Where Judgment Falls

Scripture: 1 Samuel 2.12
Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord.

I have suffered grievously in my life from stupid, tired, dimmed, and even bad priests. — JRR Tolkien

Reflection: Where Judgment Falls
By John Tillman

Eli’s sons were corrupt in the extreme. They stole from the offerings of the people, committing financial sins and threatening violence toward those who objected. They used their spiritual positions of power to manipulate and pressure women at the tabernacle for sexual favors. The Bible says Eli and his sons grew fat off of the offerings of the people. They are a textbook case of spiritual abuse and financial malfeasance in the name of ministry.

Anyone, even unbelievers, can name a pastor or church they consider to be a Hophni or a Phinehas. Among non-believers and those leaving the church, some common reasons are corrupt, abusive, or just plain bad leadership.

Ministers who are corrupt or simply incompetent and foolish are nothing new to Christianity. JRR Tolkien wrote to his son concerning this issue.

I think I am as sensitive as you (or any other Christian) to the ‘scandals’, both of clergy and laity. I have suffered grievously in my life from stupid, tired, dimmed, and even bad priests; but I now know enough about myself to be aware that I should not leave the Church for any such reasons…Our love may be chilled and our will eroded by the spectacle of the shortcomings, folly, and even sins of the Church and its ministers, but I do not think that one who has once had faith goes back over the line for these reasons (least of all anyone with any historical knowledge).

It can be difficult to worship God under corrupt leaders and it can even be difficult to celebrate their good moments. Hannah received her prophecy and blessing of Samuel’s birth through the tainted ministry of Eli and his sons, but rather than redeeming their ministry, it was the first step in God wiping them out.

Samuel comes to remind us that judgment is coming for the Hophni’s, Phinehas’s, and Eli’s of the world, and for us as well. That judgment has fallen on Christ, and we all receive his same mercy.

The Request for Presence
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. — Psalm 96.9

– From 
The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 4 (Listen – 3:56)
Romans 4 (Listen – 4:08)

Room For Hannah

Scripture: 1 Samuel 1.13-14
Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”

Reflection: Room For Hannah
By John Tillman

Eli’s judgmental and graceless confrontation of Hannah is ironic given that he had trouble confronting and dealing with the corruption of his own sons who served in the Tabernacle.

Hannah’s emotional distress, rather than bringing compassion, brought judgment and harsh words. In the intervening millennia, churches and ministers haven’t gotten much better at receiving with grace those who are in emotional distress.

At times, we do a better job of accepting the exuberant dancing of King David than the distraught expressions of Hannah. (And some churches don’t accept either) Church staff and attendees often reflect an unspoken belief that Christian Life has no place for sadness.

Churches are under a lot of pressure, after all, to be friendly, welcoming, life-affirming places. But if we fail to affirm life in its full spectrum of emotions we aren’t affirming life in total — merely positively charged life. As Christians, to address people in emotional distress as Jesus addressed those he ministered to, we must love them before they are healed, and even if they never are.

We need to show love to those suffering from the very real hurts and disfigurements of the soul that are caused by emotional distress. We need to approach these people and love them as the Savior did — touching them, giving them our attention, and reminding all those who are gathered that these people are a part of our community.

When someone is part of your community, you make space for them. You don’t force them to make do. We need to clear out some space for people in emotional distress — theological space, physical space, and liturgical space.

The only way for the church to become a counter-cultural, welcoming place when it comes to aiding those in emotional distress is if we, the members, do so. May we observe, see, and move to aid the hurting around us with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

Parts of this devotional were previously published on Ministry Accelerator’s blog.

– September is Suicide Prevention month. September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day. You can pledge, as an individual or organization to participate in National Day of Prayer for Faith Hope and Life, by following this link.

The Greeting
Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.3

– From 
The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 1 (Listen – 4:13)
Romans 1 (Listen – 5:02)

This Weekend’s Readings
1 Samuel 2 (Listen – 6:09) Romans 2 (Listen – 4:13)
1 Samuel 3 (Listen – 3:03) Romans 3 (Listen – 4:30)

Humor’s Moral Purpose :: The Weekend Reading List

“Laughter has been implanted in our soul, that the soul may sometime be refreshed.” — John Chrysostom
Stephen Colbert taking over the desk of The Late Show this coming Tuesday is the crescendo of the past two decades of comedy. Modern comedy’s cocktail of political satire, tongue-in-cheek commentary, investigative reporting, nonsense, and Roonian rants — neatly packaged to go viral online — is now firmly rooted in prime time.

