Proper 9C, Pentecost +4, July 6, 2022

PrayerGive us the courage of the apostles, and let the gospel set us free that wherever life takes us and with whomever we find ourselves, our first word may always be your gift of love and peace.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

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

Some Thoughts on Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

"Notice how Jesus only tells them what they should do and doesn't say anything about measuring their success. If people don't accept your message, he says, shake their dust off your feet and move on. In our congregations it's difficult to avoid measuring success."

Commentary, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, Michael Rogness, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Leo Bebb said, 'It's worth breaking the law just so you can get put in the lock-up, where the grapes are ripe for the harvest and the Lord needs all the hands he can get for the vineyard. You should hear the way they sing hymns behind bars, Antonio. Makes you go all over gooseflesh.'"

"Hands for the Harvest," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog. The following excerpt was initially published in Lion Country and later in The Book of Bebb

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


We begin here in the same way that we began with last Sunday’s Gospel from Luke. Jesus sends out before him messengers. This time he is sending out seventy. The harvest is rich says, Jesus. Pray for help in the harvest.

I cannot help but imagine this text without thinking of Moses’ seventy elders who go with him to the mountain. While I do not intend to question the number I cannot help but think this is an important story to be included in the Gospel account because of this very fact. It is important to the theme of Jesus as the great high priestly prophet that he is compared with Moses, not just in deeds as in our last few weeks of reading, but here in action of disbursing authority and replicating and multiplying the proclamation of the Good news.

We can see immediately that previously in our text, Jesus sent the twelve to preach and heal, the messengers to prepare hospitality, and the seventy to do both!

Just as we remember this prophet and the prophet's work makes orphans of family members and homeless those who have houses, so here we see that those who follow and undertake this work are sent out for the good work of harvesting and will for their efforts place their lives in danger.

He tells them what to take with them and what to leave behind. The message here seems to be to travel light and carry with you the providence of God.

This mission is in the hostile land of Samaria and this cannot be overlooked. They are to be careful and remember they are ministering in a place that will not be welcoming to messengers sent from a prophet of Jerusalem…even if it is in Jerusalem where he will meet his death.  And, at the same time, it is in Samaria a perceived hostile land that the Good News takes hold and great works and miraculous deeds are accomplished.

Nothing less than the kingdom of God is going with them, the very same message that has traveled as a mantle with Jesus’ every word. Now they are to carry it, and where it is accepted there will be peace. The kingdom is here and where it is there is peace for those who choose to live their lives within its expanding territory.

Wipe off the dirt when they don’t accept you…leave them be and go. When the Day of Judgment comes they will receive what is due them. Jesus uses a colloquial proverb from his day, “go easier for Sodom.” (LTJ, Luke, Sacra Pagina, 168).

We see here in the verses that follow them - repentance. And, we understand that where the kingdom is, where the grace appears, where God is truly received there is indeed an automatic work of repentance taken on by the people. Woe to those who do not turn to the Lord.

I think that it would be much clearer if we understood that the messengers, these seventy, were actually to do the firebombing Jesus speaks about. But we must remember from last week’s reading, that Jesus carefully instructs those who go before him to stay away from this work. Will there be judgment? The answer is clearly yes. Are we to be the ones to dish it out? Clearly: no. In fact, we are to keep focused on the mission. We might remember the plow imagery from last week. We are to keep moving and dust our feet off. True enough…woe to Chorazin…but keep moving…keep proclaiming the Gospel message.

Then Jesus talks about Satan’s fall as he hears of the work his disciples have been doing. This is great news. But don’t let the news of the good work be what drives you forward. Jesus again redirects our attention. It is not the winning or the losing, the success of the mission, or the fact that they seem to be doing good work that is important, it is rather that they are citizens in the reign or kingdom of God and they are fulfilling their citizenship by ministering in God’s name.

A new beatitude is added to our list. Blessed are those that see and those that hear. Blessed are the ones who can experience the reign of God in a very real way. While scholars seize on the seeing and the hearing, it is interesting to me in the pericope to note that there is also a part of this saying which is the desire fulfilled. There are many Jesus says who desired to experience the kingdom. They do. So, indeed, blessed are the ones who see and hear of the kingdom. Perhaps, blessed are the citizens of this new kingdom, and blessed are they that repent and are able to dwell within its boundaries.

