Words 6.2

 Words Twice a Week       6.2

Here’s a really nice prayer for these days from the Church of the Heavenly Rest -

(we’ll see how this inserts in Blogger!)   This prayer comes from Yiddish poet Bertha Kling. She was born in Poland and made her life in the Bronx. She wrote this prayer in 1935, on the eve of World War II.

A few thoughts on some of the lessons for this Sunday - Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21 or Genesis 11:1-9  

 (we’ll start with Acts -)

+ Pentecost – or Festival of Weeks – the end of the spring harvest, the beginning of the growing season.  The disciples go from eyewitnesses to participants.

+ structure

  -vs 1-13 identify the time and place, tell of the coming of the Spirit, and describe the crowd – devout Jews.

  -vs14-16 the miracle (of understanding) and the misunderstanding!  Nice bit of irony.

  -vs 17-21 Peter correlates the events with Old Testament prophecy.

+ Peter’s speech: 1) only those who know Jesus understand.  But knowledge is not priviledge, but a call to proclaim.  2) Christians have a unique perspective on time – this is the beginning of “the last days”.  Marty Reinhardt has a poem about how “we” (Native Americans) live in a circle and spiral through time”  How are these two perspectives different?

+ “moving forward into new dimensions of being whose basic forms are clear, but whose fulfillment has yet to be realized” - ?

+ “each one” participated or witnessed, but not all believed.

+ in Joel the signs point to “end/disaster”; Peter says signs point to new beginning.

+ significance of being in Jerusalem – like Zechariah and John the Baptist

+ “All” who call upon…  prefigures the mission to the Gentiles?

 (and then Genesis -) 

+ just because I like the word “bitumen”! - not sure exactly what it is, but I like the sound of it.

+ tension between urban and nomad way of life.  Interesting that the Bible starts with a garden and ends with a city.  What thought does that call up in your mind?

+ here God separates and confuses, in Acts God unites and clarifies.

+ how is one common language good, how is it dangerous?

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b  

+ looking at the whole psalm, 1-4 God and heavens, 5-13 God and earth, 14-23 God and humans, 24-30 “all”, 31-35 joy – divine and human.

+ all comes from God, is sustained by God, finds it’s fulfillment in God

+ note 35a is invective against evil – it brings the psalm into the realm of morality

+ “last days” linked to God’s power in creation

+ the present reality and the ideal future come together in vs 30a and 30b

+ “nature does not exist to serve people, but to praise, and be a way to praise, God.  Ecology, economy, and theology are inseparable

Romans 8:14-17 

+ “joint heirs with Jesus we travel this sod, we’re part of the family, the family of God.”

+ that’s all I got in this one.

John 14:8-17, (25-27)

+ more farewell discourse, this time about the Spirit

+ the Spirit comes on Easter evening in John

+ the Spirit 1) is an advocate/counselor; 2) is Truth; 3) is sent by the Father; and 4) sets the disciples/church apart from the world, culture.  Church cannot take it’s cues from the culture.

+ how is Jesus’ Easter leave-taking the same/different from his Pentecost (or Ascension) leave-taking

+ “If you ask in my name….”

+ “If you love me, keep my commands…”

+ “My peace I leave with you…”  What does “my peace” mean to you?

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 5.26

 Words Twice a Week       5.26

Ok – a few things to note before we get started.

1) I need to get back to doing both segments of Words Twice a Week – I am missing too many days!  Just a few days ago, May 24, was both Bob Dylan’s birthday and Aldersgate Day, which is a big deal for Methodists, United Methodists, “Global Methodists”, and more.  On that day, John Wesley “went most unwillingly to a meeting in Aldersgate Street, where while one was reading from Luther’s Preface to the Letter to the Romans, I felt my heart strangely warmed.”  Really, Luther, and Romans, sounds like a yawn fest to me, but it did it (and the Holy Spirit) did it for Wesley.  His brother Charles had had a similar experience a few days earlier, and out of that came “O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing”.  So – big event.

Then way back in the Email a Day time, we wrote “poems with Emily (Dickinson)”.  Here’s Emily’s, and the fill in the blank form, and one that came in with the initials “BD”?

