Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, February 12, 2023

Prayer

As we come to offer our gift at your altar, make us eager in seeking reconciliation, so that e may live thegospel of your kingdom with single-hearted devotion, our every thought filled with respect for one another an our every deed with reverence.  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 5:21-37

"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.

"The season of Ephipany proclaims the good news of God's presence with us. Our response to that proclamation, our recognition of God's life and work here and now, is more than going through the motions of church. Jesus calls us to a whole new life in God."

Commentary, Matthew 5:21-37, Amy Oden, Epiphany 6, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

This part of the Gospel has a number of sections. Our reading today has four of these "antithetical" style teachings. "You have heard that it was said, but I say to you," are the introduction for each one. In each, Jesus recalls teaching and then presses his followers to go deeper. We might remember that in the previous introduction to Jesus' teaching on the mountain, he reminds us that he is the one to fulfil the law and not to abolish the law.

A quick read of Daniel J. Harrington's thoughts on the idea of law can help us better place this teaching in context. (Matthew, Sacra Pagina, 91) The English term "Law" can distort the Jewish understanding of the Torah. The word "Torah" derives from the Hebrew verb "instruct" (yrh) and refers to the teaching or instruction presented in the Scriptures, especially the Pentateuch. For Jews, the Torah was (and is) the revelation of God's will, a kind of divine blueprint for action. It is a gift and privilege given to Israel, not a burden. Acting upon the Torah is the privileged way of responding to the Creator God, who has entered into a covenant relationship with Israel. It presupposes the prior manifestation of God's love.

The Greek translation of the Torah (nomos) is not incorrect since the Torah is concrete and demands action. But the theological context of covenant can never be forgotten if distortion is to be avoided.If we begin then with this understanding, we can read this antithesis in a very different way.

If we think of the prerequisite of God's love and covenant, then the baptismal affirmation of that covenant, we arrive at the understanding that these then are a manner of the Christian life. When we work on these higher ways of being, we engage in the fulfilment of the covenant relationship we have with God. When we do not, we turn our backs on the covenant relationship God wishes to have with us.

In the first antithesis, Jesus teaches us that when we live and dwell in anger, when we use anger, and lash out or treat others out of our anger, we are destroying the creatures of God. Anger leads to death. The higher way of following Jesus is to acknowledge this death and seek reconciliation. Both illustrations make clear that not only is anger a destructive force in the life of the Christian community but that it is an unacceptable manner of leadership. One cannot offer gifts and talents at God's altar unless one is reconciled with one's enemies.

Somehow in our culture, we have decided it is okay to be angry and to treat others (service providers and enemies) with scorn, discontent, and hostility. Jesus teaches us that we destroy the creatures of God and one another when we do this. Yes, we live in a country where we honour a person's right to free speech. That does not mean that such manners of speech build up our country or the communities in which we live.

Jesus teaches us another way. Jesus teaches us (and many of his followers need to hear this clearly) that such behaviour is unacceptable and destructive, and we are held accountable to a higher standard. Our bodies and person reflect the glory of God, and in his second teaching, Jesus explains that lust destroys the higher purpose of our flesh. Christianity and the Episcopal Church is uniquely a very incarnational faith. We understand that the beauty of God is reflected in all creation and in one another. When we look on one another with the eyes of Jesus Christ, we cannot help but see God's glory revealed.

 Jesus calls us to this higher understanding and tells us that lust leads to adultery. These are two charged words. But if we remember the understanding of the Torah above, we have a better and much more clear understanding of the teaching here. Certainly, what he says is true. However, there is a higher code being offered here. Lust is a form of viewing individuals as objects of desire. It turns the flesh from being a revelation of God and God's creative and covenantal acts to something that can be possessed by another human being. In this teaching, we see the role of dominance and power abusing the creatures of God. Bodies and people are works of Godly art when we treat them. Otherwise, we change them. When we use sex to sell something or when we abuse people sexually, we are defaming God's handiwork -- that which he called very good. In our culture, we use lust, sex, and images of humans as commodities to be bought and sold for the purpose of individual enrichment or for power gain. Unlike free speech, our country provides an environment where this is seen as normative. However, for the Christian, we must, as individuals, live a higher standard. Lust destroys that upon which it fixes its gaze. It will eventually destroy the person who lives a life fed by it.

I would add that divorce enters into the picture here because it is the death of the covenant relationship illustrated in the man and woman's brokenness. While Jesus speaks of lust leading to adultery, we live in a world where divorce happens for many different reasons. Jesus is clear about what happens in divorce and how it is rooted in brokenness. When humans have so destroyed the image of the union of God with humanity that in their relationship, they can no longer see the love God has for them, the relationship is itself broken. When they cannot see the beauty they reflect or the goodness out of which God created them -- the relationship is over.

The Episcopal Church has responded by allowing for divorce and for remarriage. It has done this as a pastoral and caring approach to members of the community who find themselves in this very sad place. The church has more that it can do to help people shoulder the pain of divorce, regardless of its cause. An individual who lives with the false belief that they are no longer good somehow failed, or that God does not love them can be an incredible millstone around an individual spiritual life.

The last of the antithetical-styled teachings in this Sunday's lesson is about oaths. Here Jesus offers the very simple reminder that yes and no are perfectly good answers. The Torah permits oaths in everyday speech as long as they are neither irreverent nor false (Allison/Davies, Matthew, vol 1, p. 532). Again, one must be careful in a speech to not do damage to that which is God's.

I am struck here by thoughts provided by the Anglican theologian John Milbank offers in a number of his texts that our words have meaning, and they have to be. They have substance. We believe in a God who created with and through the Word. We believe in the Word, which becomes flesh, the living Word of God. Not unlike how feelings change the world in Jesus' teaching about anger. Not unlike how we look and treat people changes the world. How we speak, for Christians, makes meaning and being in the world. Our words are powerful, and we are accountable for them.

