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 Holy Saturday, April 19th:  Job 14:1-14 or Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24; Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16; 1 Peter 4:1-8; and Matthew 27:57-66 or John 19:38-42.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is the last day of Lent.  As I have mentioned consistently, Lent is different than Advent.  Advent intentionally prepares us for Christmas.  Lent’s 40 days culminate not with Easter, but with the cross and the tomb.  It is disingenuous to the reality of Jesus’ suffering and death for us to approach Lent with Easter’s assurance.  During Lent we should try to appreciate the psychological, spiritual and physical trauma that Jesus endured, and those are all mitigated if Jesus knew definitively about Easter.  So for us as Christians to spiritually approach the memory of the cross we need to try and do so as did Jesus, and that means Lent ends at Golgotha and, at least according to today’s Gospel, at the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. 

Suffering and death were as real for Jesus as for any of us – maybe even more so.  The oldest extant piece of Christian literature is 1 Thessalonians.  In this Epistle, Paul lays out a contrast that my NRSV Bible chooses not to capture.  If your Bible translation is different than this, please check the footnotes.  Paul writes, “Since we believe that Jesus died (ἀποθνῄσκω) and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep (κοιμάω).” (4:14)  You don’t need to know Greek to see that these two words are different, and yet the NRSV translates them both as died.  Paul softens the death of Christians because Jesus faced its blunt force in our stead.  We can hope in the resurrection so we fall asleep in death.  Paul realizes that Jesus did not have this luxury and so Jesus’ mortality is referred to as died.

John Chrysostom was a fourth century church father.  He once preached at a funeral that the congregation should not be mourning because they have Easter’s assurance.  I think this has its problems, but the fact remains that Chrysostom is repeating Paul’s assurance that death is not permanent for us because of Easter, but Jesus on the cross does not fall asleep into an Easter assurance.  Jesus faces death and dies so that we don’t have to die without hope.

Today we remember Jesus’ death.  His dead and scarred body is inside a dark tomb.  This is where Lent ends.  I hope Lent has offered us a space for contemplation, renewal, and a reminder of the power of faith, community, and inner peace.  As Sister Anne Curtis, the Executive Director of Mercy by the Sea Retreat Center, writes, “On the Lenten journey, we are called to trust there is something amazing to be found along the way: hope. … Lent is ‘the season of hope’ because our God does not give up on us, and it is this unwavering love that enables us to stay grounded.”  That God does not give up on us is revealed perfectly in the reality of Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion and death.

But … because of the reality of Jesus’ death, death is not as fearsome a foe for us as it once was for Jesus, thus we enjoy the blessing of hope.  And so, even though Jesus could not, we are able to anticipate tomorrow’s joy.  On the holiest day of the year, I invite you to come and join us for a combined Easter Sunrise Service led by Rev. Dr. Linda Rhinehart Neas and myself at 2 Prospect Street in Hatfield, across from the American Legion at 6:00am.  Our church worship Service will follow at 9:30am.  I hope these Lenten blogs have added to your Lenten journey, and I would love to see you tomorrow as we joyously celebrate the new day announced by Jesus’ resurrection.
 
If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 Good Friday, April 18th:  Psalm 22; Isaiah 52:13—53:12; Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; and John 18:1—19:42.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today’s list of readings is quite long, but today is the special day on which we should devote extra time to our relationship with Jesus.  This is the remarkable day on which we solemnly commemorate the torturous execution of Jesus, the Christ and the Son of God.  After a night of harsh treatment and abandonment, Jesus is sentenced to crucifixion.  The accounts vary, but Jesus may have been nailed to the cross around mid-morning, dying around mid-afternoon.  Many who suffered crucifixion would linger longer than these six hours, so the shortened time may indicate the compromised physical state of Jesus before the first spike ever punctured His flesh. 

Nevertheless, those six hours must have seemed like an eternity.  Crucifixion is a slow and harrowing process of execution where the victim dies of asphyxiation.  Unable to support themselves as their strength ebbs and the pain increases, the chest muscles contract and the victim cannot inhale, and death comes slowly.  This was the form of punishment the Romans used intentionally to dissuade any person who may have contemplated challenging the Empire’s authority.  For this reason, it was performed in as public a place as possible so that as many people as possible could witness the agonizing death. 

