Trinity Lectionary Bible Study

2008-05-13T20:04:00.001-04:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, May 18, 2008, Trinity Sunday, Year A

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth." And it was so. God made the two great lights-- the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night-- and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Matthew 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

This passage from Genesis was a favorite of St. Augustine of Hippo, who wrote extensively about them in his book On The Trinity. He found in it a number of symbols:
- First, God the Father is the “creator of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.”
- Second, Jesus is frequently identified with light—“light from light, true God from true God,” but it is important also to remember that he was “begotten, not made.” Darkness is merely the absence of light, not a force unto itself; thus, light preexisted. This was Christ at the beginning of the world. An interesting side note here is that this led many Greek Christians to confuse Jesus with Apollo, the god of light. Our portraits of Jesus with flowing straight hair and blue eyes are pictures of Apollo, not Jesus. We’re all idolaters, more or less, and not just in this way.
- Third, the Holy Spirit is shown in the image of the “wind blowing on the deep.” The Holy Spirit also was active in the creation.
- Augustine also emphasized the fact that humanity was created in the image of God—or, in Latin, the imago Dei. He thus compared the Trinity to the human memory, understanding, and will, just as God has the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- The modern theologian Reinhold Niebuhr similarly emphasized the imago Dei, but he also emphasized man’s fallenness. He especially emphasized that being in the image of God gave us a radical freedom, but that fallenness made all our dreams of perfection elusive and ultimately illusions. However, he also emphasized that this cannot form an excuse not to work to improve the world. It is an excuse, however, not to get caught in using immoral means to reach supposedly ideal or “moral” ends.

This passage from Matthew contains Jesus’ commissioning of the Apostles and all the disciples. But what did he really mean? Surely baptism is a sacrament, but it is also a symbol.
- Baptizing someone puts a definite duty on the evangelizer. Even if a priest does the baptizing, it is the duty of the Christians around that person to help him or her grow in the faith. Even more so, it is the duty of a Christian to help all those who are baptized in ways more general—food, clothing, comfort in their suffering. This leads directly into the best method of evangelism: love. Give to all more than they ask for, and they will follow you to Christ. As one ancient said, “those Christians—how they love one another!”
- Similarly, what duties does it put on the person coming to Christianity? Surely, to learn, to grow, and to show others the way.

2008-04-23T20:05:00.001-04:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, April 27, 2008, Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Acts 17:22-31

Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, `To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him-- though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For `In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said,

`For we too are his offspring.'

Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

1 Peter 3:13-22

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

John 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- This passage from Acts is one of the cooler passages in the Bible, I think. Luke is writing about Paul—and Luke was a probably a much more reliable chronicler of what Paul did than Paul himself seems to have been. Here, Paul preaches in the Areopagus in Athens. The Areopagus was the site of one of the main courthouses in ancient Athens, where the high court sat that investigated and decided murder and political corruption cases. It may well have been the place where Socrates’s case was investigated prior to it being put to the people for a vote, in which the populace voted for him to be executed. Apparently, in ancient times there was an altar to an unknown god here, on the premise that there might be some god unknown to the Athenians whom they would want to placate.
- The English philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead once explained that all philosophy “consists of a series of footnotes to Plato,” the great Athenian philosopher who wrote about his teacher, Socrates. At this time, most Athenians had lost interest in the ancient gods, and considered them to be a convenient myth and cultural touchstone, rather than real. Most of them believed in a sort of monotheism that focused on ideals—by this meaning the underlying order and forms of the world, as a place created and sustained by an unknown and unknowable god.
- One of the two people Paul converted by this speech was named Dionysius, or Denis. A 4th-century Syrian monk wrote under the pen name of “Dionysius the Areopagite” and medievals in the west assumed that it was in fact this Dionysius. He elaborated a fascinating theology of divine unknowability, based in part on Platonic thought, and in part on Jewish and Christian thought, which was incorporated into medieval and hence modern understandings of God.
- Notice how in this passage, Paul connects up the altar to the unknown god to the unknown god of the Old Testament—the one who could not be looked upon, and whose very name could not be spoken—and says that this God has done something very special by making himself known to us through Christ. Thus, the theme of “unknown” becomes a much deeper idea than any mere homiletical trope.

- With respect to this passage from 1 Peter, it is interesting to note that Plato elaborated a fascinating theory of punishment in his dialogue Gorgias. First, Plato argued that the good person would prefer a short, good life to a long, ignoble one, in response to an assertion that life should be prolonged to the uttermost at any cost. Second, he argued that therefore, a good person who had done wrong would wish to be punished, not get away with his crime. His underlying assumption here—and I’m putting words into his mouth somewhat—was that the cosmic scales need to be balanced, and that only through just punishment can that happen.
- Compare Plato’s take to Peter’s. Peter almost assumes Plato’s argument, and moves beyond it. Among other things, he points out that there is a basic injustice in the world at times: it is not just that the bad need punishment, but that we all receive punishment that we do not need. But, he says, we grow stronger through this; and the key is to follow God at all times. Here we run into a conundrum: pretty soon we’re parsing the New Testament like Jews did the Torah, and thus missing the forest for the trees; the bigger picture is that legalistic interpretation and slavish following of laws, as Jesus pointed out over and over again, does not produce faith or salvation, and may in fact kill or prevent them. Peter gives an out, though: through faith, we can be baptized, and this faith will lead to good works (also see last week’s handout, and this week’s passage from John, for more on this!)

