Love hard at work, but right under our noses.

Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 and Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16 (Track 2: Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 and Psalm 25: 1-8); Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32

Last week we heard the grumbling of the vineyard workers who worked all day and received the same wages as the workers called and invited throughout the day by the owner of the vineyard, and the murmuring of the children of Israel in the wilderness, lamenting having left the "crock-pots" of Egypt, as Father Bill paraphrased it, while clamoring to be fed.

 

This week we find the children of Israel angry at Moses for leading them out of Egypt, and crying out for water. God has Moses strike the rock, and God's grace poured forth.

 

In the gospel lessons this week, and last week, we need to put Jesus' parables in context.  The stories in Matthew 21 center on controversies that occur days before Jesus goes to the cross. They draw our attention to issues of authority and obedience. Jesus is confronted by the chief priests and elders who want to know by what authority he has been doing "these things." We assume "these things" to be the events recorded earlier in this chapter: the entry into Jerusalem, the cleansing of the temple and now his teaching in the temple. Jesus is dead serious in wanting us to get what he means by "love" of God and our neighbor.  

 

Enough of sentimentalism. The children are crying out for sustenance - survival. God is at work in Christ, humbling himself in obedience, even to the cross, to give us more, far more than just survival, because of his love for us. Jesus is hard at work in his mission. The cross is near. Citing a story from a chapter titled "A Lady of Little Faith," in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Laurel Dykstra tells us something about love hard at work, quoting Father Zosima, with a critique of charity which seeks to define and control 'who is in need': "for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams."

 

"Love is central to the readings from Romans and Philippians this month. But the lections from Matthew, in which Jesus and his companions approach Jerusalem, lean more toward the harsh and dreadful. They ask what love means in practical terms. How do we resolve conflicts in community? How do we love one another in a world of complex economic and social relationships? How do we deal with authority and power? How do we honor our families?"

 

In the same vein, The Rev. Dr. James C. Howell asks "Is the Lord Among Us, or Not?" considering the complaints of the Israelites, and our complaints, too. Love hard at work, but right under our noses. 

 

 

Judgment and Forgiveness Lessons on 9/11

 This week's Scripture: Exodus 14:19-31 and Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11,20-21 (or Genesis 50:15-21 and Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13); Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35

Judgment and forgiveness are the subjects of our scripture and lesson this week.

This Sunday is the 10th anniversary of 9-11. In his sermon, The Rev. Cannon Frank Loguem asks:" Are there not some crimes to heinous to forgive? And on this day, we ask, Isn’t forgiving the perpetrators of September 11 too much to ask? How could those of us who remain alive even have the right to forgive?" Read his comments on the gospel lesson this week by clicking on "Read."

Jesus responds to Peter's request question about how may times we must forgive someone who sins against us in the Gospel passage, and Paul instructs us about judgment and forgiveness in his letter to the Romans.

The Dr. Courtney Cowart, in her sermon, "An Exhortation to Forgiveness," tells us: "It is this kind of belief about the justification of violence for the settling of moral grievances that leads to mornings like 9-11." Read the details of her account of 9/11 which she experienced in New York City that day, and what her prayerful remembrances call us to do - what Jesus calls us to do, and be.

Community - God's community - is the theme this week

This week's scripture: Exodus 12:1-14, Psalm 149; or Ezekiel 33:7-11, Psalm 119:33-40; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20

This week we read about one of the most, if not the most important moment in the Jewish faith - the Passover and the Exodus. We also study about what happens when trouble breaks out in the Christian community. Community - God's community - is the theme this week. The Rev. Dr. Susanna Metz tells us "we can't put limits to our forgiveness either. We can't say, “OK, fine, that didn't work. I don't have to do anything more.” Reconciliation means the door to forgiveness has to stay open. But there’s more. When we wrong others, we must repent...  If we want our life as a church to grow, we need to work constantly on our witness. Others must see us care for each other. They should hear us speak kindly of one another and they should see us forgive and ask forgiveness. It's not always easy, and we won't always do it. But as we try to live as we are called to live, we have only to remember that Jesus also said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.”

In "Bloody Doorposts," from the book The Divine Salvage by Curtis and Tempe Fussell, Curtis Fussell tells us "The thought of a meal with wine symbolizing blood is awesome and barbaric to the outsider. But in the drinking of that cup we spread the blood of Jesus Christ on the doorposts of our lives. We do it in the belief and out of the assurance that God acts decisively for us in Jesus Christ as He did for the Hebrews on that Passover night. God has not hesitated. God has not waited for us to change our minds. No, God comes and acts decisively to set us free."

The Good Life - the Problem with Certainty

This week's Scripture: Exodus 3:1-15 and Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c (or Jeremiah 15:15-21 and Psalm 26:1-8); Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28

 

Last week Peter was walking on air. He exclaimed that Jesus was the Christ, and was told that upon this rock, Jesus would build his church, giving him the keys to the kingdom. This week, after Peter thinks he knows what that kingdom will be like, and tells Jesus not to talk about suffering a humiliating and horrible death, Jesus calls him Satan, and says to get behind him. What is going on here? How can the kingdom of God be established if it's leader, the Messiah, is to suffer death at the hands of the Romans and the entrenched Jewish religious leaders? We see Moses encounter God in the form of the burning bush, burning without be extinguished. Moses, who was a Prince of Egypt, and now tending the sheep of his father-in-law. How would he, with a speech impediment and loss of esteem, lead God's people out of bondage to the promised land? How can this be?

