OH WHERE, OH WHERE, CAN MY RABBI BE?

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET

The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts

OH WHERE, OH WHERE, CAN MY RABBI BE?

by Jack D. Sypal

Dateline: Jerusalem, April 27, 20:01:18

Over the years there has been much speculation about the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. So, I thought that it would only be right as a reporter to seek out another of the first shapers of the Christian movement, Mary herself, to conclude my series on how The Way began. Earlier conversations have been with Peter, James and John, and Thomas.

With the permission and support of The AngelUS Trumpet editorial staff, I caught a ship to Rome and then another to Marseille. From there I caught a pack-train going to Provence where I finally sat down with Mary Magdalene over a light lunch of some very good bread, a so-so wine, and an excellent salad with some home-grown olives.

Following lunch, Mary had the table cleared and then, with another glass of wine in her hand, she looked at me very directly and started to tell me about her life and her part in the Way.

“It seems like it was a different world back then. In many ways, it was. The heel of Rome was lifted against us in Palestine. Between Rome and the temple, taxes were high and life was difficult. My family had some money, but, even so, the powers of Rome, Herod’s taxes, Pilate’s brutality, they all created some tough times.

“The complicity of Annas and Caiaphas, and the rest of the priesthood, was understandable, I suppose; I mean, the priestly robes and head pieces that were used on high holy days were held and closeted by the governor. The priests were only allowed to wear them during the celebrations, and then they had to be returned to the governor’s care.

“It is hard to be independent when you have to go to your oppressor in order to perform your duties for the people and before the Lord. Eventually that kind of control erodes your faith in God and tempts you to think that the emperor and the power of Rome is equal to, or maybe even greater than the power of God. After that, it’s all about money and power, greed and self-aggrandizement.

“We were living in this world of tremendous wealth and of incredible poverty; and that was not by chance, it was by Roman design. The Emperor and his lackeys wanted to be sure that we felt the full power of Rome and knew that we were a conquered nation. They wanted us to know that our very existence as a nation depended on Rome’s pleasure.

“For instance, to demonstrate their power, soldiers would intentionally carry all their belongings with them wherever they went, but they carried their ruck-sack for only a short distance. Then they would impress one of the people in the street to carry it for them.

“We were required by law to carry the burden for a mile. At the end of a mile, the soldier would point to another person who would then have to carry the ruck-sack the next mile. Usually it was just back to the barracks. The whole time the soldiers would be jeering and taunting the person hoping to get him or her to rebel or respond in anger so that the soldier could slap the person down.

“I remember, there were all kinds of messiahs in those days who spoke out against the power of Rome and encouraged the people to rise against the Roman boot. Mostly, they and their followers were quickly seized and executed.

“Among the messiahs was John; he made a big splash for a while. He was baptizing anybody who would repent of their Roman ways and return to the old ways of the law. an ascetic of sorts I guess. He was making a lot of noise, telling us that we needed to stand up and be counted as the children of God, not slaves to Rome.  

“Eventually John got arrested by Herod for denouncing Herod’s marriage to Herodias. Yeah, his mouth eventually got him killed, but that’s another story. What was different about John was that he kept saying, ‘I am not the one. The one you are seeking is coming after me.’ We thought it was a clever way of deflecting attention from himself, but it turned out to be true.

“You see, this rather quiet rabbi showed up. He too was telling us that we needed to stand up for ourselves, but we were to stand up in love for one another. He advocated praying for our enemies and learning ways to lift up the poor. His teachings were not about defying Rome  with force, but resisting Rome with love. If we were impressed by the soldiers for a mile, we should volunteer to carry the burden another mile. We were to forgive the people who were our oppressors and find ways to be an active part of our world.

“I was just a young woman in those days, and I fell in love with what the rabbi was saying. I hadn’t fallen in love with the rabbi, but I really fell hard for what he was saying; and I thought that I could change the world with my good works. Oh yes, there was some hero worship in there, and it was exciting to be seen with him, but I really wasn’t in love with the rabbi. It was more about the movement than the person.

“I thought that, if I threw some of my family’s money at the poor, that the world would be changed, but it wasn’t money that changed the world. I thought that I could really do something for the lesser people; and then I learned that there aren’t any lesser people, only people we think less of. I learned that people had to do the things that brought recognition and dignity for themselves, that I couldn’t just wish it for them. I thought it was about me, but oh how I was wrong.

“In the course of things, I got to know all of the guys [Peter, James, John, Thomas, etc.] pretty well. I even got into their silly name calling. They called me Maggie Mae. It was so serious and so light-hearted at the same time. And, being a woman often alone with men, I got a reputation, but it was all talk.

“As the rabbi’s teaching gathered popularity, the number of followers increased. In time his following got pretty large, more than a hundred of us that got together regularly. There were enough of us that the rabbi was able to send us out to some of the neighboring towns.

“It was wonderful. To do the work of the rabbi was like life itself. We were young. We were enthused. We were the future. It was amazing! It was an education.

“Oh, I almost forgot to mention the wedding and the wine, Lazy Larry, Isaac Seituwel, and Lazarus; those were the flashy moments, but the best part was learning from the rabbi. Do you know how amazing it was for me, a woman, to be allowed to learn from a rabbi? It was heady stuff and I loved every minute of it.                                                                    

 “I learned to think like him and even observed as he taught the other guys what it meant to be a disciple. The look on Philip’s face the day that the rabbi told him to feed the people who had gathered on the hill to hear what the rabbi had to say, it was precious. Then they found little Sol with the fish and the bread, and the rest is history. I don’t care whether you call it a sign or a miracle. It was amazing to watch those people eat their fill and then have leftovers.  It made you think that world hunger could be conquered with a little generosity and some good will. Anyway, it really felt possible that day.

“At the end, things felt like they were falling apart. You know about the last supper. You know about his arrest and the trial. You know that he was crucified and that they laid him in the new tomb in the garden. You know about the total collapse of the movement.