It's all I have to bring today—

This, and my heart beside—

This, and my heart, and all the fields—

And all the meadows wide—

Be sure you count—should I forget

Some one the sum could tell—

This, and my heart, and all the Bees

Which in the Clover dwell.

   It's all I have to bring today 

   This, and _____________ beside 

   This, and ________________________

   And all _______________ wide

   Be sure you count___________________ -

   Some one ____________ could tell,

   This, and _______________, and all the _________

   Which ________________ dwell.

It’s all I have to bring today,

This, and my brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat beside

this and what’s blowin’ in the wind

and all ‘white dove seas’ wide

be sure you count the times that change

some one, where are you tonight Sweet Marie, could tell

this and a trip upon your magic swirling ship and all the songs

which young forever dwell

2) Frederick Buechner had this piece on “threadbare language” – about how the words Christians use – grace, love, forgiveness, etc., have just been bandied about for so many years that they have become worn-out and loose their meaning.  He goes on to say that he keeps using them because they point to something so important.  Anyway, I had two thoughts from that – first, here we are with another week from the Farewell Discourse, Jesus says “love one another”, Jesus says “I go to prepare a place for you”, Jesus says “Whatever you ask”,…...and I’m afraid it almost starts to get to “blah, blah, blah” for me, and I drift over to the Revelations or Acts.  Just that we have heard them so often.  We know what Jesus said.  Well, secondly, I’m just getting so tired of all the “thoughts and prayers and hearts” that surface every time one of these mass shootings happens.  Somehow the acid test would be if we all got up each morning and prayed “Dear God, keep us from shooting up another elementary school today” instead of waiting until it happens again.  Well -

3) One more item – our son Christopher is in Cincinnati starting a 10 month stretch with Habitat for Humanity through Americorps, and I would have to say I am more proud of what he is doing than I am of anything I’ve done in my 75 years!  I don’t mind praying “Dear God, bless him and the work he is doing.”

Ok – a few thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday, Seventh (and last!) of Easter, although that’s not quite right – Easter goes on forever!  Alleluia!

Acts 16:16-34  

+ the second (the girl) and third (the jailer) stories of Paul in Philippi, after Lydia.

+ note Luke (the “we” of 16.11) has apparently bailed out.  Or is this story out of place?  Note the RSV says “As we were going…”  NRSV says “One day, as we were going...”

+ the slave girl who was a soothsayer.  Well, who or what have we “made use of” for profit, in our rise to power and well-being?  If Paul took that away, how would we respond?  If Paul said we had a systematic privilege and should pay reparations, how would we respond?

+ why is Paul annoyed?  Is the girl just a nuisance, even if she is accurate and it would seem useful in drawing a crowd?  Or it is a question of the girl being enslaved by demon/spirit?  Demon possession was serious, even if it didn’t seem immediately harmful.  Does the gospel confront demon/spirit, or does the gospel confront capitalism?  Hmmm….

+ note this is not a conversion story – we hear nothing about the girl.

+ but her “owners” are upset.

+ “unlawful customs”?  More likely just a trumped up charge.

+ the magistrates beat them and throw them in jail and Paul doesn’t say – “Hey, wait a minute, we’re Romans”?”

+ and the earthquake.  And then “My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee!”  (And Can It Be)

+ So how did Paul know the jailer was going to kill himself, how did he know the other prisoners were all there still, how did the jailer hear Paul?  All beside the point!  Which is – an ironic twist where those who are imprisoned are really free, and those who are free are really imprisoned.  Where are you in this story?  Where/when do you fell free?  Where/when do you feel imprisoned?

+ and the lesson ends with v34, but the story goes on to vs40.  The magistrates tell them to move along.  Now Paul points out that they are in fact Romans, and so the magistrates apologize and ask them politely to leave!  “One way or another, we want you gone!”  Do we sometimes want the bearers of good news out of our lives?

Psalm 97  

+ starts off with a “theophany” – God’s power shown in battering the earth. (vs1-5).

+ then the heavens and all the peoples respond (vs6)

+ then the gods (?) respond  (vs7)

+ then God’s people respond  (vs8-9)

+ finally, readers/hearers of every generation are called to respond.

