Isaiah 52-54 Psalm 42 Titus 2
Sometimes how we read the scriptures has a lot to do with when we read them. If this were Christmas or even Easter, I would certainly put my time into the Isaiah selections today. They have been used for so long as a lens to look at the ministry of Christ. The Psalm has been put to music so many times that I can hardly read it without breaking into song. I could have a lot to say about it. However, today the words that reach out to me and DEMAND attention are these:
“Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to answer back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Saviour” What?!?
As I read these words we are as a nation remembering the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream! How do we read these words of Titus in light of the history of slavery in the United States of America? Some folks like to point out that slavery in the 1st Century was different from slavery in the 18th and 19th Centuries which is different again from modern day slavery. But I, for one, think slavery is slavery and it is always something to be fought against!
Somehow, every early in our history, the church started worrying about how it looked in society. Maybe I have missed the mark, but it seems quite different from how Jesus lived and taught others to be. While these verses talk about how the members of a well ordered home should live, they leave out any words for the master of this home. Where are the words for him? (And yes, it was a him!)
Let us never let the words of the Bible be for us permission to oppress others or to ignore their oppression.
Sometimes how we read the scriptures has a lot to do with when we read them. If this were Christmas or even Easter, I would certainly put my time into the Isaiah selections today. They have been used for so long as a lens to look at the ministry of Christ. The Psalm has been put to music so many times that I can hardly read it without breaking into song. I could have a lot to say about it. However, today the words that reach out to me and DEMAND attention are these:
“Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to answer back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Saviour” What?!?
As I read these words we are as a nation remembering the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream! How do we read these words of Titus in light of the history of slavery in the United States of America? Some folks like to point out that slavery in the 1st Century was different from slavery in the 18th and 19th Centuries which is different again from modern day slavery. But I, for one, think slavery is slavery and it is always something to be fought against!
Somehow, every early in our history, the church started worrying about how it looked in society. Maybe I have missed the mark, but it seems quite different from how Jesus lived and taught others to be. While these verses talk about how the members of a well ordered home should live, they leave out any words for the master of this home. Where are the words for him? (And yes, it was a him!)
Let us never let the words of the Bible be for us permission to oppress others or to ignore their oppression.
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