Glad to be back (BCP)

This whole thing (blogging that is) started with a seed. Scott had it in his head that this might be a cool spiritual practice. So he invited some friends, some enemies, some scholars, and some acquantances to join him. We began last lent looking at, among other things, the 10 commandments. And much to my delight we find ourselves back there this week. We won't spend 40 days here as we did last time, but 5 has to be enough.

It feels so strange to be full ciricle on this. God is still call me to obey his commands (especially that sabbath one), and I'm still trying to figure it out. I get it right, and I write about it. I get it wrong, and I write about it. I don't even try, and this I do not write about. Yet God continually calls me back. "Hello, remember me, I'm the jealous God?" God calls me agian and again just as he called the people of Israel again and again.

BCP- Paul Again? Paul Again!

For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.

Paul opens up a can of spiritual whoop ass in just about every letter. Can you imagine living with him however? I can't I probably would have thrown him out...not that he would have stayed he would dusted his feet long ago and been out on the road bring spiritual gifts. Opinionated? Yes. Man of his times? Yes. Gives persons with a Multi cultural, diversity loving backgrounds heart attacks? Yes. Needs to be wrestled with...most certainly yes.

Paul writes with such conviction and power. At this point in my spiritual life (and later I most likely will see it differently) I see Pauls central conviction that the body will die. Knowing that the physical body will die, Paul theology seems to dwell on it. What I see today is not that he even sees the body as so bad. The body simply will not do for him what Christ crucified will do for him. For that reason the body stands in sin. Pursing the needs of the body is for Paul secondary for pursuing those things which last beyond death ie the spirit. I don't think Paul is a duelist but more of a realist. The body dies so by giving it all the attention (rich foods to eat, money to buy things to build up the body, excercise so that one never gets old, etc, etc, etc) is a losing proposition. It is not so much that the body is bad (I think) but that the body has only one direction...death. If all I have done is emphasize the life of the body in my life I have lived into...death.

The law is spiritual. That suggests that the life of faith is following the law of the spirit. This means placing the spirit above the body...not because it is better but because it will live and to obtain it is to live into it.

Ok I have a class...time to go.

Diversity!!!

This has nothing to do with this weeks texts, but I just have to share the above article with someone. Arpin-Ricci makes commentary that VTS needs to hear.

"Within every culture, God has invested something unique of Himself. I believe that He does this intentionally, so that to truly know Him, we must embrace the uniqueness of all His created peoples."

(BCP) One of these Generations...

... We'll get it right.

"I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments."

Hasn't anyone since Moses brought the law down from Sinai gotten this right? To love God and keep his commandments doesn't seem that hard, and yet, we continue to mess up. The Israelites screwed up immediately. We screw up daily. And while we have a hard time accepting that God punishes us for our sins, it seems pretty clear that our discomfort while well founded isn't Biblical. It seems as though we aren't going to get this right, contrary to my title.

But, we have something Moses and the nation of Israel didn't, Jesus Christ who did love God and did keep his commandments. Because of Jesus we are shown God's steadfast love from day-to-day til "the thousandth generation."

Thanks be to God I don't have to do it on my own.

BCP- Yup, chock full o' info

Lent three is full. Preaching would be a pill...not because there is nothing to say but mainly because there is so much. The pill is that the themes are not gentle. No children sitting on Jesus lap. God is active this week. In Exodus there is the first command which dominates the text. There is only one God. In Romans we get (what feels like) Pauls set up. The whole pericope is filled with his failure. The body is sin. The intent of Paul turns into sin. He seems trapped. After highlighting continued failure he seems to peak on one statement. In Christ he is free. In the Gospel we have God active. The temple in the Gospels, like most of my spiritual life, becomes diverted toward lesser goals. Jesus with zeal for his house drives them out. Zeal for his house resonates with the first command.

The message: First things first. God is seeking us to keep first things first. God is a jealous God.

Geez - BCP

Man am I glad I'm not preaching on Lent 3! What a tough batch of lessons! The 10 Commandments, The author of Romans rambling on about the law of sin, and Jesus getting pissed off? Are they serious? Wow.

And yet, as glad I am about not preaching, I'm sort of bummed I'm not preaching. The great things about the Lectionary is it puts us precisely in these positions. I can't in good conscience preach on the collect becuase the Lessons of Lent 3 Year B are hard. The latest post on the emergent-us blog is all about how cool it is to preach within a lectionary. When I read it a week or so ago it didn't mean much, but today, staring into a Sunday that I'd rather skip, I know that Dr. Clendenin is speaking the truth.