- This passage from John is a foretelling of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The term “Advocate” comes from the Greek Parakletos (Paraclete), which is a complex word meaning literally, “one summoned.” It was frequently used in the legal context, as an advocate—the Latin advocatus for lawyer and the Spanish abogado are a pretty good indication of the meaning—but here it also has the sense of one who comforts, or any sort of assistant.
- The explanation of the Paraclete/Holy Spirit here is one of the primary bases for the concept of the Trinity. Because Jesus elsewhere identifies himself with the father, and here and elsewhere identifies himself with the Paraclete/Holy Spirit, Christians from a very early stage in the history of the church assumed that there was one God with three persons, or aspects of his being, all of which are mutually interdependent.
- We’re getting prepared for Pentecost…

2008-04-15T20:19:00.001-04:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, April 20, 2008, Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Acts 7:55-60

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

1 Peter 2:2-10

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:

"See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

"The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,"

and

"A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall."
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

John 14:1-14

Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- The crass interpretation of this passage is that Stephen just got carried away. He begins by preaching the word to the people around him. Then he get a little carried away… and the Spirit takes him… and he says something unacceptable, and they stone him.
- This tells us some things about group dynamics and the cost of discipleship.
- An interesting thing is that at this point, Saul is watching and “approving.” (8:1). Shortly thereafter he has his conversion experience and becomes Paul. The connection of Saul, the stoning, and the Holy Spirit is an interesting “in” to the meaning of this passage.

- This passage of 1 Peter seems to shift metaphors constantly in an unfocused way. But the word “holiness” and its form as a continuation of the “house code” from last week are clearly keys to understanding it.
- Note the use of the “cornerstone” analogy. One thing to note is that the phrase “head of the corner” can be better translated “capstone” or “keystone.” The keystone in an arch is what makes it work—without a perfectly shaped keystone, an arch will fall. Jesus is the living keystone that holds us together.

- This passage gives us the same hiccups as the passage from last week, in that it seems to say that the only way to salvation is through Jesus. So is a tribesman in an as-yet unfound tribe in the Amazon without salvation, simply because he didn’t hear the name Jesus?
o Pluralism: This view holds that there are many different ways to God, so any person or religion that serves enlightened moral ends can lead to salvation. Another variant on this is the claim that believe in Jesus “works” in that it leads to good results (this is what William James said), and so anyone else can be left to his own devices religiously. These solutions help our sense of the prima facie injustice of condemning people to hell that did nothing wrong. But they also beg the question: why does it strike us as unjust? What are “enlightened moral ends” or “good results?” This finally boils down to Plato’s question: are things good because God says they are good, or does God say they are good because they are good in the first place? And what would it mean, either way?
o Particularism: This view holds that unless you’re a Christian, baptized in the water and the Spirit, you’re going to hell. Possibly there are exceptions for young children, or maybe there’s a sort of lesser not-quite-hell-but-not-heaven-either where “righteous pagans” go, but the basic point is still the same. This presents its own problems. It seems prima facie unjust. It also creates an issue with how particular you have to be. So, is everyone who’s not an Episcopalian going to hell? What about the Nigerian types up in Fairfax? Finally, it’s at least conceivable that when a Hindu of a certain stripe says “Shiva,” he thinks of the same thing I do when I think of Jesus, or something more or less close to it. Why are we not as comfortable with the slipperiness of words in this context as we are in so many others?
- One other thing to take a careful look at is that Jesus gives the solution to the faith/works conundrum that the Roman Church and the Calvinists and Lutherans have been harping at for a half millennium. Faith leads to works, and works faith; it’s too bad people get too focused on the first paragraph to notice it.

2008-02-22T20:08:00.002-05:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, February 24, 2008, Third Sunday in Lent, Year A

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." The Lord said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"

Romans 5:1-11

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

John 4:5-42

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, `Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, `One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- Exodus, and especially the Time in the Wilderness, is a metaphor for multiple things. First, it is a metaphor for the history of God and his people. In this particular passage, the people begin faithful, but then fall away in doubt. Finally, Moses, through the power of God, brings forth water. This parallels, broadly, the history of the nation of Israel.
- However, the Time in the Wilderness metaphor can also symbolize youthful innocence, or the falling away from it. On the one hand is innocence, as expressed in this passage:

I remember the devotion of your youth
Your love as a bride
How you followed me in the wilderness,
In a land not sown.
Israel was holy to the Lord,
The first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it were held guilty;
Disaster came upon them,
Says the Lord.
Jer. 2:2-3

Thus, when they asked for water and tested the Lord, they were testing the Lord, and falling away for the first time; thus it parallels the story of Adam.
- Alternatively, the time in the desert can be a metaphor for where sins are purged. The water purges the sin, just as it does with Jesus. Moreover, the desert is where the “scapegoat” was drive every year to take away the sins of Israel, away from Israel and its God.

