Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C, Sunday April 3, 2022.

Prayer

Mary Anoints Jesus' Feet by Frank Wesley

Infinite is your compassion, O God, and gracious the pardon that Jesus, the Teacher, offers to every sinner who stands before him. Gladden our hearts at the word that sends us on our way in peace; and grant that we, who have been forgiven so much, may embrace as brothers and sisters every sinner who joins us at this feast of forgiveness. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 12:1-11

"I know, on the narrative level Jesus is talking to Judas, both reprimanding him as well as interpreting Mary’s gift. But given my own strong reaction both to the cost of Mary’s gift and the intimacy with which she gives it – washing his feet with her hair? really? – I wonder if Jesus is not also addressing himself to me and perhaps to all of us who shrink back from such unconventional and excessive outpourings of faith, love, and service."
"Questions about Discipleship," David Lose, Working Preacher, 2013.


"And so the hardest question for me becomes, how do we preach the love of Christ, who fed and healed people, in the light of Jesus saying, 'The poor will always be with us?'"
"The Poor Will Always Be With You," Carol Howard Merrit, The Hardest Question, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

We take a break from the Lukan journey to the cross this week in Lent as we pause for special material out of the Johannine chronicle of Jesus’ last days. Here we have a meal; probably Saturday evening after the Sabbath has ended (as in John’s Gospel that is from Friday to Saturday). It could in fact be the traditional meal to end Sabbath – the Habdalah. Furthermore, we are told the meal is taking place in the town of Bethany identified with the raising of Lazarus.

Following the meal something crazy happens: "Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."

This is what I found out about this particular and costly perfume. The perfume is myron which is a generic form made from nard rather than from myrrh. Nard is mixed with oil from the storax shrub to create an ointment. This is not the kind of perfume the Magi brought with them but it is nothing less than a kings fortune to obtain it. Judas points this out.

Judas is identified in scripture as the son of Simon. A little family tree from the New Testament scholar J. N. Sanders places Jesus in the house of Simon the leper. Simon the leper is father to his eldest son Judas Iscarot, Lazarus whom Jesus raised, and then Mary and Martha. Sanders describes Judas as a “masculine Martha gone wrong!” (As quoted in Raymond Browne, Anchor Bible, v 29, p 448) Judas is then a brother of Mary, and the rest.

Judas is not happy and says, “'Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?' (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)"

If we remember that one denarri was a day’s wage. We then can do a little biblical math to understand that 300 silver pieces or denarri is indeed a great sum. This means that we have a lot of money being spent on the anointing. As Browne puts it, “this was a pound of expensive perfume indeed.” (448) It is fascinating to think about the amount of bread this could really have purchased. Interesting comparisons on the amount can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denarius. It would be like a minimum wage employee going out and spending $18,000 on perfume.

Jesus then weighs in, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial."

(Just as an aside there is some debate about this piece of scripture as Mary has no role in the embalming of Jesus. So, it doesn't make much sense.)

Jesus then says something even more unexpected, "You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” We are then told, "When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus."

This is of course a quote from scripture, a paraphrase of Deuteronomy 15:11: “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land”.

So what do we make of the passage? Certainly John is leaning on a synoptic tradition that many scholars believe he had some access to, specifically Mark’s Gospel.  I think you are liable to miss the point by focusing your attention on whether John and the synoptics are describing the same scene.  John seems to have a unique message. 

It is my belief that we have here THE anointing for his burial in John's Gospel. That the tender moment described, and completely missed by Judas and so many of us on our first reading, is that this is in fact Jesus’ anointing and preparation for death. This is happening at this moment at Simon’s house where his children, raised from the dead, the doers, the prayers, and the rebels all gather together for a meal. All nature of follower of Jesus is here and they are all witnessing a most powerful and incredibly intimate moment. This is as Raymond Browne writes, “the culminating expression of loving faith.”

I am always moved by this story when we reach this moment in our Lenten journey. In part because I find my senses have been tuned to a great devotion of our Lord, and so I am truly touched and begin to prepare myself for Holy Week and the veneration of the glorious cross; not out of a sense of rehearsing the past but out of a truly contrite heart’s desire to give thanks for the grace and love Jesus expresses for us.

The moment of anointing stands in stark contrast to the backdrop of a Gospel very rarely focused on Jesus. 

In John’s Gospel we are constantly being reminded that all of this is for us and for the Glory of God. His goal is the restoration of creation. His work is to reorient our eyes upon God and to direct our prayers to his father who is in heaven. So here in this moment is John and the synoptics giving us a glimpse into what our glorious and venerable worship of Jesus might indeed be like were we to observe it with the faith of Mary.

Let us not forget Judas though; it is as he points out an extravagant moment when tremendous amounts of wealth are being literally poured upon a man’s feet. But let us take a few steps back theologically and look at the whole testimony of scripture. We must remember Jesus’ connection of himself with the poor from the Gospel of Matthew, 25.31ff:

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

We are then tempted to mix the two passages and be reminded that Jesus is with us always in the poor. And that we have an opportunity to anoint the poor with service in such an extravagant manner, not unlike Mary in the anointing of Jesus. How would our towns and cities be changed if we through our great devotion to Jesus Christ, anointed the poor with fine oil?

Some Thoughts on Philippians 3:4-14

"Paul pictures himself as a man in the middle, a man who has literally changed his pursuits almost in midstride, and is jubilant."
Commentary, Philippians 3:4b-14, Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"Just as Christ did not regard his high position and stature as something to be exploited but humbled himself and became obedient to death, so too, Paul takes on this cruciform identity and cruciform way of being in the world."
Commentary, Philippians 3:4b-14, Rev. Rob Fringer, A Plain Account, 2016.

"Pursuit and flight are a topos of Greek erotic poetry and iconography from the archaic period onward. It is noteworthy that, within such conventional scenes, the moment of ideal desire on which the vase-painters as well as poets are inclined to focus is not the moment of the coup de foudre, not the moment when the beloved's arms open to the lover, not the moment when the two unite in happiness. What is pictured is the moment when the beloved turns and runs."

Commentary, Philippians 3:4b-14, David E. Fredrickson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

We switch from Paul's focus on the Corinthians (who are having all kinds of trouble) to his letter addressed to the emerging church in Philippi.  