Golgotha was located just outside one of Jerusalem’s city gates.  The number of people passing by would have been exponentially greater than the city’s usual population because pilgrims had traveled to the holy city and its Temple for Passover.  The humiliation of this naked spectacle only added to Jesus’ torture.  And yet all of this was endured by Jesus because of His devotion to His ministry and to each and every one of us.  On such a day as this, extra time devoted to our faith relationship is expected for it recognizes not only Jesus’ sacrifice but the fact that it was ignored by so many.

After a ministry to and for ordinary people, and especially to the extraordinary people who were different because they were despised and ostracized, Jesus dies alone.  The oldest Gospel bereft of the changes that will come later, recounts Jesus’ complete isolation.  There is not a comforting face to be seen as Jesus looks down from the cross.  The closest sympathy was from the persistently faithful but overlooked “women looking on from a distance.” (Mark 15:40)  

Jesus could not look to the side to hear words of consolation from other victims facing the similar torture.  Instead, we’re told “[t]hose who were crucified with him also taunted him.” (15:32)  And most surprising and agonizing of all, Jesus could not even look up to feel the presence of God at that cruelest of moments:  “At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

This physical, emotional and spiritual agony culminates in a visceral scream giving vent to confused emotions that cannot find words, “and [Jesus] breathed his last.” (Mark 15:37)  His dead body is then placed in a stranger’s tomb as hastily as possible because the Passover celebration is about to begin at sunset.  As I have mentioned in previous Lenten Blogs, Jesus as the Son of God experiences death in the reality of His human nature and also in the reality of the divine nature.  We can sympathize now with Jesus’ physical suffering, but it is beyond our comprehension to begin to imagine how God is affected by the reality of the death of God’s own.

On Good Friday the church sanctuary will be open for prayer or meditation or quiet from noon until 3:00pm.  People entering are asked to respect the quiet of the church and each person’s privacy.  Realizing that many will not be able to attend during these daytime hours, the faithful are encouraged to practice their own moments of sanctuary at more convenient times and places.  This is also not a day for celebrations, whether it be dinner out, a movie with friends, or whatever.  This is the solemn day of Jesus’ death.  May we treat it with the respect Jesus deserves.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 Maundy Thursday, April 17th:  Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; and John 13:1-17, 31b-35.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today we enter into the holiest days of the holiest week.  On Maundy Thursday we first of all recall Jesus’ Last Supper.  From the earliest days of the church, as evidenced by today’s 1 Corinthians passage, Christians have gathered for the Lord’s Supper.  Through the millennia we have remembered Jesus’ words of institution:  “‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me,’” and “‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”  Believers continue to gather in remembrance of Jesus, but in that act something mystical happens, as well.  We don’t only remember what Jesus once did at the Last Supper.  Rather, we share in the mystery of Holy Communion, that Jesus is present in a special and powerful way within and among us still today as Jesus gathers with us as church. 

Holy Communion is not history.  It is sacrament, and sacrament is derived ultimately from the Greek word for mystery.  This is reflected in our Prayer of Thanksgiving upon receiving Holy Communion:  “Almighty God, we give you thanks for the gift of our Saviour’s presence in the simplicity and splendour of this holy meal.”  Before our eyes there is only an ordinary table, and common bread and drink, but in these simple offerings is all the divine splendour of Holy Communion – with Jesus Himself and with each other.  Accordingly, this evening, the church comes together on the night of Jesus’ Last Supper and we repeat those holy words of institution and just like the disciples in the Upper Room we will share in the mystery of Communion.

The three Synoptic Gospel link Communion to the Last Supper, John, as reflected in today’s Gospel selection, chooses a different narrative.  John moves the language of Communion from the Last Supper into the heart of Jesus’ public ministry.  It is not reserved for the few at the end of Jesus’ lifetime.  It is shared with the multitudes in the middle of Jesus’ ministry.  John has the longest account by far of the Last Supper, but no mention is there of Communion. 

