beginning again with Kings & Chronicles

It is December 11th, and I'm at the end of week 24 in Reading God's Story, which means that I've read just about half of the Bible this year, rather than the whole thing. I've toyed with the idea of starting over in January back in Genesis since I didn't meet my goal in 2012, but I think that is just perfectionism talking! I've decided instead to read through the end of week 26 by the end of December, which is exactly half way through Reading God's Story - since there are 52 weeks total. Then I'll begin with week 27 on Tuesday, January 1st.

Right now I'm reading about the break-up of the kingdom of Israel after the reign of Solomon, which is great timing, because that is also what we are studying in our middle school Sunday School classes at St. George's. (We are using a great curriculum this year called The Story.) This is a stretch in Kings and Chronicles where there are very few stories that most people would be familiar with, perhaps with the exception of the prophet Elijah. In preparing for Sunday School last week, I realized that if someone had asked me to tell them this part of the story from memory, I would have had lots of gaps and errors! I have been pondering why we don't tell the stories from this part of the Bible as much as others. I wonder if it's because they are fairly grim; reading litanies of one bad king after another isn't much fun.

I decided to do a little research and see how often these stories turn up in the Revised Common Lectionary - the three year reading schedule we use in our services in the Episcopal Church. A quick look at the Reverse Lectionary, which lists all the RCL readings in biblical order, shows that we never read Chronicles during our Sunday services. Not once. We read a fair bit from 1 Kings but only passages about either Solomon or Elijah. We read from 2 Kings 5 times, but only 3 passages (we read a couple of them twice). The first is Elijah being taken up and Elisha receiving his mantle, the second is Elisha's miracle of feeding 100 men with 20 loaves of bread (sadly skipping over Elisha's encounter with the Shunammite widow and the raising of her son in chapter 4), and the third is the cleansing of Naaman. The rest of 2 Kings goes untold. The story of the dividing of the kingdom into two, the fall of Israel, and the fall of Jerusalem is not included. We do have a few readings from Lamentations, which references the fall of Jerusalem, but the narrative from the historical books is omitted.

The good news is that the lectionary is not the be all and end all. Contrary to the mindset in much of the Episcopal ethos, we can pick up a Bible on our own and read these books for ourselves! The Reformation has indeed occurred, thanks be to God :) However, I suspect the omission of these stories from the lectionary reflects a belief that these stories aren't as significant or palatable or easily understood as other stories in the Bible. That's too bad, because I would love to give a sermon on the fall of Jerusalem or on King Josiah. I am looking forward to rediscovering the stories of Kings and Chronicles over the next few weeks.

If you've fallen behind this year, perhaps you'll consider joining me halfway through and starting up on January 1st!

Redemption Stories

Sarah Puryear

St. George’s Episcopal Church, Nashville, Tennessee

December 2^nd, 2012

Advent I, Year C

This December, I’m really excited to see the movie version of the musical Les Miserables. Victor Hugo, who wrote the story of Les Miserables, captures the power and beauty of redemption better than perhaps any other story outside of the Bible. Jean Valjean was caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s children and was sent to work on a prison gang for nineteen long years. At last he is released on parole; he is bitter at the way he has been treated but hopeful that freedom will grant him a new chance at life. Yet he finds himself the object of others’ scorn and distrust when he tries to find honest work. The only kindness he finds comes from a bishop who welcomes him into his home and gives him food and a warm place to stay. When the bishop goes to sleep, though, Valjean steals the bishop’s silverware and flees the house, intending to sell the silver to make some money. But his plans go awry when the police catch him and drag him back to the bishop’s house to verify his crime. Whereas the “justice system” condemned him harshly and unfairly for stealing out of desperation and hunger, this bishop has every right to condemn him for stealing his valuables. If he owed nineteen years for a loaf of bread, his sentence for stealing silver would surely equal the rest of his life on earth. And yet when the police show up with Valjean on his doorstep, the bishop replies, “I gave that silver to him as a gift. But why did you leave the best behind? You forgot to take the candlesticks that I gave you as well.” And the bishop hands Valjean his silver candlesticks as the police look on confused and deflated. Valjean is stunned, unable to make sense of this twist of fate. The bishop says to him,

“Remember this my brother, see in this some higher plan

You must use this precious silver to become an honest man

By the witness of the martyrs, by the passion and the blood

God has raised you out of darkness, I have bought your soul for God”

