Pentecost 6C

Psalm 16

¹Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
²I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
³As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.

⁵The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
⁶The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.

⁷I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
⁸I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
¹⁰For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.
¹¹You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy;
    in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

In the church's year of grace we're now seriously into the Time of the Church.

Galatians

For the past few weeks we've been doing a continuous reading of Galatians with its emphasis on the gospel of death and resurrection, and its central theme of freedom. In Galatians the apostle Paul offers cautions about human-made laws such as sacrifice, ceremony, keeping kosher, and circumcision; last week in Galatians 3:23-29 Paul finally talks about law in the sense of the ten commandments of the Sinai covenant, as he juxtaposes law and gospel. We mentioned the three uses of the law that theologians in the traditions of the Reformation sometimes opine about.

In all of his letters, Paul makes a huge deal of our organic incorporation into Christ that happens in baptism. Today's second reading [Galatians 5:1, 13-25] brings us his famous fruits of the spirit. Check out different translations and versions of this text for some interesting ideas!

Psalms

In scripture the book of 150 psalms is 5 smaller "books" compiled into larger one.

Psalm dates range from the united monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon through the post-exilic period, possibly as late as the Persian empire. The Babylonian empire had a large repository of psalms that strongly influenced Hebrew hymnody. The Psalter was the prayerbook and the hymnal of the Jerusalem Temple and later of the synagogue.

The church throughout the centuries has prayed the psalter several times through every year in the canonical hours of the divine office.

The Psalter was the hymnal of John Calvin's Geneva Reform.

Martin Luther described the psalms as "the bible in miniature." I mentioned Galatians as "Reformation Central" – everyone knows Martin Luther's paraphrase of Psalm 46, "A Mighty Fortress is our God," as The Reformation Hymn par excellence.

A lot of the songs in all the denominational hymnals are direct psalm versions or paraphrases or at least refer to a psalm. Or two. Or three.

Psalm 16

Psalm 16 connects especially well with Galatians, as it centers on monotheism, the acknowledgment and worship of only one God, and on the joy of obedience. Psalm 16:7 and 16:9 mention the human heart, which in Hebrew biology mainly is the seat of the will rather than of the emotions as modern Westerners think of the heart.

Psalm 16:7 for us to bless the Lord who blesses us!

Psalm 16:10 is a resurrection promise —"Sheol" historically has been the place of departed spirits, with probably no further connotation.

Psalm 16:11 tells us God shows us the path of life, the life we know as obedience to the commandments, and in God's presence we find "fullness of joy." In God's right hand (God's sovereignty) we discover "pleasures forevermore."

What psalms are your favorites? I especially love the Nativity Psalms 96, 98 and 148.

Pentecost 5C

Galatians 3:23-29

²³Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Backtrack:

We've talked about the church at Galatia as the first ethnic church in terms of culture and geography (they also were ethnos as gentiles). The words Galatia, Gaulle, Gaelic, Celt, Celtic all come from the same root.

We've mentioned the apostle Paul almost always refers to the sacrificial law, circumcision, ceremonial law, keeping kosher when he says law, but in this passage "law" does refer to the Ten Commandments of the Sinai Covenant. The commandments are the working papers for our life together, as they set limits and boundaries.

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

Theological note:

Reformation theological traditions (specifically Lutheran and Reformed) often cite three uses of the law: to draw people to Christ; to convict us of sin; to lead people to correct behaviors.

verse 28:

Jew/gentile, male/female, slave/free brings us categories that were central and critical in the Greco-Roman world at the time of this letter.

One more time:

The apostle Paul anticipated that in baptism the solitary, isolated, individual would become part of the gathered body of Christ and assume one of many differentiated roles and positions appropriate to their gifts and experience; the movement is not from solitary, isolated, individual to becoming part of an undifferentiated blob. We retain aspects of our old identity and we keep our unique gifts (food, music, accounting, administration, hospitality, art, teaching, etc.), but our baptismal identity in Christ becomes central.

Discussion:

the USA has a history of geographically and culturally ethnic churches, maybe especially Lutherans and Roman Catholics who brought their spoken language and culinary propensities with them. We can welcome everyone, but is it possible for LCM to becomes all things to all people? Comments about responses to the pastoral search committee questionnaires.

