St. Mark’s Lutheran

Sorry about this. Somehow it got stuck in draft unpublished mode.

The reading is Revelations 16:12-21. The sixth bowl dries us the river Euphrates and brings all kinds of plagues similar to those in Egypt. And the two beasts use them to call together an army. The entire scene invokes the OT history of Israel. The Babylonians/Assyrians/Persians all came from the east. Israel’s ancient foes all came from across the Euphrates gathering armies and swooping down usually to be met by Egypt and her allies. Israel was the battleground between the two of the super-powers of the day. And armies brought plagues. The unholy trinity gathers its forces.

The Seventh bowl is the final judgement upon the assembled armies. Everything is destroyed. The judgment of God is complete. Echoing Christ on the Cross - God on the throne calls out - It is completed. And even at this display of might - men blasphemed God.

It is hard to think devotionally about Revelation - especially scenes of wrath. What comes to mind is we see through a glass darkly, or we don’t fully realized the power, principalities, thrones and dominions we fight against. The picture John gives is of the unholy trinity (the dragon, the political beast and the religious beast/false prophet) all using the signs of the judgement to gather forces. And those gathered remain loyal to the bitter end in the face of eternal suffering. It is a picture of Jesus’ words about not bringing peace but a sword. The Gospel divides. You believe the gospel or it is foolishness. And each and every person takes a side. In those immortal word of Rush (the band not the Limbaugh) - even if you do not choose, you still have made a choice. The Gospel is a sharp two-edged sword - it makes divisions. Stealing another line (from Russel Crowe’s Maximus) - what you decide here in that final battle echoes in eternity.

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A couple of thoughts: 1) I think I’m getting too long in these posts. The meduim and the original intention was a quick hit. I’m going to try and shorten them. 2) I’m also going to tighten up the focus on one of the readings for the day. What that means is the other readings will now be listed last.

Reading Acts 28:17-31

Over the weekend our reading of Acts came to its conclusion. Instead of jumping to the new reading, I’m pulling this one from Saturday.

The story of Acts is the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The story of Acts is also the story of Jesus through the Holy Spirit’s guidance and leadership of His church. Luke brings both of those threads, not to a conclusion, but a fulfillment. Paul is now in Rome. The old phrase all roads lead to Rome is the operative one. The ends of the earth have been reached at least metaphorically. Even though the ends had been reached the message was still proclaimed and the nascent church still under the guidance of Jesus. Paul lived in Rome two years (under house arrest) and preached to all who came to him. And he did this preaching openly and unhindered. The Spirit and Jesus had opened a door to the gentiles and the Roman world. And They brought people to Paul - He welcomed all who came to him.

I said a fulfillment instead of an end. Luke ends the story with a picture of what the church looks like. In chains, but free to preach. Always welcoming, always drawing those whom Jesus and the Spirit call. One day there will be an end to preaching and teaching. One day the time of grace will be over, but until then the message continues to go out to the ends of the world. The last picture Luke leaves us with is a fulfillment of the promise at the start the Jesus would be with us always. The purpose of that presense is to save the lost. There are always doors being held open. One day they will close, but until that judgment it is a time of grace. We welcome all in the name of the Lord, teaching them everything He told us.

May the Lord grant you eyes to see those open doors.

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There is an intra -pastoral squabble about the “historic 1 yr lectionary” and the 3 yr lectionary. Our Chruch uses the 3 yr lectionary which focuses on a specific Gospel throughout the year. The 1 year leactionary covers more stories in one year, but doesn’t go as in depth into specific books. There are pros and cons. The problem is that the squabble typically degenerates into who is more pure than who. Yes, pastors are sinful people too. We just often pick more silly things to sin about.

This file 1yr-vs-3-yr-gospels contains the review putting the three year texts up against the 1 yr texts. From this comparison there are three passages in the 1 year lectionary that do not get read anywhere in the 3 year cycle: the feeding of the 4000 (not the 5000), Jesus testimory about himself from John and the Healing of the officials son. There are 12 spots that the 3 year lectionary covers the text from a parallel passage (i.e. same basic story but a different Gospel). The rest are all covered by the 3 year lectionary - some more than once. The three year lectionary also gives the congregation and the minister the opportunity to become deeply familiar with each gospel by covering much that the 1 yr does not touch.

To be fair the advocates of the 1yr will complain that the 3 yr cycle comes out of Rome, is only about 50 years old and is touched by Higher Criticism (boo-hiss). I do not think those criticism carry much weight, but they do have some validity.

Anyway, this post is more to make the file available for that community.

