Love One Another, For God’s Sake!

Love as command

April 22, 2013 By 3 Comments

by Clint Schnekloth

Gospel Reading:  John 13:31-35

For Sunday, April 28, 2013: Year B—Easter 5

John chapter 13 begins with Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. It then includes that terrible, bone-chilling, moment when Jesus is indicating who will betray him even while he serves him. The disciples don’t get his drift—but the reader does, and we watch Judas sent out to do his dirty deed, done dirt cheap, while we remain (in terms of the text and narrative structure) with Jesus and the faithful disciples.

Then we hear this next word, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.” What does this mean? How can this possibly be the moment of glorification? [Read more...]

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Justice Delayed 1.0

Indeed or Final Answer

March 25, 2013 By 2 Comments

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading (Take 1): Luke 24:1-12

For Sunday, March 31, 2013—Easter Sunday

It is Easter, and you are loved. The soft insistence of Love has overwhelmed all other possibilities, to become the end, the final answer, the destination, the location for our wonderings and wanderings—

It is Easter and Love is possible. Love is present. It is Easter and you are loved, in an inconceivable, irrevocable, uncanny, prodigious way by God who created us all for this purpose.  God created us so that God could love us. [Read more...]

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Crushed!

People get crushed in all kinds of ways, God has nothing to do with it!

February 25, 2013 By 7 Comments

by Michael Danner

Epistle Reading: Luke 13:1-9

For Sunday, March 3, 2013; Year C—Lent 3

Two observations and an initial question…

Observation #1: Good things happen and bad things happen.

Observation #2: Some people are good and some people are bad.

How are these two observations connected, if at all?

It’s only fair

In spite of the book of Job, the most common way people connect them, both then and now, goes like this: Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. [Read more...]

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A Breath of Fresh Air

Resisting the temptation to make Paul one-sided.

November 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Michael Danner

Epistle Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

For Sunday, December 2, 2012; Year C—Advent 1

The Apostle Paul was a passionate defender of the faith. He dismantled error with a razor-like intellect. His reasoning abilities, top-notch. His style was in-your-face, no-holds-bared, truth-telling. He never backed down from a good debate (argument?). It was often his way or the highway (just ask Peter, Barnabas, and John Mark to name just a few).

And yet, this is not all there is to Paul. As a matter of observation, it appears to me as if Paul mellowed the further he got away from his Pharisaical roots and the closer he walked with the crucified Jesus. In Paul’s letters, we encounter Paul as an exceptional and thoughtful mentor who cared deeply about people, their profession and their practice of the faith. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 1 Thessalonians, Featured, New Testament, Uncategorized, YearC Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

DiscipleNow!

Or would that be DiscipleNot?

October 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Lia Scholl

Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

For Sunday, November 4, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 31

When I was in high school, I was in a DiscipleNow group. We had a weekend retreat, followed by 12 weeks of Thursday night meetings in a youth leader’s home. I did a quick search of the Internet for DiscipleNow, and saw that it’s now called DNOW (how cool!), and the wiki page says it’s led by “totally rad youth leaders.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Deuteronomy, Featured, Old Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Michal

July 8, 2012 By 2 Comments

Literary Tool, Nagging Wife, or Real Person?

by Lia Scholl

Old Testament Reading: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

For Sunday, July 15, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 15

I sat in a Southern congregation on Mother’s Day. The pastor opened his sermon asking who among us had mothers. Everyone raised a hand. Then he said, “Fathers, you need to know that your children look to you for their first understanding of who God is.”

Moments later, he said, “Mothers, your children look to you to see how to be in relationships.” Whether he meant it or not, he said indirectly that women are not made in the image of God, but men are.

His next story was about a nagging mother.

Who’s This Really About?

Just a word of advice, pastors. If you speak of a nagging mother or a nagging wife from the pulpit, I assume that you have problems with the women in your life. I assume that you feel henpecked. And I assume your wife is probably justified in nagging you.

Michal, King David’s wife, has been presented as a nagging wife, because she disdained his dancing before God. But was she really?

Was Michal A Nagging Wife?

Let’s have a little background on Michal. She’s the daughter of King Saul. She falls in love with David. Saul sees Michal’s love as an opportunity to kill David—he sends him out to procure the foreskins of 100 Philistines (1 Samuel 18). Saul assumes that David will die, and his competition will be gone.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: 2 Samuel, Featured, Old Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Trinitarian Roulette

May 27, 2012 By 6 Comments

A stand-off with the second person of the Godhead.

by Mike Stavlund

Gospel Reading: John 3:1-17 

For Sunday, June 3, 2012: Year B—Trinity Sunday

This is an ideal scenario for Jesus’ foundering PR program– a bona fide member of the opposition, coming humbly and deferentially to Jesus.

Granted, it is a visit cloaked in darkness, but that is understandable given the extenuating circumstances.  Besides, this highly esteemed Jewish leader gives Jesus high praise. 

Ease up, Jesus!

And what does Jesus do?  Besides being cryptic to the point of obtuseness, he goes into full debate mode, adding in some naked shame for good measure.  When poor Nicodemus finally cries ‘Uncle!’ and admits he’s in over his head, Jesus piles it on all the more:  “Aren’t you a teacher of Israel? How can you not understand these things?” 

Jesus is on such a tear that we’re a little surprised he doesn’t place a dunce cap on Nicodemus and make him sit in the corner.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, John, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

All You Need Is Love? Maybe.

