Articles : Sunday School by Halteman Finger
Feb. 13, 2012 issue
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Halteman Finger
Works of the law?
Paul closes his letter to the Galatians as he does every letter —with ethics. After presenting so many reasons why law-observance is not necessary, would you have expected this? How do we reconcile a triumphant “for freedom Christ has set us free … do not submit again to a yoke of slavery!” (5:1) with “do not use freedom for self-indulgence but through love become slaves to one another” (5:13)?
A common misunderstanding among Christians is to confuse “works of the law” with works of faith or good works. Paul never opposes good works. He only challenges the ceremonial law, such as circumcision or food laws, which are in themselves amoral. At his core, Paul is a mystic, whose intimate relationship with Christ calls him to a higher standard than he ever had as a law-abiding Pharisee. To “live by the Spirit” (5:16) is to produce fruit of such love, kindness and self-control that it will feel like “crucifying the flesh” (5:22-24). To gently restore someone “detected in a transgression” (6:1) seems beyond what most of us can imagine.
Feb. 6, 2012 issue
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Law’s purpose
The next argument in Paul’s courtroom defense uses an example from daily life — signing a will. He compares God’s original covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12 and 15 to a ratified will that cannot be changed. It happened, Paul says, 430 years before the law was given. The later law cannot change the original promise. However, his wordplay between “seed” and “offspring” as singular or plural seems contrived.
Jan. 30, 2012 issue
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Signs of covenant
In last week’s text, Paul addresses his fellow Jewish Christians. Still defending himself in the courtroom, Paul now turns to Gentile believers. “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” Traveling to Greece and Turkey a few years ago, I saw ornaments featuring a blue eye in buses, taxis, doorways of shops and homes, and worn as jewelry. It was the amulet warding off the “evil eye” that people believed would bewitch them unless they protected themselves. This is the background of 3:1-5. In spite of their heady experience of trusting the Spirit of Jesus to save them from evil, Gentile believers were substituting ceremonial Jewish law to take the place of the eye amulet. Bad theology, says Paul.
Jan. 23, 2012 issue
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Paul makes his case
Twelve centuries have passed since our lesson with Moses and Miriam. We would be lost without our quarter’s theme of “God’s Covenant” (with Abraham), “God’s Protection” (of Joseph and Moses), and now “God’s Redemption” (proclaimed by Paul). Even so, crossing such historical distance and change of style from narrative to poetry to letter, we probably feel like Dorothy, hurled by tornado from Kansas to Oz. Everything seems different!
Jan. 16, 2012 issue
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Song of the sea
Yesterday’s winners are today’s losers, and vice versa. After Joseph dies, we enter a 400-year silence during which yesterday’s privileged Hebrews become today’s beaten-down slaves. Only then does Yahweh groom another Egyptian prince as the human instrument to carry out a divine plan to redeem these slaves. Was it his Hebrew genes or the burning bush which drives Moses to reject his royal heritage and become midwife as Yahweh births the chosen people? (Num. 11:11-15).
Jan. 9, 2012 issue
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Happily ever after?
For all we know, Cinderella and her prince are still living happily in some magical kingdom. But Joseph’s narrator is a realist and, after last week’s emotional climax, must connect the lineage of Abraham to Moses more than 500 years later. The brothers return to Canaan to report to Jacob that Joseph is still alive, whereupon the whole extended family packs up and moves to Egypt (Gen. 45:16-47:12). Joseph and Jacob reunite (46:28-30), and the tribe of Israelites are given the best land in Goshen for their flocks and herds (47:1-6).
Jan. 2, 2012 issue
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Dramatic reunion
To catch the full impact of this climactic passage, read chapters 42-44. Little is said about the seven fertile years during which surplus harvests are stored. But when the lean years begin and famine spreads far and wide, news travels fast: “Egypt has food to sell!”
Dec. 26, 2011 issue
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Political power
Barack Obama’s rapid rise from community organizer to U.S. senator to president has nothing on Joseph! After last week’s lesson, Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams that come true first gets him out of prison and then into the presence of mighty Pharaoh himself. Without missing a beat, Joseph finds meaning in Pharaoh’s double dream of fat and thin cows and plump and withered ears of grain (41:1-7, 17-24). Then, administrator that he is, he immediately tells Pharaoh what to do about the coming seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.
Dec. 19, 2011 issue
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A sex scandal
The theme of this five-week unit is titled “God’s Protection,” and four of the texts are from the long Joseph narrative in Genesis 37-50. Though this theme is an apt one for the story of a Hebrew teenager ripped from his home and enslaved in a foreign land, the choice of texts assumes that Sunday school classes know the whole story. All narratives demand a beginning, a middle and an end; and this narrative is especially dramatic. Nevertheless, we skip the beginning and plunge into the middle — straight into a triangulated sex scandal!
Dec. 12, 2011 issue
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Child of promise
This lesson includes Mary’s song of salvation and the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, accompanied by shepherds and angels. What can we say that is new about this account layered over by centuries of tradition and simplified into children’s Christmas pageants?
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