That last line has always struck me as a strong and sobering thing to say to someone else; if someone told me that they had bought my soul for God, I’m not sure whether I would feel relief or fear. That line frames what the bishop has done for Valjean as an act of redemption. To redeem is to buy someone back out of captivity, usually by paying a ransom, and set them free.  The bishop bought Valjean back out of a life of bitterness and theft and gave him over to God. This act of love breaks through the hard shell that prison formed around Valjean’s heart, and he begins to see the possibility of a new way of life. Instead of going back to crime, he turns his life around and becomes a respected man in the community, and throughout the rest of his life he “pays forward” his own redemption by extending mercy and love to others – to a little girl caught in slavery, to a group of idealistic revolutionaries, and even to his most hardened enemy.

Today in our Old Testament story we hear another story of redemption, this one through the prophet Jeremiah. Of all the Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah had one of the toughest assignments. By his time, the land of Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, north and south. Jeremiah lived in the southern kingdom called Judah, which included the city of Jerusalem. The people in the south had already watched in horror as the Assyrians swooped in and conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. In Jeremiah’s time, his people found themselves attacked by the Babylonian troops and feared that the same fate would befall them – destruction, devastation, and deportment to a foreign land.

Jeremiah gave the prophecy that we heard today at the time when the city Jerusalem was surrounded and besieged by the Babylonian troops. The people were on the edge of the worst imaginable thing happening - they faced the prospect of being handed over to their enemies, abandoned by their God for their disobedience, and forever wiped off the face of the earth. Jeremiah himself was in an even tougher spot personally. The king had imprisoned Jeremiah in the courtyard of the palace guard because his message was a distinctly unpleasant one. Jeremiah had warned that Jerusalem would indeed fall to Babylon, and its people would be taken away into exile because of their unfaithfulness to God. The king wanted Jeremiah to give fake messages of hope, which Jeremiah wasn’t willing to do.

While Jeremiah wasn’t one to sugarcoat the devastating message God gave him, his message didn’t end there. Jeremiah wasn’t just a doomsday prophet. He also gave the people the following message from God: “The days are surely coming when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” Jeremiah sounds a note of hope amidst the threat of great darkness, telling the people that despite what was going on around them, and what they were about to endure, God has neither forgotten nor retracted his promises in the face of the people’s unfaithfulness to him. He will honor his promise to David, which was that his descendants would sit on the throne of Israel, and that his house would never come to an end. He will redeem his people; God will buy back his people who are in captivity and give them a Messiah who will rule over them justly in their own land.

Advent is a time for remembering redemption stories like these because, as Jesus says to his disciples in our gospel reading for today, that “our redemption is drawing near.” We anticipate the birth of the Messiah, that moment when God fulfills the promise he gave to Jeremiah, when he sends that Son of David to rule faithfully and justly over his people. And in that anticipation our Old Testament readings are often prophecies during times of darkness, of need, of estrangement that laid bare the people’s need for God… that sparked a deep longing for their Messiah... that caused them to yearn for the time of their redemption to draw near. Facing our great need for God helps us to prepare and rejoice more fully when Christ does appear. It magnifies for us what God has done for us in Christ; it helps to enter more fully into the celebration that Christ our peace is finally here.

During this Advent season, I encourage you to ask yourself, what in my life lays bare my need for God this Advent season? What sparks for me a longing for Christ’s presence? Where do I need a fresh infusion of hope? It doesn’t have to be something as serious as facing life in prison or exile in a foreign land; it is simply any part of you that yearns to leave behind captivity to any other god or power besides the true God, whether the captivity of a broken relationship, of anxiety, of depression, of a addiction, of an eating disorder, of long-held grief or anger or unforgiveness or any other besetting sin – and find freedom.

Connecting with these places where we need redemption can be very scary. We may prefer to pretend that we have it under control, that it’s really not so bad, that we can handle this burden for another month or another year or another Christmas season. But at some point we do reach the end of our rope just like Valjean, just like the people of Israel. And when we do, no matter where our need for redemption lies, God says to us, “I want to start a work of redemption in your life. I want to bring beautiful things out of your brokenness and set you on a new path. I want to remind you when Christmas comes of the hope you have in Christ, hope for mercy and forgiveness and a new life.”

