One can choose Epiphany or the regular Sunday reading.

 

Ps. 72 is one of the text that turned Magi into kings.Christians transfer the king to the messiah. Note how justice and righteousness lead to shalom.vv.12-14 reminds us the the Hebrew ethic to help the weak.

Sheba and Seba seem to be Arabia, maybe into the horn of Africa. Notice they bring gold and gifts and bow down.

If naything is a good prayer for the new Obama adminsitration, much of this fits our need and hope for the new year and new administration.

 

Is. 60 starts off with what became the dreaded, rise and shine expression. Notice the light imagery throughout. Again we have kings, with camels, and Sheba brings gold and incense. (You have to turn to the worship section of Exodus 30 to find all three gifts together. We get camels in v. 6 Adam Smith would like the wealth of nations. Reagan was taken with the image of the united States being a light to other nations.  in v. 6.

 

While I'm at it, magi were counsellors of the rich and powerful. It is possible they were priests in Persian sacrificial liturgy.They amy have medical knowledge.They could be the magicians of daniel and the mag of jeremisahThey used astrology and maybe sorcery. Their influence eventually reached Rome and may have been involved in the Mithra cult. (Its use of a baptism and eucharist were condemned by Chrisitans ) We may encounter them in Acts in Simnon and Elymas

 

Jer. 31:1-14 is a covenant reading. It changes the wilderness of history to a new wilderness of the present. Love, steadfast love is empahsized. As last week we get a marriag emetaphor to show the depthof God's love for us. For New Year's building an planting metaphors are good. Celebration images fit well here too.We may have echoes of psalms here. Again, God saves the weak.Notice that this is anot only spiritual salvation. Even grief is overturned here. Thsi verges on a new creation, perhaps a messianic banquet, a feast for marriage and for deliverance.

Simeon
Sermon Dec. 28, 2008 Lk. 2:21-40, Isaiah 62:1-5

We say that the Christmas season is for children, as it surely is. Youth and age frame Luke’s story surrounding the Nativity. Old Zechariah and Elizabeth are with the youthful Mary and Joseph. Now two people, both of whom I picture as old, Anna and Simeon, frame an infant it must have been a thrill for these two country people of Galilee to be able to present their firstborn in the temple in the throbbing city of Jerusalem. Anna and Simeon hear the throbbing cry of a circumcised baby.

Christmastime is a movement into the world imagined by Isaiah. Part of the letdown after Christmas is that things looked so pretty, a winter wonderland all around. We pack away the decorations as we look to next year, but at this point it feels like taking down beauty by the calendar date. So it feels as if Beulah land, marriage celebration land, is being replaced by a more desolate look, in part, by our own hand, forgotten until next year. Of course, the reverse is true as well. The whole point of Isaiah’s image is to show that marriage is closest metaphor we can use to get at the complete loyalty God has to the people. A marriage creates a family; It is our culture’s way of announcing that the welfare of the other is as much part of our life as our own, maybe even more so.

Of course, the Incarnation is another way of coming at the same point. God wants the partnership to be so unbreakable with us that God’s own self would join with us in the person of Jesus. All the way back to Abraham, God had the sign of circumcision to show the pledge of fealty. Now God’s own would undergo that same pledge in the temple of Jerusalem. Simeon and Anna lived on the dark side of Isaiah’s vision, but here, at life’s end, they enjoy the wedding feast of God and humanity in the beloved temple. The old ritual of circumcision breathes in the fresh, 8 day old life of Jesus. For Christians, we can look at our baptism as a marriage vow.

Not only do they see a long-held dream fulfilled, they burst into a vision of the future as well. Some see the future as all in the hands of God, but most of us see a mixed picture where we form the future along with the hand of God. What we dodoes matter for the shape of the future. In that sense they appear to us as Father and Mother Time, as they know the past, see Jesus in their own lives, and peer into the future. They are not ghosts as in A Christmas Carol. These real people see is a mixed future, as it always will be until god’s vision finally falls into place. They are symbols of the fading of the old order, and the birth of the new. Here, the old transforms the old, reshapes it. Our liturgical season doesn’t line up with the cultural calendar. For it, Christmas is over, but for us it is going strong until Epiphany, the Magi fo January 6^th, 12 days of Christmas.

2009 beckons. We look with mixed regret and happiness at the year almost complete. We especially hope for better times to start to appear. I always push the idea that the spiritual always includes the whole of our lives. At the same time, we cannot neglect the spiritual side of our lives. Perhaps we can learn to ask what God would like us to make of the situations where we find ourselves. Like Anna and Simeon it is good to ask what we would like to live to see. It is good to look back and gape at what we have already seen. Fro instance, I never thought I would live to see Eastern Europe be free of the Russian boot without a shot being fired. Just because we grow older we don’t have to lose our dreams. The New Year is the province of us all, the young and old together.

Christmas Eve 08 Luke 2:1-20, John 1:1-14

Luke starts the Christmas story in a political frame. T would be like saying that this Christmas is the last year of the Bush presidency, the year of the re-election of Gov. Daniels. Quirinius the Roman bureaucrat had a busy day. He wrote a report to Augustus on the census, Christmas Day-He gave the usual data about crops, expected taxes coming, population estimates, political gossip and rumor. He called Augustus all the right titles: son of the divine, prince of peace, savior. No notice at all was given to a birth in Bethlehem.

It was just an ordinary day in Israel, just an ordinary day in Bethlehem. Within the ordinary, under the surface, God was working a miracle. Almost acting undercover, God was at work, with no one noticing. Maybe that’s why some want snow at Christmas, as it covers with a fresh blanket. Christmas alters our perspective. Even angry people are happy that they get to complain about long lines and seeing family.

Christmas is just another day to mark on the calendar. Babies are born every day. Silent Night is just another song. Maybe angels do sing with every birth. We sing, “let every heart, prepare him room.” Tell me that God doesn’t light up a bit when people push money into a Cheer fund can. Kathy Bennett told me a true story of a small child just starting to get the idea of giving to charity. She understood the Cheer Fund but was upset that she thought the man ringing the bell needed help. She asked who was with the man and was told his father. “You mean he’s in trouble and needs help too?” She later offered to trade in her fruit roll up if her mother would give her the cash so she could help them by putting money into their buckets.

Of course, it is not every day that the logos, what we translate as word, God’s own logic, enters a human life. Luther famously said that God became small at Christmas. Yes, small enough to fit into every crevice of human life. God’s love is big enough to become small if that’s what we require to grasp God’s intentions for us. I think that the Incarnation means that God was not only deeply involved in that solitary life of Jesus, but became more embedded into the flow of every human life. Christmas is sentimental, but it gives us spiritual cavities if if it allowed to be only sweetness. Christmas shows that God is concerned with more than only the spiritual side. The Incarnation is about Jesus living out his name, God saves; God delivers; God helps in our needs here and now, while it does point to heaven beyond. That may be a reason for why Jesus was born in less than ideal circumstances. In those times when we are not at our best, God is in the middle of it, helping us to bring Christmas reconciliation, Christmas peace.

It is not every night that we can sing Silent Night and mean it. This is the night we light the Christ Candle. It is not every night that a choir of angels sings. Maybe they sang loud enough for everyone to hear, but everyone else was asleep. This may well be the one time of year that we open our ears to the voices of Christmas. This may be the one time of year that our eyes are opened to the beauties that lie beneath the everyday. We dust off our memories, maybe even dust off our hearts, too long tucked away for safe keeping, We take off the defensive wrappings and open our arms wide that presents scattered around on Christmas morning. When you open your packages try o see each other presents to decorate your life.

Is. 61:11-62:3

 

v.11 and 62:1, 2 vindication is OK, but usually this is righteousness/right relations. It should usually be paired with social arangments as well as personal piety/spirituality.

 

diadem= comes from a word for band, so I assume it is a golden crown/band, perhaps with jewels. So a royal splendor is lifted up after the destruction of Jerusalem and exile. think cinderella: from ashes to a crown.

 

The KJV took some of the words as titles. Most famously, it took beulah, the word for married and used it as a title, just like Israel. Forsaken=Azuba- Desolate=shemamah- my delight is in her=Hephzibah.
 

This seems to be a marriage scene for God and Dame Zion. One could extend this into the Incarnation for christmas. God's desire for covenant goes beyond marriage. So, God's very self/ Logos enters into the condiditon of the creature. As Luther said, at christmas god became small.

 

  

When do you feel as if you live in forsaken or desolate land? How does christmas pressure help push one into it? How does christmas help us out of those fearsome places? How do the days afte christmas feel like a letdown?

