3rd Sunday After Epiphany, January 24, 2016

Collect for the Day

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

                                                                

Reflections:  Christ calls all people to fullness of life. This sits at the core of our faith; we pray that we may live out this conviction more and more deeply, both as an institutional church and as individual members of the Body of Christ—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity or orientation, or any other differences over which we may be tempted to turn against one another.

First Reading: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

All the people of Israel gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.  
        And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

        And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Reflections: Why did the people weep? The Law of God was read and interpreted. Perhaps they realized their guilt before God, and wept in sorrow and repentance. We Christians tend to think of God’s Law as a burden, as divine demands that are impossible to meet. That’s certainly the impression St. Paul gives us as he struggles to understand the gift of grace in Christ.

        But it’s also possible that the people wept for joy. The Law is difficult, but beautiful. For Israel, the Law of God was not simply demands placed upon them, but a gift freely given them. It was a sign that they were God’s people, and it represented a relationship of mutual faithfulness. One might say that, the Law was Israel’s epiphany, a revelation of their deepest identity: God’s own people.

        Perhaps, when we listen to the beautiful (but difficult) text of the Sermon on the Mount, we also might weep. Our Epiphany is Christ. It is Christ who reveals our deepest being. What cause for celebration!

Psalm 19 Caeli enarrant

The heavens declare the glory of God, * and the firmament shows God’s handiwork.

One day tells its tale to another, * and one night imparts knowledge to another.

Although they have no words or language, * and their voices are not heard,

Their sound has gone out into all lands, * and their message to the ends of the world.

In the deep has God set a pavilion for the sun; * it comes forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber;

it rejoices like a champion to run its course.

It goes forth from the uttermost edge of the heavens and runs about to the end of it again; * 
   nothing is hidden from its burning heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul; *
the testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the innocent.

The statutes of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart; *
the commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever; *
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold, *
sweeter far than honey, than honey in the comb.

By them also is your servant enlightened, * and in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can tell how often he offends? * cleanse me from my secret faults.

Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not get dominion over me; *
then shall I be whole and sound, and innocent of a great offense.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, * 
   O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Reflections: As preoccupied as we humans are with ourselves, here is a corrective. The whole of creation knows and witnesses to God. And this isn’t the only psalm with that message.

        Yet my favorite part of this psalm is the end. “Who can tell how often he offends? Cleanse me from my secret faults.” From whom are our faults secret? Certainly not to God. Surely it is we who do not want to see, we who dare not see, except in the sure knowledge of God’s enduring love revealed in Christ, of forgiveness and redemption.

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

        Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

        On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

        Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts.

Reflections: In this reading, St. Paul continues to explain about spiritual gifts. The members of the Corinthian community quite naturally want to identify their spiritual gifts. I can imagine the pressure to speak in tongues as a demonstration of their faith, to assure that they belong. To demonstrate their superior holiness, perhaps. At some time or other we’ve all felt the need to prove that we were good enough, that we belonged, even that we were “better.”

        But Paul is trying to teach the Corinthians that the life of the Spirit doesn’t work that way. In fact, striving for signs of our belonging or preeminence completely missed the point of spiritual gifts. The life of the Spirit, he argues, isn’t about my spiritual gifts, but about self-less service to the community. In other words, love.

        The practical implications of this ecological insight are hard to miss. The body is not just a collection of individually existing parts, but each member is intimately united with the “other” members in a whole that exceeds each part. Today we are learning to understand phenomena (ranging from as small as the human family to as large as whole societies) as systems. What formerly we considered independent parts—family members, neighborhoods, jobs, wages, education, health care, and so on—we are discovering to be deeply related. Tug on one thread, and the whole fabric quivers.

Gospel: Luke 4:14-21

Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

­Reflections: This passage must have been read in the synagogue countless time, but when Jesus reads from the scroll this time, it’s different. In his mouth, the text became a proclamation. It wasn’t read; it was announced by God in the World, Emmanuel.

We read this passage as a fulfillment of Isaiah; the Messiah has come and announces liberation, healing, the Jubilee Year during which all debts were cancelled and all slaves freed. Nevertheless, even in Jesus’ time slavery continued, poverty, sickness, suffering, debt, violence and untold manner of degradation persisted—and persist to this day. What do we do with that?

What this passages suggests to me today is that wherever Christ is, freedom is. Wherever we encounter Christ, we experience compassion, healing, forgiveness, compassion, love. This is what Jesus brought to Nazareth; this is what Christ brings to and for us; this is what we ourselves bring into the world whenever we share the mind and heart of Christ.

2nd Sunday after Epiphany, January 17, 2016

Collect for the Day

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

                                                                        
Reflections: Last week Janiece Omos entered the Body of Christ through the waters of baptism (without crying even once)—and with her, we remembered our own baptism. We marked the first deliberate step in the lifelong journey through which God calls us into the fullness of Christ. Today we celebrate Christ as Light, and pray that Christ may so illuminate scripture and sacraments that this Light may shine in us and through us.

 First Reading: Isaiah 62:1-5

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
    until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.
The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory;
    and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
    and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
    and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married;
    for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Reflections: Sometimes we feel abandoned, desolate; we despair. The world around us and the judgments of others may reinforce our misery. Acquaintances may avoid us; perhaps even those closest to us. But even if we give up, God has not, God never abandons us.