I wonder where this week will take me. I wonder if God will open my eyes to the sermon he will construct on my heart. I wonder if in the midst of paper writing and stress I'll be ready for God to call down from the mountain. This is indeed getting good.

16 Candles...for you, my brother!

just a little bohunk for you guys!

BCP- (sort of) "This is getting good"

All my blogging companions know how to post really neat Jesus pictures in their responses. I thought I knew all about blogging but, alas there is more to learn...

I'm a geek. I admit it. One might say "king of the dorks" but I'm not even cool enough to be king. Here I type/blog about the lectionary...Fool for Christ does not do it any justice.

The line that goes through my head after reading the ash Wednesday responses and admiring the Jesus photos is a line that imprinted itself on my psyche in my prepubescent state. Somewhere in my 12 to 14 year old life I must have watched the movie 16 Candles as many times as it was on HBO (which was a lot). I loved it. I thought at the time (and still like it even now) that it was simply the best movie. High culture was not something that I have ever been able to break into. The movie itself was crass, full of toilet humor, drinking teens, and underpants. I can't exactly remember where the line is in the movie but at some point in the movie the "king of the dorks" (Michael Anthony (?)) looks into the camera and announces "This is getting good." as he moves closer to the opportunity to "score" with the opposite sex. Needless to say for a boy of 12 to 14 full of the idiocy of youth and untried talents, any exposure to the opposite sex even via the movies was better than I was doing on my own. The movie for me captured the excitement of potential. Even the dorks score and there is a message of hope hidden there.

Yet I was even attracted to the sappy side of the movie. It was also a movie about holding out for your dreams. It told the story of a girl (who while tolerating the collection of geeks who followed her about) who desperately wanted to believe she was good enough for the "bohunk" who seemed out of her league. It ends of course with the girl getting the bohunk and the King of the dorks riding off in the great car with the blonde bombshell. What is not to like about this movie?

I'm not all that sure where I am going with all this. I barely know how all of this relates to the lectionary. My guess the line of the movie and the memory is tied to my sense of excitement (not the prepubescent kind...the spiritual kind) about being a part of this blog thing. I read two random responses about Ash Wednesday from persons I admire and while on the surface, blogging about scripture out into the websphere ranks pretty low on the "cool" meter, I could not help but get excited about the transformational quality of what we are doing. I could not help but feel that we are doing something important. We are doing something that reveals the spirit. We are, step by step, becoming. I could not help feel just a little that what we are doing here means something beyond the scope of our understanding here and now. So like the prepubescent kid looking out toward the hope and excitement of life of an adult, I look out to the hope and excitement of a life in Christ. The world may view me as a dork but I say,

"This is getting good"

But what about ourselves? - BCP

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I spent Shrove Tuesday with a friend of mine discussing the unfortunate situation the Episcopal Church finds itself in heading toward General Convention 2006. What I realized is two-fold.

1 - Seminary, specifically my experience at VTS has done something I wouldn't have imagined, it has, for some tempered the polemic. As Peter mentioned below he believes he has been transformed. I too feel as though God has used seminary to move me forward. I was once a fundamentalist (or as close as you can get in ECUSA). Today I feel like I'm more of a post-conservative than anything else. But I have been tempered and my mind has been opened.

2 - And more to the point of this post, We have spent a lot of time trying to seperate one another from the love of God. In all the rhetoric and posturing of the past 3 years, it seems to me, that all we have accomplished is seperating ourselves from the love of God. In pointing out the speck in our brother (or sister)'s eye we become sinners, we turn from God. While I cannot cause you to be removed from the love of God, I sure as hell can do it to myself. I vow here to turn back, to face God, and to trust in his faithfulness. For it is through the faith of (in) Christ that we are saved.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the Christian Year. I feel that it is a day in which we can actually claim the fact that we all sin, that we all are broken, and that we all fall short of the perfection of God. For me as well, it is a day when the claims made that Christians are "Good" and must be of some sort of Dana Carvey-esque (Saturday Night Live Reference for all you people under 23) "Churchlady" are broken open. It is a day when we can claim that we are sinners, that we have darkness, that we are low at times, when we don't need to be happy, perfect, well-adjusted little campers. It is a day when we can claim the fact that our very lives are dependent upon God's gift to us, that we are flawed creatures that somehow find ways (sometimes) to let God's light shine in the work we do, and in the things we say.

