Proper 6A, June 18, 2023

Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servants, the twelve disciples, who you called to preach the Gospel to all people. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, p. 257.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 9:35-10:8

"On one level...it is true that only the unqualified should present themselves for the church's ministry. No one can be qualified. Everyone who serves does so as the Twelve did, by Jesus' authorization given them by Jesus."

"The Unqualified Twelve," Beverly R. Gaventa, The Christian Century, 1993.


"Jesus then instructs his disciples on how to live as itinerants, what to expect, and how to handle difficulties. These teachings were important because his followers would only have known village life - relying on family and kin for sustenance - and would be totally unfamiliar with the social realities of being an outsider."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 9:35- 10:8, (9-23), David Ewart, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

We arrive at the scene of our gospel story in chapter 10 following Jesus' modelling of ministry. Jesus has looked out and seen the crowds, he has been moved in his belly towards them, he has been at work healing and freeing people from that which binds them.

The harvest is now made ready for harvesting, and Jesus is prepared to send out people to do the work of the mission. This work is work that immolates his own work. And, it works whereby those first followers are sent, no longer to be led this way and that but to lead and to do the work of ministry.

Before Jesus sends them out, he gives them his authority. Jesus lays upon them his spirit and gives them the same power to heal and cast out. To hold and to release. The word here literally is the word "sent", they are sent, they are apostles. They are no longer disciples. They are in this moment to go out to all those without a shepherd. This is not yet the gentile expansion of the mission, but it is an expansion of the mission nonetheless. 

The religion of the day was a religion that required the faithful, if they were faithful, to come to the centres of faith. God was in God's house, and the faithful came to make their offerings and to support the central religious faith over and against any local or dispersed religiosity. One could only be faithful in direct pilgrimage with the one shrine on the holy mount. So what Jesus does in sending out disciples is quite radical. It undermines a central religious system and takes faith, spirit, and the unbinding of burdens into the field where the people are. 

The image of a harvest is an image of a great dispersed faithful people being gathered. Lost because of the abandonment of their religious shepherds in favour of a "come and see", "come and get" religious system of exchange. Faithfulness bequeathed to the pilgrim, faithfulness given to the generous who gave of themselves to the house of God. Jesus and his apostles change this - the Gospel comes near to you...not you to the Gospel.

Furthermore, this radical movement that is to take place in and among the people is to be one that does not require great scholarship or participation in the schools of the wise. There is no need to go and study at the religious centres. In fact, a fisherman can do this work. Here again, Jesus undermines the religious systems of hierarchical reason and wisdom training in order to be a leader in the faith. Jesus sends them out as apostles with very little training...other than watching him. 

He sends them out without plans. Go and depend on the kindness of others. Go to people's homes. Sure, people will be uninterested in your work and good news. That is ok. Pass on by. Pass on by.  

This mission is so radical that Jesus prepares them by telling them that the religious leaders may even come down hard on the apostles. He charges them not to worry about what to say to the homeowner or to the religious who seek to undermine their ministry. God will give them good words at the best time. 

They will be accepted, and they will be reviled. They will be brought in under people's roofs, and they will be cast out. But this journey of Good News unleashed on the world and in the streets, and people's homes is one that, for the apostle, will teach them to depend on the grace of God. Their humility and mimicking of the ministry of Jesus and his compassion and love will reveal to the world exactly who they follow. Their actions, grace, mercy, healing and release will reveal God to the world. 

Some Thoughts on Romans 5:1-8

"As the prophetic tradition affirms, the Spirit is God's gift of the new creation making the people of God ready for the new age."

Commentary, Romans 5:1-5, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

"The past and the future. Memory and expectation. Remember and hope. Remember and wait. Wait for him whose face we all of us know because somewhere in the past we have faintly seen it, whose life we all of us thirst for because somewhere in the past we have seen it lived, have maybe even had moments of living it ourselves. Remember him who himself remembers us as he promised to remember the thief who died beside him. To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping."

"Hope," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog. Justification, from Whistling in the Dark.

"So for Paul peace is about being in a right relationship with God, not as some distant judge nor as someone who is trying to draw us up into himself, but as one who is expansively living love out into the universe."

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


Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Paul writes to the church in Rome that all that we are invited to do is to have faith. We are invited to have faith that God has intervened for us. We are to be at peace about what will happen, and even our own judgment, for God in Christ Jesus, has justified us by the work on the cross. Grace is not given to us by faith, but in faith, we have the grace given to us.

As Jonah speaks to God in chapter 4: "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing." While Jonah was bemoaning that we shouldn't even bother calling people to repentance, the fact is and shall always be that God is a God of grace, and it is upon that grace that we stand. We boast in our hope in this very real faith that is in us. 

In our need for endurance, in our suffering, in our lives, we come to understand that grace, the grace that enables us to take risks, is the grace that gives us hope. Our very character is formed by our dependence upon God's grace in sure and certain hope we will not be disappointed. Paul writes in Vs. 5: "And hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

We, as humans, are quick to change all of this, though. We love our religion. We love to turn our faith into religion. In this way, we begin to pretend that God is working on some kind of exchange system. We begin telling ourselves that we must act, do, and talk right. In this way, we can earn God's love. Sure, we tell ourselves God is grace-filled, but no slacker Christian will he tolerate. But this is to remake God into a lesser god, a demigod who likes to barter and exchange devotion and adoration for love and acceptance. Our god, this God of Paul and the scriptures, is no such God. This God does not need our love, devotion, and adoration to exist. 

No, this God does not wait for humans to get their act together. This god does not wait for me to get my act together. Paul writes, "For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person, someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners." What? That is right. God in Jesus Christ saves us while we were yet sinners. God saved us, all people, once and for all by God's mighty work of the cross. To deny this fact or make God into a god of exchange is to create a god in our own image - a god who is no god. To make God into a god of no sovereign power to save those God wishes to save. And, it turns out, God wishes to save not the righteous, clean, and faithful but the lost, the least, the unseen, and the sinner. 