Admittedly, it’s easy to spout reassurances if you’re not the one suffering. Well-meaning phrases are meant to console. “It’s okay, honey. It’s for the best.” “I’m sure God did it for a purpose.” “When a door closes, God opens a window.” But I suspect that we often say these things because we really don’t know what to say. We want the other person feel better. We want to feel better, too. The truth is, other people’s misery makes us uncomfortable. Could it be that their predicament has the potential to make us ask very hard questions we really don’t want to face?

It takes tremendous courage to face a devastating situation without resorting to too-quick reassurances. It’s difficult to sit with pain, with hard questions. On the other hand, scripture assures us, it is in the darkness that Light shines.

I suspect that prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah opened themselves to the disturbing reality of Israel’s situation instead of fending off the troubling reality (and defending God) with quick answers.

I suspect, in fact, that courage and vulnerability and questioning may be important in their discernment of God’s voice in and through very situations.  

Psalm 36:5-10  Dixit injustus

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens,*  your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the strong mountains, your justice like the great deep;* you save both man and beast, O Lord.
How priceless is your love, O God!* your people take refuge under the shadow of your wings.
They feast upon the abundance of your house;* you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the well of life,* and in your light we see light.
Continue your loving-kindness to those who know you, * and your favor to those who are true of heart.

Reflections: God, who provides all our needs cannot be comprehended. The psalmist breaks into poetry: God’s love reaches to the heavens, God’s righteousness like mountains, and justice like the unfathomable depths. But the psalmist doesn’t use these images simply because he is inspired by the natural world; God is so great that Divine Love embraces the whole of creation.

God cares for us and gives us mall we need. But God also gives us more than the obvious needs: nourishment, shelter, companionship, and so on. But more than that, God is “the well of life.” Human beings yearn to know God, even those of us who are unaware of it.

It is in that yearning that God already resides. It’s not our own great ideas that teach us about God; it’s not even memorizing the Bible or the doctrines of the church. These things are only (at their best) expressions of something far greater. And that far greater thing is the indwelling Christ in whose “light we see light.”

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Let Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.
           Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

Reflections: The first paragraph reminds us that the best that is in us comes from God. I am reminded of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 15 that it is not what goes into us that defiles us, but what comes out. This suggests that it is not our circumstances—and certainly not our nature—that defiles us, but our own doing. To walk in purity, on the other hand, is not something we can do on our own. IN fact, we are never alone, and that is most visible when we are at our best.

St. Paul then addresses spiritual gifts. It is easy to get caught up in “spiritual gifts,” discerning, categorizing, and reclassifying them. Sometimes this trends in the church. OF course, we all want to know that have spiritual gifts—especially if they’re not obvious examples on one of Paul’s lists. In this passage he cites wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Later in the same chapter he adds apostles, teachers, and givers of guidance. In Romans 12 he also mentions serving, encouraging, giving, leading, and showing mercy.

The list is extensive, and seems continually be under expansion or revision. It seems as though Paul keeps thinking of more and different signs of the Spirit at work, as though in the end there is no authoritative list.

What if, during those times when we get preoccupied with identifying our gifts, we are focusing on the wrong thing? What if the real point isn’t the categories, but variety? Could it be that the Spirit is at work in every moment that we (with intent or by accident) think or act out of selfless love, and for the common good?

Could it be that we exercise myriad and innumerable “gifts” whenever we unselfconsciously allow Christ expression in our daily lives? 

Gospel: John 2:1-11 

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "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." Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. 

Reflections: This reading invariably sparks a lot of discussion, ranging from observations about the place and nature of Mary to the fact that Jesus is not depicted as austere and judgmental of the bridegroom’s poor planning or days of drinking and partying. All that and more deserve comment, but I’m going to focus on three things that struck me that last time I listened to this reading.

          First, (however we interpret it) Jesus’ response to his mother tells us that he isn’t inclined to act. Nevertheless, when directly confronted with the problem, he responds—and responds generously. I can’t help but think about the many times each day when something unanticipated comes up. Maybe it takes me out of my comfort zone (a homeless person?), is inconvenient (a flat tire? an impediment to my lunch hour?), or is not my responsibility (a coworker who asks for help doing something she should already know how to do?). At such times I have a choice. I can protect my time and space and refuse to respond (and sometimes that’s the best to do). Or I can accept the interruption and trust that God will meet me in the situation right in front of me.

The second thing I noticed in this story was the behavior of the servants. Now, it’s reasonable to assume that servants had no obligation to follow the instructions of a guest. That makes their quick obedience surprising. What is more, Jesus’ instructions involved lugging six stone jars to the water source, then filling them to the brim, and bringing them back again. Jars holding 20-30 gallons each.

Now consider, what is the largest container of liquid you buy? How easy is it to haul from your vehicle into the house? What if it were made of stone?

Then put yourself in the servants’ shoes. Surely they must have wondered “why?” What was the point of filling these great heavy jars with water, anyway? Jesus wasn’t yet known for miracles.

Third. “You have kept the good wine until now.” Anybody with any money sense would save money by serving the good stuff before people had imbibed too much to care. By the third day, the guests probably couldn’t tell the difference. So the steward is surprised: now comes the good wine.

The steward doesn’t say “the best wine.” That would imply that the wine served first was good, and the water-become-wine was better. It would mean that the early and the late wine were of the same type of stuff, simply occupying a different place on the continuum from worst to best.

Rather, the implication is that this wine is different. While the steward thought the first wine was good, once he tasted this wine he realizes that the first wine wasn’t even particularly good. This is the good wine. There is a new experience that helps interpret customary experience.

What God in Christ offers us is not the same reality we already know—our status quo—only better.  It is a whole different order of things, a new way of being. It is new life that really can’t be categorized; it can only be lived.