Instead, there is Jesus’ “new commandment.”  The word maundy originates from the Latin mandatum, meaning command.  This new commandment (mandatum) gives this day its liturgical title of Maundy Thursday.  In the Johannine tradition, the culminating message of Jesus’ life is loving, humble service, which Jesus exemplifies by taking on the role of a servant and washing the feet of His disciples.  In reference to this act, Jesus says, “‘I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.’”  In many churches, this is followed quite literally on Maundy Thursday.  The clergy will wash the feet of representatives of the people.  However, this “example” is not limited to the liturgical act of washing feet.  It is the day in and day out example of humble service unto others.  Jesus explains:  “‘I give you a new commandment (mandatum), that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’” 

I have to wonder if John’s treatment of the Last Supper is in response to the tradition shared in the Synoptics.  If the mystery that Jesus even shared with His betrayer Judas is limited to an in-group and becomes a sign of a limited inclusion, might not John’s transport of Holy Communion language out to the masses in the miracle of the loaves be a corrective?  And might not Jesus’ final lesson of humble service moderate the possibly exclusive tendency of Communion so that believers are not recognized only by who sits at table but by who serves and therefore loves one another in Jesus’ name? 

This night prior to Good Friday is also the night of Jesus’ capture in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the subsequent desertion and denial of Him by His closest followers.  This is also a part of tonight’s worship Service.  The brightly lit church gradually grows darker and ends in darkness.  The Bible, the living, still-speaking Word of God is slammed shut at the end of our worship to symbolize the unbelievably tragic fact that Jesus has been hauled off by armed guards, to then be tortured and interrogated through the night, only to face the cruelty of everything that will follow on Good Friday.

I invite you to join us for our Maundy Thursday Service at 7:00pm this evening at the Hatfield Church as we remember the significant events of Jesus’ last days and share in Jesus’ continuing presence among us. 

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 Holy Wednesday, April 16th:  Psalm 70; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Hebrews 12:1-3; and John 13:21-32.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Sometimes the biblical stories leave me scratching my head.  If they weren’t surrounded by their biblical aura, I think we would be more honest in admitting that sometimes there are obvious inconsistencies.  It’s been a long, long time since I watched the first Indiana Jones movie, and I may have this wrong.  However, I remember being confused about a plot line.  There was some Nazi submarine, I believe, and Indiana Jones caught a ride on it as an unsuspecting traveler.  I remember wondering how he survived all the time while the submarine was submerged.  I may have remembered this completely incorrectly, let me know if I did, but I didn’t feel any guilt about recognizing the inconsistency.  People of faith can feel differently about the exact same thing when it comes to the Bible, but the Bible’s inspiration isn’t in the literal, unassailable factual nature of each word and episode.  It’s in the overarching biblical message, in the interpretation of the words to get to the still-speaking Word.

In today’s Gospel, for example, Jesus reveals that one among them will betray Him.  For later, let’s keep in mind that all the disciples look at one another uncertain as to whom it could be.  Then Peter asks the Beloved Disciple to ask Jesus for particulars, and Jesus does just that.  Judas is undeniably outed.  At this point, the story becomes confusing.  Judas leaves the table and we’re told, “Now no one at the table knew why [Jesus] said this to [Judas]. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor.”  There is confusion, then clarity, and then confusion inexplicably returns.  This is an inconsistency in the story.

To read the Bible as a person of faith is not to focus on such discrepancies any more than it is to act as if they are not there.  Even if there were the problem I mentioned above about Indiana Jones, that example of inconsistency does not define the entertainment value of the entire movie.  So what else might be going on here when we don’t need to shy away from our confusion or let it dominate our reading? 

Let’s go back to the held-thought that after Jesus utters those fateful words that one of His closest followers, one of His disciples, will betray Him, we read, “The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking.”  There is no indication of feigned incredulity.  Judas is not separated out from the others.  We are expected to hear that everyone at table is taken aback, that they all wonder what other disciple is the betrayer.  No one, read Judas here, admits that he would act as the betrayer. 

This all changes when according to the mythical language of 2,000 years ago “Satan entered into [Judas].”  If some supernatural fallen angel is allowed to overpower a mere natural Judas, then there is no moral compunction here.  Judas is not responsible for what he will do; Satan is.  In the 1970’s terrorists kidnapped Patty Hearst and during those 19 months Ms. Hearst became allied with her captors in an example of brainwashing and Stockholm Syndrome.  Her sentence was eventually commuted and she was even pardoned for her role as an accomplice to her captors.  It was determined that they were responsible for her actions, not Patty Hearst.  This is why I do not favour the scapegoat of Satan.  Judas is responsible for his actions.

