Actually 4.1 - have you been fooled yet?
Words Twice a Week 3.31
And I am still trying to figure out what might happen with the Sunday/Monday segment of Words Twice a Week - until I do here are some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday – Fifth in Lent
Isaiah 43:16-21
+ words to people in exile about the coming end of exile. Words to people coming out of a pandemic about ?????
+ v20 - The jackals and ostriches???
+ How do we hear “forget about the former things”? - What former things – the exodus? Other things God has done? Things the people have done? And we forget about them because they are no longer relevant? Because God is getting ready to do something even greater?
+ Is the “new thing” really the old thing that God will save people not for their own sake but because that’s just how God is, and we are just now discovering it?
+ “a way in the wilderness, a river in the desert” – what wildernesses have you wandered in? What wilderness is there ahead of us as we move out of pandemic?
Psalm 126
+ a “psalm of ascents” – this is one of the psalms people recited/sang as they went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem or remembering the other times they had gone, or looking forward to a time when they might go. Interesting to pair it with the gospel story where Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem.
+ vs 1 “when the Lord restored…” and vs 4 “restore our fortunes…” Remembering what God has done to encourage ourselves about what God might do?
+ What do the nations say about us? The Lord has done great things for them?
+ Both here and in the Isaiah passage, the image of a river in the desert – maybe a more powerful image for people in the middle east than for us in the UP? We got rivers all over the place!
+ the pilgrimage goes from ordinary to holy. Where are we on that journey?
+ note three times “shouts of joy”. Whether we (individual/church/congregation) live and thrive or falter and die, we do it rejoicing. If we’re going down, we are going down rejoicing!
+ sowing in tears, reaping with joy. There was the idea that in subsistence agriculture, you come to a point about now when you have some grain left, and you can either eat it and have nothing for next year or sow it and go hungry (and trust that it will grow and provide for you for the next year!)
+ planning and planting the garden is always a hopeful activity – until you remember the squirrels! The n it turns to frustration and weeping.
+ “dreamers” – we are a people of memory and of hope. What hopes do you have? What disappointments?
Philippians 3:4b-14
+ Paul has reason to be confident “in the flesh” – in the “Jewish measurements, qualifications”. What Christian qualifications do we pay attention to – and do these make it easier or more difficult to “come to or follow Jesus”? Orderly worship? Pious living?
John 12:1-8
+ this passage definitely links with chapter 11 which is the raising of Lazarus. The time between that event and this is a little obscure, but the connection is clear – Jesus is back in the house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. And I’m sure it was a thanksgiving party atmosphere.
+ on the other hand in between the leaders of the people are getting increasingly concerned about Jesus’ popularity and Caiaphas notes that it is expedient for one man to die for the many. And right after this story they consider planning to kill Lazarus as well! So the raising of Lazarus lead almost immediately to the killing of Jesus. (Does Mary realize this?)
+ so in all of this, there is a certain amount of tension – it’s almost Passover, and the question “Will he go to Jerusalem?” is hanging in the air.
+ “Six days before…” A countdown?
+ this story, or one like it, is in each of the four gospels – how is John different from Mt, Mk, and Lk?
+ this passage comes almost at the end of the “book of signs” and before the “book of glory”. How does this affect the way we hear it.
+ Then Mary comes in with this pound of nard. Where did she get it? Were they that well off? She anoints Jesus’ feet – ordinarily a person would anoint another’s head. What did she mean by this action? Seems to me, an act of extreme thanksgiving for his raising of her brother. But maybe she was worried about his visit to Jerusalem. Remember we know the end of the story, at this point she does not.
+ Does the anointing express joy over what has happened or anguish over what is about to happen or both? Is this just irony?
+ words and deeds have meaning beyond what we initially hear or see?
+ In any case, Jesus’ words raise the image of death. Does Jesus say “She is anointing my body for burial” or “Let her keep it for the day of my burial”? The language is unclear.
+ Passover stories in the gospel of John are always about the Crucifixion.
+ Jesus vs the poor. Not to say that there will or should always be poor, but rather that Jesus’ time is so short that extraordinary rules apply. Today we could say that for some people – Afghanistan, Ukraine, people without a home even in our own country – their time is so short that extraordinary rules apply. What might those rules look like? There was a book – Shoes of the Fisherman – years ago in which the Pope sold off the Vatican treasures to feed the poor (I think, might be wrong about that.) I think it was also the book where a group of kids with Downs Syndrome were in fact the little ones that Jesus was coming back to welcome into heaven. (Again, not sure.)
That’s what I got for now…..
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