Ordinary Time: Living through the Church Year

Psalm 80:1-7 Isaiah 66:7-11 Luke 13:31-35 This will probably be my last post before Christmas. Tomorrow's readings are for the fourth Sunday of Advent, then Christmas Eve and Christmas day have a set of three different readings. I will post lists of those tomorrow. I'm glad I have done this during Advent. It is good to sit down and wrestle with Scripture first thing in the morning during a season that can feel incredibly busy. I will have to decide what I will do here, if anything, after Christmas. (Comments are appreciated if you would like to see this keep going. I am truly on the fence.) As I look at these final readings of Advent, there seems to be one overwhelming message. God loves the people He created. He longs to love them, care for them, nurture them, gather them to Himself. God loves you. God loves me. He wants to care for us as a shepherd cares for his flock. He wants to love us as a mother loves the little baby nursing at her breast. He wants to protect us as...

Psalm 80:1-7 Isaiah 42:10-18 Hebrews 10:32-35 If there is one thing that Jesus' birth is, it is God doing something new. It was so new that even though there are as many as 400 prophesies pointing toward Jesus, it still caught everyone of guard. A baby, born to average parents, laid in a manger because the inn was full, was to become the long awaited Messiah, the savior of God's people. Yet, He didn't come with armies. He didn't overthrow the Roman government. Heck, He didn't even suggest overthrowing the government. Instead, He did the opposite. He talked about loving your neighbor... and your enemy, being forgiving, being generous, and returning to God, so that the father who waits for you can run and welcome you home with open arms. Jesus was a man, yet also God. Turn to God, follow Jesus, and you will be saved. A result of that is God will write His law on your heart and mind, and you will be able to do the crazy kind of loving that Jesus calls us to do. T...

Psalm 80:1-7 Isaiah 42:10-18 Hebrews 10:32-39 Morning appointments and time to think and write seem to be mutually exclusive for me. And to make it worse, the early morning rushing around and going was for naught, because my holiday-addled brain got the time wrong, and we missed the appointment. It left me kind of kicking myself for much of the remaining day. We all have personal expectations for how we should live and act and think. I don't think I'm wrong when I say that not a single one of us lives up to our own personal expectations. Isn't that why there are shelves and shelves of books about this very topic every year? How to be a better you... How to ditch those expectations because they're not good for you, girl... How to accept and love yourself. The trouble is, all of this advice is written by flawed, human authors. It's only going to go so far, because like its authors, the advice is flawed. It can't truly change us. Only God can do that. Only ...

Isaiah 11:1-9 Numbers 16:20-35 Acts 28:23-31 We're back to the trouble with pride in these passages, even though the word doesn't appear anywhere in any of them. It's there, though, right under the surface. Korah and his followers though he knew better than God. The Jews in Rome met with Paul and listened to what he had to say from morning until night, yet thought they knew better. Our knowledge is faulty. On our own, we will often come to the wrong conclusions. So how do we know the truth? Paul quotes Isaiah who tell us. We turn to God. God brings understanding. Without this understanding, we see things in a skewed way. We get things wrong. We hold on too tight to wrong conclusions. We become set in our ways, thinking that we have all the answers. Do not be swallowed up by your own conclusions as to how God and God's world works. Be open to what God is trying to tell you. Be humble in your convictions. Study God's word, and if you lack wisdom, ask God, wh...

Isaiah 11:1-9 Numbers 16:1-19 Hebrews 13:7-17 I'm going to admit it. I'm stumped. I have no idea what the people who chose the liturgy readings were thinking this time. The Isaiah passage is easy, but then we go back to the story about the rebellion of Korah in Numbers and a passage in Hebrews that is clearly separated from its context. With a collection of passages like this, finding some coherence to them starts to feel a little like a parlor trick. Here goes... What sacrifice does God find pleasing? Well, not Korah's. That didn't work out so well for him and his followers. Grasping for power is clearly out. The writer of Hebrews is pretty clear, though. A sacrifice of praise to God, doing good to others, and sharing what we have. This is what is pleasing to God. Imagine a world where everyone stopped grasping for what they could get... power, money, acknowledgment... and instead focused on putting God in His rightful place by doing as much good to others a...

Zephaniah 3:14-20 Isaiah 12:2-6 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18

Isaiah 12:2-6 Amos 9:8-15 Luke 1:57-66 We talked a lot about fear yesterday. Over the past years, I have thought a lot about what the opposite emotion of fear is. I think these three passages show us. The opposite of fear is joy. Joy that God is strong enough to be our fortress and salvation. Joy that God is a god of restoration. Joy that God will love us forever. Joy that God has created a way that all of this is even possible. Advent is the preparation for God's great mercy. The birth of His son who came to make all things right. For the beginning of the restoration. For the avenue that we can be with God forever and experience His blessings. We do not need to be filled with fear. God is on the throne and He is capable. Our joy comes from acknowledging this and trusting that God is capable and lovingly cares for us. Joy. Not fear.

