Notes for Tuesday class on Jn. 12:1-8

1) One theme can be holy waste. This would be about a year's wages for the perfume. when is it good not to be prudent for something connected to worship, for instance?
2) Does it cause you some disquiet to agree with Judas?
3) Do you find the feet being anointed and the hair as a towel more than a bit off-putting? Our writer (Thoughtful Christian, Pausing on the road to Jerusalem) touches on sensuality, but moves quickly into a discussion of the material world being good.
4) Did you think Mary Magdalene did this? Are you surprised which Mary it was in John?
5) Consider comparing it to the accounts in Mt 26:6-13) Mark 14:3-9 and Luke 7:36-50)
6) I've heard the end of this passage used so many times against both charity and seeking social justice.
7) Earlier Jesus was told that the body of Lazarus had begun to decay, so it stank. Now did the amount of perfume, oftne used ot anoint a body, now make the room stink? Notice jeuss sees it as enacted prophecy.
8) Mary's act is an intimate one. What are the barriers to emotional and spiritual intimacy in a congregation?
9) Please notice that this is an anointing, after all. Chirstos means anointed one: In the Reformed tradition, Calvin emphasized that 3 offices:priest, prophet, king were all anointed ones and applies them all to the work of Christ.
10) How, if at all, do you then read this into the next chapter with the footwashing?

Notes for Tuesday class on Jn. 12:1-8

1) One theme can be holy waste. This would be about a year's wages for the perfume. when is it good not to be prudent for something connected to worship, for instance?
2) Does it cause you some disquiet to agree with Judas?
3) Do you find the feet being anointed and the hair as a towel more than a bit off-putting? Our writer (Thoughtful Christian, Pausing on the road to Jerusalem) touches on sensuality, but moves quickly into a discussion of the material world being good.
4) Did you think Mary Magdalene did this? Are you surprised which Mary it was in John?
5) Consider comparing it to the accounts in Mt 26:6-13) Mark 14:3-9 and Luke 7:36-50)
6) I've heard the end of this passage used so many times against both charity and seeking social justice.
7) Earlier Jesus was told that the body of Lazarus had begun to decay, so it stank. Now did the amount of perfume, oftne used ot anoint a body, now make the room stink? Notice jeuss sees it as enacted prophecy.
8) Mary's act is an intimate one. What are the barriers to emotional and spiritual intimacy in a congregation?
9) Please notice that this is an anointing, after all. Chirstos means anointed one: In the Reformed tradition, Calvin emphasized that 3 offices:priest, prophet, king were all anointed ones and applies them all to the work of Christ.
10) How, if at all, do you then read this into the next chapter with the footwashing?

1) This is the third of a series of lost and found that comprise Lk. 15. we call this the story of the prodigal because he is prodigal in wasting his gifts.
2) Apply the reaction of the father to the cross. does the parable reveal the mind of God through the father?
3) Consider identifying with each of the three major characters. What are their best and worst features?
4) Many make a big deal that the father does not act in the dignity expected of a Middle Eastern father. The shoes are a sign of the prodigal being free. (the robe=honor; the ring=authority)
5) A teacher at Pittsburgh Seminary and a pastor at Shadyside is considering a book on preaching to elder brothers. why would he plan such a book?
6) Assess the father's reaction to the elder brother.
7) does heaven overdo it in celebrating the return of a sinner?
8) why does the father permit the son to act as if he has died and claims his share of the inheritance?
9) "When he came to himself" could mean that the son begins to hatch a plan, not a sign of repentance.
10) did the younger choose to be "lost?"

Sunday March 27-Ps.  95 Calvin spoke of the psalms as containing the anatomy of every part of the soul. The church sanctuary here in Alton, First Presbyterian,  has the choir area decorated with stained glass representations of a number of them that Greg, our church musician,  suggested years ago. William Brown has a book on the psalms where he notices how they touch on different senses throughout. In hymn #215 Arlo Duba paraphrases  a verse with the striking:"the heights and depths of earth are cradled in God's hand."

