Pointed Texts - Devo. 8: Matthew 28: 19-20

 

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.   --- Alex’s pick

 

What a great passage to draw a close to the Pointed Texts series.

The Gospel of Matthew ends with these words; words put in the mouth of Jesus as his bodily form departs from the disciples. The disciples are left with the final words resonating in their ears – and hearts--- remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

 

·         Have you said final words to a group or a person? What was the occasion? What thought/feeling did you wish to leave with the hearer?

·         How do the final words of the Gospel of Matthew sit with you?

 

Matthew 28: 19-20 has been called, “the Great Commission,’ summarizing the action for the Matthean community moving forward. The pointed text is used by the church today, pointing to its task and mission. Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them…

 

·         What do you see as the mission of Jesus’ followers today?

·         What is the mission of the church?

·         For you, what are the key points of telling the story of Jesus?

 

The pointed text mentions ‘all nations,’ at the time meaning Jews and non-Jews. Matthew’s Gospel was written in the instability of first century Palestine and in the milieu of inter-Jewish conflict. The Temple has been destroyed and the First Jewish Revolt has taken place. Rabbinic Judaism is emerging. Jesus’ followers have parted ways from the synagogue. Ordinary life is marked by instability and conflict. People and place have been forced into transition.

 

·         In times of instability, conflict, and transition, where do you find hope?

·         What words do you offer a church in transition?

·         Write a prayer for the faith community to use during this time of transition.

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of the week, I will post a devotion on a pointed text from scripture. I will include commentary and questions for reflection. Answers and other questions and comments can be sent to me at halifaxlutherchurch@gmail.com ,put in the comment section of this blog, or on FB where the link to this devotion was shared. Fridays I will share the messages (conversation) received via the church email list.

 

 

Through the Desert, Bright Sadness

 

Prayers of all sort most welcomed…(don’t want to limit your wishes and petitions with my biases…larger entities see way more than me!)  --Let me share that again…

 Prayers of all sort most welcomed…(don’t want to limit your wishes and petitions with my biases…larger entities see way more than me!) 

Earlier this week, this came to me in the body of an email. It was from a person who is walking with a loved one through a pretty scary medical diagnosis and treatment plan.

The person’s words articulate for me the purpose of Lent.

Prayer of all sort – for sure. In Lent we do a lot of praying and confessing.

But the most Lenten part – I don’t want to limit, with my biases- to discover brightness in the sadness of Lent, the sadness of circumstance, the deserts of life, one needs to let go of wants, expectations, desires, convenience, efficiency, immediacy, answers – and humbly sit in the circumstance attentively listening, praying, and being present.

There are larger entities that see way more than we – to be present and in connection and relationship with all that is without the need to understand, explain, or justify. This is embracing Lent. Lent is about being open and vulnerable and trusting that, as the prayer of Julien of Norwich says, All shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be well.

 

The desert. Human beings on their own do not do so well in the desert; whether the desert is a health crisis, grieving a loss, forced transition, shifting society, or decaying systems. These desert spaces are uncomfortable, and too often we mindlessly pray that the roulette wheel of ‘bad news’ will skip our number, so that life rotates onward, on course, and without interruption.

 

The truth that we so voraciously try to push aside is that life is full of interruption, the uncomfortable, and the chaotic. Human beings try really hard, we try really hard, to push down our fears and not think about the instability of world, and even less, admit the instability of our own person.

Believe it or not, this is what Lent is about. Created by the church for the welfare of humankind; five weeks are marked every year, as a pit stop in the deserts of life. The five week pause is a set time and place for people to reflect and connect with each other -community- God, and themselves; a forced season to step outside of the ordinary and to find in being vulnerable a love beyond explanation and a hope deeper than our very depths. To get to a place of love beyond explanation and a hope deeper than our very depths we have to practice letting go. Lent rituals, Lent prayer, Lent themes are presented by the church for the people -for us- to do this hard work.  Only then can we journey to what Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemmen refers to as a state of ‘bright sadness.’

 

Bright sadness. The season of Lent does not shy away from heavy topics – sin, death, the devil. The church has curated a series of stories from the Bible to be told each year. The stories are not for the faint of heart – this is not magazine reading where one can flip through quickly, the stories are the kind that cause trouble.

Take the story from Genesis. Interpreters of the Bible have spent much time through the centuries discussing, debating, and pointing fingers at whose fault it was that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden of Eden. Much theologizing has and does occur on the theme of who birthed sin into the world. Honestly does it matter?

