Proper 14
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The church year theological clue
Little or no help is forthcoming from the church year as a theological clue for a worship/preaching theme for this Sunday. The title of the day - the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - is really the only reminder, suggesting how the church got to this point in the year and, for those in the "liturgical know," where we are going, Christ the King Sunday. On this "Pentecost pilgrimage," it is the business of the church to give thanks and to worship the Lord, to seek out the secrets of the kingdom, to grow in grace and faith, and to engage in the work of the righteous, which is serving and doing good to all human beings in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - Here is another example of a classic collect being reworked to accommodate contemporary liturgical language, rather than making any theological alterations and/or corrections; the older English - "who art" ... "art wont," etc. - is replaced with modern linguistic and grammatical forms. The address of the revised version of the prayer is almost identical to the older collect, changing the "who art always more ready to hear ..." to "you are always more ready to hear, etc." What is intended to be a subtle theological alteration occurs in the beginning of the petition; "Pour down upon us" simply becomes "Pour upon us." But the only way that anything can be poured here on earth is "down," so there is really no important change in this wording. The word "mediation" ("through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ") is deleted and "merits" is cast in the singular as "merit." The revised prayer reads this way.
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve. Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merit ofyour Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 85:8ab, 10-13 (R); 85:8-13 (L) - Verse 8 of this psalm -"I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him" - reveals why this particular psalm was appointed for this Sunday. It virtually puts words in the mouth of Elijah, when he is hiding in the cave and seeking out the Lord God. The psalm could also be understood as a reflection on God's revelation and assurance to Elijah, despite the fact that it was undoubtedly composed for another situation, probably the return from the exile (which suggests why the Roman Ordo omits verse 9). It does, however, seem to have more thematic affinity to the Old Testament reading than it does to the Gospel for the Day (the miracle of Jesus walking on water, etc.), but there is a connection in the raging wind and the voice of Jesus that stilled the storm and brought calm to the lake and the disciples, just as the Voice must have done for Elijah.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God of love and faithfulness, you so loved the world that you gave your only Son to be our Savior. Help us to receive him as both Lord and brother and freely celebrate him as our gracious Redeemer now and forever.
Psalm 29 (E) - The Episcopal Lectionary employs a different first reading (Jonah 2:1-9) and also a different psalm than any of the other lectionaries for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. In this prayer from within the belly of the great fish, Jonah cries out to God for mercy and deliverance, recounting what God had done for him on another occasion:
But you lifted my life from the pit, Yahweh, my God. While my soul was fainting within me, I remembered Yahweh, and my prayer came before you into your holy Temple. (Jerusalem Bible)
The psalm picks up the confidant prayer of Jonah,
Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Verse 3 looks to the Gospel for the Day: "The voice ofthe Lord is upon the waters," which might also be heard in the context of Jonah 1:15, "And taking hold of Jonah they (the sailors) threw him into the sea; and the sea grew calm again." This psalm would also function quite well as a responsory to the 1 Kings reading of the Roman and Lutheran lectionaries, because it spells out what the "voice of the Lord" can do in all of nature.
Psalm 106:4-12 (C) - This psalm, which is a psalm of national confession, acts as a response to Exodus 14's story of Pharaoh's pursuit of the children of Israel, and makes contemporary God's care and power by individualizing and personalizing the gracious action of God in delivering the Israelites by a watery defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. In a petition that follows asking God to take the same kind of action - "He saved them from the hand of those who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy" - on behalf of these people, the psalm speaks to our failure to trust God in all situations. It puts us in the boat with the fearful disciples, who didn'ttrust the Lord while the storm raged around them. (Matthew 14)
The readings:
1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13 (R); 19:9-18 (L)
Here is the story of Elijah's taking refuge in a cave, where "the word of the Lord" came to him and asked, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Elijah's answer detailed the perfidy of the children of Israel, who
have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down their altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
First, there was a powerful wind, but God wasn't in it; next, an earthquake, but God wasn't in it, and then a fire, but the Lord was not in that, either. Finally, a still small voice spoke to Elijah, and he heard God ask again why he was there, answered God, and then received orders for his return "to the wilderness of Damascus," where he was to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as his successor. These would do the bidding of the Lord, exterminating all of the unfaithful in the land, but sparing "seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." This reading was chosen because it looks to the Gospel for the Day and recognition of Christ as the Son of God by the disciples after he had entered the boat and calmed the storm.
