I Kings 17 First Cut

1) This has echoes of feeding of the 5,000. It has elements of the widow of Naim as well.

2) The woman's angry question toward the prophet would certainly be a good point for focus in a sermon, in dealing with the grieving, or in a study. Notice that her angry, anguished words are not punished.

3) Where does this occur? Is it significant?

4) One could use this to approach Breuggemann's popular distinction between scacity and abundance.

5) Do you have the experience when something good happens it is followed by trouble?

6) Is the woman being repaid for hospitality?

7) Are your messages from God as clear as the one to Elijah?

8) Ralph Mitchell notes that this could serve as an illustratioin of the anger phase in grief. He alos is reminded of the complaints of the people in the wilderness.

9) when and where do you blame god for trouble?

I always look toward Trinity Sunday as an opportunity to do more reading and reflection on God as Trinity. I fear that it looks like  payment for doing new prayers and something fun and different in the Pentecost liturgy. Serene Jones speaks of the Trinity in terms of love, of constant giving and receiving of love within god. Out of this love is born Creation-The popular novel, the Shack, is an exercise in Trinitarian models. Even as it  has a sense of three the book lacks a good sense of their intertwined, triple helix existence.

Wisdom-logos-connected to Jesus God is always open toward creation.

 

Right away in this section of Proverbs an element of God's work in Creation is attributed to a facet of God's life, Wisdom, here personified as a female. Here creation is a result of the planning worthy of an architect and the thrill of moving from plans to actuality. Within God's own life, distinctions can exist within someone without ripping that identity apart-better to speak of relationships dynamics that generate opportunities for self-giving. These relations encompass (perichoresis) both. In God, unity in diversity is at work a communion of love. It may well be a form of idolatry to say that we can know God fully and well, but that is the risk of speaking of God at all.

 

Brown discusses this and 6 other OT passages on creation in his new book. Listen to some of the science that he brings into play with our passage this morning. The laws of physics are omnipresent...the cosmos is suffused with Wisdom in a cosmos that is comprehensible-and that itself is a wonder (169) In Greek Separated objects can act as if they are bound together as one (170).He finds both playfulness and stability in our universe (171). The ancients spoke of a the music of the spheres and modern astronomers speak of the dance of stars and galaxies. Wisdom helps bind the world together. This takes Brown into the mysterious realm of the subatomic, and he notes how connected life and all the world is. God's life can be glimpsed in God's acts. In creation and in Jesus God shows a remarkable generosity of spirit. God demonstrates profound love by making room for us to breathe and grow. I do want to lift up the point about delight at the end of the poem in Proverbs. God finds delight in the planning and work of creation. Even though it has some much pain in it, God revels in all the life of creation. Some even detect an element of play embedded in this passage.

 

Augustine used the human analogy of the mind as memory, reason, and. We could use a simpler point: mind, heat,body. We do not know one without the presence of the other two sections, but we can distinguish them easily. My point is that the Trinity is about the wholeness inherent in God's own self and the work God does. In similar fashion, the human being, made in the image and likeness of God, should have its elements working together in harmony. Disharmony in the elements of our lives could be termed as sin. Personal discernment would require an open, candid look inside to see how the pieces of our lives fit together, not just as separate compartments. Every facet of revealed divine life revels in the life of creation. God wants to share life and redeem its flaws. Indeed the Incarnation gives the radical notion that the Creator shared creaturely life, fully in Jesus. God chooses to walk among us, exemplifying love always for the good of the other (146-7). Last week, we participated in sacrament of Communion for Pentecost, a living tableau of the Incarnation. It is also a way into the very life of God and this world.

I always look toward Trinity Sunday as an opportunity to do more reading and reflection on God as Trinity. I fear that it looks like  payment for doing new prayers and something fun and different in the Pentecost liturgy. Serene Jones speaks of the Trinity in terms of love, of constant giving and receiving of love within god. Out of this love is born Creation-The popular novel, the Shack, is an exercise in Trinitarian models. Even as it  has a sense of three the book lacks a good sense of their intertwined, triple helix existence.

Wisdom-logos-connected to Jesus God is always open toward creation.

 

Right away in this section of Proverbs an element of God's work in Creation is attributed to a facet of God's life, Wisdom, here personified as a female. Here creation is a result of the planning worthy of an architect and the thrill of moving from plans to actuality. Within God's own life, distinctions can exist within someone without ripping that identity apart-better to speak of relationships dynamics that generate opportunities for self-giving. These relations encompass (perichoresis) both. In God, unity in diversity is at work a communion of love. It may well be a form of idolatry to say that we can know God fully and well, but that is the risk of speaking of God at all.

