Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 18, 2018

Jeremia op de puinhopen van Jeruzalem (Jeremiah on the ruins of Jerusalem). Painting (1844) by Horace Vernet (1789-1863), Amsterdam Museum. (Click image to enlarge.)

The consistent pattern of our Lenten Lectionary readings continues: In the Gospels we are following the life of Jesus and his disciples from the Jordan to Jerusalem. The Old Testament readings tell us about God’s series of covenants with the people. In Sunday’s first reading, from the Prophet Jeremiah, we hear that the chosen people broke the covenant promise to walk in God’s way that their ancestors made at Mount Sinai. Now Jeremiah tells of a new covenant that is to come. This one will be permanent, for it is not just written on stone tablets but directly on our hearts. Even when we struggle, we will remember the commandment to love God and our neighbor.

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-13

This familiar Psalm’s powerful narrative imagines King David wracked in repentant guilt as he confronts the great sin of sending his general, Uriah, into harm’s way in battle so he could take Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bathsheba, for himself. In poetic words that mirror the promises of the covenants, we hear of David’s shame and grief. He acknowledges inborn wickedness ad makes no excuses for that, but begs for God’s mercy and forgiveness. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” David begs: A new heart, a clean slate upon which God can write a new covenant of love.

Alternative Psalm: Psalm 119:9-16

Psalm 119, the longest of all the Psalms, carries a message of covenant throughout its many verses: Those who follow God’s laws and teaching, modeling their lives on Torah so as to walk in God’s ways, will reap rewards. Today’s verses follow a Jeremiah reading well. Its verses addressed to God, “With my lips will I recite all the judgments of your mouth,” seem to reflect Jeremiah’s first conversation with God: “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy,” to which God responded, “you shall speak whatever I command you. … Now I have put my words in your mouth.”

Second Reading: Hebrews 5:5-10

Hebrews is not a letter to a specific congregation but a broad appeal to formerly Jewish Christians who had returned to their original faith late in the first century to avoid persecution aimed at Christians by Rome. Its author argues that Jesus, as Christ, follows in the great tradition of Jewish high priests, a line that goes back through millennia to Melchizedek, the ancient king and great high priest who had blessed Abram before God offered the first covenant to Abram and Sarai. As Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation who intercedes on our behalf forever, there is no longer need for priestly sacrifice.

Gospel: John 12:20-33

In the verses just before these, Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem, riding a young donkey while joyous crowds wave palm leaves and shout loud hosannas. Now a group of Greeks, curious to meet Jesus after all this, ask Philip to arrange a meeting, and Philip and Andrew take the request to Jesus. Jesus responds by launching into a message for the world and the ages: Just as Jesus must first die in order to bear the fruit of salvation through his resurrection, we are the seeds of faith and must grow in discipleship like kernels of wheat. Do we lie fallow and die, or do we grow and bloom where we are planted, bearing fruit as we follow and serve Christ?

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 11, 2018

Moses and the Brazen Serpent (1640). Oil painting on oak panel by Adriaen van Nieulandt the younger (c,1586–1658). Dayton Art Institute. (Click image to enlarge.)

Our Sunday readings begin with the strange account of poisonous snakes sent by God to punish an ungrateful people, and the bronze serpent that God directs Moses to create to heal the deadly snakebites. We may be tempted to laugh off this ancient legend, but note that the metaphor, and its teaching, continues through the day’s readings, concluding in John’s Gospel where it sets the context for the famous words of Jesus in John 3:16! This makes the serpent story a little more difficult to ignore. Here’s one way to view it: When you think you’re surrounded by snakes, look up. Remember that God is with us.

Psalm: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

The message that we hear in Sunday’s Psalm offers soothing balm after the shock of venomous snakes and bronze serpents in the first reading. Now we are invited to repent, to turn, to give thanks for God’s mercy with shouts of joy. Even when we are foolish, when we rebel, when we sin, when we are afraid, as soon as we cry out for God, God will respond to us as beloved children, granting us healing and salvation.

