Supernatural Growth

Colossians 2:6–15 (16–19)

As the writer makes clear in the prolog (1:1-2), the addressees are believers, "saints [hagiois] and faithful [pistois] brothers in Christ." That is why he so readily assumes (2:6) that they already "received" Christ Jesus the Lord. His concern is what course of life they will follow now. His exhortation is that these brothers and sisters in Christ live (peripateite, literally "walk") in Christ. It is as if Christ were one of two (or more) paths (courses or directions) in which their life might go. They, having received Christ, are encouraged by the apostle to continue on their way in Christ without hesitation, backtrack, detour, or regret.

(Image source, http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/Crossroads.jpg)

The two images that follow supplement the metaphor of the pathway from two different realms of life. First, the apostle likens "walking in Christ" to putting down roots ('errizomenoi). In other words, life in Christ should be like life in God (Psalm 1), like the person who delights in the "Torah" (teaching) of YHWH" and meditates on that teaching regularly. Such a person is "planted" like a tree on streams of life-giving water. Such a person avoids walking, standing, or sitting on that other (bad/evil) path.

(Image source, iStockphoto.com, by John Woodcock)

The second image is drawn not from the world of nature, but from the world of human artifice. People who live in Christ are being "built-up" ('epoikodomoumenoi) on Christ.

(Image source, http://chestofbooks.com/architecture/Better-Homes/images/Concrete-Block-Foundation.jpg)

The apostle says that we should not be a bunch of loose bricks haphazardly stacked on a foundation. It does not help much for the foundation to be strong if the bricks are not "firmly attached" (bebaioumenoi means strengthened [reinforced], confirmed, or the like). It is right to think of the sequence that is still preserved today in Christian rites of initiation for children and youth: baptism, instruction in the faith, and confirmation. Reception is not the one sufficient response for all of life. The journey--the growth--continues. "Be confirmed in (the/your) faith!" says the apostle. Prove the faith reliable, validate it, attest it, have it ratified! It is not enough to receive the teaching about Christ Jesus the Lord; you have to put it into practice and verify that it is true for yourself. If you do that, the final words of Colossians 2:7 will be true of you: you will be "abounding in thanksgiving." In other words, having all that you need and more (perisseuo), overflowing with thanksgiving (eucharistia).

Like the wisdom psalm (Psalm 1), which gives equal consideration to both the good path and the bad, the apostle considers the sorts of things that might cause his brothers and sisters to stray from the good path (2:8, 16, 18, 20-21). These are things that might be used to capture and carry the saints down the path of slavery (sulagogon). Especially worrisome to the writer are "philosophy and empty deception," ways of life that are based on human tradition and how the world supposedly works, rather than on Christ. These other roads are not real roads. These false paths are, in reality, nothing of consequence. Any of them that might have been powerful enough at one time to attract and hold the saints have now been subjected to the rule of Christ. The holding power of human tradition and norms has been removed--de-clawed, de-fanged, and otherwise decommissioned with respect to our mode of living by our baptism (a spiritual circumcision that cut us off from the power of the flesh). The physical rituals that sometimes entice our interest as alternative paths are but shadowy outlines and weak imitations of powerful spiritual realities--i.e., food, drink, new moons, festivals, and sabbaths can only trip us up now if we allow them to be used to judge (krino) or condemn us (i.e., allow someone other than Christ to be our Lord). They are puny approximations. Christ is the reality. In the same way, we should not allow anyone to steal our prize (katabrabeuo).

(Image source, http://blog.masslive.com/leftbank/2008/05/small_051027_sn_UmpireTN.jpg)

There are those who will want to rule against us like a bad umpire whose ability to take away the win is limited to our acquiescence to his bad calls. In the day when this epistle was written, such umpires were calling the saints "out" (or "foul") when they did not make a show of humility (through physical abuse of the body; see verse 23) or show proper respect to angels, or put enough credence in elaborate visions.

(Image source, http://thebsreport.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/blind_umpire.jpg)

Such people, the apostle says, are too proud of their worldly intellect. They are ordering people not to handle, taste, or touch material things, as if such things matter. Do not listen to them or you will end up on the wrong path.

The right path involves grabbing hold of Christ, who is the head from whom the whole body--being held together and supplied by joints ('aphon, "connections") and fastenings (sundesmon)--grows with the growth that only God can give (see Ephesians 4:15-16 and Colossians 1:6, 10).

