Pentecost 14A

O Lord, I love the house
in which you dwell,
and the place where your glory abides.
Psalm 26:8

Romans 12:9-21

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." ²⁰ No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This Week

Some other year the lectionary assigns these texts, I'll teach or blog a deft Girardian presentation of the gospel reading, Matthew 16:21-28, but as dense as Romans generally is, it still feels simpler than attempting to navigate mimesis, skandalon, and other non-transactional cross talk.

Besides, the Apostle Paul's paranetic exhortations or encouragements are in-your-face, can lead to endless discussion possibilities, and they provide great content for three months into the season of Pentecost. With all of its instances of "you" being second person plural, this passage provides a long list of ideas for our attitudes in Christ, our behaviors within the community of the church and later as we continue our eucharistic lifestyle out in the world during the week.


Pauline Lists

The apostle Paul loves to make lists! His most famous list may be the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." These are the words the NRSV uses; check out other translations! In a list that precedes that one, he contrasts these desirable qualities with what he calls works of the flesh. In several places Saint Paul lists his own credentials and qualifications.


Today's Second Reading

With this type of list it's easy and helpful to compare different translations, and to compare the English with the original Greek. How about defining these traits for yourself and/or describing situations where drawing on them would be life-giving to yourself and the people around you?

Here's a random comparison – a list! – of a few words in New American Standard Bible (NASB), New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE), King James Version (KJV), and The Message (MSG). Every translation is an interpretation, even when there's a clear word-to-word parallel. Although others have called it a paraphrase or a remix, the late Pastor Eugene Peterson insisted his Message Bible was a translation he originally made to contextualize scripture for the congregation he was serving.


Love and Other Words

Greek has at least four words for love; today's reading includes 3 of those 4 kinds of love!

• agape – God-like, grace-filled, unconditional, life-giving care not based on emotion or whim
• storge – instinctive, familial- and familiarity-type affection
• philia – friendship, love in action with everything that implies. This Romans passage says "philadelphia" a word we know well from the Pennsylvania City of Brotherly Love, so philia means "Love ya like a brother or a sister. Like my own sibling." Although this is the only place Paul uses the word philadelphia, you can research and discover it in at least six other places in the NT.
• eros – root of erotic and erotica, the meaning goes far beyond simply sexual to any pleasure or affinity that involves any of our senses

• verse 9a
love = agape
Greek is un-or anti-hypocritical [love]
NASB is most literal, "without hypocrisy"
NRSV genuine
KJV without dissimulation
MSG love from the center of who you are; don't fake it

• 9b
hate, abhor evil
MSG="run for dear life from" evil

• 10a
Greek is philadelphia
NASB be devoted to one another in brotherly love
NRSV love one another with mutual affection
KJV kindly affectionate with brotherly love = literal philadelphia
MSG be good friends who love deeply

• 10b
Greek is philo (brotherly, sisterly, sibling love) + storgoi
NASB give preference to one another in honor
NRSV outdo one another in showing honor
KJV in honor preferring one another
MSG practice playing second fiddle

• 11a
NASB not lagging behind in diligence
NRSV do not lag in zeal
KJV not slothful
MSG don't burn out

• 11b
serve, serving the Lord. Greek is doulos (slave) rather than diakonos (servant, where we get "deacon")

• 12
NASB devoted to prayer
NRSV persevere in prayer
KJV continuing instant in prayer (different use of instant them we have for "be there in an instant," instant pudding, instant gratification, instant oatmeal)
MSG pray all the harder

• 13
hospitality – another "phil" root word. MSG advises us "be inventive in hospitality." What examples of inventive hospitality can you imagine?

• 15
Feeling what the other person feels = empathizing

• 17b
Greek approximately says put the best construction on everything
KJV provide things honest
MSG discover beauty in everyone

• 18
peace here is irenic absence of conflict that can be the start of friendship and cooperation
KJV as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
MSG If you've got it in you, get along with everybody

• 19
beloved / be-loved has the agape love root
Greek orge equals English anger, indignation, avenging, vengeance, revenge. It may or may not relate to English "orgy" that didn't connate licentious excess until a couple of centuries ago.

• 20
feed, water [clothe, house] your actual enemies in all four versions. I'll add in people you have serious differences with.

• 21
The final flourish, "overcome evil with good" is identical in the first three translations.
MSG wonderfully advises us, "Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good."

Pentecost 13A

For the Lord will comfort Zion
He will comfort all her waste places
And will make her wilderness like Eden
Her desert like the
Garden of the Lord
Isaiah 51:3

Isaiah 51:1-5

¹ Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. ² Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.

³ For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

⁴ Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples. ⁵ I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.

Listen! Look! Remember!

This week's first reading comes from chapters 40 through 55, or 2nd Isaiah, who spoke God's hope to many of God's people who had been exiled to Babylon.

Prior to this, they'd crossed the Jordan into the promised land after a 40-years long trek through the exodus desert after being liberated from Egypt. They'd made Canaan home by sinking deep agricultural, familial, religious, occupational, and commercial roots. Please note: the events in these verses cover a very long timeline, and all of it could not have been part of the living memory of any one person.

However, everyone would have resonated with Isaiah's imagery because they would have frequently remembered, retold, and relived salvation history.

Isaiah reminds the exiles of their experience with God's extraordinary faithfulness. In Hebrew, listen and hear are the same word...

Righteousness, the Exodus rock, Abraham, Sarah, mount Zion, wilderness, Eden, desert, garden, justice, deliverance, salvation, hope. Plus singing and thanksgiving! God's arm—God's power, presence, strength, deliverance from death to life. Any of these would make an illuminating word study. Also, most of this is geographical and physical.

Notice what God has done and trust that same God's promises for your future. Notice where you've been, how far you've traveled, how you got to where you are, and because of it, claim hope for God's future.

To remember means to reassemble something that has been broken apart, torn apart, dismembered, dissembled into multiple pieces. It's no longer an integral whole.


Remembering Into Hope

Listen to God, pay attention and hear what God proclaims and teaches. Look to our source and our deep roots in God's life and God's actions. Remember.

