The Readings: Numbers 24:12-25; Romans 8:18-25; Matthew 22:23-40

Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel;
for the LORD has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or loyalty,
and no knowledge of God in the land.
Swearing, lying, and murder,
and stealing and adultery break out;
bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Therefore the land mourns,
and all who live in it languish;
together with the wild animals
and the birds of the air,
even the fish of the sea are perishing. (Hos. 4:1-3)

As the ecologists remind us, everything is connected to everything, and so the effects of human rebellion ripple out through all creation. And in today’s Romans text Paul looks forward to the healing of the damage occasioned by the rebellion described in chapter 1. Notice the vocabulary links: ‘creation’ (1:20, 25; 8:20-22), ‘futility’ (1:21; 8:20), ‘to glorify’ (1:21; 8:30), ‘glory’ (1:23; 8:18, 21), ‘image’ (1:23; 8:29), ‘bodies’ (1:24; 8:24) (Dunn).

Meanwhile, creation groans; we groan. This text: an underutilized resource both for spirituality (checking any cheap triumphalism) and ecological ethics. Arguably, a single subject: we are ˀādām (human) from the ˀădāmâh (humus): how could our healing/redemption not be connected?

Meanwhile, for the current administration’s rollback of multiple environmental protections, here and here. Happy July 4^th!

The Readings: Numbers 24:1-13; Romans 8:12-17; Matthew 22:15-22

With Wright, the Romans text does sound like Exodus 2.0, with the people guided not by pillars of cloud and fire, but by the Spirit toward the promised inheritance, with Ex 4:2 (“Israel is my firstborn son”) one of the sources words like ‘adoption’ and ‘children’. The last is particularly striking: the Father “sending his own Son” (v.3) and us “in Christ Jesus” (v.1) described through another series of verbs with ‘sun’ (‘with’) prefixed (see June 27 post): inheriting with Christ, suffering with Christ, being glorified with Christ.

“Crying out ‘Abba [Aramaic] Patēr [Greek]’”—what would it take to recover this as a central celebration of our identity?

The Readings: Numbers 23:11-26; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 22:1-14

They say that there are two seasons in Wisconsin: Winter and Road Construction. That’s not a bad analogy for what Paul’s describing here. To recap, two epochs, Adam and Christ (5:12-21), and since the latter has invaded the former, we straddle both, with schizoid experiences of ourselves (delighting in the good, doing evil) and of Torah (a delight—“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” and coopted by sin—“the law of sin and death”). But this straddling isn’t the last word, and the Spirit will supervise the construction until all is renewed.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” So road construction is a weak analogy; caterpillar to butterfly might be better—and only the beginning.

The Readings: Numbers 22:41––23:12; Romans 7:13-25; Matthew 21:33-46

Why are confession and absolution a permanent part of our worship, both in the Daily Office and in the Eucharist? Today’s Romans text may provide one of the more complete answers, although commentators are hardly of one mind. I find James Dunn’s approach helpful: Paul is talking about his present experience. It’s not simply a matter of the common human experience of acting in self-contradictory ways (“I see the better and approve it, but I follow the worse” Ovid, Metamorphoses 7:20-21) or of the rabbinic “good impulse” and “evil impulse” within each person. It’s a matter of, through Christ, straddling two ages. (Two ages: this age and the age to come. And God in Christ has begun to bring the age to come [the “last things,” the eschatological] into our present.) Here’s Dunn toward the end of his discussion:

“V.25b [“So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.”] is a classic statement of the eschatological tension set up by the death and resurrection of Christ: through his death writing finis to the age of Adam and through his resurrection introducing the age of the last Adam. In Paul’s understanding the tension is not one that is natural to man, or one that is consequent upon the fall of man. The fallenness of man is one side of it, but the tension is only set up by the introduction of the eschatological ‘now’ in Christ. And it only becomes personal for Paul with conversion-initiation. The tension then is a tension not simply of redemption delayed, but precisely of a redemption already begun but not yet completed. The very fact that he can envisage a service of the law of God with the mind presupposes a renewed mind (cf. 12:2), a having died with Christ (6:2-11); while the continuing service of the law of sin with the flesh clearly indicates a dimension of the believer’s existence not yet caught up in the risen life of Christ (cf. 8:11, 23), a having-not-yet-been-raised with Christ (6:5, 8). The assurance of future deliverance does not itself bring to an end the eschatological tension in which believers find themselves caught.”

Pulling the camera back, Paul introduced himself as a slave (doulos) of Jesus Christ at the start of the letter, and set up a binary contrast between being slaves to sin or to righteousness in 6:15-23. Here (7:25b) bringing in the camera for a close-up, Paul uses the corresponding verb (douleuw): slave to the law of God and to the law of sin. No wonder in the next chapter we’ll hear “we ourselves…groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

In other words, today’s text encourages a rereading of chapters 5-6, in which we may notice that while some of the results of Jesus’ obedience are in the present, others are set in the future. This does give us the dignity of some agency—with today’s text a warning that our agency is more constrained than we’d like. So for the reader inspired by Paul’s exhortations in 6:12-23, today’s text warns against discouragement. Likewise, today’s text guards against an overly triumphalist reading of chapter 8!

The Readings: Numbers 17:1-11; Romans 5:1-11; Matthew 20:17-28

Two texts for meditation:

A Hymne to God the Father
John Donne

Wilt thou forgive that sinne where I begunne,
Which is my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive those sinnes through which I runne,
And do run still: though still I do deplore?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For, I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that sinne by which I’have wonne
Others to sinne? and, made my sinne their doore?
Wilt thou forgive that sinne which I did shunne
A yeare, or two: but wallow’d in, a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.

I have a sinne of feare, that when I have spunne
My last thred, I shall perish on the shore;
But sweare by thy selfe, that at my death thy sonne
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
And, having done that, Thou hast done,
I have no more.

Romans 5:8-10

But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.