The Transfiguration of the Lord

 

Today is the observance of The Transfiguration of Jesus.  That is true for United Methodists and some other Methodist groups; it is also the day on which the several Lutheran groups in the United States mark the event.  American Presbyterians have also included the celebration in their liturgical calendars since their acceptance of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU)  lectionary (now the “New Revised Common Lectionary”) which COCU first published in 1974. In the liturgical calendar of these groups the feast occurs on the last Sunday after The Epiphany.  To put it another way, the Transfiguration takes place on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

Most of the rest of the Christian Church observes The Transfiguration on August 6.  Through the ages the church looked upon this event as a minor feast, when it raised it up at all.

Much of the Eastern Church counts The Transfiguration as a Trinitarian Feast, as it recognizes all three persons of the Holy Trinity as taking part (the Son experiences transfiguration; the Father speaks; and the Holy Spirit is present in the form of the cloud).

The Anglican and Episcopal Churches have had a sort of love/hate relationship with the feast.  At times in the churches’ history these communions omitted the recognition altogether.  Recent Books of Common Prayer include the day and locate it on August 6.

The August 6 date that many worldwide denominations select for this recognition usually marks a relationship to an important occurrence in the secular calendar.  For instance, it was on August 6, 1456 that news that the Kingdom of Hungary had repulsed an Ottoman invasion of the Balkans by breaking the Siege of Belgrade. In thanksgiving the Pope declared that the minor observance of The Transfiguration on that date become a major feast.

In placing the feast at the end of the Season After The Epiphany, churches that observe this date bookend Ordinary Time with two theophanies: The Baptism of the Lord and The Transfiguration.  Placing these two events in these spots provides emphasis to the revelatory nature of this season.

I wouldn't want to paint this day as a mere historical curiosity.  The devotional value of this day is unlimited.  It is one of the few instances in the New Testament where the voice of God is recorded.  The presence of the figures of Moses (Giver of the Law) and Elijah (arguably the most well-known of the prophets) symbolically validate the work of Jesus.  The cloud is representative of the presence of God (as seen in the Exodus story and other places).  The seeing but not appreciating response of the disciples carries out one of the themes of this liturgical season.  

This day effectively brings us to the close of the Season After The Epiphany, though strictly speaking tomorrow and Tuesday belong to this portion of the cycle.  I believe that concluding Ordinary Time with this feast helps the time go out with a bang.  It is a kind of exclamation point in a wondrous season.

The peace of the Lord be with you.

Not-so-ordinary time

 

We are in the last full week of Ordinary Time.  In a lot of ways the church already has its head and heart in Lent (more about that soon).  These days are often regarded merely as an “in-between” time.  We are getting over the high intensity seasons of Advent and Christmas. We look ahead to Ash Wednesday and Lent.  So, we often treat Ordinary Time as a respite in which nothing happens.

 

I want to take exception to that view.  This time is bracketed by the two great theophanies of The Baptism of the Lord and The Transfiguration.  In each of these events God speaks from heaven and affirms that Jesus is God’s son.  In the intervening weeks, the church considers scripture lessons that demonstrate that the disciples of Jesus — and the population in general — have a lot of questions about who Jesus is and what his role might be.  

 

The great themes of this season are the presence of light and the mission of the church.  As the light of the Star of Bethlehem led the Magi to the presence of the one born king of the Jews, so this time emphasizes the church’s task of sharing the light of Christ’s mercy with a creation that is desperately in need of grace.

 

I frequently speak of such times as being kettles that sit on their own bottoms.  The significance of these days is not dependent on what has gone before, or upon what follows.   Ordinary time has its own revelation to those attuned to the light.

 

The peace of the Lord be with you.

Candlemas

Today is the Feast of Candlemas.  It is a fixed feast that the church observes on the second of February.  Other designations for the day include The Presentation of the Lord, The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and The Purification of the Virgin Mary.  It marks the event that the Mosaic Law prescribes forty days after the birth of a male child.  Luke 2:23–52 tells the story that describes both this and the participation of Mary and Joseph in the tradition of the redemption of the first-born.

Candlemas refers to the practice of the church in which it blessed the beeswax candles that it would use over the next twelve months.  Sometimes there were extra candles and parishioners would take these blessed candles home for their household use.  Other parishes encouraged people to bring their own candles to the blessing ceremony and then return home with the newly-consecrated candles.

