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| Easter (vigil) at the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem |
for the victory of our mighty King.
Rejoice and sing all the round earth, bright with a glorious splendour, for darkness has been vanquished by our eternal King.
Rejoice and be glad now, Mother Church, and let your holy courts, in radiant light, resound with the praises of your people.
All you who stand near this marvellous and holy flame,
pray with me to God the Almighty
for the grace to sing the worthy praise of this great light through Jesus Christ, his Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever amen.
It is truly right and good, always and everywhere, with our whole heart, mind, and voice, to praise you, the invisible, almighty, and eternal God, and your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the true Paschal Lamb, who at the feast of the Passover paid for us the debt of Adam's sin and delivered your faithful people by his blood.
This is the night when you brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea on dry land.
This is the night when all who believe in Christ are delivered from the gloom of sin and are restored to grace and holiness of life.
This is the night when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell and rose victorious from the grave.
How wonderful and beyond our knowing, O God, is your mercy and loving-kindness to us that you gave a Son to redeem a slave.
How holy is this night when wickedness is put to flight and sin is washed away. It restores innocence to the fallen and joy to those who mourn. It casts out pride and hatred and brings
peace and concord.
How blessed is this night when earth and heaven are joined, and man is reconciled to God?
Holy Father, accept our evening sacrifice, the offering of this candle in your honour. May it shine continually to drive away all darkness. May Christ, the Morning Star who knows no setting, find it ever burning--he who gives his light to all creation and who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
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| Ethiopian Orthodox Easter Vigil, Jerusalem |
The second is that the unique incarnation of the Word, Jesus, is evidenced in power and master of the elements. Jesus storms the sea is the same God who divides the waters so Israel may walk through. Jesus, who divides loaves and fishes, is the same God who brings manna in the wilderness and water from the rock. Jesus, who in his death unites heaven and earth, is the same God who parts the heavens and earth.
The third of the three passages is the “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”. Jesus uses the word from the creation story when speaking and looking at the coin. He plays with the notion that God has created all things; all things are God’s. Caesar can believe this or that is his, but even in the end, when Caesar lies beneath the earth, everything, even Caesar, returns to God. This is a powerful and subtle statement about God having in hand all things.
Sometimes, we approach the Genesis passage as if it is a stand-alone passage. However, the Gospel authors and early Christians understood it as revealing the nature of God and the creation and also the place of the eternal Word and incarnation in it. To speak of the creation is to speak of the eternal Word's possession of it and its creation through it. On this Trinity Sunday, it is a perfect opportunity to find in the creation story a way of unmooring the Trinity from boring sermons on doctrine and to weave the creation story into the Gospel to reveal the Trinity through early Christian eyes.
The third of the three passages is the “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”. Jesus uses the word from the creation story when speaking and looking at the coin. He plays with the notion that God has created all things; all things are God’s. Caesar can believe this or that is his, but even in the end, when Caesar lies beneath the earth, everything, even Caesar, returns to God. This is a powerful and subtle statement about God having in hand all things.
Sometimes, we approach the Genesis passage as if it is a stand-alone passage. However, the Gospel authors and early Christians understood it as revealing the nature of God and the creation and also the place of the eternal Word and incarnation in it. To speak of the creation is to speak of the eternal Word's possession of it and its creation through it. On this Trinity Sunday, it is a perfect opportunity to find in the creation story a way of unmooring the Trinity from boring sermons on doctrine and to weave the creation story into the Gospel to reveal the Trinity through early Christian eyes.
Some Thoughts on Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13
Let me be honest. As I have grown older, I have become more uncomfortable with the story of the floodwaters. Rabbi Litman's words about it resonated with me:
I find that my discomfort with the flood story is not so much with the Torah's sacred narrative, but with our modern response to it. The Torah relates a fearful epic of evil, punishment, and salvation. By ignoring the most chilling part of the story, we have trivialized and discounted the Torah's moral message. This is a common American cultural process. One only has to look as far as this week's holiday of Halloween to see how we have to come to trivialize and discount even death. It's pretty difficult to feel much genuine awe around an 8-year-old Grim Reaper complaining that it's cold outside.
The unjust suffering of the innocent still evokes moral outrage and pain in most of us. We wish and hope that the good are rewarded. But we have become uncomfortable with the reverse. We know that human evil is complex, sometimes as much a sickness as a sin. We are often unwilling to grapple with human cruelty and wrongdoing, to expect justice against those who harm others, because that justice is often very difficult to define. Even God's justice, as in the mighty flood, makes us nervous.When we Christians read this story, we read it through the eyes of our childhood and as a small version of our story of creation and redemption. With more than two thousand more years of reflection on this passage, I find the Rabbi's words resonate deeply. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says:
("When Bad Things Happen to Bad People," Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman. Torah Commentary at BeliefNet.)