“You can’t believe how we felt when Rome won again. We were used to being sold out by the priesthood and the temple officials—they were just trying to hold on to what they had. I suppose the charitable thing to say is that they were biding their time for the moment when Rome would go away and leave us alone. Or maybe, that the priests and the scribes and Sadducees were waiting for the day when Rome could be overthrown. I don’t know anymore, but to involve one of our own? It still seems impossible.

“What I know is that we were decimated. We were gutted like the fish in the market. The guys went to the safe house and holed up. I had some rooms nearby that my family held for business in Jerusalem so I stayed there.

“We all spent Sabbath together, and then, early in the morning I went to sit and think about what was next. That’s when it happened. I saw that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was opened. You could smell the myrrh and aloe from the burial clothes, but the tomb looked empty.

“I ran to tell Beloved and Peter that the rabbi’s body was stolen, and they ran to the tomb. If anything, they were even more upset than I was. They went all the way into the tomb, thinking that someone might have come and defiled the body in some way, but there was no body.

“They left in silence. Tears were pouring down their faces as they left, but I just couldn’t bring myself to leave right away. So, I went into the tomb to see for myself. That’s when I saw the pile of grave clothes soaked in myrrh, the face cloth rolled up on the side, and the two angels. I thought that it was just a vision, a product of my tortured imagination, but one of the angels spoke to me, ‘Why are you crying?’

“I couldn’t believe it: ‘Why was I crying?’ Because my world was falling apart, that’s why, because one of my best friends ever had died, because everything I thought was worth anything had turned to dust and less than that. They each had this stupid smirk on their faces, and so I turned away. I turned away because I was angry—angry enough to want to die on the spot—and then, when I was trying to leave, I ran right into somebody else.

“Through the tears and my rage, in the midst of my despair and devastation, I searched for anything that might make sense. Supposing him to be the gardener, I lashed out. ‘Where, oh where, can my rabbi be? Where have you laid him?,’ I cried. ‘I know that you have taken him away from me. If you tell me where you have laid him, I will take him away from you, so I can have some peace in this world.’

“I might have even tried to bribe him with some of my family’s money, and then he called me by name. I couldn’t believe it. I knew that voice. I’d heard it thousands of times before. ‘Teacher?’ I asked.

“And then I knew. He had told us in so many ways that this was going to happen, but we just didn’t get it. I mean, how could we have known? I know there was Lazarus; but that was the rabbi’s work, and Lazarus was sick. We never thought that anyone could come back from a crucifixion. And yet, he was standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom. Could it be?

“He told me everything I needed to know and a whole lot more, and then I went to tell the rest of the disciples. They thought I was hysterical and didn’t pay me any mind until that night when they saw him too. You know about Ditto [Thomas] and how that played out. What you don’t know is that even after they had seen the rabbi, they insisted on staying in that stupid room.

“I think that they would be there today if I hadn’t shamed them into leaving. I reminded them all about the times they had promised to have his back, all the times they promised to follow him, all of their pronouncements about the rabbi being the messiah. They called him the Jam Man after all. Didn’t that mean anything to them?

“Did they think that our time together had just been a little political game? I told them that lives matter and the news of the rabbi’s resurrection had to mean something for all people or else the rabbi’s life meant nothing at all. What were we going to do about it? That’s when Peter decided to go fishing. And that fishing trip eventually made the difference.

“After that, the guys went their separate ways, each telling the story as they remembered it. My place in the story, with the other women, got smaller and smaller until you’d have thought that the guys did everything and we were just the auxiliary—sex toys and eye candy. But that was not the way it was.

“One day I decided to find my own place. I decided Ditto had had the right idea: to get away from the chaos in the middle of the empire and go to places where people were less concerned about Rome and more concerned about living, a place where I could remember those days and tell the story as I had learned and lived them. So, here I am.

“No, I am not in one of the lesser places of the world. I am in a place that people think of less. Personally, that’s fine with me. I don’t need high-profile coverage. As a matter of fact, I thought long and hard about talking with you today. But someone has to tell that he lives. The tomb couldn’t hold him. He has ascended to his father and our Father, to God, whom he always professed. He has sent us the Advocate as he promised and with the Advocate I continue to grow in faith, trusting that his message of love will ultimately overcome the powers of evil, greed, self-aggrandizement, self-interest, and hatred.

“Ditto may have been the first one to say it out loud, but he was not the only one to know that our rabbi, our Jam-Man, Jesus, the messiah, is our Lord and our God. He lived among us. He lives with us and through us. He will come again to gather us to himself in the last day.

“In the meantime, I have this simple life with simple fare, and simple ways that do not include Roman imperialism. I would thank you for not sharing precise directions on how to get here.

“And now, I think it is time for you to go. I can do nothing more for you.”

As I walked down the road to my evening’s lodging, I heard Mary say, “Thanks for caring enough to come. Luv ya, man.” 

We Interrupt this Program John 1:29-42

One night when it was stormy and good to be home from work, having sat down to watch my favorite T.V. show in the comfort of my recliner, and beginning to relax, involved in the show’s plot, just as the mystery was about to be solved, a klaxon horn blared into the soundtrack of the show and a weather map with color coded symbols appeared. The crawler at the bottom of the screen and an over-recorded voice said, “We interrupt this program with a weather advisory. The National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin shows severe thunderstorms capable of producing hail, heavy rain and strong winds south of a line running from LaCrosse to Appleton. This advisory covers MARQUETTE-GREEN LAKE-FOND DU LAC-SAUK-COLUMBIA-DODGE-IOWA-DANE-JEFFERSON-LAFAYETTE-GREEN-ROCK counties between 7:45 and 10pm. If you are in this area, take shelter immediately.”  Then after the klaxon blared several more times, it repeated. Finally, we were told, “We now return you to your local program.” But did I get returned to the program? No! Not only did I miss the best part of the show, but it was now in commercial break.
 

From the time that we are little, we are taught that it is not polite to interrupt. We are taught to wait for your turn in the conversation and then say what you have to say. Yet our lives are filled with interruptions. This day, in particular, is an interruption to the rest of our week. God’s sabbath time interrupts our daily routines reminding us of God’s plan, including intentional rest and retreat from the cares of our daily living. In the midst of interruptions, I welcome you to the second Sunday in Epiphany.

