Divine Law Within and Beyond – October 19 Lectionary

Last updated on: October 12, 2025 at 4:14 pm by Bruce Epperly

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Divine Law Within and Beyond – October 19 Lectionary 2025-10-12T16:14:30-04:00 Bruce Epperly

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The Adventurous Lectionary – October 19, 2025 – The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119:97-14; 2 Timothy 3:15-4:5; Luke 18:1-8.

Our relationship with God is filled with contrasts. The Infinite is present in the finite, and the eternal in the temporal. While God is present in every situation, the unfolding of life, our own and our institutional and national life, involves interplay of order and chaos, novelty and tradition, providence and agency, and our alignment with divinity and turning toward self-interest. While the scriptures assert that ultimately God’s moral arc will prevail in the historical adventure, in the meantime, the dynamic call and response regularly oscillates toward and then away from God’s vision, imagined in terms of the creative and just order of the universe, the realm of wholeness and Shalom.

Moment by moment and over the long haul, personally and institutionally, God calls and we respond, opening and closing new possibilities for the God-world relationship and the moral arc of history. God always seeks wholeness and beauty in our lives and history, but the contours of divine activity are shaped, in part, by our receptivity to God’s vision.

Today’s passages reflect on the nature of divine order and human responsiveness and invite us to ask: How shall we understand the divine order of the universe? Is there a divine law that undergirds the universe and human life? Is this law inflexible or relational? Are the laws of nature and the laws of human life oppressive – as most legalistic interpretations of natural law suggest – or liberating, encouraging creativity and care for each other – and real freedom and agency – as the heart of our relationship with God? How do we discern the moral and spiritual arcs of history in the turbulent era of Trump and Trump church.

The passages from Jeremiah 31 and Psalm 119 affirm the transformative power of divine law. God’s law is intimate and personal, historical and institutional, written on our hearts and present in the affairs of nations. Even when we turn away from God, divine law is present as our deepest reality. Aligned with divine law, we experience the blessings of divine providence moving through our lives. When we turn away from God’s moral law, as Israel did, God appears to be absent and punitive. We experience spiritual deprivation which is reflected in political, economic, and communal destruction. The prophet even suggests, in patriarchal and hierarchical terms, that God has a right to destroy an unfaithful nation in the same way as a husband can dispose of an unfaithful wife. Divine violence is in the background of these scriptures, and we must challenge it. Surely, we must liberate this text from oppressive patriarchy and marital legalism to discover its deeper meaning and role in healing persons and institutions.

Jeremiah provides words of hope after a time of desolation. In a time of darkness, God promises a new beginning. Despite their waywardness, the people will once more experience God’s presence and have a clear sense of God’s guidance. God is doing a new thing – making a new covenant – in the peoples’ inner lives that will be reflected in a transformed social order. God initiates, but the people must open to divine wisdom emerging from within their lives. This wisdom is not so much statutory – an inflexible external law or undeviating natural law –but an inner relationship similar to the love of parent and child. This divine infusion of wisdom leads to a sense of love for the law, as Psalm 119 articulates. For those who open to divine order, who meditate on God’s law, the law of God is sweet, trustworthy, and nourishing. While directives may be present in divine law, it is ultimately about relationship – God’s nearness and our response. What would it mean for us to meditate on God’s law? What might our nation or the world look like if world leaders meditated on God’s law and, in a pluralistic society, if our public policy related divine law?

Still, it is challenging to imagine in our pluralist society a nation that directly experiences God. Moreover, can we imagine God’s law written on our hearts in an age in which are leaders seem hell-bent on turning from God’s way. Even under the best circumstances, when leaders are committed to integrity and altruism, which vision of God’s law will prevail, which experiences of God would be normative? Still, we can seek the ways of justice – the universally applicable golden or silver rules – in governmental policies that respect religious and cultural diversity.