These are three very difficult teachings. These teachings are tough no matter who you are, but especially if you claim to follow Jesus. All too often, the Christian point to the world and calls for transformation. More often than not it is Christian, me included, who need to do the transformative work of listening to Jesus' words.

Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 3:1-9

" After a heady exposition of how true, Godly wisdom is given by the Spirit of God, Paul returns to directly address the Corinthians' divisions and the assessments of themselves and their leaders upon which those divisions are based.
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, J.R. Daniel Kirk, Epiphany 6, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.


"We have lost the literal meaning of 'minister' as servant or slave. The Greek word, diakonos, easily lost into technicality, also means slave. Paul uses it here."
"First Thoughts on Year A Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany 6, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"This congregation, this people, this great good news of Jesus Christ are not objects to be fought over. No church member and no apostle owns this mission field. It is God's."
"You Are Not Ready," Paul Bellan-Boyer, City Called Heaven, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

"God's grace is manifested not only in the forgiveness of our sins but is also creatively redemptive, the power that works in us to make us perfect in love. Nothing short of perfection, Christlikeness in thought, word, and deed, can measure God's loving purpose for us. It is our faith that the fundamental change wrought in the individual by regeneration is a dynamic process which by growth in grace moves toward "mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." We may quench the Spirit and fall from grace but our divine destiny is perfect love and holiness in this life."

"We Believe in Christian Perfection," Georgia Harkness, Chapter 8 in Beliefs That Count, 1961. At Religion Online.

"This congregation, this people, this great good news of Jesus Christ are not objects to be fought over. No church member and no apostle owns this mission field. It is God's."

"You Are Not Ready," Paul Bellan-Boyer, City Called Heaven, 2011.

I love that we are continuing through the Corinthian readings!  In our passage, Paul begins by saying that people are still people. That we some of us that are are not fully formed in the spirit, and so we are "infants in Christ."  We come from the world into the body of Christ through baptism.  We are cultured, and as we move closer to Christ, we grow in our understanding that we belong to God and, in this being, are now made different.  Paul is clear the Corinthians are having a hard time with this and are really struggling with their worldly nature.

Will Willimon is fond of saying: "In baptism our citizenship is transferred from one dominion to another, & we become, in whatever culture we find ourselves, resident aliens."  This is Paul's point...It is as if Paul is saying to the Corinthian church folk look, you have got this backwards. You are not to be resident aliens in the church; instead, you are to be resident aliens in the culture.

Paul says if there is jealousy and strife, then there is the world and the world's values.  Those who truly represent God are those who act with gracious conduct towards one another. Regardless of the celebrated cause of the day, those who are God never make their cause God's cause. They are focused. They never seek division, nor do they cause division.

Paul continues to make his case by pointing out that when we take sides...so in so is right and so and so is wrong...we are just parroting the world.  Just because you add Jesus' name before you divide people doesn't make it right.  Whenever you abuse another in God's name (our Matthew reading for today points out), you do murder.  Anger and vengeance are not Godly traits.

Preachers will think it is their role to do this.  Paul believes it is worse when preachers do it. Those who are tasked with building up, uniting, and growing the body should never be about dividing it. This is the sign of a false teacher.  The work of the preacher or leader is to do the work of reconciliation with God for themselves and then to aid in God's reconciling work in creation.  To play a role in politics and divisions is to engage in a worldly act.

It is our job to encourage, to love, to unite, to reconcile, to give God's blessing.  As Paul Zahl says: it is about love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. That is it...what more is there. Love, mercy, forgiveness, grace...repeat...

God grows.  We don't grow things.  We are, Paul says, "nothing" in this process.  We are mere vessels.  Every moment we begin to think we are in charge of the vessel leads us down a terrible world.  Our feelings and our perceptions about our-self are flawed.

Paul does say, though, that those who do the work faithfully will be blessed. Those who keep to these values of unity and encouragement will, in fact, be fellow-workers with Christ; rather than frustrating Christ's efforts in us.

"For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building."  It is as Gods and in making ourselves open to God's perfecting Holy Spirit that we are able to become a temple of prayer for all God's people and a field in which rise up the great Harvest Lord's ingathering.

Some Thoughts on Deuteronomy 30:15-20

" Jesus states his call and demands in terms as uncompromising as Moses,' and those who would follow him must consider carefully the cost of discipleship. Today's gospel reading leaves no doubt that disciples must make a sharp break with their past, sell all, and do as the Lord commands. Grace is free, but it is not cheap."
Commentary, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Brian C. Jones, Pentecost +16, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.


"Perhaps this is a day to preach about slaves who labored without pay and without any day to commemorate their harsh work."
Bread for the World Commentary, Barbara K. Lundblad, 2013. (pdf.)


"The majestic speech of Deuteronomy nears its conclusion in this stirring exhortation."Commentary, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Carolyn J. Sharp, Pentecost +15, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2010.

