Year C
\u00a0Genesis 15:1-12,17-18
\u00a0Psalm 27
\u00a0Philippians 3:17-4:1
\u00a0Luke 13:31-35<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things seem tenuous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They seemed tenuous to Abram too\u2026 it had been years since God promised to make of him a great nation\u2026 and he continued childless\u2026 and he wondered\u2026 would the heir of his house be someone whose name appears nowhere else in scripture\u2026 Eliezer of Damascus\u2026 someone whom Abram may have adopted on the presumption\u2026 that he would have no children of his own\u2026 at a time when Abram himself\u2026 according to Romans 4:19\u2026 was about one hundred years old\u2026 and who\u2026 when he considered his own body\u2026 was as good as dead\u2026 and the concern he may have felt about Sarai’s seeming barrenness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes\u2026 things seemed tenuous\u2026 and Abram questioned God… as he would increasingly learn to do\u2026 and God took him outside to count the stars\u2026 try as he might… and told him that his descendants would be as numerous\u2026 and Abram believed God\u2026 who reckoned it to him as righteousness\u2026 Abram believed\u2026 without any proof\u2026 but with faith alone\u2026 but even still\u2026 to demonstrate the commitment\u2026 God instructed Abram to prepare a sacrifice…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ritual cutting of animals in half\u2026 and passing between them is found both in the Bible and in Mesopotamia\u2026 there’s a parallel in Jeremiah 34:17-22 which implies that the essence of the ritual is a self-curse\u2026 those walking between the pieces will be like the dead animals if they violate the covenant\u2026 and in today’s reading from Genesis\u2026 it is God\u2026 symbolized by the smoking fire pot\u2026 and the flaming torch\u2026 who invokes this self-curse as a way of demonstrating the commitment\u2026 with God’s own life in the balance\u2026 while nothing is said about any covenantal obligations on Abram’s part\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things may have been tenuous for the Psalmist\u2026 who lamented that he had to contend with evildoers\u2026 and armies encamped against him… and wars rising up against him\u2026 and false witnesses\u2026 and those who spoke with malice\u2026 but who also acknowledged that since God is his light and his salvation\u2026 then there was no one to fear\u2026 that he put his trust in God\u2026 who speaks in the heart\u2026 and asks us to seek God’s face\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his epistle\u2026 Paul reminds the Philippians of a tenuous reality\u2026 that they don’t have a lasting dwelling place here\u2026 that their true citizenship lies in heaven\u2026 from where their Savior comes\u2026 and that they ought put their faith in him\u2026 since he can combat and overcome evil powers\u2026 and can transform the body of humility\u2026 into the body of Christ’s glory\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in some ways\u2026 the Pharisees in today’s reading\u2026 seem to think Jesus’ safety is tenuous\u2026 they sound like the Diablos\u2026 the devil\u2026 from last week\u2026 who wanted to impose limits on Jesus’ boundlessness\u2026 because if Jesus turned the stone into bread\u2026 then he’d have bread\u2026 but that’s all he’d have\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if he worshipped the Diablos\u2026 then he’d be able to rule the kingdoms of the world by division and accusation\u2026 the way the kingdoms of the world really work\u2026 and then that’s all he’d have\u2026 because he’d lose the unity he experienced with the Godhead\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the third and final test placed before him\u2026 brought him to Jerusalem\u2026 the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it\u2026 where he is asked to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 expecting that God would command God’s angels to protect him\u2026 and this reminds me of how in the synoptics\u2026 that Jesus is tested by the chief priests who say to him\u2026 if you are the Messiah\u2026 the Son of God\u2026 save yourself and come down from the cross\u2026 and we will believe you<\/em>\u2026 and they would have their proof\u2026 but lose the opportunity to grow in faith\u2026 and so if Jesus threw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 God would protect him\u2026 but God would also be stooping down to the devil’s level\u2026 and God doesn’t have anything at all\u2026 to prove\u2026 to the embodiment of divisiveness\u2026 not after that thing that happened with Job\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pharisees