Sermon 12/21/08 Lk. 1:26-55

 

Mary was an ordinary woman. Taken aback, but only for a while, by Gabriel’s announcement, Mary found her voice. While women had private voice, they could not often speak publicly. She found a voice that spoke for social life. She goes beyond the charity of Scrooge in a Christmas Carol. She sees the selection of her as a sign of big things to come, a new game in town, when the old ways would not cut it any more. The ways things are cannot be the way things should be, could be, or would be.

Jesus would be with us in ordinary life God did not put the divine hopes on angels, or power, but in the hands of a young, possibly quite young, woman. How can this be? After all of this time, God would pick an ordinary family to raise the one to be called Jesus. She knows of the promises of God all the way back to Abraham and David. Messianic reading of promise to David She starts to see that she will be the vehicle for promises that were thousands of years old coming into being in a way as new as the child within her womb. That dream was half forgotten, said as much as out of the realm of possibility, but now it was alive in her.

It was appropriate for Gabriel to deliver the message. First, we have a little joke. The name means a mighty one for God, as in the army of the heavenly host, but here the general is a mere delivery service for the prince of peace. Second, Gabriel was associated with ripening fruit, and he announces that the fruit of Mary will be Jesus of Nazareth. (By the way, I have to throw this in. The followers of George Rapp in New Harmony believed that Gabriel spoke with him, and one can see the footprint of the angel there.) Finally, Gabriel was a figure of the end times. Gabriel announces the beginning of the end of the old order and the start of the new way of God with the announcement of the impending birth of Jesus.

The announcement was only the beginning, of course. Mary waited nine full months to have her baby. I wonder if nine months seemed long enough to start to grasp what the future could hold for her and Joseph. Luke has her doing a lot o travel in her expectant months, to Elizabeth and then a hard journey to Bethlehem. Even now, many of us wait a while to even announce a pregnancy, as we hope everything will be all right. With ultrasound we get to hear the fast beat of the heart, a holy moment as we hear the sound of a new life. Advent is only four weeks. It is time for us to learn to listen for the heartbeat of Jesus in the ordinary. Can we spot a Gabriel making a birth announcement of a new turn in life? Every day, we give birth to the new future, or maybe the hand of God helps bring us to new birth in the future.

Christmas is almost here. In these few remaining days, I pray that all of us set aside some time.to seek the spirit of the new life of Christmas. It may be in listening to old songs, or findings some new Christmas stories, to watch a Christmas movie, to read once again, the biblical story of the Nativity. Mary would never have another firstborn. We will never have another Christmas 2008. It would be a shame to enter into another Christmas dispirited, never giving the story of the Incarnation some time to take hold and grow within us. As the hymn says (O Little Child), “where meek souls will receive Him still/ the dear Christ enters in/ be born in us today/we hear the Christmas angels/the great glad tidings tell/o come to us, abide with us/ O Lord Emmanuel.

Sunday December
21-V-The virgin birth used to be a standard question for ministerial
candidates. What sort of human vessel would be proper for the birth
of the Messiah? It points to biology not being destiny. It points to
the truth that facts are not the whole story. As the angle says to
Mary, with God nothing is impossible. God can use the ordinary in
extraordinary ways. God works through us to express miracles.

Monday-W-wassail is a
spiced, hot wine, often served in a big bowl for a party. It is an
Anglo-Saxon word that isn’t the drink but a toast to one
health, to be hale and hearty, to be whole. What is your favorite
toast? When did a toast touch you or make you laugh? In its way, the
birth of Jesus was a divine toast to humanity to become what it could
be. What would happen if we viewed worship as making toasts to God?

Tuesday-X Xenophilia is
Greek for the word usually translated as hospitality. The Holy Family
met a form of xenophobia, fear of strangers, for there was no room
for hem to stay to give birth the Good Samaritan story is a good
example of offering hospitality. We live in fear not only of
strangers, but strange ideas and strange customs. What fears of the
different inhibit you? What offers of hospitality have improved your
life? How are you inhospitable to the presence of Christ? Where do
you welcome the presence of Christ?

Christmas
Eve--Y-Yuletide is another one of those older Christmas words. It
apparently was a pre-Christian winter festival that last 12 days, the
precursor of the 12 days of Christmas, perhaps. Tide meant a time or
season in Old English. Do you have special Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day traditions? Do you like snow for the Christmas season?

Christmas Day-Z-I was
going to go for the obvious, zeal, but chose zest instead. Since it’s
a brand of soap, it isn’t used much. If nay day gives a zest
for the spark of life, this is it. Opening presents under the tree
adds zest to the day. What is an obstacle to a zestful life? What
contributes to it? What are your favorite parts of Christmas Day?
Consider reading the stories in Mt. 1 and Lk. 2 again, or maybe some
of the passages in Isaiah such as 1: 3, chs. 9, 11, 35, 60 that help
express messianic hope. You can keep Christ in your Christmas.

Friday-The day after
Christmas can be a bit of a downer. The house looks empty without all
of the presents under the tree. On the other hand, it’s Friday,
so we can make one long Christmas party. It may well be part of a
long weekend for you this year, a Sabbath time. Are there things you
like doing the day after Christmas? If you’ve been around
infants, sit for a bit and consider Jesus as a newborn. Stay with
that awhile and consider the vulnerability of God’s hope in
that one infant.

Saturday-Some folks
start taking down the Christmas decorations, and others leave them
until New Year’s or January 6^th for the Magi. Some
folks try to keep the decorations up for as long as possible. How can
you decorate your life, so as to keep some of Christmas, even while
the decorations are being boxed up? What in your life needs to be
boxed up and put away, maybe even discarded?

Third Week Advent Devotional

December 14-O-Opulence is a goal for many presents. We can be opulent with the hand work of a craft of course. I just heard a story of mannerly opulence. A woman and her daughter kept bumping into the same man as they made their way around the market. Finally, the mother said, “don’t I know you?” The man lowered his eyes, I’m the man who comes around. He meant around back to pick up the trash. The mother said, of course, you’re one of the most important men in my life. The man just beamed.

Monday –P-A season of peace is hard to face with American troops overseas. Snow only covers up blood. The cold matches the human heart that sees an enemy instead of a brother or sister. A Christmas card wishing peace can indeed be a prayer when a family is worried about loved ones. Yes, we all crave inner peace. We also crave not only a respite from fighting, but a season, a long season, of peace.

Tuesday-Q-Quiet is my image of the season, even in the midst of all of the noise. Consider using some of the abundant Christmas decoration as a focal point for prayer: a candle, tinsel, the tree, whatever strikes you. Using that image can help still all of the warring, unquiet voices within. When the voices distract you, let them, but slowly return to your selected image.

Wednesday-R-Rest seems to be in short supply in this season. Advent in religious terms fades into a swirl of Christmas parties, gatherings, and a mad dash to fill the shopping lists. How to find a center of rest in the bustle? Is it possible to imagine oneself resting in God like the baby resting in the manger? In a hectic time, I’m a fan of trying to take little breaks, to step back from the stress and breathe a bit.

Thursday-S-Savior-The Greek word, soter, Savior, has its root in saos, to be safe. That is likely a bit different than being saved from something; it has a sense of being secure, safe and sound. Even Bethlehem could only be safe for a while, and the One who would has us be safe had to be an exile in Egypt. In the many ironies of the bible the future Savior had to be saved from the same forces that would eventually take his life, but that seeming success of evil is transformed into the stage for the new resurrection life.

Friday-T-Tekton is Greek for a craftsman, including carpenters. I’ve always liked that Jesus was raised by a craftsman. Of course, Jesus would grow up to craft souls. Joseph’s life was probably spent making simple things that his clients rarely had the money to pay for, so it was a life on the edge. For all the talk lately of a gospel of wealth, Jesus did not live within it.

Saturday-U-I’m of the age where we grew up fascinated by the undercover agent. I don’t know how much I’d like to play with the idea that Jesus was sort of an undercover divine agent to explore humanity. What lessons did he draw from his 30 years on the planet? Christmas has an undercover aspect of needing to look behind the surface. What does the wrapped present contain? What do we all harbor within us?

Is. 61 I Thes. 5:16-21 Dec. 14 Sermon

Jesus loved Is. 61. These words form most of the mission statement of Jesus in Luke 4. You can tell he’s his mother’s son, as they bear some linkage to her great prayer coming to terms with Gabriel’s announcement. It’s a promise of moving from Christmas blues to Christmas joy. It is directed toward the people who need Christmas. Jubilee-the tidings of comfort and joy are directed to those in trouble. As usual, it is part of the already in motion, but far from complete tension in the faith. In other words, if you are doing well, reach out. If not, learn to receive help, but still reach out to those in trouble. God’s plan here is to lift up those who are down, to bring them up to a new and better level.

