Category: Lectionary

4 March 2012
Second Sunday in Lent
Lent 2B (RCL)
Genesis 17:1-7
Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38

Paul holds up Abraham as an example of faith. Abraham “believed” God’s promise to him, despite evidence to the contrary, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. That’s the way we usually interpret this passage from the letter to the Romans. What we “believe” saves us, makes us righteous. I find a fundamental flaw in this way of thinking. Faith, in Greek, didn’t mean what you thought about something, what you “believed”, what opinion you had. It had more to do with trust, than belief. Already, in the first sentence of this reading we have a problem. Richmond Lattimore (a scholar of classical Greek) translates this sentence, “For the promise to Abraham, or his seed, that he should be the inheritor of the world, was not on account of the law, but of the righteousness of his faith.” One troubling little word is not there in the Greek: “his.” Dieter Georgi would translate it this way, “on account of the righteousness that comes from God’s faithfulness.” Big difference.

The Greek supports both translations — maybe Continue reading “All in”

12 February 2012
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 6C (RCL)
1 Kings 5;1-14
Psalm 30
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Mark 1:40-45

Illness has several components. In our modern world view, we think of illness primarily as a biological process. We think of leprosy as Hansen’s disease, a bacterial infection that causes skin sores. It is now treatable with antibiotics (though the treatment can take time). We tend not to think of the social and personal aspects of disease, let alone spiritual. But just ask anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer or HIV about how their friends responded to the diagnosis, and you will quickly discover that disease has a social component. All of a sudden, friends no longer know how to carry on a conversation. Twenty years ago, anyone diagnosed with AIDS became Continue reading “Touch”

Sunday 5 February 2012
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 5B (RCL)
Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-12
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39

We moderns often think that Paul sounds whiny when he goes on about making the Gospel free of charge and not taking advantage of his rights in the Gospel. It sounds as if he is complaining that he isn’t getting paid for this work. Clergy all over the world sympathize. In fact, however, he is boasting (despite his protest to the contrary). His opponents, the “superapostles” he calls them, claim that Paul must be weak if he doesn’t charge for the Gospel. We’ve seen the same dynamic in our day. The people who preach the prosperity Gospel dress Continue reading “. . . save some”

18 December 2011
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Advent 4B (RCL)
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Psalm 89:1-4, 16-26
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38

The readings for this coming Sunday present us with a sustain reflection on the concept of “house.” David wants to build God a house. David now lives in a house of cedar; surely God should as well. Nathan tells David to do what he has in mind, until God appears in a dream and recommends otherwise. In all those years wandering through the desert, God asks, did I live in a house? In all those years in the promised land, when the judges ruled in Israel, asks God, did I ever mention wanting a house? Instead, God moved around with the people. In the desert, whenever God’s glory lifted from the tent, the people struck camp and followed. Whenever they pitched the tent, God’s glory settled on it. The word for glory, in Hebrew, is shekinah. Continue reading “Starting from here”

11 December 2011
Third Sunday of Advent
Advent 3B (RCL)
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

For the second Sunday in a row, we have a reading about John the Baptist. One notices immediately about this reading what is missing. In all three of the synoptic Gospels, John states that he baptizes with water, but one is coming who baptizes with spirit. Here, when those sent from Jerusalem ask John who he is, he affirms and does not deny, but affirms, the he is not the Christ. Nor is he Elijah, or the prophet. And when they ask him who he is, he says he is a voice. And then, that while he baptizes with water, “among you stands one you do not know.” We wait for him to say, “He will baptize with holy spirit,” but he never does. Even the construction of the Greek, leads us to expect, a “but.” John the Baptist uses the pronoun, “I myself baptize”, which leads the reader to expect, “but he.”

Imagine Continue reading “Who are you?”

4 December 2011
Second Sunday of Advent
Advent 2B (RCL)
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

Prof. Jim Kelhoffer has written an entire book on the diet of John the Baptist. His book covers the variations that occur in translations of the Gospels into Syriac and other ancient languages, and the interpretations early commentators give to the question of what John ate. But, simply, John ate what we would call grasshoppers and wild honey.

