Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 30, 2013.

First Reading: 2 Kings 2:1-2,6-14
Bible trivia question: Besides Jesus, who got into heaven still wearing an earthly body? Today’s reading tells us the prophet Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire; and the Apocrypha say the prophet Enoch was “taken up,” too. In the Transfiguration we see Moses joining Elijah in a shining body with Jesus; and modern Catholic doctrine holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was “assumed” bodily into heaven. While we’re reading this passage, think about the challenge of Elisha taking over the prophet’s job when his predecessor, Elijah, moves on. This may offer food for thought in church communities about to change or recently having changed rectors, saying farewell to the old and preparing to greet the new.

Psalm: Psalm 77
We have had a lot of noisy thunderstorms and pounding rains lately. It is easy to imagine the Psalmist’s thoughts as he wrote about clouds pouring out water, thunder crashing, the earth shaking, and God’s lightning arrows lighting up the world! Troubled, worried by night, seeking comfort for his soul but finding none, the Psalmist imagines God’s power in the storm and remembers how God gently led God’s flock.

Second Reading: Galatians 5:1,13-25
Paul’s letter to the Galatians continues, as he hammers home the point that God’s covenant with Israel now extends through Christ to Jew and Gentile alike. The law of that covenant, he reminds us, is to love our neighbors as ourselves, not to “bite and devour” one another.” The Spirit joins us with our neighbors in “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Gospel: Luke 9:51-62
These verses from Luke show us a side of Jesus that we might not like to see. Come, follow him, with such urgency that you must leave your dead father un-buried? Rush off without bidding your family farewell? This is certainly a demanding call! What’s going on? Take another look at the first verse we read today: “… he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Jesus’s final journey has begun, and everything now focuses on his coming death and resurrection. Nothing else, not even family, can take priority.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 23, 2013.

First Reading: 1 Kings 19:1-15
The prophet Elijah foretold destruction and exile in a time when the Kingdom of Israel was falling apart. A bold man in violent times, he fought the priests of Baal and spoke truth to King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. In acts that might make us think of Jesus, he made a poor widow’s food last for months; restored her son to life, and finally went up to heaven in a fiery chariot. But now Elijah is worn down and afraid. Fighting despair, he hides under a broom tree and begs God to take his life. But God has other plans, and sends winds, an earthquake and fire to get Elijah back to God’s work.

Psalm: Psalm 42
The beautiful, lyrical language that opens today’s Psalm softens the deep sorrow and lamentation that fill its verses. “Why is my soul cast down? Why has God forgotten me? Where is God?” Elijah might have asked these questions when he cried beneath the broom tree. But finally, for the Psalmist as for Elijah, there is hope in God.

Second Reading: Galatians 3:23-29
Paul’s letter to the people of Galatia continues this week, reminding us in ringing words that we are all equals in Jesus: As it was then, so it is now: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of us are one in Jesus.

Gospel: Luke 8:26-39
This may be the strangest of all the Gospel stories about Jesus healing. Jesus meets a loud, scary man, naked and in chains, and he sends the demons that possess him into a herd of pigs, who rush into the Sea of Galilee and drown! What were Jesus and the apostles doing in a graveyard in the first place, which would have made them unclean under Jewish law? Why did the demons talk to Jesus, and why did he answer them!? Why did the whole thing scare the neighbors so much that they asked Jesus to leave town? And when the healed man wanted to follow Jesus, why did Jesus tell him no, go back to your people and tell them what God has done? This story shows us Jesus’s power, but it leaves us wondering. So many questions!

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 16, 2013.

First Reading: 1 Kings 21:1-21a
The tale of selfish King Ahab and his wife Jezebel (whose infamy has made her very name an insult) crushing Naboth of Jezreel is not a pretty story! But it might have echoes in modern times, when we watch news accounts about poor workers being killed in fiery disasters in sweatshops in Bangladesh. Elijah summoned an angry God to deliver bloody justice. We might do well to call on God for a gentler justice that firmly encourages caring for the poor, the weak and the oppressed. 

First Reading: 2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:10, 13-15
Do you think our bible heroes as great figures who never did wrong? Hardly! From Adam and Eve to Abraham to Moses and the prophets to Peter and the apostles, just about everyone in the book is flawed and sinful; yet God loves them and forgives them every time. King David was Israel’s greatest leader, but he was an adulterer and a murderer, too, who had the beautiful Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed in battle so he could have her for himself. In this reading, God’s messenger Nathan tells David a story and tricks him into cursing and threatening with death a figure that turns out to be David himself. God spares David’s life, but learns that the child of his illicit union must die.

Psalm: Psalm 5
This psalm calls for protection from the psalmist’s enemies from an angry God who dislikes boasters, hates evildoers and destroys liars, seemingly assuming that these enemies will deserve whatever punishment God metes out.  We might be more comfortable with the idea of a God of abundant love who forgives sins and welcomes all. But certainly the Psalmist’s call seems consistent with Elijah’s warning to Ahab that “dogs will … lick up your blood.”    