I don’t think that this is directed at the economically vulnerable alone. Hard times affect not only the pocketbook, but the spirit as well. Isaiah calls for us to bind up physical wounds but reach out to help heal emotional or psychological wounds as well. At Crown Pointe, the women did a good job in offering suggestions on how they coped with their first Christmas as widows to a lady who lost her husband over a month ago. How do we receive oil of gladness to help with the pall of mourning? The holidays can be a time of refreshed grief. It is often best to admit that. Some people do well to find a focal point, such as buying a special ornament for the tree or trying to offer a public service as when the Frensenmeyer family remembered bob with a Christmas dinner to the community. It can be sharing some memories; maybe memories that others haven’t heard, or enjoy rehearing.

It’s easier to be in the Christmas spirit to those in our Christmas cards than those we have to deal with at a Christmas gathering. Today, our reading from Paul is quite similar to last week’s advice from Peter. Paul realizes that life in community is not easy. Still, we are warned not to be Scrooges in this season, or any season. We continue the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of the Incarnation of God’s hopes for the world in some of these steps. Paul gives these steps for the first time in written form, in this the possibly oldest New Testament document, older than the gospels by a good twenty years. In its way, Paul tells us to treat people as if expecting or hoping for an extra good present from them. It is difficult to see each other as presents from God. Our packaging is not always the best and the social graces we learn often hide serious flaws, far worse than those dread words: some assembly required or batteries not included. We see family again and calculate their flaws and annoying habits, but rarely look for the best in them. Part of that spirit is praying for others. I mean praying in their spiritual development, emotional growth, as well as in the times of illness. We can thank God for the people in our lives, not only pray about their needs as if they are only a collection of problems. Instead, Paul tells us to look for the best in people. We are at our best when we try to bring out the best in others.

Paul tells us to watch out for the exhausted. One way we can do that is to help limit people’s push toward exhaustion. Women, especially, put too much on their to do list at this time of year, not the honey do list, but the huge list of expectations they maintain and even create at this time of year. I don’t know if we should commemorate Mary’s labor pains by laboring so hard to try to make a perfect Christmas. Then our nerves get on edge and we are as cranky as Scrooge. Exhausted is not way to go into a holiday. Exhausted in so way to prepare for the feast of the incarnation of God’s own being into our lives at Christmas. Advent is time to get ready for the big day filled with God’s good energy.

1) this plays with the meaning of house: is it the temple or the royal dynasty.

2) this is different than the sinai covenant as it seems unconditional to the house of david

3)This seems to be an ideology for royal legitmacy by fusing temple and royal power into a unit. The opposite of separation of church and state.

4) Notice that Nathan does not give consistent advice as he is willing to listen to a new voice from god

5) Look at god's preference for Solomon to tdo the work but also what seems to be pleasure in the freedom of the tent of meeting v. the portal of heaven and earth at the temple. One could use this as a good entry point on the presence of god at Advent/Christmas. Where is God, in church, or with the poor, with the pious or the squirming kid, in the perfect bell choir or with the disastrous christmas pageant.

6) This is a good Advent text as it links, past, present, future.

7) I like how god, with a moreover, reverses david request and decides to be the giver, not receiver of gifts.Again, the issue of giving or receiving gifts is a good piece for spiriutal growth or a sermon.

8) look at how christian messianic views have changed the political meaning fo a dynasty to a different level utterly, but see how lk stays in tension with it at 1:31-3.

9) Good example of father-son not biological. See Ps. 2:7 and 89:26

10) Onme could talk about faithful and faithfless promises, God's steadfast love/lyalty/liovingkindness (hesed). broken and kept vows/ making promises and unmaking them/ remembering or forgetting them.Christmas cards are a weak attempt to stay in touch after we've promised to do so. One could get nice and senitimental on Christmas promises.

December 8^th
is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Roman Catholic
community. It is a doctrine that deals with the question, if Jesus
was sinless at birth, would the vessel of his birth need to be
special as well? While Protestants don’t hold to the doctrine,
all Christians come to think of Mary at this time of year when we see
her glowing face in so many manger scenes.

A fine book by the late
Jaroslav Pelikan, Mary Through the Centuries, sparks much of this
piece (Of course it’s in our library). Since Mary is obviously
important, but since we do not have a great abundance of biblical
material about her, she has served as a projection point for the
religious needs of people over time. For instance, the god that was
presented to me in my youth was a forbidding figure, and Mary’s
image of kind protection helped feed the part of my soul that need
nurturing.

My mother was baptized
in a church that celebrated Our Lady of Czestochowa, the famed Black
Madonna. It was an ancient icon enshrined in Poland since the 1300s.
Its face was darkened by smoke, and it is known as the black Madonna.
It was even thought to win a battle in one of the many wars of its
bloody history. No matter how much defeat, it was a symbol of Poland.
When Lech Walesa fought tyranny with the Solidarity movement of the
1980s, he carried an image of the Black Madonna, with the scars on
her cheek.

The great early church
theologian Irenaeus saw Mary as a second Eve. Eve’s name may
mean life. Ironically the sin of the first couple brought the death
of relationship with God. Through Mary’s obedience, our lives
were resuscitated. Through her son, “mortality was absorbed
into immortality.” We rightly look at all of the damage done by
the church to women over the years. On the other hand, the church
lifted Mary up as the very emblem of humanity at its best, for Mary
embodied the woman of great worth from Proverbs 31. After all it
links a noble woman to the very wisdom of God, a wisdom given
feminine attributes in the first nine chapters of Proverbs. She was
considered the very model of the 4 cardinal virtues of temperance,
prudence, justice, and fortitude.

In a time of spiritual
searching, the Mystic’s Mary appears Hopkins would write that
with Mary “new Nazareths appear…new self and nobler
me.”. Mary provides a key to union with Christ, so in a
spiritual sense Christ lives in us. When injustice grinds down the
poor, Mary appears as the speaker of the Magnificat in Luke, the
defender of the poor who wants a reversal of the power that be. Think
of the Guadalupe vision where Mary speaks to the Indiana n the native
language, not the language of the Spanish, Christian, oppressors. –In
age after painful age, three is Mary who stood at the cross, a woman
of sorrows who saw her first-born son die terribly. The Pieta stands
for all who see a child die before them, for those countless
forgotten victims of so many wars fought that end up depriving
families of their loved ones when they are dismissed as collateral
damage. . When gaps appear in our conception of God, the mother of
God’s own arises to fill the gap.

Pay some attention to
the depiction of Mary in all of the manger scenes, in all the
Christmas paintings on Christmas cards. You’ll see a face of
serenity that will anchor you through all the hectic madness of this
season that starts, after all, with her delivery.

December 7- H-The hymn,
Hark, the Herald Sing has 2 words we rarely use, hark and herald, I
thought hark was an exclamation, but it is a verb: to listen
attentively. A herald gave important announcements and is often a
state envoy. In other words, the hymn is: Listen, the angels have a
broadcast. A salutary spiritual exercise is to take older terms that
we use in church and translate them into more contemporary language.

Monday I-Incarnation
means “God was in Christ, that deity was able to inhabit a
human being. We rush into the life of Jesus and the meaning of his
death. Stay for a moment that the Logos, God’s plan, God’s
logic, God’s idea for the world rested in a baby. How do we
come to grips with the Creator becoming united with the creature so
fully? Remember, this is not God playing the part of a human being.
Jesus is a human being.

Tuesday-J-Joy is an
elusive feeling for many of us. In a season where joy seems to be a
requirement, we may react against it, closing off, instead of seeking
it or embracing it when found. The joy of the season is partly the
joy of relief; the promise really did come true, the joy of a wish
come true. What are times of joy for you?

Wednesday-K-Lately I’ve
been working with the idea in Phil. 2 that Christ emptied himself/was
made into nothing. In Greek the word is kenosis. (See, there’s
the K). Imagine the Creator being united with the developing body of
a baby. Does that square with the mighty God? What withdrawals had to
happen to permit that little brain to develop? What had to remain for
God’s spirit to dwell in that child? How can the finite embrace
the infinite?

Thursday-Light pervades
this holiday season as a protest against the dying of the daylight
during the solstice. It is a protest against the darkness trying to
overcome the light in our lives, deep inside. Lighten our darkness is
a plea to see, but could it be a sense that darkness weighs us down,
and the load needs to be lighter? This season, please try not to pile
burdens on yourself so that Santa’s sleigh could not handle the
weight. Lighten the load.

