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PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE
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CURRENT CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE
(Updated February 5, 2012)
--Lent 1 – (February 26, 2012)
--Epiphany 7 – (February 19, 2012)
--Epiphany 6 – (February 12, 2012)
--Links
Lent 1 – (February 26, 2012)
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalms 25:1-10
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1:9-15
Flood or Baptism
The sights and sounds of evil are pervasive in our society. I mean our daily exposure to the willful abuse of one human being by another. The news displays crimes against persons. TV dramas act out violence against persons. The emphasis on sexual images does violence to the fully human nature potential in people. I tuned in Public Television in flight from all of that and saw the placid face of Bernard Madoff then a documentary on Guantanamo.
Alas we are people of unclean thoughts, and we live in a land of unclean thoughts -- to paraphrase Isaiah. Is there a remedy short of dropping a hot coal on our brains? When Eve and Adam coveted God's ability to know good and evil, it must have been the knowledge of evil that most intrigued them. We are now so full of the knowledge of evil that our minds and hearts yearn for a moment's rest.
Could we find rest from the knowledge of evil by meditating on Baptism? Could we find, in treasuring our own baptism, a cleansing of our minds? Would it help to take the immediate memory of our baptism to the wilderness with us the way Jesus did? Is the season of Lent such an invitation?
What about God's tolerance for the evil of human kind? The Flood Story is about the limit of that tolerance. Peter connects the Flood Story with Baptism. Says it "prefigured" Baptism. God saved eight people from the evil generation around them by means of water. God saves us from the evil generation around us by means of water through Baptism. Then, does Baptism replace the destruction of the human race as God's response to our evil?
When I was baptized, was I participating in the salvation of the whole human race? Was I actually doing something on behalf of everyone as well as myself? Peter casts Baptism as we normally think of it, a benefit to the one being baptized, in this way: "as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ..." But, could "good conscience" not work both ways? Baptism permits God, in good conscience, to allow human life to go on in spite of our continuing rebellion.
So, instead of furtive glances at the heavens to see if it is today that God's wrath will descend on us; instead of thinking that the gaping hole in the ozone layer and the disappearance of green frogs and the emergence of bacteria resistant to all antibiotics are harbingers of death and pestilence on the horizon as the near tipping point, we might rather see the fulcrum as our Baptism and God's invitation to lead lives of purity and discipline as Jesus did -- not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the world.
Epiphany 7, Transfiguration Sunday – (February 19, 2012)
2 Kings 2:1-12
Psalm 50:1-6
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9
To See the Light Is To Accept the Authority
Do you suppose there was grumbling among the other disciples that Peter, James and John got all the good parts -- "Peter, James and John this..." "Peter, James and John that..." Did Matthew demand to have the same mountain-top, multi-media presentation as the price of his continued loyalty? Or, did the disciples, coming from a different age, accept with grater grace than we do their different stations in Jesus' organization, in God's plan? Although Jesus said that the top leader must be the servant of all, there was still the reality of a top leader. Jesus was the top leader; Peter was next. James and John were close. There was the beginning of church hierarchy. Hierarchy is not in itself the problem in human endeavor; arrogance (sin) is the problem. Linked to the fight on behalf of the marginalized people among us is the struggle for humility at the top.
Paul, who takes very seriously his authority over the church, nevertheless calls himself their slave for Jesus' sake. "For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake." (2 Corinthians 4:5)
Elisha, who wants to have a double portion of Elijah's spirit, doesn't rise to the stature of his
mentor. He accepts God's judgment regarding his place in the hierarchy of Prophets. He's not just one of the fifty, but he's no Elijah either.
The Psalmist celebrates not his rights but God's authority: "The mighty one, God the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting."
When Peter, James and John saw Jesus transfigured in radiance, they recognized the authority of
God in him and for them. When Paul says, "For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of
darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ," it is the same confession he accepted in blinding light on the Damascus Road. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
We trail the Muslims badly in confessing and practicing the dominion of God. If Allah says pray
five times a day, then all men are on their knees and forehead facing Mecca, from the king to the street vendor. But then, there is the problem of suicide bombers. "Inshallah", if Allah wills it.
This is the problem of knowing the dominion of God but not recognizing the humility of God. The revelation of God in Christ is the saving grace.
In our zeal for freedom, in our emphasis on individual rights, are we missing something important about God's will for us? What does it mean to humbly accept one's place before God? What does it mean to accept Christ's authority over one's life? How can a humble God have arrogant disciples?
Epiphany 6 – (February 12, 2012)
2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Mark 1:40-45
Getting Well and Being Healed
Getting well is an acquisition like getting a husband or getting a permanent. Being healed is a relationship. Naaman came to Israel to get something the way a conquering general would. Elisha cut through his presupposition by not even showing up for this great man. Instead he directed Naaman into a humble relationship with the healer, the God of Israel. The Psalmist remembers a time when he related to his prosperity as if he had gotten it with his own hand: "As for me, I said in my prosperity, 'I shall never be moved.'" (Psalm 30:6) When life humbled him he found a new relationship with God the healer. Paul is focused on his own body not because of a physical illness but because of the perception that his body tempts him away from Christ. The great preacher of the Gospel humbly admits that salvation might escape him if he doesn't attend to his personal relationship with Christ. A leper learns that Jesus can be moved to respond to his suffering, not just moved by his suffering but by his faith: "If you choose, you can make me clean," the leper says. (Mark 1:40)
Could the obverse of the leper's statement also be true, "If you don't choose, you can make me stay unclean?" Do people stay sick because God doesn't choose to heal them? What happens to their relationship with God if they don't get well? If they don't get what they came after? Do they storm off in a rage the way Naaman did? Is there anyone to offer a proud, sick man the counsel of a servant? If our illness brings us into a humble relationship with God, have we not received a blessing? Jesus didn't heal everyone. Does that mean Jesus didn't have compassion for everyone? Healing was one way that Jesus showed the love and power of God, but healing was not his mission. "Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.'" (Mark 1:14-15)
Nothing reinforces the notion that wellness is something we get, something we purchase, more than the cost of health care and the demand for it. Some people talk as if health were an entitlement, a human right. Turning health care into something we buy, something we demand, changes our relationship with both the healer and the healing. When was the last time we heard Jesus say, "I do choose," when we got well? Or did we say instead, "That anti-biotic really worked!"
The issue is not whether antibiotics really work. The issue is our relationship with God in the healing process. My relationship with an antibiotic is limited in scope and has a limited future. Ultimately I am dependent on God to heal me of my constitutional illness, sin and death. Neither an antibiotic nor the entire health care system can cure me of sin and death. So, I will treat each illness between now and death as an issue between God and me for the deepening of that relationship which heals not just the body that I am but the person that I am.
Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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