Deuteronomy’s Dream for the Poor

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 15 Listen: (3:20) Read: 2 Corinthians 8 Listen: (3:25)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 15.4-5, 7-11

4 …there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God…

7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

Matthew 26.11

11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.

Reflection: Deuteronomy’s Dream for the Poor

By John Tillman

Matthew 26.11 is just one phrase of many words of Jesus that have been misquoted, taken out of context, or abused in history. People have used this to imply that poverty is intractable and action against it is ineffectual at best and against God’s will at worst. This false teaching is one of the more damaging ones to spread in the history of the church.

Jesus never implied opposing poverty means opposing God’s sovereignty. Instead, Jesus directly referenced Deuteronomy 15.11, including its command to be openhanded toward the poor.

Deuteronomy makes an extraordinary promise that “there need be no poor people among you” (Deuteronomy 15.4) but follows it up with realism, saying, “There will always be poor people…” (Deuteronomy 15.11)

God proclaims the possibilities of generosity while acknowledging the grim reality of greed. Through following God, we can open our hearts and hands, maintaining idealistic visions and actions without losing sight of ugly realities. Christians can look the darkest realities of poverty in the face and confidently say, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“If only you fully obey the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 15.4)

The dream of Deuteronomy 15.4 was fulfilled (for a short time) in the early church. It was said of them, “God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.” (Acts 4.33-34) These Spirit-filled believers fulfilled Deuteronomy’s proclaimed possibility about the poor.

All systems controlled by humans eventually become corrupted and the Acts 4 church is no exception. Racism slips into the distribution of food and the highest levels of the church leadership must get involved (and get honest) to solve it. Corruption in systems run by humans is inevitable. If the church’s own system faced accusations of inequity, how much more can we expect inequity to be a concern in secular systems? However, these concerns are not a reason that we should abandon our calling in this area.

At the heart level of each individual and at the highest levels of our churches, denominations, and governments, Christians must acknowledge that the poor are our responsibility and are one way that God will judge how well we are helping his will to be done “on Earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6.9-10)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

Though high up, You see the lowly;
Though far away, you keep an eye on the proud. — Psalm 138.6

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: He Became Poor

The reasons God gives for his just acts of judgment against Israel and Judah…always include offenses related to oppression of the poor.

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The Shema and The Lord’s Prayer

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 6 Listen: (3:13)  Read: 1 Corinthians 16 Listen: (2:54)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 6.3-9

3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Matthew 6.9-13

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’

Reflection: The Shema and The Lord’s Prayer

By John Tillman

Many people today pray daily using The Lord’s Prayer which Jesus taught his disciples in the New Testament. Jesus and his disciples however, already grew up saying a daily prayer. It was a prayer taken from Moses’ speech to the people about to enter the land and was, in Jesus’ day, said twice daily. Jesus answered using this prayer when he was asked what the greatest commandment in the law was. (Mark 12:28-34; Matthew 22.36-40)

This prayer is called, “the Shema.” The Shema takes its name from the first word of the prayer. The Hebrew word shema is sometimes translated to listen or hear. In this prayer, and elsewhere in scripture, hearing and obeying are intrinsically linked in the Hebrew language. Shema implies not just hearing words but carrying them out.

In The Lord’s Prayer, action is also implied. Praying “your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven,” is not intended to be a passive wish with no participation on our part. In both the Shema and The Lord’s Prayer, we are expected to engage in concrete actions once we stop praying.

We will pray today, combining these two prayers from scripture. Before you rise from prayer, ask God to guide your feet and hands to enact his word.

Hear, Listen, Obey

We ask you to hear us, God, but we need to hear you.

You alone are God, our only Father in Heaven

Your name is holy as we are to be holy.
Father, Son, and Spirit are one, as we are to be one.

You alone are the provider of our bread.
You alone are the forgiver of our debts.

In return, Lord, we love you with all our heart, showing your love to others in forgiveness
In return, Lord, we love you with all our soul, opening our inner being to your indwelling
In return, Lord, we love you with all our strength. The strength of our body and mind, we give to you for your service and will.

Tie your Word to us that…
In your strength, may we resist temptation.
In your love, may we rescue the falling.
In your Spirit, may we speak the gospel with our words, carry the gospel with our feet, and enact the gospel with our hands.

