March 29

Gospel for March 29, 2020

Note from Celeste:

Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.

Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.

The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:

Scripture passage (World English Bible)
Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.

Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around. Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.

Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.

Order Go and Find a Donkey today to prepare your family for this year’s Easter season!
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Kindle book of Go and Find a Donkey.
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Paperback of Go and Find a Donkey.

AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 11:1-45
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a pivotal, dramatic moment in the Gospel of John. Here we see both the compassionate humanity of Jesus and his divine power.

First, a little background. Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were close personal friends of Jesus. They had offered hospitality to Jesus and his disciples at their home in Bethany (as reported in the Gospel of Luke 10:38-42), and of course here in the Gospel of John. Jesus had likely been a guest in their home on many occasions. In fact, we receive a little preview of what is to happen in the next chapter, after Jesus performs one of his mightiest miracles:

It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick.

When Lazarus became ill, it was perfectly natural for these sisters to send a message to Jesus when he was across the Jordan River, telling him:

Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.

So it may seem understandable that Martha and Mary are perplexed, and perhaps even hurt, when Jesus delays his journey to Bethany by two days! What they don’t know is what he has said to his disciples:

This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.

Jesus finds it necessary to explain this whole thing to the disciples because they put up a fuss about Jesus returning to Judea. They have been beyond the Jordan river in order to avoid being arrested for blasphemy. And now Jesus wants to go back? They fear he will be stoned to death.

Jesus explains that this is his mission:

Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.

This is very similar to his words concerning the healing of the blind man in John 9:

I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:4-5).

The disciples, typically, are obtuse. When Jesus says Lazarus has fallen asleep they think he is speaking literally. Surely he’ll recover, they insist. Jesus must confirm that Lazarus will die:

Lazarus is dead. I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.

Interestingly, Thomas, the man who has been given the rap down through the centuries as the “Doubter” is the one who musters up the courage to say to his colleagues:

Let’s go also, that we may die with him.

Perhaps it would only be fair to also call him “Courageous Thomas” as well as “Doubting Thomas.”

And when Jesus does arrive in Bethany, Lazarus has been dead for four days. Given the travel time, this would explain why Jesus waited two days. If it took two days for the messengers to reach him on foot somewhere near the Jordan, possibly more than 25 miles away, Jesus may have known through divine means that Lazarus was already dead by the time they arrived. The two day delay would have made no difference.

Incidentally, the disciples were right to be concerned about their return to Bethany. Bethany was just a little less than two miles away from Jerusalem, where Jesus had only recently been threatened. That was a little less than an hour away on foot!

We get the distinct impression that the two sisters are not only grieving for their brother, they also seem angry with Jesus. Martha, the sister with the reputation for being both practical and outspoken, hears that Jesus is coming. She proactively leaves the house, where the grieving Mary remains, and comes out to meet him. She seems rather confrontational, even a little accusatory:

Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.

She tempers this harsh tone with a statement that seems as much a matter of hope as faith:

Even now I know that, whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

What ensues is one of the most powerful dialogues in all of Scripture:

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha is a good Jew, of the school of Judaism which believed fervently in the resurrection. But she sees this resurrection as something far off in the future:

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

This becomes the context for one of Jesus’ greatest I Am statements from the Gospel of John:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.”

We have learned from the Gospel of John that Jesus is the Word, eternally present from the beginning, and that Jesus is God in the flesh. And we have heard Jesus claim this identity repeatedly through his I Am statements in the Gospel of John, identifying himself with Yahweh who calls himself:

I Am (Exodus 3:14).

But Jesus is also the I Am through whom resurrection is to occur. He himself is life! And Jesus declares that faith in him is the means by which this life is to be grasped.

And Jesus asks Martha the most important question she will ever answer:

Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

Martha professes her faith in Jesus, recognizing not only that he is Messiah but also God:

She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”

Martha next does the same thing that others have done — and will do — when they have come to faith in Jesus. She goes and tells another about Christ. Andrew goes and tells Simon Peter (John 1:41). Philip finds Nathanael (John 1:45). The Samaritan woman leaves her pitcher at the well and goes and tells her neighbors in Sychar (John 4:28-29). Mary Magdalene tells the disciples that she has seen Jesus after his resurrection (John 20:18). And here, Martha tells her sister Mary that their Rabbi wants to talk to her.

Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”

There is a hint of blame, implying that Jesus was not more responsive to their request that he come. Nevertheless, Mary also expresses her confidence that Jesus could have done something if he had been there.

When Jesus sees the expression of grief by Mary and those who are mourning with her, he is deeply affected:

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,and said, “Where have you laid him?”
They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
Jesus wept.

The emotional reaction of Jesus provokes a debate among the onlookers:

The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!” Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”

There is tension between those who recognize Jesus’ humanity, and those who blame him for doing too little too late.

John tells us that Jesus is still deeply moved:

again groaning in himself.

We ask ourselves, is he now disturbed because of the grief of the family, or is he disturbed by those who are critical or skeptical?

Jesus comes to the tomb, which is described as a cave sealed with a stone. Without further ado he commands:

Take away the stone.

