Day of Pentecost, Whitsunday, Year C, June 5, 2022

Holy Spirit Window, Rome

Prayer

O God of the covenant, you revealed yourself on the holy mountain in fire and on Pentecost in the flame of the Holy Spirit, Let your mighty fire burn away our pride, consume our hatreds, annihilate the armaments of death, and kindle instead, within the whole human family, the welcome fire of your love.  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 14:8-17, (25-27)

…Tens of thousands of Christians who aren't waiting for denominational leaders to fix things. They're just getting on with it.

Brian McLaren


"Finally, Jesus challenged them to love him and to keep his commandments. I suspect everyone seated in that room nodded their head and thought, 'I do love you and of course, I will keep your commandments.' But in a few short hours their teacher would be arrested and tried. In a few short hours his life would be ended and their lives filled with fear that the same thing would happened to them. Would they still love him? Could they keep his commandments?"

Commentary, John 14:8-17, 25-27, Lucy Lind Hogan, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Whether in the company of Jesus or, in his absence, in the company of the Spirit, what ultimately matters is recognizing God's action and becoming part of it. All else is subordinate to that."

"First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

In this, the last of Jesus’ teachings to his disciples the topics focus on the issues of leadership that will be present upon his leaving.

Jesus is concerned pastorally for his followers. In part because his followers can only understand death’s victory. We must remember at this time there is NO victory over death. They look at the oncoming trial and sure death sentence at the end. They perhaps see it as the end of the movement, the end of the work towards the kingdom, the end of their own ministries, the end of a friend’s life, the end of (dare we say) hope.

In the immortal words of Jim Morrison and the Doors:

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end

This is a really creepy song but it captures and tells of the reality that life’s pleasures will not keep death from its work. So Jesus is combating the very real understanding of death’s finality. Jesus offers them this understanding, He “demands that they have faith in him” and that this is more than a request but a necessary piece of participation in the victory over death that is to come. (R. Brown, John, Anchor Bible, vol II, 624)

Jesus is saying, have faith in me. This is a very real living faith that unites them with God. In the victory of the resurrection, they will come through death’s door to dwell with God and with Son.  And, to do this, to make their journey, they must be prepared. Just as Jesus goes to prepare a place, the follower must be prepared too. (625)

They are to be prepared by doing the same work as Jesus, even greater works. Jesus tells them to ask for great things and he will on their behalf. God will be glorified in this relationship, this conversation between worlds. It seems then that part of the work, part of the preparation is prayer ad continued relationship with Jesus even after his death. The disciple must trust and engage in work, and do so in prayer conversation with Jesus.

The work they are to do is to follow Jesus’ commandments and love him. The commandments are simply to love one another, to love God above all else, and to love Jesus. This is the Maundy, the commandment of love within the apostolic community. A love for one another that mirrors the love of God. Love for one another spins out the action in the world at the same time as it draws others into the community. The work of the disciple is to work and to work out of the empowering relationship of love with God - the Trinitarian community.

The family of God metaphor is revealed again in the paradigm of children of God who are united to the community of God when Jesus promises not to leave them orphaned. Jesus reflects that he is going away, but within this apostolic community he will never be far away and in fact, will be one with those who participate in the commandment to love. Moreover, Jesus himself and God will be glorified and revealed in the uniting spirit of this community, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the perfect love of Father for Son, and Son for Father.

Raymond Brown writes so much better than I:

Jesus emphasizes that divine indwelling flows from the Father’s love for the disciples of His Son. In 3.16 we heard that God loved the world so much that He gave the only Son – if the incarnation (and death) of the Son was an act of the Father’s love for the world, the post-resurrectional indwelling is a special act of love for the Christian. In 2 we found the word “dwelling place” used for the heavenly abode with the Father to which Jesus would take his disciples; here [at the end of the lesson] it is used for the indwelling of the Father and the Son with the believer…in Johannine thought this was now the hour when men would worship the Father neither on Mount Gerizim nor in the Jerusalem Temple, but in Spirit and truth. (648)

Some Thoughts on Romans 8:14-17

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

This week we shift to Paul's letter to the Romans.  He is teaching about the Holy Spirit and how it participates in the Christian life.  Paul believes that the Spirit works in two ways. The first is to draw people into the family of God so that we become children of God.  The second is to help individuals live a life following Jesus.

Those who follow this God through Jesus Christ are new people.  Like Israel, we are claimed and rescued by God. We are set apart in the midst of the world.  God is our Father, God is 'abba'.  This is the very strong theme of this portion of Romans.

What is so very challenging to us today is the very radical notion that we are not the one's being spoken to in Paul's letter.  We are today the ones who reside in the Temple. We are the ones who have already been chosen.  Like ancient Israel, we are the ones who inherit participation in the family through the Holy Spirit.

But God is doing something even greater. Today the Holy Spirit pours out beyond the walls of the Christian Church just as it poured out beyond the Temple walls.  Jesus' followers abound and God is working in their lives as they try and make their pilgrim journey.  We need to hear the words of Romans not as the newly invited follower of Jesus but as the stayed community who is not yet ready for the new interlopers.

What would it be like to open our eyes and see upon whom the Holy Spirit falls today? Who is it that cries out 'abba' but has no home?  Can we open our hearts and doors to welcome the sojourner in?

Even now the Holy Spirit is making new members of the family of God.  May the Episcopal Church open its arms to welcome brothers and sisters who are new and different.

