Pentecost 13A

Romans 12:9-21

⁹Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. ¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." ²⁰No, "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." ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Prayer Hymn by Colin Gibson

Where the road runs out and the signposts end,
where we come to the edge of today,
be the God of Abraham for us,
send us out upon our way.

Lord, you were our beginning,
the faith that gave us birth.
We look to you, our ending,
our hope for heaven and earth.

When the coast is left and we journey on
to the rim of the sky and the sea,
be the sailor's friend, be the dolphin Christ
lead us in to eternity.

Lord, you were our beginning …

When the clouds are low and the wind is strong,
when tomorrow's storm draws near,
be the spirit bird hovering overhead
who will take away our fear.

Lord, you were our beginning…


COVID-19

Who would have imagined the year 2020 would bring a global pandemic? As we know, the Corona virus (not caused by Corona Beer that reported diminished sales) invaded the planet and changed everything. It has devastated lives and the economy, made everyone wonder when staying safer at home, wearing masks, and physical distancing will end. I wonder if this long stretch qualifies as a time of exile from our usual? Is it a time of sabbath ceasing from typical productivity? Is this a long winter anticipating the arrival of spring? Is it something else? Is it possible we won't have a name for it until life opens up more and we return to more normalcy? In any case, we all continue to be thankful for and pray for essential workers and for an effective vaccine.


Romans

Today we have a reading from the letter or epistle to the Church at Rome. Romans is the last of the apostle Paul's seven "undisputed" letters or epistles that bear unmistakable marks of his authorship in terms of vocabulary, syntax, and sentence structure. The dense book includes Trinitarian theology of creation, redemption, and sanctification. Today's second reading provides a list of in-your-face exhortations for our attitudes and behaviors.


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 this 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 Scripture

With this type of list it's easy and helpful to compare different translations, and to compare the English words with the original Greek. to do. 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? If we were meeting in person we'd probably do that and likely have time for only a few of them. I'm thinking of illustrating this passage with expressive colors and typography—no representational images.

For today here's a random comparison of a few words in New American Standard Bible (NASB), New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), King James Version (KJV), and The Message (MSG). You probably own several bible versions and you can find many online to compare translations of this and other passages. We need to keep in mind that every translation is an interpretation, even when there's a clear word-to-word parallel. We've mentioned how after people called it a paraphrase, a remix, or another type of version, the late Pastor Eugene Peterson insisted his Message Bible was a translation he originally made to contextualize scripture for the congregation he was serving.

The Greek language has at least four words for love; today's reading from Romans refers to 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 of all 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 find it 6 other places in the NT (teaser: you can research those for yourself)
• eros – root of our words erotic and erotica, the meaning goes far beyond simply sexual to any pleasure or affinity that involves 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, from storge, one of four Greek words for love
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 our word "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 here is 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, though it says be of the same "mind" rather than emotion

• 17b
Greek approximately is put 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 enemies along with others you have serious differences with.

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

Pentecost 12A

Isaiah 51:1-6

¹Listen 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. ²Look 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. ³For 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.

⁴Listen 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. ⁵I 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. ⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended.

Prayer: Psalm 138

¹I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;
²I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.
³On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul.
⁴All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth.
⁵They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.
⁶For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away.
⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me.
⁸The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.


Isaiah Overview

As we continue moving through the season of the church, time of the Spirit of Pentecost in the church's year of grace, again this week we have a reading from the long book of Isaiah. Backtracking to last week's outline of the 66 books of Isaiah:

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

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

• 3^rd Isaiah – 56-66 after the exile, mostly addressed to people who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild city, temple, and their own lives. Some individuals and groups decided to remain in Babylon.

Each large section is mostly by the same author; each includes passages almost definitely written by one or more other individuals. All 66 chapters emphasize God's sovereignty, power, and rule; the entire long book reveals a broad universalism of God's love and redemption for all creation everywhere. Together with his eighth century counterpart Amos, 1^st Isaiah brings us the earliest articulation of true monotheism.


Today's Reading

Listen to God and look back! Look way back now—right now! Remember your source, your roots, your human ancestors. 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, the hope you have for God's eternal future.

To remember literally is to reassemble something that has been broken apart, torn apart, dismembered, dissembled into multiple pieces.

Look back and remember! God spoke these words via Isaiah when many of God's people had been deported to Babylon—another(!) empire. They'd arrived and literally sunk roots in the Land of Promise after that long trek through the exodus desert after being liberated from Egypt. Please note: this is a v-e-r-y long timeline, and all of it could not have been part of the living memory of any individual, but everyone would have known the history extremely well because they would re-member, re-tell, and re-live it frequently. Isaiah reminds the exiles of their extraordinary history with God's extraordinary faithfulness. In Hebrew, listen and hear are the same word... In times of discouragement, we need to listen to, hear, and remember our own histories with God and God's faithfulness. We can recall our own sometimes surprising faithfulness, as well.

Look back to your past, to where you've been in order to gain hope for the future. Most likely you've 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 so 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 a part of are particularly important to you? As much as I enjoy encouraging everyone else to tell their stories, if we were meeting live I'd tell everyone the church at first for me was Corita Kent's art and Dietrich Buxtehude's music. Strange? Probably not, since God always contextualizes God's actions to each individual's and community's time, place, and interests.


Lord's Supper

In his first letter to the Church at Corinth, the apostle Paul recorded the chronologically earliest account of Jesus institution of the Lord's Supper in the upper room. We sometimes call this the Founding Meal. Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday especially remembers that time and place.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.

Remembering Jesus

Jesus' liturgy of Bread and Cup makes us one with God's people in every place and time. The Anglo Saxon Lord provided the loaf of sustenance to the people; Jesus was born in Bethlehem, "Little Town of House of Bread." In Semitic languages, cup has the same root as the word for door or entryway; in Jesus' world, a cup was an icon of a person's role or calling in life. Every celebration of Holy Communion remembers, retells, relives, and anticipates Jesus' and the entire church's past and future. When we celebrate Holy Communion (the Eucharist, Lord's Supper, The Sacrament—different names reflect various aspects of the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation), the Eucharistic Prayer includes a section called the anamnesis, or remembering. Typically it mentions creation, the exodus (freedom from empire), the promised land, prophets, homecoming, Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. As the anamnesis recounts the history of God and God's people, it makes God's past and future actions present to us here and now. If you have any old printed Sunday bulletins at home, check out the Eucharistic Prayers.

