Five Minute Friday :: Hurry

Mid-June 2015 along Interstate Highway 8 in San Diego, California


• Five Minute Friday :: Hurry Linkup

Intro

FMF host Kate has been participating in a study of the gospel according to John at her church. When she mentioned they're using a book by Melissa Spoelstra, I lit up because I remembered Melissa's excellent study on Joseph and forgiveness I read and reviewed.

Although Kate observed that Jesus never seemed to hurry through his (three year long, according to John) public ministry, that really depends on which gospel account you're considering. John's Jesus feels focused, calm, and deliberate, because *even* more than synoptics Mark, Luke, and Matthew, John brings us realized eschatology of the right here, right now of the reign of heaven on earth. Celebrating at a wedding party is Jesus' first act of public ministry in John, so we've got the astonishing goods that happen "on the third day" at this very moment, in this very place, and it only will get better.

John is the latest gospel, and in many ways it's an outlier from the other three that made the canonical cut.

However, when we read Mark, the earliest and shortest gospel, all the action is urgent and the Savior moves nonstop. In Mark the transitional word "immediately, straightway/straightaway" occurs at least forty times. Just sayin'…


Hurry

As I write to Hurry alongside Kate's roadway traffic image, the vehicular freeway congestion and pollution that has emerged as an icon of American haste and ambition won't escape me. The worst part is that so few of us differentiate between ideas, activities, and outcomes that need to be treated as urgent, that must be attended to post-haste, and those that can take their time, those many that fare much better if they have time to wait, sprout, then finally blossom and bloom.

The day I took these photos along "The 8," or Interstate Highway 8 in Mission Valley, San Diego, I was on my way to a noontime meeting and intentionally captured the road without cars. That probably would have been impossible in Los Angeles, but San Diego is slower paced, hurries less, and leans into its small town heritage and personality more readily than places like ultra megalopolis Los Angeles (yet the city of LA has neighborhoods zoned for horses!). Does that mean San Diegans are better at discerning whether or not to hurry? To a limited extent, yes.

Whether within our family, at work, sharing the gospel, or caring for ourselves, we need to discern when to hurry ("time is of the essence!") and when hurrying is unnecessary or counter productive.


Heaven on Earth

Along with John's, the synoptic gospels all acknowledge the reign of heaven, God's Kingdom already is here on earth. A couple of proof texts, though God's presence, love, healing, and hope fills all the gospels:

• But if I cast out demons with the finger [power] of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Luke 11:20

The reign of heaven is here.

• But if it is by the Spirit of God I cast out demons, surely the kingdom of God has come unto you. Matthew 12:28

If. Since. Then. Surely. Without a doubt.

In the Spirit of Pentecost God's reign continues with the church in the world as the body of Christ. We often don't feel the calm deliberation of John's Jesus, but I love how we're slowed down and unhurried when we assemble on the Lord's day. In words from one of my favorite more recent hymns we acknowledge:

God is here!
As we your people meet to offer praise and prayer. …
Here are symbols to remind us of our lifelong need of grace;
here are table, font, and pulpit; here the cross has central place.

Written by Fred Pratt Green; please sing it to the tune Abbot's Leigh
# # #

Sermon on 07 May

On the Fifth Sunday of Easter I guest preached again. They follow the Narrative Lectionary that follows the autumn through spring academic year and gives the formal lectionary a summertime vacation. This is Matthew's year in both NL and RCL, thus my references to Matthew. They plan to study more of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount during the summer.

Instead of interpreting for the current context, I decided to introduce Romans; enthusiastic feedback confirmed that was the best decision. As before, this is more notes than it is actual preached words (because I still use notes when I need a prompt).


• Romans 1:1-17

• Grace to you and peace from Jesus Christ, firstborn from the dead and the first fruits of the new creation. Amen!

Today we're celebrating live and we're celebrating virtual on Easter five! Easter isn't only a single glorious celebration, it's a fifty-day long season that occupies about one-seventh of the year. Today is the fifth Sunday of Easter, day 29.

We've been studying Matthew's gospel, but today we start several weeks in the letter or epistle to the church at Rome. These weeks will increase our understanding of Matthew when we return to the Sermon on the Mount during summer.

Letters or epistles in the NT were sent to various churches, often in a round robin style where content and comments got added before being sent to the next place. Unlike the gospels that mostly reflect on Jesus' life and ministry, epistles tend toward teaching and doctrines that the OT and Jesus' life reveal. The letters then in turn help clarify Jesus' teachings. Technically an epistles is a sent communication.

Paul/Saul of Tarsus wrote his epistles considerably earlier than the gospels were composed. I always need to remind myself these letters were so much earlier than the gospels, yet they also reflect upon and interpret Jesus of Nazareth's ministry. The NT includes seven Paul wrote for sure; a few others bear his name as author, but weren't written by him. Back then they didn't have copyright concerns, and to attribute what you wrote to a famous person was a compliment that also would get you more readers. The NT also contains letters written quite a while later by other authors. Those would include Titus and Timothy (both attributed to Paul), Peter, James…

Letters or epistles tend toward teachings and doctrines derived from God's activity in the world, from the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ that other sections of scripture narrate.

Romans is the latest of Paul's letters. Today I'll talk about only chapter 1 that reveals some about the rest of the book. Romans includes theology of creation, redemption, and sanctification, along with words about the church. Theology about the Triune God! You could say Romans is Saint Paul's systematic theology. Systematics is the philosophical theology that outlines and structures its topics in logical ways. Among many others, Saint Augustine, John Calvin, and Karl Barth all wrote famous systematic theologies.