Jonah 2:1-9 (E)
When the terrified sailors threw Jonah into the sea in the hope of saving themselves (1:15), the sea grew calm and for the first time in their lives they were in fear of Yahweh. Jonah, meanwhile, had been swallowed by the great fish, which had been sent by God to effect his rescue, and during the three days and nights he prayed this prayer to God. Again, there is a connection with the Gospel for the Day, and it could be Peter, not Jonah, saying,
The waters surrounded me right to my throat, the abyss was all around me. The seaweed was wrapped around my head.... But you lifted my life from the pit, Yahweh, my God. While my soul was fainting within me, I remembered Yahweh, and my prayer came before you into your holy Temple.
The parallels to the story in Matthew 14 are striking, if not completely obvious and, sometimes, in contrast to the images created by the Jonah story.
Exodus 14:19-31 (C)
The three different first readings in the Roman/Lutheran, Episcopal, and Common lectionaries, illustrate the fact that there are many Old Testament stories that harmonize with the Gospels for the Day, while retaining their own integrity. This story, which tells the familiar tale of the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the drowning of Pharaoh's army ("not a single one of them was left," v. 28), stands on its own merits and ought to be included in the preaching regimen of every pastor at some time; it is crucial to the success of the Exodus and vitally important to the Christian faith, as well. And the story does make a connection with the Gospel, focusing in on Jesus' deliverance of Peter from drowning in the Sea of Galilee, while saving all of the disciples from a watery grave. In some ways, it is the most appropriate of the three readings when placed alongside the Gospel for the Day, which shows the power and concern of Yahweh working in the person of Jesus Christ, his Son.
Romans 9:1-5
Paul must have known of some anti-semitism in the congregation at Rome, and this prompted him to write about the Jews, as he did: "What I want to say is this: my sorrow is so great, my mental anguish so endless, I would willingly be condemned and be cut off from Christ if it could help my brothers of Israel, my own flesh and blood." He goes on to tell why they are so important: God adopted them as sons, gave them the covenants, the Law, and the religious rituals; he made promises to them. Not only are they descended from the patriarchs, but Jesus also comes from their lineage. Those who love Christ should appreciate the uniqueness of the relationship between Isaiah and the church, deal with Jews in love, and, Paul would insist, work for their conversion to the Christian faith.
Matthew 14:22-33
It was between 3 and 6 a.m. that Jesus appeared to the disciples during a heavy gale, walking on the water so that he seemed like a ghost. He had sent the crowds away, and probably was still attempting to deal with the news about the beheading of John the Baptizer, which could have been the reason that he sent the disciples out on the lake by themselves while he went into a solitary retreat. Jesus reassured them that he was no ghost, which prompted Peter to test him out by asking Jesus to let him walk on the water. As most people know, he lost his faith after a few steps, began to sink, and had to call to Christ to save him. He did, verbally chastising him for his lack of faith. They reached the boat, got into it, and the wind stopped blowing. This prompted a confession from the disciples, "Truly you are the Son of God." Matthew, most scholars would agree, was using this story to speak to his congregation; the boat represents the church, the gale is the persecution they are experiencing, which Jesus will see them through. He wanted to bolster their faith in Christ, the Son of God, to help them face and conquer in Christ the terrible trials of the faith that had come to them.
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 14:22-31 - "A Ghost, A Wizard, or A Savior?"
Ray Bradbury, in The Stories of Ray Bradbury, tells a tale ("Invisible Boy") about a lonely old woman and a young boy, Charlie, whom she wants to have as her own son. She is a witch, a magician, and a sorcerer of sorts. Once, when his parents were out of town, he went to visit her; she decided to keep him for her own, saying to him, "My son, you are my son, for all eternity!" Charlie ran off, locked himself in an abandoned cabin and wouldn't come out. She tried her magic potions on the door lock to no avail, offered him all sorts of bribes, if he would come out, and finally got a response by promising to make him invisible. Bradbury says of her,
She had long ago realized that her miracles, despite all perspirations and salts and sulphurs, failed. But she had always dreamt that one day the miracles might start functioning, might spring up in crimson flowers and silver stars to prove that God had forgiven her pink body and her pink thoughts and her warm body and her warm thoughts as a young miss. But so far God had made no sign and said no word, but nobody knew this except the old lady.
