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After the first of January, I hope again to blog more regularly. It has been much too long since I've been able to keep up, and I hope things will be different -- at least I plan for them to be. I miss the time of cyber-reflection.

I mourn the continued conflict in Palestine/Israel. I'm concerned for my friends in the IDS who have probably been called up; I mourn for the victims of the bombing and the devastation of a society that has become Gaza; I hope that the siege of Gaza that has occurred will soon end so that at least children may eat and the sick have medications given to them. It is always the poorest and the weakest who suffer most in the conflict that arises out of the nation-state system that humans have constructed. At any rate, I wanted to share with you a first hand account received this morning from a member of Mid-City who is leaving Israel today. I won't mention his/her name so as not to compromise his/her safety through Israeli checkpoints.

Hello all,

I am writing from Jerusalem, as I wait for the clock to reach 2am, which is when I will start the long journey to the States.

As you can probably imagine, the sentiment among Palestinians in the last days, is very emotional. People are in mourning, people are angry, people want to respond. What happened in Gaza was a massacre, the images of killed babies and children is running on television all day long. As I came into Hebron yesterday, many youth were throwing rocks, chanting, and burning tires in response to the massacres. Roads were blocked with stones and tire fires raged and youth paraded with Palestinian flags. The Israeli military was responding with live ammo, concussion grenades, and teargas. As I came into the Old City of Hebron, a kind gentlemen showed me an alleyway towards my house, which would avoid all the teargas. I was able to avoid much of the teargas but my eyes were still stinging from the lingering teargas in the air.

Leaving Hebron today, the scene was very similar. One youth grabbed my arm and pulled me into an alleyway. Just as we rounded the corner, a sound grenade went out, scaring the hell out of me. I thanked him for this gesture, and he proceeded to ask where I was from, I said, "Ameerka." Instantly I could tell that this wasn't a popular answer at the present moment. He asked me if I had said seen the pictures of babies killed in Gaza. He said that America is responsible for those dead babies. He told me that America needs to be destroyed. He demanded to know if his statements were true or false. "Haada mazbuut," this is true, I said. He told all his friends around him that I was "Amreeki," which garnered many grunts of disapproval. Another sound grenade went off nearby and I figured it was my time to leave.

As I walked away from this situation, I became immediately upset, with the United States' unconditional support of Israel, especially their recent claims that the conflict needed to end, with Hamas ending their rocket-fire into Israel. Yes partially true, but you aren't going to say anything about the 350 Palestinians that Israel has killed by bombing one of the most densely populated places on earth? After my emotive thoughts, I wondered why these youth had such a negative reaction to me. I realized that I am the closest to an American representative that these youths have seen since the bombing of Gaza. I don't think they viewed me as personally responsible, but I am seen as closer to the source, closer to the money flowing from the U.S. to buy Israeli F-16s used in the bombings, closer to the decision-makers giving Israel planes the green light.

And about America needing to die. I don't think he was saying that all Americans need to die. The sense I get from people, is that America as we know it, needs to die. The America that has funded an apartheid regime like the State of Israel, and provides the financial and military resources to occupy the Palestinian people for 60 years, that America needs to be destroyed. If that's that what this young man was saying, "mazbuut," that is correct.

As I boarded the bus to Bethlehem, where I change buses to go to Jerusalem, I got into another conversation with 3 men. One man on the bus looked remarkably like Yasser Arafat, and other men in the bus were giving this man a hard time and trying to get him to do an impersonation. Incidentally, he already had a impersonation of Yasser Arafat saved on his phone, brilliant. I got into the conversation when they asked me if I was a good impersonation, I thought it was. They then asked me where I was from. When I said America, they again asked about Gaza, if I had seen the pictures and the videos. They then asked what I was doing here. In my limited Arabic, I explained that I work near Yatta, in a village called Tuwani. I struggled to find the words to describe the work..."I live with Palestinians who have many problems with Israeli settlers and Israeli soldiers. The foreigners with me, we have video cameras, and we try to help, and try to tell our country about what's happening." There was some conversation among the men as I think they attempted to put together the pieces of what I said, and what they think my work is. Then the 'Yasser Arafat look-alike' reached across the aisle to shake my hand. "You are welcome here in Palestine," he said to me, in the first English spoken in the conversation. The other men shook my hand and asked what my name was and where I was going. After I told them my travel plans, they insisted I come with them in their friend's car and they would drop me off in Jerusalem to catch the bus. Upon entering the car, the driver offered me food and tea, and told me I was welcome here.

