Proper 19B, September 15, 2024

Prayer

O God, whose hand shelters the just and righteous, and whose favor rests on the lowly, banish hypocrisy from our hearts and purify us of all selfish ambition.  Let your word sown among us bring forth a harvest of peace.  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 9:30-37

"In our own time, no one wants to look uninformed, confused, or clueless. We withhold our toughest questions, often within our own churches and within Christian fellowship. We pretend we don't have hard questions."

Commentary, Mark 9:30-37, Amy Oden, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"...once again Jesus is challenging us to reverse long-standing, ingrained, human habits. To set aside our common human understanding of how to win fame and glory, and instead learn from Jesus God's deep hospitality and honouring."


Holy Textures, Understanding the Bible in its own time and in ours, Mark 9:30-37, David Ewart, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Jesus is teaching and teaching and teaching.  The opening verses tell us that this one not a one off kind of teaching but regular occurrence. So the disciples have been listening to him teach over and over again and for days.

What is he teaching?  He is telling the disciples, and anyone who will listen, that he has to be turned over to suffer and die.  Prophets of God do this regularly of course, but Jesus is saying something different. Jesus is saying this is the way of the kingdom. I am going to be turned over to authority and I am going to suffer and die. But there will also be resurrection.  It is a "reversal of the way it ought to be." (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 2, 669)  And, no matter how you look at this first part of the text it is clear that there is "apostolic silence" and a complete disengagement with the message. (Ibid, 670).

It just isn't the way it is supposed to be.  The disciples with clarity continue to manifest an understanding of Messiahship that will bring them power and authority.  They are seeing through their lenses of the Temple and government structures of the day. Leaning heavily on the terms and images from Daniel, they often cast Jesus as a military leader and king of a worldly empire. It is an empire that Jesus already rejected in the desert. This discontinuity between what the disciples hear and Jesus' own vision is shown with clarity as he confronts them about their discussion on who gets to sit where in the new kingdom. 

I found it interesting that Jesus' engagement with Peter, and likewise his engagement with the disciples does not include shame them. Nor does Jesus belittle them for not getting it right. Sometimes there is a tendency to play the disciples off as dunces and in so doing we actually build up a straw man to knock down. In so doing we inadvertently shame our listeners...when it is highly likely they too do not understand what we are talking about.

Instead, Jesus continues teaching.  Jesus seems unfazed or at least disinterested in convincing his most intimate followers. He is teaching and teaching and teaching.  He offers instead of a rebuke and an image. 

Jesus picks up a child (though the word may also mean slave) and puts the child in the middle of the circle and embraces the child.  (Marcus, 681)  The image is certainly about receiving others (the child/slave) means receiving Jesus, and receiving Jesus is about receiving God. 

Now here is what is most fascinating.  How many sermons have you heard where the topic is about receiving Jesus like a child?  Thousands, millions, billions?  That is right...BUT that is not what the text says.  Jesus is saying receive the child/slave receive me.

The text says that when one receives another human being, embraces that human being, one welcomes and embraces Jesus and thereby the Father who sends him.  Moreover, that those in their midst who have no standing, no wealth, no voice, no value (the child/slave) are the ones we are to embrace.

How quickly we, like the disciples, skip to our place next to Jesus.  In the Gospel of Mark it is clear that if we are to come to God in Christ Jesus we must do so by embracing the child/slave and the outsider.
 

Some Thoughts on James 3:13-4:8

"Envy is the consuming desire to have everybody else as unsuccessful as you are."

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

"After several chapters of warnings and vivid illustrations of the consequences of living contrary to the plan of God, James moves in this passage to describe the good life and give some positive guidance for pursuing it."

Commentary, James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a, Sandra Hack Polaski, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"The kind of wisdom the Scriptures envision is a way of life that is born of walking humbly with God. It is a way of life that is inspired by the presence of God’s Spirit. When you live in such a way that you are consciously aware of God’s presence, it tends to create a sense of inner strength; but it is always a strength that manifests itself in gentleness, in humility, in self-sacrifice, and in kindness."

"Gentle Wisdom," Alan Brehm, The Waking Dreamer, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

The author of James begins to pull and tug at a sin he believes is found in all Christian community: boasting in one's self.  

Christians can be very proud people. We can be proud in our traditionalism, our conservatism, our biblicism, our purity, our liberality, our generosity, our correctness, and even our justice making. 

We Christians are good at boasting about ourselves and shaking our fist at the others. Why, I even have known Christians who have proudly proclaimed their suffering. 

The author writes:

But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.

Christians and their communities are instead to be known for something quite different. The author writes:

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Here is a key to understanding the work of reconciliation. We are to be at work healing history, celebrating and honoring our difference, and we are to create a peaceful commons. Only in peace may we find righteousness. 

We as Christians and as Christian communities are to be known not for our violence against others or the world, but for our peacemaking.

It is clear to the author, but I say it is clear to the world and to God, that when we are not peace makers we are not of Christ who is our peace maker. We are showing the world an marred vision of the reign of God. We are in fact not fooling anyone. The author says it is clear:

4Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts.

What is so very true is that we cannot be in love with ourselves or our stuff, we cannot be in love with what we have and fear what we might lose. We are not as Christians to worry or hold tightly to the things of this world because we are to be people of a different place, a peaceful place, a place where God's love reigns. This is not courtly or Victorian idea of love either - this is a sacrificial love. This is a love which brings peace (not because another makes the sacrificial offering) because we make the sacrificial offering of ourselves, our security, our truthiness, our rightness. 

It is no wonder that most Christians don't want to spend much time on James. The author holds up a mirror to our Christian way of life and reveals a very earthly and sordid affair that is in much need of a house cleaning.

Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 11:18-20

"Jeremiah has good reason to complain. In this passage, he begins by declaring the disturbing news, which the Lord had revealed to him, of the plot to assassinate him because of his apparent lack of patriotism (see also 18:18)."
Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Amy Merrill Willis, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"These laments of Jeremiah reveal that the prophet is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Jeremiah lives in a pressure cooker."
Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Terence E. Fretheim, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"How are the faithful to respond in times of pressing difficulty?"Commentary, Jeremiah 11:18-20, Frank M. Yamada, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

The prophet Jeremiah gives word to his suffering spirit as he sees how the people are neglected. (Jeremiah 4:19; 9:1; 10:19-20; 23:9) For it to be well, the people must remember the past and how their faith ancestors created a just and righteous society wherein the defense and cause of the poor and needy were taken into account. (Jeremiah 22:15-17) Jeremiah locates our responsibility within God’s creative imaginary. (Jeremiah 10:12-16; 51:15-19) He sees God not only as the God of Israel but of all nations. His is a universal call to serve the poor. Jeremiah understands that this national responsibility for the poor is met by the individual too. The problem is not something that exists at the monarchial level alone - the whole society from individual to the government is responsible for the poor. 

It is out of this deep prophetic tradition that Jeremiah reacts to those who find his politics lacking. They are out to kill him. Like the prophets of God in every age the powers and dominions of this world seek their demise and the quiet of their voice. 

Jeremiah, in our passage today, begins by reminding the hearer that God invites him to prophecy. Like many who have faced the backlash of inviting a different kind of thinking about God, God's people, and their work in community...Jeremiah finds the backlash troubling. He is so upset he himself wants God to take action.

The passage itself does not have a parallel in the New Testament gospels. However, we know these words. They are the words of Jesus when he longs to gather the people. He had the prophets on his mind as he did his own work. How long have I wanted to gather you in? How long have you killed the prophets? He muses, well knowing that the prophetic message to remember the poor and be responsible for the least, the long and stranger in the midst is a message that is never welcomed by the patriots, the nationalists, nor the powers of this world. Freedom from such Godly accountability is much more a welcomed message. It is always difficult for the reigning powers in every age to hear the prophetic voice reminding them of their responsibility.





Sermons Previously Preached

Travis Elementary School Cakewalk Championship 1975

Sep 26, 2012; Sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, Houston Sept 2012; Mark 9:30ff


Jesus Loves a Flash Mob

Oct 8, 2009; Jesus Loves a Flash Mob, sermon given at St. Mark's, Bay City, September 20, 2009, Proper 20, Mark 9.30ff.

A passage from my upcoming book entitled Citizen: Prophet in a Strange Land

Jesus engages once more reinventing social norms in concert with God’s narrative in Mark 9:36, Matthew 19:13, and Luke 18:15. People began to bring children to Jesus - even babies. The inner circle around Jesus said, “Not so fast.” This scene is memorialized in church windows all over as a sweet “let the little children come to me” spirituality. Now, I am quite sure that Jesus did actually want the children to come to him regardless of their parents’ place in the wider social system. But Jesus was suggesting a community where all strata are connected and in relationship. So his invitation is one that runs parallel with the previous conversation. Meanwhile, it is evident in this story that the social imaginary even of the teacher/disciple remains hierarchical. Jesus though took the children and put them at the center of the community. (Mark 9:36) He also explained that he was in relationship with them. In a culture where most of the family’s value was placed upon what you did for the family, to consider a child a person, to put one of the least of the members of community at the center, to recognize an unproductive (indeed vulnerable) person there, once again reorders the social structures to be garden-like.

This then is part of the orienting of the Christian citizen’s responsibility: that the structures of state should be oriented at the well-being of children. Children are oftentimes the most vulnerable in power systems of honor/shame or sacred/degregation. They are the first to go hungry and without food and nutrition, brains don’t form well in the first three years of life, perpetuating poverty into the next generation. They are seen as the property of the parents or the ward of the state. They are seen as assets for our future: future church members, future workers, future soldiers, and future consumers. Jesus changed this orientation. Children are no longer appendages to the social imaginary of a tribe, city, state, or nation until they are productive members. In this act, Jesus turns the tables upside down. Literally making the least the first, Jesus orients every member of the society as part of God’s narrative.

Jesus in his relationship with the crowd, with the two women and children, reveals how God’s narrative offers a different social imaginary that is necessary to keep our natural ways of shaming/honoring under check. It isn’t enough that a transcendent God far away is in relationship with us. Jesus is revealing that in fact our relationships are intertwined, as is our story. Our futures are tied together and so our politics, economics, and health are tied together.

One of the values of American civil religion is individualism. It is a value that is strong, and is tied to freedom and self-determination. It is reinforced by our national birth story, our mythic characters, speeches by our leaders, and our civil liturgies. Think of those mythic tall tales of George Washington, Molly Pitcher, Daniel Boone, "Davy" Crockett, John Henry, the unsinkable Molly Brown, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, and Calamity Jane. We have Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill as two mythical stories. It is as if individualism has become our dominant language as well as our frame.[i] However, “individualism” is not a strong enough shared value to help this country deal and manage the conflict and challenges that face us in our next age. In fact it may undermine our future as a country if it is the sole arbiter of truth.

In God’s social imaginary, we have described community in terms of relationship and responsibility. What we see in the stories of Jesus is something more. What we see is a value close to interconnectedness.

---

[i] Robert N. Bellah, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 2.

Proper 18B, Septermber 8, 2024

Countryside of Caesarea Philippi

Prayer

Not in easy words, O God, but in selfless deeds is the faith we profess made real and the love our Master commanded made present.  Give us the strength to take up the cross and wisdom to follow where Christ leads, losing our lives for the sake of the Gospel.  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 8:27-38

"These verses are crucial for understanding the Gospel according to Mark as a whole and for fathoming what it means to be Christian."

Commentary, Mark 8:27-38, Matt Skinner, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"All we have to do is trade what we've been led to believe is life for the real thing."