This year thanks to a devotional book I have been reading, I came to the text with a new perspective. Consider for a moment that the discussion and debate are a smoke screen set in place as a distraction to keep humans – to keep us- from taking an honest look at ourselves and our relationships – pinpointing the separation, the sin in our lives, that has hurt our connection with God, others, creation, and our inner self.  It is more comfortable to point fingers, especially back to the beginning of time – putting sin at a distance in someone else’s hands.

It is this separation that put Eve and Adam out of the garden -the brokenness of our relationships keeps us out of the garden.

 

The garden. Jesus, in his last days, arrives in the garden; the garden of Gethsemane, not the paradise of Eden, but a place of bright sadness. He gets to this holy place because he took time to go to the desert. In the desert, in a Lenten practice, Jesus choose to be vulnerable -to let go by praying and not limiting the situation to his biases. Jesus humbly wandered in the desert attentively listening, praying, and being present; speaking to each human desire as it arose, and remaining present, let them go each in turn--- knowledge, wealth, power --- to move past human desire to fall into a love beyond explanation and a hope deeper than human depths; a place where one is fed by angels.

 

Ronald Rolheiser, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate wrote:

For us, Satan and wild animals refer particularly to the chaos inside of us that normally we either deny or simply refuse to face: our paranoia, our anger, our jealousies, our distance from others, our fantasies, our grandiosity, our addictions, our unresolved hurts, our sexual complexity, our incapacity to really pray, our faith doubts, and our dark secrets.

The normal ‘food’ that we eat (distractions, busyness, entertainment, ordinary life) works to shield us from the deeper chaos that lurks beneath the surface of our lives.

Lent invites us to stop eating, so to speak, whatever protects us from having to face the desert that is inside us. It invites us to feel our smallness, to feel our vulnerability, to feel our fears, and to open ourselves to the chaos of the desert so that we can finally give the angels a chance to feed us.

-pg. xiii “Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter: God For Us, “ 2014 Paraclette Press

 

Come, open your heart and rest in the desert.

Come seek a love beyond explanation and a hope deeper than our depths.  

Prayers of all sort most welcomed…(don’t want to limit your wishes and petitions with my biases…larger entities see way more than me!) 

 

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Ash Wednesday - the City of Lent

 Recently I was at a retreat where the presenter, Rev. Matthew Anderson, described the Bible as an alien text, meaning foreign to present day ears. He further went on to describe the Bible as a city – this captured my imagination, not only about scripture, but also applying to the Season of Lent.

 

Consider a city – Cities are densely inhabited places. There are tens of thousands of people living, working, playing, moving about, and sharing services within a city. Each city has distinct areas for shopping, attractions, cultural venues; parks and recreational spaces. There are distinct neighbourhoods and communities – low income housing; high-end condos; home-dwellers and apartment livers; student/university neighbourhoods; -the Northend, the Southend, Mulgrave Park, Bedford, Sackville, Dartmouth, Preston – there are ethnic neighbourhoods; there are tourist places; there are places that locals frequent; there are areas considered unsafe, less traveled, even avoided.

We know too that in cities each neighbourhood has its own character, that sometimes neighbourhoods bleed into the next and at some corners there is an abrupt shift of character. Each city has its nooks, crannies, and secret passage-ways; along with oddities, uniqueness, pop-up surprises, public art, folklore tales, and mysteries.

The older the city the more stories the city has to tell – stones and planks – building materials both tangible and intangible move around as buildings are fixed, torn down, repurposed, reused; for instance granite ballasts from early ships end up as road pavers.  These materials can be found centuries later doing something completely different than their original purpose.

Cities are alive and ever changing as people live, grow, and die – continually.

 

The Bible is like an old city. It is full of neighbourhoods that abut each other. It is full of different architecture, cultures – often foreign or alien to other groups in the city. There are passages and passage ways – some of the passages are longer thoroughfares, well-used and continually under construction and interpretation; while others are entirely forgotten. There are cul-de-sacs, dead ends, closes where the locals gather at favourite drinking holes; there is the rough, the avoid, the disreputable, the macabre, the intriguing, the gems, the favoured, the mysterious.

 

Traditionally the Season of Lent is advertised as a forty day journey that begins tonight, Ash Wednesday. Let us consider Lent with the image of a city.

 

The city of Lent is a journey that is not for the faint of heart. You can do Lent as a tourist, but tourists do the pancake suppers of last night and avoid the imposition of ashes tonight. You are here because you are open to seeing the city – with all its nooks and crannies, the highs and lows, interested in the depth of the city and in discovering the mysteries buried inside.

