Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C, Sunday May 8, 2022

James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). Jesus Walks in the Portico of Solomon (Jésus se promène dans le portique de Salomon), 1886-1896. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Image: 7 3/8 x 10 7/16 in. (18.7 x 26.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.177 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 00.159.177_PS2.jpg)

Quotes That Make Me Think

"You are preaching this text to people who have known hard times, who have been afflicted by disease and lost loved ones, who have been addicted and known loss, who have not felt protected from loved ones who abuse or belittle them. This is the context into which we are called to bring the Gospel message of peace and grace."
Commentary, John 10:22-30 (Easter 4C), Karyn Wiseman, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"The challenge for most mainline Christians is not following Jesus. We've been taught pretty well about that. The challenge for us is recognizing Jesus' voice."
Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, John 10:22-30, David Ewart, 2010.

"I want to suggest that the connection in this text on Good Shepherd Sunday, particularly for the clergy, is not that we are the shepherds, good, bad, or indifferent, but that we are among the sheep."
"Good Shepherd, Good Sheep," Peter J. Gomes, Currents in Theology and Mission, 2003.

General Resources for Sunday's Lessons

Prayer

Part of the great multitude no one can count, we gather O God and attend to the voice of the Good Shepherd. Keep us safe in those arms from which no one can snatch us, that we may proclaim your word in peace until at last, we stand before the Lamb, with songs of praise on our lips. 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 10:22-30

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

We arrive this Sunday at Good Shepherd Sunday and are given a great theological and ecclesiological metaphor for our relationship with Jesus Christ.

At first glance, I am struck by a few things to help me discern how to preach and teach on Jesus’ words to the people in the Temple portico. Is the festival of the Dedication important in the story? How does this ritual tie into the teaching of Jesus at this moment? The children of Abraham want a straight answer about Jesus’ messiah-ship, what are they seeking to know? Why does Jesus say they are not his sheep? What does it mean to be a sheep of Jesus’? Are we one with God in our connection to the shepherd? Are there ecclesiological challenges posed by this that live themselves out in our liturgy and common life together?

So, let’s turn to the text. Is the festival of the Dedication important in the story? How does this ritual tie into the teaching of Jesus at this moment? This feast in the Jewish calendar is the feast of Hanukkah, which remembers the night in the midst of the Maccabean victories when Judas Maccabeus drove out the Syrians who had desecrated the altar. He then built a new altar and the feast remembers the consecration of that altar. It had come to symbolize a renewal of the people and their dedication. In some way the answer to my proposition may be that we recognize that as the Temple is being renewed, and the worshippers gathered being renewed, Jesus stands before them offering renewal of a different kind. Will they see that this is passing away as the “bridegroom” stands in their midst--no need for an intermediary any longer?

I am reminded of Abram who journeys out from the land of Ur of the Chaldeans and along his way erects altars to God renewing his commitment to the God who had called him forth. In some way I wonder how Jesus, as the high priest who stands at his table Sunday after Sunday, offers an image and the very real opportunity for rededication to God, which an altar far away in a foreign land does not. The unique nature of Christian communities at worship is the presence, not of a priest, but of Christ. I will come back to this in a minute.

The children of Abraham, the people, want a straight answer about Jesus’ messiah-ship, what are they seeking to know? When they say they are in suspense, they literally mean “taking away our life” (R. Brown, John, vol. 1, 403). Raymond Brown suggests in his text that John is himself implying that in laying down Jesus’ life, he is taking something away from these people (403). There is a definite conflict building at this point in the Gospel narrative between Jesus and those who choose not to follow. I can imagine the anxiety building and the desire to be certain before choosing which path to follow that is before these good people who are trying to decide just what they are supposed to do as good religious people.

Why does Jesus say they are not his sheep? What does it mean to be a sheep of Jesus?

It is clear throughout the Gospel of John that those who do not bear witness to Christ are not followers of Christ; perhaps Jesus is saying no more or less than this? In the midst of this celebration of rededication one can imagine the juxtaposition of Jesus and his ministry as the Way and the renewal of a former way of worshiping and practicing one’s faith through life falling away.

Are we one with God in our connection to the shepherd? Jesus is clear that he is one with the Father, his ministry is given to him by the Father, and the sheep are his only through the Father.

Raymond Brown summarizes this passage well with these words:

To hear the voice of Jesus one must be “of God”, and “of the truth.” While this dualistic separation of Jesus’ audience into two groups is clearer in John than in the Synoptics, we should not that in Matthew 16:16-17 what enables Peter to recognize Jesus as Messiah and Son of God is the revelation Peter has from the Father. In Johannine terminology Peter and the other members of the Twelve are sheep given to Jesus by the Father, and so they hear his voice and know who he is. Those in John who do not hear are like those in the Synoptics who hear the parables but do not understand…Jeremias [Joachim Jeremias, German Lutheran New Testament scholar and theologian] seems to do more justice to the whole – the community of his followers which after his death developed into the primitive Christian community (Acts 20:28-29; I Peter 5:3; I Clement 44:3, 56:2).

Are there ecclesiological challenges posed by this that live themselves out in our liturgy and common life together? We often get so focused on who is “in” and who is “out” in this passage we miss an important part of Jesus’ teaching, and an important part of theological history and ecclesiological life. It’s clear that those who follow Jesus follow him because to use a modern term his voice calling them by name resonates in their hearts. Out of the recognition that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord, followers proclaim he is such, and shape their lives in keeping with Jesus’ ministry.

As we step into our worshiping communities on Sunday with Jesus’ words in our minds, we are conscience of the fact that we are all sheep under the one Shepherd. This is true. It is also true that, as Christians, we emulate and attempt to practice the faith of Christ and so we engage in the work of shepherding too.

If we take a liturgical example from the writings of the Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas, we see that Christ is the great high priest and is the celebrant of the Eucharistic feast in all places. The bishop is the primary symbol for the church of Christ’s presence at the altar. The priest is the regular symbol of the bishop and then of Christ at the altar. (I admit this is a far simpler and less aesthetically pleasing rehearsal of Zizioulas’ thoughts.)

I believe a similar symbology might be applied to the work of shepherding. Christ is the great Shepherd of the sheep. Christ models shepherding for us. The bishop is the chief symbol of Christ’s work as the head of the local community and shepherd of the sheep of a diocese. The priests in turn are the on the ground shepherds in the congregations. But I would add that the people are also shepherds, the baptized community who proclaims Jesus Christ is the symbol of the shepherd in the world.

We do a similar thing with the Body of Christ theology when we say we are the body of Christ in the world. What I am struggling to get to is the idea that all of us often get so caught up in being sheep we don’t realize that we are every day, hour by hour, shepherds sent into the world to gather in the others. We are the ones seeking the 1 in 99. We are to be the ones who share in the work of holding the sheep tight and safely when danger comes. We are the shepherds who cannot flee when the going gets rough. We are the gates most people find when they enter the community.

Moreover, there are many sheep not yet gathered in. There are sheep not in this sheepfold. And, while they may not even know the shepherd's voice, he is nonetheless, a shepherd of them.

Everyone who goes to church has the opportunity the rest of the week to take what is learned from the great shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ, and to engage in the practice of shepherding Christ’s flock in the world - all of the flock. Caring alike for the found and the lost, those in deep valleys and those seeking green pastures.

Who are the shepherds and who are the sheep in this video of mission, ministry, and stewardship? Sheep and shepherds all?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMsD4ohwGMs

Some Thoughts on Revelation 7:9-17

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Resources for Sunday's Epistle

As in the first century people are at times concerned about what will happen in the time of judgment.

The author of Revelation describes the scene of the end time using symbols filled with meaning for the first century Christian: God's throne, the lamb, patriarchs and prophets, and the lamb.

There will be catastrophes and calamities.

On the one hand the passage tells people if they are God fearers they will be ok, they are the elect - this will include both the Christians and the Jews. So, don't worry.

The world that is next is a world where there will be one great liturgy and people will worship God.

As you well know the book of Revelation was contested and had difficulty becoming part of the canon. This is because the author is using both images of the present day and is having a prophetic dream about what may come to pass.

The problems in my opinion far outweigh the gifts of the text for everyday life. It helps to continue to focus our attention on those who belong to the church vs the mission of the church. It creates an us vs them perspective. It can be used to justify violence and our own ideas about judgement.

It is a text of hope at the same time. It reminds us that evil and death will not triumph, God will in the end be victorious.

I think this is really the message of Revelation: the powers of this world, regardless if we are talking about ancient Rome or the powers of the world today - will not have the last word. God who spoke in the beginning will speak in the end. All will be drawn to him.

And, all the petty sins and all the great sins will be washed away in his presence.

