The 6th Sunday After Pentecost (07/12/09)

The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.

--Psalm 24:1-2

Make no mistake, our Lord loves the great outdoors. More than that, the great outdoors belongs to the the Lord. The psalmist confesses that the Lord founded and established the world.


Many, these days, believe that the world is in peril. Our science points to global climate change and suggests that human beings are the culprit. All of this implies a kind of benign world where "God talk" is quite irrelevant and most out of date. One might argue that the scientific revolution has long left God out there dangling somewhere.


The psalmist knows full well that our Lord is intimately related to what He has made. That takes a lot of pressure off, and it frees us to care for the Lord's world as best we can.


PD

Saturday in The Week of The 5th Sunday After Pentecost (07/11/09)

Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers, consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.

--Psalm 48:12-14

We mentioned summer vacations earlier this week. For the child of God in Bible times, there were no vacations as we know them today. But there were pilgrimages. What joy it was for them to make that pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the holy city. And at the heart of that city was Mount Zion, the temple mount, the footstool of God on earth.


These pilgrimages were not for sight-seeing as we understand it, as the psalmist makes plain. The child of God is encouraged to walk around, to "take it all in", to all but absorb it. Why? So that the next generation can be told of God's everlasting guidance.


Our Christian congregations are outposts of heaven; they are snippets and prefigurements of the ultimate Zion that is yet to come. Do we "put in" our hour on Sunday, or is it possible to walk around, take it all in, and absorb it? What conclusion might the next generation reach if they saw that?


PD

Friday in The Week of The 5th Sunday After Pentecost (07/10/09)

He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts... .

--Mark 6:8

An online survey recently asked to readers to list all those things that they don't leave home without. Car keys, cell phones, purses, and wallets were mentioned along with much more.


Jesus does sound a bit bossy today. What is this? He's ordering His disciples around! Who of us likes to be ordered around? In addition, it looks as though His disciples are going on a mission with few if any of what we might call "creature comforts." Cash and credit? Forget about it.


All they had was the rather bossy Word of the Lord. Could they depend on it? What do you think?


PD

Thursday in The Week of The 5th Sunday After Pentecost (07/09/09)

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

--Mark 6:6b-7

These "After Pentecost" days, at least in North America, are spent during the summer months. Activities scale back a bit. Families travel. A season of recreation is in the offing. The heat hits, and prayers ascend in thanksgiving for air-conditioning. There is a collective sense of slowing down.

We are not told the season was in when Jesus went about among the villages teaching; it's not that important. In season or out of season, our Lord was about His work of seeking and saving the lost. Today's reading tells of His enlistment of the twelve disciples in His mission. Off they go, two by tw, and they are given authority over the unclean spirits.


What has our Lord enlisted us to do? That's always a good question, and summertime is a great season to ask it.


PD

Wednesday in The Week of The 5th Sunday After Pentecost (07/08/09)

I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person -- whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows -- was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4

St. Paul, author of the rather obscure passage above, was no dummy. Educated at the feet of Gamaliel, he had his academic credentials to be sure. And he could certainly write in soaring fashion. Consider his great chapter on love in his first letter to the Corinthians. (See 1 Cor. 13.)


But, great as we he was, there was a limit to his knowledge. Twice in today's passage he confesses that he does not know. Make such bold assertions today, and he would be written off as something of an ignorant, insufferable bore.

But there is a question we must ask: Are we content to not know everything? The age of the enlightenment and the scientific and technological revolutions have given us copious amounts of knowledge. Yet, for all our intelligence, how much do we really know? The twentieth century gave us what has been called the "greatest generation" and unparalleled advancements. But it also the bloodiest hundred years on record.

When confronted with the notion that knowledge is limitless, a smidge of skepticism joined to faith is not a bad thing.


PD

Tuesday in The Week of The 5th Sunday (07/07/09)

And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

--Mark 6:6

The setting for today's reading is Nazareth, the hometown of Christ our Lord. It was the sabbath and he went to the synagogue, as was his custom, and he taught the people there. They were astounded, seemingly, at the content and delivery of the lessons.


Following up on this amazement was curiosity about where all these authoritative lessons -- and the miracles that came by His hand -- came from. They never had a hometown boy like this. Didn't he work at the carpenter shop up the road? His family members are right here in town with us!

There is an unfaithful way to be amazed and curious. This is to be seen here in Nazareth. They, the people, took offense at Jesus, we are told.

Genuine Faith -- which has its astounding and curious aspects! -- doesn't do that. Genuine faith does not take offense at Jesus. Instead, it gladly receives what Jesus says and does. Understanding is important, but it's not all-important. All-important is faith, Jesus-for-sure.


PD

Monday in The Week of The 5th Sunday After Pentecost (07/06/09)

We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.

--Psalm 48:1

This is not to say that we can't ponder the love of God away from the temple. We certainly can do that when we sit down to our daily bread. We glance up only to have our eyes drawn to a magnificent sunset. In such a moment, there are vague pieces of thought which combine to ask how we are even able to appreciate such beauty. We see the smiling face of that lady who, day in and day out, cooks the food for the soup kitchen. The love of God can be pondered in all of these instances -- and none of them are in the temple.


But the temple tops them all. For, understood in a Christian way, the temple is where we have been gathered by our Lord to hear His good news and to be on the receiving end of His holy sacraments (Baptism and The Lord's Supper). The Word is read, proclaimed, confessed, prayed, and sacramentally enacted. Through it all, in the temple, we ponder the love of God. We do it corporately too. We are in it -- this pondering of divine love -- together.