Isaiah 12:2-6 Amos 8:4-12 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 Money. It so often comes down to money, doesn't it? But it's also not really about money at all. It's not much different from the (long) discussion I had with a child yesterday. So much anger and bad behavior, but when we really boiled it down to what was going on, it was really just so much fear. Anger is the easier and more avoidant emotion. With money, it's not the money, it's the control. Money allows us to feel we are in control. Money allows us to feel we are secure. And money allows us to feel we do not need God. When we base our safety and security and status on money alone, something happens. Our safety, security, and status become increasingly more tenuous despite more and more money being piled up. Actually, I think we are coming right back around to fear again. I can tell you from years of living with it in other people (and myself), that fear is not conducive to pleasant or generous behavior. Fear cau...

It was bound to happen. Life got in the way, and I missed a day. Here are the readings for yesterday. Psalm 126 Isaiah 35:3-7 Luke 7: 18-30 And moving on to today. Isaiah 12:2-6 Amos 6:1-8 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 Today's readings are sort of a tale of two people. One is complacent and comfortable while the other is struggling and afflicted. Yet in the upside down world of the Gospel, it is made pretty clear that the comfortable people are the ones who are doomed. These three passages taken together are both hopeful and extremely uncomfortable all at the same time, particularly for those of us in affluent societies. People like comfort. I like comfort. We seek out comfort and cling to verses that promise God's comfort. We even read some of those last week. But sometimes language can be tricky, especially when a word has more than one meaning and connotation. Comfort is one of those slippery words. It acts as both noun and verb, and sometimes we are not terribly exact ...

Psalm 126 Isaiah 19:18-21 2 Peter 1:2-15 I grew up in the desert. When I look at pictures of the Negev in Israel, it looks remarkably familiar to the desert around Phoenix. Because much of the Bible was written to a desert people, there are analogies used that would make sense to them. If you haven't ever lived in a desert, the power of these word pictures may lose a lot of their strength. The overwhelming change of God's restoration is likened to what streams of water do to the Negev desert. What does that look like? Well, as you probably know, deserts are dry, but they are not all like sand deserts such as the Sahara. Many deserts have plant life... hardy trees, though they grow alone and not in forests, flowers which bloom when the conditions are right, grasses which lie dormant for months. There is a lot there, you just don't see it in the driest months. There are also dry creek beds, washes is what they are called in the southwest. It's all there, just not ob...

Psalm 126 Isaiah 40:1-11 Romans 8:22-25 There have been a few times in my life where things have been so hard that I have felt literally hopeless. Nothing seemed as though it would change. In fact, things seemed so hard that I couldn't even imagine how they could be changed to be better. It's a hard place to be. Then, in that very dark place, I would catch, somehow, even the smallest glimmer of hope. Something that would happen that would allow me to see that the mess I was currently in was not permanent. I would cling to that tiny bit of hope with the same desperation that a drowning person clings to a life preserver. These passages are God throwing us a life preserver of hope. We are not alone in our hurt and mess. God knows we are here and not forgotten us. Chapter 40 in Isaiah, the turning point in the book which focuses more on the coming hope than the present mess of sin, begins with the word comfort. It's even repeated. God knows we need comfort. He knows we ...

I told you this was a work in progress. I should probably make 'unrealistic' my middle name, because unrealistic expectations as to my abilities is a recurring theme. And it was unrealistic to think I could write every day in Advent without a break. To that end, I've decided to take off the actual Sundays in Advent. I will still list the readings for you to follow along, but a Sabbath from actually writing is definitely called for. Malachi 3:1-4 Luke 1:68-79 Philippians 1:3-11 Luke 3:1-6

Luke 1:68-79 Malachi 4:1-6 Luke 9:1-6 First, watch this video. It's short. "Leaping like calves from a stall" Sometimes it just helps to have an actual visual image, doesn't it? Malachi tells us that this will be the response of those who love and fear God when the sun of righteousness rises. Uncontained joy. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. It is the last word from God which is followed by a 400 year silence. It is important to pay close attention to the endings of things, and Malachi, in this last chapter, neatly sums up the whole of Biblical history. People are a sinful and messy people who anger God with their evil ways. But God, the sun of righteousness will return, and for those who follow Him, it will be a joyful time, while for those who don't it will mean utter and complete destruction. (Even the root will be wiped out.) This process will start when Elijah is sent again to prepare the people for God's return, for the coming da...