 

The passages (the scripture texts) that move us from ritual to ritual – from the imposition of ashes, to communion, to the waving of palm branches, to an empty altar, a darkened sanctuary – are passage ways through intriguing neighbourhoods; and the walking through will jar us to deeper places, uncomfortable places in ourselves.

Through an encounter with a serpent and garden dwelling humans we will wrestle with knowledge, truth, disobedience, obedience; as we visit a people in desperation for water in the desert we confront what it means to be tested and offered provision; there is a sideshow of an anointing of an unlikely king; and a dangerous walk in a valley of dry bones. There will be wilderness temptation; a secret meeting under cover of night; a forbidden conversation by a well.

Sight is restored to one blind amid hostile reaction and we will face the death of a friend with a mysterious twist to the story - resurrection in an alley way. 

In the cul-de-sac of a persecuted church community the shadows watch as we dare to approach them and we sit on a park bench to converse with sin, death, evil, liberation, life; speaking of righteousness, reward, trust, values, ethics, faith.

 

When I visit a new city, I do the tourist thing – visiting the museums, highlighted areas, and points of interest. I also like to step off the beaten path, find the less traveled; the watering holes and neighbourhoods where the locals live and hang out. I like to go for a run  - sometimes following another runner- just to get a sense of the spirit of the place; staying far enough not to be creepy, close enough to feel safe. 

This is what Lent is to me too. A when a community gathers together for in a time and a place to explore more deeply and get to know themes -not as a tourist- but as a traveler seeking deeper connection and intimacy with the spirit of the city. To wander through Bible and Lent passages, breathing in the savory and not so savory, to wrestle with the sights and sounds, to pick out the trash and carry only what is needed, to be present and end the journey with a more intimate relationship with neighbours, neighbourhoods: with creation, God, others, and myself.

 

Thank you for joining me on a journey into the city of Lent.

God go with us.

Pointed Text - Ezra 2: 17

 

Of Bethzai, three hundred twenty-three.  

--- Pete’s pick

 

Following on last week’s text from Jeremiah, where the people went into exile at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, it is now 538 BCE and the people are returning to Jerusalem and towns throughout Judah. Chapter 2 of Ezra is a list of returnees. Our pointed text is part of the list that numbers the descendants of lay people (separate lists of priests and Levites) who are listed by family ancestral names or their town of origin.

 

·         Do you know your family tree? What are some of the ancestral names?

·         Do you know the ‘town of origin’ of your forbearers?

·         Is genealogy important to you? Why or why not?

 

The list of family names in Ezra makes the point that these are returning exiles, and thus ‘proper members’ of the Israelite people. If you recall Nebuchadnezzar did not exile all the people of Jerusalem by sending them to Babylon. He left the poor and gave them the vineyards and land. When exiles returned, those who had stayed and tended the land, were not consider part of the people. Although sharing DNA, history and story, connection to the land, and the same God, the most recent experience of exile became the storyline and the marking of who is in and who is out.

 

·         Have you felt like an outsider? Excluded from family circles?

·         Where do you belong? What is your tribe (identity)?

·         What history and story defines you?

Have you felt like an outsider in a family community/church?

 

One’s genealogy can be an interesting study. Research can lead to surprises in family history, the characters in the family tree, and sometimes leave more questions than answers. Recently DNA testing has allowed people to trace their backgrounds to specific peoples and areas. Learning one’s history can open eyes and hearts to receiving people as people.

 

·         Do you see people as people? Are there groups that you avoid? Belittle? Embrace?

·         What actions can you take as an individual, or as a church community, to be inclusive?

·         How can faith community be family?

 

 

 

At the beginning of the week, I will post a devotion on a pointed text from scripture. I will include commentary and questions for reflection. Answers and other questions and comments can be sent to me at halifaxlutherchurch@gmail.com ,put in the comment section of this blog, or on FB where the link to this devotion was shared. Fridays I will share the messages (conversation) received via the church email list.

Pointed Text: Devotion 6

 

Jeremiah 39: 11-12 

 

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, ‘Take him look after him well and do him no harm, but deal with him as he may ask you.’   ----Mary’s pick

 

The prophet Jeremiah was prophet in the last years of the independent political entity of Judah. That puts Jeremiah’s 40 years as prophet around 600BCE. Today’s pointed text occurs in the aftermath of the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians (586BCE).

 

·         What do you know about the prophet Jeremiah?

·         What would it be like to be a prophet for 40 years? Could you speak truth to power for that long (with no control of whether the powers that be acted on your words)?

