Palm Sunday column

Palm Sunday gets difficult for pastors to work with year after year. I recall a well-respected pastor ho said that he disliked (well something stronger) working with it, as he “had little to say about a parade year after year.” John Dominic Crossan imagines Palm Sunday as a protest demonstration against Roman imperial power. Maybe it even lampooned its power. The legion came in before Passover. Jesus, using the words of Zechariah 9 comes in on an animal of peace. It would be like placing a flower in the barrel of a gun. Maybe it was not even noticed by the Roman authorities.

Palm Sunday could be an object lesson for what is to come and theology as well. Jesus is acclaimed; Scripture is cited as being fulfilled, but it is a little parade in the face of the Roman legion marching in. The Prince of peace looks small compared to military might. In a way, it encapsulates the highs and lows of the life of Christ. Put differently Holy Week is framed by two utterly different forms of exaltation, Palm Sunday and Easter, around the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus does not march in to defeat Rome with a legion of the angelic heavenly army; he comes in peace.

This year I seize on the reading from Philippians 2:5-11. This is thought to be a hymn in the early church that Paul uses to consider the nature of Jesus Christ. I just received a book on interlibrary loan by Michael Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God. In looking at this section, he calls this view of power counter-intuitive. He quotes John Howard Yoder that “the creative power of the universe…poured itself into the frail mold of humanity,” a self-giving power in apparent weakness.

Paul sees Jesus as not grabbing for the power he had, not grabbing, snatching away, the power of God. Paul envisions the life of the community being formed by the mind of Christ -- by a spirit of humility and loving service to one another rather than competition and grasping for power and control. Power seeking and power struggles do not honor the name of Jesus. By following Jesus, we give ourselves away in service to a suffering humanity. We look to the interests of others rather than our own interests.  Susan Eastman, of Duke writes: “For this very reason, the story of Christ also moves from separation to solidarity, and from difference to likeness, as Christ moves into the most despairing depths of human experience… he mirrors back to us the reality of our own enslavement to sin and death. He comes very near, so near that he "gets under our skin." This is the "kindness" of God, in that God becomes one of our kind, kin to us. This is the incarnation; God gives us the desire and the energy to enact Christ's compassion in the world.

In the movie the Shack, a small scene conveys divine emptying. Does divine love have no cost? The Creator maternal divine figure shows scars on her wrists that reflect the scars of Christ on the cross. What is in the divine and human aspect of Christ that can face pain and struggle and yet remain divine or human?  Love may well require release of power over, may require that love does have a cost, at least against egotism. For the Christian, God is revealed at a parade in Jerusalem for peace, and at Calvary. God is revealed in the midst of death’s deep darkness, even in what seems to be utter defeat. God is God with us, God for us, all the way to the grave. Then, Easter can make the tomb, womb of new life.

Devotional Pts for Week of April 9

Sunday-Ps.118 appears during much of Holy week liturgy. Take a good long look at it, and it will become obvious. It has a mantra: give thanks to the Lord, for the lord is good;god’s steadfast love endures forever.” How do you understand god’s goodness and steadfast love, especially on Easter Sunday?

Monday- Roger Scruton’s 2010 Gifford Lectures, published as The Face of God (Bloomsbury, 2012).Roger Scruton explores the place of God in a disenchanted world. His argument is a response to the atheist culture that is now growing around us, and also a defence of human uniqueness. He rebuts the claim that there is no meaning or purpose in the natural world, and argues that the sacred and the transcendental are 'real presences', through which human beings come to know themselves and to find both their freedom and their redemption.

In the human face we find a paradigm of meaning. And from this experience, Scruton argues, we both construct the face of the world, and address the face of God. We find in the face both the proof of our freedom and the mark of self-consciousness. One of the motivations of the atheist culture is to escape from the eye of judgement. You escape from the eye of judgement by blotting out the face: and this, Scruton argues, is the most disturbing aspect of the times in which we live. In his wide-ranging argument Scruton explains the growing sense of destruction that we feel, as the habits of pleasure seeking and consumerism deface the world. His book defends a consecrated world against the habit of desecration, and offers a vision of the religious way of life in a time of trial. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-face-of-god-9781847065247/#sthash.rB8FroMP.dpuf

Tuesday-There is surely a great difference, which we all understand, between seeing something as just there (there for the taking) and seeing it as a gift. Only what is owned can be given, and gifts therefore come wrapped in the perspective of the giver, who has claimed them as ‘mine,’ and also relinquishes that claim for another’s sake. And the one who receives something as a gift receives it as a mark of the other’s concern for him; gratitude is not just normal – it is the recognition that the thing has really been given, and is not the first step in a bargain. Gifts involve conscious reflection on self and other, on rights and duties, on ownership and its transcendence. Hence they can only be offered I to I, and gifts are acts of acknowledgment between persons, in which each recognizes the freedom of the other.