What sort of growth is that? It is the sort of weedy growth exhibited by the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:28, Luke 12:27), which receive and provide grace and beauty without toil. It is the sort of growth exhibited by the tiny mustard seed, which matures from the smallest of seeds to the largest of trees (Matthew 13:31-32, Luke 13:19). It is like the farmer's seed that falls on good soil (Mark 4:8), multiplying 40X, 60X, or even 100X. It is the sort of growth spurt that newborn babies have that first insatiable year of milk craving (1 Peter 2:2). It is the sort of growth spurt that a child who is favored and specially marked by the Holy Spirit will enjoy, gaining strength, wisdom and grace (Luke 1:80 and 2:40). But it is also the sort of growth enjoyed by the church in Acts, when "the word of God continued to spread [and] the number of the disciples increased greatly" (Acts 6:7, NRSV; also Acts 12:24, Acts 19:20). It is the sort of growth you see on a major construction site when the steel starts to go up (Ephesians 2:21). It is the sort of growth that requires multiple workers, often workers who are at odds with one another as well as those who are working in cooperation, always acknowledging and "overflowing with thanksgiving" always because it is God who actually provides the growth. One plants and another waters, but it is God who grows stuff (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). It is the sort of growth that results in more righteousness, good works, and stronger faith and an increase in all the other fruit of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 9:10, 10:15; Colossians 1:6, 10). It is the sort of increase that happens despite the odds against it, as in the case of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. In other words, it is the sort of growth that Pharaoh and his minions cannot kill (Acts 7:17), especially as the time grows near for deliverance.

Being on the right path means being on the path of growth in Christ, a path of supernatural growth. It is not natural. But neither is it artificial. The sort of growth imagined by Paul for the church, organic but supernaturally strong (not artificial), is had only by prayers such as the one Jesus taught his disciples and the sort of desire for the kingdom that he also cultivated in them.

Luke 11:1–13

An Obnoxious Visitor

Amos 7:7–17

Amos, an accidental visionary, is assaulted with a prophetic image: he is shown the Lord standing on top of a vertical wall, with a "plummet" ('anak) in his hand. In the South, we sometimes call this rudimentary construction tool a "plumb-bob" (or "plum-bob," from Latin plumbum, lead [weight]; the Semitic cognates are also related to lead or tin). When Amos has made some sense of this uninvited visual stimulus, the Word of the LORD then invades the ears of the prophet with an obvious question, "What do you see, Amos?" To which this Southerner and would-not-be prophet replies, "A plumb-bob."


(Image source, istockphoto.com, File#: 10283194)

The Lord then brings Amos straight to the point: "I am placing a blumb-bob in the middle of my people, Israel. I will no longer forgive him." (`abar + lo, lit. "pass by ... to him," with the omission of `al-pesha`; see Micah 7:18 for an example of the fuller usage in a promise of salvation, rather than a judgment oracle. We have seen this verb recently, in the story of Elijah at Mt. Horeb.)

This oracle to Amos appears on the surface to contradict the words of Micah:

Who is a God like You, Forgiving iniquity And remitting transgression; Who has not maintained His wrath forever Against the remnant of His own people, Because He loves graciousness! (TNK, Micah 7:18)

Yet Amos persists in saying what he sees and hears, that the Lord will desolate (shmm) the "high places of Isaac" (bamoth yischaq, rather than yitschaq; see Jer. 33:26 and Psalm 105:9) and will destroy (chareb, lit. dry up, be laid waste, in ruins) the "sanctuaries of Israel" (miqdeshey yisra'el). In other words, the religious structures on which the Northern Kingdom of Israel depends are so out of plumb they will soon be falling down. And the Lord will attack the "house" (beth, synecdoche for the full power and rule of the king and his court/heirs) of Jeroboam with the sword (chereb; note the play on words with chareb, above). In other words, the political structures are also in trouble. Everything in the Northern Kingdom is so out of kilter that it cannot last. It will fall...or, more accurately, be pushed and toppled. Ancient cities, like Samaria, depended on strong walls for defense. Jeroboam II and his court were responsible for the upkeep both of the walls and the religious structures. But here is this trouble-making southerner, pointing out the obvious based on his visions and auditions.



(Image source, http://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advice/above-ground-masonry-walls.shtml)


(Image source, http://www.reformationtours.com/site/490868/uploaded/leaning-tower-of-pisa.jpg)

Amos, who is a border-crossing rabble-rouser, quickly gets into trouble with the powers that be. He has crossed over (barely) from the Southern Kingdom of Judah into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and is openly criticizing King Jeroboam on his own turf (albeit close to the border; he's not in Samaria, the center of the king's power base). Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, who is Jeroboam's agent, tells the king what Amos is doing (i.e., qashar, hatching a conspiracy [a league or covenant bond] in the "middle [qereb] of the house [beth] of Israel." In other words Amos is, by his act of speaking out, performing the function of the plumb-bob that God has set in the middle of his people. The prophet is the plumb-bob. According to Amaziah, the weight of the prophet's words is also the very thing that will bring down the house. Amaziah concludes his letter to the king with a couple of choice quotes from Amos, words designed to ensure a swift, harsh verdict and imprisonment or death for the prophet.