You've probably heard:

(1) If you keep looking back you won't see where you're going; and
(2) If you don't look back, you won't learn from the past and you'll make those same mistakes. Both are true.

• What family memories are especially important to you? Why?
• Any family memories you'd like to forget? Why?
• What memories of your current place of worship and service are especially important to you?
• What memories of your entire history with the church and churches you've been part of are particularly important to you?
• What story of stories from scripture have special meaning for you?

Remember where you've been in order to gain hope for your future.

• How does remembering the past give us post-911, post-January 6th, post-Covid pandemic hope? (Covid still is with us, but it's become endemic.)
• How do we best remember?! Narrating the timeline? Talking with people who've been there with us? Looking at photographs and scrapbooks? If you keep a journal, reading your past entries? Reading the bible? Some other way?

Pentecost 12A

Los Angeles Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

Isaiah 56:1-2, 6-8

¹ Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. ² Happy is the mortal who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil.

⁶ And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant— ⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. ⁸ Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.

Isaiah Outline

The 66 chapters long book of Isaiah comes from three different eras and three primary authors:

• 1st Isaiah – 1-39 before the Babylonian exile

• 2nd Isaiah – 40-55 during the Babylonian exile

• 3rd Isaiah – 56-66 after the exile, mostly addressed to people who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild city, temple, infrastructure, and community. Some deportees remained in Babylon; per God's instructions via Jeremiah, they continued to "seek the good" of the city where they'd landed.

Despite probably distinct authorship of each section, all three include material whose overall style doesn't accord with the rest because it's almost definitely from another writer or writers.

All of Greater Isaiah brings us inclusive universalism that's not vapid, sweet, contentless New Age, but reveals a God who reaches out with love and mercy to all people and all creation everywhere. Together with his eighth century counterpart Amos, 1st Isaiah brings us the earliest articulation of true monotheism.


Today's Reading…

…reminds us of the holy demands of a holy God to do justice, rock righteousness, and to keep Sabbath. It also reveals a God who loves, includes, and embraces everyone—including Israel's enemies!

This passage easily can be misunderstood as it begins with God telling the people to act with justice and righteousness and then redemption – "deliverance" in the NRSV – will arrive. Along with some others, this scripture reading may appear as if grace is conditional and happens as a result of our behaviors (works-righteousness), but with God that's never the case.

Related to December holidays of Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa, people sometimes talk about "exchanging gifts" or a workplace "gift exchange" but an exchange is an economic transaction, and by definition a gift cannot be earned or paid for. On those holidays we either give presents or performs transactions; it cannot be both.

From Isaiah 56:7, the cornerstone of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles announces "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." This is ecumenical cooperation between very different, quite similar, and closely related Christian denominations—it's also interfaith, just as it was during Third Isaiah's sixth century.


Sabbath

The official Sabbath day never changed from setting apart the hours from Friday sundown through Saturday sundown, but we often expand the word "sabbath" to describe any time of rest (shabbat means "rest") from productive activity, for any time specifically for God, for worship, for family, for not conceding to the demands of empire. Maybe ironically, when an academic goes on a sabbatical year or semester they expect to study and produce, but it still is a refreshing time away from normal expectations and involvement.

Because of Jesus' resurrection on Sunday, Christians typically worship and whenever possible refrain from paid work and unnecessary busyness on Sundays, but that's not possible for everyone. Most Sundays most pastors are on the clock! Employment slots obviously need to be filled every day by health care, police, fire, transportation, and other essential personnel. Retailers that stay open on Sundays need to stay staffed. (Is retail shopping always "unnecessary busyness?") However, human bodies and spirits require regular time away from being busy, time to simply be, and scheduling a regular time of sabbath is necessary for mental and physical wellness.

How do you typically find rest, refreshment, and renewal? Have you heard or read about recreational or restorative activities (I had to use that action word) or options that sound like a good fit for your style and that you'd like to try?

Baptismal font looking toward chancel at LA Cathedral

Offertory table at LA Cathedral

Campanile at LA Cathedral

Pentecost 11A

Original boat photograph by eddiefouse via pixabay.com

Matthew 14:22-33

²² Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³ And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, …

²⁴ but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. ²⁵ And early in the morning Jesus came walking toward them on the sea. ²⁶But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear.

²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I {I am}; do not be afraid." ²⁸ Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." ²⁹ He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when Peter noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"

³¹ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" ³² When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

So Far

We come to today's nautical scene after the violent death of Jesus' cousin John the Baptist, followed by last week's account of Jesus and his disciples feeding a throng of 5,000+++ hungry, needy people late in the day in a lonely locale.

Mark 6:45-52 and John 6:15-21 describe very similar versions of Jesus walking on water, but only Matthew includes Peter's attempt to walk on water at Jesus' invitation.


Walk on Water

Walking on water is a well-known buzz phrase. What does it mean to you? I usually think of Neil Diamond's:

Walk on water, ain't it like her
She leads the children
Ain't it right
And ain't it wondrous
The way she does it
Gives love and loves it…

How do these words connect with this gospel reading?

Walking on water / Peter afraid again is another one we've heard countless times. It's good to move deeper than "you need to get out of the boat if you want to walk on water … you need to keep your eyes on Jesus all the time" interpretations to more substance, although those behaviors are essential.

From the angel instructing Joseph (1:23) to name the baby Emmanuel, "God with us," (although verse 25 says Joseph named him Jesus), to the risen Christ's promise always to be with us (28:20) at the end of his gospel, God's presence is one of Matthew's pervasive themes.

14:27 Most translations tell us Jesus said something like "it is I; this is me," yet the Greek reports he only announced "I am." Ego ami duplicates Yahweh's response when Moses asked, "Who shall I tell my people sent me? What shall I say your name is?" (Exodus 3:13-14) Moses needed to know because there apparently was a new god he didn't recognize in town. Jesus echoes and he identifies with the God of the exodus, God of freedom, of promise, God of unmediated presence.

