I write this with my left eye with a patch due to a cataract procedure.Our daughters have been teasing me about being a pirate, but I seem to lack the panache, as one of my favorite Errol Flynn movies is Captain Blood, I suppose.
I am old enough to remember when people were immobilized for six weeks when a cataract was removed. This strikes me as miraculous. While I am so grateful for the advances in medical technology, we have a long way to go in healing our perceptions, or inner sight of the psychological depths and our sight of the world beyond intersecting our own, spiritual sight.
Jesus was a healer. Giving eyesight to the blind was one of his tasks. At this point, I recall that he met a man who asked for one thing with one word in Greek, anablepo, that I regain my sight.
These healings always point to a spiritual dimension. They are often placed around a story where someone misperceives the message of Jesus. In other words, the physical is a gateway to coming t grips with the spiritual. Perhaps the best example is John 9. Jesus heals a blind man on the sabbath. Instead of rejoicing this causes religious consternation and an investigation into the healing. threatened by a new spiritual power, the establishment reacts with veiled threats and coercion. At the end, the man healed is the one who sees Jesus in a new light, while the others are consigned to spiritual shadow.
Paul speaks of us looking at reality with a sort of perceptual cataract due to our limited abilities. “ “We see as through a glass dimly.” It is part of the limitation of being human that we do not see the spiritual, maybe even reality itself, with 20/20 clarity. So much of what we perceive is fostered by and interpreted through our mental frameworks. Some go around wit their radar constantly on the prowl for someone or something, so they can feel aggrieved. Some of us seem blind to how others treat us. We all become quite skilled at turning a blind eye to suffering that requires compassion and aid, as we blame its victims instead.
John Calvin, the prime mover of the wing of the church that became the Reformed groups, spoke of the “spectacles of Scripture.” He meant that we can see the world differently through the lens of the bible. He may also have meant that we may even begin to glimpse the world through the eyes of God, a god’s eye view of the human struggle. In other words, the Bible may come to heal our spiritual blindness and help us to see in ways previously unimagined.
Liturgy in church is our best attempt to frame our experience in a distinct way in the spiritual life. Its order tries to dispel the chaos. Its measured beats are alternatives to the 24/7 madness of the Internet Period. There we first admit that we are dependent, together, on One who is larger than our imagination. There we admit our faults, alone and together, but there too we hear words of absolution, pardon, and grace, The old words take on new life and new resonance as they are heard by us together. Instead of grasping for more, instead of having our hands out, we make an offering to the needs beyond the self. At Communion, we who work and work do receive a gift, with our hands open and not clenched. We always leave with a blessing. At its best, church architecture leads us into a sense of a liminal experience, where our eyes are drawn upward, where we are surrounded in a new symbolic landscape. Going to church helps us to live out the words of Amazing grace, “twas blind, but now I see.”
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Exodus 12:1-14
1) The liberation affects time itself, as it now is the first month of the year. In a way, it reminds me of Anderson’s OT textbook, as it starts with the Exodus as it examines the Scriptures. This is a great example of the Priestly material backdating things to give an air of legitimacy to current practice. The agricultural calendar was an autumn calendar, not a spring starting one.
2)The ritual is interesting as it is done in households but care is taken to do things at the same time. One can find all sortd of traditional or contemporary interpretations of the meaning of the different prescribed foods at Passover. Please recall the Last Supper is done as a Passover meal in the synoptic gospels.
3) In blood was thought to be life, so it is an appropriate thing to ward off the Destroyer.
4) It prefigures travelling food in haste. This is a different sort of ritual feat.
5) Notice that Egypt’s curse now turns back on it.
6) Notice too that this is a day to remember, an ordinance into the future. Many note that slave time is the same thing day after day, but God is up to something new. The past is no longer prologue but an event to be celebrated, not regretted. The future is pried open here.
7) I wonder if this observance marked a change from circumcision. It is not for males only, but for families. this is a new people who share this feast in family units. Blood appears in both, linked to life and death itself.At Passover the family units compose a congregation says the text, a people gathered, a people called.
