Another Sunday Coming

Return of Another Sunday Coming

2010-11-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while! I thought I would just take a break and start again in September but with two new team members and some changes in my personal life on top of the usual September flurry which seemed to spill over into October, here we are in mid-November!

November 21, 2010 - Reign of Christ Sunday
Click here for the full text (NRSV) for this Sunday's readings.

I have chosen to work with only two selections: Colossians 1:11-20 and Luke 23:33-43.
This Sunday is a baptism Sunday for us so I need to find a link between the reign of Christ and baptism. The obvious one is that the reign of Christ is what the children are being baptized into, but I would appreciate any suggestions for other possibilities.

Colossians 1: 11-20
What the heck is this Pauline author getting at? Is the ancient hymn in vs. 15-20 (notice how each line starts with "he" and lists a series of descriptions that dance around the mystery) really saying that all of God was in the human person of Jesus (v. 19)? I suspect not but you may differ. Looking at v.15 the Greek word ikon is translated as image. To give this a modern spin, an icon on your computer screen is a small image giving you access to the full program. I think this is more what the hymn means -- the person of the earthly Jesus gives us an entry point to the character of what lies beyond.

Thinking back to the "olden days" of computers, in the early 80's when I turned on my computer I was confronted with C:> which meant that I had to know what programs lay behind the screen and what they might do. Sometimes when I managed to call a program up onto the screen I had to do some programming to make it work and produce the results I wanted. Now all I have to do is click on icons and menus, then supply a little content and this blog appears! Is if fair to say that Jesus and the New Testament are icons that help us access the meaning and power of the Old Testament? I like this concept better that the supersessionist ones that claim Jesus and the NT make the Old Testament irrelevant.

Luke 23: 33-43
For Paul himself Jesus was the icon: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2) Even though he experienced the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul places less emphases there than on the Cross. The Gospel of Mark, in its oldest version, ends with the empty tomb. At the same time the cross is one of the most avoided concepts in much of liberal Protestantism. I personally have an aversion to the celebration of the gore of the crucifixion ala Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" as realistic as it may have been. For me now it is not the blood but the stark contrast between the violence of empire and the non-violence of the reign of Christ that is most significant. The cross is the throne of the non-violent servant-king Jesus, if you will, showing us that non-violent service is the way of reconciliation with God and with each other. When we close the door on the bully nature of violent coercion and manipulative abuse of others and creation, whole new avenues of relationship open to us that can bring healing and wholeness to life.

Looking forward to your comments.

For Sunday, February 28, 2009

2010-02-20T22:25:00.000-08:00

My apologies for the long delay since the last post. Between a short vacation and subsequent stomach and sinus problems I haven't had the time or the energy to keep this up. Hopefully that will improve now!

For the full NRSV text of the readings for this Sunday from the Revised Common Lectionary click here

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
I have to admit there are times like this when I wonder what the good lectionary composers were thinking. I suppose someone somewhere has a need to know how to perform the proper animal sacrifices in order to "cut a covenant," but I have no idea where to find them. Even as a theophany it doesn't register on me. What is with the smoking, hovering, moving pot? Was God "incensed"? Was the flaming torch a harbinger of the Olympics? Strangely the covenant that is being made is cut off from the end of the reading.

I suppose the promise of descendants for Abraham is significant. If you look at the number of Jewish, Muslim and Christian people in the world today that promise seems to be fulfilled. Whether they are as many as the stars in the sky can be argued now that the Hubble telescope has revealed (to quote Carl Sagan) "billions and billions of galaxies" -- and each with countless numbers of stars.

Psalm 27
I do like this Psalm! Below I refer to Jesus' calm assertiveness in the face of the threat from Herod. I suspect he could have written this psalm if it had not written him. Why does my faith feel so cheesy when I read it?

Philippians 3:17-4:1
Want to know who the real enemies of Christ (or any major religion) are? Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.(Phil. 3:19) Hard to find it put any more succinctly, so why do we waste our time putting down other people of well placed faith just because we can attach a label to them and dismiss them accordingly?

Luke 13:31-35
I have a friend who fled Uganda immediately after his business partner's criticism of Idi Amin appeared in the local paper. His friend didn't make it. The moral of the story is that you don't mess with tinpot dictators like Amin or King Herod. They do have power over life and death. Ask John the Baptist. Most of us in North America have no idea what it is like to live with that kind of constant background or explicitly upfront threat to our lives. We are blessed.

When friendly Pharisees (yes there were some) warn Jesus of the threat to his life, I am amazed at his apparently calm, yet implicitly assertive and compassionate, response. Go tell him I am just doing God's work here (implication -- kill me and you kill God's work!)

Jesus' compassion for Jerusalem needs to be handled with care. This is not food for anti-Semites. Jerusalem is symbolic of political and religious power which tends to kill off any attempt at change -- from outright murder through to funding cuts and peroguing parliament. (You have to be Canadian to understand that last one.)

