Sermonstudio

The apocalyptic imagery of such texts contrasts sharply with
the scientific picture of the world. Given our knowledge of the
distances, sizes, and compositions of the stars, what could it
mean to talk about the stars of heaven literally falling (v. 25)?
That alone may convince us that such a text cannot be read as a
detailed scenario of the way that the physical universe will come
to an end.
And yet ---- the fact that the celestial powers, as well as the
physical structure of the earth and political, religious, and
social events are involved here makes us realize that what Jesus,
other Jews of his time, and the early church had in mind when
they thought of the future was something which encompassed the
whole universe. If we are to be faithful to the biblical witness,
we will have to take seriously the cosmic character of its
eschatology. We must be willing to stretch our theological and
scientific thinking to do it justice, even as we resist the
temptation to constrain our eschatology within the limits of the
physical cosmology of the first century.


2 ADVENT

Isaiah 40:1--11

There are many ways to reflect on these opening verses of
Second Isaiah in the Advent season. Here we may simply note the
connection with the day's Second Lesson in the contrast

between the ephemeral character of earthly life and the
permanence of God's word.

2 Peter 3:8--15a (LBW ends with v. 14.)

In what is perhaps the latest writing of the canon there is
still a looking forward to the dramatic consummation of all
things. The elements (stoicheia, from which the branch of
chemistry called stoichiometry gets its name) will be "burned up
with fervent heat" (KJV). But even with this destructive imagery
there is a positive note of hope for "new heavens and a new
earth."
The early verses (and one should really go back to the
beginning of the chapter to get the whole train of thought) show
a clear awareness of the problem of "the delay of the parousia"
which has vexed Christianity in one way or another since the
first century. The author of 2 Peter argues (see also Psalm 90:4)
that God's time scale is quite different from ours. Thirty human
generations amount only to a day for God.
A simple illustration can help people to put the matter in
perspective. It took between ten and fifteen billion years for
human life to emerge after the big bang. If ten billion years
were compressed into a single year, the period of two thousand
years which has elapsed since the time of Jesus would be about
six seconds. On a cosmic scale, the resurrection of Jesus took
place just yesterday. Seen in that light, there does not seem to
have been any real delay of the parousia at all!


3 ADVENT

Isaiah 61:1--4, 8--11 (LBW has vv. 1--4, 10--11.)

Building upon ancient ruins and former devastations in
biblical times usually had to do with the need to rebuild after
the ravages of war. The days are upon us, however, when we need
to say the same for reclaiming deserts, cleaning up rivers,
oceans and lakes, replenishing forests, and repairing damage

to the ozone layer. God's people are to minister to those
involved in such work, encouraging understandings that make such
renewal possible.
Isaiah's vision appears to be that of a people who, as priests
and ministers in a society being redeemed, will be the apex of
that society, the wealthy who control and lead with the vision
which they hold before the people. If we see this together with
Jesus' vision of a servant ministry then we have a picture of
servant rulers, of woman and man created and set in the garden to
take care of it and to rule over it by cultivating it in the best
possible way under God's authority.


4 ADVENT

Psalm 89:1--4, 19--26 (LBW has vv. 1--4, 14--18.)

It's a shame to have to take just pieces of this Psalm which
expresses praise to God as creator (1--8), remembrance of the
Davidic covenant (19--37), and lament for the king's present
misfortune (38--51), with a doxological conclusion to the third
book of the psalter. The whole is a great expression of the
psalms as the prayers of Christ. The second section connects well
with the First Lesson and Gospel. Verses 9 and 10 use the image
of the primordial battle with chaos for God's creative work, a
victory over the powers which oppose the ordering of the cosmos.
This can be connected in one direction with God's establishment
of the order displayed in the laws of nature (cf. Isaiah 45:18),
and in another with the Christus Victor motif for speaking about
salvation.


1 CHRISTMAS

Psalm 148 is discussed for this Sunday in Year A.

Psalm 111 is assigned for this Sunday each year by LBW. We treat
it for 4 Epiphany B.

Luke 2:22--40 (LBW has vv. 25--40.)

In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America this last Sunday
of the calendar year is noted as "Student Recognition Sunday." (A
lot of college students will be home for the holidays.) The note
at the end of the gospel that the child Jesus "grew ... filled
with wisdom" would be a fitting note for such a day. It is
important for churches to recognize and encourage in particular
their students who are pursuing work in science and technology.
It is easy to point out the benefits and threats which can come
from such work. Science and technology cannot generate their own
ethical imperatives for the use of their knowledge and
techniques. Ethics requires a more profound basis, and
Christianity offers the category of "wisdom," the wisdom whose
beginning is the fear of the Lord. (See the final verse of Psalm
111 and our discussions for 5 Epiphany A and Proper 18 C.)


2 EPIPHANY

Psalm 139:1--17 (We have included vv. 6--11.)

This is one of the classic statements of God's omnipresence.
As vv. 12--17 especially make clear, this is more than a matter of
God's passively "being there." God is actively present, working
in all the hidden processes of nature, such as the complex and
subtle activities of embryological development and human growth.
These take place through processes, explainable in principle
by scientific laws, and also through the creative and
providential operations of God. It is not an either/or matter,
but one of God's being involved in the whole of nature. This is
the thrust of what was described in traditional doctrines of
providence as "concurrence" or "co--operation": God works with
natural processes, so that things happen "naturally" and through
God's action. With this idea there is no need to think

that God is eliminated by the discovery of scientific
explanations for phenomena or that God is necessary as an element
of scientific explanation.

Psalm 67 is appointed by LBW for this Sunday. See the commentary
for Proper 15 A.

John 1:43--51 is given as an alternative by RCL. For discussion
see Saint Bartholomew's Day in the section of texts common to
each year.


4 EPIPHANY

Psalm 111 (LBW has a different Psalm.)

Over the great door of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge
University is the inscription

Magna opera Domini
exquisitia in omnes voluptates eius.1

This is the Latin of the second verse of today's Psalm,

"Great are the deeds of the LORD!
They are studied by all who delight in them."