Actually, her potion failed, but she was able to convince Charlie that he was invisible and played a sort of game with him for several days, convincing him, when time came for him to go home, that he was becoming visible again. With a shout he ran off, and she was by herself; he really was invisible, but she was sure that he was close enough to her to engage in conversation that really was all one-sided. Her intended miracles still did not work.
1. Jesus ran the risk of being called a magician, as well as a ghost, when he walked on the water to the boat. His miracles really did work; he could heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the deaf hear, and he had just recently fed thousands of people with five loaves and two fishes. But to walk on the water? He had to be some sort of a magician to accomplish that miracle. He was the greatest magician of which there were many in the ancient world (according to Morton Smith in Jesus the Magician). He didn't have to - couldn't - pretend that his miracles, even walking on water, were real. They were.
2. Oddly enough, the disciples didn't consider him to be a magician working his greatest feat of magic, a genuine miracle, walking on the waves of a surging sea. They said, "It is a ghost!" Perhaps it was because the incident happened at night that they called him a ghost, but whose ghost was this coming across the water? Surely, not that of Jesus, because he was not yet dead and risen. Did they suppose that they were seeing the ghost of John the Baptizer, who had so recently been executed? A single sentence calmed them down, "Take heart; it is I; have no fear," - but Peter needed more and asked to be included in the miracle, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water." Jesus said, "Come," and he did, only to begin to sink - apparently he couldn't swim - and had to be saved by Jesus Christ. Peter is so much like we are; he wanted proof that Jesus really was who he said he was, the Son of God.
3. They could have called him "magician" when he and Peter reached the boat, but they didn't; the disciples simply said, after the wind and waves calmed down, "Truly you are the Son of God." That's the person who comes to us in the Word and the sacraments of the church. If we expect him to come to us primarily as a miracle-worker and a magician, he may very well seem like the old lady, whose miracles didn't work. If we think of him as one who comes as a kind of ghostly presence, instead of the resurrected and reigning Lord, we may miss him altogether. If we listen to the Word, he comes to us most often, as he did to Elijah, in a still small voice that brings peace and calm to us in every situation and enables us to declare, "Truly you are the Son of God." And that is enough for him and for us.
1 Kings 19:9-18 (L); 19:9a, 11-13a (R) - "That Still Small Voice."
Every pastor has encountered someone who has said, "I don't have to go to church every Sunday; I find God out in the woods, or on the lake, or in the mighty acts of nature. That's really all I need." They're a bit like Carl Broberg's famous hymn:
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed.
1. That was not the way it was with Elijah. God came to him in a still small voice, not in the storm, the thunder, the wind, or the earthquake. That's the way he comes to us, too. The still small voice reveals God in Christ to us and prompts us to sing, "How great thou art! How great thou art!"
2. In the still small voice, God refreshes our souls. He gives us, as he did Elijah, meaning, purpose, and direction for our lives. It makes the story of God's love and Jesus' sacrifice dear and precious to us, as Broberg rightly states it:
But when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.
3. That still small voice will become a mighty shout when Jesus returns. It will be heard all over the earth, so we dare to sing:
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, "My God, how great thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Jonah 2:1-9 - "A Whale of a Tale."
1. What a fish tale! Jonah was plucked from the sea - by God's grace - and by a great fish. He would have drowned, had it not been for the great fish; Jonah didn't have the power to walk on the water. Our salvation comes in sinking beneath the water - and dying - in Baptism - our fish story.
2. The belly of the whale. No one prayed under more different circumstances. Jonah went through a kind of conversion experience in the stomach of the great fish and, after that, offered his prayer of thanksgiving to God. But is that any stranger than praying from a cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?" Surely, he hears our prayers of confession and helplessness - "Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord."
