Proper 28, Year B, November 17, 2024

Prayer
You keep vigil, O God, over the fortunes of your people, guiding their destiny in safety as the history of the world unfolds.  Increase our faith that those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall rise again and give us your Spirit to bring forth in our lives the fruit of charity, so that we may look forward every day to the glorious manifestation of your Son, who will come to gather the us into your kingdom.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Mark 13:1-8

"Apocalyptic eschatology is essentially about God working on behalf of humanity, and that is what is introduced in the beginning of this discourse. It leaves God alarmingly free and open to the future."
Commentary, Mark 13:1-8, Micah D. Kiel, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.


"Despite the global disasters that surround us -- some instigated by First World policies -- we'd rather think about a messianic figure who has already arrived and called on us to be kind to our neighbors. But, occasionally, it may be an important reminder to hear an ancient prophet cry out about the fragile nature of the world."
Commentary, Mark 13:1-8, Emerson Powery, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"In the end, 'what larges stones' is itself a statement of faith and it's a statement of faith that Jesus asks us to reconsider."
"Storied Stones," Karoline Lewis, Dear Working Preacher, 2015.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

God makes me nervous. Can I just be honest about that for a moment. When I sit quietly and think about the nature of God, God's unfolding work, my human place within his cosmos, I am aware that I am very nervous about God and how "alarmingly free" the God I believe in actually is.

In our passage today we begin a series of teachings by Jesus which make clear that God's purpose is both great and forever.  At the center of the events unfolding is Jesus in relationship to the Temple.

Not unlike the prophets who offered a vision of Jerusalem's future, or the future of the kingdoms, Jesus offers in our passage today a clarity about nature of the Temple and the downfall which is part of the cosmic plan. 

For our comfort we might easily want to remove the power of these words from taking hold of our hearts by locating the passage historically within the writing of the Markan Gospel following the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 a.d.  Though I agree with this scholastic and critical view, we must always caution ourselves to keep from removing the prophetic voice from our own ears by making this passage simply about the past. Jesus has spoken but the living word also offers us a challenging word today.

The purpose here in Mark is to clearly not speak about the Temple. That is not the point of the text at all! The point of the text is to reveal that the old world is passing away.  Not unlike the passage from Revelation we read last week where in it is clear that a new heaven is already rooting itself in the world and upon taking root is forcing out the world of man.  The point of Jesus' words and the prophecy is to show the reality that this is the new age of God and this is an age that is to be marked by faithfulness and following the living God and Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells us: be careful though because humans will always build new temples and new religions and new teachings.  People will come and they will be false prophets and false leaders. They will tell you a truth that you will want to hear - the church is ruined.  They will seek to lead you - follow me for I know the truth. They will offer a vision that the things of the past are not fading away in the midst of a new future.  What is rooted in Jesus' warnings is not so much that there will be these false teachers but humans out of their desire to be comfortable will seek after them hoping to extinguish the discomfort of God's unfolding destruction of the age of man. 

When human beings get uncomfortable we follow instead of disciple.  When we are feeling the very foundations turn into ashes below us we want a new stronger foundation; and we rarely look forward but look to those who will comfort us with the past. We look for false teachers who offer us a shelter from the storm, the safety of a castle keep, and the island home.  We look for teachers and prophets who will lie to us and tell us that God is safe and predictable and not free.

I am reminded of the Grand Inquisitor in Doestoevsky's Brothers Karamazov as he questions the Messiah upon his return. The Inquisitor is a cardinal and promises that the world the church is creating is better than the world Jesus promises.  He says to the Lord, "So we have done. We have corrected Thy work and have founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority.  And men rejoiced that they were again led like sheep, and that the terrible gift that had brought them such suffering, [your gift of freedom] was, at last, lifted form their hearts.  Were we right teaching them this? Speak!  Did we not love mankind, so meekly acknowledging their feebleness, lovingly lightening their burden, and permitting their weak nature even sin with our sanction? " The temple is passing away even as we speak and it shall be rebuilt as the new heave takes root in our midst.

Nostalgia is after all the idea that we look back at a time that never really existed and make it into a reality which can be compared to the reality we experience in the here and now. It is a way of looking back to a time and place that keeps us from facing the time and place we inhabit today.

Christians have always lived in between the earth which is falling away and the heaven which is not yet fully revealed.  We live in a time which calls not for seeking shelter in the storm but rather for being the shelter in the storm for the world's fearful.  We are the ones, like Jesus, to see the times and the seasons, to know that the what we cling to as humans is passing, that heaven is coming and that safety is not guaranteed but adventure is promised.  This God we worship is free and alarmingly so. This God we worship has a plan and the plans of men are falling in the wake of its eternal progression.

We are as a Christian people invited to cling to Jesus and his love and to counteract the seasons of change.  We are invited to counteract the seasons of change, not by clinging to the temple which is crumbling, or by following every fad that promises a return to a golden age - but rather to counteract the world with love.  So let us endure the birth pangs for the kingdom that is to come requires disciples and apostles to midwife its labors through a mission and proclamation of love.

Some Thoughts on Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18), 19-25

"What is new about the New Covenant, therefore, is not the idea that God loves the world enough to bleed for it, but the claim that here he is actually putting his money where his mouth is."

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

"As the author grounds his goal for church participation in the eschatology of Christ's session, he grounds the guarantee of Christ's session in the character of God. They can hold their confession without wavering, because the one who promised is faithful."

Commentary, Hebrews 10:11-14 [15-18] (Pentecost 25B), Amy L.B. Peeler, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"An intimate and frank relationship with God, openness with one another, and bold public witness that perseveres in the fact of opposition these are the characteristics of the confident community portrayed in today's lesson."

Commentary, Hebrews 10:11-14 [15-18] (Pentecost 24B), Susan Eastman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

So it is that we come to the end of our readings in Hebrews. We understand now clearly from the author all that is meant by Jesus as our great high priest. We understand that he has transformed the ritual sacrifice of other religions of the day by making a one time offer.

And, we are given a revelation of Christ as king of heaven. That he is seated at the heavenly throne. He has completed his work.  He has completed his faithful work. 

Here the author then turns to make it clear that this image he offers is none other than the suffering servant image of the old testament. The author is doing a quite remarkable job of weaving the story together. We get a sense here then not simply of the continuation of ancient ritual and sacrifice but a greater theme of a creative trajectory. 

The author then invites us to respond to the eternal movement of God and the high priestly sacrifice. We are invited to respond with a clarity of purpose and livelihood crafted as a gift in response to God's work. We are also invited to hold fast to our faith. We are marked as Christ's own forever in baptism and our reciprocity is to express this faith through love and good deeds. We are no longer to be bound by other sacrifices, but instead a response to God's mercy and love with mercy and love. 

And, in case you were wondering if the author of Hebrews was an Episcopalian...you are correct. This work is always to be yoked to a worshiping community! 

Some Thoughts on 1 Samuel 1:4-20 or and 1 Samuel 2:1-10

"As political theologians we may be peculiarly vulnerable to the error of neglecting ”or even denying”the significance of the obscure and personal struggles and victories of the faithful that do not assert themselves onto the grand public stage of society."
"The Politics of Hannah's Opened Womb," Alastair Roberts, Political Theology Today, 2015.

"Our heart is looking to increase our abundance, to decrease our suffering, to set free our unique giftedness. When this happens not only do we experience relief, our energy becomes a place of grace for others around us."
"Hannah's Story: When Good Enough is Just Not Enough," Anna Shirey, The Labyrinth Way, 2015.