During this Advent season, may God begin or continue a redemption story in your own life. And may we hear God speaking this promise to us, also from the book of Jeremiah: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful.”

books of wisdom

I am reading Proverbs at the moment in Reading God's Story. Proverbs is wisdom literature, full of advice about how to live wisely. I've been struck by all the verses about the power of our words:

"Life and death are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruit."
- Proverbs 18:21

I'm struck by it in part because we are reading the book of James over the next several weeks at church right now. James is said to be the wisdom literature of the New Testament. I think James sums up the message of wisdom literature best when he says:


"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." - James 3:13


He too emphasizes the power of our words:
"The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." - James 3:6

It is interesting to read James alongside the Proverbs and see how their view on the wise life correspond to each other. At the same time, James has a new angle on wisdom due to the teachings of Jesus, which he incorporates those into his writing as well:

"Let your yes be yes and your no be no."
"Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?"
"Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

Today I'm thinking about the power of my words, which I can use to either bless or curse. James says that we are to use them to bless, using a wisdom that comes down from heaven to us from God, just as every good gift comes from him:

"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving,considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." - James 3:17

more from Proverbs on joy

A joyful heart is good medicine,

But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

I learned a little song when I was a kid with the lyrics from this verse from Proverbs - "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine" (that's the KJV translation). I remember thinking at the time that it was a weird thing to say, because most kids don't like taking their medicine. But I get the feeling that joy isn't the kind of medicine you make a face about when you take it though later it makes you feel better; it is good for you every step of the way. Joy is a good remedy for whatever ails your spirit. On the other hand, when our spirit is broken, the effects pervade our whole being, even our bodies. I have discovered that personally in dealing with chronic pain over the past couple of years. I am doing much better now, but I had to learn that our emotions and our bodies are much more tightly connected than I would have ever thought before. I find that music, especially praise and worship music, helps to lift my spirits and bring me the medicine of joy. What makes you joyful?

"A cheerful heart has a continual feast"

CS Lewis says that "Joy is the serious business of heaven." The stereotypical Christian is probably someone who is a bit uptight, prudish, and humorless. CS Lewis turns that idea on its head and says that joy is the mark of the true Christian. I love this verse in the title from Proverbs 15:15. The joyful person had a continual, movable feast that goes with them wherever they go. Their joy isn't dependent upon where they are, what they have, or how things seem to be going, because they take joy in what is unchangeable - that by the power of the Spirit, they can draw near to God in each and every moment of their day and give thanks, seek wisdom, and to ask for help. May we live in that kind of joy today.

"The Joyful Christian," a collection of readings by CS Lewis.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0684823772

Finding the Big Story in the Psalms

So far Reading God's Story has spread out the psalms over the course of David's life. I have enjoyed seeing the psalms connected to events in his life, such as Psalms 35, 54, 63 placed after 1 Samuel 27, at which point David has gone to live with the Philistines in order to flee Saul's jealousy and wrath. Verses like "ruthless people are trying to kill me - people without regard for God" take on added meaning when you have just read about the way Saul has treated David. Many of the Psalms are situational; they are the psalmist's prayer to God based on his circumstances. The placement of the Psalms in RGS helps us to see how David does just that, crying out to God in the midst of persecution.

Other Psalms help us see the "big story" of the Bible. Psalm 78 looks all the way back to Israel's journey in the wilderness, the miracles God did for them there, and their unending demands and complaints against God. It contrasts God's enduring faithfulness to his people and their lack of faith in his provision. It describes what happened once they reached the land; the people turned to idolatry and God in his anger abandoned them to their ways. They lost the ark of the covenant in battle; their young men were killed; their enemies triumphed over them. But that did not last forever; God beat back their enemies. The psalm leads all the way to the events I am reading about right now - God's choice of David to be their shepherd. 

--------------

There is a wonderful music group in Durham, NC called Folk Psalm. They set the psalms to music. They played for us at Duke Divinity School a few times. Here is a video about their music and ministry:
http://www.faithandleadership.com/multimedia/sing-praises-god

Here is their website:
http://www.folkpsalm.com/

the Chronic(what?)cles of Israel

Chronicles starts out with a bang, doesn't it? Kidding :) It is tough going slogging through all those lists in the first 9 chapters of Chronicles (so it's nice that RGS spaces them out over several days). The genealogies is helpful because they give us a review and overview of the "big story" so far in the Bible - Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all of his sons. There are also glimpses of the unusual twists and turns that the story has taken - sometimes the line takes a very untraditional twist. Whereas we would expect the line to continue after Jacob with Reuben, his firstborn, instead it goes through the fourth-born son, Judah. All 3 of Judah's son born by his wife die, so the line continues on through the child Judah has with his *daughter-in-law* Tamar. Again, we see that God does not insist upon a perfect, proper, pure genealogy; he accomplishes his work despite and even through the messiness of human behavior and relationships. At the beginning of Chronicles, the concern here is to trace the genealogical line from Adam to David. As Christians, this takes on added significance, because we will see the gospel writers using genealogies to show how that same line eventually leads to Jesus.