It's fascinating that Matthew uses Mark's typical connector word "immediately" several times in this passage. We also get a qualifying "but" a few times


Where We Live

In the ancient near east, untamed water was an symbol of disarray, chaos, and absence of divine oversight. You recall Genesis 1 when God's Word and Spirit tamed chaos into an orderly, interdependent world.

A familiar metaphor views the church as a boat. Many worship areas have been constructed in the shape of an upside-down ship. We even refer to the section of the sanctuary where worshippers sit as the nave—same source as the word "navy."

Chapters earlier, in Matthew 8:23-27, Jesus is in the same boat as the disciples, stilling the waters and the storm: "Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!" That incident and today's both demonstrate Jesus as Lord of creation. They reveal Jesus acting in ways God usually acts.

As people formed in God's image, what about our loving care and stewardship of water? Do you visit your nearest river, lake, or ocean? Do you know your watershed? The Environmental Protection Agency's How's My Waterway can help you locate it and connect you with water-related resources. With water covering about 70% of planet earth's surface, our everyday lives are ongoing nautical enterprises.

A few weeks ago we heard Romans 8:19, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God." Creation yearns for humans who reflect and embody their divine image by caring for the natural world the same way God does. God calls us to cherish and protect creation, even in ways that help reverse climate change and prevent more species extinction.

"Keep your eyes on Jesus," is simple yet remains essential. Jesus gave us the church as a ship with all of us in the boat together. With its "I believe," the Apostle's Creed is the baptismal statement of faith, but then we live we, us, our, and ours as the baptismal pronouns.

Pentecost 10A

"This is a deserted place,
and the hour is now late."
Matthew 14:15

Matthew 14:13-21

¹³ Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.

¹⁵ When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." ¹⁶ Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." ¹⁷ They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." ¹⁸ And he said, "Bring them here to me."

¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

²⁰ And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. ²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Feeding Five Thousand+++

Every scriptural instance of water isn't about baptism; every reference to grain or grape isn't about the Lord's Supper, but gifts of creation always remind us of God's provision and God's call to steward creation. Today's story of five loaves of bread and two fish is amazing on many counts—among them the fact all four gospels include it.

• Mark 6:35-44

• Luke 9:12-17

• John 6:1-14

All of them end with 12 (twelve) baskets of leftovers!

• Psalm 78:19b "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" Can we spread a table in this wilderness?

We sometimes parallel Jesus and his disciples (verse 16, "you give them something to eat") feeding hungry people in this desolate, late in the day landscape with God feeding the Exodus desert wanderers.

The Old Testament makes abundant food the icon of the fullness of the Messianic time. As creatures who bear God's image, we recognize food as the primary symbol of hospitality as it responds to our needs for physical sustenance and social connection. Whatever person or group is the apparent end giver, food is a gift from heaven.


What Is More

Gathering 5,000 people was an act of sedition punishable by crucifixion; 5,000 formed a military battalion.

This loaves and fishes event happened during the grain harvest, close to Passover. John's account says the loaves were barley, which likely was the case. Barley was the poor person's grain because the wealthy got most of the costlier wheat, but to its advantage, barley is ready for harvest earlier than wheat, and barley grows well in ground that's not as nutrient-rich as wheat requires. Barley also was one of the seven agricultural gifts of the Promised Land! Most of Jesus' disciples were fishers by trade; in that part of the world, fish was a food of the gods. In the initialism ichthys, letters of the Greek word for "fish" become the first letters of Jesus Christ Son of God Savior.

Similar to food insecurity worldwide and in our backyards, food scarcity was an indignity of imperial Roman occupation. Equally indignant is the fact most metropolitan areas in this country have food deserts, with no healthy food available within a reasonably walkable radius.

• Psalm 78:19b "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" Can we spread a table in this wilderness?

Current scholarship questions that loaves and fishes multiplied out of nowhere. We can assume those who had food with them would have wanted to hang on tightly to it and not share. Five loaves and two fish was all the disciples could see offhand through that large crowd. Many of the 5,000+ had no food, "So Jesus, send them away to buy food elsewhere" (that might or might not have been an option).

"At the very end of that day," there really was enough food to go around, and… twelve baskets of leftovers. We frequently hear there's enough food worldwide to feed everyone, but very few behave as if they believed it.

• How about you? How about me? Do we act in ways that show trust in "enough?"

• What does grace taste like?


Living with Others

The world has seen an unending series of imperial governments. Food production has assumed an imperial force of its own. Exactly like national and colonizing political regimes, Big Ag runs on greed and exploitation. Individuals and corporations who keep the profits externalize costs. Debt on every level downstream of the very top is the foundation of any imperial economy.

We are what we eat and literally embody everything we consume. We embody labor of people who grow, produce, transport, process, prepare, and serve our food. We embody actions that contribute to ruining the land and the environment. We embody the disease and death Big Ag has caused farmers, farmlands, and farmhands. With packaging, transportation, and distribution prices not necessarily lower, organic certification doesn't negate those costs.

• We can move away from imperial forms of production and distribution to covenantal methods sourced from our kinship and our common wealth. Or can we?

• Psalm 78:19b "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" Can we spread a table in this wilderness?

• Besides shopping at farmers markets, eating low on the food chain, and planting gardens, what can we do?


Living for Others

Matthew 14:19 Jesus looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

At many points in Jesus' ministry we recognize his "taking – thanking – breaking – giving" as a eucharistic action that like our own, participates in the redemption of all creation. In Holy Communion, food no longer is an imperial commodity to be traded or sold, but a gift to be received. Formally and theologically, the sacrament is in the remembering, the blessing, the giving, and the receiving—in the relational interconnectedness. Apart from those "together" words and actions, bread is simply bread. Fruit of the vine? Simple wine. Reflecting this, the Methodist Book of Discipline tells us the concept of transubstantiation "overthroweth the nature of a sacrament."

