Honoring the Skeptic

April 9, 2012 By 3 Comments

 What’s so bad about being a pending Christian?

by Rev. Mark Stenberg, Ph.D.

 Gospel Reading: John 20:19-31

 For Sunday, April 15, 2012: Year B—Easter 2

 ”Doubting Thomas.” His name lives in infamy, the subject of scorn and shame.

We’ve even invited our children to ridicule him for his unbelief in a Bible Song from the mid 20th century boom era of the church, a chorus in which young children delightedly wagged their fingers in shame at that naughty doubter Thomas: Don’t be a doubting Thomas, rest fully on God’s promise, why worry, worry, worry, worry, when you can pray? And all that finger wagging turns into the shame-based reprimand: “Have more faith!”

More Faith?

“Have more faith?” As if having more faith is something we can simply will ourselves into. “Don’t be a doubting Thomas!” “Pray more.” “Worry less.” “Be good.” “Have more faith!”

Why has all this shame been directed at poor Thomas? Who made him the designated doubt-catcher? Maybe that says a lot more about us and our self-defensiveness, our fear that it might not be true.

Honest and Honorable

Look. Thomas just happened to not be in the room when Jesus first shows up. So what if he’s just being honest? He says: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

But if you look more carefully at the gospel of John you have to wonder how he developed such a bad reputation. Because you do not have to read the text in a way that shames our dear skeptic, Thomas. In fact, I will set forth the slightly risky (but way more fun) reading that Thomas is actually given a position of honor in John’s gospel. Here me out.

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Simeon’s Faithful Proclamation

December 26, 2011 By 5 Comments

Simeon saw salvation in a very unlikely source.

by Lauren F. Winner

Gospel Reading: Luke 2:22-40

Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012: Year B - First Sunday of Christmas

So much is going on in this passage.

In case there was any doubt about Mary and Joseph’s religious credentials, here Luke presents them as devout and faithful, going to the Temple for the qorban yoledet (the mother’s post-partum sacrifice) and the pidyon ha-ben (the redemption of the son). (That there is no extra-Lukan evidence that these two events were ever actually performed together is another topic for another day; literarily, they establish the piety of Jesus’ family, and get the text back to the Temple.)¹

Faithful Elders

At the Temple, two faithful elders tell the gathered community who Jesus is and what is happening. We don’t hear Anna’s exact words, but Luke does give us the so-called Song of Simeon, the Nunc Dimitis (from the Latin), the last of the five prayers that dot the first two chapters of this Gospel.

There have been many amazing instances of faithfulness heretofore in Luke – Mary’s faithfulness; Zechariah’s faithfulness (the first thing the man says after months of muteness is a prayer!); the shepherds’ faithfulness. But to my mind, Simeon’s faithfulness takes the cake. At least the other three had visits from angels to rely on. Without so much as a nod from a passing seraph, Simeon looks at this tiny scrap of baby and sees the salvation of the world. And then he tells us:

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

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Shutting Down the Smart Kids?

October 16, 2011 By 5 Comments

Jesus’ intellectual smackdown. 

by Danielle Shroyer

Gospel Reading: Matthew 22:34-46

For Sunday, October 23, 2011:  Year A—Ordinary 30

Jesus is the master of responding to questions with another question. In this section of Matthew, he’s already two for two. But this third scenario shows a Jesus who’s ready to end this game once and for all with an intellectual smack down.

Turning the Tables

Of course we are not surprised to see Matthew showing us a story of Pharisees plotting to trick Jesus with a difficult question. But we may be a bit surprised at the question, which frankly seems like low-hanging fruit after that Sadducee’s zinger about spouses at the resurrection and the hardball political quandary about paying taxes to Caesar.

They may as well have asked Jesus to recite the Hebrew alphabet. Without breaking a sweat, he answers with the textbook Shema (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength”) and then throws in the “Golden Rule” for good measure. So far so good. But then Jesus does something rather unexpected. He lobs a riddle right back at them.

Columbo Jesus

“So what do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” Jesus asks. And, following suit, the Pharisees respond with another textbook answer.  “The son of David,” they say, ready for their gold star. And then like Columbo, it’s as if Jesus whirls around and says, “Just one more thing…how could David call the Messiah Lord if the Lord is David’s son?”

Bum-bum-BAAAAH.

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We Are Not Alone.

