Some introductory thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday -
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you...”
+ this is such a cool passage. Jeremiah says to the people in exile, far from home both spatially and temporally – “Might as well unpack and settle in – you are going to be there a long time. Your well being will depend on the well being on the city.
+ on a webinar last night about Creation and Re-creation, they were saying focus on the local environment and situation. Is your city going to flood? Will there be vultures to enable “sky-burial”? (There might not be – in some locations they are “functionally extinct”!)
+ what about the church – should we go on being the way we have been, or seek our well-being in the well-being of the community? (Yes, I think we do that to a certain extent now, but more often I think we feel that we should do something for the community, because we are good, strong, stable, healthy, ???, and we could help the community be like that also.)
+ plant gardens so you will have something to eat – when the California aquifers dry up?
+ Jeremiah reminds the people that God has sent them where they are in exile. Do we have the sense that God has sent us here? How does that make a difference?
+ the Jewish people survived their stay in exile. Why? How? How are we (Christians, Church folk) doing at surviving our stay in life today, COVID exile, cultural changes?
+ Jeremiah said “No one is coming to set you free. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!” What sounds “too good to be true” in our world today?
+ “build” and “plant” – part of God’s original commission to Jeremiah.
+ when should the people of God resist tyranny and when should they unpack and settle in? How would this sound to Ukrainian ears?
Psalm 66:1-12
+ “make a joyful noise to the Lord” (vs1) because “God [“you” – note the change in person between 2nd and 3rd throughout the poem] has brought us out to this spacious place.”(vs12)
+ does your life feel appropriately “spacious”? Sometimes mine feels closed in, sometimes too empty.
+ God turned the sea into dry land. We’re turning the rivers into dry land, and turning the land (coastlands, anyway) into seas.
+ God’s eyes keep watch on the nations (vs7). How is that working out between Russia and Ukraine?
+ “Say to God – ‘your enemies cringe before you.’” Is that how God wants to be known?
+ note that the issue for God is not just the liberation of Israel, but rather that God be renown through all Creation.
Alternate Old Testament reading 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c Naaman, who had leprosy but washed in the Jordan
+ “Let’s go down to the river to pray, studying about them good old days…”
+ ok – there is a bunch more in that lesson, but that’s for another day!
2 Timothy 2:8-15
+ ok – haven’t read it yet. Two more weeks - maybe next week.
Luke 17:11-19 Ten people healed of loprosy, and only a Samaritan said “thanks”.
+ Say thanks!!!
+ the story could be another lesson for the apostles who asked “Increase our faith.” The Samaritan had no real faith, he just hoped? Trusted? Although the words about “on the way to Jerusalem” somewhat separates this from what went before.
+ not all who are helped by Jesus come to faith. The Samaritan simply says thanks. No comment about his faith.
+ the story is unique to Luke – “Dear and Glorious Physician”?
+ could be seen as a 2 part story. 1) healing: Jesus treats them as already healed, and the healing occurs as they obey his words to go to the priest. (Odd action for the Samaritan!) And 2) the salvation of a foreigner. What is it about the Samaritan’s story – just being thankful? The passion and excitement he shows? Do we express a similar excitement at being saved? Why not?
+ Swanson notes that the 10 found community in their uncleanness, and that being cleansed fractures that community, at least for the Samaritan. Where do people find community today? What supports that? What fractures it?
+ “What is the cash value of ‘unclean’”? Swanson as he notes that this is a “cleansing story”, not a “healing story”. Is there a difference? Seems like it’s worth thinking more about. Who is “unclean” today? Who is “foreign”? Is there a cash value?
That’s what I got for now….
No comments:
Post a Comment