The story of the first eight chapters of Bereishit is tragic but simple: creation, followed by de-creation, followed by re-creation. God creates order. Humans then destroy that order, to the point where “the world was filled with violence,” and “all flesh had corrupted its way on earth.” God brings a flood that wipes away all life, until – with the exception of Noach, his family and other animals – the earth has returned to the state it was in at the beginning of Torah, when “the earth was waste and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (http://rabbisacks.org/trace-god-noach-5778/)
There may be more here than another creation story - or recreation story. Perhaps there is more here than a story of an angry God at the unjust behaviour of humanity.
As Sacks reads the texts compared to Genesis, he notes that Genesis 1 tells us God makes humanity in God's image - he and she God created them. Genesis 9 tells us that other human beings are made in the image of God. As if bringing full circle the sin of man (murder which is created by humans - see Cain and Abel story), this story reminds us that not only am I created in God's image, but you are too.
Again, Sacks writes,
As Sacks reads the texts compared to Genesis, he notes that Genesis 1 tells us God makes humanity in God's image - he and she God created them. Genesis 9 tells us that other human beings are made in the image of God. As if bringing full circle the sin of man (murder which is created by humans - see Cain and Abel story), this story reminds us that not only am I created in God's image, but you are too.
Again, Sacks writes,
Genesis 9 speaks about the sanctity of life and the prohibition of murder. The first chapter tells us about the potential power of human beings, while the ninth chapter tells us about the moral limits of that power. We may not use it to deprive another person of life.
This also explains why the keyword, repeated seven times, changes from “good” to “covenant.” When we call something good, we are speaking about how it is in itself. But when we speak of covenant, we are talking about relationships. A covenant is a moral bond between persons.
What differentiates the world after the Flood from the world before is that the terms of the human condition have changed. God no longer expects people to be good because it is in their nature to be so. To the contrary, God now knows that “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood” (Gen. 8: 21) – and this despite the fact that we were created in God’s image. (Ibid)It is not suitable for humans to be alone, and the flood narrative tells us that we are to see each other, those of our tribe and those outside our tribe, as created in God's image.
This is a new idea and a constant theme for Christians. God is interested in a human community bound together for our everyday goodness, and in fact, when we do this, we are reflecting a kind of fullness of God. Other religions teach the fear of the other. Different religions teach the sacrifice of the other. Christianity, rooted deeply in its ancestral faith of Judaism, is about being the beloved community - a blessing of peace and shalom to the world.
Interestingly, the New Testament does not play on this message from Genesis very much. There are no quotes and no parallel passages in the Gospels. Indeed, there is mention of "Noah's Ark" in the letters - I Peter for this day's reading is an example. Only later would Roman Catholic Theologians compare Mary to the Ark. However, one might argue that as this passage is partnered with Mark, there is something important here. That is, God in Christ Jesus continues his work of reconciliation and solidarity by breaking open the community of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, including all people. The mission to the other can be recovered and is intimately tied to a heritage that began with something other than Jesus but is deeply rooted in the ancient texts of Israel that we find in our canon. In my sermon from 2018, I point out that a theological case (beyond typology) could be made that God's saving act from a sin-sick world in the Ark is what Jesus does permanently. From the word "good" to the word "covenant", we see a story arc (pardon the pun) to Jesus and his cross, which becomes a new ark and a permanent promise. Creation, de-creation by humanity's inhumanity to man, and recreation by God.
Some Thoughts on Genesis 22:1-18
Oremus Online NRSV Text
The story of the Akedah makes a claim on us: All that we have, even our own lives and those of the ones most dear to us, belong ultimately to God, who gave them to us in the first place. The story of the Akedah assures us that God will provide, and that God will be present.
Stanley Hauerwas, a seminary professor and theologian, says, “Christ bids a person to come and die,” and even if he meant that metaphorically, it is still not easy. Are we willing to engage in that struggle, make that sacrifice, and take that journey with Abraham and Isaac? God is waiting to find out and is patient and will wait as long as it takes.
Dan Bryant, First Christian Church, "An Uncalled For Sacrifice"
In the generations of religious following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, there was a direct connection between the Temple Mount and the site of the binding of Isaac. (Levenson, Zion, 94-95) It is that on this mount, God comes near and is seen. In this way, the tradition dating back to the time of the Judges was that this mountain site, like other shrines in Israel, was a place where God could be seen. The Temple became the chief place where God was present among God's people.