 

Brown discusses this and 6 other OT passages on creation in his new book. Listen to some of the science that he brings into play with our passage this morning. The laws of physics are omnipresent...the cosmos is suffused with Wisdom in a cosmos that is comprehensible-and that itself is a wonder (169) In Greek Separated objects can act as if they are bound together as one (170).He finds both playfulness and stability in our universe (171). The ancients spoke of a the music of the spheres and modern astronomers speak of the dance of stars and galaxies. Wisdom helps bind the world together. This takes Brown into the mysterious realm of the subatomic, and he notes how connected life and all the world is. God's life can be glimpsed in God's acts. In creation and in Jesus God shows a remarkable generosity of spirit. God demonstrates profound love by making room for us to breathe and grow. I do want to lift up the point about delight at the end of the poem in Proverbs. God finds delight in the planning and work of creation. Even though it has some much pain in it, God revels in all the life of creation. Some even detect an element of play embedded in this passage.

 

Augustine used the human analogy of the mind as memory, reason, and. We could use a simpler point: mind, heat,body. We do not know one without the presence of the other two sections, but we can distinguish them easily. My point is that the Trinity is about the wholeness inherent in God's own self and the work God does. In similar fashion, the human being, made in the image and likeness of God, should have its elements working together in harmony. Disharmony in the elements of our lives could be termed as sin. Personal discernment would require an open, candid look inside to see how the pieces of our lives fit together, not just as separate compartments. Every facet of revealed divine life revels in the life of creation. God wants to share life and redeem its flaws. Indeed the Incarnation gives the radical notion that the Creator shared creaturely life, fully in Jesus. God chooses to walk among us, exemplifying love always for the good of the other (146-7). Last week, we participated in sacrament of Communion for Pentecost, a living tableau of the Incarnation. It is also a way into the very life of God and this world.

Trinity Sunday notes Prov. 8, Ps. 8 Second Cut

 

Prov. 8 continues a section on Dame Wisdom. here is an important section on wisdom and creation. See William Brown's new book, 7 Pillars of Creation, ch. 7. Brown is in conversation with science throughout the book.Fretheim is very good on this section in God and Creation. fors instance, "to be truly wisdom, it needs a world."

1) Qana means create/make but also acquire. Niv does bring forth in a birthing imagery. It seems to me that Wisdom is a hypostasis of God's creative energies. that's why Wisdom could be linked to logos (Word, JN. 1;14) as Hellenism marched on.

2) I would argue that Proverb and any wisdom literature si about trying to find the basis for a good life in this complex world, a kingdom of death often. Wisdom is there at the start.

3) Wisdom is part of God's structuring of the world itslef. In all of the accidents, we cna discern order, a plan, some rationality and regularity in life. 4) Wisdom is about respecting limits/boundaries. we seek propriety in life, the proper time and place. Natural science rquires a sense of an orderly world in order to find pattern within it. Brown (170) it is an orderly and a lively world at the same itme.

5) Even the chaotic relam of the sea has limits.

6) Amon in v. 30 could be child or worker or plan. In Egypt, order, maat, played before the God Re, a creator.LXX has wisdom binding the creation together.

7) See the book of wisdom in an ecumentical bible.

8) The sense of joy in v. 31 cannot be overestimated. God finds delight in the working out of divine order. Thsi applies to the sabbath.

 

Ps. 8

1)Psalm 8 is on the moon from Apollo 11.

2) On Trinity Sunday,we certainly feel like babies trying to address the Trinity.

3) Nobody knows as much about astronomy as this generation. perhaps one could use a series of Hubble telescope shots.

4) Job famously plays with the question in v. 4. the immensity of creation does give a sensation of smallness. Stilll, we are, after all, amde in the image of God. Augustine famously used 3 menatl faculties to speak of the Trinity. where would you see traces of the trinity in human beings?

5) Here we see a challenge of environmental stewardship as much as ruling over animals. Is it saying we represent god's dominion here on earth as god would like to see us do?

6) Reflection 2 (p. 712) in the NIB on Pslams has some good work that could be productive for considereing Trinity Sunday.

