Notes on Joshua 3

Joshua shares a name with Jesus. God save/helps/delivers. The Promised land itself is a an image redolent for All Saints Day as well.I don;t know if I would even consider using this book if it did not get featured in the RCL.I know that i have not gone through a commentary with care on the entire book, just bits and pieces.We can follow from last week and see how the successor, joshua, does waht Moses cannot, to go into the Promised Land. One could go through some of the citations on the river Jordan and its importance as a water source now.

1) This famous passage is not a military conquest is it? It is a liturgical procession that  fells a city.(I also encourage the archaeologically minded to look at the succession of sites that Jericho occupied over the centuries.Entry signs are important to what follows.

2) the river Jordan is an invitation to look at boundaries in our lives. It could speak of liminal space, the space between one area and another.

3) The presence of God is a vital piece here and can be explored in our time. when do we need the presence of God and when do we shun it?

4) One should note the links to the story fo the crossing of the Sea in Exodus.for instance, the word heap occurs there too.

5) Look at the actions of the priests, both leading and being in the midst of the water.Too oftne, Christian interpreters fall into stereotypes of religious ritualism instead of ritual.

Sermon Notes on Death of Moses DT. 34

Moses is presented as the exemplar of love o God and neighbor, his people.Dt. 34 and the death of Moses-plus and minus in loving god and neighbor. I have always felt sorry for Moses that he is unable to enter the Promised Land. some think that Israel needed to break free of Moses    He is pr portrayed as vital to the end. It encourages us to perhaps look back at our own lives and toward the vision of the Promised Land. some think it was an incident at Meribah where Moses perhaps overstepped his role. some think it is an anticipation of Jesus as a suffering servant who is not permitted to enter the Promised land any more than the vast majority of the exodus generation.

At 60, I have been declared officially harmless. i am intrigued that Moses is portrayed as  being vigorous well into the extreme old age Maybe it reflects 2 lives, as an Egyptian added to his normal life span as a Hebrew.This congregation may be graying, but it does have at least some of the vigor of youth.

Does anyone die having checked off their bucket list? Does anyone die with all of the hopes realized? Life always feels unfinished. We all have wishes undone and tasks unfinished.Those can be personal ones or for causes with whom and for whom we may labor, communities that have embraced us and those we have embraced.

Even though Moses will not set foot in the Promised Land, he is given a satellite image view of the Promised Land. I like to think that maybe he saw history unfold Vision of the future propels us forward at times. If we work toward a vision, work on a dream of a different future, it enlarges and engages our perspective. Moses receives a God’s eye view of the future, an expansive one.What vision do you have for this special place for the future? Yes, we are a graying church group, but maybe we are grandparents preparing to visit the maternity ward of a new day.We live within a legacy here in this place. Is it, will it be a living legacy, to quote Peopria’s Dan fogelberg (cncert in his honor over the weekend there).What faithful legacy shall we leave in our time here?

God buries Moses. So it cannot beocme a shrine, a memorial to the past, his burial place is secret.No shrine will be given for Moses. His memory will be enshrined in Israel. I sometimes think that a fine gift to our families is to do some pre-planning for the disposition of our bodies and the plans for our funerals. In Africa, ebola is being spread through the final act of love an dkindness we offer a loved, the care and disposition of the body. Here God gives Moses the last rites and buries him secretly, an ironic resting place for a public man.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. He addressed the crowd in Memphis:”Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people will get to the promised land.”

Column draft on Reformation sunday

When I was a child, we had a good deal of antipathy between Protestants and Catholics. That is too mild. Religious prejudice and bigotry were practiced frequently. “Mixed” marriages were frowned upon. The nuns in school told me to walk on the other side of the street of Protestant churches. JFK’s faith was such an issue that Rev. Positive Thinking Norman Vincent Peale pronounced the end of the American democracy. Protestant clergy routinely inveighed against the Pope.

