Mark 16:1-8

In Mark’s economy of words, he writes that “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices, so they might go and anoint him”.  This day did not begin filled with hope and promise.  It was not the beginning of a new week promising new opportunities.  No, it was the completion of a task begun on Friday of the previous week and suspended for Sabbath observance.  Now that Sabbath was over, the three women returned to Jesus’ tomb to complete the task none of them had ever dreamed of or longed to undertake.  They worried about how they would gain access to the tomb, which had been sealed with a huge stone.  Upon arrival at the tomb, they find the stone rolled away and inside a young man in a white robe is sitting.  He says, ” Don’t be alarmed.  You’re looking for Jesus…..he has been raised.  He isn’t here. Go, tell his disciples…..   Overcome with terror and dread, they fled.  They said nothing to anyone for…” here is where Mark’s gospel traditionally ends, with the Greek gar…”for”.  What a cliffhanger!  Of what were the women afraid?    That no one would believe them?  That they might be blamed for something?  Being the first eye witness often bears great responsibility.  Some believers today have difficulty affirming the resurrection in their lives.  What difference does Christ’s resurrection make in your life?

John 18:1-19, 42

On Good Friday we remember the words of Jesus when he was crucified.  John’s gospel does not portray Jesus as a passive, silent victim, at the mercy of evil forces beyond his control.  Rather, John makes it clear that this event is part of Jesus’ plan, or at least the consequence of Jesus’ plan.  Jesus is far from powerless during his passion.  He engages in vigorous verbal exchanges, sharp commands, feisty challenges, penetrating questions, deep observations and piognant words of comfort from the  moment of his arrest until his final breath.  Finally, Jesus says, “It is finished”  which is a shout of confidence in his completion of God’s mission in the world – “Yes!!  it is finished!”  He did what he set out to do.  With Jesus lifted up on the cross, we are able to see,  more clearly than ever before, the suffering, self-sacrificing love of Christ by which the world is reconciled to God.

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

On Maundy Thursday the church remembers the Upper Room: the “Last Supper” Jesus shared with the disciples,  Jesus washing the feet of the disciples and the “new commandment” (mandatum novum) from which Maundy Thursday derives its name.  The washing of feet was a necessary task usually performed by a household slave.  But since there were no slaves in the Upper Room, Jesus himself performed this duty while the disciples ate and argued about who among them was the greatest.  Actually, this story is not about foot washing. That was the cultural metaphor Jesus used.  The passage is really about incarnating into a world of pain and brokenness on behalf of those in need.  And Jesus was commissioning the disciples to love one another in imitation of Jesus.  As you contemplate these verses, ask yourself, “Who is one person whose feet God want you to wash?  How could you do this?”

Mark 11:1-11   -   Palm Sunday

There seems to  be a tradition in most mainline Christian churches to have choirs and chidren process at the opening of worship this Sunday waving palm branches.  Often we miss the fact that this is one of the most politically explosive acts of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus knows exactly what he is doing, and he has planned the entire event in advance.  He turns imperial notions of power and rule upside down.  What an entry for a king!

Mark 14:1-15:47   -   Passion Sunday

One of the most dramatic, effective worship services I ever experienced was on  Passion Sunday when the entire congregation read the passion section from Mark’s gospel out loud.  If you have never done this, try it: read it aloud.  The part that was always the most difficult for me was when the crowd cried, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”   Of course, I did not want to say those words – but – good theology tells me that I make others suffer and I make God suffer.  How do you make God suffer? This is part of our preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The people of Judah were in a crisis.  Not only had they lost power and prestige, freedom and security; they thought they had lost God. Jeremiah tells them that God is faithful and that they are the ones who are unfaithful so now the rules have changed.  A new covenant is going to be made in the hearts of the people; one which will allow them freedom to be who they truly are and retain God’s love and favor at the same time.  Everyone will know God  and this intimate knowledge will remove all barriers of class and culture. God will forgive our humaness,  and will no longer remember sin.  Perhaps this change in covenant represents a change in God’s nature, making God more accepting and forgiving, rather than accusatory and judgmental.  Would that we had that change ourselves!

Psalm 119:9-16

What parent has never worried about their child?  Here the psalmist shared his concern that children be nurtured in  faith as well as in life.  He understands that the deepest yearnings of the young person are not intellectual, but are longings of the heart, desire to find meaning in life, what  really matters, who to trust, who to love.  Communication with God does not occur only through reading scripture, but through our eyes, our lips, our ears, our touch – our whole being.  The purpose of this is nothing less than complete transformation.  For the Word of God among us; for the Word of God within us; and for the Word of God in scripture: Thanks be to God.

