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Judges 10:6-9
Israel finds itself in familiar territory: actively engaged in the sin of idolatry. Judges simply describes this as doing evil in the sight of the LORD. Verse six emphasizes the extent of Israel’s idolatrous ways. Earlier they had “only” worshipped the Baals and the Asherahs (cf. 2:13 and 3:7). Now they are worshipping a whole host of other gods and goddesses rather than faithfully worshipping the LORD who had alone delivered them from Egypt and brought them into Canaan. Verse six reminds us that to worship other deities is to abandon the LORD. In response to Israel’s idolatry, the LORD becomes angry and hands God’s people over to their enemies (verse 7). This is the familiar pattern that we’ve seen throughout our lesson in Judges. This time the enemies are the Philistines and the Ammonites. They oppressed the Israelites living in the region of Gilead (east of the Jordan) for eighteen years (verse 8). The Ammonites then crossed the Jordan to attack the tribes in Canaan proper (verse 9). This invasion serves as the immediate backdrop for our printed Scripture lesson.

Judges 10:10-18 God’s People Repent
These verses serve as an extended look at the repentance of God’s people. For most of the book of Judges, the cycle of disobedience has included a statement such as “when the Israelites cried to the LORD…” (e.g., 3:9 or 3:15) without further comment. The emphasis has been on God graciously raising up a judge to deliver God’s people. In today’s Scripture lesson the author of Judges gives us a description of the content of their cry in Jephthah’s day.

Verse 10 provided the core content. First, it is clear that Israel turned to the LORD for help. They may have been worshiping other gods and goddesses (10:6), but God’s people know whom to turn to in times of desperation. It is the LORD in whom is found deliverance. Second, God’s people lead with a blanket confession of their root problem: we have sinned against you. God’s people recognize that their principal problem is not the invading Ammonites–it is the reality that they have broken faith with the LORD. Third, they are specific in their confession. They admit that they have forsaken their God and served/worshipped the Baals.

God responds powerfully in verses 11-14. God is not immediately impressed with their words of confession. First, God reminds Israel of his prior gracious and powerful deeds on their behalf. He uses a rhetorical question to bring to memory his faithful deliverance of God’s people from the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, and Philistines (verse 11). This list of actions alone is impressive, but the LORD adds more in verse 12. God also saved Israel from the Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites. All of these peoples had oppressed God’s people. But when God’s people cried out to the LORD, the LORD saved them from their enemies and oppressors. In other words, God demonstrates to God’s people his faithfulness and mercy throughout the generations. Every time that they have cried out, the LORD has delivered. Moreover Israel has only fallen into oppression because of its sins. Otherwise they would not have suffered at the hands of their enemies (see 2:1-5 and 2:11-15).

Second, God describes their behavior in response to his graciousness. Verse 13 essentially repeats the confession of God’s people from verse 10. God affirms it but points out its deficiencies. God describes the evil of God’s people in stark contrast to his own faithfulness. God has continually responded to the sin of his people with mercy by graciously responding to their cries for help by moving to save them from their enemies. Yet in contrast, God’s people have responded to God’s grace by returning to their sins of idolatry.

Third, God concludes by declaring that he will no longer deliver his people (verses 13-14). The recurring cycle in Judges has reached its end. Since God’s people have not changed their ways, God will no longer deliver them. In other words, God is questioning the sincerity of their repentance. Why is this time going to be any different from all of the previous times that Israel has cried for help, God has answered with salvation, and God’s people immediately return to their evil and idolatrous ways? This cycle has to stop so God declares that he will no longer act on behalf of his people. To make the point even stronger, God suggests that his people go and cry out to all of the gods and goddesses whom they have been worshiping. The language of “chose” is intentional. God is mocking Israel for choosing gods who cannot save. In contrast, in the book of Deuteronomy, God repeatedly emphasizes that he intentionally chose Israel out of all of the nations to be his treasured possession (Deut 7:6 cf Deut 7:7, 10:15, 14:2).

