Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 27, 2011, the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Isaiah 49:8-16a
v. 8 “Thus says the Lord” certainly leaves no doubt about whom Isaiah claims is speaking here. What is the “time of favor” and “day of salvation” being referred to? What does it mean that God has “kept” us and “given” us as a covenant to the people?

v. 9 What prisoners are being referred to? Are “the prisoners” the same as “those who are in darkness”? How can bare heights be anyone’s or anything’s pasture if it is bare?

v. 10 Is this a reference to only physical hunger and thirst? Who is the one having pity? How can springs of water serve as a guide?

v. 11 This is not mountain top removal mining being referred to here. Might this same thought be expressed by a phrase such as “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” (See Isaiah 40:3-4)

v. 12 Why might the north and south be mentioned, but not the poetic parallel east and west? Is there anything special about the land of Syene?

v. 13 How do the heavens sing and how does the earth exult? How do mountains sing? Why would the heavens and mountains sing and the earth exult because the LORD has (note the tense) comforted the LORD’s people and will have (note the tense) compassion on the Lord’sSuffering ones?

v. 14 Have you ever felt like Zion?

v. 15This is one of my favorite passages in Isaiah, alluded to by A Brief Statement of Faith line 49. What does it mean that God cannot forget us?

v. 16 So God has my name tattooed in the palms of God’s holy hands? How special!

Psalm 131
I think this might be the shortest psalm in the Psalter!

v. 1 The first two lines sound to me like a lament, but the third and fourth lines sounds more like confessions of a follow of Scottish Common Sense Philosophy.

v.2 In light of Isaiah 49:15, I cannot but help envision myself as a nursing child at the breast of a maternal God.

v. 3 What does it mean to “hope in the Lord”? (See Psalm 130:7)

1 Corinthians 4:1-5
v. 1 Who is the “us”? What does it mean to be “stewards of God’s mysteries”? What are “God’s mysteries”?

v. 2 What does it mean to “be found trustworthy?”

v. 3 Who is judging and who is being judged and for what?

v. 4 In other words, we have all committed sins we are not even aware of committing?

v. 5 So if we expect the Lord to be our judge, we should refrain from judging one another until Jesus returns and then truly allow him to be our judge? For PC(USA) Presbyterians, what does this say about the Rules of Discipline in the Book of Order?

Matthew 6:24-34
v. 24 What does this verse tell us about any Pastor trying to serve yoked churches? Oh, this is not about churches but God and wealth. Most of the wee-kirks I have served have not had much wealth, nevertheless, I think it is just as easy to worship the wealth they do not have as much as the wealth they might have.

v. 25 According to the rules of logic and rhetoric, how does “Therefore” follow from the verse preceding it? Who is speaking here? I am sorry Jesus, but in this post recessionary period of high unemployment, it is very difficult not to worry just a little. Yes, life is more than and clothing, but according to Maslow, until theses basic needs are met, it is difficult to focus on needs further up the hierarchy.

v.26 Yes, I think that to God I am more valuable than a bird, but as a teenager I also read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Quoting from THE SPARROW “Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your heavenly father’s knowledge; but the sparrow still falls.” (See Luke 10:29-30)

v. 27 Most Medical Doctors and Psychologists would probably argue that we actually subtract hours from our life by excessive worrying.

v. 28 But I and the people I am responsible for are not lilies.

v. 29 True, lilies in the field appear more glorious than Solomon or any fashion model, but Solomon could afford a great wardrobe and fashion models can afford Botox, cosmetic surgery, personal trainers, and to afford a wardrobe most of us could never hope to afford.

v. 30 I am glad St. Patrick’s Day is not too far away, because it sounds like I am going to be wearing green.

v. 33 If I strive first for the kingdom of God, can I still strive second for these other things?

v.34 Perhaps the Lord’s Prayer “give us this day our daily bread” and the story about daily manna can be instructive here. Frankly, today’s troubles are more than enough for today. I would like to put off some of them until tomorrow so that I do not have to worry about them until tomorrow.

ADDENDUM
I have specifically invited the congregation I serve at North Church Queens to read these ruminations before worship, as they may form the bulk of my Sermon, entitled “Lectionary Ruminations”. I will copy these ruminations and distribute them to worshipers before worship.

Grounded Scriptures: Waiting for due season

Strawberries are coming into season. At least in the warmer parts of California. As of this week, they are showing up at my farmer’s market, which is enough for me to say FAIR GAME! Of course I write this here with great trepidation, because my kind readers, being from all over the country, may hurl spite and jealousy in my general direction. But just think of what you can look forward to.
Strawberries from the grocery store just don’t do it for me. The white and mealy insides, the lack of juicyness, their ridiculous size – they smack of unnaturalness. The worst are the strawberries you buy in November. They’ve been flown from Chile or somewhere, and aborted prematurely off their vine so they can survive the flight before ripening (and rotting). But a local, fresh strawberry is something else entirely. Red all the way through, ripened thoroughly on the vine, intoxicating in their sweetness, and so delicate they will bruise in a minute, if you don’t eat them – nevermind flying them to another country. They are truly worth waiting for.

The Bible verse that most immediately comes to mind is Ps 104:27. “[all creatures] look to you to give them their food in due season; you open wide your hand and satisfy the needs of every living creature.”
The proper course of things, the rightness of seasonal changes, the appropriate time to receive and to eat – the goodness of waiting!

But a more ominous verse comes to mind as well. This is from the wilderness wanderings, Numbers 11:4-6: “The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”’
The truth is, we can get our cucumbers and melons any season of the year, but we get it at a price. We can have raspberries on our Christmas desserts, flown on little petrochemical wings from faraway lands, to save us from the boring manna diet of what CAN be grown (or stored) locally in the winter. We get it at a price: pollution across our skies, insecurity for our own local farmers, and mealy white strawberries.
The Israelites got access to their wonderful, Nile-irrigated vegetables while they were in Egypt, and got it at a price: their freedom. It is useless to pretend we do not also give up our freedom when we allow Dole and other multinational corporations to feed us, hook us in, teach us the attitude of entitlement that keeps the dollars flowing and the strawberries flying.

Barbara Kingsolver writes in vivid terms about our lack of (gastronomic) patience, which may be said to have negative effects on other realms of society. Patience and restraint, great virtues, are only applied selectively in our culture: “…browbeating our teenagers with the message that they should wait for sex, for example. Only if they wait to experience intercourse under the ideal circumstances (the story goes), will they know its true value. “Blah, blah, blah,” hears the teenager: words issuing from a mouth that can’t even wait for the right time to eat tomatoes, but instead consumes tasteless ones all winter to satisfy a craving for everything now. We’re raising our children on the definition of promiscuity if we feed them a casual, indiscriminate mingling of foods from every season plucked from the supermarket, ignoring how our sustenance is cheapened by wholesale desires.” (Barbara Kingsolver, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” page 31).

Dare to cut loose and be free. Cut loose from Pharaoh’s addictive provisions of food-with-a-price, and wait for the Real Deal. I promise (though I have perhaps not waited as long as you in colder climes will) that the strawberries will taste way better.

Presidents' Day

A couple of years ago, after a national election, the Sunday morning pastoral prayer at my church included mention of our newly elected national and local leaders. One young member stood up immediately, walked out of the sanctuary, and confronted the pastor afterward: asking how he could violate church and state by praying for the President. 

I think perhaps this individual missed the point. As Christians, isn't it our duty to pray for our communities and our leaders?  Isn't prayer part of discernment about the paths we choose to take?  Personally, I am uncomfortable with the idea of churches controlling governments (directly or indirectly) but am quite comfortable with churches lobbying for funding addressing issues they find important (e.g. poverty, hunger, AIDS, etc.)

