Ash Wednesday - A
The following story begins the first chapter of Jeffrey K. Salkin's book, Being God's Partner (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994)
While walking in a neighboring village late at night, a Hasidic rebbe met a man who was also walking alone. For a while, the two walked in silence. Finally, the rebbe turned to the man and asked, "So, who do you work for?"
"I work for the village," the man answered. "I'm the night watchman."
They walked in silence again. Finally, the night watchman asked the rebbe, "And who do you work for?"
The rebbe answered, "I'm not always sure. But this I will tell you. Name your present salary and I will double it. All you have to do is walk with me and ask me, from time to time, 'Who do you work for?' "
While walking in a neighboring village late at night, a Hasidic rebbe met a man who was also walking alone. For a while, the two walked in silence. Finally, the rebbe turned to the man and asked, "So, who do you work for?"
"I work for the village," the man answered. "I'm the night watchman."
They walked in silence again. Finally, the night watchman asked the rebbe, "And who do you work for?"
The rebbe answered, "I'm not always sure. But this I will tell you. Name your present salary and I will double it. All you have to do is walk with me and ask me, from time to time, 'Who do you work for?' "
This day has become an important one in the church year. When the Lenten season eventually became forty days long, this day emerged as the beginning of a period of repentance. Happily we have moved from that time when only certain church members were considered needful of repentance (and then temporarily excommunicated) to the recognition that as sinners one and all, we all need to be honest with God and ourselves about our failure to love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves.
The lessons for the day move from a call to repentance through a definition of Christ's ambassadors to Jesus' instruction about proper ways to express piety. All the lessons, however, derive their meaning and their connection to one another on the basis of the kingdom of God promised and begun...
The lessons for the day move from a call to repentance through a definition of Christ's ambassadors to Jesus' instruction about proper ways to express piety. All the lessons, however, derive their meaning and their connection to one another on the basis of the kingdom of God promised and begun...
The Lord in the book of the prophets sometimes seems to give evidence of ambiguity and uncertainty. Here in Joel comes the word to "call a solemn assembly." A couple of pages later the prophet reports on the nostrils of God: "I despise the noise of your solemn assemblies." They smell to high heaven.
The Lord in the book of the prophets also gets in trouble with our contemporaries when they busy themselves correcting biblical pictures of the divine Thou. That Lord is seen as capricious, eager to clobber the wayward, vengeful.
And the same Lord's people receive ambiguous advice. They are to repent. Repenting usually demanded certain postures and acts, such as sitting in ashes, wearing burlap bags, and "rending" them. But this time around forget the rending of...
In our nation, we are proud to say that nobody has any right to tell us what to do. No foreign power is superior to us; no outside body dares criticize us. We will take under advisement comments from our allies, but as the world superpower we are the ones who will advise others, not the other way around.
This is also true in our personal lives. One of our chief values is self-reliance, the ability to take care of ourselves rather than asking for help. No matter what mistakes we may make, no matter how chaotic our lives may be, no matter how tense we are, "nobody tells us how to live."
Not even God.
Sometimes, it seems we would rather be wretched, stressed out, self-centered, even mean, than turn over our lives, our political decisions, our spending...
This is also true in our personal lives. One of our chief values is self-reliance, the ability to take care of ourselves rather than asking for help. No matter what mistakes we may make, no matter how chaotic our lives may be, no matter how tense we are, "nobody tells us how to live."
Not even God.
Sometimes, it seems we would rather be wretched, stressed out, self-centered, even mean, than turn over our lives, our political decisions, our spending...
Mardi Gras! Festivals of light! Great crowds gathering to have fun. Costumes, dancing, the good times a'rolling! That's what occurs at this time of year in New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, and all over the world as people celebrate and load up on all those fats that Shrove Tuesday dishes out. Out East they celebrate Fascht Naucht (Fat Night) by cooking homemade donuts in bubbling fat, heaping heavy syrup on pancakes, and gorging themselves on high caloric goodies. This tradition comes from the Old World, where the night before Lent the family would use up all the fats in the pantry in preparation for a time of fasting. The focus in these situations is on enjoyment, celebration, filling your cup to the brim before "The Day." Well, today is "The Day." In the church we celebrate today as Ash...