"God does not operate within a closed system. God is the God of hope, not the God of despair! In God's system, the world operates based on promises that point toward a future with hope and life. The Christian faith is at heart the hope that God already doing that through Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Life poured out on all creation."
"Future," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2015.

"This is a song of revolution where the bows of the mighty are broken and the poor are raised from the dust. Hannah's song penetrates the surface, pointing to the pillars of injustice that must be pulled down. Some of those pillars may be the very ones that put her in such a desperate situation in the first place."
Commentary, 1 Samuel 1:4-20, Karla Suomaia, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

You probably know the story...Hannah cannot bear a child and Elkanah her husband loves her. She is sad, though they have a good family of size and Elkanah's other wife has provided for them. But Hannah wants her own children. This is seen as an outgrowth of her love for Elkanah and her faithfullness. So, Hannah goes to God and prays:

“O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

She does this in the temple where Eli is the priest. Eli, in an almost Jesus like moment, confronts her and they have a bit of a misunderstanding. Eli thinks she is drunk. Then, when he realizes her trouble he says, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”

Now, in time, Hannah bears a son and names him Samuel. Of course this is the young Samuel who will grow up into the great prophet.

The story is important because it is the birth story of Samuel who is given over to Eli by Hannah, as promised. It is easy to have Hannah play only a bit supporting role in this story. I think there is more here though for the preacher.

Hannah is herself a prophet. She is the one who, in the very next chapter, gives voice to the poor. She calls out of her own pain, and she gives voice to the pain of the people. She sings, she prays to God:

“My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory. “There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world. “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail. The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed.”

I don't think you can preach on the first option for this weeks Old Testament without preaching on the second. Yes, Hannah gives birth to Samuel. Samuel will prophetically take on the work that Hannah invites God to undertake.

But here is the great connection. Hannah's song is the song that Mary remembers and brings forward when she hears the news of the birth of the messiah. Hannah is not simply giving voice to the people who struggle in her time. She is giving voice for people in every era who seek deliverance and call out to God from their anguish. Samuel is but the first answer by God to this invitation to intercede - to hear the cry of the people. No. It is the Messiah, God in Christ Jesus, who is the revelation and main actor on behalf of the people.

These are the words to be sung out in Psalm 113 at the Passover meal. These are the words echoed in Luke's account and in Paul's letters. These are the words that are unique to the people of Hannah but to every person persecuted by enemies, oppressed by the mighty, overthrown by armies, who prostitute themselves for bread and food for their children, who sit on the ash heap of life, who sit by the bedside of the dying. This is a song that gives voice to God's promise to care for the weak and the destitute. This is a song that calls out through the voices of Hannah, Mary, around the table at passover in the homes of Jews today and during the Holocaust. This is a song that gives voice to the people of Israel in their imprisonment in Egypt and Babylon. And, and, it is the song of those oppressed, suffering, lost, and selling their souls for bread in our day. This is the song of the street corner and the back alley. This is the song for the people living life in Sheol who are in desperate need of God's mighty hand to reach out and free them.

This is indeed a revolutionary song of the poor. Hannah prophesies not only Mary and the birth of the Messiah. Hannah prophesies the truth about the God we worship - this God cares for the poor, the oppressed, and the imprisoned. This God raised Jesus from the dead, after first raising the people out of Egypt. This God raises people out of their tomb and delivers them.

Hannah, herself and in her own right, is a prophet of the Most High God. Make some space, and giver her some room to speak.

Sermons Preached

Proper 27, Year B, November 10, 2024

Prayer
Robed in glory before all time, O God, your Son was stripped and mocked.  Enthroned in glory at your side, Christ was lifted up on the cross. Equal to you in the splendor of divinity, Jesus emptied himself for our salvation.  Fix our eyes on this self-surrender, stir up our hearts to give freely and generously all that we are and all that we have for the coming of your kingdom.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Mark 12:38-44

"...if we remember that we are called to be stewards of each other – each member committed to the welfare and wellbeing of the rest of the community – maybe we can experience again and anew God’s blessing of us in and through the family of faith."
"Rethinking Stewardship," David Lose, Working Preacher, 2012.

"God?s way is the way of self giving love and God?s community needs to be a place where love has freed people to be like that and that includes its leadership, which can often become an instrument of violence."
"First Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 24, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

This Sunday we have two pericopes or passages linked together.  Perhaps we typically look at this story as a question of piety - the religious leaders of the day vs. the widow.  We also may be tempted to make this about pledging as it falls in the cycle of stewardship season.  As I approach it this year I am thinking a little differently. 

We are given an image of religious leaders who enjoy walking about in long robes, they prefer titles for address, sit in the best seats and always have the first place at dinner.  It is an image of endowed special privilege.

We add to the gospel painting a knowledge that the first century widow herself was not allowed to own property or to self-direct and manager her own wealth makes this an even more interested vision.  Moreover, that the religious leaders of the day were the caretakers of the wealth of such widows makes an even more convoluted picture of the relationship between these leaders and the widow.  She brings her last coin; in part because the offering being made by the religious leaders is also her own offering.  She is giving twice, once from the managed resources held out of her control, and once for the little bit she has in her care.

The picture we get is one of oppression and also one of an intertwined life.

Jesus is very clear that this is not the way of the follower of God and it is not the way of the new kingdom recreating the world.  This is quite simply not how God's home is ordered.

This is clear if we take into consideration Jesus' teaching previously of how we are to be kind to one another and to offer one another help and aid and consolation.  The small acts of human love require great courage in a world and system that typically takes advantage of the weak and those on the boundary of life. Therefore, in some sense what is before us is a commentary by Jesus on how those who follow him are to give their all to God.

The thing is that we cannot also take this as purely as a teaching on human righteousness.  First of all, as one dear friend says: righteousness is not a very good motivating factor for humans.  When I read the passage I am also mindful, as the scholars, that the widow is an image of God and of Jesus in particular. 

So, we might once again approach the passage with this question: what does it tell us about God? 

I think when we do this we see that humanity has received from God all that we are and all that we have.  It is from God's generosity and God's bounty that we make our offering.  Who doesn't love the best food, best clothes, and best seats?  All of us - of course.  But what we are reminded of is that these things (the things we normally think of sacrificial offerings) are all God's.  We have taken them and we use them.  God, like the widow though, continues to give and to give out of his love.

Jesus, like the widow, will give of his all; even his life.  This is the nature of God's love.  That though we take and misuse and use God continues to give and pour out his love upon us.  This was true in the crucifixion and it is true in the resurrection; as it is true in the outpouring of God's perfect love - the Holy Spirit.

So, as I go to my desk to prepare words for this day I am mindful not only in the manner in which we might misuse our power and make subject those who enable our lifestyle...I am rather mindful that of God's love and God's faith, like a widow, who gives us his all.

It makes me think that rather than offering a "try harder" to give of everything sermon I might simply remind myself and the congregation of God's faithfulness and love; and wonder with them about how we are to respond as or God makes his way down the aisle carrying the cross, as if he were a widow who give all.

Some Thoughts on Hebrews 9:24-28

"The cycle of sin and atonement ends in Christ."

Commentary, Hebrews 9:24-28, Pentecost 24B, Amy L.B. Peeler, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"We also encounter the contrast between imitation and reality in relationship to matters of faith."

