I Samuel 23:1-7

1) First, I am not a complete slave to the lectionary. I am going to use Dt. 17 and Ezek. 33 for Christ the King Sunday.

2) How comfortable are you with the designation, king? What contemporary analogies do you make? How do the analogies threaten its biblical meaning as did the political readings of messiah in the time of Christ?

3) I would think that some would see this as a high point of Zion theology mixed into the power of the king.

4) What do you think of god's working through human beings as an element of providence? Are these still free agents or puppets?

5) What do you think of the curse toward the end? When do you feel like cursing someone, not in terms of vulgarity but a curse for harm?

6)I am struck by the immense trust in v. 5 that God will bring to fruition David's help and desires.

7) Here is a prophetic utterance, another example of anointed being priest-prophet-king.

8) Translation issue; it is either David sweet singer or related to God as Strong One

9) Note that God is the source of power here, not the king, not the people.

10) Note the emphasis on justice. Define it. Where do we march toward it and when do we fail. Especially consider, at this time of year, the difference between charity and justice.

 
Sermon Nov. 15, 2009 I Samuel 1, Heb. 10

Hannah is tired of unanswered prayer. She is tired on being the favored wife but having to put up with the taunts of the second wife since she does not have children. She is tired of her husband trying to make it up to her and doing so clumsily. As Bruce said, "is a dream alive that won't come true, or is it something worse?"Every once in a while, I'll see some polygamous Mormon offshoot on TV and they always say how great they get along. I don't believe it. It is a situation bred for trouble. Men have enough trouble working with one wife; I can't imagine keeping a number happy. Anyway, at rock bottom, she goes into the shrine to pray, even though her prayers have been to no avail, and her desperate prayer is mistaken for the drunken mutterings of a reprobate. Elkanah's name means God fashions; Eli's means my God. Both these men with godly names misunderstand her, even as she may fear that even God misunderstands her plight.

 

The congregations in the book of Hebrews are tired of trying to be good and not seeing much benefit for it.Some are bringing in home troubles, others work troubles; some are stressed out, and others depressed, in other words, a typical congregation. He has them hold on to hope. When hopes have been dashed, that is a hard task. As Langston Hughes said, "what happens to a dream deferred?" Hope imagines a different future and lives expecting and working toward its realization, almost as if it is already at the doorstep.

 

How do you provoke someone into doing good? How does one exhort, especially about the end times? I don't know if nagging pushes someone into doing good, or more likely puts them into a more passive mode. Good examples are ignored as much as found inspiring. It's not easy to exhort into the end times when Christian predictions have always been wrong, when we've seen 2,000 years pass by,l even as the new movie 2012 adopts a Mayan calendar for Hollywood's latest apocalyptic venture. We get a triad of hope here: boldness, endurance, faith. How to hold on? Boldness comes in short supply when you are in trouble, especially when you try and try and keep on spinning your wheels to no avail. Endurance is a word often translated as patience. Its sense is not giving up or giving in, hanging in there all the way. Faith here strikes me as closer to a sense of abiding trust in the promises of God. He recalls the days of the congregation at its best to remind them of their resources.

 

After all the years of strife, Hannah's prayer gets answered. Every year she would go to Shiloh and make a new priestly robe for her vowed and dedicated son. she and Elkanah would have more children, and I guess Penninah stewed in her anger, or I hope grew to appreciate Hannah and her children. I hope that the congregation of the Hebrews found the energy they were lacking.I hope they came to see that God notices and appreciates all of their good work, even if thy felt under-appreciated at the time.

 

I pray that all of our unanswered prayers find a good resolution, even if it is not quite what we demand or expect. I pray that we see that the future does not have to repeat the mistakes of the past but is open to the fresh breeze of the new. God does realize that we all need fresh infusions of energy from time to time.God is an unfailing spring of energy that we often leave untapped. Go to that source of energy and hope, find refreshment and strength for the days ahead.

I Samuel 1:4-20, 1 Samuel 2:1-10

 

1) Bruce Birch (NIB,p.973) cites the critic Polzin that the family drama plays out national issues for Israel. It reminds me of Lasswell's saying that political psychology is private issues played out on a public stage. We are in the hill country south of Shiloh, northwest of the Dead Sea.

 

2) Elkanah's name means God makes (Canaan in there perhaps)? Hannah means grace, charming attractive. Peninnah means fertile, prolific ( once again someone lives out the meaning of their name in childbirth this time).

 

In words reminding us of Ruth 4, Elkanah says that she is worth more than 10 children.

 

3) Eli is a blind priest to the spiritual condition of Hannah. v. 15 She is not drunk but what is being poured is her soul, her nephesh, her self, her life force. He then changes course and at least does bless her prayer. A brave pastor could use the Eli story to speak about pastoral weaknesses in the face of God's call. I think of Diary of a country Priest in this regard.