- Paul here gives an incredibly terse and murky description of salvation that needs some serious unpacking.
- First, he talks about suffering and endurance. Suffering, endurance, character, and hope were constant companions to early Christians. He emphasizes that this is as it should be; that in some sense, the suffering is brought on by the Holy Spirit in order to improve us.
- However, he then moves into a discussion of Jesus’s role in reconciling us to God. He first emphasizes that Jesus’s death is remarkable, because he died not for good people, or for some brave principle, like Socrates; he died to save the scum of the earth: the losers and the screwups. Paul then wants to emphasize that we are the losers and the screwups, like the Israelites in the desert.
- A final point is worth making. Jesus actually reconciles us to God. There is a theory of justification called “forensic justification,” which refers to the older sense of “forensic,” having to do with debating and justice. This is a juristic theory, that focuses on our guilt before God as in a court of law. In this theory, we’re still fallen and still judged, but Jesus hides us, and through his death gives us a pardon, as it were. But this misconceives the fundamental relationship between us and the Trinity. We are more like a family, and Jesus, in this metaphor, is like a good mother, reconciling a contrite child to the father who has his belt out. But through the love of both Jesus and the Father, the Holy Spirit comes to us and shows us how to be contrite and to be actually, not just forensically, reconciled and loved by God the Father, like a child to an angry father. This, however, means that we need to accept the fundamental unfairness of Christianity. As the stories of the dishonest servant, the prodigal son and Joseph from the Old Testament show us, not everything is fair in God, just like in a family.

- I love this passage from John. It’s long, and you have to understand a few background facts first.
- First, this forms a counterpoint to the story of Nicodemus that we read last week. Nicodemus is a powerful and wealthy Pharisee, who has a name; the woman here is unnamed, a Samaritan and poor, or she wouldn’t be drawing her own water. Moreover, if she were not some type of outcast or lowly servant, she wouldn’t be drawing the water at noontime, when it was, as now, extremely hot in Samaria. Yet, Jesus draws on some of the same metaphors, by talking about water—in an oblique reference to the passage from Exodus this week—and talking about how it can well up in you forever, giving endurance, character and hope, making reference to the passage from Romans.
- Second, the woman clearly has some standing in the community in some way. Perhaps she is a gossip, but everyone hears her and believes her and follows her back to Jesus, just as Peter followed Andrew back.
- Third, men were not supposed to speak to women, and Jews were not supposed to talk to Samaritans.
- Fourth, there was an institution in ancient Israel—still practiced under certain Muslim countries—that a couple could form a marriage contract for a period of time.
- Our eyes immediately read this alongside the “one flesh” language in Ephesians 5:31 and assume that this woman is a tramp. Although the statement that her man now is not her husband suggests this as an interpretation, it is not the sole interpretation, or even particularly apposite. The woman likely had had a series of temporary marriages, and may have been a mistress. In this narrative, this story isn’t about not being a tramp, because she really isn’t one, because she’s part of an institution that is culturally accepted.
- What this does all point towards is God’s ability to break through barriers. This woman has for years sold herself short, by not getting herself a man who will marry her and treat her the way she should be treated, rather than as a semi-chattel. But God also makes her into a person of standing in the community—not a lowly woman whose only power is gossip.
- Finally, Jesus emphasizes that through the growth given through faith, the Samaritans are coming to God; the crop is growing ripe to be harvested for God.

QUESTIONS:

1. In this contemplative Lenten season, we might as well talk about sexual morality. When have you sold yourself short in love? Do you see anything the passages this week have to tell you about God and love that is important?

2. Endurance is another theme you see here. Our society strives not to be seen as cruel, but, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, evil is banal and comes by half-measures. How do you endure the small things in everyday life that can get in the way of your endurance toward hope and faith?

2008-02-13T20:11:00.001-05:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, February 17, 2008, Second Sunday in Lent, Year A

Genesis 12:1-4a

The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

"For 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.

"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- All three of the passages this week work together to suggest a coherent picture of the economy of faith and grace, and incorporate the themes of law and the Holy Spirit as well.

- Although this passage from Genesis is short, it introduces us to Abram/Abraham. Its historical context is that Abram, following his father, has left Ur of the Chaldees and gone to live in Haran. Now, however, he has gotten the call from God to continue on to the land of Canaan. Nevertheless, God does not tell Abram what the land will be or where, only that he will “show [him].”
- The one other important thing to note—and it’s not 100% clear until someone points it out—is that Abram doesn’t actually do what God told him to do. Although Abram is always held up as a model of faith, here we see him being told to skedaddle and leave behind all of his kin and relatives, and yet he takes Lot with him.

- The little snip from Genesis, and the reading from Romans last week, are necessary to understand the importance of this passage from Romans. First, we have to understand that Abraham made at least one mistake, and failed to do what God told him to do at least once. Second, we have to understand that the law did not come until Moses, who was a descendant of Abraham. Abraham didn’t have it.
- In the first paragraph of this passage, we have faith described as, in a sense, trust. Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. It is not as though Abraham never sinned by disobeying God—as we saw in the passage from Genesis, he did! But God nevertheless reckoned the faith and trust he put in God, without any reason to do so, as righteousness, despite his un-righteous act.
- Paul then further unwraps this argument, that Abraham, as the father of many nations, was righteous despite lack of the law. How could it be that he could be righteous without the law? By faith.
- By this argument, Paul draws together the Judaizing and the Gentile parties among the Christians in Rome, and emphasizes that the key ingredient in life for both parties is faith—with or without the law.

