The Thief on the Cross

Justified

The Thief on the Cross

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By John Piper December 15, 1985

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It was as though a thousand layers
Of fraud and murder and affairs,
Each wrapped around his shrinking heart,
And hard as steel, had come apart.
He hung there silent, numb and hoarse
From screaming at the pain. The coarse
And filthy language of his soul
Dried scarlet on the splintered pole.
No strength remained to comprehend
How these few, quiet words could rend
The wicked wineskins of his life
Where every other moral knife
Had snapped like twigs against the rock.

The man had heard the soldiers mock
The Lord, and joined them at the first.
He saw him keep his peace, and thirst,
And with this tongue he whipped and sliced
The folly of a feeble Christ.
And then by some strange providence
Of grace, above his impudence
He heard the word of Life—not preached,
But whispered low; and that it reached
His ear above the blasphemy
Of his own lips was gift, as free
As gifts could ever be. He heard
Above the mockery the word:
"O Father, please, I beg of you,
Forgive, they know not what they do."
A curse, half-formed beneath his teeth,
Fell silent to the ground beneath,
Like slaving ropes and prison chains,
Like fears and rage and guilt and pains.
But then the lurid memories
Like waves from demon-laden seas
Broke savagely against the light
Of hope.

The lad had learned to fight
For garbage just to stay alive
Before he reached the age of five.
When he was nine he stabbed a man,
A beggar, just to have his pan,
Then threw up in the alley where
He ran to count the coins. He'd wear
A holy garment like a priest
When he was grown and rob the feast
And desecrate the holy meals.
And set the stage for his appeals
To lonely women in their grief,
Until they learned he was a thief,
And he escaped to Jericho.
He formed a group called Ganavo
And worked the wealthy routes until
The roads to Jericho were still,
And Roman legions searched the woods
And found him drunk among his goods.

The prosecutor's case was built
With ease. He bragged about his guilt,
And cursed his way from court to cross
Without remorse, as if the loss
Of his own soul to endless woe
Were sealed, and he would have it so.

But now his vicious mouth was still,
And something deep within his will,
Begotten by the quiet prayer
Of this reputed King, was there
As new and strange to wickedness
As orchards in the wilderness.
And from his lips there came a word
That none from him had ever heard.
He turned his head so he could see:
"Jesus, is there a hope for me?"

At first he feared the Lord was dead.
But then he lifted up his head
To see the fruit of his travail,
And softly spoke around the nail,
"Today with me in Paradise
You'll reign beside the feeble Christ."
And when he heard the Savior die,
He gave his agonizing cry:
"My God! My God! How can this be!
Why hast thou not forsaken me?"

And do we not this time of year
Repeat these words with godly fear,
And stand in awe of sovereign grace
That put a God in sinners' place,
And turned his head to hear our plea!
Who is a pardoning God like thee!

The awesome truth of candle three:
A sinner justified and free!

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© Desiring God

Lectionary Blog: Christ the King C

Lectionary Blog: Christ the King C
Click for all posts about this week's texts

Christ the King: 25 November Luke 23:33-43

Christ the King: 25 November Luke 23:33-43: "Luke presents Jesus from the beginning as one who is addressing Israel’s hopes of liberation. The songs of the birth narratives are full of it. Jesus marches into the synagogue to link his mission to Isaiah 61 in 4:16-20. He announces good news to the poor, hungry, those who wept. He asserts and expresses the value of those considered valueless. He gathers people and announces change. He is not beginning a school of meditation for personal enrichment (though that will have its place); nor is he promising a utopia at another time and another place. Rather he is announcing change and embodying it already in himself and in his community. Dangerous? Certainly not harmless for those with a vested interest in the status quo. Is he one with Barabbas and the brigands? Certainly not; yet we need to see that in some sense there would have been shared goals. He would have more in common with them than with Christian quietists. To affirm that Jesus is king is to affirm a different kind of kingship. But it is not a kingship which abdicates into an inner or other world. Powerlessness is simply passivity if no power is taken up. Jesus was enormously powerful and assertive. He did not come to create a set of doormats, but to spread a revolution of love and grace, which entailed identifying and embodying a new kind of power and priority. The feast of Christ the king is something very assertive. The paradox and irony of the passion is not to be dissolved by dislocation, by saying Christ’s concerns lie elsewhere. It is rather to be entered as representative of a fundamental conflict in the here and now: about God, about Christ, and about being Christian."

The Lord, The Blues, and the Art of Being Smooth: Is there sex in heaven?

The Lord, The Blues, and the Art of Being Smooth: Is there sex in heaven?: "Janis Joplin was once asked what it was like being a rock star. She replied: “It’s pretty hard sometimes. You go on stage, make love to fifteen thousand people, then you go home and sleep alone.” Jesus was once asked, as a test: If a woman marries seven times and all her husbands die before she dies, whose wife will she be after the resurrection? He answered that, after the resurrection, we will no longer marry or be given in marriage. These two answers Janis Joplin’s and Jesus’, are not unconnected. Each, in its own way, says something about the all embracing intent of our sexuality."

Journal Article 4 « Geribee’s Hive

Journal Article 4 « Geribee’s Hive: "What the article is all about: The article used a form of redaction-composition criticism to accurately identify the literary form of the Zacchaeus story. Several literary forms have been proposed for Luke 19:1-10. D. Hamm viewed it as a conversion story. R. Bultmann classified it as a biographical apophthegm. M. Dibelius said it is a genuine personal legend where the deeds and experiences of an individual was rewarded and honored by God. V. Taylor considered it to be a story about Jesus “because the interest appears to lie in the incident itself rather than in the words of Jesus and because more detail is supplied than is usual in pronouncement stories” (pp.107-108). R. White said it is a vindication story. C.H. Talbert sees it as a conflict story similar to the narrative of Levi in Luke 5:27-32. Finally, R.C. Tannehill regards the Zacchaeus narrative as a quest story, which is a type of a pronouncement story. But some of the literary forms suggested do not simply apply, and some are similar with the others. The author in his article argues for Tannehill’s claim that the Zacchaeus story is a quest story, a type of pronouncement story. To prove this, he first delves into the proposed structures of the passage. E.E. Ellis sees the structure as “brief and pointed”. E. LaVerdiere sees another structure in the passa"

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN lyrics

Parable symbolism

When I want to find a perspective behind the symbolism of the parable, I look to Catholic writings, they embrace the symbolism so much more than my fundamental literalist upbringing. So here is one that grabbed me:

Recall that Jesus' parables are intended to both inform and challenge. It's easy, in hearing this gospel, to distance ourselves from the Pharisee. But notice that if we do so – thinking, for instance, "I'm glad I'm not like him" – we end up committing the same sin of pride! People who are religiously inclined can easily struggle with self-righteousness and judgmentalism.

