Words 7.1

 Words Twice a Week          7.1

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 some of the lessons for this Sunday, July 4 – proper 9

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

+ so the transition from Saul to David continues to be kind of a messy story.  The context here is that David is king over Judah in the south.  Ishbosheth, one of Saul’s sons, is king in the north, propped up by Abner, one of Saul’s generals.  When Abner comes south to transfer his loyalty to David, he is killed by Joab and then some of Joab’s captains murder Ishbosheth. When David finds out about all of this, he says he’s not responsible (he blames Joab!), and he has the captains killed, just as he had with the messenger who told him about Saul (and perhaps embellished his part in it.)  So now David is entrenched in the south, and the north is leaderless.

+ the elders come from the north to cast their lot in with David.  They made a covenant and the elders anointed David.  (He had already been anointed by Samuel, and by the people of Judah.)  Leadership is a mixture of divine call and community buy-in.  What covenants do we make – with leaders, with groups, with ourselves?

+ note the shepherd image.

+ so now, David and his men capture Jerusalem.  What’s the deal with the blind and the lame – just a figure of speech? those who were not admitted to the temple?

+ Jerusalem was a Jebusite city, and on the border between Israel and Judah, so it was a good neutral location. Kind of like Washington DC for us.  Both then acquire a symbolic significance.

+ the north/south division.  Note that the “united monarchy” was something of a novel experiment, held together by David’s persona and cleverness that ultimately failed.

Psalm 48

+ a song of praise for God’s city/mountain/fortress/citadel.  Possibly part of a festival with people coming from elsewhere – “we have heard but now we see” and “go explore Jerusalem”.

+ it can become idolatrous when the divine presence becomes too closely linked with a physical location.  In our experience, where, when, does tradition and affection spill over into idolatry?

+ foreign kings, soldiers, visitors(?) are terror-struck when they see the city.  How do our churches strike visitors?  I’ve always said there is not much spookier than being in a church alone at night.  I don’t know how the child Samuel did it!

Ezekiel 2.1-5

+ Ezekiel is called to speak to those in exile in Babylon.  We note that Ezekiel was big on dramatic, prophetic actions.  Maybe some of that stems from his call.

+ In what ways are we like those people in exile?  Have we rebelled against God?  Or how have we rebelled?  And does that have anything to do with how and why we are in exile?

+ “They shall know there has been a prophet among them.”  Are there prophets among us? How do we know?  What are they saying?  Are we listening?

Psalm 123

+ yeah, all kinds of servant(slave)/master and maid/mistress issues, but still I just like the sound of the line “as the eyes of a maid (look) to the hands of her mistress…”  Whose hands do we pay attention to?  Receive from?  Are threatened by?

+ “we have had more than enough of contempt” – all kinds of issues that could bubble to the surface here.  Racial/ethnic/income/wealth inequalities, Doctrine of Discovery issues, political/social speech.  We are more than ready for a time of peace, maybe even The Time of God’s Peace!

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

+ Paul is being “attacked” by people we call “super-apostles”, who can boast of visions and accomplishments, who can draw crowds, raise money, sell books, get on tv or have lots of followers on Twitter or Youtube(?)  Paul says he could boast of such things, but doesn’t.  How do our leaders – church, government – try to “self-authenticate”?  How do we?

+ The danger is that when we say “Oh, we’re not like the super-apostles” we can sometimes be using that to cover up the reality that we really are not drawing crowds, we really are not sharing the good news beyond our walls.

+ the “thorn in the flesh” and “my grace is sufficient”.  How has that worked out in your life?  Do you have a “thorn”?  Has grace been sufficient?  Note that a “thorn” would not be just any difficulty or disability, but something that hinders telling the good news – at least that’s how I see it.  “If you can’t preach like Peter, if you can’t pray like Paul, just tell the love of Jesus, just say he died for all.”

+ Paul boasts of his weakness so that others will see God and not Paul.  That’s not always an easy stance to keep up – boasting of weakness.  And also, boasting of weakness can sometimes be kind of a sick way of avoiding responsibility.

Mark 6.1-13

+ Jesus goes home, and is not well received.  Note that it is his teaching that causes the crowd to start questioning him, not the healings or exorcisms.

+ have you ever overlooked someone special because they were familiar?

+ the Christian confession is not “I believe in Christ”; the Christian confession is “I believe Jesus is the Christ”.  How are they different.  (That’s Fred Craddock!)

+ rather than having crowds looking at Jesus and being amazed by the goodness of God, now we have Jesus looking at the crowds and being amazed by their lack of faith.

+ it is not that faith is necessary for “miracles”, but “miracles” could lead to faith and it is surprising when they don’t.  Has a “miracle” played a part in your developing faith?  What was it?

+ sending out the 12.  2x2, so no one has to do it alone?  So everyone has come kind of accountability?  So you can “tag team” the witnessing?  When I was doing Clinical Pastoral Education, I was sent off in this hospital wing and I didn’t know what to do.  For part of the time I just wandered.  It would have made a world of difference if there had been someone else along.

+ And he gave them authority.  Do we operate on God’s authority or our own?  How is that different?

+ he told them 1) to “go lean”, not for asceticism, but for simplicity. (How does going with more stuff complicate the journey?); 2) to “stay put, not shop around for a more comfortable/lucrative setting”, and 3) to speak peace, not to pronounce judgment.  And they cast out demons and healed people!  This is one of the few places in the gospel where the disciples are actually successful.

+ he called the twelve – the church is a called community; the church is not a volunteer organization.  How does the church compare and contrast with the 12?

Anyway, that’s what I got for now…..

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