In verses 15-16, God’s people respond powerfully and poignantly to the LORD’s rebuke of their appeal. They do not make empty promises. They do not vow to make good on previous declarations of service. They do not make excuses for their problems. Notice that God’s people return to the theme of verse 10. They confess that they have sinned against the LORD. Moreover, they put themselves in God’s hands. They trust the LORD to make the right decision so they simply say, do to us whatever seems good to you, but deliver us this day! There is no sense of entitlement here. They appeal to God for deliverance and salvation but clearly recognize that they do not deserve anything from God. But notice their follow up in verse 16. They do more than merely issuing words of confession and regret. For the first time in the book of Judges, they back up their words with action. God’s people actually rid themselves of their idolatry by putting away their foreign gods. This is the heart of true repentance–confessing wrong and actually turning away from it. Instead of serving other gods, Israel actually worshipped and served the LORD. Earlier in Judges, they had cried out to the LORD for help. Here in chapter ten, they cry out to the LORD for help, but also turn to him in worship.

How does God respond to this demonstration of repentance? The text is subtle: he could no longer bear to see Israel suffer. In other words, God may indeed not be through delivering Israel from her enemies. God was only finished rescuing his unrepentant people from oppression. Israel’s repentance opened up a new future for the relationship between God and Israel. God’s judgment was never meant to be purely punitive. The goal of handing God’s people over to oppression was to draw the people back to the LORD. It is clear from the response of God’s people in these verses that they have indeed returned to the LORD. God is now ready to act. Ps 51:17 says, The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart O God, you will not despise.

I can see Jesus carrying his cross all alone,
He took on our flesh so far from his rightful throne.
Disregarded his name
He embraced the cross
And its shame
To save the lost.

He’s the Son of God, carrying the sins of the world

I can see Jesus wearing a crown made of thorns,
In the anguish of death, feeling humanity’s scorn.
His Father’s will to obey
He died on the tree
To set us free
And show the way.

He’s the Son of God, healing all the pain of the world.

I can see Jesus crying to all “It is done,”
Creation’s redeemer, our Lord God’s victory won.
The offer is made
The price has been paid
To give us life
And end all strife.

He’s the Son of God, still reaching out to us today.
He’s the Son of God, still reaching out to us today.

So see through the pain
The means to true gain
For its true
He died for you.

He’s the Son of God, carrying the sins of the world.
Amen.

© 2006 Brian D. Russell (rev. 2010)

The core message of Jesus is the announcement of the arrival of God’s Kingdom in his person.

The Kingdom of heaven is a synonym for kingdom of God used in the other Gospels.

What is the Kingdom? It is the realm or sphere of God’s eternal reign. God’s kingdom is present wherever the will of the Father is present (“Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” [Matt 6:10]). The kingdom is good news or Gospel (4:23). In short, it is the long awaited creation renewing dynamic rule of God. As Jesus embodies it in his life, death, and resurrection, we can see that the Kingdom brings salvation and a radical commitment to extend God’s grace to outsiders.

This announcement requires a radical and ongoing response. There is only one-way to react adequately to the declaration of the Kingdom’s arrival: realignment. Jesus calls those who hear his proclamation to align and/or realign themselves continually in light of the realities of the Good News. This is not a one-time action.

Realigning with Jesus’ announcement involves breaking with past for sake of what God is doing now—creating and raising up a new humanity.

Understanding that an encounter with Jesus is a commission to engage fully in God’s mission to bring healing, hope, and reconciliation to the nations

Gospel comes to us on the way to someone else. Jesus will shape his movement to replicate.

Focus of response is personal and relational. The response of the first disciples is a commitment to Jesus involving following him.

The Christ-following movement is communal and familial. There is never a solitary Christ follower. From the beginning, Jesus called two. Moreover by calling brothers Jesus is pointing to the creation of a new family of God’s people.

Following Jesus involves embracing a new mission in life: God’s mission. But notice that Jesus calls the initial disciples contextually. They are trained fishermen, but now Jesus will teach them to fish for women and men so that they may announce to them the good news of the Kingdom (4:23).

If we want to understand the ethos of the Kingdom, we need to continue reading Matthew’s Gospel. In particular 4:23-9:35 offers a summary of Jesus’ ministry of word and deed.

Responding to Jesus involves new allegiances: the first disciples leave jobs and families for the opportunity to follow Jesus.

