The Bible Challenge: Week 4

Eight members of Christ Episcopal Church gathered tonight to continue The Bible Challenge (http://thecenterforbiblicalstudies.org/what-is-the-bible-challenge/). If you are joining us, here are the readings for this week. Remember, you can choose Track 1 (All The Readings), Track 2 (Just the New Testament), Track 3 (The Psalms), or any combination thereof:

Monday, January 28th: Day 22 – Exodus 4-6; Psalm 18:21-50; Matthew 19
Tuesday, January 29th: Day 23 – Exodus 7-9; Psalm 19; Matthew 20
Wednesday, January 30th: Day 24 – Exodus 10-12; Psalm 20; Matthew 21
Thursday, January 31st: Day 25 – Exodus 13-15; Psalm 21; Matthew 22
Friday,  February 1st: Day 26 – Exodus 16-18; Psalm 22; Matthew 23
Saturday, February 2nd: Day 27 – Exodus 19-21; Psalm 23; Matthew 24
Sunday, February 3rd: Day 28 – Enjoy hearing the Scriptures read aloud in church
On Monday, February 4th, the group will meet in the Sunday School building at 7:30 p.m. to discuss what we've read this week. In the mean time, or if you cannot join us this week, feel free to comment on this post with questions, thoughts, or whatever strikes you from this week's readings. If you comment, please remember to include your name in your comment.

Peace,

Nick Szobota +

Sermon for January 27th, 2013: "Fulfilling the Words"

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Luke 4:14-21

All quotations from scripture come from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, with the exception of the Psalms, which come from The Book of Common Prayer, 1979. Not all scripture passages from the lectionary may be quoted or referenced in a given Sunday's sermon. For more information on the lectionary used in The Episcopal Church, please visit http://www.lectionarypage.net/.

“Fulfilling the Words”

The Rev. Nicholas S. Szobota

January 27, 2013
Christ Church, West River, Maryland

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

The years and centuries following the age of exploration brought Christian missionaries from Europe to Africa, Asia, and the Americas. As Empires expanded, the European churches sent people to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the native populations of these other parts of the world. Of course, one can look back and realize that negativity and harm went hand in hand with imperial expansion and missionary efforts. At the same time, the missionaries’ own perspective would no doubt have been that they had a call from God to do some good for others. They endured hunger, long journeys, poverty, and separation from loved ones in order to share the news of God’s love with people who deserved to hear that message.

The impulse to share God’s message comes to Christianity from its Jewish roots. While Judaism does not actively seek conversion of outsiders, the prophets of the Hebrew Bible shared God’s message with their own people. Such an occasion occurs in today’s reading from Nehemiah. Ezra the priest, assisted by Nehemiah the governor and religious functionaries called Levites, reads the law of God to the Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem. These people had just been restored to the Promised Land by the Persians, who had conquered the Babylonians in the late 6^th century B.C. The Babylonians had sacked Judah and Jerusalem in 586 B.C., forcing most of the Jews into exile throughout the Babylonian Empire. With the restoration of the Jews to their land by the Persians, Ezra reads the law to the people as a sort of parallel to Moses and Joshua proclaiming God’s law when the Jews first entered the Promised Land after escaping Egypt and wandering in the wilderness.

The people needed to hear the law again, because they had been living in exile away from the land for which that law was meant. While various scribes and other leaders provided the exiled Jews with ways to keep the law in their exile, many of the commandments involved sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. Without the temple and sacrifices, the Jews could not follow these laws as they had before their exile. This kind of interpretation forms the basis of the rabbinic Judaism that has marked Jewish religion from then until today. Note also that hearing the law has a communal element: Ezra and Nehemiah tell the people to provide food and drink for those who lack means, so that all the people will have some way to celebrate this renewal ceremony (Nehemiah 8:10). Upon hearing God’s law, the people act to support their neighbors in need.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus gives a similar reading of Hebrew scripture that provides people with a sense of God’s call to them and their need to respond with action. In the synagogue in Nazareth, he reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah:

