March 31-I Peter has a nice phrase, "confidence in God." I wonder how confidence in God affects confidence in oneself. How does it affect confidence in others? Would it make us more trusting? We may have confidence in the security of heaven, but some of that confidence may fade in the face of more mundane needs here on earth. On the other hand, confidence in God could lead us to a blurring of confidence in God turning into personal hubris, as if God's will and our desires are the same. All of us harbor an image of God. Confidence in God lends confidence to God's benevolent disposition toward us all.

March 30- I could not face another "doubting Thomas" sermon this year. Anyway, the word is closer to disbelieving. I go with Tillich's position that one wrestles with doubt as much as one wrestles with faith. He doesn't go through on his need to touch. Seeing and hearing is enough for him, as it was all the disciples. A faith without questions is a fragile thing. Where do you have issues with church teachings? How do you deal with them?

March 29- I planted beets this morning, with some ice still in the soil. I like these hardy early plants that can withstand the frosts of April. What spiritual insight can i draw from beets? No, I'm not going to talk about their blood-red color. I want to emphasize their resistance to the frost. Robert Frost famously spoke of the world world ending in fire or ice. Cold hearts threaten us all. Cold hearts grow numb to suffering. Cold hearts shrivel. Cold hearts become strangers to love. Yet, the heart of human beings can resist the cold and move to the warmth of love to blossom and flourish, even in the cold.

Notes I Peter 1:17-23 and Acts 2:36-41

First, some more work from the last passage and upcoming ones. In v. 6 trials/testing/temptation is peirasmos, but in v. 7 testing is dokimion, with a sense of testing a gold coin by biting it, so one could, with some justification, speak fo 2 types of testing

v. 17 God Judges impartially, so we conduct ourselves with fear or reverence or reverent fear. This goes beyond our usual, God looks past the outside for the heart. This is oriented to deeds, and God does not look at the type of person who does them.

Exile- again, this has a sense of being on the move, in a wilderness perhaps, of not being at home-ransomed from futile ways- this emphasis on inherited futility could go a lot of ways in sermons, especially funny ones, about the useless, foolish, things we do out of habit. Back to the imperishable pt. Lamb, back to start see Lev. 22:21.

v.20 For your sake-notice the beneficent view here, not for the plan’s sake, but for your sake, those who hear this letter, or read it - destined before all but lately revealed-this allows folks of certain interests to wonder about pre-existence of Christ, but also if God foresaw the Fall from Eden. Notice that this letter assumes end times are present in Christ

All groups have concern for boundaries and cohering. Look at the desire for this group’s life.v.21-confidence in God- consider this wonderful phrase-how do we demonstrate confidence in god? V.2- purified souls/life could be a good place for a sermon on “clean living” or an attack on all that attacks purity in culture, but be careful not to make it purely a predictable sense of impurity as being sexual issues. Notice how this purification leads to life in the church

v.22 love of the brethren is Philadelphia

love one another deeply/constantly from the heart-how can this be an imperative? How do we love from the heart, when we don’t recognize the feeling? Is it created by a gift from God or deeds of love? The notion of sincere/genuine love could be referring back to testing of character, as one tests for pure gold. Sincerity=not hypocritical/feigned

v.23 seed/ spore-spora. I picture a dandelion gone to seed here

Is God’s word the soil for the seed, the life force of the seed?

Acts 2:36-41

Repent and be baptized-we often say repent has a change of heart, but the word is more a change in mind, of mind set, of perspective

Forgiven=aphesis=release of debts, a la Lord’s Prayer in Matthew or of prisoners-the basic sense if release, of letting go. The gift of the Holy Spirit would be a good place to discuss the Spirit in our life alone, and in the church. What is it?

v. 39’s beauty is noteworthy link to Joel 2:32, a key passage in Peter’s sermon. This would be a great link to a sermon on being inclusive or diversity as a gift

v. 42 basic liturgy- this would be a good place to start a series on liturgy and the Lord’s Day of resurrection

March 28- Lectionary churches are looking at Peter's sermon in Acts 2 for sunday. I was struck by his designation of Jesus as a man from Nazareth. It's a similar identifier, but a potent one. Too often, we raise Jesus so high that we lose sight of the humanity of the man from Nazareth. The Patrisitc era spoke of "what has not been assumed would not be saved." That would apply to our facing death as well. That ultimate boundary was faced by Jesus. Even that ultimate boundary has been saved.

Sermon on I Peter 1:1-9

I usually have a bit of a let down after Christmas, but I don’t have nearly the same reaction to the end of Easter. It’s hard to grasp its promise of new life when living this one. We are in the same position as those who first heard Peter’s letter or sermon, we don’t see the risen Christ either, but still we seek to be faithful Christians. It speaks to us as people who are not quite at home in this world or in the world to come. We are exiles of a sort, searching for the soul’s true home, all of us on a journey to a distant shore.

How is it possible to rejoice, to jump for joy in the midst of trials and testings? How do we find living hope, new life in the midst of struggle? Here, we encounter trial as a difficult activity to master. It is a good example of life as refining. I cannot tell if here struggle is the result of being Christian or if struggle is a tool for us to become better Christians. I am profoundly distrustful of anyone who tells us that suffering is good for us. Suffering can and does destroy. So, let’s keep at testing as a difficult task, or polishing, or distilling for those who have roots in Kentucky. I’m recalling how hard and frustrating it is to learn how to tie shoes, ride a bike, or learn musical notation. Learning to walk and talk takes so much work, so much practice.