"The call to choose life comes right on the heels of this list of condemned actions that are relatively insignificant."
Commentary, Deuteronomy 30:15-20 | Marissa Coblentz | A Plain Account, 2017

"This Pentecost text has commonly been considered the conclusion to the farewell speech of Moses to the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20).."
Commentary, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

The Gospel of Matthew offers a vision of the beloved community that is shaped by works of discipleship. The community as envisioned, is laid out clearly in the sermon on the mount. The community of followers of Jesus is also deeply rooted in the narrative of Israel and how it was shaped by the boundaries of the Torah. We must be careful here, though. While the gospeller tells us that we are tied to the Torah, it is always with the lens of Jesus. We must be careful not to take away from the law (would caution Matthew’s author) because to do so is out of step with Jesus’ own understanding. This is certainly seen in his confrontation with the religious leaders of his day. At the same time, the Torah must be seen primarily through the eyes of Jesus’ ministry and his instruction. Here is a refocusing of the law with a lens towards justice, mercy, and faith. (Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels, 121)

So we turn to our reading from Deuteronomy. On the one hand remember that this is a retelling of the story of the first four books of the Old Testament, with an eye to the faithful community. It is a book cast within the narrative frame of Moses, reminding the people of what lessons they have learned prior to entering the promised land. Just before this passage, Moses says, “These commandments are not too hard for you, and they are not too foreign.” (30:11)

Moses begins our passage with these words: “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” (30:15). Then he says that people will know who you are and who you love by the work you undertake in keeping these commandments. Love God and act as followers of God and you will be blessed, and those who look upon you will know not only what you do but whose you are.

Furthermore, if you do not, then you will perish. You will perish if you worship other gods, if you serve yourself, you will lose what has been promised to you, and you will fail the mission that is yours specifically because you are God’s people. “Everything is before you”, Moses says, “Life and death, blessings and curses.”

The key will be loving God and doing the work of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. This will be understood not simply by worshipping God, but as we read the rest of the Old Testament, with an eye to the sermon on the mount, we know it will be remembering the poor, helpless, and hopeless. God has acted for the migrant, the poor, the worker of the land, and those who have nothing. God acts for the motley people of God, and God will act for the community that remembers them. Righteousness is to be defined in the prophets to come and in the living out of the covenant not by ritual faithfulness but by communal care of everyone. The land and creation is yours, but as will be clear in the rest of the narrative, you will lose it if you forget the lowly. You were delivered, deliver others, or God will go about delivering Godself and find those who are interested in such works of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, January 29, 2023

Prayer

Rescue your church from the seductive promises of this world's powers and form us as the community of the beatitudes, that we may become your faithful remnant in the world, and that Christ alone may be our wisdom and our righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.  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 5:1-12

"Jesus calls us to join a radical kingdom. He gives us a radical vision to match, that the kingdom of heaven infiltrates our present."

Commentary, Matthew 5:1-12, Amy Oden, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"There is a trap hidden in the Beatitudes that I know I have fallen into countless times, and perhaps you have, too. The trap is a simple as it is subtle: believing that Jesus is setting up the conditions of blessing, rather than actually blessing his hearers."

"Imagine That!" David Lose, Working Preacher, 2011.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

"Each 'Beatitude' states that the possessor of this characteristic will be 'blessed' by God. A formal 'blessing' is a divine action, sometimes brought about through an intermediary (priest, king, parent, etc). Beatitudes are common in OT wisdom books (Prov 3:13; 28:14). The NT Beatitudes refer to a future (or eschatological) reward, whereas the wisdom beatitudes assume that the reward is already present." (Daniel Harrington, SJ, Sacra Pagina, Matthew, p 79)

Not unlike the forebearers found in Wisdom the Beatitudes were most likely sayings of Jesus, blessings by Jesus, which circulated among the first followers. The reality is that sayings such as this made their way throughout the community of first followers and eyewitnesses and make up an important part of the oral tradition of Jesus and his ministry. (Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, p 263) 

These blessings are different too. The blessings in Wisdom are blessings found in the present. Jesus is speaking of blessings to be received in the future.This important connection to the past Wisdom tradition is equally as important with the statements which follow the beatitudes and their connection with the Torah. I make these two points because I believe it is essential to understand that for Matthew and his community, they saw themselves as continuing the tradition of the family of Abraham. So, while we see that the blessings in Matthew point forward we also must think and look into the past and wonder about all the other blessed ones who came before. 

It is in the midst of these two blessed communities (our ancient faith ancestors and the hosts of saints in light) that we find our own blessed pilgrim journey. We walk our way of Christ always continuing the ancient faith of the past and leaning towards the reign of God which lies in our future.This Sunday preachers will spend time preaching the beatitudes as Christian character, "Ethics of Christian discipleship, "values in opposition to the world," or philosophies. (Harrington, 84) 

 "The Beatitides are thoroughly Jewish in form and content. They challenged those who made up 'Israel' in Matthew's time by delineating the kinds of persons and actions that will receive their full reward when God's kingdom comes. They remind Christians today of the Jewish roots of their piety and challenge each generation to reflecton on what persons and actions they consider to be important or 'blessed.'"  (Harrington, 84)

So, we understand then at our first glance that the text places us firmly rooted in our ancient faith, and that we are challenged to see others as God sees them. But is that all?

As is typical we spend more time on us and we might very well miss the opportunity to realize the importance of reading the beatitudes together with Isaiah 61:1-3.61  "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory."  

Remember our text in context. Jesus has come out of the desert time, he has led a great crowd, he is gone up to the mountain. Who is this person that looks and acts so very much in line with the great prophet Moses? Is he Moses? He is in the historic and prophetic line, but see he is the one Isaiah speaks about. Jesus is the Messiah the one who had come to bring good news, good blessings. The parallels are beautifully woven in Jesus' speech to the people. This is a revelation moment. 

The Beatitudes, and their proclamation reveal the very nature of who Jesus is and who he is to become.  Note that Jesus himself is meek, he mourns, he is righteous, he shows mercy, he is persecuted and reproached. Jesus himself is enacting a new creation by reenacting an exodus... he is linking his ministry as the continuation of the prophets and revealing his true nature... but he is himself embodying the incarnation of God's blessings in his own life and ministry.This person - Jesus - is God with us. It is in God's incarnation that we receive the blessings that are to come. 

