Scripture: Jeremiah 31:15-17; Psalm 124; Revelation 21:1-7; Matthew 2:13-23
This Sunday is the day the church remembers the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents on The Holy Innocent, martyrs Sunday. Much has been written about it. Albert Camus anguished about it in his book The Fall. We have just celebrated with "Joy to the World, the Lord is Come," and with angels heard on high singing "Gloria in excelsis Deo." Amidst new life, we are quickly reminded in Luke that the unimaginable horror of the slaughter of innocent children is part of the Christmas story, too, as Joseph flees to Egypt with Mary and the baby Jesus, being warned in a dream of Herod's treachery and power-lust.
We are also celebrating the baptism of our first grandchild this Sunday, and his uncle, an Episcopal priest, is coming in to minister the baptism. We are at the apex of joy. And yet, just as in the time of the Christ child, we know that innocent children, as well as their parents and other adults, are the victims of violence, terror, disease, illness, accidents, and abuse.
Like Camus, we ask how can this be? Where is God in all this? What does God have to say to Rachel weeping for her children? Tough questions, but not without hope. See the Rev. Pam Fickenscher's "Remembering Rachel: The Slaughter of the Innocents." In the midst of all the horror and tragedy, God sent his Son, whose name has an etymological root of "to deliver, to rescue - to save." As Paul says, "O death, where is your victory... where is your sting? We can say with Paul, "Death has been swallowed up in victory... thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" The message is not only for our great reunion with God in heaven, but to save us now in the midst of our grief, sorrow and pain. You may also want to read The Rev. Dr. James Lamkin's "The New Normal."
Scripture: 2
Samuel 7:1-11, 16 •Luke
1:46b-55 or Psalm
89:1-4, 19-26 • Romans
16:25-27 • Luke
1:26-38
This week's Scripture is replete with God coming to us through the willingness of a very young woman to say "yes" to God. No cop outs, excuses, or begging out of what God asked of her, but simply and beautifully, Mary says "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be
with me according to your word."
All three authors of articles this week reflect on what it means to say "Yes" to God. See "And It Was Sufficient" by Kyle Childress, “gutsyfaith, greater than the angels – a reflection on the Annunciation" by The Rev. Rick Morley, and Jenny Warner's "The God-Bearer: Advent Reflections on Mary."
What strikes me most is that God chooses the ordinary, the unpretentious, the seemingly powerless - in short, each of us, just as we are, to manifest himself to, and in, the world. And despite our shortcomings and "lowly estate," like the babe in the manger, and his very young mother, the Lord God deems it sufficient and enough to accomplish his will, and bring about his kingdom.
As we prepare for the Lord's coming, we are reminded that this time of year can be a sad and lonely time for many. A local Catholic church offers a blue mass service for those low in spirit, lonely, depressed, down and out. As we wait and prepare with expectant hope, this week we are invited to share in the joy of the Lord's coming - in the midst of our human condition - amidst times of turmoil, violence, illness, troubles and woes.
As Jesus began his mission, he unrolled the scroll and read from this week's passage in Isaiah. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to bring good news to the oppressed, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners." Isaiah wrote to those returning from the exile of captivity. Returning to the ruins of their homeland. In the midst of those ruins, with great joy the prophet and the Israelites returned, thankful and filled with the promise of restoration.
Psalm 126 shouts of that joy of restoration in every verse, and Luke's Song of Mary, the god bearer (Θεοτοκος) is full of joy as her "soul does magnify the Lord." Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians enjoined them to give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ for us.
Consider the contrasts, and experience the hope and joy in Daniel Berrigan's, Advent Credo, Steve Goodier's "Surprised by Joy," and Melissa Bane Servier's "Joy?" When you have time, read C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy.
Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11 • Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 • 2 Peter 3:8-15a • Mark 1:1-8
After last week's apocalyptic passage from Mark, we have the first verse, or introduction, to Mark in this week's gospel. Mark starts with "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," seizes on the writings of the prophet Isaiah, and introduces us to John the Baptist, a voice crying in the wilderness, making straight the path, preparing the way for the Lord, proclaiming a baptism of repentance by water, for the forgiveness of sins. We await the coming of the Lord, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Just as Mark speaks of preparation for the Lord's coming, the author of 2 Peter urges patience and endurance as we wait. Contrasted with last week's cry from Isaiah of "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, " the prophet says, "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God," and he says that the Lord will feed his flock like a shepherd, gathering the lambs, carrying them gently in his bosom, and gently leading the mother sheep.