May 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

Joy on Miracle Grow.

by Jodi-Renee Adams

Gospel Reading: John 15.9-17

For Sunday, May 23, Year B − Easter 6

In one of the most familiar monologues given by Christ, John uncorks images of joy-giving love—love that makes Christ our brother and no longer our Master.

We hear Christ repeat the word love nine times in eight verses. That’s a lot of love. But the second most often repeated word? Command. This is also a text about following orders and making sacrificial choices.

In other words, there’s a lot of head nodding and then brow furrowing in this text.

Vines and Branches make Good Wine.

Just before this mind-bending monologue about loving as commanded, Jesus talks to the disciples about vines and branches, using the power of metaphor to make his point.

No doubt, you’ve somewhere along the way seen a myriad of viney-branchy decorative stuff in your local Christian bookstore. If you haven’t, well-done and GOD-speed. If you have, you get the irony that many of us who have shopped in said Christian stores didn’t grow up with the notion that wine drinking was acceptable. Just a funny paradox I thought I’d point out.

All that is to say, that, as a recovering cultural evangelical, I developed, albeit late in life, a great appreciation for good wine. Between the coaching of knowledgeable friends and a couple summers in France, I started to get the gist of it and fostered a real curiosity about how the different wines come to be, how the farmer nurtures the soil and the location in order to develop the best kind of grape for that specific wine. In other words, certain soil facing certain direction with certain sun begets a certain fabulous wine.

But I digress. Unlike Jesus.

Vintage Jesus

Jesus comes barreling out of this oenological analogy into an insistent directive to love, his ultimate command. Vintage Jesus that’s somehow connected to yet another image: “Remain in me.”

This part I get—well, on paper anyway. It’s another beautiful word picture. Remain in me…allow me to indwell you. Like the soil in a vineyard, allow all that I am – the complete essence of love – to indwell you, to be existent, to be unchanged so that you can be fully alive to the point of being life giving.

That’s a really kind and gracious image. Beautiful and self-nurturing, really. It resonates with my American narcissistic spirituality that wants Christianity to make me feel better about myself and about life.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, John, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Burden of a Not-So-Burdensome Commandment

May 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

Living Out Love In the Real World.

by Jodi-Renee Adams

Epistle Reading:  1 John 5.1-6

For Sunday, May 23, Year B − Easter 6

John insists in a kind of circular argument that if you are a child of GOD then you are yourself full of GOD’s love and sharing that with the world.

According to the, so-called, favored disciple, there’s evidence for this great adoption. The evidence of our relationship is found in our obedience to GOD’s commands which, according to the guy who was tortured by the Romans, aren’t too heavy to carry out.

My Yoke is Easy and My Burden is Light.

In an ever-flowing prose, John keeps trying to find new ways to talk about this great, new Christian ethos. The way the words repeat, the ideas tumble over themselves, you almost get the impression that he’s bubbling over with a kind of urgency and excitement and concern.

It makes sense. But it’s not as cut and dried as it may seem at first read: “These are GOD’s children—those who keep his commandments. And GOD’s commands are not too heavy. And they’ll completely give us victory over this crazy world. So let’s totally be like Jesus.”

But here’s the thing: GOD’s command, if I’m not mistaken, is to love GOD with all my heart, mind, and strength and to love my neighbor as myself. Not to quibble with the best friend of the Messiah, but I’ve never found it easy to do either of those things; and if “easy” doesn’t seem to be the way the word strikes you, I imagine that “burdensome” feels even less on the nose.

Overwhelming versus Overcoming

Let’s be honest, loving well – especially the neighbors – is often a really burdensome task. At least it maybe is for me and this is now my confession to all of you.

Yet John makes this promise: this love is how we overcome the world, i.e. all of the things that stand in opposition to the kingdom of GOD, all of the things that scream out the opposites of humility, shalom, beauty, generosity, justice, mercy.

The powerful, almost military, language feels like a real paradox here. When I read words like victory, overcoming, conquering, I get images of subduing something or someone, of exerting power to gain advantage; words that, ironically, remind me of what the world stands for.

But there’s another way overcoming happens

[Read more...]

Filed Under: 1 John, Featured, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: , , , , ,

Is there Wisdom in Fearing God?

January 22, 2012 By 16 Comments

What can we learn from this ancient understanding of our divine relationship?

by Carol Howard Merritt

Psalm Reading: Psalm 111

For Sunday, Jan. 29, Year B − Epiphany 4

In the midst of premarital counseling, I spoke to a young couple about the plethora of things that cause hardship in marriages—trying to discern and mark the bumps that might be in the road ahead.

Filled with Fear

We covered family of origin and attitudes toward money. We talked about children. Did they plan to have them? What if they weren’t able to have kids? What sort of parenting styles made sense to them? How would they discipline their child?

The groom-to-be looked at me steadily and said, “I was afraid of my dad. All he had to do was walk in the room and I was filled with fear. I never want my child to look at me the way that I looked at my father.”

When I had my own precious daughter, each time I looked at her sweet face, I felt consumed by my love for her. As she got older, and I noticed slight pangs of fear in her eyes, I hated them as much as I thought that I would.

God Had Teeth

I remember these moments when I read, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The words make me wince. I grew up as a

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Old Testament, Psalms, YearB Tagged With: , , , , ,
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