ROME IMPROVEMENT 05/30/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!! 

SURVEYING THE SITE—Isaiah 6:1-8

This week we observe Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost. It is part of Ordinary Time, those weeks which aren’t part of the festival seasons of Christmas and Easter and their corresponding preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent. Although the color of the day is white, the color of the season is green. This is the growing season in the northern hemisphere, and green is the color of living plants.

We are told that this takes place in the year that King Uzziah died. The Old Testament reading introduces us to the throne room of God and the attendants surrounding God’s throne. We see the seraphim, fiery serpents with six wings (dragons?), circling above God’s head calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.”

These same seraphim are consulted when querying, “Who will bring God’s message to the world?” With the enthusiasm of John Fogarty’s baseball player, Isaiah cries out, “Put me in, Coach! I’m ready to play today.”

READING THE BLUEPRINT

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Seraphim stood above it, six wings they had, with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And cried this [one] to this [one], “Holy, holy, holy, The Name of hosts. Full to overflowing of the earth is his glory.” The posts of the door [between heaven and earth] were shaken by the voice of the one who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So, I said, “Woe me for I am undone because a man of unclean lips [am] I; I [am] in the midst of unclean lips. I dwell for the king; The Name of hosts has seen my eyes. And flew to me one of the seraphim and, in his hand, having a live coal with the tongs he had taken from the altar, and he touched on my mouth, and said, “Behold, has touched this upon your lips and is taken away your iniquity, and your sin purged. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here I! Send me!”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

At the beginning of Isaiah, so much is happening. The Northern Kingdom (Israel) has already fallen. The great diaspora (scattering of the seed/people) has already occurred. The Southern Kingdom (Judah) is about to be overcome by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, and the judgment of God is about to be spoken. The only question is, “Who will be the bearer of the bad news?”

Isaiah is living in dire times. King Uzziah, who was a great king for many years of his life until his pride got in the way, has died. In 2 Chronicles 26, we read that in his pride, King Uzziah attempts to usurp the authority of the priests by making the sacrifice of incense in the temple himself, thereby taking the power of king and fusing it with the role of priest. The priest Azariah challenges the king with eighty of his closest priests and circumvents King Uzziah’s attempt at taking over the temple and aligning it with his enthroned power. When Uzziah expresses his anger and frustration, he develops leprosy on his forehead (a rash of some sort that stays with him until he dies).

It is this stance of pride that sets the stage for this reading in Isaiah. As the king was prideful, so now, the people are prideful. In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, “Having been given the ability to transcend self, [humanity] attempts to transcend God.” (“The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation, Volume one: Human Nature”, ch. 5). This is the situation when God’s great throne room appears with God’s robe covering the Mercy Seat in the temple.

As a testimony to God’s credentials for making the judgment, the Seraphim with two wings to cover their faces so that they will not look upon the face of God, and two wings to euphemistically cover their feet (more vulnerable parts), and two wings to fly, the seraphim fly above God’s head, crying, “Holy.” Here again, we discover that holiness is not something that places God beyond creation but models the very quality of being engaged in and with creation.

This holiness speaks of God as being active in history, involved in relationship with the seraphim and Isaiah. The relationship does not point away from God’s creation. Rather, God’s holiness points to the overflowing abundance of God’s good creation and the quality of mercy that will be experienced by God’s nature of being “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” The does not mean that correction will not be administered, but that God’s love will win out.

In this throne room of judgment, in consultation with the seraphim, God asks, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for the entire heavenly court, for us?”

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

I can’t ever read this passage without thinking about chocolate chip cookies. One night my sister Jamie was baking chocolate chip cookies. I told her that I loved eating chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. To this, she said, “No, you don’t.” When I assured her that I did, she said, “Open your mouth.” When I did, she slid a chocolate chip cookie that had just come out of the oven off the spatula. Steam like a smoky mist shot out of my mouth and filled the room. Well, it was probably my scream that filled the room. I spit out the cookie and struggled with a rather sore, burned tongue and lip for several days.

