Pulpit Fiction

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174: Proper 9C (July 3, 2016)

Eric Fistler

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174: Proper 9C (July 3, 2016)

Image: Jacob Jordaens [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Voice in the Wilderness: Galatians 6:1-16, Chris Strickland

  • Chris Strickland a UMC lay servant at St. Paul UMC Gainesville, Georgia. I am a UMC pastor’s kid and school teacher.
Episode 174 Proper 9C - (July 3, 2016)
Hello and welcome to the Pulpit Fiction Podcast, the lectionary podcast for preachers, seekers and Bible geeks. This is episode 174 for Sunday July 3, 2016, Proper 9, Year C.

Introduction and Check-in  

  • Join us at Wild Goose Festival July 7-10 in Hot Springs North Carolina!

    • Save 25% with the code “GooseCast2016”

Voice in the Wilderness: Galatians 6:1-16, Chris Strickland

  • Chris Strickland a UMC lay servant at St. Paul UMC Gainesville, Georgia. I am a UMC pastor’s kid and school teacher.

  • Notes

    • Use caution when dealing with these verses. Many have been used for harm.
    • Vs 1-10 are not encouragement for interrogation of others, but a warning to all Christians on how to deal with fault.
    • Focus on the corporate and the individual response.
    • As a church we are to help reconcile and restore. As individuals we must tread carefully lest we slip and fall also.
    • Deal with the circumcision verses. We like to look over the early Christian litmus tests for salvation, but Paul assures us that no outward act can save mankind. It is only the grace of our Lord and Savior.  Think about the litmus test that we still use today.
    • If you include 17 and 18. 17 does not mean that because we are Christians that no harm will come to us. He is saying that I do not need to prove my salvation to you by cutting my flesh. I already beat the scars of being a child of God.

Gospel Reading:  Luke 10:1-20 Jesus sends out the Seventy
Initial Thoughts

  • Lectionary note: Sanitizes the scripture - Don’t do it

Bible Study

  • Seventy (or 72)

    • Even Jesus and the disciples needed help - DON’T BE A LONE RANGER
  • See Genesis 6-10

    • Gen 6: Sent out in pairs (like the remnant of animals to be saved)
    • Gen. 10: Seventy implies all the nations of the world

    • Gen. 9: Go forth and multiply, God’s command and covenant of peace
  • “Eat what is set before you” - challenges the cleanliness codes

    • precursor to Acts 10
  • Mission of 70 parallels Luke 4:18, Jesus’s first sermon and “mission statement”

    • Luke 4:18 - “The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
    • Luke 10:8b - “Cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near to you.’”
  • Wrath for those that do not welcome the disciples is a matter of proper hospitality.  

    • Punishment for inhospitable cities is same as punishment for Sodom, an inhospitable city.
  • The Return of the 70

    • “I saw Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.”  Not a description of the past, or foretelling the future.  Satan is defeated because the Kingdom of God is at hand.  
    • John Wesley’s note “That is, when the seventy went forth, I saw the kingdom of Satan, which was highly exalted, swiftly and suddenly cast down.”
    • Do not rejoice because of the cool things you did.  Rejoice because of the Kingdom.  
    • “Triumphalism is an inappropriate spirit among disciples.  Our chief joy should be, not that we have certain gifts and powers, but that God has received and accepted us, that our names are ‘written in heaven’” (Fred Craddock in Interpretation)

Sermon Thoughts and Questions:

  • Evangelism - what is it to share the good news?
  • Harvest is great - this is good news to a declining church - the harvest has not changed, but perhaps we need to go out (be more apostolic) and leave our comfortable buildings behind
  • Hostile - Evangelism, sharing the good news was never meant to be easy or save, but would most likely cost you your life...like a sheep amidst the wolves
  • Great work - the work of the small group is much greater than perceived - even the little they did will lead to the fall of evil (and presumably the coming of the Kingdom of God) - God does great things through us

    • like a small seed becoming a Great Oak
    • or a small pebble creating a ripple throughout the ocean
  • Authority - is not something to relish or rejoice in, but being faithful is

Psalm Nugget: Psalm 30 Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (psalmimmersion.com, @pomopsalmist)

Second Reading:  2 Kings 5:1-14 Healing of Naaman
Initial Thoughts

  • AMAZING Video interpretation of this story: http://youtu.be/0JQgGQUqGR4 - at the end of the show notes!
  • cf. Luke 4:27 - Naaman is referred to by Jesus in defense of his inaugural sermon
  • INCLUDE VERSE 15

Bible Study

  • Slave Girl

    • a non-person (no name or title) simply the servant of the wife of a servant..
    • She is the bearer of good news!
    • Mutuality of mission, we do not simply bring people the good news from the a place of power but need to hear it as well
    • What could she have to offer?

      • Salvation
    • Slave girl has faith where the King of Israel or even Naaman does not...
  • Revelation

    • Slave girl offers salvation, but does not require conversion
    • She does not abandon or neutralize her faith and culture in order to deliver the good news, but offers them from her faith and culture
    • Interfaith relations/dialogue

      • Importance of speaking authentically from one’s faith
      • Sharing the good news of one’s special revelation, does not mean ignoring another’s special revelation or overcoming general revelation

        • special revelation - revelation of God in a specific culture of context (e.g. Christianity, Islam, etc)
        • General revelation - revelation of God in the natural world and order of life (e.g. God in nature, in general human community, see Psalm 19 or Romans 1:20)
  • Courage and healing

    • Girl has the courage to share her knowledge about Elisha
    • Naaman has the courage to go to Israel
    • Courage of Israel to accept Naaman- enemy of Israel
  • The work of God

    • incarnate in the river Jordan, in Elisha and in the servant girl
    • Not aloof or transcendent but incarnate
    • Not to convert Naaman, but to show the goodness and glory of God.

Sermon Thoughts and Questions

  • How might we reclaim evangelism as a way of showing God’s goodness and not about getting more members?
  • Are we willing to accept the strangeness of the Gospel in order to be healed?

    • Are we too proud or arrogant to accept healing?
    • Are we too skeptical of God’s messengers?

Tasty Wafer of the Week:

CLOSING
Thank you listeners
Shout-Outs:
Feedback:

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Thanks to our Psalms correspondent, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (psalmimmersion.com, @pomopsalmist). Thank you to Scott Fletcher for our voice bumpers, Dick Dale and the Del Tones for our Theme music (“Misirlou”), Nicolai Heidlas (“Sunday Morning”, "Real Ride" and “Summertime”) and The Steel Wheels for our transition music(“Nola’s First Dance” from their album Lay Down, Lay Low) and Paul and Storm for our closing music (“Oh No”).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JQgGQUqGR4?wmode=opaque]