Genesis 18:20-33; Colossians 2:6-15; Luke 11:1-13; Psalm 138
Abraham answered, "Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?" Genesis 18:27-28
"For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." Luke 11:10
To me the readings for this week from Genesis and from Luke are about several important aspects of our access to God. First and foremost ... even if we are not so fortunate as to have God and two angels actually show up at our door as they did with Abraham, we still have only to speak and God will hear.
Secondly ... God will listen ... I'm not sure I would be so bold as the almost too clever Abraham who seems to think he's going to outsmart God with his series of questions about the number of righteous that need to be found in Sodom in order that the city be saved when it might have been much simpler to be at least an honest sack of "dust and ashes" and just ask for what he really wanted ... that Lot and his family be spared.
And thirdly ... God will answer. It may not be the answer that you expect ... it may even sometimes seem more like a "snake" than a "fish" ... but it will be the right answer.
The reading from Luke gives us an excellent starting point for beginning our conversation. It's all good ... yes ... you can ask now ... do it.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Proper 11 Sunday July 22
Genesis 18:1-10a (10b-14); Colossians 1:21-29; Luke 10:38-42; Psalm 15
"... there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:42
This short reading from the Gospel according to Luke addresses so many things ... simplicity, discipleship, attentiveness, and even cooking ... but the bottom line is clear ... we are to "be the Mary".
OK, so how might we do that. Maybe first by looking in the mirror and saying "show me the Martha". That could help right? Try it ... go ahead. I know that I would certainly see someone who is frequently "distracted by many thing". Now once I start to recognize the Martha in myself it should be possible to actually get away from those times where I'm "just Martha being Martha" ... yes? Sure ... I can do that. And so can you.
Just now when I actually got up and did look in the mirror I could see out of the corner of my eye some unnecessary complexity that does distract me from following last week's reading where we were told "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
I could see the Martha that has crept into the church itself. No, I'm not so much thinking about the Building and Grounds Committee, the Bake Sale coming up in a few weeks or that group outing to the local Triple A baseball park ... I'm thinking about actual ceremonial specifics spelled out in the Book of Common Prayer ... and I'm suddenly seeing the neat little illustrations in A Priest's Handbook by Dennis Michno specifying hand positions for activities such as replacing the chalice ... maybe all this is because I recently read a church service visit that seemed so Martha focused I thought maybe it was written by an American Lit student in the style of Mark Twain as a joke ... it wasn't ... it was apparently written in complete seriousness by a candidate for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church ... hmmmmmm ... maybe I need to read a little George Fox to clear my head ... or maybe I should simply go back to today's reading "be the Mary" and "listen to what he is saying".
"... there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:42
This short reading from the Gospel according to Luke addresses so many things ... simplicity, discipleship, attentiveness, and even cooking ... but the bottom line is clear ... we are to "be the Mary".
OK, so how might we do that. Maybe first by looking in the mirror and saying "show me the Martha". That could help right? Try it ... go ahead. I know that I would certainly see someone who is frequently "distracted by many thing". Now once I start to recognize the Martha in myself it should be possible to actually get away from those times where I'm "just Martha being Martha" ... yes? Sure ... I can do that. And so can you.
Just now when I actually got up and did look in the mirror I could see out of the corner of my eye some unnecessary complexity that does distract me from following last week's reading where we were told "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
I could see the Martha that has crept into the church itself. No, I'm not so much thinking about the Building and Grounds Committee, the Bake Sale coming up in a few weeks or that group outing to the local Triple A baseball park ... I'm thinking about actual ceremonial specifics spelled out in the Book of Common Prayer ... and I'm suddenly seeing the neat little illustrations in A Priest's Handbook by Dennis Michno specifying hand positions for activities such as replacing the chalice ... maybe all this is because I recently read a church service visit that seemed so Martha focused I thought maybe it was written by an American Lit student in the style of Mark Twain as a joke ... it wasn't ... it was apparently written in complete seriousness by a candidate for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church ... hmmmmmm ... maybe I need to read a little George Fox to clear my head ... or maybe I should simply go back to today's reading "be the Mary" and "listen to what he is saying".
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Proper 10 Sunday July 15, 2007
Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Psalm 25; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27
Well here it is for all of us in one simple sentence ... a lawyer seeking eternal life is challenged by Jesus as to "what is written in the law" and answers his own question in a combination of guidance from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. No I'm not providing links ... go drag out your bible and read this for yourself ... and leave your bible out where it is handy ... in fact get a couple and leave one in every room.
Jesus then responds "You have given the right answer; do this and you will live." and somehow I can't help but hear these words spoken in the same manner as those of the old knight hidden in the cave within the valley of the crescent moon who tells Indiana Jones "You have chosen wisely" after Jones selects the grail correctly in the movie Last Crusade.
In Matthew 22:37-40 and Mark 12:29-31 Jesus himself sums up what John Wesley called the "essence of Christian Perfection" with similar words.
Simple right ... just "do this and you will live". Well, the lawyer wasn't so sure. Apparently he felt he had no problem with loving God and needed no advice in that but he wanted clarification on who exactly were his neighbors. Interesting that he should ask as Leviticus is fairly clear that his neighbors are his fellow Jews .... you spotted this yourself when you looked it up I'll bet ... anyway, he had to have been shocked by Jesus' answer which we read in the bible passage we know of as the parable of the good Samaritan. Think how shocked you or others would be to hear that the neighbor to be loved as oneself was Dick Cheney, Cindy Sheehan or maybe Seung-Hui Cho. Hmmmmm ..... I'm thinking "do this and you will live" might be more complex than just having $30 a month charged to your mastercard by World Vision to sponsor a child in Ghana or tossing a couple of cans in a bag for the local food drive ... now don't stop doing this but ...
