- Why this waste? -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 I am going to give a Christmas message briefly.
About 2000 years ago, a person called Jesus was born and because he lived a life that is described in today's word of the Bible, he brought us something like a view of human beings or a sense of values that had never existed until then, right? We can say that that is the very Christmas present that we got thanks to Jesus' birth.
1.2 At the end of the Bible that you read, Jesus says, 'wherever the gospel is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told as her memorial. 'Without my talking about the detailed meaning of the words, you will understand that Jesus is paying his greatest compliments for what this woman did. That way Jesus thought more highly of human nature of this woman, and he found value in what she did. This is nothing but the incident that taught us the new view of human beings or sense of values that had never existed. If Jesus had not been born and had not met this woman that was described in the words of the Bible, such a view of human beings or sense of values that praise what she did would never have been brought to us.
2.1 Then what value does Jesus say he found in what this woman did? First, the last part of Verse 6 says, 'It is a fine thing she has done for me. 'That is quite different from the way many people present there looked at her, I think.
2.2 Nothing is written down about who this woman was nor where she came from, but one thing that we can guess is that she was probably such a woman as visited 'the house of Simon the leper .'That disease is feared as infectious and the person who has it is regarded as having been suffering from it because of some punishment from God. Therefore, nobody wouldn't keep company with that person. But this woman frequented such a house of Simon. Judging from this, probably she was looked at from the same perspective. We can imagine that she was labeled as the same type, right? The Gospel according to Luke, Verse 37, Chapter 7 says, 'a woman who was living an immoral life in the town .'People around Simon and this woman probably regarded them as 'never being able to do anything good ,'and regarded whatever they did as 'no good,' I think.
2.3 But in Verse 6, Jesus said,' It is a fine thing she has done for me.' Jesus regards us as the existence that can do something good to him, still more, to God, whatever label is applied to us, and also as the existence that can do something good to people around us through such a thing. We ourselves apply various labels to us and we are labeled by people around us. However, Jesus regarded us as 'the existence that can do something good.' What a wonderful view of human beings, right?
3.1 Why did this woman behave towards Jesus like this? In Verse 8, Jesus says, 'she has anointed my body in anticipation of my burial. ' With regard to the word 'in anticipation of my burial, 'in the program for this Eve Worship Service, just today's words of the Bible alone without the context are printed, but if I talk about what is written after today's part in the Bible, you will find the scene of' The Last Supper'which is well known to many people. On the next day after today's scene, Jesus is put on the cross and killed. This woman somehow perceived what was going to happen to Jesus and anointed this perfume, which in those days was often used for the dead bodies, and that was an unusually large amount, which I'll talk about in a few minutes, on him in advance.
3.2 The Bible says that the perfume which she applied to Jesus was so expensive. If you put it into money, it comes to 300 or more denarii. As one denari was worth the wage for a day's work for a laborer in those days, in current market prices, it will probably come to about 3 million yen. She poured all of such expensive perfume on Jesus' head and she broke its alabaster jar. I understand how she felt very well. This woman has a special feeling toward Jesus. We don't know how she saved but anyway she pours the whole perfume which seems equivalent to her whole fortune and destroys the jar that has contained it. It indicates that she won't ever pour the perfume on anybody else nor keep it.
3.3 This way she spends an expensive thing on a person who will be going to die tomorrow. She spends it not on a person who will continue to live and will do something for her but the person who will pass away. In terms of that, some of those present accused her, saying,' Why this waste? 'They said, 'The perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor .'But Jesus showed the sense of values that it might end up becoming of no use but that it is good to do whatever we can do for the person who will pass away.
4.1 Thus Jesus brought us the new sense of values that there IS worth in what is criticized as 'waste, 'I think. In the criticism against this woman's behavior, in addition to the reason that I have just mentioned, namely, that she poured the whole perfume on the person who is going to die, there is one more reason that she did it for the sake of just a single person. If they had sold the perfume for 300 denarii or more, and they had given the money to poor people, how many people could have been saved? In spite of that, she poured the whole of perfume on just a single person, and that on the single person, Jesus, who was going to be killed soon. But whenever we do something good, we find some part which looks wasteful there, right?
4.2 We sometimes ask ourselves, 'My whole life was in vain, wasn't it? What was the worth of it? 'We cannot do what we can please a lot of people with such a large amount of money as 3 million yen. We work for a single partner and our children, and in the case of such a pastor as me, I work for only a small number of people of my church. We return our loans, use ourselves for the sake of our family and end our life. For that kind of work, our 'perfume 'is poured and our 'alabaster jar' is broken. But Jesus teaches us that it's 'a fine thing. 'He teaches us that a fine thing always involves wastefulness.
4.3 I cannot help thinking that in this word of Jesus' there lies deep a fact that Jesus himself wasted himself. The Bible says that one traitor was given birth to in only 12 disciples that he chose, whose scene is described just after today's part, and that all the 12 disciples abandoned their master who was to be crucified and they ran away. The only person who was pleased with Jesus' cross was one person, who was nothing but a criminal who was crucified along with Jesus. However, Jesus teaches us that that is valuable by using his own body. It is a life far from success or prosperity but he teaches us that it is of great value. The very sense of values and the very view of human beings that our whole life itself during which we ask ourselves, 'Why this waste? ,'is precious, are the gift that Christmas has brought us, I think.
The Gospel according to Mark Chapter 14: 3 - 9
3 Jesus was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. As he sat at table, a woman came in carrying a bottle of very costly perfume, pure oil of nard. She broke it open and poured the oil over his head. 4 Some of those present said indignantly to one another, 'Why this waste? 5 The perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor'; and they began to scold her. 6 But Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. Why make trouble for her? It is a fine thing she has done for me. 7 You have the poor among you always, and you can help them whenever you like; but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what lay in her power; she has anointed my body in anticipation of my burial. 9 Truly I tell you: wherever the gospel is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told as her memorial.' (The Revised English Bible)
Mon date, 2015
- Give us a foothold in your holy place -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. It has been my occasional practice to choose Bible words for Christmas Sunday from among those by which I had been most impressed during worship services or the Bible Study & Prayer Meeting in the year passing, though this is not necessarily the case every year. The words of the Book of Ezra given for this morning is one which we listened to at the Bible Study & Prayer Meeting in early September this year. I've been so impressed by these words that I thought I might even choose them for my funeral service.
Of these words one that impressed me most is a part of verse 8 which says, 'the LORD our God has left us some survivors and gave us a foothold in his holy place; our God has brought light to our eyes again and given us some chance to renew our lives in our slavery.'
In the background of the Book of Ezra there was the following: in the year 586 B.C. Israel was destroyed by Babylonia and many Israelites were taken to Babylon as hostage where they had to live for some 50 years. Then Persia destroyed Babylonia, when Israelites were allowed to return home. But the homeland had run wild and people in their neighborhood didn't welcome home-coming of Israelites, for these people robbed properties and lands left by the Israelites during 50 years of their absence and moved and dwelt in their premises; they obstructed resettling of Israelites, and so rehabilitation of their life at homeland didn't go smoothly.
In this way, while the returned Israelites were not 'slaves' as such, they were not far away from being slaves in the sense that they were put in various forms of difficulty.
While so circumstanced, they were 'given strength to live, (as expressed in the Bible of Japanese language),' told Ezra. There are numerous examples of the word 'to live,' and 'strength,' used in the Bible. But a phrase to say, 'strength to live,' probably appears only in this passage, I suspect. This is true just in the Japanese translation and may not be the case in the original language. At any rate my heart was deeply struck by the phrase which says, 'they were given strength to live despite their circumstance of slavery.' It also says, 'a little strength they were given.' I am struck and wonder why Ezra said, 'a little strength,' instead of saying great strength.
Where did they get the 'strength to live?'They got it by taking 'a foothold in his holy place.''In his holy place,'is translated as the 'sacred place,' in the 1954 version of Japanese Bible. It means the temple of God referred to as the house of God on verse 9, which it is considered that the repatriates rebuilt around the year 515 B.C. as a result of much of their toil. But I would rather take it ultimately to mean 'the holiness of God.'This holiness of God tangibly appeared in the person of Jesus. That was what made it possible for all of us to take a foothold in the holiness of God, I would think. Only after we've been enabled to take a foothold in the holiness of God we got to be able to see things and our lives also in the 'light' we haven't had thus far. And it is this that gives us a little strength to live in our slavery. What a gracious words!; words most suitably given us at the Christmas season.
2. Now, Ezra told why and how they had been 'enslaved,' on verses 6 and 7. I am led to think how the reasons and causes cited there are related to us. 'Our sins tower above us, and our guilt is so great that it reaches high heaven,' it says. Ezra said in confession that this guilt was the cause which enslaved them in their times.
It hits home to me as we approach the end of the year that we are also ones who must make the same confession. During the year just passing we have broken our hearts over the rampage done by an organization called IS, and we are profoundly upset about it that on the excuse of having to make adaptation to what is called the drastically changing global situation, the long-cherished interpretation of our constitution to the effect that it allowed only exclusively defensive defense was altered and a step forward was made toward the right of collective defense. In the event of terrorism in France and with the fear of it, even the freedom-loving French people so easily accepted the declaration of emergency, accepted that people will get detained one after the other on the excuse of being a little bit doubtful. In the face of armed terrors, the thought of un-armed peace looks as if blown off to somewhere as no more than non-sense. 'The reign of king of the earth,' means, more than anything else, ruling by arms, does it not?
What is it that allowed such ruling of the earthly king to flourish as he is today? What is it that let the weapons of murder spread throughout the world and made us their slaves? To get down to the core of it, I think, it is our guilt that causes the state of the affairs of the world as is, as Ezra pointed out. During the past 200 years we, mankind, have single-mindedly maintained and expanded our sovereign states and territories, and concentrated on inventing and producing weapons and deploying them to keep the wealth and affluence we got in our hands. It is said that the producing and using of weapons are, as a matter of fact, deeply linked to economic affluence of a society. In ours where 1 in 6 of our children is said to belong to below the poverty line, and where 10 million of high-aged population will fall to "low 'income' socio-economic group," it will get, without fail, to depend more and more on the production and utilization of weapons to keep our affluence afloat, and will plunge us deeper into an era in which weapons will threaten us increasingly more.
Therefore it isn't easy for us to get out of this guilt and it is going to be some more time, I am afraid, before we are liberated from being made and kept in slavery. It is for this reason that my heart is struck by the point repeatedly made by Ezra when he said that the reality is that we cannot escape from 'being slaves,' or 'being enslaved.'
That is the very reason why the strength given us to live is only so much. The strength given us is absolutely not of such a magnitude as can break our state of being slaves; not so strong as it will be brought about to us by sweeping away the shackle and freeing us in full scale. The state of our slavery is going to prevail for long. The strength for us to survive under such a circumstance has to be inevitably just a little. If we try to gain a lot of strength, we must fight the battle with weapons in our hands, and on the same ring as the 'reign of king of the earth.' But then it amounts to playing into their hands. It will inescapably lead to being ruled by force of arms. Therefore it is strongly advised to inscribe in our hearts that the strength for us to live given from God is just a little bit.
3. This kind of strength for us to live we can get by having a foothold in the holiness of God, said Ezra. 'To be given a foothold in the holiness of God,' is simple and easy on the verbal surface of the phrase, but it is very profound as a matter of fact, I am again made to feel. 'The holiness of God,' in Hebrew language is kadosh. But we cannot give explanation to what kadosh means. That being the most primordial nature of God, we humans cannot explain it in human terms. If we dare to define it we humans can only do so by explaining it as 'something we cannot,' like 'something we cannot touch, something we cannot come close to, something we cannot violate.' It is what kadosh is.
In this way because the holiness of God is something we cannot get close to or we cannot touch, we cannot, under normal circumstances, gain foothold in the holiness of God. Chapter 6 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah tells the famous scenery in which Isaiah was called by God to be his messenger. Seraphim, a symbol of God, flew around in the temple calling to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts.' Seeing this, Isaiah could only say, 'Woe is me! I am doomed, for I am a man of unclean lips, my own eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts. This is the very traditional way the Israelites perceived the holiness of God. We are only to be destroyed; that we'll get a foothold in his holiness is but a far cry.
After when Isaiah so screamed one of the seraphim flew to him, carrying in his hand a glowing coal which he had taken from the altar and touched his mouth with it and said, 'This has touched your lips; now your iniquity is removed and your sin is wiped out.' This very event constituted, I feel, the beginning for the Israelites of the process by which the holiness of God touches on man and man is renewed, is led to a new mission based on that foothold.
4. The event of Christmas is an extension of that process. The holiness of God, one that humans cannot touch and come close to in normal circumstances, appeared in the person of Jesus. John repeated saying whoever saw Jesus saw God, whoever touched Jesus touched God. The holiness of God appeared in Jesus who came close to man so that man got to be able to touch and have a foothold in him. In this way it was made possible not just for an especially selected man like Isaiah, but also for everyone of us to touch the holiness of God.
How did the holiness of God make appearance in Jesus? It was by the birth of Jesus, first of all, conceived in the body of Virgin Mary and was born to the couple of Joseph and Mary. Engage as they were they must have had a lot of problems, I imagine, though the Bible does not say anything about them. Mary had to give birth to Jesus in a horse stable as they couldn't secure a room in any inn on their journey which was dictated by the king Herod reigning on behalf of the Roman Emperor. Is this not the situation we find ourselves in, having various circumstances behind and being 'enslaved?' Yet the Holy Spirit, a form of appearance of the holiness of God, chose the two and the body of Mary. The holiness of God made appearance to a situation where it was not supposed to in ordinary circumstances.
Mary responded by saying, 'May it be as you have said.' And these are words which it is alright for every one of us, too, to say. The holiness of God is conceived in us; the holiness of God chooses us and appears to us. If that is indeed the case, where is the necessity for us to deny us ourselves as well as deny the circumstances we are in? We get to be able to see enslaved selves in such a new light or perspective. And that is what gives us 'the strength to live,' though a little bit.
The holiness of God making appearance in Jesus is not confined in this story alone in the form it takes in appearing. During the Christmas festive gathering of the women's group we read about a Samaritan woman who changed her husband for five times and was now with the sixth man. Jesus, after a journey, tired and thirty, asked the woman saying, 'Give me a drink of water.' That was the very kind of woman who was considered never allowed to come in touch with the holiness of God. Tax-collectors, prostitutes, the sick and men in their passing stage: all regarded as filthy and cursed; people farthest away from the holiness of God. However, Jesus went to meet with them and gave them strength to live, to have a foothold in Jesus.
And in the end Jesus died on the cross, on top of which he shouted 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' He had to carry a cross on his back, which was the symbol of the end of life most cursed, looking as if he even lost his faith in God. This Jesus God of holiness resurrected. In this way we came to know that in Jesus, who was enslaved in misery and died on the cross, the holiness of God was represented. We take a foothold in the holiness of God that appeared in Jesus. It will bring to us 'the light to our eyes.' It will give us the strength, though a little bit, to live.
At the end of the Bible passage for today, the Israelites, having been given a little strength to live said, 'For slaves we are; nevertheless, our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has secured for us the favor of the kings of Persia: they have provided us with the means of renewal, so that we may repair the house of our God and rebuild its ruins, thereby giving us a wall of defense for Judah and Jerusalem.'
We too, who take a foothold in the holiness of God that appeared in Jesus, gather together by two or three in number and form a church. Church being an institution of men has problems and stumbling blocks. Yet church is where the holiness of God makes its appearance. I myself have been taken to church by my father since I was born. In the small church of countryside there arose problems and I witnessed my father, who had been serving as one of the elected on its board of elders, kept away from it for a long period of time. Yet church is where the holiness of God makes its appearance. It is my sincere hope that those of you who got baptized today and became branched of the church will take a foothold in the holiness of God appearing in Jesus and in the church, and get strength to live albeit a little bit.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The book of Ezra 9: 6 - 9
6 'I am humiliated, my God,' I said, 'I am ashamed, my God, to lift my face to you. Our sins tower above us, and our guilt is so great that it reaches high heaven. 7 From the days of our forefathers down to this present day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we and our kings and priests have been given into the strength of foreign rulers to be killed, taken captive, pillaged, and humiliated to this very day. 8 But now, for a brief moment, the LORD our God has been gracious to us, leaving us some survivors and giving us a foothold in his holy place; our God has brought light to our eyes again and given us some chance to renew our lives in our slavery. 9 For slaves we are; nevertheless, our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has secured for us the favor of the kings of Persia: they have provided us with the means of renewal, so that we may repair the house of our God and rebuild its ruins, thereby giving us a wall of defense for Judah and Jerusalem. (The Revised English Bible)
- Which of the two was acquitted of his sins? -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. By the Bible passage which we listened to at the last sermon i.e. the Gospel according to Luke chapter 18, verses from 1 to 8, Jesus taught us through 'a parable of a widow and a judge,' to keep praying and never lose heart. We are going to learn also about making prayers by the words given us for today through 'a parable of a Pharisee and a tax-collector.' Both these parables are written only by Luke. Why was it that Jesus repeated teaching about prayer? The answer seems to be deeply connected with the words Jesus spoke in verse 21 of chapter 17.
On verse 21, chapter 17, Jesus said 'The kingdom of God is among you!' This is also a line which only Luke wrote as we've been taught a number of times, and the phrase i.e. the kingdom of God means to point to the reign of God. We inscribed in our hearts numerous times how deeply comforting these words are. Jesus gave us promise that we will find the reign of God, not somewhere far away from us, but right among us ― in the faith we have in God and in Jesus, and also in the midst of fellowship we believers keep among us.
Right after these words, Jesus taught us about prayer. The intention was to give us a message that the reign of God would come to us in our prayers. For this purpose, Jesus spoke about a widow who tenaciously knocked on the door of a judge having no respect for man and who succeeded in getting him give her a trial; a story was perhaps quoted from an episode there was in actual life of Israelites in those days. Even the unjust judge was moved by tenacious demand of the widow. How much more quickly will not God hear and give justice to our prayers, Jesus taught us.
Hearing it though, some of you may wonder if it was indeed the case. Some among us may bemoan that howsoever strongly and frequently we implore and pray, our prayers are not going to be answered; the reign of God is not coming. I must remind you at this juncture, however, that because it is the reign of God that appears to us in response to our prayers, it comes in forms fitting to his will. On verse 17, chapter 21 Jesus said, 'You cannot tell by observation when the kingdom of God comes. You cannot say, "Look, here it is," or "There it is!"' To be able to see it in visible form would mean that we can readily tell by observation and say, 'Ah! This is indeed the reign of God appearing.' Our prayers are not going to be heard and answered in such a form.
What form an answer from God will then take to our prayers? As a concrete example of it, I cited Paul having asked God in his prayers to rid him of the thorn in his body (See chapter 12 of the Second Letter of Paul to Corinthians.) The request of Paul was never answered in the form he wanted. In its stead, the answer came to say, 'My grace is all you need; power is most fully seen in weakness.' The reign of God appeared to Paul with him having been made to see the will of God through the words given by Jesus as in just above, which was to say that weakness is all he needs for him to walk the path as a missionary. This episode reminds us once again that the reign of God is not going to appear in ways we pray and wish for. Yet, without fail, our prayers are heard and the reign of God will appear to us. That is why Jesus taught us, for the first thing, to keep praying and never to lose heart.
2. What is it that is taught us by the words of today, then? The passage up to verse 8 taught that our prayers are going to be heard without fail and that the reign of God will come for sure. However, the words for today tell just the contrary; that there are prayers, prayers without fortune, which are never going to be heard, howsoever ardently prayed they may be. And Jesus tells us not to make such miserable prayers.
What are miserable prayers like? It is prayers which such ones make as at the beginning of verse 9, who were sure of their own goodness and looked down on everyone else; more specifically to put it, it is the prayer a Pharisee offers as in verse 10 and downwards. The Pharisees were the people respected in the Jewish community of the time as a model believer who others should follow. It was logical that the prayers they made were the model prayers and that if prayers were to be heard by God, it was theirs which were heard. But Jesus told that God wasn't listening at all to such prayers as the Pharisees made.
Jesus said that it was the prayer of the tax-collector, regarded as a being opposite to the Pharisee, which was heard by God as the words of verse 14 put it saying, 'who went home acquitted of his sins.' Tax-collectors were the kind who worked as hands of the Roman Empire and enriched their purse by charging more in tax money upon the people of Israel than what the authority prescribed. Against such a background it was believed that God would never listen to the prayers they make. But Jesus said that God listens to the prayer of the tax-collector and that the reign of God appears to him in his prayers. What was to be taken as a turnabout was taking place in the prayer. The same was true of the story of the parable in paragraph up to verse 8. A judge who had no respect for man would listen, for a reason we don't know, to demand of a widow, whom none in the community of the time would pay attention to. Likewise here took place a surprising turnabout in which God heard the prayer of a tax-collector, the kind distanced and hated like serpent and scorpion.
3. Our question is why a turnabout. A widow in the parable of up to verse 8 had troubles beyond her control and she desperately sought the justice by a judge. She was in a trouble she couldn't live without having the justice given. The same was true of the tax-collector. He knew that his job was the kind no Jew should have a hand in. Yet he could not part himself away from it, for he had to earn his living from it. He had no other choice but to ask God to have pity on and forgive him. The Pharisee would say that the tax-collector was spoiling himself and asking too much. They would criticize him saying he should pull his hands from tax-collecting business howsoever hard it might be to do so, for that was how a believer should live. He knew it. Knowing it fully well, he just could not pull his hand out. He could do nothing about it himself. Therefore, he didn't consult man about it but just prayed to God.
In contrast to the prayer of a man who was with poverty or problems about which he could do nothing, there was no remorse or a sense of hopelessness to be found in the prayer of a Pharisee 'who was sure of his goodness and looked down on everyone else.' He would single out people one after another with a sense of hopelessness (for their robbery, injustice, adultery, tax-collection) and would pray, 'God, I thank you, for I am not like one of those.' If instead he prayed saying, 'I am also apt to do and think as they do. But I thank you for giving me guard and having made me righteous,' then it shows that he also needs the reign of God. But he did not pray like that. He was all well with his health and didn't need help of a doctor. He was such that he could discipline himself well without the reign of God. God would not answer to prayers of such a man howsoever fervently he might pray. He had no room into which God could deliver his answer. He didn't need the reign of God. How was it possible for God to give answer to such a prayer?
4. The question then is what is the relationship of the Pharisees who make luckless prayers and we ourselves. A pastor, the Reverend Mr. Keizo Shimizu, says as follows in his book entitled "Parables of Jesus," about the words given for us today. 'How shall we think of the Pharisee and the tax-collector? We should at the least not regard the Pharisee as a narrow-minded fanatic. I don't think we can regard him as not even remotely close to us at all. We need to come to recognize that we will find resemblance of a Pharisee who is envisaged as an ideal believer at the forward of cultivation of mind and endeavor to make strict observation of worship, to live in a rightful way, to read the Bible, to pray and to donate for our thanks etc. etc. The Bible writes about the struggle between the Pharisees and Jesus over and again not just because it was what happened in fact but also because there was the same danger in the churches and the struggle needed to be continued. It was the problem for Christians in churches.' (p154, op.cit.)
While preparing for this sermon, I recollected having a dialogue with a man, of whom I talked in my sermon some time ago. He attended worship service just twice, but he had private talks with me several times. 'Both you, the pastor and also members of the church are hypocrites,' was the word he left at our last conversation and he left from us. 'Hypocrites' was the very word Jesus heaped on the Pharisees time and again. But the dialogue reminded me that I may have an element in me for being called that way. As for me, I have never thought I could be as I am today without God reigning on me. I can prepare sermon thanks to God making response to my and your prayers, as I take it. However, I as a pastor and we as believers may have been much too sound in health in the eyes of that man. All we have are full of plus and positives with no minus or negatives. We may have been saying too much with our chests puffed up that we are able to do this, we are made as are thanks to God. Perhaps it can't be helped because it is the joy I have as a believer. However, in the eyes of the man who had to withdraw himself from society for so long, that man with overwhelmingly deep minus, my way of being as I am may have looked to be 'boasting of oneself as being righteous,' I am afraid, and single-mindedly thanking God for the positive part of myself. What he wanted from us may have been to find in us somebody like the tax-collector who had hopeless minus in him and could not thank God for any plus he had. The point Jess was trying to make, I think, was that because we are believers we are in danger of becoming someone like the Pharisees rather than a tax-collector.
At this juncture, a suitable form of being a church may have to be, I would think, one of having nothing but to pray to God saying, 'Pity on us!,' as one having problems about which we can to nothing. The other day we had a training program for board members of churches, in which what a pastor, of other denomination though, told us as a lecturer had much for us to learn from. The story of the church he serves was so nice that one of the participants felt like making an unkindly question to ask if 'there is no problem in your church at all.' He answered saying, 'Hunh! Nothing.' Recollecting this exchange, I feel I am taught deeply that it may have been more fitting for a church to be able to say that we have problems in our church, our church is so sick that we have to come under the reign of God and to that end we are praying such and such prayers.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Luke 18: 9-14
9 Here is another parable that he told; it was aimed at those who were sure of their own goodness and looked down on everyone else. 10 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. 11 the Pharisee stood up and prayed this prayer: "I thank you, God, that I am not like the rest of mankind - greedy, dishonest, adulterous - or, for that matter, like this tax-collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all that I get." 13 But the other kept his distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat upon his breast, saying, "God, have mercy on me, sinner that I am." 14 It was this man, I tell you, and not the other, who went home acquitted of his sins. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (The Revised English Bible)
- Moses gets protests from his people -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 In the last sermon about Exodus, we listened to the words from Verse 1, Chapter 5 to Verse 9 of that chapter. Today we are going to skip some parts and to read Verse 20, Chapter 5 and the following. I will tell you briefly what happened. Moses and Aaron were granted an audience with the King of Egypt for the first time and they pressed home God's demand about Israeli people. That demand was, to put it briefly, to let Israeili people leave and let them pray to God. However, naturally the King of Egypt did not accept it but in retaliation for asking him for such an unreasonable wish, he ordered that they should prepare straw to bake bricks with by themselves, which the King had offered as an indispensable material for baking bricks until then, and that they should produce the same number of bricks as before . The Israeli people could not prepare straw by any means and could not bake the number of bricks that they were ordered to. Therefore, the foremen lashed the Israeli people. Their leaders, who were not able to put up with it at last, resorted to such emergency measures as making a direct appeal to the King of Egypt. But their attempt did not succeed in persuading the King at all but ended up being ordered by the King, as in Chapter 5, Verse 17 and the following, 'You are idle, you are idle; therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. 'Go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks.'Now the Israeli leaders felt keenly what a difficult situation they were in.
1. 2 The Israeli leaders protested against Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them in breathless suspense, wondering what had happened to their direct appeal. 'You have made us stink in the nostrils of Pharaoh and his subjects; you have put a sword in their hands to slay us. 'On hearing their protest, Moses has nothing but to protest against God. God's reply to it is written in Chapter 6, Verse 1 and the following. Although Moses repeated those words of God to the Israelites, Verse 9 says,'they would not listen to him; because of their cruel slavery, they had reached the depths of despair. '
2.1 Now judging from the above-mentioned words, what kinds of encouragement or comfort can we get? First, what is available to us is just the opposite of encouragement or comfort, namely, a very oppressive reality in our religious life, I think.
2.2 I imagine that Moses and Aaron and Israeli people also had flattered themselves that the King of Egypt would accept God's demand more easily than they had thought. They had such an optimistic view as to expect that even the King of Egypt would accept a demand from the existence of God without difficulty, right? But as I mentioned the outline of the previous sermon, the situation gets worse in the opposite direction, just the opposite of what they expected. They protested, saying,'You have made us stink ,'(Chapter 5, Verse 21) which means that just because they met such an existence as God, they were hated by their king and his subjects, although they had been getting along with them so far. Moses does not understand what is his role to play. Severe burdens from the King drive the Israeli people into such a situation where they cannot afford to listen to God's words.
2.3 I keenly feel that such a thing will happen to our religious life too. We also might have very optimistic expectations for our religious life. It might apply to especially those who are going to be baptized at this Christmas. They might think that to live with faith in God means to be able to be able to live in defiance of such an existence as the King of Egypt who will put many kinds of pressure on us. They might expect that those who are connected with Jesus never meet any difficulty and that if they should meet it, they will be rescued from there at once. If I can say,'You're right ,'how easy it will be!
2.4 But I am sorry to say that our religious life is not such a thing. At the end of the preparation meeting for baptism, I said that to continue our religious life and church life is really difficult. The word'Difficult to get in and Easy to get out ( go away)'well describes the steps of our faith. And its decisive cause is described in today's words: Just because we believe in God and Jesus, the more pressure is sometimes put on us. Far from being set free from pain, it is sometimes strengthened. Just because of heavy labor, we sometimes cannot listen to what Moses says, that is, God's words, and find it difficult to attend the worship service.
3.1 However, just because it is written in today's words that such a thing will happen in our religious life as a reality, it can also be what encourages and supports us, right? If the Bible says that our religious life is just rosy, then we have to say that it is strange for us to get into such a difficult situation or say that such a thing can never take place. But it is clearly written in the Bible that when we live as believers in God in the world controlled by the king of this world, we are made to face such a difficult situation and that it is natural. If so, we can say proudly that rather for us to be put into such a difficult situation as is written here is natural as believers, right?
3.2 With regard to why we cannot help being put in a difficult situation, we can learn from a book with notes. Verse 21 , 'You have made us stink in the nostrils of Pharaoh and his subjects,'is literally translated into 'you have made us offensive in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants ,'in it I hear. For eyes to smell is a strange expression. What it means here is that the Israeli people who meet a person called God and are forced to make an unprecedented demand to the King of Egypt that he should'let them leave and worship God ,'are the existence whose smell the King and his subjects cannot put up with instinctively and the existence that emits a totally unacceptable smell. Hatred of a certain smell is instinctive and intuitive. That is no such thing as can be mutually acceptable as a result of negotiations.
3.3 As we have been taught many times, the King of Egypt and his subjects measured the worth of Israeli people in terms of how many bricks they could bake or whether they could work for the sake of the king or the country. But God tries to make those who work under such a king leave and to make people worship him. God tries to make them sacrifice to God. The viewpoint of God who sees Israeli people is quite different from that of the King. This is difficult for the King of Egypt to forgive. Therefore, he won't forgive the smell of the Israeli people at all who meet God who tries to make them do such a thing. Therefore, he will hate them. He tries to torment them and to separate them from God. He tries to make them think that there is no meaning or no merit in believing in God.
3.4 We also are the existence that is emitting this kind of smell, right? Paul says that the smell or fragrance that we emit is 'the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus'(2 Corinthians, Chapter 2, Verse 14). Here 'to know 'does not mean just intellectual recognition but to know in terms of a deeper and personal connection or a connection like that of a couple. We need the person called Jesus as a companion of our whole life, or rather an eternal companion, who was born as a human and humbled himself to the death on the cross. In that sense, there is a fragrance of Christ that we emit as the existence that knows Jesus and is connected with him. That smell or fragrance is unforgivable for the king or his subjects of this world who try to bake as many bricks as possible and try to gain wealth. Therefore, we are made to be put in a difficult situation.
4.1 Now how did God cope with Israeli people who were put in such a difficult situation and also with Moses who lamented?
4.2 What we would like to pay attention to here is that Moses is grieving as Chapter 5, Verse 22 says, 'why have you brought trouble on this people? ' He is moaning that God himself is bringing trouble on Israeli people and him. But this is never a right way of thinking, I think. It is never God who is bringing trouble directly. It is the King of Egypt, after all. Of course, there is God who accepts it, but he is not bringing trouble or he himself is not increasing suffering. When we are put in a difficult situation as believers or when suffering does not stop, we should not think that God himself is doing so, I think. Not that, but, as we have just been taught, it is important to think that it is inevitable as believers. And one more important way of accepting it is to understand that there is something when we can achieve only by meeting suffering. Therefore, God does not take away suffering from us right away.
4.3 In Chapter 6, Verse 1, God says to Moses,'Now you will see what I shall do to Pharaoh: he will be compelled to let them go, he will be forced to drive them from his country. 'It will be long before it is actually realized. For the time being, Moses is put in a difficult situation. But just because he was put in a difficult situation, he was given something by God for the first time. It is what is described in Verse 2 and the following, right? Some scholars say that what is written here is nothing but the repetition of what was already written in Chapters 3 and 4. They interpret that those who wrote Chapters 3 and 4 and those who wrote Chapter 6, Verse 2 and the following are different authors in terms of the age. Chapter 6, Verse 3 includes the word that has been discussed since a long time ago, 'I did not let myself be known to them by my name, the LORD ( in the original Yahweh) . 'They are trying to explain this part from the standpoint of the difference of the authors.
4.4 I think that this part is not just a repetition of Chapters 3 and 4. Abraham, Isaack and Jacob also knew God named'the LORD.'But now the figure of God, the LORD, that they had never been able to know is appearing in the presence of the Israeli people. Also Moses is meeting God, the LORD, whom he had never known in Chapters 3 and 4. Abraham, Isaack and Jacob were also put in a difficult situation respectively. But they did not undergo the difficult situation where they had to suffer as slaves of the King for hundreds of years. Moses was not actually put in a difficult situation in Chapters 3 nor 4 yet either. When they are put in a difficult situation because of the existence of the King of Egypt, for the first time they come to know the meaning of God, the LORD's existing. When we are put in a prolonged difficult situation, we are able to meet God whom we have never known until then. We are able to understand the depth of meaning that God is the LORD, even if our being set free from a difficult situation does not come true.
4.5 What kind of Lord does God say he is? Verse 6 says, 'I am the LORD. I shall free you from your labors in Egypt and deliver you from slavery. I shall rescue you with outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.'Please compare what God is trying to do as the LORD for Israeli people and what the King of Egypt is demanding of Israeli People. The King who is the master in this world demands that his people should bake bricks and work only for his sake. But God, the LORD, never demands such a thing from us. Even if the Israeli people are asked, they can do nothing, for they are nothing but the existence of being burdened with heavy labor and of being made to suffer as slaves. God, the LORD, really unilaterally delivers and rescues such people, although it is not realized at once. Although I repeat many times, Israeli people were not able to hear the words of this God that Moses said. Then, because of that, did the words and promise of this God end up being in vain? Far from it. Not at once, but surely they were realized. To be put under God the LORD is, even if we cannot obediently listen to what he says, so merciful.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Exodus 5 : 20 - 6: 13
5-20: As they came from Pharaoh's presence they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 5-21: and said, 'May this bring the LORD's judgment down on you! You have made us stink in the nostrils of Pharaoh and his subjects; you have put a sword in their hands to slay us.' 5-22: Moses went back to the LORD and said, 'Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? And why did you ever send me? 23: Since I first went to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has treated your people cruelly, and you have done nothing at all to rescue them.'