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

This letter, likely written to the people of Ephesus and other communities by a later Christian leader writing in Paul’s name, does not actually invoke deadly serpents, but it imagines something just about as frightening and potentially deadly: A shadowy spirit, a “ruler of the power of the air,” stands ready to lure in those who prefer passion and the flesh to a saving life in Christ. Like those healed by gazing at Moses’ bronze serpent, those who follow Christ are saved by God’s mercy and raised up by the gift of grace through Jesus. We are saved by grace only, not by anything that we do to try to earn salvation.

Gospel: John 3:14-21

“… God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” For many Christians, this week’s lessons could start and finish right there. But wait! Did Jesus just begin by comparing himself to Moses’ bronze serpent? This passage is part of Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to visit him by night. Surely Jesus is teaching from the Torah, with which they are both intimately familiar; Numbers is his text. We cannot yank John 3:16 out of its context without reading the verses that precede, and those that follow and make clear that we all have power to choose between darkness and the light. Just as God provided the Israelites a way to repent and be healed, so God offers us healing grace through Jesus.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 4, 2018

Mosè (Moses) with the Ten Commandments, 17th century painting by Pietro Novelli “Il Monrealese” (1603-1647). Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, Sicily. (Click image to enlarge.)

So far in Lent we have read the ancient stories of God’s covenantal promises to Noah and Abraham. Now we come to the great covenant with Moses and the people in the desert at Mount Sinai. God promises that the people will become a holy nation, living and prospering in the promised land. The people agree to walk in God’s way, living in accord with the familiar commandments that they now hear told for the first time in God’s thunderous voice that shakes the mountain. These ten simple principles sum up the way in which we are to live, loving God and loving each other.

Psalm: Psalm 19

“The heavens declare the glory of God.” This memorable poem of praise and thanksgiving has been arranged as a popular 18th century hymn by Isaac Watts, although it’s regrettably not in our 1982 Hymnal. In beautiful poetic language the Psalm celebrates God’s gifts to all the people of the world and to all the span of the universe. Within that bountiful creation, the Psalm continues, God’s laws and statutes – the great commandments – grant us wisdom and joy and lead us to righteousness.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Paul first great pastoral letter to the people of Corinth opens with a simple but important pastoral issue: The community is splitting into factions, each following a different leader. Stay united by following the Cross, Paul urges the people. Never mind if their Jewish and Gentile neighbors mock Christians as “foolish” for worshiping a man who was brutally executed on the Roman cross. Outsiders may view the cross as a symbol of pain, shame and degradation when they were expecting a powerful warrior Messiah; but their opinion doesn’t matter, says Paul, because we prefer God’s “foolishness” to mere human wisdom; God’s “weakness” far outweighs human strength.

Gospel: John 2:13-22

For the remaining Sundays of Lent we turn to John’s Gospel, beginning with the familiar story of Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple. This narrative appears in all four Gospels, but curiously, while Matthew, Mark and John all place it at the beginning of Holy Week, in John we find it near the beginning of the Gospel, during an earlier trip to Jerusalem for Passover that none of the others mention. Moreover, John alone tells of Jesus not merely throwing over the money changers’ tables but fashioning a whip of cords to lash them in his anger at their exploiting the poor in the name of God. Then Jesus foreshadows his own passion and death, likening his own body to the temple and declaring that he will “rise up” three days after his body’s destruction.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 25, 2018

Abraham’s Journey from Ur to Canaan. Oil on canvas (1850), by József Molnár (1821-1899). Hungarian National Gallery. (Click image to enlarge.)