30GoodMinutes.org - Thomas Long, "Praying Without Losing Heart"

There's a famous story about a young boy named Frank who was walking along the bank of the Mississippi River and he noticed in the river another boy about his age wrestling with a homemade raft. He said to him, “What are you doing?” He said, “I'm going to take this raft out to that island in the middle of the river. I dare you to go with me!” Well, Frank couldn't resist the dare so he scrambled down the bank and got on the raft. The two boys headed out to the middle of the river but the current was swift and strong. As they approached the island, the raft broke up and sank and they had to swim to the island. And there they were, abandoned on an island, late in the afternoon. Nobody knew where they were. What would they do? Right at that moment, one of those paddle-wheel steamers started coming down the river and Frank ran to the edge of the island and began screaming and waving his hands, “Help! Help!” The other boy said, “Don't waste your breath. They can't hear you and even if they could they wouldn't pay any attention to boys like us.” But just at that moment the paddlewheel steamer turned toward the island. The boy said to Frank, “How did you do that?” And Frank said, “Well, there's something you don't know. The captain of that boat is my father!”

Well, the captain of the universe is our father and how much more will one who has formed us in the womb respond to our every cry. So pray always and don't lose heart.

interplay

When the widow wrung the verdict she sought from the judge, her efforts turned the judge from a man of injustice to a man who does justice. The man who at the story's beginning is identified only as an unjust judge who respects no one, having done justice and listened to the widow, will need a new name, just as Jacob received a new name.

-Dylan

Give me Justice!

How do you preach social justice to Pentecostals?

Faith on the Border

It happened that as he made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee.
Now most Jews don’t do that. They go down to Jerusalem along the Jordan so they don’t have to risk talking to a samaritan and defiling themselves, but not Jesus. Quite remarkable since he must have already know what he was going to Jerusalem for. But I am getting ahead of my story. For now just know Jesus was heading to Jerusalem for a purpose but that didn’t stop him from changing my life.

As he entered our village, ten us, all lepers, met him. We kept their distance but raised our voices, calling out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" That’s right I’m a lepper. Just listen to what it is like… (Song)
Its not easy being a leper and life in the leper colony is a lonely one, though at least we have each other. My friends are all Jews. Go figure. If it wasn’t for our common affliction we wouldn’t even talk to each other. But leprosy has made us all outcasts more than that, it made us all one.

When we saw a traveler coming we went out to meet him to beg. Have mercy on us! We cried. We understood from the crowd and the things they were talking about that this must be Jesus, but we didn’t ask for anything specific, we said, “Have mercy on us!”

We didn’t dare to come near, though we had heard rumors that this man touches lepers. We

Taking a good look at us, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests."
We had heard that he touched lepers, that he could heal with a word, but this time he healed in another way. We turned to go - to obey his command. As we did, our sores closed up, our numb fingers worn down to the nub with out our feeling it grew back, our bodies became whole again. We patted each other on the back and congratulated each-other. We quickened our pace, to show the priest, to return to our families and our lives. Then I stopped. I realized I couldn’t go into the temple and show myself to the preist, I’m no Jew, and worse than that I am a Samaritan! I realized my bond with these friends was over, they were returning to their lives.

You see we lived on a border, Jesus had come to our boundary, a fuzzy zone where Jews and Samaritans could live together because they were outcasts. All of that was about to change. Jesus came to our boundary and came to heal it. He was all I had now.


4.I turned around and came back, shouting my gratitude, glorifying God. I knelt at Jesus' feet, so grateful. I couldn't thank him enough

He placed his hand on my head—and I was a Samaritan!

Do you ever notice that it is the outsider that catches fire more quickly when they meet Jesus? I mean all these Jews knew that they were a special people to God. They kept reminding us Samaritans of it. Maybe they took it for granted when the very Son of God healed them. But when an outsider, someone who doesn’t know the hope in Christ comes and meets him, realizes that there is nothing outside of hope in him, how can he take it for granted? Jesus just met us on the outside of the boundary! How marvelous.

Jesus said, "Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?" Then he said to him, "Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you."

Are you like the other nine, or do you shout for joy with me today? I know you have seen the power of God working inside your borders just as he worked outside them for me. You have the symbols of it before you in these emblems. You are here together as one body! You have witnessed the power of God first hand. What a miracle you are made one with each other, once strangers now one body one family! Do you shout with joy? Or do you go on your way to do your duty without the shout of thanks to God.


Jesus followed the other 9 to Jerusalem. Like I said before he was on his way there for a purpose. He was there to be striped, like we were stripped, clothed only in rags. He was to be beaten and his flesh hang from his body like ours did. And by his stripes we are healed. I wonder if the nine Jews who went to show themselves at the temple ran into Jesus again. I wonder if they were in the crowd that watched him carry his cross. I wonder if they sang his praises at last in the midst of the jeering crowd. Will you?

If they did, we are one again, regardless of borders, because all we have now is Jesus. You are one with me too if you will shout his praises. Shout for joy with me!

Uproot this tree

Oh, What to Preach?

I’m going very slowly in my sermon prep this week. I’m planning on preaching on Luke 17:5-10, but I may use verses 1-4 as well.

1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. 7 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” Luke 17:1-10 (NIV)

Verses 5 and 6 talk about faith and verses 7-10 talk about our duty to God. Verses 1-4 talk about sin. I think they really all go together, but I’m not exactly sure how. I think that we need faith in order to perform our duty to God without expectations of glory for ourselves. I also think that we need faith in order to continue to forgive those who sin against us and in order not to be the one “through whom (things that cause people to sin) come”.