6-1: The LORD answered, 'Now you will see what I shall do to Pharaoh: he will be compelled to let them go, he will be forced to drive them from his country. 6-2: God said to Moses, 'I am the LORD. 6-3: I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty; but I did not let myself be known to them by my name, the LORD. 6-4: I also established my covenant with them to give them Canaan, the land where for a time they settled as foreigners. 6-5: And now I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, enslaved by the Egyptians, and I am mindful of my covenant. 6-6: Therefore say to the Israelites, "I am the LORD. I shall free you from your labors in Egypt and deliver you from slavery. I shall rescue you with outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 6-7: I shall adopt you as my people, and I shall be your God. You will know that I, the LORD, and your God the Lord who frees you from your labors in Egypt. 6-8: I shall lead you to the land which I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. I shall give it you for your possession. I am the LORD."' 6-9:But when Moses repeated those words to the Israelites, they would not listen to him; because of their cruel slavery, they had reached the depths of despair. 6-10: Then the LORD said to Moses, 6-11: 'Go and bid Pharaoh king of Egypt let the Israelites leave his country. 6-12: Moses protested to the LORD, 'If the Israelites do not listen to me, how will Pharaoh listen to such a halting speaker as me?' 6-13: The LORD then spoke to both Moses and Aaron and gave them their commission concerning the Israelites and Pharaoh, which was that they should bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
(The Revised English Bible)
- "Back to your labors," says the King -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Today's word describes the scene where Moses who finished such long dialogues as Chapters 3 & 4 with God, finally stood face to face with and was confronted with the King of Egypt for the first time. It is not clear in what age and what was the name of the king but it is thought that it took place about 3,500 years ago or, about 1,500 B. C. It is not clear what the then world was like. But probably there is no doubt that this country called Egypt was the most powerful kingdom in those days and that the king had immeasurable power, just as is known in movies or documentary films on TV. It was two elderly men representing Israeli people and aged over 80 who were nothing but slaves who were to be pushed around that were confronted with such a king. It was 40 years ago but moreover, Moses was the wanted man who murdered an Egyptian. Usually it is impossible for such a person to have an audience with a king and the moment he is just going to meet the king, he will be arrested, right? The reason why he was granted an audience with the king was only that probably the king heard that Moses was brought up as the child of a princess of another king, right? He was interested in it and probably he thought that he would just meet Moses.
1.2 In this way, a confrontation between the king and two elderly men representing slaves was realized. As has been told to us many times, this confrontation stands for the scene that we believers must experience in whatever age or whatever society, I think. Here two contrastive parties who can never intermingle with each other or never understand each other are colliding with each other. Some people may say that it is not good to regard the other man, even if he is king, as the one whom we have to be confronted with, and that we should have a little more mild and peaceful view. But such a mild way of perception fails to grasp the essence of things, I think. Romans Chapter 12, Verse 2 says, 'Do not be conformed to this world.'There exists the other person who we believers must not compromise with or cannot intermingle with, in this world. This Egyptian king stands for it symbolically.
2.1 Now we are studying Nehemiah of the Old Testament at the Bible Study and Prayer Meeting on Wednesday every week. Since the country of Israel was destroyed by Babylonia in 586 BC, its capital Jerusalem had never been reconstructed and seemed to have been a heap of rubble. The man called Nehemiah who grieved over it, and who served as the close aid to the King of Persia that destroyed Babylonia and as the taster of poison, returned to Jerusalem, where he had never been brought up nor lived in about 450 BC, and he launched the reconstruction of the walls. However, once the construction of the walls started, various nations around it began to distrub it altogether. Therefore, Nehemiah and his followers had to put into effect a status of tight alert 24 hours a day, day and night, with work tools in one hand and with weapons in the other hand.
2.2 At the study meeting last week also, I was reminded of it but even if we talk about the construction of the walls, it is just a small fort about five kilometers in circumference. Just because they have been reconstructed, it doesn't mean that the past Kingdoms of David or Solomon have been reconstructed. Still now neighboring governors chosen by the King of Persia hold the control of Palestine. Why do they need to obstruct the construction of the walls? For fear of what, do they do it?
2.3 It means that however small their area might be, they could not tolerate the Israeli people's building the area to worship their God. This region is of course close to Egypt and ought to share the values and life styles. Soon we will learn them in details but the values that the King of Egypt possesses and that he forces Moses and Aaron to hold ought to be owned by neighboring races in common. In such a situation, which we will learn later also, building a community for prayer that is surrounded by the walls and where they believe in the Lord their God, means that the area which is quite different and where people with quite different values live, is given birth to. It is what neighboring people cannot leave as it is. Therefore, although the area is just four kilometers in circumference, the place where an extremely small number of people live from the standpoint of the whole population of Palestine or neighboring races, they try to destroy it frantically. This is the essence of what people around us try to do to us believers, in whatever age or whatever society. We should not misread this.
2.4 That Israeli people tried to reconstruct the walls of Jerusalem means to us to build a community for praying and to build a sacred area in the city of Tsukuba in that sense. For us Christians who account for at most one percent of the whole population of Japan to build a community for praying is probably nothing to people around us. But it is intolerable for some people. We are confronted with some people of this kind, just as Moses and Aaron were confronted with the King of Egypt. They are always planning to obstruct our construction of a community for praying. We believers should never neglect to always keep alert to it.
3.1 Then, what kind of existence is the King of Egypt? What kind of values does he have and does he force them on Moses and Aaron? It reveals vividly in Verse 4 and the following. As he ordered that Israeli people, slaves to Egyptians, should go, it is natural for the king to say like this. He says, 'What do you mean, Moses and Aaron, by distracting the people from their work? Back to your labors! 'He orders that those who are impudent enough to make such a demand should never be supplied with the straw used in making bricks and that there should be no reduction in their daily task. He says that those who say such a thing are nothing but lazy.
3.2 It will be unnecessary to say repeatedly what kind of values the King had. In his words we can find the words, 'labors ,' 'work,' and 'make bricks'many times. The values that the King had is, in short, nothing but to make bricks, to work and to labor for the king and his kingdom. It is natural for slaves to do so but the King regards the existence of Israeli people as such an existence. The worth of a human being is measured by how much he can work in making bricks for the King and his country.
3.3 In whatever age and whatever society, when we get down to it, this kind of king is trying to control us, I think. Is such a view an exaggeration? Are we not controlled by such a king any longer? Are we able to live under different values? About two weeks ago, NHK (the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) was broadcasting a feature program which reported that people who are now working are biporalized. That is, on one hand, this may not be an accurate memory, but one third of workers are non-regular employees and it was reported that their annual income was at most three million yen. It means that even if they have two or three jobs, still they cannot live a decent life. On the other hand, to regular employees, such long time work as to cause them to die because of fatigue is assigned. Forms of work are quite different but here the invisible control by the King seems to exist, which tries to find the worth only in working and making bricks or earning wages.
3.4 On Monday and Saturday two weeks ago, I attended meetings in Yokohama and Ageo. Repeatedly I saw flash news on the electric bulletin board at platforms of the trains going and coming that was reporting accidents resulting in injury or death as if they were not out of the way. Why do so many people have to kill themselves? Because to make bricks by working is the only yard stick to measure the worth of a human being and because it plays a decisive role, I think. 'Those who cannot work are lazy. They are an useless existence for this country. Those who make as many bricks as possible for the King and the country---the superior or boss or employer who has power over you your family---are valuable people. 'To live under the values of this kind causes us to regard 'work 'as 'toil 'before we know it. If to live is toil, then it is better to put an end to such a life as early as possible, right?
4. 1 Moses and Aaron are confronted with such a king of Egypt. It teaches us how we should be confronted with such a king or society.
4.2 The two people tell faithfully what God told Moses to say first if he stood up in front of the King in Chapters 3 and 4. As I said repeatedly, this word is really surprising. It teaches us what drives us to be confronted with such a king. God did not make them say to the King such things as negotiations for labor unions, for example,'Could you loosen labor conditions? 'or 'Could you raise our pay? '
4.3 Not that but the two people say in Verse 1, 'These are the words of the LORD the God of Israel,'and in Verse 3 'The God of the Hebrews confronted us. 'First, they tell the King of this world clearly that they met not the King of this world but 'God ,' and that I am confronted with you as the one who was urged by the God. This is the very starting point that makes us confront such an existence as the King of Egypt. There is no other foundation but this.
4.4 Then what kind of demand does God give the King of Egypt and what does God ask him to do? Verse 1 says, 'Let my people go so that they may keep a pilgrim-feast in my honor in the wilderness. 'Although I do not know about Hebrew at all, it seems that the original text can be translated like 'Let my people go, that they may go on a pilgrimage to me in the wilderness. 'What is in common with Verse 3 is that God makes a request to let them go to the wilderness anyway. The wilderness is the place where there is no material to make bricks with and where it is impossible to work. The place that doesn't have the values in which people work for the King or their country is the wilderness.
4.5 My word probably reminds each of you that you have this kind of wilderness, right? For example, when you got ill or had an accident, you were compelled to enter hospital. Or you suffered from an earthquake or suffered damage from torrential rainfall. On such occasions nobody asks us to work. You may hear the voice that says that now that you are not able to work, you are worthless. But it is not blatant at least. The King is not there. God leads us to the wilderness in such a way and guides us to have a different sense of values, I think.
4.6 What does it mean to go on a pilgrimage in the wilderness? I hear that still now people in Israel never fail to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It costs them a lot of money and they have an accident. In spite of that they go on a pilgrimage. Why do they do that? Although I forgot the exact title of a book, I would like to mention what I read in the book of Iwanami Shinsho. It says that in the pilgrimage even if you are the king or his liege lord, you are not given a special treatment. There everyone is equal and they are made equal before God and they help each other during the pilgrimage. They leave the King who regards only making bricks as the worth of a human being and in their journey to God in the wilderness they help each other. To offer a prayer every week this way is also a pilgrimage to the wilderness. There we experience helping each other. In the relationship of helping each other, we realize that we have our own worth except making bricks.
4.7 Verse 3 says, ' Now we request leave to go three days' journey into the wilderness and offer sacrifice to the LORD our God.'We leave the job of making bricks for the King or our country and become those who offer sacrifice to God. What God asks us for is, as we always hear, something small or tiny. And the heart to pray to God. Of course, not for the King or nobody else but only for God and an offering that only God is pleased with and receives.
4.8 How encouraging for us it is God's saying'Do like this. Be confronted with the King in this way'!
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Exodus 5: 1-23
1: After this, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and told him, 'These are the words of the LORD the God of Israel: Let my people go so that they may keep a pilgrim-feast in my honor in the wilderness.' 2: 'Who is the LORD,' said Pharaoh, 'that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I do not acknowledge the LORD; and I tell you I will not let Israel go.' 3: They replied, 'The God of the Hebrews confronted us. Now we request leave to go three days' journey into the wilderness and offer sacrifice to the LORD our God, or else he may attack us with pestilence or the sword.' 4: But the Egyptian king answered, 'What do you mean, Moses and Aaron, by distracting the people from their work? Back to your labors! 5: Your people already outnumber the native Egyptians; yet you would have them stop working!' 6: Pharaoh issued orders that same day to the people's slave-masters and their foremen 7: not to supply the people with the straw used in making bricks, as they had done hitherto. 'Let them go and collect their own straw, 8: but see that they produce the same tally of bricks as before; on no account reduce it. They are lazy, and that is why they are clamoring to go and offer sacrifice to their God. 9: Keep these men hard at work; let them attend to that. Take no notice of their lies.' 10: The slave-masters and foremen went out and said to the people, 'Pharaoh's orders are that no more straw is to be supplied. 11: Go and get it for yourselves wherever you can find it; but there is to be no reduction in your daily task.' 12: So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble for the straw they needed, 13: while the slave-masters kept urging them on, demanding that they should complete, day after day, the same quantity as when straw had been supplied. 14: The Israelite foremen were flogged because they were held responsible by Pharaoh's slave-masters, who demanded, 'Why did you not complete the usual number of bricks yesterday or today? 15: The foremen came and appealed to Pharaoh: 'Why does your majesty treat us like this?' they said. 16: 'We are given no straw, yet they keep telling us to make bricks. Here are we being flogged, but the fault lies with your people.' 17: The king replied, 'You are lazy, bone lazy! That is why you keep on saying, " Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD. " 18: Now get on with your work. You will not be given straw, but you must produce the full tally of bricks.' 19: When they were told that they must not let the daily number of bricks fall short, the Israelite foremen realized the trouble they were in. 20: As they came from Pharaoh's presence they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21: and said, 'May this bring the LORD's judgment down on you! You have made us stink in the nostrils of Pharaoh and his subjects; you have put a sword in their hands to slay us.' 22: Moses went back to the LORD and said, 'Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? And why did you ever send me? 23: Since I first went to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has treated your people cruelly, and you have done nothing at all to rescue them.' (The Revised English Bible)
- All these died in faith -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. While beginning to prepare the sermon for today at the start of last week, I woke up to a certain matter. Some of you may have noticed that the passage of the Bible we listened to today of last year was the same Letter of Paul to the Hebrews, and the passage quoted was from the same chapter 11 of the letter, with verses from 11 to 13. Most probably the title for this sermon is also the same as that employed for the sermon of last year, I gather. My sermon for today includes verse 13, which I used also for the last sermon. It does not mean I was intent on saving labor in preparation of my sermon, I must say and implore for your understanding.
To begin with, the verse13 says, 'All these died in faith.' Having chewed the cud and got the taste of these words a number of times, I am myself made to feel again how deep a solace these words are offering. On my side, it was without any deep deliberation that I picked these words for the sermon. However, the choice may have to do, though unconsciously, with the fact that one of our sisters in faith, a church member, is in critical condition about which no optimism is allowed. When the last Bible Study & Prayers Meeting finished, one of the attendants, who was taking care of the grandchildren of the sister just for a short while though, told us that the patient's daughter attending the mother on sick bed told her that the patient was singing hymns to herself. It shows, I gather, that the sister embraces faith even in her critical condition.
Having said that though, what kind of ideas patients in critical conditions actually have is no knowledge of people at the bed sides in by far the majority of cases, I must add. In the eyes of bedside attendants, patients would look, more often than not, simply suffering from pains and throes, and don't look like having faith. For most of the bereaved who assembled here today, your remembrance of those already past may be that of panting pains and agony at their last times, I am afraid, rather than that of holding firm on to the faith.
To us having seen death of the beloved that way, the passage of the Bible for today tells, saying, 'All these died in faith.' 'All these' means the people listed from verse 4 to 12, chapter 11 of the letter to Hebrews. To me it seems to refer to all who died as well as to us who are to die someday to come. We are not ones to die embracing just painful feelings. Rather we are ones who can die in faith. Instead of just embracing the kind thoughts at the time of our passing that we wouldn't like to die, would continue to live, and that it's painful and agonizing to die, how balm it will be if we could die in faith?
2. At this juncture, a question will naturally arise in us. As said earlier, we, standing by the ones about to pass away, cannot get to see them called to heaven to do so with faith in the majority of cases. My father, who until about two years ago used to make long prayer of thanks before each meal, now doesn't remember to pray as dementia progresses. Is he really going to die in faith? This is the question I have every time we have worship service in commemoration of the deceased. And among the deceased whose photos are put up on the rack and whom I will call by their names, not a few died not as a Christian. Could we say that they passed away in faith?
These questions bring us to an important point of recognition, the point which was shown to us last year also. To 'die in faith,' which in Japanese Bible is translated to mean to 'die embracing faith,' is a substantially liberal translation. Originally it is written more simply to mean 'under the faith,' or 'with faith.' To say to 'die embracing faith,' suggests that it is the one passing who embraces the faith. But if we say to 'die under the faith,' the implication includes that the passing dies under or with the faith of someone other than the passing in addition to the meaning of dying under the faith of the passing one. While the passing one does not have a clear faith, it could be that someone else embraces with his faith and guide the passing one.
To make a little detour, I had a chance to talk with a person who has come to church as a new comer one of these days. I was under the impression that our relationship has deepened somewhat as we've talked several times thus far. However, the latest conversation ended in an unfortunate consequence. The person made a comment on what I told in my sermon last week, especially about Jesus on the cross saying, "My father, my father! Why have you forsaken me?" The person said 'He was defeated and lost faith.' I didn't deny him for saying so for there can very well be such a way of taking Jesus on the cross. So I said in reply that we believe in the one who may have been defeated as our savior. There's nothing persuasive in such a belief was the reaction given back with a cold smile. But I dare say to you that it is possible that Jesus died in a way which we cannot say 'he died embracing the faith.' Yet I take it that he was 'under the faith,' as he passed. Though he passed under the faith it was not the kind of faith thanks to which he had no worries or pains at the time of passing; it was the faith which made him cry out and say, 'Why have you forsaken me?' A faith which made him ask God the question of why. He put the question before God because he had a relation with God; he was grasped by God.
A renowned theologian Paul Johannes Tillich defined faith and said, 'it is a state of being grasped by some ultimate being.' (This may not be correct quotation of what he wrote as I say this out of my memory). It is not that we take hold of but that we are taken hold of. What I feel by the phrase 'under the faith,' is much the same as this definition suggests. As to the faith of us ourselves, when and as we go to pass away we may not be able to say we have firm belief in God. Yet we are grasped by God. We are grasped by Jesus who yelled on the cross saying, 'My father, my father! Why have you forsaken me?' and was raised from death. We are placed under the faith in the sense that we are related to him. We are such that we can pass away under such a faith.
3. We have another point indicated by the phrase 'under the faith.' The faith under which the passed ones are put, i.e. the faith which embraced them is also the faith of us who commemorate them in the worship service like this. It means, therefore, that the people who passed away not as Christians are passed under the faith we have. They may well be commemorated as ones embraced by our faith.
Another detour now; this past Monday I attended a general assembly meeting of a small association, FVI or Friends with Voiceless International held once a year, of which I am sort of a board member. There we heard testimony of a person who will return to staff work of the association from this December after the leave of some two years, during which he had to bear with depression. In the depth of depression he could not read the Bible, he could not pray, and he couldn't think even of F-word of faith. Coming out from the depth of it, what he thinks about faith now is that it was not his faith; it was the trust God and Jesus put on him that saved him; it was the faith of his wife attending to him and of staff persons of the association that saved him. He said he could realize that he was not under his faith but under the faith of someone other than himself.
When we pass away we may be in real grief more than anyone else, more than at any other time in life. We may find ourselves in a state in which we cannot utter even the F-word of faith. It is us commemorating such people in the worship service like this that can bring them under the faith. It is our faith that makes it possible. We must support passed ones as beings placed firmly in and embraced by the connections with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Yet one other and the last detour to make: The November issue of the monthly Shinto-no-Tomo (Friends of the Followers) ran a special edition titled 'Give faith to your family members ? through Christian funeral.' I was impressed by the top article titled "The Age of Provincial Wars (from 1467 to 1615 in Japan) - The Shock Christian funeral gave to society." Since old ages "Dead corpse is impurity. Afraid of being cursed by the dead, people burnt what the deceased had used, broke one's bones, stabbed by the sword so the dead won't rise to come back, put a large tombstone and sealed one's grudge." (This was true of other countries too, I gather.) The New Testament Bible also tells that they put a huge stone at the entrance to the tomb in which the corpse of Jesus was laid. It was the same everywhere.
It was in the Age of Provincial Wars in Japan when such an idea and practice were prevalent that the Christianity was introduced to our country. Funeral functions of Christians gathered many spectators and they were surprised to see songs were sung at funeral. Being one of the feudal lords Ukon Takayama, a Christian, made a casket for his poor subject for himself, carried the dead corpse and conducted the funeral. 'The Lord of the territory held a memorial service to anyone without discrimination regardless of their class in society and sent the soul on its journey to heaven with hymns.' Such funeral functions caught the hearts of many and so he helped increase the number of Christians, so the legend puts. It is the duty of us the bereaved to bring people under the faith, who look in our eyes to have died without faith, died carrying only the grief. We do so encouraged by the words of verse 13 saying, 'All died in faith.'
4. What then is 'the faith' like under which the deceased are brought? And I told you about the famous definition made by Tillich. This Letter of Paul to the Hebrews has some words which are to be called the definition of faith at the beginning of its chapter 11. I would like us to listen to the words of verse 3 rather than the well-known verses 1 and 2, today. Verse 3 says, 'By faith we understand that the universe was formed by God's command, so that the visible came forth from the invisible.'
Faith is what makes us understand that what we see in our eyes have been made by the invisible words of creation of God, it says. To our eyes the passing ones look entangled by grief. But under the faith, we take it as taking place by the creative deeds of God. Under the faith we get to be able to understand it that way.
How can it be that the process of passing away in which important ones is put to destruction and deprivation is a reflection of the acts of creation by God? God in his act of creation made us born in visible flesh first of all, made us being brought up by visible parents, and made us a being who live relying on visible food and others. For sure God is thoughtful to take it very important that we should live, up to a point, relying on what are visible. However, we are such that we would live relying on visible bodies, bondages and food without limit of time and place. That leads us fundamentally to a direction of destruction rather than "creation,' I strongly feel.
Today's Bible passage from verse 13 describes how ones in faith lived. 'Although they had not received the things promised, yet they had seen them far ahead and welcomed them.' 'They acknowledged themselves openly to be strangers and aliens without fixed abode on earth. (to openly admit means to say things in public with their chest swelling.).' 'They are looking for a country of their own.' Are we not living in exact opposite ways to what are written here? We take joy in single-mindedly getting what we want and in keeping them in our hands. We would have a firm base on earth and try to be the opposite of strangers and aliens. We would all but remain on the earth rather than look for a country in heaven. However, that deprives us of joy of life. That makes us hang on to our weak bodies made of the dust of soil, to the narrowness and smallness of being on the earth, and makes us ones having worries of life. The act of God, the creator, would liberate us from where we are when time comes.
Believing that even in going to pass away there is good act of creation of God ? the resurrection of Jesus gives testimony to it ? and we would like us to be ones who 'can understand' the passing of the deceased and of our own passing under that faith.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 11: 13-16
Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 11: 13-16 13 All these died in faith. Although they had not received the things promised, yet they had seen them far ahead and welcomed them, and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens without fixed abode on earth. 14 Those who speak in that way show plainly that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If their thoughts had been with the country they had left, they could have found opportunity to return. 16 Instead, we find them longing for a better country, a heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he has a city ready for them. (The Revised English Bible)
- Adam and Christ -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. When I deliver a sermon based on Paul's letter to the Romans I always consult the works of the reformist Reverend Mr. Yasuo SAKAKIBARA. In his sermon on the very passage given us for today he said as follows: 'The passage from verse 12 tells the tough to understand Bible words, out of which stemmed the most numerous and complex arguments in the history of Christianity.' The Reverend Mr. William Barclay wrote in his Bible commentary on today's passage saying, 'No passage of the New Testament has had such an influence on theology as this; and no passage is more difficult for a modern mind to understand.' (Japanese translation is by me.) In preparing a sermon on Paul's letter to the Romans I consult, without fail, also with the sermon by the Minister Mr. David Martyn Lloyd-Johns on chapter 5 of the letter. I have it in my hand here to show you that the whole of this thick book is composed of his sermons just on one chapter, i.e. chapter 5, and pages from 308 to the last are devoted just to the passage for today.
It is on this tough passage that I intend to ask you to lend your ears to today. I'd like, first, to tell that by learning from the passage of chapter 5, verses 6 to 11 which we listened to the last time, some of what Paul tried to tell and why he had to write what he did in this third section of the main body of his letter, i.e. from chapter 5 to chapter 8, sunk into my mind. With that understanding as a clue, I should like us to clime the steep hill-top of the passage for today.
We've been taught repeatedly that it was an abyss developing between the Jew-turned Christians and the gentile Christians in the Church of Rome, which Paul always kept in mind in writing the letter to them. Paul was on the side of gentile Christians. But the Jew-turned Christians insisted that one had to be justified by God by practicing the deeds stipulated in the law and by being circumcised. Paul wanted to get them understand that to believe Jesus was all that was necessary and sufficient for one to be reckoned as righteous by God. From chapter 5 through chapter 8 Paul tried to explain suavely the necessity and the splendor of the rule and the principle of being justified by having belief in Jesus.
2. In the passage for today beginning with verse 12 Paul picks up Adam, whom all the Jews know about, and compare him with Jesus in trying to elucidate why it is indispensable to be justified by Jesus and what are the splendor that lies in it.
In today's passage Paul refers to Adam about five times as follows: on verse 12 which most clearly sets out his point of all the references made, it says, 'It was through one man that sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race, inasmuch as all have sinned,' verse 15 says, 'the wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many,' verse 17 'by the wrongdoing of one man,' verse 18 'the result of one misdeed was condemnation for all people,' and verse 19 'through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners.' Here Paul tells not only what one man, i.e. Adam, did but also what influence it had upon all. I should like us to learn suavely, first of all, what Adam did and how it affected him.
The sentence saying, 'It was through one man that sin entered the world, and through sin death,' recollects what is written as happened on chapter 3 of Genesis. I asked master of the worship service also to read Genesis chapter 3, verses from 4 to 10. In this connection I should like to point out that while Paul says it was through 'one man', i.e. Adam that sin entered the world, Genesis tells in chapter 2 that it was through the wife of Adam, who God made from the rib of Adam and who became 'one' with Adam that sin came into the world.
What is then the sin that entered the world? It is written in the words beginning with verse 4 which the serpent spoke to the wife. 'As soon as you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God himself, knowing both good and evil,' said the serpent. To get down to the core of it, sin is that we would wish to be like God. To know both good and evil would mean, without going too much in details, to get to 'know' to live, which is best of all good and to get to 'know' to die, which is the worst of all evil ? it means to get life and death under your control and call it your own, I would think. As to why the wife of Adam wished to get the living and dying under her control I will touch on later. The fact is that one cannot have the living and the dying in one's own hand how-so-ever hard one may try. Yet humans would and try to become like God. That is the first form of sin.
From that sin derives the second sin, so to speak. It is written on verse 8 and the following. Hearing the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden, Adam and his wife 'hid from him among the threes.' To the call of God asking him, 'Where are you?' Adam replied saying, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' To hide from and fear God is also the fundamental sin, I think. They avoided God and hid themselves among the trees in the garden which are merely his creatures. Knowing that they are naked, they would take a hiding shelter in the works of the hands of God, and not in God himself. There lies the sin.
3. Though taking a detour from the letter of Paul, a tough theological question that arises in this connection is why was it that God did not prevent the sin from entering the first man (or to be more exact, the first couple who became one, rather than just one man as Paul put it)? Another is the question of what does it mean to say that death came through the sin ? also a question raised to what Paul wrote.
The first of the above two questions is a very deep question. However, I have touched on the question a few times in the past. I think the answer to the question lies in that God created only us humans in his image. We've been taught that the image God inscribed only on us humans appears in the creativity of man. What I am taught afresh today is the hint suggested from the story that God created wife for Adam saying, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I shall make a partner suited to him.' So wife came to be as a helper and Adam became one to be helped ? the position I think is mutually interchangeable without saying. At this very point lies the resembling aspect of only humans to God. Exactly because God intended to make man resemble him, he thought 'it was no good for the man, Adam to be alone,' and made his wife so they become one to help each other, I should like to think.
It is revealed to me that in the fact that the two became ones to help and be helped as one flesh lies the inevitability of the sin to enter the unified couple as written in chapter 3 that directly follows this story. One would come to control life and death just because one would help the partner. One is concerned about the partner. The churches throughout their history have simply put blame on the woman as sinful and as having lured the man into sin without casting a light on what I just said. But I think it is necessary to make deeper reflection on why the woman was the first to be lured by the temptation of serpent. The reason for the woman to have been lured first had to do with her having been created as one to help. Because she was created that way by God, God could not act to prevent the sin to enter the two.
If the fundamental reason for the sin to enter lies in God having created us in his image, there arises another serious question of whether or not we have responsibility for acting in sinful manners. Regardless of if we do or not, however, the fact clearly remains that the sin came into us.
The second of the two questions is what it means that death came through sin. As long as we read Genesis without prejudice, nowhere it is written that the two died soon after they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. It is not written that the two were created as immortal, to begin with. Adam was formed from the dust of the ground and became a living creature when breathed the breath of life by God. But does it mean he was created as immortal? Indeed it is possible to understand that the breath of life from God may not have been taken up for good if he had not acted sinfully. But that we cannot say for sure. The death that came through the sin refers to the way of living as written on verse 8 and the following of chapter 3 rather than to physical death as far as I understand it. In other words, to me death seems to point out our way of living, with the full knowledge that we are naked, to live fearing the approach of God and hiding from him rather than relying on God, point to our way of living to live keeping away from God in fear of him, trying to live having the life and death under the control of our own hands though in fact never able to do so, and to the misery, un-manageable uneasiness and contradiction in trying to live as a helper while we are ourselves totally naked.
4. Paul says that first through Adam or a couple who we may dare say 'one man,' sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race. The question is how can it be said that all have sinned and death pervaded the whole human race as a result of one man or a couple having sinned, and through their sin death? It is against common sense that one is blamed for the sin one has not made or that its influence affects him. Trying to make plausible argument about it, many theological discussions have been tried, to which I will not refer in detail now. The sermons of the Reverend Mr. Sakakibara and those of the minister Lloyd-Johns deal with the relevant theories suavely, but none of them hit me in my mind. Without mastering these theories, if, because the first man or a couple had been created in the image of God, sin is unavoidable and so is death, we understand it well that, no matter whichever theory we may adopt, we all cannot evade sin and death is in-escapable.
The challenge for us rather is whether or not we can take it as our own matter that we humans are in the misery of the sin and the desolation of death, I think. The minister Lloyd-Johns wrote in his sermon which I imagine was written through his experience of having debate on the issue. 'That view says as follows: there is no such a thing as sin in the world. Humans have always been as we are now. Man is not a creature perfectly created and so has fallen in temptation, and thus having been made accountable, they say.' 'These people never cease to tell us to do away with the Biblical concept of sin and guilt. - - -In the days to comes we will have sufficiently evolved to be more sophisticated and better natured.' 'These people wish to do away with the idea of sin once and for all.'
I gather that the counterparts of the minister Lloyd-Johns in the debate were probably people having the stance of humanism. It never occurs to these people that humans are a being who have to stand before God. Humans are not a being caught by the disease of sin and death, they conclude. Therefore, humans need no healing and care by a being called God. Humans are healed by man, saved by man and can make progress for themselves, they consider. But we take it that humans are a being put in serious illness. We need to be healed by God. We should not be left alone away from God. As we are such that we need Jesus and this is what Paul tried to tell. Humans in this miserable state cannot be saved by acting in accordance with what the law stipulates, which was given ages after Adam was created. Paul exhorts that we humans are saved by the faith we put on Jesus; by the second creation so to say, which is accomplished by Jesus. I should like to touch on that point further at the next sermon following the words of today's passage. I should also like us to give our thought to the religious reforms then.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Romans 5:12-21
12 What does this imply? It was through one man that sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race, inasmuch as all have sinned. 13 For sin was already in the world before there was law; and although in the absence of law no reckoning is kept of sin, 14 death held sway from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam did, by disobeying a direct command ? and Adam foreshadows the man who was to come. 15 But God's act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam's wrongdoing. For if the wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. 16 And again, the gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man's sin; for the judicial action, following on the one offence, resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace, following on so many misdeeds, resulted in a verdict of acquittal. 17 If, by the wrongdoing of one man, death established its reign through that one man, much more shall those who in far greater measure receive grace and the gift of righteousness live and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 It follows, then, that as the result of one misdeed was condemnation for all people, so the result of one righteous act is acquittal and life for all. 19 For as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous. 20 Law intruded into this process to multiply law-breaking. But where sin was multiplied, grace immeasurably exceeded it, 21 in order that, as sin established its reign by way of death, so God's grace might establish its reign in righteousness, and result in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (The Revised English Bible)
Genesis 3: 4-10
4 'Of course you will not die,' said the serpent; 5 'for God knows that, as soon as you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God himself, knowing both good and evil.' 6 the woman looked at the tree: the fruit would be good to eat; it was pleasing to the eye and desirable for the knowledge it could give. So she took some and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they know that they were naked; so they stitched fig-leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 The man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from him among the threes. 9 The LORD God called to the man, 'Where are you?' 10 He replied, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' (The Revised English Bible)
- God would have killed Moses -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Today's words, as in the title, describe what happened when Moses was about to go back to Egypt for the first time in about 40 years. The words especially from verses 24 to 26 are very difficult to understand and they have puzzled the readers since early times. We have been listening to Chapter 3 and the following. In response to God who was going to call Moses to a difficult mission, he flinched many times and was going to decline on one pretext or another. Although such Moses at long last accepted his mission and after saying good-bye to his father-in-law Jethro, he was just about to start for Egypt with his family, somehow God tried to kill Moses. His wife Zipporah 'picked up a sharp flint, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' genitals with it, saying, 'You are my blood-bridegroom' according to Verse 25. Then the Bible says,'the LORD let Moses alone.'Why did God try to kill Moses whom he chose for the difficult mission? What did his wife do in concrete and what kind of meaning does it have? What does it mean that 'the LORD let Moses alone '? Questions arise one after another. The correct answers have not been found yet.
1.2 Although this is written in the reference book, when we read today's event, immediately we felt'the similar thing was written in the Bible.'I refrain from talking in details but in Chapter 22 and the following of Numbers in the Old Testament too we can find the same kind of really strange story. The people of Israel who escaped from Egypt started to settle Palestine by degrees and friction began to arise between them and those who had lived for a long time. There was a king called Balak in the race of Moab and he intended to call the foretune-teller called Balaam who is thought to be famous in the then Middle and Near East world in order to curse the Israeli people. So he was going to send the messengers to Balaam to call him but God appeared to Balaam saying that he should not go. Balaam kept God's command and refused to go with them. But one time God said, 'If these men have come to summon you, then rise and go with them, but do only what I tell you.(Numbers Chapter 22, Verse 20) 'As Balaam heard it, he went with King Balak. 'But God was angry because Balaam was going.'Look! The angel of the Lord was standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. Although Balaam could not see it, the ass that he rode on saw it and stopped. This is followed by the famous scene where the ass talked, strangely enough.
1.3 Just because God tells a person, he sets out and God tries to kill him, which shows how incomprehensible and unreasonable God is. Today's words also describe how incomprehensibly and unreasonably God behaved. But we are reminded that that is where there is a deep meaning.
2.1 Now what makes us aware of the beginning of what God did to Moses is the figure of the Moses'family who is leaving for Egypt, which is described from verses 18 to 20. This might be my personal impression but in stark contrast with the scene from verses 21 to 26 that is full of strong tension, here it makes us feel as if they were leisurely enjoying their trip to Moses' old home together in their family, right?
2.2 First, Verse 18 says,'Let me return to Egypt and see whether my kinsfolk are still alive. ' The annotators explain that Moses dared not to give his true reasons to go to Egypt. We can think that if he had told the truth, Jethro, who worried about his daughter and grandchildren, would have surely and strongly objected to Moses' going back to Egypt. But I think that this word of Moses' reveals how he felt at this time more straightforwardly than expected. To be sure, he would not have forgotten that this was the difficult mission that he accepted after he hesitated many times. But once he has made a decision to go back, he forgets the fundamental difficulty that his given mission involves or he sugarcoats it. Without looking at the difficulty squarely, and without telling it to his family, he behaves as if he was going back to his old home. God's word in Verse 19 'all those who wanted to kill you are now dead ,'may have given impetus to this kind of optimistic attitude of Moses'.