Commentary, Hebrews 9:24-28, Pentecost 23B, Susan Eastman, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

We draw closer to the end to our reading of Hebrews. The author too wishes now to put a very fine point on his argument. Let there be no misunderstanding, regardless of your tradition, Christ has passed through the gap and entered into heaven on our behalf. This has happened and it need not happen again. Our sin has been taken away by the one who has gone before us to prepare a place for us.

There is no rebreaking of the bread, or Christ's body, there is no sacrifice necessary, no work to be done on our behalf, no matter how early or late you come to the party, the blood has been shed and the sins of many are forgiven. And, just as he came into the world to do this work, to save the sinner, so when he returns he will be about his father's business again. Not to judge, for that judgement has been made, and the price has been settled, and so we - in that time - shall be gathered in.

Some Thoughts on Ruth 3:1 - 4:17

"Through her friendship with Ruth, Naomi again experiences a joy untold. In a world, ancient or contemporary, where people are unwilling to extend themselves on behalf of others and be changed for the better by the encounter, this story stands as an indictment of closed hearts, minds, and spirits of any age." 
Commentary, Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17, Alphonetta Wines, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.


"Ruth followed her mother-in-law's advice to the letter, and it worked like a charm. Boaz was so overwhelmed that she'd pay attention to an old crock like him when there were so many young bucks running around in tight-fitting jeans that he fell for her hook, line, and sinker and, after a few legal matters were taken care of, made her his lawful wedded wife." 
"Ruth," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"This week's reading concludes the book of Ruth, which was begun last week. The prescribed passages appear to be representative of the book overall, and especially this week preachers must fill in the gaps."  
Commentary, Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17, Pentecost 24B, Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012. 

"What does the Lord require of you? Is it to be a present-day redeemer for another? It will not be necessary for you to give your life, or even to relocate to another country. Much simpler acts of reaching out to help others in need is what the world needs now." 
Risking Relationships that Redeem, Pentecost 24, Mary Lautensleger, 2012. 

Oremus Online NRSV Text

We continue our reading in Ruth this week. In this weeks passage Naomi explains to Ruth how she is to go about involving herself in the life of Boaz. Ruth follows the instructions. Boaz sees her as loyal and promises to further help her become part of the family.

Boaz goes to his kinsmen and explains Naomi's situation as well as how Ruth has faithfully served and that as one takes on the fields and wealth of Naomi so too comes with her the faithful Ruth. Boaz ends us himself taking them into his house. 

Ruth bears a son, who is to be the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David. Of Ruth and the child the women say:

“Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.”

We wrote a great deal about this passage in our last week's post. Here we see the culmination of Ruth's faithfulness. She is faithful to Naomi and so is received into the house of Israel. However, to think this is merely about Ruth's faithfulness is to miss the deep theology here.

Israel, through this story, is wrestling with the intermarriage of foreigners within their tribes. So, here is a story that explains not only how such intermarriage has come to be - in other words it is a kind of creation story; it is also a story about how the faithfulness of the people in welcoming the stranger into their midst brings about blessings too. 

The story is about the community's faithfulness to welcome the stranger. It is a story not only of welcoming and hospitality, it is a story about how the community makes a foreigner one of its own. 

The story of Ruth lives out the invitation of God to create a community of diverse people who live in peace.

It is a story that reveals that the community needs foreigners and strangers in order for itself to thrive. You see...without Ruth...there is not Davidic reign. Without the Davidic reign there is not precursor of the great messianic reign of David. 

And, we must remember that Jesus himself is born into the lineage of David. 

What this means is that the messiahship of Christ, the unique person of God in Jesus, is itself rooted in the reality that the community welcomed a foreigner into their midst and made her one of their own. 

Let us be clear. Without the acceptance of Ruth the Moabite (an enemy of Israel) into the familial lineage of Jesse, then David, and onto Jesus...there is no messiahship. The community's salvation comes, quite literally, from welcoming the stranger and enemy as one of Israel's own.
 

Some Thoughts on 1 Kings 17:8-24

This passage also appears in 5c

"The literary shifts that bring us to chapter 17 in the book of Kings make Elijah the central character of this narrative."
Commentary, 1 Kings 17:8-16, Steed Davidson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"The widow's doubt, as well as her profession of faith, may also be our own. It is easy to believe in death-dealing powers, for that is what we witness in the world every day. It is much harder to imagine the power of love that conquers death."
Commentary, 1 Kings 17:17-24 (Pentecost 3C), Cameron Howard, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"The proclamation of biblical texts in the context of a community of faith feeds the religious imagination of that community, and provides an opportunity to challenge naïve ethical conclusions that do not fully appreciate the impact of religious and political decisions on people at risk of starvation and death. They challenge the assumption that God is best seen in glorious victory and suggest that God is more present among those whose lives are most affected by the decisions of those in power."
Commentary, 1 Kings 17:8-16 (Pentecost 3C), Corrine Carvalho, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"The encounter between Elijah and widow is an inspiration and a challenge for today?s moderate and progressive churches and institutions: an inspiration to explore today?s perceived 'impossibilities' in light of divine wisdom and to trust God enough to generously share with others, knowing that generosity connects us with the energy of the universe and the wisdom of God, which will provide for our deepest needs."
Surprising Abundance, Bruce Epperly, Faith Forward, Patheos, 2010.

Oremus Online Text

This is the story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath. Elijah comes to the widow to stay there. He is commanded to go by God. While staying in her home there is not enough food. But Elijah tells her to have faith and the food they have is multiplied. While there the widow's son dies. Elijah prays over the son and he lives. 

In both cases the woman is upset because she has not enough. She is upset because having such a great prophet in her house has arisen her understanding of her own low station. This again comes out as the boy dies. She tells him that her sins have brought this upon her. Furthermore, she is a widow. This means she has no station and more than likely she is completely dependent upon the people of the area, the tribal leaders. 

To make this more interesting, the land of Zarephath was north of where the tribe of Asher settled and east of where the tribe of Dan. It was a land predominately made up of Phoenicians and Canaanites. So like Jesus who flees to Egypt, or spends 40 days in the desert, or the mission to the Gentiles our story has a particular flair for taking place in an uncharted territory where the people of Israel are not present. In other words God and God's deliverance and power comes to rest on people who are foreigners to Israel. And, in doing so one of God's own, Elijah, is cared for as well. He must depend upon the kindness of God and of this widow.

This is a gospel story. She, like so many widows in the scripture, is one of the least of God's people. She is considered of no value. Not only because she is widow, but most likely not of Israel. So she is an extreme outsider. Yet it is exactly to them that God comes, in this story in the presence of one of the greatest prophets of Israel. God comes and provides. God comes and raises the dead.

The God of Israel is a God of the widow and the child, of those who have none, and those who are not worthy. It is exactly to the lost and the least (Robert Farrar Capon's term from Kingdom, Grace, and Judgement) that this God comes. 

And, though the least of God's people have nothing, and are lost in suffering and death, this God is present and acts. This is the God who freed the people of Israel out of bondage. In the book of Kings this God continues to act in the affairs of mortals - acting exactly for the those who are imprisoned by loss, hunger, scarcity, brokenness, and are of no value to society.

Sermons Preached 

"You Are Almost There"
Sermon on Mark 12.38, the Widows Mite, proper 27b, preached at St. Stephen's in Beaumont and St. Paul's Kilgore, November 8 2015

"The Widow's Iphone Ap"
Meditating on the Widow's mite in Mark's Gospel chapter 12:38-44, Proper 27B. November 25, 2009.