Pentecost 4C

Galatians 2:15-21

¹⁵We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ [more accurately, "by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ"], and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

¹⁷But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

¹⁹For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Our discussion started late; several regular participants weren't in class because of traveling, because of the local Pride Festival, and because of being in the parish house but needing to continue preparing lunch. We formally wrapped up early because it was the final day the choir would sing until September and choir members needed to start getting ready earlier than they usually did, but the few of us remaining enjoyed another 20 minutes or so of discussion.


from my intro on Pentecost 2C

I Paul's letter or epistle to the Galatians is one of seven epistles definitely written by Paul. We call this an undisputed letter, as in undisputed authorship.

II Galatians was the first ethnic church, not in the sense of Jewish–gentile ethnicity, but of different cultures.

III Gospel means Good News. For Paul, the gospel is death and resurrection.

IV Almost every single time Paul uses the word "law," he refers to circumcision, sacrificial law, ritual law, keeping kosher, ceremonial law, and not to the ten commandments.

V Different gospel! Mostly refers to "Judaizers" who claimed people had to become Jewish before Christian, follow sacrificial law, be circumcised. In other words, they taught that Jesus Christ's death and resurrection was not enough, that redemption was as much by human works as it was by divine grace.

Emphasizing

One more time! God's primal people Israel and the apostle Paul always knew and always taught that salvation, redemption, always was by God's gracious initiative, God in the HS reaching out to claim humanity and creation. Sacrificial and ceremonial law, circumcision, keeping kosher, etc., were signs or symbols of God's grace.

Galatians 4:16 – best, most correct translation almost definitely is faithfulness of Jesus Christ (not faith in Jesus Christ). In other words, some of the Reformers' ideas aside, redemption is not another human work, but always the gracious initiative and work of God in the HS.

Fun Language Note:

just as in several other places in Paul's writing, 4:17 uses a construction called subjunctive of emphatic negation that expresses no, not, as strongly as possible. Translations into English include:

• may it never be

• certainly not!

• by no means!

• heck, no!

and Pastor-Scholar Eugene Peterson of The Message version fame's very vernacular—

• "hell, no!"

Reconciling in Christ Sunday

Ephesians 2:11-22

¹¹So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” —a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— ¹²remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. ¹⁷So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, ²⁰built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²²in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

backtracking

Today we celebrate the 15^th anniversary of LCM becoming an RIC congregation. Aspects of today's reading from Ephesians echo a couple of our recent discussions:

• Easter 5 about the homemaking God. Advertising habits and hype aside, we don't buy or rent a home; we buy or rent a house, an apartment or a condo and make it into a home after we move in.

• Pentecost 2, last Sunday: the church at Galatia probably was the first ethnic church in terms of cultural and geographical variety (typically scripture says "ethnos" to indicate non-Jews, gentiles). This concept points towards the gift of the diversity being an RIC church brings.

background

The letter to the church at Ephesus bring us language of the:

• Household – the more private, intimate sphere of life

and language of the

• Public Arena – the more commercial and more political places where we sometimes go

The author of Ephesians uses the word "law" in the same way as the Apostle Paul does. Here law (ordinances, etc.) does not refer to the Ten Commandments; it means ceremonial law, circumcision, sacrificial law, keeping kosher. At no time did people ever believe anything other than God's grace saved or redeemed them. Laws, practices, rituals, ordinances were signs that pointed to God's gracious action and provision. The Santa Monica Blvd sign on the street corner is not the long physical sweep of Santa Monica Blvd itself; in fact, the small dimensions of the street sign can't contain much of anything. The sign indicates we're close to or on SMB. After an African-American tradition, I wear a silver bangle baptismal bracelet. The bracelet reminds me of my baptism, points to God's irrevocable claim on my life. Like Israel's ordinances, the bracelet has no saving power, but in an extremely limited sense, it is a sign of God's grace in my life.

vocabulary

This reading is full of dynamic language; we had a lively discussion about many of the words and concepts. Richard said it can be "startling" to find a church that truly welcomes and includes everyone. Pastor Peg said access jumped out at her. I mentioned how baptism changes us from being isolated, solitary, atomized individuals as it (literally) incorporates us into the organic, interconnected, interrelated One Body of Christ—not as an undifferentiated blob, but with our unique gifts, talents, perspectives, experiences, and contributions.

My paper notes include many more ideas I'm not including here because we never got to them in class, but I've kept and filed them for future reference.