It's one thing for a church to tell parishioners how to vote.  It's quite another to pray for our country and its leaders.

A few thoughts about Church and State:
U.S. Constitution .net (Jefferson's Wall of Separation Letter and the The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment)
And, of course, there's always Wikipedia (Separation of church and state and Separation of church and state in the United States)

Go Fish!: The Heart of the Matter

Missional author Reggie McNeal talks a lot about the need for churches to have an external focus, rather than an internal one. We as church folks need to turn our focus out into the communities around us.

The best reason we need to shift our focus: God cares about the people who live around us. What's on their hearts is on God's heart. And so it should be in ours.

Do you know what's on the hearts of your neighbors? Truly on their hearts. Are they worried about how to support their families? Stressed by caring for older parents? Struggling in relationships with loved ones? Passionate about education?

And this is key: are you guessing, or do you really know? Have you asked them?

You could ask your congregation what they think is on the hearts of their neighbors, but resist that temptation. Your results may come back skewed. We're on the inside looking out, our neighbors are on the outside looking in (if they're even looking inside of where we are in the church). We in the church need an outsider's opinion.

There are a number of ways to seek that opinion. Here's a few suggestions:

• Meet with the police chief, or some police officers in your community; what do they see as the main needs of the people they serve? What do they as officers care about? Is there any support the church could offer them?
• Sit down with some of the executive directors of your community's social service agencies and non-profits. What do they see happening in the lives of "the least of these"? Where could church members make the most difference?
• Talk to the principals of your local schools. What do kids and youth need most in your community? What's on the principals' wish lists for materials or services?
• Start frequenting your local shops and restaurants; get to know owners and workers and ask them what they've noticed in the community.

You could probably come up with more ideas. These information-gathering techniques needn't be formal or organized. Making it a priority to talk with people, asking them what's important to them, and then really listening to them, that's all that's needed. In fact, don't even get into problem solving mode with them; save that for another time.

Ask God to give you new eyes to see what he sees, and new ears to hear what he hears. Most of all, ask God to give you a new heart that opens wide to include the people who are on God's heart.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 20, 2011, the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.


Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
v. 2 Why should the people of Israel (and us by extension) be holy?

vs. 9-10 What do you know about gleaning? In addition to this being a form of social welfare, it probably also is good ecology.

vs. 11-12 So, contrary to last week’s Gospel Reading, it is ok to swear by the name of God as long as one swears truthfully?

v. 13 Let’s put these word on display on Wall Street and in the lobby of America’s mortgage lenders.

v. 14 Praise God for the ADA. I sometimes wonder what was going through the minds of people who designed and built church buildings before ADA. I fear we are now paying the price for their lackof awareness and foresight.

v. 15 As the economic disparity in America approaches levels that have not been seen since just before the Great Depression, this verse becomes ever more poignant.

v. 16 Good for kin and neighbor, but what about the stranger?

v. 18 The first part of his verse points toward the Gospel reading. The second part of this verse informs Jesus’ answer to the questions “Which is the greatest commandment?”

vs. 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17 Is the repetition of “I am the LORD” merely a literary device or does it suggest that these verse may have been used liturgically in a responsive fashion? Might the repetition of “I am the LORD” also serve a theological function?

Psalm 119:33-40
Do not forget that this is the second week in a row the Psalm has been an excerpt from Psalm 119, an acrostic.

v. 33 How does the LORD teach? Note that “way” is singular.

v. 34 Does understanding precede the keep of God’s law?

v. 35 Note that “path”, as “”way” in verse 33, is singular.

vs. 36-37 What is God’s responsibility and what is our responsibility for turning the heart?

v. 38 What is the “promise”? What does it mean to “fear”God?

v. 39 What disgrace does the Psalmist dread?

v. 40 Hey, God. Look at me. Look at me? I might not have kept all your decrees, but I wanted to. Give me life just for trying.

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
v. 10 If Paul laid the foundation, who is now building on that foundation? How many ways are there to build on an already established foundation?

v. 16 What is the foundation of “God’s Temple”?

v. 17 Is Paul talking about self-destruction, or destroying the temple of another?

v. 18 Paul again writes about being “wise” and becoming “fools”. But become fools in order to become wise? What is Paul doing with these word games and twists of logic?

v. 19 And where is this so written? Perhaps Job 5:13? If so, I find it ironic that Job is traditionally classified as “Wisdom Literature”.

v. 20 Again, perhaps Psalm 94:11?

v. 21 All things are yours? What is Paul talking about?

v. 22 So, in the end, all things are God’s?

Matthew 5:38-48
v. 38 And how many times have we not only heard this said, but cited out of context?

v. 39 It sounds as though Jesus is asserting his own authority over the law. What do you know about “turning cheeks”?

v. 40 Did Jesus live in a litigious society?

v. 41 Why would someone force you to go a mile?

v. 42 Give? How much? Loan? With our without interest?

v. 43 I have not heard this one very often, if at all.

v. 44 I actually find it easier to pray for those who persecute me than to love my enemies.

v. 45 True.

v. 46 Does Jesus mean to suggest that the only reason to love is to be rewarded?

v. 48 Is human perfection really a reachable goal?

Monday Blog Club - Valentine's Day!

1. PCMK Interim Blog: light for the journey. The Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco in ministry with Interim Pastor Jack Lohr. Recent posts include View from Session and Doing Demographics in addition to notes about upcoming programming, e.g. the Lenten "Supper and Study."
   
2. Peaceworks: Thoughts about what it means to pursue a life that includes faith, justice, peace, coherence, integrity, and sustainability. Recent posts include The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Speaks to Egyptian Protesters, This Is My Commandment (love one another), and Do You Know Who You Are? (a short, funny anecdote about humility).
   
3. Prayers4Today: Welcome to prayers4today, a place of silence, prayer, and solitude. These prayers may be used in worship settings or newsletters, with attribution please. Recent prayers (poems!) follow Matthew 4 and 5, including wordswordswords, halite, and baditudes.

This week in our adult Sunday School class we talked about how much pressure we (as individuals in our society) tend to place on VALENTINE'S DAY and how putting so much emphasis on one day sets us up for disappointment and our loved ones up for failure. We set forth this week in a spirit of loving compassion, dedicated to sharing patience and kindness with those closest to us (the same ones who frequently bear the brunt of our short tempers and outside frustrations).

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours, and a special thank you to all of our bloggers!

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 13, 2011, the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.) Lectionary Ruminations is also cross posted on my personal blog, Summit to Shore. http://summittoshore.blogspot.com/

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
v. 15 Life is paired with prosperity. Death is paired with adversity. How much is this a linguistic construction and how much is it a theological construction?

v. 16 Is this, by any chance, one of the longer passages in the Hebrew Scriptures? Are commandments, decrees, and ordinances synonyms used for emphasis or does each term refer to something different?

v. 17 Is the “not hearing” an allusion to the Deuteronomy 6:4?

v. 18 I find it interesting that while death will come quickly, the people will still enter and possess the land.

v. 19 Who can dispute with witnesses like heaven and earth? In verse 15, the pairing was life/prosperity and death/adversity. Now it is life/blessings and death curses. In verse 15 the scheme was A and A’, B and B’. Here, it is A and B, A’ and B’.

v. 20 Can we remain faithful to the text while adding Sarah, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, Bilhah, and Rachel?