3. The tail of a whale. Jonah must have remembered God's command to go to Nineveh and preach repentance while he was "in the belly of the whale." Just to make sure, God told him what to do again, after the fish deposited him on the beach. He did as God commanded him. The question is, will we?
Exodus 14:19-31 - "Saved by the Waves."
1. God's final act in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt occurred at the Red Sea. When Pharaoh changed his mind and broke his word, sending his army after the Israelites, God provided a safe passage through the sea. Water, since then, has provided deliverance - in Baptism - and is a blessing to human beings.
2. God doomed Pharaoh's troops to a sailor's death. They were wiped out to a man when the wind shifted and the walls of water closed in upon them. God uses water to defeat Satan and to release his people from sin and death, but we receive life, not death, when the water covers us in baptism.
3. God's deliverance opened up the future of the Israelites. They were free at last to make their way to the land promised to their fathers. "He that believes, and is baptized, shall be saved" - forever; Baptism gives us a future in the everlasting kingdom of God.
Romans 9:1-54 - "A Put-down of Prejudice."
1. Anti-Semitism reared its ugly head in the early Christian church, and that grieved the heart of St. Paul. Then, as now, it grieves the heart of God himself, for the Jews are still his chosen people. Like it or not, Jesus was a faithful Jew.
2. The church is the new Israel, and it has descended from the old Israel. The patriarchs, the prophets, and the kings are our heritage, too. Don't ever forget that without them we wouldn't be Christians.
3. God is the God of both the old and new Israel. He would have them be one in his love - and in Jesus Christ our Lord. Prejudice against the Jews, which has led to persecution, even the Holocaust, must go.
4. Bless the Lord and love one another - for all he has done to make the two Israels into one.
A congregation in which I was invited to conduct a kind of pre-Lenten retreat began Lent with the Seder as an evening meal on Ash Wednesday. The Eucharist followed, and thus the two traditions were brought together in the exodus-journey of Lent that culminates at the cross and the empty tomb. The people in that congregation are very much aware of the relationship of the New Israel to the Old and are attempting to foster positive relationships between Christians and Jews in their town. I think they understand quite well what Paul was talking about in this reading.
Little or no help is forthcoming from the church year as a theological clue for a worship/preaching theme for this Sunday. The title of the day - the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - is really the only reminder, suggesting how the church got to this point in the year and, for those in the "liturgical know," where we are going, Christ the King Sunday. On this "Pentecost pilgrimage," it is the business of the church to give thanks and to worship the Lord, to seek out the secrets of the kingdom, to grow in grace and faith, and to engage in the work of the righteous, which is serving and doing good to all human beings in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - Here is another example of a classic collect being reworked to accommodate contemporary liturgical language, rather than making any theological alterations and/or corrections; the older English - "who art" ... "art wont," etc. - is replaced with modern linguistic and grammatical forms. The address of the revised version of the prayer is almost identical to the older collect, changing the "who art always more ready to hear ..." to "you are always more ready to hear, etc." What is intended to be a subtle theological alteration occurs in the beginning of the petition; "Pour down upon us" simply becomes "Pour upon us." But the only way that anything can be poured here on earth is "down," so there is really no important change in this wording. The word "mediation" ("through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ") is deleted and "merits" is cast in the singular as "merit." The revised prayer reads this way.
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve. Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merit ofyour Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 85:8ab, 10-13 (R); 85:8-13 (L) - Verse 8 of this psalm -"I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him" - reveals why this particular psalm was appointed for this Sunday. It virtually puts words in the mouth of Elijah, when he is hiding in the cave and seeking out the Lord God. The psalm could also be understood as a reflection on God's revelation and assurance to Elijah, despite the fact that it was undoubtedly composed for another situation, probably the return from the exile (which suggests why the Roman Ordo omits verse 9). It does, however, seem to have more thematic affinity to the Old Testament reading than it does to the Gospel for the Day (the miracle of Jesus walking on water, etc.), but there is a connection in the raging wind and the voice of Jesus that stilled the storm and brought calm to the lake and the disciples, just as the Voice must have done for Elijah.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God of love and faithfulness, you so loved the world that you gave your only Son to be our Savior. Help us to receive him as both Lord and brother and freely celebrate him as our gracious Redeemer now and forever.
