Luke 14: 1, 7-14 / Psalm 112
Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA
Offered to the Wharton Hungarian Church, Wharton, NJ on June 19, 2022
I have a concern about being in fear of the Lord. Psalm 111 tells us that Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. In other words, I am uncomfortable with the notion that Fear is how we are to approach God. That’s not what I want for you today.
So, I want you to know that Fear of the Lord is not a slavish, subservient fear. We should not come before God in expectation of being reprimanded or condemn. Having fear of the Lord is more like a child coming to a parent with a desire to be obedient and loved. At least that is the lesson that Jesus would have us learn. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; that is, it is the start of a journey on which we will grow to know the very nature and character of the God Jesus knows.
On that journey we have two guides. One is the example and the teachings of the Christ. Jesus’ teachings open up the meaning of Scripture for us allowing us to see the very heart of God. So that we can begin to know the nature of God and what God desires for us. Our second guide is God’s Spirit. The Spirit lives within believers. It stirs a yearning within us to move ahead on our faith journey and discover more each day about the God that loves us. The Spirit helps us to hear that wee, small voice of God when God speaks to us.
As we begin to read this Psalm, it is helpful to think of it as a response to the ending of Psalm 111.
Psalm 111 ends with,
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.
All those who practice it gain sound understanding.
His praises endure forever.”
Psalm 112 picks up:
“Praise the Lord!
Happy are those who fear the Lord,
who are ardently devoted to his commandments.”
Let’s put these two phrases together:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom…
Happy are those who fear the Lord.”
Does this mean that happiness in our lives is born out of a cowering fear? No. I don’t think that is what the Psalmist is telling us. I read a commentary on this Psalm and specifically on the word translated as “Happy” in the verse. The original word connotes a life journey that leads to an experience of wholeness, both physical and spiritual – a life that has integrity and is filled with joy. I don’t believe that a life that brings us wholeness, integrity and joy is born out of cowering in fear. *
I don’t think the God that Jesus is telling us about is one that we should bow before in fear like a slave that is expecting harsh judgement from its master. Remember John 3:16:
God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Then John 3:17 continues:
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be save through him.”
So, this fear that we should have for God is more of obedient reverence and not servitude. We should approach God with a desire to praise God by doing the things that will please the heart of God. When we grow to know that, that obedient reverence is the beginning of Wisdom.
Now this begs the question, what will please the heart of God?
The Psalmist tells us it begins with having a delight in God’s commandments; that is wanting to be obedient to God’s commandments because that will praise God not because we are fearful of eternal damnation. Sometimes, it might be easier in life not to do things – not to commit murder or not have an adulterous affair – than it is to do what is right because it will please God. I mean it is easier to fall in line with the negative than to do the positive.
This is, I think, the prism that Jesus provides for us when he opens up Scripture to us. I will take as an example the Ten Commandments. On our own, we might look at them as burdensome as the ancient Israelites did and perhaps editorialize them and refer to them as the DON’Ts.
- DON’T have other Gods
- DON’T worship idols
- DON’T make a wrongful use of the Lord God’s name
- On the Sabbath, DON’T do any work
- DON’T murder
- DON’T commit adultery
- DON’T steal
- DON’T bear false witness
- DON’T covet your neighbor’s house or wife
This is what I refer to as a very Old Testament characterization of God and God’s Commandments. God’s image has a harsh, demanding, and judgmental side to it. For the orthodox Jew, the Law and the Jewish religion was a thing of burdens. Jesus said of the Scribes and Pharisees, “…they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the people’s shoulders.” For the Jew in Jesus’ time, religion had become a thing of endless rules. The Jew was always listening to that voice that said, “Thou shalt not…”
In other words, if you DON’T fall in line with the don’ts, then something bad will happen to you. God’s judgment will be upon you. And indeed, we do see that playout in Scripture. Whenever the Israelites wandered and forgot their relationship with God, they were punished with captivity and exile. The promised land was taken away from them. But those punishments were not so much for rule breaking as they were for covenant breaking and relationship breaking.
