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 20th:  Job 5:8-27; Psalm 77; and 1 Peter 3:8-18a.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

In the last stanza of today’s Psalm, there is mention of “the waters” and “the very deep.”  These are ancient mythological terms for chaos, often the chaos of a divine being in opposition to the dominant Lord.  The word is təhôm, and it is biblical Hebrew’s equivalent of the Babylonian goddess Tiamat. 

The ancient Babylonians had a creation myth called the Enûma Elish, which is a title derived from the first words of the epic which are “When on high.”  The Bible’s creation accounts draw upon this more ancient source as evidenced by Genesis 1:2’s, “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”  These primordial waters were personified in Tiamat.  Tiamat sought to preserve the ancient disorder by battling the storm-god Marduk.  Marduk defeated Tiamat and divided her gigantic body into the earth and the firmament of the sky.  Read Genesis 1:6-8 for the biblical translation of this myth.

This is the same imagery that the Psalmist turns to in 77:16-17.  Yahweh is described in terms of the storm-god Marduk’s attributes.  Yahweh’s power is illustrated through images of thunder, rain and lightning, all causing creation to tremble in Yahweh’s presence.  This imagery of a powerful God makes sense in the context of Psalm 77’s, “In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord.”  Religions have turned to such imagery since there were religions.  Gods who can intervene through great power seem to reflect the human notion that power solves problems.

If this is the case, I wonder why so many religious fanatics take it upon themselves to protect violently the sanctity of their deities.  Aren’t their actions a counter-argument to their trust in an all-powerful deity, but one who can’t seem to act independently?
After church on Sunday, I was reading the newspaper.  There was a disheartening article about the intractable divide between Israel and the Palestinians.  (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/world/europe/israel-gaza-trauma-mood.html )  Neither will be safe until the other is safe, but neither trusts the other enough to try to live together, and the current conflict in Gaza has only intensified this dilemma.  Naomi Sternberg, an Israeli Jew, is quoted as saying, “Violence leaves such a small space for dreamers to thrive in.  We proudly naïve people are considered not only traitors now, but stupid, which is almost worse.”  Power, here, is actually the enemy to a lasting solution, but power is always the answer turned to for a solution.

Is it myopia, I ask sincerely, to imagine that our conceptions of deity are to lean so heavily on “all-powerful?”  I ask this, sincerely, in the context of Lent’s focus on the cross.  Jesus, for Christians, is the lived self-revelation of God.  His crucifixion is not understood as defeat.  It is revered as gospel, the Good News.  It is an uncompromising testimony to the anti-power power of God trying as heroically as Jesus’ sacrifice to convince us that the only plausible way to survive and thrive together in a world filled with differences is to respect the humanity in each other and to use this to live peaceably with one another.

Rather than the inconsistent idea of a powerful deity who must rely on human enforcers, Lent asks us to be consistent with God’s self-revelation in Jesus, and specifically a Jesus who accepts crucifixion, by imitating Jesus’ example of non-violence. 

Maybe Lent is our chance to rethink the myths we carry with us.
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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 19th:  Psalm 77; Job 4:1-21; and Ephesians 2:1-10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Loretta Ross is a professor at one of my almae matres, Smith College.  She has become quite well known for championing “call-in culture,” which is a philosophy that acknowledges a person’s wrongdoing with accountability, but also with love.  To “call-in” means to be the bigger person when there is an objectionable encounter.  It means to “call-in” by making the investment of time, energy and soul to interact with the aggrieving person even though that encounter may well be objectionable, to “call-out” their offensive or even criminal behaviour with the aim of changing them, and to hopefully “cancel” that behaviour.  She has done this with rapists so that they can see the barbarity of their crime, with KKK members so that they can see the humanity in people who look different.  It is not to ignore the offense or its consequences, but to deal with them and seek improvement.  And it is motivated by love. 

