Month: June 2019

What is it to be human?

30 June 2019
Third Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 8C (RCL)
2 Kings2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

Luke 9:51 is of course a turning point in Luke’s account of Jesus. From this point onward, his narrative is directed toward the events of Jerusalem. Luke immediately connects this turn to four short sayings. The first about a village of the Samaritans. James and John want to imitate Elijah and call down fire upon them (2 Kings 1:10-12). Elijah operated primarily in the Northern Kingdom, so the connection would be obvious. Continue reading “What is it to be human?”

The politics of swine

23 June 2019
Second Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 7C (RCL)
1 Kings 19:1-15a
Psalm 42 & 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

Poor Elijah; he’s had enough, enough to be ready to die. He’s just slaughter 400 of the prophets of Ba’al, and now Jezebel promises to make him just like one of them. He runs away into the wilderness (a smart move), and sits down under a broom dry and asks to die. One suspects that the author of the book of Jonah had read 1 Kings. Instead, he takes a nap, and an angel gives him bread and water (just as God gave the Israelites manna and water on their wilderness journey). This happens twice, and then he journeys to the mount of God. Continue reading “The politics of swine”

Each in our own dialect

9 June 2019
The Feast of Pentecost
Pentecost C (RCL)
Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17, 25-27

I have often heard it preached (and probably preached it myself), that Pentecost undoes Babel. But I don’t think that’s true. The point of Babel seems to me that God desire diversity, and wants the human race scattered over the face of the earth. God desire a variety of languages and experiences, so that we may learn from each other how others see God. Continue reading “Each in our own dialect”