Pentecost 10B

Bread for the Journey
(John 6:24-35)

Jesus, Bread of life,
reveals God's love most clearly,
born as one of us.

One who did good works
and called those who would follow
to believe in him.

One by whom we live
(not satisfied but sustained),
this Bread of heaven.

This strange metaphor
has pre-Christian origins
yet still somehow works:

"You are invited!"
to life in all its fullness,
the way of Jesus.

© Jeff Shrowder, 2021, on The Billabong, A worship resource following the Revised Common Lectionary

John 6:24-35

²⁴So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. ²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" ²⁶Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. ²⁷Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal."

²⁸Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?"

²⁹Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." ³⁰So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? ³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" ³²Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

³⁴They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." ³⁵Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

Bread of Life

Today's gospel passage continues Jesus' Bread of Life discourse, homily, or talk from last Sunday. My gospel of John and John 6 notes from Pentecost 9B also relate to this week.

John's Gospel is famous for Jesus' double Amens (so be it, be it thus, may it be, for sure); chapter 6 includes four in verses 26, 32, 47, 54. Surprisingly the old Roman Catholic default Douay-Rheims is the only English version I know that retains the original. Others tame and dilute it: Verily Verily – Truly Truly – Most Assuredly.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20 the apostle Paul describes Jesus Christ as the fulfilling Yes! [never ever a no] for all God's promises! Paul continues by saying we respond to Jesus' authority with our own "Amen!"

"For as many as are be the promises of God, in Jesus they all are yes; therefore also by Jesus we say Amen to the glory of God through us."

It feels as if Jesus himself echoes this in John's gospel!

Knowing Jesus as bread of life means being connected to him, as John's gospel says, we "abide in Jesus" so we can't become separated. When we abide in Jesus, the bread of life feeds us as whole people, we're "in Christ" as Paul would express it; we become part of Jesus who becomes part of us, and we instinctively walk in the way of Jesus with love, mercy, and justice.


Today's Reading

Jesus (sort of) chided his disciples for seeking him out because he'd given them enough to eat. More than one commentary said Jesus' followers had eyes in their stomachs, but how is that even negative when food, water, air, and shelter are necessary for survival? (I'm not sure any of them did say it was negative.) For us, also, but especially in that time and place with no social or economic safety net, with exorbitant taxes, with women and children needing to rely on income-producing males, with food being necessary for the bodily health that's necessary for employment? It's people being "realistic," yet Jesus offers and provides nurturing sustenance that's more than physical.

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." John 6:33-35

Interpreting Jesus' Bread of Life sayings can be tricky because it's easy to assume Jesus is all about spiritual and spirituality, yet scripture, Jesus, and our own experience demonstrate how earthbound, physical, and material life in the Spirit is. God created humanity from the substance of creation, out of dirt (hummus—not sure if the word human derives from that or not) beneath our feet. Christianity's central proclamation is that in Jesus of Nazareth God came to earth in a real human body like ours—not the appearance of one. In addition, sacraments mediate God's presence with elements of creation – water, bread, fruit of the vine, though any liturgical scholar will say that's much too shorthand. We can't have sacraments unless we have a healthy creation. In the creeds we affirm "I believe in the resurrection of the body" (Apostles Creed) or "the resurrection of the dead" (Nicene Creed). The apostle Paul tells us the risen Christ is the first fruits of the new creation. The resurrected Jesus' body was fully physical and even retained scars of crucifixion—yet a resurrected body has an additional dimension. Scripture reports Jesus entering spaces without going through a door, yet he was fully embodied. Christianity's central proclamation is… physical death and bodily resurrection.


Abiding in Jesus

Terminology in any language can be confusing; translating or interpreting one spoken language into another is more art than it is science. A Hebrew perspective would insist you don't have a soul—you are a soul. How you express in English our divine Ruah/Ruach/Spirit, life-force, godly spark, heart (a wonderfully comprehensive Hebrew concept) depends on the scripture passage, the religious tradition, the author's original language and other factors. In any case, most would insist we don't disconnect Mind (is "mind" philosophical, spiritual, psychological, religious? Anyone ready to write a series of books?) and Spirit from Body because we can't separate all the facets of being human.

Everyone has been with someone who has a serious illness, possibly a terminal one. We've observed a frail, failing body, yet many times we've noticed the essential person still is there, with their usual emotions, intellect (even if a little slower), and sense of humor. We've also encountered (at times probably been there, done that) someone so discouraged and debilitated that even if their body looks and functions okay, they can't think straight and their emotions may be confused, inappropriate, or non-existent. Despite the necessity of our physical bodies, these experiences show our essence may be more spiritual than it is physical—or they're at least equal.

We refer to spiritual practices that primarily focus on connecting with God's presence and God's ways, but they're always about us as whole people. In the creeds we affirm "We look forward to the resurrection of the dead" [Nicene Creed] and "I believe [trust] in the resurrection of the body" [Apostles Creed]

We abide with Jesus the bread of life that nourishes and feeds us as whole people; with Jesus as our bread of life, we walk with love, mercy, and justice.


Next Sunday

• 08 August, Pentecost 11B – John 6:35-51

Pentecost 9B

John 6:1-15

¹After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

⁵When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." ⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, ⁹"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" ¹⁰Jesus said, "Make the people sit down."

Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. ¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹²When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost."

¹³So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. ¹⁴When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

¹⁵When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

The Gospel According to Saint John

Each of the three synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – has a distinctive style with a particular audience in mind, yet all three view Jesus' life and ministry with a similar perspective. John, the latest of the biblical gospels, is the rogue outlier that almost didn't make the canonical cut. Jesus' Beloved Disciple John and the community gathered around him compiled this account around 110 C.E. Scholars believe they they mostly drew upon two written sources referred to as the Signs source and the I Am source.

All four gospels proclaim the inbreaking reign of heaven on earth, but more than the others, John brings us the here-and-now of God's presence in Jesus. We sometimes call that "realized eschatology," meaning the fullness of salvation and redemption already is a done deal. You may remember Jesus' first act of public ministry in John is a wedding party, where water not only flowed like wine, and where water had become wine? In both the Hebrew and New Covenant scriptures, flowing wine is an image of the reign of heaven. Bounty, excess, and celebration set the mood for John's entire gospel.

This is Mark's year B in the Revised Common Lectionary that provides our scripture readings, but with Mark being the shortest of the synoptics, during Mark's year we have quite a few readings from John. Today begins five consecutive Sundays from John 6, the Bread of Life discourse.

It would be easy to confirm this (though I didn't yet), but I believe today's account of feeding at least five thousand people with very little food is the only story found in all four gospels:

• Mark 6:32-44
• Luke 9:10-17
• Matthew 14:13-21


Interpreting Scripture

To the extent we can figure it out, the historical setting and original meaning of a passage always is our first question when we read scripture, even before we discern it as God's word to us and for us. Just as every mention of water doesn't refer to baptism, every mention of bread and/or fruit of the vine doesn't correlate to the Lord's Supper, yet they still remind us water is life and food is essential. At this beginning of John's long Bread of Life section, I agree with the commentator who said do not jump in right now and associate this feeding with the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist right away, even though here in John's account Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks, and Jesus himself feeds the people. Did you notice there's no mention of water, fruit of the vine, or wine…?

Jesus' disciples would not have heard Jesus' words in this chapter in terms of the Last Supper/Lord's Supper or related to a post-resurrection Eucharistic meal with the risen Christ. Although Jesus' original long discourse would have been more scattered and piecemeal than what John's community gives us, as he wrote down his gospel John was very theologically intentional about the order of Jesus' words, and today's reading doesn't yet have Jesus' proclaim I Am the Bread of Life where Jesus not only gives the food, Jesus is the food, so let's wait on it.

Most of scripture closely aligns all facets of life. In fact, separating out sacred and mundane, religious and profane is somewhat post-enlightenment, which partly helps us appreciate (for example) Martin Luther's close alliance with political electors and royal princes in ways that horrify us today, and probably would even if we didn't live in a country where "religion shall not be established."