The journey to Jerusalem is the unfolding of Jesus’ sermon on the plain. There is a declaration of woe says Luke Timothy Johnson and then a blessing, here in the alternating action, conversation, witnessing, and teaching we see Jesus’ reign of God unfold. (LTJ, 171)

It is clear that Jesus sees the Samaritans as outcasts of the people and that we are seeing in his own ministry the very essential ingredients to the life and work of the church. If we are a mission of Jesus Christ, the “seventy” sent out into the world, then we must measure our success not on the results of our work, but on these qualities expressed in today’s Gospel.

Moreover, instead of fearing the land outside our congregations like a neo-Samaria, we should lift our heads and eyes to see that it is in the world of mission that great things happen and the Gospel takes root.

Some Thoughts on Galatians 6:1-18

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Resources for Sunday's Epistle

While taking a stab at the spiritually superior Paul reminds them that their work is to be mutual support to one another in fulfilling the law of Christ.

This law is governed by the Spirit of Christ.  The law of God in the human relationship has a particular history.  God's initial and singular law is replaced by the law of Sinai which human beings are unable to keep.  This then is replaced by Christ and the return to the singular law.  The Sinai law will enslave us; for Paul, this is self-evident and illustrative both in the teachings of Jesus and through the spirit of revelation.  The singular law revealed is the law of love.

Love one another.  Christ has brought this one-way love of God to humans and into the world. The law of Christ, the law of love, is to be the law that ultimately governs the newly emerging community of the church.  The church will be known to be Christ's and governed by Christ's law based upon love.

In Paul's words:

"In love, bear one another burdens, and in this way, you will bring to completion in the corporate life of your churches (future tense of ἀναπληρόω - anapléroó) the law that Chris himself has brought to completion.  For Christ brought the Law to completion, when he made it his own Law, by loving us and giving his life for us.  Indeed, he did that precisely in accordance with the will of God our Father, whose promise and whose guidance are spoken by the scriptural Law that is now the Law in the hands of Christ." (Translation by J. Louis Martyn, Galatians, p 558)

Some Thoughts on 2 Kings 5:1-17

Oremus Online NRSV OT Text

Resources for Sunday's OT Lesson

I think a lot of times we forget how many times God does good work for the least and is lost in the Old Testament. We often times think that it is purely a series of books that have only to do with the people of Israel.

We might do well to remember the Elijah story from a few weeks past when Elijah went and was with a woman, most likely Canaanite, and multiplied the food she had and raised her son from the dead. Here again, we have a similar story in that Elisha is called out to work miracles for someone not found to be of value in Israel's religious eyes - he is not Israelite, and he is not clean.

The first thing to notice in the story is that Naaman is a great warrior who has had many victories. He has everything in terms of victory but has nothing for he has leprosy. He is counted unclean and therefore he is one of the least.

One of his servants/captives, who became his wife, is one who knows of the miraculous work of the Sinai prophet Elisha and says to her owner/husband you should go and see him. She is an Israelite and considered even lower than he in the eyes of the powerful in Damascus.

Naaman's king writes to the king of Israel for permission. Naaman is a great warrior and so the king is VERY scared! He is worried that the king of Aram and Naaman are plotting to overthrow him. Elisha says, calm down and let him come to me. So Naaman goes with many gifts. He arrives with many horses and chariots and in great finery.

Here is one of the great exchanges in biblical history:

Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.”  

Naaman has a fit. We are told that Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage.  

Again, a servant wife who is accounted nothing comes to Naaman and says, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”  

So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

Naaman offers Elisha gifts but Elisha says no. The miracle story is important because on the one hand, it is telling the story of religious truth found in Israel over and against its neighbors. Certainly, God's power is present there in the prophet Elisha, in the Israelite woman, and in the river Jordan. But I think there is still more here for us.

This is a story of how the power of God to deliver and heal for the least and for the other is important. God is clearly working to restore all people, not simply the people of Israel. God is the God of all nations and all people. All come to him and all will worship. This is a story about how God is, through the work of Elisha (like Elijah), working in the lives of those who do not count as members of his flock - Israel.

