Author: appadmin

5 May 2013
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Easter 6C (RCL)
Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22 — 22:5
John 14: 23-29

In all of this conversation in John’s Gospel, in which Jesus has said he is going away and we cannot come, but he is going to prepare a place, and will take us to himself so that where he is we might also be, it would be understandable if the disciples (and we) got a little confused. At 14:19, Jesus says that in a little while, the world will no longer see him, but we will, “because I live and you live.” So, Judas, not Iscariot, asks, “How is it that you are about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

If we remember that John’s community Continue reading “Where we’re going”

28 April 2013
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Easter 5C (RCL)
Acts 11:1-8
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35

Jesus tells his, “As I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.” Wait. What? Just a couple of paragraphs later, he will say, “If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” Which is it?

Where Jesus is and remains Continue reading “Where are we going?”

21 April 2013
Easter 4C (RCL)
Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30

This Sunday (the fourth of Easter) is traditionally called Good Shepherd Sunday. Most lectionaries include a reading from the 10th chapter of John’s Gospel. Years A & B in the RCL have much more “shepherd-y” readings than Year C. All three years include the 23rd Psalm. In this reading from John’s Gospel, the metaphor of shepherd and flock is used as a narrative devise for exclusion: You do not believe because you are not belong to my sheep. Not the warm fuzzy we hope for when we think of the Good Shepherd.

Chapter 10 Continue reading “The king of love and the Boston Marathon”

14 April 2013
Third Sunday of Easter
Easter 3C (RCL)
Acts 9:1-20
Psalm 30
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19

Again, this week, we have two stories of resurrection appearances in which the recognition of the risen Christ is delayed. It seems to be a theme that when we encounter the risen Christ, we don’t immediately recognize what’s happening.

Paul, on his way to Damascus to persecute those belonging to the way, has an epiphany on the road Continue reading “Recognizing resurrection, pt. 2”

7 April 2013
Second Sunday of Easter
Easter 2C (RCL)
Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 150
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31

The Emperor Domitian came to the throne of Empire in the year 81. Suetonius records that he was the first emperor to demand being called dominus et deus, Lord and God. Translating that phrase into Greek yields ho kyrios kai ho theos, exactly the words on Thomas’ lips when he has touched the wounds of Christ. Thomas, at the end of John’s Gospel, recognizes Jesus as the true emperor.

The gnostics (if there were such Continue reading “Resurrection wounds”

31 March 2013
Easter Day
Easter C (RCL)
Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
John 20:1-18

One year, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington, Vermont, I heard the bishop say, to open his Easter sermon, “Easter 1982 is not all that different from Easter 1981.” I don’t remember much else of the sermon. Preaching Easter presents a challenge. First, there are all of those folks one doesn’t normally see — how to speak to them in a single shot. Second, most folks have the dinner they will attend after service as much on their minds and any doctrine of the Church.

But, these readings have too much to say. Isaiah’s Continue reading “Recognizing resurrection”

17 March 2013
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Lent 5C (RCL)
Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3:4b-14
John 12:1-8

We are drawing closer to Palm Sunday/Holy Week/Easter, and our readings bring us closer to the paschal mystery. The passage from Isaiah speaks of the new thing God is about to do. If you thought the Exodus was amazing, says the prophet, wait until you see the return from Exile. God will make a new heavens and a new earth, streams will flow in the desert, jackals and ostriches will honor God. God asks, “Do you not perceive it?” It would have been hard for the fractured little community in Exile to perceive God’s hand in anything. It was not a mighty group who returned from Exile, and they would need great faith to perceive in their circumstances God’s plan for a new universe.

Paul is also facing a bleak future. I believe Continue reading “Sweet smelling extravagance”

10 March 2013
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Lent 4C (RCL)
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The fourth Sunday in Lent is often known as “refreshment Sunday,” a little vacation from Lent. In congregations that have eucharistic vestments in all the colors of the rainbow, rose is often worn on this Sunday, lending it the name “Rose Sunday.” The collect speaks of Jesus being the bread come down from heaven, by which we have life, by which we are refreshed. In some years, a passage from John 6 is assigned as the Gospel.

This year, we hear the reading of the prodigal son. I am convinced the story is as much about the older brother as about the younger. The first verses Continue reading “This brother of yours.”

3 March 2013
Third Sunday in Lent
Lent 3C (RCL)
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

The Old Testament reading for this Sunday is a continuation of event in the great salvation history we read during Lent. After the covenant with Abram (last week), we hear the story of Moses’ encounter with I AM at the burning bush. Despite Moses’ objections, I AM sends him to release the people from Pharaoh’s oppression.

The Gospel reading presents a number of opportunities for interpretation. First, the fig tree. Mark intercalates the parable of the vineyard and its wicked tenants into the account of Jesus cursing the fig tree on his way into Jerusalem. The fig tree, in that instance, surely represents Israel, reflecting Isaiah 5, along with the vineyard. When the disciples see the withered fig tree, Jesus says that whoever has faith the size of a mustard seed could say to “this mountain” ‘be uprooted and cast into the see’ — obviously, Mount Zion. Mark takes a very dim view of ‘Israel’, and sees the destruction of Jerusalem as Israel’s just deserts. Luke softens Mark’s view of Israel, having Jesus twice lament over Jerusalem.

The only appearance of a fig tree in Luke’s Gospel is this parable. If the fig tree Continue reading “Manure happens”