Pentecost 2B

Galatians 1:1-12

¹Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— ²and all the members of God’s family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: ³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—⁷not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! ⁹As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

¹⁰Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. ¹¹For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; ¹²for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

I In the church's year of grace we've reached Ordinary Time. Ordered, orderly, in order, somewhat structured.
This is the green and growing "time of the church."
Preparation: Jesus Christ's birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension.
Our own baptism; weekly participation in word and sacrament. Gift of the Pentecostal Spirit of Life.

II Paul's letter or epistle to the Galatians is one of seven epistles definitely written by Paul. We call this an undisputed letter, as in undisputed authorship.
Galatians was the first ethnic church, not in the sense of Jewish–gentile ethnicity, but of different cultures.
Galatians is the Epistle of Freedom; Galatians was and still is Reformation central, vitally important to Martin Luther's theology.
Galatians has been called the Magna Carta of Christian Freedom. Just as the Magna Carta showed everyone lives under the same law and has the right to a trial, to be declared guilty or innocent, Galatians demonstrates we all live under the same law of God, with the same freedom or liberty in Jesus Christ.

III Gospel means Good News. For Paul, the gospel is death and resurrection.
Almost every single time Paul uses the word "law," he refers to circumcision, sacrificial law, ritual law, keeping kosher, ceremonial law, and not to the ten commandments.

Galatians famously brings us:

• Paul's only birth narrative: in the fullness of time God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law. Galatians 4:4
• Neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, bond nor free, for all are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
• Fruits of the Spirit: By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23a

IV Different gospel! Mostly about the Judaizers who claimed people had to become Jewish before Christian, follow sacrificial law, be circumcised. In other words, they taught that Jesus Christ's death and resurrection was not enough, that redemption was more by works than by grace. For Paul, the gospel is death and resurrection.

V Outreach, evangelism in the church building and out in our everyday worlds: what demands do we make of newcomers? If not exactly a "different gospel" that Paul found the church at Galatia teaching, do we insist people look like us, talk like us, act like us, etc.? As the Reformers insisted, wherever you find Word and Sacrament you find the church. No Word and Sacrament? No church. No requirement for everyone to look, act, talk, think, feel the same as everyone else.

Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

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? ⁹Parthians, 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." ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" ¹³But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."

¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. ¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. ¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. ²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. ²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'"

Easter is 50 Days; the Day of Pentecost is the 50th day of Easter

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

• Christmas – Nativity – Creation

• Resurrection – Easter – Redemption

• Pentecost – Whitsunday – Sanctification / Theosis

Next week we'll celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity; after that we'll segue into the long, winding, growing greening season Ordinary Time, also known as the Time of the Church.

Last week we discussed Jesus' Ascension and the conversation (again!) beforehand. His earthly disciples asked Jesus if at this time he would "restore the kingdom to Israel," and Jesus told them to wait for the Descent of the HS and they would be his witnesses. In other words, they would help "restore the kingdom."

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.

Discussion of Icons and Images of the HS:

dove / wind / fire. Peace, comfort. Fire 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. Controlled, prescribed burning by the Forest Service. Different forms wind takes. Do we resist the wind or move in its direction? Sun in your face, wind at your back?

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

Jesus says we will be his witnesses. What does witnessing mean? What does a witness do? Courtroom. The 12th apostle needed to be a "witness to the resurrection," someone who has experienced the risen Christ.

The past two weeks we've talked about the Church as the Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World. With its senses the world can witness – see, hear, touch, taste, smell – the church, and in the church's activity, hopefully the world will recognize the presence of God's Kingdom.

Will you at this time restore the kingdom? The question is wrong! Wait here in Jerusalem, and you shall be my witnesses. The HS makes witness possible. The converse? Without the HS there is no witness.

Ascension

On Easter 7 we discussed the Feast of the Ascension. Traditionally the Sunday after Ascension has been Exaudi, From the first word of Introit that comes from Psalm 27:

"Hearken, O Lord, unto my voice which has called out to you, alleluia; my heart declared to you: "Your countenance have I sought; I shall ever seek your countenance, O Lord; do not turn your face from me, alleluia, alleluia." The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"

Acts 1:1-11

¹In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning ²until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. ³After his suffering he presented himself alive to them 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."

Easter is 50 days; Ascension Day is the 40th day of Easter—another instance of the biblical number 40.

Ideas on ascendancy? Authority, reign, sovereignty, power, kingship, lordship.

