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Okay, I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist the pun.

But the readings are about "seeing". Seeing is not merely a physiological activity; it is cultural in what we see deeply formed by the truthfulness of the formation of the people of whom we are a part. Our deepest commitments arise out of and return to "what we see." If we remember this, we might understand better the importance of these readings.

The Gospel reading is very long -- as happens in Lent, particularly when reading from the Gospel of John. Let's start there, move to the Samuel text, and then to the Epistle reading. Because the texts are long, we'll try to keep the commentary focused on "seeing".

John 9:1-38

Note who "sees" first in the passage. Maybe you can even go through as a group to see all the allusions to seeing. As throughout the Gospel of John, words have multiple means -- a literal, apparent meaning and a "spiritual" typological meaning. One can be blind while seeing, and see while being blind. How is ultimately the "work of God" revealed in the blind man?

Maybe it's most interesting just to go through and ask what various characters in the passage see"

What does Jesus "see" throughout the passage?
What does Jesus' disciples "see" throughout the passage?
What do the neighbor of the healed "blind man" see?
What do the Pharisees "see" when the man is brought to them?
What does the parents of the blind man "see"?
What does the blind man who Jesus heals "see"?

How does the second conversation between Jesus and the blind man take place? What is the final evidence of the man's "sight"? What is it to "see" in the passage?

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Again, following the motif, let's follow "sight" in the passage through the character of Samuel.

What is preventing him from seeing at the beginning of the passage? What does God tell him?
What does Samuel see when he arrives at Bethlehem? What is the problem that presents itself to him? How does God instruct Samuel to "see"? Who does he end up seeing?

Why does Samuel anoint David in the presence of his family? Why is Samuel able to immediately leave?

It seems to me that this passage functions typologically, both as a foreshadowing of Christ as well as an instruction in discipleship. How does it function in these roles?

Ephesians 5:1-14

How do the ethical commands of this passage depend on "seeing" correctly? How do the prohibitions help one to see? Obviously we need light to "see"? Why are certain practices in the dark? Why do other practices mentioned in the passage allow us to see what is "good and right and true"? Think of the image -- how does one "expose" darkness as darkness. Why is the resurrection mentioned as the manifestation of light at the end? How does the resurrection allow us to "see" truthfully?

Obviously, learning to see takes hard work, but comes to us always as a gift; it is never just given. To see what is "good and right and true" is our end? How does worship, bible study, and participation in the works of mercy help us to see beyond these times, but to see and participate in that which is "good and right and true" -- and one might add, beautiful!

Have a wonderful time together!

Posted by johnwright at 3:39 PM

This Sunday we will read from Galatians 3:25-29 and Isaiah 60:1-4 as part of our 10th anniversary service. We continue to make progress on the kitchen -- painting goes on tonight (Wednesday) so that the floor tiles can start to be put in tomorrow if after bible study you want to throw paint around. Then we might even have a sink and a stove for Sunday's gathering!!

But these passages are so important, it is good to continue our reflection on them. The OT leads to the Gospel, and then the beautiful passage from Romans places everything into a wonderful setting.

Exodus 17:1-7

Note when this episode happens within the story -- what happens before (Exodus 14-15) and what happens afterwards (Exodus 19). Do they people know where they are heading? Are the people unreasonable? Why or why not? What is the difference between the people's perspectives and quotes and Moses perspective and quotes and Yahweh's perspective and quotes. How do they relate to what actually happens? What is God's concern for?

John 4:5-42

The John passage is so long and rich. To see what is happening, it might be interesting just to act out the passage to see the movements and positions that go with the words. How does the Exodus passage help understand this one?

What is the significance of the water?

Romans 5:1-11

If the faith by which we are justified is Jesus' faithfulness, who does that make the the list that moves from suffering to love? How does faith, hope, and love frame the passage?

Have a wonderful evening!

Posted by johnwright at 11:38 AM

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to our annual multicongregational "Founder's Day" service next Sunday, starting around 10:30ish multicongregational time. After the service we will gather for a multicongregational potluck. It looks like we may even complete the basic remodeling of the kitchen before then! We know, at least, that the roaches have been evicted from the kitchen!!! As Sister Gehane said as we ripped out the old cupboards, "No more roaches!!!!"

This service is one of our four annual multicongregational services in a year. But this service stands out, at least to me, as very significant -- it marks our 10th anniversary together as a multicongregation, sharing life in Christ together in the building. We want to use this time to celebrate God's goodness to us through these years. Your presence, if possible, would deeply help us celebrate these ten years.

Ten years. Ten years of labor. Ten years of laughter. Ten years of tears. Ten years of thankfulness of God's unanticipated gifts being gathered to us.

When Ron Benefiel, David Whitelaw, and I planted the Church of the Nazarene in Mid-City, we didn't anticipate God taking us in the direction of a building or a multicongregation -- as a matter of fact, we were biased against the idea so that we could use whatever funds and energy in witnessing in and among the poor. When Ron discovered that the old University Avenue Church of the Nazarene was coming open, he saw opportunities and a future and set out. The problem was we had access to very little financial resources. I remember Ron writing grant after grant, courting various agencies as part of the "re-vitalization" (i.e., gentrification) of City Heights programs (does anyone else remember Al Gore coming by to dedicate the new police station?). Because we were not a "social service agency" -- and would not present ourselves as such -- all grant agencies excluded us from any support. Ron begged, long and hard, so that we could have the necessary downpayment for the building. How it happened, other than the graciousness of God's people as a witness to the goodness of God, I have no idea. By the time we "formally" began with ownership of the building, we had five small congregations within the Church of the Nazarene and two other non-Nazarene congregations working in and out of the building.

