Pentecost 6C

He is before all things
and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17

Colossians 1:15-20

¹⁵ Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶ for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

¹⁸ Christ is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Background and Authorship

This is the second of four weeks that the second reading comes from the epistle to the Colossian church. Last week I started but never finished a reflection on Colossians 1:1-14. This week I had to say something about Colossians so I could include my illustration of Colossians 1:17—one of my all time favorites.

Despite the greeting referencing Paul and his sidekick Timothy, this epistle's grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and sentence structure depart from the style of Paul/Saul of Tarsus' seven genuine letters. In addition, the household codes in 3:18 – 4:1 are patriarchal rather than egalitarian in the ways Paul's epistles to the churches at Galatia and at Corinth recommend for communities in Christ to be structured and function.

Most likely a ministry companion, friend, student, or younger sibling of Paul wrote this letter from 60CE to as late as 75CE, about three decades after Jesus' death and resurrection, predating the gospels. Colossae was in current western Turkey, 120 miles inland from the Aegean Sea. Apparently the site of the congregation at Colossae now is a heap of ruins waiting to be excavated.

Because Colossians and the later letter to the church at Ephesus share similar theology and language, the probable author of both sometimes gets called deutero-Paul or Paul the Second. I was excited to learn recently from Enter the Bible that Colossians may have been a template for Ephesians, with Ephesians qualifying as an early commentary on the content of Colossians. Enter the Bible is a free, scholarly yet accessible resource from Luther Seminary.


Style and Content

In Colossians we find theology (the word about the divine), Christology (words about the Christ), and cosmology (words about the scope and reach of all creation) that anticipates the worldview of John's gospel almost a half century later. In his seven undisputed epistles, the apostle Paul is about outward from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth; the cosmic Christ of Colossians moves beyond planet earth into immeasurable time and space.

Even in translation, Colossians' poetic splendor takes Paul up a few notches. It's as if original Paul was super-concerned about carefully articulating formal theology of law and gospel, death and resurrection, but Colossian's author already has all that down, so they feel confident to riff and gloss on those basics.

As in Paul's authentic letters, Colossians are "in Christ," rather than followers or disciples as the gospels describe Jesus' people. This is the Christ who embraces and rules all creation, yet affects individuals at their core.

Future weeks will refer to the social and religious location that had the Colossian church involved in a syncretism that sounds like the edge of heresy, so all along the letter affirms the sufficiency, authority, power, and divinity of Jesus Christ.


gods God Images

Christ is the image of the invisible God. Colossians 1:15

Imperial Rome and its colonies were full of coins stamped with the emperor's image. The Roman Caesar supposedly was the son of a god, bestowing on him a slice of divinity. Formal church history well may (it does) locate the confession of Jesus as fully human and fully divine in the Definition of Chalcedon from the ecumenical council that convened in the year 451, but this letter to the Christians at Colossae declares Jesus divine four centuries earlier.


Authority Sovereignty Rule

Today's reading describes Jesus as God's authoritative presence and the actual ikon / icon / image of the invisible God. How do you picture something that's invisible, that can't be seen? Do you remember Genesis 1:27 tells us God created humanity (us!) in the divine image—imago Dei?

Early Christians perceived – "saw, viewed" – Jesus as fully imprinted with God. In terms of the first century's (and this twenty-first's) status quo, these words from Colossians are seditious and subversive! They proclaim the person, power, and rule of Jesus Christ in terms that only are supposed to belong to the emperor. If – because – Jesus is supreme, then caesar isn't. Because Jesus is Lord, national flags and corporate logos aren't our central symbols. The cross of Calvary is.

Pentecost 4C

Remain in this house, eating and drinking
whatever they set before you,
for workers deserve their pay.
Don’t move from house to house. Luke 10:7

Houses from Kids Map Creator by MaNechaeva on Creative Market

This is essentially what I wrote three years ago in 2022 with a few revisions and changes.

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

¹ After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. ² He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. ³ Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. ⁴ Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. ⁵ Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' ⁶ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you.

⁷ "Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. ⁸ Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹ cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' ¹⁰ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'

¹⁶ "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

¹⁷ The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" ¹⁸ He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ¹⁹ Indeed, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

The Original Setting

"After this" in 10:1 refers back to events reported in chapter 9 that include:

• feeding 5,000+ people with five loaves and two fish
• Peter's confession of Jesus as Messiah
• Jesus' Transfiguration (reported in 9:31 "They spoke about Jesus' departure or exodus, which he was about to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem")
• casting out a demon
• Jesus' exceptionally radical call to discipleship that excludes expected human activities of burying the dead, saying goodbye before leaving.

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven (ascendancy, authority, Lordship), Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Luke 9:51

Particularly in Luke's and Mark's gospels, Jesus' journey to Jerusalem is relentless and incessant. Jesus mostly grew up and lived in small town Nazareth in semi-remote Galilee; Jerusalem was the center of religious power and the seat of Roman imperial control. Jews considered the J-Temple the axis mundi or conduit between heaven and earth.


Where We Live

The Lord sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. Luke 10:1

Much of scripture reveals God already has been at work in a particular setting before God leads (sends) us there—God has been to our future! In addition, I've heard many contemporary real-life testimonies of that fact, as likely you have, too.

Similar to what Luke 9:1-6 reports when he sent out the original twelve, Jesus gives instructions for going into the world as itinerant missionaries. We all need this direction because like Jesus and his first followers, all of us itinerate from one place to another, from one ministry to another, often within a single day.

Paralleling Moses and the seventy elders, Luke's Jesus picks up on the number 70 (72 in some versions). Seventy combines seven, the number of perfection and ten, the number of completion in Hebrew numerology. He wisely advises everyone to travel in pairs.


Comments and Questions

Travel light! Why? Always? Is that a good idea for us today? Why does he say "Greet no one on the road"? Are these guidelines only for less-developed countries or remote rural communities? Maybe for short-term high school and college mission trips to nearby places (Habitat for Humanity Houses, for example) or across the international border? Or can they apply elsewhere?