The act of purification in this text has life-long scarring implications, and yet we continue to witness the faithfulness of Isaiah’s response to God’s call. In fact, many who are in the ministry feel a similar response to God’s call. But it is not as savory as one would think. The message pastors often have to bring is the prophetic word of change.

We can’t stay where we are. God requires us to move, to think of things differently, to consider the effects of our opinions and desires. There is a call for humble accountability, claiming our responsibility for the state of the world and a need for a time-out, a time to acknowledge prideful self-interest, a time to get in touch with the rest of God’s good creation, reclaim our relationship with God and one another, and a time to heal and move into the new place God would have us go.

“Here I. Send me,” cannot be made lightly. The sizzle of coal burning purification and the knowledge of painful moments of misunderstanding are there. There will be times when the entire community will hate you, not because they have animus toward you, but because you are charged with holding a mirror up to God’s people, and they do not particularly like what they see.

Most of all, the response is made, knowing that change is a sign of God’s immanent* presence and our relationship with God is about to enter a new phase. It is exciting and terrifying. Maybe there should be a question mark at the end of the great response to God’s call, “Send me?”

HANGING THE TRIM

I really do like warm chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate melting into that crisping shell of sugared dough, but not so fresh, please.  

 

*  Immanent: permanently pervading and sustaining the universe

 

ROME IMPROVEMENT 5/23/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Acts 2:1-21

If any day of the church year epitomizes “more power, more glory, more spirit” it is this Sunday, the Day of Pentecost. The reading for this day and the previous event of the Ascension are covered by the author of Luke and Acts. As Luke ends, Jesus tells the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they are “clothed with power from on high” shortly before he ascends to heaven. As the book of Acts begins, we revisit the Ascension where Jesus tells his disciples that this is the power of the Holy Spirit and that they will be Jesus’ witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria and to all the ends of the earth.”

Two angels come and challenge the disciples to pay attention to what is in front of them and stop looking up to heaven. So, the disciples return to the place of waiting and devote themselves, with certain women, to prayer and choosing a disciple to take Judas’ place. This says that the “waiting” they were doing is pretty active, and the “gathered togetherness” in the one room is less likely due to idleness than to prayer. This gathering together also includes women, so it is a larger group than just the twelve. It may even include Joseph, called Barsabas, also known as Justus.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

And in the fulfilling the day of the Pentecost, all were together at the same. And there began from the heaven a sound like a windy violence and filled all the house where they were seating themselves. And there appeared to them dividing tongues as of fire and sat on each one of them. And they were all filled with a Spirit of Holiness and began to speak other languages as the Spirit was giving proper speaking to them.

There were now living in Jerusalem Judeans, devout men from every nation which is under the heaven. The sound of this having come into being, the crowd came together and was bewildered because each one heard their speaking in their own idiomatic dialect. Then they were astounded, and they were amazed, saying, “See here, are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? And how do we hear each in our own idiomatic language in which we are born? Parthians…Arabs [people from everywhere], we hear their speaking in our own tongues the mighty acts of God.” And all were astounded and perplexed, saying one to another, “What does this wish, this hope, intend to be?” Others, jeering said, “They have been filled with sweet wine.”

[Then] having stood up, Peter with the eleven, he raised his voice and began to pontificate: “Men of Judea, and all those dwelling in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen up to what I have to say. For these are not overly imbibing as you suppose for it is the third hour of the day; but this is what is said through the prophet Joel,

‘And it will be in the last days, says God, I will pour out from my spirit/breath upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; and your young shall see visions, and your elders shall dream dreams; and even upon my slaves, male and female, in those days I will pour out from my spirit/breath, and they will prophesy. And I will give portents in the heaven and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vaporous smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming day of the great and glorious (becoming visible) Lord. And it will be that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be made whole.’ “

 

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

“This train is bound for glory, is this train. This train is bound for glory, is this train. This train is bound for glory. If you want to get to heaven, then you got to get holy. This train is bound for glory, is this train.” Or so the old spiritual says.