Proper 26, Year B, November 3, 2024

Prayer
You are one God, O Lord, and beside you there is no other.  You alone are we to love with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.  Sharpen our ears to hear this great commandment.  Arouse our hearts to offer this twofold love.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

*Most people will transfer All Saints to this Sunday. If you do not, this is the set of lessons for the day.

Some Thoughts on Mark 12:28-34

"Sacrifices and outward worship never pleased God unless we first did the things which we owe to God and our neighbours."

From the Geneva Notes.

"All of us who spend our days swimming in the fickle currents of the church, at war with things both petty and impossible -- tired, sometimes, before the meeting begins -- that we are not far from the kingdom."

"Extra Credit," Robin R. Meyers, The Christian Century, 2000. At Religion Online.

Oremus Online NRSV Text


The passage is one set with a narrative of confrontation between the religious leaders of Jesus' day and the message that he brings to the world.  The re-genesis of the world is now and the kingdom and dominion of God is now.

God is one, not a static one, but one forever.  God is unity and unifying.  God is working the unity of the world with God and has been doing so from the beginning of time.  The world above and the world below are being unified in the work of Jesus and the work of God. (Marcus, Mark, vol 2, 845)

In a time when God seems distant and when all seems lost, both for the first followers of Jesus and for the Jewish empire itself, this is a radical message.  God is even now joining heaven and earth.

And even more radical is the message it entails: Love God and love neighbor and we shall be connected.  Part of the very work from the creations time is the work of becoming a loving community focused upon God and the neighbor.

I am rereading The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky and remember now the Elder's words in the section entitled "An Unfortunate Gathering," chapter 4.  Here the Elder speaks of active love.

"By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbour actively and indefatigably.  In as far as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul.  If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbour, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul.  This has been tried. This is certain." (1912 trans by Constance Garnett, p53)

This is love which Jesus speaks about is a "one way love" as my friend the Rev. Dr. Paul Zahl talks about it. God has one way unifying love for the creation and for the creature wherein the two dominions are to be joined together beyond any one man's ability to try and put it asunder.  Jesus tells us that we are to be about this one way love as well.  Our one way love is to be directed towards God and towards others.

On this occasion when I read the passage I enjoyed most Jesus last words to his dear inquisitor: "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  This one way active love is greater than all burnt offerings and sacrifices to be sure; and yet it is so very hard to do!!!

As the Elder offers consolation to the young woman seeking to communicate how hard this active love is he comforts her and then offers:

"I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.  Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sigh to fall.  Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage.  But active love is labour and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps a complete science.  But I predict that just when you see with horror that in spite of all your efforts you are getting further from your goal instead of nearer to it -- at that very moment I predict that you will reach it and behold clearly the miraculous power of the Lord who has been all the time loving and mysteriously guiding you."  (Ibid, 55)

How easy is the dream of doing Jesus' guiding commandment, how hard to be constantly about active love. So you see we are all so very near the kingdom of God.  Just in the moment when all is lost we may in fact clearly recognize the one way love of God and so be redeemed.  And, in the moments when we offer such love on way to the other we are near.

That is good news it seems to me.  We are being joined and knit together in a new creation by God through God's love.  And, we in life, as we draw close we automatically begin to give that love to others.

I doubt this Sunday that a "work harder on loving God and neighbor" sermon will produce the desired results.  But a sermon of God's one way, uniting love, may in fact be just the medicine for the wounded heart and just the thing to knit our own fractured lives together.

Some Thoughts On Hebrews 9:11-15

"We might even seek to emulate the level of creativity our author has shown when we face the challenge of speaking this same message to people in our day who live in a different symbolic world but face substantially the same needs."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary,"Pentecost 23, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

God first came to Jesus' people in the wild places. The message in this week's lesson from Hebrews is a great missionary encouragement. It reminds us that the Gospel took place out in the wild in the midst of a tent. The author also reminds us that the old ways were ways that were repeated on a seasonal and regular basis.

Jesus is our great high priest, and while we are called to remember his sacrifice - this is not a repeat of it. We are invited to ponder instead the perfection of Jesus' sacrifice and to worship a living God who has broken open the temple, mended the gulf between heaven and earth, and who invites us once again out into the world, into the wildness for we are free and a redeemed people.

Some Thoughts On Ruth 1:1-19

"Ruth followed her mother-in-law's advice to the letter, and it worked like a charm. Boaz was so overwhelmed that she'd pay attention to an old crock like him when there were so many young bucks running around in tight-fitting jeans that he fell for her hook, line, and sinker and, after a few legal matters were taken care of, made her his lawful wedded wife."
Ruth," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"People are often surprised to find that the words from Ruth 1:16b-17, often heard at weddings, are not about the joys of beginning a new life together."
Commentary, Ruth 1:1-18, Alphonetta Wines, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"I wish the church could be as open-hearted and buopen-minded and free as it was on that little patch of front lawn as the sun came out from behind the clouds. I wish that we could affirm as truly as we did there that wherever people love each other and are true to each other and take risks for each other, God is with them and for them and they are doing God's will."
"Buechner on Marriage Equality," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.


"I hear in my own life a call to love those who chose to stay behind in a theology of literalism and punitiive justice AS WELL AS those who are determined to journey with me into a life with the God of love, radical hospitality and social justice."
"And She Blessed Them Both," Kimberly Knight, Day1, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

First, It is too bad that this Sunday lesson falls where it does. We get so few chances to read Ruth! I do hope that in the coming few weeks you will recapture this first reading and do some preaching on this part of God's narrative.

Now, so you don't have to look through your books, let us have a bit of a refresher. The story takes place sometime before 1000 B.C.E. Israel is ruled by tribal chiefs. Mostly these are small communities that are internally focused. From time to time they might have to fight but for the most part they are a people living unto themselves. There is no overall unity and the scripture describes the time as one without a leader. The story is important for a number of reasons. Partly, the story is important because the scribes will link David to Ruth's son. He is to be David's grandfather. 

This is a story about migration. It is a story about people on the inside and people on the outside. It is a story about how foreigners were blamed for the problems of the society to which they came. It is about scapegoating foreigners and migrants who wander into the land. There is intermarriage, as we will see, and this causes no shortage of consternation for the tribal elders. 

This reading tells us there is a famine in the land. That the land is ruled by judges. Elimelech migrates to Moab to escape the famine with his wife Naomi. There are two sons. They marry and then they die. There are three widows now and they are trying to discern what to do. They find out the famine is over and they want to go back...to return.

It is Naomi's thought that she will leave the two widows to live and remarry in their own native land. She will return to her family. There are no more sons to marry. Naomi frees the two women as she leaves.

But Ruth says the following:

 “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17Where you die, I will die— there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”

With these words Ruth pledges herself to Naomi. So it is that they all leave and go with Naomi back to Judah. What is profound is that Ruth does not have to do this. Ruth returns to a land where she will not be welcomed, where she will be seen as a foreigner, and where she has no future.

This very first chapter reveals God's faithfulness and the faithfulness, the steadfastness, of faith that is a characteristic of God's people. It is a characteristic found even in the foreigner who comes and dwells among the chosen. She will go where Naomi goes. Ruth is a character in the narrative of God marked for her tenacity of faith.

While she will not be welcomed and even seen as part of the "calamity" that befell Naomi, Ruth will be a key ingredient to the health and vitality of the people of Israel.

How often we see the other, the foreigner, the migrant person seeking life among a new people as a burden. God's story, God's narrative flips this on its head. Not unlike most of God's narrative, the story of Ruth takes what we see in the world and flips it so we see the world differently. In this story, we will discover, the migrant and foreigner are essential ingredients to the overall faithfulness and steadfastness of the people of God. We discover that we are not complete without the outsider.