We often feel the best communion bread is baked locally by confirmation students in the church kitchen, a member in their own bakery, as a intergenerational family project, but can our feasting around the Lord's table transform and redeem breads and vines from Big Ag? Maybe we purchased or bartered for ingredients or an already baked loaf, but what if "the buck stopped" there and as we gathered around God's Table, receiving them became the only required payment for the bread and the fruit of the vine? What if we extended that cost-free inclusion beyond the assembly gathered around Word and Sacrament on a Sunday or feast day?

• How can we spread a table in the wilderness and provide nutritious food at the crossroads of empire and covenant? Or can we?

The sacraments form models for our interactions after "the church leaves the building." The Old Testament makes abundant food the touchstone of full redemption. Our Christian eucharistic feast is a foretaste of the New Creation … when the world won't need sacraments.

Eating together nourishes spirits and relationships.
Eating together heals individual and social bodies.
Food is essential—community equally so. An old transit poster reminded travelers, "loneliness can kill people."

• What are some of your best memories of sharing food or something else you already had and that someone else needed?

• In addition to life-giving ministries of prayer, community gardens, and food pantries, what can we do?
• What do we already have with us that we can share to help the worlds outside our doors?
• Do our votes for political leaders and ballot propositions really get counted? Do they actually help lead to change?

• Psalm 78:19b "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?" Can we spread a table in this wilderness?

Everyone reading this could write or talk paragraphs of food-related experiences of disappointment, surprise, and redemption.

• What does exclusion feel like?
• What does grace taste like?

Original Banh mi picture by Alan Levine

Pentecost 9A

"Neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor rulers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else
in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:38-39

Romans 8:26-39

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷ And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

²⁸ We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

³¹ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶ As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reviewing

Romans is the seventh and the latest of Paul's undisputed epistles. "Undisputed" means they carry strong evidence of his authorship (grammar, sentence structure, syntax, vocabulary), although all of these letters probably garnered edits and additions as they circulated round-robin style to various churches. We sometimes refer to Romans as Paul's systematic theology. Systematics is the philosophical-style theology that presents ideas about God with definitions, outlines, logic, and structure. By standards of people like Augustine and Barth, Romans isn't particularly systematic, but it still gives us Paul's mature, well-developed theology. More than one person has observed if Paul wrote only Romans 8, he'd forever be remembered as a high level theologian.


Today in the Church's Year of Grace

Although I wrote about Jacob last week, six years ago I blogged about Romans 8:12-25 and referred to the "interwoven interdependence" of humans and the rest of creation. That was long before Covid, and rather than attempting a semi-coherent weekly essay, I copied the notes I used for teaching and inserted any interesting class discussion material I remembered.

In today's second reading we hear about the constant presence of the Trinity in our lives, especially in our prayer lives—especially the Holy Spirit. This scripture is packed full of profound Trinitarian theology. You can discover reliable commentaries and helpful devotionals that relate well to it, yet we can take much of it at plain "what you see is what you get" face value. However, because of the famous and well-known words in this passage we need to listen and hear very carefully.


Where We Live

This Sunday we hear God's promise we will be formed into the image of Jesus Christ; according to the section immediately before this one (18-25), all creation waits and hopes for humans to act more fully in our in-God-created imago dei (image of God): "interwoven interdependence!" Verse 23 says we humans wait for adoption. In a logical continuation from earlier in Romans, our baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection births us as Jesus' sisters and brothers, offspring of God. Paul's most famous baptismal essay is in Romans 6:1-11.

Verse 29 assures us Jesus is firstborn of many siblings in "a large family" that includes each of us. At the start of this epistle, Romans 1:4 says God appointed Jesus son of God at his resurrection, but please note carefully, this is not the heresy of adoptionism.

On desert spirit's fire, the long-running blog I started mid-July 2002, I've written about home and homecoming at least one hundred times—and counting. I can't imagine any individual feeling totally "at home" absolutely everywhere and with everyone, but the simple head knowledge of our relatedness in Jesus Christ can help take the edge off at least some strangeness and alienation.

On several occasions I've mentioned checking into a summer hostel in Lübeck, Germany long ago. While the only other person in the room and I got to talking, she told me about the incredible confidence and freedom she lived with because her parents chose her in adoption. We live with that same confidence and freedom because God chooses us, elects us, adopts us in Jesus Christ.

Pentecost 8A

Genesis 28:10-19a

¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹ He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.

¹² And Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ And the Lord stood beside him and said,

"I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; ¹⁴ and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵ Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

¹⁶ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!" ¹⁷ And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." ¹⁸ So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹ He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz.

Jacob and Place

Today's Jacob episode comes midway in his story:

• after he deceived his father Isaac in order to steal his brother's birthright;
• a while before he reached his uncle's place in Haran and married Leah and Rachel;
• a few chapters earlier than the wrestling match that dislocated his hip and caused God to change Jacob's name to Israel.

You may remember Jacob as father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Geography and climate are central to God's earthbound activity. Two weeks ago I observed how some churches, communities, and organizations receive their names from their location, whether a city, town, neighborhood or street. Jacob first arrived at "a certain [as yet unnamed] place." [28:11]

Named locations in this passage include Beersheba that means well of the oath because legend says Abraham dug the well after making a pact or agreement with Abimelech (Genesis 21:31). Isaac also called the well Beersheba (Genesis 26:31-33). Jacob is on the way to Haran that means "parched." The place name Luz that probably refers to an almond tree also is familiar to us as the Spanish word for light. When he arrived at the "certain place" it either didn't have a name or Jacob didn't know what it was.

In his dream, Jacob heard God's promise of land, descendants, blessings, and nearness. After experiencing God as he slept, Jacob called it Beth-El, "house of God."


Jacob's Dream

Jacob's is one of several dreams so life-transforming they got into the annals of scripture.

• What other biblical dreams and dreamers do you remember? Do you have a favorite?

Jacob "…dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." [28:12] When he recruited Nathaniel, jesus said, "You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man/Human One." [John 1:51] In Jesus of Nazareth, God lets down a ladder and comes to us, stays with us at the bottom of the ladder, walks among us and with us.

• Do you expect to meet God in your dreams? Have you met God in your dreams? We know sleeping and dreaming are different overall conditions than our waking hours.


