Proper 18A, September 10, 2023

Quotes That Make Me Think

"Real churches have - or should have - real conflicts. The only real harm that will come to a church community is to refuse to deal with conflicts. Conflicts do not kill churches. Refusing to deal with conflict kills churches."
Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and ours, Matthew 18:15-20, David Ewart, 2011.

"Christian ethicist Stanley Hauerwas has made the important connection that we can learn a lot about the Christian practice of forgiveness from the character Ian Bedloe in Anne Taylor's novel Saint Maybe."
"Costly Truth, Costly Forgiveness," Carl Gregg, Patheos, 2011.

General Resources for Sunday's Lessons from Textweek.com

Prayer

God of unity and peace, your Son has taught us that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is present in their midst, and you will grant their request.  Grant us a new heart to presume the goodness of every brother and sister, and a spirit sensitive to the burdens each of them bears, that by loving our neighbour as ourselves, we may bear witness to that love which is the fulfilling of the law. 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 A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 18:15-20

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for Sunday's Gospel

This passage is about God's kindness; the fact that so many of us will read and preach on the complex measure this passage offers, as a rule, may indicate more our own boundary-less and unaccountable culture than God's graceful intent.

The sinner is repeatedly offered opportunities to repent. The one who is transgressed against too must forgive the offender.  The hardness of Jesus' rule is that those who follow him must be known as those who ignore - beyond all measure.

It is apparent in the passage that the reason for such a boundless grace is the grace of God himself.  We are to forgive as we are forgiven by God. We are to love as God has loved us.

Perhaps the problem is that as we have become less accountable for our actions toward others, our hostile words, our uncaring for our neighbours, our lack of generosity, our lack of forgiveness, our lack of love for our enemies...we feel like we really don't need too much forgiving.

When we are righteous all on our own, not by action but by hiding our actionsty and true natures, wy don't need much forgiveness or love from God.

The reality is that Jesus offers us a vision of the kingdom which seeks continuously to re-reincorporate the lost.  The mission of God is clear: in forgiveness and in all things, to bring back into the fold those who are lost.  Restoration, recreation, and transformation of all people is the ultimate work of the mission of Jesus Christ.

We are challenged as a church to make this our primary work.  What would the world be like if every church in the Episcopal Church understood that it existed for those who were not there on Sunday morning and that their work was to present the love and forgiveness of God so that individuals would be drawn into a relationship with Jesus and Jesus' church?

For Matthew, ex-communication, removal from the community is not a communal action but a result of self-imposed actions.

Life in community is to be organized by those who are the "meek and merciful" and "who know that they are the unworthy recipients of God's constant mercy and forgiveness." (Allison/Davies, Matthew, 804)

So, it is that ultimate removal from the community is a tragic event, and those who commit such actions will be bound to themselves.  Are we able to lose ourselves in heaven by living lives of forgiveness?

The real challenge this week is to preach on this passage.  The rules and boundaries of community and the community rule of forgiveness are not often preached. The idea that we walk by God's grace and, therefore, we should rest upon such grace before seeking to hold resentment against others is a message many need to hear.

This 12-step process of Alanon and AA is a process that provides a tremendous sense of God's grace. As a reconciliation tool, the steps help the disciple or follower of Jesus understand that most of the resentments we carry around in our hearts are caused not by others but by our own behaviours.  What we lose and bind always depends on us - not someone else.

I am struck by the idea that what Jesus seems so easy to seize upon in this passage is that if a community is wholly focused on the sins of others, it will rarely be a community of integrity because it cannot see the evil rampant within and this will frustrate the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Some Thoughts on Romans 13:8-14

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Resources for Sunday's Epistle

"In this brief but prosperous passage, Paul tells us that as Christians, we are all 'morning people.' The time is just before dawn, the sky is brightening, the alarm is ringing, and day is at hand. It is time to rouse our minds from slumber, be alert to what God is doing in the world, and live according to God's coming salvation."

Commentary, Romans 13:11-14 (Advent 1A), Susan Eastman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2007.

"Love is bigger than all the observances and the commandments."
First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Advent 1, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"For preachers, this text is significant. It lifts up the importance of love as the law's fulfilment. Yet, simultaneously, it refuses to set up love as a big, shadowy "ought." Instead, it sets love firmly in the light, God's dawning light of the new aeon. In other words, we don't love cause we should love. Rather, we love because God's ever-lovin''' day is about to dawn."
Advent 1A and Proper 18A, David S. Jacobsen, Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Preaching Apocalyptic Texts: Year A, Resources for Pastors Who Want to 'Preach in the New Creation'.

This passage also appears in Advent year A, and there it a theme of preparation.  In this passage, Paul continues his focus on love.  Followers of Jesus love others; in so doing, they mimic the ministry of Jesus and the work of God.  In loving others, they also fulfil God's law.

Paul offers an apparent view that not loving another will lead to adultery, murder, theft, and covetousness.

Love others - this is the highest rule and the highest goal.

Adeptly, he has moved from discussing what is owed to the authorities to what is owed to one another - which is love. (Joseph Fitzmeyer, Romans, 677)  Deeds are the way that a Pauline faith is lived.  Love lived creates the framework for all other questions about the law and quickly moves Paul from legality to grace in future discussions (Fitzmeyer, 677; Gal 5:6)

To understand Paul's treatment of love, you must go to 1 Corinthians 13.  In Paul's economic discourse of love, we discover the following.  All other gifts are worthless without love.  Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not arrogant, not rude, does not seek its own interest, is not irritated, does not reckon things wrong, does not delight in wrongdoing, rejoices in truth, puts up with all things, believes all things, and never fails.  Love lasts and is superior to all other things.  All of which is summed up in verse 13:  Faith, hope, and love remain these three, but the greatest is love.

Paul then concludes his reflection on love in Romans with urgency.  Now that you have become a believer, you can see this is true.  There is urgency, and we must be about this work immediately.  Let us live and love in the morning, putting away the behaviours that will cloud and deform this love: drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, quarrelling and jealousy.

Let us instead do what Jesus Christ does and love.

Some Thoughts on Exodus 12:1-14

"Foot washing in the Middle East during the time of Jesus was an essential and very menial act, usually performed by the meanest slaves."
"Celebrating What?" John C. Holbert, Opening the Old Testament, 2013.

"Palm/Passion Sunday is less a day for preaching and more a day when preachers can allow extended gospel readings to set the tone for those who will be worshipping together throughout Holy Week and to rehearse the drama of Holy Week for those who will not gather with the worshipping community again until Easter Sunday."
Commentary, Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14, Mark S. Gignilliat, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.


"Our Eucharist catches us on the fly between Saturday and Monday. Our stay at the table is short-term. We are soon returning to our daily life, living out our freedom for others."
Commentary, Exodus 12:1-14, Ralph W. Klein, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

Moses attempted to convince the Egyptian Pharaoh to let God's people go. The Pharaoh's heart hardened; he refused. Again and again, God has sent signs, portents, and plagues to reveal that God intends to raise God's people from Egypt.

The passage appointed for the Maundy Thursday liturgy is about the Passover. That moment when the people of Israel consume a goat and mark their doors to be spared from the last and terrible slaughter of Egyptians. Stanley Hauerwas once said, "God is getting over God's tendency to violence." Regardless of how you read this horrific story, it is paramount for following this last of the plagues; the Egyptians allow the people of God to go free. By the blood of the sacrifice, painted upon their door mantle, they are freed…they are delivered…they are passed over by death and have life; they pass over from slavery into freedom. The " Passover " story "adds another meaning, too.

Now, there are two critical arguments here. The Gospel narratives place Jesus’ last supper and death near the time of Passover. The first argument (and I fear has won out in our present time) is that Jesus’ last supper was the remembrance meal of the Passover called the Seder. This is celebrated by many religious Jews today. J. Jeremias, in his text The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, 1966, has influenced a generation of people that this is the case. The argument is based upon a “conjecture" in "the text that an older Palestinian calendar for Passover is now lost. However, this cannot be found anywhere or explicitly referenced. 

