After a long break due to computer difficulties, we return to "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
There are a number of representative actions that summarized Jesus' radical criticism of the order of the day:
His readiness to forgive sin...His ability to heal and his readiness to do it on the Sabbath...His willingness to eat with the outcast...His attitude toward the temple.
All these actions, together with Jesus' other violations of social convention, are a heavy criticism of the "righteousness of the law." The law had become in his day a way for the managers of society, religious even more than civil, to effectively control not only morality but the political-economic valuing that lay behind the morality.
Nothing is more powerful than the blending of religious language about "righteousness" with the powers of a civil power. Jesus was facing off with those who could and did control life and wanted to make sure that their control of life would be blessed by the religious laws that would then be used to sanction the rule of the controlling power of the day. We must be aware that there is just such a movement around us today that is set on making secure ties between political-economic values of our country and a limited, self-focused & self-centered morality that plans to fashion a new way to rule...a way that is well known in scripture...a way against which Jesus stood up and did not accept. Too many "people of faith" are as afraid of the grace and love of God's Reign today as the religious leaders who stood against Jesus in scripture.
Connection: Pay attention to the how smoothly religious language is being used for the benefit of the powers that be. Usually it is not for the benefit of all...usually it is for the benefit of some and there is a hint of things being quite conditional in the air...and that is never Good News.
Lord of New Life, pull us into your love and as we rise within your gracious arms remind us of the vision of your Reign that cannot be owned or directed by any power that tries to claim this day. Amen.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Wednesday, 13 April, 2005
Taken from 1 Peter 2:20-23
"…But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps…. When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly."
Almost every system of morality for sale out there is either based on rewards or rules. "Be good, because you'll get a prize if you do." Or, "Do this (or don't do that), because that's what the rules say will give you value." And when it comes to having to suffer, those systems offer the same quick answers: "you should endure hardship because there's a pot of gold waiting at the end for you," or sometimes we hear, "you'll only suffer if you're breaking the rules-it's punishment for someplace you've crossed the line." How strange, then, to hear from 1 Peter that the reasons we have for living in a new way are about neither incentives nor injunctions. Our way of life comes from who God in Christ is revealed to be. We are called to turn the other cheek, not in order to win a heavenly lottery (although there is the unconditional promise of eternal life), but because of the Roman cross where God in human flesh turned the other cheek for us. We are called to love our enemies, not because following that rule will surely make the world a better place (although it might), but because while we were "enemies" of God (Romans 5:10), God loved us nevertheless. How radically different from all other voices clamoring for our attention-and how wonderfully freeing!
Connection: Before we stumble through the question, "What should I do?" in any given situation, and even before we ask the popular wristband's question, "What would Jesus do?", we first have to let the grace sink in that comes from the question, "What has Jesus done-already?"
Lord Jesus, teach us to find in the scars you still wear both the promise of your love for us, and the freedom to make it our love for others.
"…But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps…. When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly."
Almost every system of morality for sale out there is either based on rewards or rules. "Be good, because you'll get a prize if you do." Or, "Do this (or don't do that), because that's what the rules say will give you value." And when it comes to having to suffer, those systems offer the same quick answers: "you should endure hardship because there's a pot of gold waiting at the end for you," or sometimes we hear, "you'll only suffer if you're breaking the rules-it's punishment for someplace you've crossed the line." How strange, then, to hear from 1 Peter that the reasons we have for living in a new way are about neither incentives nor injunctions. Our way of life comes from who God in Christ is revealed to be. We are called to turn the other cheek, not in order to win a heavenly lottery (although there is the unconditional promise of eternal life), but because of the Roman cross where God in human flesh turned the other cheek for us. We are called to love our enemies, not because following that rule will surely make the world a better place (although it might), but because while we were "enemies" of God (Romans 5:10), God loved us nevertheless. How radically different from all other voices clamoring for our attention-and how wonderfully freeing!
Connection: Before we stumble through the question, "What should I do?" in any given situation, and even before we ask the popular wristband's question, "What would Jesus do?", we first have to let the grace sink in that comes from the question, "What has Jesus done-already?"