Bread and Fish Notes

This chapter happens during Passover. Just as at the first Passover, there's been a sea crossing, followed by bread in the wilderness. John 6:9 "Five barley loaves and two fish." Barley was one of the seven agricultural gifts of the promised land; barley was the coarser, less expensive poorer person's grain, and the barley harvest had the advantage of being ready before the wheat! Barley bread provided sustenance for the poor, and some in that culture considered fish a food of the gods.

To prepare for this blog, I listened to an oldish sermon by James Howell, whose blog is chock full of resources for scripture study, prayer, and daily Christian life. He mentioned "leftovers and baskets full" are the same words in Greek, but whatever happened to those leftovers? He added well… they just now fed the poor, and they didn't have plastic wrap. aluminum foil, to-go containers or really any safe long-term food storage options. Pastor Howell told us St. John Chrysostom suggests those extras went to people who were't present, possibly Judas Iscariot!

Howell also put out the idea the leftovers might have been thrown away. Maybe to feed birds or wild animals? I'd hope so! Jesus and his disciples lived in a mixed economy, with Roman taxes that helped maintain infrastructure and line politicians' pockets, and similar to our own economy of scarcity, too much money chased too few goods, so supply and demand determined prices. Bartering was a third aspect of their economy, to a greater extent than exchanges like babysitting for garden produce some of us do. We only can guess what happened to those leftovers, but we have very good knowledge of God's abundance, generosity, grace, supply—as in you can't out-give God! You've probably heard, "There's enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed?" More next week!


During distribution of the sacrament, the contemporary church often sings Sr. Suzanne Toolan's "I am the Bread of Life" musical setting of John 6.

I Am the Bread of Life

I am the bread of life
You who come to me shall not hunger
And who believe in me shall not thirst
No one can come to me
Unless the Father beckons

Refrain:

And I will raise you up
And I will raise you up
And I will raise you up on the last day

The bread that I will give
Is my flesh for the life of the world
And if you eat of this bread
You shall live forever
You shall live forever

[Refrain:]

I am the resurrection
I am the life
If you believe in me
Even though you die
You shall live forever

[Refrain:]

Yes Lord I believe
That you are the Christ
The Son of God
Who has come
Into the world

[Refrain:]

Scripture: John 6
Songwriter: Suzanne Toolan, RSM

Pentecost 8B

Psalm 23

¹The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
²He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
³He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For his name's sake.

⁴Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for you are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
⁶Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalms

The Psalter is the hymnal of the synagogue; some psalms even indicate specific instruments to play for accompaniment! The Psalter was the hymnal of John Calvin's Geneva Reform, and American Puritans sung only psalms during worship. Even now when hymnals of virtually all church and theological traditions include songs as diverse as plainsong, German chorales. ethnic folk tunes, classics from people like Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, twentieth-twenty-first century compositions, (etc.), some of those are either musical settings of psalms or psalm paraphrases.

Hebrew scripture roughly divides into three categories: Torah, or Pentateuch (five books of Moses); Prophets; Writings. The Psalter is part of the writings.

The Revised Common Lectionary includes a psalm for each Sunday. Technically the psalm is a response to the first lesson or reading, and not a standalone lection. The sung or spoken psalmody often reflects concepts or vocabulary from the first reading.


Psalm 23 and Shepherds

In the ecumenical 3-year long Revised Common Lectionary many churches follow, the fourth Sunday of Easter always is Good Shepherd Sunday, and the RCL appoints Psalm 23 several other times in the three year cycle. Including today! There are many MANY musical settings of Psalm 23 that include hymns, choral anthems, and hymns arranged for choir. I no longer blog YouTube links because so many are here today, gone tomorrow, but my own favorites include Virgil Thomson's "My Shepherd Will Supply my Need" to the Southern Harmony tune Resignation, along with Marty Haugen's more recent, "Shepherd Me, O God."

In the Ancient Near East, shepherd was a common image for a monarch or a god. In the bible we've met Moses and David as shepherds; in last Sunday's reading, the prophet Amos was a shepherd. Jesus declares himself the Good Shepherd. In Luke's gospel, shepherds (abiding in their fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night) first heard the good news of the birth of a Savior. Similar to many employment categories today, shepherds could belong to what we'd call a social underclass (as the Bethlehem sheep herders probably were), or they could have been part of a relatively affluent elite, as many scholars believe Amos, the prophet we studied last Sunday, may have been.


Psalm 23 – Word Pictures

Psalm 23 has a calm and restful reputation, but listen to the verbs, and you'll know it's full of action. Psalm 23 is familiar funeral scripture, but don't get sentimental! This ain't sweet repose, but assurance for rough tough times when valleys are deep, prospects bleak. Do we need hope for the post-COVID journey? With recent infection surges and new variants emerging, we may need more hope now than we would have imagined only three or four months ago.

Verses 1–3 talk about God; verses 4 and 5 are addressed God. Verse 6? Outcomes of God's actions, but "goodness and mercy will follow me" is much too tame; the Hebrew says goodness and mercy will pursue me, chase me down non-stop. "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" is part of what makes Psalm 23 popular at funerals and memorial services, but again the Hebrew conveys a slightly different perspective with "I shall return into the house of the Lord for length of days." This return isn't finally reaching a settled place as much as it is going home again. And again. It's not only Southern novelists who obsess about homecoming—we all yearn for and need places and people that know our name, where we can feast on favorites, where we can rest a while before we continue the journey.

After a year and a half and counting of COVID-19, let's take to heart Psalm 23's promises of God's presence and provision.


Write Your Own Psalm

Psalm 23's images and icons easily would have resonated with its original readers and singers. USA and Canada no longer are mostly rural; most readers of this blog probably grew up and currently reside in either a city or a suburb, but even if you haven't spent much time tilling soil, you've seen pictures and you know the planting – growing – harvesting cycle.

What words and visuals would you use in your own poetry to describe God's constant presence and provision? How would you paraphrase Psalm 23?

Pentecost 6B

Mark 6:1-13

¹Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ²On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! ³Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. ⁴Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." ⁵And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. ⁷He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; ⁹but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. ¹⁰He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. ¹¹If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."

¹²So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. ¹³They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

So far in Mark

So far in Mark, the shortest of the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) that view Jesus with a similar perspective, we've heard the opening announcement of Good News – "Gospel" – followed by Jesus' preparation for public ministry by receiving John's baptism of repentance, spending a time of solitary prayer and temptation, and then ministries of healing, exorcism (casting out demons, evil spirits, and what we might consider mental or psychological illnesses), calling followers or disciples, demonstrating the inclusive reign of God by eating with all comers, teaching theology with parables or comparisons, demonstrating his lordship of all creation by taming a storm, *even* restoring life to a young girl "at the point of death."


Today's Gospel Reading

Jesus returns to his hometown and his disciples follow him. He's on his own turf, with his own people—both family and friends. His teaching on the Sabbath in his home synagogue causes friends and family (not religious experts this time) to wonder about the source of his authority; after all, this Jesus is a regular person like everyone else. We also need to remember Jesus and his siblings would have grown up learning scripture, probably memorizing long passages. Any Jew in that time and place would have been scripturally and theologically literate. It wasn't unusual for a regular person like Jesus to read and teach in the Sabbath assembly; as in synagogues today, they had a custom of inviting congregants to read Torah on Sabbath.


Models for Ministry

We could say a lot about Jesus' friends and relatives not "getting" who he was, about how it feels when people don't understand us, the loneliness of not belonging; of being rejected or simply not welcome. Those can be important discussions in light of scripture. But for today, we hear about Jesus sending disciples to do the same ministry he has done. Jesus doesn't wait until their understanding and actions all are perfect; Jesus trusts and sends them as they are. They go out as sent people (apostles) because Jesus has authorized them.

At this particular time, Jesus sends his disciples out in pairs of two. He instructs them to go with only basics: sandals to protect their feet, a walking stick to help trudging over rough terrain—maybe to chase away snakes and vermin. He tells them not to take food or money! By the way, this is far from the only model for ministry and reaching-out evangelism, yet many follow the two by two, minimal supplies example.


