Rom. 15:4-13 Advent 2

Rom. 15:4-13 Advent 2

Romans is a difficult mountain to scale, but this week's reading could be worth  renting the equipment and moving toward its summit, or if you wish, heading back to base camp.

First I seize on the word welcome. Welcome home will be chanted in home upon home during this time of year. The word could mean in Greek, accept, embrace, take a hand, make a companion). This word alone could make a wedge for a sermon.

Romans extends the welcome: as Christ has welcomed you. I attended an ecumenical thanksgiving service in one of the in dependent churches that as a table of political brochures castigating anyone they consider on the left side of the spectrum, and speaking of being oppressed  anyone who disagrees with them. Now, I do wish to be fair, the romantic left in religious circles does not wish to extend welcome to anything but the latest facet of thought that catches their fancy either.

How do we welcome Christ? What receptivity and festal pomp fits the advent of Christ into our world?

Context: This section is on the dispute about food again, kosher or not. It has the tone of the Thanksgiving dinners where vegans assert moral superiority, or gluten-free food is the price of admission for some. Paul is desperately seeking unity among people determined to split into factions. In god's eyes, he will see both groups as important and equal, even if "strong and weak." Neither side may claim precedence over the other.

Also consider this context as an ethic between the Advents. Notice its univesralizing thrust. Life is too short to waste time dividing into sides. On the other hand, his ethic points us toward living as a messianic community, toward tikkun olam.

The blessing at the end of our passage, v. 13 is wonderful,and could be a sermon from that passage alone.

Is. 35-Advent 3

While an adversary is promised nothing but trouble in ch. 34, here we have a vision of delight. It seems ti take special care to reverse negative images of previous chapters. Faced with a panoply of images, the preacher may wish to select some natural images, or more likely images of new-found strength and courage. The holy highway that becomes a processional way could be a good place to go. Of course, fear, that biblical vice, is displaced, and is always a fruitful topic. Joy, that exuberance  so difficult to discuss closes our section. One could link it to the anticipation of Christmas, the first Advent. In Indiana, we could use ready-made agricultural images to fit the themes rather easily.

One could use v. as an entry point into disability and find some links to Tiny Tim perhaps.

Please try to avoid using these beautiful images and turning them into diatribe about no Christmas spirit or consumerism. If you need to do so, select another passage.

On the other hand, this could induce one to speak on a vision of a new future, in the face of discord and disharmony.

Is. 11 for Advent 2

As I’m working on this,  early Christmas, really early Christmas music, is streaming from the chapel. Of course, we have started Advent in the church year. We have permitted the destructive themes of apocalyptic material dominate discussion, but here the aim of the revelation is to point to a brighter future that is new, that does not replay the past.

Jesse Tree-Jesse, of course, is the father of David. Some use the Jesse Tree as a decoration to teach the antecedents and promises of the Messiah. It is a  large Advent calendar, in its way. Some may combien it as a gift tree for getting the poor some needed resents.

Regeneration- The emergence of a green shoot out of a seemingly lifeless stump is a type of resurrection. Patricia Tull notes in her commentary (229) the messianic power of this passage in  late second temple Judaism. One could perhaps use this image to speak of regeneration in individual and collective life.

Again Hicks and the Peaceable Kingdom, that we touched on in Is. 65 recently certainly comes into play again. Notice how he often had Penn’s treaty with the natives of his colony, a sign of political peace for him. Again, look at the shifts in his repeated composition over the years.

End of Predation-”Nature is red in tooth and claw” with blood. That violent element of creation is pictured as ending, and a new era of natural shalom will emerge one fine day. 

Gift of the spirit-we speak if this passage less than the fruit of the Spirit from the NT. We could spend more time on its emphasis on counsel, on deliberation. I learned 7 gifts, since the LXX added piety to the list, so it acts as the culmination of the set of pairs. Mental acuity is a major feature of this list of illumination. One could use it to discuss loving God and others with the mind.

Advent 1
Is.2:
Advent could be a difficult season, especially its end time is the beginning early weeks and our collision with a culture that started the Christmas season already in early November. One way to forestall complaints about Advent hymns could be to use the peace hope in this reading into a Christmas Song.

First  we have the close use of this one in Micah 4, or its opposite in Joel 3 .Zech. 8 extends  it.
2) The temple will be a lodestar, as well as the portal of the divine presence. All will be drawn like a magnet to it. Advent points the way, like the finger of the Baptist in art, to the Christ. It marks a turn from the trampling of temple and justice in chapter 1.

3) Torah is usually translated as law, but here it has the sense of teaching/instruction. It helps stifle the urge to make Judaism a legalistic faith. This is the antithesis of the troubles in chapter 1.