That, my friends, is good news indeed.

Track I

Some Thoughts on Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

"Abraham has received a seemingly impossible promise, but his animated efforts on behalf of these strangers under adverse conditions suggest that he still trusts that God can and will do the impossible."

Commentary, Genesis 18:1-10a (Pentecost +8), Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"Grace always comes first. Because that grace is there, God's people can respond with their best."

Commentary, Genesis 18:1-10a (Pentecost +9), Sara Koenig, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Along the way, Abraham learns that no one person has a monopoly on God's covenant, and that great endeavors require great partners."

"A Great Partner for a Great Endeavor," Torah Commentary by Wendy Amsellem. BeliefNet.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

This is a chunk of scripture. But it is good stuff. God has called Abram out of the land of Uhr. Abram has followed God and set up altars along the way. God has given him and Sarai new names for his work and pilgrimage. Furthermore, God has continued to journey with him even into the land near the oaks of Mamre. 

We are told that God appears there in the person of three men. God is then received, the three men are received by Abraham and Sarah, and they are welcomed and fed. Before God leaves, God promises that they will have a son. This seems impossible, but God makes the promise that it will, in fact, happen before God is with them again. Indeed God keeps God's promise. 

This event is often depicted in the great masterpiece of the Trinity as written in the icon my Rublev. The icon is entitled "The Hospitality of Abraham."

Now the passage itself is important for many reasons. Certainly, it is important in the origin stories of the people of Israel, for it speaks to God's special relationship with Abraham. It is also important because it speaks to God's relationship with God's people and God's willingness for those people to prosper and to multiply.

The passage cannot be divorced from the Genesis desire on God's part that the people multiply themselves. Nor can it be separated from God's continued desire to walk with his creation on the eve of the day beneath the trees of his garden.

Mary translates her pregnancy from the story of God delivering God's people but also the story of God's promise to Abraham. This links the past to the present in the Gospel narrative, the old with the new. Jesus calls his followers to the work of the hospitality of Abraham. In fact that they are the inheritors, the very real progeny of the Gospel and covenant of Abraham, says Peter in Acts. Paul invites his hearers to understand they are inheritors of the relationship Abraham had with God.

Track II

Some Thoughts on Exodus 19:2-8a

"How do you keep God's promise? How can you pass that promise on to others?"

"A Kingdom of Priests," Larry Broding's Word-Sunday.Com: A Lectionary Resource for Catholics.

"But suppose today we ask ourselves the question, 'What would it mean for us to hear these Ten Sayings directed also to our community, our society, as a whole?'"

"If We Stood at Sinai Together/Yitro," Arthur Waskow & Phyllis Berman, The Shalom Center.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

We often read back into our Old Testament the poor theological ideas we have received both from our Christian texts, subtle antisemitic cultural heritage, or subtle xenophobic effects of the last century. In this way, we disjoin our understanding of holiness in baptism from the great tradition from which we came. We wrestle with a new Christian message rather than seeing that Christianity has flowed from the very beginning of people's experience with God, especially Judaism. Christ came as part of that tradition. So, with fresh eyes, let us examine this passage and its idea of the "kingdom of priests" from the vantage point of its own tradition and not one which sets its heritage aside.

In the book of Leviticus, we get an inkling of what God means here in Exodus. In Leviticus, God tells the people they are to be holy as God is holy.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, may his memory be a blessing, wrote this, 

"This is ... so inclusive an address is commanded. The Sages explained this to mean that the contents of the chapter were proclaimed by Moses to a formal gathering of the entire nation (hakhel). It is the people as a whole who are commanded to “be holy”, not just an elite group of priests. It is life itself that is to be sanctified, as the chapter goes on to make clear. Holiness is to be made manifest in the way the nation makes its clothes and plants its fields, in the way justice is administered, workers are paid, and business conducted. The vulnerable – the deaf, the blind, the elderly, and the stranger – are to be afforded special protection. The whole society is to be governed by love, without resentments or revenge."

We recognize this is both pre-temple and post-temple theology, and it is the theology of Jesus calling the people back to exactly this!

In our passage for Sunday from Exodus, we are receiving exactly this invitation. We are being told that "radical democratisation of holiness" and priesthood is our way of life. 

At that time, there were high priests everywhere: Egypt, Midian, and the surrounding countries. God is calling people to be holy people, priests in their own homes, lives, and families, and to share that priesthood liberally. (Ibid)

The problem was and has ever been that the people tend to shy away from their direct relationship with God, we will pray to saints and idols, we will pray to pictures, and we will put forward clergy and surround them with rails and make sure we have holy places and unholy places. Yet, this is not the message of God or of Jesus. Certainly, here we see this great invitation to living lives of holiness (not lives of the law but of love). Jesus says the very thing to the Samaritan woman, and we pray for the day of its coming. He says, "Believe me, woman, the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem." When we claim our priesthood and our holiness, we will pray wherever we are and with whomever we are with!

Proper 5A, June 11, 2023

 Prayer

O God, open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world and that it is from you that all good proceeds. Enliven us with the beauty of hard things that we might by your inspiration, see our actions in light of Jesus' own ministry among us. Send your Holy Spirit that we might have your grace when we fail and enough mercy to try again. Amen.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

"God's perfection is shown most fully not in flaws noted and shut out or scores kept and settled, but in extravagant embrace of flawed people and the end of all scorekeeping."                                                        

Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 5A. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.

"If you stop and really think about, the most difficult 'miracle' in today's text is not the raising of the girl from death, nor the healing of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. The most difficult healing was including the despised tax collector Matthew back into community. Don't believe it? Try thinking of a person your community despises and invite them to church with you. 

"Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 9:9-26, David Ewart, 2011

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

We have three healing narratives in this text with the addition of fasting. In 9:9-13, the author parallels Mark's gospel almost exactly with the addition of the inclusion of "I desire mercy." This is important given the additional texts we have appointed for this Sunday.

I hold it out as a sign of Matthew's assistance that Jesus was in line with the ancient prophetic tradition of Hosea, Micah, Amos and Isaiah. It also shows that Matthew is in line with the Pauline theology of grace found within Romans. 

This then leads into vs 14-17 regarding fasting. There is a celebration when one lamb is found, one sinner who becomes a follower, one who was left out who is now part of the whole. There may be times for fasting - to be sure. But the daily life of grace lived as mercy to others is a life of celebration. 

Some may interpret the new wineskins as the Gospel, but this is not the meaning IF we accept Jesus' continuation of the work God began in the beginning and intends to continue to the end. It also relieves us from having to deal with other questions brought up by a different interpretation and keeps us from the ease of not reading the Old Testament or, worse - an antisemitic reading of it. This then casts the reading differently: we are the wineskins. We cannot try to be followers of this God and Christ if we keep living in the old ways. The tax collector is changed by the grace of God, he is no longer the old wineskin but is made new. The same with clothes; we might hear remember the message of the kingdom and the wedding. We cannot hear the gospel and keep being the same ole person, same ole clothes, same ole wineskin. A person like Matthew is healed and made new by the invitation. He is set out to become his truer self, not in the person of a remade Matthew, but a Matthew who now finds his true identity in Christ.

Due to the layout of Mark's narrative, the stories of the healings are written into place to show a direct attack by Jesus upon old systems of state, society, and religion. (See Mark 5:21-43) Here then, we have a slightly different message if we read it through the eyes of Christ's intent to show that true humanity is found in our mercy and not in our sacrifices. 

What we see with the daughter who is sleeping (and will see with the haemorrhaging woman) is Jesus acting mercifully. He is actively showing his disciples what their ministry of mercy is to look like. Remember, in Matthew, we are heading towards the sending out of the disciples in this section. Jesus will tell them in 10:7, "As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons."

Some Thoughts on Romans 4:13-25

"The law has always been a means of pointing the way toward God, an instrument that helps us to know and do the divine will. As such it is meant to liberate. But when the means is mistaken for an end in itself, the consequence can be a state of spiritual confusion in which all hope is obscured."
Commentary, Romans 4:13-25, Daniel G. Deffenbaugh, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"To this day, any time we are tempted to limit God to the size of our purposes or to doubt the breadth of God's generosity or the surprising power of God's activity we can return to Romans 4 as an astonishing elaboration of the familiar but life-changing claim: God is great; God is good."

Commentary, Romans 4:13-25 (Pentecost 4), David Bartlett, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Similar struggles emerge today when people ponder whether there can be such faith in God without the culturally specific reference to Christianity."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Lent 2," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Abraham is, for Paul, an archetype of faithfulness. However, Paul does not believe that Abraham was blessed because of what he did - kept the law (even though it had not been given to Moses yet), was the father of Israel, and did all that God asked (left home, was willing to sacrifice his son). At the time that Paul wrote this, Abraham was seen as an example of a person who kept all the laws. He was considered God's greatest law keeper. Paul is crafty in turning this argument.

Paul believes that faith is something larger than keeping the law. Faith is attached to God's gift, God's promise. 

Paul understands full well the human condition to be unable to achieve perfection. If faith and God's promise are dependent upon some kind of contract - covenant - then we are all in big trouble. God loves us because God has created us worthy of God's love. God gives us grace because we are made worthy of forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ. Grace is given free to everyone everywhere and is not dependent upon keeping the Mosaic law. 

So, Abraham becomes the father of the Christian faith - not because he kept a law - but because he believed in God's promise; he hoped in God's promise. Here, Paul reorients faith not in keeping the law or doing good and right things but in believing in God's promise. So it is with us. We will never be perfect. We will never keep the law. We may respond to God's love and grace by choosing how to live differently - this is true. But we receive God's promise, God's love, and God's mercy freely. And our faith is our response to that promise.

We must preach and help people understand that faith is about believing in the promise and not achieving some unachievable standard of perfection.

Note: This is also a text used on Lent 2B.

Track I

Some Thoughts on Genesis 12:1-9

"'What really matters is not whether Abraham is good or bad or cowardly or heroic, but that God pursues His design for the welfare of the human family with people like that -- in other words, people like us.' - Lewis Smedes."
"Call and Promise," program highlights, discussion & reflection questions and more from the Bill Moyers PBS series Genesis: A Living Conversation.


"'Vocation' is distorted by two disastrous misunderstandings: a secularized idea of 'career' and a monastic concept of the religious life."
"The Meaning of Vocation," A.J. Conyers, (other resources at) "Vocation," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2004.


"God tells Abram to leave the comforts of home and go out to repair himself--and the entire world.""Birth of a Covenant," Torah Commentary by Rabbi Shai Held. BeliefNet.

Oremus Online NRSV Text


Whole books could be written that detail the various invitations God made to this or that person in the Old Testament. There are the creation stories and God's invitation to Adam and Eve to work in the Garden. There is the calling of Noah to restart creation. Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) are called to leave the land of Ur of the Chaldeans--the beginning of generations of God’s people. There are the judges and the prophets. Jacob is called and renamed. There are women: Miriam--a leader who brings Israel out of slavery in Egypt with Moses; Deborah--a judge of Israel; Huldah--a prophetess who helped Josiah; Ruth and Naomi; and Esther--the Queen of Persia, to name a few. The sheer number of called people is too many to number, but we will examine a few of these crucial stories.

