Musings on the Daily Lectionary

When I was young, my grandparents had several grape vines, scuppernongs and muscadines which we would sometimes use to make jelly. But these vines were no longer producing by the time I was an adult. One time when I was at my grandparents with my toddler aged daughter, I said something about how it was too bad she couldn't eat those grapes or help make jelly. My grandfather responded by telling me that the vines probably just needed a good pruning. He had not kept up with that as he had gotten older. He couldn't prune them any longer but he said he could show me how.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit." (John 15:1-2)

It was the time of year for pruning so my grandfather found the shears and we went outside. I never would have done enough pruning had he not been there. He kept insisting that I needed to cut away more vine. It seemed a harsh and severe task to me, but I did as he directed. Later that year we had a huge crop of grapes, and with my grandmother's tutelage, my daughter and I made grape jelly.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit." More often than not, I want God to be there for me, to work in my life, but not to cause me any problems, not to make things difficult for me, not to change anything very much. Pruning sounds harsh and severe, not what I want done.

May God help me be a little more trusting of vine-grower's skill.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments," says Jesus just prior to his arrest and death in today's reading from John. There is a lot of talk about love in the Bible. We hear that God is love and that God loves the world. We are told to love God and neighbor. But I wonder if our understanding of love isn't sometimes overly colored by our culture's notions of romantic love, of love as an intense feeling.

As a pastor, I regularly conduct weddings where couples ask me to read from 1 Corinthians 13 with its soaring words about love that conclude, "and the greatest of these is love." These words are certainly appropriate at weddings, but often not for the reason that couples assume. Paul, like Jesus, is not speaking of a warm and mushy feeling, but of an absolute commitment to another, of doing what is best for the other even when you don't feel like it.

In Jesus, we are called into relationship with God, a relationship built on love. But I know that I often attempt a very childish relationship with God where I expect God to give me lots of things in return for my occasionally saying, "I love you." But Jesus shows us the meaning, the depth, and the cost of love.

Help me, O God, to love you with more than my words, to do as Jesus calls me to do.

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Sermon for April 12, Easter: "More than a Story"

Sermon, 4-12.mp3

Musings on the Daily Lectionary

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me,
from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.

These words from Psalm 22 are certainly appropriate on Good Friday, even if Jesus only speaks the opening line. On this day when many Christians contemplate Jesus' suffering and death, I also wrestle with its meaning. I've shared here before that I am not much comforted or impressed with mechanical, formulaic understandings of Jesus' passion. The notion that Jesus had to suffer terribly in order to pay enough of a price for all of us has never seemed a very compelling one to me. And while there are scriptural passages that will support such a view, I don't see the bulk of scriptural witness doing so.

As I've pondered this, it strikes me that viewing the cross primarily as a formula for providing personal salvation can become a way of minimizing Jesus' call for all his followers to embrace the way of the cross. If the cross is the preeminent example of God's power made perfect in weakness, then the cross is much more about the ways of God than it is about formulas.

If the cross is God's ultimate weapon against sin and death, what does that say about how we are to bear witness to the victory that God has won?

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ...Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear." Psalm 27 is once again the morning psalm in today's readings. But to me its words take on more profound meaning when I consider Jesus celebrating a final Passover with friends, knowing what the next day would bring.

Today many of us will in some way reenact that "Last Supper." And as we do, I am drawn to today's epistle reading from First Corinthians. Paul is speaking of the Lord's Supper, the only time he mentions it in a letter. He has been prompted to discuss the meal because of abuses of it at Corinth. The wealthy folks who could come early were sitting down to eat without waiting for the poorer members. They were enjoying their food and wine, often to the point of there being none left to share when the poor finally arrived. In this context Paul writes, "For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves."

Now it is easy to see how these words can be read to speak of a mystical presence in the meal, of discerning the body of Christ in the elements. But read in the larger context of Paul's instructions to the Corinthians, the body mentioned here is clearly the body of Christ that is the Church.

As we gather for Maundy Thursday services this evening, I think it is all too easy for American Christians to think about these events mostly from a personal perspective: Christ dying for me, the Spirit giving me strength to follow Jesus and not be afraid, etc. But I hope to sense the body that Paul calls me to discern. May tonight's service join me, and you, to the great story of God's salvation, and to all those who are part of it.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

As Paul comes near the end of his letter to the Philippian congregation, he writes, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Oh if only I could embrace these words as a way of life. But my gentleness is often hidden. I worry about many things. And I find it difficult simply to trust in God's providence. At times, however, "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding," does sweep over me. And then it seems that it might just be possible to follow Paul's other instructions.

As we draw near to Easter, and the impossible story of the resurrection, perhaps the power of resurrection, of the impossible, may draw me once more to what God can do, to the peace God can give, to the life that is possible in Christ.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

"Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also." So says Jesus in today's reading from John 12. These words come as Jesus speaks of his "hour" being at hand, referring to his impending death on the cross. But his words also speak to the larger issue of where Jesus is to be found, not seeking his own comfort or benefit, but doing God's will, wherever that may lead.

