Sunday Stretch: Vol. 56

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

Hi Readers,

‘Twas the Sunday before Thanksgiving - and all through the land

People scurried and clicked, trying to meet an unceasing demand

To fill up our souls and fill up our bellies

Searching for more time and more family and fewer bad cranberry jellies …

OK OK, I’ll stick to prose.

Can you tell my brain is just a little bit scattered this week? With all three of the males in my house celebrating birthdays in September, October, and early December - and starting school coupled with busy work and sports schedules, sometimes it feels like I’m running a marathon up to Thanksgiving …

I know it often feels that way in the life and rhythm of church communities, too. There are so many *special* days in the fall, so many programs and events to cram into the calendar after the end of summer, when many people seem to take a *hiatus* from church, that it feels like every week is another thing you better not forget.

There are so many ways it’s possible to screw up, as a mom, as a friend, as a leader, as a coworker, as a child of God?

I don’t know about that last one. Because as we look at the Bible texts for this Sunday, I see God urging me - and all of us - to take real stock of the time that is at hand. The Day of the Lord is coming. Next Sunday will be Christ the King Sunday, followed by the beginning of the four weeks of Advent.

But the preparation for the Day of the Lord looks a bit different than the preparation we often do for holidays or events that have been overshadowed, in many ways, by consumerism. Instead of speeding up and doing more - I think God invites us to consider slowing down and doing less. My family and I all love the season of Advent because we purposefully take time each Sunday night to light the Advent wreath and share Bible stories together - even if we have missed way too many church services for sporting events this fall.

I think this Sunday’s text show me that we don’t just have to wait for Sunday nights in Advent, though. You can experience the Day of the Lord today. In prayer. In making space to see the beauty of the world and the people of the world right before you. In seeing where, in your sphere of influence, you can work for peace, justice, and understanding. Seize day - by slowing down and listening to God.

Let’s get to the texts …

My dad and I used to listen to Oldies together on the radio when I was a teenager. This song, the Time of the Season by the Zombies, was a memorable one and one I remember him saying was one of his favorites. It was written in 1968, a tragic and historic year in American history. I thought this song and its lyrics were fitting for our texts today. Click on the image above or click here to view the full video.

Bible Stories

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18

Zeph. 1:7    Be silent before the Lord GOD!

For the day of the LORD is at hand;

the LORD has prepared a sacrifice,

he has consecrated his guests.

Zeph. 1:12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,

and I will punish the people

who rest complacently^a on their dregs,

those who say in their hearts,

“The LORD will not do good,

nor will he do harm.”

¹³ Their wealth shall be plundered,

and their houses laid waste.

Though they build houses,

they shall not inhabit them;

though they plant vineyards,

they shall not drink wine from them.

The Great Day of the Lord

Zeph. 1:14    The great day of the LORD is near,

near and hastening fast;

the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter,

the warrior cries aloud there.

¹⁵ That day will be a day of wrath,

a day of distress and anguish,

a day of ruin and devastation,

a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and thick darkness,

¹⁶ a day of trumpet blast and battle cry

against the fortified cities

and against the lofty battlements.

Zeph. 1:17    I will bring such distress upon people

that they shall walk like the blind;

because they have sinned against the LORD,

their blood shall be poured out like dust,

and their flesh like dung.

¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold

will be able to save them

on the day of the LORD’S wrath;

in the fire of his passion

the whole earth shall be consumed;

for a full, a terrible end

he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

I wrote a bit last Sunday about the increasing popularity of End Times and apocalyptic rhetoric in American politics and discourse, and now this week we have a reading from Zephaniah, which opens with dire and alarming warnings about the impending Day of the Lord. I recommend further reading this article for more detail about the vivid imagery of this passage. As I read it today, I’m struck by how often modern-day biblical interpreters, especially American Christians, read the Hebrew Bible prophecy as though we are confident we are the People of God in the prophecy, and that any bad outcomes prophesied will be enacted against our enemies. I think it’s important, especially when reading the Hebrew Bible, to decenter ourselves from the Bible stories, and imagine reading these texts as outsiders. What is the warning in them for us? What is we are the ones who are about to be punished?

Questions to Ponder

Why does the prophet particularly warn those who rely on money for protection?

Who was the King of Judah when Zephaniah was prophesying? What kind of king was he?

How do you think Zephaniah’s message was received? What do you think it was like for him to share it?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

1Th. 5:1   Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters,^a you do not need to have anything written to you. ² For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! ⁴ But you, beloved,^a are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; ⁵ for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. ⁶ So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; ⁷ for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

It seems to me that the older I get, the less certain time becomes. I am more aware of its malleability, the ways it can drag or speed by - the sense I have that the past can be present for an instant, or just as soon seem utterly unreachable. Sometimes it feels like I’m clinging onto time, and in other blessed moments, time seems to stop, and I drink it in like a thirsty dog, panting after chasing a ball outside in the sun. In this passage, in the earliest of the letters we have as part of the biblical canon, Paul writes to the Thessalonians about the nature of time. He encourages them confidently, even as he must have felt frustrated by the passage of time while he faced persecution and imprisonment, being forced to sit in shackles.

Where in this passage do we find the common saying “thief in the night?” What is the biblical Greek word for thief?

Which disciple was also called this same word?

Do you think that the Thessalonians felt themselves to be in darkness at the time Paul wrote to them? Why or why not?

Why is it important that God has not destined us for wrath?

Matthew 25:14-30

Matt. 25:14   “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; ¹⁵ to one he gave five talents,^a to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶ The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. ¹⁷ In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. ¹⁸ But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹ After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ ²¹ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²² And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ ²³ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. ²⁹ For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ³⁰ As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

When I was in high school, I responded a bit overly eagerly to a challenge issued by a youth group leader at an Evangelical church I was attending with friends. We were challenged to read a chapter of the Bible each night, and instead I decided to read a chapter each of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament every night for the next few years! As a result, I read through the Bible a few times, which I’m really grateful for now and I do recommend everyone trying to do. All this to say, I remember when I reached this Parable in my first reading of the whole book of Matthew, and I remember it perplexing me a little bit. Why was God so fixated on money and investments? The talent had to represent something else? Faith? I remember