Pentecost 19a - conclusion

This isn’t a proper conclusion to the Pentecost 19a texts but I wanted to promote my new blog Confessing the Lectionary. For those of you who don’t worship at Calvary I’ve been using lectionary based confessions for our 9:30 service that I wrote about ten years and decided a couple weeks ago to write new ones to go along with the RCL put them in a blog just in case someone else might like to use them. We use them as a part of our entrance rite by singing a chorus during the procession, this week it’s “I Love You Lord” then reciting the confession from the altar and then singing the chorus again. I post them early in the week. Feel free to cut and paste!

L              The Lord said to Moses: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:2, 18) Let us confess the ways we fail to reflect the image of God.

Silence for confession and reflection

L              O Lord

C             Keep us from walking in the counsel of the wicked and sitting in the seats of the scornful. May we delight in your law and remember your teaching! (Psalm 1:1-2)

L              The righteous are like trees planted by streams of water bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; everything they do shall prosper for the LORD knows the way of the righteous. (Psalm 1:3, 6)

Pentecost 19a - Matthew 22:34-46

Matthew 22:34-46
It is a sign of our sinfulness that we sacrifice the second greatest commandment on the altar of the first. By that I mean we justify breaking the command to love neighbor as self if we believe the neighbor loves the Lord less than we do. Even theological next door neighbors are separated by mutual suspicion that their neighbor’s love of the Lord is either all mind and no heart or all heart and no mind or lacks the soul of service or the soul of morality or the soul of spirituality or the soul of (you fill in the blank).  And for those outside the neighborhood the convenient “love the sinner not the sin” allows us to hate both as sinners such as ourselves are incapable of distinguishing between the two. I know tough love has limits and lines must be drawn but Jesus does not qualify love of neighbor by how well one loves God and for good reason. The two greatest commandments are one. If you love God you love the neighbor God loves. If love your neighbor you love the God who loves your neighbor. The only ones who are required to love their neighbor as themselves are the ones who love God with their whole heart and mind and soul. The rest of us can go on hating the neighbors we don’t like.

Pentecost 19a - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

There are some scriptures that reveal the heart of Paul that is often hidden behind his stoic posture. We know he is able to endure all things, that he does nothing to satisfy self and even seems celebrate the long list of abuses he has endured for the sake of the Gospel. Sharing the suffering of Christ is the calling to which he aspires and ironically a good bit of that suffering comes from the congregations he established. But he has deep affection for the people God has given him, even the Galatians and Corinthians, although he’s not so gentle with the Galatians or very tender with the Corinthians. But he still cares for them in a way that is genuine and heartfelt. This deep affection is the relationship God desires between those who belong to the body of Christ, but especially between pastor and parishioner. The gift of the church to both is in the sharing of the Gospel in all its dimensions so that when one suffers all suffer, when one rejoices all rejoice.  When you stay in a place as long as I have, or like Pastor Eric before me, people become very dear to you. Of course I don’t know how it can be that I am baptizing the babies of babies I baptized! The gift of this place is in the relationship we share and the affection we have for one another. More and more I think I feel it most when missing those who have joined the great cloud of witnesses I remember their faces and hear their voices as if they were still right here with us, which of course they are. The great gift of the Gospel is that relationships begun in this life extend into the forever future because as much as we might care for one another we are even dearer to God.

Pentecost 19a - Psalm 1

Psalm 1
If the first psalm was written by David it must have been penned before he lingered on the balcony above Bathsheba or walked in his own evil counsel concerning Uriah the Hittite. Maybe the truth of “happy are they” can only be fully known when one has spent time with one’s own sinfulness and realized the seats of the scornful are hard and unforgiving which is what you become when you sit in them. In the end “the man after God’s own heart” was not blown away like the chaff in a west Texas wind but the sword never left his house and “Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son” is as deep a lament as “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” The truth about us is that we are all guilty of listening to less than fruitful counsel and we are comfortable in unforgiving seats. But like trees who had nothing to do with where they were planted we are fortunate to find ourselves drinking deep from the stream of living water that is Jesus, who though righteous was numbered with the wicked.