The story of David is told in two different places in the Old Testament. We began reading about it in Samuel, but now we are also reading it on a parallel track in Chronicles. Whereas Samuel gives that full picture of David I described earlier, Chronicles does not mention the sin, the brokenness, the mistakes in David's life. It is a more idealized picture of David as the Messianic king. It's therefore important to read both books in order to get a fuller portrait of David.

If you want to learn more about Chronicles, I just discovered that the introductions to each book of the Bible in the NIV study Bible are available online for free. Here is the one on 1 Chronicles.

(title of this blog post is a take on Andy Samberg's "Lazy Sunday" video on SNL.)

Using Blue Letter Bible

One of the my goals with this blog is help you connect with resources that deepen your understanding of the text. Blue Letter Bible is my favorite website for digging into the Hebrew and Greek words of the original text of the Bible and understanding what those words meant in their original context. Don't worry, you do not need to know Greek in order to learn a lot through this website.

I am much more familiar with Greek and will therefore probably use this website more often once we get to the New Testament. (FYI, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and the New Testament is written almost entirely in Greek.) However, I want to introduce you to the website now in case you are interested in exploring words from our readings now!

Head to Blue Letter Bible and enter the reference for the text you are studying. You can either enter just the name of the book of the Bible and chapter number, or you can also add the verse number. (I have added screen shots below to help you.) This time I am using BLB to look up John 15, because that is the gospel reading for this coming Sunday and the passage that I have been writing about for our church's Easter blog Living Into Joy.

Once you ask BLB to search for that text, you'll see that a screen comes up with the chapter, with each verse listed separately.

You'll see that in the 6 little boxes to the left of each verse, one is labeled "C." That "C" is for "Concordance." Here I am going to choose John 15:11, because I want to look up the word for "joy" in Greek, so I click on the "C" next to verse 11.

Now the verse expands to show me the verse in Greek at the top and then each word in English listed separately with the Greek word to its right along with the Greek word's Strong's Number. (Strong's is a Bible concordance that's been since 1890; Dr. Strong assigned each Greek word a number for reference purposes. If you're interested, you can learn about its history here.) To learn more about the Greek word, click on the Strong's number. For example, here I will click on the G5479.

Now a new page opens filled with information about this one word in Greek. It is listed in Greek at the very top in large letters, but then it shows its spelling in English and gives an audio file of its pronunciation. It also gives a detailed definition of how the word is used in the Bible under "Outline of Biblical Usage" and lists how many times the word is used in the New Testament.

If you keep scrolling down that same page, you'll find a listing of all the verses in which that word is used in the New Testament.

This is helpful because it saves you the time of looking up each verse either online or in your Bible. I often use this to get a sense of how the same word is used in different contexts across the New Testament, both to see how it's used in similar ways and in different ways.

If you ever wondered what a word meant in its original context, give BLB a whirl and see what you discover. If you have any questions about how to use BLB, please feel free to contact me.

David at last!

I love the story of David. After the chaos of Judges and the disappointment of Saul, David emerges as a strong leader anointed by God to take Saul's place. I have been struck this week by just how long it takes David to finally reach the throne. Saul really makes things tough on him. I found it sad after the poignant portrayal of David and Jonathan's friendship, to learn of Jonathan's death through a list of names of Saul's sons who died in battle.

I love that Scripture portrays David in such an unflinching way. David is the greatest hero in the history of Israel from its time as a nation. The temptation would be to portray only his many strengths and victories, but the text does not shy away from his flaws and mistakes. It tells the whole story. It shows David needing to change his mind, to repent, to amend his life, time and time again. The contrast between David's willingness to change and Saul's repeated failure to change, despite his epiphanies here and there, is striking. In 3DM language, I'd say that David chooses to learn from life, but Saul passes over his kairos moments as though they were speed bumps :) David stops, reflects, and asks God is doing in his life and how he can respond to it. Saul admits at times that he's made mistakes and needs to change direction (how many times does he say, "David, you're right, I should really stop trying to kill you!"), but he ends up continuing down the same path, and it leads to his destruction.

