Words Twice a Week 1.21 (1.21.21!)
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.
And in case you were wondering, the inauguration breakfast at the West house was buttermilk pumpkin pancakes! With maple syrup.
Charlie’s Inauguration poem -
On the road from where
we’ve been to where we’re going -
a new beginning.
(And that’s why they asked Amanda and not me!)
Some thoughts on some of the lessons for Sunday -
Psalm 62.5-12
+ another psalm, like last week, that might have been used in a ritual by someone who has been (falsely?) accused of something.
+ insignificance of humanity, both those of high estate and low. Put either one on a teeter-totter and they are both sitting up there in the air! Ok – that is a bit to swallow when you look at some of the things those of high estate have done and could do. I was just reading something about how with $500,000 a person could wreak all kinds of political havoc and that it is not that hard to find someone with that much. And I guess folks “of low estate” can also wreak a certain amount of havoc. Does “high estate” mean rich, or significant, or important, or ????? Are you feeling of high estate, or low? Probably somewhere in-between. But let’s be clear, in God’s eyes you are of ultimate value.
+ God is powerful and kind. For humans, it is really hard to hold those two qualities together. One writer puts it that “power without love is tyranny, love without power lapses to sentimentalism” What kind of power do we have to enact our love?
+ Note that at least in the NRSV, vs 11 is about God (“power belongs to God”), and vs 12 is spoken to God (“steadfast love belongs to you, O God.”) Is the psalmist “reminding God”?
+ vs 12, “God rewards us according to what we do.” How do we think about that? Is it simply saying that what we do makes a (cause and effect) difference, or does God really treat different people differently?
Jonah 3.1-5, 10
+ the second half of the book – the whole bit with the whale is behind him. This time when God tells Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh, Jonah obeys. Not sure where Jonah started out, but he went to Nineveh, so he was a foreigner? Or an “expert” – “someone from somewhere else”? Are you more likely to take seriously someone from the congregation or community that you know, or someone “from somewhere else”? Someone on tv? On the internet?
+ Jonah preaches doom (“fire and brimstone”?) to the Ninevites. Are there times when preaching doom is more effective than preaching grace or hope? Do threats about climate collapse lead people to make changes?
+ Note that there is no mention of God in Jonah’s message; no “thus says the Lord”; no “repent or…”
+ Even though Jonah does not offer it, the people of Nineveh repent, fast, and put on sackcloth. One writer – “Nineveh is daring, imaginative, inventive in moving beyond the prophetic word”. In vs 7-9 the king of Nineveh introduces new options for God to consider. A reminder that God longs for conversation, for communion. In the end, God does have pity and does not destroy. Did the king of Nineveh change God’s mind? And again the question, how much of it is God’s doing, how much is just “what we do makes a cause and effect difference”?
+ The people of Ninevah fasted and put on sackcloth as a part of their repentance. What would repentance look like to you? Maybe it depends on what you are repenting over/about?
+ Nineveh responded as a community, not just individuals. Is that when it makes a difference? There was the book “50 ways to save the environment” or something like that, but also the realization that any one person’s actions are not really going to make that much difference in the larger picture. Does one person’s prayer make a difference?
+ Reading into Ch 4, with Jonah and God sparing, Jonah’s story does not really have an ending – it causes us to put ourselves into Jonah’s character. One writer notes the difference between the universal call of Jesus and our (and Jonah’s) desire to place boundaries on salvation.
Mark 1.14-20
+ “After John was arrested” – not an encouraging start. Mark is saying clearly that John was already off the stage when Jesus started his ministry. He was not just one of John’s followers. But what does it mean for us that our story begins “after John was arrested, after Jesus was crucified”?
+ two sections of this passage – first the time and place and summary of Jesus’ ministry, and second, the call of the first disciples.
+ “The time is fulfilled, God’s Kingdom is here” – God is taking definitive, significant action in Jesus that shapes reality from then on. “God’s future beckons us out of the present into a life yet unrealized, unknown.” What characteristics of this new life are you looking for? God’s action is the motivation for repentance. Humans do not enable God’s action; God’s action calls for/demands human action in response.
+ It is not completely clear if Jesus said “the Kingdom is near” or “the Kingdom is here”. In the one case we might feel called to help bring the kingdom the rest of the way, in the other we would be called to live on the basis of it’s being here already. The best work I’ve found on this is Episcopal priest Robert Farrer Capon! He says the kingdom is something God has done and is doing and we must and can live accordingly.
+ “Repent and believe this good news.” What helps you believe? What makes it harder? Just what is this “good news” in everyday terms.
+ Jesus was walking – he often seemed to be going from one place to another. How does that fit with our tendency to stay put?
+ He calls two pairs of fishermen to follow him. Note that he simply calls, he doesn’t “market himself” or persuade. Why do you think they followed? (Mark doesn’t really seem to think that is significant.) Did Jesus go looking for fishermen or is that just who happened to be where he was walking? If you were his “campaign consultant”, who would you suggest he go looking for? And you have to believe that as these four looked at themselves they said “Ok, my skill set involved catching fish.” And Jesus said, Ok, from now on we’re going to need you to expand on that.” What does “fish for men/women” even mean? How willing are we to be pushed beyond our comfort zone, to develop or discover a new skill set?
+ Can’t leave this thought without singing -
O Lord, with your eyes you have searched me,
and while smiling, have spoken my name.
Now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me,
by your side, I will seek other seas.
+ What about Zebedee? All parents have hopes and dreams for their children. How do you think he felt watching James and John walking away.
+ They followed “a man they cannot understand, on a journey that will perplex and confuse them, to a destination as yet unspecified.” Does that reflect your experience? And note that by the end (John 14), they still don’t know where they are going. What about us – do we have a sense of where we are going? Have we decided on a journey or a destination? What if next week Jesus takes a turn for somewhere else?
Charlie’s “gospel poem” of the week -
On the road from where
We’ve been to where we're going -
A new beginning.
How comfortable are we with that?
Here’s a prayer -
God of that time, and this time, and all time -
Guide us as we live these days.
Help us let go of things that would hold us back –
nets and possessions
directions or destinations,
resumes, references, reports,
preconceived notions of who deserves or belongs,
Help us hold on to your hand (and Word)
as we walk toward and through
the Time of your Peace. (That’s what I like to call “The Kingdom of Heaven”!)
That’s what I got for now -
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