6)

Pentecost 2010 Gen. 11

 

When Saralyn, now graduated from college, was a baby, she was an early talker. Her mother and I could understand her sometimes, but we were the only ones. She called water "wahvap" and would be annoyed when it wasn't forthcoming. I remember feeling like Anne Sullivan in the Helen Keller story when I finally guessed that she meant water. The story of Babel imagines how a common language devolved into a confusion of many tongues. While we have the gift of speech, we often find it hard to understand or to be understood. Confusion remains the rule, especially amid the crowd noise of satellite TV and the Internet clamoring for our momentary attention. Babel is a symbol that our technology can be a cause of confusion as well as an answer. The push to instant communication puts us in the unenviable position of sending out unfiltered messages too quickly. I just recommended the book, Please Understand Me,  to a couple getting married to help alert them to the ways different personality types may affect the way we communicate, or fail to communicate clearly. We are not clear about what each other is saying, or really saying. We often guess by using our supposed reactions to something, and then we project it on to the person with whom we are trying to talk.

 

Pentecost preserves the diversity of many tongues, but it rediscovers the essential unity of us. At one level, the babble of an unfamiliar language would be heard, but each person had a Spirit-driven translator to make it plain in their own language. It was the opposite of the problem people have with a hearing aid being unable to pick up one thread of conversation amid the babble of voices at a party. At the national level, our church meets in general Assembly in a little over a month. I'm afraid that we divide too easily into warring factions and are uninterested in hearing voices that do not agree with our own. To a sad extent, we have adopted the rancor of talk radio politics and adopted it into our dealings with brothers and sisters of the faith. Pentecost is the announcement that God's spirit breaks down even the barriers of language for us to see ourselves properly as equal children of God. The Spirit moves us toward common understanding and common endeavors. the Spirit accepts differences; it does not command uniformity.

 

Communion is a clear communication from the hand of God. Even though we hold that words of Scripture and prayer are part of the participation in this sacrament, it is a wordless offering. All over the world, people of different languages are celebrating this sacrament. We are part of a great spiritual family meal on Pentecost. That does mean that is a complex, deep, and enduring; it is more than a simple hello saying I'm still here. It speaks to the whole of us: body and soul together. It speaks to God being with us in all of our lives, interpenetrating our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Just as we realize that the bread and cup become part of our being, so too does God. God doesn't turn away from us. God is involved with us. Pentecost is a feast day of holy clarity, where all the world gets to hear again that God's grace pours out on everybody, young and old, rich and poor, liberal or conservative alike. When we receive Communion we are not claiming special status, but that we arrive before God empty-handed, all of us thirsty for the life of Christ in the sign of bread and cup.

Gen. 11

1) OK, this is an anti-Pentecost in its way, as it descends from common speech to utter confusion. The Bible translate Babel=gate of God as balal, confusion. It may well contain a jibe a the name Babylon.

2) This closes the primeval Genesis account. note that the same desire to be as god underlies both Eve's decision and now the decision of the people to build the great tower. Later, Jacob will have a dream of a tower with angels moving up and down on i8t.

3)This is a good vehicle to speak of the troubles of technology and its pretensions toward being a secular religion.

4) I sense that the desire to make a name is an attempt to replace the divine name.

5) Somehow they see the building project as a way to remain stable and secure.

6) God seems determined to keep human creativity and engineering within limits.

7) Still, the punishment allows them to fill the earth as in Genesis 2.

John 14:23-9   Rev. 22:6-21  May 16, 2010

 

We all know the city of Brotherly Love is Philadelphia. I  picked up the image of the heavenly city and call it Irenadelphia, the City of Peace, or Peace City. I see this image as touching our political involvements and also see it as a craving for shalom, peace, well-being, contentment, deep within as well.

 

We often read this at funerals, and it is a good reading, but it cannot be limited to that time alone. To have some peace in the face of death is a deep comfort. A lack of peace dogs our steps in the face of normal life as well. Knowing that he is saying goodbye, Jesus is leaving behind a gift (see 16:33). NIB his peace is the heart of his life, including love, joy and the fruit of the spirit. In Bible Study Joann Banks said peace was holding the story of Jesus in one's heart as the basis for peace. What was so yearned for in the prophets for peace (Is. 52:7, 54:10, Ezek 37:26-8, Zech. 9:10) is available reality.  Troubles will continue, but not having fear control us is a rock for motion into the dangerous world. Those are important Biblical words:do not be afraid. Fear provokes defenses that prevent us from knowing peace. Do not let your hearts be troubled is less frequent in the Bible. It gives us an important reminder: the Christian life is not free from trouble, but it does provide an avenue for coping with troubles.

