The Real Palm Sunday

If you’re going to wave palm branches, this is a much better day.

April 15, 2013 By 4 Comments

by Danielle Shroyer

New Testament Reading:  Revelation 7:9-17

For Sunday, April 21, 2013: Year C—Easter 4

I know it’s a long-standing Christian tradition to bring out palm branches for Palm Sunday, but honestly, this scene from Revelation is much closer to the victorious celebration we envision than the one that happened on the streets of Jerusalem in the gospels.

What are you waving for?

For starters, the crowd that is gathered in John’s vision is a crowd with clear motives. They are not there for some sort of popularity parade. They’re not gearing up for an uprising. They’re not counting the days until their enemies get their just deserts. They are not hanging their hopes on the Lamb of God being the next political ruler. They know exactly who they are worshipping. They know what happened after the parade (Calvary), and then what happened after that (Easter). They are worshipping the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help them God. [Read more...]

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Searching for the Teenage Jesus

Spiritual Hangover Sunday

December 23, 2012 By 3 Comments

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading:  Luke 4:21-52

For Sunday, December 30, 2012—Christmas 1

The Sunday after Christmas is the second least attended service of the year; the Sunday after Easter is the first. What’s going on, is it some kind of spiritual hangover?

Congregants have been so jacked on Advent adrenaline (worst band name ever) and worshiped late into the night on Christmas Eve, a little sleep and then one last push to praise our dear savior’s birth, then they spiritually black out. When they finally come too is it all they can barely remember what happened (did I really sing the alto part on O Holy Night?), they have strange programs in their pockets from services they don’t remember attending and their mouth tastes like stale coffee and dry cookie crumbs. [Read more...]

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They All Come Tumbling Down

Waiting for the end or waiting for the end of the day?

November 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Jodi-Renee Giron

Gospel Reading: Mark 13:1-8

For Sunday, November 18, 2012, Year B − Ordinary 33

After a day spent talking about loving your neighbor and commending sacrificial widows, Jesus and the disciples walk away from the temple in Jerusalem. Seemingly buoyed-up from their theological one-up on the scribes, the disciples point out to their teacher the glorious architecture surrounding them.

Maybe it’s indicative that Jesus didn’t share their triumphant attitude because he tells the disciples that not one stone of this architectural grandeur will be left standing. [Read more...]

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All That Glitters May or May Not Be Gold

GOD’s 6 step plan to happiness and the house of your dreams.

November 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by Jodi-Renee Giron

Psalm Reading: Psalm 16

For Sunday, November 18, 2012, Year B − Ordinary 33

The psalmist, ascribed to be David, starts with a plea for protection from the Almighty One then unfolds into a number of reminders of the faithfulness of the one praying.

Reading it down, I can almost hear my own plaintive seven year old reminding me of all of the things he’s been doing to “be good” and that’s why he deserves the extra M&M’s after dinner. According to this prayer, which may have been an inscription or a very purposefully arranged song, David attributed his material abundance and physical safety to his own right choices following GOD’s instruction. [Read more...]

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One Size Fits All

March 5, 2012 By 7 Comments

An enigmatic historical account and the blame game.

by Mike Stavlund

Gospel Reading: John 2:13-22

For Sunday, March 11, 2012: Year B—Lent 3

For some reason, Jesus picks this one day out of his whole lifetime of trips to the Temple to come unhinged.

Why is Jesus so Angry?

Presumably, the commerce there was common practice, and this was just another ordinary day. Except that this was the day that the crazy person from Nazareth made a whip and drove all of the people and animals out of the Temple, flipping tables as he went.

Jesus even makes a special point of dressing down the dove retailers, accusing them of making the Temple into a marketplace.

When the din dies down a bit, the Temple authorities ask Jesus, “Why are you doing this?”

Ask a Reasonable Question, Get a Non-Answer

To this very sensible question, Jesus gives an answer that is both non sequitur and highly inflammatory: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Say What, Jesus?

[Read more...]