And this is where it gets interesting when the still-speaking Word of God invites us to imagine and dialogue with the text about what it was that turned Judas’ ambivalence into action.  The Gnostic Gospel of Judas takes this text in a wholly different direction and presents Judas as the hero in this tale.  Judas was Jesus’ confidante.  I don’t see this as plausible, but neither is it warranted to make Judas into a caricature of pure, calculating evil.  When Jesus outed Judas, did He out Judas to himself?  When Jesus saw something in Judas that Judas had not yet admitted, was that the tipping point for Judas? 

Does Jesus confront us with ourselves, even our hidden selves that we would rather not engage?  Dialoguing with the text in an open and honest fashion moves us away from the black and white of religious extremism and all the hatred and harm it conceives.  Zealots will point out and attack the sins of others without a tinge of self-examination or conscience.  Maybe Jesus offers another lesson.  Jesus knew what Judas would do, but I see Jesus as hoping against hope that Judas will reconsider.  I find Jesus’ hope not as naïve, but idealistic in the best sense of the word.  And I find in Jesus’ hope the source of hopefulness.

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday and Holy Week enters its holiest days.  I invite you to our worship at 7:00pm at the Hatfield Church.  Maybe this extra time with Christ will open a dialogue of faith, and will let us peer more deeply into ourselves, even our hidden selves, and into our relationship with Jesus.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 Holy Tuesday, April 15th:  Psalm 71:1-14; Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; and John 12:20-36.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

On this tax-day, as thoughts turn to our funding of what’s left of the government, I’d like to begin with Thomas Paine’s Revolutionary period pamphlet The Crisis.  It begins with these famous words:  “THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

These words of Thomas Paine were published on December 23, 1776, not quite six months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The fight for freedom was not going well at the time.  In December 1776, the Continental Congress was forced to flee from Philadelphia because it could not be held.  The government was on the run.  George Washington was so desperate for a victory when Paine’s pamphlet was published that he and his troops planned a daring sneak attack by crossing the Delaware River on Christmas Night, but that victory was still in the future as Paine wrote.  It was in this dire situation that Paine raised the motivation of FREEDOM.

To bolster the spirits of the Colonists Paine wrote those often-quoted words:  “THESE are the times that try men’s souls.”  He dismissed the “summer soldier” and “sunshine patriot” as unworthy of the historic task the Colonies had undertaken.  He lauded the ones who stood strong in spite of repeated set-backs.  And Paine urged them forward in this struggle because they were fighting for an idea – FREEDOM.  Tyranny, authoritarianism in any of its unpersuasive forms, must rely on force and intimidation to survive.  No people embraces the tyrant or authoritarian; they bow instead.  Paine, however, countered tyranny not with threats of greater force, but with a greater idea, the idea of freedom. 

The 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord is this weekend.  John Adams knew this struggle firsthand.  He argued that the Revolution did not begin with the shots fired in these two Colonial towns, but with the idea of freedom that had been born and nurtured on this continent since the Pilgrims and Puritans.  It was the idea of freedom that distinguished the “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot” from the ones who would endure the struggle and gain the victory.  Freedom is our nation’s founding principle.  We have failed it often and forbidden it to others even more often, but it is a principle that calls us forward.  In spite of our past failures, freedom goads us to do better.  The hypocrisy of praising freedom and then denying it in practice is so unsettling that it either must be abandoned or it will lead to change.

Paul tells the Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” (5:1)  Jesus set us free through a gospel that honours and recognizes the worth of every individual, and through His death on the cross which is Jesus’ absolute rejection of the false power maintained by tyrants and authoritarians who deny freedom to their sycophants and subjects.  A power that has to be enforced because it has no idea that motivates allegiance, no idea such as freedom, will last only as long as force can be sustained, and the history of tyrants has shown us that such energy is not limitless.  Caesars are gone, but Christ crucified remains.

When Paul is writing his Epistles, the church is small, young and vulnerable.  It had no power, but it had an idea.  And that idea was lived perfectly on the cross.  It is an idea of sacrifice for the greater good, and the complete rejection of self-serving power and wealth.  In Paul’s own “times that try men’s souls,” in Paul’s own time when “the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot” are wholly insufficient followers, Paul surprisingly points to the idea of the cross:  “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  The cross should have been a symbol of defeat, but for Paul it was the idea that made all the difference in the world. 