Hebrews 5:5-10

Presbyterians aren’t very comfortable with the idea of being represented by a priest, especially a high priest.  So what do we make of this commissioning service where Jesus becomes a priest?  From my own experience I have found that priests are entirely human, just like the rest of us, struggling along with the rest of us, who are called upon to receive, to bear, to lift before God the needs that are common to all of us.  That certainly fits Jesus. To call him a high priest means that this role has intensified, becoming the ultimate embodiment that enters the most sacred space to “offer up” “prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears”.   His body suffers the grief of the world, human anguish, isolation, longing, misery and rage.  And because the text describes him as a “priest forever” perhaps his cries still echo through eternity toward hope of transformation.  Perhaps we are to respond to those cries as the “priesthood of believers.”

John 12:20-33

Grains of wheat must, in a sense, die to what they are if they are not to remain alone and fruitless.  So it is that human individuals must, in a sense, die to their love for their own lives, lest in loving themselves above all else they lose their lives  and destroy their future.  And so God emptied Godself, becoming incarnate in order to reconcile humanity to Godself.   The God who became human will effect an action of ultimate love by dying on the cross of human existence. In and by this action, Jesus gathers up the whole of his own human existence, takes to himself the whole of the human situation, and affirms an unending future, revealing a God whose love has no end.  The disciples and yes, we, are asked to surrender ourselves to God in order to find new life in Christ Jesus.

Numbers 21:4 – 9

This is a strange and gruesome story of grumbling, disobedience, punishment, repentance, ophidiophobia, magic (?) and idol worship.  It is a most mysterious passage!    I invite you to share your thoughts and post your comments.         One way of looking at this story is to connect it with our own fear of snakes.  Serpents have many meanings in the ancient world, but in our country they are the number one fear of 36 percent of our population.  The bronze  serpent that Moses makes becomes the means of healing for the people bitten by the snakes that are attacking them.  What do you fear most?  In what sense do  you let this fear become an  idol that keeps your fear in place?  Is there a means of release once God lifts the object of our fear up where it can be seen clearly?  Perhaps part of the meaning of this story is that the cure for a snake is a snake.  The cure for humankind is one perfect human being – Jesus, the Christ.  The cure for death is death.  Lift up your eyes and  behold the cross!

Psalm 107:1 – 3, 17 – 22

Lent is a time of honest self-examination, of correcting course, of forgiving self and others.  We are reminded that there are consequences to sin, to the failure to receive the fullness of God’s love.  This psalm is a reminder that the appropriate response to God’s compassionate healing is to “thank the Lord for his steadfast love “ and “tell of his deeds with songs of joy.”  So there is a communal aspect to thanking God.  In this individualistic and self-reliant culture we are called to come together, to assemble as a worshipping congregation, to give praise and thanksgiving to God.

John 3:14 – 21

If you grew up going to Sunday School,  you probably can’t remember a time when you didn’t know John 3:16, often called the summation of the Christian faith.  We’ve seen the verse on placards in the “end zone” and along the highway.  Our response has become  more of a yawn than a call to action. The words are so well known they can no longer be heard – or?  The challenge is to hear these words anew, as if for the first time.   Perhaps we might look at the word believe and the nature of belief.  In John, “believe”  is always an action verb, not simply giving affirmation to certain propositions.  This is especially clear in vs. 36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.”  For John, the opposite of belief is not unbelief but disobedience. So, to believe is to obey.  Those who obey may have eternal life, a term which, in John, means living in the kingdom of God here and now.  It is not a quantity of life but a quality of life, not just an unending human existence,  but life lived in the presence of God.  This life is available to the “believer” (one who obeys)  now, because the Son of Man has been “lifted up” – exalted.  The typical Johannine double entendre and irony are clear here. The  humiliation of the crucifixion is the glory of the cross: no cross, no crown.  In the face of the unexplainable Jesus reaches for an analogy for the life-giving  mystery of the cross.  This is the reason for Jesus’ life and death.

Ephesians 2:1 – 10

This is basic Pauline theology: we are saved by grace (not by good  works)  through faith, and faith is itself a gift from God (not a “right” set of beliefs).  But before we kick back and relax on the beach, we are reminded that we were created for good works – an opportunity for us to live our lives as God intended for us to live. Good works are expressions of Christ ministering to the world through us, demonstrations of our present reality and future; we are God’s royal children, exercising God’s kingdom of love in and for the world.