So then maybe this "love the Lord your God with all your heart" isn't so simple either. Yikes ... I'm starting to think we haven't got a prayer for inheriting eternal life. Hmmmmm ... prayer? Maybe there is a way after all.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27
Well here it is for all of us in one simple sentence ... a lawyer seeking eternal life is challenged by Jesus as to "what is written in the law" and answers his own question in a combination of guidance from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. No I'm not providing links ... go drag out your bible and read this for yourself ... and leave your bible out where it is handy ... in fact get a couple and leave one in every room.
Jesus then responds "You have given the right answer; do this and you will live." and somehow I can't help but hear these words spoken in the same manner as those of the old knight hidden in the cave within the valley of the crescent moon who tells Indiana Jones "You have chosen wisely" after Jones selects the grail correctly in the movie Last Crusade.
In Matthew 22:37-40 and Mark 12:29-31 Jesus himself sums up what John Wesley called the "essence of Christian Perfection" with similar words.
Simple right ... just "do this and you will live". Well, the lawyer wasn't so sure. Apparently he felt he had no problem with loving God and needed no advice in that but he wanted clarification on who exactly were his neighbors. Interesting that he should ask as Leviticus is fairly clear that his neighbors are his fellow Jews .... you spotted this yourself when you looked it up I'll bet ... anyway, he had to have been shocked by Jesus' answer which we read in the bible passage we know of as the parable of the good Samaritan. Think how shocked you or others would be to hear that the neighbor to be loved as oneself was Dick Cheney, Cindy Sheehan or maybe Seung-Hui Cho. Hmmmmm ..... I'm thinking "do this and you will live" might be more complex than just having $30 a month charged to your mastercard by World Vision to sponsor a child in Ghana or tossing a couple of cans in a bag for the local food drive ... now don't stop doing this but ...
So then maybe this "love the Lord your God with all your heart" isn't so simple either. Yikes ... I'm starting to think we haven't got a prayer for inheriting eternal life. Hmmmmm ... prayer? Maybe there is a way after all.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Proper 9 Sunday July 8
Isaiah 66:10-16 ; Galatians 6:(1-10)14-18 ; Luke 10:1-12,16-20; Psalm 66 or 66:1-8
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. Luke 10:1
I’m thinking it couldn’t have been so very easy to find the seventy who were sent out to cure the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God ... Jesus had just explained the sacrifices needed by those who would follow him in his well known cautionary statements about the foxes and birds as well as letting the dead bury the dead and putting a hand to the plow and looking back. But maybe it was time to bring some extra help on board ... the twelve had just returned from a similar mission and though they had apparently cured diseases in their travels they had recently failed to cure a boy with convulsions, they were now arguing among themselves about which one was the greatest, and they were seriously considering fire-bombing a nearby village rather than merely shaking off the dust.
Those sent as part of the seventy had no formal training, only what they had learned from direct observations of Jesus, and some simple guidelines - there is a lot of work to be done, go quickly, travel light, work together - and a clear warning that it’s hard out there for a disciple. They went where Jesus himself intended to go .... and they returned with joy.
Tasks similar to those that the seventy faced still need doing. In fact today’s reading from Galatians as well as reading I am doing in The Fifty Homilies of Pseudo-Marcarius suggest to me that the journey of curing and proclaiming I should first take were I one of a new seventy would best be within myself. This may well be true for most of us. Surely there is work to be done ... hmmmm ... yes, there is. We should start now ... no waiting and thinking about this tomorrow. We will need to bring someone with us to help ... Anne Lamott, Macarius, William Barclay, bible passages in our iPods? And ... it will not be easy.
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. Luke 10:1
I’m thinking it couldn’t have been so very easy to find the seventy who were sent out to cure the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God ... Jesus had just explained the sacrifices needed by those who would follow him in his well known cautionary statements about the foxes and birds as well as letting the dead bury the dead and putting a hand to the plow and looking back. But maybe it was time to bring some extra help on board ... the twelve had just returned from a similar mission and though they had apparently cured diseases in their travels they had recently failed to cure a boy with convulsions, they were now arguing among themselves about which one was the greatest, and they were seriously considering fire-bombing a nearby village rather than merely shaking off the dust.
Those sent as part of the seventy had no formal training, only what they had learned from direct observations of Jesus, and some simple guidelines - there is a lot of work to be done, go quickly, travel light, work together - and a clear warning that it’s hard out there for a disciple. They went where Jesus himself intended to go .... and they returned with joy.
Tasks similar to those that the seventy faced still need doing. In fact today’s reading from Galatians as well as reading I am doing in The Fifty Homilies of Pseudo-Marcarius suggest to me that the journey of curing and proclaiming I should first take were I one of a new seventy would best be within myself. This may well be true for most of us. Surely there is work to be done ... hmmmm ... yes, there is. We should start now ... no waiting and thinking about this tomorrow. We will need to bring someone with us to help ... Anne Lamott, Macarius, William Barclay, bible passages in our iPods? And ... it will not be easy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)