TClearly, the New Testament authors saw Jesus’ death and resurrection as a metaphor for the Passover. The Passover, if you will, prefigured the resurrection of Jesus. This emerges theologically in the middle of the second century in the work of Irenaeus of Lyons. 

However, there is a second case made for a different root for the liturgy we now recognize as the Eucharist, and that, in fact, Jesus’ last supper was not the Seder but the Chabûrah or Feast of Friends. C. Kucharek on the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and L. Mitchell's Mitchell'seaning of Ritual track the Chabûrah as a significant link in the tradition. Their research taps into the ancient texts of The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and The Didache - two early Christian texts. The most prominent proponent of this tradition in the Episcopal Church is our very own Gregory Dix, who, in The Shape of Liturgy, places Jesus’ last supper before Passover. And that the Chabûrah was a feast kept between rabbis and their followers. (I take all of this from my longtime friendship with Richard Fabian and his work on liturgy and the Eucharist at St. Gregory of Nyssa.) 

I say all this because people will quickly draw a direct lineage between the Seder, Jesus’ lastJesus'r with his disciples, and the modern-day Eucharist. What seems important is that rather than appropriating a perfect liturgy of our religious ancestors, we might see that what Jesus did in his feast with friends was an essential breaking of the specialized meal for the spiritual to a dinner for all people. Friends here are redefined not by those given any particular religion by birth or by nurture of family. Friends, instead, are those whom God loves in Christ Jesus. Friends are those bound by love and for whom new families are structured out of their participation in a table meant for everyone and not a few. This is accentuated when we take into account the nature of customary seating. Jesus was most definitely killed for eating with sinners. At the final supper, he sits with John on one side and Judas on the other – my friend John Peterson is quick to point out. Jesus places his most excellent follower – the one he loved and his most significant detractor on both his left and right. 

We see something exciting if we keep this in mind and return to the text and how it is used in the New Testament. While there is a reference to the looming Passover, there is no direct reference to this passage. This passage, the Passover passage, is used differently.

Luke refers to the text as a charge to Jesus’ call 'to be ready.' In Luke 12, Jesus tells them to be prepared. His time is approaching when he will no longer be with them, and they must be qualified and be on the move. (Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 203) Again, Luke seems to nod in the direction of our passage from Exodus when, in Acts, the tradition of Jesus is vital and not courses of laws, including but not limited to keeping the Passover. (Hays, 220) Finally, in John’s Gospel, John's name is called the “book of si" ns,” the idea "that Jesus’ legsJesus'not broken like the pure lamb was seen as a sign of the sacrifice.

We can spend a lot of time on the kind of food served at the meal or the meaning of the meal itself. When we do so, we miss, most often, that it is not the meal nor the lamb that was slain in Egypt that is our deliverance. Instead, all of those stories prefigure the unique person of Jesus, who will be our final deliverance. God in Christ Jesus shall bring all of us to the table of friends (where both the good and the bad shall be seated), and from the table, we shall all go united in Love with haste into the world to proclaim a story of deliverance. We are delivered. We know the work of Jesus because we know the old story of God’s redeeming God's people from death into life, from slavery into freedom.

Proper 17A, September 3, 2023

Prayer

Transform us, O God, by the renewal of our minds, that we may not be conformed to this world or seduced by human standards of success.  But as true disciples may we discern how good and pleasing it is to you for us to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow in the footsteps of Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. 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 A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 16:21-28

"The kingdom is becoming present in that resurrected life of the Messiah in each of our communities where this confession and life are bound together in the responsible exercise of love and mercy for the world."
Commentary, Matthew 16:21-28, James Boyce, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Peter rebukes Jesus. Jesus rebukes Peter. Calls Peter - or at least Peter's rebuke - Satan. That is, Tempter, Snake in the Garden, Introducer of Hesitation, Mixer of Motivations, Flaunter of Red Herrings, Side-Tracker of Mission, Setter of One's Mind on Human Things. Well, fear of pain and death will do that to most people, and Peter was no exception."
Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Matthew 16:21-28, David Ewart, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


As we read through the Gospel of Matthew we might remember that everything is read through the lens of the concluding passion tide.  This passage is the first of the passion predictions in Matthew. It comes to us following the miracle of loaves and fishes, the stilling of the storm, and Peter's Gospel proclamation that Jesus is indeed the Messiah the Son of the Living God.

It is not a surprise to us because we know the rest of the story, and it is not a surprise if we have been reading along in Matthew's Gospel. Throughout the narrative, we have received images, metaphors, road signs that we are heading towards Jerusalem. Jesus has set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. We know his message of a continuing revelation of God and the new kingdom will be rejected by the religious and political establishment.  And, that he is to die and rise again.

So the first revelation of this Gospel is one that we as Christians have come to understand. This truth is: Jesus is willing to do this. Jesus is willing to go to Jerusalem and to die there; and, to do so on behalf of the vision of the kingdom. He is also willing to do so on behalf of a newly restored creation.

Jesus does this work as a free man, choosing to be faithful to his very nature and faithful to his vocation as a prophet.  He willingly chooses for himself this destiny as the divine right of the King of Heaven.  It seems important for us to understand that Matthew's Gospel does not offer a God who requires Jesus' death, or a society that demands it. On the contrary, the death of Jesus is determined by Jesus himself as an offering for the cause of the kingdom of God.  Jesus believes, in my opinion, that if he will go to Jerusalem he will intentionally fan the flames of the religious and political authorities, they will kill him, and he will then usher in the reign of God in this world and the next.

For the author of Matthew, for the apostolic generation, and every successive faith generation that has followed, Jesus' will and the divine will are one.  His intention therefore is God's intention.  A new order, the creation itself, is being re-made. The plan is a united trinitarian front in the face of the powers of the world that objectify, dominate, and commoditize.

We cannot miss the very important and theologically propositions. I refer again to Allison and Davies who I very much depend upon for their scholarship to help us remember and think through the deep meanings intertwined in this passage. Here is their offering regarding Peter's witness and Peter's relationship with the Christ:

To begin with , Peter's pre-eminence makes his misunderstanding in effect universal: if even the favored Simon, rock of the church and recipient of divine revelation, did not grasp the truth, then, we may assume, that truth was hid from all. God's intentions for Jesus were so dark and mysterious that they simply could not, before the event, be comprehended.  This in large part explains why Jesus is such a lonely figure in Matthew and why he is trailed throughout the gospel by misapprehension and even opposition.  God's was are inscrutable.  At the same time, one no doubt demanding unprecedented responsibilities (cf. Chrysostom as quote on p 664).  Another lesson is to be found in this, that Peter's fall from the heights shows him to be anything but an idealized figure.  Like David and so many other biblical heroes, the apostle serves as warning that privileges and even divine election will not keep a body from evil mischief.  Finally, Peter must also, again like David and so many others, be intended to stand as a symbol of God's ever-ready willingness to bestow forgiveness on the imperfect.  For as soon as Peter has been quickly dismissed for words better left unsaid, Jesus selects him, along with two others, to be witnesses of the transfiguration.  Thus Peter, so far from being punished for his misguided though, is immediately granted a glimpse of the glorified Christ.  Is the reader not expected to see in this a triumph of grace?

Heavenly Father help our unbelief!  One of the beautiful things that have always intrigued me about the Gospel and about God's willingness to be in a relationship with us is God's ability to commit no matter how often we get it wrong.  Certainly, we as individual followers and as a Church have not always gotten it right. We don't have to meditate long upon our personal and corporate sinfulness wherein we have attempted to create a kingdom and a revelation that supports OUR human and individual power and authority over and against the divine wishes of the Godhead or the clear revelation of scripture to create a different kind of order.