The psalmist had in mind both God's historical acts on behalf of
Israel (vv. 6, 9) and God's provisions for people's needs in
creation (v. 5). The great Cambridge scientists like James Clerk
Maxwell saw God's works also in the natural processes of
mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism which could be
described by precise mathematical laws like Maxwell's equations
for the electromagnetic field. (For those equations see the
commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:5--12 for Proper 4 B.) "The deeds of
the LORD" include all of those things, as well as God's acts in
salvation history.

Many Christians have been led to think that there must be
"warfare" between faith and science, and they may have the uneasy
feeling that science is always making Christianity more and more
irrelevant. A person certainly does not need to be a Christian
(or, indeed, to have any explicit religious faith) in order to be
a great scientist, but there is also no need for conflict between
scientific work and religious belief. It may be helpful for
preachers to call attention to scientists like Maxwell (who is
outranked perhaps only by Newton and Einstein on the honor roll
of great physicists) who have been committed Christians. "Men of
science," he said, "as well as other men need to learn from
Christ."2


5 EPIPHANY

Mark 1:29--39

Healing was a major part of Jesus' ministry, and the Book of
Acts tells us that continued in the early Church. How are we to
think of such work today?
Some of the general discussion of miracles for Proper 13 A is
applicable here. In the case of healings, we know that the mind
can have a very strong influence on the body. There are many
healings which are in this way "natural," even though we don't
understand their mechanism. Many cures in response to prayer,
"faith healers," and apparent miracles by non--Christians (e.g.,
those recorded of the Emperor Vespasian by Suetonius) may fall in
this category. Some of Jesus' healings as well can be understood
in this way, with no need to appeal to "violations of the laws of
nature."
And yet we ought not use "psychosomatic" as a magic word to
avoid further questions about such cures. Many of the people
Jesus is said to have cured (e.g., Mark 5:25; 9:21; John 5:5) had
been sick for a long time. If health were just a matter of
wanting to be well, they wouldn't have needed Jesus. We may see
Jesus not only as the one who heals by means of a person's faith
but as the one who through the

Spirit creates such faith. (Paul describes saving faith in Christ
as something only the Holy Spirit can give in 1 Corinthians
12:3.) These surprising healings may be natural, but they cluster
about Jesus in a remarkable way.
A point to be noted especially in Mark is the association of
illness with demonic powers, and thus of healing with exorcism.
Bacteria and viruses are creatures of God, but Jesus shows God's
opposition to the destruction which such agents work in human
lives. The classical Christian view sees demons as fallen angelic
powers which were originally created good by God, and which
remain in essence good.3 It may be difficult in a scientific
world to see a relationship between traditional views of the
demonic and disease, but some of the fundamental themes can be
appropriately demythologized.


7 EPIPHANY

Isaiah 43:18--25

God promises to renew the desert to provide water for the wild
beasts and birds who will honor God and for the people whom God
has chosen. Divine power is established over nature as well as
over a covenant people.
God has given people power to renew the desert through
irrigation techniques and ways of caring for the soil that remove
impurities and make rich farmland. In Israel, one of us spoke
with a man whose parents had come from the Soviet Union in the
1920s. They received a desert--like parcel of land laden with
salts and small stones which made it difficult to farm. He said
that each year his father would go over the land on his knees,
running the dirt through a sifter inch by inch to take away
larger impure parts and leave more fertile soil. Each year he
would raise what crops he could, and then sift it again to remove
unproductive material which had worked its way to the surface.

For twenty years he did this until he had a plot of rich soil.
And each year he would show his son the harvest and say, "God has
given us this good land as our gift." So, too, each of us must
work faithfully where God has called us, using the knowledge God
has given. At harvest time we are to remember that God has given
us the land and brings about its fruitfulness.


8 EPIPHANY

Hosea 2:14--20 (LBW's suggestion that vv. 17--18 be omitted should
be ignored, as should most suggested excisions.)

The prophet reminds Israel, and us, that God's covenant is not
just with one group of people, or even with all humanity. The
Noachic covenant (Genesis 9:8--17) is between God and "every
living creature," and Hosea promises the renewal of that pledge
by God.
The theme of God's covenant with nature is important in
today's climate of concern about the environment. Nature is more
than a backdrop or a support system for the human race. It is
valuable enough to God in its own right that God "negotiates" a
covenant which includes nature as well as humankind. Humanity is
included in the agreement and comes in for special consideration,
in part because of its destructive propensities (v. 18).
The special role of the wilderness should be noted here. The
prophet speaks of a future recapitulation of Israel's history in
which the people will be brought back into the wilderness where
they began. God will give Israel the higher agricultural
technology of Canaanite culture, but in a way which will not
allow that culture to seduce Israel (Hosea 2:5--13). In the
wilderness, where reliance on God is an everyday necessity,
Israel will come to know its Lord as the one who gives them the
blessings of agriculture.

TRANSFIGURATION

2 Corinthians 4:3--6 (See the discussion for Proper 4 B.)


1 LENT

Genesis 9:8--17 (LBW has a different First Lesson.)

This is the only Sunday for which part of the Flood story is
used. (Selections from it are the second reading for the Easter
Vigil.) One point to emphasize is that God's covenant is not only
with all people but even with "every living creature that is with
you." This covenant, which is renewed in Jesus' death and
resurrection, shows God's intention to sustain and to save all
creation. Awareness of the scope of the covenant should provide a
powerful basis for the care of the earth.

Mark 1:9--15 (LBW has vv. 12--15.)