We hear again from the other sister, Martha. As we see in Luke 10:38-42, Martha’s personality is practical and realistic.

She points out the obvious facts here:

Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.

Jesus reminds her of their previous conversation, and her own confession of faith:

Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

What happens next is one of the climactic moments in the Gospel of John. The stone is removed, and Jesus prays:

Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me. I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Jesus has absolute confidence in his relationship with the Father. And it seems clear that he is praying aloud not for his own sake, but for the crowd. He knows that the Father will act; but the purpose of the prayer and subsequent answer is to promote faith that he is indeed God’s Messiah, the Son of God.

Jesus then summons Lazarus from the darkness of the tomb:

…. he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.

Jesus has authority even over death!

Jesus instructs them to unwind the wrappings that now imprison Lazarus. He is free from death. And the response to this powerful event is faith:

Therefore many of the Jews, who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in him.

APPLY:

This passage seems oddly placed in the season of Lent. It is still two weeks until Easter, when we will celebrate the resurrection that will change EVERYTHING — the resurrection of Jesus after the Passion and Crucifixion.

Why is this passage read on this particular Sunday? Perhaps because this is part of the inevitable journey of Jesus toward Jerusalem and the events that will soon begin on the day we call Palm Sunday. And this event, with so many witnesses watching Lazarus shuffle out of the tomb after four days of death, certainly would have built momentum for the crowds that were soon to shout “Hosanna!” when Jesus entered the city riding on a donkey.

But this passage is also a foretaste. Lazarus, we presume, would die again. In fact, when news began to spread that he had been raised from the dead, many began to believe in Jesus. And John writes:

….the chief priests conspired to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus (John 12:10-11).

For some, the resurrection of Lazarus was a source of faith. For others, it was a pretext for conspiring against Jesus.

This should be a reminder to us that no matter how clear faith may be to us, there will be those who simply cannot see what we see.

Though Lazarus had been raised, Jesus still had to endure betrayal, arrest, torture, trial and death prior to his own resurrection. But he had given a word of promise to Martha that certainly must have comforted her through those dark events that were to come:

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

This is also a word of comfort for all who believe — despite suffering, persecution, loss and grief that we may experience in the future. Because of our faith in Jesus as the resurrection and the life, we will never really die.

At the same time, we need not be ashamed when we grieve for those who die. Jesus was unashamed to weep for Lazarus, even though he knew that he had the power to raise Lazarus to life. Grief is a normal and natural response to death, even for those who are strong believers.

There is a resurrection that is coming for all of us. Paul describes it this way:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

The same Jesus who raised Lazarus with a loud voice will raise us with a shout.

RESPOND:

Modern Christians often have a kind of “cognitive dissonance” when we read what the Gospels say about eternal life, and what we hear in most funerals.

Almost without exception, the New Testament teaches that at the end of the age the resurrection of the body will occur, rather than a disembodied immortality. We are told that the former view is Biblical, but the latter view is a Greek notion.

The Greek notion would have us believe that the body is somehow disgusting, and that true immortality separates the soul from the body. That isn’t a Biblical view at all. We remember that when God made the material world and our bodies, he said It is good.

While no one living really knows what happens when we die, we do have confidence that those who have died in Christ are somehow alive in Christ. We take comfort in Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross:

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 24:43).

But we also know that there is a resurrection that will come at the end of the age, when we will be raised, and we will have all the qualities promised in the resurrection of Jesus:

So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. . . Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49).

While we will have a body, it will certainly not be a body like our present bodies, but a transformed, spiritual, glorified body — perhaps not unlike the body of the resurrected Jesus, who could be touched and could eat, and yet seemed to be unlimited by the physical dimensions of space and time as we understand them.

We are venturing into metaphysical speculation here, for which we won’t have answers until Christ comes again. But I think we can clearly repeat the promise of Jesus to those who have lost loved ones:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).

Our Lord, as you came to Bethany and brought the comfort of resurrection and life to the family of Lazarus, so you come to us when we stand by the graveside of someone we love. You remind us that you are victorious over death, and that you are the resurrection and the life. Thank you for that comfort and that promise. Amen.

PHOTO:
“Raising of Lazarus (Ravenna)” by Jim Forest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for March 29, 2020

Note from Celeste:

Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.

Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.

The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:

Scripture passage (World English Bible)
Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.

Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around. Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.

Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.

AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:

For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
(Romans 8:6 World English Bible)
This marble figure of Death from a monument in the church of St Peter in Chains in Rome was photographed by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 8:6-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul explores another set of contrasts in this passage. Here, the contrast is between the flesh and the Spirit, and between death and life:

For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.

These terms require some “unpacking.” By flesh Paul isn’t speaking of the skin and physical attributes of the body. Flesh is a term he uses to describe the sinful heart of human beings “turned in upon themselves.” The flesh is devoted to selfish pursuits and sinful passions. Its vision is limited only to this transient world, not the transcendent and timeless world of the Spirit. Moreover:

the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

Consequently, because of the inherent selfishness and sinfulness of the goals and objectives of the mind of the flesh:

Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.

Those in the flesh can’t obey God’s laws nor can they serve God because they are simply not living in the same realm.