Amaziah also addresses Amos directly, telling him to go back home to Judah and to leave the people of the Northern Kingdom alone. After all, Bethel is the king's sanctuary (miqdash) and royal palace (beth). Amaziah seems maybe a little jealous of Amos and protective of his own privilege (as a priest at Bethel). Amaziah also seems oblivious and completely unconcerned about the veracity of the vision Amos saw--and that, if Amos is correct, this temple and palace are so out of plumb that they are falling down.


(Image source, http://www.tekoa.org.il/images/Tekoa-and-DeadSea.jpg)

Amos responds to Amaziah's command to leave by denying that he is a religious professional. He isn't into prophecy for money or as a result of heredity. He has a different (perhaps lesser) livelihood, as well as a different home. The only reason Amos has transgressed the border is that YHWH "took me" (laqach) and "told me" to go and prophesy to YHWH's people, Israel. Amos counter's Amaziah's claim of legitimacy from the king with a claim of legitimacy from God. The encounter ends badly for Amaziah, with a personal word of judgment to accompany the national calamity that Amos has seen coming.


(Image source, http://www.tekoa.org.il/images/tekoa/wadi4.jpg)

Amos is the quintessential bad guest. He acts like a mother-in-law wiping her white glove over the furniture. He takes a carpenter's level, square, and rule with him everywhere, pointing out the places where the walls are not plumb and, the walls not perpendicular and the corners not square. What are we to do with such a guest? Drive him away? ...or take his advice?

Luke 10:25–37

We encounter a similar confrontation in Luke 10 between a lawyer and Jesus. Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem, but traveling through Samaria. The lawyer wants to test Jesus with a question about how to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds (as usual), not with an answer but with a question that turns the tables on the lawyer: "What do you think?" The lawyer answers well, using the plumb-line of Scripture: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." (NRSV, Luke 10:27) Everyone, Jew and Samaritan, would agree that adherence to this commandment would build strong, tall, straight (plumb) walls. Jesus affirms the lawyer's answer: "Indeed, do this and you will live."

But the lawyer wasn't satisfied with the Scriptural plumb-bob. He wanted to "justify himself," to judge what's plumb and what's not plumb using himself as the standard. So he asked Jesus another question: "And who is my neighbor?" To which Jesus replies with the story of the Good Samaritan. At the end of the story, Jesus holds the plumb-bob provided by a foreigner, a Samaritan's love, to redirect the lawyer's question: "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" (Luke 10:36, NRSV) Again, the lawyer answers well, "The one who showed him mercy." To this, Jesus responds, go and do likewise. Go and be a plumb-bob.


(Image source, http://www.12stoneart.com/product_images/62/20061214_good_samaritan.jpg)

We are given the opportunity, like Amos was and like the lawyer was, or like the priest and the Levite and the Samaritan were, to respond to this call of God to be a "plumb-bob" in a world of leaning walls and unsafe structures. God takes us from whatever occupation we have and whatever place we call home to speak the truth about what we see and to love and show mercy both near at home and far away.

The Advance Team

2 Kings 5:1–14

Let it never be said that the Bible lacks a sense of humor. Today's story is about Naaman, a Syrian captain, whose name in Hebrew means "beautiful" (masculine form of Naomi, mother-in-law of Ruth). The root occurs in Ugaritic (na`amanu) and (possibly) Amorite (nachmanu), and is the Semitic name for the deity also-known-as Adonis (Wikipedia link; note the two-fold connection of "rebirth" [killing and making alive, 2 Kings 5:7] and youthful beauty).

(Image source, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Aphrodite_Adonis_Louvre_MNB2109.jpg)

The crescendo of praise for Naaman that builds throughout the first verse crashes abruptly with a single word at the very end of the sentence: we are startled to learn that this foreign beauty is afflicted with leprosy, a terrible, disabling, disfiguring skin disease. This dream of a man, for whom the world is his oyster, who is an army commander, a V.I.P., always welcome in the corridors of power, a winner, a great warrior and a man of great strength, has been struck with the disease of those who are poor, malnourished, vulnerable and weak.