Exodus 20:1-17

The Big Ten:  After establishing a covenant with Abraham and Sarah, God gives Moses and the children of Israel a gift – the ten commandments, in order that they might be set free to live as Gods children.  These commandments are usually separated into two tablets or sections. The first tablet is God-centered, directed toward the individual in relationship with God.  The second tablet is neighbor-centered, forbidding murder, adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting. The curious commandment is number 5 which is the only commandment with a promise attached (vs.12) and protects the community tradition of honoring  elders (parents).  I think the connection between tablet one and tablet two is that the way we honor God shapes the way we honor or treat our neighbor: faithful worship of God leads to love of neighbor and social responsibility.  Good theology is good ethics.  When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus united the two tablets, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.  The Lenten journey is a time to deepen holiness and shape our lives in the image on Christ to praise God and live in love and respect with one another.

Psalm 19

 News from outer space – “The Heavens are telling the glory of God -”  but the term “God particle”, referring to the Higgs boson particle, is going out of fashion.  Scientists from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory say that after flinging a proton and antiproton together on a four-mile track,  they have seen a small excess of events between 115 and 135GeV that could correspond to the mysterious Higgs boson: but nothing has been proven.  The wonder of God’s creation is beyond our comprehension, but even long ago the psalmist  knew that it was God’s creativity and God’s laws that kept creation ordered.  Creation communicates God’s person, God’s character, but human beings do not have the capability of  fully receiving this gift.

John 2:13 – 22

Here he comes, whip in hand.  Jesus drives the money changers out of the temple.  For many, Jesus is irresistibly attractive when he is confronting injustice, hypocrisy, and the misappropriation of God’s name.  This image is so strong it makes some of us want to take up the whip with him and denounce the powers and principalities.  But wait!  He isn’t targeting kings, tyrants or terrorists.  He was attacking church folks, people, people who had a legitimate right to be in the courtyard doing business.  He was attacking the status quo.  They were just doing things the way they had always been done.  Sound familiar? The reform of the church is an on-going process: Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei: The church reformed, always to be reformed according to the word of God.    The agent of the reform is not the church but God.  The shape of the reform is always attested to and in conformity to God’s own word.

I Corinthians 1:18 – 25

In a multicultural, multi-faith world, what does it mean to lift up the cross, yet be humble among non-Christians?  How do we talk about “those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved…..?”  Perhaps we could begin with admitting that we do not know the final destination of other human beings.  God judges: we don’t.   And God is love.  We are servant of the God of love.  “Being saved” is  one of those phrases that doesn’t just roll off the tongue of most Presbyterians every day.  For many of us it smacks of emotionally manipulative appeals to “get saved or burn in hell forever.”  Our concept of salvation, while certainly including eternal life, also encompases a broader more loving life here and now. Our difficulty is dealing with foolishness and the cross - something Paul won’t let us forget.  Sometimes we’d like to fool ourselves into believing that we can depend on ourselves, our own abilities, our own planning and expertise.  In the shadow of the  cross, such “wisdom” seems quite foolish.  The cross also reminds of of our unity as a church – liberals, moderates, conservatives all bound together under the cross.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Sometimes we need a slow pace, a place to listen carefully, to pray and reflect upon our relationships and become more aware of God.  Perhaps this is where Abram and Sarai are in this seventeenth chapter of Genesis.  They are old, probably more reflective, more contemplative, more aware of their mistakes, wiser.  Whatever the case, within the span of a few verses the world of religion is turned around.  Everyone in the story is given a new name – including God, Abram, and Sarai.  The changes are subtle, yet the implications are profound.  The new names are linked to the covenant God makes with Abraham and through Israel, through the church to each one of us.  The covenant is linked to creation and is not dependent on our faithfulness, (Whew!) but becomes our destiny.  The gift in this passage is the reminder that at the center of our being rest blessing and promise, naming and covenant.  Through the extravagant grace of God this covenant has been opened to even us.

Psalm 22:23-31

Five citations from Psalm 22 will be recounted in the passion narrative from the Gospels, dealing with suffering and feelings of abandonment.  But here in these verses we hear a summons to praise, which seems a peculiar request from a people who are broken and humiliated.  Jewish tradition associates the entire psalm with the Purim feast – a reminder of the threat of extermination by Haman and Ahasuerus before Queen Esther intercedes.  In our own lives examples of brokenness are not hard to find and it seems insensitive to sing songs of praise to the brokenhearted. First, we make a distinction between praise and thanksgiving, which often go hand-in-hand, but do not go together here.  There is nothing to give thanks for in tragedy.  But this is a call to lift up the nature and being of God – because, (vs 24) The Lord has not despised the afflictions of the afflicted!  The Lord has not turned away, but has heard.  Praise God for the self-giving nature of God’s love and compassion.  Emerging from centuries of bondage and humiliation, African Americans exuberantly sang, Great day! Great day, the righteous marching. God’s going to build up Zion’s walls.  This is the day of Jubilee, God shall set my people free.  Great day!  God’s going to build up Zion’s walls, moving from suffering to praise with a gracefull rhythm.  Perhaps the distance between the two is not as far as we thought.

