Words 11.5

 Words Twice a Week      11.5

(and I was so happy that the shift keys on my computer were fixed, and now they have stopped working again.  Darn!)

A few notes on a few of the lessons for this Sunday -

Joshua 24.1-3a, 14-25  Choose this day whom you will serve – as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord

+ kind of a bookend with last week’s lesson of Joshua taking over leadership after Moses’ death, and leading the people into the land.  Now they have pretty much settled in and Joshua calls them to decide and declare who, and whose, they will be as they live in he land.

+ they say they will serve the Lord, but Joshua says they are not able.  On the one hand, God is holy and they [we] are not, so as much as we may try, we cannot be perfect/holy (although John Wesley would have disputed that!)  In any case, we are saved by grace, and not by works, so – whew…

+ Or on the other hand, maybe Joshua is simply saying “Look, this is not a decision to be taken lightly – be sure you mean it.”  Does that mean thinking, or agonizing, or searching your heart?  What goes into the decision to serve God?

+ Joshua starts by reviewing the story of salvation, what God has done for them.  What has God done for you?

+ Joshua tells them to put away the gods they brought from Egypt or the gods of the people across the river.  Are there gods that we have carried with us from our past?  Are there other gods we tend to serve and worship from time to time?  Do you remember Bob Dylan singing You gotta serve somebody…?

+ Joshua calls them to consider their allegiance, their identity.  Have we as a country come to such a time – to consider who we are and who [whose] we will be?

Ps 78.1-7   Teach your children well   

+ we had this psalm a couple of weeks ago along with the story of Israel’s testing at Massah and Meribah.  I suppose we are asking some of the same questions again.

+ one writer notes the interplay of story and rule in the teaching of the children, and that the rules grow from the story.  Do you have family or Sunday School stories that have given rise to rules by which you live?

+ what place/role do elders play in your community?  Are they valued for their wisdom, or are they seen as out of date, not up with the times?  What kind of wisdom comes appropriately from elders, what comes appropriately from contemporary teachers, scientists?

+ how many Sunday School teachers do you remember?

+ a haiku

    reaching the milestone -

    when I look in the mirror

     a geezer looks back.

Amos 5.18-24   well this is serendipitous – I did this for the Stewardship Letter -

+ the day of the Lord, is it darkness or light?

+ the festivals and assemblies – is it because we are doing them more for ourselves than for God, or because we are trying to distract (deflect?) from other things that we are doing?

+ as with the Joshua lesson, does this one also call us to consider who we are as a country/

1 Thessalonians 4.13-18  

-  I know not when my Lord may come, at night or noon day fair,

   or if I’ll walk the vale with him, or meet him in the air.

      But I know whom I have believed…

+ we are not souls that die and then come back to life.  When we die we cease to be.  But in Christ, God re-creates us.  “God will not let death destroy the creatures God made and loves.” I just like the sound of that!  Would that be like we build a sand castle, the waves wash it away, and we re-build it?

+ Christian hope is not just resurrection, it is being with Christ.

+ Encourage one another – how are we doing with that?

Mt 25.1-13    the wise and foolish girls

+ Swanson notes that the Greek words for ‘wise’ and ‘foolish’ are perhaps more accurately translated ‘prudent’ and ‘moron’, and that the harshness is intentional.  How does that change the way you hear the story?

+ he also notes that this would be one of the few times that two families or clans would come together, including young, unmarried girls and young, unmarried boys.  Does that add to the way you hear it?

+ is this a story, or a parable, or an allegory?  It has several things about it that are problematic – the bridegroom is late but then the foolish girls are chastised for being late; the wise girls refuse to share with the foolish ones; where do the foolish girls get more oil in the middle of the night; who went with them; why does the bridegroom say “I don’t know you”?  One suggestion is that a parable has been allegorized to fit one or more particular situations and has gotten somewhat confused.  

+ So – some potential ‘meanings’, ‘teachings’   abundance vs scarcity (the New Free Store motto is In God’s economy there is always enough); any time is the right time to be faithful; Be Prepared; would you rather be wise or faithful, wise or kind?

+ this is part of Jesus’ teaching about the future and as such it is meant to reach back to us from the future and shape who we are today.  How do we allow thoughts about the future to shape how we live today; or, what future issues do we think about as we structure our lives today – money issues, family issues, climate issues….

+ Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning...Other verses – Make me a fisher of men…; Give me gas for my Ford…  I think there were more, but memory fails me.

+ the issue of the delay before Jesus returns, and how to live in it.  In the story just before this one, the wicked servant was surprised when the master came home too soon; in this one the master comes to late.  How about the issue of how we live while civilization crumbles around us – as the doomers would say.

A prayer -

God of all times,

our parents and elders and ancestors have told us

how you have taught them and blessed them in the past;

and we have seen your love and grace in our own lives.

Let the promise of a future with Jesus

fill our lives with joy and kindness today.

And may justice and righteousness flood our world

and bring your peace.