We celebrate together as the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion the reality that God's will is accomplished in spite of ourselves. Despite our best and our worst efforts!  The beauty of the passage is Peter's complete obstruction to God's plan, one that is overcome by the grace and single-minded vision and actions of Jesus Christ.  

Can we trust that we are buoyed up by the grace of God and that somehow our efforts work into the greater work of the Godhead?

Are we able to accept grace for ourselves and more importantly can we claim enough grace to withstand the reality that those who disagree with us may also receive the vision of Christ glorified?  

These are the questions Peter faces in this moment and in his own missional life lived after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

We must read the whole Gospel and claim its revelation of truth for the whole body of faithful people.  We must be the community of life and love where the fallen are invited into the greater celebration of the triumph of Grace. There is, in the end, the truth that grace allows you and I, and all those who agree and disagree with us, the opportunity to see the Christ lifted high upon the cross, delivered into the depths of Hades, and rise on the third day transfiguring not only his own body but the whole creation into the kingdom and reign of God!

Some Thoughts on Romans 12:9-21

"Without reconciliation or acknowledged difference, there can be no balance. Paul is also realistic. Peace is not always possible (12:18). We need to bear that in mind when Paul urges submission to the structures of authority in society in the next chapter. Sometimes it is not possible."
"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 11, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia

"The Good News that you heard included an invitation: right now, as you are, you can be a part of something -- specifically, a member of the Body of Christ...The tricky part is that the Body of Christ includes an awful lot of people who are every bit as difficult as we are."
Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 18. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

In our passage today Paul reminds us of the conversation thus far. We understand God's love, that our response is gratitude, and that we are to give up ourselves and our lives to the Spirit. Moreover, in so doing we are transformed as is the world by God's efforts through us. We are the very members incorporate in the body of Christ - as the Eucharistic prayer reminds us.

In order for this all to be of true and lasting value, we must understand that just as God's saving work is rooted in his love for us so our work in the world must also be genuinely set upon the foundation of love. We are to be about the work of loving others as Christ loves us.  We are to be for others as Christ was to us. Therefore we are to love our fellow Christians, to deal with them with honor.  In so doing we are serving God.  We are to practice hospitality even to those who test us; even to strangers.  Paul here literally means to let them into your home.

If we are to pursue what is good out of love then that will make of us, demand of us, a hospitality beyond the boundaries of the hospitality which is prevalent in the world around us.  This is the meaning of the Good News. Those who know the teachings of Jesus know that Jesus challenged us to bless those who persecute us or cause us suffering.  We are to honor even them because we are to be like Christ.  We are to live peaceably no matter what comes.  We are not to desire revenge upon them or deal with them as we think God should judge them! What! This completely undoes the church's role throughout much of its history. That is correct. Paul says we are not to be in charge of God's judgment but rather to love and be hospitable to all people...even those who don't agree with us, even those who we don't like, even those who seek to undermine us...EVERYONE! No exceptions.  Moreover, we are to leave the handling of sin to God. We are always to do good.

I often wonder about those who decide to judge on God's behalf. I am curious about those who have decided to take an inherent stance on scripture but yet never seem to take this requirement of kinship and hospitality as God's word. It is a constant reminder to myself and to the church that we are to read the whole text and not just the parts of the text that give us power over others or the ability to shame and judge others.  It seems to me that we would do far better be hospitable and welcoming one another as a church than our current way of being with each other and the those desperately seeking this amazing loving and profoundly giving God.

As funny as it is...we might say that putting away the judgment seat and taking on the servant's mantle of hospitality may be the cross most of us must take up in order to find our life in Jesus Christ.

Some Thoughts on Exodus 3:1-15

"In ministry we are called, often enough, to look more closely. Listen more intently. And search out the nooks and crannies of the world around us, and hear the cry of people we might not normally hear."

"God's Curiosity, and Ours," Fr. Rick Morley, a garden path, 2011.

"Don't be fooled by your dim recollections of Charlton Heston's Moses. This passage isn't about a timid exile's reverent first meeting with the God of his ancestors. Rather, this story is about a no-holds-barred encounter between a wily, even conniving outlaw and a God who's more than up to the challenge of transforming him into an instrument of salvation."

"Get Off the Couch and into the Game!" David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2011.

"'God only knows where this dance is going to take us,' he muttered. He turned to look back at the summit of the mountain. 'It's up to You,' he shouted. 'I have no idea where we're heading. Freedom, what a chance, a dance, we're taking!'"

"When Moses Burned Inside the Burning Bush," Arthur Ocean Waskow & Phyllis Ocean Berman, The Shalom Center.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

I have been thinking about this passage and the passage from Matthew a lot as we approach our time to put pen to paper. I am struck by the notion that in Peter's case he has an image of God and how God might act in his life. The orientation for Peter as he makes both his confession and his mistaken assumption is that God is part of Peter's narrative. The same might be true of Moses in some way. What we learn, what is made very clear is that we are involved in God's narrative. In order to think about this some more, we might turn to the passage from Exodus which is a reminder of this narrative reversal from a human-centric perspective. 

What we might think (from our human perspective) is that a God who acts in history is merely myth-making. We might believe more in a divine watchmaker who wants good things for us but isn't really going to act on our behalf. We are alone to figure it out. We have to make the most of it until we die. Then God will act after death to raise us from the grave. But really here and now, we are on our own. These feelings may be especially true in the midst of a hurricane or pandemic. 

This really is not much different than how the Israelites may have felt in the midst of the story that we know from exodus. I very much like how Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks about this moment in the history of both the Torah and the history of the people of Israel. He writes, 

The Torah is preparing the ground for one of its most monumental propositions: In the darkest night, Israel was about to have its greatest encounter with God. Hope was to be born at the very edge of the abyss of despair. There was nothing natural about this, nothing inevitable. No logic can give rise to hope; no law of history charts a path from slavery to redemption. The entire sequence of events was a prelude to the single most formative moment in the history of Israel: the intervention of God in history – the supreme Power intervening on behalf of the supremely powerless, not (as in every other culture) to endorse the status quo, but to overturn it.

God tells Moses: “I am Hashem, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God” (Ex. 6:6-7). The entire speech is full of interest, but what will concern us – as it has successive generations of interpreters – is what God tells Moses at the outset: “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty [E-l Shaddai], but by My name Hashem I was not known to them” (Ex. 6:3). A fundamental distinction is being made between the experience the patriarchs had of God, and the experience the Israelites were about to have. Something new, unprecedented, was about to happen. (See "The God Who Acts In History," by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.)

This is essential in that for Christians, as Stanley Hauerwas likes to quip, "We believe in the God who raised Jesus after first having raised Israel out of Egypt." What this reveals to us that God had engaged with the patriarchs and matriarchs through a vision of doing a new thing in creation - recreating a garden imaginary of kinship and faithfulness that is a blessing of shalom to the world. That this blessing would spread. Here in the God who is to be Hasham we are receiving a revelation that the God who walked in the shade and eve of the day with the first humans will now engage in history. This engagement is one that makes Jesus' birth, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension part of the arc of this action. This is a historical engagement which raises our eyes to an eschatological vision of God's garden imaginings at the end of time. 

This passage reveals to us a new God, one who acts. Rabbi Sacks points out that until this point God was only known through creation. (Ibid.) But now what we begin to see is a revelation of God who intervenes.

It seems revelatory to note that this intervention is not to simply free people from slavery. This revelation is about a God who enlists prophetic voices to say, "People and their bodies matter. They cannot be destroyed or enslaved for the purpose of individual gain." This is a revelation that shows that the mimetic murder of Cain and Able had now grown to exponential proportions and now the murderous Cain's of this world objectified, commoditized, and dismembered whole people - whole tribes. 

