Diocese of Charleston Bible Study + January 20, 2016

II Corinthians 4:6-15
Luke 6:17-23

II Corinthians 4:6-15 (NKJV) 
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Luke 6:17-23 (NKJV)
And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets."

Commentary 

Throughout the Holy Scriptures, beginning in the Old Testament, the God who created the universe and everything in it, who created we human beings to dwell therein and with whom to share His Life, expresses and reveals to us His character. One of the ways in which He shows His character to us is by those with whom He chooses to associate Himself. The pagan gods of the Gentile nations around Israel from the beginning and even into the period of the New Testament and the early church likewise revealed their character by their associations. For the pagans, the gods were manifestations of all those things which they though beautiful, noble, valorous, and worth pursuing in life.

There were, therefore, gods of power, strength, youth, romantic love, victory, battle, wealth, fertility...not to mention, of course, those particularly aimed directly at celebration. All of these gods offered potential worshipers the promise of becoming like them...wealthy, strong, powerful, youthful, fertile, victorious...though in truth none of them had the ability to make good on those promises. Other gods claimed to command the greater and more destructive powers of nature, of the sea, the storm, and even ultimately of death itself. If these gods could be properly appeased, they promised to protect the worshiper from floods, storms, earthquakes, fires, and ultimately death itself. Again, these are promises that went unfulfilled, but they were the promises all the same.

And so the gods of Egypt were the gods of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh was, in fact, one of them. The gods of Rome were the gods of Caesar, and Caesar was, in fact, one of them. They were the gods of the kings and nobles, of the generals and the landowners, of all of the great and powerful and strong. In direct contrast, the God of Israel chose to identify Himself with those of no importance. From the very beginning, after Cain killed Abel and humanity descended from Cain and his second brother Seth, it is the line of Cain that produced art, culture, the city, technologies, but the line of Seth, nomadic herdsmen, to whom the Lord chose to draw close. Later, He did not choose one of the powerful nations of the world to be His Kingdom and people, neither Abraham's native Ur, a cultural capital nor a politically powerful nation like the Egyptians. Rather, He created a nation of His own from nomads and escaped slaves. To this people, He promised everything, actually having the power to delivery it, and yet they could not hold up their end of His covenant, even after He brought them into being, gave them land and prosperity, in an attempt to be their God, and for them to be His people.

Not only does He identify Himself this way in his association, but also in His speech. He again and again proclaims Himself to be the God and protector of the alien and the stranger, the avenger of the widow and the orphan, the freer of slaves and the consolation of the oppressed. He is a God who judges the mighty and the strong for their injustice to the weak. He is a God who comforts the afflicted, and defeats the proud. Kings and princes of this world, and their so-called gods, fall in defeat before Him and His power, and yet He defeats and overthrows them on behalf of the small and the forgotten and the unimportant of the world.

If one has been reading closely and paying attention throughout the Old Testament, then, it should be no surprise that when the time came for the Creator to become one of His creatures, for God to become incarnate as Man, that Jesus, the Christ, was born not in luxury as the heir to Herod's throne, nor to a Roman patrician family where He stood in line for the Senate or even to become Emperor, nor even as a warrior ready to unite His people to overthrow the Gentile kingdoms of this world and establish His own here on this earth. Rather, He is incarnate as a peasant in one of the poorest parts of the world, at one of its poorest points in history. He led His life homeless, moving to place to place, depending upon the kindnesses of others. He lived His life not only in crushing poverty but under continuous political oppression, under and Empire that regarded Him as non persona, a non-person. This oppression would culminate in His being convicted at a show trial, of no crime, to a tortuous and terrible death by crucifixion.

In His very person, our Lord has chosen to identify Himself not with man's dubious achievements, nor with his false glory, nor with his ambitions or pride. Rather, He chose to identify with us in our weakness, brokenness, and despair. For this reason, it is when we are at our weakest and lowest that we encounter Christ Himself. It is when we open ourselves in love to those whom this world considers to be the least of our brethren that we find ourselves open to God. For this reason, men and women throughout the centuries have given away all of their possessions and made themselves poor. Those who are filled with the food of this world have given it all away and gone hungry. Those with leisure and rest have given it up to become tired and weak in vigils and prayer. Because, in those moments of weakness, exhaustion, hunger, and poverty they have found Christ, His Love, Joy, Peace, and Holiness, and through worshiping and adoring Him, have received these things for themselves.

Questions to Ponder 

1. In today's Gospel reading, our Lord reiterates a common theme found throughout His teaching in the Gospels, that there are those who receive the rewards for their deeds in this life, and those who go unrewarded in this life and receive the reward for their labors in the world to come. When you do good, do you let others know about it, or do you keep it between yourself and God? Do you expect credit and thanks for what you do, or do you do it solely for the Lord? Are you seeking to build for yourself a reward in heaven, or do you seek rewards on this earth?
2. In today's epistle reading, St. Paul points out that the incredible power of God to renew and transform this world into a new Creation, the Holy Spirit, is entrusted to dwell within us as Christians. He tells us that God has chosen to exercise His power in this way so as to make plain that it is His power being exercised through humble servants. When good things come to pass in your own life, or through you in the lives of others, be they family or friends or strangers, do you give the credit and the glory to God, or take it for yourself? Are you proud of your accomplishments and successes in life, or do you attribute them to the Lord, without whom none of them would be possible?
3. Today's scripture readings reminds us that God has not chosen to align Himself with the powerful, the glorious, and the wealthy of this world, but with the poor, the broken, the powerless, the humble, and the weak. With whom do you choose to identify yourself in this world? Do you seek to be admired and be looked at as a success? Do you seek to befriend and help those who are in need, or those who you think can do things for you? Are you more concerned with working your way 'up the ladder' in today's culture and society, or with walking the path that leads to salvation?

Questions or Comments?FrStephen@stgeorgecharleston.org

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