Although Romans' literary format is not a gospel, Paul uses the word gospel. Gospel means good news. Maybe you've seen the stage play musical, film, or TV show Godspell? That's gospel in Old English. In the Roman imperial context, gospel already was a known concept. They referred to the birth of the future emperor a gospel. Gospel most frequently described the returning conquering general's announcement of annihilating his enemies. Just as Christianity subverts, turns upside down, and redefines many existing concepts and practices, the Christian gospel is the Good News of God's redemption in Jesus Christ. Not only is it life rather than death; the gospel of Jesus Christ is the annihilation of death and the reign of life.

As Christians we usually say the Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet Paul refers to the gospel of God, so this isn't something new. The good news for creation of redemption and renewal is the way God always has acted. In verse 16 Paul says the gospel is "God's saving power." Because of this, we can follow many gospeled threads through the Hebrew scriptures.

Reading the New Testament, we find different nuances and emphases of Gospel. For Paul in particular the gospel is death and resurrection. The word evangelical is gospel in Greek! As people baptized into Jesus Christ, we are a gospeled community.

Romans 1:16-17 is huge in the history of the church. These verses were a kind of hinge between the church prior to the Reformation in the 16th century and the church after that. Since Martin Luther's excitedly zeroing in on these verses, church and academy sometimes have said we only need to trust or have faith in God, that the medieval Roman branch of the church was mistaken when it claimed or works or behaviors could reconcile or make us right with God. As we study this letter and when we return to Matthew, it's important to remember that Paul never separates faith or trust from obedience or works (our actions). Neither did Jesus. Neither does any of the Old Testament.

Paul calls himself an apostle, but we know he wasn't one of Jesus' original twelve followers. In scripture an apostle is someone who has seen the risen Christ. You may remember in the book of Acts when they're voting to find a twelfth to join the remaining ones after Judas of Iscariot's betrayal, they insisted it had to be a "witness to the resurrection," someone who had met Jesus crucified, Christ risen face to face: Acts 1:21-26 You've probably read the account of Paul's Conversion (also in Acts, chapter 9) when the risen Christ encounters Paul along the road? That event gave Paul apostolic qualification, just as our encounters with the Risen One make us apostles.

Paul introduces himself as an apostle, yet insists it's about BOTH being disciples or followers who learn from the teaching of the earthly Jesus AND about being apostles or sent people of the risen Christ. We've been in Matthew's gospel, where Matthew's Jesus is the ultimate teacher or rabbi. Jesus wants us, his followers to be the ultimate students or disciples, "taught persons." Disciple or apostle, it's a gift of God's grace.

An epistle is a sent communication; an apostle is a sent person.

We'll soon celebrate the day of Pentecost and the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit we receive in baptism that enables us to follow Jesus as disciples and apostles.

I hope our study of Romans will broaden, deepen, and enhance our understanding of Jesus' teaching when we return to Matthew's gospel during the summer.

To God Alone Be Glory.

Amen!

Sermon for 29 January

Intro:

These days I preach from notes, so typically I can't easily fill in the spaces and blog. Besides, a homily really is for a specific day and place, for "those people" in the best sense of the word. However, for 29 January I typed out a lot before making notes (church pastor requests guest preachers to send her some content beforehand—a good idea in many ways), and from the compliments plus my own perception I believe it went well, so here you go. Not surprisingly, the real life sermon was a few minutes longer than it blogs. Scripture was Matthew 6:7-14. During the autumn through spring academic year they follow the Narrative Lectionary that emphasizes the larger story of God and God's people. This year the NL twins with the Revised Common Lectionary with Matthew as the featured gospel.

Matthew Background

Today we continue in Matthew's gospel. Each of the four gospels has a distinctive personality, flavor, and style. Along with Mark and Luke, Matthew is one of the gospels that views Jesus' life and ministry in a similar way. In fact, all three contain a lot of the exact same content. Scholars believe authors of Luke and Matthew had a copy of Mark, so they literally copied and pasted big chunks.

This is Matthew's year in both of the lectionaries that suggest scriptures to read and study, so we'll spend a lot of time on Matthew to learn more about the Jesus Matthew presents, more about the way Jesus teaches us to live.

Matthew starts out as the story of a new creation, biblios geneseos—the same word as Genesis, the very first book of the bible. According to Matthew, Jesus of Nazareth's birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension initiates this new creation, new genesis. According to Jesus, our lives and ministries continue the new creation, the new genesis.

As Matthew's gospel progresses, Jesus provides formal instruction in the Sermon on the Mount and offers parables about the reign of heaven. We see Jesus healing diseases and confronting economic, religious, and governmental powers that be.


Sermon on the Mount

Today we continue with the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' sermon on the mount has five sections that parallel the five books of Moses in the Torah or Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus…

Through Moses God gave the people ten words or commandments at Mount Sinai. Jesus brings us words of life in the Sermon on the Mount on another hill or high ground, with a different style from the commands God gave us through Moses, yet like the ten words/decalogue, Jesus is all about our flourishing together in safe, healthy, productive community. Jesus' entire ministry shows us how to live and love together in service, how to be church together.

Jesus was a rabbi or teacher who moved around a lot. For Matthew, Jesus is the ultimate teacher who wants his followers to be the best learners ever. As Pastor MAH mentioned, it's interesting that Matthew is the only gospel that uses the word church or ecclesia; we mostly know the word "church" from the letters or epistles. This called out assembly (us) is the Roman City Council, the Los Angeles City Council, the New England Town Meeting that gathers together, deliberates together, and in our case, prays and worships together.

Starting with the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' entire ministry shows us how to live and love together in service, how to be church together. Rabbi Jesus wants us to be the best learners ever. Jesus' ministry leads to healthy community. When we follow Jesus, our ministries lead to good community.


Jesus' Model Prayer / What is Prayer?