It is easy for us to think that history has no meaning, or that the meaning of history is defined by the perspective of the individual. The cycles of a natural understanding of God are undone by a God who intervenes in history. This was true for the Israelites who now knew God as Hasham. This revelation goes for us today in our fractured understanding of history. Life is more than living, working, paying taxes, and dying. It is nihilistic to believe we are alone amidst a sea of people and that the cosmos itself cares nothing for us. Like the ancient world, we worship various American demi-gods and believe in the rebirth of Greek heroes through the genres of entertainment, politics, and wealth. Recognizing that we are part of God's narrative, and that this is the God is known as Hasham, a history intervening God, is a rejection of neo-Darwinian's notions that life as no more than the operation of “chance and necessity” ( Jacques Monod) or “the blind watchmaker” (Richard Dawkins). In their worldview, "time seems to obliterate all meaning. Nothing lasts. Nothing endures." [Ibid. See also, Jacques Monod, Chance and Necessity, (New York: Vintage, 1972); Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, (New York: Norton, 1996).]

The massive shift in thinking here cannot be underemphasized. Religious philosopher Mercea Eliade wrote, 

“for the first time, the prophets placed a value on history…For the first time, we find affirmed and increasingly accepted the idea that historical events have a value in themselves, insofar as they are determined by the will of God…Historical facts thus become situations of man in respect to God, and as such they acquire a religious value that nothing had previously been able to confer on them. It may, then, be said with truth that the Hebrews were the first to discover the meaning of history as the epiphany of God.”[Ibid. See also Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History, (New York, Harper & Row, 1959), 104.] 

Moses, in his invitation by God in this moment, has his eyes opened to the fact that his life is no longer an indistinct series of cyclical events or disconnected moments. In the revelation to Moses, and eventually, to the Israelites, they see that they are part of God's narrative. They have a glimpse of what we call history. (Ibid.) We also note that for Moses and the Israelites is born the notion that things may happen again. The revelation of Hasham means that there is a God active in history. This is the revelation of a God who interacts, frees, liberates, and unbinds. (See Matthew 13.1-53) 

It is here that we turn to a vision of who God is and the oft "mistranslated" words spoken out of the firey bush to Moses. I am going to continue to lean on Rabbi Sacks here. 

There is first, the translation of 3:14. Here Moses asks God's name. The Greek to Latin filtered through the theologians ends up with an ontological thought as the answer: "I am who I am," or, "I am He who is." Aquinas, says that God is ‘true being, that is, being that is eternal, immutable, simple, self-sufficient, and the cause and principal of every creature’.[See Jonathan Sacks, "Belief in the Future."  See also, Richard Kearney, The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion, (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2001), 20–38.] Rabbi Sacks points out that, "Ehyeh asher ehyeh" means none of these things. It means ‘I will be what, where, or how I will be’. (Ibid.) These are words in the future tense! 

This reveals to us an important part of God's nature often missed in the translation of God as an unmoved mover. Here is the God who will act in history now and in the future. Here is the God of Israel and the God of Jesus and the first followers. Here is a God who will continue to participate in and within the arc of creation. We have here too a revelation of creation and history as an environment of change. It is making its way from God's garden social imaginary to God's eschatological future. 

Here too is hope. Here is the idea that God will continue to act. Here is the idea of a God who will journey with us as we make our own pilgrimage. Here is the God who interacts for justice. Here is a God who desires kinship and faithfulness in time and not only in one moment. Here is the God who has created humanity to be engaged in future thinking. Rabbi Sacks reminds us too that "the future is the sphere of human freedom because  I cannot change yesterday but I can change tomorrow by what I do today." (Ibid.) Science speaks only of the present and the present past. There is Christian theology and philosophies that deny the future and our openness to it. Sacks write, "Freedom will be seen as an illusion. The best we can hope for is Karl Marx’s definition of freedom as 'consciousness of necessity.'"(Ibid.) 

Moses stands before the burning bush a murder, a person who has absented himself from the cause of his people and the family that raised him. He stands there hiding and in some way rejecting the notion of going and multiplying blessing, kinship, and faithfulness. God, Hasham, interrupts him and all of history. Even Moses is given in that historical interruption an opportunity. I believe in sinfulness and the human mimetic desire for sibling rivalry. I believe in humanity's capacity for the oppression and murder of our fellow humans. I believe in our insatiable appetite for individual self-preservation and that the new economies have given us new forms of enslavement. 

But like Moses, we stand at the precipice of tomorrow with a God of the future. We are given an opportunity to change. We are given the opportunity to work beyond our own individual flourishing for the flourishing of others. We are given the chance tomorrow to do good and to change our lives and the world around us. 

God does not promise that this work of interrupting our lives and history is easy work. In fact in the person of Jesus, we discover that the work is always cruciform in nature. Yet, like Moses we discover that God will be with us, God will not abandon us, and God will help us find others who will walk with us and share our burden. 

Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 15:15-21

"The incongruity between this summons to the pursuit of justice and the reality that Jeremiah faces is deeply disturbing. The prophet is justifiably indignant: great suffering has come about because the people have persistently failed to hear God’s word. Jeremiah is hardly the first prophet sent to convey this to the people; their corruption is a long-term, systemic problem." 

Thoughts On Jeremiah 15, by  L. Crouch, David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary

"Repeatedly throughout the Bible, imprecatory words help the utterer work through and find healing even in the most difficult situations. Suppression and denial of such feelings allows feelings of bitterness, even actions that harm others, to take root. Acknowledging these types of feelings in front of God allows God to step in and heal the woundedness and release the giftedness that lies beneath the hurt."

Thoughts On Jeremiah 15, by  Alphonetta Wines, Senior Pastor, Union Memorial United Methodist Church

Oremus Online NRSV Text

In this passage we turn to Jeremiah the prophet with his critique of the nation. From Jeremiah 2:2 we hear the words of God to the people, “I remember the kindness of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the wilderness, through a land not sown." 

Jeremiah's prophetic contribution is one that is defined by life in diaspora. He makes quite a radical suggestion about the work of the peopel of Israel. He writes in 29:7, “Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its prosperity you shall prosper." On the one hand Jeremiah is echoing God's garden imaginary that all people be a blessing of peace to each other and the world - regardless of where they find themselves. They are to see others as kin and respond with faithfullness. Moreover, Jeremiah offers this prophetic view of life to the minority living within a diverse context not of their own making. Rabbi Sacks reflects, "Why did this universal perspective matter? Because those who care only for their own people are chauvinists. They create false expectations, narrow and self-regarding emotions, and bravado rather than real courage." (See "Leadership at Time of Crisis")

It is through these eyes that we might approach our script. We begin with a lament and the promise to endure. This endurance is based upon the notion of remembering God's purposes as provided in God's vision of blessing and peace. He suggests that though he is in a foreign land he will not succomb to their ways but hold fast to God's vision. 

God's prophetic word is that they had forgotten God's ways, forgotten the poor, the widow, and the orphan and that this has brought them great pain. God promises though to receive them because of God's faithfulness. In turning, in continuing to remember adn act on God's vision, they will find strenght in God. Ultimately, They will be delivered out of the diaspoara. But, it is their ways that will determine their future. 

This is a struggle, thus the failure, and the lament. We feel this even now. Here we might turn again to Crouch who wrote, 

Jeremiah’s struggle speaks to us today more than ever. Then, as now, the powerful sought to silence those who champion God’s vision of a more just society: those who speak out on behalf of the poor, the homeless, the disabled, the displaced—those whose suffering is a living condemnation of our original sin. Surrounded by ignorance and opposition, the dream of a society ruled by God’s justice, righteousness, and steadfast love appears deferred—even impossible. In the face of exhaustion and despair, God affirms that the work must go on. Everything is at stake.