- In this passage, Jesus is being a wise guy, more or less, in order to make Nicodemus see something he didn’t think he was coming to see. He came under cover of night, in order to assess the new preacher in town, and uses the plural pronoun “we,” indicating he might be a representative of more than just himself. But Jesus, knowing what this visit is about, is a wise guy and rakes Nicodemus over the coals and won’t give him a straight answer.
- Jesus talks about being born from above. Interestingly, the Greek phrase here is gennhqh:/ a[nwqen (gennethei anothen), which means both “born again” and “born from above.” Jesus is trading on this ambiguity in the language in order to call our (us, the readers’) attention to the Transfiguration, and to confuse the literal and legalistic mind of Nicodemus.
- Then Jesus decides that he is going to confuse the minds of us readers by bringing different types of birth into the picture, and implying that he really does mean “born again” (by this time Nicodemus must have been cross-eyed.) But he makes reference to the fact that birth comes through the Spirit, and that you do not know where it may come from, or where it may go to. The wind is a consistent metaphor for the Spirit in the Bible, and here Jesus draws on that metaphor to show how unpredictable the people who will be born again, from above, will be. In this, he overturns the expectation of Nicodemus that he and the other Pharisees will be those who are born again, and whom Jesus will bless—his blessings will be beyond Nicodemus’s predictions and literalistic imagination.
- Jesus then drives home the point again, in case Nicodemus missed it the first time. Jesus himself will need to be raised into Heaven in order to give his salvific power effect, but in the process, he will be willing to save all those, who like Abraham, have faith despite being, in greater or lesser degree, screwups.

QUESTIONS:

1. It’s been often said, and not in jest, that Christianity is a religion for losers. What do you think this means?

2. Another common statement is that grace is faith from God’s perspective, and faith is grace from ours. What do you think this means?

2008-02-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, February 10, 2008, First Sunday in Lent, Year A

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, `You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Romans 5:12-19

As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned-- sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Matthew 4:1-11

After Jesus was baptized, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written,

'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."

Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

DIGRESSION ON A WORD:

The word “TRESPASS” is a difficult word. We hear it in church when we recite the Lord’s Prayer, and when we think of trespass, we think of getting into other people’s space, for the most part. Because the modern denotation of the word is relatively narrow, many churches translate the word as “debt.” “Debt” is probably not the best word for it. Trespass, in pre-20th century English, had the broader meaning of anything one had done wrong that should be compensated. This included both monetary debt and debt for our sins. In fact, in pre-20th century law, the form of action used to sue for torts was called “trespass.” Under this broader meaning, the word trespass is a perfect word to express the Greek participle ojfeilhJmata, roughly meaning “debts run up,” in this context.

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- The Lenten season is a season for internal reflection. In mimicry of Jesus, many Christians make a choice to go without something in order to remind ourselves of his fast. In this most introspective of seasons, we can look even more deeply into ourselves than we normally would.

- This is the second of the two Creation stories in Genesis, but textual analysis shows that it is most likely the older of the two. It assumes that the world has been created already by God, and focuses in on Adam—which meant “man” in most ancient Semitic languages. Adam, the Everyman, and Eve, Everywoman, get themselves into trouble.
- What is the knowledge of good and evil? Of course we’ve all seen the apple imagery in so many movies, books and poems that we are almost immune to it, and it hardly has the impact on us that it should. Knowledge of good and evil means being able to make knowing choices.
- An interesting little tidbit is that the fruit is never actually called an “apple.” The misunderstanding likely arises from St. Jerome’s use of the Latin word “poma” to express it. “Poma,” in classical usage, meant any kind of fruit, and often especially referred to apricots. However, apricots were unknown in early modern England, and so the King James Version took the secondary meaning of “poma,” which is apple, and used it instead.
- It is interesting to note what the very first thing Adam and Eve try to do is. They try to make themselves loincloths, which implies that the very first thing they notice is their boy- and girl-parts. I think this implies that the first thing they become conscious of after gaining knowledge of good and evil is the possibility of misusing the one thing that God has given them full control of: their bodies.
- Note that here Adam and Eve sin, and become subject to death. This is what we mean when we talk in Church of the “sickness unto death.”

- The Epistle to the Romans is probably Paul’s most profound and developed letter. In it, he develops his theology of Grace.
- Paul makes a significant digression in the middle of this passage, to emphasize that it is not only the law that brings us to sin, but our human nature. The law, he says in other places, brings us to sin, implying that God in some way had set up the law in order that we might break it, and thus sin. But Paul here takes some pains to emphasize that this is not the case—even before the law, there was sin. Sin is a fundamental point of human nature and the ability to choose good and evil.
- The other main point of Paul’s discussion is clear. One awful act of rebellion by Adam and Eve led directly to the downfall and sickness unto death for all. Similarly, one act of true charity and obedience to God by the new Adam—Christ!—brings us all salvation, simply through our willing obedience, even when we fail to do it.
- Karl Barth wrote his great commentary The Epistle to the Romans during World War I, to illustrate the point that although we are in the world, we are not of the world; that grace allows us to break apart and live as free agents, as it were, not beholden to the institutions of the earth, if only we will ask and receive it!
- One final point is the fundamental unfairness of the Gospel that Paul is pointing to. Free grace—grace which we do not merit, and for which we have no claim on God to give, but which he gives us anyway out of his infinite love—is given to anyone who asks. Put another way, however generous, giving and open you are, you’re less generous than God is. However much you love, you love less than he does. Never, ever underestimate God.