Psalm 119:1-8
v.1 The First Reading establishes the choice. The Psalm outlines the rewards or affects of the better choice.

vs 1-8 Note the synonyms: (1) law, (2) decrees, (3) ways, (4) precepts, (5) statutes, (6) commandments, (7) ordinances, and (8) statutes (again). What can teachers and preachers learn from the Psalmist’s literary creativity in addition to the Psalmist’s theology? And I have not even mentioned that this Psalm is an alphabetical acrostic. Ah, but can dudes even feign great hyperbole? I judge keeping lovely muses nasty. Oh, please, quit reading sarcastic tomes. Unveil virtuous workers. Xanex yields zero.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9
v. 1 Picking up where we left off last week . . . are you a spiritual person or are you an infant in Christ? What about most of the people in the Christian community in which you find yourself?

v. 2 As a preacher or teacher, do you serve milk, a Gerber’s Gospel, or a meat and potatoes Gospel?

v. 3 How much jealousy and quarreling exist in your congregation?

v. 4 To whom do you belong? Who are the Paul and the Apollos in the communities we know?

v. 5 Not that Paul, in this verse, sets himself on equal footing with Apollos.

v. 6 Are you a planter or a waterer?

vs. 6-7 God may give the growth, but who is the reaper?

v. 8 What wages are appropriate?

v. 9 Note the “we/you” language. Where do you fall in this dichotomy?

Matthew 5:21-37
v. 21 “It was said to those of ancient times” sounds like something in the past that has no or little influence in the present.

v. 22 Judgment, the council, the hell of fire. This sounds like increasing levels of punishment.

vs. 23-26 I think I might skip over these verses during the stewardship drive.

v. 27 This is beginning to sound formulaic (see v. 21).

n. 28 No comment. Instead, I refer you to former President Jimmy Carter.

v. 29-30 If we do not take this literally, then what is the meaning of the figurative language?

v. 31-32 Note the slight change in the formulaic introduction. Why do conservatives, evangelicals, and literalists tend to overlook this passage when it comes to G-6.0106b?

v. 33 More formulaic introduction.

vs. 34-37 How do we interpret this verse when we are required to take a civil oath, as in an oath of office or court of law.

ADDENDUM

Tomorrow, February 11, 2011, marks the one-year anniversary of my contributing Lectionary Ruminations to Presbyterian Bloggers. Two previous contributors authored this blog column before I volunteered to pick up the reigns after they had laid them down. I find it hard to believe that a full year has passed since then. A year of Lectionary Ruminations translates into fifty-two blog posts, or ruminations on 204 passages of Scripture. More recently, I have been cross posting Lectionary Ruminations on my personal blog, Summit to Shore. Summit to Shore is a rather eclectic blog through which I offer Theological and philosophical reflections on everything between summit to shore, including kayaking, climbing, religion, philosophy, theology, politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive New York City Presbyterian Pastor.

Grounded Scriptures: created in God's image

There's something difficult in the word "dominion" which the humans are commanded to exercise in most translations of the Bible: "have dominion over the fish and the birds and the animals." It should be translated somewhere on the fine line between "stewardship" and "domination," because its meaning is about midway between, but the problem is that the word resembles one much more than the other. So I take Ellen Davis' recommendation to call it "skilled mastery" (from her full article which you can download right here) which indicates that our rule is not arbitrary or forceful. In order to take good care of it, we must have knowledge and respect for it.
Also, the "be fruitful and multiply" is mostly quoted with reference to humans, but the fish & birds & all are also commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Let us not forget our kinship.

A reading modified from Gen 1:26-28

God said, “let us create humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them exercise skill and mastery over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind, Adam, (earthling), in God’s image.
In the image of God,
God created him,
Male and female,
God created them.
In much the same way God had already blessed the animals, God now blessed humankind, and God said, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and exercise skilled mastery over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

AND A PRAYER.
Great God, you have created us in your image,
and imprinted upon us your attributes.
You have created us to be creators,
you have created us to be creative.
Deep in our souls is imprinted
your limitless vision of this world’s fertility and abundance;
sharp on our hearts is your call
to exercise good stewardship and loving care over what is entrusted to us.
We feel the true goodness of the world you have created
And the particular goodness of our little corner of the world.
We are standing on holy ground; ought we to have removed our shoes?
Great God,
Into your servants breathe the inspiration of your holy spirit,
Scrub away whatever is covering your image hidden inside.
Allow us to pray and to think and to speak from that place of creativity, of wisdom, of love and tender care.
Be in our work, and in our play. Be love in our hearts today.
In the strong name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Monday Blog Club

Welcome to a new meeting of the Monday Blog Club! Today's three blog highlights are:

1. Occasional Sightings of the Gospel by Thom M. Shuman with "quirky, sometimes irreverent, hopefully relevant reflections on where God is working in the world and in our lives. www.ionabooks.com has published "The Jesse Tree" (Advent devotions) and www.csspub.com has published "Cradled in God's Grace", liturgies for Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary. I post liturgies @ www.lectionaryliturgies.blogspot.com & prayers @ www.prayersfortoday.blogspot.com"
   
2. Onesimus Online: history, theology, culture, the church, and other dangerous stuff by Joseph Black. "I'm presently a lecturer at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (part of Africa International University), and a member of the Theological Studies Department, of which I am the Acting Head of Department. I've studied history at Duke University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and the University of Cambridge. But for some reason the powers that be have me teaching theology. Go figure. My spiritual journey has taken me from the American dream to Presbyterianism to Charismatic Presbyterianism to really Reformed Presbyterianism to irenic Evangelicalism to the edge of the abyss. I am now a member of the Alexandrian Orthodox cathedral Church of Sts Cosmas and Damien in Nairobi, Kenya."
   
3. Pastor James: Thoughts on faith, musings on Scripture, plus audios and videos of sermons from Boulevard Presbyterian in Grandview Heights, an older suburb just a couple miles from downtown Columbus, OH. Add your two cents to the mix. By James Sledge, "the pastor of Boulevard Presbyterian in the Grandview Heights suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Before going to seminary in my mid-thirties, I was a corporate pilot."

We are indeed an interesting, varied bunch. Have a wonderful (and warm) week!

Chimps and Humans

What is it that makes us human? If you ask people that question, often their answer describes ways they believe we are different than animals. We have language, we use tools, we have culture, we transmit knowledge from one person to another, we are self aware, we have souls. Until fairly recently scientists would have given similar responses to that question as would theologians.

Every now and again one runs across something that makes one wonder about the differences between humans and other animals. Consider this report in Science Daily about the actions of a group of chimpanzees toward a dying member of their group.

In the days leading up to the chimp's death, the group was very quiet and paid close attention to her, the researchers report. Immediately before she died, she received much grooming and caressing from the others, who appeared to test her for signs of life as she died. They left her soon after, but her adult daughter returned and remained by her mother all night. When keepers removed the mother's body the next day, the chimpanzees remained calm and subdued. For several days they avoided sleeping on the platform where the female had died, even though it was normally a favored sleeping spot, and remained subdued for some time after the death.

This week Science Daily published another story describing observations about the actions of mother chimpanzees after the deaths of their infants. While many animals recognize that a dead animal is different than an alive animal, the reactions described in these two articles describes something more. They describe the recognition of the death of a particular individual and what appears to be a sense of loss or mourning.

James Anderson, one of the researchers whose work is described in the article has this to say about his observations.