"Preaching the Anti-King," David Lose, Working Preacher, 2012.

"To 'deny yourself and take up your cross' invites us into what the cross can also mean -- not just death and suffering, but God choosing human relationships."

"A Different Kind of Denial," Karoline Lewis, Dear Working Preacher, 2015.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

There is no shortage of theological and New Testament scholarship on this passage.  In bible studies across the church for decades past and decades hence, I imagine, people are quick to pick up "their cross."  But we might pause to ask again what exactly is it we are picking up?  For whom do we pick it up?  And, what is the real cost to our manner of living.  For it is in this passage that we see the prism of discipleship so sharply focused and our keen shadow of sin so quickly to be at work to hide it.

Not unlike many passages in the Gospel of Mark a healing is followed by an important teaching. Jesus has healed a blind man suggesting a kingly power.  We have already been at work trying to understand who Jesus is:

1:27 "What is this? A new teaching with authority!"
4:41 "Who then is this? -- For even the wind and the sea obey him!"
6:2 "Where does this man get these things form?"  (Marcus, Mark, vol 2, 61)

Part of what we begin to understand is that Mark is intent on telling us who Jesus is so that we might recognize him in our own life.  In our passage today Jesus turns to his disciples and asks them who do people say that I am.  And they respond.  It is not a particularly unique question.  Though as a friend of mine (the Rev. Lisa Hines) reminded me the culture in which Jesus lives is one where the community defines the person.  Thus we might remember the endless adjectives that describe the people in the Jesus narrative. The syrophoenician woman is but one example.  People are constantly named by their community.  So then Jesus is also named by the community. 

Peter offers a glimpse into the reality of who Jesus is: The Messiah. Jesus is recognized by the community for his work, his power, his teaching. He is named by his community as the Messiah. 

But we are reminded of Isaiah 55:8 as we ponder the meaning of this title and its work of suffering, death, and resurrection.  "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways."  (Marcus, 614)  And it is here that is the difficulty.  

I know myself, so I am going to claim the reality that I am the one who constantly is choosing my cross.  It is indeed mine.  And, because it is so, it is rarely Jesus'. 

To follow this messiah means a suffering and death not of our own choosing.  If we are to make our pilgrim journey with this God then the crossroads of our redemption will rarely be found in the comfortable setting in which I choose to make my stand.  Rather, the edge of my discipleship is always an edge more often chosen by God and revealed by others.  If I am to truly make know the Good News of God in Christ then I must be also willing to realize and act out of a complete giving up of my self.  And, I should add, "myself" is not too keen on that idea.

Scholars point to John Chrysostom's meditation on discipleship:

He that is denying another...should he see him either beaten, or bound, or led to execution, or whatever he may suffer, does not stand by him, does not help him, is not moved, feels nothing for him, as being once for all alienated from him...[In the same way, the disciple of Jesus should] have nothing to do with himself, but give himself up to all dangers and conflicts; and let him so feel, as though another were suffering at all.  (Marcus translation, 625)

We are to give up ourselves completely to this work. And, we are to see in our lives the areas of failure, shame, pain, and suffering as moments on the edge of this new life of discipleship.  We are to see that at the very edge of our life, in the regions we dare not go, lest it cost too much - that it is this abyss where lies redemption. 

Are we willing to allow the Messiah Jesus to save the world?  Even the world we don't like? The political party we don't like? The candidate we don't like? The person in our family who drives us crazy...does Jesus save them?  Can we see the prostitute as someone saved by God? Can we see the homeless person as someone saved by God? Who is on your list of the people God does not save?  I have a list too.  It is true. And, in giving up myself to the cross I find that I must in some very strange way live on the edge of a life where God is at work saving those I am most likely estranged from. 

Is it not true in the Gospel?  Does Jesus in Mark's Gospel not save all kinds of sinners, demon possessed, unclean, bleeding, dying, unfaithful people?  Is this not the edge of the world in which we live.

In some way I guess, for the Christian who reads this passage today, we are encouraged to look up and out of our safe community and wonder...am I at the crossroads? Am I picking up Jesus' Cross of Grace? Am I standing on the edge?

Or, have I chosen the safe road, the road well traveled?  Have I chosen the safe Messiah who is safely kept in the church?  Have I chosen a Messiah that requires very little change of me; and certainly one that would not dare to invite me to soil myself in the service of others?

So, we might ask on this Sunday, who is your Messiah and what is his cross like?  Maybe, just maybe the Messiah the church and her good and saintly people have chosen is not quite dangerous enough for the Jesus of today's Gospel.

Some Thoughts on James 3:1-12

"The preacher encountering this text might be forgiven for the sudden urge to suggest, in lieu of the sermon, that the congregation engage in a time of silent prayer."

Commentary, James 3:1-12, Sandra Hack Polaski, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"James is right. The tongue is a fire, its flames spreading wherever it can find a source of fuel."

"Sticks, Stones, and the Power of Words," Eric D. Barreto, ON Scripture, Odyssey Networks, 2012.

"We are called to refuse the form of power that is practiced in the ideologies that set nature on fire all around us. The deceitful words of those in power, the words of blessing and cursing from the same mouth, these the words we are called to reject."

"Setting Nature on Fire," Halden Doerge, The Ekklesia Project, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

I think a lot of preachers will avoid this Sunday. The truth is that it is a good Sunday to preach and to ponder the power invested in the teacher and preacher within the Christian community. 

I think a lot of time the preacher wishes to exonerate his or herself from the high calling and expectations of such leadership. It is true that priests and pastors are just other human beings. But at the same time they are given certain powers and authorities and their actions affect these powers and authorities in many ways. Here lies James' point. 

When a priest, for instance harms someone in word or in deed, their action has an effect upon the community. A married male priest cannot sleep with a woman who is not his wife and expect that such an act does not directly impact the way in which people see marriage or the words that he says during a marriage service. It does not mean that the priest or woman are not forgiven by God or loved by God. It does mean that their actions have consequences within the Christian community. 