Video: (Shema — The Bible Project)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer; hearken, O God of Jacob. — Psalm 84.7

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer

 by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Public, Prayerful, Persistent Protest

Daniel prayed in defiance of an unjust law. He was guilty before the law of the land, but blameless before God.

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Testify to Ultimate Healing

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 14 Listen: (8:11) Read: Acts 10 Listen: (5:49)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 14.2-7

2 “These are the regulations for any diseased person at the time of their ceremonial cleansing, when they are brought to the priest: 3 The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease,  4 the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed. 5 Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot. 6 He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. 7 Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields.

Matthew 8.4

4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Reflection: Testify to Ultimate Healing

By John Tillman

Ritual uncleanness was ceremonial, not medical. It had little to no effect on individual or communal health. However, some Levitical regulations protected physical health. “Defiling” infections and contagious conditions required quarantines that separated affected people or property from others.

These conditions were not caused by individual sin but were part of living in a sin-defiled world, suffering the death and decay sin set in motion. However, from Job’s day until now, people often assume a spiritual or moral deficiency when sickness or trouble touches people’s lives.

When such conditions were cured, priests first acted as “health inspectors,” confirming the absence of the sickness or condition. Then priests shifted into spiritual mode, enacting a ceremony that celebrated a victory over death, defilement, and disease and honored God for the cleansing.

When Jesus healed the leper, he commanded him to make the sacrifice described in Leviticus 14. (Matthew 8.1-4; Mark 1.40-45; Luke 5.12-15) Jesus was directing attention away from himself as the source of the miracle, but the elements of the sacrifice point right back to Jesus. They represent Christ’s removal of all defilement and disease by defeating their source in sin and death.

The priest brings the sacrifice to the person outside the camp, just as Jesus came to us and was killed outside the city. Christ is the hyssop for cleansing the unclean. Christ is the red cord,  marking those saved, like Rahab, from destruction. Christ is the bird that dies in our place. We are the living bird, baptized into water and Christ’s blood and then set free. Even if the leper had simply carried out the ceremony, he would still have testified about Jesus.

Christ bears our sicknesses, and every sickness (mental, physical, and spiritual) will be healed—if not now, then in the future. Sin and death are dying. Their power is already broken. We live in the days before the final victory when these defeated enemies lash out in vain, but the heel is coming that will crush their head and bring ultimate healing.

Unlike the priest, Jesus touches the unclean before they are healed, because his purity is more contagious than the world’s impurity. Christ touches us before we are healed, while we are sinners, while we are his enemies. He does not inspect us for righteousness, but imputes it to us.

Celebrate whatever healing you experience as a testimony to the world and testify to the ultimate healing to come.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. — Psalm 95.6-7

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: He Is Willing

Jesus is willing to touch, heal, and restore. It is part of his identity and mission to touch the untouchable

Read more: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Cornelius and Peter found the truth and freedom from sin by seeking God through prayer. Their prayers were invaded by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Is as Serious as Leviticus

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 6 Listen: (4:17) Read: Acts 3 Listen: (3:33)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 6.1-7

1 The Lord said to Moses: 2 “If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord by deceiving a neighbor about something entrusted to them or left in their care or about something stolen, or if they cheat their neighbor, 3 or if they find lost property and lie about it, or if they swear falsely about any such sin that people may commit—4 when they sin in any of these ways and realize their guilt, they must return what they have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property they found, 5 or whatever it was they swore falsely about. They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering. 6 And as a penalty they must bring to the priest, that is, to the Lord, their guilt offering, a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. 7 In this way the priest will make atonement for them before the Lord, and they will be forgiven for any of the things they did that made them guilty.”

Matthew 5.23-24

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

Reflection: Jesus Is as Serious as Leviticus

By John Tillman

Leviticus treats sin both as an issue between God and the worshiper and between the worshiper and other humans, not as one or the other.

Sins toward God are dealt with solely through the priest, the sacrifices, and worship. But not all sins are solely toward God and not all sacrifices or actions required for worship are directed towards God.

Jesus reinforced this teaching. He taught that wrongs between humans should be reconciled before reconciling oneself to God. “First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5.24)

Think for a moment how impractical this was. You travel several days to Jerusalem and purchase an overpriced goat from the money changers. Right before the sacrifice, you remember that your neighbor is angry about a lost mule they loaned to you. To follow Jesus’ command, you leave the goat with the priest, travel several days home, make restitution to your neighbor (consistent with the instruction in today’s passage), and then return to Jerusalem to deal with your sin before God. Is Jesus being serious here?