Sermons Preached

All Saints Day All Saints Year B

Thoughts for All Saints Sunday

Quotes That Make Me Think

"The epiphany is that we are to see ourselves in Lazarus and see the miracle of his restoration of physical life as the beginning of our entry into eternal life that begins the moment we accept Jesus' offer of relationship with us."

"Lazarus Is Us," Reflections on John 11:1-45, Alyce McKenzie, Edgy Exegesis, Patheos, 2011.

"This story about Lazarus shares much in common with that of the Samaritan woman at the well. With the Samaritan woman the issue was seeing Jesus as the source of living water as compared to ordinary water. Here the issue is to see Jesus as the source of living life as compared to ordinary life."

Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, John 11:1-45, David Ewart, 2011.

General Resources for Sunday's Lessons

Prayer
is the multitude, God of all holiness, countless the throng you have assembled from the rich diversity of all earth's children.  With your church in glory, your church in this on lifts up our hands in prayer, our hearts in thanksgiving and praise.  Pattern our lives on the blessedness Jesus taught, and gather us with all the saints into your kingdom's harvest, that we may stand with them and, clothed in glory, join our voices to their hymn of thanksgiving and praise.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on John 11:32-44

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Textweek Resources for this week's Gospel

Some congregations will move All Saints to this Sunday, so it seemed appropriate to also spend a few minutes reflecting on the Gospel appointed in this year's cycle for All Saints.  This is also our reading in Year A, Lent 5.  I begin with one of my favorite prayers:

O my all-merciful God and Lord,
Jesus Christ, full of pity:
Through Your great love You came down
and became incarnate in order to save everyone.
O Savior, I ask You to save me by Your grace!
If You save anyone because of their works,
that would not be grace but only reward of duty,
but You are compassionate and full of mercy!
You said, O my Christ,
"Whoever believes in Me shall live and never die."
If then, faith in You saves the lost, then save me,
O my God and Creator, for I believe.
Let faith and not my unworthy works be counted to me, O my God,
for You will find no works which could account me righteous.
O Lord, from now on let me love You as intensely as I have loved sin,
and work for You as hard as I once worked for the evil one.
I promise that I will work to do Your will,
my Lord and God, Jesus Christ, all the days of my life and forever more.

Prayer of St. John Chrysostom

"The point of the saying, and ultimately of the narrative as a whole, is to make and celebrate the claim that people who believe in Jesus find life. It is eternal life, which includes timelessness or eternity in the temporal sense, but the focus is quality not quantity. It is sharing the life of God here and now and forever." writes William Loader.

John's Gospel is a wonderful proclamation of the power, divinity, and transformation that is available to every person through Jesus Christ. The author has written, among the four Gospels, a compelling witness to Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the giver of light, breath, and life from the very creation of the earth.

The story of the raising of Lazarus has never ceased to inspire and enliven both my imagination and my heart for the work of the Gospel. Our Gospel this week is the highest of revelationary narratives in the Gospel in both form and in content.

Jesus' raising of Lazarus is a reason why so many follow him and is clear in 12:17-18. He is as we know and have been experiencing throughout the Lenten readings the giver of life. (see 5:25-29), and precipitating his death (see 11:53). If we were reading along we would see that this is the last of a second set of miracle stories in John's Gospel that follow and highlight Jesus' teaching and conversation with his followers.

The passage begins with Jesus away and teaching, he is not present for his friend or his friends family. They come to get him and tell him that Lazarus has died. The words used to describe Jesus reaction to this are words that tell us he was affected greatly by the news. Again Jesus speaks of the work that must be done while he is with them, and that the work must be done in the light. Certainly these are like the other sayings that we have seen apocalyptic forecasts. Nevertheless, the very real human loss and desire for life is ever present as Jesus leaves to go to where Lazarus is buried.

He is of course returning to a place where he has shown power before and a place of danger. You might remember that he was almost stoned though he passed through them. 10:31, 39.

Jesus states that Lazarus has fallen asleep. This is a common reference to death in the time of Jesus and after. Chris Haslaam has done some very good research and provides links for other parts of the New Testament that say the same thing: "A common New Testament description of death: see Matthew 9:24; Mark 5:39; Acts 7:60; 1 Corinthians 15:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 5:10. (In several of these verses, the NRSV has died; however, the Greek can also be translated fell asleep.) [NOAB]"

Jesus words of peace and comfort are kind and simple....things will be better...they will be all right. Yet we must also realize that the word used here is one that means "to be saved." Sosthesetai is translated into "be saved." It is the word for salvation. Our witness to the raising of Lazarus is not simply a witness then to healing story, or an act of kindness, or a hopeful act, but a transformational act of restoration of health - of true salvation. It is a miracle, which like the other miracles in John's Gospel, clearly represent the work of glorifying God through the ministry of Jesus.

We are told that Lazarus had been in the grave for three days. There is a lot written around the idea of the Jewish burial services and the timeliness of such activities once the person has died. But I do not wish to get into this though it is interesting. I believe that the real meat of the text is in the conversation about salvation and resurrection.

As we continue the discourse on the resurrection we note that the Pharisees believed, along with other popular movements of the day, that all the Jews would be raised. Gentiles too if their integrity was judged by God to be suitable. I like how Chris Haslaam has written about these next two verses.

Verse 25: Jesus modifies Pharisaic doctrine. His words are not only about resurrection but also about the fate of those faithful to him. Jesus is not only the agent of final resurrection but also gives life now: see also Romans 6:4-5; Colossians 2:12; 3:1. Mere physical death can have no hold over the believer. [NOAB]
Verse 26: The believer has passed from the death of sin into life: see also Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8. [BlkJn]

Jesus then gives life now and in the age to come. Immediately Martha offers the same statement as the blind man in last weeks lesson. Her words, while a question refer to previous affirmations in the Gospel. She is convinced...convinced that the proclamation of Andrew on the Galilean shore was true 1:41. She is convinced that Nathanael's proclamation is true. 1:49. She is convinced that the good news revealed int he feeding of the 5 thousand is true. 6:14.


Jesus approaches the tomb and calls Lazarus forth. It is not a resurrection story. But we cannot miss the connections as Jesus calls forth the dead from the tomb as he will most certainly do in the Easter miracle bringing all of the saints into light.

I also am struck by the reality that Lazarus must be unbound and that many participate with Jesus in this work of freeing him from death into life, from darkness into light.

The Gospel tells us that this miracle of reviving Lazarus is for the glory of God. It is also brings many more into the Jesus movement. We cannot see the disturbing events that lay ahead of Jesus without seeing the impact of this great miracle on the movement itself. For surely, as the Gospel testifies, the leaders of the day were worried and concerned.

This is a great miracle story. It is one that is rich with inter-textual meaning and connections. It highlights Jesus' as the one who gives life and breath. As Jesus says in the beginning of the text day is becoming night, and yet as we read we see that it will be Jesus who brings us out of the shadow of the darkness of the tomb into the light of day.

The witness of this passage is an evangelical one pointing us to the truth of the person of Jesus Christ so that we might believe and then raise the dead ourselves!

We are here at the precipice of our readings of Jesus' ministry.  On this day we remember the saints of God who have gone before us, we are mindful then of our own tomb and our own death yet to come.  We hope in God and Christ Jesus that this death will not be an end but a passing.  We hoep with sure and certain faith that God has raised Lazarus and in his work to bridge the kingdom of God with the world that we shall be scooped up into his harms, unbound from our eathly ego and all that binds us.