Because of this one-sided version of God, this notion that if you break the rules, you will be punished, it’s hard for our minds to depart from this image of a harsh God with rules to follow and punishments for failures. It’s been engrained into our Christian physique, as well. And that would be the message we hear if Old Testament Scripture was all we had to go on. What I mean is, if we did not have the Christ to reveal more about God to us.
I guess what I am saying is that the ancient Israelites were a primitive, stiff-necked, and superstitious people and they required strict guidelines to keep them in a righteous relationship with God.
But we have Jesus who gives a new, wider, and more full vision of who God is. Jesus, tells us in Matthew, “Take up my yoke and follow me … for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
What Jesus is saying to us here, is that his view of how to approach God is far easier than what the leaders of the Jewish religion had placed upon the people. Jesus wasn’t approaching a judgmental God that we should be fearful of, a God who keeps a leger of our worst sins. Jesus was taking us to a God that loves us and who is ready to be merciful and forgiving regardless of the severity of our sins. And that yoke, that burden is far easier to bear under than what was being laid upon the people.
Jesus gave us a new commandment that provided for us a new relationship with God – one that is based upon Love, not fear. Jesus tells us in John 13: 34
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
This is the prism though which we are to interpret Scripture. That is Love. And if we look back at Scripture, the Ten Commandments and reinterpret them through the Christ, things might sound differently. Let’s try this.
- I am your God who loves you. My love will fulfill you.
- If you love me, I will live within you, and you will have no need of idols.
- My name is sacred. Love and praise it always.
- I have created the Sabbath for your rest. Let me restore and refresh you on that day.
- I gave you life through your parents. Honor them always.
- Love the world and all the life in it that I have created.
- My relationship with you is a blessed one and so are the relationships that I have given you. Honor them with love always.
- My eye is even on the sparrow and more so on the least of you. I will provide for your every need.
- In my love you will find truth.
- I have given you all that you will need. Trust me and rely on my love.
I want to be clear. I am not saying that Jesus has changed the Commandments given down to us by God to Moses on Mount Saini. Remember, Jesus has said that he had not come to change the Law but to fulfill it. Perhaps Jesus wouldn’t have said them differently, but I think he interprets them differently. He teaches them differently. He certainly wouldn’t interpret them as the Israelite scholarship of the time did. Would he have created 660 Mitzvahs? I don’t think so. Rather, I am saying that Jesus wants us to see a fuller vision of the God not before revealed in Scripture. He wants us to see the Creator God that loves all that was created. And if we respond to that loving God with the love that Jesus exemplifies for us and calls us to exhibit, we will want to be obedient and do things that will please the heart of God.
So, where do we go from here?
My friends, I want us all to begin a journey to grow in wisdom not in fear but in reverent obedience to the Lord. I would like us to grow in wisdom so that we can come to know how and what to do that can be pleasing the Lord, our God.
Remember that God so loved the world that God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save it through the Son.
- So, as your response to the first Commandment, come to the Lord, your God and praise God’s holy name because God loves you and has sacrificed all for your salvation.
- Realize that there is nothing on this earth, there is nothing of higher value that can replace that love and that we have no need for us to seek idols in our lives that would replace God.
- Always hold the name of the God who loves you in high and sacred reverence.
- Take advantage of the Sabbath Day to rest with God and to let God refresh you because God’s love and God’s Spirit will fill you with a vigor that will help you to soar like eagles.
- Honor your parents because God uses them to guide you and light your path.
- Love all life that God has created. Respect and love all your neighbors as Jesus has taught us.
- Love the covenant promises that God has made with us by honoring the covenants that we have made with each other.
- Realize that in love God has and will fulfill all your needs. There is nothing you will need that your loving Father in heaven is not willing to give to you.
- God is all truth. Being right with God means displaying that truth for all to witness.
- God wants you to live in a right relationship with God. There is never a need to look elsewhere to fulfill your needs.
This is the path I wish for you. May your journey to wisdom be blessed and the God of love be with you always.
*Credit to Bob Naylor, These Days, August 24, 2022
CHARGE: My friends, Jesus has called us to take up his yoke, not because it is a heavy burden difficult and arduous, but because his burden is easy and light. Take up the Christ’s yoke for within him you will find rest for your soul.