The very first thing is to speak Shalom, the fullness of God's loving, merciful, presence to everyone they meet.

• How can we speak peace in words and show peace in our actions?

Church-speak and Christianese are foreign languages to a lot of people. The idea of church or Christianity turns off many people, especially because white supremacy nationalism that excludes most of the human family has become the idea of Christianity for so many.

Accept the hospitality and act as guests of households we visit. Eat whatever people give you!

Local cuisine helps us learn about our hosts. "You are what you eat" – "we become what we eat together." As we enjoy their hospitality and their food, we become the family or individuals that host us.

This scripture presents food and lodging as compensation.

• What's your opinion of pay-your-own-way ministries versus ones that pay in dollars and cents and/or housing and vehicle allowance?

It's a little different, but as an artist-designer, I'm the creative director when I design a project pro bono, which gives me more creative freedom, yet I still need to address client preferences and concerns and the final project needs to meet their needs.

If the people don't welcome and receive us? Shake the dust of that place off your feet! Get rid of the evidence. Try to shake off memories of them? Or maybe not? What's your experience?

Filled with the Spirit of Pentecost, we go everywhere as Jesus' presence. Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. Luke 10:16

Discerning when to quit trying to engage an individual, a family, or a group; and deciding it's time to move on to the next place can be full of anxiety.

• How do we learn to leave one setting or a particular type of ministry and try on the next?

Pentecost 3C

Galatians 5:1, 13-18, 22-25

¹ For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

¹³ For you were called to freedom, siblings; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is summed up in one, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

¹⁶ Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. ¹⁸ But because you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

²² The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Ordinary Time

In this green and growing Season of the Spirit, Time of the Church as we count Sundays after the Day of Pentecost until Reign of Christ, the church lives in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.


Galatians

The apostle Paul's letter or epistle to the Galatians is one of his seven undisputed or authentic epistles.

The community at Galatia was the first ethnic church, in the sense of geography and culture; they also were ethnos as gentiles! The words Galatia, Gaulle, Gaelic, Celt, Celtic all come from the same root.

• Galatians is the Epistle of Freedom.
• Galatians is Reformation Central and vitally important to Martin Luther's theology.

Galatians includes:

• Paul's only birth narrative: "In the fullness of time God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law." Galatians 4:4
• Neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free, for all are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 – last week with Juneteenth, too!
• A pair of famous Pauline lists—works of the flesh [5:19-21, omitted in this week's reading] and fruits of the Spirit [5:22].


Paul and Law and Gospel

"Gospel" means Good News. For Paul, the gospeled good news is death and resurrection.

Christ has died – Christ has risen – Christ will come again

Today's passage brings us a typical Reformation contrast and dichotomy between law and gospel that we try to articulate in preaching.

Almost every time Paul uses the word "law," he refers to circumcision, sacrificial law, ceremonial law, and not to the ten commandments, but "law" in Galatians 5:14 refers to the ten words or commandments of the Sinai Covenant that like Jesus, summarizes the commandments with "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." As working papers for our life together, the commandments set permissions, limits, and boundaries so we can live in freedom.


This Week

God gifted Israel the commandments or ten words – decalogue – after they'd been freed from slavery in Egypt, yet still were on their way to the place where they'd settle to live together and amongst people who had other gods and other agendas. The commandments outline the limits and boundaries of our freedoms.

In Galatians, Paul reminds us "Christ has set us free" [from slavery to sin and self] and in an echo of the commandments, continues to describe how we now are free to love our neighbors, who in turn are free to love us. In Paul's words in 5:13, "Through [God's agape] love become slaves to one another!" The New Testament variously uses Greek words that translate into servant or slave in English; here it's doulos or slave rather than diakonos or servant (the source of our word and ministry of deacon).

Bond service and chattel slavery were common in the Ancient Near East, which likely is the reason Paul draws this parallel. However, maybe especially a week after Juneteenth's celebration of emancipation, service or enslavement in Christ is our wiling response to God's gracious love and not coerced. Jesus outlines two commandments; note how Paul mentions only one—love our neighbor as we love our self.


Fruit of the Spirit

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all are fruits of God's Spirit of Holiness and Life. You know how fruit grows on a branch or vine or tree that's rooted in the ground? The entire organism receives nutrients from the earth, water, sunlight, and restful nights. Fruit starts small with a bud, then a flower forms, and gradually gets bigger and riper, finally it is ready to pick and enjoy.

Can bud to flower to ripe fruit be a model for qualities and characteristics the Holy Spirit slowly grows in us so we can gift others?

Pentecost 2C

Galatians 3:23-29

²³ Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.

²⁷ As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

The Season of Pentecost

Fifty days of Easter concluded with the fire and wind of the Day of Pentecost, followed by Trinity Sunday—uniquely named after a doctrine rather than an event. Because God is triune or three-in-one, one-in-three, every Sunday is Trinity Sunday, but it's cool to have a special day to worship Trinity as mystery without trying to explain the unexplainable.

Now we're into the half-year long segment of Ordinary Time when we count Sundays after Pentecost as the church really comes into its own.


Galatians

In culture and in geography, the church at Galatia was the first ethnic church. Biblically, they also were ethnos because they were gentiles. The words Galatia, Gaulle, Gaelic, Celt, Celtic all come from the same root.

In his letter to the Galatians the apostle Paul emphasizes the gospel of death and resurrection with its central theme of freedom. In Galatians Paul cautions us about human-made laws such as sacrifice, keeping kosher, and circumcision—what Paul usually means when he says "law." But in Galatians 3:23-24 he talks about law as the ten words (decalogue) or commandments of the Sinai covenant. Lutheran and Reformed theological traditions often cite three uses of the law/commandments:

• to draw people to Christ
• to convict us of sin
• to lead people to correct behaviors


Freedom from Sin and Death

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

My seminary professor who taught the Pauline Letters announced to the class, "This ain't Emancipation Proclamation!"