Those who are in the Spirit have a different starting-point:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you.

The Spirit is not merely some disembodied ghost, or the Force, as in the Star Wars theology. The Spirit is God himself, the Third Person of the Trinity. Jesus says:

God is Spirit (John 4:24).

And to complete this Trinitarian trifecta, Paul speaks here of the Spirit of Christ.

The Spirit is the Person whose power and presence and energy and influence and love have been poured out on the church (Acts 2); revealed in the unity and gifts of the church (1 Corinthians 12); manifested through the character of believers (Galatians 5:22-23). And the decisive mark of a believer is that the Spirit of God is not merely an external force, but dwells within the souls of those who believe.

This becomes the either/or of the person of flesh or the person of the Spirit:

But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

If the Spirit doesn’t dwell in a person, they do not belong to Christ at all.

However, for the Christian there are marks, or signs, of the presence of the Spirit — we have already alluded to the gifts and the fruits of the Spirit above (1 Corinthians 12; Galatians 5:22-23). And a quick read of the entire chapter of Romans 8 will give the reader an overview of the depth and breadth of the work and presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer.

Here, however, Paul continues to explore the contrast of flesh and spirit, based on the consequences:

If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

The result of the life of the flesh is the deathly reality of sin. Even believers suffer the consequences of death. However, the righteousness of Christ is imputed and imparted to those who believe:

For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4).

Therefore, those who truly believe and set their mind on the Spirit have been delivered from the death of sin, beginning now and continuing into the resurrection:

But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

This truly describes the “now” and the “not yet” of faith. The Spirit dwells in those who have received Christ by faith now; but this same Spirit, at work along with the Father and the Son at creation, also will participate in raising up those who die in the age to come.

APPLY:

Romans 8, sometimes called the “Mt. Everest” of the epistle to the Romans, reveals great sweeping vistas of theological vision. Even in the mere six verses included in our lectionary passage for this week’s Epistle, we catch glimpses of the doctrine of the Trinity, human anthropology, and the Christian’s nature and destiny.

Long before the First Ecumenical Church Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., Paul was already formulating a doctrine of the Trinity, without ever using the word. He calls the Spirit the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, indicating that the Holy Spirit is of the same substance as the Father and the Son. And in verse 11, he describes the entire Trinity involved in the salvation and resurrection of human beings:

if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

But there is also a radical — and astounding — claim on our behalf as Christian human beings. This is the claim that everyone who truly belongs to God are filled with the Spirit of God:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

We know that Jesus is uniquely both fully God and fully human — as defined by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18) and is by nature God. However, St. Athanasius (296-373 A.D.) clearly saw the implications of Paul’s doctrine that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us:

By Grace we become what God is by nature.

We are not little gods. That’s not what this is saying. Instead, it is a bold claim that God’s Spirit can dwell in us, restore us to righteousness, give us life and peace, and ultimately raise us up from the dead. Only God is God — One God revealed in Three Persons. And yet God has made it his mission to restore in us that image of God that was distorted and damaged by sin and the flesh:

But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18. See also especially Colossians 3:5-11).

God’s desire is to save us to the uttermost, until we reflect his glory like little mirrors!

RESPOND:

I am inspired by great passages like this — that promise that I can be transformed from the flesh to the Spirit, from death to life, from hostility towards God to reconciliation with God. And that if I belong to God through faith in Christ, the Spirit dwells in me.

I believe that this is so. But I am reminded of the old joke about the town drunk who used to go from church to church whenever there was a revival service going on in any of the churches. He would always respond to the invitation at the end of the sermon by going forward and crying out “Fill me, Lord! Fill me!”

But the next week would find him back at the tavern, drunk again.

Finally, at one church revival, he followed the same pattern. He went forward and knelt and cried out “Fill me, Lord, fill me!” And one church lady had had just about enough. She cried out, “Don’t do it Lord! He leaks!”

Without making any judgment on our presumably fictional alcoholic friend and his sincerity, I confess that I can identify with the syndrome. I know I have faith in Christ. I believe in the promises of Scripture. I have the assurance that my sins are forgiven. I believe that I am growing in grace (although my wife might offer a second opinion!). But I also suspect that even though I have been filled with the Spirit, “I leak.”

This is one reason I believe that this Christian life is a process. When we are born again from above, the Holy Spirit enters our lives. We begin to grow in grace and knowledge of God. As we continue to give him more of ourselves, God continues to give more of himself to us. We receive the gifts of the Spirit that he wants us to have as well as the fruits of the Spirit.

However, because of our free will, sometimes we do leak. We slip and fall. We go off on detours on the path. This is why I see the Christian life as a journey. I rather like the translation of Ephesians 5:18 which renders be filled with the Holy Spirit as present tense rather than past tense. This suggests that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit it is not completed in the past, but is an ongoing experience.

As the Apostle John described this experience, there is the “now and the not yet;” this Christian life is a process of transformation:

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is (1 John 3:2).

We are God’s children now because we have been born again through the power of the Holy Spirit. And we are also growing up to become like God through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Lord, you have delivered me from the works of the flesh and from spiritual and final death, and have come to dwell in me through your Spirit. However, I confess that sometimes I leak. Continue to fill me with your Spirit so that I may become more and more like you. Amen.