Mark 8:31-38

There are many theories of atonement: the moral influence theory, the substitutionary theory, the Christ the Victor theory, the recapitulation theory, the mystical theory, the example theory,  and many more.  All are attempts to answer the question, “Why did Jesus have to die?”  Almost every Christian church reveres the symbol of the cross, and however it is understood, Jesus’ death on a cross is important in bridging the gulf between humanity and God and points to resurrection.  As theologian Paul Tillich has taught us, as symbol it not only points beyond itself but participates in the reality to which it points, namely, the saving love of God for humanity.  In this passage Jesus tells the disciples “plainly” about his cross and that as disciples they must take up their own crosses and follow him – losing their lives in order to gain them.  He says this to the disciples, not the ordained, not the apostles, not the members – but to those who would be his followers, his disciples.  This season reminds us that there are opportunities all around us to sacrifice for the love of God, for compassion, for justice, for peace.  When we are willing to accept Jesus for who he is, then we can understand who we are to be, and denying self, take up the cross and follow him.

Romans 4:13-25

Soren Kierkegaard, 19th century Danish theologian, offers this description of love: To have love is to presuppose love in others; to be loving is to presuppose that others are loving.” Faith operates the same way. To have faith is to presuppose faith in the other; to be faithful is to assume and will that others are faithful.  God wills faith in Abraham and a faithful relationship reflects that faith back.  Only God can create faith.  Having the “right” set of beliefs is not faith. The church, at best, can only cultivate faith, and should cultivate faith.  This sometimes requires balancing our faith in others with our willingness for others to have faith in us, so that we may become equal partners of faith in God, particularly where other religions are concerned.  Paul speaks to all Christians who allow their particular moral or cultural-religious observances to divide, both within the church universal and among the three major monotheistic faiths.  Faith in the God of Abraham is the common ground of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and is a reconciling force for understanding among “all his descendants” (v.16).

Genesis 9:8-17

In this scene God binds God’s own self to humanity, and indeed to all the world, not only as creator, but as protector, committed to refrain from punishing humanity or destroying the world: the bow is a sign of the covenant.  And by binding God’s self to the fate of  humanity, God becomes inherently invested in the fate of humanity and in this way keenly vulnerable, even exposed.  God cannot just sit back, oblivious to the fate of humanity.  This act of self-limitation and investment introduces a new and distinct facet into the character  of God as previously portrayed by the ancient Hebrews, who now perceived God as self-giving, willing to enter a relationship that put limitations on even God’s prerogatives – which is the way of all genuine relationships.

Psalm 25:1-10

This psalm casts a vision for the season of Lent.  We lift our very souls to God – everything we are – trusting that this is the road to life, even though there are easier paths available.  Frederick Buechner writes, “If you want to know who you are, watch your feet, because where your feet take you, that is who you are.” Lent is a time to choose who we will be and whose we will be.  Our identity will not be defined by what we claim to believe, but by the road we take. Here at the beginning of this strange season, we answer God’s call not with words, but with our feet – Watch your step!

I Peter 3:18-22

We don’t know who wrote I Peter, but we can surmise that it was to a group of Christians who were suffering for their faith, to offer words of encouragement and hope.  And we don’t know how this letter was received.  By today’s standards “suffering” is a dirty word, a sign of failure and our deepest fear.  It goes against our constitutional rights as Americans.  We have difficulty making sense out of suffering and sometimes human suffering exceeds our capacity to comprehend and respond. Here we are reminded that Christ suffered – terribly – before he died.  Yet his suffering was not caused by God; rather it was the result of Christ’s faithfulness to his mission of reconciling us to God.  By giving himself to suffering and death, Jesus defeated them both.  There is no experience that is unknown to Christ and he is with us when we suffer.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Mark 1:9-15

The gospel lesson presents Jesus as the “perfect” example of self-surrender to God.  For though he was without sin, Jesus freely chose to be baptized by John – a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  When a voice from heaven spoke, telling him who he was, he attributed no privilege to himself as divinely favoured.  When the Spirit drove him into the desert, he did not look for a way out.  He accepted the company God sent to him – Satan, wild animals, ministering angels – with no drama of preferring one to the other.  Here is someone who wastes no time defending himself against what comes to him, knowing that everything comes from God.  Here is someone who shows us what it means to please God.