This lesson is about Abraham and Sarah, originally called Abram and Sarai and renamed for their faithfulness. In many ways the story of their calling begins the narrative of God's people. Abraham and Sarah were frequently cited by the early Church as examples of God's expansive promise to all people. God said, "Go," and all of their worldly plans were set aside as they left their homeland for God's wilderness. Their lives were disrupted by God's invitation and their response. Theologian Walter Brueggemann says, Abraham

. . . is caught up in a world of discourse and possibility about which he knew nothing until addressed, a world of discourse and possibility totally saturated with God's good promises for him and for the world through him. (Genesis 12:1) God’s call propels Abraham into a reality that refigures his life and removes him from any purpose or agenda he may have entertained for himself before that moment.[i]

Abraham and Sarah offered themselves faithfully to the journey and became a blessing to the world.

God’s invitations are very persuasive. Through visions, voice, and the advice and counsel of friends, God invites God's people to go. The specific circumstances of this going vary across different contexts, but there is always a purpose behind God's invitation to go. People are always being sent. There is a hinge here in the language--a double meaning: going and being sent are about both the invitation and the purpose.

For instance, God called Abraham and Sarah to become a people that bless the world, which is a habit of God throughout all of scripture. Faithfulness is the act of accepting the invitation and opening oneself to becoming the blessing. Those whom God invites, God also blesses in order that they might bless others. God said to Abraham and Sarah, "By you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3). Their promised family would outnumber the stars of Abraham's counting and be a blessing to the world. Brueggemann ponders the meaning of this blessing and says, "'Blessing' is not a religious or moral phenomenon in the world" it is a "characteristic feature of creation that is fruitful and productive."[iv]

Creation was separated from God because its communal structures were organized around itself as opposed to God. These inwardly focused structures perpetuated mimesis, a repetition of the violence that created a dark shadow over the kingdom of God. Abraham and Sarah were called to show how the human community could be different. God made a point of rejecting religious violence by refusing Abraham's offer of Isaac as a sacrifice. God undid the human drive to sanctify murder. God was interested in a shalom that broke the repetitive, violent cycle of Cain and Abel. Abraham and Sarah's call was to heal the violence that separated humanity from God. Yet, the feud continues, and so does the division between God and humanity.

Even with all of religion’s great gifts to society, we must acknowledge that disunity and tribal grievances still exist. God continues to invite us to go as peace bearers and we continue, often, to reject the invitation. It is religion that calls for the sacrifice of Jesus. His is one name among the many who have been scapegoated for the sake of political and religious peace. Religions have a propensity to scapegoat others. 

God's invitation to Abraham and Sarah was an invitation beyond this history of sacrifice. God went further and sent the peace bearers to dwell in the midst of the other.

The relationship between Abraham and God is typological of God’s relationship with all whom God invites into mission. Abraham was invited to be in community with God and to take that community on the road. God’s call removes us from the realm of self-definition: we begin to define ourselves as creatures in relationship with our Creator. This movement dissolves the idea of the "other,” for the only true other is God. We no longer divide the human community into friends and others. Instead, there are only friends along the way. When we obey God’s call to go, there are no strangers or aliens. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes that our invitation to journey with God means confessing and rejecting the notion that,

. . . for there to be an ‘us’ there must be a ‘them,’ the people not like us. Humanity is divided into friends and strangers, brothers and others. The people not like us become the screen onto which we project our fears. They are seen as threatening, hostile, demonic. Identity involves exclusion which leads to violence.[v]

To journey as Abraham and Sarah did is to reject our inclination to protect ourselves by force. In their going--in our going--we embrace our vulnerability and forsake our tribe in order to journey with God and God’s tribe, pronouncing God’s blessing upon the world. Brueggemann says, "Abraham is called to exist so that the general condition of curse in the world is turned to a general condition of blessing, life, and well-being. Israel's mission is to mend the world in all its parts." God's people are to be a blessing in the world. God intends the world to be "generous, abundant, and fruitful, effecting generative fertility, material abundance and worldly prosperity-- shalom in the broadest scope."[vi]

The importance of being a people bringing about peace and blessing in the world is affirmed in the teaching of the early Church. 

Paul used God's call to Abraham and Sarah and their blessing as a paradigm of the expanding mission of God. Paul read the blessing and invitation of God as being fulfilled in the great expansion of grace to all people regardless of ethnicity, gender, and social class. (Galatians 3:8) God will not be limited to a religious or ethnic "us vs. them" but instead imagines a kingdom where we are all beloved of God. This kingdom is founded upon the rejection of violence for the sake of nation and faith in favour of shalom for God. Our presence and participation in God’s creation is our invitation into the community of blessing – this community of shalom. We are rooted in it by our very nature. The mission is not about nation-states or making people members of religious institutions; the mission is a journey into a new community of being.

This is an excerpt from my book Vocãtiõ which is about our vocation as creatures of God.

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[i] Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, 122.

[ii] Brueggemann, 123.

[iii] The Roman Catholic document the Lineamenta, n15, defines vocation in this way: “Vocation is broader than mission because it is composed of both a call to communion and a call to mission. Communio is the fundamental aspect destined to endure forever. Mission, on the other hand, is a consequence of this call and is limited to an earthly existence.” Kenyan B. Osborne, Ministry: Lay Ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, Its History and Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2003) 597.

[iv] Brueggemann, 125.

[v] Jonathan Sacks, "Bereishit (5769) - Violence in the Name of G-d," Office of Rabbi Sacks, 04 Apr. 2016, Web. 19 July 2017. <http://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5769-bereishit-violence-in-the-name-of-g-d/>.

[vi] Brueggemann, 125. This is how Gideon experiences God, as pure peace, shalom. Gideon was one of Israel’s judges and built an altar and called it, “The Lord is Peace.” (Judges 6:24) God's work is this shalom, and God calls upon God's people to enact it by going. 