2)The ritual is interesting as it is done in households but care is taken to do things at the same time. One can find all sortd of traditional or contemporary interpretations of the meaning of the different prescribed foods at Passover. Please recall the Last Supper is done as a Passover meal in the synoptic gospels.
3) In blood was thought to be life, so it is an appropriate thing to ward off the Destroyer.
4) It prefigures travelling food in haste. This is a different sort of ritual feat.
5) Notice that Egypt’s curse now turns back on it.
6) Notice too that this is a day to remember, an ordinance into the future. Many note that slave time is the same thing day after day, but God is up to something new. The past is no longer prologue but an event to be celebrated, not regretted. The future is pried open here.
7) I wonder if this observance marked a change from circumcision. It is not for males only, but for families. this is a new people who share this feast in family units. Blood appears in both, linked to life and death itself.At Passover the family units compose a congregation says the text, a people gathered, a people called.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
August 21 Sermon Notes Ex. 1-Ex, 2:8, Rom. 12:1-8
We've gone through some highlights of the story of Abraham's family in Genesis. now that family has grown numerous, just as God had promised. As time has passed that blessing is perceived as threat by a new Egyptian monarch. the move to becoming a people now becomes the oppression of the new people who can trace their beginnings to Abraham. In dealing with these rich texts, I am emphasizing the keys of the kingdom and Paul's word of being not conformed to this world.
The keys to the kingdom relate to rabbinic authority of permissible and impermissible- locking doors or opening them-rules of the house.
Puah and Shiphrah both names deal with light and brightness declare what they will not countenance. it is a remarkable thing to have those names r3ead in the course of the centuries maybe over 30, they were not conformed to this world and its power structures.When asked by the ruler of Egypt about the seeming abundance of Hebrew children, they outwit him by using his own prejudice against him. They act of of civil disobedience, even at the risk of their lives. Mother of Moses is a new Noah, making an ark, a little ark to put her boy on the water to save him, even though the ruler has ordered it, the life-giving Nile, to be an instrument of destruction for the babies. To protect life, all the women in this account Egyptian and Hebrew defy the orders of the ruler. They claim the keys of the kingdom to declare what line they will not cross.
Be not conformed but transformed-Amish way? Over the years they have gone through a lot of stress and strain over buttons or the type of permissible wheels on a buggy I respect their marks of a community, but I suppose I prefer a cultural non-conformity to the culture when it seems to stand against the gospel message. Niebuhr's church transforming culture He had different models how the church reflects the surrounding culture, or the way of having the church oppose the culture.He saw the transforming image as best-suited ot the kingdom of god images used by and enacted by Jesus. I suppose we cold call it thinking and living outside the box, the box that culture creates and maintains to but blinders on our perspective and even consideration of the the different.
who do you say that I am
Those two Hebrew midwives did so at great risk. Let me close with a far different example. I grew up south of Pittsburgh and Fred Rogers was on TV always for us. He was ordained by the Pittsburgh Presbytery to be Mister Rogers. He wanted to respect children and was a figure of fun to so many. He prayed two hours every day for the many requests that poured into his office. He would make a point of visiting a child when he was on a business trip. He met a mute autistic boy who would first only speak to the TV with him. What impact this gentle fool for Christ had. I love the story of his deciding to take the subway in New York on a business trip and the whole car joined in singing the neighborhood song. His car was stolen in Pittsburgh once. Days later, it was returned in the exact spot with a note on the windshield, if we knew it was your car we never would have touched it. On that same NY trip, a man saw him and shouted, it's mister rogers, I have ot buy a lottery ticket; this has to be my lucky day. (See the Tom Junod story in esquire and his eulogy for Fred Rogers as well).
The keys to the kingdom relate to rabbinic authority of permissible and impermissible- locking doors or opening them-rules of the house.