I know that there are a number of readings possible over these weeks and some numbers have stayed with the readings from Isaiah. I have kept to the readings from Kings because I think it is of the utmost importance to see that Jesus himself was involved in a ministry not so very foreign to the Sinai prophets who ministered to the least and lost, to the lame and leper, all of whom have very little value in the eyes of the religious. Jesus' work to expand and pronounce goodness and healing for all the least and lost despite religious or national orientation is essential and rooted deep in a tradition of a God who has forever sought to work on behalf of the least and lost.

Proper 8C, Pentecost +3, June 26, 2022

Prayer

Sustain us in our decision to follow where Jesus leads, and by the power of your own love, at once both strong and gentle, keep us faithful to Christ and compassionate in serving others.  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 9:51-62

"It is easy for us to say, Come, see our zeal for the Lord! and to think we are very faithful in his cause, when we are seeking our own objects, and even doing harm instead of good to others."

From Matthew Henry's Commentary (c. 1700).

"Whether we think of ourselves as aliens, strangers, nomads, or pilgrims on this earth, it is because we follow Jesus, and that often takes us into new ways of living!"

Commentary, Luke 9:51-62, Michael Rogness, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"So what if the deepest calling of a Christian disciples isn't to be in control – ourselves or vicariously through God – but rather to give up the illusion, to take some risks, and to throw ourselves into this turbulent life and world God loves so much trusting that God will join us in the adventure, hold onto us through all the ups and downs, and brings us in time to the other side."

"Out of Control," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

We begin this Gospel lesson with two striking images. The first is the use of the words: “for his being
taken up.” This is the only place in the New Testament where this phrase is used. Hearkening back to Elijah, we can see that Luke intends for his narrative focus to be on the ascension. (Luke Timothy Johnson, Luke, Sacra Pagina, 162) What is interesting to me here is how much we focus on so many other things in Luke’s Gospel. Nevertheless, there is seemingly a continued focus on the reign of God into which Jesus is taken. There is also a great sense in these first words of our passage of an urgency that surrounds the events that follow. This is the second striking image of the first words from our passage. Jesus is setting his face like a flint towards Jerusalem. The time is now and he is going there now! We must follow now! Come on let's get going.  His being "taken up" will soon occur!

Perhaps it is the elongated waiting for Jesus’ return that makes us lose the urgency of Jesus' mission? Yet the call is before us again in this passage, and it is urgent.

To help get the people ready Jesus sends messengers with the purpose of making ready. Again we see that Jesus is in the land of Samaritans, and not in the land of the faithful. This paradox continues to reflect Jesus’ focus on those outside the faith community and the church today returns our attention to the people outside our Christian communities. Are we being sent out into the world to prepare the way of the Lord? And, are we answering the call on our lives to do so? Or, are we sitting in our pews waiting for the world of the Samaritan to come in?

Luke Timothy Johnson gives us some history on the differences between the Samaritan and the Temple worship in Jerusalem. It appears that not unlike our disputes in the church today it was about who is a true believer.

“The ancestral antipathy between Judeans and Samaritans is reflected in this verse. It was based on the rivalry between shrines of Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Zion, and on a whole cluster of disputes concerning the right way to read the sacred books, messianism and above all, who was a real Israelite. See e.g., Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20:119-138; John 4:9-20).” (LTJ, Luke, 162)

The disciples’ response to finding that the Samaritans are not receptive is not unlike the complaints of why we shouldn’t bother reaching out to our communities. Why bother? Let the dice fall how they fall…let the fire be cast down on them. They aren’t like us at all. They really don’t belong. This lack of vision for the mission of God is as wrongly placed today as it was when those first messengers returned to Jesus. Jesus’ response is clear, he is here to save and not to destroy.

So we get the message. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He is prophetically breaking into the world and bringing with him the reign of God. His mission is urgent and he is here to save and not to destroy. Old divisions are set aside for the Gospel of Christ. We are offered again the vision of how God sees us and that is a vision of potentiality and a vision of hope that we will see our salvation and join Jesus in the proclamation work, the messenger work. And, so we are told a few hear, a few recognized, a few see who this Jesus really is and what he is up to. So they are eager to follow.