• When you remember Jesus, what memory from scripture or from your own experience comes first to you?
• What is your favorite Jesus story in the gospels?
• What do you most often emphasize regarding the Sacrament of the Altar (Martin Luther's terminology)?


Remembering during COVID-19: Hope for Our Future

The pandemic with its social, economic, health, and everything fallout has exhausted everyone. From a few casual conversations I know I'm not the only one in no hurry to return to live indoors worship or dine again inside at a sit-down restaurant. But does anyone want to enjoy Al Fresco lunch or dinner together soon? I might be open to that.

Six months away from church campus, six months of masks and physical distancing, six months of updates on infections and deaths, about restaurants, retailers, and real lives of real people. Our emphasis on doing God's Work with Our Hands is theologically accurate and necessary, but we need to take care not to place too much trust in ourselves or in other fallible humans who all are near the top of the exhaustion scale. As we affirm our baptism into Jesus' death and resurrection along with our identity as the Body of Christ we need to remember we are not Jesus. We are not anyone's Savior. We hear in today's scripture:

Listen to God, pay attention to what God proclaims and teaches. Look to our source and our roots in God's life and God's actions. Celebrate God's justice, light, deliverance, and reign. Hope in God's power and salvation.

Besides those words recorded by Isaiah, today's opening prayer from Psalm 138 celebrate God's presence and actions: God's name, God's steadfast love and faithfulness. God's word, God's ways, God's glory, God's deliverance. God's purpose. The work of God's hands! Interesting phrase as we prepare a virtual God's Work-Our Hands day. Trust God's promises. Hope in God, not in ourselves, not in each other, not in the church. Yes, the church is a divine organism dedicated to all creation, but it's also a human institution dedicated to God, and we all know a whole lot about those human constructs.

Listen to God's word; look to our source and our roots. Where we've been; what God has done and still promises. Several times recently I've mentioned the previousness of God— the reality God already has been to our future, the truth God already is at our future, and God waits for us to get there.

Maybe too many questions this week—making up for last week with none?

• How does re-membering the past give us post-COVID-19 hope?
• How do we do that?! Talking with people who've been there with us? Looking at photographs and scrapbooks? Reading the bible? Some other technique?
• Does knowing about previous vaccines help us believe we'll soon have one for this virus, or does it make us doubt, especially when we know (for example) seasonal influenza changes some every year so flu vaccine needs to be reconfigured every year?
• Does knowing linear time is one of God's essential gifts that helps us navigate our daily lives make it easier or more difficult to believe God has been to our future? Answering again for myself, having studied scripture to some extent and been on this earth a few decades, I think I know "the rest of the story" but resurrection from the dead always surprises me.

Pentecost 11A

Isaiah 56:1-2, 6-8

¹Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. ²Happy 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.

⁶And 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— ⁷these 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. ⁸Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.

COVID-19

Hope for an effective vaccine continues as more people in the USA test positive, too many ignore physical distancing and mask-wearing mandates, as schools, students, teachers, parents, administrators at all educational levels wonder how to proceed. In any case, healthcare professionals and other staff, essential workers such as grocery store employees, police, and fire personnel deserve our ongoing prayers and gratitude.


Prayer: Psalm 67

May God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear God!


Isaiah Outline

Short overview of the long book of Isaiah that's in three distinct sections and from three different primary authors:

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

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

• 3^rd Isaiah – 56-66 after the exile, mostly addressed to people who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild city, temple, and their own lives. Some individuals and groups decided to remain in Babylon.

Despite clear-cut authorship of each section of the 66 chapter long book of Isaiah, all three also include material whose overall style doesn't accord with the rest and that's almost definitely from another writer.

All of Greater Isaiah(!) brings us magnificent inclusive universalism that's not squishy, 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, 1^st Isaiah brings us the earliest articulation of true monotheism.


Today's Isaiah Reading…

…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. That feels backwards and theologically, it is. This scripture reading – and sometimes others – 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.

In Deuteronomy 4:7-8 we hear, "What other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?" God gave (I love the word bestowed) the commandments as a sign that God was close to the people and as a gift to enable them to blossom and thrive.

Related to December holidays of Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa, sometimes we 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 perform transactions; it cannot be both.

As we know from the biblical narrative, grace-filled life with God starts with the gift of creation, continues with the astonishing gift of redemption, and then moves on with the Spirit-filled gift of the law with guidelines for living as redeemed people. You remember how God gave israel the Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant after they'd been released from slavery in imperial Egypt, but while they still were trekking toward the Land of Promise where they'd settle down and need to know how to live as neighbors to one another and to the surrounding non-israelites? Where they'd need to "hold fast" to God's covenant of grace?

In addition, as God's people responded to grace in loving, justice-oriented ways, those around them would begin to know God through the presence and actions of God's people. What is more, eventually in Jesus Christ God kept both sides of the covenant and fulfilled it – held fast to it – for everyone everywhere in a way Israel never could.

This opening passage of Third Isaiah reminds us of holy demands of a holy God to do justice and righteousness, and to keep Sabbath. It also reveals a God who loves, includes, and embraces everyone—including Israel's enemies! From Isaiah 56:7, the cornerstone of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown LA announces "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." 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 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 period of apartness from normal expectations and involvement.

Because of Jesus' resurrection on Sunday, Christians typically worship and whenever possible refrain from paid work and other busyness on Sundays, but that's not possible for everyone. Most Sundays most pastors are on the clock! Sunday employment slots obviously need to be filled by health care, police, fire, transportation, and other essential personnel. Nowadays most retailers stay open on Sundays so need to stay staffed. However, human bodies and spirits require regular time away from being busy, time to simply be, and scheduling a regular time of sabbath is not only important, but necessary for good mental health and physical health.

Pentecost 9A

These reflections on Matthew's loaves and fishes the lectionary appointed for Pentecost 9A (last Sunday) is for Sunday 09 August that's technically Pentecost 10A. Next Sunday we'll be back on track with the lectionary.

Matthew 14:13-21

¹³Now 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. ¹⁴When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.

¹⁵When 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." ¹⁶Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." ¹⁷They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." ¹⁸And he said, "Bring them here to me." ¹⁹Then 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.

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

Justice is important, but food is essential.


COVID-19

The sixth month away from church campus! Our sixth month needing to be the best friends and neighbors possible by maintaining physical distance from non-household members and never going outside our own domain without a face covering! I'm not the only one who's angry and outraged at people who have increased the rate of spread and slowed the recovery process by ignoring government mandates and common sense.