 

The Babylonian officials and King Nebuchadnezzar entered Jerusalem and gathered at the middle gate. King Zedekiah of Judah and his soldiers saw this and fled from the city. That action proved fatal as they were chased, captured, tortured, and killed. The rest of the people in Jerusalem were exiled and went to Babylon. There were a couple of exceptions, Jeremiah, and according to verse 10:

…the guard left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

 

·         Does the action of Nebuchadnezzar sound compassionate towards the poor and the prophet?

·         Do you think Nebuchadnezzar did so from an ethical or moral stance? A belief in the power of the God of Israel and an understanding of covenant?

 

There are occasions in the biblical record that illustrate foreign powers practicing covenant living in contrast to the kings and authorities of Israel or Judah who are abusing the covenant, enslaving the poor, becoming rich, forgetting God and kindom living. The enemies are portrayed with purer hearts.

 

·         In our world is Christian behaviour and living paling in comparison to the heart and action of other organizations or NGOs?

·         Is the church living in relationship with God, with all people, and creation?

·         Is the church – are we in our daily lives- offering compassion and care?

 

 

In the last chapters of the book, editors have ensured that Jeremiah is remembered as a prophet who had hope that the land of Judah would once again be a place for the people long after the Babylonian conquest. The people (from both Judah and Israel) would once again covenant with God and each other. Jeremiah believed in the restoration of land and relationship.

 

·         Do you have hope in a future filled with reconciliation, restoration, and relationship?

 

 

 

At the beginning of the week, I will post a devotion on a pointed text from scripture. I will include commentary and questions for reflection. Answers and other questions and comments can be sent to me at halifaxlutherchurch@gmail.com ,put in the comment section of this blog, or on FB where the link to this devotion was shared. Fridays I will share the messages (conversation) received via the church email list.

 

 

Pointed Text: Devotion 5

 

2 Chronicles 24: 20

 

Then the spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada; he stood above the people and said to them, ‘Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.’

----Marion's pick

 

Chapter 24 chronicles the reign of King Joash (836-798 BCE). Joash was a good king. He focused on doing what was right in the sight of the Lord and took on the restoration of the Temple. Everything changed when the priest Jehoiada died.

 

·         Has your life, or that of someone you know, completely changed because of a death?

·         Have you witnessed people ‘becoming like someone else?’ What event caused the change?

 

After the death of Jehoiada, King Joash takes council from his officers who are not so concerned with doing what is right in the sight of the Lord.

Today’s pointed text has the prophet Zechariah (the son of priest Jehoiada) confront King Joash with a message from God.  The prophet warned that because Joash had failed to live the commandments, the covenant with God, that God had forsaken him.

 

·         Did God forsake Joash? Or is the idea ‘God has also forsaken you’ more about Joash? In a sense Joash would be forsaken because Joash closed his heart and refused to acknowledge God. Is God still there? Waiting for Joash to say, ‘God…?’

·         Have you ever turned away from God? Have you ever felt forsaken by God?

 

This pointed text remembers and tells of the work of a prophet. Unfortunately in the next verse, Zechariah is assassinated (by stoning). The officials, not liking Zechariah’s prophetic words, conspired against him and King Joash gave the order to have him killed.

 

·         Who are prophets in our time that have been persecuted or assassinated for speaking truth to power?

·         Have you been a prophet? Can you see yourself being a prophet?

·         Have you stood with a prophet? Or responded with action to the words of a prophet?

 

King Joash ends his reign with a disastrous foreign invasion and dies by a successful conspiracy to assassinate him.

 

·         What does it mean to live the commandments?

·         Do you know when you have gone astray from faithful living?

·         How do you stay in relationship with God?

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of the week, I will post a devotion on a pointed text from scripture. I will include commentary and questions for reflection. Answers and other questions and comments can be sent to me at halifaxlutherchurch@gmail.com ,put in the comment section of this blog, or on FB where the link to this devotion was shared. Fridays I will share the messages (conversation) received via the church email list.

Perspective: Salt and Light

 

Today I am not so much preaching, as I am inviting you into a moment of teaching. This teaching is to have us actively participate in honouring Black History Month and in anti-racism action. With open hearts and minds we will wrestle with North American Christian theological and biblical perspective and interpretation. 

Consider this morning’s Gospel reading:

You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

Solid statements. Understandable. Packed full of meaning.  

These phrases are not so simple because of our history, our times, our understanding of scripture; other words, theology, and liturgy the church has used alongside them.

