Psalm 82 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)
Luke 12: 49-56 (Common English Bible)
John the Baptizer prepared the way for Jesus, inviting people to be baptized and to emerge out of those waters with changed hearts and minds. In this season after Pentecost, remember the fire of the Holy Spirit which came down on Jesus’ believers. The fire was energizing and filling people with God’s Spirit. And remember the fire that Moses encountered on a bush. But the fire can also be used to do bad things. Two of Jesus’ disciples wanted him to summon fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village because they rejected Jesus. But Jesus said, no way, just shake the dust of your sandals around their community.
This reading from Luke’s gospel can be called the turning point for Jesus. Jesus is going to Jerusalem to accept his fate. His disciples accepted his claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God. Their choice was to join Jesus’ kingdom or remain enslaved to the values of this world.
There were bad things happening in Judea that most people wanted to ignore. We also have many bad things going on in America that many people and churches want to ignore. But God wants us to see the world as it really is, and understand how serious things are.
Most of the Pharisees hated Jesus because he criticized their 613 rules from the Torah. Its rules told people how they should worship and what they could do or not do during the Sabbath. It went far beyond the rules of Moses and the stone tablet brought down from the mountain. Jesus warned the Pharisees these rules made it difficult for people to be close to God and they will be punished someday. And so they were, when the Romans destroyed their Temple in 70 AD.
When Jesus speaks of bringing division among families, he knew the Gospel of the Kingdom would disrupt family ties and national unity. Many would leave the Jewish faith to be part of the Jesus faith. And one of the many reasons Romans hated Christians, was because they broke up families. A lot of Roman officials and soldiers stationed in Judea brought their family with them. And some of the younger Romans in Judea turned away from paganism to be part of the Jesus faith. So one might say, the early Christians didn’t care about “family values.” Jesus was more important.
Jesus brings division to those who neither love or want the truth. Truth is very important. I remember some years ago when Tim Russert was the host of Meet the Press. He got into a heated and almost funny debate with Kellyanne Conway, who I believe was Press Secretary during Donald Trump’s first presidency. The discussion was about how big the crowds were at the inauguration. Tim said all the evidence from several valid news sites, showed the crowds were smaller than usual. Well, Kellyanne’s reply was, but you should know there are alternate facts. Tim almost fell from his chair when he heard that. He tried to explain to her, there cannot be two different facts, only one.
And that is the sad situation we are in today. Lies become Truth and Truth becomes lies.
Jesus grieved for the people of his time. They know the signs of the weather to interpret good or bad weather coming, yet they ignore the biblical signs of the return of Christ. I believe in the return of Christ, but I believe it will be totally different from what most people have thought. The Scriptures speak clearly the Coming of the Christ will be preceded by anguish, fear and the shaking of the foundations. Look at the weather today. Constant flooding, constant fires everywhere, tornadoes in places they never were and the constant heat which doesn’t stop. This is not normal! When you turn on the national news, it’s usually the destructive weather they cover first. Unfortunately there are two words they seem to ignore, global warming caused by fossil fuel. And CBS, NBC and ABC are guilty about this. FOX is a lost cause. They lie everyday.
What can we do about this and other serious problems facing people and this planet earth? It takes more than thoughts and prayers. Just a week ago a woman in Louisville was shot and killed while she took her daughter to the bus stop for school. For years and years we have talked and prayed about gun violence and nothing happens. Until we confront these merchants of death, the status quo will continue. What if Jesus had just prayed for the money-changers to leave the Temple? Instead Jesus took direct action and destoyed their equipment of greed and exploitation.
Psalm 82 is a strange Psalm for two reasons. First, it is not a Psalm of praise, thanksgiving, forgiveness or confession. Unlike most Psalms it is not addressed to God in any of those ways, except the very last verse. Instead it is God speaking to us. It is a Psalm of judgement proclaimed by God against those who are guilty of social injustice. There is a lot of symbolism and metaphor in this Psalm but the message is as valid today as it was when it was first written.
It begins with a vision of God standing in the “great assembly,” called the great hall of justice in heaven, kinda like our Supreme Court. God is preceding over a gathering of judges to judge them.
Who are these symbolic judges? This is the second reason this Psalm is so different. The judges to be judged are “gods” which makes this Psalm so confusing. But the ancient Hebrews did believe there were multiple gods with each nation having their own. But the God of Israel, Yahweh, was the most powerful. But in this reading the writer used the name “Elohim”
for Israel’s God, a term for many gods which makes sense especially if you read the creation story in Genesis 1: 26 where God says, “Let US make humankind in OUR image. You would think God is powerful enough to do the creation by himself. But in the early stories of the Hebrew Bible, the ancient Hebrews believed there were multiple gods, but their God had the most power.
Here the Psalmist writer adapts that worldview of multiple gods in order to make a point, that the God of Israel is greater than the gods of other nations. It’s like a modern day minister using a modern myth to make a religious point. Kind of like Jesus’ parables.
God is angry at these judges or gods. What was their crime? They were unjust judges in two ways. First they didn’t punish the criminals who committed heinous crimes. We’ve recently seen this in our nation. There was a police officer who joined the terrorists who attacked the Capital Building on Jan. 6th, 2021 and threatened to kill other police officers trying to stop the assault. Not only was he pardoned by our current president, he was later given another position in law enforcement. And God also condemned the judges who didn’t help the poor.
Psalm 82 shows us that social justice is not just a liberal cause, it is very much a God cause that all Christians should rally around. It is just as important as evangelism. Social justice is part of God’s great work of restoring the world to its original Shalom, meaning peace.
Both conservatives and liberals must defend the cause of the weak and maintain the rights of the poor. And one recent action by our present government has made me furious. It’s making homeless people leave Washington DC with no place to go. I have never seen such a group of hypocritical Christians controlling our government. It almost seems like Satan is in control. Our country could learn a lesson from the western European nations, and especially Finland how to humanely treat and assist the homeless.
When those appointed to do justice, whether in this Psalm or any city in America, show they don’t understand social issues and don’t know God's standards, they walk in moral darkness, and the whole world order crumbles. When those in justice refuse to do justice, all symbols of justice are useless. And I’m thinking about Breonna Taylor, no real justice for her yet.
“Injustice is a cosmic sin with ramifications in both heaven and earth” (Brent Strawn, Professor at Duke Divinity School). Think of the number of times the world has been shaken when the weak and needy finally rose up in desperate rebellion because those in charge of justice didn’t care about their poverty. Perhaps it’s about time for that to happen again. And if God is in charge, it would be a blessing. AMEN.