 

Like a train leaving the station, Pentecost provides an engine for us to ride the rails of ministry. Coupled to our engine are many cars with people of every nation and the baggage that they carry. This train is bound for glory, is this train. And the glory we are bound for is the glory of witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus. The glory we are bound to is the glory of God among us. The glory we are bound to is the glory of relationship, coupled together with all of the people of the world.

 

This last week I attended virtually some of the Festival of Homiletics. There, the Rev. Dr. Luke Powery presented a sermon on this passage entitled, “And”. He noted that the word “and” describes the relationship of the people involved in this amazing moment in time. Like the couplers that connect the engine to the first car and that to the next, and on and on, this word “and” binds the train together: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, coupled together with the residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs; essentially, the whole world is being pulled by the Pentecost train.

 

Each person and every nation are all coupled onto this train by the conjunction “and”. And with this glorious train comes the Holy Wind, the Holy Spirit—God’s holy/sanctified breath—that breath that enlivens, and vivifies, and gives verve to our lives. This breath is the source of our passion and compassion. It is the sound of God’s wind squeezed through our vocal cords shaped by God’s gift of mouth to create the very words we need to describe the wondrous works and love of God.

 

In the old spiritual, the jokers, the cigar smokers, the liars, the prostitutes, even our mothers, sisters, brothers, and fathers may be restricted from the train. But, on this day, on this train, it is all about everyone who can get on board. It is all about coupling up for the ride to glory and being fully involved with all of God’s people, bearing and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

 

Now if our context for this song is the underground railroad of the nineteenth century, then glory is going to be freedom. But in the context of Pentecost, this train may be for…, well, it’s still for freedom—freedom from the racism and prejudice of our world, freedom from the pandemic that has imprisoned us this past year in fear and isolation, freedom from polarization and the biases of conservative vs liberal, freedom from all things that get in the way of our relationship with God.

 

Still, it is not that we are just freed from these powerful divisions, we are freed to something. We are freed to live with one another in new relationships. We are freed to hold on to one another, to get into one another’s cars, to see and listen to each other’s stories of our lives, and then find new ways of faithfully relating to one another. We are freed to know the wholeness that only God can give because this train is bound for glory, is this train.

 

And the glory ride is a ride that involves us in looking for the places of pain and need in our world, to witness the living body of Christ among the unseen people of our world. If we want to get wholly holy, then we are going to have to get down into the reality dirt of the world and witness the violent wind of the Spirit, the violent wind of dusty change. The Spirit is blowing us, breathing us, into new ways of living, new ways of thinking, new ways of being in dusty relationship with God and one another.

 

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

A year ago, our nation was locked down. We were determining who were the essential workers in our society. We discovered that the essential workers were not just the doctors and the nurses. Some of the most important people in our world were the garbage collectors, and meat cutters, and farm workers, and those who stocked the shelves in our grocery stores; and the housekeeping people that make spaces for healing in the hospitals safe; and bus drivers, and truckers, and taxi drivers, and car mechanics; and even tire salespeople who help us know where the rubber meets the road.

 

We discovered that there were ways other than in-person to be together. Many of the “new” ways were already in use by people who live with disabilities—people who were not ever able to meet easily in-person with others because of physical restriction—to be connected/coupled to one another for mutual support.

 

We learned to use our telephones and computers in new ways. We recorded worship services and posted them on YouTube. Connecting with one another in new ways we now thought of ourselves as both the people who had always been around us every day ‘and’ others who now joined us from afar.

 

The wind of the Holy Spirit blew us into new ways of thinking. As the violent rush of wind spoke to each person in their own language, so it is that the Holy Spirit continues to speak in ways that we can hear. This message is not limited to us in our comfortable and safe, lock-down homes. It is heard by all of those who dwell in God’s city of peace—Jerusalem: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and the residents of Mesopotamia, liberals and conservatives, white and black and red and yellow and brown, queer and straight, male and female, slave and free, abled and disabled, joyful and grieving, young and old.

 

This train is not either-or where you are worthy or you’re not. This train is the train of the world for whom Jesus came, not to condemn, but to save. This train is bound for glory, is this train, and it pulls the lives of the gambler, the smoker, the tobacco chewer, the midnight toker, the prostitutes and tax collectors—all who call on the name of the Lord—to know wholeness.