            The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

This passage comes from Isaiah 61:1-3. The bulk of Isaiah comes from the 8^th century B.C., but the portion quoted here most likely represents some material added later. This text probably comes from the late 6^th century B.C., not long after the events described in today’s reading from Nehemiah (Anderson, Bernhard W. Understanding the Old Testament. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998. p. 449).  Those who heard Jesus in the synagogue would have understood that God uses this kind of language to talk about restoring God’s people to the land that God promised them. The proclamation of good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed would speak to them of possible freedom from the Roman Empire, who was dominating Israel in their time.

Jesus’ hearers may have been excited to hear him say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 14:21). Perhaps they believed that God would work through him to throw off the oppressive Roman Empire. In any event, they and we might question God about the fulfillment of the words from Isaiah. Today, two thousand years later, the world still grapples with problems of poverty, oppression, physical and spiritual blindness, and so on. How, if at all, have these scriptures been fulfilled?

I ponder how they have been fulfilled in my life. When I think about how God has touched my life, I recall the ways in which God has touched me through Christian people in the church. I’ve had the benefit of being a part of a church sense I was a toddler. The first people to teach me the stories of God’s love were my parents, who told me about Jesus and Mary and Noah even as I heard children’s stories about the three little pigs or Goldilocks and the three bears. At church, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, and other mentors reinforced what I had started to learn at home. When I went to college, I was welcomed with open arms by the Episcopal Church located just off campus. I have found God’s promises fulfilled for me by the way God works through other people.

Each person here today might have a similar story. Who has been the fulfillment of God’s promises in your life? Once you think about that, think about how you might be that fulfillment for someone else: a neighbor or stranger in need, a member of your family, a friend. How might you proclaim God’s love for others? Often, that kind of thinking becomes just about how we might get more people into the pews. They are certainly welcome if they want to be a part of this church, but the proclamation of God’s love means more than just filling this church. The proclamation of God’s love means making a difference in people’s lives, and if people find the fulfillment of God’s promises in their lives that may very well lead them here.

Any piece of scripture, whether the laws read by Ezra or the prophecy of Isaiah read by Jesus, remains just words on a page without people to hear and respond. With no one to hear the laws of God’s love read by Ezra, the scriptures are just a text on a shelf. With no one to respond to the words of Isaiah, with no one to bring the word to fulfillment, it’s just a scroll. May God make us the fulfillment of these promises, as others have been for us. Amen.

The Bible Challenge: Week Three

Six members of Christ Episcopal Church gathered tonight to continue The Bible Challenge (http://thecenterforbiblicalstudies.org/what-is-the-bible-challenge/). If you are joining us, here are the readings for this week. Remember, you can choose Track 1 (All The Readings), Track 2 (Just the New Testament), Track 3 (The Psalms), or any combination thereof:

Monday, January 21st: Day 15 – Genesis 37-39; Psalm 13; Matthew 13
Tuesday, January 22nd: Day 16 – Genesis 40-42; Psalm 14; Matthew 14
Wednesday, January 23rd: Day 17 – Genesis 43-45; Psalm 15; Matthew 15
Thursday, January 24th: Day 18 – Genesis 46-48; Psalm 16; Matthew 16
Friday, January 25th: Day 19 – Genesis 49-50; Psalm 17; Matthew 17
Saturday, January 26th: Day 20 – Exodus 1-3; Psalm 18:1-20; Matthew 18
Sunday, January 27th: Day 21 – Enjoy hearing the Scriptures read aloud in church

On Monday, January 28th, the group will meet in the Sunday School building at 7:30 p.m. to discuss what we've read this week. In the mean time, or if you cannot join us this week, feel free to comment on this post with questions, thoughts, or whatever strikes you from this week's readings. If you comment, please remember to include your name in your comment.