 

We are given the name of God in this lesson. God speaking to Moses, and Jesus to his disciples says "I AM WHO I AM," or I am becoming who I am becoming - the great "I AM" - the essence of existence, the presence of eternity. Through this power, like the yeast in the parable we considered a few weeks ago, the kingdom rises and spreads.

 

We are called to help bring about the kingdom. God engages us through Christ, the Word and the Holy Spirit. Through a power and paradoxes we may not understand, the kingdom comes. Consider, "God's Economic Plan, " in the Rev. Dr. Gary Charles'  "The Good Life." Our own Father Rodge Wood tells us about "The Problem With Certainty." Fr. Bill has told us about losing or dying to putting our will ahead of God's will.

 

We learn more about the kingdom, and ourselves.

This week's Scripture. Exodus 1:8-2:10 and Psalm 124 (or Isaiah 51:1-6 and Psalm 138); Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20

In this week's gospel lesson, Jesus asks "Who do you say I am?" The disciples give answers they probably have heard, but Simon - renamed Peter form πετρα - petra - Greek for rock - immediately says that Jesus is the Messiah - χριστοσ (Christ) - the Son of the Living God. Jesus replies that only God could have made this known to him, and that upon this rock, He will build his church, giving Peter the keys of the kingdom. 

 

In "How Do We Know What God Is Like?" The Very Rev. Dr. Ian Markham gives us many looks at what God is like. What is God like?  In "Who do you think you are?" Paul Bellan-Boyer does what Jesus does. He turns the focal point on us. Why does Jesus do this?

 

Bellan-Boyer says ; "Self-awareness, knowing ourselves, helps us relate to God.

The Jesuits use a daily prayer of self-examination, which asks things like:
· [God,] When did I sense your presence the most in my day?
· When did your presence seem farthest away from me in my day?
· How were you loving me in my day?
· How were you loving me even when your presence seemed far away?
· How did I respond to your love in my day?

 

Why is it important to know who we are? Who do you think you are?

 

 

Sunday School Lesson - August 14 - Year A - Pentecost + 9

Scripture this week:  Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Isaiah 56:1, 6-8; Psalm 67; Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; and Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28.

 

 

Dr, Jan Love addresses unity, conflict and differences of opinion in the church, and suggests that the gospel account of the Canaanite woman seeking healing for her daughter offers Christ's example of resolving conflict in a positive, healing manner.

 

"The kind of unity described in Psalm 133-a community of faithful followers on a journey with God to a beloved home-never obliterates differences, disagreement, and conflicts. Unity among believers does not require uniformity, which would not only be boring but also a denial of the rich variety of God's good creation among humans and their communities.

 

The kind of unity described in Psalm 133 does require, however, that we engage each other and our conflicts over differences to make them productive rather than destructive. Such unity requires that we see conflict as an opportunity to deepen our faith rather than destroy our adversaries, whether they be across the world or across the table in a local church meeting.

When we within the body of Christ choose to listen deeply, we will discover new ways of hearing about each other's encounter of and witness to Christ. Moreover, we will likely learn more about the wonders and mysteries of our own faith when we listen, really listen to others, even those with whom we will never fully agree. Then we will know more fully the unity to which God calls us-a unity so large, a love so expansive, and a mutual encounter so riveting, just like that of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, that we find new ways of healing ourselves and our communities."

In "Who Gets to Enter the Temple," The Rev. William Blake Rider asks "Is everyone entitled to mercy?" What do you think?

Sunday School Lesson - August 7 - Year A - Pentecost +8

This week's scripture: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28;  Psalm 105: 1-6, 16-22, 45b;  1 Kings 19:9-18;  Psalm 85:8-13; Romans 10:5-15;  and Matthew 14:22-33.

How and when do we encounter the risen Christ? This week we study Matthew's account of Peter walking on water and starting to sink, summoned by Jesus. What did it take for Peter to do this? Why did he start to sink? What did Jesus say to him? What was Peter's response?

The Rev. John Jewell gives us four different themes to remember and apply as we analyze, or better, live through this story with Peter in his sermon "If you want to walk on water...you gotta get out of the boat!" First, he says if you're going to make any gains, you have to take risks - and Peter was certainly a risk taker in this story, and on other occasions, too. Can you recall some of his daring acts, speech or bravado? How about some of his weakest acts, and even acts of cowardice and shame?

Jewell says we encounter Christ in faith, fear, as friend, and in the foundational statement that "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" How is this evident in the gospel account this week? How is this evident in our own lives? Jesus tells Peter to "Take heart, take courage" - θαρσαι - tharsai - the same thing he says to the paralytic lowered into his presence by his friends, and to the woman who touched his cloak, as he healed them. He said that their faith has made them whole.

How and when have you encountered God? It is written that we may entertain angels unawares. How does God come to Elijah who has run for his life, and withdrawn in despair?