Gleanings from the Text
Hebrews 7:23-28
Hebrews. Who exactly are the “Hebrews?” Is the book of Hebrews written to a group of Hebrew people? While the exact identity of this group is still uncertain, there are some conclusions that we can draw with relative certainty. For instance, Hebrews, though often referred to as an epistle, is more like a sermon written in a Rabbinic style and written between 60-100 AD. One can also draw the conclusion that the writer of Hebrews is writing to a group who is in need of some type of description of who Jesus is and why one should hold on to Christianity. In Hebrews 5:1-10 Jesus is described as a high priest.
After reading the pericope a few questions pop to mind about the Scripture. For me the first one is who in the world is Melchizedek? Melchizedek is only mentioned a couple of times in the Old Testament. Then he is mentioned again in Hebrews 7. Melchizedek’s appearance seems somewhat random, but the author is clearly trying to use the priest Melchizedek as a person who anticipated Christ as a high priest. I do not think though, he is a crucial part of understanding this pericope. A high priest, which is clear from the reading, is an intermediary between God and humans. By using a chiastic form, the author of Hebrews wants to show listeners and today’s readers that Jesus is not just a regular high priest, but THE high priest who has all the qualifications plus more!
Food for Thought
As I look at this short pericope, Jesus’ humanity sticks out like a sore thumb. Jesus is being compared to a human with human emotions! However, one cannot ignore that Jesus does more than the normal priest. Jesus can feel our pain and can sympathize with us since he was human, but he, unlike mortal priests, was not a sinner. He does not have to repeatedly give sacrifices to God for our sins but is the last sacrifice for our sins. No longer do we need a person to be a ‘go between’ for us and God, because Jesus changed the relationship between us and God when he died.
Since we can go directly to God, we, like Jesus, can cry out to God when we are in pain. But what do we do when our pain does not go away and God does not grant what we wish? Jesus’ cries were heard, but God did not take away death from him. Ultimately, as Christians we must remember that God is in control and while we are in pain, we can cry out as much as we want. If God is able to raise Jesus from the dead, God can undoubtedly take care of us now—though it may not be in the manner we want.
God is hearing and listening to our cries and has a plan for us all. For, just as Jesus and the priests were chosen by God, we are chosen in some way to serve.
I am guessing that many readers of JTF are connected to Union-PSCE and have decided to serve the Lord through ministry. However, what do we do when we become uncertain about what God has chosen us to do? When we are certain about what we should do, it can be a comfort to know God has a plan. Yet, when we feel confused, do we feel comforted when we are reminded that God has a plan? Do we cry out and think we are heard?
Sink your teeth into this!
As I have been in seminary, I have constantly wondered is this where God wants me? What am I supposed to be doing? I have literally cried to God, asking him to guide me and to answer me straightly about what I am to do with my life. I still do not know what to do. However, I do know God has heard me cry and cares for me. God has chosen a path for me and has chosen me, Mairi, one person in the whole creation, to serve the Creator. God has also chosen you, one person in the whole creation to serve, too.
Biographical Information
Mairi Renwick is in her second year at Union-PSCE. She grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, but also claims Spartanburg, South Carolina as home. She is the daughter of a preacher and never thought that God’s plans for her would have her writing a devotion for a seminary, let alone attending seminary.
Read more!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
October 4, 2009 - Job 1:1, 2:1-10 - Catherine Devins
Gleanings from the Text
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
The book of Job challenges the social justice system promoted in the preceding book of Proverbs. Job is a folktale that speaks an alternative reality. The setting is far from the familiar context of Israel, in “the land of Uz.” This distance helps to transport us to a place where a new perspective and reality may be possible—away from the moral certitudes, the absolutes and predictable God of Proverbs or our own time and place.
The main character is Job, a man who is “blameless and upright” (v.1). Job epitomizes a life of integrity and piety and has been blessed accordingly. A heavenly courtroom debate is about to change all that and discredit conventional ethical explanations. We are introduced to God and satan—more appropriately understood as “accuser” or “adversary.” God praises Job’s loyalty and respect as “the greatest of all the people” (v.3). The accuser challenges God by questioning the motive for Job’s behavior. Is Job’s piety only a consequence of all his blessings? Satan suggests a test: Take everything away from Job and see if that doesn’t make him curse God to God’s face!
Job denies the accuser satisfaction. In his grief for all that he has lost, Job utters that famous phrase: “the Lord gave; and the Lord has taken away” (v.21) and then he blesses God. Not satisfied, the accuser reasons that a man will give all he has, but there are limits when it comes to his own life. This time the test is to inflict loathsome sores over Job’s entire body. Surely then he will curse God. In misery, Job settles into the ashes and scrapes his wounds. Mrs. Job suddenly appears and decries the injustice of the situation: “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die” (2:9). Job chastises his wife, but the thought lingers and later, Job expresses the same anguished perspective with his friends and with God.
Food for Thought
• In ancient culture, Mrs. Job belongs in the category of Job’s property and yet she survives the first test. Her role in the story is to incite Job to challenge old complacencies and perceptions of God. Mrs. Job is often maligned as being satan’s foil, but she is the first to identify the ambiguity of Job’s “integrity.” Integrity (tummah) denotes the characteristic of complete honesty in accordance with righteous living. If God blesses righteous living, then God has unjustly punished the “blameless” Job. Or, if Job is honest, then he is obliged to confront God with the injustice of innocent suffering. Either way, Job’s experience is inconsistent with his image of God.