Schuyler Rhodes
The following story begins the first chapter of Jeffrey K. Salkin's book, Being God's Partner (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994).
While walking in a neighboring village late at night, a Hasidic rebbe met a man who was also walking alone. For a while, the two walked in silence. Finally, the rebbe turned to the man and asked, "So, who do you work for?"
"I work for the village," the man answered. "I'm the night watchman."
They walked in silence again. Finally, the night watchman asked the rebbe, "And who do you work for?"
The rebbe answered, "I'm not always sure. But this I will tell you. Name your present salary and I will double it. All you have to do is walk with me and ask me, from time to time, 'Who do you work for?' "
While walking in a neighboring village late at night, a Hasidic rebbe met a man who was also walking alone. For a while, the two walked in silence. Finally, the rebbe turned to the man and asked, "So, who do you work for?"
"I work for the village," the man answered. "I'm the night watchman."
They walked in silence again. Finally, the night watchman asked the rebbe, "And who do you work for?"
The rebbe answered, "I'm not always sure. But this I will tell you. Name your present salary and I will double it. All you have to do is walk with me and ask me, from time to time, 'Who do you work for?' "
Cathy Venkatesh
Imagine life in a northern farming community a couple of centuries ago. It's early March. The sun is getting brighter and the days longer, but snow still covers the ground and it is bitterly cold. Food stored away at the fall harvest is dwindling, perhaps down to shriveled turnips or rutabagas or whatever it may be that is everyone's least favorite meal. The chickens are laying less, if at all; perhaps a weasel crept into the barn over the winter and killed the flock. Winter illnesses may have brought members of the family low; some may have died, but their bodies cannot be buried until the ground thaws. Connections with the outside world by road or ship have come to a halt. Cabin fever is well advanced. In such a world, Lent makes sense. It reflects the realities of a difficult season...
David Coffin
It is the week before “Fat Tuesday,” and a given group of people are gathered in a restaurant, living room, or place of socializing discussing how they look forward to the food on “Fat Tuesday,” but Ash Wednesday and Lent are not that great. It is a matter of “giving something up,” more so than a spiritual discipline. When a person of faith within the group presses the rest of the jovial crowd about growing spiritually, some simply heckle back, “Yeah? Who actually practices what they believe or what they say in church?” There has been a growing body of books suggesting that if the church dies, it will have little to do with decisions on same-sex relationships, frequency of communion, or whether a denomination offers enough “boundaries workshops.” It is really about how Christians practice...
Mark Ellingsen
Ash Wednesday is time to stress our sorrow for sin and the way out, a chance to stimulate our awareness of sin as well as the need for and urgency of repentance, along with a Word of God’s forgiveness.
Joel 2:1-2,12-17
One option for the First Lesson is taken from a Book that reports on the ministry of a cultic prophet who did his work in the Jerusalem Temple, probably during the period of Persian domination after the return of the Babylonian Exiles (539 BC – 331 BC). (Some speculate that the concluding section of the Book [2:28ff.] may be the work of an editor of the period of the Maccabees in the second century BC.) The Book’s historical theme is the plague of locusts that had destructively descended on Israel (1:4). It is also characterized...
Joel 2:1-2,12-17
One option for the First Lesson is taken from a Book that reports on the ministry of a cultic prophet who did his work in the Jerusalem Temple, probably during the period of Persian domination after the return of the Babylonian Exiles (539 BC – 331 BC). (Some speculate that the concluding section of the Book [2:28ff.] may be the work of an editor of the period of the Maccabees in the second century BC.) The Book’s historical theme is the plague of locusts that had destructively descended on Israel (1:4). It is also characterized...