Monday-Any period of introspection will probably stir up some grief at some point. When I was packing up recently, I ran across some long-ago stored things of my brother, now dead over twenty years. No packing got done for a while, as my eyes got too cloudy. Early practices of communion must have been hard for those who knew Jesus. When we emphasize the memorial aspects too much, it can take on a funereal tone, even 2000 years later.

Tuesday Sabbath time seems to be a losing practice, as Charlie Sheen may say, as we train the next generation to worship a frenzied pursuit of constant activity. Please consider exploring the meaning of Sabbath and maybe taking a break from one activity during this season. The baseline of sabbath is the important thought that only slaves are expected to go 24 hours, seven days a week. Rest is built into the rhythm of creation's structure, after all.

Wednesday-The excellent Thoughtful Christian series suggest various types of art engagement during the sessions. Our Greek Orthodox sisters and brothers use icon, images, as a way to help focus their prayers. In our Tuesday class, we looked at four representations of the crucifixion. consider sitting down with a picture or object and contemplate it for a bit. What is the artist seeking to do do you thin? What is emphasized, and what is diminished? What feelings are evoked by the work in you?

Thursday- Hospitality was a  virtue prized by early Christians. Look at Heb. 13. The word chosen is xenophilia, the love of strangers, as opposed to xenophobia. At root, it is trying to make someone feel at home, even to feel as an honored guest, instead of an imposition. How hospitable are we to the presence of God? When do we try clean up[, open the door, and invite God into our lives? On the other hand, does even the thought of hospitality toward god makes us more than a little uncomfortable ourselves?

Friday-the Church Ad project ran a picture of the Earth from space, and the caption read: "without God, it all a vicious circle." With God, the world does point in a direction toward peace and justice. As Martin Luther King said, "the arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." In stead of a vicious circle, Christians discern a purpose in history, a direction, toward which we are led and for which we work. Our work has purpose; God is always weaving and reweaving the strands of human lives and work into a pattern that is a fit place for the human, and indeed, even the divine.

Saturday-Consider taking some time to listen to a hymn and then read the words as religious poetry. Our blue hymnbook has some selections from the past and more contemporary passages as well. It could be rewarding to pay particular attention to hymns for Holy Week, but maybe picking a theme from the index would be the way for you to go. Of course, as Stephen Sondheim notes in his new book, Finishing the Hat, lyrics are wedded to music, so they should not be considered as poetry that stand alone.

Nicodemus went to see Jesus at night and left confused. Here, it seems a chance encounter, at noon. A tired rabbi breaks down social barriers, asks a favor of a stranger, and gets involved in conversation. It is not clear to me how much men would speak to women in public at this time and place, plus this woman is a member of group against whom prejudice was common among the people of Jesus. Engaged in conversation, the woman is a superior theologian to Nicodemus: another  Eve perhaps. She offers hospitality to Jesus, even though we start out we saying that the religion of Jesus does not share with Samaritans. At this point we need to deal with her marital history. This woman at the well  is not the one who sees husbands as disposable. She is either widowed and divorced by her husbands a number of times. It is astonishing how much has been read into her moral character by the lascivious minds of preachers. She  may well be at the bottom of the social ladder, maybe her chances in life have dried up,or she is just plain busy at the well at noon. She realizes that Jesus has shifted the terms of the discussion and she moves into a religious dialogue. She becomes a speaker for her people. She is the first to get a clear revelation of the nature of Jesus so far. She left the water jar behind, to show here hurry, or maybe she had all of the living water she could hold, or no jar could contain the living water offered her. Early in John's gospel we hear: Come and see. She exemplifies it, she offers it but not in some pretty package in a bow. She has more questions than answers for her community. Does she already have living water within her? The encounter itself is the one with the gift of living water is asking for water from another. Maybe living water can only be shared? What could of been a place of contention became one of hospitality and sharing.