Paul Tillich once spoke of three types of law – autonomy, or self-rule, “I will do what I want or think right” epitomized by the American individualistic ethos; heteronomy, “my way or the highway,” the rule of others, reflected in the behavior of authoritarian regimes, patriarchy, and domineering family situations, “You will do what I tell you” or “because I said so”; and finally theonomy, alignment of God and humankind, “God is calling with love and I respond lovingly, recognizing that God’s way brings joy and reflects my own well-being and the well-being of the planet.”

Amazing it may seem in a time in which US leaders join self-interested, individualistic autonomy with authoritarian heteronomy, I believe that Jeremiah guides us toward a theonomous understanding of law and ethics, reflective of what is best for us, our neighbor, and our planet, and recognizing the interplay of self-affirmation, love for the neighbor, and love of God in creative and liberating ways. At the very least, we need to have our personal and political decisions guided by prayerful self-transcendence and sacrifice of self-interest for world loyalty.

The words of 2 Timothy describe spiritual authority that comes from beyond us and that nevertheless brings fulfillment to our inner lives and relationships. In a pluralistic culture, the author counsels this young Christian to “hold fast to your Christian identity, don’t be led astray by popular movements, take seriously the wisdom of tradition in growing your faith and staying on the right path.” Timothy’s faith was nurtured in by his mother and grandmother, his community, and his scriptural studies. Relationship, scripture, experience, and tradition are sources of authority.

In a passage often misunderstood, the author of 2 Timothy asserts that “all scripture is inspired.” This passage has often been cited to undergird fundamentalist or literalist understandings of scripture or subservience to ecclesiastical authorities who are the only competent persons to interpret scriptures, but I think the meaning is deeper than merely paper authority or rigid doctrine. First, taken literally, this passage only pertains to the Old or First Testament – the New Testament scriptures had not yet been written. Second, in the spirit of the Hebraic and early Christian understandings of scripture, scripture was intended to be part of a lively dialogue, a life-giving and dynamic midrash, with commentaries emerging to respond to changing times, rather than as an unchanging and infallible document. Finally, God-breathed scriptures are inspiring, not imprisoning. They guide our paths but don’t determine woodenly every step we take. Like deep breaths, they energize and motivate rather than imprison and suffocate. Scripture should breathe live and encourage creativity and agency, rather than dominate and separate.

Authority is essential in the life of faith. We clearly need guidance in a pluralistic and relativistic age, and scripture’s stories and counsel are guideposts for the journey. While God’s mercies are new every morning, we need to join tradition, scripture, experience, reason, and cultural insights in understanding God’s call in our time.

The parable of the Widow and the Uninterested or Apathetic Judge affirms the importance of persistence in prayer. The widow comes to the judge day after day, petitioning him to decide on her behalf, and despite his indifference to the justice of her cause, he relents simply to get her off his back. In contrast to the judge’s apathy, God is empathetic: God cares and God wants us to receive blessings. The problem Jesus raises is that God’s blessings are often deferred or appear to be. God apparently does not wave an almighty hand, solve all our problems, cure all diseases, or make governments just. There seems to be a gap between our prayers and God’s responses. While this parable doesn’t go into the metaphysics of prayer – answered and unanswered prayer – the implication is that God’s love will be eventually revealed and though it may emerge in ways different than we have imagined, we need to continue to pray and look for divine responses. God is always faithful and wants us to have abundant life despite appearances to the contrary. We need to look at the long view, keep opening to God in prayer, and wait for God’s guidance. Still, people who lose faith as a result of trauma and tragedy should not be judged as lesser Christians than those who invoke “praise the Lord anyway” slogans. Struggle is at the heart of faith, and certain seasons may test us beyond our current endurance. God’s faith in us is more important than faith in God, and God will not abandon us.

At the end of the day, we must trust a faithful and loving God who aims to heal and harm, and we must place ourselves on the side of healing and wholeness to promote God’s holistic vision rather than standing in the way, Our attitudes matter and the more we open to God’s vision, the greater God’s impact on our lives and the world will be.
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books), Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet”( Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999215: Amazon.com: Books), and his most recent book, “God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.” (The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books) His latest book is “A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians.” (A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999413: Amazon.com: Books)