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PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE
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CURRENT CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE
(updated May 10, 2008)
--Pentecost 3 – (June 1, 2008)
--Pentecost 2 – (May 25, 2008)
--Trinity Sunday – (May 18, 2008)
--Links
Pentecost 3 – June 1, 2008
Psalm 46
Genesis 6:11-22; 7:24; 8:14-19
Romans 1:16-17, 3:22b-28 (29-31)
Matthew 7:21-29
We Are All In The Same Boat
For God to take over ark design could be construed as micromanagement. But then to think Noah knew anything at all about boats would be presumptuous. This scene has the look of a father and son garage project. Who knows which one is the more excited. To borrow a line from the famous parable of Jesus, “for this son of mine was dead and is alive again” and paraphrase it “for this human creation of mine was dead and is alive again.” The limits of God’s love had been tested sorely, and love had won. Let all the preachers zealous to call down the wrath of God on our sinful generation take note. God can be both loving and angry, but can God both love us and willfully kill us? Consequences are built into creation. Floods drown people. Sin kills people in various ways as well.
The earth will change and the natural consequences of our sinfulness will continue, but God’s love does not change. Love is where God dwells, and he is immovable from that position. Therefore, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)
Since within the heart of God love has won, faith is the only requisite response from Noah or any of the rest of us. Paul puts it this way: “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” (Romans 3:29-31)
What was it like to be a devout Jew listening to Paul preach? “Or is God the God of Jews only?” In order to get the original feel of Paul’s radical preaching I have to change it this way: “Or is God the God of Christians only? Is he not the God of non-Christians also? Yes, of non-Christians also, since God is one; and he will justify the Christian on the ground of faith and the non-Christian through that same faith. Do we then overthrow the Christian religion by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the Christian religion.”
Now listen to Jesus. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21) So, just knowing how to name the savior doesn’t not obtain salvation. Christians do know how to name God who is savior and are blessed to do so, but the common denominator of the heavenly kingdom is based on what we finally do. Does this mean all good people go to heaven? It is interesting that we have Jesus and Paul seeming to say opposite things. Jesus describes the common denominator precisely thus, “the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” And who does the will of his Father in heaven except the one who has faith in that same Father. Since God is one, anyone who has faith in that one (idols excluded) and does the will of that one will enter the kingdom of heaven. If this kingdom is not for Jews only, then it must not be for Christians only. Remember the lesson of Noah, God’s love won. We are all in the same boat.
Pentecost 2 – May 25, 2008
Isaiah 49:8-16a
Psalm 131
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Matthew 6:24-34
Whence Comfort and Hope?
Each of these Lections presumes a former state in which comfort and hope were missing.
"’Come out, … show yourselves.’ They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down…” (Isaiah 49:9-10) Picture people in such want and fear that they are hiding.
“My heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” (Psalm 131:1) The Psalmist says this following the previous Psalm, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.”
“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court." (1 Corinthians 4:4) With these words Paul alludes to the heartbreak and disappointment he has experienced at the hands of the church he founded.
No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24-34) Jesus begins this teaching by describing the common moral state that makes life so agonizing.
Where is the comfort, where the hope? You want the prose or the poetry? Jesus doesn’t mince words. One can either serve God or money, “money” standing for everything self-serving. Comfort and hope centered in the self vanish in hard times. If you want comfort and hope you can count on, then you had better count on God.
Paul demonstrates what Jesus said when he rests his case with God and limits the power his detractors over his spirit. He wouldn’t have spent four chapters on the subject, however, if following Jesus’ teaching were easy. He is struggling here to keep God at the center of his ego support, but by the time he gets to the thirteenth chapter he will have succeeded.
There is a prosaic side to life, but we also have a poetic side. The actual return to Jerusalem from Babylon was not what Isaiah describes. They got back, but there was nothing easy about it. Mountains didn’t flatten for them. They had to climb every one of them, but the climb was different because of the poetry. Comfort and hope are as much a condition of the heart and mind as they a condition of the circumstances. We need changed circumstances, but even more we need hearts and minds that draw comfort and hope from their source, that rest on God.
“But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.” (Psalm 131:2)*
*Note the female images in connection with God’s comfort and steadfast love here and in Isaiah 49:15
Trinity Sunday – May 18, 2008
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
No Better Words
One God and one creator of all, this is the uniting concept at the foundation of Biblical faith. Whatever role Satan or other powers play, it is a subordinate role bound and limited by God. Human beings, made in God's image, have a special intermediate role between God and the rest of the creation. Whatever angels or other heavenly hosts may do is unimportant. The drama of life has but two main actors, God and human beings. Human life is a dialog between God and us with the rest of creation our shared responsibility.
This unitary understanding of God is precious. It simplifies and solidifies the psychological landscape. It is like growing up in a home where love unites your parents. You don't live with the terror that your home is going to explode. That is the terror generated by dualism, by the "good god - bad god" belief system. Some people within the Christian tradition elevate Satan to such a level that they create a second god for themselves and live in a fearful dialog with that god. Genesis lays for us a firm foundation. Don't let the minor references to Satan in the balance of the Scriptures unbalance the picture. We believe in one God!
We believe in one God who is beyond naming or defining. We do not rise above God and look down on God. We never see God from the outside. We can never talk about God in terms of God's boundaries, but we can set up boundaries for our talk about God, and that is what the doctrine of the Trinity is. The Trinity is the boundaries for Christian talk about God. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." (2 Corinthians 13:13) We do not confess God faithfully unless we confess God graciously acting in Jesus. We do not confess God faithfully unless we confess God who loved all life into existence. We do not confess God faithfully unless we confess God's grace and God's judgment bound in the communion of the Holy Spirit. God is like a stable home with two parents held together by love. The doctrine of the Trinity is a more stable understanding of the one God than the unitarian alternatives, one God who is Father, one God who is Son or one God who is Holy Spirit.
You have to have the Trinity to make sense of loving Jesus. You can’t truly love someone who is dead and gone. One can love St. Francis of Assisi from historical accounts, but that isn’t loving the person. If someone says, “I talk to St. Francis every day. He walks beside me, speaks to me and guides me.”, then that person has a vivid imagination but not a personal relationship. Yet we say this about Jesus, experience Jesus in this way without implying that we need a psychiatrist. What is the difference? God who is God the Son is Jesus not dead but risen. God who is God the Holy Spirit is not Jesus gone but Jesus present.
The doctrine of the Trinity is a confession not a definition. Who can define God?! Christians can only confess their historic and person encounter with God. To confess God apart from God in Christ is impossible. To confess Christ apart from God the creator of all is impossible. To confess God in Christ apart from our experience of both through the Holy Spirit sustaining the church is impossible. Therefore, we are constrained by our experience of God to confess the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are other words, but there are no better words.
Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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