In the midst of our local programming, the Gospel of Matthew, we hear from the Gospel of John, filled with different, sometimes conflicting accounts of Jesus. This is not coincidental; it happens this day every year. Each year we read a different passage, but none-the-less, the second Sunday of Epiphany belongs to John. I wish I could tell you why, but I really don’t know.

Last week, in Matthew, we witnessed Jesus being baptized. This is important for us because the book of John reports that Jesus has been baptized, but in John we never witness the actual baptism. In fact, today’s text appears to take place the day after the baptism. This is only one of the many oddities of the book of John. At the other end of this Gospel, we will see the disciples and Jesus gathered for the last supper, but instead of giving the disciples wine and bread, Jesus washes their feet.

We could spend a lot of time comparing the Gospels, but what we mostly need to note is that the purpose of John’s Gospel is different. The other three Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—are called the synoptic Gospels (“synoptic”, from Greek syn, with or together, and optikos, for seeing, or eye witness accounts). The Gospel of John is known as the exegetical Gospel (again, from the Greek, ex, out or from, and hegetikos, drawn out). This drawing out from or exegetical writing and reading of John allows us more direct understanding of who Jesus is. It is much more theological and therefore makes statements about Jesus that the other Gospels cannot make.

Today’s text is one of those statements about Jesus. John the Baptist says, “I have been telling you that I am not the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. That person is coming after me. I do not know him, but I have been baptizing people because through baptism I knew I would be able to recognize who the messiah is. And I found him; it is that guy over there. I saw the spirit of God descend from heaven and alight on that one. You see, I was told that the one the spirit alighted on and stayed would be the messiah, so I know that is the messiah. He is the lamb of God, the one who will be the sacrifice for the world, the cosmos, and through him we will all be made right with God. Through him, the sins of our ancestors have been forgiven, and, through him, our sins will be forgiven too. See him, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the son of God.”

There is no kinship between John and Jesus recorded here as in the book of Luke and hinted at in the book of Mark. There is no understanding that John should be baptized by Jesus as in the book of Matthew. In the book of John, the way that John recognizes Jesus is by seeing the spirit of God come down and stay with Jesus. This seeing is not something that is John’s alone. We, the readers and hearers of this story, are invited to see, with John, Jesus who is the messiah, the Christ, the anointed, and, in that seeing, to enter into relationship with Jesus’ disciples and with Jesus himself. We are invited to see and to name Jesus as the one who takes away the sin of the world.

Last week we talked about how important Jesus’ first words were for the Gospel of Matthew. “Let us do so now, for it is proper, in this way, to fulfill all righteousness.” This week we get to hear Jesus’ first words in the book of John. “What are you looking for?” A more literal reading would be, “What are you seeking, or searching, for?”

John’s disciples reply with the question, “Teacher, where are you staying?” They are wondering, “Where are you teaching, what are you teaching, how are you teaching? What is it that you think is so important that is different from what John has been teaching? After all, we have been John’s disciples and have had a good relationship with him. Why should we become your disciples? By John’s testimony we believe that you are the Son of God, but what difference does that make?”

In response to the disciples, Jesus invites them to, “Come and see.” This seeing that Jesus invites them to is theaomai; this Greek word is the root of theater. This is not just a peek in kind of seeing, but an IMAX kind of experience. It is more than just looking; it is a come and have your world rocked, a sensory, amped-up, get involved looking/overwhelming feeling, kind of experience. It is a relationship that will involve all your senses: hearing the word, seeing Jesus’ interactions with others, smelling perfume, tasting wine and eating bread, and putting fingers into the holes in Jesus’ side and hands. We will go to weddings and to homes in the night, we will go to the temple and to the cleansing pools of the city. We will smell the odor of the poor and the diseased, and we will hear the distant sound of Roman authority in fear. Throughout the Gospel of John, we will see “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” reach out to people to establish and create new relationships of healing trust and hope. We will see the master gardener sow seeds of caring and compassion. We will see Christ stand before us as shepherd, gate, vine, and bread. We will witness Christ on the cross challenging our hearts and minds with claims of truth, life, and light.

Indeed, what are you seeking? What do you want to know about this Jesus who stands before you? What difference can he make in your life?

Jesus invites John’s disciples and us to, “Come and see.”

And so, when Andrew sees who Jesus is, he runs to report what he has seen, discovered, found. He goes to his brother Simon to bring him to what he has found: the messiah, the Christ, the anointed One of God. And the divine theater begins. “You are Simon. From now on you will be Cephas, and for the sake of you who don’t know Aramaic, that is Peter in Greek, and for those of you who don’t know either Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, that is rock in English. You are the rock, the living foundation stone on which I will build.”

Jesus began to build with Simon Peter. It is not something that is done and completed; it is an ongoing building project that requires sweat equity, sacrificial living, and the hands of many. Come and see. Look around yourselves right now. For, in the midst of our lives, in the midst of our worship, Christ interrupts our comfort zones and invites us to see ourselves, the Church that has been built and the Church that continues to be built in the evangelizing relationship of the world of need, in the presence of the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus Christ, the son of God, our savior and Lord.

So, with Andrew, who accepted Jesus’ invitation and went to see, we too see Jesus, the Lamb of God, and find the Messiah. We too need to ask ourselves, who do we want to tell of our great find? Who do we want to invite into this relationship we have in the lamb? Who will benefit from our news of what is the Good news for God’s people? Who can we invite with Christ’s words, “Come and see.”

I now return you to your regular local programming already in progress.

BAD: MEANING of LAMB OF GOD

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET            INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

BAD: MEANING of LAMB OF GOD

Dateline: Jordan Creek, Holy Land?, January 15, 01:29:42

Matt Hughes

As the United States prepares to inaugurate a new president, new findings at Jordan Creek reveal helpful and hopeful words as we move into a new world of information gathering. It appears that even in Jesus’ time there were issues with party defections and veracity.