 

The wind of Pentecost is blowing still. The question is, “How is this new way of thinking empowering us for the holy ride ahead of us? And what will glory look like when we get there? How will we talk about it?”

 

HANGING THE TRIM

Many claim Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, but, in fact, that accolade belongs to the period of time the disciples stayed in the room while they waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. This day—Pentecost—is the birthday of the Church’s mission. On this day Peter and the eleven and those others in the room that was filled with that violent breath of God, the same breath that causes all disciples to stand and speak in ways that others could hear, the same breath that will continue to give life to our witness to the wholeness we know in the love and mercy of God revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

 

ROME IMPROVEMENT 05/16/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—John 17:2-19

This week the great Farewell Address ends with Jesus praying. We join Jesus as he prays for himself, his disciples, and the world, but we do not hear the end. We have to wait until next year for that, unless you choose to look it up in the Bible yourself.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Jesus prays, “As you gave him authority over all flesh, in order that all whom you have given him, he may give to them life eternal.

“This now is eternal life, in order that they may know you, the only true God, and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on the earth having completed the work that you gave me in order that I should make [it]. Now glorify me, Father, with yourself, with the glory that I had before the world ‘is-ing’ [is, was, and will be] with you.

“I made your name visible to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have held fast to your Word [the Word revealed in the person of Jesus]. Now they know that all things you gave me are of you; for the words you have given me, I gave them, and they seized [them] and knew truly that from you I came forth and believed that you sent me. About them, I am asking, I do not ask about the world, but about those whom you have given me for yours they are. And all my things, are yours; and yours, are mine; and I have been glorified in them. No longer am I [and was I and will I be] in the world, yet they themselves are [and were and will be] in the world, and I am [and was and will be] coming to you. Holy Father, hold fast to them, in your name, which you have given me, in order that they may be one as we. When I was [and am and will be] with them, I was [and am and will be] holding fast to them in The Name of you, which you have given me. And I guarded, and not one of them was destroyed, except the son of destruction, in order that the [Hebrew] writing might come to fruition.

“Now, to you, I am coming, and these things I speak in the world in order that they may have my joy coming to fruition within them. I have given them your word, and the world hated them, because they are not [and were not and will not be] of the world, just as I am not [and was not and will not be] of the world. I do not [and did not and will not] ask in order that you should take them out of the world, but in order that you should hold fast to them from the evil. They are not [and were not and will not be] of the world, just as I am not [and were not and will not be] from the world.

“Make them holy in the truth; the Word, of you, is [and was and will be] truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world; and for them I make [and made and will make] myself holy, in order that they also were [and are and will be] being made holy in truth.”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

The beginning of Jesus’ Farewell Address outlined our connections with him—we are part of the Father’s household with many resting places, we are entangled like branches on a vine, producing fruit, we are involved in a relationship of equality with God because we are beloved of Jesus. As a result, we are the recipients of the Advocate/Comforter. Now, we are included in the prayer for Jesus’ disciples, not just of the time but for his disciples throughout all of time—even into eternal life. That relationship in eternity begins and ends in knowing our relationship in God, in Jesus, and in the Advocate/Comforter Jesus sends to us.

In this egalitarian relationship, we are invited into that secure ‘holding fast’ place of God’s promised leading. The invisible God has been made visible in the person of Jesus, and in the relationship where the people have cared for, held fast to Jesus—the Word—joy is known.

Jesus calls God, “Holy Father”. He asks that the people be protected against evil, saying that the only one who is no longer part of the world is the destroyer who has been destroyed. In the background I hear, “What advantage do you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death, but now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is [being made holy]—the end is eternal life.” (Romans 6 NRSV) and “Where, O Death is your sting?...The power of sin is death,” (1 Cor. 15).

We know that the power of death has been put to death. The power of death which once separated us from God no longer has the power to separate us from God, and this knowledge brings joy—a joy Jesus desires to share with us. Again, we hear, “Neither life, nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” (Romans 8). If there is a joy to be shared, that would be it.

