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Bible Readings for Monday August 8th, 2011

– The Week of The 8th Sunday After Pentecost *Click on each bible passage to expand the text. Psalm 18:1-19 1. [To the leader. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, who addressed the words of this song to the LORD on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:] I love you, O LORD, my strength.

2. The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

3. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies.

4. The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of perdition assailed me;

5. the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

6. In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

7. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.

8. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.

9. He bowed the heavens, and came down; thick darkness was under his feet.

10. He rode on a cherub, and flew; he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.

11. He made darkness his covering around him, his canopy thick clouds dark with water.

12. Out of the brightness before him there broke through his clouds hailstones and coals of fire.

13. The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice.

14. And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.

15. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16. He reached down from on high, he took me; he drew me out of mighty waters.

17. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.

18. They confronted me in the day of my calamity; but the LORD was my support.

19. He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Genesis 7:11—8:5 Genesis 7

11. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.

12. The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13. On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark,

14. they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind– every bird, every winged creature.

15. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.

16. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.

17. The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.

18. The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.

19. The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered;

20. the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.

21. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings;

22. everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.

23. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

24. And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.

Genesis 8

1. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;

2. the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,

3. and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated;

4. and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

5. The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. 2 Peter 2:4-10 4. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;

5. and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly;

6. and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;

7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless

8. (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard),

9. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment

10. — especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,

11. whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment from the Lord.

He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. – Psalm 18:19

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; – Genesis 8:1

… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment – 2 Peter 2:9

WTF, “Peter”?

Here we are, making some headway, really starting to grasp what could really be considered “Good News”, culminating yesterday in a very simple and uplifting post about fear and the impression we need to be saved…

… and then come our readings today. These seemingly nightmarish passages contain the type of foundationally exclusivistic language that informs the theologies of the Fundamentalist Right.

Basically, “Love, obey, and live.”

This understanding, while it may be clothed in the outward facade of Grace, is simply an “economical transaction”, and it cannot be Grace.

Let me give you an example of how Divine Grace works (a grateful thanks to Sharon Baker’s book “Razing Hell” for this concept):

Not Grace Me: You put a dent in my car.

You: Sorry.

Me: You owe me $300.

You: Okay, here’s $300; I’m really sorry.

Me: Fine. Now I forgive you. Confused? That’s understandable; I don’t blame you. The previous example was one of an “economic transaction”, which is the most common way we American Christians view forgiveness as a whole. The debt must be repaid, and THEN we’ll offer forgiveness. It is clearly not Grace (unmerited favor), and it actually isn’t even forgiveness. I may have offered you forgiveness, but for what? There is nothing left to forgive; the debt has been paid! Grace Me: You put a dent in my car.

You: Sorry.

Me: You owe me $300… but I forgive you.

You: Really? I can totally pay it!

Me: No, I won’t accept it. I forgive you. THAT is Grace: receiving favor by no merit, and sometimes even in spite of your lack of merit. That’s how Divine Grace works, and it is truly alien to us, just as it was still alien to the author of 2 Peter 2! The key to divine grace is nothing must be given in order to receive favor.

And to my mind, the author’s unfamiliarity with the Grace of the New Covenant is the cause of this seemingly legalistic language in 2 Peter 2. Since time immemorial, the system of justification through works was the theology of the age in Judea. And for 1st and 2nd CE Jewish coverts to Christianity, this sense of religious legalism would have pervaded their young theology. This is evident in 2 Peter 2, which reads more like the books of the prophets than a New Testament epistle.

… or does it.

What is this?

2 Peter 3 9. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Glory be to God, a hint of Universal Redemption nestled within such a seemingly wrath-filled book! This passage makes me want to examine 2 Peter 2 even more.

The Unrighteous Are Kept?

2 Peter 2 9. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment

And here we are, suddenly right back at the doorstep of Universal Salvation, or in this case Universal Redemption. As we’ve covered in great detail in my previous posts “How Jesus’ “Furnace of Fire Confirms Universal Salvation“, and “Disobedient Children and The Refining Fire“, on the Day of Judgement, the bible teaches us that all will be subjected to God’s love, aka: God’s fire. The fire (pur/πῦρ) mentioned in the New Testament is of a unique character: it does not destroy utterly, but refines that which is within the “pur” and removes all impurities. This “pur” fire transforms all it touches into light and likeness with God!

So, 2nd Peter promises us justice to for wicked (which is really all of us to some degree or another), they (we) will suffer justice for their (our) ill works in this temporal life while being held in reserve for the Day of Judgement, when they (we) will be subject to God’s refining fire of love and be refined and renewed in God’s love as the full consequence of their (our) evil choices and actions becomes manifest to their (our) consciences and souls.

A Price to Be Paid?

Some will say, “But, Trig, that’s an economical transaction! You’re saying we’re going to have to ‘pay a price’ in order to be refined by the fire of God’s love. And the price is pain!”

Yes, I am saying that. However, in my examples above “you” were repentant; you were sorry you’d crashed my car. Unfortunately, in this scenario, the unrighteous many times stubbornly refuse to even admit wrongdoing.

Hitler still probably believes he was acting in the best interests of the German people (mind boggling, I know).

The abusive father still believes that he was simply acting in his children’s own best interests.

The adulterous wife might believe she violated no covenant promise because she was unloved anyway.

The uncharitable rich man probably still believes that his charity would only have been wasted upon those “loser addicts” who wouldn’t “lift themselves up”.

All of us will be shown the true consequence of our lack of compassion. Our souls will witness the full cost of our hard-heartedness. This is not a God exacting capital punishment, but simply a God showing us what only God can see: the big picture. While we were able to hide from the true cost of our actions due to our limited perception in our mortal bodies, there will be no such barriers to awareness in the presence of God.

You see, beloved, the character of this pain is not inflicted by another, by God. It is the kind of pain we try so very hard to avoid: the pain of conscience, the pain of the self-realization of the consequences of our deeds.

It is not punishment, really. It is simply an awakening, a rebirth, if you will into the full awareness of conscience. It is painful, and it is torment, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, but…

… we will all experience it.

So you see, this experience does not negate Grace because God is not receiving anything; this is not an economical transaction. Because God loves us, we are receiving the gift of awakening, of enlightenment. Is this spiritually painful? Yes, but it is for our benefit as immortal souls.

The pain of God’s refining fire of love is God’s favor, not punishment!

Don’t Wait Until Judgment Day

One of the greatest revelations I have had about this process of divine redemption for all is the realization that God invites us to experience the transforming pain of God’s refining fire in this life, right now! We don’t need to wait.

Who would choose such a thing? To invite such painful realization into their life? Sometimes you have to. I did. My life of selfishness and apathy was beginning to exact too great a toll on my family. Eventually I was faced with a choice: change or lose everything.

So I changed, and the “pur” of God swept through my being and transformed me in the most soul-rending way I could ever have imagined. I opened myself up to my failings as a husband and a father, I forced myself to confront the consequence of all that I had done to those I loved, those that needed compassion but found hate, those that needed my charity but received none, and those that needed forgiveness but found none.

It was hard, no IS hard, as this process is still going on. I don’t know if it will ever end, or at least I hope it doesn’t end.

Redeeming the Unredeemable

Even locked within the ugly language of 2 Peter, we can still find the incredible hope in the guarantee of our own redemption into the likeness of God.

Why do I work so hard to redeem an ugly passage of the bible? Because I don’t think humanity can be healed through ancient threats and fear, I think we have to advocate current change through mercy and love.

Why does God work so hard to redeem us?

…not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.