Psalm: Psalm 32
Although modern scholars question the old tradition that King David wrote the Psalms himself, it would be easy to read today’s Psalm as David’s joy at God’s forgiveness. But God’s abundant love and forgiving spirit is not just for kings but for all God’s people. We, too, can rejoice and sing, “I will confess my transgressions to God, then you forgave the guilt of my sin. You are my hiding-place. You preserve me from trouble.”

Second Reading: Galatians 2:15-21
We continue working through Paul’s argument to the Galatians, who he feels have been misled by false teachers who came after he moved on and contradicted his ruling that Gentile converts to Christianity need not abide by Jewish law. Requiring  new Christians to submit to adult circumcision and start keeping kosher kitchens would surely have cut way back on converts! To reinforce his argument, Paul declares that we are saved by new faith in Jesus Christ, not by justification through the works of the old Jewish law.

Gospel: Luke 7:36 – 8:3
This may come as a surprise, but historically, the Pharisees weren’t bad people but highly educated scholars and preachers, pillars of the synagogues. The tension between Jewish Christians and Gentiles in the early church that we see in today’s Galatians reading also colors this Gospel, which paints the Pharisee Simon as a rude host who can’t be bothered to greet his guest Jesus with customary courtesies.  When the woman, who tradition sometimes recognizes as Mary Magdalene, anoints Jesus with the respect and love that the Pharisee failed to show, it is she who earns his praise and the forgiveness of her sins.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 9, 2013.

First Reading: 1 Kings 17:8-16, (17-24)
Struggling to survive a lengthy drought, the prophet Elijah follows God’s instructions to travel outside Israel to a Gentile town called Zarephath, where an elderly widow and her starving little boy will share their meager food with him. The widow is understandably not eager, but upon Elijah’s command, her tiny portions of meal and oil prove sufficient to feed them all. When the little boy dies just the same, the widow is truly angry, but Elijah – with God’s help – restores his life, prompting her to recognize him as a man of God who speaks God’s truth. In moving to protect a widow and child in poverty, God shows love for the weakest and most vulnerable, a truth that runs all through scripture.

Psalm: Psalm 146
This is another of the final five Psalms that conclude the book in a roaring chorus of praise for the glory of God. This psalm takes particular note of God’s righteousness; God’s preferential care for the weakest and most vulnerable of society. God protects the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoner; the blind and those who are bowed down; and, not least, the stranger, the widow and the orphan – like the widow of Zarephath and her child.

Second Reading: Galatians 1:11-24
In these verses that follow last Sunday’s reading from Galatians, Paul continues pushing back against other evangelists who came to Galatia after he left and taught a less inclusive Gospel. The competitors demanded that Jesus-followers follow all the details of Jewish law, but Paul has heard a different message from the Spirit, and he is on fire to preach it. Paul lays out the strength of his credentials, reminding the Galatians that he was once one of the most ardent persecutors of Christianity, but now he proclaims Jesus to the Gentiles through revelation not from humans but direct from God.

Gospel: Luke 7:11-17
We hear familiar echoes of Elijah and the widow and child in this story from Luke, which comes next in Luke’s Gospel after last week’s story of Jesus healing the Roman centurion’s servant. Much like the widow in Elijah’s story and, for that matter, like the centurion, this woman responds to her son’s new life with shouts of joy, declaring Jesus a prophet and a man of God.

Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Sunday, June 2, 2013.

First Reading: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 41-43
These verses surely represent the high point in the story of the Israelites, as wise and wealthy King Solomon, son of King David, dedicates the first Temple in Jerusalem. Later in the First Testament narrative, we will see the the people fail in their covenant to practice justice and righteousness, leading to the nation’s decline and fall, the destruction of the temple and exile in Babylon as the prophets foretold. But this day is one of glory and joy and even a little boasting: God is so great and glorious that even foreigners will know God’s name and fear God.

Psalm: Psalm 96
A consistent theme runs through all today’s readings: God is great, and our God is God of all the nations. All the gods of all the other peoples are mere idols, trumpets this ancient psalm of praise and glory. Let all the earth tremble before our God of glory and strength who made the heavens!

Second Reading: Galatians 1:1-12
The church in Galatia had a problem, and Paul wasted no time in getting right to it in his letter to the people there: After planting his church, Paul moved on, and just like that, some other evangelists came in and started contradicting what he had taught. (Later we’ll discover that the problem had to do with insisting that Gentile Christians follow Jewish laws.) But the Gospel that he teaches comes straight from God through Jesus, Paul insists. Those who say otherwise deserve to be cursed!

Gospel: Luke 7:1-10
Luke’s account of the centurion whose servant lies dying might appear at first to be a simple story about faith. But this is not just another eager Jesus-follower asking for help. It is a hated Roman, and worse, a military officer, a captain in command of 100 soldiers. This is a man with real power, accustomed to barking commands and having them obeyed. His gentle, respectful request that Jesus issue such a command to heal his servant gains Jesus’s praise and agreement. And it makes clear that Jesus is not just here for Israel but for all.