THE BIBLE-DISCOVERY YEAR 07-WITH LUKE’S GOSPEL

COMMENT FOR PENTECOST 16 – 16.09.07

Jeremiah 4: 11-12, 22-28

Judah is threatened and fear is growing in Jerusalem as the power of Babylon is on the march. Jeremiah is pained and alarmed at the foolish overconfidence of the country’s leaders. They seem to have forgotten the spiritual significance of the Abraham covenant which was for every person. It was if the God of their past had given up on them and will wait until the power of the creative spirit can begin with them again.

Psalm 14

This Psalm is repeated as Psalm 53 and there are echoes of it in Isaiah 5:8ff and Jeremiah 5:12f. It was seen as plain foolishness to try and avoid the spiritual power of God. This was not a kind of atheism, but simply an attempt to live as if god did not exist. Such foolishness was seen as personal arrogance and a denial of social responsibility.

1 Timothy 1: 12-17

This letter is attributed to Paul and demonstrates how his experience and work must have dominated life in that early Church. Just as in Paul’s case the Christian receives a gift of grace in the form of the energising love of God where life begins anew. All is forgiven in the earlier misdirected life, and the forgiven person is now living a generous life of non-judgemental forgiving love. You can catch the excitement in this letter to Timothy.

Luke 15: 1-10

In this story Jesus goes back to the simpler style of living in Israel’s nomadic past. He revives the shepherding traditions and makes them apply to himself. But in Palestine when he was speaking the shepherds were the outcasts of society. They could never follow the requirements of their religious laws, and Jesus is accused of welcoming them. He tells these stories to show that this is the authentic way of a life lived in the spirit of God’s forgiving love.