Luke Timothy Johnson reminds us that the threefold call and offer are similar to the threefold willingness of Elisha to follow Elijah in the period just before his ascension, again bringing into focus the great prophetic work of Jesus. (LTJ, Luke, 162)

The problem is that while these want-to-be followers of Jesus get the invitation and they get the vision, they do not get the urgency or understand the cost. This is a prophet who is homeless until he returns home to heaven. This is a prophet who will not rest till rest is won for all. Jesus’ proclamation of the reign of God and his mission see the potential future of the restoration of God’s world as the highest goal and makes clear the consequences of following.

When we choose to follow we must be attentive like the plowman. We cannot take our eye off the work and the mission -- to do so is to risk wandering aimlessly and destroying the good work and labor already performed.

Luke Timothy Johnson writes the following about Jesus’ challenge to his audiences and how he calls each into action:

Luke is very careful to note Jesus’ audience in every instance. To each group, furthermore, Jesus speaks quite different sorts of words: to the crowd, he issues warnings and calls to conversion. To those who convert and become disciples, he gives positive instructions on discipleship. Finally, to those who resist his prophetic call, he tells parables of rejection.

Luke gives dramatic structure to these sayings by carefully alternating the audiences. Throughout the journey (as the notes will indicate), Luke has Jesus turn form one group to the other, form cord to disciples to Pharisees. The narrative that results form this “arrangement” is therefore filled with unexpected tension: the Prophet makes his way to Jerusalem, to his death and “lifting up.” As he goes, he speaks the word of God to those around him. Some hear and become part of the people. Others reject the word and are themselves in process of being rejected from the people. The climax is reached with Jesus reaches the city and is greeted, now not by a handful o followers (cf. 8:1-3) but by a “whole multitude of disciples” (19:37) prepared to hear the teaching of the Prophet in the precincts of the Temple. (165)

Several questions come to mind for the preacher. Do we know to whom we are talking? Can we, like Jesus, direct our words in accordance with the challenge needed to be heard by those listening? Are we actually able to proclaim the word of God in different contexts, clearly being aware of the challenge before the ones in front of us?

Another set of questions arises as I reflect on the particular passage and wonder are we giving positive messages and instruction that help those within our church be better disciples? What does that look like in today’s American church context?

Do we have the sense of urgency needed to motivate our congregation to action?

Are our people ready to hear the teaching of Jesus? Or are our churches filled with individuals who have more in line with the crowd in Luke’s Gospel?

Missionary context and the wisdom to navigate it with solid teaching is an essential ingredient for the modern-day priest. Today people are out there in the world soaking up religious and spiritual information from the internet, the book store, and at the water cooler. They come to church on any given Sunday or during the week and they turn to the leaders of our churches and expect us to have a message. Like the pilgrims who entered the dessert seeking out the solitaries: Abba, give us a word.

Church life today is manifestly different from the pilgrim journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. There are bills to pay, metrics to reach, and leadership groups to contend with – all this is true. But the message of Jesus, the message of the possibility of the reign of God, is no less urgent. The people who live out in the world are turning to their leaders and asking for a word. We must be ready to give it to them. We must reclaim our preaching and teaching office as clergy in the church of God. And, I would argue that we must raise up around us others who also can teach and share in the discipleship and mentoring needed to transform our church into the vision that we had when we joined; a vision that offered hope for the future, and plenty of labor for the laborer. We must recapture and reclaim our churches as places, along the road with Jesus, where those who journey with Him can find words that warn and convert, which instruct and offer positive reinforcement for the journey, which talk about division clearly and work towards unity.

What are my excuses to Jesus for why I cannot come and follow? Why I cannot do what is asked?

Fear of the other: They are not like us. They believe differently. They should have fire brought down on their heads.

Fear for my needs: The journey itself looks too difficult. I might find myself homeless.

Fear for of all the things I have to do….

I sometimes wonder how many of us, including myself, ever get past the gratitude for grace into the mission field?

Some Thoughts on Galatians 5:1-25

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

J. Louis Martyn writes regarding vs 4: "Emphasizing a point he has made in 3:11, Paul puts the verb dikaiousthe in the present tense (conative), thus referring to "action attempted, but not accomplished."...These Galatians have come to think that their salvation results from an allegiance to Christ only when the allegiance is enacted in observance of the Law..As soon as one attaches to Law observance some degree of salvific potency, one has violated the gospel of Christ, thus severing oneself from him." (Galatians, 1997, 471)

How many times have we discovered the freedom Christ has given us to follow him than we turn around and make a new law for ourselves and for others?