Wednesday- Douglas Abrams said, “Gratitude is the recognition of all that holds us in the web of life and all that has made it possible to have the life that we have and the moment that we are experiencing. It allows us to shift our perspective toward all we have been given and all that we have. It moves us away from the narrow-minded focus on fault and lack and to the wider perspective of benefit and abundance.” (page 242)

Thursday- Jesus talked about God becoming king in order to explain what it was that he himself was doing when he told those parables in Luke 15 about the woman with the lost coin or the shepherd with the lost sheep or then the father who has these two sons.He is saying there is a party going on in the heavenly places and we are having a party here. This is a place where heaven and earth are joined because there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't seem to need to repent. So Jesus was doing the kingdom and talking about the kingdom, inaugurating the kingdom. His healings were all about signs of new creation. This is what it looks like when God takes his power and reigns.

Friday-Walter Brueggemann defines vocation as a purpose for being in the world that is related to the purposes of God. So one way we might pray with the third mark of mission is first to discern what is the mission of God. How is God working in the world? And then the second part would be what is my unique way of participating in God’s mission.- Br. Jim Woodrum

Saturday-so I tell you that we should learn to see God in all gifts and works, neither resting content with anything nor becoming attached to anything. For us there can be no attachment to a particular manner of behavior in this life, nor has this ever been right, however successful we may have been.Meister Eckhart:

Sermon Notes Phil 2 for Palm/Passion Sunday 2017

Palm Sunday gets difficult to work with year after year, so this year I seize on our reading from Philippians "Let the same mind/attitude/mind-set be in you that was in Christ Jesus" (2:5). The phrase "in you" is plural , and perhaps better translated "among you." Paul envisions the life of the community being formed by the mind of Christ -- by a spirit of humility and loving service to one another rather than competition and grasping for power and control. Palm Sunday is an object lesson for what is to come and theology as well.Jesus is acclaimed, Scripture is cited as being fulfilled, but it is a little parade in the face of the Roman legion marching in.Prince of peace looks small compared to military might. In a way, ti encapsulates the highs and lows of the life of christ. Put differently Holy week is framed by two utterly different forms of exaltation around the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

what it means to bear his name? Does our life together reflect "the same mind that was in Christ Jesus"? Are we looking to the interests of others rather than our own interests? Are humility and servanthood evident among us?This permits invitation, not command and control.At the same time, it reveals the Prince of Peace as the goal of human life.

Power games and pining for glory do not honor the name of Jesus. Rather, by following Jesus, giving ourselves away in service to a suffering world, we honor "the name that is above every name."E. Johnson  Eastman-For this very reason, the story of Christ also moves from separation to solidarity, and from difference to likeness, as Christ moves into the most despairing depths of human experience. In the form of a slave, he mirrors back to us the reality of our own enslavement to sin and death. He comes very near, so near that he "gets under our skin." This is the "kindness" of God, in that God becomes one of our kind, kin to us. This is the incarnation,. God gives us the desire and the energy to enact Christ's compassion in the world. .

Christ Jesus did not regard snatching, abduction harpagmos; : to be worthy -- or equal to -- God, but having taken on the form of a slave [To whom was he a slave? Humanity, perhaps. If so, then this is an example of servitium amoris, the slavery of love, a widespread motif in Greek and Latin poetry expressing the complete dedication of the lover to the beloved.] he emptied himself [the phrase in Greek always refers to a bodily occurrence preceded by melting; liquefaction of the body and subsequent draining away of the once solid self was the poetic way of describing longing, the desire for union with an absent beloved.].D. Frederickson

Kenosis and Alan Lewis-every year I try to read some of a posthumously published book . In the movie the shack,  a small scene conveys divine emptying. Does divine love have no cost. The Creator maternal divine figure shows scars on her  wrists that reflect the scars of Christ on the cross.What is in the divine and human  aspect of christ that can face pain and struggle and yet remain divine or human?Scots of the 19th century saw God’s power shining through the passivity and weakness of the cross, death, and burial. Love may well require release of power over, may require that love does have a cost, at least against egotism.Barth-God is revealed in the midst of death’s deep darkness, even in what seems to be utter defeat.god is god with us, God for us, all the way to the grave.

April 2 sermon notes

April 2- Our readings this morning all point to the new life of Easter.  Ezek. 37, dry bones-WP it is in this sense that breathing becomes a metaphor for divine   presence. Despite the exiles’ fear of being cut off from God, God is as near to them as their own breath. Ezekiel’s vision does nothing to alleviate them of their present difficult circumstances, though it does promise them a future..Spirit help us to see what needs to be treasured, what needs to be relinquished, what needs to be tried.

Though they remain in exile, still coping with the death of loved ones, still mourning the loss of familiar ways to find and meet God, they are reassured of God’s presence.... Because God is present, they can breathe. And stand ready for the future, looking forward in hope.... While celebrating the victory over death, we refuse to evaluate the systems, patterns, and consequences of our walk through the valley of its shadow.That is being applied to a whole people, but it takes little imagination to apply it to a congregation as well.to propel us to humble faithfulness rather than condemn us to silent despondency or self-righteous indignation.