Guests and Hosts: Where We Live

verse 10: Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place (locale).

Preaching, teaching, and healing are important aspects of twenty-first century Christian ministry for individuals and for larger entities like congregations, schools, and hospitals. All in all, we love to host other people. Every city has at least a dozen church-related food ministries and several housing/shelter services. Why not count ministries of music, visual arts, and dance in ways we host others, whether they're in the audience or we're instructing them? We're still the hosts-givers; they're our guests-recipients. And most of us strongly tend to do things in ways we'd appreciate, in a manner that resonates with our own background.

But here Jesus tells his disciples to let other people host them! Enjoy their hospitality; let them give to you. He tells them to make themselves at home among strangers.

Especially as cities and towns have become more culturally diverse, we've been aware of the need to contextualize our offerings to relate well to others' cultures and experience, that they'd consider welcoming rather than puzzling or offensive. How can we learn to host in ways they relate to… maybe by letting them host us?! We can learn about their food (eating it and preparing it), their table manners, their music, their traditions, geography and features in their countries of origin. We can learn basic words and phrases in their native languages.

If because of COVID, room capacity, and other concerns activities can't happen in a family's home, when protocols permit we can invite them to offer a meal or other activity in our church building. I'll add in here it feels absolutely okay to offer to help offset the cost of cooking or other supplies. Cash gifts can be tough to take, but we currently have a valid reason of almost everyone being at least somewhat financially challenged.

Pentecost 5B

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

⁷Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. ⁸I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. ⁹For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

¹⁰And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— ¹¹now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.

¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. ¹³I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between ¹⁴your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. ¹⁵As it is written, "The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little."

All Who Love and Serve Your City

1. All who love and serve your city,
all who bear its daily stress,
all who cry for peace and justice,
all who curse and all who bless,

2. In your day of loss and sorrow,
in your day of helpless strife,
honor, peace, and love retreating,
seek the Lord, who is your life.

5. Risen Lord! shall yet the city
be the city of despair?
Come today, our Judge, our Glory;
be its name, "The Lord is there!"

Tune: Charlestown, from The Southern Harmony. Words: Erik Routley © 1969 by Stainer & Bell Ltd., administered by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188


Epistles / Corinth

An epistle is written communication – basically a letter – addressed to a person or group, although these days some blogs probably qualify as epistolary. Examples? Dispatches from the Front Lines online or in print. Lead article in the church's or organization's newsletter in print and/or on social media.

In addition to seven letters the Apostle Paul wrote to various churches, the New Testament contains other epistles attributed to him, as well as letters that cite Peter, John, and James as author. Back then when they didn't have elaborate and necessary copyright laws, attributing your writing to a well-known person was commonplace and not considered dishonest. Besides, a famous name probably would get more readers. New Testament epistles received editings and annotations as they circulated to different churches, so every word and phrase might not be from the original writer. Paul's letters were earlier than any of the gospels, predating even Mark's Gospel that scholars consider the first one written down. Over the centuries, the church has derived a whole lot of its more formal theology from Paul.

Today's second reading from 2 Corinthians addresses the Church at Corinth that famously was full of vanity, competition, and divisions that reflected the opulent, worldly style of the city of Corinth. Particularly as it relates to money and finances, this passage is a default go-to for stewardship campaigns. However, Paul doesn't focus on balancing the budget of the Corinthian Church; instead, he's concerned about connections and relationships between local churches. In this section of the letter he wants the mostly gentile Corinthian congregation to provide financial assistance to the mostly Jewish Jerusalem church. Twenty-plus centuries later, different denominations have different polities or governance structures, but whether highly centralized like today's Church at Rome or almost autonomous local churches like some free-standing Baptists, we're all inter-related and interdependent in Jesus Christ.


Grace and Economics

All of 2 Corinthians 8 says a great deal about grace; for today, Greek for "generous undertaking" in verse 7 is gracious endeavor and charges the Corinthians to excel or abound in grace because of Jesus Christ's "generous act" that's simply grace in verse 9 – "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor" – and echoes Paul's earlier Philippians 2:6-7:

[Christ Jesus] had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!
The Message (MSG) © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

In Greek, economics literally is the law of the household. Although verse 14 reads, "…so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance…" Christian economics is both material and spiritual and it's never zero-sum with one party depleted if they give to another. For Paul of Tarsus, the gospel is death and resurrection, so not surprisingly he relates the meaning and impact of gifts of cash in the light (and in the shadow) of Jesus' death and resurrection.

This reading easily expands to spiritual and material gifts of service, prayer, compassion, food, presence, clothing, facilities maintenance, knowledge, and other specialties as COVID-19 hopefully wanes and the world opens up. Stewardship and giving need to encompass (1) cash ("legal tender") to exchange for stuff we need but can't produce ourselves; (2) time we need to get things done; (3) talents we apply (spend – you may remember a talent was a chunk of money in Jesus' day) toward ongoing or one-time only ministries. And, of course, stewardship of God's gracious gifts incorporates intelligence, prayer, scripture study, and – to all outward appearances – doing nothing as we wait to discern and learn what's next for us.

I love how we see this scripture in action as G7 democracies pledge to gift COVID vaccines to less developed countries that can't produce or afford to buy their own.

Pentecost 4B

Prayer for Pentecost 4

Hello God,

Thanks for bringing us through the past year and a half into the beginning of a post-COVID reality. We've been reading Mark's gospel that often shows us Jesus in unexpected places. Mark's Jesus welcomes everyone into the Reign of Heaven on Earth and changes (much for the better!) the world people have known and expected it always to be. In Mark, we've seen Jesus speak hope into situations of need that aren't all that different from what we're experiencing now. Mark opens his gospel with "the beginning of the good news." Jesus calls us to continue his ministry. Thank you for trusting us to continue the good news!

Amen

©Leah Chang

Mark 4:35-41

³⁵On that same day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." ³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.

³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

³⁹Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Today's Good News

As we number Sundays after the Day of Pentecost, the Church's Year of Grace continues in a 6-month long green and growing season of Ordinary Time. "Ordinary" is common to all of us; it's structured, organized, ordered with a regularity about it.

This event happens "on the same day" as the scattered seeds and mustard seed agricultural parables we discussed last week. Today's gospel reading brings us water and the word. And yes, that provides more than a hint of baptism's power to drown old established systems and summon the new creation. This same story's also in Matthew 8:23-27 and Luke 8:22-25; Mark, Matthew, and John include a related narrative of Jesus walking on water. The actual body of water in this reading is freshwater Lake Galilee, but Mark always calls it the Sea of Galilee. In the Old Testament a sea or ocean often is a symbol or sign of chaos and disorder. Untamed waters in Genesis 1 and in Psalm 104 are the womb of creation. You remember the sea of the Exodus. Noah's flood. Jonah's ocean. And quite a few rivers besides the iconic Jordan. Check out today's reading from Job 38:1-11.

Jesus tells everyone they're going "across to the other side." That other side was where mostly non-Jews lived. Including everyone by bringing outsiders into the inside is a particular hallmark of Jesus' ministry in Mark.

This meteorological event is a great storm surrounded by great (mega in Greek) fear, with Jesus' word leading to great – mega – calm. "Fear" here really is frightened, terrified, scared, and not the "awe" fear of Luther's Small Catechism and some Psalms. In today's gospel reading, Jesus' word that subdues the water is the same word he used to exorcise the demon.

• Mark 1:25 Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit
• Mark 4:39 Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind


Into a Future

In our families, affinity groups, and communities we often encounter borders and boundaries. As COVID-19 cases have lessened and vaccines have rolled out, cities and states in the USA have been opening to almost pre-pandemic normal. We're now at a border between COVID and post-COVID. "A world in the wake of COVID" probably would be more accurate than "post-COVID." People only can imagine what their places of business, schools, churches (and yes, families) will look like a few months from now. We know God has gone to our futures before us and waits for us there.