Perhaps Jesus was engaging in some hyperbole. Perhaps the point would be to make sure you restore relationships with humans before coming before God. Even if we think Jesus was being metaphorically exaggerative, it is clear that in the New Testament and the Old, restitution is part of the process of forgiveness. When it comes to restitution, Jesus is as serious as Leviticus.

It is an abuse of the Christian concept of forgiveness for people to say to their victims, “Jesus forgave me. Why can’t you?” A victim may grant forgiveness as part of their act of worship. Those who do harm must make restitution as part of theirs.

It is not possible to restore every kind of damage. Even the value of a lost mule could be debated. And what if the wrong we have done transcends a financial cost? How do we calculate the cost of someone’s broken heart, hurt feelings, depression, anxiety, or rage?

We need the Holy Spirit’s help in making or receiving restitution. But if we try to dodge our responsibility to at least attempt to restore wrongs, it shows that we have not truly repented of our sin.

Ask God to guide you in necessary restitution and to desire wholeness for your victims more than you desire forgiveness for yourself.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church

Be, Lord, my helper and forsake me not. Do not despise me, O God, my savior. — The Short Breviary

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Waiting at the Beautiful Gate

Jesus didn’t give us the Holy Spirit for warm, fuzzy feelings in our sanctuaries. The Holy Spirit is given to us to heal

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Detecting Defiled Hearts

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 4 Listen: (4:17), Read: Matthew 15 Listen: (4:23)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Exodus 5 Listen: (3:15) Read: Matthew 16 Listen: (3:43)

Read: Exodus 6 Listen: (3:56) Read: Matthew 17 Listen: (3:46)

Scripture Focus: Matthew 15.10-20

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.  If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

Reflection: Detecting Defiled Hearts

By John Tillman

Jesus says what comes out of us shows what is in us. Words we say or endorse can detect or diagnose defiled hearts.

This is true individually and collectively. Jesus affirms this when he tells his disciples to abandon the “blind guides.”

First we host defiling sin in our hearts, allowing it space and comfort. This sin could be anything—hatred for the “other,” lust for pleasures, or greed for gain or power. Letting sins linger, protecting them from the light of scripture, the revelation of conviction, and the purifying fire of repentance, allows sin to root itself in our thinking.

With sin-rooted thoughts, we justify and build logical defenses of sin. We explain it away as “my choice” or “I have no choice.” We defend it as “a strategic necessity.” We claim it as “part of my identity” or “how I was raised” or “how I was born.”

We spread seeds of our sin-rooted thoughts in speech. We manifest it in language or images. We share it in insults, inappropriate comments, memes, slander, lies, half-truths, manipulations of the truth, and dehumanizing declarations against our enemies.

Next we, or sometimes others, move our words into actions. Ponzi schemes are pitched. Corruption becomes the cost of doing business. Riots get started. Churches get burned. Protesters get shot. Victims are sexually assaulted. Police get attacked. Laws get passed.

Wicked actions are the fruit of wicked words, from the branch of wicked thinking, connected to the vine of wicked hearts, growing from the root of sin. And the seeds are all around us.

How can we live undefiled in a defiled world with defiled systems and leaders spewing defiled thinking, slogans, and logic? We need to remember that we have a different root and vine to tap into.

Your root determines your fruit. Righteous actions are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, growing through unworthy, grafted-in branches, drawing on the true vine of Jesus Christ, rooted in the Father’s unquenchable love for us.

Whose words guide you? Whose words do you repeat? Are you trusting “blind guides” whose defiled language reveals a defiled heart? Are you justifying and defending language which reveals the defilement of sin? Are you hosting sin in your heart, protected from the fire of repentance?

Abandon blind guides with defiled speech. Follow Jesus. Judge with sober judgment the words you say or endorse. Words reveal the condition of your heart.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us saying: “It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.” — Luke 7.47

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Poisoning the Heart of the Gospel

The approval of the phrase “poisoning the blood of our country” among Christians is theologically wrong, morally reprehensible, and politically dangerous.

Read more: Killing With our Hearts

I do not kill with my gun…I kill with my heart.” Stephen King’s fictional Gunslingers understand Christ’s teaching about murder in a deeper way than some Christians.