 Like the Matthean community we are pilgrims along the way, our eyes opened to the revelation of God in Jesus, blessed by a God who knows our suffering and life in this world. This week as we step into the pulpit will we talk about the person of Jesus as revealed in the beatitudes or will we spend time trying to link our lives in the first world with the blessing message of Jesus in a third world? 

It may be that this Sunday we need more to see the revelation of Jesus Christ than to receive more blessings in this life.

Some Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

"And how long was the whole great circus to last? Paul said, why, until we all become human beings at last, until we all 'come to maturity,' as he put it; and then, since there had been only one really human being since the world began, until we all make it to where we're like him, he said - 'to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ' (Ephesians 4:13). Christs to each other, Christs to God. All of us. Finally. It was just as easy, and just as hard, as that."
"Paul," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"The message that a convicted felon was the bearer of God's forgiving and transforming love was hard enough for anybody to swallow and for some especially so. For hellenized sophisticates-the Greeks, as Paul puts it - it could only seem absurd."
"Foolishness," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"What keeps the wild hope of Christmas alive year after year in a world notorious for dashing all hopes is the haunting dream that the child who was born that day may yet be born again even in us and our own snowbound, snowblind longing for him."
"Emmanuel," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"Paul takes the language of 'wisdom' and subjects it to the cross, which now has become the criterion, the benchmark, for understanding and for grasping reality."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, Kyle Fever, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"What will we do so that the language of the cross may become more and more the criterion of our human wisdom?"
"1 Corinthians 1:18-25," Commented Bible Passages, Taizé, 2005.

"Each of these experiences -- righteousness, sanctification, and redemption -- is a window on the upside-down foolish wisdom of God."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (Epiphany 4A), Mary Hinkle Shore, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text 

"The message that a convicted felon was the bearer of God's forgiving and transforming love was hard enough for anybody to swallow and for some especially so. For hellenized sophisticates-the Greeks, as Paul puts it - it could only seem absurd."

From "Foolishness," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

We must remember that this text is primarily about the community that has taken sides over against itself aligning along factions associated with particular preachers.  In the midst of preaching Christ it has somehow gotten off track and has become about signs, philosophies, and the preachers themselves.  So it is that Paul begins by marking the nature of Gospel preaching that which locates all the power and authority in the crucified Christ. 

No preacher and no human has the power of redemption - save the Christ.

Those who look for sound wisdom will most likely not understand the foolishness of the cross.  The philosophies of the world have not brought forth the knowledge of God and his grace, Paul proclaims.  People will look for signs and symbols, philosophies and wisdom in order to believe. And, many preachers will offer these things. You may even be drawn to these things as a seeker.  However, it is never the signs or symbols that save. It's not the wisdom or great philosophies that save.  It is always and only the death and resurrection of the crucified Christ.

This truth and reality is where we find the strength of God.  It seems foolish by philosophical standards that God should become human and die; yet Paul proclaims it is this very foolish notion by which we are all saved.  That in some very profound and miraculous way God undoes all philosophies and all wisdom by doing the unusual and becoming one of us and experiencing life as one of us and dying as one  of us.  God in Christ Jesus becomes strong in weakness and victorious in death.  

God himself claims the world as his own and through his incarnation and presence shows us the way to eternal life.  We discover in Christ that he is the source of life and light. If we are to understand through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ alone, and we are to seek wisdom in God alone, and we are to seek righteousness and sanctification from God alone.  It is not in understanding fancy things or secret things that we are wise; no more is it true that by becoming strong we become stronger than death.  Only in Christ do we receive eternal life.  Paul writes, "He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”"

Some Thoughts on Micah 6:1-8

"We should also be wary of another common misuse of this verse, namely, to excuse one from any corporate faith at all."
Commentary, Micah 6:1-8, Amy Oden, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2011.

"Restorative justice, by dealing with crime and harm in a holistic way, promises to sew together the pieces of torn lives into a fabric of justice that is meaningful for victims, offenders, and the community. How can we discover and implement the restorative practices that will transform our criminal justice system?"
"Restorative Justice," Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, (other resources at) "Peace and War," Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2004.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text 

The problem that the Lord has with his faithful people is their lack of faithfulness! What is so often missed in the reading of the Old Testament is God’s forgiveness and God’s concern for the lowly.

Micah gives voice to God’s concern that the people’s lack of faith is revealed in their lack of concern for the poor. Here then we see that God is reminding the people of his work on their behalf. God was faithful. Micah writes:

“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”

God looked upon God’s people and saw that they were in need of a champion, they were oppressed and suffering. But in Micah’s time the people have forgotten and so are oppressing their own fellow citizens. They are mistreating the poor and those who are hungry. So it is that Micah pleads God’s case as if he is in court. There is judgement for those who do not share what they have and the judgment is guilt. Faithlessness is seen here as a key ingredient to righteousness and caring for those out of an understanding of plenty a sign of the lack of such faith.

Faithlessness believes that the Lord won’t provide.

Micah offers a glimpse into the response of the people:

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

The people want to make a sacrifice to God…that is their way of thinking this will soothe God’s woundedness on the part of those in need. God then responds by reminding that God delivers, God frees, God provides, and God takes care. The response that God requires is this:

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

This is not unique to Micah. Mercy, kindness, and humility coupled with justice can be found in Hosea 6.6, Zechariah 7.9. The Gospels pick this understanding up with the metaphor of God’s nature as shepherd and compassion for the helpless and hopeless. As it says in the Letter to the Hebrews: share what you have and do good works these are the kinds of sacrifices that God desires…none of this groveling stuff. The work and response to God’s raising of Israel out of Egypt, and raising Jesus is in fact to raise others.

Christmas Day

"The fourth gospel is all about the community indwelling with each other and with God. It is not about the individual's appropriation of Jesus, but rather God's appropriation of humanity through Christ and how God lives in the greatest intimacy with his followers. All through the gospel, the words are plural, not singular."
Lectionary Blogging, John 1:1-18, John Petty, Progressive Involvement, 2010.