The irony of this story continues unabated as an offer of help comes to the great man Naaman in the form of a small, captive, nameless servant girl from a defeated country. In another reversal of great and small, the captive servant girl's own words are quoted verbatim in the court of the king. Then, when golden boy Naaman departs to obtain his healing, we come to the heart of things. Naaman expects to purchase his salvation from the prophet in Samaria with a boatload of stuff: ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten suits of clothes. These "things" are are the tools for Naaman's "advance team."

The irony intensifies as Naaman approaches the king of Israel with a letter (another thing that "prepares the way" for Naaman) demanding healing. How is Naaman (or his boss, the Syrian king) to know that the king of Israel and the prophet in Samaria (and the prophet's God, YHWH) do not get along well and are usually on opposite sides of Israel's wars of religion? The king responds to the letter immediately by tearing his clothes (a visible sign of distress) and tells the truth (at least rhetorically): Am I a God? Am I able to kill and bring back to life? I cannot save this man from leprosy! But the king in Samaria also assumes that the Syrian king has an ulterior motive in making such an unreasonable demand, to pick a fight, to create an excuse to invade this vassal kingdom again.

Elisha, who just last week took on the mantel of Elijah, saves the day. Elisha invites the king to send Naaman to the prophet's own house. So, Naaman and his stuff arrive, expecting hospitality befitting his V.I.P. status. But Elisha doesn't invite him to come inside. Instead he sends out a messenger (mal'ak, an angel, like the little servant girl from whom Naaman has already received help) with instructions to go and wash seven times in the river Jordan. Because the prophet himself did not come out (notice the parallel with Jesus' sending of the seventy in Luke 10), Naaman is angry. His expectations regarding the mode for his salvation have been disappointed. He is not being treated with the deference and respect he demands. In a huff of superiority, he declares that the waters of his own land are better than those of Israel. He sulks away in a smoldering rage.

In another reversal of big and little things, it is once again the servants who save the day, reminding their master that he would have gone to any (great) length to secure his health, so why not do this (little) thing? The reading ends with Naaman's obedience and healing. Like Adonis, he is reborn. His skin is new like a baby's.

(Image source, http://thedailychapter.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/)

Our reading for today ends without telling us what happened to all the "stuff" that Naaman brought to purchase his salvation. For that, we must read the rest of the chapter. Note especially 2 Kings 5:19 and the connection to Luke 10:5.

Luke 10:1–11, 16–20

© Copyright 2010 by Debbie Rockey. Disciple Feet, Luke 10:11. Image rights available ($2.50) for church use.

Once again, Jesus sends out disciples (see 9:2) to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal those who are sick, like Naaman. The difference is that whereas Naaman sought out the prophet (and people often sought out Jesus), these disciples seek out the sick. Going from town to town, they have the job of getting folks ready for the coming of Jesus. They are the advance team, testing the receptivity of the town and the hospitality of its people and providing a foretaste of the Kingdom that is coming near.

© Copyright 2010 by Debbie Rockey. July 4 To Do List, Luke 10:4. Image rights available ($2.50) for church use.

Making preparations for an "event" can sometimes be as intense as hosting the party itself. It is in the making of arrangements that money is committed, relationships are formed, and the work of the advance team makes or breaks an event. Some venues and cities are better hosts than others, but even the best will not live up to full potential without good advance work.

The disciples could be excused for thinking that they needed "stuff" to roll out the red carpet for Jesus and the Kingdom. Like the Indianapolis Host Committee for Super Bowl 2012, they may feel the pressure to perform well.


(Image source, http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/images/news/logos/SuperBowlBidlogo.jpg)
And for that, they need "stuff," right? They need improved facilities, money, clothes, shoes, etc. They need to make a great impression, to polish their image, to "sell" the Kingdom event to those influential people whose acceptance or rejection of their message means so much.

But Jesus is having none of it. Like Elisha, he is refusing the "stuff" and reinforcing the message that the Kingdom of God comes to town on the dirty, dusty feet of little servant girls and poor disciple messengers. These are feet without shoes, people without money, without extra changes of clothes. They bring one thing only, the message of peace. As they heal the sick, they say that the Kingdom of God has come near. They eat what they are given and go where they are told, stay where they are welcomed and move on when they are not.

Discipleship does not require a lot of packing. Are you ready? Leave your stuff. Forget your list. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Have your feet been reborn? Are they in the picture? Is your name written in heaven? Then rejoice!

© Copyright 2010 by Debbie Rockey. Disciple Feet, Luke 10:2. Image rights available ($2.50) for church use.