Pentecost 19a - Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

The Law is given as gift to a people who will wander in the wilderness for forty years so that the relationship begun in Egypt might survive until the land promised. That doesn’t mean that everything in Leviticus is Gospel truth. It just means we cannot understand the command to be “holy” outside of “the Lord your God is holy.” The law reflects the personality of God. God does not render unjust judgments. God does not show partiality to the poor or preference to the great. God speaks the truth and does not hate so that even God’s reproach is an act of kindness. Of course it didn’t work with the people of Israel who proved to be rebellious and stiff necked or with us who share the same characteristics. That is why God living “love your neighbour” does not hold us accountable even though we violate the law and profit by his blood.

Pentecoat 18a - conclusion

If the details of our everyday were not so important to our sense of wellbeing we’d find it easier to live into radical messages of freedom were nothing ultimately mattered except connecting to the eternal future and the divine spark that is in the DNA of humans created in God’s image whether they recognize it or not. But the captives suffered real pain and hardship and loss for seventy years before God tapped the master of the world on the shoulder and said send my people home. And while the psalmist might sing of the Lord who established the earth so firmly it cannot be moved I bet he’d duck for cover in an earthquake. I don’t doubt the Thessalonians received the word with rejoicing despite persecutions but I cannot believe they did not cry out and doubt when push became more than shove. And Jesus who dodges the Pharisees with a clever comeback will not be so witty when his hands and feet are fastened to wood. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” We live in between what is and what will be and every moment we live more fully into the future by trusting freedom over captivity, firm footing over shaky ground, acceptance over persecution and life over death we are able to endure even the most difficult of our every days.

Pentecost 18a - Matthew 22:15-22

Matthew 22:15-22
You can’t trap Jesus to brew your tea no matter what side of the party you sit on. This text is not about taxes. There are no options save death when Rome demands it’s due and lawful or not, the tax collector doesn’t care what you think as long as you pay the bill. When we use any word about Jesus to support one political position over another we are like Pharisees making a deal with the devils of their day (Herodians) in order entrap Jesus. That’s not to say the scriptures don’t encourage all kinds of things that are emphasized on one side of the political line or the other. But the mission of Jesus is to reveal the God whose image is imprinted on the human heart and so for all the might and majesty mustered by Rome, a head on a temporal coin isn’t worth the metal it’s printed on. The lesson for us may be to measure our lives by the things that belong to God, love and life, which is eternal and unending and outside of our control. Jesus is perfectly willing to be entrapped for that mission and when his time comes he will not shy away from answering the question that for the sake of the world gets him nailed to the cross.

Pentecost 18a - 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

One reason Paul may be continually thankful for the church of the Thessalonians is because he is continually troubled by the church of the Corinthians. And in same way the Philippians and Ephesians may have helped him endure the “who has bewitched you” Galatians, present day overseers may balance the burden of their call by rejoicing in works of faith in one place while laboring with love for ministries that struggle. I don’t know because I’ve been in the same place for twenty years and the Calvary that I landed in, by the grace of God btw, was already a “friendly church serving Christ and community.” But all of us together are called to be church steadfast in hope and inspired by the Holy Spirit. So how do we help each other be the best we can be and sound forth the word in the Macedonia and Achaia that for us are congregations in Northern Texas and Northern Louisiana and Durant, OK and Clovis, NM? What was then is now. We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers.

Pentecost 18a - Psalm 96:1-13

Psalm 96:1-13
Trees shout while the sea thunders and the fields rejoice and all people sing the refrain, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” The new song that the whole earth sings is prompted by the promise to judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with truth and equity. That is not good news for everyone as being judged in truth is a problem for those who prefer to live lies and despise righteousness. But if despite your sinfulness you are drawn to surrender to the beauty of God’s holiness being judged with equity is an invitation to finally be free of all that diminishes life and makes us less than human. And that is good news indeed.

Pentecost 18a - Isaiah 45:1-7

Isaiah 45:1-7

Cyrus the Great was good to all the gods who had been displaced by the Babylonians returning “the images of the gods… to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes.” (The Cyrus cylinder 538 BC) Granted he hoped for something in return. “May all the gods whom I settled in their sacred centers ask daily of Bêl and Nâbu that my days be long and may they intercede for my welfare.” But he was especially kind to the exiles from Judah and not only sent them home but funded the rebuilding of the temple and the reestablishment of sacrifices according to the Law of Moses. Not that he gave the God of Israel sole credit for making him “Cyrus, king of the world, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters...” But then Cyrus didn’t know he was a pawn in God’s game and that the little “g” gods couldn’t hear or answer any of his prayers. The lesson of Cyrus is that God’s good and gracious will is done with or without prayer (Luther’s explanation to the 3^rd petition of the Lord’s Prayer) so that sometimes even less than pious people perform holy acts.