PHOTOS:

"Mors!" by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for March 29, 2020

Note from Celeste:

Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.

Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.

The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:

Scripture passage (World English Bible)
Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.

Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around. Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.

Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.

AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 130
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Psalm 130 is described as a “Song of Ascents.” These were Psalms sung by Israelite pilgrims as they climbed the temple mount in Jerusalem. This Psalm begins as a lamentation full of penitence, but ends with hope.

The Psalmist cries Out of the depths to the Lord. The metaphor here suggests imagery that is familiar to the avid Bible reader. The depths in this metaphor might be the depths of the sea, or perhaps the Pit, otherwise known as Sheol, the shadowy underworld of the dead.

What the metaphor suggests to us, though, are the depths of sorrow and grief. The Psalmist is expressing his deep sense of distance and estrangement from joy and from God. However, the first verses also express the Psalmist’s hope that the Lord will hear his cries.

In verses 3-4, we get a glimpse of the source of the Psalmist’s distress. He poses the question to Yahweh:

If you, Yah, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?

In one sense he is confessing his sin, but at the same time he is suggesting that in the face of God’s holiness no one could possibly be innocent.

And yet, he declares his confidence in the mercy of the Lord:

But there is forgiveness with you,
therefore you are feared.

This is an interesting statement. The Psalmist seems to suggest that because God is forgiving, therefore he is worshiped by those whom he forgives. Is this because of the forgiven sinner’s gratitude? Or is Yahweh’s forgiveness so magnanimous that the sinner is overwhelmed with awe?

The Psalmist then turns to his own personal aspiration in verses 5 and 6 — he is longing for God’s forgiveness and presence:

I wait for Yahweh.
My soul waits.
I hope in his word.

He yearns for God’s self-disclosure, as his next imagery suggests:

My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning;
more than watchmen for the morning.

The repetition of these key lines is a Hebrew poetic technique that denotes a sense of emphasis. The imagery of those watching for the morning may relate to the watchmen of the city who call out the hours, or to the Levites whose task it was to announce the sunrise on the Sabbath day or for a holy festival. In other words, this suggests a highly anticipated event. The Psalmist is eagerly and expectantly watching for the presence of the Lord and his mercy.

Finally, the Psalmist’s plea becomes corporate, imploring all Israel:

Israel, hope in Yahweh,
for with Yahweh there is loving kindness.

This Psalm begins with a sense of lamentation but ends with a strong statement of faith about the nature of God’s character, power, and forgiveness:

With him is abundant redemption.
He will redeem Israel from all their sins.

APPLY:

This Psalm suggests our paradoxical relationship with God. When we consider God’s holiness and power, we are filled with despair. Yet when we consider God’s loving kindness and his abundant redemption, we are filled with profound hope, even assurance.

There are many circumstances in which we might find ourselves crying to the Lord out of the depths of our own souls — illness, tragedy, the death of a loved one, a national catastrophe. Here, the lamentation appears to be about a sense of personal guilt.

The fact is, measured against God’s holiness who could stand? This is a consistent theme in Scripture, reemphasized in the New Testament as Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23:

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And yet, the power of God to redeem is also available to all who truly turn to the Lord in repentance, as the Psalmist calls upon the nation to do. For the Christian, this correlates with the Gospel’s solution to the universality of sin. Paul completes his thoughts from Romans 3:23. Though all have sinned they are now:

justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance (Romans 3:24-25).

God answers our sin with his steadfast love and mercy, expressed in Christ.

This is a SONrise worth watching for! And we await his mercy and forgiveness with the same certainty with which the watchmen wait for the morning, assured that God will forgive us.

RESPOND:

As an entry for May 24, 1738, John Wesley wrote in his journal that he attended St Paul’s Cathedral in London. There he heard a choir sing the verses from Psalm 130:

Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. O let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? For there is mercy with thee; therefore shalt thou be feared. O Israel, trust in the Lord: For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his sins (Wesley’s Works).

At the time, John Wesley was experiencing what we might call a sense of alienation:

strange indifference, dullness, and coldness, and unusually frequent relapses into sin (Wesley’s Works).

And yet he was yearning for the assurance of faith that he saw in his new Moravian friends. When he was invited to a Moravian class meeting that evening, he really didn’t want to go. But he went anyway. And he was to write later that while someone was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans (which focused on the great doctrine of justification by faith):

About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Only those who have become acutely aware of the reality of their distance from God can fully appreciate the miracle of God’s steadfast love and the power of redemption.

From my own experience, the transition from the lowest depths to the highest of heights is like that of one passing from darkness to light.

Thanks be to God that we can cry out to God even from the depths of our soul, and in the worst of our human condition, and be confident that we are heard, forgiven, and redeemed!

Our Lord, hear my cries when I feel that I am in the depths, and raise me up through your steadfast love and mighty redemption. Amen.

PHOTOS:"Out Of the Depths130" by Hope Church North Park is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Old Testament for March 29, 2020

Note from Celeste:

Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.

Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.

