The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany 2020 Series A

Midweek Lectionary
1.6.2

"Moses Breaking the Tables of the Law" Gustave Dore

Collect of the Day
O Lord, graciously hear the prayers of Your people that we who justly suffer the consequence of our sin may be mercifully delivered by Your goodness to the glory of Your name; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Deuteronomy 30.15-20
Our text comes near the end of Moses’ long “sermon” of encouragement as he prepares Israel to cross over the Jordan to possess the land of promise without him. In the preceding chapter, Yahweh has reaffirmed His covenant with Israel; “that He may establish you as His people” (Dt 29.13). So simple and yet profound is the covenant formula; “I am your God; you are My people,” yet it comes with both blessings and curses as our text lays out. The people must now live as His people as they enter into their inheritance.

In the “living out” of our lives before God, we find the connection to the primary reading of the day from Matthew 5. We are the baptized, the new Israel. But citizenship comes with responsibility and expectation, challenges and temptations. So, let us resolve to obey His voice and hold fast to Him, “for He is your life and length of days” (Dt 30.20).

Read the Text and Discuss

• Is life as black and white, good and bad as the opening verse might suggest?
• What words are used to describe the Torah of Yahweh?
• From where does the power to choose come?

Psalm 119.1-8
Mays begins his discussion of our psalm pointing out that, “God is the teacher (vv. 33-39). Creation is the classroom (vv. 89-91). The students are the servants of God (vv. 17, 23, 124f.). The lesson is the “law” (Torah) of God (vv. 97-100). Learning is the way of life (vv. 9-16)” (381). I find this helpful because too often we focus entirely on the unique structure of the psalm and then read a single eight-verse section failing to even begin to grasp the psalmist’s purpose. This is a wonderful prayer of wisdom, for wisdom. 

The particularity of God’s laws concerning murder, adultery, and oaths in the gospel serve as examples included in the psalmist’s eight-fold presentation of Torah – the testimonies, the way, the precepts, the statutes, the commandments, the judgments of Yahweh. But they are not only or not just the external obedience of the law but the inner grounding of all “who seek Him with all their heart” (Ps 119.2b).

Read the Text and Discuss

• What, specifically, does the psalmist prayer for?
• How does this psalm, so overtly concerned about the word of God, point us to Christ?
• Justification or sanctification? What dominates and why?

1 Corinthians 3.1-9
Paul set up his readers in Corinth back in chapter 2 verse 6 when he wrote, “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom…” Set them up to knock them down in our text calling them “people of the flesh…infants in Christ.” As long as they are wrangling over persons and personalities and the cross of Christ is being stripped of its power; they prove themselves to be spiritually immature. Carson has a sharp comment on contemporary Christians who display a similar kind of immaturity:

"Not for them solid knowledge of Scripture; not for them mature theological reflection; not for them growing and perceptive Christian thought. They want nothing more than another round of choruses and a “simple message” – something that won’t challenge them to think, to examine their lives, to make choices, and to grow in their knowledge and adoration of the living God (The Cross and Christian Ministry, 72)."

Our gospel reading contains a similar call to a mature faith, one that recognizes the thoughts and intents of the heart as well as the outward appearance of religiosity. What we do not find in this reading from 1 Corinthians that does show up in our other readings are the “just consequence of our sin” as the collect put it, God’s righteous judgement. Instead, Paul feeds us with milk until we may grow up into solid food.

Read the Text and Discuss

• Does the charge of “immaturity” find a home among us? If so, when?
• What is the contrast between “spirit” and “flesh” that Paul want us to see in ourselves?
• How do clergy and laity relate to each other here? Elsewhere in Paul? The Bible?

Matthew 5.21-37
In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continues to flesh out what it means to be salt and light (vv. 13-14). He does so by examining what it means to observe God’s law as the people learned it from Moses and the tradition of the scribes and the Pharisees of their day. The popular teaching of the day, much like our own society, often limits the extent of the commandment, weakening the impact or importance in one’s life. He does so by using hyperbole that can cause some confusion. Jesus wants us to know that our relationship with others are not independent of our relationship with Him; our horizontal and vertical relationships intersect.

The challenge in all four of our readings today must be the gospel. The just consequences for our sin must be paid and they have been paid by Christ on the cross, declared valid by His victorious resurrection, and applied to each of us in baptism. Only as the baptized and redeemed children of God can we truly walk in liberty instead of terror before God’s law.

Read the Text and Discuss

• What three/four issues of the law does our reading cover? Which of these is the most troubling in our society?
• How does Jesus place reconciliation above the law?
• How do we preach the gospel out of this text?