Faithful Journey Toward a Hoped-for Future
August 28, 2016
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
15th Sunday After Pentecost – Proper 17
Jeremiah 2:4-13; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14
(Gospel Text provided below)
At the beginning of the summer, as we began our journey through Luke’s gospel, I said that if I had to pick a movie genre that best fit this gospel, it would be “supernatural.” Face it, the book is full of angels, healings, super-natural stuff, the whole bit. The gospel story on that day was about Jesus raising a man from the dead and it was told in only five verses.
I compared this matter-of-fact telling of the story to John’s elaborate gospel story about the raising of Lazarus. I explained that this difference in emphasis points to each author’s purpose for their gospel. John’s gospel is providing evidence in order to bring people to belief, or to reaffirm their belief, in Jesus as the Messiah. By contrast Luke’s telling isn’t intended to convert people, but instead, to shed a new light, a particular light, on Jesus’ message to an existing early Christian community.[i]
Luke provides an intentional message of salvation – a salvation that upends the status quo of his time. Jesus declares a ministry oriented to those without power.[ii] Where the lowly are raised up and the powerful brought down. Even more, Jesus is trying to remove those things that divide people, and restore those who have been excluded – the poor, the ill, the marginalized and the oppressed – and bring them back into the community.
At the risk of being a broken record, we see the same message from Jesus in today’s gospel lesson. Read the rest of this entry »
A Wide-Enough World for All
July 3, 2016
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
7th Sunday After Pentecost – Proper 9
2 Kings 5:1-14; Galatians 6:7-16; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
(Gospel Text provided below)
At the risk of breaking the rules about separation of church and state, I bid you a happy 4th of July weekend! As we’ve been journeying through Luke’s Gospel this summer, we’ve seen a narrative that shows Jesus confronting the established religious authorities. He challenges the practices that conflict with God’s dream for the world – were divisions are removed and God’s love is with, and for, everyone. Jesus is the one who will overturn the status quo, allowing the lowly to be raised up and the powerful brought down.
When you stop and think about it, we see some of the same elements in the Declaration of Independence. It was about breaking away from how things had been. The founding fathers were overturning the status quo, imagining a new way forward. Declaring boldly:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Now, we have to admit that there are some sticking points in this Declaration statement of 1776. The exclusion of women can’t be too surprising considering the highly patriarchal structure of that time. Yet more troubling is the reality of slavery that existed. These enslaved people were not seen as being created equal, or as being endowed with unalienable rights. So, I’ve come to understand why the 4th of July may not be the perfect celebration of liberty for our African American brothers and sisters. Read the rest of this entry »
Summer Lessons from Luke
June 5, 2016
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
Third Sunday After Pentecost – Proper 5
1 Kings 17:8-24; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17
(Gospel Text provided below)
As you may know, I am one of five kids in my family. Before we came along, my mom was a 3rd grade elementary school teacher while Dad was in law school. By the time Dad finished, they had had their first child and the rest, including me, weren’t far behind! So, when my parents moved back to Houston, my mom stopped teaching… in the classroom at least – she had plenty of her own pupils underfoot!
When we reached elementary school-age, Mom knew from her time as a teacher that it’s hard for kids to retain over the summer what they learned the previous school year. So at the beginning of each summer, she’d load us into the wood-paneled station wagon and we’d head to the Teacher’s Supply Store. Each of us would get two workbooks – one English and one Math – and we’d be expected to spend time each day doing workbook exercises. So, although it was summer break from school, it wasn’t a total break from learning. Read the rest of this entry »
A New Commandment
April 24, 2016
Christ Church Episcopal, Norcross, GA
5th Sunday of Easter – 8:00 am service
Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35
Earlier this month, on April 4th, I was listening to NPR as I was getting ready for my day. They were talking about this day being the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Each year, as part of the retelling of that story, an excerpt from his final speech, given the night before, is always included.
The year was 1968 and King was in Memphis, Tennessee speaking on behalf of the sanitation workers, among other things. In his speech he shared that the flight out of Atlanta that morning had been delayed because, knowing that King would be on-board, they had taken extra security measures to ensure the plane and its contents hadn’t been tampered with. King had also heard of threats after arriving in Memphis. Yet, in his speech on April 3rd, he ended with these familiar words:
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.
And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!”[i]
jodygreenwood 