Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, April 6, 2014

Jesus raises Lazarus. Sixth Century mosaic from Ravenna, Italy.

Psalm: Psalm 130
This Psalm may be most familiar for its use, under the Latin title “De Profundis” (“out of the depths”), as one of the Psalms recommended for the burial of the dead in the Book of Common Prayer. It reminds us that in times of grief, pain and despair, we wait in hope for God’s love and grace. Even in death we await the resurrection, as in night’s darkest hours we wait for morning light.

Second Reading: Romans 8:6-11
This reading offers just a glimpse of Paul’s extended examination of the distinctions between flesh and spirit. All of us – even Jesus, as fully human – live embodied lives. But Jesus’s life, death and resurrection have given us a new reality: When we accept God’s spirit within us through Jesus, we gain the hope of life, peace and resurrection.

Gospel: John 11:1-45
Jesus’ dear friends, Mary and Martha, devastated by the death of their brother Lazarus, each confront him in turn with the words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” To bold, brash Martha, Jesus offers the promise, “I am the resurrection and the life. … everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” When he sees quiet Mary crying, though, Jesus simply weeps. And then he calls Lazarus back from death. But there’s more to this story. Jesus thanks God that the amazed crowd that witnessed Lazarus rising will now believe that Jesus is the Messiah. But, in the verses that follow today’s reading, things take an ominous turn: The temple authorities, fearful about the uproar that Jesus is causing, decide that he has to die.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, March 30, 2014

Jesus opens the eyes of the man born blind

Psalm: Psalm 23

Who doesn’t know and love the 23rd Psalm? It brings comfort in time of trouble and trial, reminding us that in our darkest hours and most threatening times, God walks with us, protects us and comforts us. Ancient tradition held that David himself wrote these verses. Most modern scholars doubt that. But kings and commoners alike can take joy from knowing that God’s rod and staff comfort us, and God’s goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.

Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
This short letter, probably written in Paul’s name a generation or more after his death, contains some problems for modern Christians who take it out of its historical and cultural context. It appears to sanction slavery, for example, and it firmly puts women in their place as “subject” to their husbands. Today’s short reading, however, offers a poetic view of light against darkness, perhaps echoing John’s vision of Jesus as the light shining in the darkness, and pointing us toward today’s Gospel about the man born blind.

Gospel: John 9:1-41
Speaking of harsh ideas that linger from ancient times, the sad notion that blindness and other disabilities reflect God’s punishment for one’s sins or the sins of one’s parents has been hard to overcome, despite Jesus’ emphasis that God does no such thing. Rather, the very words that the man born blind utters upon his healing make the case for grace, not punishment, as we hear them in one of Christianity’s most beloved hymns: “I once was lost, but now am found … Was blind, but now I see.”

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, March 23, 2014

Jesus and the woman at the well. Ancient mosaic at Ravenna, Italy.

Psalm: Psalm 95
Today’s Psalm begins with a surprisingly joyous tone for the penitential weeks of Lent, but the joyful noise of praise for God changes key abruptly in Verse 8 when the Psalmist reminds us of the story we heard in today’s Exodus reading. The thirsty, angry people turned their hearts from God and put God to the test; the Psalmist imagines that these actions drove God to “loathe” these ungrateful people and leave them lost 40 years in the desert. We might prefer to envision a more loving and forgiving God, but the Psalmist’s opinion is clear.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-11
Even though we are sinners, we are justified through faith and saved through Jesus’s death on the cross, Paul writes to the people of Rome. But, in language that hints at the modern notion, “no pain, no gain,” he suggests that just as Jesus suffered and died, we mustn’t expect an easy road as we hunger and thirst for God’s grace.

Gospel: John 4:5-42
Jesus, like the people in the desert, was tired and thirsty after a long journey. He struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman, asking her for a drink. These actions surprised her, as Jewish men of the era weren’t likely to engage with women or Samaritans. Then his conversation surprised her even more, as he promised her the unending “living water” of God’s spirit, foretold an end to the differences between their people, and declared himself the Messiah.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, March 16, 2014

Nicodemus visiting Jesus at night.

Psalm: Psalm 121
This short Psalm, a “song of ascents” that was probably originally sung in procession as the people and priests moved up toward the Temple, continues the idea of faith and trust in God to watch over us and protect us. We sing our thanks and praise to God, who unfailingly, without pausing to sleep, guards us and protects us from evil, now and forever.

Second Reading: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Paul’s pastoral letter to the people in Rome draws us back to Abraham, turning the ancestral story to a new purpose: While Abraham was the ancestor of the chosen people in the flesh, through generations passed down from parent to child not only to Israel but to many nations, God’s promise of eternal life comes to us, as it came to Abraham, through faith by grace.

Gospel: John 3:1-17
Poor Nicodemus just couldn’t get his mind around the idea of being “born again,” a term that, confusingly, in the original Greek word “anothen” might mean “anew,” “again,” “from above,” “in the future,” or even all of those. Nicodemus, in an exchange that the author of John might have intended to draw chuckles from believers, couldn’t figure how a grown person could creep back into the mother’s body to be re-born. But Jesus understood that there is no contradiction between being born of the flesh as an infant and being “born again,” or, for that matter, “born from above,” not in the flesh but through faith and the Spirit.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, March 9, 2014

The temptation of Jesus as envisioned by an African artist.

Psalm: Psalm 32
Many of the Psalms celebrate the joy of loving God and living in God’s way. This Psalm in particular makes this point with an unusual twist: It exalts the joy, relief and “glad cries of deliverance” that erupt from our souls when we accept God’s sure forgiveness. Indeed God’s steadfast love surrounds all of us who trust enough to acknowledge our wrongdoing, confess our transgressions and accept God’s loving deliverance from the pain and guilt of separating ourselves from God through sin.

Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19
Offering pastoral guidance to the people of the ancient church in Rome in its struggle with human relationships, Paul sketches a direct connection between the sin of Adam (curiously, he doesn’t mention Eve) and the divinity of Jesus Christ, the son of God. If Adam’s yielding to the temptation of the fruit brought death into the world, as the Genesis verses foretell, then Jesus’ incarnation as one of us restores justification and life for all through God’s free gift of grace.

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
These verses come immediately after Jesus’ baptism, where he heard the voice of God declaring him God’s beloved Son. Now Jesus goes into the wilderness. To meditate and pray? Wait! What’s this? The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? That’s not the way most of us remember this Gospel story! The devil – not a scary red horned creature but something more like the “Adversary” who tested Job’s faith in the Old Testament story – tries to test Jesus, tempting him three times to perform miracles to help himself. But Jesus shows that he is Son of God, standing strong against temptation.