Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 28th:  Genesis 4:1-16; Psalm 32; and Hebrews 4:14—5:10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

We may all have heard the story of Cain and Abel since Sunday School.  Do you remember why Cain’s offering was unacceptable to God?  Were you told it was because it was a poor offering, definitely not the best of the harvest?  Go back to the Genesis selection and read it again.  Is that message in the text?  It is true that Abel’s offering is described as “the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions,” but is there anything there describing Cain’s offering as insulting or inferior?  Maybe it is implied when no superlatives are attached to Cain’s offering, but the text itself is silent. 

We strive to find some reason for God’s reaction to avoid the unpleasant notion of divine favourtism.  However, what if the biblical author is not as offended as are our current sensibilities?  It has long been noted by scholars that this story represents the conflict between agricultural and pastoral ways of life.  Israel’s origins trace back to nomadic, pastoral peoples.  Their counterparts were the city dwellers.  Israel’s origins trace back to tribes that lived among the less populated, less arable lands of Canaan’s hills where they established simple settlements supported by herding.  Their city-dwelling counterparts established monumental architecture and lived in hierarchical societies on the plains, which were all made possible through agriculture.
  Cain represents the city dweller, the one dependent upon agriculture.  Abel, on the other hand, represents the pastoral peoples that gave rise in their small, transitory settlements in the hills to the worship of Yahweh.  Accordingly, in the biblical text of these same pastoral people, Abel’s offering from the herd is related as pleasing to God, while Cain’s offering from the fields is not.  What the text may actually be saying is that there was nothing wrong with Cain’s offering.  Rather, it was that God preferred Abel’s offering because it was Abel’s offering.  By extension, Yahweh was not pleased by the people of the city.  They were the-other to those who were the ones at the beginning of Israel’s story.  Yahweh preferred the offering from the flock because Yahweh preferred the ones who made that offering.

This divine favourtism is not something that may appeal to us today, but these are ancient stories that speak to an ancient mindset.  Last week we read from the Book of Jonah, a later writing.  Jonah tried to flee from Yahweh by sailing so far to the West that God would not be there.  You may remember that this did not work out well for the prophet.  But what do we encounter today?  After Cain’s act of fratricide is discovered by God, Cain is punished by banishment.  We read, “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”  The implication of this is that Yahweh is not there, it is “away from the presence of the Lord.”  Yahweh in this sense is a territorial god, a god among other territorial gods.  This is called henotheism and it is defined as the adherence to one particular god out of several.  This perspective helps us understand who the people are who Cain is afraid of after God banishes him.  In the story of Eden, the world’s population has just dropped from four to three.  These others must be people of no account to the biblical tradition.  They must be people of other gods.  Again, this is an ancient myth struggling to define the world’s reality and it should be read as such, and not as a modern reader yelling “Gotcha” at a biblical discrepancy.  This is to treat the text as naïve if not ignorant. 

So what we have in this selection is an account of Yahweh simply favouring Yahweh’s people.  The biblical author witnessed to a faith in God as preferring Israel.  This was their God and they were God’s people.  Before we jump to accusations about how unfair this is to the-other, let’s appreciate it for what it is.  The loose knit tribes of a confederation held together by belief in a local deity named Yahweh were always imperiled by nature and by civilization.  Their lives and connections were precarious.  The thought of a divinity that favoured them must have been hugely encouraging and supportive.  This is the message of their faith I think we need to focus upon.

Then, with the passage of time, comes Jesus.  Jesus is God’s expansion of this divine protection of God’s people.  No longer are God’s people those scattered and threatened tribes in the mountains of Canaan. In Jesus, God reveals that all people are God’s people.  Think about what it says in Hebrews today.  We have a Saviour who suffered so that He could sympathize “with our weaknesses.”  Who has not suffered?  No one.  Jesus goes to the cross because even when it comes to suffering and death He will not betray the universal connection He has with all people.  It is this universal connection that leads the anonymous author of Hebrews to declare without distinction, “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness.”  Jesus, especially Jesus crucified, gives us the boldness to beseech God because in Jesus God has stated without exception that we are all, sinner and saint alike, God’s favourites.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary. 

