Words Twice a Week
Welcome to September – try to remember, and if you remember, then follow!
Here’s a prayer for the week from Henri Nouwen -
Dear Lord, today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh:
“It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.”
Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions
and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same.
Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover.
Out of your love I came to life, by your love I am sustained,
and to your love I am always called back.
There are days of sadness and days of joy;
there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude;
there are moments of failure and moments of success;
but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love….
O Lord, sea of love and goodness,
let me not fear too much the storms and winds of my daily life,
and let me know there is ebb and flow but the sea remains the sea.
Some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts -
Psalm 149 Sing a New Song
- one of the five songs of praise that wind up the whole book, this one starts out really nice and then ends up a little more problematically!
- sing a new song when the faithful meet (again, not just by yourself!); when the faithful meet – masked, distanced, no singing – how does that work today? Dancing 6 feet apart ok?
- because God created us, we are not just a fluke of the universe. But did God create us specifically, or did God set in motion a creative process that includes all that is, and of which we are one part or facet. If that is the case, is there anything special, unique, about us, and if so what? 1) that we can conceive of a Creator and be thankful and in communion with him/her? 2) that we can reflect on the creation and help direct it? (If so, we are not doing such a hot job of that!)
- “Praise God with dancing and music” – nice;
“Praise God with songs and swords” – huh?
“Praise God with chains of iron (long guns, AK-47’s, poisons, bombs) to punish…
This is the privilege of the faithful…” like I said, kind of problematic. One writer notes that this perhaps came from, and addresses, a time when Israel was oppressed and exploited.
Exodus 12.1-14 Institution of Passover
- context: end of a series of plagues which are competitions between God and the Egyptians (Pharaoh and the Egyptian gods)
- Israelites are to kill a lamb, put the blood on the doorpost, eat together with bags packed and the motor running. What of that resonates with us today? “The blood?” “Eating together”? Living lightly and being ready to move on at a moment’s notice?
- this whole death of the first-born (animals, Egyptians, anyone without blood on the doorframe) thing. What does the story tell us about God, does God not love the Egyptian children/innocents? “In light of other biblical insights into the nature of God, one must also deny the portrait of Yahweh as the killer of the innocent.” -Texts for Preaching.
- note that the Israelites are not saved because they are special or a separate people – they are saved simply because they put blood on the doorframe. The Egyptians could have done it and they would have been saved. It was “only by the blood”! How does this resonate with “Are you washed in the blood of the lamb” and “The path that is my portion may lead through the flame or flood, but his presence goes before me and I’m covered with his blood.”?
- in the end, God works to save, and this is the more valid portrait that we can take from this story.
Matthew 18.15-20 Words (to the Church) about sinning and forgiving
- as we saw last week, this and Jesus’ words to Peter in Mt 16 are the only places the word we translate “church” is used in the Gospels.
- context in Matthew – vs 6+ – drastic ways (cutting off hands, plucking out eyes) to avoid sinning; vs 10+ - finding the lost sheep (one out of 100); vs 21 – how often must I forgive
- if someone sins (followers are called to “recognize right and wrong in love.”)
1) talk with them privately, one to one. Resist the natural reaction to line up allies first.
2) talk with them still somewhat privately, one to three or four.
3) involve the whole church – note, in Matthew’s day, this would have been a fairly small close-knit community. And those who refuse to listen are to be treated like unbeliever or tax collector – ie, not a member of the church but a person to be won back if possible.
- note that Jesus envisions differences between us, two believers are at odds about something. Neither one is necessarily right or wrong – there is an issue to be sorted out.
- situations of alienation are to be taken seriously. How many times have you experienced someone walking away from the church for some reason – perhaps a perceived slight, perhaps a difference of political opinion, perhaps a different understanding of some part of the faith, ??? - and it never gets resolved? Really it’s a failure and a weakening of the whole congregation. But we have trouble with this – one of the things a few of us were trying to work on before everything fell apart last March was how to establish a form of communication, a venue, a ritual, where someone could say “I’m stepping away from the Church for a time because of……” Not a simple matter, but a really important one.
- vs 18 God will allow what you allow. In other words, the Church has great authority to address changing, evolving, times and situations.
- vs 20 If two of you agree God will do it…. Probably best to understand this in the context of finding reconciliation and winning back lost souls, not carte blanche prayer requests.
- historical context: the aftermath of the failed First Jewish Revolt against Rome as Israel experience the “full force of the wrath of Rome”. Note that in such times, “alienation caused by the two evils of hate and fear can lead to breakdown of community and widespread violence.”
- contemporary context - ???
Another prayer -
Dear God,
we are not sure what you had (and have) in mind as you watch your creation unfold,
but in some ways things don’t seem to be going so well, at least from our perspective,
and we fear that we are to some extent to blame!
Give us the faith to trust in you even in difficult times;
Give us the grace to forgive and accept each other;
Find us, Lord, and bring us back.
Next week - what happens if we don’t forgive, even 70x7 times!
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