Proper 16A, August 27, 2023

The road to Caesarea Philippi

Prayer

God, well-spring of all wisdom and font of every insight, you inspired Simon Peter to confess Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and on the rock of this faith you built your church.  Pour out your Spirit in abundance, that all may join in this profession, and so become living stones built up into your church, standing firm upon the one foundation, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. 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 A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Matthew 16:13-20

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

"Peter," Frederick Buechner, Buechner Blog.

"La predicación de la confesión de Pedro (Mateo 16.13-20) es una oportunidad de retornar al principio de la fe cristiana vis a vis la opinión post moderna sobre el cristianismo en general y quien Jesús es en particular."

Comentario del Evangelio por Alvin Padilla, San Mateo 16:13-20, Working Preacher, 2011.

"For Matthew the location is also Caesarea Philippi and perhaps the same shadows of imperial power or power through its local Jewish proteges of Herod's family are in mind. But in Matthew the passage is not such a turning point as it is in Mark."

"First Thoughts on Year A Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 10, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text



The passage for this Sunday's Gospel is the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Messiah and Son of the Living God. It is Peter's proclamation on the road to Caesarea Philippi.  It is an important theological passage for Christianity and is an important passage within the Gospel of Matthew.

We begin the passage with Jesus' question to his disciples. This then reveals that Jesus is a great prophet. It isn't simply that he is compared to the great heroes of the Jewish faith.  He is on par with, he is equal to, Jeremiah, Elijah, and John the Baptist.  He is not simply a great prophet he is the greatest of prophets.  He is the Christ, Son of the Living God.  The message of Jesus is the continuation of the ancient faith of Israel.  He is the fulfillment of all the hope of Israel.  He is the omega of salvation-history. At the same time he is doing something radically new - he is birthing (through word and spirit) the Church.

Jesus in Matthew's Gospel is the one who is laying the foundation of a living Word that will withstand the powers and principalities of both this world and the world to come.  He is building up living stones and a kingdom of priests to expand the reign of the kingdom of God - this "eschatalogical temple." (Allison/Davies, Matthew, 642)

There is a great debate among scholars as to Matthew's own Christology. Did he think of Jesus as God in the same way as John and his Gospel? In point of fact no direct statement is made.  Yet, in my opinion the author of this Gospel indeed understands Jesus as God.  For in my reading of Matthew Jesus not only is the continuum of messianic hope he is the culmination as well.  He is here on this road proclaimed as the Son of the Living God.  Matthew's Gospel is clear about its revelation - Jesus is one with God and therefore transcends the simple relationship of follower or prophet of the most high God.

Furthermore, this Jesus is the one who has been given the power and authority to call forth the new community of faithful followers into the kingdom.  In this section of the narrative of Jesus, in this moment, on the road to Caesarea Philippi, Jesus is seen as Lord of this new kingdom. He is in the miracle of loaves and fishes, in the stilling of the storm, he is bringing together a new people of God. This new people of God is made up of those who unlike many of the religious powers of his day have not rejected him and those who are on the fringes of religious society - to include Gentiles.  This is the God made man who in sitting and eating with sinners and tax collectors is binding together a new family of God.

Jesus in his ministry, and from this point on in Matthew's Gospel, is passing along the inheritance of the kingdom of God. Jesus is gathering in and multiplying the numbers of Abraham's descendants. He is through the power of the Holy Spirit taking the spirit that has been under the custodial leadership of the religious authorities of his day and is placing that spirit upon a new people, a growing people, a diverse people - the ecclesia - The People of God.

The image of this new people of God is not the perfected disciple but the disciple Peter, the one whose faith led him to step out of the boat, the one whose faith has revealed the true nature of Jesus, the one who also will struggle with his faith and deny him during the passion tide.  This imperfect human is the one upon whom the church, the new ecclesia, is built.

Allison and Davies write this beautiful passage about the revelation of Jesus as Son of the Living God and spiritual architect of the new people of God:

Jesus is the Son promised in 2 Sam 7.4-16, the king who builds the eschatological temple. This temple is the church.  Like the old temple, it is founded on a rock.  But unlike the old temple, it has no geographical location.  It is not in Jerusalem.  The new, eschatological temple is a spiritual temple.  It stands under the rule: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (18:20; cf. Jn 4:21).  Mathew is thus at one with the rest of the NT in substituting for the Holiness of place the holiness of a person: holy space has been Christified. (Allison/Davies, Matthew, 642)

Allison and Davies contend, and I think it is a great image, that just as Jesus is himself the New Covenant so Peter is then the New Abraham.  They write:

The parallels between 16:13-20 and Genesis 17:1-8 indicate that Peter functions as a new Abraham.  He is the first of his kind, and he stands at the head of a new people. Peter is, like Abraham, a rock (cf. Isa 51:1-2), and the change in his name denotes his function.  What follows?  Peter is not just a representative disciple, as so many Protestant exegetes have been anxious to maintain.  Nor is he obviously the first holder of an office others will someday hold, as Roman Catholic tradition has so steadfastly maintained.  Rather, he is a man with a unique role in salvation history.  The eschatological revelation vouchsafed to him opens a new era.  His person marks a change in the times.  His significance is the significance of Abraham, which is to say: his faith is the means by which God brings a new people into being. (Allison/Davies, Matthew, 642ff)

This week's Gospel lesson is as much about Jesus as it is about Peter.  We need leaders in each Episcopal congregation (clergy and lay) who are ready to give voice to the proclamation of Jesus as Son of the Living God and Lord of all; and to incarnate their faith in living a living Word that is Gospel. We need leadership who will also see themselves not simply as disciples of a particular kind but in the tradition of Peter and Abraham; ready to take steps out into the world. We need leadership who are ready to be the stones upon which new churches are designed and built.  We need leaders who are through their ministry ushering in a new era of Gospel proclamation and mission.  We need leaders who by means of their faith God is bringing a new people, a new ecclesia, into being.

Some Thoughts on Romans 12:1-8

" To be enslaved to sin is to have one's body commandeered every bit as much as one's soul."

Commentary, Romans 12:1-8, Mary Hinkle Shore,, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Paul's main point about spiritual gifts, mentioned in verse 6, is that God has given us these as members of the body of Christ. So we are to use the particular gift God has given us to help the body function, not to promote ourselves or show how we as one body part are better than others who are another body part."

Commentary, Romans 12:1-8, Mark Reasoner, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Romans is about God's unconditional one way love that in the end will conquer all powers and principalities and make us heirs and family members with God.

Paul invites the members of the community at Rome then to make an offering in response to God's action on our behalf.  We are invited to present ourselves and our very life as a sacrifice. Not like those sacrifices made in the Temple on our behalf but to be the sacrifice and offering to God - because in so doing we will experience transformation.  

Our grateful response to God is to discern our life and its patterns as a reflection of the God who loves us.  We can easily go back to the way of the world. We can try to live by the law. We can try and purchase or buy our sacrifice but nothing will lead to the same life that God is freely offering to each of us.  So we have to begin again. We must realize that we must daily start anew. We respond to God's never failing love for us by each day committing ourselves to a grateful response.

Our bodies, our gifts, our very life is given to us as a part of the whole life of God on earth. We are members of a great cloud of witnesses, a great body of Christ. Each of us is given part of the work of carrying out God's mercy in the world. The Holy Spirit which makes us part of the one body of  Christ also enlivens us to be an active member in our community and out in the world.  We are all given unique qualities which reflect the God we believe in and the God who animates all creation.  Yet we are not independent but interdependent members. We depend upon one another and are part of one another's life and livelihood.

This interdependence is for the building up of the kingdom of God and the manifestation of grace in the world around us.  Our uniqueness and our unique gifts are part of the wider community and its overall functioning. Gifts are each dependent upon the others.  So Paul continues...As one body in Christ the gift of prophecy (inspired preaching) is dependent upon the gift of ministry - the administration of aid and distribution of alms.  Teaching is dependent upon exhortation (the urging of others to have faith).[see Chris Haslaam's site on the breakdown]  All of these are gifts that work together in harmony and unity.