This is a lot to expect, and Loretta Ross realizes this.  She follows up on call-in, call-out and cancel with “calling-on.”  Calling-on is similar to, “I’m calling-on you to do better, but I’m not going to give you a minute more of my time and attention to help you.”  Sometimes the fix is just more expensive than can be afforded.  You let the other know of the offense, but you leave it to them how they will respond.  And lastly “calling it off” is to realize that some cases are hopeless. (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/11/02/magazine/loretta-ross-has-a-radical-idea/)

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, there is the realization of what the author refers to by saying, “[W]e were by nature children of wrath…”  By 1859, Darwin would be calling this Evolution’s survival of the fittest.  This was progress through conquest.  It’s a natural instinct, but the Epistle doesn’t stop there.  Ephesians testifies to something greater, to something that raises us above our natural instincts.  It is the power of grace, and it is explained in this way:  “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ …”

This is Loretta Ross’ call-in philosophy.  God sees our natural limitations and instinctive selfishness, intervenes and invests God’s self through the direct connection of Jesus as one of us, so that rather than survival of the fittest, there is a holy alternative:  “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”  This call-in was extremely expensive.  It cost Jesus His life.  Loretta Ross allows for cases that are beyond a loving investment.  God has no such limit; Jesus has no such limit.

We can be better than we are, than the world we tolerate, where teenagers splay bullets indiscriminately at a celebration of a Super Bowl victory, where that is the 48th mass shooting in such a young year, where a noble voice of protest like that of Aleksei Navalny is silenced by a cowardly and brutal dictator.  This is the world of the “children of wrath,” but we who are alive together with Christ must not settle for this mockery of God’s good creation. 

May the complete devotion of Christ that we meditate upon during Lent inspire us to engage in the task of changing the way things are so that there may be the hope of the way things should be, the way “God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
​
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 19th:  Psalm 77; Job 4:1-21; and Ephesians 2:1-10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Loretta Ross is a professor at one of my almae matres, Smith College.  She has become quite well known for championing “call-in culture,” which is a philosophy that acknowledges a person’s wrongdoing with accountability, but also with love.  To “call-in” means to be the bigger person when there is an objectionable encounter.  It means to “call-in” by making the investment of time, energy and soul to interact with the aggrieving person even though that encounter may well be objectionable, to “call-out” their offensive or even criminal behaviour with the aim of changing them, and to hopefully “cancel” that behaviour.  She has done this with rapists so that they can see the barbarity of their crime, with KKK members so that they can see the humanity in people who look different.  It is not to ignore the offense or its consequences, but to deal with them and seek improvement.  And it is motivated by love. 

This is a lot to expect, and Loretta Ross realizes this.  She follows up on call-in, call-out and cancel with “calling-on.”  Calling-on is similar to, “I’m calling-on you to do better, but I’m not going to give you a minute more of my time and attention to help you.”  Sometimes the fix is just more expensive than can be afforded.  You let the other know of the offense, but you leave it to them how they will respond.  And lastly “calling it off” is to realize that some cases are hopeless. (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/11/02/magazine/loretta-ross-has-a-radical-idea/)

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, there is the realization of what the author refers to by saying, “[W]e were by nature children of wrath…”  By 1859, Darwin would be calling this Evolution’s survival of the fittest.  This was progress through conquest.  It’s a natural instinct, but the Epistle doesn’t stop there.  Ephesians testifies to something greater, to something that raises us above our natural instincts.  It is the power of grace, and it is explained in this way:  “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ …”

This is Loretta Ross’ call-in philosophy.  God sees our natural limitations and instinctive selfishness, intervenes and invests God’s self through the direct connection of Jesus as one of us, so that rather than survival of the fittest, there is a holy alternative:  “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”  This call-in was extremely expensive.  It cost Jesus His life.  Loretta Ross allows for cases that are beyond a loving investment.  God has no such limit; Jesus has no such limit.

We can be better than we are, than the world we tolerate, where teenagers splay bullets indiscriminately at a celebration of a Super Bowl victory, where that is the 48th mass shooting in such a young year, where a noble voice of protest like that of Aleksei Navalny is silenced by a cowardly and brutal dictator.  This is the world of the “children of wrath,” but we who are alive together with Christ must not settle for this mockery of God’s good creation. 

May the complete devotion of Christ that we meditate upon during Lent inspire us to engage in the task of changing the way things are so that there may be the hope of the way things should be, the way “God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
​
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 17th:  Psalm 25:1-10; 32:1-11; and Matthew 9:2-13.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Here are some random Saturday thoughts that might convince you that Bible study can actually be interesting in unexpected ways, and who knows, maybe that will persuade you to read the Bible or join our Bible study group for Lent. 

