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Thomas Aquinas wrote, "we cannot know the essence of God in this life as it is in itself but we know it to the extent that it is represented in creaturely perfections." Of course the greatest creaturely perfection for Aquinas is Jesus Christ, truly human and truly divine. As we participate in Him as we find Him within the Scriptures, we come to know God and witness to this God through Jesus in the witness of the church.

This is why idolatry, not atheism is our biggest struggle. Even atheism has a "god" -- the totality of the universe (or parallel universes) that comprises a "whole" or a "whole of wholes". The true God, the God who is Life, has come to us in Jesus. To begin with Ezekiel, move to the John 17, and then end up in 1 Peter may be instructive for us.

Ezekiel 39:21-29

Why does disaster come upon the people of God? Why does God seek the restoration of Jacob? What is the function of the renewed, purified people of God? What is the function of the Spirit?

John 17:1-11

Glory is a term that is in the area of Beauty -- the weightiness of an experience. What is the relationship between Jesus' and the Father's glory? What has been the Son's task that he has completed?

Why does Jesus pray for us, his disciples? What is the relationship between the disciples and the world? What is the difference between them?

1 Peter 4:12-19

Why shouldn't we be surprised at "the fiery ordeal" in which we as believers live? Why should we rejoice in suffering? What type of suffering? What is the difference between suffering and suffering as a Christian? How does one deal with the shame for suffering as a Christian?

What is the relationship between the three passages? What is the witness of the people of God here? How do we experience this witness and suffering in our lives, particularly as those involved at Mid-City? How do we explain our witness to those outside the congregation and pull the "nations" into God's salvation here?

Have a wonderful evening.

Posted by johnwright at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

The readings this week are very moving for me. The news of the world food shortage has deeply disturbed me. Maybe it’s because I see the lines growing for bread outside the church; maybe it’s because I know that the French-speaking congregation has families and friends struggling in Haiti – 6% of all Nazarenes in the world are Haitian; maybe because I’ve never witnessed such things happening and feel profoundly helpless. At any rate, perhaps this situation helps us understand that our hope is in God; our strength to continue doing what is good arises not from our success or taking responsibility or from alleviating suffering in the world, but in union with God in Christ that allows us to unite our sufferings and the worlds suffering with those of Christ.

Let’s begin with the Isaiah passage and move through the epistle to then the gospel reading

Isaiah 41:17-20

There is a three fold movement in this passage: (1) The situation; (2) God’s response; and (3) the reason for God’s response. What are the specifics of these three movements? How does the fulfillment of the promise within this passage relate with the sayings of Jesus in Matthew 25?

1 Peter 3:8-18

The passage in 1 Peter begins with a plea/exhortation to a common life within and between local congregations, an affectional, rather than merely a mechanical unity. Vv. 8-9 are actually one sentence in the Greek, all of it joined together. But rather than “now”, the Greek uses the word, “telos” or “Finally – the culmination of all that’s been said before”. It is a remarkable emphasis on these words that follow. Why do you think it would so emphasize this? What is the Christian “vocation” or “calling”?

Vv. 10 first phrase is literally “for the one willing to love life” – how does this clarify the Christian vocation to not return evil for evil? Why is God is important in the difference between those who return evil and those who keep themselves from evil concretely in human lives?

Why the positive emphasis in vv. 13-18? Why do you think that the passage presupposes that “sanctifying Christ in your hearts as Lord” and doing good will lead to accusations of wrong-doing against these Christians? Why is it important to keep at the positive actions of doing good even in the face of accusations of wrong-being and doing? While doesn’t the writer exhort to active resistance and retaliation against those who desire to prevent the church from doing what is good in its submission to Christ as Lord?

John 15:1-8

What image does Jesus use for his self-description here? Why would he use grape imagery for himself? What is the fruit that is borne to make more fruit?

Abiding in Christ is language of participation in Him. How does one concretely participate in Christ? What happens if one does not? How does participation lead to asking in the alignment of our prayers with God’s will? Which comes first, participation in Christ or bearing fruit and becoming a disciple?

If one notices, it seems to me that the passages tell a story: (1) The situation of the world and God’s response; (2) the exhortation to local congregations on their life together to be the witness so that the world may know God; and (3) the call to participation of the believer and local congregations in “the vine”. How do you find this story relating to being part of a pilgrim people caring for a pilgrimage way-station vowed to works of mercy here at Mid-City? Why is the Gospel passage so important for us as the beginning and end of this story?