At the time of this letter, categories of Jew/gentile, male/female, slave/free were central in the Greco-Roman world. In the twenty-first century there still are Jews and Greeks, women and men and non-binaries, young and old, rural and urban, but Paul was referring to Jesus breaking down ranks of superior-inferior, better-lesser, worthy-unworthy.

As Paul also loves to remind us, because Jesus Christ has freed us from sin and death, we are free to live as servants to all. The NT uses two different words that translate into English as both servant and slave.


Juneteenth

With ever-increasing awareness of the history of chattel slavery in the USA and this week's commemoration of Juneteenth, interpreting Paul's announcement, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female; you are one in Christ Jesus," as an early emancipation proclamation won't fly, yet it still reflects Jesus' own behavior and his call to us to welcome, include, and appreciate everyone's unique gifts and style to create a community filled with rich diversity.


Bounded Freedom

As the Law and the Prophets and Jesus of Nazareth explain and teach, our freedom has limits and boundaries. It's not absolute, because we need to consider the impact of everything we do on our neighbor, who in turn must consider the impact of their actions on us (their neighbor).

In Galatians 3:23-24 Paul talks about law as the ten words or commandments.

A pair of common examples:

When the world began to open up during the covid pandemic, if you went to restaurants, concerts, or activities in public venues, you needed to show your vax card or stay home, although they didn't mandate vaccines.

After you get a license to drive a vehicle, you need to follow the rules of the road and learn different ones when you're in another state or country, because people need to trust they'll be safe walking or driving.

Civil laws, statutes, and expectations show us how to reverence God by attending to our neighbors' needs. In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther set a pattern for future interpretations by describing what each commandment forbids and then how we can act to fulfill each one.

Trinity Sunday 2025

Trinity Sunday 2025

Because this became a weekly blog not long after my arrival in Los Angeles, I've written about Trinity Sunday at least once a year since 2016. Trinity came up in the lectionary rotation a few times earlier when I was teaching, too. Now it's that time again!

What will I say for Trinity Sunday 2025? First, here are four from previous years that cover concepts such as Nicaea, Perichoresis, theophanies:

• Trinity Sunday 2017 with the upcoming Ordinary Time Season of Pentecost

• Trinity Sunday 2020 during active Covid tide with "Rise, Shine, You People!"

• Trinity Sunday 2021 with "Come, Join the Dance of Trinity" and "Holy, Holy, Holy"

• Trinity Sunday 2022 and I observed, "we're not yet post-Covid." We now know we never will be.


Assorted Notes

Orthodox Christianity is Trinitarian. If it's not Trinitarian, it may be Christian, but it's not orthodox. Examples include the Christian caucus in the Unitarian Universalist Church, Disciples of Christ, and Latter-day Saints who speak of a tripartite godhead but not a trinitarian one.

The word Trinity isn't in the bible, but the concept weaves through both old and new testaments.

The popular liquid – ice – vapor trio of water forms isn't a good Trinity analogy. Nor is listing some of your relationships such as offspring, sibling, spouse, parent, friend. All of those end up with the heresy of modalism. What about a 3-leaved shamrock or clover? That's even worse, because all the leaves appear so similar and function almost identically.

My header image is the Hospitality of Abraham icon by Russian Andrei Rublev. Based on Genesis 18:1-8, it's often considered an Old Testament manifestation of the Trinity. You might appreciate this devotional article that includes a reflection on the icon by Henri Nouwen.

If you asked me about the Trinity, I'd focus on our baptism into the Triune God. Matthew's gospel tells us Jesus charged his followers:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

Matthew 28:19 is the only occurrence of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit formula in the Bible, but that was one of many later additions to the text. Matthew is the most heavily redacted or edited of the four canonical gospels. The early church probably baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Jesus the Savior, or used similar words. Jesus' early followers could not have imagined baptism into the Savior wouldn't also have included participation in the Creator and the Spirit.The first recorded mention of the Trinitarian baptismal formula was late in the fourth century.

In our baptism Jesus is with us in the church in the world in his followers—in us! We live immersed in the creative, redemptive, sanctified, and sanctifying life of the Trinity.

The Day of Pentecost 2025

Teaching and fellowship
breaking of bread
and awe
Acts 2:42-43

For the Day of Pentecost 2025, here's a reflection I wrote for the back of the worship bulletin on the Day of Pentecost 2007. (I designed the cover, as well.)

In the Bible and in Christian tradition, there is no narrative or legend about the creation of fire, but there are abundant experiences of the Divine Presence in some form of fire. From the desert of the Exodus through Isaiah's vision in the temple, to Malachi and to John the Baptizer's promise of One who will baptize not only with water – but with Spirit and with Fire – a strand of purifying, redemptive heat weaves through the witness of scripture.

Luke begins the Acts of the Apostles with the risen Christ promising the apostles' forthcoming baptism with the Holy Spirit; in the next chapter, we hear about the Spirit given to individuals gathered in community.

The Spirit of Life that raised Jesus from the dead calls us from wherever we are and gathers us into this assembly that already has experienced its first death and its second birth. The Holy Spirit of God and of the Christ shapes and forms us into the people of God in this place, a gathering of the ordinary that daily walks the extraordinary Way of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, living as an alternative community to those under the reign of death.

Like the apostles of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago, we live baptized into the cross of Calvary, into the empty grave of Easter dawn, and into the freedom and fire of Pentecost. When our friends and neighbors meet us, like Jesus' disciples of old, may they also become witnesses to the Risen Christ!

Ascension 2025

God has made Christ
the head over all things.
Ephesians 1:22

Ephesians 1:15-23

¹⁵ I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸ so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

²⁰ God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. ²² And God has put all things under Christ's feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ascension

Easter is 50 days; Ascension Day is the 40th day of Easter—another instance of the biblical number 40. Although the Feast of the Ascension is on the fortieth day of Easter, a Thursday, since most people don't attend weekday worship, most churches observe Ascension three days later, on the seventh Sunday of Easter.