"Several phenomena have at one time or another been considered as setting humans apart from other species: reasoning ability, language ability, tool use, cultural variation, and self-awareness, for example, but science has provided strong evidence that the boundaries between us and other species are nowhere near to being as clearly defined as many people used to think,"..."The awareness of death is another such psychological phenomenon. The findings we've described, along with other observations of how chimpanzees respond to dead and dying companions, indicate that their awareness of death is probably more highly developed than is often suggested. It may be related to their sense of self-awareness, shown through phenomena such as self-recognition and empathy towards others."

The previously sharp distinctions between other animals and humans are blurring as we learn more about other animals.

The knowledge we have gained about the complexity of animals' lives is fascinating and gives us much to think about as we ponder who we are as human beings and what our relationship with other animals ought to be.

What makes us human?

What I want to suggest today, is that what makes us human is not our biological uniqueness. What makes humans distinct from other animals is our particular vocation, our calling to care for other animals and God's creation. As Christians we are called to love God and to love our neighbor. Who is our neighbor? The answer to that question may cross species lines.

There is, of course, much more to be said about all this- too much for one blog posting. But lets talk about it via the comments.

*****

This is an area that is of interest to me. I have written several posts about these ideas on my blog, if you would like to read more.

And an apology: For some reason, the block quote tool and I have "issues" and the formatting after the block quotes doesn't return to normal. I was able to make a distinction in font and font size that I hope makes it clear where the block quotes begin and end and my comments begin.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, February 6, 2011, the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.)  I also cross post Lectionary Ruminations on my personal blog, Summit to Shore.

Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
v. 1 Last week, we shouted out to the mountains. This week we are shouting out to people. This is not the sort of shout out people want to hear, however.

v. 2 I think the two most important words in this verse are “as if”. I think I detect some sarcasm on God’s part. What place might sarcasm have in teaching and preaching?

v. 3 Note a shift in perspective, and then a shift back again. How much do we serve our own interests rather than God’s interests on our Sabbath (Saturday or Sunday)?

v. 4 I can think of a few churches this verse would fit.

vs. 5-7 I am hearing echoes of last week’s “what does the Lord require?”

v. 8 What is a “rear guard”?

v. 9 Preconditions for the LORD hearing our prayer? What is “the pointing of the finger”?

vs. 10-11 These verses read likme a restatement of verses 5-8.

v. 12 How might this promise of restoration serve as a vision of church renewal, revitalization and transformation?

Psalm 112:1-9 (10)
v. 1 This verse reads like the antithesis of the Isaiah Reading.

v 2. the reward goes to the next generation.

v. 3 Can we read in this verse the seeds of a health and wealth gospel?

v. 4 I want to correlate the light of this verse with Isaiah 58:8 and 10

v. 5 I assume the lending in this verse is a lending without interest.

vs. 6-8 How many such righteous people do you know?

v. 9 Based on this verse, this Psalm, and the First reading, how might we define “righteousness”?

v. 10 If this were only true in this life.

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
v. 1 As an amateur philosopher who used to teach Introduction to Philosophy at the undergraduate level, I am getting tired of Paul bad mouthing “lofty words” and “wisdom”. On the other hand, I like that he employs “the mystery of God”. I think we need more mystery in our churches and in our lives. What do you think?

v. 3 What weakness, fear and trembling does Paul refer to?

v. 4 Can a person not teach or preach with plausible words of wisdom as well as a demonstration of Spirit and power?

v. 5 What about Anselm’s “faith seeking understanding”? Can our faith not rest on both human wisdom AND on the power of God?

v. 6-7 Now Paul changes his tune! If I did not know better, I might think he is referring to esoteric and perhaps even Gnostic teachings. I think I smell the beginnings of a conspiracy theory novel here: secret and hidden teachings of Paul recently discovered and revealed! Dan Brown, are you reading this?

v. 8 Absolutely. When was the last time any ruler of any age got it right? They Crucified Jesus. They condemned Socrates.

v. 9 And what is Paul quoting? Isaiah 64:4 perhaps? Do you think Paul was quoting from memory, or from a text before his eyes?

v. 10 Does God reveal through the Spirit today or did all revelation cease with the end of the New Testament era?

v. 11 Paul is starting to sound like a psychologist.

v. 12 Shall we compare and contrast the spirit of the world and the Spirit that is from God? It might not preach, but it might serve as a good Ph.D. thesis. What gifts does God bestow?

v. 13 This sounds like a little Orwellian doublespeak, sort of hard to defend against let alone interpret. Or maybe Paul is just being “spiritual” but not religious.

v. 14 Now here is a topic for a Sunday School Lesson, Discussion, or Sermon: “Spiritual Discernment”.

v. 15 I have spiritually discerned everything I write here, therefore I am not subject to your’s or anyone else’s scrutiny!

v. 16 Who has known the mind of the Lord? Christ, maybe? Since we have the mind of Christ, we know the mind of God. Stay tuned. Next week I will tell you what God has in mind!

Matthew 5:13-20
vs. 13-16 Have we heard these verse so many times, together and in tandem, that we cannot hear afresh? What more can be said about salt and light? Do these first century metaphors still speak to us today or do we to translate them into new metaphors?

v. 17-20 The usual formula is “the Law, the Prophets and the Writings”. What are the Writings not mentioned here? What does this and the following verses have to do with the verses that preceded it. Do you sense there is no thematic unity? What “law” or “commandments” might Jesus have had in mind? Only the Torah? All the Levitical laws?

v. 20 Do you think Jesus (and/or the early church) though the scribes and Pharisees were a little lacking when it came to righteousness. Speaking of righteousness, you might want to revisit the First Reading and the Psalm and bring them into conversation with Matthew 5:17-20.

Grounded Scriptures: the Dandelion Tree

It's hard to understand about 80% of the Bible if you don't live in an agricultural society, and do at least a little bit of growing things. And sometimes even the Bible makes it hard to understand what's going on.

Take Matthew 13:31-32: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the
air come and make nests in its branches.”

Right. Great story. The Kingdom (or the realm of God, as I like to say) is a thing that grows. When we tell it in Godly Play with the kids, we roll up a piece of cloth and hide it in our hands and unroll it - it's shaped like a tree. The kingdom is like something small becoming big.
uh-uh. We're missing a major part of the story, because, well, have you ever seen a mustard tree? GUESS WHAT - mustard is a weed. A shrub, maybe a bush at best. Mainly, a weed. It spreads ferociously. And when the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches, I'm slightly concerned given that earlier in the chapter, the story of the "sower and the seed" was told, and the birds' role in that was to eat the seeds on the path. Birds aren't necessarily great for your seed-sowing endeavors. So the story could be re-told....
The Realm of God is like a dandelion, which is a small seed when blowing on the wind - it is too small to catch, even, or to keep off your lawn - but when it grows it becomes a TREE, full of pigeons and crows and rats and squirrels.
(not as pleasant).

The thing with trees, is that trees and especially the "greatest" trees, the majestic cedars, were often compared to the house of Israel. It's not just about size, it's about your past as well. YHWH has a long history of planting and uprooting that house - that tree. Ezekiel prophesied that a cedar tree would be planted on mount Zion, and that all kinds of birds would come to roost in it. And now there's another plant, a lowly shrub, which will take its place and shelter its birds. Ezekiel said "all the trees of the forest will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish." .... but he may not have imagined that the "low tree" and the "dry tree" wouldn't even be a tree, but a weed. If cedar trees are majestic institutions, mustard plants and dandelions are subversive movements. And Jesus has deliberately mixed these images, creating a mustard plant which does what cedar trees do.