As a resource for those who might want to study the story of David, I would recommend Rober Alter's translation of the David story which includes his commentary as well. He shows how this narrative is a cohesive and literarily brilliant one, rather than simply a patchwork of information about David from various literary sources. While his approach is more scholarly than faith-based, Alter's argument that the narrative is cohesive meshes well with the Christian view of the Bible as the inspired word of God. 

Maps in a Digital Age:
I have found myself slowing down while reading because I want to have a sense of where in Israel these events are happening. I had been mostly turning to the maps in Reading God's Story, but many places aren't listed on those maps, so I would spend lots of time searching the entire map in vain. I finally hit upon a good solution for me - the Glo App on my iPhone. The Glo Bible is software that is packed with information about the Bible set up in an interactive way, so that you can explore maps, timelines, historical information about the Bible. The app has various levels of content that you can purchase, but there is a free version. If you have an iPhone, check it out. When I type in a location name, it immediately shows me the location on a satellite map; I can then click on the name to get more information about the location.
My Progress:
I am catching up on my reading and have decided to simply blog about whatever I'm reading instead of trying to catch up before starting to post again. If you're on track and I'm posting about stuff you read a couple weeks ago, my apologies!

Recap: Judges & Ruth

My long hiatus is over! Despite our church's focus on resting and listening to God, Lent has been a very busy time for me :)

Judges is a brutal book. I struggled my way through it. Judges tells the story of what happens once the people of Israel have arrived in the Promised Land and (mostly) driven out the people inhabiting it. Just in case you didn't know, once they settle in the land, God's people totally blow it. They devolve into infighting, violence; they get preoccupied with fighting their enemies. Throughout Judges, it feels as though we lose the plot. From Exodus through Deuteronomy, we had Moses as the strong leader figure who holds things together. Joshua takes his place. But when we get to Judges, the whole project devolves. The judges are appointed as leaders, but they come and go with varying degrees of faithfulness. While some of them do a great job of leading Israel, none of them seem to have the staying power or level of influence as Moses or Joshua did. To their credit, it is much harder to rally folks when they are spread out across the land rather than journeying together in the wilderness. The refrain of the book of Judges is, "In those day there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted." Or, as the NASB puts it, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Following on the heels of Judges is the beautiful little book of Ruth. As I read Ruth, I took heart, because I saw the thread of God's bigger story surfacing. Amid the chaos of the period of the Judges, we see a little glimmer of hope. We find a story of a young non-Israelite woman who chooses to become part of God's people because of her great love for her mother-in-law. She joins a long line of other non-Israelite women who are grafted into the line of David; Tamar (Genesis 38) and Rahab (Joshua 2) come to mind. Ruth continues the story of the genealogical line that was begun back with Abraham, that we traced through Jacob and Judah. It will result in King David.

My Old Testament professor, Ellen Davis, did a translation of Ruth and commissioned an artist to do woodcuts that correspond to the story. It's a lovely book called Who Are You, My Daughter?

Dr. Davis taught us about one of the Hebrew key words of Ruth, hesed. It shows up throughout the book and means "covenant loyalty." Dr. Davis translates it as "acts-of-good-faith" in her book. For instance, in Ruth 1:8, when Naomi says to Ruth, "May the Lord do to you hesed as you have done with the dead and with me," Dr. Davis translates it as "May the Lord do with you acts-of-good-faith." The irony of this book is that a non-Israelite woman, Ruth, is the prime example of hesed in her loyalty to Naomi at a time when the Israelites themselves have recklessly abandoning the covenant. In saying, "Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God," Ruth is binding herself to the covenant people of God. While it is not said explicitly in the book of Ruth, this small story is about God's faithfulness, his hesed, to Israel. Even when the people are turning their backs on him, God is working ahead to provide for his people a redeemer, first in the person of David, later in the person of Christ.

We are reading about David now, and I will write about him next.

The Gospel is Sturdy Enough

I realize it's been nearly a month since I posted. My apologies. I will pick this back up in Easter, but in the meantime here is a posting for Holy Week - a homily I gave last night at St. George's.