Sunday, January 17, 10 - Second Sunday after Epiphany

2010-01-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

The readings for Jan. 17 are:
Isaiah 62:1-5 • Psalm 36:5-10 • 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 • John 2:1-11.
and they can be found in full here.

Isaiah 62 - This passage is found at the end of the second part of the Book of Isaiah, sometimes referred to as Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah, and speaks of the coming end of the Babylonian Captivity. Isaiah speaks of a time in which the captives held in Babylon were ridiculed (cf Psalm 137) by their captors. The common view would have been that Israel's God had abandoned her, failing to protect her and that the god(s) of Babylon had prevailed. The foreseen return of the captives to their homeland is envisioned as the vindication of the faith of the captives in the power of their God. The imagery moves beyond vindication by speaking of the coronation of Israel and the relationship between God and Israel as husband and wife -- speaking powerfully to the esteem God holds for Israel and the intimacy of their relationship.
In our own lives and relationship with God can we see times when we felt abandoned and desolate only to realize how deeply God cares for us and values our relationship?

Psalm 36: 5-10
This Psalm picks up on the constant, loving faithfulness (heb.=hesed) of God and God's righteousness. The Lectionary drops the verses of the Psalm which describe the wicked and evil ones to whom God's steadfastness is contrasted.

1 Cor. 12: 1-11 - Paul's classic honoring of the diversity of spiritual gifts and their common source. He is trying to shift our focus from competing over who has the best gift to a recognition that all spiritual gifts are important because they come from the same source. Later he will argue that some are more beneficial because they serve more than the individual.

Recognizing the source of gifts is essential as well if we are to appreciate the giver rather than feed our own hubris.

John 2: 1-11 - Wedding at Cana. John Spong, who usually insists on a metaphorical interpretation of biblical stories, makes an interesting case for this passage being a description of Jesus' own wedding. I prefer to stick with metaphor. Reflecting on this story a while back I realized that our bodies are mostly water -- about 98% if I remember right. If God's extravagant gift of the Spirit turns our bodies into wine that is quite an amazing metaphor for complete transformation! I'll have to let this soak in a bit more and see where it leads. Suggestions???

The water Jesus uses is ritual water representing ritual cleanliness. It is transformed into the wine of relationship -- feasting and conviviality. It is consumed rather than used externally like the water so we are not just washing off impurity but being changed from within, perhaps becoming more relational than ritual.

Toward a New Year that is New

2009-12-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

I am not preaching for the next two Sundays so I went back to the bin and found these thoughts/notes that may or may not have been part of an old sermon. I believe it was Jeremiah 31:7-14 from the Second Sunday After Christmas that got me started.

I do hope you are having or have had a faith-filled Christmas and looking forward to a New Year of hope and joy.

You were given a great gift this Christmas
what are you going to do with it?
Put away with all the decorations?
Return it?
Re-gift it?
Actually re-gifting the gift of love is why we are here!

Jeremiah:
When we are overwhelmed and scattered
God will restore us
When life has lost its meaning
God will give us new vision
New vision gives us hope
Hope transforms the present
When we are desolate and overcome with grief
God will bring us merriment and dancing
When we are in the depths of despair
God will lead us to joy

The promise is not that we will never be defeated
The promise is that we have a future

The promise is not that we will never suffer
The promise is that we will never be alone

The promise is not that we can never fail
The promise is that there will always be a new beginning

The promise is not that we will never be hurt
The promise is that we will always be loved

The promise is not that we will never do wrong
The promise is that we will always be forgiven

In November 1963, seventeen year old Laura Welch borrowed the family car to attend a party with some friends. A few hours later, the Welches received the kind of telephone call every parent dreads: staff from a local hospital were calling to tell them that Laura had been in an accident. She never saw the stop sign, so she drove through the intersection at normal speed, plowing through a car that had the right of way. Laura suffered only bruises. The driver of the other car, a track star at the local high school and a good friend of Laura's, died on impact. Laura would later say that this tragedy shaped her perspective on life at a young age. She gained compassion and wisdom from it. Friends and family alike marvel at her "serenity and strength." You also have grown to respect her qualities as a adult. For Laura Welch went on to become Laura Bush, wife of the President.

Brett Blair, ww.eSermons.com adapted from "First Lady" by Ann Gerhart from The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush, condensed in Reader's Digest January 2004 pp. 166 167.

The promise is not that life will be wonderful
The promise is that we will always have hope

In the early 1960s, the German theologian Jurgen Moltmann wrote a incredible book called "Theology of Hope". This work, which is available in some church libraries, takes as its assumption that true Christian faith can only have its transforming effect on the individual, on society and on the world when it is rooted in a vision of hope. "From first to last, and not merely in the epilogue," wrote Moltmann, "Christianity is hope, forward looking and forward moving, and therefore also revolutionizing and transforming the present." In Moltmann's view, to live in hope does not mean that one lives in a state of disconnectedness from the present because of some expectation of a greater although unrealized future; rather, to live with a vision of hope gives a person and the church the inspiration and the motivation never to settle for the status quo, but rather to challenge and perhaps even work towards the transformation of any dimension of life that is not in line with that envisioned hope.
The promise is not that we will always be young and strong
The promise is that in our weakness there is room for God

The promise is not that life will always be beautiful
The promise is that there will always be beauty in life

Image - homecoming, family reunion

Vision - If your life is meaningful today it is because you have hope in a vision of the future. Hope does not mean being disconnected from today and living in the future.