- The Lectionary makes a fascinating choice this week. We might expect to hear of the resurrection, because of the basic symmetry in Adam’s fall and Christ’s ascension. However, the Lectionary instead chooses, on the first Sunday of Lent, to focus on Jesus’s ability to make the right choices, in another type of symmetry with Adam’s and Eve’s inability to make the right choices.
- Two fundamental points appear in this passage. First is, as just mentioned, Jesus is able to make the correct choices that Adam and Eve were unable to make. In Paul’s view, this unmade the bed that Adam had made, and set free the Good News of free grace that the Christian church represents and shouts to the world.
- Second is that our greatest temptation is to do something good. Everything that Satan tempts Jesus to do in this passage is a good thing. Satan offers him choices: Making stones into bread, to end his fast, and perhaps to feed others; flying through the air, like an angel, to show that he truly is the Messiah; and bringing true peace on earth through his divine kingship. The hardest choices in life are between two good things, or to choose not to do something good in obedience to God.
- Finally, two things that T.S. Eliot wrote come to my mind. He said that the greatest treason is to do the right thing for the wrong reason, and he said that it is the dream of many to create a world in which there will be no need to be good. These are, at the underlying level, the two choices that Jesus is offered. By resisting them, he truly began his ministry and showed the way to our salvation.

QUESTIONS:

1. I want to reput a question from last week that I think will be fruitful to address again: Think of a choice that you made where you made a hard choice between two good things, or where you chose not to do a good thing because you knew, at some level, either from your conscience or from scripture, that it was bad although it seemed good. What is the experience of grace like?

2. What is your opinion of what the knowledge of good and evil means?

FURTHER READING:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall; Temptation.

2008-02-02T16:20:00.000-05:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, February 3, 2008, Last Sunday After Epiphany, Year A

Feast of the Transfiguration

Exodus 24:12-18

The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. To the elders he had said, "Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them."

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

2 Peter 1:16-21

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Matthew 17:1-9

Six days after Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

HISTORICAL TIDBIT:

In early medieval times, when even many priests were barely literate, few people had read the Bible, even among the clergy. It was assumed by many who had not read the Bible, or whose Latin was not good enough to understand it (because it was written in vulgar Latin, a language easy for late Romans to understand but not so easy for medievals), that it had no contradictions within it. In the 11th century, however, the theologian Peter Abelard wrote a book called Sic et Non (Latin for Yes and No) in which he paired and resolved contradictions in the text. And thus was begun the modern study of the Bible. If you’re interested, Abelard was far more brilliant than he was moral. While under holy orders and a vow of chastity, he had an illicit affair with a noblewoman and later nun named Heloise. Heloise’s cousins castrated Abelard in retaliation, and made Heloise join a convent. Many of the letters they sent to each other during and after this episode still exist, and make for some fascinating, and very passionate, reading.

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- This week, there are three major feasts to take note of. The first is the feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. This is when Jesus was “presented” at the temple with an offering. It was very much like a christening, and is celebrated on Saturday the 2nd. See Luke 2:22-40 for more details. The second is the feast of Cornelius the Centurion, who was the first gentile convert to Christianity, and is celebrated on Monday the 3rd. See Acts chapters 10 and 11. The third is Ash Wednesday, where we “celebrate,” so to speak, the beginning of Lent, the season leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection.

- In this passage from Exodus, we see the first Transfiguration that prefigures the later Transfiguration of Jesus. Seeing God is an inherently special thing; the number of people who have seen God the father is quite small—Moses, Jacob, Jesus and Elijah are some of the very few.
- When Moses enters into the cloud, he disappears for forty days and forty nights, and is in the presence of God, and there is fire and light, but he is within a cloud the entire time. He is hidden, in the darkness.

- The writer of the second letter of Peter is unknown. Because Peter himself was likely illiterate, it was probably written by one of his followers, whether at Peter’s dictation or inspiration is unknown.
- First, this letter makes reference to Peter’s own sight of the Transfiguration—he is not blowing smoke, in other words; he was there, and he saw it.
- This leads into the next passage of this letter. Taken in isolation, the second paragraph could be read to mean that the Bible needs no interpretation. This, however, is clearly false; one of the bedrock doctrines of the faith is that the Bible does not contradict itself. However, it often looks like it does, and in those cases, it is the job of the exegete to harmonize the passages and resolve the contradiction into greater understanding. This is where many of the greatest lessons of the Bible come from, in fact. But what Peter is getting at here is not that the Bible needs no interpretation, but instead that it is divinely inspired, and that it is put there to give prophecies for all. Whatever else is true of the Bible—and modern criticism has exposed many things about it—it is, in its own way, a coherent whole and must be taken as one; and many of the prophecies in the Old Testament prefigure events in the New.

- In a parallel to the Transfiguration of Moses, Jesus is transfigured in beauty and light, and God repeats what he had said when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist: This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.
- An interesting point here—perhaps one of you can tell me what it means—is that Jesus is taken up in light, in the sight of only the apostles, while Moses was taken up in darkness, inside a cloud, in the direct sight of Joshua, but also the sight of all the Israelites.
- Moses and Elijah are here as well as Jesus, but they glorify Jesus here.
- It’s very difficult to discern just what Peter is getting at here. He seems to want to do something. But God is giving him a lesson—don’t just do something, sit there! Peter makes some reference to this in his letter today. Sometimes, it’s OK to sit back and let God be God!

