Love Must Visit

Feast of the Visitation

(A feast warm to the heart of all loosely defined Sisterhoods;)

Luke 1:39-56

Detail of Magnificat/De Silencio 
 by Maurice Denis, 1909

In those days Mary set out and made haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greetings, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud voice, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

-Luke 1.39-43

But that is what love does.  Love goes.  It seeks.  It overflows.  Before faith and before knowledge, love leads.  Love is always the first source.

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my Spirit rejoices in God my Savior…

-Luke 1:46

One pregnant woman’s response to the blessing of another…

The song is in praise of God who has blessed two dear friends and kinswomen, two of God's 'little ones" in an insignificant near-eastern backwater, and in so doing:

has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; who has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty 

- Luke 1:52-53

“If you meet the Virgin

Coming down the road,

Ask her into your house

She bears the Word of God.”

-john of the cross, 16^th century

Corpus Christi

from the Sequence:

For now shines forth

the day sublime

that brings remembrance 

of the time

when Jesus first his table blessed.

He blessed the table
He blessed all that the table means
...about human community
...about what it means to be a person
...about forgiveness
...about sustenance of mind, and heart, and soul
...about passion
and so much more...

O Lord who comes to us 
as sustenance in so many ways
Guide our imaginations 
let us contemplate well, and big, and rich, and deep
because it is YOU we contemplate
Only in our arrogance
do we consider YOU pinned down 
as if our imaginations have no more work to do.

To Be or Not To Be...Worthy

May 29, 2016

Proper 4

Revised Common Lectionary

Luke 7:1-10
(preached among the community of Zion UCC, Evansville)

Honestly

When the lectionary gives me a healing story

I oftentimes cringe

My eyes roll and I say to myself

… "there goes Jesus healing again”

Now don’t get me wrong

Who doesn’t love a good healing story?

Well…

probably quite a few…

if we are honest

As a chaplain, healing stories can be very, very tricky

Well…for anyone who has experienced an un-healing

Or a healing prayer that went unanswered

At the hospital I have frequent encounters with

Distraught families in search of miracles

And…Rarely does resolution

come in such a neat and tidy way

So I had to visit this story several times this week

To find a way in

To find a word

A word of grace and healing for me…

That I might then authentically share with you

The Lectionary has us in Luke’s Gospel

Its Year C

Luke is the master storyteller

He likes to echo the Old Testament

Todays story echoes 2 Kings and the healing of the leper Naaman of Syria

And he likes surprising characters who turn out to be heros

Gentiles, Samaritans, lepers, …centurions

Who are today’s characters?

And how might they help us uncover something revelatory

From this healing story?

There is the dying servant

He is central but we don’t know anything about him

Except that his master cares deeply for him

There’s Jesus:  We know about him. 

But he isn’t initiating anything in this story…

Which is different

He’s responding…and his response is

AMAZEMENT and SURPRISE

Which is also different

Then there’s the Centurion:

A leader of the oppressing/occupying force

A warrior.  A leader of soldiers.

A man used to giving orders and being obeyed

Military life is orderly and hierarchical by necessity

The one who couldn’t possibly be capable of doing anything GOOD

Becomes the surprising Hero

Lots of commentaries I read focused on this aspect of the story

Jesus’ surprise at the unlikely faith of the Centurion…

And the takeaway

Is that our God is a God of surprises

So don’t miss it…don’t be blind to seeing God

Where least expected

I think there is more to this story

There are two other character groups

Go-betweens…messengers

-The Jewish Elders

-And the Centurion’s friends

And here is where I find it getting interesting

The Jewish Elders

They are sent by the Centurion

They are eager to tell Jesus what WORTHINESS looks like

It looks like “a major donor”

“For he loves our nation and he built a synagogue for us.”

Worthiness looks like the Centurion

Do you sense some real entitlement here?

…if you can forget the end of the story

Doesn’t it seem like the Centurion is cashing in

his accumulated chips for a favor?

And the Jewish leaders aren’t they playing the same game

Acting as the hired lobbyists?

…perhaps they are hoping for a phase II building project???

If I were hearing this story for the first time

I think I would more easily sense this as a real POWER PLAY

The Jewish leaders plead with Jesus

“He deserves your atention…he is worthy of having you do this for him. 

The greek word used for worthy (v4)  means

Bringing all into equilibrium.

I think of the scales at the farm stand I go to in the Summer

I weigh my tomatoes…and I pay the price to balance the scales

It is important that a tally is kept

Nothing is to go unpaid for too long

Balance…equilibrium is highly valued

And Jesus sets out…it doesn’t narrate his motivation

But he sets out

Two verses later

Before Jesus has reached the house

The Centurion sends another delegation

This time it is different

They are his friends

Most likely NOT Jewish

Probably equal in status

And they have a different message

Here is the real shocking part

No...really…I am not worthy

I don’t deserve that you should do this because of me…

That is a radical reversal

This time in verse 6

The greek word is different

Both are translated “worthy”

But this time the word has to do with rank

Something the Centurion knows a lot about

I am not on par with you Jesus

You don’t have to obey me

I am not of your status

I am not worthy

But he holds out for his servant

I might not be worthy…but perhaps the servant is

So

BOTH

The centurion and the Jewish Leaders

Have worthiness on their minds

Both assume that Jesus is concerned with worthiness

Whether it is about keeping the scales balanced

The favors in check

Or whether it is about status and who takes orders from whom

THEY BOTH MISS THE GOOD NEWS!