Mark's gospel was written down around the time of the destruction of the second Jerusalem Temple, which served as a cultural, social, economic, and religious landmark for everyone. The J-Temple was THE reference point for every Jew. No more temple meant the end of the world as they'd known it.

Without being too cliché and without risking a merely "metaphoric" reading of scripture, although paintings of this sea scene by Rembrandt and other artists picture Jesus and disciples in a smallish boat, this scriptural account approaches a cosmic scope that can encompass memories and hopes of the Temple and other establishments. No more temple meant the end of the world as Jesus followers had known it. In this year 2021, we easily could parallel environmental devastation, cyberhacking, racism, democracies struggling against totalitarian governments (you easily can add to this list) as the end of worlds we had known and expected to continue. In addition, it's no stretch to equate the destruction of the J-Temple with ways COVID-19 has changed the shape and extent of the world as we'd known it. On some level most of us expected most of our worlds to remain static and stable, with any disruptions being gradual and humanly manageable.


Reflecting

• Mark 4:38 They call the sleeping Jesus "teacher."
• Mark 4:41 After Jesus tames the storm, the disciples ask "Who is this?"
• Who is Jesus for us?
• Who are we for Jesus?

Pentecost 3B

Mark 4:26-32

²⁶Jesus also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."

³⁰He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

The Good News According to Mark

As the church's year of grace moves into the green and growing Season of the Spirit or "Ordinary Time," we continue in the gospel according to St. Mark, the main gospel for Revised Common Lectionary Year B, Mark's year.

This gospel probably is not by Peter's ministry companion John Mark, but from an unknown author. Current consensus says Mark probably was compiled between 60 and 70, close to the destruction of the second Jerusalem temple. As the shortest gospel, Mark is the one for texting and tweeting.

Prior to Mark, good news or gospel was the returning Roman general's announcement of annihilating the other army's troops. This gospel according to Mark subverts that into the Good News of God's victory over the powers of sin and death, the triumph of the reign of life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is economic, political, religious, social, and cultural. The gospel of Jesus Christ proclaims life and brings new life – resurrection out of death – everywhere.

Mark has no birth narrative; no resurrection account. Mark particularly asks and answers where do we find God? We find God not in established religious, economic, political institutions, but outside the city limits, in the wilderness. We discover God in the stranger and outcast. On the margins rather than at the center. In, with, and under all creation. We supremely find God in the openness, exposure, and vulnerability of a condemned human dying on the cross.


Agricultural Parables

A parable is a comparison, analogy, illustration: the kingdom of heaven is like; the reign of God is like. Parable means to put something alongside something else, to make a parallel. Sometimes it feels as if Jesus had a particular meaning in mind; other parables lend themselves to a variety of interpretations. Teaching and explaining with comparisons was common in Jesus' rabbinic tradition and in the Hellenistic world. Please note… a parable is not an earthly story with a heavenly meaning; if anything, a parable is a heavenly story with an earthly meaning.

As necessary as it is to plan, plant, and tend crops to feed and nurture people and animals, this Sunday's pair of parables of the Kingdom of God demonstrate the role of God's grace rather than human endeavors in the growth of the reign of heaven among us (and in the growth of some fruit of the earth).


Scattered Seeds

This simple story about scattered seed in Mark 14:26-29 is unique to Mark's gospel. Jesus says someone scatters seed (they don't carefully plant it) and while the farmer sleeps "…the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself…"

14:28 "the earth produces of itself" literally is automatically; "spontaneously" also works. I found a couple of internet meme-worthy phrases: "While you sleep, the gospel will grow." "We sow – God grows."

It's important to stick to what the parable actually says and not expand it to what it doesn't say. Of course farmers need to take care of the earth; planters need to pay attention to seasons and agricultural cycles; most crops need to be watered; different types of crops do best in certain kinds of soil; some need particular fertilizers, but that's a concern for another time.

Both this scattered seeds account and the mustard seed story mainly describe God's inbreaking realm with images Jesus' agriculture-savvy audience easily could compare with their direct experiences or observations of farming. For sure we can equate the scattered (not carefully planted) seed with telling people about the good news of Jesus, with small gestures of love, caring, compassion, and service. All of these tend to multiply in close to imperceptible ways. People often resolve to pay forward a kindness or goodness, and they usually do, and that typically leads to further expansion of the Good Stuff.

Last week we mentioned Jesus calls us to be apostles, as people Jesus sends out (an apostle literally is a sent person) to continue his ministry of loving and reconciling the world. The Greek for "goes in with his sickle" in 14:29 derives from apostle.


Mustard Seeds

Besides Mark 14:30-32, synoptic gospels Luke 13:18-19 and Matthew 13:31-32 include the renowned Mustard Seed parable. You've likely heard the mustard seed is far from the smallest seed and doesn't grow into "the greatest of all shrubs," but it does get big enough to provide shelter for birds and small animals. Remembering this is a parable about God's kingdom or reign rather than a farming handbook, just as mustard seeds expand from something small and hard to notice into a big bush that's impossible to miss, the tiny seeds of love, hope, and care we (mostly randomly) plant ultimately grow into something big enough to fill the world. Like the sower in the first parable and the mustard planter in the second, we don't need to do anything more than take that loving action. We don't need to engineer, plan, or add on additional value. God's grace takes care of the outcome, which frequently is far disproportionate to the original input.

Maybe Jesus was being ironic with this story, because few people would intentionally plant mustard seeds. Mustard already was "there," and prolific most places, though just as now, mustard had medicinal value and culinary uses for seasoning and salads. Small mustard seeds grow into a shrub (technically mustard is a vegetable-not-a-shrub, "plant" will work) big enough to shelter birds and small animals and it can't easily be eliminated. I'm not sure invasive is the proper term, but from this non-gardener's perspective it appears invasive as it doesn't honor pre-determined boundaries or limits. This is a parable of the Kingdom of God, of the gospel that ultimately spreads everywhere, ignores established limits and conventions, and becomes part of every facet of existence.

Related to God's constant reminder for us to remember (I led you through the desert, I quenched your thirst with water from the rock, I fed you with manna, I zapped your enemies, I made you my chosen), I recently heard, "Remember! God runs in my direction when the whole world walks away." Like mustard plants that spread everywhere and can't easily be rooted up and done away with, God's boundless mercy and love is here to stay. Like mustard plants that spread everywhere, we can show God's mercy and love everywhere we go.

This is a parable of the gospeled reign of God in Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament, trees and sheltering branches are metaphors or images for political rule and sovereignty, and not always of the desirable divine kind. Jesus' audience would have recognized the symbolism and considered this parable a hope-filled promise of God's reign: a heavenly story with an earthbound outcome.


This Week's Questions

• What tiny seeds or other inputs can you think of that often result in a big outcome? I read the size of a COVID-19 vaccine dose is about the size of a teardrop. As more and more people get vaccinated, protection against getting infected will spread further and further, so herd immunity may become possible, after all.
• Birds can nest in the mustard tree's shade. What biblical images of shade do you remember? Especially consider the psalms. What are some contemporary twenty-first meanings of shade?
• Question to gardeners and famers: is there actually such a thing as a weed, or does calling a plant "weed" depend entirely on context?
• What part of nature would you compare or parallel to God's Kingdom or reign? An animal? Tree? Plant? Biome such as mountain, prairie, or desert?
• Around here mustard plants interspersed with California golden poppies create such visual beauty! Most California mustard is Brassica tournefortii (known as Asian, African, or Saharan Mustard), so a different variety than Jesus' who probably talked about Brassica nigra or black mustard. The mostly Southern cuisine I grew up with often served mustard, dandelion, collard, or other greens. My research into the mustard seed parable reminded me mustard is a cruciferous veggie and part of the cabbage family.

Pentecost 2B

Prayer: Hearing the Word

Gracious God, illumine these words by your Spirit that we might hear what you would have us hear and be who you would have us be, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Amen.

