Sunday, February 22, 2009



  1. Gen. 9:8-17 first sunday in Lent



  2. Does God repent?



  3. What does covenant mean?



  4. The rainbow (see fn.57 Ethos and Cosmos, ch. 2) is a bow. It is a cosmic instrument of power. Here it is set to undergird the firmament as an instrument of peace.



  5. To what degree does this undercut the curse of Adam?



  6. Look at the ecological features for this story.



  7. How does Noah live out his name (rest, quiet) here?



  8. God makes the covenant without any conditions for everything and everyone.



  9. Why should a covenant pledge need a sign?



  10. What sign would be good fro human and ecological peace now?



Ash Wednesday-Many
churches use a passage from Joel 2:1-2. 12-17. It smashes the
stereotype of Judaism being legalistic. “Rend your hearts, not
your garments.” God wants to see signs of repentance here. To
begin the season of Lent, we are reminded of our mortality as we see
the sign of repentance, ashes. Sin makes ashes of our relationships.
We have a hard enough time feeling remorse for what we do to each
other. Perhaps we would do better to think of sin as something that
breaks God’s heart, or dashes a hope for us.





Thursday-Temptation has
to be trickier than saying this is harmful, so do not do it. On the
surface, temptation draws us to the attractive, to the engaging, to
the enjoyable. Temptation blinds us to consequences. It shifts
language. Think about how the word has virtually disappeared, with
the exception of food in relation to breaking a diet. What hav ebeen
successful ways for you to resist, to fight, to even overcome
temptation?





Friday- Lent is often
seen as a season of privation. To fit its root meaning of springtime,
try to consider it a time of preparation and pruning, getting your
spiritual garden ready. Where has good, solid preparation helped you?
Where has flying by the seat of the pants been helpful? What could
you cut out of your life to make it more productive? What gets in
the way of being more loving? Are those obstacles internal or
external? Where does time fit into obstacles or opportunities?





Saturday –Here’s
another idea for Lent. Instead of emphasizing pruning vies, how about
planting seeds for virtues and virtuous deeds? Look at the fruit of
the Spirit in Gal. 5. Pick one you most admire. What is your best
spiritual attribute? Try building on it. In social research, we are
starting to suspect that we learn from success much more readily than
we learn from our mistakes. Building on resources promotes energy and
a sense of possibility.



Saturday, February 21, 2009


It is time for Elijah
to say goodbye. Elijah called Elisha by throwing a mantle, a cloak,
over him. . He finds it hard to say goodbye. They hit important towns
in Israel, filled with memories going back to Jaco and forward to the
conquest. Maybe that is why we remember far back as we grow older, to
help us revisit our past. It cannot be an accident that Elijah goes
to the area where Moses died. Because it seems Elijah is assumed into
heaven, he became a messianic/end times figure. In Jewish lore, there
is a place for Elijah at a circumcision and at Passover. (See Mal. 4)
Note his presence in transfiguration accounts. By this time, since
Moses was not buried, it was thought he could be assumed into heaven
as well.





This could be a good
look at grief process. As they go place to place, the reality of
moving on without Elijah hits Elisha. It is hard to say goodbye.
Saying goodbye is in itself a process of goodbyes, as we see with
Elisha. Goodbyes mean bowing to the reality of death. We do our best
to fend death off, for life is so precious. Even now, tearing
garments is a sign of grief. What rituals do we have to express
grief? I fear that we try to push trough grief so quickly that our
culture has become impoverished in giving us guidelines during loss.
It is too great a burden for us to make it up as we go along, and
then have people judging us for how well we are doing.





Elijah throws a mantle
on Elisha in I Kings 19. The mantle is a symbol of power, just like
the rod of Moses or Aaron. What are the good and bad things about
receiving a mantle? Think of following a good or poor person in a
leadership position. The mantle is also a keepsake. We all like to
have some tangible reminders of someone. When it goes to far, we make
a shrine that is too sacred to be touched. That is a sign that we
have yet to come to grips with the reality of the loss. We are still
waiting for them to return. Still, we carry on. We sometimes take up
unfinished work of others and make it our own. We try to make the
mantle fit comfortably on our shoulders as we may well hand it on
down the road.





In its way, the
transfiguration, the change in Jesus is a preview of coming
attractions. The Jordan acts here a boundary. place. Where are
others? The Jordan is a place for transformations. It was for Jesus
when his life took a turn after his baptism. When we have a major
change in roles, a marriage, parenthood, a different career path that
can be a transfiguring time, the same person with a new aspect.
Perhaps, ti would be better for us to consider inner transformation,
where we look the same in the outside, but have a new aspect within.