+ God guards the lives of the faithful, rescues them from the hand of the wicked.  Really?  I understand that there are things to consider – who is innocent, faithful, wicked?  And how does God guard and rescue?  But even so, after the events of the past few weeks – really?

+ righteousness and justice are woven into the very fabric of Creation (vs2).  When they are not heeded, Creation itself starts to unravel.  Note Ps 82.5!  Is that what is going on today?

+ the importance of being in the room when God sits on the throne (seems like that is what is going on here) – righteousness as sacrament, not as action?

+ how are we, as God’s people, doing at being in tune with Creation.

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21  

+ without looking, what are vs15, 18, and 19 about and why does the lectionary skip over them, “protect us” from them?  Ok – now you can look!  Dualism – the good and the bad – is a crucial part of apocalyptic (end-time) literature.  What do we loose by skipping these verses?  Then the word from the Sandy Hook mother on NPR the other day – “there are only two kinds of people – good people and good people who are hurting.”  Apocalyptic thinking would like to just “wipe out the bad” but life is not that simple.

+ starts and ends with “I am coming soon”.  (vs21 is kind of an epilogue to the whole book.)

+ I am coming to repay – again, doesn’t sound like grace, sounds like “fair warning”.  (Was that Buechner?  I don’t know.)

+ Alpha/omega, first/last, beginning/end.  Apocalyptic is about time, yes, but not about predictions of time and events (ie, the delay!), it is about the certainty that the God who was/is there before the beginning is/will be there after the end.  And that God is there someplace in every event?  Maybe?

+ “those who washed their robes” – Have you been to Jesus, are your garments spotless, are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

+ vs16 – He’s the lily of the valley, he’s the bright and morning star….

+ Come to the city where the Lamb is the light...taste of the tree and the river of life...

We-re having a veritable hymnsing!!!

+ vs18 – “don’t add or subtract!”  Interesting that there are two footnotes about additions and subtractions!!

John 17:20-26

+ the end of the farewell discourse and the priestly prayer – in vs1-5 Jesus returns to glory, in 6-19 he prays for the disciples, now in 20-26 he prays for those who will hear – hey, that’s us!!

+ he prays for unity.  What’s that look like in our day?  Are protestants and catholics one? Episcopalians and Assembly of God folks?  What does it mean to “be one”?  AS individuals, who are you “one with”?

+ and it’s all laced through And held together with love.  So if you just love does it matter why? Does it matter who/what you know?  At least it’s forward looking, not trying to put a patch on what happened yesterday!

+ it serves a greater purpose, so that the world will know.  What does our disunity say?  Does that maybe have something to do with why more and more young people are unsure about the church, even the faith?  Where do you see churches working together/being one today?

+ the Father-Son relationship is clear.  What about the Father-Spirit?  What about the Spirit-Son.  Fortunately we’ve got Trinity Sunday coming up to sort all that out!

Then here’s a thought from Beverly Wildung Harrison (?) on connection, being one -

Our knowledge of God is in and through each other.  Our knowledge of each other is in and through God.  We act together and find our good in each other and in God, and our power grows together, or we deny our relations and reproduce a violent world where no one experiences holy power.

That – and a brand new leopardskin pillbox hat - is what I got for now…..

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Words 5.19

 Words Twice a Week       5.19 (well, 5.20 by the time I got around to it!)

Some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday – Sixth of Easter

Acts 16.9-15   

+ ”The Macedonian call”!  How can you not love a text that includes the Macedonian Call?  Interesting that we have the same sort of vision connected with St Patrick.  I’m trying to think if there are other events that we think of as “a Macedonian call”?

+ note that in vs 6-8 Paul had not been allowed to preach in Asia – ie, he had had no success, God had not brought him success.  How much of what Paul did do we attribute to him? How much to God?  How much of what we do do we attribute to ourselves, accepting either praise or blame?  And how much do we attribute to God?

+ And note that in vs14, it was not that Lydia was so impressed by Paul’s words, but rather that “the Lord opened her heart.”

+ Philippi – a city linked to Alexander the Great (Philip was his father). In Macedonia, a Roman colony.  Paul was a Roman citizen – I remember when we got our passports and it says something like “this person is a citizen of the USA and please treat them accordingly.”  I felt a certain reassurance.  I don’t know if we take Paul’s citizenship as seriously as we should.