Backtracking through the church's year of grace, we started with Advent when we wait for and anticipate God's arrival in our midst; then it's nativity /Christmas, with Jesus' birth as God-among-us. Next, Epiphany that starts demonstrating in a visible way how God is for everyone, for all the people of all the nations, not solely for God's original people Israel. Then it's Jesus' public ministry with his disciples among all kinds of people. Holy Week, the journey to the cross, Friday's crucifixion, Saturday – the day nothing happens yet everything happens – Easter/resurrection Sunday. Post-resurrection appearances begin with people Jesus knew during his earthly ministry, and then draw a broader, wider circle that embracing all people from everywhere.

Next Sunday we'll celebrate the 50th day of Easter, the Feast of Pentecost that along with Reformation is one of the major festivals of the Spirit. Finally, it's the long "Time of the Church" or Ordinary Time that mostly features green vestments and paraments that remind us of growing and becoming.

Over the past few Sundays we've discussed texts from the book of Revelation specifically in terms of how they help us learn how to live baptized amidst empire. The canon of scripture begins with tree of life, river of life, and a garden. The canon of scripture ends with tree of life, river of life, and a city.

In today's scripture passage from Luke's book of the Acts of the Apostles, again the disciples think Jesus came to restore political power and glory to Israel. Jesus tells them "the question is wrong!" and advises them to wait in Jerusalem until the power of the HS comes upon them and enables their witness as his presence over all the earth.

Charlene recapped the Golden Calf event from Exodus 32. Toward the end,

⁷The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; ⁸they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt! ⁹The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. ¹⁰Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." ¹¹But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?..."

Last week we talked about the PC(USA)'s Great Ends of the Church that conclude with the Church is the Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World. That's us!

The Heidelberg Catechism tells us by faith we share in Christ's anointing—anointed to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.

Easter 6C

Revelation 21:10, 22 - 22:1-5

Revelation 21

¹⁰And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

²² I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. ²⁶People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. ²⁷But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Revelation 22

¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; ⁴they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Easter is 50 days, a week of weeks, 7 x 7. The Easter season began with accounts that mostly featured people who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry. As the weeks rolled by, the stories reached further outward, and began embracing people from other places and cultures. Two weeks from now we'll celebrate the 50th day of Easter, the Day of Pentecost (wear red!) that initiates the long "Time of the Church" liturgical season, with its mostly green Sundays. Everyone is an insider to God; God has no outsiders.

We've been discussing Revelation as a kind of guidebook, almost a roadmap (but not quite) for living baptized amidst empire. Last week we talked about a God so in love with creation God chose and still chooses to live with and to "indwell" creation; a God so passionate about creation God even chose to live amidst creation as one of us in a body formed out of the stuff of the earth.

Last week: enthronement psalms, with creation as God's dwelling place, God's temple, "throne." Last week Revelation 21:3 told us God makes a home on earth.

Genesis 1 and 2, the first books in the canon of the bible bring us the original creation with:

• tree of life
• river of life
• a garden

Revelation, the last book in the biblical canon, bring us the new creation with:

• tree of life
• river of life
• a city (is this a new Garden of Eden? Not quite.)

Today's text from Revelation brings us a portrait of a city literally descending from heaven. A city of safety, a place that welcomes and includes everyone. A city where it's light and bright all the time, without the dangers night and darkness in an urban area often bring.

What are characteristics of a city?

• ethnic and cultural and income diversity • buildings of every kind • government on local, regional, national levels (esp these days) • a literal crossroads with multiple ports of entry • infrastructure, "streets and roads" and other services • cash economy rather than a barter economy, etc.

As we read the bible, we discover a lot of very similar passages in different books. Today's reading from Revelation is very similar to one from Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest in the holiness tradition of the Jerusalem temple. By the time God gave Ezekiel this vision, the Jerusalem temple was gone, sacked and destroyed by Babylon, yet Ezekiel trusts this glimpse of a restored creation where God dwells, with similar imagery to the enthronement psalms.

Ezekiel 47:1-12

¹Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. ... ⁷As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other. ... ⁹Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. ... ¹²On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.

We've been discussing Revelation as kind of a guidebook to living baptized amidst empire. The Presbyterian Church (USA) brings us the six Great Ends of the Church that essentially focus on our baptismal call and covenant: worship; word and sacrament; working for justice, righteousness, truth; identifying with a community of faith; caring for and nurturing all creation. But the sixth Great End is "The Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World." That means when the world looks at us, the church, it looks like the best place possible, it looks like heaven on earth. As Barbara exclaimed about the city in Revelation, "who wouldn't want to go there?" When people look at us as the church, is it "who wouldn't want to go there?"

