January 18, 2009 (Second Sunday after Epiphany)
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins today (the proper on p. 61 of ELW may be appropriate). A question that may be worth exploring: To what end are we unified? Various groups through history have been unified towards some rather unsavory goals (two that come to my mind are the KKK and Nazi Germany). So, to what aims will the church be united?
Prayer of the Day (ELW):
Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, most merciful redeemer, for the countless blessings and benefits you give. May we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day praising you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20] narrates Samuel’s curious call. Several elements of the story are “preachable.” Of course, most obviously, there is the difficulty in recognizing God’s voice. Related, is the value of community (in Samuel’s case, Eli) in discerning God’s call. How does our Christian community (local, denominational, and ecumenical) inform our understanding of God’s call? In other words, who are we called to be and what are we called to do? (I think looking out for the most vulnerable people in our world has to be right near the top of our priorities.)
A second strain in the passage (mostly in vv. 11-20) is the difficulty Samuel encountered in delivering the message to Eli. It was not something he wanted to say and he suspected that Eli would not react favorably to the message. What difficult things might God be calling us to speak out against today?
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 is often interpreted as an affirmation of the inherent value of every human being. What impact should this have on how we look at poor persons? If we truly believed this, would our attitude (and resolve) towards the roughly 10 million people who die every year of hunger and hunger related diseases somehow change?
The passage from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:12-20) can be read in light of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In what ways has the collective Christian body been defiled? Of course schism is one way in which the body is defiled. Since the body (in this case, of Christ) is a temple, bought with a price, in what ways can we glorify God with this body? One potential answer to this question: Empowered by the Holy Spirit, seek to serve the most vulnerable of our world—poor and hungry persons, women and children, those who are ill.
John 1:43-51. This curious encounter between Jesus and Philip provides a delightful connection into the concept of seeking and serving Christ in others. Philip’s initial response (“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”) draws attention to the way in which our own prejudices may blind us to seeing Christ in others. What are those prejudices and predispositions that inhibit our ability to see Christ clearly?
David Creech is director for Hunger Education, ELCA World Hunger Program
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January 25, 2009 (Third Sunday after Epiphany)
The passages in the lectionary this week all underscore the imminence of God’s judgment/call and the decisive response of those who were faced with that reality. On the one hand, the passages can present a challenge to my understanding of God’s grace. The underlying assumption in all four is that we need to do something to avoid wrath (the passages from Jonah and 1 Corinthians are exemplary). On the other hand, if we understand that it is God’s grace that enables us to respond, the passages encourage us to live out God’s call with abandon. In a world filled with poverty and strife, what might that look like? How might the church today answer the call to radical discipleship?
Prayer of the Day (ELW):
Almighty God, by grace alone you call us and accept us in your service. Strengthen us by your Spirit, and make us worthy of your call, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Jonah is a curious little parable. Though the author gives us little indication of the precise nature of Nineveh’s transgressions (we are only told that they are evil [1:2] and the king issues a decree that the people should repent from their “evil ways” and “the violence that is in their hands” [3:8]), what is clear is that God is about to overthrow the city. In Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Jonah delivers the message, and upon hearing the warning, the people repent. God then decides to withhold judgment. As noted above, the imminence of God’s judgment provokes a response. What does it mean to repent? What sins do we need to repent of? We have assurance that God will forgive us, do we have courage to confess and change our destructive behaviors?
Psalm 62:5-12 (6) encourages us to put out trust in God. God’s fidelity is assured, in what ways do we need to grow in our faith? In these turbulent financial times, can we reach out to those in need, trusting that God will continue to provide for us?
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 is one of those tricky passages that I’m not quite sure how to handle. The calloused rejection of one’s spouse, the stoic refusal to mourn or rejoice, and the willful disregard for one’s situation in life aren’t exactly virtues in my mind. What the brief passage does underscore, however, is the imminence of Christ’s return. Many of the first Christians believed that the Christ event inaugurated the new age and that his return could happen at any moment. Because of the proximity of Christ’s return, Christians lived radical lives (see the comments on Mark below). Nearly 2,000 years later, and still without any sign of the parousia, it is hard to live with that same urgency. How would we live differently if we truly believed that Christ could (or perhaps even would) return at any moment? If we knew that it would all end momentarily, what would we be sure to do? What would be of value to us? (Is thinking in this way at all beneficial?)
Jesus’ call of Simon, Andrew, James, and John in Mark 1:14-20 invites all sorts of speculation. In this tersely narrated pericope, these two sets of brothers are abruptly inserted into the story, with apparently no previous contact with Jesus. Why did they so quickly drop everything to follow a man that they had never met? Was it Jesus’ magnetic personality? His authority? Did Mark forget to inform us of a previous meeting? We’re not the first to find this scene strange—even in the first century the author of Luke’s Gospel felt a need to switch a few events around to make the narrative coherent (see Luke 4:38-5:11).
I think that Mark is intentionally laconic in this passage. Like so many other places in his Gospel (see esp. Mark 8:22-10:52), Mark wants to demonstrate for us his understanding of discipleship. Jesus calls and we respond. But what are we called to?
In Mark’s Gospel, discipleship involves taking up our cross (8:34), losing our life (8:35), becoming the servant of all (9:35), welcoming children (9:37), becoming like a child (10:15), giving up possessions to help the poor (10:21), and so on. It is by unequivocally responding to God’s call and living out of kingdom values that the kingdom of God is truly at hand (cf. 1:15). Again, what would that look like today?