Peace,

Nick Szobota +

Sermon for January 20th, 2013: "Knowing Good Wine When You Taste It"

Isaiah 62:15

Psalm 36:5-10

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

John 2:1-11

All quotations from scripture come from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, with the exception of the Psalms, which come from The Book of Common Prayer, 1979. Not all scripture passages from the lectionary may be quoted or referenced in a given Sunday's sermon. For more information on the lectionary used in The Episcopal Church, please visit http://www.lectionarypage.net/.

“Knowing Good Wine When You Taste It”

The Rev. Nicholas S. Szobota

January 20, 2013
Christ Church, West River, Maryland

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other participants in the civil rights movement of the mid-20^th century believed they worked to secure rights already promised to themselves and others. They did not seek to generate something new in American history, but rather they made their appeal upon the rights and freedoms given by God to each human being and promised to each American citizen in the United States Constitution and other founding documents of this nation. As Dr. King shared in his “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28^th, 1963:

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. (Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream.” American Rhetoric. 28 August, 1963. Web. January 17^th, 2013.)

Dr. King and other like him appealed to realities that existed already, but that certain portions of the American population had chosen to deny. I say this with an understanding that some regions of this nation perpetrated this ignorance through law, but even the region from which I come embraced a de facto racial inequality when no laws promoting segregation existed. All regions of this nation participated in this kind of injustice.

The sensitivity of Dr. King and others to realities that lie hidden finds a resonance in today’s gospel reading. Those attending the wedding feast in Cana little suspect the truth that has come into their midst: Jesus Christ, a human being who is God incarnate, fully human and fully divine. Jesus provides a hint of his true nature by changing water into wine, a sign that an attentive person would recognize as something beyond normal. Jesus does this due to a shortage of wine at the wedding feast, a situation that does not bode well for the bride and groom. In this culture, having enough food and drink to satisfy one’s wedding guest would foretell prosperity in a marriage. Running out of food and wine meant poverty in the relationship. Note that, in this case, the wedding couple may very well have planned for sufficient food and drink to satisfy their guests. The chief steward implies that the wedding guest have become drunk, suggesting that they may have over-indulged. With some prodding from his mother, Jesus fixes the situation by transforming gallons of water in stone water jars into wine for the feast. If the guests had not been drunk, perhaps they would have recognized what happened.

Jesus’ actions in this story challenge my understanding of how God works. I am accustomed to imagining God up above me, a way of understanding how God comes from a supernatural place beyond my comprehension to interact with the world. Once God has done what God intends to do, God withdraws back into the incomprehensible world beyond my knowledge. Yet, even today’s Psalm passage suggests God might behave differently. The first verse and a half of what we read proclaims, “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the strong mountains, your justice like the great deep” (Psalm 36:5, 6). In this passage, God does not come from above to interact with human beings who lie beneath. Rather, God stretches up to rise to the clouds. God’s love lies founded upon rock-solid mountains and in depths like the ocean. Instead of coming from outside of the realm of earthly experience, God emerges in the midst of creation. God works amongst us and through us and in us.
St. Paul describes this in his first letter to the Corinthians as he teaches about the Holy Spirit. He writes, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:4-10). God the Holy Spirit works in each person to accomplish God’s aims. St. Paul contrasts this to a person’s life prior to Christianity, remind the Corinthians, “You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak” (1 Corinthians 12:2). Paul warns the people against returning to a practice of worshiping something which is not God in place of God, whether those idols are statues of gods that do not really deserve worship or aims that turn one’s attention away from the true purpose of one’s life: greed, inordinate desire for success, and so on. God does not want people’s attention turned toward externals that distract. Instead, God invites each one of us to turn inward to discover what God has already begun to do inside of us.