QUESTIONS:

1. Peter here has to accept that he is Peter, and God is God. If only the later occupants of Peter’s throne had learned as well! When have you had to accept that you are you, and God is God, and you each have a role, and you have to stop trying to be God?

2. How do you resolve seeming contradictions between two things that are “right,” according to your conscience or the scripture? When has this become a problem for you?

2008-01-16T19:54:00.000-05:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, January 20, 2008, Second Sunday After Epiphany, Year A

Isaiah 49:1-7

Listen to me, O coastlands, 
pay attention, you peoples from far away! 
The LORD called me before I was born, 
while I was in my mother's womb he named me. 
He made my mouth like a sharp sword, 
in the shadow of his hand he hid me; 
he made me a polished arrow, 
in his quiver he hid me away. 
And he said to me, "You are my servant, 
Israel, in whom I will be glorified." 
But I said, "I have labored in vain, 
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
 yet surely my cause is with the LORD, 
and my reward with my God." 
And now the LORD says, 
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
 to bring Jacob back to him,
 and that Israel might be gathered to him,
 for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, 
and my God has become my strength-- he says,  "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
 to raise up the tribes of Jacob
 and to restore the survivors of Israel; 
I will give you as a light to the nations, 
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
" Thus says the LORD,
 the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, 
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, 
the slave of rulers, 
"Kings shall see and stand up, 
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, 
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
 the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 1:29-42

John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, `He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- This Sunday’s lections revolve around the concept of testimony. Who gives testimony? What testimony do they give? How do we know it is true? What is the news they bring? Taking this theme further, it pushes the question of spiritual gifts—the powers it takes in ourselves to give testimony.

- This passage from Isaiah is yet another of the servant-songs, meant to be sung like Psalms. This carries on the basic themes in the previous servant songs we have read.
- The first thing to note is that the person in this song is a person who is called to bring a message to the farthest coastlands and far away.
- Secondly, and more importantly, it focuses on how he was chosen. God “named” him before he was born; God gave him a mouth like a sword, that can speak and can cut; but God “put him away in his quiver,” like a straight arrow put away for the right moment. But, at the proper moment, he will be called to give his testimony—and everyone will sit up and listen!

- In the context of Paul’s ministry and the church at Corinth, this opening to the letter is a statement of Paul’s credentials. The Corinthians were unruly, schismatic, and generally a complete freakshow of a church. Think of all the churches that have had shooting stars of pastors and leaders who electrified everyone, often by and to not-quite-orthodox ideas, then turned out to be embezzlers, adulterers, or pedophiles. This was what the church at Corinth was like. And the Corinthians were not going to let Paul just lead them without his laying out his credentials strongly at the beginning of his letter.
- Paul spends a ton of time in this passage pointing to Jesus and God, over and over again, and thus pointing away from himself—something which, given Paul’s constant fixation on Paul, must have been difficult and quite intentional!
- Paul also emphasizes the status of the Corinthians—who, as already mentioned, often had problems with arrogance and moral discipline—as people “called to be saints.” Right there, he sobers them, both putting them to rights, if they still have any shame, and emphasizing what they are called to be to put them in the right frame of mind.
- Paul then begins to testify as to who he is, and more importantly, who they are: called to be saints, called to spread the good news. More than that, they, like the servant in Isaiah, will receive spiritual gifts at the right times in order to bring their message out.

- In this passage from John, we see John the Baptist testifying about Jesus, and drawing people together with his testimony, despite the fact that at this point, Jesus is just a guy wandering around near the Sea of Galilee. John, a man of great moral authority in the area as a man who called people to repentance and baptism, had a strong claim to have his testimony heard. And it was! But note also that he spoke the words God gave him—if John was great, it was because God made him so.
- In this passage we also see the first of the Apostles coming to Jesus. It was the real beginning of his ministry—the epiphany, so to speak, when the world began to see him for what he was.
- Just as God gave the servant a name “before he was born” in our passage from Isaiah, so Jesus gives Simon the name Cephas—Aramaic for the Greek name PetroV, or Peter. As we will later learn, Peter means “rock” in Greek. At this time, this is a play on words: Peter is unsteady and never seems to be in the right place (notice that Andrew has to go get him here.) But in the Book of Acts it takes on new meaning!
- This name is the name Peter, who preached in the passage from Acts that we read last week, was given “before his birth.” This symbolizes that he has not yet been actually “born.” He will be “born again” in the Spirit, and given the spiritual gift of speech and teaching. All of us have the potential to do that, in one way or another!

QUESTIONS:

1. Is there anything you’ve ever done that you knew, from the time you began doing it, that it was what you were meant to do? Have you ever undertaken a task with trepidation, only to discover that you really did have it in you to do it, and you never knew it? What is your Name?

2. When have you given testimony? Have you ever heard testimony? And this is not testimony of God only; this is of anything. In court? To your friends, of something incredible? How did it turn out for you? Did you believe what you heard—or did people believe you?