Religious prejudice is much less than it once was. We have come such a long way. In some measure it comes from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 enshrining no discrimination on the basis of creed. Politicians continue to trip over themselves to ask God’s blessings, but they rarely invoke a particular religious option. Since Vatican II the relations are much more sanguine between Catholics and Protestants. My Facebook feed routinely has praise for the Pope among Protestant clergy. The American profusion of religious opinion continues, not only in Christian circles, but in other faiths, or in those who are antagonistic or indifferent to matter religious.

That good will gets threatened on Sunday, called Reformation Sunday, in many Protestant communities. Folks will be treated to a round of self-congratulatory rhetoric about the Protestant (proclaiming) version of the faith. We approach the 500^th anniversary of Luther writing a scholarly disputation against the practice of indulgences from purgatory. (Purgatory, as the name suggestions, is an afterlife station of cleansing or purification before entrance into heaven.) He wanted to debate some doctrine and practice. Luther may have posted his disputation on a church door or wrote them up in a protest letter. This is considered the first action of the conflict that would split the Church in Europe. Pulpit after pulpit will be filled with stereotypes and ill-considered illustrations that we would accept in no other circumstance.

Major doctrinal disputes are long since past on the issue of salvation for both groups. As NT Wright says, we continue to ask 16^th century questions about the Bible. We may fly an occasional banner about the old issues, but they lack any semblance of pertinence.

The gospel reading in many churches that follow a lectionary cycle of readings is telling this week. The passage gives us Jesus at his most basic. We are to love God and neighbor (Mt. 22:34-46). Part of me hangs my head in shame that we proliferate so many different versions of that core message. On the other hand, if such a variety o of the garden of grace gives a place for someone to find their place, so be it. It opens a door; it does not serve as an obstacle to loving God and neighbor. Simple phrases can contain a world of meaning, and I suspect so it is with the Great Commandment. Further, Jesus holds them together as the summary of the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. If we try to separate them and pit love of god against love of each other, then we run afoul of our founding principle.

The Reformed tradition of which I am a part has as a basic motto, the church reformed, always being reformed. Notice the passive voice there. God’s spirit is the hidden element providing the energy and direction for the reforming. Change in itself is not reformation. The core of its structure and tenets remain the same, but it is adapting to new circumstances.

We have opportunities to celebrate Christian unity. Reformation Sunday is a way to look at the fragmentation of the Christian message in America with open eyes. It can be a way to look at what divisions are lost in the mist of history. It can also be a call to examine our horizon and see how far we all have to go.

Week of Oct 26 thoughts

Sunday-Ps. 90 is one of the great psalms of penance. I rarely have this much remorse or contrition in me that is evidenced in this great prayer. Few of us have a sense of sin as an affront to God, or consider the “wrath” of god.. Note that it starts the fourth book of the edited Psalter, so it may well be answering the pleas of people facing the destruction of Jerusalem, including the temple.

Monday-(Idea from Kent Groff) Praying the news past ignoring it or getting depressed.I have not watche dht enews before going to bed for most of my adult life. Its parade of horrors cuts and cuts deeply. Sometimes when I see a miracle like the Berlin Wall falling without violence, I wonder if prayer was the force that brought it down.

Tuesday-O Gracious and Abiding Presence,We prepare now to let go our control of this day as we hand over to you the fruits of our labors. Soon sleep will close our eyes and empty our hands and minds of work. Each time this happens we practice our departure into death. May the sacrament of sleep teach us not to fear death but to trust in your compassionate care for it is, in you, that we sleep and take our rest. Lord of Day and Night, of Life and Death, into your hands we entrust our lives. In Christ's name we pray…

Wednesday-I am getting ready for John 2:13 as we go through the Gospel of John in the 9:30 bible Class. Here is  a parade example of John’s gospel being out of sync with the other gospels, as Jesus has his symbolic demonstration in the start of his mission, not the conclusion.

