Words 10.15

 Words Twice a Week    10.15

[should have put this out at 5pm – then it would be 5, 10.15, 20]

Some thoughts on some of the lessons for this Sunday -

Ps 99   The Lord is our King

+ presented in the context of Israel and God making a covenant at Sinai.

+ God sees that fairness and justice are done in Israel.  What about outside of Israel?  And is that happening?  Fairness and Justice are objective, not subjective – would the Palestinians agree that fairness and justice are happening in Israel?  (Mixing governments and faith communities there, but then they are kind of mixed, aren’t they?  More about this in the gospel.)  How we hear this perhaps depends on if we feel like we are being treated with justice or not.

+ God forgives and punishes – just how does that work?

+ How do fairness and justice fit together in our “systemic racism day”?

Exodus 33.12-23   Time to Move On….

+ context; Israel (or the people who are becoming Israel) have been camped at Mt Sinai for a while now as Moses and God speak with each other.  But then there was the golden calf incident, and Moses smashed the covenant tablets (and the covenant?).  Now God tells them to head for the (“a”?) Promised Land, but that while they will still be God’s people, God himself/herself will not be going with them, because God cannot abide with sinfulness.  

+ So Moses begins a conversation.  Note Moses makes 3 petitions – to know God’s way, to have God’s presence with them on the journey, and to see God’s glory.  The first 2 are mainly Moses speaking and God responding with just a few words.  In the third, Moses speaks a few words and God responds with more.  Moses has been able to engage God in conversation leading to communion.  Does this reflect our prayer patterns and practice?

+ Note that Moses does that by referring to God’s character and history.  The “collect” prayer form begins with stating a relevant quality of God.  (Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open...)

+ The Promised Land – is it always somewhere else, in space or in time?  How tied are we to this space (our city, our church building or community) or this time?  Are we willing to go to some other place or time to be with God?  

1 Thessalonians 1.1-10    You are a fine example

+ years ago an older minister was talking about some particular fault or failing; he said, “It’ll ruin your testimony.”  I’ve remembered that for 40 years – though I can’t remember what he was talking about!

+ Is there a part of your life that would be a good example to others?  A not so good example?

+ I like this line - “Response to the gospel requires action as well as ascent.”

Matthew 22.15-22   Jesus deflects

+ the opponents – Pharisees and Herodians, two diametrically opposed groups (Richard Swanson raises the interesting possibility that the Herodians are really Pharisees in disguise), come to catch Jesus with an “unanswerable question”, like “Have you stopped beating your wife?”  He shows his authority by turning the tables on them.

+ writers suggest that the real focus of the passage is the authority of Jesus, and the “Render unto Caesar...” line is really not meant to be as much of the focus as we tend to make it.  It is not meant to be a “timeless maxim”.  In particular, Jesus does not mean to suggest that God and Caesar are two equal powers each with their own realm.  Humans bear God’s image, whatever realm they are in at the time.  Church and State are not as clearly separated as we might like them to be.  Here are a couple paragraphs from Texts for Preaching…

     Another way to put this is to say that the passage does not make God and Caesar to be equals, nor are they symbolic names for separate realms.  If so, one could be lead to the notion that the emperor has his realm in which ultimate allegiance can be demanded, and God is relegated to another realm. Quite the opposite is inferred in the text.  Humans bear God’s image, and wherever they live and operate – whether in the social, economic, political, or religious realm – they belong to God.  Their primary loyalties do not switch when they move out of church and into the voting booth.

     Read this way, the text does not solve the question of church and state.  It does not answer many lingering issues about Christians’ obligations to the government – taxation, military conscription, and the like – but it does set allegiances into an ultimate and penultimate order.  The text is certainly not iconoclastic regarding governments.  It gives space to political arrangements, but at the same time it conditions those arrangements by the reminder that not only we, but all God’s children, bear the divine image and therefore belong to God.  Furthermore, the text operates subversively in every context in which governments act as if citizens have no higher commitments than to the state.  When the divine image is denied and persons are made by political circumstances to be less than human, then the text carries a revolutionary word, a word that has to be spoken to both oppressed and oppressor.