A whole lot of years ago, one of my church Bible study groups sent a letter to the Massachusetts Bible Society with an inquiry about the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation of Matthew 9:2.  We never received a satisfactory response.  I’m not Greek scholar, but in the original Greek version of 9:2 there is a rather important word (αύτώ) that is inexplicably left out of the NRSV translation.  In Greek, it reads, “[T]hey brought to him …”  The NRSV reads:  “ And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed.”  The “to him” is essential because of what follows:  “When Jesus saw their faith …”  Jesus sees their faith when the man’s friends bring the paralyzed man “to him,” to Jesus.  They believe that Jesus is able to heal the man miraculously.  This is a sign of their faith.  When the NRSV leaves “to him” out of their translation, there is only a happenstance meeting between Jesus and these people carrying a paralyzed man.  They’re not bringing him to Jesus, which means there is no indication of faith.  That one Greek word αύτώ makes a huge difference.

Here's another fun idiosyncrasy in today’s Gospel passage.  It’s said so often that you may know that the Jewish tax collectors employed by the Roman occupiers were not much liked by their neighbours.  They were taking money from the Jews to pay the expenses of the Roman occupation, and there was the assumption that the tax collectors took more than this for their own enrichment.  The tax collectors were a despised lot.

Jesus invites Matthew the tax collector to become one of His named followers, a disciple.  Matthew accepts and is so overjoyed at the prospect that he throws a party at his home.  Since no one else besides “tax-collectors and sinners” would be among Matthew’s friends, these are the ones at the banquet.  Jesus and the disciples sit among them, enjoying their company.

We then read, “When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples ...”  Well, if Jesus and the disciples are dining with all these tax-collectors and sinners, aren’t the Pharisees there as well?  They didn’t text the disciples.  They spoke their question to them.  Is their criticism, then, disingenuous?  And can this be a generalized lesson against condemning others for similar actions that luckily have not yet come to light?  Is this a warning against hypocrisy? 

I do hope the above may entice you into reading at least the daily biblical suggestions, or the Bible in general, or even joining our Bible study group.  And I also invite you to join us for worship tomorrow in person or online.  If you’d like the Zoom link, please email [email protected].   
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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 16th:  Psalm 25:1-10; Daniel 9:15-25a; and 2 Timothy 4:1-5.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

We live in a world where a large number of people choose to accept preposterous notions.  They choose to believe in absurd conspiracies because it’s easier than dealing with the reality they reject.  Religion needs to be cautious of this same credulity because we place our faith in unprovable truths.  So how does religion distinguish itself from self-serving fantasies?  I can’t speak for all faiths since I know too little about them, but we have Jesus. 

Marcus Borg teaches that one of the defining characteristics of Christianity is that we base our faith primarily in a person.  Moses and Mohammad are receivers of revelation.  The Buddha discloses a path to enlightenment, “[b]ut Christianity finds the primary revelation of God in a person.  This does not make Christianity superior, but does make it different.” (The Heart of Christianity, p. 80) 

Karl Barth was a Reformed Church pastor and theologian.  He was a proponent of the Social Justice Movement, which professed that church should make a difference in this world and not merely preach about the next.  It should make people’s lives better rather than console them with promises of eternal reward.  In 1911, he was invited to address a Socialist political gathering.  He knew that many in the audience were not people of faith, and to them he said, “What Jesus has to bring to us are not ideas, but a way of life.”  Even for those who did not believe in Jesus’ divinity, Jesus’ example was convincing.

Jesus of Nazareth is our grounding.  His lived revelation protects our faith from flights of fantasy.  God comes to us as us in Jesus and shows us who God is and who we should be.  Faith is not limited to breathless chants of “Jesus is Lord.”  Faith in Jesus as Lord inspires believers to live like Jesus.  If the chants are matched with acts of violence, prejudice, inhumanity and/or greed, then they may be meaningless. 

As Christians our fundamental revelation is the life of Jesus.  The unknown author of 2 Timothy has warned us for 2,000 years to be careful that faith is not led astray by our own desires so that we wander off after myths and conspiracies.  We need, says 2 Timothy, to “do the work of an evangelist.”  To do the work – that is to continue the good and loving work of Jesus of Nazareth.  The work will prove the authenticity of our evangelism. 