What does living/running water mean in a spiritual sense? Sometimes the tap seems closed. What thirst does it quench? Does it satiate the thirst for more and more? Does it give us the sense that our cups runneth over; that a bit is plenty, but there's plenty more where that came from?  Does it offer, in a word, contentment? Living water is: healing;  washing us clean; it restores, renews, and refreshes. Here in this place we can worship in a place of spirit and truth. We have the gift of living water in our baptism. We have the gift of Jesus Christ daily.
When we run into trouble, we are often at the places, Meribah and Massah. Instead of offering living water, too often the church offers us Meribah and Massah, a locus of contention, often over trivia, let alone serious religious discussion. We just received manna last week, but we complain.  We wonder where God could possibly be, or is God even doing this to us?
Meribah and Massah were posing an ultimatum to God. God responds to their anger-the water comes from the mountain of Sinai where they are headed. The water flows toward them.We are going toward the life-giving stream of Ezekiel, the crystal fountain that Paul tells us is a symbol for Christ, or the river of life in Revelation. We flow toward a God's eye view of each other, an eye that sees us at our best, an eye that sees through the eyes of love, imperfections and all, always worthy of respect. In the end, the living water is love, always at the ready for us to be showered in its life-giving, life-sustaining flow.

I like this passage as it comes at the issue of theodicy: God and human suffering in a different way than we often address it. Most notably, Jesus does not ascribe to God the responsibility for evil. Jesus does not say that suffering is a learning experience. Jesus does not compare types of suffering. Jesus does not blame the victims of suffering. Jesus does not see the suffering as divine punishment nor a divine teaching tool.

Notice that we get both natural evil and human evil. Do you approach them differently or the same way in terms of God's involvement?

 

The parable is one of patience. The fig tree was sometimes a symbol for Israel. when do you want to give up on someone or something/ what pushes you to keep on keeping on?

Janzen has a good, easy to read commentary on Exodus. He makes an intriguing link to John 6.  p. 119 "Here faith and trust vie with fear and doubt."
1) Under stress, we often get frustrated and look for someone to blame, and this is a good example.
2) Meribah means place of dispute/trial/contention (rib is a formal hearing) and Massah is place of testing (the m for place pushes out the n of nasa)
3) Notice that the water comes from the holy mountain where they are heading, Sinai. This is flowing or living water.
4) this would be a good place to talk about our basic need for water over that of food.
5) if I remember correctly, famed exegete Mick Saunders, was struck by the moving in stages to denote planning, not chaos or aimless wandering.
6) I wonder if testing the Lord is a good way to get at the lord's Prayer, as the word tempt is the same as try or test. I take it as making an ultimatum to god. How do you see it?
7)When do we blame someone, when we really want to blame god?
8)When do we show memories as short as the people's when they quickly forget the Red Sea and the manna?
9) why does the passage conclude with the question,is the Lord among us or not?
10) Look at how Paul interprets this in I Cor 10. 

We all know John 3:16 emblazoned on large sheets at football games. In John's gospel, the physical is a gateway to the spiritual. Failure to move from one plane to the other results in the kind of confusion poor Nicodemus is struggling with. The voices of the dialogue fade off, and the narrator picks up for us to more clearly understand. We get a snake in again this week even as  we often rush past the allusion. You all instantly flashed on to the story in Number 21 and the nehushtan, the bronze shiny serpent that heals. As James Kay, my preaching and worship professor  said, we get rid of the poison that afflicts human life; the cross is an an antidote to all the poison within and without us. Christ is poison to the poisonous one. A single snake around the staff was a symbol of healing for the Greeks and Romans. On many crucifixes we see the head of the serpent being crushed.

We speak of Christ as the Great Physician. In Lent, we do well to refer to T.S. Eliot of Christ, as the dying nurse. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote "sin burns the sinews of the soul, and breaks the spiritual bones of the mind."In ancient times, Communion 's drink was called the "medicine of immortality" and the medieval writer Cabasilas wrote that "the cup is applied to our wounds and slays the sin that is in us." This is usually the passage cited when people refer to a born-again experience. In Lent we seek to be  born again/from above/anew-to enjoy a spiritual rebirth. Was Abram born anew when, at 75, he set off from yet another home toward the new land? We hear this morning a classic maternal image for God's labor with us, to be born from above." Look at receiving the gift of communion as spiritual health food. It is medicine for what ails us.