Today we're considering the model prayer Jesus taught his followers. We call it the Lord's Prayer, and almost all worship services include it in traditional or contemporary language.

But first, what is prayer? Prayer is communication with God. Prayer takes many forms. Sometimes we read prayers the church has treasured for a long time, such as from the liturgy and devotional books. Sometimes we speak words from our heart. Scripture includes many prayers. The book of Psalms was the prayer book and the hymnal of the synagogue; Christian hymnals include many songs based on psalms. There's silent prayer when you sit, stand, or maybe lie down to bask in God's presence. The apostle Paul told us to "pray always," which is an attitude of openness to God. You may have heard we usually become closest to those we talk with the most.

Prayer is communication with God. As we pray, God also communicates with us.

Let's look at this particular prayer Jesus taught his followers. Jesus outlined this prayer not necessarily for us to repeat the exact words as we do every week in worship, but to follow its general content.


Lord's Prayer/ Our Father

It starts out with addressing God and requesting God's name be holy or set apart. In that culture, a name reflected or described the essence of a person. A few months ago Pastor MH preached a sermon about Names of God. That could make an excellent study or journal entry for us to continue.

"May your kingdom come, your will be done" asks God to make the world heaven on earth.

Daily bread or bread for tomorrow? Food is essential! We can't keep on with other endeavors without food, water, sleep… In his Small Catechism Martin Luther explains "daily bread" is shorthand for everything we need. That would include solid housing and safe streets, streets and roads to get us from here to there, good government, functional families. Daily bread may include high-speed internet, too.

What else is essential for all of us? What is essential for you and your family? What would your "daily bread" list of essentials include? Is there anything you might leave off your list?


Forgive us our debts or sins

"Forgive us our debts or sins" is a huge one for everyone. Some versions of Jesus' prayer ask forgiveness for trespasses, which sounds like entering someone else's property without permission (in many senses, it is). In Jesus' world sin and debt essentially were the same thing. Tenant farmers, people who fished the sea, and those who sold goods and wares often found themselves owing their soul to landlords and to the government.

In this year 2023, the world is full of financial debt and obligation. Many people are in serious credit card debt from trying to stay afloat during Covid. However, this prayer also asks to forgive (the opposite of to give) all those ways we've offended people (friends, relatives, acquaintances, etc.) close at hand and on the other side of the planet, our lack of justice to creation, everything we've done to hinder our own well-being as individuals.

Forgive is far from saying and acting as if those sins and offenses are ok and didn't do harm. Forgiveness admits and acknowledges the serious wrong someone else or we ourselves have caused.

Forgiveness has nothing to do with tolerating sin. Forgiveness is not about minimizing or denying sin.

When I forgive I've turned the wrongdoing over to God so that sin no longer is a debt or burden to me or to my community. Literally giving the sin to God means the sin or offense becomes a debt to God. Forgiving a person releases them from our lives and turns the person and the offense over to God. And sometimes it's necessary to physically release a person from our lives, as well.


Shalom

We've taken a short look at the prayer Jesus taught his first followers, the prayer scripture gives us to learn from Jesus.

Last week Pastor MH talked about shalom, the peace that's more than absence of conflict. The Lord's Prayer or Our Father prays, begs, and pleads for the reign or rule of heaven on earth.

Heaven on earth is the fulness of shalom. It begins with eliminating obvious physical, emotional, and interest conflicts, but shalom goes beyond that. Shalom is enough of everything we need to live healthy lives. As Martin Luther explained, actual daily bread or food (water, shelter, etc.) is only one part of our request in the Lord's Prayer. Shalom is integrity and honesty with each other here in community and with everyone we meet outside. Shalom is the Good News of the gospel fully lived out every day, everywhere we go.

Jesus the master teacher or rabbi teaches us how to be church together. Jesus wants all of us to be the best learners ever who pray, hope, and act to bring this world the new creation Matthew's gospel is about. We beg God to bring heaven to earth. We pray for the reign of shalom. We act in ways that welcome shalom.


Table of Grace

Again today Jesus invites us to the table of grace. This feast of life is about heaven on earth—the reign of life right here and right now. The Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, brings shalom into the world. All are forgiven. All is healed. All is whole. Everyone has enough. In the Lord's Supper we experience the new creation, if only for a fleeting moment.

Come, let us eat, for lo, the bread is spread!
Come, let us drink, for lo, the cup is poured!

You are welcome.
I am welcome.
We are welcome.

Amen? Amen!

To God alone be glory! Amen!

Baptism of Jesus 2021

Baptism of Jesus 2021

"You are my Son the Beloved. With you I am well pleased."

Mark 1:11

Terence Lester :: I See You

Equal parts testimony, analysis, and exhortation, at first glance Terence Lester's soon to be released I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People is about the growing population of homeless individuals along with assorted "others than us" we don't perceive as part of mainstream society. However, as the late, highly admired and regarded Henri Nouwen observed, everyone is impoverished in some way, and surprisingly, "that’s the place where God wants to dwell! 'How blessed are the poor,' Jesus says (Matthew 5:3). This means that our blessing is hidden in our poverty. ... Let’s dare to see our poverty as the land where our treasure is hidden." from Bread for the Journey

So I See You is about all of us.

Terence tells us poverty of any kind is about lack of access, but that's only a starter. And yes, much of this book does focus on the economic and material impoverishment that often leads to individuals and families finding themselves without physical shelter, the poverty that happens because of lack of human connections, lack of a community of support and participation.

Have you noticed how homelessness and poverty tend to be systemic and multi-generational? Lester dreams of eradicating (especially) systemic injustice. I see You chronicles the author's own experiences and his observations of others who've been poor; it particularly testifies to Terence's – and other's – experiences of being seen clearly enough to have their needs acted upon and met by people acting as God's agents—as God's eyes.