Prayer

In this most gentle dawn, O good and most gracious God, we have hastened to behold the wonder that has taken place, for the goodness and loving kindness of our Savior has appeared.  Give us words inspired enough to make known the mercy that has touched our lives, deeds loving enough to bear witness to the treasure you have bestowed, and hearts simple enough to ponder the mystery of your gracious and abiding love.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.

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


Some Thoughts on John 1:1-18

Christmas morning this year falls on a Sunday. The brave and faithful will sneak out of their homes before gifts, some with children in hand, to hear the story of how God became man. 


I like how Raymond E. Brown approaches this text offering a vision that if John is the most beautiful of New Testament texts then the prologue must assuredly be the pearl within the Gospel.  This is the reading for Christmas day.

Brown is clear...there is first the relationship between the Word that is with God (vs 1-2). The opening verses of this Christ hymn used to frame an entrance into the Johannine Gospel is brief and it is completely, or I should say “seemingly”, uninterested in a metaphysical conversation about the nature of God. It is however very clear that Salvation history begins with the relationship between God, revealed through the living Word, and Man. Quite simply God reveals God's-self to us in the work of creation – and by John’s usage here; creation also reveals something about the salvation of man as well. Creation is by its very nature a revealing act. (John, vol. 1, 23, 24)

Secondly, we have in the prologue the relationship between the Word and Creation. “All creation bears the stamp of God’s Word,” Brown writes. (Brown, 25) Here we see the author of John reflecting and re-imagining the opening lines of Genesis. We can see that what is clearly of importance is that creation itself existed primarily for the glory of God and the revelation of who God is. The problem is that the creation is broken; it does not fulfill its purpose as God intended. It is not a sustainable creation. Instead, it is one where there is a constant battle to supplant the power and revelation of God. We can return to the creation story in Genesis to see this played out as an eternal truth, certainly, this seems on John's mind. However, it is not really that hard or difficult to see and imagine as we read the paper or watch television how humanity has created a non-sustainable kingdom for ourselves, and that we wrestle for power with God placing our needs above creations' explicit purpose to glorify God.

We might even reflect on how quickly all of the Christmas season's preparations are quickly consumed! How many minutes did it take?

The third portion of our Gospel selection is the portion where we are re-introduced to John the Baptist. I say reintroduced because we spend several Sunday’s reading passages from Mark and John recently that dealt with him and his ministry. Yet here we get a slightly different attempt to speak about how John responded to the living Word, the Light in the world. How he was clearly not the one everybody was looking for, but how he dutifully gave witness to the revelation of God. Moreover, John the Baptist called everyone to a time of preparation and repentance for the light itself, the living Word was entering the world.

We come to the final and fourth portion of our reading and we return to the relationship between God and humanity; specifically in how the community of God (God’s people) respond to the living Word. God is dwelling with his people. He has made a “tent”, he is incarnated, and he is present within the community. (Brown, 35) The images here in this last section return not to Genesis but play on our remembrances of the Exodus and the idea that God came and dwelt among the people as they made their way in the wilderness.  I am reminded of Habakuk who mans his station in order to have a vision of God or Naham who retells the story of how God dwelled with Abraham, and now dwells in the Temple.  God has returned over and over again to be with his people. Now in the story of Mary we discover that God has come not only to dwell with his people, but to dwell as a person. 

 Here is an expressed intimacy between God and people. God is not simply outside, having wound the clock tight and is now letting it run. On the contrary just as God was intimately involved with creation and the people of Israel, God also is involved in the new community post-resurrection. God has come and is dwelling with the people in wisdom and in truth. God in the living Word is making community within God’s tent and is revealing himself and the purpose of creation to all those who would call him by name: Jesus.

I have found over the years that the Christmas morning service is perhaps one of the most intimate of services in the Christian year.  Holy, and present is the living Word. I hope you as you preach and offer a vision of Sunday worship post our evening celebrations of God incarnate remind people of the incredibly intimate God we worship and how the God news of God dwelling with us is truly Good News. News that all creation is groaning to comprehend and embrace.  As Christians and as Episcopalians gathered together in the early morning hours of Christmas day, it is a message of comfort and joy that draws us closer to God and closer to one another.

Merry Christmas.

 

Ascension Day, May 26, 2022

 

Ascension Day

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

Quotes That Make Me Think

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

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

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

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

General Resources for Lessons

Prayer

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

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

Some Thoughts on Luke 24:44-53

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

Resources for the Gospel

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

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

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

Some Thoughts on Ephesians 1:15-23

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Resources for the Epistle

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

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany - Lectionary 4, Sunday January 30, 2022

Prayer

God of the prophets your love reaches far beyond the boundaries of covenant and command. Redeemed by a love so patient and kind, may we offer that same love to others and so proclaim you to the world by the witness of our lives. 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 C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.

Some Thoughts on Luke 4:21-30

"Do we really want a gracious God? Certainly we do -- for ourselves; but can we have a gracious God if we don't believe that the same grace is given to those sinners outside our church doors, outside our faith, outside our boundaries of acceptability?"

Exegetical Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks Christian Resources.

"You see, it really is all Jesus’ fault – he goes and does the one thing you’re never supposed to do, even to strangers, let alone to friends and neighbors: He tells them the truth, the truth about their pettiness and prejudice, their fear and shame, their willingness, even eagerness, to get ahead at any cost, even at the expense of another. And so they want him gone in the most permanent of ways."