Just before this passage he has been speaking of how Jesus is the example of servanthood and in the most recent passages from this letter Paul has been warning that some Christian traditions will try and make you follow the Jewish law.  Circumcision is only one item, but the the issue is that Paul believes the new tradition is different from the old.  I believe Paul is saying we are not simply Jews with Jesus; this is a greater revelation.  Our relationship with the law has changed because of the ministry of Jesus.  Paul turns this religious law on its head and says: true circumcision is of the heart – and not of the “flesh”.

As an example of the need to circumcise the heart Paul speaks of his own experience.  He speaks from his own experience as a good and religious Jew.  He was circumcised and he was from the tribe of Benjamin.  I love how he describes this, he was "a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless".  He even was a persecutor of the Christians who he thought were lawless!  

Yet, through knowing Christ he has come to understand that when you follow the law you lose.  The law itself obstructs God's love.  If you believe that you are saved or special because you are following the law and being religious then you are engaging in what he calls "rubbish".

The obverse is true.  Christ chooses us. Christ loves us.  Christ suffers under the law so that we do not need to suffer.  We are redeemed and we live anew because of his resurrection.  Our faith in Christ, not godly law abiding citizenship in accordance with legal precepts, is what brings righteousness.  He writes that he, "not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith."

This confession of faith begins the work of transformation.  It bears fruit but the confession itself cannot turn into some new way of doing the work.  We are being transformed from within.  We are, through the power of his resurrection being made new.  Our understanding of life following Christ is our response to this love.  Our Christ like life is our response to God making us his own.  

Paul leaves us with this:  "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."

It reminds me of Paul's words from Ephesians 3: God's "power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine"

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 43:16-21

"We are all called to take our faith in God from the past and bring it into the present, regardless of how hopeless or desperate the situation may seem."
"Present-Tense Faith," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2016.

"This is a wonderful and very necessary word for the Church to hear in this current age when there is so much change and upheaval. The character of our god has not changed. God's grace and power have sustained us in the past, will see us through the present and guide us into the future."
Commentary, Isaiah 43:16-21, Callie Plunket-Brewton, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Lost in Our Own Exiles, We Forget God's Gifts and Promises."
"Remember to Forget," John C. Holbert, Opening the Old Testament, 2013.

"This year can be our turn around time because we serve a God who continually does new things in our lives when we are willing to let go of the past and lay hold upon the future with faith in God who continues to do all things well."
Commentary, Isaiah 43:18-21, William Watley, The African American Lectionary, 2010.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

God is doing a new thing. God is about to free the people from their captivity in Babylon. Who is this God? The prophet reminds the people this is a word from the God who made the sea and those who dwell in it. Isaiah reminds them of how God brought the people out of Israel and tells them God will do the same for those in Babylon.

The prophet says that even though the people do not yet see the results of God's providence, God is in fact already setting things in motion. God will "make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." God is doing this because the people are part of God's story and there is a relationship between them.

God through the prophets invites the people to have hope, offers the people guidance out of love, and suggests the work of the people is not a geographic or ethnic particularity but a message for the whole world. (See the uniqueness of the prophets in Rabbi Jonathan Sacks essay on Leadership.)

The words from this passage are themselves repeated within the Christian tradition. God invites the people through Christ Jesus to hear the words in a new way - expanding the message to all people. The words of Isaiah are a clarion call and can be found in the words of the prophet John the Baptist who makes the same call to the people alienated from God and who are enslaved and imprisoned in their own land, in their own homes, and persecuted in their own towns. The words of Isaiah are echoed in his invitations to take heart and do not be afraid; as when Jesus comes across the sea.

Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year C, March 27, 2022

Prayer

Is this the prodigal son? Or is it the good son? Both seem so
alone but are in such need of the other.

Forsaking your embrace, O good and gracious God, we have wandered far from you and squandered the inheritance of our baptism… Restore us now with the embrace of your compassion, and grant that we who have been found by your grace may gladly welcome to the table of your family all who long to find their way home. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.
From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

"It is in the present day quite fashionable for everybody to lie against what he believes, and to say he is a sinner, even when he believes himself to be a very respectable, well-to-do man, and does not conceive that he ever did anything very amiss in his life."
"An Appeal to Sinners: Luke 15:2," Charles H. Spurgeon, 1856.

"The parable leaves two themes in tension. On the one hand, Jesus illustrates the love of God that is beyond human love as commonly understood and practiced, for no typical father would act as this father does in the parable. On the other hand, Jesus addresses the parable against his critics, vindicating his message and ministry, by which he consorted with the outcast. His critics are illustrated by the behavior of the elder brother, who cannot join in the rejoicing over the lost being found."

Commentary, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Arland J. Hultgren, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


We begin with the reality that tax collectors and sinners are coming to listen, to hear, Jesus.  If we look at the previous chapter we see this is in direct response to the words “let the one with ears to hear listen.”  What follows is a complaint from those having a difficult time hearing, the Pharisees.  They are complaining that Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners.  It is to these accusations that Jesus offers us a parable; and without this focus we loose a good portion of the parable's meaning.  I have a friend who believes that it is their charge that he ate with sinners which ultimately brought about Jesus’ death.

There are many factors which contributed to Jesus’ death; Raymond Brown’s treatment of the texts in his book The Death of the Messiah seems an important resource on this topic.  Nevertheless, I believe most will say that this action of hospitality was one of the most serious and perhaps inflammatory actions undertaken by the Son of God; made all the more scurrilous by the growing popularity of the his prophetic teaching and works of miraculous grace.


In this season of Lent one may very well be led by meditations to ask, “Who is this Messiah who stoops to choose me?”  The answer is that it is exactly this Lord that we proclaim.  And so we turn to the parable to better understand the meaning of this profound gesture.

I would note first that this is the first of three parables on the topic of those who cannot hear what God is doing in the reign of God. The next one is the parable of the shepherd with the one lost sheep and the third is the parable of the woman with the lost coin.  While we cannot take them together; surely they are pieces of a whole.  And, they are worth a nod here.