 The Lukan passage contains the beautiful poem that the church calls the Nunc Dimittis.  The common English title is The Canticle of Simeon. It reads:

Lord, you now have set your servant free
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior,
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations,
and the glory of your people Israel.
--The Book of Common Prayer

John Wesley had a fondness for the day.  He mentions the feast and his own worship practices for the observance in several places in his Journals and Diaries.

Candlemas is the official end of all Christmas and Epiphany observations across the church.  Some communions have active celebrations up to this day.  Others pack away any last bits of seasonal appointment before sundown.

 If the calendar aligns in a certain fashion, the Candlemas celebration almost immediately precedes the commencement of Lent.  If certain factors fall into place, Ash Wednesday can occur as early as February 4.  So, in that peculiar alignment Candlemas, Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday would fall on consecutive days.  Usually, though, there is a bit more space between The Presentation and Ash Wednesday.  (This year, for instance, Ash Wednesday does not come around until February 14.)

Beyond the blessing of candles, I am not aware of any widespread activity that celebrates this day.  But, maybe we can all light a candle and remember the victory of light over darkness.  We remember Jesus’ Presentation on this day.  We can also reflect on the “why” of His coming.

Happy Candlemas!

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle

 

On January 25 the church commemorates the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle.  Most Christians are familiar with the bare bones of his story.  He was a Pharisaic Jew, well-educated, a Roman citizen and a zealous defender of his Jewish faith.  Acts 7 tells of how those who were stoning Stephen, the first Christian martyr, placed their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul

Saul procured permission from the Jewish hierarchy to arrest Christians and bring them to Jerusalem for trial.  While pursuing this mission on a trip to Damascus he had an encounter with the risen Christ and became one of the great champions of the Christian faith.  Saul of Tarsus became known as the Christian Apostle Paul after that.  Over the next twenty-plus years he engaged in missionary journeys, established local churches and wrote letters that would become Christian scripture.  He wrote more individual books of the New Testament than any other author.  He was martyred in Rome in about 56 A.D.

So on this day the church remembers how a great opponent of the church became one of its great apologists.  It gives thanks for the several congregations that he founded and nurtured.  It also recognizes the enormous literary contribution he made to the New Testament.  

Paul is an example of how even the staunchest adversary of the faith can become an exemplary believer under the grace of God.  

The peace of the Lord be with you.

The Confession of St. Peter

The Christian calendar observes the Confession of St. Peter on January 18.  Matthew, Mark and Luke each report (with varying degrees of detail) the time in which Jesus asks his disciples what the crowds are saying about him.  He then asks the disciples themselves about their opinion.  At that point Peter makes his Confession – his affirmation – of the Messiahship of Jesus.  The synoptics variously report Peter’s words as:

Matthew 16:13-20 -- “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Mark 8:27–30 -- “You are the Messiah.”
Luke 9:18–20 -- “The Messiah of God.”

It is Matthew alone who reports Jesus’ response, both in terms of revelation and in passing Kingdom responsibility along to Peter.  But for all of the synoptic writers this is clearly a watershed moment not only for Peter, but for the church as well.

In modern times The Confession of Peter has been related to The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  The Faith and Order Movement of the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Friars of the Atonement have each advocated a time of uniting prayer since the early 20th century.  The week has moved around the calendar a bit, but the church now designates the week as taking place January 18 – 25.

 Peter’s profession is that of all Christians.  No matter what their views on other ideas and doctrines great and small, it is the affirmation, “(Jesus is) the Christ,” that gathers Christian believers together.

Ordinary Time

Today is the first day following the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  As such (by most reckonings) it was the first day of Ordinary Time.  This is the liturgical season that begins immediately following the Baptism feast and it runs through Shrove Tuesday, or the day before Ash Wednesday (March 6 in 2019).

The church calls this time after The Epiphany Ordinary Time.  (I addressed those unusual days between Epiphany and The Baptism in a post dated January 11.)  This period gets its name from the way that we number the days during this time.  We do not designate this stretch ordinary because we label this time as somehow common or dull.  Rather, the church employs this designation because of the nature of the numbering of these days.  Instead of using cardinal numbers (one, two, three) it utilizes ordinal numbers (first, second, third).  So, we call this coming Sunday, February 20, The Second Sunday After The Epiphany.