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Mary, Mother of God

December 11, 2011 By 4 Comments

Temple of flesh and blood

By Debbie Blue

Gospel Reading: Luke 1:26-38

For Sunday, December 18, 2011: Year B—Advent 4

I’m never sure how a story as wild and pagan sounding, a story that resonates with myths way older than Christianity, a story with traces of fertility goddesses, Egyptian sun gods etc., etc., makes it into our Christmas celebrations so calmly that we hardly blink.

Patriarchal fundamentalist households admit the pregnant mother, birthing god into their households at Christmas. So do syncretistic Brazilian jungle cults and uptight Swedish Lutherans. It’s so outrageous, and beautiful, and somehow unifying.

A Bold and Remarkable Narrative

In terms of the religious institution: The earliest followers of Yahweh (as both Biblical and archeological evidence suggests) worshipped both male and female aspects of their divinity. The Queen of Heaven was especially popular—the “Consort of Yahweh,”  the “Beloved Mother,” the “Companion at Birth.”

But she really bothered the folks that were trying to solidify monotheism. Early editors of the scripture much maligned her and fairly successfully rid the official Hebrew religion of her presence. The Deuteronomists were pretty adamant about cleansing the temple of her worship. Her traces, however, remain throughout the Biblical texts.

A Temple of Flesh and Blood

It’s astonishing that in the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ right off, first thing, God becomes incarnate through the womb of the mother. The purists would be going crazy! Though they tried and tried to keep the “Queen of Heaven” out of the purified Temple, in this story Mary’s womb becomes the Temple out of which Yahweh will emerge clothed in flesh. Is is a very shocking turn for the Scripture to take. Shocking and beautiful.

Read Luke 1:26-38 side by side with the 2 Samuel text. I’m not sure how the lectionariers meant it, but it seems like a meaningful juxtaposition of texts. The Samuel text is all men and kings and structures and power—they want to build a house for God? They imagine it is amongst these things. Mary becomes the “house” that will build “god” out of her cells and blood—in her womb, with her breast milk. Solomon (the King) does build the temple and keeps it close to the heart of empire (locking God in if you will). Mary (the peasant girl) births God into the world and then lets go.

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David, King of Empire

December 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

House of cedar and gold.

By Debbie Blue

Old Testament Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-16

 For Sunday, October 18, 2011: Year B—Advent 4

“Now when the king was settled in his house…” Seems like an archetypal opening line. Now, of course, something will come to unsettle him—trolls or witches, a bathing woman, possibly God.

We Love Kings

David is the figure that represents the shift from dynamic prophet leaders of a nomadic faith to sedentary monarchs, imperial reality. The people begin to long for something a little more refined than 12 tribes. They want to be like other nations with a powerful man to lead them. God had been explicit; in choosing a king they reject God. God warns them that the king will take their freedom, make them slaves.

They don’t care. They want one anyway. So, the text says, they pick a “tall and handsome man” to rule over them. It’s so typical. Though there is hardly a Biblical figure with more grandeur surrounding him than David, beneath the royal narrative is a constant critique of the will to power.

The shift from a nomadic faith to an imperial reality leads the nation to exile. The people (the narrative) almost get lost in the haze of palace intrigue, armies and battles, but God keeps calling the people out of the slavery empire brings. This is kind of a running theme.

To Roam

David settles down in his big ol’ house puts up his feet on his royal footstool and thinks, “let me see now, I should build God a house.”

Is God indignant or just amused? God’s response seems mixed. I like hearing God say “I have not lived in a house, did I ever say build me a house? I’ve been roaming about with you all along, taking care of you. You think I need a house?”

The people may have wanted a king, but God is not going to be confined by royal structures. God remains outside in a tent rather than settling into bastions of power.

[Read more...]

