Author Archives: Robin Garr

Advent 3A

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013

Facsimile of a Renaissance illumination of Mary, with text in Latin from the Magnificat, from “Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry”

Facsimile of a Renaissance illumination of Mary, with text in Latin from the Magnificat.

First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10
The third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete (“Rejoice”) Sunday, a pause in the quiet anticipation of Advent to feel joy at the coming celebration of Jesus’s birth. Today’s readings share themes of joy and service, beginning with Isaiah’s prophetic voice of hope for return from exile: “The desert shall rejoice and blossom … rejoice with joy and singing.” This hope of joy is offered specifically to the oppressed, the weak, those who suffer pain … all those who Jesus would call us to serve.

Canticle 15: Luke 1:47-55
Today in place of a Psalm we sing Luke’s Song of Mary. If you think of the mother of Jesus as a sweet, submissive figure, take a closer look at the words this teen-aged Palestinian woman sang when the angel tells her she would be the mother of God: “ … he has scattered the proud … brought down the powerful … lifted up the lowly … filled the hungry with good things … sent the rich away empty.” This divine command links Torah and the Gospels. It is the command that Jesus explicitly asks of those who follow his way.

Second Reading: James 5:7-10
“Be patient, therefore”? What an odd way to begin a reading! Look back a few verses to see what led to this, and we find James – like Mary in the Canticle – excoriating the rich, or more exactly, the selfish rich. “… you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. … You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” Then we get James’s command: Love each other, and be generous with one another, lest we be judged.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
Matthew’s Gospel consistently emphasizes that Jesus is Messiah, the lord and savior whom the prophets foretold. Here he narrates a conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist in prison, invoking an Isaiah prophecy to declare John God’s messenger making straight the way for Jesus. Then Jesus sets out his priorities, which echo his mother’s song: “… the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

Advent 2A

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec.8, 2013.

Edward Hicks, American, 1780-1849, The Peaceable Kingdom, about 1833,

The Peaceable Kingdom

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10
These verses inspired the 19th century American artist Edward Hick to make more than 100 versions of his famous work, “The Peaceable Kingdom,” a memorable portrait of wild and domestic animals living in peace. surrounded by children in white. This is a beautiful image, and it portrays a peaceful life that surely appeals to us all. Isaiah prophesies this happy state as the glorious home of King David’s royal descendant on Zion’s holy mountain. It’s surely easy for Christians to read it as foreshadowing the reign of Christ, who the Gospels also declare a shoot from Jesse’s stock, a descendant of David the king.

Psalm: Psalm 72
Subtitled “Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King” in our New Revised Standard Edition Bible translation, this Psalm – perhaps originally intended to be sung at a royal coronation – offers support and counterpoint to the Isaiah reading. It hammers home the Old Testament’s consistent call for justice and righteousness for all the people, including the poor, the needy and the oppressed. Rabbi Jesus surely knew these verses, too, and proclaimed them in his commands to love our neighbors, shun riches, and bring good news to the poor.

Second Reading: Romans 15:4-13
At the time of Paul’s beautiful letter to the Romans, the city’s Jews – including Jewish Christians – had been banished to exile for years. Now the Roman Jews are coming back home, but there was tension between the Jewish and Gentile Christian communities. Paul turns to Isaiah and holds up the Root of Jesse, understanding the verses as Isaiah’s explicit prophecy of Christ as king over all humanity. His ultimate advice is universal: Live in harmony with Jesus and each other and glorify God.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
We met John, Jesus’s cousin, as an infant in a recent reading in which his father, the temple priest Zechariah, foretold that the boy would become a great prophet. Now we meet John again as a loud, wild prophet, urging people to repent and baptizing them in the Jordan river. Matthew tells us that John is the fulfillment of another verse, Isaiah 40, promising that a prophet would come to make way for the Messiah. That figure is coming, says John, speaking of Jesus; and he will baptize not with mere water but with the Holy Spirit.

Advent 1A

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013.