In the Rules of the Missionaries of Charity, the order of a pilgrim people to provide a pilgrimage way-station vowed to works of mercy began by Mother Theresa, the first point is:

1. The End
The General End of the Missionaries of Charity is to satiate the thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross for love and souls . . .

2. To be able to do all these – the Sisters must learn first to live real interior lives of close union with God – and seek and see Him in all they do for the poor.

3. There will be no difference amongst the Sisters – they must all learn – farming, cooking, nursing and a little teaching – and be ready always to do any of these works if obedience requires.

How do these Rules relate to our readings and to our mission together?

Have a wonderful evening together!

Posted by johnwright at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)

I have developed an interesting practice – not intentionally, of course, but one that I think it good for me. On Tuesdays I’m regularly preaching downtown at the Salvation Army – this is a wonderful congregation. I have to read the Scriptures with them in mind. Yesterday in the early morning, a man in a wheel chair was stabbed right across the street. We all recognized that this could easily have been us. One hears the Scriptures differently when one hears them as part of a congregation where many live without the protection of shelter, locks, and doors.

Then I have to listen to the Scriptures for Bible Studies, already informed by my first listening on Tuesdays. Here I shift to pastor with a biblical scholarship background. The earlier reading is taken up, not annulled, but heard differently in light of Tuesdays. Because of the responsibilities of the pastoral team recently, I’ve also, as I’m sure you know, done more preaching than usual. To read the Scriptures for proclamation as a senior pastor again takes up the earlier readings. The readings “haunt me” throughout the week. Just the repetition keeps them on my mind, even when I want to think about something else.

I hope that constancy in the bible studies finds something similar happening to you. These texts help us see life truly. They aren’t objects to master but words to live within – sometimes hard words, but good for us to hear lest we get trapped in our own self-deception.
I think that it might be good to begin with the gospel reading this week, and then move towards the OT and end with the 1 Peter passage. It seems to me that the 1 Peter passage leads to very good reflections about who we really are.

John 14:1-14

The Gospel of John presents Jesus as the eternal Word of God who becomes flesh and dwells among us. His sojourn on this world reveals God to us in His body; His Resurrection returns him to the Father. Perhaps a good way to read this passage is to ask how does what Jesus says make understandable Jesus’ instruction to “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” What particular things does Jesus say to lift “trouble” from our hearts?

How does Jesus respond to Philip’s question? How can it be that Jesus shows the Father? What is the relationship between the Father and the Son? How does Jesus’ response fill out “do not let your hearts be troubled?”

Deuteronomy 6:20-25

Why is it significant that the passage is given to answer the children? Why would one respond to a question about “rules” with a story? What is the point of the story? How does our story, told in John 14 above, help to tell our story? How does what we do in our life only take on meaning in light of God’s redemption in the resurrection of Jesus?

1 Peter 2:1-10

Why does this passage begin with getting away from the negative? Why these negatives? What precisely do such things do to groupings of people? Most likely, the image of “tasting” is an image drawn from the Lord’s Supper. How does longing for “pure, spiritual milk” help one to “grow into salvation”?

How is Jesus described? What is the relationship between the image of Jesus and the exhortation for us? What is it that we have become in Christ? It might be good to read Exodus 19:1-6. What is it to be “a people”? What is our purpose?

So much circulates in these passages. Story, Jesus as the revelation of the Father, the mission of the church. How does the initial exhortation to “not let your hearts be troubled” find its end in the exhortations and descriptions of 1 Peter 2. How have you experienced these words as true?

Have a wonderful evening!

Posted by johnwright at 4:40 PM | Comments (0)

Last night downtown I preached from the Epistle reading. I have learned to respect deeply our congregation there, those who gather to eat. Their life is hard; they are open to random harassment by authorities and others who live on the street. It is dangerous, insecure, and fragile. I preached from the Epistle reading – knowing fully that it’s the Easter season. These readings make sense only in terms of Easter and the local bodies of Christ, the church catholic that God instituted in Jesus Christ and his resurrection. The good news of the resurrection provides the undertone that supports all these readings. It is a gift to read these during Easter because it reminds us that ultimately, we never can separate our readings of Scripture from our faith/allegiance to the crucified and raised body of Jesus.