So we have the wayward sheep first.  The shepherd leaves all his sheep to find the one.  He puts the lamb on his shoulders thereby insuring work for Tiffany stained glass manufactures for decades. Actually, most people may remember that first year bible class or the History Channel’s explanation of this very ancient connection to the shepherd Hermes.  Regardless of the historical birth of the image it is a powerful one of our theology of redemption and works deep on our mind and hearts as we think of our own lost selves and the good shepherd seeking after us. What is miraculous is that any good shepherd would actually, pragmatically, leave the rest for the one.  I think this taps deeply into the real time imagery Jesus is offering his listeners.  Were the religious leaders of the day, the people of Israel themselves, not of enough value to the shepherd? Why wouldn't the shepherd be satisfied with the sacrifices and faithful people so very focused on the Temple worship?  The parable though puts an explanation point on the words of Jesus, “I have come to gather up the lost sheep of Israel.”  Jesus is in fact illustrating his mission and our own.  We are to be like Jesus more concerned with those outside of our safe pasture.  Who are those in need?

We can easily echo Jesus’ mission to the poor, the oppressed, and the captives.  Here is an example of how God is concerned and we are to be concerned, so concerned that we reach out and find the lost sheep.  How often do we come to worship to receive?  What would it be like to turn our gaze outward and seek the lost?  How might this change our ministry concerns?  What will it take for us to truly go out and find them?

Before Jesus moves to the next parable he teaches those who are listening, “In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven at one sinner’s repentance that at ninety-nine righteous people who do not need repentance.”  The structure of the second parable of the woman and the lost coin is the same as the first parable.  It expands the theme.  The invitation to rejoice accentuates the celebration of the work of our woman and her found drachma.  It isn't really very much money, but read what she had to do to find it: she had to light a lamp, and sweep the house.  That is a lot of work for a coin that might have been sowed to your wedding garment!  It is a great search for something so little.  Is it its meaning? Is its tie to the wedding day?  Regardless, it is precious and a great celebration is had after much work is done to find just such a little thing.


It is then at this point in the narrative that we arrive at the story of the man who had two sons. We commonly call this the story of the prodigal son, but this means we are too easily focused on one and not the other. I have often wondered if the more interesting story isn't the part hardly ever spoken about: what the faithful son does and says.  After all, as a full member of the body of Christ, a faithful servant, I am much more like the insider in this story than the outsider. What would it be like to engage in preaching and teaching that focused the church’s attention on the “good son?”  Most everyone likes to be the good guy, the one with the white hat in the old westerns, the savior, and the best man.  When it comes to bible stories we like to be the bad guy, the outlaw, the outcast, and the last man.  When we, the corporate we, do this as the church I think we may miss the better half of Jesus’ point.

So, let’s lean into this parable.  We have two sons, one of them asks for a share of the property.  He is of course asking for an early share in the inheritance.  If interested you may wish to look at Leviticus 27:8-11.  He receives it and goes off to a foreign land.  He certainly squanders his share, living without control.  However, there is no suggestion of sexual excess.  He literally scattered his wealth.

Then there is a famine.  Our bad son ends up tending the pigs.  This is really bad.  Luke Timothy Johnson writes:

“Not eating pork becomes a test of fidelity to Torah in the time of the Maccabees.  To tend the pigs of a Gentile is about as alienated as a Jew could imagine being.  In the Mishnah, raising pigs is forbidden to Jews.  The attitude toward Samaritans and pigs alike is captured by the saying of Eliezar, ‘He that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like to one that eats the flesh of swine.’  One rabbi, at least, considered the craft of shepherding to be equivalent to the ‘craft of robbers.’” (LTJ, Luke, 237)

Well, after being filled with enough corn husks, he comes to his senses and decides to return to his father and tell him how wrong he was.  He has sinned against God and he will only ask for work, like one of the fieldworkers.  Interesting though that even though he requests menial work he addresses the head of the house as father.  All he wants is his daily bread.  All he wants from the father who is connected to heaven is a small apportionment of bread.

When the father sees him, he runs, hugs, and kisses his son.  Now we have extravagant gestures being offered.  He doesn’t even have the opportunity to pray and ask to be treated as a daily worker.  Let’s have the fatted calf and a robe for this celebratory return.

The son was lost but now found, dead but now alive.  Here the son reflects the story of Jesus as a child found in the temple, he reflects Jesus after his resurrection.  Today, like the past, those who have been lost resonate with this moment.

But while you and I may have indeed had moments of being lost, and will surely have plenty more moments of being lost in our future…we must recognize today we are listening as one who is found.  So, it is our story which comes next.  Some days we are like the tax collector and the sinner in the beginning of the story, most days we are like the Pharisees and the good son. 

It is this good son who is so angry he cannot even go into the feast he is so angry. Notice here the similarity to the other son.  He does not come in, but is out on the roadside. The father runs out to meet him as well. He comes out and he comforts him.  He feels compassion and pleads with him to enter, this is the meaning of the Greek in this instance (LTJ, Luke, 238).

Here comes the comparison.  The good son wastes not a minute in telling father of how he has been mistreated. He feels a sense of injustice and resents being treated like a slave.  He has been bound to his father with no freedom.  He has played by the rules.  And, they never even killed a goat for him.  Then he does something interesting, the good son says that the bad son has been about sexual immorality.  It seems important that the son supplies something of his brother’s story not supplied by the narrator - Jesus.  The good son is quick to show how the bad son is completely unlike him and should not be here at all.  Here is the parabolic twist for the Pharisee who is complaining that Jesus is eating with sinners.

Here again are the words of compassion equally given to both sons.  The elder son is friend and companion who have shared everything in a community of possessions.  Not unlike Luke’s Book of Acts where the community of faithful followers of Jesus share everything in common with one another.

So we hear the final teaching of Jesus in the mouth of the father: we must celebrate the lost who are found and the dead who are alive.

I quote from Luke Timothy Johnson’s conclusion here:

“If the first part of the story is pure gospel – the lost are being found, the dead rising, and sinners are repenting because of the call of the prophet – then the last part of the story is a sad commentary on the Pharissaic refusal out of envy and resentment to accept this good news extended to the outcast.  The allegorical level of meaning is irresistible:  they, like the elder son, had stayed within covenant and had not wandered off; they had never broken any of the commandments.  But (the story suggests) they regarded themselves not as sons so much as slaves.  And they resented others being allowed into the people without cost.  The son refusing to come into the house of singing and rejoicing is exactly like those who stand outside the heavenly banquet while many others enter in (13:28-30).  And if this all were not obvious from the wording of the final scene, then Luke’s compositional frame makes it unmistakable: he told these stories to righteous ones who complained about the prophet accepting sinners. (15:1-2)” (LTJ, Luke, 242)

The son requires great suffering from his lost brother than he himself is willing to provide.

