Sunday Stretch: Vol. 90

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

Hi Readers,

The world just keeps spinning, huh? As I write this to you, I’m sitting in a humid, sweaty child’s bedroom at our house after almost 60 hours without power (waving to friends in Houston reading this).

We live in an urban neighborhood with lots of lovely old trees, and when a severe thunderstorm rolled in with lots of wind, those downed trees + old overhead power lines spelled lots of disasters. Here’s hoping that by the time you’re reading this, we’re back in business and can barely remember what happened. <praying>

It has been quite a summer so far! If you have subscribed lately out of pity, hello and thank you. Just kidding!

I know this is true: there is no corner of our globe not familiar at this point with unexpected and extreme weather patterns. Climate change has been and will continue to shape all our lives in what increasingly seem like irreversible ways. I am reminded at these times of God’s incredible creation, and how fragile our very life is.

I also know that in the midst of our climate-related dangers, we Americans are facing political dangers, violence, and increasingly heated rhetoric approaching the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. I am grateful that former President Trump is OK following the shooting and attempted assassination at his rally. I am deeply grieved at the person there who lost his life, and the others who were injured. I’m also deeply sad to see my research on white boys and men play itself out as we start to learn the shooter’s background. I see again the isolation, despair, loneliness, access to guns, access to drugs and alcohol, loss of community, access too extreme masculinity influencers and — glorification of violence. I’m also reminded that most would-be political assassins are not motivated by politics in any sort of rational way. They aren’t usually part of highly organized groups or operating under strict ideology (especially in the case of lone shooters who make brazen and unsuccessful attempts). Instead, they’re typically not in their right minds. As Jesus warned Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane: “those who live by the sword, die by the sword.” Violence and hatred only spawn more violence and hatred.

In these times, it’s clear, we must turn to the ancient and holy texts. To prayer and to unchanging words that somehow (through the Spirit) grant us new insight each and every day, in our changing and oft-scary world.

Let’s get to the texts, then …

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Jer. 23:1   Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. ² Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. ³ Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴ I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.

Jer. 23:5   The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”

As I read this passage, a familiar one of prophecy for Christians in the season of Advent, I am struck by the transition from fear to reassurance and peace. The words of Jeremiah: woe, destroy, scatter leave powerful images of destruction. Those who call themselves shepherds are, according to the prophet, doing the exact opposite of their shepherding work. Although shepherds are called to gather in and collect and protect the sheep, these evil shepherds are doing the opposite: scattering people and leaving them vulnerable. I can think only here of abusive clergy and church leaders, especially those called to work with kids, and especially those who pastor high-profile megachurch pulpits. Their abuse and cover-up of abuse scatters the sheep, driving away the flock, not attending to them, destroying the flock. There is not only physical, sexual and financial abuse but spiritual abuse, such that peoples’ trust in God is destroyed.

But, promises the LORD: the days are surely coming, a refrain that has as much to do with faith as it has to do with God’s promise.

Questions to Ponder

Does Jeremiah’s refrain: the days are surely coming represent optimism or hope? Why do you think so?

What are the defining traits of Jesus as king, according to the prophet?

Who are shepherds today in your life who you see scattering sheep? In what way?

Ephesians 2:11-22

Eph. 2:11   So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth,^a called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵ He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both groups to God in one body^a through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.^{b  17} So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸ for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, ²⁰ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.^{a  21} In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²² in whom you also are built together spiritually^a into a dwelling place for God.

Sometimes the language of Paul’s letters seems to focus on arcane or unimportant details that seem out of place in our modern world: like circumcision, head coverings, which foods to eat and why. But in this passage we see Paul using what would have been commonplace rules and