By John Wurster; used with permission

Mark 3:19b-35

¹⁹Then Jesus went home, ²⁰and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." ²²And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."

²³And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

²⁸"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— ³⁰for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

³¹Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." ³³And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

Sundays after Pentecost

Today the Church's year of grace moves into a half-year of Ordinary Time, and we start counting Sundays after the Day of Pentecost. Ordinary refers to ordered and organized rather than mundane or commonplace, but we hold these Sundays in common with most denominations, church bodies, and traditions. During this green and growing Season of the Spirit, time of the church, we especially emphasize the contemporary Acts of the Apostles (that's us!).


The Gospel According to Mark

This is Mark's year in the Revised Common Lectionary that provides our scripture readings. Mark is the earliest and shortest of the four canonical gospels; Mark is particularly apocalyptic. An apocalypse is a revealing or uncovering—something like an epiphany. Apocalyptic typically employs contrasting dualism: light-dark; heaven-hell; empty-full; good-evil; near-far. Signs, imagery, and symbols in apocalyptic literature sometimes have an easily discernible meaning; other times it's best to consider its context within an entire passage.

Mark's gospel brings us the inbreaking rule or reign of God—the end of the world as we've known it. Mark answers the question "Where do we find God?" Not far away in an unreachable heavenly location; not enthroned in the temple; not in conventional religious, economic, political, social, and cultural persons and establishments. Especially in Mark's gospel, we find Jesus outside the city limits (remember the location of the Calvary cross), outside the center of almost everything, on the margins, in the stranger, the outsider, and the outcast, even in those falling off the edge of the edges. More than in the other gospels, Mark's Jesus acts outside of regulation and convention as he offers limitless mercy, inclusion, forgiveness, and grace. Jesus in Mark erases old boundaries and redraws them to include everyone.

Just as with Luke, Jesus' journey to the cross in Mark is especially intentional and incessant. Particularly for Mark, the cross is the ultimate revelation of Jesus' identity and mission; the cross also reveals our identity and mission as the church, as people Jesus sends out (an apostle literally is a sent person) in the power of the Spirit to continue his ministry of loving and reconciling the world. Related to the gospel reading for today, in The Interpreter's Bible Commentary, Lamar Williamson, Jr. makes the noun apostle into a verb, and declares we have been "Apostled for proclamation and the removal of demons."


So Far in Mark

Mark 1

• Good News / Gospel announcement (no genealogy, no birth narrative). "Gospel" is a short form of Godspell or God's Spell you may remember from the musical Stephen Schwartz and John Michael Tebelak based on Matthew's gospel.
• John the Baptist in the Jordan River wilderness
• Jesus joins John's riverside assembly and John baptizes him.
• Forty days of temptation in the even deeper desert wilds
• Back in his hometown Galilee, Jesus announces now is the time! The reign (kingdom) of God has come near.
• Jesus calls fisher brothers Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, and John Zebedee as his first disciples.
• In his first act of public ministry, Jesus drives out a demon after teaching in the synagogue during services.
• Jesus heals Peter's mother in law.
• Casts out "many demons" who recognize Jesus
• Heals a leper

Mark 2

• Another healing (the scribes don't like this)
• Calls tax collector Levi
• Eats with sinners and tax collectors (once again, scribes don't like this at all)
• Question about fasting
• About doing good deeds on the Sabbath

Mark 3

• Heals / does good on the Sabbath again. After this the Pharisee religious leaders conspire to get rid of Jesus
• More healing – this time by the water feature that's technically Lake Galilee, not a sea or an ocean
• Jesus specially calls and appoints twelve apostles. A rabbi would need ten disciples or followers to be credible; Jesus added two more to that number.


Kinship, Authority, Family

Today's gospel reading continues chapter 3. Cast of characters include a crowd, Jesus' family of origin, and hyper-religious scribes from Jerusalem. Verse 23 tells us Jesus spoke in parables, a type of story we know from Mark and from the other synoptic gospels Matthew and Luke. A parable makes us listen – and hear – beyond the immediately obvious.

In Jesus' time and place, biological family or household determined a person's social and economic trajectory. Family would be comprised of several generations and stretch horizontally to include cousins. It was far removed from the nuclear Western family of parents, grands, and offspring that started at the turn of the twentieth century, eons away from the post-World War II mid-twentieth century phenomenon of parents and kids that prevailed for (maybe) a couple of decades.

In Jesus' time and place, Jerusalem scribes were highly-regarded experts on everything Torah and Temple; they had extremely high religious and social standing. In this reading, Jesus has gone home to Galilee; that means those scribes had journeyed a distance to scope out and engage the itinerant rabbi who'd been making radical claims and causing crazy commotions. In this anecdote, both family and religious leaders mis-identify Jesus' person and purpose. By looking only at the surface, they simply perceive his actions as being outside of conventional kinship and religious behaviors and apparently never wonder about a meaning beyond the obvious.

Mark's Jesus brings us the inbreaking rule or reign of God—the end of the world as we've known it; Mark's gospel or good news often describes the world newly reordered by the Word in vividly contrasting apocalyptic images. In Mark, Jesus especially engages religious, economic, and political institutions: The Establishment. Mark particularly unmasks the systemic brokenness and sin that's within all institutions and structures that yet remain necessary for the world to keep spinning. In Jesus' first act of public ministry in Mark [1:21-26], he exorcises or expels a demon in the midst of a synagogue service. Talk about conventional, established religion! It even has its own fixed meeting place!

Although "house" in this scripture can mean a domestic dwelling, it equally applies to any structure or infrastructure that needs to cohere and function in order to function as intended. Thus, Jesus refers to a kingdom divided, a house divided, Satan against himself. (Satan is the prosecuting attorney in Hebrew anthropology, and not necessarily a personification of evil). As we've especially been learning over the past few years, systemic and institutional injustice, inequities, sin, ineffectiveness, and brokenness happen because of far more than inept actions of individuals, occurs from much more than good or bad or indifferent organizational or institutional pronouncements and activities—a type of dysfunctional disease pervades them. No single action or decision of an individual or corporate entity has caused them to break; no righteous move or loving resolve has enough power to breathe life back into them.

Today's reading doesn't say Jesus expelled another demon or incubus, but he spoke in understandable religious and cultural terms. Whatever our own location in time and place, words like "demonic, satanic" describe forces outside our control very well.


Where We Live: Today's Gospel

"A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to Jesus, 'Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.' And he replied, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking at those who sat around him, Jesus said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.'" Mark 3:32-35

During this green and growing Season of the Spirit, time of the church, we especially emphasize the contemporary Acts of the Apostles (that's us!). Jesus invites us to join his new family configuration by claiming our baptismal gift of the Holy Spirit and following him into the world where he waits for us. Jesus apostles us to proclaim the end of the broken, death-dealing, dysfunctional world as we've known it and (in the power of the Holy Spirit) to remove demons. Yay!

Trinity Sunday 2021

Come, Join the Dance of Trinity

1 Come, join the dance of Trinity, before all worlds begun—
the interweaving of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son.
The universe of space and time did not arise by chance,
but as the Three, in love and hope, made room within their dance.

2 Come, see the face of Trinity, newborn in Bethlehem;
then bloodied by a crown of thorns outside Jerusalem.
The dance of Trinity is meant for human flesh and bone;
when fear confines the dance in death, God rolls away the stone.

3 Come, speak aloud of Trinity, as wind and tongues of flame
set people free at Pentecost to tell the Savior's name.
We know the yoke of sin and death, our necks have worn it smooth;
go tell the world of weight and woe that we are free to move!

4 Within the dance of Trinity, before all worlds begun,
we sing the praises of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son.
Let voices rise and interweave, by love and hope set free,
to shape in song this joy, this life: the dance of Trinity

Text: Richard Leach; © 2001 Selah Publishing Co., Inc.
Tune: Kingsfold

John 3:1-17

¹Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." ³Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.