June 27, 2011 By 1 Comment

The insidious nature of sin and brokenness in communities of faith.

by Bruce Reyes-Chow

 Epistle Reading:  Romans 7:15-25

For Sunday, July 3, 2011: Year A – Ordinary 14

Oh boy, proof that some people just can’t help being bad.  Better yet, now we each have an excuse for messing up when we should know better.  “Hallelujah, the Devil DID make me do it!”

Not so fast there, Skippy. 

Contrary to what most of us would see on a first read, many scholars believe that Paul was not addressing individuals, but the larger human condition. Yes, he uses individualist language, but  Paul is challenging us to take the bigger and wider view of sin—in this case, the proclivity for communities to sin even when we may know better. 

 Gathered to Mess Up

The reality is that faithful people with good intentions gathered together to mess up.  We sin, sometimes intentionally, but more often without even realizing it.  When we look at issues facing the United States today such as the incarceration rate of African American males, the growing disparity between socio-economic classes and the disproportionate amount of money that we spend on military, there is not doubt in my mind that we as a gathered group of people, who mean well, have made bad choices for generations.

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A New Hope

March 20, 2011 By 7 Comments

Crying, waiting, hoping.

by Unvirtuous Abbey

 Gospel Reading: Romans 5: 1-11

For Sunday, Mar. 27, 2011: Year A – Lent 3

A friend of mine was recently “vague booking.” I called him and heard his relationship (or lack of relationship) woes. As we spoke, I asked him, “What gives you hope?”

His answer: “I’ll be in Mexico in two weeks.”

Now, that may not be what gives me, or you, hope, but for him, it was the first thing that came to his mind.

Seeing Hope

A few years ago, I worked with a group of people and asked them to submit pictures of what gave them hope. The project was this: “In our digital world, we are challenging you to record hopeful images in life. Where do you see hope in your daily life?”

I received over 100 images from people. Some were edgy, such as a sink in a soup kitchen. Others were of flowers growing through concrete. Some depicted wildlife and outdoor scenes. A young person submitted a group picture with her friends; their togetherness gave her hope. The project generated a lot of emotion.

Living for the Preposterous

Of hope, Cheryl Lawrie of the Uniting Church in Australia says this: “Hope, an encounter that captivates our imagination so we can’t help but become more than who we thought we were, and find ourselves living for something that is all at once preposterous and impossible.”

The recipe for hope, says Paul, is this: suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us.

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Prayer Saves Lives?

October 10, 2010 By 15 Comments

Is Jesus tying faith to our persistence?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Luke 18:1-8

For Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010: Year C - Ordinary 29

I beseech you therefore brethren and sister by the mercy of God, to hold on a minute. Back up a little bit. The Gospel text for this week is very good. There is plenty of meat chew on (or tofurkey if you prefer). But somewhere between Week 28 and Week 29 the world ends. The Lectionariers kind of left that part out.

Just in Time for Halloween

The pericope between the Healing of the Ten Lepers and the Parable of the Persistent Widow starts with Jesus being addressed, almost casually, “Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisee when the kingdom of God was coming.” It ends with the creepy, just-in-time-for-Halloween, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

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Faith or Insanity?

August 2, 2010 By 12 Comments

What separates the great heroes of the faith from those who got it wrong?

by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Old Testament Reading: Genesis 15:1-6

For Sunday, August 8, 2010: Year C – Ordinary 19

It can be difficult to think of our beloved Bible characters in new ways. I mean, once they are emblazoned into our imaginations in their flannel-graph, or Bible coloring book or children’s sermon form, they become calcified. And not just in that “Oh…you mean Mary Magdalene wasn’t a prostitute” way. Abram, for example, is a hero of the faith. We all know this, but talk about emblazoned!

Hold that Pose

In the high school musical TV series Glee, Sue, the pernicious cheerleading coach, often repeats a demeaning question, changing it to suit circumstance: “You think holding that painful pose for 15 minutes is Hard? Try living with hepatitis. That’s hard!”

So you think asking “what if Abram wasn’t really faithful?” is hard? Others besides Abram have believed beyond reason. Other people have also held on to some sort of trust in a promise despite there being no indication whatsoever that its fulfillment is even within the realm of possibility. Other people have also had a faith in something despite the reality surrounding them, despite every indication otherwise. Some of these people become heroes of the faith and great prophets. But try asking “what if Abram’s faith is not any different than David Koresh’s faith?” That’s hard.

Crazy Like?

Abram looked with his elderly eyes to the multitude of stars in the sky and believed God’s promise of progeny. But some of these people who believe crazy stuff with all their hearts die castrated in Texas bunk beds wearing white Nikes while the Hale-Bopp comet streaks by a sky filled with countless stars.

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