4) Of course, peace is the hope here. We point toward non-violent ways of dealing with disputes. The resources and the implements of war will be tamed and useful for life, not death. We will have no need of War Colleges.

5) v. 5 knows that hope becomes reality when we act in its light.

6) I may be wrong but here I find temple worship as instruction on how to live in the world around Mt. Zion. Worship prepares us for the work in the world for peace. In a time when worship gets downplayed, except for seeking a novelty, the temple material is a clarion call toward public worship.

I find Christ the King to be a most difficult challenge. I have a difficult time with the very idea of kingship in a democratic society. I dislike its sense of hierarchy. Calling the day of reign of Christ is scarcely an improvement, as reign seems to me to mean reign over, not with. I do not work well with the humble Jesus Christ being transformed into a cosmic czar with the ascension. Further, if that reign is active, it pushes me yet again to ask why then is suffering so rampant? So, I seize on a text that could be fruitful, including a difficult one such as Col. 1:11-20

The Interpreter’s Bible is quite good on our passage for Sunday. For me, the McDonald commentary in Sacra Pagina series on Col and Ephesians is superb. See also New Onmterreter’s-The new Outlook piece is excellent and please consider looking at working preacher for commentaries on all of the readings for this Sunday and going back a few years in the reading cycle as well

V.11-strengthened could be empowered, I would think,as God’s presence/energy infuses us

endurance/perseverance/ keep on keepin on  are good translations for hyponome, and makrothumia has the sense of longsuffering, of enduring suffering-more forcefully-give me your best shot-bearing up under suffering gets at it-both words are often translated as patience and run us into trouble often, both in distinguishing them and having a sense of “patience.”

V.12 Giving thanks is a nice link to the upcoming holiday.It is the last of four participles in the set.

Made fit/qualified to share is an unusual word  I suppose a legitimate sharer could work, especially with the following notion of inheriting a share.

Saints in the light takes us back to All Saints Day and a sense of being in the reign of Christ

V.13 here we are in a change of citizenship or being ruled from the power of darkness-we are liberated from one power to live in freedom and light in another. (see similar thought on light in the Qumran DSS)-the thought continues in the sense of being transferred to a different reime. Note well-that process is current-it is not for heaven alone.

V.14 Deliverance-redemption, as in release, liberated from bondage/imprisonment is the semantic field here

15-20 is thought by many to be a Christ Hymn-For me, the ley is Christ holding things together, and yes, that includes our thoughts and feelings in difficult times, I would think.

v.15-I don;t know if we should refer to Genesis 1 here or not. I am not sure if it helps or hurts the iconoclastic strain in Reformed thought. At any rate, we now overuse the word, icon, but its use may well be helpful in speaking of Christ this Sunday.

First born of all creation-This is a minefield, but I do think it helpful to made a linkage to the view of Wisdom in Prov. 8. It also helps with  later notion of being “before all things.” Still, I think that the emphasis is one of importance, at the top of a hierarchy, perhaps. The one of Bethlehem and Nazareth is above the rulers of Rome.

V.16- the little phrase in him is a deep one-I read it as prehensile, of grasping a reality, of being a participant and agent of it. 

We get invisible again. As Carrie Newcomer says, just because we don;t see something at work doesn't mean that  energy of change is not at work.

V.17 I am not sure if before is temporal or spatial. I stress the hold together (sunistemi) sun is a prefix emphasizing together. It had a sense of the coherence of the cosmos, or perhaps less formally, the connections , the networks of the universe.

head=can mean at the head of the class, but it can mean source as well, headwaters, say. The previous meaning is strengthened by the next phrase first place. Again, the rejected one is transformed here, as in the last shall be first.

V.19 pleroma, fullness could be a sermon in itself. Its emanations are featured in Gnostic speculations of its many leveled divine world. To me it is clear that the incarnation carried with it the gravitas of divinity.

V.20 Reconciliation of course is the theme of the Conf. of ‘67. Here it seems to be relating to the healing of something that has been ruptured, a bridging of a chasm, a bringing together that which has been separated or alienated.

Make peace strikes me as a long way from the criminal law image we use for atonement and reconciliation. If we insist on a legal metaphor, it sounds a lot more like the civil realm than the criminal.With the cross we are in a subversive mode for the images of ruling that we would associate with Christ the king.

Jer. 23:1-6

I always have trouble with Christ the King/Reign of Christ. The readings rarely seem to get me anywhere.