Discussion of different ways to welcome newcomers to worship without being too intrusive.

One more note on stewardship of creation:

• In the wilderness exodus narrative, we read about water from the rock; manna and quail from the sky that were sheer gifts from God.

• The promised land with its rivers, hills of grain, trees (pomegranate, fig, olive, date), milk and honey required people who had received it a gift to care for and steward it.

• God has given us land and waterways as gifts; God calls us to careful stewardship of all creation.

We've started a list of 52 ways to steward the earth; the poster is in the narthex so we can add our own line items.

Earth Day • Easter 5C

Revelation 21:1-6

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; ⁴he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

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

Every day is Earth Day, but on Friday 22 April we celebrated the 46^th official formal Earth Day. The Earth Day theme this year is #Trees4Earth that relates closely to #FaceofClimate for 2013 and #GreenCities for both 2014 and 2015. Trees and forests are earth's respiratory system, this planet's lungs.

from "Let us Talents and Tongue Employ"

Jesus lives again
earth can breath again
pass the word around
loaves abound!

Fred Kaan, 1975

For Easter 5 and Earth Day we mainly discussed Revelation 21:1-6, and also considered creation-themed Psalm 96, Psalm 98, and Psalm 148, as well as the beginning of James Weldon Johnson's poem, The Creation. All this poetry is about a God so in love with Creation that God chooses to make a home on earth in the midst of creation. This contrasts with the way temples for other nations and for the Jerusalem temple featured a small physical space with the deity contained and confined to a tiny place.

Most likely from the period of Babylonian exile, Psalm 96 and Psalm 98 are Enthronement Psalms about God's reign over creation. Although Psalm 148 is probably post-exilic, it carries a similar theme of all creation joining in praise of God; Isaiah brings us similar imagery. Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann says, "Of course the oceans roar—no more pollution!" "Of course trees sing and clap their hands—no more clear-cutting!"

Sacraments depend upon a healthy creation.

New Song in scripture is not so much a tune and lyrics no one ever has heard before; a new song is a new era, renewed perspective, different paradigm, transformed worldview.

Very briefly from last week: the book of Revelation shows us how empires everywhere operate; it provides not quite a road map, but it's somewhat of a guide book for living baptized in the context of empire. This week and next week the passages from Revelation especially show us ways to live baptized into the new creation.

Bookends in the canon of scripture:

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

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

Empire? I had Egypt, Babylon, Rome (John on Patmos recorded Revelation during the reign of Roman emperor Caesar Domitian), Spain, Netherlands, UK, USA in mind; Richard mentioned Ottoman Empire.

"Ocean no more" in Revelation 21:1 isn't about ecological disaster! It's a code word for untamed chaos. In the famous passage that opens Genesis 1 the Spirit of God hovers and breathes and speaks over the "deep," the unordered chaotic waters. In our baptism with Water and Word, God calls and enables us to speak words that tame and order the chaos of empire.

More discussion of how physical, earthbound, and incarnational Christianity is. God so in love with creation God chose and still chooses to make a home on earth in a body formed from the stuff of creation. I quoted the Heidelberg Catechism, "we move from Christmas with the mystery of spirit in flesh, to Ascension with the mystery of flesh in spirit."

A had a lot more notes and ideas than we discussed this morning, but happily most of those will work well next week on Easter 6, so I didn't include them here.

Easter 4C

Revelation 7:9-17

⁹After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!" ¹¹And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" ¹⁴I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out [who are (still) coming out] of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. ¹⁶They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; ¹⁷for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Good Shepherd Sunday

Easter 4 always is Good Shepherd Sunday. In this second reading from Revelation the Lamb is the Shepherd; the Shepherd is the Lamb.

Revelation is the last book in the entire canon of the bible. Revelation brings us the new creation. The city of God – the new Jerusalem. Tree of life. River of life. The one who reigns from the throne of God — who reigns from the cross.

Genesis 1 and 2 are the first books in the biblical canon. We get the original creation, a garden – not a city. Tree of life. River of life.

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

Author:

The as yet unidentified and unknown John the Revelator. Possibly written on the Roman prison island of Patmos in present-day Turkey. Author is not John the Evangelist, whose community (along with a few other resources) brought us the 4th gospel. To help discern authorship we look at internal evidence such as grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, references to people, places, events.