So, I guess that is what I’m planning on elaborating on. I found it interesting that the Mulberry tree is known for it’s very deep root system. In other words, it’s not the easiest tree to uproot (it’sprobably the hardest). It’s great how Jesus always used the most extreme examples to illustrate His point. He didn’t pick just any tree with roots, but a tree with one of the deepest root systems. To me, that shows He’s God. Of course, people of Jesus’ time probably knew about the Mulberry tree’s roots, but Jesus, being God knew even more. And of course, He still knows more today.

On the love of money (a meditation from 3 years ago)

How rich are you? >>

I'm loaded.
It's official.
I'm the 822,871,928 richest person on earth!

Ah ... money. What I could do without it.

In meditating on money check out the Gospel of Suply Side Jesus.

The Good Fight and The Good Confession

Paul says to fight the good fight for the eternal life for which we gave the good confession. This confession isn’t the positive confession of the name-it-and-claim it brand, it is the confession of trust in God that Jesus offered Pilate. This trust is reflected in the name Lazarus (Eleazar - God helps).

On the other hand we have Dives. Rich-man. He is self-sufficient, and duped by deceitful riches. “But those who want to be rich,” says Paul, “fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” He no doubt thought with the pharisees that his riches were a sign of God’s approval. But in the flames he discovers something different, and he finally learns to look beyond himself asking Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers. He’s discovered that he didn’t really believe in God at all, not as the prophets and Moses describe him. I wonder if its beginning to dawn on the pharisees... Jesus said in John, “If you believed Moses and the prophets you would believe in me, for they wrote about me.”

Rich-man says, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
Abraham replies, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

We are invited to the Good Confession. Will we put our money where our mouths are? Rich-man didn’t live as though he believed God. If he had he would have lived like Paul says,

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life
that really is life.

Narrative

Imagine with me we are in the board room, and Donald Trump is deciding our fates. We've tried our best to out connive, out scheme, and out sell the other team and we've come up short. Soon Trump is going to say “You're fired!” and one of us is done for ever. He's called us in to hear our accounting of how we've done.

One of your team mates leans over and whispers, “Do you ever sit and wonder what Jesus would do if he were on one of these reality shows? Have you thought about how he would play survivor? Or Big Brother? Would he make alliances and back stab people? Would he look out for his own interests?”

That is what you've had to do playing this game. You've had to be shrewd, you've had to be calculating. When you got called into the board room you had to convince Mr. Trump to fire someone else, every week.

Now you're up on the chopping block again.

As you sit there you wonder “what am I going to do?” Whose voice are you going to listen to? The money is talking to you.

“You need me! Take as much of me as you can before you go!”

Money is deceitful, it'll lie to you.

“Treasure me!”

“Treasure me! I will take care of you, I will make you happy!”

“Trust me! Treasure me!”

“We can go it alone?”

But then you wouldn't have made it this far in the game if you hadn't known how to look to your interests. Is it in your interest to go it alone? Is it in your interest to have a little money today and tomorrow its gone? You have the rest of your life to think about.

You think about the day you went to the financial planner and asked how much you would need to retire on, and he said, “How long do you plan to live?”

“Forever! I want to live forever!” Isn't that what your heart screamed? What is in your interest if you want to live forever?

Soon it will all be gone, your job, your money your stuff... What do you hate to part with most? What will you do when its all gone?

“I must look to my own interests,” you tell yourself

I know what I'll do... I need to make it so someone else will hire me. It is in my interest to make friends.

That annoying team mate of yours leans over and whispers to you again. “You know Jesus, I think he would have made lots of alliances. Just look at the way he went around forgiving people. They thought that his Father would only love the people who did everything just right and here comes Jesus giving away his father's love and mercy like it was going out of style. Generosity, now that is a strategy someone should try in these reality shows!”

OK, so maybe you won't win the game, but maybe you can come out ahead anyway. You take sneak Mr. Trump's cell phone off the table and go into the lobby. You start calling all of his business associates.

“Hello, Mr. Richman? Yes, thats right we spoke earlier... that's right I'm one of Mr Trump's apprentices. Mr. Trump wanted to tell you that we are going to modify the contract on that building you're purchasing... No, Mr. Richman, I convinced him to lower the price to below market value. Yes, I know that means no commission, but you can use the savings to do the good work you have there! You're welcome, talk to you soon, Mr Richman.”

“Hello, Mrs. Goldwater? Yes, you know that money you owe Mr. Trump we spoke about earlier? Yes, go ahead and take the interest of your bill... You're welcome....”

And so on you go down Trump's list of contacts.

You look again at that voice screaming from your pocket... “Keep me!” And you say Hush! It is in my interest to use you... I need to get rid of you for now and that's that. Don't look so down.

And here is the big surprise. Mr. Trump hears about it and calls you in. Instead of reprimanding you he says, “Good Job! You made me look good and you took care of yourself, way to go kid! You'll go far.”

Now if you can imagine a person on the Apprentice or Big Brother, or Survivor looking to their own interests and doing something right, something smart, how much more could you as the child of light do something even better? Jesus wants you to look to your own interests, to your eternal life and give like there is no tomorrow!

Jesus said, “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light, I tell you, use worldly [deceitful] wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Puppet song for this Sunday

SWITCHFOOT lyrics

Stewardship/Discipleship Series

Week	The Giving Way
Proper C17	Giving Honor
Proper C18	Giving when It Hurts
Proper C19	Giving Chase
Proper C20	Giving to make friends
Proper C21	Giving is better than recieving

Parable of musical chairs

This is interesting. I've never before thought of parables as needing to represent something else.

The parables read here (vv. 7-11) and the ensuing exhortation are connected by their common context in a meal of Jesus. The parable looks like a piece of prudential advice on how to behave at a dinner party so as to avoid embarrassment.

But since it is a parable, it must not be interpreted as a piece of worldly wisdom or even as a lesson in humility, as usually understood. It deals rather with an aspect of one's relationship with God.

God, in the person of Jesus (see verse 8), is inviting all people to the messianic feast. The only way to respond to this invitation is to renounce any claim or merit of one's own.

The Pharisees expected the best seats as a reward for keeping the Torah, but, like the outcast, they have to learn that salvation has to be accepted as an unmerited gift— exactly as we interpreted humility in the first reading.

The ensuing exhortation is likewise not a piece of worldly advice but a kind of parable, its point being that people's final acceptance at the messianic banquet depends on their acceptance of others now.