The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:

Scripture passage (World English Bible)
Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.

Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around. Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.

Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.

AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:
START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

A little historical context is helpful in understanding Ezekiel 37:1-14. Ezekiel was a member of the priestly family in Jerusalem. But in 597 B.C., the Babylonians invaded Judah, and Jerusalem was surrendered to the invaders after a siege. Ezekiel was among the noble and priestly families who were deported to Babylon. Judah became a vassal state of Babylon, but with a certain degree of semi-autonomy under the Judean king Zedekiah.

Ezekiel speaks as a prophet of Yahweh to both the exiled community in Babylon and to the people back home in Jerusalem.

In our lectionary passage, Ezekiel is transported in one of his many visions. This oracle may have been revealed to Ezekiel following the destruction of Jerusalem and the second major deportation of the Jews in 587 B.C. This event was the end of Israel/Judah as an independent nation — at least for the next 49 years.

Ezekiel is carried to an unidentified valley. We may speculate that it is the site of a battle between the Babylonian and Judean armies. The battle is long past — the bodies of the fallen soldiers have been picked clean and their bones are bleached dry by the sun.

Yahweh’s Spirit has set Ezekiel down in the midst of this bone yard. Now begins a classic dialogue between Yahweh and the prophet. It begins with an interrogative. Yahweh asks:

Son of man, can these bones live?

Common sense suggests that the answer to Yahweh’s question can these bones live is an obvious NO!

Ezekiel’s answer is very wise. He doesn’t know, but he says:

Lord Yahweh, you know.

This seems an appropriate answer for such a difficult question.

Therefore, Yahweh gives his answer to his own question. He commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the dead bones, and tell them that Yahweh will re-enflesh the bones with sinews and skin, and breathe life into their corpses so they may live again. The purpose of this extraordinary promise is this — that these dead:

shall know that I am Yahweh.

Ezekiel obeys. But this resurrection is a process that takes place in two stages. When Ezekiel prophesies, there is loud noise and an earthquake. The bones rejoin one another, sinews connect them, and they are covered with skin. But they aren’t yet alive. They have no breath.

This is significant. The word breath in Hebrew is the same used for wind and for Spirit — rheuma. While it may have been a literal fact that these reconstituted corpses had no breath — they weren’t breathing — even more important was the fact that they had not received the Holy Spirit of God.

So Yahweh commands Ezekiel yet again:

Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

The winds and the breath fill the lungs of these dead men, but the real wind is the wind of the Spirit.

Yahweh then gives the spiritual application of this vision:

Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people. I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it and performed it, says Yahweh.

The resurrection that Yahweh speaks of is likely corporate and national, not merely individual. Israel has been turned into a cemetery by their exile. Their hope has been lost. But Yahweh is promising to restore them to their land. When this happens, their faith in and knowledge of Yahweh will be restored as well.

This oracle revealed to Ezekiel is fulfilled when the Jews in exile are given permission to return to Judah in 538 B.C., after the Persians have conquered the Babylonian empire. New life is breathed into the reconstituted people of Israel.

APPLY:

This is a word of hope for those who are experiencing catastrophe or discouragement. The same God who can envelope these dry, dead bones with fresh sinews and skins, and can breathe his breath into them is the God who can raise our dead hopes and dreams and breathe his Spirit into us.

This vision is especially comforting in a time of social, political and religious chaos. Among some people there seems a general mood of malaise and despair in our times. And they need to be reminded that the answer to the question can these bones live? is a decisive YES — through the power of God’s living Spirit.

RESPOND:

When I was a child I remember hearing a song that was inspired by Ezekiel 37:1-14:

Ezekiel connected dem dry bones,
Ezekiel connected dem dry bones,
Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones,
Now hear the word of the Lord.

Toe bone connected to the foot bone
Foot bone connected to the heel bone
Heel bone connected to the ankle bone
Ankle bone connected to the shin bone
Shin bone connected to the knee bone
Knee bone connected to the thigh bone
Thigh bone connected to the hip bone
Hip bone connected to the back bone
Back bone connected to the shoulder bone
Shoulder bone connected to the neck bone
Neck bone connected to the head bone
Now hear the word of the Lord.

Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Now hear the word of the Lord.

I didn’t know then that this song was inspired by the Bible. Or that these lyrics were attributed to James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), the famous African American author, songwriter, civil rights activist and American diplomat.

Johnson wrote these lyrics in a time that was particularly difficult for African-Americans — when Jim Crow laws enforced strict segregation between “Coloreds” and “Whites;” and when lynchings were all too common in the American South.

These words, about the resurrection of dem bones might have seemed to me to be a fun children’s song. But for Johnson’s intended audience they were no doubt the source of hope for renewal.

James Weldon Johnson was also the author of the great Civil Rights anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. This is a hymn that speaks to any oppressed people who place their hopes in God for restoration and resurrection:

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lord, you can reassemble the scattered bones of our hopes and dreams, put flesh on those skeletons, and breathe the life of your Spirit into them. Give us new life, we pray. Let these bones live! Amen!

