Palm Sunday - A Little Bit of Glory - Before. . .

With the Palm Sunday observance being sort of crowded out by "Passion Sunday" I wonder.

It seems that the liturgical folks betray a great lack of confidence. A lack of confidence in the Church, and in preachers.
It is as if they asked; "How can we steer these theologians of glory to attend to the cross?"
And their answer was "PASSION SUNDAY"
"No more fun!"
"No Palms! Heck, only John has Palms anyway"

I am having new member Sunday this Palm Sunday Passion Sunday.
I'm thinking of talking about how this could be experienced as a huge "bait and switch."
Join when we're having parades and Palms, then the moving service on Thursday evening, only to be shocked by Friday's tragic turn.

There was a fascinating story on NPR - I guess yesterday.
Brian McLaren has thrown some folks off their game by suggesting that the satisfaction theory of the atonement might not be the way to see the work of the cross.
The response is . . . how do I say this? ? ?
Strong. . .
At least, as communicated in the NPR story I read. . .
The book is
A New Kind of Christianity by Brian D. McLaren

Recently, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., convened a school-wide event to talk about a new book by a popular evangelical Christian. It wasn't pretty.
"It is a new kind of Christianity that is no Christianity at all," says Southern Baptist theologian Jim Hamilton.
Evangelical author Bruce Ware adds, "I've thought of Brian McLaren for years as a wolf in sheep's clothing, but I think in this book, he took the sheep's clothing off."

It is interesting to see such reaction.
These folks are sometimes a bit a-historical.
There is wisdom in the fact that the Church has never determined that a single understanding of the atonement be set as doctrine for every time and every place
The article says that McLaren is

rethinking Jesus' mission on Earth, and even the purpose of the crucifixion.
"The view of the cross that I was given growing up, in a sense, has a God who needs blood in order to be appeased," McLaren says. "If this God doesn't see blood, God can't forgive."
McLaren believes that version of God is a misreading of the Bible.
"God revealed in Christ crucified shows us a vision of God that identifies with the victim rather than the perpetrator, identifies with the one suffering rather than the one inflicting suffering," he says.
McLaren says modern evangelicalism underplays that Jesus — who spent most of his time with the poor, the sick and the sinners — saved his wrath primarily for hard-core religious leaders.
Others, such as Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, say McLaren's view of Jesus and the crucifixion is like a shot to the heart of Christian beliefs.
"Did Jesus go to the cross as a mere victim? If so, then we have no Gospel, we have no hope of everlasting life," Mohler says. "Did Jesus go merely as a political prisoner, executed because he had offended the regime? Well, if so, that's a very interesting chapter of human history, but I'm not going to stake my life on it, much less my hope for eternity."

Mohler.
Settle down.
No hope?
None at all?
No hope if your reasoning is not followed by all of us, if the crucifixion did not accomplish that which YOU have decided it accomplished?
We are all theologians of glory - some just more glorious than others, I guess.

The thing I like about Passion Sunday - the thing I like about reading the WHOLE PASSION READING, which we do at the close of the service - is that we are confronted by the story. We are included and incorporated into the telling, once again, and God does God's saving work there. Right in the cross and the resurrection. Not in some theory or idea or any sort of neat transaction.
The Work of Christ is - once again - made real and made present.
This ain't history follks, this is life.

May you proclaim life in the days ahead.
Life won for you in this one who suffered and died and who (yes, folks, we won't rush there too fast, we'll visit the betrayal, the denial, the sham trial, the cross, the suffering, the dieing, for this makes us to see the wonder more clearly) rose triumphantly that wonderful Easter day.

Lazarus Saturday

This is from some whacky orthodox / used-to-be-Episcopal - Priest
it was linked on workingpreacher's facebook page
Kinda nice

Lazarus Saturday
March 25, 2010 by fatherstephen
Largely ignored by much of Christendom, the Orthodox mark the day before Palm Sunday as “Lazarus Saturday” in something of a prequel to the following weekend’s Pascha. It is, indeed a little Pascha just before the greater one. And this, of course, was arranged by Christ Himself, who raised His friend Lazarus from the dead as something of a last action before entering Jerusalem and beginning His slow ascent to Golgotha through the days of Holy week.