“For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

“For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5
The book of Isaiah begins with a description of God’s anger against Jerusalem for its sins; but now, in Chapter 2, the prophet pens verses of poetic beauty, envisioning a future time when the city is restored as the Lord’s house, center of a world in which swords have been beaten into plowshares and there is no more war. Actually, most scholars think that the book of Isaiah was actually the work of three great Old Testament prophets: One who wrote before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and its temple; one during the people’s exile in Babylon, and one who told of their eventual return and the hard work of rebuilding.

Psalm: Psalm 122
This Psalm, attributed by legend to King David’s authorship, sings counterpoint to our Isaiah reading, looking toward a glorious future, too, as it praises and prays for Jerusalem as the city of God, future home for David’s throne and a place where security, prosperity and peace will prevail.

Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14
Paul exhorts the people of the young church in Rome to be prepared for the return of Jesus, an event that Christians of that time believed and prayed would come very soon. “The night is far gone, the day is near,” he writes his flock. In the meantime, behave well, live abstemiously, avoid quarrels and jealousy. These verses follow immediately after Paul’s urgent reminder to follow God’s commandments and love our neighbors as ourselves, a way of life that prepares us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44
“Eschatology,” a long word having to do with humanity’s expectation of Earth’s final days and Christ’s return, will run through our Advent readings, as our Sunday Lectionary selections now move from Luke’s gospel to Matthew. We have seen hints of this today as each reading peers into the future for signs of God’s activity. Now Matthew turns up the heat, reminding us that only God knows when the last days will come, just as sinful humans in Noah’s time had no warning of the Flood. We needn’t take literally what some might interpret as Matthew foretelling a “Rapture” event. The essential Advent message is simple and true: Be ready. If God were to come to you now and ask what you’ve been up to, would you have a good answer?

Christ the King C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013.

Christ in Judgment

Christ in Judgment

First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6
The prophet Jeremiah spoke these fierce words of woe to the leaders of Babylon, who were holding Jerusalem and its leaders in exile. He foresaw a mighty new King David restoring the glory of Israel and Judah, the lost kingdoms of the chosen people. It is important for us to understand these ringing verses in their original intent. But it can be reassuring for Christians, too, to see reflected in these words another promise: our hope in Jesus as both good shepherd and mighty king and savior, who reigns over all with justice and righteousness

Psalm: Psalm 46
Even when terrible things happen, God is with us. This assurance offers simple hope, and yet it can be hard to hear. When Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, surely the mountains shook in the heart of the sea as its waters roared and foamed. God does not promise us a world where horrors can’t happen and no one suffers. But even in the worst of times, God is there, inviting us to take refuge in God’s strength. Today’s verse reflects the beauty of our Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p.832): “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Psalm (Track 2): Luke 1:68-79 (Canticle 16, BCP)
Zechariah, a temple priest who God had struck mute for refusing to believe that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, had become pregnant after an angelic visitation, gets his voice back when he holds and names the infant John. The child, he declares, will be a prophet in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah – who also had been blessed with a child through God’s action in their old age. We know that John, the Baptist, will proclaim the fulfillment of God’s covenant in Jesus, who will set us free as our mighty savior.

Second Reading: Colossians 1:11-20
Like Jeremiah and the Psalmist, the author of the letter to the Colossians, too, speaks to a people in trouble, the persecuted Christian community of Colossae in what is now Western Turkey. These verses urge them to endure their difficulties with patience and the strength that comes from God’s glorious power through Jesus, whose incarnation as God in human flesh makes him the first of all creation and the head of the body of the church.

Gospel: Luke 23:33-43
And so we come to the end of Pentecost season and Jesus’s long road to Jerusalem with a Gospel reading that recalls Good Friday … and our hope for Easter and the resurrection! Jesus is crucified, a horrible death reserved for Rome’s most despised evildoers, in the company of criminals. The soldiers and one criminal taunt him as a failed king, while Jesus quietly invites the repentant criminal into a different kind of kingdom, for all humanity and for all time.

