Prayer
Prayer was written by pastor Kurt Struckmeyer on discipleship:
God of love,
source of mercy and compassion,
weave your dream for the world
into the fabric of our lives.
Remove the scales from our eyes
and lift the indifference from our hearts,
so that we may see your vision –
a new reign of justice and compassion
that will renew the earth.
Transform our lives,
so that we may accomplish your purpose.
Anoint us with your Spirit
that we might bring good news to the oppressed,
bind up the brokenhearted,
and proclaim release to the captive.
Give us a new urgency
and a new commitment
to feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
shelter the homeless,
and visit those who live in isolation.
Help us to reach out to those
whom no one else will touch,
to accept the unacceptable,
and to embrace the enemy.
Surround us with your love,
fill us with your grace,
and strengthen us for your service.
Empower us to respond to the call of Jesus –
to deny ourselves,
to take up our crosses,
and to follow.
Make us your disciples.
Amen
Some Thoughts on Matthew 10:24-39
"We all know how to lose our life so that it is lost. The trick is to figure out how to lose one's life so that it will be found. And the key to that mystery is to lose our life for Jesus' sake. For Jesus' purpose, aim, or end."
Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew Matthew10:24-39 David Ewart, 2011.
"...Reconcilers must remind themselves moment to moment to stay grounded in God's love. Remember just how much and how unconditionally God loves and values you, and you won't be thrown off-center by anyone's attempts to make you feel as worthless as they do. Remember just how powerful God's love is to heal, and you won't have to flee from things that remind you of your own vulnerabilities and wounds."
Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 7. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.
"We all know how to lose our life so that it is lost. The trick is to figure out how to lose one's life so that it will be found. And the key to that mystery is to lose our life for Jesus' sake. For Jesus' purpose, aim, or end."
Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew Matthew10:24-39 David Ewart, 2011.
"...Reconcilers must remind themselves moment to moment to stay grounded in God's love. Remember just how much and how unconditionally God loves and values you, and you won't be thrown off-center by anyone's attempts to make you feel as worthless as they do. Remember just how powerful God's love is to heal, and you won't have to flee from things that remind you of your own vulnerabilities and wounds."
Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 7. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.
This week we move back in time in Matthew's gospel. Jesus is preparing his disciples to carry on his ministry of proclaiming the Good News of salvation. He is here in Matthew's Gospel portrayed as a wise teacher and also as a master of creation. Remember, in Matthew's Gospel Jesus is about the work of remaking all of creation. The disciples, intimately connected and loosely affiliated, are near him to learn - they are his students. As we read last week, they are to take on his mission.
The great commission which begins our readings for the summer last week is the cornerstone and lens for all that is to follow.
Those who follow Jesus, though, while continuing the mission, are not to be like the authorities and teachers of the world. They are not to set themselves over and against others but rather to be guides. There is a lot to learn, after all.
This form of ministry is very scary to the religious teachers and authorities of the day, and they are even calling him names. Jesus is clear - don't be scared. The love and mercy of God that is even now remaking the world will reveal in time the reality of these efforts and how they are not any good. Don't worry about those against you- focus on the work before you. Everything will be revealed.
Jesus then interprets scripture for them. He uses a verse from Micah 7.6. This was a prophecy that told the ancient Hebrews that a society which is not of God and destroys the creatures and people of God is not only unholy, but it is passing. The gospel will prevail.
Setting up next week's passage, we are told this Gospel of mercy and love will have repercussions. People will be against you. You, though, must be clear. You must follow and be loyal to the call you have been given. You are already participating in a part of a kingdom that is gaining its foothold in the world.
It is hard today to see the hope in some of this... Yet here it is. God's mission will prevail. God's kingdom will win the day. Love, mercy, kindness, healing, feeding, clothing, sheltering, and caring are the eternal revelatory truths of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus. Anything that looks like something else probably is...
It is true that nothing will undo this mission. Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Mtt 16) I believe that what is falling away in the church today is the parts of it that do not reflect this new creation. It isn't that the kingdom of God or the church is dying, but rather the human misrepresentation that has more in common with the religious institutions of Jesus' day is continuing its ever-dying dance.
Some Thoughts on Romans 6:1-11
"Lesslie Newbigin once said that if you do not see the kingdom it's because you are facing the wrong direction."
"Dying to Live," Bill O'Brien, The Christian Century, 2005.
