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?