PHOTOS:
“Giver of Spiritual Life (Ezekiel 37:5-6)” by Redeemed by His (Christ) Grace is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for March 13, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

John 12:1-8

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage follows directly after the dramatic raising of Lazarus from the dead. This is a more “domestic” moment in the life of Jesus at the home of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. We already know that Jesus was close friends with this family prior to the crisis in Lazarus’ life, but they certainly had ample justification for a dinner in honor of Jesus now!

The descriptions of the three siblings is apt: Martha, of course, serves; Lazarus, the man of the house, reclines at table with the guests, as was common in a Jewish home of the day; and Mary pours out an expression of love for her friend and rabbi.

The spontaneous nature of this act seems pretty clear: this nard would have likely been reserved for a burial — perhaps originally with Lazarus in mind?

The precious value of this nard makes Mary’s act even more extravagantly generous. And the intimacy of wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair suggests that she had not planned this moment.

Another character sketch is introduced when Judas begins to criticize what he’s witnessed. This provides a foreshadowing of what is to come. Judas, feigning pragmatism, questions the waste when the money could have been used for the poor. The Gospel writer is skeptical of his motives — Judas, he suggests, is dishonest. So what is to happen in the next chapters won’t come as a complete surprise.

Jesus rebukes Judas. In another moment of foreshadowing, he interprets Mary’s act as a preparation for his burial. He is clearly focused on the cross and the tomb at this point.

His reaction to Judas’ “empathy for the poor” should not be misconstrued. He is not suggesting that the poor should be neglected. He is actually quoting from Deuteronomy 15:11.

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

In other words, he is pointing out that the opportunity still remains to minister to the poor — but his time is short. Her ministry to him was timely.

APPLY:

How extravagant is our love for Jesus? Martha serves Jesus at dinner. We need Marthas, whose love is steadily expressed in works of service.

We also need Marys, whose love is spontaneous and overflowing. She doesn’t hold back what is most precious, but pours it out on the feet of Jesus.

It has struck me that this anointing with oil is a reminder to us that Jesus is the Messiah — which means the anointed one. Anointing with oil was a ritual used to set apart a prophet, a priest or a king in the Old Testament. Naturally, that anointing was administered on the head, not the feet.

Nevertheless, Jesus is our prophet, priest and king, teaching us the ways of the kingdom of God; offering himself as our sacrifice, and interceding for us; and ruling over our hearts and lives.

RESPOND:

I wonder sometimes which sibling I am. Do I serve as a part of my routine, as a duty, like Martha? Do I recline and rest like Lazarus, listening to my Lord? Do I act spontaneously and extravagantly and unselfconsciously in expressing my love for Jesus, like Mary?

The truth is, at different times I am a little like each of them — may I serve with diligent duty, rest and renew, and also pour out my love with exuberance.

But may I never be like Judas, exacting and calculatingly “pragmatic” but in truth simply self-interested.

Lord, forgive me when I am coldly calculating, and lack spiritual insight. May my love for you be diligent, renewing, and exuberant. Amen.

PHOTOS:
"John 12:1-8" uses this photo: “5 Sec Faces” by FLEE (a.k.a. FLEECIRCUS) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

3rd Gospel for March 29, 2015

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

John 13: 21-32

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Once again, the lectionary passage begins in the middle of the account. Jesus has finished washing the feet of the disciples, and has just begun to predict his betrayal by citing Psalm 41:9. At the same time, he explains why he is about to tell them what it is to happen, so that they may believe him and that their witness to others may be strengthened.

That he is troubled is a reminder of the human nature of Jesus. Not only is he fully God in the Gospel of John, he is also fully human.

The next scene suggests an eyewitness account. This announcement has created disruption among the disciples. Simon Peter asks the disciple closest to Jesus to find out who it is that will betray him. The custom for dining in the Middle East was to recline on pillows on the floor next to a low table – so one of the disciples would have been able to lean back toward Jesus in very close proximity.

John’s Gospel tells us that this is the disciple whom Jesus loved. This disciple is never named, but tradition holds that he was John himself, who follows his friend all the way to the cross, and becomes a surrogate son for Mary.

Jesus reveals to his friend who his betrayer is by handing Judas the morsel of bread. Again, the manner of dining in the Middle East was to use bread as we might use chips, dipping it into the various sauces and meats available. This method of dining is still practiced in Ethiopia today.

As Jesus shares this piece of bread with Judas, the Gospel says As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. The drama of this moment is intense. Jesus tells him “What you are about to do, do quickly.” And Judas seems to leave abruptly. No one seems to know why, except Jesus.

However, the ominous nature of what has been set in motion is underscored by the sinister words And it was night. If Jesus is light, and does the work of his Father, Judas is darkness and does the work of Satan.

But Jesus understands that what has been set in motion is a part of a larger plan, and he declares “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.” Quite a paradox: that Jesus will ultimately be glorified after betrayal and death. And yet that is vital to the plan!

APPLY:

What a contrast in character, between the disciple whom Jesus loved and Judas! One reclines close to Jesus, a confidant and friend; the other is already estranged, critical (as we see in John 12:1-11), and is fertile ground for Satan to enter.