Gerhard Frost writes in Seasons of a Lifetime: "If I am asked what are my grounds for hope, this is my answer: LIGHT is lord over darkness. TRUTH is lord over falsehood. LIFE is lord over death. Of all the facts I daily live with, there is none more comforting that this: If I have two rooms one dark, the other light and I open the door between them, the dark room becomes lighter without the light one becoming darker. I know this is no headline, but it's a marvelous footnote, and God comforts me in that." Think about that. The dark room becomes lighter without the light room becoming darker. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Sunday, Dec. 20, 09, Advent 4, Year C

2009-12-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

The lectionary scriptures for this Sunday are here.

Micah 5:2-5a
Bethlehem (house of bread)is a small town in the clan area of Ephrath, in the ancient, traditional tribal territory of Judah, one of the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel. Rachel, Jacob's favored wife, had died giving birth to Benjamin and was buried at Bethlehem. (See chapters 27-50 in Genesis for the Jacob saga and chapters 13-20 of Joshua (come on, it's not that much)to see how the newly conquered promised land was divvied up among the 12 sons of Jacob and 2 sons of Joseph).

In the honour system of the Middle East it is essential to establish "street cred." The early Christian church pointed to these verses as prophesying Jesus as the Messiah, God's anointed King, and probably gave rise to the tradition of Jesus being born in Bethlehem even though he was known as Jesus of Nazareth in his time. These verses in turn point to the prophetic words of Jacob on his deathbed (Genesis 49, Vs. 8-12 in particular).

Psalm 80:1-7
Invokes the ancient clan names of Jacob/Israel and his descendants Benjamin and Joseph, and Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh to remind God and us of God's saving grace and protection, shining light in our darkest days.

Hebrews 10:5-10
Offers, in its own convoluted way, for those who still believe in killing and burning animals to appease and angry god, the idea that Jesus' death was the last such offering required. To those of us who no longer believe in animal sacrifice as the centerpiece of worship this doesn't mean much any more. However, we may want to consider, in light of this passage, why we still sacrifice our young people in "just" wars, especially in the name of the Prince of Peace. We are a strange lot!

Luke 1:39-55
Stories of two delightful pregnancies with earth up-heaving consequences, never mind leaping in the womb with gladness! If you haven't seen the Magnificat in Eugene Peterson's "The Message" get right on it. It begins,
"I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened --
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!"

Peterson's take on familiar words will give you fresh ears to hear how Mary saw her perhaps unwanted pregnancy as having the possibility of turning the world upside down. Is this what happens when we come to see God's work in our own lives and the lives of our children? How can tyrants of any kind have power over us when we have such an intimate relationship with the creative power of the universe?

December 13, 2009 Advent 3 Year C

2009-12-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

I am not preaching on Sunday so here is a short sermon from a few years back on the Philippians reading.

May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice! Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. And God's peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4 7 GNB).

How on earth can we rejoice always? Is the Apostle Paul not aware of the suffering in the world? Are we hearing in these words Paul or Pollyanna? Is life so simple that we just need to look on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, look on the sunny side of life? Should we all go around humming "Don’t worry, be happy"?
Surely the Apostle Paul doesn’t know life as we know it, with all its suffering, misery and pain. Surely he doesn’t know about baby=s starving to death around the world, about child abuse and domestic violence.

Or does he? Biblical times are violent times – just as much and probably more violent than our times. People suffer, babies die. Life is tough, then as now.
Maybe Paul is encouraging us all to be masochists, to enjoy our suffering? Like ascetics relishing how much they were suffering for God. But I suspect not.
Or was he telling us to simply ignore suffering and focus on heaven? You know the old promise – there’ll be pie in the sky when you die by and by. So find joy in the distant heavenly future and ignore the plight of the present.

Well, the Apostle Paul if nothing else is a realist who knows suffering and despair. That is why he gives his life to the message, taking the message of Christ throughout the Mediterranean.
And that is why he ends up in prison sentenced to death.
And it is in prison that Paul writes these words. Imagine you are in jail and facing certain death. Would these be the words you write to your friends? ". . . Rejoice! Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything . . ."

But Paul writes more than that. He doesn’t just say rejoice, he says rejoice in your union with the Lord. In other words, know that God is with you in your suffering and you will know joy.
And he doesn’t just say, "don't worry, be happy!" He says, "Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart."
He encourages us not to waste time worrying, which we all do, but instead do two things, first, give thanks for what you have, and then ask for what you really need.