To paraphrase the Heidelberg Catechism, we move from Christmas/Incarnation with the mystery of Spirit in Flesh, to Ascension, with the mystery of Flesh in Spirit.

Ascension relates to space or action (a plane or a bird going up, an individual getting promoted), but in easy theological terms ascension, ascendancy, ascent means sovereignty, authority, stewardship—dominion in our reading from Ephesians.

Not "lording it over" as some misinterpret dominion in Genesis 2, but caretaking and responsiveness to the needs of creation, of all life everywhere. Unlike with human governments and organizations, Jesus' authority, his ascendancy, has no checks and balances. It is supreme. It is absolute. Along with Ephesians 1:20, the ecumenical creeds express that reality by saying Jesus is "seated at God's right hand."


Ephesians

The second reading for Ascension is from the letter or epistle to the church at Ephesus. The Temple of the goddess Diana was in Ephesus, with almost the entire city involved in her cult. Ephesians is not one of the seven undisputed or authentic letters written by the apostle Paul; the grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure are different from his. Back then, using someone else's name wasn't the legal and moral offense it is today. Attributing your writing to someone famous complimented that person, and it could lead to wider readership.

Today's short reading from Ephesians provides three (body part) images of Jesus' ascendancy, lordship, leadership, rule:

• 1:20 seated at God's right hand
• 1:22a all things under his feet
• 1:22b made him the head over all things for the church…

…1:23 which is Christ's body!

And I love verse 18, that the "eyes of our hearts" would be enlightened. That we'd see and perceive more clearly because we've experienced more light. In biblical terms, our will and our intentions reside in our hearts. Eyes of our hearts? Perception and insight – yes! – and everyone knows how literally painfully aware we are when something gets in an eye.


Pentecost Day and Season

The Savior's ascension means we're getting ready to celebrate the indwelling Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day of Easter. That renewed awareness helps us prepare for the half year long Time of the Church, Season of the Spirit when we act as Jesus' representatives everywhere. For almost six months, we count Sundays after Pentecost, when the church really comes into its own with the Holy Spirit of life that enlivens and revitalizes all creation.

The Heidelberg Catechism asks, "Why is the son of God called Jesus, meaning Savior?" And then, "Why is the son of God called Christ, meaning anointed?" And then: "But why are you called a Christian?" Answer: "Because by faith I share in Christ's anointing, and I am anointed to reign over all creation for all eternity."

Because of Jesus Christ's Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can walk the talk as his healing, redemptive, transformative presence.

God is gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises:
sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth:
sing ye praises!
Psalm 47:5,6,7

Easter 6C

The land has yielded an abundant harvest,
and God has blessed us.
Psalm 67:6

Acts 16:6-15

⁶ They [Paul and Timothy] went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. ⁷ When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; ⁸ so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

⁹ During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." ¹⁰ When he had seen the vision, we [Paul and Timothy] immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

¹¹ We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. ¹³ On the sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.

¹⁴ A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵ When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she persuaded us.

The 6th Sunday of Easter

The lectionary scheduled another reading from Revelation this week, but I love the Lydia story so much I wanted to write about it. During the Great Fifty Days of Easter we hear from Luke's Acts of the Apostles instead of a Hebrew Bible passage. How appropriate is that because at the start of the book, the gathered followers of the Risen Christ receive the indwelling Spirit of Life that enables them to live as the body of the Crucified and Risen Christ after Jesus' Ascension. But then again, we won't celebrate that third great trinitarian festival – the Day of Pentecost – until the fiftieth day of Easter.


The Book of Acts

As Acts begins, Jesus is concluding his post-resurrection ministry. He tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem because there they will receive God's promised Holy Spirit to such a degree they'll be baptized (immersed) in the life of the Spirit.

Possibly still awaiting and hoping for a military or a royal savior, they ask Jesus if now he will restore "the kingdom" to Israel. Jesus replies the question is wrong because they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit so then they will witness in word and deed "to the ends of the earth" and help establish the reign of heaven on earth that Jesus began. The Holy Spirit is prominent throughout scripture, yet the extra-ordinary Divine Spirit of Pentecost now indwells each of us.

Born of Spirit, Water, and Word, the nascent church made sure everyone had enough, no one lacked essentials. We hear about members constantly being added as a result of dynamic, inviting preaching and caring community.

The earliest members had followed an itinerant rabbi whose teaching and existence got him crucified by the occupying Roman imperial government. Their leader was dead, yet they met Jesus of Nazareth as the very alive Christ of God three days after Rome killed him; the disciples continued to interact with him until his ascension to sovereignty and power "at God's right hand," as the ecumenical creeds proclaim.


Today's Reading

In this passage, after considerable travels that must have been challenging, Paul and his sidekick Timothy went to the Roman colony of Philippi in Macedonia, then down to the river on the sabbath hoping to find an ad hoc synagogue, because if there was no local synagogue, Jews would gather at the river to form a minyan or at least to pray together.

They met Lydia by the riverbank, and eventually baptized Lydia and her entire family. Commentaries from writers familiar with that culture differ on whether Lydia was very rich from selling purple goods or if she was poor and barely scraping by.

Paul was founding pastor and a kind of mission developer of this congregation that was the first church on European soil, so it's both First Church Philippi and First Church Europe. Later on, his letter to the Philippians reveals exceptionally heartfelt love and affection for them.


Empire-Covenant

The itinerant rabbi the earliest church members followed had been crucified by an occupying imperial government. Egypt is another example of an empire. Top-heavy leadership, Pharaoh in control of agriculture and manufacturing, no consideration for the well-being of regular people. Forced labor, production quotas, no days off.

Contrast that with the lifestyle God showed the former Egyptian slaves during their desert trek to the land of promise. God supplied their needs for food and water. God guided and led them, sometimes with "a pillar of fire by night, a pillar of cloud by day," sometimes in the person of Moses. They knew life as gift and not as an arduous burden the way it has been in Egypt.