"When he spoke of what happened to him on the Damascus Road, Paul never knew whether to call it being born or being killed. In a way, it felt like both at the same time. Whatever it was, it had something to do with letting go."
This passage from Romans is a classic conversation between the Romans and the Protestants even today! In fact, I was engaged in just such a conversation not two weeks ago. Paul is clear God is a lover of humanity and creation. God gives us grace, grace, grace. Christ's death was a final blow that freely released grace into the world. Grace has a simple equation in Paul's writings: the more there is sin, the more grace abounds! This is good news, my friends...this is THE GOOD NEWS.
So Paul says, rhetorically, so does this mean that we can or should sin even more in order to receive grace? We need to remember that one of the charges against early Christians and their communities was that they were lawless. This argument posed would certainly lead to lawlessness. Paul's answer to himself is, "Of course not."
He then clarifies that through baptism, we die to sin and become inextricably linked to Christ's death and resurrection. We are raised by God and made to walk in the world around us in new life. Paul is clear that as we rise up into this new life, we are to respond to God's grace with (what one scholar called) "conscience-based ethical conduct." We would not want or desire to respond intentionally to God's love, mercy, and grace with behaviour other than that which builds up the body of Christ and reflects well upon the God who saved us.
Paul was clear to himself - new life means new behaviours. Just as death with Christ is given, so is life, and so our lives will reflect this new behaviour - our lives will look like the life of Jesus. I think Chris Haslaam of Canada does an excellent job of capturing the Gospel of Paul as laid out in Romans with this "cliff notes version":
Paul was clear to himself - new life means new behaviours. Just as death with Christ is given, so is life, and so our lives will reflect this new behaviour - our lives will look like the life of Jesus. I think Chris Haslaam of Canada does an excellent job of capturing the Gospel of Paul as laid out in Romans with this "cliff notes version":
Just as we have been grafted on to Christ in his death, so we too will share with him through a resurrection like his (v. 5). We know that we ceased to be dominated by sin and divine wrath (“our old self”, v. 6) when we were baptised. This removed the effects of our waywardness, our enslavement to sin, but makes us ethically responsible for our actions. This is what baptism does (v. 7). Dying with Christ also includes living with him. Because Christ has risen, he will “never die again” (v. 9) – this is unique, once-for-all-time act, an anticipation of the age to come. And then the answer to the question in v. 2: Christ “died to sin” in the sense that sinless, he died rather than disobey the Father, and in the context of a sinful world. He was raised by the Father (v. 4) in order that he might live “to God” (v. 10, as he has always done.) So, as Christ is the model for our lives, and it is he upon whom our lives are grafted, we too must leave sin behind and be “alive to God” (v. 11) in Christ.The miracle of life with Christ is that though we are never free from sin, we are always one step away from complete forgiveness because our God continues to reach out to us with Grace. Paul believes that those who follow Jesus will live an intentional life - through a grace-filled one. Moreover, the grace received is the grace in turn offered to all those whom we meet. We, like Christ, are to be forgiving and grace-filled vessels in the world. It is not enough to live a life full after baptism. It is to reflect and be grace agents in the world around us - ultimately enabling others to discover their grafted ness into the life of God in Christ Jesus.
Track I, Genesis 21:8-21
In our passage assigned for this Sunday, we continue with the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and Sarah have had a child, and Abraham and Hagar have had a child. Sarah's son is, of course, Isaac, and Ishmael is Hagar's. Things aren't going well in the household between Sarah and Hagar, so God promises to help Abraham by offering to solve things.
What this ultimately means is that Hagar and Ishmael will be sent away. This is very sad, and Abraham is sad too. Nevertheless, Hagar and Ishmael leave and almost die of starvation and thirst. But God provides for them too. In the end, Ishmael is to marry an Egyptian and become a wandering nomad. This is all part of God's plan to continue Abraham's line and build on the relationship.
Ishmael is a name that means "God listens". The tradition is that Ishmael is a great prophet in Islam. Moreover, he helped Abraham to build the Kaaba in Mecca. Some ancient stories place Ishmael at the sacrifice and not Isaac.