Pentecost 28C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013.

Roman depiction of the destruction of the Temple.

Roman depiction of the destruction of the Temple.

First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-25
Nearing the end of Isaiah’s account of the people’s loss of Jerusalem and the temple, their exile and eventual return, in this reading the prophet celebrates God’s plan for the new Jerusalem as a joy and a delight. A city with no weeping, no distress … no death in childbirth, no pain … joyous lives of 100 years of youthful strength! And, at the end, it is a holy place of peace, where the lion and the lamb rest together and none shall hurt or destroy.

Psalm: Isaiah 12:2-6 (Canticle 9 BCP)
These verses from earlier in Isaiah, read as our Psalm today, are familiar to Episcopalians as Canticle 9 in Morning Prayer. The prophet, foreseeing the destruction of the Temple, nevertheless declares God our stronghold and our sure defense, who can be trusted to save us even in threatening times when we feel frightened and vulnerable.

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
“Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” Too often we hear this harsh judgment echoed in modern times. In context, this letter, written in Paul’s name in a time of Roman persecution, calls members of a specific church community to pull their fair weight in a battle against an immediate challenge. Nowadays, however, it’s best not to judge, but to humbly heed Jesus’s urgent words in Matthew 23: “Just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”

Gospel: Luke 21:5-19
Here’s context for this scary forecast of war and destruction: The evangelist we know as Luke wrote this Gospel to a primarily Gentile audience some 70 years after the Crucifixion and 30 years after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. He is telling a known story in the form of a lesson from Jesus, bearing a truth that works as well for us as for Christians in Luke’s own time of persecution: God is with us. Even when we’re betrayed, scorned, hated and hurt, “By our endurance we will gain our souls.”

Pentecost 27C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013.

Bride and seven brothers

Bride and seven brothers

First Reading: Haggai 1:15b-2:9
We can date these events precisely, as history records King Darius the Great of Persia, pinning Haggai’s narrative to 520 BCE, about five centuries before Christ. Darius was a successor to King Cyrus, who had released the people from Babylonian exile and sent them back to Jerusalem. Haggai (pronounced “Hah-guy”), one of the 12 “minor prophets,” makes clear that the restoration of the city and the Temple wasn’t easy going. But he calls the people to hang on to their courage and faith: Zion’s wealth and grandeur will be restored.

Psalm: Psalm 145
The Psalms cover a broad range of hope, lament, petition and praise, a diverse anthology that seems appropriate for all the ways that God’s people approach the divine in worship and song. Note well that the Psalms culminate with praise. As we near the final songs – this is the 145th Psalm of 150 – we can almost hear resounding chords and choruses as the people raise their voices in awe at God’s wonder. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!”

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
This second letter to the Greek community in Thessalonika probably came a generation after the first, perhaps around 100, and was probably written in Paul’s name by a later follower. Early Christians had expected the Second Coming very soon, but many were probably hoping for reassurance by this point, when Christians faced Roman persecution with no sign of Christ’s return. The meaning of “the lawless one” is lost to history, but we can rule out any notion that this prophesies an “anti-Christ” figure in our time.

Gospel: Luke 20:27-38
Jesus and his followers have arrived in Jerusalem now, and the temple authorities would like to find a way to turn Jesus over to the state for execution. Now some Sadducees, who don’t believe in resurrection, try to trip Jesus up with a trick question: When a man who had seven wives dies and goes to heaven, which will be his wife? It may seem that Jesus responds by declaring there is no marriage in heaven, but modern theologians caution against taking this reading beyond its immediate context in this tricky conversation: We can count on eternal life in God, and that’s what matters.

All Saints C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Nov. 4, 2013.