 

4) her vow to have him be a Nazirite reminds us of the Samson story. After all, he is a surprise child fro Manoah (secure/safe/restful place) and his wife.

 

5) Some say Samuel is related to asking God, as in Saul's name, other s see it more like Ishmael's name with God hearing, perhaps.

 

6) pay attention to her fear of being considered worthless. The word is applied to the sons of Eli. God does not see us as worthless, even if society does.

 

7) She prays because she is deeply troubled (some translate it as stubborn).

 

8) Infertility is an issue for many couples, and this is a good text to approach it, for tis pain to the childless.

 

 

S Samuel 2:1-10

 

1) Hannah's prayer evokes the power of God.

 

2) At the same time, she then discovers personal power (raising the horn, a symbol of power)

 

3)An element of the curse psalm is here, as this is prayer with a warning.

 

4)She sees God as a God of reversals of society. This leads into the Magnifcat of Mary in Luke 1

 

5)Like a lament, she then moves to praise. i have a sense that this type of prayer now looks into a future where god ahs indeed acted.

 

6) For not by might 9v. (0 has haunting national comeuppance for all of us.

 

7) notice anointed one, messiah, here. 

Sermon Nov. 8, 2009 Mark 12:38-42, Ruth 4

We look at three widows this morning, Ruth, Naomi, and a nameless woman. They lived a a pre-Social Security time.the law and prophets agreed that how we treated vulnerable widows was a fundamental ethical test. If one's family did not fulfill their obligations, a widow was in desperate straits. Then and now, the widowed occupy an uncertain social place. It can be a dependent social space and one that is a ready reminder of our own fears about the future. So, it is surprising to see all of them as givers of gifts of various sorts when thye were usally in a dependent situation. I don't think that Social Security absolves us of our social resposnibilities toward the widowed.

 

Gifts depend on perspective, like many things. From one angle, the widow gave a pittance. When you have a big building program, you want some big donations. From the angle of Jesus, she gave everything she had. Maybe Jesus is aware of widows, if our suspicion that Joseph died between his early teens and adulthood is correct. Gofts bind giver and receiver in new ways.A meaningful gift pours something of ourselves into the gift and shows our esteem for the receiver. Her small gift does not symbolize a small person. since it is everything she has, it is symbolic of an astounding generosity, a symbol of all she is and maybe hopes to be, in making her offering to the temple. It relies on intent. care in selection. Newly married couples have to learn about giving and receiving gifts, as they interpret different things as sign of love: price, thoughtfulness, usefulness. I think of the O. Henry Christmas story, the Gift of the Magi. The poor young wife cuts her beautiful hair to get a proper present for her young husband. The young husband tries so hard to get beautiful ornaments to hold that beautiful hair.Our gifts to the work of god create a new set of relations with the divine. For many of us, nothing comes from the heart as much as money and property.

 

Ruth and Naomi don't even have a penny to spare. They live on gleaning the field at this time of year.It would be as if they would need to subsist on what falls from trucks during all the harvesting now. They give each other loyalty, as family, even though Ruth is from Moab.  They seek a safe and secure place that Boaz can provide. They find the gift of security. Ruth has the gift of a new family, as does Naomi. She goes back to her name, joy and pleasantness. No longer is she the one of bitter tears, Marah. Then, miraculously, she receives her youth again, this female Job. The women give the child the gift of its name.

 

The widow's plight is one of emptiness in these stories, financial and emotional. they all move toward fullness. We always hear about inclusiveness. In so many ways widows are excluded in social situations.We do well to give some thought about inclusion of widows as the social swirl of the season will soon be upon us. A few disgustingly organized people probably have their Christmas shopping planned, done, and wrapped. We are moving toward the time of year when we are asked to give all sorts of gifts to good causes and for friends and family. It is easy to read the story as claiming th rich were showing off their wealth in their offerings. The rich give from their heart too and may give until it hurts sometimes. Jesus is looking at both intent and the depth of the commitment shown, not the actual amount. In the end, how we decide to spend ur time, talent, and treasure is all a prayer in action to the God of all good gifts.

A Prayer for All Saints Day 2009

 

On All Saints Day we count our losses,

too many of them for most of us: parents and other family,

friends and celebrities we knew more about than friends.

We miss them at odd times, a hint of fragrance open the floodgates

of memory and longings.

 

We are told that we are all saints, in your household. O god.

We are skittish about it, for we think saints are perfect.

No saint was, or is, perfect, but all have something to admire,

a virtue toward which we aspire.

 

It is true that loved ones are in a better place.

We pray that visions of heaven sweeten hard times.

May we find room to hope amidst the rubble of pain.

May we try to bring bits of heaven down to earth every day.