At the Biblical Archeology Digest (BAD) site, archeologist O. Toby Norske, coordinator, shared that the latest rune stone transcriptions reveal political forces within the anti-establishment reformers. Jesus left the extreme wilderness people, known as “acid heads”, to form his own reform party where he is addressed with the back-to-nature name “Rabbit”.

Ayne Shent, a Norwegian antiquity scholar with BAD said, “Some of the back to nature, locust-eating, honey-dipping moderates chose the messy life with Jesus rather than the sticky ways of John.”

This new way of living had some issues too. One of the new Reform Party followers had problems with disclosure. In the name of full transparency, Jesus outed this follower saying, “You are called Simon, aka Cephas, aka Peter, aka Rocky, aka The Fish.” Norma L. Prankster said, “This last name clears up much of Church history. There were claims this early head-over-heels party leader was the Bish of Rome. We now know that he was known as the Fish of Rome. I wonder if he was related to Abe Vigoda.”

As information continues to come in from the BAD site, a more complex political scene is unfolding. Jesus, as the head of the reform party, was known as the LAMB of GOD.  Rather than being a title of divination, Shent claims it appears to be an acronym for “Lakes & Agriculture Management Bureau of Glaciated Oversight Districts”, akin to the DNR today.

When asked how these records help us understand the complexities of olden times and the general outlook of the world today, Shent said, “Well, we now know that speaking truth was clearly an issue even at the time of these writings.” BAD has gained knowledge from studying the runes and sifting through various errata. Shent shared, with a certain degree of certainty, that the central wisdom from the passage they finished recently reads, “Look here der, the L.A.M.B. of G.O.D., who takes away the spin of the world.” As she was packing up, Shent said, “Lord, have mercy. Even in those days they were trying to find truth in government.”

 

Show-and-Tell, Matthew 3:13-17

Today is the first Sunday in Epiphany. The word “Epiphany” comes from two Greek words, epi, which means “on,” or “to,” and phainein, “to show.” The Day of Epiphany was Friday, and the reading for the day is always the story of the wise men honoring Jesus as the king of our lives and giving him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This is the season of God-made-known, expressed in unexpected ways and places that bring hope and new life in defiance of death.

It is what I like to call the ultimate show-and-tell time, well maybe the penultimate or second best show-and-tell next to Easter. It is bigger than Christmas Eve, in a sense, because the shepherds are, after all, just shepherds, and while they tell the Jewish people of all that they had seen and heard, the wise men represent the gentile world coming to honor or worship Jesus as king, or Lord of all.

 In this show-and-tell season, we will also see Jesus being baptized. We will hear him preach to the people on the mountain, and from a mountain we will witness Jesus talking with Elijah and Moses. But before we enter too far into this joyous season, let us take some time to review what has been happening in Matthew’s Gospel. We have read some of the things in worship since Advent began, some things are generally known to us, and maybe some things are not often thought about.

Thus far, in the book of Matthew, we have been presented with the great genealogy of God’s chosen people that begins with Abraham and ends with Joseph. We have heard how Joseph, guided by dreams, chooses to take Mary for his wife because of God’s work through the Holy Spirit. We know the story of the wise men who saw a star appear in the heavens at the time of Jesus’ birth; and after traveling for some time (as much as two years), they ask King Herod about the newborn king (supposing they will find a king among kings). We know also that the wise men, finding Jesus at home in Bethlehem, recognize him as king and give him royal gifts. We know that the wise men, directed by an angel, journeyed home by a different route to avoid King Herod’s wrath. We know of King Herod’s rage and his slaughter of all the children in Bethlehem two years old and under.

In the midst of the comings and goings of these different groups of people, in the midst of political intrigue, in the midst of joys and sorrow, Joseph, led by dreams, moves his family, first to Egypt and then to Nazareth, in Galilee, where Jesus grows up. At the same time, another person is living among God’s people who discerns God’s activity in the currents of time and history. His name is John, and he is actively working to prepare God’s people for receiving and recognizing God’s presence through repentance and cleansing in baptism.

That brings us to today’s gospel. John is proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has drawn near and that God’s people need to rethink their relationship with God. He is baptizing (cleansing, or anointing with water) those who are able to embrace this new way of thinking, those who are committed to changing the way they live in relationship with God, when the cause for that change, Jesus, appears before him. What a show-and-tell moment!

We are not surprised to see a subject of the king submit to the authority of the king. Therefore, we are not surprised that John might think that he should be baptized by Jesus. And, knowing Jesus to be sinless himself, we are puzzled by Jesus presenting himself to be baptized. Why should Jesus need this baptism of repentance? Confused, with John, we wonder in greater scope, not just whether John should be baptized by Jesus but whether the whole world shouldn’t be crowding in to be baptized by Jesus.

Then, with the first words Jesus speaks in this Gospel, Jesus tells John and us something that will direct much of the conversation that we will be having throughout the rest of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ teaching, trial, death, and resurrection life. Jesus’ first words in this gospel are: “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”

This statement seems so mundane. In fact, for all my life I have generally passed over these words thinking that they were divine theo-speak or God-talk for “I know, I know, but this is what is expected of me, so let’s get it over with.”

Indeed, until this year, I have always jumped past them to the big words and drama—the heavens opening, the dove descending, those stentorian words, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” It seems so natural to go to God’s great endorsement of Jesus. “This is my son.” After that, it’s like “Well, there you have it. God said it; I believe it. What more is there to say? Go home knowing that God has spoken. Thanks be to God.”

But God’s words are only the final stamp of approval. They follow at the end of a long series of revelations. That is why there is a genealogy, Joseph’s acceptance of the angel’s words, the new star that shines in the heavens, the witness of the Wise Men, even the rage of Herod, and the exodus of the Holy Family to Egypt and back again. All of this speaks to Jesus being the one who saves, our Emmanuel, God revealed to us as human among humans.