Some Thoughts on Acts 2:1-21

Oremus Online NRSV Text

This is the text that most people think about when they think about the story of Pentecost. Though it is important to remind the congregation there are different stories. Here in this text, Luke weaves the time. The time is a particular time of God's acting. As in the incarnation of the crucifixion - this is God's day and God's time. The coming of the Holy Spirit arrives at the appointed time.

The Holy Spirit comes in wind and tongues of fire. 

What we have here is the inauguration of the next phase of Salvation history for our author. Remember that Luke is telling a story that leads to our personal receiving of the faith of God in Christ Jesus. This final act of the creative God is an act of recreation - for Luke similar to the wind over the waters in Genesis. It is the inauguration of Christ's promise to be with us to the end of the ages. It is the inauguration of the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham.

It is the beginning, the creation story, of the mission of God through the apostles. Those who had been followers (disciples) now become (apostles) and are sent out to renew the face of the earth. The Holy Spirit is the empowering agent of God moving throughout all the nations of the world. 

Many congregations will read out this passage in different languages - reminding the people that the mission is for all people. Unfortunately, this often stops there. 

The truth is that the church today is invited to share in the apostolic mission, to do great deeds of power by the influence of the Holy Spirit in the world. God is waiting for the church and its people to accept the spirit already poured out upon them. To go out of the doors of the church and out into the world. 

It is humorous that on this day where the spirit of God is so clear, that God will not be locked away behind religious closed doors....that literally thousands and thousands of Christians will hear this in churches across the world in huddled mass away from the world. 

The story of Acts inaugurates great stories of going out: 

In Acts 2 the apostles go out and 3,000 discover the Gospel. In Acts 8 Philip goes out to a city in Samaria and many Samaritans come to the Gospel. In Acts 8 Philip is taken to meet the Ethiopian Eunuch who needs someone to help him understand the Gospel and he comes to know Christ. In Acts 22 Ananias helps Paul with his conversion by God - by going out to find Paul. In Acts 10 Peter goes out and bears witness to the Gospel and Cornelius comes to believe. AND the church is transformed and broken open for the gentiles regarding circumcision. In Acts 13 the Proconsul in Seleucia has the Gospel confirmed by Paul and Barnabas and is transformed by the Good News; as are many other gentiles soon after. There is Lydia the merchant who, along with her whole household, is baptized by Paul because he went you to the city of Thyatira and met her outside the gate. Later imprisoned there because of healing the jailer would come to know God in Christ Jesus by their witness. Cionysius and Damaris come to know Christ by meeting Paul in his travels - Acts 17. In the 18th chapter of Acts Crispus and his household come to believe in God through Christ Jesus along with other Corinthians because of Paul's witness. Priscilla and Aquila explain the Good News of God to Apollos and he comes to Christ in chapter 18 of Acts. In the next chapter 25 of the disciples of John are told about the Holy Spirit by Paul and come to believe and are baptized. 

Not one, not one of these, happens in a religious setting or behind the closed doors of a church. The witness of the Holy Spirit is that the apostles are sent out and in being sent outcome into contact with others and through their conversations and witness people are moved to be baptized because they desire to participate in the Good News of God through Jesus Christ. 

Imagine the names that heard the news but where never confirmed. Imagine the names of those who heard the news and came to believe later outside of the narrative. What is clear is that the Holy Spirit sends people out. 

So on this day of Pentecost as we imagine what God was doing, let us be clear that God was not imagining that we would be sitting in church with the doors closed to the outside world. 

Some Thoughts on Genesis 11:1-9 

Oremus Online NRSV Text

From my book on vocation entitled The Jesus Heist

Take the story of Babel, for instance, in the eleventh chapter of Genesis.

The story of Babel is one of the best-known stories of the Bible because it captures

our imagination. Typically, in Christian church contexts, it is told this

way: Once upon a time there was a people and who built a tower that would

reach to heaven. In doing this they became like gods. They made a name for

themselves—the story says. God is displeased with them because, like gods,

they will be able to do many things. “Nothing will be impossible for them.”

So God scatters the people. Most of us aren’t even aware of the ambiguity

in this passage. We read this story as a cautionary tale about human sin and

God’s judgment, is a lesson learned in Mrs. Irving’s fourth grade Sunday school

class. But something more is going on here.

Let us look at the actual story, which is an origin story about creation that

repeats the narrative of how God populated the earth with people. People are

being scattered. Just before the Babel story, we are told that Noah’s descendants

are scattered. They are sent out to populate creation. There is great

debate about this very short origin story, and whether its verdict on the populating

of the earth by the scattering of the people is positive or negative.2 But

I want to focus on the disbursement itself.

One of the issues in the story is that the people want to stay together.

They don’t want to be scattered. So they build a tower. The purpose of the

tower is to reach to heaven. God, on the other hand, wants the people to be

scattered. It seems that in the scattering, regardless of its causes, God is present.

God is present in the scattering after Eden, God is present in the scattering

after Babel, God is present in the scattering after Egypt, and after the fall

of the first temple in Jerusalem. God is present at the edges, on the margins,

in the scattering. God is not particularly interested in towers that reach up

to heaven and make names for those who build them. A very large number

of Jewish and Christian scholars believe that humanity’s want to cohere is

directly opposed to God’s desire. It displeases God when people are all in one

place where they are comfortable, avoiding being scattered.