I believe that if you can imagine the "next life" (as Barbara Cawthorne Crafton would say) where all of the petty and great sins of the world can stand in the presence of God, all the resentments carried into the presence of God...well then, you have created a God of your own imagining. I believe, nothing will have any power in the presence of God. Sins will be washed away. Powers of this world will be washed away. Death will be washed away. Evil will be washed away. Our own desire for self will be washed away. All shall be drawn into God. That is very hopeful indeed.

Some Thoughts on Acts 9:36-43

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Resources for Sunday's Lesson

In our book of Acts we are following the apostle Peter. Jesus has sent the disciples out into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. They are going - this is the literal meaning of apostle. They are not locked in an upper room. They are on the road and out in the world. 

He is meeting people and healing people. He ends up visiting Joppa. Not unlike the ancient prophets, Jesus was seen in the story of the gospel of Luke in the great line of prophets healing the sick and raising the dead. So too the disciples carry on this ministry.  

Peter goes to Tabitha and raises her from the dead. This action leads many people to understand the power of faith in Christ Jesus. 

What is important here is that Peter is going into the world. He is engaging people who are considered unclean (a person who deals with animal skins for instance). He is touching the dead (which is forbidden). He is doing works of great power just as Jesus had invited them to do when he sent out the 12 and the 70 to do the work of God in and amongst the people.

We have claimed that we are to go out into the world, the great commission, sometimes though I wonder if we haven't simply gone out and then built buildings and turned inward facing. The passages from Acts during this season remind me that the society of the friends of Jesus were truly out and about with people. This was where the energy of the Christian movement was found in those days following the resurrection.

Third Sunday of Easter, Year C, Sunday May 1, 2022

Prayer

With a canticle of praise, O God enthroned in glory, we join every creature in worshiping the Lamb,

Photo from the Fresco inside the Greek Orthodox church
on the edge of the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum

Jesus who is alive among us and who invites us to this meal. Grant that we may stretch out our hands to fulfill in lives of service the love our lips profess.  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 21:1-19

"Embrace the reality of the fishermen doing something that might seem absurd to others and one who denied the Lord to become the rock that leads a church."
Commentary, John 21:1-19, Karyn Wiseman, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"From fisher of fish to fisher of people to keeper of the keys to shepherd. It was the Rock's final promotion, and from that day forward he never let the head office down again."
"Peter," Frederick Buechner, Buechner Blog.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


We continue through our Easter season readings of John’s Gospel. The passage opens up a week later, or a little later than the previous resurrection accounts. Jesus reveals himself again. The image in Greek is one that moves from obscurity to reality, as in the other resurrection accounts. (R. Brown, John, vol II, 1067) Jesus is not only present but more certainly and powerfully so. The disciples have returned to the sea of Tiberias. They are there in the same location as the miracle of the loaves and fishes, a miracle of multiplication. We are given then a list of the shore party: Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, Sons of Zebedee and a couple of others.

Simon Peter goes fishing and the rest join in. Some scholars spend a lot of time wondering why Nathanael might go with them to fish as he was a man from the hill country. I did not grow up on water, but love to fish. Perhaps these scholars just aren’t fishermen. Besides, who knows…perhaps Nathanael was a fly fisherman and wanted to see what this was all about?

They fish at night and they catch nothing. Those who know about fishing the Sea of Galilee (I once had a Texas A&M professor come and speak about ancient fishing on the sea of Galilee) note that night fishing was practiced and even the best the time to fish.

As the sun is rising Jesus appears on the shore. His appearance, his revelation to them, is mysterious; so very much so that they do not recognize him. Scholars use this portion of the text to elevate the criticism that this is a redactor of John’s Gospel, because they would have recognized him after the several appearances. They link this to the grammar and Greek vocabulary that does not match John’s.

Jesus calls out to them, “Lads” or “Children.” You haven’t caught any fish have you? We have here a tender moment, a fatherly moment. Jesus is calling to friends and disciples, students and followers with whom he has traveled, lived, and shepherded. (Note in a similar account in Luke he simply asks for something to eat.) Here Jesus invites them to cast their net. Is this going to be another multiplication account? Jesus tells them to cast on the right side of the boat and they will find something. Raymond Brown reminds us that Cyril of Alexandria and others insert, “But they said, ‘Master, we worked all night and took nothing; but in your name word we shall cast.’” Borrowing from Luke I imagine, Cyril’s words capture the frustration these weary fishermen might have felt…remember they don’t know it is Jesus.

Some scholars have tried to dismiss the miracle by suggesting that from Jesus’ vantage point perhaps he could see a school of fish feeding or rising. I think this is tampering with the story.

Of course they haul in a tremendous number of fish. In the multiplication of fish Jesus is recognized and Peter jumps in the water. (Some scholars believe that the redactor using the words “the disciple whom Jesus loved” as a modifier for Peter, reveals our writer to be one of Peter’s disciples.

Peter throws on some clothes and jumps in the water. Seems odd to get your clothes and jump in. However, fishing at night and the particular kind of diving need to fish in the manner in which they were working required the men to be unclothed – according to my Aggie Nautical Archeologist friend. So, as Peter is going ashore he gets his clothes and goes.

The word that stands out though is the action word for jumped in the sea. Peter throws himself in the sea and swims to the shore. This heightens the sense of excitement at the appearance and revelation of the Lord.

The rest arrive by boat, towing the nets and landing the boat themselves.

There is a charcoal fire and fish and bread. Jesus invites them to eat and breaks the bread and shares the fish. He feeds the disciples. They appear unsure, he is different, changed.

There are two powerful symbols to be played with here. The first is the apostolic mission and the multiplication miracle. It is clear that the risen Christ gives the mission and directs the work. Alone a disciple can do little, but with the risen Christ a disciple may discover not only fields in need of tending but plentiful waters for fishing. The second image present is that of the risen Christ as giver. The Lord is the giver of the Eucharistic feast which feeds the body and the spirit for the journey. The charcoal fire and the breaking of bread cement this image in today’s Gospel lesson. We recognize the risen Christ in the Eucharistic meal – one that takes place out in the world an not behind the locked doors of the upper room.

Both of these revelatory pieces of the same resurrection account say to us something of the ecclesial nature of the first community of followers that was forming post Easter and it says something about he ecclesiological nature of our own communion today. Peter’s throwing himself in to the baptismal waters and the communion meal are central to the life of the missionary disciple. Furthermore, they remain central in our life today. We are brought through the waters of baptism to the heavenly shore to partake in a heavenly banquet.

Tertullian gives us a wonderful quote, “But we little fish, who are so named in the image of our ichthys, Jesus Christ, are born in water and only by staying in the water are we saved.”

This unique addition to John’s Gospel is filled with imagery about sin and death, baptism, Eucharistic theology, and discipleship.

Some Thoughts on Revelation 5:11-14

"Revelation summons its readers to manifest their loyalty to God, the Lamb, and the Holy Spirit to a life of worship"
Commentary, Revelation 5:11-14,ISarel Kamaudzandu, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"Most surprisingly, Revelation introduces Jesus not as the expected fierce apocalyptic lion (Revelation 5:5, from Genesis 49:9), but rather as a Lamb (literally the diminutive word, little lamb). No other Jewish apocalypse portrays its hero as a Lamb."
Commentary, Revelation 5:11-14, Barbara Rossing, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"This part of Revelation is reminiscent of the Kenotic Hymn found in Philippians 2 saying that "every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Everyone will confess that Christ is Lord and he is Lord not because he roars like a lion but because he lives as the slaughtered Lamb."
Commentary, Revelation 5:11-14, Cara Shonamon, A Plain Account, 2016

"Like a great infusion of healing medicine, the new life 'injected' into this world is working its way through all creation. We see the power of that new life reflected in the lives of those around us in many ways already. And the good news of the gospel is that there is nothing that can stop it from 'making all things new.'"
"The Power of Life," Alan Brehm The Waking Dreamer.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

As last week we have the beautiful image of power and authority. The throne and those around it provide a window into the mind of the evangelist and prophet. God's heavenly reign is surrounded by the thousands and thousands who worship and give voice in heaven to what we sing on earth: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

Here in this strange place are what William Loader in his "First Thoughts Series" says is a, " pageantry of power and before us parade mysterious beings, elders, living creatures, thousands upon thousands of angels. It is awesome. The poetry of the images evokes wonder or, at least, that is its design. It is so overwhelming (and strange) that we can easily forget that it is imagery. It is imagination's movie crafted to express and reflect the wonderful being of God. Awe before another human being is not at its best an issue of subservience but of love and respect. It is acknowledging the holiness of the other in wonder. With God it is no less. It is letting ourselves have space to meet and engage God's being."

The evangelist hears, "every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing." The image and sounds offered as our own imagination catches up are such that we are moved to understand the praise and worship of God. John's vision on Patmos gives images and words to our own inner desire to find and worship the God who has made the heavens and earth and set the planets in their courses.