Friday-M-Magi visited a
child in a manger. (See, 2Ms) In the legendary birthplace of Jesus in
Bethlehem, one must bow before entering the chamber with the star.
The Magi, advisors to the powerful, bowed before a most unlikely
prince, a baby laid in a feeding trough. Their name is related to our
word for magic. These magicians fo wisdom and advice brought gifts
not to a great magician how would possess not magic but the power of
divine love. Better put, they were exposed to the deeper magic of
God’s reality over illusion.

Saturday-N-Noel is a
Christmas word. It holds some of the history of English. With the
Norman conquest of England, French came into our language. It’s
a French word from Latin, for nativity, to be born. It can also mean
any Christmas carol. (We’re not sure where carol derives,
perhaps all the way back to the Greek chorus to play the flute, to
dance to songs. The story of Christmas is able to blend languages and
cultures into its orbit. As a word with a long history, ti helps us
to realize that the past is not merely disposable, but it continues
to help shape our present.

Is. 40:1-11, Ps. 85

After words of warning, we hear a decidedly different voice: one of comfort. Instead of shouts of warning, we hear of tenderness. Instead f the word of impending doom hanging overhead, we hear enough is enough. The dreadful waiting was over; the feared punishment had indeed come, and their country was in ruins. A page in national life had turned.

Instead of wilderness wandering, the people will be treated to a divine super-highway, with the obstacles flattened. One day our journey won’t be so hard, but it will be an easy trip. The bathrooms in the rest stops will all be clean. The vending machines will be cheap and will all work. Perhaps the second coming will come with the words of Ps. 85, a time when righteousness and peace will kiss each other. One day all of the obstacles we have built against peace will fall, and the problem will be in creating conflicts. Let alone war. One day we won’t need laws to keep us inline.

After this wonderful announcement, heaven wants the news to spread, and we move to a dialogue in and with heaven. The prophet’s words in response to the request to announce the comforting news that the punishments are at an end are utterly depressed. After all, the prophet has seen destruction. Why bother, life is so fragile, so transient, so ephemeral. God’s breath/spirit does cause flourishing but withering. What’s the use? What’s the point.?

Please note that it seems that the prophet is in the midst of a vision in the midst of heaven, and his first word is arguing with the assembled host. I think that prophet’s sudden shift from depression to hope is the result of the prophet’s cathartic words of depression allowing him to see a note of hope What does it mean to you to have stability and confidence in the security fo the word of God? Here’s something to hold on to, the faithful promise of God. To be able to pray like this is a sign of abundant trust in God’s patience. We’re family, and families need to talk things out sometimes.

At passage end, we have 2 images of God: one of might and one of compassion. The emphasis seems to me to be on the gentleness after the terrifying destruction of Jerusalem and the pain of exile. For Christians, the last image redefines the image of God in compassion rather than the iron fist of might. As the faith developed, that second image of God started to blossom. . God’s power is more often demonstrated by the power of tender care and to take on more and more weight, as we can see with Jesus. In the end, the destruction of Jerusalem did not teach a long-lasting lesson for moral change. Somehow suffering must be infused with meaning, noble meaning, or else it serves to depress and corrode the moral sense, not uplift or transform it. Human wrong is so deep-seated that God would work from the inside out. Many of our brothers and sisters practice Advent waiting with undisguised glee at the assumed coming destruction. That leaves out Incarnation and Resurrection. My sense is that God will use examples such as the highway of the Lord to transform and build, not annihilate. Jesus Christ did not lead a life of destruction but of teaching a different path and healing to allow people to discover that path. It’s no accident that Jesus would take on the title of the Good Shepherd. This is a time of year when our hearts go out to people in trouble, and we try to give them a helping hand out fo the troubles. All of us become part of one flock, one family.

I'm not going to judge if this is indeed a different section following 40-55. It clearly is in deep conversation with those preceding chapters. This forms most of the "mission statement" of Jesus in Lk. 4

The Spirit is allied with the servant, (see 42:1-4). Anointing has messianic meaning for many, as the word itself attests.. Priest, prophets, kings were anointed

Look, at this season, to whom the work is directed. It is not destructivbe work but healing and liberating work. Oppressed=anawim that could also be afflicted or quite simply the poor. Release can't help but bring up thoughts of Jubillee (see the Mary Chapin Carpenter song) from Lev. 25.

The year of the Lord's favor could be directed to this or to 49:8 that the time of favor/grace has come. In v. 4, it seems to lead to rebuilding, but notice the sense of age, many generations.

 

This is a hard time of year for the grieiving-look at what is offered them now.

 

I like this phrase-oaks of righteousness-especially when we recall that it is a relational word more than following strictures.  

 

The lectionary then skips, for some reasons, but one can always restore the verses, to v. 8. We a textual issues it could be wrongdoing or it could be robbery with an offering, that would be a nice entry into worship v. social justice.

Shame is a sense of public exposure, so it is being transformed by public acclaim.

v.10 If one wants to talk about holiday spirit, the sense of one's whole being exulting in v. 10 is a good place to start.

 

We are all wearing our baptismal robes of the new self. here the servant/p[rophet is clotherd in salvation and righteousness. These are not burdens but festive garments.

 

Please note the agricultural metaphor in v. 11. In v. 3 we have plantings. This is a victory garden, see Brown's Ethos of the Cosmos

 

November 30 A-Advent is
a time of preparing for the new age, the “Second Coming”
of the Cosmic Christ, and moving into waiting for the Christmas
birthday of Jesus. This year, we’ll have a little Advent
Alphabet. I encourage you to replace each word with another word that
fits the sense of the season.

Monday-B-Bells are part
of the soundscape of Christmas. It’s not just that we associate
the peals with church, but with the Salvation Army kettle bell, or
the bells on Santa’s sleigh. Something about the almost
heavenly sound sinks into the soul.. Jocelyn is part of the bell
choir at John Knox in Indianapolis. We had a woman from Nashville do
a concert for us at Kingston where she played a whole range as a
one-woman bell choir. We play her Christmas CD to help get in the
holiday spirit. What songs move you into a holiday mode?

Tuesday-C-Comfort and
Joy the song says from the angelic announcement to the shepherds.
With all of the Christmas parties, comfort and joy seem to come in a
bottle or a punch bowl. We seek it in pleasant numbness because we
are poor at offering it. Come to think of it adults are often poor at
receiving comfort. Where do you feel most comfortable? What person
gives you comfort?

Wednesday-D -Deliver.
Mary delivered Jesus; she gave birth. We do well to imagine it as a
birth with all of the pain and anxiety of any birth. We don’t
even know if she had a midwife. After delivery, her child Jesus would
live to deliver all of us. It’s one of those words with a great
range of meanings, but its Latin root deals with freedom, liberation,
release. Freed of the burden of her pregnancy, Mary gave birth to one
who would give us new life, new birth, freedom from the ravages of
sin and death.

Thursday-E-Elizabeth
knew bitter disappointment of wanting a child and the whispers among
the people of why she and her husband could not conceive. As her body
changed, she had long given up that hope. Then, when all reason to
hope was gone, she was going to have a boy. Just as the nation’s
hope was in the doldrums, her son John would be a precursor of new
hope beyond any reason to hold on to that elusive virtue.

Friday-F- Focus is
difficult when so many things clamor for our attention. During this
busy season it seems a good idea to focus on the faith for at least a
little while. Pick a word that is sacred, powerful, meaningful to
you. If you prefer, pick a phrase, a hymn fragment and let it repeat
in your mind, in time with your breath. Maybe write a Christmas card
to God. What kind of card would you pick?

Saturday-G-Gloria is
obviously Latin for glory. Lf the angels sang in Hebrew I assume it
would be kabod. It’s one of the few Latin words Protestant
churches have kept. I usually think of glory as a synonym for being
in the presence of God. The presence evokes the desire to glorify: to
honor, praise and thank God. We call some experiences, glorious at
rare times. The glory of God was hidden in a manger at Bethlehem
years ago. Divine Glory doesn’t require pomp. Its splendor
shines from within.

Isaiah 64:1-9 Sermon

We pray and pray and see little change. Are we talking to ourselves? Is the promised return of Jesus Christ an illusion? Some see the world in such sorry shape that only dramatic divine intervention can shake it into a new form, like a potter balling up the wet clay and starting over again. More often, we walk in disappointment, as when Thanksgiving gatherings did not meet up with our fondest hopes.