in today’s reading\u2026 think Jesus’ safety is tenuous\u2026 because Herod wants to kill him\u2026 and in response Jesus says\u2026 it’s not happening today\u2026 not yet\u2026 wait until I’m in Jerusalem\u2026 then Herod can have me\u2026 because then\u2026 my work here will be done<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet\u2026 Jesus laments over Jerusalem\u2026 and the times he desired to gather her children together\u2026 but they were not willing\u2026 and he compares them to chicks\u2026 and himself to a mother hen\u2026 and Jesus rightly names Herod as a fox\u2026 and what do foxes do\u2026 they go after hens\u2026 but a hen’s baby chicks gather instinctually under their mother’s wings\u2026 while Jerusalem’s children are human beings\u2026 who God created with free will\u2026 and more than once they chose a willful resistance \u2026 rather than a willing-ness\u2026 to gather under Jesus’ wings of protection\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lent\u2026 like Advent\u2026 is a time of waiting\u2026 and we need to ask ourselves\u2026 what does it mean to wait\u2026 and for what are we waiting\u2026 how does waiting go against our cultural norms\u2026 and how do those norms create or contribute to our impatience\u2026 so it’s become difficult for us to\u2026 as the Psalmist instructs us\u2026 wait patiently for the Lord\u2026 we’re so steeped in the idea of\u2026 don’t just stand there\u2026 do something<\/em>\u2026 that it’s almost impossible for us to become steeped in the idea of\u2026 don’t just do something\u2026 stand there<\/em>\u2026 stand there long enough to realize that we’re standing in the presence of the Holy\u2026 that we’re standing in the Word of God\u2026 and if we would but listen\u2026 we would hear God’s Word speaking to us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things seem tenuous\u2026 God’s seeming silence is uncomfortable\u2026 but we cannot bypass the discomfort of Lent\u2026 and while it may feel as though we too are being tested\u2026 while it may be\u2026 that the collective group consciousness all around the world\u2026 reflects so little of God’s light\u2026 that there are wars and rumors of wars\u2026 we are also being invited into a deeper faith\u2026 because the prophet’s words speak to us as well\u2026 and if the prophet’s criticism is ever intended to break down anything\u2026 all it hopes to break down is resistance to God’s will\u2026 it is compassionate\u2026 like a mother hen\u2026 who wishes nothing more than to gather her children\u2026 and protect them from the foxes of the world\u2026 and their lies\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things seem tenuous\u2026 but ultimately\u2026 they’re not\u2026 God is simply waiting on us\u2026 to listen to the Spirit who loves and speaks to us\u2026 and to embrace Jesus’ promises which free us from the bondage of fear and doubt\u2026 so that we put our trust in God\u2026 so that we hear God’s voice in our hearts\u2026 and so that we can finally see God\u2026 face to face\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Genesis 15:1-12,17-18\u00a0Psalm 27\u00a0Philippians 3:17-4:1\u00a0Luke 13:31-35 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Things seem tenuous. They seemed tenuous to Abram too\u2026 it had been years since God promised to make of him a great nation\u2026 and he continued childless\u2026 and he wondered\u2026 would the heir of his house be someone whose name appears nowhere else in scripture\u2026 Eliezer of Damascus\u2026 someone whom Abram may have adopted on the presumption\u2026 that he would have no children of his own\u2026 at a time when Abram himself\u2026 according to Romans 4:19\u2026 was about one hundred years old\u2026 and who\u2026 when he considered his own body\u2026 was as good as dead\u2026 and the concern he may have felt about Sarai’s seeming barrenness\u2026 Yes\u2026 things seemed tenuous\u2026 and Abram questioned God… as he would increasingly learn to do\u2026 and God took him outside to count the stars\u2026 try as he might… and told him that his descendants would be as numerous\u2026 and Abram believed God\u2026 who reckoned it to him as righteousness\u2026 Abram believed\u2026 without any proof\u2026 but with faith alone\u2026 but even still\u2026 to demonstrate the commitment\u2026 God instructed Abram to prepare a sacrifice… The ritual cutting of animals in half\u2026 and passing between them is found both in the Bible and in Mesopotamia\u2026 there’s a parallel in Jeremiah 34:17-22 which implies that the essence of the ritual is a self-curse\u2026 those walking between the pieces will be like the dead animals if they violate the covenant\u2026 and in today’s reading from