2.3 I think that God regarded this kind of optimistic attitude toward going back to Egypt as really very dangerous to Moses and his party. It is the very life-risking matter to carry out God's mission to stand up in front of the King of Egypt and to let his brethren escape from him. It is the mission to engage in a deadly fight with the King of Egypt. He must not forget that danger and his family must not leave for Egypt without knowing it. Just because of that, God tries to clearly tell the difficulty that this mission involves and such a risk as engages in a deadly fight with the King of Egypt. As a result, that leads Moses to the risk of losing his life in some sense. It means that God did not try to kill him directly with his hands but, for example, to cause to him to get so seriously sick as to die.
2.4 In Numbers that I talked about just a minute ago, God says, 'Behold, I have come forth to withstand you, because your way is perverse before me (Chapter 22, Verse 32). 'What is the 'risk '? It means that Balaam or Moses tries to go along the way without knowing how important it is.
3.1 Then, God talks about the difficulty that awaits Moses in Verse 22 and the following as follows: 'While you are on your way back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I shall make him obstinate and he will not let the people go. Then tell Pharaoh that these are the words of the LORD: Israel is my firstborn son. I tell you, let my son go to worship me. Should you refuse to let him go, I shall kill your firstborn son.' If God performed the miracles that he has put in Moses' power and if Pharaoh set the Israeli free immediately, how easier things would be for Moses! But actually on the contrary, God says, ' I shall make him obstinate.' What we would like God to do is to make the work light so that Moses whom God has chosen can carry it out easily, right? Or does God do it so that he will torment Moses on purpose?
3.2 I don't think so. That ' I shall make him obstinate' means that Pharaoh's heart becoming hard is inevitable necessity. It is called 'divine necessity ,'in theological terms. Why is it inevitable necessity? Verses 22 and 23 tell us the reason. God demands of Pharaoh through Moses that he should let his dear son Israel go to worship him. It is in the words of Verse 18, Chapter 3 that God made Moses say to the King of Egypt, 'and now, we pray you, let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 'In next week's sermon, we are going to listen, but in the word of Chapter 5, Verse 1, it is , 'Let my people go so that they may keep a pilgrim-feast in my honor in the wilderness. 'This demand is difficult for the King of Egypt to accept for the following reason: God's demand is the thing that Pharaoh has nothing but to refuse and cannot help hardening his heart to, by all means. There lies divine necessity.
3.3 Why is God's demand through Moses the thing that Pharaoh has nothing but to refuse? Because God's demand is to demand that Israeli people should be treated as 'my son .'The King of Egypt treats Israeli people as slaves. In Chapter 5, Verse 4, Pharaoh says, in response to God's demand, 'What do you mean, Moses and Aaron, by distracting the people from their work? Back to your labors! ' This is the very basic policy in which all the kings in this word treat us. It is the King's idea to make us become the existence of producing a profit for the King or doing the work for him. In sharp contrast with this, God treats us as 'my son. 'What we, the sons of God, should carry out is, first, a festival. It is to live with delight and with happiness, right? Also, it is to offer sacrifice to God. The kings of this world asks us for what is big and many but God asks us for a small thing.
4.1 The steps that we believers take are for each of us to face the King of Egypt under this kind of God's will and they are really hard, I think. They are not easy. They are not such a trip as we take leisurely to our hometown. We have the King of Egypt in each of ourselves who tries to make us always work and produce the profit in this world and we have to face this king by going to the wilderness as God's children, holding a festival and offering sacrifice to God. It is, as I say over and over again, a dangerous mission. But this very thing gives us pleasure to live with. However small it is, it gives us pleasure, when it is offered for God and used for him.
4.2 At the Bible Study and Prayer Meeting of last week, a certain man gave testimony. He was always attracted by death and due to his mental sickness, he could not help resigning from his job at one of the few prestigious research institutes in Japan. He cannot get rid of his sickness yet and he has difficulty earning his livelihood. But he testified that since he met Jesus and he started to live a faithful life and prayer life, he had been changed from a person who was as good as dead by being attracted by death into a living person. What made him change that way? I feel that in his university days and at work also, what he used to be was the Israeli, who was the slave of the King of Egypt. That he was asked to show the achievements that would produce a profit for him and his workplace but his failure to produce a profit troubled him and turned him toward the direction of death. In the midst of his life, he met God. In his testimony, he quoted feeding 5000 people. Jesus blessed just five loaves of bread and two fish that a boy had and used them, which pleased him. Jesus and God bless and use whatever we have. Nothing gives us so much pleasure as that. What God asks us his children for is this kind of small offering. What is offered meets the needs of those in trouble. How different from it what the King of Egypt asks for is!
5. 1. Now Moses was faced with the fundamental difficulty and risk anew that his mission involves and he was on the point of dying in a sense. The Bible says that it is his wife Zipporah and his meeting with his brother Aaron that is referred to in Verse 27 and the following that made him rise again as the person in charge of the mission from God.
5.2 As I said at the beginning of this sermon, the exact meaning of what Zipporah did and what she said is not certain yet. We do not understand the reason why what she did at once was not other acts but to cut off her son's foreskin, and touch Moses' genitals with it. According to another version, what his wife cut off was not her son's foreskin but her husband Moses'. It makes us better understand why his wife shouted,'You are my blood-bridegroom .'We don't understand the details well. But what we can say on the whole is that his wife accepted that her husband would have to shed his blood in performing his mission from God. That is why she shouted, 'You are my blood-bridegroom .'His wife realized that Moses was positioned in divine necessity as her husband and her bridegroom and as the existence that sheds blood. By cutting off her son's foreskin, which naturally involves the pain of the son and her mother, she tried to share it and take the burden of it together, right?
5.3 That his wife and his family shared the difficulty of the mission that was given him by God as a husband and a father made Moses recover his strength, I think. That is the meaning of the word ' So the LORD let Moses alone.'Then again he tried to accomplish that difficult mission. There another helper, his brother Aaron, was sent. Moses told everything to him. Aaron also understood the difficult mission and walked together. It seems that today's words teach us that this kind of family and brothers or sisters are essential to our religious life.
Exodus 4: 18-31.
18 Moses then went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said, 'Let me return to Egypt and see whether my kinsfolk are still alive.' Jethro said, 'Go, and may you have a safe journey.'
19 The LORD spoke to Moses in Midian. 'Go back to Egypt,' he said, 'for all those who wanted to kill you are now dead.'
20 Moses took his wife and children, mounted them on a donkey, and set out for Egypt with the staff of God in his hand.
21 The LORD said to Moses, 'While you are on your way back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I shall make him obstinate and he will not let the people go.
22 Then tell Pharaoh that these are the words of the LORD: Israel is my firstborn son.
23 I tell you, let my son go to worship me. Should you refuse to let him go, I shall kill your firstborn son.'
24 On the journey, while they were encamped for the night, the LORD met Moses and would have killed him,
25 but Zipporah picked up a sharp flint, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' genitals with it, saying, 'You are my blood-bridegroom.'
26 So the LORD let Moses alone. It was on that occasion she said, 'You are a bridegroom of blood,' because of the circumcision.
27 Meanwhile the LORD had ordered Aaron to go and meet Moses in the wilderness. Aaron did so; he met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
28 Moses told Aaron everything, the words the LORD had sent him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron then went and assembled all the elders of Israel.
30 Aaron repeated to them everything that the LORD had said to Moses; he performed the signs before the people,
31 and they were convinced. When they heard that the LORD had shown his concern for the Israelites and seen their misery, they bowed to the ground in worship.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Christ died for us -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. It's been more than month and a half since we last listened to the words on the Letter of Paul to the Romans. The Letter to the Romans is very tough for us to decipher. More often than not we don't get the meaning of what are written in Japanese text. Rather frequently we cannot grasp at all how the part just reading is connected with the preceding part or with the one following after. In reading the Letter to the Romans, we first need to understand what the sentence means, and have it sunk into the mind why Paul, the author of the letter, had to write such words before we come to comprehend what message is being sent to us readers. I have to apologize because I feel that my sermons on the Letter to the Romans are made out of what remain mostly at the second stage of elucidation. Anyhow, I must make my utmost effort, today also, to try to understand the text first and then comprehend why Paul had to speak in such a way as he did.
Now, the passages from chapter 5 to chapter 8 we've covered so far is marked out as the third section of the main body of the letter. As to what was the intention of the author Paul in writing the third part, even the experts seem to have different views. The third section seems to be generally understood to mean to recommend a new way of life to those having been justified as righteous through their faith. The beginning of verse 1, chapter 5 starts saying, 'Now that we have been justified through faith - - -.' Indeed the passage up to verse 5, which we have listened to, points out more than anything else that for those justified through faith, suffering is a source of hope which is no fantasy.
Then the question is if there is any description in today's passage about a new way of life for those having been justified. The answer is no, not at all. The next sub-section starting on verse 12, chapter 5 is titled 'Adam and Christ,' and the sub-section from verse 15, chapter 6 once again comes back to deal with the problems of the law. Reading on down the letter we don't come across with any line depicting a new way of life which those justified through faith should follow. We don't find such lines either in the fourth section of main body of the letter ranging from chapter 9 to chapter 11. I think it's safe to say that it is from chapter 12, belonging to what is to be grouped as the fifth section of the body of the letter, that a new way of life starts to be dealt with for those justified through faith.
In light of the above, allow me to give rein to my imagination! Paul indeed did intend to write about a new way of life for those justified through faith. However, he must have felt that not enough was said of the principle that one is justified by faith. That sense of insufficiency came to him from the internal conflict in the Church of Rome, which always occupied his mind. The gap was widening in the church between gentiles who became Christians and Jews who converted to Christians. Paul was siding with gentile-turned Christians. So I imagine that when he thought of Jew-turned Christians who had been under huge influence of Judaism, many things came to his mind which he felt he has left only insufficiently said. It is against this background that Paul in this third section tried to make further deeper elucidation about the principle of one being justified by God through faith, keeping in mind those Jew-turned Christians.
In this part Paul seems to have tried to explain using the key word, the love of God, how the justice of God differed from what the Jew-turned Christians long thought it meant, I would think. On verse 5 of Chapter 5 which we read the last time he says, 'God's love flooded our hearts.' There's reference to God's love also on the last part of verse 8. For your additional information the last word of chapter 8, which is the ending chapter of the third section, it says, 'There is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.' The third section of the letter starts with the key word, the love of God, and closes with the same key word. We may safely say that the whole of the third section is devoted to elucidating the justice of God basing the logics on the love of God.
2. The ensuing question is how had the Jewish people taken the justice of God, and in that connection the love of God to mean? In short, the justice of God and the love of God must have meant for them the justice to justify only those who are righteous and the love by which only those deserving to be loved are loved, I suspect.
As we've been learning from Genesis and Exodus once in three weeks, it will have been understood by now that the justice of God and the love of God do not mean he will have connection with only the just and will love only those deserving to be loved. Were Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph and Moses ones we can say righteous? They all had aspects we cannot help but call unjust. Yet, God had connection with them and pulled them as we have learned over and again. But as the ages wore on the image of God as the one who justifies unjust and who loves whom are not worthy of being loved faded away. His image as one who justifies only the righteous and loves only those worthy of loving, and punishes and cuts down the unjust, became increasingly more apparent.
At this point, I am reminded of the parable of a prodigal son we lent our ears to the other day, which only the Gospel according to Luke deals with. The father who welcomed back to home his younger son by a feast of banquet who corrupted himself with a life of debauchery was the God, who justifies the unjust and loves the unworthy. There was an elder brother to the prodigal son who was furiously upset with the father treating the younger brother like that. For the elder son such kind of God is no God. For him God is a father who would deny such a younger brother to come back home, would force him out and cut him down saying death is the reward deserving him. The elder son was one who had devoted himself to hard work to gain favor of his father. Just like him, the Jews had practiced circumcision, observed the law and Sabbath. They had done their best frantically trying to be righteous in the eyes of God. For them the justice of God is that which justifies only the righteous. The love of God loves only the righteous worthy of love. The unjust is cut down, ousted and awarded with anger. That was the justice of God, the love of God for them.
3. In contract to the justice of God Jews held in their concept, Jesus tried to show by the parable of a prodigal son and with his own life that the justice of God is one that justifies the unjust and the love of God is one that loves the unworthy; that is the very point Paul was intent on telling before anything else by the words of today. And Paul makes the point over and again in the Bible passage of today that the justice and the love of God that justify and love the unjust manifest themselves, among others, in the death of Jesus, in that Jesus shed his blood for the unjust.
Paul presses on and says we were helpless, wicked and sinners, even God's enemies. In the parable of the prodigal son, the younger received the inheritance from his father in advance, spent it all following his fleshy desire, and had fallen into a situation where he couldn't be allowed to eat even the food for pigs. Sorry if it is impolite to the pigs to say so, but the son became less than the pigs, it looks. There the misery of us humans who have left away from God is depicted. As has been taught a number of times, we have an asset given only to us humans by God. It is our ability to create and to rule over whatever lies before us. We have to ask to what end are we humans using the ability. During the 20th century and the 21st up to now, a countless number of people have been killed by the weapons made by man. We have enclosed the good earth God entrusted us and have killed each other claiming that it is my territory, and my state. Hundreds of thousand people are on the run to Europe fleeing from the Middle-east. Going back the history a bit, this problem originates in that the European countries drew borderlines their ways. More directly, it originates in Iraq having been forcibly destroyed on a false ground that it had weapons of mass destruction. Living away from God, using God-given asset our ways for our own desire, and as a result having become less than pigs which are said like to be clean, we humans are so disgraced and confused by what we ourselves have created.
If the justice of God justifies only the righteous, we, as ones as just said, have no possibility of being connected with God. We will remain disgraced. We only have to be ruined in the misery as a reward of what we ourselves created. A question to make here is what did the prodigal son do faced with such a critical situation. He came back to himself and found the way to return to his father's home. He believed that his father would welcome him back if not as a son but possibly as a hired hand. There is no way he could hear the words and thought of his father. But somehow, somewhere they have reached him. That he had such a father was his salvation. The father received the son who came home. There we find love. Love is unconditional. The unconditional love of God is the righteousness of God.
4. Why was it then that the death, the blood and the sacrificed life of Jesus were indispensable so as that the justice of God and the love of God be given us? Referring back to the parable of a prodigal son, 'a way' was indispensable for him to get back to his father's home; needed was a way that leads him to the father's house. Jesus told 'I am the way.' Jesus, who was good to die for us on the cross was nothing else but the very way, the way and the clue to lead us, the unrighteous, to God. An ordinary way won't do the work as the way to get the younger son back to his father's home, who corrupted himself with a life of debauchery. The way has to be such as is diametrically opposite to the life of him who ruined himself in self-indulgence and became less than a pig, I assume. That's why Jesus can't be someone who was born as a man and simply completed his natural span of life. Jesus had to be someone who was not disdained and kept clean even to the death on the cross. That is the meaning of the sacrifice of his life and shedding of his blood.
At the Flood Victims Relief Volunteers Center at Mitsu-Kaido several tens of people have come day after day and cleaned the chapel, the pastor's house, and the houses of church members which were flooded with mud and what not. The mud and dirt brought about by a flood can only be overcome only by the cleanliness brought back in by the hard works of volunteers. Such works are in a way sacrifices. The life with warm blood is poured. In fact the houses cannot be recovered to the point in which people can dwell. But that the volunteers poured their clean energy gives the victims the courage to stand up again in the face the minus power and un-cleanliness. It provides the way for life. Jesus cleans us by being put on cross and living through his life cleanly as opposed to living subject to desire. The sacrifice of the life of this immaculate person provides us with the way back to God and leads to our re-habilitation.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Romans 5:6-11
6 It was while we were still helpless that, at the appointed time, Christ died for the wicked.
7 Even for a just man one of us would hardly die, though perhaps for a good man one might actually brave death;
8 but Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and that is God's proof of his love towards us.
9 And so, since we have now been justified by Christ's sacrificial death, we shall all the more certainly be saved through him from final retribution.
10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, now that we have been reconciled, shallwe be saved by his life!
11 But that is not all: we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus, through whom we have now been granted reconciliation.
(The Revised English Bible)
- The one who turned back to Jesus -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The word of Bible we are given for today takes up an episode which only the gospel according to Luke dealt with as were the cases of some other episodes by him we have learned. This episode is about ten men suffering from serious disease on their skins ? which is today called Hansen's disease - Jesus was welcomed as he was entering a village who called out to him, 'Take pity on us,' and about them made clean. It is also about one and the only one out of ten ? a Samaritan ? who, after being made clean, turned back to Jesus to thank him and whom Jesus gave the words, 'Your faith has saved you.'
Reading this episode, the first point that hit me was that having serious skin disease may be being drawn by Luke here, paradoxically enough, as something much fortunate. After finishing college education I worked for YMCA at Sendai and was then trained at a government-founded professional training college called Chichibu-Gakuen for one year before I entered the theological seminary. It is a school to train students with arts of giving care to the handicapped. One of my class-mate there was a member of Episcopal Church. He took me to a sanatorium for the patients of Hansen's disease at Kiyose. After observing worship service at the Episcopalian church on the premise a married couple invited us for tea at their home, who have lived at the sanatorium for long. Both husband and wife had their faces much affected and fingers of their hands were deformed too, I remember. I heard that some type of Hansen's disease doesn't bring about deformation. At any rate, it is a disease for which there was no wonder drug and in Japan of just several decades ago one was forced into isolation house once diagnosed as having the disease, where from one was not allowed to come out for the rest of one's life. It was also the case in the days of Jesus. Ones with this disease were not allowed to enter inside the town-wall; they weren't even allowed to be within several meters up wind. You must naturally wonder what I mean by saying that having such a disease may be 'fortunate.' But from the context of the series of his writing I feel that was how Luke understood it that way.
We've been taught a number of times that Luke consistently described Jesus as having told about God for being utterly opposite from God told about by the Pharisees and the scholars of the law, who were the mainstream of Israeli community of the time both socially and in terms of religious faith as well. To that God of Jesus the Pharisees and the scholars of the law showed hostility. Over that, I gather, some of the disciples of Jesus also stumbled. That was why Jesus said on verse 1, chapter 17, 'There are bound to be causes of stumbling.' There were an increasing number of people who stumbled over Jesus and over God whom Jesus talked about. It was under such circumstances that Jesus was heading for Jerusalem as in verse 11, predicting his own crucifixion. The intention of Luke here was to write that there were as many as ten who, instead of stumbling over such Jesus, welcomed him with hail. Though nothing of the sort is written there, I feel that the joy of Jesus is conveyed on seeing some so enthusiastically welcome him.
2. How it was that the ten welcomed Jesus rather than stumbled over him? It was solely because they were patients of the disease as mentioned. Their hearts must have been gripped by God whom Jesus talked about and over whom the Pharisees and their followers stumbled. A troublesome sheep which strayed out from the flock of one hundred, a piece of silver coin which fell off from the necklace, precious only when ten coins are together on the chain, a prodigal son who debauched to ruin his own career, all mirror with the ten having Hansen's disease. Troublesome they were to the community of Israelites, having the disease by way of punishment by God, not welcome back to their own community or fellowship. Jesus told that such are the very people God looks for, wishes to return to the society and is pleased seeing them do so. By that word, the ten with the disease were pulled close. He may be so good to do something for us. With such a wish in their mind they threw themselves on the mercy of Jesus knowing well that there is no port to take in a storm for them. The people of mainstream of the community did not ushered welcome to Jesus and thereby failed to receive wonderful gifts from God, while those ousted from the community could receive them. Here we find the happiness being told, not of having the serious skin disease, but of one which arise thanks to having the opportunity of welcoming Jesus and as a result possibly of being given something good from God.
This reminds me of yet another story of the Bible which depicted patients of Hansen's disease paradoxically as happy men. It is an episode told in the story of the prophet Elisha on chapter 7 of the Second Book of Kings which we read at the Bible Study and Prayers Meetings long ago. The kingdom of Israel, of which the capital was located in Samaria, was surrounded by force of the king of neighboring Aram (which is Syria today), and was about to be starved into surrender. People in the town-wall gave up fighting back and were being starved. It was the four men of Hansen's disease that brought unexpected salvation to the town. The four had not been allowed, without saying, to come inside the town-wall. At the town-gate, they said to one another, 'Why should we stay here and wait for death? If we say we will go into the town, the famine is there, and we shall die; if we stay here, we shall die. Well then, let us go to the camp of the Aramaeans and give ourselves up: if they spare us, we shall live; if they put us to death, we can but die.' When they reached the outskirts of the Aramaean camp, they found no one of the force there, which they thought was surrounding the capital. God made them flee by making them hear a sound like that of chariots and horses and a great host. It was the four who found out that there was no Aramaean force. The four brought that good news to the king's household inside the wall after they themselves had eaten and drunken enough. Israel came out of the crisis in this way.
We all have in ourselves the handicaps, disease and various minus elements which we would keep out and deplore; we keep them outside the town-wall. We oust them as something there shouldn't be with us. However, isn't the episode telling us that those very elements are ? and it is true of each one of us, of our families, and of our state? what make us welcome Jesus and provide us with an opportnity to be given good things from God?
3. If you allow me to make another detour, I bought a book which I happened to take in my hand at a bookshop. It is entitled "My Life is with Words," and is written by a professor Satoshi Fukushima of the Tokyo University. About him I read earlier on the daily press Asahi Shinbun. According to what's written on the wraparound band of the book he lost sight at age nine, lost hearing ability at age eighteen. He entered the Tokyo Metropolitan University (the first student without sight and hearing ability), and became a professor of the Tokyo University in year 2008, the first in the world to become university professor without sight and hearing ability.
Thought the author himself is not a Christian, he has many friends who, he doesn't know why, are Christians. He says it seems there are many Christians among the handicapped. It was a catholic who wrote on his palm by his finger 'Contemplation is there for you,' soon after he entered a school for the blind. About why there are many Christians among the handicapped professor Fukushima says as follows; according to traditional religions of Japan, handicap is explained in terms of "karmic backlash." But Christianity casts bright light on handicap such as lines from the gospel according to John do and 'despite me not being a Christian, the word made me feel saved and bright,' he said. He wrote in the book, 'I think the Bible stories tell us messages that give us constructive power in developing ways for life. Perhaps this explains why not a few of the handicapped are Christians.'
Contrary to the word of the Bible for today, most people do not see their disease miraculously cured if they became Christians. This is true of the Christian couple I referred to at the beginning. Yet many do not lose hope and welcome Jesus. That is because, I think, as the professor Fukushima tells, the message of the Bible including one for today gives the handicapped and the people ill at health a constructive power for living.
4. Coming back to the Bible passage for today, I feel that what is written on verse 14 and the following depicts how the ten with Hansen's disease were given constructive power for living since they met with Jesus, as the professor Fukushima points out. Jesus told them to 'go and show yourselves to the priests.' And it followed that 'while they were on their way, there were made clean.'
To give renewed thought to it, I feel that what Jesus told them was a strange word. It is indispensable to touch the affected part of the body of patient to deal with the disease. But Jesus didn't do such a thing at all; instead he only told them to go and see the priests who will judge if the disease has been cured. The ten followed this incomprehensible word of Jesus without asking or arguing. They just followed what they were told to do. And it turned out that 'while they were on their way, there were made clean.'
This reminds me of the story on chapter 5 of the Second Book of Kings. In Aram, which was confronting with Israel, there was a commander of army, Naaman by name. He contracted Hansen's disease. There lived in his house a young girl of Israel captivated for his wife. The girl told her mistress, 'If only my master could meet the prophet who lives in Samaria, he would cure him of the disease.' So Naaman went to see Elisha. But Elisha wouldn't come out to see him in person and only sent out a messenger to say to him, 'If you go and wash seven times in the Jordan, your flesh will be restored.' At that Naaman was furious and was about to leave back in rage. But on the suggestion of his servants Naaman did as told by Elisha and he was cured. What we are taught from this story is the importance of following God's word given through Elisha. Whether or not he washed in the Jordan didn't matter. What was of critical importance was if, prompted by the word of God through a man Elisha, he could make a new step of life.
The ten with Hansen's disease did just that. To go and see the priests wasn't meant to go just to be diagnosed if they were cured of the disease, it seems to me. The priests could have been at the temple, though we are not too sure of it. It was where the ten were prohibited never to enter most stringently as the patients in the older days had been kept out of the gate of town-wall; a sacred area. But Jesus told them to go in. I think Jesus told them, 'You can go in there. Go in just where you've been barred to. Do it majestically with your chest out.'
And 'cleaned they were while they were on their way.' Of course it meant that they were cured of Hansen's disease. But I am kind of attracted where the passage says 'they were cleaned,' instead of saying, 'they were cured of their disease.' More important than that you are healed of your bodily disease is that, following the word of Jesus and of God, one makes a new step of life and in that process it happens that one is cleaned. It doesn't necessarily mean to take the form of one's disease being cured. We cannot avoid limitation imposed on us by one's life span or disease and handicap caused by a mechanism built-in us congenitally. Chances are that they are not cured. But one never fails to be cleaned by God so long as one welcomes Jesus and follow his words. And that never fails to give us something which makes us different from how we've been thus far. That is why many of the handicapped welcomed Jesus and followed his words even though their handicaps are not dealt away with, I am taught.
About a Samaritan, the only one who returned to Jesus, I don't have enough time to talk now. What I know from Bible commentaries and sermons at hand is that almost all the preachers and scholars are severe against the nine who didn't come back. It is a reproach on them of being ungrateful, leaving away as soon as they got what they wanted to. But it is not the way I take it. To come back to Jesus means, in short, to worship, I would think. That the disease is gone for good does not mean coming to the end of relationship with God and Jesus. It means we can continue to live ever more cleaned, praising and thanking God.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Luke 17: 11-19
The Gospel according to Luke 17: 11-19
11 In the course of his journey to Jerusalem he was travelling through the borderlands of Samaria and Galilee.
12 As he was entering a village he was met by ten men with leprosy. They stood some way off
13 and called out to him, 'Jesus, Master, take pity on us.'
14 When he saw them he said, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests'; and while they were on their way, there were made clean.
15 One of them, finding himself cured, turned back with shouts of praise to God.
16 He threw himself down at Jesus's feet and thanks him. And he was a Samaritan.
17 At this Jesus said; 'Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they?
18 Was no one found returning to give praise to God except this foreigner?'
19 And he said to the man, 'Stand up and go on your way; your faith has cured you.'
(The Revised English Bible)
- Live at peace with all -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 According to the calendar of the United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ henceforth), the First Lord's Day of August is 'the Holy Day for Peace. 'I myself have seldom observed this day according to this kind of calendar but it is just 70 years since Japan was defeated. Also 'the Prayer for Peace in the 70 th year after World War II, 'which was decided on at the Standing Executive Committee of the UCCJ the other day, has been sent to each church and I would like to offer this prayer. The interpretation of the Japanese Constitution which has been steadfastly maintained, is now going to take a turn of 180 degrees, which is referred to in the prayer. Although it is one week late this year, I would like to talk about the words in the Bible, by following the daily schedule set by the UCCJ.
1.2 Now what is shown first after we have read today's word is that this word was sent just when believers at the church in Rome were persecuted and were faced with the situation where their desire for revenge was aroused. Today we read the part from Verse 17 but prior to this part, we can find Verse 14, 'Bless those who persecute you ,' and Verse 19,'do not seek revenge.'This shows that people at the church in Rome were faced with their persecutors and were put into the situation where they could not but hold the desire for revenge. Also Verse 18 says, 'If possible, so far as it lies with you, live at peace with all,'which shows how difficult it is to live in peace in this kind of situation.
1.3 What kind of situation could we think of in concrete terms? I'll talk about it later, but a large scale persecution against Christians by the Roman Empire has not yet started. As I talked about the background of how this letter was written, at the beginning of Paul's Letter to the Romans, in the year 49, Jewish people were banished from Rome by the then Emperor Claudio. Its cause is that according to the then historian Suetnius , at 'Crestos's' instigation, the Jewish people raised a disturbance. This 'Crestos 'was believed to be Christians and because of hatred of the disturbance between Jewish people and Christians, the then Emperor probably banished the whole Jewish people from Rome. The Jewish people were allowed to return to Rome in the year 54 when the Emperor Claudio died but it is not difficult to imagine that they hated, bear a grudge against and persecuted the Christians who brought about the cause of the banishment of the Jewish people. And also during the five years of their banishment, it is certain that there was a hatred and a desire for revenge about Christians being deprived of their houses against Romans. The words of this letter were sent as practical advice for Christians at the church in Rome who were put in such a situation. It is certain that the words which were written and sent were read as an encouragement for them.
1.4 Not only that but also this word of Paul's was used as an encouragement for the Christians who were put under the large scale persecution of the Roman Empire for more than 200 years. If people had thought how they could put Paul's word into practice or how they could live at peace with their persecutors, probably this word ought to have been ignored by people without being read as the Bible. But it kept on being read under the persecution that lasted for almost 300 years and it was established as the Bible. It eloquently tells us that it has the power that supports people as God's word.
2.1 If people had burned with the desire for revenge against their persecutors and had been driven to terrorist's activities, what would have happened? I think that the religion of Christianity and faith in it would be gone now. Just as Jesus' teaching of 'Love your enemy 'tells you, when you hate your enemy, that hatred destroys those who conceive it themselves. Even if Christianity should remain in some form or other, it would have been filled with such words or spirits as 'Hate your enemy ,'or 'Take revenge .'
2.2 Today's word in Verse 20 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; by doing this you will heap live coals on his head' comes from Proverbs 25, 21, and 22 in the Old Testament. Although there seem to be various interpretations about the word, 'you will heap live coals on his head ,'I take it like this: If you burn with the desire for revenge against your persecutors and you engage in such a thing as terrorist's activities, it will lead to heaping burning colas on your own head. Someday burning coals that are heaped will collapse and burn yourself to death. Generally, everyone thinks that there is no other way to fight except to take revenge against their persecutor and that they cannot find a way to live in peace. But God's word tells us. Paul says that even if there is no other way, there is a way to move burning coals from your head and that there is another way except a way to burn with a desire for revenge. He says that there is a means of living in peace. Through his word, believers at the church in Rome and a lot of Christians who were persecuted as well were encouraged and were able to live.
3.1 Then, what kind of thing was the advice in concrete terms that Paul sent to believers at the church in Rome so that they could live as much at peace as possible with their persecutors?
His advice starts with Verse 17 'Never pay back evil for evil. Let your aims be such as all count honorable ,'and ends with 'Do not let evil conquer you, but use good to conquer evil. 'What strikes me here the most is that Paul talks about 'evil.'You may be able to remember the proverb 'Condemn the offense but pity the offender.'For example, suppose that the Jewish person called A persecutes some Christian and the Roman called B deprives a certain Christian of his house. Paul sees 'evil'behind them. The universally fundamental thing called 'evil'exists and it enters a human being and turns him into a bad guy. What is to be blamed is 'evil.'It is this 'evil'that is to be hated and to be fought against, and not the person. First by talking like this, Paul tries to liberate people from hating a particular person or take revenge on him.
3.2 Then what is 'evil'? You can find the word in Verse 16 just before that'Do not be conceited.' Evil has something to do with being conceited, that is, making yourself big. You can find the following word in Verse 10 and the following in Ephesians 6: 'Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 'Evil can be called the devil. And the means that evil or the devil captivates us through is always 'the rulers ,'and'the authorities ,'Paul says.
3.3 We would like to keep in mind this truth that evil or the devil turns us into a bad guy through 'the rulers ,'and'the authorities 'or through the means of conceiting and making ourselves big. Usually 'evil'is, for example, to encroach on the territory of a certain country or to infringe upon our life or property. In contrast, to protect it is regarded as 'good.'In the final analysis it comes to the question of 'rulers,'right? In this world, it is said that it is good to have the territory of our country and to continue to keep our life or property, whereas it is evil to encroach on them. But from the viewpoint of the Bible, everything belongs to God. Our country and this life are nothing but what we borrow from God. Essentially, there should be no such thing as places marked with national borders. There are no such things as our own life or property. After all, to regard what we just borrow from God as what belongs to human beings is work that is done by evil. Evil or the devil says
that as what you borrow from God is yours, you should defend the control of it to the last and you should counterattack those who attack you. They say that it is good and that you can make peace through it.
4.1 I am again reminded of what I learned from Jeremiah in the Old Testament. There were some people whom Jeremiah called 'False prophets .'They said that their territory and land were absolute and that God would never destroy them. They called it peace. On the other hand, Jeremiah said that their territory and their country belonged to God and that his will was now to entrust them to Babylonia. He said that they would lose their homeland and that they would be taken to Babylonia as captives. Therefore in Babylonia they should marry people at their local places and live there by giving birth to their children and their grandchildren. He said that they should entrust God's will with everything, which he called peace. There is a decisive difference between false prophets and Jeremiah in what is peace and what is good or evil. False prophets say that to continue to control, whereas Jeremiah insists that there is good and peace even in losing a control.
4.2 . Proponents call the bills that are being deliberated on in the Diet'security bills.' And what underlies the outlook of peace is the idea of having a stronger control of our country and territory. Many people are attracted to such a trend of thought and before we know it, we are now just about to send the Self-Defense Forces abroad under the cause of defense of our country and for the purpose of protection of lives and property of people. We can find peace where we have a firm control, which looks like a matter of course and which no one doubts about. However, it is the work done by evil. We are led to think of it as good and in peace but actually we are led to heap burning coals on our heads. We, who think this way, will be really unpatriotic people. But this is what the Bible teaches us.
5.1 Therefore, we must not repay anyone evil for evil but we have to overcome evil with good and have to live at peace with everyone. 'With good' means that according to Jeremiah, we have to accept losing as God's will. And even in such a situation, as Verse 20 says, 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink.' The reason why God has lent us the world on the earth is not for us to draw lines on it as we wish and to control it as our territories and countries. It is not so, but it is nothing but for us all as living things of that God to feed each other if we are hungry and to give a drink to each other if we are thirsty and to live by helping each other. It is this very thing that God taught us through Jeremiah as a way of living in Babylonia, I think. The other side destroyed your country and killed your family members but even in it there should be some people who will feed you if you are hungry and give you a drink if you are thirsty. Make a connection with such people. Where there is a human connection beyond a country or a territory, and where there is no intervention from rulers or authorities, at the very place where you live by helping each other, there is peace.
5.2 Furthermore, Paul says, 'Do not seek revenge, but leave a place for divine retribution.'He had to use the word 'revenge ,'and he couldn't deny the existence of revenge. In the very terms of them, we can understand in what a difficult situation people at the church in Rome were put. But if we take revenge by the judgement of us human beings, we will only end up paying evil for evil and invigorating evil more and more. There is no denying that you want to take revenge but if so, he tells us to leave it up to God. The text of the Bible says, 'Leave a place for divine retribution.'