John, in other words, had opted out. Leviticus 11:22 allows locusts as clean food. But, we can be pretty sure that locusts were food of last resort. Continue reading “Grasshoppers”

20 November 2011
Last Sunday after Pentecost
Reign of Christ
Proper 29A (RCL)
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46

We have heard this passage from Matthew’s Gospel so often, we don’t hear it anymore. A banner for each of the congregations in our diocese hangs at the Cathedral. The banner for St. Martin’s Church has a single word on it: “inasmuch”. We all know what it means, right? What troubles me about the parable (or allegory) as Matthew presents it, is that not even the righteous recognize the Christ when they do their good deeds. When we do our good deeds with that phrase, “inasmuch” in the back of our mind, does that disqualify the deed from being done to Christ?

The passage from the letter to the Ephesians speaks of us “having the eyes of our hearts enlightened,” so that we can see a whole list of things: The hope to which we are called, the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints and the immeasurable greatness of his power. All of these things we are to recognize in the risen Christ: The author prays that God will give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation “in the recognition of him” (the translation “as you come to know him” doesn’t really work). The power that we are to see in the resurrected Christ stands in direct opposition to every “ruler and authority and power and lordship” not only in this age but the age to come. And all of these things God has put under the feet of the one who is the head of the Church, which is his body, the fullness which fills everything with everything.

Startlingly, it is the church which is the fullness that fill everything with everything. We are the power of the resurrected Christ! I suppose what we don’t see is our own power. Our power to fill the world with God’s goodness, with the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and all that other good stuff. That is why we need the eyes of our hearts enlightened: to see what we do as powerful, as even more powerful than the rulers, authorities, powers and lordships of this age and the age to come. Not a way we tend to think of what we do in Church.

That may be a bit like the talents which the master gave into the hands of his servants.

13 November 2011
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 28A (RCL)
Joshua 4:1-7
Psalm 123
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

Here’s something of an anonymous story. Two different people; two different parishes. The first, someone whose spouse had been ill at home, had a bedside commode to loan to some else who might need it. When the loan was over, the person wanted it back, rather than it being kept at the church for the next person who might need it, or given to charity. The second, a person who often feels like he hasn’t much to contribute, heard about a homeless vet with cancer, who wanted nothing more for his last days than a roof over his head and a television to watch. Some agency found a room, but not tv. This person heard about it, and had an extra in his kitchen with digital converter box all set to go. He gave the television, and has never asked for it back. He did ask about the veteran, and whether he died well. Two different attitudes toward life.

Continue reading “We are the 1%”

23 October 2011
Nineteenth Sunday after Epiphany
Proper 25 A (RCL)
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46

I find it surprising that I can read the same passage from Scripture (and preach on it) many times in a row, and never quite be hit by what it’s saying. For years, I’ve preached on this passage from Matthew, and never noticed how disjointed the two sayings seem when juxtaposed to each other. We have the saying about the two great commandments and the saying about the Christ as David’s son (or not). I don’t ever recall preaching on the second part of this; I think we all usually get distracted by the “love your neighbor as yourself” bit. So, why do Matthew and Mark place these two sayings together?

I think it comes down to a question of authority. Continue reading “Forging a new authority”

16 October 2011
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 24A (RCL)
Exodus 33:12-23
Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22

Jesus’ response to the question of the Pharisees and Herodians works on many levels, and forces us to think about the nature of our relationships with our government, our economy and God. When Jesus asks the Pharisees whose image is on the coin (the NRSV translates “head”), he uses the same word (eikon) that the Septuagint uses for the image in which God created humankind: Let us create humankind in our eikon. The understanding at the time was that all money belonged to the emperor, and he could call it back whenever it pleased him. Often, that happened in order to debase the currency, to dilute the silver in it with other metals, in order to make more money.

It raises the question for us of how money works. Our money, of course, is paper, Continue reading “Giving God what’s God’s”