Prayer from Psalm 145

All your works give thanks to you, O Lord; all your people bless you. All creation proclaims your glory and celebrates your power, revealing to the world your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your reign. You are a God faithful in all your words, gracious in all your deeds. You uphold all of us who fail and fall; you raise us up in our weariness. All eyes look to you, our Source; you sustain us with food as harvests happen.

You have met us as Lord of goodness and grace; you always have been slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and compassionate to all your creatures. You are with us even before we seek your presence. Our songs and actions praise you; all creation will bless you forever and ever.

Amen!


Feeding 5,000+

Justice is important, but food is essential.

Every scriptural instance of water isn't about baptism; every reference to grain or grape isn't about the Lord's Supper, but these gifts of creation always remind us of God's physical provision and God's call to us 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. For easy comparison I've pasted the other three at the end of this post.

We sometimes parallel Jesus feeding hungry people in this untamed setting with God feeding wanderers in the Exodus desert. The Old Testament consistently makes abundant food the icon of the completion of redemption of the Messianic Time. As creatures who bear God's image, we recognize food as the primary symbol of human hospitality. Everyone reading this could write or talk paragraphs of food-related experiences of disappointment, surprise, and redemption; I'll write a few, too.

Have you heard of or eaten Ezekiel 4:9 bread? In its scriptural context the bread is both ritual and nutrition, but for now, paraphrased from their website: Sprouting and combining these six grains and legumes creates a complete protein that parallels the protein in milk and eggs. The protein quality is about 85% as efficient as the highest recognized source of protein; this bread contains 18 amino acids.

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

This particular feeding event happened during the grain harvest, close to Passover. Barley was the poor person's grain because the king and other rich people got most of the wheat, but to its advantage, barely is ready for harvest earlier than wheat, and barley grows well in ground that's less good than the high quality earth wheat requires. Barley also was one of the seven agricultural gifts of the Promised Land! Most of Jesus' disciples were fishers by trade; in the surrounding culture, fish was a food of the gods. Plus, we have the initialism ichthys where the letters of the Greek word for fish are the first letters of Jesus Christ Son of God Savior.

just as too many people worldwide and in our backyards are food insecure, food scarcity was one of many indignities 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.

You may have read interpretations that claim loaves and fishes suddenly multiplied out of nowhere, but God generally doesn't operate that way. In his Girardian lectionary commentary, Pastor Paul Nuechterlein says people would not have ventured into that isolated area without some snacks. He says (1)people probably were hoarding their food because they feared not having enough in the future. Given the rampant food scarcity then and there I'll suggest many of those 5,000 (men as well as women and children, making total count even higher) did not have any food with them, but I do agree people who'd brought some very very definitely wanted to hang on to what they had.

However, I hadn't considered:

(2)Nuechterlein brings up cultural and religious concerns about purity codes related to what you eat and who you eat with—remember how Jesus eating with outcasts and sinners sooooo was not supposed to be done?! Pastor Paul says the real miracle here was people getting over their fears of not enough and opening their table to their neighbors; he calls this the "Miracle of Opening the Human Heart to Abundance." There really was plenty of food to go around, and… twelve baskets of leftovers. The New Interpreters Bible says they were LARGE baskets! We frequently read or hear there's enough food worldwide to feed everyone, but not many behave as if they believed it.

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. Food no longer is an imperial commodity to be traded or sold, but a covenantal gift to be received.


Living with Others

The world has seen an unfortunate series of imperial governments (Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Rome, Spain, Netherlands, Great Britain, USA, more?); beyond those, food production has assumed an imperial force of its own – sometimes called Big Ag – that mostly runs on greed and exploitative market forces. Making a comprehensive list is impossible, but realities of that system include: federal subsidies to farmers not to grow certain crops; costs of depleted farmland; the overall price of extracting petroleum and minerals to build and run farm equipment, along with trucks and trains that haul everything; health and related human costs to field workers… those who make the money externalize the costs to someone else. You can add to that short list. And organic certification doesn't always mean free from accretions of empire.

We are what we eat – we literally embody nutrients we consume, as well as the labor of people who grow, produce, transport, prepare the meal or the drink or the snack. We literally embody actions that contribute to ruining the land and the environment. We literally embody diseases and death Big Ag has caused farmers, farmlands, and farmhands. With costs of packaging, transportation, and distribution not necessarily being lower, organic certification doesn't always negate those costs.

We can move away from imperial forms of production and distribution to covenantal methods that emphasize our kinship and our common wealth.

• Besides shopping at farmers markets and planting gardens, what can we do?


Living for Others

Justice is important, but food is essential.

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

• What does grace taste like?

Food at the crossroads of empire and covenant

We often feel the best communion bread is baked locally from scratch: confirmation students in the church kitchen; a long-time member in his own bakery; a young couple as a family project with their kids. That feels fabulous, but can our feasting around the Lord's table transform and redeem breads and vines from Big Ag? We may have purchased it with legal tender or an item we bartered, but what if "the buck stopped" there and as we gather around God's Table as God's people, the only cost for the bread and the fruit of the vine is receiving them? What if we extended that cost-free inclusion beyond the community of faith formally gathered around Word and Sacrament on a Sunday or Feast Day? The sacraments form models for our behaviors outside the designated sanctuary, for acting in Jesus' name as God's hands when the church leaves the building.

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

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


Into a Future

Humans often have a scarcity mentality and tend to stockpile for leaner times. Part of that is logical because of our own experiences and observations. Besides, it would be stupidly irresponsible not to set aside some of everything aside for that "rainy day" that's sure to arrive and stay a short while or a long one. We humans assume scarcity; we probably all have had times of not enough or at least needing to carefully ration what we have, but right now as pandemic stimulus packages for individuals and businesses run out, it has become frightening for many. Small and large restaurants, other businesses that provide goods and services have run out of money and out of time or will do so very soon. Every other day we hear about another long-established retailer filing for bankruptcy! Even setting aside financial considerations and not factoring in unhealthy amounts of social isolation, every one is metaphorically in a lonely, desert-like place of desolation.

The USA is the wealthiest country in history. Numbers shift all the time, but if it were a sovereign nation, California would be… Google just told me the world's fifth largest economy, "ahead of India and behind Germany." In the power of the Holy Spirit of resurrection, we need the miracle of opening our hearts to abundance and solidarity. We also need the miracle of electing and appointing governmental leaders who create life-giving budgets that redistribute "what we already have with us" to those in need in ways that will start to mitigate the seriously skewed current arrangement of assets. Debt on every level downstream of the very top is at the heart of any imperial economy.