What takes place over the centuries is captured well in the writing of Jon D. Levenson in his book Sinai and Zion. He writes, "The Sinai tradition [that associated with the covenant of Moses and the shrines of Israel]...represents the possibility of meaningful history, of history that leads toward an affirmation, Zion [the tradition of David and the Temple] represents the possibility of meaning above history, out of history, through an opening into the realm of the ideal. (Ibid, 141-142)
Here, then, is the meaning for the early Christians of the story of Isaac. For the early Christian, the idea that a beloved son of the family would be brought into violence was, in fact, a thematic reality - an "archetypal" account, if you will. (Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 43) In this way, it is not that Jesus was the required sacrifice as the latter centuries would propose but that it was natural for the beloved son to come to a violent end. In fact, it is the very act, in the rabbinic tradition, of this violence to the sons of Israel that over and over again plays a redemptive role in the great Sinai story of historical affirmation.
We want to be careful, though. The religious theologian and philosopher is quick to remind us that while there are particular traditions that place God as the actor requiring Jesus's death, this is an offensive theology. Perhaps rooted in the story of Isaac, what we know is that Isaac's story itself is a story about how God wishes not to have child sacrifice.
René Girard writes:
Today, we will spend a good measure of time in our pulpits speaking of the near sacrifice of Isaac and questioning how faithful we are willing to be? Are we willing to journey to Mount Moriah or the mountain top of our choosing and lay down our lives? Meanwhile, the true question of faith remains for us. As followers of Jesus, are we willing to lay down our violence and willingness to sacrifice our brothers and sisters on the altar of social wars, global un-mandated wars, and doctrines of our supposed protection when the Christ we worship dies as a peacemaker and invites those who would come after to take up their cross and lay down the crosses intended for others.
Girard challenges us:
In the generations of religious following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, there was a direct connection between the Temple Mount and the site of the binding of Isaac. (Levenson, Zion, 94-95) It is that on this mount, God comes near and is seen. In this way, the tradition dating back to the time of the Judges was that this mountain site, like other shrines in Israel, was a place where God could be seen. The Temple became the chief place where God was present among God's people.
What takes place over the centuries is captured well in the writing of Jon D. Levenson in his book Sinai and Zion. He writes, "The Sinai tradition [that associated with the covenant of Moses and the shrines of Israel]...represents the possibility of meaningful history, of history that leads toward an affirmation, Zion [the tradition of David and the Temple] represents the possibility of meaning above history, out of history, through an opening into the realm of the ideal. (Ibid, 141-142)
Here, then, is the meaning for the early Christians of the story of Isaac. For the early Christian, the idea that a beloved son of the family would be brought into violence was, in fact, a thematic reality - an "archetypal" account, if you will. (Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 43) In this way, it is not that Jesus was the required sacrifice as the latter centuries would propose but that it was natural for the beloved son to come to a violent end. In fact, it is the very act, in the rabbinic tradition, of this violence to the sons of Israel that over and over again plays a redemptive role in the great Sinai story of historical affirmation.
We want to be careful, though. The religious theologian and philosopher is quick to remind us that while there are particular traditions that place God as the actor requiring Jesus's death, this is an offensive theology. Perhaps rooted in the story of Isaac, what we know is that Isaac's story itself is a story about how God wishes not to have child sacrifice.
René Girard writes:
Far more than we moderns generally realize, human sacrifice was a fact of life among the peoples of the ancient Near East in tension with whom Israel first achieved cultural self-definition. Israel's renunciation of the practice of human sacrifice took place over a long period of time, during which intermittent reversions to it occurred. No biblical story better depicts how the Bible is at cross-purposes with itself on the subject of sacrifice than does the story of Abraham and Isaac. ... We are told that God bestowed the blessing and promise on Abraham after the "test" on Mount Moriah because Abraham had been willing to do what God had intervened to keep him from doing -- sacrificing his son. This understanding may have had a certain coherence in the dark world of human sacrifice to which it hearkens back, and it may have some psychological pertinence, but the true biblical spirit has little nostalgia for the sacrificial past and almost no interest in psychology. What we must try to see in the story of Abraham's non-sacrifice of Isaac is that Abraham's faith consisted, not of almost doing what he didn't do, but of not doing what he almost did, and not doing it in fidelity to the God in whose name his contemporaries thought it should be done. (Violence Unveiled, p. 140)So, what are we left with? Jesus, the son, falls victim to worldly sacrifice, as did so many sons and daughters during the time of child sacrifice before God said, "Stop." This is complete victimhood to the memetic, the repeating, sacrificial offerings of humanity to the lesser gods. The God we worship does not child sacrifice and instead redeems Isaac and stops it...just as God puts an end to death in the resurrection of Jesus.