¹³Hagar answered God by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, "You're the God who sees me! "Yes! He saw me; and then I saw him!"

¹⁴That's how that desert spring got named "God-Alive-Sees-Me Spring." That spring is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. Genesis 16, The Message

The author reminds us scripture has over two thousand references to poverty and justice; we need to recognize aspects of justice include distributive, retributive, restorative, and procedural. Possibly others, as well, though they may be sub-sets of these primary types. Quite a while ago senior pastor asked what classes I was taking and I mentioned one called "Poverty and Justice." Senior pastor responded with a longish speech about the criminal (retributive) justice system and the highly disproportionate number of persons of color and others without economic means who remain incarcerated. I replied, "No! You're thinking of retributive justice! This course is about distributive justice! Who gets what, how, when, and why!" Most poverty seems to happen because of disconnects in distributive justice that often cascade into other injustices.

Hagar's God who sees me is a God who sees each of us as we really are. That includes individuals with massive financial resources it's easy to stereotype as having everything; it includes people in ragged clothes holding a Please Help! sign at the freeway entrance. What stereotypes do you need to start breaking down? What ones do I still hold onto?

Scripture tells us, Jesus shows us how God created humanity in the image of the divine. In the power of the Holy Spirit of life, God calls and enables us to claim that divine nature and live as God's presence on earth, to act as God's voices, hands, feet, and eyes everywhere we go.

Almost everyone underestimates what a "regular" person can accomplish. Terence advises each of us, "Do something, anything for the [solitary] one." I like to remind my adult Sunday School class everything we do is synergistic and adds up to far more than the sum of our small, individual actions and prayers. "Prayers"? Yes. Read the gospels! Jesus always prayed before taking any significant action, before making any response to human need.

"Where will you start after reading this book?"

With God's blessings to us concealed in our own poverties, with God's blessings and presence in those we see and encounter hidden in their own unmet needs, in the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit, each of us can be the spring named God-Alive-Sees-Me as previously invisible people become visible to us.

Some link love:

• Terence Lester online

• Terence on Facebook

• Terence Lester's Instagram

• Terence Lester on twitter

• Love Beyond Walls, an organization Terence and his spouse Cecilia started to draw attention to homelessness and poverty and to help mobilize people in situations of poverty into a full future.

Notice of Material Connection: As a member of the launch team, I received a complimentary pre-publication copy of this book with no requirement or expectation I'd write a positive review. As always, my opinions are my very own, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

my amazon review: vision and hope

The Miracles of Jesus :: Jessica LaGrone

Originally and/or (maybe) ideally intended for group study, this 6-weeks of weekdays consideration of Jesus of Nazareth's miracles in 30 short chapters was sheer excellence for my individual study at this stage of my journey. I spent about 3 weeks with The Miracles of Jesus; some days I'd study more than one chapter, occasionally skip over a day and not open the book at all.

Classic definition of a true miracle of God probably would be a suspension or even a reversal of humanly expected rules of nature, but trying to describe the divine and subsequently limit God's grace and activity with humanity and the rest of creation has led to far too many unfaithful expressions of biblical religion, so I'll leave it at that.

"Desperate moments" refers to physical, spiritual, social, and/or cultural situations of extreme need. "Cultural?" Yes, of course—had the hosts of the first of Jesus' signs we find in the gospel according to John, the Wedding at Cana, run out of wine, it would have been complete cultural embarrassment and true disaster that would have cascaded down through subsequent generations. (If you're familiar with differences between synoptic gospels Mark, Matthew, and Luke and the fourth canonical gospel, you probably remember John's community refers not to miracles but to signs human senses can perceive.) "Cultural" of course, because by definition Christianity always is incarnational, embodied within a particular culture. Including yours, including mine, including and encompassing theirs and ours. I love how the author brings in a few of her own experiences related to the miracle under discussion, but rather than making everything about her life and testimony she does it in a way that encourages readers to search their own daily lives, helps a reader trust God's paradoxical activity to meet their needs, as well. I also appreciate her intelligently referencing critical biblical scholarship in a manner that demonstrates the scriptural text itself comes to us in, with, and under the apparent accidentals of daily earthbound life.

Book size and layout is very attractive with plenty of room to write your own notes if you desire. This is part of a series of studies from the United Methodist Church's Abingdon Women, which is almost too bad and very sad, because nothing at all in The Miracles of Jesus is gender-specific, and that information might discourage a few guys from checking it out and benefiting from it. Though I'd be willing to loan out Jessica LaGrone's Miracles of Jesus, I plan to keep this book and work my way through it again. I'd also be open to participating in a group study focused on these chapters. What else? I'm curious about the content of the accompanying video.

my Amazon Review: Outstanding in Every Way

Faithful :: Adam Hamilton

Faithful: Christmas Through the Eyes of Joseph by Adam Hamilton on Amazon

We're in the season of Advent that prepares us for Christmas, so why not learn more about Joseph, Jesus' earthly father (stepfather, adoptive father)—Joseph the spouse of Jesus' mother Miriam/Mary? Pastor Adam Hamilton has written another insightful and interesting scripture-related book; as usual, he doesn't talk down to readers, but also makes sure it's mostly easy to comprehend. I enjoyed the historical background at the start of this short book; it included information about non-canonical sources, and speculation on what might have been happening based upon that cultural context. Hamilton brings in some of his own experience as a pastor and a dad, but doesn't overwhelm the pages by making it too much about himself.

In retelling what we know of Joseph's story from scripture and imagining what might have happened, Faithful shows many ways people, events, creation's needs and God's mercy-filled love weave together to unsettle the status qho(s) and recreate a redemptive whole. Inspirational and reassuring, Christmas Through the Eyes of Joseph is just in time for the longest night of the year, just in time to celebrate Jesus' nativity in the church and in the world, because this is one season the world out there has some idea of what the church happens to be about.