Genesis\u2026 it is God\u2026 symbolized by the smoking fire pot\u2026 and the flaming torch\u2026 who invokes this self-curse as a way of demonstrating the commitment\u2026 with God’s own life in the balance\u2026 while nothing is said about any covenantal obligations on Abram’s part\u2026 Things may have been tenuous for the Psalmist\u2026 who lamented that he had to contend with evildoers\u2026 and armies encamped against him… and wars rising up against him\u2026 and false witnesses\u2026 and those who spoke with malice\u2026 but who also acknowledged that since God is his light and his salvation\u2026 then there was no one to fear\u2026 that he put his trust in God\u2026 who speaks in the heart\u2026 and asks us to seek God’s face\u2026 In his epistle\u2026 Paul reminds the Philippians of a tenuous reality\u2026 that they don’t have a lasting dwelling place here\u2026 that their true citizenship lies in heaven\u2026 from where their Savior comes\u2026 and that they ought put their faith in him\u2026 since he can combat and overcome evil powers\u2026 and can transform the body of humility\u2026 into the body of Christ’s glory\u2026 And in some ways\u2026 the Pharisees in today’s reading\u2026 seem to think Jesus’ safety is tenuous\u2026 they sound like the Diablos\u2026 the devil\u2026 from last week\u2026 who wanted to impose limits on Jesus’ boundlessness\u2026 because if Jesus turned the stone into bread\u2026 then he’d have bread\u2026 but that’s all he’d have\u2026 And if he worshipped the Diablos\u2026 then he’d be able to rule the kingdoms of the world by division and accusation\u2026 the way the kingdoms of the world really work\u2026 and then that’s all he’d have\u2026 because he’d lose the unity he experienced with the Godhead\u2026 And the third and final test placed before him\u2026 brought him to Jerusalem\u2026 the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it\u2026 where he is asked to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 expecting that God would command God’s angels to protect him\u2026 and this reminds me of how in the synoptics\u2026 that Jesus is tested by the chief priests who say to him\u2026 if you are the Messiah\u2026 the Son of God\u2026 save yourself and come down from the cross\u2026 and we will believe you\u2026 and they would have their proof\u2026 but lose the opportunity to grow in faith\u2026 and so if Jesus threw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple\u2026 God would protect him\u2026 but God would also be stooping down to the devil’s level\u2026 and God doesn’t have anything at all\u2026 to prove\u2026 to the embodiment of divisiveness\u2026 not after that thing that happened with Job\u2026 The Pharisees in today’s reading\u2026 think Jesus’ safety is tenuous\u2026 because Herod wants to kill him\u2026 and in response Jesus says\u2026 it’s not happening today\u2026 not yet\u2026 wait until I’m in Jerusalem\u2026 then Herod can have me\u2026 because then\u2026 my work here will be done\u2026 And yet\u2026 Jesus laments over Jerusalem\u2026 and the times he desired to gather her children together\u2026 but they were not willing\u2026 and he compares them to chicks\u2026 and himself to a mother hen\u2026 and Jesus rightly names Herod as a fox\u2026 and what do foxes do\u2026 they go after hens\u2026 but a hen’s baby chicks gather instinctually under their mother’s wings\u2026 while Jerusalem’s children are human beings\u2026 who God created with free will\u2026 and more than once they chose a willful resistance \u2026 rather than a willing-ness\u2026 to gather under Jesus’ wings of protection\u2026 Lent\u2026 like Advent\u2026 is a time of waiting\u2026 and we need to ask ourselves\u2026 what does it mean to wait\u2026 and for what are we waiting\u2026 how does waiting go against our cultural norms\u2026 and how do those norms create or contribute to our impatience\u2026 so it’s become difficult for us to\u2026 as the Psalmist instructs us\u2026 wait patiently for the Lord\u2026 we’re so steeped in the idea of\u2026 don’t just stand there\u2026 do something\u2026 that it’s almost impossible for us to become steeped in the idea of\u2026 don’t just do something\u2026 stand there\u2026 stand there long enough to realize that we’re standing in the presence of the Holy\u2026 that we’re standing in the Word of God\u2026 and if we would but listen\u2026 we would hear God’s Word speaking to us\u2026 Things seem tenuous\u2026 God’s seeming silence is uncomfortable\u2026 but we cannot bypass the discomfort of Lent\u2026 and while it may feel as though we too are being tested\u2026 while it may be\u2026 that the collective group consciousness all around the world\u2026 reflects so 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