During Sunday worship, I have a somewhat different perspective than most of the folks because we face in different directions. And on one Sunday, I watched as homeless gentleman came into the narthex while we worshiped . (Windows along the back wall of the sanctuary give me a good view of this area.) This man had barely gotten into the narthex when an usher came up beside him and gently, but firmly, ushered him out of my view and presumably out of the building. I later learned that the ushered assumed the man was looking for some assistance and told him to come back at some other time.

Now this usher meant well. He was generous in his giving to the church's mission, but thought this gentleman has chosen an inappropriate time. But I can't help but wonder about whether our congregation was "where Jesus is" at that moment. I would never denigrate the central place of worship in the life of faith, but I wonder if our church buildings don't sometimes become fortresses, insulating us from the very people and situations we are called to serve.

"Where I am, there will my servant be also." What does that look like for me? What does that look like for you, and for your congregation?

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

When I was in seminary and was learning Greek, one of the Greek words that stuck with me was skubala. It is found in today's reading from Philippians. Skubala not only has a catchy sound to it (the accent is on the first syllable), but it is one of those words that turns out to have been "cleaned up" in translation.

Paul writes of how knowing Christ has made everything else seem worthless by comparison. "I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish..." Rubbish is how my Bible translates skubala, but while it can mean rubbish, its more literal meaning is dung or excrement. In seminary one smart alec thought it funny to translate this verse "...and I regard them as sh--." Everyone laughed, but the professor then added that this humorous translation likely came closer to what Paul meant than our Bibles did.

No doubt Paul is employing a bit of hyperbole, but still I find his words striking. Very often in our world, religion is an add-on or a pick-me-up. I know that in my own life, it is easy for faith to live at the edges, not making significant contact with a great deal of my day to day activities, even though I am a pastor. But to know Jesus so deeply that this experience dwarfs all of life, puts everything else in a distant second place...

Perhaps Holy Week would be a good time to reflect and meditate on this. As we consider the events of this week, may they become so real to us as to move everything else aside.

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Sermon for April 5, "What Have You Done for Me Lately?"

A basketball coach's job security may ride on the answer to the question, "What have you done for me lately?" And the quick move from "Hosanna" to "Crucify him!" has a similar feel to it. But there's no need to point fingers at the folks in Jerusalem. I have my own ways of joining the parade but avoiding the cross.

Sermon, 4-5.mp3

Musings on the Daily Lectionary

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Because Jesus repeats these words from the cross, many of us are familiar with the opening of today's psalm, Psalm 22. But we may be less familiar with some of the other lines. " I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death."

Clearly the psalmist's predicament is dismal. But, as the conclusion of the psalm makes clear, even while experiencing this terror, the psalmist does not doubt that God is still God, and God is sovereign. "Future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it." Presumably Jesus also recalls these words during his utterance from the cross.

Before I read today's psalm, the issue of how people understand suffering and tragedy was already in front of me. A person requesting prayers pleaded for help so that "Satan wouldn't win." But I think this psalm, and the resurrection, insist that no tragedy can be so severe as to be a "win" for Satan. Even in the midst of the worst that can happen, somehow, in ways that we often cannot understand, God is still God, and God is still sovereign.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

With Holy Week fast approaching, thoughts naturally turn to the cross, resurrection, and the meaning of it all. For me, the meaning too often gets reduced to, "Jesus died for you and then rose again. Believe this and you're saved." Thus "salvation," whatever particular meaning a person has for that term, becomes about recognizing the right formula and plugging yourself in.

But Paul's words from Romans 11 are a bit hard to fit into the formula. Paul is clearly bothered by the fact that so many of his Jewish kindred have rejected Jesus. Yet he is unwilling to see this simply as them not "getting it." He sees the whole episode as somehow a part of God's plan, and he also sees no evidence that God has rejected the Jews. Surely this means that the cross is much more than formula. It is a part - indeed the central part - of God's plan to redeem all Creation, a plan that is often incomprehensible to human beings.

Many years ago I was having lunch with a fellow pastor who was part of our neighborhood, ecumenical clergy group who had conducted a funeral earlier that day. And he said to me, "Boy it sure is hard doing a funeral for someone you know isn't saved." I told him that on this point I washappy to be a Calvinist, and to trust that God saves whomever God saves. Who is and who isn't is known only to God, and I'm more than content to leave that in God's hands.

The cross is a pretty strange way for God to go, when you think about it. And I suspect that easy formulas seek to make simple what are the inscrutable purposes of God. In the meantime, I will meditate on Holy Week, the cross, and the resurrection, and continue with my own feeble efforts to have my life conform better to what I see God doing there.

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Musings on the Daily Lectionary

When I was in seminary, I had the chance to go to the Middle East. While riding in our chartered bus through the West Bank, I looked down in a valley and saw a young boy - he looked to be 9 or 10 - walking along a path with a little group of sheep following him, single-file, down the path. I've learned that this is the typical pattern of Middle Eastern shepherding. The herds tend to be quite small, and the shepherds don't drive the sheep; they call them and the sheep follow after them. Jesus as the Good Shepherd adopts a rather gentle metaphor for leading his people. He calls and walks ahead.

Contemporary Americans often expect more of their leaders. We want forceful leaders, people who take the bull by the horns. And I think that I sometimes let such images shape the way I think Jesus/God should be: powerful, assertive, commanding, etc. But a shepherd simply calls, and his own who hear, follow along behind.

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