Today, we will spend a good measure of time in our pulpits speaking of the near sacrifice of Isaac and questioning how faithful we are willing to be? Are we willing to journey to Mount Moriah or the mountain top of our choosing and lay down our lives? Meanwhile, the true question of faith remains for us. As followers of Jesus, are we willing to lay down our violence and willingness to sacrifice our brothers and sisters on the altar of social wars, global un-mandated wars, and doctrines of our supposed protection when the Christ we worship dies as a peacemaker and invites those who would come after to take up their cross and lay down the crosses intended for others.
Girard challenges us:
Nearly four thousand years ago, Abraham passed this test. He heard the voice of the true God telling him to stop, don’t kill. And now almost two thousand years after the voice of our risen Savior forgiving us for our numerous slaughters, all those brought together on his cross, are we ready to pass the test, too? Are we ready to stop the killing? What could happen in our world if two billion people who claim Abraham as their father could finally recognize what this test of faith is really all about?
Some Thoughts on Exodus 14:10-15:21
"In silence and contemplation, we rest from all of our human striving and division and touch the deeper current of truth that runs underneath everything else, the truth that all things have already been reconciled in Christ."
"Make a Joyful Silence," Ruth Haley Barton, Sojourners, 2009. "Words about Silence," Key contemplative Spirituality terms, Sojourners, 2009."A people enslaved for generations can only face freedom one step at a time."
"Gradual Freedom," Torah Commentary by Wendy Amsellem. Beliefnet.
"Despite being pressed by the weight of slavery on every side, we celebrate that our spirits were not crushed."
Commentary, Exodus 15:20-21, Yolanda Pierce, The African American Lectionary, 2009.
"The God seen in this passage is a powerful god that controls the waves of the sea. This God is stronger than the gods of their oppressors—why should the Babylonians' gods be any different?"
Commentary, Exodus 14:19-31 | Aimee Niles | A Plain Account, 2017.
"Gradual Freedom," Torah Commentary by Wendy Amsellem. Beliefnet.
"Despite being pressed by the weight of slavery on every side, we celebrate that our spirits were not crushed."
Commentary, Exodus 15:20-21, Yolanda Pierce, The African American Lectionary, 2009.
"The God seen in this passage is a powerful god that controls the waves of the sea. This God is stronger than the gods of their oppressors—why should the Babylonians' gods be any different?"
Commentary, Exodus 14:19-31 | Aimee Niles | A Plain Account, 2017.
"In your preaching, show your congregation the dry land they are walking on. Show them what place it has in God's creation. Show them the signs of ruin and devastation..."
Commentary, Exodus 14:19-31, Anathea Portier-Young, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.
We have seen Charlton Heston and others re-enact the grand event at the shore of the Red Sea. There are religious jokes about the parting of the Sea of Reeds. Episcopalians have spent hours rehearsing the drama at the Red Sea. We have done so in Sunday School, vacation Bible schools, and summer camp. It is part of our Easter Vigil service in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer 1979. I had to memorize Miriam's Hebrew song when I attended seminary. It was a rite of passage for my beloved Old Testament professor, Dr. Murray Newman. It is deeply woven into our baptismal theology and liturgy. In the Jewish tradition, it is recited during the daily morning service and said after the Shema. This passage appointed for today is essential.
As you probably know, scholars today think they crossed the Sea of Reeds (known for its papyrus production), which lies north of the Red Sea. The narrative of the event is rendered by two authors. One sees the light of God's nostrils blowing aside the waters. (Exodus 14: 22, 28-29) The second reveals that the wind (thanks to God) drove the waters back overnight. (Exodus 14: 21) One requires the suspension of the laws of nature, and the other requires honouring God for the action of the wind.
People have been trying to reveal how this happened for many years. Cambridge University physicist Colin Humphreys wrote in The Miracles of Exodus (2003):
"Wind tides are well known to oceanographers. For example, a strong wind blowing along Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, has produced water elevation differences of as much as sixteen feet between Toledo, Ohio, on the west, and Buffalo, New York, on the east . . . There are reports that Napoleon was almost killed by a "sudden high tide" while crossing shallow water near the head of the Gulf of Suez." (pp. 247-48, As cited in Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, "Beshallach (5770) – Miracles" https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5770-beshallach-miracles/ January 30, 2010.)
I find the whole thing fascinating. However, I believe the discussion about where it happened, if it happened, and how it happened are merely two-way observable spacio-temporal questions that are not useful to us if we wish to get to the bottom of God's narrative and its meaning. So, especially as we preach this, two critical points are to be made here that move us past the typical questions of observable scientific truth and into a discussion about scriptural and theological truth.
The first truth is this: In God's narrative, we learn that often, our power is not in our exceptional nature but in our apparent weakness. We see this echoed in other stories like David and Goliath (where the smaller David wins the fight) or in the case of the prophet Balaam (who discovers his donkey is a better prophet than he). This is true because the Egyptian strength is in their chariot, which proves their weakness. Likewise, the disadvantage of being on foot is the strength in getting away.