Lastly, Jesus asks that the people be made ‘hagios’. This word is variously translated as: holy, sanctified, hallowed, and more. For the sake of this passage, I have translated it as holy or being made holy. But what does this ‘hagios’ stuff mean?

Two years ago, because I am a member of the Disability Ministries Advisory Team, the ELCA sent me to the annual meeting of Queer Christian Fellowship (QCF). There I attended a couple of lectures on “Queering the Gospels”. In one, a very serious, faithful man talked about this ‘hagios’ word as being put aside for a specific task or made different for a purpose. He explained that this special placement was to call people into a right relationship with God. Then, he said that the LGBTQIA+ community was the community that was ‘hagios’ today.

I had immediate push-back within myself. I think I probably even expressed my discomfort with his definition to him. To think of queer folk as being faithful leaders, as companions in faith, as beloved of God, was one thing; but to think of LGBTQIA+ people as being particularly ‘hagios’, holy? Hmm?

Yet, if, rather than claiming holiness for any particular group of people who are different, we think of this holiness word as being a descriptor of who Jesus is, then maybe difference and holiness have something to do with one another after all. As an identifier, look at the people Jesus hung out with. He mostly hung out with people who were different—the blind, deaf, lame, maimed, widowed, orphaned, foreigners, mentally ill, chronically ill, and the poor, and let us not forget the tax collectors—yes, the ‘different’.

If the ‘different’ were the people Jesus hung with then, then why would he not be hanging with the LGBTQIA+ community today?

What if making oneself holy, sanctified, is intentionally identifying with the ‘different’?

What if we then took some time to rest, or linger, with Jesus’ asking the Holy Father to “make them holy in the truth, sanctify them, in truth, …and for them I make myself holy, sanctify myself, in order that they are also being made holy, sanctified, in truth?”

How then might our understanding of holiness, sanctification, and being made ‘right’ with God change?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

When I first started thinking and talking about the issue of sanctification this week, Pr. Seth Hecox, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Sun Prairie, said, “It’s sort of like being vaccinated”. I hadn’t really gone there, but as he spoke, I started to catch up to him. We don’t get vaccinated in order to separate ourselves from others. We get vaccinated in order to safely be with others.

In the same way, being made holy, or being sanctified, does not put us in some rarified atmosphere, apart from the world. Rather, sanctification, or being made holy, is the very thing that pushes us into the world to be lovingly engaged in the world with ‘different’ people. We get to identify with the ‘different’ people in a way that shows that we are ‘different’ too.

This difference or holy state may not only say something about us, or Jesus, it may say something about Godself. When we pray, “Our Father in heaven, ‘hallowed’ be your name,” we are using the same root word as that of ‘Holy Father’ and ‘sanctify’ in our text today.

What, if when we say these prayerful words, we understood them as, “Our Father in heaven, may your name always be known to be ‘different’ for the ‘different’—the slaves of the world, those who are taken advantage of, the bullied, the beaten, the disenfranchised. May they always know that they, in their difference, are part of your good creation, that they too live in your image and are set aside for your work of living fully into the community for which you have created us?”

What, if instead of setting us apart from the world to be with God by ourselves, holiness and sanctification is an incarnational identifier that engages us with God, in the world for the sake of the world?

What, if sanctification or holiness, like a vaccination, prepares us for serving our neighbor?

What if LGBTQIA+ people are part of the sanctifying holiness of the world we live in?

How would that change the ask Jesus is making when he says, “Sanctify them (the disciples there and all of us disciples today) in truth?”

HANGING THE TRIM

The ELCA has extended a liberal invitation to many who are different, but, as a church, we oftentimes have been reluctant to hear the voices of change these new voices bring. This week we heard the announcement of Meghan Rohrer (they/their) as the new bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod who happen to be trans. As Matthias (gift of God) was elected (Acts 1:12-26), so now this new bishop has been elected. Let us rejoice and be sanctified.

ROME IMPROVEMENT 05/09/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—John 15:1-17

During this Easter season, we have spent some time with Jesus considering what the implications of “resurrection living” might mean for us. To fully understand the implications of this “resurrection life”, we find ourselves going back to those learning moments we had with Jesus before the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.