___________________________

Sarah Kerr

St. George's Episcopal Church, Nashville, TN

Maundy Thursday 2012 Homily

“This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you.”

Tonight on this Thursday of Holy Week, we hear the story of the Last Supper, and we recall how Jesus commanded his disciples to remember him by celebrating this special meal together. That Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples was also a beginning – it was the First Eucharist, the first of countless celebrations that have happened through history and around the world since the first century, all in remembrance of Him. In our tradition we celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday – in fact, here at St. George's we celebrate the Eucharist every single day. Tonight is a special celebration of the Eucharist, because on this night we celebrate it as part of Holy Week, an intense and focused time when we remember the events of the week leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection. As I have celebrated the Eucharist this Holy Week, I have noticed that doing so during this special season highlights the theme within the Eucharist of Christ’s physical suffering. We may not think about it every time we hear this, but each week when the liturgy echoes Jesus’ words at that final dinner, “This is my body given for you, this is my blood shed for you,” it points specifically to his physical suffering, to the way that his body was broken and his blood was shed by whips and thorns and nails.

In our beautiful Eucharist services, with our beautiful altar coverings and robes and silver chalices, it is easy to forget that such a violent and painful story lies behind it. There is absolutely a place for beauty and joy in the Eucharist, because it is not only a remembrance of his “blessed passion and precious death; it is also a celebration of his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension. But on Maundy Thursday we cannot forget that Christ’s suffering and death lies behind the gifts of bread and wine.

When we delve into the true story of Christ's passion, we do not find the trite and sentimental depiction of Easter that are common in our culture; instead, we find a story of betrayal, injustice, suffering, torture, and death. We may rightfully find it troubling that the story at the center of our faith is one of suffering. In particular, we are likely to feel uncomfortable with the idea that someone else would or should undergo physical suffering for us. I wonder if perhaps that is what stirred some of the discomfort and criticism about the movie The Passion of the Christ being “too violent.” There are plenty of violent, gory movies out there all the time that receive little criticism; but there was something about watching an innocent man suffer so horribly that made people uncomfortable. Perhaps the most discomforting part was that according to the Christian faith, that man was undergoing all of that FOR YOU.

The idea of someone suffering for us is not only rather foreign and unusual to us, but it is an affront to many of our cultural values. We devote so much energy to keeping suffering and death at bay in our lives, and yet in Jesus we see someone voluntarily embrace suffering, which is startling, perhaps even unheard of. We rely so much upon our successes and achievements to define who we are, and yet in Jesus we are told that that his submission to suffering is the means by which we are saved. Jesus’ passion cuts through our self-reliance, our attempts to ward off death, and our reluctance to face the reality of pain in a most unsettling way. And yet the gospel states, quite simply, that “by his wounds we are healed,” that through Christ’s suffering on our behalf, we find healing, freedom, and peace.

How can we begin to make sense of Christ’s suffering on our behalf from this vantage point? How is his passion “good news” for us? I find that a saying by one of the fathers of the church sheds some light on the mystery of Christ's passion. St. Gregory of Nyssa said, “What Christ has not assumed, He has not healed.” Here “Assume” doesn’t mean to “suppose” or “take for granted”; rather, it means “to take upon oneself.” What Gregory mean is anything which Jesus has not taken on himself cannot be healed. Jesus had to take upon himself the full range of human experience in order to redeem it. Jesus didn’t have to enter into every exact situation that we face; but he plumbed the depths of human misery and sin and despair in those final events before his death, and in doing so redeemed them, shattering their grip over us and subjecting them to his reign and rule.

We see in Christ’s passion that God has very particular means of dealing with the problem of sin and death in the world, ones that differ from the methods we might have chosen. We might expect an all-mighty God to snap his fingers and fix everything instantly. That would cater to our preferences to avoid pain and receive immediate gratification. But God in his wisdom, chooses another way; he chooses to “assume” what needs healing, to take it upon himself, to vanquish it from the inside out. In Christ’s passion we see the literal meaning of the word “compassion” acted out before us – it literally means to suffer WITH someone. Perhaps the prophet Isaiah described Jesus’ suffering WITH us best when he wrote, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.”

So that’s the theological explanation of why suffering is at the center of our story as Christians – that Christ takes on human suffering and thereby redeems it. But what does that mean for us? What does it really mean for us today that such a story – one of betrayal and heartbreak and suffering and death – is at the center of our faith?