Give thanks in prayer and ask for what you truly need. Whether you get what you need or not you will get what you really need and that is the peace which comes from being united with Christ, the union in which we rejoice.
In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. Thanks be to God.

Second Sunday in Advent, Year C, December 6 09

2009-11-26T16:18:00.000-08:00

This Sunday's readings are:
Malachi 3:1-4 or Baruch 5:1-9 • Luke 1:68-79 • Philippians 1:3-11 • Luke 3:1-6

I have to say right off that I am partial to the Baruch reading over Malachi -- it has more "juice" and is not heard much in Protestant circles. We don't include the Apocrypha in our bibles like the Roman church does. I guess I am partial to the imagery -- preferring to dress up for a great occasion (the coming of God's peace) instead of being refined in the fire. Am I avoiding suffering again? I hope so!

Instead of a psalm from the Book of Psalms, this Sunday we have a psalm from the Gospel of Luke. This time it is Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, who bursts forth into song. He has been mute since refusing to believe the messenger (angel) Gabriel who announces that Zech's aging wife, Elizabeth, would give birth, not just to a child but a prophet. When he acknowledges that he and Elizabeth will break the tradition of naming their child after a family member by calling him "John," his voice is restored and he sings this prophetic song. He also breaks the tradition of the father being the giver of the name (Luke 1: 59-60).

In the Letter to the Philippians Paul is obviously grateful for this congregation he is writing to. For me the key verses are at the end:

"For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God." (NRSV, vs. 8-11)

Accurate or not I like to think of "pure and blameless" as being free from the urge to cast blame on either others or self and just be responsible. It is hard to argue with knowledgeable and insightful love overflowing. Love doesn't overflow unless we are filled with it first, and there is way too much naive and blind love out there. We often think of love as being wild and impetuous. Here Paul states his preference for a more studied approach to love.

John the Baptist should not be " one crying in the wilderness" but, as one of my OT profs taught, "one crying, 'In the wilderness prepare the way." The difference is subtle, perhaps only one of emphasis. It is in the wilderness of our lives, however, that we need a way, a road, even a barely discernible path!

By clearly stating who the agents of the Roman Empire and the religious establishment were at the time, Luke is not just helping us date the ministry of John but also painting a picture of the exact wilderness Israel was in the middle of and looking for a way out.

This is a serious and important Sunday for women as we mark the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre. The massacre symbolizes in a very clear way the part of the wilderness we are in today. Will there ever be peace on earth as long as men treat women as objects? Or as long as we (men and women) must have a target for our pain and frustration instead of finding more therapeutic and redemptive avenues of deliverance?

First Sunday in Advent, Year C, Nov. 29 09

2009-11-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

OK, Time to pull up my socks and get more intentional about my intentions! The first Sunday in Advent is the Christian Church's new year so it is a good time to resolve to keep up to date here. I am committing anew to publishing here every week, whether I have a lot or a little to say.

This week's readings are:

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Psalm 25:1-10

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Luke 21:25-36

Through Jeremiah God promises to fulfill a promise of old. In 586 BCE the rout of the countries of Israel and Judah had taken place. The leadership of the country were taken into exile into the conquering nation of Babylon in what is known as the Babylonian Captivity. Jeremiah's ministry began in Judah when it was relatively prosperous. He prophesied, during the reign of four kings but not eagerly, about the coming destruction of the nation. When the Captivity happened instead of saying "I told you so," Jeremiah began to prophesy and perform prophetic acts indicating that Judah would be restored and the people returned to their homeland. This passage falls in the latter time of darkness and Jeremiah speaks God's promise of restoration and a new king of David's line.

Christians have come to see this passage as a "predictor" of Jesus. Prophecy, however, was less concerned with predicting than pointing out how God relates to us as people and peoples, when we turn away, reminding us of how God has acted in the past and suggesting that God will act the same in the future.

The way God acts seems to be that when we think we have it all together by doing it our way and getting what we want even though it oppresses others that a dark and destructive day is coming. On the other hand, when our days are at their darkest and hope seems gone, that is precisely when the green shoot of hope arises, grounded in the stump of the past, although growing a new thing.

Paul's letter to the Thessalonians shows his knack for praising a congregation (gratitude for the joy they bring them) even as he acknowledges they are not perfect (that we may. . . restore whatever is lacking in your faith). An essential part of being in right relation with an individual or group is being aware of their flawed humanity and at the same time being accepting and forgiving -- loving them in spite of and because of their flaws. Being able to do this, of course, means that we have to be aware of our flaws and love ourselves anyway.

The Psalm is a song of thanksgiving to God for helping the singer straighten out a flawed path. Looking back on his life the singer can see how God has guided him back into right relationship even when he was determined "in my youth" to head another way. Surviving the difficult times means being able to look back with thanksgiving. I wonder if, when we don't survive, we will be just as grateful?

The Luke passage is at the end of a long description of the tough times ahead. Having just seen 2012 I can say that he wasn't the first and won't be the last. Rather than doom or foreboding Jesus sees this as a time of redemption or deliverance. He tells of the fig tree sprouting new leaves as a sign that summer is coming.