This is the primary problem with our mission work in the world today. We have gotten everything backward! We believe that it is only in becoming deeply religious, deeply spiritual, perfect in the following scripture...etc, etc that one can be accepted.  What we have forgotten is that as soon as we do this we abandon Christ and his freedom.  When we do this Christianity itself is of "no benefit" to us or to others.  

"Ouch" I want to say to Paul! You got me...I was "running well" but how easy it is to slip into a Christless faith... a faith wherein I am the chief hero and the chief protagonist.  I slip into that thinking that will get me nowhere and can say, "I got my salvation from here God, thanks!"  And in so doing the power of the cross to set me free is removed (vs 11).

How I need to hear Paul's words, "For you were called to freedom, brothers, and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.  For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" 

Let us be clear that we understand the fruit of freedom, the results of living out a grace-filled life, and the mission are these things:  "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

How often do we take the list that goes like this:  fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and make it the measure of others - never ourselves.  And, create a new law by which others must be circumcised to follow Jesus.

Instead, let us simply ask ourselves are we living in the freedom of Christ, and are our communities characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? And if not let us aspire to such a community free from the law by the grace of Christ Jesus.

Some Thoughts on 2 Kings 2:1-15

Oremus Online NRSV OT Text

The reading for this Sunday is the transition from Elijah to Elisha. The mantle of Sinai prophet is passed along. They are on their way to one of the holy Sinai cult sites - Bethel. They make their way down to Jericho. There they are met by local prophets and keepers of the tradition. So it is they the go on to the Jordan. Elisha travels the whole way with Elijah. 

When they arrive at the Jordan Elijah takes up his mantle and strikes the water with it. Here then the waters divide and they are able to cross on dry ground. The mantle is the great shawl that was worn across his shoulders.

We are meant to see in this journey walking and claiming of the land promised by Elisha. The crossing over is no mere crossing over but a reenactment of the crossing over the Jordan into the land that is promised.

On the other side, Elijah plainly passes on a double spirit of his prophetic powers to Elisha. After this, a chariot of fire and horses come down and take Elijah away in the whirlwind. Elisha is left grieved by the event. He then picks up the mantle and puts it on. He then reverses the river Jordan crossing. 

We know historically that the prophetic Sinai tradition was strong, especially in the North, but as some scholars now point out in the South as well. Jeremiah certainly is one of those great southern prophets. Nevertheless what we see here is a deep connection with all that is past, with the covenant theology rooted in their tradition.

Elisha's very passing over is not only meant for us readers to see that he will also be a great prophet, that he is the inheritor of Elijah's spirit, or that he is welcomed by the local prophetic schools. There is, you see, a message we are meant to receive. God makes way, God delivers, and God will take care. The prophet themselves is not some kind of inheritor of a magic mantle as he is very participation in the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. His prophecy and his ministry are rooted in the delivery act of the God who frees Israel and hears the cries of his people.

Proper 7C, Pentecost +2, June 19, 2022

Prayer

Not in power and not in vengeance, O Lord of the prophets, but in weakness and compassion did your Son come among us. Schooled in this unique wisdom, may we be prepared to conquer our fears and temptations, to take up our cross daily and to follow Jesus toward true life. 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 8:26-39

"It could also be a time to stress that Christianity is more than just coming to church to receive from Jesus, to praise God in community, but it also involves returning to the world and declaring our experiences with God -- a world that may not always have been kind to us."

Exegetical Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks Christian Resources.
"Luke 8:22-25 tells how Jesus stilled the storm. Our passage is equally dramatic: Jesus defeats the powers of the abyss. These are celebrations of power against power."

"First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary: Pentecost5," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

In order to plumb the depths of this week's gospel passage it is important to understand the narrative context in which it resides. In verse 22 Jesus gets into a boat, a storm arises and Jesus calms the storm as well as the fears of his disciples. The end of this story leaves a question hanging in the air: “Who is this, then, that commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”

As the question is asked, Jesus steps out of the boat into the land of the Gerasenes, which we are told is the opposite of Galilee.

Jesus is met by a man from the city who lives near the tombs and is seen in torn clothes. It is “Legion” then that answers the disciples’ question as he cries out: “Son of the Most High God.”