Our first reading this week turns to another great Old Testament covenant: God’s promise to Abram and Sarai, whom God calls to go to a new land at a great age. They are given new names – Abraham and Sarah – and receive God’s promise that they and their offspring will yield a great multitude of nations and that God will be with their offspring forever. This seems surprising, considering that Abram is 99 and they have had no children yet. Unlike God’s unconditional covenant with Noah that we heard last week, this covenant is reciprocal: In order for their offspring to gain the Promised Land (a promise made in the verses that our Sunday reading skips over), they and their descendants must “walk before God and be blameless.”

Psalm: Psalm 22:22-30

The theme of God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah, through their grandson Jacob, the son of their son Isaac, echoes in Sunday’s Psalm portion. The Psalmist exults in the eternal nature of that covenant with Jacob (whom God later renamed Israel), and calls on all of Israel’s offspring to serve God, because as a result of Abraham’s covenant they will be known as God’s own forever. Even now the priest repeats those words in every baptism, while those being welcomed into the household of God are anointed with blessed oil, sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own for ever.

Second Reading: Romans 4:13-25

Paul, too, evokes the eternal nature of God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants, but he adds something new: Paul reaches out to include Gentile Christians within God’s promise, too. While Abraham’s descendants received God’s covenant through the law, Gentiles who become Christians now receive it through their new faith. Seeking to reconcile a faith community in Rome that included both Jewish and Gentile Christians, Paul assures them that all are now children of Abraham and Sarah, too, through our faith in Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Gospel: Mark 8:31-38

Our Lenten Gospels are bouncing around in Mark, taking us to important points on Jesus’ journey to the Cross rather than following strict chronological order. Here Jesus is telling the disciples things that they do not want to hear. In the verses just preceding these, Jesus asked them who they think he is, and bold Peter blurted out, “You are the Messiah!” Now, Jesus warns, the road ahead will not be easy. He will face rejection, punishment and death before rising again after three days. Now Peter argues with Jesus, taking him aside to challenge that approach. Jesus’ quick response to Peter is startling: “Get behind me, Satan!” If you want to follow me, Jesus tells them, you must deny yourself. Take up your cross. You will have to give your life if you wish to save it.

Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Feb. 18, 2018

Landschaft mit dem Dankopfer Noahs (“Landscape with Noah’s Thank Offering”), c. 1803. Oil painting by Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839). Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

During Lent, all Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” Our readings throughout the 40 days of Lent will often focus on these practices. Our First Readings through the season will recall God’s covenants, binding agreements between God and God’s people that call us to love God and our neighbors. We begin with God’s covenant with Noah after the Flood, hearing God’s promise never again to send a flood to destroy all living creatures, a promise marked by a rainbow in the clouds.

Psalm: Psalm 25:1-9

This Psalm of praise, one of many that tradition attributes to King David himself, asks for deliverance and protection from enemies and scheming foes, a plea that may reflect Israel’s and Judah’s hard-won status as a tiny nation. As we sing this Psalm, we expresse the joy of holding up our hearts and souls with willing trust in God’s compassion and love. Even in the face of triumphant enemies, it sings of praise, not fear, and the hope of God’s faithfulness to those who have made covenant to follow God’s ways.

Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22

Building on the themes of today’s Genesis reading and Psalm, the author of the first letter of Peter reminds us that we are now saved in the water of baptism, just as Noah and his family were saved in a world covered by water. Both saving acts are the work of God, but baptism is no mere bath that washes away dirt. It is rather an appeal to God, like a covenant, that gives us a new beginning through the resurrection of Jesus, who now sits at God’s right hand as lord of all creation.

Gospel: Mark 1:9-15

Yes, we did hear part of this same Gospel just a few weeks ago, on the first Sunday after Epiphany: Jesus is baptized, and then he sees the Holy Spirit coming down as a dove and he hears a voice from heaven declaring him God’s beloved son. Today we move quickly onward to hear much more in two quick paragraphs: First, the Spirit immediately drove Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days, where he was tempted by Satan and served by angels. Then we learn that John was arrested, so Jesus came to Galilee to proclaim the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news.” The time is now. The kingdom is here.