Thursday • 10/3/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 21

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 105:1-22; Hosea 5:8–6:6; Acts 21:27-36; Luke 6:1-11

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)

Today’s lessons are a study in what is the one great enemy of the human soul. This enemy the writer to the Hebrews names “the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

Sin’s deceitfulness: Hosea. The sin of false worship deceives the Northern Kingdom of Israel as to what threatens her well-being. Her spiritual adultery has brought dire consequences; she thinks she is under threat from outside forces (from Judah, the Southern Kingdom), and so she seeks unholy alliances (with Assyria). But it is chiefly the ferocity of Yahweh’s jealous love that she has brought upon herself: “I will be like a lion to Ephraim … I will tear and go away … I have hewn them by the prophets” (Hosea 5:14; 6:5).

The answer is really quite simple, if not easy:

“steadfast love” (as opposed to a false, temporary “love … like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early” — 6:4) …
“…and not sacrifice” (for though they could barely realize it at the time, one day there will be a Sacrifice that results in “a third day” raising up to life — 6:2),
“the knowledge of God” (that is, intimate and exclusive fellowship with their true Husband Yahweh) …
“…rather than burnt offerings” (“smells and bells” minus heart-devotion stir God’s disgust, not his affections—Hosea 6:6).

Image: Sebastiano Ricci , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sin’s deceitfulness: Luke. In Jesus’s confrontations with the scribes and the Pharisees (Luke 6:2,7) over the significance of the sabbath day, the “deceitfulness of sin” manifests itself in their misunderstanding of the significance of God’s commands generally, and his command to keep the sabbath specifically. David had put the well-being of his companions ahead of the sanctity of the showbread (1Samuel 21:1-6). In doing so, he had embodied the principle that “steadfast love” outweighs “sacrifice.” A thousand years later, Jesus comes as “the Son of Man” to underscore the point. God sympathizes with humans in their suffering. Healing, as he does, on the sabbath, Jesus, “the lord of the sabbath,” embodies the principle that the sabbath is a gift for restoration and healing, not a summons to smug, sanctimonious, spiritual self-promotion.

Sin’s deceitfulness: Acts. Sin’s deceitfulness is in full force when Paul’s enemies misrepresent him as having violated Jewish scruples about bringing Gentiles into the Temple precincts. Indeed, as far as Paul is concerned, Christ’s sacrifice has destroyed the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14-16). But out of respect for his countrymen, Paul has honored their principles, leaving the Gentile members of his retinue outside while he enters the Temple. Paul desires to win unbelieving fellow Jews with God’s love, not bludgeon them over their spiritual blindness. Not so long ago he himself had not been able to figure out that God’s Messiah had come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus had had to appear to him personally. Now he is committed simply to telling and showing the good news, letting Christ do the convincing. Sin’s deceitfulness can be taken away by the Lord—it really can, but only by the Lord. Paul knows that. And so should we.

A fitting conclusion for our meditation on these passages is the urging from Hebrews: “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”—Hebrews 3:12-13.

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+