What are we? As followers of the parable-telling Christ, are we planting cedar trees, pruning rosebushes, training topiaries in a good-looking, majestic church? Or are we tossing dandelion seed to the wind like playful children, spreading mustard seed in the dry and rocky ground where it can dig its tenacious roots in?

Here's the other beautifully disorienting thing. Mustard is an annual. It does NOT grow bigger and bigger as time goes on; it dies every year and grows again from the seed it has spread abroad. So if we and all the nations of the earth are to come like birds and roost in the shade of the mustard plant, we will not be guaranteed that there even IS a particular mustard plant in the same place it was last year. The Realm of God shifts and grows and changes. Notably UNLIKE cedar trees. Do we shift and grow and change?

The kingdom of God is like a dandelion tree. May it be so. Amen.

Member Blog Meet & Greet

Good morning and I hope you've enjoyed your Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I bet we have lots of new members to welcome to the unofficial PC(USA) web ring this week. Welcome, all of you! Unfortunately, Ring Surf is presently unwilling to share the pending memberships awaiting approval. Alas.

So, in the meantime, if you've filled out a Ring Surf application, haven't had a formal welcome here, and don't see your blog linked in the sidebar (below, right) please let me know!

Email pcusablog AT gmail DOT com and I'll add you to the blog roll manually. (There's not much I can do about Ring Surf, unfortunately.)

After our congregational meeting today we had a retirement reception for a church volunteer. All churches depend heavily on volunteers, but this guy really went above and beyond. He served as the Clerk of Session for many years, was the director of lay ministry, ran our annual 8-week officer training course, participates on many committees, was the A/V guy, had an office with the rest of the staff (and a church email address and full time office hours) and generally always knows what's going on. He will be missed! Of course, he won't be missed - he'll still be a very active church member - but all the behind-the-scenes things he managed will now fall to other hands. As one member asked today, "what army will replace Jim?"

One of the things I most respect about Jim as a leader is his nurturing of other leaders. He was never out to control situations or amass power for himself; he is all about responsibility and encouraging others to step up into leadership roles.

Does your church have a Jim?

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, January 30, 2011, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.)  Content is cross-posted on my personal blog Summit to Shore.

Micah 6:1-8
v. 1 Rather than the usual and customary “This is the word that came to Micah” we have a call to “Hear”. How much is this opening verse influenced by, an allusion to, and a midrash on Deuteronomy 6:4 and similar passages?

v. 2 Are the mountains and foundations of the earth serving as witnesses? Judges? It is usually the people of Israel complaining to and about the LORD. Now the LORD is complaining about the people.

v. 5 I like the fact that the LORD mentions Miriam along with Moses and Aaron. Exactly what are “the saving acts of the LORD” and how does one “know” them?

v. 6 This reads like a response to the indictment in 1-5, yet there is no narrative transition.

v. 8 Who is speaking in this verse, Micah or the LORD? According to my math, doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God is equal to or greater than all the genuflections, burnt offerings, or human sacrifices we could possibly render.

Psalm 15
v. 1 What is the expected answer?

vs. 1-5 If taken literally, these verses seem to suggest that no one may abide in the LORD’s tent. No one may dwell on the LORD’s holy hill. Does bringing these verses into conversation with Micah 8b offer any additional insight?

1 Corinthians 1:18-31
v. 18 What is the meaning of “foolishness”

v. 19 As an amateur philosopher, I find this verse a little disconcerting. Maybe we need to deconstruct it and explore its deep structure. By the way, where is this written?

v. 20 Whom might Paul have in mind?

v. 21 So while human wisdom will be destroyed, it is alright for God to be wise?

v. 22 So “wisdom” is being used as a metaphor or code word for “Greeks”? What about Christians who centuries later would refer to Plato as a proto-Christian? What sort of “signs” do Jews demand?

v. 23 How is the proclamation of Christ crucified a “stumbling block” to Jews? How is the proclamation of Christ crucified “foolishness” to Gentiles?

v. 24 Here we encounter call language again. What does it mean to equate “the power of God” and “the wisdom of God” with Christ and vice versa?

vs. 26-29 this might have preached in Paul’s day, but what about white, upper middle class, Christian America? This might preach in an economically distressed, immigrant, or even middle class congregation, but in Ole First Church?

v. 30 wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption are not necessarily common everyday words. How can a teacher or preacher unpack them?

v. 31 Where is it so written and how does that writing’s context inform this passage?

Matthew 5:1-12
v. 1 Why is “crowds” plural? This is such a familiar passage, how can we hear it again but as if for the first time?

v. 3 In this and in the following eight verses, what does it mean to be ‘blessed”? What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Who are the poor in spirit today?

v. 8 What about the prohibition about looking upon the face of God?

Grounded Scriptures: Working or Worshiping the land?

When Adam is placed in the garden of Eden he is placed in relationship to the fertile soil for which he is named: he is to “till it and keep it,” if you read the NRSV, or to “work it and take care of it,” in the NIV, “work the ground and keep it in order” if you’re partial to Eugene Peterson’s Message, or “tend and watch over it” if you read the New Living Translation.
What on earth is he doing?
Two Hebrew verbs. One is abad, to “serve,” most literally, as a servant serves a master, or to “worship,” as a person does to God. It does have the rarer meaning of “to work” without an indication of for whom you work – but usually it indicates a service rendered by an inferior for a superior. My California soul is deeply delighted at the notion of our first ancestor “worshipping” the soil. And I’m also thrilled to see that there was a positive paradigm for a human’s labor rendered to the soil, before the fall and expulsion from Eden whereupon we are told “in toil you shall eat of [the fruit of the land] all the days of your life.
Two is shamar, to “watch,” most literally, to observe with one’s eyes, OR as a watchman watches over a castle, to keep, protect, or preserve. I respect and appreciate the idea of protecting and preserving the land, but there’s also the aspect of watching it that takes a learner’s eye – to learn what the land can do, what it needs, how it will react to rain and sun and tilling and any other interaction it may have.
Ellen Davis comes up with four words: when it comes to the land, Adam is to “work it and serve it, observe it and preserve it.” We must fall to our knees, learn from it, respect its limitations, appreciate its art, marvel at its wonders, protect them from harm. This is our call.

(Scripture, Culture, Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. p30)

Go Fish!: Engaging Evangelism

Over the last few years the PCUSA folks in Louisville have been making an effort to get Presbyterians interested in evangelism. As you might imagine, this is not an easy task.

I attended the evangelism track of Big Tent in 2009, and found that some attendees seemed wary of how to proceed when it came to evangelism in their congregations. There were the usual (cringe-worthy, for me) comments about the “dreaded E-word”, followed by nervous laughter. And yet, I think we all understood that sharing the Good News with our communities is an imperative if our churches are to continue in the years to come.

Eric Hoey, Director of Evangelism and Church Growth, and Ray Jones, Coordinator for Evangelism, patiently made the case for evangelism, and introduced speakers from around the country to encourage and train us.

Since Jones and his colleagues have been hard at work on a new church resource they will unveil at this June’s Big Tent in Indianapolis, called, Engage. After talking to Jones, I find the upcoming initiative promising, because it links discipleship, social justice and evangelism. Jones himself said they are very excited about Engage.

Jones pointed out that discipleship is the necessary foundation to Christians engaging in evangelism. He told me that practicing evangelism “outside of disciple making is going to be a weird and wacky exercise.”

He also made the case that evangelism and social justice always linked in the New Testament, but that somehow in church history the two were separated.

“The main thing we’re hoping is that people will see that evangelism is essential to the church’s ministry, and that it’s closely tied to social justice,” he told me.

