john the baptist

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Another Revised Common Lectionary Hackjob

January 6, 2013 By The Hardest Question 1 Comment

by Mark Stenberg

For Sunday, January 13, 2013: Year C—Baptism of our Lord

Ripping the Revised Common Lectionary folk has become pretty standard fare. Excuse me for piling on, but this week’s gospel text is the RCL at its absolute worst.

The wags over at textweek will tell ya that this is one hack job on the part of the lectionary, shredding a single, carefully told story (Luke 3:1-22) into three bits that simply fail to tell the tale of John the Baptist handing things off to Jesus. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Luke, New Testament, YearC Tagged With: empire, john the baptist, Mark Stenberg, Politics, revised common lectionary

Cosmic Crossing

January 1, 2012 By The Hardest Question 3 Comments

By placing the opening scene of his book at the Jordan River, who is Mark’s author alluding to?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Mark 1:4-11

For Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012: Year B—Baptism of Our Lord

Mark knows how to move it along. Written in the very midst of the Jewish revolt against Rome in 66 C.E. (a minority view, but the way I am going to read the text), the urgency can be felt in the velocity of his narrative.

Even the opening line, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, suggests that the author isn’t convinced he will make through to finish the rest of the story.

At the Jordan

Mark presents John and Jesus in quick succession placing them in an environment rich with biblical/historical significance. They are at the Jordon, a point repeated twice in four verses. This is where Joshua led the people into the Promised Land and, like the Red Sea, the waters miraculously parted for them.

As Jesus comes up from under the waters of the Jordon, parting the surface of the water, is he emerging as a Joshua figure that will lead the people against their enemies and retake their land? This would be a welcome reading for a people in the midst of a revolt against their Roman occupiers.

It is also the place where Elijah’s mantle was passed on to Elisha, illustrated by Elisha performing the same miracle that Elijah had just performed: the parting of the waters of the Jordon. After which the company of prophets saw him and said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” This seems similar to the way John saw the Spirit resting on Jesus.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament Tagged With: baptism, Elijah, john the baptist, Jordan, Joshua, russell rathbun, water

Go Ahead, Judge a Book By Its Title

November 27, 2011 By The Hardest Question 11 Comments

The Beginning of the Good News

by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Gospel Reading: Mark 1:1–8

For Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011 Year B—Advent 2

I love that Mark’s gospel starts by saying: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, son of God.”

Look, Ma, no Verb!

Grammar geeks might notice that there is no verb in that sentence. It’s more like it’s the title of the book: The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, Son of God. If it were titled just The Good News about Jesus Christ, Son of God then the book might be read as the beginning, middle, and end of the good news. If it had been titled The Beginning of the Good Short Story of Jesus Christ, Son of God then it would not be news. What makes it news is that it is something new that is external to us that we have to be told. The idea that it’s also the beginning suggests much more good stuff to come from this Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Raise Your Mug and Say “Yea!”

The term gospel was the term for the news flash that an announcer proclaimed about a victory that the empire or the king had won. It was a pronouncement of Good News. Something big had happened that had changed everything and this sort of announcement was one that elicited a response.

It’s sort of like if the owner of a crowded bar yells, “Drinks are on the house!” Everyone raises their mugs and says, “Yea!” So here, Mark’s account of the Gospel greets us with surprising gusto as we settle into the second week of Advent—the second week of waiting on the coming of God.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: advent, beginning, Christmas, empire, Good News, gospel, john the baptist, nadia bolz-weber, news

You Pointing at ME?

January 9, 2011 By washadmin 7 Comments

Would a better nickname be “John the Finger”

by Jennifer Johnson

Gospel Reading John 1: 29-42

For Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011: Year A - Epiphany 2

Can we give it a rest already?

To tell you the truth, I’m a little tired of John the Baptist. He keeps showing up like the cat who refuses to take the hint when I’ve thrown him off my lap for the twentieth time.When John appeared during an Advent themed Sunday School class back in November, I decided to bring in pictures of him. What I noticed about the depictions of John is that he points. Artists portray him in his leather belt with that long index finger extended, and his eyes are gazing from the canvas to me as if he’s saying, “Hey. Look at that.”