5.3 In last week's sermon about the Gospel according to Luke, 17: 1 - 10, we heard that God forgives us 'seventy-seven times ' (Matthew, 18:22). Then what kind of connection lies between this forgiveness of God's and God's wrath? That he should talk about God's wrath without talking about his forgiveness, was Paul deceived by a false god? I interpret that in the work where God that I AM, is thoughtful enough to forgive us 70 times seven, wrath is included . It is in the midst of God's infinite forgiveness that wrath lies as well. Even in such a situation where we have nothing to do but to want to seek revenge, there is certainly a place for divine retribution. As there is such a place, if you put your foot at that place, you can live at peace with all, says Paul and he encourages us.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Romans 12 : 17- 21.
Paul's Letter to the Romans 12 : 17- 21.
17. Never pay back evil for evil. Let your aims be such as all count honorable. th
18. If possible, so far as it lies with you, live at peace with all.
19. My dear friends, do not seek revenge, but leave a place for divine retribution; for there is a text which reads, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' says the Lord.
20. But there is another text: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; by doing this you will heap live coals on his head.'
21. Do not let evil conquer you, but use good to conquer evil.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Title -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Our learning from the Letter of Paul to the Romans now touches on chapter 5.
Not a few of the Bible scholars seem to demarcate the portion covering from this chapter 5 to the end of chapter 8 as the third part of the main body of the letter.
As we have repeatedly learnt, the first part of the body is about how miserable a being we are unless justified by God. The second part taught us that as miserable as we are we can be justified as righteous by having faith in Jesus as our Christ.
So we can safely predict that in the part beginning with chapter 5 what effect we will have resulting from it that 'we have been justified through faith,' as written in verse 1 is going to be taught.
The Bible words for today are a general statement, as it were, for the whole of third part which underlines that the most important effect we will be given from being reckoned as righteous is that we get to be able 'even to exult in our sufferings,' as written at the beginning of verse 3. I would take it that many of you keep the words from verses 3 to 5 inscribed in your hearts as the lines you would love to recite.
I would think it is this passage written from verse 3 to 5 that we Christians, with our chest held out, can point to as something we can exult in when asked by non-Christian people 'what would be the greatest merit of becoming a Christian.'
That we can exult like that must enthrall and take many, who are in the midst of sufferings, into faith to believe in Jesus.
I suspect that when we are put in suffering exactly the opposite of what is written from verse 3 to 5 will take place.
While that process in which suffering leads to hope we may call positive spiral,what most likely takes place with us is negative spiral, a minus chain. Suffering doesn't get to be source of endurance; it leads to self-abandonment.
Instead of endurance leading to a state of having been trained, it leads one to rags; and finally makes us end up in despair, which is opposite of hope.
Here achieving a state of having being trained means either that a metal increases its purity when melt in a pot or that iron becomes steel which is much harder when heated and pounded.
I think of how many people, being put in suffering, are thrown in the midst of negative spirals. So as that the suffering constitutes a starting line towards positive spiral leading to hope, instead of minus spiral, it is indispensable for us to be put right with God by having faith in Jesus as Christ.We, Christians, can work as witness to this truth.
2. The question then is can we tell people around us, with our chest thrown out,that the greatest merit of becoming a Christian lies in that we get to be able to exult in suffering.Can we say with confidence that the positive spiral will take place for us as written from verse 3 to 5?
When so asked I am afraid not a few of us would say that is something just Paul and a selected few can do; not possible for us. My sincere hope is that attending the worship service today you get to be able to say 'Yes, even I can exult in suffering.'
The verse 3 says 'we exult even in our present sufferings.' Some of you may remember that according to the colloquial version of the Bible we were using previously the Japanese sentence said like, 'we are joyful even of suffering.'
In the original Greek text, the word is Kaukomai, and it seems to be translated to mean 'to be proud of.' Right! Its other meaning is to be pleased. But I am afraid that translating it to be pleased would lead to some sort of misunderstanding.
By that translation, the sentence may be taken to mean if you are a Christian then you should be pleased with the suffering. To be joyful even in suffering is the effect, it is misunderstood, which should take place in us who are justified as righteous by God. This, I must say, is truly unhappy misunderstanding. About chapter 5 of the Letter of Paul to the Romans, there is published a very voluminous interpretational sermons and I have consulted with it for preparing this sermon.
The author was originally a physician. Later he became a pastor and long served at a church in Westminster, London. He is the Reverend Dr. Lloyd Johns.
I make it a rule to spend my summer holidays and some other times also reading this and other of his works. I find in his works much suggestive guidance which only a pastor who observed ill-health in terms of body and faith of many Christians could make.
The Reverend Johns makes the following comment about an act of exulting or what was translated as meaning to be pleased: 'I wonder how, in fact, things evolve. Off course, it doesn't mean we should also find joy when suffering. It doesn't mean we should praise God and begin thanking God as soon as we encounter with sufferings without even thinking about it. Much less so we should do automatically. What the Apostle taught wasn't of masochistic character; not that. But some people of present day and some church people in the old days thought it was right to do so and so they did.' [Lloyd Johns 《Roma-sho Kokai Chapter 5》 Inochi-no Kotoba-sha, pp128-129]
What Paul taught wasn't anything like that, the Reverend Johns tells. It is quite alright also for us Christian to be saddened, to grieve over the suffering we may encounter with. It is natural that we should do so as an honest expression of our feeling. The effect of us having been put right by God is not to suppress or deny our suffering and be pleased or exult in it.
Today I'll be touching on the words in verse 7 and the following of chapter 12 of the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. What is written there is, if I may say so, an interpretation by Paul himself about the words of his letter to the Romans.
Paul was given a thorn in his flesh. He even called it as a messenger of Satan. He begged the Lord (Jesus) to rid him of it for three times (many times). This episode suggests that even Paul could not be pleased with the suffering right from the beginning. Into sadness and grievance he found himself thrown. That is good. It is natural he should do so.
3. Saddened and grieved. But from that point onward there arises a difference between the ones who are put right with God and others who are not. There appears an effect of having been justified by God through faith in Jesus as Christ. That is what is contained in verse 3 in the phrase to say 'because we know.'
Faced with sufferings, Christians, the ones put right with God, do get sad and grieve just as who are not Christians. Even as we are such, we Christians 'know' a certain thing. That something is what is written later in the chapter. To use the expression I used previously it is positive spiral. Christians know that positive spiral will be put in motion in which suffering produces hope.
If you know a certain thing or don't know it makes a huge difference. For example, it makes a vital difference for a patient told about the disease if he knows or not that there is a wonderful physician or a marvelous remedy for it. It makes critical difference for a bankrupt person if he knows or not That there are livelihood sustaining public relief and other social aids. That one knows something or not makes such a big difference.
What is it that Christians know? They know first of all that 'suffering is a source of endurance.' When we say endurance we tend to think of a situation where we hold out with our jaws hardened so we won't be beaten up by the difficulty. And we tend to think 'I cannot bear with it.'
But what I am taught about endurance here is not something like that. To endure is not something we bear out with our teeth clenched. It is something every Christian practices naturally and spontaneously thanks to us being Christians.
For us to endure is to try to rely on and seek the help of Jesus even when we are about to encounter difficulty. It takes place quite naturally thanks to us being put right with God 'through the Lord Jesus Christ,' and 'thanks to Christ.'
As we've been taught over and again, to be justified as righteous by God means that we get to be pulled by God, get to be guided by the gravity of God. Thanks to the God's gravitational pull we in suffering are pulled toward positive spirals rather than swallowed in negative spirals.
This is possible for us Christians exactly because we are linked with Jesus through our faith in him. To use my parable of the other day we, on a spaceship of Jesus, are being pulled by God's gravity and are being navigated in that world. So it is natural that we seek the help of and rely on the navigator of spaceship Jesus when faced with storms.
The Reverend Dr. Lloyd Johns says as follows; 'Christians are made to think of the Lord Jesus Christ once again thanks to times of test and difficulty whom otherwise we tend to forget.
Not just that. By tribulation and difficulty Christians are led towards Christ, led to pray to Christ, led to spend far more time with Christ, and are led to implore for his great power and understanding.' [ibid. pp131-132]
Paul in chapter 12 of the Second Letter to the Corinthians was just like it. He says 'Three times I prayed to the Lord about my physical ailment.' In this way, suffering naturally leads us toward Jesus as we never have done, not with our teeth clenched but in quite natural fashion. Such a thing takes place for ones who have faith in Jesus as Christ.
And this produces endurance in a natural fashion, I would think. It is flounder and struggle in leaning on Jesus, not bearing with hardened jaws. It turns out to be endurance before one realizes it.
Endurance is nothing else but to live the time of suffering. Thanks to Jesus, who was put on cross, being side by side with us in suffering, makes it possible for us somehow to bear out such a time.
4. While we live a time of suffering that way, we get to a state of having been trained. What it means to be getting to a state of having been trained I told you earlier. What will be happening to us while we desperately try to rely on Jesus? For Paul in chapter 12 of the Second Letter to the Corinthians a word was given saying, 'My grace is all you need; power is most fully seen in weakness.' What was happening there was getting to a state of having been trained, it would seem to me.
More than anything else, it is a process in which unnecessary impurity is taken away. When we in suffering seek to rely on Jesus, the suffering or thorn in the body may not be taken away. Our hope may not be fulfilled in that sense. But impurity in us is removed.
For Paul, impurity was the wish to propagate the gospel relying on his strength. Impurity that lies in all of us is, to get down to the core of it, our heart which drives us to seek to live on strength, to build our life on it.
How much do I suffer because this impurity is not going away! It's been almost 30 years since I became a pastor, and yet I am not rid of this impurity.
However, it is the suffering which will take away the impurity. To seek to rely on Jesus when in suffering makes it possible for us to rid ourselves of the impurity.
Propagate the gospel in weakness. In weakness, live not on your own strength but by relying on God, on Jesus and the Holy Spirit and people around you. For that will grow to be your strength, he is kind to tell you.
That way emerges the hope which will never fail you. That hope, as I just said, is not the kind that will remove your suffering. The hope is one that allows us to be along with the hope of God ― the heart of God even though our own hope is not going to be fulfilled.
Verse 2 puts it as 'the hope of the divine glory that is to be ours.' To encounter with suffering rids us of our impurity, and makes us reflect not our own but God's glory.
It is indispensably through personally encountering with Jesus, and by relying and leaning on him, thereby being justified as righteous by God, and not by any other means, that we in suffering become ones who are able to embrace such a hope.
We can get to exult in suffering as long as we are connected with Jesus, for it was Jesus who suffered himself on the cross.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Romans 5:1-5
1 Therefore, now that we have been justified through faith, we are at pace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 who has given us access to that grace in which we now live; and we exult in the hope of the divine glory that is to be ours.
3 More than this: we even exult in our present sufferings, because we know that suffering is a source of endurance,
4 endurance of approval, and approval of hope.
5 Such hope is no fantasy; through the Holy Spirit he has given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Come, I shall send you to Pharaoh -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Today's word follows Verse 6, Chapter 3 in Exodus that we had listened to last time. So I would like to reflect on only its important points briefly.
1.2 What is described from Chapter 3, Verse 1 to Verse 6 is the encounter between Moses, who was already about 80 years old and God. The Bible describes a variety of encounters between God and human beings but not one of them is the same, I think. God prepares the scene of encounter that is suitable for each of them and tries to attract them to himself.
1.3 The scene that God prepared for Moses was such a strange phenomenon as Verse 2 describes, 'Although the bush was on fire, it was not being burnt up.' The reason why this scene was worth drawing Moses' attention is that the bush that was on fire reminded us of how he or Israeli people in Egypt suffered, I feel. First, it reminded Moses, who turned 80 and felt that he was getting weaker physically and mentally. He is a bush that is going to be burned up due to time or a deterioration in health. At the age of 40, he rose to action in an attempt to help his brethren who were suffering but he could not gain their understanding and he committed murder, which resulted in his being a wanted man by King of Egypt. After that, for 40 years, he lived as a shepherd, suffering from a feeling of impatience, and he turned 80 at last. But as always, he cannot find any means of rescuing his brethren. This situation is the bush itself which is being burned up and is going to be ashes. And it is his brethren that are that bush itself. Actually they have been being burned up, at least for 80 years since Moses was born or if we count before that, perhaps for 100 years or more, by the wicked desire of King of Egypt to eliminate them.
1.4 What God shows to Moses who was in such a situation is the phenomenon that the bush that naturally burns out and becomes ashes does not get burned up for some mysterious reason. This sight captivated Moses' heart. God said to him, who approached the phenomenon, 'The place on which you are standing is holy ground.'It is the word that tells us to be aware that if you don't want to burn out, there is something 'holy 'in the encounter with God, in the place on which you are standing and in your life. By meeting God, we are able to be aware that even if we are put in a situation where at the age of 80 we are going to be burned up and to be ashes physically, economically and socially, there is surely something 'holy ' and something that cannot be burned up.
1.5 By being greatly inspired by the Reverend Hino's word at the Special Meeting last week, I was able to prepare this week's sermon. I'll mention this later but, this week's title is'Come, I shall send you to Pharaoh ,' which I adopted from Exodus Chapter 3, Verse 10, whereas, the Reverend Hino adopted his title 'Send me ,' from Isaiah Chapter 6, Verse 8. By a curious coincidence, in various respects, today's word has something to do with last week's worship service.
1.6 One of what deeply impressed me in the Reverend Hino's sermon is that he is engaged in his work by following the word by his precursor whom he respects, 'It is in rubbish that there is a treasure, 'and by thinking that there is a treasure just behind the patient that has become something like rubbish due to cancer or behind his family. The treasure lying in the very rubbish is 'something holy 'in Exodus Chapter 3, right? Moses lived suffering from hopeless failure for 40 years and turned 80 years old, and he suffered from the king's wickedness, but right there, there is a treasure. We must be aware of that. Unless we are aware of that, we will be burned up. We will be ashes. It is our encounter with God that makes us aware of something holy.
2.1 It is today's word shown in Verse 7 and the following that concretely teaches the present Moses and Israeli people who are in the midst of suffering what kind of holy thing there is, I think.
2.2 First, God says the following in verses from 7 to 9: 'I have witnessed the misery of my people in Egypt and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know what they are suffering.'Here God tells strongly that he witnessed, heard and knew the suffering and misery of Israeli people by himself. Also he says that he has'come down to rescue Israeli people from the power of the Egyptians ,'and that he will bring them up out of that country without forsaking them, and guide them into' land flowing with milk and honey.'
2.3 Probably Moses and Israeli people always had the question of why they were troubled so much. The answer to it had not been clear up to that time. But here the answer to it from God himself has been shown. It is because in that suffering God feels Israeli people to be 'my people ,' shares their pain and knows it. It is because he has come down to rescue them and to bring them out of suffering or pain into a fine land.
2.4 Pain or suffering itself is not a blessing, because God says that he will bring Israeli people into a place which is free from those things. But pain or suffering has its own 'holy ' role that nothing else can perform. It is the role where in pain God knows us and he sees us who suffer and he comes down to us. Of course, we are not going to seek after pain or suffering on our own initiative. Such a thing is nothing but a self-tormenting act. But only when we feel pain or suffer, we can experience our being heard or seen or getting known by God. There is something holy with only pain or suffering.
3.1 In addition, something'holy'that God showed Moses is through the words in Verse 10 'Come, I shall send you to Pharaoh, and you are to bring my people Israel out of Egypt. 'It means that God gives a mission to Moses who turned 80. That is, he makes Moses take part in his work.
3.2 Moses who is spoken to by God says in Verse 11, 'But who am I? 'I feel what a contrast it is, compared with Moses forty years ago. At the age of 40, he, who rose to action to rescue his brethren, thought of himself as 'being somebody .'But now that 40 years have passed and he has turned 80, he is able to say, 'But who am I? 'That is suitable for him in performing the mission that he is entrusted with by God. God might have patiently waited for him to become like that for 40 years.
3.3 Just because he keenly feels 'But who am I? What I can do is very little, 'he comes to think hard about , 'Then what am I sent for? ', 'What is the mission that I am to perform?'and'What does God tell me to do? 'Surely it is difficult for Moses to approach Pharaoh and to bring Israeli people out of Egypt. But when we look back on what God said in Verse 7 and the following about what kind of existence he was, he said, first, that he knew suffering of Israeli people, heard their cries and knew their pain. Therefore, the role that first Moses had to preform, and his participation in God's work are for him who turned 80 to follow God's behavior and to watch people's suffering and to know their pain. As an extension of that , it is followed by'to bring the people into a land flowing with milk and honey. '
3.4 Verse 12 says, 'I am with you. This will be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God here at this mountain. 'To sum up, the mission that Moses is to perform is only to serve God along with people and to worship him. If we turn our attention only to bringing his brethren out of Pharaoh, it seems to be a very difficult job. But what is the most important is to listen to their suffering and pain and to know them. And it is to be able to worship God.
3.5 Today as a pastor I have learned deeply that this is the mission that is given to me. In the weekly in the space for writing down the gist of the previous week's sermon, this week, I have written down about the word in Jeremiah Chapter 45 that I talked about the other day. Because of the imminent situation where the number of Christian believers is decreasing, we pastors are asking you, church members, to do something 'big. 'In today's word, is what God is trying to make Moses perform big? Or is it small? What I think is essential is to listen to cries of people who are suffering or feeling pain and to know them and to be able to worship God together. It seems that I have only to perform this mission, wondering with modesty' But who am I ?'In order to perform the mission for God, we are sent. This is what prevents us from being burned up.
3.6 At the worship service last week and at the lecture meeting in the afternoon, what the Reverend Hino emphasized the most was to be sent. Those very people who are cancer patients or their families themselves are able to listen to those who are suffering or feeling pain and to take it as their own. Why are they given such a disease? So that they may be sent to perform such a mission. Here in becoming ill lies something hidden and holy.
4.1 Furthermore, the dialogue between Moses and God goes on. With regard to Moses who said in Verse 11, 'But who am I? ,'and who asked God his name in Verse 13 and the following, some people criticized him as persistent or disobedient to God. But I never agree with them. The mission that was entrusted to us was not given by anyone but it was entrusted to us by God. If so, it is extremely important to know God the more deeply. If so, it will be really essential to be able to talk in simple words about what kind of person he is. It will be important to be able to talk clearly about what kind of God is sending me. Just because we think that it is more important than any other thing, we ask God's name.
4.2 God introduced himself as 'I AM that I am. 'With regard to this name of God's, a lot of articles have been written about it. Therefore, there is a lot that I cannot draw from it enough and which is profound. The only thing that I can say is as follows: God could have rejected Moses' wish to know his name. In many once-upon-a-time stories, there is a motive that to know the other person's name leads to taking possession of him. Therefore, God could have rejected Moses' wish, by saying that it was none of his business. But he is not such a person. He is the person who sees our suffering and knows our pain and takes the trouble to come down to us. If so, he is glad to tell us what kind of person he is and as what kind of existence he sees our suffering and knows our pain. It is as'that I am.'You may take it as the meaning of the person who continues to exist. Also, you may take it, not as the negative existence of 'that am not, '
but as the existence of that I am and as the person who is positive, that is, not as the person who denies but as the person who affirms everything.
4.3 The very encounter of us with this kind of God and our deep dialogue with him was the experience of having been provided with something holy above all. It was the event that revealed 80-year-old Moses as the person who was not burned up.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Exodus 3: 7- 22
7 The LORD said, 'I have witnessed the misery of my people in Egypt and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know what they are suffering 8 and have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that country into a fine, broad land, and land flowing with milk and honey, the territory of Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 9 Now the Israelites' cry has reached me, and I have also seen how hard the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I shall send you to Pharaoh, and you are to bring my people Israel out of Egypt.' 11 'But who am I', Moses said to God, 'that I should approach Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt? 12 God answered, 'I am with you. This will be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God here at this mountain.' 13 Moses said to God, 'If I come to the Israelites and tell them that the God of their forefathers has sent me to them, and they ask me his name, what am I to say to them?' 14 God answered, 'I AM that I am. Tell them that I AM has sent you to them.' 15 He continued, 'You are to tell the Israelites that it is the LORD, the God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who has sent you to them. This is my name for ever; this is my title in every generation. 16 'Go and assemble the elders of Israel; tell them that the LORD, THE God of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to you and said, "I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I have resolved to bring you out of the misery of Egypt into the country of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey." 18 The elders will attend to what you say, and then you must go along with them to the king of Egypt and say to him, "The LORD the God of the Hebrews has encountered us. Now, we request you to give us leave to go a three days' journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifice to the LORD our God." 19 I know well that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless he is compelled. 20 I shall then stretch out my hand and assail the Egyptians with all the miracles I shall work among them. After that he will send you away. 21 What is more, I shall bring this people into such favour with the Egyptians that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman must ask her neighbor or any woman living in her house for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing; put them on you sons and daughters, and plunder the Egyptians.
- When hope seemed hopeless -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. There was sort of a training course held by the name of "Orientation for the Newly Ordained Priests," from Monday through Wednesday of the week just past. The course was planned and run by the commission on ministerial qualification consisting of 7 members including myself. I must beg your pardon to stand at this podium today without having been able to make sufficient preparation of the sermon. However, I feel it was a very good experience for me in that I was also much encouraged as if I too was a newly ordained priest.
Now, whenever I preach based on the Paul's letter to the Romans, I have made a point of saying repeatedly that the first thing Paul tells us is how miserable a being we are unless we are justified as righteous by God. To be reckoned righteous by God means, to put it in my own words, to be connected with and pulled by God. It means, to use analogy from my sermon of last Sunday, while living in the world of humans and being pulled in all directions by various forces, yet, thank God, we get to be drawn by the gravity of God. We are invited into the world which runs on the orbit with God at its center. Unless we are pulled by God, we are bound down to the world of humans. To use the expression of last Sunday again, we are bound by the way of living just to "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy," and driven by hatred, are destined to be worn to rags both spiritually and physically.
Such a helpless being as we are, how do we ever get to be drawn by God? The Israelites of the time were convinced that it is by practicing the deeds of the law, by being circumcised and by observing the Sabbath that we get drawn by God. I heard the other day that it takes tremendous energy to get out of earth's sphere of gravitation and to get to run around it like its satellite, and from that orbit further to head for the moon or Mars as a spaceship. I also heard recently an expert say on a mid-night radio talk-show that Apollo 11 which landed on the moon required rockets one hundred and some meters long, which corresponds to a high-rise of several tens of floors. Rockets of that length consisted of 3 separate units, with each taking turn to blast one after the other to gain enough forces to work against the earth's gravity to send the object, in the first place, to become an earth orbiting satellite. Then, it moved ahead further in the space and get into gravitational sphere of the moon to land on it. What a technology it requires!
The point I am trying to make is that it could be as difficult as that and will take that much of tremendous energy for us to get out of the gravity at work in the world of humans and to be allowed in the gravitational sphere of God. If it is indeed the case, it is in the nature of things that one should incessantly practice the law, be circumcised with a little pain, and observe the Sabbath as the Israelites for long believed should follow; that we should blast out such energy and make every effort. But Paul said it is not the case; it is not necessary to follow such a path. Just by faith in God and faith in Jesus we are reckoned as righteous, he preaches. In order to make the case for his belief, Paul refers to Abraham in chapter 4.
2. Whether or not the practicing of the law and circumcision are indispensable for us to be justified by God or just faith suffices. This argument doesn't hit us in our mind, to be honest. Reading the Bible passage for today I was made to feel keenly though that both Paul and his counterpart of the dispute were in desperate need to be justified by God as something they couldn't do without. They both knew very well that humans are in a miserable state unless pulled by God. That's why they had to dispute seriously as to how one could be justified by God.
But as far as earnestly seeking to be justified, there was no difference between them. In this sense, as I told some other day by way of introducing the book "Kirisuto-kyo-to Roma-Teikoku (Christianity and the Roman Empire)" by Rodney Stark, there wasn't that much hostility between Christians and Jews, contrary to the impression one might gain from the discourse of the New Testament Bible. Rather many Jews turned to Christians and gave ground to such a wide-spread propagation of Christianity in the Roman Empire, he says.
And it remains unchanged even today that we are such as having to be justified by God, and how it is possible is the critical question. In the orientation course for the newly ordained priests I touched on at the beginning, it was reported that the number of present communicants belonging to churches of the United Church of Christ in Japan has been down by some three thousand over the last ten years (though I may not be very exact about the concrete number). Not the number simply listed in church books but as many as some three thousand followers who attend worship service and make offering has gone in ten years.
It is indeed striking when we think of it in terms of the number of churches, with the size of membership of our own church; some thirty churches with 100 members are gone. Under such circumstances, ministers are crushed under pressure of having to expand membership numbers and are spiritually cornered, it was pointed out. The conclusion of the lecturer was to say that, under the circumstances, we would need to speak words only Christian churches can.
It means, if I may repeat, that we are so miserable a being without being justified by God and the question is how we can be justified. The world in which we live is so miserable unless pulled by God no matter how affluent the world may get. Conversely to put it, we can have hope if we could live within gravitational sphere of God no matter how miserable this world may be. Therefore, let us talk on this very point was the essence of the lecture. If after talking this point and yet the number of followers should get smaller, we can do nothing more about it and will have to accept it as the will of God.
3. Now, Abraham is cited in today's Bible passage also, in succession to the first half of chapter 4. What is said here again is how miserable he could have been had he not been justified as righteous by God. Verse 18 says, 'Hope seemed hopeless.' It was because 'his own body was as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old),' and because of 'the deadness of Sarah's womb.' Here is written what takes our hope away from us: the weakening of our body. When we get old and our body weakens we get unable to produce anything new.
This is, however, not what happens to each of us alone. I feel that it is happening to the world of humans at large. Look! Despite having dreary experience of world war for two times during the 20th century, still we are bound by old concept of territory or race, and are driven by hostility and hatred. The world is falling in decay. It is getting unable to produce things new, things which are good. Our hope is hopeless as long as we remain as are.
Who God is like is told to us as such in marvelous words. Verse 17 says, 'The God is who makes the dead live and calls into being things that are not.' That Abraham is as old as one hundred and Sarah ninety with their bodies as good as dead is no problem at all for God. God spoke of Isaac, the son of Abraham, even when his hide or hair was not to be found, that his descendants would be as many as stars in the sky. He spoke of it as if it is already a reality.
If that is the case, how will it be possible for Abraham and Sarah not to seek to be drawn and invited to the gravitational sphere of God? How could they remain not wishing to be turned from ones without hope to ones able to have hope?
4. The vital question then is how it was that Abraham and Sarah who were as good as dead were connected with the very opposite living God, were invited in his sphere of gravity. It must have been a next to impossible difficulty, as I said at the outset of my sermon. It must not have been possible without blasting of tremendous energy like a several tens of floor-building launched by rockets. If we were to do it ourselves, it is impossibility. It was impossible for Abraham and Sarah as well.
How was it made possible? Paul says their faith made it possible. They were connected with God just by faith. They were pulled by God who makes the dead live and calls into being things that are not. In them, whose bodies were weak as dead, who were put in such a boundary, the work of God moved ahead. That they were in the gravitational sphere of God was proven by a concrete phenomenon taking shape. It was all just by faith.
What kind of faith was it? Every time I read the account of Paul about the faith of Abraham and Sarah, I tend to feel that his account is much different from how the Genesis tells; that he praises their faith a little too much. When told about having their own baby, they both laughed (Genesis 17:17, 18:12). For an indelible proof of their laughter, the born son was named Isaac (which means he laughs). That they laughed contradicts with what Paul tells about their faith in verses 19 to 21.
Reading the comment of Paul about their faith, we have to think 'We cannot have such a faith.' How is it possible to have a faith like they had when hope seemed hopeless? How is it possible to have a faith with no shadow of doubt? And we think we ever cannot if such kind of faith is what we should have because it is the clue to connecting us with God.
However, it will do good to inscribe in our hearts, my friends, that both Abraham and Sarah laughed, and the given son was named Isaac for an indelible proof of their laughter. It shows that in the faith they had, they had doubts and ambivalence as well; they had weakness.
Yet faith is what is given by God when you get to the core of it; it originates in God. God showed them unbelievable promise and moved their hearts; God gave them the faith. The source of that faith is neither going to get weak nor going to run out. It connected them who derided at God's words, took them in the gravitational sphere of God, and realized in them the promise God made.
Contradictory it may sound to you, but the faith we have does get weak. But on the dimension of it being given by God, the faith is not going to get weak. It never fails to put us, who are given the faith, in the promise of God being realized.
5. The word or the promise God gave Abraham and Sarah as a clue to invite them into the sphere of his gravity said, 'About this time next year, your wife Sarah will have a son.' By this word, they got to have faith; they got to have hope. They were drawn in the world of God; they were justified.
What then is the word God gives us? What is the promise by which God gives us faith and invites us into the sphere of his gravity? It is that Jesus was born as a human being, was crucified, and was resurrected. To be moved by this and be connected with the life and events Jesus experienced, mean you are firmly connected with God.
To elaborate on that Jesus became a man, was crucified and was resurrected in terms of the spaceship I mentioned today shows that Jesus as a spaceship comes out into God's gravitational sphere, blasting tremendous amount of energy. What we do is just to get on in the spaceship of Jesus bringing our faith with us. What a marvelous thing it is that we can get on the spaceship of Jesus! It is never a small matter. And that is something God reckons as good; God deems us justified.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Romans 4:16-25
16 The promise was made on the ground of faith in order that it might be a matter of sheer grace, and that it might be valid for all Abraham's descendants, not only for those who hold by the law, but also for those who have Abraham's faith. For he is the father of us all,
17 as scripture say: 'I have appointed you to be father of many nations.' In the presence of God, the God who makes the dead live and calls into being things that are not, Abraham had faith.
18 When hope seemed hopeless, his faith was such that he became 'father of many nations', in fulfillment of the promise, 'So shall your descendants be.'
19 His faith did not weaken when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb;
20 no distrust made him doubt God's promise, but, strong in faith, he gave glory to God,
21 convinced that what he had promised he was able to do.
22 And that is why Abraham's faith was 'counted to him as righteousness'.
23 The words 'counted to him' were meant to apply not only to Abraham
24 but to us; our faith too is to be 'counted', the faith in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 for he was given up to death for our misdeeds, and raised to life for our justification.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Use even your worldly wealth to win friends -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 The parable that we are going to listen to today is told only in the Gospel according to Luke. But it goes without saying that it is difficult for us to understand what Jesus would like to say. I won't repeat about it but how I feel about this parable first after I have read it is, which is a guess of mine without any evidence, that this parable is based on a fact or an actual incident. Jesus took the trouble to take up the incident which became famous in the then society and which his disciples or anyone would recognize at once if they heard about it. And he added the surprise ending of a reversal to it which was quite different from the ending that everyone was familiar with and that would surprise every listener.
1.2 The incident means the one where a steward who was trusted with a plantation and other property by his master, who is the absentee landlord did wrong. As his wrongdoing came almost to light, he devised a plan. As is mentioned later, usually in such a case the first thing for a steward to do is to turn everything which is easy to cash in into money and to run away as early as possible, I think. However, he did not do so. We don't know why. Probably his next behavior was not real, I imagine, but he summoned his master's debtors one after another, had them rewrite their accounts and reduced their debts. His intention was, as is written in verse 4, to 'make sure that, when I am dismissed, there will be people who will take me into their homes .'Those debtors probably knew well that their steward didn't have such authority and that his master would not accept it, but they accepted their steward's action believing that they would be free from their debts now that their accounts were rewritten.
1.3 What the steward did would be called 'breach of trust 'now, as he had his own way without permission from his master and reduced his master's wealth, in addition to his previous wrongdoing. Therefore, in this real incident, it is certain that this steward was punished with a very severe punishment. Everybody knew that end. They all said that he should have run away with the money quickly, calling him stupid.
1.4 But Jesus said a surprising thing: 'the master applauded the dishonest steward for acting so astutely. 'Probably why Jesus said this kind of thing became obscure, as times changed. Verses 10 to 13 had several different maxims that were attributed to Jesus. They were the explanations or interpretations of Jesus' parable that people had collected, thinking that this was what Jesus meant, although they were not sure what he really meant, I guess. What Jesus said at the end of the parable was so astonishing that people were afraid that it might make a stumbling block and as a result, nobody but Luke wrote down this parable.
2.1 Now with what intention Jesus applauded this dishonest steward for acting so astutely is the point of today's sermon. But before I mention that, I would like to point out that this whole parable has something to appeal to us.
2.2 Of course in this parable, 'master 'refers to God but what Jesus means is to teach how different the master, God, is from the worldly master and that he treats us in a quite different way from the master of this world. It is what is talked about in a series of parables from Chapter 15 and the following consistently. In those days, there was a mental image of the master, also the father and the shepherd, which the Pharisees or the teachers of the law who were dominant in the world of faith in Israel believed in and that they taught to people: It was the image of God that they had when they thought that if just a single sheep should move away from its flock without following the shepherd or sheepdog and drive its whole flock into a dangerous situation, it would deserve to be left alone and it should be eaten up by wolves. Or to put it another way, it was the image of God that they had when they thought that such a prodigal son who indulged in dissipation should not return home and that it was unbelievable for him to be welcomed into his family again. It was the image of God that was the same as the one of his older brother. If we refer to the incident that we are dealing with in the parable, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law would have taught people that such a man as this dishonest steward who repeats such wrongdoings deserved to be punished with judgement of this world and besides, to be rewarded with heavy punishment by God.
2.3 Jesus teaches us an unexpected thing about God in defiance against the then image of God which was prevalent in those days. God is very pleased to locate only a sheep that gets lost and find it. He is very pleased to find the prodigal son come home. He applauds the dishonest steward who does wrong and who deserves to receive a heavy punishment. He doesn't do what we think is 'natural' for him to do. Jesus says that he will upset it and that he will do what we would be surprised at.
We imagine God on the basis of our values, or criterion or rules and try making his image as we like. The figure of God that we have made binds us. We are really happy to have been able to know God through Jesus.
3.1 Now I would like to talk about the main point of this parable--- why Jesus applauded the way this steward acted. I can say that there are two points about the way he acted when he was put into a predicament
3.2 The first point is that he tried to secure his position by using the authority that he was entrusted with by his master, which led him to do wrong repeatedly. As I said at the beginning of my sermon, it must have been the best way for him to turn everything that is easy to cash in into money and to run away as early as possible. But he didn't do so. He still tried to get out of his difficult situation by using the authority that he was entrusted with as steward by his master, to be concrete, by using bonds illegally.
3.3 What Jesus was impressed with was that I suspect the steward tried to use what he was trusted with by his master. It is, as is written in Verse 11, 'the wealth of this world. 'It is to use the wealth that he is entrusted with by his master illegally. But Jesus recommends that just as this steward tried to get out of the difficult situation by using his position and authority that he was entrusted with by his master, we should make full use of wealth that we are entrusted with by God and get out of our difficult situation. He says that if we try to use the wealth that we are entrusted with by God, he will lead us to get out of our difficult situation without fail.
3.4 I feel that in the sermon about the prodigal son that we listened to last time, the same thing was told. In terms of dissipating the property that was given by his father, the younger son did wrong. He was put into the position where he was not given even the fodder that the pigs were provided with. Then although he thought that he was not qualified to be called his son and that he was nothing but an employee, he made up his mind to return to his father's house. In other words, he stood in the relationship as the son of his father, and in that position. He tried to use the position that he was provided with by his father, the one that would never be lost whatever he might do. Jesus says God applauds that very thing.
