Holy Textures

When The Spirit Comes, Pentecost Sunday, Year A, B, and C

Pentecost Sunday Sermon

Acts 2:1-21
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I want to begin my reflection today by asking you to recall the first time you saw a movie with special effects. … I’m old enough to remember seeing Cecil B. DeMille’s, “Ten Commandments,” when it was first released. Sitting in the darkened theatre as a child, watching Charlton Heston lead the people between the walls of raging water as they crossed the Red Sea. It was pretty amazing back then. But it was pretty primitive and hokey by today’s standards. Back then we could see the seam where the two images were glued together. Today, special effects must be seamless; must be an integrated aspect of the story.

Acts 2:1-21, Pentecost Sunday, Year A, B, and C

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This text stands as a book end to the story of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). In Babel, the story begins with one language and a common understanding and purpose, but ends with many languages, confusion and scattering. In Acts the story begins with many languages, and ends with many languages, but contains in the middle a common hearing about God's deeds of power (verse 11).

Unfortunately, unlike the story of Babel, this story does not contain within it any cautionary tale against human hubris. It is absolutely crucial in reading this text aright to truly pause and ponder the question asked in verse 12, "What does this mean?"

John 20:1-18, Easter Sunday

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One of the people I hope I get to meet in heaven is Mary Magdalene.

The four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John often differ in the details, but one thing they all have in common is that Mary Magdalene is the first to witness, believe, and testify about the empty tomb / the risen Jesus.

She is the first Easter Christian.

And then she disappears from the Biblical story

John 18:1 -- 19:42, Good Friday

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A personal aside to begin with ...
I have stopped using this text for Good Friday as the history of anti-Jew sentiment which generations of Christians have read into/from the text means that the only acceptable reflection on the text is the bitter irony that the story of "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" has been used by the Christian Church to legitimate the sin of the world - scape-goating, brutalizing and killing Jews.

Click here to read my comments on Mark's text for Good Friday, Mark 15:1-47 

Malina and Rohrbaugh ("M&R" in notes below), Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John, provide the best background that I know of to understand this text as John meant it, and as his first readers would have understood it - within their social / cultural context. And, how we misread it from our own times. The following comments are totally based on their book. I highly recommend it.

A couple of key intrepretive points to begin ...

My Annual Rant About The Resurrection and Science

Argh!

Every year at this time, some well meaning preacher or pundit is quoted as saying something like:

• Science explains the "how" but religion explains the "why;" or,
• Easter happens in the hearts of Jesus' followers; or
• Resurrection happens whenever the followers of Jesus embody the love / message / passion / purpose of Jesus; or
• The resurrection story is a metaphor that explains what is "true" about life, not facts that explain what is "real;" or
• The resurrection is a story about hope triumphing over despair; life over death; etc., etc.

Argh!

Why is it that for 51 Sundays of the year, we talk about Jesus and God as though they are both actually, really real, factually existing, but suddenly on this most central of Sundays we go all soft and speak only of "meaning," "values," "purposes," etc.

Matthew 2:1-12

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Verse  1 - "In the time of King Herod" This King Herod died in 4 BC.

             - "wise men from the East" They were astrologers, probably not kings.

Verse  2 - "observed his star at its rising" probably refers to a comet. "At its rising" could also be translated as "at the place of the rising of the sun, i.e., the east." Celestial events such as this were understood to be omens of the future. That this comet is understood to be a sign of the birth of a "child who has been born King of the Jews" is particularly frightening to Herod since HE is King of the Jews and this unknown child is a threat to him and his heirs.

Luke 2:1-20, aka: Luke 2:1-14, (15-20) or Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20

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Luke's historical details for the birth of Jesus are problematic.

Luke 1:5, "In the days of King Herod," who died in 4 BC.

Luke 2:1, "In those days a decree went out from Emperor (or Caesar) Augustus that all the world should be registered," places the birth anytime between 27 BC to 14 AD, the length of the very long reign of Augustus.

Luke 2:2, "This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria," places the date at 6 or 7 AD.

Most scholars agree that Luke and Matthew's reference to "In the days of King Herod," is the most reliable reference and that Jesus was born sometime before Herod's death in 4 BC.

Mark 13:24-37, Year B, Advent 1

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Note: For Advent, I am including comments on the First and Second Testament passages.

Isaiah 64:1-9 
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This lament is a good place to begin Advent.

Like most laments in the Bible, it begins with a deeply felt sense of God’s absence:

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!

Mountains would see you and shake with fear. And certainly our enemies would tremble. (Unlike now, where they oppress us with impunity.)

Then there is the re-collection of times past:

From ages past no one has heard, … a God like you.

Luke 1:26-38

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The history of the Church's reflection on the stories of Jesus' birth is probably as complicated and mysterious as the stories themselves. It is probably impossible for us to hear the birth stories - to "get" them - with same ears - the same understanding - as the first hearers would have.

For one thing, we need to remind ourselves that for many centuries the birthday of Jesus was not a major celebration in the church. The church does not exist because Jesus was born; it exists because Jesus was crucified, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Holy Week and Easter Sunday are the founding festivals of the church.

Matthew 14:22-33

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I love this story.

First, my usual warning NOT to get distracted by the special effects. Too often modern day preachers spend all their time trying to make the "miracle" seem scientifically plausible, and in effect explain away the significance of the story. Believing in God is already scientifically problematic, so instead of being plausible, invite your congregation to wonder.