May is a time of transition for the church year in 2008.  Since the beginning of the ecclesiastical calendar in December, we have read the lectionary for the promises of Advent, the fulfillment of Christmas, and the enlightenment of Epiphany.  We have kept Lent and celebrated Easter.  {quotes align=right}The life and ministry of Jesus has been our focus; now we move into the birth of the church with the celebration of Pentecost and we contemplate our relationship with God as we observe the Festival of the Holy Trinity.{/quotes}  The theme for the remainder of the church year will be discipleship and living in the Kingdom of God.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 4, 2008

Acts 1:6-14, John 17:1-11

The Sundays after Easter we have readings from Acts in place of the usual “first lessons” from the Hebrew Scriptures.  It is an annual trip into the second of Luke’s two volume set that includes the life of Jesus (The Gospel of Luke) and the formation of the Church (The Acts of the Apostles).

After an introductory statement about why he is writing, the author begins The Acts of the Apostles with today’s lesson: Jesus’ farewell to his apostles and his ascension.  Matthew places this scene at the end of his Gospel, but Luke puts it at the beginning of his story of the church’s beginnings.

The apostles ask a perennial question: “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the Kingdom to Israel?”  It is a two-for-one question that simultaneously asks about the past and the future.  “Jesus, we want to know about the future; are you about to make things better?”   “Jesus, we love the past; will you make things the way they were in the good old days?”  It is also noteworthy that the apostles assume that any changes will be brought about by Jesus.  They ask Jesus what he will do; they do not ask him for instructions about what they should do.

Jesus redirects their attention away from the calendar and toward their responsibilities.  He promises that they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit and tells them to use that power to be his witnesses.  Today, Christians are still troubled by the same misplaced priorities.  Trying to calculate God’s time-table and the coming of God’s kingdom often generates more energy and enthusiasm than a clear, straightforward call to be witnesses for Christ.  But Jesus does not promise the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to make predictions about “times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”  The overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit is to be used to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”

After Jesus ascended into a cloud, the apostles were joined by two men in white robes.  We have met them before when Luke introduced them at the empty tomb.  “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body.  While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them…the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” (Lk 24:2-5)  Now, here they are again at Jesus’ ascension and they are acting in much the same way that they did on Easter morning.   At the resurrection they asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  Now they ask, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

These are both very good questions that should be asked of the church more often.

The church is given the gift of the resurrection, the defeat of death, and, yet, it often has no greater ambitions than to provide some moral instruction (usually for other people), mark life-passages, and maintain various social conventions.  Why, indeed, does the church look for the living among the dead?  The second question is equally pertinent.  “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”  Coming, as it does, at the beginning of a book titled The Acts of the Apostles, that question sets the tone for the rest of the narrative.  Heaven is a good thing to look at, but Jesus has given his disciples instructions to “be my witnesses.”  At the resurrection and here, at the ascension, the two robed men provided questions that would set the agenda for any congregation’s mission statement.

The Gospel

As we move to the week’s gospel reading, we recall that while the Gospels report regularly that Jesus prayed; this is a rare occasion in which the content of the prayer is recorded.  This section of John was called “The High Priestly Prayer” by David Chytraeus, a Reformation-era theologian.  He made the designation because, in this prayer, Jesus is consecrating himself for sacrifice.  As with any prayer, Jesus is addressing God.  However, he makes it clear that his message is for the benefit of the apostles who are listening.  Communicating the nature of God continues the theme that John has been advancing since the beginning — Jesus, the word, is the expression of God’s love and glory.  In verse five, Jesus says his glory preceded creation, echoing the famous first verse of the entire Gospel, “In the beginning was the word.”  In the prologue (John 1:10) John writes, “…the world did not know him.”  Now, in verse 6, Jesus says “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.”  John uses the word “know” as it applies in the Hebrew scriptures.  To “know” is more than possessing information; it is personal involvement with the truth of God.  So, it is significant that Jesus says of the apostles, “Now they know that everything you have given me is from you.” (emphasis added)

It is the Gospel of John that records Jesus repeatedly identifying himself with the words “I am,” an echo of the pivotal scene on Mount Sinai when Moses asked God what his name is.  God responded, “I am.”  The unique relationship symbolized by knowing God’s name enabled Moses to lead the Hebrews through the central act of God’s grace, the exodus from slavery in Egypt.  Now, in verse 11, Jesus invokes God’s name to protect his followers with the same relationship that protected the children of Israel.  “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

Pentecost, May 11, 2008

Acts 2:1-21, John 20:19-23

Pentecost was already a festival before the story that is recorded in the second chapter of Acts.  The traditional name of Shovuos was interchanged with the Hellenized name Pentecost, from the Greek word for “fifty.”  According to Leviticus 23:16, the festival was to be celebrated fifty days after Passover.  It had come to be a celebration of the gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai.