Because Ash Wednesday is a moveable feast (an observance that does not occur on the same date each year), ordinary time will be of varying duration from year to year.  Ash Wednesday can fall anywhere between February 4 and March 10, though the two extremes of the range are very rare.  The last time Ash Wednesday was on February 4 was 1818 and will next occur in 2285.  The most recent time Ash Wednesday fell on March 10 was in 1943 and will next occur in 2038.  So, the duration of ordinary time is between four and nine weeks.  In the modern liturgical usage, the first Sunday in Ordinary Time is The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the last Sunday is The Feast of the Transfiguration.  Obviously, there are two more days in the season before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

Ordinary time carries with it emphases on mission (begun with the narrative of the Wise Men visiting the infant Jesus) and spiritual growth.  The liturgical colors of the season are white (for the feast days) and green (signifying new, eternal and abundant life) for the rest of the season.  The New Revised Common Lectionary (NRCL) offers gospel texts that reveal the nature of Jesus Christ (in keeping with the Epiphany theme).  The epistle readings address the topics of spiritual gifts and the character of the church (in an examination of spiritual growth).

We can be deceived by looking over our shoulders at Christmas and ahead to Easter so that we think that ordinary time is a “down time,” a respite between major occurrences where nothing of significance takes place.  But it can be an extraordinary time, where the church addresses some of its most formative ideas.

What a great time.

The Feast of The Baptism of the Lord

You would think that this Feast Day would be straightforward.  Jesus goes to the Jordan.  John baptizes him (with or without a lot of dialog, depending on which gospel account you are reading), the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends in (some sort of) bodily form and a voice speaks.  It is the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry.  Celebrate!  Give thanks!  End of story.

And yet, almost from the very beginning there were teachers who were proclaiming Christian baptism in the exact same terms as the baptism offered by John.  Their call was to John’s baptism, not that of Jesus and the church.  There are people within the larger church who do this same thing today.  They use John language to talk about what they call Christian baptism.

But what was John’s proclamation?  “Repent!  Renounce your sins!  Make way for the coming of the Lord.  Prepare yourselves for the Messiah, the Christ, the one who will save you from your sins.”  Let’s be clear: “get ready” is not the same thing as “Have faith.”  There are those who claim that their belief system can trace its lineage all the way back to John the Baptist.  They say that with pride.  I don’t get it.  What has John done for them lately?  John’s baptism?  You can have it I say.  John didn’t save You.  You are not John’s disciple.  Nowhere in scripture do you hear a call to proclaim, “John the Baptist is Lord!”  Why then would you want to embrace John’s baptism?

It is true that the larger church has muddled the significance of this Sacrament through the years.  To this day there is no uniformity of opinion as to what the Rite means.  Some communions see baptism as a literal washing away of the stain of sin.  Others see it as an act of professing faith in making ready to join the church universal or a particular congregation.  This is what is meant by “believer’s baptism.”  Some congregations won't even recognize  the baptism performed by other congregations within their fellowship.  The idea is, "If we haven't baptized you, then no one has baptized you!" 

The United Methodist Church (and others) define baptism as an initiation into the Body of Christ and a claiming of the individual into the family of God.  Again, like many other groups the United Methodist Church practices the baptism of infants, with parents or sponsors taking the vows on behalf of the candidate until such time as the individual can affirm those promises for themselves.

I have a book in my library with the provocative title Baptism: The Water that Divides by Donald Bridge.  The work itself is a bit murky, but what a great title!  That which designs to unite believers is in fact one of the great points of contention within the church.  For something that Christ commanded, and that the church has normatively required from its beginnings, there is no consensus among the major faith groups as to what this means at all.

I won’t enter the discussion about the amount of water that constitutes baptism.  I leave that issue grieving that people will split families and even congregations over what amounts to a measuring cup.

So, owning that this action of the church has no foreseeable resolution, I simply commend the day as an extraordinary one in the life and ministry of The Lord Jesus. It is worthy of our notice and our commemoration.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. –Ephesians 4:4-6

Lord, haste the day…

Further thoughts on Naaman the Syrian

I have been thinking a little more about this week’s Old Testament reading from the Revised Common Lectionary.  The lection is 2 Kings 5:1-14, which is the story of the healing of Naaman the Syrian.  There are some important characters in this tale about whom we know very little, not even their names.  But without them we have no story. 