Today's assigned gospel reading is about bread and fishes for 5,000 plus hungry people.

God calls us to follow the example of Jesus' first century-followers by sharing what we already have with us, not fearing future scarcity or the unknown of sitting down at the welcome table with strangers.

• In addition to life-giving ministries of prayer, what can we do?
• What do we already have with us that can help our neighbors in need?

Through the presence and work of his followers:

• Who is Jesus?
• Who are we?

Justice is important, but food is essential.

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

• What does grace taste like?

---

Mark 6:35-44

³⁵When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; ³⁶send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat." ³⁷But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?" ³⁸And he said to them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." When they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fish." ³⁹Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. ⁴¹Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴²And all ate and were filled; ⁴³and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. ⁴⁴Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.


Luke 9:12-17

¹²The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to Jesus and said, "Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place." ¹³But he said to them, "You give them something to eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people." ¹⁴For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each." ¹⁵They did so and made them all sit down. ¹⁶And 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. ¹⁷And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.


John 6:1-14

¹After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. ⁵When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷Philip answered him, "Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." ⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ⁹"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" ¹⁰Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all.

¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹²When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." ¹³So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. ¹⁴When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

Pentecost 8A

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

³¹He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³²it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." ³³He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."

Verses 34-43 between what the lectionary peeps chose for today are Jesus' interpretation of the parable of the weeds in earlier verses 24-30.

⁴⁴"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. ⁴⁵"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

⁴⁷"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁵¹"Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes."

⁵²And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

Prayer – COVID-19

As a new world emerges, trust God's future and pray through words from The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, retired bishop of the Episcopal Church USA and Native American of the Choctaw People.

"Something sacred is coming this way."

That is how my ancestors would have said it. In the midst of all this turmoil and confusion, when we cannot clearly see the path before us, when we feel trapped in a situation we cannot control, then I believe the wise elders of my holy heritage would climb to the high place of the heart, draw the circle of reason and faith around them, and stand to sing their prayers into the open sky of the history to come.

They would not shrink into a corner afraid, but rise up to catch the first light of what was coming into being all around them.

We are living in a time of emergence.
We are the witnesses to a great renewal.
The world is full of the fear of birth and change, but that transformation will one day be our blessing.
Do not be afraid, but be believing.
Come to the place where the ancestors are already standing.
Come and see.

"Something sacred is coming this way."


Parables

A couple weeks ago I mentioned Matthew 13 includes the biblical number of 7 parables. Paraballo originally was an act of throwing something edible to a crowd to tame its appetite for violence. Later on parable meant to play alongside. Parables can be similes, allegories, analogies, illustrations, metaphors, comparisons—in any case, a parable isn't "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning." In today's reading Jesus makes five is like comparisons of the kingdom of heaven to familiar objects and situations.

The famous mustard seed parable in verses 31-32 compares the inbreaking Kingdom of Heaven to a seed that has almost no value if it hasn't been planted, but after the seed grows into a bush, shrub, or plant it has many medical, culinary, and other practical uses. In southern California we have mustard plants interspersed with golden poppies, an arrangement that doubtless benefits many insects, small creatures, and other organisms, and that creates legendary visual beauty. We know mustard isn't the very smallest seed, yet it's a good illustration because it's quite tiny and grows into a very large, sheltering, life-giving plant. We've learned the COVID-19 virus is sub-microscopic and it's inert without a host, yet its reach has expanded worldwide. I like to say our actions – good or bad – are synergistic, adding up to more than the sum of their small individual parts.


Scriptural Context

Every person lives in a complex context made up of countless interwoven factors that include spoken language, geography, culinary preferences, social habits, occupation, religion, family structure.

The most recent sections of the bible are two thousand years old; all of the bible comes from cultural contexts very different from ours. When Jesus talks and teaches he places his ideas within a context his listeners would understand. Story-telling was huge in the Middle East! Jesus worked as a tekton, a trade that probably encompassed both carpenter and handyman. Most of his first disciples earned their keep fishing. Like our own, their context basically was urban, with many families tending crops as farmers. In any case, even when his listeners mostly fished, they'd understand agricultural illustrations and terminology. Even if they mostly farmed the land, they'd know enough about the yield of rivers and lakes to "get" Jesus' nautical analogies.


Our Context

Everyone lives in a complex cultural context made up of countless interwoven factors that include spoken language, geography, culinary preferences, social habits, occupation, religion (or "none"), family arrangement(s).

Especially with the bible originating in a time and place so different from ours, we need to interpret it into our own situation—that's known as contextualizing, or placing it in… context. If we don't know something about the cultural context of the bible, doing that can range from hard to impossible. In addition to resources like a good study bible or the many excellent online commentaries of various lengths and degrees of sophistication, books and articles by the late Kenneth E. Bailey ("The Scholar Who Made Jesus Middle-Eastern Again") and by Amy-Jill Levine, who currently teaches at Vanderbilt Divinity School are particularly insightful.

We've discussed Martin Luther's exposition of the Ten Words or Commandments of the Sinai Covenant in his Catechisms, as he contextualized the demands of the commands into his own sixteenth-century Europe. Pastor Peg told us the people she asked about relevance of Luther's interpretation to contemporary life thought his ideas mostly still applied, with the exception of parts of his application of honoring earthly parents.

As twenty-first century people, we've learned to migrate between different contexts; most of us are quite skilled at a type of code-switching that's not so much changing our own identity and self-presentation as it is fitting into the context where we currently find ourselves.


Creating Our Own Parables

Jesus used parables to show listeners what he meant related to their own everyday lives. What comparisons would you make if you were explaining to a newcomer the…

• ministry of Jesus

• reign of heaven on earth

• identity and nature of the church

• particular mission and ministry of LCM (outside of God's call to the entire church catholic)?

Pentecost 7A

Genesis 28:10-19a

¹⁰Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹He 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.

¹²And he 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. ¹³And 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; ¹⁴and 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. ¹⁵Know 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."

¹⁶Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place-—and I did not know it!" ¹⁷And 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." ¹⁸So 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. ¹⁹He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz.

Prayer – Psalm 86:11-17

Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me. KJV


COVID-19

We've had disturbing news about COVID-19 continuing to spread across the USA, with hotspots especially where people haven't been taking precautions of wearing masks and staying six feet apart. Our short worship videos have been wonderful and will be great to have in the eternal archives; checking out what churches around the world are up to has been a gift, but real-life in-person gatherings will be so much better.