+ so, what does it say to whom today?

+ and what/who holds what authority in your life?  I’m reading a book about a father/grandfather who is rich and tries to rule his children and grandchildren’s lives.

I came across this prayer this week -

God, help me to realize that it doesn’t matter what clothes people wear, how they cut their hair, or what color their skin is. We are all the same in your eyes, and with this awareness your children can move forward as a family. Discrimination deprives people of not only their civil rights but their human dignity. To overcome the evil challenges of our life we must turn to Christ, the good news of Jesus. Everyone deserves the love that you taught us to give to each other. I guess I am petitioning you not to miraculously solve a problem but to allow for an individual understanding of the violation against you and your world that blatant prejudice and discrimination commit.

- Nakela Cook, from Dreams Alive: Prayers by Teenagers, St. Mary’s Press, 1991, p.45.

[comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day or two to appear]

Words 10.12

 Words Twice a Week    10.12

Here’s a nice prayer for this week -

    Wake me up Lord, so that the evil of racism

    finds no home within me.

    Keep watch over my heart Lord,

    and remove from me any barriers to your grace,

    that may oppress and offend my brothers and sisters.

    Fill my spirit Lord, so that I may give services of justice and peace.

    Clear my mind Lord, and use it for your glory.

    And finally, remind us Lord that you said,

    "blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."   Amen.

This prayer is from For The Love of One Another (1989), a special message from the Bishops' Committee on Black Catholics of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Pastoral Letter, Brothers and Sisters to Us, the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter on Racism (1979). https://www.usccb.org/resources/prayer-service-racial-healing-our-land.

Now, a few notes from the church calendar -

Oct 15  Teresa of Avila   “a delightful, confident, good-natured, lively, competent Carmelite reformer.” (Jones)  A mystic and an activist, she was forced to defend her writings, including The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection, before the Inquisition.  Tradition links her with the Infant Jesus of Prague statue.  We saw it – and all the different clothes for it when we were there a couple of years ago.  She was one of the first women to be a Doctor of the Church.  She wrote 

    Let nothing disturb you.

    Let nothing make you afraid.

    All things are passing.

    God alone never changes.

    Patience gains all things.

    If you have God you will want for nothing.

    God alone suffices.

Oct 17  Ignatius of Antioch   One of the three most significant of the “Apostolic Fathers”.  On the way to Rome where he was martyred, he wrote a series of letters.

Oct 18  Saint Luke, Evangelist   Scholars credit him with writing the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.  Tradition says he was a physician.  While he never speaks of himself as an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry, there are three sections of Acts where he uses ‘we’, suggesting he was there.  Tradition says he was also the first icon painter – painting the Virgin Mary and Child, the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, and Our Lady of Vladimir.

And from the world/earth calendar -

Oct 12

- Robert E Lee died on this day in 1870.

- John Denver died in 1997.  Take me home, country roads….

- In 1492, after sailing the ocean blue, Columbus set foot on the Bahamas, setting off a troubling thread in our history.  W Paul Jones notes that in reality, it was the “Indians” who discovered Columbus. Forced removals, residential schools, the Trail of Tears are all sad and shameful chapters of the story that followed. Yes, we note that here in Marquette we lived on the Anishinabe homeland.  We are grateful for the way they cared for it and lived in it for some many years, and wish that we were doing as well for it as they did.

Oct 13

- Paul Simon was born in 1941.  Have a favorite song? – Bridge Over Troubled Water, Sound of Silence, The Boxer, or something more recent?

- Paddington Bear made his debut in 1958.  Here's a picture of the statue of him at Paddington Station.................................

Oct 14

- Speaking of bears, Winnie the Pooh made his debut in 1926.  I wonder, coincidence or planned, that Paddington appeared from “darkest Peru” almost the same day?  Anyway – 'let’s look after all these bears”!

