In the times of bleakness, despair or desperation we may often wonder: Where, oh where, is God? We become anxious when we think Yahweh is not present. In the Exodus reading, this is what is going on with the people of Israel as they begin to query Moses’s whereabouts.
I have been reading Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels and came across Marcion (c. 140), a Christian from Asia Minor, who concluded that the unforgiving God of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New must, in fact, be two different gods. This is definitely a heresy that I can get behind.
This account from John has two interesting elements. First, Jesus states “a prophet hath no honor in his own country.” I interpret this along the same lines of a Portuguese saying I heard a few times when I was doing business in Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking world; loosely translated, “Home grown saints don’t perform miracles.”
Hosea, commonly referred to as the “prophet of doom,” writes: “The Lord has torn us so he may heal us; struck us down so he can bind us up.” The overall message is reconciliation through repentance results in salvation. In the parable from Luke, the Pharisee prays he is righteous, sacrifices, fasts and tithes. He is proud he is not like the “immoral” tax collector. The tax collector, however…
The punishments and rewards depicted in Hosea are horrifyingly “over the top” to our modern senses. But to those ancient civilizations, living among barbaric rulers, those horrors rang with familiarity. Here were God’s warnings in language they would heed. If set in a 2019 Bible, God’s admonitions might center around our concepts of psychological torture and bliss.
So what does the law mean to us? Is it just the Ten Commandments? Some of those, like refraining from murder or theft, aren’t too hard to live by. On the other hand, today we have a bit of trouble with the one about adultery, and the prohibition against “coveting” is pretty hard to stick to in a consumer society.
For me, the Song of the Three Young Men is forever colored by the Beastie Boys brilliant, bratty song “Shadrach,” from Paul’s Boutique. The voices of those three young men, exulting at being released from their record contract and making one of the great records of the late 1980s…
Calling on her deep faith, Mary is obedient to God’s request delivered by the angel Gabriel. Understandably, Mary is troubled that she should conceive in her womb and bear a son; a child who will come upon her from the Holy Spirit and who will be called Holy, the Son of God. We assume Mary is a very young woman.
What images have challenged you to form new ideas of what it would mean to work for and live into a more just society? How did they shape you and call you to help make that world become real? This Sunday, Lent 2, we ask you to bring in an image — a photograph or copy of an artwork, or a still image from a film or live performance — that you remember having an impact on how you imagined the possibilities of what the world could be.
My fear of missing out can easily lead to resentment or envy. In this age of social media, it’s easy to scroll through posted pictures showing people on a secluded beach or at a fancy restaurant or surrounded by family and friends — all smiling bright smiles that say “we have it all!” and captioned with #livingmybestlife…