Lectionary Challenge: Matthew 21:28-32

Matthew 21:28-32

"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go.  Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Earlier in the week I asked us to examine which character in the Exodus story best fit who each of us is. That is a question we could ask ourselves as we read this passage, too. Are we the son who said he would do the will of the father and then didn't? Or are we the son who refused to do the father's will, and then did?

The deeper question is this: are we willing to see God in the world around us? Are we willing to believe? We say that we do. We go to worship, we recite the words of our faith. We say we are Christians? But are we atheistic in our actions? Do we act as if we believe in God?

A few weeks ago, the preacher in our church said that agape love is a choice. We decide to love. This isn't the emotion of love; it is a love of action.

In the same way, do we chose to follow Christ? Do our actions demonstrate the words of our faith? If a person couldn't hear what we say, but could only see what we do, would that person call us a Christian, or an atheist?

Lectionary Challenge: Phillipians 2:1-8

Philippians 2:1-8 (Full lectionary reading is 1-13)

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross.

Think like those who were reading (or hearing) Paul's words from this letter. "If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy..."

What do you mean, Paul? Are these trick statements? Of course there is encouragement  Of course there is consolation and love, sharing and compassion. These are the very nature of God, Paul. YOU'VE TOLD US SO.

And Paul says, "Ah ha! If that is true, then show it. Demonstrate it. If this is the nature of God, and you were created in the image of God, then this should all be in you, too."

Our call from God in this passage is to demonstrate agape love by choice. To be loving. The call in this passage is to see others with the eyes of God, seeing the God in other people. We aren't called to take pity on the poor and offer them the worst that we have, if we offer them anything. We aren't called to be grudging in love. We aren't called to see ourselves as better than anyone else.

We are called to humility. We are called to a humble nature before God, accepting the commands of God, and offering loving compassion through our actions to others. This is what Christ did. This is what we are to do.

If we are made in the image of God, and we have the best model of what God is like in the life of Christ, then we need to be like Christ, obedient to the point of death. In this way, others will see the encouragement, sharing, compassion and sympathy of God in us.

Lectionary Challenge: Ezekiel 18:1-4

Ezekiel 18:1-4

The word of the LORD came to me:  What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge"? As I live, says the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.  Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die.

Do we have a habit of trying to find reasons for the bad things that happen in life? Is this one that is sometimes used? "The sins of the father will be visited on the child."  I do think that what we do in life impacts those around us, especially our children. I don't see that as the work of God; to claim that a baby who is addicted to heroin is suffering punishment from God for the sins of his parents is heresy.  Our sins do effect more than ourselves, but that is our doing, not God's.

God is grace, offering mercy and love to each of us, even in our sin. If that is the case, then who could ever believe that God would refuse to offer mercy to the one who did not sin? Or as punishment for the sin of another.

And yet, this might be a radical thought for the readers of the writings of Ezekiel.

When we try to cast blame, we should stop. We should stop judgment, and remember that we do not have all the answers. We do not know why, but that's not our job. Our job is to love. We should get busy.

Lectionary Challenge: Exodus 17:1-7

Exodus 17:1-7
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.  The people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?"   But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?"   So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me."   The LORD said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.   I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.   He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

My challenge for myself this week is to consider four lectionary readings and write about them for the blog. Before reading any of the scriptures for the week, I selected the week I would do this, so that I didn't choose "easy" scriptures on purpose. These are the lectionary readings for the week I chose.  Each day I will post the scripture with the thoughts I have, so I hope you will take the time to read the passage.

As I read the story, I wondered who I related too the most. Which character am I most like?

Am I like Moses? Imagine for a moment, the frustration that he must have felt. This is certainly not the first time that the people have complained. They saw God part the Red Sea, lead them in the wilderness, and yet they still complain.  You may be involved in church work - as a volunteer, perhaps, or as a staff member. Do you get frustrated with the people around you? People who complain all the time, no matter what?  He brings his frustration to God, and God answers him, with a solution (pardon the pun). There could be a lesson in that for us.

Am I like the people who are complaining? Am I so blind to the work of God that I miss what God is doing? Why am I like that? Do I get so focused on the details that I forget to notice the presence of God? Do I get impatient with God's timing? Why do I give up on God so easily? How often do I say, "Is the Lord among us or not?"

Am I like the elders? Do I ever stand in the presence of one anointed by God, and watch the work of God? Do I learn anything? Do you think that is why God told Moses to take elders with him? Is it so that they will be witnesses to God at work? What do they do next? What do they learn? What do I learn from those whom God has appointed?