 

Let's imagine Irenadelphia for a moment. Peace City has the Peace River running straight through it. This is not false security (Jer. 6), but real safety and security. Its buildings are  constructed from recycled weaponry. It is in harmony with its natural environment. No prisons are needed. Its schools look like palaces. People go to their vehicles in darkened alleys without fear. People can sing I've got peace like a river in my soul and mean it. In Revelation's close, the Spirit and the bride say come here, get here already, to the new age. We feel that way too for peace to come. Aren't you tired of all the bloodshed of history that we will soon honor on Memorial Day? the news does not lead with bleeding. Just like the blessing at the end of Revelation, Peace City sees people as part of one big family, where we are in it together for the long haul. The doors to houses and hearts are unlocked in Peace City.

 

Peace includes harmony with others and a sense of being right with God. Even then, inner peace can elude us. What drives our inner discontent? Part of it is a sense of incompleteness. Part of it is coveting. Maybe the hardest part is a nebulous disquiet that descends on us. Inner peace seems to flicker for but a short time. We want to feel peace with God, with each other, and peace within, but don't know the steps. I don't think that we need complete inner peace to love completely or to find some peace. Inner peace can be a calm anchor in the midst of troubled waters. Circumstance does not have to dictate our feelings so we are tossed about constantly. We do have times when we use every bit of our own resources and still need more. The Spirit moves with us and helps us to find and use powers, including inner peace, that we did not have before. I like thinking of inner peace as a stable center, a quiet place. We can learn to be at peace. We can find that place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God.

Rev. 22:6-21

1) See I am coming soon is difficult to read after 2,000 years.

2) Worshipping God alone (8-9) is good Presbyterian viewpoint, no? Idolatry of all types threatens us. At the same time, it is good to recall that this book is a worship vision in itself. Worship translates us to a new dimension every Sunday.

3) Unlike Daniel 12:9, these words are for the present, for its readers always. It is an open book  (NIB:733) eschatology creates existential crisis to change.

4) What rewards are proper, if any, for the good?

5) Is washing robes baptism or facing the threat of martyrdom? Noticed both robes are soiled.

6) Even with open gates, some are kept out, perhaps an allusion to the sword of the angel East of Eden.

7) The bride is anxious for the wedding.

8) Wedding gift from the couple is the water of life.

9) the ending rephrases Dt. 4

10)The grace at the end is to all, a fitting end for its global thrust.

Sermon-Rev. 22:1-5, John 5:1-9 

We all need healing We crave it in our bodies. When I ask older people what heaven will be like. they will first sya, no arthritis. We have all been heartbroken and wounded; that too requires healing. We all have had the terros of the night, so even our souls need to be healed

 

In the city of Jerusalem long ago, a man was paralyzed for years. Few things disturb peace as much as illness. He waited by the pool hoping to see the water stirring, for then an angel had moved the water and it was ripe for healing, like many go to Lourdes yet today in desperate search for healing. A man, not an angel,  comes up to him unannounced and asks a most unusual question: do you want to be healed? My guess is that he needed healing not only in body but in mind and heart as well. Why were others healed? How long would he wait? Did he deserve his disability? Did he grow bitter as the years rolled by? He was utterly dependent, as we all are to a degree, with no one to get him to the water in time. Now this man noticed him and healed him from the side of the water with a command. I wish healing were more predictable, but it seems to be as flighty as the movements of the Spirit. Yet, the question of Jesus resounds in our hearts and minds, do you want to be healed? Do you prefer the way things are, the way you've grown used to them?

 

In the universal vision of Revelation, a city, human community will be safe and secure in the presence of God. A river, a sacred river, just like the river imagined by Ezekiel, maybe a new version of the sacred river in the creation story in Genesis 2 flows right down its center. I love the phrase, the leaves of the tree (of life) are for the healing of nations. In Ezekiel there are 12 sacred trees to heal the nation, but in this global viewpoint, one tree provides healing for nations. For what? for us, the memory of Pearl Harbor or 9/11, or Katrina. Perhaps only the hand of God can heal the wounds of war. Personal pain needs to be healed as well. In the book A river Runs Through It, the son and father are speaking about his brother's death. The father says, "it's not much is it?" No, the son replied but you can love completely without complete understanding." Later the father says, "it is those we live with and love and should know that elude us." Later the narrator says"eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." Come at it from another angle. "I've got peace like a river in my soul." One day we will not only glimpse the presence of God from time to time but be suffused with it and by it.

