A Preacher’s Ponderings

12 August 2012
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14B (RCL)
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25 — 5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

In the reading from 2 Samuel, David gets just exactly what Nathan said at the end of last week’s reading. Of course, we leave out all the naughty bits: Amnon’s rape of Tamar, Absolom’s murder of Amnon, Absolom’s revolt against David (and sleeping with his concubines on the roof of the palace). So, while Joab’s actions may seem precipitous besides being contrary to the royal will, Joab knew full well that if Absolom lived, the kingdom would be ungovernable. So, the moral of the story is, if you want to be king, expect opposition and violence. I suspect the deuteronomistic editors intended exactly that moral.

And in John, we get more bread (and more and more in the weeks to come). In this week’s reading, we move from misunderstanding Continue reading “Whoever believes”

5 August 2012
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 13B (RCL)
2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a
Psalm 51:1-13
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35

We get more of the story of David this week. Nathan tells a wonderfully ironic story, in which David at last recognizes his sin. Don’t we always see others’ sins more quickly than our own? The punishment Nathan announces fits the sin. David took what wasn’t his — others will take what he took.

The narrative in the passage from John’s Gospel is carried forward by John’s favorite device of misunderstanding and misdirection. The crowd ask Jesus, “When did you come here?” They are puzzled of the when and how of his presence. Jesus replies, “You followed me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Not Continue reading “Food that lasts”

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
22 July 2012
Proper 11B (RCL)
2 Samuel 7:1-14a
Psalm 89:20-37
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-36

One of these days, I’m going to write my own lectionary. Why would the editors of the RCL leave out Mark 6:35-52? The omitted verses included the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus’ walking on the water. Two weeks from now, we will read the parallel passage in John’s Gospel, but John is not Mark, and uses those stories for different purposes.

In the Marcan account, Jesus has just sent out the twelve, who cast out demons and heal the sick. Herod hears of it, and is distressed, because the implication is that the Kingdom is out there with the followers of Jesus, rather than with him in the palace. The twelve return to Jesus and are surrounded by a multitude on whom Jesus has compassion “because they are like sheep without a shepherd.” He then commands his disciples to give them something to eat.

The “sheep without a shepherd” remark is a reference to Numbers 27:17, in which Moses pleads with God to set over the people a leader, so they will not be like sheep without a shepherd — here Mark makes it refer to the kingship of Jesus versus Herod. And the very next thing Jesus does is feed the crowd in the wilderness, just like Moses! Important claims are being made here, and we leave them out, because we’re going to read John next time. Oh, well.

In the reading from 2 Samuel, David promises to build God a house (temple), but God refuses and promises instead to build David a house (dynasty). Here we see the substitution of a royal theology for the older tribal theology. In the tribal confederacy, God promises to be with the group if they keep God’s word. Here, there is no such “if.” But still, the passage warns, don’t get too smug. God doesn’t need any house you could build (even though Solomon will be allowed to build a house). We can’t domesticate (literally) God, enclose God in our house. We have to be ready to strike camp at any moment, and go where God is going.

In Mark, Jesus doesn’t sit around after feeding the 5000. He has his disciples climb in the boat and sends them on ahead of him. Just because important things happened here, doesn’t mean we’re staying here. This time, he comes to them walking on the water, implying that he wasn’t with the church when it moved this time, and they lost their nerve. Between this passage, and the next feeding of the 4000, Jesus will find himself in the decapolis (Gentile territory), and reluctantly heal the Syro-phoenician woman’s daughter. God is out there ahead, even of Jesus.

Ephesisans is saying the same thing. God is bringing Jew and Gentile together: you who were once far off have now been brought near.

God does eventually allow Solomon to build a temple, but with the reminder that God never asked for such a thing. Church buildings are important to us, but maybe not so important to God. How can we remember that? Where is God off to next? What stormy sea should we be crossing?

25 March 2012
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Lent 5B (RCL)
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-13
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33

John’s Gospel is full of seeming non-sequiturs. Someone asks Jesus a question, and he launches into a discourse that doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with the question asked. The device sends the reader of the gospel hunting for connections elsewhere in the gospel to understand what is going on. A classic example is Nicodemus’ remark that no one could do the signs Jesus does unless God were with him. Jesus replies, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, no one will enter the kingdom without being born anew.” No one would blame Nicodemus for saying, “What?!”

So Continue reading “Some Greeks”

11 March 2012
Third Sunday in Lent
Lent 3B (RCL)
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 2:13-22

The stained glass windows at Church of the Advent have an image of the Ten Commandments. There are the two tables of stone. On the first, we find the Roman numerals I – V; on the second, we find the numerals VI – X. This looks like it makes sense, but in reality, both tablets would have had identical copies of the full treaty (that’s what the Ten Commandments are, a treaty between God and God’s people). One tablet would have been placed in the Ark of the Covenant, which Continue reading “Where we meet God”

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?”