We encounter the first in verses 2-3.  That section reads:

Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’

The story doesn’t spend time on details that we might find upsetting.  The narrative unfolds in the telling of the capture and enslavement of a young Israelite girl by some of the bad guys.  I kind of want there to be fire from heaven or for the oppressors to drop dead.  But that is not the way the story goes. This girl’s capture and enslavement is the vehicle by which Naaman, the Syrian general, comes to be aware of the authority of the prophet Elisha.

When Naaman arrives at the home of Elisha, he makes his healing request.  Then, verse 10 reports:

Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’

Elisha sends a go-between with his reply.  If we examine these verses, we see that the general and the prophet never do meet face-to-face.  It is a servant who brings the words of power.

Farther along in the tale, Naaman reflects on the directions given by Elisha.  The prophet’s instructions are that the supplicant should go to the Jordan river and wash himself seven times.  Naaman is angry and complains both that the prophet did not engage him personally and that Elisha directs the general to wash in the local waters rather than in what Naaman considers to be the superior waters of his own country.  The narrative picks up in verses 12b-13:

He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’

Naaman washes in the Jordan and his leprosy leaves him. 

If we ask, “Who are the significant characters in this story?” the quick answer is, “Elijah and Naaman.”  But truth be known, it is these unnamed servants that make the story go.  Without the slave girl, Naaman may never become aware of the power of Elisha.  Without the messenger with the healing words, there is no contrast between the fantastic and the simple.  If the servants of Naaman don’t question him in his rage, perhaps the general goes back to his own land unhealed.  He may, as a slaveholder, take his anger out on the Israelite slave.  He may, as a general, wage war on Israel.  He may, as a leper, die a horrible death.

Naaman has all of these anonymous servants/slaves to thank in part for his healing.  And I am grateful to them for giving us a marvelous story.

The simple story of Naaman the Syrian

The Revised common Lectionary suggests this Sunday’s Old Testament reading to be 2 Kings 5:1-14.  It is the story of Naaman the Syrian.  It is a story that I greatly enjoy for a number of reasons.  In a nutshell, Naaman suffered from leprosy.  He goes to Elisha and sends the prophet word that he has come seeking healing of his malady.  Elisha sends the general instructions to go to the Jordan River and wash himself seven times.  Naaman gets angry, first that the prophet did not come and speak to the general himself; and secondly that Elisha’s instructions are so mundane as to go and take a bath.  He complains that the rivers of his home country should be at least as efficacious as these foreign waters.  He is about to leave “in a rage,” when his servants put it to him that if the prophet had demanded a mighty deed that Naaman would have done it in a heartbeat.  Why not, then, do this thing that Elisha directs?  The general capitulates, and his leprosy disappears.

I could go on and on about this story – trust me, you don’t want that.  One appealing aspect, though, is the initial refusal of the pilgrim general to carry out his healing prescription.  It is not complicated enough or difficult enough or miracle enough for him initially.  When cooler heads prevail, he undertakes the simple act and he receives that for which he asked.

I know a man who “just wasn’t feeling like himself,” and so he went to his doctor.  After a thorough examination, the physician took out a prescription pad, scribbled something on it, ripped the page out of his book and gave it to the patient.  When the seeker looked at the note, it said “Walk.”  The man objected a bit.  He said, “But, aren’t you going to give me any pills or tonic?  For the kind of money you charge, I at least want some Latin!”

While we sometimes try to make things more complicated than circumstances warrant, the simple – not simplistic – approach is frequently the most effective.

A thought on today's gospel lesson

Fred Craddock in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke¹ in the Interpretation Bible Commentary series makes an observation on this week’s gospel lesson that the Revised Common Lectionary suggests.  The reading is Luke 9:51-62.  That text reads, in part:

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

James and John reflect the response of Elijah to those who opposed him.  Twice the prophet called down fire from heaven (2 Kings 1:9-12).  Jesus “rebuked” them, but they had already done the moral damage.

Craddock says, in relation to the response of James and John: “Is it not interesting how the mind can grasp and hold those Scriptures which seem to bless our worst behavior and yet cannot retain past the sanctuary door those texts which summon to love, forgiveness, and mercy?  Jesus rebukes James and John for an attitude of revenge and retribution, an attitude totally foreign to his ministry and theirs.”