Although this dramatic event is recalled in all the Gospels, Jesus’ words, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness”, are recorded only in Matthew, and somehow, they get passed over, even ignored. Matthew must think that they are important because it would be so easy to leave them out.

So what does “all righteousness” mean. Back in Advent, we talked about righteousness because Joseph was a righteous man. We talked about righteousness as being living by the law and doing God’s justice. Today we discover that there might even be more. What might it mean to fulfill all righteousness? Elizabeth Achtemeier writes, “’Righteousness,’ throughout the Bible, is the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship.” So, fulfilling all righteousness has something to do with living into the demands and expectations required of the relationship we have with God.

If it is expected that all people should be baptized, then Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us as being, truly human, must also be baptized. But is it necessary? Douglas John Hall, in his book, God and Human Suffering writes, “Though sinless himself, Christ suffers the consequences of sin, i.e., he suffers temptation, alienation, anxiety, and limitation.” As such, Jesus’ baptism models a new relationship for dealing with both the dying to the causes of sin and a sustaining relationship transcending the consequences of sin. This new relationship includes forgiveness, grace, mercy, presence, peace and wholeness, and eternal life.

At Bible camp one year, I was the counselor for a group of boys who ranged from eight to thirteen years old. Many of them were openly challenging the rules of safety established by the camp. I had determined that violators of the law would suffer the punishment of having to clean the bathroom beyond their usual daily cleaning responsibilities. As an incentive, I told them that if they were good, I would clean the bathroom.

Each day, one group or another of my boys managed to get in trouble. By the end of the week all of the boys had had an opportunity to learn the skills of cleaning the bathroom except two eight-year-old boys who were particularly compliant in all things.

The night before we were to go home, these two boys came to me. They looked embarrassed. They had difficulty looking at me. They were shuffling their feet and mumbling a lot. Finally, I asked them if there was a problem? One boy finally looked at me and asked, “How bad do we have to be in order to clean the bathroom tomorrow?” I told them that questioning my judgment about punishments was enough.

The next day, these two boys started cleaning the bathroom. The others came and asked what those two had done to deserve it? When the two boys refused to answer, the older boys began to think that those two had really done something wrong. And then, one by one, the older boys said something like, “Let me help you with that.” Before I knew it, all fourteen boys were in there cleaning, scrubbing and sweeping the bathroom. My two eight-year-olds were grinning from ear-to-ear. Somehow, the demands of the relationship of belonging included cleaning the bathroom, and they had made the grade. That time, fulfilling all righteousness included cleaning the bathroom.

I was proud of my boys that week at camp. They had found a way to value each other without exception. Jesus’ statement claims that fulfilling all righteousness includes baptism and models a new way of living together in relationship with one another. I can’t help but think that God’s endorsement of Jesus’ work at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is no less proud.

In the coming weeks, we will witness Jesus fully entering into our world where he will suffer all of the consequences of sin, but he will also show-and-tell new ways of being in relationship with one another. He will preach new ways of thinking about the law. He will teach new ways of thinking about giving value to all of God’s creation and the people in it. He will model new healing ways of wholeness that will challenge the way we live. In all of this, Jesus will challenge the way we think about death and our eternal relationship with God.

So, let us begin our time of learning the new demand of this new relationship we have with God and one another. Let us stand before the world in this show-and-tell time of Epiphany to claim God’s word revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. “Let us do so now, for it is proper, in this way, to fulfill all righteousness.” And fulfilling all righteousness, let the mercy, redemption, and liberation of God’s rule cover the world as Christ’s baptismal waters have covered us.

Minnesota Finds Jesus

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET            INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

MINNESOTA FINDS JESUS!!!

Dateline: Jordan Creek, Holy Land?, January 8, 03:13:17

Matt Hughes

Among many in the Ole Land, it has long been believed that Jesus was Norwegian, but, until recently, little evidence has been found for that. Now breaking archeological news from BAD (Biblical Archaeology Digest) reveals that Jesus may have very well been Norwegian. That is still inconclusive, but more importantly, Jesus IS from Minnesota.

According to the BAD archeologist heading up this recent dig, O. Toby Norske, the before unknown collection of rune stones found in Fillmore county, Minnesota, indicates that the baptism of our Lord occurred on the North American continent. The team was first intrigued by the solar alignment of the stones. The first comparison of the writing was to aboriginal first nation petroglyphs. Norske said nothing came of that.

Although not a member of the dig team, Ayne Shent (St. Olive, ‘02), one of BAD’s Norwegian antiquity scholars, looked at the stones and suggested that they could be ancient runes. Templates of other runic writings were calibrated to the exact size of the writings on the stones and then properly oriented to accommodate lithographic shifting. Norske enthusiastically said, “Hoorah! We were able to read the message of divine providence that was left for us.”

In an aside, Norske confessed, “You know, some people still think they are just a bunch of rocks with random scratches on them” before he explained that this runic find corrects several scribal errors in the Greek editions of the New Testament. The letter to Philemon should more accurately be read the letter to Fillmore. Instead of Galilean, the runes show gal-o-Lena. Norske interprets this to mean that Mary’s mother’s name was not Anna or Hannah as previously thought. He explained, “Now we can more fully understand that Jesus went to gal of Lena who is Mary. This really helps us understand the humanity of Jesus as he was growing up. How natural it is for a young boy to go to his mother in times of trouble as Paul wrote concerning Jesus’ early life:

‘whenifindmyselfintimesoftroublemotherMarycomestomespeakingwordsofwisdomLetitbeandinmyhourofdarknesssheisstandingrightinfrontofmespeakingwordsofwisdomLetitbeiwakeuptothesoundofmusicmotherMarycomestomespeakingwordsofwisdomLetitbe’”.

Norske believes this passage demonstrates the prime paradigm of the Biblical mother-son relationship and facilitates our understanding of that daily “mother and child reunion that is only a moment away”. He further declared, “It also leads to a greater understanding of Jesus’ willingness to die for us—“’Let it be’.”