PD

The 5th Sunday After Pentecost (07/05/09)

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said "Look, we are your bone and flesh."

--2 Samuel 5:1

Someone has said that "Religion is for those who are afraid of hell; spirituality is for those who have already been there." When it comes to spirituality, we appear to be living in a golden age. There is a yearning to somehow rise above the old, established, traditional norms and find a spirituality that is tailor-made for the individual. Spending a whole lot of time rehashing the past is no good. The future isn't here yet, so there is no need to worry. The big thing is what's happening now. Christianity is at its best when it undergirds, supports, and enables such thinking.


With that background, our short snippet of Scripture has to be a disappointment. It's so historial, earthly, fleshly, and even political. David, the shepherd-boy, is a grown-up man. He is anointed king over Israel. The period of his reign -- Israel and Judah combined -- is forty years.


Can you note how unspiritual this seems to be? At first glance, it's a chunk dry history -- and such history comes off rather boring. But if we are disciples of our Lord, history isn't just an academic topic for those who need credit. Rather, it's our story. Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Savior, was in the family tree of David. He was born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

With an amazement and a curiosity born of faith, we turn back to those great stories of old in the Bible. We discover anew that we are not isolated spiritual beings hovering in the present. We are part of a history and reality that occupies the ground.


PD

Saturday in The Week of The 4th Sunday After Pentecost (07/04/09)

For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has -- not according to what one does not have.

--2 Corinthians 8:12

The story, I believe, comes from the middle ages. A man had recently been initiated into a Roman Catholic monastery. As the days progressed, he got to know his fellow monks and was impressed with the specific and unique talents they had. He, however, felt as though he had little to offer.


One night he went into the chapel. He brought with him three juggling balls. Seemingly all alone and under the cover of darkness, he approached the altar of the Lord and began juggling. Unbeknownst to him, his ecclesiastical superior was watching, and the juggler was shocked that he was found out. Looking to his superior, he said: "This is all I have to offer. I can juggle, and I'll do it for the Lord."


This captures the gist of what the apostle wrote about in today's text. There is an eagerness to use the gifts one has. To insist that we have no gifts to glorify the Lord is to be in denial. Through the years, I've learned that when people who grow older, they sometimes feel as though they have little to offer. When the age progresses into assisted living or a nursing home, the feelings intensify.


But wait. They have much to offer. Their gift to the Lord is the opportunity to other that they provide. When we visit them or offer care, we do that as unto the Lord.


Gracious Holy Spirit, inspire a yet deeper eagerness to serve with the gifts You've given.


PD

Friday in The Week of The 4th Sunday After Pentecost (07/03/09)

How the mighty have fallen in the midst of battle! Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.

--2 Samuel 2:25

In today's brief reading, the shepherd boy-turned-King, David, laments the death of his friend, Jonathan. For David, Jonathan was more than mere acquaintance.


We all have folks we're acquainted with. With some, we might even have some kind of "relationship." Relationships, in and of themselves, are always linear. Point A is always connected to point B. The connection is the relationship, and the connection may be economic, vocational, social, and/or familial.


With David and Jonathan, though, there was friendship, or, to use the Bible's definition of friendship, brotherly love. A former professor once exclaimed: "Few people have a friend anymore -- as in you and me. Instead, they have some third thing called a relationship."


David didn't grieve the loss of relationship. He lost his friend. Friendship, Biblically understood, is on a far deeper, more meaningful level than acquaintance or even relationship.


How great is our rejoicing, then, when Jesus calls us His friends. We are not "mere acquaintances" of Jesus. Neither are we in some ill-defined "relationship" with Him. We're His friends. Keep it simple, and celebrate that!


PD

Thursday in The Week of The 4th Sunday After Pentecost (07/02/09)

He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
--Mark 5:43


They laughed at Jesus, but Jesus -- as the saying goes -- has "the last laugh." It's not that HE laughed, He simply took her up and said "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!"


Amazement followed quickly on the heels of the derisive laughter. Then Jesus, as was His way, continues his care for the little girl. He told them not to say a word about what happened and to give her something to eat.


They said she was dead. Jesus said she was sleeping. They laughed. Jesus took her by the hand. They are amazed. Jesus wants silence. Jesus directs them to give her something to eat.
With Jesus, there is always more than we even asked for to begin with.


PD

Wednesday in The Week of The 4th Sunday After Pentecost (07/01/09)

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.

--Psalm 130:7

Those in recovery from chronic alcoholism might be among the first to tell you: Only a power greater that the self can restore sanity. Was the author Psalm 130 an alcoholic? There's no way of telling.


But we are made aware of the object of his hope. It is in the Lord. And the Lord brings with Him all that steadfast love. It is hard for some folks in our world to even love themselves in a positive way. The possibility of a Lord with steadfast love sounds like a fool's dream. Thus, they turn to other options to salve the wound and ease the pain. Yet eventually, even those options turn on them. That, obviously, is not a good place to be. The psalmist would call it a "depth."


Still, this Lord has great power to redeem. To "redeem" means to buy back. It's as though your life is crushed under a huge mountain of credit debt. Redemption means that the Lord "buys" the mountain and moves it. You are set free. This is the Lord who is the object of our hope.


PD