We're previously discussed apocalyptic; it means uncovering, unveiling, revealing—thus the book of Revelation, that the author begins by telling us it's an apocalypse.

Revelation is:

Recorded some time between 90 and 100, during the reign of Roman Caesar Domitian. Revelation shows us how empires operate; Rome was one in a long series that continues until this year 2016 with the current USA empire. Revelation is a liturgical, political, counter-imperial text, a guidebook and a map for living out our baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection as an alternative to imperial violence and death in the midst of empire. Any empire.

Revelation is not:

An indecipherable collection of strange sayings or predictions of events future to when John the Revelator recorded it. Just as with a lot of literature and with a lot of our human conversations, it includes many symbols, code words, and figures of speech.


"After this" at this start of today's text beginning at verse 9 refers to verses 4-8 and their description of the 144,000+++ tribes of Israel along with people, ethnicities, nations, languages, cultures, etc. that fulfill God's promise to Abram of faithful descendants greater in number than stars in the sky, more than grains of sand. Some of those faithful descendants include us, the church! All people are God's people with Jesus Christ as ultimate authority under the cross of Calvary. Please note these people still stand solidly on earth and have not been raptured.

Revelation is a liturgical and political text. We get "This is the Feast," the hymn of praise we sing in the liturgy today (Sarah referred us to pages 4 and 5 of the printed bulletin) and during festival seasons from Revelation 7:12. It brings us seven (the number of completion and perfection) words of praise to God and to the Lamb:

1. Blessing

2. glory

3. wisdom

4. thanksgiving

5. honor

6. power

7. might

These words make anti-imperial claims that only God is Lord. Not caesar. Not anything else or anyone else.

7:14 Those who have come out of the mega ordeal—in the Greek still are coming out. The church lives out its baptismal call and identity in Jesus' death and resurrection alongside the pain and suffering in the world. God in the Spirit calls and enables us to be a counter-force to the deadly violence of empire. Pastor Peg told us about Barbara Rossing referring to "Lamb Power."

7:15 the one seated on the throne will shelter (make a dwelling, booth, tent, tabernacle) us. Same word as in John 1:14 that tells us the pre-existent word became flesh and lived in our midst, literally "pitched a tent," a portable structure (¿¡ramada?!) that would go with us wherever we journeyed. Ark of the Covenant; Festival of Booths / Succoth.

Every week during the eucharistic liturgy we pray the counter imperial: "Our Father, who art in heaven… for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever." Authority, power, and glory belong to God not to Caesar not to the USA government not to Monsanto… [when I blogged this, Monsanto still was a thing because Bayer hadn't yet claimed it)

Easter 3C

For Easter 3C we read and discussed the gospel text appointed for Easter 3A in the RCL

Luke 24:13-35

¹³Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” ¹⁹He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. ²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, ²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. ²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” ²⁵Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” ³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Backtracking

Easter is 50 Days—a week of weeks, 7 x 7. Today is the 3rd Sunday of Easter; the 15th day of Easter.

Last Sunday on Easter 2, we heard the account of Easter evening from John's gospel, where Jesus bestows the Holy Spirit. This week Luke brings us another Easter evening experience.

The Word on the Street

"Word on the street." Current buzz talk or information or simply circulating rumors.

Wall Street. Sesame Street. Santa Monica Blvd. Where you live, where I live, the freeway, any street we frequently or occasionally walk or drive. The Word on the sidewalk—almost anywhere but inside the house, shopping center, retail outlet, apartment, church building.

This is Luke's lectionary year. A while ago we lined out some characteristics of Luke's gospel that include... HS, women, the marginalized, history, prayer, table fellowship.

This story begins while they were on the way from one place to another place.

• Me: the people and groups that gave us scripture wrote theology as much as they wrote history.
• Pastor Peg: they wrote theology more than they wrote history!

For this week, Easter 3, Luke brings his version of Easter evening.

They had hoped. Evidently were disappointed, yet they recounted the entire resurrection morning story. In Spanish hope and expect are one and the same word, espero. So if you hope for something, you actively expect it to happen.

I put together a
Word Cloud

•that same [resurrection] day •Jerusalem •death •we had hoped
•tomb •alive
•interpreted scripture [beginning with Moses]
•took bread •blessed •broke •gave
•recognized [from previous experiences] •Jerusalem •road
•known in [action of] breaking bread
Where else in scripture do we find "taken, blessed, broken, given"?