Another example is the priest who speaks of God's love and mercy and grace for a select few but multiplies hate and violence against a minority or someone different than themselves. The Christian who ignites violence against blacks, immigrants, or the GLBT community is not someone who is speaking the commandment of God to love neighbor and welcome the stranger. 

These are extreme examples but it is to say that there are areas of our ministry that are directly impacted by areas of our life, our conduct, and our words. 

James says look preachers you can't go acting out or teaching things that are not true. He says basically a teacher of God who goes off on their own and starts making stuff up or speaking outside of the provinces of God's own decrees is not only not a teacher but a person whose tongue is like fire and can enflame the whole community. God intends to us not to kill or make violence on others. God intends us to be faithful to one another. God intends us not to abuse one another. God intends for us to share what we have. God intends for us to create just structures for the common good. God intends for us to embrace the person who is different than us. God's mercy is abundant as is God's love.

James is clear that the preacher and his tongue are a dangerous thing:  It can be used for good and for evil: we honour God with it, but we also curse fellow humans (“made in the likeness of God”, v.9). It should only be used for good. In nature, any one “spring” (v. 11) only produces good or bad water. Fig trees and grapevines only yield what God has intended – so we should only speak good. The devil (“salt water”, v. 12) only yields evil. (This is blogger Chris Haslaam's synopsis.)

What goes for the preacher goes for the follower of Jesus. What we say can have profound damages. In 2015 a pastor's spouse took a picture of another woman in the congregation. She then posted the picture on her facebook page and asked if what the woman was wearing was appropriate for church. The picture and the survey went viral on the internet getting thousands of views, shares, and comments. Most of them were negative and shamed the church going woman for wearing what they thought was an inappropriate dress. The damage was done. A woman who came to church to hear about God's love, unconditional acceptance, mercy, and forgiveness, was publicly shamed by the community's leadership. This is the kind of act which springs forth from the tongue, has global consequences, reveals to those who suspect the church of mean spiritedness, and harms another human being. It is the kind of act that James is saying isn't appropriate - most of all not from the leadership of God's community.

Some Thoughts on Isaiah 50:4-9
"The Lenten color of violet hints at the violence sometimes suffered by faithfulness in the short-term, and also sends shivers down the spine. This Sunday the color of a bruise is replaced by that of blood-red, lethal wounds. The full impact of faithfulness is not yet accounted for."
Commentary, Isaiah 50:4-9a, James Matthew Price, A Plain Account, 2016.

"The servant's confidence springs from past actions of God in calling the servant and bestowing gifts up him as well as God's present helping actions in the face of confrontation by enemies."

Commentary, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Tyler Mayfield, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2014.

"What will it mean for us to preach the word of God with the tongue of students, listen like students do, and still stand up to testify confident in God's help?"
Commentary, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Anathea Portier-Young, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

The prophet suggests that God has invited him to be a teacher, to offer a word to the people, to instruct them in God's ways. This is a for a particular purpose though. It is to bring hope and strength to the people...it is to sustain the weary.  God invites the prophet to awaken to the work at hand - to bring comfort and hope.

The prophet listens and does not rebel against the message. This of course implies that the prophet would in fact like to rebel against the message of hope. Perhaps the the notion here for the preacher is that it is easy to become one of the people. But the work of the prophet is to rise above the people's anxiety and weariness in order to offer a vision of God's hope and care.

Moreover, that when we do this as prophets, teachers, and preachers we may not always be liked. People might rather live within their misery. They might rather live within the world of political conflict and power manipulation. They may wish that the preacher parrot the media source of their choosing. In this way the people may not always like the prophet's message.

There is on the one hand sacrifice here ad on the other there is a sense that God works to be the redeemer of both preacher and people. There is support and power in knowing that we are standing, preaching, teaching, and prophesying in the midst of God's narrative.

Sometimes the preacher is tempted to simply mimic the words of the world and the power plays that are all around us. To pick up the narrative of humanity instead of the narrative of God. Let me confess I fall prey to this. All the more reason to take time to listen and ponder God's story of hope and help for the weary soul. All the more reason to offer a true word instead of the word of the world disguised in gospel mimicry.

This is the work that Jesus undertakes in his own preaching and reorienting relationship with God from a temple/church oriented faith to a direct relationship with God. In so doing, he receives the same treatment as Isaiah describes. See especially Mark14:65 and Matthew 26:67. In this way Isaiah's passage here offers a future vision of the suffering servant of Israel. Like all prophets before him, and many prophets after, Jesus receives the prophet's welcome.

The world of human affairs is eager to maintain sibling rivalry, mimetic desire and violence, and scapegoating. We do this to secure our own place and powers. The message of a God who intends that you understand you are invited into God's story and not the other ay around will always be a difficult thing for people to come to grips with. Everything in our lives, from relationships, workplaces, and our technology leads us to believe we are the center of the world/cosmos. God however, through the work of Jesus, the prophet, the teacher, and preacher would like us to understand this is not the situation.

Proper 17B, September 1, 2024

Prayer

O Good and gracious God, you have chosen little ones, the worlds' poor and lowly, to become rich in faith and to be heirs of your kingdom.  Help us to speak words of encouragement and strength to all whose hearts are fearful, that the tongue of the speechless may be loosened and all of our wounded humanity, unable so much as to pray, may join us in singing the mighty wonders of your 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.


Some Thoughts on Mark 7:24-37


"Many times it has been disciples who have least understood the issues as they have uncoupled devotion to God from devotion to people, because they have uncoupled God and people. Then a prejudiced "god" feeds a prejudiced people."


"First Thoughts on Year B Gospel Passages in the Lectionary," Pentecost 14, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

"A few months ago on my morning walk I was surprised by 'crumbs' left behind. They were not meant for me at all. I even knew there were not meant for me, but left over, they fed me still."