Can we look at approaching disaster (global warming anyone?) and see it as a sign of hope?

Can we look at our own suffering and see in it signs of hope?

Can we look at the suffering of another or a group and be a sign of hope?

Sunday October 25, Year B Proper 24

2009-10-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

The lections for Oct. 25 are here. We use the first of the alternate readings (Job 42; Psalm 34) and skip Jeremiah and Psalm 126.

At this point I am leaning toward the Job reading for a focus. Here is another opportunity to address the so-call prosperity gospel and its shortcomings. The whole thrust of Job's struggle is about being faithful in the most difficult times and the question of whether or not God is with us in those times.

Near the beginning of the story after Job has lost everything his wife comes to him and asks, "Why don't you curse God and die." Job replies, "Don't be foolish." In other words, "If that worked I would be dead by now!" Job knows from the beginning that God works by bestowing or withdrawing material rewards.

Job's friends have prevailed on him again and again (and again and again) insisting that his losses are due to his sinful behaviour, which they insist must have been terrible. They urge him to confess his sins and repent to get back in God's good graces. Job adamantly states that what he really wants is a face to face encounter with God to let God know how frustrated he is.

Mother Teresa was once asked if she thought she would meet God in heaven. Her sternly solemn reply was something like, "If I do he'll have a lot to answer for!"

Job, I believe, also thinks God has a lot to answer for and not because he has lost family and material wealth 'and his health. What Job wants to know is not "Why did God do this to me?" but "Is God with me in all this? Why this distance between us?"

This is a long way to say that Job does not seem interested in having his wealth restored in order to be reassured that God loves him or that he is not a sinner.

It seems rather artificial in the end for Job's prosperity to be restored as it defeats the purpose of the play. I believe the end and the beginning were both added on to the original script by folks who just couldn't abide the idea that he would be left poor and sick but with a deeper relationship with God.

All that being said, the overriding theme for this Sunday is Stewardship. I would love to know what you think this reading or any of the readings for this week in terms of our call to be stewards of our wealth and health and the wealth and health of the planet.

October 11 - Canadian Thanksgiving

2009-10-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed I am finding it a bit of a challenge to post every week and am finally realizing that I need to have this editor open when I first start addressing the texts for a particular Sunday.

The readings for Canadian Thanksgiving are here.

From the Joel reading I am taken aback by the first words: Fear not, O soil. If ever there was a time for the soil to quake with fear it is now. Never in human history has the soil that covers not the whole earth but a very small part of this earth been so threatened. Pollution, urban sprawl and erosion will inevitably render the soil useless or unavailable. The question is simply how long? How long until the there is no more arable land? How long until waterways are clogged with the results of erosion? How long until the last farmable acre is paved over? How long until the natural consequences of our abuse of soil, water, air and light fulfill their destiny?

Fear not, O soil? Be glad and rejoice? Fear not you animals in the pastures? Fear not, O children?

I don't think so.

Without a change in human behaviour a disastrous future is unavoidable, a more compelling future, unachievable. With out a change in attitude a change of behaviour is impossible.

Well, right about now you may be tempted to throw up your hands and say, "This is not what I want to think about on Thanksgiving Sunday!!!!"

I can assure you that thanksgiving is not only possible in tough times, giving thanks in the toughest times is not only possible, giving thanks in tough times is necessary. Living thanks is a greater challenge and one I think is absolutely essential.

Perhaps if there is any hope it is found in the rest of verse 23: "be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before."

Thomas Merton, in the solitude of the Trappist monastery where he lived, listens to the rain and meditates, "The night became very dark. The rain surrounded the whole cabin with its virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor. Think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water, washing out to places where men have stripped the hillside! What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself . . . ." (Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable (New York: New Directions, 1966), p. 89)

Rain as speech! God's word, like mercy, "droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath . . .," to turn a phrase. Jesus says of the rain that it falls on the just and unjust alike. Perhaps what Shakespeare had in mind when he equated rain and mercy.

I know I was troubled by that phrase for many years. Why would the unjust get the same treatment as the just? That's not fair. Growing up I had absorbed the idea, not from home life but certainly from my cultural context, that the unjust were to be caught and punished. The just would be rewarded. That's what fairness is all about, isn't it?

Recent letters to the editor decry the sentence of Cochrane cement truck driver, Daniel Tschetter, to 5 1/2 years in jail. I know I expected at least 10 years. Others want to throw away the key.Yet how many years would it take to bring back to life the five people who died in the accident he caused? Contrary to what people think, when Jesus uses the phrase "an eye for an eye" he is pointing out the inadequacy of that supposed fairness. He is saying that violence in response to violence simply doesn't work. When you get too much rain, turning on the sprinkler doesn't help. When there is a drought grabbing a flame thrower is pointless.