Nicodemus knew that something was not quite right. Nicodemus stands for us: in the dark but is capable of growth-after All Abram did not know where he was going either, beyond a general direction. Nicodemus, like us, is in the shadows. Jesus does not make it easy on him, as he speaks indirectly, obliquely. For all us stumbling around in the dark, Christ lights the way. In its way, our passage contains a gospel in miniature. I want to seize on the word save, a multivalent word. Too often, we read it as only a ticket to heaven. That is accurate, but weak. Salvation encompasses the whole of life in this world and the next. With the reference to the bronze serpent in Numbers, let's look at saving as healing. After all, an old hymn, There Is a Balm,  speaks of healing the sin-sick soul. Salvation aims at healing everything that afflict us and our society. It does encompass body, mind, heart, and spirit together, to  make us whole, well-integrated  people. Further,  the outstretched arms of the cross embrace a world where too much blood is spilled, where too many people are crushed under a boot heel. In a way, look at salvation as a public health measure designed to structure a safer, better, life.

Hear the 3:16 passage again for God so loved the world, the cosmos, what could be more expansive than that? I remind us that the word save in Greek also means to heal. Look at the image of healing in a pharmacy.   Parish nurse is here that gets at the physical level of healing and salvation. The deacons give away money for people to get prescriptions.  Health is God's good gift across the board. Healing restores health or even helps us find it when we weren't even aware that it existed.

Sunday March 20th-Ps.121 is part of a series of pilgrimage songs on the way to the temple in Jerusalem. It is a prayer for protection on the journey for traveling mercies. In Pilgrim's Progress, the Christian journey is pictured as a pilgrimage toward the Celestial City. Consider making a chart of your spiritual life. Where were crisis moments? To what were you aiming; for what were you seeking? Where do you perceive the hand of God in your decision, your response to an event, a confluence of forces?

Monday-I took my first bike rides along the river recently. the wind was up, and the sunlight glimmered on the waves. What are your favorite things about the river? Rivers are boundaries too, just as the Jordan marked the boundary from slavery to freedom, from wilderness to hearth and home. In the title track The River, Springsteen sings of a couple that goes to the river to recapture the romance and maybe innocence of their youth. (I wonder how he'd react to being part of Lenten material?) Does the river touch your spiritual imagination? Imagine the  course of life as a river: how does it move; is it road, deep,raging? What pollutes your river of life? Where does the baptismal river need to cleanse you?

Tuesday- Last week in Bible Study, we read Lk. 13:31-5, where Jesus uses the image of a mother hen. An experiment recently demonstrated that mother hens react when  the chicks are under some threat, even a mild one and make a vocalization calling them back toward her. It is not the image of power and control that we usually associate with the divine, but it is certainly an image of concern, empathy, and love.

Wednesday- A friend gave my daughter and me a list of saying from the desert fathers. From Anthony-"I saw so many snares set out before us-what could save us from being ensnared? The answer came-humility." That is not a virtue that comes easily to us Americans. At root, humility is grounded in this life and know that we all have limitations, that no one is perfect. It has its emblem in AA noticing that freedom from addiction comes first in realizing that we are in thrall to something more powerful than us. From where does your virtue of humility arise?

Thursday-The Christian community Sojourners has a magazine and web site (sojo.net); it seeks to look at contemporary culture and social life through a Biblical lens, instead of a market lens. Being successful is not the measure of life as much as faithfulness is. Indeed, its founder, Jim Wallis, regards the specter of material success as an idol as threatening as the Golden Calf.When has the success ethic run counter to your Christian principles? How do you put material success in its proper place and where is it difficult to fight it when it counters your ethics?

Friday-My eyesight doesn't permit me to watch as many movies as I may like, but I do love them. Edward McNulty does too and derives much spiritual benefit from watching and discussing movies.I've said more than once that Jesus would make parables into movies in our time. Our daughters finally convinced me to join facebook, and they ask folks to list favorite movies. What are yours, and what moral value or religious point of view, if any, do they contain? For instance, I can imagine few better stories of redemption than Tender Mercies or the story of the Good Samaritan than in Schindler's List.