We've had a version of He Qi's Emmaus Road painting over the fireplace in the parish house living room. The side closest to us is open: a place for everyone of us at the Table God sets. It wasn't there this morning because it temporally had migrated to the chancel.

The earliest account comes from the apostle Paul

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Three accounts from Luke's gospel

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.Luke 9:16

Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Luke 24:30

In Luke's second volume, the Acts of the Apostles

Acts 27:35 After he [Paul] had said this, he took bread; and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Acts 27:35

Where in our own lives do we experience "take, blessed, broken, given"? This is what we do in the liturgy: scripture read/re-cited, scripture interpreted, the word made visible in the sacrament.

They know the words, but recognize Jesus in the action. The action reveals Jesus' identity. Besides, they remembered other times Jesus had done the same actions took, blessed, broken, gave. So their memories were critical in recognizing Jesus. In this Emmaus Road pericope about Easter evening, Luke brings us a re-citing, remembering of scripture, followed by the "visible" Eucharistic word. We can see the bread and cup; we also can hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it.

Easter 2C

John 20:19-31

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

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

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

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

Creation – Resurrection – Forgiveness – New Creation: Work of the HS

Some numerology:

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

Day of Resurrection is:

• 1st day of the week, day after the Sabbath, therefore, the 1st day of creation.

• 3rd day after Friday—a day or part of a day is considered an entire day; also, Semitic languages have no word for some, a few, several, so they use the expedient 3.

• 8th day of the week = 1st day of a new week; therefore, the day of a new creation

Bright Week, the week after Easter Sunday just ended. The church celebrates Bright Week as the 8th day of creation.

Many baptismal fonts have 8 sides (octagon) and demonstrate our baptism into the new creation, our baptism as a new creation In Jesus' death and resurrection.

The new creation is not pristine: it carries scars from our old lives. Today's text from John shows us Jesus' scars.

The order of the new creation subverts the order of the old:

• God calls, names, A-dam
• Jesus calls names, Mary

Spirit and Word: Creation essentials—texts from the Easter Vigil

Genesis 1:1-3

¹In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. ³Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

⁴Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: "O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.'" ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: "I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live." ¹⁴"I will put my spirit within you and you shall live"

prophesy – word – dabar
breath, spirit, wind = same root

Today's Gospel Reading: John 20:19-31 really is two pericopes or passages.

Greek is the same word where English translations read shut, or locked
Locked: gates, minds, hearts, churches

Thomas: disbelief in the scandal of the crucifixion! not disbelief in resurrection from the dead (John brings us Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead for the last story prior to Jesus' trial and execution). Gnostic trends and influences that denied the reality of the body were making rounds at the time of this text.

Peace: 3 times in 12 verses. Forgiveness, new beginnings.

John 20:22 Jesus breathed on them, "Receive the HS." The only other place in the Greek bible that uses that word for breath is Genesis 2:7.

"God formed A-dam out of dust and breathed into him the breath of life." Humans carry the breath, spirit, wind [words have the same root] of the Divine within them.

Barbara: why do we have this account of the HS and also the account of the day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts?

Me: John brings us a different worldview from the synoptics Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's interesting that Luke wrote both a gospel and the book of Acts, the HS is prominent through Luke's gospel, yet he brings us a detailed account of the coming of the HS in Acts.

John 20:21 As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

Second calling of the Apostles – literally "sent people" – three days after Friday. Moses, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Apostles, Jesus...

God sends us—where? In the power of the HS, clothed with power from on high.

Lent 6: Palm / Passion Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11

²If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, ⁸he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Four weeks ago on Lent 2 we talked about Philippians as the Epistle of Joy. Today is Palm/Passion Sunday! We're getting ready for Easter—last Sunday and today we're seriously getting into some theology of the cross. Theology of the Cross was at the heart of Martin Luther's theology, and if we read both the OT and NT carefully, we find it's at the heart of God's self-revelation.

Recapping last week:

• Theology of the cross is about God's own self-revelation, especially in Christ crucified. Theology of the cross is about God's often hidden, sacramental, paradoxical (try to define paradoxical?) presence in the commonest things, people, and situations. All of us have experiences of being able to look back onto a tough, hard, unpleasant situation and in retrospect recognize God was there all the time at that time.

• Theology of glory is about human ideas and imaginings of how a powerful, all-knowing, sovereign God might act. Maybe how humans wish God would behave?

Luther reminds us to see the fullness of God's power and sovereignty, look to the Bethlehem manger; look to the Calvary cross.