Each one of us can accept this invitation. First, one must realize that God truly wishes to interact with us and work within us. Often, one can imagine God pushing people away because of their faults, mistakes, weaknesses, or sins. One must realize that God desires to embrace us and does not push us away. Second, once each one of us realizes this, each of us must make space in our lives for God. How often do we pray before undertaking a major task or project? How often does God become the first to hear our cries for help when we get stuck or face a challenge, in addition to our seeking the support of people who can help us? How often does God become the first to hear our joy and thanks at a great success? Each of these moments presents opportunities to make room for God in our lives. Finally, each one of us can take the time to ponder what spiritual gifts God has given to us, even if they are not on the list presented by Paul in First Corinthians. We might start by pondering what kind of work sets our hearts on fire, or perhaps by paying attention to what other say about us. “You seem to be the kind of person whom people ask to pray for them. They know you will.” “You’re really good at caring for others. People know that you’ll listen when they want to vent.” Each of these can point us toward how God has gifted us for ministry, whether that becomes readily apparent or takes a lifetime to unfold.

Let us not lose awareness, like the guests at the wedding too drunk to notice Christ in their midst. Even the chief steward, if he did not fully comprehend who Jesus was, knew good wine when he tasted it. Let us cultivate such awareness and drink deeply of God’s presence working among us, through us, and in us. Amen.

The Bible Challenge: Week Two

Seven members of Christ Episcopal Church gathered tonight to continue The Bible Challenge (http://thecenterforbiblicalstudies.org/what-is-the-bible-challenge/). If you are joining us, here are the readings for this week. Remember, you can choose Track 1 (All The Readings), Track 2 (Just the New Testament), Track 3 (The Psalms), or any combination thereof:

Monday, January 14: Day 8 – Genesis 19-21; Psalm 7; Matthew 7
Tuesday, January 15: Day 9 – Genesis 22-24; Psalm 8; Matthew 8
Wednesday, January 16: Day 10 – Genesis 25-27; Psalm 9; Matthew 9
Thursday, January 17: Day 11 – Genesis 28-30; Psalm 10; Matthew 10
Friday, January 18: Day 12 – Genesis 31-33; Psalm 11; Matthew 11
Saturday, January 19: Day 13 – Genesis 34-36; Psalm 12; Matthew 12
Sunday, January 20th, Day 14 – Enjoy hearing the Scriptures read aloud in church


On Monday, January 21st, the group will meet in the Sunday School building at 7:30 p.m. to discuss what we've read this week. In the mean time, or if you cannot join us this week, feel free to comment on this post with questions, thoughts, or whatever strikes you from this week's readings. If you comment, please remember to include your name in your comment.

Peace,

Nick Szobota +

Sermon for January 13, 2013: "You are My Beloved"

Isaiah 43:1-7

Psalm 29

Acts 8:14-17

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

All quotations from scripture come from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, with the exception of the Psalms, which come from The Book of Common Prayer, 1979. Not all scripture passages from the lectionary may be quoted or referenced in a given Sunday's sermon. For more information on the lectionary used in The Episcopal Church, please visit http://www.lectionarypage.net/.

“You are My Beloved”

The Rev. Nicholas S. Szobota

January 13, 2013
Christ Church, West River, Maryland

First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord

What if? What if each of us here today did not exist? How would that impact the world? Last month, some of us may have watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which George Bailey gets to experience a world in which he never existed. He saw how much he mattered to the world, and how different, how much worse, people’s lives were without him.

What if each one of us had made different choices in our life up to this point? “The Butterfly Effect,” a movie from ten years ago starring Ashton Kutcher, features a character able to return to previous points in his life and make different decisions. He quickly discovers that his life becomes worse and worse the more he tries to fix things using this power.

A “what if” of this sort appears in today’s reading from Luke’s gospel: What if John the Baptist were not there? The lectionary hides this a bit. There is a gap in today’s reading. After John the Baptist talks about the one coming who is greater than he, we miss a part from Luke 3:18-20:

So, with many other exhortations, he [John the Baptist] proclaimed the good news to the people. But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, added to them all by shutting John in prison.