In other words, forgive and God will forgive you.

Thus, humility in the Christian sense is not purely a passive virtue; like faith, to which it is closely akin, it is highly active.

Which law to obey

This is from Tolstoy in his work "My Religion"

One day I was walking (in Moscow) in the Borovitskiya Gates. At the gates an old lame beggar was sitting, with a dirty cloth wrapped about his ears. I was just taking out my purse to give him something. At the same moment down from the Kremlin ran a gallant ruddy-faced young soldier, a grenadier in the crown tulup. The beggar, on perceiving the soldier, arose in fear, and ran with all his might toward the Alexanderovsky Park. The grenadier chased him for a time, but not overtaking him, stopped and began to curse the poor wretch because he had established himself under the gateway contrary to regulations. I waited for the soldier. When he approached me, I asked him if he knew how to read. “Yes; why do you ask?”

“Have you read the New Testament?”

"I have."

“And do you remember the words, ‘If thine enemy hunger, feed him’….?”

I repeated the passage. He remembered it, and heard me to the end, and I saw that he was uneasy. Two passers-by stopped and listened. The grenadier seemed to be troubled that he should be condemned for doing his duty in driving persons away as he was ordered to drive them away. He was confused, and evidently sought for an excuse. Suddenly a light flashed in his intelligent dark eyes; he looked at me over his shoulder, as if he were about to move away.

“And have you read the military regulation?” he asked.

I said that I had not read it.

“Then don’t speak to me,” said the grenadier, with a triumphant wag of the head, and buttoning up his tulup he marched gallantly to his post.

Consuming fire and the prophetic

Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.” Imagine him going through the countryside announcing “The Kingdom of God is near you!” in words like this.

“Am I a God near by,” says the Lord, “and not a God far off? ...Do I not fill the heavens?” The Kingdom of God is at hand. Literally it is in the air we breathe. God goes on: “Is not my word like fire,” says the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” This kingdom at hand, near as the skin on our bodies, and nearer still, is the Kingdom of the consuming fire! The Psalmist declares that he will judge the world and pleads with him to do it. “Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you.”

Jesus came to start a fire. The kingdom of God has come to men. Will that kingdom smooth things over? No! The kingdom of God has always been one to turn the world upside-down or rather upside-right. Hebrews gives us the roll call of faith—faith that saw the kingdom from a far off and lived in it as though it were their very own. Quixotic and in love with their God who promised, they lived in his kingdom and brought it into the world around them.

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection.

This kingdom of God is subversive and counter to the system of the world. Those who would become its citizens would forever be separated from the world, sin, and by extension all who stand against this Kingdom. They would know the loneliness of Jeremiah, and also the fire he had shut up in his bones. They would be seen as a threat to the world system. They would live a life that would bring them ridicule, hate, and persecution. This is the way it has always been. Those who live by faith in a kingdom not of this world commit high treason to this world's system. Hebrews continues with their roll.

Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Jesus finishes saying that we know how to tell when the seasons are changing, how is it then that we miss the God-season that is upon us. He is here! He surrounds us like the air, he is near and a far off, there is no hiding, there is no escape from his loving gaze. We are surrounded by a cloud of faithful witnesses who have entered the kingdom by ruthless faith and reckless abandon. The sensible thing to do is to enter into the kingdom among us and be consumed by his fire.

American Dream - Switchfoot

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
As top of the mind becomes the bottom line
When success is equated with excess

If you’re time ain’t be nothing for money
I start to feel really bad for you honey
Maybe honey put you’re money where your mouth’s been running
If you’re time ain’t be nothing but money

I want out of this machine
It doesn’t feel like freedom

(chorus)
This ain’t my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I’m tired of fighting for just me
This ain’t my American dream

When success is equated with excess
When we’re fighting for the beamer, the lexus
As the heart and soul breathing the company goals
Where success is equated with excess

I want out of this machine
It doesn’t feel like freedom

(chorus)

Cause baby’s always talkin ’bout a ring
And talk has always been the cheapest thing
Is it true would you do what I want you to
If I show up with the right amount of bling?

Like a puppet on a monetary string
Maybe we’ve been caught singing
Red, white, blue, and green
But that ain’t my America,
That ain’t my American dream

(chorus)
SWITCHFOOT - AMERICAN DREAM LYRICS

(via american dream switchfoot - Google Search)

Life, Life, Life - Miss Angie

My heart and tongue
They will rejoice
Dance and sing for the king of my choice
Redeemer...

He is the way for me to say
He is the way for me to say believe
In life, life, life, life

I am the apple of His eye
I know this ’cause He came here
And He died
Redeemer...

He is the way for me to say
He is the way for me to say believe
In life, life, life, life
He is the way for me to say
He is the way for me to say believe
In life

Redeemer, Redeemer, Redeemer...

He is the way for me to say
He is the way for me to say believe
In life, life, life, life
Miss Angie - Life, Life, Life Lyrics

(via "life, life, life" lyrics miss angie - Google Search)

I am thinking of using a picture like this to illustrate the three characters. Jesus, the image of the invisible God, Martha's hospitality, and Mary the apprentice of prayer.

Strangeness in this weeks readings

There are some incongruities that texture this week's readings. Martha seems often to be our negative example of discipleship. To be sure she is distracted, but she is concerned with hospitality and the physical needs of Jesus and his party. Is that not the mercy of the Good Samaritan? Doesn't Abraham offer this kind of hospitality to the Lord?

Like Martha, Sarah is distracted with preparations. While Abraham is standing by pleasantly watching his guests eat, Sarah remains in the tent. Though the Lord is far from condemning Sarah, instead he promises her the blessing of child.

All Martha's preparations are good and well, her devotion to Jesus is expressed in the lavish meal she is preparing. We are reminded with her that all our acts of devotion, all of our disciplines are means to an end. We seek Jesus and when we are in his presence even our best actions seem dull in his light. As The Message puts it,

"Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."

Mystic Martha

Lost in God

This is the notion of Eckhart and some other 13th-century mystics of living "without a why." "Living without a why" means that you don't ask, What's in it for me? or Why am I doing this? You just do the good spontaneously, the way that God acts. God doesn't act because of the why or for any interest of his own....

