Buzz King: Grace & Joy thru Scripture

In Paul's letter to Philemon, he is asking Philemon to free a slave in order to allow him to assist Paul in his ministry.  In this letter, Paul does not make an unequivocal statement against slavery, despite attempts by modern readers to argue that he does so.  However, Paul does show significant empathy for this slave, Onesimus.  And Paul tells us to "bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep."  Indeed, as believers are required to have unlimited, boundless empathy for all people.

We look at something that Jesus was very careful to do after he rose from the dead: he returned to make sure that the Church would grow and eventually spread around the world.  We focus one one particular thing that Jesus did that is often not associated with Easter.

The people surrounding Jesus as he lay dying on a cross did not understand who he was.  Some thought that he was a failed Jewish Messiah, a man who was supposed to push the Romans aside and establish a new Jewish theocracy.  Others thought that he was a fool who only thought that he was the Messiah.  We look at the perspective of those who watched Jesus die.  We consider this from our position today.

We look at the reason why Jesus chose to ride a donkey into Jerusalem - as opposed, perhaps, to a horse.  To most of us, donkeys are not the most regal way for a king to ride.  But Jesus came to this planet to create a spiritual kingdom, and looking at Old Testament passages, as well as references to these passages that occur in the New Testament, tell us just why it is that he chose a donkey.

When Jesus was on the cross he cried out: "My God, My God, why have you forsake me?"  Many people have asked why he would ever think that God the Father had forsaken him.  But Jesus was actually reciting the first line of Psalm 22 - and many people have suggested that by saying that one line, he was in effect invoking the entire Psalm, which happens to end with an affirmation of God's commitment to always come to our need.  Indeed, those standing around the cross are likely to have been familiar with the Psalm if they knew Jesus.  We look at several Psalms and consider this question: When we are in need, when we are in crisis, should we do what Jesus did and grab a Psalm?

A warning about growing bitter appears in Deuteronomy; we are told that if we do, we will grow poisonous spiritual fruit.  This warning is echoed in Hebrews and Acts.  We can become bitter because we have done things that we know we should not have done.  We can become bitter quite innocently, simply by failing at something very important to us.  Either way, bitterness is toxic.  Unlike anger and envy, bitterness digs in deeply.  It makes us seethe.  It becomes long-lasting, far outliving whatever caused it.

The two Kings books and the two Chronicles books cover a similar period of time - but the Chronicles books clean up the torrid history of the Israelite kings.  We look at King Manasseh, the corrupt, idolatrous king who, in 2nd Chronicles, appears to salvage himself morally.  We consider the stunning Prayer of Manasseh, which many consider to date from hundreds of years after he lived and to be apocryphal, in which he seeks forgiveness and regeneration.  

The prophet Elijah comes under a death threat from Jezebel, the queen, because he urges his people to worship only the one, true God, while she is a pagan who worships Baal.  He does not succeed in getting the Israelites to all abandon paganism.  He goes into the desert, thinking he is a failure, and wanting to die.  But God tells him that a remnant - 7,000 - have come back to worshipping only God, and that 7,000 is all that is needed to save the people.  Today, Christianity is under great duress.  But we should be thankful to be among the 7,000!

Habakkuk, in his brief Old Testament book, tells us what he thinks of people who use their power to control others: "Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!"  I was once a very successful professor, and as a result, have a lot of experience with selfish, brutal people who care only about promoting and advancing themselves.  We look at the alternative, and that is rather than seeing our strength as our god, we can get our strength from God.  The result, as Habakkuk tells us, is that God rewards us: "God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places."

One of the complaints that people make about the Bible - and use it to argue that it is nothing more than fiction and myth - is that clearly, the Bible has been edited and rewritten, and that much of it was composed from smaller, pre-existing fragments of text.  I argue that the Bible we've inherited may be God's "second draft" in some sense, but it is nonetheless a stunning faith book - and exactly the Bible God wants us to have.

Recently, there was a massive fire in a highly developed area north of Denver.  A thousand structures, mostly homes, were destroyed.  We look at God's command to rebuild the Temple after it was destroyed by the Babylonians - and how the People of God were too preoccupied by rebuilding their own homes after the Babylonians were conquered.  But God prevailed and the Second Temple was built.  We consider the dual need for people to rebuild their homes in Colorado and again fill their yards with kids and dogs - as well as to maintain our internal Temples, our personal relationships with God.

When I was a boy, my father cashed in his retirement money and went into business with two supposed close friends of his.  One of them embezzled from the business and my father lost everything.  God didn't to choose to punish that thief the way God punished the evil acts of Abimelech, the son of the great Judge Gideon, after Abimelech murdered his brothers so that he could be king.  Abimelech ended up being killed in battle by a woman who dropped a millstone on his head.  We look at that age-old question: why does God let evil exist on Earth?  So, why didn't God punish my father's "friend" the way God punishes evil in the Old Testament?

Not long ago, I bumped into a man a bit younger than me who had taken a course from me as an older student.  It turned out that he was now terminally ill.  He felt he had tremendous regrets in life, that he had not done the things he should have done.  We talked about Paul - who had once been known as Saul, a very evil man - and who certainly had much to regret, but who was determined to not look at what lies behind.  

Television and the Internet are filled with ads for online gambling.  We see a man dressed up as Caesar, with thousands of people essentially worshipping him as he proclaims in a loud voice that we should all get on our phones right now, install his gambling app – and start placing bets.  I was raised to believe that gambling was evil, and I compare the modern do-it-from-anywhere gambling world to the father of a friend of mine who, when I was a boy, had to drive all the way to Las Vegas to feed his gambling addiction.

Under the Old Covenant there was an agreement between God and an entire people.  Under the New Covenant, each of us has an individual relationship with God.  We look at the most famous Old Testament blessing: the blessing that Jacob stole from his brother.  We compare this to the blessing that each of us gets from God.