Where We Live

Place, geography, and climate are essential to God's original creation and to the completion of God's new creation. God's Holy Spirit of life fills the world, but there is no purely spiritual, disembodied creation. No discarnate redemption exists, either. Early on in the witness of scripture, Israel and Judah recognized Yahweh as a fertility god, but it took God's people quite a while to realize Yahweh was not a place god confined to and connected only with a single particular location, but a God at home everywhere.

Every October the blogosphere offers several Write 21 Days challenges to web-log every day of the month on a given prompt or on a topic of the blogger's choosing. For October 2017 I wrote 31 Days of Celebrating Place because "What other could it [my topic] be than landed place that's so central in the Hebrew Bible, so essential for human wellness, that continues to be a high incentive for immigration to the USA?"

Last week I asked where you especially sense God in nature.

• For this week, where can you know you are in a holy place, in a place God inhabits?

• Where do you most expect God to show up?

Although it wasn't sleeping dream-related, I wrote about my original Bethel, House of God.

Pentecost 7A

Isaiah 55:10-13

¹⁰ For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. ¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.


Psalm 65:8-13

⁸ Far and wide they'll come to a stop,
    they'll stare in awe, in wonder.
Dawn and dusk take turns
    calling, "Come and worship."

⁹ Oh, visit the earth,
    ask her to join the dance!
Deck her out in spring showers,
    fill the God-River with living water. Paint the wheat fields golden.
    Creation was made for this!

¹⁰ Drench the plowed fields,
    soak the dirt clods
With rainfall as harrow and rake
    bring her to blossom and fruit.

¹¹ Snow-crown the peaks with splendor,
    scatter rose petals down your paths,
¹² All through the wild meadows, rose petals.
    Set the hills to dancing,

¹³ Dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
    a drape of flax across the valleys.
Let them shout, and shout, and shout!
    Oh, oh, let them sing!

The Message (MSG) | © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

Oh, visit the earth, ask her to join the dance!
Creation was made for this! Psalm 65:9
Introduction

For this mid-July Sunday we get some glorious creation imagery!

• Isaiah 55:10-13 with God's assurance the Word will bear fruit, achieving God's intentions. The Hebrew is dabar that denotes both speech and action—walking the talk. This scripture promises God will send us out with joy, lead us with shalom; mountains and hills will sing, trees will applaud like an excited, appreciative audience.

• Psalm 65 depicts creation rejoicing because God visits earth. Like the 66 chapter long book of Isaiah, the responsive psalm describes earthbound universal salvation that includes rivers and meadows, valleys, canyons and mountains. You can choose words that relate best to your own context because the translator always hovers somewhere between the original text and their resulting translation or paraphrase.

Responsive Psalm 65 and the reading from Isaiah 55 are similar to Psalms 96, 98 and 148 appointed for all the Christmas services. In that nativity poetry, when God comes to us in the newborn Jesus, mountains and snowy hills, fields, streams, and rivers also sing for joy and clap.

• Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, Parable of the Sower. Jesus uses agricultural terminology, but at this particular time, he's talking to people who fish for a living. Jesus would have given versions of the same talk many times on different occasions, with details customized to his particular audience. Scholars suspect the interpretations of various types of ground the seed fell upon may – or may not be – original with Jesus. In any case, they lead to interesting and helpful discussions.


Where We Live

The psalm writer, Isaiah, and Matthew's Jesus all express confidence in the effectiveness of God's word and presence. Let's consider the astonishing, redemptive beauty of God's creation.

• Do you have a favorite indoors or outdoors place where you especially feel God's presence?

• Do you have house plants or a garden?

• Do you have a favorite national park, botanical garden, beach, or greenhouse?

• Do you grow some of your own veggies or herbs?

• Do you ever buy cut flowers from the farmers' market, street vendor, or supermarket?

• Do you draw, paint, photograph scenes or vignettes of creation? I enjoy doing all of those things.

• What region or country you haven't been to would you especially love to visit because of the reputation of their nature and wildlife?

Pentecost 6A

All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord;
and thy saints shall bless thee.
Psalm 145:10
Intro

Today we get selections from Handel's Messiah!

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you…" Zechariah 9:9

The reading from Zechariah includes the florid soprano aria "Rejoice, greatly, O Daughter of Zion" that announces a gentle ruler whose dominion or reign will mean the end of war and the fullness of shalom. Post-exilic prophet Zechariah ministered during the restoration of Jerusalem; he lived around the same time as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai.

All four gospels identify Zechariah 9:9 with Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem at the start of Holy Week:

• Mark 11:1-11
• Luke 19:28-38
• Matthew 21:1-11
• John 12:12-19

Next in The Messiah, an alto or mezzo-soprano promises "He shall feed his flock," followed by a soprano singing "Come Unto me."

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Matthew 11:16-19

¹⁶ "But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ¹⁷ 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.' ¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; ¹⁹ the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."

J the B and Jesus

Verses 16-19 provide a famous contrast between wild and ascetic John the Baptist by the riverside who lives and ministers…on the margins of? No, outside the limits of conventional society. Though Matthew contrasts John with his slightly younger cousin Jesus, Jesus still is beyond counter-cultural by religious and societal norms.

It's become common to say Jesus demonstrates the lifestyle God's people are supposed to have, John's doesn't make it, yet John's invitation to all clearly models grace and community on the margins, rather than solely at the centers. Even people (like us?!) who think we know how Jesus' followers are supposed to be, appear, and act, still recognize the same God acting in different ways in different people and various circumstances.

On Advent 3 in Matthew's year, the gospel is Matthew 11:2-9 that's immediately before today's reading:

² When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples ³ and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" ⁴ Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵ the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. ⁶ And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

⁷ As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸ What, then, did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. ⁹ What, then, did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. …

Where We Live

To be church means first to be gathered in the Holy Spirit around word and sacrament and then to be missionaries or apostles (both words refer to being sent) in the discernment and guidance of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. Jesus' Great Commission at the end of Matthew's gospel sends us into "all the world," but how can we do anything but start where we are right here and right now?