Lord Jesus, teach us to find in the scars you still wear both the promise of your love for us, and the freedom to make it our love for others.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Tuesday, 12 April, 2005
1 Peter 2:9-10
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
There are lots of voices that try to tell us who we are and what we should think about ourselves. Nearly every television commercial tells us, at least implicitly, that our value as people is determined by the products we consume and the stuff we buy. If we want to be people of refined taste, we'll have Kohler faucets in the bathroom and a Lexus in the garage-or at least those are the things we'll want to have. And maybe we don't have to have a white picket fence anymore, but conventional wisdom still tells us that I'm only on the right track if I've got a romantic relationship, a lucrative job, and a well-developed portfolio to ensure my comfortable lifestyle into the future. Political voices tell us the same. If we want our opinion to count, our identities need to fit the molds presented to us with labels like "freedom-loving" and "patriotic" or "modern-thinking" and "progressive"-and then we have to buy into the agendas that go with them wholesale. And if we listen closely to those voices, they'll all tell us that we have to do something first and only then will we be people of status. My worth is then either grounded in my tenacity in getting the best for myself, or my ability to fall in line with what some other group calls "good."
The word from 1 Peter, and from the whole witness of Scripture, turns that whole logic on its head. Our worth and our identity do not rest in whether we have chosen the right things or come from the right category first. Rather, they are grounded in the God who has first chosen us and brought us into a new people. Our identity is given to us as a gift of grace, and our value comes from the unswerving declaration of God that we are loved. That faithful love redefines us-it says we are precious when conventional wisdom calls us damaged goods. And it gives purpose and meaning when television can only advise us to aimlessly acquire more and more stuff in the pursuit of happiness. It can almost be scary to live in the freedom of that love, since we no longer have a checklist of things to do or have in order to guarantee our status-only the simple promise of God that we are "God's people." But maybe-no, more than maybe-that promise is enough.
Connection: What might I freed from as I see that other claims do not have the final say on me? What might I be committed to as I let the claim of God take hold of all of who I am?
Gracious God, tell us who we are again-we forget so easily. Open our eyes to see that you have already brought us into you marvelous light, and let us see the possibilities of this new day.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
There are lots of voices that try to tell us who we are and what we should think about ourselves. Nearly every television commercial tells us, at least implicitly, that our value as people is determined by the products we consume and the stuff we buy. If we want to be people of refined taste, we'll have Kohler faucets in the bathroom and a Lexus in the garage-or at least those are the things we'll want to have. And maybe we don't have to have a white picket fence anymore, but conventional wisdom still tells us that I'm only on the right track if I've got a romantic relationship, a lucrative job, and a well-developed portfolio to ensure my comfortable lifestyle into the future. Political voices tell us the same. If we want our opinion to count, our identities need to fit the molds presented to us with labels like "freedom-loving" and "patriotic" or "modern-thinking" and "progressive"-and then we have to buy into the agendas that go with them wholesale. And if we listen closely to those voices, they'll all tell us that we have to do something first and only then will we be people of status. My worth is then either grounded in my tenacity in getting the best for myself, or my ability to fall in line with what some other group calls "good."
The word from 1 Peter, and from the whole witness of Scripture, turns that whole logic on its head. Our worth and our identity do not rest in whether we have chosen the right things or come from the right category first. Rather, they are grounded in the God who has first chosen us and brought us into a new people. Our identity is given to us as a gift of grace, and our value comes from the unswerving declaration of God that we are loved. That faithful love redefines us-it says we are precious when conventional wisdom calls us damaged goods. And it gives purpose and meaning when television can only advise us to aimlessly acquire more and more stuff in the pursuit of happiness. It can almost be scary to live in the freedom of that love, since we no longer have a checklist of things to do or have in order to guarantee our status-only the simple promise of God that we are "God's people." But maybe-no, more than maybe-that promise is enough.
Connection: What might I freed from as I see that other claims do not have the final say on me? What might I be committed to as I let the claim of God take hold of all of who I am?
Gracious God, tell us who we are again-we forget so easily. Open our eyes to see that you have already brought us into you marvelous light, and let us see the possibilities of this new day.
Monday, 11 April, 2005
Our devotions for the first few days of this week will come from the second chapter of 1 Peter, which rather conveniently overlaps with the second lessons for the next two Sundays. Hurray for a theme, right?
1 Peter 2:2-3
"Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."
The shoes were enormous. I must have been in third or fourth grade when my father bought me a pair of tennis shoes that was at least three sizes bigger than the ones I wore at the time. At first I thought he'd forgotten my size-or gotten me confused with a young Goliath-but he told me that he got them so big intentionally. They were for when my feet got bigger with age and I grew into them. All I could do was to grow into them by drinking enough milk (that's the standard parental prescription for developing children, right?) and by just being the boy I was. And in the mean time, there those tennis shoes would sit, a sort of signpost toward the future, a rubber-soled promise of who I would become. But while I waited, I didn't have to do anything to make those shoes my possession-they were already mine. All I could do was to grow into them.
