A Preacher’s Ponderings – Page 4

Flesh/Spirit

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost; 16 July 2023; Proper 10A (RCL); Genesis 25:19-34; Psalm 119:105-112; Romans 8:1-11: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.

I’ve always found (and still do find) the parable of the sower a little bit troubling. Sowing seed was often used in the ancient world as a metaphor for teaching, but in most cases, the focus of the metaphor was on the careful preparation of the soil. The philosopher/teacher spent a great deal of care in preparation of the soil, so that the implanted seed would take root and bear fruit.

Is Paul crazy?

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost; 9 July 2023; Proper 9A (RCL); Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67; Psalm 45:11-18; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30.

We abbreviate the story of Abraham’s servant and Rebekah for the sake of liturgical reading, but it is one of the most complete novellas in the Old Testament. And after reading it, can there be any doubt that John is copying the plot of this standard story in the episode of the Samaritan woman at the well? It is interesting, however, that after the events of last Sunday’s lection (call it the Sacrifice of Isaac, or the Obedience of Abraham, or what you will) that Abraham and Isaac never speak again in the story.

New life

Second Sunday after Pentecost; 11 June 2023; Proper 5A (RCL); Genesis 12:1-9; Psalm 33:1-12; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26.

The lectionary makes kind of a mish-mash out of the reading from Matthew’s Gospel. We leave out the bit about the disciples of John the Baptist questioning Jesus about fasting. In the story just before where we pick up, Jesus has forgiven the sins of the paralytic, and thus set off opposition to his ministry. The three stories (including the dinner party with tax collectors and sinners) are the first stories in Matthew where Jesus encounters opposition. It would have made sense to read all three of them together, and to have held the story of the raising of the young girl for another day.

Babel?

The Feast of Pentecost; 28 May 2023; Day of Pentecost A (RCL); Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 7:37-39.

I know I have heard sermons, and have probably preached one or two myself, claiming that Pentecost undoes Babel. In the story of the Tower of Babel, all the people had one language, and set out to build a ziggurat, so they could stay in one place. So, God came down and confused their languages, and scattered them over the face of the earth. It’s a wonderful etiology for the existence of the multiplicity of languages.

Only recently did I read an article that forced me to reconsider what I thought I know about Babel and Pentecost. I can’t remember where I read it, but the gist was that what God considered inappropriate about Babel was not the ziggurat, but the fact that the people had intended to stay at Babel. When God had kicked our primal parents out of the garden, God had sent them to populate the earth, to spread out on its face, and “be fruitful and multiply.” Humanity was to have husbandry over the whole earth.

Babel threatened God’s intention by stopping the spread of humanity. So, God confused their language. That makes the story of Babel not just an etiology of the multiplicity of languages, but also of the spread of humanity across the face of the earth.

Luke’s account of Pentecost does not “undo” Babel, but continues the process. People from all over the inhabited world had gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks), and they hear in their own languages the disciples recounting the mighty acts of God. So, now, not only are humans scattered over the face of the earth, but as these pilgrims return home, so will the accounts of God’s mighty acts be disseminated across the earth as well.

I think this understanding can help us undo some of the supersessionism implicit in Luke’s story. Shavuot celebrates the gift of Torah on Sinai, and Luke chose Pentecost to contrast the gift of the Spirit to the gift of the Law (recall the prophecies of both Ezekiel and Jeremiah that in the coming day, God would replace the law written on stone with a law written on hearts of flesh). The tongues of fire recall the pillar of fire leading the people through the wilderness. Here the fire rests on each individual, rather than over the whole people. In these ways, we have often read Luke as implying that the Church is recapitulating or fulfilling the history of God’s people related in the scripture of his day.

Instead, perhaps, we could read the story of Pentecost as continuing God’s desire for the spread of accounts of God’s might acts across the earth. The fact that the disciples speak in the languages of the people gathered, rather than all the people again speaking one language would fit with Luke’s story of Paul spreading the word of God’s deeds to all people, without undoing the diversity of languages and cultures.

They are in the world

Seventh Sunday of Easter; 21 May 2023; Easter 7A (RCL); Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11.

Easter 7 is the Sunday after the Feast of the Ascension, and we catch the theme of that feast in the reading from Acts. On Ascension Day itself, the Gospel reading for the celebration of the Eucharist comes from Luke’s Gospel, and narrates Jesus’ ascension into heaven, although he delays it by forty days in the Book of Acts (which is why it falls on Thursday in the sixth week of Easter — forty days after Easter). Luke’s narration of the ascension alludes to the apotheosis of Augustus, giving it a decidedly “political” flavor. (See “The Apotheosis of Washington” in the dome of the Capitol rotunda).

Love’s works

Sixth Sunday of Easter; 14 May 2023; Easter 5A (RCL); Acts 15:22-31; Psalm 66:7-18; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14: 15-21.

If you love me, you will guard my commandments. Or even protect. τηρέω (tereo) means to guard something precious. So this is not about following the rules, but holding on to something precious. Jesus delivers these lines as part of the larger Farewell Discourse. In the first fourteen verses of this chapter (which we hard last week and often hear at funerals), Jesus promised that he was leaving, but he would come again to take his disciples to himself. He told them, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”

My Father’s house

Fifth Sunday of Easter; 7 May 2023; Easter 5A (RCL); Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14.

We often hear this passage from John’s Gospel at funerals, and the usual translation reads “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” or “many dwelling places.” The word in Greek is μοναὶ (monai) plural for μονή, a cognate of the verb μένειν, to remain or abide, a favorite verb of John’s (the Father abides in me, and I abide in the Father, and we abide in you). When the first two disciples of John the Baptist follow Jesus, he turns and asks, “What do you seek?” and they reply, “Rabbi, where do you remain?” And he answers, “Come and see.”

In or out?

Fourth Sunday of Easter; 30 April 2023; Easter 4A (RCL); Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23; a Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10.

The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is one of our favorites (we’ve all seen stained-glass windows depicting the shepherd carrying home the lost lamb on his shoulders), and the Fourth Sunday of Easter is always Good Shepherd Sunday. The collect evokes that image, and we always have a reading for the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel — the Good Shepherd discourse.

Reading scripture

Third Sunday of Easter; 23 April 2023; Easter 3A (RCL); Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17; Luke 24:13-35.

The story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of the most familiar in all of the Gospels, lending itself as it does to easy depiction. One of the charming aspects of the story is the Cleopas’ unnamed companion. I believe Luke’s leaving him unnamed serves as an invitation to the reader to see her or himself in the story, walking with Cleopas and Jesus to Emmaus.

The wounds of Christ

Second Sunday of Easter; 16 April 2023; Easter 2A (RCL); Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31.

The Second Sunday of Easter is often called Thomas Sunday, as we always have this reading from John’s Gospel. However, I think this passage has less to do with Thomas (who provides a literary foil for John’s purpose) than with the wounds of Christ. Thomas doesn’t doubt; he refuses to believe, unless and until he sees and touches the wounds.