As children of Abraham, Jews and Muslims draw upon rich moral traditions embedded within a shared past recorded in Genesis of the Hebrew Bible and referenced in the Qur’an. It is a past that identifies Ishmael as the father of the Arabs, while his half-brother Isaac becomes the progenitor of the biblical Israelites. What we read in the Genesis account, however, is not an idyllic story, but as Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin observes, the story of a dysfunctional family: “It is the eternal pattern of the book of Genesis: damaged, shattered relationships between siblings and within families.” Indeed, the great drama of Genesis, according to Salkin, is the battle between brothers, whether we talk about Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, or Jacob and Esau".
In this way, the story is part of the creation stories seeking to answer, "Who are we?" and "Who are they?" and "How are we related?" The story is an origin story for the people of Israel and Islam.
For Paul, the passage was an allegory in his preaching to the Gentiles, who had nothing in common with Isaac and more in common with Ishmael. It was a sign that the gentile mission was a mission to those who, through Christ, had once been far off but were being brought near. The gentile, despite the notions of the religion of the day, were not those driven off by God but instead those who were to inherit the promise of Abraham. (Galatians 4:28-31) This was a radical notion that undermined the day's traditional religious ideas.
We might ponder for a moment who is it that is our Ishmael? Who do we believe has been cast out? And, is God not listening to them in their desert wanderings? Is God not providing water for them? The discovery that waits for them is that God hears them and loves them. In fact, they are Abraham's offspring, all through God's grace. No longer are they to wander in the desert or feel like second-class citizens in the houses of God. God has restored not only the fortunes of Israel through the cross of Christ but also the fortunes of those who feel they are God's step sons and daughters.
Track II, Jeremiah 20:7-13
I invited Walter Brueggeman to visit with the clergy of the diocese many years ago. I was reminded of his comment given the prophet Jeremiah and this passage - when Israel was defeated, the prophets spoke to and for them.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, may his memory be a blessing, suggests that Jeremiah is a prophet of hope when the people needed hope.
Sometimes, in our tradition, we think the prophet brings the words of doom to the powers that be. And, perhaps some prophets do. But from a pulpit perspective, I wonder about Sack's saying and Brueggeman's.
According to Sacks, a prophet of hope comes in the worst times of one's life, in the worst time of a community's life. When the world is at its bleakest, the prophet comes. Not with optimism - optimism is not hope, it is something else. Optimism is confidence about the future - especially that "things will get better." (Sacks on Prophets of Hope) He goes on to remind us that optimism does not require courage. Instead, the prophet of hope brings "courage, wisdom, a deep understanding of history and possibility, and the ability to communicate." (Ibid.)
At this moment amidst a great epoch of change, we are to be prophets of hope.
Another characteristic of hope is that any criticism is delivered in love, out of love for the people, the person, and the community. Prophets care about who they speak for and to whom they speak - prophets love people. (Ibid.)
A prophet of hope must speak about the role of the people (to whom they are speaking) in the context of humanity as a whole. (Ibid.) It is ultimately about becoming the humans God imagined in creation - ones that multiply blessings and peace in the world. We see others as kin as Moses and Jesus taught us.
The prophet of hope also reminds the people that they are to seek the good of the whole. This work of kinship is not merely about us, it is ultimately about God and all people. “Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its prosperity you shall prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). This is "the first statement in history of what it is to be a creative minority," writes Sacks. (Ibid.)
Christianity, as in its other Abrahamic siblings, is not chauvinist - displaying excessive and prejudiced support for their own cause or group. Optimism has no problem with narrow expectations for the many to benefit the few - most often, that is how it seeks to promise a future state.
Sacks wrote:
Great leaders are great not just because they care for their own people – everyone except a self-hater does that – but because they care for humanity. That is what gives their devotion to their own people its dignity and moral strength.Our passage from Jeremiah speaks of the difficulty of his task and the weight of the burden of undertaking this work on God's behalf. It speaks of God's love pouring into him, yet because of his countercultural voice, he is derided. The task of the prophet of hope is not without its own pain and suffering. Yet, in the last verses chosen for today, we seek a bit of hope to be found elsewhere in Jeremiah.
To be an agent of hope, to love the people you lead, and to widen their horizons to embrace humanity as a whole – that is the kind of leadership that gives people the ability to recover from crisis and move on. It is what made Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah three of the greatest leaders of all time.
Moreover, the prophet of hope is human and still wants God to punish the evil-doer someday. That is some real 100% stuff right there. But I think you have to ask yourself what God's overarching plan is? What does God promise in the end? What is the trajectory of God's narrative? And, you must ask, what do the people need here at this moment in this time?
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