With you O god, it is never over; we are never gone.

 

On All Saints Day we count our blessings.

Lives touch each other, embrace each other.

We seek to recall the good that the departed brought us.

Even if we forget, we know that you do not forget, O Divine Storehouse.

All lives remain connected to you, the Great Connection

Sermon All Saints 2010-Rev. 21:1-6, John 11

A lady at Crown Pointe said that she needed to hear of heaven more, as she was too upset to hear about it at funerals. So, All Saints Day fits her need and our need to hear more of heaven when we recall those who have gone on before us. Death's hand haunts all pastors, and turning 55 has turned my thoughts to mortality even more.I visited Chicago for a discussion of the christian funeral last month and read the poet/funeral director Thomas Lynch's book, the Undertaking.  I've looked into making my own casket but then wonder about storage. I was pleased to see that Walmart now has a number of caskets for less than $2000 on its web site.

All Christians talk a good game about death being defeated at Easter, but the old Halloween Grim Reaper scares us most of the time. Yet, "our eyes are fixed on a distant horizon" (Long Accompanying: 40).

 

Our readings this morning look forward to that distant horizon when Death will be banished from the kingdom of God. As Moltmann said one day Death will die and Hell can go to hell." (Long: 44) At long last, the last enemy will be cast into the outer darkness. The cause of so much pain and misery will be removed. All of us are surely in need of that hopeful vision, as we endure too much loss in this world. At the same time, we are in love with this world, maybe too much. Nathaniel Hawthorne said that passengers on the celestial railroad stop at Vanity Fair, our version would be the mall and call the stop the true and only heaven; they have no interest in the shining city  over the horizon. However the streets of Vanity Fair, the world of the mall, would be filled with churches. In heaven, eternal life and worship life will be mingled together, in a seamless garment of life.

 

With God bringing us into a new world, our lives will count  for something more than the discrete sum of events and experiences. they will be connected to the life of God and the countless other lives on this planet. In eternity their sound will echo and their effects will ripple through time. Our baptism will be complete. As our deaths will be gathered into the death of Christ, our new life will be gathered into the new, resurrection life of Christ. I am the resurrection and the life says Jesus. Notice the present tense, even as Martha speaks of a future state. In heaven the resurrected will live with the Living Resurrected One.

 

God has all the time in the world for us.Revelation says that God's dwelling place will be with us. Our lives will be with God, in God, united in the peace and restoration of God. Those afflicted with dementia will have their memories and their best selves restored. those who wake up in the morning with pain could run and dance again. In heaven, we will have all the time in the world to come to know God and each other, face to face, without all of the masks and defenses we need for protecting our fragile selves. I love the phrase I first heard in process theology, "in God nothing worth saving is ever lost." I don't pretend to know of heaven beyond the few tantalizing biblical images and hints. I do believe in the life of the world to come. We yearn for a place where are dreams for peace, justice, fulfillment will meet in salvation's halls. In the end, heaven is all about life with God, so the images we draw of all the good we associate with God gets imagined in heaven. Heaven will be what we need, how we need it, as we live together in what our souls crave, for all the time in the world.

Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17

 

1) I picked the All Saints reading for last Sunday. The regular reading was the introduction to the story in chapter 1.

2) I've always like the Trible essay in God and the rhetoric of Sexuality

3) Death stalks the characters in chapter 1. Naomi, a female Job (see Janzen's thoughts in his new book on Job) loses to Death,2 sons and a husband. Orpah and Ruth lose husbands and a chance for children by them

4) Where we start off, one could talk about the phases of grief where one starts to reconstruct a new future in the absence of the loved one.

5) One could also choose to emphasize the end, how family issues can ramify into important social considerations down the road.

6) One could speak of the connection of Jesus to Ruth.

7) One could use it to speak about inclusion/exclusion as Ruth was a foreigner. I suppose one could talk about conversion to the faith as well.

8) One could use this to introduce inner-Biblical dialogue, as the story stands against the divorce decree against non-Israelites in Ezra.

9) Ch. 3 Ruth needs security, a safge secure place (manoah)

10) The plan is bold. It is laden with sexual tension, if not power, The bit about sleep, uncovering feet could well be a sexual allusion (Gen. 19, Lev. 18, Ezek. 16, Dt. 28:25) Spread your wing/ cloak kanap goes without saying

11) Nice word play in unocver gala and redeem ga al.

12) Boaz is generous and he works through the system to defeat possible obstacles to marriage to this foreigner.

13) Notice Naomi is herself again and even young again, the oppositie of what she told her duaghters in law in ch. 1

14) Ruth is a eset hayil, a worhty woman, the companion to Boaz a gibbor hayil, often translated as mighty man of valor. Note Boaz was a temple column.

15 So many ways to go with the emptiness, economic, social now being filled.;