The response of those in God's midst mirror for us what our response is to be before this God above all gods who is sovereign of all. For they say and sing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” Their actions mirror our worship action of bowing before our God, "the elders fell down and worshiped."

I am mindful a power image that comes to my own mind of those good people who kneel in humility and poverty and who are invited to stand by God and to understand the power of this world which subverts their dignity has no authority over them any longer. I am also struck by the power of those with great wealth and power who are humbled by God and instead of standing which is their social right kneel before their maker.

Here is the topsy turvy world of the Gospel. Both actions and invitations are images of this God. Loader in his First Thoughts has a sense of this mixed imagery:

"The image of Jesus has a way of subverting such systems. Our passage is heavily influenced by the scene in Daniel 7:9-14) where a human figure, "one like a son of man", who represents and leads the people of Israel comes to the holy throne of God which is surrounded by countless hosts of angels, to receive a kingdom. Much of Revelation is a recycling of biblical motifs which come to us through the dreamlike images of the writer. In this case the one to receive a scroll from the God is announced first as the lion of Judah and the root of David (5:4-5), but enters the scene as a slain lamb. It is an extraordinary violation of the norms of power and dignity. The one most highly honoured is a lamb looking as if it had been been slaughtered - because it had been (5:6)! Something quite bizarre! The lamb receives the scroll whose seals control all that matters (5:7)."

Yes indeed, worthy is this lamb who humbles some and dignifies others, who invites some to stand and others to kneel.  Our God is both lion and lamb.  Our God is the beginning and the end.  Our God is our own beginning and our own end.  How will you approach the throne of grace this Sunday? On your knees or standing?

Some Thoughts on Acts 9:1-20

"Conversion may indeed miss the mark in describing what happened. It certainly does if we reduce it to meaning recruitment or even if we think it just means turning to God so that one will be saved or safe. There is a good case for speaking instead of Paul's call."
"First Thoughts on Year C First Reading Acts Passages from the Lectionary,"Easter 3, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"When someone is headed in the wrong direction, it may take a blinding light to expose his own blindness."
"The Conversion of Saul/Paul," exegetical notes by Peter L. Haynes, Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren.

Oremus Online NRSV New Testament Text

We know from Paul's writing that he had a great experience at the hands of God. He had a conversion experience. We know that Paul has a huge influence on Luke/Acts. And, we also know that Luke is keen to show the continuation of the tradition of Israel in the new Christian community. Who better as an illustration than brother Paul.

Here is the problem with this passage and what we do with it. We either make it about persecution of the flock, and thereby a persecution of Christ. This allows us to be on the Christ side of things. It automatically places us on the inside and those who are on the outside not one of us. It further lets us off the hook for any bad behavior on our part. After all we are on the side of Jesus.

Second, we make this about conversion into something, that is the flock of Christ, a holy people of God. This further complicates things because it makes us special and those outside of our clan not special. It creates a situation where those who are converted are our true neighbor and those who are not converted are removed from neighborly status.

We may even make this passage about Ananias' witness and his acts of kindness towards Paul as an implied action for Christians. In other words we should be like Ananias. The problem with that is multi-dimensional. It is a problem because it reinforces that we are to be kind to those who are converted. It makes the Gospel about good behavior. And, finally, it reduces the acts of Ananias to kindnesses. 

Father Farrar Capon has a passage which relates to this very model I have described. In his book The Mystery of Christ, he writes, "...In building this theological model you’re also done something else. You have opened yourself to the idea that the church is the Fellowship of those who have the gift and that the rest of the world is just a crowd of outcasts who don’t have it. Even though you may go on saying in church that the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world, you are actually holding that he has taken away only the sins of the church. And from there, you are in danger of waltzing yourself into the position that the world at large is damned unless it joins the church, and that even the children of Christians will go to hell if they are not baptized – and so on and on, right into the theological house of horrors that all too many people actually thing is the household of faith." (p 25)

I think that in order to reclaim this passage from a churchly perspective or a perspective of morality, about good behavior, we must understand that Luke has told the story within the frame work of Jesus' teaching on the Samaritan. (Luke 10.25ff)  And, we must read as Jesus' intended with the passion at its center. So it is that Paul has been undertaking a war of passion on the followers of Jesu and upon Christ, he then undergoes his own passion - and resurrection (the being stricken and blinded), and so we see that Paul himself becomes not only an image of the man who fell among bandits but of Jesus himself. Here then we see that Ananias is not simply doing something nice as a neighbor. NO! Ananias enters into the passion of Paul. He crucifies his desire to hate and not to dismiss this enemy as outside the family of God but to embrace him. He crucifies his desire to do and be somewhere else but with this enemy of faith and instead inconveniences himself to go and be with Paul. Ananias must crucify all his understanding that God only choses good clean people as "instruments of his mission. Ananias must crucify his idea that following Jesus was only meant for the Jews and not for the gentiles - those who do not belong to the family of God and that the very enemy of the Christians was going to be the one to open wide the family of God to all people. He must crucify the idea that touching him and healing Paul will look bad in the eyes of his fellow community members. He must crucify the part inside of him that will not wish to care for Paul. And, yet Ananias cares for him until he regains his strength - further crucifying his convenience for the passion bearer. And, we are told that they eat together, a most intimate act. Ananias must crucify the idea of who can sit at table with him and who cannot. 

The story of the Paul and Ananias reveals that to be in relationship with the mystery of Christ is not to create some kind of churchly morality but instead to be with people in the midst of their passion and to experience with them the passion - in so doing we experience the passion of Jesus. We are living into the death of self, to the death of the world, and in living into the passion we discover Easter and resurrection. For in experiencing one another's passion new life is experienced by both Paul and Ananias.

Sermons Preached on These Lessons


The Conversion of the Church, The Conversion of Paul
Feb 23, 2016

Things are not the way they are supposed to be
Apr 21, 2013



A Sermon on the Conversion of Paul, 

Preached 2016 at Duke

We have an addiction, clergy and laity alike, an addiction to church, and consequently the persecution and disempowering of anything that does not resemble church

And, this addiction to Church means that we read (we cannot help but read) the scriptures through the lens of CHURCH

That structure, model, of Church that we have received

So it is we read everything through the eyes of a church, with a building, parking lot, deferred maintenance, regular attendance, budget, annual stewardship campaign, programs, and outreach – you know – church

Church has been stealing Jesus’ gospel for quite some time now, and making God’s invitation to conversion very difficult to hear

So it is that when we come to passages like we do today we place our selves (church) in the seat of those being persecuted

In this way we can be thankful we are not like Paul or his friends and that we are not frustrating the mission of God in Christ Jesus

When we do this, and we do it all the time, we miss the very difficult prophetic words of God to the religious leaders of the first century: Why are you persecuting my mission? It hurts me when you kick against the goads!

We the church, in our time, in our context, are not Paul post conversion but Paul pre conversion.

Here then there is much for us.

We hunger for the priestly power and authority.

We disempower any and all who would have us see a different way of being Christian community.

We smile and nod politely at the idea of new and different mission, in homes, in Laundromats, in bars, in restaurants and public space

We protect our pharisaical understanding of authorized spaces and liturgies

We are quick to explain how that isn’t really church

We disregard those who offer new paradigms for mission – for service and evangelism.

We are focused on our temples alone and their self-supporting economies.

We do not hang out with widows, orphans, sinners and the lost sheep but judge them.

We create spiritual yokes and heavy burdens suggesting everyone should become a new kind of monk or pilgrim.

We like our robes and parades, to be called father and teacher, and we are zealous for the teachings and traditions of our denominational ancestors.

And, God, like the woman and the lost coin, looks inside our churches and hunts with a bright light for the gospel, intended for God’s people, but now beneath some outdated furniture.

Oh how God will rejoice when the church – the body of Christ – once again remembers its vocation and leaves its buildings and goes out into the world.

When the church sees the bright light on its midday road

And, understands it is being sent to those unlike itself.

Sent by the spirit to bring good news to the poor

Sent to visit and help free the bound and imprisoned,

Sent to feed the hungry and lift off the burdens of this world and our old faith

To heal the blind and sick and care for the widow and orphan

To invite the brokenhearted to find hope

And the sinful to find forgiveness

To live and work hand in hand with the gentiles of our day.

To partner with them, learn from them, and perhaps even be converted by God through them

To see that it is no church of Jesus when it hides away behind doors seemingly locked to the world around it…

Oh, when the people who call themselves church, see the light and are found and remember their gospel work…oh how the old woman God will laugh and dance and call all the world to rejoice. And, say, look what was lost has been found.

Only here then do we then contemplate the post conversion mission of Paul.

Only after a time of healing and coming to see again, in a new way, does he go here and there and uphold a vision of Christ like community – completely unidentifiable from the old religion he once defended.

