Reflections on the Lectionary for February 2007 Face to Face with the Living God By Rev. Lee K. Ellenwood

Sometimes, finding themes that cohesively unite a single week’s readings can be a challenge for the preacher. The February texts, however, offer strong thematic patterns that not only link Old and New Testament lections for each week, but also stretch across consecutive weeks. The readings of both testaments contrast the happy fate that awaits the godly (those who heed God’s call to discipleship) with what lies in store for the ungodly (those who ignore God’s call).

This contrast also illustrates the immediacy of God in our lives. Steadfast love and support is given to those who turn to God, call on the name of God, and trust in God. On the other hand, catastrophe awaits those who turn away from God. When we encounter more subtle themes in our readings, our challenge is to “tease out” their meanings for our congregations. But the February readings compel us to look beyond the obvious…to avoid dismissing them as thundering “churchy” platitudes that can easily be ignored. Instead, our task is to convey their relevance to our lives here and now by exploring their lessons in personal faith and discipleship.

Fifth Sunday After Epiphany: February 4, 2007
Isa 6:1–13; Ps 138; 1 Cor 15:1–11; Lk 5:1–11

This week’s readings feature a paradigm of God’s call to discipleship and humanity’s response, which is one of movement toward service. The three central figures of the readings—Isaiah, Peter, and Paul—overcome their fears and feelings of unworthiness to enthusiastically embrace their call.

Isaiah experiences a vision of God enthroned in the Temple and immediately recognizes his own unworthiness and sinfulness. (Isa 6:1–13) When a seraph touches Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal, the prophet is cleansed and readied for service. He commits himself to God’s cause with the dramatic cry, “Here I am, send me!” This declaration has become familiar to congregations through the popular hymn Here I Am, Lord, but the song is overly sentimental and diminishes the sense of awe implicit in an encounter with the Holy One.

We are warned that God may close our ears, eyes, and minds in order for us to be healed. Because the clamor of everyday life often deadens us to the reality of God, perhaps we are called to depend on something other than our physical senses and rational thinking to discern the will of God.

Interestingly, this passage also describes God’s judgment upon the cities, which are revealed to be desolate and falling to ruin.
Perhaps no other early follower of Jesus was as persecuted as Paul. In the epistle, Paul summarizes the gospel he preached to the people of Corinth.

He also offers his personal confession of God’s power and presence through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This faith sustains Paul and encourages the church at Corinth to heed God’s call by emulating Paul’s example. “Be a disciple as I am a disciple” seems to be how Paul invites others into an encounter with God.

Simon Peter, James, and John are fishermen who experience a miraculous catch of fish through the intervention of Jesus. After this, they are themselves “caught up” in following Jesus. (Lk 5:1–11)

Peter’s ineptitude—always saying or doing the wrong thing, even denying Jesus and his own discipleship—is transformed into faithful perseverance and endurance. When human effort fails, God intervenes and prevails.

In all three of the week’s texts, each central character—Isaiah, Paul and Peter—somehow encounters God and moves from adoration to confession to commitment. All three willingly bear the sacrifices that come with discipleship.

Sixth Sunday After Epiphany: February 11, 2007
Jer 17:5–10; Ps 1; 1 Cor 15:12–20; Lk 6:17–26

Three of the four readings—Jeremiah, Psalm 1, and Luke prominently feature a beatitude. The Greek word, Makaroi, is usually translated as “blessed” or “happy.” Neither option, though, seems to convey the full meaning of the word. A contemporary translation comes closer by using the word as a salutation: “Congratulations you poor…,” “Congratulations you hungry…,” “Congratulations you who weep….” This unusual approach is bound to startle congregations into hearing these words as if for the first time.

The fates of the ungodly and the godly are again contrasted in the reading from Jeremiah. Those who turn away from God are compared to a shrub which withers in the desert sun, while those who turn toward God are congratulated: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust IS the Lord.” (Jer 17:6–7) Trust in the Lord, the text seems to say, and you are certain to be rooted by the river, sustained in the dry spells, and kept green.

A similar concept appears in the writings of the remarkable Hildegard of Bingen, (1098–1179), a Benedictine prioress, theologian, visionary, and composer. Hildegard described Christian baptism as being not with water but into water. We exist, then, in the greening power of the Holy One.

The reading regards the human heart from the perspective of the ancient Hebrews, as the nexus of moral and emotional life for a person. It is the heart that discerns good from evil and governs decisions about personal conduct. (v 9) Conversion to faith in God occurs in the heart. Evil begins there, too. Only God can see clearly the intentions of the heart; therefore, only God can properly judge the actions of humans and dole out rewards or punishments accordingly.

The psalm, through beatitudes, continues to parallel the fates of the godly and the ungodly. “Congratulations you who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers.” (Ps 1:1–3) The first three verses describe the happiness of the godly. They do not live as the ungodly do; rather, they constantly (“day and night”) and joyfully study and observe Mosaic law. They enjoy well-being and are likened to trees which bear fruit. God will keep watch over them. On the other hand, the ungodly are like “chaff” that will be carried away by the wind and discarded. They will suffer and be excluded from the fellowship enjoyed by those who follow God’s ways.

In the epistle, Paul argues against those in Corinth who deny that Christians will be raised in the body. Earlier, Paul has put forth three central doctrines to the church in Corinth: Jesus died, Jesus was buried, and Jesus rose from the dead. Perhaps Paul is addressing some people who believe that physical life can be neglected, because it is inferior to spiritual life.