Frustration is evident here in our readings this morning. It is possible that the people are reacting to prophecies of perfection, but find real life hard and unrewarding. Despair is not the only enemy of hope. Frustrations corrode hope over the years. They wonder why God’s power seemed present only in the old stories, not in their lives now. God seemed hidden, a God who did not hear. So, this is a prayer complaining to a God who they wonder is even there for them any more. Boldly, they go so far as to say that if God were more apparent to us, then we would not fall into sin so easily.

After they complain, they use a rare prayer phrase, our father. They are able to say our father after they get their complaints our of their system, and then they start to set them aside. I knew a very religious teacher who had an epiphany when he realized that it was not my father, but our father. God does not work with individuals alone, but God works with entire social systems. God works in the interaction and intersection of groups of people. God takes into account the good of the whole as well as the good of the one. When God hears a prayer that prayer must be taken in light of the whole community, not just our small part in it. Even small events can have ripples that can touch the heart of the existing order.

Communion is presence of the living Jesus Christ in our lives this new church year. In our tradition the Spirit lifts us into a heavenly table of Christ. Here God accepts our need to have a tangible reminder of the presence of god. So, as the hymn says, we touch and handle things unseen. We actually ingest into our life’s blood the spirit of Jesus Christ this morning. After we eat our fill and beyond on Thanksgiving tables, here we get a spiritual feast where just a little is more than enough. Communion continues the potter and clay image in a new key. In Communion we receive the presence of Jesus Christ. That means that the spirit of Christ works within us every day. It is a personal force that shapes us, molds us, coaxes us. The elements are from nature, but they have been changed by human ingenuity and work from wheat and grape to bread and juice. Most of us said a special grace around Thanksgiving tables, or will soon, and Communion is an act of grace for each one us to live ladled with grace until we meet again in Lent.

We get a jump-start on 2009 by having the church year start a month before calendar New Year’s. We enter a new year with hopes for better times. God is always at work making a new world out of what we have crafted together. Just as the roots of perennials are at work beneath the surface, as their roots gain energy, so Communion works at the root level of our lives to nourish us and prepare us for the shock of the new that comes every year. God is setting the stage for a new age for better times. We are charged with doing our part to help make our corner of the world a fit place for human beings to live, especially for the children growing into it. We don’t do it alone. God is at work shaping us even as we help shape God’s world.

Many consider this the
start of a major new section in this long book, even as it reworks
themes from the first section at points

After words of warning,
we hear a decidedly different voice: one of comfort. Instead of
shouts of warning, we hear of tenderness.

There may be a tacit
admission that Israel’s affliction was not condign with her
wrongs. Notice, she has paid double, not merely paid, for sins.

v. 3 may be some sort
of choral response, or it may be a voice from the heavenly council
(see Ps. 89). Notice that the Greek version punctuates differently,
and that is what is reflected in Mark on John the Baptist.

Some detect a note of a
second exodus here. This reflects back to an earlier passage
(35:5-10) and is echoed in a number of later passages (esp. 41, 42)
If that is true, instead of wilderness wandering, the people will be
treated to a divine super-highway, with the obstacles flattened.

v.6 moves to a
dialogue with heaven. The prophet’s words are utterly
depressed. After all, the prophet has seen destruction. Why bother,
life is so fragile, so transient, so ephemeral. God’s
breath/spirit does cause flourishing but withering.

v.8 I can’t tell
if this is a response from heaven, or the result of the prophet’s
cathartic words of depression and seeing a note of hope. Do you think
the word fo the Lord is this passage, the entire gospel as in I Peter
1:23-5, or the entire Bible?

What does it mean to
you to have stability/confidence in the security fo the word of God?

Does the transitory
nature of life bother you, or do you accept it as part of the antural
order?

v.9I can’t tell
if the prophet is to speak or is Zion itself to speak the good news.
Herald is not a word we use now Broadcast would be better.

vv.10-11 have 2 images
of God of might and compassion. The emphasis seems to me to be on the
gentleness after the terrifying destruction of Jerusalem and the pain
of exile.

Some hold that we are in a new section of Isaiah from chapter 56. With a book that mixes so many periods and images, it is hard to tell. if they are correct, we are dealing with the disappointment of the returned exiles that everything is not perfect.

1) The writer yearns for the active presence of God, as we all do, at least at times. We do not enter into the presence of God as much as God moves toward us.

2) If I understand v. 5 (NRSV) correctly, they see God hiding and this pushed them into a complacency that allowed sin.  While ch. 40 has voices of heaven, no one calls here in the awful silence. Seitz (NIB:529) sees this as the cry of the servants who suffer.

3) It seems to me that yet means that in spite of God's hidden quality, God is still a father. We have a good example of father language here at v. , as our, not my, a sense of God the creator of all. All Israel begs for help. Here is an interesting way to take the chosen and still make a universal claim.

4) Do I detect, in v. 7, at least a hint that people do not call on God becuase not only is God not seen, but God doesn't listen anyway?

 

5) As we know from Jeremiah, the potter clay image is a powerful one. Here it has a sense of God molding us through adversity as well as success. It has a sense that our spiritual life is molded even when we may be unaware of the preocesses shaping us. I would hasten to add that the metaphor breaks down a bit when we consider that we, the clay, ahve some hand in shaping ourselves as well.

 

6) This silent God, this invisible, this hiiden God is a deep weel. It is a healthy reminder that spiritual life is not dealing with an easy God. One could go in a mystical direction in pursuit of the silence.

 

Our parable today talks about a distribution of money. A Talent= a year’s wages, or even 15 years’ wages at minimum wage, so around 15,000 to 225,000. Here, we do not see equality, either in what they offer or what they receive. Please note that everyone starts with a good bit. We tend to feel so sorry for the person who got but one talent, but it sounds different when it is a decent sum of money. Most people would be very happy walking out of the casino on Fairland road with that much money.

They are judged by how they use what we have. The first two double their money. It’s easy to blow right past the second person in the story, but he does just as well as the much more talented person who has been given much more. What allows him to exceed expectations? I would suggest that the second servant has learned from previous successes, and maybe learned from mistakes as well. My guess is that he hadn’t taken down times to heart, so as to define him. He reflected on his attributes and appreciated them: his ability, interest, and willingness to take a risk.

What prevents the third servant from employing the gifts at all and induces him to bury his talent? Maybe it is fear of losing what we have-fear, or the risk/fear of getting hurt/ or thinking we are not worth the trouble. The people with more to lose were willing to take a risk. The last person hunkered down. Better to stick with what you have rather than risk it. The third servant has a hard time grasping generosity.

Similar attitudes hit us when we regard our spiritual lives. We act as if we have to put it away until it’s needed, like canned goods for the rainy day. I get a sense that god looks at how we fail to deploy our spiritual gifts in a way similar to seeing someone fail to use their abundant talents in other areas of life,

Join in your master’s happiness. Paul says to encourage and build one another up We all need to encourage seeing what we have and how to employ those gifts. Paul audience, earlier than Matthew’s, is also quite concerned about what to do in the interim period for the church. We all have spiritual talents. Spiritual gifts, but we let them lie fallow much of the time

I’m not going to emphasize the use of our talents, but limit it to the use of spiritual gifts. All of us receive a fair share of spiritual talent. We all receive the measure of grace we could use. For all of us, it is more than we could use in a few days. The master days: come share in my happiness, in my joy. I sense the feeling si like the vicarious pleasure we get out of a family member doing well. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven it seems to have a quality of a present gift and future drive. Just as the servants have a fairly large amount of money, they are still going to work with it for the future. This is not the advice to wait for a supposed gathering in the heaven during the dark times. Paul insists that we are not created for dark times. After all, we are children of the light, so we don’t have to hide away our spiritual gifts. It does us no good to tuck away our spiritual gifts until we think we need them. That does not give them time to breathe and flourish in the light, so that they are stronger when they are felt to be needed. It does others no good for us to hide away our spiritual gifts like misers, as if they are in a vault like Jack Benny’s. Spiritual gifts are made to grow; we won’t lose them.

Ezekiel 34:11-16,20-4
For Christ the King, the lectionary selects these sections.

After God indicts poor leaders/shepherds. God decides to take center stage for the exiles in the promise of better leadership. this image is in Ps. 23, of course, and Ps. 80. Jeremiah is on the same page at 23:1-6. Micah' famously uses the image in 4:6 and again in 7:14. Of ocurse, John 10 employs the image toward christ and Rev. has the lamb replace the lion.

All of the leadership failures of v. 4 will be addressed by God's care for a restored people. If this is the Day of the Lord, it is one of restoration, but perhaps of deep darkness for others. Some manuscripts have God on the warpath (asmid, but others have a more benevolent view, asmir)Perhaps it is a new exodus.

