I must stay with you today

31 October 2010
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 26C (RCL)
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 119:137-144
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Luke 19:1-10

There is a major problem with the translations we have of this passage from the Gospel. Zacchaeus makes his statements about giving away half his goods and repaying anyone whom he has defrauded in the present indicative, not in the future tense or subjunctive mood. A good way of translating the sentence would be, “Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look here, I give the half of what belongs to me to the beggars, and if I have defrauded anyone, I pay them back fourfold.” Continue reading “I must stay with you today”

Persistence

17 October 2010
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 24C (RCL)
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14 — 4:5
Luke 18:1-8

During the 1970s and 80s, during the “Dirty War” in Argentina, the “Mothers of the Disappeared” marched silently around the Plaza de Mayo in Beunos Aires with pictures of their disappeared children. Their silent witness eventually shamed the world, and helped to bring down the military junta in Argentina. The Mothers held there last march in 2006, saying that government was no longer indifferent to the fate of the disappeared, and was in fact trying to find Continue reading “Persistence”

Foreign born

10 October 2010
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 23 (RCL)
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Psalm 66:1-11
2 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19

The passage from Jeremiah must have been tremendously troubling for those who received it. Jeremiah had been a bit of a pest to the establishment in Jerusalem — all his gloom and doom predictions. And, of course, things came out just as he had said. Now, here they were in Exile (the elites, at any rate), and Jeremiah is telling them to build houses, have families, settle down — to accommodate, after excoriating them for accommodating while they were in Jerusalem. He is encouraging them to mingle into the population in Babylon, to do like immigrants have always had to do, live in the host culture, without making too much of a distinction. Take wives, have sons, take wives for your sons, give your daughters in marriage. Really?

The passage in Luke concerns the ten lepers, Continue reading “Foreign born”

Mulberry trees

3 October 2010
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 22 C
Lamentations 1:1-6
Lamentations 3:19-26
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

This Gospel reading smacks us in the face with our “unworthiness”. We are to be like uncomplaining slaves, right? Just do what you’re told, and don’t expect any praise. It’s unfortunate that we cut off the beginning of the reading. vv. 1-4 read: “He said to his disciples, ‘Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times, saying “I am sorry,” you should forgive him.'” Then comes, “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.'”

In Luke’s Gospel, Continue reading “Mulberry trees”

What is yours?

19 September 2010
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20C (RCL)
Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

This passage from Luke’s Gospel always provokes comment. How could Jesus tell a story in which (by extension) he appears to approve shady conduct? Commentators through the ages have contorted themselves to make sense of it. Even Luke attaches a number of different possible interpretations to the parable: the children this age are more shrewd that the children of light; make friends for yourselves by dishonest wealth; whoever is faithful in a little will be faithful in a lot. Which is it?

The question that strikes me is, “If you have not been faithful in what belongs to another, who will trust you with what is your own?” Continue reading “What is yours?”

Seeking the lost

12 September 2010
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19C (RCL)
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

Jeremiah wrote his prophecies near the end of the southern kingdom. He was seeking to explain why God, who had at one time been seemingly so good to Judah, should now turn and bring evil on them. Of course, we would say God had nothing to do with it — it was all just geo-politics. But Jeremiah was trying to fashion a working monotheism. If there was only one God, the same god for all nations, then when one nation conquered another, it must be God’s will. If there are many gods (for each nation), then disaster just means that one god has gained ascendancy in the divine council. But Jeremiah has to struggle to find a monotheistic solution. Now, we have an understanding of a God who enters human affairs, not just on the side of the victorious, Continue reading “Seeking the lost”

Count the cost.

5 September 2010
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18C (RCL)
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:1-5, 13-17
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

What hard lessons! In the Jeremiah passage, we are told that God is designing evil against us (against Israel). In Luke, we are told that if we don’t hate father and mother, sister and brother, wife and children and even life itself, we cannot be Jesus’ disciples. What are we supposed to do with this?

In Luke’s time, being a disciple of Jesus could be costly. The synagogue had anathametized anyone who confessed Jesus the Christ. So, if you were a Jew, following Jesus could certainly mean losing your connections to family and community. There are places in the world where this is probably still true today, but certainly not for most of the folks in the pew on Sunday here. In fact, we make it part of our preaching to love mother and father, sister and brother, wife (or husband) and children. So, let’s ask instead, “What does it cost us to be christian?”

Continue reading “Count the cost.”

What a party!

29 August 2010
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 17C (RCL)
Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

Not so sure what to do with the passage from Jeremiah. I wonder what it means to have changed gods. Have we done it? I’m sure there are plenty of people who would say that the US has gone off the beam — we took down the 10 Commandments from courthouses, no prayer in school, that sort of thing. But I wonder if we, the church, have ever fallen into the trap of changing gods. Baal was the god of fertility (along with his mother/consort Asherah). He made the fields and flocks produce (as well as human society). Have we ever fallen into the seductive trap of measuring the “success” of the church in ways that are in fact detrimental to the life of the Church?

But I’m much more interested in the passages from Hebrews and Luke. Hospitality — Continue reading “What a party!”

Rich toward God

1 August 2010
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 13C (RCL)
Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

One of these days . . . Here is my translation of the Colossians passage for this week: Since, then, you have been resurrected with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your sights on the things above, not on things on earth. For you have died, and your life is buried with Christ in God, so that whenever the Christ appears, namely, your life, the even you with him will appear in glory. Put to death, then, the earthly parts: fornication, Continue reading “Rich toward God”

One thing needed

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.