When they reached Canaan after receiving and promising to keep the Ten Words or Commandments of the Covenant God gifted them with at Sinai, they took advantage of the fertile land and cascading waters and stewarded them well, always keeping a day of sabbath rest to remember life first as gift before it was necessary labor.

They followed the covenant's commands, caring for each other and for anyone passing through who might not have a settled home. They became community, individuals united with the common cause of care and nurture for one another.


Citizens of Heaven on Earth

When he writes to the saints at Philippi, Paul encourages them: "Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel." Philippians 1:27

Lydia and her household were baptized into the gospel of death and resurrection. Paul tells the Philippian Christians to live "in a manner worthy of the gospel" as witnesses to Jesus' death and resurrection—not to Rome's or any other life-negating death-dealing imperialism.

Paul reminds them wherever they are, their real citizenship is in the earthbound reality of God's reign of heaven on this planet. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann describes baptism as "a subversive act of renunciation and embrace." Beyond resistance! Anti-imperial heavenly citizenship begins with baptism!


Lydia

The early church we hear about in Acts made sure no one did without essentials; they took particular care of the most vulnerable. Rumor has it Lydia's residence may have been a way-station for outsiders seeking to belong and for travelers passing through. It could have a safe stop to shelter women or children escaping abuse or danger.

Outreach and intake actions help counter and resist imperial and other forces that turn humans into numbers instead of addressing them by name. They begin at the most basic level and create a solid foundation. Remember, the occupying Roman government still was at full force, but Lydia and others like her created a humanizing haven.


Where We Live

Acts chronicles the newly birthed church thriving in the wake of Jesus' death at the decree of empire. Although death-dealing excesses of empire still engulf everyone, throughout Luke's Volume 2 we see communities and individuals in those communities doing well.

Our default for "empire" usually is political leadership, but other entities long have functioned in an imperial mode. Today, multinational corporations (ExxonMobil – Walmart – Amazon – Shell – Samsung – what's your least favorite?) influence and affect everyday people's everyday lives. Two millennia after Jesus' death and resurrection, we're still amidst stacked up empires: finance; manufacturing; government; commerce. These are giant scale, mega everything. Covenantal living is smaller scale, often on the micro level.

The early church we hear about in Acts made sure no one did without essentials; they took particular care of the most vulnerable. Like Lydia and the rest of the early church, we're reborn in Water, Spirit, and Word. Living baptized into the good news of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, how do we renounce empire and embrace loving justice?

We can follow the Sinai Covenant's commands, caring for each other and for anyone passing through who might not have a settled home. At those basic levels where life happens daily, we gradually became community, individuals tied together with the common cause of care and nurture for one another.

Like Lydia and the Philippian church, our actions here and now help resist imperial and other forces that turn humans into numbers instead of recognizing them by name.

An Acts scholar could tell us how much elapsed time the book chronicles, but we're continuing to write the Acts of the contemporary people of God in Jesus Christ. Do you ever journal, blog, or otherwise write down what you, your group, or maybe your congregation has done or currently is doing? Do you post pictures on social media or save them for yourself?

Easter 5C

Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise God in the heights!
Praise God, you heaven of heavens
and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord;
for God commanded and they were created.
Mountains and all hills;
fruit trees and all cedars!
Let them praise the name of the Lord!
God's glory is above the earth and heaven!
Psalm 148

Revelation 21:1-6

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her spouse.

³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and Godself will be with them; ⁴ God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, 'Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." ⁶ Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life."

Easter and Revelation

Easter is a season of fifty days, seven times seven, a week of weeks! On all seven Sundays in lectionary year C the second reading comes from Revelation. As I ("this blogs") mentioned last week, the book of Revelation shows us how empires everywhere operate. It isn't quite a road map, but it's a kind of guide book for living baptized in the context of empire. This week and next Revelation especially shows us ways to live baptized into the new creation that's a new earth and also a new heaven.

Also from last week—scriptural bookends reveal God as origin of all things and end of all things:

• Genesis 1 and 2: Tree of Life, River of Life, and Garden.

• Revelation 21 and 22: Tree of Life, River of Life, and City (that grows out of a well-tended garden).


Today's Second Reading

Alongside glorious words about the new creation, the response is Psalm 148. All this poetry is about a God so in love with Creation that God chose and still chooses to make a home on earth in the midst of creation. Do you know James Weldon Johnson's poem The Creation?

In 21:1 "the sea was no more" isn't about creation's waters receding and disappearing as we currently fear might happen. Scripture sometimes refers to oceans and seas as code for untamed chaos. In Genesis 1:2 the Spirit of God hovers and breathes and speaks over the formless – empty – deep – darkness—the unordered chaotic waters. In our baptism with Water and Word, God calls and enables us to tame, order, and limit the chaos of empire. And yes, the new creation does have a river with life-giving water—"enough" clear clean water along with all we need of everything else.

Home and dwell in Revelation 21:3 are the same word as "dwelt (dwelled, lived, took up residence)" among us in John 1:14, late Pastor Eugene Peterson tells us God "moved into the neighborhood." The Greek implies a tent-like portable shelter that allows God to journey alongside creation.


Where We Live

This passage from close to the end of the bible reveals how physical, earthbound, and incarnational Christianity is. It reveals God's dreams for creation's wellbeing and provides ideas we can follow to partner with God to create heaven on earth.

God's vision of the reign of the Spirit is shalom justice and bountiful sufficiency. Enough food, safe shelter, healthy community. Good work for good pay in good conditions. Abundant mercy and love. No more sorrow or dying or pain. The end of war and violence. Scripture sings in the language of geography and space, because we are embodied humans solidly situated on land.

Along with 2 Peter 3:13, we proclaim and claim, "According to God's promise we look for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells." That's quite a vision!

Easter 4C

Revelation 7:9-17

⁹ After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"

¹¹ And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" ¹⁴ I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out [who are (still) coming out] of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

¹⁶ "They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; ¹⁷ for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Good Shepherd Sunday

Easter 4 is Good Shepherd Sunday in all three lectionary years, so the responsive psalm is…23. In this second reading from Revelation, the Lamb is the Shepherd, the Shepherd is the Lamb.