Rabbi Sacks writes, "To put it another way, a miracle is not necessarily something that suspends natural law. It is, rather, an event for which there may be a natural explanation, but which – happening when, where and how it did – evokes wonder, such that even the most hardened sceptic senses that God has intervened in history. The weak are saved; those in danger are delivered. More significant still is the moral message such an event conveys: that hubris is punished by nemesis, that the proud are humbled and the humble given pride, that there is justice in history, often hidden but sometimes gloriously revealed…. The genius of the biblical narrative of the crossing of the Reed Sea is that it does not resolve the issue one way or another. It gives us both perspectives." (Ibid.)
This triumph is also a paradigm of Jesus' own victory. Out of Jesus' greatest weakness, his human death comes his and our most significant victory.
This leads to the second thought of importance. We understand that Christ is continuing the work that God has always done – freeing people from bondage. Our Episcopal baptismal prayer reads:
"Through it, you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. In it, your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life." (BCP 1979, p. 306)
The power of the image is that it foreshadows Christ's cross, death, and resurrection. For those who follow Jesus, it is a fundamental understanding that real bodily resurrection happens for Israel. They are made new people. They pass through the waters of death and are brought to new life. Here is the meaning of our bodily resurrection.
This also speaks to genuine Christian work. It is not a spiritual deliverance we are after. We seek a new bodily present community in this world that speaks to the goodness of the next. Bodies matter, life matters, food, water, clothing, and shelter matter. God brought real people out of slavery. God brings a natural person of Jesus out of the grave. We, as Christians, translate this into making an actual difference in the world – one that impacts the bodies of others.
Jesus read scrolls and preached freedom, the loosening of bonds, the feeding and clothing of those with little, and good things for those with none. He spoke of wiping away tears. He said of doing good work and sharing what we have – as did Paul, the apostles, and the earliest theologians. We, as Christians, are invited to make a difference in the world authentically. We are asked to bring people out of the past into their futures – one that promises a different life.
Some Thoughts on Isaiah 55:1-11
"Lent is an invitation and a reminder that this surprising work of God is open to us all—wicked and unrighteous alike—if we return to the God who abundantly pardons."
Commentary, Isaiah 55:1-9, W. Dennis Tucker, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.
To return to YHWH is to depart the Babylonian calculus and reengage the covenantal values of a neighbourly kind...The ground for such a radical re-engagement with faith is the elemental contrast between the anxious assumption of deported Jews who thought they were on their own in Babylon and the intention of YHWH, who has indeed left God’s people on their own for time (see Isaiah 54:7-8), but who will now provide what they need. The poem makes a vigorous and emphatic contrast between “your ways and thoughts” and God’s “ways and thoughts.”
"A Covenant of Neighborly Justice: Break the Chains of Quid Pro Quo," Walter Brueggemann, ON Scripture, 2016.
"Nothing in life is free, particularly if one has grown accustomed to the harsh policies of the empire, which is set to exploit the peasants through heavy taxation."
Commentary, Isaiah 55:1-5 (Pentecost 12), Juliana Claassens, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.
Commentary, Isaiah 55:1-9, W. Dennis Tucker, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.
To return to YHWH is to depart the Babylonian calculus and reengage the covenantal values of a neighbourly kind...The ground for such a radical re-engagement with faith is the elemental contrast between the anxious assumption of deported Jews who thought they were on their own in Babylon and the intention of YHWH, who has indeed left God’s people on their own for time (see Isaiah 54:7-8), but who will now provide what they need. The poem makes a vigorous and emphatic contrast between “your ways and thoughts” and God’s “ways and thoughts.”
"A Covenant of Neighborly Justice: Break the Chains of Quid Pro Quo," Walter Brueggemann, ON Scripture, 2016.
"Nothing in life is free, particularly if one has grown accustomed to the harsh policies of the empire, which is set to exploit the peasants through heavy taxation."
Commentary, Isaiah 55:1-5 (Pentecost 12), Juliana Claassens, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.
"Think of it, Antonio—this thing I've been dreaming about comes true at last. I threw out the lifeline, and the one caught it was Herman Redpath in all his wealth and power. And now the lock-up. But my ways are not thy ways, saith the Lord. Antonio, you take a man who's been in prison a couple of years, and he's ready for Jesus like he's never been ready any place else."
"My Ways Are Not Thy Ways," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.
"My Ways Are Not Thy Ways," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.
Oremus Online NRSV Text
This text comes around in year 10A, Epiphany 8C (though that is rare indeed), and the Easter Vigil. In case you have not preached on the text, it is a good opportunity as it is new in our Episcopal rota.
