BCP Daily Office Lectionary for Nov. 13, 2004
Source: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm
Morning Psalm(s): AM Psalm 87, 90 [Presbyterian: 56:1-13]
Evening Psalm(s) PM Psalm 136 [Presbyterian: 118:1-29]
Old Testament: Joel 3:9-17
Epistle: James 2:1-13
Gospel Luke 16:10-17(18)
Presbyterian Readings for the current day:
http://www.pcusa.org/cgi-bin/lectiond.cgi
Joel seems to present a reversal of the vision of the Peaceable Kingdom (Isa. 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-4). "Beat your plowshares into swords,/and your pruning hooks into spears;/let the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior'" (Joel 3:10). He pictures a time when the nations that have oppressed Israel–God's instruments of judgment upon Israel–will in turn be punished. "Let the nations rouse themselves,/and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;/for there I will sit to judge/all the neighboring nations" (v. 12). The "sickle" and the "wine press," instruments of "harvest" (v. 13), represent the bloody violence of war. The picture is of "the holy war between the LORD's warriors and all the nations round about (compare Ezek. chs. 38-39)" ( R. Lansing Hicks & Walter Brueggemann, NOAB). The "valley of decision" (v. 14) is not a call for repentance in a gospel invitation; it's a "decision" in the sense of a "verdict" in court (cf. John A. Thompson, The Interpreter's Bible). As a result, "I, the LORD your God,/dwell in Zion" and "Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it" (v. 17).
James warns against "favoritism" (Jas. 2:1), discrimination and partiality. If you treat "a person with gold rings and in fine clothes" differently than the way you treat "a poor person in dirty clothes" (v. 2), you have made "distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts" (v. 4). The setting is the Christian "assembly" (synagogē, v. 2), but the lesson applies to all of life. We should not dishonor the poor (v. 6). Showing "partiality" (v. 9), is transgressing the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" (v. 8, citing Lev. 19:18, as Jesus did in Mk. 12:31 & parallel passages). The point is reinforced by the principle that "whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it" (v. 10). If there is a distinction to be made between the (old) Jewish law (vv. 9-11), and the Christian law, the "law of liberty" (v. 12) (cf. James Adamson, Commentary), though the latter "gives a place both to law and mercy," accountability remains. We are to show mercy if we expect to receive it (v. 13).
Jesus begins, perhaps, with commentary on the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much" (Lk. 16:10). The dishonest wealth of this world is not "true riches" (v. 11), nor does it relate to God's kind of wealth (v. 13). "What is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God" (v. 15). If we could know about ourselves what God knows, we would be more inclined to value what he values. If we believe, as we do, that he has our best interests at heart, we should want to know, value and do what he wants us to know, value and do. The prayer, "Thy will be done!" leads to what is in our own best interest, in the end.
Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.