Puah and Shiphrah both names deal with light and brightness declare what they will not countenance. it is a remarkable thing to have those names r3ead in the course of the centuries maybe over 30, they were not conformed to this world and its power structures.When asked by the ruler of Egypt about the seeming abundance of Hebrew children, they outwit him by using his own prejudice against him. They act of of civil disobedience, even at the risk of their lives. Mother of Moses is a new Noah, making an ark, a little ark to put her boy on the water to save him, even though the ruler has ordered it, the life-giving Nile, to be an instrument of destruction for the babies. To protect life, all the women in this account Egyptian and Hebrew defy the orders of the ruler. They claim the keys of the kingdom to declare what line they will not cross.
Be not conformed but transformed-Amish way? Over the years they have gone through a lot of stress and strain over buttons or the type of permissible wheels on a buggy I respect their marks of a community, but I suppose I prefer a cultural non-conformity to the culture when it seems to stand against the gospel message. Niebuhr's church transforming culture He had different models how the church reflects the surrounding culture, or the way of having the church oppose the culture.He saw the transforming image as best-suited ot the kingdom of god images used by and enacted by Jesus. I suppose we cold call it thinking and living outside the box, the box that culture creates and maintains to but blinders on our perspective and even consideration of the the different.
who do you say that I am
Those two Hebrew midwives did so at great risk. Let me close with a far different example. I grew up south of Pittsburgh and Fred Rogers was on TV always for us. He was ordained by the Pittsburgh Presbytery to be Mister Rogers. He wanted to respect children and was a figure of fun to so many. He prayed two hours every day for the many requests that poured into his office. He would make a point of visiting a child when he was on a business trip. He met a mute autistic boy who would first only speak to the TV with him. What impact this gentle fool for Christ had. I love the story of his deciding to take the subway in New York on a business trip and the whole car joined in singing the neighborhood song. His car was stolen in Pittsburgh once. Days later, it was returned in the exact spot with a note on the windshield, if we knew it was your car we never would have touched it. On that same NY trip, a man saw him and shouted, it's mister rogers, I have ot buy a lottery ticket; this has to be my lucky day. (See the Tom Junod story in esquire and his eulogy for Fred Rogers as well).
August 21 Devotions
Sunday Ps. 124 speaks clearly of enemies but in actual but also mythic context. By the latter I mean seeing the world as reflecting a battle between good and evil From what trouble have you escaped? When have you been able to “fly away” from trouble?Have you been the cause of trouble?
Monday-Had an interesting discussion in morning Bible class-(note it moves to Wednesday mornings at 9:30 as I will teach at Lewis and Clark on Tuesday) on Romans 2 and judge not. we all know the saying but what does it mean? Do me it means to convict someone on one’s own. what’s the standard? Our own ideas. Do we ever judge someone positively? When you were in school were you ever praised with “constructive criticism’? It is not our place to judge, but god’s. Our perspective is too self-interested, too distorted to judge by God’s own standard.
Tuesday -Pride has long been considered a particularly deadly sin. First let’s be careful with words. don’t confuse it with pride in oneself or one’s work, more like arrogance, maybe even narcissism, a leering superiority that looks down on everybody. Arrogance removes us from the central issue of human life:we are not gods but we think we should be.
Wednesday Alan Thames, Executive Presbyter of whitewater Valley, posted a great quote recently on facebook. “Ours is not the task of fixing the whole world at once, but to stretch out to help mend a part of it within reach. Any small calm thing one soul can do for another soul will help immensely.” recently I prayed that we feel called to help heal the world but feel like we do social triage. god gathers up the pieces of our small acts and words of kindness and those help to compose the world of God’s own creation.
Thursday-I grew up in a small town. Facebook is being flooded with memories of it from the fifties to the seventies or eighties I would guess. I don’t seem to remember nearly as much as the people posting memories. Think of some funny childhood stories. who were some characters where you grew up? who were your best and worst teachers and why? How did you spend time with your friends? what were your church experiences like? From there, have you changed a lot or are you basically the same person? where did you shake the dust off your feet and what did you make sure to retain from your hometown?