By observing and reminding us that the rain falls on the just and unjust alike, Jesus is pointing to God's fairness. Rain falls on everyone just or unjust. It is not unfair it is profoundly fair. Creation and all that it contains, all of nature and all of life, is freely and unreservedly given to all of us. We don't earn it except by enduring birth. For the span of our lives it is ours to do with as we please. We are only asked to look after it and each other.

Instead of violence, in our Gospel reading today, Jesus urges us to "consider the birds of the air, the lilies of the field." How macho is that??? An invitation to contemplate birds and lilies may not stir our blood the way vengeance can but think of the long term consequences.

Creation is God's first and only book, and it is good. The book about God, the Bible, can only make sense when read through the context of the first. That is the only way we can develop a theology for a sustainable future. Dorothee Soelle writes, "Creaton is the book that God wrote. To read in it means to put amazement and cognition together. Bernard of Clairvaux testifies that whatever he knows of divine things and Holy Scriptures he learned in woods and fields. 'I have no other masters than the beeches and the oaks.'" (The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance, Fortress Press, 2001, p. 100)

It has been said that the first word of faith is thanks. Unfortunately that gratitude cannot be realized without an appreciation for the giftedness of creation. When we are utterly amazed by all we have been given deep gratitude and deep ecology, even deep theology, become possible.

This coming March at the Calling Lakes Centre at Fort Qu'appelle, Saskatchewan, Rabbi Marcia Prager is offering a program called "Abraham: A Journey of Faith." In the Centre's new catalog she writes: It is said that as a boy, when Abraham recoiled in horror from the idolatrous travesty that consumed the soul of Ur, he would lie for hours in the open fields, his insistent spirit soaring, interrogating the star strewn sky. If the idols were not gods, what then? Was God the mysterious moon of night? Could that be? Yet dawn comes and the moon yields sky to the sun. Perhaps, he thought, we are called to serve the flaming fire of day? As he lay pressed into the earth, his soul soaring to heaven, days and nights rolled past. Sun, then moon, then sun again . . . Knowing grew inside him: oasis waters seeping, swelling. No! Not sun, not moon, no force that can be seen or named. Something larger, greater, more powerful, sourcing all yet filling all. Not sun. Not moon. Not the idols or their priests. Only One Power. One Source. One God! YES!"

Today I walked past a local store which sells decorative items. I had passed it a number of times over the last two years. This time, however, I looked down as I passed the corner window. There on the bottom shelf on a small sign were these words, "Thankfulness begins with a good memory." I have to admit that my first thought was, "I'm getting old enough I won't have to be grateful any more!" As I thought about it, though, I realized how much depth can be packed in a few words.

Last Sunday we were urged, in the communion service that Jan wrote for us, to remember the great works that God has done and the wisdom for living we have been given. Again and again we responded, "Yes, we remember." And as we remembered I felt my own gratitude increase. What great gifts our faith has given us in and through and beyond tough times. Our faith lives and our gratitude lives no matter what.

In setting aside these few days of Thanksgiving each year we are invited to be grateful by remembering family, friends, community, society -- all that enables the goodness in life for each of us. We need also to remember the soil from which life comes. Remember you are clay. Remember you are stardust. Remember you are way more than golden. Remember you are a beloved child not just of the universe but of all that brings the universe into being. Remember you are loved into being and loved into fulfillment. Remember and give thank, remember and live thanks. Live thanks.

Remember you are soil. "Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things!"

May you always be amazed.

September 27, 09, Year B, Proper 21, 17th After Pentecost

2009-09-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

Focus: Mark 9: 38-50
In a day when persons with disabilities were considered sinful and unclean and therefore outcasts, we have the strange scenario of Jesus telling his followers that they would be better off entering the Kingdom footless, handless and eyeless than to be unwelcoming or inhospitable.

Back to the beginning of the passage. When John complains that someone is assuming Jesus' authority (a social sin) in order to heal people, Jesus rebukes him saying, in effect, "If it works for him he can hardly speak against us!" Jesus cites the most generous reading of a popular saw, "Whoever is not against us is for us" instead of the more restrictive and demanding corollary, "Who ever is not for us is against us." He then indicates that whoever shows his followers the smallest act of hospitality, a cup of water, will share in the reward (of a right relationship).

Jesus then gets a little harsh and spells out the consequences of being inhospitable. He infers that a lack of this most basic hospitality (a cup of water) is a stumbling block to his followers, most of whom are low status (little ones), and that such a refusal merits capital punishment - the millstone award as the Jesus Seminar calls it. Image wearing this on a necklace as you are dropped into the briny!

When he says it is better to lose hands, feet or eyes than to miss out on the kingdom, Jesus is alluding to past actions (hands, feet) and thoughts and judgments (eyes). If we were all literalists the church would be filled with blind people with no hands and feet!

Hell, Gehenna, was the always burning yet wormy garbage dump where all trash, including the bodies of outcasts and sinners, was disposed of.

The passage finishes with some words about salt, a healing preservative, encouraging us to be "salted" (did you hear about the soda cracker that wandered down a dark alley? He was a salted!).