Are we ready for the banquet? Are we ready to rejoice with those who are found today? Are we facing inward looking at the party or outward like Jesus and the Father and welcoming people in?  Are we more ready to make up stories about how others can’t possibly be part of us? Or, are we more ready to greet them, clothe them, and feed them?

This is a powerful message for the institutional church considering mission and ministry outside of its walls.  This is a powerful message for the institutional church seeking to understand its work of welcoming the stranger.

Some Thoughts on 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

"God's righteousness is on the loose. God's kingdom has dawned. There are glimpses of God's new creation even in the struggling church at Corinth."
Commentary, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Carla Works, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2013.

"Read 2 Corinthians 5:19 (very slowly) and wonder whether forgiveness might be bearing the sin of the other in one's own life and in so doing never forgetting it but living on in any case in the delight of the other's righteousness that your forgiving/not forgetting gives the other."
Commentary, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, David Fredrickson, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2016.

"To be "in Christ" has to do with both being 'in personal union with the risen Christ" and "in the body of Christ.'"
Commentary, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Gift Mtukwa, A Plain Account, 2016.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

In this section of Paul's letter to the Corinthians he is reflecting upon his own ministry. It is truly one of his great passages.

God has decidedly taken action on our behalf and in so doing our vision is transformed and transfixed upon his mission.

We are truly made new.  We are recreated as the whole of creation is now being recreated by God's re-genesis action.  God has, through the death and resurrection of Christ, reconciled us. He has remade us through his own efforts - not our own.  And, we (like God) have been given a ministry of reconciliation.  Indeed, Paul is saying, this is his ministry as well.  

God has chosen to not count the trespasses against us, but instead to draw us close; and bring us near.

If we are to be ambassadors of Christ we must also be about this work. We must be reconciled to the fact that God has not counted our trespasses, nor the trespasses of the world, against them.  We are to be reconciled to the notion that we are to offer this good news of salvation to the world - in word and in action.

How often do we, out of our own feelings of not being forgiven, chose to not forgive others? How often do we, out of feelings of not being loved, chose to not love others?  How often do we, out of feelings of God counting our EVERY trespass, count the trespasses of our brothers and sisters?  To me, to us, Paul speaks over the ages of grace, love, and mercy.  He reminds us of our own forgiveness and how our response to God's work on our behalf is to take up the cause of forgiveness, reconciliation, and love!  There is no greater task; and in fact it is what we have been made for.

Some Thoughts on Joshua 5:9-12

"So one problem is figuring out what the disgrace/reproach or even trauma of Egypt meant in antiquity, however, the bigger challenge for those preaching in North America, is how we can translate the notion of the disgrace of Egypt for a nation who does not know Egypt, a community who does not have a long history in shame of national and theological defeat."
The Truett Pulpit, Dr. Stephen B. Reid, 2016.

"God is faithful in His promises, yet, not always in ways known to humanity. The Israelites may have desired the fast lane to Canaan, yet, what was learned in the middle?"
Commentary, Joshua 5:9-12, Hannah Beers, A Plain Account, 2016.

"Every Sunday God offers up a Eucharistic banquet for a bunch of ever-returning sinners, as if it was the first real meal after a barren week. Is not our deliverance at the table so real that we can taste it?"
Commentary, Joshua 5:9-12, Ralph W. Klein., at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

The people have entered the land God promised. Many have died along the way and a new people is now in relationship with God. Generations have passed. Their slavery is a long ago nightmare that has slipped into history. Now they are free people in a covenant relationship with God.

God has provided food from the land - "unleavened cakes and parched grain". Now they are to live on the land.

What is happening here is that the people are now free. This is the key element of what is being said. You are no longer slaves. Those generations have past. You are now a people who are free. You are no longer even dependent upon God for your manna. No, now you are are free in the land. You have something that is sacred - your freedom.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, "that if we genuinely lack freewill, our entire sense of what it is to be human will crumble into dust." (Covenant and Conversation: Free Will, Use it or Lose It. Jan, 2017.) He writes further:

...Freedom is not a given, nor is it an absolute. We have to work for it. We acquire it slowly in stages, and we can lose it, as Pharaoh lost his, and as drug addicts, workaholics, and people addicted to computer games lose theirs. In one of the most famous opening lines in all literature, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, at the beginning of The Social Contract, that "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains." In fact, the opposite is true. Our early character is determined partly by DNA - the genetic heritage of our parents and theirs - partly by our home and upbringing, partly by our friends,[9] and partly by the surrounding culture. We are not born free. We have to work hard to achieve freedom. (Ibid.)

Remembering is an essential part of the story. Telling the story. Retelling the story. Enacting the story in liturgies and keeping routines of a disciplined prayer life are all part of reminding ourselves of our journey out of Egypt and slavery. What is true for the Egyptians is true for Christians today about our own story of slavery to sin, redemption and release. Again, Rabbi Sacks writes:

Freedom is less a gift than an achievement. Even a Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the ancient world, could lose it. Even a nation of slaves could, with the help of God, acquire it. Never take freedom for granted. (Ibid.)

We are meant to remember God, God's action, and God's story.  

Third Sunday of Lent, Year C, March 20, 2022

Rubble near the pool of Saloa

Prayer

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, you revealed your name to Moses in the burning bush and your mercy to every generation in the teaching of Jesus. Tend us patiently as the tree you have planted, and do not let us perish. Cultivate us with compassion, and nurture us with forbearance, until, by your grace, we bear at last the abundant fruit of conversion. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 13:1-9

"The word translated as 'repent' is, at its root, about thinking and perception. It refers to a wholesale change in how a person understands something. It implies an utter reconfiguration of your perspective on reality and meaning, including (in the New Testament) a reorientation of yourself toward God."

"How to Survive the Sequester, Syria, and Other Threatening Headlines,"Matthew L. Skinner, ON Scripture, Odyssey Networks, 2013.