4.1 Then the question of what is the authority that we are entrusted with by God arises. It applies to the second point of the steward taking action. I imagine that the authority that the steward is entrusted with by his master include a lot of things. It includes not only the management of debts but also the authority of forcing workers to work in the plantation. It will include to force people to do what adds to suffering. Or if it were in the present situation, the steward could have taken money by force. But he didn't do such a thing. What he did was in the words of Verse 4 to'make sure that, when I am dismissed, there will be people who will take me into their homes ,'and in Jesus' words of Verse 9 'win friends for yourselves .'He tried not to use the authority in the matter which causes more suffering or burden to people but such a matter as will alleviate burden for people and will win other people's gratitude. He tried to gain friends for himself who would take his side by using the authority. We learn that this is the very thing that impressed Jesus.
4.2 I think that we are entrusted with various kinds of authority: They are, as I always say that we are told, the power to create. I mean to create or to produce a variety of things. We can create what gives people or this world suffering or pain too. Indeed it can be called the power to create. But Jesus teaches us that what saves us when we are put into a difficult situation is such creativity as to alleviate our burden and relieve our pain, or to make our friends or companions.
4.3 It is, in terms of our usual standard, regarded as 'small matters. ' To make friends or companions is regarded as a small matter or a not-main thing in our life and we hear that there will be more important or greater things than it that we should devote ourselves to or aim for. However, Jesus says that the authority that we are entrusted with is to be trusted in small matters, to make friends, and to make those who will thank you and take your side, which he says is a great matter.
4.4 This might be a digression from the subject but the words of 'Anyone who can be trusted in small matters can be trusted also in great'are unforgettable to me: When I was studying at Tokyo Union Theological Seminary, a famous scholar of the Old Testament at International Christian University next to our seminary, Professor Kouichi Namiki, came to give his lecture. One time we were given a homework assignment and I asked my friend to submit my homework assignment instead of me. Then it might have been the time when he took the register but he quoted these words of Jesus and he with a smiling face admonished us, saying that those who want to be ministers have to be trusted just in small matters, which comes to my mind.
4.5 After all, the minister's work is a succession of small matters and an accumulation of them, I think. There is almost nothing in it that the world or you, members of this church would call 'great matters. 'And the core of small matters is to alleviate the burden of those whom I meet, to find out men and make friends with them, to find out men and make companions who can support each other after I have retired from service as a minister, which are great matters for the minister.
4.6 The aforementioned thing means, in the words of the last verse Verse 13, 'not to serve money,'I think. To serve money is, just as I have said now, to be trusted in great matters in terms of our usual standard and to enrich ourselves. But it is not to serve God. It is not to live in the authority nor the position that is entrusted by God. We would like to be those who can be trusted in small matters such as alleviating somebody else's burden and helping them.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Luke 16: 1 - 13
1 He said to his disciples, 'There was a rich man who had a steward, and he received complaints that this man was squandering the property. 2 So he sent for him, and said, "What is this that I hear about you? Produce your accounts, for you cannot be steward any longer." 3 "What am I to do now that my master is going to dismiss me from my post? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am too proud to beg. 4 I know what I must do, to make sure that, when I am dismissed, there will be people who will take me into their homes." 5 He summoned his master's debtors one by one. To the first he said, "How much do you owe my master?" 6 He replied, "A hundred jars of olive oil." He said, "Here is your account. Sit down and make it fifty, and be quick about it." 7 Then he said to another, "And you, how much do you owe?" He said, "A hundred measures of wheat," and was told, "Here is your account; make it eighty." 8 And the master applauded the dishonest steward for acting so astutely. For in dealing with their own kind the children of this world are more astute than the children of light. 9 'So I say to you, use your worldly wealth to win friends for yourselves, so that when money is a thing of past you may be received into an eternal home. 10 'Anyone who can be trusted in small matters can be trusted also in great; and anyone who is dishonest in small matters is dishonest also in great. 11 If , then, you have not proved trustworthy with the wealth of this world, who will trust you with the wealth that is real? 12 And if you have proved untrustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you anything of your own? 13 'No slave can serve two masters; for either he will hate the first and love second, or he will be devoted to the first and despise the second. You cannot serve God and Money.
- A fugitive -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Just as the beginning of the past two sermons about Exodus taught us, I think that there is a subject that runs through the whole of Exodus. It is how Israeli people, slaves, were able to cope with the cruel King of Egypt who were trying to exterminate them with his strong power. It was a very pressing matter for Israeli people, the readers of this story that was not limited to the present or society.
1.2 In the last sermon that you listened to, the part Chapter 1, Verse 22 to Chapter 2, Verse 10, described how the three women who appeared resulted in rejecting the King's order, although they didn't do so out of their will to clearly defy the King, and how, amazingly, the King's real daughter did save the Israeli baby boy, employ his mother as his nurse and bring him up as her own adopted child. It described how the women who didn't have any power with which to defy a king at all, defied the King of Egypt with a gigantic power and opened an air vent, although it was very small.
1.3 Today's word, especially, the part up to Verse 15 of the first half, can be interpreted as describing the figure of Moses who was in contrast with these women. Today's story begins with how Moses, now a grown-up man, went to his fellow countrymen and he saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian. Judging from the passage, we could interpret that somehow he went out of the king's palace for a walk and that on his way he came across this kind of scene. But probably it was not so easy, I imagine. In Acts Chapter 7, Verse 23, we can find Stephen's message, which tells how Israeli people traditionally understood Moses' story that we read today: 'When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.' Probably he threw away the position as the adopted son of the Egyptian princess and tried to join his brethren who were suffering from labors, to rescue them and to rise against the King.
1.4 The first thing that Moses, who made up his mind to do so, did was to kill an Egyptian, who was torturing his countrymen, that is, in today's word, to carry out terrorist's activities. On the next day when he tried to reconcile two Israelites who were fighting, one of them talked back to him saying, 'Who set you up as an official and judge over us? Do you mean to murder me as you murdered the Egyptian?' Moses noticed that his murder got known to everybody and he was scared. And he became a person wanted by the King and became a refugee. Here today's story describes how this incident took place just in the course of two days but actually it took a longer time. We can understand that it describes how his resistance movement couldn't help ending up in a failure like this.
1.5 This is the figure of Moses in stark contrast with the three women described in the last sermon from Chapter 1, Verse 27 to Chapter 2, Verse 10 that you listened to. To put it plainly, women's actions succeeded, while Moses' actions ended up in a failure. Why did this difference take place? What actually gives birth to the difference between the two is the biggest message of today's word to us.
2.1 We think of various differences between them but what is shown as the most important thing is 'With what on earth did Moses try to rescue his countrymen and to stand up against the King of Egypt?' He grew up as the adopted son of the Egyptian princess. In order to rescue his countrymen, he left the palace and tried joining them but he tried to use what he had obtained as the adopted son of the princess, I imagine. It is the 'power' that he acquired probably by growing up for 40 years as the adopted son of the princess. The word in Verse 14, 'Who set you up as an official and judge over us? ' suggests that Moses had some kind of power as the leader of the resistance movement. With that power, he tried to defy the King of Egypt with power. He tried to rescue his countrymen and to help them. But to use this power itself causes him to kill an Egyptian and provokes a strong reaction from his fellow men as a result.
2.2 His wish to rescue his brethren and to help out those who are suffering is his genuine wish. It is quite the same as the thought that the three women had about the baby, and that 'He is cute ' or ' He is a poor child.' But these women didn't have such power as Moses had. (You might say that the princess had some power but thousands of years ago, even if a person had been a king's daughter, she wouldn't have had anything like power, right? Neither Moses' mother nor his sister had any power. ) Grown-up Moses had it. And unfortunately when he tries to use it to do something, he ends up provoking a reaction from his countrymen and becoming a refugee. It is quite the opposite of the women protecting Moses' life and bringing him up. Here there might be a difference between what is masculine and what is feminine but rather than the gender difference, probably if you try to achieve something by using human power, it often gives birth to this kind of result, right?
3.1 This way of Moses' behaving is, if we get down to it, the figure of his trying to achieve something by using his own power in accordance with his own intention. That is, whatever a valuable worker he may be, it hasn't got support from God. In that sense, the blame of 'Who set you up as an official and judge over us? ' is much to the point, I feel. Who has set up Moses as this worker now? Is God there?
3.2 Here lies the fundamental reason why the three women's actions were successful while Moses' actions were unsuccessful, I think. The part from Chapter 1 Verse 27 to Chapter 2 Verse 10 doesn't talk about God at all. They didn't do so because they were guided by God. It is in contrast with the two Hebrew midwives. : In Chapter 1 Verse 15 and the following, the King of Egypt said to them, 'When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew woman, and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him ,' but they didn't obey him, because 'they (the midwives) feared God .' We can say that even if God was not clearly with them, their action was blessed by God and it pleased him. Just because of that, there takes place a miracle in which the daughter of the King who gives a cruel order brings up the Hebrew baby boy as her own adopted son. The miracle in which Moses' mother was employed as his nurse takes place. In that way, there occurs an event in which although it is nothing but a single life, he is protected and brought up against the King's order. The fact that such an amazing miracle takes place or the miracle that protects and brings up a life is evidence that God is supporting them and setting them up.
3.3 Through lots of miracles that God's involvement caused, Moses was able to grow up as the adopted son of the princess of the King of Egypt. The very person 'Moses ' was full of God's blessings and good luck, I think. But to our regret, grown-up Moses has forgotten that his own existence is full of God's involvement and miracles and he is trying to achieve something only by the power that he obtained as the adopted son of the princess and by his own will. Although I repeat many times, God's work brings about a miracle that causes the Egyptian King's daughter to draw up the Hebrew baby boy out of the water. In today's word, it is like Palestinian people pick up an Israeli baby and bring him up. There lies a reconciliation and peace where enemies try to bring up a little life together. But grown-up Moses sees nothing but hostile relationships. He has forgotten God's work in which he has been brought up by the Egyptian King's daughter and that has made half of him an Israeli and the other half of him an Egyptian. He can only hostile relationships between his brethren and Egypt. Just by looking at it alone, he tries to achieve something. He can end up killing an Egyptian in order to try to rescue him and adding to each other's hatred. We have forgotten God's miracles that are hidden in each of us. We see only reality just before our eyes. We are trying to manage it with our own power. This is what we, who are grown up, are doing, right? I deeply feel so.
4.1 The event that is described in Verse 15 and the following is provided so that this kind of Moses may be again 'nurtured' in relation to God. That is , as it were, the period of a cradle that should be called 'a second birth' of 40-year-old Moses, right?
4.2 Talking about how it happened to Moses, after he reached Midian about hundreds of kilometers away from Egypt as the crow flies, it started with his sitting down by a certain well. It seems that there are various accounts about Midian but it is supposed to refer to the area of the eastern side of the Bay of Aqaba in the Red Sea.
4.3 A dramatic encounter that a person who became a traveler has at a place where he sits by a well reminds us of several scenes in Genesis of the Old Testament. It was for the well of water in the city of Nahor that the old servant heard his master Abraham's order to look for a wife for his son Isaac and left, praying that he might see the woman who measured up to his master's wish. Nahor was Abraham's hometown of his kindred. There he met Rebekah, who gave him a drink although he was quite a stranger and took the trouble to let his camels drink by drawing water from the well (Quoted from Genesis Chapter 24). Also it was by the well of water that Jacob who went on his journey to depend on his uncle Laban happened to meet his daughter, Rachel (Quoted from Genesis Chapter 29).
4.4 Why is the important place to meet the well side? The well is in the midst of a desert and the very oasis that is filled with water like a miracle. It is the place that has never dried up for thousands of years and that has maintained lives of people in the desert, that is, the place where God's miracles manifested themselves. At such places, Abraham's servant, Jacob and Moses too sit down. It is the confession of hunger and thirsty that says before we know that 'There's no water within myself. It is only the water and miracle provided by God that makes me alive .' It is Moses' figure that asks for his second birth earnestly and wishes to 'be drawn out of ' (the Egyptian Princess's word) this feeling of frustration after he became a fugitive because he tried to achieve what he wanted by his own power or will.
4.5 What kind of thing was the water that God provided Moses with, in response to his wish? The seven daughters of a priest of Midian (He was called Reuel in Verse 18,whereas he was called Jethro in Chapter 3, Verse 1. It isn't certain what kind of god they believed in but probably it is the same God as Israeli people believed in) brought their father's flock to water them but they were driven away by the shepherds. Moses helped the daughters out. What he did was described in the daughters' word, 'An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the sheep. ' On hearing this, their father Reuel told them to invite Moses to eat with them. Thus Moses married one of his daughters Zipporah and stayed there. The water that God provided him and which was his second birth was meeting with the priest's daughters. And it was to 'help them out,'who had difficulty drawing water. Also, it was to eat as the person who was invited, and to stay there as the one who was needed. It is a little distant from big work to rescue his brethren and to hold out against the King of Egypt. And it is to live and help those who are around you and who are in trouble and to give water them and to live as the person who is needed or who is invited. This is to let Moses stand through God. It was God's work to let him get back to his feet, who failed and became a refugee.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Exodus 2: 11 - 22
11 One day after Moses was growing up, he went out to his own kinsmen and observed their labours. When he saw an Egyptian strike one of his fellow-Hebrews, 12 he looked this way and that, and seeing no one about, he struck the Egyptian down and hid his body in the sand. 13 Next day when he went out, he came across two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one who was in the wrong, 'Why are you striking your fellow-countryman?' 14 The man replied, 'Who set you up as an official and judge over us? Do you mean to murder me as you murdered the Egyptian?' Moses was alarmed and said to himself, 'the affair must have become known.' 15 When it came to Pharaoh's ears, he tried to have Moses put to death, but Moses fled from his presence and went and settled in Midian. As Moses sat by a well one day, 16 the seven daughters of a priest of Midian came to draw water, and when they had filled the troughs to water their father's sheep, 17 some shepherds came and drove them away. But Moses came to the help of the girls and watered the sheep. 18 when they returned to Reuel, their father, he said, 'How is it that you are back so quickly today?' 19 'An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,' they answered; 'he even drew water for us and watered the sheep.' 20 'Then where is he?' their father asked. 'Why did you leave him there? Go and invite him to eat with us.' 21 So it came about that Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. 22 She bore him a son, and Moses called him Gershom, 'because', he said, 'I have become an alien in a foreign land.'
- Rejoice for a lost sheep, a lost coin found -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The Bible passage for today is where parables are written, which are well known to you. The first parable vividly describes a shepherd as he returns home with great joy carrying on his shoulder a lost sheep, which he took the trouble of searching out and found. It goes without saying that Jesus taught by this parable that God is like the shepherd.
Let us pick up the first to verses. The tax-collectors and sinners were all crowding in to listen to Jesus, it is written. Meals were also being provided, it sounds like. The tax-collectors were the people who were given authority by the Roman Empire, the ruler of Israel, to collect tax on its behalf. They were like Zacchaeus, the kind who charged, more often than not, for instance, \2000 - \3000 while the due amount was just \1000, and kept the balance in their pockets. They were hated by the people.
The passage does not specify what kind of people it was who were called sinners. If I were to infer from the woman about whom we were told at Easter worship service the other day, it refers to women earning a living by sex business. Also people with disease by birth, or people with incurable sickness were labeled as sinners, who had gotten sick as a penalty by God because he/she or their parents committed sins. It was such a kind of people who came to Jesus, drawn by God whom Jesus talked about.
Seeing the sinners come to Jesus, the Pharisees and the scribes (the scholars of the law) begun murmuring their disapproval: 'This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.' They looked the tax-collectors and sinners as filthy. It was their belief that God forbade them to associate with them. But their view wasn't without ground according to the words of the Bible. A proof of this is found in the words of the Second Letter of Paul, who had been a Pharisee himself, to the (church in Corinth) which had various problems of its own. In that letter, Paul quoted words of the Old Testament Bible in a paraphrased form saying, '"And therefore, "Come away and leave them, separate yourselves, says, the Lord; touch nothing unclean. Then I will accept you, says the Lord Almighty; I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters."' This must have been lines well known by the Pharisees of the time. Jesus also must have been familiarized with them. That explains why the parable of a prodigal son follows immediately after the passage of today.
A Bible scholar, Mr. Barclay, reveals to us that the Pharisees of the time were saying as follows: 'I'm told that, instead of saying, "There will be greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent," the narrow-minded Jews were saying, "There will be great joy in heaven over one sinner eliminated before God.' Jesus must have heard this saying uttered by the Pharisees and scribes, and this explains why he told parables of verse 7 and of verse 10.
2. In response to the murmuring of the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus told a parable of verse 4 and the following and other one of verse 8 and the following. I don't think I need to elaborate on them at great length. Perhaps it suffices if I shared with you a couple of views of Mr. Barclay again. On a parable of a shepherd who searched for a strayed sheep, critics often point out that it is unsuitable to add and say 'leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness.' Critics are straying from the main topic by referring to this phrase, I feel. Commentary of Mr. Barclay put it as follows: a flock of sheep was owned and kept by a village community in those days, not by individuals. The flock was cared for by two or three shepherds, not by a single shepherd. While one was looking for a strayed sheep, his fellow shepherd was looking after the other sheep. And when the lost one is found the whole village rejoiced.
On the parable of ten silver coins, again Mr. Barclay elaborates it saying that ten coins do not represent ten pieces of separate coin. It could be a hair accessory with all the ten pieces bundled together, it is said. In Palestine, symbol of a married woman used to be hair accessory made from ten pieces of silver coin with a silver chain linking them. That was why the lost coin was searched for with such an eagerness and women rejoiced when it was found out.
The above two parables made me think as follows: 99 sheep of a flock of 100 and 9 silver coins out of 10 overlaps with the Pharisees and scribes who characterized the tax-collectors and sinners as filthy. In contrast, a strayed sheep and a lost silver coin corresponds to the tax-collectors and sinners, we can read. I feel as if there is a confrontation between 99 versus 1, or between 9 versus 1, though I say this out of my imagination.
99 as well as 9 are criticizing the lost one, to put it personified. Indeed there were incidence, it is said, in which just one sheep strayed out from the flock and the whole flock was put in a great danger because they followed the one strayed out. When one piece of coin is lost the other coins are of no value because they are valuable for a hair accessory in a unit of ten. Therefore, 99 sheep and 9 coins get "angry," to say it in a personified manner. How troublesome and arbitrary you are! Better if you weren't with us. These must be the words the Pharisees and scribes were hurling on the tax-collectors and sinners. Because of you the whole community gets the anger of God. Better if you weren't with us. In this way the 99 or 9 discard the one; would eliminate the one. They believe that was the will of God.
I stretched my imagination even to think as follows: why was it that the one strayed out or fallen from other 99 or other 9? It may have done so being told by others that you are not needed, you are a trouble. It may have done so thinking that I'm not fit with the 99 or 9. Better if I weren't with them. I cannot follow the shepherd or the sheep dog obediently; despite all my resistance, I'm easily lured by foods and what look beautiful and would take arbitrary course. I'm not as beautiful and shining as other 9 coins and am not fitting with them. It may have strayed out and disappeared from the group with such a thought in mind, I imagine.
3. With such an imagination, I felt that the core of the message, which the Bible passage for today speaks to me, sounded very clear. I feel that all of us have the confrontation of 99 versus 1 or of 9 versus 1 in ourselves. That polarity is found also in our families and in the church. The 99 or the 9 are being, which neither stray out nor are lost; they are righteous, sound and are in an ideal state of being. In contrast, the 1 is such as what we think we would rather eliminate or cut off because that being is troublesome for us, for our families and the church, and can put us in danger and deprive us of our value.
The special missionary service for this year is going to be held on June 28, which is much earlier than usual yearly turns. The speaker will be a physician Dr. Okio Hino, who has contributed to "Series: Living with Cancer," in the monthly 'Friends of Faith,' for a year. He has been active in the area of "Outer Patients for Philosophy of Cancer," an area of medicine not familiar to our ears. In my preparation to invite him to our special service I read all over the series once again and was made to feel keenly the following: it overlaps with the Bible message for today.
Cancer patients and their family members would naturally wish to have the cancer removed and do so if it is possible. Dr. Hino doesn't refuse such wishes. However, some cancer cannot be removed. Sadly the cancer will take the life of such a patient. Such a cancer is 'the one,' by the word of the Bible passage for today. 'The one,' is the hateful cancer which will put our life in danger and deprive its value while we wish that all of the 100 elements of our life is righteous, sound and ideal, or that all the 10 coins keep themselves in a beautiful unit of hair accessory.
What Dr. Hino points out is that even such a cancer has grown in us over 20 or 30 years. He says it is like a prodigal son. If that is the case, can we say we'll exsect it? Can we say it is good that it's been removed? When it's found that it is not ablative, one will have to live on with the 'the 1,' un-removed. One will have to live on accepting the sorrow and death which 'the 1,' brings about. It is so because that is also my son; that is also me myself, a part of my 100 or 10. If that's removed or kept it lost, I am not me of 100 or of 10. The important '1' is lost. Yet we choose to remove that '1'. We are such as can only say have it removed as it is filthy.
4. That being the case, Jesus tells us by the Bible passage for today that God would look for 'the 1,' we'd cut off, find out carry it with joy on his shoulder, and return it to the 99 or the 9 which was short of it. God finds his joy in doing so. What a contrary joy the joy of God is compared to our kind of joy!
The joy of God in heaven is not that all 100 or 10 of us are righteous, sound and are in an ideal state. Nor it is that the 99 of us has removed 'the 1.' The joy of God lies in that we come to recognize the very importance of 'the 1,' - this is what Jesus means to 'repent.' To repent doesn't mean to reflect or regret one's past - , and that 'the 1,' returns to us. The parables were told and the joy of God in taking the trouble of looking for and finding out 'the 1,' which we removed was told for us to get to know of it.
God and Jesus search for 'the 1,' and carry it back on their shoulders with joy. Shall we also not regard 'the 1,' as our joy! Shall we not learn the great importance for us of it returning back to us! I repeat and say that what remains the object of our sorrow and hatred, God would search for, find out and get back as something necessary for us. It is like an act of God by which he returned the death back to Jesus in the event of resurrection. 'The 1,' for the life of Jesus was his death on the cross. Yet, Jesus himself, facing the pains of it, carried it on his back, knowing that it was the joy of God to do so. The joy manifested itself in the form of resurrection. To carry 'the 1,' on our back with joy never fails to lead to the joy of God.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The gospel according to Luke 15: 1-10
Finding the lost
1 Another time, the tax-collectors and sinners were all crowding in to listen to him;
2 and the Pharisees and scribes began murmuring their disapproval: 'this fellow', they said, 'welcomes sinners and eats with them.'
3 He answered them with this parable:
4 'If one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is missing until he finds it?
5 And when he does, he lifts it joyfully on to his shoulders,
6 and goes home to call his friends and neighbours together. "Rejoice with me!" he cries. "I have found my lost sheep."
7 In the same way, I tell you, there will be greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.
8 'Or again, if a woman has ten silver coins and loses one of them, does she not light the lamp, sweep out the house, and look in every corner till she finds it?
9 And when she does, she calls her friends and neighbours together, and says, "Rejoice with me! I have found the coin that I lost."
10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.'
(The Revised English Bible)
- Personal history of Moses -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. In preparing my sermon on the Exodus I draw primarily on 'Exodus Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching by Terence E. Fretheim.' About the passage for today's reading the author begins making comment saying, 'The story of the birth and childhood of Moses is one of the most read among the stories of the Old Testament Bible. It's been told time and again and entertained people, young and old. The story includes hidden plot, suspense, a stroke of good luck, irony, human sympathy, and a happy ending.' (Not quoted from the original but translation from the Japanese translation by Satoshi Otomo "Gendai Seisho Chukai," p69)
I don't probably have to talk about it at great length but it began when Pharaoh, frustrated for the failure of his attempts to eradicate Israelites (also called Hebrews), issued an order that every new-born Hebrew boy was to be thrown into the Nile, none to be exempted. In those days, a boy baby was born to a couple of Israelites, descendants of Levi (the husband was Amram and the wife Jochebed according to verse 20, chapter 6 of the Exodus). He was so fine a child that she could not obey Pharaoh's order and breast-fed him in a hiding for three months. Unable to conceal him any longer, she got a rush basket for him, made it watertight with pitch and tar, laid him in it, and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
The child's sister (supposed to be Miram) stood some distance away to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, noticed the basket and when she opened it, there was the baby. This is the point professor Fretheim calls suspense because it was the daughter of the Pharaoh who issued an order to kill all Hebrew male babies that picked up a Hebrew baby. What would she do to the baby? We the readers have our pulses race over the possibility that she, having the same mind as her father, might throw the Hebrew baby into the Nile. In an interesting twist, however, Pharaoh's daughter chose to bring up the baby, knowing that it was a Hebrew boy. Moreover, accepting a suggestion of a stranger girl, she let the biological mother to nurture the baby paying due reward ? I gather that she knew the nanny was in fact the biological mother ? and after weaning took him as child of the princess. That his own daughter saved a Hebrew boy against his order and took him as her foster son must have reached the ear of Pharaoh in no time. How did the king reacted to it? Some people think that the cruel order was rescinded when it met with the mute resistance of his daughter. Roughly the following three points are taught for me from the story of today, which has been read by people after people over many years.
2. The first point is that the Israelites had to face with the Egyptian king who was so cruel to issue such an order. In my previous sermon on the Exodus when we began learning from it, we were taught that there is a theme carrying through whole of the Exodus or through at least to coming out from Egypt, which is the Israelites facing off against the Egyptian king. Such of their situation becomes more apparent as we read further into the story.
What was it with then that the Israelites could stand to face off with the Egyptian king having great power and able to issue such a cruel order? The Israelites, being put to toils as slaves, seem to have no power. All they could do was to obey orders of the king. In fact, many couples, I gather, had only to float their new-born boys on the Nile feeling as if their own body is torn apart, with the exception of this Levite couple.
In the story of today, readers of later age must have seen themselves in the situation the ancient Hebrews were placed. For the Jews who became Diaspora all over the world, the likes of the Egyptian king who would attempt to eradicate them have been at any place any time, I suspect. What about us? While there may not be such a king in literal terms, I am afraid that cruel and evil beings which issue an order to throw us or what's important for us 'into the Nile.' And we are unarmed in facing off with them. Our situation is such that we have no means to face up to them with. But we are given a message to say, 'however,' by the Bible passage for today.
By the way I want us to be also reminded that there is no single sentence in today's passage that includes the word "God." This seems to suggest that the passage shows a hard reality that God does not save the Israelites placed in such a situation or us in the way he can be seen vividly by our eyes, I feel. A numerous number of boys must have been thrown into the Nile. I feel like I hear grieves saying, 'Where is God to be found? Why does he allow such cruelty to happen?' Yet, there is no obvious intervention of God to be seen. Where are we able to find intervention of God in such a situation? This is also one of the points the passage for today is intent on telling us, the readers, I would think.
3. The second of the prime point of today's passage is that certain Hebrews and an unexpected person stood to face up to the Egyptian king relying on something. First of all, a Levite mother could not let the new-born son float on the Nile right away and nurtured him, albeit for three months only, under her protection. What kind of mind was it that made her do so? It never was out of audacious desire to act against the order of the king. It was a desire which springs up in the heart of every mother; that her child was 'just too sweet,' she could never let it put afloat on a river. That feeling made the mother dare to choose a course of action which might have well involved her in a risk of losing her own life in the event the child nurtured in hiding had been found out. The very same feeling must have moved the sister of the baby. It was also this that made the princess to act against the order of her father, the king of Egypt. The verse 6 puts it saying, 'she was moved with pity for it.'
The Israelites as well as we are such that they have nothing to face up to the powerful king with. However, the feeling which naturally arises in us no matter how hard we try to suppress it, the feeling of sweetness and pity makes us face off with the king in the end. It is not out of conscious intention either to face off or to resist. But the natural desire which cannot be suppressed is probably to be called the weapon God lends us in facing off with the powerful and evil king, we are taught.
In this connection the desire of grown up Moses present a sharp contrast, I feel, to the desires of three woman, the mother, the sister and the princess, which we will listen to at our next sermon on Exodus as written on chapter 2, verse 11 and the following. The grown-up Moses encounters with a scene where his countryman, an Israelite was being beaten by an Egyptian, and Moses kill the Egyptian. Although nothing is written about his inner self, I suspect that he may have felt pity about the poor countryman. Much stronger were his anger and hatred towards the violent Egyptian, I gather. And such feelings manifested themselves in the form of murder. But the natural feeling of hatred and actions associated with it, i.e. violence and murder are not the force God gives us. God won't lend us such kind of strength to face off with the king. On the contrary, God made Moses flee from the king. The same natural feeling though they may be, anger and hatred don't make a good weapon God will use.
4. The third point I want to make is that, though it overlaps with what I just said, the natural feelings of pity and sweet did not end up there, but motivated the ones who embraced those feelings towards concrete actions to let the new-born live, a boy thrown away at only three-months old to be brought up.
It is shown that the difference between the mother of Moses and other mothers lay there. Needless to say that others mothers also had naturally arising feeling of 'sweet and pitiful,' to their children. But none of them went as far as 'bringing up the child in hiding,' it looks like. They may have thought that it was of no use to do so. As for the mother of Moses, some may say it was just for three months in the end; after three months she could no longer conceal the baby and had to put him among the reeds. This is, however, the very point the Bible passage for today is telling us. When somebody powerful intends to implement a plot to throw us into the Nile, we are made to think there is no way for us but to let it do so as we are without power and whatever we do it will end up in vain. Yet our efforts to do all we can to the best of our ability to protect and bring up the tiny life before our eyes following the feeling springing up naturally, rather than actions out of anger and hatred which will ultimately hurt life, but actions to protect and bring up life, they make us stand up and face off with such an Egyptian king in whichever age and society it may fall upon.
Allow me to make a little detour here. This is about the matter which is taken up also in the book entitled "Christianity and the Roman Empire (written in Japanese words)," I told you twice in my sermons. It was by the book titled "An Invitation to Christian Thought (written in Japanese words)," by Kenzo Tagawa that I came to know that such a thing took place. The Roman Emperor Julian, whose uncle Emperor Constantinos was the first Roman emperor to give official recognition to Christianity, planned to eliminate Christianity and resurrect old religions with belief in traditional gods. He could not, however, deny the merits of Christianity by any means; he wrote to the head of one of the imperial territories, Galatia responsible for religious affairs and told him to learn from Christianity. He instructed him to learn the three points: 'the human love towards other people, graciousness in burying a dead, and seriousness of well-trained way of living,' of Christianity it is said. When I learned of it for the first time I was deeply moved to recognize that there lies the secrete of Christians for surviving difficult situations in whichever age it may be.
'Human love towards other people,' which Julian raised as the first point to learn from Christianity is the very action to try to bring up tiny life out of the sense of pity as said in the words of today's Bible passage. People may have thought what good could it bring to do so under persecution. However, actions not out of hatred against the Roman Empire but out of naturally arising feeling towards the weak, and actions to bring them up they were that supported the Christians under persecution and let them face off with the Emperor.
I repeat this for a number of times. It may have been 'just for three month.' And in the end the child had to be put afloat on the Nile. Yet the mother did the best she could in her capacity to do. Just for three months yet it was three months long. She did everything she could to make the basket watertight and put the child in it. The three months matched very well, we can possibly say, with the timing when the princess went to the river for bathing, can't we? Bad smell of the pitch kept crocodiles away from the basket, can we not say? The ready wit of the sister, who may have thought she would give it a try because she had nothing to lose if unsuccessful, gave her a chance to introduce the biological mother to the princess.
Such a vigorous and best-one-can-do action ultimately led to pull out (or pull up to use the Hebrew word on verse 10 which is marsha; the origin of the name Moses) the action on the part of the princess, one can probably say. When you get to the core of it, it is also an intervention by God. She being a daughter of the king, we tend to see her as being on the side of the king. On the contrary, however, one who was closest to the king acted against his order, saved Moses out from the river of death, pull him up led by the natural feeling God gave her. When we do our best out of the natural feeling of pity and sweet, unexpected help will come upon us from the side of the cruel king. It is not just the king who are on this side. Someone like the princess is also there. It is giving us a message to keep our hopes.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Exodus 1: 22 - 2: 10
1:22 Pharaoh then issued an order to all the Egyptians that every new-born Hebrew boy was to be thrown into the Nile, but the girls were to be allowed to live.
2:1 A certain man, a descendant of Levi, married a Levite woman.
2 She conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that a fine child he was, she kept him hidden for three months.
3 Unable to conceal him any longer, she got a rush basket for him, made it watertight with pitch and tar, laid him in it, and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
4 The child's sister stood some distance away to see what would happen to him.
5 Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, while her ladies-in-waiting walked on the bank. She noticed the basket among the reeds and sent her slave-girl to bring it.
6 When she opened it, there was the baby; it was crying, and she was moved with pity for it. 'This must be one of the Hebrew children,' she said.
7 At this the sister approached Pharaoh's daughter: 'Shall I go and fetch you one of the Hebrew women to act as a wet-nurse for the child?'
8 When Pharaoh's daughter told her to do so, she went and called the baby's mother.
9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Take the child, nurse him for me, and I shall pay you for it.' She took the child and nursed him at her breast.
10 Then, when he was old enough, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him and called him Moses, 'because', said she, 'I drew him out the water'.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Personal history of Moses -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. In preparing my sermon on the Exodus I draw primarily on 'Exodus Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching by Terence E. Fretheim.' About the passage for today's reading the author begins making comment saying, 'The story of the birth and childhood of Moses is one of the most read among the stories of the Old Testament Bible. It's been told time and again and entertained people, young and old. The story includes hidden plot, suspense, a stroke of good luck, irony, human sympathy, and a happy ending.' (Not quoted from the original but translation from the Japanese translation by Satoshi Otomo "Gendai Seisho Chukai," p69)
I don't probably have to talk about it at great length but it began when Pharaoh, frustrated for the failure of his attempts to eradicate Israelites (also called Hebrews), issued an order that every new-born Hebrew boy was to be thrown into the Nile, none to be exempted. In those days, a boy baby was born to a couple of Israelites, descendants of Levi (the husband was Amram and the wife Jochebed according to verse 20, chapter 6 of the Exodus). He was so fine a child that she could not obey Pharaoh's order and breast-fed him in a hiding for three months. Unable to conceal him any longer, she got a rush basket for him, made it watertight with pitch and tar, laid him in it, and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
The child's sister (supposed to be Miram) stood some distance away to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, noticed the basket and when she opened it, there was the baby. This is the point professor Fretheim calls suspense because it was the daughter of the Pharaoh who issued an order to kill all Hebrew male babies that picked up a Hebrew baby. What would she do to the baby? We the readers have our pulses race over the possibility that she, having the same mind as her father, might throw the Hebrew baby into the Nile. In an interesting twist, however, Pharaoh's daughter chose to bring up the baby, knowing that it was a Hebrew boy. Moreover, accepting a suggestion of a stranger girl, she let the biological mother to nurture the baby paying due reward ? I gather that she knew the nanny was in fact the biological mother ? and after weaning took him as child of the princess. That his own daughter saved a Hebrew boy against his order and took him as her foster son must have reached the ear of Pharaoh in no time. How did the king reacted to it? Some people think that the cruel order was rescinded when it met with the mute resistance of his daughter. Roughly the following three points are taught for me from the story of today, which has been read by people after people over many years.