As for many books from Abingdon, you can purchase an entire series of products related to this book by Adam Hamilton to assist in your study of Joseph.

My Amazon Review: Inspirational and Reassuring

Five Minute Friday • Near

I've been playing and working catch-up, but I had to Five Minute Friday this week because Kate Motaung's near prompt aligns with my preparation for introducing the Gospel according to Mark on Sunday. Everyone already knows Mark's gospel quite well, but with the start of a new Revised Common Lectionary year B that's Mark's year, I needed to create a quick overview. I'm also Friday Fiving because of the beautiful illustration Kate provided; I took the liberty of decorating her banner photo for my header.


A few minutes ago on urban wilderness I blogged a short overview of the Gospel According to Mark I'll use to open my adult SS class session tomorrow. Similar to many people today, back in those days of the Ancient Near East (love that ANE terminology!) people tended to think of God far away, unapproachable, distant, and uninvolved. Or if they believed God was a little closer, they imagined God contained and protected in a space or place like the Jerusalem temple they'd worked so hard to build. Particularly as we've studied a pericope or selection from one of the four gospels each week, we've been discovering and uncovering a God who's anything but distant and far away, anything but unapproachable and uninvolved in creation—and in our own sometimes difficult lives and pressing concerns, in our joys and everyday routines! Especially as God self-reveals in Jesus of Nazareth, God has drawn near to earth, to creation. So near that God has chosen to live as one of us, as a human, in a body formed from stuff of the earth. But paradoxically, God-with-us, close-to-us still is the God of the Hebrew scriptures who fills heaven and earth, who remains free, elusive, and can't remotely be contained in space or in time. But you already knew that!

Given that humans tend to be more mimetic than thoughtful, the temple concept partly imitated gods of other ANE religions that mostly were gods for a certain place. Not only Mark but all the gospels reveal God so near that in Jesus God becomes and lives as part of creation—yet we find actual "near" vocabulary more in the deutero-Pauline theology of Ephesians and Colossians than elsewhere in scripture. In any case, as another Advent dawns, literally breaks open this week, let's remember God's abiding passion for all of us. God incarnate as a baby in the Bethlehem manger. God embodied in each of us so we can live as God's presence very near to our neighbors, friends – and enemies.

disclaimer: I wrote this very quickly in a little less than five minutes, but unlike most weeks, I found too many discrepancies and discontinuities, and In the interest of overall coherence, I edited so it would make sense, so this represents closer to fifteen minutes than to five.

Porch Stories: Navigating Faith

For her Porch Stories this week, Kristin considers Navigating Faith with Kids and features Susan Shipes' coloring book devotional, 52 Commands of Jesus for Children. I'll range further and bring adults into this post, though I'll still be more impressionistic than detailed since I check out Kristin's topic when I get online Wednesday mornings and try to blog by evening.


I love the nautical word navigating related to our journey with Jesus! Maybe you know many traditional church buildings have been constructed in the form of a ship that appears upside-down to us as we look up at the ceiling and rafters? "Nave" – as in "navy" – still designates the central space where worshipers gather. You've probably heard ships referred to with female pronouns she and her; scripture tells us the Church is the Bride of Christ, so that's also her and she. Navigating also is especially apt because we can't see what's underneath the surface of the sea our boat is on, we can't tell what's on the other side of the horizon. As we answer God's invitation with "yes" and take a first step out in faithful trust, we never really know where God will lead us; we only know God promises to be with us every moment of everywhere we venture on our voyage.

I've taught Sunday School, confirmation, and Vacation Bible School to most every age except teeny tiny tots, though middle school's probably my favorite age group! I almost just now remembered—in City of History we had Release Time classes for inner-city 4^th and 5^th graders. Middle schoolers especially appeal to me because they're old enough and have enough life experience to do some sophisticated thinking, they're open to new ideas, and they're always more than ready to challenge the teacher to stay real and relevant. Kristin mostly writes about faith with kids; currently I prepare and facilitate (all the participants teach) adult Sunday School at my church—I post my notes on my urban wilderness blog. Most weeks we mainly reflect on one of the Revised Common Lectionary passages for that day, though by the gracious movement of the HS, inevitably our discussion takes us pretty far afield of where I've started with my (always deft) theological and historical intro to the text.

Recently I read and plan to blog and review The Creative Word: Canon as a Model for Biblical Education by Walter Brueggemann. Related to Biblical Education in the title, a few places he mentions the coming-up generation that's also growing up in the church, but everything he says applies to any age. Because the Old Testament is his specialty, Brueggemann focuses on the Hebrew Bible and particularly emphasizes God's gracious gifts of liberation from slavery, God's subsequent gift of the Ten Commandments of the Sinai Covenant, and God's charge to us to obey in order to maintain that freedom:

Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes [because] the Lord your God brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery… remember the Lord your God. –Deuteronomy 8

Jesus also commands us to keep the commandments; he summarizes everything behind the Ten with only Two, to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength; to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In fact, he shortens that into a single, "love one another as I have loved you," but the details of the ten commandments help clarify our attitudes and behaviors. I love that the title of Susan Shipes' devotional coloring book mentions Jesus' own commands—he tells us his yoke is light because in Jesus' new covenant of grace (just as under the old covenant that also was a grace-filled way) obedience leads to freedom.