- in 1947, Chuck Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier; in 1984 Joseph Kittinger started on his 4 day solo gas balloon flight across the Atlantic.

Oct 15

- 202 years earlier, in 1782, Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier spent about 4 minutes in the air in a balloon made by the Montgolfier brothers.

- I Love Lucy first aired in 1951.  Chocolate, anyone?

Oct 16

- in 1986 Reinhold Messner, an Italian mountaineer, climbed Lhotse in Nepal, becoming the first person to climb all 14 8,000 meter peaks.

- John Brown was hanged in 1859 after leading a revolt at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.

- the Million Man March happened in 1995.

Oct 17

-in 1814, the vats burst at the Meux and Company Brewery in London, sending a 15 foot wave of beer through the streets that killed 8 people.

- in 1989, an earthquake hit the San Francisco area 20 minutes before the start of game three of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s.

- in 1849 Frederic Chopin died at the age of 39.

Oct 18

- Moby Dick was published in 1851.  “Call me Ishmael”, and “Thar she blows!” Have you read it?  And again, how did it make it’s mark on American, and even world, contemporary culture? (I’ll have a latte – venti – while you think about it!)

- in 1867, the US closed on the purchase of Alaska from Russia.  The purchase was seen as ‘folly’ (whose?) by many Americans of the day.

That’s it – here’s one of the collects for Compline from BCP -

   Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night,

   and give your angels charge over those who sleep. 

   Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, 

   soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; 

   and all for your love's sake. Amen.

      Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; 

      that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

[comments are moderated – by me – and may take a day to appear]

Words 10.8

 Words Twice a Week     10.8

A few thoughts on a few of the lectionary texts -

Ps 106.1-8, 19-23, 47  A prayer for forgiveness, referencing the golden calf

+1-8  Although God had done marvelous things, the people turned against God at The Sea.  God, because of who God is, rescued them anyway.

+19-23  At Horeb, while Moses was on the mountain, the people worshiped the golden calf.  God was going to destroy them, but Moses intervened.

+47 “Save us Lord, bring us back from among the nations”.  From a time when Israel has been dispersed?  The life of faith is a mixture of being in the community and being separated from it.  “Going to work and going to church”?  How does each influence the other?

+one writer says “vs 3 affirms the moral reliability of the world”  Do you agree?  Is the world/creation a moral arrangement?  Sometimes I think so, sometimes I wonder.  Partly maybe it’s a matter of the time horizon.  We’ll touch this again with Matthew.

+  The whole psalm is a reviewing of the different times the people sinned/murmured/did not trust.  Another writer says “Israel remembers the past and it is not a good memory”.  I can identify – usually when I remember it is the times when I screwed up, the times when I was less than what I would have wished.  (Sure, there are happy memories too, but often the troubling ones are what comes most easily.)  On the other hand, the same writer ways “the ancestors would not have made such a silly exchange (the golden calf for God), but they forgot.  So remembering is important.  Maybe it’s a matter of “Do you remember what you did or what God did?”

+just a note that vs 48 is probably more of a doxology to conclude the whole “Book IV” of the Psalms (Ps 90-106)

Exodus 32.1-14  The Golden Calf

+so Israel has been camped at Mt Sinai/Horeb ever since Ex 20 when God gave the Ten Words.  (And they are going to be there until Num 10.)  Moses apparently goes back and forth to receive more of the law.  This time he has apparently been gone “a long time”.  The people get nervous, afraid, restless.  We’ve been gone from (in person) church for a long time.  How has it affected us? 

+They ask Aaron to “make us a God to protect us”.  The advantages of god’s you make yourself – you can control, they are always available, they are (or at least can be) physical, touchable, portable.  Disadvantages – well, some of the same things!  And then if they spring from you, they are not really going to be able to rescue/save you.  Like Einstein said, the solution has to come from outside the problem – or something like that.  On the other hand, Margaret Wheatly said “No one is coming to save you, but you have within you the power to save yourselves.”  She was talking about a community, rather than an individual.  Does that make a difference?