Luke 1:68-79 Malachi 3:13-18 Philippians 1:18b-26 Sometimes it is difficult to remember that what is right before our eyes is not all there is. Looking solely at the society Malachi was writing to, it would seem things were not so great. From yesterday's reading, sorcerery, adulterery, lying, oppressing hired workers by not paying them fairly, not caring for widows and orphans, and denying foreigners justice was common practice. God explicitly states that these are all things that will be subject to His judgement. Today we read that the arrogant (read those who see themselves above God or without need for God) prospered and were called blessed by those around them. As a result, the general society collectively wondered why it was worth following God. Why try to live a holy life if it didn't pay off? Where was this god anyway? Sound familiar? Frankly, I think it sounds a lot familiar. Jumping to Philippians, we find Paul in jail, from where he is writing his letter to th...

Luke 1:68-69 Malachi 3:5-12 Philippians 1:12-18a The way these lectionary readings work is that for the first half of the week, the readings are chosen to more fully expand the readings from the previous Sunday, while the readings for the second half of the week are chosen to prepare the reader for the readings of the coming Sunday. As I look ahead at the list, the pattern seems to be keeping the primary Scripture for several days with the secondary Scriptures changing, sometimes with longer passages being broken up and read in succession. I'm still sorting out how best to structure my responses to these readings... what should I focus on when. It's a trial and error process in many respects. I'm thinking that since the primary reading is, well, primary, that is what I should focus on first, even though I can see we will be here for a couple more days. So that's what I'll do. This is what is called the Benedictus, spoken by Zechariah, father of John. That wo...

Psalm 90 Isaiah 1:24-31 Luke 11:29-32 I love the book of Isaiah. It's not an easy book at times, but it's all there, the whole scope of the Bible. When you read through the whole book, it becomes very, very clear that God hates sin, but God really loves sinners, and the sin God hates the most is pride. Pride being any shred of an attitude that puts anything in the place of God. We see this right at the beginning of the book, like a thesis statement: "Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed." (vv. 27-28) There will be justice and righteousness. As Moses tells us, "We are consumed with your anger." But it isn't misplaced, though it takes Moses a verse or two to get around to the main point that God's anger is due to our iniquities, our secret sins. None of us is perfect. Even those who try their very ...

Psalm 90 2 Samuel 7: 18-29 Revelation 22: 12-16 You know, the problem with my write a first draft, maybe scan for typos, and then hit publish method of writing (because to make this whole blog-thing work, that is truly all the time I have), is that I think about what I've written that morning and want to go back and do some editing. Imagine. Yesterday, I played a little fast and loose with the C. S. Lewis quote, and those of you who are Lewis fans were probably grinding their teeth a bit. Lewis calls Aslan, the Christ figure, not a tame lion. Safe wasn't a part of it. My apologies. Not tame, not safe, yesterday's readings do leave one a little uncomfortable. God is not someone to be taken lightly, nor is God always totally understandable to our feeble, human, time-bound selves. If we were to leave the story there, we might be hesitant to want to seek out God at all. Who knows what could happen? But God does not leave us there. We need to understand something of Hi...

Psalm 90 Numbers 17:1-11 2 Peter 3 When we think of Advent, destruction of masses of people is not really what leaps to mind, yet this is exactly where we are. The trouble with daily readings like this is that they are separated from their context. The story in Numbers is kind of odd and interesting taken alone, but it also loses it's true impact. To see how this is really the culmination of a much bigger story, you have to know the story. So, I find myself using the phrase which I seem to use a lot when doing Bible study, let's back up. The book of Numbers comes after the Israelites have escaped slavery in Egypt but before they are allowed to enter the Promised Land. They are smack dab in the middle of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The people of Israel are, to use yesterday's phrase, living in the in between. Literally. They are no longer slaves, but they certainly have not reached their destination. During this time, God continued to give to Moses ...

First Sunday in Advent Jeremiah 33:14-16 Psalm 25: 1-10 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36 If you have read even a little bit of the Bible, you begin to realize that time how we humans experience it, and time as God experiences it are very different things. We live in time, God lives outside of it. I don't know about you, but I have an extremely difficult time trying to imagine what living outside of time would feel like. Frankly, I just cannot do it. These two very different ways of viewing time are what we bump up against when we read the lectionary passages for the day. Jeremiah foretells the coming Messiah... the righteous Branch will spring up. That part is pretty clear, but then at the end of the passage, it goes onto say that Judah and Jerusalem will live in safety. Well, even the most cursory reading of history or the newspaper will show that this is certainly not the case so far. Jumping ahead to the passage from Luke, we find rather the opposite of peace for Je...