Jeremiah is a case in point-OK- near east leaders were called shepherds, and God is disappointed in the shepherds of Israel, secular and sacred, in Scripture. Then we get a reversal, as God moves to take charge and have particular attention to the flock where the old blessing of fertility will return. This gets heightened with a messianic promise. Note well the leader will act to execute justice and righteousness, that political pairing of the OT. The last verse seems to refer to Zedekiah, the last king of little Judah, so it would have lingering discouragement in its reading. (As we approach Advent, the Hebrew has a different word for branch-I suppose one could work with the image of a tree and a branch, or even go with an organizational chart that uses a branch).
Emotionally, the leader should deal with fear and dismay to comfort the people from poor shepherds, and physically, it comes  with the shalom of safety and security. In other words, good times will be with the good shepherd/leader.

In 2019, does the flock image work in our situation of hyper-individualism? To what degree is the pastoral image of the sheep helpful or indeed harmful? While we bow to Ps. 23, do we want to be regarded as sheep?

With the current occupant of the White House, exceeding even Nixon in perfidy, as the worst president in my lifetime, it is too easy to attack him. Further, it is too easy to go with the plague on the house of politics as doomed to failure. Some then may hope for religious revival as the cure to our political ills. Again, too easy.

We could face squarely that we call Jesus the Good Shepherd, the Messiah, and we have 2000 years of poor shepherds in all facets of society, including religion. That promise remains unfulfilled as we close o another church year. Perhaps one could go with our desire to blame leaders for poor performance and neglect our role in that failure. Perhaps one could go with the virtue of learning to wait, yet work, toward the vision of Jeremiah here. Indeed, even if we have a righteous branch leader, they are enmeshed in a most difficult world.

Nov. 17-Is. 12-I do want to direct attention to Patricia Tull's fine commentary on Isaiah 1. It seems to be a hymn, but I do not have a sense of its placement in the material at this point. Indeed might, zimrat, could also be a song, and the hymn has language used in a number of psalms. It does give us yet another place where Isaiah oscillates between doom and restoration, renewal, and rejoicing.



 In TOT Breuggemann (468) notes with the great psychologist Erik Erikson that we face the crisis of trust and mistrust from the earliest stage of existence. For a religious person, that trust is centered on God. In Hebrew trust/security in relationship is emeth, and its variant is amen, thus a link to Luther's notion of faith being a trusting relationship to divine promise and character.

We just had a baptism at a church where I help out a bit. Water is a redolent symbol, as it is here.

Zion of course is Dame Zion,  focal point for God's relationship with all-recall the temple is a point of contact for heaven and earth.

With Thanksgiving nearing, this could be a template for thanks in 2019.

Npv. 17 end of the cycle

Is. 65:17-25 is the locus for some  of the material in Revelation. In my view apocalyptic thought oscillates between the poles of destruction and the glory of the new. The dispensationalist interpretation that has captured the American field of vision tends toward one pole, obviously. So it makes it difficult to read  and respond to the material with fresh eyes.

The series of painting by Edward Hicks may be helpful in approaching this.

It envisions release from the curse east of Eden. the new creation seems to me to outstrip the accounts of Genesis 1 and 2. It moves once again to a blessing of all creation. It is as different as the world of humans and angels hinted o at in last week's reading from Luke 20.

Fretheim makes a good point in God and creation on our passage that cosmic significance, universal scope is embedded in Isiah's concern for both redemption and new creation-history gives clues about divine intentions. Ecological vision lies at the heart of God's salvific purpose here. Human and natural salvation are intertwined, as befits the adam, the earth creature.

Please note well:the violence that afflicts creation, the cause of the flood story, will be removed; it will have no nexus in which to gain purchase.

Notice the change in memory-the former things-the world of punishment will no long be remembered nor brought to mind-

note the nouns that follow next-joy, delight-adjectives-glad-the verb is rejoice

a lifetime will look more like the primeval history of early Genesis, but without weeping. The heartbreaking promise of infant death without a lived future is banished.

Security is the watchword for these long-lived people not only in the enjoyment of the needs of life, but in the temporal dimension for descendants.

The nearness of God is then placed in deep understanding of answer before a question is posed, no static, no delay.

Finally the peaceable kingdom eliminates predator and prey.

The agent of temptation the sly serpent will at and become dust-threat will be banished.
Why that would be heavenly-exactly.

For All Saints and Nov. 3

This may be a great way to introduce looking at apocalyptic material and emphasize visionary character, its current abuse, misuse, disuse. Think one could actually use some seminary learning on the mythic background of Scripture to help deepen understanding. It seems clear to me that John's revelation picks up elements of this material along with his use of other apocalyptic material in his expansions of visions.

This time, i am staying with Daniel 7 and going with passages that touch on the holy ones. In the visions the saints are under threat at present but that will change.