Martin Luther, "The God who became small for us in Christ" ... small enough to die.

Philippi was a Roman colony, so just like the apostle Paul himself, technically the people Paul wrote to were Roman citizens yet still colonials. They received a fair amount of freedom and privilege; they had a lot of civic and cultural pride; they were not financially impoverished, either. Anyone in that culture would have considered humility completely countercultural. Our essential baptismal identity in Christ is citizenship /membership without boundaries, borders, or barriers.

Almost forever people have imagined the Apostle Paul quoted a hymn from another source here, but Gordon Fee, professor emeritus at Regent College, Vancouver, Canada says:

If it was originally a hymn of some kind, it contains nothing at all of the nature of Greek hymnody or poetry. Therefore, it must be Semitic in origin. But the alleged Semitic parallelism of this piece is quite unlike any known example of Hebrew psalmody. It lacks the rhythm and parallelism one might expect of material that is to be sung. And in any case, it fits very poorly with the clearly hymnic material in the Psalter or in Luke 1:46-55, 68-79, or in 1 Timothy 3:16b, to name but a few clear NT examples of hymns.

In any case, it's probably not an original by Paul but probably had been circulating around town. It now has become an "early Christian song."

Though this passage does not use words like imitate, obey, type, or model, it still calls us to pattern our behaviors after Jesus' obedience. Pastor Peg pointed out "mind of Christ" is more than just brain: it's our whole way of being. The word most English translations render as "slave" also is slave (not servant) in Greek. Discussion of emotional impact of words; changes in historical meaning, too.

Kenosis: theology word for today—emptying something that's full, complete, etc.

Jesus freely and obediently chose the journey to passion, death, and resurrection that involved emptying himself of power and status (kenosis). He made the choice from a position of power. Pastor Peg mentioned what a hot-button word "slave" is in this country, and in the ethnically very diverse church she recently served as interim the concern was finding ways to fill (especially) the teenagers and young adults with enough self-worth you then could encourage them empty themselves in lives of service.

How do we measure our status? Social media popularity, hits, post likes! Does social media define us these days! Creating and crafting our own self image. Maybe we don't struggle much with civic or ethnic pride, maybe we don't even need much of a dose of humility, but how about other struggles?

Lent 5C

Philippians 3:4-14

⁴even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.

⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Three weeks ago on Lent 2 we talked about Philippians as the Epistle of Joy! This week on Lent 5 and next week for Lent 6 (Palm/Passion) Sunday, the second reading again will be from Philippians. Philippians is one of Paul's captivity letters written from one of the times he was incarcerated (by humans) in Ephesus or Rome. The readings for today and next Sunday reveal Paul captured by and captive to Jesus Christ as a no holds barred prisoner of his Lord!

We're moving into the conclusion of Lent and getting ready for Easter. That means we're seriously getting into some theology of the cross. Theology of the Cross was at the heart of Martin Luther's theology, and if we read both the OT and NT carefully, we discover it's at the heart of God's self-revelation.

In very short:

• Theology of the cross is about God's own self-revelation, especially in Christ crucified. Theology of the cross is about God's often hidden, sacramental, paradoxical (try to define paradoxical?) presence in the comment things, people, and situations. All of us have experiences of being able to look back onto a tough, hard, unpleasant situation and in retrospect recognize God was there all the time at that time.

• Theology of glory is about human ideas and imaginings of how a powerful, all-knowing, sovereign God might act. How humans wish God would behave?

This section of Philippians starts out with the Apostle Paul's / St. Paul's / Saul of Tarsus' résumé, CV, biography. I mentioned but again need to emphasize that 98% of the time for Paul "law" means the sacrificial and dietary laws and circumcision. He does not mean the Ten Commandments or Jesus' Great Commandment capsule summary.

4:9 different translations read either "faith in Christ" or "faith of Christ," but faith of Christ that's about Jesus infinite faithfulness probably is more accurate.

He goes on to describe how he wants to become like Jesus Christ. We need to remember Paul does not use the words disciple or follower or similar; for him it's always about being "in Christ," the organic incorporation into Jesus' death and resurrection that God accomplishes in each of us together at our baptism. Pastor Peg told us how she loves [3:10] the "power of his resurrection" and I commented power is the dynamite word and that for Paul, the gospel is Death and Resurrection.

Not surprising discussion about ways to live with the past and the future. We absolutely need to learn from the past, dream of the future, but we actually have only this very moment, the here and now.