The church has a Babel quality to it. It builds towers that are gates to

God. It especially likes big ones. The church attracts people and holds them

in place so they aren’t scattered. In my own tradition, we joke about how there

is effectively assigned seating on Sunday morning. The institutional church

creates a holding pattern, a safe routine. Every year in liturgical traditions of

Christianity, fifty days after Easter, the feast of Pentecost is celebrated. The

institutional church celebrates Pentecost as its birthday. We never stop to

think about the absurdity, the contradictory themes of the Bible passages read

on this day every year, read to people sitting in thousands of shrines that boast

to be the gates to heaven, or gather inside rooms to hear about God disbursing

his followers into the world. The lens here is wrong. We can imagine a lot

of things about the story of Pentecost and what God intended and imagines

will take place as a society of friends of Jesus. But one of those things is not

that some two thousand years later the followers of Jesus would be sitting in

a room listening to a story.

In the beginning, shortly after the resurrection, the disciples had a custom

of getting together. We already talked about this in a previous chapter. Every

time they gathered, Jesus appeared and told them to get out. In Matthew, they

are on a mountaintop and Jesus appears and they are sent out into the world

(Matt. 28:16–20). The shorter ending of Mark tells us they were sent out to

the east and west (Mark 16:8). In the longer version of Mark, Jesus appears to

them in a room where they are all sitting at a table. Jesus “upbraided them for

their lack of faith and stubbornness” and then sends them out to do the work

(Mark 16:14–20). In John’s Gospel, he appears and gives them the Holy Spirit

by breathing on them. Then, in a series of visits, Jesus explains that they are to

love as he has loved, and they are to follow Jesus in the way that Jesus lived—

including his suffering and death (John 20:1–31). Each of these stories makes

clear that the work of the gospel is living in the world just as Jesus lived.

Now, most people who know the story will tell you the story of Pentecost

that matches the one found in Luke’s writing. So let us ponder the Christian

story of Babel found in chapter 2 of Luke’s second book, Acts of the Apostles.

We are told that, as in the other Gospels, the disciples have a habit of meeting

together. They get together, men and women, for prayer. It happened

that they were together on the day of the religious festival called Pentecost.

Pentecost was a pilgrim festival in Jerusalem—it was a holiday from work—

and people from all around would make their way to Jerusalem for special

observances at the temple. Pentecost was also called the Feast of Weeks, and

it happened fifty days after the festival called First Fruits. So the disciples are

together. There is fear and anxiety about what has happened to Jesus. They are

trying to figure out what they are supposed to do. They are worried that they

will be taken away, scattered, and killed. In this setting, the disciples experience

a mighty epiphanic moment: they have an experience of God’s presence.

I like Eugene Peterson’s telling of this story in his well-known biblical paraphrase

called The Message. He writes that there is a sound that fills the whole

house. The sound is like a great and mighty wind. It is a gale-force wind, a

knock-you-down wind. Then there is a wildfire that comes upon them. Some

translations say tongues of fire. I prefer Peterson’s imagery of a wildfire. A fire

that is wild comes upon them. It is madness.

This moment is a recreative act. It is an image that recalls God’s mighty

acts in history, including Babel. We are reminded of the book of Genesis

when the mighty wind moves over the waters of the earth. We are reminded

of the creation story of Israel, when God appears to Moses in a burning bush

that is not consumed. The inauguration of the freeing of Israel happens before

Moses, and a pillar of fire leads them away from Egypt. These images and

words are intended to capture our imagination and show us the remaking of

the disciples.

Like Babel, God does not intend for them to be sequestered in upper

rooms. God does not intend for them to make spaces that are the gate to

heaven. God pours out God’s recreative fire that they may be disbursed, that

they may go out. God disburses the disciples so that the gospel story of God

in Christ Jesus might be shared with all the people. And so those who followed

Jesus, who were praying together so they would not be scattered, who

were taking care of widows and orphans, who were in a holding position,

are sent out into the world. The doors burst open and they go out. And they

speak in many languages.

Those disciples who had previously been known only as followers—that

is what “disciple” means—were turned into apostles—people who are sent.

That is what “apostle” means—people who go. All the disciples were made

apostles; all disciples are to be made apostles. There is no place for Christian

towers of Babel among the friends of Jesus. We are set free. We are the laborers

sent out on the fiftieth day for the harvest. We are the laborers that God in

Christ Jesus has been praying to be sent (Luke 10:1–20). Christ’s resurrection

on Easter is the first fruit; it happens on the festival of the first fruit. Jesus is

the first fruit of this re-creation and new Genesis. The Christian Babel story

is the harvest story that falls fifty days later in parallel with the religious feast.

God is at the margins; God is disbursed. God’s people are to move to the

margins and be disbursed.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year C, June 22, 2022

Quotes That Make Me Think

"This fully devoted relationship is what John means by 'love.' It is by abiding in this love, and being completely one that outsiders may truly know that indeed Jesus was sent by the Father." 

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, John 17:20-26, David Ewart, 2013.

"Jesus’ prayer reminds us that our unity, our “oneness” is to be a sign to the world of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. Oneness and unity is about love. And if you have been a part of a family, a member of a church, or a community, you know that within that love there can be disagreements and squabbling."