One of the hymns of the Vigil of Lazarus Saturday says that Christ “stole him from among the dead.” I rather like the phrase. Next weekend there will be no stealing, but a blasting of the gates of hell itself. What he does for Lazarus he will do for all.

Lazarus, of course, is different from those previously raised from the dead by Christ (such as the daughter of Jairus). Lazarus had been four days dead and corruption of the body had already set in. “My Lord, he stinks!” one of his sisters explained when Christ requested to be shown to the tomb.

I sat in that tomb in September 2008. It is not particularly notable as a shrine. It is today, in the possession of a private, Muslim family. You pay to get in. Several of our pilgrims did not want to pay to go in. I could not stop myself.

Lazarus is an important character in 19th century Russian literature. Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment, finds the beginning of his repentance of the crime of murder, by listening to a reading of the story of Lazarus. It is, for many, and properly so, a reminder of the universal resurrection. What Christ has done for Lazarus He will do for all.

For me, he is also a sign of the universal entombment: that even before we die, we have frequently begun to inhabit our tombs. We live our life with the doors closed (and we stink). Our hearts are often places of corruption and not the habitation of the good God. Or, at best, we ask Him to visit us as He visited Lazarus. That visit brought tears to the eyes of Christ. The state of our corruption makes Him weep. It is such a contradiction to the will of God. We were not created for the tomb.

I also note that in the story of Lazarus – even in his being raised from the dead – he rises in weakness. He remains bound by his graveclothes. Someone must “unbind” him. We ourselves, having been plunged into the waters of Baptism and robed with the righteousness of Christ, too often exchange those glorious robes for graveclothes. Christ has made us alive, be we remain bound like dead men.

I sat in the tomb of Lazarus because it seemed so familiar. But there is voice that calls us all.

http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/lazarus-saturday/
A blog by a Fr. Stephen Freeman,  an Orthodox Priest who lives and serves in East Tennessee.

Missed By One Week

Here's a little bit on the 5th Sunday in Lent. . . 

(for posterity donchaknow)

I fully intended to post something each week of Lent
Heck. . .
Good intentions and all that. . .
Which is what Judas would contend he had. . .
I found this a difficult text. (of course, they ALL are) with not much help from commentators
This was good
From a sermon by Kathryn Huey, who writes at the UCC web site. . .

she begins. . . 

Remember way back at the beginning of Lent, weeks ago, when we began our Lenten journey by reflecting on the story of Abraham & Sarah, sort of a "remembering who we are" by remembering "whom we came from"? Today, we turn full attention to who Jesus is, & our teacher in today's text from the Gospel of John is Mary of Bethany, a woman, which happens so often in the Bible, especially the Gospels, where the women – the last & the least – seem to hit just the right note, to get it, while the Apparently Chosen –the Apostles & other disciples – stumble & blunder their way along, trying to figure everything out.

and this was nice from BBT

Whatever Mary thought about what she did, and whatever anyone else in the room thought about it, Jesus took it as a message from God - not the hysteric ministrations of an old maid gone sweetly mad but the carefully performed act of a prophet. Everything around Mary smacked of significance - Judas, the betrayer, challenging her act; the flask of nard - wasn't it left over from Lazarus' funeral? - and out in the yard, a freshly vacated tomb that still smelled of burial spices, waiting for a new occupant. The air was dense with death, and while there may at first have been some doubt about whose death it was, Mary's prophetic act revealed the truth.

She was anointing Jesus for his burial, and while her behavior may have seemed strange to those standing around, it was no more strange than that of the prophets who went before her - Ezekiel eating the scroll of the Lord as a sign that he carried the word of God around inside of him (Ezekiel 2), or Jeremiah smashing the clay jar to show God's judgment on Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19), or Isaiah walking around naked and barefoot as an oracle against the nations (Isaiah 20). Prophets do things like that. They act out. They act out the truth that no one else can see, and those standing around either write them off as nuts or fall silent before the disturbing news they bring from God.