The text is part of a section called the second book of Isaiah. It is part of the prophetic school that rose up during the exile in Babylon. It comes after the great passage where the prophet and God call out, "Comfort, comfort my people." God is giving hope to the people in exile. Our passage recalls all the other times that God did not forget God's suffering people and suggests this time will not be any different.
The prophet then gives a vision of God's living word and covenant. The prophet reminds them of God's eternal commitment to be with them, to dwell with them, and to provide for them. He proclaims,
This text comes around in year 10A, Epiphany 8C (though that is rare indeed), and the Easter Vigil. In case you have not preached on the text, it is a good opportunity as it is new in our Episcopal rota.
The text is part of a section called the second book of Isaiah. It is part of the prophetic school that rose up during the exile in Babylon. It comes after the great passage where the prophet and God call out, "Comfort, comfort my people." God is giving hope to the people in exile. Our passage recalls all the other times that God did not forget God's suffering people and suggests this time will not be any different.
The prophet then gives a vision of God's living word and covenant. The prophet reminds them of God's eternal commitment to be with them, to dwell with them, and to provide for them. He proclaims,
I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.I love the following passages. They make up the Second Song of Isaiah, which we sing or pray in the daily office.
Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.Then we are reminded:
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.God in Christ Jesus pulls these themes forward in John's Gospel chapter 6. Here is the feeding of the five thousand. This alone is the promise of Isaiah's banquet. But there is more. Jesus continues:
6:63 The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.65And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’Jesus is here playing directly upon the prophecy of Isaiah. God does not speak, nor does God act, nor does God deliver upon God's promises in the way of humans. We might think of the fulfilment of Abraham in the mission to the Gentiles. All this is to say that Jesus himself is playing on the images of Isaiah. He sees a people without a shepherd and lost who are exiles in their own land. To them, he brings a living word and food to eat. In the end, he will deliver them out of exile, but not in the way they hope.
Some Thoughts on Ezekiel 37:1-14
"The Bible uses “bone and flesh” as a motif for kinship. For example, in Genesis 29, when Jacob comes to stay with Laban, Laban welcomes him with these words: “‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh!’ And [Jacob] stayed with him ...” (Genesis 29:14). And the same two Hebrew words are used in Ezekiel for the bones and flesh that God brings back together in the valley."
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Lent 5A), Christopher B. Hays, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2020.
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Lent 5A), Christopher B. Hays, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2020.
"This new heart is nothing the people can obtain for themselves. The new spirit is not their own, but God’s, enabling them to do what they could not before, to live as holy people before the Holy God. The prophet spells out the divine intent in these two sayings, and he shows it in the story of the dry bones,."
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Lent 5A), Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2017.
"And it is in this sense that breathing becomes a metaphor for divine presence. Despite the exiles’ fear of being cut off from God, God is as near to them as their own breath. Ezekiel’s vision does nothing to alleviate their present difficult circumstances, though it does promise them a future in their own land."
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Lent 5A), Margaret Odell, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2017.
From Ezekiel, we receive the obvious idea that the Temple is the centre of the people’s concern, the centre of their faith, the centre of the nation, and the centre of their world. (Jon Levenson, Sinai & Zion, 115)
It is also clear that Ezekiel, throughout the text, but especially in our text for this Sunday, believes the only solution to returning to the centre of the world where God firmly plants God’s feet is through religious practice. As a mouthpiece for religion, Ezekiel tells the people that there is great hope for deliverance. However, their attempts to make this happen politically will not work. Instead, the whole community should be put in the mind of a faithful response to God’s continued companionship. God will breathe new life into the dry bones of Israel. There is more here than resuscitation. What is needed is reanimation and a quickening of the spirit. Only then will a restoration occur.
When we read the text, as do many of Ezekiel's descendants, we see an overlay of the apocalyptic. We see a seed of the idea of resurrection.
The passage makes it clear in no uncertain terms: God will put flesh and spirit upon the bones of Israel and no other. Only God will bring about the living from the dead.
With this, many preachers will stick to inviting us to hold on with our Lenten disciplines (for this comes in Lent), for God is resurrecting us. And, because this is read at the vigil, a heavy dose of end-time resurrection talk will be combined with Jesus’ resurrected bones.
John’s Gospel rests on the idea that this new shepherd, the archetype of David who united the northern and southern kingdoms, is to join the godly and ungodly, the righteous and unrighteous, the faithful and unfaithful. The new life breathed into the community, the new life of being raised from the dead, and the new life of resurrection means that the people will be brought out of their tombs and graves into one community. Our passage today is the prefix to the passage of a united people of God from inside the religious community and from outside. The God who has come for all people and is gathering them even now is gathering them in. The Good Shepherd in John is saying, “I know my people, and my people know me.” (Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospel, 340)
New life for those lying in death is a promise for all who come to God in Christ Jesus. Regardless of where you start your journey, this God is breathing new life into you, putting flesh and spirit on your bones, and raising you into one flock.