In violent and unsettled times, considering John the Baptist's ministry of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, Kathleen Norris asks, in "Mercy, Me," asks "Can it be that mercy really is at the heart of God? In "I Want to Be Ready, " Steve Goodier suggests ways to prepare for the future we are called to. In "Leftovers," Melissa Bane Servier suggests that in the re-imagining, re-emergence of our faith tradition, is a coming anew of God, creating anew, "taking those beautiful flavors of the ancient past and delivering them to us in ever-new ways," - sort of like living anew that glorious feast of Thanksgiving, and the leftovers of all of the wonderful memories, people, stories, aromas and blessings of our lives.
Scripture: Isaiah
64:1-9 • Psalm
80:1-7, 17-19 • 1
Corinthians 1:3-9 • Mark
13:24-37
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, and the first Sunday of Lectionary Year B. We light a candle with readings of hope and peace as we wait the coming of the Christ child, and Christ's coming again. What are called to do, as we wait? In what, or in whom do we hope? What are our expectations about the coming of Christ? Why does Kathleen Morris call her article "Apocalypse Now?"
In "Advent Alchemy," John Stendahl urges us not to choose indifference or resignation in the seasons of our lives as we take care to note the shape of the darkness in which our candles burn. Instead prepare for the Lord's coming by anticipating the good which will come, and shining when and where the light is most needed.
Finally, consider two short readings about Advent Candles, Melissa Banes Sevier's "One Candle," and The Rev. Eric J. Liles, "Why Blue for Advent?"
Scripture: Ezekiel
34:11-16, 20-24 and Psalm
100 • Ezekiel
34:11-16, 20-24 and Psalm
95:1-7a • Ephesians
1:15-23 • Matthew
25:31-46
As we end Lectionary Year A on Reign of Christ Sunday, we also finish up Jesus' apocalyptic, or, as Paul Tillich and Rudolph Bultmann characterize it, his eschatological vision and fulfillment in Matthew 25. For Bruce Epperly, Christ turns us toward justice and relationship. God experiences the
world and responds to bring about structures of justice and reconciliation. Enjoy reading the dynamics of the loving Creator God, in relationship with his Creation in his "Adventurous Lectionary- - The Reign of Christ."
The Rev. Kate Matthews always brings so much to the discussion. In her Reflection on The Reign of Christ,Christ is With Us, she considers, along with the authors she cites, judgment, freedom, and the "sheep and goats" of Jesus' parable. As Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "We are called to look at each other and see Christ."
Scripture: Judges
4:1-7 and Psalm
123 • Zephaniah
1:7, 12-18 and Psalm
90:1-8, (9-11), 12
1
Thessalonians 5:1-11 • Matthew
25:14-30
This week we have scripture and lessons concerning time and how we should meaningfully use that time. The Greek language has two words for time, Καιρός (kairos) and Χρόνος (chronos). In rhetoric, Καιρός means the passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved. In Christian theology, Καιρός means "the appointed time in the purpose of God", the time when God acts. Καιρός is timeless, eternal, whereas Χρόνος is "chronological," and is pictured in Greek mythology by Cronos who represented the destructive ravages of time which consumed all things, a concept that was definitely illustrated when the Titan king devoured the Olympian gods — the past consuming the future, the older generation suppressing the next generation.
The Psalmist says, "Teach us to count our days, that we may have a wise heart." In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul tells us to be alert, to have no concern about the seasons, but to prepare for the day of the Lord's coming, building up and encouraging one another, and to have faith, love and hope.
Jesus's parable of the talents tells us that the King entrusts his servants with talents, goes away for a long time, and returns to see what they have done with their talents. Talents are not what we might think. What does Jesus mean when he uses the words talents? Is God keeping score, or time? See The Rev. Charles Hoffacker's "Trust, not Fear." The Rev. Canon Frank Logue also discusses talents, and taking risks. See his "Love is Risky Business."
What are we to do with our time? See Enuma Okoro's "Discerning the Days," in his "With the Eyes of Our Heart," Series in November 2011 edition of Sojourners.
What are we to do with our "talents"? See Steve Goodier's "All Used Up."