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 27th:  1 Kings 19:1-8; Psalm 32; and Hebrews 2:10-18.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Lent in a certain way is about turning the usual upside down. It is meant to be disruptive.  This comes across in today’s readings.  In the first selection, we hear of King Ahab.  He is the son of Omri, the founder of a dynasty that ruled the northern kingdom of Israel after its split with the southern kingdom of Judah.  Omri is judged an evil king in the Bible, but he was a successful ruler.  He expanded the borders of Israel and he founded the capital city of Samaria.  Ahab succeeded his father upon his death.

Omri was a military commander, and a successful one.  His son Ahab is depicted in the Bible quite differently.  Ahab is too weak to confront the prophet Elijah and in today’s reading he bemoans the situation to Jezebel his queen.  Jezebel is assertive immediately and threatens Elijah, vowing by her gods to assassinate him within the day.  Omri was strong-willed, as was Jezebel, but Ahab was not of this ilk.  King Ahab turned his father’s, and even his queen’s, example upside down.

Elijah, for his part, is fresh off a brutal religious-fanatical spree of violence.  He has wantonly killed other religious prophets because they were other.  His fearsome bona fides are marked by the blood of the 450 murdered.  Elijah had proven to have access to powerful, heavenly assistance when he called down fire from heaven.  I find it strange that following this miraculous sign from the sky that Elijah would then cower before the threat of Jezebel, a pagan just like the murdered 450 prophets, and also a woman.  This woman’s words terrify the fearsome prophet Elijah so much so that he runs away.  We see again an example of events turned upside down.

Then in the reading from Hebrews, we encounter an extremely profound reversal.  Hebrews, it is argued, is written by an anonymous author to a community of Jewish-Christians who are struggling with their new faith, and who are contemplating a return to the more familiar Jewish religion.  Hebrews encourages them to remain faithful to Jesus who is depicted as the High Priest, which by the way is the only New Testament reference to any Christian priest.  Jesus and Jesus alone is the Bible’s only Christian priest.

Hebrews presents Jesus as both the priestly officiant and the sacrifice.  For Jewish-Christians struggling with the upside-down reality of a crucified Messiah, Hebrews does not shy away from the cross, but presents it as the perfect and therefore unrepeatable sacrifice to God by God.  This makes all other repeated sacrifices unnecessary and inferior.  Hebrews also sees in the suffering Messiah a sacred connection between God and humanity.  Hebrews moves beyond atonement, a focus on sin removed, and toward at-one-ment, a focus on the holy communion between God and humanity in the person of Jesus, especially in the suffering of Jesus.  We read today, “Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”  In a world often marred by suffering that we thrust upon ourselves and suffering that is inexplicable, we have Jesus who is at-one with us in that Jesus has suffered as one of us.  Jesus is the living empathy of God.  Jesus suffers so that when we suffer there is no barrier when we need to come closer to God for comfort and strength. 

This is the upside-down new reality of Christianity.  Elijah relished the power of God when fire came down from heaven, and then carried away by this power savagely slaughtered 450 people.  The power of God when abused can become a justification for man’s inhumanity to man.  Then comes along a crucified Saviour, one who suffers to be at-one with others who suffer.  Power is turned upside-down and its symbol is the cross.  This Lenten season let us strive to better understand the intended disruption that God reveals in the upside-down power of the cross.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary. 

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 25th:  Psalm 51; Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 18:1-7.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

There is a local grocery store in Sunderland.  A good part of the front-facing structure of this building is an old millstone.  I have never had cause to see a millstone before this one.  I admit to not expecting a millstone to be so very large.  It is literally holding up a good portion of the building.  Jesus makes reference to a millstone in today’s Gospel selection, and it is important for those of us with no exposure to a millstone to realize how gigantic such a thing actually is.