Commentary, John 17:20-26, Lucy Lind Hogan, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"The good news is that God’s power for life is at work in the world. This news contradicts the common assumption that the world, in its deathliness, has refused and rejected that power for life—and that our proper stance in the world is therefore one of fear enacted as anxiety, greed, selfishness, and violence. The text tells otherwise!"

Walter Brueggeman

General Resources for Sunday's Lessons

Prayer

Righteous Father, before the foundation of the world, your glory was with Christ the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star.  Fulfill the prayer of Jesus that the world which does not know you may come to believe.  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 17:20-26

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

Jesus is in the midst of praying to God. (We are actually in the third section of the prayer.) The prayer itself sits in the narrative as a transition between the present and those who believe in Jesus and will come to be disciples in the future.

The reading also marks the movement in our liturgical year from the time of Easter to the time of Pentecost.  Jesus’ words are timely too as we move from pondering in our regular worship the Easter event to the Pentecost event.

He is asking God to make those who have followed him one. He is also asking that those who come to know Jesus and the Father through their witness may be one. He is praying that they may be one with one another, and one with the Father through Jesus.

This oneness we are to which we are to aspire is to be like the oneness of Jesus and the Father - to be together one in another. To be so closely united that one is inseparable. We proclaim by faith there is never a time with Jesus is not one with the Father.

What would the world be like if we could claim to be so united with one another that we were constantly making decisions and determining our future based upon the intermingled relationship of one with another?

Jesus is praying that those who follow will be a part of Godly like community. And, his prayer implies that if his followers are not apart of the Godly community then it will be difficult for people to believe in Jesus and in God. Our witness to the world is damaged when we are not living in God AND one another!

Jesus then tells God that he has given to his followers his glory. This focus upon God’s given work, this act of worship through living, is an essential ingredient to our unity. When we are focused on the things that do not glorify God we are more likely to be divided.

Oneness depends upon this focus of ministry, this focus of life. This glory which is given, this vision of life only comes from Jesus Christ. So when one sees a Christian living in oneness with other Christians focused on living a life and undertaking a ministry which glorifies God one sees and witnesses God and God’s love for them. As we spoke in previous conversations on John’s Gospel we know that this vision of glorifying God and the life of unity with Jesus and God and one another brings with it the gift of love. We may indeed have love for one another, but the love which comes from Jesus Christ is one born out of his love for God and is able to be enjoyed in the glorious “fellowship of the saints of God.”

Jesus then prays that his friends, his followers, those whom were given to him may be with him and see his own glory. He gives thanks that God loved him from before the foundation of the world. And, that such love birthed the ministry of glorifying, and being one with those who he has come to know. He sees his friends, the people he has become one with, as gifts from God.

If we were so focused on God’s Glory and its work, if we were one as the Father and the Son are one, if we received the gift of love, would we see our neighbors, families, and friends as gifts from God?

It is in this way that the world will know God. It is in this manner of life that the world will come to know Jesus. And, that the world will be able to participate in the life of the Trinity – the community of God.

The nature of ecumenical and inter-church unity and structure is an area of conversation around this text. The text is not about that, but the text is used in many of these discussions. It seems clear that the context is a much more organic one than ecumenical dialogues might lead one to believe. Certainly though the dialogues are rooted in this question of unity though.

Truly this last portion of Jesus’ prayer is essential to the life of a community lived within the new covenant. Raymond Brown writes the following words which seem the correct ones to use here as we leave this passage:

It is fitting that this beautiful prayer, which is the majestic conclusion of the Last Discourse, is itself terminated on the note of the indwelling of Jesus in the believers – a theme bolstered by Jesus’ claim to have given glory to the believers and to have made known to them God’s name. We have contended that he motif of the new covenant runs through the Johannine account of the Last Supper even though there is no explicit mention of the Eucharistic body and blood of Christ. We saw above that the commandment of love, mentioned in the first lines of the Last Discourse, is “new“ because it is the essential stipulation of the new covenant. So also the closing note of indwelling is an echo of covenant theology. After the Sinai covenant the glory of God that dwelt on the mountain came to dwell in the Tabernacle in the midst of Israel. In Johannine through Jesus during his lifetime was the tabernacle of God embodying divine glory, and now in a covenantal setting he promises to give to his followers the glory that God gave to him. In the language of Deuteronomy the Tabernacle (or the site that housed the Ark) was the place where the God of the covenant has set His name. So now the name of God given to Jesus has been entrusted to his followers. The Lord God who spoke on Sinai assured His people that He was in their midst. Jesus, who will be acclaimed by his followers as Lord and God, in the last words that he speaks to them during his mortal life prays that after death he may be in them. (RB, John, vol 2, 781)

Some Thoughts on Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17,20-21

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Resources for Sunday's Epistle


When I was a seminarian I was invited to do a class on the Nicene Creed.  I talked about the notion that Jesus would return and judge the world.  A man in the front row asked if I really believed it. I stopped to consider this and said yes.  I don't really know what it will look like and how it will all happen (though revelation gives us some themes).  The man said he did not believe Jesus was coming back and this was all there is.  There are fancy theological terms for this theory.  I am really not interested in those.  I don't think your people are interested in them either.

It seems to me that this is a key notion to the complete Gospel. Jesus will come again.  God is at the beginning and the end. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." he says.  Just because it isn't the end doesn't mean the end is not coming.

