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This Sunday is the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday. I find it fascinating that the church historically has found these Scriptures good to read before starting the period of fasting and repentance of Lent -- a time in which those called to faith in Christ prepare for baptism and the rest of the church prepares for Easter by remembering their baptism in solidarity with those preparing.

The text begins with a story of Elijah, one of those gathered with Jesus on the Mount of the Transfiguration. Let's then move to the Gospel; the Epistle reading looks back upon the gospel.

Finally, a brief update on the distribution: we had 585 on Tuesday and 502 on Thursday; the recession/depression in Mid-City worsens. People are still grateful; Feeding America Foodbank with the other gifts sustain -- though one can sense it getting thin. If you visit our newly remodeled website (thanks Chris Fuerstenau!), you can find a "widget" to help us pay a new lift gate for our truck. We need about $9400; we added up last Sunday that over 60 tons of material pass through our courtyards monthly -- most being lifted by hand out of the truck. All we can do is be faithful, pray, and beg.

1 Kings 19:9-18

Horeb is the name in the book of Deuteronomy for Mount Sinai. What significance of this setting does this have for the setting? From whom has Elijah suffered persecution? Why? What is the result for Elijah?

What is the Lord's response? Why does Elijah face the strong wind and the earthquake amd the fire? What is the significance of God's absence there? How does Elijah "hear the sound of sheer silence"? Why does the divine voice come from sheer silence? Why does Elijah repeat himself? What does he discover as a result?

Can you see a pattern here? How does this pattern prepare you to see what happens to Jesus from his time of going up to Jerusalem until Easter?

Mark 9:2-9

Notice again the time span. What is the signicance of "six days later"? How does this mountain relate to Mount Sinai and link Jesus with Moses and Elijah? Who are they? What does the transfiguration indicate? Why white? (speculation encouraged!). Why would the three be terrified as/after Peter speaks? What is the Divine response to their terror? Is there terror misplaced? Should they be terrified? Why do they not then see anyone else? Why is the resurrection significant to tell people about the transfiguration?

2 Peter 1:16-19

What is the significance of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter? How does the Transfiguration function as a lamp shining in a dark place?

How does this "lamp" relate to the pattern seen in Elijah and then in the life of Jesus beginning with the Transfiguration? How does the Transfiguration lead us into Lent with the realization that it's end lies in Easter? How does this help us face the time of fasting and repentance that come with our Lenten observance? What does it mean to observe Lent inbetween Transfiguration Sunday and Easter?

Have a wonderful time together!

Posted by johnwright at 3:40 PM | Comments (1)

The pattern that we have seen throughout Epiphany continues. The OT reading provides a type, a figure, a sign of that which comes to pass in the Gospel reading. The Epistle reading reads both from and back to the earlier readings. Of course, while we want to identify with Jesus in the narrative, the story itself leads us to identify with the leper.

By identifying with the leper, we of course can hear these texts either as a call to baptism or to remember our baptism. Ash Wednesday is quickly approaching and we need to call actively to those who have not died and been raised in Christ in the waters of baptism, to enroll into a time of Lenten formation for baptism on Easter Sunday.

2 Kings 5:1-15ab

How does Naaman get called to be cleansed from his leprosy? How does this happen? Where is God in this call? Present or absent? (warning: trick question!). Why does the king of Israel respond as he does when Namaan arrives with the wealth that he brings? How does the kings response differ from Elisha’s? Why?

When Naaman arrives at Elisha’s house, how does Elisha treat him? Why? Who stops Namaan? What do you notice about the social status of everyone throughout the passage? Who has more insight and wisdom into the situation? The powerful or the weak? Why?
What happens in Naaman’s bath? How does he respond? How does Elisha change his behavior now from before his bath? What did Naaman need to do to be cleansed?

Mark 1:40-45

As background to this text, read Leviticus 13-14. What is at stake is entry to the Temple – participation in the meals that arise through there. Who ultimately declares the leper clean? What will happen between Jesus’ healing and the leper’s declaration of cleansing? Why is the leper’s following up in obedience to Jesus/the Torah a “testimony”? What is the full impact of the healed/bathed/declared cleansed leper on the ministry of Jesus? What can the ex-leper now do?

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

In light of the “races” given in the OT and Gospel readings, races to “water” to be declared “cleansed”, what does it mean to “punish the body”? What is the final end of this race? How is self-control significant?

