Bible Study

By Bob Maddox

From the Gospel Accounts

O deliver not the soul of your turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked.

Jesus and his friends climbed the rising road from Bethany Beyond the Jordan and Jericho on their way to Jerusalem. James put his arm around his mother giving her extra support as she gasped with the exertion of the long climb. The excitement the group, as faithful Jews, would normally feel as they approached their Holy City was blunted by Jesus’ increasingly somber mood, darkening, it seemed, the nearer they got to Jerusalem.

Cephas, Simon and James made attempts to cheer him up with no success. Finally James motioned for Mary to move in beside Jesus hoping to draw him out.

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Genesis 22:1-14

Bob Maddox

The Command to Sacrifice Isaac

22After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ²He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ ³So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ ⁶Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ ⁸Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill^* his son. ¹¹But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹²He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ ¹³And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’;^* as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’^*

 Google “Abraham and Isaac” and you will encounter multiple articles written about this epic story.  What is this story all about?  In my sermon for Sunday morning, March 27, a prelude to the presentation of Britten’s Canticle on “Abraham and Isaac,” I describe the story as mystery. I liken the mystery to the huge red curtain that hangs suspended on the back wall of the sanctuary, a drape that has hung there for decades.  One of the men, now grown, who came along at Westmoreland from childhood says, “As a little boy, I used to think that God lived behind that red curtain.”  ”Later,” he opines, “as I grew older the curtain came to represent the mystery of God.”  I like that picture–a small boy in church, Sunday after Sunday, gazing at the huge red curtain.  To a small boy, the drape must have looked even more enormous than it actually is.  At the risk of giving away the boy’s secret, “There’s nothing but a plain wall behind the red curtain.” Read the rest of this entry »

Parlor Discussion Sunday March 27, 9 a.m. with Bob Maddox

(Note below by Mike Durst)

Genesis 22 (NRSV):

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ²He said, ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ ³So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. ⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’ ⁶Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?’ ⁸Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill^* his son. ¹¹But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹²He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’ ¹³And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will provide’;^* as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’^*

15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.’ ¹⁹So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

20 Now after these things it was told Abraham, ‘Milcah also has borne children, to your brother Nahor: ²¹Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, ²²Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.’ ²³Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. ²⁴Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Like so much of the Bible, this famous reading addresses the question of why suffering and death, as well as beauty and love, must be part of God’s creation. Read the rest of this entry »

Psalm 51

Parlor Discussion at 9:00 AM

With Bob Maddox

I surmise it will be helpful to look at this magnificent Psalm using a different format. I will slide my own commentary in between some of the strophes in the psalm and highlight my ideas. Maybe you can follow both the psalm and my musings better. Certainly we will anticipate tomorrow’s service built around this psalm especially Sid Fowler’s sermon.

Along with Psalm 23, this poem of penance and remorse is one of the more famous psalms in the Christian Lectionary. In more traditional renderings, it is ascribed to King David when confronted by the fearless prophet Nathan after David’s unconscionable act of adultery and then murder. (See 2 Kings 11 and 12.) I have no improvement upon that time honored tradition. If David did not in fact pen the poem, he should have. The poem certainly probes the depths of human sin and responsibility. Hamlet’s mother and step-father, Lord and Lady Macbeth and countless more figures of literature and history could just as easily and painfully have penned the poem. So could most any of us in those times when we willingly step off into deep holes of sin, unfaithfulness, duplicity, Machiavellian maneuvering and downright evil then try to pull ourselves back into the land of the living. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jerilyn Watson

In the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the superscription of Psalm 51 reads: “To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba.”

This attention-getting attribution was apparently placed by a post-exilic editor (The New Oxford Annotated Bible). The superscription sends us to 2 Samuel to refresh our memories about David’s sin and the sparing of his life by God.

The scripture has Nathan confronting David with his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah (2 Samuel v.12). David confesses his sin, and Nathan says the Lord “has put away thy sin, thou shalt not die” (King James Version), Read the rest of this entry »

Transfiguration Sunday marks a major event in the life of Jesus, an event chronicled in the Synoptic Gospels.  The account of the transfiguration that we’ll hear this week at Westmoreland is described in Matthew 17: 1-9. This passage follows the conclusion of the chapter in which Jesus has told his disciples of his coming suffering, and declares that he is the Messiah (16:21).