Are these inherent qualities that the two men already have in them, or is there something that either of them could have done to have changed their own personal destiny? These are the questions that the Church Fathers, theologians, preachers and Christians have wrestled with for 2000 years.

What is intriguing is the interaction between Jesus and Judas. Jesus, in the other three Gospels, institutes the Lord’s Supper with bread and wine. This precious sacrament signifies for us his body and blood. Whenever a Christian receives this sacrament, whether we believe this is the Real Presence or a Remembrance, it is nonetheless sacred to us.

And yet, when Judas receives the bread that Jesus has dipped in the dish, Satan entered into him. How chilling!

This is a reminder that though the sacrament is in itself efficacious, and doesn’t depend on external operations of virtue, nevertheless the disposition of those who receive it must be considered.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Claudius has murdered King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet’s father, and taken his throne. In one scene, when King Claudius considers repentance, he kneels to pray, but then gives up saying “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

Unless there is consistency and integrity between the ritual and the inner intention, how can it connect to God?

RESPOND:

I don’t know that I would aspire to the kind of intimacy that the beloved disciple had with Jesus. To be honest, I am happy to merely have a place at the table, to be included among Jesus’ friends. But oh spare me the dread fear of being a Judas who betrays my Lord in thought, word, or deed!

Keep me close to you as I listen to your Word, as the disciples did; and as I receive the bread of your Presence in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Amen.

PHOTOS:
Jorge Elias photograph of Salvador Dali's “The Sacrament of the Last Supper, 1955” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
“The Last Supper” by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
“Judas” by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

2nd Gospel for March 29, 2015

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

John 12:1-11

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The spontaneous nature of this act seems pretty clear: this nard would have likely been reserved for a burial — perhaps originally with Lazarus in mind?

The precious value of this nard makes Mary’s act even more extravagantly generous. And the intimacy of wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair suggests that she had not planned this moment.

Jesus rebukes Judas. In another moment of foreshadowing, he interprets Mary’s act as a preparation for his burial. He is clearly focused on the cross and the tomb at this point.

His reaction to Judas’ “empathy for the poor” should not be misconstrued. He is not suggesting that the poor should be neglected. He is actually quoting from Deuteronomy 15:11.

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

In other words, he is pointing out that the opportunity still remains to minister to the poor — but his time is short. Her ministry to him was timely.

Finally, in keeping with the insight into Judas’ shady character, there is the sinister association with the plot of the chief priests that will soon enmesh Judas as well. They see that Lazarus is proof to the people of the extraordinary powers of this carpenter from Nazareth. People are coming to behold and believe in Jesus because of Lazarus. And rather than choosing to follow the Nazarene, these cynical leaders instead make plans to kill Lazarus, the man whom Jesus has raised!

Note the chilling phrase: the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well. This suggests that the plot to take the life of Jesus is already in motion. They will kill Jesus and destroy the evidence of his ministry as well.

APPLY:

Fr Lawrence Lew’s photograph of this striking and powerful cross in a side chapel of Salamanca Cathedral portrays Jesus as our Prophet, Priest and King.

How extravagant is our love for Jesus? Martha serves Jesus at dinner. We need Marthas, whose love is steadily expressed in works of service.

We also need Marys, whose love is spontaneous and overflowing. She doesn’t hold back what is most precious, but pours it out on the feet of Jesus.

Nevertheless, Jesus is our prophet, priest and king, teaching us the ways of the kingdom of God; offering himself as our sacrifice, and interceding for us; and ruling over our hearts and lives.

RESPOND:

The truth is, at different times I am a little like each of them — may I serve with diligent duty, rest and renew, and also pour out my love with exuberance.

But may I never be like Judas, exacting and calculatingly “pragmatic” but in truth simply self-interested.

Lord, forgive me when I am coldly calculating, and lack spiritual insight. May my love for you be diligent, renewing, and exuberant. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Jesus Anointing” by Alexander Bida is in the public domain.
“Lord of Life” by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
Photo used as a background: “5 Sec Faces” by FLEE (a.k.a. FLEECIRCUS) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

1st Gospel for March 29, 2015

Assisi-frescoes-entry-into-jerusalem-pietro_lorenzetti

“Entry of Christ into Jerusalem” by Pietro Lorenzetti

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Mark 11:1-11

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

(Please note that Holy Week will begin Sunday with the commemoration of the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Because the Holy Week lectionary readings are daily, I have been selective and reduced the readings to fit the SOAR format. If you wish to read all the selections recommended in the lectionary, please consult the Revised Common Lectionary for year B).

Jesus approaches Jerusalem from the Southeast, where Bethany and Bethpage are located, about five miles out from the city. This is consistent with the itinerary of the Gospel of John, wherein Jesus has gone to Bethany in order to raise Lazarus from the dead.

We have the distinct impression that Jesus knows exactly what he’s doing as he gives two of his disciples instructions about procuring a colt. He will be making a statement as he rides into town on the back of the colt, which is not missed by the people of Jerusalem. They will greet him with Hosannas and acclamations of his kingship and relationship to King David.