Just as John the Baptist and Jesus' styles were very different, God continues to act in different ways through different people. Each individual and group brings unique gifts and has different functions and callings.

We prayerfully attempt to contextualize or adapt ministry to our current geographical and cultural setting or context. Some churches even are named after their location: New Town Community Church; Fifth Presbyterian Church of Prairie City; Old Village Lutheran Church and School.

Scripture reveals many examples of God being present and acting powerfully in those who, like Jesus' cousin John, seem to be "other than, different from us." Maybe most stereotypically and characteristically in little kids, strangers, poets, artists, unhoused, any person or situation that's marginal rather than mainstream.


Postscript

Given that God apparently favors the unpretentious, what do we make of Center of the World Riverside Church in NYC? Can God be there as much as God is in a back alley outcast on the edges of existence in Chicago?

Pentecost 5A

I will sing of the lovingkindness
of the Lord forever!
God's faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
Psalm 89:1-2

Matthew 10:40-42

⁴⁰ "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; ⁴² and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

Logically and scripturally, I'm moving beyond the lectionary text.

Hospitality

Today's reading nicely parallels and reinforces Jesus' well-known counsel to "shake the dust from your feet" and simply leave if people you offer the gospel to don't welcome you. Like Matthew 12:46-50 that I mentioned last week, it's also surprising that neither of those shows up in any lectionary year.

• Matthew 10:7-14
• Luke 9:1-5

Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors. A Welcome Table. We're very aware of God's call for us to welcome others, but this passage is something different. It's about getting out there and becoming a guest that others welcome.

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me." Matthew 10:40

In that time and place, emissaries, envoys, ambassadors (sometimes a house-servant) represented and carried with them the full authority of the person who sent them. It was similar to our electing government officials to serve in our stead in congress, in the state legislature, in city hall. Our vote gives them authority to represent us even to the extent of speaking and acting for us. Members elect church officers to represent them on session, council, vestry, or consistory. In a similar way we represent Jesus. Jesus represents God.


Prophet, Righteous, Little Ones

• Prophets speak God's word of hope and promise for a different future; the end of the old, the beginning of the new, and call people back to the freedom of keeping the commandments. A prophet speaks for God; that includes us in our baptismal roles of prophet (speaker of God's word), priest (mediator between earth and heaven), and sovereign (caretaker of creation).

• Righteous people work for justice, integrity, and restoration of relationships. Doesn't that include us?

• Little ones are people with any kind of need; at various times that includes everyone. The late gourmet chef and Episcopal priest Robert Farrar Capon insisted God saves only the last, the lost, the little, and the least.

"Reward" here is earned wages, a payment you're entitled to, and not a gift of grace.


This Week

Matthew's gospel is concerned about fulfilling Old Testament prophecies and predictions. Matthew emphasizes Jesus as the freedom-giving New Moses whose teaching illuminates and expands on the Sinai Covenant. Welcome and hospitality are God's most essential charge.

Exodus 23:9 "You shall not oppress a stranger (foreigner, sojourner, alien), for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers (aliens, sojourners) in the land of Egypt."

Leviticus 19:34 carries it a little further: "The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you (native-born, of the same country), and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

Last week we discussed family configurations along with Jesus' "whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me." Matthew 10:38


Where We Live

"And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat..." Exodus 25:22a

Martin Luther tells us the cross of Calvary is God's Mercy Seat or Gnadenstuhl—God's throne of grace and mercy where God meets us where we are, how we are. From the Mercy Seat God rains boundless mercies and offers resurrection hope.

Today's reading is primarily about others welcoming us, though ideally welcome becomes reciprocal. Is looking to the neighbor's needs rather than insisting on our own not the way of the cross? Do we dare risk representing Jesus who represents God by putting aside our druthers to shower solace, mercy, friendship, love, and inclusion on all comers?

Neighborology—the word about the neighbor—is central to scripture. Neighborology is loving welcome in action. The scripture scholar asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" and Jesus replied, "A guy was going down to Jericho..."

It's important – literally "has import" – to welcome even in small, seemingly insignificant ways, because little incidents and mini-moments add up to more than the sum of the parts as they contribute to healing and wholeness. Is there an open place at your table, on your porch or veranda, in the sandwich shop or boba spot, beside your pool?

Now that covid is waning (some), have you gotten out there to become a guest that others welcome? Who has been a neighbor to you? How have you been a neighbor? Who has shown God's mercy to you? To whom have you offered grace? What small happenings have fueled you along the way and filled others with resurrection hope?

But the stranger that dwelleth with you
shall be unto you as one born among you,
and though shalt love him as thyself;
for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt:
I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34

Pentecost 4A

Because we have been united with Christ in a death like his,
we certainly will be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Romans 6:5

Matthew 10:34-39

³⁴ "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶ and one's foes will be members of one's own household.

³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
³⁹ Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Romans 6:3-5

³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Family

For today the lectionary pairs the baptismal theology of Romans 6 with Jesus' warning about following him and the cost of discipleship related to family members. Matthew 10:38 is the first "cross" reference in Matthew's gospel, and it's about the disciples, not about Jesus!

Jesus knew anyone at odds with the Roman occupation government was at high risk for crucifixion; most likely Jesus started anticipating his own crucifixion even earlier than we read about in the gospel narratives. Although this refers to literal crucifixion, it's no stretch also to interpret it as putting to death our own desires, preferences, lifestyles that clash, interfere with, or even negate God's call to us. As we hear Paul's famous baptismal passage from Romans 6, we remember the cross did kill Jesus, but it didn't succeed in keeping him dead.

What social scientists refer to as the nuclear family (and that we still occasionally imagine almost as a given into the twenty-first century) is not a fixture in scripture, though we hear about parents, children, spouses, and in-laws. Jesus instead describes a new family of people who follow him. Biological heredity comes into the mix, but more than anything, this new family is by Jesus' blood, by baptismal water and word.