Both passages bring up the issue of God’s plan. Is it a script or more of a storyboard? How individualized and locked in is this plan? Is it more a general strategy, and the tactics shift with events? I have a hard time with seeing a God who made free people then treat them as mere objects, pawns in a chess match. I do love the idea that God’s plan is one of salvation, of planning a way to help us out of the swamp of trouble life can become. My sense is that it is intended to be a comfort, or better a confident assurance, that God looks through the mists of the future and chooses to seek us out, in order to save us. Joel is pivotal here. How does post Easter change the reading from its Pentecost position? Especially note Easter dreams and visions for all

Obviously, we hope that so many struggles will end. We hope that some good comes out of it. How does it become living hope? The polishing that the struggles of life can bring lets the light of Christ, of Easter life and light, shine through more brightly. Over time, the rough edges get worn down. Learning a difficult task teaches us that we have patience and endurance, already. It reminds me that the characters in the Wizard of Oz already had the virtues they sought; they only need them to be recognized, so that they could recognize them. I think of a woodworker trying to bring out the grain and shine of the wood.

Carrie Newcomer, the Indiana singer, has a new album out. In it she sings, perhaps in the first song ever, about geodes. We could just look past by their unremarkable exteriors, but inside are the jewel-like quartz crystals. She sings about how miracles are hidden away in the seemingly commonplace, like the ordinary rock that covers the geode. I Peter speaks of God keeping for us treasure in heaven for safe-keeping, but I think it could be read as a reservation kept secure for us, and we will be the treasured in heritance. In other words, God sees our lives as so precious that they must be held like keepsakes in heaven. Still, it also speaks of a salvation that we are receiving, right now. Life works on us day after day and reveals God-given marvels. Is living hope one that lives or is it hope that gives life? Both, and God provides that hope in a better future, better days to come.

March 27- We had an exchange student from Malaysia visit our men's group yesterday to tell us of her country. It was a collision between image and reality. We saw pictures of its soaring skyscraper in its capital. She was shocked to see so much poverty on the road to a vacation with her host family. So it is with the faith. We have a picture in our heads, and reality crashes in on the ideal. Where do you want to see the religious ideal realized? When does it hurt you to see it falter?

March 25-I've been working on I Peter, and then did a Bible Study on Jesus's prayer in John 17. Both speak of purity or holiness. When we hear holiness, we may think of a church such as the Nazarene. We may think of trying to be perfect, especially about trivial things. The main sense of holiness is being called by God for a special purpose. called out of the normal routine to do a work for God's visionof the way the world should be. Do you have a sense of that calling in things small or large? Do you sometimes sense a coherence between what you do, what you want to do, and the needs of the world?

March 24-We're trying an experiment. I'm going to try to post a daily devotion, similar to our Lenten ones. Right now, I'm going through Scott Russell Sanders, A Private History of Awe. That's a good word for the religious, awe. His ranges from awe at finding love, to awe at the construction of nature, to awe at seeing the development of his first grandchild. for me, awe is related to the holy, probably in reaction to Rudolph Otto's book, almost a century ago. Where do you feel awe? Where did you used to feel it, but have lost the thread? Where would you hope to feel it?

Notes for I Peter 1:3-9, Acts 2:22-32

I Peter 1:3-9 (See Elliot- Home for the Homeless, or Hauerwas and Wilimon-Resident Aliens) People marginalized, out of place. Could be finding the “heart’s or soul’s true home. Some think it a baptismal sermon-Some think it is aimed at encouragement over Issue of unjust suffering touched on repeatedly

vv. 3-5 one of the few places where you will see phrase born again.

Emphasis on new hope connected to new life. Here is baptismal image similar to Rom. 6:4. faith is confident faith, note Latin root of confidence

Promise kept up for us, in safe-keeping in the heavens (Eph. 1:11-14, Colo. 1:5. On Heirs See Ps. 16:5, Gal. 4:7 that treasure is not spoiled/tarnished

We are waiting for full completion of God’s work (already/not yet)

Switch from us to you (sermonic shift/)

vv. 6-7 In this refers to what part of the previous section?

Rejoice 2X= exult, jump for joy- how is that possible in the midst of suffering?

This is the first of 4 mentions of trial/temptations/testings. It is a good example for suffering as refining. I cannot tell if here suffering is the result of being Christian or if suffering is a tool for us to become better Christians. I can’t tell when the refining is done in our lifetime or in the end times? Vv. 8-9 not seeing is mentioned 2X- faith again psyche=soul=nephesh/ self? or some immaterial human dimension? Notice the time issue here-are receiving

Acts 2:22-32 –remarkable density of Scripture in this section of Peter’s sermon

starts with a basic description but notice a “regular person” from nazareth

brings up the issue of God’s plan- is it a script?

David as messianic hinge as prophet and patriarch. Josephus knew of the tomb of david

Ps.18:4-6, 16:8-11, 132:11, 110:1. Note that the psalmist’s words are used as a frame for understanding the events

Joel is pivotal here. How does post Easter change the reading from its Pentecost position? Especially note Easter dreams and visions for all

Maundy Thursday Notes from Matthew

The first Communion was a Passover meal, a seder. Passover of death-of slavery-of red Sea-the promise of a new Promised Land Jesus wanted to be with his friends on the last day of his life. Jesus reinterprets the Passover into a time of forgiveness. Of broken body and a whole body, the church. We have it as a spiritual banquet.