Sunday October 27 readings

The only comments I have for the moment on the Luke reading is to studiously avoid the anti Jewish tropes we often use in discussing the  Pharisee. Since we are in the midst of a section on prayer, this could be a great place to consider Calvin's quote on prayer being the chief exercise of faith.

Joel 2:23-32 appears in a new light when not read on Pentecost. After the plague on nature, the shame, the curse, we switch. In our ecological age, not only does nature mourn a lost good, but now it responds in abundance. God. god is making recompense for the loss, like a tort claim (v. 25).  I am open to the cutter being a natural plague or a symbol for invasion by a very human army.

Shame (v.27) could well be something to work with. The church has a focus on guilt, although that is rapidly  diminishing. Shame strikes me as a deeper issue. It is more than being mistaken; it is seeing oneself as a mistake, as unworthy, as less. Shame is connected to diminished self-esteem and we know the deleterious effects of that disposition well.  a nation, this is a difficult for powerful America, the land of promise, but the president touched a real nerve with maga. The promise of winning so much spoke to that feeling, perhaps.

We know well the Spirit outpouring for Pentecost, but look at what follows. We get a classic apocalyptic  reading of the day of the Lord as terrible, not to give Israel power. When history looks bleak, we see a movement to kicking change upward, into the divine realm, as we feel helpless.

The final verse (32) has both particular and universal elements. The Reformed tradition woujld be well served to examine such  words with real care.

feel rotten with cold, so in a period of self-loathing, I start looking at passages.

Jer. 31:27-34-The first section play off the announcement in 1:10. Here the weight is not balanced but toward a better future. in v. 29, we get a good example of Biblical development, as the great characterization of God's characterization, self-characterization changes. The notion of inter-generational responsibility fades. It is an intertextual link  to similar material in Ezekiel 18.

One should be careful in not characterizing Judaism as  a faith inscribed on the tablets of the commandments, so Christianity is the faith of inscribed hearts. Again, I catch real wistfulness on a God wishing for good close relationship with this people, all the way to a new covenant. (I do not know if Jesus was referring to our passage at the Last Supper).

Note that it seems to refer to God not remembering  community, corporate sins.


Lk. 18 I love that the unjust judge fears for his personal safety from the widow, as she rains not only pleas but maybe blows on him.
Unanswered prayer is a tough tough issue. The parable raises as many issues. If God is clearly better than the unjust magistrate, then why doesn't God deliver quicker justice? The story gets us no closer to why prayer may be answered at times and seemingly ignored at others. Indeed, it heightens the problem, why it the text instruct us to persistence when the story would indicate no real need for persistence given the comment at the end?


Gen.32:22-31- liminal space between waking and sleeping. Even the stream reflects a play on his name.Jacob (grabby, pushy) is heading home and has prayed in humility. Esau is there, so he is afraid. Now after he places many obstacles, or gifts, in front of him, he faces himself, or God's agents, or God's own self in a nocturnal battle. Notice Israel deal with wrestling, with struggle, and the text adds prevailing, though the name means struggling with God, or God struggles, and the name fits him and his people down the road.( more obviously the name means God rules, but see Hos.12:3-4). Does Jacob want a blessing here, as he knows his first blessing came through deceit? I don't have a sense of the hip being thrown out fo joint other than, he limps;he is disabled, as a result of the contest. (See Gerald Janzen's Abraham and all the Families of the Earth). Should not every worship be Peniel-seeing the face of God? Then should it reflect struggle as well?

Ps.121 or 119:97-104-We don't  with the psalms nearly enough, especially when a gospel text is on prayer itself. Notice the movement of 121 from question to assurance.To gurard or keep is its refrain (6x). Its closing can apply to all sorts of entrances and exits. I don't know if sun and moon are dangerous due to superstition, other religious beliefs in their deity, or a poetic device for day and night. Shade has a sense if protection elsewhere, as in shadow of wings.

For Oct. 6

I wanted to get this in, as I am off to Utah  hike in Arches and Canyonlands next week.

Eugene Peterson has a good chapter on Lamentations in Five Smooth Stones

The lectionary isn't produced for World Communion Sunday, but let's take a look at Lamentations 1"1-6 and 3:19-26. Even as someone as close to it as I  am willing to adjust the readings as well.This may be a good time to look at the depth of our views on the Lords Supper, starting with the easy formulation in C 67.

3:19-26 could work with Communion-After all, the words of institution speak of a broken body. It fits the funereal sounds of a number of Communion hymns. Our passage is about the center if the book.
Communion moves from a broken body to embrace broken lives. In gathering the broken, it then presages healing.

Wormwood and gall -both deal in bitterness-indeed wormwood is related to the word for curse. Since the sacrament is a "medicine of immortality" one could focus on its healing properties through its bitter start.