Track II

Some Thoughts on Hosea 5:15-6:6

"Following the devastation of the previous verses, 5:15 is a word from God that introduces the response from Israel in 6:1-3."

Commentary, Hosea 5:15-6:6, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"For Matthew the difference between Jesus and his adversaries is based on Hosea 6:6: Whose observance of the law is characterized by the steadfast love that God desires from Israel and whose not?"

"Learning What Righteousness Means: Hosea 6:6 and the Ethic of Mercy in Matthew's Gospel," Mary Hinkle, Word & World, 1998.

Oremus Online NRSV First Lesson 

A word to begin with from Jonathan Sacks as we take up the "prophet of doom" Hosea:

Judaism is not a recipe for blandness or bliss. It is not a guarantee that you will be spared heartache and pain. It is not what the Stoics sought, apatheia, a life undisturbed by passion. Nor is it a path to nirvana, stilling the fires of feeling by extinguishing the self. These things have a spiritual beauty of their own, and their counterparts can be found in the more mystical strands of Judaism. But they are not the world of the heroes and heroines of Tanach.

Why so? Because Judaism is a faith for those who seek to change the world. That is unusual in the history of faith. Most religions are about accepting the world the way it is. Judaism is a protest against the world that is in the name of the world that ought to be. To be a Jew is to seek to make a difference, to change lives for the better, to heal some of the scars of our fractured world. But people don’t like change. That’s why Moses, David, Elijah, and Jeremiah found life so hard.

Hosea may be considered the prophet of doom, but in the Talmud, he is the greatest of prophets of his generation, including Isaiah, Amos, and Micah! He was the oldest of them. The hard prophetic work is laid out in the previous verses. Here though, Hosea writes beautifully:

‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.’ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

He pronounces healing, and binding up, revival, rising to life again, mercy like showers and spring rains, and love. Then he is straightforward: the God we worship desires to love and not sacrifice, wisdom and not burnt offerings.

One of the things that I have found very hard to deal with is my inherited Christian understanding of the singular importance of sacrifice in Judaism as opposed to a Jewish understanding of its place in the ancient Torah, tradition, and post-second Temple.

The Torah presents issues regarding the interpretation of animal sacrifices in a tradition that has lasted over 2 thousand years without a Temple. The second issue presented in today's text, but in almost every prophetic text and securely rooted within the Sinai tradition, is the sceptical nature of such sacrifices.  (See my work on Sinai tradition in The Jesus Heist) The concern by the prophets is the abuse of such sacrifices to relieve the burden of sin while they continued to "oppress and exploit their fellow human beings," wrote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. The Jewish tradition DOES NOT hold that a generous sacrifice to God will secure God's forgiveness of "crimes and misdemeanours". Sacks writes, "This is an idea radically incompatible with Judaism." (Ibid)

What is important is that we are inheritors as Christians of this Sinai and prophetic tradition because Jesus was in that same line. He, like Hosea, saw monarchy and sacrifices as the least characteristic act within Judaism. Remember, as Sacks says, "Every ancient religion in those days, every cult and sect, had its altars and sacrifices." (Ibid) In this way, Jesus and even the book of Acts or Hebrews may be seen as in line with Hosea and other prophets and the Sinai tradition. For here is the echo of ancient Judaism (picked up as part of the sacrificial understanding of faithfulness post the fall of the second Temple). This is prayer, study, and charity (charitable action: see tzedakah). Think of  Hosea here: God desires love, not sacrifice. Think of his peer Micah: What does God require of thee: "O mortal, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

In this text, we learn:

a) it is not out of line with Christian teachings

b) Jesus is continuing the tradition of this teaching

c) we as Christians, like our siblings in the Abrahamic traditions are invited to make our life a sacrifice to God by love of God, prayer, study, and by sharing what we have/doing good works. 

 

Trinity Sunday, Year A, , June 4, 2023

Prayer

St. Patrick's Breastplate

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan River;
His death on cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the Cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour;
The service of the Seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death-wound and the burning
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Translation: Cecil Frances Alexander

Some Thoughts on Matthew 28:16-20

"...if we want our people to get excited about, rather than feel guilty because of, the Great Commission, we need to commit to reclaiming Sunday worship and preaching as the God-given time in which to rehearse and practice the skills essential to Christian living..."

"Reclaiming the Great Commission," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2011.

"This is such an important text in the context of Matthew's gospel that there is a danger that its use on Trinity Sunday will lead to too much focus on its tenuous links with the Trinity, so I want to start with the passage itself. It has enormous significance as the climax of the gospel, drawing together major themes of the gospel..."
First Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages from the Lectionary, Trinity A. William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


As so many of you know the doctrine of the Trinity is the primary doctrine that informs my theology and ministry.  So, I was struck by William Loader's comment, "This is such an important text in the context of Matthew's gospel that there is a danger that its use on Trinity Sunday will lead to too much focus on its tenuous links with the Trinity..."  This sense of the importance of pausing and re-engaging the text in a fresh was reinforced by these words from the Matthean scholar Warren Carter, "The scene has significant Christological elements. It is the risen Christ who commissions the disciples."  (Matthew and the Margins, 549)  So let us look again at this passage with fresh eyes and seek the testimony being proclaimed by Matthew.