Here then we see the faithful follower turned apostle, the one who was a temple disciple re-oriented, turned apostle of faith, uncomfortably sent to those unlike himself.

Here then is a mission reinterpreted. Our scales drop from our eyes.

We are able to hear Jesus’ words from Matthew…there is something more here, greater here, than the temple.

We understand better our being sent by the holy spirit, our traveling light and dependence upon God and the grace and hospitality of others.

We are able to see that our call like Paul is to go and nurture the seeds of Christ already sown by God in a world hungry for the experience of transcendence.

We realize we are to use our relationships and the situations in which we find ourselves bound - to offer a vision of God’s love and the benefit of prayer, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

We are to interpret the gospel through the cultural symbols and metaphors we find in our very context. Like Paul and the unnamed God of the Athenians.

After all Paul didn’t go to Athens saying I have developed a theology about God, and have a great idea of how I can convert people, all I have to do is find a place with an unnamed God in which to practice what I have learned.

No, he looks around him and sees an idol and, rather than denounce it, uses it to proclaim the gospel.

He empowers others and sends them out.

He encourages house churches, and synagogue communities, and travels to plant, and sow, and tend, and weed, and feed the growing numbers of followers who claim God in Christ Jesus.

He battles against any who seek to worship idols, he withstands imprisonments, snake bites, and stormy seas. Paul’s tenacious mission is nothing less than undaunted courage.

Paul’s is indeed a conversion from temple protector to missionary tent maker.

As the religious leaders of our day God invites us to see and understand that we are being called to just such a conversion, called to stop frustrating the mission of Christ to the world.

God doesn’t need us to protect God’s mission or god’s self. God shines a light on our own sinful desire to ensure the long life of tearing temple curtains and beckons us come and go, be converted, remember your calling, stop kicking and start walking.

For upon seeing clearly, in the midday light, with the scales falling form our eyes, I believe the church can and will, like Paul, set aside disobedience and once again catch God’s heavenly vision.

Second Sunday of Easter, Year C, April 24, 2022

Prayer

On this Lord’s Day, we come together, O God, to proclaim the Living One, the First and the Last, who was dead, but now is forever alive. Open our hearts to the Spirit Jesus breathes on us. Help us, who have not seen, to believe; send us, as you have sent Jesus, to greet the world with the Easter word of peace and to share with all the Spirit’s new life 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 20:19-31

"Even though he said the greater blessing is for those who can believe without seeing, it's hard to imagine that there's a believer anywhere who wouldn't have traded places with Thomas, given the chance, and seen that face and heard that voice and touched those ruined hands."

"Thomas," Frederick Buechner, Buechner Blog.

"...so now I think it’s not so much that Jesus is rebuking Thomas as he is blessing us."

"The Never-Ending Story," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


As we arrive at the text for this week I am mindful of the prayer of St. Chrysostom which may be prayed as part of our daily office:

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

So it is that I cannot begin to think and ponder on John’s Gospel and the appearance of Jesus in the midst of the disciples without also thinking of the risen Christ in the midst of our gatherings and how he is present and what he encourages us, as faithful followers, to undertake on his behalf.

Also, I am mindful that the reality that this appearance and the appearance to Thomas a week later occur on the “first day of the week” suggests the presence of Christ on our day of worship and in the midst of the community gathered for both prayer and a meal, the Eucharist in our current practice. Raymond Brown and other scholars are quick to remind us of Isaiah 3.6: “My people shall know my name; on that day they shall know it is I who speak.”

Brown’s notes follow from page 1019 of vol. 2 of his reflections about John’s Gospel for the Anchor Bible Dictionary. Here he suggests traces of ancient Johannine communal liturgy.

The disciples assemble on the Lord’s Day. The blessing is given: “Peace to you.” The Holy Spirit descends upon the worshippers and the word of absolution is pronounced. Christ himself is present (this may suggest the Eucharist and the spoken Word of God) bearing the marks of his passion; he is confessed as Lord and God. Indeed, this passage in John as been cited as the first evidence that the Christian observance of Sunday arose from an association of that day with the resurrection – an idea that shortly later Ignatius gave voice to: “No longer living for the Sabbath, but for the Lord’s Day on which life dawned for us through in and his death.” (Magnesians, ix 1). (R. Brown, John, vol 2, p 1019).

In the end, Brown believes this is a secondary development, nevertheless one of interest.

So it is with these thoughts that I turn and think more closely upon the Gospel for this Sunday.

We begin with the disciples behind closed doors because of their fear. Perhaps afraid of the authorities or for those who might accuse them of stealing their messiah’s body they are hiding. The doors are locked. Jesus comes and stands in their midst, right in front of them.

Jesus says to them, “Peace be with you.” Shalom. Shalom Alekem. Yes, this is a greeting. It is also an ancient form of saying or cluing the listener or hearer of these words that there is about to be a revelation. They are about to see, hear, or receive a revelation of God. The revelation (as with Gideon in Judges 6.23) is that the Lord is present, the Lord brings peace, and you will not die.

Jesus then shows his disciples his wounds. He shows them their very place of them. While there is some argument between scholars about the different wound sites shown and the different terms and placement between the Gospel of Luke and John’s visitation we nevertheless see that it was a powerful recognition of the Christ crucified. I am mindful that the disciples and those who experience the resurrection had not only a real experience but an understanding that Jesus was himself more fully present than before. The reality of these wounds and the powerful vision they must have created for those whose eyes fell upon them quiets me.

Here then the author and narrator use the resurrection title, “the Lord.” While I have been using it, we notice in the narrative its first use here. Jesus is recognized but recognized as the risen one, the first fruits of those who have died.

Jesus provides a vision of resurrection. He is present. He gives them a mission. Just as God sent me I am sending you. We may reflect upon the previous chapters, his priestly prayer, and his ministry. Jesus was sent by the father to glorify God. Jesus now sends his followers to do the same.

And, Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit. As if from Genesis we have Jesus breathing over the new creation, new breath to the new Adams and the new Eves.

Then the Lord charges them to forgive. Forgive the sins and know that those which you hold will be bound by them. If you release them, you open your hand and they fall away. If you hold them you hold your hand closed and they cannot go. It seems important to reflect on this for a minute. Jesus' words here are very different than the legal words used by him in Matthew’s Gospel. Here we have kerygmatic words. Brown writes, “Thus the forgiveness and holding of sins should be interpreted in the light of Jesus’ own action toward sin…The Gospel is more concerned with the application of forgiveness on earth, and is accomplished in and through the Spirit that Jesus has sent…more general Johannine ideas about the Spirit, relate the forgiveness of sins to the eschatological outpouring of the Spirit that cleanses men and begets them to new life… the power to isolate, repel, and negate evil and sin, a power given to Jesus in his mission by the Father an given in turn by Jesus through the Spirit to those whom he commissions.” (1040-1044) This is the recreation in action.

The disciples are given power by the Holy Spirit to be about the work of freeing people to and into the newly created order.

Thomas, our dear brother Thomas, missed this historic moment. And, as we arrive at this time every year we know he will not believe it no matter what is said. So emphatic is he that he will not believe it unless he “throws” his fingers into the wounds themselves. This is a dramatic call for proof if there ever was one.

The disciples continue their stay in Jerusalem and find themselves with Thomas again in the upper room one week later.

Again, Jesus appears and he calls to Thomas. The Lord invites him to see and feel his wounds to reach out and touch them. Some scholars have spent time wondering how this could be so if Christ was wearing clothes. Was it a loose-fitting garment? These suggestions give rise to one of my favorite Brown quotes which I must admit almost caused me to fall out of my chair when I read it. Raymond Brown writes, “The evangelist scarcely intended to supply information on the haberdashery appropriate for a risen body.” (1026)

Jesus also tells him to stop or quit persisting in his unbelief by these actions. While Thomas was a follower of Jesus was a believer in the risen Christ? He is challenged here to change.

What has always struck me, but few preachers have ever remarked on, is the fact that Thomas doesn’t touch Christ. I have pondered this a great deal. What is it then that changes him? Thomas’ faith is adequate without the proof. That is the point of the story.

We often get so focused on what it takes to convince ourselves in God and then project it upon Thomas that we miss the narrative’s truth. Thomas believes without proof.

Brown writes of all four episodes in chapter 20 of John’s Gospel:

“Whether or not he intended to do so, the evangelist has given us in the four episodes of ch xx four slightly different examples of faith in the risen Jesus. The Beloved Disciple comes to faith after having seen the burial wrappings but without having seen Jesus himself. Magdalene sees Jesus but does not recognize him until he calls her by name. The disciples see him and believe. Thomas also sees him and believes, but only after having been over insistent on the marvelous aspect of the appearance. All four are examples of those who saw and believed; the evangelist will close the Gospel in 29b by turning his attention to those who have believed without seeing.” (1046)

Thomas’ words “My God and my Lord,” are the last words spoken by a disciple in the 4th Gospel. And they are the culminating Gospel proclamation for the faithful follower of Jesus. This statement brings him fully into the covenant relationship with the new creation.