Fruit of the vine and the upcoming cup of suffering (make a blessing out of a curse) See Ezek, 23:32 , Jeremiah 25:15-29 Hab. 2:16

Jesus shares the fruit of the vine with us this evening. Jesus wants to be with us this evening once again, even though we too have betrayed the faith of Jesus Christ over and over, just like the first disciples. Betrayal hovers around the dinner. Even there, Jesus quotes Scripture. The words to Judas allude to Ps. 41, esp.9. Still, Jesus wants to spend this important night with his friends. Jesus wants to spend this last night of his life in prayer with his friends. Jesus points us to the end times with the coming of the kingdom in full. He could also be pointing to post-resurrection appearances.

Easter Notes

On Friday we gathered in the dark, to reflect on the death of Jesus. This morning, we gather in the dark to reflect on the resurrection of Jesus. When our daughters were little, one of them asked why we didn’t have black Easter eggs. Black is a color for funerals, and Easter is the festival of Christian life, of life everlasting.

The cosmic upheaval of resurrection fits the same cosmic view of the crucifixion. The Bible shows prudence in refusing to describe the resurrection itself, only a message and appearances-these are Biblical signs of God's presence, but the presence of God inbreaking into a new phase of life, of life with us. To what will we be raised? This is a bodily resurrection. Jesus recognizes them and their feelings and speaks and gives plans for the future and still wants to go home to Galilee. For us, heaven will be the one place we can truly call home.

Fear is mentioned 3 times. The guards are fit for a tomb but not the living Jesus; they are as shaken as the earth, for no human guard can stand up against the Guardian of Life. The angelic presence is as dazzling as lightning; lightning is a sign of the presence of God but may also be a bit of a jab against Jupiter/Zeus holding a lightning bolt. The women are told not to be afraid by the angel and by Jesus. Most of us fear death, even if our faith tells us that we have nothing to fear. If the Truth be told, we are afraid of living an Easter life. Guards, inside and outside, prevent us from living in the light. Living a Jesus life would likely put us in danger. Living an Easter life puts us in danger, the danger of being truly happy.

The two named women were doing a kind deed of keeping vigil at the grave, as I assume the guards would prevent entry. Jesus does not go to lord it over the people who conducted his trials, nor his execution; nor does he go to the disciples who fled at first Jesus meets/ accompanies them-the disciples are still brothers. The greeting is really: rejoice. Try to begin to imagine the sheer relief the disciples felt that they were still brothers. Try to imagine their sheer shock that the buried Jesus was the living Jesus? Rejoice we do as well. We cannot assume that the resurrection of Jesus would perforce imply our resurrection. Why wouldn’t it be God’s blessing on his life alone? Only because we are brothers and sisters with Jesus Christ that we live in the spirit of Christ, can we find that hope.

Is. 25 lives again at Easter, as we wait still for the shroud to be lifted. Resurrection story does help dry our tears. The burial shroud is lifted from us as God points to resurrection, not death, to restoration, not destruction. Maybe Jesus recited these words at the resurrection, or maybe God spoke them. I’m delighted that the men’s group continues its tradition of giving us an Easter breakfast feast. Instead of the mercy lunches we host at a funeral, it is Isaiah’s party, where the wake we note is the eventual death of Death.

Resurrection is more than the reviving of a corpse. It is a new life. Still, it holds together the life we live. I find it comforting that even at resurrection, Jesus wants to go back home to Galilee. We speak of the March madness of the basketball tournaments. It is not March madness to hold that the Lord of life is the Lord of the living. Easter people keep their faces turned resolutely to the rising sun. Easter people look toward tomorrow’s open promise. We cannot start our deaths too early; we are never too old to live in earnest.

As we close this service, the light is breaking. Every morning the darkness of death retreats. This Easter Sunday light announces that death will not win in the end. We have to look hard in early spring for signs of new life ready to emerge. I see tiger lily coming out, and lettuce is planted. All of the natural analogies fall short of the full light of Easter. Easter is an utterly new thing. At the first creation, God said let there be light. In this new creation, God says at Easter, let there be life. Easter does seem too good to be true. Easter is coming face to face with the goodness of the God of life. Easter eggs are the color of life.

Good Friday Notes

Once again, we gather to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Jesus at Calvary. It is suitable to do so in the evening, with the light dimming. It is wok done well in the dark, reflecting on the death of a good man who died far too soon, under torture.

Matthew piles on the traditional end time events on the event of the crucifixion. The darkness at noon recalls the darkness over Egypt at the first Passover, now worldwide, perhaps, or over only the Promised Land. It recalls all of the descriptions of the Day of the Lord, but I like to think that God could not bear to have the light shine on such a terrible event. Temple curtain could be the sign of God doing the traditional act of mourning, or could be the announcement that God was on the loose, not limited to the temple precincts, or a sign of its destruction. The same applies to earthquake and presence of God and sign of end times/new age, It is as if nature mourns for the death of Jesus; nature is torn up, for the saints the death of Jesus brings resurrection- So, Good Friday met with seismic and silent responses.