When asked how interest got started in this project, Norske responded, “All of this got started because of the account of Jesus’ baptism. Some textual variants suggested that the baptism wasn’t at the Jordan River, but the Jordan Creek. And you can tell from the story that John and Jesus are very close and respect one another. They are just so darn polite, just like Minnesotans. You can almost hear their conversation that day. ‘I should be baptized by you.’”

“’No, I should be baptized by you.’”

“’No, I should be baptized by you.’”

“’No, I should be baptized by you.’”

“’No, I should be baptized by you.’”

“’No, I should be baptized by you.’”

“And after that issue is resolved, you can just see them, on that clear January day, standing on the banks of Jordan Creek saying, ‘After you, cousin.’”

“’No, after you.’”

“’No, after you.’”

“’No, after you.’”

“’No, after you.’”

“’No, after you.’”

“’No, after you.’”

 “I mean, it just warms your heart to think of them going out there with their ice axes and saws to prepare a place for the baptism. You can tell how refreshing it was too. The shout they must have made opened the heavens and scared a local pigeon right out of the sky.”

Norske admitted many of the textual variants are slight. He indicated the clearest textual difference found among the stones is God’s approving words of Jesus. It appears that the rune account says, “Ja, hey der. Lookin’ pretty good der, lille buddy!”

When asked about what she thought of the importance of the find, Norma L. Prankstor said, “This find helps us understand the old story concerning the lack of Minnesotans in heaven.” She was referring to a local legend concerning the first Minnesotans at the pearly gates. It is believed that one of them held open the gate for those who were coming after, waving them through and everyone was stepping aside saying, “No, after you.” Prankstor added, “It [the story] means so much more to me now. It really makes you think, y’know?”

A new BAD site dig in nearby St. Peter hopes to discover whether St. Lucy might be a Minnesotan too. Gustolphus Adavus enthusiasts are hopeful.

Transition Time Matthew 11:2-11

So much of what we do each day is based on our expectations, and those expectations give order to our lives. Over the years, we have developed specific tools for keeping our expectations in check. The most common tool is our calendar. As the days go by in our lives we know what to expect by those all too common symbols—year, month, date, hour. With this simple device, we manage our life expectations.

Just a test. What year is this? What month is this? What day is this? Now for the trick question. What season is this?

Because of the answers you gave to these questions, I can know some of the expectations that determine how you live. Now the expectation that you are going to hear a good sermon today may not be realized, but I’m guessing that many of your other expectations will be.

For instance, you probably came expecting to participate in the liturgy, to confess our sins and to hear the words of forgiveness. You probably expect to profess your faith using the creed. You expect to come to the Lord’s table to be nurtured and strengthened in your faith. You also expect these things to happen in a usual and orderly manner. And these expectations will probably be met.

But when our expectations are not met, our emotional, psychological, and spiritual sense of well-being may be upset. We may feel disappointed, tense, off-balance, wronged, even angry. In general, we may just feel out of sorts. That sense of unbalance will continue until the old order is restored, or until we become accustomed to the new way of doing things.

This last week, Sue had eye surgery. Because of her overall eye condition and eye sight and because she is getting to that age when cataracts begin to inhibit sight anyway, the doctor thought that it was probably time for lens replacements. Because of her extreme astigmatism, the doctor recommended a new and improved type of lens called the toric lens.

We were expecting better vision after the surgery, but no one could predict exactly how much better. We were pleasantly surprised Friday afternoon when Sue read the 20/20 line without any trouble. Now she is looking forward to the next surgery to be done on her other eye. By Christmas she may have a whole new outlook on life.

Of course, there are times when our expectations are not met. Some of those unfulfilled expectations are going to be devastating, life-changing events. When we encounter these expectation challenges, we usually describe them with words like: disease, possibly terminal illness, addiction, mental illness, divorce, death, maybe bankruptcy. In those times, other expectation systems may come into play. We may expect to be shunned or shamed, or we may expect our circle of friends to gather around us. Hopefully, in those devastating, life-changing times of failed expectations, we find support, and, in those times of severe loss, we continue to know Christ’s presence in our lives. The knowledge of support and Christ’s presence can make all the difference between being able to make the transition from what our old expectations were to what the new reality is.

Our texts today address this world of expectation and transition. Let me briefly frame the context for these passages.

Isaiah 35 talks about the transition time between leaving the captivity of Babylon and returning home on the Holy Highway to Jerusalem. It anticipates the road God’s people will travel from Persia (modern Iran) through the wilderness of new life in the land God gave them after the first exile in Egypt.

Echoing the joy of this return, we hear the words of praise in Psalm 146. “Happy are those whose help and hope is in the Lord God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers and upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked, God brings to ruin. The Lord, our God will reign for all generations, that is forever! Praise the Lord!”

In James, we are cautioned about over-exuberance and to be patient, discerning God’s work in our lives, to wait with expectation for God’s justice to be done.

As-much-as these texts talk about the dreams and expectations of God’s people, they are greater dreams than the reality of their world will admit. The Holy Highway will lead God’s people home, but there will be some who are lost on the way. The desert won’t bloom more gloriously that year, and, as-far-as I know, the leopard and the lamb are still having issues. The justice spoken of in Psalm 146 continues to be a dream of what is possible in God’s kingdom rather than the reality we live in so we hear these words from James with a certain amount of sighing and irritation. Patient? How long, O Lord?

Part of our difficulty in seeing God’s Holy Highway, of seeing God’s creative work among us, is that we want the big picture. We want the great acts of God—those Bible movie special effects acts that make the bad guys shake in their boots, witnessing God’s righteous people being saved from whatever it is that assails them—but God continues to work without considering our expectations.

I know I have said this before, but how we think of God determines what we think about God. If we think that God created the world and everything in it and then stepped aside to watch the world from a distance, or maybe God went off to create something else and left the world to be on its own because God was bored with the last project, then what we think about God is going to be limited to God’s initial work and fascination of the new world things but not the maintenance of the world. If we think that God is involved with planning every detail of creation and the lives of all the creatures including humanity, then God is not only responsible for all the good things that happen to us, but all the bad things too. God caused those bad relationships and our suffering. God wanted the car accident to happen so that people would die or be crippled for life.  If we think that God is always going to take care of us and keep us safe, then, when things don’t go the way we think they should, or when we find ourselves in dangerous places, we wonder whether God cares about us or whether we are being punished for something we did wrong. So, you see, our expectations of God determine whether we can even know God’s work and presence in our world today.