The Pentecost that initiates the Christian Church continues to recreate the events of the Exodus.  At the previous celebration of Passover, Jesus had reinterpreted the protection of lamb’s blood to mean the blood of Jesus himself.  Now the celebration of God’s gift of the Law would be reinterpreted by the Holy Spirit bringing a new law to God’s people.  In Numbers 11:29, the law giver Moses expressed a desire that all the Israelites would be filled with the breath of the LORD.  Generations later, Joel prophesied that it would happen.  Now it is Pentecost.

Spirit, wind, and breathing all have the same root word in Greek (similar linguistic relations occur in Hebrew) so the original text is more profound and less precise than the straightforward among us might prefer.  According to our translation, it was the sound of “wind” that came from heaven but it was the Holy “Spirit” that found the apostles in the room to which they had retired at the end of last week’s first lesson.  The work of God, meteorology, and lung function all conspire (literally “breathe together”) to tell the story of disciples becoming divine instruments.

The festival had brought a cosmopolitan crowd to the capital city and the list of visitors provides an annual terror for lay readers who have to contend with the names of nationalities and ethnic groups that can reach five or six syllables.  The broad-based gathering is the setting for ambiguity regarding the speech of the inspired disciples.  According to verse 8, all of the foreigners understood what the Galileans were saying “in our own native language.”  Verse 13, on the other hand, implies that the speech was incomprehensible with the suggestion that the speakers were drunk.  Peter dismissed the allegations of drunkenness on the grounds that it was only nine o’clock in the morning — a quaint non sequitur that says more about Peter’s sense of propriety than it does about drunkenness.  Peter put the discussion in the more profound context of an eschatological vision of Joel in which all of God’s people would be filled with his spirit.  Like all real eschatological visions, Joel was not describing how creation would end.  He was proclaiming a new beginning.

The events described in the second chapter of Acts are the democratization of holiness.  This is how the followers of Jesus, then and now, come to be the “one holy catholic and apostolic church” that is confessed in the third article of the Nicene Creed.

This incident recounted in the day’s gospel reading takes place on the evening of Easter.  In the previous verse John recorded that Mary Magdalene told the disciples that she had seen the risen Jesus.

In John 10:9, Jesus had said “I am the door” (thura); now the “doors” (thuron) of the room where the disciples are hiding are locked.  It is not surprising that Jesus, being the door himself, is not kept out of a room that holds the disciples who will continue his ministry.

Jesus showed the disciples his hands and his side and the disciples rejoiced.  Thomas, of course, was famously absent and would have to see the wounds for himself a week later before he could also be convinced.  If God could raise Jesus from the dead, one would think that God could have done something about the holes in his hands.  It must be concluded that Jesus’ wounds were a sign worth saving.  The disciples were glad that God had left the wounds in plain sight.  The writer of the Gospel of John is a strong advocate of signs.  What other writers call “miracles,” John calls “signs.”   He wrote, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:30-31)  In this case, the “signs” Jesus offers are his wounds.  This is an important message with which to establish the church.  The marks of the church will not be security, but wounds.  Living among sinful people will leave Jesus’ followers wounded, but that is where Jesus’ followers will show the love God.

It is noteworthy that when Jesus commissions his church in verses 22 and 23 his instructions to “Receive the Holy Spirit” are connected with forgiving or retaining sins.  Jesus says nothing about maintaining righteous behavior, establishing discipline, or safeguarding traditions.  The mark of the church is forgiveness.

Trinity Sunday, May 18, 2008

Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Matthew 28:16-20

Albert Einstein once said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”  With those words, the eminent physicist set forth an imperative for the ages — certainly for preachers on the Festival of the Holy Trinity.  The Doctrine of the Trinity has fallen on hard times ever since theologians started using it as an objective description of God instead of a summation of all the things God does.  The Doctrine of the Trinity is, fundamentally, an ode to God’s relationship with his creatures.  God has sent his creating Spirit into all circumstances, all physical locations of the universe, all perceptions, and all of time.  He has more for us to do than merely describe him.

People are known by what they do.  Far from creating an identity crisis, it is an ever-broadening understanding to know that a person is a friend, and a parent, and a worker, and a spouse.  Every different role a person takes is a deeper revelation of who the person is.  We live in a relationship with God and in every way God comes to us, we know God better.  To say the Doctrine of the Trinity obscures an understanding of our creator is to abandon an attempt to understand God and settle, instead, for a simplification of him.

The Genesis passage that we read on the Festival of the Holy Trinity is the famous seven day creation story that, for over a century, has provided a stage for people to stand on while they publicly debate methods of interpreting scripture.  Belligerents have thrown the words of the story at each other so often that the words are familiar to the general public, although the content of the story is not — like a postcard of Mount Rushmore that is easily recognizable by people who have never been to South Dakota and do not know the names of any of the presidents represented.