On these last days of Lent, let us find the time to ponder what we think the cross means as the power and wisdom of God.  Let us hold up the idea of the cross in comparison to the ways of the world and to those who are powerful in it.  As Paine’s words honouring freedom inspired people in their bleakest moment to continue the struggle, may Paul’s focus on the cross and its “foolishness” inspire us to live by its idea and continue the struggle to stand up for generosity and community and against the presently popular notions of greed and self-pride.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 Holy Monday, April 14th:  Psalm 36:5-11; Isaiah 42:1-9; Hebrews 9:11-15; and John 12:1-11.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Something must have happened in Jesus’ life that was subsequently remembered differently.  Such differences do not imply fabrication.  Rather, we need to keep in mind that neither Jesus nor His disciples kept a written record of His daily life.  This coming weekend marks the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  Different articles have been appearing as this milestone anniversary approaches.  One included mention of the correspondence later in their lives between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.  They both commiserated that no one would be able to tell the history of the founding of our nation because so much had taken place in secret, and so many speeches and debates were extemporaneous and unrecorded.  It is not difficult to imagine how much more difficult the situation would be among a rabble rousing band of a wandering preacher/teacher and His often confused students as they randomly encounter peasants and outcasts. 

Furthermore, the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry shared His life through the oral stories of what they considered Jesus’ most momentous moments.  There was an expectation that Jesus’ Second Coming was imminent, and as such there was no need to write these accounts down for future generations because they did not expect future generations.  Finally, as the eyewitnesses began to pass onto their reward, believers finally realized that the Jesus-stories needed to be recorded, and thus our four canonical Gospels.  The earliest of the Gospels dates to circa 70AD, a full four decades after Jesus’ ministry, and the latest to between 90 and 100 AD.

This is why we are able to assume that something significant and memorable happened in Jesus’ life, and that it was remembered differently.  The oldest Gospel tells us that an anonymous woman anointed Jesus’ feet at the home of Simon the leper in Bethany a couple of days prior to the Passover.  (Mark 14:3)  This account is repeated in Matthew. (26:6-7)  Luke tells us that an anonymous sinful woman anointed Jesus’ feet in the home of a Pharisee. (7:37-38)  And then there is today’s Johannine account where Mary, Lazarus’ sister, anointed Jesus’ feet at Lazarus’ house.  These different accounts may reflect a single extraordinary act, the details of which became blurred with the passage of time. 

What I find intriguing about John’s account today is its linkage with the raising of Lazarus from the dead only a chapter earlier.  That a connection is intentional is found right in the opening verse of today’s Gospel selection.  When Jesus does not arrive soon enough to heal Lazarus, His friend dies.  When Jesus does finally arrive, Martha, Lazarus’ other sister, goes out to meet Jesus.  Mary, however, “stayed at home.” (11:20)  Mary was angry with Jesus for His failure to rush to Lazarus and heal him.  She resents Jesus and will not go out to meet Him.  She is finally cajoled by Martha to go out to Jesus, I think, ready to yell at Jesus.  Instead, when Jesus sees the grief of Mary and the others, in the Bible’s shortest verse, Jesus weeps.  (11:35)  And as we all probably know, Jesus then raises Lazarus from the grave.

Short verses later it is this same Mary who anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume that would have cost an ordinary worker almost a year’s wages.  I think this is Mary’s attempt to erase the guilt of her earlier behaviour.  Its extravagance reflects her gratitude toward Jesus and her sorrow at treating Him the way she had.

As Holy Week begins to bring Lent’s 40 days to a close, I ask that we think about Mary’s example.  Have we ever been disappointed with Jesus?  Angry at Him?  Stayed away?  Is it possible that Jesus wept with us in our time of distress?  If Jesus was there for us but unrecognized, may we seek in our own way to repair the rift in our relationship.  Lent is not a time for religion per se.  It is a time to ignite or stir the flames of the passion of our relationship with Christ.  This is a time for faith to be wholeheartedly personal.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 April 12th:  Leviticus 23:1-8; Psalm 31:9-16; and Luke 22:1-13.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Since the Council of Nicea in 325AD, the date of Easter has been defined as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.  I have to assume that since the full moon is tonight and lasting into Sunday that tomorrow is not technically the Sunday after the first full moon, rather it is still the night of the first full moon.  This is why tomorrow is Palm Sunday rather than Easter.