"Faith understood as an ongoing relation on engagement in God and with God in the world can never sit back in distraction or religious self-preoccupation or self indulgence, because the God we know in Jesus keeps opening our eyes to both joy and pain, to wonder and to need, and inviting us to see them and not withdraw from them, which is the wont of religion."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Lent 3, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text



When last we dealt with this passage it came to us after a series of natural disasters and in the midst of war.  Today, we can look around us and see that much is unchanged. People remain concerned about the economy, jobs, natural disasters, and intentional gun violence.  Death is a perennial companion with life but in recent months we have discovered the pain of death that seems to victimize us.  Whether it is the Sandy Hook shooting, the monsoon floods in Malawi, or the meteor strike we are left wondering as did the ancients do these deaths mean anything about the faithfulness of those who lost their lives. Trying to figure out the meaning of these things often comes after considering the feeling of being blessed by being granted life in the midst of such tragedy. Chris Haslam, a Canadian priest and blogger, reminds us in his commentary for this reading that both Jews and the Hellenists of Jesus time believed that pain and premature death were signs of God’s “adverse judgment.” We see this not only in Luke’s Gospel but Jesus addresses this idea in John’s Gospel 9:2-3.

It is important, essential, to point out that Jesus rejects the idea that a man was born blind because of his or his parents’ sinful ways. 

This then is the context in which we pick up our first verse of today’s passage where a few who had gathered around  Jesus talk about how Pilate mingled the blood of Galileans with the blood of the sacrifices they were making in the Temple. While we do not have a historical account of such events, the story does match in theme and tone other accounts of Pilate’s cruelty to the Jews. It is an awful and tragic notion.

Jesus responds by asking, “Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? This response is what I like to think of as a Jesus twist. Here we have a group who thinks that there is a hierarchy of sin and punishment dealt out accordingly, Jesus points out to them that they think this in all likelihood because they are safe and therefore more holy. 

He seems to recognize that they are arguing that the violence of one’s death relates to the darkness of one’s sins – an idea that is misused and popular throughout the Christendom of the middle ages and continues even today in some circles of believers. Jesus goes right to the point and is unwilling for his listeners to believe they are greater than or that they sin less or that their sins are lesser so he says: “Everyone must repent. Everyone is called to repent, repent early, repent often, repent now, and repent.” He tells them they are going to die too and suddenly and unprepared.

Jesus tells us of the story of the tower in Siloam, a city tower connected with the wall. Perhaps Jesus is speaking about one of the towers near the pool mentioned in John 9:7. Josephus mentions such a wall near the pool (LTJ, Luke, 211). And, Jesus drives his point home asking, were these people more in debt to God than others?

Next, Jesus moves into teaching mode and offers a parable about the fig tree planted in a vineyard. Notice that while Mark in 11:12ff and Matthew in 21:18ff both offer a story about Jesus and a fig tree, here we are told about how Jesus uses the fig tree image as part of a parable for the explanation of his words regarding the Galileans and those washing in the pool of Siloam. (LTJ, Luke, 211)

Jesus is drawing on very powerful images from Micah 4:4 and Joel 2:22 where it is used as a sign of God’s blessing.

So we have a man who is coming regularly to his fig tree. He was a blessed man, but he comes out one day to find that there was no fruit on it. So, he says “cut it down now.” The vine dresser, the garden helper, says “please don’t. Let’s see if it will bear next year. It needs for the soil to be aerated and it needs fertilizer. Then we can see, then we can cut it down.”

So, we see hear that Jesus is teaching those who will listen that they must repent. They must repent because they do not know what may happen and death may come at any moment. They must all repent. No one has more or less sin than someone else. Repentance is the daily work of the follower of Jesus. It is important and key as a daily exercise not because it prepares you for death but because it aerates the soil and provides fertilizer like the fig tree. A daily diet of repentance provides room in one’s life for the following of Jesus and eventually bears fruit in the work with Jesus bringing forth the reign of God.

How is repentance something that bears fruit? Repentance is the act of bring the ego into alignment with the soul and the Holy Spirit of God. Repentance is the taking of a fearless inventory that helps one to understand what the individual’s role is in brokenness and dysfunction. Repentance helps us understand the individual acts we take or do not take that have affects on the wider community. How do my habits of consumption affect others? How do my wants and desires get bruised when I don’t get my way? How do I lash out and blame others when I am at fault? How do I seek to have others give me esteem so I feel good about myself instead of understanding that God esteems me and loves me?

When we as Christians seek to get things in a healthy frame of living we discover that we are bringing in the reign of God. When we change our habits we change the world in which we live.

Luke Timothy Johnson’s words resonate with me as I read and ponder the meaning of this passage. He writes in his commentary on this passage, “…Jesus respond[s] to these reports of death in the city in classic prophetic style: they are turned to warning examples for his listeners. The people who died were not more deserving of death than others. One cannot argue from sudden and violent death to the enormity of sin. Indeed, Jesus himself will suffer a death that appears to be as much a punishment for sin. But the prophet’s point is that death itself, with the judgment of God, are always so close. It can happen when engaged in ritual. It can happen standing under a wall. And when it happens so suddenly, there is no time to repent…The repentance called for by the prophet Jesus, of course, is not simply a turning from sin but an acceptance of the visitation of God in the proclamation of God’s kingdom.”

Luke Timothy Johnson continues regarding the fig tree parable: “…it is a parable that clearly has the function of interpreting this section of his narrative. The fig tree is not summarily cut down. It is allowed to have time; indeed, it has already had time to bear fruit. The comfort to Jesus’ listeners is that the Prophet is still on his way to the city; there is still time to respond.”

This is an important week to be preaching. This is an opportunity to tell about Jesus’ teaching on tragedy and death brought on by disaster. It is an opportunity to speak about the importance and ritual of repentance which is an ancient and essential practice of Christianity. And, it is also an opportunity to speak about how repentance bears fruit.

Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 10:1-17

"Verse 7 holds the key: it is behavior, faux spiritual and otherwise, which is idolatry."Commentary, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, (Lent 3C), Susan Hedahl, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.


"Faith understood as an ongoing relation on engagement in God and with God in the world can never sit back in distraction or religious self-preoccupation or self indulgence, because the God we know in Jesus keeps opening our eyes to both joy and pain, to wonder and to need, and inviting us to see them and not withdraw from them, which is the wont of religion."
"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Lent 3, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"In 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Paul includes a rather bizarre retelling of Israel's exodus to illustrate for the Corinthians their own precarious position as a church living in a wilderness time -- a limbo of sorts between their newfound freedom in Christ and the waited fruition of God's kingdom."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, (Lent 3C), Carla Works, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

So this week I have been trying to comprehend the intentions of Paul in this part of his first letter to the Corinthians.  Let us simply begin by saying that Paul is using the well known Exodus story as a instructive tale. He is saying that some of these people were idolaters and some were immoral. 