2. The first point is that the Israelites had to face with the Egyptian king who was so cruel to issue such an order. In my previous sermon on the Exodus when we began learning from it, we were taught that there is a theme carrying through whole of the Exodus or through at least to coming out from Egypt, which is the Israelites facing off against the Egyptian king. Such of their situation becomes more apparent as we read further into the story.
What was it with then that the Israelites could stand to face off with the Egyptian king having great power and able to issue such a cruel order? The Israelites, being put to toils as slaves, seem to have no power. All they could do was to obey orders of the king. In fact, many couples, I gather, had only to float their new-born boys on the Nile feeling as if their own body is torn apart, with the exception of this Levite couple.
In the story of today, readers of later age must have seen themselves in the situation the ancient Hebrews were placed. For the Jews who became Diaspora all over the world, the likes of the Egyptian king who would attempt to eradicate them have been at any place any time, I suspect. What about us? While there may not be such a king in literal terms, I am afraid that cruel and evil beings which issue an order to throw us or what's important for us 'into the Nile.' And we are unarmed in facing off with them. Our situation is such that we have no means to face up to them with. But we are given a message to say, 'however,' by the Bible passage for today.
By the way I want us to be also reminded that there is no single sentence in today's passage that includes the word "God." This seems to suggest that the passage shows a hard reality that God does not save the Israelites placed in such a situation or us in the way he can be seen vividly by our eyes, I feel. A numerous number of boys must have been thrown into the Nile. I feel like I hear grieves saying, 'Where is God to be found? Why does he allow such cruelty to happen?' Yet, there is no obvious intervention of God to be seen. Where are we able to find intervention of God in such a situation? This is also one of the points the passage for today is intent on telling us, the readers, I would think.
3. The second of the prime point of today's passage is that certain Hebrews and an unexpected person stood to face up to the Egyptian king relying on something. First of all, a Levite mother could not let the new-born son float on the Nile right away and nurtured him, albeit for three months only, under her protection. What kind of mind was it that made her do so? It never was out of audacious desire to act against the order of the king. It was a desire which springs up in the heart of every mother; that her child was 'just too sweet,' she could never let it put afloat on a river. That feeling made the mother dare to choose a course of action which might have well involved her in a risk of losing her own life in the event the child nurtured in hiding had been found out. The very same feeling must have moved the sister of the baby. It was also this that made the princess to act against the order of her father, the king of Egypt. The verse 6 puts it saying, 'she was moved with pity for it.'
The Israelites as well as we are such that they have nothing to face up to the powerful king with. However, the feeling which naturally arises in us no matter how hard we try to suppress it, the feeling of sweetness and pity makes us face off with the king in the end. It is not out of conscious intention either to face off or to resist. But the natural desire which cannot be suppressed is probably to be called the weapon God lends us in facing off with the powerful and evil king, we are taught.
In this connection the desire of grown up Moses present a sharp contrast, I feel, to the desires of three woman, the mother, the sister and the princess, which we will listen to at our next sermon on Exodus as written on chapter 2, verse 11 and the following. The grown-up Moses encounters with a scene where his countryman, an Israelite was being beaten by an Egyptian, and Moses kill the Egyptian. Although nothing is written about his inner self, I suspect that he may have felt pity about the poor countryman. Much stronger were his anger and hatred towards the violent Egyptian, I gather. And such feelings manifested themselves in the form of murder. But the natural feeling of hatred and actions associated with it, i.e. violence and murder are not the force God gives us. God won't lend us such kind of strength to face off with the king. On the contrary, God made Moses flee from the king. The same natural feeling though they may be, anger and hatred don't make a good weapon God will use.
4. The third point I want to make is that, though it overlaps with what I just said, the natural feelings of pity and sweet did not end up there, but motivated the ones who embraced those feelings towards concrete actions to let the new-born live, a boy thrown away at only three-months old to be brought up.
It is shown that the difference between the mother of Moses and other mothers lay there. Needless to say that others mothers also had naturally arising feeling of 'sweet and pitiful,' to their children. But none of them went as far as 'bringing up the child in hiding,' it looks like. They may have thought that it was of no use to do so. As for the mother of Moses, some may say it was just for three months in the end; after three months she could no longer conceal the baby and had to put him among the reeds. This is, however, the very point the Bible passage for today is telling us. When somebody powerful intends to implement a plot to throw us into the Nile, we are made to think there is no way for us but to let it do so as we are without power and whatever we do it will end up in vain. Yet our efforts to do all we can to the best of our ability to protect and bring up the tiny life before our eyes following the feeling springing up naturally, rather than actions out of anger and hatred which will ultimately hurt life, but actions to protect and bring up life, they make us stand up and face off with such an Egyptian king in whichever age and society it may fall upon.
Allow me to make a little detour here. This is about the matter which is taken up also in the book entitled "Christianity and the Roman Empire (written in Japanese words)," I told you twice in my sermons. It was by the book titled "An Invitation to Christian Thought (written in Japanese words)," by Kenzo Tagawa that I came to know that such a thing took place. The Roman Emperor Julian, whose uncle Emperor Constantinos was the first Roman emperor to give official recognition to Christianity, planned to eliminate Christianity and resurrect old religions with belief in traditional gods. He could not, however, deny the merits of Christianity by any means; he wrote to the head of one of the imperial territories, Galatia responsible for religious affairs and told him to learn from Christianity. He instructed him to learn the three points: 'the human love towards other people, graciousness in burying a dead, and seriousness of well-trained way of living,' of Christianity it is said. When I learned of it for the first time I was deeply moved to recognize that there lies the secrete of Christians for surviving difficult situations in whichever age it may be.
'Human love towards other people,' which Julian raised as the first point to learn from Christianity is the very action to try to bring up tiny life out of the sense of pity as said in the words of today's Bible passage. People may have thought what good could it bring to do so under persecution. However, actions not out of hatred against the Roman Empire but out of naturally arising feeling towards the weak, and actions to bring them up they were that supported the Christians under persecution and let them face off with the Emperor.
I repeat this for a number of times. It may have been 'just for three month.' And in the end the child had to be put afloat on the Nile. Yet the mother did the best she could in her capacity to do. Just for three months yet it was three months long. She did everything she could to make the basket watertight and put the child in it. The three months matched very well, we can possibly say, with the timing when the princess went to the river for bathing, can't we? Bad smell of the pitch kept crocodiles away from the basket, can we not say? The ready wit of the sister, who may have thought she would give it a try because she had nothing to lose if unsuccessful, gave her a chance to introduce the biological mother to the princess.
Such a vigorous and best-one-can-do action ultimately led to pull out (or pull up to use the Hebrew word on verse 10 which is marsha; the origin of the name Moses) the action on the part of the princess, one can probably say. When you get to the core of it, it is also an intervention by God. She being a daughter of the king, we tend to see her as being on the side of the king. On the contrary, however, one who was closest to the king acted against his order, saved Moses out from the river of death, pull him up led by the natural feeling God gave her. When we do our best out of the natural feeling of pity and sweet, unexpected help will come upon us from the side of the cruel king. It is not just the king who are on this side. Someone like the princess is also there. It is giving us a message to keep our hopes.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Exodus 1: 22 - 2: 10
1:22 Pharaoh then issued an order to all the Egyptians that every new-born Hebrew boy was to be thrown into the Nile, but the girls were to be allowed to live.
2:1 A certain man, a descendant of Levi, married a Levite woman.
2 She conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that a fine child he was, she kept him hidden for three months.
3 Unable to conceal him any longer, she got a rush basket for him, made it watertight with pitch and tar, laid him in it, and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
4 The child's sister stood some distance away to see what would happen to him.
5 Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, while her ladies-in-waiting walked on the bank. She noticed the basket among the reeds and sent her slave-girl to bring it.
6 When she opened it, there was the baby; it was crying, and she was moved with pity for it. 'This must be one of the Hebrew children,' she said.
7 At this the sister approached Pharaoh's daughter: 'Shall I go and fetch you one of the Hebrew women to act as a wet-nurse for the child?'
8 When Pharaoh's daughter told her to do so, she went and called the baby's mother.
9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Take the child, nurse him for me, and I shall pay you for it.' She took the child and nursed him at her breast.
10 Then, when he was old enough, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him and called him Moses, 'because', said she, 'I drew him out the water'.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Throw out the net to starboard -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 At today's Easter Morning Worship Service, we 'd like to listen to the words in the first half of Chapter 21 of 'The Gospel according to John. ' This is what I learned when the words in Verse 15, Chapter 21, and the following were dealt with at the joint morning worship service together with the Church School students some time ago. It is thought that originally'The Gospel according to John 'probably ended with Chapter 20. You can find the last passage of Chapter 20 in the last part of the double spread page. When you read it, we, who are just ordinary people, can understand easily that this gospel ended right here. But for some reason or purpose, although it is not certain whether its author is the same as the one of the present chapter, at a later date, this Chapter 21 is thought to have been added. It goes without saying that it is the purpose for which it was written and its reason that are the points that we should receive from today's message.
1.2 What is that purpose and reason? It is clearly indicated between Verse 15 and Verse 19. Here Jesus asks Peter, 'Do you love me? 'three times. Asking the same question three times suggests that, needless to say, when Jesus was put on trial, Peter was asked whether he also was with Jesus, he denied it, saying, 'I don't know the man ' three times. This passage of Chapter 21 is trying to clarify why such Peter became leader of the disciples and, as is shown in Verse 19, how he died 'the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.'It is because he had an encounter with the resurrected Jesus.
1.3 As today's place is put before Verse 15 and the following that describe this kind of thing, we can probably think that it has the same purpose. However, today's story doesn't focus on just Peter. It describes how seven disciples including him made a big change through the guidance from the resurrected Jesus.
1.4 This 'change 'could not have been described fully by any means, if it had ended in Chapter 20. We can interpret that both the part from Verse 19, Chapter 20 to Verse 23 that the encounter between the resurrected Jesus and his disciples on the night of the first Easter ( Verse 19, Chapter 20 says'on the evening of that first day of the week ') and the words from Verse 24 to Verse 29 that describe the first encounter between Jesus and his disciples eight days later, that is, the first day of the next week, describe in terms of our present standpoint, what takes place at the morning worship service of the Lord's Day and at the scene of our encounter with Jesus in the church. There we cannot find any scene of the encounter between the post-resurrected Jesus and his disciples. Also, those parts don't describe how the disciples observed their worship services on the Lord's Days, nor how they encountered Jesus in their life of faith except at the church, nor how they made a change through their encounter, right? I am sure that it is the reason for, and purpose of writing Chapter 21 that lie in describing this very thing.
2.1 Now how were the disciples getting along after the first two weeks? Verses 1 to 3 of today's words describe it very vividly and symbolically. The seven disciples including Peter were in Galilee, which was his hometown, and they were fishing on the Sea of Tiberias ( which is Lake Galilee), which used to be their occupation. This can be interpreted in various ways: I myself used to interpret that Peter and his fellow men had stopped serving as Jesus' disciples and preachers and had returned to their hometown to engage in their former occupation. I used to feel that this part tried to describe a'poor catch'of it but this time I don't have to make such a shrewd guess, I think. They are clearly called 'his disciples. 'Although they are his disciples, they have to engage in their occupation in this world, in order to earn their living. Being a preacher and doing the work in the world are never contradictory. This part might describe how his disciples in early days had great difficulty earning their living.
2.2 Now, Peter says, 'I am going out fishing ,'and the others say, 'We will go with you,'following him. This part seems to describe how the disciples followed Peter as their leader and they tried to earn their living by following his way, that is, fishing on Lake Galilee during the night that he had been used to since he was young. Although they are the disciples, they have nothing to do with the resurrected Jesus. As they were working to earn their living, they might have thought that it had nothing to do with Jesus. But even if they tried fishing at the place that was not connected with Jesus, 'that night they caught nothing. 'Such fishing is after all fishing in the darkness of night, and turns out to be futile. Today's words are probably trying to describe first, not how futile it is for the disciples to stop being preachers and return to their work in the world, but how futile it is for them to earn their living without being guided by the resurrected Jesus.
3.1 There the resurrected Jesus is standing on the beach. Verse 4 says, 'Morning came. ' 'but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 'Why didn't they know?
It was natural, right? Jesus, as the person who experienced death on the cross, descended to the land of the dead and was resurrected, is standing on the beach. It is the very 'other shore .'In contrast, the disciples are in the little boat on the lake. It is as if we were existing on the dangerous boat called the earthen ware on the water of 'death 'or suffering. We are to be swallowed by death. We are the existence that cannot overcome death. It is natural for such disciples not to see or know Jesus on the opposite shore. Verse 8 says that the distance between Jesus on the shore and his disciples on the boat was about '200 pegis. 'It was about 90 or 100 meters. Although it is not so far, it is decisively far.
3.2 Jesus calls out to his disciples who don't recognize him. The first words from him were, 'Friends, have you caught anything?'The resurrected Jesus first worries about his disciples who have to stay in the world , earn their living and to get food. And he asks you whether in your own way, as was shown just a minute ago, only by making a man their leader and by following the custom of this world, by trying to get food during the night, you can earn your living. You will not be able to obtain anything in such a way. The food that you will get will never nourish you. This is what he says to you.
3.3 It is because the food that we try to get is after all what we get in the darkness of 'night. 'It is not what can overcome death. The food that we can get on the lake of death that tries to pull us in, on the boat of earthen ware, cannot overcome death. The food that we seek after surely, as Jesus says, gets deprived by death or illness that leads us there or suffering or separation and ceases to serve as the foodstuff for living.
4.1 There Jesus invites us 'to throw the net to starboard .'It is the field that Jesus who was resurrected and was sitting on the right side of God can see with his eyes. It is the place that the disciples regards as where' they caught nothing,'and that is thought to be
'where we are not able to find what sustains our livelihood. ' It is the place of death, suffering, grief and departure. But to Jesus who was resurrected from the death of the cross, that is the place which he recognizes as 'to starboard ,'where a lot of food is provided. The boat on which the disciples were riding was very small. It is not the field that we can distinguish as to starboard or to port as in the case of a big tanker. It is just the same place as where they caught nothing. But by following the resurrected Jesus' words, we throw out the net to the place that is visible to him. We throw out the net to the place where what sustains our livelihood is invisible to our eyes, or to death or illness or grief. And then surely what sustains our livelihood is given.
4.2 Peter, who was naked, put on his coat, plunged into the lake and tried to swim toward the shore where Jesus was standing. When the disciples counted the number of fish that they had caught, it came to 153. These two things lend credibility to this incident. But with regard to the number '153 ,'it has been interpreted in various ways: What strikes me is Augustinus's way of interpreting it. According to him, if we sum the numbers from 1 to 17, we can get 153. And the number 17 is composed of 10 and 7, both of which are perfect numbers in the Bible. He interprets that 10 stands for the Ten Commandments and that 7 represents the number of those who are saved not by believing the Law but by believing in Jesus. This is a personal matter but my birthday is July 17. I love the numbers 7 and 17. In relation to that, I am attracted to Augustinus's way of interpretation.
4.3 Anyway when we live, we are faced with lots of sufferings and difficulties. As I say many times, there is a field where you think you cannot get what sustains your livelihood. But from there, you are able to gain food, up to one , two … and to the number of perfect number 17. It is a very lucky number. It is food that makes us happy.
5.1 Thus the disciples have breakfast together with Jesus. This meal makes us feel as if we were at the scene where Jesus as well as his disciples had breakfast by the lake and where we have it at the time when we are called to God. The fish that we catch is served for that meal. Probably we say,'We have caught this kind of fish at this place. At the futile place where other people think they cannot catch anything, we have thrown out the net by following your call and we have been given this kind of food, our Lord Jesus, 'and we will have breakfast with Jesus who is in heaven. We are walking with the aim of having such a wonderful breakfast. We would like to throw out the net to starboard with the great expectation, and wondering what kind of food will be provided for us at the time of illness or at the time of difficulty or in the midst of death. We would like to throw out the net believing that surely there is a starboard side of the boat there.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The Gospel according to John 21: 1 - 14
1 Some time later, Jesus showed himself to his disciples once again, by the sea of Tiberias. This is how it happened.
2 Simon Peter was with Thomas the Twin, Nathanael from Cana-in-Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples.
3 'I am going out fishing,' said Simon Peter. 'We will go with you,' said the others. So they set off and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing.
4 Morning came, and Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, 'Friends, have you caught anything? 'No,' they answered.
6 He said, 'Throw out the net to starboard, and you will make a catch.' They did so, and found they could not haul the net on board, there were so many fish in it.
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord!' As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, 'It is the Lord,' he fastened his coat about him (for he had stripped) and plunged into the sea.
8 The rest of them came on in the boat, towing the net full of fish. They were only about a hundred yards from land.
9 When they came ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish laid on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said, 'Bring some of the fish you have caught.'
11 Simon Peter went on board and hauled the net to land; it was full of big fish, and hundred and fifty-three in all; and yet, many as they were, the net was not torn.
12 Jesus said, 'Come and have breakfast.' None of the disciples dared to ask 'Who are you?' They knew it was the Lord.
13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish in the same way.
14 This makes the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Why this waste? -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The week beginning today is called Passion Week. According to our days of week, it was on the coming Thursday that Jesus took the so-called last supper ( which gave origin to the Holy Communion ) with his disciples, was arrested the same night under the guidance of one of his disciples, Judas of Iscariot; he was hung on a cross at about noon on Friday and was put to death.
Today, which is the beginning of Passion Week, has been called 'the Palm Sunday,' since old days. It happened to be when the festival of Passover was at hand, the new-year season for the Israelites, and when Jerusalem got much crowded by pilgrims gathering from all over the world. Jesus came to Jerusalem on the back of a donkey when the crowd covered the road for him with palm branches or waved welcome with them in hands. This is how the day came to be called 'the Palm Sunday.'
On Palm Sundays, we've been listening to the Bible words written about the events that took place during the few days Jesus had entered and stayed in Jerusalem. On this Palm Sunday, I want us to learn from an event which is well-known by the hymn titled 'Master, no offering,' which in Japanese words is translated as 'Though not as valuable as the bottle of perfume oil of nard.'
2. While I don't think it's necessary to give explanation to each and all of what it happened then, it may still be useful to make something of a commentary as it may be relevant to a couple of stories coming up later in this sermon. On Japanese text of the Bible, the passage for today's reading is sub-titled "Jesus was anointed with perfume oil at Bethany." Just below the sub-title are referred in parenthesis which of the other gospels has nearly the same event written and where. Those passages are called parallel articles.
The passage by Mathew is much the same as that by Mark. The passage by John, from chapter 12, verse 16 and the following, however, has very interesting difference, though the basic plot is the same. To begin with, the house to which Jesus was invited to have supper was that of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. And it was Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples of Jesus, who protested to Mary having poured costly perfume as verse 3 describes it saying, 'Then Mary brought a pound of very costly perfume, pure oil of nard, and anointed Jesus's feet and wiped them with her hair, till the house was filled with the fragrance.'
By the way, passage of the gospel by Luke from chapter 7, verse 36 and the following has a content, which some think may originally be about the same event, though this is not counted as one of the parallel articles. Interestingly the house to which Jesus was invited to have supper was the house of Simon according to the gospel by Luke, which is the same name as that which appears in the gospel by Mark. The difference includes that it was Simon with serious skin disease who invited Jesus to supper according to Mark, while it was a Pharisee who invited Jesus according to Luke. Also according to Luke, it was 'a woman living an immoral life,' who anointed Jesus with oil. Verse 38 says, 'She took her place behind him, by his feet, weeping. His feet were wet with her tears and she wiped them with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the myrrh.' It sounds pretty much like the passage by John, doesn't it?
That having been said, I must point out that the relationship of the articles in the four gospels is not ascertained; we aren't sure if one and the same event is being told in different ways or if they represent different events. As far as I am concerned, my intuition tells that they are about an action by one and the same woman, although I have no basis for saying so. Probably she was 'a woman living an immoral life,' as the gospel according to Luke says, a kind engaged in a business of sex. This explains why she had such a large number of costly perfumes. One denari was worker's wage for a day. A bottle of perfume that could sell for 300 denarii, therefore, was worth JPY three to four million at present day price. That the woman poured all perfume oil in a bottle and then broke it must be nothing else but a manifestation of her determination not to be engaged in that business again and would devote her whole self, if not literally, to Jesus.
It could very well be that Jesus was poured with the perfume oil purchased out of earnings from a business we have no other word but to say filthy and hearing criticism said by people witnessing the scene, 'Why this waste?', he said, 'Wherever the gospel is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told as her memorial,' in verse 9. This would mean that there is deep relationship between the gospel and the action of the woman; whenever the gospel is proclaimed her action will be told is pointing to the basis of the gospel. I want to exhort today what it means.
3. Gospel is 'News of joy,' as we've been taught a number of times. What is the joy, then? Let us remember what the passage of Paul's Letter to the Roman chapter 3, verse 9 and the following we listened to the other day taught us; it is that we who are 'under the power of sin,' who, drawn by sin, mark 'ruin and misery, and [remain] strangers to the path of peace' (verses 16 and 17), are freed from the power of sin and become ones drawn, led and supported by God. We don't have enough time today to learn what is sin in detail, it is that because we humans only have been created in the image of God, unlike other kinds of animals, we are such as are placed in ruin and misery, are strangers to the path of peace.
In the week just past, an airplane pilot steered the craft to descend and hit the ground, killing him and all others on board. News from around the world these days make me sick to recognize how miserable the humans are and how little we know about the path of peace. Being such as we are, the gospel tells us that we are taken out from the power of sin and will be led to come under the guidance of God.
The question is how it is that we can become ones who are drawn by God. It was through observance of the law which the leaders of the time (such as the Pharisees, the scholars, priests and members of parliament called Sanhedrin), who were guiding the faith of the Israelites, leading not just the religious world but also the society as a whole, taught people that way and people so believed in times of Jesus. The fundamental question we have to ask is was it any 'joy,' or 'gospel,' for the people of the time to be brought under the guidance of God by observing the law. We don't come to have such an impression by reading the gospels about how they were. Jesus gave harsh words to the Pharisees and the scholars and said, 'You load men with intolerable burdens.' (Luke 11:46)
Learning from Paul's Letter to the Romans the other day, we also learnt that the Ten Commandments, which formed the basis of the law, were inscribed on 'Stone tablets,' heavy, cold and hard stones. The faith that one will be placed under the guidance of God by observing the law inscribed on them inescapably turns out to be burdens on the people, heavy, cold and hard burdens.
It was indeed the case for Simon with serious skin disease and for the woman possibly living an immoral life. How was a man like Simon looked in society? He must have been seen to have such a disease by way of punishment for the sin he committed. One being ill that way couldn't be regarded as having a possibility of being connected with God, of being allowed to live under the guidance of God; he was seen to be able to live only under the rule of the skin disease. A 'sinful woman,' will be kept much further away from the guidance of God who was engaged in sex business. If it was brought open to the public she could be stoned to death. Yes, under the law, she could. There were many, many people who were indicted not to be able to have slightest hope of living under the guidance of God, who were made to carry heavy and cold stones on their back. To such people Jesus told the gospel. Jesus told them they could also become ones who can live under the guidance and support of God, saved out from having to live drawn by sin.
4. How is it possible? By what is it made possible if not by observing the law? Answer to this question is also vividly written in the event in the Bible passage for today. It was made possible by Jesus 'sitting at table in the house of Simon with serious skin disease.' That being the case, possibly a sinful woman who could be stoned to death at any time, also came to this place. She came to Jesus and poured perfume oil on him. Her encounter with Jesus changed her way of life dramatically as it had to. That was a manifestation of the fact that she lives under the guidance of God, not under sin.
In other words, by our encounter with Jesus, by coming to live together with Jesus, we are brought to live under the guidance of God. Coming to live with Jesus means we begin to live under the influence of God, not under the influence of sin. At this point, the meaning gets clear to us where the Bible said on verse 9, 'wherever the gospel is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told as her memorial.' I repeat and say that what the gospel means is that such a woman, one labeled as can never be allowed to be linked with God, as having to live under the rule of filthy life, was allowed to have connection with God through her encounter with Jesus.
Jesus had to make his way forward toward cross in order to proclaim the gospel, to invite sinners to have linkage with God, to save us from our sins. That's so because it was the very gospel Jesus proclaimed that the leaders of the time could not permit. The gospel of Jesus got him saying 'I am God,' to get to the core of it. His gospel says anyone who encounters with me and is connected with me is one who encounters with God and is connected with God. That a human being is God; that was and still is the deepest ditch between the Christian faith and the people of Jewish faith then and now as well as the people of Muslim faith. But for us Christians, it provides us with the gospel where that very ditch lies.
How can we, being humans, sunk deep under the rule of sin, become ones who are drawn by God? It is through our encounter in faith with Jesus who became a human being, through being linked with him personally, and through being placed under his influence that we can get to be ones who are drawn by God. Sin is not going to go away from us all our life time. Yet, if connected in faith with Jesus, we'll be brought under the guidance of God. What a joy, what good news!
5. The message to say wherever the gospel is proclaimed what she has done will be told as her memorial has more important point; it is that her way of life was dramatically changed by the gospel, by her now being connected with God through Jesus. She can no long go back to earn a living by sex business. This is because she encountered with Jesus. It is because she devoted all of her to Jesus and became his wife in a sense. Perhaps ladies in this congregation will be able to understand her mind very well.
And she wasted perfume oil worthy of JPY three million in today's price just for Jesus alone, a man who might be killed soon, wasted it 'in anticipation of his burial,' to borrow the words of Jesus. I reckon it feelingly that this is the change a person shows who begins to live under the influence of God thanks to the gospel.
Out of my own imagination though, I am inclined to think that this was probably a woman who played a role of padrone over other women in sex business. Because of her role she stored that much of perfume oil for the business. And playing the role of padrone, what she had in mind might have been to save doing away with all kinds of useless spending. Albeit eing such, she made that much of waste just for a man, one who could be killed very soon.
This, to me, is the way of our life who are connected with God by the gospel. As the witnesses criticized, it was a way of living to make wasteful spending just for a man, and that not even for many. It is our heartfelt joy that we've been made able to devote our life to Jesus and to God, made able to live in ways others may see wasteful, not forced by the law or by someone, but out of heartfelt joy.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The gospel according to Mark 14: 3 - 9
3.Jesus was at Bethany, in the house of Simon [with serious skin disease]. As he sat at table, a woman came in carrying a bottle of very costly perfume, pure oil of nard. She broke it open and poured the oil over his head.
4.Some of those present said indignantly to one another, 'Why this waste?
5.The perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor'; and they began to scold her.
6.But Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. Why make trouble for her? It is a fine thing she has done for me.
7.You have the poor among you always, and you can help them whenever you like; but you will not always have me.
8.She has done what lay in her power; she has anointed my body in anticipation of my burial.
9.Truly I tell you: wherever the gospel is proclaimed throughout the world, what she has done will be told as her memorial.'
(The Revised English Bible except words in [ ])
- Extend your tent to the full -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. It was in the autumn of 1977 that this chapel of our Tsukuba Gakuen Church was constructed. On March 21, 1978 the church was formally recognized as established. Therefore, the church became 37 years of age yesterday, the 21st of March, 2015. We've been making steps of faithful life during the church year 2014 with the words of verses two and three, chapter 54 of the Book of Isaiah as the Bible words for the year. In the light of this, for the worship service today commemorating the anniversary of our church, I should like us to lend our ears to what the Bible words for the year tell us.
God, through the prophet Isaiah, said to the Israelites as follows: 'Enlarge the space for your dwelling, extend the curtains of your tent to the full - - -; for you will spread from your confines right and left, your descendants will dispossess nations and will people cities now desolate.' The first point I would like us to learn today is what kind of situation the Israelites were living under when God spoke to them these words.
There are a number of words in today's Bible passage that imply answer to this question. Verse 4 talks about 'shame,' 'suffer disgrace,' 'the reproach of widowhood.' Verse 6 refers to 'deserted and heart-broken wife.' A phrase saying, 'like the days of Noah,' is mentioned on verse 9, while verse 10 talks about 'the mountains move and the hills shake.' All these imply the kind of situation the Israelites were living under when these words were spoken to them. For short, they were under the Babylonian captivity, which we've heard of now and then in the sermon. During the years from 598 to 597 B.C., there took place an incident called the first Babylonian captivity, by which the prominent people of Judah were taken captive. Ten years hence, during the years from 587 to 586 B.C., the kingdom of Judah was finally brought to downfall, and their homeland was reduced to sand and gravel and many were taken captive to Babylon. There on the foreign land the Israelites had been detained like slaves for almost 60 years until they were given permission to return home by a Persian king who destroyed the Babylonian kingdom in 538 B.C. The words of the Bible given us for today are deemed to have been given to the Israelites living under such a condition.
The Israelites, I suspect, must have been feeling it a 'shame,' or 'disgrace,' by the words of verse 4, that their homeland which had sustained for 400 years since the inception of the kingdom by Saul was destroyed and their people were detained on foreign land. They felt as if they were 'a wife deserted.' The Israelites in captivity were like 'a tent' which lay useless, to use the word of verse 2, which got unsuitable to be extended. The ropes to support it were cut short and there was no peg available. The Israelites were driven into such a situation both mentally as well as socio-economically.
Aren't there times when we are also put in some similar situations? This is the season for newly entering upper schools for advanced studies or companies to work for. Some are lucky to have made successful entrance to schools or companies they have wished to join in. Other may have failed to realize their wishes. Still others may have been forced to quit the job they have attended to over the years. I'm afraid some may be feeling shame or setback and thinking that 'I can no longer do such a thing as to pitch a tent. I don't have any rope or peg to fix a tent.' God was good to speak to the Israelites put in such circumstances and is also to us and tell to 'extend once again the curtains of your tent to the full; let out its ropes and drive the pegs home; for you will spread and your descendants will dispossess nations.'
2. From this talk of God, I feel that we hear a following message more than anything else. That is that God is telling us, as we are taught just now, that we should be able to set up a tent a new, set it up on a new and large space which is unlike the ones we've been having, we should be able to fix a tent with the ropes and pegs which are unlike the ones we've been using all the more so now that we are put in a situation where we cannot hope to extend a tent, where we cannot get ropes and pegs in our hands. People will gather there because such a tent is set up.
What kind of a place the Israelites had their tents on before the Babylonian captivity; what kind of ropes and pegs did they use? It was the tent set up on a kingdom, and its territory and the regime established for the first time by the king Saul and expanded by David and Solomon, which continued in existence for as long as 400 years. We are now learning from the Book of Jeremiah in the weekly Bible Study & Prayers Meeting. According to it, the Israelites, even after the first Babylonian captivity, kept bogged down in believing that their country was going to be safe and sound, that their life having the foundation of after 400 years won't ever get destroyed. Their life had been one which depended on the land and the shelter inherited from generation to generation from their ancestors; it was the kind of tent which they couldn't extend where they didn't have such inherited foundation to depend on.
The Israelites came to a situation now where they could no longer pitch a tent. They felt it was a shame. They were kind of obsessed with that. What kind of words did God give them in such a circumstance? The words were written to say, 'all the more so because.' God meant to say now that the situation was so adverse and they got unable any longer to depend on the kingdom, the territory, the land and families, they got to be able to set up a tent on a totally new ground, the foundation for their existence. They got to be able to set up a tent using the kind of ropes and pegs they have not used. To such a tent will gather together many people, he said.
In preparing my sermon at this time, I was thinking of a person who had to leave the job just the other day, which he has been engaged in for more than ten years. As he left the job, he had to return a room of dormitory. My wife and I helped him retire from the dormitory. On the last Monday we, together with him, made visits for on-site inspections to a mental hospital and the so-called group-home for the aged dementias. While making the visits the person must have been feeling the same as the Israelites detained in Babylon, I conjecture. However, God speaks to us saying, all the more because of the difficulty, we can set up a tent on a new, larger space, using new ropes and pegs. 'Make the desolate cities to be inhabited (the Standard King James Version),' again is the prospect of life which will evolve from now for him. His attending the worship service and having a pleasant chat with people bearing the same kind of burden as his on their shoulders is something none could imagine will be happening to him. He will be given new encounters at the supporting center. From him we've been taught that having a taste of shame and disgrace as one's old tent is flattened, is an opportunity for us to build up a new tent.
3. I am led to think that the same applies also to church. It is my hope that our church, which is less than 40 years in existence since inception will get to be one to occupy wider space and stretch new ropes over the next 50 years,100 years and 200 years so that many, many more people assemble here. For that to be realized, however, there is a must it has to go through; an event which we cannot evade. It is the Babylonian captivity. An event by which the tent hitherto used falls flat and an opportunity is brought about to build a church on new foundation using new ropes and pegs. I suspect there were events similar to it even during its span of 37 years. Such an event surrounds us now and will in the future as well, I must wonder.
I was watching a TV program the other day over napping and while my memory could be uncertain in a sense though, the Reverend Mr. Tomoshi Okuda was on a talk show in a program of religion of NHK's Educational Chanel. The Reverend has worked toward supporting activities for the street (homeless) people in Northern part of Kyushu (the southern-most major) island. However, it so turned out sadly that as the supporting activities of Mr. Okuda became more visibly active, discord came to be heard more loudly among the church members, and not a few of them left the church. It was a criticism saying that those members couldn't continue following the pastor who was becoming more and more active in the social activities to the point of neglecting pastoral engagement.
The Reverend Okuda reflected on it saying that the pastor deprived of the opportunity for the church as a whole to be engaged in a significant work. The significant work the pastor monopolized and he didn't work well enough to make it a work of the whole church. The rise of defectors meant that the church is going to go crushed if trying to stick to the past foundation. But other people rose up to bear the social work of the pastor as the work of the church. These days, there are shelters built to accommodate the homeless and a nursing home for the aged, too in front of the church building.
When a church tries to pitch a tent on a place which has not known a church, and tries to establish a church with ropes and pegs not hitherto used, chances are that inescapably the tent used hitherto used gets torn, and ropes cut and pegs broken. That's a hard thing to see happening; something we won't hope will happen. However, if one tries to avoid it, church won't be able to pitch a tent on a new and wide space; it cannot stretch a new rope without stint. It cannot grow and become where many people gather together.
4. By the way, how could the Israelites under the Babylonian captivity set up their tent on a 'larger,' new space? How could they use new ropes and pegs?
The space they found was not a 'large space,' in tangible form or in literal terms. It was during the period when in reality there was no prospect of their returning home in sight. Far from being a wide space, the fact was that just a narrow space as in the past was offered them where they were detained as captives. Where in that space did a new element lie? Where lay the width? It existed in the sphere of faith. It meant a 'large' space and new tent in inner sense.