The lunar cycle is inherited from our Jewish ancestors, and I wish them a blessed and joyous Passover, which begins at sunset this evening.  Today’s Leviticus passage outlines the calculation of Passover’s date:  “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight …”  The month begins with the new moon and the 14th day is mid-month’s full moon.  I thank my Jewish friends for explaining something that confused me about Passover, the Jewish liberation festival, and Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year’s festival.  Exodus 12:1-2 makes clear that Passover determines the first month of the Jewish calendar, and that is repeated in today’s Leviticus passage.  So why is there Rosh Hashana? 

I have been told that Rosh Hashana has to do with the biblical feast of Trumpets.  In the period after the Hebrew biblical canon was set, this feast became associated with the New Year.  It seems that Passover is the nationalist New Year marked by the emergence of Israel as a nation once it was freed from Egyptian bondage, while Rosh Hoshana is the universalist New Year associated with the tradition of the creation of Adam, the first human.  There are other biblical texts that point to autumn as the start of the new year, probably coinciding with the new rainy season in that part of the world and the start of a new agricultural year.  Rosh Hashana’s prayers include prayers for all of God’s creation from Adam forward.

Most all the time, except when a correction needs to be added onto the Jewish lunar calendar to keep it in sync with the actual solar calendar as happened last year, Passover and Easter dates are close together.  This is why in today’s Gospel passage we hear Jesus instruct His disciples to prepare the Passover meal for them.  Jesus is in Jerusalem for Passover.  The events that define our Holy Week and Easter are, therefore, linked with Passover. 

Have you ever wondered why the authorities needed Judas to betray Jesus?  We’re told today that it was to discover a time when Jesus was relatively alone.  The entire time that Jesus was in Jerusalem He was intentionally public.  How hard would it have been for the authorities to simply track Jesus, find out when He was alone, and arrest Him?  More than this, it seems that as a close follower of Jesus that Judas could testify to or fabricate a charge that would warrant a verdict of capital punishment. 

Was Judas so profoundly disturbed by Jesus’ anointing at the home of Simon the leper or at the home of Lazarus (it depends on which Gospel you read) that this prepared him to betray Jesus?  In Mark’s Gospel, Judas marks Jesus as the one to be arrested by approaching Him and calling Him “Rabbi,” “Teacher.”  Could Judas go no further?  Was it an affront to Judas that Jesus moved beyond the teachings of His gospel and accepted the title of Messiah and even more?  Was Judas’ betrayal not merely a matter of finding a safe time to arrest Jesus, but to give the authorities the information that could be used to name Jesus a blasphemer, and thus one deserving death?

Whenever the date falls for the remembrance of these solemn and holy events, whoever is responsible for Jesus’ betrayal, are all details that lead to the same cataclysmic denouement of our Saviour’s life.  As with the Jewish New Year, there are aspects of this mystery that can only be fully known from within the faith, but they are not limited to the faithful.  Jesus dies as a human not as a Christian.  He dies for all people.  It is a universal act on the part of God.  And whatever the actual betrayal, the fact remains that Jesus was betrayed, denied, convicted, tortured and executed for us as ordinary people passed by unmoved.  On Palm Sunday, Jesus marched publicly into Jerusalem, and there taught publicly.  Jesus knew what was ahead, but went anyway.  Jesus’ commitment to the gospel and to us is humbling, and His sacrifice is distressing.  His lifelong ministry led Him to this inevitable confrontation with human authorities because Jesus would not compromise on the extent of the reign of God. 

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.  I invite you to join other believers and seekers at church as we walk in our hearts, minds and souls beside Jesus in these most trying times of His life.  Our Service begins at 9:30 and if you would like to join online please send me an email at the address below for the Zoom link.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.

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 April 11th:  Psalm 31:9-16;  Isaiah 54:9-10; and Hebrews 2:10-18.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Jesus had gone into hiding.  This was a tactical retreat.  He tried to prepare His disciples for what was about to happen when He entered Jerusalem.  And Jesus would not sneak into that ancient and holy city.  He would process in with throngs of people proclaiming Him the Messiah, the divinely ordained King of Israel.  This was offensive to both the religious and political/military establishment.  The details of what follows define Holy Week, culminating in Jesus’ crucifixion, death and burial.

