“Though she is an unlikely saint, Rahab is remembered by the authors of Matthew, Hebrews, and James as a faithful witness and as an ancestor of Jesus.”
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
In this alternative prayer book I have on my desk, today is the Feast day of Rahab, the famous prostitute who protected two Israelite spies in return for her family's protection during the raid on Jericho. After some negotiating, both sides kept their word: Rahab hung a crimson cord outside her window (thereby creating the very first red light district), and the Israelites spared everyone in her house from death. Rahab eventually became the great-great grandmother of King David and, according to Matthew, part of the lineage of Jesus.
Rahab is important for a variety of reasons. First, it reminds us that not even the Bible can keep a woman down. If you haven't noticed, the Bible doesn't necessarily do a good job of including women in its stories. Women are most often listed as 'mothers of,' and a few have stories dedicated to them, but for the most part they are anonymous characters in a male-dominated landscape. This is, unfortunately, still often the case today. But the story of Rahab reminds us that women are important players in the story of God and we need to remember them by name.
Second, we must remember that Rahab was a prostitute who became the great-great grandmother of David and a named ancestor of Jesus. So often it seems we try to portray church as the place where nice people go, or as the place where the right kinds of people go. But the story of the Bible isn't filled with the right kinds of people – it's filled with cheats and liars, prostitutes and foreigners, adulterers, rapists and murderers. Oh, there are the right kinds of people in the Bible, but they are in the minority. What this tells me is that the Bible's primary narrative isn't how people relate to God, but that the Bible's primary narrative is how God continually reaches out to all of humanity in an attempt to repair the breach.
If that's the case, if God is reaching out to all of humanity, if God is reaching out to all kinds of people in all kinds of circumstances, then we should be willing to make that same effort. Our first response to people looking to connect with God shouldn't be to look for reasons to bar them from entry; our first response to people looking to connect with God should instead be to look for reasons why God is reaching out to them.
On this day, remember Rahab and how God became a part of her life.
On this day, remember Rahab and ask if we are as willing as God to have a person like her in our midst.
On this day, remember Rahab – sinner, prostitute, saint, ancestor of Jesus and beloved by God.
Amen.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
May 20, 2015
“For those who do not respect the covenant of love, even the Gospels are 'old'.”
Origen of Alexandria
Origen (c. 185 – c. 254) was a biblical scholar and prolific writer of sermons, commentaries and other theological works. This particular comment came at the end of a paragraph in which he was writing about the Law becoming an “Old Testament” if we only understand it carnally; that is, if we only understand it as a system to rule our physical lives. He then posited that even the Gospels will become old if we all we do is use them as a system to rule our physical lives.
What Origen is getting at here, I think, is that the Bible is not a rules book. The overarching theme of the Bible is love. It was out of love that God created. It was out of love that God told Abraham he would be a blessing to all nations. It was out of love that God sent the prophets. It was out of love that God became incarnate in the person of Jesus. If we use the Bible as a rules book, then we run the risk of missing out on acting from love. And as we all know, love doesn't always follow the rules.
Reading the Bible through a lens of love is what led people to oppose the rule of slavery. It is what led some Germans to help Jews escape the rule of the Nazis. And it is what leads us to respect the dignity of every human being.
Reading the Bible through a lens of love allows us to see it new every day. Reading the Bible through a lens of love allows us to see possibilities, rather than the unimaginable or unthinkable. It was love that allowed Peter to make the audacious claim that God shows no partiality. It was love that allowed Jesus to welcome sinners, prostitutes and criminals into the kingdom. It was love that allowed people to stand up against the rule of segregation and apartheid.
If we read the Bible as a rules book, looking for ways to determine who is out and who is in, looking for ways to elevate ourselves while condemning others, then we are reading it as a law that is, as Origen said, old.
We need to be willing to read the Bible with the lens of love. That means we need to be open to its newness every day. It means we might need to concede that what we thought was right yesterday might not only be wrong tomorrow, but may have been wrong all along. For us to follow God, we need to respect the covenant of love which permeates the Scriptures. If we don't, then, as Origen said, even the Gospels will become old.
Amen.
Origen of Alexandria
Origen (c. 185 – c. 254) was a biblical scholar and prolific writer of sermons, commentaries and other theological works. This particular comment came at the end of a paragraph in which he was writing about the Law becoming an “Old Testament” if we only understand it carnally; that is, if we only understand it as a system to rule our physical lives. He then posited that even the Gospels will become old if we all we do is use them as a system to rule our physical lives.
