Transfiguration Sunday
February 23, 2020
Easy does it
We have all seen these words on bumper stickers on cars driven by members of Alcoholics Anonymous, but we may not know the words that often follow: “But do it!”We live in a world where “Can't you do just a little bit more?” is a more common thought.I even found a hospice with a slogan that brags that they overwork their workers. Simon and Garfunkel meant “Easy does it” when they sang “Slow down, you move too fast.” And the proverb “Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet” makes a similar point in favour of temperance.
Matthew 17:7
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
This verse is from the Transfiguration narrative where the Peter, James and John are taken to witness and incredible mountaintop vision of Jesus, Moses and Elijah. This event is clearly not meant to be an end in itself. Nor is it without purpose at all. Jesus tells the disciples to not fear and then leads the disciples away from this mountain top experience back down into the world of need. The purpose was to give strength to Peter, James and John in the face of the challenges that would lay ahead, namely the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. They are to respond with a quiet strength.
Lent 1
March 1, 2020
It takes two to tango
There is universal acceptance of the notion that some things require a partnership of sorts.Marriage and boxing areexamples.These words appear in the 1952 song by the same name, sung byPearl Bailey. She pretends to exhaust the many things one can do on one’s own but saves “the dance of love” as the one thing that requires two. Whenever this phrase is used, whether describing a hockey fight, nasty divorce proceedings or a criminal conspiracy, there is an underlying allusion to romantic love.
Genesis 2:18 (note verse is avoided in the lectionary)
Then the Lord God said,
“It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make him a helper as his partner.”
God created us for the other! We are social beings. Our life, our faith, all that we are is lived in relationship. This is the point of the second creation story. It is interesting that the word Hebrew word ezer, translated here as “helper” refers directly to God in other parts of the scriptures. Examples include Exodus 18:4, Deuteronomy 33:29, Psalm 33:20 and Psalm 115:9. The first woman is like a God!Eve is like God in that Eve was created for the other, as we all are! This is a helpful way of understanding what we mean when we use the phrase created in God’s image. The constant message in scripture is that God made us for the other. It is a mutual relationship between all humans if not all creation, not simply that women were created for men. God knew it would take two to tango.
Lent 2
March 8, 2020
God helps those who help themselves
This teaching is quoted as if it is from the Bible, but it is not. I made this point once when preaching in a quiet and staid congregation, by asking them to respond repeatedly to this assertion with the response “It is not in the Bible.” As I raised my voice, I asked them to raise theirs. Eventually the whole congregation was shouting as loudly as they could. It is not the sort of trick you can pull too often; I used it once in five years as their pastor, but I would be surprised if it wasn't remembered by most of them. This expression can be found in the 1736 version of Poor Richard's Almanac, compiled by Benjamin Franklin. One can trust that Franklin was paraphrasing an earlier saying, likelyby Sophocles, who lived for 90 years in the 4th century BCE, orby one of his contemporaries. Sophocles’ words, from what is known as Fragment 288, have been translated as “No good e'er comes of leisure purposeless; And Heaven never helps the men who will not act.” In Aesop's Heracles and the Driver, the god Heracles responds to the driver’s prayer to have his ox-cart brought out of the ditch, by saying that some effort would be required for the prayer to be answered.
Psalm 121:8
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.
This is the last verse of a Psalm devoted to assuring us of God’s protection. There are no provisos. There are no conditions. There is no mention of merit. Those “who help themselves” are not set apart. God is free and is not bound by our formulations.
Lent 3
March 15, 2020
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it
While often attributed to Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain during the Falklands Conflict, I was not able to find a direct citation to confirm whether she actually said or wrote this. Logically, the quote makes little sense: obviously, one can win a battle with one fight. The phrase, therefore, can have several meanings. One would be “never admit defeat or “never stop trying.” Such words lie somewhere between the extremes of delusion and encouragement. Defeat is real; it does exist. Yet, many have the propensity to give up too early. There is a similar sounding phrase “lose the battle, win the war” credited to Sun-Tzu, author of the Art of War written in 6th Century BCE. These words appear to counsel losing a battle as a strategy in some cases rather it being inevitable that lost battles will result in won wars.
Romans 5: 3-4
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
These verses explain the mechanism of endurance. Endurance is not some magical input that is the right code for a particular output. God is not sitting and waiting for us to pass a test so we can get a gold star. Endurance is its own reward. Laid out by Paul in a few tidy words, we can follow the path God has given us from suffering to hope. And such transformation may well demand us to "lose", not only more than once, but many times!