In our discussion of Matthew's temptation story for 1 Lent A
we noted the theme of recapitulation. (See also the preceding
comments for 8 Epiphany. This idea is strong in Hosea.) There it
was Israel's experience in the wilderness which was replayed by
Jesus, who did not succumb to the temptations which defeated the
ancestors. That note is missing in Mark's briefer account.
But the mention of "wild beasts" with Jesus in the wilderness
may carry us back even further, to the first human in Eden with
the beasts (Genesis 2:18--20). This earth creature, the 'adham,
named the animals, also formed from the ground, as their fellow
creature who yet had special gifts to care for them. Only the
"one flesh," man and woman, could be full partners. But though
they had distinctive gifts which set them apart from

the other animals, they did not resist the temptation to have
more than that, to be "like God" (Genesis 3:5). Jesus, however,
who has the "form of God," does not yield to the temptation to
cling to it (Philippians 2:5--11), and thus succeeds where
humanity failed before.
Mark's statement that Jesus was simply "with" the wild animals
suggests a lack of hostility, an absence of fear on the animals'
part and of exploitation on the part of the new Adam. The great
Ruthwell Cross (c. A.D. 700) in southern Scotland has one panel
showing Jesus standing over two pig--like animals, with a Latin
inscription which may be translated, "Jesus Christ, the righteous
judge. Beasts and dragons knew in the desert the savior of the
world."
The theme of recapitulations has been influential in
evolutionary biology, a point of some importance for theology.
Each of us carries reminders of our relationships with other
animals ---- the structures of bones and muscles and the chemical
makeup of DNA and proteins. The embryological development of
human beings has similarities with those of other mammals, so
that at early stages it is hard to distinguish a human embryo
from that of a dog or monkey. Haeckel's idea in the nineteenth
century that the embryo goes through the evolutionary history in
an accelerated way ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny") was a
vast and inaccurate oversimplification. Still, embryological
relationships between humans and other species do exist.
And those relationships are shared by Jesus as well. Fully
human, he participates in the history of the human race, and is
thus organically related to the "wild beasts." And because the
beasts are thus related to God Incarnate, they share in the hope
of salvation which he brings. C.S. Lewis seems to have been the
first to see the connection between the biological and the
theological themes of recapitulation.

He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time
and space, down into humanity; down

further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the
womb ancient and pre--human phases of life; down to the very roots
and sea--bed of the Nature He had created. But He goes down to
come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.4

It will be surprising, and at first disturbing, for some
Christians to hear such language. But it should also be
comforting. God's willingness to share in our pre--human ancestry
shows the depth to which God is willing to go in order to save
us.
A preacher who wants to address this topic should resist the
temptation simply to give a lecture. One way of presenting the
idea of God's recapitulation of history in a sermon would be to
develop a science fiction story with a time travel theme. (Time
travel has been a common plot device of science fiction writers,
but has also received some serious scientific attention
recently.5) An example of such a story sermon motivated by the
present text is given in Appendix E.


2 LENT

Psalm 115:1, 9--18 is given by LBW for this Sunday. But vv. 2--8
should not be omitted, especially in Lent.

Nobody worships Chemosh or Marduk anymore, so idols of gold
and silver (v. 4) may seem irrelevant. But modern technological
society has its own gods of metal. We can hardly avoid them,
going from the toaster in the morning, in the car to get to work
with the computer, and finishing up in the evening with the
television. Not that technology is intrinsically evil ---- far from
it! It represents the goodness of creation and our role as
created co--creators if used for the right purposes and used as
means rather than ends. Idolatry is always a matter of exalting
something which is intrinsically good to a place above God, the
place of ultimate reliance.

That can be a problem especially with military technology, for
there is a great temptation to depend on weapons systems for
ultimate security. Christians may think of militarism as a
problem involving destruction and death, but may need help in
seeing it as a First Commandment problem. In Shakespeare's Henry
V, after the Battle of Agincourt, the King says, "Do we all holy
rites: Let there be sung Non nobis and Te Deum." Non Nobis is the
Latin title of Psalm 115, "Not to us." In Branagh's recent film
of Henry V there is a beautiful singing of the first verse of the
Psalm as the soldiers struggle across the muddy and gory
battlefield, walking past corpses and supporting the wounded.
This is not a cynical or simplistic put--down of war; Shakespeare
and most of the Christian tradition have recognized the
legitimacy of war under some circumstances. But there is an
awareness of the realities of war, and of whom our reliance is to
be in peace or in war. "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your
name give glory."
Verse 16 corresponds to the delegation to humanity of
"dominion over the earth" in Genesis 1. Humanity is to care for
the earth as God's representative, in the image and likeness of
God. That may be seen in light of the fact that this Psalm,
according to Jewish custom for Passover, would have been part of
the "hymn" which Jesus and his disciples sang before going out to
the Mount of Olives "in the night in which he was betrayed" (Mark
14:26). Sacrificial self--giving is the model of rule which God
Incarnate sets before us.


3 LENT

Psalm 19 (LBW has vv. 8--14, which speak of God's revelation in
Torah, a connection with the First Lesson. Understanding is
deepened if the earlier verses, which speak of nature's witness
to God, are also read. It is no accident that they are parts of
the same Psalm!)

Faithful Jews and Christians, together with many people who
simply "believe in God," agree that "the heavens declare

the glory of God." But others, including some famous scientists,
will respond, "Not to me!" It is not lack of intelligence which
leads some scientists to deny any sign of divine activity in the
cosmos. Has something gone wrong with the psalmist's argument?
After speaking of the glory of God in nature, the Psalm turns
to the Torah, God's gift of the Law to Israel. It is that which
"revives," "gives wisdom," "rejoices the heart," and "gives
light" ---- things which are not said of nature. Through God's
revelation in Torah one is able to know who God is, and then to
recognize this God of Israel as the One whose glory the heavens
declare. There is a revelation in nature and a proper natural
theology, but any independent natural theology is ruled out by
the fact that Torah is necessary for enlightenment. A proper
natural theology must thus be seen as part of the religion of
Israel, not an independent prologue to it ---- let alone as
something which can take the place of Torah.
The same idea follows through into Christian thought. We see
the true God's activity in the universe only when we begin with
the belief that God is the One revealed in Jesus, to whom the Law
bears witness. The God whose handiwork is shown in the universe
is the Crucified.
The second half of Psalm 19 may have been added to the first
as a conscious corrective to the idea of an independent natural
theology. If so, there was a clear sense within the canonical
process that natural theology is by itself inadequate.