Paul is inviting the readers to compare themselves with these people, who were their ancestors. 

You cannot read this passage without the whole intention of the Corinthian problem in front of you.  One of the biggest issues is can you eat meat that was given as a sacrifice to idols.  Paul says it in a much more stark manner and warns that transgressions against God will end up with an avenging angel taking you to task.

The New Testament scholar J. Paul Sampley (Emeritus Professor at Boston University) writes:

"The gist of the account is clear: God's people - being chosen by God, being baptized, eating special food and drink - are accountable for their behavior.  Neither baptism nor special edibles and potables ensure against God's judgment if the chosen ones stray or fall.  And, there can be no mistake about it: God cannot be blamed for any falling because God never tests believers by one what they can bear; God always graciously provides a way out, an exodus."

Paul writes: "judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread."  We are all the same. We are all in need of saving.  We are all in need of reflection and repentance.  We can chose to live life as one of the faithful Exodus ancestor.  We can live differently and can be different.  This is God's expectation and it is our gift.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 55:1-13

"Lent is an invitation and a reminder that this surprising work of God is open to us all -- wicked and unrighteous alike -- if we will 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 neighborly kind....The ground for such a radical reengagement 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 that is set to exploit the peasants by means of 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 come true at last. I threw out the life-line, 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's been in prison a couple 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.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

This text comes around in year 10A, and in Epiphany 8C (though that is rare indeed), and on 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 often 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 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 next passages. They make up the Second Song of Isaiah 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 Isaiah prophecy. God does not speak, nor does God act, nor does God deliver upon God's promises in the way of humans. We might think well of the fulfillment 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 they way they hope.

Second Sunday in Lent Year C, March 13, 2022

Prayer

O God of salvation, the people in whom you delight hasten with joy to the wedding feast. Forsaken no more, we bear a new name; desolate no longer, we taste your new wine. Make us your faithful stewards ready to do whatever Jesus tells us and eager to share with others the wine he provides. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 13:31-35

"Part of the way in which Jesus spreads his wings over us is that in our work we, too, find our courage to stay and face ugly dangers, to let life bite deeply into our flesh and shelter those in our care even while Herod is menacing."
"That Fox," Nancy Rockwell, Bite in the Apple, 2013.

"The image we are give is of God/Jesus as a hen gathering a whole bunch of chickens under her wings. What might that imply about our relationship with those other chickens?"
Exegetical Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks Christian Resources.

"Jesus, let us note, employs a feminine image for himself and, to the degree that we confess Jesus reveals the essential character and disposition of the One who sent him, also for God."
"Re-Imagining God," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


The passage today contains unique verses that are found only here in the Gospel of Luke.  The pericope or whole passage begins actually in verse 22 and while I don’t think that one should necessarily elongate the Gospel reading in the service, I do think that for the purposes of bible study and for sermon preparation it is important to read the whole section as one unit.

The passage begins with Jesus traveling. He is making his way to Jerusalem.  These passages are wonderful bits of narration by our author and show a skilled writer imparting and telling a story.  More than simply literary style the passage reminds us that our great prophet Jesus is making an exodus journey, prophetically teaching along the way, leading God’s people to ultimate deliverance from the bondage of sin.  This is part of the mosaic theme of this particular Gospel.

“How many will be saved?” a companion asks.  Interesting is Jesus’ response. He does not give a number but rather turns the question offering discipline instead of answers.  Jesus says to them that as followers we are to “act in such a way as to be one who is saved.” (LTJ, Luke, 216)

Notice if you put your finger in your bible and turn to Matthew 7:13, Matthew compares and contrasts a wide and a narrow door.  (LTJ, Luke, 216)  Luke’s emphasis is on the difficulty of being a disciple; he is focused on the hard work of following Jesus and a life lived in discipleship.

Luke has a strong sense of grace, but it is tempered always with service and discipleship.

Once you know the truth, you may not live your life as if you did not have grace.  You cannot in some way live life hoping in the last hour for grace at the doorstep of the master’s house.  In fact your entrance into the reign of God will be because you believed and because you worked with Jesus on behalf of the poor and those in need. 

In other words once one believes the second step is to serve others; because as Jesus welcomes the poor through the door you may by the grace of those who remember your service walk with them into the reign of God?  We are disciples (those who follow) but following is never the goal. The goal is always to formed into an apostle (one who is sent).  Christians are not followers only; they are those who go out as well.

Certainly this is present in the thoughts of St. Chrysostom as he writes the following words:

If you ever wish to associate with someone make sure that you do not give your attention to those who enjoy health and wealth and fame as the world sees it, but take care of those in affliction, in critical circumstances, who are utterly deserted and enjoy no consolation.  Put a high value on associating with these, for from them you shall receive much profit, and you will do all for the glory of God.  God himself has said: I am the father of orphans and the protector of widows.[1]

This short quote does the work of N. T. Wright (a contemporary theologian) some injustice but I think it is important to mention here.  For a longer argument on this matter of balancing faith and works I encourage you to read Wright’s book entitled: Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, 2009.  In this text Wright argues that the work of discipleship is essential within the framework of faith.   He writes the following as if to echo Jesus’ own essential teaching about the reign of God and the work of discipleship:

The linguistic point about Romans 5-8 (the absence of pistis [faith]) thus points to an underlying theological point of enormous significance for our whole topic.  Loose talk about “salvation by faith” (a phrase Paul never uses; the closest he gets, as we have seen is Ephesians 2:8, “by grace you have been saved through faith”) can seriously mislead people into supposing that you can construct an entire Pauline soteriology out of the sole elements of “faith” and “works” of any sort always being ruled out as damaging or compromising the purity of faith. (p. 239)

All that is to say that one must work hard, and that the primary focus is not simply about following Jesus, but that discipleship means acting like Jesus and helping God to restore the world.  It is within this context that we come to the passage for today; and without which our passage today makes little sense.

In our passage today some religious leaders come up to Jesus.  They are consistently throughout Luke recognized and described as opponents of the prophets.  So, here they come, and one must wonder if they have Jesus’ best interest at heart.  One might even go so far as to think that perhaps what they are saying is to stop this preaching, stop this teaching, get out of here and there won’t be trouble.  Jesus is heading to Jerusalem and I do not have the sense they want him to continue on his journey. This is certainly the way most scholars read this warning, not as a warning at all but rather a threat veiled in kindness.

