The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 29 January 2015 “Jesus gave a different picture of God”

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 29 January 2015 “Jesus gave a different picture of God”
Daily Scripture: Deuteronomy 21: A Son Who Rebels
Moses said to Israel:
18 A father and a mother may have a stubborn and rebellious son who refuses to obey them even after he has been punished. 19 If a son is like that, his parents must drag him to the town gate, where the leaders of the town hold their meetings. 20 The parents will tell the leaders, “This son of ours is stubborn and never obeys. He spends all his time drinking and partying.”
21 The men of the town will stone that son to death, because they must get rid of the evil he brought into the community. Everyone in Israel will be afraid when they hear how he was punished.
Luke 15: Two Sons
11 Jesus also told them another story:
Once a man had two sons. 12 The younger son said to his father, “Give me my share of the property.” So the father divided his property between his two sons.
13 Not long after that, the younger son packed up everything he owned and left for a foreign country, where he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 He had spent everything, when a bad famine spread through that whole land. Soon he had nothing to eat.
15 He went to work for a man in that country, and the man sent him out to take care of his pigs.[a] 16 He would have been glad to eat what the pigs were eating,[b] but no one gave him a thing.
17 Finally, he came to his senses and said, “My father’s workers have plenty to eat, and here I am, starving to death! 18 I will go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against God in heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer good enough to be called your son. Treat me like one of your workers.’”
20 The younger son got up and started back to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt sorry for him. He ran to his son and hugged and kissed him.
21 The son said, “Father, I have sinned against God in heaven and against you. I am no longer good enough to be called your son.”
22 But his father said to the servants, “Hurry and bring the best clothes and put them on him. Give him a ring for his finger and sandals[c] for his feet. 23 Get the best calf and prepare it, so we can eat and celebrate. 24 This son of mine was dead, but has now come back to life. He was lost and has now been found.” And they began to celebrate.[Footnotes:
15.15 pigs: The Jewish religion taught that pigs were not fit to eat or even to touch. A Jewish man would have felt terribly insulted if he had to feed pigs, much less eat with them.
15.16 what the pigs were eating: The Greek text has “(bean) pods,” which came from a tree in Palestine. These were used to feed animals. Poor people sometimes ate them too.
15.22 ring. . . sandals: These show that the young man’s father fully accepted him as his son. A ring was a sign of high position in the family. Sandals showed that he was a son instead of a slave, since slaves did not usually wear sandals.]
Reflection Questions:
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 is the type of passage Pastor Hamilton had in mind when he wrote, in Making Sense of the Bible, “Are there things clearly taught in scripture about which we might say today, ‘That really doesn’t capture God’s will’? Yes. Both conservatives and liberals agree on some of them.” When Jesus told a story about a rebellious son, he pictured God, not as wanting to “remove such evil,” but running down the road to embrace just such a son and welcome him home.
• Scholar N. T. Wright noted that “in a culture where senior figures are far too dignified to run anywhere, this man takes to his heels as soon as he sees his young son dragging himself home.” This is one of Jesus’ vivid pictures of what God is really like. Do you picture God eager to punish you, intimidating, looking down on you sternly? Or do you see God as a loving parent always eager to run to you and embrace you?
• Jesus told this story to answer a complaint from the religious leaders that he welcomed sinners, even ate with them (Luke 15:2). Few characters in Jesus’ teaching are less “deserving” than this grating, ungrateful son—but all that mattered was that he came home. How do you react when God (and God’s family, your church) welcome people you see as undeserving sinners? How, if at all, have your feelings changed over time?
Prayer: Dear God, I welcome your promised presence with me as I study my Bible. Teach me about how you have acted to redeem me, and how you can make my life a redemptive force for others. Amen.

Insight From Dr. Amy Oden

Dr. Amy Oden is Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at Saint Paul School of Theology at OCU. Teaching is her calling, and she looks forward to every day with students. For 25 years, Amy has taught theology and history, pursuing scholarship in service of the church.  

It can be really confusing to read something like Deuteronomy 20 that says God wants us to stone our disobedient children, and then read Jesus’ description of the generous father who welcomes a disobedient child in Luke 15. Which one more truly captures the will and heart of God?

We hear these different portrayals of God in the church, too. Some Christians describe God as angry all the time, eager to punish you. The first time I heard this picture of God was from Christian friends when I was a teenager. I remember being shocked, as this sounded so different from Jesus. In the news, we see Christians who use biblical passages like the one in Deuteronomy to justify their protests with posters saying that God hates gay people or is punishing America for tolerating them.

Two strategies help me navigate these different images of God. One strategy is to remember the vast space between our words about God and God. A wise Christian once told me “our words about God often tell us more about the person speaking than about God.” Second, and most important, I look to Jesus as my standard of discernment. What does Jesus say about God? Jesus himself is our primary pattern for knowing who God is and how God loves. In Luke, Jesus says, “while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” Wow. Amen.

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