Collosal Flub! Lost online versions of April 7-25. Text below.
The Gospel for the Third Sunday of Easter (April 25, 2004)
John 21:1-14
Later on, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing.’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night. When it was already light, there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. Jesus called out, ‘Haven’t you caught anything, friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No,’ he said, ‘Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they threw the net out and could not haul it in because of the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words, ‘It is the Lord,’ Simon Peter tied his outer garment round him (for he had nothing on) and jumped into the water. The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net with the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land. As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty–three of them; and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’. They knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Scholarly interest abounds in this last chapter of John's gospel. Chapter 20 ends the writing neatly, clearly, with purpose, and with clarity. There are three major schools of thought [that I have discovered; clearly there may be more!] concerning Chapter 21.
1. As engineers call it, "Option Zero" is that chapter 20 really wasn't an original ending. Many of the commentaries wade right through from the penultimate to the ultimate with nary a comment.
2. Option one is that John himself decided that his target audience, ca. 90AD, were acting as if Jesus had not risen as a flesh-and-blood entity, but as a spirit who could walk through walls into locked rooms. Thus John was fighting the idea that Jesus was but one of the Gnostic "Messengers of Light."
3. Option two is that John finished the work with chapter 20 and that a later redactor composed chapter 21 in similarly beautiful Greek and tacked it all together; a variant is that the redactor not only added chapter 21, but went back and "cleaned up" chapters 1-20.
Much is made of the number 153. All of the theories are ancient, but John did seem to write at multiple levels, and it may be that no one has yet originated any better theories. My current favorite is attributed to Jerome:
"He said that in the sea there are 153 different kinds of fishes; and that the catch is one which includes every kind of fish; and that therefore the number symbolizes the fact that some day all men of all nations will be gathered together to Jesus Christ."
The Gospel of John : Volume 2. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. The Westminster Press: Philadelphia
Further, the fact that the net (think of the church) held together all the diversity of humankind is a remarkable sub-plot.
A Reflection
As a child reaching sentience in the late 1940's, I was "raised on radio." I could picture in my mind's eye each of the owners of the voices I heard. As I learned to read, that same imagination carried me through book after book. The imagery added by television, as one of my university professors later called it, made television little more than "radio with pictures."
John and/or his redactor[s] had only the words they wrote and the assumed mental ground into which they were writing. The subject on which they wrote was partially millenia old -- the history of Israel -- and partially sparkling new: Jesus. John, from the beginning of his work, makes the most forthright and continuous association of God with Jesus and the Spirit, from Chapter 1 right through to the end.
Perhaps this last chapter is a defense against Christians' thinking a gnostic-like thought, that Jesus was of God, but really had not been incarnate. Most of those in John's audience were not born when Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father.
But perhaps this is created as a setting just for Jesus' last conversation with Peter, the "feed my lambs" speech. This charge to the human on whom Jesus said he would build His church carries with it a charismatic appeal that needs to be made to all who attempt to minister in our Church. He who is the Lamb of God, sacrificed for us, bids us to serve Jesus' other children as He served us then and walks with us today.
10:05:05 PM comment [ 0]
The Gospel for April 24, 2004
John 16:16-33
In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again. Then some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What does he mean, “In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again,” and, “I am going to the Father”? What is this “short time”? We don’t know what he means.’ Jesus knew that they wanted to question him, so he said, ‘You are asking one another what I meant by saying, “In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again.” ‘In all truth I tell you, you will be weeping and wailing while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child she forgets the suffering in her joy that a human being has been born into the world. So it is with you: you are sad now, but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one shall take from you. When that day comes, you will not ask me any questions. In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from the Father he will grant in my name. Until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete. I have been telling you these things in veiled language. The hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in veiled language but tell you about the Father in plain words. When that day comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you, because the Father himself loves you for loving me, and believing that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father.’ His disciples said, ‘Now you are speaking plainly and not using veiled language. Now we see that you know everything and need not wait for questions to be put into words; because of this we believe that you came from God.’ Jesus answered them: Do you believe at last? Listen; the time will come—indeed it has come already—when you are going to be scattered, each going his own way and leaving me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The prophets tell of the coming of the day of the Lord, a transitional period from the suffering under which Israel had lived, moving into the glory of the Kingdom of God. Jesus reinforces the Prophets, as he had reinforced the Law. He promises that he will leave those gathered with him for that transitional period, but when they see him again, their hearts will be filled with joy.
He also promises that anything asked of the father in Jesus' name will be granted . This turns the image of the cruel and harsh God of the Hebrew Bible into a God who loves his children, happy to answer them when they ask in his Son's name.
Jesus speaks clearly and starkly that to complete his mission, he must perform the final sacrifice of return to the Father. For whatever reason of divine revelation or human psychology, the disciples gathered with him finally "get it," or at least they say they do.
Finally, Jesus predicts their abandoning of him at his time of great trouble, and reassures them. William Barclay reminds us that it is one thing to forgive someone for breaking our trust and then never trusting him again -- and quite another to forgive someone and continue to trust him anyway! Our Lord plainly makes the latter choice.
A Reflection
Some who are attracted to the Christian faith are attracted by what they think will be a magic show. In particular the concept of praying in Jesus' name for "anything we want" has been so corrupted that its sense is gone from most who call themselves Christians.
What would Christ have us ask in His Name? When we speak in Jesus' Name, we are speaking as he would speak. Jesus very clearly described the mighty acts he performed as done to attract attention to himself in order to get people to believe in Him. They were a very minor part of his ministry, still writ large to get people's attention to consider his Glory.
That belief in Jesus, belief in God, is the heart of the issue and the desired end-state.
If we were to speak for Jesus -- think of it -- what would we say? Lord, help me pay off my tuition loan? Lord, get me a new car? Lord, heal my mother/brother/nephew?
We must avoid praying for that which Jesus did not ask. When they asked him how to pray, he gave them the basis for what we now call the Lord's Prayer. It is not a mantra, nor a magic formula. It is a teaching. It starts by addressing the Father with praise and adoration. It continues in asking for the coming of the Kingdom, and that our cohorts on this planet will carry out His will. It asks that we be given -- today -- what we need to live -- only for today. It asks forgiveness of sins and promises that we will forgive those who wrong us. It requests that we not be put in the way of temptation, and that if we stumble there, that we be delivered from the evil one. We have added a final adoration: "For thine is the kingdom," etc.
Nowhere do we find anything other than a humble accessing of God as Creator and Preserver. Jesus added joy into the expectations, but not as a state for which to pray, but as a state which would come naturally as a result of prayer.
Prayer in Jesus' name, then, is a continuing spiritual communion with the triune God: praise and adoration and thankfulness in confession of our great gratitude for being able to live as Jesus did: acting justly, giving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.
8:19:57 AM comment [ 1]
Friday, April 23, 2004
The Gospel for April 23, 2004
John 16:1-15
I have told you all this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues, and indeed the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy service to God. They will do these things because they have never known either the Father or me. But I have told you all this, so that when the time for it comes you may remember that I told you. but now I am going to the one who sent me. Not one of you asks, ‘Where are you going?’ Yet you are sad at heart because I have told you this. Still, I am telling you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right, and about judgement: about sin: in that they refuse to believe in me; about who was in the right: in that I am going to the Father and you will see me no more; about judgement: in that the prince of this world is already condemned. I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you to bear now. However, when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking of his own accord, but will say only what he has been told; and he will reveal to you the things to come. He will glorify me, since all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Now, in the middle of his farewell discourse, Jesus foretells the fates of his followers.
He speaks of the Holy Spirit now as one who will come and witness on His behalf and on behalf of the disciples. He concentrates on the Spirit's ability to convict unbelievers of their sin in rejecting Him and of their disbelief in his resurrection, and in the judgment against the evil one.
That there are "many things" remaining to be said leaves us wondering. This is at the basis of our inference that, while worship is a corporate activity, the knowledge of Jesus and His intentions is a deeply personal one, as the Spirit -- as experienced to date -- acts through, and speaks to individual human persons.
He assures us that the Comforter will lead us to the "complete truth" by saying only what the Comforter has been told; this is one of the firm foundations for the Trinity, for here is a separate entity who acts on behalf of the Son, who has everything that the Father has.
Here also lies the heart of a great controversy beween the Eastern (Orthodox) patriarchs and the western hierarchy: the filioque. At John 14:26 we find "the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name," and yet the creed that finally emerged from the early councils, and bears the name "Nicene," says (in the west) that the Holy spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son." One could easily come to that conclusion based on today's reading.
A Reflection
There are literally centuries of discourse over filioque. Google returns over 18,000 "hits" on that word.
The Roman Church and the Byzantine Church each dug in their heels, and from about 860, when Pope NIcholas I excommunicated Photius, Patriarch of Constantinope, the conflict has raged, until the last part of the 20th Century, when the Western Church gave in, in the name of ecuminism.
While bearded old men sat in comfort and debated this issue, wars raged, people starved, the Inquisition came and went, and the evil one chuckled.
There are of course, those on both sides of this controversy who will carry bitterness to their respective graves. Screwtape chalks up another one.
... We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son].
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
-- Book of Common Prayer, 1979
7:23:27 AM comment [ 0]
Thursday, April 22, 2004
The Gospel for April 22, 2004
John 15:12-27
This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name. My command to you is to love one another. If the world hates you, you must realise that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because my choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you. Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well. But it will be on my account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come, if I had not spoken to them, they would have been blameless; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates me hates my Father. If I had not performed such works among them as no one else has ever done, they would be blameless; but as it is, in spite of what they have seen, they hate both me and my Father. But all this was only to fulfil the words written in their Law: They hated me without reason. When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness. And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The bookend commands -- "love one another" -- surround an allusion to the Hebrew Bible's description of Moses and Aaron as "friends" of God. The price of friendship, however, is to bear fruit that will last, using what Jesus has taught. The emperor's friends were allowed in his bedchamber when he awoke, before he ever met with his counsellors and generals. They had his ear first. To John's audience of Roman subjects and citizens, this friendship is far more than what we consider today. Moses was God's friend, and spoke with him "face to face."
The other complete thought in this set of verses is between the bookends of "hate." The unspoken irony is that God created the world, and now the world hates and persecutes its Creator; but the Creator refuses to abandon His creation as they have abandoned Him. He gives two substantive examples of the magnitude of the sin of those unbelieving people of the time: He came and spoke to them and they refused Him, and He performed "such works among them as no one else has ever done," and they refused him. Jesus echos the thoughts of David's Psalm 69:
"More numerous than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without reason. Those who seek to get rid of me are powerful, my treacherous enemies. (Must I give back what I have never stolen?) God, you know how foolish I am, my offences are not hidden from you. Those who hope in you must not be made fools of, Yahweh Sabaoth, because of me! Those who seek you must not be disgraced, God of Israel, because of me! It is for you I bear insults, my face is covered with shame," (Psalm 69:4-7, NJB)
The selection in the lectionary might end with these two bookended sections; thoughtfully, we are not left in our morning's reading with hatred, but with a loving allusion to the Holy Spirit who will assist the New Covenant "remnant" in bearing witness to the love of the Father as seen in the Son.
A Reflection
Power-packed prose.
I am convinced that a person could read this selection every day for the remainder of his life and extract new and significant meaning from it every day. No amount of human-inspired wisdom could have generated such provoking text.
In its native Greek, it moved women and men to acts of selfless bravery in witnessing for Christ. In its various translations into the languages of the world-that-hates-it, it perseveres in its own witness to the awesome glory of God. Even in its various English translations, the different "takes" of different translators serve only to magnify it.
These words direct attention to the Father, through the Son. They speak of love and challenge and reward. They speak of hatred, danger, and safety. They are the challenge to the new Chosen People of God to bear fruit in His service.
Eternal God, heavenly Father,
you have graciously accepted us as living members
of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ,
and you have fed us with spiritual food
in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.
Send us now into the world in peace,
and grant us strength and courage
to love and serve you
with gladness and singleness of heart;
through Christ our Lord. Amen
-- Book of Common Prayer, 1979
7:30:44 AM comment [ 0]
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
The Gospel for April 21, 2004
John 15:1-11
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. You are clean already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch—and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples. I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
William Barclay comments that useless vines bearing no fruit, or withered, are cut right back, and since the wood itself is useless -- it could not even be used for fires on the altar -- it is burned in a bonfire.
The "vine of Israel" was depicted always in the Hebrew Bible as turning ruinous, withering, going wild. Vines that are allowed to act like that are useless, and will eventually be pruned by a caretaker. In this case, the caretaker was the Master Vintner.
When Jesus says "I am the vine," he is, in essence, assuming the mantle of Israel's birthright as God's chosen, which they had cast aside in thier rejection of Him. His metaphor of a branch separated from Him being fruit-less reminds us that He always spoke of being in communion with the Father; now he extends that privilege to us, through Himself. The downside is that rejecting Him is also rejecting the Father, and results in being heavily pruned.
The last two sentences in this selection hint at the next few verses -- a New Commandment. It's one for which the figurative "holding your breath" in anticipation is appropriate.
A Study
Barclay's study of this piece of Scripture goes on to cite three ways that Christians can become useless: to refuse Christ, to pay Him lip-service, or to accept Him and then turn away in the face of adversity. In each case, although Jesus speaks of their being pruned, the truth is that they prune themselves.
Then the enemy comes along and collects them for his own use. I have become sensitized, lately, to persons who proclaim Jesus and then go on to condemn others.
Even Jesus, in his incarnate glory, never condemned. He explicitly denied a mission to judge, and he warned us to eschew judging others.
"It is to the Glory of God that you should bear much fruit...." That's possible ONLY by staying connected to Jesus, and living by Jesus' precepts. And it results in Jesus' joy, and our own. The first verse to one of my favorite hymns alludes to both:
Joyful, joyful, we adore thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flowers before thee,
opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!
-- Hymnal 1982, lyrics by Henry van Dyke
6:28:32 AM comment [ 1]
Monday, April 19, 2004
The Gospel for April 20, 2004
John 14:18-31
I shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you. In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that I live and you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.’ Judas—not Judas Iscariot—said to him, ‘Lord, what has happened, that you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus replied: Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him. Anyone who does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not my own: it is the word of the Father who sent me. I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you. Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me say: I am going away and shall return. If you loved me you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe. I shall not talk to you much longer, because the prince of this world is on his way. He has no power over me, but the world must recognise that I love the Father and that I act just as the Father commanded. Come now, let us go.
A Study
And thus ends the first of three speeches that Jesus makes in John's gospel, just prior to walking over to Gethsemane and his fate.
These are "comfortable words" given by Jesus to people who still don't get it. He's comforting them for a sorrow that they cannot imagine. Their relationship exists on the level built by Jesus with them while he is with them as an incarnate being, and it's all going to change, suddenly the next day. In a way that is unimaginable to them.
When he tells them that he is going to show himself to them, but not to non-believers -- the "world," the other Judas wants to know what happened. And probably more to the point, how is he going to pull this off? Traveling by night, using disguises, hiding out in places where only the faithful can assemble?
A Reflection
Suppose I were to tell you that this is my last blog entry, because tomorrow I am leaving. But, because you've been such a faithful reader, you'll be able to access this link and I'll still show up with something fresh every day. But not those people who wouldn't like the blog or haven't been reading it already. They can even type in the right URL, but they'll get some puzzling response, or no response at all.
Suppose I'd been doing this blog for a long (in blogspace) time. You would have seen others just disappear, and not been able to get any more of their writing. But I'm telling you that this is really different. Remember how my blogs would do special wonderful things that nobody else's would? Like super-fast loading movies that ran in real time with great sound, like something that you really wanted to hear at just that time. And amazingly, I delivered 100% of the time. You just couldn't stay away. But now, I'm leaving.
And I'm leaving a helper with you, who will do some things that I used to do, but in different ways. Don't worry, I wouldn't leave you completely alone. I'm leaving, but you'll still be able to read what I say, but maybe in a different way.
Come on, I have to leave now.
10:53:18 PM comment [ 1]
The Gospel for April 19, 2004
John 14:8-17
Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works. In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me you will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Immediately preceding this section, Jesus spoke to his disciples at their last meal together. He told them that in a little while, he would be with them no longer, but reunited with the Father. Almost immediately thereafter, he issued the famous "before the cock crows" denial warning to Peter.
And now Philip. This is a "show me" that is seldom mentioned when we bemoan Thomas' apparent lack of belief. But John's writer would have us know that Jesus' associates still didn't understand the totality of his divinity or the fatal proximity of His meeting with Pilate.
The Jerusalem Bible translation of "he will give you another Paraclete" reminds us that Jesus is our solicitor, the one who pleads on our behalf to the Father. Parakletos is one who is summoned to one's side, hence the "para" preface -- on the side. A paraclete is one who is called to help, to provide assistance. Jesus is our first Paraclete, and he is asking the father for another to remain with us, always, not only as advocate, but also as helper.
There is a great Jewish tradition of paracletes, as well, though they are depicted as angels, prophets, and advocates before God. This is an extension of something that Jesus' disciples already knew about, but at another level of depth for them.
The word "commandment" as used here also has the flavor of "precept," thus expanding it beyond what Jesus explicitly commanded into that for which he stands.
A Reflection
The Oxford Bible Commentary cites Augustine:
‘Now we love when we are believing in what we shall see; but then we shall love when we see what we have believed in’ (In Johannem, 75:4).
This small scriptural excerpt is, to me, the key transition of Jesus from friend and associate to the Risen One. In essence, he has told his disciples that there will be someone else coming to take his place with them, who will take over much of what he has been doing with and for them.
Jesus' crucifixion on the following day plants the seed for the harvest to be celebrated at Pentecost.
If we were not so overwhelmingly joyful at Jesus' victory over sin and death during this Eastertide, we should immediately return to the liturgical colors of blue or purple, in anticipation of the Great Gift of the Holy Spirit, as we do when we wait for the gift of Jesus at Christmas.
Perhaps we should always use those colors. After all, we are always waiting for God's next gift to us, and he continues to amaze us with His great goodness.
6:23:05 AM comment [ 1]
Saturday, April 17, 2004
The Gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 18, 2004
John 20:19-31
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and, after saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. ‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained. Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord,’ but he answered, ‘Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. There were many other signs that Jesus worked in the sight of the disciples, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The last sentence in the reading is the purpose that this gospel's author declares for having written it. If John is the "spiritual" gospel, then his many references to "believe in me" from Jesus' lips ring in perfect harmony with the stated purpose.
One wonders if those gathered remembered his saying, "When you enter a house, always say, 'Peace be on this place.'" The first words out of his mouth, essentially, were those, when he appeared to them.
We also have what appears to be an early gift of the spirit, but without the fire imagery, and well before the day of Pentecost.
A Reflection
The daily meditation for the Episcopal Church's Forward Day by Day publication, available by mail or email from Forward Movement, has the following about today's gospel reading:
Don’t you feel a little sorry for Thomas going down in history as “The Doubter?” But Thomas makes a case for doubt in the life of the believer. Questioning and probing one’s belief system is not wrong. It can be an impetus to deepen our faith, to get in touch with the Easter message. Thomas needed to touch the wounds of Christ to deepen his faith.
The late Henri Nouwen wrote about confronting the wounds of Christ when he contemplated Andrei Rublev’s icon, The Savior of Zvenigorod, which hangs in the Cathedral there. It was painted in the 15th century. Over the years it became damaged and removed from the cathedral, and eventually lost. It was not found until 1918. Nouwen said that when he was able to look beyond the damaged part and feel the wounds, he saw the radiant face of Christ, full of compassion and mercy. It is a face that wars, disasters, and political uprisings could not destroy.
When we have the courage to look beyond the damaged part, to touch the wounds of others and our own, we might just see the radiant face of Christ looking at us.
The Collect for the Second Sunday in Easter
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
8:47:52 PM comment [ 0]
The Gospel for Saturday in Easter Week, April 17, 2004
Mark 16:9-20
Having risen in the morning on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala from whom he had cast out seven devils. She then went to those who had been his companions, and who were mourning and in tears, and told them. But they did not believe her when they heard her say that he was alive and that she had seen him. After this, he showed himself under another form to two of them as they were on their way into the country. These went back and told the others, who did not believe them either. Lastly, he showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy, because they had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation.
[Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’ And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven; there at the right hand of God he took his place,]
while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Just as Genesis begins in the middle of a sentence, so the author of Mark ends in the middle of a sentence, at the end of 16:8. The material that follows verse 8 is clearly not something that Mark wrote, and there are several versions (e.g., the "long ending," "the short ending," no ending, and others). In the citation above, I have set off the material which the Episcopal Church's lectionary has excluded from the reading for today, a further redaction of what survives as "the long ending."
In looking through various resources for Bible study, it is interesting to observe how those who haven't already disclaimed the ending, in whatever form it may [or may not] take, shimmy away from a literal interpretation of snake-handling and poison-drinking.
Here follow two analyses of the Bible by Matthew Henry circa 1708. The first is of a portion of Leviticus 20; the second is of the text we read today.
The unnatural lusts of sodomy and bestiality (sins not to be mentioned without horror) were to be punished with death, as they are at this day by our law, v. 13, 15, 16. Even the beast that was thus abused was to be killed with the sinner, who was thereby openly put to the greater shame: and the villany was thus represented as in the highest degree execrable and abominable, all occasions of the remembrance or mention of it being to be taken away. Even the unseasonable use of the marriage, if presumptuous, and in contempt of the law, would expose the offenders to the just judgment of God: they shall be cut off, v. 18.
Henry, M. 1996, c1991. Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume . Hendrickson: Peabody
They shall take up serpents. This was fulfilled in Paul, who was not hurt by the viper that fastened on his hand, which was acknowledged a great miracle by the barbarous people, Acts 28:5, 6. They shall be kept unhurt by that generation of vipers among whom they live, and by the malice of the old serpent. (4.) If they be compelled by their persecutors to drink any deadly poisonous thing, it shall not hurt them: of which very thing some instances are found in ecclesiastical history.
Henry, M. 1996, c1991. Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume . Hendrickson: Peabody
A Reflection
When we read anything written by a human being, our defenses should go up.
Human beings make mistakes, even when they are inspired. The authors of what we today call the Gospel of Mark wrote things down in the best of faith, with the best of intentions, just as we should read and interpret the writings.
We were given intellect for several reasons. One of the best reasons is that our intellects allow us to look at a broad milieu of material and pick out what "feels right" and what "sticks out."
We need to compare both sets that we have picked out and examine what particular spiritual basis we have for feeling the way we do. If we feel the way we do because some other man or woman said that something is correct -- doctrine, for example -- we need to understand the basis for that doctrine, as well.
Unfortunately, a "simple faith" is obtained only through the most diligent of work. Fortunately, that work profits our souls immensely.
7:35:43 AM comment [ 2]
Thursday, April 15, 2004
The Gospel for Friday in Easter Week, April 16, 2004
John 21:1-14
Later on, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing.’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night. When it was already light, there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. Jesus called out, ‘Haven’t you caught anything, friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No,’ he said, ‘Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they threw the net out and could not haul it in because of the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words, ‘It is the Lord,’ Simon Peter tied his outer garment round him (for he had nothing on) and jumped into the water. The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net with the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land. As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty–three of them; and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’. They knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Once more, in another gospel, we are reminded that the Jesus who rose is still real, capable of touch, feel. Capable of serving, still.
A Reflection
We actually need to be reminded, frequently, that He is real. We need to remember that he served once for us, for all time. He calls us now to serve him as Lord.
Praise and thanksgiving be to you, Lord of all,
for by the Cross eternal life is ours and death is swallowed up in victory.
In the first light of Easter glory broke from the tomb and changed the women's sorrow into joy.
From the Garden the mystery dawned
that he whom they had loved and lost is with us now
in every place for ever.
Making himself known in the breaking of the bread,
speaking peace to the fearful disciples,
welcoming weary fishermen on the shore,
he renewed the promise of his presence
and of new birth in the Spirit
who sets the seal of freedom on your sons and daughters.
-- Scottish Episcopal Church Eucharistic Prayer IV
11:36:12 PM comment [ 0]
The Gospel for Thursday in Holy Week, April 15, 2004
Luke 24:36-48
They were still talking about all this when he himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’ In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts stirring in your hearts? See by my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ And as he said this he showed them his hands and his feet. Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it, as they were dumbfounded; so he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ And they offered him a piece of grilled fish, which he took and ate before their eyes. Then he told them, ‘This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Luke's writer insists -- and who are we to challenge his interpretation of the events -- that there be a chain of eyewitness accounts testifying to the real physical nature of the [Son of] God as the Son of Man, including His physical resurrection as a material being.
Luke further insists that Jesus did, in fact, fulfil the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible, in their entirety, when it came to statements about Him. And he taught the disciples until the end, just as he taught the two going to Emmaus. He "opened their minds to understand."
And to tie the ribbon on his insistence that there be eyewitnesses documented in his work, Luke has Jesus pronounce to those gathered that they are indeed witnesses to his death, to his physical resurrection, to his teaching, and to his commission to go forth and preach to all nations.
A Reflection
I began to think that different analysts of the Bible had consistent, but different slants as to what each gospel writer's "main message" is. But it has become clear to me that few of them are in fact consistent in, for example, an anti-gnostic, or an anti-Arian style of persuasion. Or, for example, that John is the "spiritual" author, though he surely leans in that direction. Even Mark slows down occasionally!
Jesus opened the disciples' minds to scripture. The great power -- in deed the probability -- of scripture to change the reader is a secret. Why, I cannot fathom. As the world's most-published book, the Bible must not be the most-read book, and could certainly not be the most studied. If it were, there would be far more understanding among people as to its messages. As the mind and consciousness are folded about the words and thoughts set down so long ago by imperfect men and then collected and organized (and re-organized) by other men, students' understanding of what has been written down appreciably changes, and the next reading adds measurably more than it would in a scientific text. Walter Brueggemann is the first person I have read who makes such an assertion, though he may have got it somewhere else.
And so it is that authors of biblical criticism seem (to me, at least) to make a fairly broad statement at the beginning of a work as to what that work will show, or prove, or demonstrate. But by the time the work is complete, many other points have been made as a result of the study, thought, prayer, and mental accommodation that necessarily had to occur. And some are in favor of the initial view taken, while other, more powerful points have emerged.
Other literature has never done this to me or for me. As a neophyte student of scripture (not that I do not remain so), I found it maddening to begin to write a very short study statement on a few verses, having thoroughly read and studied them, and formed an opinion and a thesis -- only to finish a few paragraphs later with an exposition about something else.
I think that convergence of thinking in this regard -- that the final points made are the ones intended at the beginning -- must occur only after our minds have been opened in our own resurrections. Until then, we must see as through a glass, darkly.
6:35:59 AM comment [ 1]
The Gospel for Wednesday in Easter Week (April 14, 2004)
Luke 24:13-35
Now that very same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking together about all that had happened. And it happened that as they were talking together and discussing it, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but their eyes were prevented from recognising him. He said to them, ‘What are all these things that you are discussing as you walk along?’ They stopped, their faces downcast. Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, ‘You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.’ He asked, ‘What things?’ They answered, ‘All about Jesus of Nazareth, who showed himself a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and the whole people; and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have now gone by since it all happened; and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they could not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.’ Then he said to them, ‘You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?’ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself. When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them saying, ‘It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’ They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, ‘The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.’ Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Luke, in a haste more typical of Mark, here sets the stage for the last act of this play. The two on the way to Emmaus are not identified (except as being foolish!) but are given "heartburn" from Jesus' exegesis of scripture. "Foolish"-ness here is a translation of a word that is probably better thought of as short-sighted, or dim-witted: they still hadn't understood the full significance of what had happened, and what that really meant for all of us.
Remember that Jesus promised he would not leave them as orphans. So, Jesus, ever nearby, takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. While he was a gues in their lodging, he assumed the role of host and -- in his standard form of action -- started to gather at table with them but then was ... gone. Rushing back to where the others were hiding, the wo travelers found that Jesus had appeared also to Simon Peter. This is the only place in which this particular appearance to Peter is revealed to us. What documents are we missing that describe Jesus' witnessing to the one through whom he intended to build His Church?
A Reflection
"Jesus, unrecognized, travels with his church on its pilgrimage and in its perplexity. Its heart is warmed as it hears the Scriptures but Jesus himself is discerned in ‘the breaking of the bread’".
Barton, J., & Muddiman, J. 2001. Oxford Bible commentary . Oxford University Press: New York.
The apocryphally anonymous poem "Footprints in the Sand" has lately attributed to Mary Stevenson, and is one of my most very favorite ways of thinking about how Jesus is always with us, even using the walking paradigm of this Gospel story:
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from anguish,
sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints,
so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there has only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied,
“The years when you have seen only one set of footprints,
my child, is when I carried you.”
12:01:59 AM comment [ 0]
The Gospel for Tuesday in Easter Week, April 13, 2004
John 20:11-18
But Mary was standing outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, as she wept, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she replied, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not realise that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She turned round then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’—which means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ So Mary of Magdala told the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord,’ and that he had said these things to her. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Patient Mary of Magdala. As true a disciple as Jesus had. She still hadn't wrapped her mind around what had happened, that the promised resurrection had occurred; but her love and respect for Jesus was still rock solid. In John's version of the Good News, when she hears Jesus' voice, she snaps out of her desparate, dark emptiness.
This appearance is in Mark, the earliest gospel, and John, the latest gospel. In Mark's version, the other disciples don't believe her when she tells them. In John's, the storyline takes a different twist after this appearance.
The Jerusalem Bible's translation of "don't cling to me" is likely accurate, since there is no reason for Jesus to have said "don't touch me," as in some other translations. He wanted her to return to her companions and confirm the good news of his resurrection.
A Reflection
"Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not yet come." -- to his mother at Cana.
"Woman, why are you weeping?" -- to Mary at the tomb. His hour had come.
Once again, it falls to a woman, once again named Mary, to take charge and set in motion that which needs to happen for our Lord's purposes.
Mary of Magdala is among the most mis-characterized [by some] women in the Bible. The unfortunate juxtapostion of her story of exorcism, immediately following the forgiveness of a prostitute, has forever linked the unnamed prostitute with Mary of Magdala.
She was clearly a respected member of the disciples inner circle, and the failure of anyone ever to record her as being appointed an apostle is likely an example only of first-century ignorance of the full capability of women.
I have never heard Jesus acclaimed as a great exponent of "diversity," as we call it today. He didn't need to know what to call it, He just did the right thing without regard to the soul he encountered, regardless of the matter surrounding it.
Jesus would not be surprised that we still treat people based on something other than their being our siblings in His Body. But surely, he must give one of those deep, compelling sighs everytime we fail him in that way. He calls us to love one another as he loves us.
And now that Mary has carried out her instructions, it's OK to cling to him.
6:56:56 AM comment [ 1]
The Gospel for Monday in Easter Week, April 12, 2004
Matthew 28:9-15
And suddenly, coming to meet them, was Jesus. ‘Greetings,’ he said. And the women came up to him and, clasping his feet, they did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; there they will see me.’ Now while they were on their way, some of the guards went off into the city to tell the chief priests all that had happened. These held a meeting with the elders and, after some discussion, handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions, ‘This is what you must say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” And should the governor come to hear of this, we undertake to put things right with him ourselves and to see that you do not get into trouble.’ So they took the money and carried out their instructions, and to this day that is the story among the Jews. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Luke 24:11 reports, "... but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them." Luke omits an encounter of the women with Jesus on their return to the other disciples. Perhaps an encounter with Jesus would seem like nonsense, given the men's gloom and despair in the pre-dawn grey of that Sunday.
This account from the author of Matthew has little in common with the other Gospels. In particular, the scheming of Jesus' opponents -- the chief priests -- stands out here as the only report of such an attempt to cover up the resurrection. That does not make it untrue, but unique.
A Reflection
As I sit here, fear-free, in my comfortable study in the pre-dawn grey of Monday in Easter Week, it is painfully easy for me to understand how the other disciples might receive the women's news. It is really early, and if I hadn't been awake for some time and had a few cups of coffee, a report like Mary's, waking me, would seem completely unreal.
To hear that the tomb was empty would have been a shot in the gut. How could that have happened? Surely they must have gone to the wrong place. But to have encountered Jesus on the way back here? They've lost their minds.
The four independent accounts we are given of these circumstances make our minds expand to attempt to reconcile all the details from all the sources. Our brains do not like to file different versions of the same event, because it is physically not how brains work. It is when things do NOT fit that our attention is attracted for further processing, until we can make the observations all fit.
Study of these reports in the context of understanding how God unveiled the resurrection allows us even more time to be prepared to give thanks for the fact that He did. Alleluia!
6:48:11 AM comment [ 0]
Saturday, April 10, 2004
He is not here.
The Gospel for Easter (April 11, 2004)
Luke 24:1-10
On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, they went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but on entering they could not find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled about this, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly appeared at their side. Terrified, the women bowed their heads to the ground. But the two said to them, ‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of man was destined to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.’ And they remembered his words. And they returned from the tomb and told all this to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. And the other women with them also told the apostles, -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
He is not here.
Joseph and Nicodemus had hurried to get Jesus' body into the tomb before sunset on Friday, the beginning of Sabbath.
In the pre-dawn of Sunday, Jesus' body was gone. Vanished. His burial shroud was collapsed, as if He had simply evaporated from it.
The Apostles, still in shock, were hiding in the city. But a crowd of distraught Jewish women headed for the tomb as early as they legally and practically could, after the Sabbath and its ensuing night, to ensure that their Lord's body was properly prepared for burial -- "laid out right," as we would say today. They were met by men in brilliant clothes, painfully dazzling their eyes in the gray almost-light: "Why are you looking for him here? He has risen.... Don't you remember what he said?"
A Reflection
These were women and men who had known him -- some all their lives, some for three years, some for only a short while -- and all had heard him say, "It's not long now until they will take me and kill me." But every day that did not happen made it seem less likely to them: hopeful forgetfulness.
The roar of the crowd: "Crucify Him!". The swish of the Roman flagellum as it shredded the skin on Jesus' back and chest, the bump of the cross as He dragged it over the cobblestones of Via Delarosa, the clang of the hammer as it pounded wrought iron spikes into His wrists. That alone, the shock of it all, was enough to make them forget everything He had ever said. And we? How would we have fared under that awful, swift exhibition of Roman subjugation?
Examine what we and our government have done in response to a single attack on our country by a band of outlaws numbering perhaps in the thousands -- more likely in the hundreds. We have closed our borders, shut down our public places and done a hundred other things from "preparation:" I call it fear. How unlike Josephus, Nicodemus, the band of women.
Not Josephus. Not Nicodemus. Not the crowd of women who crept to the tomb on Sunday morning laden with oil and spices to honor their Lord in his death.
But, Jesus kept His promise not to leave us orphans. That very day He appeared to some and later to all, and the gift of the Spirit was not far off.
He is not here. He is risen. Alleluia!
Wood, and Eggs, and Colored Eggs. A Story from Martin Bell, The Way of the Wolf, The Gospel in New Images
Wood
SOMETHING like an eternity ago, human beings got all caught up in the illusion that being human is a relatively unimportant sort of proposition. Here today – gone tomorrow. A vale of tears – that sort of foolishness.
What’s more tragic, of course, is that in the wake of this basic error there quickly followed the idea that human beings are expendable, which easily degenerated into the proposition that some human beings are expendable. Certain human beings are expendable. Really bad guys are expendable. Guys with low I.Q.'s are expendable. A long time ago, human beings got all caught up in the illusion that being human is a relatively unimportant sort of proposition.
Well, that’s not true. It’s wrong. All wrong. And it has always been wrong. From the creation of the heavens and the earth, it has been – wrong. There is nothing more important than being human. Our lives have eternal significance. And no one – absolutely no one – is expendable.
Nails
Jesus was dead. He was dead and buried. It was expedient that he should be dead and buried. Caiaphas had explained that to himself and to others over and over again. It is expedient, he said, that one man should die for the sake of the people. Jesus is expendable. Caiaphas suffered from the illusion that being human is relatively unimportant. And so Jesus was dead.
What happened then wasn't so remarkable, really. God simply raised Jesus from the dead. He merely walked into the tomb that we call insignificance and meaninglessness, and other such names as that – he merely walked into this tomb and raised Jesus from the dead.
There was nothing very spectacular or remarkable about this. God revealed himself to be the same God who created the heavens and the earth and called his creation good; the same God who led his people out of Egypt to be a light to the nations; the same God who affirmed David in his weakness; who kindled the heart of John the Baptist; and who reached out to touch his tiny children in the person of Jesus Christ.
God raised Jesus from the dead to the end that we should be clear – once and for all – that there is nothing more important than being human. Our lives have eternal significance. And no one – absolutely no one – is expendable.
Colored Eggs
Some human beings are fortunate enough to be able to color eggs on Easter. If you have a pair of hands to hold the eggs, or if you are fortunate enough to be able to see the brilliant colors, then you are twice blessed.
This Easter some of us cannot hold the eggs, others of us cannot see the colors, many of us are unable to move at all – and so it will be necessary to color eggs in our hearts.
This Easter there is a hydrocephalic child lying very still in a hospital bed nearby with a head the size of his pillow and vacant, unmoving eyes, and he will not be able to color Easter eggs, and he will not be able to color Easter eggs in his heart, and so God will have to color eggs for him.
And God will color eggsfor him. You can bet your life and the life of the created universe on that.
At the cross of Calvary God reconsecrated and sanctified wood and nailsand absurdity and helplessness to be continuing vehicles of his love. And thenhe simply raised Jesus from the dead. And they both went home and coloredeggs.
--- Martin Bell,The Way of the Wolf, BallantineBooks
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
9:21:18 PM comment [ 2]
The Gospel for Holy Saturday (April 10, 2004)
John 19:38-42
After this, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus—though a secret one because he was afraid of the Jews—asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission, so they came and took it away. Nicodemus came as well—the same one who had first come to Jesus at night–time—and he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial custom. At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried. Since it was the Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
All four gospels have Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, "come out of the closet" and secure Jesus' remains for burial. John adds Nicodemus as one who brought spices worthy of a king's burial, and has the two of them prepare Jesus' body for the tomb.
We never hear that either of these two Sanhedrin members spoke in Jesus' defense, or were even present when Jesus was judged by that body. Perhaps they were too frightened to speak up, or even to show up.
Regardless, Joseph becomes the first to go public with his affection for Jesus, requesting of Pilate the body for burial. He may have been too shamed to confess his belief in Jesus' life, but quickly acquired the courage after witnessing our Lord's passover sacrifice.
A Reflection
There is a very fine, very ragged razor's edge on which members of the laiety, especially, are asked to tread. While those with collars can easily pronounce in Jesus' name and not be thought odd, the rest of us risk being un-cool by overtly invoking a religious principle. We have some salvation in the expression [one that I dearly love and wish I could practice better] "Preach the Gospel always; use words if necessary."
I once offended my wife terribly in a thoughtless way. In trying to make up, I said "I love you" repeatedly. She retorted quite correctly that my actions had not lived up to those words. So perhaps the rejoinder to "use words if necessary" is a better instruction even than it appears at first seeing.
We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God, begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried....
--- to be continued
5:48:02 PM comment [ 0]
The Gospel for Good Friday (April 9, 2004)
John 19:1-37
Pilate then had Jesus taken away and scourged; and after this, the soldiers twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on his head and dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him and saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ and slapping him in the face. Pilate came outside again and said to them, ‘Look, I am going to bring him out to you to let you see that I find no case against him.’ Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, ‘Here is the man.’ When they saw him, the chief priests and the guards shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him: I find no case against him.’ The Jews replied, ‘We have a Law, and according to that Law he ought to be put to death, because he has claimed to be Son of God.’ When Pilate heard them say this his fears increased. Re–entering the Praetorium, he said to Jesus, ‘Where do you come from?’ But Jesus made no answer. Pilate then said to him, ‘Are you refusing to speak to me? Surely you know I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?’ Jesus replied, ‘You would have no power over me at all if it had not been given you from above; that is why the man who handed me over to you has the greater guilt.’ From that moment Pilate was anxious to set him free, but the Jews shouted, ‘If you set him free you are no friend of Caesar’s; anyone who makes himself king is defying Caesar.’ Hearing these words, Pilate had Jesus brought out, and seated him on the chair of judgement at a place called the Pavement, in Hebrew Gabbatha. It was the Day of Preparation, about the sixth hour. ‘Here is your king,’ said Pilate to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him.’ Pilate said, ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king except Caesar.’ So at that Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. and carrying his own cross he went out to the Place of the Skull or, as it is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him with two others, one on either side, Jesus being in the middle. Pilate wrote out a notice and had it fixed to the cross; it ran: ‘Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews’. This notice was read by many of the Jews, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the writing was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. So the Jewish chief priests said to Pilate, ‘You should not write “King of the Jews”, but that the man said, “I am King of the Jews”. ’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’ When the soldiers had finished crucifying Jesus they took his clothing and divided it into four shares, one for each soldier. His undergarment was seamless, woven in one piece from neck to hem; so they said to one another, ‘Instead of tearing it, let’s throw dice to decide who is to have it.’ In this way the words of scripture were fulfilled: They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes. That is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed and, so that the scripture should be completely fulfilled, he said: I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the wine he said, ‘It is fulfilled’; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit. It was the Day of Preparation, and to avoid the bodies’ remaining on the cross during the Sabbath—since that Sabbath was a day of special solemnity—the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water. This is the evidence of one who saw it—true evidence, and he knows that what he says is true—and he gives it so that you may believe as well. Because all this happened to fulfil the words of scripture: Not one bone of his will be broken; and again, in another place scripture says: They will look to the one whom they have pierced. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Studying the Gospels in this period of Jesus' life on earth is awe-full. It is too much. We know the ending already, and we have read it over and over and over in several different translations in each gospel. We have dissected what every word means, the slightest innuendo.
Did you notice, for example, that the soldiers hold up the sponge to Jesus on a stick of hyssop -- the same hyssop with which Moses told the Jews in Egypt to use in painting the blood of the slaughtered lambs onto the lentils of their homes? Do you see the parallel between wine and Christ as our passover lamb, painted with a hyssop stick -- and blood and the original passover lambs?
Each scholar has a valid, exhaustive, intuitive, and intellectual scrubbing of the passion gospel verses. Together they form a body of forensic theology that can numb the mind.
But then we step back, and we ask why? Why did Jesus have to be killed?
The stock answer, and one that I haven't found bettered, is that God set the terms of His Covenant with His People such that they had to obey His Law perfectly.
And neither his people nor we have been able to live up to that expectation.
Hence, Jesus takes up our slack in our ability to be free from guilt and sin. He puts it on Himself and ascends with it in Glory.
A Reflection
“Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.”
Amen
10:30:51 PM comment [ 2]
The Gospel for Thursday in Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) (April 8, 2004)
John 13:1-15
Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end. They were at supper, and the devil had already put it into the mind of Judas Iscariot son of Simon, to betray him. Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God, and he got up from table, removed his outer garments and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist; he then poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘Never!’ said Peter. ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus replied, ‘If I do not wash you, you can have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said, ‘Well then, Lord, not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well!’ Jesus said, ‘No one who has had a bath needs washing, such a person is clean all over. You too are clean, though not all of you are.’ He knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said, ‘though not all of you are’. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments again he went back to the table. ‘Do you understand’, he said, ‘what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am. If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
Among the "hard sayings" for me has always been the exchange between Peter and Jesus over foot-washing. The following looks to be a well-thought answer:
"Jesus said his disciples were already “bathed” (Greek louo, to bathe completely) and only needed to have their feet washed (Greek nipto, to splash; 13:10). The picture is of getting one’s feet dirty while returning from a public bath, thus needing to wash them again at home. Likewise, a sinner who repents is forever clean (see Heb. 10:1–12), though on occasion he or she may become defiled by sin and require a “nipto” cleansing (see 1 John 1:9)." -- Willmington, H. L. 1997. Willmington's Bible handbook . Tyndale House Publishers: Wheaton, Ill.
In these verses, John has ripped a page from Mark's style manual and beats us over the head with the importance of servanthood. Jesus goes so far as to make it completely unambiguous for the disciples. Of course, in John, someone would have said, after the last sentence above, "Lord, do you mean we should let you wash our feet every day?" We are spared that, here.
The example that Jesus drives home, the importance of service, and of the greater caring for the lesser, is one that probably can never be repeated too often.
A Reflection
A few months ago, one of my colleagues -- and a dear friend -- on observing me in a pique of [righteous, I thought] anger, said, "You know, if your fuse were any shorter, it would be invisible." He hadn't been privy to the umpteen previous times that my victim and I had had a polite conversation about the same mistake being made. Later, the same colleague said, "You forget that we are all doing the best we can. That, unfortunately, is the best he can do." Cancel the righteous part of righteous anger, above, and turn on the shame alarm.
It is unfortunately true that each of us does "the best we can do," all the time.
The best we can do is defined largely by the circumstances with which we ourselves have surrounded ourselves. Years of dedication -- to a career at the expense of a marriage or at the expense of a relationship with children, or worst, at the expense of the soul -- represent the best we can do. Unfortunately, it's been done in worshiping an idol.
Jesus, doing the best he could, stripped to a towel and poured clean water over the first-century feet of his followers, and dried their feet with the towel he wore. He was quite literally the most important person in the world on that night; while Pilate and Herod were fed the choicest morsels that Palestine could provide, Jesus washed dirty feet.
Today, while you're doing the best you can, hold near your heart that tomorrow Christ our Passover will be sacrificed for you and me and all of us, doing his best.
6:33:51 AM comment [ 0]
The Gospel for Tuesday, April 6, 2004
John 12:37-38, 42-50
Though they had been present when he gave so many signs, they did not believe in him; this was to fulfil the words of the prophet Isaiah: Lord, who has given credence to what they have heard from us, and who has seen in it a revelation of the Lord’s arm? ...And yet there were many who did believe in him, even among the leading men, but they did not admit it, because of the Pharisees and for fear of being banned from the synagogue: they put human glory before God’s glory. Jesus declared publicly: Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me, sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as light, to prevent anyone who believes in me from staying in the dark any more. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall judge such a person, since I have come not to judge the world, but to save the world: anyone who rejects me and refuses my words has his judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. For I have not spoken of my own accord; but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and what to speak, and I know that his commands mean eternal life. And therefore what the Father has told me is what I speak. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The Jerusalem Bible, which (to me) is as modern and comprehensive a translation as is available, entitles this small series of sentences "Conclusion: the unbelief of the Jews." The next section is emblazoned
C: JESUS’ HOUR COMES: THE PASSION AND THE RESURRECTION
I: JESUS’ LAST MEAL WITH HIS DISCIPLES
The washing of feet".
The gospel author John, as Jesus himself does, avoids the fire-and-brimstone approach. Yet here John has Jesus, just before his own inequitable judgment, pronounce what seems to be a with-me-or-against-me sentence on those who have heard his message.
A Reflection
I am going down a rabbit trail here. If you have very little patience, take two aspirin and come back tomorrow.
Everyone needs heroes. They are the mythos of what-I-might-have-been had I not been whatever-it-is-that-I-have-become.
Two of my heroes are Walter Brueggemann and William Barclay, each a bible scholar.
In my youth I was a military man, a Navy pilot. So why would Wheaties-box material pick biblical scholars as heroes? Because they dare to step up to the bar with the Holy Text in hand, and say "Here's what I think it means."
How many sane and normal women or men do you know with the moral courage to say about huge parts of the Bible,"Here's what it says, folks."?
In this case, Hero Barclay says about today's text
Jesus did not speak entirely to deaf ears; there were those even of the Jewish authorities, who in their heart of hearts believed. But they were afraid to confess their faith, because they did not wish to run the risk of being excommunicated from the synagogue. These people were seeking to carry out the impossible; they were trying to be secret disciples. Secret discipleship is a contradiction in terms for, “either the secrecy kills the discipleship, or the discipleship kills the secrecy.”
The Gospel of John : Volume 2. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. The Westminster Press: Philadelphia
Would anyone care to step to the bar to debate brother Barclary about discipelship?
9:59:02 AM 
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