 

This is a good place to take stock of our conceptions of leadership. Note that the word king is not employed but aservant, and an older word for leadership, prince. It is a good place to consider control v. empowerment.

It leads us to consider Social Darwinism and the survival of the fittest. God is furious tha tthe strong are expoiting the weak. It is in stark contrast to god being a republican. (Note that theological conservatives, sojourners and the ESA realize this in their postings)

God will rule through a messianic Davidic figure who will be a good shepherd.

for those of an ecological mindset, the fouling of the water is a good biblical stand against pollution.

In our first reading
the Promised Land is no longer a promise, but a reality. Israel is in
possession of it. Now Joshua gathers the people together to make a
sacred bond, a covenant. They make a memorial as well, just as they
had a memorial to the crossing of the Jordan from the wilderness into
this new life of promise fulfilled. Joshua knows that they will need
aids for memory, maybe not for this generation, but for generations
to come. Over one hundred years ago, people raised this church up.
The care they took with it makes it a fitting memorial for the depth
of their commitment, one that rippled out to a future that they would
scarcely even imagine.

In this ceremony, Here
Joshua does a remarkable thing for them and us. Choose this day whom
you will serve he says. We are taken into his situation, but his
situation becomes ours as well. Every day of our lives we choose whom
we will serve. Joshua knows that in victory, in the good times, we
are most likely to let our relationship with god wither. It is a fact
that trouble is what drives us toward God.

Most people assume our
story in Matthew is an allegory where different elements stand for
something else. Most people agree it is about the long delay in the
return of Jesus. So many folks like to play at predicting the end of
the age, but here is a story that doesn’t predict for us.
Instead it tells us to be ready when Jesus would return. Jesus would
be the delayed bridegroom for instance. All members of the church as
portrayed as bridesmaids, waiting for the arrival. They all find it
hard to wait, and they all fall asleep. So, falling asleep isn’t
the issue, as they all share in that. No, the issue is the oil in the
lamps. Who is prepared for the delay and who is not?

No one knows what the
oil stands for, if this is an allegory. In Jewish tradition, the oil
could be faithful reading of the bible, and it could be a collection
of good deeds. Maybe they stand for spiritual disciplines, such as a
daily devotional. Either way, they show that we need to have them at
the ready in our character formation. It is hard to play catch up
with either of them, trying to make up for lost time. If we study our
bibles, if we build up our character by doing good, we can rely on
that when a surprise turns up. I think of the missionary captured in
Lebanon years ago. Denied a bible, he could recite the psalms from
memory. He hadn’t memorized them as we learn a poem in school.
He prayed them so much that they became part of him, and he was able
to turn to them in that critical period.

The time for decision
often comes at the worst possible moment, or at a time we least
expect. Temptation has a way of sneaking up on us. In our mortality,
no one knows the time of departure across the Jordan into the
Promised Land of heaven. Most of us will probably be brought into
God’s time before the return of Jesus. To live as if, a crisis
could come at any time is to live a life prepared. My dentist at the
IUSD is an Iraq Marine veteran. He tries to be prepared for the
expected but the unexpected as well. Recognize, adapt, and overcome,
he says. In that sense, Marines seem to live out the Boy Scout motto
of be prepared. When a couple is expecting their first child, they
spend time working on a nursery and building the crib. Toward the
end, they often have the bags already packed and in the trunk of the
car, just in case. We do well to have our spiritual bags packed,
ready for the call of God.

My computer was down. I will try to retype last Sunday's sermon and then post it ASAP

Deborah means bee (queen bee) but I wonder if it doesn't mean speaker (dabar=word)

I assume this passage is in the lectionary to get some well-needed female power.

God works through human decisions here.

Notice that the NIV has her holding court v. NRSV sitting under a palm tree named for her as a place of dispute-settlement.

Sh e is able to order Barak (blessed) around. (Barak could mean lightning as well.)Barak seems a bit timid.

I notice trouble though, as they only take 2 tribal troops.

We have historical issues. If indeed Israel swept through Canaan, how do thye have such a hold on power?

Notice the tantalizing hint about technological prowess (chariots fo iron) Did Israel lack the technology or the the structure to make chariots.
 If one wishes, woman power takes the stage at the end of the chapter with Jael (God is Yah(weh))

One could extend the reading to the poem at ch. 5, especially the end at 24 that is a taunt but is alos a remarkable way of seeing through the eyes of the enemy's mother.

Joshua 24:1-3,13-25

1) we know of shechem from extrabiblical sources such as Egyptian writings almost 2000BCE.

(Ralph's old teacher, Wright, was an expert on Shechem). It is where God speaks to Abram with an altar built. Jacob bought land and built an altar there, but idols were involved there. Later it will be the site of "anitdavidic rule" for the troubles after Solomon (I Kings 12). It was destroyed by Assyrai and partially rebuilt later. Some scholars (Noth) thought it was a sort of first capital city (remember Jeruslalem is conquered only by david)

2) I love the idea of saying what is ours in v. 13. We all inherit from the past, so we do not expend effort on what we inherit in culture, infrastructure, legacies. It is particularly salient ofr us whose ancestors took a continent from the indians and worked it on the back of slaves. Note v. 13 is one of displacment, not taking unoccupied territory.

This gift aspectalso makes it a good intro to upcoming Thanksgiving.

3) From v.14 we have a powerful anti-idolatry statement. If one would wish, this is a good place to speak of the depth of the idea of our minds as "factories of idols" and to look at the "idols of church and culture." How would we "put away gods?"

4) in v. 14 fear=revere= hold in awe. How with sincerity/integrity/completeness and faitfuly=amen=steadfastly=reliably serve could mean ritual worship and/or fealty, devotion.

5) v. 15 Choose today-this makes it possible for us to bridge time and see it apply to us, right now.

6) v. 19 notice God is a jealous Gode, a God who demands exclusive loyalty. God does not like the divine honor trampled, so reward and punishment are linked to loyalty.

7) Sin here is seen as both willful (pesa, and missing the mark (het)

8) Some see this as a political binding or a religious binding, or a mixture of both.

9) One could use Joshua as an example of leadership, especially becuase he follows a great leader.

10) the people pledge and repledge, but we all know that they will often fail through the generations. One could take up the idea of vows, kept and broken.

Joshua 3:7-17

First, I emphasize the
liturgical nature of the crossing of the Jordan. This seems like an
entrance liturgy to me. It certainly does not read as a military
incursion. It points up to the conquest as the arm of god, not the
military might of nascent Israel. With God as the warrior, it
downplays a warrior caste. (See Yahweh as Warrior by Millard Lind for
a good examination of the issue, also work by Patrick Miller.) Who
wants priests to take the point in any battle? You do want them in a
religious procession, however.

Second, in class, one
may wish to broach the idea of this as interpreted history,
Archaeology can be a friend to biblical factual accuracy, but it
often challenges it. Lately, some minimize almost all historical data
in the bible, and others seek to maximize it. It may be that Israel
moved in lightning strokes, but it could also be a more gradual
issue. Scripture has hints of it, certainly. Scholarly work is
imaginative reconstructive, see Gottwald’s transformation of
the conquest into a Maoist uprising of the oppressed.

Archaeology does
demonstrate changes. Early Israel seemed to have a hilltop base, not
an urban base. (Maybe that’s why Jericho falls) Distinctive
pottery is found in abundance at these sites, along with a house with
a loft for sleeping.

Third, in spiritual
terms, where do you cross the Jordan? Think of how the slaves saw the
Ohio as the Jordan. What prevents you from crossing it? When is
wishing better than achieving? What seems to be an insuperable
obstacle to reaching your Promised Land?

(Recall jesus and
Joshua have the same name: God helps/delivers/saves)

I saw the documentary
Ripples of Hope at the Heartland Film Festival. It’s about the
remarkable speech by Robert Kennedy at 17^th and Broadway
in Indianapolis to calm a crowd after the death of Martin Luther
King. It’s all the more poignant, as RFK would be gunned down
within two months. The night before King died, he was thinking about
our main passage this morning. Hear his words again: “I’ve
been to the mountaintop 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.”
No matter how great we are, no matter how healthy we try to stay, we
are all mortal; we are all flawed, even Moses.

When I was in high
school, we were assigned to write our own obituary. It forced you to
write a script for an imagined future. I knew right away that I did
not want to stay in Western Pennsylvania. I didn’t imagine that
God would call me to be a pastor. From another end, many enjoyed the
Bucket List with Nicholson and Freeman as cancer patients who wanted
to do some things before they kicked the bucket. Some folks have a
bucket list that they check off as they achieve a heart’s
desire.

