It is where he comes the closest, but generally he writes about us getting closer to God through Jesus, and working in communion with the same Spirit. Paul is just as all the early followers believed in the One True God. However, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is difficult for the church to explain to those that did believe in the One God or to those who believed in many gods, that this 3 was also one.

Remember New Math? If you don't it was a pedagogy that was pushed on American students and Western European students in the 1960's with the purpose of catching us up with the Soviets who where in space already. The problem was that this method of teaching emphasized theory, some of which the teachers did not know well (if at all) and the parents were frustrated as they could barely help with their children's homework. Remnants of this pedagogy did remain through our education system, but in a decade or so, making sure the majority of students understood basic arithmetic returned to the classroom.

Just as the tradition of the Triune God, Three in One, the Trinity, can be debated and defined by theologians, it is not important to be hung up on the New Math. Rather the simple arithmetic of this Church Tradition. The Trinity represents that God's self is in RELATIONSHIP with God's self. Thus we are also to be in relationship. If it was just Jesus and the Creator God the model would be God in relationship with humanity. Having the three reminds us that we are in relationship with God, each other, and God is in relationship with us individually and with all of humanity. It is still mystery that the one true God can be of three personas, but that brings me back to having faith in the one true God. To have faith is to be fine with the mystery and thus understand that having faith in the One God will thus make the whole world work together in relationship.