Let me begin by relying heavily on Allison and Davies (Matthew, vol III, 687):

"28.16-20, which was so important to William Carey and the nineteenth-century Protestant missionary movement, is from the literary point of view, perfect, in the sense that it satisfyingly completes the Gospel: we cold hardly improve upon it.  Nothing is superfluous, yet nothing more could be added without spoiling the effect.  The grand denouement, so consonant with the spirit of the whole Gospel because so full of resonances with earlier passages, is, despite its terseness, almost a compendium of Matthean theology:

Galilee fulfils the prophecies in 26.32 and 28.7 and creates a literary arch with 4.12 that spans the Gospel

Mountain recalls other mountain scenes, especially 4.8 (where Jesus refuses to accept from the devil what he will later accept from the Father) and ...(where Jesus gave them commands.) 5.1

They worshipped him, but some doubted has been foreshadowed by 14.31-3

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me echoes 11.27 as well as a prophecy (Dan 7.13-14) which Jesus has elsewhere applied to himself (24.30; 26.64); it further brings to completion the theme of Jesus' kingship (1.1; etc)

Make disciples reminds one of 13.52 (cf 27.57)

All the nations terminates the prohibition of 10.5-6 (cf 15.24) and announces the realization of the promise made to Abraham (cf 1.1; also Gen 12.3; 18.18; 22.18)

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit' in connexion with baptism reminds one of chapter 3, where the Son is baptized, the Father speaks, and the Spirit descends

Teaching recapitulates a central theme and gives the disciples a task heretofore reserved for Jesus

All that I have commanded you is a sweeping retrospective of all Jesus has said and done

I am with you always forms an inclusio with 1.23 and is similar to 18.20

The end of the age is a phrase used earlier (13.39, 40, 49; 24.3) and puts one in mind of Jesus' teachings about the end

...The climax and crown of Matthew's Gospel is profoundly apt in that it invites the reader to enter the story: 28.16-20 is an open ended ending.  Not only does v.20a underline that the particular man, Jesus, has universal significance, but 'I am with you always' reveals that he is always with his people.  The result is that the believing audience and the ever-living Son of God become intimate.  The Jesus who commands difficult obedience is at the same time the ever-graceful divine presence.

One can not more clearly see the power of the ending of Matthew's Gospel; it is almost an exclamation point to the driving force of the narrative.  Such connections can often only be seen when one reads the text in one sitting as so many people now are doing.  (This is a great Advent event which I cannot more strongly recommend!)

The literary import of this passage is very interesting. But so are the words of Jesus that all are sent (doubters in the midst of the believers).  That we who find ourselves in different places along the Way are invited into the missionary work of God for God's people.

We used this passage this week as our bible passage for the Executive Board of our diocese.  One of the people in my group had a wonderful saying.  He invited us to consider and hold precious our doubts, wrestle with them, and seek enlightenment; however, he challenged that we not stand on doubt as to the guiding principle of life or the guiding principle of following Jesus.  We are challenged to make the Way and Jesus the road map of our faith pilgrimage along with the doubts that come as conversation partners along the journey.

Warren Carter wrote:

The small, minority, marginal community of disciples is commissioned to nothing less than worldwide mission in proclaiming obedience to Jesus and his teaching.  But this mission is carried out in a dangerous and resistant world as the passion narrative and the immediately prior scene in 28:11-15 have made clear.  There are rivals for human loyalty, who are, like this gospel's vision, intolerant of other claimants.  There are competing understandings of what God and/or the gods want from humans.  Post-70 Judaism struggles with diverse visions of its future without the Jerusalem temple, but many do not find the Matthean vision convincing.... [Jesus announcement and commissioning] calls people to recognize God's sovereignty as "Lord of Heaven and earth" (11.25).  And it proclaims that God's purposes are supreme. The future is not that of eternal Rome, but of God's just and life-giving empire established over all (chs. 24-25).  It is to this mission that the community of disciples is again sent by the one who claims "all authority in heaven and earth." (Matthew and the Margins, 550ff)

We are the inheritors of this mission. We have received it from all the mothers and fathers and grandparents who dared to give us the expectation and opportunity of faith. We have received it from as a sacramental blessing from all the priests and deacons who have given countless hours at the altars of God and at the altar of our dining room tables.  We are inheritors from the apostles who have gone before us: Wimberly, Payne, Benitez, Richardson, Hines, Quin, Kinsolving, and Gregg.  We are inheritors of this sacred journey from saints who with a Mother Teresa mixture of faith and doubt have paved the imperial road of God's kingdom for our pilgrim journey.

What blessings are bestowed upon us; to be brought into the divine community by Jesus Christ, commissioned and handed the privilege of serving as a missionary in God's plan. 

Some Thoughts on 2 Corinthians 13:5-14

"Genitives aside, verse 13 provides ample opportunity to rehearse the history of salvation: Christ who brought grace, God who loves, and the Spirit that creates the church and in whom believers live and serve."

Commentary, 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13 (Trinity A), Fred Gaiser, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Paul has expanded a traditional farewell to make it match a situation where community and compassion was largely missing."

"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Trinity, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

I wrote my master's thesis on the Trinity - specifically on Johnathan Edwards' vision of the Trinitarian God in and through creation. I love the Trinity! I love Trinitarian theology!  But we will ruin preaching on this passage if we force Trinitarian thinking into it...so lets take another look.

While last week's reading from Paul had a bit more Trinitarian thinking buried within it - this does not. As scholar Matt Skinner wrote,

... it does not adequately express the affirmations and nuances of the classical Trinitarian doctrine that was formulated in the centuries after Paul lived.  Notice that 2 Corinthians 13:13 (which appears as 13:14 in some versions, such as the TNIV and RSV) explicitly names just two Persons of the Godhead, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. A strictly Trinitarian expression would not assume that "the love of God" was fully equivalent to "the love of the Father." Also, Paul's ordering differs from the traditional Trinitarian sequence of Father, Son, and Spirit. All this is to acknowledge that Paul--as demonstrated not only here but also in the rest of his letters--was not himself "Trinitarian," as Christian doctrine came to understand the term and its implications. His aim was hardly to define God and God's nature in precise, abstract categories.