Jesus was derided by all, so as to rub salt in the wounds. Jesus was deserted by all, everyone fled. Jesus was misunderstood by all. Even his last words of Psalm 22 as misinterpreted that he was calling for Elijah and not God. How utterly alone Jesus was. At this godforsaken moment even prayer was not heard. The only company Jesus had spent their time hounding him. Evil does not like to leave good alone.

The story of the crucifixion does not give any interpretations itself but is content with describing some of the events of that awful day. Sacrifice and scapegoats have been a way to keep violence contained, so a feud, or a tradition of violence does not break out Issue of an innocent scapegoat- Try reversing some of the issue of sacrifice/propitiation (in a way, the cross represents God's sacrifice of love to us, God's arms are held open for us on the cross)-It is hard for me to grasp the notion that the death of Jesus assuages the anger of God. I can’t understand the cross as a transaction of accounting the weight of sin in exchange for innocence-that sounds more demonic than divine to me. Again, God’s own feels the costly practice, not us. We are the recipients of its good, in that God is willing to use a terrible evil, inflicted by us, as a tool to wrestle good out of evil. Put differently, Jesus Christ loves us to death, even to death. As he himself said, greater love has no one than to lay down one’s life for friends. Even if we are enemies to the good, God is willing to see us as friends, friends worth dying for. God uses Jesus to represent humanity at its worst to give us a view of God at the divine best. Paul isn’t speaking of the crucifixion but he gets at its depth when he says that nothing, not even death can separate us from the love of god in Jesus Christ. Joseph’s words take on new power from Genesis. “You meant it for evil, but god meant it for good.” On Good Friday, I’m not sure if God said No or Yes. Was God saying, No, to all the evil, sin, and pain? Was God saying, Yes, beyond the abyss, beyond that chasm of suffering, to the life and message of a dying young man?

Quotes from Reynolds Price Letter to a Man in a fire-scalding moment-my sense of the grinding wheel you’re presently under, the stark bitterness you taste. Jesus shows utter solidarity with those who suffer. They are not being punished. It is part of the human condition. It is often a result of evil choices, or evil inflicted on us.

Enough sacrifice. One died so that all may live. Enough condemnation, the judge of all was condemned in our place. Enough about winners and losers, for Calvary upends any speculation about what that means in the eyes of a God who saw Jesus lose everything, even his life.

Ps. 114-Notes for Easter

First, recall this is part of the Egyptian group of 113-118 and may have been read at Passover in the time of Jesus.

Its call to praise is to the earth as a dialogue/partner inprayer-this is a good entyry point to address all of the nature imagery in Easter signs and symbols.

It is reciting the great events of God-when we read it at Easter we see it as part of that divine journey with us, alone and together. A good entry point is to recount big moments in our lives, with special attention to dying moments and Easter moments

The exodus word in an Easter context is exodus from the rule of Death

In baptism, we are all God's sanctuary/temple-On Holy Saturday, even the tomb was God's holy place

I assume that the line about the sea is a cosmic one of defeating the forces of chaos, see Ps.74,77,104

Creation is part of salvation work

Mountains skipping could be linked ot the earthquake at Good Friday and Easter as event announcing God's presence but also birthing af a new creation (Rom. 8)the same applies to the trembling earth. McCann in NIB p. 1142 finds a mixture of joy and fear in this, just as in Easter. This is a good fit for the mixture of feelings at Easter in the already/ not yet character of the holiday

Column for Friday Greensburg, IN paper

How Death danced on the Sabbath when Jesus was buried. Death was a picture of elegance and twirled a jeweled necklace as it celebrated its sweet triumph. So many had been taken, but this was special. God’s own was in the grave, a borrowed one at that. . Divine love was crucified.

Alan Lewis was a theologian at Austin Seminary. He was writing his major work on Holy Saturday, Between Cross and Resurrection. While writing, he was stricken with cancer, in what he called his Holy Saturday year. His family had to work to get it published after his death. He picked Holy Saturday to capture the full weight of the death of Jesus, so as to be able to assert the full power of Easter. In a prayer at the end of the book (p. 466), he calls God bereft; that God “added to our tears of shame, bewilderment, and rage, (God’s) own infinity of broken-heartedness and indignation at the tragic, proud estrangement of your children, and the wasteful corruption of (God’s) beautiful creation.” In complete solidarity with us, Jesus Christ was interred, the divine elected the grave. Living with Holy Saturday with care and reflection pushes us to deal with the loss at Good Friday without skipping to Easter triumph.

This year our readings include Matthew’s version in church. In a political joke, the guards are out of the picture, scared to death. They are useless anyway, as they guard an empty tomb. We are given natural symbols of divine presence, but also signs associated with end times. Jesus talks to two named women and accompanies them. He gives them a message for the disciples who had abandoned him after all of their brave words. Jesus calls them brothers. Death was not an end to their relationship. Jesus would not hold an understandable grudge. We see that the resurrection would not be a continuation of their betrayal, but an opportunity to remain with Jesus in the new Easter life and light of forgiveness.

On Easter Sunday morning, a new dawn broke. Yes, a new day dawned, but a new day for the world dawned as well, a cosmic morning. The light would overcome the blind darkness of death. Its terrible finality would persist, but its ultimate victory lay scattered with the grave clothes in the tomb. Easter does not obliterate grief, but its bright promise can ease it in due time. Even the grave is not God-forsaken. God accompanies us in death. God guides us to a life beyond the grave, a life transformed. Jesus appears first to the mourning women. Jesus respects our grief. Since the women recognize Jesus, and he recognizes them, we can assume that life beyond death does not wash away our lives and our loves.