Saturday-Lent is unAmerican as it makes us look at our accumulation of things. Moving pushes one to come to grips with all of the stuff we keep and misplace. Moving also reacquaints us with keepsakes. I kept the shirt I wore when our youngest daughter was born and kept a little Notre Dame cheerleading outfit she was given. I appreciate the Goodwill commercial where they urge us to give away clothing that we haven;t worn in a year.

This is a new set of notes for a Tuesday group held at First Presbyterian, Alton, IL. At present, we are using a Thoughtful Christian series. This reading uses on Lk. 13:31-5, but the writer, Michael Lindvall, moves into a framing of different models of the atonement.

 

Just to be clear: this Herod is not the same one who sought the life of Jesus as an infant. here, it is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great who would be around 50 at this time. Like his father, he was a builder and constructed Tiberias as a capital on the Sea of Galilee, and rebuilt Sepphoris, not a difficult walk from Nazareth. This is the Herod who had John the Baptizer killed. Less than 10 years after the death of Jesus, Herod was exiled to Gaul (France) after being accused of insufficient loyalty to Rome. I am unsure as to why Jesus calls him a fox, as I am not sure we should leap to a presumption that we can link our view of a fox as crafty to this old picture. Some think it a term of contempt, like a varmint, a weasel.Some think it cutting him down from a lion to a mere fox.

 

Also please note that the Pharisees are seeking to protect Jesus from Herod. This is the group that will help maintain Judaism into the future after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70. They insisted on careful interpretation of the Scripture and accorded weight to the views of the rabbis. They agreed with the developing view of resurrection, as opposed to "dead is dead." By and large, they were a reform movement within Judaism, outside the temple hierarchy.

The author does a nice job on three major atonement models but seems to neglect the Christus Victor model that emphasizes the defeat of the power of death. See Douglas John Hall for a good analysis in Professing the Faith, ch. 30.

The substitution model has been under withering assault for its image of God as requiring honor in the case of Anselm or seeking to punish the guilty. It is the standard American view of the meaning of the cross. Where do you come out on it?

I am struck by the image of a mother hen.How would that fit and not fit your image of Jesus? Note that it is an exposed, vulnerable image.

The substitutionary atonement model is punitive. How does the lament over Jerusalem affect your image of God's reaction to human troubles?

To the degree I grasp Rene Girard, it is that the cross should put an end to our scapegoating and sacrifices. Still, so many of us use exactly that model to understand the death of Jesus and apply a logic of sacrifice to the suffering of others.

 

How do you find meaning in the cross?

Bear with me as I have yet to unpack all of the books yet. Please note that we move from the large mythic framework of chs.1-11 and now focus on one person and that one family.

1) Abram may mean father is great or exalted, or even high father, possibly from a name of a deity. In the previous verses, his father was to go to Canaan, but they did not go all the way and settled in Haran. Part of this story then is about unfinished business. In our text, no reason is given for God's command. A midrash has Abram assisting his father's business, dealing in idols.Some tradition holds that Abram was a monotheist. Buber read be a blessing, as become a blessing, an obligation to those who receive blessing.
2) The call story here is one of leaving all that one knows, all the connections, all familiarity.
3) I would assume that Abram will be a focal point for later blessings, the progenitor.
4) Blessing and curse is a fundamental biblical polarity. It may be a good exercise to list some of each.I see curse as anything antithetical to life.
5) The curse comes if someone slight or belittle Abram. why would that be? Consider how slights affect not only relationships but our own sense of self.
6) Janzen notes (18, Abraham and All the Families of the Earth0 that that god and Abram's action add up to seven.

Ps. 121 is a favorite psalm for a number of folks. we are in the series of psalms of ascents, perhaps read as one was on pilgrimage toward the temple.

