If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church. Click here.
Some thoughts on the lessons for Sunday – that’s right, we’re hitting all four this week.
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
+ vs 7-12 are the parts of this psalm that I like best. “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea…” That just sings for me.
+ God knows us, and about us, from before our beginning to after our end. Is this comforting or troubling? The psalmist presents God as loving and caring, not threatening.
+ It can sound like this doesn’t leave much room for our own choice – one writer suggests this psalm is about God’s presence/participation (to use terms I’m big on – this could be a stewardship word!) in our lives and in all creation, more than about choice. What do you think?
+ Preaching Through the Christian Year suggests this might be the response of someone who has been falsely accused of something. I could maybe see that. “As God is my witness….”
+ God has insight (vs 1-6), oversight (7-12), and foresight (13-18). Nice.
+ the psalm is intensely personal – it has “I”, “me”, or “my” at least once in each verse.
+ vs13-18 like with Creation last week, God is/was intentional about each of us. None of us are just random. How do we think about this together with evolution? Just how detailed, explicit is God’s intention for each of us? How do you think/talk about that?
1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)
+ another story where everything turns on the response of a youngster! Note that Samuel is young, fresh, innocent; Eli is old, losing his sight (physical, figurative, spiritual?), tainted by his sons behavior.
+ Elkanah had two wives (that introduces issues we don’t usually think about!), one with children, the other without. Note that when Hannah does have one child, she gives him to God. Is it harder or easier to give away an “only” item/child or “one of many”? Note that Samuel is left behind when Hannah and Elkanah head home, kind of like Jesus stayed behind when his family went to the Temple.
+ it says the voice of God was rare, either directly or in dreams. How do we think of God speaking today? Is it rare or common? Have you ever had the sense God was calling you, speaking to you? If so, what was it like?
+ this from Frederick Buechner -
GOD SPEAKS TO us through our lives, we often too easily say. Something speaks anyway, spells out some sort of godly or godforsaken meaning to us through the alphabet of our years, but often it takes many years and many further spellings out before we start to glimpse, or think we do, a little of what that meaning is. Even then we glimpse it only dimly, like the first trace of dawn on the rim of night, and even then it is a meaning that we cannot fix and be sure of once and for all because it is always incarnate meaning and thus as alive and changing as we are ourselves alive and changing.
+ on the third time God calls Samuel, Eli finally realizes what is going on and coaches Samuel on what to do.
+ vs 11-20 God tells Samuel that “Eli’s line” will not continue. Does God really punish? It’s a big word for a little boy.
+ note that in the morning Eli does call Samuel – and asks what God said. An awkward moment for Samuel. Which encounter - God or Eli – would be more intimidating?
+ note that the end of Eli’s line marks the “delegitimation” of the primary priestly family symbol system on which Israel has relied. Note how Eli responds. How would we? So an ending and a new beginning (with Samuel, who God does not let any of his words fall to the ground!)
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
+ “Anything”, “Food”, “Sex” – Paul takes things (slogans) some of the folks at Corinth are saying, which they indeed may have learned from Paul himself, and “corrects” their understanding of them. Are there slogans today – either religious or political – that get worked out or understood in different ways and sometimes cause problems?
+ some of the Corinthians came from the seamier side of life, but they have been “washed, sanctified, and justified”. (How comfortable are we with that language?) “You’ve been cleaned up”, Paul says, “now don’t get dirty again.” How much do we feel we need to be washed, sanctified, justified?
+ the body and the spirit are intertwined – not set against each other, not unrelated. How does this work out in your life?
+ one writer quotes Ernst Kasemann, (I read a couple of his books in seminary, but that was long, long ago!) saying that the body is the piece of the world which we are and for which we bear responsibility. Eco-theologians like Thomas Berry would maybe suggest that our body is that piece of the world in which creation becomes self-aware and self-reflective. Is this unique to humans? Some would say “yes”, others “no”.
+ and finally, the corporate nature of Christian/human existence. If one of us goes astray, all are hurt. If one of us is kept from finding their full potential, we all suffer. A good thing to keep in mind as we work to move forward as a country, as a people. Yes, I have systemic racism in mind! And various cultural, social, economic, political issues.
John 1:43-51 Jesus calls Philip, Philip brings Nathanael
+ Jesus goes to Galilee and “meets” Philip. Just bumped into him? Was looking for him? Bumped into a variety of others but it didn’t go anywhere? Were you there? Did Jesus bump into you?
+ Philip finds Nathanael – so not the Billy Graham scene from last week. This is more like “Each one bring one”.
+ “Can anything good come from Nazareth” – speaking of slogans. “Can anything good come from _____________?” In your experience, how does that blank get filled in? Republican/Democratic; Russia, China; the rich/the poor; indigenous/immigrant; white people/people of color?
+ Nathanael “wasn’t deceitful” – was on the spectrum?
+ in John, Jesus just knows things about people. Like God knows us and about us. Again, is that comforting? Intimidating?
+ Jesus calls Philip, Philip “invites” Nathanael, but Jesus calls Nathanael into discipleship. We might invite people to church, but they become disciples when they encounter Jesus. How did that happen for you? Is it something that we keep in mind? Does it have to do with the “why” of the “what, how, why” that Marna has encouraged us to think about?
+ we have found “the one…” How would we identify, describe Jesus to Nathanael?
+ the question in John is almost always about whether a person accepts Jesus or not. Nathanael clearly does. Asnd Jesus says he will see angels going up and coming down, ie Jacob’s ladder. Do we think of Jesus being Jacob’s ladder, or the place where Jacob’s ladder rests? Is there a difference?
+ a little bit from Fred Craddock here -
The biblical word central to the Season of Epiphany is “revelation”, for this is the time to celebrate the revealing of the Son of God. But the companion word to revelation is “witness”, for revelation in the biblical sense is never open and obvious to everyone, interested or not, believer or not. There is always a kind of radiant obscurity, a concealing that requires faith to grasp the revealing. One is not permitted a controlled, managed, guaranteed, no-risk response to Jesus. Those, therefore, who have beheld the glory become flesh cannot prove, but they can witness.
And -
Let the preacher notice that witnessing invites, it does not argue or coerce, and certainly does not cartoon or discredit Nathanael’s initial doubt. Faith sickens and dies in an atmosphere where doubt is laughed at.
And -
Those of us who regularly evaluate others by place of origin, residence, family, education, and station (to name a few!) should not find Nathanael’s response unusual.
And -
Nathanael’s response seems too big for an individual...As “a true Israelite” perhaps he is meant to represent all of Israel? (Craddock notes that Nathanael is not listed as a disciple in any of the Gospel or Acts lists.)
That’s what I got for now -
Comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear
No comments:
Post a Comment