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Readings
Esther 1:1-19
Acts 17:1-5
John 12:26-43

Meditation
Paul is still going first to the synagogs. He is arguing with Jews. The the synagogs of the diaspora also contained god-fearers, gentiles who believed in the Jewish God. At Thessalonica Paul debates with the Jews for three weeks. Always from scripture. Some of the Jews were persuaded, but a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. You can hear the sneering now. How easy is it to convice women and Greeks? They don’t know better. They aren’t trained. And its just the “leading women”, well known for being flighty and attracted to novelty. Luke says the Jews were jealous and gathered up a rabble. Jealous of what? Paul’s freedom and spirit? The freedom of the outsider, the woman, the greek to accept the gospel without serious societal cost? These men who have turned the world upside-down have also come here.

It happens to us occasionally. We get presented with a discontinuity. Rochester has two examples in Xerox and Kodak. The transition to digital was seen well in advance by both. Xerox PARC had the entire PC. Kodak had both printers and cameras. The choice was clear. The executives had heard the 3 weeks of testimony. Some believed. A whole bunch of staffers and guys like Gates and Jobs and those flaky west coast types believed in the digital future. The established leaders all yelled, this is turning the world upside down. Discontinuities produce two emotions - excitement over the new direction and jealousy or anger over a forced change.

We are all presented with one discontinuity. Did Jesus die and rise for me? A yes fundamentally changes the way you live. A no produces jealousy and anger over the loss of a beautiful and longed for story. No one is left unchanged by the offer of the Gospel.

May the Lord lead you to that exciting and life giving yes at the discontinuity of the Gospel.

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Readings
Job 31:1-23
Acts 15:1-11
John 11:17-29

Meditation
As a church on Sunday’s we have been working our way through the Gospel of Matthew. After Jesus the next main character is Peter. Peter is always the closest to the Reign of God but at the same time the one who seems just not to get it. Peter can confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and then deny the Jesus must suffer, suggest he stay in the glory of the transfiguration, ask who is the greatest and ask how many times I have to forgive my brother. The reading for today from Acts puts a happy ending on that story. Paul and Barnabas have finished the 1st missionary journey with success among the gentiles. When they get back to Antioch, the church that sent them out, some Jews come from Judea saying, “they must be circumcised and follow the law.” This was not received well and was against the Gospel the Paul had been declaring (Go read the first couple chapters of Galatians). So they all went to Jerusalem to settle it.

And Peter gets it. Everything he expected has had to be ripped from him: a kingly messiah in this world, a high role for his people, a just judgement and glory. The messiah was to bring restoration for the people of God. Peter understood restoration as temporal glory and temple worship. Peter understood the people of God as the genetic descendents of Abraham. Peter learned that restoration was an eternal event, a restoration of the relationship between God and man. He learned that the people of God are those who believe in what God says - not a genetic claim. Peter’s learning turned him inside out. And He stands up in their midst, like the child Jesus had stood in their midst, and says “God made no distinction, but cleansed through Faith. Neither we nor our fathers have been able to keep the law, why put that burden on a new people God has welcomed? We are all saved by grace.” Peter, the man completely dependant upon God.

May the Lord bless your journey in faith such that you also may be turned inside out in the new creation.

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Readings
Job 6:1-21
Acts 9:32-43
John 6:60-71

Meditation
We had a small break in the Acts story. Luke (the writer of acts) tells us about the Samarian mission and Philip. He also gives us the start of Paul - the Damascus road experience. With today’s text we are back on the main early thread. This is a Parson Brown conjecture from trying to piece together the NT accounts and the early church history, but Peter is the solidifier of early church missions. First we had Philip in Samaria, and now Peter travels to Lydda and Joppa which are both on the way to Samaria. Paul is sent out from the Antiochan church and then Peter shows up causing the confrontation Paul records in Gal 2:11. It continues through chruch history with Peter moving to Corinth for a time and eventually on to Rome, both following Paul Peter solidifies, rock that he is, what others have planted. Hence the Pope not only claims the see of Peter, but actually the see of Peter and Paul. (He always gets to one up everyone.)
Speaking of back on the main thread, Peter travels around visiting the saints, and heals Aeneas and even brings Tabitha (or Dorcas in greek) back to life. The miracles that Jesus did are now found in the Apostles. Which in our modern time is always a hard story to read. Where are our amazing miracles? They do happen sometimes. We all know of isolated cases of healing or the miracles the Roman church confirms to ‘make a saint’. It seems capricious. But what is the fundamental point of miracles? They are signs and wonders. They point to the underlying truth of the claims made by those doing the miracles. Jesus said, “If you don’t believe me at least believe the miracles.” Ultimately miracle belief is not enough, but miracles are like apologetics. You can’t argue someone into belief, but you can give reasons for why belief is reasonable. When was the last time you knew of someone restored to this life from the dead? Joppa saw it and “many people believed in the Lord.” The miracles support the message. They are not the end in themselves.

May you see the truth of the the Lord Jesus even if you don’t see a miracle.