Genesis 1 and 2 are the first books in the biblical canon; a garden with a tree of life and a river of life belongs with the original creation. Revelation is the last book in the bible; it reveals the new creation with the garden of resurrection grown into a city – the "new Jerusalem" – that like the old Jerusalem, forms an axis mundi to connect earth and heaven. This city has life-giving trees and a river of life but unlike the old Jerusalem, it has no temple. The one who is lord reigns from the throne of God —from the cross.

Revelation is not chronologically the latest book of the bible; Genesis 1 and 2 are not chronologically the earliest.


Author and Context

Tradition says the author "John" wrote from the Roman prison island of Patmos in present-day Turkey, although recent scholarship suggests John could have been an itinerant preacher who made Patmos a regular stop on his circuit. Revelation's author definitely is not John the Evangelist whose community brought us the 4th gospel.

Written between 90 and 100, during the reign of Roman Caesar Domitian, Revelation shows us how empires operate, and provides subversive, counter-cultural ways to resist. Rome was one in an endless series of empires that continues globally through this twenty-first century. Revelation is a liturgical, political, counter-imperial text, a guidebook for living out our baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection as an alternative to violence and death in the midst of any empire.


Revelation Is Not

An indecipherable collection of strange sayings or predictions of events future to when John the Revelator recorded it. Just as with a lot of literature and conversations, Revelation includes symbols, code words, and figures of speech. The book opens with the author telling us it's an apocalypse that uncovers, unveils, reveals: The apocalypse [revelation] of Jesus Christ, which God gave…


This is the Feast

From verse 12 in today's second reading we get "This is the Feast," the hymn of praise we often sing during festival seasons. It brings us seven – the number of completion and perfection – words of praise to God and to the Lamb:

1. blessing 2. glory 3. wisdom 4. thanksgiving 5. honor 6. power 7. might

The liturgical song announces, "This is the Feast of Victory for our God," but verse 10 proclaims God's salvation and not God's victory. In Revelation: Vision of a Just World Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza reminds us in that culture the concept of salvation (brought by a Savior, of course) was synonymous with the fullness of God's reign described in verse 16 as no hunger or thirst, no scorching heat (or icy cold), no sorrow or tears—essentially Shalom. She points out how close this was to the supposed Pax Romana of the Roman emperor that instead of peace dealt out cruelty, death, and devastation.

Note to self: I bought and read the book, but I've yet to review and blog it. I'll add the old Proclamation commentary series from Fortress Press are skinny (less than 200 pages!) books and each provides an excellent and accessible overview of the scriptural book in its title. They're out of print, but look on eBay.


And More

"After this" at verse 9 refers to 7:4-8 and their description of the 144,000 plus tribes of Israel along with ethnicities, nations, languages, and cultures that fulfill God's promise to Abram of faithful descendants greater in number than stars in the sky, more than grains of sand. Some of those faithful descendants include us, the church! These people still stand solidly on earth and have not been raptured.

Verse 14 Those who have come out of the mega ordeal – in the Greek – still are coming out. The church lives out its baptismal call and identity in Jesus' death and resurrection alongside the pain and suffering in the world. God in the Spirit calls and enables us to be a counter-force to the deadly violence of empire.

Verse 15 The Shepherd-Lamb on the throne will shelter us with a dwelling, booth, tent, tabernacle. This is the same word as in John 1:14 that tells us the pre-existent word became flesh and lived in our midst, literally "pitched a tent," a portable structure (ramada?) that would go with us wherever we journeyed. There are many fine articles online and in print where you can read more about God's presence in the Ark of the Covenant /Tabernacle and the Festival of Booths /Succoth.

Every week during the liturgy we pray the counter imperial: "Our Father, who art in heaven… for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever." Authority, power, and glory belong to God. Not to Caesar. Not to any national government. Not to any global corporation.


Postscript

Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant Christians have been very cautious about public reading and interpretation of this book. I've read that Orthodox Churches don't include Revelation in their lectionary schedule of scripture readings. Continental European Reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli famously did not believe Revelation belonged in the bible; John Calvin wrote a commentary on every NT book except Revelation. However, you've likely heard of the Left Behind and Late Great Planet Earth books that flooded best seller lists a few decades ago and still have currency and clout in certain circles.

Easter 3C

Darkness may endure for a night
Joy cometh in the morning.
Psalm 30:5b

John 21:1-14

¹ Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he showed himself in this way. ² Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³ Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴ Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." ⁶ He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some."

So they cast the net, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. ⁷ That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the sea. ⁸ But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

⁹ When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn.

¹² Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Christ is Risen Indeed! [Luke 24:34]

This is the fifteenth day of Easter! Fifteen moving up to fifty. Easter is a week of weeks, roughly one-seventh of a calendar year.

Despite this being Luke's lectionary year, during the Great Fifty Days of Easter the gospel reading is from John, the outlier, rogue gospel that – true to form – doesn't have a separate year to call its own.


Endings in John's Gospel

There's some controversy over whether or not chapter 20 originally concluded John; if it did, that would mean chapter 21 was a later addition. After all, John 20 ends by saying:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. John 20:30-31

Yet recent scholarship recognizes that many literary works in that era contained a second ending or epilogue to hint at some future direction the main character or characters might take. Wouldn't readers be interested? Unlike the clearly added-on resurrection account in Mark, evidently language in chapter 21 is consistent with the rest of John's gospel. And we even get another passage that feels like a solid The End:

But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John 21:25

What's Going On?

Peter is there together with seven of the remaining eleven. We've learned a lot about Peter from the gospels, though he hasn't ventured into the audacity and Holy Spirit-inspired confidence he'll reveal in the Acts of the Apostles. The sons of Zebedee and possibly other disciples fished to earn a living. After the day of resurrection, it made sense to return to their usual employment.

We don't have a good chronological grasp of everything, but Jesus was some weeks away from his charge to baptize and make disciples along with his promise to be with us always that marks his presence in the Church as the body of the risen Christ (Matthew 28:19-20), and there weren't any formal church structures.