On Easter, the guards did rouse themselves enough to see a spectral figure dressed in rags slinking away from the empty tomb. Death saw the writing on the wall of the sepulcher. God is a God of life. God is the God of the living. God could not bear to lose Jesus to the power of death. Those creatures made in the image and likeness of God are too precious to abandon to the grave. Easter fits the seasons, even an early Easter, as some signs of life are breaking out of the cold ground. Death is persistent, but life perseveres. Its symbols all point to life. When we gather around our Easter tables, may our toasts be: “to life.” Savor the sweetness of life in your Easter candy. Search for signs of new life in the rainbow of colored Easter eggs. May your happiness multiply like bunnies.

First Cut at Is. 25:6-9 for Easter

This section is within an apocalyptic section of chs. 24-27.

When read at Easter, it takes on a new sheen. To what degree to you see Easter as already being part of the new age? This remarkable passage envisions a time when death is no longer a threat.

v. 6 I assume that this is Mt. Zion. The temple mount is now a site for a grand banquet, ( I love older translations that speak of fat things) If one has Communion on Easter, this is a great opportunity to speak of spiritual banquets

v.7 here Easter gives a sense of the already and not yet. Surely a shroud is laid over our violent world; the pall of death covers so much territory. Yet we claim heaven in the face of death, especially at Easter.

v.8The swallowing up of death, by life, is a brilliant reversal of the Canaanite image of death swallowing life, where Mot swallows Baal and goes to the underworld.. Baal had a banquet to celebrate his defeat of the sea (Yamm) See Paul’s use of it ion I Cor 15:54

The wiping of tears is picked up in Rev. 7:17, 21:4..

Note the reproach of God’s people is taken away- no sign of eternal punishment here

v.9. Could not this be said at the empty tomb, for that matter the Saturday tomb of Jesus.?Couldn’t the saints of heaven be singing it. Isn’t it a song in heaven now?

Holy Week 2008 Devotional

Palm Sunday-Hosanna means save us. Apparently, ti had taken on a meaning of acclamation. When we get swept up in adulation, say for Obama, or the Daniel Day Lewis performance in There Will Be Blood, that crowd response is triggered. Imagine yourself at Palm Sunday. For what would you yell save us today as a plea, not applause?

Monday-PBS had Sherlock Holmes on in its constant begging for funding. They had the detective writer Robert B. Parker, of Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sonny Randall fame, to offer some thoughts. He said that we are attracted to Holmes because we live in an uncertain world, and we hope that the use of enlightened reason can solve our problems. That’s a religious impulse, to find someone beyond ourselves to make sense of this often senseless world. When has enlightened reason helped or harmed you?

Tuesday- Teaching touches eternity. Jesus spent his last days teaching in the temple. I don’t know how deep his intimations of the end of his life were as of that week. If they were clear, I think of the last lecture tradition and the work of a professor at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh who gave one with cancer eating away at him. What teachings, what gems of life experience, do you think it important to hand down?

Wednesday-One of the reasons I Chronicles is so hard to read is its constant lists. For instance, 16:42 gives the names of those responsible for trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments for sacred songs. Any worth doing, including worship, requires some planning on our part. Ordinary people doing ordinary things are named for playing their small parts in routine duties.

Maundy Thursday-Footwashing is at the center of John’s story, prior to the great Farewell Speeches of chs. 14-17. Part of my disquiet is that it seems too intimate to give or receive, so I feel for Peter’s trouble. I then think of holes in my socks or the smell of tennis shoes. Part of me searches for something similar in our time maybe washing someone’s underwear or placing deodorant on someone. Think of how Jesus makes that type of act to be a sign of Christian leadership.

Good Friday- Many Christians have real difficulty coming up with the necessity for the death of Jesus. Where is the justice in the death of the innocent Jesus, even if it is a vicarious death? Does our account of the meaning of Calvary promote suffering as a good? When does it become a tool for the cruel? For me, the Church takes the cross away from supporting violence and takes up the cross to heal suffering when we encounter it.

Holy Saturday-I usually go back to a magnificent book on Holy Saturday by the late Alan Lewis. He was working on the book when he was stricken with cancer, and it was published from notes after his death. Toward the end, he reflects on his own Holy Saturday year and writes, “It is through participation in the patience of God’s spirit that we learn the gift of waiting which restores us to ourselves from the destructive urgency of our desires and aspirations, and slows the tempo of our intemperance. Where better than a hospital, on wonders, might a contemporary westerner confront this necessity and fittingness of waiting?” (413)

Passion Sunday 2008 Mt. 27 selected verses

We have parades and monuments for the dead who sacrificed their lives in war. War persistently lays hold of us. In our nation, we lose over 20,000 people to murder a year, far more, every year, than in the long morass of Iraq. Violence attacks so many, so much in our time, even in a time of blessedly better crime statistics. Patiently, violence waits to erupt in our impatient selves.

Just a few days after the triumph of the Palm Sunday parade, the shouts of acclaim turned into the brusque commands of guards. I don’t want to start out making a fetish of violence as in the Passion of the Christ. I do want to highlight that Jesus was a victim of violence before the crucifixion. Violence attacks so many-so much in our time-in a time of blessedly better crime statistics. I’ve usually seen the cup as the suffering for us internally. It must have included physical suffering as well.