3. What do you think is the right thing to do with regard to giving testimony of the good news?

2008-01-09T20:34:00.000-05:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, January 13, 2008, First Sunday After Epiphany, Year A

Baptism of the Lord

Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
 my chosen, in whom my soul delights; 
I have put my spirit upon him;
 he will bring forth justice to the nations.
 He will not cry or lift up his voice, 
or make it heard in the street; 
a bruised reed he will not break,
 and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; 
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
 He will not grow faint or be crushed 
until he has established justice in the earth; 
and the coastlands wait for his teaching. 
Thus says God, the LORD, 
who created the heavens and stretched them out, 
who spread out the earth and what comes from it, 
who gives breath to the people upon it 
and spirit to those who walk in it:  I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, 
I have taken you by the hand and kept you; 
I have given you as a covenant to the people, 
a light to the nations, 
to open the eyes that are blind, 
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, 
from the prison those who sit in darkness. 
I am the LORD, that is my name; 
my glory I give to no other, 
nor my praise to idols.
 See, the former things have come to pass, 
and new things I now declare;
 before they spring forth, 
I tell you of them.

Acts 10:34-43

Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

HISTORICAL TIDBIT:

In the years just before the birth of Christ, the Roman poet Virgil wrote an allegorical history of the founding of Rome called The Aeneid. The basic outline of the story is that a Trojan nobleman named Aeneas, who is mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, fled the destruction of Troy and made his way first to Carthage, where he broke the heart of Queen Elissa (known as Dido) before making his way to Rome, where by warfare he carved out a small kingdom. His twin grandsons Romulus and Remus would subsequently found Rome. It is an epic poem of great skill and beauty. A couple of passages also could be read to foretell the coming of Christ. His name “Virgil,” is very similar to the Latin word “virga,” meaning stylus or wand. So upper-class Christians in Rome would open The Aeneid to a random page, and randomly point at a passage with a wand—and then read that in addition to the lections for the day!

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- This is the week when we commemorate John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the River Jordan. There is some disagreement between the Eastern and Western traditions on exactly whether this happened on the Epiphany or the Sunday after. In order to give both the Epiphany and the Baptism their full due, we celebrate the baptism this Sunday.

- This passage from Isaiah includes the first two of the four “servant songs” found in Isaiah 40-55. It is a song, meant to be sung out, like a psalm, and it is sung in the voice of God speaking to his people.
- On the literal level, this text is about the return of the Jews from Assyria and Babylon to Israel. On a slightly more metaphorical level, this text from Isaiah is a fairly direct foretelling of the coming of Christ, who will bring light and righteousness.
- More deeply, in this text God addresses the Israelite people in an expansive way. It is important to note that, unlike many Old Testament texts, this passage addresses the nations. This means all peoples. Because of this, its message of justice, light and redemption is clearly meant to reach all peoples. Thus it foretells Jesus as the messiah not just to the Israelite people, but also, and perhaps especially (remember last week’s discussion of Inclusionism and Supersessionism) to the gentiles.

- This is the first time in the church year that we come into contact with the Book of Acts, or Acts of the Apostles. This book was written by the same Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke. It is similar in style and shares the Gospel’s concern with getting all of the important facts together in a coherent order, but is often more immediate. This is because Luke was most likely actually present at many of the events that take place in Acts, whereas he likely gathered the material for his Gospel from the Apostles.
- Luke here puts words into Peter’s mouth. Likely Peter gave a similar sermon, but in this case, Luke follows the Greek historian Thucydides, who was often his model, in fleshing it out and making it more real and full.
- This is the first sermon to the Gentiles that Peter gave (or at least, it is the first the Bible records.) However, it is a dynamic statement of everything that a dynamic, evangelistic, young church needs. Note that it does not make explicit reference to the Old Testament, but it does include an encapsulation of all that the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts say:
o This sermon opens with the message, reiterating our passage from Isaiah this week, that God is truly the God of all—that anyone who loves and serves him can become part of Israel.
o Just as John the Baptist announces in our Gospel passage this week from Matthew, Jesus was baptized not only with water but also with the Holy Spirit. And he came to all of the believers to baptize us with the Holy Spirit as well.
o Jesus came to save us all, and was hung on a tree! Notice the earthiness of this statement—it is a living image, not a mere symbol. But he also came back to show us his victory over death. However, it is important to pay attention to the fact that this sermon does not apportion blame, in fact, it makes clear that God would rather nail his son to a tree than bring blame on his people—Jew or Gentile—for their deeds, so long as they have love and faith in their hearts.
o Jesus commanded us to spread the good news of his message to all of the peoples.
- Remember, before you go, that there are still Christians fighting for the freedom to practice their religion, in China, Africa and many Islamic countries, and that there are many even here—even in Christian churches!—who do not know the good news. The message is not yet fully spread!

