Today's Scripture Readings
Jeremiah 18: 1-11 (NRSV)
Matthew 20: 17-28 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
The reading from Jeremiah reminds me of a hymn I played and sang many times.
I can think of many times this hymn might have been used for an altar call. Either at revival meetings or evangelistic crusades, to encourage people, old and young to come forward and give their hearts and lives to Christ. A hymn like this, also gets used as a real guilt trip on individuals questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. A hymn such as Have Thine Own Way, Lord becomes a vehicle through which it is suggested that if one is LGBT, then one has not surrendered one's will to God.
I look at this from the completely opposite perspective. As a gay man, if I attempt to be someone I am not, or resist the natural reality of my sexual orientation and chose to not love people as I have been created to love them, I am defying the will of God.
We have a hard time with the reading from Jeremiah. It is difficult to imagine a loving God plotting evil against God's own people. Such seems contrary to how we understand God's nature. Except that this is written from the perspective of the writer of that time, place and culture. A culture that believed that God punishes people for sins and injustices. Biblical scholars and theologians in the modern age have come to see these things very differently, in light of science and actual archeology.
Our focus needs to be on God seeking to mold us and shape us into a people who care for those who are oppressed, who facing injustice and intolerance. God does not desire to see people destroying each other through denigration and violence. God challenges us to look at God's mercy and holiness as God reaches out to the poor, the lonely, the depressed and the marginalized.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is presented with James and John and the question of who sits on his right or left. It is a question of who can be placed closest to Jesus as a means of a privilege that no one else might have. Here, we see scene much like the typical mother coming with her sons, to ask the music director to give her sons the first place solo parts, or to be captains of a school football team.
Jesus points out that greatness is not a matter of where one sits, or even who one is. Greatness in the reign of God is about who is willing to become a servant of the servants. Are we willing to bend down and wash the feet of those who walk day and night without proper shoes to wear? Would we be willing to receive and feed a person who comes to us, who has not bathed in weeks and provide for them a place at our table, offer them our couch to sleep on and our shower to clean themselves up? Are we willing to become a voice for individuals who often have no voice, or have their voice taken from them through no fault of their own?
Lent is the opportunity to take a look at what kinds of spaces we are making for God. As we spend time in prayer, fasting and acts of self-denial we are challenged during this Lent to find ways of making God our center. It is easy to spend time in quiet prayer and be so in love with God, and then see someone and treat them as a second class citizen for any number of reasons. Jesus in today's Gospel, calls upon us to be willing to serve all people, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice ourselves. Not all of us will be called up on to die physically, per say. But, when we open our lives to others, to serve their needs ahead of our own, we are being shaped by the Gospel as we seek to serve God in another person.
As we approach Holy Week when we will remember how Jesus literally served all of us by giving of his very self as a sacrifice for our sins, we will see in Jesus the example of humility as a servant of all persons. With no exceptions. God's unconditional and all-inclusive love becomes the way for all who wish to follow Jesus to the Cross and be there to greet him at the empty tomb.
Prayers
Jeremiah 18: 1-11 (NRSV)
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
Matthew 20: 17-28 (NRSV)
While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’ He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’
When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’
Blog Reflection
The reading from Jeremiah reminds me of a hymn I played and sang many times.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine Own Way!
Thou art the Potter: I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will.
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
(Written by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1862-1934).
I can think of many times this hymn might have been used for an altar call. Either at revival meetings or evangelistic crusades, to encourage people, old and young to come forward and give their hearts and lives to Christ. A hymn like this, also gets used as a real guilt trip on individuals questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. A hymn such as Have Thine Own Way, Lord becomes a vehicle through which it is suggested that if one is LGBT, then one has not surrendered one's will to God.
I look at this from the completely opposite perspective. As a gay man, if I attempt to be someone I am not, or resist the natural reality of my sexual orientation and chose to not love people as I have been created to love them, I am defying the will of God.
We have a hard time with the reading from Jeremiah. It is difficult to imagine a loving God plotting evil against God's own people. Such seems contrary to how we understand God's nature. Except that this is written from the perspective of the writer of that time, place and culture. A culture that believed that God punishes people for sins and injustices. Biblical scholars and theologians in the modern age have come to see these things very differently, in light of science and actual archeology.
Our focus needs to be on God seeking to mold us and shape us into a people who care for those who are oppressed, who facing injustice and intolerance. God does not desire to see people destroying each other through denigration and violence. God challenges us to look at God's mercy and holiness as God reaches out to the poor, the lonely, the depressed and the marginalized.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is presented with James and John and the question of who sits on his right or left. It is a question of who can be placed closest to Jesus as a means of a privilege that no one else might have. Here, we see scene much like the typical mother coming with her sons, to ask the music director to give her sons the first place solo parts, or to be captains of a school football team.
Jesus points out that greatness is not a matter of where one sits, or even who one is. Greatness in the reign of God is about who is willing to become a servant of the servants. Are we willing to bend down and wash the feet of those who walk day and night without proper shoes to wear? Would we be willing to receive and feed a person who comes to us, who has not bathed in weeks and provide for them a place at our table, offer them our couch to sleep on and our shower to clean themselves up? Are we willing to become a voice for individuals who often have no voice, or have their voice taken from them through no fault of their own?
Lent is the opportunity to take a look at what kinds of spaces we are making for God. As we spend time in prayer, fasting and acts of self-denial we are challenged during this Lent to find ways of making God our center. It is easy to spend time in quiet prayer and be so in love with God, and then see someone and treat them as a second class citizen for any number of reasons. Jesus in today's Gospel, calls upon us to be willing to serve all people, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice ourselves. Not all of us will be called up on to die physically, per say. But, when we open our lives to others, to serve their needs ahead of our own, we are being shaped by the Gospel as we seek to serve God in another person.
As we approach Holy Week when we will remember how Jesus literally served all of us by giving of his very self as a sacrifice for our sins, we will see in Jesus the example of humility as a servant of all persons. With no exceptions. God's unconditional and all-inclusive love becomes the way for all who wish to follow Jesus to the Cross and be there to greet him at the empty tomb.
Prayers
O God, you so loved the world that you gave your only-begotten Son to reconcile earth with heaven: Grant that we, loving you above all things, may love our frineds in you, and our enemies for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent. Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, p. 45).
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen. (Ash Wednesday, Book of Common Prayer, p. 217).
Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you
all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us
to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick,
and all who have none to care for them. Help us to heal those
who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow
into joy. Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for
our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Poor and the Neglected, Book of Common Prayer, p. 826).
Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this
land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as
their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to
eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those
who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law
and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of
us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, p. 826).
No comments:
Post a Comment