What Origen is getting at here, I think, is that the Bible is not a rules book. The overarching theme of the Bible is love. It was out of love that God created. It was out of love that God told Abraham he would be a blessing to all nations. It was out of love that God sent the prophets. It was out of love that God became incarnate in the person of Jesus. If we use the Bible as a rules book, then we run the risk of missing out on acting from love. And as we all know, love doesn't always follow the rules.
Reading the Bible through a lens of love is what led people to oppose the rule of slavery. It is what led some Germans to help Jews escape the rule of the Nazis. And it is what leads us to respect the dignity of every human being.
Reading the Bible through a lens of love allows us to see it new every day. Reading the Bible through a lens of love allows us to see possibilities, rather than the unimaginable or unthinkable. It was love that allowed Peter to make the audacious claim that God shows no partiality. It was love that allowed Jesus to welcome sinners, prostitutes and criminals into the kingdom. It was love that allowed people to stand up against the rule of segregation and apartheid.
If we read the Bible as a rules book, looking for ways to determine who is out and who is in, looking for ways to elevate ourselves while condemning others, then we are reading it as a law that is, as Origen said, old.
We need to be willing to read the Bible with the lens of love. That means we need to be open to its newness every day. It means we might need to concede that what we thought was right yesterday might not only be wrong tomorrow, but may have been wrong all along. For us to follow God, we need to respect the covenant of love which permeates the Scriptures. If we don't, then, as Origen said, even the Gospels will become old.
Amen.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
May 13, 2015
“Seek the Lord while he wills to be found . . . 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways,' says the Lord.”
Canticle 10, The Second Song of Isaiah, BCP p. 86
Seek the Lord while he wills to be found . . . At first this seems a little odd. It might imply God is hiding. I don't think that is the case. We seek out organizations we find interesting and in which we might want to participate. We seek out people with common interests. We seek out friendships. In the same way, we seek out the Lord. A few years ago, it was hip for churches to have “Seeker Services;” services that used different methods of attraction and were light on doctrine as a gateway into the larger church. I tend to think that all of our services are “Seeker Services” because we are all seeking God.
And that line, while he wills to be found, might imply that there are times when the Lord doesn't want to be found. But that isn't the case either. We hear over and over how God looks to draw us nearer to him. We hear over and over how God desperately wants us to be part of the kingdom. As we hear in Eucharistic Prayer C, “Again and again you called us to return.” While he wills to be found is an everyday occurrence.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways. God does things differently than we do. God does things differently than we would like. God is continually calling those we consider less than, not as good as, or outside what we consider the norm. God is concerned with those who live on the margins of society. God cares for the downtrodden and those pushed aside by the majority. We need to spend time paying attention to those things and those people whom God considers important. We need to listen and discern what God is saying and where God might be leading us.
Seek the Lord – As with any activity or person in which we want to be involved, we need to spend the time seeking out that which we find important.
While he wills to be found – Again and again you called us to return. God's will is to be found in all things and in all ways. God is always willing to be found.
For my thoughts and ways are not your thoughts and ways – We need to spend less time telling others what God demands of them and more time listening for how God would like us to act.
All that to say, “Pray hard; listen harder.”
Amen.
Canticle 10, The Second Song of Isaiah, BCP p. 86
Seek the Lord while he wills to be found . . . At first this seems a little odd. It might imply God is hiding. I don't think that is the case. We seek out organizations we find interesting and in which we might want to participate. We seek out people with common interests. We seek out friendships. In the same way, we seek out the Lord. A few years ago, it was hip for churches to have “Seeker Services;” services that used different methods of attraction and were light on doctrine as a gateway into the larger church. I tend to think that all of our services are “Seeker Services” because we are all seeking God.
And that line, while he wills to be found, might imply that there are times when the Lord doesn't want to be found. But that isn't the case either. We hear over and over how God looks to draw us nearer to him. We hear over and over how God desperately wants us to be part of the kingdom. As we hear in Eucharistic Prayer C, “Again and again you called us to return.” While he wills to be found is an everyday occurrence.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways. God does things differently than we do. God does things differently than we would like. God is continually calling those we consider less than, not as good as, or outside what we consider the norm. God is concerned with those who live on the margins of society. God cares for the downtrodden and those pushed aside by the majority. We need to spend time paying attention to those things and those people whom God considers important. We need to listen and discern what God is saying and where God might be leading us.