Thursday-From Abbey of the Arts-The darkness embraces everything, / It lets me imagine  / a great presence stirring beside me. / I believe in the night.  ---Rainer Maria Rilke in Book of Hours-The Christian feasts of All Saints and All Souls on November 1st and 2nd honor the profound legacy of wisdom our ancestors have left to us and continue to offer. In some denominations, we celebrate and honor the dead for the whole month of November. In the Northern hemisphere the world is entering the dark half of the year. The ancient Celtic people believed this time was a thin space, where heaven and earth whispered to one another across a luminous veil and those who walked before us are especially accessible in these late autumn days. These moments on the great turning of the year’s wheel offer us invitations and gifts for our spiritual journeys.

Friday-God needs to catch us by surprise because our very limited pre existing notions keep us and our understanding of God small. We are still trying to remain in control and we still want to “look good”! God tries to bring us into a bigger world where by definition we are not in control and no longer need to look good. A terrible lust for certitude and social order has characterized the last 500 years of Western Christianity, and it has simply not served the soul well at all. Once we lost a spirituality of darkness as its own kind of light, there just wasn’t much room for growth in faith, hope, and love. (Richard Rohr)

Saturday-Anytime you can walk in another persons shoes, the world is a slightly better place. ~ (Anthony Bourdain) Empathy goes beyond sympathy as we do attempt to see the world from another’s point of view/.It is perhaps our greatest act of imagination, to encounter another.

OT Notes Dt. 34

I always go back to Dennis Olson’s fine Book Dt. and the Death of Moses. I find it tragic that he does not get to go into the the Promised Land. At least he gets a vision. As I turned 60, I am delighted that he is pictured as hale and hearty to the end of his days. By the time of Jesus it was a legend that since he had no burial place, maybe he was assumed into heaven.; that may be one reason why he is pictured with Elijah (of the chariot to heaven) in the Transfiguration.The cloud of the Ascension of Jesus is matched by a lcoud taking Moses into heaven in some rabbinical works.

1. Why was it important to prevent a shrine to Moses? How is Torah a  shrine for him?
2. Patrick Miller in his 25 year old commentary sees Moses as a suffering servant. What other links to Christ can you find?
3. 3) Did Moses die a good death? I often think of King’s closing vision in her last speech in Memphis.
4. The death of Moses could be a promt for us to consider our own deaths.
5. 5) I like to think that the vision of Moses of the entirety of the Promised Land included a vision of the future as well.
6. 6) God buries Moses. What a remarkable act of care. This could be a wedge into considering our current burial practices.
7. 7) Go through some death scenes in literature and movies.

Sermon Notes Oct. 19 I Thes. 1:1-10 Thanking

Oct 19 I Thes. 1:1-10-     

Forgive me if I told this story before. Fred Rogers, ordained presbyterian minister to be misterrogers spoke at the emmy awards for a lifetime achievement award. He asked the bejeweled crowd to stop for a moment in silence to think of someone important in their lives. He then stopped and told them he would watch the time.Everyone of us has people who have loved us into being, who have cared for us, who helped make us who we are. how pleased they must be to see who you have become.such smiles greeted him and a warm standing ovation with more than a few tears.tim Robbins seemed to struggle with his composure in presenting the award/ Before we do the same thing during prayer. Take fifteen seconds and consider someone who helped make you the person you are today.

Again Esquire magazine asked a variety of people to mention someone who made them who they became. One of them was Kenny Rogers who was here recently for a concert. He spoke of his father’s drinking but he spoke of a man who played in a jazz group who saw potential in him and told him that show business was not all wet towels and naked women, that it was a business and would eat you alive if your did not approach it as such.

Paul does a similar thing here; he thanks God for them. I was struck by how many people

I suppose I should not single people out as that can cause people to feel left out, so this is a corporate prayer of thanks.