 

If I asked you to describe salt, my guess is that you would tell me that salt is white. When you hear the phrase, you are the salt of the earth, is it white salt you think about? White salt is people’s default. The most used is table salt, kosher salt, pickling salt – all white. Salt coming from the earth is rich with minerals, making salt pink, red, black, blue, and grey.

 

When people are asked to describe light, it doesn’t take long before the description mentions dark. When you think of light, how do you interpret its relationship to dark? Day first followed by night? Night and day, where night is scary and day is safe? As a candle or lamp dispelling darkness?

Western Christianity has a history of interpreting light, brightness, and white as good, equating light with purity and goodness, with all that is holy. Wedding dresses are white, baptismal gowns – white; the colour of high holy days is white. Western Christian history has equated darkness with dirt, sin, and evil. The only festival associated with black is Good Friday – a day of crucifixion. Concepts of washing away sin, making hearts and robes as white as snow, references to being cast into darkness (referring to hell), light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it; in him (God) there is no darkness at all. These are few examples that cast darkness in a negative way.

You can tell me all you want that images and theology using light and dark has nothing to do with race --- philosophically perhaps not, but on the ground in real time it most certainly does!

 

A non-church example might help. In a 1971 interview the great boxer Muhammed-Ali pointed out, “What if we had vanilla devil’s food cake, and dark-chocolate angel cake?”

Right – white devils, black angels.

 

At church assemblies over the past decade, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and our sister church the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have committed to working on issues of race: apologies, reconciliation, inclusion, and education; and being anti-racist through action. African American Lutheran Pastor Lamont Wells, president of African Descent Lutheran Assoc.; a ministry of ELCA, said in an interview:

“For us, liberation theology includes the eradication of anti-Blackness in the church’s liturgy, the church’s teaching and the church’s hermeneutic and interpretation of Scripture.”

 

You have experienced what Pastor Lamont is talking about. An example is the confession we used during Advent – where the liturgy painted darkness as good; there was evening and morning, God saw that it was good. We stated that darkness holds the light, the depths of the sea embrace luminescent creatures, and so on.

You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

Some of you are likely about to tell me, “Pastor that’s biblical, are you about to tell us it is wrong?” No I am not, BUT, I want you to wrestle with how we use and interpret scripture; not all of scripture is edifying for every time and place.

When we read and hear scripture -most of us here- come to it from a Western Christian, North American perspective. This colours how we hear it, picture it, interpret it, and use it; and how others around us do the same.

 

When you hear a Bible Story of David, Hagar, Moses, the Pharaoh’s daughter, Daniel, the disciples – how do you picture them? If you are not a visualizer, when you hear a story do you consider the characters to look like you? Similar hair, eyes, skin.

The shocking news for today is that Bible does not specifically identify any person’s skin colour. Isn’t that interesting? Race was mentioned, tribes and peoples were set against each other – but it was not about the colour of one’s skin. And to note – there were few white people in the Bible.

In the beginning, Adam was made from reddish-brown soil. The Garden of Eden was described by the rivers of Eastern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Hagar, Abraham’s wife; Zipporah, Moses’ wife; Simon of Cyrene who carried Jesus’ cross, the Ethiopian Eunich; all consider Black because of their places of origin. Ethiopia is mentioned 45 times, Egypt countless times – Africa is mentioned more than any other landmass. Until 1859, when the Suez Canal completed, the Holy Land was connected to Africa (known as North East Africa). Besides Black, Bible characters were Middle Eastern, Arab, and Asian – with a few Romans and Greeks thrown into the final books.

I read that, “if we can’t accept the Bible as a multi-cultural book, how can we accept multicultural churches?” To be an anti-racist church there is a need to correct defaults that colour the word only one colour, that interpret the text to look like a Western Christian European church.

 

And the climax of the teaching for today -getting is on the right track, focusing on anti-racism- is expanding our understanding of the first centuries of Christianity.

The Church Fathers – these are the writers and theologians of the early church. These men set down theology that is the framework and foundation of all Christian theology since. It is theology the church still uses and interprets. The Church Fathers were native to Africa: Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Cyril of Alexandria, Cyprian, Augustine of Hippo

These Africans shaped Christian theology and protected the early church from heresy.

Immanuel Church in Burmingham, Alabama has on their website this sentence:

“Christianity has a rich, African heritage that led to the conversion of Europe to Christianity, not the other way around. The African Church Fathers remind us that we need to study black history because it is a part of our common history as God’s people.”

This is something to sit with and ponder through Black History Month.

The blackness of the Bible and the blackness of the early church.