St. Mark’s Lutheran

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…But, isn’t Peter’s experience a little like our prayer life most of the time. We’ve been sleeping. Not paying too much attention to the wonders and sorrows around us. More concerned about filling our bellies, amusing away the time and getting a good night’s sleep. But then something changes…really quick. The veil of this existence is lifted for a time, and we are not prepared. An illness, or seeing the baby fall but missing most of the standing, or almost missing the opportunity of a Valentines day because we’d rather be miserable – and in desperation we say a quick prayer under our breath, trying to turn back the clock or keep things static. God, let them be alright. God, its good that we are here, let’s not change anything. We’ve been sleeping – and don’t know what we are saying to God…

Tags: Luke, Sermons by Parson Brown
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The arresting line in the gospel text (Mark 9:14-29) is of course – ‘I Believe, Help my unbelief!” But, the point of the text by its own words are prayer – “this kind only comes out with prayer.” What comes out? A demon of muteness and deafness. If faith comes by hearing, and if those who have believed in Mark’s gospel respond by telling everyone even over Jesus’ commands – is there not a better description of unbelief than one who is deaf to the Gospel and mute at its reception? Help my unbelief was the father’s cry. The disciples said as much when they asked – “why couldn’t we drive it out?” Jesus answer is get connected. Renew and strengthen your faith through prayer.

I concentrated on the disciples as learners (the core meaning of the word). Rev. David Bernard (VP of the Eastern District) shared a different view that captured my attention today. The father says “I believe, help my unbelief” after the disciples are unable to cast out the demon. If you look at the disciples as either the church or the ministerium (they are the proto-church and also the proto-ministers and sorting out when they are what is often subtle), that phrase takes on a very potent modern view – “I believe in you Jesus, but your church/ministers sure brings out my unbelief.” In an day when entire church bodies vote to ignore the Word of God as authoritative (see the post below on the ELCAs recent statement on sexuality), the church can get in the way of faith and even encourage faithlessness.

Tags: Culture, Mark, Sermons, Word by Parson Brown
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The prayer book that I have been using has the days scripture readings (OT, Epistle and Gospel), a 4th reading from the church and opening and closing prayers. Tuesdays the opening prayers come from the Book of Common Prayer. The original version was the work of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury – the English Reformation prelate. The book has gone through many revisions and “updatings”, but many of Cranmer’s words survive. It really is a testament to his understanding of human nature and of church teaching that so many still speak. The one that was in today really spoke.

O God, from whom all good proceeds. Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.

With our sin clouded mind we see good as evil and evil as good. And even when we see aright, we don’t always act with love. Grant by your inspiration that we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guidding do them. All good proceeds from God and returns to God – by the Word and through the Spirit. Amen

Tags: Meditation, grace by Parson Brown
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Text: Daniel 1:1-21

The old testament readings in the daily reading series just started to take us through the book of Daniel. Since it is now after Easter, I hope to get back on track with these posts and a new book seems like a good place to start. Daniel is also one of the names if it is a boy we might use for our expected baby. Daniel as a book is also one of the most critically challenged books, at the same time having some of the highest homage paid to it by Jesus himself. Jesus quotes from it in Matt 24:15. Jesus also takes the name he calls himself – The Son of Man – from Daniel 7:13-14. All those seem to be good reasons to take a devotional look at Daniel.

Daniel is a book of opposites. It has the sunday school staples of the firey-furnace, the lion’s den and the infamous source of the phrase “the writing on the wall”. Daniel also has apocalypic visions that are opaque and not used in Sunday School. The book itself is composed in two languages – Hebrew and Aramaic. The stidently Jewish Daniel is the star of the Babylonian court. The typical jewish attitude toward gentile rulers is absent and instead these Easter Emperors are the servants of God. Those gulfs in the book stradle to today. Critical scholars want to date the book to the 2nd century BC. Traditional dating is the 6th century BC. That 400 year gap is larger than even the gap between a traditional dating of the exodus and the alternative timeline. A book of opposites.

The opening is of four children of Jewish nobility being instructed out of their tradition while in exile. They get new names. They learn new languages and alphabets, and they are expected to eat the finest the court has to offer (probably pork.) But instead of swallowing it all, the four are graced by God. They adapt to the profitable and reject the dangerous. They maintain their idenity in the face of what surely looks like the better and wiser path. And they maintain that identity while not rejecting or scorning the good of the gentile kingdom. This is something God has ordained. They will not worship the kingdom, or follow its ways, but they will support it with the best they have been blessed with. In Jeremiah’s words they pray for the wellbeing of the place they have be exiled to.

Is that not the same situation of many Christian children today? After being brought up in the faith, they are exiled away from parents and supporting people to a university – a place surrounded by all the wonderful good things that this kingdom has to offer. New knowledge, new languages, new foods and the opportunity to put on a new identity. I’m at a loss to pull a solution from the passage as it just says that Daniel resolved not to assimilate. Daniel asked those is charge to eat the Jewish diet. And God graced Daniel with understanding teachers and gave him learning and skill and wisdom. Maybe the idea is prayer and preparation. Preparation in that it is a parents job to teach a child and form in them a sense of identity. Prayer in that once that formation is finished, you pray for God’s grace to sustain them. No magic bullet. Just years of work followed by years of prayer.

Tags: Culture, Daniel, Meditation, grace by Parson Brown
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