Friday Romans 12 shows the impossibility of reading the Bible literally. Paul work off a literal interpretation when he says we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (offering). clearly he means that the way we live out our lives is a communication to god that should be of the perfect quality fo the old animal sacrifices. what have you done in the past week that would be a fitting gift to god?What words have you offered that would be a proper sacrifice to the divine One?
Saturday Were people as touchy thirty years ago as they seem to be today?I don’t remember people almost itching to take offense at an innocent remark, almost as if they are looking to take offense. With all of our talk about self-esteem, it seems to me that we are more brittle than before. If we but recall that we are baptized, full members of the household of God, would that help? What things are you perhaps overly touchy about? Does that happen under stress?
Monday-Had an interesting discussion in morning Bible class-(note it moves to Wednesday mornings at 9:30 as I will teach at Lewis and Clark on Tuesday) on Romans 2 and judge not. we all know the saying but what does it mean? Do me it means to convict someone on one’s own. what’s the standard? Our own ideas. Do we ever judge someone positively? When you were in school were you ever praised with “constructive criticism’? It is not our place to judge, but god’s. Our perspective is too self-interested, too distorted to judge by God’s own standard.
Tuesday -Pride has long been considered a particularly deadly sin. First let’s be careful with words. don’t confuse it with pride in oneself or one’s work, more like arrogance, maybe even narcissism, a leering superiority that looks down on everybody. Arrogance removes us from the central issue of human life:we are not gods but we think we should be.
Wednesday Alan Thames, Executive Presbyter of whitewater Valley, posted a great quote recently on facebook. “Ours is not the task of fixing the whole world at once, but to stretch out to help mend a part of it within reach. Any small calm thing one soul can do for another soul will help immensely.” recently I prayed that we feel called to help heal the world but feel like we do social triage. god gathers up the pieces of our small acts and words of kindness and those help to compose the world of God’s own creation.
Thursday-I grew up in a small town. Facebook is being flooded with memories of it from the fifties to the seventies or eighties I would guess. I don’t seem to remember nearly as much as the people posting memories. Think of some funny childhood stories. who were some characters where you grew up? who were your best and worst teachers and why? How did you spend time with your friends? what were your church experiences like? From there, have you changed a lot or are you basically the same person? where did you shake the dust off your feet and what did you make sure to retain from your hometown?
Friday Romans 12 shows the impossibility of reading the Bible literally. Paul work off a literal interpretation when he says we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (offering). clearly he means that the way we live out our lives is a communication to god that should be of the perfect quality fo the old animal sacrifices. what have you done in the past week that would be a fitting gift to god?What words have you offered that would be a proper sacrifice to the divine One?
Saturday Were people as touchy thirty years ago as they seem to be today?I don’t remember people almost itching to take offense at an innocent remark, almost as if they are looking to take offense. With all of our talk about self-esteem, it seems to me that we are more brittle than before. If we but recall that we are baptized, full members of the household of God, would that help? What things are you perhaps overly touchy about? Does that happen under stress?
Notes on Ex. 3:1-15
Ex. 3: 1-15
1) One of the main points here is the name of God. I’m partial that it is close to a a causative in Hebrew so it is the one who causes to be, in other words, Creator. I am who I am does sound like Popeye, but one could make it more majestic The Existing One. Others see the name as causing actions in this world. If you are feeling ambitious this may be a good time to consider immanence and transcendence or a removed god v. an active one v. a responsive one. As Fretheim insists, this is a a relational god. Now is God intervening from the outside or is God operating within this framework, as in ground of being v. a sky god?
2) the idea of Holy ground is picked up by Gordon Lathrop in his trilogy. Where is holy ground in your life? Does anything inspire awe in our time? Notice the promise will be to come back to the holy mountain Horeb/Sinai to worship. It now makes sense why Moses is of the tribe of Levi. So the entire event of the exodus from Egypt, before the wilderness wandering, is framed by worship. Can suffering be holy ground? Is any encounter with human beings holy ground? (See the new book on administrative ethics Where two or More are Gathered)
3) Notice that God hears and responds. This is not Calvin’s imperial divinity who thunders orders and manipulates events. God hears their cries. God knows their troubles. Yet, God will act through Moses not by fiat.