Of course, our ultimate
crossing of the Jordan will be our death only, but entry into the new
life of heaven. Just as the transfiguration of Jesus sis a sign of
resurrection, our crossing into resurrection life will be a
transfiguration. It was still Moses, Elijah, and Jesus in the vision.
We will be ourselves in heaven. We will be recognized and will
recognize others. Heaven will find us at our best. We will be living
out life beyond our potential, our very being dazzling white, the
color of purity, of light itself. Just as Jesus talks with Elijah and
Moses, we will be in community, a place of conversation, a place of
togetherness. Heaven will transmute our base instincts into golden
ones; it will transform pain into understanding, forgiveness,, and
love.



Monday, February 16, 2009


We have a crying need
for healing. So many are sick, inside and out. We know that God
should heal the good and let illness be a punishment for wrong. It
doesn’t work that way. As Jesus said, the rain falls on the
just and unjust alike. In our first story, Israel is in trouble, and
Syria has power over it, as their great general Naaman leads them.


Do a small thing for a
big reward-gets in his own way, He is willing to let his pride, his
sense of the respect due to him and his position, remove a chance at
a healing. There it is in front of him, and he won’t accept the
healing agent. Think of it, he ahs gone to the desperate length of
listening to the slave, traveled into enemy territory, in a desperate
gamble for healing. We will do almost anything to seek healing. As a
leper, he would be the very model fo the isolation that illness
brings at so many levels. Part of the trouble is that he not only
wants healing, but he has expectations that he wants met. He wants a
real show, and he wants a real show of religious splendor and power.
In our lives, not only the presenting physical ailment, but other
places require healing.





God’s global love
can seem to work against the seeming interest of Israel, or the
United States. No country is perfect, deserving of only blessings,
especially those that feel special. All of the wisdom in this story
is with the little people, Israelite or outsider. . The young servant
lets her compassion and religious pride overcome her hatred of her
captors. Hold on for a second. I had a dream that we had a choice to
capture or kill Osama. When can we love the enemy enough to want them
healed? Naaman’s own servants have to use reverse psychology to
persuade him to get healed.





After Jesus was
baptized in the same Jordan as Naaman, he begins a public work of
healing and teaching. Word travels fast about this new healer. Notice
that Jesus does not blame the victim. Notice that Jesus does not make
sure that the right kinds of people get healed. When Jesus sees
suffering, Jesus heals it. Even for Jesus, healing is hard work. I
wonder if Jesus was prepared for the sheer press of desperation in
the eyes of people clamoring for him, the weight of pain that illness
brings. Jesus needs to get away. The Sabbath time doesn’t last
long. The new disciples track him down. As usual Jesus does not meet
anxiety with anxiety. He continues his work as he sees fit. One of
the ways we need to be healed is our seeming inability to take
Sabbath time; we have the phrase, burn-out, because we don’t
give ourselves a chance to rejuvenate, to give ourselves some margin
for error.





We are ordaining elders
in our 2 sister churches. The laying on of hands s transmitting our
connection to the first disciples ordained by Jesus. The elders
follow Naaman’s example. By living out their own Jordan
washing: baptism, they are moving to a new stage of Christian
calling. . They set aside their pride and doubts and act as servants
for the church. Since they work in the group called session, they set
aside the desire for control and commit to do their best for the
session and the church. In their work they will help guide the
congregation in healing bodies, minds, hearts and souls, including
their own. As followers of Jesus they will get tired, and like Jesus
will take tome out to allow their own spirits to heal in prayer.
Remember, in Naaman’s story, wisdom lies with the servants. The
elders follow the example of Jesus, to extend the work of the church
in healing, in teaching, and any other way the church extends the
work of Christ. Touched by hands, that were touched by hands, that
were touched by Christ, we are joined.





  1. Elijah throws a
    matnle on elisha in I Kings 19.


  2. 2) Elijah means
    God is Yah and Elisha=god saves/delivers/helps. It is the name of
    Jesus/Joshua with El replacing Yah.


  3. The mantle is a
    symbol of power, just like the rod of Moses or Aaron.


  4. It cannot be an
    accident that Elijah goes to the area where Moses died.


  5. The Jordan acts
    here a boundary./border/liminal place. Where are others?


  6. The double share
    probably is an inheritance image, where the eldest received 2/3. See
    the prodigal story.


  7. Because it seems
    Elijah is assumed into heaven, he became a messianic/end times
    figure. In Jewish lore, there is a place for Elijah at a
    circumcision and at Passover. See Mal. 4 and how the gospels put
    John into an Elijah frame. Note his presence in transfiguration
    accounts. By this time, since Moses was not buried, it was thought
    he could be assumed into heaven as well.


