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16 February 2014
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 6A (RCL)
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 119:1-8
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37

“If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than for you whole body to go into hell.” As a CPE chaplain at the Massachusetts General Hospital, I visited patients in the rehab wing of the hospital. One of the patients was a young man whose right hand had been surgically reconstructed. He was maybe 16 years old. He had committed that most adolescent male unoriginal of sins, and then took this passage to heart. He had laid his right hand (the offending hand) on a railroad track in front of a passing freight. I wish I could remember what I said to him about this passage, or whether I had any real effect on him. I do remember that I made sure the psych department came to see him. Deep in my pastoral soul, I can’t believe this is what Matthew’s Jesus meant.

But if not that, then what? Continue reading “Stricter righteousness?”

30 January 2011
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 4C (RCL)
Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

These lessons all fit together, which is unusual in ordinary time. In Micah, God is entering a lawsuit with God’s people, and calls the moutains and hills to serve as the jury. God reminds them of all that God has done for them, in shorthand. Interesting that the prophet chooses the story of Balak and Balaam. Balak hired Balaam to curse the Hebrews, but Balaam ended up blessing them. Will the curses contained in this book end up as blessing? The people respond, “Well, what do you want from us?” and then comes the lovely expression: Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

In Corinthians, Continue reading “God’s foolishness”

16 January 2011
Second Sunday after Epiphany
Epiphany 2A (RCL)
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 40:1-12
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42

Wow! I find myself just saying, “Wow!” about these readings. That may be the extent of my sermon on Sunday.

For starters, the Isaiah passage starts out with military imagary — swords, polished arrows, etc. The prophet, speaking in the person of Israel, knows himself to be God’s chosen servant. God has chosen Israel for God’s purposes in the world, and those purposes, at least as far as Israel can see, are military. Israel is God’s sword, and God’s quiver full of arrows. But, says the prophet, for Israel, “I have spent my strength for nothing.” All of that military might has gotten Israel nowhere, in fact worse than nowhere — Exiled in Babylon. What can God possibly mean that Israel is God’s chosen? Well, God says to the prophet, you have misunderstood. I have chosen you, not just to restore Israel, but the whole world. Continue reading “Behold, the lamb of God”

9 January 2011
First Sunday after Epiphany
(Baptism of Our Lord)
Epiphany 1A (RCL)
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17

I have come to think that each of the Gospels was written and used primarily as baptismal instruction. They were intended to be heard, and all at once. Imagine hearing a Gospel read from cover to cover, while you waited in the dark to be baptized. At the beginning of each gospel is a reference to baptism, and then again at the end (in Matthew, particularly clear — go and make disciples, baptizing). So, as you listened to this, it would begin to dawn on you, this was your story. The spirit came to rest on you. You would be tempted, etc. You would become “christianos” — little christ.

So, those heavenly words are addressed to us: This is my child, my chosen, in whom I am well pleased. Takes us right back to all of the Isaiah servant songs. I have called you in righteousness and kept you. I have given you as a light for the nations, to bring forth justice on the earth. Yikes!

The baptismal community is to shine God’s righteousness to the world. That’s how we live as community, and we bring it about for all. Did any of us ever really think of our baptism in that way? Or was it just a “get out of hell free card”?

What does it mean to be God’s chosen? It’s not always comfortable.

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
25 July 2010
Proper 12C (RCL)
Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm85
Colossians 2:6-19
Luke 11:1-13

The story of Mary and Martha raised the question, “What is the one needed thing?” This passage answers the question. First, though, we have to go back to the mission of the seventy. Jesus told them to go out two by two, carrying no purse, no bag, no tunic and no sandals. They were to eat what was set before them, heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom. In other words, they were to restore the ceremonially unclean to ceremonial community and then eat a meal as if they were in the Temple with all those restored. This was the kingdom.

Then, in the story of Mary and Martha, Jesus comes to them off the road, like one of the itinerant preachers he just sent out, and they set food before him. Presumably, he announced the kingdom. And, now, the Lord’s Prayer. I like Luke’s version better than Matthew’s because it is so direct. Father, let you name be holy, let your kingdom come, give us our something bread every day. Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who owe us anything, and don’t bring us to the test. Here is the prayer of the messengers of the kingdom. Not, let your kingdom come someday, but here, now as we are eating, let this be your kingdom. The word we translate “daily” is a neologism (made up by whoever wrote down the first version of the Lord’s prayer). We don’t know what it means, but something like “what we happen upon” or “the bread which we set out.” Perhaps it’s the bread we are supposed to set before those who come to us.