  In the Book of Isaiah, in what scholars refer to as Deutero-Isaiah (chs 40- 55), the inspired writer during Israel’s time of Exile offers both hope and explanation to God’s people.  Their nation and their Temple, their kings and even the Ark of the Covenant, had been taken from them.  Many were forced to live in foreign lands, and many simply accepted the customs and faith of their victors.  Deutero-Isaiah strove to reassure those who remained faithful and to promise them that God had not abandoned them no matter how real that prospect may have seemed.  It is in this context that the biblical author writes:  “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”

This is God’s covenant of love.  No matter how long, no matter what changes, God’s love remains.  God’s covenant of peace, it also states, shall not be removed.  God promises compassion.  This explanation obviously comforted and strengthened many of the Jews because they did survive the Exile and returned again to their homeland.  However, it is not unreasonable to assume that many who heard these words still doubted.  They had been told that the waste and warfare were the consequences of God’s anger at their sins.  The Exile was God’s justice enforced.  Now the prophet’s words of that same God’s love, peace and compassion, while still under the authority of another government, may have sounded unconvincing.

Then in God’s appointed time Jesus entered the world, and in Jesus God entered the world.  Jesus’ union of the divine and the human is the mystery that lies at the heart of Christianity.  God now experiences life as one of us, and we experience at-one-ment with God.  The fullness of Jesus’ humanity goes so far as to include human suffering and mortality.  Why?  Because when it once could have been argued that God’s separation made God’s words appear hollow, that if God truly was about love, peace and compassion why was there so much of their opposite in the world, then why didn’t God make them disappear, now in Jesus there was an answer.  This is the way the author of Hebrews put it:  “Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”  God can’t make bad things impossible and still allow for the freedom that dignifies us as made in God’s image.  However, God can share in those bad things as one of us, showing that if we must face such suffering then God will face suffering with us as one of us, that since God in Jesus has been tested by suffering then God in Jesus can stand with us when we are tested by suffering.  Put simply, this means that God loves us more than God loves God’s own self.

May we ponder this mystery on the last Friday before we enter into Jesus’ last week of earthly life.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 April 10th:  Psalm 31:9-16; Isaiah 53:10-12; and Hebrews 2:1-9.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is unknown to history.  In my New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) Bible, the Pauline Epistles many scholars definitively attribute to Paul have the same heading as the disputed Pauline Epistles (often called the Deutero-Pauline Epistles):  “The Letter of Paul to …”  Then comes Hebrews.  Following the 13 Paul or Pauline-school Epistles, one finds Hebrews.  The heading for this Epistle reads:  “The Letter to the Hebrews.”  There is no mention of Paul.  Ancient tradition did credit this New Testament Epistle to Paul, but that is basically discredited by modern scholars.  So whoever this author was, we are indebted to that person for this inspired work.

As the heading indicates, this is an early Christian writing to Hebrews.  Most of the earliest followers of Jesus had been Jewish.  Jesus called Jewish disciples and mostly ministered to His fellow Jews.  It is only logical that Jews would have been the first ones attracted to faith in Jesus.  However, turning to faith in Jesus is not the same as remaining in the faith of Jesus.  The Epistle to the Hebrews seems to be addressing the fact that some of those early converts were reverting back to their previous faith.  It could not have been easy to abandon the inspired teachings and practices of a thousand-year-plus faith, the legitimacy it offered as a recognized religion of the Roman Empire, not to mention the stature of the Temple’s monumental architecture and the familiarity of shared traditions among neighbours and family.  These factors weighed on the recent Christian converts from Judaism, and some were turning back to their previous faith.  This is where the Epistle to the Hebrews comes into play.  It is the unknown author’s attempt to persuade the converts to remain with their new faith in Jesus.

One argument the author uses is a traditional Jewish one.  It is the Rabbinic principle called qal wahomer (Hebrew for light and heavy) and it argues that if something applies in a less important case, it will certainly apply in a more important one.  Hebrews argues that the Jewish teachings were revealed through God’s angels.  In the Hebrew Bible there is often an intentional confusion as to whether it is a direct vision of Yahweh or “the angel of the Lord.”  This reflects the tension between the transcendence and immanence of God.  Hebrews latches onto this discrepancy and argues that the previous revelation was angelic, and then proceeds to offer that the Christian revelation, since Christ is divine according to the new faith, is of a higher sort since it comes directly from God.