© 2009 Brian D. Russell

The Church of Jesus Christ in North America is slowly awakening to the reality that the 21st century represents a watershed moment. Alex McManus, innovative leader, has observed poignantly, “The Western world has lost its faith in the shadow of church steeples.”  The truth of this statement is self-evident as populations continue to rise while the influence of the communities of faith declines. In response to this morass, leaders have responded by talking about the need for “missional churches.” I wholeheartedly agree with this solution as it resonates with the revealed heart of God in the Scriptures, but the problem remains in how to create a missional ethos within both new communities of faith and also within existing communities. Without substance, a call for a missional ethos can merely be another program or trendy buzzword.
It is my belief that the movement toward a missional ethos must be propelled by a missional hermeneutic that unleashes God’s people to become a missional community that reflects God’s character in the world. What is a missional hermeneutic? I have discussed various aspects of this elsewhere, but let’s suffice it to say that a missional hermeneutic is one that focuses on the Scripture’s call to conversion. There are two loci for a message of conversion: first, the Scriptures call God’s people to reconvert and recommit to God’s Creational intentions for humanity (mission, holiness, and authentic community), and second, the Scriptures invite outsiders to become insiders by becoming part of the people of God as they seek to serve as a missional community that reflects and embodies God’s character to/for/in the world. In other words, the desired response to any reading, teaching, or preaching of God’s word is conversion — nothing more and nothing less.

Such a hermeneutic allows old texts to regain their old vigor. When Scripture comes to life, God’s people are propelled into the world as God’s witnesses.

Let’s look at a familiar story that may have lost its poignancy for many due to misreading its missional intent. The story is the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15. If you have been around a community of faith for any length of time, you have likely heard scores of sermons based on the power story of redemption of a lost son who returns home and experiences a profound reconciliation with a father who is quick to forgive and celebrate his return. Many of us have found ourselves in this story, but let me suggest that most of us have only scratched the surface of this powerful narrative. A careful reading of Luke 15 serves as an effective test case and illustration of the power of a missional reading.

First, let us make three observations about the context of Luke 15.

Jesus is responding to the challenge of religious authorities to his mission.
The narrative frame for Luke 15 is found in vv. 1-2. The narrator informs us that outsiders were coming to Jesus to listen to his message. Who were these outsiders? They were tax collectors and sinners, i.e., persons believed to be outside of God’s covenant community and unworthy for fellowship. Yet profoundly, these are the sorts of persons with whom Jesus routinely interacted. The religious leaders and Bible scholars of Jesus’ day were taking exception to this. They were offended that Jesus was engaging these lost persons.

Luke 15 as a whole is about the missional heart of God
In response to this fundamental opposition to his work, Jesus tells a series of stories about lost items-a sheep (vv. 4-7), a coin (vv. 8-10), and a son (vv. 11-24). Each story is a portrait of God’s heart for the lost. In each story, there is an emphasis on celebration. There is a party thrown in celebration of each lost item’s being found. Vv. 7 and 10 emphasize the joy in heaven for the salvation of every lost person. Each story has a character representing God who focuses outward on the lost. My great-grandmother used to say, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Most of our churches agree with such conventional wisdom. Yet the heart of God is like a man who leaves 99 sheep to find one lost sheep or a woman with 9 coins who focuses on finding one.

This however is the heart of the good news of the Gospel-God longs for the salvation of all people. He desires to restore relationships with lost people. This has been true in Scripture since God’s poignant call in the Garden of Eden, “Adam, where are you?”

This is no way downplays the destructiveness or ultimate consequences of sin. But it is a clarion call to God’s people to gain God’s heart for the lost and to be willing to embrace and accept the outsider as a person for whom Jesus Christ went to the cross. This involves a willingness to be open up the community to receive such persons into authentic fellowship.

The Climax of Luke 15 is not the story of the Prodigal Son, but the story of the Older Brother
God’s desire to celebrate the return of a lost son is the source of the conflict in the epilogue of the Prodigal Son (vv. 25-32). In fact, based on the overall context of Luke 15, the conflict between the Father and the Older Son is no mere epilogue-it is the heart of the message of Luke 15. The older son represents the religious authorities with whom Jesus is in conflict in 15:1-2.

Notice that there is no ending. Jesus leaves his audience hanging. What did the older son do? Did he join the party? This narrative invites us as readers to work out the ending for ourselves.
Here is the rest of the essay on the Prodigal son in Luke 15

The Rhetorical Affect of Luke 15
Luke has carefully crafted this chapter. As noted in our first post, Jesus is in conflict with religious authorities. The religious authorities were deeply offended by Jesus’ fellowship with persons thought to be outside the community and unworthy of concern.