I really loved reading Steve's reflection (below) about Ash Wednesday, and whether we should wear our ashes as a sign of our witness to our God, and to our faith. Or, whether we should wipe off the ashes so that we don't try to trumpet our own piety (or our sorry attempts at it!). I feel like our wills are probably flawed and so I say that whichever makes us most uncomfortable we should probably do. For me, as a recovering knee-jerk theological liberal it is probably good for me to smear some ashes on my head every day (of Lent, and beyond) and to wear a big old cross....for others who might desire to show their piety, and for whom witness and mission come easily, perhaps for them wiping it off will work best.

But, what do I know really? Nada.

Ash Wednesday - BCP

"Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

The Anlgican News Service put out a press release written by the Rector of a big church in Manhattan called "Why all the Ashes?" In it he ponders whether he should have a washing station at the back to the church to wipe the ashes of parishoners foreheads before they return to work. In doing so he is attempting to live out the Gospel lesson for Ash Wednesday which calls us to live our fait without being showy.

On the flip side, in the Gospel for Lent 2, Jesus is very straight forward with Peter and the rest. Do not be ashamed. Wear the ashes on your forehead not for your own glory but for the Fathers. Deny yourself and pick up your cross so that God might be glorified in all you do. Being a "good" Anglican I appreciate the tension Jesus sets up here. Living faith without being showy vs. living faith to bring about conversion and transformation. Tough stuff.

BCP- What was Abraham thinking?

"The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

Reading this caused me to understand a little bit Kierkegaards dilemma when reading of Abraham. What was he thinking here? Was he telling Isaac that God will provide a lamb meaning that Isaac was that lamb or was he holding out in hope that God would provide a lamb in exchange of Isaac?

And what was Isaac thinking here? You can almost see him put two and two together. It is kind of like him going "Hey Dad there is no lamb here? I don't really like where this is going."

My hope is that Abraham lived into the hope trusting in God's providence. One image that just popped into my head is that the Passion is part two of the drama that ends with Abraham's upraised knife.

Who is to condemn? (BCP)

"It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?"

I am condemned. I am convicted. I admit it. I have said the words, in fact you can read the words here.

(You'll note I may have been in this place before as well)

I have said of other faithful folk that I'm not sure they are Christians. And I stand here today convicted by the words of Paul, those same words I used in the past to assert my own orthodoxy over and above another's. It is God who justifies. Jesus Christ "stretched out [his] arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of [his] saving embrace." (BCP 101).

I'm sitting in this deep mire of a changing theological understanding. I have nothing. I don't own truth. God justifies. God holds Truth. My sinful eyes are as blind as the sinner next to me. It is not wishy/washy for me to ascribe to the motto etched on the front of our library, "Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will."

Yet I know there still exists Truth. Through the conviction of God's holy Scripture today I feel like I've seen a bit of that truth. Will you someday over lunch, or on this blog site, point to your bit of truth so that I might continue to grow in faith and believing? I hope you will.

BCP- Paul was not kidding around

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul was a player. Not player like high school kids these days understand Player but player in that he lived the walk. Paul was convicted. It is funny, there is a sense where I wonder if modern folks live as convicted. I heard recently that the only type of conviction some modern church goers believe in is the type that occur through courts of law.

Paul was a player. He believed. He set out. He was taunted, arrested, beaten, scorned, starved, and almost drowned convinced of the gospel. And I wonder what came first, the conviction which led to his great travels or the travels based on a smaller conviction which grew into the conviction that is revealed here. He states that "I am convinced". Now it is obvious that as a Pharisee he was not convinced in Christ. One can even posit the idea that he becomes convinced through his conversion. His conversion would lead to a stronger state of conviction. But how much of his conviction as he expresses in the Epistle, grows out of his experience of living a Christian life and trusting that God would provide. I would guess that Paul was not as convinced when he first came to the faith as he was at his death.

Conviction I believe grows. I believe we are led to conviction.