Rom. 8:6-11,  Paul tells believers that if they put to death the practices of the body by the Spirit they will live (verses. 12-13; see also 6:11). The Spirit’s work is to replicate the life of Christ in believers both at the present time through obedience in righteousness (1:18; 6:13, 16, 18, 20) -- . The Holy Spirit continues the work of producing the form of Christ in believers. We often say we are the hands and feet of the body of /christ. We may even say we look for the christ in each other. We don't leap to this one very often, the mind of christ.Jervis-The word “mind” in verse 6 -- to set the mind on the flesh -- means mentality or outlook or aspiration.-- phronema -- indicates what a person strives for, what a person aims at, what a person cares most about, an orientation. (see working preacher)

John 11 -I have never understood that Jesus does not rush to the scene of Lazarus and then is  greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved-Why? -is it the presence of death itself- purely personal feelings of the impact of loss on him and others? resurrection and the life now as well as in an afterlife could not be clearer than with Lazarus-

Why succession of sisters? Resurrection now and into a new dimension of life as well-issue of expectations. A terrible evil the occasion for demonstration of ultimate healing-Jesus embodies healing and resurrection Thoreau did not want to face death knowing that he had not lived-grave clothes become swaddling clothes-Unbind him from the powers of death that prevent extension into life(see Carrie Newcomer) and  zombies- I do not have a feel for our current obsession with the undead.This miracle is a death warrant for Jesus. John’s love of irony continues here.Even though Lazarus is raised, he is still mortal, somewhat like being baptized into new life. Jesus will peer into a grave not unlike the one he will soon be laid.Just as Lazarus is surely dead; I have always liked the KJV that after four days, he stinketh. The one with power over even death itself to bring life will himself  be dead and buried. Jesus even shares the abode of death with us. Even the tomb is not so deep nor fearsome that Jesus will not face it with and for us. With that different kind of light of resurrection life, nothing retains the same aspect-everything appears different.Only in god’s hands can death become a vehicle for new life.

Column on the Shack movie

I am hoping that we can get a discussion group at church for the movie The Shack. It is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by William P. Young. It is by no mans a stellar movie, but it  exceeds the usual low bar for films directed at a Christian audience. My memory is not good enough to compare the film with the book, but it does employ some of the same structure and features of its source material. I feel about it  in similar ways to the book and movie The DaVinci Code. If they get people interested in matters theological or questions of church history, I have no problems with their popular presentations. The church can applaud that impetus, instead of trying to go into the censoring business of judging something outside its  own dogma for signs of heresy or even mere disagreement.

Basically, the movie is a divine therapy session for a man who has suffered Job-like  terrors.The engaging question for the movie is the theodicy question: God and human suffering. Quite simply, how do we come to terms with the power of God and the goodness of God in the face of the incalculable evils in the world, persona, collective, and with climate alteration, even cosmic? Wisely, the movie presents some hints at a resolution without trying to give a detailed logical response to such a deep and enduring question, but watch for a sign of the divine pain on the creator personage.

God is presented in a variety of manifestations ( hypostases in ancient religious language) a mother/creator figure and Jesus,portrayed as a carpenter from the Middle East, and a paternal figure toward the end of the film. Usually, we are content with portraying the Holy Spirit as a dove at the baptism of Jesus.the spirit is called Sarayu and is presented as a breeze, just as the spirit in both parts of the bible means breath or breeze (ruah and pneuma). The Holy Spirit is inspiration’s and creativity’s muse in the movie. A nice touch has her as a sort of cosmic gardener who balances the wild and the tame, the patterned and random in a riot of color, a beautiful mess.  Wisdom appears in an important scene where the sufferer comes to grips with the limitations of human understanding and perspective. In Proverbs 1-9 Wisdom (hokmah) is a female force. Some connect Wisdom directly to the Holy spirit, but wisdom can be connected to Christ through the logic (logos)  of God present in Jesus  (John 1:14). All of these elements have counterparts in Scripture, of course. If this movie can get folks to  reflect upon the depth of Christian theology on God as Trinity and the different images/presentations of elements  of God that populate Scripture, then it is a stellar tool. For instance, in what appears to be a throwaway vignette two of the divine figures are dancing. To a more practiced eye, the film raises the famous trope` of perichoresis form the ancient church, a notion that the elements of the  Trinity as locked in a divine choreography, hence the word.

The film deserves credit for pushing forgiveness as a fundamental Christian virtue and action. I was very much taken with its notion that forgiveness is not a one and one practice, but it may need to be reasserted many, many times.The sufferer is commanded to forgive, but forgiveness is also presented as a therapeutic device to help rid him of his terrible pain of resentment, injustice, and anger. Again, i do not know if it was intended by the director, but in one scene he releases a ladybug he has crushed, and the ladybug flies away. The root of forgiveness in Greek (aphiemi) means not to hold, to let go.  If you approach it from a religious frame of reference you may be pushed to re-examine your own faith.