Reborn into a New Family

Saint Paul asks if we do not know? In Christ our primary familial kinship and identity is under the headship of the crucified and risen One. It's truly a gift to be the sibling, friend, parent, niece, or cousin of [insert name here], wonderful to live as a citizen or resident of the USA, of Italy, of any country with the right to vote, free markets, the rule of law, and a free press, but those identities are not primary.

Our second birth in baptism fully unites us with Jesus Christ – our "elder brother" – and with God's people across the eons. Baptism reunites us with planet earth, maybe the most basic and essential kinship of all.


Matthew 12:46-50

• These verses from Matthew 12 come a couple of chapters after today's. According to the scripture index on textweek, the lectionary doesn't ever schedule them. Interesting!

⁴⁶ While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁷ Someone told him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you." ⁴⁸ But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?' ⁴⁹ And pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

Pentecost 3A

The people all answered together,
"All the words the Lord has spoken
we will do."
Exodus 19:8

Exodus 19:1-8

¹ On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. ² They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.

³ Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites:
⁴ You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, ⁶ but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites."

⁷ So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. ⁸ The people all answered as one: "Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

Exodus So Far

The second book of the Pentateuch, Exodus chronicles the Israelites making their way out of slavery in Egypt—"I have come down to deliver my people from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites… (Exodus 3:8). Although the exodus spanned about forty years or two generations, it's astonishing to realize that by the time of today's scripture:

• The sea had drowned Pharaoh's minions as they pursued the Israelites who'd walked across a dry seabed (Exodus 14);
• Israel had taken time to remember, retell, rejoice, and dance (Exodus 15);
• Moses sweetened the bitter water at Marah with a tree branch (Exodus 15).
• After they left Elim with its (refreshing!) twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, in the next wilderness of Sin – a place name probably related to Sinai – God fed them with manna and quail, and they kept Shabbat (Exodus 16).
• Thirsty again at Rephidim! At God's command, Moses' staff brought water from the rock. Israel defeated Amalek's army (Exodus 17).
• At the advice of his father-in law-Jethro, Moses chose helpers to assist in resolving community disputes (Exodus 18).


Doing the Word

As our current chapter starts, they'd arrived at Sinai on the third new moon, or two lunar months to the day after they'd left Egypt. Only a couple of months, and did I mention how surprising it is to know everything they'd already experienced?

After those demonstrations of God's mercy, presence, and provision, God summoned Moses and asked Moses to remind the people what God had done to protect, save, and sustain them. God then includes a therefore: because this God is trustworthy, won't you obey me and keep covenant with me? Because if you do, then you will belong to me in a unique way out of all the people on earth.

Exodus 19:5 calls God's people a "treasured possession." The Hebrew segullah suggests extreme worth and something monetarily or emotionally precious. The King James Version calls God's people peculiar; the root of the word tells us they are distinguished, special, or select—God's wealth, God's bounty.

God's love is unconditional, but God's protection and the fulfillment of God's promises often require human obedience. Two months out from imperial slavery, this was the beginning of forty years of radically trust in God.

Israel announced they would do everything God had spoken. Later on, across three millennia, at home and in diaspora, Israel retold and reenacted the history of God's deliverance from death – the Passover – and God's annihilation of Israel's enemies, the Egyptians. Israel's testimony in words and actions grounded them in the past with hope for God's future.

In the chapter after today's we find the Ten Words or Decalogue that outline how the people can keep their freedom—what Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann calls God's Working Papers for living together in community: for Israel's, and for ours, as well. You also can find the Ten Commandments of the Sinai Covenant in Deuteronomy 5:5-21. They clarify that keeping covenant with God also means to be there for each other.


Where We Live

Israel learned this God was worthy of obedience, so they received the commandments as a gift of grace rather than as random untethered demands. Moses announced, "these are the words" and the people agreed, "we will do the words." Because they knew God's acts of deliverance, the people knew obeying God would lead to life.

During forty years of being manna-fed in the desert, under Moses' leadership and Yahweh's Lordship, Israel experienced divine distributive justice of enough for everyone and too much for no one, as God rained "Bread from Heaven" (Exodus 16:4). Wherever they were – at home and in diaspora – Israel recited and reenacted their experiences of deliverance from death into life and vanquished enemies.

How has God shown mercy, love, and protection in our lives as individuals and in the communities we identify with? What events have lead us to trust God into the future? What's our testimony in words and actions?

Let's update Israel's to our own "we have seen – therefore – we shall do." Because we have experienced Jesus crucified, dead, risen, and ascended, we know keeping covenant with God and with one another will lead to life for all creation.

Via John 6:31-35, Jesus calls himself the real manna from heaven, and promises anyone who eats that manna, that "Bread of Heaven," never will be hungry, will have eternal life! At the table of grace we Christians retell and reenact our deliverance from death to life. In the Lord's Supper, we know living manna blessed and broken and given to us. As manna did for the Israelites in the journey to freedom and responsibility, eucharistic manna sustains us and our ministries for the world and in the world.

Jesus the living Word of God is our manna and the entire world's manna. Along with the Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 30:11), Paul insists, "the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so you can do it." (Romans 10:4)

Pentecost 2A

I will follow you
wherever you go
I will follow you

Genesis 12:1-9

¹ Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ^{3 I} will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.

When they had come to the land of Canaan, ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak [terebinth] of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So Abram built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹ And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.


Matthew 9:9-13

⁹ As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, "Follow me." And Matthew got up and followed Jesus.

¹⁰ And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" ¹² But when Jesus heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Ordinary Time

We've reached the half-year long stretch of (green, growing, eventually browning into autumn and winter) Ordinary Time when we especially explore God's call on our lives as individuals, as church communities, and as both of those out in the larger world. Similar to Jesus of Nazareth, we express much of God's claim on our lives in ways we serve or minister to others. It often feels easy and safe to focus on people and causes outside the doors of our homes, churches, and workplaces, but when we discern what's next for us, it's important first to take care of persons and concerns in our immediate vicinity.

