Hungering For God

Beginning with the third Sunday of February and going through the month of March, the church enters the Lenten season.  The challenges to the preaching during the Lenten season are several.  First, we need to overcome the tendency to equate Lent with personal self-denial as in “what are you giving up” for Lent.  Secondly, we need to examine our own needs as we move toward the Holy Week/Easter period.  Can we help other to experience something fresh about God?  Can we deepen our hunger for the reign of God?  Can we focus our need away from consuming to searching or desiring in such a way to reflect the psalmist’s plea “that as a hart longs for cooling waters, so my soul long for God.”?

Perhaps this Lenten period can be a time when our hunger moves toward God in some new and deeper way.  Preaching during Lent then is an exciting opportunity to frame the problem and to invite peo0ple to examine their yearnings and desires.  The readings during these weeks will provide ample material for such inquiry and investigation.

The first set of readings from the Hebrew Bible focus on a series of promises that God has made and kept to God’s people.  These readings provide us with a testimony of God’s dependability.  Whether is it God’s promise to Abraham (Gen. 15:1-2, 17-18), God’s invitation to generosity (Is. 55: 1-9), God’s promise to Joshua (Joshua 5:9-12), or the prophetic promise of God doing a new thing (Is. 43:16-21), the witness is that God is a God who keeps promises.  Hence, God is dependable and trustworthy.

The promise that is testified to in the first set of readings may be used to intensify the call to repentance which is echoed in the second set of readings from the epistles.  The readings from the epistles focus on “standing firm in the Lord” (Phil. 3:17-4:1), call to righteous liv8ing (I Cor. 10:1-13), call to a new creation (II Cor. 5:16-21) and “pressing toward the goal of the prize of the heavenly call of God” (Phil. 3:4b-14).  It would be worth the preacher’s time to investigate the relationship between promises on one hand and challenges on the other.  Could it be that the promises of God makes the challenges of God possible? Could it be that Lent is an opportunity to explore the paradoxical relationship between God’s promises and the call to radical change?

The gospel lessons also deal with the themes of promise and fulfillment.  Three readings come from the Gospel of Luke and one from the Gospel of John.  The Lukan readings begin with the heavenly declaration “this is my Son, my Chosen: listen to him!” (Luke 9:35) The declaration is delivered in the context of the transfiguration where Jesus is paired with Moses and Elijah.  The continuity of God’s promise is displayed and Jesus is affirmed.  The second reading from Luke (13:1-9) is a parable about a fig tree that bears no fruit.  If the tree bears not fruit, it will be cut down.  Here we move from promise to challenge to the church the bear the fruity of new life.  The third reading is the parable to the two sons and the loving father (Luke 15:1-3,11b-32) with a focus on both repentance and mercy.  The last reading is from the Gospel of John (12:1-8) with Mary’s anointing of the feet of Jesus as a foreshadowing of the death which is to come.

With this introduction in mind, I will look more closely at the readings of each Sunday.  My primary focus will be on the gospel lessons, with secondary attention given to the other readings.

Second Sunday in Lent

February 28, 2010

Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 9: 28-36

The Lukan reading is the account of the transfiguration and is the second time in Luke that there is heavenly assurance about Jesus.  This heavenly affirmation might also be seen as an eschatological preview of what is coming.  Luke’s gospel has three heavenly affirmations, at the baptism, at the transfiguration, and at the death.  There is a mingling of both promise and challenge!

This dual reality of God’s promise and God’s challenge is at the heart of the preacher’s task during Lent.  The transfiguration story can be approached in this manner so that challenges are investigated with the promise of God as the backdrop.

Readings from Genesis and Philippians can be tied into this interpretive frame.  The church can bear the challenge put forth in Philippians 3 because we have the promise of Genesis 15 and Luke 9.

How can we exegete the challenges that are before us during the Lenten period?  How do we understand the Pauline description of those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ?  He describes them as “their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.”(3:19)

Preacher, help us to understand our destructive behavior in ways which are more than moral finger pointing.  What we need help on is not simply feeling guilty bout a new analysis of how our lives, personal and communal, support destruction and are set on earthly things.  Can we move toward new life with examination of our consumer capitalism has captured our spiritual imagination and kept us focused on earthly things?  How can Lent give us a new analysis of our captivity and give us a new hunger for the things and people of God?  Here we preachers have a challenge to paint two pictures, one of the promises of God and one of the challenges of our humanity, with the assurance that promise can lead to change.