The Doctrine of the Trinity is the result of efforts that would have puzzled the community that nurtured this story of creation.  The Trinity and the ecumenical creeds (which are expatiations on the Trinitarian formula) are an attempt to describe what God is.  Ontology, as a separate discipline of thought, was unknown to the ancient Hebrews.  Yet, this passage stands as the most majestic description of God ever achieved.  The writer of the first chapter of Genesis made no attempt to separate who God is from what God does.  God reveals himself in life-giving creation — a theme that reaches its pinnacle with God instructing humankind about its place among all that God has done.  Like God, himself, humans will also be known by what they do as part of creation.

Matthew’s gospel reading is an appropriate pairing with the reading from Genesis.  Both are genuinely appropriate for the day.  Although there are many references to the three persons of the Trinity individually or by various other names, this is the only passage in scripture that uses the Trinitarian formula, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

The reading is also an appropriate way to mark the first Sunday of the longest season of the ecclesiastical calendar.  This is the “ordinary time” that will extend until the beginning of Advent.  As we enter the time of emphasis on discipleship we read this story at the end of Matthew’s Gospel that inaugurates the disciples’ mission and ministry.  Jesus’ final instructions are for his followers to make disciples, baptize, and teach.

Jesus’ concluding words are “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  This is the third promise of Jesus’ presence in Matthew.  The first came before Jesus is born.  Joseph dreamed that an angel told him not to be afraid to marry Mary.  The angel went on to quote Isaiah: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us’.” (Mt1:23)  The second promise of Jesus’ presence came in the midst of his ministry.  As he was giving instructions for life in the Church he said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Mt 18:20)  Now, with his final words to his disciples, Jesus, once again, promises that he will be with them.

There is no better way to establish the mission of the Church and confer the authority to carry out the mission than to remind Christians that all we do is done in the presence of Jesus.

The Second Sunday after Pentecost, May 25, 2008

Isaiah 49:8-16a, Matthew 6:24-34

Easter came very early in 2008, so the Sundays after Pentecost begin while it is still May.  In this unusual circumstance, the Revised Common Lectionary provides that the texts normally assigned to the Eighth Sunday after Epiphany be used for the Second Sunday after Pentecost.  It is good that we do not bypass these well-known warnings against anxiety about material wealth.  Our society needs them.

The Gospel of Prosperity never really goes away, but it seems to be noisier than usual at this point in history.  Promises of wealth for the faithful flood the internet and cable channels and the images of preachers who make those promises are on magazine covers.  The assurance is that those who pray correctly will be granted victory (and “victory” has any number of definitions), good people will get good jobs, and God’s “favored children” will have preferential parking.

Isaiah and Jesus have a different message for God’s people in today’s readings.

The First Lesson

God promises his people security that is more profound than physical provisions.  Isaiah envisions “a time of favor” (verse 8) that will be a fulfillment of God’s relationship with his people.  The theme will be repeated when angels announce the incarnation of God with the words “on earth peace among those whom he favors.”  (Lk 2:14)

Verse 10 promises that God’s people “shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down…” but the promise is not based on simple access to food and water.  Isaiah is speaking of the guidance and leadership of “he who has pity on them.”  God assures the Israelites of his love which is even stronger than a woman has for her nursing child.  Nourishment, emotional support, and shelter are all used as symbols of a “time of favor” in which God’s people will be nurtured by God’s love.

The Gospel

The Sermon on the Mount has yielded more popular quotes from Jesus than any other section of the Gospels and this discourse on anxiety and physical security has not been neglected over the years.  Jesus begins with the observation, “No one can serve two masters.”  The statement is not a moral imperative (as in: “No one should serve two masters.”)  It is an objective declaration (“No one can serve two masters.”)  Jesus’ detachment on the subject is helpful, because people continue to believe that if their other masters are beneficial, certainly Jesus wouldn’t object to them.  Jesus makes it clear that his objection is not the issue; there can not be more than one absolute priority in life.  In this case, the other master is wealth, but the rule holds true for any other masters that would direct us.  Laziness, bigotry, anger, fear of missing a sale, and our children’s athletic coaches can all step forward and demand supremacy in our lives.

Jesus continues with the words, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear” (emphasis added).  This passage is less an assurance that our physical needs will be taken care of than it is an invitation to trust God.  What people are most concerned about is what will determine their values.  So Jesus calls his listeners to order their priorities with the words, “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

People’s priorities do not merely describe them, they determine who they are.  In verse 30, Jesus’ words are translated in such a way that he calls his listeners “you of little faith,” which is probably the best that English can do.  But in the original text he calls them “little faiths.”  He is not using an adjective to describe his audience; he is using a noun to name them.  Having little faith is more than something they do; it is who they are.

Jesus does not hold up the examples of birds and flowers so that his listeners will strive to imitate their plumage or petals.  Birds and flowers have the freedom of not striving for anything.  They were created to be birds and flowers and they fill God’s purpose for them beautifully.  Jesus invites his followers to a life of the same peace and fulfillment that God created us for.