That is Jesus, the Lamb of God, and this passage if filled to the brim with names for that Lamb. So we have John the Baptist saying, “Behold” (Look at that), and we have John the Gospel writer as well with his plethora of names, too, saying, “Yeah. Do look. Look at him as Son of God, as Rabbi, as the Messiah, as the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Look. Look. Look.” And if the names aren’t enough to make you do it, consider the action in the story. John the Baptist points and speaks, and two of his disciples follow Jesus.

Everything John says and does in this passage is about pointing people away from himself to Jesus.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, John, New Testament, YearA Tagged With: disciple, follow, Jennifer Johnson, Jesus, john the baptist, Messiah, point

A Way Without Violence

January 3, 2011 By washadmin 3 Comments

What does it mean that Jesus insists that John baptizes him for the forgiveness of sin to fulfill all proper righteousness?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Matthew 3:13 – 17

For Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011: Year A – Baptism of Our Lord

The Baptism of Jesus by John: Always problematic − well known, an iconic image, but always problematic. What does it mean when John says to Jesus on the occasion of our Lord submitting Himself to the Forerunner, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John tried to prevent him, tried to pull him up off his knees, kind of scootch him back on to dry land, but Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”

Let it Be So Now

The first clause is like a prayer from some ancient spiritual practice. Let it be so now. Let it be so now. John’s sense of propriety, of the way things should be or would be has been turned upside down—he is perplexed and grasping for the order he had hoped to impose. But Jesus’ response is, Let it Be So Now. For it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. Righteousness is fulfilled when the order is turned upside down and one does not move to right it, but breathes in, breathes out and prays, Let it Be So Now.

My People

My people come from Missouri, North and East of Kansas City. It is a middling place, a split or in-between place. Missouri was a split state in the Civil War. Over in St. Louis, they chose to put the headquarters of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which works like a mainline protestant denomination on paper and lives its life outloud like American Evangelicals. It is a place where Pentecostals rub up against Methodists and trade unions hold Bible studies.

John the Baptist Is the Anti-Christ.

December 5, 2010 By washadmin 7 Comments

Is it possible that the point of this text is that John was waiting for the wrong kind of Messiah?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:2-11

For Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010: Year A – Advent 3

John the Baptist is the anti-Christ. Or the Bizzaro-Christ. Put less hyperbolically, Jesus is not the one that John was waiting for. Maybe.

Imagining Jesus

My co-pastor at House of Mercy, Debbie Blue, preached a great sermon on last week’s Advent lectionary encounter with John, where she said (more artfully than I will here), that John the Baptist has spent his life proclaiming himself hoarse about looking forward to one that is more powerful than he. Power being the key here.

Jesus, however, is just not wielding the power the way John looking for, longing for, hoping for. John is imagining a rebel leader that breathes fire (and maybe a little brimstone), unquenchable fire.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Matthew, New Testament, YearA Tagged With: anti-christ, baptize, Herod, john the baptist, russell rathbun

Prophets Are Terrible Dinner Guests

November 28, 2010 By washadmin 13 Comments

Does John really want people to repent?

by Danielle Shroyer

Gospel Reading: Matthew 3:1-12

For Sunday, December 5, 2010: Year A − Advent 2

Let’s all just admit it: nobody likes prophets. We pastors try to be reasonable about this by explaining that it’s hard when someone shoves our bad choices in our faces — even though it’s probably good for us. Sometimes, this is true. But let’s be honest. We don’t like prophets because they are jerks. They are horribly pessimistic. They have the remarkable ability to be simultaneously pompous and whiny, which is an ungodly level of annoying. And they are almost always RUDE. (I mean all-caps rude, too. Can you imagine prophetic Twittering? ALL CAPS, ALL THE TIME. We’d hit the unfollow button without thinking twice.)

Here comes another one…

Case in point: John the Baptist in this week’s Gospel text. Here he comes, all decked out to prepare the way of the Lord in his weird get-up of camel’s hair and locust-honey trail mix. (Lest we forget, prophets have a way of being showy, too.) John is making the rounds in the wilderness giving the typical prophet speech about repentance and getting yourself on the right path with God, and then he invites people to come down and put their money where their mouth is by getting baptized.