This is the situation John is in when he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one? Or, are we to wait for another?” John’s problem in today’s reading is that his expectations of God and how God will act do not match up with what Jesus is doing. John is living in a world that is thinking, “If God is going to come and be one of us, and God is all powerful, and God’s preference is towards God’s chosen people, and God’s chosen people are being oppressed by the nasty Romans, then God should have a certain amount of power and authority to defeat the Romans and establish God’s chosen people as the rulers of the world.” Right?

Instead of that powerful, vengeful God, Jesus tells John’s disciples that they are going to need to rethink how they think about God. That the God who created the world is also the one who continues to be in relationship with all of creation and continues to create new things in new ways, with new relationships. Jesus demonstrates another way of knowing how God is present in the world, not as conqueror or oppressor, but as healer and worker of justice, of lifting-up the forgotten into new ways of living. And beyond that, Jesus challenges us all to rethink the roll of prophet. Yes, John is a prophet, but he is more than that. A prophet is called up from the midst of God’s people to speak as an advocate for the poor and the afflicted, to claim justice for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. John does this, but John also announces God’s presence among us—God’s Word revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells John’s disciples to tell, that is, bear witness, to what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers (unclean) are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them.

This is not a world of power to kill and vengefully overthrow. This is the power of healing presence. It is that other Psalm 146 expectation image of God. It is the vulnerable image of God that walks with us knowing our weaknesses, our disappointments, and hurts. It is the God who gives vision to the blind even if they can’t physically see. It is the God who makes sure the lame travel with the rest of God’s people even if they can’t walk. It is the God who cleanses the unclean in his own blood. It is the God who speaks in the silence that only the deaf can hear. It is the God who forgives us when we were dead in sin and raises us up into new ways of living. It is the God who says that poverty is not divine punishment, but an opportunity for the wealthy to share, for the world to recognize that life is not about us individually, but about the relationship of God and one another as we were first created: in God’s image.

This God of healing also works through the lives of others. The gift of sight that Sue is receiving comes through the gifted hands of a surgeon who is God’s child also. With artificial joints and limbs, the lame can walk and the maimed are given restored abilities. Through medicine and therapy those with diseases are treated and healed. Through our caring, the forgotten and the poor are given value. Do these things happen because Jesus is touching and speaking them whole? Well…?

With John, we are asked, “What are our expectations of God? Are those expectations realistic, or do we need to look for, to recognize, God’s presence and activity in our lives differently? Who is this Jesus? What difference does he make in the way we live our lives together?

In times of transition, we all come with certain expectations. When we are growing up, the times of transition are regular and often. There will be some disappointments along the way, but in general, life continues as it should unless something really big comes along to change everything. That change may be physical or psychological. It could be something that completely changes the way you think of and interact with creation—like finding out that the earth is round; or finding out that the sun is the center of the universe; or that we do not live in a universe at all, but a cosmological multiverse. Or maybe, that God has come to live among us as one of us.

During this transition time of Advent, we come with John in the prisons of our own limited thinking, asking with him, “Are you the one we are expecting?” For the question of who this Jesus is is a question that every generation needs to ask and answer. We have to keep asking the question because our world keeps changing. It is this issue of change that demands us to continue to rethink and proclaim who God is and what our relationship with God is going to look like in the coming years.

As the first week of Advent considered the time of when the Son of Man will come and the second week considered our wilderness time together, so it is that this week we consider the transition time of where we have been and where we are going. Of what in God’s name are we doing here? It is a time to consider what our expectations of God are, and then what are God’s expectations of us?

So, tell what you hear and see. If you aren’t hearing anything, make some noise that proclaims Christ’s presence among us! If you aren’t seeing anything, point out God’s activity to those who are also looking and walk in God’s healing justice ways.

FASHION FOODIES GET POLITICAL

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET                           Early Edition

Dateline: Capernaum, December 11, 11:01:15
Matt Hughes

FASHION FOODIES GET POLITICAL

In an unexpected turn, Jean Baptiste, supermodel and NU-Food spokesperson, stepped beyond his eco-lifestyle message, commenting on governmental leaders’ profligate living and including charges of sexual improprieties and abuses These charges have resulted in Baptiste’s arrest and confinement in an area prison pending trial.

In a display of bravado, Baptiste told loyal fans to find “the new message guy.”

It turns out that the new message guy may just be Baptiste “bon ami” creator and designer for Kingdom of Dodd LLC, Joshua Kristy. When questioned early this afternoon about whether Kingdom of Dodd monies would be used for Baptiste’s defense, Kristy replied, “No comment.” But, responding to persistent questioning, Kristy finally confronted fans and reporters. What follows is the full text of his outburst.

“The state of our nation is in serious trouble. We are consuming our natural resources at an alarming rate without proper checks and balances. We are strangling ourselves with our air pollution, irrigating desert land that is unsustainable for future population growth. We poison ourselves using our precious life sustaining water in order to maximize crude oil production without considering what future generations will do.”

“My God, when will the people learn that it is not about things? It’s not about walls that separate us from one another. It’s simply all about people! People are suffering. We need medical care that will serve the needs of all people so that the blind can regain sight, the crippled can walk, the deaf can hear, that diseases will be cured or at least treated. We need an education system that is equipped to train and educate people of all ages; to meet the needs of all our children, including those who are impoverished or have disabilities that can’t be cured; not just some trumped up system that benefits the privileged few.”

“We need to reach out to the invisible people of the world. You know, the people we would rather not acknowledge in our world—those who are not treated any better than the dead—and raise them up into our world, benefiting from the gifts and ideas that they bring to our table. We need to address the oppressive conditions of poverty, the paralyzing stigmas of sexism, racism, and yes, xenophobia.”