Psalm 29 (E) - The Episcopal Lectionary employs a different first reading (Jonah 2:1-9) and also a different psalm than any of the other lectionaries for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. In this prayer from within the belly of the great fish, Jonah cries out to God for mercy and deliverance, recounting what God had done for him on another occasion:
But you lifted my life from the pit, Yahweh, my God. While my soul was fainting within me, I remembered Yahweh, and my prayer came before you into your holy Temple. (Jerusalem Bible)
The psalm picks up the confidant prayer of Jonah,
Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Verse 3 looks to the Gospel for the Day: "The voice ofthe Lord is upon the waters," which might also be heard in the context of Jonah 1:15, "And taking hold of Jonah they (the sailors) threw him into the sea; and the sea grew calm again." This psalm would also function quite well as a responsory to the 1 Kings reading of the Roman and Lutheran lectionaries, because it spells out what the "voice of the Lord" can do in all of nature.
Psalm 106:4-12 (C) - This psalm, which is a psalm of national confession, acts as a response to Exodus 14's story of Pharaoh's pursuit of the children of Israel, and makes contemporary God's care and power by individualizing and personalizing the gracious action of God in delivering the Israelites by a watery defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. In a petition that follows asking God to take the same kind of action - "He saved them from the hand of those who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy" - on behalf of these people, the psalm speaks to our failure to trust God in all situations. It puts us in the boat with the fearful disciples, who didn'ttrust the Lord while the storm raged around them. (Matthew 14)
The readings:
1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13 (R); 19:9-18 (L)
Here is the story of Elijah's taking refuge in a cave, where "the word of the Lord" came to him and asked, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Elijah's answer detailed the perfidy of the children of Israel, who
have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down their altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
First, there was a powerful wind, but God wasn't in it; next, an earthquake, but God wasn't in it, and then a fire, but the Lord was not in that, either. Finally, a still small voice spoke to Elijah, and he heard God ask again why he was there, answered God, and then received orders for his return "to the wilderness of Damascus," where he was to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as his successor. These would do the bidding of the Lord, exterminating all of the unfaithful in the land, but sparing "seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." This reading was chosen because it looks to the Gospel for the Day and recognition of Christ as the Son of God by the disciples after he had entered the boat and calmed the storm.
Jonah 2:1-9 (E)
When the terrified sailors threw Jonah into the sea in the hope of saving themselves (1:15), the sea grew calm and for the first time in their lives they were in fear of Yahweh. Jonah, meanwhile, had been swallowed by the great fish, which had been sent by God to effect his rescue, and during the three days and nights he prayed this prayer to God. Again, there is a connection with the Gospel for the Day, and it could be Peter, not Jonah, saying,
The waters surrounded me right to my throat, the abyss was all around me. The seaweed was wrapped around my head.... But you lifted my life from the pit, Yahweh, my God. While my soul was fainting within me, I remembered Yahweh, and my prayer came before you into your holy Temple.
The parallels to the story in Matthew 14 are striking, if not completely obvious and, sometimes, in contrast to the images created by the Jonah story.
Exodus 14:19-31 (C)
The three different first readings in the Roman/Lutheran, Episcopal, and Common lectionaries, illustrate the fact that there are many Old Testament stories that harmonize with the Gospels for the Day, while retaining their own integrity. This story, which tells the familiar tale of the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites and the drowning of Pharaoh's army ("not a single one of them was left," v. 28), stands on its own merits and ought to be included in the preaching regimen of every pastor at some time; it is crucial to the success of the Exodus and vitally important to the Christian faith, as well. And the story does make a connection with the Gospel, focusing in on Jesus' deliverance of Peter from drowning in the Sea of Galilee, while saving all of the disciples from a watery grave. In some ways, it is the most appropriate of the three readings when placed alongside the Gospel for the Day, which shows the power and concern of Yahweh working in the person of Jesus Christ, his Son.