Some Thoughts on Zephaniah 3:14-20
"This reading from Zephaniah is marked by hope, rejoicing, and reprieve, but it comes from the end of a three-chapter book in which the first two chapters consist of horrific warnings."
Commentary, Zephaniah 3:14-20, Melinda Quivik, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
Commentary, Zephaniah 3:14-20, Melinda Quivik, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.
"This Sunday, we speak of joy, the joy of a people redeemed and restored, but also the joy of a God who is deeply invested in the world's life."
Commentary, Zephaniah 3:14-20, Kathryn Schifferdecker, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.
As you have now discovered, our selections for Advent for the Old Testament readings are taken from passages that remind Israel of God's hope for them. Several reflections online focus on the idea that "joy" is a particular part of the present circumstances for Zephaniah and his people.
14 Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.
However, the first several chapters indicate the people's complex challenges and fears. We only get to the joy amid the warnings and through redemption.
As a culture, we are continually attempting to find and purchase joy. Even now, our culture is in the midst of a great buying frenzy. Yet these purchases and actions will ultimately bring little fulfilment. So, like those who receive Zephania's message, we need a little redemption. The church needs redemption.
Melinda Quivik, a liturgics and homiletics scholar, writes:
Zephaniah's announcement of the Lord's resolve to save the people carries line-by-line descriptions of why this renewal is necessary. The promise rests on the need for rescue. The flip side of the joy that is to happen on the Day of the Lord is present as each phrase of promise is coupled with the negative it implies, reminding the hearer that disaster has come as reproach for failings, oppression exists, the lame and the outcast suffer alone, shame needs to be changed into praise, an in-gathering is required because the people are scattered and fortunes have been taken away. This is an accounting of the inevitable inability of human life to follow the commands of the Lord. This is an accurate depiction of our need for God. Law is not just command but reality.What is difficult is to believe, I think, as the church or as individuals, that our salvation truly lies outside of ourselves. It is so hard to think that God might have a hand in it all. So it is that this passage reminds us. On that day when all that you purchased fails you... On that day when all your plans come to nothing...On that day when your machinations for self-preservation and self-reward are lacking... On that day when you, if you can get to the bottom, on that day then you can hear for the first time:
"Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing 18as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. 19I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. 20At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord.Part of the power of the readings and their combination is that we are not only receiving the hope of God in the incarnation and salvation birthed into the world, but we also understand that none of our efforts has brought us any sense of betterment, none of our work has had the end results planned. No, only by having a good look at our present circumstances do we see that God is with us and there to save us.
Some Thoughts on Romans 6:3-11
"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.
"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."
"Letting Go Down Here," William Willimon, The Christian Century, 1986. AtReligion Online.
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 clearly states that God is a lover of humanity and creation. God gives us grace, grace, grace. Christ's death was a final blow that released grace into the world freely. Grace has a simple equation in Paul's writings: the more sin is, the more grace abounds! This is good news, my friends...this is THE GOOD NEWS.
So Paul says, rhetorically, does this mean that we can or should sin even more 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 would undoubtedly lead to lawlessness. Paul's answer to himself is, "Of course not."
He then makes it clear that through baptism, we die to sin and become inextricably linked to Christ's death and his resurrection. We are raised by God and made to walk in the world around us in new life. Paul clearly states 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 offered to all those we meet. We, like Christ, are to be forgiving and grace-filled vessels in the world. It is not enough to live a life fully 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.
Some Thoughts on Matthew 28:1-10
Mary Magdalene and the "other Mary" are Matthew's Gospel's principal actors. They arrive at early dawn. He omits their purpose, the anointing ritual, because, as we might remember, this was done in chapter 26. (Daniel Harrington, Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 409) Earthquake is a sign and motif throughout this particular gospel as a foreshadowing of apocalyptic events. While Mark's Gospel leaves the disciples with the question, "Who will roll away the stone?" as a moniker for the work of Gospel sharing, here the angel (not unlike the infant narrative) explains the stage that is set before the women as they arrive.
We are told and are led to understand the events, how the soldiers are powerless and how all this has happened as a completion of a long-awaited moment. The angel tells them to go and tell the Good News and to go to Galilee. Throughout our journey with Jesus in the Matthean narrative, we might well remember that Galilee is where the action is! So go....we are charged with the women and see that the resurrected Lord goes before us to meet us there, out there, where the ministry and mission field lies.
As they leave, Jesus immediately appears to them as the resurrected Lord. He, too, charges them to go to Galilee...there is the climax of our story. The action is there. The work is there. The mission is there. Go, and I will meet you there.