That largeness and the novelty can be found in what is written on chapter 53 of the book of Isaiah. There we find one of what are called 'Songs of the Suffering Servant,' which have been read since old days as prophesying Jesus on the cross. For instance, verses 5 through 6 say, 'but he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement he bore restored us to health and by his wounds we are healed.' It's been a subject of research to identify who the "Suffering Servant," was. The way of understanding it as prophesying Jesus is based on the faith of Christianity. In academic sense, it seems to be the accepted view that it refers to the Israelites under the Babylonian captivity or the ancestors listening to these words.
The important point here is that the contemporary Israelites could accept the suffering of their ancestors as having significance. They could take the shame and disgrace of the fall of their ancient kingdom and the captivity as bringing about some meaningful 'harvest,' could understand it as something which gave healing and peace to the people. This is the tent the Israelites under captivity could, in their faith, establish completely anew, I am struck to learn. What a 'wide' space it is that they can accept the suffering that way! How new are the ropes and pegs!
The chapter 54 for our reading for today is spoken following the chapter 53 with those content. What was the tent of faith like which the people could embrace in captivity? It is, by the words of today's passage, a new ground of faith that God will become our husband for us suffering like a deserted wife. Verse 5 puts it saying, 'your husband is your Maker.' We can imagine that the king and the people with ruling authority were 'the lords' for the Israelites in captivity. It was a tough reality. It was an unbearable situation that those who regard them only as slave-labors whom they could order around were 'their lords'. Therefore, they must have made ardent search for who their true lord was or who they wished to be their true lord. Word in today's Bible passage was an answer to their search. The answer given was that God the creator, God who atones for you and make you a holy one is your husband and your lord. The faith believing in the above is the new tent, a wide space, new ropes and pegs. And in this faith encounters and relations with new people are brought about.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Isaiah 54: 2-10
2. Enlarge the space for your dwelling, extend the curtains of your tent to the full; let out its ropes and drive the tent-pegs home;
3. for you will spread from your confines right and left, your descendants will dispossess nations and will people cities now desolate.
4. Fear not, you will not be put to shame; do not be downcast, you will not suffer disgrace. It is time to forget the shame of your younger days and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood;
5. for your husband is your Maker; his name is the LORD of Hosts. He who is called God of all the earth, redeemer.
6. The LORD has acknowledged you a wife again, once deserted and heart-broken; your God regards you as a wife still young, though you were once cast off.
7. For a passaing moment I forsook you, but with tender affection I shall bring your home again.
8. In an upsurge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment; but now have I pitied you with never-failing love, says the LORD, your Redeemer.
9. For this to me is like the says of Noah; as I swear that the waters of Noah's flood should never again pour over the earth, so now I swear to you never again to be angry with you or rebuke you.
10.Though the mountains may move and the hills shake, my love will be immovable and never fail, and my covenant promising peace will not be shaken, says the LORD in his pity for you.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Despite oppression by the King -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 As we finished learning about Genesis, from today we would like to listen to Exodus once every three weeks. I think that one of the themes that run through Exodus is the Israelites who must face the King of Egypt. The theme appears very clear in this chapter, Chapter 1, right?
1.2 In Genesis, too, the kings appeared but they did not appear as the existence that faced Israelites and tortured or abused them as was described in Exodus. But it is different here in Exodus. I would like to mention closely later, but Verse 8 and the following describe how the King of Egypt who did not know about Joseph appeared and he treated the Israelites severely and also Verse 15 and the following describe how cruelly the King ordered midwives to kill all new-born baby boys. Under such a king, what will happen to the Israelites? The words that are used over and over again today are ‘increased greatly 'and ‘became strong. 'As I showed the title of the sermon, in spite of oppression by the King, they became numerous and strong for some reason. It is here that Exodus gives the message of encouragement beyond the age when it was written to the Israelites and us in any age.
1.3 Verse 8 says, 'a new king ascended the throne of Egypt, one who did not know about Joseph. 'Since early times, people have studied who this king was. As I mention later, an almost established theory says that the king who knew about Joseph before this king, came from a foreign dynasty that the race called Hixos which was related by blood to Israel people, established. But even now there is still no established theory about the dynasty that did not know about Joseph. By the way, Verse 1, Chapter 6 of 1 Kings says, ‘In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel …,he began to build the house of the Lord.'On the basis of this description, if we calculate, we can say that that year corresponds to about 1440 before Christ, I hear. With regard to this, I feel as follows: Those who wrote Exodus could have written the name of this king. But the reason why they did not dare to write it is that they had a certain intention there. It means that they want to tell the readers that such kings are a universal existence that appears not only in the age of Exodus but also in any age. In any age the Israelites must face such a king. But they are a people who can become numerous and strong in spite of oppression by the King. There we readers can get a strong encouragement.
1.4 Verse 5 says, ‘All told there were seventy direct descendants of Jacob .'As you might know, the figure 70 is a symbolic one to Israeli people. It is the figure that stands for a perfect number or people all over the world. Those who are related to Israel in terms of faith, however different they are in terms of a race or blood relationship, all descendants of Jacob and his grandchildren. As is shown now, in any age and wherever we may be, the King of Egypt appears and tortures believers who are descendants of Jacob. However, the believers are a race who can become numerous and strong. Exodus tries to convey this kind of message to the readers.
2.1 Now let's think about what kind of existence the King of Egypt is. Just as we saw, Verse 8 refers to the king as‘one who did not know about Joseph .'Its literal meaning is what I already mentioned a few minutes ago. But I feel that it has a deeper meaning than that. I think that ‘not to know about Joseph 'means not to know‘the way the existence of Joseph shows. 'I wonder what kind of thing it is. Let's recall what we listened to in the story of Joseph described in Genesis up to the previous sermon. Clearly, it skillfully represents what Joseph said to his elder brothers in Verse 20, Chapter 50 of Genesis. Joseph said,‘As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 'Not only Joseph's elder brothers but also generally we human beings are those who plan something evil. We give rise to evil. In this world the evil that we have given rise to increases more and more.
2.2 But God is the person who can give rise to good and salvation of life by using even evil. Joseph trusts this God. In Verse 19, Chapter 50 of Genesis, Joseph says,‘Am I in the place of God?, 'which means that Joseph cannot take place of God. We cannot rely on human beings including Joseph, instead of God, who do evil. It is God who gives birth to good, not human beings that do evil, that saves us. Joseph is the existence that trusts not human beings but God.
2.3 The new king doesn't know this kind of Joseph nor won't know him. He doesn't show any interest in the way Joseph behaves like this and rather harbors a hatred of him. The reason is that Joseph is fundamentally the existence that cannot help being confronted with the king. He said to his elder brothers, ‘Am I in the place of God? ,'but the king is, as it were, the ‘I am God 'existence, right? Essentially he is the person who tries to be in the place of God, right? He is the existence that hates people other than him trying to be God, isn't he?
2.4 Thus, the king tries to build the kingdom that he controls. To him, his country is the most important of all. He sacrifices everything else in order to maintain his country. What such a king thinks is expressed well in his words of verses 9 and 10. He says, ‘if war comes, they will side with the enemy, fight against us, and become masters of the country. 'What he is most concerned with is the control of his country. What he always thinks in order to control his country is his enemy and war. He always makes his people depend upon on himself, and makes them think of himself as God, while he always thinks of his enemy and will be worried about war. This shows well what is the king or a person in a position of power in any age, right?
3.1 I may get off the point but so far we have considered the existence of a king to be the existence that controls the country literally outside of us believers. Actually I feel that in us believers, there is something like a king. Not other people but we ourselves are trying to be the king to us. We behave as the king to us and try to protect our life as the kingdom. Therefore, we are in constant fear lest an enemy should come as a menace to our kingdom.
3.2 .At the Bible Study and Prayer meeting last week, we listened to the word in Jeremiah 21 as follows: The King of Babylonia Nebchadrez'zar attacked the Kingdom of Judah and became the prisoner of war for the first time in 598 before Christ. Immediately after that, King Zedekiah, who became the last king in Kingdom of Judah, sent a messenger to Prophet Jeremiah to ask God about his will. It goes without saying that he prayed that his homeland would remain secure as it is and Nebchadrez'zar would not launch an attack again. In response through Jeremiah, God told a very severe future of his homeland that was just the opposite of his wish. He foretold tragic wars and the fall of his kingdom. But it was not just what he told. God told that although this kind of future would come, there was ‘the way of life.'He told that under the situation where there seemed to be nothing but the way of death or the way of destruction, the way of life was prepared. Then what is the way of life? What distinguishes the way of death from the way of life? It was, surprisingly enough, the word that those who try to remain in order to defend the capital namely, the kingdom to the death are to die, whereas those who surrender to Babylonia are to survive.
3.3 To us, what does it mean to defend the kingdom or its capital? Something clicks in our head about each of them. When we get down to it, as was shown a minute ago, it was for us to be the hero and to try to be the king of our life. When we put the first priority on the maintenance of our kingdom, we get worried about various enemies and we get anxious about war. To such people as us, God looms as nothing but ‘the person who destroys us.'Only the way of death is visible. Therefore, God tells us not try to be the king. He tells us to forsake our kingdom, to surrender to what is going to take place and to leave ourselves up to it. If so, we can find the way of life. Exodus, whose theme is the confrontation between the king and believers, teaches us that its theme does not only apply literally to the relationship between the country or the king and us but also to the inside of ourselves.
4.1 Now I have deviated from Exodus itself but just because the king is this kind of person, he would like to ‘take steps to ensure that Israelites descendants of Joseph and also us who are, in terms of faith, Jacob's 70 grandchildren increase no further ,'and he would like to impose heavy labor on us, abuse us and eradicate us even by killing our new- born babies. However, as I say many times, Israeli people get numerous and strong.
4.2 Why do Israeli people get numerous and strong? Because people with faith who are Jacob's 70 grandchildren and who are trying to live a life in a way Joseph showed as is shown here fundamentally get numerous and are strong in nature. What is strong in them? What causes them to increase?
4.3 It reveals itself in the way that we remember Joseph showed and also in God's words through Jeremiah. Against his elder brothers' evil, if Joseph had started a battle with his elder brothers, what would have happened ? Surely, Joseph, who was a minister in Egypt, could have killed them easily. But what it gives rise to is a long chain reaction of battles. In the long term, it would have probably acted to make Joseph's descendants decline in Egypt. If the Israeli people who were destroyed by Babylonia had continued to have consciousness as the king, what would have happened? They could not have accepted the God that destroyed their country and they would have continued to be infuriated with Babylonia and would not have accepted the fall of their homeland. They must have destroyed themselves because of their grudge against Babylonia.
4.4 I have been reading a book entitled ‘The Rise of Christianity'that was written by Robert Stark( published by Princeton University Press in 1996). Last Monday and Tuesday I attended the steering committee of Friends with the Voiceless International (FVI , URL: http://karashi.net/). At the General Meeting of this group which was held two years ago, their president Mr. Eisuke Kan'da introduced this book. In fall last year, I bought it and read it through, as it was translated into Japanese and published in Japan. Why did Christianity which started as a really small movement spread so widely as to exterminate religions of gods that used to exist within the Roman Empire? The author mentions various factors about it, one of which as the factor that I cannot forget is Christian faith itself, that is, that Christians are those who know Joseph as Jacob's grandchildren. I recommend that you should read the book once. For example, you can find this kind of thing. Traditional religions that believed in gods did not have anything that could explain such ‘evils 'as disasters or epidemic diseases that frequently took place in the Roman Empire and that could lead people to accept them and to survive. Gods trifled with human beings and could only induce them to face evils. On the other hand, Christian faith guided people to accept these evils in God's good will and gave Christian believers hope with which to overcome them and survive. As a result, it extended the average life expectancy of Christians and helped Christian people to command a majority in society gradually.
4.5 This is the very picture itself of the Israelites who got numerous and strong in spite of repression by the King of Egypt. When we get down to it, it is because of faith not in human beings but in God. It typically appears in two midwives who did not kill new born Israeli baby boys against the king's order. The Bible says, ‘the midwives were godfearing women. 'They feared not the King but God, which led them to choose how to live without hesitation, in such a situation. Not to fear the King but to fear God leads them to choose the way of life. In any age, there are kings who regard us with hostility but we, those who fear God, despite repression, can get numerous and strong.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Exodus: 1: 1 - 21
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who, along with their households, accompanied Jacob to Egypt:
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5 All told there were seventy direct descendants of Jacob. Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 In the course of time Joseph and all his brothers and that entire generation died.
7 The Israelites were prolific and increased greatly, becoming so numerous and strong that the land was full of them.
8 When a new king ascended the throne of Egypt, one who did not know about Joseph,
9 he said to his people, ‘These Israelites have become too many and too strong for us.
10 We must take steps to ensure that they increase no further; otherwise we shall find that, if war comes, they will side with the enemy, fight against us, and become masters of the country.
11 So taskmasters were appointed over them to oppress them with forced labour. This is how Pharaoh's store cities, Pithom and Rameses, were built.
12 But the more oppressive the treatment of the Israelites, the more they increased and spread, until the Egyptians came to loathe them.
13 They ground down their Israelite slaves,
14 and made life bitter for them with their harsh demands, setting them to make mortar and bricks and to do all sorts of tasks in the fields. In every kind of labour they made ruthless use of them.
15 The king of Egypt issued instructions to the Hebrew midwives, of whom one was called Shiphrah, the other Puah.
16 ‘When you are attending the Hebrew women in childbirth,' he told them, ‘check as the child is delivered: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, however, let her live.'
17 But the midwives were godfearing women, and did not heed the king's words; they let the male children live,
18 Pharaoh summoned the midwives and, when he asked them why they had done this and let the male children live,
19 they answered, ‘Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they go into labour and give birth before the midwife arrives.'
20 God made the midwives prosper, and the people increased in numbers and strength;
21 and because the midwives feared God he gave them families of their own.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Advantage of the Jew -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The passage of the letter of Paul to the Romans which is given for today is more difficult for me to understand than any other passages given for my previous sermons. Every time I prepare a sermon I make it a rule to consult the commentary by the scholar of the Old Testament Bible Walkenhorst, K.H.. But at this time what is written in his commentary also turns out too complex for me to comprehend though it is written for a commentary. I read the sermon by the reverend Mr. Yasuo Sakakibara also but it was only to find that I could not understand the sermon either. The passage for today being such I find myself having to begin the sermon by making interpretation in my own way about what the apostle Paul wanted to tell.
In preparing for a sermon, I make it a rule always to make an overview of how the letter to the Romans is composed of for my own benefit. It's been taught a number of times that in the first part of the body of the letter, which is from chapter 1 verse 18 to chapter 3 verse 20, Paul intended to tell how miserable we human beings can get if we are not justified by God. To be justified before God means, in easier to understand words, that we are allowed to live being linked with God. For Paul, in part based on his own experience, it was something only to be given by being linked with Jesus Christ by faith and as between persons. Paul told in the latter half of chapter 1 how miserable the gentiles (representing the Greeks and the Romans) were and in chapter 2 the miserable state of the Jew when they did not have such a relationship with God.
While I can well understand that the gentiles were not being justified by God, I have a problem when the Jew are regarded as not being justified by God. I say this because the Jew has a history of faith; they have long observed the law and the circumcision as a way to be justified by God. It is written in the Old Testament Bible that it was no one else but God himself who gave the law to the Israelites and who made the males to be circumcised as a symbol of his covenant long since the time of Abraham. If it was the case how comes that the observance of the law and to be being circumcised are not justified by God? Yet Paul said to the extent of saying 'Because of you the name of God is profaned among the Gentiles.' It is easy to imagine how deeply the Jew was hurt reading this sentence.
2. It does seem to me that having flatly said so, Paul may have heard his own internal conversation with himself or that he had perhaps someone virtual in mind to argue with. The reason why the Bible passage for today is tough to understand is because it intricately embraces fictive potential questions and answers in the form of arguments of the counterpart and Paul's answer to them.
The first of the virtual counter-arguments he heard said, 'Isn't it too much to discard so drastically the history of faith of the Jew? Do you mean to say that the history of their faith has no meaning at all? Is there no benefit which we Christians receive from them?' He may have heard other voices, too: the voices of the people who were to be called "Anti-Judaists,' found in the Roman church of the time. They didn't like to have troubles or confusions in their church that it looks as though they insisted that anything Jewish should all be eliminated from their faith or that they can keep faith without Jewish elements. For them the stance of Paul to drastically discard the Jew as written in the latter half of chapter 2 was exactly what they themselves wanted to tell and it so deserved hail of their applause. However, Paul didn't mean it the way they took it. Therefore Paul made modification to the way he used pen, and by making a sharp turn, he tried to draw up the 'advantages of the Jew.' He intended now to write about the asset of faith falling upon the Christians which had been brought about by the paths of faith of the Jew.
3. Then what are the advantages of the Jew? They are 'great in every way.' In the first place, 'the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God,' Paul says. To say that they were entrusted with the oracles of God is an expression, I think, which is inclusive of many things. It could also be taken to mean the entire history of faith of the Israelites as recorded in the Old Testament Bible. What strikes my heart most is that Paul took the trouble of saying, they 'were entrusted with the oracles of God.' Why did Paul refer to the 'oracles of God?'
This made me think afresh that the heritage we are given from the paths of faith of the Israelites is that they encountered with God 'in words,' and by words as an agent, believed and made their response. It may be safe to say that at the center of the words entrusted lay the Ten Commandments. They were "Words," symbolically inscribed on two tablets of stone. That they were entrusted with the words of Ten Commandments didn't mean they were given promise of the so-called benefit of faith. They didn't get linked with God by an agent of tangible benefit of faith or didn't follow the Ten Commandments; what they got were fundamentally the words. They were given nothing but words. The paths of religious faith of the Israelites had been a struggle between the faith by which the people were linked with God by words and the opposite faith which linked the people by the benefit of faith (for instance, of believing in the god of Baal.)
We'll begin to study the Exodus from next Sunday. It tells stories of Moses. One of the symbolic ones is about him going up on Mount Sinai to be given the words of God, the Ten Commandments. Coming down from it he saw people feasting around a god, which was a calf made of gold. Golden calf meant, without saying much to explain, a symbol of fertility; a faith diametrically opposite of the one in which people are linked to God by words. Right at the moment when people start having faith in which they are linked with God by words or Ten Commandments, so starts the struggle with the kind of faith diametrically opposite to this, as it will connect them with god by the benefit it promises.
We Christians read the words of the Bible, listen to what they say and live in concert with them; all that is made possible thanks to the heritage coming from the advantages of the Jew. The same is true of the Muslims. If I was to say one thing in this connection there lies a decisive difference between the two. The Jew lives in concert with the voice of God expressed as words "written on stone tablets," while the Muslims live in concert with the words on the Koran, obeying them as the absolute decree written based on what the prophet Muhammad is said to have heard. Though being a human the prophet is heightened as someone absolute and the words he conveyed were also absolutized. I remember having read a book, of which one of the points made was to say that there were also eras without absolutization. But the current trend of the Islam religion leans towards regarding Muhammad and the Koran as absolute.
What about us Christians? We make personal response to Jesus Christ, who is the words of God personified. This being personal response, one retains fundamental freedom. The personal relationship allows for denials like that made by Peter and even betrayal like that made by Judah. But there is a linkage maintained and it includes even denials and betrayals. God accepts it as good. The freedom of Christians comes from this. There had been a long period when people weren't allowed freedom. But it was the Christian faith that discovered the freedom after long search for it. While there's no denying that the Christian faith has deep gulf with the faith of the Judaism or of Islam, there is one thing in common; it is that all our faiths link us with God through words. This is nothing but a heritage we receive from the Jew.
4. After telling what he did by way of debate, Paul seems to have heard again another argument told by the virtual counter-part. The voice at this time was from who are to be called "anti-Judaists." They argued saying, 'Teacher Paul! You praise the Jew by what you say of them. But haven't they always acted against the words of God which were entrusted to them? How could you say they have advantages while acting against God? Are you not blaspheming God by praising them as having advantage?" The verses 3 and 4 are the counter-argument by Paul on these points. Indeed the Jew was unfaithful and liars to God. However, it has become clear through those facts that God was faithful and true to them nonetheless. There again we find heritages brought about to us by the Jew. By the unfaithfulness of the Jew the faithfulness of God became apparent. Thanks to their injustice the justice of God was highlighted (the first half of verse 5).
Soon after having so counter-argued Paul seems once again to have heard argument from other corner. This time it was coming from the Jew saying, 'Teacher Paul! We truly appreciate that you make a fair assessment of us that way. If this is the case, doesn't it occur to you that you may be wrong in saying that God will bring retribution and justice upon us the Jew whom you praised as having advantage and who as you say are the counter-part of the faithfulness of God? We are regarded righteous by God; then is it fair to treat us the same way as you do the Gentiles?"
Paul replied to it saying it is not unjust of God to bring retribution upon unfaithful Jew. Indeed it can never be that their unfaithfulness and their lies remain untested. God will rather hold them accountable for their unfaithfulness and show serious anger against them just because God would faithfully treat them. Because God would continue to treat them as counter-parts of the relationship even if they are unfaithful, there arise anger and judgment on his part.
The sentence in the quotation marks on verse 8 is the only rebuttal from the counter-part of debate which is made explicit in today's passage. 'Good,' is the faithfulness of God while 'Evil,' means the unfaithfulness of the Jew. Triggered by the evil of the Jew good of God was drawn to come out. If so there is nothing wrong to be engaged in and continue to do evil, some Jew bragged. Such a response amounts to the abusing patient faithfulness of God and the adopting of aggressive attitude, says Paul.
5. I hope that from the foregoing we could get an understanding of what Paul wanted to say by the today's passage. What kind of message can we get from today's passage of the Bible?
Unfaithful as we are to God, he continues to be faithfully and truthfully related with us and entrusts upon us the words of God. Once spoken and entrusted upon, the words of God are not going to end up in vain. We have a famous passage in this connection on the Book of Isaiah chapter 55 verses from 10 downward which says, 'As the rain and snow come down from the heavens and do not return there without watering the earth, making it produce grain to give seed for sowing and bread to eat, so is it with my word issuing from my mouth; it will not return to me empty without accomplishing my purpose and succeeding in the task for which I sent it.'
When we listen to the words of God entrusted upon and walk making response to them, the truthful words of God never go empty. In us who respond, they will give moisture, help buds to sprout and grow thick. They are only words. Yet the words of God have such power. They won't make us go empty who live in response to them.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Romans 3: 1 - 8
1 Then what advantage has the Jew? What is the value of circumcision?
2 Great, in every way. In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
3 What if some of them were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness cancel the faithfulness of God?
4 Certainly not! God must be true though all men be proved liars; for we read in scripture, 'When you speak you will be vindicated; when you are accused, you will win the case.'
5 Another question: if our injustice serves to confirm God's justice, what are we to say? Is it unjust of God (I speak of him in human terms) to bring retribution upon us?
6 Certainly not! If God were unjust, how could he judge the world?
7 Again, if the truth of God is displayed to his greater glory through my falsehood, why should I any longer be condemned as a sinner?
8 Why not indeed 'do evil that good may come', as some slanderously report me as saying? To condemn such men as these is surely just.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Joseph Comforts his Elder Brothers -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Genesis, which we have been listening to once every three weeks for about a full four years, has come to the last chapter. From next week, we would like to go on to read Exodus. Now this is personal but I have a deep memory about today's word. On March 11,2011, the Higashi Nihon Great Earthquake occurred and it was not today's word that was given at the Sunday Service held two days later but after that, nuclear accidents took place one after another and I evacuated my oldest daughter and second oldest one to my oldest son in Niigata Prefecture. It was today's word that I prepared for the sermon about, in the midst of anxiety emerging incessantly, on the second floor of the main building of the church that was hastily built after the study of the rectory that became impossible to use. After the Sunday Service held on Marcy 20, a farewell meeting was held for us and on March 22, we managed to move to Tsukuba City and it was today's word that I talked about, on the final Lord' s Day that I spent in Kooriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, in real terms.
1.2 At that time, what encouraged me the most and moved believers who were in the midst of anxiety after the Great Earthquake was the word of Verse 20: 'You meant to do me harm; but God meant to bring good out of it by preserving the lives of many people, as we see today.'I found evil in the earthquake and the tsunami triggered by it that nature, the created thing, caused. It was revealed that God didn't do it but the evil that nature, the created thing, caused as its autonomous activity was the earthquake and its succeeding tsunami. And in the nuclear accidents that followed them, I found evil of human beings. Such evil struck us just like tsunami. But God said to us that he meant to bring good out of evil by preserving the lives of many people some day.
1.3 A full four years have passed since then. And now we are faced with the brutal evil of human beings that is spurting out all over the world. Just as was mentioned in the Rev Kondo's message last week, we are made to feel very gloomy, not knowing in which direction this world is turning. Today's word comforts such people as us, just as four years ago, and also as Joseph comforted his elder brothers and talked kindly to them. It tells us that God bring good out of evil and preserve our lives. It also tells us that the evil that we give birth to cannot win the good that God creates and that we will be saved. The word, 'You meant to do me harm; but God meant to bring good out of it 'is the essence of the gospels not only of Genesis but also the whole of the Old Testament and the New Testament, I feel strongly again.
1.4 But we have questions: Then where does God's power to bring good out of evil appear? Does such power of God's really exist? I would like to preach, with the hope that my message can answer those questions, however little it may be.
2.1 Now let's listen to Verse 15 and the following that you have just read. At the last Sunday Service we read Chapter 48, where we learned that at the moment of death, Jacob blessed Joseph and his two sons. That Jacob died and Chapter 50 described from its beginning how the funeral for him and his burial were carried out. After their father passed away, the elder brothers were afraid, as is described in Verse 15. They were afraid that their brother Joseph might still or again bear a grudge against them and pay them back. So they sent him a messenger to report their father's word and asked him to forgive their crime and wickedness.
2.2 The end of Verse 17 says,'Joseph was moved to tears by their words. ' Why did he shed tears? As we heard in Chapter 45, when he revealed his identity and reconciled himself with his brothers, Joseph said repeatedly, '5. Now do not be distressed or blame yourselves for selling me into slavery here. 8. It is clear that it was not you who sent me here, but God,'and made peace with them. Since he called his brothers and father after that, for at least 17 years, he never showed his intention to pay his elder brothers back for all the hard they did to him, in his manner. In spite of that, after their father died, he saw his elder brothers fearing that he might pay them back, and he might have shed tears feeling how sad it was. However, I think, Joseph really felt what a great pity it was to see their elder brothers suffering from and fearing their crime and wickedness, right? I have no idea how many years had passed exactly since his elder brothers intended to murder Joseph at the age of 17 but, Joseph ought to be at least over 60. (He became the minister at the age of 30, seven years' bumper crop and seven years' famine and 17 years passed after his father was called. If we add those years to his age, we will find that he will be 61 years old.) Since then, about 50 years have passed. Still, the harm that was done continues to torture them. They are groaning so that they will be forgiven. I feel that it is here that there lies a picture of us human beings.
2.3 You might say that you have never committed such evil or sin. But when we look back on our past, we are sometimes obsessed with regrets or self-accusation, saying, 'If I had been what I am now, I would never have done such a thing ,'or 'I would never have said such a thing, 'right? Last Monday, at this church, the meeting for the preachers of the Ibaraki District was held, where as a presenter, I gave a testimony about my life in which I had served as the shepherd for my church members for about 30 years. It was really a step in which I was often obsessed with regrets or self-accusation. It is also in a broad sense, a sin or wickedness, right? It is a guilty feeling and debts of the past, isn't it? And our present is bound by the guilty feeling or debts, and sins or wickedness. In terms of the relationship between husband and wife and the relationship with our children, also with regard to the way to deal with our work, everyone wants to make a fresh start again. With regard to the world, for example, the establishment of Israel which caused the Palestine issue, no one would never deal with it that way if they were to do it now. Regarding the Iraq War that toppled the Hussein Regime and that was supposed to give birth to Islamic State, if it were to break out, we would never deal with it that way. But we actually did so. There we find evil and sin and wickedness. And it gives birth to a chain of evil in the present world. We are bound by the evil of the past and we suffer from it.
3.1 Then the elder brothers asked Joseph for 'forgiveness. 'They thought from the bottom of their heart that forgiveness was absolutely essential. They thought that without forgiveness, they would never be able to take any step further more, in peace. What is forgiveness? In learning the Lord's prayer, we were taught that forgiveness of our sin is 'to set somebody free ,' and 'to free somebody from … .'It means that we are set free from the past sin and wickedness that bind us and we are placed under the good power and that we become able to take new steps. It is what only God can give us, right? Human beings cannot. They turn out to hate each other or pay back to each other for their sin or wickedness. The good power is injected only by God.
3.2 To the elder brothers who asked Joseph for their forgiveness and bowed to the ground before him, Joseph says clearly, 'Am I in the place of God?, 'which means that he cannot take place of God. It means that I cannot forgive you but God does it. He says that it is God that gives forgiveness between you and me.
3.3 Now it is shown that in this very injection of forgiveness from God, we can find the answer to the question that was raised at the beginning of this sermon. Thus, God reveals his power to turn evil into good. Even if I say that evil turns into good, it does not mean that literally evil ceases to exist nor that evil itself turns into good before we know it. Evil remains evil. Evil of the earthquake or the tsunami or nuclear accidents doesn't become good. The act of murder cannot turn into good. It doesn't mean so. In the midst of such an evil act, good is injected by God. Where evil is done, good from God is surely being injected.
3.4 We have read in the story about Joseph how it is being done. I take to heart what a small phenomenon it is to see God inject good into the midst of evil. Evil is never eradicated. Therefore, we ask why. As is always shown, it is because we are provided with freedom. When we get down to it, we are provided with freedom to do evil. God cannot deprive us of it. When Joseph's elder brothers hated him and attempted to murder him and they sold him as a slave, God did not prevent their evil. He did not prevent Potiphar's wife from tempting Joseph nor prevent him from being put into jail. But mind you, in such evil, God's power of good is injected. It means that in the house where Joseph was sold as a slave, God blessed his work and Joseph saved those who were put into jail with his power to decipher dreams and he helped the King who suffered from ominous dreams that he had. It is there that the power of good from God reveals itself. There God's power that tries to stand against evil appears. But as I repeatedly say, it appears in a very feeble way not a conspicuous way. It is not such a noticeable way as is perceived by everybody's eyes.
4.1 For that reason, the existence of Joseph, who , even if he was put in evil, perceived this power of good from God sensitively and believed in it and tried to respond to it, is decisively important. God's power of good reveals itself in reality through human beings who believe it and try to respond to it. This is what the word of Romans Chapter 8, Verse 28 means. That is, 'and in everything, as we know, he co-operates for good with those who love God and are called according to his purpose.'It is famous and has sometimes become a theologically controversial topic. First, God has the power of good and the power of forgiveness. However, its power appears really weak. It is just like a mustard seed. Therefore, it seeks after those who perceive it and who respond to it. It tries to cooperate with them.
4.2 We are also requested to find the power of good from God and to respond to it. God's power to turn evil into good reveals itself through the steps that such people as us take. Although we are bound by a variety of past sins, wickedness or debts, there also such God's power of good as is found in Joseph worked, right? Just because the power of good existed, even if suffering was not gotten rid of yet, you have been supported, haven't you? And the given suffering is the power to give birth to salvation from now on and good things, right? The other day when I was listening to a talk by someone, I fully realized that kind of thing. We have various regrets. We are bound by sins or wickedness as family members. We are still obsessed with difficulties. But it is certain that you have been protected by God's power of good. Otherwise, you had difficulties that you could never have been able to overcome.
4.3 Now there is given light. We should perceive this God's power of good, and live in response to it, not to the evil that we have done. If we respond only to evil, we will be bound by it the more. Not that, we should perceive the power of good, although it may be weak. Through it, God's power to turn evil into good comes to reveal itself. Thus this Joseph was able to comfort his elder brothers and to talk to them kindly. He was used as a person who saved this household of his that was struck by the famine. It is here that we can find God's plan. God is going to use us, too, as this kind of Joseph. He is going to use us as a vessel who can comfort and encourage someone else. Joseph had lived a bitter life. He suffered from his elder brothers' evil. Suffering is part of those who cooperate with God. However, it becomes the foundation of what comforts and encourages someone else some day.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Genesis 50: 15 - 21
15 Now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers were afraid, for they said, 'What if Joseph should bear a grudge against us and pay us back for all the harm we did to him?'
16 They therefore sent a messenger to Joseph to say, 'In his last words to us before he died, your fathers gave us this message:
17 "Say this to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers' crime and wickedness; I know they did you harm." So now we beg you: forgive our crime, for we are servants of your father's God.' Joseph was moved to tears by their words.
18 His brothers approached and bowed to the ground before him. 'We are your slaves,' they said.
19 But Joseph replied, 'Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
20 You meant to do me harm; but God meant to bring good out of it by preserving the lives of many people, as we see today.
21 Do not be afraid. I shall provide for you and your dependants.' Thus he comforted them and set their minds at rest.
(The Revised English Bible)
- Christ to encounter in our adversity -
By The Reverend Mr. Katsuhiko Kondo
We live today in an age of insecurity. The economy is stagnant, the possibility of natural calamity is always around, and the society is under the threat of terrorism. There are nuclear power plants everywhere all over the world and people feel insecure under the burden of nuclear. We are also faced with the threat of pandemics such as bird's flu and Ebola haemorrhagic fever. It can be said I think that both the world and the life of each individuals living in this world are in adversity. How can a human being live in such circumstances? How does the Bible tell us to live?
The passage of the Bible read a moment ago tells that the Lord Jesus made his disciples embark, and it describes how the disciples on the boat had to battle with the head wind all night. The Lord Jesus made his disciples embark and cross to the other side ahead of him, and he went up the hill by himself to pray. Being some distance away from the Lord Jesus, the disciples suffered from the head wind. We, too, just like the disciples, are up against the head wind. Our life of faith isn't a life free from storms. We are just like the disciples left on a stormy sea. How then were the disciples led to salvation by the Lord Jesus?
Verse 25 tells, 'Between three and six in the morning he came towards them, walking across the lake.' This kind of description in the Bible we shall not abandon as something irrational. The life of a Christian is in ordeal. But that life is one in which one will meet the Lord Jesus who will come to help one out. The important point here is that it was the Lord Jesus who came to the disciples suffering in adversity, and not the other way round. The Bible tells that the Lord Jesus comes to people in adversity. To encounter with the Lord Jesus doesn't mean that we go to the Lord; rather the Lord Jesus comes to us. It's important for us to believe the Lord Jesus that way.
The disciples didn't recognize that it was the Lord Jesus who was coming to them. Surely the Lord Jesus will come to us and will be with us even in a storm. But that's what we just don't see. How can we get to see it? We are such as are suffering in adversity, being in anxiety, and yet we cannot find the Lord just when we need to. The Bible says, 'at once Jesus spoke to them telling, "Take heart! It is I; do not be afraid."' This message is what we needed to hear again this morning. We get to know by the words the Lord Jesus speaks to us that he is come to us. Therefore, it's important to listen to his words. By listening to his words, we are helped to recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ comes close to us and remains with us; that is what the faith and a life of worship at church means.