The disciples ask Jesus about greatness in the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus answers visually.  He calls a child to their attention.  (I enjoy the thought of the casual attendance of children as Jesus is preaching and teaching.  This lets us know that families would come to gather around Jesus with all of their concomitant disruptions and excitement … and Jesus was just fine with it all.)  Jesus does not hold up the child’s example as obedient or dependent, bothersome or weak.  Rather, Jesus speaks of humility.  In contrast to the disciples’ question about greatness, the child’s example is the humbleness of one judged inconsequential and irrelevant.  The child is one often benignly ignored by such as the disciples.  By extension, the child’s example represents all those whom society too often discounts and looks past.

Jesus then continues.  For those worried about greatness, Jesus first points to the child as one who is often dismissed, but then Jesus adds that greatness involves welcoming the ones without status, the ones pushed aside or even despised by society.  Jesus is basing Christian worth, greatness, on the acceptance and welcome of those judged basically worthless.

There was an inspiring article in the newspaper on February 19th about Rev. William Chalmers Whitcomb, the 1850 pastor of the First Congregational Church of Stoneham.  (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/16/opinion/stoneham-minister-who-broke-ranks-with-fellow-clergymen-decry-fugitive-slave-act/ )  The Fugitive Slave Act had just been signed into Federal law.  Any escaped slave had to be returned to slavery, and anyone who assisted a slave to escape in any way could face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine in 1850-dollars.  Many abolitionist politicians and many churches supported this law as a compromise to limit the spread of slavery.

Not 30-year-old Rev. Whitcomb.  He went to the pulpit and decried this law because it treated the slave as something less than a person.  The human who was enslaved became only property.  Rev. Whitcomb could not countenance such a thing because of his Christian faith, and he preached against it from the pulpit.  Rev. Whitcomb understood Jesus’ idea of greatness.  Sadly, he stood out as exception not the rule. 
Then as now Jesus’ message about greatness is hard to embrace for too many who still hold onto worldly status as the mark of greatness.  This is why Jesus uses hyperbole so that no one may mistake his intent.  Jesus knows that there will be stumbling blocks in the world, that people will continue to abuse and discount the humble, but says Jesus, “‘[I]t would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.”  Once you see an actual millstone it is impossible to minimize the importance Jesus places on believers standing up for society’s outcasts. 

I hope that Lent puts us into closer contact with the teachings and priorities of Jesus, the one hanged on the cross among criminals as an insurrectionist, as one by its very definition as opposed to the powerful elites of the world.  May Lent help us to appreciate Jesus’ idea of greatness.

I would also like to invite you to worship with us tomorrow as we come together as church on the First Sunday of Lent.  Tomorrow’s Gospel is the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. 
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary. 

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 24th:  Psalm 51; Jonah 4:1-11; Romans 1:8-17.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is the first Friday of Lent.  Lenten Fridays are an especially solemn day within the solemn Season of Lent.  Lenten Fridays invite us to come closer to the events of Good Friday.  Maybe reading these biblical passages may encourage us to read beyond them in the sacred text.

We are nearing the end of our survey of the biblical writings in our online Bible Study Group.  This was based on the Massachusetts Bible Society’s Exploring the Bible Series.  As of January 1, 2023, the Massachusetts Bible Society is now part of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ.  You can read more at https://www.sneucc.org/newsdetail/conference-boosts-biblical-literacy-programming-with-mass-bible-society-partnership-17253488

  I have been leading Bible study since 1988, but one book that I have never focused on is the Epistle to the Romans.  We have delved into a line-by-line study of many other biblical books, including those of Paul, but never of Romans.  Romans is daunting, and it has scared me off.  It is Paul’s summation of his gospel proclamation.  It is addressed to a prominent community of believers whom Paul has never met, and who may not have been welcoming to Paul, his apostleship or his gospel.  Romans is Paul’s introduction to the church in the central city of the Empire.  In Romans, Paul treads cautiously between reaching out to the believers who hold him and his message suspect while also inviting them to be open to what he proclaims.

In today’s passage, Paul states humbly, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel.”  Scholars argue about the meaning of this litotes, this understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by a negative.  Is Paul conscious of the fact that he is presenting to the Romans a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth who died a criminal among other criminals or is Paul aware of his own humble situation as a provincial whose claim to apostleship is outside that of the Twelve?  Either way, Paul does not shy away from proclaiming this gospel.