Grace and gratitude have been said to be hallmark religious values. Gratitude opens up the self.Paul makes is teaching a way of life here. gratitude, thanksgiving do not come naturally to us. I myself have used the Psalms as a template to teach me how to pray gratitude, to pray with thanksgiving. this is a prayer after all. i give thanks to God for you. I don;t have any problem with people such as Oprah touting the benefits of gratitude. Christians can appropriate it as well. what we cannot give up is the direction of gratitude toward God, god the source of all creation Of course, it could also be a salutary spiritual exercise to go over what we are not grateful for as well. when I get bombarded with email requests I am not particularly grateful to that modern miracle.When rain and snow interfere with directV and i am watching a game, i am not grateful. Nothing attacks gratitude as a feeling of being oed, entitled, deserving something.

Gratitude is a virtue as it opens up the mind and heart toward a broader perspective. it moves us to see the gifts given that we may have not noticed. It may even allow us to see something that was bad or unfortunate into a new light with time and a considered response

I thank God for this space.

i thank God for the people who made this space possible.I thank god for music that  drives the creative arts into the very heart of worship, the core reason for church. i thank god for the foresight to have a good insurance policy. I thank God for the people who work with the Scripture diligently, penly, carefully, week after week. I thank god for people who allow me to enter a home or hospital room r lunch counter to pay with and for them.

I thank God for people who bring communion to folks, who work in the kitchen on the second Saturday of the month, who make food for the mercy lunches.

On turning 60

I turned sixty recently. Our daughters have always teased me about being old, and they did not disappoint this year. Our youngest brought out the word, primordial, as in the primeval ooze of creation, and our eldest went with a more religious theme and selected antediluvian.they described in detail that it was difficult to believe that I was really that age, so they did the math, but that required a larger mainframe computer to handle  a number of that size.

A number of people have referred to sixty as the age of becoming harmless, or even when I donated blood, officially harmless. A ten year old told me not to be too reckless not that I was harmless. Another child told me that old people talk about the old days too much, and they complain too much. I had to merely nod in agreement.

Facing age is of particular import for baby boomers. We revelled in being young. we had slogans, such as don’t trust anyone of over thirty. Even when we became parents, we were determined not to be like our parents, so we have SUVs instead of station wagons. At some point, men go through the agonizing realization that they have become invisible to younger women. At 60, I am visible again, but now I am perceived as a grandfatherly  specter.

We associate age with wisdom. The magic there is experience and reflection.  Otherwise we continue to  go in circles without noticing any benefit or dangers.It seems to me that people face age in character often. Bitter people grow more bitter with the years. Age doesn't seem to cure stupidity on its own.

One of the  issues we face in society is that we do not give nearly the space for those elderly people  who are wise to share their wisdom. Yes, we have some like the SCORE program to mentor fledgling businesses.  If we judge the elderly to be harmless only, we automatically judge their viewpoints as lesser than those of youth.

My father died before I was three. I am the only survivor of our small immediate family circle. I’ve had prostate cancer, so 60 feels like a gift. To help me keep perspective when our girls were growing up, I would remind myself that he never lived to see the chapter turning moments of learning to read, to ride a bike, to drive a car, to graduate.

At the same time, i am mystified by those who romanticize age. I do not physical and mental decline. Even though I walked our hills to get ready for a hiking trip recently, the altitude left me breathless when climbing hills. I  like to participate in trivia contests for fundraisers, and was a lot better at it when I was 45. My image is that my memories are in a file cabinet, but the identifying tabs are gone, so I have to rifle through all of the files to try to capture an answer. My dreams seem to be drifting more into the past. My choir voice is helped by the amazing array of noises I utter when getting out of a chair.

Jesus did not have the opportunity to grow old. The Bible is realistic about age. Ps. 71 is obviously written from the perspective of someone growing into the ranks of the elderly. It speaks of strength being spent. Ecclesiastes does not think that the big answers to big questions ever occurs, but it does commend enjoying things within our purview fully.Death does not hold much fear for me. i do fear the possibility of mental decline and physical pain, but I do realize that help is available for both of those maladies, if they strike.