Pentecost 17a - conclusion

The Café menu for Wednesday was Pastor Phil’s “even better than mom’s” Meatloaf, Potatoes Elaine (mashed red potatoes with the skin) the classic Green Bean Casserole and a brand new salad that I’ve named Intern Alex’s BLT Salad. (you can view the recipe at www.calvarylutherancafe.blogspot.com) It was a comfort food feast for the patrons of the café and as always a wild ride for the kitchen crew where almost everyone got burned including yours truly. The texts for Pentecost 17a are all about feasting. Isaiah dreams the feast of fat things for all people where God’s diet is death. The table prepared with cup overflowing is in front of enemies and in shadowed valleys, kind of like a midweek gathering at church for comfort food. Feasting and rejoicing go hand in hand and thinking on all things lovely gives strength to weary souls. And even if one guests comes undressed and is subsequently undone the rest of the guests enjoy the hospitality of the king. Maybe this is a case where the 99 are more important than the 1?

Pentecost 17a - Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1-14

The interesting twist to “many are invited but few are chosen” is that the choice belongs to the invited. Granted the poorly dressed one is dismissed in no uncertain terms but one can’t help but notice the guest list originally included those who declined and they did not suffer a similar fate. It was only after the A-list said, “No thank you” that the good and bad from the highways and byways were invited to fill the void. It could be that the “friend” in less than acceptable garments represents those who attending the banquet would have rather stayed home, but being tied hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness seems a little over the top for a dress code violation. We could read this text as a warning to dress up our lives in acceptable fashion or else suffer the consequence. But maybe we would be better dressed if we read it as an invitation to live life like a wedding reception where the party celebrates our very best hopes and dreams.
 

Pentecost 17a - Philippians 4:1-9

Philippians 4:1-9

Paul writing from prison encourages the Philippians with a lovely laundry list of “whatever is” which goes well beyond the power of positive thinking. It is, however, an attitude adjustment in the same way we are to have the mind of Christ who did not consider equality with God something to be exploited. Gentleness evident to all, and the double dip of rejoicing, is only possible because the Lord is near. It is for this reason that Euodia and Syntyche are to set aside whatever has come between them and remember the Gospel for which they both contend. Paul had no way of knowing his letter would be read by anyone after it had served its purpose and certainly could not have foreseen over 2000 years of church history. If he had he might not have called out these two women. On the other hand I wonder if the things that divide us would be as important if we knew our names would be forever enshrined in the scriptures.

Pentecost 17a - Psalm 23

Psalm 23
The table prepared is in the presence of enemies, which makes one wonder about the relative calm of green pastures and quiet waters. But maybe that is why this psalm is so often recited at funerals. While the dearly departed have passed through “the valley of the shadow” and experience heads anointed with oil and cup overflowing, we who mourn do so in the presence of death, the last enemy to be defeated. The table prepared is the promise that the shadow cast by death is not long enough to block out the light, for the evil death would do has been undone by the cross – the rod and the staff of the Shepherd. The green pastures and still waters happen whenever souls are refreshed, despite real loss and longing, by the sure and certain promise of a forever dwelling in the house of the Lord.

Pentecost 17a - Isaiah 25:1-

Isaiah 25:1-9
When the city is reduced to rubble and the fortified town turned into a ruin then the strong will honor God and the ruthless will revere the Lord. The only power the mighty respect is a more mighty power. In the end death silences the scepters sway and it doesn’t matter how ornate your tomb is when “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” is the only honest epitaph. Every knee shall bow because God is the only one left standing and the forever feast on the holy mountain is a celebration of God not the “all peoples” who are invited. I know there are plenty of scriptures that would confirm that God is just ruthless as we are but if that is the case then the wicked win.