Scripture: Joshua
24:1-3a, 14-25 and Psalm
78:1-7 • Wisdom
of Solomon 6:12-16 or Amos
5:18-24 and Wisdom
of Solomon 6:17-20 or Psalm
70 • 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18 • Matthew
25:1-13
In the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids, we are tempted to read it in such a way as to bolster ourselves and our thinking as being wise. What is it to be wise? It also is written in an eschatological sense - the meaning of existence and things to come, such as "the kingdom of heaven." What is the meaning and hope of things to come? Consider "Wisdom and Folly," by Debra Dean Murphy.
Ruminating on the declaration of Joshua, "... choose this day whom you will serve [other gods, idols] ... but as for me, and my household, we will serve the LORD," Professor Walter Bruggemann reviews Israel's history and choices, and Christ's feeding of the multitudes in "The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity," and invites us to change our public life.
"Whether we are liberal or conservative Christians, we
must confess that the central problem of our lives is that we are torn apart by
the conflict between our attraction to the good news of God's abundance and the
power of our belief in scarcity -- a belief that makes us greedy, mean and
unneighborly...
Wouldn't it be wonderful if liberal and conservative
church people, who love to quarrel with each other, came to a common
realization that the real issue confronting us is whether the news of God's
abundance can be trusted in the face of the story of scarcity? What we know in
the secret recesses of our hearts is that the story of scarcity is a tale of
death. And the people of God counter this tale by witnessing to the manna.
There is a more excellent bread than crass materialism. It is the bread of life
and you don't have to bake it. As we walk into the new millennium, we must
decide where our trust is placed... It has nothing to do with being Republicans or Democrats,
liberals or conservatives, socialists or capitalists. It is much more
elemental: the creation is infused with the Creator's generosity, and we can
find practices, procedures and institutions that allow that generosity to work.
Like the rich young man in Mark 10, we all have many possessions. Sharing our
abundance may, as Jesus says, be impossible for mortals, but nothing is
impossible for God. None of us knows what risks God's spirit may empower us to
take. Our faith, ministry and hope at the turn of the millennium are that the
Creator will empower us to trust his generosity, so that bread may abound." - Walter Bruggemann.
Scripture: Joshua
3:7-17 and Psalm
107:1-7, 33-37 • Micah
3:5-12 and Psalm
43 • 1
Thessalonians 2:9-13 • Matthew
23:1-12
As we read the regular appointed for this Sunday, we also celebrate All Saints. The articles for reading ask about what is godliness, holiness? What are the characteristics of the saints? Who have been saints in your life?
Michael Anthony Howard, in his "Saints in the hands of a humble heaven," contrasts the saintliness and holiness portrayed in Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" with a God who finds us worthy of salvation, and who comes to dwell among us - who chooses to be in the midst of us, in humility and love - not an "over-and-above holiness," but an "under-and-in-service holiness.
Bob Stuhlmann, helps ground our conceptions of "godliness" and saintliness" in his "Humility Against Despair," Stories from a Priestly Life, drawing on Thomas Merton's Seeds of Contemplation, and learning godliness and saintliness from the words of the Rt. Rev. Mark Evans given to him when his son, Christopher, was born with Downs Syndrome. See "A Place to Call Home."
Scripture: Deuteronomy
34:1-12 and Psalm
90:1-6, 13-17 • Leviticus
19:1-2, 15-18 and Psalm
1 • 1
Thessalonians 2:1-8 • Matthew
22:34-46
This week Jesus teaches us the "Great Commandment" which is a combination of the first part of Israel's great Shema (Hear): "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." And from Leviticus 19, 1-2, 15-18, particularly: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your
people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD."
Professor Alyce MacKenzie tells us in "Reality-Show Jesus: Reflections on Matthew 22:34-46," that Matthew's gospel account has Jesus teaching the Great Commandment after he was tested by and confronted the religious leaders of his day by overturning the tables of the money changers, telling the parables of the vineyard and wedding feast, and after answering those who seek to entrap him with the question of whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar.
What is Jesus teaching us about the Great Commandment? About Love? See MacKenzie's article (above), The Rev. Canon Frank Logue's "Everything Hangs on Love," in which he describes what it means to be committed in loving another more than ourselves (agape love - ἀγάπη), and The Rev. Sharron R. Blezard's "Living the Gospel of Love." What does living The Great Commandment mean while living in community? For us in our parish? See The Rev. Anjel Scarborough's "The Benedictine tradition of community." Laying down our egos, our long-nurtured grudges and resentments, and seeking the way of love is the way of the cross through which we find fullness of life in Christ.