Jesus responds with three stories about lost items: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and ostensibly a lost son. The first two stories served to draw in Jesus’ audience (the Pharisees and scribes) by using images and ideas that would have resonated with them. The rhetorical affect of the stories about a lost sheep and a lost coin would have been: OK Jesus - I am with you. I would have done the same thing. What shepherd would not go after a lost member of the flock? What woman would not seek diligently to recover 1/10th of the family’s savings? Moreover, it would not be unusual to celebrate the recovery of these items.

Jesus however does push the envelope in these two initial stories by comparing the human reaction to the recoveries to God’s response to the restoration of a sinner into God’s family:

Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Luke 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Thus, these two shorter stories prepare the reader for the climax of the passage - the story of two sons (vv. 11-32).

A Father’s Extraordinary Love
If the stories of the lost sheep and lost coin drew in Jesus’ audience, the story of the two sons would have challenged them deeply. It is this final story that emphasizes God’s heart for the lost.

This story shows that a heart for the lost calls for extraordinary measures and pushes the envelope regarding social norms of acceptable behavior. This is particularly true for the Father.
Most of us are struck by the boorish behavior of both sons. Both the younger and older dishonor their father in many ways. The younger asks for his inheritance early (“Father, I wish you were dead.”) and squanders away his half of the resources that his father spent a lifetime building. He then has the audacity to return home empty handed. The older brother also dishonors his father in his angry response to the celebration that his father holds in honor of his younger brother’s return to the family. These acts of dishonor were very serious in the honor-shame culture of the 1st century Mediterranean world. Each of these was humiliating to the father. But this is part of the power of this text. The father refuses to be limited in his actions by the honor-shame system of his day. In fact, the father’s own actions subvert the system by bringing additional dishonor on himself. The father grants the younger son his wish and gives him the inheritance. He readily welcomes back this same son. The happy scene of the father running to embrace his wayward child may be a Norman Rockwell moment for the Western world, but this was actually a scene of dishonor for the father. It was not honorable for a man of the father’s social position to run to greet anyone especially someone who had brought such dishonor to the family.

Why does the father embrace acts of dishonor? It is to make the point that the father was willing to do what it takes to bring reconciliation to his son. This points us to the heart of God. The father acted out of compassion“”so does God. Compassion is the motivation that drives the mission of God.

A lost son or daughter can return to God because God desires this to happen and creates an ethos in which reconciliation is possible.

Yet, the father in the story also is willing to lose face for the sake of the older son who is angry over his father’s generosity and forgiveness of the younger son. The father leaves his party to pursue the older son who has stormed out in protest (and whose actions have brought shame on his father). The father pleads with his elder son to join the celebration. This is a final word to the religious people of Jesus’ day and of ours. It is a word of grace and charity. It is the same call as given to the younger son-“Come home!” It is a call to (re)align with the heart of God.

How far are we willing to go to extend the Gospel to lost persons?
Are we willing to lose face if it means many sons and daughters being reconciled to God?
How would our lives be different if we aligned ourselves with the heart of God?

© 2009 Brian D. Russell

Audio is available from my address yesterday at Asbury Theological Seminary in Orlando Florida: (Re)Alignment–The Missional Challenge of Matt 4:17-22

Matthew 4:17-22 (New International Version)

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

I am preaching tomorrow (Nov 13, 2008) as part of the 10th Anniversary celebration of Asbury Theological Seminary’s Orlando campus. My message is titled “(Re)alignment” and is rooted in Matt 4:17-22 and 16:24-28. Chapel begins at 1 PM. The address is 8401 Valencia College Lane; Orlando, FL 32825. I hope to see you there.

Here is a teaser:

Game Changer: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

Jesus’ death on the cross and God the Father’s action of raising the Son from the dead on the third day is the ultimate game changer in Creation. Our future is suddenly open because it is secure. Through Jesus’ sacrificial death for sin, suffering and injustice and his resurrection for the sake of God’s ultimate victory, we can now make sense of the past because the future of Creation is guaranteed. Thus, we can now live purposively and courageously for God’s mission in the present.

Jesus’ call becomes a call to live free as the people whom we were created to be. We can live unfettered by the fears that rob the masses from true life. We live as dead men and women walking.

When we (re)align our lives in light of God’s game changing actions in the life, death, and resurrection, our lives become paradoxical. We learn to relish risk. We begin to fill more alive because we are dead to the world. We understand profoundly that our future is utterly secure because of what Jesus has already accomplished. This unleashes us to be free in the present. We live purposefully and courageously in the present.

We learn the truth of sayings such as:

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
Andre Gide

A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for. William Shedd

© 2008 Brian D Russell