Romans 9:1-5
Paul must have known of some anti-semitism in the congregation at Rome, and this prompted him to write about the Jews, as he did: "What I want to say is this: my sorrow is so great, my mental anguish so endless, I would willingly be condemned and be cut off from Christ if it could help my brothers of Israel, my own flesh and blood." He goes on to tell why they are so important: God adopted them as sons, gave them the covenants, the Law, and the religious rituals; he made promises to them. Not only are they descended from the patriarchs, but Jesus also comes from their lineage. Those who love Christ should appreciate the uniqueness of the relationship between Isaiah and the church, deal with Jews in love, and, Paul would insist, work for their conversion to the Christian faith.
Matthew 14:22-33
It was between 3 and 6 a.m. that Jesus appeared to the disciples during a heavy gale, walking on the water so that he seemed like a ghost. He had sent the crowds away, and probably was still attempting to deal with the news about the beheading of John the Baptizer, which could have been the reason that he sent the disciples out on the lake by themselves while he went into a solitary retreat. Jesus reassured them that he was no ghost, which prompted Peter to test him out by asking Jesus to let him walk on the water. As most people know, he lost his faith after a few steps, began to sink, and had to call to Christ to save him. He did, verbally chastising him for his lack of faith. They reached the boat, got into it, and the wind stopped blowing. This prompted a confession from the disciples, "Truly you are the Son of God." Matthew, most scholars would agree, was using this story to speak to his congregation; the boat represents the church, the gale is the persecution they are experiencing, which Jesus will see them through. He wanted to bolster their faith in Christ, the Son of God, to help them face and conquer in Christ the terrible trials of the faith that had come to them.
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 14:22-31 - "A Ghost, A Wizard, or A Savior?"
Ray Bradbury, in The Stories of Ray Bradbury, tells a tale ("Invisible Boy") about a lonely old woman and a young boy, Charlie, whom she wants to have as her own son. She is a witch, a magician, and a sorcerer of sorts. Once, when his parents were out of town, he went to visit her; she decided to keep him for her own, saying to him, "My son, you are my son, for all eternity!" Charlie ran off, locked himself in an abandoned cabin and wouldn't come out. She tried her magic potions on the door lock to no avail, offered him all sorts of bribes, if he would come out, and finally got a response by promising to make him invisible. Bradbury says of her,
She had long ago realized that her miracles, despite all perspirations and salts and sulphurs, failed. But she had always dreamt that one day the miracles might start functioning, might spring up in crimson flowers and silver stars to prove that God had forgiven her pink body and her pink thoughts and her warm body and her warm thoughts as a young miss. But so far God had made no sign and said no word, but nobody knew this except the old lady.
Actually, her potion failed, but she was able to convince Charlie that he was invisible and played a sort of game with him for several days, convincing him, when time came for him to go home, that he was becoming visible again. With a shout he ran off, and she was by herself; he really was invisible, but she was sure that he was close enough to her to engage in conversation that really was all one-sided. Her intended miracles still did not work.
1. Jesus ran the risk of being called a magician, as well as a ghost, when he walked on the water to the boat. His miracles really did work; he could heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the deaf hear, and he had just recently fed thousands of people with five loaves and two fishes. But to walk on the water? He had to be some sort of a magician to accomplish that miracle. He was the greatest magician of which there were many in the ancient world (according to Morton Smith in Jesus the Magician). He didn't have to - couldn't - pretend that his miracles, even walking on water, were real. They were.
2. Oddly enough, the disciples didn't consider him to be a magician working his greatest feat of magic, a genuine miracle, walking on the waves of a surging sea. They said, "It is a ghost!" Perhaps it was because the incident happened at night that they called him a ghost, but whose ghost was this coming across the water? Surely, not that of Jesus, because he was not yet dead and risen. Did they suppose that they were seeing the ghost of John the Baptizer, who had so recently been executed? A single sentence calmed them down, "Take heart; it is I; have no fear," - but Peter needed more and asked to be included in the miracle, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water." Jesus said, "Come," and he did, only to begin to sink - apparently he couldn't swim - and had to be saved by Jesus Christ. Peter is so much like we are; he wanted proof that Jesus really was who he said he was, the Son of God.