Engage is something he hopes will help churches produce people who will not only serve their communities, but will also share their faith with others.

The initiative has four main emphases, Jones said. Each aspect will:

• - Engage participants with the Gospel, starting with the story of Jesus, showing how God is on a mission to heal a broken world;
• - -Engage participants in their own faith stories, showing how each of us has a story of transformation to share with others;
• - -Engage the congregation in what it means to be a disciple making church; what shifts have to be made to encourage disciple making?
• - Engage the community by first finding out how congregations can serve the communities around them.

“The first thing that we really looked at was where do we begin? We have to begin with this notion that we’ve all got a story, and we’re part of a larger story,” Jones said of the first two emphases.

On the last emphasis, Jones said Engage would ask congregants to think about their spheres of influence in the community at large. Who do they regularly come into contact with? And if they aren’t coming into contact with non-Christians, how can they stop hanging out at church, and start hanging out with people who aren’t a part of church? Where is God already at work out in the community, and how can we get in on that work?

Jones said Engage is designed to start with a Session before it is introduced to the congregation. The idea would be for the elders to interact on the material for the first 45 minutes of a Session meeting, taking the place of a devotional time. Elders would engage with the Gospel, as well as with their own faith stories.

Once the Session had gone through the materials, other church leaders would participate. Jones said the recommendation would be that the leaders begin with a retreat that takes them through the same material as the Session went through.

The retreat would then be followed by gatherings one night a month. At the gatherings the leaders would break into small groups, with elders leading the groups. The main focus at these gatherings would help elders and leaders determine their spheres of influence outside of the church, and what it would look like to engage others in the community.

There would also be a chance for the leadership of the church to actually walk the community surrounding the church, and notice what’s happening. The exercise is designed to help leaders see where God is already at work, and to figure out how to partner with the community to get in on what God is doing.

The final piece of Engage is a six-week small group experience for the entire congregation, linked to the Sunday worship experience.

While it would be tempting to see Engage as a program to help congregations bring more people into church, Jones said that’s not the point.

“When you talk about evangelism, most churches think it means getting more people into church,” he said. “It’s more than that; it’s making Jesus real for people.”

Are you ready to Engage? How are you or your congregation already engaging the community around you?

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, January 23, 2011, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.)


Isaiah 9:1-4
v. 1 Who are in anguish? When was the former time? Where is the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali and what is so special about it? When might the latter time be? Who is “he”?

v. 2 Who walked in darkness and lived in a land of deep darkness?

v. 4 Who is the “you” has broken these things? Who was the oppressor? What happened “on the day of Midian”?

Psalm 27:1, 4-9
v. 1 Who shall you fear and of who shall you be afraid? In my experience, fear can be a crippling and paralyzing experience for congregations facing an uncertain future and needing to change. The “light” of this verse explains why this psalm was paired with the Isaiah reading. When read together, how does psalm enter into dialogue with the First Reading and vice versa?

v. 2 A worthy petition, don’t you think?

v. 5 What might qualify as a “day of trouble”? Being concealed under the cover of a tent and being set high on a rock (for all to see) seem like a mixed metaphor.

v. 7 This verse could be used as a response in bidding prayer.

vs.8-9 What can happen to people who see the face of God? What does it mean to seek God’s face?

v. 9 Why might God turn away and cast off?

1 Corinthians 1:10-18
One problem with this passage might be that we are too familiar with it and our preconceived notions of what it says and means might get in the way of fresh interpretations. On the other hand, readers may want to review Is Christ Divided: A Report Approved by the 200th General Assembly (1988), Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)  as a lens through which to view and interpret this passage.

v. 10 How does Paul strengthen his appeal?

v. 11 Who is Chloe and Chloe’s people?

v. 12 Who is Apollos? Have you ever heard talk in our particular church approximating what Paul is describing here?

v. 13 Rhetorical questions presuming the answer “No”.

vs . 14-16 I think Paul, in another letter, claimed to never have baptized. Even in this verse, Paul does not see to totally trust his own memory.

v. 17 On what basis is Paul arguing that eloquent wisdom might empty the cross of Christ of its power? For generations after Paul, Philosophy was considered the handmaiden to Theology.

Matthew 4:12-23
After an excursion into John, we are now back to a somewhat lectio continua reading of Matthew.

v. 12. Why did Jesus withdraw to Galilee upon learning that John had been arrested. From where did Jesus withdraw?

v. 13 Apparently, Jesus withdrew from Nazareth. What, if any, is the significance of Capernaum?

v. 14 Other than the fulfillment of prophecy (see today’s First Reading), is there any other significance to Capernaum?

v. 17 Have fun unpacking Jesus’ proclamation.

vs. 18-20 How does this version of the call of Simon and Andrew differ from last week’s account in the reading from John? Why the difference? Note the word “immediately”. What is the meaning (or meanings) of “followed”?

v. 21 Why might Jesus’ first four disciples have been two sets of brothers?

v. 22 Note another appearance of “immediately”. What more do John and James leave behind compared to what Simon and Peter left behind. What are we called to leave behind when we follow Jesus?

v. 23 Should we assume at Simon, Andrew, James and John were “following” Jesus as he went through Galilee.

Grounded Scriptures: Leviticus rediscovered

I commend to you a little reading in Leviticus.
What?
Nobody commends Leviticus. That’s the backwardest part of the Bible. When my youth group performed the “Bible in 15 minutes” we summarized Leviticus as:
Don’t have sex with your daughter.
Don’t have sex with your sister-in-law.
Don’t have sex with your great-aunt.
If you have an oozy skin discharge, OR if you touch a corpse…
And in the interest of fitting the rest of the Bible into 15 minutes, the whole cast yelled “ew gross!” and ousted Leviticus from the stage.
Today, I commend to you a few verses from Leviticus. Specifically, from the collection known as the “Holiness Code” (chs 17-26). You can skip the parts about whom not to have sex with (just do it with someone you love and aren't related to, ok?), and go on to chapter 19.

Now you need a little Hebrew, but I’ll provide it. NOTICE how people, creatures, and land are all treated similarly, even with the same words: you shall not reap the edge (pe’a) of your field (19:9) nor will you shave the edge (pe’a) of your beard (19:27). NOTICE that your fruit trees are to remain uncircumcised (‘arelim 19:23) for three years, whereupon its first “cutting” or harvest of fruit is dedicated to the Lord. If that’s not telling us “treat your trees like people,” I don’t know what it is. NOTICE that the land doesn’t just take male metaphors, it’s female too: “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity” (19:29).
This is the same great chapter that tells us “love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18) and even “you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (19:34)… and I wonder. Hidden under this code, are we actually being told…
*to tenderly care for our fields as we do our own bodies?
*to protect our land as fiercely as we protect our daughters?
*to honor and celebrate the fruit of a tree the same way we would celebrate the life of a baby boy?

I commend to you a little reading in Leviticus 19. Enjoy.

Monday Blog Club

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! I've had some interesting conversations with my two daughters (ages 3 and 7) about what this means.

PC(USA) Resources for Martin Luther King Day and Race Relations Sunday: In faithful witness to the love of Christ, the church is committed to confronting the ideology of racism and racial oppression, working to overcome racism with prayer, discernment and worship-based action. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Race Relations Sunday provide opportunities to celebrate the diversity of God's family.

Good morning and welcome to another Monday Blog Club!

This week I'd like to highlight three members of our blog roll.