People with swords and clubs seized Jesus. My guess is that it was not gentle. Jesus could have called down forces of violence but did not. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. The only time during the whole march to Calvary where Jesus sounds commanding and imperious is this moment.

We exercise power with physical domination and putting people in their place. Humiliation becomes part of the violence. The good often seems weak, so the strong think it is open to being mocked. People spit in his face. Not only was he slapped and struck, but he was asked to say who did it, so they blows came from behind or a hood was over his eyes. Jesus receives the same treatment at the hands of the soldiers as they did the religious police. They mocked him with cries and symbols of a perverted kingship, with robe and a crown, of thorns. We all struggle to come to grips with the cross, and Scripture gives us ways to do so. These preliminary tortures are so difficult in that they are arbitrary and senseless. It is hard to bear the thought of the non-violent Christ being treated with casual brutality.

We justify violence, with: “they deserved it.” Victims of violence get viewed as inferior. We are called to prevent violence and to heal its terrible aftermath. We get numb to violence. Our relentless exposure to violence on TV, in video games, in movies, leaves us less sensitive to it and more aggressive. By the time they reach 8^th grade, children see thousands of murders and tens of thousands acts of violence on screens. Like the disciples, we are still sleeping. We get numb to violence, or we look away; or we learn to ignore it. We could discuss what we watch and how it is presented. We do well to watch movies such as Hotel Rwanda along with a steady diet of violence to get some balance

The people of a tortured Savior should be wary of claims for the necessity of torture for the vagrant hope for security. Work with virtues. (See Post and Neimark, Why Good.) Forgiveness improves one’s health more than being forgiven and lowers stress hormones. When we exercise compassion, a hormone, oxytocin is released, one that seems to clam the fight response and connect us, instead of triggering the flight response. Some studies on meditating on compassion may show a change in brain patterns. As Lent closes, we do well to give up violence and seek ways to bring some blessed peace. The followers of a beaten Savior then honor the work of his life.

I saw Death in the vestibule when I came in early for the service. As usual, he was well dressed, with the familiar leering malevolence. Death danced in another victory in the death of a young man.

This evening we must give the permission of the church to grieve. A good young life is rightly celebrated, so the grief of losing such a bright light to a foreshortened time is all the more painful. We cannot ease the pain by repressing it, or papering it over with words only of celebration. We find the courage to lean into the pain. At this point, our prayers are ones of lament. Once again, heaven is besieged by our words, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The communion of saints is a community of the grieving, in the wordless hugs and casseroles, in the choked sobs and condolences.

The questions linger in the air: why, what sense can we make of this, where is God in all of this? I do not have final answers, but I can offer one way, my current path, in the struggle. The healing God did not heal Charlie of cancer. Charlie was healed in the courage in facing death. Charlie found healing in all of the loving care he gave and received, from the flood of stories on the caringbridge site. Step by step, breath by breath, we rebuild our lives in the face of loss. Comforts will come, in time. We will live fully again, in time.

Bonhoeffer said that “only the suffering God can help.” A deep love that shares pain, celebrates a life that engages with us in our struggle is the power that animated all the good we heard of Charlie in these dark days. This creation is as good as this world gets, and it is filled with weakness and enemies to our health. Death stalks us all. God’s creation is filled with threats and blessings; the chaos of death makes forays in its battle with life. I cannot live with a God who reigns supreme over this hard life, who ‘takes” lives, detached from our struggles. I do believe in a responsive God, the God whose very Spirit, at this very moment, is interceding for us “with sighs too deep for words.” God too knows the full pain of having a beloved die too young. As Holy Week approaches, we hear the story again of Jesus, maybe around 6 years older than Charlie, faced his own foreshortened life.

God’s love is so deep that God could not bear to lose Charlie to Death. That young reader surely came across the Runaway Bunny at some time. No place is too far for love to reach. Hear Ps. 139 again. If I go to the depths of the pit of death, you are there. This evening the reach of that love extends into a new world, as love respects not time and infinite distance. Charlie’s life is transformed, but his life as it was lived, perdures. Not only does it continue in our frail memories, but it lives within the very memory, the very life of God. In that sense, Charlie receives ultimate healing.

When the words of Jesus were read to start the service, I saw Death slink away. The great clothes turned into rags. Once again, Death loses. Only God can make a tomb into a womb. After all, this service is one of witness to the resurrection, of new life shining out of the shadow of death. The living God is a God of the living, the God for Charlie.

Is. 50:4-9a First cut notes

1) What does a tongue that is not taught sound like?

2) How can we sustain the weary with a word?

3) How is the ear wakened?

4) Give examples of a face set like flint. Some other types of pictures, projected or copied, could be helpful here, even the church directory.

5) Is it courage or a brazen taunt that we see in v. 8?

6) v.9 who will declare me guilty? One answer is no one, but if we extend this to Jesus, he was declared guilty, although wrongly. How are our lives a demonstration of guilty or innocent?

7) How do we take care not to glorify suffering from this, or tell others that they deserve it, especially when we are not suffering when we do so?

It just hit me that the first time that I really thought about resurrection as new life was when we had our English assignment on Ethan Frome, and it hit me that the characters were more dead than alive. That lifelessness attack the virtues of life, especially hope. God will not allow it to win, but God continues to enliven and give birth to hope, corporate and personal. Death is not denied here in its awful impact, but highlighted.

