June 14 is Pentecost 2B

Mon Jun 8 11:39:54 EDT 2009

Dear Gulf Coast Leaders,

June 14 – Pentecost 2B
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13  – Samuel anoints David and the Spirit falls mightily upon him.
or Ezekiel 17:22-24 – I will dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. The high tree will be brought low, and the low high.
 Psalm 20  – Some take pride in horses and chariots, but our pride is in the name of the Lord God. 
or Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15 - The righteous shall spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon. (Ps. 92:11)
 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 – We walk by faith and not by sight, at home in the body and away from the Lord. 
Mark 4:26-34 – The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which so small, yet grows and provides branches for the birds to make nests.

This Sunday's readings provide a smorgasbord of incredibly tempting homiletic opportunities.  

I Samuel gives us Samuel's anointing of David, a chance to delve into leadership, or continue musing on the work of the Spirit which we've started at Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity. Or Spirit-driven leadership as the Spirit 'falls mightily' on David.

The Ezekiel Hebrew Bible option gives us a chance to hold forth on the upside-down kingdom. Don Kraybill's book of the same name is a great resource. In the Kingdom green trees become dry and dry green. High is low and low is high. Rich become poor and poor rich. First last and last first. Jesus didn't invent the Sermon on the Mount ex nihilo. He's in a long line of prophetic tradition.

Psalm 20 reminds us not to put our trust in horse and chariot. Today we would say bombs and planes. It saddens me that we believe military solutions are the only, or best way to solve the world's problems. This is so opposite Jesus view. We claim to be a Christian nation but our foreign policy is not only un-Christian, it's anti-Christian. When we drop more food and medicine on developing countries than bombs, then we will be a more Christ-like nation. For the cost of one submarine the U.S. could provide fresh drinking water for the whole world for a decade. What does it say about us that we do not? Where is our outrage? For now, our hope seems still to be in the horse and chariot.

In his letter to the church in Corinth Paul displays a little Gnostic body/soul dualism. This is not to call him a heretic. It is only to say that Gnosticism is in the 1st-century air that everyone was breathing back then. To be in the body means to be away from home in the Lord. Do not gratify the desires of the flesh. Spirit willing. Flesh weak.  Spirit=good. Flesh=bad. Athanasius may have won the argument finally but Marcion's not such a bad guy. Read his stuff. He makes good points.  Read the heretics before vilifying them. Remember, Luther and Hus were heretics. In any case, Paul would have us do what Jesus emphasized: Look beyond the material. Life is more than food and clothing. Seek first the kingdom. Walk by faith, not by sight. Be led by the Spirit (mightily like David).

Finally, we start this summer's slow march through Mark 4, 5, 6... This week the well-known mustard seed saying that Luke and Matthew expand upon. Even the most picky historical and narrative critics concede that a man named Jesus actually preached about a mustard-seed kingdom many years ago. Some may remember the book 'The Mustard Seed Conspiracy.' A good review that ties Jesus' preaching into the Great Commission.

In other words, the gospel is a first a tiny thing, like leaven, but explosive in effect. Paul said in Romans 1 he was not ashamed of the gospel, for it was a power... The Greek noun is 'dunamis,' the word from which we get our word dynamite. Paul had found the gospel to be an explosive force. As did the whole early church as the gospel spread like wildfire, engaging everyone: Roman citizens, slaves, women, prisoners. Lives were changed. Hope flowed. Communities were formed. This grass-roots radically egalitarian movement of love would explosively sweep the Roman world, defying horse and chariot, resisting every effort to stamp it out in favor of a top-down empire worldview. Less than 500 years later Rome would fall, but the church would continue. Dunamis. Even from a jail cell Paul knew the world was on the verge, groaning in labor, about to turn.