Today's First Reading

We're in the first book of the 66 that comprise the Good Book: Genesis, about origins or beginnings. Today's Jacob episode comes midway in his very long story, after he deceived his father Isaac 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, caused God to change Jacob's name to Israel. You may remember Jacob as father of the twelve tribes of Israel?!

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

• What other dreams and dreamers in either Old Testament or New Testament do you remember? Do you have a favorite?

Places in this passage include Beersheba that means well of the oath because legend says Abraham dug the well after he and Abimelech made a pact or agreement (Genesis 21:31). Isaac also called the well Beersheba (Genesis 26:31-33). Jacob is on the way to Haran, a place name that means "parched." After experiencing the wondrous presence of God where he slept, Jacob calls it Beth-El, "house of God." The place name Luz that probably refers to an almond tree also is the same as the familiar Spanish word for light!


Our Everydays

When we talk about and act upon God's call for us to do God's work with our hands we are being soooo scripturally authentic! We can trace God's charge to humanity for stewardship and care back to Adam and Eve; Jesus promised we'd do even greater works than he did! Most likely I speak for everyone when I say how satisfying helping people can be. As the pandemic continues, everyone appreciates and prays for frontline essential workers whether at a medical or care facility, supermarket, fire or police, to name a scant handful.

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." 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 is here with us at the bottom of the ladder, walking among us and with us, clothed in the vulnerability of our humanity, in a body that's subject to woundedness, death, and decay. In Jesus, God lets down a ladder and comes to us. As the King James Version of today's psalm sings, "thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me." God especially comes to us in of Jesus, the ultimate Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Just as for Jacob – and for Nathaniel – God is here with us; God wants to bless us and God will bless us. This story is about Jacob; it's about us as the contemporary people of God, but mostly it is about God who is with us unbeckoned, unmediated, in spite of everything we've done (we probably haven't been as outrageous as Jacob). We often call this narrative "Jacob's Dream." Even more than the inspired biblical writers, we know sleeping and dreaming are different overall conditions than our waking hours.

Often we meet Jesus face to face in those acts of service and compassion. In our actions, people frequently encounter Jesus face-to-face. And it's not about being human doings rather than human beings; it's about living the way God calls and enables us to live.


Back to Jacob at Bethel

Jacob's sleeping dream when he heard God's promise of land, descendants, blessings to all, and constant protection made him especially aware of God still being with him after he woke up—so much so that Jacob declared it was Beth-El, house of the Lord. Last week I asked where in nature you especially sense God.

• For this week, outside of times you meet God face-to-face in another human, where can you simply be, and know you are in a holy place, in God's house?

• Where do you ordinarily most expect God to show up?

• Do you expect to meet God in your dreams?

Maybe you know the African-American spiritual "We are climbing Jacob's Ladder?" There's another Jacob's ladder song with much better theology and a tune's that's a lot more fun—though a little harder to sing. Some readers of this blog may know it; I'll add the music to the tune when my image hosting starts working again.

1 As Jacob with travel was weary one day,
at night on a stone for a pillow he lay;
he saw in a vision a ladder so high,
that its foot was on earth and its top in the sky:

Refrain:
Alleluia to Jesus, who died on the tree
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me,
and has raised up a ladder of mercy for me.

2 The ladder is long, it is strong and well-made,
has stood hundreds of years and is not yet decayed;
many millions have climbed it and reached Zion's hill,
many millions by faith now are climbing it still: [Refrain]

3 Come, let us ascend! All may climb it who will,
for the angels of Jacob are guarding it still;
and remember, each step that by faith we pass o'er,
many prophets and martyrs have trod it before: [Refrain]

4 And when we arrive at the haven of rest,
we shall hear the glad words, "Come to me all the blest,
here are regions of light, here are mansions of bliss."
Who would not want to climb such a ladder as this. [Refrain]

tune: Jacob's Ladder or Jacob's Vision

Pentecost 6A

Entrance Psalm 65:9-13

^9-13Oh, 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!
Drench the plowed fields,
    soak the dirt clods
With rainfall as harrow and rake
    bring her to blossom and fruit.
Snow-crown the peaks with splendor,
    scatter rose petals down your paths,
All through the wild meadows, rose petals.
    Set the hills to dancing,
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


• Psalm 65 describes creation rejoicing because God visits earth. This psalm and today's reading from Isaiah 55 are very much like Psalms 96, 98 and 148 appointed for Christmas. In that nativity poetry, when God comes to us in the baby Jesus, mountains and hills, valleys, streams, and rivers also sing for joy, clap their hands…

Isaiah 55:10-13

¹⁰For 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, ¹¹so 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.

¹²For 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. ¹³Instead 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.

• During the Babylonian exile, via the writer we sometimes call Second Isaiah, God provided and people received assurance the Word would bear fruit, would achieve God's desire. Hebrew here is dabar that denotes both speech and action—walking the talk. In a wonderful parallel to Psalm 65, these verses promises God will send us humans out with joy, lead us with shalom; mountains and hills will sing, trees will applaud like an excited audience.

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

¹That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ²Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.

³And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. ⁶But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹Let anyone with ears listen!"

¹⁸"Hear then the parable of the sower. ¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ²⁰As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. ²²As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²³But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

Matthew So Far

• Matthew 1 through 4 tell us who Jesus is with his genealogy, birth, and very early life.
• Chapters 5 through 7 covered the Sermon on the Mount.
• In Matthew 8 and 9 Jesus moves from proclaimed words into enacted deeds that help explain his teachings.
• In chapters 10 through 12 we've heard Jesus' instructions and commissioning for mission, for the church sent out into the world. That's us, because all of us are sent people or apostles! Jesus also warns us what may happen to us as his ambassadors.


Parable

• Matthew 13 includes the biblical number of 7 parables, starting out with one about seed, sower, and earth (dirt, ground, land).

Paraballo originally meant to throw something edible to a crowd in order to tame its appetite for violence. Later on "parable" assumed the meaning to play alongside. Parables don't necessarily contain knowledge or abstract truth; parables aren't moral tales, arguments, or objective statements. Parables can be similes, allegories, metaphors, comparisons—except when they're not.


Today's Gospel Reading

• This Parable of the Sower comes with Jesus' own interpretation. Greek for "grain" in 13:8 is fruit. This is the Parable of the Sower: the person who has the seed and who plants the seed. This isn't the Parable of the Different Types of Ground or even Different Harvest Yields. It's not about how prepared and receptive we are (rocky ground, rich dirt, well-prepared soil, spent earth…) to the seed of the word; it's all about the boundlessly extravagant generosity of the sower.