"Three Questions and a Promise," David Lose, WorkingPreacher, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

As the radio storyteller Paul Harvey says, “Now for the rest of the story.”  This week we continue with the story of Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue at Nazareth.  We might recall the passage describes the kind of Messiah Jesus is to be, the kind of work he will undertake, and the people to whom he has come.  The reign of God in the Gospel of Luke is well underway and change, transformation, and restoration are coming.
The parallels to this passage in the other Gospels are: Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-6.

Then Jesus sits down and begins to preach and teach, “Today this scripture which you have heard is being brought to fulfillment.”  We certainly understand this as we think over the life and work of Jesus.  What I love though is that the Greek literally means that the prophecy was “in your ears.”  The idea that the prophetic message of Isaiah is being embodied in their midst and the words are inside them, in their ear, in their head, where they could not get rid of it.  The proclamation was so powerful that the message was in them and with them and they could not think of anything else. 

The people at first receive the words with grace, even commenting on the wisdom this son of Nazareth offers.  There does seem in their words to be some discrepancy between the child they knew and the grown prophet who stands before them.  Luke Timothy Johnson points out that this is quite minor compared to the scandal it creates in the other two Gospel narratives.

We might remember that we, like the first readers of Luke’s Gospel are surprised by this reaction of the people.  We know this Jesus as the Son of the most high (1:32), the holy one, the Son of God (3:21-22).  While no scholar I read picked up on the subtlety of this question in the minds of Jesus’ neighbors, I have frequently wondered if it is not possible that this is Luke’s answer to the skeptic new believer seeking to understand and reconcile Jesus’ earthly and homely beginnings verses the claims of his followers.
Jesus then offers the reality that a prophet is not often accepted in his own home town.  Jesus is pulling a very ancient tradition into his teaching, recalling Israel’s treatment of the prophets.

Specifically you can go to 1 Kings 17:1, 8-16; 18:1 (the widow of Zarephath); 2 Kings 5:1-14 (the healing of Naaman). Luke universalizes Isaiah 61:1-2 (part of Jesus’ reading in vv. 18-19). For the rejected prophet, see also 6:22-23; 11:49-51; 13:34-35; Acts 7:35, 51-52. The pattern of the rejected prophet theme is found in Nehemiah 9:26-31. The stages are:

• The people rebel, and kill a prophet
• God punishes the perpetrators
• God shows mercy through sending a new prophet
• The people sin and reject the prophet. [see Chris Haslam’s web page for more on this]

What is revealed here is the beginning of Jesus’ preparation for the mission to the Gentiles. What binds these stories together is that Elijah and Elisha are sent outside Israel to the Gentiles; Jesus will do the same. We already know from Simeon and from the Isaiah passage quoted earlier in the Gospel that the ministry of Jesus will extend to all nations. Here Jesus himself offers a prophetic vision of God’s reign. The people in the narrative are hearing this for the very first time.

Jesus is not accepted in his hometown because his mission extends beyond his hometown.

If Jesus was to enter our congregation today who would be the Gentiles? We understand of course as that as followers of Jesus you and I have become inheritors of the promise of Abraham and the great ancestral faith of the Jews. But I can’t get away from the idea that today we are more like the people in Jesus’ hometown. He is our boy. We know him. Can he really be calling us to go out into the world? Is it possible that Jesus’ mission lies beyond the church today? Is Jesus already working outside of the Church to bring in the reign of God? Certainly as the church we acknowledge and believe that we are filled with God’s Spirit and are the living Body of Christ in the world. That being said, I don’t want to be caught at home.

Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 13:1-13

"The highest gift of all is agape, he says. Without it even faith, almsgiving, martyrdom are mere busyness and even great wisdom doesn't amount to a hill of beans."
"Agape," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.


"More importantly, the triad of faith, hope, and love are an important unspoken reminder of the Trinity and that all of this grand conception belongs to the Spirit’s gifts to the one body in a caring community of mutual responsibility."
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, James Boyce, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.


"Above the clouds of conflict and stress, we imagine the beauty, the simplicity, of loving each other despite our conflicts and differences."
"The Aerial View," Melissa Bane Sevier, Contemplative Viewfinder, 2013.


"...no matter where we go or who we are, there is and will be disagreement and division. The answer is not to erase, pretend it doesn't exist, or think it will eventually go away, but to embrace more fully how to live into it, among it, and with it in love -- because God is love."
"Love Never Ends," Karoline Lewis, Dear Working Preacher, 2016.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

Clergymen with brooms fight in Bethlehem Shrine:
Not a lot of love here.

Paul has been teaching the Corinthians that God expects a different kind of community for his followers.  It reminds me of his term used in his letter to Galatians, "the law of Christ."  The law of Christ is essentially the bedrock of Paul's faith, nurtured in his Jewish upbringing. The law of Christ is: love God, and love neighbor.  The Holy Spirit enables us to do this work. And, we might remember that the Holy Spirit itself is God's perfect love.  So it is that we see Paul's deep theology throughout our passages over the last few weeks.

The Corinthians are inpatient with one another, jealous of other people's gifts, boasting that they have it right and others have it wrong, they are arrogant, rude, insistent they have it right, irritable, resentful, highlighting and gossiping about what is wrong with their fellow members, hopeless, and they easily give up on one another, their community, and God.  In other words the Corinthians are exactly like us today.  The very characteristics of the Corinthian church also Characterize the modern Western way of being Church.  The culture wars which have divided our church are an epidemic of Corinithianitis.

This is not the law of Christ.  Paul lives in a time when the lifespan for most people was 20 years at birth; if they survived the first years, it might grow to 40.  Children ran a very high risk of malarial infection, some estimate 50%.  Regarding society: 5% enjoyed wealth and 95% lived in appalling conditions.  Life was hard - period.  And yet, here Paul is speaking about love.  His message is radical.