1) As I read it again, I do get  a sense of age, of a prayer where the natural world is threatening and foreboding.
2) The moon striking may be a direct attack on other religions, as both sun and moon were deified in a variety of religious forms.Also the moon could be attributed to lunacy or other diseases, including fever or epilepsy. I have asked our brilliant daughter and fiance for help on this. It could be the power of the Moon God, as Sinai may wellcome from the Moon deity, Sin.
3) Patrick Miller notes that prayer would often try to rouse God in times of trouble, but here it is a statement of trust.
4)Shade has a sense of defense in Num.14:9,Jer. 48:45
5) The beautiful ending blessing is echoed in DT. 28:6, 31:2

6) The ending is quite broad, so it goes beyond a pilgrimage to the entire pilgrimage of our lives.

Notes for March 13th -Mt. 4: 1-11, Gen 3:1-7 March 13, 2011

Matt Damon is in a new movie that looks at chance v. control in the Adjustment Bureau. I seized on the title because in our Genesis reading and the gospel reading, the temptations are subtle, not the parade of excess that we usually think of as temptation that many folks acted upon during Mardi Gras. In a way, the tempter says that just a minor adjustment, not so much as to hurt anything, is all that we need.

Temptations here are not evil in themselves but more of the alternate translation of a trial/test. The tempter is clever and is concerned with means, not ends. Eugene Peterson sees this story as moving against personal, embodied love with a mechanical, depersonalized, disembodied temptation toward power. In the Tuesday Bible study, Michael Lindvall, now a pastor in New York, sees the words of the tempter as leading to confusion, of blurring the situation. the tempter seeks to maneuver around obvious defenses. I am always struck by the ability to use Scripture in a diabolical way in this assault. Here evil is not obvious, but insidious as someone said in Bible Study on Tuesday. Here it distorts the good, but the Scripture keeps Jesus seeing his work clearly.

All of us have wilderness experiences. Human beings suffer-as I heard in African American churches in new jersey years ago,"don;t advertise what ain't being sold." The life with Christ does not make us immune from trouble. Part of the impact of this gospel story is that as soon as Jesus is baptized, these serious trials begin, in the wilderness. I would go so far as to say that failing these tests would make it impossible to face the garden of Gethsemane and the cross in his future. Jesus is not placed on a paved road to success. (Temptation may be  passive acquiescence or fateful action) Temptation may sneak up on us-The whispers would go, "why bother; it would be so much easier to do so much good with some political muscle; it would be so easy to protect so many people if you ordered the angels about; why be hungry when you can snap your fingers?" As Paul Simon sang, "why am I soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?" What would it hurt to soften the edges of one's ethics, just this one time?

Again, tempting in Gen. 3 not obvious but it is playing with words, manipulating  words. It worked as we don;'t like to admit our limits, our desire for control. Yes wisdom is a good thing, but here wisdom is to be desired-to be like God (see Trible). After all, the fruit was attractive and probably tasty, what could be the harm? Eve, the first theologian, is bested by the talking, sly serpent. She and Adam move from blissful innocence to the gnawing doubts about the self of shame and guilt.

Trial and tests, and temptations will be with us always. the first step in dealing with it is the recognition that we are not immune from it; that humility allows us to stay alert to its snares. Second, Eve's way works at times. Put a big boundary around temptation. I knew a couple who pledged not to ever take a drink when they were on the road by themselves, as that seemed to be an entry point for folks getting into trouble. Finally, it is wise to stay connected to God through spiritual vehicles that fit your personalities. Just as we can stray in marriage when we feel disconnected from each other,distance from our spiritual source have us fall prey to slipping, by small degrees at times, into becoming a different person.We are not left defenseless . We have the lines of scripture that allow us to stay in character as baptized Christians.

Sunday-Lent is properly seen as a season of introspection and spiritual discipline. Perhaps a better angle on it is to get out of our own way and to seek the presence of God in our thoughts, feelings, and deeds. Instead of asking what we are doing, it may be better to inquire how  is God involved in my life at this moment; how is God involved in our world at this moment? Taking some time to consider such matters becomes less a matter of personal introspection and more a pathway into the generous presence of God. In other words, Lent can be more than a listing of one's failings, and more an entry point into a the love of God involved in your life.