We can only speculate about any kind of prearrangement Jesus may have made. Does he have a supernatural prescience about what objections will be made when the disciples untie the colt? Or has he worked this out in advance so that the owners of the colt recognize the code words? We can’t be absolutely sure.

We do know that this is an act of political and religious theater. Jesus no doubt is aware of the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This is a Messianic prophecy, and the Messiah was to be the anointed king of Israel.

The people go nuts when they see it all. No doubt many of them have seen Jesus in action as a wonderworker, or have heard the accounts. And this action is no doubt perceived as the inauguration of his kingdom.

Hosanna, of course, means “Save Now!” They hail him as their deliverer – part Moses, part David. And they acknowledge his Davidic lineage as the rightful heir to the throne of Judah.

No wonder the establishment was nervous! For this cause alone they might have had cause to have him arrested!

But there is cause to believe that by riding into Jerusalem on a colt, instead of in a war chariot, Jesus was also making clear he came in peace.

APPLY:

Enrique_Simonet_-_Flevit_super_illam_-_1892

“He wept over it” by Enrique Simonet

What are we expecting from Jesus? A warrior king who will slay our enemies and oppressors? A benevolent king who will provide free food and miraculous health care to all?

Although Jesus makes it clear that he is a King, we aren’t allowed to define him or impose our expectations on him. If we hail him as King on Palm Sunday, are we prepared to follow him to the Upper Room, and to Gethesmane, and to Golgotha? If not, then we are failing to grasp that his mission transcends our petty agendas. He means to save not just ourselves, or Jerusalem, but all nations.

RESPOND:

“Palm Sunday altar” by Avondale Pattillo UMC

I can’t help but have mixed feelings every year when I read this passage. If we skip from Palm Sunday to Easter without going through the fullness of Holy Week, with its betrayal and denial and passion and death, we fail to understand what salvation costs. We fail to grasp that this Kingdom in which Jesus reigns encompasses all who believe and who follow him in all places and in all times, not merely the particular agendas of the zealots or the priests or even the disciples.

Jesus is the King for all seasons and all times.

Lord, I join with the crowd in hailing you and shouting hosanna, and heralding your kingship. But I can’t help thinking about what lies ahead in order for you to fulfill your mission. And it causes me to tremble. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Entry of Christ into Jerusalem” by Pietro Lorenzetti is in the public domain.
“He wept over it” by Enrique Simonet is in the public domain.
“Palm Sunday altar” by Avondale Pattillo UMC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for March 29, 2015

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is a festive Psalm that is commonly associated with the Feast of the Tabernacles rather than Passover, and is associated with a season of remembrance for Israel’s nomadic past, and the sojourn in the wilderness.

It appears to be a kind of processional Psalm that worshippers might sing as they approach the Temple. This seems to describe their progress as they process together. They begin by calling for the gates of the righteous and of the Lord to be opened. Then there is notice paid to the stones – specifically the cornerstone, as though the worshippers are passing a particular point in the Temple. Then they approach with boughs in hand up to the horns of the altar.

The Psalm begins with a familiar refrain that we find repeated often throughout the Psalm, extolling the love of the Lord that endures forever.

The rejected stone that has become the cornerstone comes with no explanation – no doubt the reference might have been clear to the people of that time. We speculate that it might relate metaphorically to David, who was the least of his family and yet was chosen to be king. Perhaps it relates to Israel itself as a nation. See the Apply section for possible interpretations by the Christian community.

The boughs that are carried in the festal procession suggest the Feast of Tabernacles – the waving of willow boughs and palm branches was a common feature of this important Jewish feast. Again, though, we ask how this might apply to the New Testament.

The Psalm closes as it began: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

APPLY:

From the Christian perspective, this Psalm seems to resonate with Messianic themes and thoughts of the life and passion of Jesus.

God’s love that endures forever is consummately expressed in Jesus. And the New Testament writers were eager to identify the cornerstone rejected by men with Christ: The cornerstone is referred to by Jesus in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, and in Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20, and twice in 1 Peter 2:6-7.

In each case, with the exception of Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:6, the references are to the passage in Psalm 118:22.

From the New Testament perspective, the stone that is rejected and which has become the cornerstone is an obvious metaphor for Jesus. He has been rejected by this generation and by the elders and the priests, but he has become the cornerstone and foundation of our salvation.

The boughs in hand and the festal procession suggest the palm branches that were broken off and waved during Jesus’ festive procession into Jerusalem during his triumphant entry. We are on the brink of Holy Week with this Psalm of celebration.

RESPOND:

It is always appropriate to sing praise to God. But this Psalm is a reminder that even as we praise him, there is shadow here. The rejected cornerstone is my Lord, who has become the cornerstone of my own life and faith. But I recall with shame how I too have praised him, and yet at times betrayed him.

Thanks be to God, he is good; his love endures forever.

I praise you and worship you. Thank you that you have become my cornerstone, my savior, my light. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Omaha North Presbyterian Church cornerstone” by Ammodramus is in the public domain.
“Palm Sunday in Jerusalem” by Dafna Tal for the Israeli Ministry of Tourism is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
“Jesus as cornerstone (Efeziers 2:20)” by bastiaandegoede is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.