Broken and Bound

LUKE 15:1-3, 11B-32

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable:
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe-- the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"

If you are diligent, you might look at the entry by P-basement from aught 7... and the ensuing discussion. . .

The discussion of PB and PNT is rich and gets me thinking...
Surely the focus on the younger son skews our read of this parable. (Or should I say “our hearing of the this parable”?)
For me, Helmut Thielicke first turned my eyes in a new direction with the title “The Waiting Father” - (I’ve preached whole sermons on a parable simply walking through the many different titles given it - and the ways a different title might re-direct our hearing, so that God’s Word works on us afresh.)
PNT - speaking of both sons says that

“each in their own way . . . break [the Father's] heart. If this father is revealing God to us, it is a pretty startling image.”

Startling indeed. . .
PB speaks of this story revealing

“The broken-hearted God. Part of the heart-break results from the freedom he allows each son. In their bondage to sin they misuse it. And in the father's bondage to love he can't give up on either of them.”

Broken and Bound.

Perhaps there are times when we take a text and hold it in higher regard than it might deserve. . . Perhaps I should not say so, but it comes to mind to suggest that the whole nativity stuff seems a bit overdone at times. (Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it just comes to mind.) I might add, I'm not talking about Christmas shopping.
Yet this greatest - and most well known of parables seems to me to deserve to be held in high regard, and to merit our delving as deeply as we can into its riches. It is a story that bears power.
Power to open my eyes to the wonder of our broken hearted God.


I should stop writing at this point. . . but I won't

Family Values
Listening to sermon brainwave, I had the notion to title a sermon on this: “It’s the Economy Stupid” and focus on the ways people imagine God to be, and the deeply different economy by which God works in the world. . .
Mindful of the fact that to allude to Clinton in any way positively might well bring on a coronary or two. . . I won't do that.
Not only that, it is sort of overly “girardian” I suspect. . . borderline gnostic.
But an interesting tack.
I saw a title for an article in JBL. "The Indentured Labor of the Prodigal Son”
And I thought, not of the younger son, who had hired himself out to indentured servitude, but of the older son, and his sad, sad comment - “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you”
It is so striking when the older son portrays his residing in his father’s house in such a way.
Servitude. Without pay
Heart breaking indeed. . .

HAVING IT BOTH WAYS

Luke 13: 1-9
"At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

This is an intriguing text.
Judgment and grace. Both.
An under-performing fig tree in a bull market. The threat of removal.
Another year asked for and granted.

'Sir, let it alone for one more year. . . If it bears fruit next year, well and good..."

Grace.

"...but if not, you can cut it down.'"

doh!

I have learned to say that the questions we ask are quite important. If you ask bad questions, it is hard to come up with good answers.
“How is your life different since you decided to put God first in your life?”
Well. . . . . . I did? Its supposed to be different? Different than what?
It seems an interesting dance, this suggestion that those who suffered from the earthquakes in Chile or Haiti were not any different than us. And seeing their plight, you should repent.
I would not go there.
Yet, Jesus did.
Charged right off that cliff.
The Vicar of Vice had a good entry for this text three years ago.
He quoted from The Parables of Grace by Robert Capon

“The world lives, as the fig tree lives, under the rubric of forgiveness. The world, of course, thinks otherwise. In it’s blind wisdom, it thinks it lives by merit and reward.” (pg. 97)

Inspired by PayNoToll’s comments, (again- 3 years ago) I note that we live under God’s word of grace. I might well note that I am currently living in that “one more year” that the gardener had negotiated for me. Honesty will force me to further note that I’ve had that year extended nigh unto 50 times.
Yikes!
What time is it?
Time to repent, to turn to this one who does not keep score, but simply loves.
Look with his eyes to those who suffered in Galilee, in Haiti, in. . . in. . . in. . . and there see brothers and sisters, fellow forgiven ones, called to life with God and with me.
Time is short.
Very short.
Let’s reach out in love.