+Aaron made an idol from the people’s offerings.  What are our offerings used for, made into?

+The golden calf led to excess and wild behavior, not a careful, thoughtful life.  On the other hand, faith in God can sometimes lead to seemingly irrational choices and wild behavior – of a different kind?

+God was ready to destroy, but Moses pleaded – 1) God’s image among the nations (Egyptians) would suffer (a mission issue?), and 2) God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – (an issue of God’s character – faithfulness, graciousness)  One writer says “We are no less capable than Moses to change God’s mind through prayer.”  God really does desire conversation, collaboration, and communion more than blind obedience.  But note, it is not just because of what we want, rather what God desires and is.

+The role of Moses is 1) to be a channel of divine guidance and strength at a time when the nation so desperately needed it, and 2) to be a patient, courageous voice reminding God that justice without mercy is not just.  The point is not that God is indecisive, but that justice is always to be tempered with mercy.  So – who does this today?

Phil 4.1-9    “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything”   vs 6 from CEV

+Nice.  But in a time of pandemic?  In a time when our government seems to be breaking up?  Again, maybe a matter of time horizon – one day it will all be ok?  I don’t find that very satisfying.  I’m reading Trevor Noah’s memoir of growing up in South Africa – he and his grandmother were at prayer meetings every night of the week.  He said even as a child we was special because he could pray in English, which everyone though meant his prayers would go to the top of the list!

+There are edifying and wasteful ways to live/spend the life God gives.  We can choose.  

+vs 4-7 a list of activities and characteristics of a Christian life.  Are you/we feeling it?

+vs 8-9  Christian values

Mt 22.1-14  The Wedding Feast and the Inappropriately Clothed Guest

+yeah – there are issues with this story.  Why did the guests refuse the king’s invitation?  Why go to the length of beating and killing the servants?  The king puts everything on hold to kill the inhabitants and burn the city?  (Nice wedding memories for the bride and groom!)  Why get upset about a guest who was not clothed right – wasn’t this kind of a “come as you are” event?  And finally – how is this in any way like the Kingdom of Heaven, the Time of God’s Peace?  Is this king in anyway supposed to be like God?

+Probably 2 or 3 parables have been mushed together here – conflated is the technical term.  That might help with some of the logical difficulties.  There are two stories – the wedding feast and the guest.  In both the king executes (harsh) judgment.

+”Matthew seems more concerned with the meaning of the story for the life of the church than for Jesus’ original hearers.  The church, and life in general, is a mixture of good and bad (and violence), and for the time being that remains, but it will not be forever.  Like in the story of the Wheat and the Weeds – it is not our business to sort it all out and fix it (ie, destroy the weeds).  That’s God’s business and God will do it in God’s time.  

+Matthew points out again and again that some are in and some are cast out into “the outer darkness where people wail and gnash their teeth.”  Matthew used this phrase six times, the other gospels combined use it only once!  Yet, in Matthew’s last scene (on the mountain after the Resurrection) Jesus does not send the doubters (one of Matthew’s cardinal sins) away.

+So again – how is this king like or unlike God?

A Prayer -

God of all the Seasons,

thank you for these days of autumn with their mixture of sun and rain,

sometimes within the same half-hour!

As we remember the past, turn our thoughts more to your goodness and faithfulness

than to our own failures or even our successes.

Draw us closer to each other and to you,

that we might live well the life you offer us.

Words 10.5

Words Twice a Week    10.5

A Flashback – On Oct 4, Henrietta Lacks died in 1951.  Her cells live on.  That’s the world we live in.

A prayer for days of autumn -

Darkness comes early,

stays late.  Give me joy this day,

Give me peace this night.

A prayer to face these days -

Eternal God,

all things happen within the realm of your love and awareness.