Mark Ellingsen
All the lessons and the theme of the day remind us that we dare not duck our sinfulness.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
The First Lesson is taken from a book which reports on the ministry of a cultic prophet who did his work in the Jerusalem temple, probably during the period of Persian domination after the return of the Babylonian exiles (539 BD – 331 BC). (Some speculate that the concluding sections of the book [2:28ff.] may be the work of an editor of the period of the Maccabees in the 2nd century BC.) The book’s historical theme is the plague of locusts that had destructively descended on Israel (1:4). It is also characterized by apocalyptic/eschatological elements – references to the day of the Lord (2:1-11,28-32; 3:1-3,9ff.). There is an evolution in...
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
The First Lesson is taken from a book which reports on the ministry of a cultic prophet who did his work in the Jerusalem temple, probably during the period of Persian domination after the return of the Babylonian exiles (539 BD – 331 BC). (Some speculate that the concluding sections of the book [2:28ff.] may be the work of an editor of the period of the Maccabees in the 2nd century BC.) The book’s historical theme is the plague of locusts that had destructively descended on Israel (1:4). It is also characterized by apocalyptic/eschatological elements – references to the day of the Lord (2:1-11,28-32; 3:1-3,9ff.). There is an evolution in...
A now-famous credit card company advertisement asks, "What's in your wallet?" The
implication is that if you have their card you will have smooth sailing through life,
protections from all that would rob you of life, and in general have a more pleasant and
prosperous journey through life. The ads are humorous and well done, if overstated.
Certainly, the card is a passport to much that our society has to offer. A quick look in my
own wallet reveals that I use cash for only a minority of purchases. I had better know
what is in my wallet.
Being more concerned with what is in our wallet than in our attic is probably one of the reasons that church attendance will not reach its zenith on Ash Wednesday. As many doors as will open in your life because you have the card, Ash...
Being more concerned with what is in our wallet than in our attic is probably one of the reasons that church attendance will not reach its zenith on Ash Wednesday. As many doors as will open in your life because you have the card, Ash...
First Sunday in Lent - A
As a teenager I split a great deal of firewood. You upend a log of the right length, setting it on the ground or, better, on a tree stump. You take a steel wedge and, with the sledgehammer held in one hand, you tap it carefully into the end grain of the log. Then you step back, and take a full swing. And if you have planned it right, if you have aimed well enough and set the wedge in the end of the log properly, if your eye is good, you hit the wedge with a deep clang of metal on metal, and the two halves of the log go flying apart. If you're really good, the wedge is left sticking in the stump, having traveled completely through the log.
There are many people in our society who know little or nothing about the joys we experience on Sunday mornings. Even during this penitential season of Lent we do not count Sundays as part of the forty days because on Sundays we celebrate Easter -- no matter the liturgical season or the conditions in society. Some pastors begin the Sunday morning announcements with a warm welcome to "an hour of temporary sanity."
The front page of the daily newspaper or the first ten minutes of Action News Tonight make abundantly clear that many people's lives are illustrative of the dry bones of Ezekiel's vision. Some years ago Kris Kristofferson put those lives into a contemporary dirge-song called "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down." It depicts what life without the Sunday hope is like for many in...
The front page of the daily newspaper or the first ten minutes of Action News Tonight make abundantly clear that many people's lives are illustrative of the dry bones of Ezekiel's vision. Some years ago Kris Kristofferson put those lives into a contemporary dirge-song called "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down." It depicts what life without the Sunday hope is like for many in...
Some stories from the Bible sound strange, disconnected from our lives and our frames of reference. When we read them, it seems as though we are reading someone else's mail. Our first lesson from the Book of Genesis features talking snakes and magic trees, and our Gospel speaks of the devil whom we often picture in red tights and sporting a goatee and whom we can easily dismiss.
Even Jesus' successful response to the temptations of the devil, impressive though they are, might lead us to applaud his stance, but how does the temptation of Jesus who was the Son of God connect to the temptations we mere humans face in our twentieth century lives?
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
The well-known story of Garden of Eden is truncated here in order to focus our...
Even Jesus' successful response to the temptations of the devil, impressive though they are, might lead us to applaud his stance, but how does the temptation of Jesus who was the Son of God connect to the temptations we mere humans face in our twentieth century lives?
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
The well-known story of Garden of Eden is truncated here in order to focus our...