Pentecost 16a - conclusion

I like a good wine, especially a big Cab. Good wine does not happen accidently. It’s a marriage of natural conditions and the capacity to craft something from what nature provides. A vine blessed by a balance of sun and soil and rain but without time and the talent of the vintner would just be grape juice. The lessons for Pentecost 16a imagine Israel as a pleasant planting that despite the best efforts of the vintner only produced sour grapes. Isaiah blames the vine asking what more could have been done to produce good grapes. The psalmist is not so sure asking what the vineyard did to deserve destruction. Jesus, the prophetic stone rejected, predicts the keys to the vineyard changing hands, although the new tenants are hardly more trustworthy and one wonders if the parable might not need a retelling. We often find ourselves in a dry vineyard brought about by decisions made or delayed. But just as often we wonder what went wrong and call God to explain. And there are times when hearing the truth about ourselves we understand the consequence of serving ourselves instead of the owner of the vineyard. The text that is good news for us is that despite our failings right relationship with God comes by faith which will produce fruit whenever like the apostle Paul we press on to take hold of the God who has already taken hold of us.   

Pentecost 16a - Matthew 21:33-46

Matthew 21:33-46
Since the text says Jesus is talking about “them” we can safely assume he is not talking about “us.” But then the living word, sharper and more active than a two edged sword, doesn’t let anyone off that easily. In many ways we are like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They were well versed in scripture and loved the law that revealed the way of the Lord. They were familiar with the pattern of religious ritual that gave shape to their every day and marked the passing of the seasons. They trained up their children in the way they should go so that when it came to the time of their passing God would not abandon them to Sheol. Jesus, the self proclaimed rock rejected, threatened the very fabric of their religious life and no matter how Matthew remembered it, the pious people of Jesus’ day were serving God by wanting to arrest Jesus and make him conform to the faith of his forebears. So what might that say about the “us” that objects to being identified with “them”? We have ways set in stone that elevate human traditions to divine status. We judge others by their ability to conform to the pattern of our faith. We might be well meaning but that doesn’t mean we aren’t misguided. The good news is that the stone over which we stumble and the rock that crushes our personal preferences is the precious cornerstone that for the sake of those outside the vineyard would have us give it away in obedience to the heir who owns it.  

Pentecost 16a - Philippians 3:4-14

Philippians 3:4-14
Like the apostle Paul I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. Born to Lutheran educators, baptized in my first month, memorized the liturgy before I could read, confirmed by my thirteenth year, graduate of a Lutheran grade school, high school, college, and seminary and served as a Lutheran grade school teacher, youth director and pastor. I know we’re saved by grace but surely a Lutheran pedigree like that counts for something? Of course it does and in many ways it is the reason I am able to press on to take hold of the Christ who took hold of me through the water of baptism and the faith of parents and teachers. Paul considers confidence in the flesh as loss but clearly values the heritage it represents and his brothers and sisters according to the flesh for whom he would sacrifice his salvation. (Romans 9:3) So while we place no confidence in our religious pedigree we are grateful for the formation that does not happen without the family of faith.

Pentecost 16a - Psalm 80:7-15

Psalm 80:7-15
The psalmist must not have read Isaiah who lays the blame for broken walls on the “pleasant planting” that produced sour grapes. There are times when we can identity clearly the cause and effect of choices made or delayed, but there are just as many times when “why, O Lord?” has no obvious answer. We cannot endure for long with the "why, O Lord" and so when the walls of our security have been broken down and the pleasant planting of our lives ravaged by calamity we cry aloud with the psalmist. “Restore us, God Almighty!” “Return to us, God Almighty!” “Look down from heaven and see!” Which is to say even when there are no satisfactory answers to “why?” we trust the Lord still tends the vine of our lives.

Pentecost 16a - Isaiah 5:1-7

Isaiah 5:1-7
God’s lament sounds familiar because God’s sad song is so often ours as well. We invest time and energy and emotion into relationships that fail to produce hoped for results. Of course when human relationships go sour we say “it takes two to tango” while Isaiah envisions all the blame is on the vineyard God planted. It is true that sowing wild oats (grapes?) is common enough to be cliché but Israel, a small country situated between hostile empires, can hardly be blamed for trying to survive the place of its planting. Maybe that was the point all along. Trusting God was not supposed to be like all the other nations who sacrifice everything, including their first born, to appease the blood lust of their gods. The people of God were to reflect the same sort of care to the widow and the orphan and the sojourner as God showed to them. The fruit of righteousness was never meant to be about the sacrifice required by law but rather the law of living by love. In that respect God the gardener was dancing all alone so I guess it does take two to tango after all.