I can imagine these Corinthians thinking, "Our problems are much more serious.  Love, what a ridiculous notion.  How will love help anything?"  Yet it is Paul's law of love which pervades his message to the Corinthians.  More importantly he reverses the nature of doing and receiving   In other words Paul doesn't say to the impatient Corinthians, if you have patience then there is love.  This is essential to understanding this law of Love.

Love is the primary gift of the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is itself love.  Paul says to the Corinthians and to those with Corinthianitis today: God's love pours out and our response is love; love to God and love to one another.  Paul says, if you love then patience comes. If you love jealousy and boasting fall away.  If you love you will not be arrogant.  If you love you will not be rude.  If you love you will be a partner for the kingdom of God and not insist on your own way.  If you love you will not be irritable.  If you love you will not be resentful.  If you love you will not rejoice in the failings of others but you will rejoice in their best nature and their successes.  If you love you will be strong and have forbearance   If you love belief will come, hope will happen, and you will endure.

Hmmm. That is hard medicine because the key ailment of Corinthianitis is that I don't want to love the ones that are hard to love. I only really want to love the ones that are easy to love.  Deep beneath this is the reality that I don't believe or feel that I am loved.  But I read this passage over and over and I don't see that particular rule of life expressed by Paul.  Imagine that...you have to be open to receive God's love from whence it comes, respond in love to whomever comes, and live love wherever it may lead; and that is the Law of Love.

Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 1:4-19

"As the book unfolds, it is apparent that Jeremiah is called to deliver a message that is both difficult and unwelcome. The declaration that God knew him before he was born, even before he was formed in his mother's womb, does not exempt Jeremiah from problems inherent in his ministerial call."
Commentary, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Alphonetta Wines, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.


"Sometimes Love for God puts us in pain"
"In Pain with God," Will Willimon, The Hardest Question, 2013.

"Even if the preacher is not using this first lesson as the beginning of a series on the Jeremiah, some context is necessary to understand these six verses and the content of God's instructions."
Commentary, Jeremiah 4:1-10 | Rev. Megan M. Pardue | Pastor at Refuge, Durham, NC | A Plain Account, 2016


"Since Jeremiah 1:4-10 functions to introduce and authorize the entire book of Jeremiah, it may be helpful to introduce the range of content in the book, from calls for repentance, to announcements of judgment, ..."
Commentary, Jeremiah 1:4-10,Richard W. Nysse, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2016.


"Most people I have ever heard speaking of their start in vocations similar to those of Moses and Jeremiah begin not with a burning bush or an audible voice, but with a deep conviction that whatever else they may do, and no matter how they might or might not establish their 403Bs, it is the task itself that draws them in."
Commentary, Jeremiah 1:4-10, Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text

We jump to Jeremiah this week. We had this as a passage back in proper 13c. It is rich enough to come back to here. 

In this passage we here that Jeremiah is especially and specifically is called to this vocation:

5Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” 7But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” 9Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.

Here is something very important to understand about Jeremiah (And I lean on Levenson in his book Sinai and Zion 180ff here) - he was part of the Sinai prophetic tradition. Jeremiah was one of the priests in Anathoth. Now here is the story... the Sinai shrine at Shiloh (one of the most ancient and powerful shrines of the Sinai tradition) was destroyed after its priests supported the wrong king - Adonijah over and against Solomon. Solomon punished the line of Eli which led to Jeremiah. So while the great high priest at the Temple mount succeeded, the shrine was destroyed and the priests and their lineage including now Jeremiah, were lost. That is until now.

Jeremiah then resurrects the prophetic Sinai tradition over and against a centralized dynasty in Israel. He reminds the religious institution of his day that God dwells in the midst of the people, and that they are invited to partake as members of God's family. They do not own the rights to the religion and should be very careful of thinking they are somehow protected by throwing around God's name.

Jeremiah tells us that God has given him the God's spirit to speak truth to the powers that be and to the religious institution:

8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” 9Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. 10See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

God invites the prophet to speak out loud what he sees and to speak the truth about the centralized religion of the day. Jeremiah speaks:

I see a branch of an almond tree.” 12Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”13The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, tilted away from the north.” 14Then the Lord said to me: Out of the north disaster shall break out on all the inhabitants of the land. 15For now I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord; and they shall come and all of them shall set their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its surrounding walls and against all the cities of Judah. 16And I will utter my judgments against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me; they have made offerings to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. 

With these words and the passages that will follow Jeremiah sets out upon a mission to preach against the religion who centralizes faith, heaps up codes and requirements upon the people, which rob the people of wealth and who in the end hang a millstone around the least, and lost, and hungry's neck.

God is clear with Jeremiah, he is to give the faith of Israel back to the people and break the back of the oppressive religion. God for God's part will not stand in the way of the armies that are to come, who will bring the reign of man who acts like a God down reminding them this is not their home, nor their place, nor their wealth - but it is God's and meant to be shared to and benefit all of God's people. 

Third Sunday after Epiphany - Lectionary 3, Sunday January 23, 2022

Prayer

The Divine Image William Blake

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.

Some Thoughts on Luke 4:14-21

"Luke 4:14-21 is the opening scene in the ministry of Jesus. It is Jesus' manifesto for the work ahead."
Commentary, Luke 4:14-21, Ruth Anne Reese, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2016.

"...the God of Luke-Acts intentionally and continually invades, initiates, and even invites any and all theological deliberation, exploration, and imagination. Such theological thinking takes time and cannot be straightforwardly encapsulated in convenient statements of theoretical intent. Rather, Jesus’ words are a call to real life, real people, real time. This is God in our present and in our reality."

Commentary, Luke 4:14-21, Karoline Lewis, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2013.

"Luke necessarily turns the focus here to individuals who need freedom and salvation because such was the focus of many anecdotes about Jesus and this remains valid and real for all of us, but the broader vision is not lost, including Israel?s restoration (see Acts 1:5). Such good news, such peace, such liberating work of the Spirit, remains the core activity of the Christ (anointed) community.