  8. This could be a
    god look at grief process. As they go place to place, the reality of
    moving on without Elijah hits Elisha. It is hard to say
    goodbye.tearing garments was a sign of grief. What rituals do we
    have to express grief?


  9. In Hebrew the
    question about the master is more along the lines of your master
    being over you. that we realize is ascent.


  10. What are the good
    and bad things about receiving a matle? Think of following a good or
    poor person in a leadership position.




Sunday, February 8, 2009



  1. Notes II Kings 5:1-14



  2. Naaman means pleasant/ joy, a male Naomi, but he is an enemy general.


How does the narrator make us feel sympathy for this enemy of Israel, this great warrior?


2) Think about his servant. Is she a traitor to the people? Does her compassion win out? Is she showing off her superior God? What is this saying about servants when both sets of servants are wiser than Naaman?


3) Are you willing to look at this as a prefigured baptism? What is healed in baptism?


4) What is your view of healing in 2009?


5) Naaman is willing to do a great thing, but is angry that he is not being treated with respect. Where are we not treated with respect in health care?


6) When does our unwillingness to do a simple thing keep us unwell?




  1. Elisha means God saves/delvers.



  2. You could also go into the comedy door with the political byplay, where the king misperceives the request of the ruler of Syria. While they are playing at statecraft, God is at work through Elisha.



  3. Why doesn’t Elisha cure the political troubles of Israel? Why does Elisha act the way he does? Is it a religious, a political, a social motivation? What effect was it supposed to have on Naaaman?



  4. Why does God often use ordinary things as vehicles of healing?


Saturday, February 7, 2009

Sermon I Cor 8 2/8

We try to have a discussion, where we try to listen with respect to different views. We speak of healthy debate, where we can learn the weak points of our own arguments and the strengths and weaknesses of the other side. We tell married couples that they should keep the flow of communication wide open. That does happen sometimes. Sometimes, it’s fun to have a little intellectual joust, as long as we don’t take things personally.

Usually these high ideals turn into nasty arguments fairly quickly. Usually, people get hurt, and they clam up. When we argue we want to win; we don’t want to give in; we want the other side to admit that they are more than mistaken, but wrong. We are right; we are superior; we win.




We argue about trivia. We mistake trivia for the important and raise it to the level of principle we want to impose our sense of right on others. This comes into play when we are frustrated with something else and are looking for an excuse to start a fight.


We argue about important things.




Religious arguments are dangerous. We are attached to our religious beliefs. When we argue about religion, we are touching on deep parts of ourselves. Paul has a radical solution to arguing in church. The first time that I recall reading this passage, I was in my twenties. I had to read it again as I could not grasp what Paul was saying. Paul does not tell us to try to win even important arguments. He does ask us to consider if through the eyes of Christ it is worth it. Then he goes further. Let the other side win, even if you think you are in the right. The eyes of Christ shine on the mistaken as well as the advanced. We sometimes say that it takes a big person to admit when they are wrong. Here, Paul says it takes an even bigger person to know you are right and still grant the argument to your opponent, if you don’t think it harmful. If your opponent is not as wise as you, bear in mind that you are not to hinder their growth as a Christian. If they are not at your level, and they follow your lead, it could be a slippery slope for them. At first this sermon was called live and let live. Paul won’t settle for that. It takes humility to be able to admit that we are wrong, and even more to admit that someone else was right. It takes an immense humility to be able to cede the field. This is not to say that Paul did not draw lines on important matters, but he wanted to be clear what was worth an argument and what was not. Does it really matter? Does it harm someone?




In our time, people argue about the proper method of baptism. The Amish don’t like photographs as they see them as graven images; the Jehovah witnesses see the flag salute as idolatry. People wouldn’t play cards, not only because of gambling but because the cards had picture son them. We argue about the style of music appropriate to church.




The closest I’ve come to Paul’s point of view comes with church comfort levels. Some folks will never interpret the Bible as I do, because they are uncomfortable with the open-ended readings I prefer. Some folks require closure, a clear answer. In the same way, someone with a liking for gray areas is not ever going to be comfortable in a church that gives one bible quotation as an answer, the only answer to a question before them. Even if you win the argument, what have you gained? When you crush someone in an argument, or get crushed, it is more than a point of view being disrespected, but they feel disrespected. Paul asks yus to be bigger people, to listen and act to build up each other.