Seek the Lord – As with any activity or person in which we want to be involved, we need to spend the time seeking out that which we find important.
While he wills to be found – Again and again you called us to return. God's will is to be found in all things and in all ways. God is always willing to be found.
For my thoughts and ways are not your thoughts and ways – We need to spend less time telling others what God demands of them and more time listening for how God would like us to act.
All that to say, “Pray hard; listen harder.”
Amen.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
May 6, 2015
“Ours is an associated worship: there cannot, therefore, be a more erroneous opinion than that upon which the practice of some seems to be founded, that the people are to be only hearers or spectators during the service of the Church. Our excellent Liturgy is so constructed, that it can neither have meaning nor effect in some of its parts, unless the people join in it with interest and devotion.”
Bishops Claggett and Kemp, Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of Maryland, 1816
Last week I wrote about the unification of Worship and Mission; or, if not the actual unification, a deeper intertwining of the two. For too long, people have seen worship as what we do in church on Sunday morning, while mission is something in which a few people participate either locally or “over there somewhere.”
And, it would seem, this dichotomy between worship and mission was an issue in the early years of the Episcopal church as well (if you read between the lines).
Worship is, as I said last week, our primary purpose as the Church. We are to worship God in the beauty of holiness. We are to worship with all our heart, mind, body and soul. And that worship should carry over from Sunday into every other day of the week.
Liturgy, you may or may not recall, is often defined as coming from the Greek and meaning, “work of the people.” What this rightly implies is that our worship, our liturgy, involves everyone present. We can pray individually, but we worship communally. When the Presider says, “The Lord be with you,” if there is no response, there is no worship, there are only prayers. Everyone present has a vital role to play. As some people have said, worship is a drama with God as the audience.
But last week that standard definition of liturgy was broadened. The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers suggest that liturgy be seen as work for the common good, or work for the sake of the world. This opens up liturgy to have meaning and significance beyond Sunday morning. This allows us to see our liturgy, our worship, as being something that can impact the world around us.
When we worship with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our body and with all our soul, I believe we can begin to move from being spectators on Sunday morning to joining with Christ for the sake of, and service to, the world. When we worship that way, everybody is involved. This will also involve everyone when we participate in the mission of God in the same way.
The first step to mission is to participate in worship as if it made a difference in the world. The first step to worship is to see mission as a liturgy – as service for the sake of the world.
To paraphrase Bishops Claggett and Kemp: Worship and Mission have no meaning unless the people join in with interest and devotion.
Amen.
Bishops Claggett and Kemp, Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of Maryland, 1816
Last week I wrote about the unification of Worship and Mission; or, if not the actual unification, a deeper intertwining of the two. For too long, people have seen worship as what we do in church on Sunday morning, while mission is something in which a few people participate either locally or “over there somewhere.”
And, it would seem, this dichotomy between worship and mission was an issue in the early years of the Episcopal church as well (if you read between the lines).
Worship is, as I said last week, our primary purpose as the Church. We are to worship God in the beauty of holiness. We are to worship with all our heart, mind, body and soul. And that worship should carry over from Sunday into every other day of the week.
Liturgy, you may or may not recall, is often defined as coming from the Greek and meaning, “work of the people.” What this rightly implies is that our worship, our liturgy, involves everyone present. We can pray individually, but we worship communally. When the Presider says, “The Lord be with you,” if there is no response, there is no worship, there are only prayers. Everyone present has a vital role to play. As some people have said, worship is a drama with God as the audience.
But last week that standard definition of liturgy was broadened. The Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers suggest that liturgy be seen as work for the common good, or work for the sake of the world. This opens up liturgy to have meaning and significance beyond Sunday morning. This allows us to see our liturgy, our worship, as being something that can impact the world around us.
When we worship with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our body and with all our soul, I believe we can begin to move from being spectators on Sunday morning to joining with Christ for the sake of, and service to, the world. When we worship that way, everybody is involved. This will also involve everyone when we participate in the mission of God in the same way.
The first step to mission is to participate in worship as if it made a difference in the world. The first step to worship is to see mission as a liturgy – as service for the sake of the world.
To paraphrase Bishops Claggett and Kemp: Worship and Mission have no meaning unless the people join in with interest and devotion.
Amen.
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