Monday- Giving something up for Lent is a standard notion of the practice. Often, it was aimed at something we enjoy. when I was little, I would give up candy and potato chips. Here's some different ideas. Why not fast from being harried or frenzied.  How about buying something slighter cheaper and giving the money to the poor? (Often, we I officiate at a wedding, I ask the couple to reduce an item, maybe one less set of flowers, and donate it to a cause important to them. sometimes, it works.) Perhaps, one could consider doing once less activity during Lent.

Tuesday Gregory the Great saw temptation as moving in three stages: suggestion, delight, and consent.In other words, being tempted does not have to directly lead to sin. Perhaps if it is permitted to remain in the world of delight for a while, it would be hard to resist. Recall that Jesus was tempted, just as we all are. As the "new Adam" Jesus demonstrates that  we need not follow the path of Adam and Eve. What temptations are hardest for you to resist? Which ones are easiest for you to resist? Has your ability to resist temptation grown stronger over the years?

Wednesday- I'm a  fan of adding something in life for Lent instead of taking something out of it. Our resistance to that simple little idea may well be a sing that our lives have gotten way too busy. For instance, consider an act of compassion beyond what you normally do. How about reading one more verse of the Bible every day? Perhaps one could add 2 minutes to devotional time during Lent. From another angle, what seeds would you like to sow in your spiritual life that could blossom after Easter?

Thursday 7 deadly sins are: pride, wrath, envy, greed, gluttony, lust, and sloth. At random, I selected envy this time. Envy resents what others have. It usually has its focus on the material, but can expand into the personal easily. It is countered, at least in part, by the virtue of contentment. (Donald Capps has a book on deadly sins and saving virtues). As Paul said contentment allows us to live with equanimity with much or little. Envy is corrosive to relationships. It gnaws away at contentment, if allowed to go unchecked. It is a fruitless task to try to fill a gaping hole that absorbs whatever we try to put in it, for a god-sized hole exists in us all.

Friday- When many of us consider Lenten observance, our minds go toward the Roman Catholic tradition of  fish and abstinence from meat on Friday. the idea is to adopt the biblical tradition of fasting and making a mini-fast, if you will, of an item, in this case, meat. Its idea is one of discipline in the sense of training. Perhaps, if we can forego something small, it will empower us to be able to withstand more potent temptations. It is a reminder that we do not have to follow every impulse blindly, but we can consider and weigh our desires. Taking some time to consider what we put into our bodies allows us to become the proper reception for receiving Communion.

Saturday-Taming speech is a worthwhile Lenten discipline for any of us. Think of the words we use at a wedding: to have and to hold, to cherish, to respect and think about the kind of words that may be directed toward each other as the years roll on. Christians have a tendency to see vulgar language as the problem with words, but it is far more often the cutting remark, the falsehood, the constant complaining that runs us into trouble. Words can comfort or encourage, build up or tear down. We can pay attention to our words.

This is my first chance at leading an Ash Wednesday service, so I am so pleased to have this opportunity.

In the dark of winter, we get a wake-up call in the night: we are all mortal. The ashes are also a signal that we are embodied souls. We do not seek our spiritual selves in some great ethereal, abstract place in the great beyond: our lives are met here and now.

In the back of our minds, we suspect that if the world ran according to our dictates, everyone would be better off. To receive ashes is an act of humility. to receive ashes is a blow against arrogance. Human beings have limits and mortality. It is  wrong to expect perfection of ourselves or others. with the humus of ashes, we mark  ourselves as human. to receive ashes is a reminder that we are capable of reducing relationships to cinders, that cruel words can reduce love to smoke and ash. It is an outward mark that we are not only sinned against but we sin against others.