However, we all know each of us is every one of these ground conditions at various times, often during the same day. All of us reading this blog know God assumes the burden of creation's wholeness and salvation; all of us know God calls us to live as God's presence on earth; all of us know to draw upon scientific insights and our own experiences. For example, remember when we first planted milkweed in the church window boxes to attract Monarch butterflies? Apparently it was Pastor Peg's first time planting milkweed, and as abundant as the results looked, she later discovered a different variety would be even better.


COVID-19: Reflecting

For today? The psalm-writer, Isaiah, and Matthew's Jesus all express confidence in the effectiveness of God's word and presence. Amidst ongoing pandemic and protests, instead of contextualizing these passages by figuring out how they align with where we are today, let's simply consider the astonishing beauty of God's creation. Our heads and hearts need a break!

• Do you have a favorite place where you especially sense God's presence?

• Do you have house plants or a garden where you live?

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

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

• Do you ever buy cut flowers at the farmers' market or supermarket?

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

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

Pentecost 5A

COVID-19

Lockdown continues; the number of cases in the USA continues to rise. We may start parking lot-courtyard worship during August or September, which sounds wonderful! We can meet at 10 for Sunday School (it probably will be bring your own drinks and donuts), segue into worship, and then ease into a combined actual-virtual Zoom coffee hour-bible study.


Prayer on Psalm 145:8-14

God, we know you are full of grace, mercy, and love. Your goodness and compassion embrace all creation. Your creatures reflect your glory; they proclaim your presence to all the world. We trust the faithfulness of your word, the graciousness of everything you do. God, you always have cared for the weak and broken; resurrection from death always has been your response.

Thank you again for the many committed essential workers. Please continue to keep them safe; please continue to help us be your presence wherever we go.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Zechariah 9:9-12

⁹Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ¹⁰He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. ¹¹As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the [waterless] pit. ¹²Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Today we get selections from Handel's Messiah!

Similar to dividing the book of Isaiah into three major sections, the writings of this post-exilic prophet who ministered during the restoration of Jerusalem and Judah divide into 1^st Zechariah (chapters 1 through 8) and 2^nd Zechariah (chapters 9 through 14). Zechariah lived around the same time as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Haggai.

All four canonical 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

Today's passage from Second 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. Next in the Messiah, an alto or mezzo-soprano promises "He shall feed his flock," followed by a soprano singing "Come Unto me."

Matthew 11:7-15

⁷As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸…Someone dressed in soft robes?… ⁹What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, and much more than a prophet. ¹⁰This is the one about whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you to prepare the way for you.' ¹¹No one greater born of a woman than John, but the least of these in my kingdom still is greater. … ¹⁴And if you are willing to accept it, John is Elijah who is to come. ¹⁵Let anyone with ears listen!."

In these verses that come immediately before the gospel for today, Jesus says about his cousin, "No one born of a woman [no human] is greater than John." Then Jesus adds that from his viewpoint, John is so great that for him John is the prophet Elijah who had to return before the Messianic age could happen.

Jesus' cousin John was the son of temple priest Zechariah whose song of praise to God at John's birth included, "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways." [Luke 1:76] With confidence in the promises of the God of his priestly father, John went into the wilderness by the Jordan River to call out religious and political injustice and greed, to offer a baptism of repentance, and to announce the ministry of his cousin Jesus. You may remember the Jordan was the boundary and border between Israel's desert wandering and their settling down in the Promised Land?

However, despite John's importance, Jesus insists "the least" in his reign or kingdom is even greater than J the B. Last week I quoted the late chef and Episcopal priest Robert Farrar Capon's succinct observation God saves ONLY the "last, lost, little, and least."

Although John the Baptist's father's name was Zechariah, he probably wasn't even a distant relative of today's featured prophet Zechariah. Like Zachary, Zechariah means the Lord has remembered, so the hope it offered made Zach a fairly common name.

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.' ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon'; ¹⁹the 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."

Today's gospel reading gives us a famous contrast between rugged, untamed John the Baptist by the riverside outside polite society and his slightly younger cousin Jesus. 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 only at the established centers of society. 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 varied circumstances.

Matthew 11:28-30

²⁸"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Today we get selections from Handel's Messiah!

Matthew 11:28-29, rest – Exodus 33:14, "I will give you rest." In Genesis 2:1-3, God's own sabbath rest after creating the world and everything in it.

Over the past few weeks in Matthew's gospel, Jesus has given instructions and cautions for the church in motion. 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 power and guidance of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. But how far and wide have we been able to move lately?

Recent months have given anyone with a heart for justice and compassion opportunities to identify and call out injustice, violence, and pain in ways that help raise awareness and create hope for a just, free future for all inhabitants of planet earth. The pandemic has people shutting down and staying in, while the call for justice inspires us to get up, get out there, show our concerns and urge the powers that be toward systemic changes.

There's not very often only one valid interpretation of a scriptural passage, but these three verses can't be interpreted as Jesus' telling us to get out there and get active in the thick messiness of the world's needs. Here as Jesus invites us with the inclusive word "all," he promises us restful relief from all the overwhelms.

• If you could sit with Jesus right now, what would you tell him?

• What burden would you ask Jesus to lift from you as an individual?

• What burden would you first beg Jesus to remove from your immediate surroundings—maybe only your biological family, possibly only southern California?

• What is the very first weight you wish Jesus would lift from the entire world?

• Maybe some of us even need to rest from the heaviness of our incessant pleading prayers to God that everything will get right again?

PS: Notes on yoke in verses 29-30: a pair or a yoke of oxen shares the burden and a well-constructed yoke rests lightly on their shoulders, so "yoke" can refer to the pair of oxen wearing the instrument that joins them together or to the (usually wooden) yoke itself. Jesus could have been contrasting the negative yoke and burden of religious and imperial demands with the light weight of keeping covenant with God and neighbor by obeying the ten word or commandments.

Pentecost 4A

Matthew 10:40-42

⁴⁰"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever 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; ⁴²and 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."

COVID-19

Lockdown continues with #StaySafeStayHome, #SaferAtHome and California Governor Newsom's orders to wear masks every time you go out.


Psalm 89:1-4, 14-18

The psalter is the prayer book and the hymnal of the synagogue.

¹I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
²I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

³You said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David:
⁴"I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.'" (Selah)

¹⁴Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

¹⁵Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance;
¹⁶they exult in your name all day long, and extol your righteousness.
¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted.
¹⁸For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.