Its words fit the liturgy as it starts on a down note and moves toward hope.

The feast, the spiritual feast of the Lord's Supper is quite the portion as our cups run over.

The soul that seeks moves from its previous use (vv 17,20,24) Nephesh tends more to the self, to life itself, more than a sense of a disembodied spiritual core however. That is perfect for the Chalcedonian mixture of the human and divine, the physical and spiritual nature of any sacrament.

Maybe we should have some silence in  the Eucharistic sacrament ti fit v. 26.

Jer. 32 for Sept 29

I haven't looked at  translation points, as this seems a fairly straightforward account, but here are some thoughts on the passage itself.

This provides an excellent chance to speak of the future in the midst of struggle in general, for our nation, a congregation, a denomination, a ministry. How certain and uncertain is the future? Why have we gone to such a dystopian view of it in popular culture?

One could look at this virtue of hope not in the optimistic way that things naturally progress, but as a virtue in spite of the facts on the ground, in a different future.

Here money is being used for a noble purpose. we do well to be careful that Scripture does see acquisition as a temptation, but not sharing is the usual issue, not money in itself.

If one were so inclined, one could use its dull features of the transaction itself  as doing God's work in the mundane tasks. Many folks in the pews have gone through similar stages in the difficult process of buying a home. Did you ever sign so many documents at once as a t a closing?

One could use this enacted prophecy as an example of doing a small thing in the face of large forces.

We are quick, too quick, to disparage church property. It provides  sacred space, but it is also a repository of memory, the precious keepsake of a wedding, a baptism, a funeral.

As an alternative, one could speak of the value we place on 100 year farms in Indiana and our concern about the family farm as a symbol.

For Sept. 29- I Tim. 6


I know few minsters who enjoy speaking about money, but we have a gold mine of resources for this Sunday. (Sorry this is so late, but will do better for first Sunday in October, I hope.)

I Tim 6 is a good place to start on money but also vices and virtues.

First, please note that the common expression on money is not what the letter says.

Second one may consider going back to v. 4 on vices t help frame our passage.

Third, tell me that v. 5 would not be a direct assault on many TV preachers and the health and wealth theology movement.

Words to consider-godliness-what does that mean in the first place in our time? Eusebia- the word could be translated as religion or piety. One could go far speaking of the corporate and individual aspects of religion in 2019. Autarkia=contentment but also self-sufficiency, the Stoic acceptance of what life brings to us, almost as a fate or destiny. One could contrast that with our hunger for more that rejects sufficiency or the notion of enough as enough. Depending on translation used- hupomone= not patience but endurance, the sense of perseverance, of keeping on, of not giving up or giving in.proateta=meekness/gentleness, but as the Sermon on the Mount, it may well have the Greek sense of being well-balanced, neither too aggressive nor too passive, as in a well-trained, tamed, animal.

One could speak of the craving for wealth as an addictive quality that includes the vices listed as part of that craving.

One could choose to go through the virtue list at v. 11 or draw on one or two to emphasize as virtues, Christian or not.

The concluding exhortation insists that being rich has real spiritual resources and follows the Lucan theme of wealth being there to be shared. After all, that seems to be the problem with the rich one and Lazarus, as the rich one seems to know Lazarus but did not share his opulent meal.

Notes for Sept 15 Readings

Jer. 4:11-12, 22-28

I am not sure why we have the break, but we start with what I assume would be a terrible sirocco as a judgment that goes far beyond cleaning. Yet why the phrase my poor or foolish people? Is the punishment going too far?

I do not know which was first, but the waste and void phrase in v. 23 has clear verbal links to Gen. 1:2. Brueggemann notes this  passage in his Theology of the OT. That creation account emphasizes life, and here it seems to disappear, both plant and animal life. I suppose one could use this as a guide to the planetary threats of greenhouse gas pollution as dire warnings. At v. 25  no one is the human one, adamah, so now we get Gen. 2 in the picture. The effects of evil become a theater of desolation.

Even with this anti creation theme (see Fretheim) God is not considering a complete destruction. God's interrelated world has human action, including evil, have an effect on nature. Creation exists within a complex of forces and actions.
Even so, Jeremiah envisions cosmic mourning. Katherine Hayes has asserted that mourning or drying up are meanings for a-b-l and that word is connected to the land eretz.

Brueggemann in a Jeremiah commentary-prophetic work “is not a blueprint for the future. It is not a prediction. It is not an act of theology that seeks to scare into repentance. It is, rather, a rhetorical attempt to engage this numbed, unaware community in an imaginative embrace of what is happening ... because ... evil finally must be answered for.”