Our  OT reading makes clear that Israel was not ritualistic. It decries meaningless ritual as a formalistic gesture. It wants our spiritual lives to be well-integrated with our private and public lives.  It is striking that the word hypocrite is chosen, as in ancient times, it had the sense of an actor wearing a mask, but in our time it means showing a side that does not match our interior states. In the Sermon on the Mount Presbyterians have probably paid much attention to its injunction to be privately religious, on order to avoid being labelled as hypocrites. .In the OT reading we are called for private good and public justice. Indeed, it comes close to saying that prayers go unanswered due to public injustice, not matter the aggregation of individual charity.Since we are earth-bound, earth-formed creatures, we share a common nature, aspirations and failings mixed together. Once again we venture out into the wilderness that place where God can be as close as each breath and as far away  as a distant star. we travel it with Jesus and start the road toward Holy Week.

Notes for OT Lectionary
Gen. 2:15-17, 3:1-5 frist cut

1) At first we are in Eden, I suppose where the man is at work and note well, taking care of the land.
2) He is given a basic commandment. Why was it given? What would prompt disobeying the command? In other words, what is in us to push at a rule?
3) The serpent is sly, and it is a word play on naked as well.
4) Notice that Eve puts a fence around Torah and pushes the boundaries of the prohibition out. why would she do that? Is she the first theologian?
5) Is the warning about death an immediate threat or a later one? Do you think they were not mortal in the first place?
6) What do you think was pleasing about the fruit of the tree? What about wisdom's connection to good and evil? Is it a push for divine prerogtive?
7) What has Adam been doing all of this time?
8) what meaning do you draw from their dawning awareness? Recall Irenaeus emphasized that they were moving from childhood to adulthood.

Looks can be deceiving. Don't judge on appearance. Don't judge a book by its cover. The NT readings give us different slants on Jesus before we enter into Lent. Here the veil is lifted and Jesus  is seen from an entirely new dimension, one that touches the very core of identity.

Would six days be a bow to creation's patter? Do we witness a new creation? Is it a preview of resurrection?  Sometimes the same word, metamorphosis, transfigured  is translated as transformed. The  theophany or radiance is a God's eye view. We are midway from baptism, and  he is going to be a victim at Calvary. The radiance reveals the truth about Jesus not apparent down below. To return from the vision, Jesus touches them-and speaks. In this time  Elijah of course but also Moses were thought to be  taken into heaven. We start Lent this Wednesday, fortified with pancakes. The climax of Holy Week looks different when we look through the glasses of transfiguration. (Metamorphic rock)

We have and seek  mountain top experiences,  but we live off the mountain.

 

Communion has us become the vehicles for the continuing presence of Christ down the mountain, where we live. Are the booths an example of shekinah or an attempt to freeze the experience? After all apocalyptic linked to booths. Jesus is a tabernacle. are we too in baptism? voice linked to the baptism (see Ex. 24, 34, Dt. 18, Dan. 10, 2 Cor) Moses was vicarious representative for all the people in the wilderness. Just as Moses and the elders were in the presence of God, now the three disciples witness the transfiguration of Jesus. It is then right for us to celebrate Communion on this day. God's holy gifts for god's holy people.Our bodies, our lives are dwelling places for the presence of Christ. Our lives can dazzle with blinding radiance, at least with those whose eyes can grow accustomed to the light. Communion is not only aspiration, but it is medicine for struggling souls. In time, we may well become more authentic Christians, that words and actions match, that we walk the talk, that we embody and demonstrate the life to which we are called.

 

Sunday is a day of transfiguration, as it includes all of these things. this sanctuary has a view of sacred space, of trying to create a new world out of the one we encounter every day.Transfiguration allows us to see our lives with different eyes. I would go so far as to say that we can look at each other through stained-glass lenses, or even begin to see each other as God sees us. How can we possibly see each other the same way when we grab some coffee after church when we have been lifted into the presence of the living Christ this morning? We may even begin to see each other as bearing the life of Jesus Christ, the light of Jesus Christ. This is a view, a vista  from the mountaintop. This is a taste of a better world to come. Once again, heaven breaks open. hear this voice again, This is my beloved in whom I am well-pleased. Let the words echo and reverberate inside until we meet again for communion.