4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

As one body there are many members and we are all in need of the other.  

I think the challenge here is that we don't truly engage in this notion that all have gifts. We don't really have time to figure this out with people. We are typically only interested in the gifts that help run the church. Any gift that might take more time or cause a disruption in the gentle order of things is a gift discarded.  We have decided that the only gifts of preaching, teaching, church planting, and leadership belong to those with advanced training and three years of masters study.  

Paul points out the truth of Jesus and his call to those first fishermen. Paul points out the truth of the call to the first apostles appointed by the Holy Spirit - none of them had an MDiv.  They were all kinds and sorts of people. They were poor and wealthy. They were wise and simple. Yet all received their gifts from the Holy Spirit. They gave their lives to the health and vitality of the kingdom of God.  

So I wonder...do we dare preach the truth this Sunday? Even though it will cause a fair bit of trouble for those in power and enmeshed in the hierarchy... courage is probably the right tactic here.

Some Thoughts on Exodus 1:8-2:10

"This ancient text from Exodus echoes powerfully in our congregations, nation and world: issues of race and politics, religion and politics, gender and power, the war on terror, debates over immigration policy, the inequities of our global economy, congregational mission and hospitality to the stranger, and all manner of suffering and bondage that threaten the individuals and families with whom we minister."

Commentary, Exodus 1:8-2:10, Dennis Olson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"The story highlights the cleverness and understated bravado of the women agents who defy Pharaoh."

Commentary, Exodus 1:8-2:10, Amy Merrill Willis, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"It's a courageous act of civil disobedience that changes history, for one of the boys that is spared will be called Moses and he will lead the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity."

"The Butterfly Effect," David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

Today's passage is the beginning of the story of Moses and it starts as Pharaoh goes crazy! He attempts to kill all the children in order to decrease the growing population of Israelites. Like a "genesis" narrative, a "how did we come to be in Egypt" narrative, it is a story of beginnings. It begins with these words, “These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his own household: ... Then Joseph died ..., and that whole generation”.

The Pharaoh no longer remembers Joseph and his family, there are too many Israelites now, and he is using them to help him build up his cities. They no longer rule side by side, instead they are slave labor. Their numbers continue to increase so Pharaoh tells the midwives to kill the male babies, but they resist. Moses is saved. In fact, he is saved by a daughter of Pharaoh and brought up as an Egyptian. So the repetition now begins. The favorite son, saved from death, now is given life and one that will in the end save God's people and bring them a bit further on their journey.

The story of the sacrifice of the male children of course is echoed in the story of Jesus and the death of the innocents in Matthew's Gospel. This is important because in the Gospel of Matthew Moses is a prefiguring character. We of course already talked about the theology of this in our last post. However, in Matthew's Gospel Jesus is like Moses - a great prophet. Jesus is protected from the genocide of male children. He returns from Egypt. Jesus like Moses fasts for 40 days. Jesus is the great shepherd of God's sheep and is sent to free them because of God's passion for them. Even Matthew's transfiguration is filled with Moses typology. (Richard Hays in Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels certainly does this parallel well. However, this is present in Allison and Davies work as well.)

Proper 15A, August 20, 2023

Prayer

God of all the nations, in the outstretched arms of Jesus the Crucified you gather the people of earth, diverse and divided, into a single embrace of salvation and peace.  Stir up within us the longing for unity that filled the heart of Jesus your Son, and let our every word and deed serve your design of universal salvation, until all are gathered into your one family to be perfectly one in your covenant of love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Some Thoughts on Matthew 15:10-28


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

"Messiah," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"Like the story of the woman who as an outsider experiences God's mercy and so challenges a too-narrow tradition that would want to restrict God's mercies to a chosen few, so these sayings invite a reexamination of our hearts and call us to a new appraisal of the expansive reach of God's mercies."

Commentary, Matthew 15:[10-20] 21-28, James Boyce, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


Wow. Now this Sunday we have an interesting passage! In order to engage this passage we must realize that it comes after a confrontation scene with the religious leaders. Jesus has just been confronted by the authorities who are challenging him that he is not following the tradition of his faith ancestors.  They are acting somewhat like inspectors who are pretty sure the disciples have not been washing their hands before they sit down and eat.  The passage is a direct engagement with the rules of the day which understand the tradition of the religious authorities to be outside the tradition of scripture. And, so Jesus in our passage today, teaches the crowd around him something different.

Scholars tend to look upon this text as trying to deal with the difference between the Matthean communal rule of life and that of their forebears.

At the same time we must recognize that while this may be true, we also know that this engagement with the religious authorities was one of the key mitigating factors that led to Jesus' crucifixion.

Jesus is proclaiming a message that connects the new emerging communities with the ancient law of the Israel and their prophets.  The new communities that Jesus is speaking to are certainly continuing Jewish communities.  But the Gentile mission too was quickly to engage as a full member of the evolving understanding of God's widening kingdom.  Jesus is preserving the good news of a God who is in relationship with his people and who makes promises to be with them always even to the end of the ages; a God who promises the abundance of creation.  So there is a sense that Jesus is continuing and reforming. (Allison/Davies, Matthew, 537)

Jesus' teaching is essential to a global mission.  Jesus' teaching is the pre-cursor to the Apostolic Decree from Acts 15.20, 29; 21.45.  Wherein the first community of followers of Jesus quickly laid out the boundaries that would enable the Jew and the Gentile to worship God through the particular revelation of Jesus Christ without getting in one an other's way.  The rule prohibited four things: eating meat sacrificed to idols, eating blood, eating strangled animals, and intercourse with near kin. (Allison/Davies, Matthew, 538)  These were the rules.

The real focus I think for this passage has to be the text: What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and that defiles a man (15.18).  This is a key component to Matthew's Gospel; indeed the whole of the Gospels. It is mentioned throughout the Gospel narrative.  Too often religion gets overly focused upon ritual and in so doing looses sight of the key component of faith - the direction through the heart of one's life and work.

It is one's intention and attitudes that is a chief characteristic of Jesus' words to his followers.  It is perhaps the center of Jesus' own moral teachings.  Integrity is the result of harmony between thought and act.  Integrity is the result of an action based upon the living word of God brought into being through the vessel of one's heart and delivered by mouth and hands.

In the end Jesus' own teaching is why he must accept the challenge by the woman.  He too must act in accordance with his own teaching and in so doing shows the integrity of his words and his actions.  All too many preachers will get hung up on the woman's challenge. Do not miss the challenge Jesus is offering to us who craft many rules for the segregating of our own communities.

We also might read Jesus' words in the context of his wider teaching. When we do this and hold this passage in tension with it, we might ponder the idea that Jesus is being satirical in his response. Satire shows continuity with the statements about eating grain or sitting with sinners. It also has continuity with the other passages where women followers and women outside the community (like the Samaritan) are engaged by Jesus in a positive way. Instead of reading our biases into the passage we might wonder if the two were not jousting out of satire rather than overlaying a post-modern ideas.

This is not particularly new teaching that Jesus is offering his followers. In fact most religious reform is not new.  It is rather a rereading, reinterpreting, and re vocalizing of the ancient words of psalms, prophets, and rabbis.  It is to say that keeping the commandment was good, but that interiorizing the commandment was essential religious work.

Allison and Davies in their work on Matthew write this:

The Psalms, the prophets, and the rabbis all attest the necessity of cleansing the heart and purifying interior disposition.  In the First Gospel, however, there is a regular and emphatic dwelling on the them, so that Matthew remains a constant reminder that Jesus laid an extraordinary emphasis on the real inner religious significance of the commandments.