This leads to these verses:  “Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.”

Let’s try to disassociate the “we’re better than them” logic of this qal wahomer argument and focus instead on the message that God has invested God’s own self in Christ and in Christ’s church.  This leads to the rhetorical question of how can we possibly neglect “so great a salvation?”  It cost God everything that God could offer, which is God’s own self, so that we could be saved and abide with God forever.  This is how much we mean to God.  This is how important our relationship is to God.  This is one of the few places in the New Testament where later generations will eventually discover reference to the Trinity.  Here we have Jesus as “Lord,” and the Father as “God added his testimony,” and also “by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.”  The fullness of God is a part of this offer of salvation, how can we not be moved? 

These are the last ten days of Lent.  I hope we use them effectively to grow closer to Christ, and to Him crucified. 

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
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 April 9th:  Psalm 20; Habakkuk 3:2-15; and Luke 18:31-34.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer came to the United States in 1930 to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  He was unimpressed by what he perceived as the frivolousness of American academic theology.  However, while here he met a Black seminarian, Frank Fisher, who introduced Bonhoeffer to the African-American Church, and Bonhoeffer was impressed.  He appreciated its active proclamation of liberation and dignity in Christ.  The faith they lived was taught and reinforced in the church, but lived actively in the world.  He returned to Germany in 1931with this new outlook and was Ordained.  Two years later the Nazis came to power and immediately Bonhoeffer was a vocal opponent, using his faith to make a difference in the world – all because of that fortuitous meeting with a fellow seminarian who happened to be Black.

The church establishment acquiesced to Nazi propaganda even to the point of seriously considering the removal of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) from their Bible.  Feeling unwelcome and unproductive, Bonhoeffer accepted a pastorate in England to two German speaking congregations.  Feeling guilty for abandoning the German church at such a critical moment in history, Bonhoeffer returned to Nazi Germany in 1935.  Bonhoeffer ran an underground seminary in Germany.  Just before World War II was about to start, Bonhoeffer traveled to the United States and returned to Union Theological.  However, his conscience troubled him terribly and in less than a month he returned to Nazi Germany.

Bonhoeffer was persecuted by the Nazis and finally arrested in April 1943.  Two years later Hitler would personally order his execution, and Bonhoeffer at the age of 39 was hanged on April 9, 1945, 80 years ago today.

While Bonhoeffer was running the underground seminary, he wrote “The Cost of Discipleship.”  In this book he coined two famous phrases:  “cheap grace” and “costly grace.”  He contends that Christians have relied so much on Christ's forgiveness that they do not challenge themselves enough to actually follow Jesus’ word to their best ability, instead relying on God's grace to save them when they fall.  This is “cheap grace.”  Only after they have striven to the best of their ability to do the will and work of God should God's grace come into play.  This is “costly grace.” 

“Cheap grace” is the easy path of discipleship, of following Jesus, of following a crucified Saviour.  “Costly grace” comes into play as we work with and in Christ to continue the work and ministry of the gospel even when, especially when, that work comes with a heavy cost.   As I mentioned, these phrases have crossed over from the theologian’s argot and have entered the common vocabulary of believers in general.  President Barack Obama, for example, signaled an awareness of Bonhoeffer’s teachings recently at a lecture at Hamilton College.  He said, “It has been easy during most of our lifetimes to say you are a progressive or say you are for social justice or say you’re for free speech and not have to pay a price for it. Now we’re at one of those moments where, you know what? It’s not enough just to say you’re for something; you may actually have to do something and possibly sacrifice a little bit.” (https://barackobama.medium.com/conversation-at-hamilton-college-0c44228ac0bd)

The prospect of “costly grace” is off-putting and hard to process, it seems.  This is nothing new.  In today’s Gospel selection, Jesus reveals for the third time that He will suffer and die in Jerusalem.  His disciples are unable to process this news.  They cannot reconcile their expectations of Jesus’ Messiahship with the apparent failure of Jesus’ execution.  They hear the words, but not the Word.  And we are told:  “But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”  Lent is our chance to better appreciate and work with the idea that Christ gave all for the gospel, and if we are to be honest disciples we must try to our best to imitate His example, to live up to the potential and power of “costly grace.” 

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
​
If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.