I like that line.  I think it’s a tremendous insight.  And… I am sad to say that I see more than the occasional example of exactly what Craddock is talking about.  Not only do folks cherry-pick as they move through the Bible, but their selectivity in terms of what they sanction or how they act or what they believe a particular text empowers them to hate is extraordinary.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

¹Interpretation A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching,

Louisville: John Knox Press, c. 1990

The Color for the Day

I capitulate.

That leaves the taste of old vinegar in my mouth.

But I give in.  Not give up, but give in.

The paraments, my stole and other appointments in our sanctuary today are green.  It is the color of life.  It symbolizes continuity.  It is the color prescribed by United Methodism (and most of the Christian Church) for ordinary time.  And so, green it is.

You have to understand, that through my childhood and even into the early days of my ministry, The Methodist Church and later The United Methodist Church observed a season of Pentecost that began on Pentecost Sunday and continued through the summer, terminating the last Sunday in August.  Then began the season of Kingdomtide, which carried on to the Sunday prior to the beginning of Advent.  In terms of color, red was the color prescribed for the Season of Pentecost, followed by Green for Kingdomtide.

With the advent of the work of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) and the liturgical reform movement within United Methodism (which resulted in the issuance of a new Book of Worship in 1992), The UMC discarded the former color scheme and moved to one color – green – for “The Season After Pentecost (United Methodist Kingdomtide)”  With certain exceptions (All Saints’, Reformation Sunday and a couple of others) green is the color of the day.

While the church does not impose these color usages on local congregations (I have been a part of local churches that only had one set of paraments, and therefore only had one color option), this is the accepted denominational “way of doing things.”  I capitulate.  I can no longer in good conscience stand up firmly for the church rubrics with which I am comfortable, or with which I agree, while discarding policy I don’t like.  So green it is.

Green is the color of denominational choice throughout Ordinary Time (so labeled because we count the Sundays with Ordinals rather than with Cardinal Numbers).  So as a sign of my ordination and in symbol of my solidarity with the liturgical practices of my church (with which I do agree on just about every other count), I go green.

Ordinary green.  And that is not a comment on the numbering system.

The peace of the Lord be with you.

THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD

Today is the observance of The Transfiguration of Jesus.  That is true for United Methodists and some other Methodist groups; it is also the day on which the several Lutheran groups in the United States mark the event.  American Presbyterians have also included the celebration in their liturgical calendars since their acceptance of the Consultation on Church Union lectionary (now the “New Revised Common Lectionary”) which COCU first published in 1974. In the liturgical calendar of these groups the feast occurs on the last Sunday after The Epiphany.  To put it another way, the Transfiguration takes place on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

Most of the rest of the Christian Church observes The Transfiguration on August 6.  Through the ages the church looked upon this event as a minor feast, when it raised it up at all.

Much of the Eastern Church counts The Transfiguration as a Trinitarian Feast, as it recognizes all three persons of the Holy Trinity as taking part (the Son experiences transfiguration; the Father speaks; and the Holy Spirit is present in the form of the cloud).

The Anglican and Episcopal Churches have had a sort of love/hate relationship with the feast.  At times in the churches’ history these communions omitted the recognition altogether.  Recent Books of Common Prayer include the day and locate it on August 6.

The August 6 date that many worldwide denominations select for this recognition usually marks a relationship to an important occurrence in the secular calendar.  For instance, it was on August 6,1456 that news that the Kingdom of Hungary had repulsed an Ottoman invasion of the Balkans by breaking the Siege of Belgrade. In thanksgiving the Pope declared that the minor observance of The Transfiguration on that date become a major feast.

In placing the feast at the end of the Season After The Epiphany, churches that observe this date bookend Ordinary Time with two theophanies: The Baptism of the Lord and The Transfiguration.  Placing these two events in these spots provides emphasis to the revelatory nature of this season.

A Common Thread

This Sunday (the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany) the Revised New Common Lectionary (NRCL) has one of those Sundays when there is a common thread though the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel readings.  There are those who maintain that this is the case every week.  This is in contrast to the design of the NRCL except on certain Feast Days.  Each reading is a text that stands on its own bottom (except for the Psalter Reading, which is usually a commentary on the OT lesson).  An artificial thematization of all the readings does a great disservice to the individual lections and to the day’s pattern as a whole.