Revelation ends with a lot of the little sayings that we find in our passage this week.  Here are the essentials.  God is faithful.  The God we believe in is faithful and keeps the covenants he has made with his people.  God will be especially faithful to those who serve others, love neighbors, and love God; as he will be with those who are poor and have nothing. The passage has these words:  “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work."  We must remember that God's special friends are the weak; and we are to be faithful in serving them on his behalf.

God's grace abounds.  In the images of the bounteous tree of life, the holy city of Jerusalem, the kingdom of God on earth where there is good food for the hungry and those in need are not sent empty away. We read:  "I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift."  The gates of this kingdom are open to all and shall never be threatened.  So safety may be found within its walls always.  God's grace abounds.  There is plenteous redemption.


In God we trust. I believe that most Christians may actually have a difficult time imagining a power greater than the dollar, greater than the government, greater than...yet the book of Revelation believes in a power greater than the powers of this world.  The book of revelation understands a Gospel message that even now is taking root in the world. This God we believe in is setting a cornerstone of a greater power than any worldly power.  The world is not to work this way. People are not meant to go hungry.  People are not meant to live without shelter.  People are meant to live within a holy community which even now is making its way into the world.  In this truth we can trust God.

A God We Can Trust
To imagine that there is any power beyond the Roman Empire is bold, requiring a huge leap of faith. To imagine that the pain and suffering that characterized the lives of so many in antiquity would be wiped away in the arms of a loving God is bold, requiring a huge leap of faith. To confess that God would not swerve from God’s promises is bold faith. It is precisely this faith in God that brings us to the end of this book. It is precisely faith in Jesus’ return that draws these Christians into a promised future.


The book of Revelation is a book that believes in God, understands that God is faithful, that grace abounds, and even now God is planting a foothold in the world and remaking it.  The vision provided in Revelation is lessened if all we can see are beasts, demons, angels, and battles.  The faithful Christian has a far greater vision of the coming reign of God than simply what it might be like to be - left behind.

Ascension Day, May 26, 2022

 

Ascension Day

This day is not moveable in the Episcopal Church but it is in the Methodist church and others.

Quotes That Make Me Think

"Incarnate Love, Crucified Love, Risen Love, now on the wing for heaven, waiting only those odorous gales which were to waft Him to the skies, goes away in benedictions, that in the character of Glorified, Enthroned Love, He might continue His benedictions, but in yet higher form, until He come again!"

From the Commentary on the Whole Bible (Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).

"The mission of the church here is nothing less than to go into the world as God?s people, and proclaim a subversive, transforming message about a suffering God who calls anyone without discrimination to respond."

Lectionary Commentary and Preaching Paths (Easter C7), by Dennis Bratcher, at The Christian Resource Institute.

General Resources for Lessons

Prayer

You have glorified your Christ, O God, exalting to your right hand the Son who emptied himself for us in obedience unto death on the cross, and thus have exalted all of us who have been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection.  Clothe us now with power from on high, and send us forth as witnesses to the Messiah's resurrection from the dead, that, together with us, all the nations of the world may draw near with confidence to the throne of mercy. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Some Thoughts on Luke 24:44-53

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for the Gospel

Leading up to the passage chosen for Ascension day Luke is telling a very clear story.  Jesus prophesied a coming reign of God.  The empty tomb shows that the prophet king was telling the truth. The old prophesies made by the greater and lesser prophets of Israel telling about the suffering servant who will come to remake a new Israel are true.  This is proved in the resurrection appearances.  Jesus himself in life and post resurrection offering a new vision of life lived in the kingdom.  He opens their minds to see what they did not see before.  The disciples are eyewitnesses to the new reality and they are to ministers interpreting and retelling the story.(Luke Timothy Johnson, Luke, 405) 

The disciples will not be left alone.  God is sending the Holy Spirit.  It cannot come and be fully in the world until he departs.  Moses and Elijah who offered a vision of this new reign of God and have been part of the Gospel story throughout are reminders that the power of God is always passed on to the successor.  (LTJ, Luke, 406)  In these last paragraphs of the Gospel of Luke we see clearly that instead of anointing one with the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, the disciples as a group are to receive the Holy Spirit and pass it on.

These last verses of Luke's Gospel are pregnant with the clarity that we are the inheritors of the good news of salvation.  We are to be the inheritors of the vision of a different reign of God. We are the inheritors of God's mission to the poor.We are the inheritors of God's prophetic voice which passes along to others what we have received.  

Some Thoughts on Ephesians 1:15-23

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Christ has been raised and now is elevated. This particular passage comes after the developed theme of the church as Christ's body.  The elevation of Christ emphasizes the themes from Revelation that God has dominion over all and that the church is participating even now the new kingdom.  Christ is even now pouring himself into the new emerging Christian community. Together we are even now being drawn towards the fulfillment of God's desire to gather us in.  We may in fact live in the not yet like Paul's own little faithful community; but hope is present int he victory o f Christ raising and his elevation into heaven.

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 22, 2022

Quotes That Make Me Think

"There are probably at least 3 ways to misunderstand John. One is to treat each of: following, loving, and abiding; as if they were separate and distinct pieces. These things are all of a whole; you cannot selectively choose only one part: 'I'll have the love of Jesus please, but hold the keeping the commandments.'"

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, John 14:23-29, David Ewart, 2013.

"The story demonstrates what "enough" means, even when, in the midst of it, we think that time or some other commodity is running out. Jesus, by means of his Holy Spirit, finds time, place, love and life enough for all of us."