The Matthean scholar Daniel Harrington points out that so important is the message of he is not here, go and tell, go to Galilee that the words of the angel and of Jesus appear almost as a "doublet." (Harrington, Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 410) We can see it here:
The Angel:1. He is not here; for he has been raised,2. go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead,3. he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’Jesus:1. [He is the risen Lord] they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.2. go and tell my brothers3. go to Galilee
Scholars seem to write a lot about how Matthew "tidies up" Mark's account. My problem is that it too often takes us deep into a historical-critical deconstruction of the text. It also assumes that Mark has no reason for making his testimony in a particular manner to serve a specific context of mission or based upon his understanding of eyewitness accounts. Matthew and Mark give clear testimony, and each should be taken to their own right; neither is less or subservient to the other. I am on my soapbox now, but Mark and Matthew have integrity unto themselves, and we sometimes miss the crucial witness when we over-compare.
The second thing that seems to be dealt with in the literature is Matthew's own section of material, which serves to prepare the disciple for this message:
17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
You and I cannot preach (I don't think) with a sense of purpose if we do not preach the testimony of the resurrection in Matthew's Gospel for the purpose of bringing people to:
1. Worship the risen Lord2. Aid people with their doubt3. Proclaim the risen Christ as Lord4. Make disciples5. Understand, articulate, and offer baptism as the primary way of becoming a member of God's family6. glorify God and love neighbor7. walk with Jesus through life's pilgrimage
I love what Daniel Harrington writes when he describes the nature of what has taken place:
The empty tomb is the necessary presupposition for christian belief in jesus' resurrection. By itself it does no prove Jesus' resurrection, for the emptiness of the tomb can be explained in several ways. Christian must also appeal to the appearance stories and tot he growth and development of the Church as additional supports for their belief.
The controversy surrounding the empty tomb ought not to obscure the starling content of the early Christian proclamation about Jesus...An event reserved for the end of human history [as believed by most in Jesus' time and in our own] has happened in the midst of human history....To this extent the kingdom of God is among us. (Harrington, Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 413)
This seems to me to be the proclamation of Easter Sunday—Jesus rises for a purpose. This resurrection is an apocalyptic event in the lives of those who experience it, and they do these things. It would be great if there were ever an altar call in the Episcopal church (outside of baptism and confirmation) this Sunday!
Prayer
(From Wikipedia: "The Paschal homily or sermon (also known in Greek as Hieratikon or as the Catechetical Homily) of St John Chrysostom (d. 407 CE) is read aloud on the morning of Pascha (a.k.a. "Easter" in the West), called "the Great and Holy Pascha of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ" in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine rite. According to the tradition of the Church, no one sits during the reading of the Paschal homily. Portions of it are often done with the interactive participation of the congregation.)
Are you God's friend and lover?
Are you God's friend and lover?
Rejoice in this glorious feast of feasts!
Are you God's servant, knowing God's wishes?
Be glad with your Master, and share his rejoicing!
Are you worn down with the labour of fasting?
Now is your payday!
Have you been working since early morning?
You will be paid fair and square.
Have you been here since the third hour?
You can be thankful, and you will be pleased.
If you came at the sixth hour without fear, you will lose nothing.
Did you linger till the ninth hour?
Come forward without hesitation.
Even if you came at the eleventh hour?
Have no fear; it is not too late.
God is a generous employer,
treating the last to come as he treats the first arrival.
God gives to the one and gives to the other:
Honours the deed and praises the intention.
Join, then, all of you, join in our Master's rejoicing.
You who were the first to come and came after,
come now and collect your wages.
Rich and poor sing and dance together.
You that are hard on yourselves, you that are easy,
celebrate this day.
You that have fasted and you that have not,
make merry today.
The meal is ready: come and enjoy it.
The calf is a fat one: you will not go away hungry.
There's hospitality for all and to spare. No more
apologizing for your poverty:
The kingdom belongs to us all.
No more bewailing your failings:
Forgiveness has come from the grave.
No more fears of your dying:
The death of our Savior has freed us from fear.
Death played the Master, but he has mastered death.
Isaiah knew this would happen, and he cried:
"Death was angered when it met you in the pit."
It was angered, for it was defeated.
It was angered, for it was mocked.
It was angered, for it was abolished.
It was angered, for it was overthrown.
It was angered, for it was bound in chains.
Death swallowed a body and met God face to face.
It took earth and encountered heaven.
It took what is seen and fell upon the unseen.
O Death, where is your sting?
O Grave, where is your victory?
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown.
Christ is risen, and evil has fallen.
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice.
Christ is risen, and life reigns.
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the tomb.
Christ is risen indeed from the dead,
The first of all was who had fallen asleep.
Glory and power to him forever and ever!
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