Even so, once in a while it occurs anyway.  This week the OT reading is from Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13) and includes verse 5:

And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" 

The Epistle is 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.  In the course of this reading we find verse 9:

For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

Finally, the Gospel Lesson is Luke 5:1-11.  In verse 8 we read:

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"

The theme of unworthiness appears clearly in all of these texts.  One could argue that human unworthiness is a doctrine that underlies every verse of scripture.  Unworthiness means something slightly different in each of these passages.  But, when we take them collectively, they certainly capture our attention.  A believer doesn’t have to kick themselves in the head repeatedly in order to appreciate the idea.  However, in a time of pride and arrogance a little humility would not be misplaced. 

An enduring text in my own journey is the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18:9-14).  The declaration of the Publican, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!) carries a lot of spiritual freight.

I don’t believe that we like to think about our relative worthiness much.  Maybe we need to get over that.

Another hill far away...

Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth
by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

This past Sunday’s gospel lesson from The New Revised Common Lectionary (NRCL) is from Luke 4:21-30.  Verse 29 reads, They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

That line has always been a peculiar one as I considered it.  Intellectually it is not puzzling at all.  Jesus’ words in the preceding verses border on blasphemy.  Although as the text progresses it is not Jesus' proclamation that he fulfills the words of Isaiah the Prophet that anger the crowd at the Nazareth synagogue.  When he speaks these words, folks seem to be impressed.  It is when Jesus as much as says that he will heal no illness or exorcise no demon in his home town that people get riled up.

It is as if they say, “We don’t mind a little borderline blasphemy, but we won’t be ignored or discounted.”  The reaction is human enough.  It is fraught with resentment and rage.  The mob mentality takes over and the people chivvy Jesus to the edge of town and to “the brow of the hill.”  Their intent is to toss him over the side.  However, with little fanfare apparently, Jesus halts their murderous progress and goes back the way he came.

In studying the passage, I came across this painting by Tissot.  I was somehow taken by it.  It is not particularly detailed.  In fact, it is difficult to single out Jesus in the picture at all.  But it has a kind of scope that draws me into it.  It depicts the commotion and chaos that must have been present in the moment.  There are other depictions of the story that seem to have Jesus in charge the entire time.  He stands heroically facing his fellow Nazarenes and appears to be facing them down.  Tissot puts Jesus in a bit of a defensive posture and places Jesus within the panoramic frame of all Nazareth.  It is as if, for a moment, we are not sure who is going to win here.

I still have a lot of questions about this passage.  But I find the picture has helped me focus a bit, and perhaps helps me to ask some of the correct questions.  

_____________

Tissot, James Jacques Joseph, 1836-1902. Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55366 [retrieved February 6, 2019]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Brow_of_the_Hill_near_Nazareth_(L%27escarpement_de_Nazareth)_-_James_Tissot.jpg.

Cornelius the Centurion

Today is the Feast of Cornelius the Centurion.  In point of fact, it is a feast of Cornelius.  The Roman calendar recognizes him on February 2 (already a busy day of observances) and the Orthodox Churches place this feast on September 13.  The Anglican calendar chooses today.  It’s not a bad day to celebrate his life.

Acts 10 tells his story. According to verses 2 and 3, Cornelius was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.  He resided in Caesarea.  In a vision he received a command to send servants to Joppa to fetch Peter.  While this was going on Peter had a vision while a guest in Joppa.  In this vision, Paul had a three-time revelation about being commanded to eat what he understood to be ritually unclean food.  Each time he protested there was a voice that instructed him that What God has made clean, you must not call profane.  (verse 14)

When he woke Peter received the delegation from Cornelius at God’s command.  The next day he accompanied the servants to Caesarea.  Cornelius explained his own vision and in verse 34 made the now-famous statement I truly understand that God shows no partiality.  He preached to a small crowd and the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Peter baptized them and remained with them several days.

So, Cornelius and his household were among the first Gentile converts (the narrative concerning the Ethiopian Eunuch is in chapter 8).  The events in Caesarea caused a great controversy, as you can imagine.  But in the end, the Gentile believers were accepted by the early church and the door opened for a larger Gentile mission.

Eunuch or Centurion, someone has to be first.  The universal grace of God is sometimes revealed in stages.  The recognition of Cornelius’ profession changed the complexion of the church for ever. 

Thanks be to God.