This is the practical grounding of our faith, and Lent is the sacred season when we have the chance to know Jesus better, to read and study His story in the Bible, to pray and worship and engage with the still-speaking-Word, and to serve and sacrifice in the name of the one who lived His gospel so uncompromisingly that He accepted death as His last lived proclamation.  When we “do the work of an evangelist,” when we strive to live like Jesus lived, then in a sense we have proof for the unprovable truth we believe.
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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 15th:  Psalm 25:1-10; Daniel 9:1-14; and 1 John 1:3-10.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

In today’s 1 John passage, the word fellowship is used four times.  Community is a central theme in the Johannine writings.  When I was in seminary, I attended extra classes in biblical studies at a local college.  My professor was Fr. Robert Barone and he studied under Fr. Raymond E. Brown.  Brown was one of the best biblical scholars of his day.  In 1979, he authored The Community of the Beloved Disciple. 

Brown points out that the words church and apostle are never used in John’s Gospel or Epistles 1 and 2, and when church is used in 3 John it is in a negative context.  John’s community is not hierarchically structured.  It is far more charismatic, governed by the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, which means the Advocate.  John’s community was administered by consensus guided by the Spirit.  Leadership was not imposed.  Leadership was gained by convincing others and thus teaching took on a prominent role.

This is reflected in today’s passage, “[W]e declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us.”  Religious insight is not a stolen treasure to be hidden away and enjoyed as some sort of forbidden pleasure.  It is to be shared with the community so that the whole of the community benefits.  This is the basis of Johannine fellowship.  There is a conscious effort made to share spiritual gifts with each other so that the entire community is elevated.  It is not one above the other; it is each one lifting the other above.

Sometimes we can think of Lent in individual terms:  I will give up x for 40 days; I will do y for 40 days.  We can imagine Lent as my journey.  The Johannine writings take us in a different direction, one that we walk together:  “We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.  This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you …”  There is spiritual worth in fellowship that offers individual rewards – “so that our joy may be complete.”

During Lent, we hopefully practice individual acts of piety.  These may be expressed through sacrifice, through service, through spirituality, but they are all meant to heighten our connection with Christ, with Christ who loved us enough to die on the cross.  These three “s’s” are joined by a fourth, that of sharing.  And this comes across in 1 John’s four repetitions of the word fellowship.  If anything, Jesus on the cross proclaims the sacredness of what we do for and with others.  May Lent help us to realize the utility and the blessings of fellowship.
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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 Ash Wednesday, February 14th:  Psalm 51:1-17; Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12; 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10; and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the church’s Season of Lent.  Lent’s 40 days replicate Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness.  This is a time of introspection.  A time to ask questions about where God fits in our lives and where our lives fit in God’s plan.  Jesus asked Himself those questions and emerged changed from his 40 days.  He was a confused carpenter in Nazareth.  He accepted baptism at the hands of a hellfire and brimstone preacher who celebrated the judgment and destruction of a sinful world.  And then Jesus emerges from the 40 days in the wilderness fully committed to preaching the Good News of a loving God to everyone, especially the outcasts and the sinners.  The Jesus who emerged from the 40 days was unexpected. 

Lent is often referred to as a time of repentance, and we then often associate repentance with sin.  However, repentance means to change.  It does not need to be limited to talk of sinfulness.  It can range to conversations about how we can change to live better into our faith in a crucified Saviour.  Is the cross only about forgiveness of sins or is the cross about something much more fundamental that changes who we are?  Is the cross not about Jesus’ death in isolation, but as the final proclamation of His lived gospel, His lived Good News? 

This year Ash Wednesday falls on Valentines Day.  When we think of Valentines Day, we think of mutual affection.  The love we share on Valentines is (hopefully) returned.  During Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, however, we delve into the unconditional love of Jesus that culminates in the cross.  Jesus’ love flows from who Jesus is.  It is not based on conditions.  It’s not relative; it’s inherent.  Jesus loves even when that love is not returned.  This is the ineffable mystery stated so perfectly in the cross.  It is the perfect revelation of God’s love for “God is love.” (1 John 4:8, 16)

In order to appreciate such an intrinsic love, we need to look inside of ourselves and make sure that our faith is also deeply sincere.  This is the message in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew that tells us to beware of hypocrisy.  Today we begin a journey that maybe we don’t know where it will end, but it begins with the humility of daring to look up to the image of a crucified Jesus and wondering what that kind of love means in our lives.  The cross is how Jesus died, but more importantly it’s a profound testimony about how Jesus lived.  Through the lens of the cross, through the lens that removes the distortion of hypocrisy, let us look at our lives, and let us change if need be.
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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.