Today Kristin and I both began with navigating. Many people want direct instructions for every move in every situation; young kids and chronologically mature adults alike often struggle with the finely tuned morality involved in keeping the commandments, but learning the narratives from Jesus' life and ministry we find in the four gospels gives us additional insights for putting the good of the other and the well-being of the community before our own preferences and predilections. From Jesus' own example, we know we find healing and freedom anywhere the realm of heaven is breaking out in our midst. That knowledge isn't a road map, but it still can help guide our desire for instructions and our search for reassurance. We don't know what's underneath the surface of the water we're walking on, what gift, what threat, what grace or mercy may appear when we reach that distant horizon, but in obedience we can do this! In the power and presence of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost that fills the church, you know we can navigate this voyage!

Porch Stories: Shared Stories Matter

Kristin describes her site as Seeking God as the Author of Every Story. For this week's Porch Stories she reminds us Our Shared Stories Matter.


What's my take on Our Shared Stories Matter? Getting our pains and our joys out there for others to hear helps us gain perspective that tells us, "this is seriously devastating, after all," or "sounds like another routine incident" ...nothing to be concerned about. Interesting that sharing tends to be a church-related word and also common 12-step group terminology.

You've probably heard "show your wounds; a lot of healing will happen." Tell your own story! People will relate! I find it annoying when someone does their best to outdo others with their own life stories, yet leveling and connections still happen whenever we discover someone else has been through the same thing. I've always had trouble talking about myself—even in psychotherapy where the client is supposed to be the main subject of conversation. More than ironic since I've announced "I crave an audience the way an addict craves cocaine." As a little kid my life ambition was to be famous! However, performing music in public, displaying my art, facilitating Sunday School all legitimately make me everyone's focus, though I do my best to hear everyone's voices and ideas when we discuss scripture. I want to tell more of my story online and in real life, but I fear being misunderstood or trivialized, which actually has happened more than a few times. Have you ever been misunderstood, despite your attempts to be carefully clear?

Back to stories that matter.

We find the four new testament gospel narratives packed full of stories about Jesus, his followers and others he interacted with during his public ministry. Jesus listens to people, attends to their illnesses and their concerns. Luke's gospel especially emphasizes Jesus' eating, drinking, partying with strangers, friends, outsiders to his group and outsiders to society. Wouldn't it be fascinating to know more about his earlier years, his family life, the neighbors who influenced him? Jesus often explained a practical or theological point – for him, the theological always was practical – by telling a parable that's a type of story that contains examples sometimes fairly easy to interpret, sometimes extremely obscure.

The baptismal word our in stories matter is about togetherness, community, and belonging. Last Wednesday Kristin didn't blog because her son had sustained serious burns, yet when she posted on social media people immediately showed their concern; many started praying because Kristin's family had become part of their shared experiences, a part of "our" that mattered to them. She revealed some details rather than saying something vague so we'd know an appropriate level of concern; also, people like to be able to pray for specifics, though everyone knows God already knows.

God is the author of every one of our stories, though it can be a challenge to discern how God is leading us to newness through some situations. You know what? Our stories matter to each other, and because our stories matter to God, God will bring new life and resurrection from the bleakest, the most discouraging, most humanly hopeless circumstances imaginable.

That's my testimony on this Wednesday in Holy Week, a day known as "Spy Wednesday" that recalls Judas' betrayal of Jesus, and helps us look forward to Easter Sunday and trust new beginnings will be God's final answer to all the betrayals we've committed against other individuals, against society, against creation; resurrection from the deaths they've caused will be God's response to betrayals committed against us. But on Thursday, the day after Wednesday that's prior to the day of resurrection, Jesus invites Judas – and all of us – to his Table of Grace and Reconciliation. Sin and betrayal were parts of Jesus' story that mattered to God and to us. Sunday's coming, and this coming Sunday will be a special celebration of the Day of Jesus' Resurrection because our stories matter to God!

PS For fallen humans, appropriate behavior becomes far more complex. We always eventually can forgive, but sometimes reconciliation is plain unhealthy, so we need prayerfully to consider whether or not we'll break bread with our enemies and betrayers, whether or not we'll even casually socialize with them—let alone party. As the apostle Paul insists, indeed we are "in Christ," clothed in his righteousness, but we're not Jesus. Really we're not.

#Write31Days: 24 • global

Monday 24 October: global

My global illustration came from my digitized analog graphic of Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind...

Despite each of the four canonical gospels being written to different audience and thus from different perspective, despite the NT epistles being addressed to different assemblies and therefore custom-fitted for the original recipients, then later often redacted for other local churches as the physical letters made rounds, Saul/Paul of Tarsus and all Jesus of Nazareth's followers knew the good news of the gospel belonged to everyone everywhere. But two centuries ago the oikoumene [compare "ecumenical"], the whole, known (by Rome, Greece, their neighbors), inhabited world was tiny compared to our 21^st century knowledge that we think probably has become genuine knowledge of most people and places that inhabit the globe of planet earth. Wouldn't you love to be surprised and find out otherwise?

Three Word Wednesday: go to them

Kristin Hill Taylor's 3 Word Wednesday tells us Go to them!

God told Abram to leave where he was and "go to a country I will show you!" Genesis 12:1. Go. Ever since then, we've looked to Abram/Abraham as our model for trusting God into a future, into our future. I needed to use one of my scriptural expressions, and how perfectly does "I will follow you wherever you go I will follow you" [Luke 9:57; Matthew 8:19] fit the entire concept of not waiting for people to approach us in life or to saunter into the church building on their own, but to go out and find them where they are!? We know the Jesus story: yummy meals, spontaneous and pre-planned, with friends, with strangers, with polite society's literal outcasts and various others who aren't quite like us. Did he sit on the patio waiting for people to approach him? Nope!

"I will follow you wherever you go, Jesus!" Are you willing. Are you able. To drink the cup? Walk the talk? Will you really follow?