+ so now it’s a sabbath, and they go looking for a “place of prayer” – a synagogue?, a more informal riverside park? Outside the gate?  Is there significance to any of that?  “And we spoke to the women who had gathered there.”  The women would be free from work because it’s the sabbath.

+ interesting that the Macedonian call came from a man, but the first convert is a woman.

+ note the “we” in verse 10.  Suggests Luke has joined them?

+ note the ease with which they get to Philippi (in a single verse!).  After ,many false starts and failed attempts in Asia, God is “greasing the rails”(?) as they head for Europe!

+ So finally we get to Lydia, who becomes the first European convert, along with her household.  How do you think of yourself – as a Lydia or as one of her household?

Psalm 67

+ a loose chiastic pattern –

+ vs1,2 similar to vs 6,7; God being gracious and blessing, God’s way/saving power known among the nations, to the ends of the earth.

+ vs3 is the same as vs 5; “let all the peoples praise thee.”  Note 1,2,6,7 are about God, 3 and 5 are addressed to God.

+ which brings us to vs4, the center and somewhat the focus of the poem.  “Let the nations be glad…”  The word of God’s grace is meant to extend beyond the bounds of Israel to all the world.  The good news is that God will judge with equity and that God will guide them.

+ and I wonder if when we say God will “judge with equity” we tend to think of settling a disagreement or a claim, when maybe it means something more like “life differences (financial, social, class, economic, etc) will even out.”

+ the psalm is both a thanksgiving for what God has done and a request for what God will do.

+ “Earth has yielded it’s increase” – Food? People? Resources? Peace and prosperity? What do you hear there?  Has it yielded it with equity, and as God would have it?

Revelation 21.10, 22-22.5

+ note vs 9 – “I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”  Why doesn’t the lectionary include that?  And then the stuff in 21.11-21 is the description of the city with it’s walls and gates, made of jewels and pearls (each gate made of a single pearl?), the street was “pure gold, transparent as glass.”(?)  Is this the only reference to the streets of gold?  I’m not sure.

+ anyway – vs10, “the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God.”  This does not mean that after we ruin one creation God will simply give us another.  As Frederick Buechner says about getting into that city, “if you can’t become like a child with eyes full of whatever it is children’s eyes are full of, don’t even think about it.”  A new city needs new people (born again? Born from above?) to populate it!

+ So Come to the city where the lamb is the light, come to the city of God.

         Taste of the tree and the river of life, come to the city of God.

+ No sun or moon, no night – God and the Lamb will provide the light, the vision to live by.

+ and yet plants need night, and so do humans and other animals.  Except those “born from above”?

+ the nations (ie, all peoples) will bring the best of their lives, cultures into the city.

+ nothing unclean, only those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  How do we think about that? Are we all written in the book?  What about things we think of as “unclean” – pollution, garbage?  Are they just not going to be there, or are we going to see it all differently?  In other words, how much connection is there with our experience of life and this vision of life “in the City”?

+ And interesting that the arc of creation goes from a garden to a city – although the city looks very much like a park!

+ the tree of life – 12 kinds of fruit, kind of like a “fruit of the month club”!  But the leaves are for the healing of the nations – what would still need to be healed.  Or are there still nations “outside of the city”?

+ Anyway, what do you think?  Would you like to be there?

John 5.1-9

+ another feast of the Jews, another sabbath.

+ this guy by the pool for 38 years(!).  With no one to help him.  Really?  Or maybe he was not all that concerned about or unhappy with his life?  He doesn’t say thanks, he doesn’t seem all that grateful.  Later on, when he finds out who Jesus is, he rats him out to the authorities!

+ link to the Creation (God’s wind/spirit over the water); link to John’s Prologue (the man “knew him not”)

+ the man was in the midst of a multitude – did Jesus heal any of the others?  Why this guy?

+ vs 8  “Rise…..”

John 14.23-29

+ farewell discourse, again with the sheep

+ “I go away, and I will come to you” – a second coming? Universal?  Personal?   How do you hear that?

+ vs31  “Rise...”