Even if Paul is self-conscious about Jesus or himself, it is unimportant because the gospel “is the power of God.”  The gospel, the proclamation of and about Jesus, is not words that linger in the air for a moment and fade or rest on a page and are passive.  The gospel is dynamic and living; it is a power unleashed in the world.  Think back to the first creation story in Genesis as God only needs speak the Word and it is accomplished.  The gospel carries the “power of God.”  And Paul adds quickly that the power of the gospel is “for salvation.” 

In this context of an active not passive gospel, salvation must also be viewed as active not passive.  “For salvation” cannot be limited to believers waiting to be rescued or delivered from the world.  Christ crucified does not only redeem us; He renews us.  “For salvation” must be a call to actively bring deliverance into our lives and into our world by not being ashamed of the gospel, but like Paul, even if self-consciously aware of the strangeness of Jesus and of our own role in sharing Jesus and acting in imitation of Jesus, we must trust in the “power of God” to inspire us to work with God to change our lives first, and then to dare to believe we can change the world.

This sounds bombastic, but put it in the context of Paul without credentials or connections daring to preach to the Romans, in the heart of the Empire, and then consider the consequences.  He literally changed the world because he was not ashamed of the gospel.

On this first Lenten Friday, let us not shy away from our faith and be ashamed of the gospel.  Let us be enthusiastic in our belief in a crucified Saviour and in all of the absurdities it makes possible. 
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary. 

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 23rd:  Psalm 51; Jonah 3:1-10; and Romans 1:1-7.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

The Book of Jonah is an important piece of religious thought if we can move beyond the being swallowed by a large fish.  It is not historical, but allegorical, almost satirical.  In so many other ways than the large fish, it speaks unexpected lessons.  Take Jonah as the prime example.  The prophet is the one who is the least sympathetic character in the book.  He is also the farthest from God.  The Book of Jonah is only two pages long.  It may be good to refresh your memory of the story if you have not read it since Sunday School. 

Jonah is charged by God to warn the people of Nineveh of judgment.  Instead, Jonah heads in the opposite direction by purchasing passage on a ship sailing to Tarshish.  Nineveh is to the East; Jonah heads to the proverbial farthest point West.  God sends a fierce storm to prevent Jonah’s escape.  The sailors act sympathetically when they discover that Jonah is being pursued by his god.  The prophet tells the sailors to throw him overboard to save themselves.  They refuse to sacrifice the man.  They struggle harder against the storm.  Eventually, they realize it is hopeless.  Jonah is cast into the sea and then that famous large fish shows up and swallows him whole.
In desperation, Jonah prays to God for a second chance and it is granted.  The prophet is regurgitated and journeys to Nineveh to preach judgment.  Nineveh is a foreign capital.  The people do not worship Jonah’s god.  They have their own faith just as the sailors had their own.  However, for some reason, they heed Jonah’s warning of judgment, and they repent.  Even the king, relevant on this day after Ash Wednesday, humbled himself and sat in ashes.

So far the foreign sailors and the foreign Ninevites have acted with notable moral character.  God is impressed by the repentance of the Ninevites and in today’s passage we read, “God changed his mind …”  It is almost like God was surprised by the Ninevites.  This is as unaccustomed a message as the godliness of the pagan sailors and people of Nineveh. 

But then there is Jonah, the reluctant prophet of God.

God’s compassion insulted Jonah.  It upset his supposedly righteous contempt for these 120,000 plus people.  In the belly of the large fish, Jonah pleaded for mercy, begging, “‘Deliverance belongs to the Lord!’” (2:9)  Now when deliverance is granted to all in the “exceedingly large city,” Jonah cannot transpose his emotions to the plight of the Ninevites.  With an insurmountable wall of self-centeredness, Jonah pouts on the outskirts of the city.  Maybe like a child in a tantrum Jonah thought that God would accede to his complaints, and Jonah waits and relishes the thought of pushing God to destroy Nineveh.

