Sunday Stretch: Vol. 49

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

Dear Readers,

Have you ever had one of those stretches of time - say, a week - when you just feel a little bit off? Maybe a little slower than usual? You’re constantly forgetting things, or making easily avoidable errors - and fixing those errors requires hours of run-around changes.

Surprise, surprise: I’ve been having one of those weeks. September is always a busy month around here, while we prepare for both kiddos’ birthdays, go back to school, and get back into the hustle-and-bustle of work and school life after a relative break in the long, sultry days of August in the Midwest.

The good news is: I haven’t made any major irreversible errors (yet) - though I did leave a shirt in a hotel room that was apparently mistaken for a sheet and has been lost to the annals of industrial-scale laundry. I also discovered several holes in a sweater I wore recently, and I’m so deep into research for a new (yet-to-be-announced!) project, that I’m often walking around in a daze listening to a dreary and statistics-packed audiobook. It hasn’t helped that several people around me have been sick, and while they’re hopefully getting better, I’ve mostly dodged the worst of the illness (thank God).

All that to say - if you’re in this place, or you recognize it - I recognize you. Sometimes it helps in the midst of some “off/ugh/meh/tiring/stressful” weeks to just realize that these times too are part of life. The important thing is these times is to just hold on, and hold fast, to what keeps you grounded, to what makes you who you are, and to not neglect those practices that put it all into perspective.

For me, reading, studying, meditating, and praying over these Bible passages for our Sunday Stretch is one of those critical practices. In these moments I force my brain to slow down and commune with nature and with God (and with all of you). I turn off that audiobook. Stop refreshing my email every 5 seconds only to lament the ones I haven’t yet responded to. I dwell in the eternal and everlasting words of Scripture, only to explore them anew with this community who is alive today. It’s then that I step outside my own stresses and problems and insecurities to see the raindrops pooling on the leaves of our recently-planted crabapple tree. It’s growing, even as the sun hides behind the clouds. So are you.

Let’s get to the texts.

Bible Stories

Ezek. 18:1   The word of the LORD came to me:  ² What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”?  ³ As I live, says the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.  ⁴ Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die.

Ezek. 18:25   Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is unfair.” Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?  ²⁶ When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die.  ²⁷ Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.  ²⁸ Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.  ²⁹ Yet the house of Israel says, “The way of the Lord is unfair.” O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?

Ezek. 18:30   Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin.  ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?  ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord GOD. Turn, then, and live.

It’s difficult to read this passage and not think of the idea of “generational sin” and “generational trauma.” In an American context, I think of the generational shame carried by many white Americans over the wrongs done in the past to Indigenous Americans and Black Americans. There is a desire to anchor sin in the past, to claim that it no longer affects us. It’s tempting to think that justice is like a scale, and that each of us has our own individual scale, concerning only our direct actions and deeds in order to determine our own righteousness and culpability. Still, we know life does not really work that way. Children do suffer from the sins and traumas of their parents, much as we might try to break generational patterns. Justice is not individual but cultural and shared, dependent upon the work not of one but of many, which is why justice can seem so elusive. Where is God? you may ask, as Ezekiel did in this time of Exile, as the Hebrew people had been cast away far from their homes - through no direct fault of their own. God’s promise to us throughout the story of the Bible is a promise of presence and preservation of life. Our hope is in that bent toward forgiveness, restoration, and reconciliation - in the presence of God and of real repentance.

Questions to Ponder

What do you think of when you hear that proverb: The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?

What does this passage have to say about the distinction between justice and fairness?

The Hebrew words for “repent” and for “turn” come from the same root. Why do you think repentance involves a “turn”?

Philippians 2:1-13

Phil. 2:1    If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy,  ² make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  ⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  ⁵ Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

⁷ but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

⁸ he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

Phil. 2:9    Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹ and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Phil. 2:12   Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;  ¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

If you asked me to share the most important passage in all of the Bible, I just might share with you this one (though - don’t be surprised if I claim more “favorites” in time to come). Still, this passage has always been special to me. I remember learning in seminary that this is likely one of the oldest verifiable passages of the New Testament, as the final verses 5-13 were likely taken from a hymn or liturgy sung by the earliest Christians. Can you feel the holiness of those verses? The reality and grounding of the truths they reveal, sung as they were by those who may have witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection? By those who may have known Jesus? I love this text as well because it contains within it a narrative twist, a mini-arc if you will, from the opening exposition/nut graf/lede into a poetic climax, and then turning on itself to say the very opposite of the thing it first claimed. Jesus was brought low in order to be raised high. In these verses we see the roots of Luther’s dynamic Theology of the Cross, the knowledge that it is in the world’s pain, suffering and ignominy that God’s most powerful work is done. And it is in those who have been brought low, those who have been spurned and ignored and distrusted - that God’s glory will shine brightest.

**As I do from time to time, in lieu of writing questions, I’m going to invite you to