"Of Sidewalk Messages and Crumbs from God's Table," Janet Hunt, Dancing with the Word, 2012.

"...there is your story and mine−that Jesus is in our house, with full power to heal; that we need to approach him with compassion and perseverance, praising God the sender of the Savior of all people, not just people like us."

Commentary, Mark 7:24-37, Alyce M. McKenzie, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

So, we might pause for a moment and ask: what has Jesus been up to lately? He has challenged dietary laws, offered a new vision of sin and its root cause, challenged community separation based upon these laws thereby offering to the religious leaders of the day a vision of a new kingdom of God.  All of these also have offered a vision of a kingdom that is no longer divided between Gentile and the faithful community in Jerusalem.  Early church theologians such as Chrysostom saw the erasing of this "particularism" clearly as they reflected on this passage. (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol. 1, 466)

I remember this passage clearly from my seminary days because of the fact that we debated its meaning over coffee.  We used it as the case study for whether or not God changes God's mind.  Certainly the passage is unusual in the way that it offers the story.  Jesus says no; makes what is nothing less than a horrible metaphor about dogs.  Jesus then listens and then offers healing.  In the midst of this debate about God and God's changing mind (or not) is a critical New Testament scholar debate over the two pieces of dialogue belonging together.  A number of scholars march through that debate very well and you are welcome to read more about it in either Joel Marcus' work or in Adela Collins' text.

So what do we have here?  Joel Marcus has a great reflection on the characters and events. He writes: "In the overall Markan context it forms an inclusion with the narrative of the woman with the hemorrhage in 5:21-43.  The latter is, like the heroine of our story, an anonymous, plucky, ritually unclean woman who 'hears about Jesus' and receives healing from him, and is coupled with a younger girl (Jarius' daughter, the Syrophoenician's daughter) who is healed." (Marcus, 466)  Joel Marcus also gives us the short and sweet of the story in his words when he writes, "Not only does it present the only example in the Gospels of a person who wins an argument with Jesus, but it also portrays a Jesus who is unusually sensitive to his Jewish country-men's claims to salvation-historical privilege and unusually rude about he position of Gentiles: the Jews are God's children, and their needs come first; compared to them, non-Jews are just 'dogs.'" (Marcus, 470)  Thank you Joel for the frank reader's digest version!

So here is what I find fascinating.  Never in our discussions in the bottom of the student center at seminary, over our steaming cups of coffee, on a cold winters day, arguing over God' changing God's mind did we stop to think about or discuss what this passage might offer us as individuals trying to follow Jesus or what it might offer the church communities we were preparing to serve.

This is what I have come to understand.  I am challenged by others who are not like me or my preconceived notions about Christianity, church, the Episcopal Church, life the universe or anything for that matter. I am predisposed to believe, as a human being, that I am right.  As an old T-shirt I had once offered: "I may have my faults but being wrong is not one of them."  This uniquely human condition (sometimes called sin) always gets in the way of what God is doing in my life when by providence he introduces me to people that are different than myself. 

Second, I believe that I and our Episcopal community are challenged to see in our brothers and sisters, specifically the Jewish people, God's special dispensation; and we might add the Muslims as well.  This is not to deny our particular revelation at all but it is to say  that God does have a special relationship with ALL THREE of the Abrahamic faiths and that such a relationship deserves attention.  At times such a relationship may be difficult and painful but all three religions hold a special place in God's heart rooted deep in a promise made on a desert's eve to a wandering but faithful Abram and Sarai.

Lastly, I am challenged and I believe our churches are challenged to see that God may in fact be, in this very moment, choosing a new people to incorporate into our family.  The passage is very clear that God's kingdom and its embrace of the Gentile world is key to God fulfilling God's mission.  Certainly the word "Gentile" itself means in particular those people who are not Jewish.  That is certainly true.  It has a broader meaning as well, as an adjective it means: not belonging to one's own religious community.  And, this is the catch for us. It is very difficult for those involved in a privatized world of religious faith to see that God is at work in the world around us; in a very public manner. 

In order to embrace the kingdom of God and be a missionary church we as Episcopalians must come to terms with the fact that God offers his healing balm to those who do not belong to our church.  We are challenged and encouraged to join in the Gospel work when we see that God's is out and about and in particular at work in the community of people who are NOT in our churches or who are particularly Episcopalian. 

Now that, my friends and readers, is a challenge far more interesting to preach and consider as we hear this story.  And the church would be well served by a whole host of preachers on Sunday morning got up and instead of talking about the woman who changed God's mind, talked about the followers of Jesus and how they were encouraged by Jesus' witness to go out and accomplish a mission to the gentile world that would change the course of history and would begin its work of building the Kingdom of God.

Some Thoughts on James 2:1-17

"The second chapter of James opens with an illustration that is as relevant in the contemporary church as it must have been to James's first readers."

Commentary, James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17, Sandra Hack Polaski, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"...James is making himself quite clear: Christians, both individually andcollectively, have a moral responsibility to the poor."

"Poverty, Wealth, and Equality?" Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer, ON Scripture, Odyssey Networks, 2012.

"Social justice christology is 'in' at the moment - but like the term, social justice, itself, can die of its popularity as our fascination with it innoculates us against engagement and the vision dies to become just an idea and a good concept to include in our strategic plans and visions."

"First Thoughts on Passages on Year B Epistle Passages in the Lectionary,"Pentecost 15, William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text


We continue this week with our readings form the Epistle of James. Our theme continues to reflect the author's challenge that we “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers”.

I found a few quotes that are I find very helpful to me in thinking about this passage. They are from theologian's Miroslav Volf and amplify well this portion of James.

As James offers the notion that our relationship with God leads to a response from the follower which necessarily includes the other. Challenging the reader to understand that God shows no partiality so the follower of Christ in turn shows no partiality.  There is not stranger in the intimacy of relationship with God. If we believe in the triune God then we are always and everywhere connected with the other(s). 