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Delegitimizing the Witness

December 4, 2011 By 2 Comments

Why doesn’t he point out Jesus, who is standing among them?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading:  John 1:6-28

For Sunday, Dec. 11 , 2011: Year B—Advent 3

John 1 is always a lot of fun for an exegete. There is so much grand mystery, set next to seemingly concrete particularities. This first chapter also introduces some of the gospel’s giant themes—the Word, light, life, glory, grace, the law, and witness. But on this reading my THQuestion-a-tor pointed to the witness, the first witness as there are others throughout the book of John.

Outlaw Baptism?

After the prologue of verses 1-19, the Gospel’s opening scene finds priests and Levites arriving on the strange scene of the man, John, out in the wilderness performing a ritual—but was it for purification or for conversion or what?

Baptism was used at the time, in Jewish ritual, in one of two ways. If one had become unclean after, say coming in touch with a dead body, one would have to be baptized, purified, before entering the Temple. Secondly, baptism was also used as the final step in the conversion process for a Gentile. First there was an oral test, then circumcision, followed by baptism.  Only then could a male “Proselyte of the Law” enter the Court of Israel in the Temple to offer the obligatory korban sacrifice.

Weird—and Unsanctioned

The nature and purpose of John’s baptizing is not clear. Why was this non-priest performing this ritual, which was closely related to Temple worship, out in the middle of nowhere? It was weird—and unsanctioned. So the priests and the Levites (they are basically the police) are sent by the Pharisees to check it out.

[Read more...]

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Things to Admire

November 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

What does the widow’s gift have to do with the sacrifice of Jesus?

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Luke 21:5-19

For Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010: Year C – Ordinary 33

Why is it when I read lists of apocalyptic destruction my eyes glaze over like I am reading the book of Numbers? It’s not an endless list of obscure laws; it is drama, death, disaster, and the end of the world. You would think that would keep a fella’s interest.

Here’s Your Sign

I think they bore me because I dismiss them. Every Gospel has this list, and they don’t mean anything to me. It sounds to me like a list of what’s going on in the real world all the time, past, future and Haiti. These things certainly do not serve a sign of anything other than that humanity continues to live in a world where suffering is ever-present. The list in this context is a dramatic device. Jesus says the temple will be destroyed, he is asked for a sign, and he gives them the list.

Maybe I am less compelled by the list because I already know the answer to the question. It gets destroyed in 70 CE. Clearly Jesus did not mean to imply that after all that the wars and natural disasters would cease.

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The Temple We Build

June 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Will we embrace the struggle of faith and those times when it feels like the pain will not end?

by Bruce Reyes-Chow

Psalm: Psalm 30

For Sunday, July 4, 2010: Year C – Ordinary 14

At the risk of my children making me add more money to the family “cuss cup” – 10¢ per offence – every time I read Psalm 30:5 I want to translate it as “Don’t worry, you may feel like crap right now, but it won’t last forever.” Now before the Hebrew-translating police come to haul me away, rest assured I do realize this would be more of an interpretation than a translation, but you get what I mean.

Life Just Sucks

In a culture too often driven by superficial relationships, no one ever wants to admit that he/she is anything other than “fine”. As much as we may always want to put on a happy face, not drag people down with our particular complaints, and avoid seeming like a whiner, all of us have those times when life just sucks. Whether we are going through the pain of an ended relationship, grieving the death of a loved one, or are just overwhelmed with the chaotic nature of everyday life, sometimes – despite our best of intentions to feel otherwise – our spirit feels less than joyful.

So we then get this Psalm, David’s way to thank God near the completion of the awesome journey that God had asked him to undertake; a Psalm written for the dedication of the Temple, the visible witness to God’s presence in Jerusalem. While some would like to think that David is still the perfect “Sunday School” image of some armored warrior who could do no wrong or feel no pain, the beauty of David, as we read more into his life, is that he was human. He did stupid stuff, did wonderful things and yes, at times surely felt like crap. In this case, we are let in on what seems like a pretty bad time, poetic in nature perhaps, but terrible enough to feel like death. We all know that that feels like, times so bad you feel like some part of you has simply died.

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Filed Under: Old Testament, Psalms, YearC Tagged With: , , ,

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