“One of the reasons I  got involved with Kingdom of Dodd in the first place was because of Dodd’s commitment to sustainable living practices that promote better world relationships to live in. I thank Dodd and all people who stand with me in this cause and build no fence against me.”

“And now that you got me started, did you think that this was just about a photo op? Did you think that this was just a gig for a weed smoker blowing wind? Did you think that it was just about fashion? “

“This project was not about reward and profit. Jean’s wardrobe was a commitment to waging war on unhealthy living. I admire him for the stand that he has taken, and I am committing myself and all of Dodd’s kingdom resources to continue and expand what he has started. Living in our world without considering the long-term consequences of our lifestyles does violence against our world and promotes violent greed and usurpation. I’m deadly serious about this, I’m not just joshin’.”

Wilderness Time, Matthew 3:1-12

Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve? Do you remember the story of Moses and the Israelites passing through the Red Sea to freedom? Do you remember hearing the story of the Babylonian exile and how Cyrus freed God’s people to return to Judea and Jerusalem to rebuild the temple? Do you remember the day that Jesus was baptized and how God spoke as Jesus was coming up out of the water? And, do you remember the story of the crucifixion and how the tomb was empty on that first, early Easter morning?

Today I am here to tell you that each of these major faith events was followed by a wilderness experience. The same wilderness that we find John in today.

Last week I told you that Advent was all about time. Well, the time that we are going to be looking at today is wilderness time. Wilderness time in the Bible is really important time. It is the time when God’s people learn more about their relationship with God. It is the time God’s people learn to rely on God and the community God gives rather than relying on ourselves alone. It is an already-but-not-yet time of being released from the old life condition or situation but not knowing the reality of the new world we are living in.

 Adam and Eve, when they leave the garden, are dressed for success by God with leather clothing and then sent out to learn about their new relationship with God and one another. After passing through the Red Sea, Moses and the Israelites need to learn how to be God’s people in the world and how to live with one another. (I must admit that they were slow learners because it took them forty years to cover what should have taken forty days. Today it takes about eight hours in a car with lots of stops.)

After the Babylonian exile, we first hear the words of God’s highway in the desert, “A voice cries out in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord.” From the Babylonian exile, God’s people come home changed, with another new relationship with God and God’s people.

 And when Jesus was Baptized, the heavens opened and the division between God and God’s people was forever changed. Even Jesus went into the wilderness to learn about his relationship with the Father, as the Son of God, and with God’s people, as the Son of Man.

Yes, and just before the Baptism of Jesus, John comes to us in that already-but-not-yet wilderness time. I am sure that you will be surprised to know that theology has a word for this kind of time. The word is proleptic time. In this proleptic time, John comes to us in the wilderness saying, “The kingdom of heaven HAS come near.” This is not some theoretical possibility that John is speaking of, it is already a fact. The kingdom is so near that in the verses that follow our reading today, Jesus comes to be baptized.

What is this Baptism of Repentance that John is talking about?  Repentance literally means to “re-think” or more appropriately, “wrap your mind around this instead of what you have been thinking.” It is a mindful life-changing way of doing things that allows reconciliation to be a reality.

So, in this wilderness time, John is challenging people to change the way that they think about God and their relationships with one another. John is asking them to put their old ideas of what it means to be God’s people aside for something new that is coming.

One of the sins that John is addressing, the reason he calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of vipers”, is that they believe they are more worthy to call themselves God’s elect by claiming Abraham as their ancestor.

Another sin is the people do not take seriously the laws God gave the Israelites in their earlier wilderness time to care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor, the blind, the lame, the deaf, and the maimed.

And, since we too seem to have so much trouble learning how to do that, we need to think about a world where God comes to be among us to teach and lead us into these new ways of living. In our wilderness time today, we are challenged to wrap our minds around a way of living which recognizes and names the issues of injustice in the world and of oppressive or abusive behavior we participate in in our daily lives. Then, regretting those destructive behaviors, we listen again to God’s desire for us to live in harmony and re-orient our lives so that our relationship with God and the community around us can go forward in a new direction.

Does this mean that we will be able to be reconciled with everyone? No! Jesus was never able to be, or even willing to be. reconciled with the power of the Roman Empire, but he made it possible for us to be reconciled with the true ruler of our world, this is Godself.

The reason that Jesus could not be reconciled with the Roman empire is that reconciliation is something that has to happen with all of the parties involved. If all parties are not willing to recognize the problem, or regret the outcome of previous conditions, then being able to reorient our ways of living together are not possible. Since the Roman Empire and the temple authorities were not able to recognize Jesus as God’s anointed, no regret was possible, and therefore re-orienting reconciliation could not take place.

Do not despair! We are reminded that the tree of life in our old ways has been cut down before. The temple has been destroyed, and the people of Jerusalem have been taken away as slaves to foreign lands, but, from the stump of that faith tree, a shoot of faith can grow. In this new growth of the stem there is hope, promise and joy.

Indeed, John tells us that the one who is coming, that is Jesus, will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. With this image, we foresee the Pentecost event. We recognize the fire as the purifying fire of the refinery, the fire that sterilizes and makes safe and good. Indeed, the winnowing fork is in his hand that will separate us from our sins and bring us into the granary, the Eden place where God’s relationship with us is made right again and our sins will be cremated and accounted to us no more.

In this wilderness time of Advent, we are called to bear the fruit of the tree from which we have gained new life, that is the cross. We are called to be the new shoot of faith growing up from the stump of old ways. We are called, in the darkness of our world, to be the welcoming light to those who are traveling in the dark.

And so, with the empty tomb, we recognize that God’s kingdom is not only near, but among us, and that we are living in that wilderness time of the already-but-not-yet, the wilderness time before our entry into the Promised Fullness of God’s Kingdom. We enter that world as the seeds of wheat not as the sheaves that have been harvested.  We enter the world as the harvest that is yet to be planted to be the new way of living with God and one another.

So may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in Christ Jesus, that we will always know hope in our wilderness time together.