Volf writes in his book AFTER OUR LIKENESS: 

“Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communion. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the Triune God- a "foursome," as it were-- for the Christian God is not a private deity. Communion with this God is at once also communion with those others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God.” 

If we truly believe in a triune God, and we are truly followers and intimately connected with this God, then we are forever connected to others. There is no "favoritism". We are not the judge of appearance, or to discriminate.

Volf continues:

"The sufferings of Christ on the cross are not just his sufferings; they are “the sufferings of the poor and weak, which Jesus shares in his own body and in his own soul, in solidarity with them” (Moltmann 1992, 130). And since God was in Christ, “through his passion Christ brings into the passion history of this world the eternal fellowship of God and divine justice and righteousness that creates life” (131). On the cross, Christ both “identifies God with the victims of violence” and identifies “the victims with God, so that they are put under God's protection and with him are given the rights of which they have been deprived."

We are to conduct ourselves differently because we are saved by a God who opens himself up to us and shares and gives of himself for us - even when we were far off. We are to love God and to love others as a response to God's mercy, forgiveness, and grace.

James is clear if in any way we do not recognize God's impartiality, love of neighbor, special relationship to the poor and the lowly then we are not ourselves in relationship with God. For to be in relationship with God at this deep level is to recognize our true and common humanity with everyone.  To honor others, to not kill, or destroy, to share and to not steal, to care for our family, and to not use God to build up our own power are all ways in which we reveal the health of our own relationship with the Godhead.

Finally, Volf offers:

"Engagement is not a matter of either speaking or doing; not a matter of either offering a compelling intellectual vision or embodying a set of alternative practices; not a matter of either merely making manifest the richness and depth of interior life or merely working to change the institutions of society; not a matter of either only displaying alternative politics as gathered in Eucharistic celebrations or merely working for change as the dispersed people of God. It is all these things and more. The whole person in all aspects of her life is engaged in fostering human flourishing and serving the common good.”

If Christians do not accompany their faith with love and care for the other then they aren't much of a Christian I am afraid. The hard news here is that claiming to be one is quite a different thing than living as one.


Some Thoughts on Isaiah 35:1-10

"Czech dissident and first post-communist president Václav Havel said it so well: "Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it will turn out.""
Commentary, Isaiah 35:4-7a, Patricia Tull, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"Isaiah dares to speak a word out of place. A word that refused to wait until things improved."

Commentary, Isaiah 35:1-10, Barbara Lundblad, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2013.

"To preach this passage, then, you will need to exegete not only text but also context. The oracle gives no sure clues as to its own originating context. The contexts it calls you to interpret are your own and those of the people who have called you to preach."

Commentary, Isaiah 35:4-7a, Anathea Portier-Young, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"God in Isaiah 35 now promises a new and fresh wilderness, filled with lovely blossoms, rather than jackals and ostriches, ringing with the sounds of joy and singing rather than the hoots and screeches of owls and buzzards."
"The Hope of New Vision," John C. Holbert, Patheos, 2010.

NRSV Old Testament Text

God's garden social imaginary is a creation abundant. In it there is community and relationship. It rejects sibling rivalry, mimetic desire, and violence as tools to deal with scarcity. In fact the God's narrative rejects scarcity.

In our Isaiah passage, we hear a prophecy that the world will be made new. The people living in the land and in relationship with others. Desert flowers blossoming, alive with creatures, all reflecting the abundance of God.

God is an interested party and will free the people. He will not withhold his hand from the accountability that comes when responsibility is shirked by authorities and those in power.

The passage we are given is the passage that Jesus likely reads in the synagogue. It is a key image of a renewed social imaginary that is proclaimed in word and deed by God in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah cries to the people on God's behalf: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way."

Truly a way is made in the desert. We know this way because we have been reading about it in Mark's Gospel. This is the way that John the Baptist says is coming, this is the path that Jesus follows, it is the road upon which the disciples are invited to walk. Jesus in fact opens the yes of the blind. The people who can not hear justice hear again as if for the first time. The lame walk. Jesus feeds the people and brings living water to the woman at the well.

Isaiah is of course speaking of the immanent return of the people of Israel from the wilderness of Babylon back to their home. He is showing that God has heard their cry and they have suffered long enough. Isaiah, as he will do in chapter 40, is literally bringing comfort to the people.

It is true that we cannot remove the context of violence from the passage. Isaiah and his prophetic school cannot help but suggest that God will bring a violent end to the people's persecutors. This is not the full revelation that Jesus brings as peacemaker. Isaiah can only imagine a world where the lion is no longer there. Instead we have in Jesus an image of lion and lambs together.

Isaiah does offer something beautiful. The rejection of violence and scapegoating will end - he suggests. The lion and ravenous beast will not be any more, instead there will be a people who are redeemed. Rejecting  violence, they will sing, and be glad and sorrow will be no more.

As always, we read the text backwards with the first and second commandments, and Jesus as our hermeneutical lens. This helps us to understand the eagerness of vengeance placed in the mouth of God as merely human's desire for repetitive violence - a continuation of scapegoating. When we see clearly the greater vision of Isaiah, we not only see revealed in the passage the revelation of Jesus himself who will come and preach the message of peace and healing. We also see the great potential for a society built upon peace and healing that brings joy and gladness into the world.

This is a passage filled with good news for those who need it. It is also a passage filled with vision for those who have lost theirs. Prophetic leadership always points to our participation in God's narrative. The prophet invites us to find our place within it.

Sometimes I think preaching is described as finding the context that you are in and preaching into it. But this fractures the narrative and reorients it. I think preaching may more be the work of the prophet to invite people into God's narrative, to invite them to hear God's words of freedom and hope for others like them. The scripture is not a medicine kit with salve for this or that issue. Instead, the scripture is a pool in which to wade, swim, and dive. It is living and abundant water in which we are invited so we may root ourselves and be like the blossoms in the midst of the desert.