We are challenged by this passage a great deal.  As a Church we are working through divisions on the different ways of acting out our faith - liturgy, sacrament, and polity. Yet I think we are being judged by those who do not come to church but seek God. We are being looked upon by those who love Jesus and believe he would have similar criticisms of today's church.

I think we are challenged to hold up today's scripture and ask ourselves as individuals and as preachers and teachers what are the things we are most concerned about? What are the items from the last meeting we went to and did not go our way and so now we are harboring as essential to the life of our church? What are the items we hold most dear and most important: budget, altar guild, ritual, grounds, coffee hour?  What are they and how are they connected to the religious heart of our church? How are the things we hold as most important connected to the religious heart of Jesus' Gospel?

This is a good exercise.  Perhaps we should do the work corporately and then offer ourselves to God and be reconciled to God, our neighbor and the world.  Then perhaps we can take genuine step forward in mission reconnecting our words and actions with our own heart and with the heart of Jesus and his Word.

Some Thoughts on Romans 11:1-32

"God will not give up on us. His promise of life is centered in the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the Deliverer from sin, death, and the power of the devil for Jew and Gentile alike."

Commentary, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32, Paul S. Berge, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"What a wonderful vision: God wants to have compassion towards all people - and will!"

"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 9, William Loader, Murdoch University 

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

Paul has made his case, one that I do not agree with, that Israel will not be saved at the last day.  My view is in fact a generous view given the fact that most Jews today do not believe as I do that reconciliation with God is possible by God's doing and through God's love.  Some may be saved he says, but not many.

Paul then explains how like him both Jews and Gentiles may come to believe and that he is a chief example of how God is working his purpose out with his people the Israelites.  God is faithful and God intends to save his people. The Israelites are still his chosen people.  God will lead the Israelites to this new understanding by means of the Gentile Christians and their faithfulness he says.

Gentile Christians, who were once unfaithful/disobedient are now part of the family of God. They are and can be examples to the Jews ans show them how to respond to the grace and mercy and love of God.  They are to be examples to the world, to Jew and Gentile alike, of how to live with God.  I think this is the part of the passage that will preach.

As a follower of Jesus, who receives grace and the spirit, I have an opportunity to live a life worthy of my saving. I have an opportunity out of gratitude to reflect the love of God to all people.  In so doing they will be drawn towards God and God's love.  

I am not to spend a lot of time worrying about who is save and who is not.  Instead my work as a God fearer and Jesus follower is to live a life of grace. I am to be as C. S. Lewis said, a little Christ.  In so doing others will become as I am and in turn be Christs out in the world.  This is our work. Freed from the law and forever united by the love of God I am to respond out of gratitude and live a life of the Spirit for all the world to see...never boasting in my own saving work but in the work of may savior Jesus Christ.

Some Thoughts on Genesis 45:1-28

"The text for today describes a moving scene of reconciliation, the self-revelation of Joseph to the brothers who sold him into slavery many years before, and gives us the theological lens through which to view the whole story of Joseph."

Commentary, Genesis 45:1-15, Kathryn Schifferdecker, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"Joseph's complicated family history teaches us that Israelite identity was a cultural and religious one and not an ethnic or even national one in his time -- and for some time to come."

Commentary, Genesis 45:1-15, Wil Gafney, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Once powerless at the bottom of a pit, outnumbered by brothers who hated him, Joseph now gets to decide who will live and who will die. Having that power does not necessarily make Joseph a bad guy, but his use of that power to control those around him surely does, no matter how much he cries."
Commentary, Genesis 45:1-15, Cameron B.R. Howard, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

In our passage for this week we have the great reconciliation moment between Joseph and his brothers. There of course has been a great drought and his brothers have come to Egypt for help and find themselves before Joseph who now oversees on behalf of the royal family. (Spoiler alert.) Joseph forgives them in the end. Joseph brings his brothers and family to Egypt thereby completing the journey of the tribe into Israel and sets up the story of Moses.

I really like what Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman in her BeliefNet article has to say:

This week's Torah portion, Vayiggash, probes the emotional tension of coming out after a lifetime of passing. It brings us to the dramatic climax of the Joseph story. Though a Hebrew, Joseph is now living as an Egyptian lord. He dresses as an Egyptian, he speaks as an Egyptian, in every outward respect he is Egyptian. His true identity is known only to himself and God. 

In last week's portion, Joseph sees his brothers for the first time since their youth. He is moved to tears, but he removes himself to another room and cries alone. Joseph sees, but he is not seen. 

From the time of his imprisonment until this climax, Joseph has assumed a more hardened and calculating face to the world. He cleverly guides Pharoah into making him vizier of Egypt. He strategically deals with a great famine and makes a profit. He lies to his brothers and tests them. Joseph is no longer the guileless and imprudent boy of the early chapters of the tale. Joseph has learned how to maneuver and manipulate in an unfriendly world, but at the cost of personal authenticity. 

At last, in this week's portion, Joseph must choose whether to allow himself to be vulnerable--to be seen for who he is. His brothers have passed his test. They do not abandon each other at times of danger. 

The situation is as psychologically "safe" as Joseph can make it. Now he must take the risk of honesty. It is a moving moment indeed when the Torah recounts how Joseph sends everyone away, so that he is alone with his bothers, his "own kind," when he reveals himself. Finally, letting go of his worldly, calculating, Egyptian facade, he comes out. "I am Joseph," he sobs. (Read full article here.)

The idea that Joseph, like others before him, has had to hide and be someone else for so long is not a new theme in history. Almost as if the old Joseph has died as the brothers wish. The moment of transformation comes for him. He can stay hidden or be revealed. He can help his family or leave them to suffer the consequences. In a costly moment to himself he is able to be his created self AND in this way there is also aid for his family and in the end reconciliation. While the story is clear that Joseph himself has been wronged, almost killed and sold into slavery, he must himself also pay a cost for reconciliation. He must unveil himself of his hatred and anger. 

Often times in reconciliation processes we are very attentive to what the other must do in order for us to move forward. Rarely are we aware of our own cost for the process and what we will loose in order to gain reconciliation.

Proper 14A, August 13, 2023

Prayer

Strong and faithful God, your outstretched arm governs the mighty forces of creation, and your gentle hand cradles event he smallest of creatures.  Strengthen our "little faith," and open our eyes to your presence at every moment of history and in every circumstance of life, that we may face with serenity times of testing and turmoil, and walk with Christ through every storm toward safe haven and true 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 for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Some Thoughts on Matthew 14:22-33

"How can we preach this tired story in a way that people can hear it?"

"Salvation and Fear and Jesus' Ghost," Russell Rathbun, The Hardest Question, 2011.

"...faith is about doing. A faithful person eventually gets to the point at which s/he can say to God, 'I don't know where you're going, but I know that wherever it is, I'd rather be drowning with you than be crowned by somebody else.'"

Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Proper 14. Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer looks at readings for the coming Sunday in the lectionary of the Episcopal Church.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text


There is a lot occurring in this passage from Matthew.  Not unlike the work of Jesus Christ as co-creator shining through the miracle of the loaves and fishes we now continue on to see God's hand at work as the lord of the seas.

At first glance we see here in this passage the miraculous acts of Jesus holding up Peter's faith walk, walking on the sea himself, and stilling the storm.  While miraculous in their own right we must also pay close attention to the notion that these are acts reserved for God; these are literally acts which throughout the narrative of the Old Testament are work reserved for God alone.  So, the story is on the one hand a story of miracles but as preachers we must not loose the notion that the story also reveals the holiness, the other-ness, the God-ness of Jesus Christ.  These acts reveal Jesus as the divine Christ.

Not unlike the creedal faith soon proclaimed by the church we see in this story that the Godhead shares with the divine Jesus his nature as creator.