They tell Jesus that Herod wants to kill him. (This is a very different word than the message being articulated to the reader by the narrator in Luke 9.9 and 23.8.  Herod simply wants to see Jesus and it isn't even Herod who puts him to death.  Herod sends him back to Pilate.)  This passage seems to amplify the desire by these individuals to have Jesus stop teaching about discipleship and the reign of God.

Jesus says to the messengers go back and tell that crafty person, that sly king, that fox that I continue on to my goal which is resurrection (the image here of the third day).  Chris Haslam points out that we may not wish to take this literally.  He writes, “Jesus did not mean “third” literally; rather, he means a short and limited time. The NRSV translates the Greek literally, but BlkLk translates it as day by day, and one day soon. He says that there is an Aramaic idiom behind the Greek which does not refer to two actual days but to an indefinite short period followed by a still indefinite, but certain, event. This idiom is also at work in Hosea 6:2: “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him”. 
Sometimes we can miss the point if we get stuck here. I believe the subject of Jesus’ words is the determination to go on to Jerusalem and that there he intends to die.  So it is that Jesus continues on to Jerusalem and the pharisees depart.

It is then that Jesus teaches about the prophets and how they have suffered under the stoning nature of God’s rulers and people.  Jesus’ message is clear; God wants to gather his persons like a hen gathers her brood. God wishes to offer care and protection, security and health.

Jesus says your “house” will not be untouched. Some scholars believe this has to do with the sacking and destruction of the Temple.  It is more likely that Jesus is referring to God’s people being left, as it were, like sheep without a shepherd, chicks without a mother hen. (LTJ, Luke, 219)  Haslam also points out the following, “Verse 35: “your house”: The Old Testament background seems to be Jeremiah 22:1-9 where house means the king’s household of leaders. [NJBC]  I like both ideas very much.  And we might be wise to remember Jesus in his own family’s synagogue and how he was received. 

There are in these thoughts the continuing theme of each Gospel proclamation that Jesus and God are calling people out of their comfortable religion into a discipleship of faith along the way and always proclaiming the reign of God and its bounty.

We conclude this passage with “Blessed is the one who is coming in the name of the Lord.”  This looks forward to Jesus’ own triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It also is a prophecy regarding Jesus’ return.  The parallels are found in Matthew 21:9, Psalm 117:26.  It is important I think to note that the psalm is referring to “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”  Christians have always understood this to mean Jesus.

So we end with the understanding, I think, that one of the chief reasons that Jesus is crucified is because of his teachings about the reign of God and discipleship.  Jesus also understands clearly that his death in Jerusalem is only part of reaching the third day and resurrection which is a primary goal of his ministry.  I believe truly that Jesus understood his death as essential to the working out of salvation history and that he was following a long line of prophetic witnesses.  He could not be stopped in his work and his drive to enter Jerusalem, which meant for him certain death on the one hand, but also the salvific event needed to gather God’s people under his wing.  Indeed, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

---

[1]Psalm 67:6, John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions, 6.12 (Paulist Press, 1963)  I chose this quote after hearing Diana Butler Bass giver her plenary as I thought it was a nice tie-in. I did have the following quote from Giovanni Battista Franzoni the former abbot of San Paolo Fuori le Mura, “In the sixth century, Saint Benedict abandoned the worldly city and took refuge in the mountains so as to be able to find a favorable environment in which to seek God and live the Gospel.  This led him to create a community of men who lived the same life as the “poor of the earth.”  Today, perhaps, St. Benedict would abandon the countryside and the mountains, now covered with gracious and comfortable villas.  Perhaps he would abandon all those places where the rich and powerful have chosen to live and would go live among the dependent and exploited masses of the city in search of the “right place” to reread the Gospel. From The Earth is Gods, 1978, Italian News Agency.

Some Thoughts on Philippians 3:14-4:1

"In this short passage from Paul's letter to the Philippians, these verses begin and end with something between an exhortation and a plea."
Commentary, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"As an African American biblical scholar, I would tend to see what the Bible has to say about borders, foreigners, and receiving and welcoming all. What I have found at the intersection of immigration, African Americans, and the Bible is that people have a desire to belong."
We'll Walk Hand in Hand?" Rev. Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, PhD, ON Scripture, Odyssey Networks, 2013.

"Faith enables us to move out of the essential hopelessness of our world and to step into the 'glorious liberty' that God is bringing to the whole creation through Jesus. It is a different path, a whole new way of life that sees the possibility of new life in every death, sees the light shining in the deepest darkness, and sees hope in the midst of despair."
"Crossing Over," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Paul offers in this passage the notion that the little laws of this world (by which we abide or chafe against) do not bring about the kingdom.  We obey and foolishly we think in our obedience we are like God.  Paul reminds the Philippians that Jesus Christ calls us to faith and not to law.

Paul is not saying don't follow the laws of this world.  His statements are not contrarian.  Paul is saying that there is a higher standard though.  That standard is the standard of faith which is given in Christ's suffering and resurrection.  In this work of God the world is claimed by God, he claims the church, and he claims you and me.

Therefore, this historical event brings about a higher principle.  These principles are lived out as individuals and among the community that follows Christ.

Faith for the Christian, in Paul's way of thinking, is not a passport - a ticket - into the kingdom of God.  Faith is the indwelling of Christ's spirit in the heart of the believer.  Faith is the growing principle and quality that believers have.  It affects us.  And, it is the faith which grows in us as we continually try and lead a life worthy of Christ's gift.

When we hold fast to what has been given by Christ we are formed.  Between our faith and our human will there is a rub and that rub itself is forming.  For the Christian it is the work of living this faith that creates our return again and again to God.  It is as if like a pot being formed by the potter we push against his hands.  It is in this friction that the Christian lives - between human life lived in a world of human law and the a life lived in the hands of a loving God.

It is furthermore this work of living faithfully that binds us into community with others trying to do the same thing.  We are joined together trying to imitate the apostles and Christ.  Our citizenship is in a heavenly bond of faith, bound by the saving Grace of God.