Now that the witness of the disciples is concluded Jesus' words are for us. The last and final Beatitude is given to those who would come after. Blessed are those who do not see but have believed. Here is Jesus, with us to the end, offering the last words in the original Gospel. We have the opportunity to join the new covenant community, to be new Adams and new Eves, to participate in the stewardship of creation recreated, and to take our place in the midst of the discipleship community. We do so through baptism. We do so also by embracing the kerygmatic Word and living a resurrected life. We live by making our confession: My God and my Lord. We live life on the one hand bearing witness to the ever-present past of crucifixion and the ever-present future of the resurrection life.

Some Thoughts on Revelation 1:4-8

"Charis recalls the patronage system of the early Roman world, in which a patron displayed generosity to his clients, and expected loyalty in return. Eirene reminds one of the Hebrew shalom, the notion of wholeness and peace that is often associated with a deep and meaningful relationship to God."
Commentary, Revelation 1:4b-8, Valerie Nicolet-Anderson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"...the violence and greed of our culture in fact do test our faith, sometimes in shocking and unexpected ways. So preaching this text requires us to search out particular, local points of conflict and opposition to the reign of Christ in the immediate realities of our congregations."
Commentary, Revelation 1:4b-8, Susan Eastman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.


"In the beginning: God; in the end: God; in the midst of life: God. These are less statements about time and place as they are statements of hope and trust."
"First Thoughts on Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Easter 2, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Here is what is about to happen: we are about to have a series of lessons from the Book of revelation.  This is it; there is nothing this long or this sequential at any other time in our preaching cycle. I am not yet sure I am brave enough to make it the topic of my preaching for the next couple of weeks but I am beginning to think it is worth it.  

The background is the tradition that this is written by John on Patmos and it is addressed to the "7 churches".  Of course, this means that it is written to all churches (as he is at the time writing to all the churches).  A number of good commentaries will make this and other observations about the context.  

In the introductory verses, we have words quoted from Isaiah 44.6, "who is and who was and who is to come." This God is the Alpha and the Omega.  The seven spirits are from Isaiah 11.2ff.  The author bears witness to the fact that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead and ruler over all the earth.

Then there is the witness that Jesus loves us, that he frees us from sin, that we are made into a new community, and that we are (like priests) to serve him.  We are being, even now, drawn into a worshiping community that eventually will move from the world of time to everlasting glory forever and ever. 

These are the very themes of the whole text.  They make the mission of Jesus upon his return the event which will bring all of this to pass.  Upon his return, all shall be transformed. "Amen.  Amen." 

God is God and he has come, he is coming back, and he intends to bring about the recreation of the world.  

Walter Taylor, of Lutheran Seminary, writes:

"The Revelation lesson gives us an opening to talk about Christology in ways we may not have had on Easter. All or any one of the many titles of verse 5 could be explored. Taken together they outline a full Christology that includes life, death, resurrection, and present lordship. The Christological emphasis continues with the love of Christ and his freeing action by means of his death (verses 5b-6), and in verse 7 we look forward to the coming of Jesus as the final judge."

This is a great opportunity to think about with the congregation who this Christ is that we worship and what he has to do with our living of lives in this particular world.

Some Thoughts on Acts 5:27-41

"Authoritative communities and institutions sometimes allow themselves to be hijacked by their own biases, dogmas, racism, sexism, classism, and prosperity gospels. We stifle God's voice."
Commentary, Acts 5:27-32, Mitzi J. Smith, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"It is appropriate that in this second Sunday of Easter”the week immediately following the glorious celebration of the resurrected Christ”the New Testament reading contains an amazing story of the apostle's courage and boldness in the face of opposition. Acts 5:27-32 beautifully displays the fearlessness the Holy Spirit bestows upon us when we are living in the resurrection of Christ.'"
Commentary, Acts 5:27-34, Shannon Greene, A Plain Account, 2016.


"Public proclamation of Jesus in obedience to God rather than humans intends not to cut off those who oppose; it intends to serve and even to suffer for doing it, pressing on to witness to God’s renewal of all things."
Commentary, Acts 5:27-32, Kyle Fever, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Luke in Acts is clear that he wants to show that the work of the apostles in the first generation was intent on keeping the mission of Jesus underway. They do this through the power of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, Luke is quick to show that they are the true inheritors of the religion of Zion.

So in this passage, Peter and John have been arrested. They were preaching the resurrection. The religious leaders of the day want to keep them quiet. Their plans to punish Peter and John are set aside for a while.

However, in the end, the growth of the message and community dictates that action be taken. So it is that they are imprisoned for a short while until an angel sets them free. They go right back to preaching and teaching.

This preaching is clear that Jesus' mission and now the mission of the Holy Spirit is the same message as of old. This is the most recent work of the God of Israel. Luke adeptly puts words into the religious leader's mouths in order to reveal their culpability in Jesus' own death and to show that any oppression of this new message is more of the same.

I think there are a couple pitfalls here. First, do not scapegoat the Jews. I have a long time ago tried to weed out this from my own teaching and instead talk about the religious leaders of the day. Second, you can easily fall into missiology that says if you are faithful everything will be blessed by the Holy Spirit and your mission will grow. Some faithful missions grow some do not.

What I think is a powerful witness in this passage is that like Jesus the first followers attempt to reject the power and authority of religion and instead focus on helping the poor. Sharing what they have. And, ministering to the community. This has real power in the midst of the community and is very much a part of what was so attractive to the original message of Jesus. Here we see a faithful continuity of a God who freed Egypt, freed Jesus, and brings freedom to the people even today. The Good News of the Gospel is not about something that happens in the life after this one. It is about a God who continues to act in the lives of people - transforming them and the community in which they live.

Lastly, notice that the religious leaders sit in council and people are brought to them. They are out of touch with their community. Notice instead where the apostles are. They are out in the world in relationships with people. They are in conversation and working with them to help serve the poor - the widows and orphans. They are not locked in an upper room, they are not sitting in a religious center of some kind, they are in a relationship with real people, helping real people, and incarnating a community that is nothing less than a society of friends of Jesus.

Sermons Preached on This Sunday's Lessons
Touching and Seeing Jesus Apr 23, 2009 I challenge you to change Thomas Apr 13, 2010 The Lord's Day is Everyday April 3, 2016 Being Lost Apr 21, 2013 Shout out to stories from Radio Lab episode "You are Here" http://www.radiolab.org/2011/jan/25/you-are-here/

Easter Sunday, Year C, April 17, 2022

Quotes That Make Me Think


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, share his rejoicing!
Are you worn down with the labor 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, you will be pleased.
If you came at the sixth hour,
come up 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, you who 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 who had fallen asleep.

Glory and power to him for ever and ever!

St. Chrysostom

The death of Jesus is for us nothing if we have not died with him; the resurrection of our Lord is for us nothing if we have not been raised with him.

Emil Brunner

"The doctrine is clear. To the children of God, lost Christ is their Christ when all is done."

The Weeping Mary at the Sepulchre, Samuel Rutherford, 1640.

General Resources for Sunday's Lessons

Prayer

This is the day, Lord God, that you have made!  Raising Christ from the dead, and raising us with Christ, you have fashioned for yourself a new people, washed in the flood of baptism, sealed with gift of the Spirit, invited to the banquet of the Lamb!  In the beauty of this Easter morning, set our minds on the new life to which you have called us; place on our lips the words of witness for which you have anointed us; and ready our hearts to celebrate the festival, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 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 20:1-18

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

We begin with  Mary discovering that the body is not there and reporting it to the disciples.  There is the famous disciple race.  The beloved disciple loves Jesus more and so he arrives at the tomb first before Peter; this is the intent of the story teller at least.  When he arrives he sees the burial clothes and he believes. He sees, he experiences, the resurrection and he believes.

Mary Magdalene then experiences the risen Jesus.  She has been searching for him; she sees him but does not immediately know him.  In fact she does not know him until her name is called.  Raymond Brown points out a number of reasons for this in John, vol 2, 1008ff.  Playing out the reality of Jesus' own words in John 10.3:  "The sheep hear his voice as he calls by name those that belong to him."  "I know my sheep and my sheep know me."  Her response is to announce to the disciples that she has "seen the Lord."

Two different experiences of the risen Christ from two loving followers are what we have to preach on this Easter.  They give us a sense that the risen Lord is known in many ways and experienced in many ways.  While true belief will come with the Holy Spirit, we are given here in John's resurrection account the beginning of the new creation story. 