Proper 16B, August 24, 2024

Prayer

Behold, O God, your Christian people, gathered together on this day of the Lord, our weekly celebration.  Let the praise of our lips resound in the depths of our hearts, the word you have sown, the word that has taken root within us to sanctify and renew our entire 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.

Some Thoughts on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

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

"The question that drove the Pharisees and that motivates some contemporary Christians is an important one: in a religiously diverse culture, how does one maintain Christian identity and integrity?"


"ID Check," Cynthia M. Campbell, The Christian Century, 2006.

"By the end of the passage for today, Jesus has turned the whole notion of consumption that defiles on its head."

Commentary, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23, Elizabeth Webb, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"What seems to have made him angriest was hypocrisy and irrelevance, and thus it is the Pharisees who come in for his strongest attacks, the good people who should have known better. 'You brood of vipers,' he called them. 'How can you speak good when you are evil?'"

"The Longing for Home," Frederick Buechner, Buechner Blog.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

Jesus has just shown his miraculous healing powers and now an argument over doing work on the sabbath begins between himself and the religious leaders of his day.  The argument centers around the eating of ritually clean food by people who are ritually clean.

Rather than answer the questions directly, Jesus changes the question and instead holds up the difference between human tradition and God's word/commandment.  By so doing he has transferred the positive notion of the "tradition of the elders" into a negative one. (Joel Marcus, Mark, vol 1, 451).  Jesus' second rebuttal shows the religious leaders and to the reader that instead of the "tradition of the elders" being a positive or necessary expansion of the commandment it is now getting in the way of the commandments of God. It is in fact betraying God's Word - perhaps even working against God's grace. So, while in scripture and guided by scripture it is not of the same authority of God's desire to gaterh in his people.

He then makes a pronouncement about purity.  He states that because the "tradition from the elders" comes from the person (who we believe to be fallen)  it actually corrupts everything that is attempted, including the word of God.  He then (in the passage that we do not read this Sunday) will explain that instead of food being the presenting issue of this corruption, or we might postulate the cleaning of hands/pots/cups/and bronze kettles, it is instead the human heart.  For Jesus the seat of corruption is the human and their heart. (Marcus, 454)

This is a "revolutionary" notion. (Marcus, 456)  It was revolutionary for the disciples who want to hear more, it is revolutionary for us as well.  Just as we might recall the heavenly voice speaking to Peter in Acts about ritually clean foods, Jesus says God made these things, they are of his creation, they are good. What is actually happening is Jesus is himself saying that parts of scripture while important may not have the same validity as other parts of scripture. In a very Anglican way of thinking Jesus is saying that while the bible contains all things necessary for salvation, not everything in the law and in scripture is necessary for salvation

Jesus' teaching in the Gospel of Mark is clear: the human heart is the seat of a lot of bad things.  Joel Marcus says this well when he writes:

"[The] catalogue of human offenses is incorporated into a truly hellish picture, in which the interior of the human being is depicted as a Pandora's box, a cave of malignancy out of which hordes of demon like evils emanate....a wild force that propels people willy-nilly into actions that are opposed to God's will.  Nor is it by chance that, after this global category, the first specific misdeeds to be mentioned are sexual sins; in Hellenistic popular philosophy these sins were the premier example of the chaotic, ungovernable aspect of human nature, which precipitously pursues its own desires and is blind to its own true good, and in Judaism these sins were frequently associated with the promptings of the Evil inclination." (Marcus, 459ff)

The next important piece seems to be the notion that the disciples themselves do not stand apart form the group of humans whose hearts pour forth this evil in the world. (Marcus, 460)  That too is revolutionary.

This passage offers us a glimpse into Jesus' belief that we ALL are fallen creatures. We all suffer from this incurable corruption.  All of us, the religious leaders, the disciples, the first Christian community to which Mark is writing, all of us are naturally about the work of corrupting God's Word.  All of us.

Certainly, we then might respond that such a group of reprobates as the human race have no hope; so what does it matter anyway. Isn't this just an invitation to "moral disorder." (Marcus, 461)  Here I would pause and first say that the key message of Jesus is that all are saved in his work of the cross.  We must remember that every footstep, every word of Jesus, is walked and spoken on the way to the cross.  We ourselves are on our way to this dying.  Joel Marcus too, offers us a thought that defies tradition, logic, and law when he writes that Jesus wants us to understand that transformation lies in seeing the creation, the society, our religion through Jesus' eyes. (Marcus, 461)  In these two notions is our hope and salvation.  In these two critical pieces do we receive grace and learn a new transformational way of life.

All of this is uttered in the physical geography between the worlds of biblical Israel and the world of the Gentiles.  (Marcus, 461)  So this week as we ponder our inability and the root of our corruption, we might also ponder the notion of a new kind of religion.  Perhaps we might imagine a religion (lets say the Episcopal Church for instance) that steps out onto the boundary that lies between our church steps and the world and proclaims grace from our Lord's cross and simultaneously looks at the world with the eyes of Jesus, and in so doing does miraculous work. 

Some Thoughts on James 1:17-27

"Glib pieties do not suffice purify the heart of a believer; if one thinks oneself secure simply for praising the Lord and carping at sinners, one has not made spiritual progress but is half-heartedly trying to hold on both to God and to sinful desire."

Commentary, James 1:17-27, A.K.M. Adam, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

"Perhaps, if we as Christians were to follow James's precepts, we would do a lot less talking and a lot more listening."

Commentary, James 1:17-27, Sandra Hack Polaski, Preaching This Week,WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"Why do I find James -- at least in this instance -- so attractive? Because it reminds us of two incredibly important things: 1) faithfulness does not need to be heroic; 2) Sunday is not the most important day of the Christian week."