Some Thoughts on Revelation 21:1-6

"In Revelation 21, people do not go to heaven as most people have been taught but rather God comes down to earth to dwell with mortals -- "the new Jerusalem descends from heaven," and God makes a home among mortals (21:2-3)."
Commentary, Revelation 21:1-6, Israel Kamudzandu, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.


"Contrary to popular apocalyptic thinking, there is no 'rapture' or a future snatching of Christians up from the earth in Revelation. Instead, it is God who is 'raptured' down to earth to take up residence among us."
Commentary, Revelation 21:1-6, Barbara Rossing, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"Revelation envisions a renewal, not an escape."
Commentary, Revelation 21:1-6, Greg Carey, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 25:6-9

"The theological tension in Isaiah 25:1-9 means that while we aren't given an earthly means for overcoming all disasters and tragedies, we are given a glimpse of a world in which death is swallowed up forever and 'God will wipe away the tears from all faces' (v. 8)."
Commentary, Isaiah 25:1-9, James K. Mead, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2008.

"In this remarkable passage, the Lord prepares a lavish feast at the Lord's own sacred mountain."
Commentary, Isaiah 25:6-9, Anathea Portier-Young, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"Lofty poetry does matter. It may even change the world. For instance, the words of the American Declaration of Independence, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, have been reutilized several times to envision equalities that lay well beyond the imagination of its original writers."
Commentary, Isaiah 25:1-9, Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

This passage is an Easter passage and also comes up in year A as an option around this time of year.

It is of course the great banquet on Mount Zion.

Isaiah prophesies to the people in Babylon a message of hope. He has prophesied that God cares about his people who are dispersed, enslaved, and treated as instruments of the victor. He writes:

Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. 

Isaiah prophesies that God will remove the shroud that covers the people and they will return home. God will not only feed them good food as promised, rich food, but fat and well-aged wine. God will even defeat death. These next words are the words we recall at Easter:

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

The prophet then speaks of religious violence and how the feast of the table will be set on the backs of the defeat of the Moabites.

Richard Hays, in Echoes of the Scripture in the New Testament, believes that this is part of the divine narrative of ingathering that is picked up by Matthew in his apocalyptic understanding. (137) God will blow a great trumpet, each person will be gathered up, into the divine heavens and sit at the table of the most high God. Matthew sees very much God's restoration of Israel through the Incarnation as a mimetic repetition of God's overarching story of gathering God's people. See also Isaiah 27:13, Psalms of Solomon 17:26, and Matthew 19. (Ibid.)

Many Christians without the benefit of reading the whole text will miss the intertextual role of judgment in these passages. We get blinders on and make this about an apocalyptic/eschatalogical final judgment. However, judgment is more often used through the whole text to mean governing. In other words this final gathering of people at God's table will be to bring to fruition God's garden social imaginary where in all people are living together. God is governing and not the powers and authorities of the world.

Now...what about those Moabites. We would say that Isaiah is listening to God, to the Christ, the Living Word, and pronouncing the vision of God's coming reign. However, that does not mean that he benefits from the full revelation of the God in Christ Jesus. He cannot imagine the table being set without religious violence being enacted to bring about peace. Jesus however reveals that his death upon the cross, Christ's death upon the cross is in fact payment for all. Like a great black hole, when death swallows up God in Christ Jesus, death swallows up all religious violence along with it. When Jesus is resurrected the world begins its next stage of the journey wherein religious violence, and all violence is no longer of value in the faith of man. 

What we have in the Text is God revealing a living word that will gather all people at the table of fellowship. Here it is none other than the suffering servant of Isaiah that has set the table. Jesus' message to love God and love neighbor, his presence with all sorts and conditions of people, and his eating with sinners reveals that we have only a partial revelation in this passage. We must read the text with the hermeneutic of a missional Jesus. We read it with the hermeneutic of Christ crucified, of very God upon the cross, putting an end to all religious scapegoating and violence. We can no longer read Isaiah's prophesy as a mandate to kill the oppressor, the Moabite, the Ammonite, of our day. We are not given license to kill.

As my friend Stanley Hauerwas likes to quip, the Israelites are trying to get over their need for religious violence. We see this in the contradictions in Job (we just read) and in the story of Abraham and Jonah in Nineveh.

Here is what St. Ireneaus has to say about reading scripture without God in Christ Jesus and his cross:

If anyone, therefore, reads the Scriptures this way, he will find in them the Word concerning Christ, and a foreshadowing of the new calling. For Christ is the “treasure which was hidden in the field” [Matt 13:44], that is, in this world – for “the field is the world” [Matt 13:38] – [a treasure] hidden in the Scriptures, for he was indicated by means of types and parables, which could not be understood by men prior to the consummation of those things which had been predicted, that is, the advent of the Lord. And therefore it was said to Daniel the prophet, “Shut up the words, and seal the book, until the time of the consummation, until many learn and knowledge abounds. For, when the dispersion shall be accomplished, they shall know all these things” [Dan 12:4, 7]. And Jeremiah also says, “In the last days they shall understand these things” [Jer 23:20]. For every prophecy, before its fulfillment, is nothing but an enigma and ambiguity to men; but when the time has arrived, and the prediction has come to pass, then it has an exact exposition (ἐξήγησις). And for this reason, when at this present time the Law is read by the Jews, it is like a myth, for they do not possess the explanation (ἐξήγησις) of all things which pertain to the human advent of the Son of God; but when it is read by Christians, it is a treasure, hid in a field, but brought to light by the cross of Christ, and explained, both enriching the understanding of men, and showing forth the wisdom of God, and making known his dispensations with regard to man, and prefiguring the kingdom of Christ, and preaching in anticipation the good news of the inheritance of the holy Jerusalem, and proclaiming beforehand that the man who loves God shall advance so far as even to see God, and hear his Word, and be glorified, from hearing his speech, to such an extent, that others will not be able to behold his glorious countenance [cf. 2 Cor 3:7], as was said by Daniel, “Those who understand shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and many of the righteous as the stars for ever and ever” [Dan 12:3]. In this manner, then, I have shown it to be, if anyone read the Scriptures. (Against the Heresies 4.26.1)

Stanley Hauerwas, commenting on this passage here in a short essay on how to read the bible, writes:

But once the Messiah is raised from the dead and the Spirit is poured out, the Old Testament becomes a luminous testimony to the Savior and Creator of the universe. As Fr Andrew Greeley once remarked: “Christ turned the world upside down; and when the world was viewed from such a remarkable perspective, it suddenly made sense.” 

Contemporary theology and biblical studies, with its privileging of the historical-critical method, inevitably finds the apostolic hermeneutic an embarrassment. Neither the Apostles nor the Church Fathers treated the biblical writings as documents whose meaning lies exclusively in the text itself. If they had, there would have been neither gospel nor Church. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the canon of faith.

Why am I saying all this? Because when we preach on a passage such as this and let the Moabite prophesy go unanswered we allow people to make up their own mind. People like the idea of religious violence, scapegoating, and repeating ancient habits of violence in judgement because we naturally multiply the sin of Cain. We must, perhaps only in a few words, answer the Moabite question for it is the answer needed when it comes to our modern day fears and enemies (pretend and real).