In the midst of so much confusion and disruption and danger,

help us find comfort and courage and strength

to see our way clearly and walk it confidently,

by your side.

We pray for health, for justice, for compassion, for safety, for peace,

for ourselves, our loved ones, and all your creatures.

A few days from the church calendar -

Oct 6  William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale  They were among the first ones to translate the Bible into English in the 1500’s.  Tyndale was a leader in the Protestant Reformation, opposed Henry VIII’s annulment, was tried for heresy and executed – he was strangled and then his body was burned.  Coverdale was exiled three times and finally died, back in England, in 1569.

Oct 7  Birgitta/Bridget of Sweden  (born c1303 as Birgitta Birgersdotter)  She had 4 sons and 4 daughters – one of whom was St Catherine of Sweden.  After her husband died, she founded the Bridgettines Order [nuns and monks].  She had a vision of the birth of Jesus in which Mary is blond (!) and kneels before Jesus instead of reclining as had been the tradition in depictions of the birth.  She is one of the six patron saints of Europe.

Oct 8   Richard Theodore Ely (April 13, 1854 – October 4, 1943) was an American economist, author, and leader of the Progressive movement who called for more government intervention in order to reform what they perceived as the injustices of capitalism, especially regarding factory conditions, compulsory education, child labor, and labor unions.

Oct 10  Vida Dutton Scudder  an American educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement. She co-founded the Episcopal Church Socialist League and joined the Socialist Party.  Speaking in 1912 in support of striking textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, she declared,

I would rather never again wear a thread of woolen than know my garments had been woven at the cost of such misery as I have seen and known past the shadow of a doubt to have existed in this town. ... If the wages are of necessity below the standard to maintain man and woman in decency and in health, then the woolen industry has not a present right to exist in Massachusetts.

Oct 11  Philip the Deacon/Evangelist  [not the Disciple/Apostle]  He was one of the seven persons chosen to care for the poor in Jerusalem in the early days.  At the direction of the Spirit he met an Ethiopian eunuch on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza and explained the scriptures and baptized him.

From the world/earth calendar -

Oct 5

- (1582) – well, there wasn’t an Oct 5 that year, at least not in Italy, Portugal, Poland, and Spain.  The Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar, and the day after Oct 4 was Oct 15.  But we were back with the solstices and equinoxes on the right dates.

- Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted in 1969.  

- James Bond (Sean Connery – the real James Bond!) debuted in Dr No in 1962.

- First televised presidential address (1947) – President Truman asked people to skip meat on Tues, eggs and poultry [not meat?] on Thurs, and one less slice of bread every day – all to help Europe, recovering from the War.  It seems like a different world – is it?

Oct 6

– Alfred Lord Tennyson died.  Here’s a weird video/animation of Tennyson reciting Crossing the Bar

- 1927 The Jazz Singer, first talking motion picture, premiered.  An exciting event for the film industry, but racial issues with Jewish Al Jolson in blackface.

Oct 7

- Fox News debuted in 1996.  That’s either one of the best things to happen to broadcast news or one of the worst, depending...

Oct 8

- First and only perfect World Series game  1956

- 1871 – a couple of fires – in Chicago and Peshtigo!

Oct 9

- Oskar Schindler died.  W Paul Jones says he was a cynical, greedy, alcoholic german playboy who worked for the German intelligence making a fortune exploiting jewish slave labor in his factory, but when he finallhy grasped the Nazi plan for Jewish extermination he spent his fortune and risked his life to rescue 1200 Jews who were on his list.  Somebody ought to make a movie of it.  [Kidding – but I never saw it.]

- The assassination attempt on Malala Yousafzai in 2012.  2 years later she became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Oct 10

- Panama Canal completed.

- The US began paying reparations to Japanese Americans who were forced from their homes into interment caps during WW2.  We saw an exhibit of school work from one of the camps when we were in Little Rock a couple of years ago.  There were class pictures of some wonderfully charming grade school classes.  So many conflicting emotions of charming and beautiful children caught up in such a great injustice.

