Lectionary Lab PREMIUM Edition for the 26th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

November 17, 2024

Thinking the Texts by John Fairless

A long reading from 1 Samuel for today, if you want to follow it. Great story of Samuel’s mom, Hannah, and the faithfulness that allowed her to deliver him as a young lad to the doorstep of the temple where he would serve under Eli’s tutelage and (literally) change the future direction of his people, Israel. Hannah suffered, including taunts from her rivals, she prayed, she promised — and when God answered her prayer, she followed through with her commitment and praised God. Just might be a faithful role model for us in our time, ya’ think?

We are coming to the end of a fairly lengthy interaction with the text of Hebrews; the writer/preacher sums it up for us today with some pretty positive suggestions (commands?):

• Approach God with a true heart in full assurance of faith

• Hold fast to the confession of our hope

• Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds (instead of the usual kind of provoking that fills our world — and sometimes our churches)

• Not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another

One of Jesus’ followers is fascinated with large stones and the buildings of the Temple. Jesus says, “Meh… it ain’t really all about that you know.” He gets the group together and holds forth on the trouble that will soon be forthcoming (including the razing of said temple by the Romans). “But don’t worry too much about it; that’s just the beginning!”

Happy news, huh? This life of Christ and the justice he brings as Savior of the world is a very long-term proposition. As Reinhold Niebuhr wrote nearly a hundred years ago, “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope.” (The Irony of American History)

And Just for Laughs

Sermon by Delmer Chilton

Morgan Wooten was one of only three high school coaches in the National Basketball Hall of Fame. At his induction he told a story about his grandson’s first day of school. The teacher asked Nick, “What’s your favorite sport?”  “Baseball,” he said. She was surprised, “Not basketball?” Nick said, “Nope. I don’t know anybody who knows anything about basketball.” The teacher said, “But Nick, a lot of people think your Grandfather Wooten knows a lot about basketball."

Nick snorted and laughed, “Oh no!  He doesn’t know anything about basketball.  I go to all his games and he never gets to play.” Sometimes we see God the way Nick saw his grandfather. Because we see the game of life going on and have a hard time seeing the hand of God anywhere in it, we think; “God knows nothing about it.” or maybe, “God cares nothing about it,” or perhaps, “God can’t do anything about it.” because, after all, we never see God get in the game.

Our Scripture readings for today talk about the art of having faith in a world gone mad; of seeing God’s hand in the wild whirlwind around us. Each text is an example of apocalyptic literature. Now, some people use these scriptures to make predictions about the future that frighten people in the present; that is not what these Bible readings are about. These writings are intended to bring us reassurance of God’s love when we go through hard times and God seems to be so very far away. Let me say that again - these writings are intended to bring us reassurance of God’s love when we go through hard times and God seems to be so very far away.

Daniel was written at a time when the Hebrew people and the Jewish faith were in a tough spot. They were in exile, they were oppressed, they were persecuted. Daniel was written to give hope to a people who had lost all hope, to give faith to those who were losing touch with God. Hebrews was written to a community the early Christians in Rome. Most of them were Jewish in background and were struggling to get along with the Romans on the one hand and their Jewish sisters and brothers on the other. They needed a word of hope in a time of distress. 

Chapter thirteen of Mark’s gospel was written about thirty years after the death of Jesus, to the early Christians, a community of faith that was also in a tough spot. They were a people who were fearful and hesitant about the future. These words were written to give them hope and faith in the God of the future. Each of these communities was like Morgan Wooten’s grandson. They saw the activity in front of them, but they couldn’t see the hand of the one running the show. And so they were afraid, they were anxious, they were losing hope.

In the early days of television, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks created a series of skits about a supposedly 2000-year- old-man. Reiner played a TV reporter, and Brooks played a, well, a 2000-year-old man. One of my favorites went like this.

Newsman: “Well did you worship God in your village?”
Old Man: “No, at first we worshipped this guy in our village named Phil.”
Newsman: “You worshipped a guy named Phil? Why?”
Old Man: “Well, he was bigger than us, and faster than us, and he was mean, and he could hurt you, break your arm or leg right in two. So we worshipped Phil.”

Newsman: “I see. Did you have any prayers in this religion?”
Old Man: “Yeah. Want to hear one? – PLEASE PHIL NO! PLEASE PHIL NO!”

Newsman: “Okay. When did you stop worshipping Phil?”
Old Man:  “Well, one day we were having a religious festival. Phil was chasing us, and we were praying – PLEASE PHIL NO! PLEASE PHIL NO! - and suddenly a thunderstorm came up and a bolt of lightning struck and killed Phil. We all gathered around and stared at Phil a while, and then we realized, "There's something bigger than Phil!"

That is the ultimate message of apocalyptic literature; there’s something bigger than Phil, there’s something bigger than the bad stuff that happens in our lives. And that something bigger is God.

That something bigger is faith in God’s tomorrow overcoming our yesterdays and todays. That something bigger is the faith that God is indeed very much in the game. God is involved in all our pain and sorrow, our suffering and disappointment. God is bigger, much bigger than all those things that frighten and haunt us.

Many congregations sing Now Thank We All Our God at Thanksgiving.  Pastor Martin Rinkhart wrote that hymn in 1636 to celebrate the end of the Thirty Years War. He was one of three ministers in the town of Eilenberg, Germany. At the end of the war the town was under siege with almost no food able to get into the town.  Then the plague hit. Hundreds were dying daily from starvation and illness, including Pastor Martin's two ministerial colleagues and his entire family, his wife and children. Besides his other duties, he was burying an average of fifty people a day, and yet he wrote this hymn.

“Now thank we all our God with hearts and souls and voices.

Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices,

Sho from our mother’s arms has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love and still is ours today.

To write such words at such a time shows that Rinkhart was in touch with a deep spiritual truth about a God whose promises are ever sure and whose love never fails. Despite his overwhelmingly awful personal situation, Rinkart held on to that faith. If Rinkhart was right, if our Bible readings are telling us the truth, if in the midst of this world’s trouble and sorrow, pain and disappointment we can trust God’s concern and involvement in our lives - then we are called to live our lives as agents of God's grace and love.  

Hebrews 10:24 says, And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds . . .

Usually the word "provoke" is used in a negative sense; as in “Honest Officer, I didn’t mean to hit him but he, he provoked me!” but here it is used positively, as encouragement, as stirring up, as prodding and pushing, as being active in love. We are encouraged -in the midst of a world full of scared, lonely, hurting people - to provoke one another into acts of love and works of mercy, into commitments to compassion, into doing the right thing for all the right reasons.  In a world in which it is sometimes so difficult to see God's activity, we are called to be the hands of God touching all with the gentle and healing caress of divine love. Amen and amen.