Philemon means affectionate , as its root is kiss.
Apphia could be protect one/shield or a variant of Joseph, fruitful/increasing
Archippus-great name for a soldier-master of the horse

This often gets pushed aside but has a number of ways to make a sermon or a good study.

First Philemon is a slaveholder and Onesimus (useful) is a slave. If one is a storyteller, the opening here would be for background, especially on how Onesimus meets up with Paul in the first lace.

AT v. 7 hearts="gut" as in gut wrenching, or deeply moved.
Later, Paul uses another term that is translated as my own heart.

I find this a masterpiece of persuasion. I appreciate Paul's announcing that he could try to make an order but he won't (v.8). He builds the recipients up and notes the personal  gifts of grace he has received from the recipients. He is relying on the best of the slaveholder. Paul aims for sympathy due to his age and condition as a prisoner. He wants Philemon to make a decision and not be presented with a fait accompli of Paul's holding on to Onesimus.

Notice how careful he is with words. Onesimus has been separated from his master-think of the words he could have used (v. 15). He wants a welcome fit for Paul himself for this returning member of the economic  realm.
Look at how he turns reciprocity language-Philemon owes Paul his own self, but Paul will repay from his own account

I am moved to despair when I read Christians on social media. They assume that they are in the absolute right and opponents are absolutely wrong. They call people terrible names. They do not seek to try to see things from another point of view.

Social sin seems to bring out the jeremiad in ministers, even when they will not speak that way about personal sin often.

Should Christians align with identity politics as antithetical to the  beloved community?

This letter is the personal as political, but Paul makes no grand political statements her. except for his constant reference to the new community in Christ.

Lectionary Selections for Sept 8

Jer. 18
I love the idea here of God the artistic creator, the fashioner, the experimenter. One could tell of artists and the artistic impulse for creativity.

We get a parade example of God being willing to change the divine plan.

An artist respects the quality of the material used and surely God is getting used to the obduracy of human material. God may well be surprised at the interaction i of intention, working, and result. God is more flexible here than we would often imagine.

The moment verses (7,9) may indicate a bit of caprice, but the openness to repentance would undercut that notion. Again, the otter notion works here as it is prior to the work being fired.
One could go the art history route and show both fragments and full vessels in the time of Jeremiah.

Do you think God does work for and against nations?
Do you notice that God has reshaped you?
Do you notice that God has been responsive to changes in you?
Has God seen things in your raw material that have escaped your notice?
When we say God has a plan, do you see that plan as firm, even irrevocable, or a work in progress?

Jer. 2:4-13

We start with  a fairly frequent refrain in the OT., God seems utterly frustrated. How could the people find non-existent wrong in the relationship with God? God seems mystified that they would turn their attention to "worthless things." What are those things now?

God is frustrated that they not not link prayer to the one who liberated them. We get a great example of nationalistic history when we hear that the land was empty of inhabitants.From its very start as a people, the chosen people slipped into unfaithfulness or ran headlong toward it.
 What are examples now of idolatry of church and culture?

Instead of gratitude and care, God is met form all sides with unfaithful  worship.
God calls on witnesses from east to west , even the heavens, to inquire about a religious change in a nation. Note well that it denies even reality to those gods,   toward monotheism, certainly.

If this is indeed using the rib/indictment style of speech, it could be interesting to put an indictment for 2019.
The end is  stunning-in substituting idols for the fountain of living water, they have substituted a homemade cistern with cracks.
What would be contemporary equivalents>
Do you see a linkage between religious observance, culture, politics and economics, ro do you keep them in discrete compartments?

A good collection on Jeremiah is Peterson's Run With the Horses

Heb. 13

The beginning is great sermon fodder, let mutual love continue. It is a reminder that church is a community endeavor.Mutual love=brotherly love=philadelphia-Ine oculd play a clip of Springsteen Streets fo Philadelphia In a time of hyer-individualism iit si salutary to be reminded of community and a world beyond narcissism.

Hospitality=xenophilia= love of a stranger. In our time, that is a biblical counter to rampant xenophobia.The prison reminder helps us realize that the ties of mutual love are not affected bty separation, distance, or circumstance. Here the church is called to the preferential option for those on the edges of life.
Ob the other hand, I do not think that hospitality is a particularly helpful point about border policy as hospitality is charitable and border policy concerns more impersonal justice.

The love of money reminds one of the pastoral epistles, but I do not grasp the quick move into the nearness of God that follows.Perhaps it is a way of saying that idolatrous love of possessions excludes God from being a very present help. After all, God si the giver of divine gifts that exceed any material advantage.

On angels unaware-consider a movie clip on Abraham and the scene of the 3 visitors or Ushpitim, an Israeli movie on the theme as well.

V. 7 would  e a good study for church boards, especially in congregations where the pastor is the object of constant complaint.