The Victory has been won on the cross. The chasm that separated the earth and the heaven is no breached.  The disciples begin to experience a new order and a new creation. They begin to understand the things which have been told them. 

In these resurrection accounts we have the beginning of faith which comes from experiencing the risen Lord.  Their faith will grow even as Jesus continues to make his journey to the father. He remarks that we are not to cling to tightly to these experiences for the unity if fulfilled in the ascension which is soon to come.  Jesus is even now, as he stands before Mary, making his way to the Father.  Then, and only then, will the comforter and Holy Spirit be unleashed in the world.  Then, and only then, will the disciples come to a fullness of belief.

John's Gospel tells us clearly that resurrection is not simply a bodily, this world, experience but it is a resurrection into unity with God.  Only when Jesus is resurrected and unified will the new creation truly spring forth.  So now...on Easter Sunday...as we read John's Gospel we prepare and raise our heads for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the salvation of creation which is even now upon us.

"The first ones ever, oh, ever to know of the rising of Jesus, his glory to be, were Mary, Joanna, and Magdalene, and blessed are they are they who see.  Oh blessed are they who see the Lord, oh, blessed are they who see." (Hymnal 1982, 673)

Some Thoughts on Luke 24:1-12

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

What becomes clear in comparing the two options for preaching on Easter Sunday is that Luke's version and intent is somewhat different than John's.  However, what they have in common is worth a brief note.

In all the accounts (different from the other Hellenistic accounts of the day) Jesus is VERY present. He is not a ghost. He is not an apparition. Jesus is very real and very present. (Luke Timothy Johnson, Luke, 389)  The second detail is that the resurrection accounts do something.  They make real the covenant community of the disciples.  They are about to be sent; they are about to become apostles through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The disciple community is formed.  One might even say is birthed and bound together by the experience of this very real present Jesus. (390)

In Luke's Gospel we have an empty tomb account; which is the reading appointed.  However, this is always in context with the Road to Emmaeus, the appearance to the disciples, the ascension and Luke's nod to the many other resurrection accounts. 

In our Gospel lesson Jesus is very real and very present.  He is clear that we are to remain attentive to the work that is about to happen in Jerusalem (note he has changed Mark's "Galilee").  We are clear that the death and resurrection of the prophet king has now fulfilled the prophecies.  The prophetic tale of suffering and death has come true.  The whole of the scriptural witness (in that time the Old Testament - and specifically the Torah) is towards this moment of a new covenant and a new thing.  It is now the time of an apostolic age; wherein the first followers are sent out to do the work that Jesus has given them to do. 

Most of all we see in this moment a community being formed and being empowered to make their own prophetic witness.  (391) 

The last very important motif which Luke' carefully crafts as he tells the story of the resurrection is the crowd.  Jesus' resurrection involves many people.  Many people will experience his resurrection.  They are to tell many people.  It is important in Luke to remember the story of the prophet king Jesus, and how all that he said came true, and how he suffered, died, and was resurrected.  More importantly though is that "remembering" is for the sole purpose of telling. 

This is the evangelist's resurrection account.  God and tell...go and tell....go and tell.

Some Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15:19-26

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Resources for Sunday's Epistle

The passage chosen for Easter from Corinthians does and interesting thing by combining two pieces of a whole section.  In the much larger piece of chapter 15 Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth about the reality that the key belief in the resurrection of the dead for the the saints is to be found in the sacred story of Jesus' own resurrection. 

Not unlike many non church goers, Paul faced a wide community of belief in a marginal kind of afterlife.  He is sure that there is more to life than what we experience here on this earth and he truly believed that for the Christian who believed there would be the inheritance of eternal life with God.  We share with Jesus the nature of life in this world and so we will share with Jesus in his resurrection.

Jesus is the first fruits of the holy community of saints who will be raised.  He then makes his case that humanity is doomed to death if left to their own devices.  Only Christ and Christ's resurrection will bring resurrected life to those who believe.  Christ is, even now, bringing about the ultimate victory of death and will (as promised in John's Gospel) draw all things to himself.  In the end death and all shall be conquered.

This passage so linked places before the reader and the preacher the witness of the first Christian community: 

A)  Those who follow Jesus and believe in his resurrection will be united with God and the saints in light.
B)  Jesus is the only one who can triumph over the permanence of death itself; only the new Adam brings deliverance.
C)  Not only is  a way into full life with God made possible and the kingdoms of heaven and earth forever linked; but this work of Christ's resurrection will be the death of death.
D)  Finally, this is part of the ultimate embrace of God for his creation.  What has begun in God will end in God for God is the Alpha and the Omega.

For the reader in Corinth and for the reader in the 21st century, we are given a vision of hope that all that we experience in this world is not all that it seems; and that God in fact intends so much more.  For us who remain along the pilgrim way we are given an opportunity to see that even now all things are being drawn towards him who loves us and desires to gather us beneath his wings.

Liturgy of the Passion Year C, April 10, 2022

Prayer

Richard Rohr, Roman Catholic Priest invites us

Archive picture shows statue of Christ on cross
on tree in Fricourt, France, during World War I

to consider the cross and Jesus' invitation. He 

suggests we hear these words from Jesus and 

his cross:

"My beloved, I am your self. I am your beauty. I am your goodness, which you are destroying. I am what you do to what you should love. I am what you are afraid of: your deepest and best and most naked self—your soul. Your sin largely consists in what you do to harm goodness—your own and others’. You are afraid of the good; you are afraid of me. You kill what you should love; you hate what could transform you. I am Jesus crucified. I am yourself, and I am all of humanity."

You might sit quietly and listen. 

Then Rohr invites us to pray these words -

responding to Christ crucified. He invites to pray them as we see Christ Jesus hanging at the center of the world, at the center of human history, at the "turning" of God's creation. Pray:

"Jesus, Crucified, you are my life and you are also my death. You are my beauty, you are my possibility, and you are my full self. You are everything I want, and you are everything I am afraid of. You are everything I desire, and you are everything I deny. You are my outrageously ignored and neglected soul.

Jesus, your love is what I most fear. I can’t let anybody love me for nothing. Intimacy with you or anyone terrifies me. 

I am beginning to see that I, in my own body, am an image of what is happening everywhere, and I want it to stop today. I want to stop the violence toward myself, toward the world, toward you. I don’t need ever again to create any victim, even in my mind. 

You alone, Jesus, refused to be crucifier, even at the cost of being crucified. You never asked for sympathy. You never played the victim or asked for vengeance. You breathed forgiveness. 

We humans mistrust, murder, attack. Now I see that it is not you that humanity hates. We hate ourselves, but we mistakenly kill you. I must stop crucifying your blessed flesh on this earth and in my brothers and sisters. 

Now I see that you live in me and I live in you. You are inviting me out of this endless cycle of illusion and violence. You are Jesus crucified. You are saving me. In your perfect love, you have chosen to enter into union with me, and I am slowly learning to trust that this could be true.

This is taken from Richard Rohr's "Jesus: Forgiving Victim, Transforming Savior." [Transformation: Collected Talks, vol. 1, disc 1 (Franciscan Media: 1997).]

Some Thoughts on Luke 22:14 - 23:56 

"Our Lord passed most of the time on the cross in silence: yet seven sentences which he spoke thereon are recorded by the four evangelists, though no one evangelist has recorded them all. Hence it appears that the four Gospels are, as it were, four parts, which, joined together, make one symphony. Sometimes one of these only, sometimes two or three, sometimes all sound together."

From Wesley's Notes. John Wesley (1703-1791).

"Crucifixion was torture intended to teach a political lesson: Rome can crush the humanity out of you. Remember that. But this crucifixion scene is loaded with Jews who cannot be crushed. This is trouble for oppressors. Rome should worry. The centurion who observes the death seems to have figured this out."

Commentary, Luke 23:33-43, Richard Swanson, Christ the King, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Which makes we wonder, Working Preacher, if perhaps on this day we might invite people to call to mind one of those things for which they long to have a second chance so that they might take seriously whatever regret or disappointment they harbor and then take just as seriously the second chance and new life Jesus offers us from the cross."
"The King of Second Chances," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2013.

"What kind of king is this that we honor on this Reign of Christ Sunday? Not one we've ever seen before on this earth, but one who was, and is, and is to come."
"What Kind of King Is This?" Alyce M. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2013.

"As far as I know, there is only one good reason for believing that he was who he said he was. One of the crooks he was strung up with put it this way: 'If you are the Christ, save yourself and us' (Luke 23:39). Save us from whatever we need most to be saved from. Save us from each other. Save us from ourselves. Save us from death both beyond the grave and before. If he is, he can. If he isn't, he can't. It may be that the only way in the world to find out is to give him the chance, whatever that involves. It may be just as simple and just as complicated as that."
"Messiah," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Let us first begin with God's story and narrative. We shall come to the theology soon enough.