The name of the demon implies that there are four or six thousand demons inside the man; this is the number in a Roman military legion. While Mark’s Gospel takes on a political tone in the retelling of this story, Luke stays with his thematic proposition that this is a great prophet of God who has tremendous power. So the focus in Luke’s Gospel is on the number of demons and the power given to Jesus by God to heal the world. Who Jesus is and the work he is to do remain the focus in our Lukan version.

The demons beg for mercy. They do not want to return to the abyss, the place of sea monsters. So that is exactly where Jesus sends them.

People gather around to witness the event and then go into the city to retell the story. What the pig keepers saw was the man restored: in his right mind, clothed and sitting at Jesus’ feet. While the people tell the story out of fear leading to Jesus’ dismissal, the man who has been healed is charged to go to the city and make the work of Jesus known.

In this passage, a number of themes come together. There is the prophet healer, the revelation of the Son of God. We also see the Gentile mission beginning to take shape. And, last, of all, we see one way in which Luke provides us an understanding of discipleship.

The model proposed in this story is the individual healed by Jesus, sent to proclaim the good news into the Gentile world. In this model, discipleship is partly a response to the reception of Grace and is aimed at a mission of proclamation to the world, which has not yet heard the Good News of Christ.

The work of the reign of God is the work of salvation. We are healed not only for our sake, we are healed for the greater glory of God, which is manifested in the growing discipleship community. Faith, salvation and mission are united in the work of Jesus and in the work of those whose lives are “closely linked” with him.

Luke Timothy Johnson points this out in the last paragraph (Luke, Sacra Pagina, p 140) of his teaching on this chapter:

“Finally, in Luke’s terse reduction of Mark 5:16, ‘How the man was saved,’ we see his characteristic understanding of what the meaning of the story is: God’s visitation is for salvation. Now, when we see two stories (of the stilling and the demoniac), we perceive not only that they both demonstrate the power of the prophet over winds and spirits, but that they join the elements of ‘faith’ and ‘salvation,’ and thereby provide a link between Luke’s version of the parable of the sower, where hearing the word and doing it is ‘believing that they might be saved’ (8:12), and the story of the two daughters in which saving faith is the entire point.” [8:40-56]

I sometimes wonder how many of us, including myself, ever get past the gratitude for grace and actually venture into the mission field?

Some Thoughts on Galatians 2:15-21

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Resources for Sunday's Epistle

We continue in this section about the work of Jesus and how it is his faithfulness that sets the world aright.

If we follow Jesus we place our trust in him, and in his faith.  And, Jesus' faithfulness with always delivers us.

Paul argues that under the law we were quite simply imprisoned. We were unable to fulfill the law. We could not bridge the gulf between heaven and earth - though it was this law that was to be our guide in making the crossing.  Paul says the law "was our disciplinarian until Christ came."

We might remember last week that Jesus was faithful even under the law.  He was faithful to the end.  It is his faith that justifies us.  And, it is in baptism that we are clothed in Christ.  This is how we come into the loving and saving embrace of Christ.  This completely transforms us.  In baptism, we are seen by others, and we see others, as members of God's beloved family. We see each other through the lens by which God sees us: forgiven, loved, and free.

The conclusion of our reading reminds us of this total freedom and new family.  Paul writes those powerful words which have mended the great schisms and divide:  "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise."

We are heirs to the first promises of God to his people.

Today we live in a world that is predominately made up of many and varied diasporas.  They are mini-communities and most have little or nothing to do with either the family of Abraham or the Gentile offspring which Paul is speaking about. 

Is it possible that the same argument that Paul makes to the Galatians might also be turned upon the Christian denominations and non-denominational churches today?  Is it possible that a key to our failure lies in the fact that we have so cut ourselves off from the very people Jesus has come to save? 

What would it be like for the Christian Church to take up the banner of the family of God and welcome all people?  Instead of figuring out how they can't or don't belong...we might be better served if we talked with our neighbors and friends about how God's faithfulness in Christ Jesus has freed us from the law and has broken down the barriers between the "us" and the "them." 

Is it possible that even now the family of God and Abrahams's heirs are being added to?