The next verse (8) doesn't seem to be a natural progression, but its meaning seems open-ended. Beware using this as a tool for glory days as opposed to the present, or sa ralizing the past in favor of the present and future.

Notice at the end, the transformation of sacrifice for Christian community.We share our gifts as a way to actualize pa raise and thanks to God.Note also the emphasis on remembering in this conlcuding section of the "sermon" or sermon series that is Hebrews.

Is. 58:9b-14

This follows directly from God’s insistence that justice be the context for worship. Even good ritual is sullied by injustice. It has the chilling notion that prayers go unanswered due to injustice. Typical of the OT, words of alarm are followed by words of hope.

Now, if justice is central, the prayers are heard (v.9). Not only active oppression but even actions of contempt are not to be countenanced, as well as speaking evil, a dominant mode of discourse on the internet. The series on conditional promises then point to a better day. The images are worth separate mention, but look at them as a series, light, not gloom, a watered garden, repairer of the breach (  Dr Schuller sent  a note to President Clinton on just this phrase), Sabbath as delight, riding on the heights of the earth. One could do well selecting one and working a sermon around the individual image.

Sabbath itself, including worship as honoring it, could be a fruitful topic for sermon or classroom, or private devotions.

Of course, this good open us to a discussion, a serious one, of justice and its connection to religious thought and life. I am afraid that we are substituting current notions of justice as popular policy proposals or bowing to the current mania for identity politics.

The ending of Hebrews 12 offers a fine opportunity to consider the importance of worship, together, on Sunday. I am astonished at the number of social media posts form clergy that downplay worship in favor of being the Salvation Army without the salvation.

The theophany of Sinai receives a negative perspective here, one based on fear. At the same time, this could be an entry point into a discussion of holiness and the chasm between the divine and the human, a la Barth.

We return to the realm of the invisible  of 11:3.Please note that the preacher in Hebrews speaks of heaven as a festal gathering.

The sprinkled blood here of Jesus does not cry out as do the saints in Revelation, or the blood cry of Abel from the ground. One could use this as an entry point for violence in 2019. This could also be a cue to do a bit of work on the meaning of sacrifice in a more sophisticated way.

The unshakable kingdom is to be contrasted with Haggai where God operates a shakedown fo the nations for wealth to flow into the restored temple area. This is quite the literary lep for unshakeable, to find ti removing that which can be shaken.9V.27)

Consuming fire a quote Dt. 4:24, 9:3.  I would l think one could make this an image of purification, of danger, obviously, or even the divine presence itself, as in the burning bush, even though it did not consume the bush.

Is. 5:1-7 notes for 8/18

This is a broken-hearted love song, filled with hurt and anger at betrayal. We are given only a hint of it the short passage, as it leads into a long lament song. One could use angry heartbreak songs to set the mood.

God seems befuddled here as in  he worked hard  at it (v.2) and knows that nothing more could be done for it (v.4). One could consider linking this to last week where God is weary of worship without justice.

Is. 5  continues last week’s look at God’s disgust with injustice. This time, the surprise is that we are not what God expected.  The image is a gardener who does everything that one should and does not receive the expected crop.  In this case wild grape, (translation guess, could be bad fruit, sour, rotten)  arrive instead of the domesticated grape, the special ones , soreq. In other words the love affair with Israel has gone wrong, as has the vinewyard, itself at times an image of love itself.

The ending is also wordplay justice and bloodshed would be mishpat and mishpah, and righteousness and a cry is tsedaqah and tse’aqah.

You are correct if you hear echoes of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Notice the vineyard becomes a wasteland, going all the way to the creation of Gen. 1, where God transforms the wasteland (bohu).

One could do some interesting work on expectations for Sunday-God doesn’t get what God expects in Isaiah, and we don’t get what we expect in Ps. 80, and we get an unexpected side of Jesus in the gospel lesson.

August 18 lections

Heb. 11:29-12:2

First, I got interested in how cloud turned into a multitude, but apparently, it was used to describe a large, shapeless, shifting thong of people in other Greek writing.I thought of a cloud chamber showing particles in physics.I think of the cloud of witnesses when Harry Potter's family offers him a shield of protection and encourage him as he faces his destiny.

Second, one could have fun speculating on the decision to include Rahab in the roll call of faith. She is in the genealogy of David and therefore Jesus. One can read the story in Joshua 2.The name denotes boasting. pride or strength and is connected to Egypt. It also denotes one of the chaos monsters fo the deep.One wonders how the two spies ended up in her house to spend the night.we have another example of the Good Samaritan where the last person one would expect is an agent of good, at least from the perspective of the spies.