In his treatment of the Martha and Mary text (Luke 10:38-42), Eckhart defends Martha's focus on the tasks of hospitality. Is that a striking departure from the traditional understanding?

Yes, Eckhart is the first commentator to elevate Martha above Mary. The earlier commentators tried to show that both Martha and Mary were necessary, though Mary's approach is higher. Eckhart says that Mary is the one who's still learning, whereas Martha is the one who has learned perfectly because she combines contemplation and action--though Eckhart doesn't use those words--in an unselfish, detached way. She can now operate as the soul "without a why" and be effective spontaneously without losing that contact with God. Mary's just on the way to that. She needs to learn life.

I get the feeling that living spontaneously in God, or living without a why, is a lot like living the Christian life generally. At some point it becomes second nature, and goodness and holiness seem effortless. But getting to that point is the hard part.

Why, Jesus?

So, I was studying for my sermon last night and this morning and I had to question something Jesus did.

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 "When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. 8 "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.'

16 "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." 17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." 18 He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 NIV

Why did Jesus send these people out? Wasn't he getting well known enough without additional help? Of course I realize that any publicity is good publicity, but I still could not see a practical reason behind what he did. I'm a very practical, reasonable person. Things should always be reasonable and practical. I am a practical preacher, as well. This is a very good thing because my hubby preaches very philosophically. We balance each other well. Anyways, I realized as I continued to study,that there is a very good reason that Jesus sent these people out. He sent them out to advertise, but also to see which towns would listen to him. If they did not listen to those he sent out, he knew they would not listen to him. At this time, Jesus' last year of ministry, Jesus was running out of time and wanted to use his time wisely. The disciples went out, returned and reported back where Jesus should and should not go. That is very practical.

After that I got to wondering what this meant for us. Jesus has sent us out. What is the reason? We are to proclaim him and prepare the way for his second coming! He knows everything, but through our trying to preach to others, he knows who listens and who doesn't. When he returns, those who do not know him as their personal savior will be cast into hell. Those who do, will reign with him on Earth. What a great calling! And what great power we have at our hands to fulfill our calling!

Counting the Cost

Little Pedro

A missionary was preaching to some Mexicans. After the service, a little boy came walking down the aisle on little fat brown legs. With serious eyes, he looked up at the missionary and said, “You ask what I would have done if I had been in the crowd when Jesus fell, carrying His Cross? Please sir, if I had been there, I would have helped him carry it!”

The missionary said, “But, Pedro, if you had helped Jesus carry his cross, the cruel Roman soldiers would have beaten your back with a whip until the blood ran down to your heels.”

With a look of courage, the little boy said, “I don't care. I would have helped him carry it just the same.”

Two weeks later, little Pedro was at the mission again. The missionary patted him on his back. Pedro winced. “Don't do that, my back is sore, my back hurts.” The missionary took the little boy into another room and looked at his back. It was covered with big bloody welts. “Who did that?” the missionary asked.

“Mother did it. She whipped me because I love Jesus. But I don't care I will always love and serve Jesus!”

Our Lamb Has Conqured Let Us Follow Him

The Moravians had learned that the secret of loving the souls of men was found in loving the Savior of men. On October 8,1732, a Dutch ship left the Copenhagen harbor bound for the Danish West Indies. On board were the two first Moravian missionaries; John Leonard Dober, a potter, and David Nitschman, a carpenter. Both were skilled speakers and ready to sell themselves into slavery to reach the slaves of the West Indies. As the ship slipped away, they lifted up a cry that would one day become the rallying call for all Moravian missionaries, "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering." The Moravian's passion for souls was surpassed only by their passion for the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 30

Letio continua, continua and continua

A colluege of mine from a church for whom the RCL is no strange thing, expressed disatisfaction with it because he wanted to preach straight through books (I assume of the Bible, but since he follows Schuller , who knows.) His dissatisfaction stunned me. We are entering ordinary time and everything is Lectio Continua. My biggest struggle is which route to preach.

Do I preach through the shorter Epistles? Do I do the Prophets? Do I go for the long haul and preach straight through Luke to the end of the year? Three years ago I think I started in the Epistles and jumped over to do a series in Jeremiah (That is when I started this blog). So this time I guess I ought to buckle down and preach the gospel. That should make my Lutheran friends happy since that is all they preach.

Trinity Sunday Posts

Check out the common themes from years past. Click here

Sharing in God's Glory

Birthday or power

We pentecostal churches don't celebrate Pentecost as the birthday of the Church. Perhaps, like a middle age woman, we don't want to acknowledge another year has passed. We are acutely aware that every year older we are removed from our roots, the more institutional we become. At the same time another year passes with out Jesus coming back. We thought that a fresh outpouring of the Spirit meant the return of Christ was very close. Every year we have to reexamine the meaning of our Spirit Baptism.

Or perhaps the biggest reason we don't bother with birthday celebrations is that the empowerment of the Spirit filled life trumps cake and candles. O God help me to inspire people to seek fullness in the Spirit this week!

Genesis 11: 1-9; Scattered!

Genesis 11: 1-9; Scattered!: "Finally, in Gen. 11, God also decides to punish humans, though it isn't as clear what the offense of Gen. 11 is (the building itself? the arrogance of humans? the unwillingness to 'fill the earth' according to the command in Gen. 1? the use of poor materials to build a monumental structure?)."

In any one of these, are we less guilty today? Why hasn't God come down and intervened? If a clay tower could upset him, how about an atomic bomb?

The Very Tall Tale of Babel | The Shalom Center

The Very Tall Tale of Babel | The Shalom Center: "The tale is an ironic parody, a joke at Babylon's expense. 'Bav-El' meant the 'gate of God' in the Babylonians' own language, but the Israelite legend parodied it as 'Baffle/Babble Town.' As the Israelites told the story, the arrogant Sumerians built an imperious tower for an empire whose power they intended to rule the earth so that everyone would have to speak the same language.

Their rigid tower challenged 'YHWH,' the breezy, whirly, swirly Breath of Life.

But the Breathing-spirit of the Universe, the Wind of the World, (Ruach ha'Olam) baffled them by turning their world-language into babbling. They became Babylonians, 'Babble-onians.'