From the wedding at Cana in John 2:1-11 and feeding 5,000+ in John 6:1-13 we especially know John as the gospel of overflowing abundance, but 153 fish in John 20:11 has no apparent symbolic meaning. Known species of fish at the time? Noooo! Diversity and inclusion? Maybe. But does everything have to mean something? One commentator pointed out they needed to keep track of their haul because of taxes. This is post-resurrection, yet the disciples are back to their usual activities and they need to function within society's economic and practical constraints.


A Eucharistic Event

In 20:4 the group didn't know the man standing on the beach was Jesus. In 20:6 he advised them to cast their nets on "the other side," a location especially common in Mark's gospel.

20:13 Jesus took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish. By 20:12 they hadn't asked about Jesus' identity because suddenly they knew who that man on the beach was.

Do you remember on Easter Sunday evening in Luke 24:30-31, how travelers along the Emmaus Road recognized Jesus when he broke bread and gave it to them? Three days later, they recalled Jesus breaking bread and blessing wine on Thursday in the upper room on the night before his death. Neither this beachside account nor the Emmaus Road narrative specifies wine, but there's no reason to imagine there was none.

Two millennia later we variously name the sacrament of bread and cup Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, Eucharist; technically a eucharistic feast of thanksgiving is a meal with the risen Christ, so technically (again, does it really matter?) we weren't there on Maundy Thursday. But on Easter Sunday evening and alongside the Sea of Tiberias the risen Christ is with us. Every day and everywhere in this year 2025 we live in his presence.

Jesus Christ Savior

For words rendered "fish" in English, the Greek text alternates between fish and snack. You may have seen the initialism with the first Greek letter of the words Jesus Christ God's Son Savior – ἸΧΘΥΣ – (fish) enclosed within two curved lines. During the early days of the Church when following Jesus could mean danger (or at least overall uncertainty), if two strangers encountered each other, one might draw a curved line in the sand. If their conversation partner reciprocated with the other curve to form a fish, each knew the other person was safe.

Breakfast on the Beach by Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig

Easter 2C

"They found the stone rolled away." John 20:1

John 20:19-31

¹⁹ When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

²⁴ But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

²⁶ A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." ²⁸ Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

²⁹ Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." ³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹ But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Easter is 50 days

Easter is 50 days, 7x7, a weeks of weeks; Seven is the number of perfection in Hebrew numerology. The day of Pentecost is the 50th day of Easter. The prefix "pent" means 50: pentagram, pentagon, etc.

The Day of Resurrection is:

• First day of the week, the day after the Sabbath, therefore, the first day of creation.

• Eighth day of the week = the first day of a new week; therefore, the start of a new creation

Especially Orthodox churches celebrate the seven days from Easter Sunday through Easter Saturday as Bright Week, and consider the entire week a single day, the first day of the new creation.

Some baptismal fonts have eight sides (octagon) and illustrate our baptism into the new creation, our baptism as a new creation into Jesus' death and resurrection.


Every year on the second Sunday of Easter…

we hear John 20:19-31. There are two separate events in this passage; in both of them Jesus comes to his followers through closed doors. The first happens on the evening of the day of Jesus' resurrection; the second a week later. John's gospel doesn't have its own lectionary year, but the gospel reading comes from John every Sunday during the Great Fifty Days.

Jesus bestows the gift of peace, enlivens the disciples with the Holy Spirit, grants them the office of the keys or forgiveness/retention of sin, sends them out, and there's that famous incident about Thomas.

The peace Jesus brings is not what the English language calls irenic peace, or simple absence of conflict. From Jesus we receive the fullness of shalom, a radically grounded, expansive peace that's redemption, integrity, wholeness for all creation. However, (ironically) we get our English irenic from the Greek word the gospel-writer John uses. During the liturgy we extend peace to one another before we approach the Lord's table.

The new creation is not pristine; it carries scars from our old, deadly pasts. Both parts of today's gospel reading shows us Jesus' scars.


Receive the Holy Spirit

John 20:21 "As the Father has sent me, so I send you," is Jesus' second calling-sending of the Apostles. God sends them – and us – in the power of the Holy Spirit. After twice speaking peace on the gathered assembly, Jesus breathes on them (20:22). The only other instance of this Greek word for breathe in the Bible is in a translation of Genesis 2:7 “And God formed the man (a-dam) of dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being.” Humans carry the breath, spirit, wind (Greek words have the same root) of the divine within themselves.

The gift of the Holy Spirit includes the office of the keys – loosing and binding – forgiving and retaining sin. (20:22-23).

We have both this Easter evening account of the gift of the Spirit and the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-21 because John brings us a different worldview from synoptics Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's interesting that the Holy Spirit is prominent throughout Luke's gospel, yet in Acts Luke still brings us a detailed account of the coming of the Holy Spirit.


Thomas

On Easter evening and on the following week, the doors were locked. The Greek word for closed, locked, shut is the same and means it's hard to get in. Locked gates, hearts, minds, churches? The risen Christ seeks us out and finds us where we are. "Fear of the Jews" probably refers to those who killed Jesus.

Thomas sometimes gets called "doubting," but un-abiding or not abiding is closer to the perspective of John's community that recorded this gospel. In John's gospel, sin is not so much "transgression of or lack of conformity to the law of God" as the Westminster Catechism describes sin, but a lack of abiding in trusting relationship with Jesus. And it's not only relationship and abiding with Jesus, but also with one another.

Thomas doesn't believe in the scandal of the crucifixion! It's not lack of belief in resurrection from the dead. Remember how John brings us Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead for the last story prior to Jesus' trial and execution? Also, gnosticism with its disbelief in the realness of human flesh was making rounds around that time.

Maundy Thursday

Psalm 116

What shall I render to the Lord
For all his benefits toward me?
I will take the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.

I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows unto the Lord
Now in the presence of all his people.
In the courts of the Lord's house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

Psalm 116:12-13; 17-19


• John 13:1-17; 31b-35 is the gospel for Maundy Thursday every year.