The verses that bring the Book of Jonah to a close about the bush that grows and withers and Jonah’s continuing tantrum should be read because they speak so simply yet powerfully, first, about the love of God, and second, about the absurdity of wishing it away.  Jonah, the only believer in the story, is the one who least understands God.  What an eye-opener this is.  There is a penetrating lesson here for believers who seem to relish the thought of judgment passed harshly and unrepentantly against the other, whomever that may be, for believers who push against the revelation of a compassionate God whose concern is not limited to those who believe, of a God who cares deeply about all of creation so that the Book of Jonah ends with the note that God’s compassion extends even to the animals.

This is an important message to be shared early in Lent.  It gives us time to think about Jesus crucified and the sort of love that the cross symbolizes.  During Lent we can pause and imagine Jesus looking down upon those who actually did Him harm, and praying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  This is the Saviour we follow.  Jonah’s faith was in name only.  He was the least godly of all in the Book of Jonah.  We should keep this warning in mind.  Instead of Jonah’s charade, let us be challenged by what Paul writes in his greeting to the church at Rome:  “To all God’s beloved in Rome who are called to be saints.”  We are all called to be saints, to follow Jesus as best we can and then to try and do even better, and Lent is our time to focus on this challenge.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary. 

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for February 22nd, Ash Wednesday:  Psalm 51:1-17; Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; and 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Third-Isaiah (the unnamed prophet behind Isaiah 56-65) addresses sincerity of faith.  The prophet is not afraid to unveil religious hypocrisy, acts of worship that look compelling but are without substance.  In today’s selection, we read:  “Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!  Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.  Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgements, they delight to draw near to God.”  The people believe themselves righteous because they have defined it conveniently. 

God is left unimpressed, however, by their acts of worship.  Through the prophet, God challenges them to reconsider what is important:  “Is not this the fast that I choose:  to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?  Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.  Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.”  This is the purpose of Lent.  We are called to look at our faith lives with honesty and sincerity.  Lent can lead us to that place where we can hear God say, “Here I am.” 

Today we begin the 40 days of Lent.  Forty is a number rich in biblical tradition.  It rained for 40 days in the story of Noah as God cleansed the earth.  The people of Israel wandered through the desert during the Exodus for 40 years until God cleansed an unfaithful generation.  Moses spent 40 days atop Mount Sinai to receive the Law from Yahweh so that if Israel followed its commandments God would not punish them.  King David reigned over Israel for 40 years.  David as a man of war was not allowed to build God’s Temple in Jerusalem, but his reign was idealized and from it emerged the hope of a future Messiah, God’s anointed saviour of his people.

Some or all of these may well have influenced the tradition of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, a time shrouded in mystery between Jesus’ baptism by John and the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  These particular 40 days in the wilderness are the inspiration for Lent’s 40 days.  During his time in the wilderness, Jesus confronted the traditional religious expectations of the Messiah with those expectations of his own.  Almost everywhere Jesus turned there was an image of a vengeful God.  The Old Testament precedents noted above for the 40 days all hearken to a message of sinfulness and divine judgment.  Even David’s idealized reign that gave birth to Messianic hopes was filled with God’s destructive power as a warrior. 

Eventually Jesus ventured from Nazareth to the community around John the Baptist seeking answers.  John the Baptist had set up camp in the wilderness, intentionally separated from the rest of society, because he expected God’s fierce judgment to come down upon the earth to consume but a remnant of true, baptized believers.

The biblical tradition familiar to Jesus and then the unfamiliar experience around the Baptist all reinforced the message of a terrifying God.  This is when Jesus enters his 40 days in the wilderness seeking direction and a meaningful, fulfilling relationship with God.  He looks inside himself, struggles against the traditions thrust upon him, and discovers a once obscure voice of God that will inspire his life and ministry as the good news.  We turn to his example as we enter Lent ourselves.  We seek to build or fortify a life of faith that nourishes us by seeking out that special closeness of God where we can hear God say to us, “Here I am.”  Lent is a blessed time to delve deeper into our faith.  These 40 days will come and go.  May we make the most of them.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.