Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 12 December 2015

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;

shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

O daughter Jerusalem!

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you,

he has turned away your enemies.

The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall fear disaster no more.

On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:

Do not fear, O Zion;

do not let your hands grow weak.

The LORD, your God, is in your midst,

a warrior who gives victory;

he will rejoice over you with gladness,

he will renew you in his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing

as on a day of festival.

I will remove disaster from you,

so that you will not bear reproach for it.

I will deal with all your oppressors

at that time.

And I will save the lame

and gather the outcast,

and I will change their shame into praise

and renown in all the earth.

At that time I will bring you home,

at the time when I gather you;

for I will make you renowned and praised

among all the peoples of the earth,

when I restore your fortunes

before your eyes, says the LORD.

Reflection        What will it take for us to believe and live into the promise of the prophets, “Do not fear?” Moses, Muhammad, Amos, Samuel, Deborah, Elijah, Huldah, John the son of Zechariah, Leo Tolstoy, St. Mary Magdalene, Brigid, Agnes, Martin Luther, Perpetua & Felicity, Martin Luther King, Jr, Dietrick Bonhoeffer, Gandhi, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Wilberforce, Lao Tzu, George Orwell, Desmond Tutu, Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry…. the list goes on and on. At the root of their messages is the admonition, “Do not be afraid.” Do not allow fear to subjugate you to wrong thinking and wrong acting. 

But peek into the window of any human’s life from 13 centuries before the common era to today, and what do we see? Natural disasters, disease, human oppression and exclusion. Not much has changed in the category of human suffering in the past 31 centuries. So why do we keep expecting things that we see in the world to change? Why do we expect some singular apocalyptic event to erase disasters, disease and every form of human suffering from the earth? 

What the prophets then and now promise is, “the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more… Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. The LORD, your God, is in your midst…” Whatever the trial or challenge we face, God is with us. That is what we hear in the First Song of Isaiah; “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid. For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, and he will be my Savior.” (Is 12. 2-3) And if for some reason we still can’t hear the voice of the prophets speaking into our heart, and we don’t remember Jesus’ promise to the disciples and us, “I am with you always to the end of the age, (Matt 28.20) we can turn to Pau’s letter to the Philippians,  “The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4.5-7)

What if we believed Gandhi’s words, “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate’ but, it is fear?” What if we understood that fear respects no borders, religions, ethnicities, political parties or states? Could we admit how vulnerable we feel in the face of the unspeakable tragedies and suffering in the world? Might we recognize that the people we call enemies are just like us, afraid? What if instead of debating who is to blame for our inevitable suffering we listened to each others fear? What if we admitted we are one in our vulnerability  and inability to escape suffering? What if we changed our minds and our hearts and instead of seeing one another as enemies we saw each other as the sensitive and defenseless creatures that we are? Might we extend our hands in compassion instead of raising our arms in fear?

Sports psychologist Dr. Rob Bell suggests simple, but not easy, steps to aid our journey to live without fear having “confidence and trust in yourself and your team…” and, I would add, faith that our team includes all people and God with us. Click on Dr. Bell’s link above to hear his story. 

If you found this post to be meaningful, please share by clicking on icons below. Thank you.

Epistle reading for Sunday 3 May 2015

I John 4.7-21        Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Reflection        Last Thursday a group of folks gathered  at Barnes & Noble and engaged this text from John’s letter. One person wondered, “What if I made this my one and only spiritual practice, to let God’s love flow through me to all people?” After a few remarks like, “Let us know how that works out for you,” we were quiet then someone changed the subject. The question echoed in me all afternoon. “What if I loved the person who parked too close to my car in the Barnes & Noble parking lot  and blessed her with another dent? What if I loved the person I overheard speaking unkind words in the market? What if I loved the person who falsely accused me? or the one who repeatedly misunderstands me?  or tries to undermine me? As I progressed through the litany of “what ifs” suddenly the light bulb came on. What if it isn’t all about me?

What if I actually let God’s love flow through me without censoring it according to my needs, preferences or prerogatives? What if I lived as did Jesus responding to false accusations without defense? to trickery with calm and wisdom? to betrayal and cruelty with understanding and forgiveness? Because, if I loved these people I would not fear them. I would not be afraid of threats or false accusations. I would not be suspicious, anxious or apprehensive about being hurt or having something taken away from me because, “There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear.”

There is a beautiful treatise titled, “On Loving God,” written in the early twelfth century by St. Bernard of Clairveaux. Bernard makes two relevant points. The reason for loving God is God’s own self and the measure of loving God is loving without measure. http://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN413/bernard_loving.html) This is the entirety of our spiritual life; allowing the love of God to flow unhindered through us in response to God’s gratuitous love of us. Perhaps it is time for us  to add a couple of words to our old “No Fear” tee shirts and mugs….“No Fear in Love,” so that we can get on with the business of being love perfected in the world.

If you found this post to be meaningful please share by clicking on the icons below. Thank you. 