This is indeed a passage about how God will bring all people, all the faithful departed, together. How God will make all the sinners saints by the handiwork of God's cross. This is a prophesy that speaks of hope for all people. A hope of sitting at table in this world with Jesus - as both giver and guest. And...sitting at table with God and all people at the coming of the reign of God who shall govern such that even the lion and lamb shall lay down together. 

Proper 25, Year B, October27, 2024

Prayer
God our Savior, from the ends of the earth you gather the weak and the lowly.  You make them a great and glad multitude, refreshed and renewed at your hand.  Throwing off the burden of sin, they run to the Teacher for healing.  Let the faith Christ bestows restore to the church this vision of the gathering that embraces the weary and wounded of this world.  We ask this through Christ, with whom you have raised us up in baptism, the Lord 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 B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Mark 10:46-52

"...what would you do if failure didn't matter? What would you endeavor, dare, or try? What mission would you attempt, what venture would you risk, what great deed would you undertake?"

"Bartimaeus, Luther, and the Failed Reformation," David Lose, Working Preacher, 2012.


"How do we retell the story without sidelining blind people today? That is easier said than done. If we play up the miraculous we heighten the pain where healing is not happening and may be impossible. Piety can easily race by in the euphoria of symbolism and the only abiding message is; we are irrelevant and you are irrelevant."

"First Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 22, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"If your prayer isn't answered, this may tell you more about you and your prayer than it does about God. If God doesn't seem to be giving you what you ask, maybe he's giving you something else."

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

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Jesus has been teaching that the society of the kingdom of God is one marked by servanthood rather than rank or power.  He has prophesied that his own life will end as the suffering servant and that he will be raised.  He has offered a vision of a new world; a recreated world. 

Jesus has also offered an understanding of discipleship which is one in which the follower leaves the comfort of life in order to help the lives of those who are comfortless.

So it is that we come to the roadside outside Jericho.  This passage is filled with drama and symbolism. 

Jesus makes his way in the business of a crowd towards Jerusalem; always with his face set like a flint to the cross.  And from the margins, from the edge of this mission, comes the cry of the blind man.  He is at first hushed by those around Jesus.  This is a reminder of how easy it is while trying to be faithful to be deaf to those on the edge who faith is intended to help.   How blind the crowd of Jesus followers is to the cries from the edge.  And, I imagine them hushing him again, and saying, "We are too busy following Jesus."  So it is the blindness of the followers of Jesus that is revealed as Bartimaeus' sight ever sharpens.

Bartimaeus knows all that is happening and in the story and he cries out.  Sometimes I think in the midst of life we are unaware of just how aware those on the margin are - prophetically aware. This hit me squarely as I read through Joel Marcus' textual exegesis and he offered this from a boot entitle Memory; about the holocaust: 

The uncanny effect of this sort of blind sight is evoked by Douglas' description of a Holocaust survivor who wore dark glasses during her testimony at Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem:  "She appeared, then, to be blind (though she was not), an impression made all the more striking as the dramatic force of her testimony found focus in the words 'I saw everything.'" (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 2, 763)

As the passing diorama makes its way, Bartimaeus shouts ever louder.  Jesus stops, invites his petition, and then heals him.  The response to this event is the throwing off of his clothes, the clarity of sight about the world around him, and then Bartimaeus follows.

Joel Marcus and others remind us that the passage is very much linked to early baptismal rites.  For example this one from Marcus' commentary.

Baptizand: "Have mercy on me!"
Deacon, in the role of Jesus to the congregation: "Call him."
Congregation: "Be brave, get up, he's calling you."
Baptizand removes his clothes and approaches the deacon.
Deacon to Baptizand: "What do you want me to do?"
Baptizand: "I want to be illuminated."
Deacon, baptizing him: "Your faith has saved you."
(Mark, vol 2, 765)

So in our passage today we are given wonderful new ways of seeing ourselves and our following.  We are able to see the world of servanthood to the comfortless.  We are to interpret our own faith journey in light of being given sight to see and to follow.  We are given an encouraging word to cast off our clothes, to move from the edge into the center of the stage, and to participate in the new ways of this strange emerging kingdom of God.

We should be careful first not to punish our own crowd that will sit before us as preachers this weekend.  We should remember they too are there like Bartimaeus, on the fringe of society, doing something most people will not do this week's end - go to church. They are there calling out for a bit of grace and mercy and kindness. They are calling out for love. 

The preacher has a dual-task this week's end, both to stop as Jesus did, and remind the blind of his love for them. To stop and pause for a moment so that their sight might be restored and so they can follow along the way.  That they might cast off their clothes that bind them, so that they may enter the crowd of life and along the way help others to see as well. 

The passage reminds me that the Christian Church is not a society of the wealthy who redistribute their wealth for the sake of the poor, but a community of blind people seeking clarity of sight so that we might in turn help our brothers and sisters see.

Epistle Hebrews 7:23-28

"While of major interest in the first century, most Christians today do not think much about the nature of the priesthood. Amidst this comparison, however, the author makes some very important statements about how Jesus accomplished human salvation."

Commentary, Hebrews 7:23-28, Scott Shauf, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"He died once; he intercedes perpetually."

From Wesley's Notes.

"One reason that Jesus the High Priest can offer this eternal salvation is that he can focus his priestly work on intercession because he has already taken care of the problem of sin. Other priests are daily occupied with sin removal (Hebrews 7:27)."

Commentary, Hebrews 7:23-28, Amy L B. Peeler, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Jesus is the new high priest and the author here reiterates this work in case the reader/hearer did not understand the first time.  So it is that we are told (as if from a different vantage point) that Jesus is able to provide this once for all intercession on our behalf. The cross of Christ is a one-time victory for all sin and not a rehearsal each time there is sin. Christ is not continually offering Christ's self for humanity but instead, this one-time defeat and victory over sin and death is a "sufficient sacrifice once offered" as our prayer book liturgy reminds us.

This one-time offering is therefore also a better offering than human priesthood and a new and better covenant than the many old ones. For here in this new covenant, we are redeemed forever and marked as Christ's own.

Furthermore, this offering is perfect(ed) in that it is God's offering instead of our own human offering. It is God's offering and of such a quality that it is everlasting. 

Sometimes, I think our faith is tested not by our belief that God reached across the cosmos to embrace us and has forever mended the gulf between us but that such an occurrence and work of Jesus is forever. I think we sometimes lack the belief that Christ is victorious. So we might say that we know that Christ is our intermediary, our great high priest, but we should get to work saving ourselves just in case.

In this lack of faith in Christ's sufficient work on our behalf, we return to an old law. In this old law we are the priest who is completely imprisoned by our sin, brokenness, and fallen-shortness of the kingdom. Here we must continually offer new sacrifices trying to live into some ideal. Here we attempt to acquire a list of qualities that we might repeatedly purify ourselves. Each of our sacrifices, like the sacrifices of the religious priesthood of Jesus' own day, were made over and over again for the sake of salvation. 

The high priesthood of Christ is once and for all, there is no more sinful economic exchange required on our part.

Some Thoughts on Job 42:1-17

"What can Job possibly say to God after hearing God finally speak?"
Commentary, Job 42:1-6, 10-17, Karla Suomala, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"The only hope for a truly 'happy ending' for us all is that we truly do serve a God of all grace who is rich in mercy and compassion and kindness."
The Center for Excellence in Preaching commentary and sermon illustrations, Scott Hoezee, 2015.


"The resolution to the crisis of injustice in our world is found neither in giving up on God nor in the simplistic presumption that God won't let bad things happen to good people It is found in continuing to believe that God will never abandon you or me or anyone in this world, especially in the midst of suffering."
"Where Is Justice?" Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2015.