This diversity was not so much a punishment as a consequence of and a cure for their disease: Try to unify all humankind into a single empire, talking the same language so as to storm Heaven -- and the almost inevitable consequence, as well as the cure for this disease of arrogance, is that the top-heavy empire will dissolve into many many peoples, grass-roots communities of many tongues and cultures."

The Spirit glorifies God through our lives and miracles

Dwelling in God's Glory, the Spirit as our light

Subversive parade

Daniel B. Clendenin leads me to wonder if our form of Christianity would raise any eyebrows at all.

The Journey with Jesus Foundation: " Given that the Roman state always made a show of force during the Jewish Passover when pilgrims thronged to Jerusalem to celebrate their political liberation from Egypt centuries earlier, Borg and Crossan imagine not one but two political processions entering Jerusalem that Friday morning in the spring of AD 30. In a blatant parody of imperial politics, king Jesus descended the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem from the east in fulfillment of Zechariah's ancient prophecy: 'Look, your king is coming to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey' (Matthew 21:5 = Zechariah 9:9). From the west, the Roman governor Pilate entered Jerusalem with all the pomp of state power. Pilate's brigades showcased Rome's military might, power and glory. Jesus's triumphal entry, by stark contrast, was an anti-imperial and anti-triumphal 'counter-procession' of peasants that proclaimed an alternate and subversive social vision called 'the kingdom of God.'

People today argue about who's 'subverting our nation.' A friend in Florida forwarded me an email that blamed Muslims in America for our problems. Others attack evangelicals as 'Christian fascists.' For a long time now others have taken aim at 'secular humanists' and liberal Democrats. On his nationally televised program Jerry Falwell blamed the wickedness of pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU, and People for the American Way for the 9-11 disaster, which he construed as God's judgment. Pat Robertson, a guest on the show, nodded in agreement, “well, I totally concur.” The greed of corporate executives and the sleaze of Hollywood movies also make easy targets. But I never recall anyone blaming Jesus, that Jesus is the one who's "subverting our nation." But that was the allegation that sent Jesus to Golgotha...

...On Palm Sunday Jesus invites us to join his subversive counter-procession into all the world. But he calls us not to just any subversion, subversion for its own sake, or to some new and improved political agenda. Rather, Christian subversion takes as its model Jesus himself, "who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross." Dying to self and the many demons of egoism, and living to serve others, will prove itself as sufficiently and radically subversive. And so Paul instructs us in his epistle for this week: "have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5–11).¹"

In his reflection section he points to a description of ancient Christians living their lives subversive to the kingdom of the world. Can it describe us?

"For the Christians are distinguished from other people neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive people; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners [or resident aliens]. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all people, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred."

A way in the wilderness

Etymology

prodigal

c.1450, back-formation from prodigiality (1340), from O.Fr. prodigalite (13c.), from L.L. prodigalitatem (nom. prodigalitas) "wastefulness," from L. prodigus "wasteful," from prodigere "drive away, waste," from pro- "forth" + agere "to drive" (see act). First ref. is to prodigial son, from Vulgate L. filius prodigus (Luke xv.11-32).

Mind map of text interactions Lent 3C

Lenten Progression

Lent begins with the temptation of Jesus. It serves as an invitation to join him for forty days in the wilderness. Our victory in the temptation comes through confession and the Word. We are also invited to look across the wilderness to the promised land of Easter.

We progress with movement to the cross. Jesus laments over Jerusalem displaying the heart of God. We are invited to put our trust in him and take our victory in Jesus.

Repentance in the face of destruction, in the third week we are invited to seek God in our times of testing, and turn to him while he may be found.

In the forth week, we are assured of forgiveness, the shame is rolled away, the old become new.

Finally we are again reminded of the cross as Jesus is anointed at Bethany. We have seen the reason for the cross and promise of new life. Now we see something new is on the horizon, an inversion. The anticipation is palpable, Easter brings a new world.

Transfiguration

What was Jesus praying about on the mountain when he was transfigured? Was he interceding for his disciples and the world like he did in John 17? Was he pleading with his father? Was he communing with him in mystical union like he did before coming to earth? Was he chatting with the Father and the cloud of witnesses about what was to come? Is that why Elijah and Moses appeared? What was it that kept him up sleepless night after night (for he seems to often go off and pray the night away)?

The disciples he took with him couldn’t pray like that. They dozed off… but hey, dozing off in the presence of Christ and waking to a wonderful communion of the kingdom you are learning to enter is indeed a sweet thing. Still, Peter must have felt a little awkward waking up to this fantastic sight; a little guilty he couldn’t keep praying. What are we here for anyway?

“Master its good we’re here we can build three booths for you and Moses and Elijah.” His idea has echoes of the feast of tabernacles and in its eschatological expectation isn’t far fetched. But God himself tells them why they are there. Not to build booths, but to listen to the shiny one-his one and only Son. Superior to the law and the prophets, the new kingdom turns them on their head with a long expected, yet unexpected fulfillment.

What do we do when we find Jesus in his glory? Or do we ever? Do we ever bother to ascend the mountain with him? Are we too afraid that our falling asleep will disappoint him and the Saints we find with him?

Beatitudes in context of the other readings

Jeremiah gives the curses and blessedness of trust. If we trust in our hearts and mortal flesh we are miserable, but if we trust in God we are happy. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The psalmist echoes that strain while extolling the blessedness of delighting in the law.

Paul also tells us not to trust the flesh, but rather tells us that we are blessed because Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If we fail to see Christ as risen, or trust the flesh that perishes, we are of all men most miserable. But Christ has been raised and we are counted among the men most blessed.

Dallas Willard suggests that unlike the if then formulation of the blessings and curses that formed prophetic covenants, Jesus is simply stating that those in front of him are blessed because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He contends that the beatitudes are not prescriptions, but descriptions. See this excerpt.

An excerpt from "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Wilalrd

The Beatitudes as Kingdom Proclamation What then does Jesus say with his Beatitudes?How are we to live in response to them? That is the question we asked at the outset of this chapter, and it is now time to answer it.

We have already indicated the key to understanding the Beatitudes. They serve to clarify Jesus’ fundamental message: the free availability of God’s rule and righteousness to all of humanity through reliance upon Jesus himself, the person now loose in the world among us. They do this simply by taking those who, from the human point of view, are regarded as most helpless, most beyond all possibility of God’s blessing or even interest, and exhibiting them as enjoying God’s touch and abundant provision for their lives.

