Sunday Stretch: Vol. 94

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

Hi Readers,

I have to admit I write to you today with a bit of a heavy heart. I have felt so weighed down and discouraged by the intensity, intransigence, and stubbornness that I’ve seen affecting American discourse and communities.

I wrote last week in a couple of places (here) and (here) about the despicable claims being made about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, by some of America’s wealthiest and most powerful men. I wrote about the real impact those claims were having on families and communities, churches and places of faith, too. And that was before reading last week about the fallout: schools and universities cancelling classes due to bomb threats; churches holding Sunday worship services under the veil of fear. All of it utterly unnecessary, in a nation that prides itself on its relative wealth and wellbeing of its citizens. We have squandered so much good fortune and blessings. I want to believe that we will choose one another again, and not choose to live our lives in fear of one another. But on days like today, I wonder (especially as a parent sending my own kids off to school in this environment).

So I turn - as we do - to God’s word. Let’s get to the texts!

A note: as you read this, I am about to be en route to serve as the keynote speaker at the Southeastern Iowa ELCA Synod’s Fall Gathering, where we’ll talk about the theological roots of Christian Nationalism, and how to minister in its midst: together. I look forward to being a part of this gathering. If you’re there; come and say hi!

I’ll also be joining ELCA Pastor and Iowa state senator Sarah Trone Gariott for an (unrelated) event tonight in Iowa City at 8 p.m. If you’re local to Iowa City, would love to see you there, too.

You’ll see the connection to this image when you read today’s Gospel text …

Jeremiah 11:18-20

Jer. 11:18    It was the LORD who made it known to me, and I knew;

then you showed me their evil deeds.

¹⁹ But I was like a gentle lamb

led to the slaughter.

And I did not know it was against me

that they devised schemes, saying,

“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,

let us cut him off from the land of the living,

so that his name will no longer be remembered!”

²⁰ But you, O LORD of hosts, who judge righteously,

who try the heart and the mind,

let me see your retribution upon them,

for to you I have committed my cause.

As I continue to write and speak frequently about the danger of Christian Nationalism, I emphasize again and again its theological contrast to the Theology of the Cross. While this is a Christian theology rooted in Jesus’ arrest and death due to capital punishment on the Cross, and a reminder that Jesus asks all those who follow him to carry their own cross, I believe we see here echoes of that theological truth in the Hebrew Bible, noting that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is inseparable from God’s election of the Hebrew people and Jesus’ identity as a Jewish man.

Therefore, Jeremiah writes of his own experience as God’s prophet, where far from the feting and celebrity promised by Prosperity Gospel preachers and Christian Nationalist politicians, instead Jeremiah finds himself rejected and his life threatened for sharing God’s truth. It’s notable that in response, Jeremiah does not seek his own vengeance but asks for God’s retribution.

Questions to Ponder

Who do you think the people were who were threatening Jeremiah?

Why do you think they were doing so?

How is God’s retribution different than human revenge?

James 3:13-4:3, 7-8

James 3:13   Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. ¹⁶ For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for^a those who make peace.

Friendship with the World

James 4:1    Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? ² You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet^a something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

We continue this tough sojourn through the challenging book of James, which I find to be distinctively rooted in earthiness, in the reality of Christian community beset by ambition, evil, selfishness, and fear. In this passage, James distinguishes between the “wisdom from above” and “earthly, unspiritual, and devilish wisdom.” When I think of that latter description, I think of “cleverness” or “slyness.” I can think of so many ways even academic communities and certainly business and political endeavors have prioritized this lower form of wisdom, calling people who lie or cheat “smart” and “savvy.” But James suggests instead that wisdom is gentle.

Why might being wise require gentleness?

Who do you know who is gentle? What do you appreciate about their gentleness?

James cites jealousy at the heart of much wrongdoing. Where do you see jealousy in your life and in our world today? Where do you think it comes from?

Mark 9:30-37

Mark 9:30   They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; ³¹ for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” ³² But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Who Is the Greatest?

Mark 9:33   Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” ³⁴ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. ³⁵ He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Now you see the connection to the image I used for this week, a clip from the Seinfeld TV show where Jerry jokingly insists that he be called “Jerry the Great.” There is an innate human need to be known as special: such that it’s not only important to be great but to be the