What happens when we get tangled in the Trinitarian knot by our liturgical reading cycle is that we miss a great opportunity to preach on Paul's actual message. 

Paul is dealing with a deeply divided community at war with itself.  Like many churches today (denominational and nondenominational) they are dividing and acting most un-church like!  Paul's message of unity and community is essential in understanding how the ancient church grew and became the global church of Jesus followers with many shapes and kinds in every part and corner of the world.  

What Paul is saying is this - God, the creator of all things, is the God of grace and love and mercy.  This is the foundation of community and community life together.

Paul challenges them to live together in harmony.  He tells them to restore order and peace.  Be the people of love, mercy, and grace that God has called you to be.  Paul is certain and clear - you are to share the grace you have received with ALL people.  You are not the sorting hat of God.  Paul lays out a litmus test for Corinth and for Christians today.  If you are a God-fearer and Jesus follower then you will indiscriminately share the grace we received, leading us to love God and to have that same love flow into the community.   

As it says in the Madeline books, "That is all there is, there isn't anymore." All the rest is extra, all the rest is where humanity gets into trouble.  All the rest is how the church as community has routinely made a mess of a perfectly good creation!

Some Thoughts on Genesis 1:1 - 2:4

Oremus Online NRSV First Text 

Genesis revealed for the first Christians the nature of God and God’s relationship to the creation in three ways.

The first is the interpretation of the creative work in Genesis as a revelation of work by the eternal Word. John’s gospel offers a vision of the eternal Word at work in the creation. John’s own prologue echoes the work of God in creation. But specifically (as in Psalm 33:6 “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made), John’s Gospel ties the birth of creation to the eternal incarnation. God as Trinity is not a theological concept that comes along as a historical sorting out of Jesus’ relationship to God. Instead, a Trinitarian theology recognizes and holds that the second person is eternal – the Word is eternal. All things were created through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. This is different than Sophia, or wisdom, it is instead the logos – the spoken, speaking Word that is God. See John’s Gospel 1:4-5 and 7-9. (Richard Hays offers a succinct argument which parallels and mirrors accepted biblical scholarship, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 308-309.)

The second is that the unique incarnation of the Word, Jesus, is evidenced in power and master of the elements. Jesus storms the sea is the same God who divides the waters so Israel may walkthrough. Jesus who divides loaves and fishes is the same God who brings manna in the wilderness and water from the rock. Jesus who in his death unites heaven and earth is the same God who parts the heavens and earth.

The third of the three passages is the “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”. When speaking and looking at the coin Jesus uses the word from the creation story. He plays with the notion that God has created all things, all things are God’s. Caesar can believe this or that is his, but even in the end when Caesar lies beneath the earth everything, even Caesar, returns to God. This is a powerful and subtle statement about God having in hand all things.

Sometimes we approach the Genesis passage as if it is a stand-alone passage. But the Gospel authors and early Christians understood it as revealing not only the nature of God and the creation but the place of the eternal Word and incarnation in it. To speak of the creation is to speak of the eternal Words possession of it, and its creation through it. On this Trinity Sunday it is a perfect opportunity to find in the creation story a way of unmooring the trinity from boring sermons on doctrine and to weave the creation story into the Gospel in order to reveal the Trinity in through early Christian eyes.

The Day of Pentecost, Whitsunday, Year A, May 28, 2023

Prayer

O God the Holy Ghost
Who art light unto thine elect
Evermore enlighten us.
Thou who art fire of love
Evermore enkindle us.
Thou who art Lord and Giver of Life,
Evermore live in us.
Thou who bestowest sevenfold grace,
Evermore replenish us.
As the wind is thy symbol,
So forward our goings.
As the dove, so launch us heavenwards.
As water, so purify our spirits.
As a cloud, so abate our temptations.
As dew, so revive our languor.
As fire, so purge our dross

Christina Rossetti (AD 1830-1894)
Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Pentecost.htm#ixzz1OuaDzu2R

Some Thoughts on John 20:19-31


"What is more, he keeps showing up. As he came back a week later for Thomas, Jesus keeps coming back week after week among his gathered disciples -- in the word, the water, the bread, and the wine -- not wanting any to miss out on the life and peace he gives."
Commentary, Elisabeth Johnson, John 20:19-31, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"Sometimes I think we have more faith in our fears than we do in God, in the Risen Christ. Have you ever been locked in by your fears?"
"Locked In And Locked Out," Alyce M. McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


Our passage begins on the evening of the first day. Ignatius believed this was the moment when Christians began to associate Sunday morning worship with the resurrected Lord over and against the sabbath.  That the first day of the week was a day of work, to begin with, the work God has given us through the Holy Spirit.

Certainly, this is indeed what happens.  Jesus comes and is in their midst.
Raymond Brown points out that this is typical of the Johannine resurrection pieces:

1. A bereft situation
2. The appearance
3. Greeting
4. Recognition
5. Command (John, Anchor Bible, 1028)

He tells his followers that he is sending them out and that they are to receive the Holy Spirit. The passing of the Holy Spirit over to the disciples is a giving of authority. They are representatives of the family of God in their proclamation, mission, and service to others.

We spent time on this passage previously the Sunday following Easter, so I don't want to spend time on the resurrection appearance. I would rather focus on the powers given over to the disciples.

The Holy Spirit has been given to them directly from God.

Throughout the whole of John's Gospel, he has refrained from talking about the disciples as apostles; in this passage, he does this for the first time. (Brown, John, 1036)
We see that the grounding, the theology of the trinitarian community ad extra, serves as the grounding for the disciples being sent by Jesus.

They are holy. They are consecrated by the Spirit to bear the Gospel forward.  This breathing on them echoes the first breaths given to man in Genesis 2.7. This is a new creation that is being made.