1. NOT EXACTLY AS PREACHED: Because the Holy Spirit has something to say about it, in and out of the pulpit by St. Blogwen. The author describes himself as "an ordained minister and licensed architect. Or is it a licensed minister and ordained architect? Lately, an astonished substitute teacher. And a saint only in the First Corinthians sense of the word." As for the blog itself, "THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKS in the pastor's study. He also speaks to the pastor in the pulpit. These are my pulpit supply sermon texts as written and printed-- but never quite as preached." (I wonder what the text of a sermon exactly as preached would look like. Nevermind! I don't think I'd enjoy a sermon read verbatim from the page...)
   
2. Not So Reserved: Welcome to my park bench from which we can notice and discuss the traces and signs of God's presence and activity in the Alle-Kiski Valley. Have a seat. Relax and take a look around. Something big is happening, and you are invited to participate. The author, Stewart, from Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania, United States, describes himself as a "Creature of dust, child of God, transplant to Western Pennsylvania, guest preacher here and there." In addition to information about where and when he's preaching, Stewart's blog includes his Twitter updates.
   
3. Notes from Off-Center: Society and theology from the view of a Christian pragmatist. The author, Andrew (Drew) Tatusko hold both an M.Div. and Th.M. and is a college/university instructor. More information about his education, work, and publications here. The website includes a blog (organized by category, chock full of thought-provoking posts), Twitter feed, and a robust network of out-going links.
   

Cheers!

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, January 16, 2011, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.)


Isaiah 49:1-7
v. 1 Who is speaking?

v. 2 How shall we deal with the militaristic imagery?

v. 3 Israel?

v. 6 How could an entire nation/people be a light to the nations?

v. 7 Is this a reference to pre-Christian anti-Semitism?

Psalm 40:1-11
v. 1 Is this Job’s psalm? Seriously,is the speaker an individual, a community, or both?

v. 3 What does the new song symbolize? Why do some worshipers complain about learning new hymns and singing unfamiliar hymns?

v. 6 Does this verse condemn or outlaw sacrifice and offering outright? In light of this verse, why do we still collect or take up an offering during worship?

v. 7 What scroll? What book?

v. 8 What biblical imagery does this verse remind you of? Jeremiah 31:33 perhaps?

vs. 9-10 What is “the great congregation”?

1 Corinthians 1:1-9
v. 1 And who was Sosthenes?

v. 2 Paul might be “called to be an apostle” but the church in Corinth is “called to be saints”. What are you and your church called to be?

v. 3 A nice liturgical greeting that combines elements of both Greek and Hebrew letter writing.

v. 5 In speech and knowledge of every kind? What does Paul have in mind?

v. 7 What does Paul mean or what is he referring to when he writes about “the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ”?

v. 9 Another call, this time “into the fellowship of his Son”.

John 1:29-42
v. 29 What happened the day before the “next day”? What is the theological significance of John’s proclamation “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”? Try unpacking that!

v. 32 what is significant about John’s testimony? See verse 33.

v. 34 Is it enough to see but not testify? Can one testify if one does not see?

v. 35 Another “next day”. So what day now is it? What is the significance that John had disciples?

v. 36 I had not realized before just how redundant this Gospel can be.

v. 37 What is the meaning (or what are the meanings) of “follow”?

v. 38 Jesus asks a direct question. Why don’t the two give him a direct answer? What is the meaning )or what are the meanings) of “looking”? Why does this Gospel translate “Rabbi”?

v. 39 “Come and see”! Is not the invitation all Christians and churches ought to be offering? On the other hand, how can we invite people to “Come and see” if we ourselves have not “seen”? Is there any significance to the time?

v. 40 Is this not the first mention in John of the name of one of the disciples of Jesus? Who was the other person?

v. 41 Following up from the previous verse, who are the “we”, Andrew and who? I think we can assume from the context that the other person with Andrew was not his brother Simon Peter. Why is Messiah translated? See verse 38.

v. 42 Does this make Andrew the first successful evangelist, the first person bring someone to Jesus? Is it not a little rude to meet someone for the first time and immediately insist on calling them by another name? As in verses 38 and 41, why is “Cephas” translated? What language does Peter come from? What language does Cephas come from? Does it matter?

Grounded Scriptures: Humus humans

Many of us have heard too many times in the Adam & Eve story that “Adam means dirt.” Humans are made of humus, blah de blah. How cool and ancient and mythical and overimaginative of those ancient Hebrews – right?

No, there’s a little more to it than that.
First of all – “dirt.” Mistranslated “dust of the ground” by King James and the RSV family of Bibles, the word means “fertile soil.” Adamah in the Hebrew (you see how closely it’s related to Adam). This is a particular word, not just any old dirt. It is soil – arable land. Think not about the dust of a desert, but about potting soil… an obviously fertile soil, the stuff from which all land plants and animals ultimately take their nourishment. But our potting soil is usually pretty blackish brown, and this is not the adamah’s color. The words adam and adamah are not only related to one another, but are related to the word adom, “ruddy,” reddish. This is particular soil – for the Israelites this is the color of the hills of home.
It tells them not only THAT God made them, but WHERE God made them. Egyptian soil and Babylonian soil have nothing on that particular soil from which a chosen group of people were made.

We can all say that God made us here – on this earth. Some of us have (over the millennia) wandered to northern regions where our skin didn’t need the melanin so much, and so we got a little paler, and so it’s funny, nearly ridiculous, to say white people were made from soil. Contrary to the pictures in many a Children’s Bible, however, people in biblical times didn’t have that problem. They understood that they belonged to that land, as surely as their skintone matched the fertile soil.

In a world of cheap travel, adventure, frequent voluntary relocation, and of the nonvoluntary diaspora and exile of many people-groups… we lose our sense of belonging to a land.

Where do you belong? Where were you made? What color is your dirt? What is the land you cannot abandon?

PC(USA) Q&A

In lieu of a Member Blog Meet & Greet today, I have a question.

I'm thinking about doing a Presbyterianism 101 adult ed class.  Our group is casual and discussion-based, so we'd take a low-key approach.  Each week we'd take a symbol or ritual or reading or prayer or creed or color and discuss why it's historically significant then why it's relevant to us as Presbyterians today.

Do you have any suggestions for helpful resources I might use to start pulling the syllabus together?

Aflockalypse Now

You may have heard the news, a lot of birds died in Arkansas this past week. This news was followed by reports of bird and fish deaths around the world. For those who bothered to do a modicum of research, these recent bird deaths are just not that uncommon. On average there are 163 incidents like this every year.


What most of us probably won't hear about is the final assessment of the causes of these incidents . Our 24/7 news cycle and our short attention spans will have moved on to newer stories.

If you spent some time with the story, you may also have hear some of the, shall we say, interesting speculation about what caused these deaths, even from “responsible” news media. This ABC news report talks about the birds committing suicide.

But what brings this story to our attention here is the not unexpected theological explanations for these events. Science and theology meet in silly ways once again.

Here is Kirk Cameron's view on the bird deaths and end times as aired on CNN. You might wonder why an actor with a movie to plug is asked about this,were there no theologians available for comment?

All this talk about the apocalypse (or aflockalypse in this context- sorry I just can't help it) reminded me of a Bible study on Revelation I was part of, just a couple of years ago. This was in a Presbyterian church, so the study was full of well educated, thoughtful, faithful people. Yet for many of them there was real anxiety about studying Revelation. There were worried about what might be in the text.

I have conservative Christians friends who have definite ideas about “the end times”. They have a coherent biblically based theology of Christ's return. I think they are mistaken in their conclusions and reading of Scripture but they have put considerable effort into thinking about this. I have progressive Christian friends who have no sense of what it means to believe that Christ will come again, other than a sense of unease. They suspect something is not quite right with the rapture/left behind theologies, but they have no idea what that might be or what an appropriate alternate theology might be.