3. They could have called him "magician" when he and Peter reached the boat, but they didn't; the disciples simply said, after the wind and waves calmed down, "Truly you are the Son of God." That's the person who comes to us in the Word and the sacraments of the church. If we expect him to come to us primarily as a miracle-worker and a magician, he may very well seem like the old lady, whose miracles didn't work. If we think of him as one who comes as a kind of ghostly presence, instead of the resurrected and reigning Lord, we may miss him altogether. If we listen to the Word, he comes to us most often, as he did to Elijah, in a still small voice that brings peace and calm to us in every situation and enables us to declare, "Truly you are the Son of God." And that is enough for him and for us.
1 Kings 19:9-18 (L); 19:9a, 11-13a (R) - "That Still Small Voice."
Every pastor has encountered someone who has said, "I don't have to go to church every Sunday; I find God out in the woods, or on the lake, or in the mighty acts of nature. That's really all I need." They're a bit like Carl Broberg's famous hymn:
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed.
1. That was not the way it was with Elijah. God came to him in a still small voice, not in the storm, the thunder, the wind, or the earthquake. That's the way he comes to us, too. The still small voice reveals God in Christ to us and prompts us to sing, "How great thou art! How great thou art!"
2. In the still small voice, God refreshes our souls. He gives us, as he did Elijah, meaning, purpose, and direction for our lives. It makes the story of God's love and Jesus' sacrifice dear and precious to us, as Broberg rightly states it:
But when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.
3. That still small voice will become a mighty shout when Jesus returns. It will be heard all over the earth, so we dare to sing:
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, "My God, how great thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee,
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Jonah 2:1-9 - "A Whale of a Tale."
1. What a fish tale! Jonah was plucked from the sea - by God's grace - and by a great fish. He would have drowned, had it not been for the great fish; Jonah didn't have the power to walk on the water. Our salvation comes in sinking beneath the water - and dying - in Baptism - our fish story.
2. The belly of the whale. No one prayed under more different circumstances. Jonah went through a kind of conversion experience in the stomach of the great fish and, after that, offered his prayer of thanksgiving to God. But is that any stranger than praying from a cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?" Surely, he hears our prayers of confession and helplessness - "Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord."
3. The tail of a whale. Jonah must have remembered God's command to go to Nineveh and preach repentance while he was "in the belly of the whale." Just to make sure, God told him what to do again, after the fish deposited him on the beach. He did as God commanded him. The question is, will we?
Exodus 14:19-31 - "Saved by the Waves."
1. God's final act in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt occurred at the Red Sea. When Pharaoh changed his mind and broke his word, sending his army after the Israelites, God provided a safe passage through the sea. Water, since then, has provided deliverance - in Baptism - and is a blessing to human beings.
2. God doomed Pharaoh's troops to a sailor's death. They were wiped out to a man when the wind shifted and the walls of water closed in upon them. God uses water to defeat Satan and to release his people from sin and death, but we receive life, not death, when the water covers us in baptism.
3. God's deliverance opened up the future of the Israelites. They were free at last to make their way to the land promised to their fathers. "He that believes, and is baptized, shall be saved" - forever; Baptism gives us a future in the everlasting kingdom of God.
Romans 9:1-54 - "A Put-down of Prejudice."
1. Anti-Semitism reared its ugly head in the early Christian church, and that grieved the heart of St. Paul. Then, as now, it grieves the heart of God himself, for the Jews are still his chosen people. Like it or not, Jesus was a faithful Jew.
2. The church is the new Israel, and it has descended from the old Israel. The patriarchs, the prophets, and the kings are our heritage, too. Don't ever forget that without them we wouldn't be Christians.
3. God is the God of both the old and new Israel. He would have them be one in his love - and in Jesus Christ our Lord. Prejudice against the Jews, which has led to persecution, even the Holocaust, must go.
4. Bless the Lord and love one another - for all he has done to make the two Israels into one.
A congregation in which I was invited to conduct a kind of pre-Lenten retreat began Lent with the Seder as an evening meal on Ash Wednesday. The Eucharist followed, and thus the two traditions were brought together in the exodus-journey of Lent that culminates at the cross and the empty tomb. The people in that congregation are very much aware of the relationship of the New Israel to the Old and are attempting to foster positive relationships between Christians and Jews in their town. I think they understand quite well what Paul was talking about in this reading.
