March 2023 – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Life and death

Fifth Sunday in Lent; 26 March 20023; Lent 5A (RCL); Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45.

The story of the raising of Lazarus has always puzzled me, and continues to do so. I think that’s partly what John intended. There is no single meaning or interpretation of the story, but it is meant to pose unanswerable questions. At the heart of my puzzlement are the verbs used in v. 33. The NRSV translates, “he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” The Greek would be better translated “he was indignant in spirit and agitated,” when he sees the commotion around Lazarus’ tomb.

Sin and sight

Fourth Sunday in Lent; 19 March 2023; Lent 4A (RCL); 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41.

This episode in John’s Gospel provides a prime example of how the whole Gospel is structured, with the beginning and the end of the story as reflections of one another (the question of the blind man’s sin, bracketed by the question of the Pharisee’s sight). Along the way, John changes the definitions of both sin and sight, and frames them in reference to Jesus alone.

The water of life

Third Sunday in Lent; 12 March 2023; Lent 3A (RCL); Exodus 15:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:4-52.

I’m convinced that John uses marriage as a metaphor for the new kinship established by the eucharist in the Christian community. Jesus’ first miracle in John, after all, was changing water into wine at a wedding feast. And, here we have Jesus meeting a woman at a well, where Isaac (or Abraham’s servant on Isaac’s behalf), Jacob, and even Moses all met their wives. And they met them by asking for water. And water becomes an unending supply of wine.

Born from above

Second Sunday in Lent; 5 March 2023; Lent 1A (RCL); Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17.

The fact that modern English doesn’t distinguish between second -person singular and plural makes it almost impossible to translate John’s Gospel with it theology intact. In the KJV, verse 7 reads, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” It’s not Nicodemus who needs to be born again/from above, but some unnamed “you all.” The passage from Genesis is God’s instruction for Abraham and his household to leave his home and kindred and travel to a new land — and forge there a new identity. In the Romans reading, we skip the verses in which Abraham receives circumcision as a sign of that new identity.