How is baptism a response to the “leprosy” that we suffer? What is the practical significance of this material water, with people and others involved that make this a “race”? Why happens to our bodies as we submit/have submitted to enter the race in faith through the bath? What does it tell you that Elisha order Naaman/Jesus ordered the leper to take these certain physical movements in order to continue into their lives? What happens to Naaman and the leper as a result? What happens to others? How do these lepers show a pattern for our lives?

Have a wonderful evening!

Posted by johnwright at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)

The logic of Epiphany is the logic of the Incarnation. This logic simultaneously provides the very logic of Christian worship. In worshiping Jesus, we worship God, not an idol. Therefore we read the stories of Jesus in the Gospels as the revelation of God, affirming his complete and full human nature and his complete and full divine nature. In this Jesus witnessed to in the gospels we discover knowledge of God whom we worship. Though faith as Thomas Aquinas said, we know God as one unknown except through God’s effects; the created body of Jesus is the primary site of the effects of God whereby God has shown us God’s own Life.

We move through Epiphany, therefore, as an invitation to baptism, to enroll in baptismal preparation during Lent. We haven’t emphasized this as much this year, but we need to let this be known. Epiphany calls for a response of faith in Jesus as the irreplaceable revelation of God; and faith is called to be sealed in baptism, the initiation in to the life of the church in preparation for the inheritance of the kingdom yet to come in its fullness. When we read these stories of Jesus, we read them as the call to follow Him. The readings, therefore, in Epiphany focus on the acts of Jesus; the OT readings sign forward to understand these gospel readings; the Epistle readings point back to the gospel as the gospel points forward to the life described for congregations in the epistle. This will help us proceed through the readings today.

2 Kings 4:8-37

The story of Elisha and the “Shunammite woman” is long and involved. Go through the text and examine the interactions between the woman and Elisha, and vice versa. Other characters play a role, it seems to me, in the interaction between the “holy man of God” and his hostess. What does each offer to the other? What does the previous relationship have to do with the end of the story? Describe the woman’s experience with Elisha. What is the significance of the son? What is the difference between the two times that the woman finds herself at Elijah’s feet?

Mark 1:29-39

Upon reading the 2 Kings passage, we see that it prefigures and prepares us to read the precise story from the gospel of Mark. What do you notice about the passage in reading it after reading the passage from 2 Kings?

Several things about the passage. In early Christianity, church’s met in houses, and it might be that the movement of Jesus and the disciples from the synagogue to the house of disciples also symbolizes the movement many made later of those who came to believe in Jesus. The crux of the passage, it seems to me, is the phrase “and she began to serve them.” The Greek word is the word “to minister” (the noun is “diakonia” from which we get the English word “deacon”). Beginning in the 1930’s, scholars, based on faulty parallels, translated the term as “lowly service.” It fit nicely with gender expectations of the time – Jesus heals her and she cooks them a meal, washes their cloths, and brings them drinks in response. Recently studies, however, have shown this as false. The word comes from a series of words that are related to “messenger” or “ambassadorial” activities. This helps a curiosity about the passage – Jesus heals her and then everyone in the village shows up at her house at night fall (after Sabbath is over!). How? If we translate the term as “she ministered for them” or “she represent them” or “she talked about them,” after her healing, then we can understand how it was that people came to them. We know that women held offices of “representation” or “deacon” in early Christianity (See Phoebe in Romans 16:1).

If this is so, watch the relationship between Jesus and Peter’s mother-in-law. What happens between them? What is the result for both? How does she provide a model for the life of the one whom Jesus encounters in the “house” – the gathered congregation?

How does what happens in the second part of the passage relate to that which has happened before? Why would Jesus withdraw for prayer? How is prayer a gift to Jesus here? Why does he “re-enter” the task of traveling and preaching? Why not just stay in the wilderness in prayer?

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

How does Paul’s words here parallel the Shumanite woman and Peter’s mother-in-law? Read 1 Cor. 15:1-4 for the gospel. Why does Paul’s behavior help lend credibility to the Gospel? How does this allow him to share in the blessings of the gospel?

What is the pattern that you see in this passage? Can you share how it relates to the experiences in your life of how you concretely came to faith? Have a wonderful evening!

Posted by johnwright at 3:24 PM | Comments (3)