How a prophet gets his name in lights

Now, you’d think the goal of prophet-ing would be to convince people to see things your way, particularly when you’re claiming that your way is also God’s way. And I can only imagine, in those pompous prophet-brains of theirs, there exists some sort of hierarchy of targets on which a prophet would hope to be successful. There are your average follower-types at the bottom, the ones who will jump in line just because you told them to do so. Then above that, there might be the people who like to follow the most interesting new thing, and above that, the people who were inclined to believe what you’re saying but maybe needed one last push to get there.

After this, I’d imagine, it gets interesting. You get to the real converts, the people who were swayed by your words, and at the very top, at the pinnacle of prophetic success, the people you are directly speaking against, the people who most need to hear what you are saying and therefore will be most reluctant to accept it. If you can get those people, then you’re a shoe-in for the Prophet Hall of Fame, buddy. This kind of repentance makes the angels burst into song.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Matthew, New Testament, YearA Tagged With: advent, Danielle Shroyer, john the baptist, prophet

Waiting on the Felonies of Jesus

November 21, 2010 By washadmin 12 Comments

Can we keep preaching these texts, year after year, and expect people to believe he is coming?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Matthew 24:36-44

For Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010: Year C – Advent 1

Nothing raises my holiday spirits like the anticipated threat of Jesus kidnapping someone at work and then breaking into my house and robbing me. And the fun part is, it will all be a surprise! Yeah.

No Need to Fear

This is how we begin the season of Advent. The only thing more fun would be if it could be little baby Jesus doing the kidnapping and the breaking and entering. If it wasn’t a little funny, it would be really creepy. But there’s no need to fear the Almighty’s surprise felony threat. The church has been preaching this for a very long time, and Jesus hasn’t gotten so much as a speeding ticket.

Still Waiting on the Promised Peace

Advent is the perpetuation of a promise that remains unfulfilled. I know it seems like a threat and not a promise in week one’s Gospel text, but the central thrust of the liturgical season is the expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise of the coming of Messiah—again.

It is the celebration of the fulfillment of God’s Older Testament promise of Messiah and the anticipation of the fulfillment of the New Testament’s promise that Jesus the Messiah will come again to complete the fullness of the Kingdom of God. But why does he need to come again? Why didn’t the lion lie down with the lamb the first time? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Matthew, New Testament, YearA Tagged With: fulfilment, john the baptist, Peace, promise, russell rathbun

Bugging God, Irritated Christ

July 19, 2010 By washadmin 9 Comments

Is the Lord’s Prayer a compromise for the Disciples who value recitation and repetition over relationship with the living God through the Holy Spirit?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Luke 11:1-13

For Sunday, July 25, 2010: Year C - Ordinary 17

There is a lot written about the first part of this text (1-4), so much that I barely even have any questions about it. The Lord’s Prayer, the Pater Noster, this prayer (or prayer outline depending on how you read) that Jesus teaches his disciples is not unique to him. The concepts and phrases appear at various places in the Hebrew Bible and resemble the Kaddish. The rest of the pericope, however, is ripe for Hardest Questioning.

Bugging God

The parable of the Importunate Neighbor, is often read as admonition to persistence in prayer. But I am struck by the use of the negative example: “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.” The neighbor doesn’t want to give his friend any bread, but he does — not out of love but irritation.

This is how Jesus wants us to think of prayer? So if you ask (a lot) and search (without letting up), and knock (relentlessly), you will receive, find, and have the door opened up to you.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Luke, New Testament, YearC Tagged With: disciples, god, Jesus, john the baptist, kaddish, lord's prayer, prayer, russell rathbun

Another Revised Common Lectionary Hackjob

by Mark Stenberg

By placing the opening scene of his book at the Jordan River, who is Mark’s author alluding to?

The Beginning of the Good News

Would a better nickname be “John the Finger”

What does it mean that Jesus insists that John baptizes him for the forgiveness of sin to fulfill all proper righteousness?

Is it possible that the point of this text is that John was waiting for the wrong kind of Messiah?

Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:2-11

Does John really want people to repent?

Can we keep preaching these texts, year after year, and expect people to believe he is coming?

Is the Lord’s Prayer a compromise for the Disciples who value recitation and repetition over relationship with the living God through the Holy Spirit?

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