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 5.5

 Words Twice a Week          5.5

Ok – I suppose everyone has just about given up on ever seeing another “Words”, but I guess I’m starting up the Thursday(thoughts on the lessons) segment of it anyway.  Part of the problem was just the Easter weekend got busy, and then my computer was in the shop and it took a while to get it back to the way I had it.  So we’ll see…

Anyway - Happy Mother’s Day.  We’ll look for a prayer or a poem or something like that.  (And while we’re at it, Happy Star Wars Day – yesterday – “May the Force be with you!”; and Happy Cinco de Mayo today!)  

Now here are some thoughts about some of the lessons for this Sunday, Fourth of Easter.

Acts 9:36-43  

+ Luke is laying the ground work for the extension of the ministry to the Gentiles.  Already we have had the disciples proclaiming despite being hauled into court, Philip proclaiming in Samaria and beyond, and Saul’s conversion into Paul.  One writer suggests that the “church” has saturated Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, (vs 31) and now we are ready for the Gentiles!

+ And that while Paul will really be the apostle to the Gentiles, it will be Peter that gets it started.

+ note that in 32-35 Peter heals Aeneas, whose name suggests he could be a Gentile, or at least have a Gentile background.

+ Tabitha/Dorcas/Gazelle – if you were her, which name would you go by?

+ note there are only 2 times when an old testament prophet raised someone from the dead – Elijah raises the son of the widow of Zarepheth, and Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman.

+ Peter tells Gazelle to “arise” – it’s the same word as for Jesus’ resurrection.  His resurrection leads to Gazelle’s resurrection leads to ours.  How are they the same? Different?

Psalm 23  

+ do you know it by heart?  “The Lord is my shepherd…..”

+ it starts off with God as a shepherd providing care and protection even through threatening times and situations.

+ vs4 is the center of the psalm and it shifts from 3rd person to 2nd person.

+ and then it ends with God as a host, again providing care and protection in the face of enemies.  Who would the enemies be today?

+ “Goodness and mercy shall follow me…” or in another translation, “Goodness and steadfast love will pursue me…”  Which thought reflects your experience.

+ I always remember the notes from the “Worshiping with children” book about how for many kids today a shepherd is a big dog, a staff is the grown-ups at the daycare center, and “a cup running over” is not necessarily a good thing.

+ all in all a nice word.  Are there times when it has been especially meaningful in your life?

Revelation 7:9-17  

+ Who’s that yonder dressed in white?

+ Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing flood, are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

+ There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb…

+ The blood will never lose it’s power…

+ Those are the ones I know anyway.  And yes they are a little “hokey?”, but still fun to sing.

+ “and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

+ they worship day and night.  Is that enticing or off-putting?  And how does it compare with one hour a week?  Is there a way we should be worshiping 24/7 – saying the “Jesus prayer” or something like that?

+ “from every nation, all tribes and peoples and tongues”.  From a great diversity comes a solid unity.

John 10:22-30

+ John 10 is kind of the shepherd/sheep chapter.  Vs1-6 is the “I am the gate” and the shepherd knows the sheep by name; vs7-18 is “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep”.  Then in 19-21 there is a division – some people think he has a demon, others say not.  And so in vs24 they ask him plainly “are you the Christ?”

+ so are these Jews curious or opponents?

+ it’s the feast of Dedication (Hanuka), it’s winter, Jesus is in the Temple, in the Portico of Solomon – is any of that significant?  How?

+ “the Jews” – we remember that in Jesus’ lifetime, they were all Jews.  This comes from a later  time when opposition had arisen between the two faiths.

+ “my sheep know and follow, but you are not my sheep”; “you do not believe because you do not belong” – it gets a bit confusing. How do you get to be one of Jesus’ sheep if you are not already?  Does predestination creep in here?  One writer says “the eyes of faith seem more in Jesus.”  Does that help or not?

+ “whatever we have or are is a result of God’s relating to us.”

+ the works testify to who Jesus is because they are the works of the Father, and thus the Father and Jesus are one in a functional unity.

+ Jesus is the giver of eternal life and the keeper/protector – echoes of Ps 23!

+ it’s like the Messianic secret in the synoptic gospels – Jesus was not want to be put into any pre-existing categories.

That’s what I got for now…..

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Words 3.31

 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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