This poor theology about Christ's return- both the end times/left behind crowd and the clueless progressives- coupled with shallow science backgrounds, causes us to deal poorly with the ecological events we encounter.

Because our biology and ecology knowledge is weak, many of us cannot conceive of a natural accounting of these bird deaths. We don't know where to look to find a scientifically based discussion and we don't understand what it means when we receive scientifically based explanation.

Because our theological understanding is weak, we fall prey to odd theologies based on a false understanding of what biblical prophecy is and a misunderstanding of how God works in the world. (Did anyone else wince when Kirk Cameron spoke his death as God ending his life?).

The church can't do much directly about poor science education. But the theological shortcomings are our responsibility. The coverage of these recent bird deaths is just the latest example and a fairly innocuous one, of the way that poor theology impacts our engagement of science and vice versa. Much more serious is the theology that is being brought into the climate change debate as outlined in this New York Times blog.

My question today is why are Presbyterians (and other mainline denominations) so reluctant to offer an alternative view of the second coming of Christ? What we think about the reign of God and how God accomplished God's intentions for the world shapes our world view. And that affects how we think about environmental issues. What we think about climate change, energy use, air quality, toxins in the environment and other issues is influenced by our reading of scripture and our beliefs about the kingdom of God. Are we just along for the ride- God's in control and we have little impact, or do we bear significant responsibility for our actions?

It seems to me the "conflict" between science and religion isn't only about beginnings, what we think about the end matters too.

Lectionary Ruminations for Sunday, January 9, 2011, the Baptism of the Lord (Year A)

Posted each Thursday, Lectionary Ruminations focuses on the Scripture Readings, taken from the New Revised Standard Version, for the following Sunday per the Revised Common Lectionary. Comments and questions are intended to encourage reflection for readers preparing to teach, preach, or hear the Word. Reader comments are invited and encouraged. All lectionary links are to the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible via the PC(USA) Devotions and Readings website, but if you prefer another translation, feel free to use that instead. (Other references are linked to the NRSV via the oremus Bible Browser.)


Isaiah 42:1-9
v. 1 In light of today’s Gospel Reading, might we whether this passage illuminates John the Baptizer or Jesus? Who was Isaiah most likely writing about?

v. 3 What is a “bruised reed”?

v. 4 This is the third occurrence of the word “justice”. See verses 1 and 3.

v. 5 Now that we have the formulaic “Thus say God, the Lord, ”might we ask who was speaking in verses 1-4? I like the pairing of “breath” and “spirit”.

v. 9 Are most people in the pews willing and ready to accept that “former things have come to pass” and “new things I now declare”?

Psalm 29:1-11
v. 1 Who are the “heavenly beings”?

vs. 3-10 Attributes and praise of God of the Storm, and some baptismal imagery. What if we baptized from maelstroms rather than cute, little, calm, manageable fonts? When I have been backpacking I have loved loud, crashing thunder and lightning because wilderness storms remind me of the awesome grandeur of God. A domesticated God is not worthy of praise.

v. 11 After all the previous violent storm imagery, how shall we interpret this blessing of peace?

Acts 10:34-43
v. 34 It has been awhile since we have heard from Peter. While it might be true that God shows no partiality, I think we can not say the same of the institutional church.

v. 35 What does it mean to “fear”God? How does this verse fly in the face of justification by faith through grace?

v. 37 Does this verse justify this Reading being selected for “Baptism of the Lord”?

v. 43 “All the prophets”? Really? I think Peter is prone to a little hyperbole.

Matthew 3:13-17
v. 13 How people might ask “if Jesus was sinless, why did he seek to be baptized?”

v.14 It seems John asked!

v. 15 How does Jesus being baptized by John “fulfill all righteousness”?

v. 16 Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him,” but did anyone else see it?

v.17 Who heard this voice? Will this voice be heard this ar anything similar any other place in Matthew?

ADDENDUM: Moving from an emphasis on Jesus’ birth during Advent, Christmas and Epiphany to the baptism of an Adult Jesus three Sundays after Christmas always seems to jolt my sensibilities, but is there any way around it? How might teachers and preachers smooth the transition?

New series: Grounded Scriptures

Hi folks! I’m Talitha, a seminarian, a New Yorker transplanted in California, a musician, a Sunday School teacher, a feminist, and an aspiring farmer.
Whaa? You may ask. What kind of well-educated, urban, pulpit-bound woman aspires to spend her days digging in the dirt? What kind of feminist is eager to do more canning and preserving than her grandmother did? Odd, I know. I often keep this part of my self-identity under wraps, because people do just that – “Whaa?” … and then I have to explain about how I might not have to operate a tractor, it could be urban community gardens, or how I could have a seedling nursery… But the fact remains, surprising many – I want to farm. I'm itching for more than a few square feet of land to do it on.


I have to blame a lot of the “why” for this unfortunate vocation on the Bible. Ever since my Old Testament professor Marvin Chaney shouted at our Prophets class “you can’t read this in stained-glass language!” about the sin of land-grabbing, I have had a vivid sense that the Way described and commanded in the biblical texts had plenty to do with how we work, live, spend our money, relate to our neighbor, and how we eat… perhaps more than with how we pray. And through reading (lots of Ellen Davis) and learning (with the Presbyterian Hunger Program roadtrip) I’ve come to believe that the particular realm of how we grow and distribute food in America is drastically opposed to the ideals set out in the Bible.

The rubber hits the road in my new blog series, posted here & elsewhere on Wednesdays, “Grounded Scriptures.” I will search each week for a Bible verse we tend to read in that “stained glass language,” extricate it from my piously cerebral assumptions, and look for a way to understand it in terms of the relationship of God’s people to the land, the soil, and the plants and creatures that grow in and on it. Read & join in!

Happy 8th Day of Christmas!

I don't know if it's just me and the circles in which I immerse myself (I didn't listen to any commercial radio in December, just my own Christmas CDs and NPR) but I didn't hear quite as much about the 12 days of Christmas happening BEFORE Christmas this year.

I do find myself rushing through this part of the season, though.  Usually I'm loathe to let the magic of Christmas subside into the melancholy of winter, replacing red and green decorations with silver and white, substituting diet and exercise for parties and over-indulgence.  I leave all of our household decorations out until Epiphany.  But this year I find myself anxious to "clean up" and "clear out" and "shape up" and move on to the next thing.  I continuously remind myself that Christmas isn't a season to rush through, it's not a series of to-do lists, it's not clutter.  It's what really matters (although perhaps not the cookies and the drying fir in and of themselves).

So.  Moving along to the first January Member Blog Meet and Greet.  Two items of business today.

First, a welcome to our newest member blog: The Preacher's Husband: A journal from the living community of faith by Derek Maul.  "Life is good. It's about living in partnership with my wife, Rebekah, about serving God in the context of our church home, about being the parent of two amazing children, and of both honing and using my particular gifts in order to make this world a better place."  Recent posts at this fabulous weekly blog run the gamut from "Who wears the pants? (did somebody really say that...)" to "Preachers and a Healthy (redemptive) Lifestyle." This blog is worth a read!

Second, and very important, we have a new blogger to welcome to the unofficial PC(USA) Blog! Starting this week, Presbybug Talitha will start a weekly column on Wednesdays, and I'll let her explain the concept to you as she gets started with her first installment. Talitha's written here before, frequently in comments and notably with a guest-blog about mission.

Welcome, all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!