March 2022 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Honor

Fifth Sunday in Lent; 3 April 2022; Lent 5C (RCL); Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8.

Deuteronomy 15:11 reads “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.'” Origen (I think) took this to mean that the wealthy held their wealth in trust for the poor, who provided for the rich the opportunity of redemption.

Come to the party

Fourth Sunday in Lent; 27 March 2022; Lent 4C (RCL); Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.

Reconciliation is hard work. All too often, when we think of the forgiveness of sin, we think that God has done this once and for all, and that’s all there is to that. However, Paul tells us that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Godself, not holding their trespasses against them. Not hold their trespasses against them is just the first step of reconciliation. One has then to move past the consequences of those trespasses.

I have observed the misery

Third Sunday in Lent; 20 March 2022; Lent 3C (RCL); Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9.

I have always been puzzled (and remain so) by the first verses of this Gospel reading. The commentators point out the assumed connection between catastrophe and sin: sin brings down God’s judgment in the form of disaster. So, read the other way, disaster must imply God’s judgment; ergo a person must have sinned.

God’s risk

Second Sunday in Lent; 13 March 2022; Lent 2C (RCL); Genesis 15:1-12, 15-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17 – 4:1; Luke 13:31-35.

What a mish-mash of readings this week. I suppose that happens when you read books in-course. The Luke reading especially puzzles me; I’m not really sure how it fits into Luke’s overall narrative strategy, although I suppose it pushes forward the progress toward Jerusalem. But Jesus has not yet been to Jerusalem; how can he have desired to have protected her children? Unless perhaps he is speaking as Wisdom.

Misgotten glory

First Sunday in Lent; 6 March 2022; Lent 1C (RCL); Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13; Luke 4:1-13.

None of the things the devil tempts Jesus with is evil in itself, and in fact, in Luke’s telling, Jesus will in fact accomplish them. What makes them wrong is motivation and purpose. Looking at world events today, it is good to be reminded that we are not God.