Believers ordinarily have less difficulty thinking about the existence of God than they do accounting for evil in God's creation. When pressed, most of them would be inclined to back up into the first book of the Bible and look for answers there to the "why?" questions about evil.
Sooner or later, but probably sooner, their search for answers would lead them to the familiar story of the snake. "The serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made." The problem with the idea of pinning it all on the serpent is this: it gets us nowhere. All we learn about this crafty being, which was not yet condemned to crawling, is that God made it and that it was crafty. Crafty, this time, means something bad. But did God make the snake crafty and bad? Or...
Wayne Brouwer
Today is the first Sunday during Lent. This is an important fact to note. In Advent, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, the Sundays belong to the season. They are Sunday of ... But during Lent, the Sundays are not part of Lent. The forty days of the season flow around the Sundays, calling us to share the journey of suffering with Jesus. The Sundays themselves, however, are islands of mercy, reminding us that Jesus is alive and forever victorious.
Still, the Sundays and the days of Lent cannot be separated, as the scripture passages for today remind us. Lent is about suffering and sadness and pain and heartache. Mostly we focus on these things in the general life of humanity since the Fall, and then concentrate them in the life of Jesus, particularly in the tough...
Still, the Sundays and the days of Lent cannot be separated, as the scripture passages for today remind us. Lent is about suffering and sadness and pain and heartache. Mostly we focus on these things in the general life of humanity since the Fall, and then concentrate them in the life of Jesus, particularly in the tough...
David Kalas
Schuyler Rhodes
Lent is traditionally a season of spiritual contemplation. It is a sober season when we remember and repent of our sins. And so this first Sunday of Lent is a good occasion for us to contemplate sin in the broadest sense: its origins, our experience of it, and its defeat.
The familiar story that is our Old Testament lection this week offers us a glimpse into the moment when sin entered the human race. Now it is fashionable in our day to dismiss the story as a primitive allegory. That certainly isn't Paul's reading of it in the excerpt from Romans. But even if we set aside the issues of the story's factualness, its truths are undeniable.
The familiar story that is our Old Testament lection this week offers us a glimpse into the moment when sin entered the human race. Now it is fashionable in our day to dismiss the story as a primitive allegory. That certainly isn't Paul's reading of it in the excerpt from Romans. But even if we set aside the issues of the story's factualness, its truths are undeniable.
Wayne Brouwer
Ancient Israel's calendar of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly markers was not so much a schedule of holidays that broke up the work seasons into manageable pieces. Rather it was the rhythm of married life with Yahweh. It was the way in which the covenant relationship was acknowledged daily and weekly, and then encouraged the deep permeation of the relationship as a kind of living testimony through the multiple anniversary remembrances throughout the year.
So it is with the liturgical year calendar of the Christian church. We mark the seasons not merely by way of the changing climatic conditions of snow and sun, seedtime and harvest, but rather by tracing the movement of God's redemptive activities in time:
• Advent -- we wait expectantly through the dark night of...
So it is with the liturgical year calendar of the Christian church. We mark the seasons not merely by way of the changing climatic conditions of snow and sun, seedtime and harvest, but rather by tracing the movement of God's redemptive activities in time:
• Advent -- we wait expectantly through the dark night of...
Sandra Herrmann
The scriptures for today bind together the beginning of sin in the world, our salvation from sin, and Jesus’ own vulnerability to the temptation of the devil. We see that the devil is very clever (or that we can be very clever in fooling ourselves about our motives and the possible ramifications of our attitudes and actions).
David Coffin
Imagine a young couple about to be married who have just processed up the aisle of a traditional Christian c sanctuary amidst the traditional bridal march organ music. The pews are packed with invited guests. The altar has flowers, candles and other decorations. There is small aisle of both groomsmen and bridesmaids standing on either side of the couple. After the giving away of the bride to the groom, the pastor addresses the couple and congregation for a brief homily. One can hear the echoes of music of the party bus in the parking lot along the street in front of the church. The family are anxious to pop the cork of drinks and enjoy the festivities of the pre-planned celebrations.
Lectionary Commentary and Sermon Illustrations
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