Lent 4
March 22, 2020
Hurt people hurt people
Some people attribute these words to Will Bowen, for they appear in his 2009 book, Complaint Free Relationships: Transforming Your Life One Relationship at a Time. I am not sure where he found them, but I saw them on a bumper sticker in the early 1990s. And like many such sayings, it circulates in Twelve Step groups. These words hold a lot within them. It can be a warning about spending time around hurt people. It can be a warning to the hurt person to take care not to injure others. It can also be a reminder to be compassionate and understanding with hurtful people. It can mean yet other things. Something as simple as two words repeated contains much complexity.
John 9:2-3
And his disciples asked him,
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents,
but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.
Jesus does not get exactly at the dynamic of a victim becoming a perpetrator, but he certainly speaks out against blaming the victim. The question in John 9:2 reflected the worldview of the day - that pain and illness were the result of sin. Jesus disagreed! Such compassion would then take the phrase "hurt people hurt people" and ensure it swayed people from either demonizing perpetrators of hurt, or blaming victims for their own situations.
Lent 5
March 29, 2020
Never say die
A great host of aphorisms call us to persistence. Don't give up this ship; don't halt before you are lame; hang in there; the darkest hour is just before dawn; while there is life, there is hope; always give people more than they expect; the expectations of life depend on diligence… These are but a few of many. “Never say die” manages to convey the same idea in three short words.
John 11:13
Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
This verse is from the middle of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It makes it clear that this is a resurrection, not a resuscitation. Resurrection demands a death. As such, Christians who believe in the resurrection, like Jesus did, should neither fear nor avoid speaking of death. This extends beyond the physical into the metaphorical.
Passion Sunday
April 5, 2020
Soon learned, soon forgotten
This proverb makes a rather troubling comment about humanity: we aren't very good at learning and we forget what we learn. Our progress is slow and we are not very good at moving on beyond where we are.
Matthew 26:45
Then he came to the disciples and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
See, the hour is at hand,
and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all write about the disciples falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. While they each provide some of their own interpretation, the basic details and conclusions agree. The disciples had yet to grasp the coming death and resurrection, even at this late hour, in spite of all the teachings that Jesus had offered to them. They were asleep when Jesus had both requested and expected them to be alert and prayerful. Jesus echoes the call to humility in the phrase “soon learned, soon forgotten!”
Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Pentecost to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to The Reign of Christ
Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Trinity Sunday to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to The Reign of Christ
Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Pentecost to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to Reign of Christ
For more on Glenn Morison and his book that led to this page, check out The Things We Say.
All this material is copyleft. Feel free to use it however you see fit, with or without attribution.
If you wish to value this page, please make a donation to the Winnipeg Quaker Meeting.
February 23, 2020
Easy does it
We have all seen these words on bumper stickers on cars driven by members of Alcoholics Anonymous, but we may not know the words that often follow: “But do it!”We live in a world where “Can't you do just a little bit more?” is a more common thought.I even found a hospice with a slogan that brags that they overwork their workers. Simon and Garfunkel meant “Easy does it” when they sang “Slow down, you move too fast.” And the proverb “Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet” makes a similar point in favour of temperance.
Matthew 17:7
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
This verse is from the Transfiguration narrative where the Peter, James and John are taken to witness and incredible mountaintop vision of Jesus, Moses and Elijah. This event is clearly not meant to be an end in itself. Nor is it without purpose at all. Jesus tells the disciples to not fear and then leads the disciples away from this mountain top experience back down into the world of need. The purpose was to give strength to Peter, James and John in the face of the challenges that would lay ahead, namely the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. They are to respond with a quiet strength.
Lent 1
March 1, 2020
It takes two to tango
There is universal acceptance of the notion that some things require a partnership of sorts.Marriage and boxing areexamples.These words appear in the 1952 song by the same name, sung byPearl Bailey. She pretends to exhaust the many things one can do on one’s own but saves “the dance of love” as the one thing that requires two. Whenever this phrase is used, whether describing a hockey fight, nasty divorce proceedings or a criminal conspiracy, there is an underlying allusion to romantic love.
Genesis 2:18 (note verse is avoided in the lectionary)
Then the Lord God said,
“It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make him a helper as his partner.”
God created us for the other! We are social beings. Our life, our faith, all that we are is lived in relationship. This is the point of the second creation story. It is interesting that the word Hebrew word ezer, translated here as “helper” refers directly to God in other parts of the scriptures. Examples include Exodus 18:4, Deuteronomy 33:29, Psalm 33:20 and Psalm 115:9. The first woman is like a God!Eve is like God in that Eve was created for the other, as we all are! This is a helpful way of understanding what we mean when we use the phrase created in God’s image. The constant message in scripture is that God made us for the other. It is a mutual relationship between all humans if not all creation, not simply that women were created for men. God knew it would take two to tango.