The Gospel this week is the account of Jesus telling religious leaders wishing to entrap him to give to Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God that which is God's. In "God in the Heartbeat of Life," and in her Reflections on the passages from Exodus and 1 Thessalonians, The Rev. Kate Huey asks "Can you feel the tension?"
Tension between a transcendent, Other, Holy God in all his glory, and God who is immanently present. In our soft and ego-centric, self-help culture, with all the hypes and distractions, have we lost a sense of awe and the sacred? Have we made a God, projecting on God our wants, needs, and desires for prosperity, seeing what we want to see, hearing what we want to hear? Are we shopping for a church which satisfies our consumer appetites, or one which nurtures, feeds and gives away what we have? Can you feel the tension?
In our desire for material things, objects and objectivism, have we lost the ability to see beyond what we expect to see? Were the Israelites the chosen people because of their own "specialness," or was it more than themselves? Relationship building between a holy God, Transcendent and yet present, and us. Can you feel the tension?
This week's scripture is full of the glory of God, his awesomeness, and yet we see God's presence in Jesus being tested by religious authorities. Can you feel the tension? We are soon approaching Advent, and what Rudolph Bultmann calls "History and Eschatology: The presence of eternity" (the meaning of history), as the sacred breaks into our humanity in the coming of the Christ (the eschaton) ... as a helpless child, needing human sustenance to live, and live as one of us. Can you feel the tension?
Just when we think we've got the lesson of the parable this week, Jesus turns the tables on us... again. In Luke's account of this parable, as in the first part of Matthew's account, we get the message - all are welcome at the wedding feast given by the king, cutting through the legalism, hypocrisy, self righteousness, ownership and control asserted by the religious leaders of the day. But things take a violent turn in Matthew's version of the parable. When a guest does not have a wedding robe, the king orders him taken out, bound and thrown into the outer darkness. Why the violence? Is God rejecting him? Is there no room at the feast for him? What is meant by "many are called but few are chosen?" What is the wedding robe? What is God's grace in all of this? What is meant by Bonhoeffer's saying that there is no such thing as "cheap grace."
Consider John van de Laar's "The Uncomfortable Invitation," and Samuel Zumwalt's "Ready for the Feast."
This Sunday we study the Ten Commandments - words carved in stone, or are they more? Laws to be obeyed, or more. Love to be earned, or more. God on high, or more. Laws of dominion and control, or love amd justice. Read The Rev. Kate Matthew's "A Rule of Love."
In "Crazy Love," The Rev. David Lose makes some cheeky good points about Matthew's account of another vineyard parable which Jesus gives us. This one is about the vineyard workers who kill servants sent by the landowner to collect his die from his tenants, including the landowner's son. Jesus is reaching the climax of his ministry as he confronts religious authorities on his way to the cross - to humiliation and exaltation and glory. Why does the landowner keep sending his servants, and even his son to these "bloodthirsty hooligans?" Jesus says it best when he tells them, and us, that "the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes!"
Does the gospel account have anything to say about how we should read and live out the Ten Commandments? What do they both say about God and us?
Another week of grumbling and complaining in the wilderness. God rained manna on his people, not punishment in last week's lesson. This week, acting through his agent, Moses, who strikes a rock with his staff, life giving water gushes forth. Living bread, living water.
What do we look for, what do we find when we are in wilderness times? Do we see our glass half empty? Half full? Is it wrong to question God? Is God present in the good times, but not the bad times? Do we look for mirages instead of the truth in times of want, need or trouble? Security instead of facing our fears and troubles? Read The Rev. Kate Huey's "God's Sustaining Presence."
And Jesus, speaking with authority (ἐξουσία - a liberating power, not a dominating force), gives us the parable of the two sons who are asked to work in the vineyard. One says he will, and doesn't. One says he won't, but does. Who does the Father's will?
In Paul's beautiful letter to the Philippians, we have the kenosis (κενόω - to empty out). After telling us we need to have the mind of Christ, Paul tells us a love story of Christ's sacrifice from the beginning to the cross. Jesus, "though he was in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human
likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death
on a cross."
So, with all the grumbling and complaining, how are we to do the Father's will? How can a grumbling church become the church God wants us to be? Consider The Rev. John Jewell's "How to Have a Perfect Church."