This week, following the Last Supper, we join Jesus is in his after-dinner speech, the Farewell Address, already in progress. Here Jesus uses two metaphors. The first—house or household—was in John 14 where Jesus told us that the Father’s house has many places for rest. This week, in the second metaphor, we are told of the vine. Through it the themes of belonging and joy are introduced. Let us listen to Jesus’ words as he tells us for the last time that he is the I AM.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

[Jesus says], “I am, I AM, the true vine, and my father works the land. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he makes clean so that it bears more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word I have spoken to you. Rest in me as I rest in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it rests in the vine, neither can you unless you rest in me.

“I am, I AM, the vine. You are the branches. Those who rest in me and I in them bear much fruit because, apart from me, you cannot do anything. Whoever does not rest in me is cast away and withers, like a branch. Such branches are gathered together and burned.

“When you rest in me and my words rest in you, ask for whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. My father is glorified by this in order to bear much fruit. So, my disciples, ‘Come into being’.

“As the father loves me, so I already love you. Rest in my love. When you keep my commandments, you will rest in my love just as I have kept my father’s commandments and rest in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy might be full, like a fetus fills the womb. This is my commandment in order for you to love one another as I already love you.

“No one has greater love than this—to lay down one’s life for the beloved. You are my beloved when you do what I command you. I do not call you slaves any longer because the slave does not know what the master is up to. But I have called you beloved because I have spilled my guts out to you concerning what I have heard from my father.

“You did not choose me. I chose you! I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last in order that the father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commandments in order for you to love one another.”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

Rudolf Bultmann and others have suggested that the Gospel of John is a compilation of at least two Jesus narrative traditions that have been brought together into a single story. When you read the end of chapter 13 and then go directly to the beginning of chapter 18 to continue, you notice there is no break in the narrative. The Farewell Address, chapters 14-17, belong to a separate narrative.

In this section, Jesus uses a common speech form known as symposium. It is not a monologue as it welcomes questions from the listeners. As such, it is more of a conversation. Its purpose is three-fold. First, it honors those gathered; Jesus calls his disciples, friends. Second, it instructs; Jesus gives his commandment. Third it entertains; Jesus uses rhetoric to give them things to ponder.

In the assigned pericopes (readings), we read the Farewell Address in chunks. These chunks distance the beginning of the speech from its other parts. So, we do not connect the house of many resting places (usually translated rooms), with the resting places of abiding in this passage of the vine.

When we do this, we see a house that is far away in a land we often call heaven where a place is being held like a reservation at a major hotel. We see the vine as being disembodied from the garden and transplanted into a wine yard (vineyard), pointing us to eucharist.

But, when these stories are connected with the rest of the conversation Jesus is having with his disciples, we can see the retelling of the wilderness journey of the Israelites. In that journey, their clothing, like the fruit, never wears out, and neither do their sandals.

We can see the wilderness journey where the joy of the Lord is the freeing of the Israelites from the oppression of Egypt and the joy of the people is to live with God, where the relationship between God and God’s people is secured with the giving of the Law in order for the Israelites to live in harmony with one another.

We can see the potential of God’s beloved community living into an egalitarian relationship. This is not a relationship of slave and master. It is a relationship of equals.

We can see that our Father’s house is all of creation and that we are on a journey where we will need to find resting places, like the resting places alongside the Roman highways. But while the resting places along the Roman highways were for Roman dignitaries and Roman soldiers, the resting places for the people of the Way are for all people.

We can find resting places in Christ as Christ finds rest in the relationship in the Father. These resting places are places of welcoming hospitality, agape love. Instead of finding that place of belonging in a place far, far away, we can find ourselves connected to Christ and one another, depending on one another for life and fruitfulness here and now.

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Paul Tillich claims that revelation is not of value unless the community can accept it. This means that salvation itself is a communal or corporate condition. It is this corporate, Christ’s body, incarnational presence that Jesus addresses in this extended conversation.