- Birthday of Brett Favre   Go Pack

Oct 11

- Opening session of Second Vatican Council in 1962.  It led to huge changes in Catholic worship which also spilled over into Protestant understandings as well.  Worship in the language of the people, stress on the proclamation of the Word, communion offered in both forms and with the priest facing the people, greater roles for women, ecumenical openness were just some of the outcomes.  I remember as a child thinking it was a little strange for the minister to be reading the communion prayer while he [it was always a he] was kneeling and facing the altar and the wall.  

- Saturday Night Live begins in 1975

Darkness comes early,

stays late.  Give me joy this day,

Give me peace this night.

Words 10.1

 Words Twice a Week    10.1

Ok – as promised here is the setting to At the Name of Jesus that I mentioned last week.  The  tune is Camberwell, by Michael Brierley.  Yes, they look a little odd – it’s the Glossop Victorian Weekend    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH0Yn5Unwh8  

As an added bonus, here Paul Ayres, a name familiar to Mqt Choral Society folks, playing his ‘last verse harmonization’.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWCICGy84mc   

Now – some thoughts on some of the lessons for this Sunday -

Psalm 19   The heavens are telling; the law of the Lord is perfect; may the words of my mouth…

+a piece from Buechner on praise -

  YOU PRAISE THE HEARTBREAKING beauty of Jessye Norman singing the Vier Letzte Lieder of Richard Strauss. You praise the new puppy for making its offering on the lawn for once instead of on the living-room rug. Maybe you yourself are praised for some generous thing you have done. In each case, the praise that is handed out is a measured response. It is a matter of saying something to one degree or another complimentary, with the implication that if Jessye Norman's voice had sprung a leak or the puppy hadn't made it outside in time or your generous deed turned out to be secretly self-serving, a different sort of response altogether would have been called for. 

  The way Psalm 148 describes it, praising God is another kettle of fish altogether. It is about as measured as a volcanic eruption, and there is no implication that under any conceivable circumstances it could be anything other than what it is. The whole of creation is in on the act—the sun and moon, the sea, fire and snow, Holstein cows and white-throated sparrows, old men in walkers and children who still haven't taken their first step. Their praise is not chiefly a matter of saying anything, because most of creation doesn't deal in words. Instead, the snow whirls, the fire roars, the Holstein bellows, the old man watches the moon rise. Their praise is not something that at their most complimentary they say, but something that at their truest they are.

  We learn to praise God not by paying compliments, but by paying attention. Watch how the trees exult when the wind is in them. Mark the utter stillness of the great blue heron in the swamp. Listen to the sound of the rain. Learn how to say "Hallelujah" from the ones who say it right.

+Day pours forth speech, night declares knowledge, but nothing is heard – does the day speak when we look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning?  Is the night’s knowledge what we face when we climb into bed and close our eyes?  Which speaks to you most clearly – the sun or the moon?  Especially when it is as full as it is tonight.

+speech, words, voice not heard – God’s Creation is experienced, God’s Word is lived not just heard.  How does Creation speak to you?

+the sun is like a strong man, and climate change is amplifying his strength – just ask the folks in California, just ask the folks on the Gulf coast

+vs 7 switches from the Creation to the Law of God.  The law, decrees, precepts, commandments, fear, ordinances all have their role to play.  But why is “fear” in this list?  The others are all legal terms; fear is a feeling?

+the psalmist calls for obedience, but is not blind to the ambiguity of life.  Rather he/she is “aware of what it means for living to have a settled center outside of one’s self.”  -Nice.

+”the law/commandments/words liberate life from brutality, alienation, anxiety, guilt.”  Or, they do that if we pay attention to them!

+the Creation and the Law interpret each other.  Creation is more than just technical explanations.  Creation has a moral shape.  The Law is not restrictive, but life giving because it reflects the character of Creation – to be life-giving.