From Acts 6:1-6, we learn the newly called and sent church first ordained (not elders—for formal, structured leadership; not ministers of word and sacrament—to officiate at font and table, to proclaim God's words of grace) deacons—bearers of towel and basin, as Jesus modeled in John 13:4-5. The servant class of deacons would help grow the church into the image of the servant God. Society in general then would perceive the nascent church as a world-facing servant people (and that it was), but doesn't God first call us to attend to the who and the what we easily can reach out and touch?

We need to take care of persons and concerns in our immediate vicinity. How about caring for ourselves, our most important relationship next to our relationship to God? An emphasis on mental and emotional wellness has been a bright part of the fallout from Covid. Think about it!


Abraham and Matthew

We frequently reflect upon God calling, charging, and "after the fact" qualifying people for particular ministries, as in "God equips the called." It's well known that Moses, David, Amos, and others in the Hebrew scriptures didn't start out with stellar résumés. With their "blue collar" backgrounds, the original twelve are another major example of people who turned the world upside down in the power of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.

For Martin Luther and the sixteenth century Reformers, God's call and Abram's response early in the book of Genesis or Beginnings was the standard for our own journeys of trust. Saul/Paul of Tarsus (with his former life spent persecuting Christians, Paul was one of God's surprising call stories) explains in Romans 4:3-5, because Abram "believed" (trusted, had faith in, essentially took God at God's word) God considered Abram righteous, his life balanced in God's accounting ledger. Because of this, Isaiah 41:8 calls Abraham a friend or lover of God, as does Jesus' brother in James 2:23.

It's not about standing up during worship to publicly proclaim, "I believe in God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth – We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty…" although doctrinal teachings are important. It's about taking God at God's word and therefore doing what God asks us to do.

Scripture tells us Abram, later renamed Abraham, set out for the land God promised him, but it doesn't provide details of questions or equivocations Abram may have had. It also looks as if Abram had a sizable retinue and considerable wealth, so he could afford that aspect of venturing toward a place unknown to him.

No one really knows if Matthew the tax collector mostly wrote down the gospel that bears his name, but still, today's gospel reading from Matthew is another famous example of God's occasionally surprising call and claim on people's lives. As Matthew sat as his place of employment as a tax collector for the occupying Roman empire, Jesus' instincts prompted him to call Matthew to follow him, and Matthew did. Again we don't have any inbetween information.


Where We Live

This year we've also looked at the call – and response – stories of prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. During the Great Fifty Days of Easter we heard from the Acts of the [Original] Apostles.

But God's calls and charges aren't always astonishing. Only looking at ministries inside the church, someone with expertise in accounting being called as church treasurer. A skilled soprano (formally trained or not) serving as choir section leader. A music lover who truly can't carry a tune or whose schedule doesn't allow them to attend rehearsals serving as choir librarian.

As you follow Jesus during the ripening days of summer, as autumn arrives with programming that helps us imagine and create life beyond many of the confines Covid required, what is God calling you to do? What have you done in previous years or previous lives that you'd love to revive? What do you see others doing that you might like to try, either because you have gifts and experience in that field or because you'd love to reach out, risk, and find out you're really good at that endeavor or you're actually not?

Trinity Sunday 2023

The birds of the heavens
and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
Psalm 8:8

Psalm 8

¹ O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
² Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
⁴ what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than the gods
and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,

⁷ all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
⁸ the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹ O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Trinity Sunday

How does God self-reveal? How do we meet God? How do we know God?

Trinity Sunday is the octave of Pentecost and celebrates a doctrine or teaching rather than a time-and-place event. The church long has celebrated important days for eight days. (Think of an octave on a keyboard.) Scripture strongly implies God as triune or three-in-one / one-in-three, but never uses the word "trinity." In fact, the church didn't articulate the doctrine or teaching of God as triune until 325A.D. at the Council of Nicaea that gave us the Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creed.

You've probably heard the Trinity described in ways similar to ice, water, vapor; son, friend, brother? Those 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.

Although the Trinity is that copout word "mystery," human brains still try to describe it, and that's not at all negative. Teachers usually have students write about almost everything because if you can write about a concept, you understand it. Again, that's fine in a casual sense, but on Trinity Sunday we revel in the presence of the transcendent Holy Other and the immanent Sacred. Trinity and any Sunday worship is an occasion to celebrate God in song and sacrament, for the proclamation to remind us of God's glory, compassion, righteousness and love. Trinity-related God talk can happen in bible study, in seminary classrooms and lunchrooms.

In our readings this year we've had at least two explicit theophanies or revelations of the Trinity: the Baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration.


Perichoresis

How does God self-reveal? How do we meet God? How do we know God?

Humans casually assign characteristic traits to each Person, but they all participate together in every aspect of the life of the world.

Instead of an analogy that never approaches the essence of the godhead, early church fathers and mothers 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 is the Image of the Trinity.


Baptism

We baptize using water accompanied by the words Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Baptism literally immerses us into Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, into the trinitarian nature of God as Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier.

Jesus' great commission in Matthew 28:19 is the only occurrence of this baptismal formula in the bible, yet it was one of many later additions to the original text. The early church baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Jesus the Savior, or similar words. The first recorded mention of the Trinitarian baptismal formula was in the late fourth century!


Trinitarian Formulas

Baptism engulfs us in God as Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, but all three persons of the godhead create. All three redeem and liberate. All of them sanctify and sustain.

For occasions other than baptism, trinitarian formulas include:

• Earth-maker – Pain-bearer – Life-giver A New Zealand Prayer Book
• Source – Word – Spirit
• Abba – Christ – Holy Spirit


The Church as the Image of the Trinity

How goes God self-reveal? How do we meet God? How does the world meet God? How does the world know God?

Jesus charged and trusted his followers – the church – to proclaim the gospel in word and action, to baptize, to remember him by breaking the bread of life and offering the cup of salvation. We reveal good news to the world when we live as sacraments that mediate between earth and heaven. We take our cues and clues from the perichoresis of the Trinity, and not from the consumer driven programmatic excesses of the world. Does the world meet God through us? Does the world know God because of us?

The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. 2 Corinthians 13:14