The narrative itself is one that as a whole fits within the wider scripture. We can neither read the crucifixion as an isolated text or as a story within a story. It is in fact THE story and it reaches back to the beginning of creation and reaches forward through Pauline letters and out towards us.

The last supper is part of our Holy Week Triduum and it is also tied (especially in Luke) to the event of crucifixion itself. Fleming Rutledge in her magnum opus makes it clear that all of the Christian Gospels make an explicit link between the meal and the crucifixion. (The Crucifixion, 2017, p. 68.)

She points out that the Last Supper narrative begins in both the Gospels and in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, "On the night that he was to be betrayed..." That the meal and the cross are linked further not by betrayal but by the next words Jesus speaks, "My body and my blood given for you."(Ibid.)

The garden scene begins to reveal Jesus' own preparation for the crucifixion and trial. Here in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus suggests that he is girding himself for the battle. The first battle begun in the desert the last battle waged at the cross. Here then there is complete victory over the powers. What was promised in the desert is fulfilled on the cross. Jesus through submission and powerlessness undoes the hold the powers, principalities and evil hold over the world. (Ibid, 373.)

Let us turn to the crucifixion itself for a moment as it relates to Luke's account. Luke omits the cry, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" This is present not only in each of the other gospels but also in Paul's letters and in the Letter to the Hebrews. Why is it not present? Surely Luke has his own traditions around the crucifixion, but given its presence elsewhere it appears to be an intentional omission. Rutledge helps with our question suggesting that it is perhaps Luke's own desire to show Jesus' commitment to the crucifixion and the sacrifice he promised above. He is being faithful and ready to return to God: "Into thy hands I commit my spirit."(Ibid, 104.)

Here in the crucifixion tradition (though Luke reveals the least of it) is the suffering Christ. Suffering is itself not dignified. It is not to be shown or revealed. For the philosopher, the king, the soldier, even in the narrative of the Maccabean martyrs there is a stoic approach to suffering. But not in the crucifixion narrative. Instead there is anguish, pain, suffering, tears, and a shuddering horror. (Ibid, 374.) Luke does not say this is not true, he simply seems interested in other motivations...ones that I think are linked intimately to faithfulness and the table fellowship.

Now, let us for a moment stop and dwell on what is happening. There is much to do about the word substitution that is well worth a moment of our time. There is great distaste for the word. And, there is most definitely some terrible theology out there. 

For instance...God does not ask for Jesus, his son, to sacrifice himself. God does not sacrifice his son. This is poor theology and goes against the teachings of sacrificial offerings - especially in the story of Abraham and Isaac. So, such ways of thinking should be avoided. They are really bad theology and they are bad for mission! What a terrible god that would be. In fact it would be a different god...a god much more in line with Greek gods and goddesses. It is much more in line with national theologies and mythic tales of heroes. No, this is not what we are talking about here when we talk about substitution. Like Fleming Rutledge I would like to redeem the word. Now, she suggests you can find other words like "exchange", etc... Nevertheless, we must for a moment talk about what is happening in the work of substitution.

When we make the substitutionary theory of the atonement synonymous with a god that demands that the son sacrifice himself, this understanding of atonement can be used to sanction the commission of religious violence against others in many varying and inhumane forms for the sake of peace. By contrast, the gospel of peace reveals God as both a victim of human violence and as a human whose dignity was violated by the shame of the cross. As such, I do not advocate for throwing out the substitutionary model of atonement altogether, but only that we hold this particular model in conversation alongside other models of atonement and always in the context of a Trinitarian theology. 

Outside of a Trinitarian theology, penal substitution becomes a god demanding the sacrifice of his son. However, an orthodox perspective always sees God in Christ acting together to save the world. Our belief in the Trinity will always lead to a mature understanding of any theory of atonement. To illustrate, let us turn to Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 2. Here we see that the second person of the trinity, the Christ, the incarnation becomes lower than the angels in the unique person of Jesus. It is not enough to leave Jesus as a victim. This is not the whole of the story. God becomes fully incarnate in Jesus. 

The very God who in the form of Jesus is willing to set the power of God aside to become a victim on the cross is revealed. It is not that a better version of a Greek god requires his demigod son to sacrifice himself, but that God himself makes the substitutionary sacrifice. Paul writes, Christ "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” 

The God through whom all things, all flesh, was made is the one who voluntarily becomes powerless even unto death. All of our sinfulness, brokenness, victimhood, violence and scapegoating hang on the cross with Christ, in Christ, and for Christ. Thus, the atonement reveals that we are connected to the Incarnation itself, in our innermost parts. We stand in the middle of God’s narrative, and thus we find fresh power to make our life a substitutionary sacrifice for others so that the borders of God’s Garden expand in and through our life and the quality of our community. (Doyle, Citizen, 2020.)

In the end, Jesus became a scapegoat. He would hear the hailing voices worthy of an emperor. He would wear a robe and crown that mocked him. (Myers, 380.) He took on all of the might of the empire in vestige, abuse, and political torture. The people and the powers condemned him to death because of his subversive teaching and actions; such as healing the sick and eating with the unclean and unholy.  His engagement of powers calling them to accountability made many enemies. His rejection of violence for rebels who wanted Rome gone allied the rebels with the enemy.

Stanley Hauerwas wrote in his exposition of Matthew’s telling of the crucifixion: 

“Jesus must be killed because Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus must be killed because Jesus has called into existence a new people who constitute a challenge to the world order based on lies and deceit. Jesus must be killed because he is a threat to all who rule in the name of safety and comfort. Jesus must be killed because we do not desire to have our deepest desires exposed. Jesus must be killed because we do not believe in a God who creates us and who would come among us after our likeness. So we have learned from Matthew.” 

Jesus’s is sacrificed on the altar of violence and power. He was killed by humanity as a reenactment of ancient religious and political sacrifice. Jesus’ death is the world’s rejection of God’s narrative that no sons and daughters shall be sacrificed. Instead of sparing him like Issac, the powers demand his death. Jesus participated totally in the mimetic sacrifice that God wants no part of. If that were the end of it, then we would be invested in just another community with a scapegoat theology that repeated the violence of mythic gods. 

Instead, God took our violence and broke it open. Jesus was raised from the dead by God and in so doing, Girard says, God “refutes the whole principle of violence and sacrifice. God is revealed as the ‘arch-scapegoat,’ the completely innocent one who dies in order to give life. And his way of giving life is to overthrow the religion of scapegoating and sacrifice—which is the essence of myth.”  God does not let the world’s demand of sacrifice have the last word. (Doyle, Citizen, 2020.)

As we come to the end we return to the reclamation of the crucifixion as a key to our understanding of the whole narrative. Let me for a bit riff on Rutledge but with the whole scope of God's narrative in mind. What we must see that God in Christ Jesus has the ultimate end of the narrative in mind. The whole of the story of the crucifixion fits within not simply a context of apocolyptic writing of the age, but that the end is the setting for the actions that take place. Here the cross is planted firmly between the alpha and the omega. Christ is firmly planted here in tree form. And, that the perfect image of the incarnation - Jesus - arrives in the midst of a fallen world that stretches between the beginning with Cain and Abel and the end's engathering of God. 

The second theme powerfully woven here is that the way in which the Christ becomes victorious is substitution. By becoming the scapegoat and total victim God in Christ Jesus has taken our place. Remember the words of Deuteronomy form Lent 2. God has removed our slavery to sin. Rutledge is at her best here, and encapsulates Luke's own unique telling of this part of God's narrative. In a few sentences she captures the nature of Christ's substitution. I offer it here in its poetic beauty. (It is probably the paragraph that should be read first before reading the rest of the book!) She writes:

...the way in which Christ became the apocalyptic victor was through the substitution. The Kurios could have achieved his victory in some other way, but God chose this way. The incarnate One exchanged his glory for the shame of the cross (Heb 12:2) from the beginning of his life, being born in shameful circumstances, his infancy mortally threatened by a tyrant, branded an impostor by the religious authorities form the first (Luke 4:28-29), being without a place to lay his head through his ministry (Luke 9:58), meeting with hostility everywhere he went. The shame he endured is often expressed in terms of exchange, closely related to substitution: being in the form of God , he exchanged his glory for the form of a slave, exchanging his riches for our poverty, his righteousness for our unrighteousness, even to death on a cross. That is the manner in which he won the victory - "therefore God has highly exalted him"(Phil 2:9; cf. II Cor 8:9; I Pet 3:18). (Rutledge, Crucifixion, 531.)

The final piece is that this crucifixion undoes some of what humans do regarding the law. Humans turn the law into a means of control, of hoarding power and wealth, and for rejecting the hard work of community. Jesus came and died at the hands of this law...which was supported by both the powers of politics and religion. This is the great exclamation point on the death of religion and all those who seek to use it as a stick to keep others down. While we have law within our scripture, this law was transformed by Jesus' ministry to higher virtues and the rest buried in his tomb with his lifeless body. 

