Category: Faith

Today’s First Reading is Acts 4:32-35..

This text from Acts is rather striking, isn’t it?

What we’re seeing is a vision of the Jesus community after Pentecost. The community is preaching in the temple, gathering in regular meetings, and some of the early disciples are being arrested for their beliefs. The community hasn’t even been called Christian yet (see Acts 11) and Stephen won’t be killed until Acts 7. So at the start of this post-Easter community, we find this text from Acts 4. Ownership of property and things, like land, houses, and I assume bowls and cups, no longer exists. Items are sold or shared. The apostles dictate where the money goes and who receives any. This model works because everyone is on the same page. The community can practice a radical form of generosity because they are so united. Our habit of using things to separate us from one another no longer exists.

But the community in Acts isn’t a blueprint that we’re called to follow. This kind of community doesn’t last (read Acts 5 to see why). So instead of selling our houses and giving the money to Pastor Marc to handle, let’s ask just what is going on here. We’re invited to see what’s happened to cause this community to act this way and that’s the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is causing the community to swirl around each other, to care and love each other in ways it didn’t before. The barriers that we build to create a hierarchy of importance (such as how much money we make, how big our house is, how many vacations we go on) is broken. The community embodies the love that Jesus preached and practiced. People are cared for, division are broken, and love is the only rule.

The community of Acts 4, however, isn’t perfect. These short verses are focused on those already inside the community. There is nothing about giving to the poor, sharing with non-Christians, or having meals with the unwanted. They are turned inwards when so much of Jesus’ ministry was directed towards the people “out there.” All communities are called to embody Jesus, to proclaim in our actions and identity the love that God shares with the world. Radical generosity is a part of that. Loving the stranger is a part of that too. Turning away from ourselves and looking at those around us, asking what they need and how Spirit is moving in their lives, matters too. The first communities after Easter struggled with this. We struggle too. But this call from God, to be a community that embodies everything that Jesus is about, continues. That’s our mission and our job.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 4/12/2015.

The Gospel Reading is Mark 16:1-8.

What do you think about the resurrection?

It’s easy to get lost in what the church says about the resurrection. We have the story recorded in four different ways in the four gospels. Paul’s letters and the later epistles written in his name are centered on what it means to live on this side of Easter. We hear how the empty tomb matters, how there’s an angel sitting on a bench, and there’s a neat pile of linens stacked to the side. And we see the disciples, women and men, standing there and wondering what happens next.

But, beyond that story, how does the resurrection matter to you?

Easter is a beautiful day. Flowers cover the altar here at church and the music will be amazing. And once the worship is done, Easter, for many of us, doesn’t end. There’s brunch and family dinners, visits to the mall in New York or a trip to Manhattan to experience NYC in Spring. We hit the road to see friends and family while decked out in our best suits, beautiful pink ties, and while wearing our most fun socks. And who can forget the opening and sharing of Easter baskets, the hunting of Easter eggs, and the bitting the ears off chocolate bunnies. The world around seems to be all about Easter as well. Easter sales, bunnies standing outside fire houses, hams that we need to pickup from Shoprite, and TV specials featuring Jesus premiering later tonight. Easter is an event that goes on, for everyone, all day.

But Easter is more than just today. Easter is for every day and night of our lives.

Today, like we do everyday, we shout from the rooftops that Jesus lives. But he’s more than just a member of the Walking Dead. This Jesus is something brand new; living a promise that death isn’t the end. Death isn’t the opposite to life; instead, a new, different kind of life, is. And this new life matters now. Easter means our lives today are different than they were before. We’re living in a post-Easter world where our lives, the specifics of our lives, are not defined by its end. Christ is risen. Christ is living. We are in the post-resurrection future. More is coming – and that matters to me and to you.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 4/5/2015.

The Gospel Reading is John 18:1-19:42.

I’m always uncomfortable when I hear in the gospel according to John, the phrase “the Jews.”

It’s a phrase John uses a lot when compared to other gospels(over 60 times compared to only 6 in Mark). Living 2000 years after Jesus’ ministry, this phrase might not sound too strange to us. But as the scholar Raymond Brown writes in reference to Jewish parents of a blind man in Jerusalem who are “described as being ‘afraid of the Jews’ (9:22) is just as awkward as having an American living in Washington, DC, described as being afraid of ‘the Americas’ – only a non-American speaks thus of ‘the Americans.'” John isn’t being descriptive in his use of the term; he’s being hostile. Scholars believe that the author of John was part of a community that had been expelled, or split, from Jews worshipping in synagogues. John’s community probably couldn’t understand why those in the synagogues did not accept Jesus as the Messiah and those in the synagogues couldn’t understand how these people did. They split apart and, like all breakups, mutual hostility and anger broke out. John community was so angry that Jesus’ story started to be reduced. The diversity of Judaism as witnessed in Mark, Matthew, and Luke (i.e. the Sadducees and the Pharisees) disappeared in John. They are all just “the Jews” and John does not like them very much.