We love because God first loved us. We go because God first calls us. We can go because God sends us in the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. To be sent literally means to go on a mission. Sometimes people go on more or less formal missions: a day or a weekend across the border to help neighbors build or repair; a semester overseas to get some of our own culture shock, learn a new language, teach reading and writing; a couple of years combining proselytizing and humanitarian service. Everyone is a full time missionary all the time. Walk out the door and go. To a person, a country, a place, maybe something simple like texting someone you haven't heard from in a while. Volunteer for park cleanup day. Open the door, step outside, and go. Into your own future!

Jesus commands (leave where we are), go and make disciples, baptize them, who then will go and make disciples, baptize those, who in turn will... but to go doesn't always need to be elaborate or extensive! Walk out the door and go. To a person, a country, a place... open the door, step outside, and go. We still look to Abram/Abraham as our model for trusting God into a future, into our future. Open the door, step outside and go. Into your own future!

"Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you whithersoever you go." Joshua 1:9

five minute friday: cheer

Five Minute Friday host Kate Motaung chose cheer for today.


FMF: cheer

I wrote by hand again


Would you believe I don't remember ever saying or writing "cheer"?! People announce CHEERS! as a toast. I know there used to be a TV show called cheers and I know I never watched it.

When John and the synoptic gospel writers have Jesus counseling us to be of good cheer as many English translations express it, that's telling us to have courage, literally to take heart. Heart-related words like cardiac and concord and concordia come from the same root as courage and courageous. In Hebrew biology the heart mostly is the seat of the will and determination, rather than the location of emotions as modern westerners have it.

I don't use the word cheer, but personally and as a designer I love the idea of cheerful colors, a bright cheer-filled space. I love the idea of cheering up a person with brights and lights of any kind.


PS As I somewhat recycled my cheer / courage header design from a couple of Valentine's days ago, I remembered a book called the Red Badge of Courage, therefore—cheer and courage in red!

I Will Follow Jesus: Judah & Chelsea Smith

I Will Follow Jesus by Judah and Chelsea Smith on Amazon

Disclosure of Material Connection in accordance with FTC 16 CFR Part 255: I received this book free from publicist, (author, publisher, distributor, or agent) with no requirement or expectation of a positive review; as always, opinions in this review are my own.

The title "I Will Follow Jesus" describes the focus of this collection of stories from the Old and Testament. This is a Bible Storybook, not a Children's Bible, with emphasis on story, so we don't have Psalms in kidstyle, or Romans after the manner of the elementary school playground.

Most of the narrative accounts that are familiar to most churchgoers start with an introduction from the life experience of pastor Judah or Chelsea Smith. At the end of the story we get an "I will follow Jesus" page with ideas and suggestions about ways to follow Jesus right now. Those pages conclude with a short prayer.

So disappointing almost right at the start! On page 10, "God had to punish Adam and Eve because they disobeyed Him." No, the God of the bible, God and Father of Jesus the Christ does not punish! If you read this with your kid(s), you'd need to explain God doesn't punish, but it sometimes looks that way to humans, and attributing the fallout from disobedience, sin, and natural disasters to God's wrath or punishment is a human habit.

Author Judah Smith is lead pastor of the multi-campus The City Church in Seattle. Artist Alexandra Ball designed the engaging brightly natural full-color illustrations. In events from the OT and NT, most everyone would be an Ancient Near Easterner as they are in the scripture stories themselves, but otherwise ethnicities of kids in the pictures literally are from all over the map. Presenting this wide human variety helps people understand that Jesus loves everyone.

The book designers formatted pages with too much black text against background colors that make the text difficult to read. On a few pages the background is so dark reading's close to impossible. Text background doesn't need to be bright white, but a very light tint of the same color would be in keeping with the colorful sensibility of the entire book. There's plenty of space to increase the size of the text boxes to accommodate a larger typeface and provide an easier parental reading experience as well as easier reading for kids who have reached that age when they want to read on their own for themselves. The book is printed on thick coated paper, bound with boards and easily stays open. There's even a presentation page just as with many real bibles, even a ribbon to mark where you left off last time!

Despite my reservations, I Will Follow Jesus is a nicely done book I'd definitely consider giving as a gift to almost anyone in the age range from kindergarten through grades 5 or 6.

Amazon review to follow! Book release date is Tuesday, 09 February, and since this wasn't a pre-publication amazon vine offering, Amazon wouldn't let me post a review... but goodreads did.

Tues 09 Feb—my Amazon Review: Nice Gift to Help Young People Learn and Live the Story of Jesus

Transfiguration 2015

Baptism of Jesus 2015

Land Sunday 2014

Holy God, you chose to live among us in a body formed from the soil of the earth and you promised to lead your people into an inalienable land you would show them; in your Spirit may we live faithfully to your call to steward the land, that it would become safe living space and produce life-sustaining food for all creation. In the name of Jesus the Christ, your son and our brother, Amen!

Here's the Eucharistic Prayer I wrote for Season of Creation Year A in 2011:

Eucharistic Prayer Creation A – © leah chang 2011

Theology from Exile: Luke

Legal note - "Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free from The Speakeasy in hope that I would mention it on my blog, with no requirement to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR. Part 255: 'Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.'"

Theology from Exile: Commentary on the Revised Common Lectionary for an Emerging Christianity on Amazon

Gaia Rising, Sea Raven's blog

Many of my remarks about Sea Raven's commentary for RCL Year A, Matthew, also apply to this book about Luke's gospel.

