Tag: Genesis 37

Christ the King Sunday, Year A

We ask Jesus, “when did we see you”? His response is unequivocal.

Welcome!

“Homeless Jesus” outside St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Bay Village, OH

“You did it to me” commentary on Mark 25:31-46

So many of us, in our devotional and ecclesiastical lives, long to “see Jesus.”  And rightly so.  We pray for an experience of Jesus’s presence.  We yearn to feel him close.  We sing hymns, recite creeds, hear sermons, and attend Bible studies — all in the hope of seeing and knowing Jesus in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with these practices — unless they keep us at comfortable arm’s length from where Jesus actually is.  Unless they lead us to believe that the work of justice and compassion is somehow secondary to the “real” business of Christianity.  The real business of Christianity is bending the knee to Jesus.  And where is Jesus?  Jesus is in the least and the lost and the broken and the wounded.  Jesus is in the un-pretty places.  In the bodies we don’t discuss in polite company.  In the faces we don’t smile at.  In the parts of town we speed by.

It’s not that we earn our way to majestic King Jesus by caring for the vulnerable.  It is that majestic King Jesus, by his own choice and volition, has stooped and surrendered in such a way that he IS the vulnerable.  There’s no other way to get to him.  Period.

Debbie Thomas Lectionary Essay “You Did It To Me” on Journey with Jesus webzine; posted November 15, 2020

Please make the time to read the entire essay by Debie Thomas as you consider the meaning of Christ the King this week.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, November 26, 2023 on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: CNN

Pentecost +12, Proper 15A

Joseph’s story is a reminder to take the long view of events.

Welcome!

Each Wednesday morning a group of us gather online to explore the readings to be used in worship the following Sunday. Our handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost (August 20, 2023) in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.

This past Wednesday, August 16, 2023, we explored the readings from Genesis 45:1-15 and Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 for the voice of the Spirit. Our handout included commentaries on the other appointed texts from the Psalms (Psalm 133 ) and the Gospel according to Matthew (Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28).

From the commentary on Genesis 45:1-15

Matt Skinner has a new book out on Acts, subtitled Catching Up with the Spirit. In it he makes a helpful remark regarding what he thinks is often an assumption at play, “that God’s ‘activity’ in the world is like a puppeteer pulling strings.” It’s different for him, it seems. “It’s easier for me,” he notes, “to look back on situations, after the fact, and wonder. With the help of hindsight, I might perceive ways in which I was open or closed to God’s presence.”

This is the power of Joseph’s final confession: that though none of what has happened to him over the course of his life is what he’d have chosen it to be, he can yet now see that God has set him up to preserve life.

“Joseph’s whole story” by Liz Goodman in The Christian Century, February 18, 2022. 

You are invited to view or download the handout we used to guide our discussion and tune our hearts to the Spirit.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 20, 2023 on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Be well. Do good. Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 15, Year A.

I Am Your Brother Joseph from the Ad Imaginem Dei blog curated by Margaret M. Duffy. This post explores the story of Joseph revealing his true identity to his brothers. See Genesis 45.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro

Pentecost +11, Proper 14A

Seeking God: a lifelong invitation.

Welcome!

Each Wednesday morning a group of us gather online to explore the readings to be used in worship the following Sunday. Our handout features readings, commentaries, and notes for the Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost (August 13, 2023) in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.

In our Forum on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, we carefully explored the readings from Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b and Matthew 14:22-33 for the voice of the Spirit. Our handout included commentaries on the texts from Genesis (Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 ) and Romans (Romans 10:5-15).

From the commentary on Psalm 105

Not that we will ever be able to nail down God so that all will be sunny tomorrow. Psalm 105:3–4 uses the verb “seek” three times, as if to underline that God is to be “sought.” The psalm does not say “find” the Lord, but “seek” the Lord. In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6)—not, “Blessed are those who are righteous.” We seek God; God is not to be possessed. We never quite grasp. We long for God, we reach out for God. If we get a question answered, we discover new questions. The pleasure is in the not quite having tied God down, as this God is as elusive as the events of history. We seek.

We seek this God, and not some other divinity, because of the past; we seek this God, instead of relying only on our own initiative and energy, because of the past. This is hope: to stand in the river of time and to be swept forward on the waters that have been flowing toward us for quite some time.

By James C. Howell in Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Additional Essays, vol. 8, Feasting on the Word (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)

Please view or download the handout we used to guide our exploration.

View the Revised Common Lectionary readings appointed for Sunday, August 13, 2023 on the Revised Common Lectionary site curated by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library.

Pay attention. Keep learning.

View or download the Handout for Proper 14, Year A.

Down the Well But Not Out For the Count from the Ad Imaginem Dei blog curated by Margaret M. Duffy. This post explores the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers as presented in Christian art through the centuries. See Genesis 37.

Please come back to this site throughout the week in order to keep learning.

Image: ChurchArt Pro