4) Can it be an accident that Moses moves from a shepherd of a herd to a herd of people?
5) why is it emphasized that the bush is not consumed?
6) I have seen all sorts of ideas for the meaning of Jethro. (OK, get Jethro from the Beverley Hillbillies or the old rock group out of mind) Look how this important figure is not a Hebrew.
1) One of the main points here is the name of God. I’m partial that it is close to a a causative in Hebrew so it is the one who causes to be, in other words, Creator. I am who I am does sound like Popeye, but one could make it more majestic The Existing One. Others see the name as causing actions in this world. If you are feeling ambitious this may be a good time to consider immanence and transcendence or a removed god v. an active one v. a responsive one. As Fretheim insists, this is a a relational god. Now is God intervening from the outside or is God operating within this framework, as in ground of being v. a sky god?
2) the idea of Holy ground is picked up by Gordon Lathrop in his trilogy. Where is holy ground in your life? Does anything inspire awe in our time? Notice the promise will be to come back to the holy mountain Horeb/Sinai to worship. It now makes sense why Moses is of the tribe of Levi. So the entire event of the exodus from Egypt, before the wilderness wandering, is framed by worship. Can suffering be holy ground? Is any encounter with human beings holy ground? (See the new book on administrative ethics Where two or More are Gathered)
3) Notice that God hears and responds. This is not Calvin’s imperial divinity who thunders orders and manipulates events. God hears their cries. God knows their troubles. Yet, God will act through Moses not by fiat.
4) Can it be an accident that Moses moves from a shepherd of a herd to a herd of people?
5) why is it emphasized that the bush is not consumed?
6) I have seen all sorts of ideas for the meaning of Jethro. (OK, get Jethro from the Beverley Hillbillies or the old rock group out of mind) Look how this important figure is not a Hebrew.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Notes Ex. 1:8-2:10
1)A play may be made between not knowing Joseph and his wisdom and using a different tactic, shrewdness, in dealing with the numerous Israelites.Notice that be frutiful and multiply has turned into a curse as aliens.
2) The issues of resident aliens in our time is obvious.
3) Egypt, a land of plenty, is being governed by a scarcity ethic and its ally fear.
4)Janzen in Exodus p. 18 finds a linguistic parallel to the tower of Babel story.
5) Not only do the Egyptians employ brutal labor policies, they ask midwives to kill the male babies. It is impressive that their names are kept for us, when the Egyptian princes are left unnamed. Shiphrah-brightness, Puah=brilliance-so both deal with light -Can't you see how oppressed people would love that two midwives dared to fool the king in this way. I just read that King James I disapproved of this action and disliked the Geneva Bible notes approving it.
6) Moses comes from the priestly tribe. (Levi=attached)
7) Moses =son in Egyptian but mosheh in Hebrew means to draw out. The basket that is drawn from the nile is the same word as ark of Noah or the ark of the tabernacle, it could be a box, a container as well.
1)A play may be made between not knowing Joseph and his wisdom and using a different tactic, shrewdness, in dealing with the numerous Israelites.Notice that be frutiful and multiply has turned into a curse as aliens.
2) The issues of resident aliens in our time is obvious.
3) Egypt, a land of plenty, is being governed by a scarcity ethic and its ally fear.
4)Janzen in Exodus p. 18 finds a linguistic parallel to the tower of Babel story.
5) Not only do the Egyptians employ brutal labor policies, they ask midwives to kill the male babies. It is impressive that their names are kept for us, when the Egyptian princes are left unnamed. Shiphrah-brightness, Puah=brilliance-so both deal with light -Can't you see how oppressed people would love that two midwives dared to fool the king in this way. I just read that King James I disapproved of this action and disliked the Geneva Bible notes approving it.
6) Moses comes from the priestly tribe. (Levi=attached)
7) Moses =son in Egyptian but mosheh in Hebrew means to draw out. The basket that is drawn from the nile is the same word as ark of Noah or the ark of the tabernacle, it could be a box, a container as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)