Gideon was no prize, just review Judges 4-8. Still, he led a remarkable victory for Israel. Indeed every person named had serious failings, perhaps that itself was of enc ouragement to a dispritied people.

Third, If Hebrews was to be encouraging, I don;t know how encouraging to hear its parade of calamities of the faithful. On ornate stained glass symbols of the 12 apostles, we can see the symbol of St James the dismembered.On the other hand the Martyr's Mirro has inspired generations to courage.

The athletic metaphor may indicate the use of weights in the long jump, and they were released  at some point in the contest. Pioneer= archegos. The archegos is the author, the beginner,leader, the trailblazer as pioneer  In a race, the archegos is the team captain. who acted to encourage other teammates, precisely role of encouragement of this letter.As perfecter/completer, Jesus takes our incomplete lives and makes them  whole. complete, a clearer notion of perfection, as in a perfect fit.

For August 11-Is. 1:10-20, Heb. 11:1-3, 13-16

Is. 1:1-20

The basis for Hebrew ethics is care for the vulnerable: the widow, the traveler, the orphan.  Please do not read into this passage an attack on the sacrificial system itself or worship in general in favor of social justice concerns.

Many of recall the destruction of Sodom in Gen. 19 for its rejection of hospitality for attempted rape of a stranger.  Jerusalem itself, the site of the temple is now called Sodom. (see Ezek 16 on its ill treatment of the poor, however). The people of been worshipping fully, but God sees the offerings as nothing (v.13). God seems to no longer respect worship.

For worship to be proper, the people need to learn justice. Ethics are linked to right worship. As a preliminary to worship in the temple courts, God wants justice in the law courts.

Instead of ritual purity, God is seeking “ethical purity.” The worshippers have sacrificial blood on their hands but the blood of human beings due to injustice.

Some of us are old enough to remember LBJ quoting this passage-come let us reason together. Come to the table and hash this out, but the way they are going will lead to death, and the path of God’s way will lead to life.

Heb.11:1-3, 8-16

vv.1-3 We have a gold mine of material for the invisible to the visible, especially for those interest in natural science and faith (see William Brown), for instance) The eyes of faith see beyond current realities and can glimpse the future, the arc of the universe.

Faith here is relational, a part of fidelity, of abiding trust. (Again, one could go to Erik Erikson on trust as fundamental to personality) Jesus is all the “proof” we require of the substance. After all, hypostatis is Trinitarian language. “Elegchos” has a sense of Jefferson’s self-evident truth. Yet another way to go at this passage is to use its words as law court language even now-martyr after all means witness.

Many think that Hebrews is sermonic for dispirited people. Vv13-16 supports that with its reminder that the roll call of faith is met with trouble and disappointment throughout. Still, they persisted, as they kept their  eye on a brighter future, a different realm.

Notes for Hosea 11 and Luke 12:13-21 August 4, 2019

Hosea 11-In our time, perhaps we can substitute a grandparent for the parental image being used here, to get at its nostalgia for young children. What  do the bands of love and human cords mean? Were children in ancient times led with a leash as some children are now  in public spaces?  Could it be the difference between a domesticated beast and a child? On the other hand, one could refer to Egyptian child rearing  plans on having a child play and enjoy until around 6.

Admah and Zeboiim  were destroyed cities a la Sodom, see also Dt.29:23 by its mention of fierce anger. God decides not to execute fierce anger  in v. 9.

Of course, vv.8-9 shows a deity far different than the dispassionate God of the philosophers. Here God is torn up about how to proceed. One could compare god’s anguished self-reflection to the self-reflection of the rich man in Luke. Unlike many of us, mercy wins. Note: following Trible-compassion (ruhumah)  is a word well translated as motherly love as it is connected the rehem, the womb.

If one feels more adventurous, select the image of the parent v. the jilted spouse of Hos.1 and the surprising lion image at the end of our section, OK periscope, for those so inclined, or the mother bear image of 13:8.

The Lukan passage 12: is a difficult passage in a society that is neglecting its retirement plans. It is a direct assault on acquisitiveness.

 In Indiana, we have a great image of the metal grain storage bins.

Greed is closer to a hunger for more and more-it may be linked to coveting, but more likely, avarice-think Scrooge or our attitude toward a 401 (k) or the market.

Fool is a frequent opposite for wisdom in Proverbs .Here, aphron is one who foams at the mouth, yes, as if possessed (Lk.9:39).Now there is an image: our attachment to possessions si an example fo possession.

One could consider the ways we treasure “good things” (another way of translating goods.)

Notice that once again Jesus refuses to make himself an arbiter for the decisions of others; he refuses to be placed in triangles. (One could be bold and use this as an invitation to speak about systems in congregations).