Then, our reading for today picks up with these words:

           

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened…

Note that the text starts speaking in the passive voice. All the people get baptized, and Jesus gets baptized, but the text does not mention who does the baptizing. Scholars and biblical commentators suggest that Luke has set up a situation in which John has gone to prison, as indicated in 3:20, and therefore someone else must have baptized Jesus.

We have the benefit of knowing all four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew, Mark, and John clearly place John the Baptist at the Jordan River when Jesus gets baptized, so it’s easy for the mind to apply that situation to Jesus’ baptism in Luke. Perhaps Luke stuck in those verses about John going to prison as an aside, a bit out of sequence.

Luke might have had another point, though: no one, not even John the Baptist, for whom out of all the gospels Luke gives the most extensive biography, complete with a story about his birth and biological relationship to Jesus, no one is indispensable to God’s plans. God’s plans for the world, what God intends to do through Jesus, will occur whether John the Baptist is there or not.

Frighteningly enough, not one of us needs to be here for God’s purposes to unfold. This concept stretches back to creation. God was already complete, whole, infinite, and eternal before God brought the world, or any of us, into being. God was getting along just fine without us, thank you very much, especially when one considers the inevitable human habit of falling short of the image in which God made us. Each one of us makes mistakes, has faults, and sins.

Yet, this situation presents a startling revelation of God’s love. God does not need us, in fact we often get in the way, yet God still loves us. The stories of the Bible contain case after case of this. Although God acts wrathfully in many circumstances, the overall message presents God as loving, forgiving, and merciful. One should question and delve deeper into the stories that exhibit God’s wrath, but not without attention to the whole.

Each one of us exists not because God needs us, but because God loves us. In the midst of that love, God has a purpose for us. God has places for us to go and growth for us to achieve so that, gradually, each one of us falls a bit less short of the image of God in which she or has been made. The shortest distance from where each one of us is now to where God wants us to go is across, as between any two points, a straight line. Yet, I suspect each one of us takes that journey via the long, curving route. Some of us do such a good job of taking a route that twists and curves back over itself so many times that it might not seem much progress has been made at all. Nevertheless, God loves us; God goes with us on that journey and urges us forward.

Regardless of how far any of us have progressed, regardless of how twisted the path has become, God’s words to us are his words to Jesus after Jesus’ baptism, whether that baptism was performed by John the Baptist or not: “You are my Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (see Luke 3:22). God’s love remains on a constant on our journey, perhaps the only constant. May each one of us move forward on the path to the person God wants us to become with those words ringing in our ears.

The Bible Challenge: Week One

Seven members of Christ Episcopal Church gathered tonight to begin The Bible Challenge (http://thecenterforbiblicalstudies.org/what-is-the-bible-challenge/). If you are joining us, here are the readings for this week. Remember, you can choose Track 1 (All The Readings), Track 2 (Just the New Testament), Track 3 (The Psalms), or any combination thereof:

Monday, January 7th: Day 1 – Genesis 1-3; Psalm 1; Matthew 1
Tuesday, January 8th: Day 2 – Genesis 4-6; Psalm 2; Matthew 2
Wednesday January 9th: Day 3 – Genesis 7-9; Psalm 3; Matthew 3
Thursday, January 10th: Day 4 – Genesis 10-12; Psalm 4; Matthew 4
Friday, January 11th: Day 5 – Genesis 13-15; Psalm 5; Matthew 5
Saturday, January 12th: Day 6 – Genesis 16-18; Psalm 6; Matthew 6
Sunday, January 13th: Day 7 – Enjoy hearing the Scriptures read aloud in church

On Monday, January 14th, the group will meet in the Sunday School building at 7:30 p.m. to discuss what we've read this week. In the mean time, or if you cannot join us this week, feel free to comment on this post with questions, thoughts, or whatever strikes you from this week's readings. If you comment, please remember to include your name in your comment.

Peace,

Nick Szobota +