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3 February 2013
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 4C (RCL)
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30

Today’s Gospel reading is often called “the rejection at Nazareth.” Jesus has been preaching and healing, and everyone in his home town wants to see him, and he can do nothing at Nazareth. At least that’s the way Mark and Matthew present the story. The rejection at Nazareth occurs well along in their narratives. Luke, on the other hand, moves it right up front. This is Jesus’ first sermon, and already the home-town crowd is filled with rage. Why would Luke tell his story this way?

There are several puzzling aspects Continue reading “Jesus gets testy”

27 January 2013
Third Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 3C (RCL)
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21

The first thing to notice is that the RCL leaves out all the names of the Levites and lay friends of Ezra who interpret the scripture reading. Pity the lectors when we used the BCP lectionary, who had to pronounce all those names!

The second thing to notice is that it is the people who ask Ezra to read the Torah (the Penteteuch? we’re not sure what shape the scriptures took at the time). At any rate, Ezra reads for six hours, and presumably they maintain their attention the whole time Continue reading “Reading scripture”

20 January 2013
Second Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 2C (RCL)
Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 36:5-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11

Six stone water jars, each holding twenty to thirty gallons, and the servants filled them to the brim. If you do the math, that’s somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. Let’s just say 150 gallons. That’s a lot of wine. Of course a marriage feast involved the whole village, and would last for several days, but still, it’s a lot of wine, and really good wine.

Many readers have difficulty with Jesus’ seeming rudeness to his mother: “Woman, what is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” It would have been a great shame Continue reading “That’s a lotta wine”

Sunday 13 January 2013
The Baptism of Christ
1 Epiphany C (RCL)
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Luke has a highly developed theology of the Holy Spirit. He divides history into three major ages, each connected with the Spirit. The first age is the age of the prophets, which lasts up through John the Baptist, he being the last of the line of prophets. In this age, the Holy Spirit energizes the prophets and speaks through them. The second age is the age of Jesus, when the Spirit rests in a unique way on him. The third age, the one in which we live, is the age of the Church. The Church is the primary agent of the Holy Spirit in this final age.

We get a sense Continue reading “Holy Spirit and fire”

Sunday 6 January 2013
The Epiphany
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

One doesn’t often get to preach on the Epiphany. It’s a shame, because the readings are so rich.

Clint McCann sees Psalm 72 as a coronation psalm used at the crowning of Davidic kings in Jerusalem. If this is so, in later times of the monarchy, it’s use could only express a pious hope that “the kings of Tarshish and the isles shall pay tribute and the kings of Arabia and Saba offer gifts.” Any thought of tribute coming to Jerusalem surely began to fade during the divided kingdom, and particularly after the conquest of Samaria by Assyria. And yet, the psalm survives, and has language about the king protected the poor and needy and rescuing the oppressed. It maintained the vision Continue reading “Epiphany”

23 December 2012
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Advent 4C (RCL)
Micah 5:2-5a
Canticle 15
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-59

This week’s reading from Luke’s Gospel includes the Magnificat, Mary’s song, which serves as something of a prologue to Luke’s Gospel. Jesus’ mission will be about the salvation of his people, and the Magnificat lays out the program — God has come to the help of Israel, cast down the mighty from their thrones, scattered the proud in their conceit, filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty. Mary’s song parallels Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 1, which she sings when she discovers she is pregnant. Of course, for Hannah and Mary the circumstances are very different. Hannah was Eli’s second wife, and could not get pregnant, and her co-wife Peninnah teased her mercilessly about that. Obviously, she was very happy to discover she was pregnant. Mary, on the other hand, is betrothed, and pregnant by someone other than her fiance. Not a happy circumstance.

The first line of her song is, “He has regarded the humiliation of his slave girl.” But in what parallel universe has God Continue reading “Vulnerability”

Sunday 16 December 2012
Third Sunday of Advent
Advent 3C (RCL)
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Canticle 9
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

Last week, in Luke’s Gospel, we read about the John the Baptist proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The sins he had in view were Israel’s sins, the sins that got them (in the mind of the deuteronomistic theologians) thrown out of the land in the first place. John was gathering up a new people in the wilderness, and bringing them across the Jordan back into the land. Not only did this re-integrate those who were, for whatever reason, separated from the people, but it also called into question the legitimacy of the current structure in Jerusalem. Luke opened Continue reading “Training ourselves”

9 December 2012
Second Sunday of Advent
Advent 2C (RCL)
Baruch 5:1-9
Canticle 16
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6

With the second Sunday of Advent, we move away from looking toward the future coming of Christ (the end of the season after Pentecost focuses on the coming Kingdom, and the first Sunday of Advent focuses on the advent of the Son of Man at the end of history), and begin to anticipate our celebration of the first arrival of the Christ. We look at the figure of John the Baptist and his announcement of the coming one. We hear a prophetic announcement of the return of God’s people to Jerusalem.

Luke portrays John the Baptist as the last of the line of prophets empowered by the Spirit. When the Spirit descends upon Jesus, the age of the prophets is over Continue reading “New clothes”

2 December 2012
First Sunday of Advent
Advent 1C (RCL)
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

The readings on the First Sunday of Advent always focus on the “Second Advent” of Christ, the return of the Son of Man. That means the readings often carry a tone of dire calamity soon to come. Not the best day in the liturgical calendar to celebrate a Name Festival (as for Church of the Advent). How does one await dire calamity and rejoice at the same time for the gift of a congregation named Advent?

The early church Continue reading “Awaiting what?”

18 November 2012
Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 28B (RCL)
I Samuel 4:1-20
Psalm 16
Hebrews 10:11-25
Mark 13:1-8

I don’t think it overstates the case to say that the destruction of Herod’s Temple in 70 CE provided the defining crisis for both Christianity and Judaism as we know them today. As long as the Second Temple stood, both Jews and Christians (to the extent that it makes sense to use those words before the destruction) could look to the Temple as the focus of their identity. Questions of identity were not forced on either community.

When the Romans destroyed the Temple, identities which had been taken for granted were called into question. In Paul’s day Continue reading “The beginning of the beginning”