Jesus’ Mission Statement

On the third Sunday after the Epiphany, the New Revised Common Lectionary (NRCL) offers as the gospel reading for the day Luke 4:14-21.  This is a narrative in which Jesus returns to his hometown and attends the synagogue service on the sabbath day.  While there, he receives the scroll that contains the writings of Isaiah.  He turns to what we know as chapter 61 and reads:

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

   because the Lord has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

   to bind up the broken-hearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

   and release to the prisoners;

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.   --NRSV

He then rolls the scroll up, returns it to the caretaker and sits down.  He then declares, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

The reading ends here, and in some ways that is too bad.  Next week the lectionary continues with the responses to Jesus’ proclamation, including the attempt by some to toss him over the cliff on which the town rests.

There is a lot of stuff here: Jesus' return to Nazareth and the dynamic that is present in a unique fashion between him and these particular villagers; the observation  that Jesus chooses to make such an extraordinary announcement in the synagogue (as opposed to open air or even in the Jerusalem Temple); or that he makes his announcement by first taking a text and then assuming the posture of teaching in proclaiming this news.  All of these are meditation-worthy, and I may come back to some of them in the coming days.

But what strikes me the most is not so much what Jesus says, as what he chooes not to say.  Because he cuts off the reading from the prophet in mid-sentence.  The concluding words to this section of Trito-Isaiah are: and the day of vengeance of our God.  The Messianic prophesy includes – in addition to words of good news and healing and liberation – words of vengeance.  In Advent we frequently make the point that the Israelites anticipated a great political leader, or a mighty king or a military commander who would deliver them from the burden of their oppressors.  And, part of the role of any one of these figures was that of an avenging presence.  The Messiah would be an instrument of wrath who would rain down punishment on those who had abused the people of God.  Everyone in the synagogue at Nazareth would have known that passage in full.  Part of the shock and anger that the people eventually direct toward Jesus must be, at least in part, because in proclaiming Messiahship he left out the vengeance.  Some people must have asked, “Well, if he’s not going to take names and kick can, what’s a Messiah for?”

Jesus doesn’t merely announce his Messiahship in this passage, he defines it.  His steadfast refusal to be an agent of violence and retribution should help everyone understand his nature.  If we read Isaiah a little more carefully, we find Jesus’ understanding of his mission even more compelling.

The Wedding at Cana of Galilee

The Gospel reading in the New Revised Common Lectionary (NRCL) is John 2:1-11.  In some of our Bibles there are little section titles that describe what is in the following pericope.  Many Bibles label this tale The Wedding at Cana.  But, at least as many choose the heading The Water into Wine.  That’s fine.  There is nothing inappropriate there.  And it is the nature of the sign (John’s preferred designation over miracle).  So, I don’t quibble, I merely find it an interesting observation.

I always double-clutch when I read this narrative, or when I see it referenced.  The reason is that I have been in _way_ too many discussions about this story in which folks try to dispute the nature of the product Jesus produced.  Put simply, they deny that Jesus turned water into real wine.

It is a matter of their teetotalling leanings and a denial that Jesus could, in all righteousness, miraculously produce a beverage that contained alcohol.  In this conviction, they perform all manner of linguistic and logical gymnastics in order to “prove” that Jesus transformed the water into something like fruit juice.  Part of their argument has to do with the quality of the beverage that Jesus offered.  The steward says to the groom, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now. – John 2:10 NRSV  Their contention is that anything containing alcohol must really be undesirable in its taste, so that Jesus, in transforming the water into something else, must have given the wedding guests clear, sparkling, unadulterated juice that obviously (in their estimation) would have had a far more pleasing taste.  Their rationale goes on and on.  In the face of every bit of historical and linguistic indication they steadfastly hold to the position that Jesus would not have given the people at Cana wine.

I do from time to time encounter folks who establish their opinion and then not only cherry-pick from scripture in order to back up their position, but they will warp or misrepresent the Bible in a hardline attempt to support their stand. 

“What does the Bible say?” is my first line of inquiry in approaching life issues.  “What do I think the Bible says?” is much more shaky ground.  And when people seem to twist the witness of scripture in order to confirm a bias, they do a real violence to their argument and to any further appeal to scriptural authority they might employ.

I understand abstinence and teetotalling, I really do.  But wine is wine.  And Jesus did a really good job.

The Confession of St. Peter

In the Christian calendar, the church observes the Confession of St. Peter on January 18.  Matthew, Mark and Luke each report (with varying degrees of detail) the time in which Jesus asks his disciples what the crowds are saying about him.  He then asks the disciples themselves about their opinion.  At that point Peter makes his Confession – his affirmation – of the Messiahship of Jesus.  The synoptics variously report Peter’s words as:

Matthew 16:13-20 -- “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Mark 8:27–30 --  “You are the Messiah.”