These two encounters strike me as profound. The more I think about them, the less I think about them in terms of one being positive and one being negative. The second story really tells about the kindness, hospitality, generosity, and humor of these people. They refused to let me take the bus but instead went out of their way to give me a ride which meant I didn't have to stand in the rain. They also gave up food which had been made specifically for them, to feed a strange foreigner with long hair. So so generous.

The first story is more difficult, but I am starting to see it in this way...that I was an outlet. So often the only face of the oppressor that Palestinians see, is Israeli soldiers. Often settlers are distant and Israeli or American politicians are a world away. These youth wanted to speak to someone who is partially representative of the oppressor that has held their people down for 60 years. That's fair, I can't argue with that. If I was in any small way I target of that response, that's ok with me. It seemed a healthy release for these youth to be able to tell an American citizen, that the America that supports these bombings and these killings of their sisters and brothers, needs to shrivel up and die.

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Life goes on in the West Bank, as it limps along in Gaza. Palestinians are angry, they want answers, and they want their voices to be heard. The trouble is that the international community has created an system where the voices of Palestinians in regard to this conflict, are so rarely heard. I pray that Palestinians take up a movement of nonviolent resistance. I fear that rockets and suicide bombers of an imminent third intifada will be used as justification for the bombings of Gaza and the continued occupation of the West Bank.

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See most of you soon. Send good, happy, care-free vibes to the Israeli security officials that will interrogate me at the airport.

Posted by johnwright at 1:33 PM | Comments (1)

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, my true love read to me,

2 Samuel 7:4, 8-16
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38

It doesn't rhyme very well, but it sets the stage for this Sunday's readings. All the passages point to the Gospel reading of Luke. We'll read them in their order.

2 Samuel 7:4,8-16

2 Samuel presents the promise to David. Notice how the passage looks to the future; in many ways it still does. How do would you summarize the promise?

Romans 16:25-27

The word "mystery" is also the word "secret." What is the secret? What is the function of the revelation of this secret -- what is its purpose? What does it tell you about "faith" that one can have the "obedience of faith"?

Luke 1:26-38

The main passage in these readings is the Gospel. The key figure here is Mary. Follow Mary through the passage. She responds to three different messages by the angel. What is her response after the first announcement of Gabriel? Why? Why would the second announcement cause fear? How does Gabriel's speech relate to the 2 Samuel reading? What is Mary's response? Why? What is the angel's third address? How does it relate to the previous messages? How does it relate to 2 Samuel 7? How does Mary respond? What does this tell you?

Of course, the Beetles lifted the phrase, "Let it be" for their song. Mary's "let it be" is the first confession of faith in Jesus Christ made by a human. How does the passage present Mary as a model of the believer? Knowing the gospels as you do, what did Mary's "Let it be" entail for her? How much does she realize is to come? Why does her word present the last word -- the angel does not speak afterwards.

Benedict XVI ended his encyclical Deus Caritas Est with a discourse on Mary and includes reflections on this passage. How does Benedict present Mary as a model believer and how do his words reflect the dynamics that you have seen in the passage. Here is what it reads:

Outstanding among the saints is Mary, Mother of the Lord and mirror of all holiness. In the Gospel of Luke we find her engaged in a service of charity to her cousin Elizabeth, with whom she remained for “about three months” (1:56) so as to assist her in the final phase of her pregnancy. “Magnificat anima mea Dominum”, she says on the occasion of that visit, “My soul magnifies the Lord” (Lk 1:46). In these words she expresses her whole programme of life: not setting herself at the centre, but leaving space for God, who is encountered both in prayer and in service of neighbour—only then does goodness enter the world. Mary's greatness consists in the fact that she wants to magnify God, not herself. She is lowly: her only desire is to be the handmaid of the Lord (cf. Lk 1:38, 48). She knows that she will only contribute to the salvation of the world if, rather than carrying out her own projects, she places herself completely at the disposal of God's initiatives. Mary is a woman of hope: only because she believes in God's promises and awaits the salvation of Israel, can the angel visit her and call her to the decisive service of these promises. Mary is a woman of faith: “Blessed are you who believed”, Elizabeth says to her (cf. Lk 1:45). The Magnificat—a portrait, so to speak, of her soul—is entirely woven from threads of Holy Scripture, threads drawn from the Word of God. Here we see how completely at home Mary is with the Word of God, with ease she moves in and out of it. She speaks and thinks with the Word of God; the Word of God becomes her word, and her word issues from the Word of God. Here we see how her thoughts are attuned to the thoughts of God, how her will is one with the will of God. Since Mary is completely imbued with the Word of God, she is able to become the Mother of the Word Incarnate. Finally, Mary is a woman who loves. How could it be otherwise? As a believer who in faith thinks with God's thoughts and wills with God's will, she cannot fail to be a woman who loves. We sense this in her quiet gestures, as recounted by the infancy narratives in the Gospel. We see it in the delicacy with which she recognizes the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus' public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother's hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus' true hour (cf. Jn 2:4; 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).

42. The lives of the saints are not limited to their earthly biographies but also include their being and working in God after death. In the saints one thing becomes clear: those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them. In no one do we see this more clearly than in Mary. The words addressed by the crucified Lord to his disciple—to John and through him to all disciples of Jesus: “Behold, your mother!” (Jn 19:27)—are fulfilled anew in every generation. Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavours. They constantly experience the gift of her goodness and the unfailing love which she pours out from the depths of her heart. The testimonials of gratitude, offered to her from every continent and culture, are a recognition of that pure love which is not self- seeking but simply benevolent. At the same time, the devotion of the faithful shows an infallible intuition of how such love is possible: it becomes so as a result of the most intimate union with God, through which the soul is totally pervaded by him—a condition which enables those who have drunk from the fountain of God's love to become in their turn a fountain from which “flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38). Mary, Virgin and Mother, shows us what love is and whence it draws its origin and its constantly renewed power. To her we entrust the Church and her mission in the service of love:

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
you have given the world its true light,
Jesus, your Son – the Son of God.
You abandoned yourself completely
to God's call
and thus became a wellspring
of the goodness which flows forth from him.
Show us Jesus. Lead us to him.
Teach us to know and love him,
so that we too can become
capable of true love
and be fountains of living water
in the midst of a thirsting world.

Posted by johnwright at 3:38 PM | Comments (1)

Advent continues rushing by as we move into the third Sunday. This Sunday we have our multicongregational Christmas – placing our multicongregational calendar above the usual rhythms of our worship. In the meantime, distributions have increased another 20% from last month; we will have a record movement through the building this week – take some mangos home with you after bible study so that they don’t spoil! If you haven’t heard, it is my understanding that we will be the backdrop tonight on a CBS news story featuring “Feeding America” food bank, the group that supplies much of the food that we distribute (look for Cody Ellis in the background!). The next weeks look demanding – we had a shortage of hands Tuesday night at the Salvation Army; a series of rain storms are coming and the need for the distribution will continue to increase as the recession/depression deepens. God has called us to be the church in this time between the times of Christ’s coming and we have little choice but to be made adequate to the task.

Which is to say that these Scriptures for this week are important. The passage from Isaiah helps us look to the end, the goal, the coming reality that we witness to now; the Gospel reading helps us see the beginning, the ground of this coming reality and our call; and the Epistle reading helps us to see what will take for us to be made ready for this coming reality.

Isaiah 65:17-25

Isaiah 65 uses language that John the elder picks up and uses at the end of the Apocalypse. How is it that the “new heavens” and “new earth” will come to pass? Why does it call for rejoicing? How does this language relate this coming reality to our current reality?

Within the framework of the Scriptures, Jerusalem/the Holy Mountain in the OT has often been read as a type for the church. Read Revelation 21:1-22:5. How does it relate to the Isaiah 65 passage?

John 3:23-30

First, trivia: here is the one instance in the NT that gives evidence that Jesus baptized!

Second, the question of purification involves access to the Temple and its economy of goods that it provided. Baptism was a means of qualification for entry into the Temple. Note that the group doesn’t even know Jesus’ name; John is much more “famous” at the time. For those who want to set John in competition with Jesus, what is John’s response? Why must John decrease? Why does this decrease fulfill John’s joy? What is coming in Jesus and the purification (baptism) that he offers?

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians looks to the end described in Isa 65, the end that has its beginning described by John in wedding imagery in John 3. The epistle reading takes place that gives teaching for living in this time in between, how to “actively wait.” Go through the exhortations one by one and explain how this helps us to “wait actively” from Jesus’ coming to Jesus’ coming. Why is “rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances” God’s will in Christ for us? How do these character attributes related to the “beginning” and the “end”?

Now, read the blessing with which Paul concludes the letter. Why does he pray for our entire sanctification? How does being made holy prepare one for the end described in Isa 65? How does it relate to the exhortations that Paul gives right before? Who actually sanctifies us? How are we made holy? Is it our accomplishment? Can sanctification take place without an entire commitment of our selves, our past, our present, our future, to God, that we must decrease while Christ increases?

How does the content of the end in Isaiah 65 relate to the exhortations in 1 Thessalonians to our entire sanctification? How is our entire sanctification, as our participation in the end manifested in the world today?
Have a wonderful evening!

Posted by johnwright at 4:24 PM | Comments (1)

The meetings are over; I have presented my papers. Thank you for your support. Now the end of the semester is here, and I’m trying to get caught up in the grading that I’ve put to the side. It is always interesting merging the academic calendar with the Advent calendar. Maybe it helps the “waiting” and the “anticipation” and even the “repentance for which the season of Advent calls. Surely it helps look for the end, the goal, for which Advent calls us. It helps to recognize that the Christmas season does not begin until sunset of the 24th as we press on to the mark.

Speaking of mark, the new Christian year moves us to a new gospel – the Gospel of Mark. Of course there is some irony in this because Mark does not have a birth narrative of Jesus. But it does help us begin our study for Advent. Let’s begin with the gospel reading, move to the OT reading, before ending with the Epistle reading.

Mark 1:1-8

I don’t know how many times I had read the beginning of this gospel before it struck me the first word in Greek of this passage. It does not merely, nor usually, mean the “chronological beginning.” The word means “the foundation” or the “basic principle” of the good news “of” Jesus Christ, the son of God. This “of” itself is ambiguous. It can mean both “belonging to Jesus” and “about Jesus.” The first sentence serves to introduce the whole work, its original title.

Given this, why would it start as it does? Why does it start with a quote from the prophets? What does this say about the “good news about Jesus Christ” and its “beginning”? As the story unfolds, how does the Gospel of Mark interpret who John the baptizer is? Who does this make Jesus? How is the one “coming after me” described? It is hard to see, but of course, to baptize means to “give a bath”? Why would this image be used for the “one who is coming”? What happens as this one “comes”? How is John the baptizer “making his paths straight”?

Isaiah 40:1-11

As you read the Isaiah passage, you will notice that it quotes the passage to which Mark refers. Look where this occurs in the overall passage. How does what comes before and after the specific verse that Mark quotes help understand why he quoted it? What is not apparent is that Isaiah 40 itself refers to a passage that “comes before” it. Read Isaiah 6:8-13. What does this apply about what Isaiah 40 proclaims? What does the passage suggest is coming after this judgment? What is the “Lord” who is coming bringing forth through the one who prepares the way? Why is it now a time of comfort? Why should we not fear?

2 Peter 3:8-15a,18

The passage from 2 Peter, in looking to the coming judgment of God in the return of Christ, seems to respond to the fact that despite the first generation of believers in Jesus expectation that Jesus would return soon, Jesus had not in fact returned. It helps us to remember that our hope for the return of Jesus is based upon God’s justice, Christ’s first coming and his resurrection from the dead, not upon some sort of timeline that we can draw from the Scriptures and merging it with a selective drawing of contemporary events. What is the reason for the delay, according to 2 Peter? What does this say about the justice of God? Does the call to the lives of believers change at all in the delay of Christ’s return? How does 2 Peter exhort us to “prepare the way of the Lord”? How does 2 Peter help us to read and live both Isaiah 40 and Mark 1.

After reading all these passages, what is it, at this point, that is the “beginning” of the gospel of/about Jesus Christ, the Son of God? What are some concrete ways that we can participate in this “beginning”?

Posted by johnwright at 4:41 PM | Comments (4)