John 2:13--22

The "dwelling" of God is a theme which runs throughout the
Bible. We read of God's travels with Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
the Ark and the tabernacle, and all the attention given to the
temples in Jerusalem. The Hebrew canon, which begins with God's
creation of heaven and earth in Genesis 1, ends with the command
to "build a house" for "the God of heaven" (2 Chronicles 36:23).
In view of that, the presence of God's Spirit in Genesis 1:2 can
be seen as a consecration of the

universe to be God's dwelling. The universe is created as a
suitable site for the development of life, and thus for the
Incarnation.
In the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke, the Holy Spirit
comes upon Mary, so that the child born of her is consecrated as
God's unique dwelling. In our text from John 2, Jesus takes the
place of the Temple as the place where God "tabernacles" with us
(cf. John 1:14). This all looks forward to the end of the Greek
Scriptures, where "the dwelling of God is with humanity"
(Revelation 21:3)6, and the temple in the heavenly city come to
earth is "the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb" (Revelation
21:22).

Psalm 111 is given as an alternative by RCL. For discussion see
Epiphany B.


5 LENT

John 12:20--33

"I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people
to myself," Jesus says in v. 32. The modern image which comes to
mind here is that of the cross as a magnet, creating a force
field which draws men and women to it. The "moral influence"
theory of the atonement in particular can be described vividly as
a "magnet model,"7 though the use of such imagery need not be
limited to that particular view of the work of Christ. This is
not just a sermon illustration to be talked about. A magnet could
be used, perhaps in a children's sermon, in order to illustrate
Jesus' words about the cross.
Some manuscripts have here panta, "all things," rather than
pantas, "all people." This would present the Crucified as the One
who reconciles the entire universe to God, as in Colossians 1:20.

EASTER DAY

Isaiah 25:6--9 is one RCL suggestion for this festival. See the
commentary for Proper 23 A.


2 EASTER

Psalm 148 is appointed by LBW for this Sunday. See the commentary
for 1 Christmas A.


3 EASTER

Psalm 139:1--11 is appointed by LBW for this Sunday. See the
discussion for 2 Epiphany B.


6 EASTER

Psalm 98

Like Psalm 148 (1 Christmas), this is a praise of God by the
entire world, but the theme is not as fully developed here.


PENTECOST

Psalm 104:25--35, 37 (See commentary for Pentecost A.)

Romans 8:22--27 is one RCL option for the Second Lesson. See the
discussion for Proper 11 A.


PROPER 4

2 Corinthians 4:5--12 (LBW for 2 Pentecost.)

The famous Maxwell equations of electromagnetic theory do show
how light can be described as electromagnetic waves. Our
understanding of Genesis 1:3 must somehow involve God's thinking
and choosing a part of the world's pattern which can be described
approximately with these equations. (It is worth noting that
Maxwell, to whom we are indebted for these equations and many
other scientific discoveries, was a committed Christian as well
as being one of the greatest of physicists.) Paul's use of the
Genesis story warns us, however, against a deistic picture of
God's writing down a set of equations at the beginning and then
simply letting the universe run in accord with those rules. God
is profoundly involved with the world, and the image of the
creation of light can also be used to describe God's revelation
in Christ.
Jesus' resurrection is like the creation of light on the first
day, except that it is here no created light which illumines us
but the light which is God's own self--expression (John 1:4--9). It
is, as some Christian mystics have said, "the uncreated light of
Tabor."

Psalm 139:1--6, 13--18 is given as an alternative by RCL. For
discussion see 3 Easter B.

Psalm 96 is given as an alternative by RCL. For discussion see
Proper 24 A.


PROPER 5

Genesis 3:8--15 (LBW has vv. 9--15 for 3 Pentecost.)

The familiar story of the Fall continues the stories of
creation and thus the story of the emergence of the human

vocation. Verses 17--19 imply that the work of "tilling and
keeping" are now involved, along with the rest of human life,
with sin.
The technological ordering of our lives, though not in itself
evil, provides occasion for human sin. For instance, the extent
of pollution in our time is due, at least in part, to greed and
shortsightedness. Technology itself is not condemned any more
than humanity itself. But our use of technology displays human
sin, as does any other form of human activity today.


PROPER 6

Psalm 20 is given as an alternative by RCL. For discussion see
National Holiday in the section of texts common to each year.


PROPER 7

Job 38:1--11; Psalm 107:1--3, 23--32; Mark 4:35--41 (LBW for 5
Pentecost. LBW also has 2 Corinthians 5:14--21 as the Second
Lesson, whereas RCL has vv. 14--17 for the previous Sunday.)

These fit together in a way that the readings for a given
Sunday seldom do. God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind and sets
out the wonders of creation. The psalmist speaks of God's
deliverance from the power of the sea, and in the Gospel it is
Jesus who saves from a storm on the water. With that connection
in mind, it is no wonder that the disciples exclaim, "Who then is
this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" Since the Creator
is personally present in Jesus, Paul says that "anyone who is in
Christ is a new creation." All the readings focus on creation and
new creation, with the sea as a symbol of the primordial chaos
which God restrained in the beginning (Job 38:8), and from which
God still protects the cosmos.

Our science has made us even more aware of the scope of
creation, of distant galaxies and black holes, and raises new
scientific questions. And with all those questions, we affirm
that the God in whom we trust is able to comprehend all of
creation, and indeed is its author.
As we marvel at God's power to open the universe infinitely,
we, like Job, humbly bow our hearts in faith that surely this God
also has the power to open up the future for us and to create new
possibilities in our lives. New opportunities and joys which all
our science and philosophy may not have dreamed of may lie before
us. Some of those opportunities may lie in the realm of God--given
abilities to develop protections against storms and other natural
disasters, possibilities no one imagined a few centuries ago.