Lent 2
March 8, 2020
God helps those who help themselves
This teaching is quoted as if it is from the Bible, but it is not. I made this point once when preaching in a quiet and staid congregation, by asking them to respond repeatedly to this assertion with the response “It is not in the Bible.” As I raised my voice, I asked them to raise theirs. Eventually the whole congregation was shouting as loudly as they could. It is not the sort of trick you can pull too often; I used it once in five years as their pastor, but I would be surprised if it wasn't remembered by most of them. This expression can be found in the 1736 version of Poor Richard's Almanac, compiled by Benjamin Franklin. One can trust that Franklin was paraphrasing an earlier saying, likelyby Sophocles, who lived for 90 years in the 4th century BCE, orby one of his contemporaries. Sophocles’ words, from what is known as Fragment 288, have been translated as “No good e'er comes of leisure purposeless; And Heaven never helps the men who will not act.” In Aesop's Heracles and the Driver, the god Heracles responds to the driver’s prayer to have his ox-cart brought out of the ditch, by saying that some effort would be required for the prayer to be answered.
Psalm 121:8
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.
This is the last verse of a Psalm devoted to assuring us of God’s protection. There are no provisos. There are no conditions. There is no mention of merit. Those “who help themselves” are not set apart. God is free and is not bound by our formulations.
Lent 3
March 15, 2020
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it
While often attributed to Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain during the Falklands Conflict, I was not able to find a direct citation to confirm whether she actually said or wrote this. Logically, the quote makes little sense: obviously, one can win a battle with one fight. The phrase, therefore, can have several meanings. One would be “never admit defeat or “never stop trying.” Such words lie somewhere between the extremes of delusion and encouragement. Defeat is real; it does exist. Yet, many have the propensity to give up too early. There is a similar sounding phrase “lose the battle, win the war” credited to Sun-Tzu, author of the Art of War written in 6th Century BCE. These words appear to counsel losing a battle as a strategy in some cases rather it being inevitable that lost battles will result in won wars.
Romans 5: 3-4
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
These verses explain the mechanism of endurance. Endurance is not some magical input that is the right code for a particular output. God is not sitting and waiting for us to pass a test so we can get a gold star. Endurance is its own reward. Laid out by Paul in a few tidy words, we can follow the path God has given us from suffering to hope. And such transformation may well demand us to "lose", not only more than once, but many times!
Lent 4
March 22, 2020
Hurt people hurt people
Some people attribute these words to Will Bowen, for they appear in his 2009 book, Complaint Free Relationships: Transforming Your Life One Relationship at a Time. I am not sure where he found them, but I saw them on a bumper sticker in the early 1990s. And like many such sayings, it circulates in Twelve Step groups. These words hold a lot within them. It can be a warning about spending time around hurt people. It can be a warning to the hurt person to take care not to injure others. It can also be a reminder to be compassionate and understanding with hurtful people. It can mean yet other things. Something as simple as two words repeated contains much complexity.
John 9:2-3
And his disciples asked him,
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents,
but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.
Jesus does not get exactly at the dynamic of a victim becoming a perpetrator, but he certainly speaks out against blaming the victim. The question in John 9:2 reflected the worldview of the day - that pain and illness were the result of sin. Jesus disagreed! Such compassion would then take the phrase "hurt people hurt people" and ensure it swayed people from either demonizing perpetrators of hurt, or blaming victims for their own situations.
Lent 5
March 29, 2020
Never say die
A great host of aphorisms call us to persistence. Don't give up this ship; don't halt before you are lame; hang in there; the darkest hour is just before dawn; while there is life, there is hope; always give people more than they expect; the expectations of life depend on diligence… These are but a few of many. “Never say die” manages to convey the same idea in three short words.
John 11:13
Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
This verse is from the middle of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It makes it clear that this is a resurrection, not a resuscitation. Resurrection demands a death. As such, Christians who believe in the resurrection, like Jesus did, should neither fear nor avoid speaking of death. This extends beyond the physical into the metaphorical.
Passion Sunday
April 5, 2020
Soon learned, soon forgotten
This proverb makes a rather troubling comment about humanity: we aren't very good at learning and we forget what we learn. Our progress is slow and we are not very good at moving on beyond where we are.
Matthew 26:45
Then he came to the disciples and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
See, the hour is at hand,
and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all write about the disciples falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. While they each provide some of their own interpretation, the basic details and conclusions agree. The disciples had yet to grasp the coming death and resurrection, even at this late hour, in spite of all the teachings that Jesus had offered to them. They were asleep when Jesus had both requested and expected them to be alert and prayerful. Jesus echoes the call to humility in the phrase “soon learned, soon forgotten!”
Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Pentecost to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to The Reign of Christ
Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Trinity Sunday to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to The Reign of Christ
Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Pentecost to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to Reign of Christ
For more on Glenn Morison and his book that led to this page, check out The Things We Say.
All this material is copyleft. Feel free to use it however you see fit, with or without attribution.
If you wish to value this page, please make a donation to the Winnipeg Quaker Meeting.