Scripture instructs believers to pray for “kings, and all who are in high positions.” Praying for those in government is often talked about; praying for cultural influencers (those “in high positions”) is often overlooked.
“For however often Jon Stewart and Colbert dismissed the notion that they had any mission beyond the (very difficult) one of telling great jokes, they had become a portal through which viewers made sense of American insanity. Their shows served as dense clouds of satirical antimatter.” — Joel Lovell
The Atlantic observes that “there are two broad things happening right now—comedy with moral messaging, and comedy with mass attention—and their combined effect is this: Comedians have taken on the role of public intellectuals.”
“Amy Schumer on misogyny, Key and Peele on terrorism, Louis C.K. on parenting, Sarah Silverman on Rand Paul, John Oliver on FIFA … these are bits intended not just to help us escape from the realities of the world, but also, and more so, to help us understand them. Comedians are fashioning themselves not just as joke-tellers, but as truth-tellers—as intellectual and moral guides through the cultural debates of the moment.” — Megan Garber
Long before the comedic pundits of today, G.K. Chesterton asserted that, “Whether a man chooses to tell the truth in long sentences or short jokes is a problem analogous to whether he chooses to tell the truth in French or in German.” While not all comedians are truth tellers, we can’t overlook the nuance and depth of work in those trying to integrate faith, truth, and goodness into satire.
GQ called Colbert “one of the country’s few public moral intellectuals.” The fashion magazine’s cover story highlights his faith as a core component of both the comedian’s worldview and work. At his previous show, Colbert had a quote from Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin taped to his screen: “Joy is the most infallible sign of the existence of God.”
“That impulse to be grateful, wants an object. That object I call God. Now, that could be many things. I was raised in a Catholic tradition. I’ll start there. That’s my context for my existence, is that I am here to know God, love God, serve God, that we might be happy with each other in this world and with Him in the next—the catechism. That makes a lot of sense to me. I got that from my mom. And my dad. And my siblings.” — Stephen Colbert
As Colbert alludes, modern comedy may continue to influence culture and belief, but faith is handed down from family and cultivated by the church.
Martin Luther believed that “You have as much laughter as you have faith.” Because of grace Christians are free to enjoy satire. The firm foundation of faith allows us to laugh at our sometimes absurd world while also trusting a God whose love, grace, and justice transcend our momentary realities.
Today’s Reading
1 Samuel 28 (Listen – 4:04)
1 Corinthians 9 (Listen – 4:04)
This Weekend’s Readings
Saturday: 1 Samuel 29-30 (Listen – 6:13); 1 Corinthians 10 (Listen – 4:04)
Sunday: 1 Samuel 31 (Listen – 2:03); 1 Corinthians 11 (Listen – 4:20)
The Weekend Reading List

TBT :: Let Us Use Our Freedom for the Benefit of Others

1 Corinthians 8.1, 9
“Knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up”…. take care that this right of yours (freedom in Christ) does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

By Saint Polycarp c. 125 C.E.

I rejoiced with you greatly in our Lord Jesus Christ… though you did not see Him, you believe with joy unutterable and full of glory; unto which joy many desire to enter in; forasmuch as you know that it is by grace you are saved, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.

Be compassionate, merciful towards all men, turning back the sheep that are gone astray, visiting all the infirm, not neglecting a widow or an orphan or a poor man: but providing always for that which is honorable in the sight of God and of men, abstaining from all anger, respect of persons, unrighteous judgment, being far from all love of money, not quick to believe anything against any man, not hasty in judgment, knowing that we all are debtors of sin.

If then we entreat the Lord that He would forgive us, we also ought to forgive: for we are before the eyes of our Lord and God, and we must all stand at the judgment-seat of Christ, and each man must give an account of himself.

Let us therefore so serve Him with fear and all reverence, as He himself gave commandment and the Apostles who preached the Gospel to us and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of our Lord.

Let us therefore, without ceasing, hold fast by our hope and by the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ who took up our sins in His own body upon the tree, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, but for our sakes He endured all things, that we might live in Him.

Let us therefore become imitators of His endurance; and if we should suffer for His name’s sake, let us glorify Him. For He gave this example to us in His own person, and we believed this.

— Abridged and language updated from The Epistle of Saint Polycarp to Phillipi.

Prayers from the Past
You created everything, sovereign Lord, for the glory of your name. You gave food and drink to men for their enjoyment, as an occasion of thanksgiving and to us you have given the blessing of spiritual food and drink and eternal life through your Child. Above all we thank you because you are powerful.

— Anonymous, excerpt from one of the oldest eucharistic prayers, in Didache 9-10.

 

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 27 (Listen – 1:59)
1 Corinthians 8 (Listen – 1:54)

How Shall We Live?

1 Corinthians 7:31
(From now on let) those who deal with the world live as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. 

Each of us has only one life. This is it. Our time is valuable and our face-to-face meeting with the Lord is imminent and real. As Paul writes, “The appointed time has grown very short … For the present form of this world is passing away.”

How shall we live?

Mourn as Though We are Not Mourning
We mourn. We are sad over great losses – e.g., family, friends, health, dreams. Yet we mourn as though we are not mourning because we know that we cannot lose our ultimate treasure – Christ’s love. Thus, our losses don’t destroy us. We say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Our losses are modest. We lose now, but win in eternity.

We rejoice. We take joy in the thousands of good gifts from God. Beautiful weather. Great food and friends. Art and music. Yet we know that these things cannot satisfy our souls. Only Christ can. Even our present fellowship with him is a mere foretaste: “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” Thus, our joys are modest. They give us tastes of what is to come.

We buy things. We don’t withdraw from commerce. Yet business doesn’t possess us. We don’t love money. Our cars, homes, e-readers, iPhones – we hold them loosely. If they are taken, we sense that they were never really ours because Christ is more valuable than anything money can buy. We’re not here on earth to own things; we’re here to lay up treasures in heaven.

Deal With The World as Though We Have No Dealings With It
We engage with the world. We don’t avoid it or approach it with spiritual dichotomies. Yet we don’t ascribe final greatness to it. We know that there are unseen things that are vastly more precious than the world. We work with all our hearts, but our full passions belong to the heavenly kingdom.

Prayer
Lord, our lives are short and precious. Let us, therefore, live in death’s inevitability so that we mourn and rejoice and buy and engage as though we are not mourning or rejoicing or buying or engaging. Grow us deep in you as our ultimate treasure. Amen.

 

Today’s Readings

1 Samuel 26 (Listen – 4:30)
1 Corinthians 7 (Listen – 6:09)