2 Corinthians 6:1--11 is RCL's Second Lesson. See the discussion
for Ash Wednesday.


PROPER 8

Mark 5:21--43 (LBW has 5:21--24a, 35--43 or 24b--34. We focus on the
later verses here.)

The woman in the story had "endured much under many
physicians" for twelve years. That does not reflect very well on
the medical profession. It is perhaps significant that Luke omits
the statement (but Matthew does as well).
Physicians today are vastly more skilled than those of
biblical times, but people still may suffer under them, and under
systems of medical care, perhaps even while their physical
ailments are being cured. No matter how scientific and successful
medical science becomes, it is still important for patients to be
treated as persons, not just as machinery to be maintained or
repaired.

PROPER 9

Mark 6:1--13 (LBW has vv. 7--13 for 8 Pentecost.)

As part of their missionary activity, Jesus' disciples
"anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them." This
practice was carried on by the early Church (cf. James 5:13--15),
and developed into a rite of anointing of the sick. It has been
seen (when the emphasis has not been primarily on preparation for
death) as a particularly religious means of healing.
The oil that the disciples used, however, would have been seen
by them and by the sick they treated as a common medicine. (For
medicinal use of olive oil see, e.g., Isaiah 1:6 and Luke 10:34.)
The religious use of this medicine consisted in prayer and faith
that God would heal through it.
Today we have medicines which are, physically, far more
effective than olive oil. But it may be understood as a symbolic
medicine. When we pray for healing, it is not for us to tell God
how to heal. Our everyday experience, however, tells us that the
vast majority of cures take place by natural processes available
through medicine, surgery, diet, radiation, and so forth. A rite
of anointing is a way of asking for God's blessings through those
means and of strengthening faith that God heals by them.
Religious approaches to healing parallel, and do not supplant,
medical means. The old "Exhortation" when "The Patient Prays on
Taking Medicine" in Stark's 1720 Prayer Hand--Book remains an
excellent statement of this. After quoting the passage from
James, it says:

If a devout prayer is indispensable even in times of health, how
can a patient neglect it, particularly when he takes medicine?
1. The patient must not despise the physician, nor his
medicine, nor think that if he is destined to recover, God can
restore him without medicine, and that if he is destined to die,
the medicine will be of no avail. No, to

think thus were to tempt God. God has not promised to help us
without means; and what God has not promised, we cannot ask of
him. Those who despise medicine and die, are guilty of their own
murder.
2. Yet he must not set his trust upon the physician and his
medicine, but upon God; as it is declared to be one of the sins
of King Asa, that in his sickness he did not seek God, but the
physicians, and trusted them more than God. 2 Chronicles, xvi.12.
3. Between these two extremes, the patient must select the
golden mean. With his lips and his heart he must pray, and take
the medicine in firm reliance upon the helping hand of God; then
he may know that there is a blessing upon it.8


PROPER 10

Ephesians 1:3--14 (LBW for 8 Pentecost.)

Ephesians is perhaps the most cosmic book of the Bible. It
begins with this statement that God has elected us "in Christ"
before the creation of the world for the fulfillment of the
divine purpose.
In modern science there is a controversial set of concepts
termed "anthropic principles" which express the idea that the
development of intelligent life is a central feature of the
universe.9 These range from the well--supported belief that
intelligent life couldn't have evolved if the parameters of the
universe (e.g., the strengths of the basic forces) were much
different from what they are, to the much more speculative
suggestion that the development of intelligence is necessary for
the existence of the universe. (Quantum mechanical ideas about
the relationship between observers and physical systems are cited
to support such claims.)
The argument of Ephesians is not, of course, based on such
ideas. It does, however, provide a theological parallel to
anthropic principles which we might label a theanthropic
principle.

Here it is not merely human beings as a set of intelligent
observers who enable the universe to exist and express its
purpose. It is humanity indwelt by God, the theanthropos Jesus
Christ, as the head of a new humanity, who is the creator and the
fulfillment of the cosmos.
Karl Barth's understanding of election provides one way to
proceed with such considerations, though his view of covenant was
too narrowly limited to a relationship between God and humanity.
The covenant which is "the internal form of creation"10 should be
seen as a covenant between God and all creation. This is
necessary on biblical grounds (see the discussion of Hosea 2:14--
20 for 8 Epiphany B) and because of the connections between
humanity and the rest of the world which evolutionary theory and
ecology describe.


PROPER 12

Psalm 145:10--19; John 6:1--21 (LBW has all of Psalm 145 and John
6:1--15 for 10 Pentecost.)

We have already commented on the Matthean account of the
feeding of the 5,000 and the general question of miracles for
Proper 13 A. Here one might emphasize that this spectacular
feeding by Jesus is not unique. Every day,

The eyes of all wait upon you, O LORD,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open wide your hand
and satisfy the needs of every living creature.
(Psalm 145:15--16)

Conversely, the feeding of the 5,000 is, for those who know the
Old Testament's teaching on creation, like a huge lighted arrow
bearing the word "Creator" and pointing to Jesus.
John's account also invites us to connect God's work of
feeding all living things through the processes of nature with

the Lord's Supper. This is suggested by the word eucharistesas in
v. 11. In the Eucharist Christ does not remove us from the
natural world, but takes up that world with its solar energy,
photosynthesis, soil, weather, and genetics into union with
himself and with those who eat and drink. "This is my body."


PROPER 15

Proverbs 9:1--6; John 6:51--58 (LBW for 13 Pentecost.)