Each “you” and “your” statement in this passage is plural. Jesus is speaking to his disciples at the meal, but he is also speaking to all his disciples (learners and followers) throughout the ages. Ultimately, Jesus is speaking to us. Jesus is trying to tell us that we are connected to one another in order that identity and life might be ours.

In the last of the “I AM” statements, Jesus proclaims that he knows who he is. We may read these statements as an indication that Jesus knew that he was truly divine, but whether that is how Jesus understood it, we will never know. What we are given is that Jesus claims his place as a person among persons. He emphatically says, “I AM.”

In verse 8, he tells his disciples to take up their identity too—"So, my disciples, come into being. (Step into the relationship that is waiting for you. Know who you are) This is my commandment for you. (Know your identity because in that way you will be able to love, welcome, show hospitality to one another.)”

Jesus’ joy comes from knowing who he is and knowing his relationship with the father. This joyful knowledge will also lead to Jesus giving the Advocate, Comforter, Holy Spirit as a way to know his presence in the future.

The central metaphor that links us to God’s constancy is the vine that gives us strength to produce the fruits of the spirit. That connection provides the resting place in God’s love. Through this metaphor we are called, commanded, to enter into the relationship of agape love, to give and receive welcome and hospitality. There, God’s eternal care continues to provide identity, support, and entwined purpose as we continue to bear witness, fruit, of God’s intention for the world—that it might be saved.

HANGING THE TRIM

“We offer in thanksgiving to thee the fruits of our little lives that they may in turn be to those others whose names we do not know somewhat of strength and inspiration that apart from us they may not find fulfillment and apart from them we may not know ourselves. We thank thee, our Father, for so holy a privilege, and we offer our thanksgiving and our dedication as our response not only to thee, but to the life which is ours [in you]. … The deepest need in me must also meet the deepest need in [my neighbor]and then I work for myself. When I work for him [sic], I work for myself for better or for worse. No man is an island. We are tied together in one bundle.”—Howard Thurman

ROME IMPROVEMENT 05/02/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Acts 8:26-40

In the Easter season, many things get turned upside down. We started with the site of death which became the source of life, poetically speaking, the tomb became the womb. After talking about the resurrection, we went back to some of John’s earlier writings. This week, we leap ahead to after Pentecost. Don’t worry though, we’ll get back to Pentecost at the end of the month. 

At this point in the book of Acts, Jesus has met with the disciples on the Mount of Olives and ascended into heaven, leaving the disciples with the instructions to wait for the Holy Spirit. While they are waiting, the disciples decide they need to replace the witness of Judas; they choose Matthias.

With their numbers restored, they wait to discover what God has planned for them. The wind of new creation comes, and flames like that of fire appear. Many hear and believe the Good News. The disciples gather in Jerusalem where they teach in the temple daily.

The work of teaching, preaching, and caring for the great number of people who have come to believe is greater than the work the twelve can handle. So, the community elects seven to help serve at table. Among them are Stephen and Philip.

Stephen is indicted and condemned for being a follower of Jesus, and after preaching a sermon that ends with forgiving the people who are going to stone him to death, he dies. Saul, who held the coats of those who stoned Stephen, initiates a campaign to destroy the followers of Jesus. (Stay tuned for chapter 9.)

Philip has been healing and teaching in Samaria, baptizing men and women. Simon, a magician, is also baptized. But Philip’s authority is apparently limited because Peter and John are told of the people believing in Samaria and go to impart the Holy Spirit on them.

(The distinction between the baptism into the name of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit continues in the book of Acts. Simon, who witnesses the works of Peter and John, tries to buy the powers they have. This results in Peter admonishing Simon and causing him to repent. (To this day, those who use the Gospel for financial gain are charged with simony.)

Now, sent by the Holy Spirit, Philip goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza on a dark desert highway, with cool wind in his hair. We join him there.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise! Go South, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is in the desert. So, Philip got up and went. Now, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, controlling her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and be intermingled with it.” So, Philip ran alongside it and heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” He invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

Now the passage of scripture the Ethiopian eunuch was reading was this,

“Like a sheep, led to the butchers,

like a lamb, silent before the shearer,

he does not open his mouth.