It means that the gospel is sturdy enough to handle your biggest trials, to absorb all your deepest darkness, to take them all and place them at the foot of the cross. It means that is no problem or trial or suffering or failure that falls outside of the scope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It means that wherever you are and whatever you are going through, God has been there already. He has been there before you. He knows what it is to be rejected, to be scorned, to be subjected to injustice, to violence. He knows what it is like to have his heart be broken. And because he has been there, he knows how to lead you through it, beyond it, to the life that is on the other side of that suffering.

Tonight we remember that Last Supper, that First Eucharist, that first time Jesus held the bread and wine and told his disciples that they were to now become signs of his suffering love. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, God offers us those signs of Christ's suffering, the broken bread and the poured out wine. In those elements, we meet again the suffering Savior of whom Isaiah wrote, who says to us tonight:

Surely I took up your pain and bore your suffering;

 I was pierced for your transgressions;

 I was crushed for your iniquities;

 the punishment that brought you peace was laid on me,

 and by my wounds you are healed.

intro to Deuteronomy

Numbers has flown past, and I am beginning Deuteronomy. I thought I'd write briefly and share some basic information about the book for those of you who are reading.

Deutero-nomos literally means in Greek (not Hebrew) "second law." In Hebrew the name for this book is devarim, which means "spoken words," taken from the first words of the book, "These are the words..."

Deuteronomy is largely Moses' rehash of what has happened in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Over the course of this book, Moses gives three speeches to the people of Israel, who are on the brink of going into the land that has long been promised to them. Moses knows that he won't be going with them, so this is his lengthy farewell speech. He is clearly concerned to impress upon the people their heritage. This is particularly important because the people whom he addresses were not those who remember coming out of Egypt. Those who were afraid to enter the promised land in Numbers were not allowed to enter the land because of their lack of faith. So these people whom Moses addresses have lived their entire lives wandering in the desert. Most of them probably have no memory themselves of being at Sinai, so Moses reiterates to them the "law" (which is better translated as "instruction" than "law"), and the people reaffirm their covenant with God.

A few things to notice as you read:

• Look for the following key words and verses in Deuteronomy
• Today
• You
• See
• Heed (or listen)(shema in Hebrew)

• Look for the Shema, Deu. 6:4, which is the central verse of Deuteronomy, and, one could say, of all of the Hebrew Scriptures (extended to verse 9): "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and and with all your soul and with all your strength."

• Look for times when Moses tells the people, YOU crossed the Exodus. They personally did not, because they weren't alive yet, but there is such a strong communal dimension to their sense of identity that it is THEIR past, regardless of their individual participation in the Exodus. This becomes an important theme in Christianity, in which time also collapses, and events in the past for which we were not present become the most defining events about us. The Exsultet, sung at the Easter vigil, is a key example of this in our liturgy: "THIS is the night when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell." Technically, in our linear way of thinking, it's not the same night, but liturgically it is, and the benefits of Christ's saving work in the past have become present to us.

a snake & a savior

We just hosted an amazing conference at our church: the C3 conference. Now I am spending the week at another conference of sorts - a 3DM learning community. With all this going on, I won't be able to post much this week. But in the meantime, here's one brief thought on Numbers.

Numbers is - surprise! - a challenging book as well. God and the people of Israel are not getting along very well. The story illustrates again and again that the relationship between God and humanity has been profoundly disrupted, and that restoring that relationship is hampered by the people's complaining and lack of trust. Numbers 21 describes an outbreak of snakes that come upon the people because of their disobedience.

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

The snake, which was cursed for its craftiness in Genesis 3, in the story of Moses becomes the emblem of health and healing. Jesus referenced this story when describing himself and his purpose to Nicodemus in John 3:

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."

There is an interesting reversal here; in his crucifixion the Son of God becomes like a snake, which is THE creature that began the unraveling of God's good plans.  And as he says in John 12:32:

"When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself."

Reader's Guide to the Bible

This book arrived a few days ago. If you're reading through the Bible this year, I'd recommend getting it. There is a short (very short) paragraph about the reading for each day along with a reflection question. The book also has fold-out timelines that help you visualize the progress of the overall story. Reading along in this as well as in the Bible will not add much time to your daily habit but will hopefully help make greater sense of what you're reading. George Guthrie also gives helpful suggestions for related passages in the New Testament.

we offer and present unto Thee

We have finished Leviticus. I found a helpful chart in my NIV Study Bible that I reproduce below, outlining the various kinds of sacrifices described in Leviticus, what was offered, and why they were offered. Then I'd like for us to think about how reading these long descriptions of sacrifices is important and helpful for us as Christians.