At this point I am still trying to get a handle on what it means to be "salted with fire." Any help?

I do get the idea that we keep each other salty and that it has to do with hospitality. My farming Aunt straightened me out when I spouted the hackneyed adage, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." As I nodded my head in agreement with my own profundity she said simply but sharply, " 'Course you can!" When I look at her in puzzlement (a short distance it is between profundity and puzzlement), she added, "You just feed it a little salt!"

May we all have enough salt in us to make ourselves and others thirst for the waters of eternal welcome and hospitality.

Speaking Words of Wisdom

2009-09-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here is an article worth reading for this Sunday's message:
Taming the Tongue - Essay posted 7 September 2009 - The Journey with Jesus

Shared via AddThis

Sunday September 13 09 Year B Proper 19, 15th Sunday after Pentecost

2009-09-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Focus: Proverbs 1: 20-33, Wisdom of Solomon 7:26-8:1

I believe these two passages need to be held in tension with each other and intend to do so this week. They present different personifications of Wisdom, both female, one speaking in the first person expressing frustration with the scoffers of the world, the other speaking reflectively and in the third person about the beauty and strength of, and God's esteem for, Wisdom.

In Proverbs wisdom comes across as somewhat edgy -- putting down and laughing at scoffers (presumably of God's way) and the panic that follows when calamity strikes. The passage can have the tone of Aesop's ant belittling the grasshopper for fiddling away the good weather and not being ready for the harsh winter. Kind of an "I told you so" feel.

This passage does make it clear, however, that wisdom is available to everyone -- wisdom calls from the street, we ignore and refuse her help. It is not wisdom's fault we are faithful to our own folly. There is also a clear statement that when calamity strikes and panic sets in it is too late for Wisdom to be of help.

This passage is the more relational of the two with Wisdom calling out where people live (in the streets) and hoping for a positive response and expressing frustration over not getting one, then like a tough love parent, not preventing disaster when it appears. At the same time it is never too late to begin that relationship, even after failure.

Reading through the Proverbs verses I find myself wondering what the last year of financial distress might have looked like if the subprime lenders and financial leaders had biblical wisdom at the core of their awareness in the years leading up to it. "For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster." 1:32-3

In the Wisdom of Solomon Wisdom is described in a way that makes her seem like the moon -- mirroring the light of the sun, and prevailing at night when the sun is overcome by darkness. Wisdom has many other features including remaining herself while renewing others, doing all things, passing from generation to generation, enabling holy souls to become "friends of God and prophets." The last phrase here speaks to how wisdom is at the basis of both mystical tradition and social justice.

What are we to make of 7:28, "for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom"? How does this square with the idea God having a "preferential option for the poor"? In many cultures it is the rich who are presumed to be wise (cf. Fiddler on the Roof, where in the musical a poor Tevye sings "If I were a rich man" which has the line, "When you're rich they really think you know!")

This passage is part of a longer hymn (or Eulogy NJB) to Wisdom which sets out the idealization of true wisdom. The lectionary creators should have (IMHO) included vs. 22 -25. Verse 25 is remarkable in that it refers to wisdom as "a breath of the power of God". Breath being another word for spirit, this verse is the closest we have (in the lections so far this season) to an equation of Wisdom with the Holy Spirit.

Sunday, August 30, 2009, Proper 17

2009-08-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

Focus: Song of Solomon 2: 8-13

This Sunday is the only occasion when the Lectionary (RCL) visits this sacred song of love, lust, sexuality and politics. Sex and the Bible or, more to the point, Sex and the Christian.

The Jerusalem Bible's Introduction to the Song says, "The Song of Songs, that is to say, the greatest of all songs, the loveliest song of all, consists of a series of poems celebrating the mutual love of a Lover and a Beloved, now meeting, now parting, now seeking and now finding each other." (Doubleday & Company Inc., 1985, P. 1027)

Possibly arising out of ancient myths of love between gods the Song has been interpreted allegorically as the love between a devout seeker and God. More recent interpretations have returned to a more literal interpretation celebrating sexual attraction, love and fulfillment. This approach is in tune with a theology that celebrates the goodness of creation and createdness and sees sex and sexuality in healthy relationships as part of that grace.

Connection with Wisdom - The Song is included in the Wisdom section of the Bible (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs) primarily because of the traditional attribution of Solomon as the Author. Given his upbringing in the royal court of David and his propensity to collect wives from every country available this may be accurate although we cannot be certain.

On a deeper note, wisdom is based in relationships, especially those which are profoundly passionate. Can we love God and God's creation and all God's creatures, including our neighbours and our selves, this passionately?

I am reminded of the classic book and movie, Zorba the Greek, which draws out the tension between Apollo and Dionysus in each of us, visceral wisdom in tension with the wisdom of the body/heart, soul

This passage relates a scene in springtime when the lover appears and hope springs eternal. Spring is a time of resurrection, new birth, life abundant and, therefore, hope.

For reflection:

Will healthy sexuality lead us into or away from a healthy relationship with God?

