One of the threads running through the lessons for today is not so much \u201cWho is God?\u201d as \u201cWho (or what) is not God?\u201d The prophets of Baal are character actors in this story, cast to show the utter futility of calling on those beings who \u201cby nature are no gods\u201d (in the words of St Paul). This point is belabored by the caricature of the pagan prophets, who run around all day screaming, dancing and wounding themselves simply to get the attention of Baal. The reader, though, is privy to information that they are not \u2013 the narrator has been priming us all along for the conclusion in v. 39: \u201cThe Lord indeed is God!\u201d Against the laws of nature itself (illustrated by the drenching of the sacrifice before the divine fire comes), Israel\u2019s God asserts the divine prerogative as the only being worthy of worship.<\/p>\n\n
This passage is, in sum, an answer to the question left to us from the passage immediately before. When King Ahab, a patron of the prophets of Baal, sees Elijah coming, he says, \u201cIs that you, O troubler of Israel?\u201d To which Elijah replies, \u201cI have not troubled Israel, but you have \u2026 because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Continuing the theme, this song of thanksgiving makes abundantly clear that \u201cthe gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.\u201d While this sentiment makes the psalm a challenging read in a pluralistic culture, there is something going on here deeper than shallow superiority.<\/p>\n\n
There is a switch back and forth in this psalm between reference to the earth in the sense of all creation and the earth in the sense of the dwelling place of people. God is clearly the creator of both equally, but this dual picture emphasizes that the world is not all about us humans. The beautiful language at the end of the psalm \u2013 in which heavens, earth, seas, fields and trees are invoked to praise the name of the Lord \u2013 is echoed in Jesus\u2019 Palm Sunday declaration that even if the people were silenced, the stones would cry out. The message, if we will listen, is that God doesn\u2019t need our praise to feel appreciated: the beauty of creation is praise enough! When we begin to be full of ourselves because we believe our picture of God is clearer than that of others, we should embrace the humility that comes with this concept. After all, the reason all creation is praising God is because God \u201cis coming to judge the earth\u201d (v. 13). If we are found being oppressive, or prideful, or abusive of creation, that judgment will certainly bring humility, as well.<\/p>\n\n
Paul is defending himself all through this letter. The Galatians received and welcomed his message, and then apparently received and welcomed some people who were not so enthusiastic about Paul. In trying to sort this all out, they must have conveyed to Paul that these people were saying nasty things about his credentials. So the introduction to the letter: \u201cPaul, an apostle \u2013 sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.\u201d He goes on to exclaim that anyone who contradicts his gospel is anathema.<\/p>\n\n
We obviously have accepted Paul, and even smoothed off his rough edges quite a bit \u2013 after all, he is the most prolific of all the New Testament authors. So what might this passage be saying for us, who live almost 2,000 years later and are not in danger of being anathematized by Paul? Perhaps Paul is naming the reality that it is easy to get excited about \u201chuman approval\u201d of our religious beliefs. The gospel is, indeed, of divine origin, but in transmission it comes through people who have different ideas and different worldviews. Instead of spending all of our time fighting among ourselves about which view is right, perhaps we ought to pray for the grace to reveal Jesus to others.<\/p>\n\n
This gospel text points to other candidates for things that are not God. The centurion whom we meet here is an officer in one of the most powerful armies in the world. Yet we meet him precisely because he is coming to Jesus for relief from something against which the Roman army could not defend. Illness, death, grief, loss \u2013 these confront every single person in the midst of life. The centurion is a man of means; yet rich, poor, powerful and helpless alike all cope with mortality.<\/p>\n\n
The Third Gospel\u2019s concern, at many points in the narrative, is to show Jesus as the representative on earth of Israel\u2019s God. We are meant to see that Israel\u2019s Messiah is none other than the universal Christ, \u201ca light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to [God\u2019s] people Israel\u201d (Luke 1:32). The centurion coming to Jesus is a representative of all nations, because Jesus is the Savior of all the world. God\u2019s judgment (cf. Psalm 96) comes near in Jesus, and it turns out that judgment is good news for all who are willing to hear it. The centurion was willing, and thus Jesus praised his faith as surpassing the faith of everyone in Israel.<\/p>\n\n
1 Kings 18:20-39 One of the threads running through the lessons for today is not so much \u201cWho is God?\u201d as \u201cWho (or what) is not God?\u201d The prophets of Baal are character actors in this story, cast to show the utter futility of calling on those beings who \u201cby nature are no gods\u201d (in the words…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201221,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,52,33,3],"tags":[366],"class_list":["post-766710","bible_study","type-bible_study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-studies","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-4c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":23,"label":"Bible Studies"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":366,"label":"Proper 4C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bible_study"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952314,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bible_study\/766710\/revisions\/952314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}