Old Testament Sacrifices

1. Burnt offering
Leviticus 1; 6:8-13; 8:18-21; 16:24
Offering: bull, ram or male bird; wholly consumed; no defect
Purpose: Voluntary act of worship, atonement for unintentional sin in general; expression of devotion, commitment, and complete surrender to God


2. Grain offering
Leviticus 2; 6:14-23
Offering: Grain, flour, olive oil, incense, bread, salt; accompanied burnt offering and fellowship offering
Purpose: Voluntary act of worship; recognition of God's provision and goodness; devotion to God


3. Fellowship offering
Leviticus 3; 7:11-34
Offering: Any animal without defect; variety of breads
Purpose: Voluntary act of worship; thanksgiving and fellowship (it included a communal meal)


4. Sin Offering
Leviticus 4:1-5:13; 6:24-30; 8:14-17; 16:3-22
Offering:
1. Young bull (for high priest and congregation)
2. Male goat (for leader)
3. Female goat or lamb (for common person)
4. Dove or pigeon (for the poor)
5. Fine flour (for very poor)
Purpose: Mandatory atonement for specific unintentional sin; confession of sin; forgiveness of sin; cleansing from defilement


5. Guilt Offering
Leviticus 5:14-6:7; 7:1-6
Offering: Ram or lamb
Purpose: Mandatory atonement for unintentional sin requiring restitution; cleansing from defilement; make restitution; pay 20% fine


After reading over this chart, I had one question: What about intentional sin? I expected one of these, such as the guilt offering, to be for intentional sin. Is there no way to atone for intentional sin in the law? The law clearly calls for death in many situations of intentional sin, but does it require death in all cases? Also, What does "unintentional sin" mean? Purely accidental sin (such as, "oops, I didn't see that dead body there, and I bumped into it"), or sin in which the person is not aware of the gravity of their error? (I guess I actually had more than one question!) I will try to find some answers to these questions.

Parallels in the Christian tradition
As you read Leviticus, you probably asked yourself at least once, How in the world does any of this relate to me or to my faith? The answer is that it relates in deeply profound ways that are not obvious to most of us. The symbols of the sacrificial system continued in altered form in the Christian tradition. Understanding the sacrificial system as laid out in Leviticus provides much greater depth of meaning to our own Christian tradition. So many of these ideas make their way into the central story that we remember each Sunday when we gather for worship. Here is where I see these 5 showing up in the Eucharist today:

Grain Offering
We might think of the offertory as simply the time when the ushers pass the plates, and we pony up while the choir serenades us with a lovely song to remind us of how much we like church and want to keep it running :) In our Anglican tradition, however, we still retain the original theological significance of the offertory. Originally early Christians would bring wine and homemade bread to church to offer up in thanksgiving to God for Christ. That is why we still have the ushers bring up the bread and wine at communion, though usually the elements are purchased by the church and not brought by home. (I know of some congregations where the bread is still homemade, which is wonderful.)  Therefore, the offering is about all of our gifts - not just of money but also of bread and wine - being offered to God. When the priest elevates the host and the cup, he/she is offering it up to God. Having read Leviticus, we can see that this offering of bread and wine bears some resemblance to the grain offering, which was made voluntarily in thanksgiving to God.

Fellowship Offering
We can also see echoes of the fellowship offering in the Eucharist, as it is a celebratory meal that we share together in God's presence.

Sin and Guilt Offerings

God provides the lamb, just as he did for Abraham on Mount Moriah. God has provided Christ as the offering for sin and guilt; we provide the bread and wine as an offering of thanksgiving in response to God's provision for us. (Eucharist itself means "to give thanks.") We are not trying to atone for our sins at the Eucharist; we are instead responding to God's gracious initiative.

Burnt Offering

What would be the parallel here? I see it in the words of the Eucharistic prayer Rite I:

"And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee."

We are the burnt offering, but rather than being toasted to a crisp, we are a "living sacrifice," to borrow the words of Romans 12:1. This is what is called an oblation, a prayer of self-dedication. (See the prayer book catechism, page 857.)

Francisco de Zurbaran's Agnus Dei