Paul restates a basic doctrine of our faith… that Jesus was resurrected from the dead as a complete person. He rose in both body and spirit. (1 Cor 15:12) But Paul pulls his strongest punch in verse 20: Not only was Jesus really raised, he also was the forerunner and model for all those who have died and all those who are going to die. Just as the “first fruits” of the agricultural harvest were offered to God, as symbolic of offering the whole harvest to the Lord, the resurrection of Jesus signifies what lies in store for all humankind.

Jesus has prayed on a mountain and chosen his twelve closest friends there. In this week’s gospel reading from Luke, Jesus descends part of the way down the mountain to a “level place.” Here he finds other followers from all over the area. He also heals many people, drives out demons, and teaches the disciples.

The opening of this “Sermon on the Plain” describes the life of a healed community. Some commentators, contrasting these words with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, refer to this passage as the passage of “reverse beatitudes.” (Lk 6:20–26) One of them might sound like this: “Congratulations to you who are poor, hungry, weeping, and despised. Damn you who are rich, full, laughing, and respected.” Kind of makes you shiver, doesn’t it?

Transfiguration Sunday: February 18, 2007
Ex 34:29–35; Ps 99; 2 Cor 3:12–4:2; Lk 9:28–43

Ours is a faith community that celebrates mountaintop experiences, those moments when a human being—like Moses or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., — encounters the radiant presence of the Holy One. These are glorious moments of rebirth, rededication, and revelation. Yet we seldom use the word glory in our churches anymore. Perhaps we think the word makes God seem too remote. The texts recapture the immediacy of glory and its relevance to our personal discipleship. It is the vision of God’s glory that sustains us, and assures us of the good yet to come. Those who rejoice in God’s presence may, one day, also glow with God’s glory.

In Exodus, Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai after speaking with God. His face is radiant, suggesting that the prophet has somehow absorbed the brightness of God. Through Moses, a reflective vision of God’s glory is given to the faith community. In 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to the veil that Moses put over his face after being on the mountain. When we look at Christ, we gaze upon God with “unveiled faces.” When we see the reflected glory of the Lord, we are granted a glimpse of what we will one day experience in its fullness. With this knowledge, we can then become reflections of that glory to one another.

In Luke’s Gospel, the dramatic story of the transfiguration is sandwiched between two more “ordinary events” of Jesus’ life—instructing the disciples and healing a child with a demon. Jesus has been teaching about his coming death and resurrection, but the disciples do not understand. Then, when Jesus goes up on the mountain, God transfigures him, thereby confirming him to be the Chosen One.

The vision, which includes Moses, and Elijah, refers to Jesus’ “departure,” and offers the disciples, and us, an anticipatory glimpse of Jesus’ resurrected glory. Unlike Peter, who wants to celebrate the experience by encapsulating it, Jesus goes back down the mountain and returns to his daily ministry, which includes healing a child tormented by a demon. The glimpse of glory strengthens disciples to continue doing God’s work in day to day life.

First Sunday of Lent: February 25, 2007
Deut 26:1–11; Ps 91:1–2, 9–16; Rom 10:8b–13; Lk 4:1–13

The theme of “calling upon God” runs through all the texts this week. The Old Testament reading commands that tithes and first fruits of the ground be returned to the Lord. It also describes the detailed means by which to accomplish the task. (Deut 26:1–11) When presenting our first fruits, we fall on the ground and pray to God. This refers back to the time when the enslaved Hebrews cried out to God, pleading for an end to their oppression. The Lord responded by liberating them and leading them to a land overflowing with milk and honey. Offering the first fruits of the harvest is faithful payback to God for responding to humanity’s prayers.

Many people love the psalms for their repeated unequivocal affirmation that if we know the name of the Lord, we will be protected, and if we call to the Lord, we will be answered. This week’s psalm was probably used in a public worship setting where its words were spoken by a priest, but understood to be from God. The psalm fortifies the worshipper with the assurance that all who call upon God will be answered, while all who turn away from God will be desolate.

The stirring epistle text further affirms this point. We hear that anyone who tries to get close to Christ is working too hard! Christ is already very near to us because of the power of the gospel preached. So, anyone who confesses aloud the name of the Lord will see salvation and anyone who sincerely believes in Jesus, will be justified. (Rom 10:10–13)

Because the forty days of Lent mirror Jesus’ forty days of temptation in the desert, we turn to Luke’s version of Jesus’ wilderness experience on the first Sunday in Lent. (Lk 4:1–13) Immediately after his baptism and powerful call to ministry, Jesus is driven by the adversary into the wilderness. Though Jesus has been validated by the Spirit to be the child of the Holy, he wrestles in the desert to discern how he should live out his ministry.

The flashy specters that haunt Jesus and are eventually rejected by him, refer back to Psalm 91. Jesus prays, using the words of Scripture. Just as he had been baptized in and driven out by the Spirit, Jesus invokes the Holy Spirit by praying the words of the psalm. Jesus’ internal struggle takes place in the context of the desert wilderness—a locale brutal to both body and soul. The wilderness is also the setting of two parallel Old Testament stories: Elijah’s forty days of wandering as a fugitive from Jezebel (1 Kings 19:3–8) and the Hebrew people’s forty years of wandering in the desert. An interesting homiletical question might be to ask where we each encounter our own spiritual wildernesses and how, even in those dry places, we come face to face with the living God.

It might also be profitable, depending upon the context in which you preach, to explore the “opportune time” of the return of the Adversary. (Lk 4:13) and the challenges that will present to faith and discipleship.