I can't help but picture the same shoes when I read that line from 1 Peter about "growing into salvation." It's not that salvation is some fixed material reward handed to us in a cardboard box at the pearly gates on some distant day. No, just the opposite-God gives it to us even now, even before we have grown into it. Paul would put it to the Romans by saying that God's love came to us in Christ "while we were still weak." But the idea is the same here-salvation is given to us in the present, plain and simple, and all we can do is to grow into that gift, the gift we have already received. We use words like "salvation," "hope," and "redemption," as signposts pointing toward God's future, a future God is drawing us and all this hurting creation into. We use those words as shorthand for the promise that God has loved us now, even in our infant-like weakness, even in our childish self-centeredness, and that God will not rest until that love has had its way with us, taken root in us, and come to fruition. In the mean time, all we can do is to grow into that love.
Connection: Salvation is already ours as a gift from God. And because of that, in this day, we no longer need to stew over whether we're "in" or not in God's book. Instead, we can look hopefully to how we will be changed in this day and how the love of our God will take hold of us in surprising new ways.
Gracious God, let us drink you in deep and taste that you are good. Give us the freedom to trust that you are leading us and making us to grow into who we are-your very children. Amen.
1 Peter 2:2-3
"Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."
The shoes were enormous. I must have been in third or fourth grade when my father bought me a pair of tennis shoes that was at least three sizes bigger than the ones I wore at the time. At first I thought he'd forgotten my size-or gotten me confused with a young Goliath-but he told me that he got them so big intentionally. They were for when my feet got bigger with age and I grew into them. All I could do was to grow into them by drinking enough milk (that's the standard parental prescription for developing children, right?) and by just being the boy I was. And in the mean time, there those tennis shoes would sit, a sort of signpost toward the future, a rubber-soled promise of who I would become. But while I waited, I didn't have to do anything to make those shoes my possession-they were already mine. All I could do was to grow into them.
I can't help but picture the same shoes when I read that line from 1 Peter about "growing into salvation." It's not that salvation is some fixed material reward handed to us in a cardboard box at the pearly gates on some distant day. No, just the opposite-God gives it to us even now, even before we have grown into it. Paul would put it to the Romans by saying that God's love came to us in Christ "while we were still weak." But the idea is the same here-salvation is given to us in the present, plain and simple, and all we can do is to grow into that gift, the gift we have already received. We use words like "salvation," "hope," and "redemption," as signposts pointing toward God's future, a future God is drawing us and all this hurting creation into. We use those words as shorthand for the promise that God has loved us now, even in our infant-like weakness, even in our childish self-centeredness, and that God will not rest until that love has had its way with us, taken root in us, and come to fruition. In the mean time, all we can do is to grow into that love.
Connection: Salvation is already ours as a gift from God. And because of that, in this day, we no longer need to stew over whether we're "in" or not in God's book. Instead, we can look hopefully to how we will be changed in this day and how the love of our God will take hold of us in surprising new ways.
Gracious God, let us drink you in deep and taste that you are good. Give us the freedom to trust that you are leading us and making us to grow into who we are-your very children. Amen.
Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Wednesday, 6 April, 2005
Text: Galatians 4:1-7
My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
Our status - has changed. Not because we have grown up...not because we have learned something new...not because we have become enlightened...not because we have achieved a greater level of consciousness, rather it has changed by God's action. The elemental spirits...can be literally translated as "what is put in a row" "what is put in order." The law...like a nanny keeps us in line, teaches us the alphabet...the ways things must go. The elemental spirits can be the ordering of the stars...the charts that we can count on as we sail the seas. But...they do not give us our status for life. As heirs...adopted ones at that...we are children in an intimate and close relationship with God...because God says so. God has liberated us from the many ways we have tried to sustain ourselves and make something of our selves by "putting our ducks in a row" or "getting it right" or "following the letter of the law" with the expectation that it could save us. The law...the order...the nanny who helps and teaches - is good. But we are sons and daughters - heirs of the Reign of God...because our status is changed by God
Connection: Three cheers for rules and order. Thank God for adopting us...making us God's own - no conditions - completely & even today...even today.