Academic training often works against passion striving for cool, detached objectivity. How can intellect and passion be integrated for a more wholistic world view? Can you be truly wise without being passionate or does passion interfere with wisdom?

Does God's wisdom arise out of love for creation or is it separate?

Sunday, August 23, 2009, Proper 16

2009-08-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

Focus: 1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43

King Solomon has built a great temple to house the Ark of the Covenant where the power of God dwells. This reading (bracketed parts) tell of the bringing of the Ark to the Temple where it is placed in the inner most part, the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest can go and only at specific times.

I love that line about the priests emerging from the holy place and the cloud of the presence filling the temple so that "the priests could not stand to minister." The first image that comes to mind was of a Christmas Eve service in an Episcopal Church in California that I attended when I was a student there. At the end of the service the Priest with his censor and his acolytes processed to the entry way which had doors on both sides. Because of the heat in a full building all the doors had been opened and a steady breeze was blowing across the end of the aisle. When the breeze hit the censor smoke started billowing out of it and as the priest turned to give the final benediction he disappeared from view. He was able to minister, though, as he kind of wheezed out the benedictory words.

I am also struck by how impossible it would be for anyone to minister when overwhelmed by the presence of God. Surely one would be at a loss for words, to say the least.

All that doesn't deter Solomon, though, and he launches into his prayer. I have to say that I am not very impressed with any prayer that starts out telling God how great God is. I suspect God already knows. What Solomon really wants is to tell God that he has kept his end of the bargain and now God had better deliver on the promise made to David for a long line of succession. This strikes me as a bit disingenuous as Solomon has just dispatched one of David's sons in order to claim the throne.

However, Solomon's prayer continues as he asks for God's eyes and ears to always be attentive to the prayers made in the temple, even those of foreigners (although a bit of an afterthought).

Although Solomon's temple was destroyed in 586 by the Babylonians, a replacement was built by Herod the Great in 19 BCE. A portion of this latter temple survived its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE and exists today as the Wailing Wall. Jews, Muslims and others from around the world still go there to pray, often leaving written prayers in between the large stones. So in a sense, people are still trusting that Solomon's prayer is still being answered and God's eyes and ears are attentive.

Still it reminds me of an old story:

A journalist in Jerusalem had an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. Every time he looked out the window, the same man was at the Wall praying. Curious, the journalist went to speak to the man: “You come every day to the wall. What are you praying for?” The man replied, “What am I praying for? In the morning I pray for world peace. I go home, have my lunch, I come back to the wall and pray for the eradication of disease from the earth.” The journalist said, “Wow! How long have you been coming to the wall on a daily basis to pray for these things?” “How long? Oh 20 years, give or take a few.” The journalist was amazed, “How does it feel to come and pray every day for over 20 years for the same things?” “How does it feel? It feels like I’m talking to a wall.”

Questions for reflection:
Is there a relationship between prayer and wisdom?

Does wisdom have something to do with knowing where God is?

When God's presence is referred to as a cloud does it imply that God's presence is confusing or disorienting as in "in a fog?"

Solomon does seem wise enough to know that God cannot be contained in a box (Ark or Temple or all the earth) yet there are those "thin spaces" where the gap between God and ourselves narrows. Where is your thin space?

2009-08-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 16, 2009
Proper 15
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58

Focus: 1 Kings 2: 10-12, 3: 3-14

The Hebrew Scripture lectionary readings for the next while focus on theme of Wisdom starting with this passage, Solomon's request of God for wisdom rather than wealth and being granted both.

In reading the omitted verses (1 Kings2: 13 - 3:2) I notice that if he wasn't already wise Solomon was at least politically astute. Between being appointed King and his request for wisdom (and understanding mind (NRSV)) he manages to rationalize ways to have his most powerful rivals killed off!

The mention of the immense animal sacrifice of Solomon before receiving a vision of God reflects a theology of the time, ie. that God's power must be and can be brought onside with burnt offerings and that God rewards the obedient. The bigger the sacrifice the greater God's response. Here God makes a personal appearance, albeit in a dream, and gives Solomon not only the wisdom he asks for but the wealth that he doesn't ask for, and a promise of long life if Solomon continues to be obedient.

Solomon, at an apparently young age, becomes the king of a fairly unruly people who have only experienced two kings before him, Saul and David. This is a major change in his life and, I am sure, overwhelming in its implications for good and evil. He has already shed the necessary blood to consolidate is position and rationalized his way to innocence (in his own mind). Yet is it the guilt he still feels that motivate his huge sacrificial offering?

One of the psychological strategies we use to cope with profound change in our lives is to bargain with God. I can't do this God unless you . . . . If I do . . . , God, will you . . . ?

For reflection:
In what ways are Solomon and God bargaining with each other in this passage?
Have you ever asked God to grant you one great desire, greater than everything else you want in life?
If God were willing to give you whatever you asked for today, what would your request be?
Do requests of God work?

I look forward to your comments and reflections.

JPM