Sunday Stretch: Vol. 39

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

It’s officially summer - at least here in the Northern Hemisphere. I pray you are staying cool as hot weather spreads across the globe, and that we can all work together to mitigate the ongoing effects of human-caused climate change.

I also pray that you’re getting some time to enjoy the outdoors as you can, and maybe stretch out and breathe in deep to experience the fullness of these long days.

If you - like me - have kids home from school for the summer, I pray you find other parents with whom to carpool and share the load, and that you find some discounts at the grocery store on summer snacks!

Now let’s get to the texts - and I pray you find a quiet place and time to read, meditate, pray, and worship this week.

By the way, I’m preaching this morning at Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Minneapolis. They’re an American Baptist Congregation, a denomination that has long uplifted women pastors and preachers - unlike their peers in the Southern Baptist Convention. Grateful for them! You can catch the livestream here at 9:30 CT, or the replay video will be posted later today.

I’m filling in for Pastor G. Travis Norvell, author of this book on bicycling and ministry here in Minneapolis. Thanks for the invite, Pastor Norvell!

Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab

Art by William Blake

Bible Stories

Jeremiah 20:7-13

Jer. 20:7    O LORD, you have enticed me,

and I was enticed;

you have overpowered me,

and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long;

everyone mocks me.

⁸ For whenever I speak, I must cry out,

I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”

For the word of the LORD has become for me

a reproach and derision all day long.

⁹ If I say, “I will not mention him,

or speak any more in his name,”

then within me there is something like a burning fire

shut up in my bones;

I am weary with holding it in,

and I cannot.

¹⁰ For I hear many whispering:

“Terror is all around!

Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

All my close friends

are watching for me to stumble.

“Perhaps he can be enticed,

and we can prevail against him,

and take our revenge on him.”

¹¹ But the LORD is with me like a dread warrior;

therefore my persecutors will stumble,

and they will not prevail.

They will be greatly shamed,

for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonor

will never be forgotten.

¹² O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous,

you see the heart and the mind;

let me see your retribution upon them,

for to you I have committed my cause.

Jer. 20:13    Sing to the LORD;

praise the LORD!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

from the hands of evildoers.

Rather than the riches, wealth and prosperity promised by Prosperity Gospel preachers, the Bible - like this passage - is rife with reminders that sharing the Word of God often brings worldly ridicule. The prophet acknowledges this difficulty, and then also the nature of prophecy itself: that the words from God are like a burning fire within, which must be shared, come what may.

Questions to Ponder

What do you think the prophet means when he says God has enticed him?

Have you experienced the weariness the prophet shares, when he tries to remain silent in the face of injustice or evil?

What does the LORD offer the prophet in the face of such ridicule?

Romans 6:1-11

Rom. 6:1   What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?  ² By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?  ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Rom. 6:5   For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  ⁷ For whoever has died is freed from sin.  ⁸ But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This passage reminds me of the many baptism classes I’ve been privileged to share in with families and all those seeking baptism. Romans 6:4 is the last Bible text we read in those classes, explaining the miracle of the promise of baptism, and the way it reminds us of our everlasting connection to God through Jesus, and through the holy water.

Questions to Ponder

Do you think Paul was often asked why people should change their lives in response to his message about grace and forgiveness in Jesus?

Baptism is about both life and death. In Martin Luther’s time, babies were briefly held all the way under water while being baptized.