⁴Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" ⁵Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.' ⁸The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

⁹Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" ¹⁰Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Trinity Sunday…

…is the Octave of Pentecost. The church long has celebrated important events in octaves of eight days—you may know the musical octave of eight notes. Trinity Sunday celebrates a doctrine or teaching, instead of an event. Scripture strongly implies God as triune or three-in-one / one-in-three, yet never uses the word "trinity." The Trinity is a mystery, but our human brains insist on trying to describe it. That's not at all negative! In many classes in school, teachers have students write about almost everything. The idea is if you can talk/write about a concept, you essentially understand it.

You've probably heard the Trinity described in ways similar to "ice – water – vapor" // "son – friend – brother"? Those attempts end up with the heresy of modalism with its claim God manifests in different ways at different times, yet they still provide some idea of the variety of roles the triune God rocks. Instead of an analogy that never approaches the essence of the godhead, early church fathers and mothers frequently talked about the Dance or the Perichoresis of the Trinity. "Peri" refers to in the vicinity of, around, nearby–perimeter, peripatetic, pericope (a scripture or other literary passage cut out from its surroundings). "Choresis" has the same root as dance-related choreography. Father, Son, Holy Spirit interact with each other, collaborate, do life together so wonderfully we also want to dance in response! Maybe more than anything, the Trinity models our interactive and cooperative lifestyles and ministries. The Church [that's us!] is the Image of the Trinity; as the hymn sings, "Let voices rise and interweave, by love and hope set free, to shape in song this joy, this life: the dance of Trinity."


Holy, Holy, Holy

"Holy, Holy, Holy" absolutely without a doubt is the most famous and best loved Trinitarian hymn. It acclaims a "Holy" for each person of the Trinity.

"Jesus answered, 'Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.'" John 3:5-6

We baptize using water and the trinitarian formula, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the Holy, Holy, Holy triune God. Matthew 28:19 is the only scriptural occurrence of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit baptismal formula; it was a later addition to the text. The early church probably baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, Jesus the Savior, or with similar words. However, the early church would not have imagined that baptism into the redeemer and savior Jesus would not also encompass baptism into the Holy Spirit of life Jesus bestows on us.

John 3:3, 5, 11 – the Greek original brings us John's famous double amens! Jesus says, "Amen, amen," that the Douay-Rheims retains, yet that dramatic phrase otherwise gets translated "truly, truly," "verily, verily," "most assuredly," or into other less evocative words. Pastor Eugene Peterson first phrases it, "You're absolutely right," and dilutes it more further on. In general I find his translations usually bring added dimension and understanding, but (editorializing) not this time.

John 3:3 is the only time the fourth gospel mentions kingdom/reign of God. Synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke say Reign of Heaven / Kingdom of God literally all the time, but John doesn't. This wonderful scripture passage contains other riches including verse 16, "God so loved the world," possibly the only verse some people have memorized; many claim John 3:!6 as their life scripture. The less familiar verse 17, "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him," reminds us of God's inclusive longing and loving, and reminds us to help erase stereotypes and mistaken ideas too many people have about God and church.

If religious leader Nicodemus sounds doubly familiar, he's the same Nicodemus we read about in John 19:38-42, when along with Joseph of Arimathea, he anoints Jesus' body for burial and lays it in the tomb Joseph has donated.


Holy God, Holy People

One of the times God commands holiness to the people:

"The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 'Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.'" Leviticus 19:1-2

How does Leviticus describe this divine holiness God calls, commands, and promises (you shall!) us to participate in? This holiness reads like a summary of the ten words or commandments of the Sinai Covenant: keeping Sabbath; caring and providing for each other; equitable wages, marketplace measures, and legal judgments; stewardship of the land, welcoming the stranger and treating the "other" of any category as part of our own community. Final verse 37 in this chapter: "You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them: I am the Lord." We can be confident that God fulfills the charge and the promise of shall in the reign of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.

More than anything, the Holy (Holy, Holy) Trinity models our interactive and cooperative lifestyles and ministries. The Church [us!] is the Image of the Trinity, after the way the Dance of Trinity hymn sings, "Let voices rise and interweave, by love and hope set free, to shape in song this joy, this life: the dance of Trinity."

Next week we'll start counting Sundays after Pentecost as the Church moves into its own in the 6-month long, green, and growing season of Ordinary Time. We'll continue walking the talk as we follow Jesus into worlds around us as his presence. This year's Ordinary Time may feel less structured, less already arranged than most years. We're not yet post-COVID, yet the church worldwide necessarily will be experimenting with new ministry models, trying out new possibilities, and being more imaginative than usual. Baptized into the Dance of Trinity, we minister to the world as the presence of the Triune God.

Pentecost 2021

Acts 2:1-11

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

⁹"Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."

The Collect for Whitsunday

God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

From the Book of Common Prayer on the Church of England website


The 50th Day of Easter

Easter is 50 Days: Ascension Thursday is the 40th day of Easter; the Day of Pentecost is the 50th day of Easter. These events belong together.

The church's year of grace features three major festivals that relate to each Person of the Trinity/Godhead:

• Christmas/Nativity —> Creation
• Resurrection/Easter —> Redemption
• Pentecost/Whitsunday [common British Isles term, refers to white robes worn by people being baptized on Pentecost] —> Sanctification / Theosis / Holiness

In his Acts of the Apostles, the gospel writer Luke brings us the only scriptural account of the Day of Pentecost. The HS is prominent throughout Luke's gospel; the apostle Paul and the gospel of John also tell us a lot about the HS.

• Luke 4:18-19 begins Jesus' public ministry with the HS;
• Luke's book of Acts begins our public ministry with the HS.

Every year we revisit images of visible fire and audible wind as evidence of the Holy Spirit's presence among us and within us. Today's account starts with Jesus' followers gathered together. Strong tradition says they were in the same upper room as during the last supper on Maundy Thursday, but the actual physical location remains unknown. Everyone from everywhere was in Jerusalem for the Jewish Pentecost to celebrate the wheat/grain harvest and God's giving the Sinai Covenant of Ten Words or Ten Commandments via Moses. Parallel to Easter and Pentecost, Shavuot refers to seven weeks – "a week of weeks" – after Passover. The day of Pentecost is one of the three most major Christian festivals; the Jewish Pentecost was one of the three mandated festivals.

This all ends of the earth with devout Jews from every nation under heaven not only represented geographical diversity and inclusion; in addition, it was about historical inclusion. The Storytellers Bible explains this assembly was historically impossible for the first century because Medes had disappeared a couple of centuries earlier.

Starting with creation, the witness of scripture reveals innumerable ways the Holy Spirit always has been present. God always has been triune—this gift and reign of the Holy Spirit of life is nothing new! But… the Holy Spirit constantly is doing something new. As theologian Jürgen Moltmann explains so well, "…the Holy Spirit is…the creative and life-giving, redeeming and saving God… present in a special way."


Where We Live

Last week we discussed Jesus' Ascension and his conversation with his disciples beforehand. They asked Jesus if now he'd finally "restore the kingdom to Israel," and Jesus told them the question was wrong, because "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." [Acts 1:8] In other words, they would help "restore the kingdom." A witness sees, experiences, and testifies in words, often in action. With its senses the world can witness – see, hear, touch, taste, smell – the church, and in the church's activity the world will recognize the presence of God's reign.

Remember the Golden Calf Event in Exodus 32? God said, "Moses, your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt." Moses replied, "God, your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt." Which is it? Moses' people or God's people? It's both/and.

The wind of pentecost cleans, refreshes, clears, renews. The fire of pentecost sears, burns, purifies. A year after a wildfire, new seedlings cover the forest floor. Some seeds need to be singed by fire in order to open. The forest service regularly engages in controlled burns.

• Acts 2:3, 4, 11 "tongues" is glosses – you may know the word glossalalia for speaking in tongues some charismatic churches practice; when we find a phrase out of line with the rest of the content of scripture, we sometimes refer to the added words as a "gloss."

• Acts 2:6, 8 "tongues" is dialect, one of our English words for language.