PS. I knew a woman in elementary school by the name Dorcas (which means the same thing as Tabitha, gazelle). Poor woman, times changed on her. As late as 1938 it was the 638th most popular girls’ name - ranking above Isabella, Angelina, Hallie, Sydney, and Lisa along with many others. The culture, especially with girl’s names, went away from Biblical names (even obscure ones like Dorcas) toward the more idiosyncratic. Names tell a lot about a time period.

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Vampire Parson Brown reporting for duty, that 3 AM volleyball game was great. It is not good for a married man with kids to all of a sudden have larger blocks of time. They get wasted. Oh well, only one more day.

Readings
Job 2:1-13
Acts 9:1-9
John 6:27-40

Meditation
Saul, still breathing threats and murder, or as he lables himself elsewhere, zealous for the traditions of our fathers, receives a direct call. “I am Jesus, rise…you will be told what you are to do.” Today when someone says they saw Jesus we say, yep, sure, and I’ve got a nice padded room over here. The funny thing is that might not have been far off from Saul/Paul’s reception. We will read more of the story in Acts, but in Galatians Paul himself tells the story. Paul goes to Damascus, then goes to Arabia (Gal 1:17) and then back to Damascus. Paul is always defending his apostleship and call. It is as if his preaching is accepted, but then his authority is always questioned. It forms an interesting dynamic in the NT. Arguably the most quoted and influential apostle, the largest section of the NT, is also the only one seriously questioned with the book. If you were gathering sacred scriptures for your religion, would you pick the most doubtful bona fides to be the clearest and original messenger or systematizer? The ways of God are not the ways of man. God is glorified in through the weakness of man. Saul the zealous rabbi was stong in men’s eyes and had the best resume. Paul the apostle was weak in men’s eyes, and had a questionable resume at best - You saw Jesus in a vision Paul? Why don’t we go see Peter instead. - But God chose Paul to be the apostle to the gentiles and to write all those letters. Praise be to God who shines through weakness.

May God be glorified also in your weakness.

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I was wondering if I could find enough real men (aw heck women too) who might be interested in a fantasy football minimal upkeep league (i.e. yahoo free rank your player auto draft or maybe the NFL.com free league). Drop me a note if anyone would be interested. I think opening day is Sept 7th, so we have a couple of weeks. I think I’ll need your email address that you would want to use.
Winner gets congregational bragging rights and maybe reads the Gospel lesson on Super Bowl Sunday. Loser, I don’t know, reads the OT lesson on Super Bowl Sunday. That way everyone is a winner.

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Readings
Judges 9:1-21
Acts 4:13-31
John 2:1-12

Meditation
Scholars have a long tradition of railing against the Trinity as a false construct. And anytime something like a Trinitarian address shows up in early documents, they take that as on-the-face evidence that passage was added late. In the Acts passage today we have a prayer. A fairly specific prayer that mimics Peter’s sermons. It is also clearly trinitarian. It opens with the invocation of the Father (Sovereign Lord, creator of heaven and earth…) and proclaims how the Father’s words were made known (who by the mouth of our father David, thy servent, didst say by the Holy Spirit). The Father and the Spirit were at work in the Son (thy holy servant Jesus). A prayer that is clearly within the context of Acts, unless you want to exclude the Pentecost Sermon as not original as well. A prayer that addresses the Trinity. Not something that fishermen Jews would have felt the need to create if it had not been revealed to them.
And they pray for boldness in the midst of trial. Trial cycles back around to prayer. Lord, keep us faithful that you Word may be proclaimed, and signs and wonders (!) are performed through the name of the holy servant Jesus. And signs and wonders are performed as they are filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. Without prayer, without the signs and wonders of God, we could not have the Spirit nor could we proclaim Jesus. But God’s mighty hand has pulled us out of sin and death and granted to us our faith in Father, Son and Spirit.

May the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you now and at all times in prayer.

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Readings
Judges 2:1-23
Romans 16:17-27
Matthew 27:32-44

Meditation
There are three readings for the day above. The gospel reading is the crucifixion scene. And this writer wants to avert his eyes. Think about something else. Right there is the gulf that separates man and God. In Matthew’s Gospel, there isn’t the repentant thief from Luke, the mother is not standing close as in John. In Matthew it is all mocking. Men at their worst, mocking and torturing the weak and the afflicted. Men always want to put God on trial for this wrong or that injustice or why He would allow this. And God submitted. And we showed the complete mockery of justice that is our trial. We took the innocent, the sinless Son of God and nailed him to a tree and mocked him till the end. We know the end of the story, but sometimes that moves too fast. It allows us to avert our eyes. Sometimes we need to let our eyes rest on that cross to realize the enormity of that chasm.

May the Lord allow you to keep a steady gaze, and then grant you His peace.

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