This is the fourth week that the Gospel has dealt with John's
account of the feeding of the 5,000 and the following "bread of
life" discourse, in which Jesus identifies himself as the living
bread from heaven. Today we see that against the backdrop of
Wisdom's invitation: "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine
I have mixed." And that should be thought of together with the
role of Wisdom in Proverbs 8.
Wisdom has many aspects in Hebrew thought, ranging from the
common sense needed for right living through insight into the
secrets of the world to the underlying created order in the
universe.11 It reaches beyond humanity and the world to God.
Wisdom is an attribute of God which is personalized so strongly
in Proverbs 8 and Wisdom 7 that it prepared the way for the
Christian belief in the Word (John 1:1--3) or Wisdom (1
Corinthians 1:30) of God as a person of the Trinity.
This fundamental ordering of the world, a person rather than
an abstract principle, is the bread of life who invites us to the
banquet. That feast is, first of all, the Eucharist, where Christ
is present. But it includes all our eating and drinking and our
encounters with the material world structured in accord with the
divine Wisdom. The universe is sacramental because of its
centering in the remembrance and reactualization of the crucified
and risen Wisdom of God.
Wisdom concludes by saying, "Lay aside immaturity [or
simpleness], and live, and walk in the way of insight." God

calls us to be "wise," not "simple," even if that takes us on the
path of skepticism about traditional beliefs. The Judaeo--
Christian tradition has been courageous enough to canonize this
path in the Book of Ecclesiastes. In Christ, the Wisdom of God,
it is possible for us to engage in the most critical studies of
theology and natural science without losing our faith.

Psalm 111 is given as an alternative by RCL. For discussion see 4
Epiphany B.


PROPER 16

Ephesians 6:10--20 (LBW for 15 Pentecost.)

In the New Testament, the "holy war" tradition of Israel is
transferred to the level of spiritual combat with demonic powers.
It is a war in which God has won the decisive victory through the
cross of Christ (Colossians 2:15). But battles still go on, as
this passage, with its martial imagery, emphasizes.
Language about battles with demonic powers is the clearest
example of the use of a mythological worldview in the New
Testament, a use with which Bultmann's demythologizing program
was intended to deal. He argued that such language makes no sense
to people with a modern scientific view of the world. But
Bultmann's approach was so concerned with existential encounter
and the personal faith of the individual that it provided little
encouragement for theological reflection on the scientific
understanding of the world. If the full message of the New
Testament is to engage us, we have to ask what structures in our
scientific and technological existence play the role that the
"principalities" and "powers" (v. 12, RSV) did in the first
century.
In traditional Christian theology, Satan and the demonic
powers are, in essence, good because they are creatures of God.
There is no "evil God" on the same ontological level as the "good
God." But good creatures, who owe their existence

to God, become evil if they are turned from their proper role by
their own will or the wills of those who have a misplaced trust
in them. All creatures have the possibility of being evil, like
the "angels who did not keep their own position" (Jude 6) of
traditional demonology. Money, sex, and church growth can be
objects of idolatry even more easily than fallen angels.
In the modern world, science and the technology which science
makes available can become objects of ultimate trust, and thus of
idolatry. Since these things involve the basic energies of
nature, they really can play the role of the demonic in people's
lives. When the political powers of the modern state make use of
the energies that power the stars in order to enforce their will,
we have a close counterpart to the powers which were thought to
operate through political structures in the first century.
Reliance on military uses of technology today is a soberly
demythologized version of the threat of principalities and powers
spoken of in Ephesians.
This does not mean that technology, or even military
technology, is intrinsically evil. These things are based in
God's good creation. Peaceful uses even of nuclear explosives ----
e.g., for large excavation projects or propulsion of spaceships --
-- have been contemplated. It is the use to which such devices are
put, and the degree of reliance placed on them, which determines
whether they are good or demonic.
There may be technological ways of combatting the evils of
technology. The best way to solve environmental problems brought
about by some uses of technology is not necessarily to abandon
technology. Aggression may sometimes be appropriately countered
by military means, as the "justifiable war" tradition argues.
But the deepest Christian responses to threats posed by
principalities and powers are those which have the character of
God's decisive victory through the cross. Our text tells us to
defend ourselves with paradoxical armor ---- truth, righteousness,
peace, faith, and salvation. The only offensive weapon is the
Spirit, and that is not a possession which is under our control.
Instead, we are to be under the Spirit's guidance.

This suggests that, in combats with the powers of evil, we are
more the weapons which God makes use of than we are warriors.

A selection of verses from 1 Kings 8 is given as an
alternative by RCL. For discussion see Proper 4 C.


PROPER 18

Isaiah 35:4--7a (LBW for 16 Pentecost. See the discussion of vv.
1--10 for 3 Advent A.)

Mark 7:24--37 (LBW has vv. 31--37 for 16 Pentecost.)

This is one of the more remarkable healing stories in the
gospels. It is not said explicitly that the man had been deaf
from birth, but that is suggested by the fact that his deafness
is connected with a speech impediment. In those days a person who
couldn't hear would never learn to speak, and so would never
learn human language. Even if there were no mental defect, the
person would be under a severe handicap because of the difficulty
of formulating concepts. Jesus is then doing more than just
giving the ability to hear sounds or to make them. He is giving
the man the gift of language and even of thought. It is no
exaggeration that Jesus "has done everything well."


PROPER 20

James 3:13----4:3, 7--8a (LBW has 3:16----4:6 for 18 Pentecost.)

James identifies "earthly" wisdom as sensual and demonic. Thus
he challenges much of the Hebrew Wisdom tradition, which held
that the pursuit of knowledge (including what we would call
"science") is good, as long as the source of all wisdom and
knowledge, God, is recognized and worshipped.

(See discussion for 5 Epiphany A.) Passages such as this can be
linked to the mistrust of science which has sometimes existed in
the history of the Church, a mistrust which has often been
unhealthy. But it is salutary to challenge those who place blind
faith in science and those who ignore the fact that science is,
after all, a human activity, and therefore subject to human
limitations.


PROPER 21

James 4:7----5:6 (This is the LBW Second Lesson for 19 Pentecost.
RCL omits the verses discussed here.)