This life is not always easy. It is hard in community and it is even harder in a life lived alone.  So, Paul encourages us to be bound together.  Christ in his love binds us together already and we all recognize that we all fall short in the face of such love.  In our citizenship is the constant work of living in community (despite our variation in personal narrative and sin).

All the while God is forming us and conforming us into his body.

In the end if the clay being formed into a pot has its way it will naturally rebel against the potters hand simply by force and dessolve into a wet mound which is formless.  This is true of Christian life as well.  It is easier to call oneself a Christian, to claim the kingdom by our own proclamation of faith, and then to live outside of community and the higher principles of faith.  It is. It is our nature.  Paul has hope though.  Paul ends by reminding the Philippians that it is easier to live apart, to be divided, and to shrink from the higher formation. Yet this is not God's mind.  Instead God intends a unified community being formed into a mature faith by the Christ's spirit.  So, Paul encourages his little community at Philippi to not give up and to continue to stand firm in their faith.  He says, you are the ones "whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved."

Some Thoughts on Genesis 15:1-18


"Our lesson bears the markings of a prophetic mindset that wants to take the ancient covenant traditions seriously, and aims to grasp what those traditions might mean for a later generation."
Commentary, Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 (Lent 2C), Williaam Yarchin, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"The brevity of this text belies its theological weight: in just six verses, we have messages about the reliability and timing of God's promises, lessons about prayer, and a verse so packed with import that it is quoted in two New Testament passages as a lynchpin for understanding the relationship between faith and works."
Commentary, Genesis 15:1-6, Sara Koenig, Pentecost 12C Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"We explore the story of Abraham in several traditions and why he might be important for people in our time. The hour also includes readings from the Bible and the Qur'an as well as music from the likes of Bob Dylan and Benjamin Britten on the figure of Abraham."

Children of Abraham, excellent links and interviews (including an interview with Bruce Feiler, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths) at On Being with Krista Tippet.

"Why would Abram possibly be afraid? He had just won a great victory over Chedorlaomer and the three other eastern kings (Genesis 14:14-15). Because of this, he had, no doubt, received considerable recognition, even from the pagan king of Sodom (14:17, 21-24). What fear could haunt Abram's faith at such a time of victory?"
"The Focal Point of Abram's Faith," from the Biblical Studies Foundation.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

So, we pick up Abram's story as he has left Ur of the Chaldeans and now is making his way with God. As he goes he has victories over kings. He sets up altars in the wilderness. He talks to God a lot!

He has gone on to Egypt during a time of famine (foreshadowing the journey his ancestors will make). In our reading today we have two separate tales. The first is the promise of descendents from God. God is making a covenant (one of many) with Abram and God's people. Abram undertakes a conversation wherein he requires God to give him a sign. Abram then makes a blood sacrifice to solemnize the oath between God and himself. The sign deep within the ancient tradition is that Abram, if he breaks his oath, will be broken and divided. In his day this ceremony had literal meaning. But the lostness, brokenness, and division should not be lost on us. When God's people do not follow God's ways they become lost, broken and divided.

The second part of the story is the vision: sleep, darkness, terrible signs, and fire - a torch and a fire pot. Each symbolize the power of God. The pact is solemnized. Here then God makes an oath. God passes through the sacrifice and promises to Abram that his descendants will inherit land, grow in number, and thrive.

God will continue to make promises of children, and God will change Abram's name. These are stories that come later. The scribes of course are weaving a tale here from several traditions. Nevertheless the arc of the story is clear. God is with people - Abram in specific. God is interested in walking with Abram. He is to be a blessing to the world around him. He and Sarai are to multiply this blessing both as they make their way in the world, as they come into contact with others, and as they bear children.

The Abram story is of course a creation story, a story of origins, and it is the story of a people. There are two important additions to reading this beyond merely a story of how a people came to be.

My favorite rabbi to read Jonathan Sacks reminds us of Nikolai Berdyaev, a Russian historian and philosopher, who wrote in his book The Meaning of History (1936), 86–87 the following -

I remember how the materialist interpretation of history, when I attempted in my youth to verify it by applying it to the destinies of peoples, broke down in the case of the Jews, where destiny seemed absolutely inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint…Its survival is a mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of this people is governed by a special predetermination, transcending the processes of adaptation expounded by the materialistic interpretation of history. The survival of the Jews, their resistance to destruction, their endurance under absolutely peculiar conditions and the fateful role played by them in history: all these point to the particular and mysterious foundations of their destiny.

In other words the origin story of God and Abram is not simply something that speaks of the past. It is something that speaks of the future. When Abram answers the call to leave Ur and journey with God he is doing so as a participant in God's story. So, when God reveals God's self to Moses as the Lord - Hashem (Exodus 9:16) it is a link that is not a momentary epiphany but one rooted deep in the whole story of God and God's people. Moreover, the whole story of Abram is one that underpins the stories that come after; including the story of Jesus. 

In John's gospel chapter 8:31 Jesus is arguing with the religious leaders of the day. Here in this argument Jesus makes an explicit tie into the Abrahamic tradition through Moses. By reminding them that God appeared to Abraham as Lord. We read Jesus argument as follows:

They answered him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing* what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. 

Not unlike Paul after him, Jesus is explaining the slavery of sin and God's intent to redeem God's people. God is the lord of Abram who freed Abram out of Egypt and sat with him under the oak at Mamre. God did the same for Moses and God's people. God in Christ Jesus is doing the same thing through Jesus for all humankind. God is breaking open the promises to Abram as a new covenant with all people.

The invitation for the followers of Jesus is to come along as did Abram and Moses. To trust and see that God is even now walking among them and to come away with him into the world. To go and be a blessing, to multiply, to live and feast on God's presence and lively word.

As Rabbi Sacks often reminds his readers, the story is about choice, freedom and responsibility and regardless of if it is the story of Abram, Moses, or Jesus and the religious leaders. The scripture invites all humankind to "freedom and creativity on the one hand, and on the other, to responsibility and restraint – becoming G-d’s partner in the work of creation." (Rabbi Sacks, "A living book.") 

Here then in the final analysis Jesus does nothing different than what God has been doing all along...God is weaving God's narrative and we are invited to participate in it. Through the tearing of the temple veil, to the tearing of the body of Jesus, the division of his clothes, to the breaking open and harrowing of hell - God passes through death and sin itself. We see the echoes of a covenant made on the plains with Abram.