- Although the Baptism of Jesus is attested in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, only Matthew gives us the details of the conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist.
- When John the Baptist protests that Jesus should baptize him, not the other way around, Jesus answers that it is “fitting” or “proper.” Many people throughout history, both Christian and not, have asked the question, “why Jesus? Why wouldn’t God just save us all right off? He’s all-powerful, right?” St. Anselm, a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury, and our current Archbishop, Rowan Williams, both wrote that this passage holds the key to answering that question: it was the proper and fitting thing for God to do under the circumstances, in order to save mankind.
- The dove, as a symbol, always represents the Holy Spirit.
- God the Father, in saying that he is “well-pleased” with his Son, enters the picture here and fulfills the prophecy in this week’s passage from Isaiah.
- The dove alighting on Jesus is a beautiful metaphor for what happened at this moment: the baptism of water also showed, symbolically, the union of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

QUESTIONS:

1. Just as early Christians found the Holy Spirit speaking to them through the work of Virgil, so Christians throughout history have heard God to them through art, including literature, music, architecture and the visual arts. What art have you seen lately that gave you a bit of the Holy Spirit? Have you ever felt inspired to create?

2. Has God, or someone very close to you, ever said they were well-pleased with you? Did someone withhold that from you? Have you given that affirmation to anyone? What do you feel about it?

2008-01-03T19:12:00.000-05:00

LECTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP

Week of Sunday, January 6, 2008, Feast of the Epiphany, Year A

Isaiah 60:1-6

Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.

They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.

Ephesians 3:1-12

This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
`And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

THEOLOGICAL TIDBITS:

- Three broad themes run through the readings this week. The first is the Epiphany as the time of the baptism of Jesus. The second is the coming of the Three Wise Men, as the coming of the nations (= gentiles) to Jerusalem, both figuratively and literally. The third is the missionary efforts of the Church.

- This passage from Isaiah, in its original context, had to do with the return of the Jews to Israel following their exile in Babylon. It went further, however, in also saying that all nations would eventually come to Jerusalem. This is often seen in the Jewish tradition as prefiguring the coming of the messiah.
- This passage, in its references to gentiles coming to Jerusalem with gold and frankincense, clearly foretells the coming of the Magi that is discussed in the Gospel this week.
- This passage from Isaiah also explains the idea of epiphany not as a sudden “Eureka!” moment, but as the growing that will eventually burst forth. It begins with the coming, and the slow growing of the light, then finally the gentiles catching on to the amazing things God is doing in Israel.

- The most recent and best Bible scholarship tends to show that Paul did not write the letter to the Ephesians, but instead one of his followers wrote it. Whether this was independent of Paul, inspired by Paul, or at his dictation, is unclear. However, it does fairly represent the thought of Paul consistently with his other writings.
- This passage must be read within the context of the earlier passage of Ephesians 2:12, in which the pseudo-Paul talks about the “commonwealth of Israel.” Ephesians is clearly presenting Paul’s mission as bringing the Good News to all of the nations that we are all, not just the Jews, children and heirs of God through Jesus.
- Traditionally, there have been two views of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, known as inclusionism and supersessionism. Supersessionism claims that the old covenant is completely replaced by the new, and that therefore Jews cannot be saved. This view was held by Martin Luther and John Calvin, and by many Protestant theologians over the years. The Roman Catholic Church continues to hold that all people who are not practicing members of the visible Roman church on earth, including Jews (and Protestants) are hell-bound. Today, this view is generally held to be anti-semitic, and largely theologically unsupportable. The other, and in my opinion better, view, which is supported by this passage from Ephesians, is that although membership in the Christian church is open to Jews, it is primarily a religion for gentiles, where we come into communion with the God of the Jews, who sent Jesus to proclaim the message and Paul to spread it to all the peoples.

- Herod the Great was a man whose heart turned malignant with age. In his youth, he really was great, and did great things for Palestine, including producing public works and improving the economy and general well-being of the people. However, as he got older, he became more and more paranoid that he would be overthrown, eventually executing many of his courtiers and best administrators and soldiers. The story of the Magi shows us Herod during this paranoid and homicidal period late in his life.
- The Magi are generally thought to be “wise men from the east.” This makes some sense, because the Persians and their predecessors had kept detailed and accurate astronomical records for astrological purposes for thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Furthermore, in their astrological system, strange astronomical events always foretold important earthly events. It therefore would be consistent with the story for them to have come to Bethlehem following a star. It is also interesting to note that there were a number of unusual astronomical events in the period of 7-3 B.C., any one of which could have been the one the Magi followed.
- One thing to note here is that the Magi were not generally considered to be good people by Jews at that time. Jews frowned on astrology, and on foreigners from the East. It is also unlikely that the Magi were “kings”—they were perhaps Zoroastrian priests, but certainly not kings. Furthermore, far from being wise, they tipped off Herod of the birth of a “king” in Bethlehem, thereby touching off the slaughter of the innocents, when it was already an open secret in Palestine that Herod was a homicidal paranoiac. What this story shows, if anything, is that even a broken clock is right twice a day; the Magi did for once see the unmistakable sign that Isaiah foretold and got it right that something very special was going on in Bethlehem.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is your understanding of inclusionism and supersessionism? Do you have one? Is the whole idea of these ideas in some way offensive, do you think? Does it offend your sense of a personal relationship with God?

2. What is the mission of the church to the gentiles? Who exactly are the gentiles? Are they us? Are they those in the world who have not heard the word—or at least have not heard the word in a way that makes sense to them? More importantly, in our Anglican Communion, to what extent should the Christian church be willing to compromise with more primitive ways of life such as are practiced in some African branches of our church, which often feature social and family customs very different from anything that we would be willing to countenance?

2007-12-29T07:48:00.000-05:00