"First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Epiphany 3, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

In Luke's Gospel Jesus has been baptized in the river Jordan and then driven into the desert where he makes his way as his ancestors did in the wilderness. Jesus himself withstands the devil's attempts to draw his faith and so he like ancient Israel out of Egypt is raised out of the desert as a faithful servant to the most high God. He is dependent up on God and will not be deterred from God's mission in him.

So it is that he comes to Galilee.  In Luke's Gospel we see Jesus in the synagogue teaching. Unlike other Gospels, Luke's is clear that Jesus is continuing a long tradition and is the mighty savior Israel has awaited. So it is the foundation of the mission to Israel is continuously laid.

Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah 61 and makes clear his mission. He has come with the spirit upon him. He is anointed. His work is to bring good news to the poor. He is going to proclaim the year of God's favor - a sabbath time in which the captives are freed from their yokes. He will be about the work of healing many and he will unbind those who are oppressed. He is to offer forgiveness of sins and the proclamation of Shimittah - a kind of cultural shabbat or Jubilee year.

In this passage we see Jesus as a prophet of old, a teacher, a person of authority, and with a clear mission in which we shall see the power of God in the world.

What I think we miss all too often is that Jesus is in the synagogue in order to reveal that God is to be at work outside of the synagogue - in the world with real people in the midst of real lives. It is not so much that we inside the church are to receive a special message but that we are to leave the church to go out to deliver the special message of God's jubilee and sabbath to the world.

Quite literally in the Gospels Jesus does the work of Isaiah 61. A church is no church at all if it is not also doing the work of Jesus out in the world. They will know the church by its works and if it is not working for the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the yoked, the bound, the blind, and sick then it is not a Christian community - it is simply a club.

In a time when we can blame a lot of our woes on shifting cultural trends - the reality may actually be that we spend more time in our synagogues listening than we do outside doing.

Some Thoughts on I Corinthians 12:12-31

"...we are meant to hear that this calls us not to some assertion of privileged status, but rather to the recognition of our responsibility for mutual care for the members of this body.
Commentary, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a, James Boyce, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2013.


"God was making a body for Christ, Paul said. Christ didn't have a regular body any more so God was making him one out of anybody he could find who looked as if he might just possibly do. He was using other people's hands to be Christ's hands and other people's feet to be Christ's feet, and when there was some place where Christ was needed in a hurry and needed bad, he put the finger on some maybe-not-all-that-innocent bystander and got him to go and be Christ in that place himself for lack of anybody better."
"The Body of Christ," Frederick Buechner, Buechner Blog.

"While our culture reduces 'hospitality' to friendliness and private entertaining, Christian hospitality remains a public and economic reality by which God re-creates us through the places and people we are given."

"Untamed Hospitality," Elizabeth Newman, (other resources at) "Hospitality,"Christian Reflection, The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2007.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

We have been working our way through the spiritual gifts discussion between Paul and the church in Corinth. Last week Paul explained to them that spiritual gifts were given for the good of the whole community.  In this passage for the readings this week Paul undertakes to explain the nature of the church. 

Christ is the head of the community (we would call church) and regardless of our beginnings, culture, class, we are bound together as citizens and family members by our baptism. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is in fact acting within us as the body of Christ in the world. We all help to make up the body and we all help undertake the body's work in the world. Moreover, we are mutually connected and needed. 

Here is an interesting piece of understanding the body in Paul. We all come under God's lordship in Christ. We are all needed. And, we are to treat one another as essential. We are to treat even the "less respectable members" as essential. In this way we work together in the midst of "dissension" and we bear witness to Christ in the world.

Sometimes I wonder if we really treat those we think are "less respectable" with the same caritas and love which Paul intends...even in our disagreements.

Some Thoughts on Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

"Here we see [Ezra] in a new role that looks both innovative and strangely familiar: reading and expounding upon Scripture. The passage emphasizes that this occasion includes not just the priests, Levites, or even just the men, but all the people, men and women. It also asserts that Ezra read at the request of the people themselves."
Commentary, Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, Patricia Tull, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2013.


"This passage is not about legalism and rigidity. It is about finding life, finding true joy. It would make for a great sermon or homily this Sunday."
3 Epiphany, Year C: Nehemiah 8:1-10, Biblische Ausbildung, Dr. Stephen L. Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary. Part 2.


"Do we believe in such a way that we are reknit as a body, members of one another, a commonwealth and not just people for ourselves? Are the words fulfilled in our hearing?"
"The Proclamation," John Stendahl, The Christian Century, 1998.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

If you love Nehemiah this is your chance. It only appears in our lectionary here on this Sunday and on Easter 4a and Proper 13a! 

We better begin with a refresher. Nehemiah and Ezra are often read together. Both are essential to understand the return of the exiled Jews to Jerusalem and their desire to rebuild the Temple. What we see in this passage today is that the Temple is remade and the sacred arts of religion reestablished.

The passage also reveals the struggle with between the exiled returnees and those who did not leave. Their division and desires for their homeland differ, though Ezra and the priests prevail.

In the midst of this the "book of the law of Moses" is found and so it is read in the midst of the people to remind them of the covenant with Yahweh. This is a feast day as the people are not only physically returning to the temple and the religion of the patriarchs and matriarchs, it is a feast because the people are reminded that they are to be holy as their God is holy. They are to keep the sabbath and to remember God's deliverance of them. 

So it is that the passage offers to us a sense of thanksgiving for the mighty works of God. Those returning and now free see their lives intertwined and connected with the people freed from Israel. The religion is restored, but greater than the acts of piety, is the knowledge that God will persevere and be faithful to his people - returning them to their homeland.