Still Not Ready

As I read through all the readings for Lent 1 I'm realizing something; I'm not ready for Lent to come. With this quarter came a new class schedule, a new worship schedule, a new work schedule for my wife, a new lunch routine, and a lot of new stress. I'm still trying to see the light of Christ that is the Season after Epiphany and now I'm about to be asked to dive into Lent, into penatence. I've mentioned a few times that I'm not ready for God to speak to me, and this day is no exception. While the readings for Lent 1 are all extremely joyful, it still means I'm about to look at myself very closely and I've got enough to do.

I'm up to my neck in the water and the liturgical year is about to add some more to the pool. I guess I'll just look for that rainbow.

Oh Crap! (BCP)

A voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

Some of you have heard this story before, so you will have to forgive me for over using it. It was February of 2002 and I was at the Jubilee Conference, sitting in a break-out group for Christian college students studying business. The guy is making some good points (all of which I don't remember - I was preparing to propose to Cassie in mere hours) and then he asks us to find a partner. I sit down with somebody and the leader asks us to think silently for 2 minutes about a question before discussion with our partner.

A voice came from heaven, "Why are you studying business? Is it to further God's kingdom in some way, or to get money and buy stuff?"

And the Spirit immediately drove me out into the wilderness. The only thing I can remember running through my head at that time was "Oh Crap!" You see for 22 years "get money and buy stuff" had been an acceptable answer. Even though I was a Christian, I had at the core of me materialism and the goal of crushing fingers on the corporate ladder. I spent the next two hours sitting on a cold bench near Pittsburgh's Point Park trying to make sense of it all.

Jesus has been there. Mark tells of Jesus hearing the words of God (maybe for the first time - see Dogma), and immediately being driven into the wilderness. Jesus knows the confusion that comes from hearing the voice of God. Jesus knows the temptations that come when the opportunity to run away is out there. Jesus has been there before and Jesus made it through. Jesus through his Holy Spirit helped me make it through that time of great anxiety.

BCP- Christ as the Ark

I am smitten with the image in 1st Peter. It is simply a stunning image. The very act of Christ's death and resurrection which becomes the very ark which transports us. We like Noah get the opportunity to get on board. Our baptism not as something that cleanses us but more like our passage ticket. This is so much better than two coins on our eyes for the ferryman at the river Styx...this is the invitation to enter into the kingdom now!

ET Phone Home (BCP)

This weekend Cassie and I were among the volunteer leaders for the youth ministry ski trip at my field education site. We had a blast skiing, snowtubing, and hanging out with the kids. On Saturday night we watched that deep theological classic, ET: Extra Terrestrial through the haze of a fireplace that didn't draw up the chimney well. Between the burning in our eyes and the haze of smoke we were all reminded of that film which gave Stephen Spielberg his big break. On Sunday, we reflected on that deep theological classic, and really had our eyes opened to the latent Judeo-Christian themes running through it. Our final question delt with the final scene as ET's ship takes off and flies away. Do you remember what is seen in the ships trail? A rainbow. We talked at length about what rainbows mean in the Bible. We even argued about who the rainbow served as a reminder to. Does God really need a reminder of his covenant with Noah? I really don't have much to ponder on theologically here, but I just realized that the OT reading for Lent1 includes that passage from Genesis. Maybe for the first time in my life I'll preach on the Old Testament on March 5. For as eight were saved by water in the days of Noah, so too are we saved through death and rebirth in the waters of baptism.

just checking in

ski trip!!!!
packing!!!!!
Ahhhh!!!
Where are my gloves!!!!!

I hope I find some silence to find God

Six Days later?

So, I checked, and Jesus has just gotten done rebuking Peter at Ceseara Philipi (yeah, I know the spelling is not perfect). Jesus has just taught about his future suffering, and that all must give there life in order to earn it. And "Six Days Later" (NRSV) is the next detail. Then he is transfigured before a few choice witnesses.
Is Mark reflecting back on creation? Is this the final day of the creation retold as the final day of Jesus taking on the mantle of sacrifice? Mark's central motion of earthly ministry leading to the revelation of Jesus's true calling to the cross takes the full six days to become complete. And in the completeness of this new (well, newly revealed) calling, Jesus is transfigured, made clean for his purpose. These are big images that need more working out, but I think it is workable.
I know, where do you get the message for the people out of this. But I just wanted to think about why in the sparcely writting gospel of Mark (It is the shortest) we are given this interesting detail. More OT connections to dwell on as we bring the transfiguration story to the people.