Luke 9:18–20 --  “The Messiah of God.”

It is Matthew alone who reports Jesus’ response, both in terms of revelation and in passing Kingdom responsibility along to Peter.  But for all of the synoptic writers this is clearly a watershed moment not only for Peter, but for the church as well.

In modern times The Confession of Peter has been related to The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  The Faith and Order Movement of the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Friars of the Atonement have each advocated a time of uniting prayer since the early 20^th century.  The week has moved around the calendar a bit, but it the church now designates the week as taking place January 18 – 25.

Peter’s profession is that of all Christians.  No matter what their views on other ideas and doctrines great and small, it is the affirmation, “(Jesus is) the Christ,” that gathers Christian believers together.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Did you know that January 18-25 (from Friday through Friday [?]) is The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity?  Neither did I.  If you don’t have a resource like the United Methodist Program Calendar, you may not have had any way of knowing.  I haven’t received anything from the denomination, the conference or my district promoting it in any way.  I can remember in the past receiving all manner of items related to this time.  There would be bulletin inserts and wall posters.  I would get suggested orders of worship and children’s activity books in the mail.  Clergy meetings would have time set aside to interpret this week to pastors.  It was as regular as clockwork.

Then, in THIS year, we don’t hear anything?  When fightings without and fears within threaten to rend The United Methodist Church asunder we don’t hear a whisper regarding prayer and unity?  What are the Powers That Be thinking?

It is true that the Week of Prayer has its origins in ecumenical concerns.  I don’t mean to diminish the importance or the urgency of these issues at all.  But, how do we not take advantage of a built-in apparatus for unifying prayer to encourage United Methodists to bring our concerns regarding agreement before the Throne of Grace in an organized – dare I say methodical – fashion?

So, pray for Christian Unity.  And United Methodist unity. 

You can see all that the UMC has to offer on the subject this year here.

The World Council of Churches has some info here.

The United Methodist Church Official Site links to a Roman Catholic resource for the week under the title “Ecumenical Sunday” (January 20) here.

Ordinary Time

Monday was the first day following the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  As such (by most reckonings) it was the first day of Ordinary Time.  This is the liturgical season that begins immediately following the Baptism feast and it runs through Shrove Tuesday, or the day before Ash Wednesday (March 6 in 2019). 

The church calls this time after The Epiphany Ordinary Time.  (I addressed those unusual days between Epiphany and The Baptism in a post dated January 11.)  This period gets its name from the way that we number the days during this time.  We do not designate this stretch ordinary because we label this time as somehow common or dull.  Rather, the church employs this designation because of the nature of the numbering of these days.  Instead of using cardinal numbers (one, two, three) it utilizes ordinal numbers (first, second, third).  So, we call this coming Sunday, February 20, The Second Sunday After The Epiphany.

Because Ash Wednesday is a moveable feast (an observance that does not occur on the same date each year), ordinary time will be of varying duration from year to year.  Ash Wednesday can fall anywhere between February 4 and March 10, though the two extremes of the range are very rare.  The last time Ash Wednesday was on February 4 was 1818 and will next occur in 2285.  The most recent time Ash Wednesday fell on March 10 was in 1943 and will next occur in 2038.  So, the duration of ordinary time is between four and nine weeks.  In the modern liturgical usage, the first Sunday in Ordinary Time is The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the last Sunday is The Feast of the Transfiguration.  Obviously, there are two more days in the season before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

Ordinary time carries with it emphases on mission (begun with the narrative of the Wise Men visiting the infant Jesus) and spiritual growth.  The liturgical colors of the season are white (for the feast days) and green (signifying new, eternal and abundant life) for the rest of the season.  The New Revised Common Lectionary (NRCL) offers gospel texts that reveal the nature of Jesus Christ (in keeping with the Epiphany theme).  The epistle readings address the topics of spiritual gifts and the character of the church (in an examination of spiritual growth).

We can be deceived by looking over our shoulders at Christmas and ahead to Easter so that we think that ordinary time is a “down time,” a respite between major occurrences where nothing of significance takes place.  But it can be an extraordinary time, where the church addresses some of its most formative ideas. 

What a great time.