Backtracking: this is Matthew's lectionary year

Trinity Sunday – Octave of Pentecost – Matthew 28:16-20

• All authority in heaven and earth
• Go, sent, into all the world – make disciples
• Baptize! Immerse! into the way and the life of Jesus
• I am with you always! Refers back to Emmanuel, God-with-us, at the start of Matthew's gospel


Last week – Pentecost 3 – Matthew 10:24-30

• not peace but division
• Jesus' call of discipleship sometimes puts a disciple at odds with their family of origin or with others they associate with socially, in the workplace, maybe at church
• Jesus creates a new family of his disciples who have experienced the new birth of baptism and who follow his way of justice and righteousness
• to be worthy of Jesus, take up your cross – both the Roman empire's (and other imperial entities) literal cross of execution and giving up our own preferences to help enact well-being for the other and for the community


Today – Pentecost 4 – Matthew 10:40-42

We're in the 6-month long stretch of the green and growing season of Sundays after Pentecost Ordinary Time that's anything but common and conventional as it emphasizes the church in the power of the Holy Spirit of life, of resurrection, of love, of newness. "Ordinary" refers to structured, ordered, arranged, laid out in a pattern.

This is part of Matthew's Missionary Discourse with Jesus' instructions for living in mission as missionaries or "sent people." We also find the miss root in words like missile, commission, permission, missive, emissary. Earlier in this chapter 10 we hear the famous: ¹¹Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. ¹²As you enter the house, greet it. ¹³If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.

• Hospitality begins and ends this 3-verse long short snippet.

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

We talk a lot about God's call to us to welcome others, but this passage isn't about that! It's about our getting out there and becoming a guest that others welcome.

In that time and place emissaries, envoys, ambassadors, sometimes a house-servant would represent (re+present / representative) and carry with them the full authority of the person who sent them. It wasn't very different from our elected governmental officials making decisions for us as voters. By electing them, we send those people to serve in our stead in congress, in the state legislature, in city hall. Our vote authorizes them (gives them authority) to speak and act for us. In a similar way we represent Jesus, Jesus represents God.

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


Prophet, Righteous Person, Little One

• 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. Broadly, a prophet is anyone who speaks for God; that includes us with 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 after the manner of prophets. Doesn't that include us?

• Little ones are people in any kind of need, so at various times that includes all people inside the church and outside the church. The late Gourmet Chef and Episcopal Priest Robert Farrar Capon insisted God saves only the last, the lost, the little, and the least.

Whichever of these groups you happen to be in at whatever time, Jesus calls people to identify you with Jesus and Jesus with you!


What Now?

I probably can speak for everyone when I say we miss live worship, weekly Eucharist, choir that by now would be on summer break, brunch time tasty eats and interesting conversations, but with cases multiplying and too many people not complying with basic distancing or with the order for masks statewide, I'm in no hurry to return to church campus. We're not going back yet, so what now with these verses from Matthew's gospel?

From what I've observed, everyone at church does their best to welcome visitors, strangers, and returning newcomers to church, and most of us probably do well in our other spaces and places. Sometimes we discern wisely with a good outcome; other times our risk may not yield great results.

But Jesus' words here aren't about our own hospitable behaviors and actions; they're about actions of others related to our presence. This isn't about us welcoming others; it's about others welcoming us. Earlier in this chapter Jesus tells people to shake off any residue of inhospitable situations that may have gotten stuck on you and move on to the next possibility.

This is about getting out there and becoming a guest.

Everyone has vivid memories about surprising welcomes. I've written about the astonishing welcome a group of Tongan United Methodists in A Former City gave me, but I don't believe these verses refer to that general type of situation. I'm not convinced they're about when a family you suspected was down to their last handful of change invited you over for a dinner that turned out to be a royal feast.

• Is it about door-to-door evangelism to invite people to your new church start or revitalized neighborhood programming? That sounds closer, but I truly don't know. Tell me!

Along with asking what type of hospitality in which setting Jesus' words could refer to, an important related question is how persistent does Jesus call us to be before we shake off the dust from that encounter.

• How many times at what intervals do we reach out to individuals and organizations in our attempts to connect? Please tell me your response to this one, too?

Pentecost 3A

Romans 6:1-11

¹What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore 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. ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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. ³⁵For 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; ³⁶and one's foes will be members of one's own household. ³⁷whoever 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; ³⁸and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

COVID-19

Despite public spaces and retail places opening up more, #StaySafeStayHome #SaferAtHome continue. Even someone like me who has a wide libertarian streak appreciates Governor Newsom mandating wearing masks statewide. If people won't consider the needs of others, laws need to move them to act properly. We need to continue praying for effective treatment and for a vaccine. As devout Christian Nancy Pelosi pointed out a while ago, science is one of many ways God acts in the world.


Prayer

God whose gracious power brings us seasons of fall, winter, spring, and summer; God whose Spirit uncovers broken systems and human failures, we thank you for another summer and for going before us and leading us to be your presence everywhere we go. Please, please continue to bless all the essential workers and keep them safe.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.


Green and Growing Season

This is the third Sunday after Pentecost; three weeks ago we celebrated the fiftieth day of Easter and the gift of the pentecostal Spirit of Life—grace, love, resurrection, God's abiding presence in us, the church, as the body of the Risen Christ. In baptism we receive the gift of God's Holy Spirit that enables us to do those "greater things" that Jesus promised. During this season, verdant green is the color for vestments, paraments, banners, etc., just as it was last winter during the few Sundays of ordinary [ordered, structured, delineated] time after Epiphany.


Family

For today the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) that suggests our scriptures pairs Paul/ Saul's Romans 6 baptismal passage 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 well 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 or interfere with God's call to us. As we hear Paul's famous baptismal passage, we remember the cross did kill Jesus, but it didn't succeed in keeping him dead.

The nuclear family we've known and still imagine in the twenty-first century is not a fixture in the Bible, though we hear about parents, children, spouses, in-laws. Jesus instead describes a new family configuration 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. In Matthew 12 that comes shortly after today's reading…

Matthew 12

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

History

The letter to the church at Rome is several decades earlier than the gospel we received from Matthew's community; for Saul / Paul of Tarsus, the gospel is death and resurrection. Paul considers baptism a new exodus, liberation from slavery of all kinds: sin, death, and the devil as we say in the baptismal liturgy; freedom from all forces and enticements of empire that are agents of death. In the life-changing event of baptism, the Triune God claims us forever.