Verses 13--17 are a reminder needed especially in a scientific
age: the future belongs to God, not to us.
We are able to make accurate forecasts of the future. Eclipses
can be predicted many years in advance. Even phenomena
qualitatively different from those ever seen before can be
predicted. In the early nineteenth century, when the wave theory
of light was being debated, the French scientist Poisson showed
mathematically that it predicted a tiny bright spot in the center
of the shadow of a circular obstacle. He gave that as an argument
against the wave theory, since "everybody knew" that there was no
such spot. But when somebody looked for it, "Poisson's spot" was
there! It is now cited in support of the wave theory. Poisson had
been able to predict the future, but hadn't believed his own
prediction.
Many other examples of scientific prognostication could be
given. Even when we can't make precise predictions of individual
events because of the complexity of the systems we have to deal
with and the incompleteness of our information, we can make
statistical forecasts. We can't say which of the multi--trillions
of atomic nuclei in a sample of radium will decay in the next
minute, but we can say how many will. Insurance companies can use
actuarial tables to predict how many people in a certain
population will die in the next year.

Both the order in the world which makes such predictions
possible and the ability of the human mind to grasp that order
are gifts without which human life would not be possible. Imagine
what the world would be like if it operated on continual
unpredictable miracles ---- if we didn't know when the sun would
rise tomorrow, which substances were poisonous and which
nutritious, or whether heat would flow from hot to cold or cold
to hot. It would be a nightmare.
The world has an underlying rational pattern, and we are able
to discover parts of that pattern and thus know part of the
future. We know the future well enough to have no excuse if we
are caught napping by some easily foreseen event. The assignment
is due next Tuesday, it always takes at least twenty minutes to
get across town to where your next appointment is, and the signs
of your friend's drinking problem were there for anyone to see.
We can make budgets and estimate the traffic load on the bridge
we're designing.
And yet, the situations of real human lives are so complex
that we cannot predict with certainty just what will happen.
Recent scientific studies of what has come to be called (not too
appropriately) "chaos" have brought out the fact that the
development of many systems is very sensitive to their "initial
conditions," and in practice cannot be predicted with
certainty.12 The earth's weather systems are a good example of
this: It really is true that the flapping of a butterfly's wings
in Asia today can bring about significant changes in the weather
in New York next month.
The future is in the hands of God, not as one who continually
"intervenes" in the world but as one who has made the world with
enough flexibility to allow the working out of his will. It is a
simple confession of that which James urges. Make the best plans
you can, but with the understanding that this is the way things
will turn out "if the Lord wishes."


PROPER 22

Psalm 8 is given as an alternative by RCL. For discussion see
Trinity C.


PROPER 23

Psalm 90:12--17 (LBW for 21 Pentecost. See the discussion for
Proper 28 A.)

Amos 5:6--15 (LBW For 21 Pentecost.) Verses 8 and 9 should not be
omitted.

Amos shows a strong concern for social justice throughout this
book. This is because God is concerned about justice. And that is
really a remarkable idea: the God who created the stars (v. 8)
cares passionately about the treatment of the poor in Samaria.
When we consider the creation of the universe and the ways in
which God is at work in stellar evolution, we are not to think of
a God different from the one who insists that the widow and the
orphan be treated fairly.
Today we recognize justice in environmental matters as part of
this concern. Pollution and wastage of resources can have far--
reaching consequences, perhaps as mind--boggling as the stretches
of interstellar space. There are various ways in which the
preacher might tie together the grandeur of the universe and the
far--reaching implications of our stewardship of creation. The
wastes from our power plants which utilize nuclear fission will
continue to be radioactive long after our individual lives end,
and indeed far longer than any civilization or even the whole of
recorded human history has lasted. (The half--life of plutonium--
239 is about 24,000 years.) If we are to use nuclear energy, our
stewardship must be planned not just on a short--term basis but on
a geological time scale.


PROPER 24

Psalm 104:1--9, 24, 35c and Job 38:1--7 [34--41] are given as
alternatives by RCL. For discussion see, respectively, Pentecost
A and Proper 7 B.

PROPER 25

Mark 10:46--52 (LBW for 23 Pentecost.)

Jesus' words to Bartimaeus, whose sight he has just restored,
are repeated in a number of the accounts of his healings: "Your
faith has made you well." This may tempt us to overuse the word
"psychosomatic" as an explanation of apparently miraculous
healings. And yet the human spirit is a crucial factor in all
healing. When a patient has simply given up on life, all the
high--tech medicine in the world may not be able to heal. On the
other hand, the patient's simple determination to recover can
apparently seize the powers which medicine offers and make them
effective.
One of our parishioners, eighty years old, had surgery for the
replacement of one knee. Without going to a rehabilitation center
she returned to her two--story house. With the help of friends who
shopped and cleaned for her, she took care of herself and within
six months had recovered almost complete use of her knee. Then,
after moving to a retirement community, she had the other knee
replaced. But within a week after her return, she broke a hip,
fell to the floor, and had to go back to the hospital. A setback
like that could have been the end, but after a week in
rehabilitation therapy she was back in her apartment and was soon
walking with a walker.
That kind of spirit and will to be healthy is the unknown
quality that medical professionals long to have in a patient. And
God is the creator of that intangible aspect of human nature as
well as of our bodily realities. Jesus' words, "Your faith has
made you well," have profound medical and theological meaning.


PROPER 26

Deuteronomy 6:1--9 (LBW for 24 Pentecost.)