Some Thoughts on 1 Kings 19:1-15

Oremus Online NRSV OT Text

Resources for Sunday's OT Lesson

We continue with our story about Elijah, Ahab, and Jezebel. In our text this Sunday we see the response of power to God. Jezebel threatens Elijah's life. He then flees. God waits on him through the work of an angel who comes and encourages him to eat and drink. He is to go to Mount Horeb, one of the great Sinai traditional sites, the mountain of God. It will be a wilderness journey to find the dwelling place of God. 

When he arrives at the mountain, there is a great fire and God's voice speaks to him. We are to be put in the mind of Moses, the Israelites freed from Egypt, and for Christians - Jesus' time in the desert. Elijah is quite literally making a metaphorical journey to restart God's covenant with his people. 

Here then after fasting, desert wandering, and an epiphany of God on Mount Horeb, Elijah is told to go and anoint Hazael as the new king in order to take action on God's behalf against the broken reign in Israel.

On the one hand, the story continues the notion that Elijah is one of the people. He is one of the lost. He is oppressed by the powerful. The reigning kings are pushing more and more people "out of the old protective tribal structures by political centralization and social stratification."(Gottwald, Hebrew Bible, 352) God, who delivered his people out of Egypt, will not stand for more oppression.

Again, the theme of the Sinai tradition continues. The centralization of power, the classification of society along the lines of the centralized power, and the reorientation of sites to a centralized faith are all seen as forces that are working against God's desire to be in relationship directly with God's people. The idea of the broken system of intermediaries continues. The price of reform will have to be paid.

Trinity Sunday, June 12, 2022

Prayer

We glorify you, O God, and ponder the mystery of the wisdom by which you created the world in wondrous beauty and order.  We, your church, your new creation, reconciled in your Son and sanctified by your Spirit, ask you to lead us through endurance into hope and from hope to full knowledge of you, who are love itself, fullness of truth and undying life.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 16:12-15

"...we need to hear this brief section from Chapter 16, not as Jesus giving a lecture on the doctrine of the Trinity, but as a personally intense commitment of abiding, continuing, present love / loyalty / protection / guidance / bonding with his followers then - and now - and always." 

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, John 16:12-15, David Ewart, 2013.

"There is always a degree of finagling that goes on when any biblical text is called upon to support a doctrine or understanding of the church..." 

Commentary, John 16:12-15, Sarah Henrich, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"Not everything which masquerades in garments of light brings light. To affirm this Spirit, this Christ of John, is to deny counterfeits and to encounter popular spiritualities inside and outside the church critically."

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




It is interesting that this passage is part of Year B's Pentecost readings.  This year it becomes our reading for Trinity Sunday.

Jesus begins his teaching several passages before our reading today when he speaks to the disciples about the fact that because of Jesus' own intimate relationship with God he is going to suffer and die, and if they follow him they will certainly suffer and be persecuted as well.  They will be persecuted because the notion that the individual may have a personal experience of God was anathema to the people in religious power of his day and it is anathema to people in religious power today.  In point of fact (and as Bonhoeffer once put it) the grace and mercy received in a personal relationship with the Godhead through Christ is the non-religious faith of Jesus.  Direct connection, unorganized, nonapproved, and unsanctioned, relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit is threatening to institutional life. For this reason, and for the reason that Jesus is a friend of sinners, he and all who follow him will suffer and many will die.

Jesus then offers to those who are listening, his closest followers, a message that the Holy Spirit will remain with them and that they will not be disconnected either from Christ Jesus or from God himself.  In fact, the very nature of a personal relationship of grace, thereby unmediated by the world and its religion, will in point of fact prove the reality of his words.

This grace of the Holy Spirit is given by God alone. It cannot be earned.  This Holy Spirit comfort will put at ease all those who bear witness to it because it requires nothing of approval from the world.  Jesus in his words here is clear that living in the Holy Spirit is a way of life devoid of worldly approval and religious authority.

One of the reasons that I love the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion is that we are (when at our best) trying to live into the challenge of God's Holy Spirit.  The challenge to be one and united as God is united in an undivided Trinity.  We are trying to see God moving in the world as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We see God's grace and mercy challenge our piety.  We see God's grace and mercy challenge our lawlessness.  We attempt to be conscious of the Holy Spirit's presence in the midst of our context.  At our best our mission and ministry is not limited to our church campuses but is meeting the Holy Spirit in the world; both as it sends us out and as it transforms us through our experience of the Gospel in the world.