Few of us will go to
our eternal reward having checked off all of our imagined futures.
Even Moses did not get to enter the Promised Land after forty years
of wandering. I find it moving to see this great man being given a
panorama of the land he worked to claim, but would not live to cross.
Some of the rabbis imagined that Moses was even given a vision of the
future in the Promised Land for his people. Scripture gives us a
glimpse of the Promised Land of heaven as a lodestar day after day.

Part of a finding a
spiritual path in life is to live so as to imagine a eulogy. An
outstanding check on our words and actions is the reminder of what if
this is the last thing I say or do? We do well to want to aspire to
level of a life well-lived so that it can be the subject of a eulogy.
A long time ago, one of the pastors here opened the floor to memories
of family and friends for the first time, in part, because it was
hard for him to write a eulogy for the departed. We want to be
remembered, as an element of living on, also as an element of our
lives being more than mere footprints in the sand. When Abraham
Lincoln was in the midst of one his terrible depressive episodes, he
told a friend that the only thing that kept him from taking his life
was the thought that his name would be forgotten.

I hold to a theology
that assumes that God holds our lives in the divine hand, but also in
the divine heart. Nothing worth saving is ever lost in the life of
God. I would even go further. and say that nothing worth saving goes
without regard in this life. I imagine our lives as ripple in the
pond that interact constantly with other ripples moving out toward
the edge of the eternal. In large measure, Moses was defined by the
journey toward freedom he led, not the destination itself. That
purpose kept him going even against so many obstacles, including
forty years of wandering. No matter how uncertain our steps, no
matter how our course may zigzag back and forth, God will help us
arrive at our final destination, the Promised land of our dreams, the
Promised Land of our faith. In the mean time, we have a promised Land
that beckons for us now, in ways that gives us energy and hope, a
goal toward which we can work and reach out here in the wilderness.

Here at the close of
the campaign season, we have some words of Jesus on the role of the
government and God. Both presidential candidates have bent over
backward to demonstrate religious fidelity. What is God’s and
what is not? The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.
It could be that Jesus can be flippant about it, as he sees all of
the world in God’s hands, so why get all upset about a
government tax? If that is the case, we need to be very careful
saying that one issue, or one political party, can capture human life
so that it can be equated as God’s will or God’s party.
As the title of Jim Wallis’s book says; God is neither a
Republican nor a Democrat. If we don’t hear that simple wisdom,
we are on the road of making an idol out of our limited political
views. When we declare out of bounds any consideration that God may
oppose American policy when we agree with it, when we think that God
has to be on our side, we have traveled a good bit down that road
already.

In the original
Presbyterian Constitution, also written in Philadelphia, we read “We
do not want to see any religious constitution aided by the civil
power and protection and equal and common to others.-no civil effects
of church discipline.” In other words, they did not want any
help from government for doing the work of the church. They did
expect fair treatment from the government, public safety and roads to
allow worship to be possible. We can all be in danger of keeping
church and state so separate that we do not let our religious ethics
impinge on our political decisions, the “naked public square.”
Many Americans see the separation of church and state as impinging on
religious practices, most notably prayer in schools or making a
religious holiday such as Christmas a secular holiday festival.

The Reformed tradition
has usually emphasized a separation of God and Caesar, as spiritual
and physical, but it does insist on the subordination of the
government to God’s will for the world. As Madison said, if we
were angels, no government would be necessary. Usually, that shows a
fierce opposition to the government intruding on the internal work of
the church. It does not see them as always in conflict either, even
as it warns that the church must be careful not to subsume it beliefs
and work under that of the government. No, it hopes that the church
can transform our politics and government. While different realms,
they do intersect. Calvin saw them both working for human welfare,
even though at different levels. When do God and Caesar work
together? Luther called government the left hand of God. Calvin
called governmental officials vicars of God’s work. We have
always insisted that the work of government be done justly. We cannot
paint all government with the broad brush of corruption and
self-serving.

In our time,
government acts to work out Mt. 25’s injunction to feed the
hungry and help to heal the sick. In our time, government, at its
best, is the search for the public good the common good. It looks
beyond what is good fro me alone, and pushes us to consider the state
of the nation: country first as Sen. McCain says, or as JFK said more
memorably, ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you
do for your country. The church does well when it praises that work.
At its best, government organizes the love of neighbor collectively.
It allows us the structure to live together. It tries to retrain our
worst impulses and attend to Lincoln’s “better angels of
our nature.” After all, angels are messengers. When you vote,
you carry a message that is also a prayer.

We move from God being gracious to the death of Moses. This follows a long blessing, to close his work.

First, I recommend Dennis Olson. Deuteronomy and the Death of Moses.

Second, Look at Kugel's the Bible As It Was. It walks one through developments about the death of Moses from M oses fighting death with tears, to b fight between an angel and an associate of satan that shows up in Jude 9, to the idea that Moses was assumed into heaven based on slight issues about "he was buried."

This is a eulogy. He did not fade away. Here God calls a close to a life. By all measures here, Moses was healthy. Natural force could have a sense of virility, but it more likely has a sense of being fresh and alive, even youthful. (This goes against his complaint in 31:2 of having a hard time getting around. His power and his prophetic stature are highlighted, with his intimacy with God. Still, god worked through Moses, as God works through all of us.

The grief is as for anyone, but then it does come to an end, and the new stage for the people begins. For spiritual development, one could go very far with envisioning our futures, alone and together. Where do we stand on the cusp of the promise, and when do we actively work toward it? In what way is heaven, a spiritual version fo the land of promise?

Most of us find it heart-breaking that Moses can come to the edge of the Promised Land and be given no more than a panoramic view. In a way, Moses dies as he lived. He would not permit himself to become the symbol of the nation. God, not he, was the leader for Israel. No grave would become a shrine. Olson (p.167) notes that cult for the dead is forbidden (Dt. 14:1)

Why doe she fail to enter the Promised Land. Dt. repeatedly intimates (1:37, 3:26,4:21) that he is dying for the people. At the end of 32, we are told that it is due to the sin at Meribah, with an added sense of holiness betrayed.

This refers us back to Numbers 20;2-13. At first, it seems a repeat of Ex. 17 at Meribah, but here something goes amiss. God tells Moses to speak to a rock, with a rod, maybe Aaron’s rod that has blossoms, in hand. Water will come. Instead, Moses calls the people rebels. Then he strikes the rock twice. A pun for the word for holiness (kaddish) emerges for a place name appended to Meribah (place of contention/trial/quarrel) I’m not sure what that means, other than Moses did not follow the special instructions to the letter.

Most people are mystified as to how this becomes the cause for Moses to be forbidden entry into the Promised Land. I suspect that his frustration has gotten the better of him, an dhe feels empowered to use God’s command as a baseline, instead of following it to the letter. In other words, he is starting to fall victim to power

Presbyterian pastors
take both Greek and Hebrew in seminary. So, we notice Greek-based
English words such as xenophobia, the fear of the stranger, the
other. We feel the need to train our children to fear strangers and
to keep them close. We all face it in the presidential election, if
race will be an issue in our vote. We hear broad hints of it when
Gov. Palin screeches that Sen. Obama does not see America like “the
rest fo us.”

Early Christians
countered xenophobia with xenophilia, hospitality, literally, love of
the stranger, the other. During the school year, we witness
xenophilia at, of all places, the local schools during lunchtime.
Volunteers for Big Brothers/Big Sisters have lunch, once a week, with
a student. It’s a small gesture, admittedly, but one where a
child realize3s that a stranger will try to get to know and support
them throughout the school year. I am particularly impressed that a
large number of high school students come in to share their time with
strangers the age of their younger brothers and sisters. I love how
other kids cast envious looks at the accompanied children, because an
adult comes in to spend a little time with a classmate. A lot of the
children are rarely on the receiving end of an envious look.

It’s not always
easy. School lunches have improved since the Dark Ages of my school
years. Mystery meat isn’t as popular, and peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches and salad are always available. Usually, I can feel
my cholesterol medicine kicking in just looking at the steam tables.
I will spare the gentle reader the effects of a school lunch burrito
on the system of someone in the fifties. It’s always good for a
laugh to see middle-aged men in dress shoes trying to play catch with
a football or a Frisbee. They run with legs moving very fast, but
stiffly, in a sort of scissor-kick. I like when the students will
show off one of their small electronic devices. Even with bifocals,
most of us can’t see the screen. Let alone what goes on it. I
like watching eyes glaze over when children describe schoolwork that
we have either forgotten or never even encountered in our school
days. School is an island of stability, order, and coherence in the
midst of a sea of chaos. In a way, both the students and the mentors
are tourists in a different world. The world of youth requires older
folks to bridge a chasm.