Allison and Davies (the Matthean scholars) point out that Matthew is quick to address the theological for evangelism purposes while at the same time delivering a teaching on the nature of following Jesus.  The Gospel for this Sunday is as much about who Jesus is as it is about whom we are to become if we choose to follow Jesus.

Christians must have faith in the face of difficulties.  As Christians try and follow Jesus and try to enact or make real his commands we know we will have difficulties.  Get out and come to me....is not as easy as it may sound.  The idea that when we step out in faith we step out upon the deep water itself.  The metaphorical teaching of the Gospel lesson is clear: Jesus will not abandon his church (those in the boat) and will come to our aid when we tread the deep water for Jesus sake.  Jesus does not promise there will not be storms but does promise to be there in the midst of the storm.

There is still something more here though. We cannot forget that the Gospel voice of Matthew is one born out of a continuing Jewish context of Jesus followers.  Here in this passage we move from a general understanding of the kingdom to the specific building upon the shoulders of Peter a new community ( a specific Matthean community) of faithful followers.  The insight offered is not one of perfection (after all Peter sinks and will fail again at the passion).  The insight rather is one of understanding the difficulty of faithful following itself.  The apostolic witness of Peter is one upon whom the community will be built. He represents the continuation and tie with the ancient faith ancestors of Israel, and also the willingness to step out and bring the revelation of God in Jesus Christ into the messianic age of community.  A community of continuing Israel's faith in a Messiah who does not leave us but continues to engage the storm of community life and faithful attempts to bear witness to his divine nature and kingdom.

I have to admit that I fail.  That is not something we aspire to in the United States. Failure is not an American option.  It has led us to hold leaders up to a perfection unattainable. At the same time our aspiration for success has also led us to be unwilling to bend or fail; in turn this has led us to not even try.  It is the not trying that is the greater sin. As I reflect upon Peter's walk I think that the reality is that the greater sin is not found in his faith as it falters for there is enough grace for all.  The greater sin would have been not to have tried.  The greater sin would have to not believed in the grace of Christ such that we would have stayed in the boat.

I believe the issue with the church isn't so much that we don't believe in Jesus Christ, but that our real sin is that of perfection.  If it can't be perfect then we should not try.  The Episcopal Church (and my guess is all churches) today is being challenged to get out of the boat. We are being challenged to take a faithful step out into the world. We are being invited and challenged to step out upon deep waters and we are being challenged to fail gloriously.  When an institution and a culture no longer has the ability to tolerate failure the organization is dead.

I hope you will challenge people to get out of the boat.  I hope you will challenge the church to leave the building.  Most of all I pray for you and for me the gift of toleration to allow people to fail gloriously for the sake of the kingdom of God and the Gospel of Jesus.  In such grace we can hear Jesus' words to us:  “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Some Thoughts on Romans 10:5-15

"Paul seeks to work out a theology which is consistently informed by the being and nature of God as caring. Where it poses problems, even for the new Christianity, Paul refuses to surrender it as a starting point."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary," Lent 1, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"This is the word of salvation that God has ordained from before time. Jesus Christ is the word in whom all are called to rejoice, Jew and Gentile. This is the word that calls for heralds of God's promise today."

Commentary, Romans 10:5-15, Paul S. Berge, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

In our passage from Romans today we continue with Paul's attempts to understand and explain why the Jews have some how failed to grasp the truth about God in Christ Jesus.

The primary reason Paul says is that their faith and relationship with God the Father is based upon their covenant at Sinai.  They are in relationship with God through the law and the law alone. They are focused upon works and not faith.  Paul then does, what I think is an unfortunate thing, he twists a passage from Isaiah and offers a vision that God intended the Jews to fail.  I don't think this is true.  I think Paul has confused the passage completely.

The Jews still await a messiah but they have missed out on the Messiah that God has chosen Christ Jesus.  They remain focused upon the law and their own path to God's bosom.  Paul sees it clearly and says they ave essentially missed the messiah and Christ's redemption from the law so they remain imprisoned.

Paul points out that even Moses offered a faith of the heart and lips and not one solely based upon the law. Paul says they have gotten off track and that in missing Jesus they have missed salvation.  They have instead chosen the harder way to God and that the way of the law is ultimately going to lead to death.

Paul then uses Isaiah and Joel again to point towards Christ. He reinterprets the passage to mean Jesus and that Jesus is the bearer of the good news.  All people have the opportunity to understand it.  Yet many still do not believe.  

The problem I think for the preacher is how not to become anti-Semitic here in this teaching. I believe that God saves the Jews and the Muslims through and by their Abrahamic covenants.  That is theirs to sort out and to keep.  The three faiths are different.  So I would steer clear even though Paul has a very clear view of their predicament.

That being said I think this passage holds a great deal of prophetic teaching and preaching for those who choose to undertake the difficult work of parsing it out.  The reality is that humans in human communities all reject the grace and messianic truth of Jesus - even Christians. We too easily fall into the way of the law and begin to use the law as a means of salvation. 

1. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
2. I worship him in the spirit.
3. I am baptized.
4. I believe the scripture and fulfill it.
AND you (whoever the you is) don't...

We do well to remember the powerful place Romans plays in the reformation. The reformers read this and saw clearly that the Christian Church itself had become a place of the law and not a place of grace.

In this moment of great awakening let us preach and offer a Gospel message of grace and salvation. Let us focus upon our own saving, our gratitude and our response. And, let us make way within our community for God's grace to gather others in - especially those who do not follow the laws we have created to keep them out.

Some Thoughts on Genesis 37:1-28

"Discussions of the providence of God go hand-in-hand with questions of theodicy, and preachers should navigate the topic with care."

Commentary, Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, Cameron B.R. Howard, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"In our text for today, sibling rivalry comes close to murder and sets in motion a chain of events that occupy the rest of the book of Genesis (chapters 37-50)."

Commentary, Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28, Kathryn Schifferdecker, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

I enjoy the readings from Genesis in year A as they march right through the stories of the matriarchs and patriarchs. Today we begin the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors and join the journey as the people of Israel are about to find themselves in Egypt.

Here are some key points:

Jacob has settled in the Land of Canaan. While Isaac (his father) migrated there, it is now home for the tribe of Israel. Jacob likes Joseph a lot! And, his other brothers resent him for it. Jacob doesn't help by giving him a beautiful robe. Joseph has dreams and is a bit pompous. His brothers decide to try and get rid of him in this way continuing the repetitive violence towards the sons of Israel.

The story is important to the New Testament authors in this way. The memetic story of violence towards the least, the lost, the little is a continuous them picked up throughout the Old and New Testament. Mark clearly casts Jesus in this light too. Jesus both tells stories and parables about the kingdom of heaven in which such memetic (repetitive) themes occur. And, Jesus himself is to play the role of Israel's son now sacrificed. This is part of the overall Christology throughout the New Testament wherein Jesus is the "beloved son" and the beloved who will be offered on the altar of human required sacrifice. In this way the violence against Jesus mimics the violence against Joseph and Isaac.

We find that while Mark's Gospel and the synoptics pick up the theme of beloved Son, that it is Luke who carefully repeats the themes in Chapter 2 of his Gospel. Richard Hays in his book Echoes of the Scripture in the Gospels points out on page 201, how the story of Jesus actually (its Greek vocabulary parallels the Hebrew) rehearses the older scriptural narrative. He writes:

Both in Genesis 37 and in Luke 2, we find a loving parent given pause by the apparently grandiose claims of a young son who will later undergo suffering but then in fact turn out to be vindicated as an elect bearer of Gd's special favor; in both texts the paren "keeps" the word/words and ponders them. 

Theologically it isn't that Jesus is a parallel son of Israel as his faith ancestors, instead because of the nature of the God in the eternal incarnation the sons and daughters of Israel forever reveal the nature of the sacrificial incarnation of God. Jesus is in fact the culmination and perfect revelation of the theme that has been seeded throughout the story of humanity and recored in scripture.