• Job’s abundant life as patriarch and wealthy landowner contributed to his perspective of blessings as reward for proper moral conduct. People got what they deserved. But Job discovers that in suffering we can most clearly see the inconsistencies and limits of this worldview. Liberation theology recognizes this. Surely there was injustice around Job all along, but his awakening to it only came through his personal experience with suffering. Tough way to learn!
Sink you teeth into this!
I wonder if health care was part of Job’s abundant life—deservedly so because he worked hard for it through righteous and honest living. Did health care disappear along with all his other belongings and property—through no fault of his own? And now, with loathsome sores, he has a pre-existing condition.
In the health care debate, followers of Christ have an opportunity to advocate for justice in calling for a national medical plan that will ensure access to equitable, affordable, high-quality health coverage for all persons residing in our country. In its call for health care reform, the Peacemaking program of the General Assembly Mission Council of the PC(USA) church, states: “Jesus came so that we may have life, and have it abundantly. The gift of abundant life includes the promise of shalom – health and wholeness – for all children of God.”
For more information on the PC(USA) call for health care reform: http://presbyterian.typepad.com/peacemaking/2009/08/presbyterian-church-usa-calls-for-just-health-care-reform.html
Mays, James L., ed. HarperCollins Bible Commentary. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Newsom, Carol A., “The Book of Job.” New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 4. Leander Keck, et. al. editors. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.
Biographical Information
Catherine Devins has recently completed requirements for her M.A.C.E. degree. She looks forward to graduating in May 2010 with fellow ECP classmates. Catherine is an elder of the Kirk of Kildaire in Cary, NC and lives with her husband and two dogs. Her daughter, Kaitlyn, is serving in the Peace Corps in Ecuador. Son, Curtis, is a senior at UNC Chapel Hill.
Read more!
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
The book of Job challenges the social justice system promoted in the preceding book of Proverbs. Job is a folktale that speaks an alternative reality. The setting is far from the familiar context of Israel, in “the land of Uz.” This distance helps to transport us to a place where a new perspective and reality may be possible—away from the moral certitudes, the absolutes and predictable God of Proverbs or our own time and place.
The main character is Job, a man who is “blameless and upright” (v.1). Job epitomizes a life of integrity and piety and has been blessed accordingly. A heavenly courtroom debate is about to change all that and discredit conventional ethical explanations. We are introduced to God and satan—more appropriately understood as “accuser” or “adversary.” God praises Job’s loyalty and respect as “the greatest of all the people” (v.3). The accuser challenges God by questioning the motive for Job’s behavior. Is Job’s piety only a consequence of all his blessings? Satan suggests a test: Take everything away from Job and see if that doesn’t make him curse God to God’s face!
Job denies the accuser satisfaction. In his grief for all that he has lost, Job utters that famous phrase: “the Lord gave; and the Lord has taken away” (v.21) and then he blesses God. Not satisfied, the accuser reasons that a man will give all he has, but there are limits when it comes to his own life. This time the test is to inflict loathsome sores over Job’s entire body. Surely then he will curse God. In misery, Job settles into the ashes and scrapes his wounds. Mrs. Job suddenly appears and decries the injustice of the situation: “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die” (2:9). Job chastises his wife, but the thought lingers and later, Job expresses the same anguished perspective with his friends and with God.
Food for Thought
• In ancient culture, Mrs. Job belongs in the category of Job’s property and yet she survives the first test. Her role in the story is to incite Job to challenge old complacencies and perceptions of God. Mrs. Job is often maligned as being satan’s foil, but she is the first to identify the ambiguity of Job’s “integrity.” Integrity (tummah) denotes the characteristic of complete honesty in accordance with righteous living. If God blesses righteous living, then God has unjustly punished the “blameless” Job. Or, if Job is honest, then he is obliged to confront God with the injustice of innocent suffering. Either way, Job’s experience is inconsistent with his image of God.
• Job’s abundant life as patriarch and wealthy landowner contributed to his perspective of blessings as reward for proper moral conduct. People got what they deserved. But Job discovers that in suffering we can most clearly see the inconsistencies and limits of this worldview. Liberation theology recognizes this. Surely there was injustice around Job all along, but his awakening to it only came through his personal experience with suffering. Tough way to learn!
Sink you teeth into this!
I wonder if health care was part of Job’s abundant life—deservedly so because he worked hard for it through righteous and honest living. Did health care disappear along with all his other belongings and property—through no fault of his own? And now, with loathsome sores, he has a pre-existing condition.
In the health care debate, followers of Christ have an opportunity to advocate for justice in calling for a national medical plan that will ensure access to equitable, affordable, high-quality health coverage for all persons residing in our country. In its call for health care reform, the Peacemaking program of the General Assembly Mission Council of the PC(USA) church, states: “Jesus came so that we may have life, and have it abundantly. The gift of abundant life includes the promise of shalom – health and wholeness – for all children of God.”
For more information on the PC(USA) call for health care reform: http://presbyterian.typepad.com/peacemaking/2009/08/presbyterian-church-usa-calls-for-just-health-care-reform.html
Mays, James L., ed. HarperCollins Bible Commentary. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Newsom, Carol A., “The Book of Job.” New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 4. Leander Keck, et. al. editors. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.
Biographical Information
Catherine Devins has recently completed requirements for her M.A.C.E. degree. She looks forward to graduating in May 2010 with fellow ECP classmates. Catherine is an elder of the Kirk of Kildaire in Cary, NC and lives with her husband and two dogs. Her daughter, Kaitlyn, is serving in the Peace Corps in Ecuador. Son, Curtis, is a senior at UNC Chapel Hill.
Read more!
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