We listen to the personal stories of life lived with Jesus.  We also are aware of God's fatherliness as creator and provider.

I want to suggest that at this week we should not lose the power of the Holy Spirit as part of the trinitarian life, and we may wish to remember it is the Holy Spirit that offered relationships beyond the confines of our church with the sinners of the world.  That it reminds us within the church of our smugness and too often self-satisfaction which builds up barriers rather than offering an embrace.  May we on this Sunday be reminded not of God's having birthed a perfect community but of God has invited his people to leave the temple and synagogues in favor of faith (a personal relationship) that leads the faithful followers of Jesus out into the street to meet the people where they live and in the market place.  

May we perhaps this Sunday discover that the life lived in a trinitarian community is a life lived out in the world.  Wherein the context and community in which we find our churches is an essential ingredient of the Holy Spirit's ingathering.

May we on this Sunday rediscover a missionary Holy Spirit that is articulating in the culture of the world (its images, music, economy, and culture) God's grace. And, like the disciples who on Pentecost were given the tongues of the culture which surrounded them, let us pray to be given tongues to name and call out the Gospel as we find it in the world around us.

Some Thoughts on Romans 5:1-11

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Resources for Sunday's Epistle

We live in a culture that is based upon the exchange of capital.  This economic equation that makes the world go round is very often applied to the life and community of faith.  We will say things like: if I am better at this or that I will somehow have more God in my life.  How often have I myself used the phrase, "If I would just...." How many times collectively have we as preachers spoken to our congregations about how if they would only: love the poor, give more money, ask for forgiveness, come to church more often, attend bible study, do more social justice, or any one of the myriad things we believe are necessary for the Christian life.  We all too often preach and live our own lives of faith (me included) out of a sense of capital exchange.  If I am a better Christians, a better Episcopalian, God will love me more.

This world of capital exchange and economic transactions is not the world of the Gospel.  They are not in the world of Pauline Christianity. They are not in the world of Episcopal theology.  No, the spiritual economy of God is one where God chooses us first. God reaches out to us.  God saves us out of his love for us and the world while we are sinful broken people.  Paul writes in verse 9:  "God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us."  And, in verse 2: "...through [Jesus Christ] we have obtained access to [God's] grace."  We are chosen, we are selected, and we are loved by God first.

Our redemption, our forgiveness, and our reconciliation with God is not dependent upon anything we can or ought to do.  Paul is clear in verse 11 that it is "through [God] we have now received reconciliation." The embrace of the Father (as in the prodigal son) is not dependent upon a return to him as a perfected human being.  We are embraced by God as the broken individual who is even now wasting our inheritance of God's grace away; and still, God chooses us.  

I believe that in the Christian Church the thing we most often neglect and forget is the message of Grace.  Instead, we supplement grace with a "but" or a "try harder" sermon.  God is clear in the person of Jesus - it is the sinner who God is most interested in finding and making his friend.

I do believe that life is hard and it is difficult. There is no question that the message if accepted that we follow a God who is not interested in the righteous or people-pleasing followers is one that will haunt anyone who is determined to figure out the exchange rate for God's love.  It is for us, the sinful and broken, the struggling and the people-pleasers, the poor and the rich, the perfect wanna-be's and the imperfect that "...God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit."

Perhaps this week we might try putting down the God exchange rate and try accepting a bit of grace.

Some Thoughts on Proverbs 8: 1-31

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Resources for Sunday's First Lesson

Christians read this particular text as the Holy Spirit speaking. In the stanzas presented the Spirit is personified as a woman. We are told that she is calling out to us all - especially the youth. She is speaking truth and wisdom and she is the one upon whom we are to depend. 

You must open yourself up to her and to her good advice, sound wisdom, insight, and strength. She is the one who will guide us in justice and righteousness. The more that we enter into her words the more we will discover God's love for us through the Spirit, through her.

Wisdom comes from God and has flowed through the beginning of creation. The Spirit moved with God in creation. She was a master worker who helped God to bring forth all things.

Sermons for Trinity Sunday

The Not So Mysterious TrinityMay 24, 2016
Preached at St. Thomas Houston and Trinity Port Neches

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