And then the wonderful story about the friend at night. The NRSV calls him “persistent.” The word is actually “shameless”. He has already been shamed by having nothing to set before his friend. He has nothing to lose by standing out there banging on the door all night. He needs bread to set before his friend, in order to eat the kindgom meal. At the end of the passage, Luke tells us that God will give to those who ask, holy breath, what is needed for having the kingdom be present. That is the one thing needed.

18 July 2010
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 11C (RCL)
Amos 8:1-12
Psalm 52
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42

Tuesday, I was reading an article in the New York Times about BP’s risky behavior. Apparently, the company culture pushed the envelop of safety in order to make more profit. Amos scolds Israel, the northern kingdom, for pushing the envelope of religious observance in order to maximize profit: when will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great. The consequence, according to Amos, is that God will punish Israel by abandoning them: the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place.

Got to be careful about Continue reading “Mary or Martha or both?”

Trinity Sunday
30 May 2010
Trinity C (RCL)
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5
John16:12-15

No preacher will admit to liking to preach on the Trinity. What sense does one make of the incomprehensible. That, of course, is part of the point. If you think you have come to understand and know God, think again. God must remain always beyond comprehension.

But, the doctrine of the Trinity provides a way for us to think about God in relationship to us. All of the expressions of the Trinity have always included a dynamic element. It is not just about three “things” or “aspects” of God, but “Persons.” Augustine suggested as analogies things like the lover, the beloved and the love between them. Or the mind, its knowledge of itself and its love of itself. In the East, the word “perichoreisis” is often used of the Trinity, meaning something like “dancing around” Continue reading “Delight”

Proper 24B

Isaiah 53:4-12

Psalm 91

Hebrews 4:12-16

Mark 10:35-45

The passage from Isaiah is the last of the great servant songs in Isaiah. The servant songs are startling poetry: they have defied easy interpretation since their first publication. Just who is the servant? The prophet? Israel? Some player yet to be named? And just how is the servant’s suffering redemptive for others? The theme of the suffering righteous one is a commonplace in ancient literature. For good examples see the Joseph story in Genesis, many of the psalms and my favorite, Wisdom, chapter 2. It would have been easy for early christians to tell the story of Jesus’ death along the lines of the story of the suffering righteous one. As I read it, the nations look in horror on the violence they themselves have perpetrated (possibly against Israel, or whoever the victim happens to be), and are converted from their own violence. Would that it were so.

The passage from the Gospel of Mark is the second to last episode in Mark before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (the beginning of the Passion portion of the Gospel). The last episode is the healing of Blind Bartimaeus. The two episodes read like a diptych, each interpreting the other. What James and John fail to see, Bartimaeus, despite his blindness, sees.

The image of cup and baptism are images of participation — we who are many are one for we share one bread and one cup. To have a share in Jesus means to have a share in his passion. Mark’s community was likely under persecution during the events surrounding 66-70 CE. While they had hoped for triumph, a new, ascendant Empire of God, they found instead persecution. Bartimaeus “gets it:” he follows Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

We don’t live with Mark’s community’s persecution, but we can ask ourselves the question whose cup and baptism we share. Who else shares this washing with us, and drinks this cup with us? Refugees in Darfur? Civilians in Iraq? Winos on our streets? You pick the hot spot. What does it mean to share a cup with them? James and John didn’t get it (not at the moment, anyway). Bartimaeus sees and follows. How do we bring all that to our tables?

Proper 23B

 Amos 5:6-7, 10-15

Psalm 90:1-8, 12

Hebrews 3:1-6

Mark 10:17-31

We surely take a beating in these readings about wealth. If you had any question about the corrupting power of money before you read these lessons, you should be disabused of it by now. Of course, that is not a very helpful message to be drawn from these lessons. Maybe Saint Anthony can sell all he has and move to the desert, but even he left behind a sister without much to sustain her. We are all pretty deeply involved in the money economy.

The man who approaches Jesus calls him “Good teacher” in the sense of teacher of the good. Clearly this man is looking for a teacher to whom he can attach himself to learn how to live. Continue reading “A hundredfold with persecutions”

Proper 22B

Genesis 218-24

Psalm 128

Hebrews 2:1-18

Mark 10:2-26

The readings for this coming Sunday contain several landmines around which the preacher must step gingerly, if s/he is not able to defuse them. We are told that marriage is part of nature, and as such, absolutely indissoluble. The trouble with arguments from nature is that nature and culture are bound so closely together. An argument from nature is a culture’s way of saying this is so obvious that we shouldn’t have to explain it. Our difficulty is that we live is a such a vastly different culture than the ones which gave us the Genesis and the Mark reading for today. For us, marriage is primarily about romantic love. The primary myth of our culture is the myth of romantic love. If a story begins, “Once upon a time,” we all know it will end, “and they lived happily ever after.” Continue reading “The two become one”