So what should we do with this aspect of John? Do we removed the references or replace them with something softer, like “religious authorities?” Such a tactic, I believe, fuels the problem. The reality is that John says some hateful things and he’s been used to fuel Anti-Semitism for centuries. We shouldn’t mask the hateful things that Scripture sometimes says.

And I believe that’s what helps make Scripture powerful for us. Scripture isn’t just God’s word; scripture is also the human story. We are sinners. We feel hate. We exclude others, act out in anger, and discriminate over religion, race, sex, gender, and sexual orientation. We’re very good at not loving our neighbors or ourselves. And John’s gospel captures that. We see in John our inability to follow the commandments as Jesus taught us. John is showing us a community who are full of followers of Jesus but who still, like us, are caught up in sin. John’s community, like ours, still needs God’s love and grace to be transformed into the disciples God calls us to be.

John’s antagonism and hateful sayings are things that we, as disciples of Christ, stand against. Our love for our neighbors and for God’s creation calls us to do nothing less. John’s community, as a community in our world, still struggled with darkness. We still struggle with darkness too. But Jesus promises to keep coming to us, bringing light into our dark places, and showing us how to love.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 4/03/2015.

The first reading today is from Jeremiah 31:31-34.

I learned something new this week about Jeremiah 31: this is the only Old Testament passage where the word “new” modifies the word covenant. But what exactly is new about this covenant is disputed.

The book of Jeremiah is a hard text. Called to proclaim the coming destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah’s ministry spanned 5 kingships prior to Babylon’s take over of Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s traditionally known as the author of Lamentations, a book full of sadness due to the loss of the city but hopeful that the community will survive. Jeremiah most likely spent the last years of his life in Egypt, away from those in Babylon but still trying to turn the people back to God.

This first reading is about restoration. The new covenant God will bring is entirely earthy. Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the land of Israel will be repopulated. Throughout the Old Testament, land (and the promise of the land) is central to what God is doing. Restoration always has a very earthy feel. God isn’t in the business of drawing the Chosen people away from the earth; God is busy restoring people to it.

And the center of this restoration is grounded in God’s promises. This new covenant isn’t replacing the prior ones that we’ve heard this Lent (the promise to not destroy the world with a flood, the promise of the Ten Commandments, etc). This new covenant is fulfilling the eternal promises of God. God promises to walk with God’s people, to get into the earthy lives we live, and help us grow into the people we are called to be.

At the Lord’s table, we hear words of a new covenant. When we share in Jesus’ body and blood, we’re reminded that God is active in our lives, nourishing us physically and spirituality, so that God’s eternal promise is manifested in our lives. God’s new covenant is rooted in forgiveness. Jeremiah vision of what the future will hold is still be actualized now. We’re not there yet. But with God’s love, grace, and Jesus’ presence, we are transformed, reflecting tomorrow’s future in our lives today.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 3/22/2015.

The first reading today is from Numbers 21:4-9.

So does God send snakes to punish the people for complaining?

Our title for this book, “Numbers,” comes from a census that is taken at the start of the book (Chapters 1, 3, & 4), but the Hebrew title is a better description on what this book is about. The book is bemidbar, “In the Wilderness.” The story is about Israel’s journey from Mt. Sinai to the Promise Land, and that’s where this bronze serpent appears, in the middle of the wilderness.

The people are impatient and cranky. They’re not sure if they can trust that God knows what God is doing. They complain about having no food (even though there is plenty of ‘manna’ available) and that the food they have is awful. And after the complaint comes snakes. The text doesn’t explicitly say that God sends the snakes because of their complaining but the people believe as much. They ask Moses to bring their prayer and sorrow to God. Moses does and God responds in a very odd way. Rather than taking the snakes away, Moses is instructed to make a bronze serpent that, when looked at, will heal and keep them safe. The snakes are in the grass and the threat of their attack is all around. Yet, by looking at an image of their problems, the people will live.

We tend to not see God as dangerous but, in our text and throughout Scripture, God is very dangerous indeed. God is completely free to do what God wants. And, in that freedom, God is dangerous. A God that we have figured out is a God that is domesticated, comfortable, and controllable. But that isn’t a God who will bring people out of slavery, lead people through the wilderness, and drag people, kicking and screaming, into the promised land. A dangerous God is a God who moves and loves. A dangerous God is willing to send Jesus into the world to die on a Cross. A dangerous God is a God who brings salvation, love, and mercy in unexpected ways. The serpents in our lives, swirling at our feet and in our souls, are never far from us. But God is with us, standing in the middle of our serpents, and, in a completely free and dangerous way, offering us a way to new life.

Each week, I write a reflection on one of our scripture readings for the week. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship Bulletin for 3/15/2015.