The community gathered around Matthew the tax-collector well may have known the letter to the Romans since epistles were round-robin documents that circulated from church to church, often receiving edits and revisions along the way. However, as we've observed, Matthew's Jesus would not have done baptismal theology the way Paul does in Romans, or as we do in the 21^st century church. In the Great Commission when he told his followers to go everywhere, teach everyone, baptize them, Jesus wouldn't have used the Father, Son, Holy Spirit baptismal formula. Most likely Jesus simply said "baptize" without suggesting words to accompany the action.


Emancipation Proclamation / Juneteenth

President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862 took effect New Year's Day 1863. Texas was slavery's last outpost; in Galveston on June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger announced all slaves had been freed. The attention news media and social media gave to Juneteenth this year has been exciting! The Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified December 6, 1865.


Baptismal Connections

In the previous chapter 5 of Romans, Paul is astonished how sin could have taken over even something as life-giving as the Ten Words or Commandments. In today's passage from Matthew, Jesus alludes to sin and divisions taking over the gift of family. Households will become divided until they claim Jesus' forgiving love, mercy, and justice that obliterates boundaries sin has caused between human families (tribes, clans, countries, every kind of group). Baptism unites us to God's entire family in every place and every time; as Jesus explains, God's family consists of those who follow Jesus by acting like Jesus. In short, God adopts all of us into a reconfigured family in which Jesus' relatives include everyone who follows him.

In this week's passage from Romans, the Apostle Paul asks "Do you not know?" in a way that suggests they don’t know – or if they do know they don't yet get it, possibly haven't quite claimed it. In baptism we have died with Christ. We have been buried with Christ. We already have been raised with Christ into a new future. Do you not know that? Do I not know? Do we now live that?

Baptism unites us to God's entire family in every place and every time. In baptism, every one of our human stories intersect with each other, plus, the waters of baptism first connect us to the story of the entire universe, of this created world.

Aside from Easter Vigil, in actual baptismal liturgies, and often at funerals, this Sunday is the only place in the 3-year lectionary we hear this baptismal passage from Romans. During the baptismal liturgy and during the great fifty days of Easter, thanksgiving over the water begins, "We give you thanks for in the beginning your Spirit moved over the waters and you created heaven and earth. By the gift of water you nourish and sustain us and all living things." Do you remember Emily beautifully pouring water into the font from a lovely pitcher in previous years? Sigh…

The story of our own baptism takes us back to "in the beginning" of Genesis 1, expands to include our current relationship to planet earth as well as to our human siblings, and stretches into the future of all creation. Our present and our future as people of the resurrection is bound up with that of the earth.

"… I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother … one's foes will be members of one's own household."

"foe" in the NRSV is a word we don't use very often, but I left it rather than looking for a different translation.

In Romans, Paul mostly is concerned with divisions between Jew and Gentile. But humans cause divisions in countless ways—between nations, political groups, religious groups, ethnic groups, coworkers, nuclear families, extended families. You easily can expand the list. Racism, sexism, ageism, classism, (another easy et cetera you can continue) are among life-negating behaviors that destroy our own and one another's humanity. These lists imply insider-outsider language. Insider-outsider realities. What are our frames of reference? Ethnic? Cultural? Denominational? National?

Saint Paul asks if we do not know? In baptism our primary familial kinship and identity is under the reign – or kingship – of the crucified and risen One. It is a gift we already have received. It's truly a gift to be the sister, brother, parent, niece, or cousin of [insert name here], wonderful to live as a citizen or resident of the USA, of Italy, of any country that gives people the right to vote, free markets, the rule of law, but those identities are not primary.


Change is Gonna Come!

Similar to how it was in Jesus' time, we've become aware people opposed to contemporary legal, social, economic, cultural systems of … insert one of hundreds here … can expect to be silenced by … insert typical organizational or popular or governmental action here. Especially over the past few weeks, more and more death-dealing structures of sin and systems of oppression have been exposed.

As we gaze with horror and sorrow on (for example) products with packaging that displays ethnic stereotypes, statues of known slaveholders, we need to be careful to read the present through the past (historicism) and not make the easy mistake of reading the past through what we know in this present moment (presentism), by interpreting past events through current values, lenses, practices, and even preferences. A book review I read complained that the book was "so 1983." The book had been published in 1983, and who knows what year the author started writing. We can't live in a future that hasn't yet arrived, but we can learn from the past to help create a better now, and a greatly improved future.

In the power of the cross and the empty grave, by grace we can deal with the past and trust it no longer will enslave us.

How can death and resurrection inspire us to face hard past realities while also working together into a hope-filled future?

Baptism incorporates us into all humanity's history and into the history of planet earth with all its varied flora and fauna. No one is free until every one is free. No person is free until all creation is free. When I was facilitating some and helping teenagers lead other after-school activities in a previous life, my search for songs with solid theology that didn't use explicitly Christian language turned up "Free to Be, You and Me," that somehow I'd missed when it was current.

Free To Be

There's a land that I see where the children are free
And I say it ain't far to this land from where we are
Take my hand, come with me, where the children are free
Come with me, take my hand, and we'll live

In a land where the river runs free
In a land through the green country
In a land to a shining sea
And you and me are free to be you and me

I see a land bright and clear, and the time's comin' near
When we'll live in this land, you and me, hand in hand
Take my hand, come along, lend your voice to my song
Come along, take my hand, sing a song

For a land where the river runs free
For a land through the green country
For a land to a shining sea
For a land where the horses run free
And you and me are free to be you and me

Every boy in this land grows to be his own man
In this land, every girl grows to be her own woman
Take my hand, come with me where the children are free
Come with me, take my hand, and we'll run

To a land where the river runs free
To a land through the green country
To a land to a shining sea
To a land where the horses run free
To a land where the children are free
And you and me are free to be you and me

Music by Stephen J. Lawrence; Lyrics by Bruce Hart

Just as the constitutional justice and liberty the Emancipation Proclamation granted for everyone still isn't complete, the freedom and fulness of life Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension granted all still isn't complete. Death still rules many social, economic, political, ecclesiastical structures and systems, as well as aspects of our lives as baptized individuals.

The story of our own baptism takes us back to "in the beginning" of Genesis 1, expands to include our current relationship to planet earth as well as to our human siblings, and stretches into the future of all creation. Our present and our future as people of the resurrection is bound up with that of the earth.

Our individual lives and our living together are full of the paradox of already done but not quite finished.

• Poet Wendell Berry counsels us, "Practice resurrection!"

• John Cena reminds us, "Hope and effort together is a great recipe for making [seemingly] impossible possible."