Considerations

The Holy Spirit is constantly active, but it feels as if the Spirit nudges us more at some times than at others. The COVID-19 pandemic has been and remains an opportunity for increased scientific research and knowledge. Despite deaths, job losses, and overall economic devastation, this has been a year of phenomenal caring and compassion, of imaginatively figuring out how to move forward in retail, recreational, and educational venues. Sales of board games went way up. We've learned physical distancing and social distancing are different concepts!

Related to our life together:

• What changes do you imagine the HS nudging – or propelling – us toward between the first Sunday we gather again and (for example) Thanksgiving Day?
• Have you especially sensed the Spirit at work in your own life or in your surroundings during the past year plus?
• Specifically over the past few months as vaccines have been available and life slowly has opened up? Or not?


Holy Holy Holy

Next Sunday we'll celebrate the Holy Trinity (tri-unity) and then move into a six month long, growing greening segment of (ordered, arranged, structured) Ordinary Time as the church blossoms and blooms as Jesus' presence in the world. The indwelling Spirit we receive in our baptism into Jesus Christ's death and resurrection engulfs us in God's creative power of resurrection; we live and serve as a Pentecostal people filled with gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Easter 7B • Ascension

Psalm 47

¹Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
²For the Lord Most High is awesome;
God is a great King over all the earth.
³God will subdue the peoples under us,
And the nations under our feet.
⁴God will choose our inheritance for us,
The excellence of Jacob whom he loves. Selah

⁵God has gone up with a shout,
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
⁷For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with understanding.
⁸God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.

⁹The princes of the people have gathered together,
The people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
God is greatly exalted.

New King James Version (NKJV). © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Acts 1:3-11

³After his suffering Jesus presented himself alive to the apostles by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. ⁴While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; ⁵for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

⁶So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" ⁷He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

⁹When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. ¹¹They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

Backtracking…

…through the church's year of grace so far. During Advent we anticipated God's arrival in our midst; then we celebrated Nativity /Christmas with Jesus' birth as God-among-us. Next, the day and the season of Epiphany demonstrated God for all people of every culture, ethnicity, and situation—not exclusively for God's original people Israel. Then with his disciples alongside, Jesus ministered publicly among people of all types. Toward the end of Jesus' earthly life he reached Jerusalem; the week we now call "Holy" included Maundy Thursday with foot washing and the Lord's Supper; Jesus' trial, conviction, crucifixion, and death on Friday; waiting again on Saturday (but with a sense of defeat, loss, and sorrow rather than Advent's hopefulness); finally the astonishment of Easter/resurrection Sunday.

Post-resurrection Jesus first encountered people he knew during his earthly ministry, and then drew a wider circle embracing people from everywhere. At the end of those forty days, all four gospels record Jesus' charging and commissioning his followers (that includes us!) to continue his ministries as his presence in the world. In the fourth gospel, the gospel according to John, Jesus makes a round-trip from heaven to earth, from earth back to heaven.


Ascension / Easter 7

Easter isn't a single day; Easter is a season that's a week of weeks, (the biblical number of) 7 times 7. Next Sunday on the fiftieth day of Easter we'll celebrate the Day of Pentecost. The pentecostal gift of the Holy Spirit enables the church to do the "greater works" Jesus promised. During the green and growing season of Pentecost, a l-o-o-o-n-n-g segment of Ordinary Time, the church really comes into its own.

Three days ago on the 40th day of Easter, church and world (to some extent) celebrated Jesus' ascension with its declaration and confirmation of Jesus' authority over everything everywhere. The Feast or Solemnity of the Ascension is always a Thursday, but since most people don't go to church on Thursdays, today for Easter 7 we're hearing about the Ascension.

Although we sometimes refer to a balloon or a plane ascending, or we may mention a person has ascended to a better job or fancier house, "ascension" isn't a common word. In easy theological terms, Jesus' ascension refers to his reign, rule, sovereignty, power, authority, stewardship. Not "domination" as people sometimes misinterpret dominion in Genesis 2, but caretaking and responsiveness to creation's needs. When we read about Jesus seated at God's right hand, this is a way of saying Jesus ascended, or assumed authority over all creation. Unlike with human governments and organizations, Jesus' authority has no checks and balances. It is supreme. It is absolute. Jesus is "King of all the earth," as Psalm 47 says.


Today's Reading

In our passage from Luke's Acts of the Apostles, the disciples ask Jesus, "is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus' disciples somehow still imagined maybe a warrior king who'd zap their enemies, possibly a ruler like David or Solomon who'd reside in opulent splendor far away from the thick of things. After they ask Jesus if now he'll finally remake their world with the end of brutal Roman imperial rule, poverty, injustice, and death, Jesus essentially informs them their question is wrong and replies, "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The disciples still imagined a warrior who'd zap their enemies, or a ruler like David or Solomon. But instead the crucified and risen Savior told his followers they would receive power and be his witnesses—people who had seen and therefore could testify to his resurrection. In the power and reach of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, we become Jesus' presence on earth and begin restoring God's reign over all creation. The Spirit of Pentecost is the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from death to new life.

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."

Easter 6B

Love That Commandment – John 15:9-17

Keep my commandment:
that is, give heed to, observe—
doing it with joy.

Keep my commandment:
by its daily exercise
love one another…

Keep my commandment
by bearing fruit that will last:
abide in my love…

Keep my commandment
so that your joy may be full:
serve one another.

Jeff Shrowder, 2021

Prayer from The Billabong, a lectionary worship resource by Jeff Shrowder, Uniting Church in Australia

John 15:9-17

⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ¹²"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Easter is Fifty Days! On this sixth Sunday of Easter that's day 36, we're back again with Jesus on Maundy Thursday and his concluding discourse (speech, talk, homily, reflection, sermon). Although we're in the season of Easter, this passage describes an event before Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Just as in last week's gospel account, this week we hear more about obeying and abiding in Jesus Christ. Abiding means staying put.

During the Great Fifty Days, readings from John's gospel and from the Acts of the Apostles particularly reveal the shape and form of the servant church God calls us to be—and in the power of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, God enables us to be. But this is not a solitary endeavor; our lives correspond to last week's image of God as the vinegrower, Jesus as the vine, us as the intertwined (inter-vined?) branches that support, complement, and compliment each other.

In Jesus' time and place, the unbending relationship between patron / sponsor and client / servant was heavily constructed and pre-determined. In this reading Jesus tells us our relationship with him mainly is friendship with the intimacy and closeness friendship implies. In the twenty-first century global West, we acknowledge many degrees of friendship, yet both the deepest and the most casual friendships have a sense of unstructured spontaneity.


Words of Love

As I first learned via C.S. Lewis, the bible uses four different Greek words for love (and the Greek language has at least four more). In today's account, Jesus loves his disciples with the unconditional agape love we know as divine; Jesus calls us to love one another with God's agape love. The word for friends in verses 15 and 16 incorporates the affectionate, companionable love that's philia in Greek. We know "philia" well from the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia; we recognize the phil root in philosophy that's love of wisdom. It's interesting that contemporary English with its extremely large, nuanced vocabulary that usually has many synonyms or same-meaning words for almost every noun, verb, and adjective, is impoverished when it comes to writing or talking about love. We love a friend, a spouse, or a child. We love God. Many of us love a particular city or a favorite food. I love that song! However… given the nature of cities, maybe loving some cities and towns with the same quality of love we have for some people isn't out of line at all.

• Here's some of what I discovered about origins of the English word love from Online Etymology Dictionary:

love (n.) Old English lufu "feeling of love; romantic sexual attraction; affection; friendliness; the love of God; from Proto-Germanic lubo (source also of Old High German liubi "joy," German Liebe "love;" Old Norse, Old Frisian, Dutch lof; German Lob "praise." Old Saxon liof, Old Frisian liaf, Dutch lief, Old High German liob, German lieb, Gothic liufs "dear, beloved"). Germanic words are from root leubh- "to care, desire, love." The weakened sense "liking, fondness" was in Old English.

love (v.) Old English lufian "to feel love for, cherish, show love to; delight in, approve," from Proto-Germanic lubojanan (source also of Old High German lubon, German lieben), a verb from the root of love (n.). Weakened sense of "like" attested by c.1200.