We might remember our Holy Saturday Great Vigil and the words spoken in Ezekiel's prophecy (ch 37).  In it the "Son of Man" is told to prophesy to the dry bones: "Hear the word of the Lord...I will cause breath [spirit] to enter you, and you shall live." (1037)

I very much like how Raymond Brown speaks of this moment:

Now, another Son of Man, himself fresh from the tomb, speaks as the risen Lord and causes the breath of eternal life to enter those who hear his word.  In the secondary, baptismal symbolism of John 3.5 the readers of the Gospel are told that by water and Spirit they are begotten as God's children; the present scene serves as the Baptism of Jesus' immediate disciples and a pledge of divine begetting to all believers of a future period represented by the disciples. (Small wonder that the custom of breathing upon the subject to be baptized found its way into the baptismal ceremonial.)  Now they are truly Jesus' brothers and can call his Father their Father (20.17)  The gift of the Spirit is the "ultimate climax of the personal relations between Jesus and his disciples. (1037ff)

This Sunday, we will all celebrate the great gift of the Holy Spirit. Some will call this the birthday of the church, and many will wear read. It will be a festive and exciting time.

We must not lose sight, though, that the gift of the spirit is a missionary gift. The recreation of humanity is not for the church alone but for the whole body of God's people around the world.

We should have a glorious celebration of the Church's new creation, but as the first fruits of the great community of God, the reign of God yet to be fulfilled, and the mission of God in which we have the privilege to participate.

Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 12:3-13

"I would have fit in well in Corinth. The Corinthian Christians' struggles, which Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 14, resemble my own: jealousy, striving, arrogance, and a propensity to measure one's worth through comparisons with other people."

Commentary, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, Matt Skinner, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"... [Paul] is thinking about people who make claims that their actions flow from the Spirit. In effect it is indeed possible to curse Christ by what we do and think, even when we are claim to be acting and speaking by the inspiration of the Spirit."

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

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

On this Pentecost, we attach Paul's writing on the gifts of the spirit.  Of course, Paul is writing because there is an argument over whose gifts are most important and who is more important and what gifts are acceptable...blah blah blah.  It is typical of Christian community to argue not only over who is in and who is out but also what the hierarchy is once you are part of the group.  I think this is not unique to the Christian community but the problem with community in general.

While the community is focused on the spiritual gift of speech, Paul reorients them to understand that there are many gifts.  Deep within the text is a bit of important trinitarian theology.  Paul writes: “Same Spirit ... same Lord ... same God” The Spirit is a gift of the Father; Christ was to serve or minister, and the Father is the creator of all things. This is where and how the gift-giving is rooted in God. Nothing is for personal use. All of it builds up the kingdom, builds up the church, and does God's work in the world.

There is the speaking but also wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle-working, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.  We each receive gifts for this work - the work of the church.

Because baptism is through the Spirit, these gifts are through the Spirit as well. Everyone, no matter what their background, family of origin, or place within the Roman social hierarchy - are given gifts for ministry.

I believe that the place where these sermons go wrong - including my own in the past - is when we narrowly define the purpose of the gifts.  I think we do a good job of telling people they have gifts, that God receives them all into his kingdom, and that they are each blessed and chosen by God for his work. We fall down on this message when we so narrowly focus on the gifts so as to imply that their use is only within the four walls of a church building.  When we do this, we create a separate world apart from the world that God came to save.

God does welcome us all into his family. Regardless of who we are and where we have been, he radically forgives and welcomes the prodigals.  He does this so that the world may know him and be reconciled.  The work takes place out in the world. The kingdom gifts are given to each and every person so that in their families, in their work, and in their life - in general - they may be a witness.  God has not raised all of us up, go through this extraordinary ordeal, and sent his Holy Spirit so that we might figure out how to keep the lights on in an empty church.  Our gifts are given for evangelism - spreading the Good News of Salvation through the unique witness of God in Christ Jesus, AND our gifts are given that we might serve our neighbour and, in so doing, serve the God who created and has made all things - who gives life and light and love.  That is a much more important mission, and it is the mission for which these gifts have been given.

Some Thoughts on Acts 2:1-21

Oremus Online NRSV First Text 

As many are aware, there are several passages that describe the moment in which the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples. John’s version is very much an imparting from Jesus as he breathes on them and gives them peace. Luke’s is the story of the mighty rushing wind and it is more likely the popular version people remember.

In Paul’s sermon at Pisidian Antioch he says, “[Jesus is the fulfillment of] the holy and faithful things of David.” (Acts 13:13-41 as referred to in connection with this passage by Richard Hays in Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 232.) Luke is clear regardless of who is speaking, Peter or Paul, that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Isaiah prophecy that God’s reign will be victorious and that it is meant for the whole world. The Gospel authors, Luke included, read the Old Testament as the prefigured and prophetic work of the Word at work in the world.

The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples is clearly the way/manner in which this gospel message of fulfilment will be taken into the world. And, the coming of the Holy Spirit (as discussed in previous passages on Peter’s speech) is also part of the fulfilment itself. For while Jesus is the culmination of the work of the Word, it is the Holy Spirit that shall reweave and restore creation and humanity. And Jesus is to be the Lord of all.

This is all clouded in the midst of our celebrations of Pentecost Sunday. The message will be muddled by reading the story in different languages. It will be obscured by the celebrations of the “birthday of the church”. It really isn’t a story about the inside, but our celebrations tend to reinforce a stayed church institution and hermeneutic of attraction. The story is instead one of sending, of going, of being empowered with gifts for the journey and being unmoored from our appointed seats at the table to a world hoping for light in the midst of a shadow. Pentecost is NOT about the birth of a church it is about the ever-expanding reign of God and the Good News of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus outside our church boxes and upper rooms and actively spreading into the world around us.