The servant is healed

Jesus heals the servant

And it had nothing to do with anybody’s worthiness

Jesus praises the Centurion’s faith

Which I believe is somehow located in his reversal

He sent the Jewish leaders first

But then he must have had a change

Something happened…
A metanoia

He started out thinking from his power...
which was what he always did

It was in his cultural DNA

But he ended in his humility

Would it be too strong to say

we are plagued

Both individually and culturally

by worthiness thinking?

We are very concerned with who deserves what

It is in our cultural DNA

It is exceedingly evident in our political discourse

Whether about borders or bathrooms

People ought to get what they deserve

…at least what I think they deserve

In the collective it is easy for me to point my finger

But if I am honest

I will admit to catching myself

Stuck inside this same worthiness thinking

When I see the same folks in the ER

Again and again

I catch myself saying under my breath

“well what did you expect if you…”

in other words

“You deserve it”

“You aren’t worthy “

And on the flipside

If something good comes my way

“Surely…I’m worthy of that”

The thing is

Where is GRACE in this economy?

Talk of grace

Or free gift

Or unconditional love

These don’t fit into a worthiness economy

The grace in this story

The gift for us

Is in the reversal

When we are at our best

We catch ourselves

When we take time for self-reflection

And we see as God sees

…if only for a short time

we are imitating the Centurion’s reversal

So the prayer

Might be for faith like that of the Centurion

The faith that Jesus praises

But for me a more helpful prayer

Might be for the humility

To stop and reflect

And check myself

And my thinking

Because it is difficult to resist

…cultural DNA

it is tricky and insidious

In today’s reading of this healing story

I hear Jesus telling me

That God

Who sees us all

Clearly…to the bone

God sees.  And God loves. 

And God is not interested in talk of worthiness.

We are either all worthy or

we are all not worthy

Either way

We are in this together

We are all in need of healing…together

And as Paul says in the letter to the Romans

“God shows no partiality”

I hear God challenging me

To pay attention and when I feel that magnetic pull

To talk worthiness over against another

May I recall and proclaim

If only to myself

“Lord, I am not worthy, but only say the word and I shall be healed”

INTRUDERS!

Saturday of Week 8 in Ordinary Time

Jude 1:17,20-25

We don’t hear from 1 Jude in the lectionary very often…never on Sunday.  So…a few things the scholars say*:

·    A homily in the form of a letter

·    Pseudoepigraphical-written under the name of Jude (1^st century folks weren’t as impressed with ‘individual originality’ as we are;) 

·    Along with 1&2 Peter, James, and 1-3 John, written under the name of one of Jesus’ brothers…not a bad idea

·    Confronts crisis caused by ‘intruders’…a/k/a false teachers

·    Uses lots of OT allusions

·    Very polemical evidenced by heated language

·    While not among the ‘heavy-weight’ letters, Jude (and 2 Peter) offer insights into “the areas of church life, inculturation, and Christian spirituality.”

Our pericope today begins with a warning that moves to an exhortation, followed by the doxology.  Even though you are being tempted by these ‘intruders’ stand firm…judge them by their divisiveness.  The fruit of their preaching is not of the Holy Spirit. 

Just today I read an editorial in the “religion & values” section of the newspaper, that from my perspective was embarrassingly simplistic, un-nuanced, and ill-informed.  And yet, it will get read, and people will think that it conveys ‘Christianity.’  The tell-tale sign was the incredible divisiveness of the tone.  Intruder!

Some things never change…

Yikes!  I sound so divisive!  But I would welcome a polite sit-down with the author;)

*Sacra Pagina, Volume 15, Daniel J Harrington SJ, p167

Opening a Letter

Wednesday of Week 8 in Ordinary Time

Sts Gregory VII, Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Bede the Venerable

Monday the Church began reading from 1 Peter.  So we are in the Third day…a good time to check in with the letter’s circumstances.  Scholarly consensus sees 1 Peter as a part of the nascent development of early Christian tradition.  Its concern is pastoral and is steeped in Pauline theology and expression.  Pastoral concerns aim to translate theological vision into answers for real live communities, in this case a community facing acute suffering.   “Their Christian commitment was leading to slander, estrangement, and abuse from their neighbors because they no longer shared their non-Christian values and were no longer free to participate in many of the events, practices, and associations as they did formerly.  The sanction for this was not only social alienation but could have included economic consequences as well.” (p.13, Sacra Pagina, vol 15, Donald Senior, CP) 

After an initial greeting comes an encouragement passage that reads like a prayer of thanksgiving to God with a hymn-like tone; sweeping and majestic.  The focus on future salvation embodies the grounding paschal experience of suffering leading to glory.  (Monday’s pericope plus a bit)

Then with yesterday’s reading comes a ‘call to holiness’ (v.13-16)  The hearers have been reminded of their beautiful vocation and now comes the search for an appropriate response.  Though my world is different...are the circumstances radically different?  Can these be mine?

-how do I gird my loins/a metaphor for mind?

-what does it mean to live ‘sober’ in the face of ------???

-what does hope in action look like?

I think it takes a lot of contemplation and prayer to respond to

Be holy because I am holy (v16)

And today’s verses offer more cosmic language that turns intimate putting the reader in the center of God’s concern.  You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God (v.23)

Just do it, doesn’t quite suffice.  Earnestly love one another (v.22)

We are in this together…how Trinitarian;)