My favorite take away lesson from this passage is that God was there. God did not abandon his frustrated, complaining children. God answers. God provides. I pray I may be like the one who remembers that.

How many messages?

I taught Sunday school a few weeks ago. The truth is, the curriculum was at church, and I didn't want to drive downtown to get it, so I designed a lesson around the lectionary (I posted about it in early June).

The lesson had three purposes:
1. Learn about the lectionary -- what it is, how it is structured and why we use it.
2. Spend some time in Bible study with the lectionary readings for the week.
3. Learn and use some basic techniques for delving into a scripture passage.

I see reasons for all of those learning goals. I think if we are going to follow the lectionary, then we should understand what it is and why we use it. There are many advantages to preparing for worship each week by reading scripture and having a couple "go to" techniques for entering a scriptural experience is handy.

I say all of that in the light of an email I received after I taught the lesson. The person who wrote to me didn't agree with the value of the lesson. For this person, every lesson should relate to salvation and preachers should never be tied down to a lectionary reading.

On a related topic, I was in a training class a couple of months ago where we explored "Preaching from the Gospel of Mark." Mark is the lectionary gospel for this year. One of the class members was a pastor in the Conference. He did not see the value of lectionary because he only has one message -- salvation -- and if the lectionary reading doesn't support that, he choses one that does.

Is there only one message?

What is the Lectionary?

I don't do these kind of posts very often, but I taught a Sunday school class yesterday that focused on the Lectionary.  Here is part of what I learned and taught concerning what the Lectionary is, how is was started, etc. 

What is the Lectionary?

The best place to start, I think, is to look at what the word Lectionary means – it is a table of readings.  So, a lectionary is a collection of readings or selections of readings from the scriptures, arranged and intended for proclamation during worship.

Lectionaries have been used for centuries – major churches in the Fourth Century arranged scripture readings according to a schedule that followed the calendar for the church year.  Prior to Christ, those who studying the Hebrew scripture arranged it into a schedule of readings for particular celebrations, like Passover.

We currently follow the Revised Common Lectionary, which was first published for general use in 1992.  This is a revision of the Common Lectionary, which got much of its pattern from the Roman Catholic lectionary for mass of 1969.

While the United Methodist church uses the Revised Common Lectionary, it is not United Methodist.  It was compiled by two groups – the Consultation on Common Texts (a forum among many Christian Churches in the US and Canada) and the International English Language Liturgical Consultation group.  The RCL is used worldwide.

Before we get into it more deeply, consider – Why bother?  What should we have a table of readings?  What advantage does it offer us as a local church?  Or as a connected church?  Do you see disadvantages?

Structure –

1. The revised common lectionary is a three year cycle of readings.
2. Each Sunday in the year is assigned four readings
   a.       A reading from the Hebrew Bible (although during the season of Easter, the
   Hebrew passage is usually replaced with one from Acts)
   b.      A Psalm
   c.       A reading from the epistles or Revelation
   d.      A reading from the Gospel
3. There are three years – A, B and C.  The first Sunday of each year is the First Sunday of Advent.  Year A is always divisible by 3, so December of 2007 began a Year A year.  We just finished a Year A year (2010 through 2011) and are currently in Year B.
4. Since the seasons of the church year reflect the life of Christ, the gospel reading is usually the focus for the Sunday’s readings.  
5. Each year – A, B, or C – focuses on one of the synoptic gospels, with sequential readings throughout the year.  Year A is Matthew, Year B is Mark and Year C is Luke.  John is read in every year, especially during Lent, Easter and Advent and also in Year B during a few weeks of the summer because Mark is a short gospel, and they ran out of it.
6. From the First Sunday of Advent, which is the beginning of the year’s readings, through Trinity Sunday (first Sunday after Pentecost), the non-Gospel readings have a thematic relationship to the gospel reading (although not always). From Trinity Sunday through the rest of the year, there is an alternative tract of readings that carry a connected theme – for example, in Year A, the alternative readings carry the story of the Patriarchs through the Sundays – Abraham, Jacob, Moses, etc.  Year A is the Patriarchs, Year B is the Monarchs and Year C is the Prophets
7. What passages are not included in the RCL?  Not much from Leviticus or Numbers, Chronicles, nothing from Obadiah, Nahum, 2 John or 3 John. Not everything is in the RCL, but you have a Bible.  Go read it.