Xenophilia,
hospitality, makes room for strangers to expose what we all share in
common. It is a powerful vision to see adults taking the ideas,
concerns, and opinions of a child seriously, even if it is for one
short lunch a week. It’s a sterling example of how we can build
bridges across the divides. In religious tradition, we have so many
stories of Jesus appearing in the guise of a stranger. In Hebrews, we
hear that when we entertain a stranger, it could be “entertaining
angels, unaware.” For the Christian, the perspective to take is
one where we seek the image of Christ in those whom we met, to treat
them, as Luther said, as “little Christs.” In that
sense, Bib Brothers/Big Sisters teaches politics. The program builds
community. It teaches us the things we share in need and abundance.
It teaches us to care about the stranger, to avoid lumping people
into stereotypes and classifications. We get to see, firsthand, a
glimpse of the slow agriculture of making young hearts and minds
bloom in education. We see what hard work it is in building a future
together, for friend and stranger alike. Politics is all about seeing
friend and stranger as part of a whole, of how we live together and
move toward the ideal fo community.

This passage must be an
indication of my spiritual blindness, as I cannot guess why the
lectionary lifts this passage up.

After the golden Calf
episode, Moses continues to plead for the people. If I read it
correctly, he is using God’s favor as a lever to gain support
for the people, not himself. (Note: grace/gracious/favor are all
variants for the word, hen, in Hebrew)

Is the desire to see
God’s glory/ goodness/presence in relation to the breaking of
the covenant with the Golden Calf? We have just been told that in the
tent God spoke with Moses face to face, as with a friend. and ate
with the elders in ch. 24. Is it a desire to be in communion with
God by himself? Is the warning a universal, or is it in relation to
the Golden Calf episode. I’m not sure how to read God’s
glory as opposed to God’s face. Knowing and seeing are
emphasized as ways of being in contact with God.

In a diverse age, the
emphasis on distinction is decidedly uncomfortable. (Although notice
the verbal link of the face of God and the face of the earth)

This could be a way to
deal with seekers or with stages/phases in spiritual development, as
they desire for communion with god seem to be deep-seated.

The backside of God may
be just a bit of a joke, or it could be all Moses could bear. (a
kenotic moment?).

Janzen makes an
extended case (24:7-9 Exodus).sees God as not being arbitrary in
showing mercy but a demonstration of divine character God is also
free to respond to new situations. He sees god as mourning the loss
of relationshiop more than beign angry at the idolatry. God will not
look at us in all of our shame and guilt, but with the eyes of love.
Perhaps, only heaven will unveil God too us, or even there, we will
see God face to face but still only partially, given our limitations.

Last week we mentioned
contentment as an antidote to coveting according to the Westminster
Catechism. Today our reading from Philippians gives us a whole set of
virtues to aid our spirit of contentment.

The Bible suspects that
we cannot stand happiness for long. It happened in Eden, now it
happens near Sinai. The people get freed through the Red Sea, get
bread from heaven, and water from a rock. Right away they break away,
or maybe revert to Egypt. I think that anxiety is a culprit here.
With Moses gone, their frail trust in God is under assault. In large
part, the trouble with the golden calf is our response to anxiety and
uncertainty.

Context matters. Here,
the lectionary separate the story from context. At best, it links it
directly to the 10 Commandments. In the intervening chapters, we have
material on the covenant code and careful description for worship
materials. Aaron, Moses, and the elders have had a banquet in the
presence of God. Again, the people want a God at our demand. This is
not liturgy a response to God? Maybe we could look at it as a
counter-liturgy, as it contains some of the same words that describe
the freedom found after the Red Sea episode and elements in the
preparations just described in the chapter prior to this.

Moses’s
intercession is quite moving. Not only is he willing to tell the
people that they are wrong, Moses is willing to argue with God. He
could well be taking a terrible risk as he tries to calm the God who
destroyed the Egyptians at the sea. Would god take out the
frustration on him as well? Notice God calls them your people. He
returns to God’s own words and deeds. God may well be testing
him to see if he has fallen victim to seeing himself as the chief.
(On the other hand, maybe they are both sick of them) Notice as in
the psalms, he appeals to God’s reputation: Look at the
verbs-repent, turn back turn around), change or relent and remember.
Usually, these words are directed at our failings. It works. God
changes from the anger and frustration into finding a way to
continue.

Moses is bold in his
prayer, in talking with God. Paul teaches us bold prayer in our short
reading this morning as well.. Paul reminds us that the Lord si not
far off, but close to us, near. God does not turn away from us. God
always faces us. Paul aks that we pray to God about everything in
our day, not just the important stuff, not just the critical pleas
for help, not just the moral dilemmas, everything. Here he combines
the bold step of asking God for what we need with the important check
on perspective: thanksgiving. Thanksgiving reminds us that few things
are in our control. It pushes us to look for the good, the silver
lining in the middle of hard times.

The sheer act of prayer
can be calming. We live in an anxious time. We are bombarded by bad
news and worries constantly; it is a steady diet of trouble we face.
We do well to work through our troubles in talking with God. We also
do well to lift up the good things that happen to us everyday, the
good things we notice every day. If we make a habit of praying the
blessings, it opens our eyes to pay attention to them, instead of
merely taking them as our right. We don’t need to construct
golden calves of different gods. We don’t need to look to a new
Moses to save us. Our god is as close as the next prayer, the next
breath.

I’m going out an
a bit of a limb this morning, as I am linking the two tablets, the
Ten Commandments to the Lord’s Supper. I will use one of the
ten words as an example of communion touching on the way of life god
desires in the outline of the law of Sinai.

For instance, it is no
big leap to see the manna in the wilderness as prefiguring our bread
of life. Just as the manna honored Sabbath rest, so too does this
sacrament offer rest for our weary souls. Let’s look at a
difficult one, coveting. Coveting is an itch that does not know
satisfaction. It is more than merely wanting. In the Westminster
Catechisms, it includes not only being envious of the goods and good
fortune of others, but the planning to obtain them by any means
necessary. Here taking part of God’s spiritual bounty can ease
the urges of coveting, as everybody has plenty. The Catechism follow
the Reformed tradition of seeing the law as both prohibition and
guideline, so it has thou shalt not along with thou shalt for each
commandment. Even though most of the commandments are in a negative,
phohibitory form, they contain positive injunctions that we should go
out and do. No fale witness means tell the truth. To fight coveting,
the catechism urges us to learn to be content with our condition. My
prayer would be that the sacrament of Communion teaches and offers us
a sense of contentment in the presence, the living presence, of Jesus
Christ within each one of us. Instead of grasping we share in the
sacrament. Here, a little is more than enough.

Even though we are
under enormous financial pressure at the moment, World Communion
Sunday pushes us to consider our relative state. World Communion
Sunday is difficult in a world rent by violence and poverty. Jesus
lived in a most imperfect land in an imperfect time. Jesus lived in a
world driven by conflicts. World Communion Sunday is a ritual for
brothers and sisters in Christ. No matter our differences, no matter
our language, we all do the same action this morning in sharing the
bread and the cup. In Communion, we remember Jesus Christ as a
victim of religious violence and a death penalty wrongly inflicted.
His blood continues to cry out in sympathy with all of the victims of
violence in the bloodstained world. Jesus lived in a time when most
people were poor. “Give us this day our daily bread”
reflects a culture where people lived day to day as opposed to
paycheck to paycheck. Can we, being spiritually filled until our cups
runneth over, allow people not to have enough to eat and drink?

When we receive
Communion, it is taking God’s way inside of our lives. Eugene
Peterson has a fairly new work, Eat This Book. He speaks of reading
Scripture in a meditative way, where we savor it, chew on the tough
parts, and ingest it making it part of our lives. Today it is eating
the tablets. Since we do not receive communion frequently, we can
make that an advantage by taking the time until the first Sunday in
Advent, in about 2 months to consider the meaning and depth of what
we all participate in this morning. Last week we were reminded that
the precious water came from Sinai, the same place where they would
receive the 10 Commandments. In Communion, we receive Jesus Christ’s
presence, the embodiment of God’s way in the world, into
ourselves. God’s way does not begin and end with the Ten
Commandments, Jesus far outstrips them in the Sermon on the Mount. As
we absorb the elements of the Lord’s Supper, we absorb the
teachings of the Lord. As Paul said, we form Christ in the world
together, another way of speaking of the church as the body of Christ
today.