It might be helpful this week to hear the passages in order of OT, Gospel, and Epistle to bring to bear the underlying logic of the text.

Nehemiah 9:6-15

It is important to note that the passage from Nehemiah is a prayer. But as a prayer, it summarizes the story of Genesis 12-Numbers 36. What points serve as the key points in the repetition of this story in the prayer? Why these points? How is the “we” and “us” and “our” here? Does it make a difference who “we” are? Is it a particular or abstract, non-descript “we”?

The prayer takes place during the rebuilding of Jerusalem, an attempt to solidify the material environment for the Jews surrounded by a hostile people. How does this situation find parallels in the death and resurrection of Christ? In the situation of our local congregation now? In the situation of the church catholic throughout the world?

John 10:1-10
Maybe the best way to read the Gospel reading is to read it from the back forward – the last phrase. How does this last verse presuppose the resurrection of Jesus? What does it do to our understanding of “life” if “abundant life” is defined in the coming of Jesus? What is the difference between Jesus and the thief? If the “sheepfold” is abundant life, what is the thief? What would be the differences between abundant life of the thief and that provided through the gate?
We’re hesitant to define “abundant life” outside of defining it as what each individual personally “values” maybe with a vague sense of “social justice” for others. We have been profoundly shaped by what Charles Taylor has come to describe as an “individual expressivist order”:
I believe, along with many others, that our North Atlantic civilization has been undergoing a cultural revolution in recent decades. The 60s provide perhaps the hinge moment, at least symbolically. It is . . . an individuating revolution, which may sound strange, because our modern age was already based on a certain individualism. But this has shifted on a new axis, without deserting the others. As well as moral/spiritual and instrumental individualisms, we now have a widespread ‘expressive’ individualism. This is, of course, not totally new. Expressivism was the invention of the Romantic period in the late eighteenth century. Intellectual and artistic elites have been searching for the authentic way of living or expressing themselves throughout the nineteenth century. What is new is that this kind of self-orientation seems to have become a mass phenomenon. (A Secular Age, p. 473).

Abundant life becomes having the ability to “express oneself” authentically and creatively – one has a “right to personal expression”; it is bad to be poor because then the poor depend on others for their own expression, and thus are deprived of their “rights” – thus then need others to provide a voice for them – to give voice to the voiceless, to empower the oppressed. How does the John passage respond to such a deeply set cultural framework? What is the relationship between “abundant life” in the sheepfold and life in concrete local congregation such as Mid-City?

1 Peter 2:19-25

What does it mean to “follow in Jesus’ steps”? Notice that the sheepfold imagery appears in this passage as well? How does this passage from 1 Peter describe “abundant life”? How is suffering related to “abundant life”? How does this passage only make sense in light of Easter? How does it relate to the prayer from Nehemiah?

The readings push together memory/prayer as a particular people connected to the Jews, Jesus and abundant life, and non-retaliation/non-violence as deeply related convictions. It seems a weird mixture in current North American culture. Yet there is an inner coherence that differentiates us as believers from the world around us, maybe a necessary connection that we must see.

Last summer I read a book by Richard M. Gamble, The War for Righteousness: Progressive Christianity, the Great War, and the Rise of the Messianic Nation. What Gamble shows is that it was the social gospel clergy, who before 1914 were pragmatic pacificists, that provided the inner-rationale for the US entry into “The Great War” (an oxymoron). Gamble writes: “these religious progressives interpreted the First World War in light of their social gospel theology. . . . these forward-looking clergy embraced the war as a chance to achieve their broadly defined social gospel objectives. In the same way that American imperialism at the turn of the century was, as historian William E. Leuchtenburg argued, not a betrayal of domestic reform idealism but rather the expression of the same expansive, interventionist spirit on an international scale, so too the progressive clergy’s enthusiasm for American participation in the Great War did not contradict their progressive theology. Their enthusiasm for the war was an acknowledged extension of their theological progressivism” (p. 3).

How can keeping these passages together, even as we enter deeply life with and for the poor, among whom we find Jesus Christ, prevent us from the same well-intentioned but profoundly unchristian positions as those early 20th century “social gospelteers”? What should we expect to experience as we keep memory/prayer as a particular people connected to the Jews, Jesus and abundant life, and non-retaliation/non-violence together?

Have a wonderful evening together!!

Posted by johnwright at 2:51 PM | Comments (0)