The reformers knew that the institution of the church was not this movement. The historical church was wherever the powerful, mustard-seed gospel word was preached and the sacraments (the visible word) were duly administered. Are you preaching that gospel this Sunday? Do you trust that if preached in its fullness, that gospel, all by itself, will have an explosive affect in your city? Are you preaching the full gospel, one that will set hearts on fire, set souls free, upset the system, turn upside-down the social order, ruffle feathers, and maybe get you crucified? If our sermons don't upset anyone or anything, is the gospel being preached in purity? If our homiletic imperative is, 'Whatever you do don't make anyone mad,' because, after all, they're paying our salary, putting bread on the table, will the word lose its dynamite-like power? 

We've all seen the seed gospel take hold of a life. It's small at first. Someone hears a word of grace and feels hope, sees things with new eyes. Jumps in the baptismal waters and grows. It's exhilarating to watch, be a part of. It's what I live for, what makes all this ministry stuff worthwhile - watching the mustard seed of faith grow into a tree and bear fruit. It's... dynamite.  

Peace,

Mike Rinehart, bishop

June 21 – Pentecost 3B
1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49 – David and Goliath: The Lord who saved me from the lion and the bear will deliver me from this Philistine.
or I Samuel 17:57 - 18:5, 10-16 – Jonathan loved David. Saul tries to kill David.
                 or Job 38:1-11 – The Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind: Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
 Psalm 9:9-20  – The Lord judges the nations.
or Psalm 133  – How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.
or Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32 - God stilled the storm and quieted the waves of the sea. (Ps. 107:29)
 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 – Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation. We have endured beatings, riots, hunger, imprisonment…
 Mark 4:35-41 – Jesus asleep in the boat, wakes and calms the sea: Peace. Be still.

June 28 – Pentecost 4B
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27  – David mourns for Saul, the glory of Israel, and for Jonathan: Your love to me surpassed the love of women.
or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24 – God did not make death. God does not delight in death. Death came into the world through the devil.
 Psalm 130  - I will exalt you, O LORD, because you have lifted me up. (Ps. 30:1) 
or Psalm 30  – God’s anger is for a moment; his favor for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night but joy comes in the morning.
or Lamentations 3:23-33 – The steadfast love of the lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

2 Corinthians 8:7-15 – During a severe ordeal of affliction, the Macedonians joy and poverty overflow in a wealth of generosity.
Mark 5:21-43 – Inclusio: Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage. 

July 5 – Pentecost 5B
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10  – The elders make a covenant with David and anoint him. 
or Ezekiel 2:1-5 – Call of Ezekiel: Whether they hear or not, they shall know a prophet has been among them.
 Psalm 48 – The city of Zion is established forever.
or Psalm 123 - Our eyes look to you, O God, until you show us your mercy. (Ps. 123:3)
  2 Corinthians 12:2-10 – Paul’s out of body experience, and his thorn in the flesh. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 
 Mark 6:1-13 – A prophet is not without honor except in his own country. Jesus sends the twelve two-by-two.

July 12 – Pentecost 6B
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 – David dances before the ark in a linen ephod. 
or Amos 7:7-15 – Amos’ vision: God sets a plumb line amidst the people of Israel
 Psalm 24  – The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.
or Psalm 85:8-13  - I will listen to what the LORD God is saying. (Ps. 85:8)
 Ephesians 1:3-14 – The sentence that never ends: Blessed be God who chose us before the foundation of the world, destined us for adoption, as a plan for the fullness of time to gather all things in him…
 Mark 6:14-29 – Herod, Herodias and John the Baptist’s head on a platter.

July 19 – Pentecost 7B
2 Samuel 7:1-14a – David wants to build God’s house, but God will establish David’s house, his offspring.
or Jeremiah 23:1-6 – Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! The days are coming when I will raise up from David a righteous branch.
 Psalm 89:20-37 – I anointed my servant David, and my hand will always be with him.
or Psalm 23 - The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. (Ps. 23:1)
 Ephesians 2:11-22  – You uncircumcized were once strangers to the covenant, without hope, without God. You who were far off have been brought near. He has abolished the law with its commands and ordinances, that he might create one humanity out of two. No longer strangers. 
 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 – Jesus to his disciples: “Come away to a deserted place and rest for a while.” 
Hymns: No Longer Strangers (David Haas, from Gather)

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