+vs 13 the dominance of the insolent leads others to “become blameworthy”.  Did Trump cause Biden to act worse than he would have otherwise?  How have we been insolent and caused others to be less than they would have otherwise?  Who has been insolent to you?  What happened?

Exodus 20.1-4, 7-9, 12-20   The Ten Words for Life

+context – after this long journey, Israel has arrived at Mt Sinai and in Ch 19 has purified, and thus protected, themselves.  This was back when God was God and the people trembled – what causes you/us to tremble today?  Force of nature? Beauty of nature? Human behavior? Vastness of space? Beauty in the arts?  Is God in these?  Elijah reminds us that God is also in the “still, small voice.”

+the issue here is covenant.  God and these people are still getting to know each other.  Note “test” in vs 20.  God and the people are not equals, but “Law” is not the order of a master to slaves.  The Law is not a human creation to make God manageable, but a divine gift/revelation to transform persons.  What words would you use to describe your relationship with God?

+the negative formulation reflects traditional legal documents.  Jesus uncovers a more appropriate and positive understanding – “Love God, Love your neighbor.”

+so the Ten Words – 3 about our relationship with God, 1 about worshiping on the sabbath, and 6 about our relationships with each other.  Worship/Sabbath is the pivot from one to the other.  How does that work when some are not comfortable getting there for worship?

+which of the Ten Words give you the most trouble?  The old joke about the minister whose hat was stolen – he thought he would preach on the 10 commandments, coming down hard on #8.  When he got to #7 he remembered where he had left his hat!

+”Honor your father and mother” is reflected in the respect indigenous cultures pay to elders.  Does our culture do that, or if not, when, how did we drift away?

+there used to be a tradition in some churches of using the 10 commandments as a prayer of confession before Holy Communion, I suppose because it was seen as covering just about every sin or bad behavior.  Are there sins or bad behaviors that don’t seem to be covered and you wish they were?  

Alternative track -

Is 5.1-7  Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard…

+A powerful song – “the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting, but…”

+so also a clear word to a people who have received great blessings and advantages, but have not allowed them to blossom and bear fruit.  A caution for our day?

Phil 3.4b-14  Paul counts all his “bona fides”/reasons for boasting/reasons to be confident as loss…

+again context – in 2-4a Paul warns against those who would require Jewish observance for non-Jews.  Could the same charge be leveled against those Christians and missionaries who require other cultures and faiths to give up their traditional beliefs to follow Jesus?  On the other hand, you can’t just stick “Jesus” on anything and call it good.

+what do you have in your life that you might boast about, that might cause you to be confident?  It’s not that these are necessarily wrong or bad, Paul says, but that Jesus is so much more. It’s the righteousness of the law vs the righteousness that comes from God through faith in Christ.  That’s great for me, but can I also celebrate it for others?

Mt 21.33-46   The wicked tenants

+again, context – Jesus is talking to the people and the religious/civic leaders.  Swanson expands our understanding of the context by noting that in Jesus’ day tenants were probably original inhabitants who had been pushed off their land by colonizers or the wealthy elite.  Landowners building structures and leaving would call to mind the Romans.  In our day we might be reminded of Anishinabe people losing the right to live on their hereditary homeland because they had not paid taxes to a conquering nation.

+the owner said – “They will respect my son.”  Huh?  Blind arrogance of the dominant culture? Or “They will respect my son because he has the power to bring in an army and squash them”?

+the stone the builders rejected/the cornerstone – I think it is somehow wrapped up with the idea that the master would come and take revenge, with the idea that “evil doing calls for evil destruction for them” – but I’m not sure I can articulate how it fits exactly!  Maybe that’s the stone they used, the one they rejected was that the master would come and forgive?  That’s what happened instead and has become the cornerstone of our faith.  But can we really believe and deal with that?

+one last time, the kingdom/vineyard is given not to any specific people or church, but to those who will allow it to blossom and bear fruit.  

That’s what I got for now – it’s late; maybe I’ll get back later with a prayer!