Verse 4, the Shema, is Israel's basic confession of faith in
one God. Yahweh, who creates and sustains the universe, who

keeps it and each individual creature, who saves and sanctifies,
is one, and is alone to be the ultimate object of trust.
In most of the cultures surrounding Israel there were many
gods and goddesses, one in charge of fertility, one governing the
sea, one to be asked for help in war, and so on. Even if there
were one supreme deity, such a polytheistic view meant a
fragmentation of reality. The universe was made up of different
parts subject to different rules. One couldn't expect to find
general laws which would apply throughout the universe, or
relationships between the laws which might apply in different
parts of it. A comprehensive understanding of the world, such as
modern science aims at, would be impossible.
The idea of a unified government of the world can undergird
such an ambitious view of science. Of course that is not
necessarily the same as the belief that the one God is Yahweh,
who brought Israel out of Egypt. There would be no scientific or
philosophical compulsion to identify such a sole governor of the
world with the Holy Trinity. However, the belief in the unity of
God which eventually made possible the rise of modern science was
that which lies at the root of the biblical tradition.
Polytheism in the traditional sense is not a major force in
the western world today, though there are various attempts to
remythologize the world. But the problem of the fragmentation of
reality is certainly with us. We see this in the mental
compartmentalization which many people use to deal with religion,
ethics, and science. Many people actually "know" that dinosaurs
walked the earth millions of years ago, but on Sunday morning
convince themselves that the dinosaurs were drowned in the
Noachic flood. Real belief in the unity of God doesn't fit very
well with such doublethink. An ongoing science--theology dialogue
ought to be one of the main results of a genuine belief that the
one true God is the one whose works we encounter in scientific
study as well as in Scripture.

Ruth 1:1--18 is given as an alternative by RCL. For discussion see
Proper 23 C.

PROPER 27

Hebrews 9:23--28 (LBW for 25 Pentecost.) We begin a verse earlier
than the lectionaries.

The idea that the things of this world are copies of heavenly
realities has been common and influential. In western thought it
is often associated with Plato, and we may simply use the term
"platonism" for it here. But such thinking was also prevalent in
the ancient Near East independent of the Greek philosopher. On
the basis of the command to Moses (Exodus 25:40) that the
tabernacle and its appointments were to be made according to the
pattern shown him on Mount Sinai (Hebrews 8:5), the writer to the
Hebrews developed the idea of Christ presenting his sacrifice in
the real heavenly tabernacle as the high priest would do in
shadow fashion each year on Yom Kippur.
The platonic theory can be fatal to belief in the goodness of
creation and study of the material world. If the heavenly realm
is the only important one, the earthly may be neglected. But if
kept in a subordinate role by belief in the importance of the
material world demanded by the doctrines of creation and the
Incarnation, the platonic way of looking at things is helpful. It
stresses the idea that the material world corresponds to a
rational pattern, and the search for laws of nature can then be
seen as an attempt to approximate that pattern by means of
mathematics. The influence of the platonic theory can be seen in
the writings of a number of modern physicists, the clearest
example being Heisenberg's scientific autobiography.13
The thread connecting a search for natural laws based on
mathematical symmetry with the picture of the atonement in
Hebrews is slender. But the connection is there, and may at least
be useful for illustrative purposes.

PROPER 28

Psalm 111 is appointed by LBW for 27 Pentecost. See the
discussion for 4 Epiphany B.

Mark 13:1--8 is the RCL Gospel, while LBW gives vv. 24--31 for 27
Pentecost. See the discussion of Mark 13:24--37 for 1 Advent B.


CHRIST THE KING

Revelation 1:4b--8 (See the discussion for 3 Easter C.)

John 18:33--37

"What is truth?" Pilate demands. Discovering truth about the
world is the whole point of the scientific endeavor. What are the
constituents of the world, how do they behave, and what has been
their history? How can we get reliable knowledge about the world,
and how do we test our ideas? What is true, what do we mean by
saying that it's true, and how do we know it's true?
Pilate's question is the same but not the same, an example of
Johannine ambiguity and misunderstanding. On one level, it is our
question about truth, flavored with the cynicism of a Roman
politician. But it is a mistake to think that Jesus would have
answered Pilate's question ---- would have told him the truth in
the form of some wise sayings or correct information ---- if Pilate
had only been willing to wait. The terrible irony is that Truth
with a capital T is standing right in front of him. The one of
whom the governor asks the question is the one who has said, "I
am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). That Pilate
is not of the truth, that he is not open to God's truth, is shown
by the fact that he does not recognize Jesus (18:37 ---- cf. 10:3--
5).
Our experience of the world brings us into contact with truth
in the form of facts about ourselves and our surroundings, and we
try to respond with true theories about the world ---- or at

least truer theories than those of our predecessors. But as we
penetrate to deeper strata of reality, we have to reckon not just
with true things but with personal truth in the person of the
creator, the one who stands before Pilate (John 1:3). That forces
us to realize that even in purely scientific investigation of the
world there is a personal element ---- the love of truth, the
honesty, the feel for the world that great scientists have. That
is why Michael Polanyi spoke of "personal knowledge" as an
important aspect of the scientific endeavor.14
Christians have no head start over others in their attempts to
do science. The world is knowable etsi deus non daretur, "though
God were not given." But Christians, unlike Pilate, know the name
of the truth who is at the heart of the world.



Endnotes
1. A few years ago the American Scientific Affiliation sold a
note card with a picture of this inscription.

2. Colin A. Russell, Cross--Currents: Interactions Between
Science and Faith (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids MI, 1985), p. 211.

3. St. Augustine, The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love (Henry
Regnery, Chicago, 1961), Sections XI--XV, pp. 11--17.

4. Lewis, Miracles, pp. 115--116. An apparent typographical error
has been corrected here.

5. Paul J. Nahin, Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics,
Metaphysics, and Science Fiction (American Institute of Physics,
New York, 1993).

6. NRSV's "mortals" is unfortunate here, since the next verse
says "Death will be no more."

7. Kent S. Knutson, His Only Son Our Lord (Augsburg,
Minneapolis, 1966), Chapter IV.

8. John Frederick Stark, Daily Hand--Book (I. Kohler,
Philadelphia, 1855), pp. 297--298.

9. The case for anthropic principles is set out in detail in
John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle (Oxford, New York, 1986).

10. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1936--
1968), III/I, pp. 96--99 & 229--233.

11. Gerhard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (Abingdon, New York, 1972).

12. James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science (Penguin, New York,
1987).

13. Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond (Harper & Row, New
York, 1971).

14. Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge (Harper & Row, New York,
1964).