About Exile in the book title:

Who are the exiles from the Church of Jesus Christ today? Those who have left the interventionist God of childhood far behind, who have set down roots in a latter-day Babylon, where new understandings about who Jesus was and what Jesus said reconstruct and transform the faith. These exiles ... find salvation in the awesome nature of the cosmos, and divinity revealed in all acts of compassionate justice.... [pp. 12-13 in the digital pdf edition]

On page 19: "Postmodern, post-enlightenment people cannot reconcile a changing, developing, evolving postmodern, post-enlightenment cosmology with traditional religious belief." Oh. I didn't realize that. I'm totally cool with a 3-layered universe (but what's a firmament?). Reminding myself and my readers that the Way of Jesus is comprehensive: political; economic; social; spiritual―and translatable, transferrable to any culture, because as did everything about all lives everywhere, it began incarnate in a particular culture. As SR observes [page 46], "The organizers of Christian tradition were masters of the appropriation of local cultural myth and metaphor."

Sea Raven frames her thoughts on the RCL texts by presenting the God of the bible as nonviolent, inclusive, oriented to distributive (rather than retributive) justice, and to deliverance. Sometimes I love the author's energetic explanations because so many of hers agree with mine, but then she apparently needs to let us know she is right because her theology is on the left, and her more "fundamentalist" siblings in Christ have it mostly wrong. Not left. This is the year 2014, and I'm definitely post-enlightenment and post-modern, but I also do mystery, paradox, ambiguity, and all those less than-logical, not-intellectual, non-physical dimensions of life and divinity and humanity quite well. But then again, at one point in the text, she acknowledges the ability to live with ambiguity and irresolution is a mark of spiritual and human maturity. But in her Trinity Sunday chapter, on page 117] she has it so correct that in this postmodern world, "Somehow the concept of 'grace' (charis – 'free gift') has become anything but 'free.'"

Luke is far and away my favorite of the four canonical gospels, so I approached this book with a more open heart and mind than I did the parallel Matthew volume. Of course Sea Raven "cherry-picks" her interpretations the same way the Revised Common Lectionary "elves" (name taken from Tolkien) choose their texts. And it's important to remember this series does not pretend or aspire to be of the same scope as (for example) Anchor or Interpreter's Bibles. Although I've participated in churches of differing traditions, all have been (progressive, liberal, etc.) relatively activist types who regularly reach out to their neighbors nearby and beyond, so I don't know for sure if Sea Raven's suggestions about more fundamental / conservative / evangelical scriptural interpretation are exaggerated, facetious, or not. Or what. Unlike in her Matthew, Raven includes propers for Reformation Day / Sunday in the main body of the book; she writes about Monday through Saturday of Holy Week in Appendix Two. In both Sea Raven's Matthew and Luke, I truly appreciated being able to read through and consider micro-commentaries on the entire church year by turning a couple hundred pages. I love that she included at least three passages describing the Eucharist from creationist Matthew Fox. She includes nice baptismal and eucharistic liturgies, as well; you easily could use them as-is, though In my own tradition I'd want to expand those somewhat. The conclusion to my review of SR's Matthew also applies to her Luke: "...Theology from Exile still is a useful, insight-filled resource; it's a keeper for my library!"

my amazon review: Sea Raven on Luke

Theology from Exile: Matthew

Legal note - "Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free from The Speakeasy in hope that I would mention it on my blog, with no requirement to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR. Part 255: 'Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.'"

Theology from Exile on amazon.

on good reads

Gaia Rising, Sea Raven's blog

I'll begin by stating a few years ago I'd sometimes make a theological observation and then add, "the Jesus seminar notwithstanding." Author Sea Raven has Jesus Seminar connections, but I'll leave it at that because I found so very much to like about this book, and I'll use it as a reference whenever Lectionary Year A, aka "Matthew's Year," rolls around.

Her constantly referring to the 1992 lectionary compilers as the Elves (she told us where she found that idea), and her endless comments about their "Cherry Picking" texts and portions of texts began annoying me by the 101^th or so instance. With a quick search I couldn't find a synonym for cherry picking, and though I'd heard the term, I still needed a definition:

Wikipedia: "...suppressing evidence, or the fallacy of incomplete evidence is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position."

Merriam-Webster: "to decide to accept (someone or something) from a group of possibilities."

Like Sea Raven, I've been distressed when the RCL's gathering of texts seem to imply or at least point toward supersessionism. I've been at least annoyed when they've broken up a key text between a couple of Sundays. It irritates me almost no end when they've grouped texts together in a way that implicitly support our more theologically conservative brethren and sistern in Christ.

Sea Raven frames her thoughts on the RCL texts by presenting the God of the bible as nonviolent, inclusive, oriented to distributive (rather than retributive) justice, and to deliverance. But she seems to insist on only a single style of scriptural interpretation that apparently excludes mystery and paradox! Jesus' way is comprehensive, and though my theology tends toward the confessional traditions of the Reformation, I have almost no disagreement with the content of Theology from Exile, only long for at least some acknowledgment of the mysterious, paradoxical, humanly unexplainable ways in which God frequently self-reveals and acts in the world.

The omission of texts for Holy Week seemed like the big thing it really was, but the Speakeasy sent me a copy of Sea Raven's parallel Theology from Exile volume on the gospel of Luke that does include Holy Week; I plan to blog and review that book, too.

The mostly 3 or 4 pages long, relatively lightweight commentaries on each Sunday's RCL readings all incline to highlight ways that particular Sunday's texts come together―or sometimes don't cohere. Although like probably many of Sea Raven's readers, I attended a mainline (liberal, progressive... what terminology does one use these days?) seminary, and received instruction in twentieth century theological trends, that doesn't mean my entire theological perspective remains thus. Or ever was entirely grounded in what some folks have referred to as fundamentalism of the left―the type of apologetics that suddenly discovers or discerns the way scripture recorded an event is possible after all, because (after all) modern science has deemed it possible. But Theology from Exile still is a useful, insight-filled resource; it's a keeper for my library!

my amazon review: Theology from Exile: Matthew

Holy Saturday 2014