This fact of God’s care and provision proves to all that no human condition excludes blessedness, that God may come to any person with his care and deliverance. God does sometimes help those who cannot, or perhaps just do not, help themselves. (So much for another well known generalization!) The religious system of his day left the multitudes out, but Jesus welcomed them all into his kingdom. Anyone could come as well as any other….

And on Your list of the Blessed? You are really waling in the good news of the kingdom if you can go with confidence to any of the hopeless people around you and effortlessly convey assurance that they can now enter a blessed life with God.

Who would be on your list of “hopeless blessables” as found in today’s world? Certainly all of those on Jesus’ lists, for though they are merely illustrative, they are also timeless. But can we, following his lead as a teacher, concretize the gospel even more for those around us? Who would you regard as the most unfortunate people around you?

A Silly Side of Salvation? There is first of all, a silly side to this question-which turns suddenly somber. If you look at advertising and current events in print and other media-for example, as you encounter them in supermarket checkouts, newsstands, and bookstores or even on television and radio-you might think that the most unfortunate people in the world today are the fat, the misshapen, the bald, the ugly, the old, and those not relentlessly engaged in romance, sex and fashionably equipped physical activities….

Instead Jesus took time in his teaching to point out the natural beauty of every human being (Matt 6:30)…

This is the gospel for a silly world, all the more needed because the silly is made a matter of life and death for many. Sin, for that matter, is silly. If the kingdom did not reach us in our silliness who would be saved? Lostness does not have to wear a stuffed shirt to find redemption.

So we must see from our heart that:

• Blessed are the physically repulsive,


• Blessed are those who smell bad,


• The twisted, misshapen, deformed,


• The too big, too little, too loud,


• The bald, the fat, and the old -


• For they are all riotously celebrated in the party of Jesus.

And the more serious side Then there are the seriously crushed ones: The flunk-outs and drop-outs and burn-outs. The broke and the broken. The drug heads and the divorced. The HIV-positive and herpes-ridden. The brain-damaged, the incurably ill. The barren and pregnant too-many-times or at the wrong time. The overemployed, the underemployed, the unemployed. The unemployable. The swindled the shoved aside, the replaced. The parents with children living on the street, the children with parents not dying in the “rest” home. The lonely, the incompetent, the stupid. The emotionally starved or emotionally dead. And on and on and on. Is it true that “Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal?” It is true! That is precisely the gospel of heaven’s availability that comes to us through the Beatitudes. And you don’t have to wait until you’re dead. Jesus offers to all such people as these the present blessedness of the present kingdom - regardless of circumstances. The condition of life sought for human beings through the ages is attained in the quietly transforming friendship of Jesus.

And the Immoral Even the moral disasters will be received by God as they come to rely on Jesus, count on him, and make him their companion in his kingdom. Murders and child-molesters. The brutal and bigoted. Drug lords and pornographers. War criminals and sadists. Terrorists. The perverted and the filthy and the filthy rich. The David Berkowitzs (Son of Sam), Jeffery Dahmers, and Colonel Noriegas….

If, as a recovering sinner myself, accept Jesus’ good new, I can go to the mass murderer and say, “you can be blessed in the kingdoms of the heavens. There is forgiveness that knows no limits.” To the pederast and the perpetrator of incest. To the worshiper of Satan. To those who rob the aged and weak. To the cheat and the liar, the bloodsucker and the vengeful: Blessed! Blessed! Blessed! As they flee into the arms of the Kingdom Among Us.

Lectionary Blog: Markan Distinctives

Lectionary Blog: Markan Distinctives: Here is a synoptic study of this pericope from proper 9b, when the story came up in mark.

• Position
• Mark alone places this pericope right after a collection of miracle stories – directly connecting the power in those situations with the lack of power in his home town. Matthew has it after a collection of parables.
• His disciples followed him
• Luke places this pericope before the calling of the disciples, as an introduction to his power.
• The placing of the commissioning of the disciples immediately after Jesus is rejected in his hometown in Mark puts the emphasis on the disciples reaction to those who reject them in their ministry. It has been suggested that a preacher preach one or the other parts of this lection, but only in Mark do we get the force of them together.
• On the Sabbath
• Mark, in comparison with Matthew, includes the timing of the Sabbath, making this the congregations regular time of teaching (as in Luke)
• What mighty works are wrought by his hands!
• This sentence is difficult in placement in Mark. The other Matthew makes it part of the questioning and Luke simply implies their unbelief. Perhaps Hooker is right when stating that the force of the statement is a question. Where does he get this power?
• Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?
• Matthew and Luke make reference to Jesus being the son of the carpenter Joseph. In this reading of Mark, Jesus is a carpenter, perhaps the other evangelists thought it too base that Jesus worked with his hands (so Origen).
• Also if the villagers did not mention Joseph as his father, it may be a derogatory reference to rumors surrounding his conception. – Hooker
• And he could do no mighty works there
• Matthew frames it that he would not. Here the lack of faith actually limits Jesus’ ability. If they rejected his teaching at the synagogue, and had no faith, his ability was hampered. Here, as with the woman with the issue of blood, the Markan theme of Jesus’ authority is contrasted with the efficacy of faith.
• Except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them.
• Presumably those who received his teaching were able to receive healing.
• Not the great works of power demonstrated in Capernaum.

Joy

The Journey with Jesus Foundation takes a great look at Nehemiah and subversive acts of joy.

" In his poem The Revival the Welsh poet and physician Henry Vaughan (1621–1695) challenges us to open our 'drowsy eyes' to experience 'the drops and dews of future bliss.' This is a choice we can make or refuse.

Unfold! Unfold! Take in His light,
Who makes thy cares more short than night.
The joys which with His day-star rise
He deals to all but drowsy eyes;
And, what the men of this world miss
Some drops and dews of future bliss.

Hark! How His winds have chang’d their note!
And with warm whispers call thee out;
The frosts are past, the storms are gone,
And backward life at last comes on.
The lofty groves in express joys
Reply unto the turtle’s voice;
And here in dust and dirt, O here
The lilies of His love appear!