"Enough," Mary Hinkle, Pilgrim Preaching: Keeping Company with Biblical texts and the people who hear and preach them.

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Prayer

Jesus gave us peace. Do not let our hearts be troubled or afraid but send upon all the baptized the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to remind us of all that Jesus said. So may we keep your word and be counted among those whom you make your home. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Some Thoughts on John 14:23-29

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We continue our discourse with Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples. We are offered in today’s Gospel Jesus’ response to Judas’ question: how will you reveal yourself to us and not to the whole world?

Jesus’ response is that we, the followers of Jesus, will keep his word. Jesus’ revelation to his followers will in turn be revealed to the world through their action of keeping the word. Raymond Brown prefers keeping my word to keeping my commandment because he believes Jesus is speaking about the Spirit of Truth and its indwelling which leads the follower to right action not the keeping of rules in a works righteousness manner. (RB, John, vol 2, 650)

Jesus tries to explain to his followers, rightly concerned that he will leave him, that he is giving them this teaching while he is with them so they understand. And, that they need not fear because the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the Spirit of Truth, will soon be sent to be with them and to guide them. The Spirit of Truth will teach them everything they need. Somewhat like Psalm 25.5 which reminds the one in prayer that God will, “guide you along the way of all truth.” (RB, John, vol 2, 650)

Jesus then again tells them he is going away but leaving his Peace with them. He will be back, but this is less important that loving Jesus and being a part of the divine community. For in living and loving in the divine community not only keeps one close to Jesus but helps the disciple to see Jesus and the Father revealed. This essential love of one another within the community brings with it a peace and a witness of the Spirit of Truth into the world. I am convinced that Jesus understood that if his followers would live in the Holy Spirit and live in a loving community with one another he (Jesus) would be revealed in glory to the world and that the world would in turn have a revelation of God.

Peace in Jesus’ teachings stems from the grounding and sharing of love born from the Spirit of Truth, like the Holy Spirit itself it is a gift.

The first four lines of this verse are a majestic promise made by Jesus to the disciples he leaves in the world. The peace of which Jesus speaks has nothing to do with the absence of warfare (indeed it will come only after the world has been conquered: 16:33), nor with an end of psychological tension, nor with a sentimental feeling of well-being. Cyril of Alexandria identified pace with the Holy Spirit mentioned in the previous verse; his exegesis is wrong, but it is closer to the truth than many of the modern oratorical distortions of this verse, for it recognizes correctly that the peace of Jesus is a gift that pertains to man’s salvation…peace is one of the blessings of the souls of the just who are in the hand of God…in Johannine realized eschatology peace is enjoyed by Christians even during this life. (RB, John, vol 2, 653)

Some Thoughts on Revelation 21:10, 22-22.5

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We are drawing to the close of our Revelation readings just as we draw close to the end of Easter and the Ascension.  So it is that on this Sunday we arrive at the final vision in a book of visions.

When heaven comes to earth there will be no need for a temple because God is present everywhere and illumines everything.  The people of the earth will be united as they are focused upon God's light and all will have access to the God who comes to dwell with us.

We in our time have no hope for power, and distrust it's use of authority.  We believe that all power and authority is corrupt.  This is a vision of the old world which has passed away.  In the new world we see and understand differently.  Here in the new earth, where heaven makes its home, we see that God has power and authority. All the powers and authorities of the world are not gone but rather are oriented at worshiping God and reflecting his light.  Power and authority, the kings, are transformed.

This is achieved by God's grace.  We are washed clean by the healing which is God's alone.  One author wrote, "God's drawing of the kings and nations to God's self, to the holy city, is no threat; the uncleanness that had led to oppression, violence, and evil will stay removed forever."

This vision is a vision of hope which is visible, even dimly, now in the world around us.  We as Christians and followers of Jesus, the lamb of God, are invited to do this now.  We are invited to see our role in the world today. To know we are made clean by Christ.  That we are to attempt to unearth this heavenly city in the midst of our families and friendship circles.  We are to see the seeds already sprouting of this kingdom come to earth.

The vision of the heavenly city which find its home on earth is our vision. It is our motivating invitation to enter the gates which shall never be closed and to worship the God who makes his life in the world and not locked away in a temple.  If we can imagine and see the end we can work towards it with purpose and vision.

Some Thoughts on Acts 16:9-15

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This is the story of the conversion of Lydia, her husband and household. We have here a wonderful sense of early church mission and evangelism and it is well worth thinking carefully about what is happening here.

First, Paul discerns a calling to go across to Troas and then to Philippi. This is on the Aegean Sea. We are not told that Paul has any plans. He is not thinking I am going there and I am going to do a, b, and then c. We imagine that he is. The church organization we know will automatically assume that Paul is going there with plans to birth a church. To read this into the story though completely undermines it in the arc of Lukan mission. Paul has a dream, a call, and so he discerns this is where he is to go. He trusts that God will give him some hint as what is to take place there.

The church must send, and empower people to go out, without plans! People should go and discover in the world what is up there and not overly plan their work. Certainly, there will be time enough to figure things out... but the beginning of mission is a Person attentive to the Holy Spirit and a Place and dependance upon God. Nothing less and nothing more.

On the day of rest Paul goes out to the river. He may be looking for a synagogue...though Luke is not clear. He leaves the city and heads to the river. He is attentive and there finds a group of women there. These women are gentiles. They are not Jews and they are gathered. Paul goes and visits with them. Paul speaks to her.

This is the second mission principle worth noting. Paul goes, keeps his eyes open, sees some people - maybe working to rinse cloth, maybe sitting by the river. We don't know. But he sees them and goes and visits with them. Once you are in the place where you are to be you keep your eyes open and you meet people.  The idea here is to let the spirit lead you, open your eyes and heart to what is around you. See people for who they are, not who you want them to be. Enter into relationship honestly and openly.

The third thing is that God opens Lydia's heart...not Paul. This is very important. We think we MUST convert. This is not our work. Conversion is the work of God - not ours. We are simply to be about God's business in the world with our eyes open, clear about who we are, and willing to meet people where they are and allow God to do what God will do.

Paul and Lydia are opened to her baptism and so she and her whole house are baptised. This is important. The household would include many different kinds of people and it is very likely that the household did not all come to believe in the same way as Lydia - some had to do it because they were in Lydia's house. This is the fourth thing about mission that is important: there is no hierarchy of knowledge regarding Baptism. When you desire it you get it. Sometimes you may not even really know what you are doing. Paul I am sure helped them along with this. But, we cannot overlay some modernist/postmodernist form of Christian formation on top of baptism. The work of conversion and act of baptism are reflective by those who participate in it. We must go with the flow as it were.

The last thing is that often times we think we are to have people who come to baptism join us. Imagine a mission that is willing to go where the people live. Baptize them and then journey to their mission field, their home, their place of work rather than lifting them out of that context and putting them to work inside a church building. 

What happens in our story is that a new church of importance is planted in Philippi.

Ancient Mission for a New Context

1.  Go. Mission is a Person attentive to the Holy Spirit and a Place and dependance upon God.
2. Once you are in the place where you are to be you keep your eyes open and you meet people.
3. Conversion is the work of God - not ours.
4. There is no hierarchy of knowledge regarding Baptism.
5. Baptize them and then journey to their mission field, their home, their place of work rather than lifting them out of that format and putting them to work inside a church building. 

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C, May 15, 2022

Quotes That Make Me Think


"This short text from John's gospel is like a glowing candle in the darkness, a command to love one another amid the realities of violence and betrayal as a continuation of Jesus' ministry in the world."
"Easter Erosion, Easter Explosion," Alyce M. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2013.

"By believing against all odds and loving against all odds, that is how we are to let Jesus show in the world and to transform the world."
"Let Jesus Show," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"One of the stunning parts of this text is the location. This passage comes on the heels of Judas leaving the other disciples at the last supper to betray Jesus."
Commentary, John 13:31-35, Karyn Wiseman, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

General Resources for Sunday's Lessons

Prayer

Loving god, the promise of the new Jerusalem is your home among us. Already in the new commandment of love you have begun to make all things new. As Jesus loved us, so we would love, that in the love we have for one another a new heaven and a new earth may dawn. 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 13:31-35

Picture is of Poster entitled, "Beloved of God," printed
for 73rd General Convention

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This Sunday we have Jesus’ departure including his last words to his disciples before the trial and final hours of his life.

There are a number of very important theological and missional points to be considered in these last instructions to his disciples.

The first of these phrases is, “God has been glorified.” The glory of God is the primary, the ultimate, work of Jesus Christ. He is modeling for all humanity the work we are to undertake as creatures of God, and making it clear that our disobedience to this work dishonors our creator. “Glory”, according to Raymond Brown, “involves a visible manifestation of God’s majesty in acts of power.” (RB, John, Anchor Bible, vol 2, 606) This scriptural and textual view is important theologically. We, the creatures of God, are to work on God’s behalf. We are, through our lives as disciples of the most high God, are to manifest God’s majesty in the living out of our lives and in our relationships with one another.

The Biblical scholar George B. Caird wrote this about the understanding of this word "glory" and its meaning within the New Testament, and its meaning for theology: “Through Jesus God is held in honor by men.” “God is honored by Jesus,” through his obedience to God’s will. “God has won honor for himself in Jesus.” And, “God has revealed his glory in Jesus.” (Brown, 606)

Brown reminds us that Origen moved this concept towards Gnosticism because he associated it with knowing God. But the more ancient continuum throughout scripture upholds the idea that the purpose of all creation and humans especially, is to glorify God in word, action, and deed.

In verse 33 Jesus remarks to them, calling them children – as in his later greeting on the beach, and says that he will not be with them long. Moreover, that the work and the journey he is about to take is not for them, but for him alone.

Jesus gives this commandment 18 times in the last discourse in John. The statement is clear: Love one another.

We are to love one another as Jesus loves us. And the word chosen here is “must.” We must love as Jesus loved. This is our commandment. This is how we are to be known: as the ones who love one another.

Raymond Brown points out that over time Christian Apologists, all, “would call upon the impact made by Christian love as a standard argument for the superiority of Christianity.” (607) Today we make the case primarily on other grounds as this is not typically what comes to mind when one thinks about Christians in our culture or globally.

Raymond Brown writes the following:

Yet love is more than a commandment; it is a gift, and like the other gifts of the Christian dispensation it comes from the Father through Jesus to those who believe in him. In xv 9 we hear, “As the Father has love me, so have I loved you”; and both xiii 34 and xv 12 the “as I have love you” emphasizes that Jesus is the source of the Christians’ love for one another. (Only secondarily does it refer to Jesus as the standard of Christian love.) The love that Jesus has for his followers is not only affective but also effective; it brings about their salvation. It is expressed in his laying down his life, an act of love that gives life to men. This is well expressed in Rev I 5: “…the one who loves us and has delivered or washed us from our sins.” We should also stress that the “love of one another” of which the Johannine Jesus speaks is love between Christians. In our own times a frequent ideal is the love of all men, enunciated in terms of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Such a maxim has some biblical basis in the creation of all men by God, but the idea is not Johannine. For John, God is a Father only to those who believe in His Son and who are begotten as God’s children by the Spirit in Baptism. The “one another” that the Christian is to love is correctly defined in I John iii 14 as “our brothers,” that is those within the community.

It seems to me that the Christian community who is not able to primarily engage in the commandment to love one another will be unable to be a missionary community into a world looking and searching for vessels of God’s love. The church that cannot be a sacrament of God’s love for those within first, and those without second, ceases to reflect the glory of God as intended by God for God’s pleasure, and for humanities mutual benefit, and for the salvation of creation.  Loving our neighbor is the primary way in which those who follow Jesus glorify God.

Some Thoughts on Revelation 21:1-5

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We continue the longest series of readings from the book of Revelation this week.  In today's passage the vision is of a new heaven and new earth.  The first things have passed away.

As a number of theologians point out the book of Revelation squarely places the kingdom of God's work on earth.  Rather than the heavens consuming the earth as in many other apocalyptic tradition the image and theme of Revelation is that heaven comes to earth; the fulfillment of the incarnation and the work of Jesus.

At the wedding at Cana of Galilee one can imagine the bride and groom and the many attendees gathered around enjoying the company of one another.  The image though of the bride of Christ given in the previous chapter is not a wedding feast where earth is brought into heaven and all rejoice.  It is instead an image of a beautiful and wondrous earthly city.  It is a place of hospitality to the stranger and  a place of rest for the weary pilgrim, and peace for God's people.  Tears are wiped away in this place and the world itself is transformed.

Such a city has been on the hearts and minds of Christians from Augustine to the slave, from the missionary to the persecuted.  It is found in the writings of William Blake and is present in the abolitionist and civil rights leader's voice.

In revelation we are not offered a future hope of heavenly bliss but a transformed earth.  The resurrection happens on earth and so to will the reign of God.  We can all think of the Armageddon images and films which promise some form of escapism from the world.  This is not quite the image we find in Revelation.  The earth is made new.  Not unlike the Christ after resurrection where he is more present, more real, than he was before the same may be said for the new earth.  The reign of God on earth will be more present and more real.  What has been seen only in part will be revealed in an even greater way.

The earth which has been sowed for power and ruled by authorities other than God will be changed.  It isn't so much that the earth or seas will be no more as they will no longer be used and corrupted by powers outside of the reign of God.  The earth that is made new is sustainable and God will provide for his people.  This will be a new world, remade, and reordered such that the power of Rome or Babylon cannot keep the waters of life from those who seek it.  This vision is transformative and promises a different world which will provide all that is needed for its population. The hungry and thirsty will receive good things to eat and drink.  The powers that have ruled the world and corrupted the creation and the creatures will no longer have dominion.

The city which John envisions comes down from heaven to earth is a sight for us all.  It is a revelation of a new earth; and the promise of a creation which supports bounteous life under the reign of a loving and providing God.

Some Thoughts on Acts 11:1-18

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So when Christians get going and turn from being disciples into apostles, when they stop following the church organization and go out things get dicey. (Disciple means the one who follows, Apostle means the one who goes.) This is exactly what happens in this Acts lesson.

People are going out and doing the work of God, Peter is going out. And, those who were used to having faith a particular way with particular rituals don't like Peter's work. They accuse him of being to easy on these newbies. They accuse him of not offering a true faith. They will do most anything to keep Paul from advancing the mission of the Gospel of Christ.

This reveals that it is always the nature of the internal church, the predecessor church, to have difficulty with the mission evolution of the church within the varying and different contexts.

Here is Peter's defense is 7 part and really a good guide to mission engagement:

1. God directed him to see that things needed to change. In this particular case that it was okay to eat animals that were forbidden by the religion of the day.
2. God then taught Peter that things outside of a person and what they eat do not defile a person. We might remember Jesus' teaching that it is what comes out of the mouths of humans that defiles not what goes in. (Matthew 10:15ff)
3. God makes us clean, not our nature or our own work.
4. God helped me see I was to go with people who I had believed were unclean.
5. I didn't know what to say, but God helped me when the time came.
6. What we truly give one another is God's spirit.
7. I realized God was giving them his Spirit and so how could I get in the way of this.

The best part is that Luke writes, "When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, 'Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.'” The faithful in Jerusalem see that the expansion of the mission is good, that people are sharing a love of Christ, and are being empowered by the Holy Spirit, people are coming to Christ because they did not get in the way and Peter opened the way.

Peter literally fulfills Jesus' own words when he lets it be known that his followers are not to lord it over them. Jesus says in Matthew 23, be  careful not to be like so many religious leaders, "they tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others..." Peter enters the mission field and does not tie up heavy burdens on those he finds there. Luckily the faithful in the predecessor church also realize that this is not their work.