Love One Another – COVID-19

God gifted Israel with the ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant after they'd been liberated from slavery, been freed from production quotas. Out of imperial Egypt, into the exodus desert, on their way but not yet at the promised land, they'd learn to keep and maintain that freedom by keeping and obeying the commandments. Slavery to empire no long would be their frame of reference; instead they would reverence God by serving the neighbor.

As I've mentioned countless times, we discover the neighbor at the heart of the Torah, we meet our neighbor when Jesus of Nazareth summarizes the ten commandments into two: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. God gifted us with commandments (ordinances, precepts, statutes, laws, torah) so our lives would harmonize with the late Jewish philosopher and theologian Martin Buber's definition of love as responsibility of an I for a thou.

"This is freedom. This is a weapon greater than any force you can name. Once you know this, and know it with all your being, you will move and act with a determination and power that the federal government cannot ignore, that the school boards cannot overlook, and that the housing authority cannot dismiss." Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, 1966

• Obedience / Freedom • Once you know [the power of freedom]…

Early in the COVID-19 mask-wearing mandate people started to protest. Over a year into masks, people haven't stopped complaining, with some refusing to mask up because they insist masks take away their personal freedom. Now that vaccines are available, some people make the same argument and say getting vaccinated robs them of their supposed autonomy. As the commandments (the law!) and the prophets (grace!) reveal, life's not about a supposedly autonomous "me" individual because no one lives by or for themselves. Polite suggestions or municipal demands to mask or get vaccinated don't remove anyone's freedom; freedom always has limits and boundaries because no one can be an autonomous "law unto themselves."

Life is about me, a person connected to the other – to my neighbor whose neighbor I become – in love that regards their greater good as my privilege and obligation, that perceives the neighbor's good as my own. Loving our neighbors brings the Ten Words of God's Commands to life; love in action helps obliterate and reverse the reign of death. Love in action bears fruit that will last!

I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. John 15:17

Once we know freedom of obedience, we will know love in action. Justice, determination, power – and responsibility – come alive when we love God, neighbor, and self. We have opportunities to love by continuing to wear a mask even after we've been vaccinated. The experts still don't know about transmission from vaccinated individuals; besides, even if there was zero risk, wouldn't you feel safer if everyone around you wore a mask? The etymology for love says the Proto-Germanic word "lubo" also is the source of the Old High German word liubi that means joy. Jesus tells us, "I have said these things [keeping the commandments and abiding in love] to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete." John 15:11

Next Sunday on Easter 7 we celebrate Jesus' Ascension; the following Sunday is the Fiftieth Day of Easter, the Day of Pentecost.

Easter 5B

Prayer for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Vinegrower God,
through the raising of your Son to new life,
you broke the power of death.
Do not forsake those who call on your name;
do not be far from those we name today,
and those whose groanings are known only to you.
Loving God of all generations,
hear the cries of our world;
in Jesus' name…

Prayer from The Billabong, a lectionary worship resource by Jeff Shrowder, Uniting Church in Australia

John 15:1-8

¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. ³You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The Gospel According to John: Abiding and Obeying

Christ is risen, Alleluia! This Fifth Sunday of Easter is the 29^th day of Easter; Easter is 50 days,

The Revised Common Lectionary that provides our weekly scripture readings has a year each for the gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Every year the lectionary intersperses sections of John, particularly during the Great Fifty Days of Easter. With Mark being shorter than Matthew or Luke, we get more John during Mark's [current] year B than during Matthew's year A, or Luke's year C.

This is very shorthand, and also broadly accurate.

The gospel account we have from the community gathered around the beloved disciple John conveys a different worldview from the synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Mark, Luke, and Matthew essentially view Jesus' life and ministry in a similar way (syn=together, as in synthesis, synod, synagogue, synopsis, synergistic; synchronize; optic= vision, as in optician, optimism, optimal, optometrist). Despite each of them having some unique content and a particular perspective, synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke all bring us law and gospel—God's holy demands and God's merciful, loving grace. We roughly can place the synoptics in the Torah/Pentateuch and Prophets traditions of the Old Testament.

John is very much about the here and now of the Reign of Heaven on Earth. With a focus on God's ongoing presence and on the commandments, especially encapsulated in the charge to love, John's community offers ways to live faithfully and fruitfully with speech and action, rather than the articulation of law and gospel we find in the synoptics. John's gospel emphasizes abiding and obeying; it has been called the gospel of abiding presence. To continue the OT parallel, we can locate the Gospel according to John in the tradition of the Wisdom literature.


7 I Am Sayings + I Am the Vine

Today we hear the seventh and last of Jesus' I Am declarations where Jesus places himself within YHWH/God's Old Testament identity I Am—pure being. unmediated presence. We've discussed how each gospel writer and others who wrote down the words of scripture drew upon dynamic oral traditions and existing written documents or sources. Scholars clearly identify two sources used by John's community: Signs and I Am (and suggest there may have been a third). Today's I Am the Vine – You are the Branches passage comes from Jesus' farewell discourse on Maundy Thursday, after he washed the disciples' feet, before his death and resurrection. However, we are reading it during the Great Fifty Days of Easter, after we've again experienced Jesus death and resurrection.

Jesus' seven I Am statements:

• "I am the bread of life." John 6:35, 41, 48, 51
• "I am the light of the world." John 8:12
• "I am the door of the sheep." John 10:7,9
• "I am the good shepherd." John 10:11, 14
• "I am the resurrection and the life." John 11:25
• "I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6
• "I am the true vine." John 15:1, 5


Where we Live: Vine and Branches

Because Jesus lived in an agricultural, somewhat agrarian setting, he used a lot of farm-related imagery. Today? Grape vines! Most Californians get the importance of soil, sunshine, shade, and pruning in vineyards / grapes / harvest. We understand how critical time, temperature, cask, and added ingredients are to wine production. Methods of wine transport and storage, too! In addition, grape vines are one of the seven agricultural gifts of the promised land. We find the people of God as branches of the vine in Old Testament scriptures; Jesus' listeners would have sat up and noticed because of agricultural and historical references.

In this trinitarian passage, Jesus brings us God the Father as vine planter and grower, Jesus the Son as the vine itself, the people of God in the power of the Holy Spirit as branches of the vine; Jesus charges us to abide in him in order to bear fruit. How do we abide as branches in Jesus the Vine? By obeying, especially by loving God, neighbor, and self. Although we primarily abide in Jesus the vine, we remain interconnected with all the other branches. It's interesting that at this time Jesus doesn't describe any other aspects of fruit-bearing.

Do we always abide in Jesus, or do we sometimes settle deeply into family, societal, cultural, and church traditions, practices, customs, and habits? That can be a tough discernment, because as people of history and people with histories that the God of history has shepherded (remember last week's Psalm 23?) us through, we need to stay connected with our own individual pasts, with the identity-forming histories and practices of communities and groups we belong to. We need to contextualize the gospel so newcomers will relate Jesus to their own geography and history.

But what do we make most important? For starters, Jesus commanded us to take, bless, break, and give bread, bless and share the cup of the fruit of the vine(!), and to baptize. But do we insist on a particular type of bread, brand of wine or grape juice? Does the baptismal venue need to be the same every time? Sprinkling, pouring, or immersion?

For other instances, can the format for recording and distributing minutes from a meeting vary? What about flower varieties at Easter? Some churches no longer use lilies because of human allergies and because toxicity to pets can be a major problem if people take their lilies home with them. Does Strawberry Festival always need to be on the Second Sunday in June? Do we even need an annual Strawberry Festival? All churches and organizations worldwide will trial-and-error experiment as they rebuild and partly reinvent themselves post-COVID. As we interpret scripture for our new context, our direct or anecdotal knowledge of grape-growing and wine-making gives excellent counsel regarding Jesus' reminder on this Fifth Sunday of Easter to stay connected to him and to each other.