The Beatitudes

The Beatitudes

First Reading: Daniel 7:1-3; 15-18
This reading from Daniel, one of the last books in the Old Testament, reads a lot like Revelation. It is apocalyptic literature, a popular genre of that era that the ancients would have immediately recognized as symbolic, not literal description. Four scary beasts, representing powerful empires of earth! In later verses we learn that they were a winged lion, a tusked bear, a four-headed leopard, and an iron-toothed monster with 10 horns. Who wouldn’t be scared by a dream like that? But the nightmare ends with reassurance that God, not horrifying monsters, wins and will reign forever.

Psalm: Psalm 149
In this Psalm of praise for God’s glory, we sing in the assembly of the faithful, praising God with full hearts and voices, knowing that God takes pleasure in God’s people. But then we get those angry verses about swords and vengeance and punishment. What’s up with that? Perhaps it shows us a people burning with the memory of defeat and exile, in a book of songs that show us not only as we ought to be but as we are. Can we learn to love God and our neighbors?

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:11-23
Christ is King, and God has placed him at God’s right hand to rule over us all, the author of Ephesians assures his flock, writing to the persecuted Christians of Asia Minor in Paul’s name. There’s a role for us in this kingdom, too! As the people of God, we are Christ’s body on earth, called to help with the work of building the Kingdom of God.

Gospel: Luke 6:20-31
Ah, the familiar Beatitudes, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, guiding us toward a life of service and love. Well, not quite! That was Matthew’s version. This is Luke’s. It’s a little more edgy, and it asks more of us. These are Christian values as Luke presents them: if you are rich, full and happy, watch out. You’re not doing it right! Give what you have to the poor. Don’t just turn the other cheek but forgive your enemies … and pray for them. As Jesus commands it, “Do unto others” isn’t easy, but it’s essential. It binds us as the people of God.  

Pentecost 25C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013.

The Pharisee and the tax collector.

The Pharisee and the tax collector.

First Reading: Joel 2:23-32
Joel ranks as a very minor prophet. The book that bears his name is only three chapters long, and modern theologians aren’t even sure when he lived. We know that “Joel” means “The Lord is God” in Hebrew; and Joel may have prophesied after the return from exile to Jerusalem. While his prophecy is brief, however, it offers meaning and comfort that lasts through the ages. Even when terrible things happen, says the prophet, God is with us. Feast will follow famine, for God loves us and will pour out God’s spirit on us. Trust in God, be glad and rejoice, and do not fear.

Psalm: Psalm 65
This Psalm of thanksgiving for earth’s bounty, one of the Psalms that tradition attributes to King David, serves us doubly in this autumn season: While it echoes Joel’s assurances that God will provide us nature’s bounty and rich harvests even after times of trouble and sin, it also paints a lovely word picture of God’s great bounty that is worth holding in our thoughts as the Thanksgiving and holiday seasons draw near.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
While this appears to be Paul’s last testament, we should remember that this book was actually written in his name by a later follower, at a time when the church faced Roman persecution. Through that lens we can see the young church’s call to stand strong even when your supporters are deserting the cause. Proclaim the good news, and count on God’s strength and God’s protection.

Gospel: Luke 18:9-14
Bear in mind that this parable follows immediately after last week’s story about the corrupt judge and the persistent widow, and it continues Jesus’s discussion about prayer. Right in line with the widow whose persistent prayer won her quest for justice over the powerful but corrupt judge, the Pharisee – a professional pray-er – doesn’t come off so well in Jesus’s eyes, while the sinful tax collector “went home justified” because his prayer was sincere.

Pentecost 24C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 20, 2013. 

Jacob Wrestles with the Angel

Jacob Wrestles with the Angel

First Reading: Jeremiah 31:27-34
Jeremiah pauses in his nearly relentless lamentation over the sins of Israel and Judah to offer words of hope and the certainty of God’s ultimate love. In the metaphor of sour grapes he reassures us that children will not be punished for the sins of their parents. Then, in words that Jeremiah understood as the restoration of the temple and Israel’s kingdom but that Christians may also interpret as foreshadowing Jesus, he prophesies a new covenant in which everyone will know God and all our sins will be forgiven.

