Words Once A Week 2.5.23
Some introductory thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for this Sunday – Fifth after Epiphany
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
+ Israel complaining that God does not seem to be responding to their piety!
+ fasting, valid and invalid
+ invalid is self-centered, oppresses others (workers), leads to quarrels and fights, puts on sackcloth and ashes and acts humble (so as not to do anything?)
+ valid is confronting injustice, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, housing the poor, clothing the naked, not hiding yourself from your own kin. (That last seems a little different – worth thinking about.
+ the result of valid fasting (worship) would be to transform Israel into a watered garden, a re-builder of ruins, a restored of the streets. Wow – where are the gardens that need to be watered today? What ruins in our culture, community, government need to be rebuilt? If the streets were restored, would we know and connect with our neighbors?
+ PRCL: a critique of worship, not to do away with it, but to allow worship to shape the rest of life. So – does our worship help us live out or faith, or is it merely going through the motions. Is it sometimes one and sometimes the other. Do we have to do a certain amount of “going through the motions” to be ready for the transformation when it comes?
+Texts
+ Israel might be doing elaborate and passionate worship, but it disregards the character and intention of God – so what is the “character and intention of God”? I think love and a longing for conversation, community.
+ the wrong kind of religious busyness.
+ note “yokes” represent “power arrangements”. What “power arrangements” are part of our lives?
+ Note both here and in the psalm – the issue is a life rooted not in ritual but in justice and compassion.
+ note that the new spirituality is really quite material!
Psalm 112:1-9 (10)
+ an acrostic psalm, as was Ps 111 before it.
+ blessing leads to getting rich leads to fairness, kindness, good. Unless it gets short-circuited along the way. What causes that to happen in our lives – greed, desire for comfort, laziness, fear of scarcity?
+ John Wesley said “earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Again, we too often stop someplace along the way! I knew a person – not particularly a church person, either – who was just always quick to hand out a $20 bill whenever an issue came up. I think it probably created a nice attitude of gratitude and generosity in his life.
+ “those who freely lend and are honest in business – bad news won’t bother them” - the stock market news will not trouble them. Or, those who drive the speed-limit never have to worry about passing a parked police car! Set the cruise-control at the speed-limit and relax!
+ lending to meet human need – through Kiva?
+ light and darkness – we are reading how those are all mixed up in Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, Learning to Walk in the Darkness.
Matthew 5:13-20
+ you are the salt of the earth – but salt can loose it’s saltiness. Actually, the chemical compound is remarkably stable, but in early days it was often gathered with and polluted by other stuff that could spoil and make the “salt” unuseable.
+ light – can’t be hidden. Well again, Barbara Brown Taylor is deep in a cave where “physical light” is hidden, experiencing different kinds of “light experience”. Can kindness bring “light” to a lonely person, even in the daylight, even at night?
+ so discipleship is not meant to be private piety, but obvious to all. (Does this conflict with words about prayer, fasting, giving alms that are coming up?)
+ what about good deeds done by unfaithful people? “Whoever gives a cup of water…..”
+ how does this mountain experience resonate with Moses on Mt Sinai – a fulfillment, a completion, not an abrogation? The good news is that we can keep the law, not as “religious busyness” but as practices that resonate with the character and intention of God.
+ PRCL -
+ “you are the salt” - both an observation and a commission;
+ “you are the light” – simply be what we are and we will be recognizable. Personal faith must be lived out with noticeable consequences, but such a life is not possible without personal piety.
+ a confession – we come to church too often to be served, rather than to be made servants. Again, something short-circuits the process somewhere along the line.
And finally, a prayer -
Eternal God,
you make us salt
to season conversations with all people;
you make us light
to shine for those suffering loneliness, injustice, and discouragement;
Let this prayer spill over and out of our thoughts
to water the garden around us,
to restore the ruins,
to rebuild the streets.
And may all the attention, praise, glory reflect from our lives to yours.
That’s what I got for now……..
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