The Apostle Paul recorded the chronologically earliest account of Jesus' Last Supper.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

²⁵ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

love one another :: Paul L. Hammer

Jesus, how common can you get? Foot washing, bread, wine!
If you're going to be religious, at least use something special.
No, my friend, I came not to perform special religious rites
But to touch the daily life of everyone
With God's love in the commonest of things.

O.K., water, bread, wine.
But isn't foot washing a bit ridiculous?
And what about "this is my body"?
And "this cup is the new covenant in my blood"?

Foot washing is the work of the commonest servant—I came to serve.
But it points beyond to the "washing" of the cross—
God's self-giving service in me to cleanse away estrangement
And heal the distortions in people's lives.

The bread points to nourishment in that same self-giving of God
At work in my body, that is in me.
And the cup points to the new community drawn together and nourished
In my blood, that is in God's total self-giving in my death.

Do you mean that this common stuff of water, bread and wine
Becomes in you the very focus of God's love for me and for the world?
That there is no excuse for my not loving my common neighbor?
Because you have shown the depth of God's love for me?

You've got it!
But it isn't a love for special occasions.
It has to be that daily love that's as common as water, bread and wine!


Closely related to Maundy Thursday, here's the handout from the last of four Summer Conversations I developed and facilitated during [summer] 2009.

• Summer Conversation 4: A Eucharistic Community

Lent 6C

The Sixth Sunday in Lent: Palmarum

Introit

Be not far from me, O Lord!
O you my help, come quickly to my rescue!
Psalm 22:19

Save me from the lion's mouth!
You have rescued me from the horns of the unicorns!
My God, my God, look upon me!
Psalm 22:21

Why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
from the words of my complaint?
Psalm 22:1

Luke 19:28-40

²⁸ After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹ When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt [Matthew and John: "donkey"] that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" ³² So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" ³⁴ They said, "The Lord needs it." ³⁵ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

³⁶ As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸ saying,

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." ⁴⁰ Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

Palm Sunday

The sixth Sunday in Lent is Palm Sunday with Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Jerusalem the center of religion, of commerce, of imperial Roman colonial rule. Jerusalem, the location of the Temple, the destination of Jesus' trial, conviction, crucifixion, death—and resurrection. In Luke's gospel, Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the cross is especially incessant. Luke particularly emphasizes the role of the Jerusalem Temple in Jesus' life and ministry.

This is one of the events recorded in all four gospels:

• Mark 11:1-11
• Matthew 21:1-11
• John 12:12-19

We expect hosannas and palm branches on this sixth Sunday in Lent, but Luke has no palms and not a single hosanna! Just as we interpret scripture (and everything else) for our own context, so did Luke the gentile writing mostly to gentiles. His original readers wouldn't have had much interest or understanding of leafy branches that evoked Succoth / Sukkot booths to represent the minimal yet sufficient shelter of God's provision during the Exodus. However, when I assembled my header image with only stones and rocks in the background, it looked messy and confusing. Besides, most churches celebrating the sixth Sunday in Lent will include palm branches or similar greens, so—"poetic license" and contemporary context.

With fewer and fewer people at Holy Week services, for the past few decades many churches have celebrated Palm/Passion Sunday. That moves too swiftly from Jesus' praise-surrounded triumphal entry to the walk with the cross, on to the actual place of crucifixion, but everyone gets an overview.


Donkeys in the Bible

Many of Jesus' actions were upside-down versions of what conventional political, religious, and economic authorities – the establishment – did. At first it may feel as if Jesus' entering the geographical center of power on a humble donkey subverted the return of the victorious general on a galloping steed. However, there also was a tradition of a military victor astride a donkey in order to present himself as servant of the common people.

Jesus riding a donkey echoes Zechariah 9:9 that some scholars consider a Messianic prediction:

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Matthew and John both quote Zechariah; Luke almost definitely remembered it. You well may know it as a soprano aria in Handel's Messiah!

Other donkeys in the bible? Balaam's talking donkey in Numbers 22:15-35. Joseph's donkey who carried Jesus' pregnant mother Mary into Bethlehem in Luke 2:1-5, and probably into Egypt, as well. Donkeys illustrate the servant God's call for us to live as servant people.


Some Rocks in Scripture

These are some I easily remembered. Maybe you can add to this list, or you might enjoy a word study research and journaling project.

• If Jesus' disciples were silent, stones would shout praises! Rocks would cry out! Luke 19:40

• Genesis 28 – Genesis 31
At the place Jacob names Bethel or House of God, he first uses a stone as a pillow for his head and then as a pillar of witness.

• The Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant were engraved in stone

• Joshua 24:26-27
Covenant renewal at Shechem and the stone that witnessed the people's resolve to serve YHWH "This stone has heard all the words the Lord has said to us and will be a witness!"

• 1 Samuel 7:12
Ebenezer, "Stone of Help"

• Ezekiel 36:26
Hearts of stone changed into hearts of flesh

• 1 Peter 2:5
We are living stones God is building into a spiritual house or temple.

• Matthew 4:3 and Luke 4:3
The devil tempts Jesus to turn stones into bread

• A stone at Lazarus' grave and at Jesus' tomb

• St. Francis of Assisi slept on rocks in order to be close to creation and close to Jesus, our rock of faith.


Palm-Passion Sunday into Easter

"If these disciples were silent, the stones would shout praises!" Luke 19:40

Jesus death and resurrection overthrows the death-dealing, established powers that be to liberate the entire cosmos from slavery to sin and death. We still spend much of our time downwind, but the day of the fully accomplished New Creation will happen.

Recent science tells us rocks and stones sing. All Creation Sings is the title of an ELCA hymnal. Like the morning stars who sang at the dawn of creation. Like Isaiah's trees that clap their hands because… no more clear-cutting! And Isaiah's seas rejoicing because there's no more pollution!

What other examples of creation rejoicing, grieving, or otherwise reacting can you describe?