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]Luke 24:1-12; Unspoken Expectations
Whether we realize it or not we all have expectations. When a football player enters the end-zone after a game-changing interception we expect a big team celebration. Presidential candidates are expected to kiss babies. When an application gets updated on your phone you expect new features and a new look. These and so many of the expectations of our daily lives are unspoken. No one really notices they even exist until they are not met. If a team casually walked away from the end-zone after a touchdown or a presidential candidate refused a baby, it would make the news. Take a moment sometime and read the reviews on the App Store. There are lots of unmet expectations being communicated – at varying degrees of eloquence and rationality – there.
Read more...Exegesis on Luke 24:1-12
Mary Magdalene and the other women disciples with her had followed the dead body of their Rabbi from the foot of the cross to the tomb on that Friday. On the Sabbath they mourned the loss of their great friend and teacher and prepared for the task of making Jesus’ body ready for burial at the new week. Early the first Sunday morning after the death of Jesus Mary expected to find the tortured body of her great mentor. She expected the difficult task of preparing a loved one’s body for burial. Though she was a disciple of Jesus, though she had seen him do many miracles, though she called him Lord, Mary did not fully understand who Jesus was. In the garden where the tomb Joseph of Arimathea had provided lay, Mary’s expectations of Jesus collided with the reality of who he truly was and her entire world changed.
Read more...The Caring Vinedresser
There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Silo′am fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
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One Body in Time and Space
Teresa Berger’s Women’s Ways of Worship was a surprising book for me. Based on the title alone, I approached the book cautiously, entirely expecting to push through an approach to liturgy I disagreed with. Though the final chapters of the book did live up to my initial expectations, in the first part of Berger’s work I found my mind opened to a new way of thinking about the architecture of time as it relates to bodies in worship of God. Though we worship together as the Body of Christ, each member of the Body comes with an embodied rhythm of life that experiences the liturgy in different ways.
Read more...Exegesis on Luke 13:1-9
On the surface Luke 13:1-9 is a little cryptic. There is a lot of talking about a lot of things that aren’t exactly clear or seemingly even related. Once the context of verses 1 through 5 have been made clear, however, its relationship to the parable of the fig tree becomes evident. Jesus is teaching the crowds that gather around him a lesson on God’s mercy towards fallen humanity and the expediency they should have for reconciliation with the Divine.
Read more...The Mystery of Reality
In this week’s readings, Edward Yarnold examines the initiatory sacramental actions of the church through the lens of the great 4th century theologians Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, and Theodore of Mopuestia. Though each of these theologians work in the era of the yet undivided catholic Church, they each bring their own personal and regional flavor to the meanings of the initiatory rituals of Christianity. Yarnold collected and translated the works of these great theologians in an effort to give richer background to post Vatican II liturgical reforms and catechetical programs within the Church.
Read more...Confess Christ with Hearts and Lips
The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For, “every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” - Romans 10:8b-13 (RSV)
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One in the Spirit
This week’s readings bring perfect support to the ideas brought previously by Metz, Schmemann, and others around the importance of communal anamnesis. In the previous week’s readings, the moment of the Eucharist became a central focus point for the theologians involved. It was especially in this moment that the mighty and merciful acts of God were remembered and the community stood in solidarity with the world. In Flesh of the Church, Flesh of Christ Tillard takes a deeper look into the idea of unity in the Christian tradition, focusing especially on how unity plays out in the Eucharist.
Read more...Luke 4:21-30; Challenging our Self-Centered Expectations
In today’s gospel reading we find Jesus attending worship at his home congregation in Nazareth for the first time since he left. One can almost imagine the scene as the familiar – and yet now somehow unfamiliar – Jesus takes his old place in the synagogue. The sweet elders of the congregation surround him, excited to hear how the boy they saw grow up has faired in the world. The men Jesus grew up with fish for stories of life outside of little Nazareth; tales of danger and adventure. For others, it is as if time hasn’t passed; Jesus is – frustratingly – still treated as the carpenter’s boy. As anyone who has left home for a time and then returned can attest, the scene Jesus finds himself in is already setup to be a charged situation. Jesus, however, has done a lot more than study a semester at Judah State or take a month abroad in Rome.
Read more...Schmemann and Christian Memory
This week’s reading focused first on the liturgical theology of Alexander Schmemann – chapter three of Anamnesis – moving on in chapter four to an engagement of Metz, Schmemann, and other theologians in a conversation about memory within the rituals of the Christian tradition. In chapter five’s conclusion, Professor Morrill ties the work of the many theologians engaged in the reading together and gives some practical suggestions on how to better reform liturgy to move worshipers to remembrance and action. I will summarize this week’s reading following the order of Anamnesis and then share two questions that came to my mind for our discussion.
Read more...Setting & Meaning of Luke 4:21-30
This chapter starts with a newly baptized Jesus being lead by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days. After being tempted by the devil and successfully overcoming him, Jesus returns to his ministry in Galilee teaching and healing as he goes. After an undisclosed amount of time, Jesus finds himself in his home village of Nazareth where he takes his customary place in the synagogue on the sabbath to read from Hebrew scripture. Jesus recites passages from Isaiah 61 and 58 pointing towards the purpose of his incarnation. Verses 21 to 30 all takes place within the synagogue and document the congregation’s reaction to Jesus’ proclamation of fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah and his interpretation of what their reactions will be to the reality of who he is contrasted to the reputation and expectations that have preceded him.
Read more...Great Nashville Snow of 2016
Like many in Nashville I went to bed on Thursday night expecting to awake to a lot of ice with a little dusting of snow. I knew MNPS would be closed for the day, but I completely expected to drive into work at my normal time.
When I awoke on Friday, I was excited to see inches of snow. Like any good Southerner I ran outside and took as many photos I could. I completely expected the snow to be melted by that afternoon. But, it didn’t. The snow just kept coming and coming. All morning and all afternoon it kept accumulating. By the time I went to bed on Friday, we were sitting at six to seven inches.
Read more...The Kenotic Faith Once Delivered
The Christian faith stands at an intersection of ritual, belief, history, and reality. In this tension theologians like Metz ask the uncomfortable questions those outside the faith readily ask and those within the faith would rather avoid. In an age of instrumental reason does the mysticism of Christian ritual and prayer have a place? Is the Christian faith more than assent to a list of dogmas? What is the Christian response to the history of human suffering and the present suffering peoples of the world?
Read more...The Origin and Purpose of the Revised Common Lectionary
The Revised Common Lectionary1 was published by the Consultation on Common Texts2 in 1992 after six years of testing and feedback from their original lectionary introduced in 1983. The purpose of the RCL was to revive a pattern for eschatological reflection in the church by focusing Christians each Sunday on where they exist in time, what has come before, and what will come at the end. By leading Christians through Christ’s “birth, baptism, ministry, death, and resurrection,”3 the RCL ultimately sought “to lead God’s people to a deeper knowledge of Christ and faith in him.”4
Read more...Response to the Articles of Relgion: Pt. I
As part of my journey to ordination I have been asked to share a short reflection on each of the 39 Articles of Relgion of the Church of England. I will share my reflections as I write them over the coming weeks. Today, I share my responses to articles one through six.
Article I: Of Faith in the Holy Trinity
There is but one living and true God, ever-lasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
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