"Ordinary Saints," David Lose, Working Preacher, 2012.

Oremus Online NRSV Text

This is the first time we have had the opportunity to read the letter attributed to James in a long time! It is described, and many people think of it, as a letter.  However, it is really more of a description or encouragement concerning the conduct of a disciple of Jesus. It is probably given the name of the brother of Jesus in order to give it teaching authority in the midst of the late first century Christian community.

The premise of the letter is very much a dualist one. The Christian is a good the world is bad. The Christian is moral and the world is evil. The faith that Christians are called to then is to be a witness in this world.

Blogger Chris Haslaam (found here) describes it this way:

In a situation where trials and tribulations abound, and where the poor suffer at the hands of the rich, the author exhorts them to joy, endurance, wisdom, confident prayer and faithful response to the liberating word of God, as they await the second coming of the Lord. The recipients appear to be a group of Jewish-Christian communities outside Palestine. 

In our passage for this Sunday the author is encouraging people to be wary and to not be deceived by the teachings of others or the world. God has given a perfect gift in Christ Jesus. Just as he has given abundantly in the very act of creation, so God has continued to give and to creation. Christ is the first fruit of a new creation - a reordered creation.  

The reason is that followers of Christ are to be examples of God's recreative act. We are, through our own offering of ourselves, to be about the work of God in the world. We are to do and act out our following of Christ Jesus. 

Here then is that great passage: we are to be doers of the word and not only hearers of the word. Once we are baptized, once we accept the great gift of Christ, the all powerful all forgiving act of Christ, we are then to respond. This is very important.

God does the saving. It is to this saving grace filled action of recreation that we are to respond. How are we to respond. The author says we are to hold up our lives to the Gospel. We are to be quick to listen to God and the Gospel. We are to be slow to anger or speak. So we are to listen to God and ponder what we hear. The follower of the Christ is to care for the poor especially orphans and widows. We are to be active in the betterment of the world by caring for other people.

For the author of this passage it is clear that the world does not care for the poor, for the orphan, for the widow. The world does not intend the transformation of the world as a sustainable creation. the world is filled with anger, deceit, and self-care. 

The author is clear, the follower of Christ Jesus is not any of those things. The follower of Jesus is one who is other centered and focused in their life and in their ministry - not just their ministry alone. The work is to be as Christ was for the world.


Some Thoughts on Deuteronomy 4:1-9


"Christians would do well to re-capture the awe with which the Israelites approach God's law."

Commentary, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9, Sara Koenig, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2009.

"Our children stand at a threshold. We -- preachers, parents, catechists, neighbors, priests, deacons, elders -- are their teachers. We are entrusted with our people's memory and testimony."
Commentary, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9, Anathea Portier-Young, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2012.

"The ideal community transcends time but can also be experienced in real time."
Commentary, Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9, Steed Davidson, Preaching This Week, WorkingPreacher.org, 2015.

Old Testament Text NRSV

Our passage from Deuteronomy falls within a group of "ways". God is offering people a set of "ways" by which healthy community might be lived.

One of the very real issues of our day is our freedom from any suggestion that our freedom has consequences or our freedom should be impinged upon in any way. Our every fractured and privatized society relegates passages such as this to meaninglessness and privatized faith. We in turn free our selves from any requirement because of some idea that there is an actual division between our faith and the other six days and twenty-one hours we are not in church.

Some clue the passage is in its beginning, "So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you." We often twist this story to be a kind of exchange between God. If you are good I will give you the land. That is probably because that is the way we understand spirituality and life - through an economic lens. You do these things. Then, I will give you these things. That is really not what is being said here. What God is saying is that to survive as a people, to live as community, you have to have some kind of virtuous life together.

God is saying that if you don't do these things your community will not last...this is the bit about Baal of Peor. A lot of people may point to God's violence here. I don't think that is God's way at all. It is very difficult for me to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and use it as a lens to read the scripture and still believe that the destruction of people is God's will. That is neither here nor there...I just don't want you to get distracted. Stay with God's theme. What God is reminding the people is that it took a kind of way of living together to make it through the desert. It will take a way of living together to live in this new promised land.

The people in this story do not see the world as we see the world. We see the world as fractured, with many narratives to chose from, and we see a lot of objects. We see everything deconstructed and people and things as individual objects who are free to act and free to be used. This is how most Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies see the world. We are WEIRD. The people in this text are not WEIRD and they, like most non western people today, see the world as a web of interconnected relationships. They understand that a person is always in relationship to other human beings and with God - even when they are alone. They are always part of God's creation and community. They are never an individual.

That means that there are ways to live together. Society does not work if anarchy reigns and freedom is uncontested. It takes wisdom and discernment to understand this. In fact the laws and the governance described in these passages are really helpful. Virtuous living is something that all healthy societies need. Virtuous living is not something genetically passed down from individual to individual and it is not something all too often figured out on our own. Virtuous living has to be shared between people and it has to be tried out in small communities. In fact, living in community ensures that we cannot remain WEIRD people.

Churches are one place where we can try on this way of life. But it only works when it is a way of life rooted in God's narrative. There are plenty of WEIRD churches filled with people who are there to get their version of the narrative pill so they can go back out in the world. These are communities that do not challenge the wider narratives of the world. Such communities have lost their virtuous string that ties them into the way of Jesus and the way of Jesus' people. Life that is lived together, is life that is virtuous and shared, filled with compassion and faithfulness to others. It is also a life that in turn brings/makes grace in the world.

We are not only co creators with God. We are not only partners in God's creation. We are actually partners in God's transformative act of resurrection life that makes grace available to people. Such grace is not merely shared or given by words, it is something that is lived out when you respect people (especially your elders), or when you relish friendships instead of coveting what others have. The "way" of living is a very real cross that reorients us from getting what we can in our WEIRD society to giving who we are in the midst of an interrelated community where we are always in relationship to others and to God - even when we are alone.