Faith, works, and stuff
Week of 7 Easter, Wednesday
Psalm 101; Psalm 109:1–4(5–19)20–30; Psalm 119:121–144; Ezek. 11:14–25; Heb. 7:1–17; Luke 10:17–24
Today, just for a little different perspective, I’m using the Revised English Bible (REB) for my readings. The REB often has interesting turns of phrase that are quite different from many American versions.
Psalm 101 opens with this fascinating statement:
I shall sing of loyalty and justice, as I raise a psalm to you, LORD. I shall lead a wise and blameless life; when will you come to me? My conduct among my household will be blameless. (Ps. 109:1–2, REB)
The psalm goes on to describe all of the things the psalmist will do in his household, to keep this promise: silencing those who whisper, banishing all crooked thoughts, and more. What fascinates me initially is this question: “when will you come to me?” It’s almost as if there’s a deal being made here: “I haven’t seen you around for awhile, God, so if I get my affairs in order, will you be made known to me?” If we were looking at this in modern Christian terms, we would have to ask, is this some sort of “works righteousness”? The idea of doing the right things, so God will appear, seems to go against the heart of Christian theology. But then I have to consider, would doing all these things, trying to lead a righteous life, make a person more receptive to God’s presence? That’s a very different thing from trying to curry favor with God. Something to consider, I guess…
Looking at the same concept from a different angle, I see the famous “they shall be my people and I shall be their God” passage from Ezekiel. The passage talks of replacing the people’s heart of stone with a heart of flesh, “so that they will conform to my statutes and keep my laws.” I sometimes think that we Protestants, in our zeal to avoid that works-based righteousness that I mentioned above, have swung too far in the other direction, completely ignoring the concept of “the law,” at least as it applies to the Torah, and adopted a point of view in which, if we simply believe the right things, everything else will just work out. I have often contemplated what Christian observance of the law should look like. I don’t think it means picking and choosing which Old Testament laws we agree with, and ignoring the ones we don’t. I don’t think it means applying a label of “moral law” to some OT passages, and ignoring the rest as “ritual law.” Nor do I think that Christians should necessarily become “Torah observant” and keep kosher, and all that kind of thing. My sense is that observing the law (Torah), should have something to do with Jesus’ teaching of the two great commandments, and His presentation of Himself as the fulfillment of “the law and the prophets.” Still, that’s a concept I’m still working on, and it sometimes eludes my mental grasp.
Moving right along…Hebrews. Wow, that doesn’t help much. I’ve always found this whole passage about the priesthood in the order of Melchizedek rather confusing. Right now, the phrase that stands out to me is this: “…he owes his priesthood not to a system of rules relating to descent but to the power of a life that cannot be destroyed.” (Heb. 7:16, REB) Still, that doesn’t help me a whole lot, as this is clearly talking specifically of Jesus. What are the rest of us to think? I may need to study Hebrews a bit more some day.
Finally, the Gospel reading from Luke 10. Hoo boy, this one is…well, also not incredibly helpful in figuring this whole thing (about law and such) out. We have this interesting bit, wherein the disciples are so jazzed about casting out demons, and Jesus responds with a vision He’s had of seeing Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Then he goes into this speech that seems a lot like some of the discourses from John to me:
At that moment, Jesus exulted in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and wise, and revealing them to the simple. Yes, Father, such was your choice. Everything is entrusted to me by my Father; no one knows who the Son is but the Father, or who the Father is but the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Luke 10:21–22, REB)
Okaaaayyyyy. I’m taking a moment to process that.
And I’ve got nothing. I’ve observed in the past that lectionary readings don’t always relate to each other as well as I’d like them to. Of course, I understand that lectionaries are written by fallible humans, and they aren’t inspired in any way, though they may be fairly clever in their construction. So just looking at the passage above on its own terms…I’m still confused. I have to admit, this one seems to go with Calvinism a little better than it does with the Arminianism I’ve come to embrace over the past few years. The idea that Jesus would reveal His Father to some chosen people, and not to others, it offends my somewhat liberal sensibilities. I have to admit, that does seem to be how God worked with the people of Israel, choosing them over many other nations to be His people. I must remind myself, though, that the way Jews often look at the concept of “chosen,” is that they were given a burden that Gentiles were spared. I think Christians (at least, conservative Christians) sometimes think of “chosen people” or “the elect” or maybe even “believers” as being set apart as a privileged few who know the truth that others have rejected. I’m not convinced that the Bible is telling that same story. Yes, it does seem that, in much of the Bible, God seems to reveal Himself to some people in a different way from how He reveals Himself to other people. This is a great mystery to me: after all, the idea that God selects some people to follow Him seems to be at direct odds with the idea I explored above of people choosing to do the right thing, or follow the Law, or what have you. It’s that constant tension between faith and works, that can often be very hard to work out.
I know today’s blog post has tended to ramble. I think that’s just my frame of mind today. I’m dealing with some parts of Scripture that aren’t completely clear to me at this point in my spiritual life, and so I’m working out some of my mental process, such as it is, on this virtual page. If you’re reading this, thanks very much, and feel free to chime in. (Please don’t comment, though, if you really believe you’ve got the whole thing worked out, and you just want to tell me exactly how things work. I reserve the right to reject any comment that I find rude or hubristic. I would love to hear from sincere folks, though, who may have some insight I’ve missed.) Peace.