Hebrew Testament text for 8 December 2013

Isaiah 11:1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might,

the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt or destroy

on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Reflection     Is Isaiah talking about utopia? He speaks of wolves and asps, the poor and meek. If it truly was utopia wouldn’t everyone have everything... and surely there would be no insects and no predators? I don’t believe for a minute that the tale of Jesse has anyting to do with Orwellian utopia. Oddly enough I do believe the tale of Jesse is about the absence of fear. 

I suspect those of you who are careful readers are leaping out of your seats protesting... “What about “the fear of the Lord? His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord?”

Let me be crystal clear, I am not talking about the ‘fear of the Lord,” which may be more aptly interpreted “the knowledge and awe of the Lord.” That kind of fear or awe is a direct and appropriate response to the experience of God’s wisdom, understanding, counsel and might. “Fear of the Lord” is the incomprehensible (hence indescribable) heart pounding, experience of the magnitude of God present.

The kind of fear that is absent in Isaiah’s text is the gut wrenching, breath taking, paralyzing angst and trepidation that stops us in our tracks, prods us to build cement walls around our countries, stockpile weapons inside razon wire fences, put gates on our neighborhoods and alarms on our hearts. The kind of fear that is absent in Isaiah’s tale of Jesse’s offspring is the kind of fear that steals our freedom and forgets who and whose we really are.

You see, when we remember that we are the children of God, the offspring of the Lord God who strikes awe in our hearts and wonder in our minds; when we remember that we are the revelation of God whose will and whose way is held back by no things; then we too can be as innocent as lambs lying with wolves, as curious as toddlers chasing havolina. When we remember that we are descendants of the lineage of Jesse and heirs to the kingdom of God (which, by the way is right here) there is no thing on earth to fear because we live and breath and find our being in the awe and wonder, the wisdom and understanding, the counsel and might and knowledge of Lord God.....present.

Remember the extreme sports marketing movement in the 1970s - bumper stickers, coffee mugs and tee shirts displayed the moniker, “No Fear?” The words called us out.. don’t be lazy, don’t be  paralyzed by the fear of death, don’t be locked into the status quo. I suspect the cranky prophet Isaiah would have worn one of those tee shirts, and Jesus too.

Thanks for sharing this post with your friends by clicking on the icons below. 

Gospel text for Sunday 5 may 2013

John 14. 23-31     Jesus said to Judas (not Iscariot), "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, `I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe."

Reflection     “...the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” Don’t you just love that promise? God’s Spirit will teach us everything.  Doesn’t it just make your heart sing? It sure does mine. It puts everything in a new and transformed perspective. It is almost like putting on corrective glasses for the first time and discovering those large brown sticks with green blobs on top are actually finely textured trees with millions of individual leaves.  I believe there is no better description of this new perspective than the one given by St. John in his Revelation.

John wrote, “In the spirit the angel carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. (Rev 21.10, 22) John’s new glasses, his new perspective is the spiritual perspective, which is to say, Wisdom, experienced and known from within.  

Spirit revealed Wisdom to John from the inside out. Wisdom is this. Our understanding of God has come down from heaven. God is not remote and inaccessible. Neither is God confined to the geography of the temple of the holy city Jerusalem. We are the city, the dwelling place of God. “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Rev 21.23) Wisdom is not gleaned by shining our flashlights around us in the dark. Yes, we can weigh and measure, describe and construct all manner of things tangible and conceptual, but that is not Wisdom. Wisdom comes from the inside out. Wisdom is a new state of being. Along with St. John we experience Wisdom as the glory of God inflaming our hearts and illumining our minds, annointing our words and compelling our will. We experience Wisdom from the inside out. This is how the Spirit teaches us. It transforms our state of being. Still, we have a part to play in this.

“...the Advocate, the Holy Spirit... will teach (us) everything...” when we assert an unequivocal “no” to fear. But how, how in the midst of this unstable, iniquitous, brutal and fragil world are we not to be afraid? Remember Jesus’ words? In his final discourse with his disciples Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”(In other words, I do not give you things you cannot depend on such as facts that may be disproven or situations that constantly change and erupt.) “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. “ Jesus leaves his peace with us, peace intended to replace our fear of the dark and murky places, our fear of what we do not know and cannot control.  When we say  “yes” to Jesus’ peace Wisdom swells from the inside out and transforms the state of our being illumining our minds and compelling our will. 

Gospel Text for Sunday, August 8th

Luke 12:32-40

Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

"But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

Questions for engaging the text:

- What do I observe" What am I seeing" Does this passage raise questions for me?

- Is anything attracting me, drawing my attention, or repulsing me?

-What response is emerging within me? What is my response to what is attracting me?***

-In what ways might I specifically act on my insights in the world

I really want to hear from you. Thank you for clicking on "Comments" below and adding your responses.

Grace and Peace, Debra

*** 1st three questions taken from The Art of Engaging Holy Scripture curriculum (see resources)