Psalm: Psalm 119:97-104
The Psalmist exults in the study and understanding of God’s law, declaring the joy of unity with God through studious meditation and prayer. Let’s think of this song of praise in the context of today’s First Reading, in which Jeremiah understands God’s law as central to God’s new covenant: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Surely these words were sweeter than honey to a people in exile, longing for their home.

First Reading: (Track Two) Genesis 32:22-31
Jacob wrestles all night with an angel who turns out to be God! Jacob, remember, the grandson of Abraham, son of Isaac, and father to Joseph, is a key figure in the first testament’s Ancestral Legends. Perhaps the lesson in this strange story is about persistence, as Jacob won’t surrender to this powerful stranger who injures his hip but can’t take him down: Stay the course, even when it’s hard, and you may earn God’s blessing.

Psalm: (Track Two) Psalm 121
One of the traditional “songs of ascents” thought to have been sung by worshippers as they processed toward the Temple in Jerusalem, this “Assurance of God’s Protection” is one of the Psalms’ most comforting hymns of hope and trust. Always awake, always watchful, God protects us by day and night, watching us come and go, keeping us safe today and forever.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5
Does this lesson call us to be bible-thumpers, lecturing unbelievers and rebuking them if they won’t listen? Probably not. This late New Testament document was written when the young church was fighting persecution. Know your scriptures, the writer advises the troubled flock. Even if it’s hard, even if you have to suffer, spread the good news. This message, written for a particular time and place, sounds different in modern America, when Christians hold the majority and wield power. Of course we are still called to spread the good news! But let it be the Gospel that Jesus taught us: Love God. Love our neighbors. Let the oppressed go free, and bring good news to the poor.

Gospel: Luke 18:1-8
In the patriarchal world of the ancient Near East, widows were helpless, vulnerable and weak. This widow in Jesus’s parable, though, is tough. She won’t quit pounding the corrupt and shiftless judge with her demands until he finally gives her the justice that she seeks. At first glance, we might wonder why Jesus is comparing God to a sleazy judge who won’t do his job. But Jesus makes a better point: Pray day and night, and God will listen and quickly respond.

Pentecost 23C

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Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013.

Jesus healing the 10 lepers. Ancient icon.

Jesus healing the 10 lepers. Ancient icon.

First Reading: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
In recent weeks we have heard the prophet Jeremiah wail in loud anguish over the loss and destruction of Jerusalem and its temple on Mount Zion. Now, however, he dries his tears as he turns to practical advice to Judah in exile: Face your new reality. God has sent you here, so live, love and flourish as well as you can, for this is your city now, and you have a stake in its condition. But don’t forget God. Even in exile, don’t forget to pray.

Psalm: Psalm 66:1-12
At the beginning, this seems like many of the Psalmist’s hymns of praise for God’s glory, power and awesome state. It recalls the Exodus, God leading the people out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and toward the Promised Land. But then its message takes an interesting turn that’s worth our attention: God tests us, too. We may groan under burdens, as Judah learned in exile in Babylon. God’s people may be conquered, may suffer fire and flood. Yet still there is joy at the end, and praise.

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 2:8-15
Our readings continue this week in the Second Letter to Timothy, one of the “pastoral epistles” near the end of the New Testament, written by a later follower around the year 100, speaking in the name of Paul in prison shortly before his death. The young church faces persecution at this time, and the writer, recalling Paul’s suffering in chains and Jesus’s death and resurrection, may be addressing a specific pastoral situation with advice that’s always good for people working in church community: Avoid wrangling, and study the word of God.

Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
In Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, John Dominic Crossan makes a fascinating point: In contrast with most Gospel accounts of Jesus touching and healing lepers, Luke here portrays Jesus as a properly observant Jew who keeps his distance from the afflicted 10, does not touch them, and sends them to the Temple, just as the law requires. And then the miracle happens! All 10 are healed! But only the solitary foreigner in the group, a hated Samaritan, comes running back to thank Jesus. All the lepers were healed, but it was only the foreigner whose faith saved him.