Again, Rutledge...

The accursed, Godforsaken death suffered by Jesus was, in some way that we cannot fully articulate, the death that should have been ours, a death under the cursing voice of the Law wielded as a weapon by the Power of Sin. The incarnate Son took our place under the sentence of Death....(Ibid.) 

The death of Jesus on the cross is God in three persons acting together, with one will, for one purpose - to deliver all humanity from the curse of Sin and its not-so-secret weapon, the Law. Jesus, the representative man, our substitute, not only shows us how human will can align itself with the will of God, but also makes it happen in his own incarnate person; and then, in the greatest act of love that has ever taken place , he gives his own person back to us, crucified and raised form the dead, the first fruits of all who belong to him. (Ibid, 534.)

Here then we finish our meditation as we turn to Richard Rohr for a bit of help. What has happened is that our culture has taken one idea of the crucifixion (and a bad theological one at that) and used it to dismiss deep Christian theology. In fact we helped the whole world to do so. Our congregations are filled with people who believe that God asked Jesus, his son, to sacrifice himself. 

This has been combined with the notion that this is a contextual story that can be lifted out of the whole of the God's narrative. That it happened once and for all. The effect is good at the end.  Rohr reminds us that this is not true. . This is instead, he suggests, 

an ongoing transformational lesson for the human soul and for all of history. Christianity’s vision of God was a radical departure from most ancient religions. Instead of having God “eat” humans, animals, or crops, which were sacrificed on altars, Christianity made the bold claim that God’s very body was given for us to eat! This turned everything around and undid the seeming logic of quid pro quo thinking. A view of God as punitive and retributive nullifies any in-depth spiritual journey: Why would you love or trust or desire to be with such a God? The Franciscan School of theology claimed that the cross was a freely chosen revelation of Love on God’s part, meant to utterly shock the mind and heart and turn it back toward trust and love of the Creator. The Divine Mind transforms all human suffering by identifying completely with the human predicament and standing in full solidarity with it from beginning to end. This is the real meaning of the crucifixion. Jesus did not come to change God’s mind about us. It did not need changing. Jesus came to change our minds about God—and about ourselves—and about where goodness and evil really lie. This is taken from Richard Rohr's "Jesus: Forgiving Victim, Transforming Savior." [Transformation: Collected Talks, vol. 1, disc 1 (Franciscan Media: 1997).]

Some Thoughts on Philippians 2:5-11 

"There is nothing better, there is nothing more affectionate, than a spiritual teacher; such an one surpasses the kindness of any natural father."
Commentary by St John Chrysostom: Homily V


"...what works are chiefly to be done? I reply: Especially those which promote chief righteousness and decrease original sin: thus to each and every one is the appropriate examination necessary of his own thing, because original sin expresses itself in one person so, and in another thus."
"Sermon on Three-fold Righteousness" by Martin Luther, c. 1525.

"This revision of a hallowed text throws a monkey wrench into the inner workings of Christian theology. So, let's do it."
Commentary, Philippians 2:1-13 (Pentecost 20), David E. Fredrickson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Paul reads his own life constantly in the light of the story of Jesus (1:20-26). He wants them to read theirs similarly. The great treasure of this passage is that it challenges us to do the same. It is, however, easily subverted into an opposite attitude, a paradigm for success and power."
"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 16, William Loader, Murdoch University

"Like Timothy and like Paul's audience, leaders and members of our own congregations are called to imitate Jesus by refusing to insist on their own prerogatives or status, whatever they may be, and serving others in humility."
Commentary, Philippians 2:5-11, Elisabeth Shively, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"What's in a name? From a biblical perspective -- everything!"
Commentary, Philippians 2:5-11, Elisabeth Johnson, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Paul in this passage uses a first century Christian hymn (possibly even one they would have known) to urge the members of the community at Philippi to have the same mind as Christ. That means that they are to seek to not insist on their own way or their own rights (determined by their social status) but they are to become lower than their stations. Like God in Christ Jesus they are to seek to become power-less and to serve.

Paul invites them to not be better than the other - this is not after all a quality that Christ illustrated.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here as in above, there is physical and spiritual connection between all humanity and the Incarnaiton, between all human labor and the cross, and all human suffering and the crucifixion. Just as God delivers us from sin and the law so does God reveal to us how we are to live and move and have our being. Paul's letter invites just such alignment. Paul desires not simply that we understand the physical and spiritual length but the alignment of life and community.

It is in serving that one is great. It is in taking the lower seat that you shall be known. It is in washing feet and loving each other regardless of station. It is feeding the poor who have no right to be fed and healing the sick who have not fulfilled the law. It is in eating with those who are not worthy to be eaten with. It is in loving those whom you would not dare to love.  These are the qualities by which you will be known as a follower of Jesus.

This is the work of Christ that they are to continue in the world.  

People will talk about a lot of reasons why our church is failing.  They will ponder the reasons why we are shrinking in numbers.  I think in the end it is because we don't do these things very well.  

We do not have the same mind as Christ Jesus and are unwilling to become low. We actually regard equality with God as something to be exploited and lorded over those to whom we do not believe deserve such equality.  We are unwilling to empty ourselves. We will not serve God or his mission over our own needs and desires.  We are quick to take the highest seat. We are not eager to wash each other's feet - especially not the feet of the poor. We are unwilling to hold back or deny ourselves. We will not sit with those unlike us.  We will not dine with those we don't agree with. We will not be seen with those who are not like us. We are wholly unwilling to do the hard and difficult work of following Jesus as Jesus has invited us to follow.

Perhaps this is why Paul has us squarely figured out.  The truth is like the Philippians what is so bad about our church. It is a comfortable place, for comfortable people, comfortable in our going out and our coming in.  Yet Paul may have us figured out...comfortable is not a whole lot like the ministry and character of God in Christ Jesus.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 50:4-9a 

"The Lenten color of violet hints at the violence sometimes suffered by faithfulness in the short-term, and also sends shivers down the spine. This Sunday the color of a bruise is replaced by that of blood-red, lethal wounds. The full impact of faithfulness is not yet accounted for."
Commentary, Isaiah 50:4-9a, James Matthew Price, A Plain Account, 2016.

"The servant's confidence springs from past actions of God in calling the servant and bestowing gifts up him as well as God's present helping actions in the face of confrontation by enemies."

Commentary, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Tyler Mayfield, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"What will it mean for us to preach the word of God with the tongue of students, listen like students do, and still stand up to testify confident in God's help?"
Commentary, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Anathea Portier-Young, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

The prophet suggests that God has invited him to be a teacher, to offer a word to the people, to instruct them in God's ways. This is a for a particular purpose though. It is to bring hope and strength to the people...it is to sustain the weary.  God invites the prophet to awaken to the work at hand - to bring comfort and hope.

The prophet listens and does not rebel against the message. This of course implies that the prophet would in fact like to rebel against the message of hope. Perhaps the the notion here for the preacher is that it is easy to become one of the people. But the work of the prophet is to rise above the people's anxiety and weariness in order to offer a vision of God's hope and care.

Moreover, that when we do this as prophets, teachers, and preachers we may not always be liked. People might rather live within their misery. They might rather live within the world of political conflict and power manipulation. They may wish that the preacher parrot the media source of their choosing. In this way the people may not always like the prophet's message.

There is on the one hand sacrifice here ad on the other there is a sense that God works to be the redeemer of both preacher and people. There is support and power in knowing that we are standing, preaching, teaching, and prophesying in the midst of God's narrative.

Sometimes the preacher is tempted to simply mimic the words of the world and the power plays that are all around us. To pick up the narrative of humanity instead of the narrative of God. Let me confess I fall prey to this. All the more reason to take time to listen and ponder God's story of hope and help for the weary soul. All the more reason to offer a true word instead of the word of the world disguised in gospel mimicry.

This is the work that Jesus undertakes in his own preaching and reorienting relationship with God from a temple/church oriented faith to a direct relationship with God. In so doing, he receives the same treatment as Isaiah describes. See especially Mark14:65 and Matthew 26:67. In this way Isaiah's passage here offers a future vision of the suffering servant of Israel. Like all prophets before him, and many prophets after, Jesus receives the prophet's welcome.

The world of human affairs is eager to maintain sibling rivalry, mimetic desire and violence, and scapegoating. We do this to secure our own place and powers. The message of a God who intends that you understand you are invited into God's story and not the other ay around will always be a difficult thing for people to come to grips with. Everything in our lives, from relationships, workplaces, and our technology leads us to believe we are the center of the world/cosmos. God however, through the work of Jesus, the prophet, the teacher, and preacher would like us to understand this is not the situation.