A Cup of Cold Water - What Does God Require of Us?

 

• Scripture: Genesis 22:1-14 and Psalm 13  • Jeremiah 28:5-9 and Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18  • Romans 6:12-23  • Matthew 10:40-42

In this Sunday's readings we have the amazing story of God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Are we, like Abraham, being tested?  Consider Dan Clendenin's "A Terrifying Text: Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah," and, along with Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, put yourself in Abraham's shoes. Compare this with last Sunday's gospel where Jesus says that whoever loves his son or daughter more than me, or who does not take up their cross and follow me, is not worthy of me.  What does God ask of us?

Enjoy the story of wild haired college student John, who squats in the isle of a church service in  Christopher Burkett's "The Smallest of Good Deeds." 

What does God want us to do? Thinking about freedom this Indepence Day holiday? Read Denae Ashley's "Shake off the Dust." Finally, read Fr. Ric Morley's "sit up straighter..." Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the One who sent me.

Buried in Christ, Raised to Newness of Life

 Scriptute: Genesis 21:8-21 and Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17  •  Jeremiah 20:7-13 and Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18  • Romans 6:1b-11  • Matthew 10:24-39

Jesus sends out his disciples telling them not to fear even though they may face resistance, even unto death. He says he came not to bring peace, but a sword. What does he mean? Contrast this with the peace he gives, as only he can give, and the account of telling Peter to put away his sword as Jesus submits to his betrayal and arrest. He is preparing his disciples as he sends them out to spread the good news even though it may turn brother against brother, and families against one another. In "Sent," Joslyn Ogden Schaefer helps understand this when read with Paul's letter to the Romans in which we learn about having to die to the old self to be able to live in Newness of life - in a new way. And in the story of Hagar and Ishmael, sent out seemingly to die by Abraham, but spared by God's grace. Read also Michael Fitzpatrick's "Buried with Christ," In the same gospel reading, Jesus reminds us of God's love, care and forgiveness, as he knows and cares when ever a sparrow falls.

Discipleship

 

Scripture: Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7) and Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19  • 

Exodus 19:2-8a and Psalm 100  • Romans 5:1-8  • Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

In this week's gospel, Jesus sends out his disciples in pairs, giving them authority over unclean spirits and to cure disease and sickness. In this passage his disciples are named, imperfect and diverse. As he sent them out, seeing the crowds, he did so with compassion - from the  Greek, σπλαγχνίζομαι, to be moved so deeply as to feel it within the pit of your stomach - saying they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 

From Jesus's words to his disciples, but also from the depths of his compassion, we learn about the call to discipleship.  Read also, Joshua Samuel's "Discipleship and Mission ," and Sister Kim Harris's "Reflection ."

And for those who want more, Read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship." Here is a Wikipedia article on his book. 

God's Justice In An Unjust Society

Click here for link to Scripture:  

In this Sunday's Old Testament readings, we see Abraham, at the age of seventy-five, leave his country and what he has known all his life, in faith, as God promised to make him a great nation. In the passage from Hosea, who married and showed the  compassionate love of hesed to an unfaithful prostitute foretelling God's covenantal love of even an unfaithful people, culminating in Jesus’s compassionate love in eating with tax collectors and sinners, and healing the unclean in this Sunday's gospel. 

This begs the question of what is God's justice and relationship to an unfaithful, unjust, people? Read Dan Clendenin's "Abraham's Journey," and consider William Bennett's homily.

The Trinity and the Great Commission

 Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Psalm 8  • 2 Corinthians 13:11-13  • Matthew 28:16-20

This is Trinity Sunday. In these troubled times of pandemic, economic uncertainty, division, and the pain and suffering so many are experiencing with issues regarding race, brutality, and civil and violent protests, why does knowledge and appeal to the Trinity - God in three persons - three in one - God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - matter? What difference does it make?  What can we learn, and rely on to help us through these times? 

Debie Thomas, in The Undivided Trinity, gives us a timely and important lesson.
This Sunday's gospel also contains Jesus’s commission to spread the good news to all the earth, the ends of the earth. How and what does he mean? Read Dan Clendenin's "What I Do Is Me."

Holy Spirit, breathe fresh life into us

 Scripture: Acts 2:1-21 or Numbers 11:24-30  • Psalm 104:24-34, 35b  • 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 or Acts 2:1-21  • John 20:19-23 or John 7:37-39

Especially during this time of pandemic and divisive rhetoric, Debi Thomas, in her truly remarkable “I Will Pour Out My Spirit,” gives us a lesson of wisdom and hope as she reflects on the Scripture on this Pentecost Sunday. Click the link “I Will Pour Out My Spirit” to read her essay. Here is a snippet.

“Like the disciples in our Gospel reading for this week, we are huddled together behind locked doors, waiting for Jesus to come among us and say, “Peace be with you.”  Waiting for him to breathe on us.  Waiting for him to speak the words we need so desperately: “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  

Pentecost — from the Greek pentekostos, meaning "fiftieth," was a Jewish festival celebrating the spring harvest, and the revelation of the law at Mount Sinai.  In the New Testament Pentecost story Luke tells, the Holy Spirit descended on 120 believers in Jerusalem on the fiftieth day after Jesus's resurrection.  The Spirit empowered them to testify to God's saving work, emboldened the apostle Peter to preach to a bewildered crowd of Jewish skeptics, and drew three thousand converts from around the known world in one day.  For many Christians, Pentecost marks the birthday of the Church.

The story Luke describes is a fantastical one, full of details that challenge the imagination.  Tongues of fire.  Rushing wind.  Bold preaching.  Mass baptism.  But at its heart, the Pentecost story is not about spectacle and drama.  It’s about the Holy Spirit showing up and transforming ordinary, imperfect, frightened people into the Body of Christ.  It’s about God disrupting and disorienting our humdrum ways of engaging the sacred, so that something new and holy can be born within and among us.  It’s about the Spirit carrying us out of suspicion, tribalism, and fear, into a radical new way of engaging God and our neighbor...

But even in that atmosphere of suspicion and cynicism, some people spoke, and some people listened, and into those astonishing exchanges, God breathed fresh life.

Something happens when we speak each other's languages.  We experience the limits of our own words and perspectives.  We learn curiosity.  We discover that God's "great deeds" are far too nuanced for a single tongue, a single fluency.

I hope that the Pentecost story compels us, because it's a story for this time, this moment.  We live in a world where words have become toxic, where the languages of so many cherished "isms" threaten to divide and destroy us.  The troubles of our day are national,  global, civilizational, catastrophic.  If we don't learn the art of speaking across the borders that currently separate us, we will burn ourselves down to ash.”

Read also Anna Tew's "Life is a Team Sport - Day of Pentecost."

Jesus's prayer for us - that we may be one

 Scripture: Acts 1:6-14  • Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35  • 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11  • John 17:1-11

This is the Sunday following Ascension Day. The gospel account is of Jesus praying with his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. This is known as Jesus' priestly prayer for us before he leaves us to go to the Father. Both of our authors give us perspective during this time of social distancing, loneliness, and issues of trust and hope. We need Jesus' prayer for us, especially now. Read The Rev. Anna Tew's " Split Screen," and Debie Thomas' "That they may be one." 

For an Ascension Day homilies read The Rev. D. Rebecca  Dinovo's "Lifted Up," and Dan Clendenin's "Taken Up to Heaven, The Assumption of Jesus."