Third Sunday in Lent

March 7, 2010

Isaiah 55: 1-9

I Corinthians 10: 1-13

Luke 13: 1-9

Framed by Isaiah’s invitation that “ho, everyone that thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, but, eat!” (Isa. 55:1), the challenge of the other readings is on repentance.  The reading form I. Corinthians 10: 1-13 calls for an examination of personal life style with the admonition that one is called to be faithful.  In the midst of this call to repentance and faithful living there is a promise: “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” (10:13)

The call to repentance is carried forth in the Luke passage culminating in a parable about a fig tree (13:1-9).  In this text Jesus issues a call to repentance with a note of hope.  The parable of the fig tree holds open the possibility that if the tree produces fruit it will not be cut down.  If, however, after being given another chance, the tree does not produce fruit it will be cut down.

How does the preacher issue a call to repentance which is beyond moralistic indictment?  It is possible to trivialize the call to repentance by narrowing the focus in such a way that significant change cannot occur.  While we need to be concerned about individual life styles, the most significant repentance that is needed is systemic.  How do we talk about repentance which means the forgiveness of debt, the release of prisoners, the care for the poor and oppressed?  Yes, individually we must confront our own sine and failure but preaching falls short of the mark if repentance is only personal.  How do we as preachers lift up the more complicated issues of social change and structural change that is akin the structure of the reign of God?

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 14, 2010

Joshua 5: 9-12

2 Corinthians 5: 16-21

Luke 15: 1-3, 11B-32

The New Testament readings for this Sunday provide an interesting opportunity to explore the theme of promise and the call to repentance with compassion.  In 2 Corinthians the declaration is “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!” (5:17) Then God’s mission of reconciliation is announced with the message of reconciliation entrusted to the church.  God’ commitment to reconciliation under girds the possibility of the church engaging in acts if reconciliation.

The Lukan parable about the father with two sons could be interpreted as a parable about reconciliation, both its failure and success.  The younger son is welcomed back by the father.  He repents by coming back and is received with joy by the father but not by the older brother.  The older brother does not join the father in welcoming his younger brother.

This familiar story can be present in at least two ways.  First, it is good news to prodigals with the assurance that they can come home to a waiting and loving father.  There are always some who need to be assured and invited to come back.  It also reminds that church that it is a home for prodigals.  A second approach to the parable is from the perspective of the older son who resents the younger brother and his treatment by the father.  In some ways the older brother is the righteous one who staid home and did his duty.  He is much more like members of the church than the prodigal who returns.  Perhaps the older brother’s attitude can help us understand the lack of welcome in the church for those who are different.  There are times when the church is not a welcome place for the prodigal because of those who are resentful of those who did not stay home and do their duty.  They wonder why no one throws them a party.

The second level of the message does focus on our need in the church to repent of our lack of compassion and charity.  “The older brother syndrome” may be at the heart of our need for change.  This call to repent to the older brother is done with the assurance that “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” (15:31) Our own possibility of repentance is made possible by a God who is always with us and has already given new life.

Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 21, 2010

Isaiah 43: 16-21

Philippians 3: 4b-14

John 12: 1-8

The readings for the fifth Sunday in Lent make a promise, offer a challenge, and provide a sign of assurance.  The reading from Isaiah declares that God is doing a new thing.  The prophet’s council is “do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.  I am about to do a new things; now its springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (43:18-19) The promise of new life runs thought these Lenten readings.

We move in the readings from God’s promise to God’s challenge.  The Philippians text challenges the church to regard Christ above all else.  Paul says “yet what gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.  More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in other that I may gain Christ…” (3:7-8)  To live a live worthy of the call is the challenge.  We must “press on toward the goal of the prize of the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ.”(13:14)

How do we put into contemporary language this call to value Christ above all else?  What do we count as rubbish in order to experience this reality?  How do we press on?  Here the preacher needs to get specific about what keeps us from this heavenly goal so that repentance can occur and the promise can be fulfilled.\

The gospel lesson from John is the account of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with costly perfume.  After dealing the objection of Judas for such extravagance, Jesus commends Mary’s act of loving preparation that foreshadows his coming death.  Lent ends with an eschatological assurance that death is coming but that it is not the last word.

Palm Sunday – Liturgy of the Passion

March 28, 2010

Philippians 2: 5-11

Luke 22:14-23:56

Palm Sunday is an opportunity to either recall the procession toward Jerusalem or to engage in the liturgy of the passion.  I have listed the readings for the liturgy of the passion.  Simply enacting this liturgy can be a powerful way of preparing for Holy Week and what is to follow.