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| ANd yet we still ask... |
If I were on Lectionary this Lenten season (I'm off on my own tangent instead) I would have done a series about covenants. First Noah, then Abraham, now Moses and the Big 10.
But of course that is only one option in this very rich week. The RCL passages can be read here
And first, let us pray (prayer source):
Artist of souls,
you sculpted a people for yourself
out of the rocks of wilderness and fasting.
Help us as we take up your invitation to prayer and simplicity,
that the discipline of these forty days
may sharpen our hunger for the feast of your holy friendship,
and whet our thirst for the living water you offer
through Jesus Christ. Amen.
you sculpted a people for yourself
out of the rocks of wilderness and fasting.
Help us as we take up your invitation to prayer and simplicity,
that the discipline of these forty days
may sharpen our hunger for the feast of your holy friendship,
and whet our thirst for the living water you offer
through Jesus Christ. Amen.
This week we have (in addition to the Big 10 -- which might have a different meaning in this month of NCAA basketball):
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| Cleansing of which temple? |
- a song of praise for all GOd has given, not the least of which is the gift of the law.
- some confusion about what wisdom and foolishness might be. Who is foolish? Paul or the Corinthians? Anyone want to vote for both?
- the somewhat iconic cleansing of the temple. Always a tempting sermon target, not least in this year of the #OCCUPY movement and the 1% vs, the 99% . I know of one person who is making that link this year (although she is using [used?] MArk's version as she works through Borg/Crossan's The LAst Week)
- the temple that is destroyed and rebuilt in 3 days. Is this merely an add-on to the cleansing or a whole separate sermon topic?
I'm on the worship slot for Thursday communion at uni., and am slightly ahead of the game having actually managed to get it written by yesterday evening. Miracle.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to share my 5 minute reflection on Ex 20:1-17 with you all.
I'm preparing for Sunday and after a fair bit of dithering have settled on the Gospel reading. I've been re-reading NT Wright on the subject and will probably be going along with his interpreation of an action that prefigured both Christ's death and the destruction of the temple - leading into something about the Church, as the people of God - not in terms of an institution of building - being the "place" where God is made visible to our contemporaries. Or somesuch anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd like to do if I have time to do it justice is introduce the thing with a story about that day told "from below". Maybe from the point of view of one of the dove sellers - who after all, had a living to earn. (This might also be a way of "smuggling in" some background information about how the temple operated, without making it too heavy).
All still embryonic for now.
Mostly Psalm 19 for me. I am finding some excellent resources in this book
ReplyDeleteThis relieves a bit of pressure as I will be in "big city to the east" for some cultural arts self-care.
I am working with the Psalm and John; something around the notion of the glory of God's creation, and the idea that church should be about substance, not form. We get caught up in the rituals or "how it should be" instead of remembering that it is about God's presence with us, not whether we start on time or everyone sings in tune. When I was an interne, consecrating Communion for the first time in my training church, I neglected to put the paten back on top of the chalice after Communion--I had had someone ask for baptism during the Communion time (which this church offered). It threw me a bit..but I was scolded by a deacon after the service for not replacing the paten. When I shared that with my supervisory team, someone said, "were they afraid Jesus would get out?" May use that as an illustration--the "form" of precise arrangement of the altar meant more to that person than that someone felt so moved by God's presence that she wanted to be baptised. PS My book arrived last week--am looking at it longingly while forcing myself to finish several library books that are coming due soon.
ReplyDeleteI am leaning towards Exodus right now; having preached on the OT reading the last two weeks and touching on covenants both times, I almost feel like I've got a series going...although I didn't plan it that way.
ReplyDeleteI also have a sustainable sermon on the gospel that I don't want to use as is, but it would be really adaptable to something else I've been thinking about ... how are we "church" outside of our building, and what if that building didn't exist? So I have options.
Rainbow Pastor, I hear you ... we Episcopalians are all about the form, and that is important, but it's all too easy for that to take precedence over the substance, and for "we've always done it that way" to become rationale for the silliest things.
I'm going off lectionary and talking about wilderness up until Palm Sunday. This week I'm focusing in Numbers on the Passover and what the Hebrews learned about wilderness and what we as a church can learn from wilderness times.
ReplyDeleteI'm really struggling with this one, trying to see where my focus should be. Rainbow Pastor's story reminds me of an incident many years ago. My small daughter asked what the tabernacle was for and what was in it. I said, without really thinking, "That's where they keep the reserved sacrament" and to make it simpler added, "Jesus is in there." My priest was with me and started laughing with glee as he imagined Jesus on the inside rattling the door and yelling, "Let me out! Let me out." I've been very careful of my words ever since!
ReplyDeleteI think maybe this could be a part of my sermon.