Why does Jesus delay? Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Martha won’t have to wait until the end of all things for the resurrection. The last days are here or he re-imagines the end time resurrection into his own life. Lazarus would die again. Jesus would die but once, as will we all. Jesus takes the resurrection of the last days and personalizes it.

Jesus is deeply affected by the death of Lazarus and the grief that surrounds it. It is a glimpse into the heart of God, as much as humanity, to see that reaction. Is it a reaction to his own impending death, the sheer misery that death brings to so many, that death touches so many and he would raise so few? Maybe Jesus is sick of the shadow of death itself, its malevolent, leering presence.

Jesus asks that people roll away the stone of the tomb. Then door is wide open. We get used to death, and the stone on the tomb keeps it in its place. It also says that death can win over life. In rolling away the stone, they admit the entry of life into the abode of death. Then resurrection occurs in this story. Still it is not finished, Lazarus is still all wrapped up. Jesus was born with strips of cloth around his infant body, and Lazarus returns to the earth in the same way. For burial wrappings to become swaddling clothes, he must be unbound. Other people roll away the stone and unbind Lazarus. In other words, we help new life to flourish once God has worked the ever-present miracleof life itself.

The same applies in the vision of Ezekiel to an exiled people who must feel as if the door of hope has slammed shut on them. In Ezekiel, a pattern of recreation exists, one step at a time. All the eye can see in this lurid vision would be the bones of the slain, the detritus of a terrible defeat. Bit by bit they are put back together, but they are still lifeless, until the breath of life, the spirit of the living God enters into those bones. In other words, they can appear to be normal and alive on the outside, but inside they are lifeless. The tomb would be an open grave, unless the spirit of God brought new life to Lazarus or the valley of the dry bones.

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus hears that twice. God hears it in the midst of our troubles in one form or another constantly. Only God can make a womb out of a tomb. The Lord and Giver of Life can even make death the raw material for a new creation. Only God can make a final resting place a manger. Yes, we need to see heaven as that answer, when we live in the shadow of death. At the same time, we are made for more than waiting for heaven’s door. The valley of dry bones and the tomb of Lazarus show us that we do not need to live a half-life, a deadening life. When we get depressed, it seems as if life is a mere collection of dried bones, of lost dreams. A marriage whose life has wilted can flourish again. The God of heaven gives us eternal life, and the God of this earth opens doors to new life every single day.

2. First cut at Ps. 118This is part of the Egyptian Hallel material (113-118). It is possible that this was the last psalm sung after the Last Supper.

3. Some repetition in the psalm-when is repetition helpful or disconcerting?

4. When is God your song v.14? Is it blues, rock, insipid praise songs, classical? How does the song of god change for you?

5. Notice the verb in v.14 has become my salvation, when does salvation become a reality for you- how would you define salvation’s meaning in this martial psalm and how do you view its meaning today, especially during Holy Week?

6. What victory has God given you? V.15

7. Notice how context affects how we read v. 17, especially during times in Holy Week

8. How do you see the gate of the Lord today?

9. Vv 25-26 form the basis for quotation for Palm Sunday accounts. Save us=hosanna, though it had come to be part of a more general acclamation.

10. Its martial imagery works well for battle imagery for good and evil along with the surprising weapons God uses

Lenten Devotional Week of 3/9/08

Sunday March 9-I’ve been sick for a while. Some find illness to be a metaphor for our spiritual condition; others find it a way into deep thoughts. I have to fight feeling sorry for myself and napping, something I rarely do. I do get reminded how being physically sick saps emotional and mental energy and clarity, but at the same time, I don’t see it possible that one can use the will to force physical health either. Of course, as soon as I feel better, I will go about as if good health is my birthright.

Monday –Eugene Peterson wrote a book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, on the psalms of ascent. In a chapter on humility from Ps. 131, he writes that it is hard for us to even see pride as a sin “when it is held up on every side as a virtue, urged as profitable, and rewarded as an achievement.” (148) Where do you find your humility? Does pride ever become an issue for you?

Tuesday-in Zephaniah 3 we find a concern for “pure speech” and a future where no lies, no “deceitful tongues” will be found. Now there’s a vision of the golden Age. Immersed in lies on the newsstand and on the Internet, it’s hard to seek out the true. Campaigns can be a synonym for deceit. Maybe prayer is the one vehicle for pure speech that is available to us. Maybe that’s why liturgy should have beautifully composed prayers, as we strain to tell the truth well.

Wednesday- A Buechner quote: “In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.” (By the way, I forgot that handkerchief had a d in it) It’s an interesting image, as the saintly may repel as much as attract. Of course, the handkerchief is dropped, as the person knows that they are been observed in the first place. When you run into someone saintly what is it about them that you find attractive?

Thursday Ray Palmer wrote “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” as a devotional poem for his own weary soul. A young man on the rise, he was worn-out from too many jobs. Lowell Mason was interested in religious music and the exhausted Palmer gave him a then two-year old text, and Mason soon put it to music. Read it as a religious poem in your hymnbook. Imagine yourself as Mason putting it to music.