The Lord Jesus Christ comes to and remains with us in a storm and helps us. By listening to his words we believe in his presence and we experience his being together with us. That is the blessing given through worship service. The key here is to listen to his words. By listening to his words, we believe in 'Christ's presence.' 'Take heart! It is I; do not be afraid.' (Verse 27) The Lord Jesus is speaking to us also this morning with these words. Hearing these words, If you believe that the Lord Jesus comes and is with us now, that is your encounter with the Lord Jesus. And an encounter with the Lord Jesus can take place whatever harsh adversity you may be in. However wild the storm may be, as long as the Lord is with you, you are free from the storm to the extent you are linked with the Lord. That is what the life of worship at church means, don't you think?
The Bible passage for this morning has also a story in the latter half as well. Peter was changed by the coming of the Lord Jesus. He was given courage to get down out of the boat and walk over the water in strong gale. The Bible describes Peter how he tried to walk over the water. Peter called to him: 'Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you over the water.' (Verse 28) You may think that another irrational thing is written. But what the Bible said here was that the Lord Jesus told him to 'Come.' The Lord Jesus did not stop Peter who proposed an impossible thing, i.e. to walk over the water. On the contrary his response was to say, 'Come.' And he said that it was the doubt and lack of faith on the part of Peter which caused him to begin to sink.
Behind the story lies 'a feverish faith,' which the gospel according to Mathew tells of. The gospel according to Mathew puts the Lord Jesus as saying, 'Truly I tell you: if you have faith no bigger than a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there!" and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.' (Chapter 17, verse 20) He also said, 'you need only say to this mountain, "Be lifted from your place and hurled into the sea," and what you say will be done. Whatever you pray for in faith you will receive.' (Chapter 21, verses 21 and 22) 'Lord, tell me to come to you over the water.' 'Come.' This exchange implies that Peter will have a big experience jointly together with Jesus if he puts faith in the Lord Jesus and walks with him. 'My followers! Walk over the water,' the Lord says.
Going beyond the limit of his ability, Peter began to walk over the water. Yet he started to sink due to little faith he had. Peter could neither live a life of such vehement faith as would lift up a mountain nor could he say there's nothing he could not do. So the Lord Jesus said of him as 'having little faith.'
Why was it that Peter had only little faith? Seeing 'the strength of the gale he was afraid.' With little faith he had, he could not put all the trust in the Lord Jesus; he got scared of horrifying beings. The Bible tells of 'almighty God.' Nothing can beat the power of great God. But we cannot keep on believing it, and we end up being caught by a feeling of helplessness. Faith occupies our heart so much that it makes us forget about ourselves, and carries us beyond an abyss before we knew it. Forget about our weak selves and take a step forward over water. What is critically important for realizing that is not to belittle the power of God. The same can be said of missionary activities of our church. Looking back on the steps made we are struck by how big an abyss we have crossed over. That is what we see about the steps church makes, isn't that?
Problem is we cannot easily forget that we are helpless. We are caught by an idea that what we cannot do we cannot do no matter what. This is also our reality. We are not heroes of faith by any means. We are to whom the Lord will say, 'how little faith you have!' aren't we? We are just like Peter when the Lord called him that. When we see the strength of the gale we become afraid and begin to sink. We are one of those who will then cry, 'Save me, Lord!' Aren't we good enough being like that, not being stronger? May be we aren't. Yet the Lord Jesus accepts us as are.
The Bible says Jesus 'at once reached out and caught hold of him.' The Lord Jesus showed no hesitation as the Bible tells, at once Jesus reached out. With the hands nailed on the cross Jesus reaches out and catches hold of us. By catching hold of us he asks in reproach, 'Why did you hesitate?' The Lord Jesus is reaching out his hand again this morning and is catching hold of us. While catching hold of us is he not asking us, 'Why did you hesitate?'
We are not 'men of such faith as will lift and hurl a mountain.' Rather we are ones 'with little faith.' The question would be is it improper for a man of such little faith to be among the church membership? Not so. The gospel according to Mathew, while talking about robust faith to move even a mountain, depicts Peter, the representative of the disciples as it were, as a man of little faith, a man of doubt or hesitation. Are not all of us like Peter of the time? There are times when we doubt, times when we sink, and times when we cry for help. But it is allowed for a sheep of a flock of Jesus to be like that. The Lord Jesus forgives a man of little faith, accepts a man of doubt, and at once reaches out and catches hold of us by his hand, and speaks to us so we are not beaten down by our own weakness and doubts. The hand of the Lord represents his power. With it the Lord saves a man of doubt, a man of little faith out of the storm and changes us to be a man of faith. One is being caught hold by the Lord Jesus; that is how a man would look who in adversity encountered the Lord Jesus. Church is a gathering of such people.
At that moment in time a confession of faith was born in the church. 'You are indeed the Son of God.' This is also our confession of faith this morning. Lord! You've come to us in our adversity, have caught hold of us by your hand, and have saved us from the rough sea. We too should like to confess our faith saying, 'Indeed, you are the Son of God.' This faith is the faith of deep emotion. I should like us to live the coming week chanting this faith.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The gospel according to Mathew 14:22-33
22. As soon as they had finished, he made the disciples embark and cross to the other side ahead of him, while he dismissed the crowd;
23. then he went up the hill by himself to pray. It had grown late, and he was there alone.
24. The boat was already some distance from the shore, battling with a head wind and a rough sea.
25. Between three and six in the morning he came towards them, walking across the lake.
26. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were so shaken that they cried out in terror: 'It is a ghost!'
27. But at once Jesus spoke to them: 'Take heart!' It is I; do not be afraid.'
28. Peter called to him: 'Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you over the water.'
29. 'Come,' said Jesus. Peter got down out of the boat, and walked over the water towards Jesus.
30. But when he saw the strength of the gale he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, 'Save me, Lord!'
31. Jesus at once reached out and caught hold of him. 'Why did you hesitate? He said. 'How little faith you have!'
32. Then they climbed into the boat; and the wind dropped.
33. And the men in the boat fell at his feet, exclaiming, 'You must be the Son of God.'
(The Revised English Bible)
- Enter through the narrow door -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Today's title"Enter through the narrow door" is the one that I quoted from the Bible written in literary style that used to be read.'the narrow door 'probably reminded some of you of the entrance examination to college, which is now under way, or taking an examination. I myself, who was in high school in those days, am reminded of the novel entitled"The narrow door"which was written by Andre Jiedand which I have sometimes read.Although I forgot the detailed content of it, I still now have a vivid memory in which the heroine Alice entered a nunnery by severing all her thoughts about her sweetheart and where the ending of the story was impossible to understand even if I read it however often it was.Jesus' words' Enter through the narrow door'have probably been interpreted traditionally as in Andre Jiied's novel.
1.2 However,as for me, I am never perverse but I wonder whether it was all right to interpret that way.Is the narrow door what we have to struggle to enter by suppressing our natural feelings , sacrificing ourselves and grinding our teeth? If so, first of all, I would never be able to enter it nor wish to do so.It was just a question and sense of discomfort that I held when I read this novel in my youth.It has never changed at all even at the present time that has passed for 40 years since then.
2.1 I would like to pay attention to the previous context. In the last sermon, we listened to the words from Chapter 13, Verse 1 to Verse 9, which lack the so-called parallel place, namely , the same kind of gospel as is described in the other gospels.This is the part which only Luke heard and recorded in this gospel. The same is true with Verses 10 to 17.After he described such an episode, Luke put the famous'The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast 'ranging from verses 18 to 21 in the context differently from the other gospels and furthermore, went on with today's word--- this is very different in content but, as for the parallel place, is included in a big framework called 'The Sermon on the Mount 'in the Gospel according to Matthew.In his own arrangement, Jesus' heart that Luke wanted to convey to his readers seems to come out.
2.2 When you read the part just before Verse 10 and the following or the word after Verse 18 and the following, do you feel the'narrowness 'as a whole that we have mentioned?Verse 10 and the following describe the event where the woman who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years was healed by Jesus. It was probably her entering through the door and being invited into the Kingdom of God that this person was healed by Jesus. Although I would like to mention soon, this means 'be saved 'which I would use by quoting a question from a certain man toward Jesus. Then, did Jesus impose 'narrowness 'on her, in that she was invited into the Kingdom of God? To her, was being saved literally 'the narrow door'? Not at all, I think.
2.3 The parable described in Verse 18 and the following compares the Kingdom of God and God's control that we are invited into, to the mustard seed and the yeast.It says that once the seed is planted near us, it grows and becomes a big tree before we know it and it lets us stay under it just as the birds of the air perch in its branches. Is the narrow door set, in that the birds build their nests and perch in their branches of the mustard tree ,namely, the Kingdom of God? That is not the case.Judging from the context, being invited into the Kingdom of God involves something broad, rather than narrowness, just the other way round, I feel.
3.1 By taking the trouble of setting this kind of context, Luke described the scene in Verse 23 where 'Someone asked him, 'Sir, are only a few to be saved? 'Although I have preached a sermon about this part several times, so far I have not been able to understand well why this part goes like this.Abruptly by a certain person who appears from nowhere, a question whose intention is unknown is posed.But by my inferring from the above-mentioned context, now it has dawned upon me how this question is posed by a person of which social position with what kind of thought.
3.2 Just as is shown now, what is conveyed in the episode described in Verse 10 and the following is, if we read with an open mind,'broadness and abundance of those who are saved and the things that are saved. 'By Jesus who does not observe the Sabbath, the woman who people around her believed turned sick and had been suffering as a result of her heavy sin for as long as 18 years , is healed. There, the person who asked this question and behind him we can see 'his opponents 'mentioned in Verse 17.Probably to those who are called the Pharisees or the experts in the law, there lie 'broadness 'and 'abundance'that they can never accept by any means in it.If such a thing should happen, those who are saved would be too many and the 'scarcity 'and'narrowness 'where only those who keep the law like them are saved would be gone somewhere. Therefore, this man asked Jesus, 'Shouldn't those who are to be saved be limited?', I think.
3.3 As the person who asked a question insisted on'narrowness, ' Jesus mentioned 'narrowness, 'in order to respond to it. So far such questions and answers have been found. The same is true with the words in Verse 1 and the following of Chapter 13 that we listened to in the last sermon.Why did Jesus mention'perish '? It was because some people came to Jesus and asked him whether those who died in accidents or incidents perished as a judgment from God for the sins that they committed.In order to respond to it, Jesus also mentioned 'perish. '
4.1 Likewise, in today's word also, Jesus says, 'Enter through the narrow door'in questions and answers with the other person. 'Do you think you need such narrowness in order to enter the Kingdom of God? All right.If so, try to enter through the narrow door. But even if you try to enter, it will be difficult to enter. I have no idea whether God will allow you to enter.'Here we are told that this is what Jesus wants to say.
4.2 Verse 25 and the following show us what kind of attitude the master of the house, namely, God takes toward the person who asked this question and his opponents.Whereas the master of the house says, 'I do not know where you are from ,'they protest saying, 'We used to eat and drink with you, and you taught in our streets, 'which depicts how clearly as the Pharisees or the experts in the law, they observed special rituals in the temple and ate animals offered as sacrifices and how they were learning God's words incessantly in the synagogue. It is the 'narrowness 'that they insist on.It is the 'narrowness 'that they believed God imposes on us when he invites us into the Kingdom of God.
4.3 But according to Jesus' words, God does not seek after such narrowness at all. Rather than that, he drives away those who sought after it, saying , 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Out of my sight, all of you, you and your wicked ways! 'This part describes vividly how the 'narrowness'that they insist on prevents them from entering the door. Rather, what they regarded as their privilege or passport becomes 'narrowness.'The 'narrowness 'that you impose on yourselves or others will become the 'narrowness'with which you will be invited into the Kingdom of God. Just because you impose the 'narrowness 'that God never seeks after, on other people without permission, God will impose that 'narrowness 'on you.Jesus says the above thing.
5.1 Thus when God invites us into the Kingdom of God, he never imposes the 'narrowness 'at all in the sense that is shown now. However, when we read today's words, there is ,what shall I say, paradoxical narrowness or although it is broad, on the other hand, it has somewhat 'narrowness 'somewhere. Ithas such mysterious 'broadness and narrowness ,'I feel. If being invited into the Kingdom of God looks attractive to all people, then'a lot of people are to be saved ,'because the door is open to everybody.But those who are saved are really small in number, as today's Japan shows typically.Why are they small in number?Although it is fundamentally different from the narrowness that the Pharisees or the experts in the law mentioned, there lies the fundamental narrowness in it.It is not the narrowness that people made as they pleased but the narrowness that God himself set.In being saved, I cannot help saying that still there iscertain 'narrowness 'that God himself set.
5.2 What kind of thing is it? It is perceived from the parable that is given in verses 18 to 21. Jesus says that the Kingdom of God that tries to invite us starts as a mustard seed.The mustard seed is really small. It is as small as the point of a needle.God invites us into such a small place.Even though it may grow into a big tree, in our real world, it is as small as a mustard seed and looks miserableand exists as a feeble thing, which is an invitation to the Kingdom of God, isn't it?Therefore, it is not attractive at all, right?What is the use of being invited to such a world, I think.Right there, we can find 'narrowness.'There we can find a stumble and a barrier.
5.3 Also in the Kingdom of God beyond the door, just as the word in the last Verse 30 says, 'some who are now last will be first, and some who are first will be last ,'there is a door which reverses the order and values of this world. This also adds to 'narrowness 'when we are invited.It becomes a barrier and a higher threshold.The door is wide open to those who want to enter but it will be endlessly'narrow 'to those who want the values of this world to continue as long as possible.
5.4 At the Evening Bible Study Prayer Meeting held last week, I felt deeply that this was the Kingdom of God and being saved. Everyone listens patiently and attentively to my not eloquent talk about the Bible that is sometimes thrown into confusion and they pray for me respectively in accordance with the main points of their prayer.Just the fact that we are present at the meeting doesn't mean that it removes the real difficulty or problem at all.However the time that is little and little like a mustard seed is an invitation to the Kingdom of God.'The narrow door 'in the final analysis, might be the door to the invitation to a church life or prayer life.Although a lot of people go through it, they cannot continue and go away.It is because the church life or the prayer life is just like 'a mustard seed. 'It is because no part of it helps us to envision anything of the life in the Kingdom of God. However, it will grow into something like a big tree without fail and lead to the time that will let us rest.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The gospel according to Luke 13:22-30
22 He continued his journey through towns and villages, teaching as he made his way towards Jerusalem.
23 Someone asked him, 'Sir, are only a few to be saved?' His answer was:
24 'Make every effort to enter through the narrow door; for I tell you that many will try to enter but will not succeed.
25 'When once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may stand outside and knock, and say, "Sir, let us in!" but he will only answer, "I do not know where you come from."
26 Then you will protest, "We used to eat and drink with you, and you taught in our streets."
27 But he will repeat, "I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Out of my sight, all of you, you and your wicked ways!"
28 There will be waling and grinding of teeth there, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves are driven away.
29 From east and west, from north and south, people will come and take their places at the banquet in the kingdom of God.
30 Yes, and some who are now last will be first, and some who are first will be last.'
(The Revised English Bible)
January 11, 2015
- Joseph blessed by his father -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. We've been reading Genesis once in three weeks since April 2011, and we are now coming to the closing part of it. In the last sermon on it, we read its chapter 45 and saw how Joseph met with his brother Esau for the first time in 20 years and made a dramatic reconciliation. After that, Jacob, father of Joseph, was also called by his son to move over to and live in Egypt. Chapter 47, verses from 27 to 29 tell that living for 17 years in Egypt, Jacob was coming to the end of his life on earth at age 147. The passage for today tells that Jacob called his son Joseph and the two sons of Joseph to his bedside to give 'blessing,' to them. The chapter that follows, i.e. chapter 49 tells he then blessed all of his children.
Reading the passage for today, my attention is called first to the fact that Jacob, on his death bed, thought of blessing his sons and members of his family. 'Blessing,' is something like an intangible bequest, so to say. Dying is certainly a sad event. But it is also an occasion to hand over one's asset to children and grandchildren. Succession of property is a strange practice, I am made feel. Until succession procedure is completed, the property belongs to the one about to or yet to die: no one, even the marriage partner or children, can lay hands on it. Once, however, the procedure is complete, people who inherited the asset can use it as belonging to them.
I watch a TV program, 'Connoisseur Team to Appraise Anything,' now and then. People on the program, more often than not, tell, for example, that 'My grandfather gave it to me saying, "it should help you in case of emergent need."' In this way, property handed over could be of help to people who inherited it.
The 'blessing,' which Jacob was giving was not a property eyes could see: it was intangible. But it will be an inheritance that should help his sons more than tangible asset could. The time of passing was also a significant time when property was handed over, a grand stage, as it were. I should like us to put it in our mind today, first of all, that the time of passing has such an aspect as well.
2. Please allow me to make a little detour. From now and then, I attend funeral functions as master of ceremony. On such an occasion, what I keep in my heart most is that I want the bereaved, who lost the loved one, to have consolation and encouragement by the words of the Bible read and by the message spoken. How are the consolation and encouragement given? To borrow a hint from the message in today's Bible passage, the answer to this question is that it is by the bereaved themselves coming to recognize that the bereavement has such an aspect as it gives the bereaved a 'blessing,' I am taught afresh again. Death is not just a sorrow event; it is a time when the bereaved are allowed to succeed property: property of 'blessing.' By having it succeeded, the bereaved come to have it as belonging to them, and come to be able to use it for help in times of unexpected need. Death has such an aspect.
On just past December 30 last year, I served the commemoration function held before the tombstone, of the late Tomuzo Kimura, husband of Mariko Kimura, who passed away in December of 2008. Tomuzo was very versed in pottery. So at his funeral, the verse 7, chapter 4 of the Second Letter of Paul the Corinthians was read, Mariko told me, because it has the word 'earthenware,' in the text. For that reason I read the same Bible passage and delivered a message at that function. As you know it well, the verse says, 'We have earthenware jars to hold this treasure.'
What is the treasure in earthenware like? Experts on the TV program, 'Connoisseur Team to Appraise Anything,' point out that earthenware is made of kneaded soil, burnt in a kiln with heat of more than 1000 degrees so that various substance melt out or chaps develop. It means no single earthenware has same design and therefore each has its own beauty, not because of anything else, but because it is earthenware. While preparing the message for the occasion, I was led to come up with an idea that that in itself is the treasure to be found in earthenware.
That an earthenware is burnt in a kiln means that, having bodies, we must face with pains of sickness and death, I am afraid. But that very process makes us produce treasure. Affliction can never destroy us, earthenware; it produces treasure in its stead.
The life of Tomizo was just like that. I was permitted to read the messages spoken by his only son and by Mariko, his wife, which they read at the funeral function. I learned that Tomizo had fought with cancer for five years and had seven courses of cancer treatment. But even during that time if he felt he was in a better condition, he went out delightedly to attend a gathering of historical documents without minding at all about the bold head he got due to treatment. Till his last moment, he also thought a great deal of Mariko. His son said in his greeting message at the funeral that 'such a posture of my father gave a nice memory to support my mother so she'll be able to live on. Thanks father!' Here lies the treasure or property Tomizo left for the bereaved, I was made to feel deeply.
There lies the inheritance, the food to support Mariko and their son. The inheritance is the robust fact that despite battle with cancer he didn't lose joy of living, didn't lose love for Mariko, and, though being earthenware, was never destroyed by whatever amount of fire burnt. That was the treasure Tomizo left. I want us to remember that the very time of one's passing is when we can leave such an intangible property, a grand stage in a sense.
3. Now let us come back to the passage for today. What kind of a heritage could Jacob hand over to his descendants as 'blessing?' It is what is written on verses 15 and 16, I think. The inheritance had to do with God more than anything else. The inheritance and the 'blessing,' were that looking back on the life he had, he was able to say with confidence that 'God was such and such a being; God did so and so for me.'
First of all, it was that 'the God has been my shepherd all my life to this day.' We've traced the life of Jacob for some time. What was it that guided, or moved and pulled his life? Managed to be born as the younger of twins, with his hand grasping heel of the elder brother Esau, Jacob, (the name given to reflect that he was grasping the heel of his brother, and he could have been born as a premature baby, I imagine) began his life on earth. The eyes of Isaac, the father, were poured just on the elder Esau who grew up to be a masculine, skillful hunter. Jacob grew sorry for himself, became cunning and in the end deceived his father who was failing in sight to rob the 'blessing,' which was to go to his brother Esau. As a result he was hated by his brother who contemplated of killing Jacob. So he had to flee from his home to Laban his uncle. Laban cheated Jacob a number of times and would let him work without reward for 20 years. Jacob had three women other than Rachel and he had troubles at home because of that. Whereas God told him to go up to Bethel, upon arriving at the land of his father, Jacob instead purchased a piece of land at Shechem, an upscale section of the land of Palestine in those days for a hundred sheep. His choice caused to invite trouble between his sons and the people of Shechem. But they weren't all. Jacob doted on Joseph, a child he got at his high age and that again caused a trouble among his family members.
This quick recollection of his life tells us that it was the human desire and the folly of mutual cheating that led and pulled the life of Jacob. However, looking back on it, he was shown that God had led him like a shepherd. As in Psalm 23, God leads us in the right way. We cannot think of anything else other than the guidance of God that we could be we are now.
I am made to feel again that the guidance of God is marvelous and is beyond our imagination. God never suppresses the freedom of Jacob or of any other man for that matter. The guidance of God never represses the liberty or folly of us humans for reasons we don't know. God is who can use the human freedom and folly and lead them to the right way.
This guidance of God is unilateral, too. It wasn't that the guidance was given Jacob because he asked for it. To begin with, at the time Jacob had to sleep on the roadside at night at Bethel on his way fleeing to his uncle, it was God who hung down a ladder from heaven and spoke to him. Jacob had not even prayed a word to God. Why was it that God first spoke to him? As written at the beginning of verse 15, it was because the grandfather of Jacob or Isaac his father walked before God in the final analysis. The heritage of faith of his grandfather and father indeed became a help in his unexpected need.
Fortunately we are more than Jacob. Jacob couldn't ask for God but God guided him. When we, with our faith we have albeit little, pray for the help of God so we can walk before him, we'll surely be guided in the right way by God. God can guide us in the right way without repressing our freedom, but using even our folly and desire. The first blessing is that we are handed down such marvelous guidance of God.
4. The second blessing is written on the beginning of verse 16 where it says, 'the angel who rescued me from all misfortunes.' Jacob here says God saved him out from affliction by sending a mysterious angel to him. When it actually was, the Bible doesn't say. But I kind of recollect the event written on Genesis, verse 23 and the following of chapter 32. When the time came for Jacob to make reunion with his elder brother Esau, he could not cross the ford of Jabbok without much hesitation. Then a mysterious angel appeared and wrestled with him all night till daybreak. We don't know if Jacob won. He had the hollow of his thigh struck so he had to walk limping. But he was declared as having prevailed in the wrestling with God and was given a new name for him, 'Israel.' In this way he was given blessing from the strange angle. In striving with a mysterious being without a weapon, he must have been given courage to convince himself saying, 'I can fight a struggle. I'll be safe if I fought. I can continue going ahead if the sinew of my thigh is dislocated and I got hurt.'
God saved him out from affliction by his angel does not mean Jacob did not have any troubles. Troubles are given. Yet mysterious help would appear in the anguish and mysterious strength would be given in the fellowship or in communication with him so he was made to be able to walk ahead the difficult path ahead. That is how the guidance of God works. The joy for us, believers, is that we can have a taste of God's guidance for our own experience; and that we can leave it as our inheritance to hand over when we pass away.
5. Lastly I would touch on a point about Jacob blessing two sons of Joseph. Joseph prepared for it so the right hand of Jacob will be put on the head of Mannaseh, the first born, and his left hand on the head of Ephraim, the younger. But Jacob took the trouble of crossing his arms and tried to place his right hand on the younger so he will receive the first blessing. When Joseph warned to correct it, Jacob said, 'I know, my son, I know.' And saying that his younger brother will be greater than he, Jacob blessed his grandchildren.
What is showing itself here is that the God works to bless us, symbolically taking the form of making the younger greater than the elder, something beyond common sense and expectation of us humans. We cannot ignore the blessing of God as something not existing. That the elder brother gets greater reflects the value of us humans. We tend to think that, of the twins, Esau the masculine elder, one that received the love of Isaac the father will flourish. We seek for such strength and wealth. But God blessed Jacob the weak and cunning. That is how God's blessing prevails over the world. Jacob knew the God's blessing as being so unique and God like. We too know the blessing of God as it appeared in Jesus on the cross. Having experience of it, we too can hand it over to our children and grandchildren as a 'blessing.'
Genesis 48: 15 - 22
15 He blessed Joseph and said:
'The God in whose presence my forefathers lived,
my forefathers Abraham and Isaac,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
16 the angel who rescued me from all misfortune, may bless these boys;
they will be called by my name, and by the names of my forefathers,
Abraham and Isaac;
may they grow into a great people on earth.'
17 When Joseph saw his father laying his right hand on Ephraim's head, he was displeased and took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's.
18 He said, 'That is not right, father. This is the firstborn; lay your right hand on his head.'
19 But his father refused; he said, 'I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Yet his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will be a whole nation in themselves.'
20 So he blessed them that day and said:
'When a blessing is pronounced in Israel,
men shall use your names and say,
"May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh."'
So he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, 'I am about to die, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers,
22 Where I assign you one ridge of land more than your brothers; I took it from the Amorites with sword and bow.'
(The Revised English Bible)
January 4, 2015
- It may bear fruit this season -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. In two years time I will have continued serving as a pastor for 30 years. Today is the third in the series of my sermon on the gospel according to Luke. I have intentionally avoided the words written in the passage from verses 1 to 9, chapter 13 in the last two sermons on Luke. I've avoided it because I intuited the difficulty of preparing a sermon on this passage. Among others, Jesus said 'Unless you repent, you will all of you come to the same end.' And I feel just the same difficulty as I do in Jesus saying the just mentioned, in which an owner of vineyard in the parable from verse 6 told the vine-dresser to cut down the fig tree which had not produced fruit ? it is apparent that the owner of the vineyard means God.
However, I've been led to deliver a sermon on this tough passage in the first worship service of the year. I spent some hard times since the second day of the new-year holidays, thinking this and that about the Bible passage in the mid-night hours as I couldn't sleep more than I dozed off. Perhaps this was my first dream of the year.
We were taught last week by the sermon on the letter of Paul to the Romans that it is important to try to grasp the meaning of a passage in the context of the whole document. This can also be said of today's passage on the gospel according to Luke. Talking of the context, it seems that today's passage of Luke's gospel sits in the larger context which was trying to show the image of God as Jesus believed him, comparing it with the god the Pharisees and the scholars of the law believed in and talked about, who were guiding the people of the time on their life in faith. The main point of the context came to be apparent beginning with chapter 11 where the 'Lord's Prayer' was taught; more so after Jesus turned to take a disputing mode when he said in the passage from verses 37 and the following, 'Alas for you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and rue and every garden herb, but neglect justice and the love of God.'
I think that we can understand Jesus better seeing it sitting in that larger context when he said 'you'll be destroyed.' Jesus said so, in the final analysis, because the Pharisees and the scholar of the law, the counterpart of the dispute, were speaking about 'the people being destroyed.' As it was they who believed God was one 'who destroys,' and so taught the people, Jesus had to take up their words and refer to 'God who destroys,' in order to make counter argument to them. But it wasn't his original intention; the image of God Jesus wished to tell was just the opposite of the one who destroys. That reveals itself in the parable from verse 6 and the following.
2. Then how the Pharisees and the scholar of the law as well as the people of the time who were under the guidance of them talked about 'destruction by god,' and 'God who destroys?' That is expressed in the question Jesus asked back saying, 'Do you suppose that, because these Galileans suffered this fate, they must have been greater sinners than anyone else in Galilee?' in connection to the two episode dubbed from verse 1 to verse 5.
What kind of happenings took place actually in what was written in the passage, little is said to be known because there is no data to tell of them. Let us begin first with the sentence to say, 'Pilate had mixed the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices.' It is said what happened was likely to be an affair involving Galileans who made their way to the Temple of Jerusalem bringing sacrifices; that they got in a trouble with the soldiers of Pilate, the governor of the area representing Rome at the time, and were killed. The bloods of the victims were mingled with the blood of the sacrifices they offered.
The people of Galilee were looked down on in Israel of the time as ones living in the periphery. On verse 46, chapter 1 of the gospel according to John, Nathanael the prophet exclaimed, 'Can anything good come from Nazareth?' The Pharisees and others criticized the Galileans of getting in a trouble with soldiers of Rome and defiled the sacred place during the important ritual of offering sacrifices of all times. By criticism they meant to say such an affair took place because they were sinful; it came as a reward of god to their sin.
We don't know for sure what it happened in the second affair either. The tower of Siloam could probably refer to some kind of a facility which Pilate was constructing. The Galilean victims may have gotten criticized saying they got killed by the falling tower because it was the reward for them of working under the Romans for a filthy job.
As we've been taught a number of times, the Pharisees and the scholars of the law were the kind of people who earnestly wished and practiced to make day to day steps in firm bondage with God. It probably began with the people of Israel who believed that the clue to be connected with God lies in observing the law from day to day, in practicing the law: the conclusion which they arrived at in seeking an answer to the question of what the clue would be for them to be connected with God which they started asking when they were taken captive to Babylon and lost all pertaining to their mother country and the Temple.
By the days of Jesus, however, the practicing of the law became a measure by which to judge people, as we learnt it from the letter of Paul to the Romans last week. The Pharisees and others convicted the Galileans as 'sinful,' who could not perfectly follow the deeds of the law as the Pharisees and also the people who took up the job given by Pilate to make their both ends meet, and told them about god who rewards the sinners with destruction. By the religion led by the Pharisees and the scholars of the law, god was one, in the final analysis, who always looks for sins of men, rewards them with punishment and destroys them, it looks to me.
At any rate, being earnest as they were in their religious belief, their eyes were turned just on the misfortunes and negativity in life, and determined that those things were the reward for their sins. They propagated only that god was one who turns his eyes on the sins of men and to make judgment accordingly.
3. The fundamental intent of Jesus in today's passage was to try to tell that God isn't like that and said so against such belief of the people of the time, it is revealed to me. After referring to the way people of the time believed, by way of asking, 'Do you suppose that, because these Galileans suffered this fate, they must have been greater sinners than anyone else in Galilee?' he repeated saying twice, 'No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all of you come to the same end.' As I said, it wasn't the original intent of Jesus to say the word 'to destroy.' He only had to counter in the first place because the Pharisees, the scholars of the law as well as people of the time spoke just about destruction as the work of God, while regarding themselves as having nothing to do with the destructive punishment because they were practicing the law and were not sinners. If God was to primarily destroy, as they said, important thing was to 'repent,' Jesus told; important thing was not to practice deeds of the law but to repent. Unless you were able to repent, all of you would be destroyed.
It is not clear what Jesus meant by repenting. However, from the parable that immediately follows it which tells about a tree 'bearing fruit,' I gather that the teaching of John the Baptist saying, 'prove your repentance by the fruit you bear,' could have been in the heart of Jesus. Once you repented you could produce fruit corresponding to it. How the fruit would look we didn't care to read today. It may be written in the episode on the passage from verse 10 and the following, which has close linkage with today's passage.
While I cannot take a long time to talk about it though, Jesus healed a woman who, bent double, was crippled for 18 years. But the president of the synagogue, under the influence of the Pharisees and the scholars of the law, intervened to say, 'Not on the Sabbath.' The question here is what is a fruit of repentance, I assume. Did it lie with those who, while observing the Sabbath and criticizing Jesus, left uncared the woman suffering for 18 years? Or did it lie with Jesus who could heal the sick. It was because Jesus was 'repentant,' in the final analysis, that he could bear such a fruit.
To repent means a state of making U-turn by turning about, not that it is to make self-reflection or regret. It's a state in which we face with God and are firmly linked with him with whole body and soul. It means concurrence in spirit more than anything else; perfect connection. Jesus could heal the woman because he was in such a state.
Turning eyes on us ourselves, do we have perfect linkage with God? Are we ones who are able to produce fruit like the one Jesus bore? No! We are not. None of us is. Therefore, if God is such as just rewards us with destruction for our sinfulness, as you say, we all have to be just destroyed, Jesus countered the Pharisees and others. Do you have fruit representing your repentance? Do you have fruit corresponding to repentance John the Baptist taught? Are you healing the sick around you? If not, you too, are but only to be destroyed by God even if you practiced the law.
4. But God is not like that; not one to think of destroying us, in the first place. And that is what the parable from verse 6 and the following tries to teach. As to what the parable means I learned a lot from the book "The Parable of Jesus," written by the Reverend Mr. Keizo Shimizu.
The landscape of vineyard with fig trees was common in those days, it is said. They didn't erect grapevine trellis as it is done nowadays. They either let the runners sprawl on soil surface or used woods such as fig tree for support. Therefore fig tree is kind of adjunct. If it produced fruit, so much luckier. If they didn't, it's just a matter of cutting it down and replace with a new support. It never was worth more than that.
Yet the vineyard owner waited for fig for three years. But as it wasn't producing he now decided to cut down the tree. The vine-dresser replied saying, 'Leave it, sir, for this one year, while I dig round it and manure it.' Here lies what is extraordinary, Mr. Shimizu wrote. It is said the even the grape vines were not given fertilizer in those days. It couldn't be with fig trees which were adjunct. But the vine-dresser says he would do so. It is not written whether the vineyard owner accepted the offer. But he must have done so naturally, I guess, because the vine-dresser insisted on it to the extent he did.
As told in the parable, Jesus says, God is one who would manure even a fig tree, only being adjunct or a support for the vine, and help it produce fruit which otherwise won't easily.
In the words of today's passage to say we'll be destroyed unless we 'repent,' I conversely hear an encouragement saying, 'if you repent even a little bit you'll be turned to ones who always produce fruit.' Of course, we are ones who cannot make total repentance, as told earlier. But we can turn our hearts towards God who waits for us till we get to produce fruit. I tend to think that if we receive help and manure from our vine-dress, Jesus, and if we live this year receiving the Holy Spirit from God, perhaps we could be changed to be ones who can produce some fruit though we are not more than an adjunct. I wish that we'll be made to be able to do the work this year again like Jesus did to the woman.
The gospel according to Luke 13: 1-9
1 At that time some people came and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
2 He answered them; 'Do you suppose that, because these Galileans suffered this fate, they must have been greater sinners than anyone else in Galilee?
3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all of you come to the same end.
4 Or the eighteen people who were killed when the tower fell on them at Siloam ? do you imagine they must have been more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem?
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all come to an end like others.'
6 He told them this parable: 'A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it, but found none.
7 So he said to the vine-dresser, "For the last three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down. Why should it go on taking goodness from the soil?"
8 But he replied, "Leave it, sir, for this one year, while I dig round it and manure it.
9 And if it bears next season, well and good; if not, you shall have it down."'
(The Revised English Bible)