With our tenth anniversary, we once again are begging for funds. We are required to re-finance our building by the end of April. Of course there are always challenges financially for us -- one of our renters who had been with us for the 10 years recently left to try greener pastures elsewhere, cutting into our monthly revenue. We always have the barest of budgets so we have to cut expenses -- and the mortgage is the best way to cut it. We are poor and that's okay. But that means that we have to beg from friends, family, other congregations to provide financial resources so that we might continue together at 41st and University in San Diego. "Pray and beg" was Peter Maurin's response whenever the Catholic Worker ran short of funds.

Kelly Johnson has described how in traditional Christian life, it was seen good that some Christians become voluntary beggars -- to live with the poor and those Christians who were involuntary beggars -- in her recent book The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics. She writes, "Beggars beg to survive, but they depend upon the existence of social order that accepts begging as part of the social fabric (not as a crime or absurdity). The possibility of successful begging indicates a strong social bond so that sharing with a needy stranger is reasonable. It also indicates a culture that tolerates substantial variations in wealth so that almsgivers do not presuppose a need to change the beggar's status" (p. 17).

Johnson quotes from Aquinas: "Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican mendicant, argued that although begging to avoid work was unlawful, a religious could beg either because he has no other means of living or in order to finance some useful work. 'Thus alms are besought for the building of a bridge, or church, or for any other work whatever that is conducive to the common good: thus scholars may seek alms that they may devote themselves to the study of wisdom.' . . . This arrangement presupposes, again, a kind of social bond in a community that possesses a sense of such a common good and has some trust that the beggars in question are actually contributing to it" (p. 17). I am hopeful that the internet provides at least some type of real social bond that does not deny concrete space, but can in some ways transcend it.

I remember some years ago reading through Theodore Jennings ambiguous book, Good News to the Poor: John Wesley's Evangelical Economics, a book excellent in gleaning resources from the Wesley text about his commitment to the poor. The book loses credibility when Jennings shifts to making Wesley a proto-type of Marxist liberation theologian rather than the classical Augustinian Thomist that he was. In his Journal around Christmas in 1785, when Wesley was 82 years old, he wrote, "At this season [Christmas] we usually distribute coals and bread among the poor of the society [of London]. But I now considered, they wanted clothes, as well as food. So on this, and the four following days, I walked through the town, and begged two hundred pounds, in order to clothe them that needed it most. But it was hard work, as most of the streets were filled with melting snow, which often lay ankle deep; so that my feet were steeped in snow-water nearly from morning till evening" (from Jennings, p. 59). To learn to beg is hard work.

Throughout this week, I hope to share with you memories and stories of these past ten years in and around the property on 41st and University -- a property not owned by the English-speaking congregation, but by the multicongregational board. We would be most humbled for you to come and join us for our service this coming Sunday. We would give thanks to God for any gifts you may be able to share with us for our re-financing. On the trivial side, we are an approved "10 % World Missions" giving site in the Church of the Nazarene if Nazarene congregations would want to provide a contribution as a congregation. We will take our offering this Sunday but leave the "books" open as we find the necessary loan to keep paying down on the loan. Maybe even we can find a way to get a new roof to replace the leaky one over the Spanish language congregation's sanctuary/fellowship hall!!

You may send checks made out to the Church of the Nazarene in Mid-City (Multicongregation) and send them to the same, 4101 University Ave., San Diego, CA 92105.

It is humbling to beg. It is joyous to invite you to gather with us for a Sunday. It is hard to believe that 10 years has gone by with all the adventures, joys, and sorrows that have come with it.

Posted by johnwright at 8:10 AM

Our Scripture readings take us from human characters, Abram and Nicodemus. Yet the character that matters is God. We see in the relationship between the characters the character of God who has revealed God's own Self as Love to us uniquely, fully, and without possibility of substitution in Jesus Christ. Amid the contingencies, tragedies, glories, experiences, failures, joys of our lives in this age, we find in these texts that our faith is not in our experiences, the quality of our lives, our successes and failures, even in our joys and sorrows, but in this very particular God.

Genesis 12:1-8

Genesis 12 follows God's creation of a good creation, a creation that becomes less than it is due to sin, sin that leads to the fragmentation of humanity and the disintegration of creation itself. As God spoke to create, God again speaks to render God's word intelligible to us.

vv. 1-3: Do you find any "if . . . then" structure to the passage? Read the passage very carefully. What exactly does God command Abram? What is the terms of the promise? Who will have failed if these promises don't come true?

vv. 4-8: Does Abram head out to "the land that I will show you"? How well does Abram obey God's commands? How does God respond? What does this tell you about God? What does this free Abram to do?

John 3:1-17

This dialogue is hard to read because puns and double meanings fly throughout the passage. For instance, Nicodemus (and we often) misunderstand Jesus when he says, "You must be born from above." The Greek phrase is ambiguous, and can mean "again" as well as "above." The fact that Nicodemus doesn't "get it" is a very important part of the dialogue.

Yet Nicodemus is a leader of the Jews, heir to the promise to Abram.

Read just the sections of the passage that either describe Nicodemus' actions or sayings? Then do the same for Jesus'? What do you notice about the two characters?

What could it be that keeps Nicodemus from "receiving" Jesus' testimony? How does Jesus respond?

The allusion to Moses and snakes in the wilderness is an allusion to Numbers 21. Read this passage. How does it help to understand Jesus' teaching?

Posted by johnwright at 11:14 AM