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By Bob Maddox
Parlor Discussion at 9:00 AM
Psalm 131
Song of Quiet Trust

A Song of Ascents. Of David.
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and for evermore.

After weeks of intense effort on the part of many in the church, especially the Interim Working Team under Sid’s coaching, we come tomorrow to elect a Pastor Search Committee.  The Westmoreland Family put forth over one hundred “ballots” with something over fifty individual names.  From those terrific submissions, the IWT and the Executive Committee present a list of nine Westmorelanders tomorrow for consideration and election as the Pastor Search Committee.  I hope you have looked at the list and, offered a prayer for support and leadership as these folks lead us into the journey of seeking and calling a new minister.  I was not involved in the selection process but knowing those who were, I am confident they studied all the submissions carefully, marveled at the quality and commitment of everyone suggested, prayed and waited before the Lord as they compiled the list of nine.  For my part, I take a deep sigh of relief that we have crossed our own version of the Jordan River and are now headed into a new promised land.  Do you feel that?  It’s been quite a trek for these past months.  Another way to describe where we’ve been, as a congregation, we have “taken the flood” and now move on to our own “outrageous fortune.” A good feeling I hope you share.

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by Pamela Henderson

Our lection for this Sunday is from the book of Psalms, which will also be the source of our Lenten lections.  Thus, before we turn to today’s psalm, some background about the book itself seems in order.

The book of Psalms, which Christians also call the Psalter, is a collection of 150 “sung poetic prayers … associated with divine worship in Israel” (Source A) that “were numbered consecutively in the Hebrew tradition” (Source B).  “The individual compositions have come to be called ‘psalms’ because of the name given to the Greek versions of the book, psalmoi” (Source C) which means “instrumental music and, by extension, the words that accompany the music” (Source B).  (“In Hebrew [the Psalter] is known as ‘the book of praises.’”  Ibid.)

“The psalms are poetic discourse between Israel and God, who is said to hear and answer.  Many are frank, unrestrained conversations.  Some are prayers and praises that soar to the heights of spiritual devotion.  Some arise from the deepest pain and distress and display the depths of human misery, anger, and frustration.  A few are complacent and self-congratulatory, and a few others are militant and chauvinistic.  The psalms present a rich cross section of speech to and about God, and in some cases include speech from God.  At their heart is the conviction that God is the one to whom all can speak.”  Source D. Read the rest of this entry »

by Pamela Henderson

First Corinthians is a letter from Paul to the Christian community he had nurtured in Corinth during his second missionary journey.  The letter is indisputably Pauline and is thought to date form the early 50’s CE.  Source A.  As we saw last month, Paul’s purpose in writing to the Corinthian church is to quell disputes that were splitting the church.  Here we again find Paul assaulting “Corinthian wisdom and divisions in the church.”  Source B.  However, Paul’s “main line of argument in chapter 3 longer focuses on the cross.  Instead, he relentlessly emphasizes that the church belongs to God:  God brought it into being, and God will judge it.”  Source C.  Paul writes: Read the rest of this entry »

By Robert L. Maddox

Parlor Discussion by Mike Durst 9:00 AM

1 Corinthians 3:10-23

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. ¹¹For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. ¹²Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— ¹³the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. ¹⁴If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?^{* 17}If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’,
²⁰and again,
‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’

²¹So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, ²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, ²³and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Paul says, in Christ, “all things are yours.”  That’s quite a declaration.  Food, water, clothing, shelter, security, a dependable Iphone?  All things?  Well, not everything.  Paul is saying, I believe, that God in Christ has provided all we need to live really productive spiritual, emotional, relational, serving lives. That’s a big promise of itself but I can go there.  Let’s see what we can see from this passage by way of appropriating the stuff we need for much of everyday existence. Food, water, shelter, a good Iphone will take some more talk.

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