 

Both these passages feature water and waiting. We feel for the long wait of the man by the pool, but we live our lives waiting for a peace that passes all understanding. We too wait for the violence inherent in our species to subside even a little bit. So, we wait for heaven to give us the reality of the vision of John so many years ago. Know this. We have the river of the water of life within us all in our baptism. the traditional churches have made a big mistake in ceding the book of revelation to dime-store prophets.l for all of the fear of 666, know that we have the perfect number, 777, on our lives; we carry the name of Jesus Christ with us.

Sermon-Irenadelphia Rev. 22:1-5, John 5:1-9 

We know the name Philadelphia means city of brotherly love, so I made the name of the heavenly city of Revelation Irenadelphia, City of Peace, just as we call a person who calms troubled waters is  irenic, peaceful. We crave peace, but it is elusive. Peace, like shalom, has a sense of more than the absence of conflict but of a deep sense of safety and well-being.

In the city of Jerusalem long ago, a man was paralyzed for years. Few things disturb peace as much as illness. He waited by the pool hoping to see the water stirring, for then an angel had moved the water and it was ripe for healing, like many go to Lourdes yet today in desperate search for healing. A man, not an angel,  comes up to him unannounced and asks a most unusual question: do you want to be healed? My guess is that he needed healing not only in body but in mind and heart as well. Why were others healed? How long would he wait? Did he deserve his disability? Did he grow bitter as the years rolled by? He was utterly dependent, as we all are to a degree, with no one to get him to the water in time. Now this man noticed him and healed him from the side of the water with a command. I wish healing were more predictable, but it seems to be as flighty as the movements of the Spirit. Yet, the question of Jesus resounds in our hearts and minds, do you want to be healed? Do you prefer the way things are, the way you've grown used to them?

 

In the universal vision of Revelation, a city, human community will be safe and secure in the presence of God. A river, a sacred river, just like the river imagined by Ezekiel, maybe a new version of the sacred river in the creation story in Genesis 2 flows right down its center. I love the phrase, the leaves of the tree (of life) are for the healing of nations. In Ezekiel there are 12 sacred trees to heal the nation, but in this global viewpoint, one tree provides healing for nations. For what? for us, the memory of Pearl Harbor or 9/11, or Katrina. Perhaps only the hand of God can heal the wounds of war. Personal pain needs to be healed as well. In the book A river Runs Through It, the son and father are speaking about his brother's death. The father says, "it's not much is it?" No, the son replied but you can love completely without complete understanding." Later the father says, "it is those we live with and love and should know that elude us." Later the narrator says"eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." Come at it from another angle. "I've got peace like a river in my soul." One day we will not only glimpse the presence of God from time to time but be suffused with it and by it.

 

Both these passages feature water and waiting. We feel for the long wait of the man by the pool, but we live our lives waiting for a peace that passes all understanding. We too wait for the violence inherent in our species to subside even a little bit. So, we wait for heaven to give us the reality of the vision of John so many years ago. Know this. We have the river of the water of life within us all in our baptism. the traditional churches have made a big mistake in ceding the book of revelation to dime-store prophets.l for all of the fear of 666, know that we have the perfect number, 777, on our lives; we carry the name of Jesus Christ with us.

May 9 Readings: Rev. 21:10, 22:1-5, Acts 16:9-15, Ps. 67 first cutRev.22:1-5 the river reminds us of the rivers of Eden in Gen. 2 and the river in Ezek. 47. It is the opposite of the poisoned rivers earlier and the bloody Nile of Exodus. then we encounter a tree of life as in Eden and we again hear echoes of the fruit in Ezek. 47. Again it is expanded from nation to nations, to fit the expansive view of salvation here. Even though it has open gates, nothing immoral or accursed will enter to threaten us. distinctions of sacred and secular are abolished as God's locale is our locale, and we will encounter God fully. It will be the hope of the kingdom of priests fulfilled. No bridge is necessary, as the bridge himself, Jesus, is on the throne. I think that the name is the baptismal name, christian, to be in the book of life.

 

The Acts passage shows some openness to new methods. Paul moves by the Spirit's prompting and direction, off to Greek lands. This is not a synagogue, Lydia is probably a Gentile. She is well-off and sells her purple goods to the servants of the rich. Paul says nothing about her leadership in the small marginal outskirt community.

 

Ps. 67- 1) Note the Aaronic blessing part.

2) To the nations, plural, a global thrust is evident.

3) God guides all nations.

4) In the face of a terrible oil spill, the earth yields increase as blessing. We must be careful not to destroy the source of the blessing.

5) Note God wants justice, not charity. god wants proper structures not only alms.