'The greatest honor we can give Almighty God,' wrote the English mystic Juliana of Norwich, 'is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.' No matter how bleak the tragic course of history, how unnerving our personal circumstances, or how pessimistic the forecasts of cultural historians, with joy we can expect his love to blossom even in the dust and dirt of our lives."

The Importance of the Word

How do we respond to the word of God? Is it good news? Do we respond to it in that way?

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our LORD; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

Nehemiah 8:9-10

The joy in the word is describe by the psalmist,

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

Psalm 19:7-9

Jesus declares that he has come to fulfill the scripture, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free...

And he said, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Have we heard him? Do we rejoice in the fulfiller of the scripture? Do we still hear, do we allow the Spirit to move among us in his way to speak to us?

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues...

I Cor 12:28

Lord, may we see your word as more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Open our ears to your fulfilled word.

Light and Delight

Jesus' sign gave light to the disciples. They saw a glimpse of his coming glory. In his actions, Jesus proclaimed his message, the kingdom has come, it is near, and it provides where the old system ran out. It provides a better and abundant mercy.

The psalmist declares, "They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light."

Isaiah says,

"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give.... you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married."

I am reminded of the Westminster Catechism: Man’s chief end is to glorify God,[1] and to enjoy him forever.[2] We shine his light as we delight in him as he delights in us, lavishing his gifts upon us like the over abundance of wine. We show his glory in using his gifts for the good of the body.

Common thread

Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee:

Today’s readings speak of the revelation of hidden glory breaking through and inviting celebration. Isaiah announces the coming glory of God’s vindicated people when they return to rebuild their shattered homeland. Paul describes the amazing results of spiritual gifts, given to all God’s people “for the common good.” Today’s gospel, the story of the wedding feast at Cana, relates the first “sign” of Jesus’ identity and ministry that “revealed his glory.”

Paul doesn't specifically speak of glory, but rather of the common Good. In function the Spirit brings glory to Christ.

The symbolic refreshment of the Christian wine is glorified in the Psalm. "...you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light."

Sign in Cana

“Plainly he records the miracle because he believes that it happened. But for him the Miracles are all ‘signs’: they point beyond themselves. This particular miracle signifies that there is a transforming power associated with Jesus. He changes the water of Judaism into the wine of Christianity, the water of Christlessness into the wine of the richness and the fullness of eternal life in Christ, the water of the law into the wine of the gospel.”

I’ve never thought before that this passage makes a partial parallel to the wine and wineskins of Luke. John’s use of signs, explaining the truth allegorically, like a live action parable is a little new to me. I guess I owe that to my fundamentalist background. Reading the church fathers, most recently Augustine, I begin to appreciate more the ancient exegesis of texts. I am less likely to see the significance of the miracle in that it happened, as a bit of historical information about the life of Christ. Rather I see the significance in the mystical and spiritual realities they present, these are completely independent of their historicity. Not that I believe them to not have happened (i.e. attempts to de-mystify Jesus) but rather I think it really doesn’t matter at all to the reading.

Happened-in-reality or not – not skin off our collective noses. It is real and true regardless. So I choose to believe it happened. Why not? What is far more important is: what is the reality and significance? What does it really tell us about Jesus?

Here we see the first glimpse of his glory in John. His time has not yet come to be glorified, but we see a sign (first of many) of what will culminate on the cross of glory.

Light in the context of the church.

Father John was saying this week that in order to understand the story of the wise men, it must be seen in the context of the Matthean community. The early church makes a big deal of the nations coming to the Light of Christ. Theirs is the pentecostal experience, theirs the mission to the gentiles. They would have seen great significance to the theme in Isaiah and the narrative of foreign kings coming to worship Jesus. While John's words were still working in my head, I read this from Augustine (this time in Chadwick's Translation).

It is as if God says 'Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven', and 'suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as if a vehement wind blew, and tongues were seen split, like fire which sat on each of them' (Acts 2:2-3). And lights, made in the firmament of heaven, have the word of life (Phil. 2:15-16). Run everywhere, holy fires, fires of beauty. Do not be under a bushel (Matt. 5:14-15). He to whom you have adhered is exalted, and he has exalted you. Run and make it known to all nations (Ps. 78:10).

Light

Augustine's treatment of the creation of light illuminates epiphany to me.

13.8.9
Angels fell away, man's soul fell away, and thereby pointed the
abyss in that dark depth, ready for the whole spiritual creation,
hadst not Thou said from the beginning, Let there be light, and there
had been light, and every obedient intelligence of Thy heavenly City
had cleaved to Thee, and rested in Thy Spirit, Which is borne unchangeably
over every thing changeable. Otherwise, had even the heaven of heavens
been in itself a darksome deep; but now it is light in the Lord. For
even in that miserable restlessness of the spirits, who fell away
and discovered their own darkness, when bared of the clothing of Thy
light, dost Thou sufficiently reveal how noble Thou madest the reasonable
creature; to which nothing will suffice to yield a happy rest, less
than Thee; and so not even herself. For Thou, O our God, shalt lighten
our darkness: from Thee riseth our garment of light; and then shall
our darkness be as the noon day. Give Thyself unto me, O my God, restore
Thyself unto me: behold I love, and if it be too little, I would love
more strongly. I cannot measure so as to know, how much love there
yet lacketh to me, ere my life may run into Thy embracements, nor
turn away, until it be hidden in the hidden place of Thy Presence.
This only I know, that woe is me except in Thee: not only without
but within myself also; and all abundance, which is not my God, is
emptiness to me....

13.12.13
Proceed in thy confession, say to the Lord thy God, O my faith,
Holy, Holy, Holy, O Lord my God, in Thy Name have we been baptised,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; in Thy Name do we baptise, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, because among us also, in His Christ did God make
heaven and earth, namely, the spiritual and carnal people of His Church.
Yea and our earth, before it received the form of doctrine, was invisible
and without form; and we were covered with the darkness of ignorance.
For Thou chastenedst man for iniquity, and Thy judgments were like
the great deep unto him. But because Thy Spirit was borne above the
waters, Thy mercy forsook not our misery, and Thou saidst, Let there
be light, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent
ye, let there be light. And because our soul was troubled within us,
we remembered Thee, O Lord, from the land of Jordan, and that mountain
equal unto Thyself, but little for our sakes: and our darkness displeased
us, we turned unto Thee and there was light. And, behold, we were
sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord.