Monthly Archives: March 2012

Surprises

Posted on by

Lent 5B, March 25, 2012

Jeremiah 31:31-34 I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
Hebrews 5:5-10 So also Christ did not glorify himself.
John 12:20-33 We wish to see Jesus.

O God of surprises, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

In my experience, Gospel lessons usually raise more questions than they answer. I do like that. I’m much more interested in questions than I am in answers. Still, the gap between questions and answers seems especially pronounced in today’s Gospel lesson. At our vestry meeting this past Tuesday as we were doing a Bible study on this Gospel reading, someone observed that this reads like a speech in which some of the speaker’s index cards have been inadvertently dropped! Continue reading →

For the Sake of Love

Posted on by

Lent 4B, March 18, 2012

Numbers 21:4-9 But the people became impatient on the way.
Ephesians 2:1-10 This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
John 3:14-21 Those who do what is true come to the light.

O God of grace, may we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth – come when it may and cost what it will.

Some of you are likely wondering why I just chanted our Gospel reading this morning. If you aren’t a regular at our Christmas Eve services, you might never have heard me do it. On Christmas Eve, I chant the Gospel because the prologue to the Gospel of John is a hymn text and singing it seems like a good thing to do. Besides, chanting on Christmas Eve enhances the sense of mysticism and wonder, and gently moves us out of our analytical and calculating heads which have been making all kinds of lists and checking them twice. I don’t know why it’s never occurred to me before to chant the Gospel at other times of the year. But earlier this week, when a group of us met for early morning Bible study, the weight of the baggage associated with this text threatened to squash some of us, I imagined that chanting it might lift that burden a little. Continue reading →

Falling

Posted on by

Lent 2B, March 4, 2012

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Then Abram fell on his face.
Romans 4:13-25 Hoping against hope.
Mark 8:31-38 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

O God of life, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

When Abram was 99 years old – in other words, when Abram was as good as dead, he had a vision of the Divine. The One-Whose-Name-is-too-holy-to-be-spoken appeared with a message for him. And Abram fell on his face. He fell on his face.

I’ve spent some time this week wondering about that. Was it intentional or unintentional? Was his belly-flop in the dirt an act of reverence or did he completely lose his balance when the Holy One appeared and spoke? The scene is a little funny to me – the voice of Almighty God commands “walk before me” and then offers, yet again, the promise of exceedingly numerous offspring, and Abram doesn’t walk anywhere. Abram immediately falls down. My curiosity about this face plant prompted me to look to see if Abram falls down every time he encounters the vision or the voice of the Holy. In fact, no. Abram has heard the voice of the Holy One numerous times before this point in the narrative of the Book of Genesis, with no mention of falling down. Continue reading →