In his humiliation, justice was denied him.

Who can explain this generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or someone else?”

Then Philip began to explain—starting with this writing he spoke to him the good news of Jesus. As they were going along the way, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Behold! There is water. What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

When they came up, out of the water, the spirit of the Lord, snatched Philip away. The eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.

Philip found himself at Azotus, and, as he was passing through the region, he spoke the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

This text is multi-faceted. It has become one of the central passages of the LGBTQIA+ community as it has considered the import of the Levitical law regarding the place of the eunuch. Whether someone with crushed testicles is able to worship in the temple, homosexuality in general, and the inclusiveness of God’s love facilitated by the Spirit are all part of this story.

This text also expands the evangelical work of the seven who were chosen to serve at table. It also addresses whether Scripture can be understood just by reading it and whether individual interpretation is enough.

Lastly, this story tells us, we may be actors within the story of faith, but we are not the workers of faith itself: faith is truly a gift given through the Holy Spirit. When all is said and done, the Spirit blows where it wills, and we neither know where it comes from or where it goes. This week, we are told that the Spirit blows from Samaria and goes to Caesarea, but this is just the beginning of the new creation wind blowing in our midst. Can you feel it now?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

This story of traveling from places you don’t belong to those you do is powerful. Embedded within the text is a passage from Isaiah that needs to be looked at both in the context of Isaiah and our world today, as well as that of Acts.

In the violence then and now, who are those who are being led to the slaughter?

Who are being stripped of their value?

Who are those who are being publicly humiliated, belittled, demeaned, shunned?

Who has justice denied them?

Who can explain these times when life is taken away from the earth?

Can we not see the LGBTQIA+ community in these words?

Many come to our centers of worship seeking to know God’s word for them only to be met with words and actions of rejection. They then find themselves on desert highways traveling back to homes of uncertain welcome. The Spirit is calling us to rise and go to those desert places, to be companions in faith. We are called to explain the words, offering hope to those who live in a troubled world. For God’s word of love is for all of us.

I am amazed with what the Holy Spirit is doing in this text; but I am most amazed that Philip didn’t find a way to get in the way of the Holy Spirit’s work, one of the Church’s greatest sins. We think that Philip is the one who makes this story possible; but, in reality, the eunuch is the one who makes this story possible. It is the eunuch’s desire to belong that has brought him to Jerusalem to worship at the temple, but the temple would have had to refuse him because of his life condition.

Given that, the eunuch still carries this text with him. He is returning home in silence, without protest, understanding that this is the way of the world. Then this stranger appears out of nowhere running alongside the horses pulling the chariot.

Philip asks, “Do you understand these words?” The eunuch responds, “No”, and then asks, “Who is the prophet speaking of, himself or someone else?”

Isaiah was speaking of Israel, a people who had been determined to be faithless, and were now away from the land, the earth, God had given them, taken away to die in Babylon. Israel is the suffering servant. They were the ones who could not explain their times and were condemned to die.

In Acts, Philip claims Jesus as the suffering servant. Yet, in the midst of the story, the eunuch is also the suffering servant, silently humiliated and denied justice. Then, in the community of two, Christ’s justifying presence is known. That presence brings wholeness and incorporation. Through this communion with the Spirit, the waters of baptism, waters of drowning-death and new life are known. Rising up, being resurrected, the eunuch is able to take the seeds of this new community with him to Ethiopia. He goes on The Way, rejoicing.

And Philip? Philip continues to serve at the table and waits for all who are marginalized, those traveling on the desert roads of alienation, with the words of Christ’s hope, “Child of God, you have been marked with the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit forever. Know that the body of Christ is given for you. Know that the cup of the new covenant, shed for you and for all people, continues to include you and sustain you in all that you do.

HANGING THE TRIM

Today we are challenged to answer the question anew. We have God’s word. We have water. We have wine; we have bread. We have Christ’s command to love one another. What is to prevent us from being the people of God?

On the way, rejoicing, let us forward move. Preaching Christ’s great wisdom and God’s word of love.