Words Twice a Week 3.11
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 here’s a prayer for the week that seems kind of appropriate for a couple of different reasons, although it strikes me that we need to keep reminding ourselves that when we speak about “the least among us” we are speaking about people who are in circumstances that are “the least”, not the people themselves, who are in fact just as important, significant, “big” as any -
Forgive Us for Not Speaking Up for the Least
O God of justice, miracles, and mighty deeds,
We lift up to you those who have been silenced by hardship, affliction, and injustice.
Forgive us for not speaking up for the least among us.
We confess that we have not exercised our influence and position to change things.
Grant us the courage to be agents of change and instruments of justice.
Empower us with the will and the desire to see your kingdom manifest on earth
as it is already done in heaven. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
- Junius Dotson, The Africana Worship Book
Now some preliminary thoughts from some of the lectionary passages for Sunday
Ps 107.1-3, 17-22
+ “Give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, and God’s steadfast love endures” – through all things, through all time.
+ God gathers us from the four directions. Do you ever feel scattered and in need of being gathered in? What can help with that? Regular participation in worship? Other ritual practices?
+ They were sick, couldn’t eat, and “drew near the gates of death” and when they cried to the Lord, God saved them. Timely reference.
+ Let them thank God and tell others…Even if you come off as kind of a religious nut?
+ note that the whole of psalm 107 is sort of a ritual in which four different kinds of people could tell about the kinds of distress they had experienced (some wandered/lived in the desert/food desert, some were in prison, some were harmed by their foolish behavior, some went down to the sea) and how God had saved them. What would be four major distresses today? Poverty, wealth inequality, racism,…..
Num 21.4-9
+ Well this is just kind of a weird story, and I suppose because it’s kind of weird, we (or at least, I) tend to blow it off. Yeah, it’s a nice prequel to John 3.16, but I don’t usually think of it as more than that. Guess it’s not that different from the manna and all that, but still – “look at the snake on the pole and you’ll be alright”? Come on…
+ So we are murmuring in the wilderness again – we don’t like the food, we don’t like the conditions. Who in our day might see themselves in this story – migrants? The “least among us” that we noted above? People with dietary issues?
+ would God really send poisonous serpents among the people? I think not. So what were they really, how did they get there? Is this a place where we take the Bible seriously, not literally? Apparently the “poisonous serpents” could be translated “fiery serpents”. Is that better?
+ Do we/you have things like the bronze serpent that we can look at when bad things happen and be protected? Healed? Like an icon; like a family picture; like a “happy place” image we can hold in our thoughts?
+ “The erstwhile slaves did not remember the burden of abuse in the empire, but only the guaranteed food supply that the empire always gives to cheap labor.” The less than adequate minimum wage?
Eph 2.1-10
+ we were dead because we were following the way of the world, until God, in mercy, saved us. The big line “By grace you have been saved through faith.” The transition from death to life. And this is God’s doing, not ours. (Except we have to believe it?)
+ Ok, but, then vs 10, “we are what God has made us” – I’m sorry but it does kind of beg the question, why didn’t God make us different? I guess it’s the “free will” issue. The God wanted a companion not a puppet?
+ BIG question here, as we are increasingly able to manipulate genes and sneak in a happiness gene, or an altruistic gene, or a submissive gene - ????? I loved the thought in one of the books we read a while back that if you put a smart gene in your first child, and then 3-4 years go by and the technology improves and you put a smart gene in your second child, all of a sudden your first child is “Windows 7” or whichever it was...
John 3.14-21
+ What do all the “John 3.16 people” do if they can’t get in to the football stadium or the basketball arena? If you were going to put a Bible verse on your tee shirt, which would it be?
+ narrative context – this us the conclusion of the “born again, born from above” conversation with Nicodemus, who came “by night” to talk with Jesus. Actually, it is a little unclear where the quotation ends – is this still Jesus talking or is it John explaining? Anyway, when it gets to the light and dark at the end, we remember that Nicodemus came “by night”.
+ whoever believes may have eternal life – what does “eternal life” mean to you – something that endures all things and all times? Something that is “worth living forever”? Something that goes on and on? Quality and quantity?
+ God sent the Son that the world might be saved. The people of the world? The world with or without the people? If it turns out that saving the people ends up killing the world, then what? Or does “saving the people” mean they would live in a way that would be healthy and sustainable for the world?
+ the Small Fiction (James Mark Miller) for today -
We broadcasted a message into space.
One word.
“Help” it said.
Ships showed up the next day. Scores of them.
“We thought you’d never ask.”
+ The light has come into the world – how does this square with Gen 1 where there was light even before there was a world?
+ those who do evil do their deeds in the darkness. Or have they gotten more and more comfortable with doing them in the light?
+ the “lifting up of Jesus” is both the crucifixion and the resurrection/ascension.
+ light is exposure/conviction for some, joy for others. A stepping stone for some can be a stumbling block for others, turning on a light creates shadows...(Craddock)
+ Judgment – either light or dark, with Jesus or against him, there is no middle ground.
+ believing is tied to doing. Those who do what is true come to the light so that their deeds might be known. Back to the “thank the Lord and tell others…” of the psalm.
+ and since God so loved the world, and gave Jesus so that the world might be saved, let’s stick in the Prayer for Peace in the World -
God of all Creation,
let the peace which is in your heart
flow into your world.
And may all who share your world
live together in justice, kindness, and humility.
We ask in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace.
That’s what I got for now….
Comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear
No comments:
Post a Comment