O God you display the mastery of your creative power in the order of life tha surrounds us. You display the fullness of your grace by holding each of us as your beloved children. Remind us of our status within your Reign and remind us of the same status that is given to those we encounter along the way. Amen.
My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
Our status - has changed. Not because we have grown up...not because we have learned something new...not because we have become enlightened...not because we have achieved a greater level of consciousness, rather it has changed by God's action. The elemental spirits...can be literally translated as "what is put in a row" "what is put in order." The law...like a nanny keeps us in line, teaches us the alphabet...the ways things must go. The elemental spirits can be the ordering of the stars...the charts that we can count on as we sail the seas. But...they do not give us our status for life. As heirs...adopted ones at that...we are children in an intimate and close relationship with God...because God says so. God has liberated us from the many ways we have tried to sustain ourselves and make something of our selves by "putting our ducks in a row" or "getting it right" or "following the letter of the law" with the expectation that it could save us. The law...the order...the nanny who helps and teaches - is good. But we are sons and daughters - heirs of the Reign of God...because our status is changed by God
Connection: Three cheers for rules and order. Thank God for adopting us...making us God's own - no conditions - completely & even today...even today.
O God you display the mastery of your creative power in the order of life tha surrounds us. You display the fullness of your grace by holding each of us as your beloved children. Remind us of our status within your Reign and remind us of the same status that is given to those we encounter along the way. Amen.
Tuesday, April 5, 2005
Tuesday, 5 April, 2005
Text: Galatians 3:23-29
Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. AS many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greeek, there is no longer slave of free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Our identity is in the fact that in our baptism we have clothed ourselves in Christ. It is an all new identity and character and community. How new...? Take a look at the abolishment of the "natural" distinctions that would send us off in different groups and with different lives. No longer Jew or Greek...slave or free...male or female. We are in Christ and with that status and new reality there is no need for the law as our nanny (disciplinarian) to make us act a certain way so as to see to our safe keeping. We live according to the promise as heirs by faith. I find it particularly important that Paul points out the complete lack of the distinctions that once were considered "second nature." They are no longer needed. Even when the law made sure that those distinctions were in place - no longer. No longer is the status of a person set in place by the law and how one fits into its definition of good and right. Now, we are one in Christ Jesus. We may want the distinctions to continue...we may even argue that they stay in place for any number of reasons...but as one in Christ...there is not longer.....
Connection: Paul's earliest letters are very inclusive - radical...right to the root of the gracious acts of God in Christ Jesus. Today, churches and congregation are often known for how well they can maintain distinctions. Homogeneous congregation have proved that they will grow....duh...of course they will...we long for like-minded, like-looking, like-economic status. And yet in Christ there is a new reality. Can we put names to our ongoing ways of drawing insiders and outsiders...and can we trust that our Lord will help us dismantle those distinctions and walk with us?!
O God of all humankind, how great is you word of truth and the life you offer to your beloved children through Jesus. May we see inn those around us this day the many ways you present yourself to us in the diversity of your creatures. Amen.
Monday, April 4, 2005
Monday, 4 April, 2005
Text: Galatians 3:19-22
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angles by a mediator. Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one.
Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Verses 19 & 20 raise up some considerations about the law that seem to make the argument for it secondary status. The comments end with the assertion that God is one - in contradiction to the what preceeded it. Then comes a bit of sarcasm that is particularly pointed. The questions "Is the law then opposed to the promises of God?" comes from voices that are confronting what has just been said by Paul. The forceful "Certainly not!" is Paul's quick response. But then he throws in the kicker. In essence he says that the law - has nothing to do with the promises of God. "For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law." God's promise comes not through the law but by faith. The law doesn't bring us into the same place as the promise of God to be our God. The law has another function - not to save - not to make one right before God. The law has it's good place - useful - helpful for daily order and life and community development...but it does not make one alive.
Connection: So then, what is the impact on being made alive -today!? We all know the law is a great help to us in each of our days. All the fuss over the ten commandments being put up on the walls of schools is a sign of that truthfulness. We like and we need and we respect the law and what it does to shape our living. But now, what impact does the promise of God to be our God have on our lives - today!? Trustiing that - having faith in that...what does life become for us - today!?!
Blessed Lord of Life, we give you thanks for the place of the law within our lives and for the gracious embrace of your promise. Lead us into a prayerful appreciation of your never failing love for us. Amen
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