"This epilogue to the book of Job is, for many readers, hard to accept."Commentary, Job 42:1-6, 10-17, Kathryn Schifferdecker, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"In one sense I find the epilogue disappointing because it appears to support the idea that the righteous come out alright in the end and the wicked are punished. Job is rewarded for being faithful. Some scholars try to put an interpretation which says it was a free gift of God and not a reward. This is a bit difficult to sustain in light of the context."
Job 42:1-17, Pentecost 21, Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in Australia.

"I've always appreciated how the Lutherans of the Reformation made this point. They distinguished between earthly "security" (securitas), a presumption that no one should expect as an entitlement or reward for faith, and "certitude" (certitudo), the unfailing promise of God's presence whatever comes your way."

"The Story of Job: Personal Disaster Reveals Genuine Faith," The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Daniel B. Clendenin, Journey with Jesus Foundation, 2009. 2006 reflection.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Like many folks the ending of The Book of Job is disappointing. Like a poorly crafted "happy ending," the book falls short of bringing the complexity of the book into a good theological finish. The end is a kind of, almost sickly sweet, hands in the air, kind of "oh well" to the whole affair. Good faithful people who have had to deal with terror in their lives will find that the passage has very few life-giving words to take with them after the sermon is said and done.

Therefore, I want to make the case that the redactionist poor theology who crafted the passage (on one of their better days) must not have the last word.

While the God we worship, who comes near in Jesus, is the God of the Whirlwind, this God cannot make humanity do God's will without taking away free will. [The paragraphs that follow are based upon Girard's work. An Excerpt from René Girard's Job: The Victim of His People (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987), pages 154-168.]

Not only would the God of the Whirlwind be without the freedom to love but this God would become the God of the persecutors! To force human goodness would require God of the victims to become God who victimizes. There are plenty who claim a persecuting God and such a God is often promoted by those who know best and themselves would be the persecuting God.

Job himself has well made the case that this is true. The book itself highlights how his frenemies are exactly the persecutors who worship the persecuting God. God reminds us in this last passage that they have this quite wrong. Job's friends suggest that Job is attacking God. Job's friends are present with us today and would suggest that a God who does not persecute leads to atheism (Ibid.) René Girard writes:

When Job proves that justice does not hold sway in the world, when he says that the sort of retribution Eliphaz implies does not exist for most men, he thinks he is attacking the very concept of God. But in the Gospels, Jesus very explicitly claims as his own all Job's criticisms of retribution. 

Remember Jesus deals with this in Luke 13:1-5. And, Jesus says:

"Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did."

There are plenty of Christians who wish to contradict Jesus and Job and take up the case and view promulgated by Eliphaz and Job's friends. (Ibid.)

Violence, persecution, scapegoating, cancer, sickness, starvation, accidents, and all the other terrible parts of human life are very real. The persecuting lesser gods and their followers are quick to show how the blessings and the curses are God's.  They forget not only Jesus' teaching from Luke 13, but Jesus' teaching in John 9:2-3: "Neither he nor his parents sinned . . . he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him". (Ibid.)

Girard writes:

All the parables have much the same meaning. God always plays the role of the absent master, the owner who has gone on a long journey. He leaves the field free for his servants, who prove themselves either faithful or unfaithful, efficient or timid. He does not allow the wheat to be separated from the tares, even to encourage the growth of good grain, whereas Aeschylus does the reverse. God makes his sun shine and his rain fall on the just as well as on the unjust. He does not arbitrate the quarrels of brothers. He knows what human justice is. (Ibid.)

The persecuting demigods and their followers may quickly point out that this all seems to be a lazy God. This God of the victims is a God who simply lets the people suffer. (Ibid.) But we should quickly say, as a Gospel people, this God is the God who gives his very self for the life of the world. This is the God who gives all that humanity may have life and have it abundantly. This is the God who becomes a true victim in order to share victimhood and redeem it. This true God does not let persecution, violence and death have the last word.

His very life in this world reveals as Girard points out, that "they are dedicating themselves to the scandal by their desires that are crisscrossed and thwarted by imitation." (Ibid.)

It would be easy to take the last words of Job and make them about abundance in this world and wealth. But I think a bit of Gospel redaction enables us to preach that what God gives the Job-like victim is companionship in suffering and in victimhood. God gives mercy and forgiveness plenty. And, God gives life everlasting. These truly are gifts greater than what Job started with at the beginning!

Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 31:27-34

"Lent is a time for honesty that may disrupt the illusion of well-being that is fostered by the advocates of indulgent privilege and strident exceptionalism that disregards the facts on the ground. Against such ideological self-sufficiency, the prophetic tradition speaks of the brokenness of the covenant that makes healthy life possible."

"Ferguson and Forgiveness," Walter Bruegemann, ON Scripture, Odyssey Networks, 2015. Video: Race in America.

"Hope for the future in Jeremiah involves the same divine message known from Sinai, 'I will be their God and they will be my people' (verse 33); but this time, that covenant relationship will be the defining mark of each person rather than something that must be learned."

Commentary, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Amy Erickson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text 

We just had this passage this last summer - so if you didn't preach on it you get a second chance. It will appear again this coming year.

Jeremiah continues his prophecy saying that God will bring about a bounteous future. God has not stayed the hand of those who have undone the power of Israel as a civilization rooted in the authority of this world. Remember it was Israel's political and religious machinations that brought it down. Yet, God will in the days to come bring about a resurrection from the death they brought on themselves. God will bring about life from their rubble. 

While the people have suffered and have been deported this will not be the final word. Out of lostness, leastness, and death, God brings about life. From the children whose teeth are set on edge to those who at sour fruit, God will bring about a bounteous feast and plenty for the children. Jeremiah prophesies:

"The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 

God promises a new covenant - a new relationship. Christians understand this prophecy to be about the promise of God to deliver all people. The temple's politics intermixed with the state, the civil war between tribes (between the northern and southern kingdoms) has undone the original covenant that was made with God. They forgot who delivered them out of Egypt and so they thought they were responsible for delivering themselves. They forgot who fed them in the wilderness and thought that it was by their own hands that they had wealth. They forgot that God brought water from the rock and thought instead that their future and the future of their kingdoms would flow from their own power.

God speaks through Jeremiah and he writes:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Walter Brueggeman calls this part of the prophetic book of Jeremiah "the book of comfort." God is watching and planting and build the new community of hope. While we may well remember the proverb that the parent's sins are visited upon the children (even Jesus quotes this), we see in the passage that the people have an opportunity to begin again. The proverb is "null and void" says Brueggeman. All exiles have the possibility of the new. (Brueggeman, Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming, 504)

The covenant intends that people not work against one another but rather that they see one another face to face and see God face to face. Again a radical message says that God will forget all their sin.

For Christians, this is the very mission of God in Christ Jesus. That God in Christ comes and is incarnate such that they meet God face to face, and can no longer look at each other without seeing the face of God looking back. That God in Christ will be the very law himself. We are to understand that the highest law shall be the writing of commandments and actions by Jesus himself. Humanity will know, both by sight and by relationship and by story/witness God. The living word shall come and be part of the community and with him he shall bring forgiveness of every iniquity.


While we may wonder why Jeremiah remains in the scripture because of his obvious entanglement with the Babylonian court, what we see is that his words prophesy a new faith. The first Christians, without a New Testament, understood their work as community and the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the prophecy of Jeremiah.

Sermons Preached on these Passages