Friday-Bonhoeffer’s view of the love of Christ goes like this (March 18^th in the new W/JK devotional) “it surrounds us, as we are supposed to be eternal. It lets nothing stop it, for it is god’s eternal faithfulness to us. It is solely for our sake…Jesus accepts us as we are.” It is so important for many of us weighed down by shame, or damaged self-esteem

Saturday-I’m quite cultural of late. Last week Jocelyn and I went to the play in Greensburg and saw Charlie Rose at IU. This week I see Bye-Bye Birdie at NDHS and go see Jocelyn in the Music Man next week. I find a lot of spiritual power in plays, but I don’t find it so much in explicitly religious productions. I do know that when I see creative human endeavor, I am in the presence of the image of God being acted out in 2008.

March 2 Sermon John 9 and I Samuel 16

This week sight binds our passages together. Looks can be deceiving. We are told that God looks beyond appearances but into the heart, the depths of the self. Saul was picked for power due to his commanding height. Now Samuel immediately figures that the firstborn in David’s family should be the one. We have to go through every brother before we get to David, off in the fields as a shepherd. The image of shepherd will become a standard one for human and divine leadership in the days to come. Then, we are told how good-looking he is. Social psychology experiments indicate that we grant astonishing amounts of power to attractiveness: we see the attractive as poised, having good judgement, successful, well-adjusted and socially skilled. We attribute those characteristics on the basis of what our eyes tell us. So David’s look will tell people that he has what it takes to be a leader.

We are involved in a flurry of misperceptions in the story of the blind man. Jesus anoints his eyes, just as David was anointed to a new role in his life. Is the paste a sort of new creation, just as God had molded clay into the human being? The passers by argue if this sighted man was the blind man. Had they ever seen the blind man? We are surprised to see someone in a new circumstance. We know can be a danger sign. It can show that belief that our perceptions outweigh those of God. The more his eyes are opened the tighter shut the others get. Sometimes, we may not want the light, as we come to prefer the dark.

One important item is at the start. The disciples want to blame the man or his parents for his misfortune due to a sin. Jesus will not give that assumption the time of day. Instead he sees the infirmity as a start of God’s healing power. We are to get on with the work of healing, not in idle speculation about its source. In seeking to blame people for their plight, we blind ourselves to the help they need. We are blinded to the good that can come out of the situation, how God can weave this trouble into a better garment.

The misperception of taking something good as something bad is so harmful to the spiritual life. We get so embittered; our sight gets so skewed that we call a blessing a curse. For John sin is fundamentally misperception about Jesus, a failure or inability to see the truth about Jesus. Sometimes, when a hard truth is revealed, we say, “how could I have been so blind?” that can be a moment of growth or continued disappointment and bitterness.

So often we insist that people have to see things our way. We get so controlling that we think that we can force perceptions into our little mold. The religious leaders have a trial because they can’t believe their eyes at the healing in their midst. Part of our maturation as Christian is to begin to let go of that single vision. Part of our participation in Christ is to begin to see through the eyes of Christ. I realize that is a tall order, but we can at least make a start. First, pray for someone with whom you do not see eye to eye. Imagine how god looks at that person, especially how God searches out their point of view and their good points. Imagine that you’ve become blind to the person that they are and you are. Imagine the mudpack being lifted from your eyes. You wash them off in the waters of your baptism. The see your inner eye healed as you share the eyes of Jesus Christ.

Lenten Devotional Week of March 2

Sunday March 2-When March arrives, I become tired of winter weather. I console myself with the thought that March weather requires just a bit of patience, and we won’t be stuck in the house for very long. Lent always points to spring. Even when we are in the spiritual doldrums, we can look to new growth, the fresh green of hope.

Monday-The issue of God and human suffering recurs for me. The author of Saralyn’s textbook has a new book on it, God’s Problem. I’ve bee haunted by the cancer taking the young adult son of a member of presbytery. I have no patience with those who insist that suffering is somehow good for us. That seems to come from a position of not suffering oneself. That kind of natural evil in nature does not make any sense ot me as a punishment, or a teaching tool. For me its value lies in our compassion and abilities to help heal wounds.

Tuesday Jeremiah is the feature in the new Interpretation journal. Kathleen O’Connor’s piece reminds us of how much people suffered due to the exile. We respond to evil by crying out to God. That is not the same as complaining, but a heartfelt plea for help when we are overwhelmed. Jeremiah is not among the favorite Scripture list due to his honesty in baring pain before God. It’s a bit like overhearing an intimate conversation, a violation of spiritual privacy.

Wednesday- Why are you making such a big deal out of this? How many times have you heard that question? We tend to minimize our wrongs and blame overreaction on the part of the wronged one. How can we come to appreciate the perspective of someone, even when they do seem to be blowing something out of all proportion?

Thursday- Leviticus is routinely skipped. I must admit, I have little patience for close descriptions of sacrificial rituals. It has some vital points for us, even if the rituals seem far-removed from us. A life without rituals is impoverished, as we have no traditions to go by and make up too much on the spur of the moment. Its words on the Sabbath are important safeguards from becoming addicted to work.

Friday-Here’s another quote from the Bonhoeffer devotional, I Want to Live these Days with You. “God bears our burdens. “ If we cast off our burden of the suffering of others, we carry a heavier burden, the burden of ourselves. That is why Jesus says to take his yoke, the yoke of the cross, not misery and despair, but rest and refreshment for our souls.”

Saturday-Laughter can be a Lenten gift. It is noteworthy how often laughter is directed against someone. For those who like to give up something, maybe that would be a good workout. Fro those who prefer to do something positive, what would be a place where laughter would be encouraging and helpful? Where are places in your own life where laughter is the appropriate response?